“Super Affiliate” Zac Johnson Steals Landing Pages From Newbies
Posted on June 16th, 2008 in Affiliate Marketing, Retards
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A few months ago, Nickycakes was contacted by someone who goes to school with him about Affiliate Marketing. This guy, let’s call him Joe, was just getting started with learning SEO, PPC, and other aspects of making money online. Like many others, including the Cakes, he was desperately trying to find decent information online to help him get started, having read pretty much every crappy thread on digitalpoint and come up with pretty much nothing other than how to run zip submits and ringtones on adwords. Over the past few months, Nickycakes and Joe met up a couple times to get lunch and talk about campaigns, traffic sources, affiliate networks, school, whatever.
Long story short, after only a couple months, the dude’s bankin 6 figs a month. Awesome success story, especially for someone so new to the industry.
Today, “Joe” contacted Nickycakes with a problem. Someone jacked his landing page, almost word for word, and reposted it as their own. Not exactly uncommon, especially with bottom feeders from digital point struggling to make a few bucks on adsense every day. If it’s just one of those idiots, a simple email asking them to remove the stolen content would probably be enough to get them to take it down. Well, as it turns out, it’s not just any digital point retard. It’s one of the self-proclaimed “Super Affiliates.” But don’t take the Cakes’ word for it, let the screenshots do the talking!
Joe’s Landing Page:
Joe’s Paypal Receipt For The Landing Page Design (June 3rd, 2008):
“Super Affiliate” Ripped Off Landing Page:
Whois Record For The Jacked Page (Regged Jun 5, 2008):
So Nickycakes’ first reaction was like…WTF? This self-proclaimed “Super Affiliate” Zac Johnson is resorting to stealing newbies landing pages to make his campaigns? Not only that, but the dude has made two posts about running this very campaign on his blog trying to get people to sign up with his advaliant referral id like he deserves commissions for ripping off his industry peers.
The designer was, of course, contacted to make sure there was no possibility that he had sold the same landing page copy to Zac as well.
It absolutely blows my mind that this clown actually gets invited to speak at affiliate marketing events. The dude doesn’t even know how to register a domain with private whois, stoops to stealing landing pages from other, more intelligent affiliates, and expects nobody to find out? This is the guy everyone looks to for advice?
Bottom line is, if you’re such an expert with PPC and Affiliate Marketing, you would never need to steal the hard work of newbie affiliates to make a few bucks.
D-bag.
June 16th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
This is the same guy who got all of his websites found by WickedFire members a while ago. You would have thought that he would have learned his lesson, when everybody found out he made Hannah Montana fansites.
June 16th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
He had Hannah Montana fansites?!?!
hahahha, that’s fuckin comedy.
June 16th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Hahahahaha. What a fucking clown. Watch the backlash ensue when he tries to defend himself on his blog
June 16th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
1) What a shithead
2) If the Hannah Montana fansite makes a crap load of money, who really cares?
June 16th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
trigatch4 - I’m with you on both accounts. Very, very bad move to straight swipe his copy but the sites aren’t a big deal. Most people, in the end, care about the money not the website topic and if they’re making him money hand over fist who cares.
Anyways, very interesting find. Will be interesting to see what he has to say.
June 16th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Well, miley cyrus is TOTALLY fuckable so i’m fine with hannah montana sites.
But it’s a little bit cheap that he can’t hire his own designers or whatever….. Not that i don’t steal landing pages myself…double standards are OK.. right?
June 16th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
you also didn’t write a landing page guide like zac did, john =P
June 16th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Wow! why does Zac have to do that for? It doesn’t hurt to give a shout out. I also notice when you search under myIPneigbors.com you can see all of or half of his campaigns.
June 16th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Never trust anyone dressed as spiderman.
B-Man
June 16th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
The guy is a totally dbag - even before he decided to jack someone else’s work and write a guide about building landing pages.
He reminds me of the kid who hangs around the ‘cool kids’ that nobody likes, but he doesn’t get it and wants to fit in so bad - they beat him up and he sticks around.
June 16th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
nickycakes,
Great detective work. What I would be more interested in is how you helped your buddy get to 6 figures a month within just a few months. Got anything for us??
June 16th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
This is good comedy!
June 16th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
yeah that is pretty scummy, I took the guys word for it and posted it on my blog. Now, I will have to retort by declaring what an asshat he is .
June 16th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
@Trent
I could have read the above wrong but it sounded like he gave his buddy some tips and then the buddy went off on his own, learned some stuff, and came back making 6 figures (probably gross). I don’t think the cakes meant he taught him how to make 6 figures all by himself although I could have read it wrong.
@Cakes
I hate how he also preaches he’s trying to help others yet links them to affiliated $25 YSM coupons rather than the free $100 YSM coupons out there.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
I hate to admit it but Zac did improve the ad a bit graphically. The best response for Joe is to take Zac’s ad, tweek it a bit more and one up him.
It was rumored that young artists would NOT allow Picasso to visit their studios because he was always stealing their best ideas.
Nick’s Dad
June 16th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
For Christ’s sakes Cakes, those are pretty fucking generic landing pages. And I’ll bet the copy is ripped from the merchants lp.
What is it with you and these super-affiliates bro? You’re like a religious-right homo. Preaching against sin, but you can’t stop thinking or talking about it!
June 16th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Opps. Private whois FTW.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
@jeff, no the ad copy was written by my friend.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
@leonardatlkart
Pablo Picasso: “Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.”
Steve Jobs: “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.”
Stealing is a way of life for some, but while doing so it would be a good idea to hide your Whois.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Zac has the fluffiest “super affiliate” blog out there. It’s so void of content that it makes john chow look like he’s sharing industry secrets
June 17th, 2008 at 1:17 am
lol. Cakes is becoming the master (link) baiter. Talking shit just to get traffic with the best of them ;).
Cakes, when are we going to see your landing page tips?
June 17th, 2008 at 1:18 am
ps and now I gots me some good content for my new green tea site lol.
June 17th, 2008 at 1:48 am
If you don’t want people to steal your landing page content, then put a copyright notice. This is one way to maintain a monopoly on your method. But a lot of people would be none too happy about it.
June 17th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Hey Cakes,
I had a pretty funny conversation with Zac yesterday - the figures he posts on his blog simply don’t add up… dude started getting pretty shitty when I called him out.
Check out the comments on this post:
http://zacjohnson.com/ultra-green-tea-still-a-big-money-maker/#comments
About 7 comments down…
Jack
June 17th, 2008 at 4:09 am
ZAC i have just deleted your bookmark.
Nicky is slowly earning the rep as the Man. says it like it is for good or bad for fear or caurage.
June 17th, 2008 at 6:49 am
What!? Why put me in this blog? I earned more than you all. hahaha
June 17th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Maybe Zac just didn’t know it was poor n00b he was stealing from.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:02 am
burn
June 17th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Spid0rzac 0wnz ju
June 17th, 2008 at 9:10 am
I wrote him off from the moment he almost broke down and started crying infront of about 350 people at ASW because Jason Calicanis made fun of him for showing a 300k check on his blog. It was pretty obviously the guy isn’t a REAL super affiliate and this little stunt proves it even more.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Yeah, a “Poor Noob” banking $xxx,xxx a month. Wait! Zac made $1xx,xxx (gross). Then might be a “Noob” is stealing an LP from “Super Affiliate” now.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:28 am
what a tool..
I had some douche steal one of my great LP’s and just change the button color and a word here and there. Then he stole my Ad copy too. Like a retard he didn’t do private registration, so i sent him and email and contacted CX (he was running the same offer as me).
He made up some BS about changing a few words here and there so it wasn’t the same. So i had to get CX involved and they asked him to change the page, but i don’t think her ever did.
Some people are just assholes and too dumb to think for themselves…
June 17th, 2008 at 10:39 am
@ Nickycakes
I have nothing against Zac, personally. BUT, I did notice that the “Free” template, the plain/outline, is an EXACT copy of the one Jeremy Palmer released over a year ago! I’m talking identical.
Jeremy is a really nice guy a wouldn’t call anyone out publicly but I’m sure he noticed Zac’s basic template is actually the one he released!
That coupled with what you have shared in this article makes me wonder if the guy can be trusted. I don’t doubt he makes big money, but he should give credit to the people he’s swiping ideas from, especially when it’s so obvious.
June 17th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
We gotta kick Zacs Balls! >:)
June 17th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Zac Johnson is a big, sweaty douche bag!
June 18th, 2008 at 1:51 am
@fototype
I’ve never met Mr. Cakes but anyone with an IQ greater than room temperature who reads the helpful info on here should know that he is legitimate and should appreciate the fact that he calls out less scrupulous affiliates…or at least appreciate the entertainment value!
June 19th, 2008 at 1:42 am
“I wrote him off from the moment he almost broke down and started crying infront of about 350 people at ASW because Jason Calicanis made fun of him for showing a 300k check on his blog.”
Are you serious? He literally almost started to cry? Is there a video of this?
June 19th, 2008 at 4:51 am
@Jack Rack
See this:
http://zacjohnson.com/jason-calacanis-doesnt-understand-affiliate-marketers/
June 19th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Damn, not hiding his whois. I do that and I’m not even super. Just regular.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:32 am
What!? Why put me in this blog? I earned more than you all. hahaha
June 20th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Breaking News!!!
Nicky Cakes rips off this theme. Don’t be a hypocrite little Nicky…
Below is proof..
June 20th, 2008 at 5:48 am
lol
Do not deleting the credits,
this theme is released for free under the GNU General Public License (GPL) requiring that the credits will stay intact.
I’d appreciate the credit being left in unmodified, thanks in advance
check the source on this page- Nicky Cakes deleted the backlinks
June 20th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Yeah Zac’s a complete ass. His blog posts never make any sense. They are always really long and full of nothing but crap, crap and more crap. I am pretty sure none of his readers have learnt a thing from his blog although they keep coming back to read more of his crap. Someone on wickedfire should start a “Make your own zac” post.
Zac -> D-bag stamp of approval
June 20th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
@jason, learn what GPL is before speaking. kthxbye
June 20th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
It’s pretty sad for a “super affiliate” to jack people’s landing pages. It would have been better if he bought it, then the load isn’t on him. Taking shortcuts can come back to haunt you.
Shudogg Dot Com - Make Money Online Blogging
June 20th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
“this theme is released for free under the GNU General Public License (GPL) requiring that the credits will stay intact.
I’d appreciate the credit being left in unmodified, thanks in advance”
Ha. Has Zach sent you here to find some stupid thing to attack. I could take your theme, take out the credits, and resell it for $200. That’s why GNU is so great.
June 21st, 2008 at 8:09 am
Currently stealing landing page to sell this theme for $200. I can keep the heading in right?
Markov chain the landing page with a few others so I don’t get caught. Done. I can’t fail.
June 21st, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I happen to love Hannah Monatana
July 5th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Wow, didn’t know that.
Thanks for the info!
July 29th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Wow, nice “proof”. A receipt from Bannerosity.. a banner ad design service from an anonymous account.
Amazing how so many people just overlooked this shakey “proof” and begun calling out Zac.
August 1st, 2008 at 7:07 am
I’m personal friends with the dude whos landing page was ripped off. You don’t see zac denying any of this because it’s true.
Please, I beg you to go find some shit that I lie about on this blog.