I had pretty much the same experience with the Bring The Fresh DFY site. I paid for one in June 2012 and still have nothing to show for it but a very basic site.

I got the same email yesterday and I'm waiting to see how this all pans out. No mention of it yet in the BTF forums and no follow up email from Kelly.

I see no point in contacting the FTC. I'm pretty sure they never "promised" page one rankings, but like you I don't have access to the original sales page.

I do think Kelly is a stand-up guy and I hope he is able to come up with something to make this right for everyone involved. But he needs to act quickly to avoid losing all the goodwill that BTF now has.

-Mike

Well, sometimes it's easier to fix something by actually talking to the person. There's a LOT that cannot be conveyed through email or IM.

Janice wouldn't even need to buy any link building packages. I'm happy to do a link package for her.

But when a customer says "I am not interested in any site you could offer me", that lets me know this person isn't serious about a resolution. She is refusing to email me to discuss, prefers a forum, and will not take possession of one of my own sites that I've done keyword research on and built a site around. Maybe she has given up on IM.

Anyway, Sarah & Mario have both been fired, and my offer still stands.

Seriously... we spent $1,000 in good faith and the bottom line is this, he did NOT deliver. If you haven't been burned by this, why are you even weighing in? If you have, I'm sorry. I don't know many people who can just shrug off a $1,000 investment.

Ouch thats harsh.

Through reading this thread I saw Kelly was saying these are his own sites so the niches and keywords targeted should be dope right? I mean I pay some of my contractors as much as $200 a day and they'll take a day to do the domain and keyword searches, a day to create the site, another day to write articles, the next day start SEO and bam $800 gone. But they aren't Kelly, they are positioned and in my opinion, take forever and a pain in my ass. lol They make fun of me behind my back. Im the evil boss. And in return I'm giving them a hard time the same way You are. Well, not that bad haha. But in the end it gets done, that's the important thing.

And I would assume we are talking about far more SEO work than I described my guys doing. Heck, I didn't even include the time it would take for myself to look up the niche and decide what is best prior to paying people to create the site.

The thing is, I never got a BTF site but I'm actually wanting to after reading this thread. lolol Serious! That's an affordable price to have someone do the entire site and then SEO work on it. Im not fixated on if I get to #1 either, even at #12 on the second page or whatever Id take a screenshot of that, post on Flippa! Perhaps someone who has the time to do more stuff than I do might really dig it! Sell the site for more than you bought it for since it is a site that gets traffic no?

But that would be a last resort. If good niche, and keyword optimization, good content and concept, I might roll with it! YEEAH!

Anyhow, I was impressed that Kelly, currently handling such a unique challenge (an employee doing something like that!) took the time to stop in.

I would at least ask him his advice regarding selling the site or what is the point of this thread right?

Here's a copy of my email from Mario. No promises were made, Kelly? And, I was wrong, I purchased this in September - WOW!


Mario Deal <mario.bringthefresh@gmail.com>
9/14/12

to me
Hi there!

My name is Mario. I am the Bring The Fresh project manager and we have received your information about the deluxe done for you blog you've purchased.

On behalf of Kelly and Mike, I'd like to welcome you to the DFY program!

Do you have an idea of what kind of niche site you would like built?

If you're confused, it's best not to jump ahead so we can walk through each step side-by-side.

I'll walk you through each part of the process.

In the deluxe package, we do the keyword research where the search term has commercial value and 1000 or more searches a month.

It can be in any niche you would like, but keep in mind some niches will be more competitive than others. Try to think outside the box - there's money to be made everywhere.

We will be finding you an exact match domain for the keyword we come up with to rank your site for.

Also,

One of the most common questions I get is, "How much money will my DFY blog make me?". I'm sure you're thinking the same.

We don't guarantee that your site will make any money due to the FTC laws, but we do treat every site as if it were our own, and BTF is not in the habit of making sites that don't make money.

How much money it makes depends on the niche, competition, how well the product converts, etc. It will also depend on where your site sits on the first page and what you do with the site after it's turned over to you.

You'll want to rank for more keywords and also rank higher for your main term once it's turned over to get the most traffic possible.

With that said, let's get this coordinated and started ASAP - just reply and let me know what niche you'd like to go after, and I'll take it from there!

Thanks,
Mario

The fact remains that you were given a site ranking #12 and you have admitted that you refused it. So I have nothing further to discuss with you. The other few people who have emailed, and are not refusing my own sites, are getting them.

I do not subscribe to the theory that the customer is always right. As a product owner, I'm happy to stand up for myself, and attempt to make amends if needed, but only to an extent. When you turned down a brand new, ranked website, in my opinion you forfeited your rights. In addition, you have made multiple threats in the past which you have apologized for. But it all adds up to a pattern of negative behavior that I will not be a part of. And I stand by that.

If anyone has any issues with me whatsoever, and approaches me respectfully and positively, I do the same in return.

Here is a letter I wrote to our 12,000 members last month:

"Hey, I thought I'd take a moment and let everyone know a few things.

I really value you being here. It means a lot to know that you've given me the benefit of the doubt, and I want you to know that your BTF membership and success is practically all I think about.

I WANT you to succeed. And I want you to experience some of the things I've been lucky enough to experience. I've been doing this 13 long years. And I had to learn the hard way. My goal is to shorten the learning curve for you, and give you a place you feel welcome and listened to and respected.

I know many of you have been burned by other programs, and it can't help but make you suspicious, apprehensive, or even wondering if ANYTHING works.

That's a totally valid train of thought.

Nearly everything in internet marketing seems to be about over promising and under delivering on various levels. I'm trying to be a driving force to change that. And its working. I'm seeing the shift.

I get private messages from other marketers quite often ,telling me they really respect what I'm doing, and they want to clean up their acts. Most are just scared, because when you tell the truth, its MUCH less profitable. What I'm making is peanuts compared to some of the scammy stuff out there. I know hundreds of high level guys. And they all seem to have that battle with the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other.

On one hand, you can promise the world and scam the hell out of people, and make a boatload of money. But then you have to constantly worry about karma coming around and biting you, and potentially ruining your life. Hurting people always comes back around to smack you in the face. So while these guys ride around and enjoy their Lamborghini and brag on facebook, and they make you potentially envious... just know that inside they are not happy. They are scared. They are over-compensating for their insecurities. Many of them are not what they seem. They put down a few grand on a car or a house and go into massive debt, all for show. And SO MANY don't even pay their taxes. Seriously. I see it all the time. It will be short lived. So don't ever get caught up in comparing yourself to others.

On the other hand, you can choose to go with the old "treat people as you want to be treated" mentality. The slow and steady race. Where you earn less money, but you earn more goodwill, you help your fellow man, and you feel good about yourself and what you're doing every day. And eventually things just start to go your way over and over and over again. Its just universal law.

What path will you take?

But to be honest, even BTF isn't going to be right for some of you. Some of you will find your way somewhere else. Others won't ever find their way, as they spin their wheels from product to product. In fact 6% of you won't even be here next month. That's our refund rate, which is pretty darn good for a digital product. In fact, clickbank recently asked me to come up to their office in Idaho to teach their team how we keep our refund rates so low, so that they can train their other vendors on best practices.

I summed it up for them in one sentence. We keep refund rates low because "We simply care about our customers". Thats it. Thats the big secret. But unfortunately you can't teach people to care about their customers. They either do or they don't.

But you know what? We're not perfect here either. Sometimes we screw up. Maybe we didn't do a good enough job with customer service, someone fell through the cracks, or we mis-communicated something, or we recommended a product that ended up being a bad experience. It all happens. We do our best to minimize this stuff.

If you ever feel that you've been misled or mistreated, please contact me personally so we can make it right. I will ALWAYS find an amicable solution. I'm a reasonable person. All I ask is that you don't approach me like a raving, emotionally unstable lunatic. Any civil, respectful request will be met with a positive solution.

With that said, I'm glad you're here.

If you make me a promise and a promise to yourself, I will make you a promise as well.

If you promise to really give this your all... to implement what we teach, to ask questions, to learn from your mistakes and failures, to do something, ANYTHING, every single day, that moves you closer to your goal, and you don't throw in the towel...

Then I promise you I will never give up on you either, and I will support you in any way reasonably possible. And I will continue to learn and grow myself, and to teach you everything I know, whether its things I've done myself, or things I've learned in high level masterminds that you may not yet have access to.

We are over 10,000 strong here. And that's a force to be reckoned with. If we all support each other, we simply cannot lose.

Best,
Kelly Felix"

[DELETED]

I do not own lumpsumprofits.com but I messaged you letting you know I will contact Ryan Moran for you.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion. Thousands of folks will testify otherwise... and have. We're 12,000 paying members strong with an 8% refund rate, which is fantastic on clickbank

I agree that we should probably not work together, as I find your post equally as offensive as you find mine.

What altered facts are you referring to? because some one posts something, it doesn't make it factual, it is just one side of a story.

I have seen some people complain and I also know of many who are very successful with "Bring The Fresh".

There are always two sides to every story, just as starbolt failed to mention in his first post that he had threatened to hire an attorney and that is a reason for a bad taste in anyone's mouth.

If I remember right (as I'm a BTF Full Disclosure member as well) that site created $424,000 in sales for the company which it's promoting. The commission off that is much much lower. Like 1% low. $4k in 5 days is nothing to laugh at but as is the case with most outrageous claims for shock value the work put in to generate those 5 days is probably much more than usual and that income is not typical at all for the site in question. ie. put $5k worth of marketing behind the site for a week, generate huge numbers, make a video about it for credibility and to generate more sales of your own 100% profit products.

As Ntech said, good to hear. I hope he gets to my email soon as well. I'm still interested to see what his reply will be to my first input on this thread which included screenshots of the original DFY site sales page.