Dj lighting - Scanner comparasion Martin SCX vs. Eliminator

I just wanted to say that "you get what you pay for" . Again!

So I own a pair of Eliminator E139 barrel roller DMX controlled lights. I also just got a pair of Martin SCX500 scanners. The Eliminators are 250Watt bulbs and Martin are 150watt. The Martins look 3 times brighter than the eliminator. The optical path on the Martin is simple and efficient. The eliminator is not designed as well.
The Martin uses a front side coated mirror as the eliminator uses regular rear coated mirror.  The Martin uses a bulb that has the reflector integrated as one piece. Where the Eliminator has a separate reflector and bulb that has to be aligned right or the light will not be focused properly. The Martin does nice smooth sweeping motion as slow speeds where the eliminator is gittery.

So when buying equipment always remember that you get what you pay for! In all fairness Martin has be developing high end stage lighting since they began and has always chased the industry leaders in concert lighting (High End & Vari light) but has always dominated the lower end DJ and night club market. In this case their experience in getting maximum light out of a fixture is apparent!!  I'd like some 250 watt discharge models someday!

Amazon.com : Amazon associates program a fraud?

[ How to set up new Amazon associates store: tricks and tips, get huge sales, make $100,000 dollars in one season! NOT!]

Have you had items you sold through Amazon associates disappear off your reports and not get compensated for the sale? have you noticed or been paying attention?

That's exactly what happened to me in the holiday season of 2011. I just wonder how many other people are busting their hump promoting Amazon.com brand and getting screwed!!?

Here's my story.

 Amazon screwed me out of $650 worth of commissions. Why? Because my parents and sister ordered xmas presents and sent them to my parents address. I had an Amazon associates account registared to that address when I lived with my parents in 1997. Jump to 2011, because I once lived there they said all the orders that went to that address were "personal" and that the associates program was not a discount program. I said that they were not my orders, not ordered on my credit card and didn't go to my address. They then told me I set up this elaborate scheme to have other people buy things for me to get a 5% discount. I couldn't believe that they would say that and essentially tell me I was a liar and scamming them. I told them I would never waste all that time, ask other people to pay with their credit card to get a lousy 5% discount!!! They said yes I did.  I  told them that next holiday season I would not be pushing their brand. I sold $5,000 worth of goods for them and they ruined the relationship FOREVER for $150. There policies are open ended and their customer service is short sighted. People are far better off setting up their own portal vs. relying on Amazon. Also, they pay 60 days after the sale. Because their reports are so ambiguous it's hard to identify the dropped items. SHADY ASS COMPANY. Stay away from Amazon associates, for the effort, time and money you associates are putting in you are being poorly compensated for your effort. Start your own thing.. being an associate with an Amazon store is hardly being in business for yourself.


When my family found out I did not get paid by Amazon.com they were pissed! They said that they went out of their way to order almost all their Christmas gifts on Amazon and could have just went to the mall. Guess who won't be buying on Amazon next Christmas.


P.S. Amazon, if you were smart you would give associates the 5% on person sales just like if you work at Mc Donalds you get a discounted lunch. It's totally feasible to set a threshold of minimum outside sales to receive a discount on personal orders. 

Why Craigslist!? Why do you block multi-posts in different cities?

Why do you consider the same post in a different city 2000 miles away a duplicate post? It's not like someone in Nashville is going see the same post in Los Angeles. You don't offer a nationwide search so why block multiple city posts?  I like to sell things in multiple cities and you make me have to slightly modify my message so that your filter doesn't block the post. Please limit this blocking feature to single a geographic area like a major city or county.  Thank you.

Google Adwords - No real fraud protection at all.. Use at your own risk as long as your budget will allow!

Google doesn't protect small and large advertisers from fake or fraudulent clicks!

So I've explored Google Adwords recently with a few businesses I'm promoting. I watch the clicks very closely as the bid amounts are in the $12 to $15 per click range.  My beef with Google is that it says that they will credit you for double clicks and fraudulent clicks that are not real potential customers. I've found that Google does not protect you and will not credit you even though their marketing material suggests that they will! Specifically I had two clicks totally $28 from the same source. The two clicks were one minute a part and using Google's very own Analytics system I could tell that this particular person did not spend more than 10 seconds on the site. Basically this was a meaningless click that cost $28.

So under the "double click" policy of Google I contacted them to alert them of this situation. They requested the server log of the activity. Luckly for me I have a hosting service that makes those available to me in raw form. I'm not sure if you were using a Wordpress hosted site if you could get that data. So after reviewing the raw data log I confirmed what Analytics had shown that it was the same IP address and within 1 minute with zero activity beyond the click.

Here is Google's response to the actual raw data proof of the situation.

"Greetings, Steve,

Thank you for contacting Google.  Per our conversation regarding the
clicks on March 9 in your AdWords account, I had forwarded the issue to a
specialist team.

Our team received your report regarding suspicious clicks on your AdWords
ads. Thank you for your patience while we researched this issue.

After thoroughly reviewing your account, we did not find any evidence
suggesting that invalid clicks have been charged to your account. The
clicks your ads received appear to fit a pattern of normal user behavior.

If the click activity that doesn't fit your usual patterns, please keep

the following factors in mind:

- Return visits: Individual users may legitimately click on your ad more
than one time when comparison shopping or returning to your site for more
information.

- Shared IPs: Multiple clicks from a single source may be due to an
Internet Service Provider (ISP) assigning identical IP addresses to
multiple users. Certain ISPs, such as AOL, distribute a relatively small
number of shared, rotating IP addresses to a large number of users. As a
result, multiple visitors may access your site from identical IP
addresses, giving the impression of repeated clicks from a single visitor.

The security of AdWords advertisers is a top priority for Google. Please

be assured that we will continue to monitor all clicks on your ads to

prevent abuse. For more information about the steps we take to combat
invalid click activity, please visit
http://www.google.com/ads/adtrafficquality/."

If you read that response you should be quick to realize that under almost all circumstances and even with a server log which many Google customers may not even have access to, Google calls it "normal use". 

If that's not a red flag for your marketing budget than be prepared to pay for useless clicks under the Google business model. If you're in high cost keywords than that will add up to thousands of dollars. 

I don't trust Google and that my budget isn't being eaten up by some room of "clickers" or my competition!

After all Google has to make tons of cash to support that stock price for the street!

A better model for advertisers is a pay per click with a minimum interaction time on the site and true double click protection. It's easy to do but I suspect that Google is racking in a lot of money from illegitimate clicks so why would they want to change a thing.