Don Fleece, Traffic Mysteries, Confessions and Reality
Filed under: affiliate marketing, don fleece, video, viral marketing
A couple of days ago I blogged about Don Fleece and Traffic Mysteries 2 – a new product and unheard of product creator in the IM world. Today is confession time. This was all part of a hoax.
It was an elaborate plan masterminded by Frank Kern to get the attention of John Reese who is the creator of Traffic Secrets. Seems Frank owed John some “payback” for a stunt back in 2006.
Don Fleece is an imaginary guru, the Traffic Mysteries product does not exist, but…
In the story I told about the marketer who did not realize the reality of Kimkins and the points made in checking out a new product and its creator – those are sincerely real and valid.
I have to confess, I was in on the traffic mysteries thing. I knew there was no product in the end or money to be taken from anyone and I have to admit – I was not going to originally add the product to this blog as I have no intentions of fooling the real readers but it tied in nicely with the real story of things that were happening. No one was going to get scammed out of their money.
I am elated that at least a couple of people did get something out of it all. One commenter on the post who I believe didn’t realize the hoax learned some additional techniques in investigating a product, and a fitness blogger was kind enough to blog on the danger to his readers of promoting 3rd party products as well as mentioning Kimkins which really is greatly appreciated.
John Reese has left a comment which I will address privately, as he seems to be a little upset but I will add a public apology here –> John I am sorry for any stress this has caused you and in reality we all love and admire you! –> and would like to assure Mr. Reese there are some really great things that have come out of this exercise.
This particular project was not only an opportunity for me to spread the word on my cause, but turned into one of the biggest networking frenzies I’ve ever seen. I was able to greatly expand my circle of contacts through this excursion and additionally I was able to release a lot of stress that had still been pent up over struggles of the past year.
Within days, a group of us had created an active looking pre-launch forum (I may have knitted quite a few socks), created a “buzz” and managed to get some people believing this was a real product. Some of the methods used to start the stir are available to every marketer out there. Hub, Squidoo, blogging, social bookmarking – all things available freely on the web.
Something that should have been a dead giveaway was the picture used of Mr. Fleece with his anti drule invention. This was in reality a feminine product hanging out of his mouth and I am ROFLMBO as I type this.
Some additional personalities were created such as Fleece’s cousin Vern who was giving video testimonials and was not amused that Wurdmess had questioned the integrity of Traffic Mysteries and Fleece.
Today I am back to another project that is real work, but I would like to thank all the posters who came by, thank you to Frank Kern for the opportunity to participate in something that I have learned and gained much from, and a really big thank you as well to John Reese for stopping by.
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Don Fleece and Traffic Mysteries?
Who is Don Fleece? And what is Traffic Mysteries?
I bring this up today after trying to put out some fires last night. I’m going to go off topic for a bit, but you will find it is all relevant information.
I’m going to dive back into Kimkins for this post. For those who may be seeing this blog for the first time, please to check out my “about” page. Basically, I was taken in by an internet fraud. We have been actively involved in a class action lawsuit, counter suits have been filed, and it is all about a woman Heidi Diaz aka Kimmer who used pictures stolen from a Russian brides website to portray herself and her false claims of losing 198 lbs in 11 months and then charging members to join her made up diet site only to ban them when the gig was up. Not a low carb mouthful;) She even made over a million dollars in a month last year when the diet graced the cover of Womans World magazine. WW was given pictures of a Russian bride as well and never sent anyone out personally to verify the story.
In my journeys last night I was directed to a blog were a marketer was promoting the Kimkins diet. It was quite apparent to me that this marketer was grossly uninformed. She was under the impression that Kimmer had lost weight. As we all know know thanks most recently to AmyB this is not the case. We knew it when we got the PI footage of our so called diet guru last year. We now know from court papers that Heidi Diaz has told many lies.
I am concerned for this marketer. I am actually seriously concerned. When I went to promote the Kimkins diet there was virtually no information on “Kimmer” other than the information that came from other affiliate websites which at the time was all pro Kimkins. Now, if you just google Kimkins there is the Kimkins site at the top followed by an endless stream of sites exposing the fraud in an effort to save potential buyers from falling into the trap. Did the marketer I visit not check this out? It is of the utmost importance one take the time to investigate a product and it’s creator before promoting. And after a product has been out for a couple of years this can take litterally minutes. Checking sites like the better business bureau, doing some general search engine searches, looking over at scam.com for instance. Why would anyone want to promote a woman who is a fraud is completely beyond me.
I am hopeful right now that this marketer just didn’t do a proper investigation. Otherwise it sends me the message that this marketer is willing to promote a fraud just to get 20 bucks a head.
So now I come full circle and back to my post today. Who is Don Fleece? And just what is this Traffic Mysteries? There is an increasing buzz on the internet over the past few days.
Apparently Don Fleece is a man who has been behind the scenes in internet marketing. He appears to be grossly unheard of yet there is a forum with members and everything for a pre-launch of Traffic Mysteries. Could all those people be for real?
Here is a prime example of a product one should be extremely hesitant to jump on as a marketer. So what would I do?
Here’s a simple run down list of some investigative tips to find out what you can before promoting a person and their product.
- Google Search. Take a moment to google Don Fleece and Traffic Mysteries. Look for sites discussing the product and the man and read as much as you can.
- Do a domain name check. See if the owner of the site is willing to put their name on the WHOIS. I have actually been able to call product owners in the past and get some more information. If the site is listed all as private you should be skeptical. Although I have to add even if there is convincing information provided, don’t completely fall for it. Look further into addresses and other information provided.
- Backlink check. Throw the site into a backlink checker to see if their are any articles or sites pointing to the promotional site. Look to see how old the blogs and sites are that are promoting the product. If it is a one or two page blog that is only a few weeks old, it is not necessarily a reputable source.
- Don’t just “believe” celebrity or guru endorsements. If you see a name you recognize endorsing the product you should email or contact that person and verify with them that that is them.
- Check reputable forums and just keep digging.
There are more steps you can take, but that list is a good start.
I know all too well from the case of Kimkins how easy it is to start a forum and create sockpuppets. Unscrupulous methods were used in the creation of the Kimkins diet site – including posters answering q&a on Yahoo for instance claiming celebrities had done the diet. These were all false rumors spread to further the promotion.
I have left comments for the blog of the marketer currently promoting Kimkins, but I’m waiting for them to be moderated. It just goes to show me my work here is far from finished. It is obvious to me that this marketer did not do their homework.
Before you go jumping into the frenzy, be sure to do your due diligence in finding out all you can about Don Fleece and Traffic Mysteries.
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