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This is how you hustle

jacksimpson.co

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Re: This is how you hustle

#61

Post by jbsimpson »

probably_wrong wrote: post #58
peopleshost wrote: post #35

Hello Everyone, Instead of responding to comments individually I wanted to make one comment (and one comment only) to the responses to this article. This is ONE of many strategies PeoplesHost employs to acquire customers. To address some questions or concerns others have mentioned in the comments made earlier: - The blog post is authentic. Jack is someone we reached out to earlier today. He responded by complimenting…

> Instead of responding to comments individually I wanted to make one comment (and one comment only) That's not how this works. I mean, you can do whatever you want, but if you show up to a discussion, give a long rant, and then leave, I'm definitely labeling your comment a PR stunt and adding your company to my "never do business with them" list.

I think they were making a point that they were going to clarify these things but didn't want to get involved in arguing online.

I also wouldn't exactly call that a rant, I call that a bullet-point explanation of their logic. Personally I'm grateful to them for clarifying things. Until that point I had multiple people making comments about how I couldn't tell a bot from a human.

Re: This is how you hustle

#62

Post by jbsimpson »

jwatte wrote: post #5

You actually read cold sales emails, and believe promises by sales people like "customer service" or "solving your problem?" That well was poisoned by "hustlers" (in the derogatory meaning) a long time ago. Unless I have experienced it myself or a trusted acquaintance recommends it, it goes into the bin for me. No exceptions.

"cold sales emails" There's a difference between cold sales emails that are completely impersonal and emailed out to thousands of people an an email that is personally addressed to me and my current situation.

"believe promises" No, you're reading in to what I believe. I stated that it made them look good since they were responding to me more quickly than the company I was paying which had stuffed up.

Re: This is how you hustle

#63

Post by jbsimpson »

idlewords wrote: post #59

There's no better time to spam me than in a crisis!

Well, they sent me a personalised message, deliberately at a point when I was frustrated with my current hosting provider. I don't make money off my site, but if I did I'm pretty sure I might have been livid enough to take them up on their offer. When you

Re: This is how you hustle

#64

Post by jbsimpson »

bad_user wrote: post #53
jbsimpson wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, the hosting provider I use is so cheap I don't think there was too much loyalty to begin with.

If your hosting provider is cheap, then that's one reason for why they might provide bad service. You get what you pay for in general. Or in other words, changing one cheap hosting provider for another won't help with reliability much.

Fair point, although one could argue that its situations like these that are potentially most likely to make you reassess how much you want to spend on hosting - these guys are actually more expensive.

Re: This is how you hustle

#65

Post by jbsimpson »

suprgeek wrote: post #40

This is how you turn e-mail to crap - not how you hustle. If they had tweeted to him back or DM him (i.e. used the same medium as him) then I understand. Sending unsolicited e-mail that capitalizes on a competitors stumble just makes you look petty IMO. Also, people should want to consume your service because they LIKE what you do more than your competitors not because you are pouncing on another's misery to flog you…

> capitalizes on a competitors stumble

If I was actually making money off my site, I would probably be livid enough to dump my current provider - this is by no means the first time this has happened (although of course I bring this on myself by choosing an extremely cheap hosting provider and completely accept the risks I take).

Yes, it is sad when people stuff up, however if I was earning a living off that hosting, then I wouldn't see something wrong in a competitor specifically offering to fix something that is hurting my income.

Re: This is how you hustle

#66

Post by jbsimpson »

sokoloff wrote: post #7
synicalx wrote: post #4

They've approached someone out of the blue, and offered no incentives or value over their competitor other than some arbitrary statements about how they 'just know' their service will be somehow better. This avenue of "cold calling" is a bit new and interesting, but the way this webhost has done it just reeks of desperation. This isn't hustle, this is begging.

I would also be a little wary about it, but they're reaching out to a potential customer, with a targeted message at the exact moment they know the potential customer is frustrated with their current provider and possibly more open to change than normal. That's awareness, hustle, and smart targeting in my opinion. Now, I'm not going to change hosting providers over a single outage, but the time to reach out is when I…

That's exactly my thinking. If I actually made money off my site or it was happening too often I would have been really ripe to poach.

Re: This is how you hustle

#67

Post by wastedhours »

bad_user wrote: post #54
sb8244 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with this site about it: https://www.spamhaus.org/consumer/definition/ The key here would be unsolicited (yes) and bulk (possibly no). It is impossible to tell based on the blog post, but I find it less likely that there was a bot designed to find customers after a rival outage than a human doing it. If there was a bot however, that would be spam. I think many people on here would agree that it is annoying an…

I don't agree with labeling as spam only messages sent in bulk . The flaw in this definition is that the recipient has no way to tell whether a message was sent in bulk or not. After all, if spammers have a database with your address in it, they can have your name as well, or they can guess it from the email address and thus personalize the email you receive. And if the recipient can't tell whether a message was sent…

Perhaps not bulk, but dehumanised emails? I don't mind receiving "cold-calling" personal unsolicited comms, if it's specific to me. Quite often I get something interested from someone reaching out, and certainly wouldn't classify that kind of activity as spam.

Re: This is how you hustle

#68

Post by reacweb »

davidgerard wrote: post #60
rocqua wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't call this spam. Specifically because it is prompted and truly individualized. Moreover, they use only intentionally public info (twitter and whois). They also aren't pushing hard, this is essentially the softest sales-pitch that is actually a pitch.

I would call it Unsolicited Commercial Email, because that's precisely what it is. I suppose you could philosophically contort a meaning by which "it's not really spam if you squint", but if I get that garbage in my GMail I hammer that "report as spam" button so fast, and encourage everyone else to do likewise.

It is not completely Unsolicited because the client has asked for help on twitter.

Re: This is how you hustle

#69

Post by jbsimpson »

pfarnsworth wrote: post #20

I disagree. I think trying to take advantage of your competitors outage situation is bad form, mainly because you will mostly likely suffer an outage as well. From a marketing point of view, it may be good for a while, but can be used against you in the future. This is the first thing my first manager taught me 20+ years ago in software, and I still tend to agree with him.

I completely agree - if you swoop in and promise better uptime etc then you're making a deal with people that they won't experience this problem. You now need to be sure you can deliver.

Re: This is how you hustle

#70

Post by jbsimpson »

davidgerard wrote: post #49

I don't see how this does anything other than encourage spamming. I make a point of marking this sort of email directly as spam, and I would certainly hope others do too - it needs to be discouraged.

I don't know, I see a difference between an email personalised to myself and my current situation seeking my business vs mass spam.
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