There are many people who think they will never get scammed. In fact, these are the very people who get scammed because they’re overconfident and they let their guards down. They think they’re smarter than the thieves. These con artists love clients like this. Today, I’m going to tell you how to avoid these toxic affiliate marketing scams.
Even the newbies who just want to get away from their 9-5 jobs and the stay-at-home parents and many others who just want to have a lifestyle they have always wanted get their dreams shattered.
Not All Affiliate Marketing Programs Are Dishonest
There are always dishonest people online wanting to take your money, but I want you to realize there are many affiliate marketing programs that are LEGIT.
First, just so we are clear on this and I’m sure you already know… Affiliate marketers don’t carry inventory but instead we promote someone else’s products or services. We have affiliate agreements with large corporations like Amazon, Walmart or other large online training centers. This is how both parties make money.
This is what I do. I am an online affiliate marketer and admit I am one of those people who have been scammed. This is the reason I write this article to you.
Some people when they join with these honest programs think they will be making money right away and when they don’t they think they are being scammed but the truth is, any legitimate business online and local business owners will always tell you it’s hard work.
The million dollar question is how do you know which ones are just out to take your money and leave you with nothing and which ones really want to help you make money and show you how to do it?
BEWARE OF THE FOLLOWING CLAIMS
- Get rich fast schemes.
- Easy to make money.
- Images of high classy homes, fancy vehicles and exciting freedom lifestyle in a tropical island.
- Images of pay cheques revealing thousands of dollars, even PayPal accounts displaying a list of humongous dollars.
I’ll talk about each one of these claims below.
The Biggest #1 Claim Alert – Get Rich Fast
These get rich fast sites promise you can make thousands or millions of dollars overnight.
You probably wouldn’t even care how they’re going to do this for you. The thought of getting rich so fast excites you into taking out your credit card and give them ALL the information THEY WANT.
How many people do you know or think would enter “How to get rich fast” into search browsers? I’ve done this myself.
If you see images of expensive vehicles or homes and extravagant lifestyles. Pictures of happy people embracing lots of money. Even their pay cheques look enticing because they reveal thousands of dollars. The proof is good enough when you see people’s PayPal accounts listing of payments to them.
Many people fall into this trap because they don’t want to work hard and it’s quick and easy money. Ask any successful business person, what they did to become wealthy, they will always tell you it takes hard work and they start from the bottom and work their way up.
The Biggest #2 Claim Alert – Bogus Affiliate Training
Sites that claim their training is “foolproof”. The definition of foolproof according to the Cambridge Dictionary states “of a plan, method, or machine) designed to be easily done or operated without possibility of mistake or failure”.
The largest number of victims here are people who are new and want to learn about online affiliate marketing. Some sites get you to pay first before you can get their affiliate program eBook, some taste of their training course, or offered a webinar. Sometimes, you may get useless material.
I recommend doing the following:
Some of the affiliate training sites are definitely NOT scams but you need to check up on them. Check reviews on them and my advice is to stick with your training with a reputable brand name.
If I want training of any sort, I look for sites that offer FREE lessons. This is what I consider an honest training site. These sites are not afraid of letting you come inside to have a look around and get a taste of what it is you will be learning and how it’s done. You can then decide if this is the place you want to pay for the rest of your lessons.
The Biggest #3 Claim Alert – No Product or Service to sell (2 Tiered Affiliate Programs)
The thought of making big money instantly seems to make people not think about what they will be selling. What are these sites really selling? The scam is when they have no product or service to sell. When this happens, the affiliate program is actually considered a pyramid scheme and is illegal in many countries.
These sites who don’t have a product or service can be recognized as a multi-level marketing plan, meaning the affiliate makes money off another affiliate that brings them into the program.
If you can’t see any product or service being mentioned, stay clear of these sites.
The Biggest #4 Claim Alert – They will do all the work for you.
I think we all get excited about this one, who doesn’t? I would absolutely love to make tons of money and do everything I have ever dreamed about and let someone else do all the “hard work”.
Even their websites look professionally done. Apparently you don’t even need to have your own website because they look after it all for you. All you have to do is pay them.
After you pay the first time, they get back to you and say they have done their work on step 1 and have created your website (guess what, this only takes less than a minute to do). Now they ask you to pay more to get the next step done. They are even bold enough to let you know you are getting closer to making the big bucks and so you pay again.
This is why there are these repulsive thieves that prey on your dreams. You see, they have dreams about you. They already know you are lazy and you don’t want to do hard work. You haven’t put in an honest days work and you let these people take advantage of you.
This is not reality and not the way life works! A friend once told me, “you reap what you sow” meaning you will eventually have to face up to the consequences of your actions.
Please, stay away from these sites!
Want to see how fast you can create your own online website for FREE?
Other Things to Look For:
When you look at any online affiliate marketing programs or anything where you are asked to pay, look for the following:
1) Owners Information. Look for information on the owners. Can you see the owner(s) face? You should be able to contact them by email, and phone. Send an email to the owner, ask questions and see if they respond and how fast the response time was.
2) Reviews. Read as many reviews on the site as possible. This is a great way to get to know what the affiliate program is offering you because many of the writers have experiences using the site and so you get their opinions. There will be Pros and Cons, rankings and pretty much everything you will want to know to help you determine if you want to do business with the owners.
3) FREE offerings/No Credit Card Asked. I like the FREE offerings with the no credit card asked upfront. The FREE gives you an opportunity to see what you are getting and help you make your own impressions on the site and the no credit card gives trust. You are not obligated into paying.
4) Hard Work and Time. Look for sites that tell you it takes hard work and time. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s easy to make money online. There is a lot you need to learn and understand, for example, people need to find you on search engine browsers like Google, Yahoo and Bing and if you’re not on their first page, they will never find you and know what you’re trying to sell.
5) Money Back Guarantee. Does the site offer some type of money back guarantee. Read their Terms and Conditions and make sure you understand it before you pay.
6) Your Instinct. What does your gut feeling say to you? Does the site feel right and honest after you read the reviews?
Conclusion
I hope I didn’t deter you away from online affiliate marketing. Believe me, there are honest sites that show you how you can make good money through affiliate marketing. With hard work and time you can also build yourself a sustainable income that will help accomplish your dreams for today and tomorrow.
There will always be vultures online with their lures out and they want to take your hard earned money. You are responsible for your own actions so do your due diligence by doing your homework researching sites and doing what I suggested in OTHER THINGS TO LOOK FOR.
The best way to avoid these online affiliate marketing scams is ignore the flamboyant site talks and use good common sense because you already know how to spot the scams.
You see, anyone can be successful at making affiliate marketing a career and this can be done by finding the right affiliate program. The important thing is when you make this decision, you need to have expectations that are realistic to meet with achievable goals.
If you still want to do this and avoid disappointments and save a ton of money, do what I do.
As I mentioned earlier, I am an affiliate marketer and I have been with Wealthy Affiliate for a little over 2 years. When I joined, I had no experience on online marketing. Today, I am proud to say I have been making money, do all my online business in their site and still learn.
Want to see where I work hard and make money?
Oh wow! It’s like you were talking to me. I am often accused of being overconfident and letting my guard down… how did you know? I have stayed away from “get rich quick over the internet” type of products for fear of getting ripped off. Companies claiming to do all the work for me…yep…I always have to bite my tongue over this one. I would love to give a company a tiny little bit of money and then have them send me back HUGE amounts of money, but sadly this never happens to me. Thanks for setting the record straight. I was just wondering what topics are you learning about at the minute to help your business grow?
Hi, you’re very welcome and thank you for your comment and question. Sadly these scammers make their sites so enticing that really anyone can easily get scammed these days and not know about it until it’s too late.
I’m working on PPCs (Pay Per Clicks) right now.
Cheers
Monica
Hi, Monica. It’s scary to realize how many scams are out there. Like you, I’ve tried a couple of the get-rich-quick schemes in the past, and all I did was lose out. You surely can’t believe all the promotions on the internet. Thanks for clarifying the different types of scams that are out to play on our greed and take our money. I’ll try to stay alert.
Hi Grant, you’re welcome and thank you for your comment! Sorry to hear it happened to you too. Everyone needs to be more aware. Scary world. So many people with dreams of making it rich and taking the short cuts. Take care and I’m glad I could help.
Regards,
Monica