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Absolute Scam Artists - NALA / TheNala - Took me for more than $1,000 - Got no business out of it - Admitted they do nothing
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I signed up for NALA / TheNala / The National Association of Local Advertisers, and let them do what they promised me they would do for about five months before I cancelled. They say they will put your name all over the Internet, and help get you into Google Places and higher in search engine results. They failed in all respects.
Here is what they do - and what they told me they do. Although you pay them a monthly fee, it is basically for nothing. They put my name and my business out there on a bunch of different websites when I first signed up. They have this dashboard thing that shows you where you were showing up before you signed up, and after you sign up.
In the five months that I was with them, they didn't even sign me up for a Facebook account, although that was included in their service. They did sign me up for a Twitter account, but they would only tweet about every two weeks, and the tweets would have nothing to do with my business. They were basically spam tweets, which I did not want associated with my name, nor my business.
I realized that what they did for me would maybe take an hour or two initially, yet I was paying them monthly. I asked them what I was paying them monthly for, and what they were doing for me over the past four months. They admitted that I pay them so that they check on my accounts every three months to make sure I am still listed. As if it would disappear.
They weren't continuing to put my name out there, they weren't adding content, they weren't doing anything for the money I was paying them, other than re-checking my listings every three months.
So you are paying for something a teenager could do with a few hour of time, then you are paying hundreds of dollars a month for them to do nothing, or check to make sure you weren't deleted for some reason.
This was an absolutely waste of money, and did not amount to any better search engine position, nor my business appearing in Google Places (the map area), as promised.
I wasted more than $1,000, and feel the need to write this so that they don't scam anyone else.
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Business's response - by the NALAon 12/6/2012
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the NALA regrets that anyone would consider us ‘Scam Artists’. We provide a very valuable service in obtaining internet exposure through the use of off-page seo. Our posting process, manually handled by the team, to local directories, maps, social networks, etc provides a vast array of citations indicating a viable company. These citations, featuring a consistent name, address and phone number, is important for search engines’ indexing process, such as Google. In addition to the initial hand posting, we manually review and audit the listings to ensure information remains accurate, and through the use of social network posts assist to maintain the dynamic presence of our members twice a week, or more if a member so deems with posts that pertain to their industry and their business. Ultimately, the consistent information and ongoing dynamic content moves the member to a prominent place in search results whether online, gps or smartphone. the NALA, unfortunately, cannot force a user who searches to purchase from a member but we do help to make our member’s business a choice for any prospective customer looking to do business in their neighborhood.
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