Adfero / Direct News

[gadget]

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ContentNow are so much more professional.

[seo-wizard]

Hi, we used Direct News for our SEO site.
We analyse our traffic very closely and have found no noticable improvement. Also they use keywords to identify the type of traffic and try to boost SEO this way and this we have found is very hit and miss.
We have found it is very expensive service without any real benefit.

Also we had to do a lot of technical integration work which was not mentioned pre-contract which costs a lot before you even start.

Also the buying team are always complaining about the level of service once the contract was signed. It is all professional (if rather heavy sales tactic) before then and then you're left with an xml feed which doesnt really help SEO.

I would not recommend you use these guys, find another service which is cheaper and that works.

[ContentBoss]

£17 an article??? You guys must be MADE of money.

[Flightmapping]

What has happened to the comments I made about Adfero, were they deleted because they didn't like what I said?

"It has been interesting to read these comments as obviously due to our wide client base DirectNews does make an appearance on Forum’s."

No, a company which provides a good service is not going to get panned regularly, regardless of how big they are. And I think you mean forums not Forum's. Talk about high quality output!

"DirectNews does provide unique content – we are very aware of the dangers of providing duplicate content to a website and ensure everything we do is unique."

About 50% right - when the story was unique, it was because the incompetence was on such a grand scale that no-one else could match it. I repeat again, according to Adfero, the Costa Del Sol was in Morocco, and Granada was a spice island walled city in the Caribbean - these are the facts of the so-called news you provided to us.

The rest of the time, the stories were often directly taken from other press releases - any news company will do this, but there is usually some editing involved, not in the case of Adfero - again, specifically, I refer to the story you gave us about new BA flights to Algiers, check your own records before coming back to me.

(for note, they actually took the comments down on the basis they felt they were unsubstantiated and contrary to the intentions of their blog)

For note - my comments were substantiated, and there was a sequence of complaint from myself to Adfero, none of which was replied to.

This is an unfortunate fact of life and I’m sure every business is on the receiving end from time to time!

Clearly some more than others, and some like to go round keeping their critics quiet with an iron fist.

This rant continues on my blog where I won't get A4U into further trouble - http://www.jamesavery.co.uk/2009/03/...l-say-it-here/.

[KieronD]

ContentNow are so much more professional.

Only just seen this thread. Thankyou so much for your kind comments Gadget.

If anybody is looking for unique content that is researched, written and proofed in the UK then please do drop me a line. We can create everything from blog posts, products descriptions, reviews, news stories, travel guides, betting tips (!) category descriptions, user reviews and much more.

We don't have any long term contracts, we operate a rolling agreement where you can exit at any time with just 30 days notice. Our minimum order is only 20 articles a month too. More info can be found at the site Content writing and ethical link building - ContentNow.co.uk and you can contact me on info at contentnow.co.uk.

Cheers!

[tomj]

Kieron, details submitted today. no reply yet

[KieronD]

Kieron, details submitted today. no reply yet

Hi Tom, got your email today thanks. You will get a reply within the hour!

Cheers!

[Lawcom]

To be fair, although I don't deal with them I'm sure they are just a company trying to make it work.. and part of that ( a great part ) is customer satisfaction...
If they don't deliver they will not get there and may well be forced to fold... and that would serve them right.. don't put the work in, you don't get the work..

If people have had particularly bad experiences with them and they are showing to be chancers then why should people not voice that.. and this forum should not be so chicken sh*t to censor that .. would Adfero really go to all the expence of legal action on the basis of whether what is posted on a forum is or is not 'fair comment' , I don't think so.. if A4U has received some sort of cease and desist, then any company with balls should firstly tell them to blow it up their ass " your not telling us what we can and can not do"... not run around like headless chickens snipping content, just incase it offends..

That post by SeanHofer just smells of panic, poli-speak for damage limitation and before I read that I may have thought it was some disgruntled customer letting off steam.. after reading that it makes me feel like they may have a point ..

[Flightmapping]

Lawcom - I didn't start this thread, at the time I just kept quiet and sent letters to Adfero reminding them that any attempt to take me to court would get laughed out by any competent magistrate because of their repeated incompetence.

There were several other people criticising them, but these comments, along with mine, have been removed. Yet the comments before Sean Hofer weighed in have stayed. I can only conclude that action to moderate was taken after a request by Adfero, and not by A4U's internal moderation. However, as Sean himself has said, they have got comments removed from other blogs and forums - so Sean, if you read this, could you please tell all why you are so keen to have these posts deleted? After all, in your own post, you say that it is natural that a company of any size will always have some unhappy customers and staff. Or are there just too many for you to deal with?

[Dynamoo]

Type "Adfero" into Google and see how far up the SERPs this thread is.

[Dynamoo]

I was kind of curious about the quality of these articles, so I had a look. They're not hard to find with a Google search.

I think you get what you pay for, to be blunt.

As an example, I hunted out an Adfero article on the Nokia N97. That yielded a terse 168 word article with a non-relevant photograph. My site has an article on the same product, that's a 914 word article with some freely available press photos. The Register came in at 296 words for an introductory article, most other outlets ranged between 250 to 500 words and almost all of them had press photos.

In fact, in this market segment Adfero articles come in at around 150 words in total, around half the size of the specialist press, and with a lot less information in them to boot.

The catch is this - if you are only paying about £15 per article, then you are only going to get something of this length and quality. At full pelt I can probably write a basic 500 word article with some press photos in an hour, considering that I know the target market very well. Usually it will take me about 3 hours to write an article of that length. If I were doing it commercially, it would cost you a LOT more that fifteen quid a pop.

Obviously, Adfero needs to make sure that articles are accurate and meaningful, and I think that is the core of the dispute that people are having with them. But if you're only paying £15 (or whatever) for a unique article, then you're going to have to accept some inevitable shortcomings.

[Rosstravill]

Interesting thread. We used adfero for a while last year. Would I recommend them - absolutely not. Did they deliver what was promised - nope. Did it end in tears with the threat of legal action from them - yes. Draw your own conclusions but my advice would be to steer well clear.