FTC, Affiliates, Product Claims, Article Marketing, Kimkins? Phew!
I have to begin today with the source of the sudden frenzy:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9a58f44c-1fae-11de-a1df-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
It appears the FTC has finally decided to start cracking down on products that are promoted via viral marketing and using false claims. This crack down can be extended to blogs as well who chose to publish those materials.
The main target of the new guidelines appears to be the widespread practice of viral marketing in which companies recruit non- employees to talk up products in exchange for samples or promotions.
So, where does this put things?
Well, product owners are now responsible for what other are saying about the product. In addition, as a blog owner – should you blog something about a product endorsing it, you could be in hot water if the findings you publish are not true.
I had to think about all the original articles that Kimkins had floating around. Those articles are still found on miscelaneous blogs, and many are so far from the truth as far as the information they deliver. The original source of many of those artilcles can be traced back to Kimkins.com. And what becomes of the article directories harboring those materials? The viral marketing that has been touched on refers more toware social sites like Twitter and Facebook – but should only one child be punished for being bad when all of them did it?
What is to be said about the Kimkins affiliate program? Affiliates who can not afford the plan are incentived with the option to promote the diet, sell a few, and get a membership. But, how do you promote something you know nothing about? You are reliant on sources found freely on the web.
An uneducated blogger may choose to find previously published articles as a means to promote. Hey, we’ve seen it happen folks. In turn, the blogger can be held responsible for publishing misleading information, as well as the main source of the product – in this particular case I’m referring to Kimkins.con.
I wish these matters had been brought up a few years ago.
And while some marketers are beginning to scream “Not fair!” It forces marketers to be a little more careful of what they are promoting.
I won’t lie to you. There is an easy formula to marketing and it is quite possible to follow that formula over and over – using it for a variety of products available online. It almost makes it too simple to sell something.
I for one have no issue with taking some time to decide if what I’m promoting is really all that it says it is. I hope this scare will encourage others to take a good look at what they are doing. It could really help clean up some of the crap out there.
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Snapbomb Pays!
I was just waiting to finalize the results. I did a review of http://snapbomb.com a little while back, and just wanted to confirm the company pays.
Snapbomb payment
I’m just a starter there, but the longer you are a member and the more you blog the more you can get paid for your blogging.
It all depends on the topic.
You are shown some niches where sites are desperately looking for someone to blog about their topics. Find one that matches a blog you have, apply to blog it, and blog away.
This literally took me just a few minutes.
You can see my initial post on snapbomb: http://affiliatescams.wurdmess.com/snapbomb-a-new-way-to-blog-for-profit/
I don’t get paid for referrals to this site – I just like to share when something works. If you’re still looking to make your first dollar online, don’t get discouraged! This is something you may want to try.
Share this Post[?] Snapbomb – A New Way to Blog for Profit
Are you looking for more ways to monetize on your blog? Tired of waiting for someone to click on and purchase your affiliate products? Or perhaps you’ve been scouting out those “paid for post” opportunities on other peoples blogs. What if I told you you could get paid just for writing a few hundred words on your own blog? Write on topics that really do interest you, and get paid!
The latest buzz in blogging is all about Snapbomb! Now, it couldn’t get any easier to make some money on your blog no matter what your niche.
This is truly blog marketing at it’s finest. Here’s how it works. You can sign up for a free account at Snapbomb. Submit your blogs to the system, and Snapbomb will match you up with advertisers looking for people to blog about their topics. You choose which products or services you’d like to blog about. Simply apply, wait for approval, and you are given a bid on what the advertiser will pay for your post.
The more content you have and the more popular your blog is, the more you can get paid just to post.
The opportunities available are extremely varied. From coins to green technology to healthcare – you name it.
Are you are an advertiser looking to spread the word about your new site? Go beyond the press release and get bloggers to create the buzz for you. Blog advertising lasts a whole lot longer than adsense. Get more bang for your buck when bloggers basically add a permanent virtual bulletin board leading back to your site. Valuable content on your topic is already on the web waiting for you to take advantage of it.
Content is king and you’ve worked hard for yours. Now is the time to get even more for it.
Make the most out of your virtual real estate, and visit Snapbomb today.
Share this Post[?] How Heidi Does Kimkins?
Filed under: blog, Diet, kimkins, product creation, video, viral marketing
I just couldn’t resist. CAUTION! Heiney here:
Now, obviously this is not how Heidi does Kimkins. One has only to find the pictures and video that are everywhere on the web to find your answers.
Share this Post[?] Part 2: 1on40
I was pulling my hair out somewhat this morning (and you’d think I’d be much more careful about it after Kimkins) as I was researching someone who I am still trying to figure out how to go about “calling them out.”
Anyway, it all boiled back down to SEO again, and I was reminded of 1on40. My first typing in of the term was an interesting typo – that was 10n40 – that’s a ten, the letter “n” and the number 40. The o (letter o) and the 0 (zero) are in very close placement on the keyboard. I’ll give that little tidbit away for free for anyone who happens over this often depressing and sadistic blog. So, I got some results with the typo’s (very exciting) and decided to type in properly, and noticed that finally the sweet little hub page I was following had trickled down and the master “1on40″ was at the top.
I was sad to see the hub page project by Terry G had dropped to 3rd on the ranking. But to be honest – I called it a week or so ago. Yes, all those new affiliates have slapped coded banners on their sites, in addition to sprinkling links in blogs, hub pages, and God only knows where – and now there are a bazillion back links getting settled in – and what a mess this will be if indeed 1on40 is deemed a scam. The clean-up will be enormous. The winner now is the 1on40 headquarters dot net and dot com sites.
I am beginning to see the nay-sayers now. A person going by the name of “felix” appeared on Terry’s webpage, crying that google has banned his site, and his page rank has dropped. I wish felix had left a little more information. If anyone would like to leave comments here on this blog, with details and links to your sites please do.
I was a little excited to see my “part 1: 1on40” hanging in there on the front page. I had only blogged once before about it, and I was sure there had to be some people pushing it harder than I was. I think one of my advantages here is the sheer power of WordPress.
Someone joked that maybe 1on40 had shut down scam.com. The site was down for a few days, and like a junkie I was jonesing for scam to get fixed. It has been back up for a week or so now. I visited Scam, and found this great thread here. 1on40 is being compared to MTT aka morethantraffic (dot) com. This company is gone, but many suspect this is a repeat, including Reg, who has his own problems with 1on40 and is documenting them at his forum.
This is just a mini-update for now, and I’ll be continuing on with this soon. I’m sure some people will be interested in some video stuff I have done (if the real scam is revealed) and more that I’m working on – like how to file a complaint with the FTC.
Share this Post[?] More Spring Cleaning – A Letter to my Fellow Anti-Kimkins Bloggers, And Forum Posters
Dear Fellow Bloggers,
I know you didn’t mean to do it. I have even done it myself in the past, and now I understand even more why I shouldn’t have done it.
They are buried, and while I was digging in the internet garden yesterday I came across a lot of them. Some of you have probably completely forgotten about them – but they are there, and have taken root.
Bloggers of all levels are in on this one – even the ones that the majority of us visit.
I know you didn’t mean to do it, but now I must ask – in the battle against Kimkins – if you could all pitch in for some spring cleaning.
What am I talking about?
Within many of your blogs – the majority being posts created last year – there are still links to Kimkins.com. They are “back links.” There might be only 1, 2, or 3 on your blog, but the accumulation of them from many blogs has added up and they are all pointing to Kimkins.
Why is this a bad thing?
Back links are a huge factor in the ranking and support of a website. Some links, like the ones from news organizations are not in our control. But the ones in our personal blogs are.
I am asking all bloggers to please take some time to do some spring cleaning and gardening today. Please remove direct links to Kimkins off your blog, and replace the link to something you feel really represents what Kimkins is.
I am not going to name any names here. I know you have all been extremely busy and working hard. I just hate to see us sabotaging ourselves.
To the Forum Posters -
I understand the listing of information from the Who Is and addresses provided to submit complaints. But within this information as well, links to Kimkins are sticking – and sticking it to us. If you come across one of these links on your forum, I would like to ask if you could please send a message to the forum director asking them to break the link. Also, if you need to list the Kimkins web site that you please be sure to break the link.
I will be doing some spring cleaning myself today, and I hope you will join me.
Thank you all who have worked to help.
Sincerely,
Avenue Girl
Share this Post[?] Product Creation
Filed under: affiliate marketing, blog, Diet, kimkins, product creation, Uncategorized
I get a lot of emails from lists that I’m subscribed to. One of the emails I received today was from Dylan Loh.
Dylan emailed just to point out a blog post about taking action, Read more
Share this Post[?] Am I Off Topic Here?
Filed under: affiliate marketing, blog, Diet, kimkins, Uncategorized
I am taking a chance with this blog. I have broken one of the cardinal rules. My blog currently covers two topics. Yet, these two things cross paths in so many ways. Read more
Share this Post[?] SEO, Search Engine Optimization
Filed under: affiliate marketing, blog, Diet, kimkins, Uncategorized, viral marketing
I just got wind that my How to Join a Lawsuit video was doing well with some rankings. Thanks everyone for all your support, and thank you to all the new lawsuit sign ups!
In the battle against starvation diets, many have spent hours posting information in an attempt to balance out the search engine results.
I just came across a little report : Search Engine Myths Exposed. I checked it out as it was my favorite word (free) thinking, what am I going to get for nothing?
All I can say is WOW! There are things in there for not just the bloggers, but for everyone who could use a little help in understanding how the whole search engine ranking thing works.
I highly encourage you all to download this free report. You may be prompted with a “wait, you will only see this page once” page. You are not obligated to buy anything. Just scroll through and you will get to the report.
The importance of complimentary links cannot be stressed enough. So I would like to thank Tim and Oh Yeah Babe for bringing this to my attention.
If there is something in the report/ebook that someone does not understand, please comment so I can try to explain it to you in a future blog post.
The more we know about what we are doing, the better we can do it!
For my in depth review on this report go to: http://marketingproductreview.com/review-search-engine-myths/
Share this Post[?] Can your blog get Hacked?
All was quiet. I spent a day on the phone, sorting, planning, finding some nice honest websites to do business with. It was an unusual day, as I had not had a chance to check my favorite forum boards and see what the latest news was.
Not even one minute into trying to catch up I see “News Flash!!! Yust Yucky Was Hacked!!!” I just about lost it, as I’ve been neglective myself and did not have the proper back ups to my blog. On top of that, Yucky is WordPress too!
Freaking out, I flipped here to affiliate scams.
The relief. All the time put in so far to starting this blog. I know, it’s not like Gone With The Wind or anything, but hey! It’s mine!
And maybe it will help someone. That is the whole point of leaving it displayed to the world.
Relief set in when I saw all was in tact. But then came the question. Could my blog get hacked?
The answer sadly is YES.
Taragana has a little something on the possibilities of a WordPress hacking. There are many more on the subject as well.
I don’t really know if Yucky was hacked. But the important thing to run with here is be sure to back up your blog.
Share this Post[?] Smoke This
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