Tuesday 3 January 2012

A Zebra in Tijuana.


A while ago – here – I received an email from a certain Serge Lavagne, who may, or may not have been a robot.

Even though I don’t receive many missives from metal, I was so underwhelmed that I wrote all about it on this blog (the blog with stuff) and surprisingly received more comments than I had ever before, or since, witnessed.

On comments alone, Serge-the-possible-robot was my most successful posting.

Just before Christmas I received an email from Emma Peters. Who isn’t.

Isn’t a robot that is, I’m pretty sure she is a Peters.

Though you never can tell about either.

Her mail however, looked like a very similar ploy; here is what she wrote:

Hi Chris,
My name is Emma with Amplified Media. We were impressed with the quality and
scope of bitsnbobsshowntell.blogspot.com. The Christmas advent series you
feature on your site is a great way to really get into the holiday spirit. We
enjoy your selections, and appreciate you sharing them with your readers!
Please email me at emma@amplifiedmedia.org if you are interested in learning
more about opportunities to work together. I look forward to hearing from you.
Happy Holidays!


Happy holidays!

Nice touch!

I don’t very often get unsolicited mail from women who go out of their way to compliment me so I headed of to the website to learn more about Emma.

I’m pretty easily manipulated you know.

I clicked on their “meet the team” clickable bit and there was her photo!

Apparently she is a Zebra!

When Serge wrote to me he introduced himself as “Accounts Manager”.

The Zebra though is “Director!”

I saw a Zebra in Tijuana once; I had gone there to get married.

What I mean by that is that my future wife and I went there to get married, not that I went there looking for a wife.

And there, in a back street was a Zebra! (this is true by the way).

Tijuana you may remember is in Mexico, a land not renowned for Zebra, and this one was just standing there in a side street.

On closer inspection it turned out to be a donkey that had been painted with black stripes.

From a distance it was fairly convincing.

There was a second sticky donkey on the main drag and tourists were occasionally fooled into having their photo taken alongside.

Or maybe they just saw the whole thing as so naff they had to record it.

Thinking about it I……, anyway.

So ever since I have been always a little suspicious of Zebras (I wonder if that is correct, Zebrae perhaps?Zebri?) out of context.

I wrote back to Emma Peters-Zebra asking what exactly did she mean by “opportunities to work together” and listed some of the more boring items of housework that I have neglected in the last month, hoping she might not say neigh. (Zebra joke).

She replied!

She said – “I have some clients who are interested in two posts on your site:
http://bitsnbobsshowntell.blogspot.com/2011/12/john-denver-muppets-12-days-of.html and http://bitsnbobsshowntell.blogspot.com/2011/11/unprofessional-again.html.
They would pay you a total amount of $40 via PayPal for you place one link within each post (two total).


I wondered about correcting her English at the end there, but then who am I to talk?

Instead I considered my options, after all 40 dollar is 40 dollar that would be a, er, 40 dollar profit after over 1000 posts, I will be a millionaire in, er, well, a hundred years after I have died!

But i spent a lot of money at Christmas.....

I’m fascinated as to who these clients are that would be interested to pay me to link to a video of The Muppets singing The 12 Days of Christmas when it is readily available on Youtube already, but can I really justify selling my soul to the devil?

When she is just a Zebra?

Please advise.

24 comments:

Vicki Hollett said...

First, the Serge post -- I'd missed it first time around - but what a treat! Ha! Loved the responses.

Now regarding Emma Peters, I fear you might be viewing your possible collaboration in terms of black and white. Obviously one has to look both ways before venturing onto the crossing but you've earnt your stripes with your loyal readers now, so I doubt we'd be bothered about links.

But what would the links be to? I'm intrigued. I had a similar approach from a marketing company a while back and I discovered there was a sort of varying payment scale that depended on where the links led. Online gambling sites paid best if I remember rightly (though my memory is a bit hazy on it)

So I followed the links to the posts she mentioned, wondering if they might contain a reference to bookies or lady luck or something.

But the first one was about muppets. Muppets! Or might she have been interested in this line:

"Everything may seem random but in fact there is a design." Random numbers perhaps?

And the scond post - what was that about? Might adult entertainment sites might be good payers too?

Anne Hodgson said...

Some onliners like to republish blogposts, and have come around to asking first, which is good. I was advised by other teachers online not to indulge, though: Content reposted elsewhere makes Mr. Google suspicious of the original blogster (not of the reposter, strangely!)
It would be much nicer to be reviewed by a Zebra, don't you think? Just imagine the cross-cultural discourse that would ensue about John Denver and the Muppets (I didn't know they had fans in Zebraland), and boring questions into What Zebras Do When Unprofessional.

popps said...

A very happy and fulfiling New year to you both (Anne and Vicki) and thankyou for so quickly coming to my aid on this problem.
I am amazed how much consideration you have given to the question when in fact i think i had treated the whole thing with a certain flippance.
Can one say that?
One just did.
What you both seem to be saying, even though you don't, is that i was misguided in thinking that Ms Peters was interested in me for my mind?
It's ok, i can live with the humiliation, besides, i've just found an email offereing me 750,000pounds!
More on this later......

Laurie said...

Time to start an Emma club. I have communicated with her today and I can't seem to get a straight answer. Still kind of considering it; are you?

popps said...

Hi laurie, welcome and a happy new year.
Good luck with the Zebra, let us know what happens, i decided not to get involved.

A Beer for the Shower said...

I'm actually here because I got the same e-mail/offer and just wanted to google her name for some background info. I've been trading e-mails with her because I'm curious to see where she's going with this. Does she need money from me upfront, then she'll pay me later? Does her grandpa die and she needs funeral money? Or maybe the code she's going to give me to 'set up banners' on these old posts of mine are actually just exploits that'll allow them to rape my site?

We shall see. FYI I got the same misspelling as you, however, I was only offered $30 instead of $40. Apparently the Muppets pay more than beer does. :(

popps said...

Hi there Beer in the shower, hmm, i've never tried that.....
Thanks for dropping in, interesting info.
Let me know what develops.

LuluAddict said...

I got the same offer for my blog just today and found your post via google. The approach is too vague so I will stay away. However, I will check back to see what others' experiences are.

popps said...

Hi Lulu, If we can help we will.
Now, how to find your blog - your name took me nowhere...

Anonymous said...

Hi all. I just got the same email about my blog. I thought I was special..lol Looks like she just may be trying to drum up some business for her company.

popps said...

Hi dyingbraincells!
yep.
She's flirting!

Anonymous said...

Hi popps,I just wanted to mention that our zebra lady friend offered me $30 to put a link on two of my posts. I can't do it because I have a free wordpress account and it is against the law (I think I could be shot)..lol I'm a little suspect because I'm just a little blogger with a very little following and can't imagine anyone wanting to pay $ for something to sit on a blog that doesn't get many hits. Always the pessimist..lol BTW, nice blog, popps. Take care.

popps said...

Hi again, i'm going to call you Vickie - ok? - anyway DONT get shot, not for 30 dollars, definitely not the going rate!
I too am a low readership blog so why they offered me money is also a mystery but then again maybe they just don't know how many readers we have.
Maybe we don't really know either - maybe my 23 in the stats is one person 23 times?
I like your blog too by the way.

Karie said...

I got the same thing tonight. Wth?

Tonya said...

Hi there,

Same thing here. I got an email today. No talk of money, though. When I checked the website, I was also confused by the lack of an actual address where Amplified Media is located. My other question is: why is it a .org and not a .com? As a former reporter, my red flags were raised. I'll keep checking in to see what comes up!

popps said...

Hi Tonya, nice to meet you.
tell m why did .org raise a flag for you, what do you know that i don't?

popps said...

Hi Karie
Welcome.
Let's start a union!
We want double whatever she offers!!

Anonymous said...

Wow, a whole group for Emma. I am glad to know there are others fielding $30 offers. If nothing else, her email has led to a great deal of amusement.

CaT said...

hello!
i, too, came here through googling "emma peters amplified media". so.. im not special either... :)
i also would like to know why a .org would raise a red flag? anyways, that site is not informative at all! i think i wont reply to her, its too weird, but i am very curious as to what she really wants....

now let me lookat your blog... thats one thing emma peters achieved... ;)

popps said...

Hi Adam, thanks for dropping by - seems that the Zebra found you really quickly - your link took me to a fairly new, fairly empty profile page.
Get blogging!

popps said...

Ah CaT, you have got one thing wrong there - despite whatever Emma.org peters amplifies or not you ARE special!
Thanks for dropping in.

CaT said...

oooh, that is such a cute thing to say.. :)

Cornerstoregoddess said...

And here I am, after doing a search for"My name is Emma with Amplified Media". Shall we start a club? We could serve cupcakes.

popps said...

cup cakes sounds gooooood to me!!