ArticleAnnouncer is finally released after a long buildup. It is well worth taking a good look. Drop me an email if you want to haggle out a win/win deal.
Niche websites rely on traffic, and if you want your traffic to be sustainable, rather than just a flash in the pan, it is vital that you have a planned linking strategy that is self-propelled. Arranging permanent links with related sites is one direction well worth following, but this is extremely time consuming, or extremely expensive.
It is certainly not something to consider for small niche sites you only expect to bring in $30 of adsense revenue and the occasional affiliate sale.
An other alternative is using the power of RSS syndication of your website and sneaking in the backdoor on multiple related websites looking for content. I have previously discussed tools for how to do this in my previous post "RSS Website"
Now I would like to represent another method, publishing articles to increase traffic and gain links to increase your profile on the search engines.
It is important to realise that I never advocate any method I regard as "unethical marketing", such as auto-generating content websites, blog & ping old content continuously, or various forms of spamming with email, forums or blogs.
The following article I believe is a must read, and the links provided by Jason Potash the author of this article you will find enlightening. (I rarely publish other people's content, when I do it is worth the read)
A Simple Secret To Seducing The Search Engines by Jason Potash
In the Internet Marketing community, "traffic" and search
engine mastery are hot topics these days...
People will do almost ANYTHING just to get their site
indexed by Google faster... to boost their Page Rank
quicker... to drive more traffic immediately... and to get
a ton of incoming links to their website right away...
Yes, even if it involves handing over $137 for the latest
push-button traffic software or search engine trick.
Why all the fuss?
In this article, I'm going to reveal to you a simple, no
cost way to make the search engines crawl all over your
website like ants on a melted popsicle.
PLUS... you will start to get laser-targeted traffic and
boost your search engine rankings almost instantly. Not to
mention, you'll have (at least) 100 quality links back to
your website within a week.
And this doesn't involve any SEO hocus-pocus, buying into
some new "killer" traffic booster software, or trying out
the latest scheme to fool Google, Yahoo, or MSN.
Nope. This stuff is 100% legit, above-board, and has
already worked for years.
Let me give you a quick example. Recently I created a
little "test" website.
The search engines didn't know about it. It had no
incoming links. No traffic. No SE rankings...ZIP!
Fast forward 7 days... My website was indexed by Google,
Yahoo and MSN, it got well over 200 incoming links and
started to generate traffic... shortly thereafter, Google
granted my site a Page Rank 3.
Again, this did not cost a penny, just a few hours of
my time. I created a play-by-play video that shows the
website and how I did it (see the weblink below).
Here's another example: An "average guy" decided to try
this same strategy. He now has #1-#8 rankings on all
the major search engines. You can listen to him explain
how de did it during a recent audio interview:
Audio about submitting articles to gain traffic and good search engine results
(Note: After you click above, look under the "June 20th"
post and click the MP3 audio button and video button on
the site)
So, how can you get these same kind of results?
I wish I could make this sound more complicated but, all
that you need to do is simply submit one article to a
handful of Article Directories.
Writing and submitting articles has long been a proven,
time-tested strategy for increasing traffic, subscribers
and sales.
But now in 2005, articles have re-emerged in a BIG way,
thanks to recent information leaked by Google within their
US Patent Application 20050071741.
We now know that quality content and incoming links are
essential (now, more than ever) to the survival of your
websites within the search engines.
Bottom line. You need to start creating and submitting
articles to get all the benefits I just outlined above.
In fact, Google is practically telling you to do so!
But, where do you start? Where should you submit your
articles?
Here's a blueprint that outlines the 7 keys to writing
successful articles.
Follow these 7 keys and you are guaranteed to get more
traffic, more incoming links and higher search engine
rankings and page rank, by simply distributing your
articles across the Internet.
Let's get started.
Key #1: Choose a HOT Topic
You'll need to do a little research on this one. If you
are already familiar with the target market for your
article, this should come easy. Research, spy, observe. Do
whatever it takes to understand your target market. What
issues are hot? What topics currently appear within top
ezines, messageboards, ebooks? What keywords are they
using to search online?
It's also a good idea to frequently visit article
directories and content sites. These sites contain current
articles on a variety of popular topics. Often, you can
view the most popular article topics (or clicks) as well.
Here's a short list of article directories:
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.certificate.net/wwio
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.netterweb.com
http://www.jogena.com
Key #2: Choose a "Magnetic" Title
Magnetic title? That's right. Your article title is your
headline. If it doesn't pull the reader into the article,
nothing will. Just think ... what if I called this
article:
"Get More Traffic In The Search Engines", "Easy Search
Engine Tips", or "Free Traffic Generation Strategies".
BLAH! See what I mean? These don't pack much "punch", do
they?
Your title is just like a classified ad. Look at it this
way. If your article title is crowded on a webpage with
100 others, what will make it jump off the page?
Key #3: Use The AIDA Principle
Attention Interest Desire Action
This universal formula applies to your articles as well.
Once you've enticed your reader to read your article (via
a great title), you need to keep them reading.
The first paragraph of your article is critical. If it's
dull, boring and lifeless, your reader will surely bail
out. You must keep their interest right from the start.
Try using short paragraphs, sentences and words. This will
keep the tempo upbeat and make your article much easier to
read (or skim, as most do online).
Key #4: Create Several Sub-Headings
To better organize your thoughts, divide your article into
sub-headings. At times, writing a 500-700 word article can
seem insurmountable. Sub-headings make things easier.
Instead of tackling the entire article at once, try
writing one paragraph at a time.
Key #5: "Close The Sale" With A Resource Box
One of the worst things you can do is to leave your reader
hanging. They've just read your great article, now what? A
resource box appears at the very end of your article. It's
the last line that your reader sees. It's your chance to
set the next step.
Make sure that your resource box is compelling. Make the
reader jump over to your website, sign up for your ezine,
download your latest ebook, claim their free gift -- get
creative!
Also, the resource box allows you to include a direct link
back to your website. Sit back and watch your link
popularity soar!
Key #6: Poofread Your Work
Did you catch that? It should have read, "Proofread".
Nothing hollers out amateur, newbie, or just plain
unprofessional than an article filled with typos and bad
grammar. If you don't have an English major in the family,
hire a proofreader. Their rates are reasonable and they
can save you from damaging your reputation online.
Key #7 - Promote, promote, promote
Let's make one thing clear. Without key #7, keys 1-6 are a
waste of time. Bottom line, no one will read your article
if you keep it stored on a floppy disk in your desk.
You've got to promote it!
How can you promote your article? There are close to 90
article directories, article banks, free content sites,
article announcement lists, and article syndication
services out there. And the best part is ... 95% of them
are FREE!
Plus, there are thousands of ezines, websites and blogs
that are looking for article submissions. Develop a list
of contacts in your target market. Next, e-mail each ezine
publisher, blog owner, or webmaster a copy of your latest
article. There are countless stories of individuals who
have succeeded using this exact same approach.
Wouldn't you like to get your next article picked up by an
ezine with 32,000 subscribers or have 8,000 websites
visitors view your article tomorrow?
Now go on, and get writing!
__________________________________________________________
Jason Potash makes it easy to create and blast out your
articles all over the Internet using his ingenious new
ArticleAnnouncer Article Marketing System. Click now
to see what's happening on Tuesday, June 28th:
Related Topics
Niche website
Search Engine Optimization
Internet Marketing
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Why I cancelled our Mach90 and sadly Juvio account
I have learnt an aweful lot over the 3 weeks I have been involved with Mach90 and Juvio - I have absolutely no complaints regarding Juvio. I love the idea of the Juvio computer technical support products, and their customer support has been exceptional.
I have severe problems with both the Mach90 system and the lack of response to my problems from their support department.
I don't find 11 days to receive a reply to my first support query acceptable, and I am still waiting for a reply to my second, and for 2 forum posts to be show, much less responded to (they censor the forums) - it is now 12 days since I send the second email and made the forum posts - they were constructive criticism.
It has cost them someone who was willing to promote their product full time, in both the UK (where I have exceptional contacts within computer clubs who provide support), and Poland (where I have been a pioneer in the computer software industry for 12 years) - I am an expat.
My primary route to marketing was to be via the internet due to being located in a rural corner of Poland, thus I needed something like Mach90 to help me automate the process. I was fully aware that I would have to find my own leads.
I don't have time to develop my own system that is fully Juvio compliant and at the same time sell the product based on features and the benefits it gives (which are significant). There is honestly too much work involved starting from scratch with limited resources.
The Mach 90 service, and from what I have seen of 1.67 a day it is the same, do not meet those requirements. Some of the problems I found would have been fixable had I received prompt service from Mach90. Others such as the method of selling give a slightly false impression if you don't carry out extensive additional research. They don't lie, but they don't tell the whole truth, especially of you don't read every single email they send you.
The selling method works, but not the way it should do - after 6 weeks of receiving their email I didn't actually understand exactly how the system works.
The Mach90 changes needed were mainly to the content of the emails, and a little to the website - the 1.67 a day system, from what I saw had slightly less content problems (they conform better to Juvio rules in the emails), but has features missing such as daily or weekly digest mode, and the website was poor on information. Due to my location, I wasn't able to test the 3rd option "Referralware".
I have no idea whether the 1.67 a day system provides good support, or what the member features are like within the system. I have certainly not seen any additional content sent to me from my sponsor.
When I have the resources, I might return to promoting Juvio as a secondary stream of income, because Juvio have exceptional products, and if you have the time and are located within a community that can directly benefit from it, or have existing traffic source you can exploit, I am convinced you can do very well with it.
To give you an idea about the type of company Juvio is, before a recent conference call I logged into their chat room 30 minutes early and was able to discuss my problems with their CEO for a time in private. He gave me his email, and I could have addressed my complaints directly to him for Juvio to "take care of". I didn't use this opportunity. I wanted to give Mach90 a little more time. They did finally reply to one of my emails (after 11 days). I have given them a few more days since I replied to that lackluster and unhelpful first response, but to no avail. Their poor support was not due to a temporary emergency that they had then cured. It is indemic.
Another example of Juvio's good support was that they actually phoned me twice to make sure that a support ticket I had raised with them had been taked care of in a satisfactory manner. That is an International call - USA to Poland. I have absolutely no gripe with Juvio.
I suppose I can't shake my British roots and grammar school education
I needed an ethical conversion system (my ethics, not someone elses - different sales people have different views on how much you need to tell a customer, all perfectly legal) that works that I could use via the internet, and neither Mach90 nor 1.67 a day meet that need.
I am also posting this review/article on my blog and to the Juviopond Yahoo group
http://niche-website.blogspot.com
--
Izabela & Andrew Beard
Former Juvio Independent Associate Members
Former Mach90 Independent Group Members
Przybyslawice 47
63440 Raszkow
Poland
I have severe problems with both the Mach90 system and the lack of response to my problems from their support department.
I don't find 11 days to receive a reply to my first support query acceptable, and I am still waiting for a reply to my second, and for 2 forum posts to be show, much less responded to (they censor the forums) - it is now 12 days since I send the second email and made the forum posts - they were constructive criticism.
It has cost them someone who was willing to promote their product full time, in both the UK (where I have exceptional contacts within computer clubs who provide support), and Poland (where I have been a pioneer in the computer software industry for 12 years) - I am an expat.
My primary route to marketing was to be via the internet due to being located in a rural corner of Poland, thus I needed something like Mach90 to help me automate the process. I was fully aware that I would have to find my own leads.
I don't have time to develop my own system that is fully Juvio compliant and at the same time sell the product based on features and the benefits it gives (which are significant). There is honestly too much work involved starting from scratch with limited resources.
The Mach 90 service, and from what I have seen of 1.67 a day it is the same, do not meet those requirements. Some of the problems I found would have been fixable had I received prompt service from Mach90. Others such as the method of selling give a slightly false impression if you don't carry out extensive additional research. They don't lie, but they don't tell the whole truth, especially of you don't read every single email they send you.
The selling method works, but not the way it should do - after 6 weeks of receiving their email I didn't actually understand exactly how the system works.
The Mach90 changes needed were mainly to the content of the emails, and a little to the website - the 1.67 a day system, from what I saw had slightly less content problems (they conform better to Juvio rules in the emails), but has features missing such as daily or weekly digest mode, and the website was poor on information. Due to my location, I wasn't able to test the 3rd option "Referralware".
I have no idea whether the 1.67 a day system provides good support, or what the member features are like within the system. I have certainly not seen any additional content sent to me from my sponsor.
When I have the resources, I might return to promoting Juvio as a secondary stream of income, because Juvio have exceptional products, and if you have the time and are located within a community that can directly benefit from it, or have existing traffic source you can exploit, I am convinced you can do very well with it.
To give you an idea about the type of company Juvio is, before a recent conference call I logged into their chat room 30 minutes early and was able to discuss my problems with their CEO for a time in private. He gave me his email, and I could have addressed my complaints directly to him for Juvio to "take care of". I didn't use this opportunity. I wanted to give Mach90 a little more time. They did finally reply to one of my emails (after 11 days). I have given them a few more days since I replied to that lackluster and unhelpful first response, but to no avail. Their poor support was not due to a temporary emergency that they had then cured. It is indemic.
Another example of Juvio's good support was that they actually phoned me twice to make sure that a support ticket I had raised with them had been taked care of in a satisfactory manner. That is an International call - USA to Poland. I have absolutely no gripe with Juvio.
I suppose I can't shake my British roots and grammar school education
I needed an ethical conversion system (my ethics, not someone elses - different sales people have different views on how much you need to tell a customer, all perfectly legal) that works that I could use via the internet, and neither Mach90 nor 1.67 a day meet that need.
I am also posting this review/article on my blog and to the Juviopond Yahoo group
http://niche-website.blogspot.com
--
Izabela & Andrew Beard
Former Juvio Independent Associate Members
Former Mach90 Independent Group Members
Przybyslawice 47
63440 Raszkow
Poland
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
BankMLM - the next Greenzap?
Whilst Greenzap were kind enough to lie to me in their emails, thus convincing me that Greenzap is a scam, I have no information about BankMLM, another new payment processor.
There doesn't seem to be any hint of giving people coupons (webcash) instead of real money, so I have tentatively signed up (using my "safelist" email account).
We will see how it goes
Sign up to BankMLM
Here are the details from their current website (for posterity) - it will be interesting how it changes over time - hopefully they will live up to more than Greenzap did.
There doesn't seem to be any hint of giving people coupons (webcash) instead of real money, so I have tentatively signed up (using my "safelist" email account).
We will see how it goes
Sign up to BankMLM
Here are the details from their current website (for posterity) - it will be interesting how it changes over time - hopefully they will live up to more than Greenzap did.
Welcome to BankMLM.Com We are NEW! We are DYNAMIC! We are UNIQUE! We are the first and only ON-LINE PAYMENT SYSTEM DESIGNED EXCLUSIVELY FOR PARTICIPANTS IN THE MULTILEVEL MARKETING INDUSTRY! Give Away up to 770 Million Dollars to acquire 21 Million Customers... And up to 1.5 Billion Dollars to acquire 51 Million Customers… FOR 1st MILLION REGISTERED REFERRALS! WHY? |
|
Because BankMLM will become the largest and best on-line paying system in the world within one year! Below are just some of the reasons why this will happen. Please read this and you will see why you will definitely want to be part of this exciting new company called BankMLM!
BankMLM will be the answer to the prayers of Multilevel Marketers for their own Worldwide Pay System and Debit Card...
BankMLM will invest $770,000,000.00 to acquire 21 Million Customers...
BankMLM will invest $1,500,000,000.00 to acquire 51 Million Customers...
BankMLM will offer Personal Loans to members...
BankMLM will do business exclusively with Multilevel Marketers...
BankMLM will offer Financial Services exclusively...
BankMLM will have the Number One Domestic and International Pay and Debit Card in the World...
BankMLM will deal only with Legally Approved MLM Companies...
BankMLM will credit $50 into the first Million Accounts opened...
BankMLM for The First Million Customers $2 will be credited to The Up-line for each new account opened through Ten Levels...
BankMLM for The First Million Customers will credit The Upline .03 (3 cents) per Transaction through Ten Levels...
BankMLM will credit $25 into the next 20 Million Accounts opened once the first Million accounts are in place....
BankMLM for The Next 20 Million Customers will credit The Upline $1 each through Ten Levels...
BankMLM for these 20 Million Customers will credit The Upline .03 per Transaction through Ten Levels...
BankMLM will credit $10 into the next 30 Million Accounts opened once the first 21 Million accounts are in place...
BankMLM for these 30 Million Customers will credit The Upline $1 each through Ten Levels...
BankMLM for these 30 Million Customers will credit The Upline .03 per Transaction through Ten Levels...
Opening an Account
Only active Multilevel Marketers may apply to open an account and be credited $50 by BankMLM...
Meaning that you must currently belong to some type of MLM Company.
Some questions to ponder!
How many $50 BankMLM accounts can you personally give away?
Multiply that answer by $2 BankMLM Credits.
How many $25 BankMLM accounts can you personally give away?
Multiply that answer by $1 BankMLM Credits?
How many BankMLM Transactions will your group Average Daily, Weekly or Monthly?
Multiply that answer by .03 cents per BankMLM Transaction?
Three more points of interest!
Where many MLM Companies experience Fall Out and Attrition... BankMLM will not...
People may switch MLM Companies but they will keep their BankMLM Account...
BankMLM expects One Million Account Holders within their First Six Months...
BankMLM will Pre-Launch VERY SOON!
Be one of the first to open your BankMLM account and let the world be IN YOUR DOWNLINE!
Thanks for taking the time to visit.
BankMLM Management
TripleYourList.com - warning for free users
Triple Your List is a brand new system from the same team as TheListmachine.com
The ListMachine was highly successful because it gave you the chance to send email to many more people than you or your downline personally signed up, in a safe manner (no spam complaints).
Triple Your List is attempting to do the same, but they are taking it a stage further, and actually providing you with what are suggested to be double opt-in leads.
Sure the leads are double opt-in as far as the owners of the site are concerned, and their premium members, but this is being promoted as a service for free members.
Read the following from their upgrade page within the site
3. Get All The Information.
Let's face it, even though these leads are about as good as they get, there's still a chance that you'll get hit with a false spam complaint. Protect yourself. As a "Premium" member you'll get not only the name and email address for each prospect, you'll also get the Signup IP Address, Signup Time, Confirmation IP Address, and Confirmation Time.
This information is absolutely priceless when it comes to leads, and if you're even a novice Internet marketer you probably already know this. Having this information is essential if you want to run a safe email marketing campaign.
Within the above they are effectively telling everyone with even a small amount of knowledge of the CAN SPAM act that if you are a free member, the leads are worth next to nothing because you are in danger of a spam complaint.
It is not good producing this information after the fact, when your website has been shut down by your ISP. You have to provide things like IP address in every email to be safe.
This is how a free opt-in looks like from the system
Here is your lead. Put it to good use. 100% double opt-in.
Email Address: email address
First Name: Firstname
Last Name: Surname
Lead Method: Cycle System
This is not 100% double opt-in to my own email list!
Additional Follow-up Information
In response to some of the questions I have received regarding the initial post, I am including the following section in red.
It is not a question of how the leads were obtained, but of what information you can include in every email such that you are safe from having your ISP pull the plug on you.
IMHO Gary has overdone the upsell, making the free version worthless. All the information should be provided to free users, just not the convenience features and the extra leads.
Then it is fully legitimate - you could use the leads as long as you fully comply with CAN SPAM, Industry and ISP guidelines, like providing a real email address, mailing address and telephone number on every email you send to your leads, along with opt-out and details of where and when they signed up with their IP address
My advice is not to sign up to this program as a free member, because you will only get yourself in severe trouble. Free users get nothing from this program whatsoever.
If you want to sign up as a paid member please go here (not a referral link, I cancelled my membership)
Find information on CAN SPAM
Andy Beard
Exploring Niche Websites
Please feel free to distribute this article without modification, including this footnote
Sunday, June 19, 2005
RSS Website - it is not just for blogs
RSS is a great way to keep your readers informed of changes to your blogs, and as a search engine optimization strategy, but what most people don't realise is that it can be used extremely easily with conventional websites.
Unfortunately most off-the-shelf website building tools aimed at non-technical users don't offer any form of RSS feed option. Often it is impossible to integrate it, and if it is possible, it is either a complicated integration process, or only available as a piad extra.
Every single page of your website could be published as an RSS feed, get listed fast in search engines and automatically pinged to many RSS agregators and directories. Your subscribed customers could be updated immediately with all changes to your website, not just posts in your blog.
Site Build It
The most complete non-technical solution is to use Site Build It (SBI). It is designed as the ideal tool to help a non-technical user create a valuable high content website that pulls in traffic. Being RSS enabled, not only does it help bring in more traffic, but it also greatly increases the stickiness, and the number of repeat visits. It is the perfect RSS website builder.
It is easy to turn your hobby or passion into a profitable business, and it is one of the most powerful tools used by home based business. What many people don't realise is that SBI is also used by web design professionals.
Cheaper Alternatives
Ok but what about the professional niche website builder, who already has a number of SBI sites, and is experimenting with a large amount of new niches, and doesn't want to invest $300/year in a site he is not 100% sure about.
Here are 2 very good options
Simple Site Builder
One of my favorite scripts is Simple Site Builder. It is a really useful php website builder script that is easy to install, and contains almost all the functionality you need to create 100s of niche websites extremely quickly.
Simple site builder php website script special offer - master resale rights
Content Management Systems
I haven't actually played with this option myself, but I have noticed that some of the open source content management systems (CMS) such as Mambo also have the facility to produce RSS feeds of their content.
I have seen a number of websites created using this system by people experienced in internet marketing. One of the reasons I haven't delved into this too greatly is time. Many of the sites using this seem to have "broken" RSS feeds, you try to add them to your RSS reader and it doesn't seem to work.
RSS is complicated enough for most users, just as a concept - if your implementation isn't idiot proof, you are not helping your customer. Using a complicated CMS system is only an option if you have the knowledge to create a seemless end user experience.
Related information
internet marketing
RSS Feeds
Content Management Systems
Unfortunately most off-the-shelf website building tools aimed at non-technical users don't offer any form of RSS feed option. Often it is impossible to integrate it, and if it is possible, it is either a complicated integration process, or only available as a piad extra.
Every single page of your website could be published as an RSS feed, get listed fast in search engines and automatically pinged to many RSS agregators and directories. Your subscribed customers could be updated immediately with all changes to your website, not just posts in your blog.
Site Build It
The most complete non-technical solution is to use Site Build It (SBI). It is designed as the ideal tool to help a non-technical user create a valuable high content website that pulls in traffic. Being RSS enabled, not only does it help bring in more traffic, but it also greatly increases the stickiness, and the number of repeat visits. It is the perfect RSS website builder.
It is easy to turn your hobby or passion into a profitable business, and it is one of the most powerful tools used by home based business. What many people don't realise is that SBI is also used by web design professionals.
Cheaper Alternatives
Ok but what about the professional niche website builder, who already has a number of SBI sites, and is experimenting with a large amount of new niches, and doesn't want to invest $300/year in a site he is not 100% sure about.
Here are 2 very good options
Simple Site Builder
One of my favorite scripts is Simple Site Builder. It is a really useful php website builder script that is easy to install, and contains almost all the functionality you need to create 100s of niche websites extremely quickly.
"Easy Do It Yourself PHP Web Site Builder" Build unlimited search engine friendly pages, add RSS feeds, easy to use rich text editor, create pop-up windows on the fly, and more.Click here to learn more..There is currently a special extremely limited promotion for this script where you can buy not only unlimited use of the script for your own websites, but also sell the script to others to use on their own sites (master resale rights) - You could easily sell this script to your own customers or as part of a web hosting package.
Simple site builder php website script special offer - master resale rights
Content Management Systems
I haven't actually played with this option myself, but I have noticed that some of the open source content management systems (CMS) such as Mambo also have the facility to produce RSS feeds of their content.
I have seen a number of websites created using this system by people experienced in internet marketing. One of the reasons I haven't delved into this too greatly is time. Many of the sites using this seem to have "broken" RSS feeds, you try to add them to your RSS reader and it doesn't seem to work.
RSS is complicated enough for most users, just as a concept - if your implementation isn't idiot proof, you are not helping your customer. Using a complicated CMS system is only an option if you have the knowledge to create a seemless end user experience.
Related information
internet marketing
RSS Feeds
Content Management Systems
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Greenzap is a scam - I am convinced
I am a hard person to persuade without hard facts.
I have not supported Greenzap or accused them of being a scam up until this moment, because I had no proof. I was sitting on the fence. I did question their business model as unworkable, and waited for developments.
That is until I just received an email today that in an out and out lie, intended to encourage more people to sign-up for their gold membership.
The email received from Greenzap was entitled "ZapWeekly - Volume 1, Issue 1"
I am now going to quote part of it
Now it gets interesting, I am going to quote the Greenzap User Agreement
How the hell can 500 people from Russia have gone gold if they are not allowed to operate a Greenzap account?
I am convinced that this is not a marketing slip. Greenzap can't have accepted gold members from Russia because it breaks their terms, and I doubt anyone from Russia could have sent them an international check by this time anyway, and for it to have been cleared.
As far as I am concerned Greenzap is making false statements by email, and now justifies the word scam. The Greenzap scam situation has been debated for a log time on the Scam.com forum
If you copy the email code, or text from my blog, please provide a text link with the words "greenzap" or "greenzap scam"
The complete email has been moved to a backdated post on my blog. It was causing technical problems with the CSS nature of blogs, and the HTML of the email.
The Greenzap Scam Email can be found here
I have not supported Greenzap or accused them of being a scam up until this moment, because I had no proof. I was sitting on the fence. I did question their business model as unworkable, and waited for developments.
That is until I just received an email today that in an out and out lie, intended to encourage more people to sign-up for their gold membership.
The email received from Greenzap was entitled "ZapWeekly - Volume 1, Issue 1"
I am now going to quote part of it
GreenZap may have been made in the USA, but it's not a product solely being used in the USA. Over 13,000 GreenZappers from China have already signed up with GreenZap, while just under 10,000 Canadians have opened an account. Other interesting fast GreenFacts: Just about 500 people from the Russian Federation have gone Gold. Over 250 in both Thailand and Yugoslavia are Gold Members while 180 in India have done the same. Gold members can also be found in countries like Nicaragua, Zimbabwe and Rwanda. There are 14 GreenZap account holders in Yemen, 8 in Madagascar and 3 GreenZappers living it up in Zambia.
Now it gets interesting, I am going to quote the Greenzap User Agreement
Non-Approved Countries. Users residing in the following countries are prohibited from opening, using, or operating GreenZap accounts: Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, North Korea, Sudan, Syria and Russia. The non-approved countries list may change without notice.
How the hell can 500 people from Russia have gone gold if they are not allowed to operate a Greenzap account?
I am convinced that this is not a marketing slip. Greenzap can't have accepted gold members from Russia because it breaks their terms, and I doubt anyone from Russia could have sent them an international check by this time anyway, and for it to have been cleared.
As far as I am concerned Greenzap is making false statements by email, and now justifies the word scam. The Greenzap scam situation has been debated for a log time on the Scam.com forum
If you copy the email code, or text from my blog, please provide a text link with the words "greenzap" or "greenzap scam"
The complete email has been moved to a backdated post on my blog. It was causing technical problems with the CSS nature of blogs, and the HTML of the email.
The Greenzap Scam Email can be found here
Monday, June 13, 2005
Technorati Tagging - Niche Website and others
I have just been doing a little bit of searching on Google and noticed something strange that might be very useful.
I searched for the term "niche website" (without the quotes)
Now I expected to get loads of websites listed (my competitors), and for my blog to be completely off the radar.
I am however shocked... the first position was to Technorati's listing for pages containing the words niche+website
I clicked the link, they don't have any sites in that category.
I have discovered that Google really like Technorati, I mean really like!
Here are the terms I think apply (honestly) to this blog.
niche website , internet marketing , greenzap , affiliate programs , affiliate marketing , Search Engine , Juvio , Mach90 , Sitesell
One other way described by Technorati is to include ref="tag" in all your links, then the link-text is automatically used for the tags. This is very easy to do with any blogging software.
What I am going to do from now on with every post is include Technorati tags and see how this works in getting some page rank. (a page rank of 0/10 is just so sad)
It might also be a very good idea for websites that have a RSS feed.
I am sure people are going to abuse this, but this can be a little secret for now between you and me ;)
From what I can see Google are placing a greater emphasis on the original source of RSS feeds, rather than syndicated content.
If you found this useful, please trackback
I searched for the term "niche website" (without the quotes)
Now I expected to get loads of websites listed (my competitors), and for my blog to be completely off the radar.
I am however shocked... the first position was to Technorati's listing for pages containing the words niche+website
I clicked the link, they don't have any sites in that category.
I have discovered that Google really like Technorati, I mean really like!
Here are the terms I think apply (honestly) to this blog.
niche website , internet marketing , greenzap , affiliate programs , affiliate marketing , Search Engine , Juvio , Mach90 , Sitesell
One other way described by Technorati is to include ref="tag" in all your links, then the link-text is automatically used for the tags. This is very easy to do with any blogging software.
What I am going to do from now on with every post is include Technorati tags and see how this works in getting some page rank. (a page rank of 0/10 is just so sad)
It might also be a very good idea for websites that have a RSS feed.
I am sure people are going to abuse this, but this can be a little secret for now between you and me ;)
From what I can see Google are placing a greater emphasis on the original source of RSS feeds, rather than syndicated content.
If you found this useful, please trackback
Saturday, June 11, 2005
EN101 & Juvio - one is hot, the other is rot
Since I made this post I have left the Mach 90 and Juvio programs
Read my follow up post to find out why
EN101 is an MLM distributed language learning program
It is being heavily promoted by at least one income opportunity program.
Now here is some background before I give you an opinion.
For a number of years I worked for a company called Techland in Poland, handling all their International Business Development. That involved sales of products to publishers worldwide, marketing worldwide, and aquisition of titles to localise and publish on the Polish market.
At an early stage in my time with Techland, it was decided to concentrate on products with a long shelf-life. No titles that would be 2 week wonders. That policy also had an influence on Techland's product development, and they introduced a product called "English Translator", which was a "machine translation" tool for automatically translating between English and Polish. The software was a massive hit on the Polish market, and I believe last year the 3rd generation product earned a "Software Product of the Year" award from one of the top magazines.
Anyway, around the time we published the first edition of this software, and saw some good results, we also decided to look at language learning. The market in Poland was at that time dominated by a Polish developer called Young Digital Poland.
We didn't have time to develop our own title, we had our development studios working flat out on other projects. Thus my task was to find the best language learning title published worldwide, and then haggle for weeks or months until I could get a purchase price low enough to compete with the products offered by Young Digital Poland, and other competitors.
I spent months with my wife helping me (she is a native Pole, a linguist and a teacher) testing almost every language learning product that was on the market.
I think in total we tested titles from about 15 publishers, and each had a multiple CD-ROM offering.
We ended up selecting products from the TellMeMore range developed by Auralog, and it took me a few more months to get to the stage of signing a contract with them, but we got the price we wanted, and they got a serious partner on the Polish market.
Thus I feel I am qualified to give you an opinion regarding the English 101 product range.
Now I haven't seen the full product. I went to their website and saw their demo modules.
Based on what I saw, English 101 is the worst language learning product out of any that I have ever seen. It is just snippets of poorly recorded audio combined with a few pictures. I am sure in later modules they move onto more complex grammatical construction, but I have no doubt that the quality will not improve.
They charge a lot of money for this abismal quality product. Yes it is cheaper than a full professional version of the latest Auralog products sold in the UK and US markets, but it actually costs more than the price TellMeMore retails for in Poland.
It doesn't, in my opinion, even compare to the cheapest products available on the market, or in fact to many high quality language courses available for free on the internet.
English 101 is portrayed as a great innovative product, and that people can earn huge amounts of money selling it. They miss out on one key fundamental of any multi-level marketing product.
Read my follow up post to find out why
Why I cancelled our Mach90 and sadly Juvio account
EN101 is an MLM distributed language learning program
It is being heavily promoted by at least one income opportunity program.
Now here is some background before I give you an opinion.
For a number of years I worked for a company called Techland in Poland, handling all their International Business Development. That involved sales of products to publishers worldwide, marketing worldwide, and aquisition of titles to localise and publish on the Polish market.
At an early stage in my time with Techland, it was decided to concentrate on products with a long shelf-life. No titles that would be 2 week wonders. That policy also had an influence on Techland's product development, and they introduced a product called "English Translator", which was a "machine translation" tool for automatically translating between English and Polish. The software was a massive hit on the Polish market, and I believe last year the 3rd generation product earned a "Software Product of the Year" award from one of the top magazines.
Anyway, around the time we published the first edition of this software, and saw some good results, we also decided to look at language learning. The market in Poland was at that time dominated by a Polish developer called Young Digital Poland.
We didn't have time to develop our own title, we had our development studios working flat out on other projects. Thus my task was to find the best language learning title published worldwide, and then haggle for weeks or months until I could get a purchase price low enough to compete with the products offered by Young Digital Poland, and other competitors.
I spent months with my wife helping me (she is a native Pole, a linguist and a teacher) testing almost every language learning product that was on the market.
I think in total we tested titles from about 15 publishers, and each had a multiple CD-ROM offering.
We ended up selecting products from the TellMeMore range developed by Auralog, and it took me a few more months to get to the stage of signing a contract with them, but we got the price we wanted, and they got a serious partner on the Polish market.
Thus I feel I am qualified to give you an opinion regarding the English 101 product range.
Now I haven't seen the full product. I went to their website and saw their demo modules.
Based on what I saw, English 101 is the worst language learning product out of any that I have ever seen. It is just snippets of poorly recorded audio combined with a few pictures. I am sure in later modules they move onto more complex grammatical construction, but I have no doubt that the quality will not improve.
They charge a lot of money for this abismal quality product. Yes it is cheaper than a full professional version of the latest Auralog products sold in the UK and US markets, but it actually costs more than the price TellMeMore retails for in Poland.
It doesn't, in my opinion, even compare to the cheapest products available on the market, or in fact to many high quality language courses available for free on the internet.
English 101 is portrayed as a great innovative product, and that people can earn huge amounts of money selling it. They miss out on one key fundamental of any multi-level marketing product.
The product has to be good
In fact the product should be
Best in Class
English 101 is the Worst in Class I have seen
In fact the product should be
Best in Class
English 101 is the Worst in Class I have seen
If you are looking for a serious income opportunity that also has a very good marketing system, there are plenty of options that also will give you a best in class product to sell. Something you can recommend to people without feeling you are embarased about it, something that you have pride representing.
Juvio provide 24/7/365 computer technical support products.
Now I know something about providing computer technical support, not to businesses, but to everyday home users.
I still belong to a computer club in the UK called ICPUG. They have been around in the UK since the days of the Commodore Pet. I don't attend their meetings very often now, they are 1000 miles away, but my father who used to be their membership secretary still attends on a regular basis.
Now every weeked a small group of the most dedicated ICPUG "experts" pack up their computers and go to local computer fairs held in schools and villiage halls and run a free technical support service for the people attending the fairs. Most of them are true experts earning top salaries as consultants to many of the major ISPs in the UK, own their own web businesses, or are sales consultants with major hardware manufacturers. It is all done for the love of helping people with their problems, because these people have nowhere else to go for impartial advise and technical support they trust and can afford (because it is free).
Sometimes people would actually wait a month or more, without their computer working, to bring it into the ICPUG "clinic" for the experts to take a look at.
Home users need a high quality technical support service that is affordable, and accessible.
This is where Juvio comes in, and provides 24/7/365 support for a reasonable fee. It is not a cheap service, and may not be for everyone, but it is affordable.
Now it is marketed as an MLM. But that is ok...
Juvio provide 24/7/365 computer technical support products.
Now I know something about providing computer technical support, not to businesses, but to everyday home users.
I still belong to a computer club in the UK called ICPUG. They have been around in the UK since the days of the Commodore Pet. I don't attend their meetings very often now, they are 1000 miles away, but my father who used to be their membership secretary still attends on a regular basis.
Now every weeked a small group of the most dedicated ICPUG "experts" pack up their computers and go to local computer fairs held in schools and villiage halls and run a free technical support service for the people attending the fairs. Most of them are true experts earning top salaries as consultants to many of the major ISPs in the UK, own their own web businesses, or are sales consultants with major hardware manufacturers. It is all done for the love of helping people with their problems, because these people have nowhere else to go for impartial advise and technical support they trust and can afford (because it is free).
Sometimes people would actually wait a month or more, without their computer working, to bring it into the ICPUG "clinic" for the experts to take a look at.
Home users need a high quality technical support service that is affordable, and accessible.
This is where Juvio comes in, and provides 24/7/365 support for a reasonable fee. It is not a cheap service, and may not be for everyone, but it is affordable.
Now it is marketed as an MLM. But that is ok...
Juvio is a high quality product
Maybe Best of Breed in its price range.
The income possibility with Juvio is more realistic than any MLM I have seen, because you don't have to shift huge amounts of product individually. It is a team effort.
Now I have opted to sell Juvio products through a 3rd party company called Mach90. I have found it to be the most powerful direct sales system I have ever encountered.
I have prepared a small website, you could technically call it a pre-squeeze page, as I leave the lead capture to the Mach90 squeeze page that you can access from my page. I don't want any spam complaints, and I feel my honest look at why I signed up might be of value.
I actually found signing up to Mach90 to be a huge learning experience. in 15 years of sales and marketing I hadn't encountered anything close to this system in raw conversion power
Even if you are not interested in the opportunity, my advise would be just to sign up anyway, to experience the power of the sales process. There other "power-line" systems designed for Juvio products, but they are neither as user friendly, nor as pursuasive. For example Mach90 includes friendly options to allow a user to receive either daily or weekly updates about their potential business.
Maybe Best of Breed in its price range.
The income possibility with Juvio is more realistic than any MLM I have seen, because you don't have to shift huge amounts of product individually. It is a team effort.
Now I have opted to sell Juvio products through a 3rd party company called Mach90. I have found it to be the most powerful direct sales system I have ever encountered.
I have prepared a small website, you could technically call it a pre-squeeze page, as I leave the lead capture to the Mach90 squeeze page that you can access from my page. I don't want any spam complaints, and I feel my honest look at why I signed up might be of value.
I actually found signing up to Mach90 to be a huge learning experience. in 15 years of sales and marketing I hadn't encountered anything close to this system in raw conversion power
My Mach90 Pre-squeeze page
Even if you are not interested in the opportunity, my advise would be just to sign up anyway, to experience the power of the sales process. There other "power-line" systems designed for Juvio products, but they are neither as user friendly, nor as pursuasive. For example Mach90 includes friendly options to allow a user to receive either daily or weekly updates about their potential business.
It blows away all conventional autoresponders
Friday, June 10, 2005
Incubator project for the masses - leveraging niche websites and affiliate marketing
One of my long term goals is to help raise the standard of life and generate wealth for my local community.
I have lived in Poland for 12 years, and helping people achieve their life goals has always been the final destination of my career path (though maybe I didn't know it when I was in my 20s)
In a recent forum thread on the Howto marketing forum, I decided to share one of my business goals to illustrate a point that any program that offers high rewards on the internet might not be a ponzi or pyramid scheme, but could just as easily be funding an investment or incubator scheme that has a high chance of success.
The following is a rough outline for an online based incubator project that sometime in the future (when funds allow), I intend to create.
This is not a formal business plan with a detailed cost break-down - it is hardly more than a poorly prepared elevator pitch, but I think many will find it interesting.
The Main Concepts
Find 100 people looking to improve their financial standing working part-time. You would interview them, make sure they had an interesting background, and were literate.
Do a bulk deal with Ken Evoy of SiteSell.com for 100 SBIs, or have your own custom system and hosting.
Set the 100 people up with the SBIs and provide additional mentoring and help with brainstorming, design and monetization. Provide all necessary tools, even computers if necessary. You would take 50% of revenue in the first year or until a site reached a certain level of success, and 25% thereafter. Obviously they would also be free to work on their own projects once a certain level of success was attained
This is one of my longterm ideas, but I would also like to make the SBI interface localised, which would cost a lot of time and some $$ outlay. I suppose this could be set up with $50000, as long as you staggered the process. I have managed 100+ localization projects in the past, so have the contacts to achieve that goal cost effectively.
Discussion
Imagine what you could do with more money, in a country where the primary language was English.
I am in Poland, monetization might be harder for a non-english site but that creates more opportunity. The opportunities in Poland are actually staggering.
In Poland I could even pay an initial wage if someone was doing this full-time, as an advance on future earnings.
I could easily get a grant from the EU and the Polish government, and if I was providing jobs for the un-employed, there are loads of tax benefits.
I have lived in Poland for 12 years, and helping people achieve their life goals has always been the final destination of my career path (though maybe I didn't know it when I was in my 20s)
In a recent forum thread on the Howto marketing forum, I decided to share one of my business goals to illustrate a point that any program that offers high rewards on the internet might not be a ponzi or pyramid scheme, but could just as easily be funding an investment or incubator scheme that has a high chance of success.
The following is a rough outline for an online based incubator project that sometime in the future (when funds allow), I intend to create.
This is not a formal business plan with a detailed cost break-down - it is hardly more than a poorly prepared elevator pitch, but I think many will find it interesting.
The Main Concepts
Find 100 people looking to improve their financial standing working part-time. You would interview them, make sure they had an interesting background, and were literate.
Do a bulk deal with Ken Evoy of SiteSell.com for 100 SBIs, or have your own custom system and hosting.
Set the 100 people up with the SBIs and provide additional mentoring and help with brainstorming, design and monetization. Provide all necessary tools, even computers if necessary. You would take 50% of revenue in the first year or until a site reached a certain level of success, and 25% thereafter. Obviously they would also be free to work on their own projects once a certain level of success was attained
This is one of my longterm ideas, but I would also like to make the SBI interface localised, which would cost a lot of time and some $$ outlay. I suppose this could be set up with $50000, as long as you staggered the process. I have managed 100+ localization projects in the past, so have the contacts to achieve that goal cost effectively.
Discussion
Imagine what you could do with more money, in a country where the primary language was English.
I am in Poland, monetization might be harder for a non-english site but that creates more opportunity. The opportunities in Poland are actually staggering.
In Poland I could even pay an initial wage if someone was doing this full-time, as an advance on future earnings.
I could easily get a grant from the EU and the Polish government, and if I was providing jobs for the un-employed, there are loads of tax benefits.
Many people promote SBI as an ideal business opportunity for the masses. The concept is amazing and the support from SiteSell is second to none. I agree with them. Obviously the people selected have to want to succeed, and have to be willing to work hard at it.
The concept outlined here is an ideal, low risk incubator. It also provides wealth generation for the masses.
I am quite happy to share this idea, because if someone copies it
1. It won't prevent me doing it myself in the future
2. They would provide 100 or more people a better life
It is quite possible that there are people already doing something similar - many super affiliates have employees who they train, and actively help them when they decide to leave the nest. Who knows what is really happening in India, China, The Philipines, Singapore, Malaysia etc.
There are so many global services that are run by the Chineese.
Not all investment in incubator projects have to be high-risk in technology firms. It is quite possible to create an incubator project that is helping ordinary people improve their lifestyles through the use of existing technology and niche websites that deliver high quality, in demand content.
Learn about how ordinary people can turn their passions into successful online businesses
Take a quick tour of SiteBuildIt
(one day I hope to use this to help the people in my community)
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Corey Rudl - the passing of an internet marketing legend
He died in a car crash Thursday morning while racing his porche
LA Times story
NBC4TV.com have pictures
I was one of Corey's 70,000+ affiliates, though a rather new one. I have never made any money from selling his products, but still promoted them, knowing that the products would help others get ahead.
I still hope to be able to buy many of them for my own use in the future.
That being said Corey was of the 2 internet marketing "gurus" who I truely respected without question (the other is Ken Evoy). It wasn't due to the potential of earning money selling his products, but because of the amount of quality information he gave me, totally for free.
Thousands of people have become hugely successful because of his teaching, and this is a tragic loss to the internet marketing community.
Yesterday (Friday) after he died, I received an email from him, with more information to help me succeed online. That is the power of the sales and marketing techniques he promoted, even after passing away.
Corey Rudl R.I.P Thursday June 2nd 2005 - I truely hope his teaching becomes immortal
Whilst this is just one of hundreds of small tributes to Corey on the internet that have appeared over the last few days, I would like to direct readers to one in particular. http://www.remembercorey.com has become firmly established as the "hub" where you will find hundreds of personal and very moving words.
NBC4TV.com have pictures
I was one of Corey's 70,000+ affiliates, though a rather new one. I have never made any money from selling his products, but still promoted them, knowing that the products would help others get ahead.
I still hope to be able to buy many of them for my own use in the future.
That being said Corey was of the 2 internet marketing "gurus" who I truely respected without question (the other is Ken Evoy). It wasn't due to the potential of earning money selling his products, but because of the amount of quality information he gave me, totally for free.
Thousands of people have become hugely successful because of his teaching, and this is a tragic loss to the internet marketing community.
Yesterday (Friday) after he died, I received an email from him, with more information to help me succeed online. That is the power of the sales and marketing techniques he promoted, even after passing away.
Corey Rudl R.I.P Thursday June 2nd 2005 - I truely hope his teaching becomes immortal
Whilst this is just one of hundreds of small tributes to Corey on the internet that have appeared over the last few days, I would like to direct readers to one in particular. http://www.remembercorey.com has become firmly established as the "hub" where you will find hundreds of personal and very moving words.
How does Google decide if a site is offensive or not - Henk van Ess's Search Bistro
Google's Human Quality Evaluation: How To Spot Offensive Sites & Google's Whitelist - Henk van Ess's Search Bistro: "How does Google decide if a site is offensive or not? They hate affiliates without original content."
The post continues with a screenshot of detailed instruction of what Google are instructing their human site inspectors to look for. In particular listing lots of products without any content is highlighted. You need reviews and price comparisons.
The problem is that prices change on vendor sites fairly often, so it is hard to keep track of that kind of content. It would be good if affiliate services provided a price comparisson search, so that affiliates could be sure they were offering good prices. That doesn't cover added value though like service - I look for good money back guarantees on all products I list.
I would be interested in when sites are reviewed. If it is when they first enter the database, it would partially explain why sites can drop in rating a few days after entering the database.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Greenzap? Latest Greatest Payment Processor
I have been making a few posts on the scam.com forum regarding Greenzap.
Greenzap? Latest Greatest Payment Processor
and in the continuing thread commenting to "Rony" a Greenzap "Liason"
Greenzap, affiliates and feedback
Now I am sure there are people who are annoyed that they can't withdraw their "free" money from Greenzap, but that doesn't make the money useless.
For merchants it is still a very viable offer, my problems with the whole "scheme" is the company business model, and want to make sure Greenzap's business is sustainable.
The only way for merchants to get any information is to apply via a contact form. No information is available to the public. As I have seen noone comment on what they information they gained after they applied, I am sure it is subject to a Non-disclosure agreement.
Now this is what makes Rony's offer to hold a special teleconference funny. All the information that people want, and have ever wanted from Greenzap, they could easily post on their website for the world to see.
They know what people want to know, but are holding their cards tight to their chest. A teleconference is not the kind of staged even to post detailed financial information.
One thing that excites me is the debit card, providing that it is available for people outside the US, can be used on the internet and the charges are not extreme (hehe also payable with webcash?). There is however no information about that provided. Paypal offer a debit card, but it is not international.
Greenzap? Latest Greatest Payment Processor
and in the continuing thread commenting to "Rony" a Greenzap "Liason"
Greenzap, affiliates and feedback
Now I am sure there are people who are annoyed that they can't withdraw their "free" money from Greenzap, but that doesn't make the money useless.
For merchants it is still a very viable offer, my problems with the whole "scheme" is the company business model, and want to make sure Greenzap's business is sustainable.
The only way for merchants to get any information is to apply via a contact form. No information is available to the public. As I have seen noone comment on what they information they gained after they applied, I am sure it is subject to a Non-disclosure agreement.
Now this is what makes Rony's offer to hold a special teleconference funny. All the information that people want, and have ever wanted from Greenzap, they could easily post on their website for the world to see.
They know what people want to know, but are holding their cards tight to their chest. A teleconference is not the kind of staged even to post detailed financial information.
One thing that excites me is the debit card, providing that it is available for people outside the US, can be used on the internet and the charges are not extreme (hehe also payable with webcash?). There is however no information about that provided. Paypal offer a debit card, but it is not international.
User Agreement - GreenZap - The Future of Money. It's Zappening.
I have been reading the Greenzap user agreement, all is not quite as it seemed
Now understanding that Webcash is not cash is very important, because that is what Greenzap are giving away.
Effectively they are giving away a $25 coupon that may or may not have any merchants willing to accept it as part payment. If a merchant does accept it as part payment, the merchant can't use it for anything substantial.
Greenzap isn't as international as they first claimed
It costs a lot of money to raise a check in $USD if you live abroad.
They used to claim all countries can use Greenzap, it turns out not to be true.
The only longterm use for Greenzap's webcash seems to be for paying fees
Hmm so that gets me thinking, where are Greenzap making their money, if the biggest source of income is in fees... ah Gold members
And ...
Thus anyone who pays $100 in real money, ends up with $100 worth of webcash that isn't real money, just a coupon that can possibly redeemed when buying goods. Most people who upgrade will be merchants, who will be flooded with webcash anyway.
So Greenzap sign-up 50,000 merchants, who pay $100 each for gold membership because they will effectively never have to pay transaction fees again for using the service.
But Greenzap aren't going to make any serious money other than on deposited funds
Thus Greenzap will only be making money from Gold users paying $100, which effectively means they will never have to pay real money for transactions. They are holding money securely, but are not regulated, unlike other payment processors.
For anyone living outside the US, running a Greenzap account is going to be a major pain, but customers will jump at the idea of $25 of virtual money, especially if the merchant also allows the customer to use some of it buying their goods. It really depends on how the merchant interface works and how they can decide the ammount of webcash they will accept.
As an affiliate, I hope my earnings are not going to be paid in webcash
Thus sign-up for a Greenzap $25 coupon seems appropriate (note my secure link ;) )
User Agreement - GreenZap - The Future of Money. It's Zappening.: "Cash Balance versus Web Cash Balance. GreenZap is unique from other payment portals in that we have created a rewards system for our Users enabling them to earn and give away WebCash. WebCash can be used to send to anyone, to cover GreenZap transaction fees, or used to pay for (part or all) goods and services from GreenZap’s global network of preferred merchants. Your cash balance is money that you have loaded to your GreenZap account, received from a third party, or earned in GreenZap community rewards and can be disbursed. WebCash is not cash and is not disbursable. WebCash is a rewards program providing discounts or credit with participating merchants. WebCash can only be used, as the name says, on the web. WebCash credits can be changed or cancelled by us at any time without any prior notice to you, and merchants may cancel their participation at any time without notice."
Now understanding that Webcash is not cash is very important, because that is what Greenzap are giving away.
Effectively they are giving away a $25 coupon that may or may not have any merchants willing to accept it as part payment. If a merchant does accept it as part payment, the merchant can't use it for anything substantial.
Greenzap isn't as international as they first claimed
Non-U.S. Users. Non-U.S. Users, like U.S. users, must use a U.S. bank account to send or receive electronic funds to or from their GreenZap account, unless otherwise permitted by GreenZap from time to time in GreenZap’s sole discretion and subject to all applicable laws. In the event GreenZap permits a non-U.S. User to use a non-U.S. bank account for GreenZap transactions, the laws of the non-U.S. User’s home country may prohibit the non-U.S. User from using GreenZap to receive or send funds. It is GreenZap’s assumption that Non-U.S. Users are signing up for a GreenZap account only after determining that opening and maintaining a GreenZap account does not violate any laws or regulations in respective country and jurisdiction. If you are a non-U.S. User, you warrant that you are not violating a law or regulation by your utilizing GreenZap, and you indemnify us for any and all liability that might arise from your use of GreenZap.
It costs a lot of money to raise a check in $USD if you live abroad.
They used to claim all countries can use Greenzap, it turns out not to be true.
Non-Approved Countries. Users residing in the following countries are prohibited from opening, using, or operating GreenZap accounts: Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, North Korea, Sudan, Syria and Russia. The non-approved countries list may change without notice.
The only longterm use for Greenzap's webcash seems to be for paying fees
Fees. Following please find our fee schedule listed by transaction and account type. Fees are in US Dollars. Earned WebCash may be used to pay for any transaction fee. If your account has a WebCash balance,Thus if you have loads of webcash, such as a merchant, you won't pay any transaction fees.
Hmm so that gets me thinking, where are Greenzap making their money, if the biggest source of income is in fees... ah Gold members
GreenZap Gold Account. A GreenZap Gold account, also referred to as a Gold account, is an upgraded account providing the User with a GreenZap Stored Value Card and a reduction on every transaction fee $2 to $1, in comparison to the Green account. To become a Gold member, you must transfer or deposit $100 to your GreenZap user account using a U.S. bank account or by mailing-in a Cashier’s Check or Money Order. The $100 is your money to spend and send as “WebCash”. Visit the “Servicez” section of the website to view an account comparison chart.
And ...
Gold Account Refund Policy. The $100 Gold account upgrade is non-refundable. The $100 is instantly converted to WebCash and deposited to your account. It is yours to send or spend on transaction fees and with GreenZap preferred merchants. It can not be disbursed as cash and does not expire. You may choose to close your account at anytime, which will simply void your WebCash balance.
Thus anyone who pays $100 in real money, ends up with $100 worth of webcash that isn't real money, just a coupon that can possibly redeemed when buying goods. Most people who upgrade will be merchants, who will be flooded with webcash anyway.
So Greenzap sign-up 50,000 merchants, who pay $100 each for gold membership because they will effectively never have to pay transaction fees again for using the service.
But Greenzap aren't going to make any serious money other than on deposited funds
GreenZap is Not a Bank. GreenZap is not a bank, and your transactions through GreenZap are not regulated as bank transactions. Similar services may be offered by banks, and if you wish to process your transactions through a bank, you should check with one or more banks and compare services. GreenZap is not a fiduciary, escrow or trustee and has no fiduciary duties to you. GreenZap only acts as your agent in processing your GreenZap payment transactions. You do not have to keep any balance of funds in your GreenZap account at any time, but to the extent a balance remains in your GreenZap account at any time, your funds remain your own funds when in the hands of GreenZap and will be placed in an FDIC-insured account with a bank in the name of GreenZap for the benefit of GreenZap customers. You agree that you will not receive any interest on such funds and that GreenZap may receive earnings credits or other benefits as a result of the balances held in the account with the bank.
Thus Greenzap will only be making money from Gold users paying $100, which effectively means they will never have to pay real money for transactions. They are holding money securely, but are not regulated, unlike other payment processors.
For anyone living outside the US, running a Greenzap account is going to be a major pain, but customers will jump at the idea of $25 of virtual money, especially if the merchant also allows the customer to use some of it buying their goods. It really depends on how the merchant interface works and how they can decide the ammount of webcash they will accept.
As an affiliate, I hope my earnings are not going to be paid in webcash
Thus sign-up for a Greenzap $25 coupon seems appropriate (note my secure link ;) )
Greenzap security update
As reported earlier, the default main page of Greenzap, the self proclaimed alternative to Paypal doesn't have a security certificate.
It is not actually true, they do have one
Greenzap don't know how to use it
I did a little investigating...
Typing in https://www.greenzap.com
You get a security certificate requester pop up, which you can authorise and access the site securely.
Greenzap just need to juggle their access to default to secure mode, but in the meantime I suggest everyone does it manually for them.
Instead of
http://www.greenzap.com
use
https://www.greenzap.com
And for when affiliate links go live use
https://www.greenzap.com/yourusername
It is not actually true, they do have one
Greenzap don't know how to use it
I did a little investigating...
Typing in https://www.greenzap.com
You get a security certificate requester pop up, which you can authorise and access the site securely.
Greenzap just need to juggle their access to default to secure mode, but in the meantime I suggest everyone does it manually for them.
Instead of
http://www.greenzap.com
use
https://www.greenzap.com
And for when affiliate links go live use
https://www.greenzap.com/yourusername
GreenZap almost open their doors
Greenzap's main page has been just a counter for a day or so.
The counter reached zero today and the new site was available.
One thing very alarming about Greenzap's front sign-in page, it is not secure! They don't have SSL encryption of the sign in process. If you go to any other reputable payment processor their login page is secure.
Greenzap is not secure
So despite the lack of security I typed in my email address and password and got a page saying this...
Thus despite the fact that they have had 6 weeks or more to verify my details with me, on launch day it seems I have to wait up to another 2 days to actually see my account.
And this from a company whose login page is not secured!
The Greenzap site however isn't fully functional
GreenZap Sign-ups are still not possible
Since the site went down recently, it hasn't been possible to sign up new recruits
Now the site is back up, at least the referral links point to a webpage for signing up.
Unfortunately, none of the areas on the page that should allow you to click them and sign-up are "hot" - they have no hyperlinks assigned.
Something tells me Greenzap are having problems juggling their matrix system.
The good news is that they still have listed on the re-designed website that all new sign-ups receive $25 in their account for free. Once the site is live, it is well worth signing up for the bonus, and well worth signing up as a vendor because there will be lots of people with Greenzap accounts full of money wanting to spend it.
As per my previous post, I still don't think they are a serious competitor for Paypal
I will post again when I finally get access, and when the sign-up process is enabled. Hopefully by then they will have invested a few dollars in a security certificate. They are very cheap for legitimate firms to buy.
Then if you haven't, you can Grab $25 of Green for Free!
The counter reached zero today and the new site was available.
One thing very alarming about Greenzap's front sign-in page, it is not secure! They don't have SSL encryption of the sign in process. If you go to any other reputable payment processor their login page is secure.
Greenzap is not secure
So despite the lack of security I typed in my email address and password and got a page saying this...
Welcome to GreenZap!
We have added additional verification measures to authenticate each individual. This is to ensure that all of us are using an authentic email account. You will receive login access information from us there within the next 48 hours. We look forward to serving you.
Happy Zapping!
Thus despite the fact that they have had 6 weeks or more to verify my details with me, on launch day it seems I have to wait up to another 2 days to actually see my account.
And this from a company whose login page is not secured!
The Greenzap site however isn't fully functional
GreenZap Sign-ups are still not possible
Since the site went down recently, it hasn't been possible to sign up new recruits
Now the site is back up, at least the referral links point to a webpage for signing up.
Unfortunately, none of the areas on the page that should allow you to click them and sign-up are "hot" - they have no hyperlinks assigned.
Something tells me Greenzap are having problems juggling their matrix system.
The good news is that they still have listed on the re-designed website that all new sign-ups receive $25 in their account for free. Once the site is live, it is well worth signing up for the bonus, and well worth signing up as a vendor because there will be lots of people with Greenzap accounts full of money wanting to spend it.
As per my previous post, I still don't think they are a serious competitor for Paypal
I will post again when I finally get access, and when the sign-up process is enabled. Hopefully by then they will have invested a few dollars in a security certificate. They are very cheap for legitimate firms to buy.
Then if you haven't, you can Grab $25 of Green for Free!
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Instant Buzz going public... again?
Instant Buzz is officially public now, well for at least the next 4 days.
It is a great free way to generate traffic to your website, and it doesn't take any effort. Just install the toolbar, tell it what advertising message you want, which website, and then just carry on as normal.
There are also lots of strategies to multiply your traffic by promoting instant buzz on other traffic generation systems, thus building a massive downline.
I have found it to be a very effective tool to promote websites I am interested in. If you take your website promotion seriously, signing up as an elite member gives you massive benefits.
It is a great free way to generate traffic to your website, and it doesn't take any effort. Just install the toolbar, tell it what advertising message you want, which website, and then just carry on as normal.
There are also lots of strategies to multiply your traffic by promoting instant buzz on other traffic generation systems, thus building a massive downline.
I have found it to be a very effective tool to promote websites I am interested in. If you take your website promotion seriously, signing up as an elite member gives you massive benefits.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)