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Need some advice fellow streamers - NeoSync Scam?

S

Sheeld

New member
Last night, while streaming minecraft, I received a semi-proffesional email from a web based hosting company called NeoSync. They offered not only a lifetime discount on server and hosting services, but also a 'sponsorship' on my twitch page. I'll spoiler the email below, for more info, but basically I am wanting some feedback on how reputable this company is and if it's worth my time. I have my own take on them but I am wanting some outside feedback from my fellow tabbers who aren't jaded (or maybe are jaded) towards online/email marketing.

Josh,

We are NeoSync Hosting (http://neosync.net), a Web/Minecraft Server hosting company. We have taken a look at your channel and we would like to offer to partner with you. Our Minecraft Servers support mods!
For assurance that we are legitimate, we are currently partnered and work with large clients such as DoubleClickDota2 (http://youtube.com/doubleclickdota2). You can find a larger list of our partners here: http://neosync.net/sponsorships.html

If you are interested, please reply back with the letter choice by email.
· Our Skype: neosync.hosting
· Our Email: [email protected]

At the moment we can offer an affiliate partnership account, which is basically dedicating 1 Twitch Panel for us on Twitch (Example branding from our Twitch partner: http://www.twitch.tv/itznotjacob) and in return our partners would receive these 5 benefits [Note: We have a YouTube branding option as well]:

1. Custom Link (Example: http://neosync.net/SheeldGaming [Link is not yet active/live])
2. Custom Coupon Code for your customers to receive 30% off their first month. (Example: “SheeldGaming”)
3. Ability to earn commission from the custom link, currently we can give back 25% one-time of a sale through the custom link back to you or 7.5% monthly recurring if the customer keeps going after a month.

So basically if someone paid us $100, If you chose One-time for 25% commission you would receive $25 for that one month. If they pay $100 for two months you would receive $7.5 for two months.

4. 20% off for life on our Minecraft Servers, regular prices are here: http://neosync.net/minecraft.html
5. 20% off for life on our Shared Web Hosting, regular prices are here: http://neosync.net/shared.html

My last question would be:
A) Would you like to get a Minecraft server setup with the 20% off for life discount? Or any other service?
B) Would you like to get an affiliate account setup? (This is free and there is no contract or agreements to be signed, only a registration is required you can leave at any time.)
C) Both A and B

Please reply with A, B or C so I can know where to proceed next.
--
Thank you,
NeoSync Sponsorship Department
NeoSync Hosting Solutions: http://neosync.net
 
They send this to everyone. They are a crap company. That users account will be gone in a few days after twitch soak finds it. Sorry :(
 
Baldoraxx said:
Good to know, thank you. In case I get an email from them.
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This is pretty much the same case for ANYONE who emails you and asks for money. Rule of thumb here. Internet 101.[DOUBLEPOST=1427481978,1427481574][/DOUBLEPOST]Same goes for Youtube "partners"

Someone wants to make money off your skills. So you have to be VERY selective on who you make your "agent" twitch is making YOU the brand so ALWAYS make sure YOUR brand is intact.
 
Upon doing a Google search for our company, I found this thread and I wanted to come in here to clarify a few things.

1. We do not send this to everyone, our sponsorship department selects who to send it to based on the channel's statistics.
2. By any means, we are not asking for any amount of money. If it came off that way, we're not. We're simply offering you a deal on a server (if you wish to take advantage of it is up to you).


tr1age If you need any further verification, please let me know. We have plenty of happy partners who do not pay us a dime.

If you do have any questions or concerns, please drop me an email at [email protected] and I'll be happy to address them one-by-one for you. Once again, I assure you that we're doing this in the best interest of the community that we personally watch.

Thanks again,
Jason
Director of Operations
NeoSync Hosting Solutions, LLC.
 
NeoSync said:
Upon doing a Google search for our company, I found this thread and I wanted to come in here to clarify a few things.

1. We do not send this to everyone, our sponsorship department selects who to send it to based on the channel's statistics.
2. By any means, we are not asking for any amount of money. If it came off that way, we're not. We're simply offering you a deal on a server (if you wish to take advantage of it is up to you).


tr1age If you need any further verification, please let me know. We have plenty of happy partners who do not pay us a dime.

If you do have any questions or concerns, please drop me an email at [email protected] and I'll be happy to address them one-by-one for you. Once again, I assure you that we're doing this in the best interest of the community that we personally watch.

Thanks again,
Jason
Director of Operations
NeoSync Hosting Solutions, LLC.
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I appreciate you taking the time to come and speak your point of view on this matter.

The internet has a different story to tell about who this is sent to. You obviously look for people who will be profitable to you. The things you offer in exchange for free advertising is services that cost you nothing to part with. This is a legitimate business model. Trades are done everyday, I do them a ton. However, it does not take away from the fact that "sponsorship" is not actually what is happening here.

Definition of sponsorship:

1. a person who vouches or is responsible for a person or thing.
2. a person, firm, organization, etc., that finances and buys the time tobroadcast a radio or television program so as to advertise a product, apolitical party, etc.
3. a person who makes a pledge or promise on behalf of another.

None of these things apply. You offer "discounts" which in turn make you money and the streamer has a very small chance to benefit from, especially a smaller less known streamer, because their viewers will not purchase your products with their code. Which gives you a lot of exposure and a lot of nothing for them. However if they do manage to sell your product, you still stand to make a whole lot more money than they will.

Your company is on a long list of companies that want to ride the coat tales of others success:

NoScope: https://www.noscopeglasses.com/sponsorship-info
KontrolFreak: http://www.kontrolfreek.com/about/sponsorship-form

These are all "affiliate programs" not sponsorship.
The use of the word Sponsorship is used to sound more important and enticing than it actually is. It is a shitty business practice, period.

Do you have a good product and service? I don't know, never used it. But is it a sponsorship, most definitely not. You are trying to pitch it as something such as Google Ads, with less incentive as a "Youtube Affiliation". You have a lot more to gain here than any of the "sponsorship" members. It is the pyramid scheme. Sure someone might make some money, but that money quickly trickles upward to the pinnacle.

As well these emails are not personally sent out they use algorithms to find the people who have the higher views, content, and value to your company. Otherwise it would be wasted time. They might even be sent to people in mass to get more sales by quantity.

If you see you even conflict yourselves in the email you send:

B) Would you like to get an affiliate account setup? (This is free and there is no contract or agreements to be signed, only a registration is required you can leave at any time.)
Click to expand...

Thank you,
NeoSync Sponsorship Department
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As well, it seems randomly others also get these emails: https://www.reddit.com/r/Twitch/comments/2vasja/is_neosync_legit/
This guy has 502 views and 32 followers: http://www.twitch.tv/xxblubzxx
32 followers: https://www.facebook.com/Ragingcajin/posts/794956707242195
https://neosync.net/sponsorships.html is your list of "sponsored" people, problem is most of them don't even play, stream, or produce content anymore.

Now please tell me again you don't send this out en masse.

I have been in the industry long enough to know if you didn't, or didn't have triggers of who to send it to, you would not be in business. But responding here 4 months later, now that google has propagated this to the top of the search results for NeoSync and Sponsorship. I see why you might want to respond with a delightful message.

More importantly, Sheeld asked if it was a good idea for him, and I told him, no. He is the brand, not NeoSync. He has to "affiliate" himself with things that help promote his brand, not promote yours. In the end, Twitch has made some amazing strides towards giving streamers a platform that caters to them as a brand, why does he need to litter his page with banners to buy your companies stuff when he is trying to build up his user base on his skills, videos, stream quality etc? What does web hosting have to do with that? Razor sponsors top streamers by providing them gear to better their stream, quality, gaming experience. You are offering an off site hosting plan...

Can't say I disagree with the tactic, it is smart marketing, P.T. Barnum would be proud.

P.S. Sheeld can you check your inbox on twitch and see if their account still exists? twitch usually shuts down the ones that message too many people.
 
I appreciate your quick response. I can assure you that every one of these emails is sent out by my partner, Daniel. I apologize if the wording may be off, but we'll look to correct it. In the past, we had given out service credit to all accounts, but the demand increasingly became greater and didn't allow it to be feasible anymore. Once again, I assure you that each one of these emails are sent out by a human, and not by an AI. I've witnessed Daniel evaluating channels and sending them out one-by-one using Thunderbird. If it were to be mass emails, don't you think our IP would be blacklisted? I'm not sure why the example you cited was offered a sponsorship, but we don't just offer them based on numbers. If Daniel enjoys the content in particular, he offers them.
 
NeoSync said:
I appreciate your quick response. I can assure you that every one of these emails is sent out by my partner, Daniel. I apologize if the wording may be off, but we'll look to correct it. In the past, we had given out service credit to all accounts, but the demand increasingly became greater and didn't allow it to be feasible anymore. Once again, I assure you that each one of these emails are sent out by a human, and not by an AI. I've witnessed Daniel evaluating channels and sending them out one-by-one using Thunderbird. If it were to be mass emails, don't you think our IP would be blacklisted? I'm not sure why the example you cited was offered a sponsorship, but we don't just offer them based on numbers. If Daniel enjoys the content in particular, he offers them.
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Putting aside everything else you forgot to address; If that email is sent out from someone watching individual streams how come the streamer has no idea who the sender is and there is no contextual information to say they saw the stream?
 
P.S. Sheeld can you check your inbox on twitch and see if their account still exists? twitch usually shuts down the ones that message too many people.
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I did not get a twitch message, I received this in my personal email. Perhaps that suggests a more personalized format, but as I inspected the emails sent I did see that they were in 'copy paste' format, which, to me, suggests very little personal attention to the prospective user. As to another point that stood out to me, is that I had no idea where this came from. If someone came and watched my stream and was interested in 'sponsoring' me, why did I not have a clue as to who was their agent in determining my qualifications. This led me to believe that I was pulled from a list. Maybe two or three mouse-clicks can get a Minecraft streamer, my name, and my email address.
 
I'm a trusting sort of person, so I believe what Jason says. It does seem like the process has gotten the better of them though. It sounds like they got so many people signed up, they couldn't afford the same perks (ie service credits) because the return on their ads wasn't as great as they hoped. They need to get a critical mass of streamers so that the 1-2% that actually click the ad and subscribe is enough to cover their costs plus provide perks to the streamers they are wanting to sponsor.

Daniel seems overworked. He may have started out handpicking streams and sending personal invites, but when things ramped up, he had to fall back on canned messages which made the whole thing less transparent and more impersonal.

I could be completely wrong, but that's how this comes across to me. Jason paints a picture of a small operation with a genuine interest in the streamers they solicit, but the email reads like something from a typically soulless corporation looking to make easy money off unsuspecting marks.

Remember where you came from, NeoSync, and don't lose that personal touch. And get Daniel an assistant!
 
So, tr1age is spot on with the ground rules for partnerships.

//editing out Jason's/Neosync's background info that Google found since Sheeld has already seen it//

Bottomline: At it's core, it's probably a legit business but the whole thing reads as a couple kids selling server hosting and having you advertise for them in turn for receiving a discount. It isn't a partnership by business definition, nor a sponsorship. At best it's affiliate marketing where you get a discount instead of a commission (because the likelihood of you passively getting those clicks is super small).

If it's a good discount and you don't mind advertising for them, go for it.
 
Couldn't have said it better myself, Topic (but remind me to never hide anything on the internet from you)

I like people to know what they are walking into with these "sponsorships".

Always protect YOUR BRAND, which with streaming is YOU.
 
tr1age said:
Topic (but remind me to never hide anything on the internet from you)
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It's creepy, right? When I was an assistant I would have to do "background checks" on some of the direct-to-client job offers that came in (as opposed to those represented by a known ad agency).

At least this time I don't feel so bad about it. We got ur back, Sheeld!
 
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