Private Question Shutdown
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With mixed emotions, I announce that we are discontinuing SEOmoz private questions for PRO members in March of this year. SEOmoz has grown and changed considerably from when we started offering private questions in the summer of 2007 (see our announcement at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/new-feature-seo-qa). Unfortunately, private Q&A is no longer scalable for us, and our customers have noticed longer wait times for answers to their questions.
Why are we Discontinuing Private Q&A?
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It's no longer scalable.
When we started private Q&A, there were fewer than 1,600 paying subscribers eligible to ask a private Q&A question. At the close of 2012, that number has increased to over 20,000 PRO members, and we have had an average of 210 questions a month in private Q&A during 2012. We hire experts to answer these questions, and many of them already have full-time jobs in the field. It is difficult to find the right people to answer so many questions in a timely manner. -
SEOmoz isn't a consulting business.
We started offering private questions when we were still providing SEO consulting. We have not been in in the consulting business for three years, so it’s no longer a part of our core business. It is a piece that no longer makes sense for us. Instead, we want to focus our efforts on making the best SEO and social monitoring software possible, and boost our public Q&A as a resource for all. If you are looking for consulting, we have a great list of recommended companies at http://www.seomoz.org/article/recommended. -
Our response time is slow.
Our response times in private Q&A aren't always stellar. You'll get answers more quickly from the community in public Q&A, and the SEOmoz Staff and Associates will be spending more time answering questions and endorsing responses in Public Q&A. You’ll have an opportunity to earn even more MozPoints as we will be looking for great answers to endorse.
What is the Timeframe?
You'll still be able to ask private questions through March 15th, meaning all PRO members will have at least two more chances (February and March) to ask a private question. You'll also be able to see all of your old questions in your account through at least the end of March. We encourage you to save a copy of these questions for your future reference.What about Public Q&A?
Public Q&A is only going to get better! You'll see more of our Staff and Associates in Public Q&A. They'll be answering questions, endorsing responses, and having a more visible role. We're also planning some enhancements for Public Q&A that will be rolled out in stages over the next few months, making it easier for you to know when you've been endorsed, follow questions, see your activity, and more.Questions?
Please let us know any questions you have regarding this shutdown.Thank you,
Keri Morgret
On-site Community Manager -
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I can completely understand that the scale of it has got out of hand. I do have one in the queue from last week. Will it still get answered.
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Yes! All of the questions people ask will get answered. Thanks for your understanding with the delay.
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It will be another sad loss but not a deal breaker, and from a business perspective, completely understandable.
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Does Public require a Pro Account or can anyone answer them?
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Hi Cesar,
Public questions do require a PRO account to ask or answer; anyone (even without any type of account) can read the questions and answers. People using a free SEOmoz PRO trial can also ask and answer questions.
Keri
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Thanks Gordon, I (and SEOmoz) appreciate your support. This was certainly not the easiest Q&A post I've ever written.
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I think this is a great shame as it is a brilliant service that was being provided, You could just adjust the ratio to keep it, i do not believe any members would complain.
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Hi Askshopper,
We did brainstorm about several things we could do. We believe this is the best way to be empathetic to all of our community members. Private Q&A takes time away from being able to provide quality answers and oversight in Public Q&A, where a larger number of people could benefit from the answers.
There are actually very few users who ask a question each and ever single month. Even if we dropped the ratio to one question every two or three months, it would not significantly impact the number of questions asked in Private Q&A.
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I must say that it was awesome as a guy working with only a handful of people to be able to ask something in private that was out of our wheelhouse.
The part of your post that resonates with me is that you're not a consulting business. That's completely understandable.
I think I may have asked 3 or 4 questions in my time here. I always meant to sit down and write a question each month, but life always intervened.
Great service, and as Gordon said, certainly not a deal breaker.
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George,
Thanks for being so understanding!
We wanted to be sure that people in your situation did have plenty of time to ask any questions they've been meaning to ask and have put aside. If you haven't asked a question yet in January, you have the opportunity to ask three more questions (January, February, and March) before private Q&A winds down.
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Are you going to add any value to replace the private q&a for paying members?
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I am speechless. I bought PRO membership for the sake of pro seminars and private questions. First three months, there were no seminars at all. So I thought "ok I will be patient I am sure they will have more in the future."
And then all seminars became FREE.
And now private questions. Down the drain.
I don't rate the pro tools highly. They are not magical and there are alternatives to it. And who knows? Maybe it's the next to make free too.
Private Questions, being answered by SEOMOZ staff. That's something you could not find anywhere else. Now it's gone too.
So why I did I really sign up for? No idea.
It's incredible (and too bold) how a company is turning everything free without even considering the rights of its paying customers.
Frankly, I am one disappointed customer now.
just my two cents.
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Hi Stephen,
There will be faster responses in public Q&A from associates, for value that is specifically related to Q&A. We've also added many features for paying members in recent months, including FollowerWonk and GetListed.
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Public is still public. Private didn't only mean special care. It also meant that you could share sensitive information without disclosing it to the whole world.
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I am very disappointed with this as well.
The value of private was not the answer itself (which is basically what you are offering with public). The value was the asking of a private, sometimes strategic, question and the development of an answer that could lead to an advantage over a competitor.
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Hi Gamer - Based on your feedback, I'd say PRO membership probably isn't right for you and I'd urge you to cancel your membership. Hopefully in the future, we'll earn back your business, but if you're not happy with the software (the PRO web app, OSE, Followerwonk, Mozbar, KW Difficulty, our research tools, etc) then SEOmoz PRO really isn't a good fit overall.
Thanks very much for the feedback.
p.s. Just for those who may be curious - we've got about 19,000 paying PRO members today, of which <4% have ever used private Q+A, yet it was a huge detractor from the time our staff and contractors could help with public Q+A and other projects, hence the decision to remove.
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Hi Rand. First of all, I subscribed annually. So, I still have about 6 months to see if I will cancel my membership.
I am not saying pro tools are completely useless but I don't know why it's not understandable that I am reacting to losing two features (private QA and pro webinars) I valued the most.
Let's take a look at Pro Membership Plan features you currently have. Out of the 5 main features, private is one of them. So it's something you considered to have great value too. (at least back then)
Sure the response time was sloe with private questions but I was still happy with it. The staff who answered the questions offered so much insight and detail, that you would never ever see in a public QA.
Instead of saying "take your business somewhere else" you could say "ok so you trusted us and paid annually, we will offer you private QA until the end of your billing cycle".
That would be more fair and to be honest that's something I would have expected from SEOMOZ.
I also don't think it's best practice to take decisions based on statistics only, especially when it's about customer satisfaction. Maybe the 96% did not use private QA but what is the percentage of annually paying customers? That's a sign of trust in your name and company. To be honest, it was your name that I trusted in and chose to pay annually right after the trial. Maybe that 4% is so critical and influential, your long term losses would be more to neglect.
Oh an I should mention this now. I am not looking for refunds either. Time is more valuable today. Not that I am truly in love with SEOMOZ tools, I still use them and I would hesitate to start over at somewhere else after setting up a campaign here (and have spent 6 months analyzing weekly results).
thanks anyway
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HI Keri,
I thought what happened to you guys for this, but after reading the whole above, now i can understand the point of getting it shutdown. Yes it makes sense that it's really not an easy to interact or answer the each pro member's private question, and of course this can be better answered with the built your long community members and including your staff members publicly or have chances to earn great mozpoints.
Regards,
Teginder Ravi -
Keri,
I have only asked a few questions over the past year but they were excellent responses. I appreciate the high quality answers from professionals at SEOmoz. I will miss this service and valued it greatly but I am sure you will add additional top notch features in the future.
Thanks
Boo
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