Does SiteProNews Actually Endorse This Garbage?
Well, I got another SiteProNews email from a very questionable “SEO Tool” company today. As an experienced SEO I can see through the dubious sales pitch but many small business owners or inexperienced SEOs can’t. This is not the first time I have seen this same email pitch and I wanted to write about before but just did not have the time. On top of that since there are plenty of articles written about these tools and services I felt it would be redundant. In case you want to check out the tool you can find it here. So instead of reaming the tool I want to talk about why SiteProNews continues to allow these types of companies to advertise under their name.
Does SiteProNews Endorse this Tool?
Although I do find some useful articles on occasion I have more or less been programmed to ignore the newsletters they send me. Mainly because half of the emails I receive are for dubious tools and services like this. Like I said I can see through it. The problem I have is that they are reaching too many inexperienced site and business owners who believe that SiteProNews is actually vetting these types of services and tools and endorsing them. Believing this, many small business owners will buy these tools and when they don’t deliver results they will end up having a negative view of SiteProNews and SEO. This is just another source for the hatred of SEO that many have. Inexperienced businesses may consider SiteProNews a leader in the SEO/SEM world and if they even tacitly endorse these products it hurts the entire industry.
I Understand the Need for Advertising but…
Look, I understand the SiteProNews relies on advertising to pay the bills and maybe earn a bit of a profit. I have no problem with that. But, they need to look at what is being promoted through their newsletter and on their sites. This type of advertising hurts the reputation of SEOs everywhere. On top of that legitimate SEOs are forced to explain why they charge so much for their valuable service that does not even guarantee rankings when they could spend a minimal amount of money on this software that offers a guarantee. Allowing advertising like this hurts SEOs on multiple fronts and hurts the industry as a whole. Since most of the people who read their newsletter and visit their site are not necessarily search professionals SiteProNews has an obligation to provide honest and truthful information and advertising. That is not happening right now. I know I am not a huge voice in this industry but I want to lend my limited influence to bring exposure to these shady services and ask SiteProNews to be a true leader in the search marketing world. Stop hurting the industry and small businesses by allowing these tools to be peddled through your name.
Popularity: 33% [?]
Related Posts:- Nobody Needs SEO Anymore!!
At least according the sales guy my uncle talked to from YellowBook. A recent email exchange between my uncle and I reinforced the fact that...
Well said Pilo. Your advertisers do represent you to a point.
I have seen many poorly written or dated articles get on the front page on their newsletter and simply wonder how did that happen.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:52 amWhy not be specific? You use words like “garbage”, “questionable”, “dubious”, etc. Is the tool garbage because it fails to meet your standards or are you saying the co. selling it is deliberately ripping off small businesses?
I won’t get into a debate on the value of the software since one man’s “garbage” is another man’s “treasure” but why hold SiteProNews to a higher standard than say Yahoo or Google? Both run advertising for the same SEO Tool as do many other sites and newsletters.
If there is any hatred of SEO services, it’s not because an SEO Tool may not have met the expectations of a buyer. At least many of these tools offer a free trial period and often a money-back guarantee. How many SEO consultants can say the same. Spending $100 - $200 bucks on a SEO tool is not the same as spending $5,000 to $10,000 or more on a SEO consultant.
May 4th, 2008 at 10:56 amThe biggest problem I have is that these type of site prey on people who don’t know any better. They will use this tool and not see any results. This leads to a negative attitude towards SEO. Most people would be better off learning about SEO and doing it on their own if they can’t afford professional SEO services. These tools create a false sense that they are doing the right thing when in fact they are just spinning their wheels.