SoCal Bryan

done

bizxpress, I had completely forgotten about you and this thread until I received an email from SBI this week stating you are clearing your email lists and I’d have to opt in to continue receiving emails… something I never opted into in the first place as mentioned in my original review.

You say I slipped through the cracks for 3 months. That’s a bit hard to believe considering your person handling your YouTube and Vimeo channels began a direct interaction with me about my comments there trying to get you to respond to this thread 3 months ago. Since my comments were apparently damaging to your messaging, that person locked all comments to your channels, labeled me a troll before locking comments, claimed to know nothing about the thread here, but committed to informing proper personnel to follow-up. My suspicion (may or may not be valid) is that release of Panda 4 gave you some cover in your responses above.

Really? The Google slapping of a reportedly very large percentage of your customer base was their own faults and Google’s fault? Your system is just as effective and proven as ever, it’s just that Google screwed up and a vast amount of your customers did too? I don’t buy it after everything I’ve mentioned above in this thread.

I do notice that you pick and choose which aspects of my above questions to which you’re willing to respond. You left a lot unanswered. I’m not going to step through your responses or press for real answers to the more challenging bits because it no longer matters to me. The whole experience has reinforced my initial statement in my opening review to recommend people reading these reviews “run away” from your product and your company. I honestly don’t trust you, and ended up purchasing Link Assistant’s SEO Powersuite for some great tools from a company that appears to be very proactive about assisting their customers navigate changes in the SEO environment and evolving realities.

They just began to engage the YouTube comments I mention above, and the person responding there claimed to be unaware of the thread here. I am asking them to request the responsible person to re-engage here. Could you please give it time instead of locking it?

In a comment above, I mention commenting on BizXpress YouTube promotional videos in an attempt to bring them back to this conversation they are blatantly avoiding. Within 24 hours of doing so, they again responded with lightning speed, but now labeling me a troll and stating while they were busy with an attempt to get answers for me (really a month wasn’t enough?) my latest comments show I’m disingenuine and they won’t converse with me. I responded refuting that claim and asking them to engage substantively in the conversation here. see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XBbTxtGjx8

Here are their comments and my reply for reference:

SiteSell

Bryan, I left your first comment and was actually trying to get you an answer. But then you copy and pasted the same thing to another of our videos and now this. You obviously do not care about a resolution, but are simply trolling. We won’t play those games.?
Reply ·

Bryan

Pretty convenient to call me a troll and avoid substantive responses to issues I and others have raised in the WordPress repository. You responded with lightning speed to my initial review there. When I asked you to substantiate some of your claims and answer some difficult but sincere product questions you left the conversation and have ignored repeated attempts at dialogue for over a month. Don’t pretend you were unaware because the WP repository notifies you of comments in the thread. So it is because I genuinely do want answers and resolution that I brought the conversation to your promotional videos to prod you to answer. And it worked since you again responded with lightning speed! Rather than call me a troll and using it as an excuse to avoid a substantive conversation, can you now please address the issues and questions in the review threads I reference in my comments here??

If you visit the bizXpress website, you’ll see they are using vimeo versions of their promotional videos instead of YouTube. On Vimeo they can lock out comments, negative reviews, and thumbs down that are possible with YouTube. On Vimeo only positive feedback via “like” can get through. Convenient. It seems they’re trying to insulate themselves from the overwhelmingly negative reviews their product has received, and from difficult inquiries like mine.

Since BizXpress appears to be blatantly ignoring my sincere questions and inquiries in this thread, I’ve commented on their two YouTube marketing videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XBbTxtGjx8 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aITcmogy1VM ) suggesting viewers read this thread and the “Disingenuous at Best” review thread, and challenging SiteSell to substantiate their claims made here and answer my questions with specifics and substance. The videos reference “proven” methods, tools, and education, and suggest Brainstorm It will allow users to “dominate search results”. These are some of the exact vagaries I’ve asked them to substantiate here given the great upheaval created by Google algorithm changes. SiteSell, your methods were proven in the old SEO world, but win us over with substance explaining why your methods, tools, and education are valid in today’s world, why we should believe your service is better than the competition (as you clearly asserted), how you have adjusted your methods, tools, and education to fit the new realities, and how deep is your commitment to WordPress users.

For everybody reading reviews, apparently BizXpress isn’t willing to substantiate their claims made in this thread and answer sincere questions if they’re hard questions. They jumped on a response to my initial review with lightning speed, I assume for damage control. The system here notifies posters of new posts in a thread they’re part of, so I can’t imagine they don’t know of my multiple responses and rounds of questions. It appears they know they don’t have any valid answers to any of my very sincere and valid concerns & questions, so are choosing to ignore my inquiries. Considering this is a public forum they apparently hoped to be a primary sales channel, it’s surprising they would take this approach. Their silence seems to validate my initial gut reaction of “RUN AWAY”! If you’re out there somewhere with substantive honest answers BizXpress, we’re listening.

bizXpress, I’m still hoping you are willing to answer my above questions with specifics and not vagaries. Please give specifics to convince us of the superiority of your product, and that you are putting serious effort into helping your customers succeed in today’s SEO environment.

I also want to ask you to respond with specifics to the very fair review by KeepitReal titled “Disingenuous at best”. The two things in that review I especially want to see addressed, WITH Specifics, are as follows:

That reviewer has a very valid point about basing one’s business model on a complete reliance on dominating organic search traffic, which your method seems to do. If it is an accurate assessment that your method does rely principally on organic search traffic please explain why you think that is a superior model in today’s SEO environment. If your method doesn’t depend completely on organic search, or you are moving away from depending completely on organic search traffic, please explain specifics of what your model does emphasize to succeed in today’s SEO and online marketing environment.

The second issue I’d like to see addressed from the “Disinginuous at Best” review is your company’s commitment to making bizXpress the best tool possible for WordPress users. The reviewer referred to statements by Ken Evoy on SiteSell forums intimating that bizXpress is only a vehicle to raise capital to better fund the SBI service, and that he has no intention of fully developing the bizXpress plugin & service. I’ve seen reference to those comments by Evoy in other venues as well, with the bizXpress plugin not referred to as a useful plugin, but rather a “free trial”, and that Evoy has no intention to put money into “developing a real plugin” which would suggest even he doesn’t view the current plugin as a fully functional plugin. The whole argument over whether this current plugin should be considered a plugin has been authoritatively answered by moderators here. I want you to state your intentions regarding your commitment to WP users and further depeloping the plugin, service, and model to the changing SEO environment and user’s needs.

Again, I’m inviting you to win us over with specifics! Have at it!

BizXpress,

I’ll point out up front I’m neither pro nor con SiteSell or SBI. Any mention I made of your company’s other products are highly relevant to my review of this product. As stated at the beginning of my review, I was drawn to your other product at one time in the past, but the inability to use WordPress and have your tools together was the dealbreaker for me. I, and people reading this review, need those references for context to make the most sense of my review. I would have never even considered trying BizXpress if I weren’t aware of its connection to SiteSell and SBI. Since BizXpress appears to be a divorcing of your SEO tools and methodology from your proprietary site development platform (in my mind a good thing since I was unwilling to buy into your proprietary system), I don’t think it’s a healthy discussion to completely refuse to discuss SBI here if you want to convince people in this community (myself included) that your product is worth $150 a year in comparison to other tools available on the market.

I’ve got a series of questions I’ll ask below to give you the chance to clarify, and perhaps change my mind and other prospective users reading this review.

Regarding my mention of the action guide and SBI customers being Google-slapped strictly adhering to the SBI version of the action guide, I’ve got a few questions. How does the bizXpress action guide differ from the SBI action guide? Please be specific. There’s plenty of documentation out there of disgruntled SiteSell customers who saw their traffic and income evaporate after Panda & Penguin. In fairness this happened to many regardless of platform. However, it is very relevant for prospective customers of bizXpress. If you seek to minimize the concerns of customers who followed your system and saw their business collapse, you can’t expect people to see your company as one of integrity and trustworthiness. Additionally, if the bizXpress action guide isn’t significantly different from the SBI action guide, and isn’t innovative in the post Panda & Penguin world, you’re expecting a generally saavy WP community to buy into a system that is proven in the old world of SEO but not today’s. Without giving lite users full access to the whole action guide, instead of just 30% of it, users can’t really get a good idea of how relevant your method is in today’s world without making a $150 gamble. I know your method has been historically effective since I’ve repeatedly stumbled upon your customers ranking highly with quality content when searching for content for personal use. But in today’s environment, you can’t validly claim what worked then works and is proven today. Convince me, and prospective customers, that bizXpress isn’t just your old system recycled and that you’ve put deep thought into making your bizXpress work in todays SEO environment.

Regarding the tools themselves. You state: “While Brainstorm It! does utilize some WordTracker data, it’s not simply a rebranding of WT’s tools. Far from it. BI! is the product of thousands of person-hours pulling in an array of technologies that work in concert to deliver incredibly relevant data. It’s not just cheerleading – our keyword tool doesn’t have an equal in the market.” Perhaps my suggestion you just rebrand WordTracker tools wasn’t specific enough. You clearly use their data within your own unique interfaces, with your own branding, and your own terminology. I’d concede that your tools probably integrate other data sources as you state. Here’s what matters though. Are you claiming that your tools are so unique that the WP community can’t use other tools to obtain equally “incredibly relevant data” and perform critical decision making obtained by those tools? Are you suggesting users of WordTracker, SEO Powersuite, or any of the other popular tools can’t arrive at highly relevant data for niche selection & keyword research? If you are claiming your tool is superior to all other tools on the market, i.e. “doesn’t have an equal in the market”, then please explain specifically the competetive advantages of your toolset over the competitions. If you can do so, you’ll probably be able to gain my business and that of many more in the WordPress community. If you can’t demonstrate specifically how your service and tools are superior, most here will decide your words are vague hype without substance. Give us substance and win us over.

Regarding the content problem I brought to light. I appreciate your explanation and concession this was a mistake. At the same time, it brings more questions and concerns to mind. If it had been an issue of machine filtering content to swap out SBI for bizXpress, one could understand how this slipped by. But for a human to do so by hand is even more egregious. Unless the person just mindlessly combed content for “SBI” and literally just plugged in “bizXpress”, there’s no way they could not have noticed the contextual differences & consequences. Perhaps more concerning is your admission that you wanted to recycle a large amount of content for use in bizXpress. As I’ve already pointed out, it seriously matters to me and others that you demonstrate you’ve made a concentrated effort to not rest on past successes and evolve your methodology to reflect today’s SEO realities. You’ve admitted to rebranding content without any consideration of context within the content itself. This is also a tacit admission that your content reflects old realities, and doesn’t appear to even attempt to address today’s realities. Sure, I noticed you have a content section that mentions Panda.

Show us that, on the whole, you’ve adjusted your entire system, action guide, and content to be successful in the post Panda & Penguin world. Claims of past success in the old world won’t cut it in this saavy community. You need to show us how you’re evolving to make your customers succeed today and tomorrow. If you can do that, you’ll win our business. If not, my instinct will remain to say “run away!”.