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I recently purchased Sam Bakker’s Crowd Conversion – Social Sales Engine which is a Facebook Contest App generator. I don’t normally make quick impulse purchases on products over $100 but I knew the potential this product has and wanted to get started with it right away.

I have run into some snags with their support and the product so I’m setting this post up as a pre review for Sam Bakker’s Social Sales Engine. I’m going to hold off with this review as I don’t want to start bashing the product because I believe in it’s potential.

My hope is this post will serve as a probe to let Sam Bakker know I need some answers, and quickly. In today’s social media world, feedback regarding one’s business and products can spread quickly and have both positive and negative effects.

For this reason I don’t want to jump the gun with a post that is started out of frustration, I sincerely want to make this work and hope I can get some traction with the blog post about Sam Bakker and his Social Sales Engine.

If Sam visits this page, I would suggest you look at your support community and answer those of us who have gathered there trying to figure out how to make the Social Sales Engine work.

So in preparation of launching our new blog about our Wild household with 10 kids and all, I started looking around for a way to make the blog post easier / funner (is that a word) and just plain COOL.

I came across a cool little extension that allows a split window in my browser and the ability to compose a blog post with in the browser. I;m actually creating this post with the ScribeFire extension enabled in Firefox.

One of the things I like the most with my limited use of this tool is the ability to view web pages as I write. What this means for me is I can do research for posts, surf around, watch a Youtube video, check my Facebook or Twitter accounts all while never losing my place while writing.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say about this as I give it a good testing, but for now, I think I’ll post this … but the real reason, I need to get back to work (break is over)

Enjoy … Scott

I just don’t understand how some people expect a freelancer to put in all the work and not get paid for it.

I’m dealing with a certain client that will remain un-named – although I have had people tell me I should call him out publicly – where I have completed a job two weeks ago, and I’m still waiting for the final payment.

I’ve been told he’s waiting on his client to pay him. My thought on this is, I wasn’t contracted by his client, my work is done, I should get paid. I understand times are tough for everyone, and there may come times when a client will have to wait until they are paid in order to pay me, I get it.

The issue I’m having is I keep being told things that don’t happen. After completion of the job I was told request for payment was being made and that it would take aprox 3 days for the funds to be available in order for me to get paid. Okay, I can handle that. Three days passed and I find out their client hadn’t yet signed off on the final design, and I was being asked to make a quick edit. Okay, I’m still fine with that. Edit was done, and I was told the client should sign off the next day and was given the same story on the funds availability. No problem, I’m being patient, this should be fine. Friday was the day, I make contact … I was told final payment still hadn’t been made, “sorry for the delay, but even if I have to pull some money from another account, I’m be sure to get you your money by Tuesday”.

Well today is that Tuesday … guess what!! … still no money. I was told final payment was JUST made and again given the 3 day funds availability. I leave a nasty message on the voicemail stating I’m done, I can’t continue to work like this and to call me when my money is ready.

I get a call a bit later from my client which I could tell he wasn’t too happy with my tone. He tried to convince me he wasn’t stringing me along and he had to wait for his client to make payment. For which I replied to him that wasn’t what I was told, I was told come Tuesday that I would get my money one way or the other, he comes back stating he just doesn’t have the money.

So … the lesson learned here … I refuse to o any more work with the person, and any future work I pick up fr contract work will include a written agreement as to when I get paid for final work.

I don’t think I am being unreasonable here. I do understand if he didn’t have the money to pay me, then I would have to wait until he get paid. The part that just burns me up … don’t tell me then I can expect to be paid one way or another and back out.

The other part that is extremely frustrating with this situation is during the time I was doing the work for this client, I had turned down a couple of jobs that would have paid nicely. I turned them down because I didn’t think I would be able to complete them on time because of the work I was doing for THIS client.

I guess I’m not the only one experiencing these issues as a freelancer. It seems to come with the title, but that doesn’t mean I should accept it as the norm. I can’t put food on the table for my family working for free.

Thank you for reading my RANT … do you think I’m asking too much? Should I not expect clients to have enough working capitol to pay me for my work once it’s complete? Looks like I have will need to be more selective with who I do work for.

My first statement – what a chicken shit cowardly thing to do … terminate me through email? … grow some balls and say it to my face!

So … many of you know we just had our newest arrival delivered Wednesday May 26th … we went to the hospital after Sarah’s water broke around 6:30a, before we left I emailed my employer that we were headed to the hospital and that I would be taking the rest of the week off to take care of moma and baby.

Baby arrived late Wednesday night, moma had a tubal surgery the next morning (10 babies is enough), and come Friday as we were trying to figure out if the girls were going to stay another night, and I was preparing for a quick run to the school to turn in finals work and take a couple of quizzes – I got an email

An email in my opinion should have waited until after the weekend, I mean WHY spoil our happy moments with news such as this.

The email stated that I was no longer going to be offered employment at my current employer, and the reason stated was because I left them hanging with a last minute absence when they’re trying to close a high profile client.

Are you F’ing kidding me? … I knew the communication at that place was bad but WOW … I’m sorry my baby decided to grace us with her presence when one of the co-owner’s of the company was off work recovering from a boob job – apparently she was the only one who knew I would be taking time off when the baby arrived … However, wouldn’t one assume there would be some time off when a new baby arrives, I mean when an employer tells you all along that we have flexible hours and encourages us when we need to take time off for family matters, wouldn’t you think it would be a given that I would be taking time off. … Is three days REALLY too much time.

Anyway … we’re looking at this as a blessing in disguise, the pay was crap anyway, and my work is far more valuable to be associated with that company anyway.

Oh and get this … they wanted to offer me contract work … I’m guessing so they would feel less guilty, like they were doing me a favor … well, they pay their contractors $100 per website … and they get $100 websites in return (crap work).  I can’t turn in crappy work, it’ just not in me. That means they would be getting high quality work super cheap … WHY would I want to do that, when I can do the same work for my own clients, and be proud to place my name on the work.

So we move on, and this is a perfect opportunity for me to start promoting my newly launched web / graphics design business – http://prockstar.com

Please help me spread the word about ProckStar Creative – and if you’re on Facebook, we would appreciate a “like” vote.

Thank You … Scott

This one should be an easy SEO jumper.

After doing research on Custom Kitchen Design in the Richmond VA area for a customer, I noticed the listings ranking at the top of Google don’t really have good SEO. The one thing I see that is trumping our customer are the backlinks.

It always amazes me how some of these websites can out rank another. The sad thing is, many of the top ranking sites within a lot of markets get there by accident.

For local SEO that’s a good thing if you’re trying to optimize your website so local customers can find you.

It will be interesting to see if some of the minor tweaks I did can knock off the top ranked sites for Custom Kitchen Design in Richmond VA.

Enjoy … Scott

I have been researching the SendOutCards business for over a month now, and I’m ready to sign up.

Why did I wait so long you might ask … money … I wanted to sign up as an entrepreneur and didn’t have the money until now.

Here’s my dilemma at this point.

I can’t decide on who I should sign up with. I thought about going with the person who originally talked about SOC almost a year ago, but he’s not very active and I never got a card in the mail (something he said he would do).

I have come across a lot of great distributors that appear to be active, but I don’t want to sign up under someone that is too busy either. I have developed a plan that I will be using that incorporates my experience online, and I’m looking for someone that is just as savvy with social media and is actively using it to help build their business.

Two of the top people on my list haven’t posted anything new to Youtube in over a month, and neither of them are using Twitter on a daily basis. One of them keeps sending me automated emails that are part of her “marketing funnel” and I can tell she set the emails up several months ago, and she’s pushing a new marketing product that I don’t care to purchase. I liked the fact that she has used YouTube and other forms of online marketing to grow her business but there’s just a lack of a personal touch in her marketing (it seems to be all on auto-pilot now).

My other thoughts were to find someone who is working and growing their business and sign up with them to help them grow faster. Problem is, I’m having a tough time finding such a person.

Anyway … I just thought I would post this message to see what kind of response I get from distributors, and hopefully I can find someone with the qualities I am looking for as a SendOutCards mentor.

I’m looking for a distributor with the following qualifications …

Actively uses social media but not SPAMMING it
Is growing their business and making money with it
Is using current online marketing/technology to “ATTRACT” people to them (as apposed to chasing people)
Sends out cards regularly (i.e uses the products)
Promotes the retail use of the cards (not just looking for opportunity sign ups)

If you fit the above qualities then either leave a comment or send me a DM through Twitter (twitter id – @scottprock ). If I’m not following you yet, then send me an @ reply asking to DM me and I’ll add you.

I want to get started on this ASAP and I’m ready to grow this rapidly.

Thanks … Scott

Staged Appeal is a home staging service in the Chicago IL. area and when I saw this site I had no idea that home stagers were in such high demand. Staged Appeal has been serving the Chicago area home staging market for more than three years. They are also an accredited business with ASP master (Accredited Staging Professional) … I never knew such an association existed, now I know

I’m hoping the changes I made to the pages of their website will help them SEO.

After a little research I learned that the URL in the number one spot for – Chicago home stagers – and – Chicago home staging – is a flash based website with no textual reference. It should be easy to bump them off … I’ll keep everyone updated if I am successful in getting Staged Appeal a number one SERP.

If you’re in New Hyde Park, and looking for a bio nutritionist or holistic care, you should go see Robert at BioNutritionist.com.

Modern day stresses affect each and every one of us differently. The fast pace of our culture makes it difficult for us to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Health is not just the absence of disease. According to the World Health Organization, health is a condition of optimal well being. The idea of wellness and disease prevention cannot be obtained by proper nutrition alone but by a series of lifestyle changes.

If you are interested in disease prevention and health maintenance, then you should be interested in nutrition. Clinical nutritionists are educated in physiology, biochemistry, biology, and the mechanisms of disease.

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Some of you may be wondering why I posted this on my blog … well … the short answer is …  I’m testing something out, if it works I will follow up and fill you all in … I promise you will be interested in the results

Enjoy … Scott

Now that I’m cooled off, I can write sensibly about the insane decision Grifols of Boise handed down regarding my ability to donate blood plasma.

Every now and then I have given blood plasma as a way to do something for others and it’s nice they pay me a little for the 3-4 hours it usually took out of my day. I always knew if I was in a pinch for some gas money or diapers for the kids I could always run over to the plasma center and give them some of my plasma.

There are also other benefits I would notice when I did this regularly … the most notable was I started to loose a few pounds for which I could stand to loose a few more … my blood pressure usually was more consistent and with in good ranges, I stayed hydrated ( a must in order to donate anyway) and overall I felt good about donating and the small health benefits as a side bonus.

I recently decided I would go back and start donating again, we could use the extra money and it would give me some time to read and listen to some of the podcasts I need to catch up on. I was there on Tuesday last and was told since I last gave plasma in ’07 that I was considered a new donor again, requiring me go through the physical and new donor pre-screening. Problem was I got there 5 minutes too late as they were not taking new donors for the day. frustrated I went home.

The next day (Wednesday) I arrived with plenty of time, went through the initial screening, and about 2.5 hours into my visit I was called in for the physical. After asking me a series of questions (some repetitive from the previous screening steps) the screener asked me if I had any piercings ( the answer was right there in front of him on the form I had filled out) and he added even closed piercings which is something I don’t remember ever being asked before. I was reminded I once had my left ear pierced in JR High back in the mid ’80′s … so I mentioned that.

The HAMMER drops !

The screener then pulled out the same form that was filled out by the screener in ’07 which didn’t indicate my ear piercings, he had me read the acknowledgment print right next to my signature that showed the text – including closed piercings – in parenthesis. He then stated that what comes next is the part of his job that sucks … the part where he points out on the current form by signing I am agreeing that all the information is true and correct and if it is not that I will be permanently deferred from donating plasma.

So basically, what they are saying … since I omitted the fact that I had ear piercings more than 25 years ago on my previous donation screening, I am now permanently BANNED from EVER giving plasma. I tried to tell the guy it was an oversight, I wasn’t asked about closed piercings previously and didn’t notice the fine print next to my signature before either. The guy tried to empathize with me, but said there was nothing he could do.

To say I was upset is an understatement, I mean if anyone has ever given blood plasma and seen the trashy people who get accepted you’ll understand why it’s an outrage to be banned from giving plasma for a simple oversight on paper that has NO baring whatsoever on my ability or the safety of my blood plasma. The stipulation that prohibits a person from giving plasma in regards to piercings is with in a 12 month period, so why is it that something that I forgot to add from 25 years ago would have such a permanent consequence is beyond me.

I just don’t get it … but then again, I guess I have a lot better things I can do productively with 4 hours of my time.

A shout out to Grifols … YOU SUCK! …

I feel better now …

I just had to fill out an online employment review in order to continue receiving unemployment but I wonder when the Idaho Labor department is going to update their form for reporting job searches.

With the current economy and … well, being unemployed … one would think Idaho Labor would understand in this age of information online that it would make sense to save money on gas and do your job searching, applications, and interview scheduling online. After all, they do encourage the use of online job searching.

Then why … I can’t figure it out … do they NOT have a section on their form to fill in email contacts, or searches you have done online. Do they not understand that many of the applications only have an email address, some don’t even have the company name.

I have been responding to an average of one job posting per day (most days more) from a number of different online job searches, but there’s no place for me to put that information on the Idaho Labor form … WTF!!!

If you know of anyone hiring in the graphic design field, or looking for freelance work, let me know … also be sure to check out my offer for free blog installation

Enjoy … Scott