Arrogant Overture Placing Greed Ahead Of Their Customers Needs

Oct 10
21:00

2004

Dean Phillips

Dean Phillips

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... to the ... the ... of the word ... is as ... opening or ... move toward ... a new ... an ... etc.; a formal or informal propos

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According to the dictionary,Arrogant Overture Placing Greed Ahead Of Their Customers Needs Articles the definition of the
word "overture" is as follows:

"An opening or initiating move toward negotiations, a new
relationship, an agreement, etc.; a formal or informal
proposal or offer."

Hmmmmmmmm...very interesting definition--especially that
part about "a new relationship."

I think pay-per-click giant Overture should look up the
definition of their own company name, because they appear to
be breaching their "relationship" with their customers big
time!

Here are the most common complaints:

* Suspicions that competitors are clicking on their listings
just to cost them money.

* Competitors bidding up the top three positions to
ridiculous amounts, ensuring that everyone loses money.

* Fear of new, naive competitors coming onto the scene ready
to throw away their money and driving up Overture's
exorbitant bids even higher.

* Wild fluctuations in bids. The top bid can double or even
triple within just a few days.

* The slow, frustrating, and time intensive process of
maintaining listings and changing bids.

* Poor, arrogant and unsympathetic customer service and
support.

So, why hasn't Overture done anything about the complaints?
Because, and I'm going to as blunt as I possibly can here--
they don't care about you. They only care about your money!
Arrogance and greed seems to be the common thread that bonds
the major search engines.

But you have only yourselves to blame. That's exactly what
happens when you "place all of your eggs into one arrogant
search engine basket!"

When you're totally dependent on someone and they know
you're totally dependent on them, more often than not,
they'll put the screws to you. That's exactly what you see
happening with Google, Yahoo and Overture. They're screwing
you over big time!

I received some very interesting e-mails in response to my
article, "Googles Trap, DMOZ's Nap, And Yahoo!'s Crap." The
writer of one of the e-mails wanted to know if I was afraid
of being penalized by the search engines, because of my
criticism's of them.

Penalize me how? How can you penalize someone who neither
benefits from nor is dependent on your service? I don't
depend on the search engines! I don't benefit from them! I
never have. I get almost no traffic from the search engines.
For example, so far this morning I've received over 300
unique visits to my website. Out of that total, none came
from the search engines--not a single one!

My traffic comes from the dozens of articles I've written,
like this one that have been picked up and published on
popular websites all over the Internet. I also get traffic
via word of mouth, newsletters and ezines that my articles
are published in, and a few other secret methods that I use.

That's the kind independence and power you give yourself,
when you're not totally dependent on any one entity. Find
alternative ways to attract traffic to your website. Here
are a few suggestions:

Ezines, newsletters, forums, online magazines,
sponsor listings on other websites, exchanging links.

Here are a few offline suggestions:

Magazines, direct mail, shopper newspapers, cable
television, radio, flyers, hospital newsletters, card decks,
trade journals and directories, bulletin boards, tabloid
newspapers.

Here's what the writer of another e-mail I received had to
say:

"Wow! What a pleasure to read your article, Googles Trap,
DMOZ's Nap, And Yahoo!'s Crap. Boy, I've been complaining
about this type of scenario for at least a year. I will also
include Overture with the terrible trio. Overture has
recently, with the long standing pay per click program,
decided that all your keyword phrases will be broad
matched. The reason they gave was that it was too time
consuming for the user to manage their listings. Well, they
forgot to mention that they will also receive more money
because of the change.

Also, they say that you can enter words in quotations or
negative words against your keyword phrase so that you
receive the correct response. In other words, your keyword
phrase will not show up when those negative words are
searched for. Well, do you know how time consuming the
negative word process is? And, there's no way you can
muster up all of the possible negative words that could be
searched for so that your listing will not appear. Absolute
CRAP, to term your expression.

The terrible trio you mention in your article plus Overture
have gradually swung towards "God" like service providers.
They have the power and the user is very much at effect.

Well, that's my 5 cents worth. After saying all of the
above I am a user of these services but have been working
for a long time now finding other ways and means of
marketing and promotion so that all of our eggs are not in
the one basket. I have, in the main, been exchanging links
with other websites plus placing relatively inexpensive ads
on websites that have similar services to ours."

I love getting e-mails like that! That tells me that some of
you are finally starting to "get it."

Give yourself the power! Claim your independence! Find
alternative ways to attract traffic to your website. If you
do that, one day you'll realize you really don't need the
search engines after all. I guarantee it!