Anybody else using SiteScout for Media Buys? Doing good with them

Thanks for the kind words! The system was designed with direct response and performance marketers in mind, so we definitely understand the important of optimization and ROI. The reason for the $500 minimum deposit is simply because it takes money to properly test with display advertising, and setting the minimum deposit any lower would send the wrong message to advertisers. $500 is actually quite low compared to working with ad networks and directly with publishers, but it's not for everyone.

We have thousands of sites on our system, so to generalize by saying that our traffic isn't good overall isn't fair. Each site performs differently, but you're right, many affiliates use our system for testing the quality of a site's remnant traffic and if it works, they often go direct to capture the publishers traffic in a more guaranteed way, and with better impression (session) depths.

Exactly. That's a common strategy that our advertisers use. Direct buys definitely have higher commitments, which is why we think our $500 minimum is reasonable for testing. Of course, when going direct, everything is up for negotiation. Sorry to hear about your experience with perezhilton.com. Did they blow through your budget too fast, or was their an issue with your out clause?