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Learn Blogging & Affiliate Marketing with Rosalind Gardner

The Death of Bum Marketing

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I think it is very likely that what has become known as Bum Marketing is doomed to die a dismal death in the near future.

What is Bum Marketing?

Bum Marketing is a strategy used to generate affiliate commissions through distribution of articles written specifically to rank highly for low-competition keywords.

The method was promoted as an easy way for beginners to make money online without having to invest much money, time or effort.

SO easy in fact that a ‘homeless bum' could do it from the local library! (Ya right).

How does Bum Marketing work?

  1. Do extensive keyword research to find low competition niche markets and products with moderate to high demand.
  2. Find a product or service that can be promoted to that niche through an affiliate program.
  3. Write scads of articles following a keyword density formula designed to get top search engine rankings quickly.
  4. Submit those articles to popular article directories.

The objective being to get readers of those articles to visit your site for more information about the product or to have them opt-in to a list through a squeeze page.

Why is Bum Marketing Dead?

Google's latest algorithm change, Farmer, spells death for Bum Marketing sites in the same way as crappy, useless Adsense sites were targeted in past algorithm changes.

Chris Knight of the uber-popular EzineArticles article directory made the following comments in his Search Engine Algorithm Changes post about the site's traffic on February 26, 2011:

Last month, we served 57 million unique visitors. Next month, that number may be in half.

and..

Traffic was down 11.5% on Thursday and over 35% on Friday. In our life-to-date, this is the single most significant reduction in market trust we’ve experienced from Google.

By result, Chris is having to implement a number of changes to his article directory to ward off potential spammers, i.e. bum marketers. Some of those changes include:

  • No more submissions through a WordPress plugin,
  • raising the bar on articles written for keyword density,
  • removing articles in ‘spammy' categories such as reverse cell phone lookup and acai berry
  • and requiring exclusivity.

Hmmm.. those changes will make it much more difficult to be a bum marketer, don't you think?

I'm not opposed to article marketing, but as a solo marketing method, it is NOT (and never has been) a sustainable way to do business online.

Rather than posting all your content to article directories and risk having it disappear from the search engine results through an algorithm change or removal by an editor, control your destiny by starting a blog and driving traffic to exclusive high-quality articles.

In other words, don't be (or become) a bum.

Join Affiliate Blogger PRO. 🙂

BizOp Market: NOT a Nice Niche

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Are you a newbie thinking about starting the next great ‘make-a-million-online-overnight-at-home-while-you-sleep.com' blog to rake in big bucks from the Internet marketing business opportunities niche?

Think again!!

PLEASE think again.

I've had numerous discussions with my colleagues throughout the many years I've been involved in the Internet marketing space — and we've all talked about ditching the niche entirely.

[Read more…]

Rich 16 Year Old Girl: Don’t Buy – Don’t Promote

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I'm probably going to take some heat for this, but this so-called affiliate marketing program training offer was driving me completely nuts (because it is SUCH a scam), that had to make the accompanying video while wearing my jester hat again.

Basically, it's about the the “Rich 16 Year Old Girl's” affiliate marketing training program that has been hot on Clickbank lately.

Carol, the rich 16 year old is a front for some nameless Clickbank vendor, and the video shows you why.

Basically, the lesson is to read carefully between the lines before you buy any training program!!!

Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

Ros

Update: The Rich 16 Year Old Girl's program is “sold out”. Digital products don't ‘sell out'. That's code for being removed from the Clickbank Marketplace for having violated their terms. Yeah!

Email Scam: Urgent Request from a “Friend”

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hackerHave you come across the “urgent request from a friend” money-making email scam? Well, someone is making money with these ones, but it won't be you. You could lose money if you're not careful.

The way it works is you receive an email that originates from the real email address of a real friend of yours with “Urgent” or “Emergency” in the subject line.

Even the email headers look correct.

The body of the email contains an explanation about that friend's trip abroad (they apologize for not letting you know that they went) along with an urgent request for money because they've been robbed.

If the language used had sounded more like my friend, I might have been fooled with the first one I received — because the signature used exactly the same script that my friend uses.

Fortunately, the writing in these emails is usually horrible, which should make you stop and ponder the message more closely.

Here are 2 examples.

I am in a hurry writing you this message cause I don’t, have much time on the pc here, so I have to brief you my present situation which requires your urgent response Actually, I had a trip to Africa. yesterday but unfortunately for me all my money got stolen at the hotel where I lodged due to a robbery incident that happened in the hotel.I have been so restless since last night cause I have been without money, I am even owing the hotel here as well moreover the Hotel's telephone lines here got disconnected by the robbers and they are trying to get them fixed back. I have access to only emails at the library because my mobile cant work here so I didn’t bring it along, please I want you to help me with money.please can you send me 1,500.Pounds To enable me return back I would refund it back to you as soon as I get home, I am so confused right now and don’t know what to do, you can have it sent through western union money transfer with my name and the address bellow.

Name : [friend's full name] name and the address bellow.
Name : Calvin Brennan
Address is: 30 Leicester Square
City : London.
country : United Kingdom.
zip code : WC2H 7LA.
Thanks a lot for your kindness;

I will really appreciate your quick response.

Best Regards,

Don

I Hope you get this on time,sorry I didn't inform you about my trip in Cyprus for a program,I'm presently in Nicosia and am having some difficulties here because i misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where my money and other valuable things were kept.I want you to assist me with a loan of 2500Euro to sort-out my hotel bills and to get myself back home.I have spoken to the embassy here but they are not responding to the matter effectively,I will appreciate whatever you can afford to assist me with,I'll Refund the money back to you as soon as i return, let me know if you can be of any help. I don't have a phone where i can be reached. Please let me know immediately.

Archie

The really sad thing about this scam is that those of your friends from whom these emails originate have just had their email accounts hacked — which for most people is a major hassle.

So, 2 words of warning here. Don't be fooled by this email scam and don't let your email account be subjected to a hacker. Change your password regularly!

Domain Registry Scams

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Domain Registry of CanadaHave you ever received a “Domain Name Expiration Notice” from either the Domain Registry of Canada or the Domain Registry of America such as the one shown here to the right?

If you do get one, just shred it!

The letter will be addressed to you, and opens with “As a courtesy to domain holders we are sending you this notification of the domain name registration that is due to expire in the next few months“.

It also advises that “You must renew your domain name to retain exclusive rights to it on the Web” and “Failure to renew yur domain name by the expiration date may result in a loss of your online identity making it difficult for your customers and friends to locate you on the Web”.

Hmmm… that could cause some concern, right?

Well, pay attention to those sections that read “transfer and renew your name from your current Registrar” and “THIS IS A SOLICITATION FOR THE ORDER OF SERVICES AND NOT A BILL“, or you may get tricked into transfering and renewing your domain for 1, 2 or 5 years at exorbitant prices — $160.00CDN for five years.

Don't get fooled!!

If you get a letter or email from the Domain Registry of America, trash it and file a complaint with the FTC. If you get one from the Domain Registry of Canada, please read and follow the information supplied by the Competition Bureau all the way back in 2001.

Forced Continuity Meltdown: Is Your Merchant Still in Business?

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Much of the discussion amongst marketers at Affiliate Summit West 2010 was about the recent crackdown by VISA and Mastercard on those online companies using forced continuity (negative option, free trials and free shipping ploys) to sell their products.

Forced continuity happens when a customer who wants Product A is forced to pay ongoing charges for a subscription to Product B in order to access Product A. Product B is usually presented as a bonus-loaded trial offer for “just $1”.

Salivating over their good fortune, the unsuspecting victim signs up for the offer with their credit card and once the trial period is over, recurring charges kick in. In too many cases, the information regarding the recurring billing requires a microscope to decipher. As most consumers apparently haven't the stamina to read glaringly obvious information regarding the conditions of their purchase, suffice to say that they won't bother with the microscope.

Six months later the buyer realizes that they've been charged $39.95 monthly for a product that they haven't used in 5, and then attempt to terminate the subscription. Termination involves a herculean effort over at least 3 months during which their card is still being charged, IF they are able to resolve the issue with the merchant, who mysteriously disappears when talk turns to cancellation, and especially refunds. Too often the customer is forced to appeal to their credit card company.

Although this practice is illegal in most of the U.S. and Canada, slimy Internet marketers have employed this practice successfully to scam millions out of consumers — until a few weeks ago.

I guess after dealing with too many angry consumers, VISA and MasterCard finally got wise a few weeks ago and shut down over 100 merchant accounts of those using forced continuity programs.

In a letter to one affected party, the merchant account provider reminds them that:

The FTC has recently published guidelines regarding “Negative Option” enrollment programs and is taking a very aggressive position against merchants utilizing/employing this business practice. Recommendations take in part from the FTC’s website may include but are not limited to the following:

Material terms should be disclosed in a clear, concise manner. Unnecessarily long or inconsistent terms are viewed as an attempt to mislead the consumer.

Terms should be disclosed in a conspicuous manner, clearly placed and labeled on websites in a location that indicates the importance and relevance to the transaction. Fonts and colors must be easy to view.

Material terms must be disclosed prior to completion of the transaction and before a financial obligation is incurred by the consumer.

Customers must provide affirmative consent to any offer, examples include a mandatory “I Agree…” statement checkbox, where the customer is acknowledging the Terms and Conditions of the offer and consents to be entered into continuity program as a result of completing the transaction. Pre-checked boxes do not qualify as affirmative consent.

Merchants must not discourage or make difficult in any way the disclosed cancellation procedures and all cancellation requests must be honored in accordance with the stated terms of the transaction.

Gee, what a concept. Honesty, integrity and transparency.

So, here's the warning.

If you are promoting Internet marketing business opportunities, ACAI berry, weight loss and other products that use forced continuity, it's time to check your merchants' offers thoroughly, and confirm that they're still in business.

You might be shocked to learn which of the big players no longer have merchant accounts.

How NOT to Recruit Affiliate Marketers

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One morning back in March, I hit ‘Check Mail' on my email client and was horrified to see more than 300 emails downloading.

When all was said and done, about 20 of those emails were valid.

285 of them however were all the same – see the screenshot below.

Affiliate Recruitment Scammer

The email came from an adult dating site affiliate program manager who was trying to get affiliates to sign up for his program.

Spamming potential affiliates is bad enough, but worse than that… the email had been sent to hordes of people, all of whom had their email addresses visible because they'd been CC'd, rather than BCC'd.

Affiliate Recruitment Scammer

I immediately assumed that it wouldn't be long until I started receiving spam program invitations from other affiliate program managers and I was right – the first one came in just a couple of hours later from a program that I'm already affiliated with.

I sent a reply to the 2nd spammer to express my dismay and intent to drop his program.

His reply?

I will look forward to having you back on board after you realize we are the best converting dating site on the internet. Best of luck testing our competition!

Duh!

No apology – just a stupid pitch.

He did NOT reply again after I sent him a link to my “Art of Wooing Affiliates” article published on the Revenue Magazine site.

That wasn't the only affiliate program that I ditched that day, however.

If you read the article linked above, under “Affiliate Tip” you'll see how I found out which affiliate program was responsible for selling the email address to the original spammer. It's a practice I employ with all independent programs.

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