Those of you who know me know that I think most of what is online is scams.  I am NOT impressed by a lot.  And I am a firm believer in not spending much money to make money, which is why I keep my courses priced low.

A few days ago I stumbled across something that blew my mind.

A brilliant online marketer started an online contest.  He gives people everything they need to make money online.  Step by step, day by day instructions, resources, sales copy, everything you need to be successful.  And he’s NOT CHARGING FOR IT until after you start making money.

WHAT??

Who would do such a thing?  Who would give away a huge coaching program and allow people to use it for 30 full days and begin making money BEFORE they paid?

Someone who has an amazing program and a proven track record at helping people make money online. It’s brilliant.

And the best part…this program will work for anyone whether you are a newbie or seasoned marketer.  I teach marketing and I’m learning a lot!!

If you want access to the same thing I’ve found, fill out the form below then after you confirm your interest, you will be able to hear from this marketing genius himself and decide whether you want to take advantage of this amazing offer.  If nothing else, take advantage of the offer for the 30 days of great coaching and resources.

I haven’t completely figured that out yet, but I’m working on it for you.  SocialSpark is a company that matches bloggers with advertisers.  Advertisers have products or services that they want to get the word out about.  They go to Social Spark to find bloggers who will review their products and/or services and get matched up. The blogger writes a review, gives SocialSpark permission to post it to their blog and they review it and post it.  The blogger gets paid a pre-determined amount for the post.

One HUGE problem that I see is they use Google Analytics to make the determination of which and how many offers the blogger gets.  As you may know, I do NOT like Google Analytics.  My visitor rankings are way higher than GA puts them at.  At the time of writing this post, my PR is 2.  It’s not easy to get to a PR2.  I write a post and within minutes it is indexed in the search engines.

I’ve been signed up for SocialSpark for over a week or so and have referred two bloggers to them but have received NO offers.  Supposedly offers come in on a daily basis.  But…the advertiser does not choose the blogger, Social Spark does.  And they do not take the entire picture into consideration when making you offers.  I’d hold off on this one for a bit.  It can be frustrating if you are counting on getting paid in the near future for writing blog posts.

There are many other ways to make money with your blog.  Don’t do this one unless you are an established blogger and just want to try something different like I’m doing.

UPDATE – Unless you are the type of person who likes to sit around, do nothing and NOT make money, do not get involved with SocialSpark. They have visited my blog via numerous google searches and KNOW that I can write a post and have it indexed ON PAGE ONE in google search results in a matter of minutes and STILL will not give me offers because they are too dependent on something that does not work properly (Google Analytics).

UPDATE 2 – It’s been a little over a month since I joined Social Spark and they are STILL not giving me offers.  Why?  Because they are depending on Google Analytics to tell them how good my blog is.  LOL…that’s a JOKE.  You most likely found this post because you did a search for information about Social Spark.  It’s on page ONE of the search results in google and has been since about 12 minutes after I wrote the post.  BUT…I still get no offers.  I don’t think they are a scam per se, but they are not a good company to try to make money with.  That’s MY opinion. 

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In the past I wrote about Net10′s horrible customer service. I’ve always loved their coverage area and their $50/mo unlimited everything plan, but their telephone customer service leaves a LOT to be desired.

Lately, however, I’ve been using Net10 as an example of GREAT customer service.

What? How is that possible?

I stand behind my original post in October 2010. Net 10′s telephone customer service sucks. But…they are a perfect example of how to use social media properly. Not many companies pull it off the way they do. Go to their facebook page and you will see that they have numerous reps standing by online to answer the questions/concerns of customers.

The average social media user (this is regular people, not businesses) expects a response on social media within 30 minutes of their post. So many companies are falling way short on that goal.

Let’s take a look at Pizza Hut’s facebook page, for example. At the time of the writing of this post, Pizza Hut has 4,040,430 fans. The majority of them were gained due to a national promotion where they promised a free p’zone with an online order of a pizza. So…many people went to “like” their page and get their free p’zone. However, when they clicked the link to order, most had something go wrong. After adding their pizza and anything else they wanted, in addition to their pzone, they went to checkout and the pzone was not free. Now, maybe you are saying…”Oh well…it’s just a $5 p’zone…no big deal”. But it is a big deal. Pizza Hut goes to their facebook page, makes a post and that’s where it ends. Upset people comment and they are ignored. They never get any kind of response at all. Mob mentality takes over and more irate people chime in. Nasty comments begin to spiral out of control. This has been going on for days.

When someone is upset with Net10, one of the reps (almost immediately) asks how they can help. They then take the conversation to private message so it never gets too out of control on their page. THAT is how to “do” social media.

Never do what Pizza Hut is doing and just ignore the comments of your “fans” or “likes”. Social media is king. If you don’t know what you are doing, hire someone who does. It can make the difference between the success and failure of your business.

Pizza Hut...for now my love of your pizza outweighs your horrible customer service via facebook AND via telephone. I’ve wasted too many hours with your ignorant reps calling me to try to find out why I was upset because I didn’t get my free p’zone. I ended up paying for it and it was HORRIBLE anyway. I will stick to your pizza, breadsticks and cheesy garlic bread, thank you. If, in the future, I have another problem with Pizza Hut, I may be gone unless the customer service improves drastically. Never ignore a customer. Especially one who knows how to use the internet to his/her advantage.

Net10.…you have redeemed yourselves in the customer service arena because you have outdone yourselves on facebook. I am still far less than impressed with your telephone customer service so I will just stick to going to facebook if there is a problem or concern.

***PIZZA HUT UPDATE*** It appears that finally this week Pizza Hut actually began replying to fans regularly on their facebook page. If you look at posts prior to Monday, August 8, 2011, you will not see one reply to fans. Maybe all of my complaining to corporate finally helped out. I started complaining on Monday. Glad they’ve finally stepped up to the social media plate. One can only hope they keep it up.

…

I said a while back that I hated Net10′s customer service. Until today, I didn’t realize just how much I hate it. The only reason I went back to Net 10 is because they now have an unlimited plan for only $50/mo. and it includes everything. Talk, text, web browsing. All included. Plus the coverage is awesome. Anyone who comes to my house does not have cell service, but my net 10 phone has service. So…the plan is great, the coverage is great. I don’t know if dealing with HORRID customer support is worth the great service and coverage though.

I bought a new Net10 phone. Today I called to have my phone number and unlimited plan transferred from my old phone to my new phone. At the bottom of this post, you will see a screen shot of my outgoing calls for the day. At 2:19 pm EST I called the first time. The foreign woman asked for my serial number. I gave it to her. She repeated it back wrong. I gave it to her again. She repeated it back wrong. This went on SEVEN times. Finally she says to one of her co-workers “This woman is a fucking idiot” and she HUNG UP ON ME!!!!! How the hell am I the f-ing idiot when SHE is the one who can’t understand English in AMERICA??

So I call back. That is the 19 minute call that began at 2:27 PM EST. That woman apologized profusely and had no problem understanding me. She supposedly transferred my phone number and plan to the new phone. She asked that I wait an hour for the transfer to complete and if I did not have my minutes or service in an hour, call back.

So…at 4:10 PM EST I call back. I have no service and do not have any minutes. After ONE HOUR AND NINETEEN MINUTES (the last 27 of which I was on hold with tier 3 support and no one came to the phone to tell me they were even still there), I got hung up on!!! But…I had service now, just not the minutes.

So I immediately call back at 5:28 PM EST. By this time I’m pissed. I get through to a very nice supervisor who insists she will stay on the line with me until my unlimited minutes plan is transferred over. She comes back every 2 minutes to tell me what the support crew is working on and that she, personally, is making sure the task gets completed. After 43 minutes on the phone with her, my phone dies!!! OF COURSE…I’ve been on the phone now for hours with this BS.

So I call back from another handset at 6:11 PM EST. I am informed that I can not get back to the previous person I was talking to and when my phone died, support stopped doing what they were doing to transfer the minutes because I was no longer on the line!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So this woman starts all over again. 23 minutes later my minutes have been transferred to my new Net 10 phone. Great, right??? WRONG!!!!! Now I have unlimited minutes and NO SERVICE!!!!

So I call back at 6:37 PM EST. I explain to the first guy what’s going on. “I’m so sorry Ms. Green. I will help you get your service on.” After 29 minutes with him, he tells me he has to transfer me to another department. I get transferred and that department has no idea why I’ve been transferred to them. BUT…he will try to help me…”Tell me what’s going on” he says. OH SHIT. Now I’ve got to go through this whole thing with yet another person. Finally…one hour and two minutes after the call began, I have both service and my unlimited minute plan back.

WHY??? WHY would someone have to spend a total of FIVE HOURS AND TWENTY MINUTES (four hours and five minutes of that spent on the phone with net10) just to get a phone number and minutes transferred to a new phone??? That is the most utterly ridiculous waste of time I’ve ever experienced.

And the winner for the worst customer service in my history is….drumroll please……NET 10!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOHHOOOOO!!!

Here is the screenshot I promised you. See for yourself or CLICK HERE to see it in full size.