Business of Travel Blogging

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Comment by Jim Lesses on January 3, 2012 at 11:31pm

SCAMMER ALERT!

Hi folks, a couple of days ago I wrote to ask for advice regarding monetizing my website (see my previous message).

Today, I learned that I was (almost) taken in by a very clever scammer. As a warning to others I am writing to inform you about the scam in some detail.

Here is the complete text of his first message:

 

To: Webmaster

From: Maxence Leclerc mleclerc@nami-agency.com

Message: Hi,

We are looking for new advertisement platforms and we are interested in your site compleattraveller.com. Is it possible to place banner on your site on a fee basis?

Best regards, Maxence Leclerc

 

On replying to M Leclerc that it was definately possible to place a banner ad on my site, I recieved this reply:

 

Hello,

Thanks for reply to our proposal!

I represent Nami Agency. At the moment we are preparing an advertising campaign for Lacoste Company (it is a French company producing clothes, footwear, perfumery etc.) We already have designed banners for the campaign, they are the following sizes: 160x600, 240x400, 300x250, 336x280, 468x60, 728x90.

What can be your price for one banner (banner should appear at ALL pages of your site) of abovementioned sizes (please specify the place for the banner – top, bottom, left, right)? Please mention a normal link for banner, without javascript code and set prices in US dollars per month.

Best regards,

Maxence Leclerc. site: www.nami-agency.com e-mail: mleclerc@nami-agency.com phone: + (0)9 78 62 68 47

 

At this point I wrote to the group asking for advice.

Well, as the saying goes, "There's one born every minute," and clearly I was that person. It now turns out that M Leclerc has been very active spamming blogs and websites at random across the internet in an effort to scam as many people as possible. The gist of the scam seems to be that once he has agreed to your price (and he always agrees), you will have to install a piece of code on your blog or website which displays an advertisement on your site.

I have not been able to find out yet what this code does to your computer, blog, or website, but one thing is clear from what I've seen on line today, that the whole thing is definately a scam.

As someone who has been online in one form or another for at least 15 years, I thought I was too smart to get caught out by scammers, but the prospect of turning my blog into some sort of money earner clouded my judgement, and I too *almost* got sucked in by M. Leclerc.

I say almost, because right now I am waiting for him to get back to me about a 'quote' for my website. I did check out the Nami Agency site, but did not think to Google his name, otherwise I would have saved myself a lot of trouble and dashed hopes. Today, I did Google the name "Maxence Leclerc" and was led to this page: http://www.namepros.com/warnings-and-alerts/741710-banner-advertise... where I read more about the scam.

The Google search shows more than once person going under the name 'Maxence Leclerc', but of course this scammer may or may not be one of the listed people.

Anyway, I just thought I should let group members know about this scammer. If you get one of his emails either ignore it, or have some fun by stringing him along for as long as you can.

That's what I intend to do if he ever gets back to me regarding my 'quote'.

Have a safe, scam free new year.

Jim

Comment by Jim Lesses on January 1, 2012 at 9:00pm

Happy New Year folks, I hope you are looking forward to a year of good health, loving friends, and lots of travel. I know I am.

 

Folks, I am desperately seeking advice from people on this group who have successfully monetized their blogs and websites.

Right at the end of the year, I was contacted by an agency enquiring about buying ad space on my website http://compleattraveller.com/

The want to place an ad across my whole site (currently around 535 pages), and I need to get back to them ASAP with a quote.

If any reader has successfully sold ad space on their blog/site and is able to give me some tips I would be forever grateful.

I know there are many variables to take into account when deciding these things, but even a ballpark figure per page/per ad would give me something to work on.

Thanks in anticipation.

Jim

Comment by Ellen Billard on December 29, 2011 at 9:32am

Out of the thousands of photos we take on our trips each year, this ONE is our choice for 2011 Travel Photo of the Year. Check it out!

What's your favorite photo you took this year?

Comment by Nancy Mueller on December 26, 2011 at 9:15pm

Hope you made lots of new friends in your travels in 2011:

http://wanderlustandlipstick.com/blogs/wanderboomer/2011/12/26/2011...

Comment by Walter Schaerer on December 20, 2011 at 1:44pm

Woohoo! My Puglia roundtrip travelogue about Italy made it to the tops of Resort Interview's $100 prize for the best travel review! Thanks a lot! Check out my photographs on travelmemo.com!

Comment by Nancy Mueller on December 5, 2011 at 11:52pm

What if your $10. had the power to totally transform a child's life?

See how here: http://wanderlustandlipstick.com/blogs/wanderboomer/2011/12/05/pass...

Comment by Lux Travel on December 5, 2011 at 5:34pm

Happy new week everyone, I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Today 3 years ago was one of the most magical and special days of my life - find out more in my Monday Memories - New York

As always advance thanks for Stumbles, RT's comments and love.

Lux xx

Comment by Lux Travel on December 4, 2011 at 1:47am

Competition time over at Simply Luxury Travel - all you have to do is tell me where the tree is located and what it is made off to win a gift from the Cowshed..  Like us on Facebook for further clues.......

All RT's Stumbles and mentions very much appreciated.

Love

Lux xx

Comment by Nancy Mueller on December 1, 2011 at 1:48pm

What would you most want to see & do in NYC over the holidays? Last in my 3-part NYC series:http://wanderlustandlipstick.com/blogs/wanderboomer/2011/12/01/a-fa...

Comment by Dr.Hossam Hossam on November 28, 2011 at 6:18pm

Dear all My friend 
We are still need your help to nominate 4 professional travel bloggers ,trainers  ,speakers  for our conference in Egypt next DEC 18- 19 
We already have  6 and we need more four please help us send us some contacts Thanks Dr.Hossam00201223293909www.ioeti.org The 4th Arab International E-Tourism & E-marketing Conference - IOETI 2011'

 

hossam@ioeti.org

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