74 Comments »

Holy Sh- said:
Thanks for doing what you do, Droid. Keep raging.
WINNER!! ::   +23
[Reply]
# 30 December 2011 at 5:03 pm

Regrets said:
Good work, old robot. It was a glorious Year 2 for me not spending one dollar on get-rich biz-op internet scam crap. Not to get all teary or anything but this site was definitely among the greatest things I have landed on in all interweb land. It gave me something I was lacking, brains. Not blaming the victim or anything but buying bizop crap was an addiction fueled by hope and dreams and starry-eyed stupidity, and now I am not stupid anymore and so… can’t wait to see what unfolds in 2012. To all scammers, be very afraid. Your world is changing fast and all the NLP tricks you have copied from other scammers will not bail you out. Pun intended.
WINNER!! ::   +29
[Reply]
# 30 December 2011 at 5:22 pm

what?? said:
Excellent Year 3 thanks to especially you. Hopefully, next year’s video will feature more incarcerations.
WINNER!! ::   +12
[Reply]
# 30 December 2011 at 5:59 pm

Yakaru said:
Thanks for all your work, Salty. I know the posts and the comments you leave below the line are just the tip of the ice berg when it comes to hours and creative work you put into this. By far the best site on the web…and the funniest thing I’ve read or heard anywhere!
***Standing ovation***
WINNER!! ::   +17
[Reply]
# 30 December 2011 at 6:05 pm

Alfred said:
@::, To a great next year, crimefighter!
WINNER!! ::   +13
[Reply]
# 30 December 2011 at 6:26 pm

Bryan Neuman said:
More cages for psychopaths in 2012! Couldn’t have made it through the last couple years without you guys. It’s great to know a group of people that actually care for one another, unlike James Ray, Megan and Josh Fredrickson, etc. Keep up the amazing work everyone! Best website eva! Go get ‘em FTC!
WINNER!! ::   +20
[Reply]

Colleen's brother-in-law Reply:
January 3rd, 2012 at 9:13 am
@Bryan Neuman, A M E N to what bryan said
WINNER!! ::   +8
[Reply]
# 30 December 2011 at 6:27 pm

Jack said:
To the next 1,000 hours and a new New year.
Awesome vid/song.
WINNER!! ::   +11
[Reply]
# 30 December 2011 at 6:30 pm

Anna said:
Great Job Salty and Happy New Year. I’ll keep reading it as long as you write it.
WINNER!! ::   +10
[Reply]
# 30 December 2011 at 7:13 pm

Fake Blogger said:
Happy New Year Droid.
Thanks for creating the place I go to laugh and cry at the same time.
WINNER!! ::   +10
[Reply]
# 30 December 2011 at 7:44 pm

Kim said:
Very nicely done.
Keep it up for another year or two, and you may need a cape to go with your squeeky wheels.
Oh, and the nice non litigious Dan Mangan just earned himself an iTunes purchase for his awesome soundtrack.
To a productive 2012.
WINNER!! ::   +10
[Reply]
# 30 December 2011 at 7:54 pm

zila said:
Awesome!! And you are an awesome caring person!!
WINNER!! ::   +11
[Reply]
# 30 December 2011 at 8:25 pm

Cosmic Connie said:
The vids just keep getting better, and so do the posts. May 2012 be the year that certain old farts *finally* get their comeuppance (or karm-uppance), and many younger ones get theirs too. Congratulations, Salty/Jason, and Happy New Year!
WINNER!! ::   +15
[Reply]
# 30 December 2011 at 8:46 pm

MazeMan said:
Nice video, SD. I was hoping for a pic of Death Ray doing the chicken cluck walk in his orange jumpsuit. That was too funny!
Wishing you a rockin’ 2012! May what you have been working so hard to achieve become an avalanche of success (and great misery and incarceration for those in your cross-hairs).
Peace!
WINNER!! ::   +9
[Reply]
# 30 December 2011 at 11:42 pm

URock said:
Kudos for putting awesome creativity and humor into a deadly serious mission! Ur 1 rockin crime fighting robot!
Many thanks to you and those who support you. Glad someone has the titanium cajones to fight a much needed fight.
Love the vid… wanna share that awesome transition?
WINNER!! ::   +8
[Reply]
# 31 December 2011 at 12:50 am

422 said:
Has it been 3 years already? My how time flies…Happy New Year SaltyDroid!
WINNER!! ::   +7
[Reply]
# 31 December 2011 at 4:23 am

Bill said:
Thank you for exposing the truth. Thank you for standing up and doing what is right. Thank you for your courage.
WINNER!! ::   +9
[Reply]
# 31 December 2011 at 7:46 am

kate said:
Thanks for opening my eyes to the truth behind the scanning con artists money grubbing greedy offers that promise easy riches and a paradise life if we just give our money to them. Thank u. Thank u. Thank u.
WINNER!! ::   +11
[Reply]
# 31 December 2011 at 8:31 am

Al said:
Happy New Year Droid!
WINNER!! ::   +8
[Reply]
# 31 December 2011 at 8:56 am

Kim said:
Returning to the non litigious folk rocker.
Beautiful quote from the song “Tina’s glorious comeback”, could come in handy the next time you do a writeup of Copyblogger:
“Sold my soul to the devil / for nice penmanship.
Now I write real pretty / but I’m starting to regret it.”
Many happy oil changes for 2012.
WINNER!! ::   +7
[Reply]
# 31 December 2011 at 11:14 am

Cosmic Connie said:
Forgot to mention: It was a nice touch to show an image of Death Ray’s Rx bottle for Propecia. If he doesn’t get to continue his regimen while he’s in the clink, it’s gonna be Bald Lang Syne for him.
WINNER!! ::   +12
[Reply]
# 31 December 2011 at 12:29 pm

Wondering Why said:
Salty, thank you for all your posts on James Ray..I know that you helped bring him to justice!
WINNER!! ::   +7
[Reply]
# 31 December 2011 at 1:38 pm

Wyrd said:
Yay, @SD! Happy year-that-you-have-had. Here’s hoping the next one is as good or better. (And simultaneously, here’s hoping that the scammers somehow avoid causing anyone’s death next year, although I’m not gonna hold my breath over that.)
I hope your right on the 10,000 hours thing.
–
Furry cows moo and decompress.
  +4
[Reply]

Wyrd Reply:
January 1st, 2012 at 1:51 am
@Wyrd,
When I originally posted, I confess I had not watched the actual video with the cool song.
(Now I have.)
That song is awesome. And I can see why you’d want to pretend it’s yours. It does seem very appropriate.
–
Furry cows moo and decompress.
  +2
[Reply]

Wyrd Reply:
June 1st, 2012 at 12:08 am
@Wyrd,
I’m shamelessly repeating myself, and replying to my own post to say, once again, that, that song is awesome.
  0
[Reply]
# 31 December 2011 at 1:45 pm

Mark said:
Happ New Year Salty! Thanks for all your work, you’ve both entertained and educated me and my bank balance is higher at this year end thanks to you :)
WINNER!! ::   +7
[Reply]
# 31 December 2011 at 2:19 pm

Wide Eyes said:
Droid, Thank you for your important work —
It’s interesting the video starts with a frame of Eben Pagan’s notorious Burning Man cosplay outfit . . .
He seems to have disappeared from the IM scene (In NYC I believe) — maybe he’ll move on to a better, nobler life (thanks to you?) Time will tell…
Keep it up!
But 2012 has already started — our good friend Brendon Burchard is kicking up the new year with a program in NYC where he will reveal “Million-Dollar-Plus Strategies and Marketing Campaigns Broken Down for You” (Old, Pre-digested ideas of other people businesses that don’t relate to what I do? That’s just what I need!)
but Hey — I may not qualify here — as his sales letter says “This is for serious people only— those who have DRIVE and will apply a hard work ethic to becoming the next icons, titans, and legends in their field.” (Love the nag in the sales letter)
What a nice NLP preframing! If nothing he teaches works for me; it surely means I’m lazy (not that his ideas are not transferable) — 
It sucks sooooo much because I wish I could have gone there to become in 3 days the next icon/titan/legend in my field. In just 3 days — imagine that! Sounds sooooo possible! Not misleading at all . . .
The best news is . . . this new thingy will cost only $10,000 . . . that’s right. $10,000!!!!
But WAIT register now and it’s only $ 9,000!!!! WOW what a deal! (Unfortunately the price is not a joke)
WAIT!!!!! even better news. Brendon says: “I will happily pay for your hotel and meals.”
Wow! Sooooo awesome!
Well, well, well,
Instead I will do something else — I will continue to invest my money in my own marketing and built it up slowly from here . . . Oddly, it works!
So I say F.U. Brendon (which means, of course, I Frown upon your Unicorn)
I’m gonna pass on this extravaganza that IMO makes no sense https://p.secure.hostingprod.com/@www.brendonburchard.com/ssl/checkout-earlybird
New readers of Salty, if you want to learn about marketing please SAVE YOUR MONEY and buy the books the gurus have all read – the ones they repackage to you…
Why? Because if you want to learn about a field you need to put real work into it and start READING (like students do) not go go to seminars where weird gurus flash crazy numbers in front of you and make you feel bad when you can’t use what they teach you (because it doesn’t work)
Here are the books you must read -
THE CLASSICS – Old School:
Tested Advertising Methods – Caples
Robert Collier Letter Book 
Ogilvy on Advertising + Confession of an ad man
Cash Copy – Lant
NEW SCHOOL:
Positioning – Ries- Trout
Advertising Concept and Copy – Felton
and of course . . .
Web Copy That Sells – Veloso
Fast Company magazine (get a subscription) or check out fastcompany.com
That’s all you need — the rest you can find online for free.
Wishing everyone a great Unicorn-free new year!
WINNER!! ::   +12
[Reply]

Wyrd Reply:
December 31st, 2011 at 3:11 pm
@Wide Eyes,
Ah, it makes me wanna cry. The dude wants you to pay him $9,000 dollars so for a meal and some brainwashing where he upsells you into his next load of feces.
And, because at that point you will have already dropped nine THOUSAND dollars on it, confirmation bias will more-or-less do the brainwashing for him. I mean–when you have spent that insane sum on something, it’s really, really hard for most people to admit to themselves or anyone else that they might have just been scammed. It’s like–spending large amounts of money = commitment.
–
Furry cows moo and decompress.
WINNER!! ::   +7
[Reply]

Lanna Reply:
January 1st, 2012 at 3:09 pm
@Wyrd,
You made me think of this Web comic with your confirmation bias idea:
http://catandgirl.com/?p=183
I guess I’ll have to read up on BB for 2012.
Happy New Year, Droid! Keep up the great work.
  +2
[Reply]
# 31 December 2011 at 2:31 pm

Jeffrey Hammond said:
Great video, Salty. Wishing you an even better 2012 full of all the blessings you richly deserve. You‘ve opened so many people’s eyes including mine that it’s a wonder we could find our own a$$es before you came along. Thank you for all the hilarity and for your passion for truth and justice. What’s more awesome than a snarky crimefighter?!! Thank you and Happy 2012!
WINNER!! ::   +10
[Reply]
# 31 December 2011 at 5:54 pm

It could happen to anyone said:
A very Happy New Year Droid…and I’m loooking forward to you having an even more productive year in 2012. This site saved me from bathing in the Third Tribe’s Kool-Aid, so I’m very grateful for your work.
Thanks, and here’s to health, non-unicorn dependent wealth and happiness for you and yours in 2012 and beyond.
*raises glass*
WINNER!! ::   +8
[Reply]
# 31 December 2011 at 8:16 pm

Bonnie said:
Top Stories of 2011: #3 – Spiritual leader James Arthur Ray takes a long, slow fall
http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=101580
Done with a HUGE contribution from you, Salty!
Happy New Year, Jason/Salty! May all the very best of everything be yours! Keep on keeping on! I love you, man! You’re the wonderful caring son I never had. Bless you.
WINNER!! ::   +11
[Reply]
# 31 December 2011 at 8:24 pm

mirele said:
Salty, thanks for a great 2011 and looking forward to 2012.
WINNER!! ::   +7
[Reply]
# 31 December 2011 at 9:43 pm

omikse said:
Thank-you, Salty…for hosting a place that shines a high-powered searchlight on all the roaches…then lends a Big Shoe to squash them with!!…Happy New Year, and may it have titanium cages for psychopaths.
WINNER!! ::   +10
[Reply]
# 1 January 2012 at 1:31 pm

Irwin said:
Best wishes (and love) for the new year you awesome robot you.
  +6
[Reply]
# 1 January 2012 at 5:16 pm

Ryan Healy said:
There are only two blogs on the Internet that I visit almost daily… only two blogs where I never miss a post.
Yours is one of them.
Malinchak, Dunford, James Ray… it’s been a good year.
Thanks for the work you do.
WINNER!! ::   +9
[Reply]

Dale Reply:
January 1st, 2012 at 10:21 pm
@Ryan Healy, Guess who’s back, Ryan? James Brausch, who I know you’ve called out in your blog before. He claimed to have sold his internet marketing business for something like a million dollars, then out of the blue, he now has his domain back and said in a post he was surprised one day to just stumble across it for sale somewhere for $1,000 so he bought it back. Yeah, sure. He has since deleted that ridiculous post (but I saved it).
In the meantime, during the time Brausch claimed he no longer owned it while he was supposedly on a “noncompete” status (although it was still registered to his address) the site actually advertised ebooks for a guaranteed cure for cancer(!), and “how to disappear without a trace” by a “Subversive Uncle Frank.” Kind of interesting since Brausch went off to live in Costa Rica from his Utah Mormon base with the loot he made selling IM crap.
For anyone also reading this that doesn’t know who James Brausch is: Where to start?! This guy surfaced a few years ago. He is one aggressively unpleasant IM’er, another (cough) “devout” Mormon and former (admitted) homeless meth addict.
Part of his schtick was getting people to be his work-at-home “interns.” He had an autoresponder series with tasks for people to do, and they would supposedly get “paid” after they did these tasks. One of the tasks was putting up “work at home” ads on Craigs List (except they were deceptively listed as “jobs”), which is of course prohibited and also why he had others doing it. In turn, all those new suckers were recruited to do even more of the same thing, and also to spam forums with links to Brausch’s “products” (flakey software, IM ebooks and the like).
James Brausch reminds me of Harlan Kilstein, except more cunning, and that’s no compliment.
Too bad much of the really informative articles about Brausch have disappeared over time. Here’s a small sampling of what’s left, since he’s trying to make a comeback:
http://techcrunch.com/2008/12/10/douche-of-the-day-diego-nortejames-brausch/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/01/05/douche-of-the-day-james-brausch-part-ii-and-i-need-your-help/
http://entrepreneurs.about.com/b/2008/06/25/james-d-brausch-glyphius-and-shilling.htm
Brausch appears to now be operating “testivar,” selling his usual flavor of pie. I’ll take the bubonic plague instead.
  +5
[Reply]

Ryan Healy Reply:
January 2nd, 2012 at 12:43 pm
@Dale, Yeah, I’ve written a little bit about James, and linked to both articles you mentioned in this post (toward the bottom):
http://www.ryanhealy.com/disinformation-subterfuge-propaganda/
I have mixed feelings about James because he gave me some good advice. At the same time, I became disillusioned with how he was running his business and how he treated people close to him.
What I’ve discovered is that most (all?) businesses that are advertised as being “duplicatable” are anything but that. James’s intern Ponzi scheme was bound to implode.
I’ve noticed James dipping his toe in the Internet marketing space again, but it seems his approach now is almost completely anonymous. James/Diego is never mentioned.
  +2
[Reply]

Dale Reply:
January 2nd, 2012 at 4:09 pm
@Ryan Healy, You don’t need to have mixed feelings. Get that out of your mind.
I’d venture to say you didn’t actually learn anything more from Brausch than you already knew (or could have easily discovered) by using your own smarts. People like Brausch feed on the insecurities and uncertainties of others. Everyone, including Brausch himself, has them to some degree. Don’t ever voluntarily give exploiters credit: whatever slim pickings they “give” are designed to allow them to “take” even more.
You’re a bright enough guy, and you never needed James Brausch. If anything, there is a risk of losing or weakening your own values by aligning yourself with people like him. This blog is peppered with people not unlike him.
You’ve mentioned Brausch’s abrasive and one sided email coaching, which he actually called, “The magical email address” (“Discover The Magical Email Address That Is Guaranteed To Make All Of Your Wildest Dreams Come True…”). Sounds a lot like the pied piper in retrospect, doesn’t it?
James Brausch is all posture, and to quote another blogger who he verbally attacked (Robert Phillips), “The internet’s big bully.”
It’s easy to see why Brausch is trying to operate anonymously now. It’s no longer the “wild west” it was when he first started hustling on the internet, when someone could get away with nearly anything they wanted to without question or accountability.
If this blog had “write in” candidates for editorial posts, that would be the first name I’d submit.
  +4
[Reply]

Ryan Healy Reply:
January 3rd, 2012 at 11:19 am
@Dale, All good points. And thanks for the reminder on that whole Robert Phillips situation… I had totally forgotten about that! (Too bad Robert didn’t leave his site up.)
  +2
[Reply]

Jack Reply:
January 3rd, 2012 at 1:21 pm
@Dale, My best learning-part from TestiVar which I got at through the anonymous-redirect when I typed in http://www.jamesbrausch.com is that now finally I can “Instantly Control My Business Destiny” which probably partly has to do with not wasting money registering trademarks because unregistered “TM” is OK for a good and serious business. Also, I can’t figure out about why mr. Brausch did the forum spamming that you mentioned, because probably mr. Brausch would have been better getting the cheap Target Blaster traffic from mr. Brausch sold back then.
I think I do like idea of doing the business anonymously…

…only part I can’t keep up with him about is how to use enough names to make my business successful…

Btw, “Diego Norte” admin contact Scott Feld probably gets some sort of honorable mention:

because he got famous enough to make Aaron Wall’s clown-list here:
http://www.seobook.com/archives/000386.shtml
  +3
[Reply]

Dale Reply:
January 3rd, 2012 at 6:28 pm
@Jack, good finds and analysis.
That last name “Huhtala” is a family name, possibly on his wife’s side. It was once listed on one of Brausch’s personal site blogrolls.
Here is a blogger who copied and posted one of Brausch’s anonymous sales pitches from his “Sufaq” website when he was using the name, “Subversive Uncle Frank” and selling an ebook on “How to disappear without a trace.” It opens up a window into his sly mind:
http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2010/03/subversive-uncle-frank-re-post.html
More:
http://www.escapefromamerica.com/?s=subversive+uncle+frank&x=0&y=0
For the past couple of years, Brausch has been living in unimpressive rental houses, and most recently, this ratty boat he’ll probably eventually describe as a yacht, in Costa Rica, with his wife and two kids:
http://www.brausch.com
That rat trap is for sale, if you want to buy it and use it for kindling.
Want to know where he got the money to exist down there? Dodgey software, spamming, crap web sites, and bullshit.
Oh, and a little $10,000 a head “seminar” he held with Kirt Christensen, hustling the old classic, “business in a box.”
Check out that saga here:
http://www.howtocorphelp.com/htforum/index.php?topic=4013.0
Here’s an earlier bullshit blast from his past:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040208062750/http://www.quitthatjob.com/
Oh, and look. It’s Brausch’s good pal and fellow Mormon, the Conversion Dictator, giving one of Brausch’s e-shit “products” a testiphonial:
http://www.amazon.com/review/RW8M91FWG1RAT
Oh, and look again. The “Copyboggler,” Brian Clark, has taken down his lengthy post hard-pitching James Brausch’s mystical copywriting software, “Glyphius.” Gosh, Clark sure was promoting the heck out of it (and getting a commission), and now the page just says, “Glyphius Copywriting Software Review – I no longer recommend the Glyphius copywriting software. Proceed at your own risk.” Too bad, then, if you’d bought it on Clark’s “recommendation,” huh?
If you’d had more money than sense in 2005, you could have attended this:
“James Brausch is the creator of the “Freedom Sites” method of creating websites that require no customers, no customer support, and virtually no work to maintain. The system works so well, that one site that he built last year did over $83,000 in residual income!”
http://williecrawford.com/customerappreciationseminar.html
Here’s the site where Brausch originally recruited his spammer army (they were told they were being trained to learn internet marketing or be “executive assistants”). He instructed those who signed up (using canned screencast videos and autoresponder messages) to place bogus job ads on Craig’s List to recruit even more spammers. They were also instructed to post spam on blogs (such as Tech Crunch, SEO Book, etc., as noted above). He had a sizeable and annoying spam operation at one time.
http://web.archive.org/web/20080417174414/http://www.interntask.com/
Here’s some chatter from people who almost fell for this, but did a little research first:
http://www.virtualassistantforums.com/work-home-scams/scam-2338
This guy is slick, relentless, and as a bonus: fully capable of being mean spirited and vindictive.
  +4

Jack Reply:
January 3rd, 2012 at 6:32 pm
@Dale, I’m starting to feel like I’m getting too much of an education from mr. Brausch.
  +1

Jack Reply:
January 3rd, 2012 at 6:39 pm
@Dale, At end of VirtualAssistants forum link you put, they tell us about Ben McMean being part mr. Brausch’s spamternship deal. Is it a real person?
  +1

Dale Reply:
January 3rd, 2012 at 6:44 pm
@Jack, Just always remember the one big point that he brought up time and time again on his blog: “Don’t watch television.” If you get rid of your television, then you have more time for “other things.” Maybe it would have been better for everyone if he’d had a television.
  +1

Clark Reply:
January 3rd, 2012 at 2:16 am
@Ryan Healy,
I have mixed feelings about James because he gave me some good advice. At the same time, I became disillusioned with how he was running his business
That’s pretty much how I feel about everybody inside the IM community who’s ever taught me something original and useful.
I always end up opening the closet and a massive number of skeletons fall out; I start to feel like I’m trapped in the PTSD version of Fibber McGee and Molly. My best tactic so far is to focus on the stuff that works, even though I might not like the person responsible for it or the original intentions for the tool or strategy. On the other hand, maybe it’s time to move on to something else, before I become the humorless marketing equivalent to Bill Hicks.
  +2
[Reply]

Frank Reply:
January 3rd, 2012 at 6:38 pm
@Clark, Quit the damn rationalizing already. If you’re going to feed the snakes, expect them to grow and multiply.
  +5
[Reply]

Clark Reply:
January 3rd, 2012 at 11:20 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
@Frank,
Yeah, me buying some recordings on ebay will neither change nor perpetuate that. Better regulation and decent competition will, and that’s what the marketing community is lacking. That is all my comment was supposed to say.
LOSER!! ::   -4

Frank Reply:
January 4th, 2012 at 3:12 pm
@Clark, You are STILL rationalizing. “You buying some recordings on ebay” WILL most certainly help perpetuate the sleaze out there.
The act of buying something attaches to it and its creator the appearance of desirability and legitimacy, not to mention injecting money into a seedy ecosystem. Of course purchasing the output of hucksters will perpetuate more of the same. You ARE feeding the monster!
Furthermore, you talk it up! Do you need to be quoted some of your Frank Kern cheerleading from your previous comments on this blog?
Maybe you should attach an affiliate code to your comments. That way, you can feel better that you are promoting Kern’s oh-so-brilliant “ideas” while at the same time, reducing “his score” to a “less perpetuating” 70%.
This is no place for a compartmentalized conscience.
  +5

Jack Reply:
January 4th, 2012 at 6:04 pm
@Frank, Besides doing the rationalizing, he also fails to get the special feeling he can get from people overcharging him just for the heck of it, because Frank Kern’s Rule #1 from Money Masters is:
1. Charge More…
…Even if they don’t buy it because they don’t have the
money, they will still want it just so they can feel
special for having the most expensive thing….
…If you’re afraid to charge more just for the sake
of charging more, you could build more value
into your product.
You could put some value into a product, but only an idiot would do it.
  +3

Clark Reply:
January 4th, 2012 at 10:08 pm


The act of buying something attaches to it and its creator the appearance of desirability and legitimacy
The act of buying a couple used books, cds and whathaveya on direct marketing doesn’t benefit anybody but the guy who bought them in the past and now wants to get rid of them.
Furthermore, you talk it up! Do you need to be quoted some of your Frank Kern cheerleading from your previous comments on this blog?
Listen, this kind of binary thinking is getting close to unbearable at this point. Either you mercilessly bash someone or you are a “cheerleader”. That’s nonsense.
“Talking it up” would be tell tell people to ignore the bad and focus purely on the good, and I’ve attacked that philosophy multiple times on here. (You could also argue that it would be futile, as everybody on here will already be educated about “the bad”). Telling people to not only ignore the positive, but to frame anybody who doesn’t as immoral is just the other side of stupid.
If you look at the direct marketing scene, some of the best material has come from morally bankrupt sources (Kennedy, Halbert, etc) and I’d argue that this still continues to some extent – that some of the people with the best tips for PPC, media buys, etc. are also the guys who are running CPA schemes, hidden continuity sites, etc.
I think this is important for two reasons:
One, pointing it out can point the “good” guys in the right direction, so that in the future the popular seminars and courses aren’t made by the “ole boys club”. We’ve got a few decent providers of SEO training, tracking and email marketing, now let the rest of the industry follow. I don’t think it will, as the current trend seems to be to copy Apple and sell shiny, miniscule products for huge prices, but here’s hoping I’m wrong.
Two, you can still learn from the bad guys without turning into the devil; check the link in the PS.
Some of the bad guys have decent stuff to teach that the good guys haven’t figured out yet – just honestly review what you read, check if it’s ethical and test it.
Falling into the trap of “invented by crook, thus useless” imo makes it easier for bad guys to prevail, as they’ll continue offering a unique service to which the critics are intentionally blind.
“This is no place for a compartmentalized conscience.”
Being honest about your experiences and trying to stay objective doesn’t have anything to do with compartmentalized conscience.
PS.
http://conversionscientist.com/case-studies/secrets-of-the-bad-boys-of-online-sales-conversion/
  0

Frank Reply:
January 4th, 2012 at 11:57 pm
@Clark, Silly me. All this time, and I didn’t even realize I was interacting with a lifetime member of the rationalization club.
If you buy something on ebay, it VISIBLY signals to the marketplace that there is DEMAND for that item, which salts even more interest.
And should anyone not notice, you’re more than willing to shout from the rooftops just how useful you think Frank Kern’s oh-so-brilliant “ideas” are to you. Kern should have you on retainer, what with all the “value” you give him.
You’ve simply chosen to say, “Screw it, I’ll buy my steak knives from Charles Manson if it gets me the best deal on cutlery.”
Of course, I could be all wrong about you, and all the work you do for the orphans and such. But here’s an idea. Just maybe, SD might be willing to extend his limited-time offer to evaluate your websites and provide a “free credibility analysis,” if you act now. You’ll want to get in touch with his fake secretary, Debbie, ASAP and get penciled-in on his calendar.
  +2

Clark Reply:
January 5th, 2012 at 3:29 am
@Frank,
Of course there is demand (have you read my post?), and the solution to higher demand than supply isn’t to tell the customer to stop demanding, but to a) remove bad suppliers from the market and b) motivate new suppliers to enter. I’ve repeatedly outlined what I consider to be a proper means of doing this, and what is not.
And should anyone not notice, you’re more than willing to shout from the rooftops just how useful you think Frank Kern’s oh-so-brilliant “ideas” are to you. Kern should have you on retainer, what with all the “value” you give him.
If you’re running out of arguments, just use made up ad hominems, nobody will notice.
You’ve simply chosen to say, “Screw it, I’ll buy my steak knives from Charles Manson if it gets me the best deal on cutlery.”
Okay, I just bought my used set of Manson knives. What does this signal to the market:
a) That these knives might be good if they’re being purchased despite the identity of their producer. How much more popular would similar knives be, if produced by a proper supplier? Maybe I should see what the secret behind this is (This is getting meta: I had this thought when watching the proactiv commercials – how can they continue to sell? Turns out, their calculation of LTV and ARPU is outstanding)
b) OMG, somebody bought Manson knives. That must mean Manson is cool and I should follow his every word.
If you chose b), we’re officially living in different universes and this discussion is futile.
Of course, I could be all wrong about you, and all the work you do for the orphans and such.
Which would be irrelevant. Whether I’m a decent person or not doesn’t affect the validity or invalidity of my points, which you so far have ignored, and will surely continue to do.
  -2

Jack Reply:
January 5th, 2012 at 4:31 am
@Clark,
I can give it a simple easy breakdown:
1. You bought fraud on eBay
2. Somebody sold you fraud on eBay
If it’s something you can’t believe, then you have a misunderstanding about fraud.
  +1

Jack Reply:
January 5th, 2012 at 4:39 am
@Clark, It’s one that is so much simpler than both of you have made it, even so simpler than the idea of salting…
1. You bought fraud on eBay
2. Somebody sold you fraud on eBay
If it doesn’t make sense for you, then fraud doesn’t make sense for you.
  +2

Joe Reply:
January 5th, 2012 at 1:19 pm
@Clark, Why don’t you just go ahead and have Salty take a look at your websites? Especially since you say you take the “good stuff” from fraudsters and just “ignore” the bad stuff.
With you being on the up and up, getting a second opinion from Salty should be a piece of cake. Unless you are worried that you are going to get “pound” cake.
  +1

Iwantz 2B rich Reply:
January 24th, 2012 at 1:01 am
@Frank,
Thank you for the reminder. I’m detoxing from the reptiles, just unsubscribed from 2 vipers and a few more hopefuls.
  0

PG Reply:
January 3rd, 2012 at 5:44 am
@Ryan Healy,
The thing about these scammers/snake oil salesmen is they WILL give you a little advice that is actually good and helpful. The scam wouldn’t work if they didn’t. That’s how they lure you in and how they confuse you.
But that good and helpful stuff was nothing they came up with originally, so don’t attach it to them.
  +5
[Reply]

Juice Reply:
January 7th, 2012 at 6:07 pm
@Everyone, You shouldn’t be buying anything just get it for free online at FeedUrBrain, Minthrea or any of the open Torrent Tracker sites and/or private tracker sites or just by searching in good ole’ G for “marketing program name rar” will get you what you want. Oh and don’t forget the Amazon S3 bucket software called S3 Ripper also available for free online.
Enjoy!
P.S. Will someone please knock Frank Kern spark out!
  -1
[Reply]
# 1 January 2012 at 8:04 pm

more to come said:
That just made me smile.. keep doin what you are so damn good at
may 2012 bring even more scammers down
We love ya salty
WINNER!! ::   +7
[Reply]
# 2 January 2012 at 12:52 am

LisaSimpson said:
Here’s to another year where I don’t spend a dime with this people. May 2012 see the fall of the “neo-scammers” that are still tricking legitimate sources into believing they are business advocates (CopyBlogger, ProBlogger etc).
May 2012 be a better year for Alison Navarro and her family – I hope that she finds healing and peace far away from the get rich quick madness.
  +6
[Reply]

LisaSimpson Reply:
January 2nd, 2012 at 11:52 am
And now I have that song stuck in my head!
  +4
[Reply]
# 2 January 2012 at 11:27 am

CitizenNoir said:
You should get a Pulitzer for your reporting and investigation Salty!
and if they don’t give you one fuck’em we still love and respect you.
3rd day of the new year and the only world that is going to end in 2012 is the world of scum masquerading as guru self help assholes.
best
stress free and self-help free (hmmm wonder if the two are connected)
CJ
  +5
[Reply]

Wyrd Reply:
January 4th, 2012 at 12:34 am
@CitizenNoir,
I wholeheartedly second the Pulitzer nomination suggestion. I mean I don’t actually know what would have to happen for that, but @SD should definitely get one.
–
Furry cows moo and decompress.
  +1
[Reply]

DownPlunder Reply:
January 4th, 2012 at 11:13 pm
@CitizenNoir, And what a year 2011 was. I had a small period of reflection in the last week as I watched my better half pick the biggest leg of pork, rub in copious amounts of salt, turn the heat up in the oven to blistering, put the pork in and watch it create the most delicious pork crackling ever. Something about that process I thought……….. Thanks Salty I am absolutely certain that you have saved at least one person from these motherfuckers so keen to screw people over. Your sure deserve something grand.
  +2
[Reply]
# 3 January 2012 at 11:14 am

SD (author) said:
Gosh :: thanks everyone … onward!
[Reply]
# 3 January 2012 at 12:14 pm

Slowly Waking said:
Bless you, Droid!
(Sorry for the late felicitation– the New Year’s party ran a little long.)
  +5
[Reply]
# 5 January 2012 at 9:31 pm

Juice said:
Agree, keep up the good work SD.
  +2
[Reply]
# 7 January 2012 at 6:09 pm

Turdball said:
You infuriate me and enlighten me at the same time robot.
  +1
[Reply]

SD Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 12:23 am
@Turdball ::
Well then fuck you … and you’re welcome.
[Reply]
# 9 January 2012 at 7:31 am

Iwantz 2B rich said:
I’d like to express my thanks and gratitude for the Droid’s work and the contributions made by the community here. Hope you don’t mind me going on a bit. You’ve saved me hundreds of $$ in the immediate present and thousands of future $$. I can’t recoup the time I’ve allowed them to steal from me, nor can I be compensated for the time it will take to recover from the mind-fuck and distraction I invited into my consciousness when I started to opt-in to their emails.
I’m one of the lucky ones, haven’t spent too much. Who am I kidding? Anything I spend is too much. I’m still lucky that I don’t have any money and very little room on my cards. I would have/could have easily spent 20K over the last few months, since becoming entangled in this world.
The money aside, what’s hardest for me is the way these dudes fuck with your head. They work on you, tell you everything you need to hear to get you into bed with them, and once the conquest is made, BOOM. They leave you flat, until they need a little more poo-tang.
The manipulation goes waaaaay beyond NLP. These people study Milton Erickson and Robert Cialdini. They groom you for plucking in much the same way a pedophile manipulates a child before moving in for the kill. They are parasites and predators.
I could be Debbie except I don’t have a secretarial job. I’m one of those isolated freakin disabled ppl – no family, limited support system, semi-rural location – who just wants to improve a seriously marginal financial situation.
I can’t work outside the home, have a legit home biz that generates a very small and very much needed income. I’m not feeling sorry for myself – I’m trying to improve my situation, and I haven’t given up. I need to find another avenue – and it won’t be on their map!
I’m learning so much – both the cult and the premeditated actions of these IM predators are more insidious and far-reaching than I could ever have imagined.
Droid, I admire your brass and your courage. I haven’t completely become disentangled from the snake pit, but I’m getting there. It’s a process. You need deprogramming after being involved with these guys (both genders included)and their programs.
Actually, I plan on seeing a fer-real therapist after this. Thank goodness I have enough sense to stay away from quacks like Byron Katie. Woe to those who promote her, and God help those who get involved with her. To listen to her is scary. She’s every bit as dangerous and every bit as much the predator as the rest of them.
Thank you again, SD & friends
_____________________________________
Salty Droid? Priceless.
For everyone else, there’s MasterCard.
_____________________________________
And if anyone in this category wants to get together in a forum somewhere to keep each other from buying shit, we could start a forced continuity paid membership site.
Only $2500 for the first year, automatically renewed at $5000 per year. You’ll receive 2 – 30 minute coaching calls, a 90 minute monthly webinar where we will answer selected, pre-screened questions. We promise not to let you spend your money on their programs, because we want to take it all!
  +4
[Reply]

DownPlunder Reply:
January 24th, 2012 at 6:07 am
@Iwantz 2B rich, Well dont feel so special because we’ve probably all been in the same situation and still reeling from the disgrace of it all. What gets me is that these parasites just dont have the balls to face themselves or what they have done. They just change course and claim to be an expert of soemthing else but the process is still the name. There is an afterlife and there is justice somewhere but as you say its the way they fuck with your head that is a way more important evil and thats why salty is damn important.
  +1
[Reply]

Iwantz 2B rich Reply:
January 24th, 2012 at 6:29 pm
@DownPlunder, were it that I was unique – that would be a good thing. They’ve raped and plundered the bank accounts and credit worthiness of thousands.
Every dollar that they don’t get, and every LAST dollar they don’t get is a victory. I believe in karma. Beyond karma, there are a lot of people who believe in helping the universe along. Not that I endorse it, but who knows what kind of a response one of these sham-artists will evoke from a disgruntled, disturbed groupie who’s finally been pushed over the edge, emotionally and financially bankrupt, and totally humiliated after being sucked in by these predators.
I mean, I don’t wish that someone would do a James Earl Ray on James Ray or on any of them, but these flashy dudes who take your cash and then talk trash about you might need to start thinking about someone who might know someone who has gangsta friends fer real, and won’t hire no P.I. to try and give you a scare. Smart people know you don’t need to spend your money on a P.I., and the Droid can tell you this, I’m sure.
Again, I want to be clear that I’m not endorsing bad behavior, and I’m absolutely not suggesting that anyone entertain engaging in any kind of harmful, violent, and/or illegal behavior. Not fer real, anyway. The thought police haven’t invaded our fantasies yet, and they won’t, not so long as we keep our darkest visions to ourselves.
These guys may be cons, but they’re really not as smart as they like to think they are. These people like to brag about expensive houses, expensive cars, expensive toys, expensive restaurants…it really isn’t that difficult to find out where they live, where they play, and where they’re going to be.
There’s justice. It is better served legally, even if it isn’t always timely, and yes, thank you thank you thank you SD for the preventative medicine and talismans against IM predators.
  +2
[Reply]

DownPlunder Reply:
January 25th, 2012 at 3:28 am
@Iwantz 2B rich, And when all else fails they go even further and claim to be ………….. inspired by God………….. You know people speak of good and evil and I dont know what is what in truth but I do know that some of these people come very close to what I call as EVIL. They fuck with you in every way they can and try to get away with it. Even those closest to them dont suspect anything until one day ………. nothing is hidden that will not be exposed!
  +1
[Reply]
# 24 January 2012 at 2:20 am

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