It should be no surprise to anyone that has searched for work at home opportunities for more than two minutes, there are tons of ads claiming to make easy money with Google or work at home for Google. Needless to say all these ads are basically misrepresenting the legitimate career of internet marketing and using Google Adwords to promote affiliate marketing offers. That's where the whole google money nonsense comes into play.
I've written several articles about these google work at home scams and a question that keeps coming up is why is Google allowing these companies to piggy back off their powerful brand name? From what I could tell it was because each of these scam artists always made sure to include some tiny disclaimer language at the bottom of their pages or terms and services that clearly stated they weren't associated with Google.
That's cool but we all know that most of us fail to read these things which is what scam artist bet on. This to a certain degree is why we end up becoming easy targets. Please understand I'm not placing blame on us victims but I am pointing out some real facts that should be acknowledged. This simple truth may help you avoid future scams.
Enough is Enough
With that said, I think Google has had enough and has decide to crack down on these clowns. Apparently they are no longer allowing google money scam ads on their site. Here's the email that the pushers of these misrepresentative opportunities are getting when attempting to promote this nonsense using Google's Adwords program:
"It's come to our attention that you have submitted ads that promote Google Money Tree or ads that promote a misrepresented affiliation with Google. Due to multiple complaints from our users and publishers, we've made the decision not to accept these ads.
This is a notification that your account has been suspended due to the submission of these ads and your ads will no longer run on Google. Please note that future accounts you open will also be suspended."
The great thing about this decision is that its also impacts millions of sites as well. Since most of us make money by automatically featuring Google's ads on our pages, chances are we won't see these scammy ads showing up on some of your favorite sites any morel. So applaud Google for taking this stand. It makes the internet a better place for us all. I'm sure in time they'll do their best to get rid of more questionable ads. But this is a start. And quite frankly as long as folks do their scam research, many of these schemes can be easily avoided.
It's All Because of You…
Google's action may have come about because of the recent FTC crack down. But I would like to think it's because of the effort of some small bloggers like yours truly WorkAtHomeNoScams.com and those of my respected colleagues IveTriedThat.com & WorkAtHomeTruth.com. However I'm more inclined to believe it was because of all you. If it weren't for the brave victims that wouldn't allow embarrassment or shame shut them up, these Google work at home scams would go under the radar. Instead, you took a stand and made your voices heard by complaining everywhere and anywhere.
You should feel proud and give yourselves a round of applause. You've just made it even more difficult for these scam artist to earn a living. Now go have a shot of something on me and spread the good word of the downfall of at least one type of work at home scam. Feel free to retweet this article or post it on another forum or blog. Get the word out. After all, isn't that how this Google work at home scam was taken down? By the way, if you do want a traditional Google work at home job visit our Google work at home page. If you do want to learn about affiliate marketing and how to make money with it, do yourself a favor and learn from people that aren't trying to trick you into it and visit Wealthy Affiliate.
But for God's sake avoid any of these Google Work At Home opportunities. The same can be said for typing, data entry and rebate processing opportunities. It's really that simple. Good luck!
Here’s the thing. If you want to work at home opportunity ask to see “PROOF”! Bottom line anyone with a reputable company, service, or product to promote can show real time results. I’ve been doing a work at home business and the reason I joined it was that I saw real “PROOF”. Actual up to the minute results and 5 years of past results.
That’s what made me pick the business I am in.
Agreed. That’s why when I personal recommend something: http://www.workathomenoscams.com/recommendations I walk people through real proof I made money with it. It’s put up or shut up. When you can show proof of money you made with a given opportunity folks more inclined to follow your lead which is why I tend to be a top referrer for many of the programs I personally refer. It’s easy to run around promoting something and saying it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Proving that is a lot harder and why you won’t see a lot of scam artists doing it. It takes more effort, time and honesty.
This scamed still going on relently I got scamed by this websites https://www.theinternetprofithouse.com/membership/Members/Default.aspx doen’t get fooled like I did.
Thanks for sharing Syed.
That’s good to hear, that they’re cracking down on these people. I’ve been looking for more ways to make money online, and had someone on two other sites I belong to; send me a link for one of these so called “google money making systems”. I googled it, along with the words “review” and “scam”; and ran into a lot of posts on different forums about it being a nightmare to get your money back- if you were dis-satisfied. I also noticed when I got to the online form, only then did they tell you about being automatically charged for other stuff. Anyway, my search eventually led me here, and to other legit sites; so something good came out of it at least 🙂 and no, I didn’t sign up for this program, or give them any of my info. Great site you have here BTW
Hi there Eddy and the rest,
Saw the news about Google’s crackdown on those low-lifes and I can’t be happier, being on the point of putting up my first site — as soon as I get a decent, salable niche. On a similar note, recently an Internet marketer’s been talking about the subject of niche expertise and whether or not you need to be knowledgeable about the info on your site.
This person mentioned putting up a site about a topic she knew nothing at all about and researching eBay and PLR articles to add content. The purpose, of course, is to make money and it’s considered a sales site, basically a store the same as a physical store where the clerk is just someone who rings up the purchases. How do you feel about this?
I guess there are “authority” sites, where the owner is indeed an expert on the topic and gives advice as well as sells products (like yourself); then there are the middle-ground theme-based sites where the owner may not be an expert but provides content of sufficient quality, perhaps by using guest articles, and through them manages to sell their products; and then there are these sales sites where, probably unbeknownest to the buyer, the person selling the products knows nothing whatsoever about them.
It’s like buying from Amazon where the people working directly for the site may or may not have read a particular book or ever heard of a particular song …
I would dearly love to stick to what I love … but I fear it doesn’t provide a good-enough business model and money must be the priority.
Hi Ana,
Thanks for your comment. You’ve covered the various affiliate business models very well. There are many marketers that encourage people to go into niches they have no real knowledge or or interest in. Many of them are still very successful with these niches. But the difference in those situations is the marketer has years of experience in marketing or really great marketing skill. I’m probably sure I could go to a market I know nothing about and make some money there employing many of the techniques you discussed above such as outsourcing the research and articles to other people.
But even if that was the case you still need to know how to get people to your website and keep them long enough to be interested in what you have to offer. Getting them there can be easy if you’ve been trained properly. But I would argue keeping them there and getting them to take action would still be a lot more difficult then with a niche you already know. People can tell just by reading my articles that I’ve been where they are. My personality is in this blog for better or worst. I think many people that like this blog are attracted to that and the information I provide from my unique perspective. This is what leads to the conversions i get. And I know they’re a lot of flogs (Fake Ass Blogs) out there that make quick money. But because they’re usually promoting stuff they don’t know about, they don’t care if the products are legit or not. Thus if their user gets screwed over by many of their recommendations, Guess what? They’ve lost a customer/visitor for life. Worst case scenario, you’ve made an enemy that will now make it a point to discredit your name and blog to the world. Bad news travels fast.
So yes you can take the risk of going into a niche and throwing up some articles you purchase and then attempt to monetize the site with various affiliate programs but don’t expect to build a long term business that way. If you actually provide real value in this niche which can be ensuring that you’re providing quality information not some artice slapped together. Or better still you get quests bloggers that are actually authorities or knowledgeable about the subject matter, then you have a better chance of long term success. So I guess it really depends on your goals.
And by the way you can monetize any niche if you just think laterally sometimes. It just takes a little creativity with your words to illustrate to your users that a given service may still apply to their situation even if at first glance it doesn’t. For instance if you were running a dating site, the things that most people would promote is just sex toys, match.com, relationbooks, etc. But I could easily promote something totally unrelated in that niche like wigs. How? I could write an article about how important it is to spice up your relationship and keep it fresh. Tell your husband to meet you at a bar. Then dress really sexy but wear a wig and act like you’re someone new and try hitting on your husband. I bet you didn’t see that coming? lol
But you have to be able to think outside of the box in certain niches especially when you don’t have a lot of affiliate programs directly related to your niche. Although I’m in a niche that has plenty of affiliate companies to join, i’ll often look laterally to see if there are other fits that might help my users out and make me some additional income. So as you can see, any niche can make you money with lateral thinking. And if not that you can make passive income with joining Google adsense which pays you to have ads on your site and if people click on the links you get some money which varies depending on your site’s content and quality. So you can stick with your niche if you employ these methods.
I think going outside your niche is fine if you still plan to provide real value by taking a journalist stance where you actually do research even if you’ve never tried the product then report your findings and allow your users to make a decision as to whether they’ll take action or not. I do that on occassion and its usually for companies i’m not affiliated with. I just wanted to give people other options. But you should always think about providing first, not making money. The money will come with the value you add and it will be long term if you do it well. Hope this makes sense.
Ok, well does anyone know of any sites that are not scams and truly do offer work at home jobs with pay? I have been looking but I am totally new to this stuff. I’m a pregnant stay at home mom and need something for cash. Please help if you can!!!!
Thanks,
candice
Hey Candace,
I guess you’re new to the site. Go and visit our work at home guide:
http://www.workathomenoscams.com/workathomeguide
& Work At Home Companies page:
http://www.workathomenoscams.com/companies
And finally read the scam page: http://www.workathomenoscams.com/scams
Scams are easy to avoid and there are plenty of legitimate work at home opportunities out there. It’s just a matter of being educated on what to avoid. The scam section and guide should you get you well on your way if you take the time to actually read it. If not you’ll probably be doomed to make a lot of the mistakes that many of us have. So sit back, kick up your feet and get to reading. I’m confident you won’t be a newbie anymore after this.
Good luck.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. Reading this article was music to my eyes. Thank you Google and yes Eddy, I agree. Thanks to all those victims who bravely stood up for what is right.
Hey, that is great news! I use google ads on my website and it makes me uncomfortable having scammy stuff right there- I am worried that it will influence people’s opinion (wrongly) about my site. I have noticed you and many others put “Sponsored Links” above any advertising not affiliated with the site itself. I suppose I ought to do that too. The google money tree stuff really bugged me too. I was having a hard time explaining to friends the difference between regular Google ads and the scammers using Google’s name to rake in the big bucks.
All the best!
Shawna
Hey Shawna,
I totally hear your concern as a website owner. I’ve had the same discussion with other bloggers and my loyal visitors. At the end of the day any free medium needs to be supported by ads. It’s a necessary “evil”. TV networks have shady infomercials on them as well. But I think they do a great job of balancing the business of making money and being a responsible network by always providing a disclaimer before or after an infomercial. They make it very clear that they’re not endorsing any of those products and that it was an ad. I think as website owners if we make it clear that the ads are sponsors then that’s an acceptable practice. So definitely make it clear on your site who the advertisers are. Even with that disclaimer, there are going to be a few haters that will complain. But these people would be the same that complained if you removed all the ads from your site and then charged them to access your content. So you can’t please everyone. As long as you continue to provide content of value that helps people, I think most will understand the needs for ads and can figure out that they aren’t personal recommendations.
At the end of the day everyone is responsible for doing their research. I for one will still research a company even if it’s recommended by a trusted source just so I have peace of mind. So to each their own.
I am glad someone popped a cap in those Google Tree mongrels. Those people ought to be ashamed of themselves. I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing I was scamming people for a living. These scammers are nothing but low down dirty degenerates…pure and simple.
Ya’ll have a great day!
I hear you Letitia! I’ve learned that certain people can justify anything in their minds. I guess we all can to a certain degree but this stuff just crosses all types of lines. Glad it’s coming to an end on Google at the very least. Maybe Yahoo and all the other major search engines will follow as well.
Yeah, it must be greed. Why work hard and long when you can make a quick buck selling trash? (And the random generated anti spam word for this comment is “ikea.” What are the chances??)
Thanks for the shout out and for posting the good news. Combined with the recent FTC action, this should make a real difference. The third nail in the coffin is a crackdown on the unethical affiliates who peddle this high-converting garbage. That crackdown is in the works, I understand.
No problem Joe. Looks like they’re on a rampage which should really help make people think twice about creating or promoting this garbage. My thing is these type of scams are totally unnecessary. Affiliate marketing sells itself. I don’t understand why these companies continue to pervert it with these ploys. If you have a solid offering and are honest as to what to expect with this opportunity, people will still sign up. Those don’t aren’t meant for it and that’s it. I think you and I are a testament to that with our own efforts. But I guess it’s just pure greed. It very annoying because it gives Google & the whole internet/affiliate marketing industry a bad name.
I am so glad this is being tracked down its about darn time….it is time to end this foolishness.
THUMBS UP!!!
I’m so glad google is doing something about this. It just sucks to look for something legitimate on google to make money but every work at home ad you click on seems to be so sketchy. At least now it’ll begin to get easier to find legitimate ads with the money scams cluttering up google now.
Agreed. In general any time you’re reading there is easy money to be made with some magic Google system, you can rest assured in knowing it’s nonsense and it should be avoided. Making money using Google adwords as an affiliate marketer requires a lot of work and good training. If it were that easy then everyone would do it. So as long as you keep this in mind it’s pretty easy to see through this and any other scam. It really boils down to this, if it sounds to good to be true it usually is.
Thanks for sharing.