"How could e-mail white-listing possibly have been overlooked on something as big as this? And how many e-mail providers are moving quickly enough to accommodate BlastOff's request. Honestly, my friends in enterprise web development are snickering... This could take more than a few weeks. Doug, I look forward to your response."
WhoisBlastOff.com
NEWS... PPL/BlastOff
October 26, 2009
BlastOff Sign-up
Last Day to get in on BlastOff before Pizza Hut hooks up! Get in NOW!
That's right. Pizza Hut launches a huge, nation-wide Pizza Box-top Flyer push tomorrow, Tuesday, October 27, 2009. This is, no doubt, going to swell the ranks of BlastOff participants so today is the day to get in and start your own network.
Good luck.... Sign-up Now...!
BlastOff Sign-up
Last Day to get in on BlastOff before Pizza Hut hooks up! Get in NOW!That's right. Pizza Hut launches a huge, nation-wide Pizza Box-top Flyer push tomorrow, Tuesday, October 27, 2009. This is, no doubt, going to swell the ranks of BlastOff participants so today is the day to get in and start your own network.
Good luck.... Sign-up Now...!
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BlastOff Sign-up
October 23, 2009
BlastOff Pulls it Together!
BlastOff seems to have finally pulled its site together after a chaotic launch on Oct. 22, 2009. Today, the site is much more stable and sign-ups are taking place. Congratulations to BlastOff!
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October 22, 2009
BlastOff Launch is Botched
BlastOff pulled the trigger and launched the site on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009. It was a "bad launch." The company's servers were totally overloaded and 10 hours into the launch nothing got better. Further, there were multiple programming errors as well as a host of other major issues.
Bottom line: Poor strategic planning, not enough testing to ensure any kind of successful launch.
Here is a link to the website's forum where there a complaints-a-plenty: click here.
My personal apologies to anyone who wasted their time with this launch based on my personal recommendations. -- Art
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October 15, 2009
- Click for a video from BlastOff CEO William Rodgers explaining the delay...
- Here's another support conversation between Doug Gray, Chief Technology Officer at BlastOff and me. Starts with my observation and question:
Q: Art commented:
"Doug, you, of all the entire management team, are the most qualified to have some inkling of what's required to launch. The e-mail compliance issue is not your fault if a 3rd party backed out. But, there seem to be many script errors, bugs, etc. So, in your opinion (and you're not going to be held to it) is this thing actually going to launch before November? The "very close" phrase is elusive. At some point, BlastOff is going to have to either pull the trigger or pull the plug."A: Doug Gray - Chief Technology Officer, replied:
"The final decision to launch is PPL's, in conjunction with Blastoff's CEO Bill Rodgers, since this is your exclusive. We are in daily communication with PPL regarding the launch. We are still in the process of reviewing all of the aspects of the launch "final checklist" to enable PPL and Bill to be sufficiently confident and comfortable to make an informed decision when to launch. They/We will be communicating with everyone very soon. My instinct/opinion is that yes, we will launch before November. But, that is only my professional opinion, and I do not have the authority to definitively commit to that date---that is PPL's and Bill's call. That said, every web site and software package has bugs and issues. There will be minor bugs and issues after launch that we will identify, triage, prioritize, and rectify in order of user impact and corresponding priority. In my 20+ years of building software and e-commerce/social networking web sites, this is standard operating procedure for all new, groundbreaking technologies."
Doug Gray
CTO
Blastoff Communications
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Oct. 12, 2009
Response Over BlastOff Launch Delay
(Here's correspondence conducted between Doug Gray, Chief Technology Officer at BlastOff and me. Starts with my question:
"Whitelisting was not overlooked---our email service provider decided that the risk of blacklisting was too great given the huge volume of email that we will be sending out over a very short time window. They backed out, after having committed to us months ago, when they heard we would be sending out 50-100 MILLION email messages at launch. We have people on our team that have handled email distribution in prior direct marketing companies---we have done it before, we will do it again now. We remain positive in the face of adversity, as the opportunity that Blastoff presents is too great to be negative about. We would rather do the launch right, albeit a bit later than planned, rather than wrong on time. We hope that you will agree with that strategy and logic".
Doug Gray
CTO
Blastoff Communications
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Oct. 10, 2009
Feed Back Over Launch Delay
- More feedback from other PPL Associates: Click here
Oct. 9, 2009
BlastOff Launch Delayed... again!
There seems to be some e-mail compliance issues. So, the Oct. 12 date is off. Unfortunately, there is no new date. I will keep you posted via my blog, e-mail, FaceBook and Twitter.
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Here is the "OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT" I received last night.
Hello Pre-Paid Legal Associates,
We have seen your excitement and efforts build towards the Blastoff launch and are incredibly excited to see success from this program! We are now anticipating millions of email invitations going out on the first day! The world will soon know about Pre-Paid Legal in a way never before seen in more than three decades! Thanks to our partnership with Blastoff, we see an opportunity to truly reach the masses with the Pre-Paid Legal message, perhaps for the first time in history. Blastoff is currently working night and day to communicate with the main webmail services across the US to make them aware of the email volume to come, and keep all Blastoff members using the invitation service provided SPAM compliant. Blastoff needs a little more time to secure this effort. Due to this, we are postponing the launch.
We know you are anxious to hit the ground running (and so are we, and so is Blastoff) but we want to take the appropriate precautions for lasting success - which includes remaining SPAM compliant.
What this means for you is that Blastoff will NOT launch on Monday. They simply need more time. We anticipate being able to announce a new launch date very soon and don't expect the launch to be more than a week away. We will post more information on this website as it becomes available.
We realize this announcement may be discouraging for some, but rest assured that while this delay was not anticipated or desired by anyone at Pre-Paid Legal or Blastoff, we both believe it's the best course of action to ensure the compliance necessary to continue doing business into the future.
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Oct. 6, 2009
Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc., Receives Subpoena from SEC
ADA, Okla. (Oct. 6, 2009) - Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc. said Tuesday the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sent the company a subpoena requesting documents related to its treasury stock repurchase program. The subpoena also asks for information on the company's marketing practices, membership information, a Federal Trade Commission contingency disclosure, among other practices.
Pre-Paid Legal said no conclusions have been reached yet but that the company is cooperating with SEC staff and providing the requested information.
Shares of the company, which provides legal service plans, dropped $8.38, or 16.2 percent, to $43.35 in afternoon trading.
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Oct 2, 2009
Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc., Reports Q3 Earnings
PPL announces that new memberships produced and new sales associates enrolled for the 2009 third quarter. During the 3rd quarter of 2009, new sales associates enrolled increased 99.4% compared to the third quarter of 2008. Memberships produced increased by 20.7% while new membership fees written increased by 20.5% and their active membership base decreased 1.9% compared to the comparable period of the previous year. On a sequential quarterly basis, new associates enrolled increased 199.5%; new memberships produced increased 43.2%, new membership fees written increased 41.8% and our active membership base increased by 39,684 memberships.
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