eDrugstore.MD Boasts of Phenomenal Growth

[DrBob]

Check out this hilarious press release from the boobs at eDrugstore.md. Aside from the pesky detail of forgetting to actually [insert full name] and [insert title], did anybody tell these morons that their January 7, 2008 press release (http://www.pressbox.co.uk/detailed/Health/eDrugStore.MD_Has_Big_Plans_for_2008_Growth_165170 .html) is still in circulation? Five years for the company to get to 500,000 sales -- 4 months later they have a million? Check it out, courtesy of PR Minds (http://www.prminds.com)

Last week, eDrugstore.MD, the world's leading online pharmacy, released reports crediting their phenomenal growth in 2007 to (their) commitment to heightened search engine optimization (SEO).

This strategic marketing move by eDrugstore.MD was precipitated by a desire to give men and women a better understanding of their pharmaceutical options.

"Many consumers simply do not realize they needn't pay exorbitantly for their prescription medications. They don't know that there's a legitimate choice," notes [insert full name], eDrugstore.MD's [insert title]. "By establishing SEO methodologies, eDrugstore.MD has been able to establish relationships with people around the United States who need genuine, FDA-approved drugs like Viagra, Cialis and Xenical but don't want to drain their bank accounts or max out their credit cards to pay for them."

To accomplish their cyber-expansion plans, eDrugstore.MD spent the majority of 2007 focusing on the online pharmacy's search engine optimization strategy by using individual SEO vendors, bringing in outside SEO specialists and forming a cohesive team of dedicated SEO professionals.

As of second quarter 2008, over a dozen eDrugstore.MD employees are working exclusively on SEO programming and management for the organization in an effort to provide the public with knowledge of their competitive pharmaceutical pricing and exceptional customer service.

Explains [insert last name], 'We invested in the right people, individuals who are well-versed in all aspects of SEO, and our business has grown considerably because of their commitment to excellence and education. We are fortunate to be able to serve the public and look forward to seeing our numbers grow in 2008 and beyond.'"

eDrugstore.MD opened its virtual doors in 2002 and has since filled close to one million prescriptions and counting.
Hat tip to the astute bloggers (http://www.ideagrove.com/blog/2008/04/pr-minds-attributes-growth-to-insert-reason-here.html) who caught this really, REALLY stupid mistake.

In case you missed it, this piece is a direct slap at all the affiliates who've stuck with edrugstore.md over the years. To paraphrase: The company no longer believes you're either smart enough or committed enough to continue investing in you.

Since they've taken the liberty of insulting their "most valuable corporate asset," allow me to return the favor.

Odds are that since no one was committed enough to actually proof this press release, it went straight from their new outside SEO specialists -- the marginally competent Bob Garcia and crew over at SearchEngineMarketing Ltd (http://www.searchenginemarketingltd.com/).

Why "Richard Porter," edrugstore.md's director, hired Bob Garcia is an absolute mystery. Here's a guy who can't even get his own site ranked FOR HIS OWN COMPANY NAME (http://www.google.com/search?&q=Search+Engine+Marketing+Ltd). Why anyone would entrust him to promote a multi million dollar business is really mind boggling. I mean really.

Looking at the stats from Quantcast (http://www.quantcast.com/edrugstore.md), edrugstore.md has lost more than a THIRD of their traffic in less than 6 months. According to both Quantcast and Compete.com (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/edrugstore.md+kwikmed.com+xlpharmacy.com/?metric=uv), their site is now pulling considerably less than 40K uniques per month. Even if they were to convert every single visitor, it would take well over a year to produce 500,000 sales. Garcia has the cajones to claim they've done it in less than 4 months. Does he think the people who Google "edrugstore" are completely frigging stupid?

Far from allowing their outside SEO specialists to pat themselves on the back, the management at eDrugstore.md should be asking how they got stuck with this moron. Bullshit press releases like this do absolutely nothing to help sales. Far from it. If I was looking for a way to absolutely destroy the company's credibility, I couldn't think of a better strategy. Well, other than publishing a hundred (http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=884977) or so articles (http://www.amazines.com/article_detail.cfm/431562?articleid=431562) on various venues that read like they were written by a Ritalin-addled 6th grader. However, I digress...

Here's the $100,000 question, amigos.

Why, exactly, did the geniuses at edrugstore.md decide to screw over the few remaining affiliates the company had by diverting resources to Garcia and his crew? Had they instead chosen to offer even a fraction of what their competitors do -- Templates for affiliate sites, PLR articles for site content, or even a handful of new creatives -- they might have actually seen traffic grow. Other OPs certainly have. Instead, the affiliate marketing tools at edrugstore.md are stuck in 2003. That's a sad, sick joke, actually.

All in all, it's yet another big fat red flag for anyone considering the eDrugstore.md affiliate program. Phenomenal growth? Please. Friends, this turd is circling the bowl. If you haven't already switched to a more trustworthy, reliable pharmacy to promote, may I suggest you check out the affiliate guide at DrugstoreBestBuys.com (http://www.drugstorebestbuys.com/affiliates/default.htm) today?

[Johnnie Walker]

I wondered why there weren't any link codes for the new drugs they've added. Guess that answers my question.

[clivew]

Check out this hilarious press release from the boobs at eDrugstore.md. ................
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All in all, it's yet another big fat red flag for anyone considering the eDrugstore.md affiliate program. Phenomenal growth? Please. Friends, this turd is circling the bowl. If you haven't already switched to a more trustworthy, reliable pharmacy to promote, may I suggest you check out the affiliate guide at DrugstoreBestBuys.com (http://www.drugstorebestbuys.com/affiliates/default.htm) today?


Thank you DrBob for the gracious plug, also the news update. I think many are feeling the drop in consumer sales. However, what we need to focus on is the building of conficence, both for consumers and Affiliates

My big issue with this group and - I have debated this with edrugstoremd owners a number of times over the past 5 years - is there are no 2nd tier referral rewards!!!!!

[DrBob]

My big issue with this group and - I have debated this with edrugstoremd owners a number of times over the past 5 years - is there are no 2nd tier referral rewards!!!!!Rich mentioned to me in an email that the reason he decided to shift focus to SEO with Garcia & Co was because they found their affiliate base "dwindling." Certainly, the decision to end the 2-tier program suddenly and without notice in 2003 was a big contributor.

The constant unannounced price increases, lack of any new marketing tools for over 4 years, and a consistent pattern of penciling paychecks undoubtedly had an impact as well, but Rich wasn't really open to hearing any of that.

I distinctly remember Tommy Parker telling me at the time that the super affiliates had requested dropping the 2 tier program in exchange for lower prices. As a "super affiliate" myself, I found that odd... I didn't request the change. Did you?

[Rick PSP]

Rich mentioned to me in an email that the reason he decided to shift focus to SEO with Garcia & Co was because they found their affiliate base "dwindling." Certainly, the decision to end the 2-tier program suddenly and without notice in 2003 was a big contributor.

The constant unannounced price increases, lack of any new marketing tools for over 4 years, and a consistent pattern of penciling paychecks undoubtedly had an impact as well, but Rich wasn't really open to hearing any of that.

I distinctly remember Tommy Parker telling me at the time that the super affiliates had requested dropping the 2 tier program in exchange for lower prices. As a "super affiliate" myself, I found that odd... I didn't request the change. Did you?

I am just glad the debate has reopened. Yes we had same emails sent to us and then the same discussion. Although I was not aware of the Garcia & Co connection with SEO (which apparently has not worked?)

We provided the feedback at the time to Pharmacy Shark Patrol affiliates, giving Viamedics reasons trying to explain why all their customers for life were about to be taken away.

Bottomline - Viamedic once upon a time ran a good program. Apparently, they are conservative group who sought opinions but either did not agree or were unwilling to listen to any serious feedback. (sorry out of context referring to viamedic - conversely however, edrugstore.md did dicuss issues openly, but we agreed to disagree on one key point of bad consequence to affiliates - no reflection on the rest of their program as we decided the customers were still getting good services)

We certainly argued long and hard against change to the format. We argued particularly strongly that the best systems are 2 tier. The 1st problem with a single tier is that affiliates actively, hide the program and work against each other instead of in support of building the program. The net result is dwindling sales.

[eDrugstore.md]

Though we have never been a member of this forum previously, this post was recently brought to our attention and we deemed the post so extremely egregious, slanderous, malicious, error filled and defamatory, that we feel it is necessary to reply to set the record straight.

The bottom line is that the post was written by an affiliate who has a personal ax to grind and a personal vindictive agenda to forward against eDrugstore.md after his recent termination from our affiliate program. The poster had been an active eDrugstore.md affiliate for several years until he was recently terminated. We tried to amicably resolve several issues with the affiliate prior to termination, but were unfortunately unable to do so and he was terminated for violating multiple sections of our affiliate terms and conditions.

He has recently chosen this forum as the outlet to spew his unhappiness with being expelled from our program and this and other posts like this (new member Johnnie Walker) are merely a transparent attempt to discredit us within the affiliate community. Attempting to discredit us is his only way of retaliating against us. Unfortunately, he is only discrediting himself.

We would like to thank “DrBob” (4 Posts – 3 negative slams at eDrugstore.md since joining the forum) for bringing to our attention the typo on a recent press release. We plead guilty to letting a typo get thru Quality Assurance and into production. This one got by our proof readers during our ongoing campaign to add large quantities of quality content and information for our customers, as well as for search engine optimization. These typos will be fixed shortly.

In terms of DrBob’s assertion that we are “moron’s” in our ability to calculate actual customers, let me point out the press release says, “close to one million”, not one million. We have been one of the leading Online Pharmacies since 2002 and a prior press release was correct in stating that we had over 500,000 customers at that time. Between the two press releases, we have continued to be a leader and have shipped considerably more since then. We attribute this continued success to two factors. First, is our long standing affiliate base and second, our recent efforts in driving sales thru internal SEO.

DrBob has taken the liberty to incorrectly paraphrase our marketing strategy as it refers to our affiliates and our addition of internal SEO as “The company no longer believes you're either smart enough or committed enough to continue investing in you”. DrBob’s analysis is good at supporting his personal ax to grind and his personal vindictive agenda, but couldn’t be farther from the truth.

The fact is that we implemented our internal SEO efforts to compliment the sales of our affiliate base, not replace our affiliate base. We still consider our affiliate base an important asset and key component of our overall marketing strategy. Our affiliate base still produces a large number of sales. Unlike other major Online Pharmacy vendors over the last couple of years who have closed their affiliate programs, we are committed to our program, its affiliates and their support and plan to continue to grow the program. DrBob gets personal satisfaction from feeling like he can prevent us from achieving these goals by posting these frivolous posts to forums like this.

We would have been derelict in our corporate strategic planning if we did not start committing resources to internal SEO development last year. As DrBob incorrectly assumes, we did not pull resources from the affiliate program to implement the internal SEO program. We left the affiliate program as is and simply committed excess resources to the internal SEO project.

Anyone with an ounce of internet marketing experience would have realized the changes in Google and other search engines over the last couple of years and its impact on affiliates to consistently achieve high rankings for a very competitive industry like Online Pharmacy.

In order to continue to grow our business and continue to have the ability to support our large affiliate base, contrary to DrBob’s statements, we have developed a very successful, complimentary SEO strategy and program. I’ll let our page one Google rankings for a variety of relevant terms stand as indisputable proof in this area.

I am confident that any affiliate who is reading this post would love to have the SEO results that our SEO consultants and internal staff were able to achieve in a relatively short period of time. As DrBob calls us in his post, eDrugstore.md’s “marginally competent, moron, Ritalin-addled 6th grader” team has delivered the following representative sample of results in the ultra-competitive Online Pharmacy industry:

Keyword Google Rank
Viagra 7
Cialis 7
Viagra Online 3
Cialis Online 1 & 2
Buy Viagra Online 1
Buy Cialis Online 3
Online Pharmacy 5

We consider our recent investments in SEO to be paying handsome dividends in the sales and profit areas of the business plan for 2008. These dividends will continue to support the growth of eDrugstore.md and its affiliate program. It will also allow us to continue to support the other facets of our business that keep us as one of the leaders in the Online Pharmacy industry by increasing our investments on our call centers, fulfillment operations, marketing and infrastructure support.

There should be NO “Red Flags” about joining or continuing to participate in our program as DrBob suggests. DrBob’s assertions that we are “penciling paychecks, not growing, no longer committed to the affiliate program, constantly raise prices, etc” are not true and are merely fabrications by DrBob to vindictively try to destroy our credibility because he feels we wrongly terminated him from our program. If we were such a terrible program, why did he send us the majority of his traffic over the last six years and now all of a sudden, scream what a poor program we are?

DrBob does have one fact right in his posts. We did eliminate our two-tier program back in 2003. This was a philosophical marketing decision we made and have stuck with it since then. In fact, as Rick from PSP points out, I had many conversations with Clive back then during this decision making process. We sought out his expertise, valued his feedback, took his points into consideration, as well as many other viewpoints and came up with strategy to end the two tier program. Back in 2003, Clive and I agreed that we didn’t agree on the decision and that there was no right or wrong answer and that we should continue to work together as marketing partners.

Both eDrugstore.md and Clive’s groups have gone on to be very successful organizations and leaders in our respective segments of the Online Pharmacy industry despite our marketing differences. In fact, Clive was one of our first affiliates back in 2002 and is still a consistent, active member of our affiliate program. I am confident that he would agree that we have paid him every cent ever owed, responded promptly to every email sent to us and have treated him fairly and professionally over the last six years. It’s also why Clive lists eDrugstore.md as one of its top online health programs for Brand Name medications.

As you read every day about Online Pharmacies going out of business and sticking affiliates, eDrugstore.md has been a consistent leader since its inception 2002. Despite a rapidly and consistently changing industry, we have been able to maintain and grow our business in the ultra competitive OP marketplace. As others have faltered due to these challenges, eDrugstore.md has remained one of the most reliable and stable players in the industry.

Finally, remember the old phrase, “There are two sides to every story”. This post was so extremely egregious, slanderous, malicious, error filled and defamatory, that we feel it is necessary to tell the second side. We are confident that as mature adults, you can make your own informed decisions on who has the credibility on their side during this debate. We consider this a closed issue and hopefully, we all can move beyond these unfounded, vindictive accusations by a terminated affiliate and commit our resources and time to other activities that will make us all more productive and profitable.

Thomas Parker
eDrugstore.md Affiliate Manager

[Rick PSP]

Thomas as always - a great rejoinder,

Bottomline, while not agreeing on one sticking point, we have always stuck by edrugstore.md. They have a top track record, they pay, they do not abuse the affiliates customer for life strategy and customers like the service and repeat order. Hence, our top rating will remain unchanged, but could go higher if the T2 issue can ever be resolved.

Free speech and getting gripes or bad feelings out of the way is healthier than ignoring them. The Forum is a good way to achieve this end, it fixes "covert white-anting". Good affiliates make up their own minds and new affiliates need to hear every side of the story.

As others have mentioned - important to build credibility - the forum is the place to do it. For those OP's not members, its better to have issues aired and dealt with, rather than hidden and passed around out of "site".


Though we have never been a member of this forum previously, this post was recently brought to our attention and we deemed the post so extremely egregious, slanderous, malicious, error filled and defamatory, that we feel it is necessary to reply to set the record straight..........
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DrBob does have one fact right in his posts. We did eliminate our two-tier program back in 2003. This was a philosophical marketing decision we made and have stuck with it since then. In fact, as Rick from PSP points out, I had many conversations with Clive back then during this decision making process. We sought out his expertise, valued his feedback, took his points into consideration, as well as many other viewpoints and came up with strategy to end the two tier program. Back in 2003, Clive and I agreed that we didn’t agree on the decision and that there was no right or wrong answer and that we should continue to work together as marketing partners.

Both eDrugstore.md and Clive’s groups have gone on to be very successful organizations and leaders in our respective segments of the Online Pharmacy industry despite our marketing differences. In fact, Clive was one of our first affiliates back in 2002 and is still a consistent, active member of our affiliate program. I am confident that he would agree that we have paid him every cent ever owed, responded promptly to every email sent to us and have treated him fairly and professionally over the last six years. It’s also why Clive lists eDrugstore.md as one of its top online health programs for Brand Name medications.
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Finally, remember the old phrase, “There are two sides to every story”. This post was so extremely egregious, slanderous, malicious, error filled and defamatory, that we feel it is necessary to tell the second side. We are confident that as mature adults, you can make your own informed decisions on who has the credibility on their side during this debate. We consider this a closed issue and hopefully, we all can move beyond these unfounded, vindictive accusations by a terminated affiliate and commit our resources and time to other activities that will make us all more productive and profitable.

Thomas Parker
eDrugstore.md Affiliate Manager

[bigznet]

I've also been an affiliate with eDrugStore.md for many years. Although I can agree with some of the complaints about increased prices - many other affiliate programs were forced to do the same thing at various times thoughout the years. Just the nature of the business - I guess.

I also haven't noticed any updates to the affiliate backend since I started. No new banners, system upgrades or incentives for affiliates. But the truth is... the systems works. And eDrugStore has always paid me - even during the worst of times when I was only making a sale or two per month. As the old saying goes, "if it ain't broke... don't fix it."

I would have to say eDrugStore.md provides one of the most reliable and consistant programs out there. Even after other programs crashed and burned (ie: Viamedic, ePharmacist, ePrescribe, Pharmical, ValuePrescribe, Platinum-RX, etc. etc. etc.), eDrugStore.md remains strong and continues to send checks every month. Although I'm not the BIG PLAYER I used to be ;)... I know I'll get paid... and I don't have to worry about "skimming" on sales or refills.

Anyways... just wanted to add my 2 cents. I was going to reply when the post first started, but didn't think it would go this far. Anyone who has used eDrugStore before should know the negative comments carry very little weight...

[DrBob]

Thank you, Rick, for acknowledging that getting bad feelings out of the way is better than ignoring them. In the interest of openly airing complaints, this forum does provide an invaluable resource.

Tommy, if you feel my post was so "extremely egregious, slanderous, malicious, error filled and defamatory" then sue me.

The terminated affiliate smokescreen, while an entertaining diversion, does absolutely zip to refute the facts. However, it does an outstanding job of making you look like a paranoid delusional.

Quantcast, Compete and Alexa all show edrugstore.md traffic off by more than a third in less than a year. Those aren't numbers I made up, and I provided links for all who care to check. If you have a problem with three respected independent sources showing your site is losing traffic in a wholesale fashion, take it up with them.

To your point that the press release says "close to one million, not one million," I understand the English language presents unique challenges for your group, but the press release dated 4-25-08 is clearly titled "Since 2002, eDrugstore.MD Has Filled Prescriptions for Over One Million Customers..." (http://www.pr-inside.com/since-2002-edrugstore-md-has-filled-prescriptions-r557898.htm)

For you to make the ridiculous claim that it says anything else doesn't damage MY credibility, amigo.

[Johnnie Walker]

this and other posts like this (new member Johnnie Walker) are merely a transparent attempt to discredit us within the affiliate community.

OK, whatever. Nice attitude. I emailed you on April 7 asking about links for the new items. You never responded.