AWS just doesn't work anymore. Chris is lying. Don't waste your time. I'll keep making them so you don't have to. It's a terrible job, but I'll take the hit for the team. Be thankful, I've come to save you all.
AWS just doesn't work anymore. Chris is lying. Don't waste your time. I'll keep making them so you don't have to. It's a terrible job, but I'll take the hit for the team. Be thankful, I've come to save you all.
where's that guy nintendo? he'll get a kick out of this thread! ahhaha
Phew, thanks chrispian!
Stepping On Wires - the new blog
Originally Posted by Chris
Why don't you have not more than 80 datafeeds sites ? Why not building one site a day?
i remember chris saying that he had enough with new sites, too hard to manage or something.
Is this a reference to me? If it isn't then it should be... Here is a list of domains I own or owned:
dell-coupons.info
classicliterature.net
survival-guide.info
art-history.info
supremeshopping.com
I rest my case.
Sean Spurr. Incka Media.
£49 Link Building Service
In this business it's hard to be original unless google brings out a new product...
Sean Spurr. Incka Media.
£49 Link Building Service
To be honest, Chris's site looks very unprofessional, I wouldn't buy a pen from you. I don't know how you make so much, gota be lucky, but that's no reason to criticize others.
Most people manage to be original in some way or another. Taking inspiration from someone is okay, copying everything someone does is lame.
Honestly, your literature site is so similar to mine in general layout and navigation that I fear duplicate content penalties or myself being mistaken as the owner of it. Especially considering your author list is almost exactly the same as what mine was back in the Spring before I did my large update. In short, its blatant.
Its not that I'm afraid of competition, there are hundreds of ebook archives out there. I just don't like clones. ReadPrint.com basically did the same thing, copied my archive and most of my layouts. I got them shut down for a couple weeks though as they also copied copyrighted biographies and summaries.
I think I should update my design and put something like "Often copied, never duplicated."
My design is really nothing like your design. I have quite a few works you don't have. Look in my George Orwell sectionf or instance. I've been planning on making a ebook site since I started on the web back in 2000, before I knew of you or your site. Yes, I might have taken a lot of inspiration from your site, but I'd have built an e book site eventually anyway. Plus my script has a feature you'res doesn't - audio books, I just haven't added any yet.
Last edited by Generalissimo; 08-04-2005 at 03:08 PM.
Sean Spurr. Incka Media.
£49 Link Building Service
Granted, there aren't many ways of doing the literature site. But Sean has copied every idea Chris has practically.. Want a list? Ok here's the list.
Analyze the George Orwell page for each site.
Sean http://www.classicliterature.net/george-orwell
Chris http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/
Note the following:
1) The wording in the HEADER NAVIGATION. Compare.
2) The left navigation for George Orwell.
3) The comment system
4) Color scheme, the same.
Sean has taken Chris's idea, uses all of his ideas even identical wording in many places, and made it look nicer and easier on the eyes.
I will repeat myself, there aren't many ways you can word the header navigation
So here are the extremely IMPORTANT things to note in this case.
I have learned so much from Chris over the years, and have shared this website with so many associates. It is the only webmaster forum I actively participate in. I am loyal to his teachings, and have been for many years now (time goes by fast).
So here are the exact duplicate things I find very offensive.
1) The decision Sean made to make Shakespeare a global link in the header navigation.
2) The color scheme.
3) The most serious offense of all... The decision to remove the left navigation which lists the authors work when viewing a specific story/poem.
Sean, we have talked many times, and the reason this is so offensive is that you are young and arrogant. The reason I'm even posting and getting involved with this is because your arrogance is bothersome given your age. You need to learn more and not make statements like "my design is really nothing like your design".
Please don't be so arrogant. You are brilliant and have a great future.
Kyle
I have my own aws network as well http://www.dshoppingnetwork.com. My expenses are kept to a bare miminum (less than 100$ a month), and I also make over 1500$ a month from adsense and aws combined. Think it's time consuming? No... It takes 30 minutes at the most to get each new site up.
I wouldn't recommend this method (mass aws sites), but I'd simply stick with one niche site and focus on gradually improving it. Improvements include backlinks, professional design, and adding features that don't make it appear to be one of the other one million aws sites offering the same products.
PS. Future plans include getting more backlinks to my hub site.
I've actually never copied someone, nor made a site based on someone else's success on the topic.
My literature site started as a shakespeare fan site which I then expanded as I realized I could get more traffic with more authors. I wasn't the first text archive, there were a few back then, and I did not copy their layouts or navigation. Nor did I even decide to make my site because of them. Actually when I started I was entirely unique with a different site and different design for each author (which I did for about 20 authors/books and then gave up and decided it was too much work).
My survival site was made because I was in Army ROTC and was taking the class that uses the book the site is based on as a textbook. I saw in the front of the book that it was public domain and thought "hmm, I could make a website."
My mythology and artist sites grew out of my literature site. They're both based off a book that I thought could make it as a standalone site.
My fitness and orienteering sites were extensions of my survival site. When it hit it's traffic ceiling I looked to other Army manuals to expand it.
My coupon site was very indirect. I had "Buy the book on Amazon" links on my literature site but they performed poorly. Back then Amazon regularly emailed out coupons like $5 off $30 (something they don't do anymore) and I thought if my visitors knew about the coupons they'd be more apt to buy. So I made a page on my literature site for Amazon coupons, it took off in popularity, got ranked 2nd on Google before I even thought it would be a good field to pursue. I got my first coupon domain, something like Amazon-Coupons.com, which I later had to "Sell" to amazon cause of trademark issues. So then I made coupon-code and added new merchants. Again, not the first coupon site, but I didn't base mine on anyone elses. I later thought to add articles, especially since I was always giving verbal buying guides to family and friends. So I bought savvyshopping.net (years ago mind you) and stuck some articles on it and promoted it with my coupon site (then just recently I relaunched it with more articles).
Other sites like this one or my sword site grew out of my own interests.
The closest thing to copying someone else might be my AWS sites, and thats only because I am not using an original script. Still, when I started I made shops for Amazon beta stores, something no one else (or hardly anyone else) was doing due to the inconsistent feeds.
I'd love to hear how Sean's personal interests drove him to register domains for sites nearly identical to mine.... but we know he is just a great imitator.
As for his literature site.... let me count the similarities.
1. bolding the author last name in author lists-- only my site and sites that have ripped me off do that.
2. the colors
3. the author page layout is exactly the same. Left column is picture above works list. Right column has breadcrumb navigation, then a search box (with the exact same wording as my site) then a biography, then a space for user comments, then a searchfeed link. Exactly as my site except for the new quiz heading I just added this summer.
4. Ditto with the book pages
5. use of a main site horizontal menu, again something fairly unique to my site. The menu items are nearly identical. Nearly every other site out there uses the word "Author's" to link to their author list. My site uses "Author Index" always has. So does Seans (and readprint.com). Sean also put in "Religious Texts" instead of "The Bible" but on some of his pages, such as his author index, he still lists Bible instead -- just as I do.
6. His comment formatting, on his orwell page you can see it, is exactly as I used to do it (exactly) before I (just this summer) switched to a full forum integration for my comments. I use the same script on IDDB.org which uses the old format for comparison. Its not even a common format, its pretty unique if I do say so myself.
7. The multiline formatting of the author list on the homepage and on the author index. He has 3 lines on his author index and 2 lines on the homepage, I'm the opposite, but they go horizontally across and then down. Most places go down one row then down the next (or just have one row). The only literature sites I've seen do it this way are mine, and sites that copied me.
8. The the sheer similiarity of our libraries. My library from the spring was probably about 90% identical to Seans. I've since added a few hundred books.
Usually, at most, two literature sites might have 50% of works in common. Sure, everyone has Shakespeare and Dickens, but when you get into the more obscure authors you end up with alot more variety. So the copiers are easy to spot.
Now, he can copy the works, they're public domain, but to copy everything else.... its lame.
This one site copied my survival site, which is okay since its public domain, but they also were trying to promote the book on amazon and they copied the exact same text and formatting (which was originally written by me) to promote the book, and at first they even left in my affiliate link (ha!). That was also lame.
I'm not afraid of competition, I'm well entrenched, Yahoo is now reporting 200,000 backlinks, traffic is sky high, and I have a very fast growing community (now at 500-1000 new members a month). It'll be a long hard road for anyone who wants to get up to the level where I'm at and quite frankly I think their time would be better spent in a more lucrative subject matter. If I didn't already have the site there is no way I would choose to start it knowing everything I know now. Still, copying it is lame, and copying more than one of my sites or ideas is exponentially lame.
Its okay to be inspired, I post things like my experiences with Yahoo's Directory not so someone makes a nearly identical article and submits it too, but so rather someone can better decide to submit their own original article or site. Its even okay to make a site on a competing topic. Icebane sort of competes with me (although our sites are both quite old, we both had them before we knew each other), and thats fine, we have a link exchange.
The point is, if you're going to copy, put your own unique spin on things.
But blatant copies are just lame, especially when the owner brags about them as Sean has done in the past.
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