First, let me say that I am a fairly low key person. It takes a lot to get me riled up. I also don't get wrapped up in what is going on in the real estate blogosphere and pretty much just do my own thing.
Reading a blog post today by Mary McKnight of rsspieces.com, telling the saga of real estate blogger, Vlad Zablotskyy, being sued by ePerks got me riled up. The more I read, riled up turned to mad as hell...and I hope it does the same to you!
Back to this story...Mary's offer for a free Blog got my attention, but not enough to actually write in support of Vlad. As I said, I pretty much do my own thing. But it did get my attention enough to start reading.
ePerks is a 3rd party lead generation website. Real estate professionals buy a zip code for a monthly fee, get the leads generated from that zip code and then pay ePerks a referral fee when a closing takes place. ePerks rebates a percentage of the referral fee to the buyer/seller lead and pockets the rest. Nothing new, we have all seen this scam...I mean scheme (you get the picture) before!
As a startup, ePerks paid real estate bloggers to write about nice things about them. There are those who think this is an underhanded tactic. I happen to think it is an interesting marketing tool and this didn't bother me at all.
When you read the post in question, there is no slander involved. Just a blogger giving his opinion in response to his readers, which unless there has been a change in the constitution I don't know about, Vlad has the right of free speech.
I am not going to get into the details. They are included in the following articles:
Too make a long story short, Vlad was presented with a cease and desist letter, has been personally attacked and called a child molester and is now being sued. I never heard of Vlad Zablotskyy until today, but anyone who is being slandered and sued for exercising his right to freedom of speech deserves my support...especially if he belongs to the real estate community.
This entire story is despicable, highlighting the worst of the Internet. I encourage everyone to talkabout it, write about it, get angry about it and demonstrate to ePerks the best of the Internet...the banning together of the real estate community in support of their own.
For me, the story doesn't end here. While reading about Vlad and ePerks, I saw a video ePerks has on YouTube, advertising the ePerks website.
Of the 34 comments on YouTube, 33 thought this video to be funny. I don't think it is funny at all...it is vile, crass, disgusting, repugnant, and an insult to the very community ePerks' business model is dependent on...real estate agents. I hope any real estate agent seeing this video would think twice before giving ePerks a dime of their hard earned money.
Supporting Vlad's defense fund is important and I encourage you to donate. I also encourage you hit ePerks where it hurts...their pocketbook. If you are considering subscribing to their product...DON'T. If you are a subscriber, end your subscription NOW! Let ePerks know, You are mad as hell...and won't take it anymore!
Yeah this is not a feel good story. It should also be a lesson to us all not to do pay per post blogging. This was not the first time something like this has happened and won't be the last.
I had seen this ad before - an ePerks salesman had called trying to get me to subscribe to a zip code and directed me to watch this - didn't buy what he was selling!
I don't know everything that is going on with ePerks and Vlad however if you use your common sense with regard to the programs they have on their website and try to do the math, this looks a lot like a Ponzi scheme. I'm not saying that it is, but the payouts to consumers is substantial and the amount that agents pay to provide the benefits is rather small. So what if a few years have to pass before the consumer can claim the benefits. Any agent worth their weight is going to remind the client of the benefit if for nothing else the goodwill that will follow. So If $1500 (or whatever the number is) gets you $10,000 in a couple of years then sign me up. I'm buying... If I don't understand their business model then please correct me...
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I read much of this story as well and was disgusted by eperks behavior. In the end they will get what is coming to them.