Rental scam artists are taking advantage of the flood of neglected, empty houses on the real estate market caused by the huge increase in recession-driven foreclosures.
Homes owned by banks and other financial institutions may take months or even years to sell, leaving them unchecked for the duration and sitting targets for the scammers.
Click Here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
The Red Bull Scam -- Why Are So Many People Buying Into Its Deceptive 'Energy-Giving' Marketing?
Alternet/ by Scott Thill
Red Bull's claims that it improves performance, concentration, reaction time and emotional status are all BS.
"Red Bull gives you wings," Earth's most popular energy drink by market share promises in its commercials. Well, Icarus had kickass wings. Remember what happened to him? Crash and burn, baby.
What Red Bull does give you is crazy amounts of caffeine compressed into a tiny can of hope. Conjoined with its various sponsorships of similarly extreme events like Formula One racing, air shows, outdoor action sports and much more, Red Bull's overheating marketing arms have major global reach. It has deeply penetrated popular culture, down to its soccer stadiums and sex-fueled clubs, where the drink is popularly mixed with vodka and other alcohol standbys. In the process, Red Bull has helped create a race of hyperspeeding robots annually swallowing over a billion cans of Red Bull, only to crash and burn shortly afterward. At which point, they drink it again to wake up, and restart their seriously stressed engines.
Click Here to read the full article.
Alternet/ by Scott Thill
Red Bull's claims that it improves performance, concentration, reaction time and emotional status are all BS.
"Red Bull gives you wings," Earth's most popular energy drink by market share promises in its commercials. Well, Icarus had kickass wings. Remember what happened to him? Crash and burn, baby.
What Red Bull does give you is crazy amounts of caffeine compressed into a tiny can of hope. Conjoined with its various sponsorships of similarly extreme events like Formula One racing, air shows, outdoor action sports and much more, Red Bull's overheating marketing arms have major global reach. It has deeply penetrated popular culture, down to its soccer stadiums and sex-fueled clubs, where the drink is popularly mixed with vodka and other alcohol standbys. In the process, Red Bull has helped create a race of hyperspeeding robots annually swallowing over a billion cans of Red Bull, only to crash and burn shortly afterward. At which point, they drink it again to wake up, and restart their seriously stressed engines.
Click Here to read the full article.
Alternet/ by Scott Thill
Why You Need to Erase Personal Info From a Satellite Navigation System Before You Sell
A reader's letter to syndicated newspaper column "Dear Abby" highlights a little-known issue and sounds an alert about personal information stored on a vehicle satellite navigation system.
The reader explained that she'd bought a used auto already fitted with a navigation system, or GPS as they're sometimes called, and discovered personal information about the previous owner on the device.
The satellite navigation system provided not only the prior owner's name and address but also details about friends and the location of his bank.
Click Here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
The reader explained that she'd bought a used auto already fitted with a navigation system, or GPS as they're sometimes called, and discovered personal information about the previous owner on the device.
The satellite navigation system provided not only the prior owner's name and address but also details about friends and the location of his bank.
Click Here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
Friday, June 11, 2010
Making Money Online with Google AdSense
By Michael Fleischner | Marketing Expert, Internet Marketing Secrets*
Many marketing professionals are using Google to place targeted ads in front of prospective customers. This is increasingly effective due to the highly targeted nature of Google AdWords. Google AdSense, the other side of the online advertising equation, allows website owners to make money by provided contextually targeted ads to their website traffic.
Providing targeted ads to your online visitors creates a better user experience and communicates your knowledge of the audience you serve. Google AdSense automatically delivers text and image ads that are precisely targeted to your site and your site content through the Google AdSense advertising system.
If you're involved with an affiliate program such as commission junction, you know that signing up with, and maintaining relationships with advertisers is a full-time job. With Google AdSense, Google manages the relationships with advertisers for you, making the process simple and easy to manage. Once you place the appropriate code on your website, the AdSense program requires basically no maintenance.
How You Make Money
When you display Google ads on your website, you create the potential to generate revenue. Google places relevant cost-per-click and cost per thousand impressions ads into a real-time auction and lets multiple advertisers compete against one another for displaying their ad. The auction takes place instantaneously and when it's over AdSense automatically displays the text or image ads that will generate the maximum revenue for a given page, resulting in the maximum revenue for a web site owner.
Ads Are Updated When Your Content Changes
Google AdSense technology analyses the content of your web pages and delivers ads that are relevant automatically, no matter how many pages of content your site may have. As your content changes, Google's ads change to match.
Google Ads Can be Customized in Look and Feel
AdSense allows you to customize the appearance of your ads to fully match the look and feel of your site. As of the writing of this article, Google AdSense provides more than 200 colors and 24 pre-set color palettes to choose from. Additionally, you can create and save your own custom palettes using a point-and-click color selection tool which is relatively simple to use. This ensures a consistent user experience for those browsing your web site.
Track Your Earnings Online
The key to making money with Google AdSense is to monitor your ad performance with customizable online reports. These reports are available online and offer details regarding the number of page impressions delivered, clicks, and click-through rate. You can also track the performance of specific ad formats, colors and pages, allowing you to spot trends quickly and easily. The reporting tool lets you group your web pages however you want, so you can gain insight into your earnings by viewing results by URL, domain, ad type, and category. When you spot revenue trends, develop more content for your site in the areas that produce the highest Google AdSense revenue.
If you are interested in getting started as a Google AdSense publisher, just go to your web browser and type in Google AdSense. You'll find information about the program and a link to the program registration form. Signing up is pretty easy. It only takes a few minutes to apply online for both content and search ads. Once you're approved, you simply need to log in to your account, copy and paste a block of HTML code into your existing ad server or directly into any of your web pages. Relevant ads start to appear on your web pages right away, and you start making money from the first impression or click.
Be sure to evaluate the effectiveness of your program at least once per week. Doing so allows you to determine what type of content is driving the largest percentage of your online advertising revenue. As mentioned previously, when developing new content for your site, be sure to focus on the areas that are driving the greatest ad revenue as indicated by your online Google AdSense reports.
* Michael Fleischner is an Internet marketing expert and the president of MarketingScoop.com, the Internet’s biggest source of marketing information and free marketing resources. He has more than 12 years of marketing experience and has appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. Visit Marketingscoop.com for further details, marketing secrets, Marketing Blog Directory, and more FREE reprint articles.
Many marketing professionals are using Google to place targeted ads in front of prospective customers. This is increasingly effective due to the highly targeted nature of Google AdWords. Google AdSense, the other side of the online advertising equation, allows website owners to make money by provided contextually targeted ads to their website traffic.
Providing targeted ads to your online visitors creates a better user experience and communicates your knowledge of the audience you serve. Google AdSense automatically delivers text and image ads that are precisely targeted to your site and your site content through the Google AdSense advertising system.
If you're involved with an affiliate program such as commission junction, you know that signing up with, and maintaining relationships with advertisers is a full-time job. With Google AdSense, Google manages the relationships with advertisers for you, making the process simple and easy to manage. Once you place the appropriate code on your website, the AdSense program requires basically no maintenance.
How You Make Money
When you display Google ads on your website, you create the potential to generate revenue. Google places relevant cost-per-click and cost per thousand impressions ads into a real-time auction and lets multiple advertisers compete against one another for displaying their ad. The auction takes place instantaneously and when it's over AdSense automatically displays the text or image ads that will generate the maximum revenue for a given page, resulting in the maximum revenue for a web site owner.
Ads Are Updated When Your Content Changes
Google AdSense technology analyses the content of your web pages and delivers ads that are relevant automatically, no matter how many pages of content your site may have. As your content changes, Google's ads change to match.
Google Ads Can be Customized in Look and Feel
AdSense allows you to customize the appearance of your ads to fully match the look and feel of your site. As of the writing of this article, Google AdSense provides more than 200 colors and 24 pre-set color palettes to choose from. Additionally, you can create and save your own custom palettes using a point-and-click color selection tool which is relatively simple to use. This ensures a consistent user experience for those browsing your web site.
Track Your Earnings Online
The key to making money with Google AdSense is to monitor your ad performance with customizable online reports. These reports are available online and offer details regarding the number of page impressions delivered, clicks, and click-through rate. You can also track the performance of specific ad formats, colors and pages, allowing you to spot trends quickly and easily. The reporting tool lets you group your web pages however you want, so you can gain insight into your earnings by viewing results by URL, domain, ad type, and category. When you spot revenue trends, develop more content for your site in the areas that produce the highest Google AdSense revenue.
If you are interested in getting started as a Google AdSense publisher, just go to your web browser and type in Google AdSense. You'll find information about the program and a link to the program registration form. Signing up is pretty easy. It only takes a few minutes to apply online for both content and search ads. Once you're approved, you simply need to log in to your account, copy and paste a block of HTML code into your existing ad server or directly into any of your web pages. Relevant ads start to appear on your web pages right away, and you start making money from the first impression or click.
Be sure to evaluate the effectiveness of your program at least once per week. Doing so allows you to determine what type of content is driving the largest percentage of your online advertising revenue. As mentioned previously, when developing new content for your site, be sure to focus on the areas that are driving the greatest ad revenue as indicated by your online Google AdSense reports.
* Michael Fleischner is an Internet marketing expert and the president of MarketingScoop.com, the Internet’s biggest source of marketing information and free marketing resources. He has more than 12 years of marketing experience and has appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. Visit Marketingscoop.com for further details, marketing secrets, Marketing Blog Directory, and more FREE reprint articles.
That Disaster Alert May Be Just Another Weather Or Earthquake Hoax
Is it time to hit the panic button -- or was that just another weather scam or earthquake hoax?
The trouble with natural disasters is that we're never quite sure when and where they'll strike.
The only thing we can be sure of is that, when they do, they'll provoke a rash of rumors and false stories about repeat disasters supposedly just about to happen.
Read the full article here.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
The trouble with natural disasters is that we're never quite sure when and where they'll strike.
The only thing we can be sure of is that, when they do, they'll provoke a rash of rumors and false stories about repeat disasters supposedly just about to happen.
Read the full article here.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
Thursday, June 3, 2010
NEW: Oil Spill Scam Warning
Watch out for oil spill scam artists! Within days of the BP oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, crooks launched their own gusher - a flood of oil spill scams that includes bogus investments in companies claiming to have clean-up contracts ...
Click Here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
Click Here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
GETTING SMART ABOUT GETTING REFERRALS C.J. Hayden, MCC
Savvy independent professionals know that referrals are the best way to land new clients. But getting those referrals can sometimes be a challenge. When referrals don't come easily -- or the ones you get seem to be off track -- it's tempting to forget about building referrals and spend time on cold calling, boilerplate letters and emails, or advertising, even though you know those approaches aren't as effective in the long run.
Instead, try getting smarter about getting referrals. Here are the five most common sources of referrals for independent professionals, and keys to making them work for you.
1. Current or former clients.
Keys to more referrals: Clients must be satisfied with your value, find you easy to work with, and not mind "sharing" you.
Common mistakes: Focusing on clients as your main source of referrals.
Of course no one will refer you if you don't do quality work. But they also won't refer if they find you difficult to work with or think they could do better elsewhere. Clients often stay even when dissatisfied, just out of inertia. If you've ever been asked for a referral yourself and replied, "Well, I work with so-and-so, but I wouldn't really recommend him," you understand this phenomenon.
Before you start asking your clients for referrals, ask them instead, "What else can I do to improve my service to you?" Take action on their requests, and THEN ask if they might know someone to refer to you. Another good moment to ask for referrals is any time a client thanks you for a job well done.
Recognize that you probably have fewer people in your pool of current and former clients than in any of the other four groups listed below. So don't focus on getting referrals from clients while ignoring other possibilities. Keep in mind, too, that sometimes existing clients don't want to "share" you. They may be afraid you won't be as available for their projects. Or if your work is of a personal nature, they may not want people who they know to work with you also.
2. Fellow members of networking groups.
Keys to more referrals: They must get to know, like, and trust you.
Common mistakes: Expecting referrals just by joining a group.
A member of a networking group I was managing once complained to me, "I was told I would get referrals from this group. Well, where are they?" When I asked if she had been coming to our events to meet other members, she replied, "No, I only joined for the referrals." She truly believed that just by JOINING this group, somehow referrals would mysteriously appear.
Networking groups can be an extremely productive source of referrals, but you need to not only meet other members, you must get to know them. People rarely refer based on a business card or 30-second introduction. Instead, use groups as a springboard to initiate coffee, lunch, or phone conversations to get better acquainted with group members and begin building a relationship.
3. Colleagues in your field.
Keys to more referrals: Their clients or specialties must be different from yours or they must be overbooked.
Common mistakes: Spending all your networking time with people who do exactly what you do.
The most common type of networking is participating in your own professional association. This is valuable for building credibility and keeping up in your field, but isn't always the best avenue to increase referrals. Focus your referral-building activities within your profession on identifying colleagues whose target market or specialty is different than your own. Or, seek out those people who always seem to have more business than they can handle, and could send some your way.
4. Others who share your target market.
Keys to more referrals: They must know what you do, who you do it for, and when someone might need you.
Common mistakes: Networking just to meet people without telling them enough to refer to you.
Seeking out people in different professions than your own who happen to share your target market is an often neglected -- but very fruitful -- source of referrals. But because these folks aren't in your field, it's crucial to inform them about who would be a good client for you and the benefits of your work. Set up a meeting or call with folks like these to educate them about what you do, and be sure to also ask how you can assist with referrals or resources THEY need.
5. Friends, family, and personal acquaintances.
Keys to more referrals: They must know enough about your business.
Common mistakes: Not talking about your business to people in your personal life.
It's a frequent failing of new entrepreneurs to avoid telling those in their personal life about their business. It seems they are waiting to become successful before letting people know what they're doing now. But holding back in this way can actually prevent you from succeeding.
Friends, family, neighbors, and acquaintances from school, church, sports, or hobbies can be excellent referral sources because they already know and trust you. Take the time to describe your business, and let them know what type of clients you're seeking. You may be pleasantly surprised by their willingness to help.
So if you're ready to get more referrals, get smart about it. Expand your thinking about who might refer to you, and put in place some of these essential keys to make referrals more likely. It's said that good things come to those who wait, but better things often come to those who go out looking for them.
Copyright © 2009, C.J. Hayden
Read more free articles by C.J. Hayden or subscribe to the GET CLIENTS NOW! E-Letter.
Instead, try getting smarter about getting referrals. Here are the five most common sources of referrals for independent professionals, and keys to making them work for you.
1. Current or former clients.
Keys to more referrals: Clients must be satisfied with your value, find you easy to work with, and not mind "sharing" you.
Common mistakes: Focusing on clients as your main source of referrals.
Of course no one will refer you if you don't do quality work. But they also won't refer if they find you difficult to work with or think they could do better elsewhere. Clients often stay even when dissatisfied, just out of inertia. If you've ever been asked for a referral yourself and replied, "Well, I work with so-and-so, but I wouldn't really recommend him," you understand this phenomenon.
Before you start asking your clients for referrals, ask them instead, "What else can I do to improve my service to you?" Take action on their requests, and THEN ask if they might know someone to refer to you. Another good moment to ask for referrals is any time a client thanks you for a job well done.
Recognize that you probably have fewer people in your pool of current and former clients than in any of the other four groups listed below. So don't focus on getting referrals from clients while ignoring other possibilities. Keep in mind, too, that sometimes existing clients don't want to "share" you. They may be afraid you won't be as available for their projects. Or if your work is of a personal nature, they may not want people who they know to work with you also.
2. Fellow members of networking groups.
Keys to more referrals: They must get to know, like, and trust you.
Common mistakes: Expecting referrals just by joining a group.
A member of a networking group I was managing once complained to me, "I was told I would get referrals from this group. Well, where are they?" When I asked if she had been coming to our events to meet other members, she replied, "No, I only joined for the referrals." She truly believed that just by JOINING this group, somehow referrals would mysteriously appear.
Networking groups can be an extremely productive source of referrals, but you need to not only meet other members, you must get to know them. People rarely refer based on a business card or 30-second introduction. Instead, use groups as a springboard to initiate coffee, lunch, or phone conversations to get better acquainted with group members and begin building a relationship.
3. Colleagues in your field.
Keys to more referrals: Their clients or specialties must be different from yours or they must be overbooked.
Common mistakes: Spending all your networking time with people who do exactly what you do.
The most common type of networking is participating in your own professional association. This is valuable for building credibility and keeping up in your field, but isn't always the best avenue to increase referrals. Focus your referral-building activities within your profession on identifying colleagues whose target market or specialty is different than your own. Or, seek out those people who always seem to have more business than they can handle, and could send some your way.
4. Others who share your target market.
Keys to more referrals: They must know what you do, who you do it for, and when someone might need you.
Common mistakes: Networking just to meet people without telling them enough to refer to you.
Seeking out people in different professions than your own who happen to share your target market is an often neglected -- but very fruitful -- source of referrals. But because these folks aren't in your field, it's crucial to inform them about who would be a good client for you and the benefits of your work. Set up a meeting or call with folks like these to educate them about what you do, and be sure to also ask how you can assist with referrals or resources THEY need.
5. Friends, family, and personal acquaintances.
Keys to more referrals: They must know enough about your business.
Common mistakes: Not talking about your business to people in your personal life.
It's a frequent failing of new entrepreneurs to avoid telling those in their personal life about their business. It seems they are waiting to become successful before letting people know what they're doing now. But holding back in this way can actually prevent you from succeeding.
Friends, family, neighbors, and acquaintances from school, church, sports, or hobbies can be excellent referral sources because they already know and trust you. Take the time to describe your business, and let them know what type of clients you're seeking. You may be pleasantly surprised by their willingness to help.
So if you're ready to get more referrals, get smart about it. Expand your thinking about who might refer to you, and put in place some of these essential keys to make referrals more likely. It's said that good things come to those who wait, but better things often come to those who go out looking for them.
Copyright © 2009, C.J. Hayden
Read more free articles by C.J. Hayden or subscribe to the GET CLIENTS NOW! E-Letter.
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