Affiliate marketing partner- AVG Technologies

Marketing partner National Pen Promotional Products

Showing posts with label scams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scams. Show all posts

Sunday, May 22, 2011

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.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Play it again, scam.


I want to make a point about my reviews of home based business opportunities and the word scam. 

Like I have said before I don’t use the word scam lightly. 

A true home based business opportunity has longevity. Almost all the programs I have reviewed and call scams, may pay you a small amount of money initially. What I am looking for (and so are many others) are opportunities that create a consistent flow of income. Even though, it may take some time to reap the benefits.

Sure you can refer a couple of people and make a few bucks. But then what?
 
Can you consistently get referrals? Can you sign people up daily and be paid? Are you compensated for the referral after the initial sign on bonus? Is the product sale-able (can you sell it, do people want the product)?

Companies like ZNZ and One 24 (and a host of others) makes the claim you can will make large amounts of money with their programs without any work on your part. I am sure some folks get started and make a couple of referrals and do get paid. But that well runs dry very quickly.

 Here is a clue (to use the parlance of our time), you can make more the same amount or more money taking surveys and working M-Turk and you are not dependent on other people getting involved. And you can do this every day of the week.

So in my opinion, if a company claims (or guarantees) you will make thousands of dollars, and you can’t or don’t, then it is a scam. 

I am sure they will claim it is your fault, you’re not working to make the money.
 
My point is they claim you can do it all without any work. If that is not true, they are scammers.

This site is dedicated to offering you quality, long term home based business opportunities.

Webinar- a live online educational presentation during which participating viewers can submit questions and comments.

Webinar is one of the newest buzz words and tricks used to create interest. For some reason offering an online webinar legitimizes the offer. 

I did a little (actually very little) research and found out just how easy it is to produce a webinar. Here is a site I picked randomly. I do not endorse this site. But, I want you to see how easily and cheaply (this one has a free offer) it is to produce a webinar.

So, please don’t think just because they offer you a webinar as part of their online training, they are spending a bunch of money and doing anything special. 

YouTube has literally hundreds of video webinars. Check these out. Hopefully you can see that anyone, for any reason can create a “webinar”.

The other thing you can count on is a bunch of hype and basic business practices you probably already know or use. These companies have not invented a “new wheel”. They deliver the same old hackneyed garbage you have seen and heard for years. 

Remember the wizard of OZ? “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!!”

Smoke and mirrors are what you are being offered. My advice to anyone looking for a home based business opportunity is to make a point of finding out who is behind the curtain.

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.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Avoiding Scams


Avoiding scams is not as hard as you might think.. First let's discuss the definition of a scam.

Scam: a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation <an insurance scam> /Merriam-Webster. A true scam is designed to take money from an individual and give little or nothing in return.

So, as long as the second party receives something it's not a scam. Maybe not, but it is still wrong. I have 2 main rules that govern my life. Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you and What goes around comes around.

I would have a very hard time taking peoples money and giving them little or nothing in return. That is not the case for many. Rather than try to explain how to identify a scam, I will show you examples from real website advertisments.
  
I used a program called Jing. It is a free program that allows you to capture and manipulate computer screen images among other things. I have placed a red box around the area I want to focus on.

When you view internet ads for money or credits you get to see the best of the best and the worst of the worst. I am goin to share some of the worst and one of the best. First, let me say I found all these examples viewing only 18 ads. Click the hyperlink at the beginning of each module to view the example.

Nonsensical titles- These are ads who's title make no sense at all. It is so packed with keywords it loses all meaning. I also like the absence of a photo. I wouldn't want to be identified with this site either.

Bad Math- This one brags about payout, but if you take time to do the math you see the payout is $11 a month. Nothing to brag about. This one probably should have stuck with the generic Avatar.

Rankings- I see this all the time, ads claiming a #1 rating by some unknown ranking site. This one is great because the rating comes from themselves. Active Safelist was rated #1 by Safelist Rankings. 10 bucks says they are one in the same.

Just Silly- Some ads are just silly. This one claims even a homeless person can make money using their system. They even give the homeless person a place to enter their e-mail address.

The Devil in the details- this one gives you all the details. The problem is one of the details says the have 229 members and have paid out nothing to them. You can probably expect the same.

Money for nothing- If you have lived in America for very long you know there is no such thing. My favorite line is “All with-out telling, selling or explaining anything to anybody!”.

How will anybody know you are selling anything, if you don't tell anybody? Even after you pay them $70, I'll bet they don't know how to do it either.

No spam please- One thing you probably should have, if you don't already, is an email address just for your online business. Gmail and Yahoo will issue multiple email addresses for free.

Get one, because no matter what they say, you will get spammed. I am pretty sure if a site makes it a point to say they won't spam you, they probably will.

Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg and they keep coming up with new things everyday. Next I will share a site that is not a scam.

Although it is a hard way to make a lot of money, ClickSense delivers exactly what they sell. All the details are clearly defined and do not change from month to month.

You watch a 30 second ad and you get paid for viewing (normally a penny) that ad. They also have hot buttons on their page that lead where it says they will lead, not to some other site.

The next shot shows the details of how the program works. I know for a fact all the statements are true. They even provide numbers that back up what they say. 

If you divide the amount paid out ($1,233,136.20) by the number of members (1,140,196) you get an average pay-out of $1.08 per member. Don't be fooled by big numbers. If you want to know the answer, do the math.

This is inline with what really happens when you join. Since I joined I have made $1.44.

One of the goals of this site is to help you identify the scams and find the real opportunities to develop income online with your home based business. I hope this helps.

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 or, you can e-mail me directly at ewahr2011@ yahoo.com



Peace.