Flogs Start Getting Flogged Soon

Are you a blogger who writes product reviews and also includes an affiliate link to that product in the hopes of earning a commission? Perhaps you are an Internet Marketing affiliate that writes reviews to the newest IM product being sold and links the review to your affiliate sales page? Have you written reviews on a pay-per-post basis? Have you ever written a fake testimonial so that the product you may be touting looks more appealing? (Shame on you for deceiving your readers.) These practices are referred to as flogging or fake blogging. You may want to think very carefully about those practices now that the US’s FTC has entered the fray and has decided to police the Net.

A few high profile scams lately using fake testimonials have drawn the ire of many consumer defenders, including some state Attorney Generals. While the practice of using “paid” reviews has long been a sales technique on and offline, the use of fake testimonials is downright disgusting. Once the FTC’s rules are in effect, you will have to be prepared to disclose the contact info of those providing testimonials.

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Were You Just Flippa’d Off?

In a tough economy, it is more important than ever to make sure every customer feels valued. Money is tight and the majority of buyers (and sellers) will migrate to where they will recieve the best value for their hard earned money. Unfortunately, Sitepoint’s announcment, and automatic transfer of their marketplace to Flippa.com, has tossed these values right out the window.

To sum it up, as both a regular seller and buyer on Sitepoint, this move has been disasterous. It’s obvious from talk, posts, and tweets around the net that I am not alone in thinking this way either. Most have been irked from the moment the announcement was made, and the reaction from Sitepoint owners and management has done absolutely NOTHING to make most of us regulars feel any better about the move. The reason for the move was supposedly because their marketplace had “outgrown its tab”. I find this highly unlikely. That “tab” was generating tens of thousands of dollars monthly for them!

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Teachers Gone Fruity

As the last day of school looms closer (2 more days here in Central Ontario), there isn’t a child around who isn’t counting down the days.

“Five more days mom!”…… “Four more days mom!”… “Hey mom, only 3 more days of school”… “Woot! Only two more days mom!”…. “OMG, TODAY is the LAST day mom!!!”

Having 3 school aged boys myself, my home has suddenly turned into a massive recycle bin with the sheer volume of paper, notebooks, and artwork that arrives home daily. I am positive if you were to weigh a school in May, and then again in June, Jenny Craig would be scrambling to sign them up as spokespeople!

I think some teachers have gone “fruity” though when it comes to planning class parties. At least my boys think so… Two of them are required to bring fruit trays to class on their last day. Yes, fruit for a class party!

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Stop The Easy Google Profit Scam – Updated June 24th

The Easy Google Profit scam (also known as Google Treasure Chest and Google Money Tree) has taken thousands of people for a ridiculous amount of money. Every single day, more and more people are falling prey to, not only the original creators of the program, but both the knowing and naive internet marketers.

Here’s the lowdown on this scam:

Unscrupulous marketers have flooded the search engines, forums, Facebook, Twitter and a wide number of CPA networks with eye catching ads, promising thousands of dollars per month placing little google ads. Many of these ads even point to sites that are made to look just like a reputable online version of local newspapers.

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Blogging Mom + 3 Teenagers + Rockband = Give Up!

I made the horrible mistake of planning to spend most of the day and evening today adding content here at iBlogaholic. You’d think after working at home with 4 kids over the past 7 years, that I would have planned a little better What had originally been planned as a productive day has resulted in…. well, this post!

My oldest son planned a little get together for today with some old friends he hasn’t seen in few months. He just turned 13 last week and wanted to have a little party with them. So being the semi-organized work from home parents that Jeremy and I are, we had the munchies and pizza money ready, and some fireworks purchased to let off outback come dusk. To keep his brothers out of his hair, we even had movies and goodies my younger 2 sons to watch upstairs. The plan was 2 upstairs with their own little in-house party, the teenagers occupied with whatever goofiness teenagers do these days, and baby Brie playing with daddy. That left me to get down to business. Or so I thought…

Enter ROCKBAND 2 into the picture… Need I actually say more?

How stupid of me to not realize that the newly unwrapped birthday present wasn’t going to be the center of attention, let alone be attached to the TV on the other side of my office wall!

Now granted I love the game myself and have enjoyed playing it with the kids, but at this point, if I have to hear Eye of The Tiger one more time, I will be renting office space in town

== Joanne ==

The ‘Scam’ Threat Marketing Tactic

Anyone new to online marketing obviously spends at least a little time reading through marketing forums and joining newsletters, trying to pick up tips and tricks. It’s incredibly overwhelming just how much information is out there! Some of it is really good, but some is just down right ridiculously marketed…

I see people pushing all sorts of ‘make-money-fast-and-get-rich-off-doing-nothing-in-your-pajamas-while-on-a-beach-that-you-drove-to-in-your-new-porsche’ offers. This sort of marketing has been around forever because simply it works. Most people coming across these ads are made to feel they just can’t survive online if they don’t buy it, and buy it now before the price triples (or quadruples, or they lose out on 10 gagillion $$’s worth of bonus products, etc). These kind of scare tactics most likely will always be out there, but it’s a newer trend that absolutely drives me up the wall – the “Don’t Buy X Product Scam – Read This First” type of PPC ad.

Here is a little blurb I wrote a few months ago, taken from the perspective of someone new to online marketing:

Wow…Was I in for a shock. I googled product #1 to see if I could find a review and the first thing I saw was an ad yelling at me that it was a scam. Or was it? I quickly clicked away, proud of myself for not falling for that supposed “scam”. I then googled product #2 and by golly if I don’t see the exact same thing! Blaring warnings that I should not purchase this product until I read something first and another warning that it could be a scam if I didn’t go and read that persons website first too. The same thing happened for product #3 and #4.

This internet place is downright damn scary! It seemed that anything I checked had someone yelling SCAM about it! Can this be right? Is everything for sale a scam?

In my opinion, this type of marketing is NUTS! But unfortunately, some marketers think this is an effective way to market legitimate affiliate products. Scaring potential buyers into feeling they must read a particular website or risk losing their life savings, undershorts AND their first born child, has become the norm.

The norm?! Most people seeking out these products are new to online marketing and truly need help learning. Why on earth would people want to scare the living daylights out of them and make the online marketing industry look like it is completely fully of scammers?

It’s marketing tactics such as this, that bury the real scam reports from being found – the ones that really do take the money and run.

Come on people…Let’s clean up our workplace…

== Joanne ==

Can’t Reach That Dust Bunny With Your Vacuum Hose?

We’ve all had the problem.. The ever ellusive dust bunny, that just hovers and floats out of our reach, and that of the vacuum. We can’t move the piece of furniture to get at it, or it’s stuck somewhere too skinny that only a mouse could skim through.

So what the heck do we do?

Grab an empty paper towel or gift wrap roll and slide it over the nozzle of your vaccum hose. The roll can flatten, unlike your vacuum nozzle, and get into those tight places.

Dust bunnies beware!!