Marketing Money Online

A bit of controversy has hit the Internet marketing world and it has gotten to the point where it has started to make me a bit angry. Not at the people directly involved, but in those attacking people who simply want to know is going on and actively work to cover up the truth.

First what is happening has got to be one of the biggest stories in the Internet marketing arena this year and most people probably don’t even know about it.

A few weeks ago Andy Jenkins left Stompernet. For those that don’t know Stompernet is one of the biggest Internet marketing training companies. They teach people how to do search engine optimization and attract mostly an audience of people trying to create businesses by building online stories and selling merchandise on the Internet.

It was co-founded by Andy Jenkins and Brad Fallon several years ago and hit the map with a $10 million plus launch. A lot of the people involved in that launch became some of the biggest names in Internet marketing.

Stompernet did annual seminars and taught countless people on how to do SEO and build businesses. They have reached thousands of people and I’m sure were instrumental among the success of many.

However, last year some people got disgruntled when they launched a print publication and had fulfillment delays. Then Fallon got involved in the Abritrage Conspiracy launch – which I personally thought was a subpar product and not up to the standards of Stompernet.

I didn’t seem to be the only person who disagreed, because Jenkins distanced himself from the Arbitrage Conspiracy and a few people on the Stompernet “faculty” were critical of it.

Well, all of a sudden a few weeks ago Jenkins announced that he was resigning from Stompernet. Then one of the biggest names in SEO left them too. He got replaced by someone who was one of the biggest affiliates of Arbitrage Conspiracy.

On his blog the main reason Andy Jenkins gave for leaving was to pursue other interests, such as to make a product about video marketing:

“I’m spending so much time talking about media marketing that it might seem to you the sole reason for my decision to leave StomperNet. It’s not. It was just the most clear and tangible reason. It was the most familiar.”

Then he went on to say that Fallon wanted to take on a more hands on approach to the company when he hadn’t been involved in daily operations so their relationship was changing and he decided to leave.

Some people on Internet marketing forums thought he got a big pay day and cashed out.

Of course rumors swirled. But some people thought this was a healthy sign for the industry.

As one person put it in this post:

“While many people are trying to spin this into something sinister, decipher hidden meanings or look at someone leaving a high-flying internet marketing company as negative – in my mind, exactly the opposite is true.”

“After all…isn’t this the promise of building a successful business? To be able to cash out, retire early, take your money and build something different, take on new challenges? ”

Then I wondered and did some searching and discovered that Jenkins actually filed a civil suit against Brad Fallon months ago. And that suit was dismissed from court just days before he announced he was leaving. It appeared that most likely some sort of settlement was made between the two parties.

A few days ago someone leaked a copy of the lawsuit. You can see it here.

The allegations are serious.

They include:

“10. In violation of his duties as a member of Stompernet, Fallon has used company credit cards for personal expenses and to pay the expenses of third-party ventures in which neither Stompernet nor Jenkins has an interest.”

“12. Fallon also utilized customer lists, technology, brands, good will and other proprietary information owned by Stompernet (collectively, the “Confidential information”) for his own purpose and to advance the interests of third-party ventures in which neither Stompernet nor Jenkins has an interest.”

“20. On December 3, 2008, without prior notice to Jenkins or authorization from Stompernet, Fallon withdrew $110,000 from Stompernet’s bank accounts at Sun Trust Bank.”

“21. Fallon’s unauthorized withdrawals jeopardized Stompernet’s ability to conduct its day-to-day operations and to pay its vendors.”

“22. Fallon’s unauthorized withdrawals also put Stompernet at risk of having multiple returned checks and could have irreparably harmed Stompernet’s credit and its relationship with its vendors.”

“23. To avoid such harm, Jenkins made substantial capital infusions to cover check the company had written.”

Of course I have no way to know whether these allegations are true or if any wrong doing by anyone had occurred, and personally I don’t really care.

What gets me mad though is people are actively working to suppress this story and are attacking people who just ask questions about what is going on.

On one of the biggest Internet marketing forums – the Warriorforum – over the past week anytime someone starts a thread bringing this up the moderators delete it.

Obviously someone has decided that it must be a forbidden subject.

That disturbs me, because this is a big forum and yet it is clear that it is a place where certain people are favored and others not. There are threads were products and people are bashed over and over again and others were if a simple question is asked or a critical comment made about a product the thread gets deleted. Certain people are favored and anytime people work to suppress the truth it isn’t a good thing and makes it so I don’t feel comfortable about that site anymore. It gives me a bad taste for this teach people Internet marketing industry.

This has got to be one of the biggest stories in the industry and no one is talking about it hardly anywhere. Only one forum has a thread on it and I have the impression that there is a total blackout trying to be put on this Which is stupid, because anyone can find this information out. It seems to me it would make sense just to hold a press conference and say differences occurred so the partnership is over. We had a messy fight, but all is good.

What is going on at the Warrior Forum gives you a creepy feeling that the whole IM industry is closely controlled.

You also have to assume that some big split is going on in the industry. Last year during the Arbitrage launch I had the feeling that was happening and it looks like I may have been right more than I knew.

Interestingly last week Andy Jenkins did a telesminar with Frank Kern – a IM teacher I have a lot of respect for and have learned a lot from his products – so it would seem that Kern and his group are openly associating themselves with Jenkins.

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 6:25 am and is filed under Internet Marketing News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.