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Popular Threads
What will scammers think of next.
Cow-jacking is a good joke (he he) but inflating any numbers isn't a bit funny no matter the reason.
It can also mean we need to pull the Feedburner chicklet out of the visible areas and stop talking about the RSS readers we have.
It will even estrange the most friendly advertisors, as they begin doubting the figures.
Did that John Cow Vs Shoemoney tussle has something to do with this?
Thanks for the rave review!
And yes, 10 New RSS Subscribers are coming your way!
-- Scot
You sent me an email and asked me for my opinions and thoughts, I decided to write a post about it. You should get a trackback on it soon.
Best Regards,
Garry Conn
I must try harder :twisted:
I have to admit that is one of the stupidest ideas I have seen to date.
Don't people realise that using a service like this may provide a short term gain, but in the long run all it will do is damage their blog and reputation.
I would rather have no subscribers than resort to tactics like this.
Kenneth
Quote "I could’ve just told you I own meridiancrest.com if you wanted to find out who I truly was :p No need for all that fancy schmancy undercover agent whois stuff."
If there was no need for all that fancy schmancy undercover stuff then why did you email the Mad Moos pretending to be John Chow ?
It's call marketing. I wasn't pretending to be John Chow at all or I wouldn't have put my e-mail in the message.
:D
It may be called marketing but there is a difference between clever marketing and stupid marketing :razz:
Marketing schmarketing.
I'm not the typical "Make Money Online" blogger who just opened my blogger.com account. If I wanted to make a message seem like it were truly from Chow or Shoemoney, I would have done so.
Actually, here is the e-mail I sent John Chow:
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/9693/chowfo8...
Obviously not from Shoemoney... But keep the controversy stired up-- it's good linkbait!
We quote your email to John Chow:"Hey Mr. Chow,
How do you think I beat you in the RSS Challenge last month?"
What's that 'I' doing in there? You didn't have an RSS challenge with John, Jeremy did.
You're a liar and you're offering a shady and questionable service. Don't be surprised if people don't trust you.
1) Blogs aren't credible. Blogs aren't quoted in newspapers or any other form of journalism for that precise reason. Trying to maintain a blog's credibility is silly. You write entertaining content (such as this) and people will read it.
2) If you still think I was ACTUALLY pretending to be Shoemoney (or John Chow)-- you aren't half as smart as you let on to be. Why do you think I included my own domain in the e-mail? I'm not going to argue the point with you but let's be realistic.
3)I didn't change the e-mail "senders ID". I contacted John and everyone else through their blog's contact form.
4) Don't be surprised if people don't trust me on what? I'm not selling anything but my ideas on my blog, and RSS Xplosion offers something very simple-- RSS Subscribers.
You yourself offered a shady service. Remember MEW? What's it done since you sold it since you didn't care to bother with it anymore? That's right. It's done nothing. And you've screwed the folks that made the initial investment in it as well. You're just as bad as RSS Xplosion if not worse. Hypocracy at it's finest.
So does it feel safe, posting like an anonymous troll?
I didn't send any e-mail through G-Mail. Your efforts will be fruitless, please see the above comment.
"I didn’t change the e-mail “senders ID”. I contacted John and everyone else through their blog’s contact form."
Which, by the way, is exactly what contact forms are made for. Are you so simple-minded that you've missed out on the entire point of this project?
Here's how I see this working.....
Fledgling blogger trying to make it big online build his blog.
Gets a few RSS readers. Makes a little noise.
Scot the crook introduces himself, as someone else, a successful blogger, of course - not as himself, as we can all see already.
Refers fledgling to RSSxplos....com, saying how great it was when 'he got started'.
Fledgling pays Scot, who's quite happy to take the money and run.
Am I right so far?
Now, say Fledgling actually makes something of his blog, and turns a monthly income out of it. What happens then Scot? Do you really expect us to believe you'll just sit back and smile and give yourself a pat on the back for being helpful? Or would you do what I think you'd do - Use that purchase of RSS subs by Fledgling to effectively bully/blackmail more money/linkbacks/reviews and whatnot?
I don't know - I'm not a blogger, but I know enough about people to know when someone's a crooked fuck. And you're it my man.
Gilberticus
My point is my ISP doesn't care if I contact people through e-mail forms and I'm sure they keep a good log of activity that goes on through their pipes.
As far as your second idea-- that's just crossing the line of legality and nobody ever brought up blackmail and extortion until you've come along.
Good theories though, and a solid idea-- though I don't and wouldn't participate in illegal activities / scams.
The very nature of your business is to promote deceitful practices by unscrupulous bloggers. You're effectively enouraging others to profit (in more than monetary terms I guess) by misleading advertisers, subscribers and contributors regarding the readership figures. You've not refuted this, and I can't see how you can. Your business is to promote deceit. Your business is to facilitate dishonesty.
As you have said yourself, my theories are good, and you think it's a solid idea. In case anyone's skipped it, I've suggested your business would be a good vehicle to abuse novice bloggers trust for a short term payoff, and that you could easily extort more from a novice should they make it big. You think that's a solid idea. Yet you expect anyone to believe you? You, the man who's all about telling lies in effect. Mr. Dishonesty?
It's a sad measure of a persons character when they willfully engage solely in dishonest practices to turn a quick buck, and that's what you're doing buddy. It's just a shame there are so many other greedy shits out there who will see real merit in casting aside personal pride and self respect for the payout. But you'll get what's coming to you I'm sure....Karma's a complete PITA like that.
All I'll say is fair play to Cow for calling you out on this. Sometimes there's more to it than 'making money online', and the cow knows it.
Gilberticus.
-Mike
Once you answer this, I will have more questions for you. Wanna play?
They are occasionally quoted in newspapers and there is also something called "citizen journalism" that you obviously aren't aware of. See the recent events in Myanmar for further information, or even the coup in Thailand.
"Chicklet" is spelled wrong on your site. Isn't it ironic that you can't even spell in the same vein as you are marketing? Novice!!!!! :razz: :roll:
(See Cow's screen shot above to see Dumb Ass Salesman's incorrect spelling.)
I'm not a RSS Salesman.
I won't go into detail per the exact algorithm and system, but lets look at the big picture and realize what this service is doing for you rather than call me on a spelling mistake. Good call though, maybe I will change it next time I update the website.
-- Scot
Do you honestly think bloggers have no credibility?
And, you choose to do business with the exact group of people you think and preach are devoid of credibility.
It is too tough to digest.
BTW, no one will miss the credibility you have already built for yourself.
You sure did design your website nice.
Once again: are there REAL people who get the feeds you supply, yes or no?
Bloggers have plenty of credibility. Blogs (especially in the Make Money Online Realm) on the other hand, have no credibility to the mainstream media. That's all I was saying. Of course bloggers have personal credibility. I'm a blogger and realize that myself.
@ Allyn
It's not that I do not know how to spell the word, it's that sometimes when you're creating a website with lots of literature overnight, you may have a few typos.
And, it doesn't matter about the subscribers. I won't reveal trade secrets whether they be real people or not. You're still missing out on the big picture...
Maybe we should let this dude do his business, do what he likes to do. I know he will get business (perhaps many) but what goes around comes around, we shall see... :mrgreen: Actually, I quite like the way you pitch probloggers, daring and skilful explanation after everything was poked out of your bag. :mrgreen:
However, anything that is faked will eventually come crashing down. Don't you know that print media outlets get fined and sued over inflating subscriber numbers?
Finally, I am not asking for your proprietary secrets. I am asking "are real people getting the feed and reading it" when you generate them.
Why woul you not offer full disclosure unless you know you are shady?
If blogs have no credability, how come the likes of Darrewn Rowse, John Chow and Shoemoney are all accepted by the mainstream media and have all been featured in large publications?
How come one article on Engadget (all be it wrong), sent Apple's stock into a nosedive on the stock exchanges around the world
You talk about marketing in one of your earlier posts, is it good marketing to state that the very people you are trying to obtain as your customers have no credability to the mainstream media.
The only one lacking any credability here is you and your pathetic attempt to manipulate a useful tool for bloggers and itwould be interesting to see how Google and Feedburner view 'unique service'
Rather than attempting to scam something, why dont you put your time and effort into something that would actually be of a benefit to people.
Everyone may not care for FNC but I would say they are pretty legit, and they interviewed a bunch of bloggers and carried the story for several days.
There are more blogs than just MMO blogs, and many of them have a ton of credibility in the main stream media, not to mention the ones already spoken for above. Scott
Why bother with this chump's hack when you can just stick up a gif that says you've got 50,000 RSS subscribers? Anyone who is going to subscribe to a blog "because everyone else does" isn't going to bother to see if the subscriber count is legit, so a spoofed count will work just as well and you won't tick off Feedburner.
It could be done easily, I suspect that what he is doing is using one domain name and the email coming through to catchall, then he just clicks on the feedburner confirmation in the email and the subscriber is live.
Just one problem, when the person or company who is buying your blog wan'ts full details of your rss subscribers how do you explain the 10,000 subscribers on the same domain name ?
:roll:
To me, if you change your email name to be someone else, and use their identity to falsly promote you business - everything that comes of that is fruit from the poisonous tree.
If you can't get people to consider your product or service without misleading them - how good can it be?
P.S. What's up with prechecking the "subscribe to comments by email" box without even labeling it?
I really don't like how he used John Chow. Not very creative at all, now a lot of people wont take his new company serious.