Five Star Scams story
Interesting article in today’s Sunday Times (UK) about owners and managers of restaurants and hotels pluggin’ their own establishment by writing ‘reviews’ under false names on websites like allinlondon.com and TripAdvisor.com.
Some of the sites, like Fodors.com give places a star rating based on readers comments and, it seems, they’re very easy to influence. To quote the article:
“Among London hotels on Fodors.com, for example, is the Vandon House in Victoria, which received a rating of just 1.2 out of a possible five after a scathing review last year. A guest from Ohio had complained of stuffy rooms, “unbelievable†noise from other guests, an unwanted 1am wake-up call, and “miserable†beds.
Yet last week reporters posing as fictional guests managed to boost its rating to 4.2 — ranking it among the capital’s top establishments such as Claridge’s — simply by posting four reviews giving the hotel top scores in all categories.
Fodors.com immediately published the reviews and failed to check whether the writers had stayed at Vandon House.”
Here’s a link to the article if you’d like to read it. The disturbing thing really is that owners of restaurents/hotels are also writing negative reviews about their rivals.
Think that kind of thing happens in the world of online marketing and affiliate programs? I’m sure it does.
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Filsaime’s Death Of IM report
I guess you’ve all been ignoring the flood of emails about this free report, but I finally gave in and downloaded it.
It’s got a sensationalist title, but it’s interesting and thought provoking. It’s 59 pages long but a quick read, and I agreed with everything, or just about everything, he wrote.
In other words I thought it would be crap but it’s not.
If you’d like to make me $1 by using my aff link here it is
http://www.affiliatetalkforum.com/death
(No doubt, I’ll be using that $ and more to buy some of you in the UK a beer in a few weeks time 
)
It really is an interesting read, mainly talking about how and why most/all the big time marketers are seeing reduced email open rates leading to lower affiliate commissions on these big launches (I’m seeing the same thing myself) and what to do about it.
phil
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Build An Empire
Here’s a great opportunity to develop a ‘real’ online business. (initially published in my newsletter last week)
This is the most over the top email I’ve ever written. So if you don’t like it please forgive me. It’s not my normal type of letter but I’m just buzzing and had to write this way.
_______________________________
It’s around 2 in the morning here in Australia and I’m all hyped up after spending the past hour or so talking to my old friend Paul Smithson in England. I was calling his cell phone, so I hate to think
what my phone bill’s going to be
Last time I was in England, back in March, I got together for coffee then a long lunch, with Paul (well known for his XsitePro software) and he showed me the project his company was working on.
Since then I’ve been itching to show it to you, but I had to keep quiet until now.
Even though Paul’s new business has been about in many newspapers and business magazines, including a big feature in the Financial times, no one until now has known the details of Paul’s plans.
Well, I’ve known. But I haven’t been able to tell you about it.
What Paul is about to launch is a remarkable online opportunity. I say online, but it’s not your normal Internet business, it’s much bigger than that and can be heavily marketed offline.
I’m really excited by it. (and I’m not getting a freebie. But I’m signing up and putting my money where my mouth it) And that’s because, without a doubt, this is the opportunity to develop a great, long lasting business. There are massive possibilities here and I’m determined to be a part of it.
Let me just quote from an email that Paul got someone from his office to email to me, while I was talking to him.
__________________________
Imagine waking up one morning and having an Internet business that:
1. Was selling a product that’s already proven to be in huge demand and that this demand is growing each
and every day and will continue to do so for years to come.
2. Offered not one source of income, but FOUR different sources of income.
3. Provided you with a constant stream of GENUINE fresh content for the web sites that you already run.
4. Provided you with a constant stream of GENUINE fresh content for any new sites you wanted to create.
5. Took away ALL of the tedious jobs such as order processing, technical support, and customer
service so that you could focus on growing the business.
6. Provided you with tools to help you grow your business exponentially.
7. Gave you step-by-step instructions on exactly what you need to do to succeed.
8. Was working with some of the largest and most prestigious publishing houses in the world.
That would be like waking up in a dream, wouldn’t it?
But the great thing is that this is for real. It’s a genuine real-world business that you can be really proud to be involved in.
__________________________
As you know, these opportunities don’t come along every day. So you’ve really got to check this out, because it’s really different.
It’s going to be a bit like getting in at the birth of Amazon, but as a partner rather than a 5% affiliate.
Unfortunately I can’t tell you more about it right now. Paul just told me that you really need to add your name to the (no obligation) priority list so that he can send you all the information
before the launch date.
This is going to be huge (and it’s not an info product)
So to find out more visit this link
http://www.affiliatetalkforum.com/paul
You’ll find a free report there that gives you a great overview of this incredibly exciting opportunity and you’ll learn the rest over the next couple of weeks. Make sure you get your copy.
If you don’t want to enter your name and email address you don’t have to. Just get the short, 8 page PDF and read it.
But if I were you I’d add my name to the priority list just in case too many people get on the list before you (it’s a very limited opportunity) and you lose out.
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automatic niche products released
A good Aussie mate of mine, Paul Kleinmeulman, has just launched his new product Automatic Niche Products. I was about to give it a quick mention here when he told me he’d written a short ebook about how to use PLR products, so below is a link to that as well.
Paul, if you don’t know him, specializes in creating private label rights products (PLR) and articles, and they’re always top quality. My favorite site of his is Espired which provides you with niched articles each month. I’ve been a member (a paying member) since it launched.
Well, favorite until now… I really like Automatic Niche Products because it’s a PLR ebook site with a difference. Not only does it give you private label rights to new ebooks each month, you also get professional recorded audios of the books, and video versions. Think these will be easy to sell? They should be much easier to sell than ebooks alone.
I’m really impressed. Here’s a short free PDF, which contains links to the site, but is really all about ways of using PLR products. Interesting reading.
BTW, if you sign up you can also earn your monthly fees back by joining the affiliate program which pays you recurring monthly commissons.
