If you need referrals, sales or traffic, there are lots of different options for free and paid advertising.. traffic exchanges, safelists, classified sites, PPC campaigns..one of the best I've found are the crop of text ad sites that have popped up lately.. if you aren't a member of any of Frank Salinas's text ad-based web sites yet, you really need to check out his newest. I've been using it since it opened last week, and I already use his My Downline builder, Traffic Secret and My Traffic Builder sites....I joined and went pro on them all as soon as they opened, and I haven't regretted it! I RARELY upgrade and pay for ANY type of site, but when I find something that works I go for it. Right now, he's giving away free advertising just for sending visitors to the site.. so do me a favor and click the link and go check it out! Even if you don't sign up, just click the link and read about all you get ...
CLICK HERE
If you do join, not only will you get all the great advertising benefits of using the site, but you'll get your own link like this one CLICK HERE and you could get 25.00 worth of free ads too!
Monday, March 3, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Data Entry Job Scams
Grrrr.. I'll never understand why people don't do research and check things out, Google for information, read forums, do some form of due diligence before they plunk down their hardearned cash for ridiculous scams. I did an article on Gather.com a while back that I'm still getting comments on, about rebate processor job scams, from people who did decide to check into it before joining anything and are really glad they did. Rebate processor, data entry jobs and survey database sites that charge you money ARE SCAMS!!!! I'm writing this because in the last two days I've run across three posts from different people saying that they did pay for one of these BS things, and they're a ripoff..which they would have known without losing their money had they done some serious research.
For those who don't know what rebate processor and data entry scams are all about, the jist is this. You pay these scumbags anywhere from 39.00 to 197.00 for access to their "database" or job bank or list of companies that are supposedly willing to pay you for placing ads or proceesing rebates, etc. Once you pay, you get access to their site that tells you how to join Clickbank, pick a product/products you want to advertise ..which they term as the "companies you want to work for"..and you then go to classified ad sites or launch PPC campaigns with Google or Yahoo,etc. and when someone clicks your ad ..aka buys the product you advertised..you get paid. Well, you can join Clickbank, launch a PPC campaign or place ads to sell the products all on your own without paying these sleezebags your money. They do, to be fair, explain a lot about Adwords and how to do a PPC campaign, which can be helpful, but the same info is free all over the internet as well.
How do I know this? No, I DIDN'T pay for any of these scams..I just have talked to people who have been scammed..and did research on my own. This is a list of free classified ad sites you can post ads to, if you do want to join Clickbank, pick some products, and post some ads on your own.
http://www.interking.com/ Kingdom Classifieds
http://www.homeworkads.com/Homework Ads
http://www.bizclassifieds.com Business Classifieds
http://www.classifiedsforfree.com Classifieds for Free
http://www.bestmall.com/class/submit.html Best Mall Classified Ads
http://www.1second.com/freead.htm 1AmericaMall
http://www.theadnet.com/ The Ad Net
http://www.5starads.com/ Five Star Classified
As far as the survey sites are concerned, they are a scam as well. They don't give you any information you can't find on your own on multiple sites for free. One person who signed up for one of them told me that half the sites were BS, a lot of them paid in sweeps or points, and some of them weren't even active anymore..so the site was outdated.. and I think he said he paid 99.00 for this information. I've seen these ads claiming you can make 75.00 and up an hour doing surveys. It's NEVER GONNA HAPPEN!! I have a survey directory right on my website http://www.starrbrite.com/surveys.html, that lists which ones I know actually pay cash, which ones are BS sites pretending to be survey sites, etc. ..you can send your 99.00 to ME at... lol
I know it's marketing, and they do provide information, which they have a right to be compensated for and charge whatever people are willing to pay for the info, but it just irks me to no end because the ads are so deceptive, and they target people who are searching for something to do at home, usually because they're disabled or can't work outside the home and need to support their families..they can't afford to be scammed..and they also encourage them to choose THEIR program as the program they should choose to advertise..which gives them that much more of an opportunity to scam even more people.. !!
If you're looking for LEGITIMATE work at home jobs, try www.westathome.com
or http://www.alpineaccess.com/external/careers/become_an_agent.html.. these two companies hire people to work at home answering phones for things like infomercial calls and taking orders for various companies. I know for a fact these are legitimate, actual jobs and they don't ask you to pay anything.
For those who don't know what rebate processor and data entry scams are all about, the jist is this. You pay these scumbags anywhere from 39.00 to 197.00 for access to their "database" or job bank or list of companies that are supposedly willing to pay you for placing ads or proceesing rebates, etc. Once you pay, you get access to their site that tells you how to join Clickbank, pick a product/products you want to advertise ..which they term as the "companies you want to work for"..and you then go to classified ad sites or launch PPC campaigns with Google or Yahoo,etc. and when someone clicks your ad ..aka buys the product you advertised..you get paid. Well, you can join Clickbank, launch a PPC campaign or place ads to sell the products all on your own without paying these sleezebags your money. They do, to be fair, explain a lot about Adwords and how to do a PPC campaign, which can be helpful, but the same info is free all over the internet as well.
How do I know this? No, I DIDN'T pay for any of these scams..I just have talked to people who have been scammed..and did research on my own. This is a list of free classified ad sites you can post ads to, if you do want to join Clickbank, pick some products, and post some ads on your own.
http://www.interking.com/ Kingdom Classifieds
http://www.homeworkads.com/Homework Ads
http://www.bizclassifieds.com Business Classifieds
http://www.classifiedsforfree.com Classifieds for Free
http://www.bestmall.com/class/submit.html Best Mall Classified Ads
http://www.1second.com/freead.htm 1AmericaMall
http://www.theadnet.com/ The Ad Net
http://www.5starads.com/ Five Star Classified
As far as the survey sites are concerned, they are a scam as well. They don't give you any information you can't find on your own on multiple sites for free. One person who signed up for one of them told me that half the sites were BS, a lot of them paid in sweeps or points, and some of them weren't even active anymore..so the site was outdated.. and I think he said he paid 99.00 for this information. I've seen these ads claiming you can make 75.00 and up an hour doing surveys. It's NEVER GONNA HAPPEN!! I have a survey directory right on my website http://www.starrbrite.com/surveys.html, that lists which ones I know actually pay cash, which ones are BS sites pretending to be survey sites, etc. ..you can send your 99.00 to ME at... lol
I know it's marketing, and they do provide information, which they have a right to be compensated for and charge whatever people are willing to pay for the info, but it just irks me to no end because the ads are so deceptive, and they target people who are searching for something to do at home, usually because they're disabled or can't work outside the home and need to support their families..they can't afford to be scammed..and they also encourage them to choose THEIR program as the program they should choose to advertise..which gives them that much more of an opportunity to scam even more people.. !!
If you're looking for LEGITIMATE work at home jobs, try www.westathome.com
or http://www.alpineaccess.com/external/careers/become_an_agent.html.. these two companies hire people to work at home answering phones for things like infomercial calls and taking orders for various companies. I know for a fact these are legitimate, actual jobs and they don't ask you to pay anything.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Win a 15" Flatscreen TV.. Traffic Dodgems, Traffic Punk and Roadrunner Surf
I got the heads-up for a contest today. The prize is a 15" Sharp flatscreen TV. I need a new TV and I really want a flatscreen..so I'd REAALLY love to win that.. a 42" inch or larger would be better..that's what I really want, but I'd take a free 15".. i'm not hard to please!! LOL
The contest is being offered by the owners of 3 traffic exchanges, Traffic DodgeEms, Roadrunner Surf and Traffic Punk.
If you're involved in any kind of online marketing or promotion, or trying to get referrals for any kind of programs you're involved in, then you probably already know what a traffic exchange is. If you don't know what they are, I won't go into great detail, but basically you can join a traffic exchange for free, add in the urls to whatever you're promoting, and you "surf" through websites other people have added to earn credits for other members to view your sites. This gives everyone free traffic to their sites and offers. I belong to tons of them..and these 3 are among the best ones out there, I get lots of traffic from them.
I made a webpage with links and more information, in case anyone is interested.. http://www.starrbrite.com/joinnow.html
So come on people, help a sistah out!! Join all 3 exchanges, start referring, and you could win a new TV!
The contest is being offered by the owners of 3 traffic exchanges, Traffic DodgeEms, Roadrunner Surf and Traffic Punk.
If you're involved in any kind of online marketing or promotion, or trying to get referrals for any kind of programs you're involved in, then you probably already know what a traffic exchange is. If you don't know what they are, I won't go into great detail, but basically you can join a traffic exchange for free, add in the urls to whatever you're promoting, and you "surf" through websites other people have added to earn credits for other members to view your sites. This gives everyone free traffic to their sites and offers. I belong to tons of them..and these 3 are among the best ones out there, I get lots of traffic from them.
I made a webpage with links and more information, in case anyone is interested.. http://www.starrbrite.com/joinnow.html
So come on people, help a sistah out!! Join all 3 exchanges, start referring, and you could win a new TV!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
InBoxDollars and SendEarnings - Get Paid To Read Emails
The paid to read sites InboxDollars and SendEarnings have changed their referral policy. It used to be that you would earn 10% of your referrals earnings only after they earned enough to make payout, at $30.00. Now, you get 10% of their qualified earnings from the beginning. Unfortunately, you don't get paid 10% for every email they read, only for offers they complete and surveys, etc, but still you can earn money with referrals a lot quicker and easier.
Sign up for InboxDollars and SendEarnings and get a 5.00 signup bonus from each program. Then you can earn money for completing offers, taking surveys, and reading emails.
Sign up for InboxDollars and SendEarnings and get a 5.00 signup bonus from each program. Then you can earn money for completing offers, taking surveys, and reading emails.
Stephen Ducharme, ContactThem scam
While surfing the other day, I saw an ad someone had posted about a program called "ContactThem" which claimed that they would pay you $4800 to add their links to your website for one month. That sounded like a great deal to me! I have a website..and I like money.. especially free money! Anytime someone wants to pay me lots of money for doing something as simple as cutting and pasting a link onto my page, I'm there! Of course, being the skeptical soul that I am, I decided to do a little investigating before rushing in to claim my $4800. I clicked the link and it took me to a website for a product called "Contact Them" that asks you to sign up and download their software. After my big Zangdo virus fiasco, I'm pretty darn careful now about what I download, plus they asked you a few questions before you download it, so they can "personalize" the software to you. Meaning, make sure they send you the right hype and scam page, targeted towards telling you what you want to hear based on what you're looking for. The questions are 'what describes you the best:", and lists choices, like "I'm an internet marketer interested in promoting affiliate programs" or some such thing, and "Main reason why you want the Contact Them software" again with some choices. They also ask for your phone number along with your other contact information, and it is marked as 'required". It says "your account will match your phone number". Hmmm.. this made a few bells go off.
I Googled Stephen Ducharme, "Contact Them scam" and "Virtual Contact, Inc", and what I found out is that Stephen Ducharme is the self-proclaimed "Free Ad Guru" and claims he never pays for advertising. I also found out that, while his website claims this is brand new software they spent four years developing, there were several complaints on a few message boards from around 2005 for a product by this name, and also something called "My Affiliate Finder", which by the name sounds like it may be the same type of software he's now calling "ContactThem". In or around 2003, there were complaints about other products from Stephen Ducharme , in particular one called "How to get 1million visitors on your website without paying a dime in
advertisement" The complaints said that his promised customer support is pretty much nonexistent, and they do not answer emails or phone calls. In addition to that, after you purchase something from this guy's company, they call you and try to talk you into bigger things, like "coaching"., with high-pressure sales tactics. They ask you questions about your credit cards and available balances, and what you end up paying is the amount of your available balance! YIKES! Read what happened to this poor guy http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/072/ripoff0072066.htm.
These complaints are all a few years old, and I didn't find any complaints recently specifically geared towards the ContactThem software, so maybe he's cleaned up his act.. or maybe it's just too new, since he says it just launched.
The ContactThem offer has two parts.. the software program itself, and the affiliate program...which is the part where he claims you can make "up to" 4800.00 your first month for simply placing their ads on your site. Of course, you have to read the disclaimer at the bottom of the page
"These figures of earnings are examples to help you understand the earning potential - You can make more or less. There are no guarantees of income. *You are NOT paid per click, per impressions or for the period of time our banner is exposed on your website; you are paid per sale generated. You receive a sales commission when members join our paid membership upon your referral or your sub-affiliates'. Recurring monthly commissions are subject to members' renewals. By default, 2 levels of commissions are paid; to access levels 3 to 10, you need to meet each level qualifications. Please take time to consult the qualifications for each level inside the affiliate area that explains everything in details."
This means that you can join as an affiliate for free, and promote the program on your own and try to get people to sign up by marketing it through whatever channels you can find..and possibly make some sales or get people to sign up and upgrade...get them to UPGRADE is the keyword here. You don't get paid for them signing up, they have to upgrade and pay the 49.00 a month before you make any money. Of course, you won't make any real money unless they not only sign up and upgrade, but they then get people under them who sign up and upgrade, etc. Or...you can UPGRADE and pay 49.00 a month to be able to use the ContactThem software to find people to send your ads for the affiliate program to ...and/or promoting the actual software. using their program.. Either way, it's not a simple matter of put the banner on your website and sit back and make tons of cash, like the ads would have you believe.
I will say this for him, he's REALLY, REALLY good at the smarmy sales copy. He knows exactly what to say to make people want to sign up...but he neglects to tell you that it ain't half as easy as he makes it sound. If you do sign up to be an affiliate and you can manage on the free option to find some people who do sign up and actually upgrade, that would be fine. However, we all know it's not that easy. Anyone who has done or is doing internet marketing or affiliate marketing, knows that you have to promote something. You'll have to actively market it. Unless you have a huge mailing list or tons of traffic to your site, you'll need to place ads. Chances are, even if you choose to upgrade and pay the 49.00 a month for the chance to market to the leads they provide you with using their software, a small percentage of those who actually sign up will do anything with the program. Some may upgrade and pay for a couple of months, but most will give up after a few months when the profits they were promised in the ads don't materialize magically. There's nothing wrong in this, it's marketing, and A LOT of programs do it the same way, but it's deceptive, and if people do sign up and attempt to market this affiliate program, they need to be aware that their earnings will most likely, for probably 99.9% of them, never be more than a couple hundred dollars.. if they can manage even that.
This is an FAQ page about the affiliate program...http://www.contactthem.com/affiliateprogram3.php?
Up to this point, one would think there's really nothing wrong with this program, aside from the smarmy and deceptive advertising tactics.. but..
Here's where the scam part comes in:
As a free affiliate you are qualified to earn commisions on your first 2 levels with no qualification, no strings at all.. but from level 3 on you have to qualify to earn commissions by being an active (read: paying) member who has reached $1000 commission earned. A legitimate "affiliate program" does not require you to "qualify" or pay anything in order to collect your commissions. This is not an "affiliate program", it's just a glorified ...and deceptive.. MLM scheme.
What's your compensation plan?
Level 1 = 20%
100% Free - No qualification required
Level 2 = 10%
100% Free - No qualification required
Level 3 = 5%
(To qualify for this 3rd level of commission, you must be an active member of ContactThem software (minimum is $49.95/month)
+ You must have reached $1,000 in commissions earned.)
Level 4 = 2%
(Qualification: Active member + You must have signed up 10 members)
Level 5 = 1%
(Qualification: Active member + You must have signed up 20 members)
Level 6 = 1%
(Qualification: Active member + You must have signed up 30 members)
Level 7 = 1%
(Qualification: Active member + You must have signed up 40 members)
Level 8 = 1%
(Qualification: Active member + You must have signed up 50 members)
Level 9 = 1%
(Qualification: Active member + You must have signed up 60 members)
Level 10 = 1%
(Qualification: Active member + You must have signed up 70 members)
This brings us to the ACTUAL program.. the software.....
What is ContactThem?
It's software that claims it can find the names of, and allow you to contact with a personalized email, virtually every affiliate marketer of every affiliate program on the planet. It sends emails to these people telling them how much you like their site and would they be interested in becoming an affiliate for your product or service and placing your links on their page. Of course, you don't have to actually go to any of these affiliates's sites, so how do you know if they are even active affiliates? or if they even have a website? Most do, but some do not and market through email or other venues. It does make mention somewhere on the site about "Internet marketers/list owners/affiliates/website owners/promoters/resellers", and it says it will tell you the marketer's stats and activities, so I suppose the program knows which type of marketer they're contacting and everything about them, and tailors the emails to each individual? It claims you won't get SPAM complaints, because it's a personalized email. So what? I get lots of SPAM that's personalized, and unsolicited email trying to sell you something, last time I checked, was still SPAM, and the complaints may very well come.
His sales page claims that you will find lots of "tire kickers" talking bad about him on the internet because they "don't understand him", he's ahead of his time. LOL Well, that's a CYA statement if I ever heard one. Though it is true that a lot of people will cry "scam" if they buy something and don't immediately make a million dollars with no effort, becasue they don't know how to work the program, the majority of scam complaints tend to be true, and I'm betting Mr. Ducharme deserves his reputation.
In theory, this software could actually be really useful in helping you make lots of money, if you can find a bunch of affiliate marketers who are stuck on stupid or complete newbies. If I understand it correctly, the way the program supposedly works is that you find a 2-tier affliate program and sign up, and then you send emails to all of these other affiliate marketers from these other programs that the software finds for you, promoting your affiliate program, and they become your subaffiliates in the program. I don't know about you, but if someone who is not the owner of a product or a company contacts me, asking me to promote their products, I'm gonna know they're an affiliate of that product/program. If it's something I'm interested in, I'll go sign up as an affiliate on my own and get full commissions DUH! I could be wrong. The reason they have subaffiliates is because people to sign up to be one, but I just don't see it happening a lot when you're marketing to current affiliate marketers.. On the other hand, suppose you sign up for the service, you do manage to sign up a bunch of sub affiliates under you, and they put the links to your products on their sites..and nothing happens..or only a few sales happen. This wouldn't be a big deal in normal circumstances, but it is a big deal if you're paying $12,000 a year for the ContactThem service! YEP, you read that right.. $12,000 a year.. payable in convenient monthly installments of just $997.00!! DOUBLE YIKES!! Of course, if you can't afford that, they have the limited version that will allow you to contact 200 marketers every day instead of 1000. There are some marketers who wouldn't think twice about paying that much money per month for leads.. but for most people, that's just not an option.
BOTTOM LINE: I don't think you can really classify this program as a scam per se. It is, however, deceptive marketing, and it is not an affiliate program, it's just a MLM scheme. The whole thing definitely falls under the hype and air category. I am willing to bet also, that once you sign up as a free affiliate, the high-pressure, very persuasive emails will be forthcoming quickly..and A LOT of them. Whatever you do, if you do sign up for this program, whether for free or as an upgraded member.. when they call you, and they almost definitely WILL CALL YOU.. don't TALK TO THEM.. do not let them talk you into ANYTHING, and under NO circumstances tell these people, or anyone associated in any way with this company your personal information, including the balance on your credit card. If they call HANG UP!
I Googled Stephen Ducharme, "Contact Them scam" and "Virtual Contact, Inc", and what I found out is that Stephen Ducharme is the self-proclaimed "Free Ad Guru" and claims he never pays for advertising. I also found out that, while his website claims this is brand new software they spent four years developing, there were several complaints on a few message boards from around 2005 for a product by this name, and also something called "My Affiliate Finder", which by the name sounds like it may be the same type of software he's now calling "ContactThem". In or around 2003, there were complaints about other products from Stephen Ducharme , in particular one called "How to get 1million visitors on your website without paying a dime in
advertisement" The complaints said that his promised customer support is pretty much nonexistent, and they do not answer emails or phone calls. In addition to that, after you purchase something from this guy's company, they call you and try to talk you into bigger things, like "coaching"., with high-pressure sales tactics. They ask you questions about your credit cards and available balances, and what you end up paying is the amount of your available balance! YIKES! Read what happened to this poor guy http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/072/ripoff0072066.htm.
These complaints are all a few years old, and I didn't find any complaints recently specifically geared towards the ContactThem software, so maybe he's cleaned up his act.. or maybe it's just too new, since he says it just launched.
The ContactThem offer has two parts.. the software program itself, and the affiliate program...which is the part where he claims you can make "up to" 4800.00 your first month for simply placing their ads on your site. Of course, you have to read the disclaimer at the bottom of the page
"These figures of earnings are examples to help you understand the earning potential - You can make more or less. There are no guarantees of income. *You are NOT paid per click, per impressions or for the period of time our banner is exposed on your website; you are paid per sale generated. You receive a sales commission when members join our paid membership upon your referral or your sub-affiliates'. Recurring monthly commissions are subject to members' renewals. By default, 2 levels of commissions are paid; to access levels 3 to 10, you need to meet each level qualifications. Please take time to consult the qualifications for each level inside the affiliate area that explains everything in details."
This means that you can join as an affiliate for free, and promote the program on your own and try to get people to sign up by marketing it through whatever channels you can find..and possibly make some sales or get people to sign up and upgrade...get them to UPGRADE is the keyword here. You don't get paid for them signing up, they have to upgrade and pay the 49.00 a month before you make any money. Of course, you won't make any real money unless they not only sign up and upgrade, but they then get people under them who sign up and upgrade, etc. Or...you can UPGRADE and pay 49.00 a month to be able to use the ContactThem software to find people to send your ads for the affiliate program to ...and/or promoting the actual software. using their program.. Either way, it's not a simple matter of put the banner on your website and sit back and make tons of cash, like the ads would have you believe.
I will say this for him, he's REALLY, REALLY good at the smarmy sales copy. He knows exactly what to say to make people want to sign up...but he neglects to tell you that it ain't half as easy as he makes it sound. If you do sign up to be an affiliate and you can manage on the free option to find some people who do sign up and actually upgrade, that would be fine. However, we all know it's not that easy. Anyone who has done or is doing internet marketing or affiliate marketing, knows that you have to promote something. You'll have to actively market it. Unless you have a huge mailing list or tons of traffic to your site, you'll need to place ads. Chances are, even if you choose to upgrade and pay the 49.00 a month for the chance to market to the leads they provide you with using their software, a small percentage of those who actually sign up will do anything with the program. Some may upgrade and pay for a couple of months, but most will give up after a few months when the profits they were promised in the ads don't materialize magically. There's nothing wrong in this, it's marketing, and A LOT of programs do it the same way, but it's deceptive, and if people do sign up and attempt to market this affiliate program, they need to be aware that their earnings will most likely, for probably 99.9% of them, never be more than a couple hundred dollars.. if they can manage even that.
This is an FAQ page about the affiliate program...http://www.contactthem.com/affiliateprogram3.php?
Up to this point, one would think there's really nothing wrong with this program, aside from the smarmy and deceptive advertising tactics.. but..
Here's where the scam part comes in:
As a free affiliate you are qualified to earn commisions on your first 2 levels with no qualification, no strings at all.. but from level 3 on you have to qualify to earn commissions by being an active (read: paying) member who has reached $1000 commission earned. A legitimate "affiliate program" does not require you to "qualify" or pay anything in order to collect your commissions. This is not an "affiliate program", it's just a glorified ...and deceptive.. MLM scheme.
What's your compensation plan?
Level 1 = 20%
100% Free - No qualification required
Level 2 = 10%
100% Free - No qualification required
Level 3 = 5%
(To qualify for this 3rd level of commission, you must be an active member of ContactThem software (minimum is $49.95/month)
+ You must have reached $1,000 in commissions earned.)
Level 4 = 2%
(Qualification: Active member + You must have signed up 10 members)
Level 5 = 1%
(Qualification: Active member + You must have signed up 20 members)
Level 6 = 1%
(Qualification: Active member + You must have signed up 30 members)
Level 7 = 1%
(Qualification: Active member + You must have signed up 40 members)
Level 8 = 1%
(Qualification: Active member + You must have signed up 50 members)
Level 9 = 1%
(Qualification: Active member + You must have signed up 60 members)
Level 10 = 1%
(Qualification: Active member + You must have signed up 70 members)
This brings us to the ACTUAL program.. the software.....
What is ContactThem?
It's software that claims it can find the names of, and allow you to contact with a personalized email, virtually every affiliate marketer of every affiliate program on the planet. It sends emails to these people telling them how much you like their site and would they be interested in becoming an affiliate for your product or service and placing your links on their page. Of course, you don't have to actually go to any of these affiliates's sites, so how do you know if they are even active affiliates? or if they even have a website? Most do, but some do not and market through email or other venues. It does make mention somewhere on the site about "Internet marketers/list owners/affiliates/website owners/promoters/resellers", and it says it will tell you the marketer's stats and activities, so I suppose the program knows which type of marketer they're contacting and everything about them, and tailors the emails to each individual? It claims you won't get SPAM complaints, because it's a personalized email. So what? I get lots of SPAM that's personalized, and unsolicited email trying to sell you something, last time I checked, was still SPAM, and the complaints may very well come.
His sales page claims that you will find lots of "tire kickers" talking bad about him on the internet because they "don't understand him", he's ahead of his time. LOL Well, that's a CYA statement if I ever heard one. Though it is true that a lot of people will cry "scam" if they buy something and don't immediately make a million dollars with no effort, becasue they don't know how to work the program, the majority of scam complaints tend to be true, and I'm betting Mr. Ducharme deserves his reputation.
In theory, this software could actually be really useful in helping you make lots of money, if you can find a bunch of affiliate marketers who are stuck on stupid or complete newbies. If I understand it correctly, the way the program supposedly works is that you find a 2-tier affliate program and sign up, and then you send emails to all of these other affiliate marketers from these other programs that the software finds for you, promoting your affiliate program, and they become your subaffiliates in the program. I don't know about you, but if someone who is not the owner of a product or a company contacts me, asking me to promote their products, I'm gonna know they're an affiliate of that product/program. If it's something I'm interested in, I'll go sign up as an affiliate on my own and get full commissions DUH! I could be wrong. The reason they have subaffiliates is because people to sign up to be one, but I just don't see it happening a lot when you're marketing to current affiliate marketers.. On the other hand, suppose you sign up for the service, you do manage to sign up a bunch of sub affiliates under you, and they put the links to your products on their sites..and nothing happens..or only a few sales happen. This wouldn't be a big deal in normal circumstances, but it is a big deal if you're paying $12,000 a year for the ContactThem service! YEP, you read that right.. $12,000 a year.. payable in convenient monthly installments of just $997.00!! DOUBLE YIKES!! Of course, if you can't afford that, they have the limited version that will allow you to contact 200 marketers every day instead of 1000. There are some marketers who wouldn't think twice about paying that much money per month for leads.. but for most people, that's just not an option.
BOTTOM LINE: I don't think you can really classify this program as a scam per se. It is, however, deceptive marketing, and it is not an affiliate program, it's just a MLM scheme. The whole thing definitely falls under the hype and air category. I am willing to bet also, that once you sign up as a free affiliate, the high-pressure, very persuasive emails will be forthcoming quickly..and A LOT of them. Whatever you do, if you do sign up for this program, whether for free or as an upgraded member.. when they call you, and they almost definitely WILL CALL YOU.. don't TALK TO THEM.. do not let them talk you into ANYTHING, and under NO circumstances tell these people, or anyone associated in any way with this company your personal information, including the balance on your credit card. If they call HANG UP!
Monday, February 11, 2008
UVME Is a Bust.
You may notice that I have the little UVME widget thingie in my sidebar. I joined up with them during the prelaunch phase, because it seemed at first glance like a great opportunity. They have a decent pay plan and the concept is a proven money maker. Even though tons of games are free online, people still do shell out money every month to play games online. People LOVE games! It seemed like it would be something doable to recruit some people who wanted to make some real cash and have fun doing it, and recruit people who would want to sign up to play games, even if they just mostly wanted to play for free. The games actually look to be pretty decent games, simple, easy to learn with no huge learning curve, yet fun and addicting. Added to the fun of being able to chat on IM with your friends while you played and challenge people to games and possibly win cash, it would seem like a no-brainer that the UVME opportunity, unlike so many others, would be a winner.
Alas, all is not as it seems. The problem is this..it's pretty ocmplicated for people to be able to actually sign up and qualify for commissions. It's also actually pretty difficult for people to sign up and just play the games. Even though I joined long ago, I haven't really had the time to promote or recruit anyone. I didn't participate in the beta testing either, because I just haven't had a bunch of leisure time lately. I haven't really done much at all in regards to the program, actually. I was waiting for the actual launch, to see how everything worked out before I devoted a bunch of time to recruiting, and now I'm glad I did. I got this email from Jane Mark yesterday. If you don't know her, she's the co-owner of quite a few very popular advertising programs, like FavAds and Croc-Ads and she seems to be a pretty straight forward and levelheaded lady, so I am willing to take advice on some things from her. I am especially willing to believe that UVME may not be a great opportunity if she says it sucks, because, unlike me, she paid her money, went to actual seminars for the opportunity, and tried to jump through the hoops to make it work, and still couldn't pull it off. I also have to give her opinion on this one some consideration because of her love for Lawn Chair Millionaire. Her and her partner are big-time in favor of LCM and promote that to the hilt, so I figure if she's willing to promote that crock of crap and considers that a good opportunity, then if she says UVME isn't worth it, it must really suck. LOL Here's an excerpt from the email she sent regarding UVME.
"As many of you know I try very hard
to recommend programs to you that
I believe will make money for you
I have four criteria I set when I look at
a program
1) It needs to have a good product one
that is in demand by the public
2) It needs to have owners that are
responsible and have the interest of
their members at heart as well as their
own profit motive.
3) It needs to have a pay plan that has a
broad reach either because it has significant
upfront commissions or realistic monthly
commissions meaning people will likely
stick with it or other ways to earn profits
in the interior of the site.
4) It needs to be doable meaning that most
people, even if they are newbies, will be
able to promote it effectively if they work
at it.
Sometimes I think a site has met my criteria
but until I actually put it to the test, I cannot
always be sure and...
Sometimes I am wrong...
In June of last year, I recommended a site
to you called uVme . At that time
many of you signed up free and I thank you
for that.
On January 28th, the site did a soft launch
and I upgraded in order to test the site
for you.
I found that one of my essential ingredients
for giving my recommendation was wanting
and that has to do with the structure of the
pay plan
I attended a live presentation in NYC on the site
several months ago and thought I understood
the procedures for upgrading. I asked the right
questions, I thought.
I have read every email they have released
to the public but ,when I actually went to
upgrade in late January, I found that I had
to go through hoops I never anticipated.
Let me make it clear, this is only my
experience and it may not be the experience
of many other members who may have
successfully upgraded at uVme.
Here's what happened to me
I paid my 197 plus 64.95.
The 65.00 is a monthly fee.
In order to become active, I had to
verify two numbers that appeared on
my credit card after I upgraded.
I verified them
I then had to go to a completely different
site and play games on the site with 10.00
that had been deposited to my site. I played
one game and then when I went to play the
second game using an ie browser, the system
froze up and I lost that game and the 6.00.
I switched to fire fox as my browser, ordered
another 6.00 to replace the money I had lost
and continued playing until I had spent the
10.00 , I thought.
However ,I later learned that I had only played
9.00 worth of games and that until I played the
last 1.00 I would not be qualified to collect
commissions and even if I played the 10.00 if
no one accepted my game challenge, I may not
qualify for commissions from my upgraded members.
Hmmm...
A second hurdle to overcome was to have
one of my downline fund their account with
20.00 and play 20.00 worth of games. I had
my partner, Phil, play those games in order
to see if I could qualify for commissions
He played. I am still not sure if that would
have qualified me for commissions because
it is unclear to me if his games need to
be accepted for challenge or not or simply
played. Hmmm...
Even if I has met that criteria which it
seems I did not, I need three people to
activate their accounts under me by paying
197 and the monthly fee of 65.00.
By activate their accounts I mean they need
to follow a series of steps that I attempted to
do and if they do not, I will not qualify for
commissions because they will not actually
be active members. If they are not really
active members, I lose the dough, I think...
Confused? So am I
I have been told by one of my downline
who I know well and trust that there are
nine steps to follow before I qualify for
commissions
I have been told by my upline that if I come to training more sessions, all will
be clear.
But I thought I went to a personal training
session in NYC and I thought I asked all the
right questions but I was wrong.
So here's the problem for me.
The upgrade process was confusing to
follow for me and not only did I have to
sort it out but I had to make sure at least
three people under me sorted it out the right
way or I would come out on the losing end
I don't know about you but I have enough
trouble keeping track of my own life and
making sure that three people under me
are going through a complicated set of
procedures to secure their own commissions
is not my cup of tea.
But lets even suppose that over time, I
got better at this and I could effectively
teach my three upgrades to become
qualified the right way, then I would
collect my commissions but...
What happens to my downline if they
are not able or do not have the time it
takes to teach their three members exactly
how to follow this procedure.
I would have collected my commissions
but my downline may get stuck holding
the bag.
I don't want to leave anyone holding the bag here.
Well, unless, or course, it is a Lipton tea bag:)
Frankly, I just think uVme is too complicated
for me and while there are training sessions to
tell you how to do this, in my opinion some people
may get stuck. I did.
So I am withdrawing my original recommendation
for this site.
This is not something I do often but, I do
want my recommendations to mean something
and sometimes I am wrong.
Let me make this clear .
This site may take off
It has some wonderful features and,
if you like to play games, this may
be your perfect vehicle for fun
and profits.
You may simply want to join just to
play the games and no one can argue
with that. Go to it.
If you focus and attend the training sessions
you may come out a winner at both of
the sites associated with this site.
And I hope you do.
But since many of our list members are new
to the net and I know how difficult it can be
to earn bucks, I will look for something that
is easier for you and has the deck stacked
in your favor.
Nothing in business comes easy.
Any program you join will require
your time and your attention. You will
need to train at the site and focus but
I have a cardinal rule.
If it seems too hard for me to do, there
may be others in the same boat and
I want you to be able to keep your head above
water when you embark on a new venture.
So use your own judgment here.
My word is not the final word
It is an opinion only and you know
what they say. "Everyone has an opinion"
Now, I don't know about you, but that all sounds like a whole big lotta hassle to go through just to be able to collect commissions from something. I totally agree with Jane that it seems too complicated, people will get frustrated and confused, and not be able to qualify for the commissions they worked hard to earn and give up. It's hard enough to find people who are willing to sign up for simple to do, free stuff that will make them money, if they have to pay over 200.00, then licensing fees every month on top of that, and then find people willing to sign up and pay, whether as an associate, promoter, or player, and then have to go through this big, complicated process, and make sure their downlines are all able to go through it too, it just isn't going to happen.
They have three levels you can join .. Associate, where you pay 197.00 + 65.00 as Jane did, (payable every 28 days), and you get your very own games platform and a .biz site..in essence, you own a game site and make commissions from promotors and players you recruit under you.. if you can manage to jump through the hoops.
For promotor level, you pay a one time fee of 199.97, which gets you your own game site, and you can earn commissions from players who join your site and play under you. You are not eligible to recruit (and earn from) Associates or other promotors, and you don't get a .biz site, only your own .com.
Then for players, you can play for free for 14 days, and then have to upload cash to your account so you can play games against other players and be eligible to win (or lose) money from playing. I was under the mistaken impression that people would be able to play free if they wanted to, not just for 14 days, but would just not win money or be eligible for challenges. That may have been misinterpretation on my part, but I could have sworn that's what I was originally told.
Bottom line is, this one just is not going to be the right opportunity for me, and I predict it is a wrong fit for most other people as well. As Jane says, this is just my opinion and I could very well be wrong. UVME isn't a scam, it's an opportunity like anything else, and people have to find the things that will work for them and fit their lifestyle, personality, and skill set. I should add that I never did get to even play the games, because I tried to log in to at least try out the games somehow, and see if they were worth paying money to play, but when I signed into my back office, there is no option to play games unless you first sign up as either an associate or promotor and agree to pay them money. I saw a few other sites advertising free games and to sign up and test out the games, and I was even tempted to sign up using a different email just to see what happens, and see if I would be able to play games that way, but I just decided it wasn't worth the effort. I suspect a lot of others will feel the same way.
Alas, all is not as it seems. The problem is this..it's pretty ocmplicated for people to be able to actually sign up and qualify for commissions. It's also actually pretty difficult for people to sign up and just play the games. Even though I joined long ago, I haven't really had the time to promote or recruit anyone. I didn't participate in the beta testing either, because I just haven't had a bunch of leisure time lately. I haven't really done much at all in regards to the program, actually. I was waiting for the actual launch, to see how everything worked out before I devoted a bunch of time to recruiting, and now I'm glad I did. I got this email from Jane Mark yesterday. If you don't know her, she's the co-owner of quite a few very popular advertising programs, like FavAds and Croc-Ads and she seems to be a pretty straight forward and levelheaded lady, so I am willing to take advice on some things from her. I am especially willing to believe that UVME may not be a great opportunity if she says it sucks, because, unlike me, she paid her money, went to actual seminars for the opportunity, and tried to jump through the hoops to make it work, and still couldn't pull it off. I also have to give her opinion on this one some consideration because of her love for Lawn Chair Millionaire. Her and her partner are big-time in favor of LCM and promote that to the hilt, so I figure if she's willing to promote that crock of crap and considers that a good opportunity, then if she says UVME isn't worth it, it must really suck. LOL Here's an excerpt from the email she sent regarding UVME.
"As many of you know I try very hard
to recommend programs to you that
I believe will make money for you
I have four criteria I set when I look at
a program
1) It needs to have a good product one
that is in demand by the public
2) It needs to have owners that are
responsible and have the interest of
their members at heart as well as their
own profit motive.
3) It needs to have a pay plan that has a
broad reach either because it has significant
upfront commissions or realistic monthly
commissions meaning people will likely
stick with it or other ways to earn profits
in the interior of the site.
4) It needs to be doable meaning that most
people, even if they are newbies, will be
able to promote it effectively if they work
at it.
Sometimes I think a site has met my criteria
but until I actually put it to the test, I cannot
always be sure and...
Sometimes I am wrong...
In June of last year, I recommended a site
to you called uVme . At that time
many of you signed up free and I thank you
for that.
On January 28th, the site did a soft launch
and I upgraded in order to test the site
for you.
I found that one of my essential ingredients
for giving my recommendation was wanting
and that has to do with the structure of the
pay plan
I attended a live presentation in NYC on the site
several months ago and thought I understood
the procedures for upgrading. I asked the right
questions, I thought.
I have read every email they have released
to the public but ,when I actually went to
upgrade in late January, I found that I had
to go through hoops I never anticipated.
Let me make it clear, this is only my
experience and it may not be the experience
of many other members who may have
successfully upgraded at uVme.
Here's what happened to me
I paid my 197 plus 64.95.
The 65.00 is a monthly fee.
In order to become active, I had to
verify two numbers that appeared on
my credit card after I upgraded.
I verified them
I then had to go to a completely different
site and play games on the site with 10.00
that had been deposited to my site. I played
one game and then when I went to play the
second game using an ie browser, the system
froze up and I lost that game and the 6.00.
I switched to fire fox as my browser, ordered
another 6.00 to replace the money I had lost
and continued playing until I had spent the
10.00 , I thought.
However ,I later learned that I had only played
9.00 worth of games and that until I played the
last 1.00 I would not be qualified to collect
commissions and even if I played the 10.00 if
no one accepted my game challenge, I may not
qualify for commissions from my upgraded members.
Hmmm...
A second hurdle to overcome was to have
one of my downline fund their account with
20.00 and play 20.00 worth of games. I had
my partner, Phil, play those games in order
to see if I could qualify for commissions
He played. I am still not sure if that would
have qualified me for commissions because
it is unclear to me if his games need to
be accepted for challenge or not or simply
played. Hmmm...
Even if I has met that criteria which it
seems I did not, I need three people to
activate their accounts under me by paying
197 and the monthly fee of 65.00.
By activate their accounts I mean they need
to follow a series of steps that I attempted to
do and if they do not, I will not qualify for
commissions because they will not actually
be active members. If they are not really
active members, I lose the dough, I think...
Confused? So am I
I have been told by one of my downline
who I know well and trust that there are
nine steps to follow before I qualify for
commissions
I have been told by my upline that if I come to training more sessions, all will
be clear.
But I thought I went to a personal training
session in NYC and I thought I asked all the
right questions but I was wrong.
So here's the problem for me.
The upgrade process was confusing to
follow for me and not only did I have to
sort it out but I had to make sure at least
three people under me sorted it out the right
way or I would come out on the losing end
I don't know about you but I have enough
trouble keeping track of my own life and
making sure that three people under me
are going through a complicated set of
procedures to secure their own commissions
is not my cup of tea.
But lets even suppose that over time, I
got better at this and I could effectively
teach my three upgrades to become
qualified the right way, then I would
collect my commissions but...
What happens to my downline if they
are not able or do not have the time it
takes to teach their three members exactly
how to follow this procedure.
I would have collected my commissions
but my downline may get stuck holding
the bag.
I don't want to leave anyone holding the bag here.
Well, unless, or course, it is a Lipton tea bag:)
Frankly, I just think uVme is too complicated
for me and while there are training sessions to
tell you how to do this, in my opinion some people
may get stuck. I did.
So I am withdrawing my original recommendation
for this site.
This is not something I do often but, I do
want my recommendations to mean something
and sometimes I am wrong.
Let me make this clear .
This site may take off
It has some wonderful features and,
if you like to play games, this may
be your perfect vehicle for fun
and profits.
You may simply want to join just to
play the games and no one can argue
with that. Go to it.
If you focus and attend the training sessions
you may come out a winner at both of
the sites associated with this site.
And I hope you do.
But since many of our list members are new
to the net and I know how difficult it can be
to earn bucks, I will look for something that
is easier for you and has the deck stacked
in your favor.
Nothing in business comes easy.
Any program you join will require
your time and your attention. You will
need to train at the site and focus but
I have a cardinal rule.
If it seems too hard for me to do, there
may be others in the same boat and
I want you to be able to keep your head above
water when you embark on a new venture.
So use your own judgment here.
My word is not the final word
It is an opinion only and you know
what they say. "Everyone has an opinion"
Now, I don't know about you, but that all sounds like a whole big lotta hassle to go through just to be able to collect commissions from something. I totally agree with Jane that it seems too complicated, people will get frustrated and confused, and not be able to qualify for the commissions they worked hard to earn and give up. It's hard enough to find people who are willing to sign up for simple to do, free stuff that will make them money, if they have to pay over 200.00, then licensing fees every month on top of that, and then find people willing to sign up and pay, whether as an associate, promoter, or player, and then have to go through this big, complicated process, and make sure their downlines are all able to go through it too, it just isn't going to happen.
They have three levels you can join .. Associate, where you pay 197.00 + 65.00 as Jane did, (payable every 28 days), and you get your very own games platform and a .biz site..in essence, you own a game site and make commissions from promotors and players you recruit under you.. if you can manage to jump through the hoops.
For promotor level, you pay a one time fee of 199.97, which gets you your own game site, and you can earn commissions from players who join your site and play under you. You are not eligible to recruit (and earn from) Associates or other promotors, and you don't get a .biz site, only your own .com.
Then for players, you can play for free for 14 days, and then have to upload cash to your account so you can play games against other players and be eligible to win (or lose) money from playing. I was under the mistaken impression that people would be able to play free if they wanted to, not just for 14 days, but would just not win money or be eligible for challenges. That may have been misinterpretation on my part, but I could have sworn that's what I was originally told.
Bottom line is, this one just is not going to be the right opportunity for me, and I predict it is a wrong fit for most other people as well. As Jane says, this is just my opinion and I could very well be wrong. UVME isn't a scam, it's an opportunity like anything else, and people have to find the things that will work for them and fit their lifestyle, personality, and skill set. I should add that I never did get to even play the games, because I tried to log in to at least try out the games somehow, and see if they were worth paying money to play, but when I signed into my back office, there is no option to play games unless you first sign up as either an associate or promotor and agree to pay them money. I saw a few other sites advertising free games and to sign up and test out the games, and I was even tempted to sign up using a different email just to see what happens, and see if I would be able to play games that way, but I just decided it wasn't worth the effort. I suspect a lot of others will feel the same way.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Proofreading is Your Friend
PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD
I know this is the internet, and grammar and punctuation, and basic communication skills, like proper spelling, are sometimes woefully lacking in the things people choose to post. It’s just for entertainment, and who cares about proper spelling and grammar. This is true in most cases, but when you’re publishing something to your blog, or an article, or an ad page, would it be too much to ask to proofread what you're writing, use proper grammar and run the spellcheck? If you're chatting with your buddies in IMs or chattng casually in a group or forum, it's not such an issue, but in any kind of writing where you're attempting to sell something or teach someone something, taking the time to proof read and spell-check will go a long way in making the difference between people thinking of you as a real writer, a wannabe, or worse, a complete idiot. I know it's nitpicky, but it's a pet peeve of mine, and I know I'm not the only one. I'm not perfect, by any means, and even I am bad about not proofreading sometimes. When I go back and read some of the things I’ve posted, I see glaring typos, and I cringe! Let's review! It's "Let's go there", not "Let's go their". Their is possessive, there is a destination. It's "we were going", not "we was going". Read over what you write before you hit the send button. I read an article the other day by a woman who said she was a technical writer and made so many thousands of dollars in her job, and there were several typos and instances where she used the wrong word. She had obviously gone back and changed something in the article, but didn’t proof read after the change to be sure it made sense. I thought to myself that I hope she has an editor for her professional work. Even though she is probably great at her job, the errors in her article lowered my perception of the value of what she was saying. I know I'm not the only one who thinks this way. It's about image. Do you want people to think you know what you're talking about and are well-educated, or some hack spitting out garbage? To be fair, I know English is not the native language of many who publish online, and a lot of errors are inevitable and forgiveable in those cases, but for the American and English-speaking world, not so much.
I'm not suggesting that you should always use completely proper English and be absolutely perfect in your punctuation, etc. You have to write in your own style, in your own voice, and be real and connect with your readers. In some instances, your blog for example, it's perfectly fine to say "gonna" and start your sentences with but or and (even though it's wrong), and end your sentences with a preposition on occasion. Just be sure you spell the preposition right (not write) and that your sentences make sense. Spell checkers are your friend, and you should learn to use them! This will ensure you won’t end up with a post like this one I found on freelancing.
I was going to put the link to the blog so you could see the whole article, but it's a splog, so I won't. Maybe it doesn’t much matter what the article says, since it’s obviously only there for content purposes to pull in traffic for their Design Quote affiliate program links, but even splogs should be readable. The beginning of the article starts out great, with helpful, pertinent information on how to increase your freelancing income and manage being a freelancer.. but the end is where it goes horribly wrong..
This is what it says
Freelance Writers: Double Your Income
“Double your income by effort earnest most your business. Yes, if you impact as a worker writer, you are streaming a business. And as a business, you requirement to verify things seriously. Can you rattling threefold your income? Of instruction you can. Just ingest your instance more expeditiously and intend more and better-paying clients. We every undergo we hit likewise some life when we don’t intend as such impact finished as we should. That’s dustlike if you poverty to analyse yourself as a unaccompanied ‘artiste’ struggling with writer’s block. But it won’t revilement the condiment if you analyse what you do as a earnest business. Use your instance efficiently. Get the impact done. And encourage your services. If you are genuinely likewise unsure to garner up the sound or intercommunicate in face of a crowd, at small ingest your composition skills and create a promotional income collection you crapper beam discover to likely clients. And here’s the easiest artefact to threefold your income: intend meliorate clients and discuss higher fees. In fact, the meliorate the calibre of client, the more unstoppered they module be to negotiation, and the more they module knowledge your work...
and it goes on from there..
What’s up with that?? It looks like they may have used one of those article spinner programs that they claim will re-word your articles for you to make them different enough that you can submit them to several different places without duplicate content. Maybe it was one of those that you plug in your keywords and basic ideas and it writes the article for you. Whichever it was, the software, apparently, has a few bugs that need to be worked out.. and the poster needs to learn to proofread before he/she publishes. LOL
The point is, if you’re going to write things and publish them for the world to read, take 2 minutes of your time and proofread and spell check, so you don’t end up publishing things that look like the article above. You may think that noone cares, and maybe a lot of people don't, and are only interested in the information and ideas, and not so much how well you can write, but a lot of people do care. They will judge you on not only what you say, but how well you say it, and judge your business in the same way.
I know this is the internet, and grammar and punctuation, and basic communication skills, like proper spelling, are sometimes woefully lacking in the things people choose to post. It’s just for entertainment, and who cares about proper spelling and grammar. This is true in most cases, but when you’re publishing something to your blog, or an article, or an ad page, would it be too much to ask to proofread what you're writing, use proper grammar and run the spellcheck? If you're chatting with your buddies in IMs or chattng casually in a group or forum, it's not such an issue, but in any kind of writing where you're attempting to sell something or teach someone something, taking the time to proof read and spell-check will go a long way in making the difference between people thinking of you as a real writer, a wannabe, or worse, a complete idiot. I know it's nitpicky, but it's a pet peeve of mine, and I know I'm not the only one. I'm not perfect, by any means, and even I am bad about not proofreading sometimes. When I go back and read some of the things I’ve posted, I see glaring typos, and I cringe! Let's review! It's "Let's go there", not "Let's go their". Their is possessive, there is a destination. It's "we were going", not "we was going". Read over what you write before you hit the send button. I read an article the other day by a woman who said she was a technical writer and made so many thousands of dollars in her job, and there were several typos and instances where she used the wrong word. She had obviously gone back and changed something in the article, but didn’t proof read after the change to be sure it made sense. I thought to myself that I hope she has an editor for her professional work. Even though she is probably great at her job, the errors in her article lowered my perception of the value of what she was saying. I know I'm not the only one who thinks this way. It's about image. Do you want people to think you know what you're talking about and are well-educated, or some hack spitting out garbage? To be fair, I know English is not the native language of many who publish online, and a lot of errors are inevitable and forgiveable in those cases, but for the American and English-speaking world, not so much.
I'm not suggesting that you should always use completely proper English and be absolutely perfect in your punctuation, etc. You have to write in your own style, in your own voice, and be real and connect with your readers. In some instances, your blog for example, it's perfectly fine to say "gonna" and start your sentences with but or and (even though it's wrong), and end your sentences with a preposition on occasion. Just be sure you spell the preposition right (not write) and that your sentences make sense. Spell checkers are your friend, and you should learn to use them! This will ensure you won’t end up with a post like this one I found on freelancing.
I was going to put the link to the blog so you could see the whole article, but it's a splog, so I won't. Maybe it doesn’t much matter what the article says, since it’s obviously only there for content purposes to pull in traffic for their Design Quote affiliate program links, but even splogs should be readable. The beginning of the article starts out great, with helpful, pertinent information on how to increase your freelancing income and manage being a freelancer.. but the end is where it goes horribly wrong..
This is what it says
Freelance Writers: Double Your Income
“Double your income by effort earnest most your business. Yes, if you impact as a worker writer, you are streaming a business. And as a business, you requirement to verify things seriously. Can you rattling threefold your income? Of instruction you can. Just ingest your instance more expeditiously and intend more and better-paying clients. We every undergo we hit likewise some life when we don’t intend as such impact finished as we should. That’s dustlike if you poverty to analyse yourself as a unaccompanied ‘artiste’ struggling with writer’s block. But it won’t revilement the condiment if you analyse what you do as a earnest business. Use your instance efficiently. Get the impact done. And encourage your services. If you are genuinely likewise unsure to garner up the sound or intercommunicate in face of a crowd, at small ingest your composition skills and create a promotional income collection you crapper beam discover to likely clients. And here’s the easiest artefact to threefold your income: intend meliorate clients and discuss higher fees. In fact, the meliorate the calibre of client, the more unstoppered they module be to negotiation, and the more they module knowledge your work...
and it goes on from there..
What’s up with that?? It looks like they may have used one of those article spinner programs that they claim will re-word your articles for you to make them different enough that you can submit them to several different places without duplicate content. Maybe it was one of those that you plug in your keywords and basic ideas and it writes the article for you. Whichever it was, the software, apparently, has a few bugs that need to be worked out.. and the poster needs to learn to proofread before he/she publishes. LOL
The point is, if you’re going to write things and publish them for the world to read, take 2 minutes of your time and proofread and spell check, so you don’t end up publishing things that look like the article above. You may think that noone cares, and maybe a lot of people don't, and are only interested in the information and ideas, and not so much how well you can write, but a lot of people do care. They will judge you on not only what you say, but how well you say it, and judge your business in the same way.
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