Storesonline Review - Part 2
In the afternoon session of the storesonline workshop, we were taught five strategies to help us succeed in our online business.
The first was on the use of joint ventures. Bascially, a joint venture is a collaboration where two partners cooperate to earn money. For example, person A might have a product but no traffic while person B might have traffic that is relevant to person A’s product. So person B sends traffic to person A and they share the profits.
Kory did not really go in depth into this strategy but he shared one of his methods of doing JVs. Basically, it was to search the search engines for a particular keyword and then go a few pages deep in the search to find a partner to do JVs with.
This was a decent strategy but his next step of this strategy spoilt it all. He told us that we could simply duplicate the entire site (with minor changes), get it to the top ten of the search engines and start making money! He made is sound very easy but it doesn’t take a genius to realise straight away that:
1) We will get into potential copyright issues.
2) Duplicate sites are not favoured by search engines and hence do not rank well.
3) It takes good quality (and relevant) inbound links to rank well search engines. If an existing site (with established links) can’t rank well, what more about a new site?
He then showed us his tax site where he’s using this strategy. I can’t find his exact site now but it looks something like this. Apparently, many people had already copied his idea. But seriously, would you buy from a site like that? For that matter, would it even rank well for relevant tax keywords?
You need to build trust in order to sell anything online!
Strategy two was about search engine optimization. He gave us a few rules for getting our websites ranked well. Keywords appearing in url, titles, descriptions, etc. Pretty basic but useful stuff.
There was a demonstration of a storesonline tool that was able to analyse the top ranked (on search engines) sites and provide a comprehensive report. We were told that with this tool, we could use the report to copy what they did and get our sites ranked in the top ten listings. Would this work? Go figure.
The third strategy was not on how to make money, but on how to save money by buying cheap items on ebay. The gist of it was that there were some ebay sellers who had typo errors in their item title and description. These items had no bidders because no one could find them. Thus, we would be able to buy them cheaply. To find those words commonly typed wrongly, you can make use of fat fingers.
While there could be a couple of really blur people, my opinion is that the majority of sellers on ebay are quite experienced. Some sellers might have purposely mis-spelled their item listings to reach more buyers. As for why they would sell their items cheaply, I’m sure you will be able to figure it that out. But this idea is still worth a shot as we can use it to find items that has less competitive bidding.
The fourth strategy was on the use of vertical portals. Essentially it meant having multiple websites with different products down the product chain.
The fifth strategy was on the use of affiliate programs for selling products. Having an affiliate program is a must have if you are selling any of your own products. This one is a no brainer.
The guaranteed method to get your website on the first page of a search engine within three days turned out to be using pay per click advertising (as expected). There was a very brief introduction about using ppc on overture and some using tips like bidding on non main stream words and mis-spelled words.
Overall, the workshop provided a fair bit of content but some people might be misled by some of their strategies which wouldn’t work. They made it sound very easy and many people were tempted to just jump right into it by buying their software and hosting.
I wouldn’t call the storesonline product a outright scam but at the price they were selling, it was definitely a rip-off. There are defintely better alternatives around.
For example, Sitesell provides more than what Storesonline was providing for less than 10% of the price and has most of the things that you need to get started online. It is something that I would recommend if you want to build a profitable website. For more details on the different alternatives available to you, please read my article Building Your Website.
Furthermore, the top few results in the search engines about storesonline were mostly complaints (too numerous) about their prices and customer service. There was even a website setup for people to re-sell (or get rid of) their multiple sites purchased from storesonline. Not to mention the multiple name changes of the company. This is surely a red flag.
If you found this storesonline review useful and feel your friends might benefit from it, please do tell them about it.
on June 22nd, 2006 at 11:07 am
Just left a storesonline all day event and I concur with your observations. There were some interesting points made, but they spent all morning trying to build
the perception of value in there product, then they continually
deminished this by cutting the price. It was like a timeshare
buying experience.
Rich Jones
Collegeville, Pa
June 21, 2006
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on June 24th, 2006 at 12:07 am
Ohmygosh….I’m supposed to be in Wilkes Barre Friday morning for the all day Storesonline gig…wondered how in hell they can do this for $20…if it seems too good to be true, eh???? So…would you recommend going or not??? I’m cluesless about e-commerce…but want to find some alternate avenues of income…sigh, it’s all sooooo complicated.
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on June 24th, 2006 at 12:10 am
Hi Rich,
Yes, it appears that they are using the same marketing strategy worldwide. Seems to be working very well for them.
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on June 24th, 2006 at 12:20 am
Hi Cindy,
have you paid for it?
If you have, then no harm going to session for networking purposes.
However, do NOT be taken in by their sales pitch and purchase their product!
If you have not, then don’t bother going as most of what they will be mentioning has already been covered in my review.
If you are thinking of using the internet to develop an alternative source of income, I recommend you to find a closer look at sitesell.
This is something that I use personally and it’s suitable even for e-commerce or techno newbies.
Feel free to contact me directly for further clarifications.
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on June 29th, 2006 at 10:59 am
Hi Guys, just left a storesonline 90 minutes + free lunch. Talk about pressure selling! - ‘I can assure you the workshop will sell out today’ ‘Sure we have alternative dates…here’s the list’ (none closer than 200 miles away) ‘We are only in the UK for the one week’
You get no opportunity for time to think about your decision, and the sharks are circling the room tackling anyone who is not in the queue to buy!! All done with a smile and a polished answer to every concievable question.
Well my view is that there is no such thing as a free lunch, or a £20 training course, and if you cannot be given the chance to think about the opportunity there may just be something unpalatable about it when you get into it.
I discovered this site when I tried unsuccessfully to reproduce a Google search that they put on the screen this morning…i couldn’t find the site they had shown as no.2 on the Google page, even if i typed in the site address!!
This site and all of your comments have reinforced my initial impression that this is one to stay well clear of - thanks to all of you!
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on June 29th, 2006 at 11:45 am
Hi Rob,
Yes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch because even if someone does not charge you for a seminar, you still need to invest your time. And we all know that time is money.
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on June 30th, 2006 at 8:05 am
Who is sitesell? and where are they from. How are you personally involved in sitesell?
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on June 30th, 2006 at 8:12 am
Sitesell is run by Dr. Ken Evoy, and is one of the biggest integrated website building solutions around. I have an account with sitesell from which I’m building another of my site. If you compare the price and features of sitesell with storesonline, you will realise that you get a much better deal.
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on July 5th, 2006 at 8:12 am
Thank you all for the information that you all give out about storesonline, My self and a friend are going to a stoesonline event day on the 14-july-2006 in manchester england, and with what i have just seen i will not be buying any thing from storesonline.
i will come back to tell you all about what it was like and to tell you how many was sold the s**t that this company is selling
again thank you all for the information, and let,s try to stop storesonline befor the rip others off
grasshopper
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on July 7th, 2006 at 9:59 am
Sat in on the all day Stores Online seminar in Cocoa Beach Florida in June of 2006. The very first thing they talked about was “is anybody in this world perfect?” Crowd: “no”. “Are you perfect?” Crowd: “no”. “Is any company perfect?” Crowd: “no”. “Is Microsoft perfect?” Crowd: “no”. “Is Stores Online perfect?” Crowd: “no”.
Why did they start with this? Well thankfully I didn’t buy into their program. I went home and immediately did some research and found they have a boatload of lawsuits all over the country. Seems storesonline.com is far from even normal; nonetheless, perfect.
A few weeks later we get a call from their folks asking what we thought and wondering if we were interested in signing up. After mentioning the lawsuit, the sales guy who was wonderfully friendly on the phone, hung up. I feel bad for anybody out there taken in by these rip off artists.
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on July 9th, 2006 at 1:05 am
I went to the 8 hour sales pitch for storesonline found the information they gave helpful. Then took that information and found the free tools online.
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ = reversal keyword search
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com has many different tools to help you figure out your keyword density and many other helpful tools. http://www.live-keyword-analysis.com to help you generate content that is keyword relevent.
Hope this info helps. I was able to use these plus the links stated in the original blog to move a low listed web page to the first page of a google search. and stores online sales rep told me I couldn’t do so.
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on July 15th, 2006 at 11:48 pm
Seems like your seminar was an exact duplicate of ours, only the presenter’s name was different. Some of the info on market was helpful, but there is no way I’d pay the kind of $ they’re wanting. If you’re interested in seeing how our experience went, I created a blog entry about it
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on July 22nd, 2006 at 12:31 am
Does anyone know whereabouts the next up and coming seminar is or the EBay/Marketing training session in Manchester is? Also has anyone had any experience of trying to obtain a refund from these people? Interesting to know if they stand by the 3day refund agreement.
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on July 22nd, 2006 at 12:33 am
Hi Mike,
no idea about the marketing seminar in Manchester but I do know of someone who asked for the refund (after reading my blog) and managed to get it.
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on July 23rd, 2006 at 6:25 am
stores online is a rip off to date I’m out of $7000. I was sucked in with the promise of being refered to securemserve, a company that was suppose to drop ship items, but after my money was gone, I was told that they ie, securemserve was a web hosting company. I paid for 6 sites to stores online and to add insult to injury, securemserve had my sites as phantom sites. In a 24 hour period each day 2 wuld work 4 would’nt . I complained to both companies to no avail. WARNING dont waste your precious time or money.
Tonya
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on July 26th, 2006 at 11:18 am
Hello, I just wanted to see if anyone could help me out. I got suckered into buying 3 storesonline websites. I have ask for a refund, even keep what I have already paid, but no such luck. Anyone have any helpful hints on how to get it. And any one have information on storesonline law suits. I would like to see if any of the cases are simular to mine. Please any help or advise would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks
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on July 26th, 2006 at 11:18 am
Brother, am I glad I found you guys before wasted my time at the all day seminar and spending $2,700! A friend and I went to the 90 minute seminar yesterday, 07-25-2006, lunch was a stale crescent chicken salad sandwich, a thin slice of cantaloup, dab of potato salad and, stale angel food cake. Had they served the food first I’ld have known something was up! I may still go to the all day work shop. I’m not buying!
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on July 26th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
I feel so sorry for some of the people who have left comments here about storeonline.com. It’s just blows my mind that somebody could walk into a Stores Online seminar where the air just feels slimy and plop down several thousand dollars without taking 5 minutes to do research first and see all the lawsuits against StoresOnline.
I would love to stand up in one of their (choke / gags) Stores-Online “seminars” and shout “people, do some research first” if I thought it would help one poor sucker keep from being ripped off. I would do it if I weren’t afraid of their gang of sales people tackling me. They smile when you walk in like a thief smiles at a “gone fishing” sign. If you do go to a storesonline Internet Marketing Seminar, pay close attention to their smiles and for God sake, sit on your wallets!
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on July 29th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
Hi everyone,
I did go to one of the 90 minute lunches with all the hype. Since I am already a webmaster of sorts I was on to their scam first thing. I was doing some networking on the side with a few of the other people there. I was amazed at how many retired people were there! I sure hop they don’t get taken. I did sign up for the all day seminar to pick a few brains and do some more networking with the other attendees. I have no plans on buying into their expensive web hosting. I have my sites through bravenet.com and pay only $80 for one year and that includes a domain name, 30 sub domains and lots of other added extras. I do thank the person that mentioned the webmaster-toolbox.com link, that one is a good one.
JH in Oregon
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on July 30th, 2006 at 11:55 am
Hello everyone I’m sorry to say we were a victome of stores on line we were looking for extra encome and went to the all day class we did get a baged lunch of sorts. We only just found out about all the law suits against this company. we have stopped payment on this account and waiting for that call asking for their money we are fileing a scam suit against them as they really do use all the scam tecnicts to get you to buy.
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on July 31st, 2006 at 9:09 pm
Parent company is Imergent (stock ticker IIG on AMEX)
Formerly known as Galaxy Mall.
Expose’s by Dateline NBC and Forbes Magazine.
Lawsuits with the State of Texas and Washington.
Get the truth at http://www.stocklemon.com and see for yourself.
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on August 2nd, 2006 at 11:00 am
I am in Australia, attended a workshop held in Melbourne Australia and presented to the Australian public. The package included the ECIPAY online charge facility. Now that I have created my web site and am ready to publish, i discover that ECIPAY insists that my products are listed in $US instead of AUD even though I am not selling outside Australia. Stores OnLine at the moment appear to be unable to help me with any sort of conversion to the correct currency.
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on August 12th, 2006 at 3:47 pm
Is anyone familar with Money Resource Network? At the luncheon seminar they sold us a subscription to this website.
Jill
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on August 17th, 2006 at 4:50 am
If there are any of u suckered and pay with credit card, make a claim to your cc comapny that you did send your cancellation notice wiithin 3 day period and put it iin writing that you did speak with a John or some other common name cos they alwyas use fake names anyways that it will be OK to cancel and they will process it.
But also do mention that u didnt take tehir word for granted so u sent a cancellation notice within 3days.
Be sure that u could prove you did call and did send the fax(use your creativity and Adobe tinkering with your bills).
That got me out of thsi bad deal after 45 days. Took a little work but worth every bit since CC company returned all my money plus interest back.
Also, when u write to your Credit card company, make sure u Carbon copy to your state District Attorney to make your letter of demand for refund more credible.
Good luck all and stay away from this hell bent piece of s!!t.
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on August 17th, 2006 at 4:52 am
Two wrongs do not make one right. I do not advocate any forgery to get your refund.
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on August 20th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
We got scammed about 3 years ago by this group. I will be paying off the debt for a long time to come. Once they have your money it’s a completely different story on all their support and help.
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on August 22nd, 2006 at 12:01 am
Does anyone know whereabouts the next up and coming seminar is or the EBay/Marketing training session in Manchester is? Also has anyone had any experience of trying to obtain a refund from these people? Interesting to know if they stand by the 3day refund agreement.
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on August 22nd, 2006 at 12:01 am
I feel so sorry for some of the people who have left comments here about storeonline.com. It’s just blows my mind that somebody could walk into a Stores Online seminar where the air just feels slimy and plop down several thousand dollars without taking 5 minutes to do research first and see all the lawsuits against StoresOnline.
I would love to stand up in one of their (choke / gags) Stores-Online “seminars” and shout “people, do some research first” if I thought it would help one poor sucker keep from being ripped off. I would do it if I weren’t afraid of their gang of sales people tackling me. They smile when you walk in like a thief smiles at a “gone fishing” sign. If you do go to a storesonline Internet Marketing Seminar, pay close attention to their smiles and for God sake, sit on your wallets!
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on August 22nd, 2006 at 12:01 am
I just attended the free lunch and signed up for the seminar prior to realizing that this was probably a scam.
They also sold the “money resource network” program/subscription.
Is anyone familar with this?
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on August 22nd, 2006 at 12:01 am
Hi Martin,
Read your review on Stores Online. I attended a similar 1-day workshop in May. Although i feel their products are way overpriced (told them too!), there is one particular tool that caught my eye. The presenter demo-ed the Keyword Analysis tool which auto researches the top 20 sites using any particular keyword and reports on all keywords found at each of the top 20 sites, essentially reporting the competing sites’ “blueprint”. This report is auto e-mail to merchants about 24 hrs after a search is run….pretty cool stuff.Has anybody on this post come across something similiar? Been looking around without much success yet…most tools i’ve found don’t have this competitive intelligence. Appreciate any and all feedback. Thanks.
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on August 22nd, 2006 at 4:56 pm
Hi guys, my storesonline review site is now live.
Feel free to use the forum over there for your benefit and discussion.
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on December 15th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
If you want a refund go to http://WWW.RIPOFFREPORT.COM and type in storesonline. I hope you all get this.
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Beverly Nagy Reply:
September 27th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Mari Silva
on July 23rd, 2008 at 9:28 am
We are from Texas and we purchased 6 sebsites from StoresOline on 2-5-2007 for $6,398.00 and on 2-16-2007 another $249.00. and on 3-22-2007 we purchased another phase of StoresOline called PMI (Professional Marketing Institute) to help you get on the front page of Google for an additional $6,670.00 with no help whatsoever. We would call StoresOline 24/7 with still no help. We live in Texas and is anyone filing a class action suite against StoresOline in this state. We would like a full refund for our 6 websites.
Thanks,
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on February 21st, 2007 at 11:43 pm
wow, stores online… I enjoyed the seminar. It had lots of good information and their marketing resource centre is pretty good. You can find all of this information on your own if you want but I decided to pay for the storefronts just for the access to the marketing center and the updates. I personally looked at the investment in time. Spend $4000 for lifetime access to this service is better than me looking myself.
This is where the big problem lies. I purchased the package for the lifetime subscription to thier marketing center which every sales agent in the room was promoting. I was not purchasing for the storefront and hosting services. Now they will not let me into the resource center.
3 years later I still can not get into the marketing section. Therefore I spent $4000 for access to their tools section for 1 year and now they want to charge me for subsequest years. I think I used it 10 times.
If a company does business this way and changes their offering after the fact, DO NOT WORK WITH THEM! DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY OF YOUR MONEY.
I am more dissatisfied because they are only asking for $10 a month for this access, but it is not the money, it is the principle. You spend $4000 for lifetime access and then they cut it off a year later. If the value is $10 a month then I have prepurchased near 40 years worth of access.
Every purchase decision is about VALUE and if you received it. I evaluated the value that I was sold on and I chose to purchase. However I have now not received the value that I was promised.
I have tried to deal with Stores Online but they will not honor their agreement.
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on February 21st, 2007 at 11:46 pm
Hi Warren, Yes, there’s no way to do business. Promising something but not delivering it. Sitesell offers a much better marketing center with all the articles and tools that they source for you. And they don’t even charge for it!
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on May 15th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
I attended a full one day seminar and was stupid enough to buy six licenses for six websites. It has been three months and i barely finished building my first. I paid them over $6000 for six websites. Is there anyway to get our money back for the other five licenses … can anyone help?
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on June 21st, 2007 at 12:44 am
I went and left at lunch not thinking it was scam, but just knowing that I was not going to spend 6 grand at this time. I thought down the road it might be an investment I might make. However, thanks to some research on sites like this my eyes have been opened. I will look into other options like Sitesell. Thank you Martin Lee
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on June 21st, 2007 at 7:55 am
Hi Pete,
You are most welcome. Glad to be of help.
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on June 26th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Hi I bought the storesonline thing in March this year, and am still building my site.I bought the 6 sites, and then ended up getting phoned to tell me i was needed for the successteam…..I paid another £2000, and am still struggling..they…EMS have kept contact, but not as much as I need, and now having read all you are saying, I wonder if I have done right……….time will tell, but its not made me happy at all.
fiz
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on July 5th, 2007 at 8:25 am
My friend and I attended the all day workshop last week in Northwest Indiana. We were almost on the brink of buying, but decided not to due to the $$$. We decided if, after more research, the product turned out to look like a good deal, they would surely sell to us at a later date.
A few days later I got a call, wanting to know why I hadn’t purchased. I was offered more individualized help and there was something said about testimonials. I figure there is a no talking aggreenent of some kind looming with that kind of deal !! Plus they haven’t told me the $$ yet.
My friend figured they called me because I had expressed concern about the software and the help from customer service .
I am so glad I did some looking around today, and read this blog. My friend has been looking into this, too. My husband will be relieved !!
tbp
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on July 5th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Hi Fiz, why did you have to pay another 2000?
Hi TBP, glad to be of help. Feel free to contact me if you need any 2nd opinion on anything that you might come across.
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on July 6th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
My spouse was taken in at a seminar, but they miscaulated me, I email faxed and US mailed their cancelation within the time limit, my credit card company gladly reversed this transaction after I proved this. Don’t be taken, what they are chargeing for “free internet tools ” is absurd.
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on July 6th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Hi Tony, glad you managed to get the thing sorted out.
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on July 11th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I think most folks can get their money back due to their failure to disclose likely hood of sucess. They have more class action suits going against them then any company in recent history, consider going to your attorney general and tv and newspaper if you have been taken. These people need to go away
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on July 14th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Hi, I’m so glad that I came on your site to get more information before the workshop. I were their today in Michigan. Thank you all so much I will not get cought up.
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on July 16th, 2007 at 12:58 am
[...] on. As this review is getting a bit long, I will talk about the afternoon session in the next review post on the storesonline workshop. There were five strategies covered and a guaranteed method to get your website on the first page [...]
on July 16th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
StoresOnline is a scam. The State of Utah has oredered them to cease and desist: http://www.commerce.utah.gov/releases/06-08-28_imergent-cease.pdf
I went to a seminar and took a friend out of the seminar before lunch. It’s a hard sell for people that are not very savvy but you can buy websites and hosting for a fraction of the cost. Think about it… why would they be selling it if they could do it themselves?
I have business experience with other companies like them and their whole success depends on their ability to continually make excuses and upsell to people who are hoping to make their investment back.
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on July 17th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Could someone please give me the website on selling my 6 websites from stores on line? It is alot harder than we thought to get all this going. We desperately want to sell.
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on July 18th, 2007 at 10:06 am
I am one of the novice folks that bought the storesonline package. as i develop my first site, my gut feeling (as i have never developed a site before) is that this is not a user friendly platform from which to work. Does that jive with what you more experienced web development people have found or is your main beef simply with the cost and selling tactics of storesonline ? - thanks for the feedback! - pete
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on July 18th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Cease and desist? Interesting…
Hi Pete, I have not used storesonline before so I can’t really make a comparison. I know wordpress is very user friendly.
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on July 27th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
I purchased 6 websites from these people back in 2003 . Hat a nightmare I encountered. After fianancing websites I spent 3000 dollars for advanced marketing program from them all for not many promises did not come thru and only got one site up and the first order I had cost me because website they helped me market wasn’t even ready for business and people could not order any thing from my website there is alot of info left out at these seminars that I experienced after purchase and started into developing my second site. I cancelled my debit card payments to them. Now after 3 years found out they sold my account to a collection agency who now is trying to collect prior to this had no demands for payment from original sellers of websites. BEWARE
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on August 1st, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Please help. I purchased the 6 storeonline websites July 23rd of 2007. They said I had only 3 days to cancel as in the agreement. Isn’t it all state laws that you have a 30 day money back guarantee to stop the transaction?
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on August 1st, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Hi Connie,
quickly go and approach your state AG.
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on August 1st, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Hi. I also purchased websites from storesonline on 6-9-07. I am not happy with the software, I think it is too expensive, and I want out. If I had known about the lawsuits and the bad press, I would not have made the purchase. Even though I signed a legal contract, I will file a complaint with my state attorney generals office for being mislead into a business opportunity through a high pressure sales pitch.
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on August 1st, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Hello Tom,
I agree with you. Before you know it you are in a line at the back of the table or with a group signing away money you know you can’t afford to lose.
A single Mom who raised three kids alone, Connie
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on August 2nd, 2007 at 9:31 am
Hi folks…just came back from 90 minute seminar….I WAS NOT IMPRESSED with these people! When asked who would look into 3 or 4 pages or more of a webpage ( which I would if I were looking for something specific or a better price on an item I was buying) …those who held up there hand were laughed at by the big haired diamond studded presenter and were told we need to find a new hobby!! nice way to centre out people you are wanting to sign up for something..and of course this dumb bitch got a big laugh from everyone!. There was also way too much “pressure selling” to ordinary people who are trying to find a way to make a living through the internet…And don’t the storesonline people know it!! many in this packed room were elderly and some disabled….It makes me sick to think how many of these poor people will be using a portion of their life savings ,disability or welfare cheques to get sucked into this ploy…NOTHING IS EVERY FREE…and if it sounds too good to be true…BELIEVE IT!!! Don’t be taken by these people…they are the only ones walking away with a smile on their face and wad of your bucks in their wallet looking forward to their next worldwide tour to rip off the next poor unsuspecting country!
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on August 11th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
We did buy the 6 websites, using our credit card for part and some of thier financing. I had done some searching and read about the scam stuff, but didnt look deep enough as I didnt read about the law suits. I figured all companys have thier critics. But after I bought it I just had a bad gut feeling and spent the few days after the purchase on the internet. After deciding this WASNT the way to go, I called to cancel. I purchased on a FRI and luckily they don’t count the weekend so I was still within my 3 day right. I didnt have to send in a cancelation form, I just called and after an EVEN harder sell to stay, they gave me the $2000 counceling free, cut me back, but when I said NO I want a refund for like the 1000 time, he finally said ok. And thankfully my refund went through! I am so glad I cancelled!
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on August 12th, 2007 at 12:22 am
Hi Grace,
Thanks for your comments. So now we all know that weekends aren’t counted…
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on August 12th, 2007 at 8:35 am
I also attended the all day “marketing seminar” and was put off at the high pressure nature of the pitch. After the speaker mentioned that they were not perfect and had a “few” very vocal unhappy clients I was ready to go. I was then approached by one of their sales staff and asked if he could clarify anything that had been covered so far. I responded I’d like to see him Google up “Storesonline complaints” before I plunked down thousandsof dollars. This caught him off guard and he sprinted off to consult the “boss”. Needless to say, I was persona non grata for the ten more minutes I spent there. (I left just before lunch) Thanks for your time and effort Mr. Lee in educating us potential victims.
Regards,
Johnny B.
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on August 16th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Hi Johnny, you are most welcome.
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on August 16th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
thanks Martin Lee for the helpful info, i just returned from their lunch seminar and i figured i’ll google StoresOnline before making any investment and your info was very helpful
thanks for saving me spending a day for nothing
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on August 17th, 2007 at 2:56 am
Hi John, you are welcome.
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on August 21st, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Just read all this bad press - So if I just signed up with Storesonline on 18AUG 2007 Saturday morning - I will be able to cancel by tomorrow then? Whew ! The internet can be very useful.
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on August 22nd, 2007 at 12:37 am
Does anyone know if they are affiliated with Bright Builders? They are also a rip off company from Orem Utah and they had something called PMI.
Bright Builders use alot of pressure tactics and they were good at figuring out how to charge the big fee to your credit cards.
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on August 22nd, 2007 at 8:33 am
Hi Anne, I think you are right. I heard that PMI is one of the sister companies of storesonline!
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on August 22nd, 2007 at 7:46 pm
So is anyone able to do anything about this company or companies? I wrote the Utah Senitors a couple times about Bright Builders, but they never responded back. I filed thru BBB, but nothing was resolved, as they just lied to look good.
Will this company just keep taking advantage of people, or can something be done to stop them?
Anne
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on August 23rd, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Hi..I went to the 90 min. seminar yesterday and did sign up for the day one with my sister…but we will probably not go now after reading these comments thanks for sharing…I have everything they are sharing already it seems and I can find the few things I am missing I expect…
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on August 23rd, 2007 at 10:33 pm
I had also signed up for the workshop after the 90 min seminar and the yucky dinner, but have decided not to waste my time. I wish there was some way to warn more people about these companies.
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on August 23rd, 2007 at 11:07 pm
I sat throught the 90 min. seminar that began at 6:00pm yesterday with my stomach rumbling and after the wait they served us a turkey sandwich, but the cheese cake was good. I did pay $20 for the all day workshop. I am not planning on buying anything then. I just want to get more information. I do not have the money to just make an on the spot decision. I’ll do my research before I make any financial decisions.
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on August 28th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
I attended the 90 minute seminar recently here in Abbotsford, B.C.
As I read this site, I have seen word-for-word what we were presented with. A little disingenous of them, but I guess if it works…
One good thing I can say is the sandwich was delicious, but that’s to the credit of the Hotel in any event.
I near got tackled by a guy for having “one” too many mp3 players at the end (my friend had to leave early so I argued my way into it). The guy actually told me I had taken more than I was allowed! Then it was wrong because my friend had left “early” (the sandwiches were 15 minutes late and he had an appointment). I really got to thinking about these dinky $2 mp3 players (I really didn’t care about them, but if they’re free…) and the hostility I encountered over just that, what the overall stance of the company was.
It is true, these people patrol like nothing I have ever seen. Maybe I should have asked them how THEIR websites were doing? LOL.
I even tried going to THEIR website. I got a 1 minute 26 second video demonstration that showed me NOTHING of what I would get for all that money! Hence, I decided to look here.
I am an existing ebay seller and have my own website, both have been a LOT OF HARD WORK, and that is just what it takes, folks. Caveat Emptor has been sadly forgotten. (Buyer Beware).
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on August 28th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
I think that you all are jus a bunch of worried crybabies who are too lazy to take action hence all the anonomous comment and all YOU are trying to do issell your product which of course competes with stores online
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on August 28th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
i went to the 1st internet conference on july 18,2007, here in bham,al. i was excited about what i heard and booked my space and my sisters’ space for the workshop (workover) on aug 1,2007,for $20….it was very high pressure selling from the sign up to enter to the end…..i am a kidney transplant patient,and i still hold down a full time job….so my medicine are very high..the salesman told me i was worth me missing my medicine to be successful….would i die for stonesonline.com…hell no!neither should you!
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on August 30th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Well I guess my story is the same, about not knowing how to do this and, I am not the comp. person. We left the siminar thinking we would be up and running no time flat! Our story is much like others, 6 sites later, only one up and running, 3months and I think the only ones that visit are us and friends and family. We followed everything step by step. I am not afraid to give my name and website http://www.speakin-english.com we even had the products printed up and shipped to us. I Have sold more on the streets than the website (0). We practically know everyones names up there. Now I spend my days and evenings trying to figure out how to market, and I am getting desperate. I called them last week and asked them if they could do somthing abot the other 3 sites since they could tell that there was no way we could ever come up with 6, useing there history with us! And they said no! I do not know how they get there leads for people to go to the siminars, and I counted at least 50 couples that signed up. Fayetteville Ar was where the siminar was, and Ft smith,Ar. I was so frustrated that I called them and asked If I could talked to someone that had made a go of it, that maybe we missed a step? There response, WE DON’T GIVE OUT OTHER PEOPLES INFORMATION! i THEN I SAID FINE I WILL GIVE YOU MY INFO AND COULD YOU ASK THE SUCCESSFULL ONES TO GIVE ME A CALL, after reading this now I know why? (maybe there only the 3-4 they showed in there little movie) I am getting extremely upset with them!!!! If you do nt know about building websites (DO NOT DO THIS!!!!!!!!) (DO NOT DO THIS!!!) (DO NOT DO THIS!!!!!) HAVE A GARAGE SALE AND MAKE MORE MONEY THAN WE HAVE IN THE LAST THREE MONTHS, A NICKLE WOULD BE MORE THAN WE HAVE MADE. (true story) and Stores on line know that!!!!! http://www.speakin-english.com (earnings 000.00)
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on August 30th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
I would love for the sherry d lane lady to just call me, or dare to call me a crybaby, or lazy Because everyone ou there in Utah know that just simply not true. If she need names I have a list of the folks that have tried to help, and they know who they are, they really have helped us, but what the people in the workshop said has not happened.
The people in support are great!!!! Just not the workshop!!
OH We paid 1500.00 down, and the monthly price of 6 websites is 239.00 And 24.95 monthly. So miss crybaby, miss I’m lazy before she responds to me better ck her stores on line records, an loggs.
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on August 30th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
It sounds similar to my story a couple years ago. Bright Builders promised I would make $5000 in three months with my website. I knew that was an exaggeration, but I figured when I put the 5-10 hours a week they said, that I would make some money. I did make a few dollars, when my friends purchased product.
They also used pressure tatics and they are also from Orem Utah, so now I wonder if Storesonline is another company that Bright Builders started?
I am not a “cry baby”, or “lazy”; I have put alot of work into my two websites, http://www.healthbrights.com & http://www.childhealthebook.com, and the book I have published. I do want to warn others, that is important to me, as it seems these companies can do whatever they please with people.
I have a day job, a child and I do this business at night and any other time I can find, so I am definitely not lazy.
I am glad for these forums and for http://www.ripoffreports.com, as I have also had two other companies phone me in the last two weeks trying to get me to join their program and getting mad when I didn’t want to immediately give them my money and sign up. I checked out the names and found very bad reports for both of them. Since then, I have had alot of phoning and hanging up. They both had to do with selling mortgages on the web site they set up for you. One of them gave you four websites, with one being mortgages.
Be very careful; do not sign up with any company no matter how much they pressure you, look them up first.
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on August 30th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Boy, am I glad that I found this website. I did go to their 90 minute free seminar and free mediocre lunch. And, I did pay $25 for the next full-day seminar, which I still plan to attend, b/c they promised some CDs for ebay marketing and other materials, which might be informative. However, I am definitely NOT purchasing their product after reading this website. Thank you Mr. Lee for your public service. It is true that “knowledge is power.”
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on August 31st, 2007 at 8:42 am
Hi Chris,
yes, that’s a lame excuse. If they have people with succesful websites, all the more they should use them as social proof to potential customers.
Hi Emma,
Thanks.
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on August 31st, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Went to Stores online workshop with my wife. Had her so pumped up, could hardly stand it. Was suposed to go to the next phase of their training (the money sucking part).
Logged onto the net to do research on the company. GLAD I DID……..After reading hours of stuff, there was no way, I’d breath the same oxygen with them in that room.
WARNING: Whenever there is a full page ad in the paper or get a nice slick mailing for something regards real estate, web page building, financials, etc., ignore it. They are all alike…..and I noticed they are mainly from UTAH. What does that tell you?
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on September 3rd, 2007 at 11:34 pm
Emma save your money, I have 3 of those cds I will be glad to send you one free of charge, unless you know about it will be greek to you as it was to us. I wish I knew now what I didn’t know then. All the other stuff they taught to us at the siminar are not really free, and the reverse search, tools , Utah said would put us right up there , haven’t happened!!! Now they told us to buy another domain name, change the meta tag, change our front page, which before We went live they told us we had done a great job, Like I said tec support is great, 0+239 still cost 239. We have not mad a dime!!!!!!
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on September 4th, 2007 at 3:43 am
I went to their seminar on Friday Aug, 31. My family wanted me to go to check it out. I said what the hell, i just quit my job and needed an extra income. I’m a computer tech, and should of known to check this company out before i went, but didn’t. Stupid of me!! Went through their sales pitch and they served us lunch which was an impressive meal. They even had a live merchant come up and tell the group how successful she was at selling maps on her web-site. This got me drawn in, and at the end of the seminar was sitting contimplating whether to do it or not. One of their sales guys came up to me and asked me why i havn’t paid for the program yet? I told him i was thinking about it. He said what is there to think about, i got 6 sites up and very succesful. This fool drawed me in and suckered me out of $3,900.00 for 6 sites! The next day i went to go use my licenses to log in and non of them worked! Its going on the fourth day and still can’t log in! I contacted on-line support and they said to fax my merchant reciepts to their office. No contact so far on their part yet. I looked at their material they gave me in my builders packet and i got to say, not user friendly at all! It’s gonna take the average user as my self as far as web-sites go a very long time to publish. This is gonna be a 4-6 month process to complete for 1 web-site. My advice to everyone, DO NOT GET SUCKERED LIKE ME, DO NOT BUY THIS BUILDING PACKET!! You will thank me later. I’m gonna do my damndest to get a full refund!
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on September 4th, 2007 at 4:05 am
Hi John,
I think you should be able to get your refund. The 3-day refund period does not count non-working days.
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on September 4th, 2007 at 4:34 am
Thanks Martin Lee, I hope they do give me a refund since i’m out of work right now. I showed my wife these reviews, and she wasn’t excited at all! She said hell ya get your money back, considering looking at other reviews with this company having pending lawsuits and all sorts of complaints how people got ripped off! I just feel sorry for the suckers that bought the packet in the seminar i was at in Las-Vegas. I would say 80% of the class bought it, and half of them through credit with an 18% interest! How can a company do this to people!!!! Then when these people get home and view this product for them selves like me, your heart drops and think they never mentioned how hard it is to get started, especially for computer noobs! Very un-user friendly! I will fight tooth and nail for my refund! Thats money well spent for my daughters…..Thanks again Martin Lee for your input……..
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on September 8th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
I am so glad I ran across this site. My wife and I were planning on attending the conference in NOrthwestern Indiana on sept 21. She just got into the marketing business and was hoping to learn a little more to improve her website and maybe learn a little more about the marketing business online. We are not attending now. We are barely making it as it sits and we do not need any high pressured sales people down our back. Thanks so much for helping people not get taken by scammers. How do these people get away with it anyways?
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on September 9th, 2007 at 3:17 am
I am really worried now, after reading everybody’s comments. My sister-in-law and I bought 3 sites at the StoresOnline seminar in Brisbane Australia in March this year. We got very frustrated with the whole process however, persisted and now just about ready to go live with two of our sites. We have found it to be very expensive (so far costing us over $11,000AUD). This included extras like PMI and becoming members of Worldwidebrands and The Shipper, not to mention the 2K to start a proper registered business in Australia. My main concern is the marketing. Apparently PMI are supposed to help with this. Has anyone had any experience with PMI?
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on September 10th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Dear Tracey
My name is Joe E. after purchasing 6 websites from StoresOnline in 2003 I spent an additional $3000 on an advanced marketing program with PMI. After “tweaking” my website they felt I was ready to do business so I published my website so I could get my links up and running because until your website up and running people will not link with you. Which by the way they fail to mention the difficulty in securing link partners which increases where your website is listed in the srarch engines. So after all this h was done and I started getting link confirmations they said I was all done. I started getting traffic to my website but not near as much as they had promised I was very alarmed at the rate of visits but no purchases. After about one month a prospective customer e-mailed me and said she had tried unsucessfully twice to order products off my website. So long story short is PMI told me I was ready to do business nobody could order anything and ended up paying out on my first and only order BEWARE
THESE PEOPLE DID NOT EVEN CHECK TO SEE IF ORDERS WOULD GO THRU I EXPECTED MORE FOR $3000
WOUNDED IN THE WALLET
JOE E.
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on September 10th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
I’m not familiar with PMI but from Joe’s account, it seems that PMI is another over-priced product from storesonline.
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on September 12th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
My wife and I received a solicitation from storesonline.com about a month ago. We’ve been considering starting a small online business for some time but have been unsure exactly how to proceed. Our biggest issue has been trying to determine exactly what to sell. So we attended the 90 minute presentation on August 29th and decided to plunk down the cash for the DVD set and the “seminar” based on what we were told the content of the seminar was going to be.
So we go to the full day “seminar” earlier this week and it was one of the most disgusting experiences of my life. Contrary to the statement above, this “seminar” was 95% hard-sell (usually disguised) and 5% actual content (in 6 hours I took 2 pages of notes - it should have been 20). They alternated between the storeonline.com sales babe and the “independent” (NOT!) lecturer. The sales babe did the expected schtick. The lecturer we had (some guy from Atlanta) was horrible. He barely use his powerpoint slides. Instead he would tell us about “rich thinkers” and “broke thinkers” and about how he used to be a “broke thinker” until he found storesonline. However, at no time did he show us eCommerce web sites that he owned. He alluded to them, bet never actually showed us whether he did anything. What was interesting (and expected) is that they took the offensive against their critics. I didn’t read the comments here until today, but these guys had an “answer” for everything and these preemptive strikes took up a significant portion of the lecture time. To be honest, the fact that they felt a need to say so much about their critics made me leery. Not only that, you would think if their tools and product were any good that they would spend a lot of time demonstrating them. The actual time spend showing us what we would actually be buying was short and vague. That’s a bad sign.
When we walked in it was obvious that the “consultants” were simply sales scum. Frankly, I’ve dealt with used car salesmen with better ethics than these guys. Their only job was to separate you from your money and not to “consult” in ANY meaningful way. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up the first time when they passed out the “financing form” for those of you that don’t have the cash or a credit card (at 18% interest!). There was NO WAY I was handing over my SSN to these shysters. Then, the content-free sales job continued. On and on and on and on. Finally, about 1PM they tell
us to huddle aroud the “consultants” who would tell us more about the “workshop only” offer. Well, there wasn’t anything much more to find out. He handed out these order forms and encouraged those of us who didn’t fall for the financing scam to enter our credit card numbers so that we could get a “priority” consultation and to speed up the process later. We didn’t fall for that one either. My wife, God bless her, looks at the “consultant” and asks about thinking this over and coming back. He gets irritated and tells her that if we don’t take the package TODAY we will never be invited back. Hey, that’s fine with me. The funny thing is that when he said that, four people got up and left.
They finally served us lunch at 1:30. At 2 PM the lecturer proceeded to point to the empty seats (I’d say about half of the people had left by then) and berated them not taking advantage of this great opportunity. For the next 1/2 hour it was content-free marketing BS. Finally, he gave us a hint how to push your site to the top of the search engines. By 3PM they were showing the second “success” video. When the break came, my wife and I looked at each other and bailed. After being around those people I felt so slimy I had to take a shower when I got home.
Frankly, their pricing is a total ripoff. They wanted $6400 up front (6 sites) plus $29.95 per month per site for hosting and maintenance. That’s almost $180 per month if you have 6 sites. You can easily get quality hosting for under $10 per month. Plus the fees to ECI for credit card handling add up to another $30 per month. Do the math. You have to be selling a LOT of product to justify spending that much coin.
Stay away from these people. If they were any good, they would not have to pressure you into a fast commitment. And they are not going to help you with your business - they only want your money.
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on September 15th, 2007 at 3:39 am
Has it ever occurred to those that want their money back after the Storesonline seminar purchases, that to get their money back they could sue the place that the seminar took place in? Think about this: if your car got damaged in the parking lot of the Marriott Hotel, who would you file a lawsuit against? The Marriott, of course. The same would apply for the seminars: why would a respectable hotel (as I understand Storesonline do their seminars at hotels predominantly) get involved with a fishy event like that? They don’t need/want that kind of publicity.
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on September 17th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
I just attended a seminar last Friday in Albany, NY with Kory as the instructor. He and the other speaker seemed to know what they were talking about and gave us poor audience the impression that storesonline is worth investing money into. Kory emphasized that he’s not there to promote his business nor give us false hopes, and he was once just like us attending a storesonline seminar. During the morning session, they already began their marketing strategy, gave us the pricing information which was supposedly highly discounted, and distributed confidential information sheets, which are actually going to authorize them to do a credit check on us so financial options can be determined. I did not fill one out.
I was still curious what else they had to say so I stayed throughout the entire seminar. After lunch I was called for a one-on-one counseling which I thought was a more individualized sales talk. l did not buy anything from them. Nevertheless, I think about half of the audience bought websites because they had to stay for some instructions. That day, I overheard a couple who bought three websites talking about how they smell something fishy, right after their receipt was given to them. I felt sorry for them and wished to say something but I have not read this website nor researched yet and didn’t know better than suspect. But hopefully they make good use of whatever they have purchased or get a refund.
I then came home with a binder with several empty tabs, handwritten notes, mostly dictated by Kory, the eBay CD which is 196 pages in PDF and who knows how long it will take before I understand any of it, and lots of caffeine.
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on September 25th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
on September 25th, 2007 7:53 pm
Just returned from seminar. I feel the $20 i spent was well worth it. Theyl covered a lot of material I knew nothing about. HOWEVER the price they wanted for the membership was way too high and the sales pressure was worse than any car lot. My main reason for going was information and wasn’t going to be pressured into a sale without first investigating the company. After 2 unasked for and unsuccessful pressure sale consultations, they tried a different approach. I was offered a $900 discount if i promised to keep it confidential. hmm After I told them they wouldn’t get any money out of me until I checked them out they seemed to lose interest in me. In conclusion I feel the $20 was worth the info but wouldn’t recomend spending more. Buyer Be Ware do your homework
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on September 28th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
I wasted my whole day at the “workshop” today. Please DO YOUR RESEARCH before you buy into anything. Check these guys out with the BBB. (I did) they’re banned from some states in the US and from Australia because of their mess. People are suing them left and right. I went to the workshop for the “information”…yeah right. 97% of the “information” was nothing but a hard-sell pitch by the presenters of the StoresOnline product. The other 3% was very useful info, but 99% of that was no different than the info I got from watching the videos and getting the FREE e-books from worldwidebrands.com. So I paid $20 for the lunch from which I got sick and almost threw up. People, please do your research first, that goes for ANY company. Oh yeah, and if you have no backbone, they will talk you into buying their products, it’s like sitting through a time-share seminar or talking to a car salesman who doesn’t care what kind of crappy car you get as long as he get paid.
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on October 1st, 2007 at 2:10 am
Hello Everyone,
I am from Canada, and these people are up here working there magic too. I have a small online jewelry business and went to see if I could get some pointers or buy some resonably priced software to improve what I already have. Wow! I was feeling pretty good because I could see I new a bit more than a lot of other people who had never even made a purchase online before, and I still got sucked in!! I came home very excited about my purchase (6 websites) and could hardly wait to get started. Found out after 4 hours of pouring through this EXPENSIVE material that it was no different than any other offer I had ever seen. Any little extra like finding a drop shipper costs money (with not much of what I am interested in selling). I became very frustrated and before I even started building my first website have thrown in the towel and have decided to cancel and continue with what I have. $20.00 was worth the information we got however. I am really glad I did not procrastinate like I have a tendancy to do as I read in one paragraph that you can cancel within 3 business days.
I really wish I had of had the for thought to google these guys before I put money down. I wrote a check for down payment that already has a stop payment on my account.
I think the sales people should sell cars, they would make a ton of money. I too wondered at the seminar, if it is so good why are they all not running profitable websites???
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on October 6th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
Hi everyone!
It’s a good thing! I search for reviews,now… I couldn’t attend there course because of there time table wasn’t good for me. I haven’t missed anything from what I can see. I’ve been looking for a long time for a legitimate site to come along. thanks to this site… I saved a lot of on money. Thanks again.
J
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on October 9th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Martin, and all respondents, thanks very much for your input, I just went to a full day seminar and left early, it was after I was approached for the third time about spending nearly 6000.00 with only a 3 day cancellation policy. I saw so many people signing the dotted line for their credit card, I’m usually skeptical, and this time I’m glad you reaffirmed my skeptisism. If so much money can be made, why are these people spending their days at all day seminars soliciting a product, that is a red flag right there. thanks also for the other recommended websites, at least now I know I don’t have to spend nearly 2 months sallary for info I could get alot cheaper. I feel bad for all who were misled.
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on October 10th, 2007 at 4:49 am
Hi Rene and Kelvin,
you are most welcome.
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on October 10th, 2007 at 10:38 am
I just want to thank you Martin for taking the time to share your information regarding the all day seminar and the danger of getting involved with this company. I was to attend a seminiar in Halifax Nova Scotia tomorrow in Halifax and might have been sucked in.. Thank you again..Marie
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on October 10th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
I received a lovely mailing entitled “Women’s Night Out - Dinner Tabled Reserved for:” followed by my name in lovely type. First other thing I noticed were “ebay, yahoo, google and MSN” on the envelope. Took me a while to search out the name of the company, “StoresOnline.com” amongs the “Free Event-Ticket Enclosed” etc. and so on and so forth. I did my usual. Went to Yahoo Answers and typed in the search “StoresOnline.com”. Well that took care of that — after reading there, stumbling on over here and reading here….I’m tossing it. Don’t need to hear or read any more. Ugh! Just another bunch of papers to shred (with my name all over it).
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on October 13th, 2007 at 2:08 am
Hi, I have read a lot (but not all) of the reviews about the stores online workshops and I am thankfully already convinced that I will not sign up to anything. However, I have one question that I can’t find an answer to. Is it worth going to the workshop to learn anything about getting into the internet business? Taking away their sales pitch, can I actually learn anything useful on the day, because having paid my £20 for the day I am considering attending just to see if I can learn anything at all. I am a novice when it comes to setting up an internet business and certainly will try to do this myself rather than get ripped off but if I can get anything out of spending £20 on the day I wondered if anyone agrees that this is possible? Please reply soon as I am due to attend in a week. Many thanks.
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on October 13th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Hi Julie,
If you have time to spare and the place is near, maybe you can popin for the free lunch. I didn’t learn much the last time round but I’m not too sure what it is like now.
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on October 13th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Hi- I unfortunetly bought into all this too! I have since wrote an extensive letter to Stores on Line about a month ago and of course have gotten no respopnse. It took me two months to figure out nothing they say works and also had the problem, that when I did get visitors no one could buy! I financed my sites with there people and now i can no longer pay them there $148 a month because I am not making any money and I am on disibality. I would like to know what does the Attorney Generals office do for you?? Should I contact my tv news that investigates?? I can not afford any more negitivity on my credit report. Thannks for all the great advice and stories.
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on October 13th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Martin, thank you, thank you thank you for creating this forum for SOL “survivors” ha ha!
I am sure these SOL folks have their operatives all over the US, Canada, England and Australia simultaneously with synchronized watches as they do their mischief in collective force. Has anyone noticed that these all day events take place at different locations but on the same dates and times. Hmmmm. ( and usually on a friday it seems.) And what about those “to the minute” breaks and pauses? hmmmm.
these guys must be a whole new breed of terrorists…….they ambush our vulnerabilities, our wallets, our trust. I cannot believe i dissed the warning signs that they apparently employ at every event. Like the grinning sharks that circle all of us who did not make a bee line for the sign up table. Yeah we were the little fish that did not get away…………………………….
In reading these posts i am amazed at the scripts. Especially Martin’s reference to the day there were not enough tables chairs or binders…..that is exactly what we experienced in spite of the fact that we had rsvp’d our invitation. Not only that we got some sorry excuse that the little electronic organizers promised us as our “free gift” were not available due to a customs delay however if we kindly left our names and contact info, they would be sure to send us one. we fell for that too. now we are gettin daily phone solicitations, spams and junk mail i am sure originated from this ‘free’ lunch fishing expedition they orchestrated!
so since i already invested precious time and energy by attending not one but two sessions,not to mention stupidly submitting my credit card and credit info….. i may as well donate my time to sharing with you all what i have gathered so far on these guys:
I have already written my letters to cancel, contacted my credit card provider as well as the Canada dept of consumer and corporate affairs. I am glad we in canada get 10 days to reconsider contract agreements before they become non refundable.
here is some info i found in doing more research on them. very interesting indeed. i post this with intent that anyone considering doing business with SOL will have more info to consider before taking that leap of (blind) faith such as we did. I am still whacking myself up side da head for not listening to my inner guru’s warnings on this one. I swear the pain meds i was on for a nasty dry socket numbed my senses as well as my pain!!!!!
If you just recently purchased a program you DO have 10 days to bail if in Canada and if i am not mistaken, only 3 days if in US.
http://www.maine.gov/pfr/securities/consent_agreements/StoresOnline_CA.pdf
http://www.spokane.bbb.org/alerts/alerts.html?newsid=626&newstype=1
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=storesonline+and+utah+government+order+to+cease+and+desist&ei=utf-8&fr=b1ie7
wishing success to all who are dealing with trying to reclaim their investment losses
[Reply]
on October 13th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Hi Medussa,
Thanks for sharing. I will be posting up some of the links on the help page.
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on October 13th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Hi Cindy,
There might be some class action suits against storesonline in your state. So you might want to contact your AG.
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on October 16th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Thanks for this - just come back from a meeting with them in the uk - I will not be going and have just cancelled my card for 20pounds for the workshop - hope I have done it in time
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on October 18th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
I went to the first short one with my boss who owns a store, she was sold to send me to the second one (the eight hour one where they make the real sales pitch). It was only 98 dollars out of my boss’s pocket and it didn’t seem terrible.
My boyfriend and I went as reps to the bookstore we work for. I wont lie, I thought it was fishy that the whole room 99.9% of the people were older folks in like 50+ I would say. We went with no intentions of buying the site from them anyway. I personally think that they gives some good tips and tricks, though not worth the 98 dollars, aside from the endless sales pitch.
Now, this gave us the idea/motivation to do something like it. We figure we could do the same thing for less ( we are 21 and 22 and so we figure we were a bit more tech savvy >.>) If you have gone, remember the the 1 on 1 consulatation? The guy was clearly surprised that we weren’t really inclined to buy right then and there and was just asking questions really. I believe he said ” So I just went through all that… ” and caught himself. LoL my boyfriend and I just laughed as soon as we walked away from him.
I feel bad for all the old folks that got scammed. There is many other places as indicated by previous chains, that could do it for just as well and hell lot cheaper than for what they are asking.
So what I guess I’m trying to say is… It reeks of a ripoff. The 8 hour seminar gives some good tips and tricks, the lunch wasn’t terrible, but not really worth 98 dollars. If gullible girl such as me can see this as a scam/ripoff….. that is something to say. So really, don’t let them push you and don’t dump thousands into it.
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on October 26th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Hi to all….
Marie and Cliff : thank you so much for the info. Marie your site looks great.Very easy to navigate as well. good job. your hard work and perseverence paid off it seems,. Are you getting sales? I sure hope so.
As for our saga….we are still waiting fo our refund. I spoke with “ryan” an SOL rep and he assured me i would get FULL refund on our MC deposit and he would also nullify our financial agreement (loan to pay the balance) that was last week. still has not showed up on our acct but i am a patient person…i will give it another few days before i get ugly ugly ugly. LOL
To all CANADIANS who have purchased last few days….DO NOT PROCRASTINATE….GET YOUR REQUEST TO CANCEL IN WITHIN 3 BUSINESS DAYS. According to (free) phone consultation i got from a local law firm:
In spite of the fact that your province may allow for up to 10 days to cancel a contract or get full refunds, the SOL contract states cancellation request must be made within 3 business days so by signing that contract, their terms over ride your state or province’s terms. Also, be sure to have you and your spouse or business parter etc sign the request for cancellation as well as all communications re your request for refund/cancellation–IF they have co-signed the financial agreements or any bill of sales. According to the SOL contract terms all parties who sign the agreement are liable. Therefore all parties who sign must also request the cancellation/nullification of the contract. I am not a lawyer so i am saying all this in lay terms according to my understanding of the research i have done re: consumer rights, contract laws, etc etc.
RE: Gao said, on September 15th, 2007 at 3:39 am
“as it ever occurred to those that want their money back after the Storesonline seminar purchases, that to get their money back they could sue the place that the seminar took place in? Think about this: if your car got damaged in the parking lot of the Marriott Hotel, who would you file a lawsuit against? The Marriott, of course. The same would apply for the seminars: why would a respectable hotel (as I understand Storesonline do their seminars at hotels predominantly) get involved with a fishy event like that? They don’t need/want that kind of publicity.”
FYI…..I asked the lawyer i spoke with about this. He said that in Canada–hotels, conferece centers or any other venue that provides space for these operations are in NO way liable for lawsuits relating to the business practices of these “traveling road shows” as he called them!
best wishes to all
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on October 27th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Hi Medussa,
Thanks for sharing.
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on October 27th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
you are most welcome Martin. I am very grateful for the support this site offers thanks to you for setting this site up and to all who have shared.
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on November 20th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
I feel real bad for the people knocking SOL, you get as much out of life as what you put into it, no more or no less. SOL gives you the tools and yes there is no free lunch but you do have to work, if you do the work the program works, you can call the support people at SOL for help, they are some of the nicest support people I have ever met in the internet marketing business, please don;t put the blame on the company, just look in the mirror for the answer.
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on November 20th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
I am one of those people that need to look in the mirror, Bruce. Can you post your website url’s for us to see? how long have you been in business? and how well are you doing in sales with your business ventures, (new stores). My problem with SOL was not how complicated the stores were to build, that was not the hard part for me, it was if I am paying $6000. for the programs it should have included some more precise marketing help and tools. I know how many web stores there are out there that potential customers don’t know about and know one will ever find because they do not posess the knowledge on marketing with the search engines, I don’t want to be one of them. I did not get that kind of marketing information or help from the seminars or the package once I got it home. I felt that 6 stores in cyber space that know one was going to find was too scary, and I have some knowledge about being an online merchant. What about the poor people who have committed funds that have never even made an online purchase before. There was a lot of greeen!!! people at my seminar forking over money, that will ge there stores built and will expect the customers to come flooding in, Surprise!!! I would rather pay someone $6000. to take my one store and market it for me with the search engines who know about click rates and click rankings, it still boggles my mind.
Seriously, I would like to check out your stores will you post your store url’s??
The sales tactics of SOL are far to pushy, you get roped in that this is a once in a lifetime thing, check out there website, it offers the same thing. They just don’t want people leaving the seminar to think about it because they won’t get the sales if you do.
Rene
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on November 20th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Rene: I have two sites, I did not expect to make any money with either site to start, both of my sites were put up to help people either with their health or finances. In the begining I did listen to what SOL support was telling me but being a senior citizen I thought I could take a short cut and decided to work with other programs, needless to say I was mislead. Just the other day I attended a SOL seminar as a guest and learned about things I need to incorporate on my sites. The site I have used to help people and their pets with their health is http://www.seaweed4you.com I have now been taking the seaweed 2 yrs and everyone should do the same
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on November 27th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
Hi Bruce,
I had a look at your site. For some reason, the layout is misaligned on my browser. I think some of the banners are messing with the layout.
For $6000, you can buy not only the tool, but you can probably get someone to build an entire site for you. Why do things the hard way?
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on November 28th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Hi people. I have just spent like 2 hours reading the whole comments and I want to thank you so much for sharing this information.
I did attend the seminar with my friend on Nov 15, 2007 - at Embassy Suite Hotel in Dallas TX.
Lol unlike you I just want to mention we couldn’t even eat the meal because we only eat Kosher food (We’re Jewish) so the only freebie we got is 2 mp3 players one for me and one for her, so at least that was the only good reason to come.
I just want to introduce myself.
My name is Arie and I’m the webmaster of the website http://www.Gptreasure.com where people like you can make money from completing offers, and I won’t lie to you - you can do the same thing as I do or do similar things with Affiliate Networks - money comes from networks, and from Google and Yahoo (I wonder if MSN will start something similar and if they do - be the first to try them, and try them is $50 or $100 investment, not thousands!!!)
As for my friend, she’s actually the one who invited me to come to this seminar. She has started not a long time ago to work on a pre-paid legal business and she has a small website with this link: http://www.LawyersOnTime.com and she wants of course to make the main page look better, but that’s only introduction and I’m sorry if I’m putting already too many words on who we are.
So the main part is - I don’t remember the name of the person who came to talk to us on the Seminar, but he started like “The first person who comes to me and brings me 2 dollars - I will give him 10 dollars” and 2 people did so and got 10 bucks (or actually 8 if you count what they gave him). He did it to drive our attention and he knows how to speak but omg - that was so pathetic! I got so many things to say about it from my point of view - 22 years old student who likes computers, business online and other online stuff from a very long time ago. But Please! Please read the things I want to tell you…
So he explained about StoresOnline and explained that they can’t “teach” us everything in 90 minutes so that’s why there is a workshop day. The only thing that was interesting for me was the Google thing, coz’ they said they can teach you how to be in a good rank in Google but guess what… For some reason a friend of mine explained me all about it yesterday!! Nevertheless I admit I paid $25 for the Workshop because I don’t mind to spend $25 for learning Google stuff but that’s the only thing I spent, period. And by the way, the Google ranking, I can explain it in 3 lines and I’m pretty sure that’s all they do there - explain things you can learn FREELY on the web.
People, the Internet nowadays is a bubble, a bubble that a lot of people don’t know and StoresOnline is abusing people and asking for a few thousands omg!
You can do everything today for no more than $100 investment, trust me on that! Just read, there is a lot of FREE information online! You can sell products from Affiliate Network like Linkshare, ShareASale, CJ - just type those names and put dot com and you’ll be much more happier!
One more thing - the pathetic part! In the end of the Seminar this guy there gave us a “Bonus” yeah right. And people were so naive and I felt so sorry for them!
They had like a website where you pay for a membership like $50/month and with this membership you can shop online and get cashback - are you guys crazy???
There are so many websites who will give you cashback for FREE!!! So many advertisers that will give you double discount if you just buy at their online shop, and those people there in the seminar actually some of them I’ve seen myself, they paid, they paid $50 / membership!
It’s so pathetic to abuse people’s knowledge, because people don’t know the Internet but nevertheless - today is the workshop in Dallas (7050 Stemmons Freeway) - and guess where I am today? at home!
People, just ask yourself, why would you bother to go to a such place? Why they want you to dedicate a full day of yours just to “teach you information” - give me a break!
If I was thinking like them and I would get a lot of people coming to listen to me - the only thing I would do is to explain them about my website. That’s what they do and I’m a young person who knows at least what I’m talking about in this issue. You might know a lot of things in life that I need to learn and that’s normal, but trust me - stop wasting your money and TIMEEEE and don’t go there!
Wish you just the best.
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on November 29th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Martin: I do think SOL gives the person the tools to be successful, however I was very dissapointed to find out SOL has gone back on their word, I was told when I joined in 2002 I would be able to attend their works shops(boot camps) for the rest of my life at no charge, now I am being told by Brian of SOL the Boot Camp will cost me $499.00 to attend. I attempted to call Clint Saunderson to verify information and I was told in no uncertain terms he is a V.P and I could not talk to him, after being told by another merchant he was the person I should talk to about the boot camp meeting. I still feel the company does a good job but I am very upset they changed their tune.
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on November 29th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Bruce, are you serious? They can do a good job, I didn’t check that but the comments above prove otherwise, AND, most importantly - Their price is so expensive! Charging thousands of $ for doing something that can be done for less than $100 is a very sad story, if not also a joke.
Arie
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on November 29th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Hello Bruce,
I am the trouble maker that asks people that think SOL are so wonderful to post their web address’s so we can check out your stores and/or sites ?, and ask you how you have been doing financially since you joined in 2002? That was 5 years ago, you should be pulling in some nice profits by now…
I have been checking out some of the other web store builders around and have found that ProStores, an ebay company has a pretty good plan you can build and set up your store quite easily and affordably and then if you want you can buy a marketing experts time to put you out there on the search engines if that is where others like me are having problems. They have tier levels at different prices for the marketing and the store building, depending what and how much you are selling. Any thoughts on this program anyone!!!! Martin any feed back on the ProStores..
Rene
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on November 29th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
Hello Again Bruce,
Sorry I did not realize you were the same guy that I already asked to post your url’s before, but I still am not convinced that your sites are successful because of what you bought from SOL, how much traffic is your website getting on the web or are you struggling with generating traffic as well?? Did you buy the 6 websites?? Do you only have the one up and running??
I just don’t think you understand that what you have you could have done a lot cheaper than what SOL has charged you..
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on November 30th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Hi Arie,
Thanks for sharing your experience. MSN does have an ad center like google/yahoo. However, do take note that whenever you run ads from one of those networks on your webpage, you are not allowed to run ads from the others on the same page.
Hi Rene,
Yes, ebay stores is