Save Money Tips and Tricks Blog Announcement

In this down economy, we’re all trying to find ways to save money. As an Internet marketer, I’ve had a lot of experience in saving money while growing my business, and I’ve learned a lot of tips and tricks.

I really believe in giving back, so I’ve launched a new blog called “Save Money Tips and Tricks” with the grocery, household, business, health, insurance, and more money saving tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way.

I hope you’ll visit my new blog, and look forward to your comments!

In October, 2008, I reviewed WordPressDirect, a brand-new automated blogging system that was being actively promoted on the web.

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?

Every day I get email from marketers selling black hat SEO products that will teach me how to game the search engines by tricking them into ranking my websites higher. Sometimes, they’re selling software they say will automatically improve my rankings and help me make more affiliate sales. I don’t even have to do any work!

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.