Recently, I received an email from a well known female blogger saying that she had received death threats.

She said there was a “Mean Site 1″ that talked to a “Mean Site 2″ and both of them threatened to kill her or do her harm.

She was targeted because trolls on the Internet don’t like successful women, she said. She quoted specific excerpts from the offending site, proving that they threatened to kill her.

This was horrible! I was outraged.

Background Check

Because of my deep cynicism and morbid curiosity, I wanted to check to see what these “Mean Sites” had actually written. It’s always good to double check what anyone says on the Internet.

After a quick search, I found the obvious “Mean Site 2″. They were, in fact, mean.

I read in amazement that this “Mean Site” was not actually threatening anything close to death.

The quotes that were used by the female blogger were taken so far out of context that they were meaningless.

The female blogger had lied. Big, obvious lies.

Sex! Murder! Money!

As I read more and more into the background of what happened, who said what, and who did what, I found the story of a possible affair, a husband leaving his wife and family, an actual premeditated murder by a hired killer that someone is serving time for, tax fraud, fake death threats, and money making scams that target defenseless women through deception on the Internet.

I was more shocked at the truth than I was at the original lie.

I will give you links to all of the offending, and offensive, sites and blog posts at the end so you can go read as much about it as you want.

The Truth About Mean Site 2

Mean Site 2 was actually a site that targeted “scammers”. Their goal was to take down, expose, and humiliate, anyone who who took advantage of people for financial gain.

They are, in fact, mean about doing that. They use profanity, insults, and name calling.

The Mean Site 2 was scheduled to expose the female blogger’s scams, so she had struck first in the court of public opinion with her email.

There was no threat at all.

The most damaging excerpt that she quoted was not even about her. It was a satire, written about other people. She took other quotes so far out of context, well, you’ll just have to go read them.

They were not threatening her with death. They were saying that she’s a liar, a scammer, and takes financial advantage of vulnerable women.

The Scam

In simple terms, the general scam that everyone uses is that if you buy my product, then you will have whatever you want, but the product is worthless.

It’s the classic “snake oil” sales pitch.

A lot of people want to believe that SEO, or Internet Marketing, or blogging, can make you all the money that you want. Scammers sell books and training on how to do those things.

The victim spends money on the training/books/coaching or whatever, but is never successful.

The best way to make money on the Internet is to teach other people that the best way to make money on the Internet is teaching other people the best way to make money on the Internet.

The Secret and Oprah Winfrey

The biggest target of Mean Site 2 is James Arthur Ray. He was part of the book The Secret, which was featured on Oprah. Huge seller. This guys is famous.

The Secret is basically a bunch of cobbled together religious sounding, philosophical crap. Believe in yourself, imagine the possibilities, if you can visualize it, then it will come true, etc., etc.

(I visualized that I could fly when I was 10 and jumped off the garage roof. That didn’t end well.)

James Arthur Ray used Oprah’s support to build a following that he sold books, tapes, and personal appearances to.

Ultimately, he took $10,000 from each person who attended a week long retreat, where everyone was to be enlightened. Part of the program was a “sweat lodge” experience.

3 people ended up dead.

James Arthur Ray was convicted on three counts of negligent homicide.

I don’t think he ever visualized that.

Internet Marketing

This whole story really hit me hard (not the James Ray thing, the email death threat thing). I know, and have bought products from, some of the people involved. I’ve had email conversations with them and their friends.

I’ve also written a book that I will sell to you on Internet Marketing. I have one on SEO. Both of those books have great information in them and, I think, are worth the money.

The information that I’ve sold people is accurate and valuable, but I wondered if I crossed an ethical line too.

I know, from people’s questions and comments and emails, that most people who buy my books never get around to doing anything about them.

I get to take their money, but nothing really happens after that, for most people.

Most people are lazy, looking for easy solutions. (I know I am.)

If only we can buy the right book, or watch the right video, then we’ll be successful.

The Secret To Making Money On The Internet

There really are principles and methods that you can use to make more money on the Internet. There is a secret to being successful and making money.

It’s hard work.

Take good solid information and work hard at it, consistently, for a long time.

That’s true. I’ve done it. I know other people who have done it.

My Future, My Life

But am I taking unfair advantage of people’s hopes and dreams by selling them something they will never use?

I don’t know.

I’ve decided that I will concentrate on providing good, solid information and stay away from the unicorns and rainbows.

Your success will be based on your efforts and hard work.

I give you the map. You drive the car.

My background is in web development and marketing. I know about SEO.

I will not be building any more web sites for clients.

I will be creating a series of video based training modules.

They will cover everything you need to know to set up a WordPress web site, then use it to market products. SEO and Internet marketing will be covered.

I Need Your Help!

I’d like to know what you want to learn about. Please tell me your greatest needs. What do you have the most trouble with? What do you want to know?

I’ll create the training videos and put them up for free for everyone. After I see how people react to them, I’ll take them behind a pay wall, leaving only samples available for free.

Anyone who gives me feedback or input, or talks to me nicely, will get a discount or free access or something. Not sure how it will all work yet.

I just want to get it out there and see what happens.

Thanks for your help and support with everything.

The Links To All The Drama

OK. I know you want to go read the juicy stuff.

Warning that everything on the Salty Droid site contains profanity and offensive stuff, but not lies.

Original Naomi email, Aug 29:
Death Threats and Hate Crimes, Attacks On Women Bloggers Escalating

The Salty Droid post that provoked the email, Aug. 24:
The IttyBiz Spider

Blog post that contains “death threats” (actually pretty funny), Aug. 27:
10 Easy Steps to Professional Blogging

Salty Droid’s response to the email, Aug. 30:
Naomi Dunford’s Death Threats and Hate Crimes

Second blog post describing the “Mean Site 1″, Aug. 31:
Letter to Two Dave Navarros

Naomi’s response. Aug. 31:
Sometimes The Bad Guys Win

The big blog post that exposes everything, Sep. 1:
Spider Sh*t Storm

This is “Mean Site 1″. I had no idea that it was “mean” after reading it:
Letters To Dave Navarro

Feel free to poke around the Salty Droid site. Amazing stuff in there.

Remember that criticism is not a death threat. Disagreement is not hate. Name calling is not libel.

Most of all, remember that unicorns are not real.

The best part of third grade is recess.

With this house deal about done, I’ll be taking a break from “Untangling The Web” for a while.

It will probably be two or three months before I get back into the groove of writing weekly blog posts.

Old Articles

I know you’ll miss me, but I’m sure you’ll be tough enough to make it through the night.

Maybe I’ll post links each week to old articles you may have missed.

Floating Ideas

I’ve got a lot of ideas floating around in my head.

I think the time away might allow them to blossom into great, new ways to help you make more money from your business.

I’d love to hear what you are thinking.

I want to know how I can best help you.

What is your biggest problem?

What is your biggest question?

What is your biggest need?

Please click here to send me an email and tell me.

My break is from writing, not from reading email.

Your ideas, mixed into my ideas, might make some pretty good soup.

See you in September.

Now, she checks it first thing every morning, before she gets out of bed.

It has nothing to do with age.

I’m 55. I’ve been building web sites for 15 years. I can hand code a complete web site from scratch if I wanted to, then configure the DNS, add the .htaccess rules, and write the SQL to input content to the database, which I created manually.

Fear and being lazy. No excuses.

It’s time to debunk the myth. You are not too old to use social media. Pretending that you are is the equivalent of blaming the recession for why you’ve been unemployed for two years. It’s an excuse and it’s a bad one at that.

Just because you’re not familiar with a new technology, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a benefit or that you shouldn’t pick it up. Learning and growing and mastering new skills is what we do as humans. It’s what we’ve always done.

You weren’t born knowing how to use language and form sentences, but you learned.
You didn’t know how to drive a car, but you learned.
You didn’t know how to type and/or use a computer, but you learned.
You learned by doing it and practicing it. You learned because it moved you forward. I’d hate to see where we’d be today if the cavemen wrote off fire as “shiny and useless”.

If you want to learn social media, you need to stop talking and start doing. Using your age as an excuse just sets you further and further behind the curve.

Read the entire article at:
http://outspokenmedia.com/social-media/too-old-for-social-media/

Another friend had a barely-speaking toddler take over his iPad. She could paint and handle complicated tasks on apps with ease and grace almost before she could walk. It is now sort of her iPad. One day he printed out a high resolution image on photo paper and left it on the coffee table. He noticed his toddler come up to up and try to unpinch the photo to make it larger, like you do on an iPad. She tried it a few times, without success, and looked over to him and said “broken.”

Read the entire article at:
http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2011/04/born_digital.php

It seemed like there was something that would save you, just out of reach, but you didn’t know what it was?

You thought “If I only knew how to…”

I recently ran into a situation where that happened and it inspired me to do something about it.

Route 66 Adventure

His name was Hi Jolly.

My wife and I love to explore the little towns along the way, out in the middle of nowhere.

You never know what you’ll find.

On this trip, we took a side drive to a cemetery and monument for some camels that were used by the US Army.

In the civil war.

In Arizona.

See, you find strange stuff.

My Target

Next to the cemetery was a fenced in yard with piles of cool old junk, run down cars, and broken down RVs. There were a couple of buildings, maybe a house and a shop, and a couple dogs tied up. I love picking through places like that to see if there are any hidden treasures.

I spotted an old car, a station wagon, mint green, and very small. It was from the 40s or 50s.

I wanted to know what it was. There was an open gate at the back of the property and and an open gate at the front. The car was just, you know, right there, so I decided to drive through the front gate and up next to the car.

We parked next to it and saw that it was a Crosley.

It was getting dark. The interior looked ratty and it was in pretty bad condition, but I’d never seen a Crosley before. I was excited.

It looked kind of like this.

Barking Dogs Are Never Good

The dogs were barking and I didn’t know if someone was going to come yell at us for being on their property, so I was anxious to go. I was expecting a pickup with two guys carrying shotguns to come yell at us or something.

As I drove off towards the gate at the back of the property, I saw a minivan come around the corner and straight at me.

Oh, crap.

A lady was driving. As she turned the corner, she looked right at me.

But Yelling Women Are Worse

She put her arms out, palms up, in the universal sign for “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!?!”

She drove up next to me and yelled “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!?!”

“I’m sorry. We were just looking at the car.”

“Well, you’re trespassing and I’ve already called the cops.”

“I’m really, really sorry. I didn’t see any sign.”

“You need to leave now, before the cops get here!”

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I was just interested in the car. Would you want to sell it?”

“Yeah, actually I would.”

And Then…

And then she started to cry.

She said “I’m trying to sell all of this stuff. I’m living out here all by myself and I’m trying to take care of my gramma, but she’s got a brain tumor and we don’t have money for the surgery and I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Then she said “I’m doing the best that I can.”

I didn’t know what to say. It was the statement of a women who had no hope. There was no possibility that anything would ever get better. She was in the bottom of a pit and had no ladder.

“Maybe we can work out a deal.”

“My gramma. My gramma. I just don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m doing the best that I can.”

The despair in her voice shook me.

We talked more about the car and how I could get in contact with her. I promised I’d look into it and see what I could do.

She said a couple more times before I left, “I’m doing the best that I can.”

She cried a lot.

It was amazing to see someone change from yelling at me to get off her property to dissolving into tears and defeat.

I’m doing the best that I can

The reason that phrase affected me, beside the fact that I hate to see a woman cry, was that I knew that I could go to hemmings.com, find out how much her car was worth and probably sell it for more money than I could buy it from her for.

The difference between me and her was that I knew what to do and she didn’t.

She’s doing the best that she can and she’s failing because she doesn’t know what to work at. She doesn’t know what’s effective.

It’s not a lack of effort. It’s a lack of knowledge.

As a result, she had incredible pain and frustration in her life.

Knowledge is Power… and Money

I’ve been wanting to move my business more towards teaching and coaching. As I work with clients to build web sites for them, I see their frustration and just flat out missed opportunity from not knowing what to do.

I see so many opportunities for people to do better, for little or no cost even, with just a little education.

It could look like this.

If you just did this, instead of that, your life would be so much better and you’d make more money.

I’ve become very aware, over the last year or so, that people are insecure and afraid, even the tough ones.

If they can understand something quickly, that’s cool, but if they don’t get it, they pretend that they know, they don’t say anything, and they quietly walk away. People hate to ask questions.

People want to “not look stupid” more than they want to “not be stupid”.

Yeah, did I hit a little nerve there? You know what I’m talking about.

Untangling The web

I really get excited seeing people get excited about SEO from the Care and Feeding Of Search Engines book that I wrote.

There’s nothing cooler than seeing the little light bulb go on over someone’s head.

I bought the domain name untanglingtheweb.org. I’m building a new site there all about training and education.

It will be aimed at the simple among us. It will assume that you know nothing. Everything that I put on that site will be explained in easy to understand terms.

There will be no embarrassment for not knowing something. It will be honorable to ask questions.

There will be books for sale, training courses, videos, and lots of FREE information.

It will be about the technical aspects of web sites, as well as SEO and Internet marketing stuff. You can count on it to be your technical support when you have a question.

Go there now and check it out. http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/

There’s a place for you to put your name and email into, if you want to get more information about when it will be ready to launch.

Dude, it’s going to rock. You’re going to dig it. I promise.

1948 Crosley Station Wagon

I tried to find her number so I could call her about the car, but I never found anything that matched what she told me. We never talked.

If you’re driving through Quartzite, AZ, with a car trailer and an extra couple thousand dollars, ask someone where the Hi Jolly monument is. Look around and I think you can get a great deal on a quirky little car that needs some work.

And please don’t cry.

Click here to get more information: http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes. Turn and face the strain.
Ch-ch-changes. Oh, look out you rock ’n rollers.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes. Turn and face the strain.
Ch-ch-changes. Pretty soon now you’re gonna get a little older
Time may change me, but I can’t trace time.
-David Bowie

Change is scary. Change is exciting.

Change can make me angry. Change can fill me with joy.

In recent weeks, I’ve had some changes that totally pissed me off, and some that excited me.

You may not think they are that important, but to me, they shake me to my core.

Conrad Walton with his 1965 Chevelle SS Malibu, wearing 501 jeans,
a blue chambray work shirt, and a bead necklace in 1974.

Levi’s 501 jeans

First, and foremost, I’ve always worn Levi 501 jeans. Always. Since High school or so. That’s like 40 years, that I’ve been wearing 501s. As you know, 501s have a button fly.

I’ve only worn pants with a zipper to my own wedding and to work when I had to.

My wife, who buys all of my clothes, (She says that I’m clothing challenged), just found out that they quit making 501s in my size.

I have a unique physique, awesome in stature. I can get them taller and skinnier, or I can get them shorter and fatter, but not tall and fat like me.

She dragged me to the Big and Tall store and we bought a pair of Levis with a zipper.

I’ve never been so ashamed in my life, but at least I can wear pants now when I’m on a conference call.

Cascadia Sparkling Clear

I’ve been buying this carbonated flavored water from my local supermarket for years. They have a bunch of flavors, but I’m addicted (and I mean that word literally) to the White Grape flavor.

The flavor is not phony. It has no weird aftertaste. It doesn’t taste like candy or chemicals. It’s like a fresh, ripe, sweet grape, bursting with pure sunlight and goodness.

It’s the best water I’ve ever tasted, plus there are zero calories.

I went to the store a few weeks ago and it was gone, replaced by another brand. I started to shake, but held it together until I got out of the store. I bought a couple bottles of the new stuff.

How does it taste? It tastes like crap.

I went to other stores in the area and they all had their own in store brands. I bought samples all over town. Nothing compares.

I finally called the manufacturer. They said that brand was only manufactured for that store chain.

Since that store decided to use another brand, they don’t make it any more.

Let me repeat that. “They don’t make it any more.” This goodness and truth and beauty has been ripped from hearts, never to be tasted again.

I’ve been in mourning ever since I found out.

Santa Barbara Pistachios

I love pistachios. I buy multiple bags of them from Trader Joe’s all the time. They are the best.

On a recent day trip with my lovely wife, we wandered into a section of California that we’ve never been before. We stopped a small shop in the middle of no where.

They were surrounded by orchards of pistachio trees and were in fact, selling those pistachios in the shop. After some samples, we bought a bunch of them.

The cool thing is that they flavor their pistachios. Not only are they biggest and freshest, they have the best flavors.

I’ve since ordered them online and recommend them to anyone who loves pistachios. My favorite are the Onion-Garlic flavored pistachios.

I went to Trader Joe’s today. I didn’t buy pistachios.

walton.com

I was approached over 4 months ago by a lawyer, representing a client, who wanted to buy my domain name, walton.com. I told them no, that I wanted a large amount of money for it and that I would NEVER sell it.

I got that domain name in 1995, when I first started developing web sites. It’s been a part of my self identity every since. Talking to a client or potential employer, I could tell them my email was conrad@walton.com and they would be impressed.

I was “that guy who owned walton.com”.

The lawyer came back with a substantial offer. I realized that they were serious. I was floored. I mean, I had to lay down on my bed for a while. I countered with another large number, and we started negotiating.

Part of our deal is confidentiality, so I can only tell the actual price to people who “need to know”.

As much as I think that YOU need to know how much, I think their lawyers might differ on that point, so I’ll just say that it’s enough that I’m actually willing to sell it, but not enough to quit working.

I went through about two weeks mourning the loss of it. It was a tough decision.

Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.

I’ll never be “that guy” again.

The deal is not final quite yet. It can still fall apart. I always say you shouldn’t count on anything until the check has cleared the bank.

I decided that I’ll now be “that guy who sold walton.com for a lot of money”. That’ll be pretty cool too.

When the deal is signed and the check has cleared the bank, then I’ll be sad for a little while.

I’ll take a moment and mourn the loss, the end of that era.

Next, I’ll spread all the money out on the bed and roll around in it, followed by a party, celebrating the beginning of the new era. I’ll forget all about the past and only look towards the future.

Guest post by Conrad Walton

I couldn’t believe it.

So, I’m reading Naomi’s blog to get her wonderful insight and abuse, when I notice that the post was was written by this Johnny B Truant guy.

Again.

I see him writing for CopyBlogger and Problogger.

Who IS this guy?

He’s writing about doing WordPress installs and how much money he’s making from that. I do WordPress installs. All of the stuff he’s talking about is the same stuff I do. I know everything that he knows. I’m as smart as he is. Smarter even! I’ve got better technical chops than he does.

Read the entire article at:
http://questiontherules.com/johnny-b-truant-pissed-me-off-so-this-is-what-i-did/

Here’s the YouTube version of the video if you want to try that instead.

(My wife watched this and told me that I seemed angry. I guess maybe I wasn’t in a great mood. She says I’m a lot nicer than I seem here. )

You probably don’t care about politics, because as long as you can get along in your everyday life, without too much hassle, too much pain, you’re cool with that. You can’t be fighting over the small injustices in life. You need to pick your battles.

Our founding fathers picked their battle. It cost some of them their lives and their fortunes. Some lost their homes and their families. They were fighting in a typical “good vs. evil” fight. It was clear the government was unfair, oppressive, and ruthless, so they fought against it and started their own government, with a new set of rules.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson said that each individual had rights, granted by God. These rights were not the result of Congress voting, or any other organization granting these rights. They are unalienable. That means God gave them to you, so they can’t be taken away from you. If any government tries to take these rights away from you, you have the right to overthrow that government.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.

I want to draw the distinction between individual rights and group rights. He said that each individual had individual rights. He didn’t say that gays have rights, or Christians have rights, or Jews have rights, or women have rights. Each person is equal under the law and everyone has the same rights. These rights don’t include the right to health care, the right to shelter, or the right to succeed.

You only have the right to try, the right to pursue. You have the right to live. You have the right to be free and make your own choices. You have the right to fail. You have the opportunity to pursue whatever you want to pursue.

I’d like to call up a protest against our current government growing too big and reaching too far into our personal freedoms, but I’m not going to. I’m not ready to pick that battle quite yet.

I AM going to call upon YOU to do the most patriotic thing that you can do this 4th of July. I want you to live. I want you to be free. I want you to pursue your happiness.

I want you to do business. I want to you to run your own business and make money. Use your freedom while you still have it, before the government declares that your business is not in the best interests of the country and bans it.

It may sound funny that people have fought and died for your right to sell jewelry on Etsy or to sell oil pumps to garages, or doors, or real estate, but they did.

This is still the land of the free and the home of the brave, so you need to go out there and be brave.

Sell something today, just because you can.