Bidding on Affiliates’ Domain Names at Zango
Apparently it doesn’t suffice for Zango’s advertisers to bid on industry-related keywords.
They are also bidding on the domain names of affiliate sites. Here is a screen capture that shows how my main domain names are being bid on at Zango… Read more
Popularity: 15% [?]
Adult FriendFinder is Commission Shaving
A friend sent me the following screen capture the other day and I’m SERIOUSLY pissed off. Read more
Popularity: 11% [?]
Ros Takes Aim at Comment Spammers
I’ve gotten to the end of my rope with blog comment spammers who appear to be getting smarter. Their posts actually seem to be considered and thoughtful.
Here’s an example:
Hi, I enjoyed reading your blog about the death of adsense. It was an intriguing article about the death of adsense. The author Scott Boulch obviously knows what he is talking about if he’s pulling in 50 K a MONTH! Wow! I am still fairly new to internet marketing but have an open mind to other individuals who may have a different opinion such as the future of adsense. I agree with Rosalind Gardner that one should not rely solely on Adsense. Feel free to check out my website for an awesome and risk-free affiliate business opportunity. Thank you. www.blogcommentspammerwebsite.com 1-800-blo-spam.
I see a number of bloggers getting duped by posts like the one above.
It seems that as long as the comment spammer says that they enjoyed the post, makes some reference to the blog post content, and that they agree with the blogger - the comment gets approved.
But LOOK again! It’s an AD, folks.
Unfortunately, you have to read through the garbage fully to appreciate that fact, which is a total waste of time. It’s also a waste of your readers’ time if you approve the comment.
Anyway, I decided to do something about the problem.
While down in Vegas at CAC2006 I went to the Gun Shop for a little target practice.
OK, to be fair, I used to be very handy with a shotgun. Many moons ago, I spent every Saturday at the range, blowing 2 clay birds to dust as they came off the trap. BAM! BAM!
Thanks to a good instructor, Jamie (pictured right), it turns out that I’m pretty handy with an AK47 and a Glock too.
OK, I’m your typical peace-loving Canadian, so I’m not really planning to shoot any comment spammers .
Suffice to say, however, that comment spammers need not bother wasting their time on my blog - considered, thoughtful comments aside.
There’s a BIG lock on the door, and they CAN’T get in - so quit wasting our time.
The spam problem on the NPT Forum is another matter entirely. Anyone up for the job of moderator?
Cheers,
Ros
Popularity: 4% [?]
Almost Fooled by PayPal Scam
I almost got fooled by another one of those PayPal “phishing” scams awhile back. Below is a screen capture of the email that I received. Notice how the “Who” indicates that it’s from “PayPal Customer Support” and the “Subject” line is “Security Notice No:15768″.
The scammers even included the warning:
PROTECT YOUR PASSWORD
NEVER give your password to anyone and ONLY log in at PayPal’s website. If anyone asks for your password, please follow the Security Tips instructions on the PayPal website.
Hmmm… nice scammers! Fortunately, the Eudora email software saved my bacon… again! When I cursored over the link in the email this pop-up appeared:
The actual host http://www.qd-race.com/images/.www.paypal.com/index.html?cmd=_login-run is different from the host https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr/?cmd=_login-run
If your email software doesn’t do that, then it’s time to check the full headers within the email itself.
The headers within that particular email contained “From: Paypal Customer Support
However, the real story was further below:
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - ns2.73dpi.com
X-SA-Exim-Mail-From: international-express@ns2.73dpi.com
Don’t get fooled!
Cheers ~ Ros
Popularity: 4% [?]
Warning to Typosquatters
If you’ve ever had the notion to do some typosquatting, you really must read Wayne Porter’s most recent blog post at Revenews.
For my more innocent readers - typosquatting is a form of cybersquatting which uses typographical errors made by surfers while typing a website address into a web browser. The surfer is then sent to an alternative address owned by the typo or cybersquatter.
For example, if you were a Brookstone affiliate, you might buy Broookstone.com, or Broostone.com and redirect traffic to the Brookstone.com site with your affiliate link.
Bad plan unless you want to end up in court.
Stay on the white side.
Cheers,
Ros
Popularity: 2% [?]
Affiliate Scam Alert: Bogus Merchants
I caution those who read Super Affiliate Handbook AGAINST affiliating with merchants that place affiliate links on their sites. Links out for which you WON’T get paid.
Fortunately, most merchants ‘get it’. They don’t cheat their affiliates in that way.
However, yesterday I ran across a relatively new form of deviant… an affiliate site posing as a merchant site.
Learn more in “Scam Alert: Affiliates Posing as Merchants“.
Cheers ~ Ros
Popularity: 2% [?]
What Happens to Affiliate Site Copyright Infringers?
Awhile back I wrote about “Three Ways to Catch Affiliate Site Rip-Off Artists“.
Well, check out “Here’s What Happens to Affiliate Site Copyright Infringers” to see an example of what happens to affiliates when they’re caught and reported.
Moreover, find out how YOU can get these rip-off artists shut down when they’re stealing YOUR work. 
Cheers,
Ros
Popularity: 3% [?]
Three Ways to Catch Affiliate Site Rip-Off Artists
If you are an affiliate with a popular site, chances are good that some lazy jerk will try to rip you off for your site content or design.
In some cases, they’ll just copy your whole site.
Catching these thieves is essential if you want to avoid having your site rankings slip due to duplicate content penalties.
I am forever on the lookout for these thieves, and today while I was in the Commission Junction interface, I discovered another way to find them.
The thief at meet-date-love.com forgot to swap out my affiliate links from 101Date.com for his own. So, when the Gay.com banner expired, it showed up in the invalid links report at CJ, as shown in the graphic below.
Duh.
Here are two more thieves that I found when I ran a search for the secret phrase that I build into all my pages:
- deai-renai.com
- datingfox.com
Another way to find those plagiarizing jerks is to use Copycape.com.
They offer free and paid versions of their service. Just type in your URL at Copycape.com to check out the free version.
Do you know of more ways to catch an affiliate thief?
Let us know - leave a comment!
Cheers,
Ros
Popularity: 4% [?]
I’m Affiliating with this Merchant…NOT!
As I’m often on the prowl for new offers to promote to my dating site crowd at Sage-Hearts.com, I thought I’d come up with something unique and interesting when I discovered SmokingDate.com.
The site bills itself as ‘Online Dating for Smokers and Smoker-Friendly Singles’.
Well, as a good affiliate who wants to make sure that the site will be acceptable to my visitors and is a lucrative prospective for my business, I had to check the site out.
You won’t believe what I found!
Read “I’m Affiliating with this Merchant…NOT!” to see the stunt that they’re trying to pull on affiliates.
Cheers,
Ros
Popularity: 2% [?]
Did You Get This Email Too?
Back on June 21st, I received the email below.
It was sent to an address that I use only for a specific affiliate program… so I assume that someone from inside the company ripped off the that company’s subscriber list.
That’s bad enough.
But worse is the fact that this person is offering a package that apparently includes my home address, telephone number and email address.
So, I bought the package to see what was included.
I paid my $67.00 and then… NOTHING.
I wrote a few emails to the seller, (whose PayPal name is David Lake but his email address is Matt.Wellington@gmail.com) filed a complaint at PayPal, and STILL nothing. Nada… not a word.
NOW, the site has disappeared.
Fortunately, because I filed a claim, and the guy hasn’t responded, PayPal will refund my money without question in a few days.
But the fact that there are others out there who bought this guy’s crap, cheeses me off greatly.
If you received the email below, and bought the package… get your money back!
Oh, and by the way.
I spoke to the owner of the company and when and if the real identity of this person is known, HE WILL BE FIRED.
Too bad, so sad.
He’ll get what he deserves for STEALING both from his employer and his ill-gotten ‘customers’.
Not-so-cheery,
Ros
Here’s that email:
How would you like to have a complete database of contact
information for virtually all of the top internet marketers on the internet.
You really need to check this out.
http://www.jv-database.com
This database includes the following information about every
prominent internet marketing person on the internet today.
- First Name
- Last Name
- eMail Addresses (many private email addresses)
- Address City
- State
- Zip Code
- Country
- A list of their sites
- Their sites PR (page rank) and Alexa ranking
- Phone number
- Fax Number
- And Much More
I am only selling 250 copies of this package so you need to act quickly.
It will be the best $67 you ever spent online and it will benefit you forever.
Get over there now.
http://www.jv-database.com
Popularity: 3% [?]
