Friday seems like a great day for a free gift, doesn’t it?

On that note, what I have for you to download free of charge is a Myspace Resource Site script. It’s a complete myspace resource site in a .zip folder. You just upload it and, like magic, you have your own full-featured site with myspace layouts, generators, codes, glitter graphics, profile tweaks, and whatever else you see on all the myspace sites that look exactly the same…

This script is a lot like the crappy ones floating around on freebie sites, but with a key difference: I re-coded the whole thing so instead of it having a crappy table-based layout, it now has a sweet div-based layout styled with CSS, and it’s valid XHTML 1.0 Strict.

I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty cool! (Disclaimer: Due to some of the features and PHP code used, not every single page will be valid, but most of it is.)

Want the download link?

I thought about posting the download link here, but after all this talk about RSS subscribers, I think I’m going to make the download link a special bonus for feed subscribers!

So if you’re not a subscriber, now is the time to click that orange square in the top right corner and subscribe! It’s free, simple, and painless.

If you’re already a subscriber, you’ll see the download link at the bottom of this post in your feed reader!

Update: This script is no longer available, but a slightly better one can be found by clicking here. (It’s still free.)

Test it out and let me know what you think in the comments!

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Bad news for all you comment spammers trying to increase PR for your site - comment links on myspace profiles won’t do you any good. Myspace has implemented a redirect system that takes any external link in a comment and turns it into a redirect. Without a direct link, it’s like your link doesn’t exist.

But the good news for comment spammers is that people might still click the link and end up at your site. You might not get the PR but you’ll still get the traffic (which is more important, IMHO.)

And the bad news for legitimate myspace users is that comment spam is not going to decrease. There are numerous spam comments that don’t even use live hyperlinks anymore, so I doubt that these redirects will slow them down. They will keep spamming as usual and add more obtrusive methods as they find more exploits in Myspace’s code.

I’m really getting sick of it. Lately it seems like 45 of the latest 50 comments on my profile are spam. And it’s mostly from phished accounts.

Will Myspace survive the spammers? Only time will tell.

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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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Last time I wrote about fake Myspace profiles and how they suck. I also mentioned an article at burntpickle.com that discusses the phenomenon. That article is great, but it could be dangerous in the wrong hands…

How do I know that? From experience. I’ll get back to this in a bit, but for now I’ll talk a bit about fictional profiles.

Fictional profiles, not to be confused with fake ones, are not meant to deceive. They are meant to humor people and just be fun. At least that’s how I look at it. It’s a great way to express creativity and goof around!

What are fictional profiles? These are profiles of people like Ronald McDonald, Colonel Sanders, SaTom Hussein, etc. Other profiles are made for inanimate objects like beer or sex. There is no doubt that it is not actually Ronald McDonald running his profile - it’s just some kid (or someone young at heart) screwing around.

The people running these profiles actually take care of them and have fun talking to other fictional characters. It’s actually a lot of fun and you meet cool new people, which is the point of Myspace if I remember correctly. I know, because I made up some profiles like that - and I just love getting comments saying how cool and funny a profile is! (Yeah, I should have been a stand-up comedian, but I ended up a bitter old internet marketer…)

Back to the burntpickle.com article… If you checked it out, you probably saw the picture you could post for a comment on obviously fake profiles. That’s great for the people who know how to spot a fake profile. But one day (before I had ever heard of burntpickle,) I found that image in one of my comments on one of my well-liked profiles. Needless to say, I was pissed off. I still am.

Those are the people who should not be reading burntpickle. The dude added me, left the comment, then deleted me. What a bitch move! I even sent him a message later, but didn’t get a response. I guess he just wasn’t very friendly.

It just worries me that people will start reporting anything and everything. Kind of like how your competitors can click on your Adsense ads and report your site. (Joke’s on them though, because if your site is legit, Adsense will crack down on the person who reported you!)

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Even worse than sending stupid bulletins is the fact that people are conning people on Myspace. Not that it’s a surprise, and it’s not going to end so it doesn’t really matter, but Myspace spam is annoying. There are so many problems on Myspace, but I’ll just talk about one right now - fake profiles.

These are regular profiles that contain a bunch of fake info and fake pictures, usually with the objective of making money. Usually there is a picture of a hot girl and a not so subtle link to a webcam. Some profiles are better than others, but there are some that are plain lame. Like this one. Seriously, who would go for that??

It truly amazes me that people would add her as a friend and leave comments. Actually, no it doesn’t. If there is one thing I have learned in internet marketing, it’s that some people are just plain oblivious. The real joke is on the people with fake profiles, because half of their friends are probably fake too!

To get all the details on this crap, along with some more humor, check out Burnt Pickle.

Wait for my next entry, I’ll talk about how I found the Burnt Pickle article…

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