Tell me more ×
Answers OnStartups is a question and answer site for entrepreneurs looking to start or run a new business. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 1 down vote favorite

I was "prospected" as one of the top ecommerce providers of 2012 by IBtimes.com (yeah right). They said I could be a top listing if I paid them 5 K then I would get millions of users exposed to my stuff.

Is this BS? First of all, they are asking for paid advertising for their "best of 2012 ecommerce sites". That is hokey right? I was wondering if I should do it or not and any experiences you guys have with this type of thing would be useful. Unfortunately, the rich people I know don't tell me squat even though I'm not competing with them in the same industry so I need community advice.

Thanks.

share|improve this question
Sounds like a scam. How can it be "best of 2012 ecommerce sites" when they don't know you and it is only January. Caveat emptor. – Steve Jones Jan 23 '12 at 11:27
@SteveJones Yeah exactly. The only reason I mentioned is because they rank high in Alexa. But as I'm going along I'm seeing this practice. For example, in nopCommerce there is "parter" links that have nothing to do with ability. These are all paid placements. – zipstory.com Jan 23 '12 at 16:57

1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote

5k one time fee? a year? 5k a month? ... Typically if you are concerned about the return on investment you should setup a pay-per-click or pay-per-impression arrangement with them. Like $5 CPM - $5 for 1,000 impressions or something like that.

share|improve this answer
Its an article placement of the top 3 ecommerce development shops of 2012. It would be there archived permanently. Alexa ranks them pretty high if you check but wasn't sure. – zipstory.com Jan 23 '12 at 5:46
They are a Google page rank of 4... $5,000 is way too much to pay just for an inbound link of a page rank of 4 :] My site www.webascender.com has a PR of 6. I'll take $5,000 to link to your site haha! – Ryan Doom Jan 24 '12 at 4:40
IBTimes.com are 693 US ranking. On Alexa I see yours ranked at 117,320 in US. That's still pretty good ranking you have. I would love to pick your brain on SEO and all that since your site is doing well considering. I have a new CMS cloud service (REST interface with HTML5 front end) and would love some advice since I'm in a crowded space with a new technology approach to the old term "CMS" that gets lost in the crowd. – zipstory.com Jan 24 '12 at 5:28

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.