Follow Me On Twitter

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

AddThis Social Bookmark ButtonAddThis Social Bookmark ButtonHome

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

AddThis Social Bookmark ButtonAddThis Social Bookmark ButtonHome

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

AddThis Social Bookmark ButtonAddThis Social Bookmark ButtonHome

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

AddThis Social Bookmark ButtonAddThis Social Bookmark ButtonHome

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

AddThis Social Bookmark ButtonAddThis Social Bookmark ButtonHome

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

AddThis Social Bookmark ButtonAddThis Social Bookmark ButtonHome

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

AddThis Social Bookmark ButtonAddThis Social Bookmark ButtonHome

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

AddThis Social Bookmark ButtonAddThis Social Bookmark ButtonHome

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

AddThis Social Bookmark ButtonAddThis Social Bookmark ButtonHome

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

AddThis Social Bookmark ButtonAddThis Social Bookmark ButtonHome