> After harvesting email addresses (I only grabbed real email addresses, not anonymous craigslist addresses) I did one email blast to people that were advertising vacation rentals on craigslist...My results: 1,000+ vacation rental owners signed up and listed their properties on my test site.
He's missing a few steps...
How many email addresses did this dude harvest and blast to get 1,000+ people to sign up for his special vacation rental site?
What did the email say that he sent out?
Was he also sending them from throwaway gmail accounts?
What were his tactics?
This guy needs to follow up with more details. All he's shown is that at some point he posted 4 vacation rentals to Craigslist and he got 5 emails linking to AirBNB.
His findings rely on the fact that he got 1,000+ people to sign up their vacation rentals on his site after spamming some number of emails he admits to harvesting.
The "test" site he made (he's since edited it out), but google cached it http://bit.ly/iOPWi5 is www.mimbeo.com.
> "It's a no-brainer" said one of the founders. "We are offering owners and managers the same great service they receive from the pay-for-placement sites like VRBO & Homeaway. Not only that, but we broadcast our members listings to Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and more - and we do it all at no cost. We like to think of ourselves as the 'craigslist' of vacation rentals - with the added bonus that the listings do not expire - which is the main complaint we have heard from craigslist users."
Seems odd to go through all that for a weekend project "test" website. What's this guy's deal? This seems weird...
True this guys methods are questionable, as well as his objective.
But if his claims are true than both and AriBnB was faking user recommendations to gain users than they should get criticized for it. Even more so if they systematically violate Craiglist ToS.
He's missing a few steps... How many email addresses did this dude harvest and blast to get 1,000+ people to sign up for his special vacation rental site? What did the email say that he sent out? Was he also sending them from throwaway gmail accounts? What were his tactics?
This guy needs to follow up with more details. All he's shown is that at some point he posted 4 vacation rentals to Craigslist and he got 5 emails linking to AirBNB.
His findings rely on the fact that he got 1,000+ people to sign up their vacation rentals on his site after spamming some number of emails he admits to harvesting.
The "test" site he made (he's since edited it out), but google cached it http://bit.ly/iOPWi5 is www.mimbeo.com.
A quick look at the press page (http://mimbeo.com/vacation-rentals/press) and they have press releases announcing they got 1,000+ properties in one month: http://www.prlog.org/10408565-mimbeocom-reaches-1000-vacatio...
Here's a quote:
> "It's a no-brainer" said one of the founders. "We are offering owners and managers the same great service they receive from the pay-for-placement sites like VRBO & Homeaway. Not only that, but we broadcast our members listings to Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and more - and we do it all at no cost. We like to think of ourselves as the 'craigslist' of vacation rentals - with the added bonus that the listings do not expire - which is the main complaint we have heard from craigslist users."
Seems odd to go through all that for a weekend project "test" website. What's this guy's deal? This seems weird...