Unwanted Meat of Any Type is Spam
I received this great email unsolicited recently.
FROM: edwardturner.apps@gmail.com
Mr. Kurt Nelson,
I was just checking out your iPhone app in the App Store. Congrats, looks pretty good.
Happy with your sales so far?
I’ve been working with some app developers the last few months, and I’ve learned that there’s two aspects that you need to focus on to be really successful selling apps in iTunes. I’d be happy to share what I’ve learned if you’re interested. Just let me know and I’ll send you a quick overview.
Best of luck,
Ed Turner
This is just the app store version of the billion SEO offers I get for my website. So I respond to see if the person on the other end has some intelligence.
Mr. Ed Turner,
I was just checking to see how much you want to charge for your advice. Congrats on starting a scummy company to do this.
Happy with your results so far?
I’ve been working with some app developers the last few months, and I’ve learned that there’s two aspects that you need to focus on to be really successful selling products to them. I’d be happy to share what I’ve learned if you’re interested. Just let me know and I’ll send you a quick overview after charging you $397.
Kurt Nelson
Mr. Kurt Nelson,
If you simply replied, “Sure, send me what you have”…you would have received a follow-up email with the summary I promised. For FREE. Sure, if you wanted me to implement the suggestions for you, I would have to charge for that. But my initial advice was free. I never said you’d have to pay me to get it.
Is your Company “scummy” because you charge for you App? Please think before writing such a vicious reply from now on. There are people out there willing to provide a little guidance for nothing in return.
Ed
P.S. Here’s the email you would have received:
Kurt,
First, I do offer a marketing service that helps iPhone App Developers. However, the information I provide below and on the site I link to…that alone can give you a good base on how to improve your iPhone sales on your own. If you think I can help you, great. There’s obviously no obligation on your part for me sharing this knowledge.
Ok, the two aspects that you must focus on for marketing your iphone app are traffic and conversion. By traffic, I mean getting people to learn about your app and sending them to your app page on iTunes. Conversion is what happens when they arrive at your page in iTunes… they either buy, or they don’t.
What you need to do first is work on the conversion aspect. You do this by optimizing everything that is on your app’s iTunes product page. Mostly, we’re talking about the description. In marketing speak, this is called “copy”. You need highly persuasive copy that convinces the visitor to click the buy button (as opposed to clicking the back button and leaving).
Your app’s copy must be more than a standard “description” in order to be successful. Rather than focus on specific features of the app, you should try to describe how the app will benefit the user. Most non-games can use “benefits” rather than features and receive a strong boost in conversion. However, there’s another trick I like to use when writing copy for an iphone app…
Write the copy so that the user can actually “experience” themselves using the app. Put them in a mental state of mind where they can visualize themselves using the app. I know, easier said than done… but it is highly effective! This technique is awesome for game apps too!
The second aspect is traffic. How do you allow people to learn about your app and get them to your app’s iTunes product page? There are many methods, but the best method is a well crafted press release that is sent to a list of websites and blogs that often review iphone apps. I’ve been compiling a list of my own (117 quality sites so far).
It’s important that you don’t try to send a boiler-plate press release and expect results. You need to use some of the same techniques I talked about in regards to persuasive copy to get these site owners and bloggers to want to write about your app.
If you want a big boost in sales, this is what you need to do.
Not everyone is skilled at writing persuasive marketing copy. I offer a fairly affordable service, and I can do it all for you. Check out the complete details here:
http://www.mobile-app-marketing-makeover.com
All the best,
Ed
I sell products too you know, but I don’t send out emails to everyone in the app store offering to sell my products to them under the guise of advice. So, Mr. Turner, you are still a spammer, just instead of selling me Viagra you are selling a slightly more useful product.
His twitter account is http://twitter.com/edwardturner and his facebook profile is http://www.facebook.com/edward.turner so you can go investigate yourself.
i got the exact email from him, but immediately assumed there was a catch and chose to google his email address before responding. your blog was the first result. time to give the old Mail a bounce command
…
great response by the way. good stuff.
*LOL*
Check this out: http://www.edward-turner.com/.
Yikes!
Got the same spam…Junk/delete right away…only a moron would take up his “services”
have you actually read his free advice on the e-mail response and on that website?
some of it is actually useful. and towards the end of the page he itemizes what you get with the $397. if this guy had a much better website and verifiable testimonials, it would qualify this as a legit business.
Same email, same google search, same result
Thanks for blogging about it, spamming people is never acceptable and just devalues your product to $0.
Cheers,
Bruce
Give the guy a break for fucks sake – he’s only trying to make a buck like the rest of us.
I found his advice useful and might just use it fort Pamplona video app so get a life you tossers
You sir, are an idiot. And I reserve the right to say that since this is my blog. Everyone is trying to make a buck like the rest of us, including prostitutes and bank robbers.
Surely he’s not an idiot? Why is there a problem with getting free advice? You don’t have to pay him anything, he is offering a service like any other company… It doesn’t mean you have to give him any money, or that he is an evil person trying to trick you out of your money…
Wow I just got this email, thanks for the heads up.
I’m sure other app devs will do a quick search when they get this kind of email too.
Google autosuggested appending “iphone” when I started typing his name, and this page is the 3rd result, right under his marketing page, haha.
Anyways, thanks.
I can’t imagine any developer falling for this. When i read the e-mail i knew immediatly is was just some genetic spam bot scraping the apple website. This one is going to the spam folder immediatly.
He is still at it. I received his “offer” this morning and a quick google search led me here.
Heh how many years he will keep trying to do this! The time when it was difficult to make a quick research about any business is over! It comes to this that we should be very careful about our “web reputation”!
Thanks for blogging! It is useful for years!
Hi,
I want to say something about Edward Turner and his services. I was a fool because i trusted this lier and impostor, but I learn from mistakes and I want to share this with everyone so you will STAY AWAY from EDWARD TURNER, he is a BIG FAT LIER.
He sends emails to developers and says that he can take care about merketing your app, but I promised myself that I will send mails to developers to make sure they know who is this man and what he does.
It took him 25 days to modify some words from my description and he was answering to my mails with a delay of 6-7 days. When I said I want my money back he answered in few hours and said he sent the press realease, after this he didn’t respond me to any of my mails. I sent him screenshots with my sales to show him that his service is a piece of shit and asking for my money back but no response. Now I opened a dispute on PayPal and I’m waiting and hoping this will resolve soon.
I have screenshots with all of these discussions to prove that I say the truth.
You can see these here: http://img98.imageshack.us/g/screenshot20110121at151.png/
I was promised that if I won’t recover the entire payment from sales I will receive the difference back, but this was a lie. I sent screenshots from my iTunes Connect account with sales because this was the request to prove my sales. The difference should be returned in 30 days after the services began but he delayed the beginning of the service with 25 days, so 25+30=55 and I will not be able to open a dispute on PayPal because of the 45 days available. Here is what he says on his site: “I am certain that the services I provide will increase your sales. If they don’t, you shouldn’t have to pay. So my guarantee is simple: Allow a full 30 days from the date I distribute your press release to determine if your sales have at least recovered payment for the service. If not, I’ll refund you the difference. You will need to send me screenshots from iTunes Connect”.
I sent screenshots to him but he didn’t respond for 9 days. After he began his services my sales were the worst ever. In the first day after the press release I had 4 sales, second day – 4 sales… and this current day (10th) – 1 sale. I have screenshots with everything and all the discussion we had. Here are some fragments:
Mon, 27 Dec 2010 at 12:01pm
Hi Flaviu,
I’ll be getting started with your project soon. But in order to begin, I need you to complete the attached “Project Questionnaire” and re-post here on Basecamp. Please do so as soon as possible to prevent any delays.
Edward Turner Wed, 5 Jan at 7:49pm
ok, I’ll schedule for Friday to send out.
Flaviu Rus Fri, 7 Jan at 8:59pm
Did you send it?
Flaviu Rus Sat, 8 Jan at 8:01am
If you continue this way, I will ask for my money back in a few days and if you don’t wanna give them back I will make a dispute on PayPal because i’m not satisfied of your work at all.
Flaviu Rus Sun, 9 Jan at 7:57pm
I want my money back, don’t release anything.
Edward Turner Sun, 9 Jan at 9:48pm via email
Sorry, I was not trying to ignore you. I fell ill with a very bad Flu virus beginning Thursday evening. I was unable to eat and barely move all day Friday and Saturday. I spent most of the time sleeping. It wasn’t until this morning that I was feeling well enough to eat. THis is the first I’ve seen your emails.
I too was a fool. I trusted the guy because he seemed credible and I wanted to believe him. Shame on me. Tomorrow I am contacting the fraud division of my credit card as well as the attorney general in his state. It is personal as he swindled me. Any one reading this BEWARE. Don’t give this guy a dime
Dan
Yeah, I just got the same Mail and thought that this might be something other app developers received as well. Your blog was found on google and I just wanted to thank you that you posted this!
I’m going to share it over my blog as well, just to make sure
Good Work!
Flo
Thanks for the Heads Up on this!
Registrant:
Edward Turner
14 Bay View Drive
Waretown, New Jersey 08758
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: EDWARD-TURNER.COM
Created on: 16-May-07
Expires on: 16-May-12
Last Updated on: 04-May-10
Administrative Contact:
Turner, Edward edwardjturner@gmail.com
14 Bay View Drive
Waretown, New Jersey 08758
United States
(609) 276-7039
Technical Contact:
Turner, Edward edwardjturner@gmail.com
14 Bay View Drive
Waretown, New Jersey 08758
United States
(609) 276-7039
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.DREAMHOST.COM
NS2.DREAMHOST.COM
NS3.DREAMHOST.COM
I got the same email for my karate app. Maybe he should take his own advice and build a 99 cent app on the App store which sells his advice?
He is still up sending out this shit guys.
Email -> Google -> Here
I’ve just received this mail from the same guy. Thank you very much. Great work
Just had an e-mail from him too. Many thanks for the heads up about this person
His email just landed even here in Italy after my app was published… thanks a lot for sharing!
Exactly same email text. First thing I googled his name found your post. Thanks a lot
Great reply.
Still getting them. Googled the email address and got here. Typical.
Just got an email from your buddy Ed!
His IP on my contact form came from Quezon City in the Philippines. He must be on vacation. My app is free and I’m not making any money from it, so I don’t see any point in taking him up on his offer, especially after reading the comments above. Thanks Kurt for the heads up!!!
Dave
Googled his email, got the same message. Second time someone tried to scam me. I’m thinking of a good comeback email to send him, any ideas?
I got the same email! Thanks for posting and good that I made a search in google and found your site before going into the temptation to reply to his email. Spam is getting more and more advance…
Two years later and the wording has changed a bit but the spiel is still the same. I was pretty suspicious, your posting made me sure. Thanks!
Hi
From Sweden just got his email after our app was published. Thanks alot for this post.
Thanks….
One of my apps hit the toplist in Sweden and I received his email. Thanks for the heads up guys!
I got the same email in a comment form on our website. I resolve the location of such comment form requests, which indicated the message came from the Philippines. So yes its SPAM!
Just got my spam today. Thank you for the heads-up blog. He’s using the exact same wording almost a year later.
Hey all,
Just got Ed’s spam email today, so he is still in the business. A little googling around and I found this post (amongst other useful posts about him, apparently he is pretty popular in the spam world).
In my opinion, if you are unable to describe exactly what you want/offer in one clear sentence, you are a spammer marketer why is trying too hard to play the time-share marketing scheme, which can be summerized as follows:
“Try to wash people’s minds with a few pages of gibberish, because a straight sentence saying what you offer would make any one laugh at you, but a few pages of gibberish help hide the real “no-value” fact of your service/product”
So there you have it every one, the lesser the value you offer, the more gibberish you need to sell it. It is a very simple formula of all times.