That video gives you a bit of an idea what that Kimble guy must be like.

I sent my application 3 days ago and still haven’t got a reply.

If this truly is the case with a previous scamster/criminal running this thing, why would you support this Michael? What’s to say this or the company it’s for
isn’t designed to be a scam?

Some evidence is: This domain (owned by Kim_Schmitz) points to the same “employer 2.0″ website
http://www.ultimaterally.com/

Also the source code of that site especially this part

body
{
text-align:center;
padding:0; margin:0;
background-image:url(gui/bg.gif);
color: #B2B8B8;
font-family: tahoma;
font-size: 11px;
text-align: left;
}

is identical to the source code in
http://www.megaupload.com/ (which is also owned by Kim_Schmitz see http://www.bmw-drivers.de/foru.....ideos.html

I assume the “top 500″ website is http://www.megaupload.com (which alexa ranks as 22) but this is disputed since they require users of their website to install an alexa toolbar.

The asian country is probably Hong Kong where megaupload.com is located.

As already mentioned be careful in dealings with Kim Schmitz, he is a convicted criminal and fraudster.

http://www.crime-research.org/.....s1104.html

I don’t mind mentioning your sponsors in your content. It’s just advertising. What I do mind is the same writers who give us the “news” tell us great things about their sponsors.

You are taking advantage of our trust.

And to be so militant against PayPerPost, etc. and then do this? Ick.

And who cares if some company has your resume? All your resumes are probably available on your home pages anyway (or at least should be)

Also, the mystery company is Trendax. Look up Trendax on google and understand why it is you don’t want to send your resume because you’re greedy.

Now, I’ve seen Mike mention before how much he hates services like ReviewMe.com. I, however, fail to see the difference between the post I paid for and the post that I’m commenting to.

Mike, please explain.

P.S. I just want to mention that I have NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER with this post. I just want clarification from Mike as to the difference btw this post and the ones that webmasters can purchase on ReviewMe, Pay-Per-Post, etc. Perhaps I’m missing something and would appreciate an explanation from Mike.

I’ve only started reading TC religiously only a few weeks, so I haven’t seen the posts you’ve mentioned. Certainly, hypocrisy isn’t a good thing, but I’d have to read these posts to understand his position on ads overall.

And I’m with John - I don’t care if I’m shown sponsored ads when reading a blog (they’re on the feed, too) but Michael is being hypocritical here. Oh, except he’s not saying anything bad about ReviewMe, because they’re owned by his sponsor TLA.

As for the mystery thing - they claim that if your resume is good enough, they’ll tell you who they are. Who’s going to be bold enough to mock something up and send it in anonymously? “I’ll tell you who I am if you tell me who YOU are…”

“If you all hate ads so much, then don’t read any feeds that say “commercial break”.”

… I never said I hate ads, commercial breaks, or sponsored posts. Mike did. Many times. He’s very vigilant about it as well. Then he goes and has a sponsored post.

No one else thinks it’s hypocritical to go on crusades against people having sponsored posts but then do a post specifically for your sponsors?

Maybe Ron, Sham, and Lisa are right and I’m wrong. Maybe there is no hypocrisy here. Maybe I misunderstand the situation. But I’d really like to hear Mike’s point of view on this.

Though, I didn’t realize that Compete was a sponsor. Is that why the Alexa blogger did a post on how well their numbers match Techcrunch’s actual stats?

On the other hand, judging from the post about the ticket scalping industry, Arrington’s not being a paragon of virtue => access to more interesting topics.

If your blog featured ads paying $10K each per month, would you NOT take a moment to bring attention to them? After all, they ARE paying YOU to feature THEIR goods, products, and services on YOUR site. To maintain these lucrative deals — and to continue providing a valuable resource (which costs MONEY!) for tech professionals, investors, hobbyists, enthusiasts, etc., it is IMPERATIVE that you continue bringing VALUE to your SPONSORS!

Most websites today are operated like TV networks — they ARE ad supported. Without some form of monetization, Google wouldn’t be what it is today, nor would we have the great tools we’ve come to rely on them for. Advertising is a fact of life, and if any of us were in Michael’s position, we’d be doing the same to thank our sponsors and to make sure their presence is known.

After a year of quietly building an impressive podcast of interviews without pay or any form of sponsorship, I’d damn sure be happy if I even had $10K/mo of sponsorships starting out — and yes, I’d also be damn sure to thank my sponsors, as they’d be putting food on my table, funding my social media passion and other pursuits, allowing me to purchase much needed hardware upgrades, attend great conferences, etc.

FYI for other readers, the signup form only works in IE so make sure if you’re using Firefox to open it in an IE tab, or if IE itself.

Adam

Agreed 100%. Everyone is so swept up in the mystery web 2.0 pitch that they are missing the fact that Michael Arrington (aka Mr. I hate Sponsored Posts) is doing a sponsored post here.

Mike, I’d love to hear your moral justification of how this is better than what pay-per-post.com or reviewme.com do.

Jason
Chicago IL