Ok, I will post things from time to time that I find to be 100% stupid, and or funny.   The net is filled with so many choices, it does seem hard to only come up with the occasional item.  So, I will try and post a fun post a week.

Today, as I was working on some items for the social media campaigns for some clients I came across a service called People Pond.  The premise here is that you pay signup, and allow them to start aggregating all kinds of data.  It is intended to be a one-stop for all your social, brand, identity needs on the net.  I was intrigued so I signed up and started to fill in a profile.  You can see it here (http://www.peoplepond.com/digitalpure)

One of the things that they offer is a “badge” that will allow you to “prove” that you are legit with all the profiles you have (yeah, cause a free service cannot be faked right).  Anyway, that is another post.   So, as you can see there is one green bar on the shield.  I wanted to see what you need to do to get all three bars (more legit right).  Who could have guessed this is where the pay services come in to play.   To be honest, I do not think paying for a service like this is such a bad idea, and at $99.00 a year for the best package and to get all 3 bars not a bad price.  I am not sure that I will be utilizing the service on my clients yet (developer if you would like to give me a free copy I will be happy to review it).

Anyway, so as I am looking at the pricing, I notice the add-on services that they offer.  In very typical web 2.0 it is listed below the primary pricing, and in a darker color to signal a strength to the options, but not that they are the goal of the site (color theory I leave to my wife).  So, one of the upgrade options is this:

$ 3.00

Verbal Abuse
Is your day going far too well? Are you missing your parents? We are happy to step in and make things right for you. A miserably angry person will contact you and make fun of you and all that you love. If something comes up later that was missed in the original contact, you will be contacted again. By purchasing this service, you waive all liability and claim against PeoplePond and anyone else recruited in the process to make you miserable. So there.

You are not misreading that.  One of the options is for someone to call you and verbally abuse you.  I am not sure if this is a real or fake service, but I am curious.  I am also a little troubled that someone would really want you to call them and verbally abuse them.  I am even more troubled by the fact that a company would realize this niche need and fill it.  I wish I was at the board meeting when the developers came to the meeting and announced that service offering.  I wonder if they brought in a couple of the “pros” and gave a demonstration of the service to the board.  Also, how do you determine if someone has been harsh, or driven away a client through verbal communication with clients when they have this job.  Is this one of those where “compliments” are the worst thing that you can get.   I could go on, but really I must stop.

The last thought running through my head as I close out this post is this.  Do you optimize or create landing pages for this market.  What is the SEO tactic to use here.  Is PPC the better choice due to the unique nature, and potentially unique clientele that might be searching for this service.  In the end, your business model is profile aggregation so why offer a customer aggrevation service.  I suppose if it will sell, then what the H…

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