UPDATE May13, 2010: Things pertaining to LeapFish.com, their founders and management, along with related startups are no longer of interest to me, therefore no further comments are allowed on this post. There are also more reliable sources out there (such as Better Business Bureau) to help you make an informed decision about LeapFish.
***You may also want to know that the Law Firm of Daniel Bakondi, in San Francisco, CA, is investigating a possible Class Action Law Suit Against LeapFish.
During the past few months LeapFish.com, a meta search engine, suffered from an unfortunate streak of “being caught doing naughty things” incidents. The LeapFish employees were caught astroturfing on TechChruch and one of their employees was caught committing a click fraud. The official respond from LeapFish was always consistent- company disapproves of such behaviour.
Unfortunately the streak of unfortunate incidents continues…
If you are an unsuspecting target of cold calls from LeapFish, you might be presented with an array of arguments aimed to impress you. Lets take the list of recently sold keywords for example:
Quiet an impressive list! There is however one problem with it, it is deceiving. It tells us that keyword “viagra” was recently sold for $7,104:
When you search “viagra” on LeapFish.com, there is indeed a sponsored ad is triggered by the search. However the ad is irrelevant to the keyword and links to the official blog of LeapFish.com:
This also is true about keyword “Refinance”:
And the keywords “Billings Real Estate” and “Billings Homes” trigger no ads at all:
While astroturfing and click fraud was blamed on sales representatives, it is unclear who might be responsible for this, in my opinion, deceptive strategy. I am afraid a web designer’s job might be on the line this time around, as the management of LeapFish, in my sole opinion, has proven incapable of taking responsibility for the company’s mistakes.
Vlad,
You never checked you assumptions, your post is completely inaccurate and therefore you are defaming the organization. I am the Director of Marketing at LeapFish and here are the facts.
The assumptions you are making as an outsider who does not understand the inner workings of the LeapFish AdCenter and the LeapFish advertising Model, are completely erroneous. Keywords Positions are purchased by advertisers/investors for various reasons. Advertisers benefit from both the traffic and equity side of the Keyword Position as the engine continues to grow over the next several years. The advertisers that have purchased the Keyword Positions being questioned by you in your blog post have full control over the Title, Content and URL of the Ads. So whatever site they link to, it is out of their own volition. Keywords that do not have ads are due to the fact that their registrars have not created any ads for those keywords in their LeapFish AdCenter. If and when they do, then those ads will appear and they will link to wherever the Advertiser may choose. So your allegation that there is some deceptive strategy is completely bogus and completely without merit.
For the sake of more clarity, you should also know that some LeapFish advertisers are Investors and purchase the Keyword Positions knowing that as traffic grows they will be able to resell their positions for a higher price. Therefore, some buyers have no interest in setting up ads for each of their positions and would rather just hold on to the Keyword Position until a later date.
Furthermore, the malicious spin that you put on the click act committed by a rogue sales person, has no bearing here. Let it be clear that the click act that you refer to as fraud was committed by one individual from his personal account. LeapFish does not support or endorse such behavior and has taken action to help prevent such incidents in the future. However you should look up what the tabloids refer to as "click-fraud" before you mention it, since fraud would mean that LeapFish would be the beneficiary of the Adsense money when a click takes place. Clearly that’s not the case and I recommend you read about Google's Click Filters and how they prevent the kinds of activity that you are attempting to apply to us.
This blog post by you is yet another instance, among many, of attacks on LeapFish and Ben Behrouzi. You continue to attack, intimidate, and disseminate erroneous information on this blog and other blogs to advance your own self interest. We have asked you many times to check your facts and given I have again corrected you I expect that you will update your post if you are the upright blogger that you suggest you are.
This is my one and only response to your post.
Mark Kithcart
Director of Marketing LeapFish
Who would "invest" $7000 to buy a keyword (viagra) that's probably worth less than a twenty dollars right now. Somebody needs a new financial advisor.
I mean, honestly, how many people possibly go to leapfish and type in fences or viagra per month. Are there any metrics to justify some of these asking prices?
Your traffic is exponentially less then google. EXPONENTIALLY. Not even in the same strasphere, for every one person that uses leapfish, two thousand uses google.
How do you sleep at night knowing you've swindled seven thousand dollars out of some poor schmo looking for some decent leads in this piss poor economy.
Mark,
First if all read the first paragraph of this article, I have clearly stated that LeapFish disapproves click fraud incident and the astroturfing incident.
Second, this is an opinion piece and never do I claim to be a journalist. My opinion of LeapFish is not favourable, but I am sure you can gather that by now. You make no effort to change it either.
Are you telling me that advertisers sending $7,000+ decided not to link to their own websites but link to LeapFish blog or not to link to any one at all? You are absolutely right then, I do not understand the advertising model. But thanks for clarifying. You should probably do so on the "pre-sell" pages on your website. I expressed my opinion of your advertising model.
Since you brought up AdSense, I am thinking that my next post should reflect on why Google should pull the plug on LeapFish and stop serving any data to your site. No you did not benefited from the clicks, you just made your partner (Google. You use their API, don't you?) look extremely bad. If you think the click fraud is exaggerated, why that slaes person was fired? Or was that a lie as well?
Finally I never mentioned by name your CEO, I understand that running a company of about 100 employees he can't keep track of every "loose canon". I do not understand why you are trying to put words in my mouth. Whenever I have an issue with him, I am not shy expressing it. This article has nothing to do with him, it is all about LeapFish.
Mark,
First of all read the first paragraph of this article, I have clearly stated that LeapFish disapproves click fraud incident and the astroturfing incident.
Second, this is an opinion piece and never do I claim to be a journalist. My opinion of LeapFish is not favourable, but I am sure you can gather that by now. You make no effort to change it either.
Are you telling me that advertisers sending $7,000+ decided not to link to their own websites but link to LeapFish blog or not to link to any one at all? You are absolutely right then, I do not understand the advertising model. But thanks for clarifying. You should probably do so on the "pre-sell" pages on your website. I expressed my opinion of your advertising model.
Since you brought up AdSense, I am thinking that my next post should reflect on why Google should pull the plug on LeapFish and stop serving any data to your site. No you did not benefited from the clicks, you just made your partner (Google. You use their API, don't you?) look extremely bad. If you think the click fraud is exaggerated, why that slaes person was fired? Or was that a lie as well?
Finally I never mentioned by name your CEO, I understand that running a company of about 100 employees he can't keep track of every "loose canon". I do not understand why you are trying to put words in my mouth. Whenever I have an issue with him, I am not shy expressing it. This article has nothing to do with him, it is all about LeapFish.
I can see exactly where this opinion came from and would have arrived at the same conclusion. As LeapFish comes from the same stables as iHype they should know that the "New Media" of blogs etc. runs squarely on reputation based largely on transparency. This non transparent method of operating coupled with the founders on going reputation and the companies past history would make these conclusions logical.
I should point out that no one outside of leapfish knows how the advert service works. This is the same of the more famous and trusted Google AdWords system. However Google has a lot more people trying to guestimate what goes on and they rarely (if ever) conclude fraud or misdeed. If LeapFish have a fraction of that number of people and a fraction of the detractors looking and some of those numbers are concluding fraud then your transparency level is wrong.
As a technologist there are things I look for with any "investment" based market and these things appear to be missing in the case of LeapFish. While not necessary they are a good bench mark of the usefulness and quality of an offering. Had Yahoo, Google or Mr Nobody come up with this system of LeapFish's and been viable I would, for example, expect the likes of John Chow to tell his readers how to get the most value and mileage from it. I'd expect it to become a popular ebook topic and I would expect to see Google adword, Yahoo ads and "home ads" (ads on the topic's own system) telling you how to get rich using this system.
I would look for 45n5 to make a video about it, for Caymon host to have a product, for Andy Beard to send me a stumble. I would expect Vlad to have an affiliate product from (say) click bank and I would expect to see it in the business and financial places I go.
I would expect to find podcasts talking about it with questions like "is x the next big thing?"
I would expect advice from CopyBlogger on getting the most from you x ad.
I would expect ProBlogger to write about it.
…
Need I go on?
For every blogger that says they are thinking something I would expect there to be between 7 and 70 other people thinking the exact same thing and twice that thinking similar things.
So when six blogs I trust say x is good I will conclude that x is likely to be good.
If, say, Chris Parilo said it was cool I would expect it to be cool but if it was not Chris would loose my trust. Chris has never lost my trust which is why his words carry the authority with me and many others that they do.
The same is true of Vlad. He has never led me wrong yet.
In fact because of a review of one of the above I am going to purchase some new equipment as recommended by said person.
Matt,
As always thanks for stopping by.
Sadly, Chris Pirillo did write about LeapFish. A paid review to make a quick cash for a charity if I am not mistaken- yet another ugly side of paid reviews. I believe the review was through IZEA.
As I read over the first comment, I begin to suspect they might have been written by their legal council. It took him 8 hours to comment, strange for a guy that Twitters non-stop.
We'll see where it goes. 😉
I think they target non-experienced audience as they can't handle any criticism. Once you criticize them you are a "rogue" 🙂 blogger.
Thanks for stopping by "Digger" !
I would not be surprised if legal council did advise. It seems the normal way for them.
On the subject of paid reviews – Chris doing a review and heartily recommending something are two different things. AI fully agree paid reviews do have a seedy side. That's the risk – just one or two reviews of "bad product" and your own reputation is dead (like leapfish's seems to be).
I am surprised Pirillo's review of LeapFish went largely unnoticed… But I guess it happens from time to time. It did nothing to lessen Chris' authority in my eyes. I don't think he recommended them highly. Besides now that IZEA has redirects on paid reviews instead of friendly SEO links in the long run TechCrunch's posts will matter more than anything else…. I will LeapFish a lot of luck trying to out-SEO TechCrunch's position for the term "LeapFish" on Google.
As for the comments… I wish whoever wrote them stayed clear of stating that since AdSense account was not involved it was not really a "click fraud". I am writing a post about it and how many AdSense publishers were kicked out of the system (rightly or not) and yet LeapFish continues without a "wag of the finger" from Google, especially since LeapFish uses Google's API to aggregate the results.
I am sure no one important will ever notice it, but as some one who uses AdWords and encourages friends and colleagues and readers of this blog to do the same, I can not be silent.
Vlad, thank you for calling me a sucker for investing in Leapfish. I happen to use them for all my searches and find that it is much better than Google or Yahoo. I also bought some keywords that I have not linked to any websites because I just bought them as investments. Oh yes, I am a former employee in case your in-depth investigations (Yeah right) were to discover that. As to the rep that was terminated, don’t you think that issue has been debunked since Google monitors Click Fraud, and cliking 10, 20 ect times on a link doesn’t cost the customer any extra? What’s your beef with the best new search engine since Google? Is it that Ben bought Vladloser.com?
P.s. I no longer have any affiliation in anyway to Leapfish
nice pic Luis, you look like a total fucking douchebag.
leapfish is garbage run by retarded monkeys who’d rip off anybody including their own retarded mothers for an extra buck.
leapfish is worthless. why’d you invest in keywords that have no real value whatsofuckingever in the real world? you’re as dumb as the other dipshits that get suckered by these fucktards. nothing better to invest in then fucking internet keywords? seriously? that’s the worst fucking investment i’ve ever heard of.
nice burger king crown luis, it’s nice to know the ass holes peddling this trash who sound dumb as shit over the phone actually look the part too.
Luis,
If you think you are doing yourself or your former employer a favor, think again. Internet has a very long memory.
If the incident to which I refer as click fraud is so insignificant, why then LeapFish fired that employee???
LeapFish is useless without Google and Yahoo, what do you think would happened if Google or Yahoo pulled the plug on LeapFish? But to answer your question, my beef is with every sleazy company out there, not just LeapFish.
To be honest I did not realize Mr. Behrouzi purchased the domain you just mentioned. So, no that is not an issue.
Hope it clears up few things for you. Feel free to stop by again if you have any other questions.
Brock A little harsh don’t you think… You must know that many of the people reading this post are “the other dipshits that get suckered by these fucktards. nothing better to invest in then fucking internet keywords”
It’s true that with some of the negative implications surrounding leapfish, some of us feel a little silly for buying in. That being said I see key words in much the same way I see domain names. there is value to be had in keywords providing Leapfish plies a concentrated effort on producing better numbers.
Now.. I don’t thing I’m a dumb ass – I sell 3000 dollars a month in pure profit not to mention the 2500 dollars worth of key words I have are paying off for me.
I own “pay per click advertising” “Pay Per Click” and “PPC” all of which go for over $10 per click on google for first position. Since I bought my keywords I have received 487 hits from leapfish resulting in a multitude of sales.
So who is the Dumb Shit?
Clearly it’s not me
I just saved $4500.00 in google adwords payouts more then paying for my leapfish investment.
by the way I still supplement my advertising with adwords but I can tell you I honestly pay more to google for fewer hits then I paid for my three keywords with leapfish.
in addition to that most of the leapfish traffic is North American.
Perhaps Chris Pirillo did write about LeapFish because he realized it’s potential.
P.s. Vlad Zablotskyy
I would hope that Leapfish is using google and yahoo as a crutch to draw in loyal clients of the aforementioned companies only to one day implement their own contextual search system one it’s client base is self sustaining. I am sure this topic has been brought up before Leapfish must know that it can build an air tight business model if it is subject to googles TOS – I’m sure they are working it our.
Because I am sure it is inevitable. Google will pull out.
I always suspected that though.
It’s always about traffic.
We also know they now have the capital to move forward with development.
Leapfish is in this for the 5% renewal fee they are not going anywhere.
Just my opinion.
impact561
Cash Junckie,
I don’t give a squat what you think, nor will I allow astroturfing on my blog on behalf of the LeapFish. Feel free to spam on their behalf somewhere else.
Mark,
My name is Chris and I am the “Rogue” sales person who committed “click fraud”.
First off, I am fairly certain nobody at Leapfish or anywhere else has even checked to see if fraud was actually committed. If I am not mistaken, after you click on a company’s PPC link once they will get charged. If I clicked on it again from the same IP address (which I did) there are no further charges.
Secondly, you need to address your Director of Sales. He was the one who gave me the idea in my seven days of training prior to hitting the sales floor. He told all the new hires that when he was making cold calls in the beginning, he would tell prospects that he was going to click on their PPC link unless they buy a keyword. Being the Director of Sales for the company, he probably shouldn’t say that to a fresh college graduate with no sales experience or they may follow suit.
Thirdly, when I was hired, there was no interview whatsoever. All they did was sit me down at a table and tell me to pick up a phone and act like I was selling something. After that, he said I was hired and gave me all my HR paperwork to fill out. Then I started the following Monday.
Lastly, Have you all ever considered putting a CRM system in place? Or do you just get an inexperienced group of salespeople and send them off on their own?
There were no boundaries put in place whatsoever. Just find a website online and try to sell the service. That’s what I did, and luckily I spoke with the right guy to expose your shady business practices.
I do have to thank Leapfish though, for teaching me what not to be in the sales world.
The only reason I needed to respond to this is because I am continually getting bashed for a rookie mistake. Leapfish astrosurfs like no ones business, just look at the alexa reviews. So get a life Mark, better yet, get a new job with a company that has a future.
i had a look at the key word stuff myself and made a half attempt tho not buying anything at this stage myself, i noticed the first price i got was x amount, the second time i clicked back in a matter of minutes the amount rose by $500+ dollors ODD! now so what ive done was placed there search box on my front page and see what the reaction is, also see if i get paid anything once i hit the threshold etc etc. im assuming if i make a few grand and get PAID from there search box then i would invest in one or two keywords. so ill hang and see what happens, my advise after spending thousands on google ads on another site i owed was… don’t spend a single dim with these ad people, its short term traffic that dies out quickly… now i have a off topic question.. why the hell is chat avenue first on every search engine under (chat, chat rooms ) etc… its a crappy chat program. monopoly blows in this game its so unfair and for gods sake don’t BS me with seo crap, that’s all baloney…
cheers
Tame,
Good luck with LeapFish. I doubt you will be making enough money with their affiliate program. In fact I believe their affiliate program was designed for gaining incoming links rather than offering a real money making opportunity. I wrote about it on my other blog:
http://sageblogger.com/leapfish-affiliate-program-linking-payola/
I believe very little change in that regard. However if you are able to prove me wrong, please stop by and tell us if the money making opportunity with LeapFish is worth considering.
Thanks for stopping by!
Good experience with leapfish. Love having it as my home page. Can access facebook and twitter from there easily. Grateful to the non pressure sales agent that worked with me (ask for KM14). Impressed with the professionalism. Everything has to have a beginning and LeapFish has a great beginning. Go LeapFish.
Clair,
Thanks for stopping by. I will be interested to see what is your ROI or how many visitors LeapFish actually sends you?
For time being I am suspecting you may have been asked to by some one to leave this comment and praise LeapFish. Am I wrong?
I smelled total scam when the very smooth talking salesperson called me asking me to purchase some keywords.
Here is my fundamental issue – the Leapfish business plan smells FISHY. They told me I could own for $500 the keyword “earrings” and be in the top-3 for a sponsored search. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out that that is not a sustainable biz plan (even with the 10% per year maintenance fee).
I was also told that I owned that spot for life and could resell or lease it if I wanted to.
Anyways, total waste of time. Glad my decision to hang up on them is substantiated by others.