How much is too much ?

[TheGooner]

This is a slightly obscure question ... but I think that you guys can help me.

I'm looking for your help in order to reply to the thousands of people that contact us each either trying to :
a/ Buy a bl@@dy text link ...
b/ Join up to a second rate barely functioning affiliate program.

Now - I don't want to do business with either of these groups - I just want to get rid of them ... but currently I cannot get of these people either by ignoring them, or even telling them that I am not interested and to delete my email from their list.

Either method just results in resend after resend with whiny "why won't you work with me" messages.

So - I need your help to help me set a price that is too high, but beleiveable, so that they will FINALLY f@#k off.



What I want to know from you is :
- What is a reasonable price for a/ and b/
- How much over the top do I need to go to get rid of them?

Will $500 a month for a text link do the job ?
Will demanding a $1000 month retainer with no guarantee of signups do the job?

Or do I simply have to create a large blacklist of email addresses?

Any ideas on how to get rid of these people successfully ?

[PROFRBcom]

I started telling the link seekers it was $5,000 USD a year for a homepage link and $1,500 for a blog post. To date, no one has bitten. To top it off, no one has counter-offered. Though a few people have asked for examples (for which there were none to provide).

To tell you the truth though, if someone actually showed me the money at that price, I might sell my first link

[Syndicate]

This is good, no this is bad!

We made three losing bets last night, minus €28K - Did i lose a minutes sleep, no because i know we have annual profits of 60-140% on these bets.

We have just finished developing a Sports-betting software that we had costed at €900K - It finished up costing €1.22M and was two months late - Did i lose any sleep (no) - Reason, i know these things always go over budget and just two months late is like a world record.

My daughter went from a 1.2 in maths to a 3.9 and 1.7 Physics to 4.2. Did it bother me (no) - She had just changed school in mid term and they were on different subjects she hadn't covered - Next year will be different!

However, what rattles my cage is getting up every morning to see mails offering me cashmere sweaters and telling me ''Chinese'' that it's good we are in the same business (who are they buying bulk e-mails from).

Seeing 5 mails per day from a dot.su offering me Callis and other drugs.

Seeing SEO experts guaranteeing me top page for $100 per month.

What about the ones offering ''exclusive'' mail lists. ie we are in same business im calling it a wrap and i'm going to give you all my mailing list - Then you get the same mail two years later down the line (see one below)!!



And then the worst of the lot, text link requests. Some of them are so effing smooth they explain how this post will improve your site. And, when you don't answer ''Have you had time to consider my offer?'' .

The F-off bit doesn't work. Calling them bullshitting scumbags didn't achieve much when i tried it. And, i'm not sure if a tactic of offering them an high price will either!! - You could simply get them wanting to negotiate, and then you create another issue. Their is also a worry that they agree, and will send payment once posted (never comes).

I think the best is to simply write ''not interested'', and it will at least spare you a first and second follow up. Alternatively, do what i'm supposedly doing, have someone else go through the mail so you don't have to see this crap (i said supposed because i still can't help but look - it's like a perverse way of getting myself irritated!!).

I'm afraid it's like a toothache that won't go away!!

Just look at this for ''bullcrap'' - 5 times in 17 months!!

Hi There,


Hopefully you recognise my name as someone who has been around the online tipster game for the past 15 years or so.


Due to health reasons I am hanging up my horse racing/sports betting tipster boots to spend more time with my growing family.


If you don't recognise me I was the original owner of Sportsbettingtips.info and RaceTips.info amoungst many others.


I am contacting you to offer you first refusal on my client data of which I have the following...


Just over 1,000 past paying clients and a seperate email database of around 90,000 punters who have shown interest in buying tips over my time as a tipster.


I AM HAPPY TO SEND YOU A SAMPLE OF THE DATA..PLEASE JUST ASK


I recently paid for a 3rd party company to clean the lists and remove all bad domains and known problem/undeliverable email addresses.


When I collected this data it was always collected with a disclaimer that I could pass the data on to any 3rd party for betting related communications.


To keep things nice and simple I would like to offer you the database of clients as well as the 90,000 marketing list together for a one-off price of just £200.


Is this data of interest to you?


I look forward to hearing from you.


Kind Regards


Ian Burrows

This is a slightly obscure question ... but I think that you guys can help me.

I'm looking for your help in order to reply to the thousands of people that contact us each either trying to :
a/ Buy a bl@@dy text link ...
b/ Join up to a second rate barely functioning affiliate program.

Now - I don't want to do business with either of these groups - I just want to get rid of them ... but currently I cannot get of these people either by ignoring them, or even telling them that I am not interested and to delete my email from their list.

Either method just results in resend after resend with whiny "why won't you work with me" messages.

So - I need your help to help me set a price that is too high, but beleiveable, so that they will FINALLY f@#k off.



What I want to know from you is :
- What is a reasonable price for a/ and b/
- How much over the top do I need to go to get rid of them?

Will $500 a month for a text link do the job ?
Will demanding a $1000 month retainer with no guarantee of signups do the job?

Or do I simply have to create a large blacklist of email addresses?

Any ideas on how to get rid of these people successfully ?

[Planet Mark]

Haha, agree this is frustrating, I mark every single link type request as spam and move on with my day. Aff programs I generally just ignore / delete, can count the exceptions on one hand over the years.... will generally mark them as spam after the 3rd 'did you get my last mail'.

[Top Online Casinos]

State clearly that you will charge an hourly rate for dealing with crap like that. And make it clear, that if they do use your contact form, they sign to agree to your TOS. And so, you can now start sending invoices.

Other than that, which could be an awesome idea btw, my answer would be for you to simply have a standard email ready, saying that your rates are not affordable for them. we're not talking about 'just some site' you know.. It's Gooner's ffs..

I personally send them a standard email, with the news that they can not afford even 'one comma' on my site. Write a standard email. Put some fun it it. And tell them to bugger off. On a nice and friendly way. Only those that persist. The one day fly emails, I don't even answer. The ones that keep on trying will get one of those 'you can not afford it' mails. Those that keep going on will be warned that spam is illegal and that I do have lawyers who I keep in a cave unfed for days. And that I will throw their emails in that cave for the lawyers to rip them apart.. Sort of.

Least time consuming would be to ignore them and send them to the spam box. If you don't want to do business with them, you probably even less want to be wasting your time on them. Cause then it actually costs money..

If you must set a price: $1000 per hour per link. Why not.

Mind you, this is a 'rich man's complaint. Flatter yourself, you're popular.

[-Shay-]

Tell them that before you're willing to discuss paid advertising, they must put up a $25,000 negotiation bond. Once they have done so, and only if they have done so will they be able to open negotiations.

[Voids]

I'd just price at something you'd be happy to take say:

$1,000 per link per year with a minimum of 3 years upfront.
$1,000 per month for blog post / Ad - Paid up front in 3 month installments.

Enough to make it worthwhile, enough to get most of them to **** off.

That's the strategy I've used, although lower amounts (because tiny).

[zalozite]

I think, that if someone is ready to pay a good amount of money and deliver unique and well written content gamgling for example and their site is good at all, its no problem to post such articles, i dont see any reason, not to do this. ok
Especially, as i look at my experience at several affiliate programes, that advertise a lont time and at the end i get 0.00, so its and option to pay some hosting and domains fee, or other fees. Here many affiliates companies dont care about us and look only at their revenue, so we like website owners, must look at other alternatives for income, or other way will has nothing like money. Do you agree with me?

About Gooners, i know he is one of the best affiliates and one of the oldest here with big database of players, so maybe in this way, he will be not interested, but a small affiliates, like many of us, that dont cover monthly expenses sometimes 100-200$ is a big sum and can help us financial to continue with projects. ok

[Luke Affalliance]

Reading this post as an affiliate manager kinda makes me sad. =(

[wonderpunter]

And don't forget to tell them all links are no follow

[eenzoo]

Hmm don´t deal with such sums guys!
Maybe the easier way is to told him your rankings are fake because you are a Google employee and your website is just a trap for link builder and a askgamblers.com clone with broken css

[RacingJim]

I'd just keep ignoring them mate. I always think the knock on effect of even a negative response could be that they have confirmation that my email works and that they can then pass it on to other companies. I'm quite happy to keep deleting the 1-2 queries I get per day.

[TheGooner]

I think, that if someone is ready to pay a good amount of money and deliver unique and well written content gamgling for example and their site is good at all, its no problem to post such articles, i dont see any reason, not to do this. ok

I think you are talking about 0.1% of link buyers ... and certaqinly not this group

And if such a good site contacted me - I would link to them for free.
All the links towards the bottom of my desktop sized homepage are freely given links.

[TheGooner]

Reading this post as an affiliate manager kinda makes me sad. =(

Then you are not looking honestly enough at your profession.

In the past I've gone to the effort of replying, thanking them for their interest, but stating that we are not interested in working with the emailer.

Do you know how many affiliate managers took the first email and accepted that news? About 10%
The remaining 90% have proceeded to send multiple whiny emails on a weekly basis - I guess because they've got a live email address.

I guess some sales trainer somewhere teaches them that this is the key to success - persistence.
But, it's not - and it's BL@@DY annoying - and honestly puts them into a special "will never work with you" category.

Hence, the question ... how do I short circuit this process ...
How can I price myself out of their market (link buyers and programs) - and have it too costly - but believable.

[eenzoo]

persistence

Sounds like Jordan Belfort

Hence, the question ... how do I short circuit this process ...
How can I price myself out of their market (link buyers and programs) - and have it too costly - but believable.

Give them a try. Probably you have a handful of writers they are happy about some extra cash. Setup a fixed price ... maybe US$480 for an article (your topic, your writer). Thats a business and they have to play it within your rules. The price is high enough to scary 95% of the indian resellers but its a business!

Don´t be angry about that ... is an appreciation to your work.

[sweetbet]

Offer them a pay-per-click text listing with no guarantees of signups. Let's say between $20 and $50 per click That would definitely scare me away

[DaftDog]

@TheGooner - Simplicity is the easiest solution. Block the email address and send it straight to your Junk folder.

[DanHorvat]

With this kind of traffic and a business that's been around for xx years, you should have layers of protection. If I understand correctly, anyone can contact GoonersGuide, and when someone does, the email goes straight to you.

That's the root of the problem, and if you don't fix it it can only get worse.

The first layer of protection could be to put a price list or a note "We don't sell text links" on the /contact page. The next could be a drop-down menu in which the person can choose why he's contacting you, e.g. Feedback, Affiliation, Jobs, Text links...

I can't fix this for you, but I think you should address the root of the problem, which is that you made yourself too easy to reach.

[AussieDave]

I use a dedicate domain (no site attached) just for emails associated to my other domians/sites.

I've blacklsted all free-email accounts.

If an aff program who is not on the whitelist sends an email, they get a link to verify they're not a bot. But, if that program then spams me with 'sign up to our program (horseshit), I wild-card-ban their domain.

Some folks will say be careful of backscatter. But, every 24 hours any email/s not verified, are deleted. I don't see anything that's not verified.

[Luke Affalliance]

I understand that we, affiliate managers, are on the other side of the barricade. Here I want to talk from the perspective of affiliate managers in general. It is relatively easy to search for partners if you have a big name in the industry, fish is literally jumping into your hands, but let's imagine the affiliate manager who was employed to promote a casino that was just opened and literally has no weight in the industry. The only option for such guy is to go through all relevant affiliate websites and send invitations to cooperation. You can trust me, reading through uninteresting offers is as unpleasant as sending dozens of emails regularly to webmasters who will never bother replying you. This is the sad routine of the job.

Anyway, If you think that getting cold emails is annoying and frustrating, me and other affiliate managers would be happy to learn about other ways to offer affiliates partnership without annoying them. In the end of the day, our job is to finalize profitable deals for both sides. We are not employed to annoy gambling webmasters all over the internet =)