Gender Bias In Internet Marketing Industry – StomperNet

Recently I heard some grumbling and insinuations about StomperNet having a gender bias against women. I really didn’t pay a lot of attention to it, however I did remark to Brent when I saw the first Net Effects. I noticed that there were no women in the picture and the first thing I said was what a big PR mistake they had just made. And then today I read the post on Lynn Terry’s blog titled StomperNet Responds.

I guess I was right. For StomperNet it was a PR faux paux extraordinaire but was it anything more than that?

I really don’t think so.

First, let me give you a little background. StomperNet recently did a HUGE give-away of their Stomping The Search Engines 2 program (which is excellent BTW) if you signed up for their new monthly magazine Net Effect. They also gave away the first issue along with something like SIXTEEN bonus items. Well…the picture on the cover of the inaugural issue was a picture of the StomperNet staff…all men. And every bonus that was offered from their circle of “internet marketing guru friends” was from male-owned companies.

So now you can probably imagine the comments on blogs and Twitter, etc. According to a response on Lynn’s blog from Andy Jenkins of StomperNet, people got really nasty and down right mean.

Okay, I can understand, as you can see what some people were thinking.

Call me easy-going, call me naive, call me what you want, but I’ve been around for a long time (I’m a boomer you know) and I don’t think what some people are saying (discrimination, shutting out women, etc.) is what happened at all. I just think men in general are wired differently than women. When it comes business, or anything competitive for that matter, men approach the subject with everything they can muster. They go after the challenge to conquer it. Women tend to examine and approach things on their own terms thus are slower to conquer. Men can give their all to more than one thing, where women tend to divide themselves. And because the internet marketing industry is really rather new, women just haven’t caught up to the men in terms of concurring the industry. And as a woman, I think that’s just fine.

I’ll conquer internet marketing when I’m ready to conquer internet marketing and “the men” won’t hold me back. In fact, if anyone holds me back, it’ll be ME.

On a less general note, I think the guys at StomperNet just got so damn excited about what they were doing, they didn’t even think about the PR ramifications of the “all male” pic on the cover of their inaugural magazine, nor did it even cross their mind that all the bonuses they gave away were from male-owned companies. Was it stupid? Probably. But was it to intentionally “cut out” women? NO WAY.

You don’t have to agree with me on this issue as I know not everyone will, but that’s how I feel and as a woman trying to “make it” in the “male dominated internet marketing world”, I thought it was appropriate to weigh in.

Come on folks, can’t we just get back to business? And damn yes, that’s my affiliate link, I’m trying to make a living in this crazy (but oh so FUN) industry too!

Ciao!

Reba

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StomperNet Insiders’ DVD of the Month-Volume 1

Brent and I got home from our trip to California on Sunday night and my box from StomperNet was sitting on the front porch carefully hidden by the newspapers that our neighbors had kindly moved from the driveway for us. Yay! I had requested Monday as a vacation day because I knew I’d be tired from the trip and I wanted a day to work on my business, timing couldn’t have been better.

If you read my review of the order process when I ordered my free Stomping the Search Engines 2 that came with a free issue of Net Effect, the new internet marketing trade journal from StomperNet, you’ll remember that I purchased ALL the upsells and the box on the front porch had not only my Net Effect magazine, but 18 DVDs as well. Talk about overwhelming!

Anyway, I decided to dig in and started by watching the Net Effect Companion DVD, it’s called StomperNet Insiders’ DVD of the Month Volume 1. This first volume was free just like the magazine. Going forward it will cost $19.97 a month, and in case you didn’t remember, the magazine, Net Effect, will be another $39.97 a month. That’s a grand total of $59.94 each and every month (plus shipping), but after seeing the information covered by these publications, I’m thinking it may well be worth every penny.

I’ll be honest, when I was offered the companion DVD during the order process, my first thought was, “Sure, I’ll take the free month, and then I’ll just cancel after I get it.” I’m sure that’s what a lot of people thought. However, now I’m thinking twice about making that move.

I haven’t had time to read the Net Effect magazine yet, but I did watch the DVD and I can’t tell you how impressed I am. I’ve been studying internet marketing for quite some time and search engine optimization has always baffled me. I seemed to understand the simple strategies but for the life of me couldn’t wrap my mind around all the details. It was just too overwhelming for me. Keyword lists, landing pages, Web 2.0 sites, LSI, and all that SEO “stuff” was just too hard. So, I never did it.

Now, here we go again. More SEO “stuff”. But somehow after watching this DVD it doesn’t seem so hard. I don’t know, maybe it’s the presentation, maybe Andy just has a way of simplifying the details, or maybe I’m just ready this time, I’m not sure, but it just doesn’t seem so hard now. What I do know now is that I’m going to do this stuff because I’m sick and tired of fooling around and not making any money. And if search engine optimization is a way to get more people to my site, then I’m going to do it.

So, what did the DVD include?

It mostly covered linking both within your website and links coming to your site from other websites. It explained how the search engines read your pages and assign where it will rank. And best of all, it covered why linking to subpages in your site will get you more traffic than always linking to your homepage.  Andy Jenkins shared some secrets on how to make the search engine spiders read your site the way you want them to read it. And at the end, they gave a list of authority sites you can use to link back to your site. Tons of great information that I have never seen anywhere else.

Having this kind of information can truly make or break a website, I just wish StomperNet hadn’t given it away for free. That’s another reason I think I’ll stay on with the subscription. I know a lot of people signed up for the free trial but will cancel for various reasons, not because the information isn’t valuable and worth every penny, but because they can’t afford it right now or just don’t want to spend the money for whatever reason. So, since not everyone will have this kind of great information going forward, it will give me a edge and everyone needs and edge, right?

So, how do I plan to use this information to benefit you as my reader?

Last week I posted that I needed a plan and that I would post one before I left on my trip to California…well, I made my plan and posted the 2008-09 Editorial Schedule for this site and I plan on keeping that schedule. I also stated that I wanted to make public the things I do to make this site an authority site and still plan to do that. Many of the things I’m learning in these DVDs I will use to grow this site and as I use the concepts, it’s my plan to write about them as a case study. So be sure to subscribe to the feed and my newsletter list so you can stay updated.

By the way, the free offer is available. If you want a free copy of Stomping The Search Engines 2 along with the first issue of Net Effect, just click through one of my links. All the “extra” bonuses they were offering through last Monday are gone, but that shouldn’t stop you from ordering the STSE2 and Net Effect for free, or well, for the price of shipping. It’s great information that just may make the difference in your success.

I’ll report back in a few days with the steps I’ve initiated using the new information I’ve learned.

Cheers!

Reba

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Did You Get The Free Stomping The Search Engines 2?

It’s really kind of hard to believe but StomperNet is giving away more free stuff! I thought they gave away enough last week when I got Stomping The Search Engines 2 and the new Net Effects printed trade journal for the cost of shipping. But here they go again ~ if you want to see for yourself, just click the link and skip my post ~

StomperNet Crazy Good Unbelievable Free Bonuses
for trying Net Effect Trade Journal!!

Basically, here’s what happened. Brad and Andy got together with their internet marketing buddies and asked them if they wanted to join in on the free stuff they were giving away, and sure enough, a bunch of them did.

So today, Brad and Andy released a NEW video announcing all the AMAZING bonus offers they were able to round up. Everyone who takes them up on their free offer to try their new trade journal, Net Effects, will get an unbelievably long list of free bonuses . And don’t worry, they said if you already signed up, like I did, we’d automatically get the bonuses and don’t have to do anything else. But the thing is, the bonuses will only be offered until Monday, September 15th.

These free bonuses are NOT like the crap bonuses you get with some internet marketing products. These bonuses come from the top marketers in the field and you’ll get TWELVE different bonuses from TWELVE different top marketers. I watched the video but I can’t remember all of them, so click over and watch the video now. Sign up for Net Effects and get the first month and Stomping The Search Engines 2 for free (well, you’ll have to pay for shipping). AND, you’ll get these other TWELVE bonuses worth $1000s and $1000s of dollars for free too.

But be sure to do it before Monday, September 15th because if you wait, you’ll miss the TWELVE FREE BONUSES. And after all that, I’m not even sure if the original offer will still be good, I’m guessing yes, but without the bonuses, but I’m not sure, so just go sign-up now. There’s no reason to pass up all this free stuff if the reason you’re reading this website is to learn how to market an internet business. Just go sign-up and get just about everything you’ll need to make your website successful. Here’s the link:

StomperNet Crazy Good Unbelievable Free Bonuses
for trying Net Effect Trade Journal!!

Oh ~ However, I do want to warn you, when you sign-up, you will be offered several upsells. They’re great products and I purchased them ALL, but if you don’t want to spend the money, don’t worry, you don’t have to, just click the “no thanks” button. If you want to read about my experience when I placed my order for the free stuff, just click here.

Reba

P.S. You only have a few days to get these, so go check them out NOW!

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Stomping The Search Engines 2 Giveaway

So, I don’t know how many of you got all the emails last week about the free give-away that Brad Fallon and Andy Jenkins were doing with their Stomping The Search Engines 2, but let me tell you, I was inundated with email from all the “guru type” internet marketers wanting me to get the free e-course through their link. And believe me, I was interested because this was the biggest internet marketing give-away I had ever seen!

In case you haven’t given your name to all these guys yet and didn’t get all the emails, let me fill you in. Brad Fallon and Andy Jenkins wrote an audio course several years back called Stomping The Search Engines. It was a success and became a big seller in the internet marketing circles. After that, they coupled up and started a high-end membership site for people who are serious about search engine optimization. The site is called StomerNet and it costs $797 PER MONTH (yeah, I said per MONTH) to be a member.

Well, I guess they started to realize that they were missing out on a huge market of people who can’t afford the $800 a month price tag and decided to re-write their first product and came out with a sequel. At the same time, in order to catch this same market, they decided to create a printed trade journal and call it Net Effects.

So, being the great guys they are and to get Net Effects out to the masses, they decided to give the new Stomping The Search Engines 2 away for FREE when you subscribed to Net Effects. And to top that off, they were giving away the first issue of Net Effects too. I mean, who could pass up that deal? Free stuff!

It should have clued me in when I got all the emails that there was more to this “give away”. Why would anyone take the time to bother their email list with something they weren’t going to earn money on, right? Well, me, being the internet marketing hoarder I am, of course wanted my free stuff and went to make my order.

Poor Brad and Andy. There were so many people gobbling up the free offer that their servers went down. They ended up delaying the launch until the next day when they could get their act together. I made my order after everything was fixed and it was as slick as ice. Yeah, you go to make your order and even before you put in your name they’re offering another free item ( a DVD to go with Net Effects that will cost you $20 a month after the first month). I say okay to the free DVD making a mental note to cancel after I get the free one and $12.86 for shipping, press the order button.

Then came Offer #1 that was ONLY good at that very moment, and you got it, it was a really good offer.

Offer #1 was to purchase five new courses that hadn’t been released yet. The offer was sweet, purchase one at half-price and get the other four for free. These courses will retail at $197 each when they are put on the market. So, for $97 I’ll get five new DVD courses, a total of 64 DVDs. Yeah, I bought it.

Offer #2 was to purchase the “brain dump” that new StomperNet members get when they pay their first $800 payment. It’s a huge course with tons of internet marketing info. The offer was $247. Again, a pretty sweet deal and I figured since I run an internet marketing site, I need to be educated, right? So yeah, again I whipped out my debit card.

Here’s where I got a little upset but then again, I’m sure they will fix it. When I got my email receipt for the “brain dump” package, I didn’t get charged $247 as the offer said, I got charged $274! Does someone at StomperNet have dyslexia? So far I’ve emailed twice with no response. They owe me $28. I’m sure they are super busy and will eventually give me my credit, I just need to be patient. Well, it’s not like I won’t email them AGAIN this week <<wink, wink>>.

In the end I feel I got a fabulously good deal but really, I need to wait and see how good the information is. I’ll probably get everything late next week or the week after and I’ll start pouring through it. Then I’ll make a post with my assessment.

If you’re interested in getting the free deal, it’s still being offered. The links on this page are my affiliate links and if you decide to buy I’d super duper appreciate you using my link, even if you don’t buy anything, even if you just want the free stuff.

You just need to click over to the Stomping The Search Engines 2 unbelievably annoying page that starts playing announcement music loudly every time you go there (it’s okay the first time when you want to see the video, but don’t go twice ~ annoying!!). Watch the video, read about the product, and then click on the link at the bottom of the page to get signed up and order your FREE stuff.

I know not everyone has a weakness for internet marketing learning materials like me but none the less, you really should at least take advantage of the free stuff. You can’t beat an offer like this, I’m sure you see that, just hold on to your horses when you hit the upsell pages and click on the “no thanks” buttons (not like me clicking “I WANT IT”!!).

Here’s my link again, CLICK IT for:

FREE Stomping The Search Engines 2 and
FREE first issue of “Net Effects” Printed Internet Marketing Trade Journal

I’ll let you know what I think when I get the STUFF!!

Reba

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