What a Mess!

I've only gone and lost two more followers....that's three in as many days. WAS IT SOMETHING I SAID??

I know you all know how painful I find losing followers, but I'm not going to dwell on the negatives today (besides one of the followers I lost was The Finisher, and he was a bit of cock - so it's not all bad). So I thought I'd focus on the good that blogging can do. I thought I'd dedicate today's blog post to my good friend and excellent follower Mess.

A while back I was contacted by WuTravel.com and asked you guys in readerland whether I should take up their kind offer of sponsorship. Mr Coleman advised against it in a comment post which was very helpful and sound advice (as always), but Mess went one step further sending me a very useful email note on Facebook.

It's so useful, and I don't want anyone else falling into the WuClan's Plan that I thought I'd post it here.

Hiya Barry !

I just didn't want to post my thoughts on your page coz I maybe wrong!

I didn't know what to think about the mail you received, the fact that 'Alyssa' or whatever she is didn't sign made me think that it was a pre-made mail which is sent to everyone who's writing back to the offer.

Especially this part:"Please reply me If you are willing to accept our offer, then I will open an affiliate account for you right now, after you put on our banner on your site, I will deposit the money for you.:)"

They seem really in a rush, and one little detail bothered me, where did this smiley came from ?

It makes me think of all the junk mail I receive saying I won some stuff. And based on what you said, which is absolutely true, about the fact that ppl are asking for it and are motivated by greed, I found this kinda suspicious:

"If you can redirect more visitors to our site, you can calculate how much $$$ you will earn!!!!!" too much $ sign and exclamation points to me!

I did some research on Google. A guy or girl, whatever, on April 16 2009 posted on a forum that a girl name Alexis, working for WuTravel, offered this blogger to have ban ads on the blog.

He was asking something like 'Can I trust them' ? no answer was sent.

The research continues and then, on Yahoo! Q&A, the same person posted the same message. And another person replied that she had the same mail, not long after opening the blog.

This last link I wanna share with you I found particularly interesting: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090415192126AA7QLjQ

The girl is posting the mail she received, and surprise, someone told her 'You have one good site, but your site traffic is really low'. When you read the message, it is EXACTLY the same one you received!

I don't think this company isn't legit but I would consider this as spam. You earn circa 10-20 visitors a day and for a blogger it's kinda great!

I had circa 80 visitors after opening on March 28. And I just completely agree with that: "Something makes me think that this might be one of those Internet scams that you sometimes read about in The Metro. You read about old ladies sending all their savings to Nigerian Princes under the false promise of a share in their fortunes or people being sent an email from their bank asking for all their sign-on information, only to find out a couple of days later that someone has emptied their bank accounts."

I wouldn't do it, at least not with them, I'm sure there are another ways to let ppl know how brill your page is!Have a nice evening my friend !Mess
I received an email from WuTravel.com, and they interested to place their ads on my blog site.? - Ya
Source: answers.yahoo.com

So, once again, thanks to the Mess Man. Excellent research and excellent feedback. I only hope someone else out there find it as helpful as I did.

Much love.

ND.

x

Oh Mr Wu, what should I do?

Last Monday I announced that Brand Newsdesk had been approached by a potential sponsor. None other than WuTravel.com.

I seem to be getting absolutely nowhere with my idea of free porn for London's commuters, The Oyster, and none of the pieces that I have submitted to The Metro have made it into print. While the money that I make at Blockbusters bearly makes ends meet to be honest and so if I want to keep producing lively copy that is enjoyed, for FREE (hint, hint!), by my army of readers, then sadly I think I'm going to have to start taking advertising.

I wrote back to Alyssa at Wu Travel asking for more information. She wrote back, here's what she had to say:

Hi,

Here are our company current marketing packages.

1) For sites PR >= 4, and Alexa in top 100,000, and site is travel topic related, we are willing to buy ads space from SGD 100 /month, and invite them to join our affiliate program

2) For other sites, we can only offer them to join our affiliate program.

You have one good site, but your site traffic is really low. Here is our offer, we are willing to invite you join our affiliate program, and send you USD 50.00 as signup reward.

Here are main features of our affiliate program.

1) Earn 70% of recurring commission, averagely every hotel partner's ads click you will earn USD 0.30 - 0.50

2) Earn passive commission FOREVER. Every visitors, you brought to our site, generate any revenue in the future, you will ALWAYS earn 70% of them.

3) 2 Level Referral Program. Affiliates are encouraged to invite other sites to join our affiliat program, and affiliates will get 10% commission generated by other affiliates.

4) Payment sent out every month through PayPal, with minimun USD 100.

Let's say that you refer 2 visitors to our site a day, and both of them click once on our hotel partners ads. Within 1 year, you will make USD 292 (one click USD 0.40, 0.40 * 2 * 365 = 292).

But wait. For those visitors from your site, they come to our site and generate revenue in the future (1 year, 5 years, 10 years ...), you will still earn commission, even though your site maybe not exist any more. :)

If you can redirect more visitors to our site, you can calculate how much $$$ you will earn!!!!!

You can view our affiliate program details from http://www.wutravel.com/affiliate.html

Please reply me If you are willing to accept our offer, then I will open an affiliate account for you right now, after you put on our banner on your site, I will deposit the money for you.:)

Regards,

I'm not sure about this one readers. For starters, Alyssa didn't even bother to address the message 'Hi Barry' and then she just signed off with 'Regards,'

Also, Alyssa suggests (and I quote) that: "your (my) site traffic is really low." Well ,that's clearly nonesense, you'd only have to read through the last few posts to see that I smashed the 1000 hit mark only four months after launching the site!!!

Something makes me think that this might be one of those Internet scams that you sometimes read about in The Metro. You read about old ladies sending all their savings to Nigerian Princes under the false promise of a share in their fortunes or people being sent an email from their bank asking for all their sign-on information, only to find out a couple of days later that someone has emptied their bank accounts.

The fact is, though, the people who fall for such blatant rip-offs are kind of asking for it. They're being motivated by GREED! There's no such thing as a free lunch. When a deal looks to good to be true, it usually isn't true, that's what my Mum used to tell me as we walked around Lincoln market at the weekends. Still, I've read and re-read Alyssa's message and I can't see where the catch is. By this time next year I could be a millionnaire.

What should I do? Mess? Mr Coleman?