Article by Charlie Wright
Not sure if you’re visited the forum recently…
But it’s worth a look.
You can read some fantastically opinionated views there – always something that gets a thumbs up from me, even if I don’t always agree.
I particularly enjoyed seeing this post by user Charlie Riot:
“The big brother censorship has begun… Government could shut down alternative health websites…. All websites using the word “Face” could soon be seized.
This isn’t good news. Where is all this going?
Today the U.S. government is targeting websites focused on copyright violations, but if the public tolerates this government-sponsored censorship of the web, it’s only a matter of time before these government powers are expanded to control the content of the internet.”
Yes it’s true, Facebook wants to trademark ‘face’! Crazy. Maybe they’ll trademark ‘book’ too and put all publishers out of business!
It’s bad news for people starting up small home enterprises because these big companies want to rule the roost. I used to run a natural health website and was shocked by the moves made to clamp down on anyone offering advice on natural remedies, or selling natural products.
It’s usually nothing to do with ethics or standards but big business protecting itself… with the usual high levels of help from the government and the mainstream media.
Boooo, hiss and so forth.
Forum user Shadow agrees:
“Welcome to The “NEW WORLD ORDER” The goal is to have total control of what we are allowed to access on the internet. They are concerned that the masses are waking up and finding out the truth of what’s going on in the World.”
I’m not surprised some of my readers are worried.
There’s a huge battle raging right now over the freedom of the internet. Some are calling it the First World Infowar.
The big question is, should information be made freely available online, or should governments and big media companies have the right to control the flow of information?
A few years ago the internet was touted by the West as a tool of international freedom. The US were happy to praise Google, Twitter and Facebook when they were being used by Chinese or Korean dissidents to access forbidden information…
They weren’t so happy when a certain organisation did the same and leaked forbidden American information. Then it was a different story.
You could say that Wikileaks has thrown the cat among the pigeons.
Talking of which, not sure if you’re on Twitter… but…
Code 140 anyone?
Streetwise are selling a marketing course called Code 140 (Mark Patricks, £97) which offers a Twitter-based business strategy.
I’ve had quite a few information requests recently, but I’ve not yet got a review copy so if you’ve seen it and read it, please send me a mini review of your own and I’ll share it.
Personally I have no idea if you can make money off Twitter from scratch. I would recommend Twitter if you have an email newsletter or information website, as it extends your reach a bit, keeps the contact up.
However if you’d rather stick your head to a Christmas tree with a nail-gun than get into all that Twittter stuff, I sympathise. You should then definitely avoid Code 140!
And be wary of this one…
One thing I’ve been telling people to avoid at all costs is AD Associates’ roulette system. It’s had almost universal bad feedback, mainly regarding the refund process.
But among the vast mounds of vented spleen here’s one forum user who’s happy:
“I purchased this system around a month ago, mainly because of the lifetime money back guarantee! I practiced the system and got reasonable results so I started playing for real money, I used £3 bets and I was soon more than £300 down!
I sent my history to Ronald twice and both times he pointed out that I wasn’t following the system fully. The problem is that the info he sends you isn’t really sufficient and I had a lot of questions, so I emailed Ronald and he answered all of my questions and I now understand the system and I win everytime and I am nearly back in the black.
The system does work but you have to concentrate on what you are doing as the slightest mistake can be costly. As an example using only £1 bets yesterday I won £77 and today I won £48. You do have losses but when you do you carry on with the system to get back to the money you started with then stop.”
I’m still a roulette-system sceptic and I’m sticking to my guns. But my complaint was never about AD selling roulette – I don’t see a problem if people want to follow a system.
It’s just the thorny issue of refunds. I passionately believe that when you sell information products you should make the act of refunding as easy as possible, so that nobody feels trapped into buying the product when they’re not happy.