Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Gina Parker PR - NOT!

How many of you have heard the name Gina Parker, PR?  I had been hearing about it and had almost participated in one of her events, but didn't.  But then I heard about this $1000 giveaway for one lucky winner! Participants were giving $5, $10 and $20 to list their individual sites like Twitter, Facebook, etc. Those who entered the giveaway were asked to follow any or all sites on the list and also tweet about the giveaway. Well, this was all a ruse and anyone who paid Gina Parker was duped.  There is now no giveaway link, no linky for entrants to continue entering, no $1000 to be given away and no site.   All have disappeared.  Hey, I guess I was a sucker too.  I was actually going to post about my experience and the difference between taking part in Blogtastic with Jessica at My Silly Monkeys and this one a week ago.  Well, since there is no Gina Parker event now, I just need to say that the difference is that Blogtastic was legit and Gina Parker's Social Media & Small Biz Hop was a scam!  

Blogtastic was so much fun! We got the chance to meet a lot of great bloggers, hook up with some great sponsors, get a few more fabulous followers and it was totally free!  The only thing we needed to do was come up with our own sponsors or our own prize pack, worth $50.  With Gina Parker's crazy "Social Media and Small Business Hop" you had to pay for the chance to participate with the hopes of winning the big prize and maybe get a few followers from it. 
I was also harrassed to be in Blogmania, initially run by Ms. Parker, and I frankly just didn't have the time.  I'm so glad I didn't do it, or pay any money.  


I got a sick, sinking feeling in my gut when I couldn't find the contest website anymore. She hung around long enough to get fairly well known around the blogosphere and then made her pathetic move. I, for one, will be very skeptical about any event that requires payment to participate. No doubt "Gina Parker" will attempt to morph into yet another another "Mom Blogger" and try to scam everyone again. She definitely should be prosecuted and severely punished so that she and others like her will think twice before trying this again. Our faith and goodwill have been terribly eroded because of one bad apple. So sad...

I now have a firm new philosophy, thanks to Gina Parker PR.  That is, I will not pay money for gaining followers.  How stupid, in the first place.  Am I so insecure about my blogging abilities that I have to resort to that?  Time to take a break and evaluate why I am blogging.  I shouldn't be in a competition with anyone to get more followers, anyway!  And I typically am not, but it just makes me mad that I was so naiive to just plunk down $30 (yes, 30 friggin dollars) to someone I only vaguely know of in print.  I think I was coming off the high of Blogtastic that I wanted it to continue!  It's almost as if the fact that "Gina Parker" could express herself on the cyberspace web page and that made it OK to trust her pitches and just throw over $30 to her.  I should have given it away to my readers already here!  Sheesh!  I could have put up another great cash giveaway for that!  Let that be a lesson to me.  I already have 830 or so fabulous followers.  What, isn't that enough?  I can't even keep track of most of you. Why in the world would I want to pay for more?
I already have more wonderful giveaways than I can keep up with.  My sponsors have been fabulous, my readers have been patient and haven't desserted me because I don't post every single day or just have one or two giveaways up right now (albeit some really good ones).  Excuse me, you know I'm busy like you are!  

Anyway, I think I'll just chalk this one up as another lesson learned in the world of blogging, and hopefully some of you will learn from my mistake(s) and avoid a pitfall.  Frankly, I hope Gina Parker, PR enjoys her money, has a good time spending it and then gets it all back in bad karma! 

Hugs,


Helena

10 comments:

The Freebie Junkie said...

Totally my sentiments too! I don't like shelling money out anyway (hence The Freebie Junkie...) but yes paying for blogging doesn't make sense. If you produce good quality posts and gain the trust of sponsors your readers will follow and come in good time.... Follow your instincts!

Tree said...

Very well written! And I agree for the most part. I do have to defend those that "pay" for followers. For me, it's not so much trying to get more followers... heck, I already have almost 1,600. I think it's more of the excitement of sharing with other bloggers that gets me to join in these things. Thank goodness I didn't go with this one though. Gina offered to add my links for a blog post, which I did. I'm sorry now that I ever did anything with her. She's pathetic!

And as a Blogmania member, I will say that Gina has not had anything to do with the event since last October. Bree took it over, and has done an awesome job with it. I also loved participating in Blogtastic with Jes. :)

A GAL NEEDS... said...

Tree, I absolutely agree with you about the excitement factor, which is why I feel I even decided to do this with Gina. But there are plenty of free events that you can participate in without paying anything out of pocket and still have plenty of excitement!

Brandi Elam said...

That's terrible that someone would do that. Sorry that happened to you. But thanks for sharing your experience - maybe you will keep it from happening to someone else!

Keenly Kristin said...

I'm...STUNNED. Hadn't heard about this til now. Holy moly.

Btw, I left you some love on my blog. Feel free to stop by when you can!

Kristin :)
Keenly Kristin

Linda said...

Seriously? Wow. I did see her blog hop with the 1k offering. Didn't do it b/c I'm.that.cheap. lol. I never dreamed it would end up being a scam. Wow. Some people.
Thanks for the head's up!

Haylee said...

Some people make me absolutely sick. How could she not have any guilt doing a thing like this, and just go on with her life? What a horrible person. I didn't hand over any money but I'm dissapointed on the other side of things because I spent 5+ hours of my time following all the blogs/twitters/facebook profiles! Ugh. So annoying.

Melissa G said...

For real!? Oh man, i didn't know about Gina Parker PR being a scam. I participated in blogmania and it was fun but i'm so sad to hear about this! =(
Yes, there should be some sort of action that could be taken against someone stealing like that!

Mehnaz Kapadia said...

Yeah i heard about Gina Parker too.. Some blogger who had paid money for this event had written a post about her getting duped! so sad! she SHOULD be punished!

clarissa danielle said...

that is terrible, but good to know. As a new blogger, I didn't even think to think about things like this.