Red Ventures has turned very specific advice into very big business

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/15/business/media/red-ventures-digital-media.html

by SirLJ • 5 years ago

167 134 5 years ago

nytimes.com

drannex• 5 years ago

Archive.is: https://archive.is/e3HN8

beckler• 5 years ago

I have heard nothing but horror stories from those who worked at RV.

dw-im-here• 5 years ago

I got some pretty bad vibes from reading about their business model. We don't need more of this adtech shit

tjfl• 5 years ago

Yeah, I'm never calling a toll free number again.

For instance, they purchased more than a million toll-free phone numbers, and each visitor to their marketing website was shown a different one. So when prospective customers called, Red Ventures knew exactly what they had been looking at on the site, which gave the agents what they needed to make personalized sales pitches. This was a pretty high-tech form of digital surveillance in those more innocent times.

kuyan• 5 years ago

Wow, no kidding. Never heard of them before but the sentiment on /r/Charlotte is pretty visceral.

https://www.google.com/search?q=red+ventures+site%3Areddit.c...

drstewart4• 5 years ago

The sentiment on reddit for everything is visceral. Very bitter place.

tvanantwerp• 5 years ago

Oof. Makes me glad my interviews with them didn't go very far.

soggybutter3• 5 years ago

Not that it really makes it any better, but the engineering/tech side is almost completely divorced from the sales side when it comes to work life balance and culture. Most of the complaints I see across the internet come from folks who worked in the sales centers which, even internally, I've heard was a pretty awful environment if you weren't in the top 10%. New agents in particular were burned through quickly as they really only had the worst shifts to pick from, so climbing the ladder was a long and arduous journey.

I worked there for a couple of years and it was honestly a great experience. I'm sure they've "grown up" some more at this point, but at the time it was all the fun, freedom, and flexibility of working at a startup with the security of a company that was essentially too big to fail.

cameron_b4• 5 years ago

I would echo that the sentiment is mostly for sales roles. With the sheer volume of employee history and churn represented by the sales roles ( phone agents, mostly ) it far outweighs the rest.

To their credit, RV is really an opportunity company. They'll give anyone who can smile on the phone a shot at learning sales. Some folks are awesome at it and could out-earn some early tier tech roles in their compensation for closing sales. And the "creepy" profiling work that was done on lead gen would basically fit shopping style to an agent who had been shown to be able to close similar shopping patterns. I worked on the tech side and wasn't enamored by the revenue streams, but if someone was shopping for an 'x' RV sure made it easier to buy it. That was their thing. They didn't do outbound calling unless you called in and asked to talk another time.

The tech side was very exciting. I met very skilled folks from all sorts of disciplines and people pretty much worked shoulder to shoulder, which I've grown to appreciate a lot since working elsewhere.

shapefrog3• 5 years ago

This is some solid client journalism.

cameron_b4• 5 years ago

Yea the "Why" here is murky.

nickreese2• 5 years ago

RedVentures is pretty much the 1000lb gorilla in SEO lead gen. They also have a pretty large patent library and aren't afraid to use it. This includes a patent on zip code search which our last startup was on the receiving end of an infringement claim.[1]

If you are a reporter or investigative journalist I'd encourage you to do some poking around into the business model behind APlaceForMom.com and the FTC action to spin off Caring.com and the overall effect on the nursing home industry.

I can go on a major rant about RV, their moves to rollup the majority of the lead gen industry but due to prior legal interactions with them I'll refrain from painting a target on my back any further than I have.

---

[1] https://patents.google.com/patent/US20140149249A1/

athrowaway3z• 5 years ago

I remember reading some piece of policy document that stated offhandedly in its introduction as a matter of fact something like "Patents allow us to foster innovation and are a benefit to society".

I can only imagine that businesses are going to setup somewhere outside the US. Not for tax reasons, but simply to avoid the exposure to the minefield of patent.

skrebbel• 5 years ago

If you do business in the US, a US court can compel you to stop doing so, even if you're not there.

dgb234• 5 years ago

How can this be a patent? It’s as ridiculous as the one click buy. Don’t your legislators see how these things are not at all useful and are only used to bully? How they only create useless overhead? How it prevents progress and incremental innovation? How it induces fear into small businesses and creates perverse incentives for large ones?

Akronymus• 5 years ago

I tried multiple times to understand what it is actually saying.

But between the vagueness and buzzwords I didn't get it at all.

rancar2• 5 years ago

Nick, I’m very sorry to hear of your troubles. I’d love to hear more about what our industry can do to shift the tide back towards serving those in need of care better. My mission is to maximize wellbeing, and it’s appears you are aligned with this perspective.

If you are an investigative journalist or class action lawyer, please feel free to reach out to me. I’m easy to find.

thesausageking3• 5 years ago

I appreciate you responding to this thread, but "My mission is to maximize wellbeing, and it’s appears you are aligned with this perspective" is a really fake, BS response.

If you want to engage with the HN community, talk about why you own and have prosecuted what seem like obvious patents. It was filed in 2009, when similar services were all over the web.

rexreed2• 5 years ago

When I click on the link above it says that the current patent status is "Abandoned"?

nickreese2• 5 years ago

I may have linked to the wrong one. They have 2 active owned via AllConnect patented by Glenn Goad. One is zip code availability lookup/search and the other is address level search for availability of services. They also have a 3rd more aggressive one that the patent examiner gave them headaches over and they ultimately abandoned.

—-

We were sued in 2018. My knowledge of their patents is from then. They may have abandoned some since then.

javiramos• 5 years ago

It seems like the cited patent was an application that was eventually abandoned. The application didn't hold very well during examination.

TheMagicHorsey• 5 years ago

In case any engineer reading the linked patent is confused about what the patent is saying ... that is a feature of the patent ... not a bug.

Patents are written to be vague. They don't need to teach anything. They just need to look "sophisticated" so a jury of yokels in rural Texas thinks that it's very "smart". Then you get an award of Billions of dollars for something you cook up on a whiteboard over lunch with your lawyer.

After seeing the breakneck pace of innovation in Shanghai and Shenzhen I'm convinced that a free for all is a better state for an economy then what we have in California with patents. Patents create a system where you need to get a thousand permissions from people ... spend millions on lawyers ... all for what? All because we are worried that someone somewhere might have done the thing you are trying to do first. I say so what? Yes its sad if someone makes something and they don't get paid for it because everyone else does the same thing. But is that a bigger tragedy then what we have now where trolls shut down whole industries and approaches? Where lawyers live parasitically on the backs of engineers, doing nothing but causing friction in the system and adding no value.

I know formerly good engineers that no longer do engineering. They just spit out endless amounts of bullshit papers for lawyers to turn into patents, which will then be used to harass those of us that are actually trying to build useful products.

A society that incentivizes parasitism instead of productive work will end up falling behind a society that incentivizes useful work.

Between the policies of the Fed that have pushed so many smart people into unproductive speculative jobs (like flipping houses) and stupid laws like software patents, I've become very bearish about America's future prospects after visiting China. Everyone in China actually seems to be working at a breakneck pace making useful stuff. Everyone in America seems to just have their hand in someone else's pocket, or they are buying some asset in the hope they can sell it for more tomorrow.

How can we continue to make progress like this? This is so insane.

josaka2• 5 years ago

That's not a patent. It's a published application, which was abandoned after being rejected by the USPTO. This can be verified on the USPTO's public PAIR system.

The broader point about yokels from rural TX is less true than it used to be. Post 2012, as a practical matter, to assert a patent, you have to survive an IPR challenge, where a group of more experienced technical staff at the USPTO decide whether the invalidate your patent in an adversarial proceeding.

vgeek2• 5 years ago

This is what is sad. During that time frame, BroadbandNow was 100% better (listing all providers vs just paying) than AllConnect. I didn't really know how large RV was until discovering their acquisition of Imagitas from the USPS, so they both have their tentacles everywhere & would rather litigate than innovate.

I've seen their job listings and looked them up from the employment side before, and they seem to have high turnover & somewhat cult-like/exploitative behaviors.

ren_engineer4• 5 years ago

Google should technically blacklist most of their sites, they blatantly link to their own properties to boost the SEO ranking of all their online properties

The fact Google is too lazy to stop a bunch of conglomerates from monopolizing the internet is the most disgusting part

arrosenberg• 5 years ago

The fact Google is too lazy to stop a bunch of conglomerates from monopolizing the internet is the most disgusting part

It would make them somewhat hypocritical if they did.

edwardofclt3• 5 years ago

RV plays the game that Google created and they do it well. What’s wrong with that? Google doesn’t stop it because that’s how they make ad revenue. And I wouldn’t say monopolizing is the right term… that would imply we ran Google and made sure to make our results #1.

minikites• 5 years ago

stop a bunch of conglomerates from monopolizing the internet

Would Google make more money if they did this?

dmix2• 5 years ago

A good example of their SEO content generation:

https://www.aplaceformom.com/sitemap

This websites also used the same website design:

https://www.allconnect.com/internet/cheap

This one is slightly different but same leadgen business model:

https://www.mymove.com/

Also with a coupon directory with affiliate links: https://www.mymove.com/coupons/electronics/

Couldn’t find any obvious cross links between properties. But definitely giant Google keyword engines with a leadgen business model.

mitchellst2• 5 years ago

RV employee here, so take this as you will but... this comment is baffling. RV does not own or operate A Place for Mom. One of the private equity firms that owns a stake in RV also has a stake in A Place for Mom. Not the strongest connection in the world. RV bought Bankrate, Inc in 2017 (the acquisition through which I joined RV, in another division) which owned Caring.com. Because of the investor connection, RV never integrated Caring and sold it off immediately. So, maybe the senior care industry has some awful practices. But... RV does not do business in that industry. This is really what you hold against us?

dmix2• 5 years ago

This was the FTC complaint that led to the sale of Caring.com https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2018/04/ftc-a...

Apparently APlaceForMom was #1 in the market and Caring.com was #2 and the FTC feared that having the same stockholders owning majority stakes in both companies would lead to data sharing and essentially be market consolidation.

So RV sold off their $1.4B investment.

elefanten• 5 years ago

You ignored the monopolist patent troll stuff and the part where the poster's company was sued by RV for zip code search, but yeah good summary.

walshemj• 5 years ago

I would have thought that there would be prior art on that (zip / post code lookup) from US Postal Service or the GPO

dmitriid2• 5 years ago

So. I read the entire article and still have no idea what Red Ventures does.

I do know that I was sold Mr. Elias as modern-day Mr. Rogers for all the praise lavished on him.

weird-eye-issue• 5 years ago

They build and acquire websites that make money through ads and affiliate commissions. I have a digital media startup so it was more clear to me

dmitriid2• 5 years ago

Thank you for clarification!

cgarvis2• 5 years ago

Started out as a DirectTV reseller!

space_rock• 5 years ago

Patient trolls that buy ads in the nytimes? Know nothing about them but that's my guess

colinmhayes2• 5 years ago

This article was pretty critical, not sure why you're saying they paid for it.

heymijo• 5 years ago

I was sold Mr. Elias as modern-day Mr. Rogers for all the praise lavished on him.

Saint in the streets, abusive asshole in the office.

I too once saw him as the guy with worldly wisdom gained when his plane (Sully Sullenberger flight) crashed into the Hudson. The guy with a number of noble sounding nonprofits like Road to Hire.

It's tiring coming across two-faced people like this and the erosion of trust they cause in taking anyone at face value.

shapefrog3• 5 years ago

Ahh that is him? I remember hearing him on a podcast at some point and thinking 'here is a guy who is not a twat'.

Disclaimer: I have been wrong before and will be wrong again.

yccs272• 5 years ago

We already have enough fake "product comparison" websites, but I guess trade magazines now also have to peddle the crap from the highest bidder.

jon-wood• 5 years ago

Trade magazines have always peddled crap from the highest bidder, that’s how they stay in business. Winners of their annual awards are at least partially picked based on willingness to pay a substantial fee.

1vuio0pswjnm7• 5 years ago

If I am not mistaken they own Metacritic.

deergomoo• 5 years ago

Yeah, last year they bought all the CNET group stuff, which included all the CBS Interactive gaming stuff—Metacritic, Gamespot, GameFAQs, Giant Bomb etc.

chrischen2• 5 years ago

“ More troublingly, some reporters at The Points Guy, which also covers the travel industry in general (it has been a comprehensive source for information on where vaccinated Americans can travel), have complained that the new owners have eroded the already rickety wall between the site’s service journalism and the credit card sales that fund it.

Red Ventures is “all about profit maximization,” said JT Genter, who left the site more than a year ago. He and other Points Guy writers said they hadn’t been pushed to publish stories they found dubious — indeed, the site has occasionally offered carefully critical coverage of Chase and American Express, its dominant business partners.”

Well there goes that resource for me.

lotsofpulp2• 5 years ago

Well there goes that resource for me.

I assume almost all information outside of forums with high barriers to entry are being gamed by marketing, and I assume as days go on, more and more forums will succumb.

The rapid access to high signal to noise ratio information was nice while it lasted.

cik• 5 years ago

Why just that one? The thing is the vast (vast, vast) majority of blogs are all about profit maximization. I view reading any of this rubbish as simply advertainment and refrain from it. At least they're honest about it. Hell the New York Times engages in this and pretends it's just a newpaper - it's called the Best Seller list.

chrischen2• 5 years ago

It was an ex-employee who said those things so “they” being honest about it is a little generous.

rootsudo• 5 years ago

Same, yeah, did not know TPG was sold out, and I should've been suspicious when I kept seeing it on the side of Delta Planes.

Damn that branding is strong, I need to verify ownership and how authoritative writing works on these blogs.

halo182• 5 years ago

TPG was sold out to bankrate first in 2012. Then all of bankrate was sold to RV five years later.

halo182• 5 years ago

Ever credit card affiliate is kind of a bad resource, card issuer compliance makes sure of this, even if the site tries to maintain ethics as a publisher.

It's fairly standard practice that issuers will remove some cards from the affiliate channel (Chase Slate was the prime example of this last I was active in the space.) Once a card is out of the channel, a publisher may need to scrub all mentions of that card off their site completely to stay compliant.

So in my last hands on example - even through the Chase Slate was arguably one of the best balance transfer card options at the time, we literally had to pretend like it didn't exist, or risk all other commissions from other active Chase cards.

There's no way to actually be honest and stay within their terms at the same time - all language is reviewed and picked apart by lawyers, which is why you'll see the same exact 'marketing bullets' across cc review sites. (Amex was the worst - can't say 'grocery store', have to say "US supermarket" type nonsense.)

ausbah2• 5 years ago

I interned at RV this post summer. On the tech side of things, I thought it was by far the best workplace culture out of the 3 places I've interned at. Super supportive team and coworkers, good tech stacks, very feedback oriented, etc.

Funnily enough I didn't really know what they did either until reading this article, shows how separate tech is from many products

quacked6• 5 years ago

I'm not necessarily anti-capitalist, but it's so frustrating that a huge percentage of the best talent, compensation, and tech stacks goes to industries that aren't doing anything actually useful (finance, fintech, adtech)*. There are so many organizations in farming, space travel, healthcare, etc. that would be very well served with receiving the best talent and having the best tech stacks/workplace culture, but when the result of a business model is "acquire a huge pile of money" (finance, fintech, adtech), you'll end up with the biggest pile of money with which to find the best and pay better.

runako• 5 years ago

farming, space travel, healthcare, etc.

To be fair, there are huge piles of money in 2/3 of these as well. There is obviously the perception that tech labor cannot bring much value to these industries. (Or there are externalities: techies will work for less money if you let them work on space travel.)

pinkybanana2• 5 years ago

that aren't doing anything actually useful (finance, fintech, adtech)*.

Cut that crap. Most of the companies in these spaces are value-adding services and products. It is annoying that this kind of thinking is prevalent "If I don't understand how it generates value, it must be useless."

burkaman• 5 years ago

Can I ask why you were willing to work for an organization without understanding what they did? I don't really mean to single you out, I don't think this is an uncommon attitude, but isn't this the most basic information you need to get before you work for someone? What if they made weapons or espionage tools or something and sold them to the highest bidder? I'm sure even arms dealers have software teams working on innocuous-seeming internal tools.

If you aren't in a position to be picky about what job you take I understand, but I didn't get that sense from your comment.

ausbah2• 5 years ago

I had a general understanding of the company before interning there, just not to nearly the same depth as the article explained it because it was never necessary for my job

taurusnoises• 5 years ago

What jumped out at me (again with these business models) was this big tech swing toward the "company store" model:

"the company’s South Carolina headquarters, a 180-acre campus with a cluster of modern buildings, a fire pit, a six-lane bowling alley, spin room, pickle ball courts and 264 residences for employees who choose to live where they work."

alistairSH• 5 years ago

Yeah, that sounds over the top, even compared to the benefits at some FAANG campuses.

Personally, I'd much rather work in an urban/dense-suburban setting, where I can pick from multiple fitness facilities, housing options, etc.

My current office has a "free" fitness room and a for-profit (consumer pays) cafe. Both are shared by multiple tenants in the building. Anything beyond that really starts to feel company-store and a bit dystopian.

mitchellst2• 5 years ago

"Company store" vibes aside, it's a really practical way to graduate from college and relocate to your first job without a cash / debt crunch. Also, I'm an RV employee who works in our Austin office, and having visited our Charlotte HQ, it's pretty inconveniently located and far away from things. Seems like there aren't many great apartment options available nearby. We know how it looks and we joke about it sometimes, too. But really, it's practical and lowers the barrier to entry for people into their first job, so I actually think it's pretty cool.

throwawayrv• 5 years ago

I used to work for Red Ventures as an engineer. It was a very poorly run technical company with dubious business practices. I won't into details, but I would encourage any developers to look elsewhere if possible.

RVSux4• 5 years ago

RV is an incredibly shitty company. I doubt this company will last. The middle management there sucks and the company has no vision beyond "lets just do what other sites are doing." Their entire business model is about not giving a shit about the consumer and just ramming and hiding bullshit deals down their throats.

Talent wise, I have never worked with a group of assholes as delusional as the people who work there. Their technology sucks, and the people who are implementing are is extremely fucking dumb. They get distracted by shiny new technology all the time. This lead to all of their crap being this unmaintainable mess of crap powered by wordpress.

And if you tried to make things better, everyone there had the biggest egos you can imagine so any criticisms were seen as an attack on their character. One time there was this code that was super insecure with SQL injections all over the place and remote code execution vulnerabilities. When this was pointed out, the director who wrote that code 20 years ago tried to get someone fired. No quite a place I would trust for all of my personal information btw.

If you think you are the best, this place is for you. Shitty technology and shitty products that leave plenty of room to just coast with no real challenge. But if you are actually smart and want to work with real smart people, this place is not the place. One of the worst places I worked at in my career.

kowlo2• 5 years ago

Would it be fair to say that you're not a fan of Red Ventures then?

Your review prompted me to check them out on glassdoor, https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/Red-Ventures-Reviews-E14..., and it doesn't seem too bad. Is glassdoor not a reliable source anymore?

RVSux4• 5 years ago

I don't work there anymore. I left that company for a literal 100% pay raise, their pay sucks that bad. I wouldn't really pay attention to the glassdoor, though the negative reviews are very close to my experience there. Lack of direction and poor management. Their technology honestly sucks. Its an insanely political place where if you don't toe the company line and say everything is peachy, they force you out. Like even pointing out serious weaknesses in applications or the absurdity of a project is seen as being a problem employee.

There aren't very many smart engineers working there honestly. One of the good things there is that they put junior engineers in charge of projects, which lets them grow faster than most places, but the problem is that they put a bunch of junior engineers in charge of projects so there is noone who really understands software engineering and could actually mentor others. Like if a senior engineering resume came to me from RV, I would treat it as a Junior engineer.

So fine place to start your career, terrible place to actually learn how to build good software.

shishy• 5 years ago

I don't think glassdoor was ever reliable. Many of my previous employers would ask employees to write favorable things on there.

briffle• 5 years ago

At a previous employer, every time there was an 'honest' review from someone (something I could confirm happened, and usually recognized who it was), it would quickly be drowned out by 5-10 fake reviews that were somehow placed there by HR and their recruiting team. I'm not sure if they paid people to leave fake ones, or if they used some sort of service.

I have given up on using glassdoor, I put its ratings somewhere between Amazon and Ebay Seller ratings

heavyset_go2• 5 years ago

Is glassdoor not a reliable source anymore?

No, the only signal in their sea of noise are the negative reviews.

soggybutter3• 5 years ago

How long ago did you work at RV? I was there after 2016 and they had some really solid tech and incredibly bright engineers. Sure, there were some ass-hats and politics (show me a company where there isn't), but I'd rank it pretty highly among the companies I've worked for.

randallsquared2• 5 years ago

Not the GP, but I worked there (in SC) in 2015, and agree with you that some of their engineers were pretty great. Some not, but that's the case most places, I imagine.

In any case, I can see why some people would have had a bad reaction to various aspects of the place -- I myself left after only 10 months, repaying my relocation bonus to go work at a healthcare startup.

drstewart4• 5 years ago

This certainly seems like an even keeled and objective review

jtoliver• 5 years ago

I interviewed at RV years ago for a backend position. During the interview I was told they didn't think I was sure if I wanted to work backend, frontend, or devops (I'm pretty sure devops wasn't the popular term back then...just can't remember what it was). They couldn't give me an explanation to why they thought that. Only thing I could think of is the different tech/prev positions I had on my resume. I guess I would of had more luck now since companies like full stack engineers(I don't know if that is still the trend). Also I too left the interview having no clue what they did. Glad I didn't get the position since I've know so many engineers complain about the place. Also I ended up finding a great job and coming up on my 10th year anniversary.

nkotov• 5 years ago

I worked at RV as a Platform Engineer for 20 months before starting my own company and getting into YC. On the culture side, I personally enjoyed it as almost everyone was around the same as me and all were young and hungry to put in more work. On the tech side, there was always a push to get more done in less time. Constantly, there were super tight deadlines which resulted in bad code and then you just move on to the next thing without maintaining it. This would cause a lot of tech debt that was to be addressed, "when we had time". Overall, I still think RV was an awesome place to get started in (especially in the NC/SC area), then go work somewhere else and boomerang back into a more senior position.

cameron_b4• 5 years ago

Yes this,

I heard several times that he "Business reviews" were a mini MBA course, but I think there was more value in watching the way leaders freed engineers to creatively solve a problem, and then reigned them in just across the line of an MVP, to focus on something new. It was very hard for me to understand the objectives at times, but it was clear eventually that there were diminishing returns in allowing the pursuit of engineering goals over business goals.

I learned a lot, even from outside most of the interactions I observed.

Cheers to you and your team Mr Kotov

edwardofclt3• 5 years ago

As someone who left RV and came back, the negativity being spread because we found a niche and can play the game that Google has designed is hilarious.

RV is a great company to work for. Like any organization, there are bad managers. Ultimately RV is what you make of it.

Likewise, to those that post “RV has terrible employee reviews…” pay attention to most of the positions that are posting those bad reviews. Most of them are sales associates who work(ed) in the call center.

I plan to be at RV for at least the next decade because of the opportunity I see afforded to me and the recognition that I am able to receive.

philote• 5 years ago

Just curious, what brought you to HN to create an account and comment on this post?

shapefrog3• 5 years ago

I would also like to welcome the new user to HN and thank them kindly for their first-hand account of the RV life.

drstewart4• 5 years ago

Just curious, why aren't you asking this question to the newly created RvSux account spamming this thread?

edwardofclt3• 5 years ago

I came to this site out of interest to see how people were responding only to find people hiding behind pseudonyms and bashing a company that does a shit ton of amazing tech. I’m half tempted to ask RvSucks what their real name is so I could give them a 360 review instead of hiding behind a keyboard.

It’s just funny to me how much angst some people have because of THEIR bad experience when thousands would say they have a great one.

I hope everyone the best. To each their own. But for me, at least for the foreseeable future, I’ll be at RV - building cool shit and being part of an amazing company.

chuckreynolds• 5 years ago

Could probably talk hours about this... but not here to shit on them at all. I was part of the acquisition of the CNET media group. RV contracted us from VCBS until the end of 2020. I was working with their teams as early as Oct/Nov but technically only "worked" for RV from Jan 1 to the end of June 2021. I know a lot of the writers/editors on our sites that came over in the acquisition were nervous because RV is very affiliate heavy; some got offers, some didn't, some bailed ship. In the short time I was there RV was mostly onboarding our various teams and figuring out who on their side could work best with each site/vertical and looking at current rev streams vs what they could contribute in. With the exception of one or two people, I thought the RV people I worked with were really nice and had good intentions with the sites they acquired. Socially I felt like they were welcoming (yeah, lots of rah ray stuff) and were more in a position to learn from me/us more so than looking to just "lay down the law". That was an initial concern within the VCBS teams but the process felt fine. Again I can only speak to the VCBS sites and our experience. There were internal problems with some of our sites before RV and they inherited some issues that will persist for a while... mentioning that as not all blame can be put on RV for some things, they'll work those out in time. My only real issue with RV is they had some people in rolls that I felt were too technical for them to perform well, which wasn't unknown but slow process to change. They hire from colleges in the SC/NC area a lot and train up to cycle them through the various sites. Nothing wrong with that strategy per-say but it's like the 'ol traditional agency model there; just hire fresh out of college kids and train them how you do things and then just have them continue to do that thing. Also a lot of people there have worked there for a long time... to some that may be a good sign, to others perhaps not; your call.

Many may not know how the affiliate world works but that's the world they're in... not surprising to me but at least with our sites RV was interested in seeing what fit into the current site instead of just selling every possible thing on every possible site; which some of the comments here assume is/will happen, but not really how it was internally. It's a game they're pretty good at playing (as are others) and a more competitive game more and more every day. Just how things are these days. Search for "Best XXXX" anything and you'll see all the sites playing that game... lot more "news" sites the last couple years getting into that game. Also NYT bringing wirecutter into their domain instead of stand-alone. Play ball!

Anyway, I don't have any ill will against RV and from what I experienced they were a pretty good company to work for given my roll and the situation I was in with the acquisition. Others certainly seem to have different experiences and that's fine. Can just speak to my time there only. And sure, I'm down to answer questions if you feel my limited insight could help.

gverrilla• 5 years ago

10 paragraphs with nothing.

Red Ventures has turned very specific advice into very big business

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