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April 20, 2009

Local Ad Link Review: It’s a Scam People! Here’s Why…

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I am sure my stance on this Local Ad Link (LAL) “opportunity” is going to raise some havoc with some of my followers that might be true believers in this program. However, this is a subject I have been wanting to touch on for awhile. Bear with me, as I plan on going through each positive spin of Local Ad Link and completely debunking everything they have to offer. I have been approached, as well have a couple of my clients, on not only using Local Ad Link, but selling it. Being the skeptical, analytical person that I am, I decided to do some deep research on how this program works.

I will admit, I would love to build my referral program to be as big as the sales force team that has hit the streets for Local Ad Link. However, at the end of the day, I would rather have my integrity in tact. (Shameless plug: If you’re interested in selling something legitimate with long term commissions, contact me:) )

Right out of the gate here, let’s get some facts straight. The BBB has LocalAdLink with a “D” rating. Please visit the BBB for more information on why they have this rated where they do.
EDIT – THIS GRADE WILL OFTEN FLUCTUATE BETWEEN A “D” AND AN “F”
.

Secondly, for all of you Bob McNulty (CEO of Local Ad Link) fans out there, lets look at his history: Read This Article

He’s an entrepreneur, who has been involved in some big things. People tend to stop there and listen to only what they want to hear. The facts are facts, and he isn’t as great as it may seem. Especially considering he was asked to resign his position, and worked an agreement to actually get more money as a contractor than what he was making as an employee. This should give you some insight into the “person”. If not, then continue on being a bad judge of character:) I have also heard that there are 15 brand builders that get in on special phone calls with the man himself. When that phone call is done, don’t think for a minute that there isn’t another round of special branders that get a phone call. He knows how to create buzz and build a fan base, I will give him that.

Okay, now that we’ve kind of gotten those overviews out of the way. I want to delve into their “robust” system and how the operation works.

Most LAL salespeople will discuss the geo-targeting system that truly targets a local area. They will also go on and on about the 2 million + websites that partner with Local Ad Link. For anyone that has any idea of how Google Adwords and Pay Per Click functions, you will see that this isn’t a Local Ad Link system at all. Instead, they just piggy back Google’s Adwords technology and claim it as their own. Adwords can be defined based on geo targeting. Also, the 2 million partners that Local Ad Link has, are not THEIR partners. They are Google’s partners and any website that displays Adsense. If I go and create a little sales page website, add some Adsense, I am now a partner of Local Ad Link! Mr. McNulty has claimed an agreement is in place with Google. Nowhere can any details of such an agreement be found. LAL is taking Google’s technology and practically branding it as their own. I certainly foresee a major issue from Google’s standpoint in the near future.

Another benefit that is often described is the ability to add your company to their directory. There are literally thousands of directories out there. You’ll actually gain more search engine ranking benefit from having a listing in DMOZ. It’s also been argued that you can get more favorable results in Yahoo’s search rankings with a listing in their directory ($250/year), though I am skeptical of that. That’s a story for another time. You can also add coupons to a listing on Google Maps. When it comes to adding videos and what not, that’s great…but why wouldn’t you put that video on your website, or even on YouTube? A video on youtube will be found much easier than if it’s in the LAL directory.

To me, the worst part about this system, is that the customers are paying for LAL’s traffic. Yes, when the pay per click campaign is set up, they are not linked to the customer website. Instead, they are linked to their directory listing on LAL. So now you require two clicks to get to your website. This leads to another problem; Google’s Quality Score (QS). This is assigned based on how well your PPC ad matches to the content of your website. Since the ad text is compared to the directory listing, this doesn’t leave much room for ad variance or optimization.

The technology behind LAL is simply an ad rotating mechanism. This rotates customer ads so they aren’t being displayed at the same time if there are competitors. This is why they won’t guarantee how often your ad is displayed. They’re system simply makes sure that two ads for the same keyword aren’t displayed at the same time. Hardly “robust”.

If LAL came out and said they were essentially a PPC management company, then I really would not have a problem with the way they do business. You can attribute the MLM commissions to a campaign management fee. The way it’s hidden, and the way that sales people are armed with all sorts of different information, is what bothers me. You can ask 5 different LAL sales people how the process works, and you’ll get 5 different answers. In the end, LAL just takes advantage of business owners that do not know PPC. Why should a business spend $200 towards LAL, and only receive approximately $50 worth of clicks (clicks to LAL’s directory no less) when they can pay $200 towards Google Adwords and get $200 worth to their own website? That’s really what it boils down to. In my opinion, those that support Local Ad Link simply just don’t understand how the process works.

There’s my rant, I’ll step off the soapbox now…:)

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients.

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116 Responses for “Local Ad Link Review: It’s a Scam People! Here’s Why…”

  1. I Do Free Press ReleasesNo Gravatar (10 comments) says:

    what do you think justin, is this the next scam? Are Karlee, Jim, and Israel the same person?
    I Do Free Press Releases´s last blog ..I book my private jet on my blackberry with Mobile Concierge deLuxe application! My ComLuv Profile

  2. Israel EmoryNo Gravatar (3 comments) says:

    I Do Press Releases and Justin,

    AdzZoo isn’t a scam. You can visit the corporate website as well http://www.adzzoo.com. If you think its a scam then Google these keywords and you will see some businesses that are on the first page of Google (Omaha maid service, Dunwoody hair salon, Tarpon Springs Pizza) Heck you can call me to discuss. I have nothing to hide. I’ll even give you my cell phone number. 239 292 2499

    Israel Emory

  3. Justin McGillNo Gravatar (89 comments) says:

    This is the only comment I’ll make about Adzzoo, and then I am not going to let further comments about the program go into this as I don’t want this to get off topic.

    I have not done the research on Adzzoo that I have with LAL. However, on the surface it is the exact same program. LAL is a scam not only for the customer, but for those that promote it as well. Adzzoo might actually pay with valid checks, but they are still utilizing technology that is available through Google Adwords and claiming it as their own. There are these types of companies popping up everywhere now. Why? Because they can just piggy back off Google and not have to create any product or service on their own! The cash being given to the Sales Person on these types of programs isn’t coming out of the difference of operating/production costs or service/labor costs. This money is coming straight out of the business owner’s pocket and not going to their advertising PPC budget. They can setup an Adwords account in minutes and be up and running with all of their budget being spent on PPC!

  4. TerryNo Gravatar (2 comments) says:

    Hey guys, I have been with LAL since December. Yes, there have been challenges, but to a small business who does not want mess with ad words or PPC, we do provide a valuable service. We are not an SEO, we are not a PPC, however we do use third party data.
    Quit trying to prove what LAL is an see if for what we truly offer. We have had many Brand Builders mis represent us over the months and yes we have had some cash flow issues, but I continue to earn a decent earning from LAL and will continue to do so…….

  5. TruthinessNo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    Just a little disclosure for both Justin and the readers of this blog. Both “Terry” and “Sherri” (you can see they are the same person by their icons) are actually the self proclaimed “Internet Entrepreneur” Mick Moore. He has a vested interest in LAL as you can see here:http://www.quickstartexpert.com/local-ad-link-information-page.html
    This is not speculation,I happened to be in the room with him when he was writing the comments and ranting about ‘how this Justin guy was costing him money”

    This guy is into all types of shady and deceptive stuff, from selling SEO “dirty tricks” books that are 10 years out of date and offer no real value, to throwing together budget movies which he insinuates are the “Sequel to THE SECRET”.
    Just like LAL this guy is all smoke and mirrors. He makes a living by claiming he makes 100x more money then he does, then ask others to pay him to “mentor” them how…..it’s laughable.

    So to those whom read this blog just know that the only response trying to save face for this scam is an insider whose livelihood depends on the truth not being revealed. He hides in the shadows hoping that the facts about his house of cards should never see the light…..WELLLLLL!!

  6. Thanks for the info we use merchant circles free program and are very happy with the results. I will check out adzzoo as well

  7. KarenNo Gravatar (2 comments) says:

    Thanks Justin!
    I knew there was something fishy going on, just hadn’t worked out quite what. Everyone seems to be talking about it and it seemed strange when most of them knew nothing about internet marketing before!
    Thanks for the info!

    Karen

  8. tomNo Gravatar (2 comments) says:

    I joined LAL over 6 months ago to get my “AD” at half price. Prepaid for the year for my own business. Figured if it worked even a little I could make money selling ads and build a downline. I have not tried to sell ads or recruit downline, as I value my reputation. My ad for my business has brought me no business at all. No calls, nothing. Customer service is non-existent. No phone support at all and of 50+ email support requests only 3 were answered and those after more than 3 weeks and with canned responses about how they were working on it. I spend about $200/mo on my google adwords and it gets me about 5 calls a month and a couple of jobs (average job for me is about $700 in margin). LAL is a total rip-off. don’t believe the hype.

  9. alexNo Gravatar (4 comments) says:

    I joined local ad link about three weeks ago, and i can see what you all are saying.. ALL of you.. there are so many sides to a story sometimes its ridiculous. Now i have not been with the company long enough to know that its going to work, nor am i being a nay- sayer and saying its a scam. The truth is i didnt have to pay to become part of local ad link. There is a free ad package that allows you to become an ae(account exec) and start selling ads, you just cant recruit. Now i decided after reading all this(bashing of lal, and watching the hype videos) that i would test it myself.. Cuz after all this is why were here is we are trying to prove it to OURSELVES whether it works or not. I signed my first client for lal, just so happens that she is family. I am going to test LAL for the next month to two months to see what really happens. I am going to post results on how many customers her business got, and i am going to keep you all informed. I feel thats the only way to really prove to myself whether it works is to test it.. so thats what im going to do.. All i know is i am tired of working for other people. I would love to be part of a home business that works and if LAL works then im going to give it my all to make it.. im sure all of you feel the same way!

    thanks.. and always keep that back wheel on the ground!

  10. I feel bad..well not reallyNo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    alex you shouldnt waste your time. i sold lal from feb 09 – may-09 and hustled a few hundred businesses into buying 6mnt or 1yr packages under the silver or gold plans all paid in advanced. i made over $70k and i also made a lot of people pissed off at me. none of them that ordered the 6mnt packages renewed nor will i ever recieve a residual commission from it. i made money quick and thats the end of it. do i feel bad? nope i dont i make eight times as much money doing short sales in real estate. at the time i was looking for something that would give me some passive income but seeing that the product is garbage no one is going to renew their subscription. at least i got new impreza wrx sti, a ton of after market performance mods, and some extra cash left over lol…..well back to negotiations with loss mitigation deps…damn i hate wachovia they really work hard to break my deals->

  11. Jim KNo Gravatar (2 comments) says:

    I have two bounced comission checks from them… out of 58 “Brand Builders” that were on my team NOT one is still working the business. NOTHING this comapny does works, the stats are all “created” by running the contectual ads thru their “shopping portal” which no one ever goes to, they DO NOT have any third party sites that was all lies, and I still know MANY people who have never got paid. STAY AWAY

  12. [...] Am I Foolish For Waiting For A Non-Committal Man To Commit? | Evan Marc Katz Blog – Dating Coachplasticsfuture » Mac Backup Software HarmfulWhy I left StomperNetLocal Ad Link Review: It’s a Scam People! Here’s Why… | I Do Web Marke… [...]

  13. TonyNo Gravatar (2 comments) says:

    This sums it up:

    http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Report/LocalAdLink-100079069

    “Some complainants allege the company fails to pay commissions for signing up new businesses to the service. Other businesses complain that their website listing or ad has never appeared on the company’s site; they have not noticed any improvement in web ranking or aquired any new business…”

    “Our experience with similar offers has been that earnings claims are exaggerated at best, affiliates are not paid as agreed, and in some cases the companies fail to disclose total costs involved for website development, or purchasing up-line positions. Although there are some legitimate multi-level sales companies, many similar companies engage in pyramid marketing tactics. Make sure you are aware of the differences….”

  14. ColleenNo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    Most of you are better off promoting a service like my-local-leads or something where you so a straight sale and get residual commission. Forget local ad link there are too many bad things going on with this company. I hear more bad than I do good and other companies could use your talent they are just a major recruiting machine nothing more nothing less. There are some services out there a bit more expensive but you get a live person and you get help and attention.

  15. kelly donahueNo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    I own a small business marketing cosmetics. The company I work for has an A+ rating from the BBB, but people try to destroy what I do every day with negative blogs and horrible lies. True, not all jobs or indi contractor jobs work out. Not all MLM’s work either. have you ever failed to deliver what you were hired for? Have you ever just sucked at your job?

    I am an independent beauty consultant with Mary Kay, and all of this sounds like the negative crud that is all over about any alternative business plan that has a down line.

    Oh, by the way, LAL’s BBB rating is a B-, make sure when you check the BBB, you look up the rating of the corporation and not of an independent representative!

  16. I Do Free Press ReleasesNo Gravatar (10 comments) says:

    @Kelly – what is a down line? Are you saying that the problem with LAL is that there are a few independent marketing folks that are using LAL to fleece their clients – giving LAL a bad name. There are plenty of comments on this post that suggest the problem is with LAL itself. But maybe it’s both.
    I Do Free Press Releases´s last blog ..Pressmart Delivers Newspapers on Kindle and Sony eReader My ComLuv Profile

  17. Skin care PhiladelphiaNo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    I have an idea of MLM and most companies do not last long. It is easy and fast money for those who do it first. As to LAL…it is complicated. What is important is to be very careful.

  18. AdzZoo is a scamNo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    It’s very simple to see the LAL and AdzZoo are MLM scams. I saw the AdzZoo presentation, and poked holes in the concept throughout the presentation. Like, why does the link on Google go to a landing page with AdzZoo branding all over it, and not the small business’ webpage? Like, how do you correlate clicks to sales? Like, how can you accurately figure any ROI from spending money on AdzZoo’s services when you can’t track clicks-to-sales? Like, why do I, as a professional sales person, have to pay you $300 to sell your product or to recruit a sales force? Here’s the rub. You’re not selling ads or SEO for AdzZoo. You are conning people in to coughing up $300, some of which you get, some of which those above you get, the rest goes to the owners of AdzZoo. If they can convince 10,000 people to sign up as their sales force, that’s $3,000,000 in income to be re-distributed among the owners and sales directors. Don’t be one who contributes money to a company for the right to sell their product. If you truly are a good and top sales professional, a company will offer you a signing bonus to work for them.

  19. Stephanie RNo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    Wow it sounds likr some unscrupulous business hype from the adzoo and LAL company.

    Typical 1 percent valuable and 99 percent useless

  20. Kristin ColierNo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    I feel compelled to interject here.
    I believe you have misunderstood the positioning of AdzZoo and their sales reps. They aren’t claiming to do anything different than help manage, analyze and maintain your Google Ad Campaigns. Yes, any small business owner can do it themselves – but usually don’t have the time.

    They can also hire me, a web consultant, to monitor their ad campaigns for them. And I used to do just that – now I can get them more effective marketing for their money, by letting AdzZoo manage their local marketing campaign, and spending my time on other marketing efforts.

    The adzzoo.com domain name is included on the link – because it goes to an optimized landing page – not directly to the clients site – which is more effective in converting to sales when you are a retail or local business. It also helps with the relevancy of the link.

    There are other reasons that AdzZoo is a good, reputable business model. (I have meet the founders and employees and have been to the corporate headquarters near Atlanta. They are real people and they are sincerely working hard to help their customers succeed.)

    You may be a skeptic, or a been “burned” before, or have some other motive for ripping on a company without the facts, but it is very frustrating and seems irresponsible to me, who is simply trying to provide the best service for my clients.

    Thanks for spending more time researching this topic, and retracting if you feel compelled.
    See: http://www.adzzoo.com for more information.
    Or call me personally and we can chat about it. 404-643-1280
    - Kristin
    KristinColier.com

  21. TinhNo Gravatar (2 comments) says:

    I am very careful to join any programs, first I would Google it and read reviews and see proofs first. Thanks
    Tinh´s last blog ..Christmas Contest: 5 One Theme V2.0 Giveaways with License for Life My ComLuv Profile

  22. In response to the “AdzZoo is a scam” poster – do your homework first BEFORE you give bias irresponsible comments on a company and its services you know nothing about. This does serious damage to a companies reputation, totally unfairly. In fact it is almost libelous.
    Every “Like, why.. this” and “Like, why… that” you eloquently question is wrong.
    Kristin Colier does a good job of putting you right, and I will add that most people do not know how to effectively prepare an AdWords campaign. Do it wrong and it will cost you much more than any commissions you might lose clicks to. In addition, AdzZoo has a very effective push campaign that gets a clients landing page links visible in many other areas than just Google. Much more bang for your buck.
    AdzZoo landing pages are professionally optimized, a service that would cost a company many $thousands a month if they paid a company to optimize their site.
    The AdzZoo landing page is the perfect portal to a companies web site. In most cases they don’t even need a website, the AdzZoo landing page is more than sufficient to do the job.
    As for your comment “conning people to cough up $300″, that is a disgraceful comment. You do NOT have to pay $300 to become part of AdzZoo, you may simply join as a sales rep for just $14.99 a month.
    I am a seasoned web developer since the early 90′s. Prior to AdzZoo, I have prepared hundreds of AdWords campaigns for clients, and SEO, and I can tell you without doubt that the AdzZoo service is more effective than anything an individual developer can achieve, if not for one simple reason. The AdzZoo servers process huge traffic which an individual cannot. This traffic has significant effect on the AdzZoo clients landing pages hosted on these servers giving them the best possible chance of high placed organic listings and ad network exposure.
    In the past I have tried many so-called home businesses but never made a single dime, but with AdzZoo it’s a different story as you are presenting a product to a client that they actually NEED. It’s not a consumable, it’s an investment.
    I joined AdzZoo only 4 weeks ago, I approached 7 existing web clients and 4 have signed up, the other 3 would like to but haven’t the available funds. A conversion rate like that is unheard of in any marketing genre. I owned a large direct marketing agency for 10 years dealing with blue-chip companies and anything over a 1.5% conversion was a resounding success.
    One of my AdzZoo clients now holds 4 of the top 6 positions on Google for a generic search for their service. Top ppc, top map listing, 3rd position organic and it has even pulled their Craigslist ad to position 5. Simply amazing.
    This is a REAL business that you can confidently sell the REAL product alone and receive worthwhile remuneration. The business opportunity behind it is simply a bonus that you can take or leave.
    AdzZoo is NOT a scam, far far from it. It’s the best business model I have seen in my entire 40 years as a multi award-winning graphic designer and CEO of many major ad agencies. (If you think I am BS’ing you, contact me and i will send you my resume)
    I am not on the board of AdzZoo and have nothing to gain from this post, it just angers me when people give bad press about a subject they know nothing about.
    Peter Thorpe

  23. LisaNo Gravata from <a href=gmail.com' rel='external'>LisaNo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    I’m confused; I was offered a sales position with this company and was told I would need to pay them $14.95 a month for the privilege of working for myself. They will pay for nothing, stamps, ink, paper, gas, etc. The recruiter explained the money goes to the office for their paperwork. My instincts say run don’t walk away from this. However I’ve been unemployed now for 6 months and the phone is not ringing. I don’t seem to be needed anymore. If you have ever been unemployed you know the feeling, hope; maybe this will stop the foreclosure and I can put my family back together. I’ve always worked hard and made money for the man and let him take all the risks. To me it was the perfect symbiotic relationship. However these are different times; maybe it’s time you start working hard for you and you take the risks. I can’t afford to choose wrong. Shouldn’t they be paying me or at the very least help with the bills that a home office generates?

  24. Larry StopaNo Gravatar (12 comments) says:

    Lisa, any time you have to pay to have a job, you are likely to never see your money back. Yes, your instincts are correct to run don’t walk away.

    I am not sure whether you are referring to LocalAdLink or Adzzoo. Either way, if you do manage to sell any ads for them, your clients will receive little or no traffic for their money.

    According to Compete.com, in October 2009 LocalAdLink had 58,000 visits and Adzzoo had 40,987 visits. Those are very low numbers for national directories that list thousands of businesses.

    As for Peter Thorpe, I want to know who your client is and the generic keywords when you claim, “One of my AdzZoo clients now holds 4 of the top 6 positions on Google for a generic search for their service.”

    If Adzzoo is the real deal, it can show everyone how all its clients have high Google search positions as Thorpe’s Web site claims “We GUARANTEE first page Google sponsored links.”

  25. OK Larry Stopa, first lets get this straight. AdzZoo is NOT a job, it is a BUSINESS. Would you expect to get a McDonald’s or Subway franchise for free? Of course not. Massive funds have been invested in AdzZoo to create a back-office that reps have full use of which would otherwise cost them hundreds of times their AdzZoo fees.
    It is only fair that AdzZoo should recoup this cost.
    As far as your comment “Clients will receive little or no traffic for their money.” Since when have you become an expert with insider information on AdzZoo’s customer’s statistics?
    It’s this kind of bigoted, unfounded slander that causes misconceptions, falsehoods, delusions, distortions, myths and downright lies that get passed along from one person to the next.
    This is hindering good hard working people from being their own boss and making a respectable living. This is what happens when you have people like you who don’t have a clue about the product or company. They are libelling and tell a bunch of other people who also don’t have a clue about it.
    This has severe unfounded side effects that does serious damage to reputable companies such as AdzZoo.
    In truth, if it cost tens of thousands of dollars to become reps for alike companies, people would take them more seriously and would put in the required effort to make them a success.
    As a result, 95% of people who get involved fail firstly because they do not take it seriously because it costs so little, and secondly because they have absolutely no foundation in effective sales techniques or good business practices. It is these simple facts that cause such a high attrition rate, not the fault of the company. This helps give the industry an unjustified bad name.
    For your information AdzZoo is one of only 157 companies in the US that holds a Google AdWords Qualified Company award. Does that spell scam? Do you think the multi-billion dollar empire that is Google would award a scam company. Admittedly the company you represent holds the same award, so is your company a scam? As for your quotation of Compete.com visitors, this does nothing to support your prowess as an internet guru as you purport to be. AdzZoo.com is the company’s information site, it has no bearing on the traffic generated for the of thousands of AdzZoo customers whose landing pages generate their own statistics, totally independent of AdzZoo.com. In general the AdzZoo domain generates tens of millions of visits.
    Obviously from looking at your site as a rep for ePower Marketing, you are trying your best to dissuade people from joining AdzZoo as they are a direct competitor with a far greater road to success than you are happy to admit. Oh and if you want to quote statistics, your epowermark.com company achieved 844 visits with a 72.54% drop in visitors in the last month alone.
    As for me and my quotations about my clients’ success, let everyone and anyone contact me direct and I will prove it, face-to-face. I am not going to publish the info here, as I do not want to cause wasted click-thrus for my clients just to propitiate you.
    As for page one Google, I can supply anyone that wants to know links to thousands of AdzZoo customers that all appear on page one of Google… plus hundreds of other ad networks, social networks and more. A far greater coverage than ever can be achieved from just regular SEO.
    As I said in my previous post, I have 35 years experience in marketing, and 20 years with the internet. There is NO WAY I would get involved in a scam company. I have had unprecedented success with AdzZoo and can mentor anyone with serious intent to achieve the same.
    My advice to you is to get your facts right before you give spurious advice to people about something you nothing about.

  26. SallyNo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    Ok, I keep seeing all kinds of comment about the good, the bad, they ugle and if a business should cost and that jobs should not cost. When you are talking about a business, all businesses cost even a lemonade stand, a JOB is just over broke, companies pay you what they think your worth.. Think about that. Now there are many companies out there that there are scams. But the reality is that we can all find fault with something.. not all things work all of the time, but most things work most of the time. Just ask yourself this, when I had my heart broken, did I give up on love, because love doesn’t work? probably not because when you were 16 that probably happened to you and now that you are older you are more than likely in a relationship. And trust me you can not believe everything you read on the internet, the BBB is a membership based company, businesses must pay to be in there, if you don’t pay you don’t get their services and there are many fortune 500 companies that have complaint after complaint doesn’t mean they don’t work, ie Walmart being the largest with the most complaints.. buy they make millions upon millions.
    If I want to be vindictive and add some nonsense about Justin or anyone on a comment board just like this there is nothing anyone can do about it.. So consider the source of bad press, is it a disgruntled person or are they a competitor, why do they feel that way. Bad news travels a lot faster than good news. I have no vested interest in either company, I am not in either industry, so I can be impartial, keeping all things equal each person must do their own research. Many people on this comment page have eluded to making money in home based business, some are good and some are not.And good for them if they are. Ask yourself do you like what they offer and do you see yourself buying or using it yourself and has it helped you? if the answer is yes who gives a rip about others points of views. Are they your best friend that all he does is sit on the couch and has no job, no money, nor any ambition or is it a successful Entrepeneur, or someone in that organization that has credibilty and is making money.

    I highly recommend everyone have their own home based business, and yes do your due dilegence, not through trash talking but see who the people at the top are and what they have done. And do they do what they say. Their are better sources out there than the BBB and gossip rags like scam.com.. So have at it.. I love what I do and I enjoy the product and I have used it and will continue to use it.. Because I like to take vacations and pay less. Nothing more and nothing less.
    GOD Bless

  27. Larry StopaNo Gravatar (12 comments) says:

    Peter Thorpe wrote:
    >As far as your comment “Clients will receive little or no traffic for their money.” Since when have you become an expert with insider information on AdzZoo’s customer’s statistics?
    > It’s this kind of bigoted, unfounded slander that causes misconceptions, falsehoods, delusions, distortions, myths and downright lies that get passed along from one person to the next.

    My! You are being defensive!

    > As for your quotation of Compete.com visitors, this does nothing to support your prowess as an internet guru as you purport to be. AdzZoo.com is the company’s information site, it has no bearing on the traffic generated for the of thousands of AdzZoo customers whose landing pages generate their own statistics, totally independent of AdzZoo.com.

    Then what is the domain that your customers’ landing pages reside on?

    > In general the AdzZoo domain generates tens of millions of visits.

    That’s what LocalAdLink claimed as well. Compete.com says Adzzoo has a tiny fraction of those numbers .

    > Obviously from looking at your site as a rep for ePower Marketing, you are trying your best to dissuade people from joining AdzZoo as they are a direct competitor with a far greater road to success than you are happy to admit.

    We are not competitors. Not in the slightest. We have no overlapping markets or clientele.

    As an experienced search engine marketing expert, I try to warn people when companies make search marketing claims that do not hold up to scrutiny. This thread contains my posts warning people about LocalAdLink. I was warning people of Internet marketing scams before I even heard of LocalAdLink.

    Now Adzzoo is making many of the same claims as LocalAdLink. Your claims generated my interest in Adzzoo.

    Lisa, being unemployed, left her vulnerable to hyped up false promises. This is similar to other stories on E-Power Marketing’s Blog. See LocalAdLink Scam is Collapsing. I felt a professional need to warn her.

    > As for page one Google, I can supply anyone that wants to know links to thousands of AdzZoo customers that all appear on page one of Google… plus hundreds of other ad networks, social networks and more.

    I want to know. Please supply them. Email me at larry@epowermark.com

    > As I said in my previous post, I have 35 years experience in marketing, and 20 years with the internet.

    Wow! You were on the Internet in 1989! That was really early. I did not know the Internet existed back then. What was it like?

  28. Stan KNo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    SEO and Google management does not fit an MLM compensation model. This is true because MLM companies need to pay out usually the majority of the product or service price in order to pay the multi levels of commissions. That being said, legitimate SEM consultants typically get a 15%-20% management fee for managing Google Adwords for example. Also, there is cost transparency in the legitimate SEM management world. Not so with Adzzoo. Costs are hidden because the model was broken before if ever launched – crippled by the application of the MLM sales model that requires huge profit margins to operate.

    Do these inescapable facts, Adzzoo, Local Ad Link, or any other MLM model that tries to do PPC management or Google marketing will fail to yield results that are even remotely comparable to hiring a legitimate SEM professional.
    Stan K´s last blog ..Comment by My ComLuv Profile

  29. Well said Sally.
    Stan talks about commissions. How does any rep work without commissions? If a company had to employ staff instead of reps the same money would go to staff and nobody would even question it. Do any of you have insurance?
    Lets quote from About.com:
    “So, depending on the type of insurance you choose, the commissions can vary. Although every company is different, on average life insurance agents make about a 30-50% commission on term life insurance and around 90-95% commission on whole life products.”
    Why should other industries be any different?
    Realize with AdzZoo there is a lot more to their services than just creating and AdWords campaign. I have created many AdWords campaigns for clients, and sure, they accept a commission, but you know very well there are many other charges that go along with it.
    AdzZoo costs are not hidden, anyone can find them on the internet.

  30. Appointment Setting ServicesNo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    We have been contacted by a LAL reps to provide business to business appointment setting and lead generation services. After reading this I am very happy we did not engage.

  31. Greg MNo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    all that weeping and gnashing of teeth………………….

    does either adzzoo or epowermark provide — in black and white – a description of the results they WILL achieve and back it up with a written 100% money-back guarantee???

    that picture should certainly be worth all the christmas cheer spilling over above

  32. KevinNo Gravatar (2 comments) says:

    As a small business owner I would not recommend anyone to get sucked into an adzzoo campaign. I did pay for one month and what I got was absolute poor service. The only time you can actually talk to someone is hwen they are trying to sell you on signing up. The saleman was full of empty promises. My credit card got billed two days before it was supposed to. Then I waited for a contact from the service department. Never happened so I called the sales lady and requested to cancel. Ofcourse I got the run around, was told her manager would call back. After about two hours from this call I got an email saying my ad was up and running. It’s amazing what happens when you want to cancel. Anyway I took a look at my ad and their were mistakes all over the place. They even put that we worked on septic tanks when that was the one thing I told the sales lady we did not do. I attempted to get another refund of course through email because the IT and bosses don’ t have phones I guess. They replied saying they couldn’t because they already spent money on the ad placement. Hmmm that sounds like a pay per click. I even wrote back again and told them I would write on every site or review place I could find. I have already told every business owner i know not to use addzoo. I’ll get my $350 bucks back in helping others not get suckered by these guys. If you are someone thinking of signing up to work with these guys, I imaging the initial product is appealing enough to sell but there won’t be much residual income from renewals that I’m sure they are promising all new comers.

  33. Larry StopaNo Gravatar (12 comments) says:

    Greg M wrote:
    > all that weeping and gnashing of teeth………………….

    > does either adzzoo or epowermark provide — in black and white – a description of the results they WILL achieve and back it up with a written 100% money-back guarantee???

    Greg sure sounds angry.

    E-Power Marketing does not offer a “written 100% money-back guarantee.” What would you want guaranteed? First page Google ad positions?

    In search engine marketing, a “written 100% money-back guarantee” is more often than not a tool to scam the uninitiated.

    LocalAdLink did offer a “written 100% money-back guarantee.” However it was written so that dissatisfied customers never received their money back. LocalAdLink advertisers would have first page ad positions once in a while, but not consistently as the PPC budget would run out and the ads would stop.

    Adzzoo offers a “Guaranteed First Page Placement or your Money Back.” That is not as meaningful as that sounds. How often will that “First Page Placement” appear? Adzzoo guarantees that the “average placement for relevant Google searches will be on the first page of Google search results” with the caveat that “Links will not appear on every search. Placement will be determined by Google monthly reports.” Google monthly reports show the average ad position whenever the ad appears. Google reports do not consider how many relevant searches where the ad did not appear in computing average ad positions. Adzzoo does not guarantee how often the ad will appear.

    Reference:
    http://adzzoosolutions.wordpress.com/adzzoo%E2%80%99s-guarantee/

    Effective search engine marketing requires efficient and effective use of budget and resources to maximize return on investment. You select keywords, measure response, then adjust keywords and bids to maximize return based on program measurement. If the budget is too low to support top ad positions, you can generate more traffic by bidding lower. A “Guaranteed First Page Placement or your Money Back” would not cover truly effective search engine marketing for small budget Google AdWords programs.

    E-Power Marketing has happy clients because we provide measurable results of traffic and sales generated. Our clients have full access to reports and know the results. We don’t resort to gimmicks.

    How come Kevin can’t get his refund from Adzzoo?

  34. Justin JDOG MarksNo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    Thanks for a great article.. I just advised a client to not use adzzoo for these very reasons. I already developed their website which has been 1st page google for months now. They were interested in PPC placement but no nothing about the process, and were about to sign an adzzoo contract, until I discussed the disadvantages with them today.

    Seriously, if anyone is considering this it is far better to spend the money on a simple website that is SEO out the box, and then setup a simple google adwords campaign with a small daily budget. As long as your keywords, and advert are specific to your business, and the daily limit is set you shouldn’t over spend. Then you can refine your SEM marketing from there.

    Adzzoo seems to be highly promoted on the web due to their high payout commissions structure. This is VERY misleading for not web savvy individuals, and businesses.

    I dislike crap like this.

    Good luck with your marketing efforts.. J.
    Justin JDOG Marks´s last blog ..Facebook Deleted Me – WTF! My ComLuv Profile

  35. Jerry from Minneapolis Minnesota real estateNo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    Well, I don’t really think this will work. I have heard a lot of negative things about LAL that’s why I’m afraid to try it.

  36. SonyNo Gravatar (2 comments) says:

    Thanks for the info we use merchant circles free program and are very happy with the results. I will check out adzzoo as well

  37. Be Found SEONo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    It’s obvious that LAL was a con job, but I’ve not seen the type of complaints with Adzzoo that are out there for LAL. I have seen accolades from insiders but no examples of results of Adzzoo positions (Google SEO, Maps, or PPC) or ROI. Can anyone out there using these guys point to concrete results or is the snowball of damaged customers hidden behind good reputation management just waiting to gain momentum. I agree with Stan K that this type of service is not suitable for the MLM model due the the revenue structure of MLM’s. Either way, concrete examples of success might ease the scrutiny in this forum.

  38. [...] Reach Local, Village Voice sell local ad networks | New Media HubThe Most Crucial Website Design Decisions You Will Need to make in order to plan for success. | solarwebsystems.comLocal Ad Link Review: It’s a Scam People! Here’s Why… | I Do Web Marke… [...]

  39. TimNo Gravatar (2 comments) says:

    Yep, the negative voices regarding AdzZoo are correct. I have been marketing my business with AdzZoo for 5 months. The reports I have received…and this is March 15th…are for mid-November to mid-December and for mid-December to mid-January, only two months worth, not 5. And I never received them until last week, when I demanded the reports from my rep.

    The information contained in the reports:

    Number of Ad Impressions
    Number of Page Views
    Average Ad Position

    This data is for the LANDING PAGE, not for my website. There is no data whatsoever regarding click-throughs to my website, no way to calculate return on investment. There is no data regarding what keywords have been added or removed, nor when. In other words, it is entirely impossible to analyze the effectiveness of the marketing.

    Read back through the comments on this and other blogs. Not one of them is a POSITIVE RESPONSE from an AdzZoo client. The only positive responses you see are those from AdzZoo reps, who complain that none of the negatives come from actual AdzZoo clients.

    Well, I am an AdzZoo client (only until the end of this quarter). See, I only pay by check, so they have no way to charge my credit card again. Incidentally, they never wrote or called when the first quarter was running out…nothing to say “We want to keep you as a client, next payment due by…”. So after the first quarter expired, SO DID MY LANDING PAGE!!! And a previous writer is correct, there is no listed phone number or customer service number for the HQ, just an option to e-mail them on their website. Truly customer no-service.

  40. Jim J.No Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    I have been away for awhile…..why are people still talking about this LAL scam? I simply don’t get it. I had someone tell me who is involved in MLM for years that this one is “different” (That is what they always say and it never is). Well, needless to say, this person has not made a stinkin dime. Why would anyone pay hundreds of dollars per year or more to advertise on an obscure directory? It makes no sense. I mean if you want to advertise your business, do Google Ad Words…..that works awesome. Or, if you don’t want to spend the money, you can advertise for FREE on Google Local or Yahoo Local…yes for FREE. Or, if you prefer to be listed in a directory, then do a legitimate one, like Superpages.com or Yellowpages.com…..god, I cannot stand bullshitting MLM’ers…

  41. JamesNo Gravatar (5 comments) says:

    I work for AT&T in their new media division where we sell Search Engine Marketing (SEM) as well as online Directories (yellowpages.com now YP.com) to small to midsize businesses. I am very educated in how Adwords, SEM, SEO works and am certified in both google and Yahoo!

    The reason I did a search on AdzZOO which brought me to this blog is because I met with a client 2 weeks ago about both SEM and YP.com. The client said he was currently doing SEM with AdzZOO (which until then I had never heard of) and was only interested in YP.com. I started asking him more about AdzZOO because I am very familiar with competitors like verizon which sold that division to idearc which filed for bankruptcy and is now supermedia, but had never heard of AdzZOO. He explained he was running a 500 something dollar a month campaign with AdzZOO ( AT&T our minimum plan is $600/month) and he was getting about 3 jobs a week from it. He said because he was successful with SEM through AdzZOO he wanted to continue his online marketing through our directory (YP.com)

    I came home and did a search for his business, and sure enough he was showing up in the 3rd position in the top sponsored link section of google. I started looking in cities a little farther away from his business to see where he would show up because I figured his relevancy would go down, and he was showing up 3rd or 4th on the side sponsored link section of google. I continued to do similar search through out the week and he continued to repeatedly show up.

    I do not work for AdzZOO, I work for their COMPETITOR, and after reading this information they obviously are doing something right.

    Now for TIM who used them for 5 months and seemed to fall off, I know the reports you got did not say how many jobs you got off of AdzZOO, but when your phone rang did you or whoever answers your phone not ask “how did you hear or find out about us”. That is a very important thing many business owners get away from is they advertise through several different mediums and do not track exactly which form of advertisement sent them the lead. Fortunately, I work for AT&T, so we are able to provide free Call Tracking Numbers to our clients and connect it to our SEM ads so we can actually see not only the impressions, clicks, and click through from the landing page to the business website, but also how many calls to a business were actually made.

    Now above there were some questions about AdzZOO and their landing page. We do the exact same thing at AT&T because it lowers the bounce-back time from when someone clicks on a sponsored link on google then immediately hit the back button to go to the original search. The average bounce-back time is 3seconds, with AT&T landing page it is 8 seconds. So if AdzZOO is doing their landing page correctly it is actually helping their clients. Beside that, it also is optimized to show up in the organic sections, as well as links to the business owners website which can increase the quality score of the website. There are several benefits of having a landing page so AdzZOO is doing right in that aspect.

    Now on the issue or running your own SEM campaign and AdWords account, yes it can be done personally, but it is much more effective if it is run by professional company. The average time it takes to run an effective SEM campaign is 17hrs a week. If you are a business owner you are better off spending that time running your business not trying to figure out SEM since it is continuously changing. Also a lot of people who run their own just use Google because it is the #1 search engine, but forget about Yahoo!. Last month Google had 150million unique user, while Yahoo had 122million. So if you are only advertising on Google you are missing a big chunk of the pie. ( still not including Bing, or MSN, or Ask.com which most professionally run SEM campaigns include to some extent)

    Additionally, while doing more research on AdzZOO they claim to market on facebook and social networks as well. I am not a rep for AdzZOO so I do not know if that is true or not, but Facebook is the #2 site in the U.S. with 124million unique users a month. I know AT&T, SuperMedia, and ReachLocal do not even do this yet. It is in the works but is not apart of their SEM campaigns. AdzZOO is probably a much smaller company so they are able to change and adapt much faster than the companies above, it shows they are already where the market is going.

    On the final note in regards to the Multi-Level Marketing company, isnt that exactly how Mary-Kay (the make-up sales company) and Pamper Chief (home cookware company) are based around? Now these are both very reputable companies with probably hundreds of thousands of sales reps through out the country. I do not know if there is a sign up fee, but I’m pretty sure they have to buy the make-up or the cookware they use in their shows. I’m sure that cost a whole heck of a lot more than the $14.95 that somebody said AdzZOO charged to get the software or whatever was needed to sell their products. If you are starting a business and this AdzZOO is suppose to be based like Mary-Kay or Pamper Chief a $15 start up expense seems very reasonable.

    I have never owned my own business, or tried a home business program like you see advertised on TV all the time, but AdzZOO seems interesting to me. If AT&T didnt pay 100% of my benefits, give me decent base salary on top of my commissions, auto stipend, company phone and laptop… I would consider working for them because if SEM campaigns are set up and run correctly they can be very effective and beneficial to a business. Not only that but if they offer a guarantee (which is the only company I have ever heard of offering a guarantee on marketing) it seems like it would be very easy to sell. Now above someone said it was impossible to get their money back, so maybe the guarantee isnt real. But what is real is I have a client on my books who is using AdzZOO and is very happy with his results and I can not convert his SEM over to my book : (

  42. Larry StopaNo Gravatar (12 comments) says:

    James, excuse me for being skeptical about your claims. You spent a great deal of time and energy making claims about Adzzoo, though you allegedly work for a competitor.

    James wrote:
    “Now above there were some questions about AdzZOO and their landing page. We do the exact same thing at AT&T because it lowers the bounce-back time from when someone clicks on a sponsored link on google then immediately hit the back button to go to the original search. The average bounce-back time is 3seconds, with AT&T landing page it is 8 seconds.”

    How did you come up with these “bounce-back time” statistics, especially for the Adzzoo client?

    If these statistics are accurate, does it not indicate that visitors to Adzzoo landing pages reject them faster than visitors to AT&T landing pages do?

  43. Larry StopaNo Gravatar (12 comments) says:

    I should add that Compete.com estimates adzzoo.com had 71,224 visits in February 2010 – http://siteanalytics.compete.com/adzzoo.com/

    That is a low number for a national Web directory. All Adzzoo Landing pages are under adzzoo.com.

    yp.com had 202,073 visits in February. The main AT&T Web directory is yellowpages.com with 24,155,404 visits in February, according to Compete.
    http://siteanalytics.compete.com/yellowpages.com/

  44. JamesNo Gravatar (5 comments) says:

    If you read carefully i said ” the average bounce-back time is 3seconds, WITH AT&T landing page it is 8 seconds”

    In the google training we went through google said the average bounce back time for ALL of their ads was 3 seconds. That is people who set up their accounts and run them themselves (which may click through to a horrible website and bounce back in 1/2 a second) or professional done who have landing pages that keep people longer…

    At AT&T we know our average bounce back rate is 8 seconds because we track everything. In our monthly reports we give to the customer we tell them exactly how many impressions and clicks they got on each search engine, then if they clicked on a link or picture on the landing page to go to their website, Exactly what link they clicked on. We also include all the words and all the statistics for each word in the campaign like most companies do.

    I have no idea what the bounce back time is on AdzZOO’s landing page. I only know what it is for AT&T’s optimized landing page. I was just making the statement saying AdzZOO is on the right track using a optimized landing page (if theirs is optimized) to keep people looking longer…

    I would ask the Peter Thorpe guy above who works for AdzZOO if they track their bounce back times for their landing pages. But Larry, you could be correct. their landing pages could be set up terrible and not appeal to the customers eye and cause people to bounce back FASTER than the normal 3 second average. I have no idea what theirs is, I was simply stating the reason we use landing pages and the benefits to having them, so if AdzZOO is doing them properly it would be benefiting their clients.

  45. Larry StopaNo Gravatar (12 comments) says:

    According to Tim who has used Adzzoo, Adzzoo does not include bounce back times in its reports. Tim wrote, “it is entirely impossible to analyze the effectiveness of the marketing.”

  46. JamesNo Gravatar (5 comments) says:

    I might have some confusion then Larry. I thought AdzZOO was just a company who resold google AdWords and managed SEM campaigns. I did not think they were a online Directory like Yellowpages.com or YP.com.

    But I do see how their landing pages all have the .AdzZoo.com on the end of them. Im not really sure how this affects http://www.adzZoo.com visits though. Do they count in the 70k number for Februrary you pointed out or since its a landing pages its seperate.

    I was able to find an adzZOO landing page under this search in google: “menswear dallas” and here is a link to their landing page:

    http://adzzoo.com/new/listing-gariani-menswear-163.html?gclid=CP-et9Gu8KACFQdinAodCCP-FQ

    Here is a link to one our AT&Ts landing pages just for comparison

    http://landing1.allmysons.com/index.aspx?Ref=Dallas&Src=Google

    Then here is some info on the YP.com #… the reason YP.com numbers were so low in February is because it was still in the Beta mode. Yellowpages.com was the main webstie. Now (as of April 1st) Yellowpages.com routes to YP.com and so should all the mobil search done through the yellowpages apps on iphones and blackberries.

    AT&T did this because YP.com is more similar to popular search engines like google and yahoo. It has the sponored link section at the top and side (Just like google and yahoo) and now has an organic section below the top sponsored link listings. Its like a search engine now, but only of businesses. Now relevance plays part in the search results in the organic section, so even if you are only paying to avertising in a certain area or region, but your company is relevant to a search result you can still come up (in organic section). YP.com is geared even more toward the end user to increase search volume and use, and in turn will increase the results businesses get from advertising on it.

  47. Jacob LeboNo Gravatar (1 comments) says:

    James give it up, we all know you are an adzZOO rep. Who but a rep would spent that much time tying out adzZOO?

    And shit man you keep posting during the day, if I was AT&T, your employer as you claim, I would be pissed you were spending so much time propping up a competitor on the company clock!

    Instead of whining why you don’t have that customers SEM on your book, why don’t you get off adzzoo’s nutz and go sell some AT&T services…

  48. JamesNo Gravatar (5 comments) says:

    Jacob, I could honestly care less whether you believe I work for AT&T or adzzoo. I had 2 reasons for posting in this message board. My 1st purpose of posting, and stating I work for AT&T, is because Peter Thorpe (an adzzoo rep) was claiming Larry Stopa’s comments had no backing because he worked for adzzoo’s competitor (ePower Marketing). I was simply stating my opinion on the matter since I work for neither of those companies, and how I believe adzzoo is a real company not a scam, with the reasons why. Now how effective of a real company they are I am still trying to find out more, that is why I continue to post and ask questions to both Larry and Peter Thorpe, but even if they are my competitor or anyone else on this message board does not mean you should go around calling them a scam.

    The other reason I ended up on this message board is because I was doing google searches on adzoo trying to LEARN about them after meeting with one of my clients who is doing business with adzzoo ( and yes getting results). One of the preemptive google searches was “Adzzoo Scam” so I clicked on it to learn more.

    Now Jacob, I’m assuming you do some type of SEM since you are on this message board, so as you know one of the most common objections business owners have when you present them with SEM is that ” I have tried SEM in the past and it did not work.” I always follow up that question with asking what company they did it with and why they felt it did not work. I then explain what we do differently than that company and how it produce results. Now since I work for AT&T (whether you want to believe it or not) most the businesses I meet with either used ReachLocal or Supermedia (used to be verizon) and I am very familiar with their SEM process. Now until I became aware of adzzoo a few weeks ago I would not be able to explain how we operate differently.

    Unless I did research and learned adzzoo even used a landing page, I would not be able to explain how our landing page is set up different and how it is more effective.

    Unless Larry pointed out to me how all of Adzzoo’s landing pages are tied to their real website adzzoo.com which only get 70k clicks a month, I would not be able explain this to potential clients currently doing business with adzzoo.

    Now I posted those links to the landing pages, and ask Larry whether those clicks counted towards adzzoo.com traffic or not because AT&T used to do something similar. Until about 2 years ago on our link for landing pages (see above post) where it says “landing1″ it used to say “yellowpages.” Now the clicks on the SEM ads did not count towards yellowpages.com visits, we were doing it for branding. We stopped doing it because we had customers complain that in their search bar it said “yellowpages” even though they were not necessarily doing any advertising on yellowpages.com; we could simply just be running their SEM campaign. Now the thing different about the adzzoo link is it says “adzzoo.com/(then the listing for landing page). What I am curious about, and presented to Larry in my reply comment, is since adzzoo puts the “.com” on the end of it do they just run all their clients landing pages as backlinks to their website to increase their click amount. If that is the case I can present this as another reason our SEM program is better (if all adzzoo clients combined are only getting 70k clicks thats bad), but I cant make that statement unless I find out if it is true or not.

    Now I hope it does not come off as me trying to argue with Larry, I am simply asking question to learn more. I have even reached out and asked Peter Thorpe questions in my post to learn more about adzzoo since he works for them.

    I did not realize that me researching a competitor and stating how I do not think they were a scam meant I was on their “nutz”. Also, I get an email anytime someone post a reply, which forwards to my phone, so I can read and then post a reply (which only takes about 5-10mins) between meetings with clients, so I do not spend all day on here. Finally, I did not realize me stating I had a client who was happy with adzzoo meant I was whining, I was stating how there was a happy customer using adzzoo (another reason why I believe adzzoo is not a scam), similar to Tim stating he had a bad experience with adzzoo. Im sure you can find plenty of business owners out there who had a bad experience with AT&T, but that does not mean we are a scam…

    If you have any actual information useful to this conversation I would be very interested in it as I am still doing research on Adzzoo and now ePower Marketing ( no offense Larry but I had not heard of it either until I got on this message board) to learn more about their company and how their SEM works.

  49. Larry StopaNo Gravatar (12 comments) says:

    James,

    Why do you continue to bring up Peter Thorpe?

    I am curious because recently an Adzzoo rep who is in Peter Thorpe’s MLM downline emailed me asking what I thought of Adzzoo. Until I called him out, this Adzzoo rep did not represent himself as an Adzzoo rep.

    This rep tried to bait me into calling Adzzoo a scam. I did not and have not called Adzzoo a scam. The reason I have not is that there is not enough evidence to call Adzzoo a scam. That is because Adzzoo presents very few facts about what it actually delivers, unlike LocalAdLink which made numerous easy-to-prove false claims. Adzzoo’s claims are so broad as to be practically meaningless.

    We do not know enough specific examples of real Adzzoo customers to know how often or consistently Adzzoo delivers paid ads for its customers. The one example you listed is meaningless because Adzzoo can support that one customer with unlimited ad budget to show it works. LocalAdLink did the same thing. The few customer examples LocalAdlink made public had frequent ad displays, while the other customers remained mostly invisible.

    There is also no evidence that Adzzoo is effective, much less cost effective. Compete.com does count the traffic to Adzzoo customer landing pages. 70,000 monthly visits is a low number. However we do not know how many customers Adzzoo has.

    Peter Thorpe’s Adzzoo rep also called E-Power Marketing a competitor to Adzzoo. That is inaccurate. E-Power Marketing offers a much higher level and comprehensive Search Engine Marketing support than what Adzzoo offers. See for yourself at http://www.epowermark.com.

    You probably have not heard of us because we are a search engine marketing agency that does not do broad-based marketing seeking thousands of customers like AT&T or Adzzoo. We have around 50 clients which keep us quite busy, thank you.

    E-Power Marketing can do effective long-term Local Search Marketing for the price of one month of Adzzoo. We do this using Google Maps, Yahoo Local and Bing Maps. By submitting clients one-time to these search engine services, our clients will have first page search results for relevant local searches far into the foreseeable future. However we do not pursue clients needing only Local Search Marketing. We offer this service as part of a more comprehensive Search Marketing program for our clients.

    I remain skeptical about your claims. Who is this prospect you talked to who you claims is receiving “3 jobs a week” from Adzzoo? Peter Thorpe also claimed “One of my AdzZoo clients now holds 4 of the top 6 positions on Google for a generic search for their service.” I asked him who this client is, but he has not answered that request. There needs to be transparency into who are Adzzoo customers before we know whether Adzzoo is effective.

    Your comments about landing pages also show you have little knowledge of Search Engine Marketing. 8 second bounce rates stink big time. That quick bounce rate indicates the landing pages are not working. Adzzoo landing pages would likely work no better than the AT&T landing pages. These landing pages add an extra click before a searcher hits the customer Web site where there is detailed information needed for a buying decision.

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