Recently, my company licensed Winferno as a reseller of its software.
Winferno advertises itself as a major software vendor with an extensive e-mail list, a broad partner base, and a strong Internet presence. The idea was that they could introduce our products to new markets and new customers.
Winferno pays only 30% of retail for our software, ostensibly for the value-added services they provide. However, under the contract, they cannot launch any marketing campaign without the prior approval of my company.
Not long after Winferno posted our products on its site, we noticed that our own web site's sales were flagging. A quick review revealed the reason: without permission, Winferno had initiated an aggressive pay per click campaign. They were steering search traffic from our site to their own site instead! They had gone so far as to bid on our product names— and offer our software at steep discounts.
When my company instructed Winferno to end their pay-per-click tactics, they argued. I say "they, " but I should say "he"— my company talked directly to Winferno CEO John Lal, a rude and patronizing man completely lacking in interpersonal skills.
My company has issued several directives to end Winferno's pay per click assault; Winferno has yet to comply.in fact, they've increased their bids on keyword terms used to sell our products— and profit handsomely for siphoning off our business.
After several months of growing Internet sales, my company has witnessed a 30% drop in revenue from searches. We have lost potential customer information we use to promote product upgrades, partner software, and special discounts.
It's fairly obvious Winferno has no Plan B for small software companies— pay per click is pretty much it. Many of their product pages are more or less free-standing; the only way to drive traffic to them is through pay per click or e-mail campaigns— and Winferno reserves its email mostly for the Big Boys.
So the lesson is this: If you depend on search traffic for a portion of your online business, you may want to lock the door when Winferno comes knocking on it... Unless, for 30 cents on the dollar per software sale, you've decided it's in you best interests to let Winferno:
1. Steal a portion of your online sales
2. Get those customers who might have been your customers
3. Profit from any future sales to those customers
4. Smugly tell you how they're actually performing a service when they give you the shaft
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