Thanks to everyone for all the PM's: I've now replied to everyone... If you haven't received a reply, then the PM didn't get to me!
Affiliate Partner/Reseller Opportunities Page
http://bit.ly/1fF8plt
...This also shows our main Member Sales/Service showcase video
BTW: All our
demo logins and back-office access demo's are included in the guide, along with
full affiliate/reseller info and financials etc.
One question I had via PM, which is worth sharing:
...I have found that people are lazy unless they are somehow motivated - such as by anger (for a bad review) or a discount for a good review - but I understand you cannot provide incentives to review.
So, how do you motivate a generally lazy population to leave a positive review for the client? This looks like an interesting product to push but I am sure that business owners will want some clarification...
In terms of your question, the answer is 2-sided.
1. The sales person/affiliate that was introducing this would lead the business onto the next step of discussions. If you read the more info page, you'll see we start to get into the handout card methods. The key is making it personal. If a staff member asks for feedback for them personally, using reasons of a competition/rewards programme etc, the customer starts to see it as a favour for the good service they've received. Stats show that merely asking will massively increase the feedback volume, and if you use a staff name and make it personal, you also dramatically increase the percentage that go onto actual reviews. Our members area goes into this and gives notes and guidance for the manager and staff.
You're not trying to get everybody there. You'll only get the ones who are 'review types' anyway generally, unless the service was really personal and impressive. But a lot more people do this nowadays than 2 years ago and it's increasing all the time. These people often tend to have an account at one of the sites, with a google account being most prevalent. Lots of people use tripadvisor, yelp or yellow pages though. And it's really easy to register anyway; and happens with a percentage of people who feel it's become a 'duty'.
2. We're aiming to get the numbers up over time; not suddenly flood them with reviews. So you only need a small gradual growth. This looks natural. As staff get better at using the handout cards etc, the results go up. It's never a big percentage though; but it doesn't need to be. Gradual and genuine is what we want.
There's no ethical and genuine way of pushing these numbers; otherwise it's manipulation. But the simple act of asking every customer will generate a MASSIVE jump over the current situation. It's like McDonald's 'do you want fries with that' - but more intelligently handled of course - but by simply doing it - you automatically get an uptake.
We've also brought the entire concept around to a more positive viewpoint, where it's much more about business intelligence and enabling an owner/manager to have the info to run his business better. The majority of our clients come from the reputation 'insurance' angle; getting in front of this, rather than dealing with existing negative.
All offline businesses are going to HAVE to start handling this over the next few years, as the few percent that are dealing with it (at some level) are already starting to pull ahead on all the main sites. It's honestly going to destroy more businesses than panda/penguin did for sure - and there's really NO quick fix for a situation where your competitors have loads of positive press and social etc. that's built up over years; that's some serious hill to climb. It's not about google manipulation... it's about public reputation and perception at ALL levels.
Let's face it, no one uses directory enquiries any more. It's all a google search, and what happens when the front page all contains bad press for you, or loads of good for a few others. People just start migrating elsewhere. We've tracked a bunch of businesses with good/bad press vs their competitors, and watched the natural traffic and sales erode consistently. It's an invisible loss that most businesses can't even account for; they don't understand why their customers are going elsewhere. The majority of businesses we talk to with existing bad press are devastated -they didn't even realise it was happening and how blatantly Google was pushing the gory details!
http://bit.ly/1fF8plt
This sales thread has been permanently closed!
https://www.blackhatworld.com/forums/misc.18/ 
