CEO of ePerks and LeapFish Ben Behrouzi Purchases VladZablotskyy.org

UPDATE May13, 2010: Things pertaining to LeapFish.com, their founders and management, along with related startups are no longer of interest to me, therefore no further comments are allowed on this post. There are also more reliable sources out there (such as Better Business Bureau) to help you make an informed decision about LeapFish.

***You may also want to know that the Law Firm of Daniel Bakondi, in San Francisco, CA, is investigating a possible Class Action Law Suit Against LeapFish.

Ben Behrouzi, the CEO of dying ePerks and LeapFish has registered VladZablotskyy.org domain:

Ben Behrouzi Purchases VladZablotskyy.org
UPDATE: Thanks to a tip from the regular reader I have learned that ePerks and LeapFish CEO Ben Behrouzi has also registered VladZablotskyy.net:

Ben Behrouzi Purchases VladZablotskyy.net

So what does Behrouzi plans to do with these domains? Probably nothing befitting a CEO of a company. I am curious nevertheless.

In the comments below Behrouzi indicated that he purchased domains to document the “real Vlad Zablotskyy”- smells like cybersquatting to me.

This is not the first time Mr. Behrouzi threatened to ruin some one’s reputation. Back when he worked at at Reply.com, Mr Behrouzi left this message on the phone of his employee:
[audio:benscott.mp3]

Update: Bellow are the links to more LeapFish reviews.

A Brief Tale Of Sleaze– LeapFish should take Rob Shore’s advise and never lie to their potential clients.

Three Scams and Rip-Offs to Report – Kit Eliot describes his “encounter” with LeapFish.

Leapfish Review – Is LeapFish.com an opportunity, scam, or just another meta search site?– short but to the point rundown about advertising on LeapFish- needless to say the author passes on the opportunity to advertise or invest in LeapFIsh.

LeapFish Affiliate Program. Can Giveaways Keep It Afloat?– a post by yours truly. I thought it was a mistake to link their affiliate program to the basic function of their website- the search function. Their widgets also contain SEO friendly links back to their website- my conclusion their affiliate program is really a linking scheme to gain rankings in search engines.

LeapFish.com advertisers beware – yet another account of dealing with LeapFish sale people.

Go Beyond MLS Forum

Ever since I begun blogging and falling in love with every aspect of it, I also wanted to try managing forums. Copyblogger has recently addressed few important reasons why every blogger should have a forum. It took me quite a long time to make my own conclusions.

My previous attempts to implement forums on few of my websites ended up in disaster. One particular forum was left unattended for a few weeks. It grew incredibly big- however 100% of those registered were spammers. Some times we bloggers complain about spam, but to be completely honest I think we have seen nothing in comparison to the owners of the forums. The spam on forums can really deter the owner from moving on.

For the last 3 years, after the last unsuccessful attempt of starting a forum, I have decided to concentrate on blogging. But the more I blogged the more I realized the need for a forum.

While my intention was to launch the forum on January 1st, an urgent reputation management issue stopped me from formally announcing the Go Beyond MLS forum. It did not however stopped few of my friends to join the forum and “take it for an extensive spin”: Matt (aka The Geek LordMatt), Matt Keegan (aka The One and Only Freelance Writer), Dennis Pease (aka Oregon Realtor)– thank you so much for taking a look at the my new forum.

I will be writing few follow up posts about the forum and what I will be trying to accomplish with it in 2009. For now I feel compelled to thank you for testing it so far. The forum is powered by Simple Press Forum Plugin for WordPress– just in case you wonder.

Note: I you have joined the forum but have not yet configured your profile, take a few minutes to do so. At minimum it will be good if you provide your web site’s address.a

May 2009 Be The Year Of Transparency!

Whether you are a big time CEO or a blogger like myself, I wish that 2009 will be the year of transparency (as in “you have nothing to hide”) for you, your company or your blog.

Thinking back to 2008 one particular advise from a friend, blogger and SEO expert jumps at me. In one of our e-mail exchanges Andy Beard advised me something to this effect:

Do not ever write or say anything you are not willing to put your name to it

His advise proved to be one of the most valuable on so many levels. Not that I was going around posting and writing things that I was not ready to put my name next to those things. But it helped me to cope with a temptation to become “anonymous” and just let the few individuals “have it”.

I think in business (doesn’t matter really what kind of business), you are in danger of utter failure if you do not embrace transparency. Just think about the collapse of global financial system. Do you think we will be in the place that we are now if every one involved was completely transparent?

I wish every reader a successful 2009! Most of all I encourage you to become transparent in what you do and what you say!

Trace Richardson – A Tribute To An Outstanding Blogger

Back in the days, when I was faced with a coward posting rude and damaging accusations about me on Yahoo! Answers it was due to very few individuals that stood by my side that I was able to move forward. Andy Beard, Matthew Brown (aka Lord Matt), Greg Swann and Trace Richardson we among the first to stand up in my defense. I had to draw on their courage and boldness, as I understood that by defending me they might have been facing similar attacks. They cared only about one thing- to do what is right. And shall be forever grateful for their courage. If it was not for these few bloggers, hundreds of other bloggers would have never know about my existence.

In the course of all of it, I have learned a thing or two about reputation management. And how fragile your reputation can be at the hands of disturbed individuals.

Last night as I was getting ready to launch the forum on this website (which is already live but still some adjustments have to be made) I had a flashback. Trace Richardson of BrokerSience posted how he is being attacked on Ripoff Report. While I have no knowledge who is posting those things, I have come to know Trace over the past few months and I would trust him with my mortgage in a heart beat. However it may not help Trace that much at this moment, since due to the brainless creep the page from Ripoff Report is ranking on the first page of Google for Trace’s own name. I know that by myself, I will be of no help to Trace. But if few bloggers can put their effort together and write similar posts, we can push back that page in Google results.

I am sure if you learn more about Trace, you will be compelled to write similar post, linking to his many online profiles. To get you started here is the list of place were you can “find” Trace:

I am sure this only a glimpse of Trace’s online presence, so I will update this post in the future as I become aware of Trace’s other public profiles.

It really should not be that difficult to push down the Ripoff Report page from the first results on Google. And it can be accomplished very easy. All you need to do is to write a post that will have Trace’s name in the post, feel free to copy and paste the links to Trace’s public profiles above and finally make sure to let me know about your post so I can link to your post. Consider it it a New Years gift to Trace.

Happy New Year every one! See you in 2009!

Bellow is the list of bloggers who have written about this so far:
Never Swim Alone – Standing with Trace Richardson– by Matt (aka Lord Matt)

Paid Review. Is It Worthed?

Seams like the subject of paid reviews will be around for some time. While I have a unique prospective on paid blogging, I think the proper place to discus the subject will be on Sage Blogger, the blog where I write about affiliate marketing and related subjects of making money online.

I do however need to thank Greg Swann and Chris Johnson for stirring up emotions associated with the subject.

While some may think that such an article may fit better on this blog, the truth is that vast majority of real estate bloggers are not looking to to monetize their blogs. However most of the visitors to my Sage Blogger come to it looking for things that will make you money on the Internet- many are them are bloggers who will consider signing up with one of the paid/sponsored reviews websites.

I will leave the readers of Go Beyond MLS with a following thought. Paid review was the worst mistake I ever made as far as blogging is concerned. If blogging is your long term goal, paid and sponsored reviews maybe prove to be very shortsighted strategy and can sometimes cost you way more in legal fees should things go awry as a result of your review.