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Are there any Spoken Network audio books franchise holders out there?

Do you feel you are getting your money's worth from the monthly fee?

Monthly Special Offers on the Partner message board haven't been updated since March.

When was the last time you had any communication from the company letting you know what was going on, or about new features?

I put in a request months ago for a review of the Coupon system, which is totally inflexible (and thus virtually unusable), since you can only have one customisation per coupon type. Therefore, you can't make multiple versions customised by affiliate, book title, or customer - all the most obvious ways you would use coupons for marketing purposes. I am still waiting to hear an answer.

Did not realise I was an affiliate as I was approached direct asking if I would carry their products. They gave me the pages all set up with my affiliate name and I just had to import them into XSitePro. I do not pay any monthly fee for belonging to them.

I have had no communication from the company ityself but I can contact the person that set everything up for me. If you like I can send him an email and see what the response is about your concerns.

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Hi nzcid

From what you say, it sounds like you are affiliate to one of the franchisees. I'm guessing you have pages that are tailored to your niche, rather than the whole 8000 product library.
But if you have dialogue with your contact, I would appreciate hearing what they think about what I've said - (I can supply an email if they don't want to voice their opinions in public, or PM me).

Many thanks
Simon

Hey Simon

I sent an email to Gerrit whom I deal with. Given him a link to this topic and asked if he could see if he could assist here.

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Hi Simon

Yes there is still Spoken Network partners out there who make a profit selling audio books and I don't think their monthly partnership fee is too much to ask.

Remember your monthly fee covers their customer service costs, dealing on your behalf with publishers, which I'm also one, paying for your sites hosting, domain renewals, etc.

I'm also happy with their discount voucher system since I only use three of them.

I do understand that if your site don't make enough money that you might feel their monthly fee is too much, but if you do the work to market your site and write some unique content for each section, apply some SEO to your pages, etc. Then your site are supposed to make a profit within 6 months and then the whole system will run on autopilot.

The more you work on your system the more profits you are going to make, it's that simple.

Yes I do agree that's it's time they apply some new features to the system since that's long overdue. And yes it will be great to get a membership email once a month to keep us all in the loop. Maybe a monthly competition where the partner with the most sales gets a bonus will be great.

But I do understand that XSitePro are keeping the technical department very busy.

Let me know what your site URL is so that I can have a look what you can change to increase your sales.
You can view my site here www.top-audiobook-downloads.com

Regards,
Gerrit

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Hi Gerrit

Thanks for your reply. Your site looks terrific.

My own site http://www.iwantaudiobooks.com still needs a bit of tidying up, below the fold, and testing the opt-in sequence. But that is not my complaint. I know how to do SEO, because I do it on my other websites and for my offline customers every day.

The fact is that after nearly 4 years there has been no significant development of the system. An internet based business system that hasn't changed in 4 years, where else have you heard of that?

Features like "Sell Direct" and the Coupons offer huge potential, but they are currently too inflexible. For example, you cannot offer an affiliate a coupon for them to entice their own customer base, because there is nowhere to enter the code at checkout. Nor can you personalise coupons to reward frequent purchasers, e.g. "Bob Smith's 15% Off All Future Purchases" coupon - if I give him that I would not be able to reward another good customer with "Frank Jones' 15% Off All Future Purchases" coupon.

Or supposing I want to offer 10% off "101 Secrets of Highly Effective Speakers" on Monday using a customised coupon called "101 Speaker Secrets" (based on the 10% discount voucher valid for one order coupon), and then 10% off "25 Secrets Of Highly Successful Salespeople" on Tuesday using the same basic coupon renamed as "25 Sales Secrets". I can't rename the "10% discount voucher valid for one order" coupon, because of the differences in my customers time zones, e.g. they might go to enter their code at checkout and find that even though it is only 21:00 EST on Monday, the code is invalid because I based the time limit on GMT where it is currently 02:00 on Tuesday.

Also the support is virtually non-existent. Tickets raised can go unanswered for days or even weeks, even if marked urgent. I usually have to come in here and contact one of the support people to draw their attention to the ticket.

Regards
Simon

Simon,



I'm not sure why you would want to offer a coupon with that tight of a deadline? I don't sell Audio Books, but I sell online digital products, when I offer coupons they are for 7-10 days, and expire after that. That way I can run 2-3 promotions to the customers before the coupons expire. Many people do not check email that frequently to make use of a coupon that would expire within 24 hours!

Spoken network sounds interesting, I would bet there's some way around the coupon problem.... If you want/need help on the technical side of things contact me at:
brett@xsitepro2webtemplates.com

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Hi Brett



...in short, "Deal of the Day". Scarcity motivates people to buy. But when you are selling a downloadable audio book you cannot realistically limit the quantity available; so you have to limit the time.

Regards
Simon

Yes I agree with Simon, support is hopeless. The customer help videos have not worked for weeks if not months I have lodged tickets , emailed but nothing done, Very poor

Shaun

Hi Simon

I'm sorry this coupon issue has been drifting.

SN Technical Department are looking at it now. I personally monitor SN's Customer, Publisher, Partner, and Affiliate Helpdesks, and you'll get an initial response from me, as you did in this instance. If it then has to be escalated, and you feel we're not getting back to you, by all means PM me here. I'll then give you an email to contact me directly.

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Best regards

Mike
Spoken Network

Thanks Gerrit. I hope you're well.

Yes, you'll be getting a newsletter soon, as the "new format" Pimsleurs go up. Now DRM free mp3, and new lower pricing

It should be coming out soon.

You'll know I'll respond soon to any query Gerrit, but if you're here and want an SN question answering, feel free to PM me.

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Best regards

Mike
Spoken Network

Hi Shaun

I'm very concerned to read your comments about support at SN. Unfortunately, I can't see anything in the system in the name you've used here. I'd be grateful if you could let me have details of your unanswered tickets and emails so I can look in to it immediately. PM me if you'd prefer.

Technical are checking the videos issue now.

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Best regards

Mike
Spoken Network

This is a general reply to any XSP users here, who also have a relationship with Spoken Network.

We have Spoken Network Helpdesks at:

Customers and Affiliates - http://audiobooksupport.helpserve.com
Partners - http://spokennetworkpartners.helpserve.com
Publishers - http://spokennetwork.helpserve.com

and you, and your customers, will receive a prompt response via the relevant Helpdesk.

By all means PM me here if you're on the XSP forum and yet have an SN issue which is not being resolved.

Alternatively, if you'd prefer, let me know direct on mikeatspokennetwork.com (replace the "at" with the usual).

Many thanks.

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Best regards

Mike
Spoken Network

This is a completely unsolicited contribution - just browsing the forums and see these negative comments.

I'm a SN partner, and after a rocky start (poor health and too many things on my plate and not devoting time to understanding the system) I have been making sales and even published a title which has sold over 200 free and paid copies, so I'd call it progress.

I am able to do effective SEO and link generation, even though those are ongoing tasks and can't be left for very long. Just Google 'download audiobooks' and you can easily find sites that are well-optimised and well-traffic.

I have had brilliant help from Mike and Matt (and Kristian a while back). They have made changes, helped with uploads, suggested solutions which have worked, etc. At times there has been a delay but I have made the most of the time and done something constructive. It is a user-operated system...

The system does seem rather inflexible, eg coupons, but most of the rest is something you just have to spend time doing.

I'd love to be making millions from this, but that will come from branding, targetted traffic, and JVs with list-owners. And hard work. I work on all of those and momentum is building and I'm not giving up.

I wonder if all of Paul's sites share the same technical team? If so, then I'd suggest spending a few pounds and employ more staff, especially with the release of XSP2, which I bought but have not used yet. (Too busy.)
There's nothing like good support to encourage users who, like me in New Zealand, can feel very isolated and 'unloved' when we need good support.

Cheers

Stephen

Just received (3 June 2011) this email from a guy in Australia:

Dear Stephen,

Following Spoken Network's recent decision to terminate its partner program, we have decided to sell our entire portfolio of audiobook domains. Our sites currently have more than 20,000 pages indexed in Google and attract around 3,000 visitors per month.

Below are the domains offered for sale:
etc.

Can anyone shed light on this development, please?

Cheers

Stephen