True Lies from the Shoemoney

Posted by Shawn Collins on June 17th, 2008 | 16 Comments

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Vladimir Lenin is attributed as saying “A lie told often enough becomes truth.” I just came across a bizarre example of this sort of fallacy by the blogger known as the “Shoemoney.”

He wrote a blog post about a recent settlement between MySpace and Media Breakaway with this curious reference…

“Shawn Collins, Close personal friend of Richter…”

Now in full disclosure, I did have a telephone chat with Scott Richter, who is the subject of the Shoemoney post – this was back in either 2003 or 2004.

Since then, I have passed him at various conferences and said hello. But no, I wouldn’t regard him as a “close personal friend.”

I am not sure what to make of this peculiar comment, other than the fact that it is not so random.

Back in March 2007 on the Shoemoney podcast on Webmaster Radio, he made the following comment:

I was just a little bit surprised that Shawn has never disclosed… and I’ve talked to other people in the affiliate space and they said, well you know, Shawn is really heavily vested in CPA Empire.

So I don’t know the background on that, but I was a little bit surprised in it. But it’s definitely something to watch out for.

This whole ringtone thing is really going to get wild coming up. So, yeah, I’ve heard a lot of things that Shawn is really involved with CPA Empire, and that’s why he didn’t want to really disclose much.

And, you know, I wish, I know he’s big, he has a lot of integrity, and he’s a well trusted guy, so if he is, you know… how do I say this without pissing him off… but you know if he is involved… yeah, he does need to disclose it.

I think so, because a lot of people look up to him and follow what he says, so step up and say if your partner in the Affiliate Summit, Missy Ward, is heavily financially vested in CPA Empire, then say that.

If Affiliate Summit was founded with money from Scott Richter, you know, the Spam King, then say that, you know.

I don’t know that those are true, but those are things people are emailing me. And if those are true then you need to say it.

I immediately commented to his blog and reached out to him directly that I never had anything to do with CPA Empire or Scott Richter, and that there was absolutely no connection in any way on any level.

The baseless claims from his anonymous sources had been put to rest, or so I thought.

Until his new effort of proof by assertion. I’m starting to feel like a politician with this perverse smear campaign.

Posted in Affiliate News, Affiliate Opinions

On June 16 @ 11:01 pm fred said

get over yourself you are not that important!
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On June 17 @ 1:11 am nickycakes said

pretty much anyone who doesn't love azoogle is “in bed with cpa empire” according to shoemoney
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On June 17 @ 8:17 am Mike Allen said

fred, if this shoe was on your foot I don't think you would want to wear it. This sounds like an attempt to “create” guilt by association and I think Shawn is wise to defend his good name and reputation. It's a low blow to repeat gossip and spread anonymous statements publicly while offering no proof.
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On June 17 @ 11:30 am George said

and ironically I see AzoogleAds advertising (rebranded as epicads) on Shawns blog and not on ShoeMoney's.
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On June 17 @ 11:44 am Jonathan (Trust) said

I was always a little confused on that myself. You said you last phone call with Richter was 2003, 2004 but you were in Fitness Challenges with them in late 2006, there are even videos of the challenges between you guys. Also you still have I believe is his father, still being a moderator of one of the panels at Affiliate Summit.

http://www.affiliatesummit.com/steven_richter.php

So that's where I think a lot of this comes from.
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On June 17 @ 11:59 am Shawn Collins said

Missy worked at CPA Empire with him and asked me to do a video to mutually get some attention for Affiliate Summit and CPA Empire – nothing less, nothing more.

And yes, Steven Richter (Scott's father) is a moderator at the next Affiliate Summit. He is one of 50 or so other speakers.

I think I can say with a fair degree of confidence that I am not a “close personal friend” or any kind of friend with the children of any Affiliate Summit speakers past or present.
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On June 17 @ 12:04 pm ShoeMoney said

Shawn. I honestly thought you were close personal friends with Scott. I actually like Scott and CPA Empire. I said in the post I agreed with you….

The quote you have above was a conversation with Kris Jones CEO of pepperjam but you do not have it divided on who said what.

I am still trying to understand the headline “The True Lies Of Shoemoney”.

boggling.
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On June 17 @ 12:34 pm Shawn Collins said

I can't imagine for the life of me why you would think that, and found it to be an unusual reference.

You said you agreed with a comment of mine in my blog post – not sure how that relates to your comment about me and Scott being friends.

The quote above was all you – I manually transcribed it last night. Kris briefly interjected towards the end, but I didn't include him.

The headline refers to your thoughts about a connection to myself and Scott/CPA Empire that have no basis.

I'd appreciate if you simply asked me before perpetuating any rumors or theories in the future.
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On June 17 @ 8:51 pm giantblackcack said

Shoemoney pwnage.
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On June 18 @ 4:43 pm experienceadvertising said

Traditional affiliate marketers have always had problems with email marketing in principle just like adware. Missy Ward is from that background so that links it to Shawn and Affiliate Summit. A lot of the booth sponsors are 2nd and 3rd tier affiliate networks heavily email marketing driven. Yes they would like more webmaster affiliates, who wouldn't . So to think that Affiliate Summit is a traditional webmaster-only affiliate conference is far from reality…looks I'm not the only one defending my good reputation from people that think they speak for the industry.
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On June 18 @ 4:56 pm Rhonda Holland said

Stand up for yourself Shawn. I am glad you called him on this. I zoomed the post at BloggingZoom too.

Rhonda
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On June 18 @ 7:31 pm Dan tha Man said

ur the guy that claimed to be putting on an affiliate conference that was gonna be so much better than affiliate summit, right?

kthxbye
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On June 23 @ 11:25 am Webhosting Reality said

To establish something as truth, there must be no iota of doubt left in the mind of the jury, the public, the bloggers in general.

In truth, there is no fear.
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On June 24 @ 11:58 am jamesdorans said

When I was at eXact Advertising I worked with CPA Empire.

I really was not stunned with what happened. I actually learned a lot of the dirty side of affiliate marketing from eXact Advertising and CPA Empire to be honest. Granted I also learned a lot about internet marketing from my past experience to.
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On July 26 @ 9:17 pm Simple Internet Marketing said

In recent times in reading his blog, I have noticed other baseless claims that he has made, Good that you stood up for yourself!
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On July 26 @ 11:17 pm Simple Internet Marketing said

In recent times in reading his blog, I have noticed other baseless claims that he has made, Good that you stood up for yourself!
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