Written on May 10th, 2006 at 09:05 am by Darren Rowse
Some ProBlogger News
Update: Ok, it’s been 45 minutes since posting this and it’s getting a little out of hand as I’ve had quite a few emails of congratulations, bloggers asking for interviews and a reporter (a Fairfax one oddly enough) call me to do a story already.
If you click the image or check the ’source’ links you’ll get the full picture.
Update 2: Ok – perhaps I wasn’t clear enough – but this was an attempt at humor. The above story is not true. It is a joke using a little ‘make a fake newspaper tool’ that I linked to in the ‘Source’ link and in the image itself. No more requests for interviews or asking if I’d like to invest money in Web 2.0 projects please (I’m up to two calls from journalists, two investment requests and about 15 emails of congratulations)….
Sorry for leading people up a garden path but I thought I’d made it obvious enough…. perhaps this says something about much people trust blogs…. or how little they read ’source links’…. or how much people think ProBlogger’s worth…. or something else?
I think I’ll stay away from attempting to joke around on this blog in future.
66 Responses to “Some ProBlogger News” - Add Yours
Choochie
May 10th, 2006 9:29 am
Wow! That is fantastic. Congratulations!!!
As an aside: I must say how cool it is to read a clipping from “Wednesday’s” newspaper on “Tuesday” in the U.S.!!!
jimmy
May 10th, 2006 9:34 am
Eh?
Aaron Brazell
May 10th, 2006 9:35 am
Wow… sounds… extrvanagnt. Are you sure this crappy site is worth that much? ;)
Reg
May 10th, 2006 9:35 am
one should always check their ’sources’
Dominic
May 10th, 2006 9:42 am
Is this true? I could’nt find anything on The Age’s website about it.
chris
May 10th, 2006 9:42 am
what the bleepeddy bleep? that is alot of change. I make 5 million and I am retired and playing golf not consulting on anything!
chris
May 10th, 2006 9:46 am
but alas we would be suckers to belive this!
Joshua Dorkin
May 10th, 2006 9:57 am
What a tease. . . post a cool article with no more info. . . common Darren, What’s the story?
Darren Rowse
May 10th, 2006 10:02 am
Reg (comment #4) has some good advice above. OR you could just click the image…..
Jesse
May 10th, 2006 10:16 am
You guys might want to read the follow-up story
WhyMyBlogStinks
May 10th, 2006 10:20 am
oh man, you had me for like 2 minutes. Nice one! :)
Tom
May 10th, 2006 10:23 am
Tease..
But if it was true, what a great present to the expecting wife.
jimmy
May 10th, 2006 10:42 am
it’s a teaser :-)
James Thoenes
May 10th, 2006 10:43 am
No! We can’t let them take Santa Clause – we’ve got to do something. Oh and congratulations.
e-TECH 2.0 » Blog Archive » I QUIT!
May 10th, 2006 11:18 am
[...] [...]
Emory
May 10th, 2006 11:23 am
Whew! I almost fell for this and bid 6 million :)
brem
May 10th, 2006 11:31 am
LOL
There was a link that would create a webpage with headlines with the name of your friends, for pranks. It was about a public masterbater I think… If you guys remember the link, send it my way… at brem at martinbreton.com
danke :)
Chris Abraham
May 10th, 2006 11:58 am
Bravo! I fell for it as well. Very well and you know why? Because we always expect you to make the big bucks! The only thing that gave it away is that you accepted too little, especially if they were five-million Australian dollars.
WhyMyBlogStinks
May 10th, 2006 12:10 pm
I agree. This site is worth more than that. Isn’t problogger.net in the top 100 by google standards? If so I would think this site is worth more than 5 mil. Sit on it for a couple more years and you can get way more.
I’ll buy it. Do you take Visa? Mastercard?
James
May 10th, 2006 12:30 pm
Hmm… is this fact…or fiction? If fact, congrats! I am envious! I am still skepitcal that it is possible to make a living blogging. Is it still possible or is the market over saturated?
slon
May 10th, 2006 12:31 pm
guys, common. Check official http://fairfaxdigital.com.au/, there is no info about any acquisition.
WhyMyBlogStinks
May 10th, 2006 12:32 pm
It is possible James. Probably depends a lot on what niche you are blogging in. But, yes, making money is VERY possible!
Stuart
May 10th, 2006 12:50 pm
People still haven’t woken up to reality?
Please take a deep breath folks and think before you type – for some it might be a new experience :)
Mike
May 10th, 2006 1:06 pm
Perhaps you should send a link to Fairfax and ask “where is my cheque?”
jim
May 10th, 2006 1:21 pm
Aaaahahahahah, nice. It’s a month and 9 days late though…
Shaun Carter
May 10th, 2006 1:23 pm
lol… ahh human nature is a funny thing isn’t it? Most everyone believes everything they hear or read.
Genuine » My Ship Has Come In!
May 10th, 2006 2:21 pm
[...] [source: Via Problogger and Steve Rubel] [...]
Franck
May 10th, 2006 3:54 pm
I did not get it?
Did you sold your Blog?
I don’t know, but it may be difficult for you to sell it…
Darren Rowse
May 10th, 2006 4:20 pm
OK people – this is a joke. I thought I’d made that clear in the last update in the post…. but I’ll spell it out here – NOT TRUE. Sorry.
I think I’ll stick to straight up and down posts…
Michael Hampton
May 10th, 2006 4:42 pm
Darren, this sort of thing is what the 1st April is for. :)
Mark McGuinness
May 10th, 2006 4:45 pm
Ha ha that was brilliant – I’m putting that newspaper site to good use as well… You got me so hopefully my mates will fall for something similar!
Mark McGuinness
May 10th, 2006 4:46 pm
Ha ha that was brilliant – I’m putting that newspaper site to good use as well… You got me so hopefully my mates will be easily fooled as well!
Andy Merrett
May 10th, 2006 5:08 pm
Now why do I never come up with the ‘comedy app’ that everyone links to and has fun with? ;)
I was never gonna fall for it because I saw the Blogherald / Microsoft version first…
Michael Moncur
May 10th, 2006 5:09 pm
Rule #1 of Internet Irony:
If you say something sarcastic, ironic, or comically false, no matter how many emoticons and hints you use, even if it’s April 1st, someone will believe it.
Personally, it didn’t fool me for a second because my eyes recognized the appearance of the make-a-newspaper page I’ve seen (here, I think) before.
Also, I’m pretty sure a real newspaper wouldn’t use the word “blog” so many times without defining it.*
*Incorrectly.
Andy Merrett
May 10th, 2006 5:12 pm
Slightly off-topic, but here’s a Tuesday laugh for you all.
In today’s London free paper (Metro) there was an article about not forwarding on spam chain mail (you know the stuff – the hoaxes, the false alarms, etc.)
They then cited some examples of what people sent on – there was the two-striped telamonia spider under the toilet seat one, the cancerous pot noodle one, etc….
However, I cannot tell if the last one is genuine – it’s worth a laugh…
“I hate those hoax warnings but this one is important!!! Please send this to everyone on your e-mail list. If a man comes to your front door and says he is conducting a survey and asks you to show him your bum, DO NOT show him your bum. This is a scam!! He only wants to see you bum. I wish I’d got this yesterday.”
Apologies to anyone I’ve offended for overuse of the word ‘bum’ ;)
Happy Tuesday…
Andy Merrett
May 10th, 2006 5:13 pm
Or even Wednesday ;) I’m going now. I’ve lost a day somewhere.
stuart
May 10th, 2006 5:13 pm
Made me laugh!
What was that common refrain…. Something about the difference between bloggers and journalists having something to do with one using editors and fact-checkers and the other not bothering….
Rose Tacher
May 10th, 2006 5:17 pm
You should have used company name like Acme Widgets Inc etc.
Gerald
May 10th, 2006 5:38 pm
it shows how simple your readers think and/or how much they trust you. so ok, I give you 6$ for your blog. that’s much more than it is worth, hopefully i can pay by instalments ;-)
Duncan
May 10th, 2006 5:51 pm
Gerald
what sort of twit are you?
As for the rest of the ppl who thought this was real….yikes people, look at the typeset to start with, it’s obviously fake. Secondly the Age’s mast head looks nothing like this…..it’s a worry.
Halfdeck
May 10th, 2006 6:11 pm
Darren, I’m curious whether this post resulted in a burst of traffic and backlinks. :)
Bazar
May 10th, 2006 6:20 pm
Oh, is it really true? Sounds like crazy. Congrats anyway!
Ben Hamilton
May 10th, 2006 6:34 pm
LOL, I was first, VERY happy for you, then, really laughing as I realised I’d been had. Well done.
Miriguy
May 10th, 2006 6:34 pm
wow.. that’s really a cool snippet generator. Lemme use it to tease my friends. lol!
vawz
May 10th, 2006 7:12 pm
Gold, pure gold!
Gerald
May 10th, 2006 7:14 pm
@duncan thanks, but hopefully you saw the difference? 6$ versus $6 million.
Richie
May 10th, 2006 10:40 pm
Haha,it is so interesting!
Once I read it,I was so surprised!LoL
Rod
May 10th, 2006 11:26 pm
When I first saw this entry, I thought I’d come back later and check the link. But when I came back, you had aleady spoiled the joke… I do hafta admit, though, that it was kinda funny :)
Bald Man
May 11th, 2006 12:06 am
All this stress over a joke. It’s enough to make a guy lose his hair. :)
Busy Mom
May 11th, 2006 12:29 am
Ha! That’s great!
گزیر » فروش یک وبلاگ به مبلغ ۵ میلیون دلار
May 11th, 2006 12:30 am
[...] جالب به نظر میرسد: یک وبلاگ به مبلغ ۵ میلیون دلار! اما کمی تأمل کنید، نگاهی به نوشته خود این وبلاگنویس در همین رابطه بیندازید. اگر کمی دقت کنید متوجه میشوید که بریده روزنامه مذکور جعلی است و با استفاده از یک ابزار آنلاین ساخته شده! اما نکته جالب آن است که این وبلاگنویس از ابتدای امر این مسأله را به صورت واضح و با ارائه منبع خبر (که همان ابزار آنلاین است) مشخص کرده بود. اما بررسی نظرات آن نوشته و تماسهای دیگران با او (دو تماس از سوی خبرنگاران، دو پیشنهاد مشارکت و ۱۵ ایمیل تبریک به گفته خود او) نشان میدهد که در این نمونه و احتملاً سایر نمونههای مشابه درصد زیادی از افراد به آسانی به وبلاگها و نوشتههای آنها اعتماد میکنند، همچنین تعداد کمی از خوانندگان وبلاگها به منبعهای ارائه شده توجه میکنند. [...]
Tami
May 11th, 2006 4:17 am
Too Funny! I love it!
I must admit, had I read this earlier in the day before your updatesI probably would have bought into it too. My first thought was, Dang! I’ve only recently found your site and haven’t finished reading everything yet!
I now see your point on how readers scan…great lesson!
100yen - Tomorrow’s headline…
May 11th, 2006 4:48 am
[...] Nice one Darren :o) Posted by Jonic Filed in Blogging google_ad_client = “pub-5067350415018038″; google_alternate_color = “070707″; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60; google_ad_format = “468×60_as”; google_ad_type = “text”; google_ad_channel =”2094691478″; google_color_border = “070707″; google_color_bg = “070707″; google_color_link = “FFFFFF”; google_color_url = “E6E6E6″; google_color_text = “FFFFFF”; [...]
Rob Elam
May 11th, 2006 6:16 am
hilarious.
Devin
May 11th, 2006 6:22 am
LOL the reactions to the joke are what actually made me laugh!
vitaliy
May 11th, 2006 2:11 pm
I got http://www.blogsbuysell.com, post your blog if you want to sell it.
Make Money Online » Fun with Newspapers
May 11th, 2006 3:11 pm
[...] I just created this fun post using this fake newspaper article generator. I found it by reading Darren’s post about a fake article he created that caused him some grief. [...]
Kevin
May 11th, 2006 3:33 pm
Strangely enough though you are in today’s green guide.
How long ago was the interview for that done, and did you know it would be published today?
Darren Rowse
May 11th, 2006 3:40 pm
Kevin – didn’t know it would be in today but I did know it was coming (did the interview a few weeks back). No connection between them.
Kevin
May 11th, 2006 3:40 pm
Sorry – ignore the above – helps if I read your updates first….
Stuart Robertson
May 12th, 2006 12:23 am
Pretty funny — although I’ve seen some crazy web-business deals before, so it’s not *completely* unreasonable. Maybe it will give somebody with deep pockets an idea. ;-)
Joe
May 12th, 2006 7:47 am
Hey Darren,
I ran a fake ad on my blog the other day. I thought it may have applications for work at home types that use the internet.
If you want a laugh, look what I picked up on my T-rati linked to me…
http://home-generator.generatorblog.org/1443/
Think it’s worth $5M???
Joe
Alexander A. E-Globe.blogspot.com
May 14th, 2006 10:44 pm
Nice idea, but quite old, you should write another number, about $25,000 000 – looks better.
Suchmaschinen-Optimierung SEO nicht verkauft - S-O-S SEO Blog
May 17th, 2006 12:45 pm
[...] Geschickt bin ich der Frage nach meiner Käuflichkeit ausgewichen und habe das Thema gewechselt. Nach ein paar Minuten war dann das Gespräch beendet. War eigentlich ganz nett, sowohl das Gespräch als auch der Gesprächspartner. Nur hatte der anscheinend nicht mal von meinem Blog hier gehört. Welch eine Ernüchterung. Meine Seite habe ich natürlich nicht verkauft. Ich bin doch nicht der ProBlogger. [...]
Wie fange ich einen Fake wieder ein? » Kinderwunsch-News
May 18th, 2006 9:03 am
[...] Heute bin ich über den Artikel von “Problogger.net” gestolpert. Eine der wichtigsten Seiten zum Thema Bloggen. Dort berichtete der “Problogger” Darren Rowse darüber, wie man richtig bloggt (also Artikel im Internet veröffentlicht mit einer Software wie dieser hier). “Pro” zeugt auch davon, dass es in den USA und in seinem Fall Australien möglich ist, mit so etwas seinen Lebensunterhalt zu verdienen. [...]
SixandOut.net - an International Cricket blog » Important news from the cricket world
May 18th, 2006 10:23 pm
[...] Whilst some people like to mislead gullible trusting blog readers about so-called newsworthy events, I fair readers will never do such a despicable thing. I will, however, totally abuse my position as editor of Six and Out to not only blow my own trumpet but also to assure you that I at least know a smidge about cricket – as I actually play on a regular basis. [...]
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