Make Money Online - Scam or Legit?

Wow -- THAT'S Customer Service!! - Expert Wordpress Guys

I purchased Expert Wordpress because I have two blogs that I want to create and I want to build them with RSS and now some friends are advising 'go with Wordpress' who before were saying Blogger was just as good for SEO (drives me crazy how many times they change their advice).  BUT the one blog I wanted to add to an existing website and I am 99% sure that only Wordpress really handles that quickly.  But Wordpress is a pain in the .... right? 

It was until Expert Wordpress. I went ahead and bought this because I am just swamped in my day job and the only way I have a chance of getting a Wordpress blog created is if I can do it in about 15 minutes -- which is all this takes.

But  now, before I've even gotten a chance to use the product, the co-creators sent me a note asking advice for how to make it better.  Now That's Customer Service.  And this isn't just a glib, hope you like it sort of note, it's a thoughtful, please answer specific questions.  See below....

---

We hope that by now you are well on your way with your new blog. We
have made sure that instructions were as clear as possible but...

No Product is Perfect!

We don't really expect that of this product. That is why we need
your help in determining what we have done right and what could use
more work and perhaps even additional content...

Here's what you need to do:

Please take a quick minute or two of your time to simply hit
"reply" and fill in your answers to the questions below. Remember,
we want to know what YOUR needs are so we can keep adding what you
want in the product.

After all, it does neither of us any good if we add content that
you're not interested in.

Thanks so much!

Warmest regards,
Alex and Dmitriy

* * *

The questions below are most appropriate for the members who
purchased the upgrade to the Advanced level. But we appreciate
everyone's answers, after all - it is never too late to reconsider
and upgrade!

============================================
   Expert WordPress Questionnaire
============================================

1. What is the one part of the product you liked the most?


2. What are the biggest problems you are facing with your blog
right now?


3. What exact topic are you interested to learn about?


4. What blogs, sites or forums do you most frequently visit to find
additional info?


5. What was the one part about EWP you didn't like?


6. What can we do to improve it?


7. Was the overall purchase worth the price as compared to other
similar products you have seen and tried?


8. If you like the product and are interested in providing
testimonial or case study please provide it here:


9. Can we use your testimonial in our marketing materials?
__ Yes __ No


If you agree we will only use your name and the information you
provide below.

Full Name:
City:
State (or Province):
Country:
Website of yours you wish to promote: (Must be your own-i.e. no
affiliate sites)

Thank You!

Alex S. and Dmitiry A.

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I was impressed and I'll try to remember to post here once I start up the new blog(s). Meanwhile if anyone beats me to the punch and uses Expert Wordpress, please let me know.

P.S. Sorry, at one point I saved this post, thinking I was saving in draft mode, but I guess it half-published it. In case any of you were wondering why I was a little more disjointed and incoherent than usual. That's why.

Forced Money and Forced Money Reviews -- Scam and Double Scam

Okay, this is not like all the Google ads and articles that claim to be a "review of Forced Money."  I don't even claim this is a review of Forced Money.  But I think both the product AND the reviews of it are BIG, FAT SCAMS. 

Basically several thousand people, including myself, got an email that said here use this article which is supposedly a review of Forced Money and insert your Clickbank affiliate link and make $45.73 on the front-end and $66.55 on the back-end and it will convert like crazy.

But what the hell is the Forced Money product?

Here is what it claims to give you:

 o An amazing website!
  o A website that converts sales automatically!
  o A website that puts "forced" money directly into your pocket!
  o A website that's run by another firm for you (at NO charge!)
  o A website that continues to promote for you over & over!
  o A website that grows & cultivates a proven list!
  o A website that functions automatically (so you never run it!)
  o And a website that you get Free H0STING for!

Gosh, why don't they throw in a fictional maid to clean my house.  I mean if they have an infinite ability to create websites that 'force' money out of the internet, then why don't they just amass the largest accumulation of wealth ever.  If I'm doing nothing, then they don't need me to create website after website, and I'm adding nothing.  So I'm getting hordes of money for doing nothing.  Duh....  am I the only one who smells something fishy.

You know what this is -- it's a giant chain letter, whereby the person starting the letter gets others to send them money, hoping that still other people will send them money.  The only specific service or product that is mentionned is that this "AMAZING website" will promote a product called Get Google Ads Free.  Forced Money explains this is a great product for all internet marketers and converts like crazy. 

WAIT!!!

Get Google Ads Free is by the same guy who created and sells and profits from Forced Money.  He is getting people to PAY him to set up a website for them that promotes HIS PRODUCT!!!    Yes, if the website sells his product, you'll make money.  But again, if he could just keep creating more and more websites and sell more and more himself, he would because he'd keep a bigger piece of the pie.  Maybe he figures if there are articles written all over the internet in various people's names or all the buyers contact their friends and family that it will increase sales.  But at some point the market is saturated, especially if the product doesn't deliver as promised and I find it extremely hard to believe that either product delivers anything like what it describes.

If anyone has actually bought either of these products and used them and thinks I'm wrong.  PLEASE let me know.  I'd LOVE to discover a product that fills my pockets with money, whether it comes with maid service or not!

Make Money Online - Simple Method - Why I'm not jumping

Okay, I got over my earlier pity party (last post) about having lost a post I was writing.  I'm going to write a condensed version of it, before I forget the info and because I think it might help someone.

One of the many internet marketing forums that I occasionally read had a post that suggested a fairly simple method for creating an online income -- Create a message board on a topic around which people spend a fair amount of money, such as their dogs, cats, gardening, bird watching, photography, etc and then place adsense ads or affiliate links to related products on your site. 

I created a message board once about 5 years ago using phpBB and it wasn't too hard.  I abandoned it a couple years ago because of the SPAM.  But I gather there are now a lot of simple mods (modifications) that you can install which catch a lot of the SPAM and make it more manageable.  If you are interested in doing this I recommend either phpBB or SMF (Simple Machines Forum).  Both are free and both have active message boards (about using the message board software) where you can search topics such as SPAM or post for help.  Some level of HTML and website knowledge (like how to FTP) is needed.  The beauty of the model is of course that you can begin a topic and then let others generate the content.  SMF has SMFads.com, which is a modification meant to place Adsense into your message board for you. 

So why am I not going down this path?  Simply because I have too many half-done projects and almost any idea fully completed (or even 95% completed) has a better chance of success than a half-done project.   Let me know if you decide to give it a try. 

Blogger versus TypePad

I run blogs on both Blogger and Typepad.  At the moment I'm leaning towards preferring Blogger (I say while I type on Typepad) for two reasons.  All features of Blogger are free, whereas Typepad has some features only if you opt for a professional account and pay $$.  Secondly I just lost my second post a moment ago by the following scenario.  I wrote a long, thoughtful post with several links.  I hit Preview.  I am on a computer at the moment using a browser with Popups Blocked and a message came up that said Preview was blocked by a Popup Blocker - Enable Popups to see the  Preview.  So I clicked on the Icon to enable Popups and.....

I got a whole NEW EMPTY Compose New Post Window......  My post was LOST!!!

The same thing happened to me a couple weeks ago when I went to write a post.  That time I rewrote the post.  This time I'm substituting this post instead and you won't read about the new money-making idea a friend mentionned to me until I forgive Typepad and/or use a different computer/browser combination. 

Blogger has an autosave feature where it periodically saves the post as you create it.  This helps not only in case you blow the thing away by trying to preview it, but also if you have a network error, etc. 

Amazon.com Associates New Video Widget Offering

Umm... maybe it's just me (or my browser) but I just got an email from Amazon that read:

Monetize Your Video with Product Ads

Dear Amazon Associate,

Recently, we launched your video widget where you earn referral fees from product links that you add to your videos.

And then they provided a sample video to show me how this would work. Only when I clicked on their 'Show Products' button, it  didn't  work. Hopefully, it is only a temporary glitch, but sending an email saying, "look at how this works," to a couple million associates and having it fail, is a giant OOPS for Amazon. It makes Jeff Bezos's bad dancing at the end, even more embarrassing. Again, maybe it's just me, but do people really take their drinks out onto the dance floor? Anyway here's the video: