ViralURL is Virally Filling Up my Inbox!
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The other day Simon pointed me out to a website called ViralUrl. I was interested and curious on the concept on how this will work. The system is a url/link cloaking concept but with a twist, there is a bar either at the top or on the bottom with the ViralUrl button.
The unique thing about this is the affiliate URL is cloaked (as if it is in a frame) but if the buyer decides not to buy the desired affiliate product they may be looking at the ViralUrl button or an advertiser in the middle. A person earns credit by either clicking on the an advertisers link, earning credits can get you more visibility and maybe even access to a bigger lists, not really sure.
The really neat thing about this system is if someone clicks on ViraUrl via the toolbar and signs up, that person becomes a prospect or lead to you. This allows you to easily build your list with ease. Now if that person promotes ViralUrl or uses it cloak one of their affiliate links and someone signs up for ViralUrl, that person also becomes part of your list. (am I confusing you) That means you can have a huge list by simply just cloaking your list. I believe the system allows you to get users list up to 5 deep, yes this is similar to a tier system. Here is a better explanation, watch video:
The Very Bad Part:
I have only played with ViralUrl for about 10 minutes. I found it to be a great idea then a couple days after, yesterday, and now this morning – spam with affiliate links in them: http://viralurl.com/USERNAME/KEYWORD. I started to get piss because I went straight to ViralUrl and not via a bar. So I was confused on how the system really worked.My inbox literally had about 10 emails promoting something recent or a popular product with the url format above. I was beginning to think how is this so, I started to read ViralUrl but found nothing on how someone would have access to email me, maybe the premium upgrade? Not really sure. I went to my account and logged in and tried to find an option to remove myself from this attack, I found nothing.
Take a look at my Spam Box alone! I specifically searched for ViralUrl because it would be in the email body since the cloaking is under ViralUrl.
That is a lot of email that I receive which I did not optin to or participated in. I mean all I did was sign up under a free account and not via a bar, which would either put me under 5 tiers deep with a member. I am assuming this is for the upgraded pro version. So I decided to look into these emails, usually I should be able to opt-out, according to the CAN-Spam Act.
It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a “menu” of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender.
Guess what I found at the bottom of the footer email:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
By signing up as a ViralURL member on 01/31/2008 you agreed to receive this email at XXXXXX@somedestination.com.
To stop getting further emails, you need to upgrade or delete your ViralURL account.
To do that please login at http://ViralURL.com/login.php and click on the delete account link in the Edit Account section or click on the Upgrade button.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I need to upgrade! What kind of Force marketing is this! Forcing users to upgrade is an okay marketing tactic, but pisses people off like me. If there was a limit it would have been better, maybe even just adjust who can send to me or if I earn credits etc. But forcing users to upgrade to use a unique system, just so they do not receive tons of spam! There needs to be a better system to handle this. The CAN-Spam Act plays part in this, because I can not opt out from the users sending the email I just get mail from the central server! BAH!
Reading some of the emails, the bodies of emails were just poorly done and poorly written, not that I am an expert copywriter, but it seems that this is a way for people to attack and get a huge lists with no problem. Some emails were lengthy while others had a ‘Hi’ and then a link, WTF, honestly! I do email marketing but I gain my prospect honestly and do not make horrible messages to my readers or community.
The system is a great concept, it just need to think a little bit thorough so users that find this entertaining and helpful will not leave because of the simple annoyance of multiple spam!
So what did I do, I deleted my account and I am now ever happy. 
It’s a shame that programs with potential leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. Maybe they’ll work on it and improve.
I’ll ask Colin to see if he’ll take a look at this, and address the points you’ve raised. I think it’s only about 3 or 4 months old at the moment, so there’s plenty of room for fine tuning if required.
Thanks Simon for pointing me this way and also thanks Ian for trying the system and giving a fair review.
To clarify, the unique twist is that we allow you to build a downline within the program that you can mail every X days (as a free member it is 7).
The way we and our affiliates (Such as you if you promoted the site for example or if a visitor to your cloaked page joined under you at Viralurl and then upgraded) earn income is selling gold memberships. This allows you to email 3,000 random members every 3 days. The price for gold membership is not cheap and affiliates are therefore well rewarded for promoting.
The site, being a list builder is a more advanced ’safelist’, we are the same in terms of list building and random mailing as sites such as ListDotCom.com and ListJoe.com.
Regarding spam email, it is not spam because you, when joining, agreed to receive emails from your upline and random gold members. You can set a secondary email account in your profile to use with Viralurl and then only check it out sometimes, you could upgrade (this is a cheap monthly option that also awards you credits every month for advertising) or, as you ended up doing, you can remove your account.
In terms of the quality of emails being sent, that is entirely up to our members, we do try and administer some quality control, but mainly for bad content and misleading subject lines.
I hope that this helps you understand the purpose of our program a bit more.
> Lori
yup – I hope so, it looks like a good system
> Simon
Thanks!
> Colin
Thanks for the clarification. I understand the website and its purpose – maybe I worded it wrong, I always was bad at english =P. If everyone created an email just to capture spam then wouldn’t you think this system would be pointless? especially if marketers are using this, we would be blind to such emails because we ‘know’ the system?
Ian,
Viralurl has the highest response rates from members out of all the systems including listdotcom.ocm jistjoe.com listbandit.com and many others. Some of our members have done tests to back this up. I can’t guarantee that this will last but if you know how to use the mailer, members are making a lot of money and getting a lot of optins from other fellow members via the mailer.
> Colin
ViralUrl is a great concept, my first reaction when I received all the emails was ‘ergh’ – I might have to give it another try and create a false inbox as you have suggested.
Ian:
I thank you so much for your explanation on how to delete the account at ViralURL. I was sick and tired of getting all these emails day in and day out. I contacted them because I did not see where to delete, and never received a reply, but because of you I will have peace again. Oh what a relieve! Thanks again,
Anna Marie Menendez
ViralURL is sooo damn annoying. First, cloaking/masking urls has been around for like 10 years, it’s not a new concept to protect urls like this. However in my experience on high traffic sites, when I use the real aff url or I cloak it through an outgoing tracker, it makes no difference. I don’t loose 300%, not even 1% of my traffic. And if someone messes with my affiliate links they don’t steal my income?! lol. If they remove the tracking code they just end up at the wrong site if anysite at all. They probably aren’t the kind of people who are going to join a site anyway. The only exception I have found is when referring people to a site that is not through a broker, yes they could copy and paste the domain portion and not the tracking path/code. But they would instead just do that with viralurl and end up at the viralurl site with no referral from you.
When I joined I felt like I was being scammed, I was told I had just this one chance to take their gold membership offer, then I was given another final last chance but for less money. I figured, fine I’ll just rejoin if I have to later. But then I was given the chance to upgrade anytime as I suspected.
The worst people to market to are people who are already into affiliate marketing, why upgrade just to market to people who are going to ignore your emails or junk filter them or use an alt email account.
Yes, I agree with you, it is frustrating to see all the unsolicited email. Here is how I have been using Viral URL:
I upgraded to a ‘Gold’ account at a cost of about $200. This lets me email 3000 Viral URL every 3 days. This is where all the emails are coming from. To avoid cluttering up my inbox with all the emails, I simply created a new gmail account, and I have all the Viral URL emails sent there.
I have been generating fantastic results with the email blasts. Each time (remember, it’s every 3 days) I get dozens of people subscribing to my newsletter and website.
Food for thought….
Great Post, this stuff really is the next wave of the future.
Great post, thanks for the info
I’m tempted to upgrade to Gold membership since I joined but now I think I made up my mind. I will upgrade!
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