Update: The Tony Robbins and Tony Berkman Deal That Is Now a Lawsuit Battle

It now seems that the Tony Robbins vs Tony Berkman tale has taken another twist.

Tony Berkman, the owner of Blogcatalog, who has a love of hitting people, myself included, with cease and desist letters and threats of lawsuits has now been hit with a lawsuit by lifestyle coach Tony Robbins (pictured left) over software ownership. Berkman has finally found out what it’s like to be slapped with a lawsuit.

The original article on this blog, Blog Owners Silencing Writers with Threats of Lawsuits details the many times Tony Berkman and his business partner Angie Alaniz have used these threats to bully writers into silence and to frighten others into giving up any claims on software created in partnership with Berkman, as happened to Selina Eckersall. It seems this time Berkman may have met his match.

I first reported on the Robbins deal that cost Berkman $200,000 back in November but now things have taken a step further. A report in the San Antonio Express-News by Patrick Danner states that Robbins’ firm sued first and then Berkman hit back with a breach of contract lawsuit of his own. The full report can be read here: S.A. firm squares off with Tony Robbins.

The news report states that Berkman's suit claims, “Angry when he (Robbins) could not bully his way into getting what he wanted, he unlawfully misappropriated and obtained possession of the goods and services owned and developed.” Anyone who has read the blog posting below on Berkman or indeed anyone who has been unlucky enough to have business dealings with the man and dared to air an opposing opinion against him will be under no doubt of the ironic nature of the above claim in the lawsuit, especially where bullying is concerned.

Berkman had previously claimed that he lost £200,000 of investors' money during this deal, and by all accounts it was Berkman’s insistence on trying to avoid contracts that lost him the deal. During one email with Tony Robbins, Berkman wrote, “Hey Tony isn't it more important that we agree in principal on this. If it were up to me we wouldn't even have a contract. We'd just shake. So instead of getting the attorneys enmeshed in more stuff can we nail down a summary of the specs with an understanding of the ultimate outcome?” When Berkman was presented with the contract he replied to Robbins that, “he wouldn't let his kids sign the contract.” Although Berkman states in one email when discussing the software creation, “we spent $200,000 plus 1,000s of hours, he didn’t spend nearly as much and the contract is horrible” Robbins claims that Berkman’s company NBA demanded $900,000 from Robbins’ firm for the rights to the software application created by NBA.

According to the news report, “Robbins' firm loaned $20,000 to offset development costs, and NBA raised additional monies from investors.”

Berkman previously stated that, “I will do my best to close the deal and make sure it’s the best deal that has ever been done by anyone with Tony Robbins,” adding that, “though underlying that is the fact that the longer this goes on I get to turn Blogcatalog around." Berkman had also stated, when the deal wasn't panning out the way he had planned, "I don't care very much anymore except to get more investor money so that I can continue to pay my employees."

When the "best deal that has ever been done by anyone with Tony Robbins" didn't come to fruition, it looks like court action was the next step.

Blogcatalog Owners Silencing Writers With Threats of Lawsuits

Joyce Carol Vincent – Dreams of a Life

I first came across the story of Joyce Carol Vincent (pictured left) when reading an article in The Guardian in October 2011. The article by film maker Carol Morley explained that Joyce Vincent was 41 years old when she was found dead in her London bedsit in 2003. But what made the story so disturbing was the fact that Joyce died at the age of 38. She had been found three years after she had died, her almost skeletal remains lying beside the sofa next to some Christmas presents she had just finished wrapping, the television still on, broadcasting to Joyce’s lifeless body.

The film Dreams of a Life is Morley’s way of trying to piece together Joyce Vincent’s life leading up to the time of her death. Why Joyce actually died is a mystery. Joyce didn’t fit the average profile of someone who was a loner who would end up dying by herself in, as the newspapers described it, a lonely bedsit. She didn’t drink heavily and she wasn’t a drug taker. She was brought up well by her parents in West London and although she didn’t pass any exams at school she did end up in good, stable employment and had a circle of friends.

Dreams of a Life is part documentary part dramatization and features testimonies from the people who knew her – boyfriends, work colleagues and housemates. Judging by their testimonies, Joyce was intelligent, bright, beautiful, well spoken, friendly and a social magnet. But just as dreams are hazy when trying to remember them, there are plenty of conflicting views from the people who seemed to know her best. Joyce had ambitions to be a singer with some friends claiming she was an excellent singer while one of her past boyfriends said that, “Joyce wasn’t a singer.” At one point Joyce had a friendship with American singer Judy Cheeks and they had dined one night with Stevie Wonder. She had friends who were professional singers but this seemed to be a life that she simply drifted out of or lost touch with.

To some, it seemed Joyce led a double life, only telling people so much about herself, and sometimes lying to others about her life. Her work colleagues were under the impression her father had died, which was why Joyce took time off from work. Morley found out that Joyce’s father had actually died a year after Joyce did. At Joyce’s 21^st birthday party held in a pub, all of the friends who attended were her boyfriend Martin Lister’s friends, not Joyce’s friends. The impression given by friends and colleagues is that people knew Joyce but didn’t know the real Joyce, she was friendly but there was a distance to her. When Morley brought up many facts that she had discovered about Joyce the common reply from the various friends was, “I wasn’t aware of that” or “I would never have thought that about her.”

When friends read of Joyce’s death in the newspapers they found it hard to connect the Joyce they knew with the person described. Although she moved around London on an almost a yearly basis no one imagined she would end up in social housing – or as someone described it, a grotty bedsit. Joyce had been in good employment and for four years worked in the Treasury Department for one of the world’s biggest accountancy firms, Ernst & Young. Yet before she died she was working as cleaner, this fact was kept hidden from her ex boyfriend Martin who she stayed with in later life, as a friend, for six months, at time when things in her life seemed to be unraveling. Morley was also able to find out that in later life Joyce had also spent some time in a refuge for victims of domestic violence. It seemed that an unknown boyfriend may have been subjecting her to abuse.

In itself this catalogue of a life doesn’t seem out of the ordinary. There are many people who seem to drift through life in this way, touching other people’s lives but never allowing others fully into their own life and then sometimes simply disappearing. But Joyce wasn’t without a family; although her mother had died when she was young, Joyce had four sisters, none of whom took part in the film but going by newspapers reports some were at the death inquest. It is telling that when Joyce was admitted to hospital at one point for a peptic ulcer she had marked down on the admittance forms that her next of kin was her bank manager.

The film does leave many unanswered questions about Joyce’s life and death, not least of which is why she lay undiscovered in her bedsit for three years. Most people in Britain know that if they are behind with payments on rent, gas, electricity and council tax they would expect a knock at the door within a few months, never mind three years. Joyce was only found because a repossession order was given over unpaid rent. When Morley contacted these companies to find out why no one had appeared sooner she received no answer; they had washed their hands of the matter and it was nothing to do with them.

Morley had asked the police to reopen their investigation on Joyce but they had decided there was no foul play and the coroner recorded an open verdict stating that Joyce’s death was unascertained. Of course it isn’t unusual for the police to simply not investigate any further if someone dies in these circumstances, and by all accounts Carol Morley has probably found out far more about Joyce’s life than the police would have. The cause of death remains a mystery with theories including Joyce had an asthma attack while some friends claim that maybe something more sinister had led to her death. It’s doubtful that the cause of death will ever be known as Joyce’s body was so badly decomposed that it could only be identified by comparing dental records with an old holiday photo of Joyce smiling.

If no foul play did occur then Joyce simply died alone in her bedsit, wrapping Christmas presents for people who would never receive them. Wrapping Christmas presents for people who never wondered or made the effort to find out what had happened to Joyce in her three year absence from the world. Maybe Joyce hadn’t told anyone where she had moved to, and, according to one friend in the film, maybe Joyce had to take some accountability for her death because Joyce wanted to be alone.

London can be one of the loneliest cities, I can attest to this first hand. It is a city of eight million people, all interacting with each other but also, a great deal of the time, simply trying to avoid one another. But while I was an interloper just passing through for a few years Joyce had lived there her entire life, and yet no one at all raised a question or tried to find out where she was for those three years. Zawe Ashton portrays Joyce throughout the film but has only one line of dialogue. It’s a scene where Joyce is discovered sitting alone on a park bench by her ex boyfriend Martin who has assumed she has gone to work and asks why she isn’t there, to which Joyce replies, “I’m not feeling very well, Martin.”

This line sticks in my mind. The amount of times people ask others how they are doing and not really taking much notice of the answer given or not giving it much thought, it’s simply a social politeness to enquire, and that’s supposed to be enough. We are all too busy with our own little lives to take the time to go past the social politeness, and it seems sometimes that the ones who are often in need of help are the ones who hide it best. It’s only after, if a tragedy like this does occur, when we go back and pick up on the small things that people have said that suddenly seem to make sense of the situation. It can be all too easy to blame it on the way our society has evolved but that’s an easy way to deflect any blame.

Another line sticks out from Dreams of a Life. A friend of Joyce, describing the 38 year old woman who would eventually be discovered in her bedsit three years after she had died, “Joyce was always the centre of attraction. People gravitated towards her like a magnet.”

First published on Expats Post

Dreams of a Life is available now on DVD through Amazon and Itunes.

The official Dreams of a Life website.

Dreams of a Life Trailer

A Guide to Getting Your Self-Published Book Seen (by any means possible)

Writing a book is hard work but what’s even harder is getting your book seen by readers amidst the hundreds of thousand of books already on the market.

Authors who have been signed by publishers or agents have a helping hand when it comes to marketing and advertising. These lucky authors will have publicists who make sure the next literary sensation is read by book reviewers and advertised in the press. This is usually accounted for in the marketing and advertising budget, and is one of the advantages of striking it lucky with a major publisher.

But what hope is there for those self-published writers who place their work on Amazon only to see their rankings plummet like a safe straight into the virtual bookstore bargain bin as the more savvy self-publishers employ sly, clever, and let’s face it, completely false advertising tricks designed to get their books seen? Here is a guide designed to get your self-published books seen or at least to keep the playing field level with the more experienced Amazon self-published authors.

Disclaimer: I have self-published on Amazon but have never used any of these methods to promote my work except the free promotional days (see additional disclaimer below). And with this in mind I do not recommend or advocate these methods. Then again, as the saying goes – whatever works. It’s not as if Amazon is going to stop writers self-publishing because they use certain advertising methods to promote their work. Amazon is a business you know.

Additional Disclaimer: of course I haven’t, honest.

Amazon’s Free Promotion Days.

Writers who sign up with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing Select (KDP) have the ability to offer their ebooks for free for a specific number of days. The promotion means that readers can purchase the writer’s work for free during the specified promotional days. This does seem to help books climb higher in the Amazon rankings. When I tested the free promotion on my short stories I did jump up to number 20 on Amazon’s Free Bestseller’s rank. As soon as the promotion ended however, my rankings did plummet back down again to around number 150,000.

The downside to the promotion is that writers are giving their work away for free. The upside is that these free books can help to garner those all important, ranking increasing, reader reviews. Around 600 copies of my short stories were taken when I used the free promotion, I didn’t receive one review, bastards!! This may go to prove the saying “if you are giving something away for free, people may take it too lightly” – actually that might not be the saying at all but it’s along those lines.

Manipulate those Bestseller Rankings

There has been a lot of controversy over Amazon rankings, and according to some writers these rankings are fairly easy to manipulate. In fact, a book called The Day the Kindle Died by Thomas Hertog, published on Amazon, allegedly gives an analysis on just how easy it is to manipulate Amazon’s bestseller rankings in order to get your book to the number one spot. Hertog claimed that he managed to hit the number one bestseller ranking in the personal finance list after selling only 32 copies in 45 days.

At the moment, Hertog’s book only has five reviews on Amazon, none of them complimentary. Writers who want to know if the rankings can be manipulated and how to do it need only shell out three bucks for the book. Interestingly, readers who did buy Hertog’s book (and I’m maybe not too off the mark in suggesting it was purchased by some self-published writers) also bought the book How I Sold 1 Million ebooks in Five Months by John Locke. No investigative journalism awards will be given to those who figure out the connection between these two books.

Get on Amazon’s Community Forums

Amazon’s community forums, this is where it’s all happening. It’s where writers come to share knowledge and promote their work. It’s also the place where certain writers use methods to get their books seen including:-

The Like Me, I’ll Like You False Advertising Method

One writer started a message thread in the community forums stating that every other writer who ‘liked’ her Amazon book page would get a like back in return. This initially sounds okay until you realize that the forum poster is getting a large amount of likes on her page while everyone else who takes part gets one like each.

This not so genius marketing trick does also seem like false advertising. People are actually ‘liking’ a book they have not read, which in turn gives a false impression to any reader who comes across her Amazon page. But it’s a writer eat writer world out there. I mean, valuing customers, building up a readership? These things mean nothing when you have a book to sell. It’s no longer a case of publish or perish, it’s sell or perish, goddamit.

Fake Amazon Reviews

Fake reviews certainly piss off a lot of self-published authors on the Amazon Community Forum boards. It seems that some writers are – shock, horror, stunned silence – using Twitter, Facebook, blogs etc to promote their books and solicit reviews from those within their social network. Some writers will even go as far as to rope in their family and friends to read their books and post flattering reviews -will their trickery know no end?

Again, this could be seen as false advertising if the reviewers have not actually read the book. But let’s not kid ourselves; most self-published writers have to do this when they are starting off if they don’t want to be stuck at the very bottom of the ranking list. It’s lonely and dark down there at the bottom of the list beside the Catlover’s Calendar ebook, and if you can’t even get your friends and family to buy and read your book you would be as well giving them away for free.

Cause Some Controversy

Causing controversy can help to boost your rankings. Say something stupid, be politically incorrect, post a picture on your Amazon writer profile of when you once attended that Ku Klux Clan meeting or Young Republican’s Party. Doing so will probably bring in racists or right wing readers – don’t knock it, a reader is a reader. When people start attacking you, feign complete bewilderment and say that the photograph or the controversial statement you made was taken out of context or was placed there by some devious hacker or even worse, some other jealous writer as part of a long running smear campaign. By then you will have the desired publicity, it’s a proven winner and has always worked for politicians.

Of course none of these methods actually guarantee books sold or readers won. Self-publishing is simple but actually finding an audience and selling books is not so cut and dry, no matter what John Locke or Thomas Hertog say in their books. Plus, just in case you forgot, there is also that little matter of writing the book in the first place – the road to fame, fortune and Oprah’s book club is never easy.

Click here to read the article at Expats Post

New Short Stories - A Relationship, in Pieces

As I have a habit of taking laziness to new levels and still haven’t finished ‘the novel’ (although I am on the last third) I have released a second set of short stories entitled A Relationship, in Pieces (Beat Corrida).

This is a set of three stories, still set in cities such as Paris and London but this time focusing on relationships.

From Amazon -

“Relationships are balancing acts no matter what stage you have reached or how long you have been together. Whether it’s long term, the first night of dating or simply a fleeting encounter, it only takes a wrongly spoken word or a misunderstanding for things to quickly deteriorate.

Each story in A Relationship, in Pieces contains different characters at different periods of a relationship; a meeting between strangers, the first night of dating and the inevitable ending that is apparent to all but those involved. These are the cautionary tales played out every night in every city around the world. If you have ever been in a relationship that hasn’t run entirely smoothly, your story is possibly here.”

I was also recently interviewed by writer Julian Gallo as part of his Bohemia After Dark series. Keep an eye on Julian's blog as he will be updating this series regulalry with features and interviews on a variety of new and established writers, artists and musicians that catch his interest. This interview is available on his blog Desvario and on the writing site Expats Post. Big thanks to Julian for letting me ramble on for 4000 words and waiting patiently on getting back to him with the answers.

Midnight in Paris - the Scent of the City

Midnight in Paris - the Scent of the City

*This article was published at some point in 2011 on the site that shall not be named, except I did name it in a previous article below. The New York section of this article seemed to cause consternation to some readers although no offence was intended. It was simply coincidence that had stuck in my head, one of the multitude of seemingly strange things that occur many times every day in this smaller than we think world of ours.

Every city I have been to has had its own individual smell. The trouble is I cannot always describe that smell in words.

Every time I have arrived in the City of London I have taken a deep breath, not only to prepare me for the unknown that lies ahead but simply to take in the scent that has become a recognisable part of returning once again to that city. But if you asked me to describe it in words I wouldn’t be able to.

New York has its own unique smell. Even though I was there for only two weeks and cannot conjure up the smell now, I know that it is buried somewhere in my head.

How do I know?

Ten months after I had been on holiday in New York I awoke in my flat in London one morning, and in that hazy just waking up moment I said to myself, “Why do I smell New York?”

I though maybe it was the remnants of a dream. For some reason I often had dreams, and still do, where I was lost wandering the streets of New York unable to find my way back to whatever destination I was trying to reach. I hadn’t been dreaming of New York but the smell when I awoke that morning was so powerful that for a few moments I was startled by how real it was to me. But then with the work day ahead I thought no more about it, it was just one of those things.

Later that same day, at around two in the afternoon, I was sitting at my desk at work when a colleague sitting next to me said, “I’ve just been sent a text that a plane has crashed into New York’s World Trade Center.”

To me it was just a strange coincidence, one that I didn’t and don’t usually mention to anyone, especially as I am not a big believer in signs or premonitions and I don’t want to appear a lunatic. But as this is a story on the sense of smell I though I would mention it and leave the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Paris has a smell.

Paris has a smell that I can describe.

On my first trip to Paris I hadn’t noticed the city’s scent or if I had I wasn’t aware of it. It was on my second trip that I discovered for myself the smell of Paris. I had wandered the city one night, lost in a drunken haze for several hours, completely unable to find my hotel amidst the narrow dark winding streets that all looked exactly the same in the darkness. This seemingly never ending, unexpected journey ended with the smell of Paris.

The drunkenness was a result of six hours of drinking bottles of red wine in the numerous bars of Oberkampf that led to one final bar where they served the best Jack Daniel’s cocktails I had ever tasted, not that I had ever tasted Jack Daniels in a cocktail form before to be able to compare. It was the cocktails that did for me that night. The girl I was with recommended them and they were mixed by a barman friend of hers, a concoction of Jack Daniels and Southern Comfort guaranteed to detach the imbiber from their senses. I think I had four or five in quick succession in the hour prior to midnight before realizing that I was now truly drunk and left the bar on auto-pilot without a word with the intention of heading straight back to the hotel.

But that night I found myself walking in circles, walking for hours only to eventually return to the same point I had been to earlier. The voice in my head accompanying me on my journey shouted at me continuously, “It must be this way, there is a sign for Republique, just follow that sign. That is where the hotel is, it must be.” Every time I followed the signs I would end up back where I had started or somewhere else, just not at my hotel.

As the long journey into the night progressed the voice in my head grew angrier with each step and started calling me a variety of names, none of them good. The voice was infuriated that I had gotten myself lost, that I had no actual cash left on me and that hours earlier I had placed the wrong PIN number in my cash card three times in succession and could no longer withdraw any money and could not take the easy option of a no doubt quick taxi ride back to my hotel. As the night progressed past three o’ clock and then four o’clock the voice in my head eventually grew weary of calling me every profanity it could think of and simply begged to be allowed the luxury of the soft sheets of the hotel bed and perhaps an ice cold coke to take away the dry throat and thirst.

At one point on my journey I stopped and asked strangers standing at a bus stop where Republique was and was told to get the night bus and it would take me there. I had a one euro coin left in my pocket, exactly enough money for one bus trip and took my seat, immensely thankful that I didn’t have to put my now aching feet through anymore of this torture and I would soon be able to enjoy the bliss of sleep in that bed that I desperately desired. It was all just a short comfortable bus ride away.

I then got off at the wrong stop and my wandering through that dark night in January recommenced.

People say that Paris is a city to walk in, but not for seven hours straight. I wandered through many deserted streets and boulevards and saw many majestic illuminated Parisian buildings, which at any other time on some sort of organised tour would have made for a wonderful sightseeing trip. At one point I wandered through a deserted underground motorway tunnel that had a large section of wall missing. As I passed by the crumbling section of wall I peered through and noticed someone bedding down for the night on the waste ground. As the person crawled into what appeared to be some form of sleeping bag he or she turned and looked at me and then slowly waved at me. Not wishing to appear rude I waved back - of course, why not. I had never been envious of a homeless person before. Goodnight, enjoy your sleep, at least you have a bed for the night.

Eventually, finally, as my feet and legs were screaming for mercy, as I was seriously considering sleeping in a doorway, as night had passed and the early morning daylight had arrived, the Place de la Republique statue appeared before me and I knew that my hotel was only a few more minutes walk. I passed the early morning workers exiting and entering the Metro, some looking strangely at this shambling figure who passed by but I didn’t care. All I could think of was that hotel bed and the sleep that would follow once I had pulled those soft blankets over me. I had been awake and out on the streets since 10 the previous morning and I had walked for almost seven hours non stop throughout the night.

And I as I walked the remaining few steps to my hotel past the cafes and restaurants and took a lungful of air, the smell suddenly hit me.

If you are up early enough and are a newcomer to the city the smell of Paris will become apparent. It is the sweet smell that emits from the patisseries that line the streets and also the smell of the freshly baked bread and croissants. There is also a hint of freshly brewed coffee mixed in, which emanates from the sidewalk cafes and restaurants. I had never noticed this smell before because I had never been out of bed and out on the streets of Paris this early. But it is a smell that will stay with me and that I will be able to remember if I ever need to write about Paris. If had never gotten lost that night I would never have been up that early in Paris on my trip and I would never have experienced that somewhat overpoweringly sweet scent.

Every city, perhaps every destination, has its own unique smell. The scent of a place can reappear at any time without warning, taking you back to a destination or time in your past and bringing back long buried memories.

Some people will read this and no doubt be hit with the smell of bullshit but that’s okay.

Everyone’s sense of smell is different.

Images copyright: G Crystal

Blogcatalog Owners Silencing Writers With Threats of Lawsuits

Lies, censorship and lawsuits. Why 14 writers decided to take a stand against the unethical business practices of the owners of Blogcatalog and Broowaha.

“I’ll sue your fucken ass if you make one false statement about Broowaha. You’re a pussy.” – Tony Berkman (left), owner of Blogcatalog, Broowaha and BloggersUnite.

What made 14 writers, many of whom had been writing with the Citizen Journalism website Broowaha since its inception, decide to leave? Seven of the writers left the site in one weekend, 14 within the space of a week. Many of the 14 requested that all of their work, amounting to hundreds of articles over six years as writers with Broowaha, provided free of charge to the website owner, be deleted as they no longer wished to be associated with the site. These were writers who had built up a solid following of readers at Broowaha. Many were featured continuously for years as the site’s most popular writers.

One or two writers leaving a website because of creative or business differences with the new owner may not seem unusual but when 14, including the editor, suddenly leave citing unethical business practices as the reason for the exodus, then alarm bells should start ringing.

In an ironic twist, Tony Berkman, the owner of a Citizen Journalism website has, in trying to silence the writers, turned himself into a story.

For a quick read of information relating only to Blogcatalog, click here.

Broowaha; a Unique Citizen Journalism Website

"I feel that over the years I connected with a lot of good writers that I consider friends, although we haven't met one another face to face. That's the kind of community that had been built there; and to see how they were being threatened and "blacklisted", I couldn't in good conscience remain there. So, I left, requesting my account be removed - and not saying why. And for that I was "blacklisted" as well." – Julian Gallo. Broowaha writer for four years, 110 articles.

Broowaha was created in 2006 by Ariel Vardy as a Citizen Journalism site back when CJ sites such as Orato and All Voices were also finding their feet. What made Broowaha unique from other CJ sites was the long-term writers. These weren’t fly-by-night writers who would submit a few articles or hang around for a few years and then disappear; many of the writers stayed the course, submitting articles regularly for six years. Over those six years these writers created Broowaha by supplying hundreds of well written articles on subjects such as politics, human interest and the arts to name a few. Broowaha became a unique place because the writers themselves were unique. They would interject articles with their own perspective, would encourage others with their writing through the comments section, and many of these writers became friends over the lifespan of their time with the site.

With any collection of diverse personalities there would be arguments, but freedom of speech was always a key component of this CJ site. Left and right wing writers would discuss and sometimes argue points, but what was always important about Broowaha was there was no censorship, no editorial bias and no interfering from the owner except perhaps to refuse an article that was not up to the writing quality of the site. Any writer who was refused publication for this reason was invited to revise their article and resubmit. This was all to change in October 2009.

The New Management Has Arrived

In October 2009 there were a few new arrivals to Broowaha.

Antony J Berkman describes himself on his Linkedin profile as a “Digital Entrepreneur” although in interviews he likes to describe himself as a visionary and someone who likes to “add fuel to the fire.” Angie Alaniz has been Berkman’s business partner for over 10 years. According to Berkman, Alaniz is the one who “keeps the fire contained and is the glue of what we do.” Together, Berkman and Alaniz are variously listed as either CEO or President or co-owners of Blogcatalog, Broowaha, Fried Eggs and Bloggers Unite as well as a host of past and present websites.

In 2009, Berkman purchased Broowaha for $15,000. A silent partner, John Forch, is also known to be involved in Broowaha. (Read more about Broowaha’s silent partner).

The arrival of Berkman, Alaniz and Forch didn’t go unnoticed by some of the long-term Broowaha writers. Some writers saw the new management team immediately as a threat and gave them the nickname ‘the wrecking crew’ but most waited to see how the site would be affected before passing judgment. Berkman began simply enough by bringing in new writers to the site, many from his Blogcatalog site. Most of the Broowaha writers saw nothing wrong with new writers coming onto the site as the common thinking was that new writers are always needed and would bring in more readers. But many long term writers left the site claiming that Berkman was a destructive force, getting rid of the features such as the individual country locations that boasted their own writers.

New Site Editor Cher Duncombe

One good idea Berkman had was to hire writer Cher Duncombe as Broowaha’s new editor. Duncombe had written articles for Broowaha since 2009 and was taken on as editor shortly afterwards. “After spending many months as a volunteer Editor at Broo, I studied the writers and tried to determine what the community wanted. The consensus seemed to be that the community wanted columns, which I thought was a great idea and appropriate for the site. I asked Tony's permission to implement them and he told me to go for it!”

Duncombe began emailing previous writers who were no longer interested in the site and she stoked their enthusiasm. For all intents and purposes, it wasn’t Berkman or Alaniz who ‘added fuel to the fire’ and brought Broowaha back to life it was Duncombe. With Duncombe onboard as an unpaid editor, sometimes putting in 20 hour work days, Broowaha began to attract old and new writers. Many writers were given columns; a format introduced to Broowaha by Duncombe, and began submitting articles every week without fail. In October 2011, seven months after her appointment as editor, Duncombe quit Broowaha citing creative differences as the reason for her departure.

“Cher did so much work setting up a column system and it just got swept of the table. Like it was nothing. I truly admire and respect Cher and to see one of my friends hurt like that, it just pissed me off.” – Tahira Lubrano. Broowaha writer, May 2011, 17 articles.

The Beginning of the End

The creative differences mentioned by Duncombe is a nice way of saying that Berkman had decided that things weren’t going the way he wanted them to. As Duncombe said, “He removed the columns and began adding new writers to Broo where they could essentially hone their skills and become better writers. Many of the regular Broowaha writers are published authors and I thought this took Broowaha down several notches on the quality rungs. I asked Tony if this was really the direction in which he wanted to go, and he said yes. After spending so much time on setting up columns, talking to writers, etc., I became totally disheartened and left. It became apparent that Tony had his own ideas for the direction of Broowaha. It was time for me to move on.”

Censorship and Favoritism by Broowaha Owners

“It appeared that specific article comments were being deleted without warrant. It seemed as though there were favorites (writers), and it was usually those whose opinions, usually political, sided with one of the owners.” – Jennifer Sharp. Broowaha writer since 2007, 23 articles.

With Tony Berkman now in charge as editor, relationships between writers and management quickly deteriorated and the term ‘wrecking crew’ became a reality. A site that was previously free from editorial bias and censorship now had Berkman’s boot print stamped all over it. Whereas Berkman had previously tried to come across as a guy who understood writers, wouldn’t interfere with the site and wanted everyone to have a say, he now began laying down the law in no uncertain terms. Berkman again began to bring in writers from his Blogcatalog site, claiming he would promote them heavily on the site if they wrote regularly for him.

One right-wing writer brought in by Berkman was a particular favorite of his. It didn’t go unnoticed by other writers that if another writer disputed the ‘facts’ on the right-wing writer’s article, then Berkman, who had never usually commented before on articles and had described himself as apolitical, would jump to her defense. In fact, disputing the facts on this writer’s article was all it took for Berkman to issue threats of termination from the website, as happened to long-term writer Dean Walker.

Walker, who publishes regularly on the website Project Censored, would regularly shred the right-wing writer’s alleged facts as propaganda and outright lies. Berkman and Alaniz gave Walker the ultimatum of either keeping silent on these specific articles or being banned from the site. When the right-wing writer publicly made desultory comments on Walker including accusing him of anti-Semitism, Berkman either stood back and said nothing or backed up the right-wing writer. In the end Walker, who had been given frequent warnings that he would be banned for simply exercising his right to free speech and disputing unbalanced reporting and disputable facts was eventually kicked off the site by Berkman.

Just before Walker was banned from the site, Berkman stated his intentions in a public comment on Broowaha when Walker dared to argue with him: “This is my site, I’ll do what I want. Don’t like it leave. I don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks of me who doesn’t know me.”

The New Edgier Broowaha As Defined by Tony Berkman

“I think we should have a porn section, I mean don’t you think that would sell?”- Sam Zell, the businessman who took over and ran the Chicago Tribune into bankruptcy.

The quote above will sound familiar to anyone who was around when Tony Berkman announced his intention to make Broowaha an ‘edgier’ website. In a Letter from the Editor called The Edge of Writing and Creativity, published on September 29, 2011, Berkman outlined the direction he wanted the site to take, which was to make the site edgy and to “attract hip, high quality, undiscovered authors and artists that are writing and sharing stories about life on the edge.”

Between the lines of the article Berkman also publicly tore into the hard work and success achieved by Cher Duncombe. Berkman called the columns that Duncombe had implemented “a hangover thinking derived from the age of traditional journalism,” and in an article that reeked of hypocrisy given the nature of Dean Walker’s exit, Berkman wrote “Broo's mission is to flatten the news organization and provide a platform for authors, new's (SIC) journalists, citizen journalists and creative people to express their views without fear of censorship.”

What was apparent to the writers was that when Berkman said he wanted a new direction he meant increased page views above all else, even if that meant deterioration in the quality of writing on the site.

Sex Sells at Broowaha

So what did Berkman, the visionary, think would give Broowaha this edge? With amazing unoriginality Berkman tried to take the most obvious route towards increasing page views: sex. Berkman brought in a sex writer to post regularly but also, in what is one of the more bizarre Broowaha moments, wrote an article called, Wikipedia’s Insights on Masturbation are important to Google-Broowaha.

The image that accompanied his article on the front page is as pornographic as it gets. When writing the short article Berkman inserted the keyword ‘masturbation’ around 20 times in the hope of using search engine optimization (SEO) to lure internet users typing in this keyword to land on the article.

By posting this article, Berkman had in fact broken the terms and conditions laid down in Broowaha’s user agreement stating that users of the site were forbidden from uploading pornographic images.

Berkman did succeed in attracting more readers with this article, but only for around 30 minutes and only from long-term Broowaha writers who couldn’t believe how low Berkman would stoop to increase the readership. Broowaha writer Dan LaFollette cited Berkman’s article as one of the reasons why he left the site: “When I got a full shot of the picture he had on his masturbation article (with my kids right next to me) coupled with all of the news coming in from people who I have come to trust about his use of profanity while communicating with them, and endless threats, it was time to leave.”

When Berkman’s article was posted, Angie Alaniz stated in the Broowaha Café for all registered readers and writers to see that she “hadn’t signed up for this, I quit.” Then, Jennifer Sharp, a long-term Broowaha writer, had a public discussion in the Broowaha Café with Berkman and effectively talked him down off the ledge. Berkman at first simply changed the article image to a slightly softer version but then removed the article completely. Alaniz, whether she did actually quit or not, came back on board the next day.

* Since the writing of this article, Berkman’s contributions to the ‘edgy’ content of Broowaha has included articles on Fila’s skele-toes footwear and another on crooked teeth enhancements. According to one Broowaha writer, “The irony of the article written by Berkman entitled Are You a Social Media Tool is apparent to all but Berkman.”

Dirty Tricks, Lies and Legal Threats

“What pushed me to leave is finding out the writers that were NO LONGER part of it were threatened with a lawsuit for voicing their opinions. WE LIVE IN AMERICA and have the right to say how we feel and discuss with others. ” – Katy Kern. Broowaha writer April 2011, 35 articles.

October 24^th 2011 saw the creation of a Facebook page by Jennifer Sharp known as the Broowaha Expats. This was a place ex Broowaha writers could come together and discuss what had been happening on the site. By this date, Cher Duncombe had quit, Jennifer Sharp had requested that her account by deleted and the Dean Walker censorship argument was coming to a head on Broowaha. Six days, later another 12 Broowaha writers, having seen and heard from others exactly what was going on requested that their accounts be deleted and their articles removed. In the Broowaha Café, Tony Berkman proclaimed his innocence and said that he couldn’t understand why writers were leaving. Behind the scenes, he quickly began threatening legal action.

Having a point of view or sharing an opinion is not against the law. In Berkman’s eyes however, the Broowaha Expats group was a threat to his name and his website’s reputation. The Expats was an invitation only group but Berkman had managed to view all posts by the members during the first week. Berkman and Alaniz would then put on rehearsed conversations in the Broowaha Café in which they would repeat and discuss the postings in the Expats group, again for all readers and writers of the site to witness. Berkman and Alaniz portrayed themselves in these conversations as free from blame and completely perplexed as to the reasons behind the writer’s walkout.

Berkman and Alaniz could have discussed the matter in private; they were working together in the same apartment. Instead, they chose to air the matter in public including Berkman falsely stating that health problems were the reason for Duncombe’s departure.

Black-Listing the Writers

Berkman also took the step of placing a status of “black-listed” in red on the Broowaha account of every writer within the 14 who had left. Berkman and Alaniz then had a discussion in the Broowaha Café on the subject after reading comments in the Broowaha Expats about the black-listed status. Alaniz said, “So apparently the word "Blacklisted" is a bad word these days. Please know that word has now been replaced with "inactive".

Tony Berkman - Cease and Desist

“It's about freedom of speech. It's about the freedom to read what we want. It's about having a site that provides writers with traffic and not telling them what to write about.” – Tony Berkman on Broowaha, November 2011.

On October 28 2011 Berkman took the step of sending Cher Duncombe (and Jennifer Sharp) a Cease and Desist email in regards to the Broowaha Expats group stating, “I am sending this to you with the intention to follow up with an attorney and a law suit if you fail to stop defaming BrooWaha, Angie and myself. If this continues I will sue both you and Jen for continuing to defame BrooWaha and Angie and I. You have already been reported to Facebook as has Jen. If it continues you will be sued.”

Berkman’s Love of Legal Threats

Why does Tony Berkman take the aggressive action of threatening writers with lawsuits in an attempt to silence them? Berkman is under the assumption that if legal threats have worked before they will work again. In 2010, Berkman used legal threats to force a writer named Selina Eckersall to give up all rights to a new platform that Eckersall had created in partnership with Berkman’s Blogcatalog. Eckersall claimed at the time that the new platform that would bring bloggers and brands together was 100% her intellectual property, which she created for free on her time. Although, according to Eckersall, no contracts were ever signed, Berkman threatened legal action against Eckersall if she did not relinquish all rights to the property that she had created. Eckersall walked away from the deal with nothing.

When I asked Eckersall to comment on the matter she stated, “It was rough on me what I went through with them (Berkman and Alaniz)…. While it was a difficult experience to go through, especially publicly, I have to say, I absolutely have moved on and am in such a happier, brighter and more successful place now.”

On October 30 2011, two days after I had deleted my Broowaha account and had decided to write an article on the matter I emailed Berkman, politely asking for his view on the writers’ walkout.

In the early hours of the morning I received a reply from Berkman, “You have zero spine. A reporter? You ran with a bunch of people who didn't like the fact that there was competition. It didn't involve you. You're writing an "independent story" yet you're hanging with a group that defamed broowaha. I’ll sue your fucken ass if you make one false statement about Broowaha. You’re a pussy.”

Using Legal Threats to Avoid Bad Publicity

One of the reasons Berkman is trying to silence writers is that bad publicity is the last thing his company needs right now. Blogcatalog is Berkman’s most popular website, a blog directory site that Berkman and Alaniz bought in 2007 for a reported $40,000 from The Bloggy Network. The site that, according to Berkman, once generated $400,000 annually and was receiving 20 million visitors per month has been accused by many of its members of breaking the user agreement terms and conditions. Without prior warning members have found their accounts deactivated due to not linking back to Blogcatalog, not adding the Blogcatalog widget to their blogs and failing to consistently add content to their blogs. When one blogger found her account deactivated she contacted Berkman via Twitter to question why and was simply told she was no longer welcome at Blogcatalog.

If bloggers aren’t adding widgets and links and contributing content daily, then there is no financial incentive for Berkman to keep them. Blogcatalog is, of course, free to use but there is a fee paying ‘Very Important Blogger’ service priced at $20. Accusations that Berkman is only concerned with fee paying members of Blogcatalog have been denied by Berkman and Alaniz in their usual ‘fool the public’ business manner.

On November 8 2011, an article appeared on Broowaha entitled “Is BlogCatalog turning into a paid blogging community?” This article was written under the name ‘Blogger’. But this article is a copy and paste job that first appeared on Blogcatalog a year ago, written by none other than Tony Berkman. Because of the copy and paste nature, Berkman actually names himself as the writer in the most recent version, yet in the comments section under the article Berkman thanks the writer of the article a year before the article was actually published. Using a simple piece of code, the publication date on the Broowaha version of this article is updated daily.

Berkman also runs a year-long Power Blogger program costing $50 per month per blogger, which is still ongoing. Unfortunately for the bloggers who signed up for Berkman’s Power Blogging, Berkman made promises he simply couldn’t keep. According to two sources, the Blogcatalog offices, as mentioned in the Power Blogger Video, in San Antonio, Texas, have been shut down and the business partners are working from Alaniz’s home in order to save on overheads. The San Antonio, Texas address has been removed from Blogcatolog's website. The business now consists of Berkman, Alaniz and a few volunteer writers marked as employees. Traffic to Blogcatalog has decreased by 50% since the introduction of the Power Blogging program in April 2011.

What Next for Blogcatalog/Broowaha?

To people like Berkman and Alaniz, writers are simply an ends to a means, a way of increasing their profits. All of the websites owned by Berkman and Alaniz are built to financially benefit Berkman and Alaniz - not the writers who supply the labor and content to them for free. Berkman’s use of legal threats to scare and silence writers is an example of not only his business tactics but also his view on the people who have contributed to his success. Berkman’s attitude towards using unpaid writers to publicize his company can be seen during his failed business deal with celebrity lifestyle coach Tony Robbins. (Read more on the Tony Robbins business deal that lost Berkman $200,000 of investors’ money).

Many people will be under the impression that Blogcatalog and Broowaha are private sites and the owners are free to do as they please. But owners of private sites who operate in bad faith are subject to penalty of law. Writers place content on their sites for free and owners make money from advertisements that are viewed beside the writer’s articles. The owners of privately owned websites are subject to internet commerce laws. The future of Blogcatalog and Broowaha can only be determined by the writers who supply the work that allow these websites to exist. Whether that is to be threatened into submission by website owners such as Berkman for daring to have an opinion or to place principles above pageviews will ultimately be the choice of the writers.

Never Underestimate the Narcissism of the Businessman

During November while writing this article I noticed a post in the Broowaha Expats. Dean Walker had been in contact with Berkman and made a more than fair offer to purchase Broowaha with the intention of turning it into a co-operative, which the 14 writers could all then run equally. Berkman has, for appearances sake at least, listed Broowaha for sale four times in the last year with apparently no takers. (Read more about Tony Berkman's continual relisting for sale of his websites).

Berkman’s response to Walker perfectly captures his attitude towards the 14 writers of a Citizen Journalism website who took a stand against his business tactics; the writers he threatened with lawsuits and claimed were defaming his website and ruining his name simply by airing their opinion.

“It’s not about the money anymore.”

Occupy Wall Street

"How much is enough, Gordon."

"It's not a question of enough, pal. It's a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses."

A little photoshop creation to add to the ongoing protest. I'm not too hot with the photoshop stuff so it is a bit amateurish, you get the point. Occupy Wall Street.

What’s Wrong with Just Being Lost Once in a While?

“Take the time to figure out your next step but don’t spend too much time smelling the roses because I have a new book coming out soon called Getting Motivated With Tough Love, Move It Lard Ass"

This article was inspired by too much caffeine, nicotine and the appearance of yet another self-help book pushed on me by a ‘well meaning’ friend. Big sigh.

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” – Buddha, one of the all-time heavyweights on the motivational speaker circuit.

This is not a self-help article, at least not intentionally.

Whenever I take a holiday abroad I usually end up getting lost. Paris, Prague, Dublin, New York, while sightseeing I have become lost in all of these cities and ended up wandering around for hours, no idea where I was going but enjoying the feeling of freedom, the act of just wandering aimlessly around a foreign destination and having absolutely no clue what was around the next corner. When I eventually realize I am lost I never ask for directions, usually because I either don’t speak the language or because it goes against the challenge of finding your way back without any help.

Finding your own way without asking for directions is not something that motivational self-help gurus want you to do. Being content with long or short term aimlessness is simply putting them out of a job; it negates their point of being. Their point is to show you the way, well maybe not all the way. If everyone became permanently happy and successful following their advice they would be out of a job and unhappy themselves. And no one wants a miserable unmotivated self-help guru, what a buzz kill. So, almost happy, but buy their next book and you can level up another notch on the happiness scale. You’re almost there.

The motivational advice or self-help book is a lucrative section of the book industry. These are the writers and experts who tell you that they know the secrets that will change your life for the better. For those with personal problems these experts, gurus and life coaches can make you deliriously happy - in fact by the time they are finished with you your face may exhibit a paralyzed Joker smile as you have a full blown happiness seizure. They have the power to make you quit smoking or find ways to get past your grief over the loss of a loved one or the breakup of a relationship. They can help you clinch that perfect job or find the ideal partner, you know, the aura surrounded partner, the one with the golden halo who is waiting to float on air towards you, the one that’s just beyond your reach because you’ve been ‘choosing’ the wrong type all your life you complete life experience amateur.

The business world is also full of these ‘how to’ gurus and motivational business speakers but the goal of the business guru is giving advice that may make you rich by paying them to follow their advice and therefore making them rich by making you a little shorter on the cash front to begin with. Got that? Hey you have to speculate to accumulate right?

These gurus shift books, DVDS and CDs by the warehouse full. No wonder they are always happy and full of pep, people are listening to them, throwing money at them to live the life that is seemingly just over that horizon, that ideal life that you would never be able to attain without the motivational guru’s help. And it’s all there waiting in the pages of their next ‘how to’ book. Wait, it didn’t work for you? Did you even finish the book? Maybe you didn’t follow the instructions. Did you skip over that chapter on asking the universe for what you want? You complete idiot.

It was all just there, a few more pages and that impossibly perfect life would have been yours. Buy the next book and this time finish it. If you can’t muster the effort to read the book then at least just listen to the CD while you sleep. That’s right, while you sleep, they are that good.

Most people go through periods in their lives when they are unsure of how to proceed or what to do next; in other words, completely lost. But what’s so wrong with being lost every now and again? Is it so bad to spend a few unmotivated months avoiding or making your own decisions on how to proceed with your life or working out your own answers to what you want next? Or should you be desperately screaming next, next, next, I need to know what to do next, someone tell me or else I’m just going to be this helpless jelly headed case for the rest of my life. People will shake their heads and say, “man what is wrong with this guy, he is so lost I don’t even know where he is, if only he’d start listening to Dr Phil. Get some help dude you complete loser.”

Of course there’s nothing wrong with looking to the self-help gurus, they have all the answers so why not just follow their rules? They are impossibly happy and rich and have fulfilling lives and are smiling from morning until night, I bet they start smiling before they wake up. I mean why not pay them for the answers; at least you are making someone happy while you are miserable, lost and wandering through the wilderness. Chi ching.

There’s nothing wrong with looking for or getting advice, the internet is full of advisors and self-help types and you don’t even have to pay for a lot of it. But just as there is nothing wrong with looking for advice there is also nothing wrong with wandering around lost for a while, looking for your own direction or maybe not even looking for a direction, simply enjoying the act of being aimless and doing absolutely nothing.

The Italians have a fitting phrase, “il dolce far niente”, it means the sweetness of doing nothing and it is a very important part of their culture or so I’ve read.

We are told from an early age by parents, teachers, careers advisors and employers that we must have a direction, we must know where we are going as soon as is humanly possible, if not before, and if you don’t know then you will soon begin to feel the fear. You WILL end up on skid row with the other bums who spent too long enjoying the sweetness of doing nothing and couldn’t find their way back. One of their biggest mistakes no doubt was not picking up a self-help book. Instead of lying in the gutter making a roof over their heads from empty MacDonald’s cartons they could be dynamic business leaders or Chief Executive Officers of Macdonalds by now, oh the humanity.

The sweetness of doing nothing isn’t something you will usually hear from the advice guru unless it’s, “take the time to figure out your next step but don’t spend too much time smelling the roses because I have a new book coming out soon called Getting Motivated With Tough Love, Move It Lard Ass and you will want to buy this one. This one will definitely make you rich, happy, fulfilled, exhilarated, a successful boss, married to the perfect partner, slimmer and sexually irresistible to all who cross your path. You will awake each morning and smile, and your family will smile back at you, even your pets will smile back at you as you walk into the garden, shake that money tree and live each day under sun filled, rain free skies, almost vomiting up the happiness and joy that I have taught you how to attain simply by reading my book. Only $14.99 including VAT. BUY IT NOW. CAN YOU AFFORD NOT TO?”

To those who are lost and unmotivated, I say give yourself a break and enjoy it, relish it, because soon enough you will look back and see this as the long lost golden age of freedom. Remember that time when you were lost and aimless and had plenty of time to do whatever you wanted to? What did you do with it? Spent it reading motivational self-help books?

Well, at least you made someone happy.

Chi ching.