There are so many Internet and work at home scams out there that it's hard to believe that anything related to making money online is legitimate. You've probably run into hundreds of ads promising to make you rich over night. However after closer inspection you realize these ads are full of more crap than a fertilizer factory! It's all very discouraging.
Don't fret. There are few good apples in bunch of bad ones. When looking for home business opportunity it's always a good idea to do your research. Trust me it's not as hard as it may seem. Google is your friend. It's one of the most comprehensive search engines out there and it's a great detective for Internet and work from home scams. Here's all you need to do.
Type in the company's name or website + scams in the search box. So for instance do a search for WorkAtHomeCareers.com + Scams in Google. If this company has really pissed people off and done some shady things Google will be able to find websites, blogs, forums or any news about this. You can then read through some of these resources to see if these complaints are valid or someone just being a baby.
Keep an open mind when reading these reviews. Often times you have cynical people that run off at that mouth because they didn't have what it takes to make a home business opportunity work for them. Because you couldn't make money with an opportunity doesn't mean it's a scam! It just means you couldn't get it to work. And there are tons of reasons for that. It's not necessarily the home business opportunities fault. So keep that in mind when reading these scam reports.
Usually when you find one there are other people that are more objective that will give you both sides of the story. Now if you see a pattern of the same complaints from different people and resources then you should be on guard and may want to do another check and look deeper into this company by researching them on www.BBBonline.com The Better Business Bureau is usually the place you can discover more details about a company's practices. So be sure to use all these resources before joining an Internet work at home business. Make an informed decision and you'll avoid a lot of scams this way!
Hi Tim,
Thanks for clearing that up. But even with so called self updating content, what’s the quality going to be like? Is it like what you read here where you can tell I really want to provide you value or just some crap someone throws together and uploads to all these so called ready made sites. But I think you already understand this is something that should be avoided for obvious reasons.
In terms of not being able to afford wealthy affiliate, I hear this a lot. So I can totally understand this and know that you’re not just saying that. So yes my suggestion is to get their ebook: http://www.workathomenoscams.com/wholovesmoney instead. It will give you a solid foundation.
I know the economy is awful right now so I’m really sorry to hear about your situation. You should really consider joining my other non-traditional work at home recommendations on the article page:
http://www.workathomenoscams.com/articles
People are making money with that stuff and I’m pretty certain you will as well if you’re willing to give them a shot. The good thing is most of them are free: http://www.workathomenoscams.com/articles
And just this week we added that about.com opportunity on our homepage: http://www.workathomenoscams.com so that is something else to consider. You have a lot of options to make money now. You can work your way up to being an affiliate until you have the money to invest in your career training. That’s pretty much how I got started.
In terms of the clickbank website you’re affiliated with, the problem you’re facing is what all affiliates face. That’s why we write articles first describing a given website we may be trying to promote then we link to the merchant’s site and hope that despite the fact we can’t control their site, the effort we put in the article they read before hand will make them convert. It’s called pre-selling or article marketing. That’s the type of stuff you learn with Wealthy Affiliate and their ebook. Just sending people to a merchant site without doing this will usually lead to no money being made.
And yes people do make money with clickbank and affiliate marketing in general. But the reason they do is because they all invested in learning how to do so properly. Making online is no different than making money offline. It takes some training, skills and an unwavering attitude in which failure is not an option. Its interesting when someone loses their job or quits they don’t ever say well that’s it I’m never going to get another job again. Most of us just think to ourselves, hey I need to get a new job. Well affiliate marketing is no different. If one thing is not working try something else in affiliate marketing. But the point is you don’t give up because you ran into a road block because you wouldn’t do that with a job situation.
In any event, I hope this helps.
Good luck either way.
Eddy
Thanks for the reply Eddy.
Just to clarify: the content was supposed to be self-updating, not the SEO. But like I said, if the sites were such great money makers, the seller would be using them instead of selling them for $150 or less.
I know you are just going to recommend Wealthy Affiliates again, so before I ask my next question let me point out that I really can not afford them. I’m not just one of those who say they have no money but really do. I’m lucky if I break $1000 a month (in fact I only have once in the past 6). I am literally living paycheck-to-paycheck. I may be able to swing buying their book, but I can’t do the $40 a month. In another month or so work will drop to nothing. Most of the company files for unemployment in November and December.
My question is; I have a Clickbank affiliated Web site that I have no control over. I can’t change the layout, wording, or metatags. Needless to say it has done nothing for me. Should I spend any more time on it or just dump it? Does anyone really make money with Clickbank?
I probably answered my own question, didn’t I?
Hi Tim,
I’m glad you’re enjoying the articles and finding inspiration. That means a lot to me.
With that said, I hope you can tell I’m a straight shooter. Do yourself a favor and follow the advice I’ve provided you on the affiliate page:
http://www.workathomenoscams.com/aff and invest in your training with Wealthy Affiliate.
As unappealing as it may sound, you’re going to have to work to get your affiliate career off the ground. That’s why I recommend that site. They don’t lie to you and tell you you can buy some magical self optimizing site and you’ll have an instant internet business. If it were that easy, don’t you think yours truly would have gone that route? lol
It’s not! There is no such thing as a self SEO updating internet business. You’re buying a templated website that you still need the fundamentals of what Wealthy Affiliate teaches you to get traffic to that site. And even with traffic most of those one size fits all websites lack quality unique content which is one of the fundamentals to making money with affiliate marketing.
So as tempting as it is to go and search for cheaper alternatives and quick fixes to get you started, don’t fall for it. Trust me when I say you’ll be sorry.
I’ve been at this long enough and seen various products that claim to do amazing things in terms of making you money on the internet. 99% of the time they’re full of crap. Wealthy Affiliate may not sound very sexy but they’re based on fundamentals and it’s why I will continue to recommend it to folks that are interested in learning affiliate marketing.
With other opportunities I’ve recommended I may provide a few sites and options but the reason I only recommend Wealthy Affiliate for affiliate marketing is because I feel they are the best based on all the affiliate marketing products I have bought over the years.
So take that with a grain of a salt. Its great to see you’re excited about a career as an affiliate but don’t go about the wrong way otherwise it won’t work.
I want to see folks succeed and that’s why I recommend the best.
I hope that means something.
Good luck either way.
Eddy
I have been reading some of your articles and find them very useful and inspirational. I have begun looking into affiliate marketing and searched for some books on the subject on eBay. I didn’t find the books, but I found many ecommerce sites for sale. Do you have any opinions on these? They are supposedly SEO and self updating with multiple sources of revenue.
Just go to eBay and search for “internet business” and you will see what I mean. I would think that if these sites were so profitable, the seller would be using them instead of selling them.
One of the things that alerts me to scams is anything involving processing or handling money on behalf of the client! I steer well clear of those kind of ‘work at home opportunities’.