Dustin's New Co-Op?

[Davesbiz]

Hi Pipsters,

I have read some negative comments on Dustin's New Co-Op. Are there any positive comments? Anyone with a good experience with it?

Dave

[Jason Fulton]

What new coop is that ?

[Davesbiz]

It may be the old Plug in Profit Co-Op from Dustin Cannon with a whole lot of new features and improvements. Last year not many people were happy with the results, (including me,) but I was wondering if anyone has a good experience with the new features?

Dave

[dylliedyl]

Hi dave,
well i have been using it and it helps alot for the blog. Because of the articles you are given. there is also sometimes a press release offered at sign up. Another new feature is the submission of 1 article every month or so to high quality directories, and lots of them. My favourite feature would be the fact that you are given articles to post on your blog and there is also an auto blog posting feature.
Hope this helps
Dylan

[Patrician]

Hi Dave -

The co-op is, in Stone's own words, a 'long-term strategy'. (refers to: e.g., article marketing is a permanent record on the internet once submitted someplace, and can represent traffic and sales for years to come)

Most people are looking for instant gratification and most that are unsatisfied are making a rush to judgement about a program when they don't see overnight results. ("overnight"= short term - day, week, even month)

With most co-ops all that is guaranteed is a lead actually - not even a paid affiliate - just a free affiliate that may or may not ever represent a commission. So if they don't upgrade you got exactly ZILCH for what you paid.

People fail to see the beauty in the way the PIPS Ad co-op has been structured - that is to give them actual value such as articles and numerous other benefits as part of the package.

To me this says ok if I don't get a lead, at least I got articles, and all the other benefits for my money. It is money well spent.

It is a true statement that if you priced what these services would cost otherwise, the co-op is a great value, whether or not you get leads like other co-ops.

People argue the point that this should be named something other than co-op then, otherwise to them nothing counts except those leads they are used to from co-ops, or the lack thereof.

I don't really think what it is called means that much. As long as it is clear what you will get for your money and you understand that advertising is not an exact science - posting an ad does not guarantee anyone will respond - but you gotta do it anyway and hope for the bst results.

Just sayin'...

[godisgood]

Hi,

I have paid for my annual membership last march when i joined the coop. One of the benefit which i received are the articles every month which i can re write and submit to article directories. Recently they had some improvements like automatic posting to your blog. If you paid for your annual membership i think every month you'll get 1 press release for free i just received mine which is great. But i have never made any profit from their rotating advertisement so far. I still have few months to check things out if this new improvements will give better results i stll might renew my membership.

Cheers,

Jennifer

[Malcolm Tindle]

Hi Dave,

Pat is correct in as much as the co-op is a long term strategy but at the same time there are a lot of PIPS members including myself who have been in the co-op for some time and have not had one PIPS sign up from the rotator system. I have exchanged messages with Dustin on a few occasions and whilst he does a great job with great enthusiasm, you must conclude, as I did that the rotator doesn’t work but Dustin’s reply is that this is the luck of the draw which is fair enough but after over a year with nothing I am entitled to assume that the co-op mustn’t work for bringing in new sign ups for the majority because the advertising is done by the co-op and not the members.

This brings me to what the co-op does do. If you consider what 30 articles would cost and ad that to the article submission service then the co-op is not bad value. What the new co-op is going to do is to write an individual article with a bio linked to every co-op member in turn which I couldn’t believe but Dustin assures me this is so and inclusive for existing members.

This means that some person or group of people are going to be very busy writing articles for every co-op member which I still can’t believe but it is up to every member to decide if what the co-op offers is enough to justify the $99 monthly fee.

regards,

Mal.

[Jeff Casmer]

Hi,

What I would do is take out the rotator for PIPS sales, make no mention of PIPS sales and provide the current tools and extra benefits you get from the co-op and judge it on its own merit...

The fact that you have the potential for PIPS sales and most people dont show any results from that rotator is what brings the negativity out on the co-op itself...

Here is what I would do:

1) Rename it so its not called a co-op which most people associate with getting members, affiliates, or sales. The results show that a large number dont actually get PIPS sales.

2) Dont "sell it" so close to the front of the 30 days where people almost feel obligated to jump on it because it sounds so good....(especially the potential for PIPS sales). This way people wont assume "hey I dont need to learn anything about article marketing, press releases, etc since its all done for me...." Put it LATE in the 30 days so that people have an option if they dont have much time to put in each day and want to potentially (not a "given" but a possibility) increase their results from several of the marketing strategies that are in the 30 days and can utilize in one place via "Dustin's Marketing Strategies Site".

3) Take a part of the money that is currently in place to pay advertisers for the "rotating" PIPS ID's (they advertise in several places) and put that cash in one of 2 places or both:

A) A smaller monthly and annual fee so that more money is back in the consumers pocket because if people choose that annual fee that is alot of money for a beginner with little money for advertising/expenses. They are in essence putting their money in one spot and hoping for the best....(again what they are NOT doing to work their business and the countless free ways is a whole different topic)

or

B) More "value" in the things that the current format offers (more articles just being an example)

or

C) Combination of both....

Just my humble opinion...

Take care
Jeff Casmer

[Suzanne Morrison]

Hi Jeff,

I agree with you...

I know I tested the co-op for two months back in Feb/Mar of last year and received zero signups from it, but I wouldn't have had any problems with this if the co-op was marketed as an "internet marketing service" or "website promotion service" and the price was lowered.

I can see that there have been a few new things added since I ran my test and some of these things look very valuable, but the expectation of a co-op in most peoples' eyes is to deliver sales and signups rather than tools and services. If it was marketed differently, this wouldn't bother me. In fact I would maybe even try it out again myself if the rotator was removed and the price lowered.

Cheers,
Suzanne

[Patrician]

Honestly I think with the 30 articles alone for $99 that is around $3 a piece - That is a fair and actually good price for articles - This is without adding any of the other submission services, etc. which would make the cost per article even lower.

[Suzanne Morrison]

When I buy PLR articles I look for them to be distrubuted to a small number of people only, definitely less than 50 people, and I usually pay around $1-$1.50 per article (for native English writers).

There are regular offers in the WSO forum for 10 articles for $10-15

So personally, I would not want to be paying $3 per PLR article, especially if they are being distributed to a membership of hundreds. However, if it was bundled in with other things that I felt useful, then maybe I would.

It is all determined by how useful you find the services. If you are going to use them all and the price is fair, then it is good value. But if you are in it just for PLR articles or sales, then it is not.


Cheers,
Suzanne

[Patrician]

In my experience PLR articles are absolute junk and not even worth $1.

They require extensive proofreading and editing and even then would be completely boring.

In fact I have hundreds right now that are just waiting for surgery. Of course 'you get what you pay for', but it is just sooo tedious to work with these - yet they do offer (little more than) a topic/idea and some basic structure to work with.

I hope the co-op articles are better quality than most PLR.

Actually the only purchased articles I have ever gotten that didn't need anything done to them were from Schuman - and they were about $6 each in a pack - can't remember maybe 7 or so articles.

[Suzanne Morrison]

Pat - you are right, there are a lot of junk PLR articles around. I have had the experience before of buying a whole bunch of terrible articles with bad grammar and spelling.

On the other hand though there are a many excellent authors who offer really high quality articles. I have bought a number of packages through the WSO forum and I have been really happy with them. If you can get example articles before you buy, this really helps.

Cheers,
Suzanne

[Jeff Schuman]

We write 100% original copy articles to copyrighted on by the buyer. We get asked all of the time to provide plr articles, sales copy, press releases etc. I decided to specialize in the original article niche we are in even before niche marketing became so popular like it is today.

I do not like plr articles myself, because by the time I re-write them I can write a fresh one faster. That is just my own bias. I know I just did some plr re-writes for the NPG and the articles were pretty bad. It took me forever to re-do them.

I ran big co-op ad programs for Amana for over 15 years. Some of them were over a million dollars a year in newspaper, and radio mostly. The whole goal was to get leads for our customers. That was it.

If the PIPS co-op can not produce leads than it is not really a co-op and the extras added to make it more worthwhile should become the focus and not the co-op itself.

What Stone is trying to do with offline advertising is pretty difficult as is becoming apparent by the results of the members in it. I guess that is my main problem with it.

I do not see why he keeps pushing it to the level he does when there is very little evidence it has worked. Maybe Stone is getting alot of leads off of the sales page and he wants to keep getting those.

This stubborness has gotten George Bush the approval rating he deserves too and I voted for him twice. I do not see how Stone can change the "30 Days" training faster than I can change a diaper and yet not pull the co-op out of it. I would like to see him respond to that someday.

On a more positive note Pat is unchanged as the V.P./PIPS support person for 2009 so Stone gets kudos for that!