Chances are you found this post while looking for information about Setupad.com after they emailed you (possibly more than once), and You might be trying to find out if you should choose them to improve your ad earnings. I have not used them, so I can’t offer you an experience with Setupad.com. But I can provide you with my reasons for not joining them.

Why am I interested in Setupad.com?

While working on another post about copyright, I hoped to find an example of repurposing someone’s work without permission. I wanted something comic-related because people often copy and paste without realizing it is better for the creator if you share their posts. In your social media feed, it’s generally Farside or Calvin and Hobbes. But I wanted something commercial, which is far worse than someone sharing it on their timeline. I thought that might be a time-consuming task. But I only had to look in the spam folder of my inbox to find an ad network called setupad.com trying to get me to sign up.

This was in my inbox from Setupad.com.

These are the first two panels from KC Green’s ‘On Fire,’ archived on his site, Gunshow. Annija added ‘SO MANY DEADLINES’ to the first panel and ‘ANNIJA CHECKING YOUR WEBSITE’ to the second panel. She has emailed me 12 times since 2022. I told the rep that I do not do business with copyright thieves, letting her know who the artist is.

Professionalism is not a word I would associate with Setupad.com

Her response only increased my interest in the company she represents:

Hi Benjamin,
Nice to e-meet you!

It seems you may not be a fan of memes. Just to clarify, the use of memes is generally accepted and not considered stealing, as they’re widely shared across the internet. Also, this should be the work for someone who is the best at it, and I’m better in helping publishers to monetize their websites, FYI. 🙂 My intention was to catch your attention, and I’m glad it worked!

Could you please provide me with three good reasons why you’re choosing to receive less revenue, pay higher commissions, and stick with the most basic solution out there, such as AdSense?

– Annija Anna Geige of setupad.com – June 5, 2024

Looking at her emails, I can’t say I expected her to own up to misuse of someone’s copyright when they have subjects like these:

Adios amigos
Don’t leave me hanging
Just dropping by to say hi
Moonwalks out of silence
Don’t leave me hanging
AGENT : Blond, Annija Blond
Still not sure?
You snooze, you lose 🙁

Again, she had been spamming me. Like most, she assumed those comic panels she repurposed were a meme, unaware of the other four panels. While Green said it was open to interpretation, I think most people have the same interpretation. She puts herself in the place of a character who denies things are worsening. This feels like a foreshadowing of what would happen should I choose to do business with Setupad.com. I have seen many people post those two panels, and even businesses repurpose them for their own uses without crediting Green.

My response.

Annia,

It is a lot to assume we want to be paid less, but I will give you three reasons I will not work with you.

1. Misunderstanding Fair Use: Just because an image is widely shared online does not mean it falls under fair use, especially when used for commercial purposes. The comic you used is the work of K.C. Green, and using it without permission constitutes copyright theft. The comic’s original message, which is about denial in the face of disaster, has been taken out of context. For reference, you can read the full comic, “On Fire,” where these panels originate from here: Gunshow Comic – On Fire. – https://gunshowcomic.com/648
2. Personal Experience with Copyright Theft: As someone who has personally suffered from copyright theft, I understand its impact on creators. I cannot support partnering with anyone who engages in or condones unethical practices.
3. Inability to Admit Error: Your response did not acknowledge the possibility of a mistake or show an understanding of why this issue is significant. Admitting and correcting errors is crucial in any professional relationship.

Additionally, I thank you for adding to my content since I was working on an article for my new blog. It’s been a while since I last ran a blog, with my previous one being Hosting-Review-Exposed.com. The article you have helped make content for is about AI and how it is not the biggest threat to creators. Your emails and all other responses will be added to my section on copyright theft for this article.

So far, she has not contacted me again.

If I had not decided to look into this company, this would likely not have been an article but just a section in another post, which may never have been posted because, perhaps due to ADHD, I have several articles in the works (no I have not forgotten about Copytrack.com). However, after a simple search for reviews on this company, I found sites that reminded me of the fake hosting review industry, which I explored at hosting-reviews-exposed.com, hence why I mentioned that site. As I looked into Setupad.com, I realized there were a few problems. Notable is the lack of critical reviews. One lists some cons of going with Setupad.com, but what is considered negative is pretty standard in ad networks. Such as traffic requirements or 60/90 days til you see a payout after signing up. While yes, it is rather annoying that you have to go through a rep with these networks to get things done, that too is common and has been a factor in why I have not gone with a network. There are other reasons, such as a common complaint where people see an increase in earnings at the start, but later RPM (Revenue performance) drops below Adsense earnings. There are also issues where some networks have control of your DNS, setup failures, and communication delays or no response. I have offered up my smaller sites to test; if I saw a site that made $30 a day go to $50, I would scale up to one that makes a few hundred, and then if that works out, I would happily give them the sites that make $1k – $3k a day. But they do not want to offer testing on my smaller sites, and I don’t want to offer my big sites on the chance they screw up traffic because most social media companies are not very understanding of disruptions of service.

There are ‘reviews’ for Setupad.com, but not much for a company that has been around for 9 years.

The first site that dominates reviews for Setupad.com is Trustpilot.com. 7 of the 12 reviews (5 stars) were done in August 2022, which is kind of odd. Yes, I supposed that Setupad.com could have requested them. However, most of the time, when I was exploring fake hosting reviews at Hosting-Reviews-Exposed.com, I found that to be a common pattern in companies that created a lot of fake positive reviews. Not realizing that maybe they should spread it out. Plus, all positives can be concerning, much to the displeasure of the people who assemble and maintain my computers, who enjoyed a 100% rating on Yelp.com until they encountered a customer who may have driven over his laptop with their car and was expecting a miracle. Another pattern I commonly saw with fake positive reviews was that it was the only review for that account. There is one negative review, which admittedly seems like a problematic client reviewing his past reviews. But, again, this person has a history of reviews. Some are detailed, some are not, and in some cases, it seems he may not have understood the service or became disgruntled when the service was not as he expected. However, he echoes the common problem of lower earnings over time and the lack of support I have seen with other networks as time passes.

Looking for other reviews led to many irrelevant results, but three so-called review sites inspired me to explore Setupad.com even further.

Crazyegg.com lets you know they promote Setupad.com for the sweet, sweet affiliate commissions

Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported, which means we earn commissions from links on Crazy Egg. Commissions do not affect our editorial evaluations or opinions. –crazyegg.com

I don’t think they are using Setupad.com. So, I guess that would not affect their editorial evaluations and opinions when they are profit-centric.

DigitalAdBlog.com lures you in for the clicks

DigitalAdBlog.com contains affiliate links to products and online services. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. Please always do your own research before purchasing any product or signing up for any service. – https://digitaladblog.com/affiliate-notice/

‘Do your own research…’ Given the scant sites that cover copytrack.com, a visit to Digitaladblog.com was part of a visitor’s research. In my opinion, they likely sign up for a lot of sites with affiliate commissions, especially companies with a minimal search engine presence. It’s not hard to dominate search engine results for sites like this.

Shoutmeloud.com leaves out the disclosure to avoid fewer affiliate commissions

There is no visible disclosure, but they do have a Bluehost coupon code in their footer It is a hosting company I covered on HRE that was bought up by

Endurance International Group was later bought by a group that bought web.com, which has an affiliate program that pays $65 per referral. I am pretty sure the rest of those links in the footer will lead to a page with an affiliate link. Even if there is a disclosure somewhere in the site’s navigation, the lack of clear disclosure violates FTC guidelines, which would affect US-based companies and affiliates.

While Lithuania, where Setupad.com is located, does not have to abide by the FTC Guidelines, it does have to abide by the European Union Misleading and Comparative Advertising Directive, regardless of where its affiliates are located.

So why would these sites recommend Setupad.com?

In short, for every successful referral, those ‘review’ sites get a cut of 5% of the revenue of the person they refer. Let’s say they referred one of my sites that makes $1k a day; that means they get $18,250, which is a massive payout compared to many hosting affiliate programs.

Partner through the Setupad Referral Program and earn commissions every month. Join the program, share your unique link and make money. With each referred publisher, you can earn a 5% commission from their ad revenue for 12 months. This commission is paid from Setupad and will not affect publisher net results. – Setupad.com

Setupad.com’s clients have inconsistent and incoherent ad layouts.

Again, this article was to be a small section in another post, then it turned into a simple post, then it turned into a long post, and now… well, I decided to do a video to show the sites they claim as clients. So, in this video, I go through most of the sites Setupad.com calls clients. My apologies as I dip my toes into video productions.

A summary of most of the sites I cover in the video that Setupad.com claims as clients:

Newcp.net (New Club Penguin) creates content for children as a target market. It must comply with COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule. However, I do not see any ads on the site.

TV3.It is not even online.

Boardgamesonline.net is a site that probably should not have ads since it is trying to push traffic to its app on Google Play and Apple’s app store. However, ads dominate most of the screen, and what content was meant to send traffic to its app looks like an ad. It may have had more than 75000 – 100000 views per month before, but I am willing to bet they are bleeding traffic due to all the disruptive elements invading a visitor’s view, which is malpractice if this was Setupad.com’s doing.

Kyivpost.com needs an overhaul in design. Media and ads are sometimes Indistinguishable.

Ascii-code.com is another site that needs an update. Ads can dominate a visitor’s view.

Freecads.com has a large empty space at the top of the page; ads sometimes do not load, making it look like there is no content to view. But when ads appear, they dominate the top and bottom of the screen with a large empty space in between, which might make people interpret this site as spam. Clicking on one of the blueprint pages, I find a string of videos that are unrelated to the content but look like they might be part of it.

Motorsportmagazin.com (not misspelled), LA.LV, Bhdijaspora.net (wants you to view an ad before reading content), and Njuskalo.hr have disruptive elements that dominate the screen.

I could keep going, but it is clear that ad placement is not a strong point for Setupad.com. Nor do they understand how this can affect traffic. Facebook and Pinterest do not like it when a user clicks on a link only to leave that site a few seconds later because visitors do not like being bombarded by ads, so those sites will show less of your content. Quality is always a better option than quantity.

Should you choose Setupad.com to place ads on your site?

I would say no. Again, I have not used their services. But they spammed me, stole KC Green’s words to repurpose for their own gain, and enabled a fake review industry with a big payout for each referral. They listed clients that are not even active, listed clients that do not have ads, and last of all, most of the clients have bad placement and/or are oversaturated with ads. You might get a bigger payout to start out with, but you risk losing traffic. The choice, of course, is yours. Choose wisely.

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