Over the years we’ve helped you optimize your campaigns and get as much money as possible from the premium mVAS offers. Learning to launch a successful campaign with the right settings, traffic sources and creatives is one thing, but when it comes to actually managing your earnings, you are up against an entirely different body of knowledge.
Since we want nothing more than our partners to be happy and wealthy, we decided to give you an overview of the financial possibilities present at our network, as well as provide some tips and insights that will help you to be more proficient with your income.
After months of pestering Oleg, our very busy CFO, we have finally gathered answers to the most pressing questions about earnings and getting the most out of the partnership with Golden Goose.
The most basic question every affiliate has to answer is how to transfer money from the network to one’s personal account as fast, safe, and cheap as possible. That’s right, getting money from A to B seems simple at first, but you cannot know which pitfalls you might encounter with all the intermediaries or various regulations.
The Golden Goose platform offers over a dozen different payment methods, each with a set of features that might be useful to some, or of no importance to others. To give you an idea of which option is right for you, we first need to categorize the available payment methods.
Wire transfer is considered the safest and the most reliable of all methods, as it allows you to get payouts directly to your bank account through invoice. This is also the clearest way from the legal perspective. You sign a contract with us and we just send you money. This is the payment method to choose if you have considerable and stable payouts with the minimum transfer amount of $500. However, be prepared for correspondent or intermediary bank fees.
Pro tip: Try to avoid requesting round sums of money on the invoice, i.e. 1000, 2000, 3000, etc. This may look like money laundering to the banks.
Online payment systems include such services as Capitalist, Paxum, Payoneer, Paypal, Perfect Money, Webmoney and Wise. You only need to have an account with one of these systems to receive your payouts. The minimum limit for payment varies in different payment systems, most of them allow to make payouts from about $20.
Crypto wallets allow you to transfer money from Golden Goose in USDT, which is a stablecoin, meaning that it’s price is pegged to 1 USD. You can transfer any amount quickly and with low fees.
There’s no one-size-fits-all payment option, so your choice might be based on the GEOs or the type of traffic you work with. Some payment systems are sensitive about adult traffic, gambling, etc. If you’re working with Facebook, you will find it difficult to use your virtual card provided by certain payment systems — lots of little details here and there requiring extensive research.
The Golden Goose platform prides itself in the ability to pay our partners every day, which is one of the benefits of working in the mVAS vertical. While daily payouts can work great for some partners, essentially you have an option to get paid whenever you want. Once a week? Twice a month? Seven times per quarter? Anything goes as long as it aligns with your personal turnover.
Our recommendation would be to get paid 1 to 4 times a month to keep track of your income more easily, while being able to plan ahead. Of course, everything is up to you in this matter, but if you aim for a long-term partnership, stable weekly or monthly payouts are just easier to work with. This way, you can also save on fees.
“I love fees, fees are awesome!” — a phrase that no one has ever said. Whether it’s the percentage of the transfer amount or fixed fee, nobody likes them. But we have to deal with the fees anyway, that’s just life. The most you can do to avoid being overcharged with fees is to carefully consider the conditions of the payment method you choose.
Different payout options have different fees depending on the currency you transfer, its amount and local regulations. Also, as a rule, more transactions means more fees, and if you want to save money, it is better not to withdraw every dollar individually, but to get payouts at certain balance thresholds, which you are free to set yourself in line with your earnings.
If you made it to the top by raking in thousands upon thousands of dollars every week at Golden Goose, first of all, good job, and second, you need to start thinking differently considering your money. A 2% fee might not seem like a lot, but if your payout is $10,000, you give up $200! In that case, wire transfer might be a lesser evil with its $20-$30 fees.
Pro tip: Pay extra attention to commissions in crypto, as they can fluctuate over time up to a few times a day on different crypto networks.
Are you making under $500 a month? Consider getting payouts bi-weekly through one of the online payment systems available at Golden Goose. For example, withdrawing funds from Golden Goose to Capitalist in USD is free, and you get lots of options on how to proceed further, down to creating a crypto wallet.
Speaking of crypto, there are two different blockchain networks you can send USDT to: Ethereum (ERC20) and TRON (TRC20). The TRON network fees are capped at 2 USDT per transaction, while the Ethereum network offers quicker transactions at the cost of higher fees that are also dynamic, i.e. they change over time. So pick TRON for cheaper transactions.
We at Golden Goose always advise our affiliates to keep it legal and pay their taxes, even if the income amount is not that big of a deal. For that, we are ready to provide any sort of documentation proving that your earnings are honest. Some banks or payment systems may require these documents if you get recurring payments, and as the volumes increase, the probability of that grows.
KYC, or Know Your Customer, requires all financial organizations to verify the identity of each client. This process protects companies from the risk of working with fraudsters and terrorists, and ensures the safety of customers’ assets. It often includes full name, date of birth, e-mail, phone number, address and ID (passport, driving license, etc.).
Pro tip: Payment systems may consider the turnover in your account as your business, so it's better to request withdrawals in amounts less than $1000. Also, don't store and accumulate your funds in the GG account and request payment 1 time a month - the payment system may start asking you for confirmations for the legitimacy of your payments. Usually they pay much less attention to smaller transactions.
There can be multiple levels of KYC, i.e. you can be asked to provide only your name and email address, or verify your identity by phone, or get the full package with the photo of your face alongside ID. As a rule, the more KYC you deal with, the more protected your funds are, and sometimes you can save more on commissions. Conversely, when you choose a service with limited KYC, be prepared to pay more. A higher commission on our platform means that with this method, we assume greater risks, including those connected to KYC.
That is our favorite question, because it’s personal. We know first-hand what it’s like to lose money. Yeah, not the greatest way to boost your financial confidence, but please bear with us here. We would like to share some stories showing that there’s nothing permanent in this world, especially in the world of finance.
Remember ePayments? One of the biggest online payment systems with great service and favorable terms? These guys just shut down their business with almost 100k USD of our money. Even though they suggest withdrawing everything on their website, we still haven’t found a way to get our money back.
Another story that almost cost us 500k is about a Czech bank that decided to freeze our funds out of the blue. We tried to find out why, but were always given the cold shoulder. Fortunately, we were able to get our money back through the courts, but it’s a story that left a lasting impression.
Take crypto as another example. USDT is a stablecoin that’s supposed to be the safest currency. The thing is, USDT is not the only stablecoin, there are also BUSD at Binance, USDC at Coinbase, etc. Pretty much every major blockchain network has their own stablecoin, all pegged to either USD or Euro. And there have been cases in the history of crypto, when stablecoins crashed and burned, like UST and USDN. So there is always a risk of losing money if you choose to store them in crypto, but it should be fine for the quick transfer.
As you see, every system can collapse or surprise you with costly errors. No bank or payment service can guarantee the safety of your money. You have to be vigilant about your funds and always be prepared to pack your stuff if there are even the slightest signs of danger. On the part of Golden Goose, we always honor the obligations to our partners and pay even if it puts us at a loss.
Some may ask, “Why even bother with a network such as Golden Goose? I’ll be working with the advertiser directly!” That is an understandable desire, because the rates are flat out better when you work directly. Let’s say, there’s an offer at Golden Goose with a $0,90 rate, while it’s $1 at the advertiser. What exactly are you paying 10 cents for?
The key advantage of working through Golden Goose is that we care about you. You are our prime client and partner, every bit of service is catered to you personally, no matter if you earn $50 or $50,000 per month. You request payment — you get paid, simple as that.
When you work with the advertisers, there are way bigger clients that outrank you in importance. This results in such situations as not getting paid if there is a suspicion of low-quality traffic, and you will learn about that only 30 or even 60 days after your campaign. Not an ideal feedback loop for an active affiliate, if you ask us.
Moreover, this can severely harm your turnover, because you would have to relay funds to cover 30 to 60 day costs from somewhere else. Even if your traffic passes, such delays are still a major factor to consider. And don’t expect any flexibility in terms of payment methods, you’re pretty much stuck with wire transfer and all its implications.
The same goes for support. You will be lucky to get in touch with a live person at an advertiser, whereas at Golden Goose you can always DM your manager and get immediate help. We’re not saying there’s anything wrong with the direct approach, we’re just telling you how it is likely to turn out.
Optimizing your campaigns is one thing, and you may be extremely good at it, but actually getting your money is another layer to optimize for greater earnings. We want our partners to be as efficient as possible by getting advantage of various payment methods at the right time and place.
If you want help with choosing a payment method or need advice to fulfill your specific needs, feel free to contact your affiliate manager.
And remember: more money - more funny!