Congrats- Guy McLaren.
It’s not often that I feel compelled to write about SA blogosphere topics on my personal blog, but recently I’ve seen something which is worth mentioning.
There is this chap in Nelspruit called Guy McLaren. Guy owns and operates a business called Trafficdepartment.co.za, which sells people websites and the promise of wealth. This I don’t have a problem with and I wish the man all the best in his venture- if he is able to get muppets... I mean- people- to buy his ‘solution’ then hell- why not.
My issue comes in his tactics, premise, and altogether blatant drivel that he is purporting. However this post is not meant to be a personal flaming of Guy but an analysis of his offering, revenue model, and marketing tactics. Albeit with a slightly negative tone. (I stand corrected on everything a say from here on.)
Offering
TrafficDepartment offer domain registration and hosting with their own CMS for R395.00. Fair enough- not a lot of money at all. In fact there is even a 30day money back guarantee! However… not much detail is given on what you get for your money. Ie. Is this shared hosting? Where is it hosted? Most people won’t need to know this info but it does make a difference when you’re trying to run a business which is after all what Guy is offering.
The R395.00 gets you the basic site, however if you want to actually be involved in e-commerce you’ll need to add on extra bits and pieces for just under R2000.00. So in other words your R395.00 gets you a blog! Ummm… did I miss something or did wordpress, blogger, et al just go out of business because I could’ve sworn it was free to setup, run, and maintain a blog. This has been addressed elsewhere and so I won’t dwell on it.
Let’s have a look at the ecommerce offering: It costs just under R2k however… you can get a better looking, more robust, highly trusted solution for the extreme sum of ZERO… free…gratis…osCommerce.
As for the statement that you will be listed on Google SA within 2 days… SFW… anyone can submit their URL to Google (or any major search engine) and the bots will crawl the site. Is Guy honestly charging for a service which anyone with 5 minutes to spare can do themselves?
I don’t know about you but if I had paid for Guys’ services I would be feeling rather bleak right now knowing I had been fleeced of my cash.
Revenue Model
So how is Guy making all this money? Selling websites? Yeah I suppose he’s squeezing a few quid out of this, but the trick lies in how these websites are linked together. Using the trafficdepartment ‘solution’ means you join a little circle of people who also have one of their sites, and their posts are fed into your blog. What happens here is that you get the same users floating around eachothers blogs/sites creating a little community… very sweet! The kicker is that, if, as a trafficdepartment site, you refer someone to buy a site… you get cash…cool… affiliate marketing! Well not really… it’s more multi-level marketing (MLM) made famous by the likes of Amway. Please note I haven’t said pyramid scheme. (But if it quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck???)
Marketing tactics
Now I don’t profess to be a SEO guru, but I like to think I know a thing or two about internet marketing having worked in CPC, CPA, and CPM environments. The marketing tactics of Guy McLaren are what initially grabbed my attention and prompted this post. Guy is traffic crazy, and will do just about anything to increase the number of visits to his site, or the sites of his clients. (He wants people to visit his clients because they like seeing the traffic figures, and he likes the exposure which could mean that people will want his product.)
All traffic is good traffic apparently! This post is long enough without having to go into the topic of traffic quality.
Guy submits his, and his clients stories to sites like Muti and others in order to promote them. Now I have nothing against people promoting their business, however these sites are not the place for it. These are community sites where users recommend content which the community is interested in. If people are interested in the content it gets voted up, if not it gets voted down- simple. Now Guy’s submissions are getting much love from these sites and in fact he has been condemned as a spammer. I have to agree with the community that when you consistently submit your ‘own’ content which has proved to be unpopular in the past then you really need to get the message or you will be branded a spammer.
Guy has now taken to educating his clients on social network ettiquette.
My problem here is that Guys' clients look to him for professional advice... hell... they paid for it, and in my opinion... they're not getting it here.
All in all, I have to commend Guy McLaren on what is a very clever idea, however it just rubs me up the wrong way personally.
There is this chap in Nelspruit called Guy McLaren. Guy owns and operates a business called Trafficdepartment.co.za, which sells people websites and the promise of wealth. This I don’t have a problem with and I wish the man all the best in his venture- if he is able to get muppets... I mean- people- to buy his ‘solution’ then hell- why not.
My issue comes in his tactics, premise, and altogether blatant drivel that he is purporting. However this post is not meant to be a personal flaming of Guy but an analysis of his offering, revenue model, and marketing tactics. Albeit with a slightly negative tone. (I stand corrected on everything a say from here on.)
Offering
TrafficDepartment offer domain registration and hosting with their own CMS for R395.00. Fair enough- not a lot of money at all. In fact there is even a 30day money back guarantee! However… not much detail is given on what you get for your money. Ie. Is this shared hosting? Where is it hosted? Most people won’t need to know this info but it does make a difference when you’re trying to run a business which is after all what Guy is offering.
The R395.00 gets you the basic site, however if you want to actually be involved in e-commerce you’ll need to add on extra bits and pieces for just under R2000.00. So in other words your R395.00 gets you a blog! Ummm… did I miss something or did wordpress, blogger, et al just go out of business because I could’ve sworn it was free to setup, run, and maintain a blog. This has been addressed elsewhere and so I won’t dwell on it.
Let’s have a look at the ecommerce offering: It costs just under R2k however… you can get a better looking, more robust, highly trusted solution for the extreme sum of ZERO… free…gratis…osCommerce.
As for the statement that you will be listed on Google SA within 2 days… SFW… anyone can submit their URL to Google (or any major search engine) and the bots will crawl the site. Is Guy honestly charging for a service which anyone with 5 minutes to spare can do themselves?
I don’t know about you but if I had paid for Guys’ services I would be feeling rather bleak right now knowing I had been fleeced of my cash.
Revenue Model
So how is Guy making all this money? Selling websites? Yeah I suppose he’s squeezing a few quid out of this, but the trick lies in how these websites are linked together. Using the trafficdepartment ‘solution’ means you join a little circle of people who also have one of their sites, and their posts are fed into your blog. What happens here is that you get the same users floating around eachothers blogs/sites creating a little community… very sweet! The kicker is that, if, as a trafficdepartment site, you refer someone to buy a site… you get cash…cool… affiliate marketing! Well not really… it’s more multi-level marketing (MLM) made famous by the likes of Amway. Please note I haven’t said pyramid scheme. (But if it quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck???)
Marketing tactics
Now I don’t profess to be a SEO guru, but I like to think I know a thing or two about internet marketing having worked in CPC, CPA, and CPM environments. The marketing tactics of Guy McLaren are what initially grabbed my attention and prompted this post. Guy is traffic crazy, and will do just about anything to increase the number of visits to his site, or the sites of his clients. (He wants people to visit his clients because they like seeing the traffic figures, and he likes the exposure which could mean that people will want his product.)
All traffic is good traffic apparently! This post is long enough without having to go into the topic of traffic quality.
Guy submits his, and his clients stories to sites like Muti and others in order to promote them. Now I have nothing against people promoting their business, however these sites are not the place for it. These are community sites where users recommend content which the community is interested in. If people are interested in the content it gets voted up, if not it gets voted down- simple. Now Guy’s submissions are getting much love from these sites and in fact he has been condemned as a spammer. I have to agree with the community that when you consistently submit your ‘own’ content which has proved to be unpopular in the past then you really need to get the message or you will be branded a spammer.
Guy has now taken to educating his clients on social network ettiquette.
My problem here is that Guys' clients look to him for professional advice... hell... they paid for it, and in my opinion... they're not getting it here.
All in all, I have to commend Guy McLaren on what is a very clever idea, however it just rubs me up the wrong way personally.
Labels: guy mclaren, muti, Technology, web 2.0
posted by Grant Sidwell at Wednesday, September 05, 2007
18 Comments:
Brilliantly written analysis of issues that I have been trying to get to grips to. I will add this post to my "controversial" post regarding the topic.
Also note that I will be adding this post to muti. Great stuff.
Thanks Nic, I've made some sweeping assumptions (educated guesses) here, but on the whole I reckon I'm not far off. For extra fun look at the preview picture on Alexa.com for Trafficdepartment.co.za... he's obviously pissed someone off.
Another thing that I find odd is that even though Guy consistently claims that these other sites are different people they are all registered in his name (Wind Whisperer, Madgenius and possibly others). So either they are actually all his, or he is registering his clients sites in his name and thus retaining control and ownership of the domain names. I wonder, if its the latter case is he making his clients aware of this and the implications of it.
Neville- Amazing.. if he is retaining the registration, you could call it outright theft! People are paying for something which they don't actually own. (Wonder what the number is for the Scorpions back in SA?, or maybe we get Carte Blanche to have a go at him.
I stumbled upon your blog from a search engine and I'm just wondering what the issue is here.
Why is it that you are so dead against this person? Did he do something to you? Or is it just professional jealousy?
Surely you shouldn't be threatened by someone 6000 miles away from you?
Surely it has NOTHING to do with you?
I went on the trafficdepartment site to see what the hoo-ha is all about and see that you have hacked into the site. That's a bit pathetic.
Dear anon-
Thank you for your comment. I will address you questions seperately:
"Why is it that you are so dead against this person? Did he do something to you? Or is it just professional jealousy?"
- I don't like how he uses a site I use, that is what he did to me. What I have against him is that he's charging people for things which are free and better elsewhere, and he's professing to bve an expert when in actual fact he's not.
"Surely you shouldn't be threatened by someone 6000 miles away from you? Surely it has NOTHING to do with you?"
- I'll answer your question with another question- If you witness a crime but are not directly involved/affected... does it have something to do with you? Would you not feel compelled to do something?
"I went on the trafficdepartment site to see what the hoo-ha is all about and see that you have hacked into the site. That's a bit pathetic."
- I agree that it is a bit pathetic... however it was not me that did it. Looking at my blog, does it look like I have the technical know-how in order to do that? I am hoping to engage with Guy, and give him a chance to defend himself, attacking his site is hardly in my interests.
Thank you again for your comment.
I will engage but next week when my broadband is back on line
I was one of the silly/foolish/gullible people who fell for Guy's offer. He's very active on a wonderful SA networking site called My Genius. I have posted a little of my story there http://www.mygenius.com/Blogs/tabid/73/view/blogView/id/1598/default.aspx
but I'm very grateful to fiinally find balanced feedback around my issues with Guy having registered my domain name in HIS name and that he now tells me he owns it. He has offered to give it back but until I can find somewhere else to host it, I have yet to see if he'll be true to his word. What I don't like is that he has repeatedly implied in numerous places on My Genius, that I am over-reacting and that I'm a case of sour-grapes.
I'm actually just disappointed to have been sold a "website" that is merely a blog covered in his branding. I think I've done way better at no cost with my Blogger blog.
I've decided to use my Guy MacLaren purchase, while I'm still locked into it, to at least save me some face if people land up on the mess that is mine and have posted an entry to explain my situation. I wonder if it will be wiped out or not...
http://touchingsa.co.za/viewblog.asp?id=219
I think you should all leave him alone, those of us that have bought his services and are using them are quite happy with the sites and results. Despite childish little comments from a couple of kids.
I have responded to all allegations on the site http://www.trafficdepartment.co.za including those of Jeanna Dew.
Feel free to visit and comment.
The funny thing is, that one of Guy's so-called 'happy clients', has turned to me for help because he's so unhappy with his crappy website. I'm sure many of Guy's clients will be doing this shortly.
I find your online slandering of Guy McLaren to be offensive.
Not only offensive, but incorrect too. You say that R395 is being asked for a blog which can be got elsewhere for free, and you give as examples WordPress and blogger.
That is irrelevant.
Not only is it irrelevant, but it also misstates the truth. Signing up for a free blog does not give you a co.za domain, which the R395 does.
Not only the co.za domain, but also the hosting for that for 12 months. That is an exceptionally good offering.
You need to offer Guy an apology and remove your slander. You ought to be sued for publishing your unfounded attack.
Richard- thank you for your comment.
There is very little more that can be said about this topic, it really has run it'd course now- surely.
As for what you have said- the fact is that for R395 you don't get a .co.za domain, it's not registered in your name. Before commenting again please take the time to read all 3 posts I have written on this topic.
As for an apology- fat chance- although I have (in other posts) said I would happily eat my words if I'm proven wrong. So far the strength on my argument has only improved. As for being sued- ROTFLMAO!
I have spoken to Guy McLaren today on the telephone and he gave me what I consider to be a satisfactory explanation for the co.za domains being registered in his name instead of his clients.
Fact is, it's not theft to register domains in the ISP's name. Uniforum SA encourages ISPs to register domains in their clients' names, it does not require them to do so. ISPs are free to draw up their own terms and conditions and enter into contracts on different terms.
The point is that the blog is hosted on a custom domain name (of the client's choosing), not on a subdomain of a third party's domain name. Who actually owns the domain is beside the point I was making.
As it turns out, Guy has made it clear to me that he considers the domains he registers for others as owned by them, not by himself, and will rectify the registrant information.
Guy does regret the souring of the business relationship he had with Jeanna Dew and is prepared to rectify matters with her. He has offered her a full refund and will transfer her domain to a server she designates with corrected registrant information. Today he began forwarding her .co.za domain onto her .com domain. He now awaits any further instructions she may have for him.
I direct criticism at you for the nonconstructive manner in which you have chosen to respond to this situation with Guy. You have not sort to improve matters. Your sole aim seems to have been to heap derision on Guy and slander his person and his business.
You seem to consider it amusing that this is in fact legally actionable behaviour that you have chosen to indulge in.
Ahh... Richard Catto.
Your Usenet reputation precedes you. I think I won't waste my time.
Ah yes, Richard Catto the infamous Usenet troll and mail bomber. It's a real shame he still bandies his name about on various forums.
Guy used to be The Formula One Property Guy but he couldnt cut it - during the property boom! This guy is pathetic! Formula One everything but he drives a fucked up old Mercedes!
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