I am writing this as I go along trying to figure out the story on ViralTweets… [Please note that this post has been updated! Please read the updates and comments to get the latest info!]
A few minutes ago I got the email that ViralTweets was live. I love Twitter so I checked it out.
The first thing I noticed was that to take even one step toward finding anything out you had to input your Twitter ID and password so that it could send out a tweet to all your followers saying: “RT Here’s The FREE Software I Used To Make Over $4,000 With One Tweet …” [Please note: the original misleading Tweet has been changed.]
Now there is no way I am going to send out a tweet like that because it is a total lie. [Please note: the original misleading Tweet has been changed.] I never made one red cent with it and I am not going to pretend that I made money with it if I didn’t.
I have an old Twitter account that I created once by mistake. It hardly has any followers so I used that account to make the required lie tweet. It might work to put in a non-existant account but I didn’t think of that until later.
After you let them tweet out the lie about the $4,000 to all of your followers, you are sent to a page where they ask for your name and email so the can “send you the software.”
But they don’t use that info to send you the software (at least, I haven’t gotten it yet.) You are then sent to a “One Time Offer” page where you can upgrade for only $49. This is insane, because at this point you have never seen the software, you have no idea what it does or how it works, you don’t know if you have the right hardware or operating system or if it fits in with anything else you are doing. You are just being asked to shell out $49 sight unseen.
I don’t know what happens if you accept the OTO because I certainly did not!
If you decline the OTO you are taken to a page where you can download the software and there is a video explaining how to install it.
At this point you learn that it is something that you must FTP to your webhosting account.
If you don’t have webhosting, you can’t use the software at all. I guess if you took the OTO you can try to get your money back! Even if you didn’t take the OTO you are still out all the time and energy you put into this. Plus, now you can go back and explain the lie about the $4,000 to all your followers!
The video on the download page explains NOTHING about how ViralTweets works. I am going to install it to see what it does and report back here with the results.
ViralTweets UPDATE:
Ryan Wade responded to my criticism by changing the Tweet that people must send in order to look at the software. (see the comments below)
I uploaded the ViralTweets software and, in itself it seems to be perfectly fine. It is very similar to the scripts that came out about a year ago for StumbleUpon (and maybe Digg) where webmasters gave prospects an automated way to bookmark a page in order to get a free gift.
ViralTweets allows webmasters to specify the tweet that will be made automatically and the page that the user will be directed to after the tweet to download the free gift.
So It would work like this… You would offer an ebook on your site. Your visitor could pay $14,95 for it or they could get it for free by filling out the form with their Twitter ID and password. The Tweet would say: “I’m downloading a hot $14.95 ebook for free at http://mysite.com”
You could set it up to advertise access to anything… The tweet could say: “I’m watching a hilarious video at…” or “I’m getting a free membership at…” or “I found the secret discount page for…”
There is nothing really wrong with this and I bet it is going to be very effective. Sure, some people will abuse it but you can say that about anything. I’ve seen worse tools advertised lately for spamming Twitter. I think this one is actually pretty benign. After all, it will only work if your gift is interesting or valuable!
Twitterers who are not involved in marketing are not going to like it, of course. But to be honest, it seems like marketers make up an increasingly large portion of the Twitter community so I guess marketers will have an increasing voice in setting the standards.
It is astounding to see how quickly each new venue is invaded by marketers. Remember when blogs were pure? Then comment spam software came out followed by all the methods to protect comments. The same thing happened with forums. Remember when Squidoo was pure? Then the marketers figured out how to put Iframes in their lenses, leading to the “Squidoo Slap.” Marketers will always follow the crowd and find a way to infiltrate and exploit communities. Advertising is ubiquitous on the internet just as in the real world and we should learn to expect it.
I admit that I was initially appalled by the marketing campaign for ViralTweets. But now it looks like Ryan Wade is working to give his prospects more information and to decrease the spamminess of his automated marketing Tweets.
The ViralTweets product is actually very good and will make it easy for people to get the word out about everything from fun videos to special offers. I give it 2 thumbs up!
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