Why “5 Simple Steps to make the most of The Great Giveaway” turned into a nightmare for millions of online bargain hunters.

Last week I received a press release from UK-based discount electronics retailer Buy It Direct.

It heralded a massive free giveaway of stock from their Huddersfield warehouse, in order to make way for new stock. That’s the story, anyway:

Buyitdirect.co.uk are holding The Great Giveaway, for one day only starting 1am Monday 4th May 2009. Thousands of high value products will be exclusively available online for FREE on a strictly first come first serve basis.

So what’s the catch? There isn’t one – buyitdirect.co.uk are expanding and need the space in the warehouse to make room for some new products. Rather than disposing of the products or sending them back to the manufacturers they decided to give Credit Crunch Consumers the chance to get their hands on some amazing products for FREE. Smeg fridges, Sony LCD TV’s, Laptops and Miele washing machines are just some of the branded products included in the promotion. The only cost the customer pays is the shipping charge of £4.95.

Staying up until 1am on a bank holiday Monday seemed a small price to pay for the possibility of bagging a bargain…

A few things didn’t sit right, though:

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TechCrunch has published some Twitter stats with a graph that shows trends both before and after its Twitter account was suggested.

While there’s a decent spike in followers at this point, Michael Arrington concludes:

We love these new users, but they aren’t nearly as valuable to us as the ones that we fought for in the early days of Twitter.

OK, you love them but they’re not as valuable. Quite what this definition of valuable is, I’m not clear. In any case, I can’t remember when I joined @TechCrunch but I’ve since stopped following.

For the record, anyone wanting to follow me on Twitter will be most welcome indeed, no matter how valuable you think you are. No strings or variable value assessments attached. Oh, no spammers, though.

Here’s a useful video explaining how Google ranks advertisers using the AdWords system. [Via]

The BBC bought and used a botnet which hijacked a number of vulnerable PCs to send email to several test accounts, with the blessing of security firm PrevX, in order to make an edition of BBC Click (the fact that the Beeb calls this their flagship technology programme yet it’s only available on BBC News or at stupidly early times, in highlight form, on BBC1 is another issue).

A technology lawyer believes the BBC broke the law even thought the Corporation (which we law-abiding Brits fund to the tune of £140 each per year and rising) didn’t do it with any malicious intent.

Straun Robertson claims, “It does not matter that the emails were sent to the BBC’s own accounts and criminal intent is not necessary to establish an offence of unauthorised access to a computer,” he adds.

“The Act requires that a computer has been made to perform a function with intent to secure access to any program or data on the computer.

“Using the botnet to send an email is likely to satisfy that requirement. It also requires that the access is unauthorised – which the BBC appears to acknowledge.”

It’s interesting that security firm PrevX gave their blessing to the experiments, even though (reportedly) most security software companies won’t mess around with computers even if they are infected.

I doubt anything will happen, but remember if you live in Britain you’ve helped to fund this little experiment.

According to this report in the Media Guardian, Platte Media’s UK operation is no more.

Two years ago, Micro Bill Systems appeared on the scene and started causing trouble. So much, in fact, that I helped set up a forum and got myself in the Guardian as a result.

A company name change (to Platte Media), some legal threats and hassles later, it does appear as if the infamous pay-for-porn company has ceased trading in the UK.

Hiwat said in an email to Michael Pollitt, the reporter who has uncovered story after story about Platte, that “Our reasons for this decision and our further intentions are simply related to our original marketing and business model.” He added: “Obviously, and just like any other business should and would do, I am making sure that stopping our marketing to the UK Market, is done in such a sensible and orderly manner, that will best preserve the interests of our customers and of our own.”

It could, however, be something to do with the Office of Fair Trading, or HM Revenue and Customs, both of whom have expressed interest in the company’s activities.

Is it too soon for celebration?

We still don’t know what Oriel, Platte’s appointed debt collection agency, will do with the “debts” it has had passed to it. We also don’t know whether Platte International will continue to run its rather dubious sites (Get Films Now, for example) in other countries. The global reach of the Internet means that access by UK computer users and minors could still be just a mouse click away.

It will also be interesting to see what Platte UK’s directors move on to. I find it hard to believe that they won’t set up another business in due course – one that could have very similar properties (and problems) as Platte and MBS had.

Watch this space.

Update: TrafficJam.com is now live, read my Blog Herald news post about the launch.

Update 2: Blog Rush shuts down for good and I can’t say I’m surprised.

Good for you, John — everyone needs a break and I don’t mind that.

However, it’s been a long time since I’ve heard anything about BlogRush, and I’m starting to wonder if it’s just a stagnant project.

Actually, I quite like BlogRush, so — unlike some of the nay-sayers — I’m prepared to give it a go.

In the niche that my BlogRush-accepted blog resides, I’ve found some decent blogs because of the widget. Yes, I could’ve found them in other ways, but it was easy to do.

While my traffic conversion isn’t amazing, it isn’t terrible either — given that the whole system is effectively free (apart from the space you have to give up on your blog, of course, which could arguably be put to better / more profitable use)

Still, I’d like to find out a few things, and as your blog doesn’t accept comments (perhaps you’re frightened of criticism?), I’ll have to write my questions here. Whether you read them, is another matter, because…

1. …none of your support staff ever replied to my email enquiring why one of my sites was rejected from the network. That’s plain rude, given that your page invites such questions. Actually, you never sent the original explanation email either.

2. What’s happening with this TrafficJam.com project? It sounds dead in the water. It’s all very well talking about 2008 and massive opportunity but that was two weeks ago. Small time bloggers like me can still get away with that, but just because you’re “not a typical blogger”, you are still (supposedly) a “big fish” in your niche.

That’s why so many people joined and endorsed BR in the first place.

3. What other stages are coming up? That “stage two” video has been idling for months now. What about stage 3? How is my web site, and my readers, and my niche, going to benefit from being a part of BlogRush / TrafficJam / Project X, Y, Z … ?

4. I’ve heard that you kicked quite a few people out, and yet never told them why.

I’m wondering if it’s because they didn’t place the widget above the fold as you asked people back in November to do.

Yet, I’m still visiting blogs where the widget is way down at the bottom of the page, or stuffed —half-obscured — in an inline frame.

I PUT MY WIDGET at the top of the page — I don’t begrudge that, it looks OK — but why, three months on, are there still sites flouting your own guidelines. No wonder the conversion rates are pretty pathetic.

So, basically…

5. WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE BLOGRUSH A KICK UP THE BACKSIDE

OR

6. WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO OFFICIALLY KILL BLOGRUSH AND LET US ALL GET ON WITH SOMETHING ELSE?

I don’t feel any particular loyalty, but something nags at me to stick with BlogRush, even when many others have shunned it.

That won’t last much longer.

PLEASE, tell us what’s going on. At least update your blog more than once a month, even if it’s to say “we’re working on it” (don’t push it, though. If you’re still saying that in July with NOTHING to show for it, then it’s “goodbye”)

Thanks John. What’s happening?

If you turn to today’s Technology Guardian (available online) you’ll see a lovely shot of me standing in my garden with my wife’s laptop, looking seriously at the (blank) screen. It’s for the article Porn bill firm opens new front.

It’s part of The Guardian’s ongoing coverage of the MBS billing software debacle which I first covered in March last year.

It’s given some positive press to the MBS Victims Forum Liz and I set up towards the end of last year.

I wonder what (if anything) it will do for me: “Professional blogger Andy Merrett”.

Welcome to any Guardian readers who’ve been following links!

I can’t remember how I found BlogRush (non affiliate as I’m not sure I can recommend them to anyone at present) but I think it was a direct email invitation.

They must have been desperate to begin with, because they accepted one of my blogs.

I say this because, despite having jumped through hoops to ensure that the blog met the new quality criteria (which I agreed with), such as moving the widget above the fold, and such like, when I submitted a new blog with the same level of content, the same template layout, and three to four times the number of visitors, it was rejected.

And I didn’t get any explanation as to why, despite the FAQ saying there’d be an email sent to me.

The stupid thing is that, despite a lot of people saying how pathetic Blogrush is, I decided to stick with them as Phase 2 sounded interesting. That’s precisely why I added (or tried to add) a second blog, of equal if not better quality, to the first.

It seems that’s not welcome, and the lack of courtesy which couldn’t even run to an automated response makes me wonder if my first blog is very soon going to be for the chop.

I don’t know, but as someone who hasn’t written anything negative about Blogrush, and who doesn’t run spam blogs, it’s actually a little insulting.

Yeah, sure, they say not to take it personally, but when it’s supposedly being human-checked now, it’s hard not to.

Come on, Mr Reese, if you want this to be a success you need to look after the people who ARE sticking with you. Or are you too big to really care? After all, you’ve made all of your money, haven’t you?

I’m aware that post title sounds a little riskier than the reality.

As of Tuesday, I have officially been webcasting on Justin.tv, the live video publishing service which has just gone public.

I got my beta code about five days before the whole thing opened up, so it’s not particularly exclusive any more.

I’ll be streaming live video mainly during the weekdays (6am-6pt GMT) and at other unscheduled times, primarily of my home office. Feel free to stop by and say “Hi”, and ask me questions, though bear in mind that I am supposed to be working!

I’m generally quite camera shy, but I felt that it was a useful service to research and try out, and will get me used to the camera for a few possible upcoming projects.

I’ll be trying to keep a diary of some of my experiences with this new medium – a format which I think is going to become increasingly important on the Web and one which bloggers could and should investigate and take advantage of.

Here’s the live feed, though there have been some problems with embedding video in other sites recently, so if that doesn’t work, visit LondonBlueLive.

Watch londonblue live video and chat on Justin.tv