A Repost for the Archives

The buzz word in today’s business world is MARKETING.
However, most people often ask for a simple explanation of “Marketing.”
Here it is:

You’re a woman and you see a handsome guy at a party.
You  go up to  him and say, “I’m fantastic in bed,”
That’s Direct Marketing.

You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a handsome guy.
One of your friends goes up to him and pointing at you says,
“She’s fantastic in bed,”
That’s Advertising.

You see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and get
his telephone number. The next day you call and say,”Hi, I’m
fantastic in bed,”
That’s Telemarketing.

You’re at a party and see a handsome guy. You get up and
straighten your dress. You walk up to him and pour him a drink.
You say,”May I,” and reach up to straighten his tie brushing your
breast lightly against his arm, and then say,
“By the way, I’m fantastic in bed,”
That’s Public Relations.

You’re at a party and see a handsome guy. He walks up
to you and says,”I hear you’re fantastic in bed,”
That’s Brand Recognition.

You’re at a party and see a handsome guy.
You talk him into going home with your friend.
That’s a Sales Rep.

Your friend can’t satisfy him so he calls you.
That’s Tech Support.

You’re on your way to a party when you realize that
there could be handsome men in all these houses
you’re passing.  So you climb onto the roof of one
situated toward the center and shout  at the top of your
lungs, “I’m fantastic in bed!”
That’s Junk Mail.

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Is Nothing Sacred?

There is an old saying ” Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story” Well in this case it is Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good piece of bullshit internet marketing.

The headline read:

“Did Michael Phelps use this?”

And goes on to say:

“Did you notice that Eight-Time US Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps always had an mp3 in his ear just before his Olympic swims? It works!

You can be sure many other people in all walks of life will eventually pick up on “what was Phelps listening to.”

The advertised program is for subliminal messages which you run on your PC. This is not a review on the effectiveness or not, of this program or any other like it. I just can’t believe that some people will use any means of deception to try and sell a product.

This type of program is usually geared towards the mentally, emotionally and Financially vulnerable, which makes this type of deception particularly offensive. The inference that possibly the greatest olympian of all time owes his success in part to this program disgusts me. If Michael Phelps did indeed use this program you would think it would be at the top of the sales page or at least on the testimonials page.

So what does Michael Phelps Listen to ? According to Yahoo’s Sports blog:

“Phelps listens to hip-hop music on his. He says it helps motivate him before a race.

While his pre-race tracklist varies, Phelps has said that “I’m Me” by Lil’ Wayne has been on his playlist in Beijing.”

or from his own webpage :

“at the world championships I was listening to Young Jeezy”

I am once again reminded of this quote from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC):

“If you decide to become a distributor, you are legally responsible for the claims you make about the company, its product and related business opportunities. That applies even if you simply repeat claims you read in a brochure or flyer. ”

So congratulations “Oscar” and welcome to the MLM  sorry MWM (Marketing without Morals) Hall of Shame.

In closing let me add that I am neither an American or a fan of Michael Phelps. I am just pissed of at the continual lies and crap being pushed onto unsuspecting consumers.

regards

Phil Miranda

 

The Hunger Site

 

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Stop the Internet, I want to get off.

I started out looking at a site called “The Work at Home Millionaire” (workathomemillionairesystem.com) which was sent to me via a solo ad. The site had all the bells and whistles along with the usual rag to riches bullshit story.

Two things popped out at me which sent me on another wild ride from website to website and proved once again how difficult is for the newcomer to find a way to earn an income online.

The first thing that I noticed was one of the testimonials from a Mike Morse of Ohio who stated “A Six-Figure Income In My Pajamas…” Now while my memory ain’t what it used to be, I remember seeing this picture before. Sure enough after a quick check I found it at the top of the sales page for

Lamont Braxton and marrkettrends.com

which I wrote about just last month. No surprise then that the second thing that bothered me was the postal address at the bottom of the page.

PO Box 6543; Traverse City, MI. 49696

It is registered to JB Virtual Enterprises run by Justin Blake.

Now Mr Blake has been mentioned on this site many times and for all the wrong reasons. But God love him it doesn’t stop him from continuing to provide the quality of sites and service that he has become renowned for.

In November, 2007 I wrote about

Top-3-Work-From-Home.com

run by Justin Blake. Well that site now redirects to

http://www.make-money-online-reviews.com/

which again reviews the top 3 work at home sites. Can you guess which site is number one? That’s Right. The Work at Home Millionaire. It of course uses the name Michael Mathews and the domain name is registered to Domains by Proxy. Justin is starting to get the idea now. All he needs to do now is change the postal address at the bottom of the sales page and we might actually believe that their is a Michael Mathews who can show us how to become a millionaire in 365 days.

The second site is Stay at Home System by Rachel Ryan, another quality site from Justin Blake with another dubious name and a rags to riches story. Read this testimonial from a real customer.

Ripoff Report 2008

I think if I kept looking I would have found more crap but I am already dizzy from riding the Justin Blake Merry-go-round. I think JB Virtual Enterprises should be renamed to JB Virtual Enema because of all the crap that keeps coming out of it.

Still if you think I am being harsh just Google “Justin Blake” and read some other testimonials from REAL Customers.

regards

Phil Miranda

ps: another testimonial on the “Work at Home Millionaire” is from Shawn Casey. A famous? internet marketer who just happens to be an Attorney and who also supplies the privacy policy and terms of service for several of Justin’s websites. What are the odds ?

 

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Can you believe these guys ?

Just 3 weeks after all the hype and bullshit about Google Nemesis this email arrives in my inbox from Chris X about Google Massacre. It has been produced by Andrew X and Steven Lee Jones who 3 weeks ago were singing the praises of Google Nemesis.

Now lets see what Chris X has to say on the sales page of Google Massacre :

“Okay here it is, the one i’ve been waiting for…”

“All you need is this one super-advanced, super stealth Adwords money making method to stay one step ahead of your competition”

 

The one you have been waiting for ? All you need is this ? 

Still maybe we should admire people who are full of shit and don’t try to hide it. Or maybe they think we have memories like goldfish. Either way it just proves that these guys don’t give a rats arse how they make their money.

By the way I was just wondering how everyone is going with their websites reviewing “run your car on water” sites. You know the one he was letting you copy. The one that made him 1,500 a day or something like that. The one that google banned from adwords sending out this email recently:

“Dear AdWords Advertiser,

We’re writing to let you know about a change to Google’s advertising policies that may affect your AdWords account.

Beginning in the coming weeks, we will no longer accept ads promoting ‘run your car on water’ and ‘water for gas’ type content. We’ve made the decision to disallow such advertisements based on business considerations and user feedback.

When we make this change, Google will suspend all ads identified as being in violation of this policy. If your account is affected by this policy change, please make any necessary changes to your site to comply.

We have thought hard about our stance on the advertising of this content and the potential effect our policy decision could have on AdWords advertisers. However, as a business, Google must make decisions regarding the advertising that we accept. We apologize for the inconvenience this policy change may cause you.

Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team
** As noted in our advertising Terms and Conditions at https://adwords.google.com/select/tsandcsfinder, Google may refuse any ads or terminate ad campaigns at any time, for any reason. Please note that the decisions we make concerning advertising in no way affect the search results we deliver. Google offers broad access to content across the web without censoring search results.

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043 ”

You can of course be sure that Chris X and CO knew this was coming and had no problem giving away the details of a campaign that was finished before it even started.

Nice work guys. You must be very proud !

no regards

Phil Miranda

 

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Lamont Braxton and marrkettrends.com

You know when a sales page starts with :

“I need to get this off my chest before I explode!! ”

It is going to be another ride on the bullshit express. Well I am pleased to say this particular site didn’t dissapoint. As usual it is the story of an under paid worker who after much testing, refining and yes even personal cost to themselves finally cracked the big time. He is of course now ready to give us the benefit of his wisdom and the financial freedom we have been seeking for years. 

If you read the sales page HERE you will find alot of reference to their “Special Sheet Of Paper ” which you mail out to bring in the mega bucks. Actually it is mentioned 7 times. I think there is a room in the house which would be a good place to use this “Special Sheet Of Paper ” Can you guess which one ?

What I love most about this piece of dribble is how Mr Braxton keeps refering to ” They” when talking about this great company called Marrkettrends, when the sales page is just another page on the same website which is registered to Lamont Braxton.

According to the whois info this particular website has been operating since 2002 where courtesy of the wayback machine it was dealing in commodities and options trading.

Archive of Marrkettrends 2002

But according to the sales page:

“Just over 4 years ago in 2004 I was pushing crates for a living at $11.00 dollars an hour, working 70 to 95 hours a week (Including weekends) trying to support my wife and two kids. After two years of this I had ENOUGH!”

According to Google the complaints have been around for the same amount of time, with 4 out of 10 first page results involving complaints on work at home forums and postings on the ripoff report.

If you think I am being harsh then check out these posts:

Complaints.Com 2002

Ripoff Report 2006

Ripoff Report 2008

at least he is consistent, or is it “they” ? I get so confused sometimes

regards

Phil Miranda

 

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When Free is going to cost you.

A previous comment prompted this post which relates to those offers of free DVD’s or monthly newsletters sent right to your home. All you pay is the shipping and handling. Sounds good ?

Now companies have been doing this for years. It is a common and very successful technique to build a mailing list. The problem is when you have Internet Guru’s with the morals of an alley cat on heat doing it that it may pose a problem.

When you sign up for one of these free offers you are giving them your fullname, address, telephone number and credit card information. In fact on one of the websites I checked even the telephone number is mandatory. So lets have a look at part of the privacy policy from one high profile guru:

“Members may be asked to provide certain personal information when they signup for our products or services……………

However, in instances where our company and a partner jointly promote our services we may provide the partner certain personal information, such as name address and username of persons who subscribed to the services as a result of the joint promotion for the purpose of offering you other products and services………………

If you order products or services directly from our company, we use the personal information you provide to process that order. We do share this information with outside parties that we do business with.”   

So in effect you are giving them permission to send you anything they deem relevant as well as permission to make their lists available to anyone they see fit. As I said, not a new practice and seemingly within the law as stated in the privacy policy. 

The difference with Internet Guru’s as opposed to other business is this can and does happen:

“I gave them permission to send me free dvds just to pay postage and handling. They only offered credit card. I received two dvds and a magazine that was supposed be valued at $39.95. All was crappy stuff.
A few days later I was sent a email that they accepted my payment for $47.90 for a monthly subscription.
Another sad truth a couple emails to their help desk yielded returns stating their email boxes were full.
So I guess the next thing to do is alert my card company stating this a fraud.

Name withheld ”

So once again, please read the terms of service as well as the privacy policy and make sure you know exactly what you are signing up for.

regards

Phil Miranda

Terms of Service: By visiting this site and reading this post or any other post, you agree to provide your firstborn child to the author. In the event you have no children a suitable alternative shall be accepted at the sole discretion of the author.

 

The Hunger Site

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Google Nemesis (aka Here we go again)

Seems the Guru’s are falling all over each other promoting the free video leading up to the launch of this “Amazing” product. If you haven’t seen the video I can tell you in a  nutshell he is showing how much money he has made selling “Run your car on water” ebooks on clickbank.

I watched most of it before I started to lose the will to live. The rest I scanned briefly looking for something resembling ROI. Now for anyone new that means Return on Investment or put simply the money made minus the money spent. I am not going to dispute the clickbank figures but I would be interested to know the advertising costs in total.

There are a  number of problems I have with this video and the planned release of Google Nemesis. If you go to the website Chris  is highlighting you find the affiliate id of “theipaff” on all the clickbank links. A quick google of this id shows that the link  to various clickbank products is advertised on youtube and dozens of forums especially related to motor cars.

Nothing wrong with that but how many sales are coming from these and not adwords. Also the websites he uses link straight to the sales page. A big no no if you listen to other successful ? affilliates. You know, Capture their email address, build trust and promote yourself as an authority. Sure I have made money sending customers straight to a sales page but I know I could have had more success with a capture page and follow up emails.

Maybe, like me he finds the subject to boring and just couldn’t be bothered writing about it. I might just add here that I have seen plans for this type of conversion and even with 25 years as a BMW Technician and Technical College Teacher I would be flat out implementing this system into my own car. Still it doesn’t matter what you sell as long as you make money ?

Finally I always have to ask this question whenever I see someone eager to show everyone how to make money with adwords when they are already making millions themselves.

WHY ?

Why share your secrets. Why show people how to put themselves in direct competition with yourself. A kind heart ? A giving nature ? Me thinks not. In my opinion it is to make more money selling the ebook because they know that not only have they stretched the truth in most cases but that like most PPC campaigns they are always tending towards breaking even. It is the nature of this type of advertising.

So in summary. These things bother me.

* How many sales came from  sources other than Google Adwords ?

* What was the ROI ?

* Is it moral or ethical to run a review site on something you haven’t reviewed? In this case an honest review would involve building the system laid out in every ebook promoted. While the salespage infers that I doubt it very much.

And finally.

* Why reveal these secrets if you are making over 2 Million dollars a year?

Anyone care to have a go answering these questions ?

regards

Phil Miranda

ps: I thought Day Job Killer was the last book you would ever need ?

 

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A Rose by any other Name.

surfjunky.com is not a scam. There, I said it. It hurts me to admit it but what they say about their monthly payments to members is true:

“We haven’t been late with a single account yet! ”

Here is the reason why. If you go to the terms of service page you will find this:

“By signing up and actively using the Surf Junky program you agree to all terms and conditions set forth in this agreement.”

and this:

“Surf Junky is currently in a beta testing phase. Members will be notified by email when Surf Junky is no longer in the beta phase of it’s development. Any credit or commission earned during this beta testing time shall not be considered as payable income.”

So it is there for all to see. Right in the middle of a 22 line paragraph. How can you miss it ? I mean this program works so well in Beta Phase that it hasn’t needed updating since 2004-2005 according to its copyright. Besides, for surfjunky to be a scam it would have to fit into the definition of a scam such as “deprive of by deceit”

Hang on !

The Home page says in red highlights “Earn up to” “Get paid for 3 levels” “Earn money joining” “Payments sent on the 15th of every month” “highest payout rate anywhere” “On time monthly payments”

Whereas the part about beta phase is in plain black writing and stuck right in the middle of the largest paragraph on the page. Is that a little bit deceitful ? Make up your own mind. For now I will just leave surfjunky.com in the Scams, Lies and Crap category. I am sure it fits in one of those.

A Rose by any other name ?

regards

Phil Miranda

 

The Hunger Site

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Would I Lie To You ?

I made a brief post about legitonlinejobs last year.

Original post HERE

At the time I mentioned how it is difficult for the average person to know who to trust when the site has a seal of approval from a company called honestEonline.

Well legitonlinejobs has added another icon to help promote consumer confidence in the shape of trust-guard.com certification. Now being the cynic that I am I decided to have a quick look at this company. It didn’t take long to find something a bit odd. If you go to their home page HERE

At the bottom of each page you will see this:

“2006 -2007 Trust Guard - A Global Marketing Strategies LLC company. All Rights Reserved”

So I decided to look up Global Marketing Strategies and found it belongs to a different company in a different state. No problem, they could still be affiliated, Yes ?

Well have a look at this email response from the real Global Marketing Strategies and make up your own mind.

“On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 9:06 PM, Phil Miranda <> wrote:
Hello

Can you confirm for me that you are associated with this company as I wish  to do business with them.

Regards

Phil Miranda”

 

“We are not associated with this company.”

Jeanne Atkinson, President
Global Marketing Strategies LLC
32 West 40th Street Suite 2B
New York, New York 10018
globalmarketingstrategies@****.com
http://www.global-marketing-strategies.com/

The prostitution Rests. (Kelly Bundy )

Trust no one !

regards

Phil Miranda

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Where are they now ?

Don’t you love those shows that look back at your favorite TV shows from the past and ask ” Where are they now ? ”

Well it is 12 months since I wrote a post about 3500weekly.com featuring Joan and Randy Jett entitiled

Lets do the time warp again

It seems that Jean and Randy Jett have been very busy although depending on which site you go to there seems to be some confusion as to who is the brains behind this enterprise.

At youwillgetpaid.com and 3500weekly.com it is Jean who is going to “personally help you make an excellent monthly income on the internet”

but if you go to getrichweb.com it is Jean’s son Randy who will ” help every single person on the internet make thousands of dollars every single month”

Still, given the choice I would go with Randy as he can make you $30,000 monthly whereas Jean can only make you $5000 a month. Sorry Mum ! Hope I don’t start a family argument.

Anyway back to the original post 12 months ago I suggested that they post some updated proof of payments. Seems they took my advice although I wouldn’t exactly call them updated. Actually I wouldn’t even call them real except for the two checks found on the last page here:

http://www.youwillgetpaid.com/adsenseproof/

I am no expert but I am pretty sure that Jeremy Schoemaker of shoemoney and Markus Frind of plentyoffish did not use Jean and Randy’s system to make their money. (plentyoffish has an alexa ranking of 667 !)

Actually the shoemoney check is for $132,994.97 and not $122,994.97 as stated on the proof of earnings page. Guess those mistakes are easy to make when you are using google images.

Well at least they updated the proof of payments page so my work here is done.

If you want to read more about this fine mother and son team here are some links:

Ripoff Report

Better Business Bureau

Website Babble

Scam.com

and my personal favorite from a few years ago

Keener v. Jett, et al

regards

Phil Miranda

ps: I just checked my calendar. It is definitely 2008 now, so time to update those screenshots guys !

pps: If you can spare the time please visit the Hunger Site and consider adding a banner or link on your own site.

The Hunger Site

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