Making Money from the Internet, without Getting Infected with Scamyosis
By saying that, I am not going to tell you, hey, but, you know what, I know few places, where you still can make these 5k$/day … Because this is how many of these scams are getting your trust. First, they grab your attention and when you are listening, they peddle you yet another great eBook, get-rich-in-a-week pyramid or sign-them-up-to-a-mild-slavery-for-commission affiliate program. Believe me, I know what I am talking about, I’ve been through it. Now, if someone tries to inject me with another dose of oh-I-gotta-be-ri-i-ich enthusiasm, I know that this feverish feeling might be a symptom of a very annoying disease, which I call scamyosis . Unlike other infection, this one can be caught on-line by anyone who is looking for a way to make some extra money from the Internet. After being infected for quite few times, I had developed several simple checks of Internet hygiene, which really help me to tell if I am looking for a clean deal, or for another scam. Am I immune now? I hope so. There are enough opportunities for making money on-line, however, before signing up to any of them, it is easy to do few checks. I am going to share with you my approach, which worked for me, so hopefully it will work for you. My approach is based on a common sense, it is essentially can be expressed as “prevention is the best protection”. Such prevention is more or less like washing hands before meals or, even better, checking out a kitchen of a restaurant where you are planning to have a dinner. The latter rarely happens in real life, since we trust this job to USDA. In a virtual world things are more hectic, so any professional smoke seller can do miracles there. For this reason, it might be a good idea instead of giving away your hard-earned money in exchange for scamyosis, spend 10 – 15 min of your time for these little checks:
1. Copy all available names of your new affiliate friends-to-be: their business, their program, domain name, their personal names (if any are given) to your favorite search engine, mix them with search keywords: rip off, fraud, scam and spam, and let it run. You may get surprised … and I hope you’ll agree with me, that this is something which is much better (and cheaper) to know before you’ve paid your money. Fortunately or not, this check often will be all that you needed.
However what if you did this check and found nothing alarming about “so-and-so”-dot-com of your choice? Or, perhaps, you’ve seen one tiny complaint which just can be ignored comparing to a ton of happy testimonials? And you really like their offer .. Well, it is not yet time to give your money! Here comes the check point number 2:
2. Did they ask you for a membership fee at sign-up? No – good, yes – hmmm. Honest program will offer you a free trial for a reasonable period of time. Always! Why? Because those who run such program know that all they need is to show you the potential of their business. They also will explain you why they need you and how they will generate their profits from your involvement. If the membership fee is requested upon sign-up – it is a bad sign. Membership fee collection could be the way how this program makes money, maybe even the only way how it makes money. If so, the subject can be cleverly concealed. Like asking for a fee with a guarantee for a full refund. Especially alarming sign is a promise of a refund which pops-up at every introductory page or clause. Watch it. Refund is a different story and you may never get it. You’ve paid — you done. You may get a refund later, probably, it will be a partial one: imagine, smoke costs very little, so profit will be enormous even with a partial refund. Of course, there will be always 101 reasons for not giving your money back (including legally sound reasons). For example, it can be a small difference between the advertising letter, referral page, or sign-up guide and a text which is called Terms and Conditions. You will be prompted to accept Terms and Conditions upon your sign-up. The reason why you will never get your money back could be given in a small clause in Terms and Conditions, cleverly concealed within 10 -15 pages of 8 pt font of legal language. Of course, you welcome to read it yourself thoroughly, mark you questions, and seek legal advice. Any good counsel will gladly help you for mere $400 – $500 / job. Believe it or not, but even by taking this route you still can save some money! Of course, 99.99% of Internet populace will not do that. Well, perhaps it will be better to go through Terms and Conditions with search command for keywords “refund”, “cancel” and alike, you may get something different from what is offered at the sign-up page. If you are lucky: keep in mind that a clever program knows the way to conceal the truth about refund. The very best approach: if you have been asked to pay some excessive membership fee upfront – do not sign up, drop it, and keep looking for a better program.
3. Perhaps an advice to drop program (or, better not to sign-up to it) sounds too radical, but usually this is the best thing that you can do. Of course, the designer of scamyotic program knows how to reach its goal, i.e. make you to sign up. Even the membership fee can be convincingly justified. So, you have to keep watching for some other symptoms of scamyosis. Here are few typical ones:
- An undisclosed, often vague business agenda. This usually is substituted with massive verboserrhea about how good to be rich. There can be variations, watch for mentioning of drinks with small umbrellas as substitute for boring daily job routine – this is usually a sign of acute form. Run.
- Easy going membership discount pop-ups. Can’t pay $64 now? It’s OK, pay just $46, of course, you will never get a chance to receive this exclusive VIP package, but you still get the basic benefits of our program, and so on. Run.
- A lack of contact information. Customer service phone number may pop-up when you are going through sign-up routine. It is a good idea to write it down as soon as you’ll see it. You may never see it again. I’ve been subscribed to programs where, “Contact Us” page which opens upon “member login” carried no phone number, no contact e-mail, but only an anonymous comment field. These are the signs that as signed-up member you are the least welcomed person at this site. Unfortunately, this happens after you’ve already paid your membership fee. Too late to run, welcome to scamyotic ward.
Internet is full of money-hungry sharks, but if it would be true that almost everything on Internet is a fraud, the web would never existed in a first place. Majority of Internet programs run by honest people and offer excellent service and a real opportunity to make good money. Good luck to you in your quest.