The Wobble iPhone App Guy Really Wants On TechCrunch, And Is Willing To Pay (Updated)

Update: Atherton, posting under the name ‘The Real Jon Atherton’, says that someone was impersonating him in the e-mail conversation below, and that they’ve done it before. See his full comment here.

We occasionally get offers for payments in exchange for posts on TechCrunch. Sometimes we post these offers to let the world know who’s out there trying to pay for coverage. Usually, though, we just delete them.

This is one of those times we’re going to post the exchange. Because Jon Atherton, the guy who created the Wobble iphone application (here’s a (unpaid of course) story we wrote about them last year), just won’t give up. His latest offer is $1,000 if we do a post promoting the new version of Wobble.

Most of the exchange is below. Atherton first offered $300 for a post, then moved it up to $1,000 after we declined. He promised it “will NOT look like a paid-for article” and “if well treated by you on TC i’m willing to make the payment asap.”

Well Jon, here’s your post. Please make your payment to the Red Cross for their Haiti earthquake relief fund. You need to balance out the karma a little bit.

2010/1/14 Robin Wauters:

stop trying, we don’t do stuff like that

give that $1000 to charity (Haiti?)

Robin Wauters
Writer, TechCrunch

On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 6:31 PM, Jon Atherton wrote:
Robin – I kindly advise you to answer me asap …

2010/1/13 Jon Atherton
Robin – are you not going to answer me at all ?

2010/1/13 Jon Atherton

Robin – i’m offering you USD$1000 for this article
just stressing the fact our application proves great technical assets it will NOT look like a paid-for article if well treated by you on TC
i’m willing to make the payment asap, please answer me fast
Jon

2010/1/13 Robin Wauters:

What I think? I think it’s very sad to see that this is the best marketing strategy you can come up with.

Robin Wauters
Writer, TechCrunch

On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 12:04 PM, Jon Atherton wrote:
Hi there,
I’m Jon Atherton of Glentwood, creator Wobble.

I’m developing the new version of Wobble (Wobble 2).
In order to promote my new version, I’d like to sell some more copies of the original Wobble and spread the word of our upcoming application.

I’m willing to pay 300$ (USD) if you’ll write an article about Wobble where you’ll mention about an upcoming version (Wobble 2).
I’ll be able to pay you right after the article is published and you sent me a link – please include your paypal email

Let me know what you think

Thanks in advance,

Jon Atherton.

Get WobbleApp in the AppStore ! http://bit.ly/89c8RR
www.wobbleapp.com
Twitter : http://twitter.com/tunes
Phone +61 7 3102 4608
Email : wobbleapp@gmail.com

Image credit: Newsweek