Squeeze Theme is for sale at Flippa. They are asking $180,000. As at 16 June 2010, the bids are up to $22,000. Still way below an estimated reserve price. If I had lots of money I would NOT buy this domain/software/mailing list. This post is about why…
Flippa Auctions
I sold a site earlier this year on Flippa with relative ease. Buyers ask you questions and you (as the seller) provide answers until the prospective buyers are satisfied. The price goes up with the recognised potential of the site and hopefully you get at least what you were hoping for.
Squeeze Theme.com is for Sale
My recommendation is “Buyer Beware“.Ask the hard questions of the sellers and make sure the advantages of buying this site outweigh the disadvantages.
This is my personal opinion based on my experience with Affiliate Theme, Squeeze Theme and Unique Blog Designs (UBD) as well as a number of negative opinions that have been shared with me, and published, by others - here at Thesis Theme HQ and on other people’s sites.
Check out the listing for Squeeze Theme…
My Negative Review of Squeeze Theme
I wrote a post describing my experience with Squeeze Theme.
In Summary…
- I started out as a foundation member/user of the theme when it was first launched.
- I was very active in the Squeeze Theme Forum and with the developers of Squeeze Theme – insisting my issues be fixed and reporting many bugs as quickly as I discovered them. My original posts have probably been deleted as with many if not all of the early forum posts that had not much more to say than …“aargh, this doesn’t work, this is beta, I want my money and my time back…”
- I signed up for the first eCourse Squeeze Camp due mostly to the number of ‘big names’ spruking how great Squeeze Theme and Squeeze Camp were.
- In less than 2 months I requested – and had to insist – on a refund for both the Squeeze Theme AND the eCourse Squeeze Camp.
- The theme never worked as it should, was not user friendly, was in my opinion (and many others) a beta release and was not ready to launch.
- It was promoted as the theme for beginners. Most of the beginners were in desperate need of assistance and cried out for urgent help in the Squeeze Theme Forum – only to be told that what they needed help for was beyond the level of support offered (for example any form of css advice, like changing colours – something basic that is offered in virtually every other theme support forum).
- Forum posts were sometimes not answered, moderated and not published, or deleted forever – sometimes without being answered.
Squeeze Theme are good at deleting challenging comments.
In their current Auction on Flippa I asked a few challenging – but not unreasonable – questions…to encourage honesty with the people they want nearly $200,000 from.
What Squeeze Theme (Unique Blog Designs LLC) are offering
“…a popular WordPress theme designed to make creating squeeze pages and blogs as easy as possible…”
BUT, you must subscribe to AWeber (email autoresponder service) for about $19 a month – or about $228 a year for a basic package, the price keeps going up! You will need to keep your subscriptions going for as long as you want to use squeeze page function.
Most people who sign up to AWeber would have signed up through Squeeze Theme’s link and made Unique Blog Designs lots of ongoing affiliate commissions - even if customers have since moved on to another theme but continue to use AWeber.
website traffic of 120,000 visitors and $176,864.83 in sales over the past six months – less $24,689.11 paid to affiliates for the period November 2009 – May 2010.
That equates to 20,000 visitors a month or about 666 visitors a day to the domain www.squeezetheme.com/all pages on the domain. That’s a lot of money from a relatively low number of visitors. Do visitors include existing customers reading the blog, checking their affililiate stats/earnings, customers logging issues in the support forum and checking back frequently for answers that never come…?
Exclusive resale rights to: Squeeze Theme - a WordPress theme designed to easily create squeeze pages AND Sales Page Theme - a WordPress theme designed to easily create sales pages.
Both the squeeze theme and sale page theme are page templates within the overall squeeze theme. BUT most WordPress themes automatically cater for these kinds of pages these days for the cost of the theme. AND you can also buy a plugin for about $30 that also does this for you if you don’t know how to follow a free online tutorial that shows how simple this is to do and you can then continue to use whatever theme you like.
Exclusive resale rights to: Squeeze Camp - a 12-week online marketing training course (includes 12 video presentations about online marketing).
I signed up for the first release of this eCourse and the handbook that came with it the first two weeks. What I didn’t like – and why I requested a refund on the Squeeze Camp course – based on 2 weeks worth of materials:-
- the booklets were formatted in a way that required you to kill lots of trees to read it offline. I reformatted it in Word to print it on about 8 pages instead of about 40 so I could read it.
- I got the impression they were written the day before publishing them online.
- the booklets were full of spelling and grammatical errors with gaps in logic and recommendations for affiliate products such as web hosting, email autoresponders and of course Squeeze Theme – in case the eCourse was purchased separately by a non-Squeeze Theme user (promoted as being okay)
- the booklets covered important topics in a few sentences, making assumptions that readers understood important terms, topics and had already completed the steps in each proceding paragraph.
- handbooks that were promised on a particular date were often late, by many days. Not acceptable, in my opinion, for a weekly training guide.
- I didn’t learn anything in the first two weeks apart from how not to write an eBook.
Unless the Squeeze Camp has been re-written or substantially revised, I don’t think it is worth the money that was asked for it.
My feelings are:
- from what I experienced, what people have told me and published around the web,
- what I have read in the Squeeze Theme forums when I was an active member,
- what has been written on the internet about people’s experiences with:
- Squeeze Theme
- Squeeze Camp, and
- Unique Blog Designs
- the refund rate is probably pretty high. Or should I say, the requests for refunds are probably higher than other similiar products.
- there is a lot of bad feeling towards Squeeze Theme, Affiliate Theme and Unique Blog Designs – some of which will rub off onto the new owner – especially when they:
- cannot respond effectively to technical support questions (and there will be many),
- send emails out to people who are still on the mailing list but who have since received a refund, could not get a refund or are former affiliates who do not want to promote the theme or Squeeze Camp eCourse because of bad experiences or bad word of mouth.
- Apparently there are 800 people on the Squeeze Theme mailing list that you purchase with the squeeze theme site and products.
- This pales in comparison to Problogger’s 100,00+ mailing list or my 300 something in about 3 months just for offering a free eBook of my top articles.
There are many stories around the web – and in the comments on my review – that indicate refunds aren’t always provided and at times, even the product (theme files) are not provided.
Read the following articles and especially the comments:
New Squeeze Theme for WordPress Not User Friendly
Review: Affiliate Theme by Unique Blog Designs
Google for evidence of active, sexy Squeeze Theme sites
When you are Googling for Squeeze Theme sites and reviews – ask yourself:
- Why aren’t any of the sites promoting Squeeze Theme (search term: squeeze theme review) actually using Squeeze Theme?
- Try and find a Squeeze Theme site that is active and being developed.
- You may find some squeeze theme sites that have promotional articles with an affiliate link (provided by UBD-web copy professionals in the affiliate marketing materials – notice they all sound alike).
- But, can you find a squeeze theme site, with blog, not just a single squeeze page – that looks good and not identical to the main Squeeze Theme promotional site?
- If I was buying a theme I would like to see actual live examples of Squeeze Theme sites - examples galore like others who have a gallery, for example Thesis Theme and Woo Themes.
- Surely, there should be an ‘introduce yourself’ thread in the Squeeze Theme support Forum to show off your cool looking site?
Now Google for ‘Thesis Theme Review‘ and see how many sites are actually using Thesis and promoting them because they believe in their theme rather than blindly hoping for affiliate income.
Flippa Auction Listing – Questions Deleted
I did ask some questions:
Some Squeeze Theme customers have been dissatisfied with the theme and service, especially in the support forum…
http://thesisthemehq.com/new-squeeze-theme-for-wordpress-is-not-user-friendly/
…have these issues been resolved? Is it safe to assume there are a number of affiliates that are no longer promoting the theme but still remain on the books?
What technical (coding) knowledge does the buyer of squeeze theme need to address any issues in the forum. Based on nearly every WordPress theme forum out there, there appears to be an ongoing need to upgrade the theme when WordPress is upgraded and as a result of finding bugs and needing to apply patches.
And also…
Do your stats for 120,000+ visitors to your site include the traffic from theme users going to the forum for support and affiliates going to their stats panel to check their earnings? Most users would ping a forum and/or affiliate panel at least daily, especially when setting up the theme and during intial promotional efforts.
Other Comments on Flippa Listing for Squeeze Theme…
Realistic profit declarations?
Willing to pay $18,000 a year for a Forum Moderator?
How would you feel as a customer with IT issues if the owner of Squeeze Theme was only willing to provide 1.5 hours of forum support for all customers combined? (20hours/31 days in a month) No wonder questions aren’t being answered.
- Most blog owners spend more than 1.5 hours a day answering comments posted by a couple of dozen commenters – and they are usually without complicated IT questions that require hands-on support.
My thoughts…
I get the impression the people hungry to buy the site are after the “Email list of over 800 members” and the PR5.
I’m hoping the new owner understands the amount of unhappy people there are (or at least used to be) and maintains some level of technical support. There is only a 1 month techical theme support package with the sale. I wouldn’t be holding my breath for the squeeze theme to be upgraded all of the time like Thesis Theme is.
Apparently if the new owner can’t manage the comments in the forum they can pay someone around $1,000 a month to do it for them. Bargain!
I think as a former customer and affiliate my name is on the email list still. Guess I’ll be seeing an email or two from the new owner in a few months offering to sell me something.
Update…
I notice my comments were deleted without being answered – as were some other people’s.
Now you see them…
Now you don’t…
- Some other comments by other people have also been deleted. Wouldn’t it have been smarter to answer these questions in light of some people probably needing to know about these things. If they have been resolved, then this is their opportunity to say so.
- Smells if you ask me….of neglect. Where are the updates on their Facebook account, Squeeze Theme blog, a gallery of customer sites doing great things with the Squeeze Theme, testimonials by actual users giving links to their live Squeeze Theme sites.
- If I was spending thousands of dollars buying a site and its products – products that are very labour intensive – with only 1 month’s IT support – I would want more questions answered.
Is Squeeze Theme Unique (by Unique Blog Designs)?
This comment from Yaro Starak’s Review of Squeeze Theme…
Link to Flex Squeeze Theme (not an affiliate link) so you can see the difference.
If you read Yaro’s review, you will also read that he basically recommends against buying Squeeze Theme is you just want a squeeze page – keeping your own theme and maybe considering alternatives other than buying a whole new theme and installing a second theme and a second WordPress installation to just have a squeeze page.
I’m going to be completely honest with you though – you’re not going to instantly be able to understand how to use this theme. You will need to learn through studying the videos and playing with the options until you understand what controls what. I’d say you would need to commit to at least a few hours of practice before you will feel even basically comfortable with how it works.
If you play around with the WordPress control panel already, have some basic HTML or CSS skills, then the Squeeze Theme options will not take long to grasp. If you’re advanced, you will enjoy the high level of customization options Squeeze Theme provides, so this is definitely a theme that’s accessible and relevant to all user groups, except absolute technophobes.
The only group of people I caution is if you are completely computer illiterate. If you don’t know how to use something like Gmail effectively, buying Squeeze Theme is not going to suddenly allow you to build a perfect blog or squeeze page. There’s a learning curve here and for some people you’re just not meant to be a blog designer, no matter how good the tool is.
I’d have a think about whether you need to use all the features though, as if you just want to make one squeeze page and not use the theme for your blog/sales page, other blogs etc, you might not get much from it.
So, buyer beware is all I can say.
- If you are considering buying Squeeze Theme and you have read this article and get satisfactory answers – fantastic. My job is done.
Extract from Flippa's user guidelines
- If you buy Squeeze Theme, without having read this article, and are not satisfied with your purchase…I wish you the best. A bad situation can be turned around. trouble is, I don’t think UBD did this with Squeeze Theme before bailing out and offloading it for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The auction at Flippa will be over soon. Stay tuned…
My opinion is just for review purposes - I purchased these products and had an unsatisfactory experience with them. So did others.
I have yet to find anyone who has been satisfied with their purchase who can show me a great looking site using Squeeze Theme. I remain unconvinced of the quality of this product.
Update: Squeeze Theme.com Not Sold!
The auction closed without reaching its reserve (whatever that was).
The owners have obviously decided to move on to other projects and abandon their efforts with this site.
That’s why you sell a site. You have insufficient time, money, energy or interest…or for other reasons…e.g.
- the site is not making money
- the site’s profits are falling and you do not want to put in the time, money, energy or interest to salvage and rebuild, grow
- the site is not growing and you aren’t willing to make it work
- alternatively, the site is a success and you want to realise your profit, using the money for another great project…giving somebody the opportunity to continue the success while you create a new success story. It is possible that Squeeze Theme.com was being sold for this reason…but I am doubtful.
Considering the site did not sell this time and many possibly interested people decided the site was not worth the asking price, it will be interesting to see what happens in the future.
Unique Blog Designs (UBD) may decide to:
Re-list Squeeze Theme.com on Flippa and/or other site auction sites
If they re-list (Flippa offer a special deal on relisting) they may:
- set a lower reserve
- use different promotional methods
- sell it privately (slower but can remain on Flippa for longer)
Close the site down…resulting in many users of the theme losing their lifetime support and questioning why they spent the money in the first place.
Decide to keep the site going and…
- pay somebody to moderate the forum, answer technical questions, fix bugs in the software, upgrade the product to work with WordPress upgrades like WordPress 3.0.
- promote it like they say it can and make more money…sending people on their email list offers to buy similar high priced items.
Hold on to it for a few more months/years and try selling it then.
Something else…
Observations & Lessons Learned: Creating, Running and Selling a Theme Software Site
If you sell a high priced theme and offer lifetime support - it is a long-term project. When you want to cease your involvement in the project/site you need to find somebody to replace you. At this point your reputation and that of the site is everything. Bad press and negative word of mouth may cause potential buyers to question the soundness of their investment. You may not be able to find a buyer = get out of it gracefully.
If you have a mega launch that results in mega sales in the first month - expect sales to drop for a while after the first month and to continue unless you maintain your promotional efforts. When revenue drops and trends downwards for many months – buyers are likely to think that revenue will continue to spiral downwards. The site’s perceived value will also drop.
Don’t think that the potential of a site is worth something. Everything has potential. In this case, the owners admitted they did not have what it takes to make the site really successful – but they are telling you they know it is possible with somebody who has the marketing/SEO acumen.
What makes a software site successful - primarily – is good software with good support. Marketing the email list to sell other items is not the primary business. Selling a highly technical product that requires technical ability to maintain and upgrade to a marketer/SEO is a recipe for doom. You need to be clear about what is being sold.
If you are selling a software product – show proof of its success. I cannot find evidence of an attractive, active website using Squeeze Theme. There is nothing immediately found using Google. There is no gallery on the Squeeze Theme site available to potential purchasers. There are no testimonials. There is a statement that customers are overwhelmingly satisfied (88% actually!) but no testimonials or proof of this claim.
Potential to exploit a very small mailing list is not worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Transparency builds trust. If you are trying to sell your site via a public auction and people are asking for proof of revenue and proof of profit – evidence of expenses – proof that the site is worth what you are asking…give it to them. Having tens of questions asking for the same thing gives a visitor the impression that you are not forthcoming and trying to hide something. You need potential buyers to trust you. If other listings provide this information and you don’t – you are making your site listing look worse that others. Good luck trying to sell the site.
I could go on, but frankly I am over it. I can’t believe there are so many blatant examples of poor customer service, exploitative marketing practices and that it is so easy to take people’s money in return for something of less value.
Buyer Beware.
- You can never ask enough questions.
- You can never be 100% certain of a good investment.
- Weigh up the risks against the potential gains and be willing to lose your money.
- Don’t spend more than you are willing to lose.
Add a Comment
$180,000 is just too much if they don’t satisfy customers. The extract from Flippa’s user guidelines are just absurd. If they don’t like negative comments then they should improve their product to perfection, if ever that is possible. There is no perfect product, so they should be open to criticisms or negative comments if they want to improve. But it seems that the people behind this are close-minded people.
Andrew@BloggingGuide´s last blog ..How To Sell Your Product Online
Thanks for bringing to light the shortcomings of Squeeze Theme. $180,000 is an absurd price for a site lacking so much in customer support and basic maintenance.
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Thanks for this great opinion from you. You made us all aawre about the squeezetheme.
Thank you for sharing this is information and also guide us about the squeezetheme.
Congratulations on your site was great, also perfect for sharing.
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Thanks for this article. Very nice Post.
$180,000 is insane. I’d offer a couple thousand or less. Way to many sites doing this exact same thing.
Hi, thank you so much for this information, I am now awakened because i used to buy from Flippa. $180,000 is indeed a large amount. The site should prove to buyers why it is worth that much and what are its benefits like its revenues.
Post updated. Site not sold. Observations and lessons learned added to the end of the article.
I am part of their mailing list as well but luckily I did not buy the Squeeze Theme because I saw the original idea from Flexibility Theme. As Andrew said they should give the guy the credit he deserves.
Absolutely. Atrribution, recognition for inspiration and original ideas should be one of those rules people do not break.
What an informative post! You should post some of your concerns at the Flippa auction site if you haven’t already. Seems like some who are less informed might buy into a bad offer.
Have to be careful between reviewing, having editorial opinion and defamation.
I wasn’t aware that their site was being sold so thanks for sharing that information. I have heard very mixed messages about the squeeze theme itself though I’ve never used it personally. Personally I use the Thesis Theme for about 90% of my Wordpress powered sites these days and as such I’ve even developed my own marketing skins that you can use to make a sales page with Thesis. Whilst the newbie user probably couldn’t create a custom squeeze page by themself with the advent of low cost or even free skins, templates and plugins as you mentioned this probably isn’t a good project to take on without a lot of active development being put into it. That being said the sales do speak for themselves to an extent so I’m sure the right person could do wondeful things with it.
Absolutely. I just thought there was way too much spin, gaps in information and wanted to put a buyer beware notice out there. It also makes a great case study. I’. waiting with baited breath to see what their next move is. I’ll do a follow up story if it’s interesting.
You mentioned your comments have been deleted, well so have mine, some blogs cannot stand criticism or different point of view.
Constructive criticism or graciously challenging somebody’s ideas are always helpful.
Thank you for this great review! I was (am still kind of) a newbie blogger trying to figure out how I could get professional looking squeeze page, that I could build myself at will instead of paying for pre-made sites. I came across Squeeze Theme and thought it was a perfect answer. I started making a blog and ran into some issues, and my attention shifted to other themes. What I recall, it all seemed very exciting and full of potential, yet the actual details of how to do particular things were murky and I guess I just drifted off after a while.
That’s a really good point about there not being any other squeeze theme blogs out there. At least I haven’t run across any. Separately, I have started using the Woo Headlines theme for something else, and it’s fun to notice that theme pop up on other very professional looking and well done sites.
Actually I came across your post because I was doing some research. I got in my email a message that UBD had developed a plug in that would allow one to create a squeeze page with any theme. at least judging by the demo, the wysiwig interface looks flexible and robust.
What I’m trying to figure out it, with this plugin, doesn’t that match most of the benefit of having the full squeeze theme? What does that do to existing squeeze theme customers (and the money already shelled out) – to really get the functionality they need (work within other themes) they are being asked to buy this separately. It should be made a part of the core squeeze theme product.
Thank you for informing everyone about this website. I don’t think they have good business practices and I doubt they’ll get the price they’re asking for.
Yea thanks for informing us about this. I saw your more recent post on the reduced price and that still seems pretty high, especially from what you have described here.