New from Rockable Press: Freelance Confidential

I guess I’ll add some other things (I’m trying to provide quality feedback, not exactly kissing ass).

Envato might be under the impression that some people are only subscribed or read like ONE site and that’s it (though, I really hope not because your analytics team would be horrible). Most people that read Envato sites read like 5, probably even more (they were designed that way, of course). So, when you copy and paste the exact post to each network site, most people are getting at least 5 of the same exact RSS message. Then, (hopefully, from your perspective) those same people are also subscribed to those network site’s Twitter accounts, the see 5 more advertisements that are like the same thing. Sometimes you’ll even get a network site’s Twitter account retweeting another network site’s Twitter account so you get to see it again. Sometimes you get the network site’s editor’s personal opinion on the book so you get it again. Sometimes you even get a network site’s editor retweeting something that Collis already retweeted from someone else in an attempt to advertise. Then, if you’re a fan of the network site’s Facebook page (which again, you guys hope for), you get to see the same exact microblog posts.

I honestly was thinking about buying this book. I was one of the 3,200 people that filled out that form and I would have liked to read about all of the other freelancer’s strategies. But, I’m afraid if I do, it will only encourage Envato to keep this form of brute advertising, and I’ll end up seeing even more of this shit. I haven’t even read this post. When something is spammed so many times, people just tend to totally ignore the core content of it. For example, since you guys didn’t think of this: If anyone has ever played World of Warcraft (or another MMORPG for that matter), you are constantly getting spammed by gold sellers in both the mail and whispers. Can anyone even tell me the URL for one gold selling site (without Googling :D)? No, you can’t even though I guarantee you’ve been spammed by 30+ different gold selling sites. You can’t because right when you see the word gold or the message is structured the same way as previous messages, you completely just disregard the message. So, every time I’ve seen Freelance Confidential, I immediately, unconsciously, disregard the message. You know what? I think I actually do that for anything that says has Rockable, ninja, or rockstar in the title – most of which come from Envato. I’m serious, stop using the words “ninja” and “rockstar,” ESPECIALLY as titles. I’m not saying Rockable is a bad name, it’s just the same annoying advertising strategy is used for all of the books and they usually cost a pretty penny, so most of the time I’m not interested.

If the World of Warcraft analogy doesn’t make sense to anyone, I’d be willing to think of one that’s more related to web development because it’s a very important concept.

Ads are part of the internet. If you don’t want ads go to lynda.com. Tuts+ has helped me so much and the last thing I would do is complain because they are trying to generate revenue. Self promotion is part of business. Also, the ads, aren’t half as annoying as most ads on most websites.