If you haven’t upgraded to WordPress 2.8 yet, you might want to wait awhile. It appears that there are many bugs in 2.8, and one of the most annoying is not being able to drag widgets to the sidebar.

In my usual “ready, fire” aim” way of approaching things, I upgraded a few sites from 2.7 to 2.8 without really understanding what problems I might be facing.

I quickly found out that I couldn’t drag the widgets, and went searching on Google for the solution. There doesn’t seem to be any one solution that will work for everyone. It seems that a number of plugins could be causing the problem.

One guy recommends trying to re-install 2.7, but that’s a long, difficult process. (He does say to check the plugins first though.)

So here’s what I did. I deactivated all of my plug-ins, then reactivated them one by one, checking to see if I could drag the widgets after each reactivation. Needless to say, the plugin that caused the problem was one of the last ones I reactivated, but at least I was able to solve the problem.

So, I suggest that you follow the same process if you’re having the widget problem. I don’t think there are any shortcuts.

And if you haven’t upgraded…don’t rush into it.

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Joan Yankowitz on March 31st, 2009

I have a website that I thought might be perfect for the eBay Partner Network affiliate program (EPN), so I filled out the application and waited for my acceptance.

While I was waiting, I installed the EPN WordPress plug-in, expecting to be able to get started promoting eBay products pretty quickly.

I like eBay, and thought I’d be bringing some good value to my website visitors.

But low and behold, about a week and a half after I applied to be an EPN affiliate, I received this email from eBay, rejecting my application:

Thank you for applying to the eBay Partner Network. Unfortunately, we cannot accept your application at this time. If you have questions regarding this process, please contact eBay Partner Network customer support.

Thank you,

The eBay Partner Network Team

I was really surprised that I was rejected, because my site has great quality content.  So I tried to contact the eBay Partner Network customer support department to find out why they reject my website.

Interestingly, I discovered that there was no link to a customer support department on the EBN website. There’s no way to contact anyone there.

Hmmm, I thought. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a legitimate affiliate program that doesn’t want you to contact them.

So I began to do some investigation on the web, and discovered that EPN has been regularly ticking off their affiliate and potential affiliate partners.

There are many, many people like me who have been rejected and have never been able to find out why.

And there are many, many people who were affiliates in good standing, only to get banned from EPN for no reason.

At this point, I don’t even care why EPN is doing this. I just know I will never do business with them, and I urge you to stay away from this affiliate program.

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Joan Yankowitz on February 16th, 2009

For the past few days, I’ve been getting a lot of email from Internet Marketers, all promoting the launch of Mass Control 2.0.

I’ve been pretty busy, so I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the messages, but this afternoon, I decided to watch the sales video to see what Mass Control 2.0 is all about.

Frank Kern is the young, laid-back cool Internet marketing “guru” who created Mass Control 2.0, and he’s the salesman on the video.

Frank is very personable, and he really made me feel like he cared about my success. He’s not a slick, slimy sales guy.

So I watched the more than 10 minute video, and listened carefully to his pitch.

Frank said that his program had a fast-start way to make back the cost of the product in only four days.

Now he had my attention. I’m always looking for a way to make money quickly. Who isn’t these days?

But as I continued to watch and listen, I realized that he never did say how I was going to make that money.

Oh, well, I thought. He’ll get to it eventually. I just have to listen to the whole pitch.

Frank went on to say that this is really a four week product, and went through a brief sales pitch for each week’s program.

Hmmm. I realized that he never actually said what I would learn during each week.

He just kept saying that I would learn how to make a lot of money, and he showed me the CD’s and workbooks.

Towards the end of the video, Frank got into the bonus portions of the products, and he said they would also make me a lot of money. No explanation how.

At the end of the video, Frank naturally asked for the sale. So I clicked on the link to see how much Mass Control 2.0 costs.

I couldn’t believe it. Mass Control 2.0 costs $1,997.00. That’s right…almost $2,000!

Now maybe Mass Control 2.0 is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Maybe. I doubt it though.

I just can’t believe that anyone would pay that much money for something they know nothing about!

Everyone who sent me email about Mass Control 2.0 said that Frank Kern is the greatest person who ever lived.

They all claimed he’s the smartest Internet marketing guru, and I should just trust that his product is wonderful.

Of course these are the same people who are selling his product as an affiliate, so they have a vested interest in getting me to buy.

So I went to some of the Internet Marketing forums and found a number of messages from people who said that they knew people who made money from Frank Kern’s products.

But no one gave any proof, and there were a lot of messages from people who were skeptical of those claims.

Oh, I know. Frank said he’ll give a 100% refund to anyone who isn’t satisfied with the product. But if you listen carefully, he says that all you have to do is send back one CD or manual to get that refund.

Well, Frank’s a smart guy. He knows that the vast majority of people aren’t going to expend the energy to send anything back to him to get the refund.

He knows that unless someone is really unhappy, that customer won’t ask for a refund and will keep trying to make the product work for them.

There’s no way that Frank can guarantee that anyone buying this product will make the money back in four days, and will keep making tons of money.

He says nothing about the skill level required to make the program a success. And he says nothing about how much you will have to spend in addition to the cost of the program.

I must say that Frank is a great salesman. It’s not easy to sell air. But he does a great job of it.

Here’s the bottom line for me. I can’t imagine plunking down $2000 on a product I know nothing about.

I’d like to be proven wrong. If you’ve bought this product (or the original Mass Control) and made a ton of money, let me know, and show me the proof.

Without detailed descriptions of Mass Control 2.0 and proof that it will make me a lot of money, I’m afraid I’m going to have to pass.

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