Firstly, just over a week ago John Cow announced the results of his Cowpetition, and guess what? I won first prize! Woo Hoo! A copy of David Cavanagh’s 52 Week “Getting Started On The Internet” Program – including 52 weeks of live conference calls, 1 on 1 coaching and membership site. Also includes 4 day live workshop in Pattaya Beach Thailand ($9,997 Value). I got started in the Internet quite a while ago now, but I’m really looking forward to David’s coaching as there is always something new to learn and different perspectives to see.

About 7 hours after this was announced I logged into Twitter and saw Jason Moffatt (http://twitter.com/jasonmoffatt) make a Tweet offering a free subscription to Easy Video Sales to the first person who Twittered back. I sent a Tweet and, lo and behold, I won! Thanks Jason. Again looking forward to this as Jason is doing great stuff with video online.

Well, deciding I was on a roll, I bought a Euro Millions ticket that day (a very rare occurrence for me as I don’t usually go in for lotteries) and guess what? Yes, I won again! OK, it wasn’t the £34 million jackpot, but £22.50 isn’t to be sniffed at (that’s about half a tank of petrol at the moment).

I started a new Twitter survey (if you aren’t following me on Twitter yet, you can find me at http://twitter.com/Lisa Hartwell) to find out what people would most like to know about creating and using audio online. PollDaddy.com offer a free service to create polls on Twitter and you can also add that poll to your website/blog. If you haven’t taken the survey yet, please add your preference to the right of this post. At the moment, most people seem to want to know more about the technical stuff, so I will definitely be dealing with that in future posts (I feel some videos coming on).

I’ve left this a bit late, but Yanik Silver has released the latest Underground Online Seminar DVDs. You only have until tomorrow to get your hands on them (sorry for the late notice). I have attended 2 of Yanik’s seminars and bought the DVDs/CDs for all of them because he manages to find some of the best and most successful people in the Internet world (and usually people who do not speak at conferences as a rule). Much of the information divulged at these conferences is groundbreaking and stuff you can run with straight away (not just lofty ideals but concrete methods). Yanik is an excellent copywriter too, so check out what he has done with the sales pages for this launch (and when Yanik says that something is limited, he means it).

And finally, we are well into Pre-Season over at the Thirty Day Challenge but there is still time to get onboard. The pre-season videos so far have covered loads of flocking good advice on using the Flock browser and how to use Google Reader to save a huge amount of time out of your day. The actual challenge starts August 1st so there is plenty of time to get involved and catch up with the pre-season training, but it is best to do it NOW while it’s fresh in your mind. I’ve already used the word groundbreaking in this post but I am going to use it again – the (free) teaching over at the Thirty Day Challenge is almost always groundbreaking and worth checking out even if you’ve been working online for a long time, or you have an offline business and want to see how the power of the Internet can be harnessed to improve business.

Don’t forget you can add any thoughts and comments here on the blog or feel free to Twitter me (just add @audiomarketing to your Tweet and I will see it).

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. This post is something I’ve wanted to express for a long time. So grab some popcorn and your beverage of choice. You’re in for a long one.I was recently called out and attacked by Mark Hopkins over at the blog Mashable with his latest post, Is Twitter Vulnerable To Marketer Attack?Mark apparently got his motivation to make such a post after reading blogger Duncan Riley’s recent post (also directed at me and showing a recent email I sent to my list) Pending Sign Of The Twitter Apocalypse: It’s Being Talked About By Internet Marketers.

Wake Up Call: Web 2.0 Wouldn’t Exist Without Internet Marketers

If there is one thing guaranteed to get people to read and comment on your blog it’s to write something absolutely flaming about someone or something other people respect. That happened over at Mashable today with established Internet Marketers (in particular John Reese) being “called out” for their (mis)use of Twitter.

Interestingly, it was a Twitter post by Mashable that ensured readers saw the blog post quickly and Twitter that enabled the buzz surrounding it to spread quickly.

I’m not going to go into great detail about the Mashable blog post or John Reese’s response (please read them for yourselves), except to say that I’m glad John did respond. Many times the big names in Internet Marketing get slammed online and they choose not to respond because it stirs up a hornets’ nest, raises the profile of the person who called them out, and leaves a distinctly bad taste in readers’ mouths (not to mention that life is too short to constantly battle the dissenters). But in this case it was a strong personal attack written on a well-read blog, and by targeting John Reese they were also slating a whole lot of other people who make their money online (themselves included).

Apart from the unnecessary, unprovoked and un-researched attack on John, my own feelings after reading the Mashable post are:

• what right has anyone (apart from the owners of Twitter) to say whether someone is using Twitter in the right or wrong way? If people feel like someone they are following is hard-selling them they simply STOP following them. It’s as easy as that.
• what makes what Mashable do on Twitter any different from me, John Reese or anyone else who has an online business? They build a relationship with followers by posting some personal stuff, some useful stuff, some links to interesting sites and some links to their own blog/website (where they make money). Interestingly I stopped following Mashable because I felt bombarded by them…but I still follow John Reese.
• what is wrong with being an ebook seller? The Mashable post made it sound unethical and so many people act like selling ebooks is ripping people off. I sell ebooks and know many others who sell them too. When done right, they are well-written, informative and helpful. They enable people to find help on topics that are time sensitive or not profitable enough to warrant a physical book. One of my ebooks has less than a 2% refund rate so the buyers at least believe they got value for money.

I suppose my point is that I feel a little miffed (a weak way of saying p**sed off) that someone believes they have taken the high ground on something when they have no right to take it (especially as they did it poorly on a popular blog). Writing a blog and making money on it from advertising and affiliate products is no different from promoting voiceover or writing services online, or selling ebooks on growing tomatoes, or making money on ebay, or… It makes us all Internet Marketers. It’s time to get over thinking that Internet Marketing is solely about ripping people off.

OK, I think I’m done. I need some chamomile tea now to calm me down (and I hate chamomile tea)!

Like others who have commented on this on their blogs I am simply contributing to Mashable’s traffic by mentioning it here, but if you want to find out where this originated then by all means go check it out, but also have a look at John Reese’s blog reply Wake Up Call and I enjoyed reading Alice Seba’s blog post on this too: Marketing Blogs: Hollywood Tabloid Style (Alice is always the voice of reason).

Lisa

P.S. To follow me on Twitter go to http://twitter.com/LisaHartwell

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Tags: johnreese, mashable, internet marketing, internet marketers, twitter