I remember the first time I worked with a celebrity. “You’re where? I can hardly hear you. You’re backstage? Oh! You’re filming a movie with Denzel Washington? (omg!) You’re having a problem with what?  Sure, I can fix that.”

So that’s why I was poking around the IMBD (Internet Movie Database) site.  I remember finding the page with advice for “wannabe” actors and actresses. Tips for hopefuls. At the top of the page, it said

“Be cautious of people selling books and materials promising to teach you how to make it in the acting industry. If their advice really worked, wouldn’t they just use it instead of hawking their so-called secrets?”

Recession. It’s everywhere you turn. On the news, on minds and on lips. People are losing their jobs and their homes.

Many Internet Marketers have turned up the heat. Don’t you want to save your family? How much is it worth to learn how to make money online? Isn’t your family and your future worth it?

It’s kind of like dangling a placebo in front of a cancer patient and asking how much a cure is worth, fully knowing it won’t work for most of the people who sell their soul to buy a new shot at life.

Make no mistake, I am not talking about those folks that sell or teach useful skills. I speak of those who sell empty promises.

I understand how it works. It’s about finding a hungry audience. And there’s no audience as hungry as those who can’t sleep at night because they have more bills than money. What I don’t understand is how you can look at yourself in the mirror.

And you folks buying into them. You’re not off the hook either.

How many ebooks full of “secrets” do you have stashed on your hard drive? Chasing the secret of success is an addiction, not unlike gambling addiction.

There is no backdoor to Google. There is no blueprint to success. Success is not a secret.  You find something that people want to buy and you sell it.  That’s how it’s done. Always has been and always will be.

PC WORLD: Facebook Admits Ad Service Tracks LOGGED OFF Users.

Facebook’s controversial Beacon ad system tracks users’ off-Facebook activities even if those users are logged off from the social-networking site and have previously declined having their activities on specific external sites broadcast to their Facebook friends, a company spokesman said…

Even caught red handed, they still only provide a partial opt out. But Golly, Juney Moon, them user lists and tracking data is worth mucho payola.

So they know what logged off users are doing. Wonder if they’re jiggy with what pissed off users are doing. You think?