For bloggers and website owners around the globe, if you’re struggling to get that PR rating from Google, and it still hasn’t happened, there is a reason – competition.

Not your competitor-type competition (though if your “niche” is more an “umbrella” that does effect you), but (especially for bloggers) if you’re participating in “paid to post” programs to pull in some cash for your time and efforts, chances are fairly certain that the powers that be will frown forever upon your efforts. But don’t despair. The ultimate sign of a popular web site or blog is its level of traffic. I’ve seen web sites with PR 6′s and 7′s, that get so little traffic they are truly lost in cyberspace yet acknowledged for what? Content, yes? Purity, most likely.

Anyway, just thought I’d get that off my chest yet again.

And, since it’s Sunday I also wanted to share two web links I’ve run across. One explains not only the “how to” to retweeting, but the why do it in the first place; the second is a warning about scammers using Facebook (yet again) in another unsavory way (both worth reading):

Bloggingbits on How to Retweet

Mashable posts about yet another Facebook phishing scam

We’ve also include additional link outs to topics covered in this post

Hope you’re in the middle of enjoying a wonderful Memorial Day weekend (for those in the U.S.) and a marvelous weekend to those around the world!

Related articles

• Google, SEO, Publishers and Spam (webmetricsguru.com)
• The Facebook Phishing Scams Continue, Day 2 (allfacebook.com)

You’d think on a Sunday I’d just be sitting back enjoying a truly pleasant, slightly chilly, day here in Las Vegas. But, truth be told, that is far from the truth. I’ve been working my buns off.

However, I did find something of real interest to anyone doing anything online or offline. If you get the Sunday paper, and read the Parade magazine, and follow Marilyn vos Savant, then you most likely already saw this… if not keep reading. (I’m going to paraphrase, but the message is the same.)

While there are loads of people out there only too willing to get rich quick, losing money to scammers may not always be your fault.

Turns out the con game played by (financial) swindlers is beyond devious, and the example given is for stock market swindles (but use your imagination and you’ll see how this could easily translate to just about anything online).

Person X tells and/or emails 1000 potential clients that a particular stock will go up on a given day. In the meantime, he or she is also telling 1000 OTHER people that the particular stock will go down.

He or she has a 50-50 chance of being right, so… once he/she determines which side “won” this person concentrates on that group. Digging around Person X comes up with another stock (or whatever) and hits the group of 1000 that “won.” But, the twist is this time, out of those 1000, he/she tells 500 this new stock is going up; while telling the remaining 500 it’s going down.

The more times he/she repeats this pattern, Person X eventually ends up with a list of people who will believe anything he/she tells them.

Unfortunately, in this case scenario, too often those on the “winning” (read lucky) side, often cough up their entire life savings thinking there is no way this person can be wrong.

The information is then summed up with this:

While this ruse isn’t a pyramid scheme, it does illustrate how easy it is to concoct ways to trick people by preying on their wishful thinking.

The long and short… back to what we continue to advise (and I was once told by a financial advisor) – making money or not is a 50-50 flip of a coin. You can do just as well as the “expert” in predicting what’s hot out there (online or off) as the next guy – if you’re willing to do your homework first.

Stay safe, be happy, enjoy your Sunday!

Related articles

• Whom Can You Trust With Your Money? (abcnews.go.com)
• Financial Scams On The Rise As Economic Suffering Spreads (huffingtonpost.com)
• Planning a Retirement Without Dividends (nytimes.com)

On March 6th we decided to get the software disc for something called Google Traffic Explosion. It sounded interesting, though we were willing to bet it would turn out to be one of those kinds of information – mostly glitz less substance. However, we were (at the time) open minded about the whole thing… so we ordered.

Now three weeks when by with nary a word from the person who signed their name “Warren Knight” to the end of the sales letter.

No notice of any kind.

So I wrote, expecting a reply – which did not come.

However, the next day the disc DID arrive – from Singapore, thrown into a regular envelope without packing of any kind and of course it arrived BROKEN.

Thus started my emails to the person (assuming it was Warren Knight with his name being on the sales page) using the email address given to me on our receipt qinzzy@gmail.com.

When those emails went unanswered, we tried BetaTestersOnly@gmail.com (since this is where the guy wanted feedback and we were sure he’d be monitoring THAT account, right?) Wrong!

So off to Paypal where I open a message communication with this person sending damaged goods (btw, this cost $54.95 including shipping).

Again no reply. Escalating it to dispute only to discover, well basically we are screwed (excuse my French) since it was not an eBay product.

The best paypal would say was IF there were enough complaints, they’d probably investigate.

So not only did we receive damaged product, and the person responsible for sending it, “Internet Millionaire Makers” 10 Anson Road #26-04, International Plaza, Singapore completely ignores our emails and we are now completely out of the money spent in good faith, I thought I’d post this questionable person’s betterwhois information so YOU don’t get taken in.

Registrant:
Jonathan Wellman
Singapore
Singapore, Singapore 650103
Singapore

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: GOOGLETRAFFICEXPLOSION.COM
Created on: 05-Mar-09
Expires on: 05-Mar-10
Last Updated on: 06-Mar-09

Administrative Contact:
Wellman, Jonathan qinzzy@gmail.com
Singapore
Singapore, Singapore 650103
Singapore
97651234

Technical Contact:
Wellman, Jonathan qinzzy@gmail.com
Singapore
Singapore, Singapore 650103
Singapore
97651234

In addition, this website also uses the nameservers from internetmillionairecode.com – which is Jo Han Mok’s website.

If ANYONE involved in this shipped software program had bothered to reply I would not be writing this, but nothing burns my butt so much as a merchant that doesn’t appear to give a damn whether his customer is burned or not.

I will tell you all my emails were upfront and totally polite. I merely pointed out the software disc, again not packaged at all for shipping halfway around the world, arrived damaged and requested our money back.

So… let this be a lesson (for us) and you. If you cannot contact whoever you are buying whatever from – via email, telelphone or a responsive support ticket area keep moving.

There are plenty of legitimate, honest, caring, and admirable people out there TO buy from… the world doesn’t need this…

Yes… I’m totally ticked off!

People like this give other people doing business online upfront and honest a bad rep. It’s no wonder I get so many emails and phone calls from people totally surprised we EXIST and answer the inquries.

Should the persons reponsible for this miscarriage of justice reply to this post AND refund AND send a working disc, we would definitely see it in our hearts to update all readers.

However, we’re not holding our breath…

Honest to god, toss your party affiliations aside and listen to this! “Stimulus” means spending. You cannot grow without spending. This reminds me of so many online wondering why they aren’t making money… hey world, you have to spend money to make money.

Now on with getting behind The President and saving our country (and the world?). Please watch! Full disclosure and so much more. We The People must voice and demand government does its job. Come on, I don’t care who’s “side” you’re on, but if you haven’t lost your job yet, it may just be a matter of a (very) short time.

Then listen to this:

Don’t kid yourself. YOUR JOB IS IN JEOPARDY. And for all those currently unemployed, we personally feel and know firsthand your pain.

Stop the bs and make them get us a recovery package that is going to WORK not appease some stupid political party.

And, in case you’re wondering, I (Diane) am a registered Republican who did NOT vote party. Not this time around nor ever. I vote with my brain not my calling card.