Internet Marketing Strategies and Marketing Tips by Neil Shearing

In his latest issue of “Internet Marketing Secrets”, Michael Campbell indicates that the venerable old newsletter, where Michael has dispensed enough wisdom to launch a thousand newbies on the path to gurus, may soon close.

How typical of Michael that he puts the announcement near the end of the newsletter, after he’s given away more meaty content helping people brainstorm ideas for online business niches they can work in.

Here’s what he said…

“One More Quick Thing….

This newsletter is soon to be 10 years old. (That’s like 70 in internet years.) It’s had a good run, but after 150 issues, I’m thinking of retiring it.”

How about that? A decade of giving out free, quality advice… starting in 1998 or 1999, which is, like Michael says, the equivalent of 70 Internet years and WAY before most of today’s “gurus” had even heard of the Web.

Michael’s announcement introduces his Private Site where he’s going to create “an environment that’s free of hype and focuses on tested marketing strategies that are proven to work“.

While I’ll be sad to see the free Internet Marketing Secrets disappear, I will definitely be endorsing Michael’s private site. It’s the perfect time to launch a “hype free” member’s site, as the Internet marketing community drowns in an avalanche of offers, promos, hype and spam.

If you want to join Michael’s private site, get on the priority list because he’s capping membership at just 250 members. I’ve seen other private site’s cap at 1,000 members… so 250 is a small community and Michael will most likely hit the cap quickly.

Will Excess Blogvertising Kill Blogs?

Do blog “sponsors” pay so little that bloggers have to clutter up their pages with a gazillion ads?

The way blogs work, the homepage is usually a long page. It usually takes a little while to load, because of the multiple blog posts it.

When you then stick on TEN ads (shoemoney) or TWELVE (Yaro, I’m looking at you!), you make the load time even longer.

Perhaps the average blog visitor doesn’t mind.

But I remember when we had to crush GIF’s (image files) before putting them on our websites because they added to the page load time.

I also remember when Infoseek, Alta Vista and others switched from search engines to “portals” and cluttered up their pages with extra junk. Where are they now? Oh yes, killed off by Google and their super-streamlined homepage.

Is it just a case of blogging not being very profitable, and sticking a dozen ads on your blog’s homepage is a case of “getting $50 per month from each advertiser sure adds up if I can put on 3, 6 or 12 ads!”

Have you noticed an increase in advertising at blogs? Does it annoy you? Do you think bloggers are killing the golden goose by cluttering up their blogs? Don’t bloggers know about relationship marketing through the strength of their writing works better than traditional “in your face” ads sponsorships?

Will excess blogvertising stop you going back to a blog you like, or are you willing to put up with it because of the strength of the blogger’s posts?

So I guess I’m on a few lists of dofollow blogs.

I don’t mind that. If you leave a valuable comment, you’ll get a dofollow link.

Heck, I even offer software that searches for dofollow blogs at Real Link Finder Finds Dofollow Blogs. We’ve issued 13,341 unlock keys for that software, so it’s mighty popular… probably because I give it away.

But, please, if you want a link, follow the instructions when leaving a useful comment. Stuffing the “name” field with keywords will just result in your comment being deleted. Leaving a “canned” comment will just result in your comment being deleted.

By the way, I hope you also notice the lack of advertising at this blog. People have offered to buy links and I could easily add advertising for a bajillion products, but I haven’t. This is an advertising-free do-follow blog.

I hope to keep it that way, with your active participation.

It seems that kicking up a fuss can result in the desired action… even if you only kick up a fuss at your own blog.

The Rant at Commission Junction blog post received 56 comments, most of them in my favor. A lot of comments didn’t seem to think too highly of Commission Junction.

Presumably, someone at Commission Junction is using something like Google Alerts to discover rants and ravings about Commission Junction online, and this blog was picked up. As a result, I got the following email…

===
Hi Neil,

I hope this email finds you well.

I’m emailing regarding your recent query by our network quality team. It was brought to my attention by our Director of Compliance & Support Operations, Jeff Ransdell.

In discovery of a potential issue, the necessary due diligence was not performed by our accounts team in the US and you received a warning you should not have received. For this, both myself and Jeff apologise. I hope you do not construe this incident as something that is business as usual from our side. Many folks have blogged on your site saying that this our normal way of operating. I can assure it is not.

We look forward to working with you further and I remain available to you as a contact for any and all questions.

Thank you,

Daniel Powel

Head of Account Management, UK and Ireland
==

Hooray. Hopefully, CJ now reviews the fact that they didn’t do “necessary due diligence” and change their system so that it doesn’t happen to other people.

Result!

===
Update: It seems like people want the short-version of the story. Here it is:

A few weeks ago Commission Junction sent me an email saying I was in violation of their terms and conditions and that I needed to take down a specific webpage at www.incomemax.com or they would close my Commission Junction account.

The webpage they wanted removed framed a page from the babycenter.com website. I guess there’s a relationship between babycenter.com and Commission Junction. However, the page at Incomemax.com doesn’t use a Commission Junction link and was created back in the year 2000 in response to a request (presumably from babycenter.com). So the page was created before the account that Commission Junction was threatening to close even existed!

When I raised this point with Commission Junction they agreed that I was not in violation of their agreement. They didn’t apologise for being wrong. I think they used unnecessary bullying tactics and should take longer to investigate each incident before threatening to close accounts.
===

If you’ve got a few minutes, here’s the movie version…

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

(for a much larger version, click here)

I don’t think it’s right that Commission Junction can try to bully me into taking down a webpage when they were 100% absolutely, categorically, in the wrong.

What do you think? Should Commission Junction have done just a little bit of research before firing off a legal email threatening me with account closure? How long would it have taken them to work out that the incident they were complaining about didn’t even use a Commission Junction link?

Am I right to get worked up about this? Is it an important principle to defend, or am I over-reacting?

It usually takes a lot to get me into “rant mode”, but Commission Junction managed it!

Want to know more about Goobert, then check out Michael’s new Affiliate Marketing Podcasts… you’ll get the 13-page Goobert PDF report as a free bonus.

Michael calls Goobert, “the fastest way to get free traffic and start generating affiliate revenue within hours. Guaranteed” and, “In my tests, I can ramp up to 400 visitors per day in less than a month working only 20 minutes per day.” Wow! I’ve just reviewed it, and I think Michael could’ve sold the Goobert report for $67, easily.

Incredibly, Michael’s Affiliate Marketing Podcasts are just $15.95, and you get the Goobert report thrown in for free.