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Thursday, December 18, 2008

WooThemes Wordpress Club Premium Wordpress Themes Sale Is Here!! MUST SEE!!

When it comes to developing AFFORDABLE WORDPRESS THEMES, WooThemes Wordpress Theme Club continues to prove itself the undisputed Wordpress Theme Club leader. In fact, I was so stoked about WooThemes Halloween Sale that I took advantage of it then.

But now, WooThemes has done even better...! WooThemes Wordpress Themes Christmas Sale offers a WHOPPING 4-FOR-1 SALE! And I've taken advantage of it NOW, too!


Click the Picture to See for Yourself!

Yea, that's FOUR PREMIUM WORDPRESS THEMES FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!

Read my lips:
*** NO-BRAINER! ***

Click Here to See What 4-for-1 Costs!

I'm not one for threatening "doomsday" or "regret", but let me just say that I have a very, very, strong appreciation for an irresistible deal, and this one is, so clearly, the quintessential "no-brainer" that if, for some reason, you do not TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS NOW, you are certifiably OUT-OF-YOUR-MIND!

Even if you're not ready to start a Wordpress blog today, to have FOUR PREMIUM WORDPRESS THEMES LICENCES FOR THE PRICE OF ONE is that "perfect deal" that so many Wordpress bloggers often dream about.

Let me repeat that one more time: FOUR PREMIUM WORDPRESS THEME LICENSES FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!

CLICK HERE to See These Fresh Wordpress Themes Now!

And Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to All!

Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

What Is Working and What Is Total Bullshit?

You have to understand, if you haven't yet subscribed to my humble little, unprofessionalized, blog, it's your own fault. Here, I dare to say things and ask questions that almost no one else will do for you -- at least not in the way that I do it.

That being said... subscribe.

Today's blog is to ask you two questions,

1. HAVE YOU FOUND ANYTHING THAT REALLY WORKS?

From
  • Ryan Deiss', "Continuity Blueprint";
  • to Alex Syseof's, "Expert Wordpress" ;
  • to the Rhodes Brother's, "Traffic Drill";
  • to whatever Mike Filsaime is selling this week,
  • to Liz Tomey's, "I'm Giving You Everything and Won't Stop Until You Make Money" programs,;
  • to John Delavera's, "Turbo HaHa You're Hooked Now!" memberships...
  • to "I'm Just Copying Everyone Else But With Crappier Products" programs...
what, in your humble experience, has been working for you?

Which leads us to your second question,

2. HAVE YOU FOUND ANYTHING THAT REALLY DOESN'T WORK?

Normally, I won't say anything too disparaging about a marketer and his, or her, product/service/offer. As one (behind the scenes) myself, I completely understand just how difficult it really is to take a product from idea to launch. It ain't easy, folks. But that doesn't excuse anyone from making either false, or hyped up, claims and, as my email box shows, the claims a-still keep a-comin'....

More and more products... more and more services... day after day... week after week...

So, What's the Story Folks?

Are any of you experiencing success? Or, when a person experiences a little bit of success, do they become cult-like, zip their lips, and start blending in with all the other mediocre success stories at the sacred seminars? ...never to be heard from again...

(SERIOUSLY FOLKS, WHERE ARE YOU GONNA GET BLOG POSTS LIKE THIS?)


So, what works? what sucks? what have you got your eyeballs on? who do you think is full of shit? and who do you think should be tarred, feathered and run out of town?

Don't hold back... this is my blog... and this is your moment...

...and you have a right to be heard!

Sam

Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Tuesday, November 04, 2008

What a Bunch of Bull Backlink Contest!

Think like an internet marketer -- as opposed to a mere consumer. The first person to correctly guess HOW I ended up watching the following video wins a month-long backlink from this site and a quick mention in my next post.



Hint: It was NOT for recreational purposes.

Rules: You only get 1 guess. And, at my discretion, I may award multiple prizes if more than one person guesses the same thing. Also, I reserve the right to reject any site I deem offensive, or just plain garbage.

So how might I, in the course of "make money online" type WORK, did I end up viewing that video? Good luck!

Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Saturday, November 01, 2008

Hey Dude, Where's My Fucking Candy?

Halloween is now, officially, over. We do not need to wait for Obama to win the presidency to begin, as good citizens, implementing his wondrous and generous policies. Starting now, you can teach your children all about socialism by dumping out all their Halloween candy on the bed and explaining to them that since there are poor children in the neighborhood, they have no choice but to give them a portion of their candy.

Tell them this is not a choice. You are mandating it. Explain that "sharing" is a good thing so you are forcing it on them for their own good.

Explain to your children that if they have under 10 pieces of candy, they not only get to keep it all, but they'll be the lucky ones to get extra candy from all the kids who walked around many neighborhoods and worked so hard at collecting lots of it. If that applies to your child, you just explain that it's not their fault their little legs couldn't keep up with all those bigger, more fit, children. So, their parents will be forcing them to give some of their candy with you.

If your child has over 10 pieces, but under 50, you explain that they just made it in under the wire and that their mediocre effort will be sufficient enough to prevent them from having to give more than 35% of it away to the kids in the neighborhood who suffered from Xbox addiction and were too obese to walk around the neighborhood collecting candy. This is not a choice, it's a mandate. We don't want our neighbors getting too depressed.

If your child has over 50 pieces, calmly explain that he or she is fucked. Try to use gentler terminology when doing so but, as soon as they see their hard-earned candy heading out the door to some lazy, fat fuck who didn't do a single thing for it, it won't even matter what you're saying. The tears and sobbing will drown you out and not only will they not give a damn crap about how "good" it is to share, but they'll hate the concept for the rest of their lives and they'll resent all the lazy bastards who know that by not lifting a finger, they'll end up with your child's candy.

And, soon enough, your child will become one of them.

Everyone who wants to make money online should be concerned,
Happy Halloween!

Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Free SimplyPLR Article Marketing Strategies from Simply Total Donkeys

It's not often that you get such an AMAZING display of just how desperate people are for a free membership to a PLR article marketing site, but it's happening -- out in the open, in plain view of anyone who can click a mouse.

But, first, I like to think I've grown up a bit, become a tad more compassionate, than the day I first set foot into internet marketing. Back then, I'd chew anyone a new a-hole for everything from "omission marketing" (leaving out just enough info so that they're not lying yet leaving you vulnerable to a hyped-up imagination), to outright deception, to the creation of shoddy, incomplete, crap-o-matic software.

And I feel like I want to do it again...

Oh, frig, why the heck not...

Matt Callen, creator of Instant Popover and HyperVRE, is soon opening a new article marketing site, SimplyPLR. Instant Popover was junk. It was, basically, a gussied up dhtml script anyone could pick up for free at a place like "hotscripts", but with a few minor modifications to it. Essentially, it was a beautiful demonstration of how a nice website and some good ad copy could sell a bucket of crap.

Then he came out with HyperVRE which, full disclosure, I promoted... and sometimes still explore with ever-longing, hopeful curiousity. My first impression of it was that it was, yet again, a gussied up version of Larry Hall's "Traffic Hurricane" which, if any of you "old-timers" remember, originally belonged to Jeremy Burns. Now, maybe it wasn't literally from that script but it certainly strikes me as if it were.

But That's Not the Main Point

The main point is that HyperVRE started off with some promise to it... but no one in the forums ever seemed quite satisfied. Like every product I've ever seen that was SORELY missing something, people would express a muted complaint and then, either the owner or the cheerleaders, would come up with some calming response about how you're not supposed to "get rich overnight"... but, if you do something like throw up 100s of sites that make $1 per day, then, eventually, you'll be a (millionaire, billionaire, gazillionaire, trillionaire, pick one). Ok? Right? Sure...

But you know what's funny? I mean really, really funny but in a really sad way?

No One Ever Quite Says That in the Ad Copy

Who spends 100s or 1000s on ad copy in order to tell the public that they will have to struggle to comprehend what is the perfect Adsense template that won't result in Google blacklisting $1000 worth of domains? But wait.. what if they don't even tell you about the templates but then try to sell some to you later each and every month.
"Wait, you mean my original payment didn't get me everything I needed to make this thing work AWESOME right out of the box and, ultimately, get me free of my 9-to-5 job like you talked about?!"
It's just so sad...

Now, I didn't quote anyone verbatim and I'm not saying exact promises were made. We all know by now that ad copy is so cleverly written as to not actually make any claims but rather to SUGGEST things and then let your mind quietly add in the "I promise..." part, after each claim is made. But that's what happens, things get hyped to high heaven... yet people seem to end up in holy horrors. Enter....

Matt Callen's SimplyPLR

I have no idea what's going to end up crammed into it. Maybe it'll be an incredible bonanza, but judging by Instant Junkover and HypedUpVRE, one can only pray that things will be different this time. But, gauging by how things are starting out, one must pray...

...and pray hard, indeed.

You see, Matt just made a blog post offering people a chance to WIN FREE LIFETIME MEMBERSHIPS TO SIMPLYPLR. All they have to do is post a blog comment as to how they would use the PLR to get the greatest amount of traffic in the shortest amount of time. Or, let's say (tongue-in-cheek), "just water down your most cherished, guarded PLR article marketing secrets by laying them out in the comment section for everyone to see..." -- best ones win.

Is It Just Me Who Finds This Both Offensive
and Just Plain Weird?

In essence, it's saying,
"Tell EVERYONE your most cherished method of using PLR to get loads of traffic and money and then we'll give you lifetime access to the VERY SAME PLR they'll all be using with YOUR method."
I mean, give me a break...!

Yet People are Flocking to It Like Hungry Lambs on Speed!

But let's reason this out for a second (oh, btw, it's what we do here). If any of those people knew how to market articles, or had the ambition to, they wouldn't need a FREE LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP TO SIMPLY PLR. In fact, they wouldn't even need a free ONE MONTH membership to SimplyPLR.

Listen, save yourself the agony, I know of a PLR membership site that is,
  1. LOADED TO THE MAX WITH PLR,
  2. COMPLETE w/SEO SITE BUILDING SOFTWARE,
  3. PROVIDE PRIMARY KEYWORD LISTS,
  4. PROVIDE SECONDARY KEYWORD LISTS (long tail),
  5. INCLUDE FOLLOW-UP AUTORESPONDER ECOURSE, AND
  6. INCLUDE AFFILIATE PRODUCT RESEARCH, and have so much more...
...without any hype!

And provides a HUGE value without you having to give away all your most closely guarded secrets to your competition.

Look, this PLR article marketing site even has
Continuity Blueprint's, Ryan Deiss', name on it

What more do you need to know than that? But wait...

Before you head over to the BEST content goldmine, article marketing, PLR site with all the training a person could ever need, I want you to do one thing first...

Head on over to Matt Callen's "SimplyPLR" blog NOW, before it's too late, and copy/paste ALL the text from the comments section into a text file to save on your hard drive. They contain everybody's article marketing strategies which are pretty detailed. No doubt, you will find some nuggets of wisdom within...

Then CLICK HERE and get your
REAL PLR content and article marketing training...

Oh yeah, what do you think about people giving away their strategies for free? Is that good for business?

Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Sam Freedom to Twitter - We Have a Problem Here...!

twitter,social mediaI discovered a problem with Twitter a while ago. I just figured that it either wouldn't affect most people, or that it was too minor for anyone to care. Add to that, Twitter's "bug reporting" doesn't seem too readily available or easy to use.

This Problem with Twitter is as Follows:

Somehow, some way, Twitter is capping the number of followers who will appear in your DIRECT MESSAGE dropdown menu.

Normally, you would reply to a direct message by clicking on its envelope icon. But, as some of you know by now, you sometimes get a message saying,
"(So and so) must be following you in order for you to send them direct messages."
But, you're absolutely certain they ARE following you! Even the "D NAME msg" attempt yields the same result. The only workaround is to visit that individual's Twitter homepage and click on their "message" link.

Why Does This Happen? And Why Does It Matter to Me?

It probably happens due to scalability concerns. In other words, it would probably be a logistical, and resource, nightmare for Twitter to populate everyone's "direct message" dropdown box with every single one of their followers. Some people have 1000s of followers and if you multiply that times all the Twitterers a-twittering, it could be staggering.

Instead of populating the dropdown boxes with all those names, they just trust you'll have the ingenuity to find your way over to that person's homepage "message" link. Inconvenient? Yes. End of story? Probably...

So Why Does This REALLY Matter to Me?

Well, right now, this Twitter problem is nothing more than a mere inconvenience; although, across the broader spectrum, it will, initially, leave a lot of people scratching their heads. But the real problem is the potential for all kinds of "unintended consequences."

Take, for example...

tweetlater,twitter,social mediaMany Twitter users now appreciate the value of Tweetlater. It gives them the opportunity to do things like "autofollow" and send "welcome messages" to new followers. It gives the option to send a welcome message privately. Twitterers use this option for several reasons:
  1. They don't want to seem obnoxious sending multiple public auto-tweet welcomes;
  2. It gives some of the more ambitious users an added way of directly inviting new followers to their blogs and sites;
So, one can be under the impression that all the new followers are getting private welcome messages but if the cap on the "direct message dropdown" box has been reached, are they getting those messages?

Currently, the answer is yes. Maybe, and this only a guess, because Tweetlater sends the private message via the "message link from the follower's homepage" pathway and not the "D Name msg" pathway from our private message area. But, that is only a guess.

In Conclusion

In conclusion, as stated before, the inability to tweet direct messages to new Twitter users past a certain, unknown, amount, seems, currently, to be nothing more than a minor nuisance. But as more and more 3rd party applications, and all their clever users, come into play, what "unintended consequences" might there be?

For the average person, perhaps none other than a chronic case of mild confusion. But, to the business owners, corporations, political candidates, conglomerates, and, so on (e.g. CNN, Barack Obama, McCain, etc), it could result in serious loss of potential.

Take a look at this list of 3rd party Twitter applications and see if you can envision any problems this "minor inconvenience" potentially presents.

Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Thursday, October 23, 2008

Find Free Stuff on Twitter!

All kinds of Free Stuff on Twitter can be had if'n ya just know how to locate it. These 12 links will help give you a good start (all links open in a new window):
  1. Free SEO on Twitter
  2. Free Stuff on Twitter
  3. Free Info on Twitter
  4. Free Tips on Twitter
  5. Free Hosting on Twitter
  6. Free Software on Twitter
  7. Free Download on Twitter
  8. Free Advice on Twitter
  9. Free Report on Twitter
  10. Free Sample on Twitter
  11. Free Bonus on Twitter
  12. Free Guide on Twitter
  13. Bonus Mystery Search!


If you think this would be a fun, interesting starter list for friends, a dig, stumble, sphinn or tweet would be genuinely appreciated. Thanks!

Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Monday, October 20, 2008

Flood Yourself with Website Traffic in Record Time with Traffic Drill

In all the history of internet marketing, the fastest way to flood your websites with fresh, new laser-targeted traffic has been the joint venture. But as the honeymoon wears off, the average, struggling, work-at-home wannabe soon realizes that none of the big dogs are going to be helping them out any time soon. But that's just changed... and, in a big way:

The Rhodes brothers have just opened the doors to their new venture, Traffic Drill (opens in a new window), where they not only share a lot of their genuinely secret, little-known methods for generating 100s of new, valid, search-engine lovin' backlinks in the blink of an eye, but they also provide a venue where marketers of all skill levels come, specifically, to help one another out -- whether that be with cutting edge information, a joint venture, or any of a number of creative solutions, it's in there -- and they're doin' it RIGHT NOW!

If you can be honest and admit that you're in serious need of a boost to your online business, then you really need to check out Traffic Drill right now!

Sam
ps. By the way, I have PERSONALLY watched some of the Rhodes brothers' videos already and even the very first one showed me how to increase website traffic to my sites IMMEDIATELY.

pps. Wait, one more thing, the Rhodes brothers are actually accessible and helping out members with tips for which most guru "big dogs" overcharge...


Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Saturday, October 18, 2008

Frumplegoozrumpl - A Twitter Love Story by Sam Freedom


Frumplegoozrumpl - just another crazy word.... or is it? After all, a few quick searches for "Frumplegoozrumpl", on the major search engines, yield the following results:


Not very impressive, is it? So, what's the point? Well, I'm always searching for new and interesting (read unorthodox, unexpected, unintended and, sometimes, unpopular) ways of taking the "road less traveled, and Twitter, with a little, "Frumplegoozrumpl", is just another one of those new and interesting things.

Actually, Frumplegoozrumpl is just a secret code word, and this whole post and all it's tweeting about Twitter is just a secret message for my growing cadre of disciples.

Can you figure it out?

Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Monday, October 13, 2008

6 Likely Causes for the Long, Slow, Predictable Death of Sphinn

sphinn,internet marketing,seo,news
I took a spin around Sphinn for the first time in, like, 6 months just to sphinn what I thought was a worthy article ("13 Wordpress plugins you don't use but probably should") and just to see what was kickin and I wasn't surprised at what I found:

Sphinn's Alexa ranking had plummeted from a fairly decent 15,000 in October, 2007 into a virtual abyss of 190,383 just a year later. Here, I've enumerated 6 possible causes for this corkscrew nosedive:
  1. Cliques - the oh-so-typical clique nonsense was tolerated from the outset. It's a hard bone for any community-based site to resist chomping on because these cliques provide an initial boost; but, inevitably, it's a bane to the kind of diversity that causes communities to flourish. Such cliques really just allow otherwise quirky people a (false) sense of refuge from the harsh realities of life -- at the expense of the community they parasite.
  2. Inbreeding - As per the above, these cliquers, intentionally or not, breed only with one another which, eventually, leads to distortion. See my piece of satire (which is actually serious), titled, "Controversy at the Semmys - A Scene Out of Deliverance" (opens in a new window).

    seo news,marketing,sphinn

    Essentially, the SAMMYs are almost the exact same as "the SEMMYs" except each category includes one of MY articles that should have belonged in there in the first place. As I'd told Matt McGee, if a certain percentage of fresh, new faces from OUTSIDE the community were included, it might have the effect of enriching the community as opposed to, once again, publicizing all the same old names we see day-in and day-out in the Sphinn Zone..."
  3. Insincere Sphinns - I've seen some of the absolute crappiest, non-nutritive articles sphunn through the roof for bunk reasons that should have been obvious to everyone (e.g. certain lustful males continually sphinning their favorite females, and vice-a-versa). Also, people often Sphinn up their friends without even reading what was Sphunn for reasons that have nothing to do with integrity or building an inclusive, quality-based community. But is it REALLY about community building anyways? See next point...
  4. Lack of Allegiance - Don't ever kid yourself. As the saying goes, "There's no honor amongst thieves." People initially approach such services as Sphinn to increase their rankings. So what if there's that core group of cliquester geeks who try to turn their latest fascination into their own virtual water cooler -- no matter how charming a few individuals, and the surroundings, might be, the majority of people are just interested increasing their rankings. So, if the cliquishness, and inbreeding, are too fierce, a lot of otherwise good writers, with plenty to contribute, are going to find it a turn-off and move to greener pastures. And, not realizing they're part of the problem, the cliquesters and inbreeders will, eventually, follow suit and ditch their once-cherished "virtual coffee shop."
  5. Hypocrisy - This could fall under insincere Sphinns, but insincere sphinning is just a component of this... which is far more sinister. Whilst the core geeksters of the Sphinn community openly frown upon such things as anyone forming "Sphinn Brigades" (coalitions of users who game the system by agreeing to mutual support regardless of content), they participate in their own "quietly accepted" version of it. If the insincere Sphinns aren't bad enough, it's the frowning upon those who openly engage in similar behavior due to it being their only (perceived) means of competing with such hypocritical, entrenched, parasitic, inbreeding cliques.
  6. Pissing Off Good Power Users - When good, solid users, like Andy Beard, whom I consider virtually "beyond reproach" in character; both friendly, and inclusive; and who actively contributed quality material to the Sphinn community, take off, then not only is something really wrong, but also lot of others are going to follow him out of respect. To my surprise, while writing this post, I found that Andy had left Sphinn behind 10 months ago with his post, "Sphinn All UnSphunn."

    "Having evaluated Sphinn over the last 6 months, I have come to the conclusion that Sphinn is not my target audience. In many ways it is an "unfriendly environment" for many of my target audience, thus encouraging my readers to use Sphinn isn't proactive.

    The bias is there in the moderation, quite possibly because the bias is there within the users, and moderators take action based at least partially on user requests."

Maybe some of you pseudo-elite Sphinners can feign objectivity and try to explain to me how, or why, I'm simply mistaken. But, for now, I, too, am removing the Sphinn button -- not out of a sense of spite, and not that it will affect Sphinn at all, but because I just see no value in it anymore.

Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Monday, October 06, 2008

Idiot Report - StumbleUpon vs. ImpNerd - Who's to Blame?

Call me sick but as long as no one's really getting hurt, I just love a good drama. And, please, don't even dare to tell me that you don't, too...!

So, in one corner, weighing in at 38lbs soaking wet, we have ImpNerd, a blogger who really lives up to his moniker. Just recently, he found that not only was his StumbleUpon account frozen but also the accounts of all those he invited to join him in a StumbleUpon Love-In, or, as some might also call it, "StumbleLove" - not for mutual Stumble exchanges but, as he insists,
"A love-in is to create a 'group' of like minded people. Even StumbleUpon has groups in their forums which they actively promote."
It all seems to have started here in his (now updated) post, "Entrecard Community StumbleUpon Love-In".

In the other corner, we have StumbleUpon, "a Web 1.0 multinational conglomerate" as one person joked, which, though it has many fine and friendly users, is known for also having a very sick, and demented, core of social media whores, aka Stumble Trolls, who take both themselves, and their "stumbling" very seriously -- in fact, a little TOO seriously: "Justice Reigns - Stumble Troll Banned by SU."

Because StumbleUpon fears that Stumble Love-Ins have the potential to water down the Stumble community with mutual stumble exchanges of potentially useless crap, StumbleUpon frowns upon it. In fact, forbids it. YET, as ImpNerd argues, Problogger, owned by renowned blogger Darren Rowse, has a Stumble group of about 300+...and wonders, should they not suffer the same fate as he and his tiny little attempt at a 3rd-party Stumble group?
"I wonder why exactly they targeted my blog. A far better way to go would be to target Probloggers list of 300+ SU members or the many others who have hundreds."
So, my question to the reader is, "Is this a case of ImpNerd, and similar, getting what they deserved because 'ignorance of the rules is no excuse and/or they should have taken greater care to check the TOS first' or 'Is StumbleUpon being a typical entity that has grown so big that it hasn't the resources to deal with the public in a more intelligent and considerate manner than snap-banning someone and just firing off an irritating, irrelevant form letter explaining TOS?"

Keep in mind, as Chris Brogan, a social media celebrity likes to insist upon, "... it's all about the conversation." Well, did StumbleUpon give ImpNerd the opportunity to have that conversation?

It seems not. But, lo and behold... The Great Flagship Entrecard did! You can see the whole thing unfolding at that link.

ps. Here's another article on the matter.

Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Friday, October 03, 2008

Consolidating Multiple Google Gmail Accounts for Greater Power and Efficiency

Anyone who knows of, and uses, Google's Gmail, has more than likely created multiple gmail accounts. Why? Because they're easy to use, easy to keep organized, and, best of all, they're FREE. Eventually, however, some of us end up with a disease best referred to as "GMAILITIS" - inflammation of our Google Gmail experience.

Personally, I have about 10 Gmail accounts. That really isn't that much but, still, keeping track of all of them (and remembering to check in) really does get out of control. So, here's what I've done to simplify EVERYTHING so that I can control them all from ONE Gmail account.
  1. Create a Gmail catchall account. Name it anything you want but it's probably best if you include some reference to "catchall" or "total" or anything relevant to its purpose in the name (do not worry, the account name will never be used in replies.)
  2. Set Each Gmail Acct to Forward to the New Catchall. Simple enough. In each Gmail accounts settings, click the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab and the first section allows you to set your forwarding details. It's up to you whether or not you want to leave a copy of the forwarded email in the original Gmail acct. Personally, I don't and I'll show you why in a second.
  3. Create a Filter & Label for Each Gmail Acct In Your Catchall Account. In your new catchall account, find the link that says "create filter" and, in "filter creation" mode, fill the "TO" section with the email address of one of your forwarding Gmail accounts. After clicking "NEXT STEP", you'll have the option of creating and assigning a "LABEL" to the forwarded emails you'll be filtering. In each case, you should probably name the filter something that would remind you of the place from which it came. So, if, for example, you are receiving an email forwarded from abc123@gmail.com, you'll probably want to assign the label abc123 to it.
  4. Create a Reply-to for Each Forwarded Acct In Your New Catchall Account. After you have all your gmail accts forwarding to your new catchall account -- and, after you have a filter set to label each incoming email forwarded to your new catchall, you'll want to create a "reply-to" for each gmail acct so that if you want to reply to any of the forwarded emails, you can do so with the "reply-to" address of the corresponding gmail account. So, when you reply to forwarded email abc123@gmail.com, you can reply AS IF you are writing FROM abc123@gmail.com even though you are writing from within the catchall account. This option is set by clicking the "Account" tab in Gmail settings and following the "reply-to" instructions.
If this doesn't make sense, then comment below with any questions you might have. But if it does make sense, then you've got one pretty powerful setup for widespread communication requiring multiple Gmail accounts.

Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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3 Cool Startups at the Babson Forum for Entrepreneurs

Ok, I can't say I was terribly impressed with what I saw from 6p-9p at the Babson Forum for Entrepreneurs. But I was slightly impressed by a couple things, three to be exact.

The first was Canditto.com, the winner of the Business Plan contest, who received $30k for an event-centric, digital media kiosk.



It allowed everyone taking digital photographs at an event (wedding, anniversary, birthday, etc), to upload their digital media to a photograph storage website while AT the event and you will receive all the pictures on memory stick or CD before the night is over. It solves the problem of having friends and family taking great pictures that one might, otherwise, never see. This way, people can get their pictures to one main site immediately rather than bring them home to lazily fumble with them or forget about them. Impressed mostly by the simplicity and ease-of-use in solving a very common problem.

The second was a company called IdeaBlob.com.



I'll let "them" explain what it is they do but in a nutshell, you give away one of those dusty, unfulfilled, genius ideas you've been carrying around in your head for far too long in exchange for both a chance to win $10,000 towards fulfilling it and to get advice from IdeaBlob community members:

ideablob.com is where entrepreneurs and small business owners can share and grow their business ideas – and have a chance to win $10,000 towards fulfilling them.

Great ideas are generated every day by people all across the country, and now these ideas have a place to live and grow. Eligible individuals can submit their business idea to ideablob.com, and based on votes from the ideablob.com online community – which includes other innovators as well as friends, family, colleagues, associates, teachers and mentors – one idea every month will win $10,000.

Personally, I just have a problem with giving my ideas away like that. It reeks of desperation, however, for some people, that's all they have... and, some people are going to win, so choose wisely. Don't give away your golden idea if you really feel you have a shot of making it happen without telling the world first.

The third startup was Flameup.com, which holds a special place in my heart:

flameup.com, flameup, rants,free speech

At first glance, it APPEARS to be "just another site trying to do the Digg thing" but, in actuality, it's a site that invites you to speak your mind about pretty much anything without fear of censorship -- it just use a Digg like voting system which is perfectly fine. To be clear, Flameup.com doesn't allow disgustingly, blatant nonsense such as racism and hate speech, but if you want to bitch or even get into a flame war with someone, your chance of being censored are slim to none -- which, all free speech advocates know leads to some of the best, heated, passionate, interesting exchanges to be found anywhere.

Have something crazy to say and hate it when lesser beings censor you? Then FlameUp!

Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Thursday, October 02, 2008

Expert Wordpress by Alex Sysoef Rocks the Blogging for Money Community!

Question...

Do you have 4 minutes to install a fully customized and Web 2.0 enabled WordPress blog? And it even comes with a professional, search engine optimized Niche theme.

Just watch this video to see what I mean...

Blogs are the most direct way to communicate to your customer. And they are also most favored by search engines. In fact it is not uncommon for a properly optimized blog post to appear in search engine results on front page within MINUTES after publishing!

The key is... "properly optimized"!

Blogs are one of the best ways to earn from sharing what you know and love and do it in the most natural way - by communicating to your target audience. But first you need to know your target audience and how to monetize your blog without annoying them.

A task 90% of bloggers fails at miserably! Are you one of the 10%? Did you say no or not sure?

Than you simply got to see this site

What perhaps is even better - you don't have to pawn off your car to get the benefits of all above. Alex and his partner Dmitriy have just released a package that completely changes how blogging is done from now on. And since they are nearly giving it away, response was dramatic.

They're increasing the price every 50 customers so go see this now before it goes up again...!

Click Here to See Expert Wordpress

To your success,
Sam

Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Friday, June 27, 2008

Elephantiasis Outbreak Strikes the Entrecard Blogger Community!

The Entrecard blogging community has suffered it's first ever epidemic of Elephantiasis. For those of you who yet have no clue, elephantiasis is a disease where you grow some REALLY big balls.

Yes, the picture to the left is a ball - a testicle ball. And an abnormal amount of Entrecarders have grown them to such an abnormal size that it actually caused "The Good Ship Entrecard" to list to one side.

Make no bones about it, a good set of balls is both healthy and integral to the functioning of life. But once they grow past a certain size, they become weighty - no longer perfectly suspended and floating freely - and just plain cumbersome on what should otherwise be an idyllic march towards progress.

So, to their credit, these ballsy Entrecarders, loaded their weighty vesicles into weighty vessels and set sail for "groaner" pastures. After a tempestuous journey across deep and pensive internet seas, they found safe harbor in the VERY shallow waters of the Superficial Gallery...

Entrecard Superficial Gallery(don't get your hopes up - it lives up to its name)

If you want to visit this leper-style colony, it is advised that you possess an advanced understanding of infectious diseases and do so at your own risk.

However, if you just can't get your fill of elephantiasized Entrebabies, you can find a milder, slightly witty and much safer reportage from the nearby island of...

Entrecard blog firestorm
Entrecard has been stablized and is now steadily recovering.

Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Sunday, June 22, 2008

Make Money Online - Should You Take Weekends Off?

Look, it's no secret to experienced site owners that there comes a sharp drop in website traffic from late Friday evening to sometime Monday morning. Sure, sure... you're off spending time with your loved ones; or, perhaps, you are deep in prayer all weekend, meditating on gratitude and world peace. Maybe you take a limo to the Poconos, or fly your private jet to Macau for some high stakes poker... or maybe you take your million dollar yacht to Belize.


It's more likely that you stay in, walk around in your underwear scratching your nether regions and eating pints of Ben & Jerry ice cream. Maybe you mow the lawn, or take the kids to the mall, or lie out on the porch after a night of sucking down 30 margaritas. Whatever... just fill in the blank.

But what's clear, is that a HUGE majority of you don't surf the web, or visit your favorite informative websites or blogs and that leads me to believe that you're not serious about making money online. Notice I didn't say, "that leads me to believe you don't THINK you're serious about making money online" for, obviously, you believe you are.

Ok, if your religion orders you to take a weekend day off each week, fine, but both? And, just how long does it take to check on your favorite sites? How long does it take to quickly peruse sites/blogs that have been most helpful to you? What if you logged on Saturday morning for 30 minutes and read your favorite blogs? You'd have the rest of Saturday and Sunday for your mind to consider the new possibilities of any good advice given you?

Do you understand? Just because you are given a day off doesn't mean you have to take it. But it doesn't mean you have to bust your tail that whole day either. Seeing as no site exists in a vacuum, we know that most of the time we sit down to surf the web, a simple 30 minute excursion can easily turn into a 3-5 hour journey so, naturally, many of us would be hesitant to do any surfing on weekends.... even if it were just to take 30-45 minutes to skim through our favorite blogs.

Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Do, Monkey See...


So, you set yourself into a pattern whereby you are missing some golden nuggets of information just because you grew up in a society that takes a weekend vacation. And if you continue to BE like the masses, you will continue to LIVE like the masses, always thinking it is "something else" that is keeping you from living your dreams.

Or, if you're just oh-so-brilliant and think you're really on top of the game, perhaps you'll excuse your weekends-off by explaining how you have things set up so neatly that you definitely make sure you'll receive all the excellent weekend nuggets on Monday.... AS IF there's absolutely no cost, or downside, to cramming 3 days worth of information into 1 day's worth of attention.

Look closely, even though I KNOW the vast majority of the work-at-home-wannabe masses don't show up on weekends, I still posted on both weekend days anyways. Why? For one, because the masses don't. For two, because there ARE some people who don't see weekends as a time to completely turn their brains off. And for three, because it keeps me in shape.

So, What About You?

What do you do with your weekends? How much of your weekend is still devoted to your ongoing financial/online marketing/blogging education and how much do you give to the devil?


Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Saturday, June 21, 2008

I've Done You a Great Favor These Past 2 Months (poll)

When I tell you what it is, it might not seem like much of a favor, but it really is... it's one of those favors that generally isn't appreciated right away but somewhere down the road, after reality further imposes itself on your fantastic hallucinations, some of you will sit down on that quintessential "big rock" and, with head in your hands, say something remotely like,

"Hey, that guy really understood me."

Or maybe you won't... but some of you definitely will. So, what is that great favor?

I've Kept Silent

I've told you before that just about everything the "Probloggers" tell you was sound advice... THREE YEARS AGO. They used that information to build big followings and because they have big followings, newcomers think they MUST be an authority on what they're talking about. But what they're generally doing is milking the masses, getting whomever will listen to buy their latest, greatest reconstitution and repackaging of old information....

...or, in the very least, get you to click on an ad.

Speak Not, Unless You Can Improve Upon the Silence
(Which Is a Very Difficult Thing to Do...)

So, I noted the situation and took the appropriate course of action: I let you be for a while. Are there not enough "authorities" trying to tell you what works or doesn't work? Are you wealthy yet? Or maybe you really don't even care because your motivation is something like "the wish to belong" rather than "the wish to profit."

Such People Are Referred to As...

"Program Junkies"

So what are you: a marketing blogger, a blogging marketer, or a PROGRAM JUNKIE?

And, most importantly, what have you REALLY learned today about increasing your profit/influence? Or even this week? Or how about this month?

Or Are You Just LONELY and Living Vicariously
Through Others Who DO Make Money Online?


Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

The Entrecard Whiners Circle & Fair Weather Entrecarders

Holy Crapamoley, Entreman! Have you seen what they've done to Entrecard? They've actually taken a huge leap forward in making it a VIABLE economy. Entrecard has recently just made the leap from Marxism to Capitalism. And I can't wait to see how it goes...!

However, there's been a lot of bitchin' and whinin' lately... and from the usual suspects.

But It Wasn't ALWAYS Like That...

You see, in the beginning, as it is with most things, Entrecarders were all on the big ol' honeymoon. It was like every night was sitting around a big campfire or a ski lodge with Saphrym trying valiantly to get his bodyfat numbers down and his testosterone numbers up and the siren-like EvilWoobie quietly and cleverly becoming every lonely man's Asian dreamgirl. BigPap was blinding everyone with his Big shiny bald head and I was busy trying to find the community's pain threshold.

We Were Ignorant. And It Was Bliss.

We'd start recognizing some of the ads belonging to the real hardcore go-getters like that red cake box with the white bowtie on it that looked just so damn you good you wanted to suck it right off your screen. Then there was that simple unassuming black and white Entrecard of a turnip, so bland and unnoticed in real life, that it, ironically, invaded our minds. We all got to know the Easter Islandesque stone statue of a man that, without a doubt, caused every first-time viewer to ask aloud, "Dude, wtf?" - I was almost sure it was never gonna make it. But it has, and how!

The price of a barrel of oil was still under a hundred dollars. Graham and Phirate made themselves unusually available. Everyone was pretty content to lay in the tall grass like a lion on the prowl just to POUNCE on the EntreNoobs at 2EC to advertise. And our biggest problem was something like the now laughable....

"AD REJECTED - COLOR SCHEME DOESN'T MATCH."

We Entre-laughed. We Entre-cried. And we Entre-visited each others blogs... at first, like a little rascally coyote, we were just trying to grab a credit chicken from the credit coop and run away to do it all over again somewhere else. But then something weird started to happen. We started to fall in love. Ok, we started to fall in love as much as bloggers can.

There was, has been, and continues to be so much quality, new interaction due to Entrecard that, if one were to really take a bird's eye view of the whole thing, it would truly be staggering.

Take, for example, the supreme irony of the following article at Optempo,

"Why I Removed Entrecard"

... who includes the following reactions to Entrecard's EC valuation changes:

  1. Surf the Mind: Thinking Through the Entrecard Changes
  2. MoneyBites: EntreBashing: The New Pricing System
  3. Michaels’ So-Called Life: EntreCard: The New Supply & Demand System
  4. EntreCard Blog: Myths about the new pricing
  5. The University Kid: WTF Is With Entrecard?
  6. Quick Online Tips: Entrecard Changes Pricing Algorithm: Card Dropping Game Stops
  7. Tha Slayer: The new Entrecard Credit system

The supreme irony lay in the rhetorical question, "Just how did OpTempo get learn of these 7 other bloggers?" and why would these 8 bloggers spend their valuable time, energy and blogspace writing about Entrecard if they didn't have a significant audience of ENTRECARDERS to care about it?

"Out With the Old, In With the New"

or...

"The Strong Will Live and the Weak Will Die"

I would say, in general, the same people who complained about the credit valuation system way back when are the same people who are complaining about the credit valuation now. In fact, some of these complainers were supposedly going to retire, but like Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler or "Manos de Piedra", Roberto Duran, they just couldn't resist the allure of "the comeback", of giving the thing that attracted them in the first place just one... more.... chance.

So, how would you like it if you were a young 20-something year old entrepreneur and every time you made a significant change in hopes of bettering things for everyone, a small faction of fair weather users would splinter off and start screaming bloody murder? Or what if, also at that young age, you had demonstrated your intellect and know-how by bringing such a venture this far only to have people threatening to instantly jump ship whenever something was too brilliant for them to comprehend? Or what if every time you tried to outmaneuver the inevitable gaming of the system, various peoples starting predicting the date of your demise?

It wouldn't be much fun, would it? Unless, of course, you had an unshakeable confidence in yourself and in what you were doing. Then, eventually, as you stayed the course, you would attract to you all those who DID possess the intellect and understanding to comprehend the vision and the direction in which you were taking things. But just imagine what all that would be like - and you might begin to understand why you are just a blogger making less than a couple hundred dollars per month and not an entrepreneur losing, or borrowing, a couple thousand per month, so as to allow for the extraordinary to come true.

Graham, Slam, Thank You, Ma'am!

While so many fly-by-night entrepreneurs and work-from-home wanna-be's pop up on the radar only to disappear a short time later, Graham has stayed the course. That doesn't mean Entrecard will definitely succeed or become a household name but it DOES mean that Graham has already outperformed the majority of those who ever dared enter his field. For example, out of the thousands of people who've joined Entrecard, or tried their hand at online marketing, how many of them have been invited to display their innovations at web innovator's gatherings? Or anywhere for that matter...?

In Conclusion

For all you naysayers out there, please, for the love of G-d, shut your traps and give "the kid" a chance. If all you can do is bitch about "bounce rates" or the bumpy beginnings of an effort to forge a REAL, VIABLE Entrecard economy, then you'll never make it online until you get that focus problem sorted out. Because YOU are focusing on what you DON'T have, while I, and others, are focusing on is what we DO have.... and are trying to show a little gratitude for it.

And if your bounce rates are high maybe it's because your site isn't sticky enough.

But that would require taking a new level of responsibility. And why do that when it's so much easier to blame a 20-something Entrepreneur and his flagship, Entrecard for not making you an overnight success?

Taking strong early actions like posting in the forums can really make a difference over the long haul.  Once again, I refer people here:  Click Here to Get the Most Out of Entrecard

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Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Why It Is Important to Be Thorough

First watch this video.... then read the comments (don't cheat, really watch the video first).

And, if by then you still don't understand why it is absolutely important to be thorough in all that you do, quickly close your operations and join a safer profession - like cotton candy technician.

Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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Sunday, March 23, 2008

Welcome Home from Rehab, Uncle Billy - An Internet Marketing Easter

Well, the Easter season is upon us again. Whether you're an internet marketer, a marketing blogger, or just someone who likes to sleep with them, you couldn't help but notice that your site was even deader than the usual deadness of this good ol' day of rest. And unless you've been chillin' in a cave with Bin Laden, or in a country where the mail comes once a month by donkey, you also couldn't help but notice that chocolate bunnies, marshmallow peeps and candy eggs got way more attention than any of the banal, standard crap that you've been regularly serving up on your website. In fact, the only sites that either maintained or increased their Alexa rankings were sponsored by Al-Qaida supporters with their "my prophet can beat up your messiah" taunts, Godiva Chocolates Easter Selection, or about Barack Obama...

Whoops, Politics...

Well, Fortunately, Monday Will Come.

Even though we cherish our respective saviors and worship our chocolate idols, we still wait with hunger for that Monday morning rock to roll away and our website to be resurrected - Easter candy aisles at Walgreens and Walmarts all across the country will either be wiped clean or in a state of serious disrepair, Uncle Billy will come home from rehab, the Pope will declare war on radical Islam, Bin Laden will throw in the towel in exchange for a beach house in Malibu, Obama and Hillary will make up and make out, and somehow... some way... everything's gonna turn out just fine...

Whoops, Sex...

Here's a few more videos to amuse you. In exchange, tell me, whether you celebrate it or not, what do you do Easter weekend, with whom, and where and why? And what happened to your website traffic? And your chocolate bunnies?

Whoops, Religion...

(the other 4 parts can be found at this video's YouTube page.)

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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Trying to Make Money Online? Better Get Movin!

By now, everyone in the U.S. knows of Ron Paul.  Some think he's a bit kooky while a considerable amount see him as a fresh, honest breeze in an otherwise outdated, insincere, dishonest and clueless political system where despite each major party's inability to get along, they cannot live without each other.  As a result, it seems like nothing really gets done, no one really trusts anyone and there's a general sense of "just what the hell is going on?"

Lacking clarity, we run towards the side which more closely represents out lifestyle and adopt their talking points as a weapon, of sorts, in a war against "each other" when the real enemy is whatever zealous pursuits have both put us, and kept us, in the dark.

That Being Said...

If You Haven't Made Your Big Payday Yet...
You'd Better Get Movin'...!!!

How do you feel about all this "make money online" stuff now?

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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Scientology and The Secret - Perils On the Way to Your First $100 Month

While many people are busy just trying to make their first measly $100/month online, there are all these crazy mind-control shenanigans going on all over the place but from a much higher scale. That's right, you've got dreams of making beaucoup bucks online, whooping it up with your friends, vindicating yourself from all the naysayers who insist you are wasting your time, and you're gonna make it big time.... if only these cults, and secret government agencies would stop fighting each other for control of your mind and let you make money online in peace!


It heats up pretty good around the 2:10 mark

I forget how many times people said "great things will come to pass", and didn't. I forget how many times the world was supposed to end, and it didn't. I forget how many times someone said they were gonna kick someone's ass, and they didn't. And I forget how many times someone promised to do something helpful, and they didn't.

So Many Disappointments; So Little Time.

Well, apparently, Scientology was scheduled to come to an end on February 10th, 2008; but, if you're prone to splitting hairs or were, say, a cult leader trying to re-define a prophecy that never came to pass, you might say that Scientology was supposed to "BEGIN" to come to an end on February 10th, 2008. And, from there, you could cite a whole bunch of unverifiable occurrences that, to feeble minds, could suggest the beginning of ANYTHING, really.

Hey, Maybe Barack Obama Will Correct All That?
Can I Get a "Yes We Can!"?

YES WE CAN!

Yes, maybe Barack Obama will slay Scientology. Maybe Barack will dismantle "Anonymous" and maybe, just maybe, Barack Obama will expose all the secret government agencies who are behind "Loose Change's 9/11 Conspiracy" and we can all get back to making our first $100 per month, right? Or maybe not.

WAIT! How About "THE SECRET"?!?!

Surely "The Secret" will attract to us untold wealth... right? If we only just belieeeeeeeeve!!!

/

Maybe Internet Marketing's Hypnotic Marketing Guru, "Doctor" Joe Vitale, who has bragged about manipulating people with "hypnotic ad copy" techniques and is featured in "The Secret" movie, can help you?

Darn, This Woman Is Pretty Sure He Really Can't
This Guy Is Awfully Sure He Can't Either....

"The reason for featuring Vitale, Gray, Demartini and other successful self-help gurus in The Secret is, obviously, to convince watchers that these people became successful because they learned how to use the law of attraction in their favor. Never mind the years of trial and error, hard work and dumb luck, that got them to where they are now. Steve Salerno, author of the book SHAM: How The Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless, wrote in his review of The Secret on Amazon: “One seldom encounters a better/worse example of the logical fallacy known as a posteriori reasoning. To take a successful person, look backwards at the attitudes they held on the way to becoming successful, then use those as proof-positive of WHY they’re successful, is as fundamentally silly as using the fact that Bill Gates and Ted Turner were college dropouts as justification for why you or your kids should drop out of college, too. (‘See? You’ll become a millionaire, just like they did!’).”" ~The Wrath of the Secretrons!

Let Mark Day Set You Straight...

And If None of That Cheers You Up,
Take Solace In the Fact That Aliens
Are Finally Fed Up With Scientology...!

Alright, people, it's safe now. You're all safe. You can get back to making your first $100 month now... no Aliens, no Secrets, and no Anonymous are going to stop you. We have Barack Obama's reassurances that, "Yes We Can!" and the REAL "Law of Attraction" from the early 1900s to guide us.

So What Are You Waiting For?
Get Earning!

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Thursday, February 21, 2008

Thanks to Alexa, I'll C U Next Tuesday!

Some things, you just can't stop... no matter how hard you try.

Take, for instance, Alexa.  Anyone who is here by intent knows Alexa.  It's a website that many take as the final arbiter of which sites on the web are most visited.  Are you gonna stop Alexa?  Probably not, and why would you want to anyways?  For web marketers and related service industries, it's a valuable resource.

And Then There's P0rn.  Good Ol' P0rn.

You can throw it, you can kick it, you can scream "Get thee back, Satan!", wrap it in a plastic bag, put in a lockbox, toss it in a chest, fill it with cement and drop it off a ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and, sooner or later, it's back again, somehow showing up on your doorstep.

And, let's be honest, many of you invite it back in.

After all, you're good people, you don't like to judge, you like to give everyone and everything a second chance, right?.  So maybe, just maybe, if we all show a little more discipline, a little more self-control, a little more understaaaaaanding, we can reconcile with our dear beloved p0rn and live happily ever after, right? (click Ashcroft's picture)

Well, It Looks As If You're Going to Have To...

After all the typical, obvious Top 500 Alexa-ranking websites such as Yahoo, Youtube, Microsoft Live and all the social networking sites on which tons of kiddies hang out, we find, just barely eclipsed by Google Chile, Megarotic, in position number 23.  It makes me wonder, out of 195, or so, countries in the world, just what the heck are all those Chileans searching for?  I'll bet if Chileans knew about Megarotic, Google Chile's high-ranking would become a thing of the past.

Seriously, do you think Chileans are searching for "how to" instructions on growing hydroponic maize?  Or how to breed virus-resistant farm-raised sea bass?  Don't think so.  They are, most likely, searching for Megarotic AND, in position number 32, YouP0rn (they also beat out Apple, Craigslist and Amazon).

Just Think About That For A Second...

Since it's abundantly clear that the bulk of searches are composed of people looking for free p*0rn (have to do that to avoid the p*rn bots), if searchers checked Alexa we would see a MASSIVE restructuring of the online, and world, economies.

First, people would stop paying for it since they could get massive amounts of it for free.  And, second, all the major search sites would take a massive hit and, ultimately, be eclipsed, on Alexa, by sites like Megarotic and YouP0rn, the new "movers and shakers."  Adult sites would go down the tube, with major search sites clinging to the tube.  Social networking sites, however, would continue to reign supreme because that's where all the degenerates would go to see if they could find anyone with which to actually do all those lovely new tricks they learn on Megarotic.

In Conclusion

It's like I said folks, you can beat it, you can kick it, you can fry it in trans-fatty acids and feed it to the poor and it's still going to come up smellin like rose petals (<--- sheer brilliance on wordplay):  p0rn is here to stay.  The tension of the opposites, the battle between the forces of good and evil, the invisible influences that shape our economies and our lives is not only the simple fact of life in this world but it's the only way that an otherwise lifeless piece of clay called a human being can develop.

In short, p0rn is your friend.  It will never abandon or betray you no matter how disloyal or inconsiderate you are towards it.  What the heck more can you ask for in this day and age you ungrateful bastards?!


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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Spam, Scam, Thank You, Ma'aM - FreeIQ Vendor On The Loose?

FOREWARD

Just want to get this out of the way.  There's a big misconception floating around - that I somehow like, or thrive off of, controversy...

I wish.

The truth is... I can't stand it.

So, before I clue you in on the latest, let me reiterate what this blog is about...

Here (when I'm up to it), we can discuss pretty much anything about the world of marketing whether it is good, sound, marketing techniques, stealth applications or boneheads who make life difficult for everyone else.

And here's what it is isn't...

This blog (and myself) do not go out looking for, or creating, controversy.  It either comes to me, or I stumble across it, and I usually don't shy away or back down from it... unless there'd be a really good reason for it.  It's only the perpetrators who accuse me of bullying but whoever steps back and looks at the scene objectively will see that the "bullying" is nothing short of a simple, long-term discussion where they begin by defending their actions and then end by claiming they're being harrassed.  That's the formula...

  1. Defend actions, at length;
  2. Have defense questioned;
  3. Call Sam names and accuse him of being mean;

What can I say, folks?  I'm like a Timex that just keeps ticking.  If someone responds to me, I respond to their response and, generally, I'll keep going until the matter is resolved or until I think the public has witnessed enough to make their own intelligent decision.  Onward...

Today's Controversy:
SPAM, SCAM, THANK YOU, MA'AM

Now, here's one of the latest controversies.  I discovered it - as it happened to me - and took the time to analyze it - so you probably won't find news of it anywhere else.

"Subject: NEW SWIFT CARD PAYMENT OF YOUR  CONTRACT/INHERITANCE FUNDS."

I got a couple of SPAM emails in which the doofus spammer accidentally included a bunch of the emails from the spam list.  Knowing that one of the spam-prevention tricks people use when signing up for a mailing list is to create a mail account specifically for that mailing list (like if you were to sign up for mine, you might create "samslist AT yourisp.com" as your email address), I scanned them for any signs of similarities.

To my chagrin, I spotted recurrences of a site name belonging to a well-known internet marketer, Brad Fallon.  And the site was...


A "YouTube"-Plus for Internet Marketers
(here's my author page, for example)

Now, let me be clear.  Knowing Brad's reputation, I can easily stipulate that he would never resort to breaching anyone's privacy.  He seems well capable of making money and helping marketers quite honestly and legitimately.  I also can't even say that it really did HAPPEN at, or through, FreeIQ, but the presence of "freeiq", five times, in the email addresses of people on the spammer's list is pretty good evidence of a connection.

And the names on the list aren't no-namers either... some of the names on the spammer's list include some well-known internet marketers with whom Brad is acquainted such as Mike Filsaime, Armand Morin, Cody Moya and Joel Comm.  There's even an email address FROM FreeIQ on the list so someone AT FreeIQ is on the spammer's list, too.

So What Happened?

More than likely, it is the work of some unscrupulous vendor at FreeIQ.  The vendor probably made some sweet-as-pie offer or is a good-guy-turned-bad since the list included big-name marketers who generally don't need the kinds of things offered by average marketers.

I honestly just can't believe anyone would be this evil and stupid and I hope Brad takes this seriously and gets to the bottom of it even if his privacy policy warns of it.

Last I heard, VIA TWITTER FOLKS, is that Brad had been looking for venture capital.  I'm not sure why he'd need it since everything I read about StomperNet, etc, talks about how 100s pay $1000s monthly to be members but there it is on Twitter: he's seeking venture capital.  And I think there would be some concern, and rightfully so, if somehow, users of FreeIQ are having their private information compromised.... even through a vendor.

And I have some thoughts on how, very simply, he can investigate this problem.

The Solution

This is really simple, actually.  And it should be taken seriously.

From what I can see, whenever someone buys or signs up for something from a FreeIQ vendor, the vendor collects the lead information including the email.  FreeIQ SHOULD keep a list of those leads somewhere in its database even if the vendor imports then deletes them.  This will allow FreeIQ to EASILY follow-up on spam concerns and to cross-reference any such spam lists that come to light such as was accidentally included in the spammer's mail.

I know, for example, that I don't recall signing up for much, if anything at all, at FreeIQ so if FreeIQ had a way to determine how many FreeIQ vendors have received my lead, the whole field would be narrowed down immediately and significantly.  And I'm willing to provide him with the portion of the spam list found in the spam mail.

In Conclusion
"Why didn't you just go tell him privately, Sam?"

I would have liked to, really, but let's face it - things never really work out that way.  It would be nice if they did.  But what I've come to expect in similar situations is a pleasant little form letter saying something like, "Thank you, we'll look into it." after which one never hears back from them again.

As I said, clearly, I am not definitively stating that this happened via FreeIQ but that, having been in this field for some time now, I know how people set up their email addresses for spam prevention when joining lists and "freeiq" appears at least 5 times in the list - and some major marketers with whom Brad is acquainted are on that list.

Whatever the case may be, I'll definitely keep my readers updated.


Sam Freedom"s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

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