 $15k For "top Placement", Am I being an idiot? |
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High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum > Search Engine Optimization > SEM/SEO Resources and Advice  |
 Jun 29 2006, 12:15 AM
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#1
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HR 1  Group: Members Posts: 2 Joined: 28-June 06 User's local time: Jul 31 2010, 02:54 PM Member No.: 12,438  |
Okay friends, attempt number two at posting this appropriately...
I was cold called today with an offer to give me exlusive use of "vitamins" on his Internet Highway Billboard. I have a nutrition biz, and do some Adsense stuff experimentally, but am a n00b in the world of 'net marketing. Basically, he promises me that I'll be "first page or top 20" for one of the four following search terms: "vitamins"+city+state+zip "vitamins"+city+state "vitamins"+city or category+zip "vitamins"+zip For $15,000, I get this for a year. If he places me top 20 or first page on any of the "top 12 search engines" (the list includes "Ask Jeeves" and All the Web and Metacrawler"). Am I being a sucker for considering this, or am I onto a good opportunity (assuming that my landing page and content and products actually make someone buy something)? As a demo, he told me to go to Ask and search "vitamins anchorage" and sure enough, he "owns" the #1 natural listing there. But I would be financing a $15,000 expediture, and can't afford not to make it back, much less lose it all without realizing any income from the placement. Ideas? I'd sure like a pro's eye view of this. Thanks. |
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Jun 29 2006, 12:39 AM
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#2
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 HR 5 Group: Active Members Posts: 450 Joined: 23-February 06 User's local time: Jul 31 2010, 07:54 PM From: India Member No.: 10,598 |
Welcome to the forum Sandan Judoka (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/hi.gif)
QUOTE(Sandan Judoka @ Jun 29 2006, 01:15 AM) Basically, he promises me that I'll be "first page or top 20" for one of the four following search terms: "vitamins"+city+state+zip "vitamins"+city+state "vitamins"+city or category+zip "vitamins"+zip I consider if you optimize the content for a city/zip its much easier than for general terms. QUOTE(Sandan Judoka @ Jun 29 2006, 01:15 AM) For $15,000, I get this for a year. If he places me top 20 or first page on any of the "top 12 search engines" (the list includes "Ask Jeeves" and All the Web and Metacrawler"). Am I being a sucker for considering this, or am I onto a good opportunity (assuming that my landing page and content and products actually make someone buy something)? $15,000 is a big amount for search engines except the top three ( G, Y! and MSN) Could you ask the caller if he could assure your listing time ( time to let you see on top and remain there) without PPC (Pay-Per-Click) submissions? QUOTE(Sandan Judoka @ Jun 29 2006, 01:15 AM) As a demo, he told me to go to Ask and search "vitamins anchorage" and sure enough, he "owns" the #1 natural listing there. But I would be financing a $15,000 expediture, and can't afford not to make it back, much less lose it all without realizing any income from the placement. Why ask ? better way you ask him to show any site he owns (with proof) on Google top with organic listing. Just my opinion Prawin |
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Jun 29 2006, 05:07 AM
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 Work is Fun  Group: Moderator Posts: 4,658 Joined: 31-July 03 User's local time: Jul 31 2010, 07:54 PM From: Neath, South Wales, UK Member No.: 110 |
you have done well to ask for advice. My advice is that it stinks (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) $15k for local search terms in easy to spam search engines! Work it out for yourself (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
also first page or top 20, well I always thought that first page IS top 20. Another smoke screen that is cleverly worded to allude to first page listing when in fact they are talking about top 20. It is your money, but £8000 is an awfull lot of money for local search terms not first page, and not on any big traffic search engines IMO Caveat Emptor |
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Jun 29 2006, 05:19 AM
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#4
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HR 9 Group: Active Members Posts: 3,915 Joined: 5-April 05 User's local time: Jul 31 2010, 04:54 PM From: Seattle, WA Member No.: 7,091 |
QUOTE "Whenever you gamble, eventually you lose." --Qui-Gon Jinn Frankly, if you cannot afford to live without the 15 thousand dollars, I don't think you should be gambling with it. To get that many placements, he will be autogenerating doorway pages, and there are no guarantees they won't be detected and filtered. Ask.com? Dude, they get about 2% of all the search traffic. Look and see where his pages are in Google and Yahoo!. I wouldn't do it. |
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Jun 29 2006, 05:31 AM
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 HR 5 Group: Active Members Posts: 376 Joined: 15-December 05 User's local time: Jul 31 2010, 11:54 PM From: Kent Member No.: 9,793 |
Give me $15,000 and I'll occasionally send some friends to your site (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
Serious. I'm buying a house, gimme the cash! |
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Jun 29 2006, 06:56 AM
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 High Rankings Advisor  Group: Admin Posts: 29,889 Joined: 21-July 03 User's local time: Jul 31 2010, 07:54 PM From: Ashland, MA Member No.: 2 |
Unless they can show you results in Google, it's all empty promises.
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Jun 29 2006, 07:45 AM
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 Jeep Girl Group: Active Members Posts: 440 Joined: 2-July 04 User's local time: Jul 31 2010, 04:54 PM Member No.: 4,211 |
Do you have an online only business or an actual location? If online only - what good is it to have it by location when you sell everywhere?
Also - what about google, msn and yahoo? Is he actually saying - I can get you into all the second rate search engines that get so little traffic by comparison it won't make a difference? And just what in the heck is "Internet Highway Billboard"? |
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Jun 29 2006, 08:07 AM
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 Jonathan Hochman Group: Moderator Posts: 1,554 Joined: 27-November 05 User's local time: Jul 31 2010, 07:54 PM From: Connecticut - Land of Steady Habits Member No.: 9,569 |
If this person is such an Internet Marketing Genius, why are they cold calling you? You think they'd get so much business from their website that they wouldn't have time for cold calling.
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Jun 29 2006, 08:58 AM
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 HR 4 Group: Active Members Posts: 163 Joined: 8-April 05 User's local time: Jul 31 2010, 06:54 PM From: Chicago, Illinois Member No.: 7,119 |
Sounds like waaaaay too much money for these very small search engines. Does Shaklee allow distributors to buy ppc advertising? You would be much better off with spending your money in the amount you can afford for Google or Yahoo ppc ads. Buying ppc ads for specific regions would not be that costly.
Your distributor home page uses Flash and requires the latest version of Flash to play. If I don't have the latest version I must download before I can view this page -- incredibly annoying. If I was shopping for vitamins and landed on this page and got that message, I would click away instantly and go to another site. Although the Flash may be very attractive and creative, it is not user friendly and I would say that most visitors would respond the way I would. (I don't have the lastest version of Flash and therefore saw nothing except how to download Flash). Before you do anything else, I suggest replacing the Flash with text information about the vitamins and a few images of the vitamins -- I heard they are very high quality and would like to know more about that. Or I use this product and would like to know why I should buy from you instead of another distributor. My 2 cents, Mary |
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Jun 29 2006, 09:09 AM
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 HR 4 Group: Active Members Posts: 148 Joined: 13-October 04 User's local time: Jul 31 2010, 07:54 PM From: N Georgia Mountains Member No.: 5,375 |
There's gators in that pond, don't jump in without a very wary eye out!
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Jun 29 2006, 10:20 AM
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#11
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HR 1 Group: Members Posts: 2 Joined: 28-June 06 User's local time: Jul 31 2010, 02:54 PM Member No.: 12,438 |
Hey everybody. Thanks for the honest and useful replies. Even yours, Sarah, which I took to mean "give me the money and you'll get about the same results."
OWG, struck me the same. When the best placement he can show me is a location-specific search on Ask, that's not making me whip out my checkbook. Michael, that's my argument (with my wife) exactly. Too much money down a blind hole for a family living off of a teacher's salary and our little nutrition biz. Jill, Prawin, others: Sounds like he should show me Google (or at least big 3) to have any cred, yes? He did that, but only for a location specific search (westlake fruit basket), and that was his only example. And the page is HIDEOUS. Mary, I inadvertantly linked our recruitment site, rather than our product site. I'll change the sig. The actual site is /build, instead of /builder. I am not pleased either that Shaklee's web folks made that page so that it demands a new plugin. It's turned off more than one person, that's for sure. We're doing a little with ppc, but aren't fine-tuning enough to make it more than a big ol' blot of red ink right now... I may have to start lurking here more often, and get smart about it. Betty, we're online, but that's exactly my point - why would someone search a locale-specific string if they were looking to buy vitamins online? They wouldn't care where they came from, so they probably won't include Anchorage in the search! jehochman, I don't want to disregard just because it's a cold call, but even in my little biz, I'm entirely too busy servicing existing customers and following even luke-warm leads to do that. donp, you said it all. I think that's the Louisiana version of Caveat Emptor. Thanks again, all. My money's staying in my pocket. As an epilogue, the cold calling fellow has called back five, count 'em, five times, leaving a message each time, the last one sounding a little miffed, saying that he didn't want all his work today to amount to nothing. Wait, you want $15K of my money, and you're whining about spending four hours to get it? That does not bode well for a future professional relationship. Deal's off. |
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Jun 29 2006, 04:53 PM
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#12
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Work is Fun Group: Moderator Posts: 4,658 Joined: 31-July 03 User's local time: Jul 31 2010, 07:54 PM From: Neath, South Wales, UK Member No.: 110 |
he didn't want all his work today to amount to nothing
Well there you go, another meme type chap. forget him, he is history. When he calls next simply say that you have decided to go with another company, and leave it at that. |
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Jun 29 2006, 06:13 PM
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HR 4 Group: Active Members Posts: 160 Joined: 11-December 05 User's local time: Jul 31 2010, 07:54 PM Member No.: 9,746 |
You are not an idiot, that guy who called you are an idiot.
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Jul 1 2006, 05:03 PM
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HR 4 Group: Active Members Posts: 134 Joined: 19-July 05 User's local time: Aug 1 2010, 09:54 AM Member No.: 8,104 |
Wish i had the balls to charge those kind of figures and I do get those kind of results in google though would never make any kind of guarantee. Google Corp is God and knows all, not the SEO consultant.
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Jul 7 2006, 11:36 PM
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HR 1 Group: Members Posts: 4 Joined: 7-July 06 User's local time: Jul 31 2010, 07:54 PM Member No.: 12,577 |
you'll more then likely find that you can easily achieve the same level of work being put into this campaign with the same results through a different SEO expert for only a few hundred bucks
shop around |
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