Quality Content Writers Group
A lesson in bad advertising - - - - and worse manners
by Arthur Webster Just plain honesty
Arthur Webster 
Just plain honesty
The following (in blue) is a response I have made to an advertising blog. I accept that advertising blogs don't get read by many people but I think that, as an example of how NOT to advertise, this needs wider exposure.
This is a great example of how NOT to advertise.
Watch the 3 minute movie? Where? (There is an exhortation in the blog to watch the movie)
Contact you by email? Why? (There was only an email address in the add - no url)
For instant information, which is, after all, what the internet is all about, I simply did a search and found hundreds of web pages happily displaying this movie. I couldn't watch it because I had the impression the announcer had just been told he had been entered into the contest to find the most irritating example of over emphasis.
A few seconds later I had found a huge quantity of sites giving this software away.
I wish you success with this but there are a great many posts in these blogs about commission theft and I fear that, advertising the opportunity the way you have, is just DEMANDING that nobody signs up under you. If you have paid to be a distributor, that is not the best way to get a return on the sizeable investment you have made.
I suppose the "contact me by email for more information" is an attempt to stop people joining by chopping urls. It doesn't work because anybody who has any interest after reading the ad will want, like me, to know "NOW".
The search engines are alive with this product and there are hundreds, if not thousands of places where this free software can be obtained.
Because the 'reasonable' ROI on this product is probably less than the cost FOR THE AVERAGE PUNTER, the delay in getting the prospect to a sign up page is fatal to the sense of urgency that might have been built up by the video.
I hope this will give some of you a little insight into getting some sort of results for your advertising but I also hope that it will make you stop and wonder why you are paying to give a free product away.
With not a great deal of imagination, it would seem that if this product was anywhere near as effective as the distributors claim, they would prefer to be paid a percentage of the commissions earned by their affiliates rather than a monthly fee and huge initial sign up fee.
Since the distributors will give away far more packages of the software than their whole affiliate base put together, it stands to reason that their commission earnings will be substantial. By introducing an affiliate programme, they have ensured the maximum exposure of their software, earned a few hundred thousand dollars in the process and can sit back in quiet confidence that the vast majority of affilaites will drop out of the system when they discover that they are not even clearing their monthly subscription.
I wonder if the advertiser actually understands the very small average commission payments that will be earned. To earn $500 a month with this system probably means that (at 50%) you will need to generate sales of at least $25,000 every month.
If you generated this level of sales with many affilaite programmes, you would be expecting to earn at least $6,250 and up to $18,750.
Nuff sed?
May 25th 2008 04:47
Just plain honestyThe following (in blue) is a response I have made to an advertising blog. I accept that advertising blogs don't get read by many people but I think that, as an example of how NOT to advertise, this needs wider exposure.
This is a great example of how NOT to advertise.
Watch the 3 minute movie? Where? (There is an exhortation in the blog to watch the movie)
Contact you by email? Why? (There was only an email address in the add - no url)
For instant information, which is, after all, what the internet is all about, I simply did a search and found hundreds of web pages happily displaying this movie. I couldn't watch it because I had the impression the announcer had just been told he had been entered into the contest to find the most irritating example of over emphasis.
A few seconds later I had found a huge quantity of sites giving this software away.
I wish you success with this but there are a great many posts in these blogs about commission theft and I fear that, advertising the opportunity the way you have, is just DEMANDING that nobody signs up under you. If you have paid to be a distributor, that is not the best way to get a return on the sizeable investment you have made.
I suppose the "contact me by email for more information" is an attempt to stop people joining by chopping urls. It doesn't work because anybody who has any interest after reading the ad will want, like me, to know "NOW".
The search engines are alive with this product and there are hundreds, if not thousands of places where this free software can be obtained.
Because the 'reasonable' ROI on this product is probably less than the cost FOR THE AVERAGE PUNTER, the delay in getting the prospect to a sign up page is fatal to the sense of urgency that might have been built up by the video.
I hope this will give some of you a little insight into getting some sort of results for your advertising but I also hope that it will make you stop and wonder why you are paying to give a free product away.
With not a great deal of imagination, it would seem that if this product was anywhere near as effective as the distributors claim, they would prefer to be paid a percentage of the commissions earned by their affiliates rather than a monthly fee and huge initial sign up fee.
Since the distributors will give away far more packages of the software than their whole affiliate base put together, it stands to reason that their commission earnings will be substantial. By introducing an affiliate programme, they have ensured the maximum exposure of their software, earned a few hundred thousand dollars in the process and can sit back in quiet confidence that the vast majority of affilaites will drop out of the system when they discover that they are not even clearing their monthly subscription.
I wonder if the advertiser actually understands the very small average commission payments that will be earned. To earn $500 a month with this system probably means that (at 50%) you will need to generate sales of at least $25,000 every month.
If you generated this level of sales with many affilaite programmes, you would be expecting to earn at least $6,250 and up to $18,750.
Nuff sed?
May 25th 2008 04:47
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Comments
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Arthur Webster
Just plain honestyI should have expected that. The blog has been reduced to the original ad (but including the link to the video that was missing first time round). What a sorry state we are in when the only way to defend the stance you take is top pretend that nobody else knows anything. Here is my last post to the blog - extracts from the posts of the anonymous promotor are in double inverted commas :- Did I rattle your cage and step on your toes in a previous life? I don’t mind people having contrary opinions but personal abuse does not cut it with me. If you have a superior argument, let the strength of that argument be tested in open debate. My opinion of you as an anonymous individual can only be based upon what you say and that does not give me any reason to be derisive or offensive. Your arguments do not hold water. “Regarding the use of email, sure you can do a google search...but in order to see the movie and the website, sooner or later you'll need to contact someone or fill out a form on a landing page...like I said, we're testing several different approaches...Furthermore, the person you may end up contacting probably doesn't have the preferred positions that we have available...†“First, the $29 a month not only includes the licensee to give away unlimited free shopping genies, it also includes your online system with landing page, website, back office, autoresponders, etc, as well as generating the monthly PV required to be active for commissions and bonuses...Are you now complaining about a $30 a month program? If so, if you can't afford $30, I would suggest the problem isn't with the program, but you.†“We are testing several different approaches...the reason why you would have people send an email or go to a website and fill out a form is so that you can build a database of visitors with their contact information so 1) that you know they responded to your ad, 2) so that you have their contact information, and 3) so that you can follow up with them via email or by phone...You obviously have a lot to earn about marketing online and offline...†These three statements do not quite make sense. IF you have paid to be a distributor, you have full rights to use the web page and lead capture page provided for the $199 joining fee. There is no need to risk losing a lead by advertising with an email address. “Oh, and one more thing..your comment about "using an email address in ad is a waste of time" Really? We just put over 9,000 people in a program in a short period of time using a similar approach where people responded to an ad with just an email address, at which point they received an autoresponder message with information and a website link to visit..†Words are so cheap in the anonymous world of greed and avarice. Maybe this 9,000 responded to your email because you did not make the mistake of having a simple Google search available. It would be interesting to know if the email was sent to opt in lists or whether, to get 9,000 responses you used indiscriminate ad-blasting software and simply blasted it all over the place – at 3% response you needed to have sent 300,000 emails. “Since when did being a CPA qualify you as an expert on internet marketing and network marketing or laws related to such??? It doesn't even qualify you as an expert on commerce!†Who is a CPA? I am a Certified and Corporate Accountant – something akin to an expert on commerce and the laws that apply to it! Maybe not as highly specialised as a brain surgeon but a surgeon, yes. All you have demonstrated here is your facility with offensive comments coupled with an inability to read and a lack of knowledge as to what my professional qualification represents “I think it would be better for you if you just stuck to "keeping books" for business people and leave the internet marketing and network marketing to people with proven track records..†You have no proven track record. You are flying under a flag of convenience and can make any claims that you want to. “Go build an organization of a 100,000 or 200,000 people and generate a billion or two in sales like we have and then we can talk....†We will never be able to talk because you do not exist except as a figment of your over-active imagination. At least you took some notice of what I had to say and have now put a clickable link to the video into your blog. (I wonder why you did that if I don’t know what I am talking about.) If you are Gordon Stewart, Google has never heard of you in the world of internet marketing and neither has anybody else I have spoken to. Now, that’s what I call keeping your head down! Starting out, making all that money and still managing to remain anonymous despite joining up with other top internet and network marketing pros – that took stealth! If you are not Gordon Stewart – how sad can you be? May 26th 2008 10:02 |
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Cheryl Baumgartner
  Medical Billing/Coding/InsuranceROFLMAO! I just love the old "If you can't afford" line. It's not about affordability, it's about scam spotting and return on investment. As far as I'm concerned 90% of this "pre launch" crap is just that, crap. Pre launch my rear end, get people's money is more like it. If you are paying for something that doesn't exist....... Oops it does exist and they probably weren't getting any responses so they use the old "If you had stock in MIcrosoft" approach to convince you the you are the first one on the boat and everyone else is boarding after you. Problem with that is new boats don't always float and if they float they may still sink! As I recall a very famous boat sunk on it's maiden voyage and thousands died and those thousands had believed the hype. If you recall they claimed this boat was "unsinkable". All I can say is Watch out for icebergs! May 27th 2008 06:05 |
The implications of this subject really need to be addressed more fully.
There have been blogs about anonymous contributors before but this little discussion I started with an anonymous person did not take long to fall to offensive and stupid comment.
To read the full thread, go to http://www.apsense,com/subject/31402.html
As far as I can see, this person is neither a credit to himself nor Apsense and is probably symptomatic of what is wrong at Apsense and other, similar social sites - the ability to advertise without responsibility to support their product claims in open discussion.
Is that why so few ads go unchallenged? I wonder.
May 26th 2008 04:11