ePerks: Three Critical Mistakes A New Startup Should Avoid
October 2, 2007 – 11:11 amThisis one of those long articles that may or may not pick my
reader’s
interest. In order to save your time I would like to underline in this
first paragraph what this article is about so you can decide if it is
something you would like to spend waste
your time on
reading. This article has to do with sponsored reviews as main avenue
of generating online buzz, how it helped to revive one of my blogs and
mistakes that can be avoided when promoting a new startup.
I would also like to clarify that I have nothing against ePerks nor it’s founders. However I believe that they can benefit from the information I am about to provide. And if you are abut to promote a new startup, you may find this information useful or at least entertaining.
So first things first…..
How a sponsored review helped me to revive one of my blogs.
I own dozens of different websites and a few blogs. I work hard on some of these website and some are just sitting out there for the most part doing nothing. One of such websites is my www.go-beyond-mls.com, which I have purchased long time ago when I was still active in real estate. Since it is a blog one of the factor that I personally use to judge its success by is the amount of comments generated by the posts there. Needless to say my Go Beyond MLS was “dead” until recently. The review of ePerks and then a follow up post on ePerks, have generated 53 comments so far. Go Beyond MLS is also on the first page of Google search results for the term “ePerks”- being the top referring keyword, bringing over 600 visitors to the website in September. Thus a sponsored review have contributed in not only in generating more activity but more traffic as well, reviving my interest in that blog.
Mistake #1 “Putting All Of Your Eggs In One Basket”- Are Sponsored Reviews The Best Way To Generate Buzz?
One can also ask if blogs are the best place to generate a buzz, to encompass those reviews that are purely editorial and no financial interest are involved behind such reviews. There are few factors that come into play here:
- Even if advertiser requests a “benefit only” type of review- it is only one’s guess what type of comments such a review will receive, leaving advertiser no control over it.
- Once blogger has written about your company or start up, its not unusual for that blogger to follow up with additional reviews or posts on your company.
While being featured on a well know blog can result in long term benefits for the company, other available avenues should be considered. If you use Google Blog search for eperks, it returns about 427 results. Mashable being one of the most known blogs to feature an article about ePerks. Good number of these results are due to what is known as “sponsored review”.
On the other hand, unlike their competitors PropertyMaps, ePerks never used PRWeb, which could have brought them more coverage in a long term.
It appears that ePerks has failed miserably in diversifying their advertising efforts.
Mistake #2 - Not Respecting Your Competition
Since I have mentioned PropertyMaps as a clear ePerks competitor, following example is what I believe to be the worst approach ePerks have taken to deal with their competition:
Ok guys I just signed on do this new propertymaps.com and have not seen a single reply?
propertymaps.com and go-beyond-mls are both scam blogs sites.
go-beyond-mls.com is a total scam they have no about us section, no phone numbers and addresses.
I here ePERKS.com is reporting these companies to the proper authorities as scam artists.
Agents dont waste your money with propertymaps.com they are a scam
You can read the full comment thread here.Above post was found at Topix.net
I have a reason to believe that such comments are being left
on
online forums, blogs and other websites by the people connected to
ePerks.
Identical copy of such message was left (but later marked as spam by
me) on Go Beyond MLS as well. Aside of it being a spam, I am actually
flattered that such messages are being generated on the internet
because these messages are just free publicity that may website will
benefit down the road. However I am not sure if owners of PropertyMaps
would appreciate these comments in the same measure as I do. I have
e-mailed ePerks
raising a concern about these sneaky tactics, however I have received
no response which only affirms to me that ePerks
may have been indeed connected to people leaving such posts on forums
and blogs.
Misatke #3- Not Respecting Your Potential Clients.
If you have not seen ePerks’
TV commercial, below is the clip circulating on YouTube for your
enjoyment. As a former real estate agent I find this clip to be very
distasteful to say the least. Does every real estate agent deserves to
be hit by a truck just because he or she is not listed on ePerks?
I understand this commercial may have been geared towards buyers and
sellers, but I think many real estate agents watching this clip may
question ePerks
intent. While ePerks
needs to bring “buyers” and
“sellers” to their website, they make their
money on real estate agents- respecting thier potential clients should
be a high priority.
In Conclusion.
ePerks has very interesting idea and may have a potential to become a successful lead-generating tool for real estate agents as well as for other professionals. While some bloggers call it another multi million startup, I believe it is doomed as long as the above described “tactics” are being used in attempts to generate extra buzz.
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14 Responses to “ePerks: Three Critical Mistakes A New Startup Should Avoid”
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Vlad it appears you are a desparate little man with an agenda against that company. You have posted false/fake postings from hoax agents, posted ridiculously one sided topics, deleted anything neutral or possibly positive about the company, promoted propertymaps beyond belief and you continue. It appears you have reached the heights of bill gates with your business intelligence and now have a lot of free time on your hands. Good luck with your desparation and attempt at making a living.
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Ed (and I do hope this is your name).
Welcome. I take it as a compliment.
I disagree however bout you stating that I have deleted ALL positive comments. There are few positive comments left, I deleted only those left by a person who appeared to have 10 different names in a span of 10 minutes. Good luck to you as well.
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:34 am
I am an employee of the company and I do follow it online. Facts are one thing Vlad. opinions are another thing also Vlad. But what you are trying to do in total on this blog has an interesting amount of negative energy and almost hatred. A blog is to be neutral in some respect, but what you have here is a negative marketing machine. Which clearly communicates what your affiliations might be with competing real estate companies.
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:48 am
Ed,
How do you explain that a person during one visit to my website leaves 10 different comments using 10 different names? Ahhh, those statistics, they do come handy now and then
…. And I have plenty of
evidence to backup my facts.
October 3rd, 2007 at 1:30 am
Vlad your blog is clearly positioned in an interesting way against this company. While you have never been a consumer, a client or an employee of the company.
We have thousands of agents who are showing homes, taking listings and closing deals. You are simply attempting to debunk the program and deliver traffic to your site. You are a con artist when at your best. Disgusting
October 3rd, 2007 at 6:41 am
Ed,
I have answered your insane accusation over on my other blog. I am really tired from dealing with you guys.
You all are pissed off because my website is on the first page of Google for “eperks”. So you are going to attack me on my own websites and on the forums elsewhere?
You are full of it.
October 7th, 2007 at 2:38 am
A blog is to be neutral in some respect,
Mister Ed.
With all respect, you have not even slightest idea what is a blog and what is a blog FOR.
Neutral ? lol
Be happy I`m not into your (company) biz-niche and I then won`t rant against anything you`re wrong.
Else, you`ll be have to face something would make acid batery looks like refreshing drink …
Pointing out your lame excuse that “blog should be neutral” is PLAIN an attempt threat to freedom of speech, my boy .. Here`s an intersting lecture for you :
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/eng.htm
Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
( BTW, don`t point me to art 12, there`s a word canceling whatever you`ll say in your favour. )
October 7th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Hey Valentin,
Thanks for stopping by. Believe it or not I still think ePerks is a good idea, however very poorly executed.
I agree that Ed has no idea what blog is and how it can benefit (or damage) one’s reputation.
I have never anticipated to retceive so many comments on my other blog from real estate agents. Ed thinks that I have written all these comments by myself.
If people like his are charged with “damage” control, the company is doomed. I still think they are simply pissed that my blog (Go Beyond MLS) ranks on the first page of Google for the term “eperks”.
Thanks for stopping by!
October 8th, 2007 at 1:26 am
My Dear Valentin,
With all respect, the free speech displayed here is simply a means to an end for vlad.
I am simply pointing out that if it is free speech then mr vlad is taking full advantage of his right to free speech to hurt a company, deliver traffic to his biased site, as well as create a positve perception around competing sites he is affiliated with all while never having been a customer, client or employee.
Of course he has the right to free speech. No one is suggesting anything silly. I am simply communicating what he is doing with it. Which is to serve his own needs while attempting to appear that he is a neutral authority on the topics.
There is a sick agenda here by vlad, that is utilizing free speech as its vehicle to profit his site and the sites that he is affiliated with. Which is fine, but lets not convince ourselves that this site or vlad is using free speech to communicate some position of nobility.
Its sick, low and desperate. good luck vlad.
October 8th, 2007 at 8:56 am
Ed I would like to clarify a few things here.
If I was affiliated with any company it was ePerks-via SponsoredReviews.com. While I have control on the comments that appeared on that review, to think say that I have written majority of those “negative” comments is unintelligent to say the least.
I hope you realize that when a comments are left, so is some other info (such as IP addresses). I can prove to you that I did not write those comments.
Ed, as I stated once before nobody at ePerks expected that for a search term “eperks” Google would show an article “ePerks- A Scam Or A Gem?” on the first page of the search results. To say the truth neither did I. However, if only one of those negative comments are true I ma happy that real estate agents had a chance to see it.
November 7th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Hmm I recognize the tone of that opening comment (of one random soul calling himself Ed). Often pronounced “troll” or “looser” and generally an indication that you hit a raw nerve.
I would suggest that Vlad has exposed something that “Ed” would rather not believe or would rather not have exposed. I found as blog entries go that Vlad has earned my respect and trust as a blogger whereas this Ed guy appears to have failed to qualify why his opinion is worth even the snot on a used tissue. (no link…)
This is a well rounded blog post that could have really laid into the company in question and been a lot, lot, lot harsher. If it had been my blog I would have pressed the disemvowler by now which gives testament to Vlad’s long suffering and generally ability to be unaffected by faceless burks with internet access.
November 7th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Lord Matt,
The irony about this issue is that I have entered in a relationship with ePerks via “sponsored review”. I did not expect to receive a single comment my posts about ePerks. To me it was a quick $50 in my pocket.
However, when the comments started to pour in, ePerks had a great opportunity to act on the “feedback” and improve the services. As a former real estate agent, I think the idea is good. Implementation however is terrible.
When it comes to the real estate section of their website- Realtors are their primary clients not the internet visitors. It would be in ePerks best interest to treat the real estate agents well trying to provide a quality service. But it appears that the funders of ePerks want to capitalize on the fact that most real estate agents are not aware of the “mechanics” of internet marketing, or simply do not have time to work on their internet marketing themselves.
So if a real estate agent pays $200 a month ad receives 20 leads, an individual lead costs him about $10. However I doubt very much that there is any agent in their database who received 20 leads in a single month.
So when you consider the costs, even if you were to run a worst optimized AdWords campaign you might get much better results.
Also their claim that I wrote all the comments myself is ridiculous. As some one you makes my living from blogging and affiliate marketing, I simply would not have time for that. Besides, I would need to be simultaneously in 10-20 locations across the USA to write all the comments.
January 5th, 2008 at 8:02 am
If you have thouands of agents showing homes, taking listings and closing deals, then I’ll bet you have scammed hundreds of thousands. In my humble opinion, you are a dishonest company. I am one of those scammed agents.
January 5th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Very interesting post, too bad you cannot spell “desperate”. I would have thought it was a typo, but you repeated the misspelling. Also, too bad your “hoax” agents are real. I posted a negative comment regarding Eperks. In my humble opinion it is a scam and it does employ dishonest tactics. If you are capable of sending an email and would like to discuss further, you can reach me at mm@daltx.com
Michael Greig.