Ad-Site.com is supposedly an affordable marketing solution for online entrepreneurs and webmasters.
Their featured product is Non-SPAM bulk email "safelists" (or Opt-In lists) that seemed to have unbelievable prices.
They claim to partner with a large, undisclosed media company that owns several newsletter lists an opt-in lists from surveys, etc.
So it's supposed to be a "safe" list to target with your message.
I recently purchased an email marketing campaign from Ad-Site.com for 500,000 email messages. They don't sell the emails themseleves, just the ability to reach them (as they claim) through their site.
They charged my credit card $99.00 USD, I created my email message, chose my demographic targets and then submitted my campaign for approval.
(I received NO receipt for this transaction, though I requested it TWICE)
Apparently they "check" all campaigns to ensure the quality of the email being "broadcasted".
After I had sent two emails, and called them (it took three calls just to get through), I finally spoke with a representative, who "approved" my campaign and scheduled it for mailing at 7:45 PM that night.
I watched the campaign "progress" through the night. Something that I thought to be strange was the amount of emails "opened" (as designated by a read receipt). The percentage of sent emails as compared to opened emails remained the same, consistenetly, all throughout the night, from 7:45 PM to 10:00 AM the next morning.
When my campaign was "finished", over 81,888 emails had been opened, of the 500,000 "sent".
Which would normally be astounding for only $99...
But, the reality of it was not so astounding. According to my own tracking software, which tracks both impressions, clicks and actions, not ONE of these reported emails had actually been sent, let alone opened, clicked on, or ACTED on.
Of course, when I looked into other user-reviews on Alexa, etc., it was the same story. Nobody actually got what they had paid for.
The email broadcast was likely a bogus "live display", especially considering that most of the emails were opened within minutes of being sent. AND, the current report is still stating only 81,888 emails opened.
This is most definitely a scam.
I am both regretful in terms of ever buying this service, while also embarrassed of falling for it in the first place.
Here are some of their claims:
"Ad-Site.com is a premier online advertiseing company with one goal in mind, to provide you with excellent customer service!"
"Our Mission
To provide you with the most comprehensive and latest up-to-date and proven to work advertising mediums available on the internet."
"Our Promise
To make sure your website receives only the highest quality targeted visitors."
"How does Ad-Site.com benefit you?
We sell TARGETED traffic to help you produce a steady flow of sales for your business, not just "traffic"."
"Guaranteed Spam Free Email Advertising"
"Live Tracking On All Email Campaigns"
"10% Email Open Rate Guarantee!"
"You will NEVER receive one [spam] complaint! Guaranteed!"
"How do we accomplish this?
By partnering up with a large media company who maintains over 15,000 websites. Those websites combined receive over 80 Million visitors monthly. They conduct regular surveys on those websites to form and maintain the list we offer below. Our list are always kept up to date to be as fresh as possible for you. Our list are double opt-in and permission based, NOT unsolicited spam email."
"We have the list and we blast your email ad to them!
We want this to be an easy and painless experience for you as possible. So we have gone through the trouble of forming the email list and the partnerships necessary to provide you with Spam Free email, Live Tracking stats and a 10% Email Open Guarantee."
"Live tracking statistics on ALL email campaigns!
How would you like to see your email campaign progress as we send it out? Now you can with our Live tracking statistics only available here at Ad-Site.com."
The bottom line is that Ad-Site.com does NOT do what it claims it does, and the customer service is horrible.
You will NOT reach your customers - or anyone, for that matter, if you use their services.
Their email "tracking" is completely fake.in real life, most emails aren't opened for about an average of 24 hours. Especially considering that most of the emails in my campaign were "opened" between 1:00 AM and 5:00 AM, as it was targeted to the US.
Avoide Ad-Site.com like the Plague!
Do NOT trust, or purchase their marketing tools at all.
Ad-Site.com will appear as a Sponsored link on Google Search for the following keywords:
Bulk email lists
Email lists
Email list
Email marketing
Get email list
Non-spam email list
Non spam email list
Spam free email list
And possibly several others.
Their current Ad looks like this:
Get Email List
Choose the Category You Want
Send to Targeted Email Lists
www.Ad-Site.com
My goal in filing this report is to prevent whoever finds it from becoming another victim.
I have asked for a refund, as I'm sure hundreds of others have as well.
I cannot stress this enough: DO NOT USE AD-SITE.com
True Email marketing of this magnitude will cost alot more than $99.
I would also like to encourage any other users that have been ripped off by Ad-Site to raise their voices, publish their thoughts on this site and others like it, and get the word out that www.Ad-Site.com is a SCAM.
Chris
Kelowna, British Columbia
Canada
0 comments