Wow, getting up this morning was really not a good idea. In my inbox was an email with the following content:
“We understand that you are unhappy blogging with Today.com. As such we will be closing out your account for you. Your blog earnings to date will be sent to you in the next pay cycle. We want to thank you for trying out Today.com and are sorry the program has not lived up to your expectations. We certainly wish you the best in your future endeavors. Sincerely, Today.com Support”
As I tried to sign in my dashboard > impossible, accessing the today.com blogger forum > impossible. They just kicked me completely out. Thinking of blogging for today.com? Think twice. My Prague Blog was comfortably in the Top100 and most of the time even in the Top50 of their blog statistics. I was active in the forums and was helping others with answering questions and mentoring other blogs. I was blogging daily, missing max 1 or 2 days per month. So what had happened? Two days earlier I had received another email from today.com stating:
“This email is to let you know that your blog has been reviewed by an editor and your payment rates have changed.
When reviewing blogs we look at quality, productivity, popularity, and potential. Taking those things into consideration we made a decision to change your rate this month. Your new program is $x.xx per 1,000 unique visitors. The new rate goes into effect 2009-04-17 ET. You will not be paid per post.” [Amount of dollar removed by me].
So despite of having a successful, active blog that was, by their own ranking list, in the top 5-10% of all the blogs on today.com, my blog didn’t made the cut anymore? To say that I was upset was putting it mildly. As I checked the private today.com blogger forum I saw that a thread had already started. And that a lot of other Top50/ Top100 blogs were down graded to be paid for traffic only and not anymore be paid by post. The answers from Today.com were pointing in the direction that only blogs that generated enough income would stay in the pay per post program, all others, not important their page rank, their position in the serp for their topic and the traffic/ back links they generated for the whole today.com domain would only be paid for the traffic they generated. I didn’t make much noise in the forum, very unusual for me 
, instead I wrote a blog post that has been meanwhile deleted. Text (I nearly always keep copies from everything I write) below:
“Taking a break from Today
I will take a break from blogging here for the moment. Hubby and I are going to Switzerland next week, I took on a new project (re-vamping a web site) and also started finally my personal blog at Hospitalera’s Blog. There are simply only so many hours in one day and I have to decide where to spent them best. And yes, that means also where I have the best earnings or at least the best earnings potential. After my return from Switzerland I will decide from where to run the second World Blog Surf Day, but most likely it will be from my own blog. In all cases I will contact the bloggers that have already agreed to participate when I know more. See you soon, and if you miss me you can always find me at Hospitalera’s Blog.”
Notice the words “I will take a break from blogging here for the moment.” ? That apparently triggered the email I got today. So, what will I do now? One thing that today.com hasn’t considered is that there is more to blogging than only writing content and posting it! There are friendships to be made and maintained, link exchange, mutual help in promoting each others blogs etc. Today.com also took my entrecard widget down, leaving seven other bloggers that were already in queue ‘hanging in the air’. The also took my widget from along for the ride down , doing the same damage to the bloggers in that ring surf. Now it is for me to clean up the mess today.com has caused! As I am not anymore able to maintain my Prague expat blog, I will inform everybody on my blogroll that I am not anymore maintaining the blog and leave it to them to remove the link or not. I will inform entrecard and apologize to the bloggers that were waiting to advertise for free on my blog via entrecard. I will remove it from all listings I had put it in. Even if today.com would now come back to me and offer me Golden Prague back, I wouldn’t take it. I have completely lost confidence in this company. Do you want to write for today.com? Better think twice! SY
PS The link to the blog in question is rel=”nofollow”, don’t worry
Deleted on request of commenter.
Donny wrote:
Attention, not work safe
(be careful this IS a porn site)
Above is announces it’s launch that it is attached to cyberfuse and mentions David Sichel as President..
That clinches it, as far as proof of a connection.
But there is one office and one office alone that are ALL these companies. WIth a total of the owner, controller and 2 software guys. then there are 2 nephews of the owner. so they may be each different biz names for their legal reasons but it is one place. Located at the morrisville pa address.
That’s just how I pictured it!
I was wondering if you knew anything about Amosely Corp? That name keeps on popping up in many things related to Today.com. It’s a Canadian company (also registered in the Netherlands, if I recall correctly).
Also, do you have any idea why they got into the blogging business? People in the p-n business are usually interested in quick and easy money, and blogging is generally not very profitable. Is it that they didn’t realize that blogging is not a cash cow? Or is it that they wanted to have a respectable company as a front for the p-n businesses?
@Donny
I hope you got your old job back? Or found at least a good new one? SY
@Donny
SY
SY
“Cloaked” is actually not the right term. I just made it into a text link and added a nofollow link to it. Don’t want to give these sites any link love. For linking I wrote some years ago an article on an old site, not updated and the pictures are gone, but it is still pretty good to explain the basics of linking http://sybilleyates.com/LOLinking.html
@MsTerri
Perhaps you and Donny should get together and write a comprehensive article about all of this. I volunteer to do the seo and traffic magic for it
Perhaps you and Donny should get together and write a comprehensive article about all of this. I volunteer to do the seo and traffic magic for it.
Yeah, that’s an interesting idea.
Deleted on request of commenter.
Deleted on request of commenter.
@Donny
Funny that your comment went through on http://freelancewrite.about.com mine always get deleted / not approved! SY
Deleted on request of commenter.
@Donny
You are right, you are the first “non-blogger” that came out with information / experiences about today.com. Gives us certainly an additional point of view. I would also suggest that you warn your colleagues in the trade, not that somebody makes the same mistake that you made and gives up his / her job for today.com! But you are also right in saying that you need to keep your mind focused on positive things like finding a good job. I would really appreciate if you would update us from time to time how life is going on for you, SY
Deleted on request of commenter.
@Donny
Have a look for yourself at their alexa.com info, http://alexa.com/siteinfo/today.com No, they were never a big fish in my opinion. What attracted me, and others, to the site was the high Google authority a domain name like today.com could achieve. Imagine this domain name in the hand of a travel site. Can you say “today Paris” or “today New York City”. If it would be my site I would have some ideas how to market this “today” factor in Google. Rofl, but I don’t have the money nor the technical skills for that, just the ideas!
Good luck with the BBB and as I said, keep us updated how life is treating you! SY
Deleted on request of commenter.
Deleted on request of commenter.
I need to send out an appology here. I would like to say that I have no proof as to the claims I posted on here regarding Today. They never discussed anything with me other than my job at hand,(which WAS NOT “adult” based what so ever). Please know that I wrote everything with emotion, that I was hurt and speaking about things I should not and that I know nothing about. I hope that you would consider deleting my posts as I can’t on my end but would very much like to. My intent is not to harm anyone or any business with what I have typed on here. I should have never said that I recorded a conversation as my proof. I’m surely not a tech savy person to be able to figure that out nor is anything on record from that company. I was simply trying to prove credible by saying I did that. So please, I am sorry that I typed this info and I am embarrassed by it. I hope that everyone understands that I was mad and people say some not- to- nice things when they are mad and emotional. I appologize. I don’t know how to right this wrong other than to posting a public appology.
@Donny
You are confusing us here a bit,are you saying that all what you told us about today.com was a lie? And how does it come that others have joined the discussion and reported similar findings to yours? If you are under pressure from today.com or anybody else I am happy to delete your comments if it that what you want and not just another mood swing. SY
Donny, I have no idea what is going on, but if they are threatening you, I advise you to speak to a lawyer — you can probably get a consultation for free or low cost.
@Doony
All your comments, less the apology, have been deleted as you asked me to by email. All the best for the future, feel free to come back and tell us how your life is going on. SY
hey hospitalera… I was just deleting comments at freelancewrite.about.com as requested by a commentor, and found your comments hanging in limbo– “pending” probaly cause of your links. Anyway they are up now. Sorry about that…. I was also in Mexico for most of July, so I’m behind. I’m confused as to what’s going on here and the request to delete comments…. but…. My opinion on Today.com/any blogs that hire freelance writers: if you’re not making a decent hourly rate, don’t bother. THere are plenty of freelance writing jobs out there.
@freelancewirte.about.com
Thanks for the update! Today.com continues now since more than 6 months to “hire and fire” writers. They hire them with promises like you get paid for your content if you are good enough and when people start to criticize them, they fire the writer in question, keeping all content for free ;-( SY
It is sad how obsessed you still are with today.com.Do you really think Today.com ever thinks of you? Look at your blog no readers amazing why today.com didn’t fire you the first week.Someone admits the lied about people said anti Semitic remarks about someone who works there and you publish it.I hope today.com sues you it maybe a hate crime. But you are to stupid to get that.If that’s not enough i am sure today knows who you are heck they paid you Keep it up you are making today.com money.
haaaa
@Johnny
So instead arguing with you I let my non-existing readers decide what to think of you, most likely they will ignore you. BTW, interesting that you didn’t put up your real name / web site, Mr Johnny Anonymous
I was really tempted to delete your comment because it is so disconnected from reality, but then decided against it. The funniest part was that you said “Look at your blog no readers…” you really had a good look around her
And now they’ve got another nasty trick. They’ve taken our blogs and slapped full-screen pages on top of them, which have ads for porn sites. You can’t even read the blogs themselves — the parts that aren’t hidden under the porn-ad page are shrouded in a dark translucent overlay.
(If I recall correctly, porn-site marketing was one of their earliest businesses. It looks like they are reverting back to their roots. It’s disgusting that they are using our blogs for bait.)
I wrote more about this on the Today Exiles blog: Look what Today.com did now — this is unbelievable
Ms Terri@LOST blog´s last blog ..Bumbershoot part 2: ‘Fortunately, Damon loves time travel’
@Ms Terri
It looks to me more like their site got hacked, and honestly, the ads are pretty similar to what you see on parked pages with the wrong keywords in the url. I imagined something much more graphic, but when I checked the screen shots you posted I found them pretty tame, a smiling face and same text links. Perhaps it is time to let go of today.com, there is more out there then only them, time to move on? SY
I’m not sure what you consider “tame,” but if you look at the links on the screenshots, they go to “Free Sex Videos: Only Full Length XXX Sex Videos Free to Watch — Always” and “Porn Equals Art: Jonathan Yeo on his porn collages of George Bush and Paris Hilton” and “Buy Celebrity Sex Tapes: Paylin, Pam, Paris and More at Libida Read Our Celebrity Sex Tape Guide” and “Britney Goes Clubbing w/Out Panties Again.”
That’s not what I want people to find when they follow a Google link with my writing name on it expecting to find something completely different.
It’s my reputation that’s at stake.
Forget about the “XXX” aspect of it. Even if that part doesn’t bother you (and I know it doesn’t bother a lot of people), Today.com is still doing a redirect, taking the web searchers from the site they mean to visit (i.e. my old blog) to a different page entirely. That’s spamming. And being considered a spammer is even worse than being considred a pornographer — although I’d rather not be considered either one.
Ms Terri@LOST for a reason´s last blog ..Bumbershoot part 2: ‘Fortunately, Damon loves time travel’
Ms Terri – I googled “Ms Terri” I only found your today blog after I googled +”Ms Terri” +today.com – i.e. no potential client is ever going to find you by name. What I did find was msterri.com – not sure if that is your site – but if its not I suggest you look for a different pseudonyum or start branding say Ms Terri Writer and make sure you own the dot com
lissie@residual income builder´s last blog ..Residual Income Without A Website
@Ms Terri
Today.com is up again and shows ads for — art posters on my blog, so that is really tame! If they were / are not hacked then they simply put a pop up ad (full page) over blogs that were 6+ months inactive. If you are really so concerned then you should contact a lawyer and get him / her to send today.com a cease and desist letter. Or you could simply sue them for damaging your online reputation. But what really would help you is to get over the whole today.com episode! How long do you want to nourish this fixation? There is a lot more to do in life then to nourish a grunge against a company. You are just wasting your energy without gaining anything, SY
@ lissie
For the rest, good advice, SY
Something says me that msterri.com is not her domain
Hospitalera, I won’t bother you again with news about what Today is doing. I hadn’t realized that you were so opposed to hearing about it! If I had known that, I wouldn’t have posted my comment here.
But for myself, I am proud that a group of us Exiles fought them, and that we won — they have now taken down the porn-ad overlays. I consider it energy very well spent.
Cheers, and I promise not to bother you with this topic again.
Ms Terri@LOST for a reason´s last blog ..Bumbershoot part 2: ‘Fortunately, Damon loves time travel’
@Ms Terri
Did you actually read what Lissie and I wrote? You didn’t bother me by commenting on what today.com is doing, or what you believe they are doing, what bothers me is the waste of energy in something what is clearly a thing of the past. If you really believe
“But for myself, I am proud that a group of us Exiles fought them, and that we won — they have now taken down the porn-ad overlays. I consider it energy very well spent.”
then please tell us how you have done it. A court order? A lawyer? What makes you think it was your doing? SY
Terri, I think we should leave here and just deal with things on the main ex-Today blog, where people still seem to value their online reputations.
@Phyl What makes you think that I don’t value my online reputation? SY
Hospitalera, I wrote what I did (on my last comment) the way that I did because I was trying to avoid an argument. I wanted to bow out and bring this discussion here to a close on a positive note, because I like you and I didn’t want any hard feelings.
But since you are asking me now to elaborate, I’m finding it hard to resist saying what is on my mind, which I had successfully resisted doing before.
What’s on my mind is that I was offended when you said that I was wasting my energy, that I needed to “get over it,” and that I had a “fixation.”
I fully support your right to stay out of any fights with Today.com, and I do, again, apologize for posting something on your blog that you are not interested in. That was an error in judgement on my part, based on what I thought was your interest in what Today.com was doing when “Donny” was recently posting on this thread. I won’t make that mistake again.
Howver, I think you don’t know me well enough to criticize my motives, tell me how I should be using my energy, or engage in armchair psychoanalysis of my character. To me, that came across as far too personal, and I feel that none of it is your business.
How you spend your own energy is your business, and again I respect your right not to engage in fights with Today. But how I spend my own energy is my own business, and I was offended that you were making comments about that.
As for how I know that Today’s removing the porn-ad overlays was our (not “my”) doing, it’s simple cause and effect. (“Our” refers to all the people who filed complaints with Google or who posted comments on the Exile blog or on their own blogs.)
I didn’t hire a lawyer, but I am a lawyer myself. And no one runs out and gets a court order at the first sign of conflict. First, you try something simpler and less expensive to see if it will work. In this case, it did. End of story. Well, until the next time they pull some slimy stunt. I’m prepared to fight them every step of the way.
Ms Terri´s last blog ..The complete list of “For a Reason” references
Oops, simultaneous posting (ha — I’ve been doing that a lot recently). @Phyl, I didn’t see your post until after I wrote mine.
Anyway, I like Hospitalera. I think her values are her own business, and I won’t criticize her for that. I just wish she might have extended the same courtesy to me.
Ms Terri´s last blog ..The complete list of “For a Reason” references
@Ms Terri
First of all, I decided to follow my own advice and take the “kicked form today.com” page out of my header. Don’t worry about the backlinks, they will still work as the site is still listed in the sitemap and also accessible via search engines. Regarding the rest what you wrote, I don’t think any further discussion would be of any use. SY
Update for all that are interested, seems today.com has now even blocked my ip-address, rofl. I can access my old blog, and every other blog in the network for that matter, only when I go via a proxy or from another location. SY
I used to be at notnews.today.com. I’m now at http://newstechnica.com/ . I saved all my old content too.
(I hereby declare the sysadmin an idiot. He tried hacking up the WordPress export format so it couldn’t be read into a non-Today blog. IT’S XML, ANY PROGRAMMER CAN FIX IT AND GET THEIR STUFF. It’s like trying to block people from right-clicking on an image. *headdesk*)
Has anyone done a comprehensive today.com expose website? I feel like doing one. I have some form on such sites, fwiw. I feel like becoming that wrong guy they pissed off. Email anything of interest to me at dgerard (at) gmail dot com.
David Gerard´s last blog ..Special trains introduced for the wrong type of snow
Sorry to hear that. I am not a revenge kind of person, and have moved on. But if you want you can go through the comments on this post and contact the other ex-todaylers via their new blogs / sites. SY
BTW I “disguised” your email address a bit, so that email harvesters don’t get it too easily
I’m particularly interested that one particular IP address has started spamming my blogs with comments and saying I “stole content”. 68.38.69.114 is the address, a residential DSL. Anyone had a word from this fine fellow?
David Gerard´s last blog ..Special trains introduced for the wrong type of snow
They might be actually right. You signed a contract with today.com that stats that you hand over the copyright to all written material you post. At least that is what the agreement stated when I signed up. Legally you are not anymore the owner of the blog posts you have written on today.com. As for the ip address you gave, no idea, doesn’t ring any bell. SY
In fact, they are almost certainly wrong. They broke the deal they made good and hard. This would not play well in UK law. (Precedents include record company ripoffs on contracts actually written on paper, rather than a click-through.)
Even if they weren’t, I would expect something a little less silly than misspelt blog comments. It’s not like they don’t have my address.
David Gerard´s last blog ..Special trains introduced for the wrong type of snow
Actually I would believe, nearly, everything about this company. They even managed to ban my ip address, rofl, seems they never heard of proxies and anonymous surfing. I agree that it will be difficult for them to proof their case in court, but also consider that you will run in a massive double content issue with Google if you re-publish the same articles unchanged. Something to think about in terms of SEO! SY
I’m looking forward to something that constitutes a declaratory judgement, or at least assertion, then a DMCA notice to their upstream. But that can wait.
By the way, today.com’s domain registration info is kept private … crikey, even mine is public.
David Gerard´s last blog ..Google Nexus One failed to revive my dead grandmother
That is an interesting find, as far as I remember it always was public, like mine and yours, as for taking action / revenge, whatever you call it. Yes, the temptation is there when you just got “fired” but imho it is a waste of energy that could be used for something better. But you can always join the crowd at http://todayexiles.blogspot.com/ with their smashing slogan “to hell with today.com”
Again, if you re-publish all your posts on another domain will run into double content issues with Google, you, not today.com, as they were indexed there earlier. Unfair, yes, something you can do about it? Not really, SY
Today.com appears to be dead. They sold the domain name to MSNBC for the Today Show!
So NONE of my content is duplicated. They’ve given up.
David Gerard´s last blog ..Riots outside Relate offices as Christian therapist loses appeal bid
Thanks for the update, David, seems they are gone for good. I am just wondering to which “great adventure” they are off next. I would also like to know how they informed the bloggers they still worked with from the change. Any insider info on that one anybody? SY
Right now I’m waiting for Google to catch up and deindex all the dead notnews.today.com URLs. (I put up a new sitemap.xml linking them all and pinged Google to reindex.) Then newstechnica.com might actually show up in searches …
David Gerard´s last blog ..Riots outside Relate offices as Christian therapist loses appeal bid
Hindleyite was still writing retroyakking entries in April. I’ll ask him.
David Gerard´s last blog ..Riots outside Relate offices as Christian therapist loses appeal bid
Thanks, would be interesting to hear how they handled it, SY
Thanks for letting us all know, David. I’m going to repost a lot more of my old stuff now, I think.
I think I still have the email address of the guy who was writing the Science Fun blog; I’ll email him and see what’s up with him, and how he found out about things.
Thanks Phyl, if you have “timeless” content, now is the time to re-publish it, if you forgive the pun, SY
[...] is quite simple. I belately saw a post on my friend’s Hospitalera’s blog about how today closed down my blog. Now I’ve known hospitalera on several sites and everywhere she is helpful and pleasent on [...]
[...] lot of bloggers have been kicked from today.com recently, you can read my own story about my experience with today.com. I would like to help others with the same fate to stay in contact and to promote their new blogs/ [...]