It seems I may have counted Myspace out too soon. I figured I should give up on it, considering the amount of spam going around there. But they may be cleaning things up now…

It’s a big maybe, but lately I have been seeing a lot of deleted profiles, meaning they are actually catching spammers. “Too little, too late” you may be saying, but I’m going to hold out a little bit of hope.

Especially because they just took a step in the right direction by banning an upcoming book called “Myspace Marketing Tips.” It was basically Myspace flexing it’s big legal team muscle (and shutting down a small entrepreneur,) but at least this could cut down on spam.

Let me start at the beginning…

Last Friday I was reading an email from Allan Gardyne of associateprograms.com. Normally I love his ezine, but this one seemed a bit fishy. It started off by trying to create a little suspense and urgency, with the premise that Myspace is going to shut down the sales the this new ebook that teaches how to legitimately market on Myspace. Myspace didn’t want anyone profiting off of their name, so they claimed a trademark violation.

The ebook’s author, Debbie Cohen, doesn’t have the ability to fight the legal powerhouse, so she had to give in and agree to take the site down. However, they gave her a week to take the page down since the person who does her website is “out of town.”

Hmm… do I smell a publicity stunt?

Hey! I wrote this ebook that’s so good that Myspace is shutting me down! The website will only be up for another week, so get your copy today before it’s too late!

I’m not falling for this one.

She could legitimately sell the book under a different name that does not use the actual word “Myspace” and they couldn’t do anything. For example, just use “new social networking sites” instead. Problem solved. However, that would not make a good “David vs Goliath” type story for the publicity stunt…

(By the way, there is only one “legitimate” way to market on Myspace. You scroll down to the bottom of myspace.com and click on the “Advertise” link. It’s that simple. There are a number of other crafty ways to market on Myspace, but they violate the Terms of Service so you run the risk of getting banned.)

As for this promotion, Allan says he wants to help the underdog. Also, Debbie has a hard life, and doesn’t need this setback. This may be, but many people have it harder. Saying you should buy her ebook because she deserves to be successful is a crock. What about the people that don’t have a school system to teach them to read and write, and therefore aren’t offering an ebook? (Don’t get me started on this issue…)

Plus, if Allan really wanted to help, why is he taking a commission using his affiliate link? Why not send people straight to www.socialsitesmarketing.com?

And on top of that, the sales page is not exactly professional. I’m not sure if it would keep anyone reading long enough to close a sale. So why would a super affiliate promote something like that? It’s a mystery to me.

So let’s take a quick look at the sales letter and what this ebook can do for you…

The cover mentions such topics as How To Set Up Your Profile, Find Groups Allowing Ads, Effective Bulletin Tips, and Ads to Maximize Clicks. I learned all that stuff in no time just by being a member of Myspace…

One thing that stood out to me, is that the book reveals “43 groups that don’t ban ads.” Whoopitty doo, sounds about as effective as autosurf traffic. The people in those groups are only there to post ads, not read them. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Conversion rates on myspace are pathetic at best, even with a very good offer that looks nothing like an ad. And contrary to what the sales letter says, Myspace is already filled with spammers - it’s not some untapped market.

If you think you’ll get rich by promoting your “how to make money off the internet” ebook on myspace, think again. Save yourself the trouble and try something else.

As Allan said at the start of his newsletter, “This stinks.”

I would say that it stinks because I don’t want to see any more spam on Myspace, and for Allan I bet it stinks that he won’t get as many commissions since the book is only on sale for a few days!

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And the verdict is…

Adsense Is Alive!

From the jury of Joel Comm comes a new report titled “Adsense Is Alive.” Man, this subject just isn’t going away…

I was weary of downloading this free report, mainly because I am sick of hearing about this stuff! But I did it anyway so I could report back to you, and I’m glad I did.

First, I’ll remind you that Joel Comm was pushing the Instant Adsense Templates product and that is probably why he wrote this ebook. But, if you get past that, this is a great book!

Not only does Joel do a good job of sticking with the truth, the book is hilarious! Honestly, I highly recommend checking it out. You’ll be glad you did.

I enjoyed it enough to give you the link, too: Adsense Is Alive

(Just watch out for the upsell once you request the free report…)

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Adsense, that is. Adsense is most definitely still alive, and Scott Boulch even admits to that in his Life After Adsense report. I’d go as far as to say that Adsense is alive and well, although my thoughts are in line with Boulch’s books.

But how can that be if Adsense is dead?

Well here’s the deal with that. A book titled You Might Not Make As Much Money With Adsense Anymore just would not have the appeal or create the buzz that The Death of Adsense did. Simple marketing principles.

Adsense is past its prime, though. When it first came out it was pretty simple to add it to your website and make quite a bit of money. That was before Google, and their Adwords advertisers, lowered payouts to publishers like us. Adsense can still make you money, but there are many other methods that can make you much more with just a bit more work!

If you haven’t read Life After Adsense, you should do that as soon as you finish reading this post. And I’ll tell you why you should…

1. It’s free.

2. It doesn’t take all that long to read.

3. Boulch is totally right about the earnings drop, whether you have junk sites of nice, white-hat sites.

4. Like me, Boulch calls himself a “disgruntled webmaster.”

5. Boulch has real business experience. Read about that on page 32 of the report.

6. The methods taught in this book have always been known to be more lucrative than Adsense.

That’s right, the stuff he talks about isn’t really new. But it has been pushed aside in favor of Adsense, which promises earnings with very little effort on your part.

7. The people telling you that this report is a lie are the same people that are selling products to help you make money with Adsense.

And one minor complaint…

1. The ebook seems to conveniently leave out the fact that some of these techniques are pretty hard and require quite a bit of work.

There you have it. Head on over to lifeafteradsense.com and get your free report.

And don’t forget to check back here, as I have some more thoughts on what Scott Boulch is doing…

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So, let’s say you wrote an ebook that currently sells for the low price of $97. It’s about making money with Adsense.

Or perhaps you sell some $147 software that automatically churns out websites focused on displaying Adsense ads.

And then someone comes out of nowhere and reveals a much better way to make money, and gives it away for free. What would you do?

Get defensive, probably. And that’s what all the “gurus” are doing now that The Death of Adsense and Life After Adsense have been released.

I love it.

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How many ads have you seen for Ewen Chia’s Super Affiliate Cloning Program? Ten? Twenty? Ok, I don’t think I saw that many either, but I did take notice. But not because of what the course can do.

Because of…

The name - Ewen Chia. I remember it because I signed-up for his Secret Affiliate Weapon private blog a while ago. It must have been over a year ago. I get emails from him all the time, but I rarely look at them. For one, I only paid $10 since it was a special offer, and two, most of the info I had seen before. Plus, half the time it was just an offer.

But recently I took a look at this site - http://ewenchiaexposed.com. From its sales pitch, Ewen sounds like a crazy good super affiliate. And that reminded me, the numerous ads for his new course made him sound pretty amazing, too. There’s more BS over at superaffiliatecloningprogram.com if you are in the mood.

I’m not sure what to think now. Should I be kicking myself for not paying attention sooner, or should I be suspicious because this is the first big thing I’ve heard about him? I mean, I’ve seen numerous affiliate contests and been subjected to a ton of lists of guest speakers and such - but I’ve never seen his name. And his sales letter says he is always at #1 or #2 in the affiliate competitions… Hmm…

I’m tempted to look into this some more, but here’s what’s holding me back - it seems a bit fishy. And even when internet marketing gurus seem credible, there is usually something fishy going on - so when it seems fishy, it can’t be good!

I could keep a better eye on his private blog, but that doesn’t matter anymore. Why? He has a new course out so he’ll just devote his time to that instead, and simply use his private blog to advertise his new stuff to us. It’s great how that worked out.

Here is what I will do: Go look for other stuff that sucks, and write about it!

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The Rich Jerk. Interesting name, huh? This multi-millionaire has decided to put his secrets into an ebook (big surprise there…) and sell it to the millions of people looking to make easy money online. A pretty common strategy, but this guy stands out a bit. Not because of the photos of his lavish lifestyle, but because he’s a jerk. He has better things to do than help you out, and he makes that clear in his sales letter!

But I happened across his site the other day and guess what - he’s offering to give you a free website if you signup for his mailing list! Supposedly the free website is built using his secret strategies - that’s awfully nice of him, isn’t it?

So what’s the real deal? Do you actually get a custom site worth $300 with no catch?

Yeah right!

No self-respecting internet guru would give away something like that without a catch!

You can get a free site, yes, but it sure doesn’t look custom. Unless by custom they mean it is only 99% the same as the others, then I guess it could be considered custom. But here’s the real catch - you only get the site after signing up with their hosting partner. I didn’t bother looking at the hosting plan, but I doubt it’s anything special.

So by giving away the website which costs very little to make, he can make quite a bit of cash with commissions on the hosting! Not a bad idea! (Since the commissions are probably $100+ each.)

Not only did this experience give me some material to rant about, it taught me a good lesson in marketing!

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