For some reason, my computer can't access/read/check out any today.com site, either browser. Oh, I can use a different computer and get through but it seems that today.com has blocked my computer from accessing at all, even to read a today.com blog (someone else's).
Anyone else have this happen or am I just their least favorite person?
They put a link in the left-hand sidebars of the Exile blogs (but not in the non-Exile blogs) that says "Blog Directory." It's under the heading "Cool Sites," which makes it look as if we, the authors of the blogs, are personally recommending that blog directory to our readers.
If you click on the "Blog Directory" link, first you will get the "Passion Search" pop-up ad, but if you wait about 15 seconds, you will get a second pop-up. That one is from "Adult-free-web-cam.com" with links to "Sexcam," "Gay Web Cam," "Livesex," and "Porn Video."
And, yes, you guessed it, adult-free-web-cam.com is registered to Amosely Corp. of Toronto, the site owned by the owners of Today.com. (And the directory itself, blogmad.net, is registered to Mainstream Mails -- sound familiar? -- at Today.com's Pennsylvania office address.)
I've seen two versions of this pop-up. They both have a photograph of a topless woman on the top, next to the words "Free Porn In Your Email."
Here's a screenshot. My graphic skills aren't very good, but if the image is too small to read, if you click on it, you should get a slightly bigger copy. (I blacked out the topless woman to keep this site PG.)
(edited 9/27/09 for clarity)
If you go to your old blogs and click on any of the internal links -- such as the categories listed below the blog titles or the links to the comments -- you get a full-page pop-up ad (which gets around my browser's pop-up blocker) for a dating site called PassionSearch.
Again it looks like they are applying the ad ONLY to the "Exile" blogs. I did a spot check of several of the Exile blogs and several of the current blogs, and the PassionSearch ad showed up only on the Exile blogs.
Poetic Shutterbug wrote, in the comments section of the previous post, "I found the post and when I clicked on the link to get to the post a new page came up with porn photos and links. That happened three times. I couldn't even get to the post. So, I guess they are up to their old tricks again. It's pretty sad."
I tried it with my old blog, and found the same thing. It's really unbelievable. I feel as if they had taken a dump all over my work.
I took screen shots:
The porn ads take up more than one screen. If you scroll down past that, you get to my blog -- but it's covered by a translucent black overlay, so it can't be read:
If I hit "page down" 36 times (!), I finally get to the end of the overlay:
I tested a few of Today's currently-active blogs, and this didn't happen, so it looks like they did it only to the Exile blogs.
Perhaps they think it's a joke.
It may be worth reporting it to Google -- Google hates when you have this kind of misdirection.
Editing to add: If you want to report them to Google,here's the place to do it: Google spam report
P.S. I'm wondering if there might be a defamation lawsuit in this. They are hurting the reputation associated with our pen names by making it look, to web searchers, as if we are ourselves were porn spammers. I put a lot of work into building up the credibility and reputation of my writing name, and I don't want to see it destroyed by these clowns.
Editing again to add: I just looked up "Celebrity-frenzy.com" which is the name on the top of the porn-ad box, and (why am I not surprised?) the domain is owned by Amosely, which is one of the Today companies that we've come across before.
Update 9/16/09: Today.com removed the overlays this morning! I just love stories with happy endings. A big round of applause to everyone who made this happen by putting the pressure on Today.
I was just browsing on the Today site, and I saw that of the ten blogs on the front-page "Top Blogs" list, three were inactive.
So I guess that's a business model, of a sort, for Today.com -- they encourage people to write by promising income from page views that will accumulate slowly, over time -- encouraging the bloggers to take the long view -- and then Today gets rid of a lot of the bloggers, one way or another, and keeps that long-term income for themselves.
I encourage everyone to try and undo any links you may still have to your Today blogs -- either links that you have placed on other sites such as social networking sites, or links that other people have placed from their own sites, that point to your Today blog(s).
If you go to Yahoo.com and search on "link:yourblogname.today.com" you'll get a list of everyone who has linked to the blog. (Doing this search on Yahoo returns far more items than a similar search on Google.) (Set the "Show inlinks" box at the top to "Except for this domain" to filter out all the internal links, so the list will be easier to read).
I found places there that linked to me that I had forgotten about. I wrote to some of those people, and explained the situation, and they were very sympathetic and took the links down right away.
The de-linking worked. While I was at Today, my LOST blog had a Google page rank of 3. By de-linking as much as I could, I was able to get the page rank to drop to 2.
That means fewer hits for Today. It also means less competition for my new LOST blog. When I first started my new blog, the Today blog was showing up higher on many searches, which was very frustrating. That doesn't happen any more.
The three inactive blogs in Today's current top ten aren't blogs by Exiles, and I don't know why those particular individuals left, whether they were kicked out, discouraged by pay cuts or the oppressive atmosphere, or whether life simply got in the way. But I think that many of the blogs written by Exiles, which were popular blogs to begin with, must still be doing well at Today, still bringing in hits even though they haven't been updated in months. Those are hits that are coming in now because of all the hard work we did then to set up our blogs for long-term growth, hits that were promised to us, hits that Today took for itself using fraudulent business practices. It's only fair to try to reverse that.
Photo "Broken Chain" by Austin Osuide:
I am now one of the latest Today.com exiles. My Today blogs were Caregiving Daughter and Taking Care of Me. I've known that I wanted to leave since April, but I wanted to hit the $50 payout first. I finally hit it in June, and I received my check this week. Now I can speak freely and move on.
Last December, I applied with Today.com to be a paid blogger. I had never blogged before, but I thought I could write about my experiences caring for my mother. It thought it would be a healthy way for me to talk about my feelings and struggles, and hopefully help others going through the same thing.
I was accepted into the pay per post program, and I delved into this new world of blogging. It was so fun and I learned a lot. Most of what I learned was from the other bloggers. The community was very supportive and helpful.
From the beginning, I understood that Today.com reviews each blog and may adjust pay up or down based on the performance of the blog. I was a bit worried that I was lured in with the $1 per post, then I could soon be dropped to .002 per unique visit. I worked hard on my blog and tried to increase my traffic. I used a lot of methods recommended by the Today.com administrators including Entrecard and Reddit. I began to feel more secure because many of the bloggers I had gotten to know were doing very well and being paid month after month.
From time to time, I would read some comments on the forum from bloggers who had been dropped from the pay per post program. They would often ask why they had been dropped and what they could do to return to being paid per post. The answers were vague and unclear. I thought maybe they were dropped because their traffic was low or their topic was not easy to monetize. I couldn't understand why the administrators wouldn't share the results of their "blog review" so the bloggers would know where they stood.
The only real feedback that Today seemed to give was through their monthly awards. They would recognize the months Most Popular Blog and the Editor's Choice. Sometimes they would give a special mention to other blogs. Each award came with a cash prize of up to $250.
I felt quite content with Today.com, but gradually little things started to annoy me. They started paying less for traffic from social networks. This was not announced, they just did it. They fessed up when some of the bloggers noticed and asked about it in the forums. Then, there was the whole Entrecard fiasco. When Entrecard changed to having paid ads, Today.com didn't want it on the blogs. Enough bloggers complained that they agreed we could keep the widgets if the ads were unpaid, but we would not be paid for the traffic at all. They also had it set up so we could use Google Analytics on our blogs, but it suddenly stopped working after a few weeks. Some bloggers began to wonder if Today didn't want us to see our true numbers. Bloggers were also pressured to sell products with their blogs using Today's affiliate program.
For me, the final straw came in April when a massive number of blogs lost their pay per post status. A couple of threads started up in the forums asking why they were dropped. I was shocked that some of the names were some of the top bloggers! Blogs that had recently won awards were now being demoted. It didn't make sense. They also dropped the pay per post from some of the bloggers who tried to mentor and help newer bloggers with SEO techniques. Some of the forum posts got rather heated. Instead of providing answers, accounts were closed and posts were deleted. This went on for a couple of days. I soon received my notice that I was dropped, too. It seemed like they removed the pay per post from just about everyone.
After all of this happened, I started to research other ways to blog. I realized that even though it's more work to set up, having a self-hosted blog would give me more control. Any money that I earn with it would be all mine, not shared with a shady company. More importantly, my content is 100% mine, not sold for pennies to someone else. My new blog is Alzheimer's Disease Caregiver. I've added all of the Today exiles to my blogroll, and I would be honored if fellow exiles should choose to add my blog as well.
So, here I am. Saying goodbye to Today, and looking forward to tomorrow.
...their unreasonable dumping of bloggers.
I've added a couple more exiles to the blogroll here, including Dr. Faustroll and my own mom - who got tossed because back when she started her today.com blog I was helping her with it and covering it for a week while she was away, so she had added me as a contributor.
Of course, once I'd been locked out of today.com I could no longer log in and get to her blog (I assume; I never bothered to try). Apparently having a banned user listed as contributor is a major offense though.
Both of my kids (Jessica and Tamara) are today.com exiles as well; they deleted some posts after my issues with today.com and were tossed for it. No biggie - I'm sure they too would have been tossed for the crime of being related to me at some point anyway. I didn't see that particular crime listed in their Terms & Conditions, but it must be in the fine print somewhere or they would simply have asked mom to remove the totally useless listing from her blog and left her alone, right? They are such a$$holes over there! Picking on my mom!
Also added Ms Teri's newest Top Of the Chart blog to the blogroll
