Hard Times Hit Blogger
AwfulPlasticSurgery.com was once one of America's favorite websites. Now, it is defunct.
The site's profits fell to about $400 a month and the site owner fell behind in the web hosting bill.
The site's revenue fell considerably since a 2005 peak of $7,000 a month. The site even received book interest.
'The book deal never panned out. I later found out it was someone who went to high school with me at Narbonne High School who ruined the deal. I'm not even sure why someone who went to school with me briefly and had lackluster grades would try to be part of my project, but I'm sure people have stranger stories about losers from their past hassling them,' she sighed.
To add to the mess, the blogger is also homeless.
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Did she have savings? Yes, 50k, but it was not enough.
'I tried to save more in my savings account, but Bank of America would not let me. Whenever I tried to save more, they would call incessantly and demand I open a CD account. So I had a CD account for one year. I did not like the service at the bank so I cashed it out.'
The site is currently down, along with other web ventures she owns. The other ventures are GoodPlasticSurgery.com, Gossiplist.com, HotelsWithFreeWifi.net, and several others.
'AwfulPlasticSurgery.com and GoodPlasticSurgery.com were the big moneymakers and now that it over. I made about $400 last month on advertising and that was the end of the road.', Smith says.
Smith says AwfulPlasticSurgery.com was featured in more than 100 news articles in 2005. The site was even mentioned on television numerous times.
AwfulPlasticSurgery.com alone once generated $7,000 a month. In unison with GoodPlasticSurgery.com and other domains in her portfolio, she made twice that amount. Her most successful year was 2005, when she made almost $300,000.
When did she know the site would be a hit? It was mentioned on Gawker.com, Fark.com, and other big sites and made about $500 in one day. It had been open one month.
'I was surprised. The world shifted on me after that. I kept finding myself in Los Angeles,' she says.
"I had a great time sending AwfulPlasticSurgery.com key chains to people. I paid off my student loans and credit card debt. I owed $249,000 in student loans, plus a few grand in credit card debt.'
She describes living in Los Angeles as 'a strange bundle of highs and lows'. Imagine having 'a homemade laptop bag stolen'.
She worked all the time. There was barely nothing that she ordered via US Mail that was not tampered with. She opened an order of clothes from Old Navy that looked worn and even smelled bad. Even kitchen items were tampered with.
An order of furniture from Ikea went horribly. The delivery people smelled rancid. The delivered furniture was not even from Ikea.
Smith was hobbled by several burglaries at her Los Angeles residences. She moved about seven times. Cameras, laptops, memory sticks, CDrs and more were taken.
She also had problems with some bandits taking the parts off her car. The culprits were people who had been arrested for stealing from apartments she once owned in another state.
'They had lost their military benefits for stealing and wanted revenge. The charges for stealing from my places were added to other charges and equalled prison time,' she adds.
She went to a Los Angeles pro tennis tournament where people advertised to be top players on the tour were fake. See some of the photos at http://alturl.com/i65or
Listen to my thoughts on these photos.
'It was ridiculous. There was a guy at the tournament saying he was Paradorn Schrichipan and while he looked somewhat similar, he had a different face shape. The promoters were desperate to make money. Same thing with Radek Stepanek.'
What was it like to write one of the most popular celebrity blogs online?
'Fun.', says Smith.
'I loved getting tips on who had plastic surgery and enjoyed looking through celebrity photo archives for facial changes. By the end of it, I felt like a bit of a plastic surgeon.', says the blogger.
Smith has been fighting homelessness since December 2012. She was in an auto accident in 2008 and says her attorneys never did any paperwork on her case. Instead, she says, they used her web prominence as a way to drum up business for other ventures.
She lost her auto accident case despite being rear ended from behind. The accident left her with about $25,000 in debt and a bad case of sciatica. She is now a chronic pain sufferer.
'The hardest part of it all was losing my place to live.'
A few years prior to her accident, Smith had a few sensual photos published in a well known men's magazine. A greasy photographer at an event told her, 'you should check back at your old apartment in Long Beach for some of your stuff. No one took anything.'
Smith had moved several times over having things taken from her apartment. The theft never stopped, so she resorted to renting an apartment in Los Angeles, but acually living in another state.
She went back and there was a brand new camera, and some other new items, plus a note. All were replacements for items taken. She left them untouched, found a vacant apartment one state over, and stayed there for the next several months. Smith was too terrified to go back to her Los Angeles apartment.
The next year, the same photographer would approach her at an event and say the same thing, but this time would mention her old place in Downtown Los Angeles. Everything that had been pilfered was replaced with a new version. She opened a window and threw everything into the dumpster in the alley below.
'I didn't want any of it back. Los Angeles is an incredibly depraved place. I didn't like my MKUltra experience.', she adds.
Buying her Jeep Liberty from a Long Beach dealership in 2005 was a nightmare.
'The so called new car they sold me was a piece of junk. They ended up having to refund all the money.'
Some friends in the entertainment business hinted that it was the 'price of celebrity'. The dealership saleman asked what she did and she told him about her sites.
Currently, she does not have a car. Her Jeep stopped working two months ago and was towed. She didn't have the funds to retrieve the vehicle or have it fixed.
'I am managing without a car. In Los Angeles, my car was stolen several times due to me not making myself a human mattress for a certain group of guys, so being carless is not a big deal. '
For now, the blogger writes about her homeless experience at http://homelessfornow.tumblr.com/. Her email is awfulplasticsurgery.tara@gmail.com. She has a donations url at http://tinyurl.com/mysitesandme
What is next for the popular blogger?
She says,' I know I can get my sites up and running again. I went through a great deal living in Los Angeles and had a disgruntled potential suitor tell people that he'd make sure I made no money on my website in the next few years. Punishment for not dating such a gentleman, I suppose. The guy is a developmentally disabled person who is a fan of some sexy pictures I took. The photos were in the Book of Lingerie. I plan to keep moving forward and get back on my feet.'
What did you learn?
'To save. I had savings. They are no more. 50k in savings in really nothing. You need 100k. Remember that. I learned the hard way.', says Smith.
'The difference is staggering. With 100k, I'd have a place to stay, a little studio apartment. I'd have a diet that consists of more than the one dollar menu at a fast food place. I am way more perky after a good salad. 100k means that you have some work clothes that cause an employer to take you seriously. I don't have any right now. I don't even have decent shoes. I keep warm with a 3 dollar blanket.'
'My advice is save, save, save. If your so called bank does not treat you right, go to another one. I needed to have more saved and the bank I was already using (Bank of America) was problematic. I did try to save more than 50k, but a male employee who barely seemed to speak English would start calling incessantly and begging me to come in and setup a CD account. '
'I'll tell you what an acquaintance told me:
Tara, you weren't going to have sex with your personal banker in order to give to him your money to put in the bank. Calling you and asking you to come to the bank was the only way that they could interact with you. You weren't going to screw your attorney, that is why you lost your personal accident case even though you were rear ended. You work without prodding. The current generation does not have that asset. They expect to be rewarded before they work. They are the Obama generation. They are products of social promotion, rather than hard work. They expected you to flirt with them before you took care of your business transaction. You didn't, so you lost. That is what you weren't prepared for.
'
Smith adds,'The biggest thing I learned is that financial planning is a huge hurdle for a female. That is why so many elderly females live in complete poverty. What should be simple to accomplish in terms of saving for the future is often very difficult if you are female and dealing with a person who has an agenda besides doing legitimate business. Educate yourself as much as possible.'
'Lastly, I learned that where you went to school is major factor in what your life is like. Los Angeles was a nightmare for me, because the people tampering with my mail and car were actually people I went to high school with. The schoolmates were showing my photo from the Book of Lingerie to this one wealthy Asian guy and saying they knew me, etc. From there, things I ordered started being tampered with, because of whom I date and do not date. My apartments and cars were tampered with and my site would have reached the level of Perez Hilton's were it not for this group of disgruntled people stalking me. But, I kept this in mind - in order to elect someone like Barack Obama, the cognition of the USA had to be lowered. There are a plethora of stupid people in America who think that instead of getting a job, I'll show someone a sexy picture of someone I saw walking at high school from a distance and say that they can arrange a meeting. Never underestimate jealousy from former schoolmates, especially where race and ethnicity are concerned. That is the real legacy of Barack Obama. People who cannot cognate well enough to move onward and upward in life.', remarks the blogger.
Here's her advice to people starting a new blog.
1. Is your blog about something like food? Send a press release to food editors.
2. Update your blog more than once a day. Search engines love this.
3. Send schwag to search engine companies with your site's name on it.
4. Make sure people in your blog's niche get some schwag with your site's name on it.
5. Be friendly to other blogs in your niche; exchange links.
6. Stay abreast of current events and news. If the health benefits of artichokes are big news that week and
you run a food blog, make sure you have an article on artichokes on your blog. When I ran my site and there was a movie premiere, I'd see if any of the stars had any plastic surgery.
7. Sponsor an event. Many events offer different tiers of sponsorship, so you don't have to spend thousands the first time.
8. Speak on a panel in your blog's subject area.
9. Have a newsletter for your site. This worked for me in a big way.
Smith finds herself homeless at the moment. Make a donation at http://tinyurl.com/mysitesandme Email her at awfulplasticsurgery.tara@gmail.com Her official blog of homelessness is: http://homelessfornow.tumblr.com/
'Life on the street is grueling. My feet are always swollen. The bottoms of my feet are always peeling. Outside of what I can panhandle, I do not have a dime coming in. I'm trying to apply for jobs, but do not have an address. Anything you can donate to help would be awesome,' she says.
'Winter is coming soon and I could use donations to help me get a studio apartment and then with a job, get my sites up and running again.,' she adds.
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AwfulPlasticSurgery.com was once one of America's favorite websites. Now, it is defunct.
The site's profits fell to about $400 a month and the site owner fell behind in the web hosting bill.
The site's revenue fell considerably since a 2005 peak of $7,000 a month. The site even received book interest.
'The book deal never panned out. I later found out it was someone who went to high school with me at Narbonne High School who ruined the deal. I'm not even sure why someone who went to school with me briefly and had lackluster grades would try to be part of my project, but I'm sure people have stranger stories about losers from their past hassling them,' she sighed.
To add to the mess, the blogger is also homeless.
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Did she have savings? Yes, 50k, but it was not enough.
'I tried to save more in my savings account, but Bank of America would not let me. Whenever I tried to save more, they would call incessantly and demand I open a CD account. So I had a CD account for one year. I did not like the service at the bank so I cashed it out.'
The site is currently down, along with other web ventures she owns. The other ventures are GoodPlasticSurgery.com, Gossiplist.com, HotelsWithFreeWifi.net, and several others.
'AwfulPlasticSurgery.com and GoodPlasticSurgery.com were the big moneymakers and now that it over. I made about $400 last month on advertising and that was the end of the road.', Smith says.
Smith says AwfulPlasticSurgery.com was featured in more than 100 news articles in 2005. The site was even mentioned on television numerous times.
AwfulPlasticSurgery.com alone once generated $7,000 a month. In unison with GoodPlasticSurgery.com and other domains in her portfolio, she made twice that amount. Her most successful year was 2005, when she made almost $300,000.
When did she know the site would be a hit? It was mentioned on Gawker.com, Fark.com, and other big sites and made about $500 in one day. It had been open one month.
'I was surprised. The world shifted on me after that. I kept finding myself in Los Angeles,' she says.
"I had a great time sending AwfulPlasticSurgery.com key chains to people. I paid off my student loans and credit card debt. I owed $249,000 in student loans, plus a few grand in credit card debt.'
She describes living in Los Angeles as 'a strange bundle of highs and lows'. Imagine having 'a homemade laptop bag stolen'.
She worked all the time. There was barely nothing that she ordered via US Mail that was not tampered with. She opened an order of clothes from Old Navy that looked worn and even smelled bad. Even kitchen items were tampered with.
An order of furniture from Ikea went horribly. The delivery people smelled rancid. The delivered furniture was not even from Ikea.
Smith was hobbled by several burglaries at her Los Angeles residences. She moved about seven times. Cameras, laptops, memory sticks, CDrs and more were taken.
She also had problems with some bandits taking the parts off her car. The culprits were people who had been arrested for stealing from apartments she once owned in another state.
'They had lost their military benefits for stealing and wanted revenge. The charges for stealing from my places were added to other charges and equalled prison time,' she adds.
She went to a Los Angeles pro tennis tournament where people advertised to be top players on the tour were fake. See some of the photos at http://alturl.com/i65or
'It was ridiculous. There was a guy at the tournament saying he was Paradorn Schrichipan and while he looked somewhat similar, he had a different face shape. The promoters were desperate to make money. Same thing with Radek Stepanek.'
What was it like to write one of the most popular celebrity blogs online?
'Fun.', says Smith.
'I loved getting tips on who had plastic surgery and enjoyed looking through celebrity photo archives for facial changes. By the end of it, I felt like a bit of a plastic surgeon.', says the blogger.
Smith has been fighting homelessness since December 2012. She was in an auto accident in 2008 and says her attorneys never did any paperwork on her case. Instead, she says, they used her web prominence as a way to drum up business for other ventures.
She lost her auto accident case despite being rear ended from behind. The accident left her with about $25,000 in debt and a bad case of sciatica. She is now a chronic pain sufferer.
'The hardest part of it all was losing my place to live.'
A few years prior to her accident, Smith had a few sensual photos published in a well known men's magazine. A greasy photographer at an event told her, 'you should check back at your old apartment in Long Beach for some of your stuff. No one took anything.'
Smith had moved several times over having things taken from her apartment. The theft never stopped, so she resorted to renting an apartment in Los Angeles, but acually living in another state.
She went back and there was a brand new camera, and some other new items, plus a note. All were replacements for items taken. She left them untouched, found a vacant apartment one state over, and stayed there for the next several months. Smith was too terrified to go back to her Los Angeles apartment.
The next year, the same photographer would approach her at an event and say the same thing, but this time would mention her old place in Downtown Los Angeles. Everything that had been pilfered was replaced with a new version. She opened a window and threw everything into the dumpster in the alley below.
'I didn't want any of it back. Los Angeles is an incredibly depraved place. I didn't like my MKUltra experience.', she adds.
Buying her Jeep Liberty from a Long Beach dealership in 2005 was a nightmare.
'The so called new car they sold me was a piece of junk. They ended up having to refund all the money.'
Some friends in the entertainment business hinted that it was the 'price of celebrity'. The dealership saleman asked what she did and she told him about her sites.
Currently, she does not have a car. Her Jeep stopped working two months ago and was towed. She didn't have the funds to retrieve the vehicle or have it fixed.
'I am managing without a car. In Los Angeles, my car was stolen several times due to me not making myself a human mattress for a certain group of guys, so being carless is not a big deal. '
For now, the blogger writes about her homeless experience at http://homelessfornow.tumblr.com/. Her email is awfulplasticsurgery.tara@gmail.com. She has a donations url at http://tinyurl.com/mysitesandme
What is next for the popular blogger?
She says,' I know I can get my sites up and running again. I went through a great deal living in Los Angeles and had a disgruntled potential suitor tell people that he'd make sure I made no money on my website in the next few years. Punishment for not dating such a gentleman, I suppose. The guy is a developmentally disabled person who is a fan of some sexy pictures I took. The photos were in the Book of Lingerie. I plan to keep moving forward and get back on my feet.'
What did you learn?
'To save. I had savings. They are no more. 50k in savings in really nothing. You need 100k. Remember that. I learned the hard way.', says Smith.
'The difference is staggering. With 100k, I'd have a place to stay, a little studio apartment. I'd have a diet that consists of more than the one dollar menu at a fast food place. I am way more perky after a good salad. 100k means that you have some work clothes that cause an employer to take you seriously. I don't have any right now. I don't even have decent shoes. I keep warm with a 3 dollar blanket.'
'My advice is save, save, save. If your so called bank does not treat you right, go to another one. I needed to have more saved and the bank I was already using (Bank of America) was problematic. I did try to save more than 50k, but a male employee who barely seemed to speak English would start calling incessantly and begging me to come in and setup a CD account. '
'I'll tell you what an acquaintance told me:
Tara, you weren't going to have sex with your personal banker in order to give to him your money to put in the bank. Calling you and asking you to come to the bank was the only way that they could interact with you. You weren't going to screw your attorney, that is why you lost your personal accident case even though you were rear ended. You work without prodding. The current generation does not have that asset. They expect to be rewarded before they work. They are the Obama generation. They are products of social promotion, rather than hard work. They expected you to flirt with them before you took care of your business transaction. You didn't, so you lost. That is what you weren't prepared for.
'
Smith adds,'The biggest thing I learned is that financial planning is a huge hurdle for a female. That is why so many elderly females live in complete poverty. What should be simple to accomplish in terms of saving for the future is often very difficult if you are female and dealing with a person who has an agenda besides doing legitimate business. Educate yourself as much as possible.'
'Lastly, I learned that where you went to school is major factor in what your life is like. Los Angeles was a nightmare for me, because the people tampering with my mail and car were actually people I went to high school with. The schoolmates were showing my photo from the Book of Lingerie to this one wealthy Asian guy and saying they knew me, etc. From there, things I ordered started being tampered with, because of whom I date and do not date. My apartments and cars were tampered with and my site would have reached the level of Perez Hilton's were it not for this group of disgruntled people stalking me. But, I kept this in mind - in order to elect someone like Barack Obama, the cognition of the USA had to be lowered. There are a plethora of stupid people in America who think that instead of getting a job, I'll show someone a sexy picture of someone I saw walking at high school from a distance and say that they can arrange a meeting. Never underestimate jealousy from former schoolmates, especially where race and ethnicity are concerned. That is the real legacy of Barack Obama. People who cannot cognate well enough to move onward and upward in life.', remarks the blogger.
Here's her advice to people starting a new blog.
1. Is your blog about something like food? Send a press release to food editors.
2. Update your blog more than once a day. Search engines love this.
3. Send schwag to search engine companies with your site's name on it.
4. Make sure people in your blog's niche get some schwag with your site's name on it.
5. Be friendly to other blogs in your niche; exchange links.
6. Stay abreast of current events and news. If the health benefits of artichokes are big news that week and
you run a food blog, make sure you have an article on artichokes on your blog. When I ran my site and there was a movie premiere, I'd see if any of the stars had any plastic surgery.
7. Sponsor an event. Many events offer different tiers of sponsorship, so you don't have to spend thousands the first time.
8. Speak on a panel in your blog's subject area.
9. Have a newsletter for your site. This worked for me in a big way.
Smith finds herself homeless at the moment. Make a donation at http://tinyurl.com/mysitesandme Email her at awfulplasticsurgery.tara@gmail.com Her official blog of homelessness is: http://homelessfornow.tumblr.com/
'Life on the street is grueling. My feet are always swollen. The bottoms of my feet are always peeling. Outside of what I can panhandle, I do not have a dime coming in. I'm trying to apply for jobs, but do not have an address. Anything you can donate to help would be awesome,' she says.
'Winter is coming soon and I could use donations to help me get a studio apartment and then with a job, get my sites up and running again.,' she adds.
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'
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