Beware Pinterest Spam, Scams and Hoaxes

Add Pinterest spam and scams to the catalog of dangers and frustrations you face if you're an Internet social networker.

As most readers will know, Pinterest is a "virtual corkboard" -- a website where members "pin" and share their favorite photos and graphics.

It's a relative newcomer to the social networking scene, having really only taken off in the past year or so, but already it has an estimated 30 million-plus members.

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©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.

Reprinted with permission.

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A Real Test, It’s Gut Check Time…

by Jon Olson Hit Exchange News

I woke up real early today so I’ve been able to get quite a bit of surfing in this morning. I like to see what other people are promoting, how they are promoting and what’s the latest ‘hype’ of the month in the industry. I guess it’s the surfer in me but what I found was quite alarming…

Sure there are new names in the business. There are thousands of new surfers coming online each and every week but there are a chunk of folks who have been in the business for over a year at least. It’s great that they are still personally branding themselves but what is amazing to me is that they are program hopping. Here’s the question I have to ask…

Are you in the same ‘opportunity’ you were this time last year? Today?

Really?

I’ve seen some ‘known’ names jump from program to program all year and haven’t really said anything about it because it just seemed to be accepted in this business. It’s like the cool thing to do, every time something new jumps up, hop on it! And then we sit and scratch our heads and wonder…Why God? Why can’t I make any money online…

Broken record starts to skip and replay right..About…Now!

Get in line and stay in line means simply this, if you expect results stick with things that have staying power. And then for the love of everything that is good in the world, don’t jump ship because of a new shiny object. Stay the course. And yes, I’ll say it…Evergreen products are the way to go to build sustainable, lifelong commissions.

Are you program hopping? Hey you are a grown adult, you can do what you want…Just please don’t come whining and complaining to us when you aren’t making any money next year.

Sincerely,

Successful Traffic Exchange Surfers & Owners

Have a great day!

To your success.

Barb :)

Barbara DelGiudice
news@dpbiznews.net
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Where to File Your Internet Scam Complaint

Where do you turn when you want to make a scam complaint?

Many organizations involved in the fight against fraud and con tricks, from law enforcement to consumer outfits like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), can help you.

But if you're not sure, a good starting point is the Internet Crime Complaint Center, better known as IC3.

IC3 is a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C).

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©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.

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Introducing The Sub Adventure Game

by Jon Olson Hit Exchange News

We like to have fun at TimTech! Since day one, it was very important to our game plan to add ‘fun’ into every thing we do in our web sites and programs. Click Track Profit really shook up the way people learn how to use the traffic exchanges but when we added badges, boy oh boy…We started something big!

Gamification was here and after the badges, the next big thing for our game plan was to add some TimTech ‘fun’ to the way people did surf promos…We introduced the Vault N’ Keys!

To say the Vault N’ Keys were a success is an understatement. Ask any traffic exchange owner who has added the Vault to their program and they will tell you it means an increase in new members, surfing numbers and yes, even income. The surfers? Absolutely loved it! So we decided to keep the game moving forward….

The Submarine Game is our newest addition to gamify the industry and it works like Vault N Keys but adds a ‘Minesweeper game’ to it…

* Simply surf 35 pages at the 4 partner traffic exchanges and claim a ‘Mine Badge’ at each program.
* Unlock the Sub Game and then you get to unlock game pieces.

* Each unlock you get, wins you a penny. You keep unlocking pennies until you find the bomb. After that, the game is over.

* You can win one cent or up to a dollar every time you play and wow, it’s addicting!

Here’s the best part for savvy traffic exchange owners, you can partner with 3 other exchanges and create you own promo and leverage the power and activity of Click Track Profit. Heck, you don’t even need to do one with a TimTech exchange, it can be 3 other independent programs. But the potential for this can be huge especially when you consider how active CTP members are. We hope the owners love it and gives them a new aspect along with Vault N’ Keys to crush it with us.

As for surfers…You guys WIN big time! Huge upcoming promos from us means you now can win even more cash just from surfing your favorite programs. It’s going to be an awesome winter season in the traffic exchange industry…

If you would like to purchase your own promo for the Sub Game you can do so right here. Or if you would like to see a schedule of our upcoming promos, you can check it out on Brenda’s official Sub Game blog!

This is awesome stuff!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

To your success.

Barb :)

news@dpbiznews.net

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8 Business Scam Tricks That Target Small Firms

Pretending to be some sort of official organization or helping to fulfill a supposed legal requirement is a favorite trick of business scam artists.

They approach small firms and tell them they need special documentation or authentication services that they just happen to be able to provide -- for a fee of course.

We've identified at least 4 business scams that use this technique. A couple have been around for a while but all are active right now.

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©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.

Reprinted with permission.

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ARE YOU OVERWHELMED BY MARKETING?

Does it seem like there are just too many things to do to market your business? It's easy to get overwhelmed by marketing ideas, plans, and tasks, especially when many of them involve learning new skills. And then people are always telling you about something else to do. But you're only one person. You can only afford to pay for so much help. Is it really even possible to do everything about marketing that others say you should?

Here are four steps to find a clear path out of marketing overwhelm.

1. Decide what you're offering.

One of the fastest ways to overcome overwhelm is to narrow your focus to marketing only one product or service at a time. Yes, you may have a complete menu of offerings, but you can't effectively market them all at once. The more clear you are about what you are marketing to who, and when, the less overwhelmed you will be.

Every time you have to make a choice about what to do with your marketing, first choose what you will offer. For example, if you are a psychotherapist who offers individual therapy, group programs, and paid presentations, you might be trying to decide whether to market yourself with networking, building referral relationships, advertising, social media, or public speaking. Each one of those might be a good approach to use, depending on what you are offering.

Narrow your focus. Choose. For example, "This week I want to work on getting more clients for individual therapy." As soon as you make that declaration, you will have a frame of reference for making more decisions. Now you can ask yourself questions like, "How have I found most individual therapy clients in the past?" or "How do most of my colleagues find their individual therapy clients?" A likely route for you to take will start to emerge.

2. Get clear about your immediate goals.

What do you need more of right now? What is coming up soon that you should prepare for? What problems do you need to address? Questions like these can help you determine what your primary objectives should be for marketing at this particular time. Here's what a marketing goal might sound like:

• One new major client by the end of this month.
• Three new ongoing clients by December 31st.
• Take advantage of next week's speaking engagement to sign up at least two new clients for my service.
• Increase the number of website visitors who opt in to my mailing list by 25%.

Including a quantity and timeframe in your goal will help you determine the best way to accomplish it. For example, if you want one new major client by the end of the month, it's unlikely you will achieve that by attending networking events or increasing your social media activity. You will more likely need to focus on following up with prospects you already have, and further developing existing relationships.

3. Choose just a few specific things to do.

When you have a long list of varied tasks to accomplish, it's difficult not to feel overwhelmed by it. This is especially true when some of the items are stated in a vague or general way. Consider what you plan to offer and what your immediate goal is. What are a few activities that are most likely to take you in that direction? Get as specific as possible. For example:

• Contact three new possible referral sources for individual clients this week and invite them to coffee sometime this month.
• Place follow-up phone calls to five prospective clients for my monthly retainer service per day and send an email when I don't reach them.
• Spend 30 minutes each day interacting on social media with people who are likely candidates for my new program.
• Write a 20-page ebook that will appeal to clients for my assessment package to use as a bonus gift for opting in to my mailing list.

Resist any temptation to record every activity you can think of. List what seems like about a week's worth of items, then stop. Revisit your list next week to revise or add to it. If you think of items you'd like to address sometime, but which don't make sense to tackle this week, put them on a "Maybe" list that you can refer to weekly when you revise your current list. Don't keep looking at ideas or tasks you aren't currently working on; that is a sure road to overwhelm.

4. Do only what you said.

Give yourself permission to have the activities you put on this week's list be the only things you do about marketing. This can be one of the most difficult challenges of avoiding marketing overwhelm, but it's essential. Don't be distracted by "opportunities" that find their way into your email, voice mail, or social media stream. If they seem potentially helpful, put them on your Maybe list, and consider them next week. This week, and today, do only what you said you'd do.

Marketing does not need to be overwhelming. All you need is a simple, targeted plan. Follow these four steps, and you'll soon find yourself producing greatly improved results with much less effort.

Copyright © 2012, C.J. Hayden

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The Death of the Free Mentality

by Jon Olson Hit Exchange News

I remember the good old days…

There was a time when guys like Robert Puddy, Soren Jordansen, Tim Linden, Paul Kinder, Tony Tezak and myself used to hang out in a Hot Conference room and discuss business all day, everyday! It was a fantastic time for traffic exchanges and something I miss about it was the MESSAGE that every owner shared with their members and people that came and hung out with us in the conference room…

It takes money to make money!

It was encouraged and at times beat into people’s head that they needed to spend money on their business to eventually make money down the road. Somewhere along the line, we lost our way…

With the re-launch of Trck.me yesterday we’ve seen a few rumblings around the net with ‘outrage’ and disgust that (heaven forbid) a for=profit company starts to charge for their service. We made a decision to get rid of free accounts but still allowed members to use our system for 30 days for free to try it out. Hey I know sometimes people think it’s evil for companies to actually turn a profit but it is what it is…

Why the entitlement mind set? Why should everything be free? Does this make sense?

Freemium is a popular business model and it’s something we will always have in our traffic exchanges and programs like ClickTrackProfit but for essential tools like Trck.me, hosting, autoresponders and even AdKreator, that doesn’t always make sense…

And why is this such a bad idea? Most offline businesses require 100′s of thousands in capital and initial investments not to mention the minimum 3-5 years to turn a profit but online it’s looked down on for asking people to budget 75 bucks a month? It’s insane…

And for everyone that starts the argument like this ‘It’s hard to spend money when you have none’…Guess what I did and every other successful business person online? They found the money, they worked offline to make money to fund their online business…They struggled, they clawed and they fought to make their dreams a reality. But they never used the entitlement mind set…It’s a very dangerous card to play!

Invest in your business. Invest in the tools and don’t ever cut corners when it comes to this. Down the road, you will see how important it is to break out of the freebie mentality and build your business by INVESTING in yourself and your business!

Have a great week!
To your success.
Barb :)

news@dpbiznews.net

 

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