Michael Green

fandango123

13 years ago

Something definitely a bit cagey going on. I guess though if he can earn £183 an hour on the side good luck to him!

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R Hagel

13 years ago

This was known in IM circles probably about 8-10 years ago. He used the pen name simply because he was in politics and he didn't want his IM stuff coming up when people searched for his politics, nor did he want his politics coming up when people searched for his IM stuff.

So while people in IM circles have known for years that MG = GS, apparently those in political circles didn't know this.

Becky

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Thomas W

13 years ago

Interesting how they used a photo that kept the Red Eyes.. I guess they was trying to come across of an evil person

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Attraction Marketing 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Thomas W

Interesting how they used a photo that kept the Red Eyes.. I guess they was trying to come across of an evil person

Yep... probably added the red eyes! SMH, I'd say even the shadiest internet marketers have cleaner hands than politicians any day of the week... and twice on Saturday.

I'd say even the shadiest internet marketers have cleaner hands than politicians any day of the week...

what? well, it is saturday...
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jeffmac

13 years ago

Has anyone had any dealings with this guy? He's now chairman of our governing party here in the UK. I'm all for internet marketing - good luck to the guy. But, I'd be interested to know what lines of business he was in, and the methods he used, back in the day.

Was he one of the good guys?

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Frank Donovan

13 years ago

Originally Posted by jeffmac

Has anyone had any dealings with this guy? He's now chairman of our governing party here in the UK. I'm all for internet marketing - good luck to the guy. But, I'd be interested to know what lines of business he was in, and the methods he used, back in the day.

Was he one of the good guys?

Jeff, he was/is a member here under the user name: howtocorp. You could check out some of his later posts:

http://www.warriorforum.com/members/howtocorp.html

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shane_k

13 years ago

Originally Posted by jeffmac

Has anyone had any dealings with this guy? He's now chairman of our governing party here in the UK. I'm all for internet marketing - good luck to the guy. But, I'd be interested to know what lines of business he was in, and the methods he used, back in the day.

Was he one of the good guys?

Originally Posted by fandango123

Something definitely a bit cagey going on. I guess though if he can earn £183 an hour on the side good luck to him!

Obviously neither of you read the article.

This guy has had his sites blocked by Google because of he was breaching thier TOS on copyright infringement, he encouraged his customers to plagarise content, his family company sells a software that "inflates a websites advertising revenue by copying and retouching others people's content" and because of that he is being investigated for fraud and more copyright violations.

That should give you an idea of if he is a good guy or not.

They do have a spokesperson saying, "His involvement in business has always been entirely and properly declared with the relevant authorities, confirmation of which includes a letter from the head of the home civil service, Bob Kerslake. It is completely incorrect to suggest otherwise."

To me this sounds like the spokesperson is just trying to get you to focus on whether or not he was upfront to the government about his online busienss, but that is not what he is being investigated for.

he is being investigated because of fraud and copyright violations.

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Kevin McNally

13 years ago

This is the perfect example of lazy journalism for the most part. As Becky points he was well known in IM under this pen name for years. It's no great surprise that he used a pen name as you can see how the media have reported this.

Some of the newspapers have highlighted that his site broke googles guidelines and got banned, in theory if you actively get links to your sites to increase rankings you are doing this so millions of us are doing this. The media reports are a farce but to be fair I dont know about the recent software etc... but I wouldn't trust anything that the media reported as most warriors know more about online business than some of these journalists.

Also, think about all the other guys who use pen names as authors etc...

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Alexa Smith

Banned 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Kevin McNally

This is the perfect example of lazy journalism for the most part. As Becky points he was well known in IM under this pen name for years. It's no great surprise that he used a pen name as you can see how the media have reported this.

Some of the newspapers have highlighted that his site broke googles guidelines and got banned, in theory if you actively get links to your sites to increase rankings you are doing this so millions of us are doing this. The media reports are a farce but to be fair I dont know about the recent software etc... but I wouldn't trust anything that the media reported as most warriors know more about online business than some of these journalists.

Also, think about all the other guys who use pen names as authors etc...

I agree with everything you say here, Kevin.

But the guy is a cabinet minister. If it can be shown that he was a director of companies which knowingly did "improper stuff" in circumstances in which he "knew or ought to have known" what was going on, then clearly he's going to have to resign, at least from the cabinet, and maybe even as an MP. At least one of the entirely unproven allegations made against him relates to an "offense of dishonesty".

I've seen him twice on the BBC's Question Time, and each time found him articulate, intelligent, well prepared, highly capable and certainly not dislikable at all. But those are not qualifications for being a cabinet minister. At least, they're not adequate qualifications for being a cabinet minister.

He certainly doesn't come across as a schmeckel, and should therefore have gone into public life knowing full well that his previous businesses, in "pen-names" or not, would go under the microscope at some point, you'd think? So maybe he has nothing at all to hide? But if turns out that he does, then undoubtedly he'd (rightly) be in real trouble.

(I hope the moderators retain the thread, rather than deeming it "political", because I think there are lessons here for others, too?)

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PhilippaWrites 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

(I hope the moderators retain the thread, rather than deeming it "political", because I think there are lessons here for others, too?)

I'm doing my utmost to bite my tongue, for this very reason!
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Lloyd Buchinski

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

He certainly doesn't come across as a schmeckel

Absolutely nothing comes across as a schmeckel. What the heck is a schmeckle anyway?

Originally Posted by R Hagel

This was known in IM circles probably about 8-10 years ago. He used the pen name simply because he was in politics and he didn't want his IM stuff coming up when people searched for his politics, nor did he want his politics coming up when people searched for his IM stuff.

I've also read that if he was introduced to someone as 'Michael Green' at a marketing event he would tell the person that it was just an internet alias, and he would give them his real name. He seemed open and honest about it.

He also own the 'how to' internet marketing forum. I used to hang out there some of the time and it was better than most. About on par with the Blake Board. He never posted himself or if he did I didn't know his user name.

The article does make it seem that the company was involved with a sleazy software. Maybe things were going downhill.

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Alexa Smith Banned 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Lloyd Buchinski

Absolutely nothing comes across as a schmeckel. What the heck is a schmeckle anyway?

Sorry ... I know it as bridge-players' slang - it's a relatively polite, relatively inoffensive way of calling someone a "schmuck". (You know what that is, right?).

Originally Posted by Lloyd Buchinski

The article does make it seem that the company was involved with a sleazy software.

Yes, I agree. And if it can be substantiated that he "knew or ought to have known" that (and I have no idea whether it can/will, nor indeed any idea whether there's any truth in the allegation in the first place), then clearly he can't be a cabinet minister any more, because cabinet ministers clearly can't be people who've derived income from selling services that condone/promote illegality - the public, rightly, won't stand for that.
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Kevin McNally

13 years ago

Time will tell what happens, it would be pretty easy to establish all the facts if they look into it. The main point I find disturbing is that some of the press seem to think of Google as the moral high ground . If anything illegal has taken place of course they should investigate.

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Willie Crawford

13 years ago

Back when I interacted with "Michael" regularly, he produced some
of the highest quality internet marketing products around. In my
opinion, he raised the bar for many of us.

He did let us know that Michael was a pen name to allow him to
keep his two careers separate.

Willie

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warriorkay

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Willie Crawford

Back when I interacted with "Michael" regularly, he produced some
of the highest quality internet marketing products around. In my
opinion, he raised the bar for many of us.

He did let us know that Michael was a pen name to allow him to
keep his two careers separate.

Willie

I agree. I bought lots of the "How To" products he released and
was active in his forum, which used to be one of the most active
IM forum then.

Kingsley

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Freddie

13 years ago

Here is the next installment in this saga. Green's/Shapps' company will be investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority over the use of aliases with personal success stories to promote the business. It will be interesting to see where it will lead.

Probe into company set up by Tory chairman Grant Shapps over claims he 'misled public' | Mail Online

As said previously in the thread, Michael Green's real identity was well known in IM circles back in the days and we all know about the use of pen names anyway... Let's see what the ASA has to say about the matter. What they are concerned about I believe is if the "story" attached to these successful businessmen (Micheal Green and Sebastian Fox) will match up with a real person (Shapps), or if there are success claims that have been invented.

I bought a couple of infoproducts from him long ago when I got started in IM, and they were good quality at the time. I learned stuff and didn't regret my purchases (even though he was not shy pricing his stuff). Plus he was always very responsive whenever there were issues, back when he was handling stuff personally. So I have no complaints at all as a customer. He was certainly much more genuine than many other shady characters in our industry...

And from memory I personally believe that the back story and income claims attached to "Michael Green" match pretty well with his own rise selling IM stuff. Stuff like that he financed his pilot lessons and paid for some other extravaganza using money from his IM activities probably all check out, although he was already well off from his print business and his income from politics.

It's tough to be a politician. Everything gets scrutinized (for good reasons I suppose). We'll see what the ASA will make of this in the end... Personally I hope that he doesn't get any problems from this. In my world he is one of the good guys, even though he has been pushing a few softwares over the years that haven't exactly been Google-ToS-compliant.

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Michael Green

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