7/13/2006
I can’t take it anymore
I’ve sat quiet long enough.
The email I got this morning was the last straw.
But first, here’s why I’m posting this.
I buy a lot of information products.
“How to make a gazillion dollars in 24 hours”
“How to get a gazillion links to your website”
“How to build a gazillion person email list”
“How to make gazillions off of adsense”
Some of them I buy to read at a later date. Some of them I read now.
Some of them have really good information in them.
Some of them are COMPLETE CRAP.
Because I buy a bunch of stuff, I have also been subscribed to a ton of
internet marketing “guru” newsletters.
I get tons of emails every day from them.
You know who they are, because you get them too. The ones who tell you:
“Don’t just send sales pitches to your email list. Send them valuable
information. And if you want to learn how to do this, BUY XXXXX!”
Then they proceed to send you an email every single day telling you to
buy something.
It ticks me off, and I’ve had enough of it.
So, for a long time now I’ve thought about reviewing all these products.
The ones that are good, I’ll tell you I think it was good.
The ones that are bad, I’ll tell you it’s total garbage.
The ones that have some good info in them, I just might summarize the good
parts of it for you so you don’t have to buy it.
I haven’t started doing this yet because I don’t have the time to do it, but
the email I got this morning was the last straw.
It was an email from Joel Comm advertising another one of his 500 words sites.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I totally respect Joel. I know the guy is a genious, but
the links he’s selling on these sites are complete CRAP.
Don’t buy them!
Why?
Look at the most recent site:
http://www.499sites.com
IT’S A PAGERANK 0!!!
Who are these people?
They’re paying between $50-$100 for a link from a pagerank 0 page!
And whats worse, this page isn’t about anything!
How much help do you think a link from a PR0 page that isn’t about your
topic is going to help you in Google OR Yahoo (Ok, so MSN is stupid, it might
help you there…).
IT WON’T.
But it gets worse!
On 499sites.com I clicked on the blog link and find a page that has a huge
testimonial from Michael Cheney saying how much of a genious Joel Comm
is with his software because Michael earned $21796.13 in the first 36 hours.
THIS IS SUCH A SCAM.
Of course Michael Cheney earned that. He set up a site, mailed it out to his
list of people who trust him, and they all bought these garbage links.
And it still gets worse!
Joel is selling the software for these sites to people like you and I.
How in the world do you think you’re going to make money with these sites
unless you have an email list of 50,000 webmasters who don’t really know
what they’re doing?
YOU’RE NOT!
Ok, ok…ok
Enough with the rant.
But you get it now.
If you want to buy links to promote your website, buy them from a site that’s
at least somewhat related to yours. Or, at least buy them from a high PR
site.
So, I’m going to start a newsletter for this:
http://www.whatscrapandwhatsnot.com
I won’t review every info product out there, but I’ll go back and review some
of the ones I’ve read over the past year. I’ll tell you which ones stunk and
which ones are great.
John
[tags]internet marketing,marketing guru,500 words review[/tags]
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Comments on I can’t take it anymore »
Recently while visiting Joel’s message board, I noticed this site also and followed the link because the URL is a catchy one.
After a few minutes I came to the same conclusion as you. I am thankful that I didn’t stick around to read even one testimonial after following a link from the cloud.
Keep it up, John. You’re killing me.
Actually I’m using http://www.tagandlink.com it is worthly now to use it for just $1.95 before the
the price goes up as soon as the PR goes higher as they sure will charge more over and over , the
admin is from http://www.globaltoparticles.com and he gots a PR3 in just 1 month from now as he
got PR 0 about 40 days ago, he knows what he does.
Hi John,
I agree with you here in part, but the fact is that every website starts off with a PR0
The price he is charging is WAY too high I agree, but that does not mean that this idea
is not bonefide!
What pissed me off is the price he is charging to run your own script. When I first saw
this kind of site I was tempted to buy the script. I have several domains that have
PR4 that I am not using and I figured that I could make some easy money with it. But
over $700 you got to be kidding!!
So I hired a programmer and he is currently developing a similar product for me
that I will be able to use myself AND sell to others for a lot less that Joel is
charging for the script.
When I do use it, I will be installing on domains that already have a PR of at least 4 and I w
will be selling links a lot cheaper than he is.
Not going to plug it here of coarse, but I think you are missing the point of where the
scam actually is here. It’s in Joels pricing, not the product itself. One way links do help
SEO and if this script is used properly it can create a real win win for everyone.
Just another note, when MY script is available, I will be selling it for around $67
I don’t believe in selling a product for more than it cost to develop, in fact I
believe in selling it for a LOT less.
I agree with you Dan
I also got a programmer that made me the same script for just $150 
Even if your site is a pr4 or pr5, I think you’re missing the point.
There is no way in the world that the any link on that page is on topic. It’s just a bunch of links about random things to random pages.
To a search engine, it looks like an FFA or a Link Farm.
Think about it. 500 links on one page. No other text (or very little other text). No topic. Random links to random pages.
How can ANYONE benefit from this except for the person selling the links?
In fact, I’d venture as far as to say that links from a page like this could hurt a site. I’m not sure it would or will, but if a search engine thinks you’re participating in FFA’s, they’re likely to look down on it.
Just another $0.02
John
Well some people just dont understand the power of something thats staring at them blatantly in the face.
Let me be frank, these sites 500words & 499sites are for moving chunks of traffic in a short period of time, and thats it, for affiliates and marketers there an absolute godsend, and yes I have words up on these pages.
Alexa traffic = Traffic Rank for 500words.com: 16,146
& Traffic Rank for 499sites.com: 99,968.
Of course these traffic rankings are for today, but at the peak well, go take a look and check worldvillage.com while your there to understand where some of this traffic comes from and of course joelcomm.com / adsensechat.com / dealofday.com / adsense-secrets.com, ahh pure genius.
The traffic has petered off now, but that was expected.
Remember when something looks blatantly stupid, try to find something blatantly genius. To be honest these sites should really of been called getachunkoftraffic.com
Thanks Joel! Genius again
Nice one, John! Sometimes a person just has to poke a pin into an overblown scam or else choke on the sheer volume of it. Thanks, if I may mix metaphors here, for pointing out that the Emperor’s New Clothes are made of little more than wishful thinking.
Jen
I find this type of sites (words, link exchanges etc) are a total waste of time and money for the buyer.
Why you ask?
Well, firstly, no search engine will follow after the 20th external link on a site. So any sites that are listed after the 20th will simply be missed by most search engines.
Secondly, people are throwing their money away just to have a little link on a huge page, it doesn’t make sense. Who would really read all of those words other than someone who has a great amount of time on their hands i.e like children - well maybe not. Regardless, serious people who are really searching for information or for a product wouldn’t hang around in sites with lots of mixed up words.
Cheers!
O, one other thing:
I think someone whose product I recently purchased mentioned something about a “band wagon”. People are scared of being left behind. They are in fear of loosing or being left out, so they opt themseleves silly into joining things, it is like a social gathering for most who are non-thinkers (sorry for the hard comment).
I found this post while looking for a review of “Tag and Ping”, which I decided wasn’t worth buying because he gives away so much information right in the sales letter. Fair to say, I have some prior knowledge of social bookmarking and tag and ping, but still, if you just go to Google and search for some of the things that the author alludes to in his sales page, you’ll find all the answers you need. Great post — I feel the same way. The whole Internet marketing thing is out of control.