Dear vBulletin Forum Community - vBSEO is Suspending Operations

After more than a month of no activity, our primary vBSEO support rep showed up at vBSEO.com to post.

I would take that as some progress, except that he was only there to close a thread where customers were talking about the lack of vBSEO support.

 

I have a couple of comments to leave as a vB3 and vBSEO customer for many years. First vBSEO support has always been great on the rare occasions I have needed it. Haven't needed it in the last couple of years. When asked at vB.org whether vBSEO made a difference, there were always mixed responses, but my pure gut instinct was that it was a good tool to help, and we have a good presence in Google with vBSEO.
I agree 100% with Brian that vBulletin is dead so there is no future in a vBulletin SEO product, and new forum software like Xenforo is SEO'd up at its core, so the vBSEO organisation missed the boat to branch out years ago.
We're migrating to Xenforo in September so we'll be leaving vB and vBSEO behind and this news doesn't affect our business. It is just another nail in the vBulletin coffin, and I personally am keen to see vBulletin buried.

I guess the main lesson for those people who didn't already know it is to keep business and family relationships separate (says the man in a man and wife, AVForums co-ownership relationship!)
Good luck Ilia in whatever you do and thanks for bringing this to my attention.

 

Returning/new owner? Maybe now there will be IPB/xF version(s).

 

I pretty much agree with briansol. I can't be the only one here on vb3.8 and using vbseo from that time and with no need to upgrade or renew because I'm just rolling along biding time to move off of vBulletin (in our case we've written our own platform as we wanted to go mobile first and have an API http://microco.sm/ ).

vBulletin is basically dead. The only reason Internet Brands won't kill it is that they use it for their 100+ brands and those produce in excess of $100m per year in revenue (you can check the 2010 press releases with numbers just before IB was purchased by private equity for verification).

Effectively, vBulletin is a zombie product.

As such, vbseo's time is also nigh (if it hasn't already happened).

I'd simply suggest you guys went about healing the family and finding a path to gracefully wind up the company. The best thing you can do for existing vbseo users who are still using your product and will limp on with an older vbulletin is to open source it and let the few remaining admins at least limp on with goodwill.

I can't imagine you doing it though, people tend to not do stuff like that if they perceive a fraction of value left in it to be had.

 

Hi Ilea,

My 2 cents.

As long as vBulletin continues on the path it is on, any add-on business is just as much in jeopardy as vB itself. So, the future is very, very vague and uncertain, if you intend to continue to support vBulletin as a platform.

As others have mentioned, another choice could be to create and support an SEO add-on for alternative software such as IPB or XF. But, that would mean a serious investment first in creating that software/ add-on. You could also do that without the vBSEO business behind you, especially if your brother does close the business. Because, if he does, then you can most likely get back a lot of your past customers, who are also making switches away from vBulletin and even give them a special deal for that switch. I'd even bet a lot of them are waiting for such a "way out" too, because vBSEO has "locked them in" to staying with vBulletin.

So, my suggestion is just start anew. Avoid the conflict with your brother altogether. If you have the competence and the ability, or can drum up the people who do, and can get a completely new company going, do it. I believe you can show your past customers your intentions to help them in a much better way that way.

The same goes with the vBSEO software itself. If you want to support vB5 and the future of vBulletin, you're going to have to do a complete rewrite of vBSEO anyway, so start over completely, including the company.

Scott

 

Agree with what a few others have said, I don't see the point in trying to save vBSEO based around vBulletin forum software for obvious reasons since IB took over Jelsoft. Also... I cannot see were vBSEO could head from here to be successful again like before. vBSEO success was built on vBulletin 3 "having no SEO options", plus vB3 being the most popular forum software used at the time helped massively and the user-base was there to tap into. But a lot has changed since then, most forum software now comes with SEO features already built-in, meaning many people will simply make do with that, rather than paying out twice to vBSEO.

Some have said move over to support other forum software like XenForo or IPB, but both have good SEO features built-in. So realistically, how many people would buy vBSEO to use with them, or just save their money and use the stock forum SEO features already their?

 

I see the point in saving vBSEO, it will allow users to still get support for it and move it to a new site such as xSEO for Multiple SEO in turn xfSEO and IP.SEO could become a reality. As I have suggested to @ILIA-VBSEO but I also suggested buying Juan out. I have heard Ilia's side and take her side on things as Juan has neglected vBSEO which is why I never bought a license. Hopefully this all gets resolved in whatever method Ilia decides to take it.

 

OMG she is so hot ...... Ilia, i love you!

 

What can I say? I saw this coming.

My tickets are not assigned nor solved since a few months. My posts in vbseo's public forums are deleted and everyone said I was wrong. Time always reveals the truth.

 

[QUOTETime always reveals the truth.][/QUOTE] That's for sure.

 

vbSEO functionality is grossly outdated anyway. I still have NuSEO active which is from 2007 and has more and in many cases more modern functionality than vbSEO. With Googles recent updates vbSEO has become risky business. Modern times demand different SEO functionality.
In other words: the current software is way behind the times and making it current will need a complete overhaul of the software. Which makes little sense considering the state vbulletin is in.

 

vBSEO will die. It is a shame to say it but vBSEO was good for vB3. However most forum software now has built in SEO and vBulletin appears to be losing more and more customers. Not sure how you can turn something that is not really needed these days and made for what is now a poor forum software company into what it once was.

Also if you no longer own the company how come you still have access to customer information (Isn't that property of the company)?

Sorry to hear about you falling out with a close family member. Such a shame as brother and sister you can't sit down face to face to talk about things that would benefit your entire family.

 

The Crawlability website claims "thousands of customers."
Suppose any of them want their money back?
Juan screwed a lot of people.
My professional legal advice is to dissociate yourself with vBSEO.
There's no recovery from the reputation it now has.

 

Ilia,

Unfortunately I am unable to send you a PM. Please PM me.

 

I, along with many here, haven't been a vBSEO active customer for quite some time. Although I commend you for trying to gain control over the sinking ship, so to speak, however in my opinion is is best to let it go. vBSEO has a dwindling market, only to become worse as time marches on. The platform which it is built on, vBulletin, is steadily loosing market share, and as others have pointed out, is arguable offering features that are no longer relevant.

vBSEO was doomed the minute they didn't refocus and/or refused to alter the business model as the market changed. The refusing to adapt the software to work with other platforms was the final nail in the coffin. Not saying there isn't still a niche available here, however I am saying that the SEO vBulletin niche is no longer viable, and could not sustain itself. Juan knew it I suspect, which would explain the abandonment of the software.

As for the current customers? The reality is, businesses fail all the time. And with those failures, leaves unsupported goods and services. I have never read a EULA that guarantees the continued operation of said company for "x" amount of time. It sucks, I know, but that's the reality. Best case scenario is to open source the project (if we are still talking about the best interest of customers) and let the current or future users further develop the software.

Anyway, just thought I would weigh in here and give my thoughts. Good luck @ILIA-VBSEO with all your future endeavors. I know it is hard for any business owner to walk away from their customers. Any honest business owner, which I believe you to be, would have much conflict with this decision. It is completely understandable, however as business owners and entrepreneurs, we must also fold the hand the minute we know we can't win.

Dan

 

vBulletin may be losing its customer share but there are still a LOT of active vB3 and vB4 forums out there who have an interest in seeing vBSEO continue, even if Juan has lost interest.

Additionally, those of us who like vBSEO features beyond rewritten URLs would like to see those features ported to vBulletin alternatives.

I still see a role for a rescued vBSEO company if it can be done and with a different vision the customer base could be expanded to other software.

 

vBSEO filled the "missing SEO gap" in vBulletin 3 at a time when just about everybody was using that great vBulletin forum version. Why vBSEO did so well, so fast, and was a great money making move on their part doing it back then. But once vBulletin 4 came along and had it's own SEO features included, well the writing was on the wall for vBSEO really, you knew it was going downhill after that. Then vBulletin 3 became EOL and people started switching over to vB4. Out of interest.. didn't vBSEO try and have talks with Internet Brands about being involved "somehow" with vBulletin 4 seo, but they got ignored. I seem to remember them trying to contact vBulletin for talks, but ended up getting nowhere with it.

 

Yes but in reality the built-in vBulletin "SEO" features suck in comparison. They really amount only to URL rewrites and even those are buggy. There's a lot more that vBSEO does and those additional SEO features (and additional cosmetic or functional features from vBSEO) don't exist in vBulletin's built-in features.

 

No doubt vBSEO might be better, I've no idea? But that will make little difference to your average forum owner, it can't be proved it's better SEO anyway, google is always changing things with their ranking. Most would see vBulletin 4 has now offering stock SEO rewrite features, unlike vBulletin 3 could. They will make do with that and save money, them not having to buy a vBSEO license as well. As for bugs in vBulletin SEO features, again most will report them and wait for future fixes. So to most people they won't care and will stick with using vB4 seo "because it's a stock feature", not a 3rd party add-on costing them extra.

That is the way most people think, why buy vBSEO when vB4 already has SEO features? Only your hardcore forum owners who thinks vBSEO offers a lot more use it instead, them thinking they'll gain a forum ranking edge over others in same niche. But lets be realistic, that's not your average vBulletin forum owner and won't make vBSEO the money like they did with vB3 because it had - no seo features.

And that is the key difference, if people wanted SEO with vB3 before, then they pretty much had no choice but buy vBSEO. Not something they needed to do after vB4 came along.

 

I've been a Vbulletin power user (and plugin developer) since 2006, and became VBSEO's customer in 2007. During these six years I've never seen any of the Muriente family involved in the forums (just short quotes in the front page). Instead, Brian has been the contact between the company and the user base all along. I am witness to his spirit of service, and that's why I stayed as a customer.

As per the legal isues that put brother against brother (or sister in this case), good luck. I never saw any of you in the VBSeo forums, anyway.