Internet Marketing with Josh SpauldingMaking Money through Ethical Marketing.

13 comments

1. Chuck Brown (63 comments.)
   11th November, 2007 at 1:34 am 

   And a good example of someone who’s junking up the web with more regurgitated content. (sigh)

   Rather than fill up your comments section with my tirade on why this “path to success” sucks and should not be rewarded with extra attention, you may want to read my not-so-brief discussion with Eric Giguere on his blog a day or two ago (in the comments section of this post):

   http://www.memwg.com/adsense-resurrected-is-coming/

   Nothing personal against Caroline…I’m sure she’s a terrific person. This isn’t about personalities. It’s about whether or not its appropriate to pretend we’re accomplishing anything of value when we simply “republish” the work of others (by switching paragraphs around or scrambling words or PLR articles or 5 dollar articles written by people who don’t know anything about a topic and couldn’t care less). It’s bad for all of us. Better to invest ourselves in a new concept…like providing actual value to help people with everything we put our hands to.

   And now, back to your regularly-scheduled blog comments.

2. Josh Spaulding
   11th November, 2007 at 1:41 am 

   hmm I don’t believe Caroline’s technique deals with PLR content at all and from what I understand the end result is several articles that all make sense and provide good value. With that being said, just like you stated in the comment section of the link you posted above, which states “It would be unfair of me to condemn a product without seeing it” I don’t think it’s fair to bash her article process without actually seeing a few of the articles that are a result of her technique.

   I’ve read much of what Caroline has published to the web in the form of her own blog posts and her comments on other blogs. In my eyes she does deserve exposure and I’ll continue to support her, as she supports so many others.

   I do appreciate your comments Chuck and I agree with much of what you say, but I have to disagree with you on this one.

3. Chuck Brown (63 comments.)
   11th November, 2007 at 1:55 am 

   Quoting her blog (and the reason that I said what I did…because I checked it out at your recommendation):

   >> Mark from 45n5 says that I should find databases of articles and use an
   >> API to submit tens of thousands of pages to these directories. That sounds
   >> a bit spammy to me but the key point is that more articles = more links.

   >> Steven Brown called my method a ‘paragraph rotator’ technique,
   >> which I think is kinda neat, and that’s exactly what it is. It is just
   >> copying and pasting paragraphs from several source documents
   >> into a destination document. This is tedious and error prone to do
   >> manually and it is ideally suited to computer automation.

   Sounds pretty spammy to me, too.

   Now, she does refer to writing some of her own stuff (as well as alluding to “find(ing) a database of articles”. If she’s writing her own stuff for the vast majority of it and just seeking a few supportive articles from other authors, I withdraw my comments. But if she’s just repurposing existing content, then I believe my comments stand.

   She does refer to writing articles for a niche regarding which she’s knowledgable. However, she also talks about “bum marketing”…which I don’t think applies to niches in which you’re creating additional valuable content (at least, not based on what I’ve read previously from the guy who I believe coined the term).

   This doesn’t even address the process of making public tools which will be used for spammy purposes anyway…but that would be a matter of conscience for that individual person to ponder, not me to judge.

   The point is that you made your blog about ethical marketing…and I think PLR is spam (as you do), and I think scraping and repurposing other content is spammy as well (as I’m sure you do). This is why I raised the point. Again, if it doesn’t apply in this situation, then I not only withdraw my comments, but apologize to all involved. I won’t be investigating further to find out more, so you can evaluate for yourself. I just wanted to raise the other side of the argument in this context.

4. Josh Spaulding
   11th November, 2007 at 2:14 am 

   Chuck,

   I think there is some confusion here.

   It was actually Caroline who said “sounds a bit spammy” in regards to Mark’s comment of which he was confused as to what she was saying. This is exactly what Caroline said:

   @45n5, that sounds really spammy I’d actually like to create useful articles out of this process.

   It’s more than a bit of her own content, from what I understand she’ll be writing all of it. I didn’t see her mention the use of PLR content anywhere, but I may have missed that? *edit* Actually, I just did a search of her post (ctr F) and got a “phrase not found”

   As to her statement of “finding a database” it was Mark who recommend this. Actually, much of what you quoted above was Mark’s recommendation and not that of Caroline.

   “bum marketing” is a phrase that has been around for ages. Travis Sago coined that term and released a free course that caught fire and went viral. Caroline, as many others do, was just misinformed. Bum marketing is a technique that uses article marketing (one of many techniques) to get affiliate sales. What she meant to call the technique she’ll be using was “article marketing.” (I cleared that up on her post) Whether or not you provide good content for the niches in which you promote through bum marketing is totally up the marketer and not something that all bum marketers do, although that’s now irrelevant to the conversation.

   As for making the tool public I don’t recall seeing her stat that, but as before I may be wrong. From what I understand she created this tool for personal use.

   I do totally agree that PLR content is spam as well as scraping content etc. but I don’t believe that is what Caroline is doing.

5. Chuck Brown (63 comments.)
   11th November, 2007 at 2:24 am 

   Again, you may be right…but your quoting of her response to that guy’s comments was selectively edited. She said:

   “That sounds a bit spammy to me but the key point is that more articles = more links.” That sounds like an endorsement of the idea, not a rejection.

   Also, “Steven Brown called my method a ‘paragraph rotator’ technique, which I think is kinda neat, and that’s exactly what it is. It is just copying and pasting paragraphs from several source documents into a destination document.” That sounds suspiciously like scraping to me…unless she wrote those “several source documents” herself.

   I’m quite willing to admit I’m wrong if I am. I’m not out to assassinate anyone’s character as some sort of blood sport. My point is that there’s a better way that the most common ways of “conjuring up” content (and that’s the intent of your blog as well…you and Eric are both mostly about that…otherwise, I wouldn’t waste my breath posting on the subject.

   If she’s already doing that, then I support her attempts to do whatever’s right.

6. Josh Spaulding
   11th November, 2007 at 2:38 am 

   Actually I didn’t edit that quote at all! You know I wouldn’t do that Chuck. We must be looking at different comments?

   I believe she is writing the “several source documents” herself, at least that’s what I understand.

   Let me say that I wouldn’t personally use this technique, but it could work. What I like about it is that she came up with it on her own, she developed software to do it (for her use) and she’s going to put alot of effort into it. That’s much more than most people can say or do. Whether the finished product is good quality or not I don’t know. What I do know is that overall, Caroline is doing an excellent job in all aspects of her business.

   *edit* insert - If there were any use of PLR or scraped content I would not recommend her “mashup” technique.

   I do appreciate your comments and there are no hard feelings. If there were no arguments blogging just wouldn’t be fun

7. Chuck Brown (63 comments.)
   11th November, 2007 at 2:54 am 

   You might be right. I was quoting this blog post, not the comments:

   http://www.caroline-middlebrook.com/blog/introducing-the-articlemasher-project/

   It does look like there was discussion and clarification down below in the comments section. So I think your investigation was more in-depth than mine.

   There may be more to say here about the content in the comments about the software and playing with code to ease the process of page creation without adding any real content, but I’ve beaten this horse long enough. Just wanted to make the point that good is good and bad is not so good. I agree completely with the need to promote those who are doing things in an ethical and valuable way. ‘Nuff said.

8. Josh Spaulding
   11th November, 2007 at 3:00 am 

   Ah ok, I was looking more into the comments.

   I think it really all comes down to what the finished product is. You’re absolutely right though.

   That was alot of info to go through, including all the comments so I can’t say that everything I said was 100% accurate either. I just went on what I understood, which doesn’t always mean much

   Have a good one Chuck, see ya around.

9. Vern (33 comments.)
   11th November, 2007 at 4:19 pm 

   Hi Josh,

   Anyway, Just to comment a little.
   I think caroline comes out as an
   honest person.

   That is what I admire in a person.

   Sincerity , honesty and willing to
   come clean as who they are.

   This is a rare trait in the online arena
   and I’m sure you’ll agree with me.

   Anyway, aside from this rant -
   I think your blog comments finally
   got the “justification” just about right.

   Congrats on the improvements.

   I might tune my php up a little
   to insert the pretty little RSS widget
   and some social bookmarketing techniques,

   got any suggestions?

   (as embarassing as it maybe.. my
   templates are pretty much locked)

   Hope to hear from you soon , Josh.

   Vern

10. Josh Spaulding
    12th November, 2007 at 4:58 am 

    Hey Vern,

    Yes she is and that’s mainly why I wrote this post.

    I’m not sure what RSS widget you’re speaking of? You mean the image in my sidebar? If so that’s not a widget, it’s just an image I stuck in there and linked to my feed

    Are you looking for a social bookmarketing widget or what?

11. Dr.Mani (1 comments.)
    14th November, 2007 at 4:20 am 

    She even managed to get me here, eh Josh

    Noticed your comment on the recent post on doubling RSS subscribers and thought I’d drop by and say hello.

    Incidentally, I do read your blog from time to time, though I haven’t commented often enough - should have done it sooner.

    All success
    Dr.Mani

12. Josh Spaulding
    14th November, 2007 at 4:38 am 

    haha I had a feeling my little trick might get you here. Thanks for stopping by, it’s an honor I sent Caroline an email earlier to let her know what a great guy you are with your charities in case she didn’t know and how you’re not too bad of a marketer either

13. Mike (2 comments.)
    3rd June, 2008 at 3:12 am 

    Hi Josh,

    I’ve followed Caroline since we were in the 30 Day Challenge. In my opinion she is a very determined, honorable woman that holds herself to the highest standards.

    I can tell by the way I find reference to her, her posts, and her site that she’s gonna make it to the big time.

    Mike