I Have A Confession To Make

by Jeremy Schoemaker on October 17, 2007 · 95 comments

We have been outed. EXPOSED! I dunno what to say.

Its true. The authors of the biggest advertising system using the eBay affiliate program… and affiliate marketers are using affiliate links on Below A Buck.

Check Out This Site EXPOSING How We Make Money With Below A Buck

Do people think like… we work for free? We make money on the internet….. Its what we do….

Please whatever you do… lets stop this outing of us trying to make money. PLEASE DO NOT MAKE SITES ABOUT BELOW A BUCK AND GET THEM ON DIGG. PLEASE DO NOT MAKE THREADS ON FORUMS ABOUT HOW WE MAKE MONEY FROM THE SITE.

(wink)

P.S. If this really surprises most bloggers I cant wait to see the expressions in the room when I give my talk at the blogworld expo next month. (I will post on that soon).

About the author...

– who has written 2415 posts on ShoeMoney.com.

Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.

Images provided by ShutterStock


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{ 94 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Cygnus October 17, 2007 at 9:15 am

Sweet sweet controversy; how many dollars I have made with thee.

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2 SonicReducer October 17, 2007 at 9:16 am

Ya, that sure would be terrible if one of those sites made a front page Digg ;)

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3 ShoeMoney October 17, 2007 at 9:17 am

hey shhhhhhhhh!

Seriously it makes me wonder if I shouldnt make my own anti-shoemoney site. Atleast I would put real numbers ;) I wish I was getting these 50% commissions and per bid numbers this retard is talking about ;)

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4 No SEO guru October 17, 2007 at 9:21 am

I’m certain his 0 RSS readers and (probably) 0 daily visitors to his blog were very interested in Shoe’s scheme to make money. Great journalism worthy of a position with Fox news :)

Stay the course Shoe!

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5 Sam October 17, 2007 at 9:23 am

Shoe-

You said in your post that you make money from it with the eBay affiliate program… whats this guys issue

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6 ShoeMoney October 17, 2007 at 9:24 am

Shhhhh SAM! dont let facts like that get in the way of a good controversy!

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7 Tim October 17, 2007 at 9:36 am

“he is not the only person doing the trick.”

LOL so he thinks he is tricking his visitors ;-)

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8 TheWebmaster October 17, 2007 at 9:45 am

I just can’t wait to see what the guy really knows about affiliate marketing… Or maybe I can wait…

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9 jim October 17, 2007 at 9:48 am

all he did was linkbait you :)

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10 jim October 17, 2007 at 9:48 am

hahahah let’s all get worked up into a fervor!!!! craaazy! below a buck fever is hitting the streets! mass chaos!

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11 MillionBlogs October 17, 2007 at 9:48 am

I thought you are smarter than that , Shoe!

Obviously the guy did it to get visitors from your post and I bet he’s gonna get a few hundreds at least.

Why do you worry? Bad or good advertising it’s still advertising, isn’t it?

Now the 10 points question: Did he paid you to post his link in here? :)

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12 Stealth October 17, 2007 at 9:49 am

That is freakin hillarious. Whats up with these thousands of single post blogs popping up lately? Shoe is this really you just syndicating your own shit? Props to you if so. And who really cares what Shoemoney is doing with his websites. All good affiliate marketers know to use Firefox and clear private data after each session… That means no cookies for you!

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13 Austin Overton October 17, 2007 at 9:49 am

GASP!!! How COULD YOU SHOE!?!??!?!?!?!?!

:P

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14 TJ October 17, 2007 at 9:49 am

Its funny how he says, on his first post, Shoe opened his eyes to making money online, “One day I stumble upon a post by Shoemoney, ya know, the one he was holding 113k adsense check. That’s when I discover the potential of making money on the Internet.”And now he’s player hating…soooooo lame Tony!!!

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15 Stealth October 17, 2007 at 9:52 am

Shoe it wouldnt suprise me if you already had an anti-Shoemoney website. (maybe lots of them!)

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16 James October 17, 2007 at 9:55 am

So it wasn’t to enable people to buy stuff at less than a buck?!?.. so why cheating on people like that?

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17 TheWebmaster October 17, 2007 at 9:58 am

What would he gain from visitors to his 2 posts blog anyway? No ads, no useful posts. He’s not monetizing his blog at all.

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18 Tim D October 17, 2007 at 10:00 am

It’s just nice when you throw us a bone once in awhile. It’s not like anyone would naively and stupidly try to copy you. I think the point is–do your own thing. If people are stupid enough to copy you thinking they will have the next AuctionAds, then let them try.

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19 jim October 17, 2007 at 10:03 am

The funniest part is that a subset of users would’ve had no idea what the motive was, as in how you would leave cookies and the like, and so the secret wasn’t “out” until he wrote it. If he didn’t want it popularized, he did the one thing that would’ve almost guaranteed it.

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20 JoeTech.com October 17, 2007 at 10:03 am

I didn’t look at the links when I visited the site yesterday (and again this morning), yet it was obvious to me that you would use affiliate links. How did I know this? Because you’re not an idiot. I love when people create hype for the sake of hype. Still, it worked. You linked to him. One problem with his site, though: “Server not found”

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21 LeGo October 17, 2007 at 10:09 am

Wait, shoe could have been using something like this in auctionads?

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22 Hyder October 17, 2007 at 10:12 am

No! You’re trying to make money online?!!!

Sellout!

I’ll never read your blog again! ;-)

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23 Theo October 17, 2007 at 10:24 am

It’s good linkbait for belowabuck.com

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24 ShoeMoney October 17, 2007 at 10:30 am

thats why I linked to the coral cache above. His site takes like 5 minutes to load (before i ever linked it). Must be hosted on a dial up modem

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25 Chris Jacobson October 17, 2007 at 10:32 am

I don’t know if I believe this post… it’s probably just more hype.

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26 Mr Daz October 17, 2007 at 10:34 am

You know, I also suspect that Google make money with their Adwords. I’m almost certain of it in fact.

You sure you didn’t start that blog Shoe?

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27 Specks October 17, 2007 at 10:34 am

Oh this blog post looks like it was made tongue in cheek. If it wasn’t it should be known that it’s common knowledge that the affiliate cookie stays for 30 days. I also noticed that its a single post blog as Stealth pointed out. Shoe is dat you doin dat?

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28 Milov Patel Blog October 17, 2007 at 10:46 am

Lets see the guy link baited you, and then you created a link bait yourself by saying, “PLEASE DO NOT…THE SITE.” Heh, for the people that do post this on digg, all your doing is promoting the website Below A Buck.

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29 MillionBlogs October 17, 2007 at 10:49 am

Spot on!

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30 Rob Schultz October 17, 2007 at 10:52 am

Haha! I love it. Wait? You make money by doing something unique and provide it to users? THAT’S UNFAIR!! How could you do this to us?

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31 Tom October 17, 2007 at 11:00 am

Oh noes, you’re using an affiliate code – it’s a tarp!

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32 TeamTutorials October 17, 2007 at 11:06 am

I just assumed it would be Affiliate links. Why wouldn’t you use them?

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33 Milov Patel Blog October 17, 2007 at 11:17 am

For some reason, I for a second thought the exact same thing..But I dismissed the idea after a quick ip and whois check, but I know that Shoe is smarter then that…So I guess well never know…

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34 Milov Patel Blog October 17, 2007 at 11:19 am

That, or you didn’t want to send traffic to his website… :)

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35 Jack October 17, 2007 at 11:26 am

mwahAAHAHA affiliate marketing is a secret and now you let it out of teh bag!

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36 Men's Health Board October 17, 2007 at 11:37 am

wow, that guy just fished a big link…

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37 julia wilkinson October 17, 2007 at 11:40 am

Shoe you’re lookin’ to make money off that site? Like with affiliate stuff and such? I’m shocked and stunned! LOL. Now I need to think how I can get in on it.

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38 Israel October 17, 2007 at 11:43 am

who cares about this guy? why did you even waste your time and send him traffic and link to him? if anyone didnt know that you were out to make commissions then they are very naive to this internet thingy. like you said, making money online is what you do, its what we are here for.

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39 Israel October 17, 2007 at 11:44 am

hmmm, good point.

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40 Tracy Robinson October 17, 2007 at 11:45 am

Haha, with this misspeling it looks like Shoe is posting to his own blog! Anything to get more controversy, lol.

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41 Tracy Robinson October 17, 2007 at 11:47 am

Hey, does this violate any kind of auctionads agreement that might be in place, or was there any kind of non-compete? Even though you aren’t serving up ads you are kind of cutting into the ebay auction niche again.

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42 Mark October 17, 2007 at 11:49 am

I think SM made that blog :P

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43 Making The Money October 17, 2007 at 11:54 am

What do you mean you make money from this new site, that’s just crazy talk!

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44 Milov Patel Blog October 17, 2007 at 11:57 am

He didn’t link to his site, Shoe linked to a cache version.. very smart huh :)

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45 CatherineL October 17, 2007 at 12:02 pm

Don’t be silly Tracy. Shoemoney gave away Auction Ads for nothing. He wouldn’t dream of ripping someone of by actually charging them for the endless hours of work he put in. So nobody can accuse him of competing.

I’m not sure how the non-compete laws are over there but I’ve been locked in to a two year one here, and I’ve been told I’d still get away with competing if I wanted to, because the courts would say that I was entitled to earn a living.

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46 Blog Contests October 17, 2007 at 12:11 pm

Nice linkbait :D

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47 Instant Community October 17, 2007 at 12:28 pm

Haha that hiliarious, good read

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48 Abhik October 17, 2007 at 12:28 pm

what happened to that page.. Is it removed???

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49 dillsmack October 17, 2007 at 12:36 pm

Is it any of your business?

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50 Tony Tsai October 17, 2007 at 12:43 pm

Shoe, Thanks for the great link, my blog is only 2 days old. :P

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51 serge October 17, 2007 at 1:08 pm

are you saying bad press is good press too?

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52 Brent October 17, 2007 at 1:10 pm

Dropping cookies for high traffic e-commerce sites is a good route to go..been doing that for a while. :) Can’t wait to hear about your $7K blog post.

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53 Matthew October 17, 2007 at 1:12 pm

sounds to me more like somebody’s jealous of what shoe did… lol

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54 Jimmy Daniels October 17, 2007 at 1:17 pm

“I have been on the internet game for years, learned a lot of random things.”

I think he needs to be on the game a little longer….

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55 Brent October 17, 2007 at 1:18 pm

Yes, yes it does! LMFAO

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56 Michael October 17, 2007 at 2:14 pm

Remember all publicity is good publicity. It seems if people post things about your other site its only going to be beneficial. So encourage them! :D

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57 LeGo October 17, 2007 at 2:14 pm

Yeah but this guy says he makes money.

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58 The Foo October 17, 2007 at 2:29 pm

my answer to that is — so what? so what if you make money off me with affiliate links and cookies. like no one else ever does it, right? ;-) it doesn’t cost me any more to buy that product or service that you are an affiliate for too so i don’t really care. it seems like this guy thinks we were all born yesterday. And what does this guy think you put food on the table for your family? … hmmmm.

For example, almost all the links in a John Chow post is strategically placed, has an affiliate code to it or is redirected through the affiliate code using a forwarding system.

if you are so worried about giving someone else their money — there is always the clear cache/ cookie option. sorry shoe ;-)

Then again, i go back to what i said first… so what?

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59 CPA Affiliates October 17, 2007 at 2:45 pm

*LOL* if your smart enough to do it and get people to check it out more power to you!!!! :)

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60 Tony Tsai October 17, 2007 at 2:52 pm

My post stated “Ebay pays 50% commission on the fee seller pays ebay”

On a one dollar item, seller pays ebay 5.25% fee and you make 50% of that, so you DO make 50% commission. :P Come on man, I am not a retarded…LOL

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61 wethead October 17, 2007 at 3:04 pm

I still think there is no such thing as bad press

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62 smoley October 17, 2007 at 3:05 pm

Props, Shoe! You’ve played this thing beautifully. I couldn’t help but notice your RSS counter surge in the last day;-) I enjoy your cleverness and depth. Keep up the good work!

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63 King Jacob October 17, 2007 at 3:26 pm

Gasp, a person using a website to make money through means other than annoying pop ups and banners, what is this world coming to?

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64 Karn October 17, 2007 at 3:30 pm

I bet that guy is really happy that you did this. He just started and he is getting loads of traffic.

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65 dustin October 17, 2007 at 3:50 pm

ha ha – did you read that he installs cookies on your browser… Now he will generate MILLIONS, nay BILLIONS on affiliate commissioner from unwitting shoe readers.

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66 Jonathan Volk October 17, 2007 at 3:58 pm

Hahaha. This post made my day.

I recently got a comment that was similar on my blog. It seems the people who make bitter type posts and comments are the ones who make pretty much no money online and never will… at least with that attitude.

~Jony

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67 JoeTech.com October 17, 2007 at 4:42 pm

Ahh… Either way, it gave me a chuckle. So I got my first email-delivered shoemoney post. Much easier than having to check back all day.

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68 Ecoproxy October 17, 2007 at 6:23 pm

Great move shoe i couldnt done it better myself…

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69 custodio October 17, 2007 at 6:28 pm

How surprised would I be if that was a shoemoney “sponsored” blog to start all the controversy ;-)

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70 custodio October 17, 2007 at 6:30 pm

I think he was refering to dropping an eBay affiliate cookie just for VISITING the site and NOT clicking on any link…

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71 The Dino October 17, 2007 at 6:36 pm

At least some people know how the world works…

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72 One Buck Wiki October 17, 2007 at 7:00 pm

Haha, that’s the way to get some buzz going’ :)

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73 SonicReducer October 17, 2007 at 8:01 pm

Yep, any press is good press.

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74 Nick Sullivan October 17, 2007 at 8:13 pm

I don’t get the guys point. Why would Shoemoney keep it to himself when he has such a nice comfortable medium through his blog with like 12,000 readers… as if.

That guy is an idiot.

Nice site Shoe. At first I didn’t think the idea was great but after actually browsing a few categories I can see the appeal of it.

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75 Jeremy October 17, 2007 at 8:29 pm

I think your site rocks.
Yeah your giving away info by posting what kind of site it is, but there are already thousands of sites doing the same thing or near the same thing.

Who cares how you do it. just do it.

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76 Common Sense October 17, 2007 at 9:05 pm

hahaha . . . Thanks Master ShoeMoney. Reading his blog was the best laugh I’ve had all night. :)

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77 King Jacob October 17, 2007 at 10:52 pm

Maybe that is you, and its all some crazy marketing scheme.

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78 King Jacob October 17, 2007 at 10:58 pm

On the below a buck site it would probally be a good idea to have the only auction showing on the index be charms.

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79 ShoeMoney October 17, 2007 at 11:15 pm

It will drive you crazy just thinking about it huh!

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80 lyricsreg October 18, 2007 at 12:37 am

“Way to crack the case wide open, Sherlock”. That cracks me up :)

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81 lyricsreg October 18, 2007 at 12:44 am

I am also very disappointed. Did not expect this from you shoe … to make money online. Shameful !

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82 Michelle October 18, 2007 at 4:39 am

But ‘Tony’s blog’ looks like a new blog about making money online. Perhaps shoe has just thrown that up to rattle a bit of news up for himself. And god – that’s genius too!

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83 Harrisburg Web Design October 18, 2007 at 7:47 am

…and here we all thought developing this site was an act of altruism…

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84 Harrisburg Web Design October 18, 2007 at 7:49 am

…this seems to be a prevailing thought. Might be interesting to keep an eye on “Tony’s” blog and see if he updates it or if it’s just Shoe related stuff.

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85 Gecko Tales October 18, 2007 at 8:48 am

People have a problem with Capitalism until it helps them. Then it’s ok.

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86 Ken Savage October 18, 2007 at 8:54 am

I GOT IT!!

Jeremy is really Bootmoney.com!!

ahh haaa Brillaint!

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87 Harrisburg Web Design October 19, 2007 at 1:43 pm

True – plenty of people prefer to spit hatred than learn and implement winning tactics on their own.

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88 Neon October 20, 2007 at 4:01 pm

yes. i am shocked. But creative marketing differentiate outstanding online marketers from good online marketers. WTG shoe :D

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89 UK Site-Ads Matchmaker October 20, 2007 at 11:58 pm

But below a buck probably wont perform well for geotargetting as users in most countries won’t know what a buck is; or – worse – might think below a buck means something else, such as something from a shop in Amsterdam.

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90 Joeychgo October 23, 2007 at 4:21 pm

Hey – if it works — it works

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91 MyGoodFinds October 24, 2007 at 9:50 am

what a brilliant idea

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92 Tony Smith October 27, 2007 at 7:23 am

Ah heck, I’ve been outed more than once…it ain’t so bad! :-)

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93 NickB October 29, 2007 at 11:45 am

I really like the simplicity behind belowabuck.com. We just rolled out what we feel is a useful tool using auctionads over at binalert.com. Our premise is that most of the great deals at ebay are buy-it-nows where you just need to be the early bird in order to get the goods.

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94 Amit October 30, 2007 at 8:00 pm

obviusly if you are making a website being a webmaster you will think about the returns first :)

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