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[Missed Opportunity Inside] - Why aWeber is Dropping The Ball...

by iSoftware
23 replies
I don't know about you all but I often read aweber's blog. What I'm nonplussed about is the fact that THEY HAVE NO MEMBER FORUM.

Can anyone explain this? Such a forum would be an ideal platform for other list owners to meet each other...

Hell, aweber could take a cut of any JVs that went down if it wanted to. I think this idea should be communicated en masse to Management. If you think this is a good idea, please join me in sending an email to support about this.

Like I said, the blog is great but a memebership forum would be even BETTER.... - thoughts?
#aweber #ball #dropping #inside #missed #opportunity
  • Profile picture of the author ArticlePrince
    I'm not sure how different it would be from this forum, I guess it would be entirely focused on email marketing. I think it could be helpful, but aweber has a pretty solid income structure already; I'm not sure that they would add a forum. Good idea though :-)
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    • Profile picture of the author iSoftware
      Originally Posted by ArticlePrince View Post

      I'm not sure how different it would be from this forum, I guess it would be entirely focused on email marketing. I think it could be helpful, but aweber has a pretty solid income structure already; I'm not sure that they would add a forum. Good idea though :-)
      It would be drastically different. For one, there are alot of list owners outside of the IM niche who use aweber and don't know anything about Warrior Forum. IMHO, outside of the IM niche there's not a very centralized place where list owners can connect to work together.

      The point is as one of the big 3 email marketing companies, we all know that their customers obviously own lists and they could provide better customer service by aiding customers to work together....as for profit, well I don't know if aweber is publicly traded, but last time I check CNBC, the need for more profit was always saliently present...lol
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      • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
        Originally Posted by moneykws View Post

        It would be drastically different. For one, there are alot of list owners outside of the IM niche who use aweber and don't know anything about Warrior Forum.
        I think you would be surprised at how many people on the WF have no direct
        revenue from the IM niche.

        But, if people own Aweber, they are running an online business and are just as likely to
        be here. Anybody who owns an Aweber account has to have some kind of interest
        in IM, running an online list by definition means your in IM, you're marketing on the
        internet.

        IMHO, outside of the IM niche there's not a very centralized place where list owners can connect to work together.
        Possibly but you have to ask what's the benefit to Aweber?

        It's unlikely to increase sales but does generate a crap load of extra work for them
        potentially allows competitors to PM big list owners scraping for business and so on.

        For reference I own 2 forums, in different niches, both paying members only,
        just 15,000 odd in each, and I need 3 mods/advisors on both forums to keep
        control of it, offer advice, etc, keep thread organized, and so on.

        The membership only model assists, but it's not some kind of failsafe against
        morons.

        It's not a great sell to the Aweber guys even if it's nice idea in theory .

        we all know that their customers obviously own lists and they could provide better customer service by aiding customers to work together...
        Hmm, not so sure really, why would aiding customer interaction improve their
        customer service, past their traditional mediums of support?


        I can understand why you might fancy the idea, but there's not much
        "what's in it for me" factor going on from Awebers perspective.
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  • Profile picture of the author iSoftware
    BTW, I have no kind of business incentive here I am just racking my brain trying to figure out why nobody else seems to scream about this!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Janice Sperry
    I think it is a great idea. There are tons of ways to use Aweber that could be shared. Members could share testing results and help each other with working around glitches, etc. They have a great simple system with good support but having actual users assisting each other would be win-win.
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  • Profile picture of the author jjpmarketing
    Blogs are a means to maintaining full control over the content. It is focused and delivered solely by the author, in this case... aweber.

    Forums are dominantly end-user generated content. Lack of focus, huge overhead in maintaining the site, as well as a constant pain of dealing with spam via PM's, Useless threads, misinformation, flaming, etc. etc.

    Blogs also prevent a lot of the user generated garbage from rising to the surface... as you could easily keep out the wannabes from delivering bad advice and bad information.

    Lastly, why would aweber want to give competitors direct access to their clients? A forum doesn't make sense for aweber as a business. It would only benefit end-users looking to drum up business off of aweber's clients.

    Why let anyone get access to promote to their clients? They have email marketing that allows them to promote to their users for various products and services anytime they want. Why let all the average joes out there promote to these clients completely bypassing the effort they put into gaining those clients?

    It is simple. They don't. They won't. It just doesn't make sense for aweber to do something like that.

    Dennis
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    • Profile picture of the author Dietriffic
      Originally Posted by jjpmarketing View Post

      Forums are dominantly end-user generated content. Lack of focus, huge overhead in maintaining the site, as well as a constant pain of dealing with spam via PM's, Useless threads, misinformation, flaming, etc. etc.
      If it was restricted to paying members, surely this would be at a minimum?

      An ad swap area would be an interesting feature. Where people who are willing, place their list in a category and other paying members can browse who's in the same niche and willing to ad swap.
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      • Profile picture of the author jjpmarketing
        Originally Posted by Dietriffic View Post

        If it was restricted to paying members, surely this would be at a minimum?

        An ad swap area would be an interesting feature. Where people who are willing, place their list in a category and other paying members can browse who's in the same niche and willing to ad swap.

        I have been a mod for this exact model. It still has the same problems as the free ones do.
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    • Profile picture of the author iSoftware
      Originally Posted by jjpmarketing View Post

      Blogs are a means to maintaining full control over the content. It is focused and delivered solely by the author, in this case... aweber.

      Forums are dominantly end-user generated content. Lack of focus, huge overhead in maintaining the site, as well as a constant pain of dealing with spam via PM's, Useless threads, misinformation, flaming, etc. etc.

      Blogs also prevent a lot of the user generated garbage from rising to the surface... as you could easily keep out the wannabes from delivering bad advice and bad information.

      Lastly, why would aweber want to give competitors direct access to their clients? A forum doesn't make sense for aweber as a business. It would only benefit end-users looking to drum up business off of aweber's clients.

      Why let anyone get access to promote to their clients? They have email marketing that allows them to promote to their users for various products and services anytime they want. Why let all the average joes out there promote to these clients completely bypassing the effort they put into gaining those clients?

      It is simple. They don't. They won't. It just doesn't make sense for aweber to do something like that.

      Dennis
      You're failing to see the full dynamics of the end-user value proposition. I'm talking about offering more value added to the aweber membership base.
      And, surely if enough of us vocalized a desire to connect with other aweber users (just like for instance Wordpress users connect)....well, I doubt that aweber, in a competitive market economy wouldn't take notice.

      In terms of "direct access", well the average well-educated aweber user has enough information about all of aweber's competitors that I really don't think that's an issue.

      I'm seeing the concept of building a real community - based on sharing crowd-sourced best practices and growth through cooperation vs. competition - that IMHO can grow around the aweber product.

      Even offline events would be great....I personally would make the trip to almost anywhere it was held if I knew I stood the opportunity of connecting with many people who were list-owners specifically lookng to connect with other list-owners - OUTSIDE OF THE IM NICHE....

      The main issue for me is that there seems to be a bottomless abyss of nothingness when it comes to a cohesive platform - outside of the IM niche - where list asset holders could connect.....

      just my thoughts....
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      • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
        Originally Posted by moneykws View Post

        You're failing to see the full dynamics of the end-user value proposition. .
        Do you have a slot in your filofax, can we do lunch ?

        Sorry, it's an in joke, and perhaps I'm the only one laughing inside.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mokai
    it would be interesting in the fact that it would make list swapping a lot easier i can even see how they could intergrate that as a feature into the system, but like mentioned above i doubt they would make any changes like that, there are some affiliates / list builders that prefer to not socialize with anyone lol
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  • Profile picture of the author iSoftware
    PS
    In the name of good old fashioned textbook economics, in the event that aweber doesn't respond to the need for a users' forum - well such a platform could potentially be a great idea for a proactive business person. A membership site or forum specifically dedicated to said ideas mentioned....

    God knows there's enough people who use aweber....
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  • Profile picture of the author glynlafferty
    Great idea on a forum. It may be an opportunity for someone to set it up and then contact aweber and see if they will promote it to there client base. There be alot of money to be made from a forum like this
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Antoni
      I think a lot of aweber customers would use a forum if it was available. And for us it would be great. The chance to talk to different list owners and strike backroom deals.

      Very exciting!

      Submit this idea to Aweber. The worse they can say is no. And if so you can start your own.
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      • Profile picture of the author iSoftware
        Originally Posted by Mike Antoni View Post

        I think a lot of aweber customers would use a forum if it was available. And for us it would be great. The chance to talk to different list owners and strike backroom deals.

        Very exciting!

        Submit this idea to Aweber. The worse they can say is no. And if so you can start your own.
        <=== This. I'm fine with people who use aweber and have no interest in interacting with other aweber users. The entire post was about the simple idea that aweber could be a fantastic touch point for connecting on deals.

        If enough of us see this as valuable and are market consumers willing to pay a price (if necessary) the economics would make sense.

        It's never a good idea for a company to ignore the needs of its pre-existing customers....
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Blaze
    A forum would mean more staff, more pay and more trouble for them!

    They have a support system already and the only real value from them having a forum would be for support.

    That being said if you did a JV deal with someone on aweber's own forum and they lied, stole or didn't deliver on their promises then you would turn to aweber and why on earth would they want to deal with more problems?

    Mark Blaze
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    • Profile picture of the author searchnology
      I agree, for a company that sells a product/service, a forum mostly becomes a customer support channel that requires more resources (same for some web2.0 properties as well)...I've seen it too many times and I usually try to steer my clients away from this idea.

      A better approach for Aweber might be something like the WSO area of this forum or a "classified ad" section where people could pay to post email marketing related "needs" and/or "opportunities" for projects/services. This would eliminate the support aspect and would require much fewer resources.

      ...my two cents.

      Originally Posted by Mark Blaze View Post

      A forum would mean more staff, more pay and more trouble for them!

      They have a support system already and the only real value from them having a forum would be for support.

      That being said if you did a JV deal with someone on aweber's own forum and they lied, stole or didn't deliver on their promises then you would turn to aweber and why on earth would they want to deal with more problems?

      Mark Blaze
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      • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
        You're failing to see the full dynamics of the end-user value proposition. I'm talking about offering more value added to the aweber membership base.
        The fact that a person disagrees with you does not always mean they missed your point. It may mean they got it and think it's wrong.

        If you don't see how someone could abuse such a service, you're probably not familiar with what's involved in maintaining a forum. Especially in this market. The idea has merit, but it's not the sort of thing most service providers are going to want to run. And that's probably smart of them.

        Why not do it yourself? Here are some domains that are currently available...

        listownersforum.com
        list-owners.net
        listforum.net
        emailmarketingforum.net
        mailercentral.net
        mailertalk.net
        listtalk.net


        Paul
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        • Profile picture of the author iSoftware
          Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

          The fact that a person disagrees with you does not always mean they missed your point. It may mean they got it and think it's wrong.

          If you don't see how someone could abuse such a service, you're probably not familiar with what's involved in maintaining a forum. Especially in this market. The idea has merit, but it's not the sort of thing most service providers are going to want to run. And that's probably smart of them.

          Why not do it yourself? Here are some domains that are currently available...

          listownersforum.com
          list-owners.net
          listforum.net
          emailmarketingforum.net
          mailercentral.net
          mailertalk.net
          listtalk.net


          Paul
          ...Just found out that GetResponse.com just set up a forum - will investigate why....
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  • Profile picture of the author Amy Carczak
    Running a good forum takes a LOT of
    work and effort to get started and then
    to maintain it --- ask the Warrior Forum
    mods ...

    Aweber should stick to what they do best
    and let the forum people stick to what they
    do best.
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  • Profile picture of the author jjpmarketing
    Aweber specializes in the Email Autoresponder product itself. Much like WordPress they leave the aftermarket stuff to the aftermarket developers. For WordPress it is plugins. For Aweber it is the forum that you are interested in seeing them provide.

    Aweber provides the facilities for you to do the JV's with their shared list feature. However they aren't going to setup a spamming platform for users to start spamming JV requests via a PM system that is available on all forum platforms.

    They aren't going to hand you a million dollar business on a silver platter. You are going to have to earn your keep. However they will provide a tool for you to setup that million dollar business.

    As far as direct access goes... Every forum in existence that is connected to a major product, be it hosting, membership scripts, etc. all have to deal with the headache of the spammed account creation that is simply setup to facilitate attack campaigns on a product.

    User signs up for forum. User makes a few "that's cool, thanks, how do i..., blah blah blah" posts until they reach the limit set by the admin where they can post links in a signature, advert board, or whatever.

    Some will even go so far as to setup an army of accounts over the course of a year... for the sole purpose of posting an attack post along the lines of "company soandso sucks... or doesn't measure up... blah blah blah" all while they have a competitors link in their signature. Or better yet affiliate links to competing products. These can even be delivered via PM.

    While in theory having a forum would create mroe interaction with its members it would also open the flood gates to PR issues due to these spammers putting misinformation on their forum. While yes you can delete posts and things of that nature... what happens in 60 seconds on a high traffic site can alter thousands of people's opinions good and bad through word of mouth long after the post has been deleted.

    A forum is not a good idea for Aweber.

    Got a question about Email Marketing? Read their blog.

    Still don't get the concept of what you are reading? Open a ticket on their helpdesk software. They will be more than happy to answer whatever question you might send them... especially best practices as they try to stay on the up and up when it comes to good practices.

    With all that being said... if you still can't get your questions answered... there is tiny little forum... hold on... i have to go find the link...

    (oh nevermind its presently in my URL bar... warriorforum.com)

    that has all kinds of networking and discussion about marketing in general as well as Email Marketing.

    And what you don't find there is best learned through experiences of implementing, testing, tweaking, etc. your Email Marketing practices.

    So I do see the value for the end-user... however, there would be a negative ROI for Aweber.

    Dennis
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  • Profile picture of the author CianMcCarthy
    Banned
    Aweber don't need a forum, do getresponse have one?
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