haha thats funny. Perhaps thats how shoemoney won his contest with john chow?

What will scammers think of next.

I’m not surprised. TheGeekBoys (dot com) did the same thing (inflate his RSS) and made a joke out of it. I wasn’t impressed and told him I think it affects his credibility.

Cow-jacking is a good joke (he he) but inflating any numbers isn’t a bit funny no matter the reason.

That is a unique but stupid idea..rss subscriber for sale. What next? PR for sale?

Thats just stupid.. it just ruins the people like us that have to put in hard work to build our feed subscribers.

Services like this do just one favor to us bloggers. Give a good reason for others to talk about us - in such a way that we don’t like it.

It can also mean we need to pull the Feedburner chicklet out of the visible areas and stop talking about the RSS readers we have.

It will even estrange the most friendly advertisors, as they begin doubting the figures.

Did that John Cow Vs Shoemoney tussle has something to do with this?

WOW what horror! first buyblog comments now this bullish! ober gay

I could’ve just told you I own meridiancrest.com if you wanted to find out who I truly was :p No need for all that fancy schmancy undercover agent whois stuff.

Thanks for the rave review!

And yes, 10 New RSS Subscribers are coming your way!

– Scot

What a load of crap. Hopefully it gets binned as soon as possible…

Not to mention this article is sending me great business - 3 new customers already (probably from some of the people whining most about it)

Cow Man,

You sent me an email and asked me for my opinions and thoughts, I decided to write a post about it. You should get a trackback on it soon.

Best Regards,
Garry Conn

Dammit I am never going to win the stupid cow award

I must try harder

I have to admit that is one of the stupidest ideas I have seen to date.

Don’t people realise that using a service like this may provide a short term gain, but in the long run all it will do is damage their blog and reputation.

I would rather have no subscribers than resort to tactics like this.

Unfortunately, these kinds of tactics could be considered ‘fraudulent’ as it is deliberately attempting to manipulate the numbers of a third party site, such as Feedburner to attract either audience or financial benefit. I’m sure in a few years, this kind of thing will be as illegal as spam is now.

Kenneth

Hey, maybe I should sign up for this and make my feedburner show a bigger number….oh, wait, I don’t have the RSS count displayed on my site and am not even signed up for feedburner.

@ RSS Xplosion

Quote “I could’ve just told you I own meridiancrest.com if you wanted to find out who I truly was :p No need for all that fancy schmancy undercover agent whois stuff.”

If there was no need for all that fancy schmancy undercover stuff then why did you email the Mad Moos pretending to be John Chow ?

Fatgadget,

It’s call marketing. I wasn’t pretending to be John Chow at all or I wouldn’t have put my e-mail in the message.

It’s misleading.

: Rss Xplosion

It may be called marketing but there is a difference between clever marketing and stupid marketing

Thanks for the information, I will be interested to see how this works itself out, especially in light of the PR selling links issue that never seems to go away. Scott

i see where this trend is going… everyone get ready for feedburner to start regulating. if you’ve cheated, they’re probably going to get you and throw out the fake signups. it’s not hard for them to catch, according to how i hear it’s being done.

Scot, you’re calling this marketing? Saying you never pretended to be John Chow? So how come the email sender ID is John Chow? And we heard that you emailed John Chow, pretending to be Shoemoney?

Marketing schmarketing.

John Cow,
I’m not the typical “Make Money Online” blogger who just opened my blogger.com account. If I wanted to make a message seem like it were truly from Chow or Shoemoney, I would have done so.

Actually, here is the e-mail I sent John Chow:
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/9693/chowfo8.gif

Obviously not from Shoemoney… But keep the controversy stired up– it’s good linkbait!

this is thegeekboys dot com yeah I consider myself an evil blogger but not that evil “All the evil bloggers of the world should join together and take down this monopoly” what do you guys think?

Scot aka RSSxplosion, no matter what you say, you changed the email senders ID into someone you are not, and you talk in that email to John Chow as if you are Jeremy Schoemaker. You talked to us in your email as if you were John Chow

We quote your email to John Chow:”Hey Mr. Chow,
How do you think I beat you in the RSS Challenge last month?”

What’s that ‘I’ doing in there? You didn’t have an RSS challenge with John, Jeremy did.

You’re a liar and you’re offering a shady and questionable service. Don’t be surprised if people don’t trust you.

John Cow,
1) Blogs aren’t credible. Blogs aren’t quoted in newspapers or any other form of journalism for that precise reason. Trying to maintain a blog’s credibility is silly. You write entertaining content (such as this) and people will read it.

2) If you still think I was ACTUALLY pretending to be Shoemoney (or John Chow)– you aren’t half as smart as you let on to be. Why do you think I included my own domain in the e-mail? I’m not going to argue the point with you but let’s be realistic.

3)I didn’t change the e-mail “senders ID”. I contacted John and everyone else through their blog’s contact form.

4) Don’t be surprised if people don’t trust me on what? I’m not selling anything but my ideas on my blog, and RSS Xplosion offers something very simple– RSS Subscribers.

John Cow:

You yourself offered a shady service. Remember MEW? What’s it done since you sold it since you didn’t care to bother with it anymore? That’s right. It’s done nothing. And you’ve screwed the folks that made the initial investment in it as well. You’re just as bad as RSS Xplosion if not worse. Hypocracy at it’s finest.

Mr or Ms Anonymous; Ask the new owners, they’ll probably be more than happy to talk about MEW with you. And we didn’t screw anyone, their investment is still there.

So does it feel safe, posting like an anonymous troll?

Scott, you’re nothing but a snivelling little dirtbag. You’re spoofing the sender field in the email header because you f’n KNOW people are going to try to weed you out of the inboxes. I’ve reported you to gmail for abuse of your account….for what it’s worth. I’ve also reported you to your ISP for using your connection to send commercial email with a spoofed sender ID…. I suggest others do the same. Not all attention is good asshole, as you’re about to find out.

Gilbert,
I didn’t send any e-mail through G-Mail. Your efforts will be fruitless, please see the above comment.

“I didn’t change the e-mail “senders ID”. I contacted John and everyone else through their blog’s contact form.”

Which, by the way, is exactly what contact forms are made for. Are you so simple-minded that you’ve missed out on the entire point of this project?

Yeah, I’m simple minded. Honesty should be rewarded. Dishonesty should be punished. That’s simple, right? So where do you think you fall? I don’t give two flying fucks whether you sent the email from gmail or via the comments field - You know it’s sent to the blogger via email anyway, and you damn well knew how it would be presented. You also knew that you’re a practical ‘unknown’, and that pro-bloggers wouldn’t waste pissing time on you, which is why you used others names instead of your own. Asshole, your project reflects exactly who you are and what your biggest problem is as I see it - You’re encouraging others to substitute an artificially inflated RSS reader count for real creativity and hard work in gaining subscriptions. Just because you refer to your ‘project’ as part of your creative output, doesn’t mean it’s in any way a positive contribution on the whole.

Here’s how I see this working…..

Fledgling blogger trying to make it big online build his blog.
Gets a few RSS readers. Makes a little noise.
Scot the crook introduces himself, as someone else, a successful blogger, of course - not as himself, as we can all see already.
Refers fledgling to RSSxplos….com, saying how great it was when ‘he got started’.
Fledgling pays Scot, who’s quite happy to take the money and run.

Am I right so far?

Now, say Fledgling actually makes something of his blog, and turns a monthly income out of it. What happens then Scot? Do you really expect us to believe you’ll just sit back and smile and give yourself a pat on the back for being helpful? Or would you do what I think you’d do - Use that purchase of RSS subs by Fledgling to effectively bully/blackmail more money/linkbacks/reviews and whatnot?

I don’t know - I’m not a blogger, but I know enough about people to know when someone’s a crooked fuck. And you’re it my man.

Gilberticus

Gilbert,
My point is my ISP doesn’t care if I contact people through e-mail forms and I’m sure they keep a good log of activity that goes on through their pipes.

As far as your second idea– that’s just crossing the line of legality and nobody ever brought up blackmail and extortion until you’ve come along.

Good theories though, and a solid idea– though I don’t and wouldn’t participate in illegal activities / scams.

Your professional integrity is highly suspect right from the offset Scot. You still skirt around your deceitful impersonation of someone else when contacting John Cow, John Chow et al. You’ve ignored that one repeatedly. And don’t think that it can be passed off lightly either - It’s easy to see your motives, and they’re nothing but dishonest.

The very nature of your business is to promote deceitful practices by unscrupulous bloggers. You’re effectively enouraging others to profit (in more than monetary terms I guess) by misleading advertisers, subscribers and contributors regarding the readership figures. You’ve not refuted this, and I can’t see how you can. Your business is to promote deceit. Your business is to facilitate dishonesty.

As you have said yourself, my theories are good, and you think it’s a solid idea. In case anyone’s skipped it, I’ve suggested your business would be a good vehicle to abuse novice bloggers trust for a short term payoff, and that you could easily extort more from a novice should they make it big. You think that’s a solid idea. Yet you expect anyone to believe you? You, the man who’s all about telling lies in effect. Mr. Dishonesty?

It’s a sad measure of a persons character when they willfully engage solely in dishonest practices to turn a quick buck, and that’s what you’re doing buddy. It’s just a shame there are so many other greedy shits out there who will see real merit in casting aside personal pride and self respect for the payout. But you’ll get what’s coming to you I’m sure….Karma’s a complete PITA like that.

All I’ll say is fair play to Cow for calling you out on this. Sometimes there’s more to it than ‘making money online’, and the cow knows it.

Gilberticus.

I’d like to know what John Chow thinks of all this.

WOW….just Wow….that’s all I have to say.

-Mike

I think Scot knows what he is doing is fundamentally wrong, and would admit it if asked in very simple terms. He is the one who has to live his conscience. As a co-owner of MEW, I could also lie and cheat about pages sold, bullshit about up-coming marketing etc etc to make everybody believe we are making a fortune and build the hype, but I enjoy a good night sleep every night.

To: Xplosion subscriber salesman…so are the RSS subsribers you generate real people or just free email addresses you set up? IOW–will anyone actually read the feed ever?
Once you answer this, I will have more questions for you. Wanna play?

“Blogs aren’t credible. Blogs aren’t quoted in newspapers or any other form of journalism for that precise reason.”

They are occasionally quoted in newspapers and there is also something called “citizen journalism” that you obviously aren’t aware of. See the recent events in Myanmar for further information, or even the coup in Thailand.

On other note to the Dumb Ass subscriber salesman.
“Chicklet” is spelled wrong on your site. Isn’t it ironic that you can’t even spell in the same vein as you are marketing? Novice!!!!!
(See Cow’s screen shot above to see Dumb Ass Salesman’s incorrect spelling.)

@Allyn
I’m not a RSS Salesman.
I won’t go into detail per the exact algorithm and system, but lets look at the big picture and realize what this service is doing for you rather than call me on a spelling mistake. Good call though, maybe I will change it next time I update the website.

– Scot

Hey RSS Explosion,

Do you honestly think bloggers have no credibility?

And, you choose to do business with the exact group of people you think and preach are devoid of credibility.

It is too tough to digest.

BTW, no one will miss the credibility you have already built for yourself.

You sure did design your website nice.

To RSS salesman…don’t you get it? You not knowing how to spell “Chicklet” is like a used car salesman not knowing how to spell “Chevrolet” ROFL!

Once again: are there REAL people who get the feeds you supply, yes or no?

after buying visitor then back link then anchor for thos backlink then comment and now rss subscriber.. what’s next .. ..PR, Stumble, digg, facebook and myspace friend.. twitter friends….mybloglog communities fake number wow … people can really get crazy .. I thought John cow could go low but this one beat everything I saw .. it is just a blog cool off

@ Prince John
Bloggers have plenty of credibility. Blogs (especially in the Make Money Online Realm) on the other hand, have no credibility to the mainstream media. That’s all I was saying. Of course bloggers have personal credibility. I’m a blogger and realize that myself.

@ Allyn
It’s not that I do not know how to spell the word, it’s that sometimes when you’re creating a website with lots of literature overnight, you may have a few typos.

And, it doesn’t matter about the subscribers. I won’t reveal trade secrets whether they be real people or not. You’re still missing out on the big picture…

LOL..talk about a good swift kick to the stones. Well worth it.Have a hankie and keep on crying who ever you are.

Mainstream media is dying

@ Tony Gee ….. `have a hankie and keep on crying` …gold my friend!

This is MADNESS! Everything from traffic to now, RSS subscription numbers can be flawed. Money does all the magic here. Will there be any more space more bloggers with pure quality.

Maybe we should let this dude do his business, do what he likes to do. I know he will get business (perhaps many) but what goes around comes around, we shall see… Actually, I quite like the way you pitch probloggers, daring and skilful explanation after everything was poked out of your bag.

To exploded RSS hawker: I see your point about readership building credibility. Would-be readers want to be a part of something successful, and a big number showing on the RSS readers box draws them in. It’s the bandwagon theory. (I do real marketing on the outside)
However, anything that is faked will eventually come crashing down. Don’t you know that print media outlets get fined and sued over inflating subscriber numbers?
Finally, I am not asking for your proprietary secrets. I am asking “are real people getting the feed and reading it” when you generate them.
Why woul you not offer full disclosure unless you know you are shady?

@RSS Explosion

If blogs have no credability, how come the likes of Darrewn Rowse, John Chow and Shoemoney are all accepted by the mainstream media and have all been featured in large publications?

How come one article on Engadget (all be it wrong), sent Apple’s stock into a nosedive on the stock exchanges around the world

You talk about marketing in one of your earlier posts, is it good marketing to state that the very people you are trying to obtain as your customers have no credability to the mainstream media.

The only one lacking any credability here is you and your pathetic attempt to manipulate a useful tool for bloggers and itwould be interesting to see how Google and Feedburner view ‘unique service’

Rather than attempting to scam something, why dont you put your time and effort into something that would actually be of a benefit to people.

I would have to agree, to say that blogs have no credibility is throwing a big blanket over a lot of people’s hard work. As I recall, the BlogWorld Expo looked like it was a huge success, and I am gaging that from the live news reports from Fox News as they reported from the floor of the convention.

Everyone may not care for FNC but I would say they are pretty legit, and they interviewed a bunch of bloggers and carried the story for several days.

There are more blogs than just MMO blogs, and many of them have a ton of credibility in the main stream media, not to mention the ones already spoken for above. Scott

Does anyone even care about the # of RSS subscribers? I don’t use the “counter” chicklet for the same reason that I don’t use a hit counter. In my opinion, neither of them are particularly credible since they can be so easily faked.

Why bother with this chump’s hack when you can just stick up a gif that says you’ve got 50,000 RSS subscribers? Anyone who is going to subscribe to a blog “because everyone else does” isn’t going to bother to see if the subscriber count is legit, so a spoofed count will work just as well and you won’t tick off Feedburner.

Maybe this should end so that the RSS Explosion guy doesn’t get anymore exposure on this thread

Why would you pay for “fake” readers? If you are that “desperate” for readers you can create fake accounts on your own for free. But here is a great alternative. Blog about stuff people are interested in and attract your own crowd! I know that sounds out there, LOL but maybe if you need “fake readers” you should not be blogging.

It’s pretty obvious that this kind of thing can be done easily through email subscriptions.

@ Frank C

It could be done easily, I suspect that what he is doing is using one domain name and the email coming through to catchall, then he just clicks on the feedburner confirmation in the email and the subscriber is live.

Just one problem, when the person or company who is buying your blog wan’ts full details of your rss subscribers how do you explain the 10,000 subscribers on the same domain name ?

Wait just a cotton pickin’ second. That email I got from John Chow wasn’t real? Next thing I know, you’ll be telling me that the check I sent to Nigeria to help me claim my dead relative’s money is a scam. Good think I bought the Brooklyn Bridge last week.

To me, if you change your email name to be someone else, and use their identity to falsly promote you business - everything that comes of that is fruit from the poisonous tree.

If you can’t get people to consider your product or service without misleading them - how good can it be?

Author: A Nony Mouse
Comment:
Does anyone even care about the # of RSS subscribers? I don’t use the “counter” chicklet for the same reason that I don’t use a hit counter. In my opinion, neither of them are particularly credible since they can be so easily faked.

Sure, Nony Mouse, it will be time for to take the RSS subscriber count off the subscription chicklet. That number just lose its shine and legit bloggers too will have to answer questions like how many of these subscribers are ‘real’.