Time Warner, which owns AOL, has just stated that they’re purchasing Bebo.com for $850 Million in cash.
I think that’s an excellent purchase, in my opinion. Since they own AIM and ICQ, they can somehow incorporate their already HUGE database of users and make another huge splash in the Social Networking Market!
I just received an email explaining that Stopmernet SMARTS is back on sale with a $600 Discount, again. I was just talking to someone about it the other day and apparently they were having an issue with one of the sites that they discussed in one of their Videos (scribd.com) but, apparently, that’s not an issue that will continue to hold their program back.
You can see the video below that discusses SMARTS, it’s very cool looking and, as I’ve stated, Social Marketing/Social Media Marketing is a great way to create a lot of extra traffic!
The price IS quite high for the program - but, if you’re serious, this program can pay for itself over and over.
Stompernet SMARTS Sales page:
SMARTS Sales Letter - Monday 1/21 reopen
Here’s the link to the PDF Download:
Crowther PDF Download Page
ClickFu Video (cool video!):
Going Natural 2.0 - Video # 3 - Click Fu
Double Traffic Video (an awesome trick to get more listings!):
Going Natural 2.0 - Video # 1 - Double Traffic
Download the Scrutinizer tool (cool tool):
Link to Scrutinizer update
Going Natural 2.0 Video:
Going Natural 2.0
Like I said — this program is pretty expensive for most folks. You can find a cheaper version at Social Power Linking - but, obviously, you’re not getting as much information (a small fraction compared to SMARTS) and you’re not going to get Support, the way you will at SMARTS.
Yep! Apparently they’ve joined forces to bring us:
Should be a good thing for us all! 
There’s a new Project in town and this one is very interesting. You see, most of the “Money Challenge” Websites popping up are Men…actually, I don’t think I’ve seen a Female on ANY of them?
Well, good news! SixFigureWriters.com is 4 Women and 1 man! Their goal is to earn Six Figures (hence the title) in One Year (duh). Can they do it? Anything is possible…I’m definately rooting for them!
Good Luck Girls! (and a guy) 
http://www.sixfigurewriters.com/
So all day today I’ve been having issues with vBulletin. And no, I’m not talking about one forum - I’m talking about nearly every vBulletin I’ve posted on today which is around 5-6 forums.
First I was having issues with the PHPFox forums and noticed the replies were going towards the top of the thread — as in my replies were showing up #1 … then I had problems with a Private Message showing up as one user - then when I clicked on it - it showed an older (1 month ago) PM I had already read. So…
Here’s a great Article on Cross Site Request Forgery being used for Browser Hijacking. If you’re a PHP Developer worried about Security issues - it’s always a great site to keep bookmarked! Mr. Shiflett definately knows his stuff!
Dear Friend,
If you’re anything like me you’ve probably spent alot of time on Message Boards (forums) having discussions and even arguments about Products, Services, Food, Cars, Reviews and all kinds of other things humans are interested in.
…I’ve been there, for years.
And very recently I’ve Discovered The Key Elements to ruining your Companies Reputation fast and efficiently while helping your competitors blow you out of the water, FAST!
In this Special Report you will see, exactly, how to Absolutely Destroy Your Own Business On A Message Board.
Give me a few minutes of your time and I will hand you the most important information you will need to help you help your competition online.
I’ve always hated that quote… or that saying, to be exact. But it’s just a perfect fit for a recent request from a “friend”.
So, I have this friend… we’ll call him “Dennis”. He calls me up and asks me if I can do him a “quick favor” for his Girlfriend (we’ll call her “Daria”). So, me being the nice guy, I say “sure, no problem”.
What a mistake… this little problem turns into a f$cking nightmare.
See when Dennis called me I had just been told by my Doctor that I needed to get an EGD, Colonoscopy and a CATscan, along with Bloodwork. Why? Well, if you know about Cancer - that’s pretty much how you catch cancer. So at this point I’m pretty nervous about finding out that I DO have Cancer, right? Who wouldn’t be? The worst part is when I tell my doctor I have to reschedule my appointment and all the sudden he says “NO!” and tells me I HAVE to get these done. Yeah, that makes a person feel better, right?
So now I’m feeling like crap mentally and then Dennis’ ‘little favor’ turns into a huge project. He gives me this little GoDaddy Template to create a membership site in and within the site there needs to be a Video that plays as well as a Gallery. Okay, not a problem but the fact that he gives me this sh*tty looking, FUGLY Template does not do me any good. But apparently Daria believes he created the site and it would hurt his feelings…
…what the hell do feelings have to do with making money?
So, I start rebuilding the site and Dennis tells me “great!”. I get the Template and a NICE Logo going and show it to Dennis.. he likes it and Daria starts bitching about how the site has changed. Uhhh… so I ignore it as Dennis seems to be the one in charge at this point since he is the one who will control it and Market it, right?
Wrong… apparently Dennis lets Daria cut his gonads off and takes control. Now she’s bitching and leaving me Voice Mails at 1:00 A.M. on my phone. I ignore the first 2, the first night. I don’t have time for her site anyways.
Now, she’s calling me while I’m trying to finish up a PAID project! She’s not just leaving me a message - she’s BITCHING ABOUT THE FREE WORK I JUST DID FOR HER. Apparently she doesn’t enjoy a REAL site and believes the last 2 months Dennis spent on the GoDaddy Template is more important. So, I delete the messages and continue to work. Then Dennis calls me asking me why I don’t just change the templates out. I explain to him that I can do that but the Video won’t look right, the site will be very ugly and small… all the honest truth’s, right?
After we hang up I go back to work… again, here come the calls. OH MY GOD! LOL
So, the site is up and running now thanks to Dennis… I won’t ever do a friend a “favor” again due to this girl. Talk about an ungrateful “w*tch”!
How can people ask for favors only to b*tch about the free work you’ve just done? I don’t get it. Well, yes, I do.
See… the great part about Sales and Customer Support (once you merge these two aspects of Business) is that the cheaper (or free) you work for people - the more the people will complain. This is why I choose to charge slightly more for the work I do now… I try not to do work for a “good price” because the honest truth is - I feel my time is way too important to deal with Customer Support on a daily basis. So, the clients who I choose to work with will not only get a great end-product - they also get Customer Support for the price they pay. I feel very confident in my work and realize that the way I choose clients (now) will result in much less Customer Support for the simple fact that I choose clients who know their Business and know how to handle the day to day routine. It may not make sense to some but the ones who don’t have a successful offline Business tend to blame the lack of business on their Web Campaigns. Most new comers truly believe they can create a website and they’ll have a huge surge of traffic stampeding to their site the minute it goes up…
…most likely what they believed would happen when they opened the doors to their offline business.
So, before you start working on a project for a friend for free or cheap - think again. Ask them to “look online for other developers” and try to stay far, far away from the project JUST INCASE. Unsuccessful people like to point fingers at whoever they can when they fail.
There’s been alot of speculation over MySpace’s “facts” and ‘figures’ since the buyout in late 2005 but now we’ve got another blogger who wants to Debunk the Myth of Myspace.com’s 100 Million users.
I, for one, agree completely with the debunking. I’ve always stated “100 Million Accounts” rather than users when speaking about MySpace.com
I’ve been pretty busy lately with a new Product I’m working on. I’ve been hitting the old books, taking notes, purchasing other similar products for comparison, looking them over, watching my bank account slowly go down (lol!), etc, etc. I can’t even talk about the Product as too many crooks will try to jump on… you know how that goes… but…
So I’ve been reading alot about Microsofts attempt to compete with the Internet’s new biggest toy: YouTube.com … So what will it take for another attempt to compete with this company? MySpace, the biggest Social Networking Community online, couldn’t compete with YouTube - so what makes a Company like Microsoft who seems to fail while trying to compete with the big web-dogs - want to compete?
Well…
So I was browsing WZ2K today and noticed that one of the Owners, Paul, has stated that Interakt was bought out by Adobe. You can read about the entire Article about the Buy out here.
To be honest, I wasn’t surprised by the buyout since Adobe is notorious for purchasing their Competitors. But my question is: When will it stop? Microsoft has been punished for Monopolies so why wouldn’t Adobe? Over the past year they’ve done enough, haven’t they? With Macromedia they got some of the worlds most popular Software, including:
The quote on the top of the page simply states: “Because We’re Twice As Good As That Other Guy :-)”
Pretty funny… until you notice “We’re” in the quote. Yes, there’s 3 guys on this project so the math doesn’t add up to me… but I’m still interested in seeing how they pull it off. The $15k Challenge by Dan Raine started off as alot of hype but has now finally “started” with a product, which is dealing with Crafts…which I’m curious to see how he’ll pull it off. Since I’m not interested in Crafts - the project kind of threw me off and I’ve hardly visited the site lately, although that should be a bigger reason to do so…ehhh, I’ll see what’s up in a few days although so far - no sales. =\
I’m constantly finding all of these “Internet Marketers” claiming to be “Experts” in… well, just about everything. Some make good money, so they claim, while others don’t claim to make any specifics - just “millions”.
I see alot of these “Adsense Experts” or even better: “Adsense Gurus” claim to be making $20,000+ per-month with stories of how “they can help you Discover ways to Explode your Adsense Income”……..basically claiming to make you earn as much as them (just see their Earnings Disclaimer and any other Disclaimers on their site before purchasing!) within a few hours.
The BEST parts of their stories that they DON’T tell you about are:
So the war continues between the two Giants of the Tech world. Once again Microsoft and Google have battled it out…this time in the ADVERTISING WORLD? I’ve reported earlier in the month on how Google and MySpace have connected on a $900 Million Dollar Advertising deal but I don’t believe I mentioned that Microsoft was trying to get that deal before Google, so I’ve been hearing. Apparently MySpace said “bug off” and Google got the deal for a “few more dollars”. Well, apparently Microsoft decided to go to “the next big thing”: Facebook.com …but is it REALLY the next big thing? While neither Microsoft nor Facebook.com have given details on the Price of this deal - sources say it was for approximately $750 Million.
I won’t lie… I wanted to purchase one of those GREAT SOUNDING Packages for “AdSense Ready” Websites with 30,000 Articles, ready to go for anybody for only $99.00! Sound too good to be true?
If you thought it did - you are dead on. Made For AdSense website companies who sell these packages are overselling these products like crazy, but lying to you in their sales pitch. Each company stresses that they “DO NOT” Oversell their packages, yet they OBVIOUSLY DO! Everywhere I go I see the same trashy websites with the same overly used garbage articles. And the poor saps who purchase these packages might make $10 back, if they’re lucky enough not to get banned by Google… who is coming down on these MFA Sites.
I found a cool new Search Engine today called: www.Surchin.com and so far it’s awesome. I like how it shows results for the searches. Give it a shot - it’s well worth the 2 minutes to do so (if that)!
So most of you know by now about the AOL Search Data Leak… I was reading a blog today (I would link to it but I accidently closed the tab and can’t remember the link - sorry to the guy/girl who owns that blog!) and I found a link to this result showing a guy searching for some rather “unusual” information. I hope it didn’t turn out to be as bad as it looks!???
Everywhere I look lately it seems that Google, Microsoft or another gargantuan Corporation is throwing hundreds of Millions of Dollars into sites such as Facebook.com, MySpace.com, etc. while sites such as YouTube are being reported to be making huge ad impacts lately as well. It’s a huge Social Networking market out there… just not for Adult Social Networking sites apparently lol