Discuss!”

Hehe… Nicely summed up, Caroline!

It takes longer for me to craft original material and, quite frankly, not all of it is Pulitzer prize material. But I can’t see me ever stealing (wholesale) content and not, where possible, at least giving attribution.

Which raises the disturbing question of where did the web sites I got my photos from get them from get them from get them from?

Maybe Google should refuse to catalog images that don’t have proper attribution in the alt tag?

Honestly, I think it was mostly a bit of miscommunication between Ed and his group, and they had to backpedal a bit and say it wasn’t about the platform, but that was clearly what they intended at the beginning.

Ben Cook’s last blog post..Under the Microscope: SEOmeter.com

What irks me is that as soon as something new comes along such as Facebook or whatever, a million IM people jump on it to reveal all of its ’secrets’ for the low price of just $97! :-)

And yeah there will always be lazy people who do fall for this crap because they can’t be bothered to actually learn anything for themselves.

But there will always be lazy people who think there is a magic instant gratification button and sadly these sorts of “fads” are aimed at these more gullible people.

Usually once these “tricks” are released publicly, if they ever even did work, they are pretty much spent up now. A but like someone giving you the last now stale and broken biscuit.

Erm. how generous…

I guess we’ve all wondered why no one says “and it is still working for me today” and even if they did, why would they be sharing (losing) their edge and getting competitors, UNLESS selling the technique was worth more to them than using it themselves. (read that again)

I think nearly everyone can has seen through the “I’m giving back” and “I’ve made enough money now” and the classic “I’m fed up with all these other con men conning you, so here I am spilling the real beans as I’m a nice guy and I had a mother”.

Some of these exact claims may be ringing a bell with you!

But we can’t dismiss new stuff completely. the Internet does evolve. So what we need to pay attention to is not the “now” buzz, but the underlying technique we can adapt and apply ourselves to future stuff. And then it is our unique and personal edge, and then we can keep it quiet and to ourselves.

For instance, regardless of the cons and pros of Frank Kern’s Mass Control course at thousands of dollars, some of his “techniques” are even historic, and still applicable and applicable in many situations.

AKA it is not a “it will only work in the next 10 seconds” quick fix.

There are some good solid principles in there, you can re-use and adapt. The same principles you can get in a 30 buck book from a book shop, but that is another story and up to each individual as to whether they need to spend 100 times the cost of a book for a video version. Of course some people are just made of money apparently… ;-)

That’s why I like to call it “want a piece of Frank’s brain”.

Peter

Shane’s last blog post..How to (Really) Make Money with Domain Names

It’s kind of frustrating when starting out and if the next thing is the lowest hanging fruit, I doubt there is anything wrong with that.

Just that I would recommend that people use the money to perhaps buy their own time to work on the “real” business.

Spamming, email or search engine, is bad but there are a lot of ways to generate cash online with necessary skills and the right opportunity.

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I totally agree with your post. I have been working for a while to discover the “best kept internet secret,” for SEO and I have failed to find the one thing that improves rankings instantly. Diligence seems to be the best answer to this dilemma.

I am to commenting here, although not new to reading. Today, I decided to get in here and mix it up with some of the best bloggers I have found.

Thanks for great information
K4

Karen’s last blog post..Your Online Reputation Matters – Watch Your Social Site Friends

Good copy, and honesty goes a lot further. I have one site left that has the sales letter format and I am working on changing it too.

Thanks for the advice Caroline!
Allen

Allen Harkleroad’s last blog post..Payday and Cash Advance Loans Equal High Interest Debt

@Dee, I like it :)

@Neyma, yes I agree I don’t tell people what my niche site is about (though I doubt it would hurt if I did to be honest!) but I enjoy telling people the techniques I use with it.

@Ricardo, oops thanks for letting me know, I’ll fix that right away.

Thanks for the great post!
M.

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-Mike

Mike Huang’s last blog post..See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil – Part 2

I’ve found out while trying to subscribe to your podcast.

I am new –about two weeks- into your site and have enjoyed it a lot.

My next step? follow you on twitter!

Keep it up! congratulations.

PS you comment about “over the top” on Explosive Cash flow was an understement… :-)

Thanks for this post Caroline 100% agreement from me.

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Getting in the middle of the IM crowd as they storm from one thing to another is not my idea of how to run a business. And these guys *all* have their secret sauce that they give a free report on and then sell the details for $97 or $197 or $297 or $397. It works for twenty minutes, maybe you made the price of the information product back, and back you go on the hamster wheel looking for the next thing.

You do sometimes find some lasting value. Frank Kern had a good free video recently about how to create a list–no secret sauce, all good information. I have no idea if his new product (which I imagine is very expensive) will be worth buying, and I’m not in a position to spend a few thousand dollars to find out. (The IM guru crowd would say THAT’S WHY I’M POOR, I HAVE NO GUTS.) The basics of 30DC, distributing content around the web pointing to the page you want to rank for–is good basic info. (I am not a fan of the artificial bookmarking, though, and IMO you don’t need it if your content is decent.)

I am 100% with you, Caroline. Although since I’m a communication geek, I’d probably say “Provide value, deliver and communicate that value effectively, receive compensation.”

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I look at it like the stock market. Some stocks are high risk and some are blue chip. Blue chip will give a consistent return. High risk will give you a higher return (albeit over a shorter time).

Working smarter, not harder, would point to blue chip all the way.

I’ll add though, that regular monitoring of your investments is always prudent. Moving with the times is also necessary, some companies go down the tubes, and new ones arise.

Death to the crappy sale letter page!

So saying that, I love the thrill of the hunt and so still dabble in oddball ideas of my own. I prefer not to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege of being on a mailing list, that I won’t read because I am sick of the negative crap being spouted by a so called “guru”.