Hydra going belly up!

Huh. I joined the network about a year ago, but haven't used them for a bit and don't have anything owing to me.

Hope no one gets burned!

From that article I would assume any money in Hydra is lost.

A few interesting observations:

1. 'Reading between the lines' the last month or two I had already assumed many CPA companies would be at a similar risk due to crackdowns on questionable offers.

-- Oprah lawsuits.
-- Bad media publicity.
-- FTC investigations.
-- Google bans.
-- Now Mastercard/Visa reviews.

I've seen two other CPA companies this week refer to such problems. For a big company like Hydra to be facing problems is a wake-up call to anyone doing business with the hundreds of smaller firms.

2. Never a wise idea to violate a noncompete. While void in California for employees, it's a different story for owners. Any money any of these guys still has is going to be sucked-up in brutal litigation.

3. Never a wise idea to send that email calling someone a dishonest felon fond of hookers, gambling, and alcohol. Privately vent, then delete before sending.

4. Gotta love the screen shot from the other 'WF'. Why? I take screen shots all the time 'just in case' they might come in handy sometime. Often, they do.

I'm owed $305 . I didn't worry about it until now. No wonder I couldn't get it. They had a flag on my account that I needed to send it a w9 which I did several times, but could never get them to change the account and send the bucks. Figures.

I'm glad I didn't go too wild with them.

Hi,

I sent Hydra an email Monday reminding them they owed me $55 from a accounting snafu from 08. The payment was sitting in my paypal this morning.

Gary

Hydra is my main network. I have never had any issues with them. I have always gotten my money and they have been pretty large checks. On the other hand, their offers are getting scarce. I noticed that the amount of free trial offers they have are winding down. They do have tons of email submits which is what I prefer. Looks like I will have to go with copeac and neverblue a little more!

Thanks for the heads up!

This is alarming, in my book. I'm in Hydra, haven't done much with them as of yet, but I do know they are one of the 'big boys' in the cpa industry. I'm off to do more research on this now.

Upon reading that blog post, I have to conclude that much is not known as of yet. There's a lot of innuendo and mud-slinging going on due to the owners and ex-partners battling it out, but until we hear something official from the courts or Hydra I'm not going to get too worried about them going bust just yet.

I'm owed as well but until I hear it from Barbara then I'm cool. Maybe Google can pick it up like they've been buying everything under the sun lately.

Hmmm... this is pretty alarming...

Pretty scary! Now I am also having a problem with Affiliatebot

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ebot-scam.html

Can't get through to Hydra's main accounts number via their main number, just a voicemail....

Anybody have a direct number to somebody in accounts...

The rumors that Hydra is going bankrupt are just that - rumors. We did face business challenges in 2009 like many networks and had some additional challenges as well. But we have always paid on time and continue to pay on time. Plus we we just received new investment.

I will note that we are cracking down on bogus/fraud leads - leads we might have just paid on in the past. We are attempting to improve the overall quality of our network so as to be able to attract larger advertisers. We don't engage in shaving. That would be just plain stupid.

If you have any problems whatsoever you can call me and i will help you resolve them.

Best,

Mason Wiley
SVP Marketing, Hydra
310-659-5755 X2197

There you go. Thanks Mason. Hows Barbara?.

wow! Now I feel bad! Before I repented of my spamful ways I used Hydra cpa offers to make the easiest cash ever,until they suspended my account and with held the thousands of dollars I 'spam'fully made. They had nice account managers too...oooh! This just inspired a thread idea!

Thank you for the advice. Appreciate it.

i it true? why hydra belly up? is it because they are loose in margin?

No response via PM, will try phone call today.

Wow this is big news. I hope this industry does not go down.... There is going to be some change soon. I hope everything turns up better. We just need real offers not bogus "boiler room" offers like someone said up above!

Uh Oh... Guess who is getting worried?... ME!! I still haven't received my payment from December. Normally, it is here already but, I guess I can give them the benefit of the doubt by saying the mail was delayed due to MLK Day. Hope it gets here soon! I tried to email my AM but, no responses. Time to switch networks because that is unacceptable!!!

-Derek

Too many of these networks put all their eggs in one basket with all those free trial scam offers.

There are still some good networks out there. Sucks for those still owed money though.

Hydra was a great network with tons of offers. I'm kind of glad there going "belly up", since they banned me for false acquisitions. I was owed over 5k with them, they waited till payment period and then hammered me. Good for them.. there are tons of other networks out there thankfully

yes, I totally agree with all of you guys... you must consider this that. inc 500 says hydra made $108.6 million dollars... in 2008, but their 2005 Revenue was only $16.0 million I did think something was fishy 579% growth in 3 years... Now the ftc who would have thought

check the chart here Hydra -- Advertising & Marketing

and now they are paying back for it

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
the likely scenario
as time progresses advertisers will just strike deals with big publishers like yahoo, msn, aol, they are much more profitable from an advertiser stand point just cutting out 2 middle men and making hell of a lot more money

cpa network
super affiliate (so called cause of the traffic from high-level Ad networks)

the more middle men in the pay the more you pay right!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and for affiliates, don't think the advertisers don't know where your traffic is coming from guess again!!

This thread just saved me from using Hydra! Thank You! I'm fairly new to CPA and have only been paid from Hydra so far now I will try a different CPA Network. Thanks Again

I did get my money, at least a check, from Hydra. That restored my faith some.

Its always a bad thing to see our income sources dwindle. But ya gotta be able to handle the market. To bad for hydra they couldnt.

Mmm
THought the support had gone downhill a bit so its good bye to my XXX$$ then i suppose


any updates from anyone been able to talk with them
d

I have been paid on time every week. So no problems for me so far.

Hydra has apparently resolved all there financial problems, however I would be hesitant to do business with them personally.

Man, that sucks for affiliates who are owed a lot of dough.

I'll tell you one thing thats definitely going on at Hydra.........they're either scrubbing leads with a double action Brillo pad, or they're just flat out taking the leads and not paying.

I had a campaign running for a little over 2 months, simple email submit, that was converting between 15% and 20%, and now, at least the last weak or so the conversion are down to Zero!!!

I just found the campaign at another network and I switched the links.

Now I have to do the same with the remaining campaigns I have running at Hydra, there cooked in my opinion.

Anyway.......thats all she wrote