I started writing for Article Base in my “green” years when first conducting my business and providing my decades of aquarium and pond experience on the internet (about 2006).
I read much in SEO forums about the importance of submission to these directories in getting your content recognized and and improving your main website and blog sites up in search engine results.
HOWEVER, over the years I have learned much and tracked many statistics and found NO BOUNCE for these articles placed on Article Base.
This includes articles from Hydroponics Lights, UV Bulbs, and much more
WHY? Well for one I started investigating and found that they have discretely placed “no follow” tags in the code (which i did not agree to).
Worse is Article Base does not ensure that those “borrowing” my copyrighted content (albeit first drafts of my constantly updated full content articles) place correct hyper links WITHOUT “no follow” tags.
Sadly I man finding my content plagiarized all over the internet, without ANY legal reference to the original source vie true hyper links. This in turn has traced back to Article Base.
WORSE, Article Base along with these plagiarizing websites use my content to place Google Adsense on, without ANY revenue sharing (which Article Base dishonestly claims that they share revenue over a certain amount of hits, which I had 1000s).
As well while all these scammers including Article Base are making money of my 3 decades of experience and 1000s of hours researched article, Google Adsense is denying my such an account and illegally not responding to DMCA complaints as to content used without proper accreditation and revenue sharing.
Then again Google’s algorithm has become nothing if a sham to sell Adsense, as exemplified by how many searches yield spam result such as the search term “UV Bulbs now yields spammy sites such as Amazon or selling light bulbs which is not a UV Bulb!!!
IN SUMMARY; do not be fooled by Article Base or any other article publishing directory; THEY ARE NOTHING BUT SCAMS!
Do yourself a favor if you have good content that others may find helpful, publish them on your site, do NOT share.
If Google Adsense denies you revenue while placing their crappy ads on your content that has been plagiarized, boycott those adverting and write them that their ads are being placed on plagiarized content and if they continue you will cite this in public view on your website.
Also directly sell Adverts on your website (there are brokers who will do this for you too).
The bottom line is you will not improve your SEO (search engine optimization) position on Google, Bing, etc with Article Base, so save yourself the time and many, many futures headaches and do NO waste your time with these people who are only there to TAKE from you with nothing in return (unless you count all the websites/blogs that will use Articles Base to plagiarize your copyrighted contnet you share there)!!!
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Recommended Friends of this weblog and its articles, from my field of endeavor (Aquarium & Pond Keeping):
Aquarium Supplies & Resources http://aap.atrixnet.com;
the place to go for aquatic resources and articles!
State Farm Insurance Dishonesty, Contempt for Customers
I have been a customer with State Farm since 1977 (the year I turned 18), this is 35 years as of this post.
Recently I received a notice out of the blue that my Homeowners insurance was being canceled because I run a business out of my home.
First of all this is only partly correct, but they based this on note by my mail box asking USPS, FedEx, UPS to place packages in the rear of the house since I sometimes get customer returns.
The facts are that I have a City Business License to sell via the the Internet, not out of my home (or shed), for which I 100% abide by my license and no business is conducted on site at my home.
Furthermore, I work my business out of a shed that State Farm refused to insure due to its ages when we first purchased our current home in 2004, so any risks to State Farm are null since the contract states the shed or its contents are not covered.
We received absolutely NO communication from State Farm as to this issue, although my agent (David Wise Insurance of Grants Pass, Oregon) did provide some assistance.
We attempted to explain that the “sign” (as State Farm identified the 3 inch by 8 inch note on our mail box) did not mean that we had customers going and going (which as I noted earlier would violate our business license anyway).
How a paper note is a “sign” is beyond me as well.
Instead we were asked ridiculous questions that were none of their business such as what my annual sales were??
If State Farm was interested in selling me a business policy, come out and say so, but I figured they would not based on the shed.
In fact my agent even hinted that they asked State Farm if this were a way around this problem.
What I also find reprehensible with State Farm is that I have been with this company 35 years which has included dozens of autos, my homeowners insurance, previous business insurance prior to my move to Oregon, and Life insurance.
For me as a business person, I would certainly consider the time a client has been with my company as well as the number of policies written before dumping a policy and treating a customer with such contempt as State Farm has.
In the end State Farm has lost all their business with me as I moved my vehicle insurance, and Life Insurance Policies to another insurance company.
Sadly I was considering migrating a policy with Progressive to State Farm, but in the end it was/is Progressive who gained much more business due to State Farms dishonest customer service and downright contempt for their customers.
Whether they are any better, time will only tell, but I can say that their rates are much better on all policies so in the end this is saving me more money and if Progressive turns out to be just as bad, I will move my business again.
State Farm is clearly a company that gives the insurance industry a black eye, along with those that use the “pre-exsisting medical condition” excuse to get out of actually being an INSURANCE company and thus only insure the cream of the crop.
The result of coarse is Obama Care.
Personally, in my opinion the insurance industry, along with banking, many San Francisco based computer giants such as Google, and of coarse the news media such as ABC are among the most corrupt industries that give capitalism a bad name
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Friends of this Web Site:
For the most complete Guide to UV Replacement Bulbs: UV Bulbs
Google Apps Infrastructure Changes Review; Enterprise & Wallet Support
In a nutshell it Sucks!
This was/is a typical Google change; they do everything to make their processes easier and produce more revenue and we as “sheeple” follow along and drink it all in.
The arrogance in their responses (& non responses) is unbelievable with Google expecting me and other “users” to take temporary emails accounts, then move blogger accounts and other apps.
Unfortunately many of our users finally got fed up and left, resulting in less users for our forum generated blogs and more.
Worse is Google Enterprise support; these guys only write late at night (from India) and provide no real knowledge, they just repeat canned responses that expect us to spend hours cleaning up the mess Google made with this transition.
If Google really gave a cr## about their customers, this transition would have been done in a way where all data was stored and even if a new temporary account was needed, this should have been a smooth transition of signing in and all data, profile information, etc would have been moved automatically.
Examples
(1) Even with our paid accounts such as the Google Site Search Bar, “Google Enterprise support” sent us a payment notification reminder to the correct email, yet we could not log in to pay this.
When we finally found a way in (hours later, thanks Google, NOT) it was applied to our temporary account, not our new transitioned account.
So Google told us to then pay for the service on our new account (which should have been the same account if Google used ANY logic at all). However we now had the Ads back on our search box results.
So then Google states we will now have get a new search box and go through our entire websites to paste this back in (estimated 8 hours of work, minimum). Considering the hours of work we have already put into this “transition”, this transfer of “ownership” to the new email (actually the old email if truth be told). We stated this is not acceptable and that Google would have to either fix this or refund our money since we were paying for a service not rendered. Googles response is we had to “jump through more hoops” to get our money back, so in the end we simply contacted our business credit card issuer who then reversed charges based on email evidence of lack of real support from Google.
(2) I maintain several domains for myself and others. In a recent incident a domain re-list payment failed due to Google Apps transition issue along with severe issues in Goolge Wallet.
I received nothing but canned answers that went in circles, never addressing the real issue.
Even though the original Wallet (Checkout) account has worked (& continues) to work, Google claimed this account failed to charge. However in calling my credit card issuer (whom also always sends alerts if there is an issue), my card was NEVER attempted a charge for this by Google.
Google instructed me to get new Wallet accounts for this domain and the email used (two new accounts??). This of coarse was not the answer and did nothing to solve the problem.
I was then told to clear the cache and cookies, which did not solve the problem. I then was told to download a new browser (Chrome) with a clean install (no imported Cookies); this too did not solve the issue.
After this the issues has gone back to the original comments and then the Cookies, Cache, etc.; in other words the same canned responses from dishonest Google Obamanite help.
Here is a screen shot of what I am shown by Google when attempting to force a charge in a clean browser (I know for a fact that I am correctly logged in):
The bottom line is Google would simply not fix THEIR problem (so far luckly only one domain has had this issue, although ALL renew through the SAME account). I know if I treated my customer the way Google treats their customers I would be out of business very quickly, but sadly the media (including conservatives like Rush Limbaugh) continue to talk about Google like they are Gods, so this company can do no wrong in the publics eye.
Further;
We have since suspended our Google Adwords in part as a “boycott” of Google service and also for the dishonest support there whereby Google hides behind a proprietary algorithm that states our keyword “UV Bulbs” is only a 4 out of 10 in relevancy when in fact this exact phrase matches both the ad and the landing page. This is unlike some of the delivered results on Google; both organic and paid whereby this search term requires the person searching for this product to click up to 3 times for the correct result.
The issue here is also based on the fact that this has resulted in bidding going up to $1.25 for good results for a product with a $4 profit margin, which is ridiculous.
I also found Google’s responses insulting in that I know my product well being in this business for over 30 years. Their explanation did not meet with what the industry considers a UV Bulb to be. Google’s response would be analogous to telling a pilot how to fly when they had no concept in the operation of an aircraft.
I should also note Google Adsense which hides behind a veil like the “Wizard of OZ”, claiming they are not Adwords when in fact they are likely just across the hall or even a chair away (like an air traffic controller) from an Adwords employee.
Adsense will NEVER return questions, complaints, etc., choosing to hide behind this secret veil.
My point is, Adsense continues to this day to constantly place content ads on websites that plagiarize my MANY copyrighted (and constantly updated), websites. All the while denying my websites revenue via Adsense on my original content (this has been going on now for 7 years with no end in sight).
Finally;
Google (or more specifically their minions) state that users of Google services (email, apps, etc.) have nothing to complain about when they make changes, abruptly terminate accounts, etc and these services are “free”.
Sorry Pals, they are not free. When a user agrees to one of these Google services they are also giving Google access to all sorts of free information about you, your habits, and much more. THIS IS A TANGIBLE ASSET!!!
This asset you have traded Google rights for their services can used to make Google much $ or even sold, in fact as a business, I can guarantee you Google makes far more off this “Asset” than the cost of providing you these terrible services with absolutely no customer support.
As for me and my business, we have shelled out tens of thousands of $$ to Google; PLUS the rights to our “information assets”, so Google here has even less excuse to treat us with such contempt and terrible customer service
What really perplexes me is the high regard this despicable company is held in, but then the media loves Google and most persons anymore are “Sheeple” and listen to the “Master” (the media)
Based on emails, phone calls, forums, YouTube, Facebook; Rude, Condescending, narcissistic, or simply behavior without any respect for others boundaries are at an all time high.
Why?? I can only guess, but I can certainly put forth a few FACTS that one might draw conclusions from.
First though I will briefly mention what I am referring to;
I receive many “communications” from customers and non customers asking for help with certain aquatic problems, many of these persons are otherwise friendly persons.
HOWEVER often certain persons have no boundaries when comes to others time and even though I respond to initial emails 16 hours per day, certain persons will take advantage (or attempt to) of my help by refusing to read the plethora of researched aquatic information I provide to back up and provide further information to their questions, in other words to help them help themselves.
The result is further question after question, even though the article I suggested reading contains answers to these continued questions.
Worse though is when I tell these persons that I have no spent copious amounts of time I do no have (often during my little amount of family time), they actually get angry!.
A common reply is “I do not have time to read your articles”.
In there minds, my time counts for nothing?
What about my time I spent researching along with the 30 plus years that has gone into these article that are provided free of charge (no need to go to Amazon and purchase a book that is likely very much out of date and anecdotal on the subject)?
This is just one common example.
Although thankfully not a daily occurrence, but downright rude emails still occur with regularity where we provide a plethora of information, documentation, cite references, etc., YET these persons still feel the need to challenge our/my responses in very condescending and rude manners. Aquarium Lighting & correct UV Bulb replacement are common subjects of these persons.
Sometimes these persons demand we not follow the business practices we installed in 2009 after suffering through years of no profit and losses as we were attempting to be everything to everyone. In other words run our business as these demanding persons see fit.
So most of our time was in email and phone calls. The result was losses that we are still paying back to this day in loans we had to take out.
Bluntly these persons have no right to tell me or anyone else how to run my business and especially in ways we know result in losses just so to be someone’s personal answer person at no charge.
Other issues are forums especially local (which I no longer waste my time on) ignoring what I have to say.
Facebook is a place where narcissism & myopic behavior runs amuck even among otherwise “nice” persons.
I follow others posts when time allows (for this reason I try and keep my friends lists short). Yet anything I post often updating my life’s work (which also is what pays the bills and hopefully will dig us out of the hole I have been in since being forced to move to Oregon in 2002), it is never read, “liked”, etc. but for one or two persons.
Even my niece refused to ever “peek” at any of my posts, yet were on constantly posting about her adventures.
What ever happened to looking out for each other?
I know that search engines rank these likes, so being in an online business it is important to me and it would simply be nice to have such favors returned once in a while.
Another example is a friend, who I continually like and share “stuff” for her business, and have backed at every corner, also no longer ever returns the favor, it is always all about her.
However since this boils down to a relatively minor issue compared to the above emails & phone calls; I simply do not give much credence to Facebook or go on much more that to to say happy birthday.
What are the Causes?
While the causes of this pervasive rudeness, lack of boundaries, and extreme narcissism are speculation (subjective), the facts that support this are not and are in fact objective.
So what I will give are a list of FACTS and let readers mostly draw their own conclusions.
(1)FACT; when tracking these rude and clueless (without boundaries) persons via name or any other identification to web sites such Facebook or Blogs; what I (& others) have found that over 85% display very liberal or extreme libertarian political views.
Even among the other slightly less than 15% with more so called “conservative” views who are rude, often proclaim an Evangelical religious view point.
(2)FACT: .gov and .edu emails address make up a disproportionate percentage of these before mentioned emails.
While these two email suffixes are well under 5% of are general emails (of which we receive 100s counting sales), these two suffixes make up nearly 20% of rude, & narcissistic emails
(3)FACT: When you go to liberal enclaves, especially YouTube; you will find that most of the of the insulting language and support for strange causes comes from these liberals or libertarians (such as Truthers of supporters of the Occupy movement).
As well when my videos for my business get rude or condescending remarks (that I usually delete), I look at the persons YouTube account that made such comments and sure enough in almost every instance I find a person with far left Michel Moore or “Truther” type views.
UPDATE 9/10/12
I had another demanding and clueless liberal attack me in my aquarium help email (mind you all the information was/is free), but this guy guy got demanding and insulting so I “Cut him off”, and this triggered even more demands and hate from this vial liberal. BTW, I know his views based on statements by him, and research of him on the internet.
Here are just a few quotes from this vial/hateful liberal (he even attacked my family): ” my best suggestion to you would be……don’t have a large family if you cannot afford a bigger house”
“I could care less whether or not you make a profit on any particular transaction.”
“I have a life, as for you…..get a life!”
Interesting how I am to “get a life” when he was the one constantly demanding free help and more from me!! Typical hateful Occupier mentality!
A few Subjective Observations based on these and much of what I have seen/witnessed in life
With the most Narcissistic President in history along with places such as Twitter and Facebook that also champion Narcissism, I believe this to be expected.
Dishonest News Media.
This same media has been able to convince many that Democrats are for the “working man” well this could not be any further from the truth other than “country Club Republicans (RINOs) also are not at all for the working man either.
Democrat leaders seem to be only for those who blame others for their problems work the “working union man”, while Libertarians seem to think everyone is out to get them.
Occupy Movement; that amount of disinformation that persons believe from this mob (mostly of thugs, but sadly made of up many “good persons” that are so woefully unwise as to the facts of business finance and much more about life and believe anything the left leaning media tells them)
YouTube; there is probably no more better forum for sleaze other the owner of YouTube; GOOGLE which is a corporation that would not know honestly if it hit them in the face with their rampant plagiarism of small businesses and small entrepreneurs.
See: Google Lies, Dishonesty, Plagiarism; Adsense, Adwords & Google Search Fail
Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg, is another example of a condescending narcissist
The education system itself which although many will disagree, it is over paid in my view based on “market value” of the work they do.
Tenure is the primary evil as I have seen the good teachers that were not tenured let go at our local schools
As well, going back to my school days I had a downright evil teacher put me down in class in the 4th grade only to have this ridicule follow me to my High School Graduation. She should never been allowed to teach and had she worked in the private sector she would have been fired immediately.
This are just a few opinions of mine, others may draw different conclusions, however the facts noted earlier speak for themselves
Friends of this website/blog include UV Bulbs for the best UV Bulb, Lamp Replacement Directory on the Internet!
These points define a person that can be addressed by the description of an “Obamanite”.
Updated 5/07/12
Not all points need to be observed in a person to be described as an Obamanite, although at least 50% should be present.
It is also noteworthy that just because a person voted for Obama in 2008, this does NOT necessarily make this person an Obamanite.
A reader might ask my reason for even writing this post? A fair question, so in a nutshell I have worked in a field of business (Aquarium Supplies & Resources) for over 3 decades that is probably one of the most liberal fields one can work in and while being liberal does not make one an Obamanite (I know many liberals who are most definitely NOT Obamanites!), I do get so many lazy and nasty emails, phone calls, etc from persons that then get upset just because I attempt to help them help themselves (they want their aquarium information spoon fed and refuse to read many of the articles I send them to back up what I tell them in an answer to a question) or get upset when I call the out on their false accusations or anecdotal information; I felt such a post here was necessary to clear the air from my perspective.
If you are offended by this post/article, you likely are an Obamanite (even if you fit less than 50% of this points)
Truth has no meaning, Lying is a means to an end
A person who cannot see truth and is believes they are in the right even when the facts are presented otherwise
Often condescending to others, yet rarely can see this themselves and think that they are the nicest most reasonable person you would ever meet
Narcissistic Behavior (similar to above point), where these person act and may even think the world revolves themselves, all the while showing no respect for others and their talents and knowledge.
These persons are the type that will post on Facebook all about themselves yet NEVER take the time to look at others activity, even family and even when receiving “likes”. In my particular case, my online business depends upon a Google algorithm that includes Facebook popularity, however even though I have spent the time looking at others endeavors, I can find weeks where I track only 1 click from Facebook (versus 1000s elsewhere as a comparison). Sadly even my nieces act this way, but this is in part based also on other condescending Obamanite world views IMO
Narcissist who thinks they are “all that”, their poop does not stink, and that they most important person.
Often simple “Body Language” will ‘tell much’ as to this very common symptom of an Obamite as displayed with this sickening and disgusting picture of President Obama.
Makes up falsehoods about others, often believing their own lies.
Often text book Sociopath behavior typical of what may seem on the surface as likeable, ordinary persons, but in reality only have intentions to make themselves look good, OR WORSE!
I have met a few of these persons in my life, with one causing great harm to my family, the other more person destruction that still hurt me and others around me.
As is obvious Barack Obama also shows these traits, but he is not only destroying one family, but a nation.
Accuses others of not providing help for themselves (or others), when never looking into the facts that scream otherwise
Believes others are placed on this planet to help them, at any time, hour, etc.
Refuses to read anything for themselves, believing others should provide all the information they desire
Believe rules are for others to follow, as they are above rules or policies (I see this constantly in business with persons who leave phone messages that make running my business unprofitable because they are above the rules/policies).
Others are not entitled to make a living from their hard work (this is one I observe constantly where persons treat my time as worthless and then get upset when I attempt to get them to help me help them, all after putting in 14 hour days)
When they fail at something, it must be someone else’s or somethings fault.
Again I see this when a product I have tested, which few if any other in my business ever perform for customers prior to shipping; then will state that I am screwing them or sending defective products when in reality it is their application, installation, or product that they have placed the new product in that is not functioning (this is especially common with UV Replacement Bulbs and a recent sale of T2 Lights where the person made false accusations and when the lights were returned they were fully functional [sadly 95% of returns, since I pre-test, end up not being defective!]).
Often such a person will look their inability to make something work or inability to perform a task and despite overwhelming statistics of others succeeding with this same task will still blame others, the product, or the task itself.
This person I referred to with the T2 lights is an example as even after returning the fully functional & tested lights for a second time claims the lights cannot/will not work. A reasonable non-Obamanite person would realize that maybe they simply are doing something wrong in installation.
This analogy applies to all aspects of life an politics and is sadly how many persons think; just listen to all the clueless persons in the early stages American Idol who get mad at the judges when told that they simply cannot sing (I for one cannot either, as well cannot perform other tasks such as hanging dry wall correctly, but I do not blame others correcting me or the dry wall as being defective!!!)
Believe Government is the answer to many if not most problems (the government is not your “Daddy”)
Refuses to read or believe anything for themselves, even when the truth or references are right in front of their face!
Rarely can apologize
Will Personally Attack those they disagree with when confronted with known facts.
I do NOT mean this specifically in the arena of politics either.
As an example, I have read the forum “Reef Central” many times where nearly everyone will pile on in criticising well written articles about the use of LED Fixtures often using the “straw man” complaint that the articles are biased toward a specific brand (in particular TMC AquaRay LEDs).
So What?? If I or others have done their research including my personal use and consulting with my professional “sister” aquarium maintenance companies whose use of many different LED fixtures have found one brand to shine well above others, why should I or these other authors not be biased??
These are ridiculous Obamanite responses. What would be dishonest would be for me or these other authors know the facts about a TMC LED Aquarium Fixture yet recommend others LEDs just so as to appear unbiased.
The facts are these types “biased accusations” are a popular Obamanite “Straw Man” argument thrown about in many aspects of life.
Google by definition is an Obamanite company with many Obamanite minions.
So while this is not actually a definition to apply, this is more an example OF an Obamanite and based on my dealings with dishonest Google staff, chances are if you work for Google; you ARE an Obamanite!
Posted by cstrohmeyer 
C Strohmeyer's Weblog; Life, Business 