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Most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. RRS feed

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    So.  I sign up for Gatineau beta.  What is this?  I'm required to establish a $5 adcenter account?  Hmmm, that's funny - I can create google ads without paying anything.  Besides - I have no interest in creating ads at all - I want analytics, which is why I had Deepmetrix in the first place.  Never mind that deepmetrix offers an ISP version where I don't have to let Microsoft sift through my stats for valuable data.  And never mind I'm providing them that data free.  They still want $5?  When they should be paying ME to beta test their software.

     

    So then I sign up for the beta anyway - what the hell, it's only ANOTHER $5 thrown Microsoft's way.  I go through the signup - maybe the promo code will work with the invite code and give me the adcenter account free - nope no luck.  It's too long for the field and obviously not a promo code but an "invite" code which is probably just another way to track me.

     

    Ok, all signed up.  I'll click on the link in the gatineau beta invite and see the wonders of my new web analytics account (which again I get for free from Google, and I already owned since I paid Deepmetrix big bucks for their .ISP version).  And wonder of wonders what should appear but.....  AN ERROR MESSAGE:

     

    Microsoft adCenter is experiencing problems

    We're sorry, but adCenter is experiencing a problem that prevents it from continuing.   Information that can help resolve the problem is now being sent to the adCenter site maintenance team.   You can return to the Microsoft adCenter sign-in page now, or sign in again later. We apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience.

    Return to the Microsoft adCenter sign-in page.

     

     

    Request Id   d8919555-0a2c-4680-a01e-d7157ce89ba6
     
    Sigh,
     
    Let me know when it ACTUALLY works.
     
    Disappointed again.
    Saturday, November 17, 2007 12:59 AM

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    Lee,

     

    Sorry to hear you're disappointed with your experience so far. The $5 charge is a temporary (and undesirable) artefact of the existing adCenter sign-up process which we're having to use with this beta of Gatineau. As soon as we can remove it, we will. The "invite code" is not used to track you - it's used to ensure that we can manage the number of people who are signing up for this wave of the Gatineau beta.

     

    Of course it's doubly frustrating for you that you're experiencing problems with the service now that you've taken the time and incurred the expense of signing up. All I can say is that we are still at a relatively early stage with this beta, and some availability problems will occur from time to time. Thanks very much for providing us with this information about the error.

     

    Regards,

    Ian Thomas

     

    Sunday, November 18, 2007 7:45 AM
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    Like I said - let me know when it works and I'll look at it again.  In the meantime what's with the $5 signup fee.  It's ridiculous.  Your competitors don't command a fee just to sign up to create ads.  I guess if you want to prevent people from using your services it makes sense - but otherwise it's just another barrier to entry.  I don't care if this is for Gatieneau or the other services offered through AdCenter.  You just don't charge for things on the web until someone actually gets some value. I looked through the other AdCenter offerings (all of which I'd have to pay more money to use) and none of them justified this $5 fee.

     

    Tuesday, November 20, 2007 12:33 AM
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    Actually, I believe Yahoo charges $35 to open a PPC advertising account so adCenter's $5 charge isn't unprecedented, just annoying.

     

    Cheers,

    Charles

    Micro Marketing

    Sunday, December 2, 2007 6:00 PM
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     Lee Drake wrote:
    Like I said - let me know when it works and I'll look at it again.  In the meantime what's with the $5 signup fee.  It's ridiculous.  Your competitors don't command a fee just to sign up to create ads.  I guess if you want to prevent people from using your services it makes sense - but otherwise it's just another barrier to entry.  I don't care if this is for Gatieneau or the other services offered through AdCenter.  You just don't charge for things on the web until someone actually gets some value. I looked through the other AdCenter offerings (all of which I'd have to pay more money to use) and none of them justified this $5 fee.

     



    Google charges a $5.00 fee and Yahoo charges a $50.00 minimum opening balance.  Adcenter appears to be the lowest cost to get into.

    I guess you have never used google tools before huh? they're king of "downtime" "sorry, not available.. try again later"  "emergency maintenance, service unavailable until .."
    Monday, January 14, 2008 1:56 PM
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    No, google analytics is free, and maybe I set my account up for advertising so long ago I don't remember but I don't recall every having to pay a fee on Google until you actually bought advertising.  I've never had google tools not be available - and Google Analytics works flawlessly.

     

    Monday, January 14, 2008 11:13 PM
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    Oh please, lets stay on topic here.

    1. PPC/Advertising - EVERY network requires a 5.00 activation or 50 plus dollar deposit.
    2. Neither google or Microsoft charge for analytics
    3. Both analytics systems are incentives for making the most out of PPC campaigns

    So with that said, you can wait for a public release of Microsoft analytics and quite complaining about fees because they all charge fees for advertising (see #1) or you could actually TRY Adcenter and get into the analytics beta and be content.


    Tuesday, January 15, 2008 4:00 PM
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    You don't have to be an advertiser to use Google Analytics, as you do Gatineau - thus there is no fee for analytics.  You aren't limited to one web site per account as you are with Gatineau (at least as far as I can tell there's no easy way to ad multiple, seperately tracked websites to one gatineau account - though I may be missing something because it's not working for me).

     

    I am in the Analytics beta.  I have yet to get the product working - I can't even get past configuring it on their website before it crashes.  I have owned Livestats.XSP for years and know exactly what the capabilities of that product are, and assume that this is a subset based on the fact that they don't have access to log files in the Analytics version.

     

    Go ahead and have the last word - but charging $5 and insisting I join AdCenter to have access to a BETA TEST of analytics is a move only Microsoft might come up with.

     

    Cheers,

    Lee

     

    Tuesday, January 15, 2008 5:06 PM