Twitter Spammers Are Suckers

As readers of Lee Distad's Professional Opinion are doubtless aware, I'm a relative newcomer to Twitter.

As a social media tool, Twitter certainly has it's uses. Conversely, the Twitter spammers, who think that accumulating millions of followers will make them rich have no real use at all, except as a cash cow for "Social Media Gurus" to peddle get-rich-quick schemes.

Both anti-fraud blogger Tracey Coenan and Upstart Blogger have good posts on just how ridiculous Twitter Spam marketing programs are. I just want to take the time to address some of the salesmanship used to market one such program, called Brute Force Twitter:

Did you know a 10,000-person reach FM radio station in a town of 200,000 people is worth $3-15 million? Now compare that to the list of 74,000 people on Twitter that I built for FREE in just 2 and ½ months… usually spending no more than 15-25 minutes a day on it.

That's a ludicrous non sequitor, and I'll tell you why:

*That radio station's valuation is arrived at only by selling that much advertising airtime.

*Advertisers will only pay that much if enough listeners are tuned in.

*Listeners will only tune in if the radio station plays something they want to hear.

And that last part is the catch, isn't it?

If you actually have a blog or a website or whatever that offers real goods and services, or even just news and commentary that people might actually be interested in, then you can use Twitter to market yourself.

On the other hand, if you've just paid a hundred bucks for a course that tells you to "start selling a course at $100 a pop on gathering Twitter followers," then you're not really offering anybody much of anything.

Those millions of other Twitter Spammers? They already paid somebody else $100, they're not going to buy it from you!

Do you have something to say? Then maybe other Twitter users will follow you. An endless retread of posts that say "Get rich now, ask me how!" and unoriginal motivational quotes cribbed from BrainyQuote.com aren't the kind of content that will make people not only follow, but listen.

Tell you what, send me $100 via the PayPal link to the left of the page, and I'll tell you how to not be a sucker.

Alternatively, you can go to SocialMediaDouchebag.com and learn how to get eleventy-billion Twitter followers in 3.68 seconds.

You decide.

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Having fun at the expense of MLM promoters

When it comes to MLM's, mostly I ignore them. There's plenty of other sites that debunk them, and this blog is generally more focused on poking fun at corporate foolishness rather than outright fraud.

That said, a comment by some anonymous idiot in response to one of Tracy Coenan's anti-MLM posts on her FraudFiles blog was so compelling in it's idiocy that I felt it was worth bringing attention to.

Is Shop to Earn a scam or a legitimate business?(NOT edited for spelling, grammar, coherence or stupidity)

"Anonymous Idiot": if you got burned doing a MLM than that is your problem . i am sorry for you. but i believe that in order to be successful you have TO DO IT> walt disney was rejected over and over and over again about his dream of mickey mouse and then one “sucker” as you all would say took a “chance” same thing with the author of the harriet potter series. rejected over and over again. i know that MLM is not for everyone and i respect that some people just dont get them. I am right now unsubscribing to this blog because i no LONGER care waht you think.

I always get a kick out of MLM idiots who bring up the names of people like Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, or JK Rowling, and how much rejection and doubt they had to face before they made it big.

It's a sad effort to share reflected glory, but it falls short, because there's a difference:

What do MLM'ers create? Nothing.

What do MLM'ers own? Nothing.

What value do MLM'ers really offer customers? None.

Where's the MLM'ers better mouse trap? They don't have one.

At the bottom line, they're all just membership schemes where one schlub gives money to another schlub and tries to get some other schlub to give him money as well. It's a house of cards. Those of us who do things and create things and own things can see that, plain as day. If someone can't he really should keep his day job, at least he doesn't have to pay them to come to work every day.

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Lululemon Assumes The Downward Dog

Some people have been bullish on yoga apparel maker Lululemon for some time. Only now other people are noticing too.

Yahoo!: Lululemon shares fall back to earth after much-hyped initial public offering

VANCOUVER - After starting off like a rocket, shares of yoga-wear retailer Lululemon Athletica Inc. (TSX:LLL) have returned to earth in recent weeks trading near where the stock was in the days after its much-hyped initial public offering.
And this week, the market will be watching carefully as the lock up period for Lululemon's investors expires on Jan. 23 following company's initial public offering in July and the number of shares eligible to trade is set to grow significantly.

For a small player, trying to short the hysteria wouldn't have been a sound move. As John Maynard Keynes said, “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.” Regardless, the position of saying out loud "They're just yoga pants, for chrissakes. a 300 P/E is retarded!" has paid a huge return of smug self-satisfaction.

No one should be surprised to see insiders sell this week, since Lululemon's IPO was a payout for the original principals plain and simple, and there's nothing wrong with that per se. Everyone's gotta get paid. Just don't expect that yoga pants are going to be the second coming of Google.

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Newsflash: Not Every Facebook App is a Good Idea

Network World.com: Facebook's "Secret Crush" malicious widget tricks users

A "widget" application used on the Facebook social network site promises to tell you who has a secret crush on you, but instead tries to trick you into downloading spyware.
That's according to security firm Fortinet, which says it discovered the sneaky Secret Crush malicious code in the last few days, which appears so far to have infected about three million Facebook users.

Seriously people, if you're going to play on social network sites, don't be a fucking sucker, and sign up for every goddamn fun-looking application. Besides, "secret crush?" How socially desperate do you have to be to fall for that? Although apparently 3 million people meet that criterion.

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"The View" commenter Sherri Shepherd doesn't know her ass from a hole in the ground

I was going to leave this story alone. So help me, I really was.

But I can't.

NY Post: 'VIEW' HISTORY LESSON: SHERRI SHEPHERD SAYS JESUS CAME WAY FIRST

December 5, 2007 -- THE new co-host of "The View," Sherri Shepherd, yesterday insisted Christianity was older than ancient Greece, and even Judaism.
Shepherd - who said earlier this year that she didn't know if the world was flat or round - said during a short-lived discussion of Greek philosophy on yesterday's show that she was pretty sure nothing "predated Christians."

As infuriating as it is to see this kind of ignorance broadcast in the major media, it does have a salutary lesson.

In case you didn't already know: just because someone is on television or film does not mean that they know anything, or that their opinions are even remotely valuable.

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