What’s Your Online Reputation Worth?
We’re annoyed, frustrated and we feel tricked once again by Darin from Darin.cc. You see, over three months ago (a whole season) we won a Playstation 3 which we still have not received. We’ve already had our little rant post a while back, and it actually provoked a positive reaction from Darin’s side. He semi-apologized on his blog and promised everyone that won something in his contest would be contacted by him in the next few days…here’s a quote of his exact words:
“I only have myself to blame but take these next few words to heart! When you promise something deliver no matter what!
I’m not upset with anyone for saying the things they said about me nor am I worried that I won’t resolve any outstanding issues, however take it easy on me … LOL!
I ran some promotions and haven’t followed through on my end 100% not because I don’t have the prizes on hand but because of everything going on with me personally and that is a BIG NO NO in business.
So to all who feel cheated (and you know who you are) I appologize and will contact you with the status on your prizes in the next few days.”
So that was exactly one month ago today. We are starting to wonder what ‘a few days’ mean in Darin’s vocabulary. Granted, he’s been very busy lately, setting up new radio shows, flying to blog expo’s, hanging with the cool kids and posting photos of free T-shirts he’s getting from his fans.
The only person who in the end did receive his prize was Egonitron, probably because Darin ran into him on Blog World Expo, and he saw that Egonitron was bigger than him! The USB drive was won in May, and handed out nearly 6 months later(!) He actually received a 4GB drive, wonder if we’ll have to wait another three months and get 2 Playstation 3’s. If we do, we’ll give one away for sure 
As far as we can tell, MsDanielle still has to receive the Nintendo Wii Darin promised her, Contest blogger is still waiting for his iPhone and us…well we’ll just keep complaining once a month until we either receive the promised goods, or if Darin confirms that nobody is getting any prizes anymore from him. As far as online reputations go, here’s how we see Darin these days…
(PS the photoshopped mugshot is obviously a bit of a joke, if Darin has a problem with it, we’ll gladly remove it)
(PSPS photoshopped mugshot has been removed because someone took offense to it.)
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that sucks. i think i visited his site once, and never cared to return there. i guess he promised something he couldn’t deliver. meaning he conned u. at least your exposing him.
I’m so embarrassed, what a horrible picture of me, haha. I’m surprised he still hasn’t sent out his other prizes, that really sucks. Danielle didn’t seem too sour about it at the Expo, I wonder if she did get the Wii.
[...] has prompted me to bring up this issue on bloggers’ integrity. You may also want to read what JohnCow did to a liar-liar on his [...]
Well, the question needs to be asked, are you bigger than Darrin physically and you you have him in a bout of fisticuffs, queensbury rules?
When I held my contest, I took a picture of the prize and posted it on the site. I think if you’re going to give something away, you should be able to prove to your readers that you actually have it.
It was nice of Darin to simply ignore and not publish my comment on his blog asking him if the problems with his contests had been resolved. What a great guy. Maybe I’ll send him a free T-shirt with the logo “SCAM”. Speaking of free T-shirts, what a great idea that was of Darin’s. I guess the life of a superstar blogger leaves no time for dealing with the little folk.
Three cheers for Darin.
@Angel
Superstar blogger?
I hear of darin twice. Once when he bought an ad for traffic on John Chow and now when John Cow talks of this scam.
Wow, I didn’t know this was still ongoing. I visit Darin’s site and leave a comment every now and then, but lately his site has been really boring.
That con artist picture is hilarious. What a joker.
Pretty good with Photoshop, eh, John?
I really hate con artists. Losing your online rep is not good for a Make Money Online blogger.
I`m looking forward to seeing what response this brings from Darin and also the others that defended him last time, too busy to send out a few prizes pfff, turn it up.
Wow. Not having the stuff when promotions is a major no no, even announcing you don’t afterwards is too - he should have just gone and bought the stuff instead of conning people like this.
I think we will be reading a post regarding this on this on his blog. Btw, I thought that mugshot was read except for the “con artist” sign.
He should just give it up. His reputation is shot. Taking photos with big name bloggers is pretty bold; to post them on his site smacks of an “in your face” attitude.
That’s a pretty bold move - to offer a contest with such high value prizes knowing that you’re not going to follow through. That’s like asking for blog suicide. Does this guy just not care about his reputation?
IMO, that is the trouble when you are trying to run a campaign on a wrong forecast or small budget.
That should serve a lesson to Darrin. It’s good that somebody has the guts to voice this out so that it will serve as a lesson to those who would attempt to promotional stunts like that.
A crazy guy. Hopefully he’ll swallow his pride and admit that he doesn’t really have the prizes.
I never visited his site and will not out of principal.
Most people are honest in this blogging world but like anywhere you will always get bad eggs.
What are these young entrepreneurs thinking? Promising things and can’t deliver… Bloggers will rip you to shreds. Nice to google your name and find out you’re a scam artist…
That’s a grand slam, posting his mug shot in your post. I wonder how he is gonna recover even after you take it down when you received your PS3. If ever.
Speaking of CON-test artist, contestblogger also totally killed Ashwin Khanna. Guess you can’t piss off people by going back on your word.
http://www.contestblogger.com/we-totally-killed-ashwin-khanna-dude/
I am NOT a con-artist.
Browie.info gave away an ipod Nano and I will have a new post with the winner and her pictures.
I give my prizes away, just like John Cow.
I left a post on his blog this morning commenting on the latest post and a bit of a BTW where are the prizes??? not surprisingly it was up briefly then removed, he doesn’t even have to guts to defend his obviously hopeless position… true colors I say!
Heh, I hate those who promise things but can’t provide them. I’ll make sure that my contest is fully up to speed
Thanks Milk Man!
I was going to end up posting about him sooner or later, but I guess you beat me to it. The 4gb he gave away doesn’t even seem to be new and looks like he brought it to blog world to use. He went to blog world not to apologize, but to gain friends and his reputation back and it seems to have worked. Ms Danielle even posted about his “reputation” and said she understand about having “problems in life”.
Well, we’ll soon see what he’s up to.
-Mike
He had NOT followed through his promise of contest prizes to you and others, yet you still gave him so many linkbacks and free publicity?
Oh gosh, what signals are we sending out these days?
BTW John, the blog’s name is Contest beat and not Contest blogger!
What a joker. He gave that dude his own USB stick. Well, his life problems didn’t stop him jetting off to expos, partying with bloggers, posing in free shirts, setting up a radio show, etc. etc. It’s a scam and it’s BS. And he censors comments about this too.
damn who can with this guy!
For reminder.. Never do contest if you can’t give it….
For my first contest, I didn’t have a budget, but wanted to promise something cool, so I gave away my own Motorola Q phone. It wasn’t new, but it was a nice prize and I disclosed that it was used. Since then, I’ve been giving away money. Just yesterday, I drew a winner for my MyBlogLog contest and I paid the $100 prize within a few hours. There’s no reason to delay when it comes to contest prizes. Especially now, when there’s scammers and con artists putting everyone on the defense. Have your prizes ready to go.
@shy_guy - I agree. That’s the reason I have been putting off creating a contest. With the dental operations I am going through, I doubt that I’d be creating contests anytime soon.
The fastest way to kill your rep is to offer something and not deliver. TThis is a great example because before this post I had no idea who this guy was. Now I will never take anything he says seriously again. Thanks for the heads up Cow Man!
Jeeez. What can you expect from a turd who uses his 2 year old son as a gimmick to draw traffic….. The dumb assed catch phrase appears to be “whatever that means”. What a tard.
It’s worth the world.
@PinoyTech: The best advice I think I could give for anyone’s first contest (other than the obvious “don’t scam”) is that you should check out other contests, plan, and then run your plan by someone who’s done it to make sure you’ve thought about everything. My first contest turned out to be a horrible failure because I did some pretty dumb stuff in the beginning like making it really uninviting to enter, etc. So just fine tune all the details ahead of time and get someone who’s done it to tell you it’s ready before launching.
I have a used PS2 I will sell him for $40 plus shipping. LOL
Who took offense?
Why would you hold a contest and not follow through?? As a new blogger this is personally something that I would worry about first is having the “goods” before dishing them out. If he doesn’t have the prizes, he should say so, and at least have offered to pay the price worth of the prizes to winners… shame
Online Reputation means a lot in blogosphere, but surely his reputation won’t be a problem with only a few complaining from a few bloggers.
[...] not the first) winner who had won and is still waiting for their prizes. The cow felt tricked and questioned Darin’s credibility and reputation. I’ve also took part in Darin’s last contest to win an iPhoneand this must be the only time I [...]
Can I ask who took offense to the mugshot and why? I can’t think of an image for appropriate for this person.
to be fair, cow, you also have backed out, or changed the rules, of your own contest “mid season” in the past as well. You felt your reasons were valid enough but in my opinion should have still “manned up” and taken care of that current period.
(I apologize if you did do that or if my understanding of the situation was wrong).
It does suck when a prize that is promised isn’t given out. Coming from someone that enters things often and really looks forward to the chance to win something, it sucks to get excited and then be disappointed when nothing happens. It’s also really disheartening to learn of bogus, staged and sneaky “contest” that blogs sometimes come up with.
(this wasn’t directed at the cow, just brought up the frustration from the past)
6 months for a USB? Now thats a looong time.
[...] of emails, messing around, and a myriad of excuses, am still yet to receive it. About the same time John Cow got in touch with me and said that he hadn’t received the Playstation 3 he supposedly [...]
It was nice of Darin to simply ignore and not publish my comment on his blog asking him if the problems with his contests had been resolved. What a great guy. Maybe I'll send him a free T-shirt with the logo “SCAM”. Speaking of free T-shirts, what a great idea that was of Darin's. I guess the life of a superstar blogger leaves no time for dealing with the little folk.
Three cheers for Darin.