dissing a competitor?

Hi guys,

I am new to this board, but been reading these forums for some time now. This place is great for info,jsut wish I had more time to read it.

I am a relative newbie to Seo so please forgive any stupid questions.

I am working on a site for a friend of mine. The site is offering a service. Researching into competitors I have discovered that many are disguising themselves as non profit websites, or info only website but really are the same company pushing the same service. They also have "download our free guide" websites, then once they have your email, you are contacted by the underlying company. Saying "we are the leaders blah blah blah and prefered service provider"

I have found that these sites are doing pretty well in PR and Ive had an insider mentioned they are doing big business.

My question is, should I expose these sites as what they are i.e. owned by the same company offering the one service? Is this a done thing in web marketing etc?

If you guys would recommend it, how would you go about it? I am thinking about creating a anonymous blog exposing the sites and company. Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance guys, your help is appreciate

Duplicate their success....then use what you learn here to rank higher than them in the search engines.

We recommend you to do nothing because some of the guys you mentioned are members of the same community with basically the same business model. I mean whats the point?

Are they scamming people?

And if you really feel that what you plan to do is noble and just, then why make an anonymous blog exposing them? Show your face!

thanks guys. No they arent ripping people off as such. We feel that if customers knew the sites were from teh same company thay wouldnt use them.

I was thinking about duplicating the way they work, but we are trying to be slightly different and offer info freely, hoping people will use us. Maybe this needs rethinking.

Your help is appreciated guys thanks again

You can be slightly different and still copy success. Just look at the film companies. How many times have you seen 2 movies released at the same time by 2 different studios that "slightly different" from the other? Both still make $25million without "dissing" the other studio.

Bottom line is that if there is no scam being run, people don't really care who they give their money to as long as they get what they want. It just comes down to good marketing if you can provide them with what they want.

bigfred said:

thanks guys. No they arent ripping people off as such. We feel that if customers knew the sites were from teh same company thay wouldnt use them.

I was thinking about duplicating the way they work, but we are trying to be slightly different and offer info freely, hoping people will use us. Maybe this needs rethinking.

Your help is appreciated guys thanks again

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Then mind your own business then. I advise you to study what marketing it and its different facets. This kind of business model is totally clean and theres nothing wrong about it.

Matter of fact, I share the same model for one of my niche

I have a resource/info site about losing weight and obesity and I provide free articles, tips, etc. When they sign up, I get a lead, I send them an email and offer the products we sell, now thats a strategy. Totally clean and legit.

actually "dominating" the whole search results is a great marketing method.
I am sure most of us do this (I do).
Ethical? I don't know, but it's BHW after all.

I agree with Snowwhite, don't rat them out heck it could be me you are about to out i also use free/non commercial type sites to pull leads for my commercial ones.

If your company is good, you will out think, out rank, out market and out smart them. You should thank them, they are showing you a great model you can leverage and make better.

can we see a sample of that site, snowwhite?

thanks guys, its put it into perspective now.

I doubt its any of you lot as its such a small niche market really.

Maybe its cause I am new to this way of working, it just seems to be incorrect doing it that way. If the company has a legit good business, that's competitive, why are the hiding behind a facade? Maybe one of the reason is that the advice/service they give isn't the best for the client.

But if it works it works I guess.

Thanks again

p.s. Forgive my basic understanding and timid approach to online marketing. I'm pretty new to the game and I do feel I will have to change the whole why I think. I come from a face to face sales background and in that game you do "diss" the competitor.

I wouldn't waste the time. If you're going to be a digital Samaritan get paid for it.

lumpia said:

can we see a sample of that site, snowwhite?

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sure, here is it http://www.ImTheBiggestLoser.com

bigfred said:

it just seems to be incorrect doing it that way. If the company has a legit good business, that's competitive, why are the hiding behind a facade? Maybe one of the reason is that the advice/service they give isn't the best for the client.

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I can only speak for my case. We are NOT hiding nor our product is ineffective, its actually effective because we have literally thousands of real positive testimonials. We do this for the basic and SIMPLE reason, to DOMINATE the niche, DOMINATE the SERP, Make more Money and retire young.

snowwhite, I hear you and totally understand. In our case we do know that the other company is offering inferior service/advice and in some cases incorrect solutions. We have had some of their customers come to us after buying the competitors. Basically they sold the wrong solution to a customer.

bigfred said:

snowwhite, I hear you and totally understand. In our case we do know that the other company is offering inferior service/advice and in some cases incorrect solutions. We have had some of their customers come to us after buying the competitors. Basically they sold the wrong solution to a customer.

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its a case to case basis then
but basically its for the same reason
goodluck then

i understand both sides. to be honest, I'd prefer just to get our site generating business and increase the PR, but then I think a few days work exposing the other sites would help us and redirect business away from our competoitors.

MMmmm, still undecided.

Anyway, cheers guys, appreciate your comments