Comments on: Friday Entrepreneurs: Shannon Sofield, Payloadz

By: MoonChild

MoonChild — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:07:56 +0000

Shannon,

While I really love your service, I am having such a hard time getting my pay buttons to work. I really need to get these sites up and running so I can make money and so you can too. Can you help me?

By: John

John — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:12:29 +0000

Just one question to those people from the developed countries who think it’s fine and dandy that companies based in those countries outsource jobs to cheap foreign labor markets:

Who’s pocket are you in? Just wondering.

By: Obfuscated

Obfuscated — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:33:15 +0000

Why would anyone want to do business with Shannon Sofield, formerly of SuperFreaker.com whose poor programming and lack of SQL Injection protection cost thousands of companies a lot of time and money to first correct and then cleanup his product’s inherent mistakes. In our opinion, he had to learn of his product’s vulnerability of the SQL Injection exploit but clearly chose not to contact his paying customers with, at the very least, a warning if not a full remedy. A now he wants to teach us how to be rich? Sorry but I’d rather live moderately and be able to sleep with a clear conscious each night.

Want an example? Search no further than Google with the phrase: “Upublisher Exploit” and you’ll find a plethora of reasons to be cautious.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=upublisher+exploit

By: Daniel Isdell

Daniel Isdell — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:42:29 +0000

Well I just signed up for E-Junkie for my downloads and it looks like I will be saving over $100 per month and they don’t have any download bandwidth restrictions. If I had it to do over again I would NEVER consider payloadz. If your download count gous over your limit then they shut you off and make you pay double to get back on. They penalize you for success. Go with Shannon Sofields and you will learn how to make Shannon Sofield rich.

I have a bunch of previous website customers that I am going to switch over to E-Junkie FOR FREE AND I WILL NEVER RECOMEND PAYLOADZ TO ANYONE ELSE EVER

By: Daniel Isdell

Daniel Isdell — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:30:59 +0000

I agree with Mary only I am a lot more angry at Payloadz,
I have been using Payloadz for a number of years and they used to be a great service however in recent months that has changed. The price of their service has always been high, but it recently DOUBLED. I have had several replies from their support that were not only WRONG but ARROGANT TOO!

It Culminated in them SHUTTING OFF MY SERVICE on a failed credit card charge but then they DOUBLED THE PRICE. They offer a free month if I “UPGRADE” (Same price that I was paying with one half the download limit) But their site CHARGES FULL PRICE when you try to order. Or I could get the download capacity that I HAD for only DOUBLE WHAT I WAS PAYING BEFORE. When They got my complaint their responce was “I’m sorry to see you go.”

Then I got an email supposedly from Shannon Sofield saying “we want you back, come back and we will give you 40% off ” (after they doubled the price) Am I supposed to be excited by this offer? OOOH If I come back they will only charge me 10% more than I was already paying and I only get ONE FRIGGIN’ HALF OF THE CAPACITY THAT I HAD BEFORE? WHAT KIND OF IDIOT DO THEY THINK THAT I AM? KICK ME AGAIN ONLY CHARGE ME MORE THIS TIME?

I won’t tollerate the obnoxious attitude that I recieved from EACH AND EVERY support email.

HEY EVERYONE YOU CAN GET BETTER SERVICE FOR FREE FROM http://WWW.ORONJO.COM FOR FREE

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:31:30 +0000

What E-Junkie provides (and PayLoadz does not) is really good customer service. I’ve been with them for about six months, and haven’t had a single customer complaint. My emails to their customer support are always answered quickly, and any issues behind the scenes are dealt with promptly. Contrast that with the rude and haphazard service Mr. Sofield provided my company—well, there’s no comparing the two, really.

By: Max2

Max2 — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:35:55 +0000

Benjamin; It’s even worse in pharmaceuticals; The most highly-regulated industry in the US — not the world — where outsourcing is reducing production costs in the short-term at the clear risk of creating drugs which are toxic to patients, (i,e heparin from China). Why? The FDA and EMEA can’t be everywhere, all the time, testing every chemical, health care product or food source. They have to prioritize, even after that huge hiring binge of a few months ago. Meanwhile, the oblivious Andy’s will blather-on saying we must remove barriers to have a better world never imagining having a better world could be done with some small level of forethought. Economically speaking, after vivid events i,e multiple deaths and physical injury, we may see tougher quality control internationally, but higher costs, which is likely to lead to a return of jobs to the US “until they get it right”. After all, it took the west a long time. Meanwhile, just don’t get sick.
Ramit, sorry to be so down. Keep up the good work. Yes, I also need a new suit, but mine will probably be imported to the US instead of direct-ordered.

By: Pat

Pat — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:19:34 +0000

Shannon,

Thanks for your response. It sounds like you and Robin have some friendly competition with each other, and that’s good for everybody, kind of like how you see two gas stations right across the street from each other.

I’ll have to do some more research, but again, thank you for your response and honesty. Best of luck to you as well.

By: Shannon - PayLoadz.com

Shannon - PayLoadz.com — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:03:15 +0000

As far as first users-
I was a member of a few developer forums where I posted regularly. I did a low key post at each of them. It is tough to balance the line between announcing your product and spamming. It was received positively for the most part. PayPerClick was the first real ad placements. An affiliate/reseller system would have been a big help I think- as long as it is generous. At least provide a set of links and buttons for people to add to their site. you’d be surprised how many people will just link to you if they like your service without any incentive needed. I also had a small email newsletter from my earlier development gigs, so I sent an email to that list as well as a few key contacts in my email address book- directly asking for help promoting the service. They were individualized emails with specific action items which I wanted from them (”Hey, I was hoping you could give me rotation in your top banner ad on your site”). I didn’t have any big release when the service was released.

By: Aditya Kothadiya

Aditya Kothadiya — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:37:46 +0000

Shannon,
For the question – “How did you get your first users?”, you didn’t really answer the question. You just mentioned that there were customers who needed that. But I didn’t understand how did you reach to them? Did you know them before? Or did you use PR stunt? Or what else?

Your insights will be very useful.

Thanks,
Aditya