No brand free option can hurt business

Let me begin by stating I'm a fan of vBSEO and I've used it in our forums for nine months or so. It does what's it's designed to do in sort of a mysterious way. However as a business owner having vBSEO installed has actually hurt our ability to do business. Many of the auto dealerships, dealership groups, and owners we work with refuse to recommend our forums because of the vBSEO branding. Several now have stated and I summarize "having the branding in your forums can create confusion among the less experienced Internet user and until it's removed, we cannot recommend your business or sell your services to our customers".

The department of motor vehicles in my state, which is very strict BTW has a similar law. "You cannot create any confusion whatsoever among the consumer as to the ownership of the product or service being offered to the buyer". You see the auto dealerships we work with sell our services to their customers when they buy new cars and trucks. Simply put our inability to remove the vBSEO branding has hurt our business.

I was going to post a reply about branding into another similar thread, but they're all closed. Apparently this subject is frowned upon because vBSEO is either unwilling or technically unable to do anything about it.

As noted in all the other threads, a branding free version will be offered at some point. There's just no date yet.

A simple disclaimer line in your footer should handle any issues with confusion. I do the same thing with my site, stating that I am not affiliated with any motorcycle manufacturers.

No disrespect intended but that's the same exact response nearly word for word that I've read for over a year. In each thread where this issue is raised very soon after the thread is closed. Do you really think those actions will give any credibility to your answer after all this time?

I suspect this issue and vBSEO will remain unchanged. vBSEO is either unwilling or unable to properly address this possibly because they are unwilling to admit that there's no brand free option coming - ever. There I said what I'm sure some of you have been thinking. I hope I'm wrong, but this issue and the rhetoric remain.

Originally Posted by Keith Cohen

As noted in all the other threads, a branding free version will be offered at some point. There's just no date yet.

A simple disclaimer line in your footer should handle any issues with confusion. I do the same thing with my site, stating that I am not affiliated with any motorcycle manufacturers.

If that's the correct answer, what other answer should we give?

I notice that you don't have a branding free version of your Gallery either:

Main Index - Tundra Solutions Photo Gallery

Couldn't that could confuse customers as well?

He got one point Keith, that you keep saying it will be available even though it is obviously not ...

You could ease the asking minds if you at least give some sort of decent answer. Like : It will be available for version 3.0 - or - it won't be available until version 4 - at least SOMETHING .. Or just simply say : We don't and we won't and surprise us when you do ..

When you made a survey for the branding free version I expected the branding free in the near feature ...

After this answer I don't believe it will come with 3.0 either .. I also don't get what the problem is. Since it simply cannot be a technicial reason since removing it from the templates takes just two minutes ..

Ah, what the hell - I am tired of this issue I guess we just have to live with the fact that vBSEO will never be branding free - maybe in year 2020 with version 12.2RC2 ...

Originally Posted by Keith Cohen

I notice that you don't have a branding free version of your Gallery either:

Main Index - Tundra Solutions Photo Gallery

Couldn't that could confuse customers as well?

What comparison is that ?!

The team has achieved consensus that we will be releasing a branding removal option. The date of release has yet to be determined. That is all the information that is available at this time. Apologies for the inconvenience.

I suspect it could and we do own a brand free license for that product. After a recent upgrade to PhotoPost, I forgot to remove the copyright notice so thanks for the reminder.

Originally Posted by Keith Cohen

I notice that you don't have a branding free version of your Gallery either:

Main Index - Tundra Solutions Photo Gallery

Couldn't that could confuse customers as well?

Just wanted to add, if you take a look at my personal site below, you'll see that I own branding free versions of vBulletin, vBadvanced CMPS, and vBGallery.

So, I am of the same opinion of you, where I prefer to have no branding. We just don't know when vBSEO's branding free license will be made available. (I plan to purchase a branding free license for vBSEO myself.)

I've owned many motorcycles in my younger days, a Yamaha Radian, Fazer, FZR, a Kawasaki ZX9, but life has changed and so have my needs.

All that aside I can only wonder what the goals are for vBSEO. It's obviously designed for vBulletin forum websites and aimed toward those who operate as a business. It frankly is way under priced and there's an inherent competitive risk from less evolved free programs and vBulletin itself.

It's filling a void where one currently exists. However the minute vBulletin adds a similar marketing tool to their software, sales of vBSEO could be sliced in half. I know product sales drive R&D and if the aforementioned occurs, I fear the product would be doomed.

To limit damage from competitive products and vBulletin itself, vBSEO needs to be much more useful than anything available. Notice I wrote useful and not affordable. It's not all about the price, small business owners will pay more IMO to either save time or make money. It's part of their entrepreneurial spirit that drives the economy in America.

Originally Posted by Keith Cohen

Just wanted to add, if you take a look at my personal site below, you'll see that I own branding free versions of vBulletin, vBadvanced CMPS, and vBGallery.

So, I am of the same opinion of you, where I prefer to have no branding. We just don't know when vBSEO's branding free license will be made available. (I plan to purchase a branding free license for vBSEO myself.)

Originally Posted by TundraSoul

It frankly is way under priced and there's an inherent competitive risk from less evolved free programs and vBulletin itself.

...the minute vBulletin adds a similar marketing tool to their software, sales of vBSEO could be sliced in half. I know product sales drive R&D and if the aforementioned occurs, I fear the product would be doomed.

...vBSEO needs to be much more useful than anything available. Notice I wrote useful and not affordable. It's not all about the price, small business owners will pay more IMO to either save time or make money.

I agree with parts of your post but not all.

1st, I'd very much like to have the branding free version.

2nd, I'd like vbseo to raise prices significantly.

But sales won't fall that much if vBulletin implements a "similar marketing tool" because it just won't be as advanced as vbseo.

The vBulletin development team has too many other priorities to refocus on the many points that make vbseo such a complete tool. I fully expect vBulletin to implement changes to improve seo of vBulletin but there's no way they can keep up with the current pace that the vbseo team has set.

The ones who would choose to just stick with whatever option comes with vBulletin are the same ones who either a) complain about the price of vbseo being too high or b) just aren't seo & web marketing savvy enough to understand the power of proper seo.

And those people aren't the target market for vbseo anyway. The target market are the people who understand that a $150 (or a $1500) investment in vbseo can pay tremendous returns in a short period of time.

Originally Posted by rmjvol

The target market are the people who understand that a $150 (or a $1500) investment in vbseo can pay tremendous returns in a short period of time.

I'm curious how people can justify spending more for vbseo than your vbulletin license...I just have a hard time seeing that kind of cost justification. I know many hugh sites that are very successful (some in a very short period of time) using traditional, manual means of seo.

Smack:

What is the business model for your forum? Are you using it to generate CPC ad revenue, placed banners/sponsorships, and/or to promote a product/service? Or, is it a hobby/general interest/passion? If so, what are your success goals for your forum as a non-profit?

Originally Posted by smack

I'm curious how people can justify spending more for vbseo than your vbulletin license...I just have a hard time seeing that kind of cost justification. I know many hugh sites that are very successful (some in a very short period of time) using traditional, manual means of seo.

To tell u the truth I thought before like u .. For vBulletin u hav to pay 85$ every yr.. But for vBSEO u hav to pay just once.. Then its all urs.. Oh forgot if u wanna update urself u can renew ur license with just 35$.. Is it worth to u now? N trust me this is not just a URL rewriter.. U better try a demo that u can know what we r using n what u r missing ..

(If you buy a vBulletin owned license for $160, you don't have to pay the lease each year. You just pay $30/year to download updates, just as with vBSEO.)