Just wondering for those of you who use advanced access products if you have noticed any changes either positive or negetive following Dominion Enterprises purchase of AA http://dominionenterprises.com/pdf/sept21_06.pdf

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No major changes for me. The only two things going on now are the Yahoo penalty (which supposedly is in the process of being removed) and the promise of the new 4.0, which never happens.

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Matt Scoggins
Metro House Hunters, Inc.
678-520-5382

Atlanta Georgia Real Estate | Atlanta Luxury Homes | Alpharetta Real Estate

AA's been promising 4.0 since I got my site three years ago. In answer to the question - No, AA still sucks just as much.

I signed up with them in Feb. with a 4.0 site. I don't know what the company was like before, but I don't think I could really come up with anything positive to say about my experience with AA now. Very little seemed to work correctly with my 4.0 site. I hear people talking about moving their 3.0 site to a 4.0 site, but I'm thinking to myself that I wish I had one of those 3.0 sites! I abandoned my AA site last week. I was patient & understanding with them for as long as I could be, but I grew tired of being lied to and it seemed like I was always playing peek-a-boo with my website whenever I tried to view it on the web. I make it a point now to tell everyone that I know to stay away from that company. Wasted money..

I am writing to let you know about my horrible experience with Advanced Access in the hope that it will prevent someone from ending up my situation. I purchased their template website and premium marketing package for $4399. After 10 months of waiting for results, I was disappointed to learn that I only had 30 unique visitors for the previous month. 30 visitors? That is a ridiculously low number.

I was told at the time I signed up for my Premium Marketing Package that the metatags and keywords would be customized for each of my webpages. This was never done. Instead, all of my webpages have the same metatags and keywords. So, for example, when you search in google for my website only one page shows up as having been indexed.

I was also told at the time I signed up for my Premium Marketing Package that I would receive a monthly analysis of my website with personalized suggestions as to how I could add to, or alter, the content of my website to increase my search engine rankings. Despite this promise, the first time I received an e-mail from AA with specific suggestions on how to improve my search engine rankings was 9 months after I signed up for the package. These suggestions were only provided to me after I called AA to find out what was going on with the search-engine optimization of my website. During this call, I was also told that the person who had been assigned to optimize my website was no longer with AA and that I would have to be assigned a new representative. Had I not called AA, I don’t know when you would have figured out that no one was working on the search-engine optimization for my website.

These are just some of the ways in which AA failed to live up to the promises that were made to me when I signed up for the Premium Marketing Package. More than 10 months after I signed up for the Premium Marketing Package with AA, my website still has not been optimized. As the statistics for the last month show, I had 30 unique visitors to my website.

I sued AA in small claims court and obtained a judgment against them for all of the money I paid them. I have not received any of it yet because they are appealing the Judge’s decision. It is ridiculous that AA forced me into the position of having to sue them for their failure to optimize my website, and that they are still refusing to admit this failure by appealing the Judge’s decision.

I strongly encourage anyone who is considering hiring AA to optimize their website to do their homework. Knowing what I know now, I would never choose to work with them again.

Very disappointed,
~Amanda

JWO - Amanda, I see this is your first post each here at REW - so welcome to the community.

In terms of your posts - I am sorry to hear about your experience, - one thing of note though, is that it is a regular practice for anonymous users to join forums and bash other companies with their first post, and then never show up again, leading the membership to believe they were just competitors trying to smear the competition (Happens to me all the time)

I certainly want to make sure I give everyone the benefit of the doubt, so to prove me right, why not stop by the introductions forum and tell us a little about yourself, what brings you to REW, and what your plans for the future are - that sort of thing

Once again, welcome

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I understand what your saying, I'm sure you get that all the time from other companies. I'm not big on posting, mostly because I'm still learning, I'm a fairly new Realtor, and still have much to learn about websites. I can assure you that I'm not a competitor, nor do I have interest in becoming one. I've read tons of posts from other people that state the same thing Amanda and I have stated about AA. I still to this day let everyone I know to stay away from their service. I work for Keller Williams and know of another Realtor that is working on having AA taken off of our national vendors list. I had just read Amanda's post & was excited to hear that at least someone is taking on AA & their nonsense. I aplaud what she has done.

After AA, I looked into REW to help me with my next site. People seem to be happy with your service & your templates look nice. I was not able to fit your fee into my budget at the time so I went with another popular complany. I'll not name the second company, the service is not bad, they are helpful but its not what I hoped it would be. I've finally decided to try designing a site for myself with Dreamweaver CS3, then have someone else optimize it for the search engines.

I'll post something in the new members section for you, I certainly don't mind that. I'm sure at some point I'll be able to contribute a little more, for now, I just appreciate all the information. Thanks

Nice to meet you JWO

Don't worry about being new, many of our new members are also new to the web game, but there are many other ways to contribute (On the real estate chat side, tell a joke (PG 13) in the laid back chat, that sort of thing.

Along the way, you will pick up tons of info, and you will also be able to get help with your own site (I really suggest even in beginning stages taking advantage of the website reviews section)

Cheers and thanks again.

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Want to save up to 50% off Real estate webmasters product websites & common upgrades? Check out my latest blog post regarding our end of the year sale.

By the way, Amanda.. just curious...are you the lawyer-agent in Irvine?

I had great success with my AA site and earned a substantial income as a result of having it.. I just did not depend on them to do anything to it. I did it myself. It is only since Dominion took over that the problems seemed to appear. When I saw the problems that were developing, I just moved on to greener pastures.

I do believe she is one and the same, http://www.cinch2sell.com/ Amanda Wheeland, taking on AA on principal for such a small dollar amount is admirable but I would caution that public commentary (Libel if you lose your case) is always a concern as archives from forums can be subpoenaed if you lose your case and there is a defamation counter suit filed.

I know it is tough to hold your tongue when you are upset, but this is not an anonymous format, and everything posted here is a matter of public record.

Incidentally, I am probably AA's biggest competitor with many of their featured agents joining the ranks of REW users every year, so please don't take this as me defending them in any way, as I truly am not a fan, I am just educating if at all possible because it is important to realize that what is stated here can have serious implications elsewhere due to the attention and exposure this community has.

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Want to save up to 50% off Real estate webmasters product websites & common upgrades? Check out my latest blog post regarding our end of the year sale.