Show me the money...

It is becoming more and more apparent posting a blog on Saturday “ain’t gonna happen”. If time allows I will double post on Friday. Sunday will be the beginning of a new week. I will try to focus on just a couple of topics each week.

I am kind of all over the board with postings due to the fact that is how I am becoming exposed to different marketing tools and techniques. It is hard to separate the “wheat from the chaff” most of the time. So, when I do stumble upon useful information I try to digest it and then share it with you in a timely fashion.

One of the problems with getting “free” information on the web is the price you eventually pay for it. I recently down loaded a great PDF document offered by a website. It was full of really good useful information. But, once you got past the first couple of pages they started to pitch their product. The further you go into the document the more prevalent the sales pitch. The price for the free material requires having to sit through their sales pitch.

If you want good free information, visit your local library. There are rows and rows of books related to internet marketing. Free to use, no sales pitch. 

Try not to forget, just because someone on the web claims it to be true, does not mean it is the truth.

One of the main issues with Wikipedia is the lack of fact checking that goes along with it. You have to do your homework when dealing on the web.

The first thing I do when looking at any opportunity, is seeing just how long it takes to arrive at the actual offer. Of the dozens of emails I receive each day, I have only received one or two that actually went to the site making the offer. Everything else is page after page of hype and double-talk before actually arriving at the opportunity.

That tells me a couple of things. One- there are, way too many people trying to make a quick buck. Two- They are wasting everybody’s time. There’s and mine.

Having to wade through multiple splash pages and videos tells me right away they are trying to take focus away from the product they are selling. They want you to buy the system not the product.

So, my next question is “Where is the money coming from?” Like I said before I was involved in Amway. I learned early on people are very hesitant to buy over-priced product. They also very rarely buy “miracle drugs” like all-natural vitamins. Consumers can buy name brand vitamins from Walmart or Target for a couple of bucks a bottle. They don’t have a need for the same thing at 10 times the price.

If the money doesn’t come from sales of a product, where is it coming from? 

With most of these scams there really is no money for you. The few bucks they send you (less than $100) to keep you in the game for a month or two comes from other sources. ZNZ sends you to a survey company to make money. Guess what, you don’t need them to do that for you. Most site offering surveys are free to join.

My guess (and this is a just an educated guess) is they (not you), make most of the money selling your information. I read that an average working email address can be worth up to $988 in revenue. Not only can your email be sold it may be sold multiple times. With or without your authority.

The balance of the money comes from those who join a program and then drop off after a month of wasted effort. 

Here is a scenario. You decide to start an online business. You now develop a MLM type program to recruit people into the program without you doing any recruiting yourself. 

You don’t even need to invent one you can use someone else’s and claim it as unique and your own idea. No one is going to take time to check it out. 

You now take a little bit of money and time to create a website and a webinar about this revolutionary system. As you have seen this can be done for free.

 

You then find some sort of product you can buy cheap and sell high (This is really secondary. You want people to buy the system and then drop out). The system costs you only pennies or less per person to sell.

 You come up with a price for membership. Remember keep it within the reach of the average person. Ours will be $52.00. You then blast it all over the web.

No matter how shoddy the web site is you will invariably find people who want in. At just $52 a piece the money adds up quickly. And here is the beauty of it. You can do this time and time again. The web offers a huge amount of anonymity and almost zero accountability. 

Buyer, beware. If you look at a program and it looks anything like this or you are already involved in a program like this, look for something else. 

Like always, join and follow the blog, click the banners and text links to start making money. You can use the EWAHR forum to post questions or request a review of a site. You can also email me directly at ewahr2011@yahoo.com

 

Peace.

The psychology of the scam

Since I frequently try to identify scams, I thought I would discuss the psychology of the scam. The first thing I want to discuss is what actually constitutes a scam.

Scam - a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation.

 

They also have a definition for people who develop scams. There are of course scammers.

Scammer-a dishonest person who, uses clever means to cheat others out of something of value.

The scam itself is harmless. It is no more than an idea in someone’s head. The problem is the scammers. Most of the scams I have seen lately are no more than a different version of the same old thing. 

MLM, Pyramid, Inverted Pyramid, upline, downline and referrals have been used since the sixties. The Multi-level marketing model was developed by companies like Amway, Mary Kay, Avon and many others.

The model is simple enough. You sign up and then sponsor 2 or more people to join business with you. Then those 2 people sponsor 2 people and so on. Amway’s model had you sponsoring 6 people then they each sponsor 6 and so on. 

The problem is, finding even 1 person that will get involved. The other issue is, they need to stay in the program for you to get paid. No matter what the scammers say it is not that easy to get other people involved.

Even in this weak economy, people are looking for real opportunities on the internet . But, it is so plugged up with scams it is hard to find a real opportunity to create income. And the MLM itself isn’t the problem.

Most multi-level marketing plans are tied to a product. What I am seeing lately is so much time and effort is put in to the developing “the system”, the product becomes secondary. 

That is the case with One24. They have a convoluted system to get people involved, but the product is a food supplement program that has been around for years. And you don’t have to go through One24 to get involved in their program.

The scammers tell you, you don’t have to sell anything, ever!! Well, if you don’t sell anything and the people you sponsor don’t sell anything, why have a product? And where does the money you will be paid come from?

The scammers don’t care about an end game. They want to get as much money up front as possible (your sign-up fee), then they bail out and start the next scam. Just because they have a presence on the web (names, addresses, photos of offices and buildings), doesn’t mean you can easily track them down and sue them.

The only real person you know is the one who sponsored or referred you. Most likely it is a friend or family member. And most likely they got scammed as well.

Here is a statement I found at the bottom of a “terms of agreement” page. The Terms and I quote:

 “Information on this website may contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors.
Information may be changed or updated without notice. *************.com may also make
improvements and/or changes in the products and/or the programs described in this information
at any time without notice".

 If you notice it tries to remove all liability from the company. It basically says if this whole thing doesn’t work out, you’re just out the money you have invested. 

I think a real big motivating factor for the scammers is the small amounts of money the can easily take from each person. They bank on the fact you won’t go after them to recoup your $47 dollars (random number). Now, if they were getting thousands of dollars from each person that’s a different issue.

They make money with volume. The one thing the internet has accomplished for sure is making it easier for scammers to get to people. It’s not like the old days when you had to actually speak to someone to get them involved in a scam. And you can scam folks all over the world from the comfort of your own home.

It‘s not just the sign-on fees either.  Buying and selling your email addresses are a huge market. Like I said I get 5 to 20 spam emails every single day. I did not give my email address to any of these spammers. But, someone did.

 

So, you get a few hundred people to give you $47.00 and then sell those names and addresses to another scammer. And then six months later you close everything down and move on to the next group of suckers.

 Remember what P.T .Barnum said?

I believe we are a long way from not seeing scams every day. No one wants the Internet to be censored or moderated. As long as it is not, scammers have free reign. All we can do is to keep identifying the bad guys and letting the masses know who they are. I will continue to do my part.

Like always, join and follow the blog, click the banners and text links to start making money. You can use the EWAHR forum to post questions or request a review of a site. You can also email me directly at ewahr2011@yahoo.com

 

Peace.