Long story short… once the video and story was released on GoDaddy’s elephant video, the drama and boycott started. NameCheap was smart enough to think of a way to both attack GoDaddy, take their customers and also help donate to saving the elephants. NameCheap created a coupon code that would allow you to transfer domains away from GoDaddy for a lower price, and a portion would also go to charity.

I’ve been very curious how successful this campaign was, and some numbers were actually released today.

“Domain registrar Namecheap said thousands of outraged customers transferred 20,433 Web domains to their service in the fallout over a graphic hunting video showing GoDaddy chief Bob Parsons shooting an elephant.

A spokesperson for the small L.A.-based registrar said that a “majority” of the transfers were from GoDaddy, and that a special “Save the Elephants” deal rolled out after the scandal reaped $80,000 in revenue.”

It’s quite amazing to see that over 20,000 domains were transferred away from GoDaddy to NameCheap. You can read the full story and watch the original elephant hunting video here.

Although the “Save the Elephants” campaign is now over, you can still save money by using coupon code “SWITCH2NC“, which will take off $1 per domain transfer.

Dear “Company Name Here” Customer,

“Company Name Here“‘s email service provider, Epsilon, has recently informed us that your email address may have been exposed due to unauthorized access of Epsilon’s system. We’ve been told that this unauthorized access was limited to only name and email addresses of some Beachbody customers, with no other information accessed.

As a result of this incident, it is possible that you may receive spam email messages, emails that contain links containing computer viruses or other types of computer malware, or emails that seek to deceive you into providing personal or credit card information.

We recommend that you always be extremely cautious with emails from persons or entities you do not recognize or know, and specifically:

- Don’t open links or attachments from third parties you don’t know or recognize;
- Don’t provide any personal or other sensitive information by email to third parties you don’t know or recognize; and
- Don’t provide a credit or debit card number, bank or other account details, or any other financial information by email to any third parties you don’t know or recognize.

We regret that this incident has occurred and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. We take your privacy very seriously, and we will continue to work diligently to protect your personal information.

If you have unsubscribed in the past, there is no need to unsubscribe again. Your preferences will remain in place.Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions at emailsecurity@companyname.com.

Sincerely,
Company CEO Name,
Company Name

I first started receiving these emails a few days ago, then the major new spread around quickly that Epsilon was hacked and all the emails were on the loose. Just a few of the names I’ve received emails from include HiltonHonors, Target, Best Buy, Wallgreens and more.

The Epsilon security breach is noted as one of the largest ever, even though it was only email records. Head over to Google News and perform a search for “Epsilon” and you will see articles all over the place on how the attack is affecting Epsilon, their partner companies and how it’s now spreading to other countries. Imagine who has access to this powerful list of emails now, and what could be done with that type of data!

What are your thoughts on the Epsilon attack and how many of these same email notifications have you received?

Is the Better Business Bureau as Legitimate as You May Think?

Without going into too much detail, the video reports that BBB is basically giving companies and organizations a very low grade, even as low as an “F”, just for not being a paid member of the BBB. Sure, some companies deserve an “F”. but after you watch the video below, you will have a new concept of how the BBB works and the business that they run. If you want a better grade, and changed basically over night, all you need to do is pay a few hundred bucks to get an “A”!

Better Business Bureau Featured on ABC 20/20 News

Watch the full ABC 20/20 News Special on Better Business Bureau video here.

Better Business Bureau Video Cliff Notes:

- Well known companies such as Wolfgang Puck, The Ritz Carlton, DisneyLand and other companies have all received ratings of an “F” from the BBB.

- The BBB is a non profit company, but there are more than two dozen individuals in the company earning six figure salaries. William Mitchell, the head of BBB, earns over $400,000 per year.

- Earlier this year, the Mid East terror group “Hamas”, received a rating of “A-”, when applying with the Better Business Bureau. This wasn’t actually “Hamas”, but a company listing setup by bloggers to “punk” the BBB. The price of this Hamas “A-” rating was $425. Even better, the same group listed a another fake company, which was for a racist white power web site, and used the actual contact name of “Aryn Whiting”, which was also approved with an “A+” rating after paying a $425 membership fee.

Have you ever done company research or reported anything to the Better Business Bureau?

The idea for this post was inspired by a call my sister got on her phone today, and from other upsell crap I’ve wrote about in the past. She entered a contest at Hershey Park in PA a few weeks ago to win a free car or $50,000 in cash. Today a voice mail was left on her phone that basically said the following:

Hi, my name is Sandy. I am calling in regards to the contest you entered to win $50,000 or a luxury car while at a Sundance Concert . I have GREAT NEWS!!” regarding your contest entry. Please call back as soon as possible as we are waiting to hear from you.

This sounds pretty awesome at first. To get an actual call with the possibility that you have won a huge cash prize or a luxury is just amazing! However, as marketers we almost know it’s too good to be true. My sister came over, we listened to the voice mail, then looked at the number it came from and did a quick Google search.

The number was listed as 800-309-7000, and Google came up with a whole selection of relevant sites. I went to one of the first listings, which was WhoCallsMe.com and it was a page full of complaints and people with the same exact call and experience.

As expected, it’s some trash company collecting/selling all of their content entry information then trying to upsell them some garbage that no one wants… another shady business. However, thanks to the power of the internet and people taking action against these scummy promotion companies, you can easily save yourself a lot of time, money and stress by doing your research and not calling these idiots back.

Other great sites for researching promotional companies and random calls you may receive are WhoCallsMe.com, RipOffReport.com and Complaints.com.

When it comes to the success of a program/service, price isn’t everything. I’ve tried out a ton of programs and memberships, just to see what’s new and what they are selling. It’s not often that a $299 a month package is providing something much different than a cheaper or free service/blog is. It’s all about how the sales page leaves you feeling and if it can get you to bite. Once you become a member of these services, you will see many offer the same mix tools. (ie: ShoeMoney Tools, KeywordSpy, PPC Coach). All these of these solutions have cross overs on what they offer, and vary in pricing… but still, all three have been very successful. Which of them is the best is still up in the air, and to be decided by the customer.

With so many programs available, how are you to weed out the good from bad?

Two great examples of purchases I’ve been very happy with, are Hummingbird and 4HourAffiliate. Several months ago I purchased a tool for twitter, called Hummingbird, the program helps build up your following with relevant users. This has been an excellent resource for building up traffic to my smaller sites and has paid for itself several times over. There are no monthly membership fees, and it was only a $97 product. Another excellent program I’m using is called 4HourAffiliate, which can create hundreds of Facebook Ads in minutes, instead of hours and eliminates the headaches of manually creating new campaigns. Both programs were a one time purchase and worth a ton more to me than any other monthly subscription service.

On the flip side, I’ve tried a few programs that just haven’t lived up to their hype. I’ve also been a member of other sites that charge $99-$199 a month to access forums and services. The program with monthly membership sites, is that I usually find myself fading away from the site and just waste money and forget to cancel or just not use the site.

Which brings us to the big question. If you had the chance to grab any affiliate / internet marketing course, what would it be? Also, for those of you that have spent good money on a program and found it to be lacking, feel free to post on that as well.

With such a high payout per free trial, the affiliate networks and supplier companies have to pay out a ton in advance… in hopes they can scam keep customers paying for an extra 2-3 months. But what happens when the overflow is too much and it starts to go the other way. In most cases, you the affiliate, or network won’t be getting paid.

A friend of mine has been running a weight loss rebill offer for a while now, directly with a company. This was outside of an affiliate network and means they would be paid directly and invoice the company for all leads. As an affiliate, most of us use networks as we feel they are the middle man, and most will make good if their advertiser doesn’t. A lot of networks have taken a hit when their advertiser doesn’t pay, but they still pay their affiliates. Unfortunately in this scenario, the affiliate didn’t walk away with their full commissions.

Here is the email notifying the affiliate on the current situation:

The only thing worse than finding out you are only going to receive 33% of what you are owed, is to see the company continue mailing out the same offer for weeks after they told you they won’t pay in full. The email shown below has still been circulating and keep being sent out, despite “suspended operations“.

For anyone who was owed money by Vitrasun, LLC, it looks like it’s already too late. Search “Vitrasun LLC” on Google and you will barely find anything… go to their site at Vitrasun.com, and you will find even less.

Unfortunately there is only so much an affiliate or affiliate network can do in this situation. It costs too much to go into a legal battle, and in most cases there is no money left in the company. Even worse, the majority of companies that play this game, close up shop only to start up under another name and do it all over again.

Here’s more from the AzoogleAds email:

Coincidentally enough, when you go to the MSNBC article mention in the Azoogle email, you’ll see it’s loaded up with the very same ads Oprah & Dr.Oz are fighting against.

Ever since the Illinois State attorney general starting taking action, marketers have changed up their landing pages and practices and slowly moved away from fake and celebrity testimonials. While the landing pages may have changes, there are still many networks out their with ad creative showing Oprah, Rachel Ray and Dr.Oz endorsing rebill offers. I would imagine these are the easiest targets… actual ad creatives and sales pages with these fake celebrity endorsements.

Adotas, and other news sites also came out with an article today on the same topic, which is full of information and numbers on Oprah vs. the Acai market. ABC also has a video interview up.

It will be interesting to see what legal action is taken, which networks and affiliates are targetted, and how/if any damanges will be owed.

As you can see, at first glance it looks like a regular check. Outside of being an affiliate marketer, and having promote the offer… I would have found it weird to just get a random check from Snuggie out of no where. However, with economic times the way they are, I’m sure a ton of these are getting deposited.

Now lets take a look at the back of the check, where you have to sign before cashing it in.

You know something is wrong when there is a big disclaimer/agreement on the back of a check… but then again, not all people are that bright. Not to mention how some people will cash the check, then say they will cancel within the 30 day trial… and never do. All for a lousy $8.25.

So once you sign the check, you are signed up to some crappy “Great Fun” credit card program that ends up costing you $149 annually! This is like taking weight loss / biz opp offers to a new level. I signed up to these “Great Fun” offers a while back when I got a free plasma TV for completing offers. In most cases… they suck to cancel, and it isn’t a fun process. The best part is at the end, ” I authorize Snuggie to securely transfer my credit card information to Great Fun for enrollment, billing and benefit processing“. This clearly tells you Snuggie is dealing you info and profiting from it. Nothing wrong with that… but a sleazy way to do business. Lots of seniors will probably get suckered into this scheme.

More than anything else… I thought this was pretty interesting and humorous. I’ve received fake “checks” like this from other places in the mail before, but this is the first that was affiliate offer related and made me want to write about it. With so many As Seen on TV offers being promoted, I wonder how many of these checks are being sent out, and for how many different products.

Did you buy a Snuggie and receive your check? What are your thoughts on this whole thing?

People are Lazy & Forgetful
One of the best reasons why free trials, re-billing and subscriptions are so successful, is mainly do to the fact that people are lazy and forgetful. How many times have you signed up for a free trial, put your credit card in, got your free days… then forgot to cancel. POW! You are now on rebill. For some people, months go by and keep getting re-billed and never even use what they are paying for.

Too Good to Pass Up
Sometimes an offer just seems to good to pass up. “Act Now! Try for 30 Days for Only $1.99“. Though the testimonial (whether its real or not) seems too good to be true, the mere cost of only $1.99 to give it a try, pulls a great percentage of people in. Then before you know it… you forget to cancel, and get auto subscribed.

Inventory vs. No Inventory
One of the benefits of setting up an online business with the re-billing/subscription model, is you don’t necessarily need to hold inventory or ship anything out. There are thousands of business mentors and “make money” programs that build one platform/site and simply charge members to access the site, and bill out each month. Instead of having to provide something special for each paying member, they can just produce one piece of content, and offer it to all users. On the other side, you have all of these weight loss offers, shipping out millions of bottles for each customer, then instantly re-billing their customers every month for a new shipment. Both methods are effective and profitable.

One Time Sale = Residual Profits
Most of the weight loss and biz opp re-bill offers out there are paying in the $40+ range, but are charging less than that for the initial signup and first shipment. How can that be? Most of these companies have accurate stats that show once a customer signs up, they will cancel after and average of 2-4 months. If the supplier is able to charge $1.99 for a trial fee, then hit the user for $39 a month (and knows the average person is on board for 4 months), they are able to pay out the high commissions in the $40-$60 range. On the down side, a lot of these new suppliers are making it extremely difficult for people who sign up for the trial period, to cancel their orders and re-billing.

Though we are seeing an increase in flogs (fake testimonial blogs) and possibly a crack down on how they are used. The bottom line is that free trials and re-bills work in many different cases, and people will continue to sign up to them for the same reasons as always.

Below is a list of just a few “obvious” reasons why I feel it’s better to work for yourself, than making someone else rich. Yes, running a business isn’t for everyone… but if you are on the fence, maybe these points can help push you over.

1.) You Don’t Have to Take Crap from Anyone!
Who does your boss/co-workers think they are? Why are they so much better than you, that they think they can talk to you that way? This is probably the biggest reason for having your own business. No longer do you have to take crap from anyone. You are the boss and there is no one to talk down to you, or tell you what to do. If you do expand your business out and hire employees, remember how much you hated your boss and make sure not to do the same.

2.) Be More than Just a Number
How many people in your company know your name? If you have a suggestion, complaint or comment… will anyone listen? This one really depends on what your job is and who you work for, but as anyone can see, massive layoffs are happening everyday. In most of these huge layoffs, the employees were simply a number. Gone are they days when employees are given a stable position, are financially taken care of and receive the respect that they deserve.

3.) You Get What You Put Into It
In most cases, the more effort and work you put into something… the better the result. This can be stressed even more when it is your own business, because you want it to succeed that much more. Whether it’s money, growth or happiness… your efforts will always determine the end goal.

4.) More Free Time for Yourself and Your Family
While “not having to take crap from anyone” may seem like the best benefit to working for yourself, you’ll soon find that having more time for yourself and your family is what really matters. No longer will you have to wake up in the early morning and drag yourself through that horrible commute to and from work everyday… but instead you can focus on spending quality time on your business, while having more free time for more important things. Time is precious, and before you know it… it will pass you by.

5.) Your Success and Failures are Your Own
Just as much as your learn from your own successes, you will learn even more from your failures. Instead of making “the man” or “the company” successful, focus those efforts on your own business or personal goals. Instead of hitting goals for your employer and getting a bonus, focus your efforts towards new personal / business goals and increase your productivity and income every day.

6.) You Really Aren’t Making What You Think You Are!
The last point I will stress is one that may be more disturbing than anything else. Take your average salary, then work out the numbers and cost it takes you to maintain your job. How much are you spending daily on gas for your commute to and from work, your daily lunches, work attire and the most expensive of all… your time and stress levels. Work out these numbers and you may find you are “taking home” a lot less than you think… which makes it even easier for you to over take your current salary, working for yourself.

Of course, it’s easy for me to sit here and write a list of reasons why you shouldn’t be working for someone else. Not everyone has what it takes to run a business, or is ready to leave the financial stability of a job. I was fortunate enough to get started while I was in my early teens. I now have over 12 years of learning experience under my belt, making money online and loving what I do. My continuing goal with this blog is to help others accomplish their goals and be able to do the same.

Feel free to share some of your work hell stories below!