I got a kick out of this fake talking spokesman on an e cig site

MikeTucker

8 years ago

whoa, that hurt my brain. :confused:

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GMD Banned 8 years ago

The website doesn't have much of a header...

...except for um, the head (the talking head)!
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J Bold

8 years ago

It boggles the mind why anyone would use that.

Who knows, maybe they have great conversions!

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Targeted Traffic 8 years ago

LOL!!! Gee if they wanted a good looking face to do the talking there would've been hundreds who would do the add for free exposure :rolleyes:
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GMD

Banned 8 years ago

Okay, it's time to get serious I guess.

First of all, there's no doubt that the square jawed ex-jock "spokesman" is pretty creepy -- though he has almost flawless diction.

Personally, choosing between Mr. Jock and a real person, it would have been better to use a real person; perhaps a pretty, well spoken lady.

Does it convert? I'm not so sure the site owner put much thought into it. My feeling is that he/she found a new "toy" and decided to have a go at it.

Interestingly, the website's payment processor is authorize.net which states clearly in their Terms of Service you cannot use them if the product being sold...(drum roll please):

is associated with electronic cigarettes (i.e., "e-cigarettes") or any similar product; or

Terms of Use

Yet, it's another example people that I push online most times: please read and understand all the terms of service agreements FOR ALL components that make up your website. That means looking at your hosting agreement for what's acceptable content (some don't allow adult oriented content, tobacco products, or even "swear" words), looking at what your payment processor frowns upon, and so fourth.

All-in-all, pretty cool post for you bringing this website up!

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J Bold

8 years ago

Originally Posted by GMD

Okay, it's time to get serious I guess.

First of all, there's no doubt that the square jawed ex-jock "spokesman" is pretty creepy -- though he has almost flawless diction.

Personally, choosing between Mr. Jock and a real person, it would have been better to use a real person; perhaps a pretty, well spoken lady.

Does it convert? I'm not so sure the site owner put much thought into it. My feeling is that he/she found a new "toy" and decided to have a go at it.

Interestingly, the website's payment processor is authorize.net which states clearly in their Terms of Service you cannot use them if the product being sold...(drum roll please):

is associated with electronic cigarettes (i.e., "e-cigarettes") or any similar product; or

Terms of Use

Yet, it's another example people that I push online most times: please read and understand all the terms of service agreements FOR ALL components that make up your website. That means looking at your hosting agreement for what's acceptable content (some don't allow adult oriented content, tobacco products, or even "swear" words), looking at what your payment processor frowns upon, and so fourth.

All-in-all, pretty cool post for you bringing this website up!

Ya thanks, I have NEVER seen that robot spokesman before, and it creeped me out!

I came upon this site on accident.

I was looking for some real information on e cigs and of course not much can be found as it's mostly store sites that come up in the search engines.

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GMD

Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by redicelander

Ya thanks, I have NEVER seen that robot spokesman before, and it creeped me out!

I came upon this site on accident.

I was looking for some real information on e cigs and of course not much can be found as it's mostly store sites that come up in the search engines.

Actually a few months back (actually April 2011 now that I check my records) I did a lot of research into the e-cig racket. What prompted me was an auction on Flippa.

The site was called "thesmokelesscigarettes.us. The owner (who was selling) claimed a monthly profit of $18,000 -- this was all from affiliate commissions. The owner claimed that he developed the site and got it to rank #1 for three keywords: "smokeless cigarettes", "smokeless cigarette", and "smokeless cigarettes review".

He further went on to explain that those keywords combined got around 26,000 "exact" monthly searches and thus, the site was very profitable.

The average commission he got was $40 for each sale.

Naturally the guy wanted a fortune for it so I did what I usually do when on Flippa: I use Flippa to get ideas for my sites. Therefore I took all his site information and used that as a template for my own e-cig sites in order to replicate his alleged success.

And I will say, there is money to be made in that niche if you're offering the same product in a different way. It's a niche still worth getting into. So if you were researching along those lines, I wouldn't blow the concept off.

Go for it...

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2 replies

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sbucciarel

Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by GMD

The average commission he got was $40 for each sale.

Naturally the guy wanted a fortune for it so I did what I usually do when on Flippa: I use Flippa to get ideas for my sites. Therefore I took all his site information and used that as a template for my own e-cig sites in order to replicate his alleged success.

And I will say, there is money to be made in that niche if you're offering the same product in a different way. It's a niche still worth getting into. So if you were researching along those lines, I wouldn't blow the concept off.

Go for it...

Very lucrative niche and still a young niche with much room for growth.

Thanks

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J Bold

8 years ago

Originally Posted by GMD

Actually a few months back (actually April 2011 now that I check my records) I did a lot of research into the e-cig racket. What prompted me was an auction on Flippa.

The site was called "thesmokelesscigarettes.us. The owner (who was selling) claimed a monthly profit of $18,000 -- this was all from affiliate commissions. The owner claimed that he developed the site and got it to rank #1 for three keywords: "smokeless cigarettes", "smokeless cigarette", and "smokeless cigarettes review".

He further went on to explain that those keywords combined got around 26,000 "exact" monthly searches and thus, the site was very profitable.

The average commission he got was $40 for each sale.

Naturally the guy wanted a fortune for it so I did what I usually do when on Flippa: I use Flippa to get ideas for my sites. Therefore I took all his site information and used that as a template for my own e-cig sites in order to replicate his alleged success.

And I will say, there is money to be made in that niche if you're offering the same product in a different way. It's a niche still worth getting into. So if you were researching along those lines, I wouldn't blow the concept off.

Go for it...

No, I'm not going to blow the concept off just because of this horrible site, but I really wasn't looking to promote e cigs, I was just curious how they actually worked.

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Daniel Evans

8 years ago

Tripadelico.

It only gives the impression that they have something to hide that goes beyond a spotty complexion.

It would look less suspicious to me if there were no video.

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J Bold

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Daniel Evans

Tripadelico.

It only gives the impression that they have something to hide that goes beyond a spotty complexion.

It would look less suspicious to me if there were no video.

Ha ha, you just made me google "Tripadelico" and then I realized it's probably a word you just made up to describe what a "trip" it was to see that robot talking head...

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Jeremy Bratcher

8 years ago

When Automation Goes Wrong: A Journey Into The Uncanny Valley

Perfect example of trying to automate everything and alienating visitors in the process. This is almost as bad as the YouTube videos made by a software "reading" the text aloud.

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J Bold

8 years ago

Originally Posted by fatherflame

When Automation Goes Wrong: A Journey Into The Uncanny Valley

Perfect example of trying to automate everything and alienating visitors in the process. This is almost as bad as the YouTube videos made by a software "reading" the text aloud.

Indeed, I never understood that. Do you really want to listen to some robot read text aloud? How fun is that?

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sbucciarel

Banned 8 years ago

Pretty cheesy. Those sitepals were pretty popular when they first came out. Lots of people trying them out. I always thought they were creepy and hiring a real person to do the video would be much more effective, or at least less annoying.

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premiumplr

8 years ago

I still use Alteregos from time to time. However the character has to be tied into your copy. You can't just stick a fake person on your site and not expect to creep a few people out. For example, I used the alien to promote "out of this world" prices or the cat to pre-sell a pet care product. Is it cheesy? Of course, but don't discount the power of properly placed cheese.

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redfield

8 years ago

the site design looks like it come from the 80s.

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MattCatania

8 years ago

The copy for that site is terrible. Anybody who could avoid using size 100000 font and structure a proper pre-sell page could easily out-muscle this website.

E-cigs are huge - although I don't promote them (it's an ethical thing, I prefer to better peoples' lives) they are better than normal cigarettes and I can see why they've become popular.

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Logic outweighs all.

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sbucciarel

Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by MattCatania

The copy for that site is terrible. Anybody who could avoid using size 100000 font and structure a proper pre-sell page could easily out-muscle this website.

E-cigs are huge - although I don't promote them (it's an ethical thing, I prefer to better peoples' lives) they are better than normal cigarettes and I can see why they've become popular.

Well smokers are people too and electronic cigarettes do better their lives if they use them. It isn't the tobacco that kills people in cigarettes, it's the hundreds of chemicals they add to tobacco. Switching to a harmless vapor is highly beneficial to smokers, even if the vapor is laced with nicotine.

Then there's the second hand smoke issue. Vapor from these is not second hand smoke.

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J Bold

8 years ago

Originally Posted by MattCatania

The copy for that site is terrible. Anybody who could avoid using size 100000 font and structure a proper pre-sell page could easily out-muscle this website.

Oh, there are sites marketing much better than that already. It was on the first page for a search term I searched, but it wasn't number one. Funny it could get on the first page for any search term though, right? It may not be a term searched for much as it was pretty long tail.

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KingOfContentMarketing

8 years ago

Wow, that was creepy. It was like somebody returned from beyond......

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J Bold

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Chris Kent

When those things first came out, the characters and voices were worse. This is great progress actually.

If things continue like this then in two years actors will become redundant.

Ha ha, ya maybe it will be like the movie with Al Pacino.

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centerforkaziboralimited

8 years ago

Could they be having something here beyond your knowledge that is making them behave so. It is just beyond my guess.

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Ant Marshall

8 years ago

Hahahaha, oh my dear god. Is that really what we're coming to?!

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lifeisfun

8 years ago

I once met this 50 year old guy who wanted to use something similar for his vitamin site and his reasoning was, it looks cool; I tried to convince the guy that it looked silly, and so did the website developer and designer, but this guy said no, we have to use this because i think is awesome.

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tianshi 8 years ago

God that just hurt my brain looking at that dude.
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noah.whitmore

8 years ago

Haha, that is creepy. Unfortunately, it kind of looks like me...

I think those SitePals can only push visitors away. I have never sat and listened to an entire presentation when it involved one of those creepy things. Surely the webmaster could outsource a real person to do that for a few bucks on Fiverr. Seriously.

-Noah Whitmore

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J Bold

8 years ago

Originally Posted by noah.whitmore

Haha, that is creepy. Unfortunately, it kind of looks like me...

I think those SitePals can only push visitors away. I have never sat and listened to an entire presentation when it involved one of those creepy things. Surely the webmaster could outsource a real person to do that for a few bucks on Fiverr. Seriously.

-Noah Whitmore

No way, Noah, didn't you see the post a few above yours? They are awesome!

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sandebdavid

8 years ago

In my web development class I was advised to avoid sounds that play without manually prompting them. But the font and structure of this site is bizarre too

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I got a kick out of this fake talking spokesman on an e cig site

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