My Online Identity

It used to be that when I surfed the net, I was anonymous. If I wanted to comment on a forum or blog or group, I could use my name or create a new one. I was an unknown.

I'm now often astonished to be linking at some random website and see that there is a list of recent visitors that includes me.  Amazing and scary. I think they do it through my blog catalog identity.In fact, if you look to the right side of this column, you'll see a recent visitors box put there by blogcatalog which tracks visitors.

I also have been amazed to visit some groups on the web and find that I have another persistent identity which has announced me. My Ning ID.

Of course, once we get started on this, I realize that my blogger ID appears everytime I try to comment on a blogger-based  blog.  On the other hand, I have a number of wordpress blogs and my identity does not seem to travel with me.  Does anyone know what Wordpress identity is used around the web? Wordpress.org?  .com?  Or any wordpress blog that I've installed and it's just a question of activating something.

I'm thinking about this since of course, the big one, is my Facebook and LinkedIn IDs which I've noticed a number of sites asking about recently.  Lastly, I just accepted to update my Windows Messenger software (whatever that is) and in the notice, it talked about my Windows Live ID which I think is their effort to be the central internet passport office.

The future sure is going to be fun....

MMO Affiliates - Very Aggressive These Days

I run the advertising on a very large educational games sites which is a great advertising location. I thought I'd share this correspondence with you. I've removed the names for discretion.

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: "Jonathan ***>
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 11:33am
>> To: spellingcity.com
>> Subject: SpellingCity.com: Business Proposal: Other
>>
>> This is an enquiry e-mail via http://www.spellingcity.com/ from:
>> Jonathan  l<jonathan@***.com>
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> My name is Jonathan ....from .....
>>
>> I would like to buy some traffic from your site. I have a very
>> interesting Business Proposal for you.
>>
>> Please contact me back ASAP. I want to close a deal with you.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Kind regards
>> --
>>
>> Jonathan 

>> Jonathan,
>>
>> Thanks for your inquiry.
>> You can site-target SpellingCity.com in Google AdWords by using their
>> placement tool.
>> Alternatively, if you prefer, you can advertise directly with us.
>> The cost for 300 x 250s is $2CPM. Minimum purchase is $1,000.
>> Other information is available on the site.
>> http://www.spellingcity.com/General/advertising.html
>>
>> If you have other ideas, please email them along.
>>
>>
>> john
>>

On Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 5:31 AM, Jonathan Eshel <jonathan@adotomi.com> wrote:
> Hi John,
>
> Hope you have had a great weekend and thanks for your response... :-)
>
> We would like you to place reviews (which we can provide)  for our MMO games
> on your site with a link to join the game. Every user that then joins the
> game will earn you a commission in addition to your display advertising.
>
> Please can you let me know:
>
> 1) What countries does most of your traffic come from?
> 2) With what companies are you monetising reviews for?
> 3) How many MMO players are you having visiting you each month?
>
> I am looking forward to your answers and to progressing forward...
>
> Best regards
>
> Jonathan
>
> On 17/02/2010 22:54, Mayor, SpellingCity.com wrote:
>>

You are about the fifth MMO world vendor to contact us this month with the
promise of riches based on performance. The answer is no.

If you'd like to advertise, you have the info.  I think at least one
of them is currently advertising on the site.  Good luck.

john 

BTW, the MMO vendors targetting SpellingCity:

FreeRealms
JumpStarts 3DOnline World

Adotomi - This seems to be an affiliate network focused on games.

SecretBuilders
and some others whose names I've forgotten....

Hardest Unsubscribe Evers - What are yours?

The CAN SPAM law has helped but there are emailing lists that it is hard to get off.  What's your worst experience in trying to unsubscribe?  I had two this morning. I'm tired of getting so much email that I don't read so I'm trying to get off lists.

Here's one from Home School Enrichment, Inc. When you click unsubscribe, you get to a screen that requires you to fill in a captcha and enter your email address. Seems like a lot.  But then, you still have to click on another email that they say that they'll send you to get off the list.  Of course, I clicked on it twenty minutes ago and so far, no unsubscribe email has arrived (surprised?).  Probably, they make sure that their marketing emails are not labelled as SPAM and filtered out. Is it too cynical of me to wonder if they make the same effort for their unsubscribe confirmations? Of course, to be clear, I think the idea of adding an email to confirm your unsubscribe on top of the two manual steps of correctly typing in your email and filling in a captcha (type these hard-to-read letters into that box correctly) is an aggressive antisocial way to maintain their mailing list designed to make it difficult to get off their lists.  Is that compliant with the Can-SPAM?
PS - I just rechecked my email and their email confirmation did arrive. I clicked on it and got a pleasant: "Sorry to see you go" message. I still think that last step is one step too many but it did appear to work.

The Lowe's Hardward store list unsubscribe button generates an email back to them automatically to unsubscribe.  Nice concept but not if you are me trying to get off their lists.  Here's the gotyas. 

- Unless you are  in the email system that has the email on the list, it won't work (to explain, I forward my home email to my work email so since I was in my work email system, they'll get an unsubscribe email from an address that they don't recognize so I won't be unsubscribed)

-  Unless you are on a system in which they can call up Outlook, it won't  unsubscribe. This is where it gets funny. My home email system is a web email and when I hit the link, it tries to open a mail handler on my system (Outlook Express) which I have never connected.  And of course, while my office has Outlook, it's got a different "return-to" email address. So as far as I know, there's no way for me to get off their mailing list. 



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