The companies: Peerflix Media Network and LiveUniverse. The offense: They have not paid me for the last three months of advertising on my site.

Peerflix Media Network contacted me last December about making EricDSnider.com an affiliate site. The terms were good, and I signed up.

The way it works is that I give Peerflix a spot on my site (it’s the vertical ad that runs down the right-hand side of the article pages), and Peerflix fills that spot with ads from their clients. I get paid according to how many times people click the ads, but Peerflix guaranteed me a minimum of XXX dollars a month, regardless of how much clicking happened. That minimum was more than I had been making from Google AdSense, so I switched.

Everything ran smoothly. I got a check in the mail around the 25th of every month, paying me for the previous month. Then, in August, my contact at Peerflix notified me that Peerflix had been bought by LiveUniverse, and that my payment for July might be a bit late because of the transition. No problem. Also, I needed to send in a W-9. Also no problem.

Well, my July payment would have normally arrived around Aug. 25. On Sept. 12, I told my Peerflix contact that I hadn’t gotten it yet, and that my August payment was coming due pretty soon too. She said: “I’m still waiting to hear from the new operators of the network when the payments will be going out. I will send you an email as soon as I have any further information.”

I replied to say that if I hadn’t been paid by the end of September, I would remove the Peerflix ads from my site. She did not respond to that. I e-mailed her again on Monday to remind her that the month was nearly over, and she did not reply to that, either. So I’m still completely in the dark about what’s happening, and they now owe me three months’ worth of payments amounting to several hundred dollars. (Technically, I guess September’s payment won’t be “late” until near the end of October, but still.)

So this, as promised, is the public shaming for Peerflix and LiveUniverse. These companies owe me money according to the terms of my contract. Their representatives have been unresponsive and uncommunicative. I hereby warn any and all parties against doing business with Peerflix and LiveUniverse. As soon as they pay me and explain what’s going on, I will be glad to put the Peerflix ads back on my site (I’ve replaced them with Google AdSense for now) and update this post. Until then, Peerflix and LiveUniverse owe me several hundred dollars, and you should not do business with them.

From her interview with Katie Couric last night (you gotta hear it; the transcript doesn’t do it justice):

COURIC: And when it comes to establishing your worldview, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this, to stay informed and to understand the world?

PALIN: I’ve read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media, coming–

COURIC: But like what ones specifically, I’m curious, that you–

PALIN: Um, all of ‘em, any of ‘em that, um, have, have been in front of me over all these years, um, I have–

COURIC: Can you name a few of them?

PALIN: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, it seems like, “Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington D.C. may be thinking of doing when you live up there in Alaska?” Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

HOLY CRAP, WOMAN. I can scarcely conceive a simpler question than “What newspapers and magazines do you read?” It’s not a “gotcha” question. Couric isn’t trying to trap her. It’s a perfectly reasonable question to ask someone, especially a politician who’s new to the national scene and whose views and personality Americans are still trying to figure out.

And she can’t even name ONE?

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