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March 10, 2008
 A reader named Martin left a comment / question to my post on Search Engine Ranking Factors. I started to just approve his comment and reply to him there, but I felt it deserved more attention than that.
Here's Martin's comment:
Hi Fred,
You can make your own choice about approving this comment, or not.
Here is a link to a post by James:
www.jamesbrausch.org/can-rasof-work-for-weight-loss
I include the whole text in case that link stops working:
Can RaSof Work For "Weight Loss"?
February 11th, 2008 by Diego
Aloha,
I was asked today why my weight loss site wasn't on page 1 of Google for "weight loss" if RaSof was so great.
OK. Fair enough. I had never bothered to optimize WeightLossDude.com for "weight loss" until now. Today, I got the score up to a little over 1200 (this site is scored above 1700 for "internet business" for comparison purposes).
Now, we wait a couple weeks.
I'll let you know when we are there.
Ho hum. I can't believe folks still think this stuff is rocket science... or after dozens of demonstrations that people somehow believe that RaSof doesn't work. It bores me a little, but I'll be happy to do one more demonstration.
Watch and see the magic... see... nothing up my sleeves. I'm letting you know the very day I do the optimizations using RaSof. 100% transparency here. We'll talk again in a couple of weeks.
Regards,
-Diego
Well I checked at the time and WeightLossDude was about 150 for me in Google, with about 500 Yahoo links on the Yahoo page. There weren't many posts.
I was ready to be REALLY impressed with this demo. It really is a tough market, and his site has had very little else going for it. Few posts, poor Alexa ranking, few links, etc
As of last week in Google I find him at 108. A nice jump but nowhere near the first page ie top 10. Just now I found him at 167 so I'm not sure.
It's now over a month, and to his credit he hasn't taken down the post, or increased the posts on weightlossdude much at all, or put up many more links (only 600ish now.)
I wonder what will happen from here...?
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Here's my response:
Hey Martin. Thanks for stopping by.
I don't know what will happen from here with James' site(s). That's out of my control. However, you asked a very good question as to why it's not in the top 10 since he unleashed the magical power of Rasof on it. The current status is what I expected... I would have been surprised if it would have climbed into the top 10 or anywhere even close.
Some Background Information:
It's been almost a month (2/11/2008 to 3/10/2008) since James, or whoever (see my post Will the Real Blogger Please Stand Up) posted that entry on his blog.
Oh, for those of you scratching your head as to who Diego is, James now signs some of his posts as Diego, which is Spanish for James.
What about the Magic?
I did see that post about his weight loss site and rasof, and I made some notes on the site's stats at that time. Please note that I didn't waste any time on this activity, I simply plugged the site URL into my software that I use for SEO (which will be an upcoming product) and it returns the stats. Like you say, his weight loss site has improved in ranking, but nowhere near what he inferred it'd do. Plus, based on his other misinformation, I'm sure his minions are engaged in a link building procedure blitz that he didn't mention - that alone would account for the nominal ranking increase.
Yes, it's moved up, but unless you're on the first page, you aren't likely to get many clicks. Even then, if your choice of keyword phrase was poor, you won't be guaranteed a lot of traffic: see my post Good SERP Ranking is NOT Enough. I can tell you that the number of clicks you get decreases exponentially as your ranking decreases. In other words, number 1 gets a lot, number 2 a little less, number 10 a lot less, and after that... only a comparative few.
The Facts:
Here's what I saw on 2/11/2008 for his weight loss site:
Ranking in Google for keyword phrase "Weight Loss": N/A (I'll take your word for 150, but it didn't show up for me at all that day)
Google PR of 3
Google Back Links of 0 (known for not being accurate)
Yahoo Back Links of 309
Alexa Ranking of 610,792
Alexa Back Links of N/A (slow and inaccurate too)
Here's what I see today:
Ranking in Google for keyword phrase "Weight Loss: 97 (I don't count ads with my software so my score is higher than yours by a few clicks)
Google PR of 2
Google Back Links of 53 (known for not being accurate)
Yahoo Back Links of 402
Alexa Ranking of 441,840
Alexa Back Links of N/A (slow and inaccurate too)
Was it Magic or Just Hocus Pocus?
He's added almost 100 or so links according to Yahoo (Google back link count is horribly inaccurate and usually way behind so I just include it for those that want to see it, I don't use this number), and the site has moved up about 50 clicks to around 100. Not very magical at all.
What about my Aching Back?
I also read his post on 3/3/2008 about making his father-in-law a web site for his chiropractic business and using Rasof to dominate the search engines. James made his father-in-law a web site a few years ago and the post on 3/3 was bragging about how it ranked number one on Google, MSN, and Yahoo for the very, very, (clear throat and roll eyes here) very non-competitive term "Salt Lake Chiropractor". Like the claims of good rankings that he promised for his weight loss site, he claims that the number one rankings of this site are solely due to Rasof.
In this same post (about the chiropractor site), he makes at least one COMPLETE BOLD FACE LIE, stating that there are zero(0), none, nothing, nada links for the site in any, yes he said ANY search engine. He claims that the lack of links proves that Rasof is the "magic" sauce and that people like me, who know otherwise, are a bunch of liars. Yep, that's me, liar, liar, pants on fire! The only problem is THAT HE LIED - THERE ARE LINKS, there were links, and there have been links. I read his article at 7:42am eastern time the morning he posted it. At that time here's what I saw for stats on his father-in-laws site:
Google PR of 2
Google Back Links of 0 (known for not being accurate anyway)
Yahoo Back Links of 72
Alexa Back Links of 13 (slow and inaccurate too)
When I looked at a sampling of the links Yahoo reported, they were from articles... he'd been using his article marketing software or one of his employees or interns had been submitting articles, or maybe his father-in-law submitted them himself. Whatever the case, the fact is that James preaches and pushes article marketing to build inbound links and get traffic to a site. Well Duh, it works! So he knows good and well that there are links, yet he writes in his post that none exist. He said look quick because the fact that there are no links may change now that he's exposed the site as a test case... we'll it's not going to change in the few hours between when he posted and when I checked. I'm also not sure why his posting about it would make people rush out and link to it; I don't get that at all. Sounds more like a way out of a lie to me.
Surely THIS is Magic?
Why did I mention those article links and are they so important? Article links are one way links, which boost search engine rankings better than two way link exchanges. So even though there's not a huge number of links, they're the good kind of links to have for ranking purposes. The good rankings for the chiropractor site are because it's such an easy term to rank for, combined with these inbound one way links. It's like playing a football game and the other team failing to show up because there's no competition to speak of: 429,000 in the whole complete world that Google sees! No magic here, you'd really have to screw up bad to fail!
Internet Business on the other hand has 165,000,000 - look that term up on Google and see who shows up... that's right, me, that's me, the liar, liar, pants on fire guy!
What about his new .org Site?
He also wrote a post on 1/28/2008 about his new .org site ranking well (he claims #11) for the keyword phrase "internet business blog" when it did not, does not, and has not. If it ever did rank well for that term, it was a momentary blip on the screen and I wasn't looking at the time. Since the day he bragged about it, I've had that url in my SEO software app I'm developing, so it gets included in my more or less daily checks, here's what I show:
Keyword: Internet Business Blog
Date: Google Rank, Yahoo Rank, MSN Rank
3/9/2008: 44, 113, 68
3/8/2008: 44, 64, 68
3/7/2008: 45, 73, 33
3/6/2008: 46, 72, 39
3/4/2008: 44, 59, 61
3/3/2008: 42, 61, 55
3/1/2008: 43, 61, 48
2/28/2008: 42, 60, 48
2/24/2008: 56, 53, 62
2/22/2008: 43, 53, 20
2/21/2008: 53, 50, 19
2/20/2008: 52, 51, 24
2/19/2008: 53, 53, 33
2/18/2008: 53, 41, 35
2/15/2008: 72, 39, 59
2/14/2008: 77, 0, 59
2/13/2008: 38, 41, 60
2/12/2008: 243, 45, 53
2/11/2008: 134, 44, 110
2/8/2008: 148, 42, 35
2/6/2008: 142, 0, 7
2/5/2008: 86, 0, 7
2/4/2008: 118, 0, 10
2/3/2008: 141, 61, 12
2/1/2008: 657, 0, 11
1/30/2008: 139, 0, 7
1/29/2008: 188, 2, 4
1/28/2008: 188, 2, 0
Again, not exactly "magic". Notice when his post was published (1/28/2008) claiming a #11 ranking on Google, it was showing up ranked at 188.
While I'm at it here are the rankings for his .org site for
Keyword: Internet Business (in my software, a 0 means that it's not in the top 1000 entries for that term)
Date: Google Rank, Yahoo Rank, MSN Rank
3/9/2008: 0, 0, 230
3/8/2008: 0, 0, 251
3/7/2008: 0, 0, 153
3/6/2008: 0, 0, 149
3/5/2008: 0, 0, 221
3/1/2008: 0, 0, 134
2/29/2008: 0, 0, 152
2/27/2008: 0, 0, 183
2/26/2008: 0, 0, 181
2/24/2008: 0, 0, 175
2/23/2008: 0, 0, 100
2/22/2008: 0, 0, 102
2/21/2008: 0, 0, 92
2/20/2008: 0, 0, 124
2/19/2008: 0, 0, 152
2/18/2008: 0, 0, 152
2/11/2008: 0, 0, 510
2/9/2008: 0, 0, 231
2/8/2008: 0, 0, 238
2/7/2008: 0, 0, 95
2/6/2008: 0, 0, 84
2/4/2008: 0, 0, 166
2/3/2008: 0, 0, 157
2/2/2008: 0, 0, 188
1/31/2008: 0, 0, 87
1/29/2008: 0, 0, 81
Not exactly "magic" either.
What about his Old Site, it Still Ranks in the Top 10?
Note that his old .com site continues to rank in the top 10 on Google for both of these terms (Internet Business and Internet Business Blog), even though he's not posted to it in a while. It's not been updated and still ranks well? How can that be? Don't search engines like fresh content? Yes, in fact they do. I believe that he has article directories and link directories under that old .com site which may or may not have had any submissions since the time he stopped posting to it. Even if nothing at all has changed, he has a lot of links, and I mean a lot of links, to the old .com site, so it will continue to rank well for some time. Here's what I show for it:
Google PR of 4
Google Back Links of 188 (known for not being accurate anyway)
Yahoo Back Links of 7577
Alexa Ranking of 42,794
Alexa Back Links of 116 (slow and inaccurate too)
Conclusion:
I guess James thinks all people are stupid and will not bother to verify that what he says is true. Actually I know that's what he thinks because he constantly talks about 98% of us being losers. I'm one of the few that check the facts!
Maybe he allows interns and employees post articles on his site, using his name, that are not true. He brags about how few of the articles he writes. Perhaps he did indeed write the articles I'm referring to. Either way, his name is at the end of the articles. The content in these SEO articles are simply lies to sell products that do not work. I hope that people will come to see the light, but they probably will not, and they will probably continue to buy his products. Because the fact is, that James is 100% correct, most people (maybe 98% is true, I don't know) won't check the facts and will just follow the crowd.
I've found that when someone lies about one thing, it's best to assume that they're lying about everything. Maybe he didn't write those posts, but his name is at the end of each article, and at the top of his blog. Make your own judgment and conclusion. I've pretty much stopped reading his blog. I do every now and then, but I need to completely stop. James' blog has become as negative and detrimental to successes and growth as the forums he preaches to stay away from. It's like a black hole sucking in suckers. Which is sad because there is some good information there, at least on his old blog, you just have to dig it out.
I Do Not Use Rasof:
In addition, he, or his minions, will probably continue to claim that my good rankings (as well as the good ranking of some others) are because we purchased Rasof. While it's true that several of us with really high rankings did purchase the product, we no longer use it (some never have) and we have undone any modifications to our code based on its data. I tried it. It killed my rankings. I dumped it. Any and all changes I made to my sites based on his Ranking Factors Data and Rasof have been removed months, and I mean many, many, many months ago. See my post Search Engine Ranking Factors, for my explanations of why Rasof does not work (be sure to read all my responses to the comments).
What Do I Use Then?
I have developed my own procedures and products for getting good rankings, which work. I'll release these in a product soon. So sign up to my mailing list using the form below and I'll keep you posted.
I also use and recommend Jon Leger's 3WayLinks.net service (that's an affiliate link, but I'd still recommend it even if he didn't have an affiliate program). He had a blog too (it's in my blog roll in the right column, but here's the link again.
Thanks again for your question Martin!
Until Next Time,
Fred
About the Author
Fred Black is an experienced programmer, web site developer, online business operator, systems integrator, father, husband, musician, and songwriter. Visit his Internet Business Blog at: http://www.pqInternet.com.
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Comments:
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From: Heidi
My conclusion on James Brausch, he's a liar and lazy. I don't think he does much of anything. He hires out all his work, or maybe that's lies too. But I do know that he has his Interns do his promoting for him.
He is also not someone I can trust. He once posted on his blog or rather gave the impression that he may just want to one day leave his business ... He then says he won't, but the possibility stuck in my head. And wouldn't leave.
I have also come to the conclusion that his products/services are a bunch of hype and I would not purchase them if they were the only ones available.
I find his blog more amusing than helpful. I read it now and then just to get some good laughs. I know that isn't nice but it is true. He whines and complains too much in his blog posts. I can understand rants/complaints now and then but he does it constantly.
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From: Brent Riggs
Fred,
Great post. Kind of sucks when the "facts" gets in the way of hype and depending on ignorance.
Look for a fake comment from Brausch to appear on your site, something he's well known for by any of us 98%'ers with a brain who can spot it. I'm certain that he recently tried to post a comment to my site under a false name commending his "mentor, James Brausch" who was doing such a wonderful job and taught many of the "same things you do".
I responded twice with a very nice personal email to the person who submitted the comment (suspecting all the time it was probably Brausch), trying to engage him directly. No response. Imagine that.
It's a pretty good trick to post glowing, complimentary comments on popular sites. You tickle the ears of the site owner, and get his readers interested in your sites. Good trick! Dishonest (a trait that doesn't see to violate Brausch's religion or values), but a good trick.
For most people, I wouldn't care. But Brausch's name will NEVER appear on my sites (or be left on there if it slips through). Positive or negative, he will NEVER get any of my readers if I can help it.
I protect my readers from people who are dishonest, arrogant, condescending, manipulative and who don't give a rip about their readers except for the dollar amount they send in. That seems to be the growing consensus about "Diego".
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From: Mohamed Bhimji
Hi Fred,
Not that I don't trust you or anything but YUP! You're definately #1 for the term "internet business"! And I've noticed you've been in that spot for quite some time now!
I purchased RASOF, but never got access to it - but always wondered whether it would deliver results.
I've seen mixed reviews - however increasingly more negative than positive. I will stick to reading blogs, like yours and those of authoratative SEOs that know what they are doing to build my site and increase its rankings.
...now I wish I could rank in the top xx for the term!!! :-)
Regards,
Mohamed
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From: John W. Furst
All this is perfectly in tune with my last public statement about J.B. (linked in the signature), which is from October 16, 2007.
'Good' internet marketers do:
* Show social proof
* Networking and have a high reputation
* Show proof of income
* Want their customers to succeed
I don't see J.B. doing anything of that. I guess it does not fit into a 3 hour work week.
Fred, I hope your article helps to warn enough newbies, before they loose money. And good luck with your upcoming product.
Yours
John
P.S. It's a pleasure to promote such an article on various social platforms.
P.P.S. People lets stumble, digg, sphinn, del.icio.us, ... this. You know what I mean.
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From: Boston Dentist
Hi Fred,
Very thorough analysis in your posting... :-)
Here's an expression I heard many years ago:
"When you eat meat, you must learn to spit out the bones."
In other words, take (and apply) what is useful and helpful, and throw away what is garbage. Unfortunately, it always takes some discernment and wisdom to identify exactly what's garbage, and what's gold.
I believe this maxim applies perfectly to JB.
Particularly in the early stages of his blog, he was offering what I consider to be a veritable buffet of Grade A "meat". Yes, there were a few "bones" here and there -- especially once you started dealing with him on a more "personal" level, such as the Magical Email program, etc. But the quality and quantity of the "meat" were so great, a person was hopefully able to spit out the "bones", instead of gagging on them... and digest the high-quality meat.
Unfortunately, over the last year (and probably longer), the quality and quantity of "meat" has steadily and dramatically decreased... and what his blog now offers is mostly "bones". Worse, of the occasional bits and pieces of "meat" to be found, most have simply been regurgitated by his interns and outsourcers (what an unappetizing image!!).
Nonetheless, I still scan his blog from time to time... simply because once or twice a month, I usually still manage to scrounge up the odd piece of decent-quality "meat". But overall, it's turned into a pretty disgusting "buffet" of mostly putrid cadavers -- full of thinly-disguised negativity and self-righteous boasting -- and the pickings are indeed awfully anemic.
I can definitely understand why so many people, once they recognize what JB's "banquet" has truly become, completely stop eating at his table.
Cheers!
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From: Boston Dentist
Brent,
I don't believe JB actually personally wrote those posts on your blog... but it was almost definitely one of his interns, who are directed to make positive postings about JB (or some of his products) to a list of several hundred blogs.
BTW, I find it interesting that there are a number of high-profile (and high-integrity) bloggers who USED to have JB on their blogrolls... but don't anymore.
Nonetheless, I must admit that there are still a few of his products that I personally use, and would have a hard time living without. However, RaSof definitely isn't one of them... and I have quite a number of Top-10 rankings (in various markets), without using RaSof. Those few sites for which I had originally used RaSof, never made it anywhere near the Top 10.
Cheers!
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From: Tim Gary
Hi Fred,
First, I can't wait for your new SEO and article software. Based on your past products, I'm sure it will blow the roof off of other offerings.
Second, You're spot on about ranking, and competition. For any given keyword phrase, especially 3+ word phrases. In smaller markets it can be relatively easy.
Case in point, within a few months of setting up a friend's Astrology site back in 2005, he was first for "truckee astrologer" and "truckee astrology". Also a short time later he was in the first page for "tahoe astrologer" (and still stays there, currently #3). Back then I did next to no optimization. It appears the the page title alone took care of almost all SEO. Like you say NO COMPETITION! (ok, 237,000 listed for Tahoe astrologer", and that's pretty low)
I think I'll sneak in and make a quick change to the title simply to include Reno, add "Lake" to "Tahoe" and remove extra fluff. I'm curious how far it climbs. Note, his results are in spite of almost no back links, an Alexa rank of over 6 million, and a PR currently at zero.
The quick lesson is that page title accounts for a disproportionate amount of overall SEO ranking, especially in smaller markets.
Also, while I rarely even scan JB's posts anymore, I find it hilarious that he whines on and on about others... Talks about how systems will save you... Tries to sell you the systems... Then in no uncertain terms says that anyone that follows his lead (which he PREACHES) can't get an original idea. Unbelievable, unless you've dealt with him via "magical email address" or had a need for even the slightest "customer service", in which case it's just an eventual "given".
To those who are looking for someone to follow, Caveat emptor. Fred, Robert Phillips, Terry Dean, and others found on Fred's Blog roll are excellent starting points. Even those who follow James are often a much better source of information than his own site since they usually filter the B.S. from the useful information.
-Tim
Mohamed: I've been following your blog and am impressed by how much time you spend on your site and goals. Why in the heck did you never get access to paid for Rasof software? You paid and didn't get it. What does your gut tell you about this? Not your desires, not your loyalty, but your gut... Be well, and keep up the great work!
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From: NoDiego
Wonder what the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) would say about his lies.
He said he stopped selling his Statistical Copywriting course because:"It is really too powerful to have available on the market for $185. Clickbank won't let me raise the price, so I'm taking it off the market tomorrow at noon."
www.jamesbrausch.com/24-hour-special-statistical-copywriting-being-removed-from-market
Now, he says he sold the domain recently because: "I'm selling it because I discontinued this product. I discontinued this product because it was harming Glyphius sales."
www.jamesbrausch.org/statisticalcopywritingcom-is-for-sale
If this is not a violation, it is a warning that we can't believe what he says. What is that he keeps saying about Sleazebag Internet Marketers?
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From: Heidi
Weird. I saw the post where he said he sold that site? He put it up for sale for $3,000 I think he said. At least that is what he posted on his blog.
Oh and the one comment above (John - #4). Yes, I believe he does only 3 days, if that. I've sometimes gotten the impression he doesn't even do that.
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From: Angela Miller
I think you are being too hard on James Brausch. I am in his intern program, and I think he is very helpful.
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From: Heidi
Hi Fred, me again. If you don't let this post through no hard feeling on my part but I just have to say this.
I have out and out caught JB in lies. That is not being to hard on someone. He claims his Rasof, magic, etc. Well his sites do not rank well (except JamesBrasch.com) that I know of, last time I checked and all his PR's are low. Now I know google is slow but he has had his sites up long enough to get somewhere.
I have checked his claims. He also has a problem with customer support also. Now I know not everybody can be satisfied and I do account for that when researching a person, but I find more complaints on him when I do a search on the search engines than I find good. And he has even more complaints than even the most well known, big names on the internet.
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From: André Tagesgeld
This post saved me - thanks Fred. I was about to puchase rasof when I found this post via google.
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From: Tim Gary
Just in case anyone is curious. It took less than 4 days for the title change I'd mentioned from my astrologer friend's site to rank #1 for "reno astrologer" (note, NO quotes were used in any of these example searches, since that would be cheating--I use them here because I don't know if I can italicize or otherwise clarify in a comment).
He's also now in the top 5 for "lake tahoe astrologer" and still #1 for "truckee astrologer".
He also ranks well when replacing Astrologer with Astrology, but not quite as well.
All searches were made with Google.
Pretty good bang for the buck, those html title tags.
In case things shift around a bit, his site is AstrologicalAlchemy.com Note: I don't maintain the site anymore, but do host it and make the odd change--I see quite a few things to update.
Fred, I'm still looking forward to your seo software! Seems like it'll save a lot of time checking the various stats, among other things.
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From: Sahara
Thanks for sharing and informing. I have not had any experiences with him personally but will remember the name in the future if I run across it.
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From: Nesher
Your article was posted in the "Bringing more traffic to your blog" - 3rd Ed. Blog Carnival:
http://blogging4good.blogspot.com/2008/03/bringing-more-traffic-to-your-blog.html
Appreciate your participation.
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From: Tim Gross
Three cheers for keeping people honest, I just stumbled onto your blog for the first time, and my first impressions are excellent. :-)
Coincidentally, I just finished writing a post about treating customers like friends instead of "victims", so your post hit the spot.
AH! I just discovered from your NONOFOLLOW image that I've got NoFollow set on Wordpress! Geez, I didn't know that. Downloading that plugin you linked to now, thanks
- Tim
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From: Lawrence Licaros
Thanks for the eye-opening analysis. Just goes to show hype can't make up for laziness. Great blog, by the way.
___________________________________
LJ Licaros
A team of successful entrepreneurs credited for www.SelectWealthSystem.com
A new home-based-business marketing system that provides the strategic high ground for internet marketing.
Pro Team Marketing uses an automated marketing system that is currently promoting a cutting-edge young company, entering the early growth stage, that targets the largest consumer base in the United States with their financial educational products.[URL=http://www.SelectWealthSystem.com]www.SelectWealthSystem.com[/URL]
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From: Nesher
Thank you for article submission to the 2nd Edition of the "Adsense Tips and Tricks" Blog Carnival. The Edition was published today:
http://webfreebies4u.blogspot.com/2008/04/adsense-tips-and-tricks-april-11-2008.html
Have a good weekend!
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From: Jeff - Abunza Guy
I have to agree with Heidi about James Brausch - He is sort of a shady character. I talked to him on the phone once before and had a bad feeling about him.
-Jeff
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From: Noel
James Brausch is the kind of guy who tells you a spade is a spade then hits you over the head with it.
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