I was having a hard time believing the system would really make money for marketers, and I suggested that my readers approach the system with caution, and pay $1 for a 45-day trial to see if their full system works.

I opened a free account, and was less than impressed. It seemed to me that the automated system just pulled content from other sites into my blog, and I couldn’t see how that would attract traffic.

WordPressDirect recently sent out a press release, announcing that it now has 10,000 subscribers.

The release set off a fury, with many bloggers saying that WordPressDirect just produces spam blogs, with duplicate content that isn’t even attributed to the original authors.

Let’s see how the WordPressDirect website describes its system:

No More Duplicate Content . . . WordPress Direct scours the internet for topic-specific video, audio and article content and automatically combines it on your site to create a truly unique visitor experience.

No More PRESSURE to Update Your Site Daily. . . Simply click a few buttons and WordPress Direct will update your site as often or as rarely as you’d like.

No More Wasting Your Precious Time with Setup, Search Engine Optimization, or Maintaining Your Site . . . WordPressDirect has been designed to handle all the setup, SEO and maintenance functions for you.

I frankly don’t know how WordPressDirect can say there’s no more duplicate content. It’s all duplicate content. And you can’t just simply click a few buttons to update WordPress Direct.

Late yesterday, I received this email from WordPressDirect:

This message is to announce that we will be removing the
content posting features from the WordPressDirect basic
Free account level on Monday, December 1st.

Our decision to change the Free account level features is
due to the article on Mashable after we issued our press
release.  The negative public impression created by this
article is that the content posting software is some kind
of dangerous spam creator, which is simply not the case.

As you know, WordPressDirect is primarily a WordPress
deployment and maintenance service that helps people
(especially those with very little technical experience)
create a search-optimized WordPress blog.  Our service
saves people time and frustration with technical headaches,
among other benefits.

Also in response to the negative posting and commenting
from the Mashable uproar, we will update our out of date
(July 2008) marketing video to make the intent of the
service clear to those who have not had exposure to our
service through the 30 Day Challenge.  These materials
clarify that spamming your own blog will cause you nothing
but trouble.

Then they tried to get me to upgrade to a bronze membership:

Bronze Account Upgrade: For those of you who wish to
preserve your content functions, we are creating a limited
time offer (expiring Tuesday December 2) to allow Free
users to upgrade to our Bronze account level for as little
as $27 monthly from the link below

If their system doesn’t create spam sites, it shouldn’t make any difference if you are using their free service or the paid one. So I can only assume they’re just using the controversy to upsell their non-paying customers.

I no longer recommend that you even try WordPressDirect. I’m tired of spam on the web, and I believe this automated system only makes the situation worse.

What do you think?

Since I’m naturally pretty curious, I often take a longer look at their sales letters to see what new twists they’ve put on black hat techniques, and how they’re going to tell me that it’s really ok to use these techniques or systems in my business.

But, in the end, I always end up in the same place. I’m building a real business online, and I don’t believe black hat techniques have any place in a real business. It’s true that it’s not always clear whether a technique falls into the white or black category, but I try to err on the side of caution. If it doesn’t feel right to me, I don’t do it.

I may not make as much money in the short term, but I will in the long term, and not get banned by Google or any of the other search engines. I’ll also continue to keep my good reputation intact, and retain the trust of my customers and visitors.

There’s a great article in the November 2008 issue of Affiliate Classroom eMagazine about black hat versus white hat techniques for affiliate marketing. The article describes the pros and cons of black hat techniques and lets you decide for yourself if you want to try the techniques.

You can download the free Affiliate Classroom eMagazine here by right-clicking this link and saving it to your computer.

My advice is to use black-hat techniques with a great deal of caution. Think about whether or not you’re really trying to build an affiliate business or are just looking for the quick hit. Remember that your reputation can be ruined very quickly on the web, and it’s very difficult to a poor reputation around.

I just came across a recent social media study, conducted by Josh Bernoff, a top technology analyst for Forrester Research, that digs into the data and comes up with some very interesting conclusions about the growth of social networking.

Bernoff says that there is a “Social Technographics Ladder” (a mouthful), that shows how people participate in social media.

• At the lowest rung of the ladder are the “Inactives.” These are people who don’t have anything to do with social media.
• Next are “Spectators.” They read blogs, watch videos, and read online forums and ratings from other consumers. They’re passive participants.
• Then we have “Joiners,” who visit social networking sites and set up profiles.
• “Collectors” are next. They use RSS feeds, recommend and vote on content and add tags to web pages.
• Up one rung are “Critics,” who actively participate by posting their own content, commenting on blogs, contributing to forums, and adding to or editing wikis.
• At the top of the social media ladder are “Creators,” who publish their own blogs, post images, make videos, upload music, and write articles.

The big news in 2008, Bernoff says, is that social technology participation has grown rapidly in the US. His conclusions:

• “Inactives” have decreased to 25% from 44% - a huge change.
• “Spectators” have increased to 69% from 48% - more people are taking a look
• “Joiners” have increased to 35% from 25% - participation is gaining steam
• “Collectors” have increased to 19% from 12% - slow and steady growth
• “Critics” have increased to 37% from 25% - more people are becoming active
• “Creators” have increased to 21% from 18% - starting to build

It’s clear that participation in social media is growing, although the “Creators” rung grew only slightly.

According to Bernoff, “I have long suspected that there aren’t more people blogging, creating Web pages, or uploading video or audio, not because the technology gets in the way, but because they’re just not the kind of extroverts who want to talk about themselves or anything else online. I think this group will continue to grow much more slowly than the others.”

So where is all the social media growth coming from?

According to Bernoff, social activity is way up among 35-44 year-olds, especially when it comes to joining social networks and reading and reacting to content. Even among 45-to-54 year-olds, 68% are now “Spectators,” 24% are “Joiners,” and only 28% are “Inactives.”

So what does this all mean to us as Internet Marketers?

Bernoff says, “It will soon be no more remarkable that your grandmother reads a blog than that she reads email. Social content is going mainstream. Social content ranks high on search engines because it changes so frequently and gets linked to more often, so more and more online adults are becoming exposed to it, accepting it, and embracing it. If you’re a marketer, no matter what group of consumers you’re targeting, this means you must pay attention to the social world online.”

But Bernoff also believes that the future of social applications online will not include contributions from everyone, because not everyone has the temperament to create content.

He says that we shouldn’t count on all of our customers to contribute, and that we shouldn’t believe that what we see online is representative of your whole audience.

“The shy among your customers are reading this stuff, but most of them aren’t ready to contribute, and won’t be for a while,” Bernoff reports.

Bernoff has also sliced his data by political persuasion, which may be of interest to you in your business. And you can use his nifty profile tool to see where your own customers are on the social networking continuum.

What all of this says to me is that social media will continue to grow, and I have to figure out exactly how it will work for me.

What do you think?

There are only so many hours in a day, and I’m already stretched thin trying to get everything done.

I find that it’s difficult for me to quantify the results of spending time on Twitter or Facebook, or any of the many other social networking sites. What’s the right amount of time to spend doing this every day? I just don’t know.

Maybe I just don’t yet understand the value of all the interaction. I’m thinking this is truly a long-term commitment, and the true value won’t be apparent for some time.

Having been involved in customer relationship management in corporations for many years, I understand how important it is to stay in touch with customers and listen to and meet their needs.

I want to do that online too. I’ll keep at it, and keep you posted on my progress.

Have you been able to prove your own ROI with Social Media?

If your article is accepted by EzineArticles.com and they label you an “Expert Author,” your article will show up on the site’s home page for a few hours, and your link will get picked up quickly.

That’s enough reason to make sure EzineArticles.com accepts your articles. But it’s not easy. Unlike many article directories, EzineArticles.com is extremely picky about the articles it accepts, and has very stringent guidelines.

That’s good for you as an author – you want their directory to have high standards. It provides your articles with more credibility, and you can become an expert in your field.

Since EzineArticles.com has editors who read every article submitted, acceptance is subjective. You might get your article kicked back for revisions or flat-out rejected, and it’s not always easy to understand exactly what you did wrong.

It can be a frustrating process, but I believe it really is worth it to do whatever you can to get them to accept your articles.

Follow my 25 tips below to give your articles the best shot at being accepted by EzineArticles.com.

1. Only submit an original article. Don’t try to rewrite an article you bought (PLR), took from the public domain, or changed from an article written by another author.  EzineArticles.com has software that will immediately scan your article for duplication and reject it if it finds that it matches other articles.  You won’t even get to the submission process, so don’t waste your time.
2. Write a great article that provides valuable information to the reader. Share your unique expertise on the topic by including unique tips, strategies, techniques, case-studies, analysis, opinions, and commentary.
3. Don’t include more than five lines of quoted or source material.
4. Don’t sell hard in your article body by including your URL, product pitch or blatant self-promotion. They’ll toss your article without notice. You can pitch yourself or website address in the resource box.
5. Don’t stuff keywords into your article or title. They really don’t like that.
6. Only bold headings and subheadings.
7. Make your title “keyword rich.” The first 3-4 words of your title determines the success of the article in terms of how much traffic your article will generate, so choose the first 3-4 words wisely.
8. Don’t put your title in all caps. Use initial caps for each major word instead.
9. Don’t put quotes around your entire title.
10. Don’t end your title with a period.
11. Don’t use Microsoft Word smart quotes in your title (quotes, apostrophe’s, double dashes, and 3 dots in a row.) Replace smart quotes with standard quotes/apostrophe’s/double dashes/or 3 periods in a row.
12. Don’t use excessive repetitive punctuation in your title. One exclamation “!” or question mark “?” is enough to make a point.Don’t use HTML tags of any kind in your title.
13. Don’t use HTML tags of any kind in your title.
14. Start the first word flush to the left of the title submission box.
15. Don’t put your author or website URL in your title.
16. Use a minimum of two unique words in your title
17. Don’t use slang terms or profanity in the title.
18. Make sure the body of your article delivers on the promises made in your article title. If not, your article will be rejected.
19. Write your article to a length between 250-5,000 words. EzineArticles.com really likes articles between 400-750 words though.
20. Don’t write your article as a press release, ad, or sales letter, and leave out any blatant or excessive self-promotion or hype. 
21. Check your grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and sentence structure. EzineArticles.com will reject articles that are poorly written. Proofread your article for spelling errors, and double-check for accuracy. If English is your second language, have someone else proofread your article before you submit it.
22. Follow these punctuation rules: One or two spaces after each period, colon, or semi-colon; Periods should be inside of quotes; When doing “…” — you should use only 3 dots minimum and maximum; When using dashes, use two in a row, ex: “–”; There is never a space BEFORE a period or BEFORE a comma.
23. Don’t try to submit pornography or adult material, or articles that are hate or violence-oriented, suggest racial intolerance, advocate against any individual or group, have insulting, obscene, degrading tone, or contain profanity.
24. Don’t write articles on hacking/cracking content, bomb creation, support for terrorism/ radicalism/ religious fanaticism, illicit drugs or drug paraphernalia, steroid use or advocacy, weapon/ firearms/ ammunition/ balisongs/ butterfly knives or brass knuckles, or the promotion of hard alcohol/tobacco-related products or prescription drugs.
25. Don’t promote term papers or essays for sale to college students, PLR (Private Label Rights) articles as a good thing, the promotion of email Safe-Lists as a good thing, or bulk email spamming as a good thing, advocacy for paid auto-surf programs as a good thing, advocacy of click fraud or clicking on Adsense ads as a good thing, advocacy of creating MFA’s (Made For Adsense) sites as a good strategy, or advocacy of Adsense Arbitrage.

Whew! That may seem like a lot to think about, but once you get into the groove, you should have no trouble making sure your articles are accepted by EzineArticles.com.

And once your article is accepted, you can think about submitting it to other directories. Some people are afraid of submitting duplicate content, but the folks at ArticleMarketer.com, an article distributor, have written a free report showing you how to do it and stay in good standing with search engines.

You can download The Duplicate Content Debate here by right-clicking the link and saving it to your computer.