Matia Bryson

Relusi Can Be Hacked and Other Complaints

A couple days ago I checked my Relusi directory on one of my better quality content sites and found that all the links were gone, all my custom categories were gone, and two categories I never approved were in their place. Having just recently read David Bean’s blog, I immediately suspected spam and/or hacking and I checked all the .lnk data files. I found some strange link submissions that were spammy-looking and that did not fit the Relusi format. After deleting these and re-entering my categories on the approve categories page, my directory appeared to be back to normal.

Warning: Pity Party and Whining Below.

This, to me, is the final straw. Relusi has become one of those time vampires, James Brausch himself complains of. I did not buy Relusi so I could learn PHP to fix all its problems, or mop up after it all the time.

David Bean gives a more technical analysis of the Relusi deficiencies if you would like to read them here.

http://e-commerce-biz.blogspot.com/2007/11/brausch-relusi-resource-directory.html

http://e-commerce-biz.blogspot.com/2007/11/relusi-serious-problem-brausch-resource.html

I have not decided whether I will take the time (hear the sound of my life being sucked away from me) to even remove my old Relusi installations, but I will remove my affiliate link and links to the sales page wherever I can remember I have left them. I will also add updates to the Squidoo lens and my previous blog post. I can only hope at some point James Brausch will offer a fix for Relusi.

What now? I was about to start on my Munius installations, but I am afraid of more of the same hassle since this is another software/script product of James Brausch’s and similar in purpose. I have learned a lot about the internet and business from James by reading his blog, and I am grateful for that, but perhaps that was only because I know next-to-nothing anyway.

And by the way, I hate WordPress. It’s about as flaky as you would expect for something that’s free. This blog does not leave trackbacks. I don’t know why but some days I can not add categories to my posts. I must use Mozilla instead of IE to write posts. I must delete posts from the “edit-post” page only and not the “manage-posts” page, and it does not ping Technorati automatically and perhaps no place else either.

So where will my internet business go now? I am still inclined to create content sites and sell the traffic somehow (should I even bother with Trafficopia?), but I think I am a poor judge of markets. I am thinking of starting a blog on a topic I have a passion for, but I think would be particularly difficult to monetize, except for AdSense and the occasional Amazon book. Then I will just bide my time until an idea for an information product comes to me. Then there’s falling back on another old idea I do not want to expand upon here.

I will leave you with this quote from poet Emily Dickinson: “I’m nobody. Who are you? Are you nobody too?”

Ok. Pity party over now. Back to work. Your comments are welcome below.