WSO - Sales page on Web site?, WSO Pro?, PayPal?, e-junkie?, Other?

Hi Caliban,

I think I remember Paul saying just the other day that it was ok to promote a WSO to your list. That they weren't counted as the general public, but I am not 100% sure. There is a chance someone else said this and I have mixed up the posts in my head, so nobody should take what I have just said as fact. Certainly not when I am awake and typing at this time of night LOL!

I don't do it myself as it doesn't apply to my business model, but I am interested in the answer as it could affect my future plans. Hopefully he answers as I have just waded through all the rules I can find, and this isn't something I can find mentioned anywhere. Mind you, I am tired, so that isn't saying much.

Regards,
Colin Palfrey

Why in the world would sending traffic to a thread on this forum designed for selling products not be allowed? Cripes, they'd have to ban traffic from all of the search engines, and block any form of backlinks!

Maybe you're confusing a couple of things.

Your WSO "offer" is supposed to be at least as good as what you offer your own list.

The way many people do it is they post a sales page somewhere with a price, then they post a WSO and say, "See the sales page here, but don't buy there. Instead use the following link to get a better deal."

That is DIFFERENT than ONLY setting up a WSO and sending everybody on your list to THAT PAGE.

If it's the ONLY offer available for your product, and it's STILL a "good deal", then where's the beef?

I see TONS of WSOs that are ONLY being made on the WSO forum -- nowhere else.

Should an EXCLUSIVE OFFER (ie., only on the WF's WSO forum) mean that you cannot send traffic directly to your WSO page?

For as long as I've been a member here, and as many changes in the rules as I've seen, I cannot recall anything even remotely suggesting that sending traffic to a WSO is prohibited or even discouraged. Heck, lots of WSOs show up in Google!

-David

Not speaking for Paul, obviously, but I'm pretty sure there's no problem with sending your WSO link to your own list. I recall this being discussed in the forum at some point in the past.

Thanks for sharing your musings, as unrelated as they may be to the product you mention.

As someone who's been using RAP since shortly after it was initially introduced, I have no freaking clue what your wild speculations are relating to here. Nor have I ever heard any reputable marketer refer to RAP as any kind of "black hat" software. (Although, anything beyond a simple PayPal payment button on a web page can be construed as "black hat" by just about anybody.)

RAP is a script that lets you sell stuff online, take payments via PayPal (unless you want to give your stuff away), deliver your digital products via a protected download page, and build a database of sellers that reflects the transaction history of your PayPal account (or free downloads). It also manages payments to affiliates and JV Partners if you want to use them.

The data your site generates is yours. It's stored in a password-protected database, and is not accessible by anybody else unless they hack into your server. (You can optionally feed data to another autoresponder if you have one.)

Sid has, however, implemented a copy protection scheme that allows him to detect and shut down sites that are using HIS software ILLEGALLY. And you must agree to allow that copy protection scheme to run IF you want a license to run HIS software. There's nothing "black hat" about that at all -- it's just another form of DRM (Digital Rights Management). The verbiage enabling that in his license agreement may sound a little oblique at times, but he's certainly not capturing detailed transaction data from your site.

Of course, while everybody is entitled to their opinions (informed and otherwise), the fact that you apparently don't own the product nor have you worked with it doesn't lend much to your credibility, claims, or conclusions.

And luckily nobody has had to pay you a penny for your random thoughts.

Forgot to ask about one issue I hope you can enlighten me on - does e-junkie allow you to control pricing based on how many copies have been sold, like WSO Pro does? (i.e. first 50 copies at $10, next 50 at $11, last 50 at $15, etc.)

Just FYI, RAP with the Add-To-Cart addon lets you do auto-opt-ins for most autoresponders, as well as adjust the pricing based on how many units have sold.

Absolutely. Wouldn't use a processor that didn't.

Incidentally, services with silly or unfortunate names tend to have lower market values becasue of them.

TradeBit is a product ghetto. I go there for 50 cent PLR packs and $2 ebooks with MRR. Anything else there, I can't take seriously.

There are a number of factors that go into PayPal freezing accounts. Lots of sales, in and of itself, is not much of a factor except for brand new accounts.

I wish people would dig deeper into these stories before deciding they might affect them.

Have you EVER known anybody who got into a car accident or was accused of a crime who didn't immediately DENY their OWN culpability in the matter?

Nobody who complains about getting their PayPal account frozen EVER explains the full story, or what other factors might have played into it.

And human behavior being what it is, my experience is that the louder and more vocal someone is about complaining, the more they're trying to hide about their own contribution to the problem.

Read PayPal's AUP, review your offer, make sure you're not doing anything questionable, and there's no reason for concern. If you DO have some concern, call them up and discuss it with someone.

If you make 100 sales directly via your WSO page or through PDC, it's still 100 sales that are going through PayPal. If you're in violation of their AUP or not, it won't matter.

Just take responsibility for knowing the rules and taking whatever steps you need to minimize your risks. Given the volume of sales that occur in the WSO section that are run through PayPal, I don't think there's much to be concerned about based simply on one specific offer. It's almost guaranteed that the guy who was complaining did something else that violated the AUP, and it had little if anything to do with the fact that it was a WSO. Unless it was a fairly new account and he just failed to bother to call PayPal and discuss it with them first.

Unfortunately, E-Junkie doesn't have dime sale functionality.

Shame, too, because I really like dime sales... built-in scarcity without artificially limiting the number sold, and early-bird discounts without having to deal with those two or three people saying "I just missed it, could I have it at the old price pleeeeeeease?"