How to Be Negative Without Getting The Attention of Lawyers (Hopefully)

First things first, I'm not a lawyer and do not take this as legal advice. Always speak to a lawyer. A few weeks ago I made a video about the service Audello. At the end of the video I saw something that really upset me. I was already somewhat upset as I can see where people are going to spend $300 for a product that is unnecessary. I took to the video camera, and the blog post with smoke coming out of my ears. My title warned people to stay away from this product and I called it a scam. That is over line. These as Yosemite Sam would say, "Are fighting words" and you know what? He's right. I went looking for what words could get you sued and I found a great post from Deb McCalister. She has some great advice (deb has worked in PR for a long time).

Don't Be a Warning Bell

Avoid comments like WARNING: Beware of… (or the variations: Stay away from…Don’t do business with…DO not  hire…Do not buy…Do not waste money…) SCAM ALERT: (Company or individual’s name) is a con artist… (or the variations: I got  taken in by…These scammers took my money…Don’t trust…) (Company or individual’s name) lied (or the variations: misrepresented…promised but did  not deliver…ruined my property description by doing shoddy work…did shoddy work…is the  worst company description…) She also stated that you want to keep things personal: Focus on your own experience, and don’t tell other people what to do. Keep your language in the first person. “I hired…” “I found…” “I paid…” “I thought…” “I feel… You should try to avoid telling people what to do. Give them the facts that you found, and let them make a decision.

Don't Threaten

Tactics to avoid saying I’m going to make it my business to tell everyone I meet what a crook you are. I am going to tell everyone not to do business with you. If you don’t fix the problem you caused, I am going to ruin your reputation online. So what did I say that was so bad? I called it a scam (it's not a scam is where you give people money and get nothing in return - you do get something in return with Audello). I told people not to buy it. Like I said, don't tell people what to do. Give them the facts that you found, and let them decide.

Be Ready to Prove Your Claims

 

What Would My Updated Review Be?

I downloaded and installed Audello last week. On my computer I could never get it to launch. I didn't contact their tech support as my goal was to get an overview of the program so I could talk about it. Their web interface was really all I needed. I do my recording in other software (so I didn't need it). Here are some of their features Playlists Future Dating of Shows The Ability to see where people stop listening Split Testing Audio bars Of all the features the one I feel is unique is split testing. This is geared toward having a selling proposition on a page. So if you have a page setup to collect email addresses, you could see what audio message worked best at getting people to sign up for your email list. Playlists can be done with the free plugin powerpress. Future dating of shows can be done in Wordpress. The ability to see how long people are listening is available if you are on the Stitcher platform. All of those features are free. This is where Audello will say that the main advantage of Audello is that all these features are under one platform (and that would be true). It is also true that Audello is around $197 - $294. When I imported my feed, not all the details came across. If you have multiple shows on Libsyn, when you upload a show through Audello it will randomly pick which show to assign the file (that is not acceptable in my opinion). So the software has bugs (most new software does), but for $297 I expected more. Mentioned in this segment: EFF ONline Defamation Law and Deb Mcalisiter Article Here is the message I received

Brute Protect Plugin

Last Saturday the School of Podcasting and Ask the Podcast Coach had Brute Force attacks that made it hard for my website to stay online. It was a horrible feeling. Working with the tech support at Host gator they determined that I was under a brute force attack. I searched for a plugin to help and found the Brute Force attack plugin. This free plugin was recently purchased by Automatic (the people who make Wordpress). The idea is they are creating a giant database of attackers that it is blocking. It also will email you when your site is down (and when it comes back up). Over the last 19 hours it has blocked 20 attempts to login to my site. If your site is having an issues, this seems to be helping. You can learn more about it at https://bruteprotect.com/

My Podcast Reviews Now Includes Stitcher Reviews

I want to thank everyone who has written a review in iTunes or Stitcher. I've been using My Podcast Reviews to track these (and all the reviews I've had over the years). It's definitely worth the money as I don't have to go in and dig through all the international stores to see my reviews (i.e.e the ones from Australia, Canada, etc). It's a great way to keep up to date with what people are saying about you.

Appendipity Podcaster Pro Now Compatible with PowerPress

You can use this theme and leave Powerpress enabled, but turn of the ability for PowerPress to place a player in your post (or use both and have Appendipity at the top of the post and PowerPress on the bottom).

 

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