October 26, 2005
Product Launch BLACKOUT
Hey folks,
Some of you have noticed that I have pulled Product Launch Formula off the market. You can get some more details at this page.
In any case… mark my words - I will be re-launching PLF. I don’t have an exact date yet… but don’t worry - it IS coming.
One more thing: I will be reporting all my findings on this BLACKOUT situation, and how you can avoid a similar predicament. I will release this report publicly, since this is critical information that ALL online entrepreneurs need.
In the meantime, you should definitely check out my Back To The Wall Marketing report.
When I wrote this last week I didn’t realize that my back would be back up against that wall so soon!!
Jeff
Time: 1:55 am
October 26th, 2005 at 2:14 am
Jeff - this is crazy. Why are you blacklisted?
October 26th, 2005 at 2:41 am
Wow - I’m the first one to respond. I’m really sorry to hear this has happened to you Jeff. I don’t think you’ll lose a single order though. I know you didn’t plan this to happen - but the anticipation for PLF has only grown! Look forward to hearing the lowdown on what happened.
Best wishes,
Anna
October 26th, 2005 at 2:52 am
Hey Jeff,
This is awful. I’m looking forward to the PDF file. I’m curious as to how did you find out you were blacklisted and what steps you’re taking to ensure it doesn’t happen again?
I’m sure most people will be understanding about this situation, and fie on those that don’t. I hope you resolve this as soon as possible.
Paul
October 26th, 2005 at 2:55 am
Hi Jeff, I just read your email. What you reported is worse than what happened to Mike Filsaime and instantbuzz.
Unfortunately there are people out there who really just don’t think, they’ll just react. If they get an email they’re not familiar with, some will promptly think it’s spam and won’t hesitate to complain about it.
I won’t be surprised if someone really wanted to “sabotage” your launch by spoofing your email and blasted a few users about it. Something similar happened to a newbie marketer I know.
Only thing you can do at this point is keep trying to prove to those who blacklisted you that you didn’t do it. And keep at it!
October 26th, 2005 at 2:57 am
Paul,
The way I found out was sorta crazy… Yanik Silver sent me an instant message just a few hours before my launch at noon last Friday.
He was asking me for the link he was supposed to send as part of his partner promotion.
I told him I already sent it and he should check his mail.
He told me he hadn’t gotten it.
So I resent the email.
Five minutes later he asked me again.
I said “DUDE.. check your email!!”.
He said it still wasn’t there.
Right about that time I got an email from Frank Kern wondering the same thing.
That is when it started to sink in… my email to my partners was getting filtered. EVEN MY PERSONAL EMAIL SENT FROM MY PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESS was getting filtered. By this time it was pretty much launch time.
What a sickening feeing!!
In any case, I have a lot more to share on this - I am going to put together my report in the next day or two.
Jeff
October 26th, 2005 at 2:58 am
Hey Jeff, it is astounding that a guru such as you did not see this problem coming.
Been there done that!
When I launched my own big product on the net I had more than a million hits on my site in the first month, and collapsed the bulletin board three times.
Very darned frustrating so I know how you feel. But I guess we live and learn. So I am REALLY looking forward to your expose of WHY you were caught out and blacklisted all over the net.
Could part of it it be all those lazy AOL users illegally hitting their SPAM buttons instead of unsubscribing?
All it takes is a few ignorant or lazy souls to report you as spam. And if the large ISP systems see this, they don’t bother to check, they just block you. Bad huh?
This is shoot first and ask questions later. Guilty until being proved innocent. So you see that the rule of law is pretty thin on the web.
I had a similar problem a while back during a launch when my site and bulletin board was deluged by too much traffic and a mountain of e-mail. I had my product name strewn all over the internet.
(And partially blacklisted just the same way, until I unpicked it all by hand. It took me a whole month)
:-(
This is especially the case when you do a viral campaign. The traffic can be absolutely HUGE, roaring in from so many angles it is not possible to manage. The spam filters see it, cross reference pass judgement and start blocking you.
But hey … This has gotta mean that your product is really completely and utterly fantastic!!
Looking forward to the expose mate!
Best wishes
Jonathan Gunson
http://www.viralalchemy.com
Free eBook: How I got over a million hits on my website in less than month, and sold over 350,000 copies of my book.
October 26th, 2005 at 3:08 am
Wow in some ways what a great problem to have eh.
My mentor often tells me if they are not talking about you then you musnt be worth knowing.
It seems this is happening more and more however you are lucky in that you at least have the resources to be able to do something about it.
Its great to see you sharing this info as it gives us all an insight on what goes on and hopefully how to handle it which is a greater lesson in itself.
Quentin
Streaming Audio Made Easy
October 26th, 2005 at 4:00 am
Hi jeff,Im writing from the Uk.I received my formula -delivered by post 2 days ago (10 o’clock ?-gmt)-which id normally consider exceptional (only3 days for a transatlantic parcel to arrive.).So clearly either a)i got it before you got blacklisted or b)my service provider and current settings are immune.My provider is demon.co .uk,and i have my settings set to allow every thing (includeing all the porn through-this is a great nuisance but at least it means that i get all the mail i want as well as all the mail i dont want i then have to manually delete what i dont want. The current spam laws are a pain up the back side.They do nothing to stop the illegitimate user operating from a country who ignores the laws,but seriousely disrupt the activities of responsible marketers who are tring to offer products and services of real value.I may have ordered before you were blacklisted.i was on your early bard list and Ireplied straight away-i dont know if i was amongst the first 30 subscribers, qualifying for -i think it was a personal consultation.Ithink were “all in this together”,as far as this spam thing goes.Maybe? it would help if aol etc got their act together?Incidentely ,if this makes the product harder to get does it increase its scarcity value?Can we use this “disaster” to our advantage?Hopeing this helps,and your able to resolve the problem soon.Any way my service from you wat excellent -Thanks Richard.
October 26th, 2005 at 5:55 am
Jeff
The blackout problem.
What may have happened: You created an unprecedented online firestorm.
I suspect that your Alexa ranking went through the roof during the day or two just prior to launch thanks to the extremely effective communications power of your network of affiliates with their millions of subscribers, plus the very large train of emails, articles and videos going around that mentioned “Product Launch Formula”.
But more particularly, we are all always warned about building inbound links too quickly to a site. Well I reckon you must have got zillions of links, plus a hell of a lot of traffic … suddenly.
The major search engines (Google Yahoo, MSN) tend to think the worst when they see that, and probably assume that a ton of spam has been sent out, and chloroform any mention of it in the engines, plus major global ISPs are notified and automatically start putting up filters to block the transmission of e-mails containing the ‘offending’ term.
Offending? This just goes to prove that your ability to create a firestorm on launch day has been proven.
Probably a module needs to be built into Product Launch Formula’ called ‘Warn the ISPs and search engines to keep their dirty filters away!’ All partners could be asked to notify their own ISPs at management level that the launch is likely to produce a lot of email, plus a sudden super high ranking on the engines, and please to take into account that this is a genuine natural organic launch, not a spam campaign.
In any event, this blackout could turn into the greatest peice of publicity you could possibly dream of.
Better get hold of CNet, ZDNet, Red Herring and all the other online news outlets CNN would be fascinated.
If you don’t I will.
Imagine the inbound links!!!
All my very best wishes again
Jonathan Gunson
http://www.viralalchemy.com
Free eBook: How I got over a million hits on my website in less than month, and sold over 350,000 copies of my book.
October 26th, 2005 at 6:59 am
Dave Zan said:
> Hi Jeff, I just read your email. What you reported is worse than what happened to Mike Filsaime and instantbuzz.
That was an interesting case:
[thread] http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=101051
[pdf] http://www.mikefilsaime.com/mikefilsaimenewsletterJune2005.pdf
In that other case, there was -maybe yes, maybe not- an affiliate spamming, but this kind of misunderstandings happens even to opt-in lists.
Jonathan Gunson said:
> Could part of it it be all those lazy AOL users illegally hitting their SPAM buttons instead of unsubscribing?
It’s a real possibility. For example, one of my opt-in members clicked that button, and I received a complaint from AOL.
Therefore, I added more info (to the register form, the emails, and help page) about what happens when you voluntarily subscribe, and also added each member’s name to the emails (”Dear [name]”). For now, there are no more problems.
October 26th, 2005 at 8:48 am
Hey Jeff,
Sorry to hear about this problem with the launch. Maybe it happened so you could teach us all this important lesson and how to prevent it. But as far as anticipation, I am sure this will just make it build even more.
October 26th, 2005 at 10:18 am
I want to know more about these blacklisting. It sounds scarey when someone else can control whether your business email gets sent or not. How can I find out more.
October 26th, 2005 at 10:20 am
Jeff,
I experienced the same situation several times although it never happened to me at suh critical time.
It has nothing to do with your domain BUT IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO with the IP address of your hosting company.
Your hosting company hosts hundreds of customers and some of them could be very nasty spammers. You share the same server with some of them and for the whole Web, you and the spammer have THE SAME IP ADDRESS.
(THe address is numerical, something like this: 123.111.222.333)
You and the spammer on the same hosted server look exactly the same to all other servers on the web.
QUICK REMEDY is to change your ip address:
1) Get dedicated IP address from the same hosting company instead of the shared one ;
2) Move to a different hosting company with a different address and cleaner record;
If you want to discuss details - let me know.
Good Luck,
–AW
October 26th, 2005 at 11:17 am
Jeff,
I just read “Back to the Wall” and I got goose bumps. What an incredible story! It is very exciting to be a part of this history making launch. But I must say, it is all happening a bit fast for a newbie like me who accesses the internew with a land line and has a wallet full of postage stamps! Thank God for Alice Seba’s wonderful site (or I might never have found you). I have learned so much in such a short time. IN FACT, Back to the Wall taught me a lot. It’s also offers some great internet marketing techniques ; ) Thank you for sharing your experience with us.
Nanette
October 26th, 2005 at 11:29 am
Alex,
Not so simple. This has nothing to do with my IP. It has everything to do with my domain.
I have a dedicated IP… I wouldn’t do business any other way.
My host is FANATICAL about not hosting spammers - you will not find a cleaner host anywhere in my opinion. I think it is HIGHLY unlikely that there is even a spammer on the same C block of IPs.
Thanks for your offer, but I already have some of the TOP experts in the spam/blacklisting/anti-spam world working on this.
Jeff
October 26th, 2005 at 1:21 pm
Hi Jeff –
I’m so sorry to hear this has happened to you. What a nitemare. On the other hand, it’s also a great lesson in social proof. You’ll probably get a lot of emails supporting you and then there will be people who say that you should have figured out it would happen and then there will be the others who say that you orchistrated it in order to get more buzz.
You actually got caught in my spam filter because part of your domain name was on my filtered word list. I don’t know if that’s what the problem was with everyone else but that’s terrible.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that there are a lot of us out here rooting for you.
All the best –
Tery
PS — More gremlins…Your home page needs to be changed. It says the launch was Oct 31st.
October 26th, 2005 at 7:21 pm
What a crazy thing! To think you can get blacklisted at will, just like that. I can’t wait to see your report so I know how I can avoid getting on a blacklist.
S.
October 26th, 2005 at 7:51 pm
Something doesn’t add up. I checked your site on more than 150 blacklisting agencies, programs, etc., and your name does NOT show up on any of them!
Hmmmm, veerrry interesting.
B-
October 26th, 2005 at 8:12 pm
Bob,
When we launched on Friday the 21st, we were on Brightmail and Messagelabs. Shortly after (I believe late on the 21st or early on the 22nd) we were on SURBL.
We have since been taken of SURBL. I have not been able to confirm whether we are still on Brightmail and Messagelabs.
Jeff
October 26th, 2005 at 8:39 pm
It’s not difficult to find yourself on a blacklist. But when you feature on numerous lists in a very short space of time there is a good chance there is more than happenstance at work. I suspect Jeff is a victim of what I call a DOS-BL – a denial of service by Blacklist.
I’m sure it has happened before ‘though I’m not familiar with any specific instances. But I’ve been waiting for it. It had to be just a matter of time before the cybergrubs used this sort of attack on someone they considered to be a high profile, worthy target.
One thing I’m hoping is that Jeff’s high profile will alert a wider audience to the disgraceful arrogance of these blacklist operators and the morally corrupt “policies” under which they operate. There is no comparison in the offline world - if you interfered with someone’s “dirt” business in such an inappropriate manner, the various agencies and arms of government would be queuing up to prosecute you.
The fact is that, with far too many blacklist operators, anyone can report anyone else and there is often NO CHECKING at all as to the veracity of the report. Nor is there any requirement for the blacklist operator to provide a means of redress in the event of false listing.
Some blacklist operators claim they don’t heed isolated spam reports, as if that’s good and adequate protection. However, it is a trivial exercise for someone with malicious intent to barrage a blacklist operator with false complaints, all apparently from completely different sources. Pro spammers use the techniques every day to spread their garbage.
My book The Hacker’s Nightmare was the first really comprehensive work to show ordinary PC users how to protect themselves from all manner if attack and intrusion: virus, worm, trojan, keylogger, direct hack, social engineering, and so on. But…
THERE IS NO WAY TO PREVENT YOURSELF BEING MALICIOUSLY BLACKLISTED!!!
And for that sorry state of affairs you can thank the blacklist operators directly. You cannot lay the blame on the person doing the reporting. There will always be stupid, lazy and/or malicious people to deal with, but safeguards should prevent the actions of those few from interfering with the activities of others. But in the murky world of the blacklist operator…
THERE ARE NO LEGALLY ENFORCEABLE SAFEGUARDS AND FEW VOLUNTARY ONES.
What is rarely known by customers of ISPs is that very few major service providers operate their own spam filters and blacklists. These functions are usually contracted out to specialist operators.
Consider for a moment that a thoroughly reprehensible business called Brightmail (owned by Symantec, incidentally) provides spam and blacklist filtering to six of the largest ISPs in North America, not to mention countless smaller ones. If you run foul of Brightmail’s filters, the chances of you ever discovering the reason are slim to none. They simply won’t communicate with you. In fact, they provide no way for you to contact them.
In all fairness it must be said that even in this “industry” there are reputable operators, such as Brightmail competitor Outblaze. If an Outblaze filter blocks a message you send, you’ll get a refusal message that contains useful information about why your eMail is being blocked.
You do have the right to ask your ISP who they use to provide spam and blacklist services. Admittedly it is very tricky for the poor old average Internet user to make sense of it all, but it’s time more people understood more about how this all works.
The only way to get off blacklists is to approach each operator individually and put your case. Be prepared for a long drawn out and almost impossible labor in most cases.
Sorry about the length, but I can see from the other posts that many people are unfamiliar with the workings.
- Bill Hely
- Author: “Spam Warfare: Microsoft Outlook Edition”
- http://Spam-warfare.com
October 28th, 2005 at 5:09 am
I am Devouring Product Launch Formula, I just got it.
The price needs to be increased to $2497 if it has not already. Opening the box on Jeff’s work was like opening the door on a hand made Formula One Ferrari.
The enemy will vomit in defeat. Feel it, Hear it, Smell it.
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