Archives for August 2018

Your Profit Team Review – So Far, Not So Good!

by Leave a Comment

In this “Your Profit Team Review” I bring up red flags in the product’s sales video, such as off-the-wall income claims, hype, news stories taken out of context, yet little about what the product is. You should AVOID this product!

Your Profit Team – Product Overview

Product Name: “Your Profit Team”

Owner(s): “David” according to the sales video, Destin Cribbs according to his user name at ClickFunnels.com, Neither name is conclusive.

Price:  The maximum affiliate commission of 65% is $340. Based on this, the customer pays a maximum amount of $525 for the product. It likely includes any up-sells, if any.

Guarantee: 60-Day Guarantee backed by Clickbank.

Website: yourprofitteam.biz

The Promotional Campaign Has Some Problems

As with many low quality online digital products, the promotional campaign is often fraudulent, or misleading at best. It is often riddled with extremely hyped-up promises of a trouble-free groundbreaking system of sorts requiring little-effort, no experience, and promises very high, off-the-wall income potential in an incredibly short amount of time. A common claim is that anyone and everyone who purchases will see incredible success using the product. The advertising comes with warnings that the opportunity itself is fleeting in some way and may be gone tomorrow, so the prospect must hurry and grab one of very few spots available or lose out on a once-in-a-lifetime event. The advertising lays heavily on appealing to emotion and uses fear (another emotion to arouse buying.)

This type of advertising has been used with the Your Profit Team product. The product apparently has not yet launched as I cannot get get past the Click Here button. This Review explores the promotional campaign.

Now, Let’s Take a Look at the Sales Video…

The sales video is shown above.  I would that you watch the video and consider what you’ve seen in it. The work on the advertisement itself is well-done. It has soothing music with light piano and subtle sound effects. The narration is done with a soft-toned voice. Everything that went into the sales video was done eloquently. The marketing strategy in it is also eloquent however extremely unethical.

    This Is a Misleading Statement
  • Right away, we’re told that we’ve reserved a spot and this requires no experience and removes the nonsense that keeps us from making money..
  • This is followed by another logical fallacy – the appeal to authority.  This support comes from two different ABC News stories and a foreign news station.  There will be an entire section devoted to this below.
  • An appeals to emotion session begins by being told this is a secret society of sorts and then given the typical Rags-to-Riches story which takes up much of the video.
  • Following this, we are given more reinforcement about getting in before it’s too late, shown an image of money falling from the sky and then the typical act of altruism – “Dave” and the team have so much money and so many websites that they don’t know what to do with. They’re throwing open the doors to the tiny few who are lucky to get in.
  • We then get about 10 seconds where we’re given a hint of what the product is about. It refers to a website we’ll be working with, most likely a cookie-cutter website from what I gather from the information I have about this product so far.  We’ll be given some instructions on how to set up the product. From here on, we see the final call to action and an arrow that points down to where we fill in our details and press the Submit Button.

To get more information, we need to go to Clickbank, which hosts this vendor featuring the product.  Here we see a little bit more.  There’s some training on how to advertise online, which apparently comes with videos, website templates which we’ll be needing, goes on to mentioning customer support and then (Uh oh!) “100+ Master Resale Rights Products.

I am concerned about MRRs these days.  MRR products are an out-dated form of marketing that is no longer popular as it once was and in fact have their own problems. More likely than not, the media you are trying to sell are freely available somewhere else on the Internet. You and countless others will be trying to sell the same media within this program and probably from many, many others besides! The marketing technique was effective and popular in the 1990s.

Let’s take a closer look at the support they’ve used in the sales video…

Taking News Stories Out of Context!

I smell a dead, maggot-infested rat here!  The producer(s) of the sales video resorted to clipping some news stories, taking the snippets and reassembled them. The original meaning has been lost, thus has been taken out of context to be re-used in the sales video. This is completely unethical and irresponsible usage of material that originally didn’t mean what they are conveyed to mean in the sales video.

In this case, parts from three separate news stories were isolated from their surrounding material and forced to fit into the context of the sales video. Apparently the creators of this video didn’t take in account that these news stories are online where people can find them and these clips are in them in their original contexts.  We will take a look at this scenario now.

If you remember, near the beginning of the sales video, You heard and read, “The EXACT same business model shown on hundreds of news stations” on the slide just prior to being shown four snippets from news broadcasts.

What is meant by “The EXACT same business model…” is left to the viewer’s imagination, therefore is ambiguous at best.  Since the viewer has probably figured out that this is an online business opportunity of sorts, this, of necessity, is what the news broadcast snippets are about.

Whoah!

The ABC 9 On Your Side Story…

This is not about setting up a home office and building out an affiliate marketing, PLR product marketing, MRR product marketing or any other recognized form of freelance-type of internet marketing done from home.  It’s completely about employees working for their employers doing their jobs at home.  This is a HUGE difference!

The ABC.com’s Action News Now Story…

In this story, we have Yahoo! (the browser and search engine company) requiring their employees to cease doing their job assignments from home and are now required to work in offices within the company’s facility.  The objective of this story is to ask the question, Why?  The bit extracted from the newscast features one of the spokespersons mentioning a relative that is working from home with no problems.

The ANC’s The World Tonight Story (This Is a Filipino News Network or Station)

The final clip, also used for support here, comes from a story about the growing trend of employers allowing workers to do their job assignments from home rather than doing facetime in corporate offices.  This report comes from a news broadcast studio in the Philippines.

The problem here and the point is, none of these stories have anything to do with Internet marketing done as a home business or through self-employment. All of them are related to folks completing assigned work for their employers.

A Look at the Email Campaign…

In the affiliate’s area of the Your Profit Team website, (which is accessible directly from Clickbank for affiliate marketers looking for products to promote.

The entire email sequence is much like the sales video, which we will look at next.

What we have is a lot of play on words, excessive appeals to emotion, which is a logical fallacy known simply as, the fallacy of appeal to emotion.  This is where the flashing of money, huge promises, the selling of the dream rather than the product, the rags to riches story, and other similar psychological exploits come from.

This Is One of the Email Swipe Files Used by Affiliates. It Is a Good Representation of All the Rest.

Contrary to what the sales video says, in the email shown above, we have them saying that they’re going to be picking out a couple of people for their team.  This is an extremely ambiguous use of the term “couple” and once again, is left to the imagination.  The emails are filled with a commonly used fear tactic – scarcity.  There’s only so many slots or seats, there’s only a very few being taken in, We’d better hurry and get in now because this outstanding offer will be gone.

Now, let’s take a look at how many lucky ones the sales video tells us will be admitted on the so-called team…

In My Estimation, “a Couple More People” Is Not the Same Thing as “20 [More] People!” Which Is It?

The correct answer to the question in the caption is, “Neither!” Let’s let the affiliate program for Your Profit Team give us the truth…

…The Rest of the Story!

The end of this product that faces the consumer, that is, the front-end, is where the grand staircase is, the glitter and glamour. It has to look pretty and for low quality products, it has to appeal to the emotion. The job of the advertising is to get conversions. As was mentioned above, one of these is the use of fear, the scarcity factor to get people to do what the vendor and the advertisers want.

We are all familiar that Disney is a theme park. It’s decked out and full of fantasy. It’s full of that appeal to emotion, to authority and other logical fallacies. At these places, folks break down to a time of fun. In doing, it lowers inhibitions and raises impulsive buying. Note that the summary of the Earnings Disclaimer below suggests that we consider this product as “entertainment only!” This is more like throwing hoops or shooting the revolving ducks at our favourite Disney game stands. The statement is in full as in the original Disclaimer.

At Disney, the employees that service the park, have their own corridors and behind-the-scenes workplaces throughout. These passageways are there to keep the service employees and the utility areas out of sight of the consumers who are there for the entertainment. The workers are there to work. The workplaces are dull, drab and functional.

In the same way, the affiliate marketer goes behind the scenes of these products, in the back-end of things. What they see is the data they need, which is different than what the consumer sees. Please see the following two images. These tell the truth of the matter.

In reality, there’s not a couple people being admitted, nor 20! This is absurd. There will be many hundreds, probably as many as tens of thousands of buyers for this product. Unless this product fails miserably (and it probably won’t because of the powerful advertising. It would make no sense to put a product like this on the Internet and host it through a place like Clickbank if only a few (shown in the advertisement) were to be admitted.

Here’s the JV Invite Page on the Your Profit Team Website. Hundreds or Thousands of Affiliate Marketers Enter Through Here.
This Is the Clickbank Listing for the Your Profit Team Product. Many Affiliates Come Directly Here Looking for Products to Promote.

The Earnings Disclaimer – Another Dull Thing People Don’t Want to See

No, I will not give you the whole thing here, but I will give the summary for you to compare with the sales video!

  • All results shown in our presentation, website, or marketing literature are atypical results.
  • Average results are unknown.
  • The strategies, marketing methods and other business advice obtained by the owner, may not produce the same results (or any results) for you.
  • There is absolutely no guarantee, expressed or implied, that by following the advice or content
    that you will make any money.
  • You assume all risk related to investment and money based on your own discretion and at your own potential expense.
  • You agree that our content is to be considered “for entertainment purposes only”.

An important thing to note about the Earnings Disclaimer on the website. The poor design of this text against a dark background isn’t an accident. By law, the disclaimer must be present and readable. That it is, but with difficulty. I had to highlight the text to be able to read it. The producers of the website do NOT want you to read the disclaimer and would much rather you didn’t notice it because it does have damning information in it which directly contradicts the information in the advertising!

Conclusion

When I first started this Review, the very first flag that popped up was Your Profit Team’a home page. On it, the background features a balmy tropical beach with a blue-green ocean, brilliant sand and of course, a palm with lush fronds. I had no idea I was going to find all this stuff – and I never even got to the product itself!

I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did researching and writing it. It’s a work taken much longer than I usually do with a review. This is more of a case study and a learning tool for my readers to help protect themselves from the myriads of scams that lay in wait to pounce! Thank you for reading!

Does this product work? Maybe. Unfortunately the advertising for this product has little to say about the product, which is probably for very good reasons. For for those who are familiar with critical thinking and how invalid argumentation is used in advertising to trick the unsuspecting, I have enough grounds to safely assume this is a scam because the advertising itself is such a critical element. In this case, it clearly induces impulsive buying of a product that likely, will produce buyer’s remorse. However, not knowing enough about the product itself, and until I do, I assess this product as one to…

*** UPDATE ***

The Product Now Open to the Public
I found that the product has launched this morning. This is interesting. Now the product being opened to the public, the home page has changed. It still has the same video but now in a smaller container.

Notice at the top, above the video, you see someone has taken the #14 spot. Remember that when I began writing this Review, people were already said to have been taking these spots even before the product was launched this morning (or yesterday.) This is a script on the page and I will say more about this below.

The other two items of interest are the price is now visible and there’s

You are now allowed to enter your email at the bottom and are presented with a new video after you do this. Here’s what I have found thus far…

  • This product comes with a coaching program of sorts. My best guess is this is where the up-sell lies.
  • There is now a definitive price point to purchase this product. $57 USD gets you in the door.
  • It presents you with a discount of $10 USD in one of three ways. I will show you the ways below.
  • What you see on the box (which changes as you interact with it) isn’t what you might think. More on this below.
  • I found another hint to what’s involved with this product! Let’s look at these one at a time…

Bear in mind that some of the information below is inconclusive and I will state this in association to those items.

Coaching

In the second video, there is mention of coaching that you will get when you join the “team.” Usually, coaching comes with a fairly hefty price tag and It is likely the same occurs here. You will be assigned a coach and may get a starter session. You will be given contact information. From the information I have gotten from the JV invite information on Clickbank, there’s definitely some up-sells here. It could be the coaching or it could have something to do with the Master Resale Rights products. It could also be an undisclosed item, such as hosting for websites that come with the MRR products. Without actually purchasing and going in, this remains inconclusive.

Even if all of the coaching is for free and is included with the membership price, there is one or more up-sells involved here. In fact, there’s $500 somewhere along the line here that you will need to be paying out to get the optimal thrust of this product. The MRRs are not mentioned anywhere in the sales videos but they are mentioned at Clickbank! I strongly believe you get this 100+ package. Let’s look at the pricing now and see what you get with this…

Price

Initially, the cost is $57. This is how it starts. It gets dropped though and the common reason you see these drops in pricing is that already, you’ve been fixed upon the initial amount. You might think it’s a little high, but you’re probably going to go for it. Dropping the price further into the buying process is just another thing that locks you into a buying decision – and you go for it.

The second video, tells us we’re getting the following…

  • The reserved spot becomes yours (one in 20 (and you’ve received the last spot! – how lucky you are!)
  • You now have the online office. This is most likely nothing more than a dashboard where you set up your website.
  • Speaking of which, is probably the main campaign you start with. More on that below…
  • Given the benefit of the doubt here, you’re assigned a coach for all the time you’re a member.
  • You also get access to other members. There appears to be some sort of communication between you and others.
  • You get the quickest and easiest means to making money online. When you make money, “they” make money. Hmmm.
  • You get a fool-proof guide that shows you how to set things up.
  • You get a 60-Day guarantee which you can receive an income with no questions asked.

There is an uncanny reference about not doing anything with the spot we’re given and that if we were to still feel objections to what we are seeing in the second video, then the advertisement tells us that we are probably not the person they’re looking for and that we don’t deserve the spot.

This last statement is yet another ploy to get the viewer to jump in. Many people have what’s known as entitlement mentality. This mindset is encouraged in Western-type consumer-based nations. One of the tenets of entitlement (and consumer) mentality is that part of entitlement mentality is the feeling that we deserve what we have coming. To be told otherwise comes off as an insult and an undesired label – “You don’t deserve it!”

This is a ploy known as the logical fallacy of appealing to emotion. This is a play on emotion which gets the viewer to divorce their intellect long enough to purchase the product compulsively.

Discount

We have covered what’s involved with the discount and why it’s there. Here I’m just going to show what the page changes to when you get the discount. Note that the page also informs that the last spot is now taken.

There are three ways we see this discount. All roads lead to Rome, so no matter what you do, you’re going to get this discount. However they are going to play the line and they are crafty at fishing, so watch out! After all, it’s you and I looking at the end of the line and that worm sure looks tasty! Here’s the three ways…

You watch the video but you notice the notifications at the top of the screen. Someone has just taken Spot 14. You watch the video further and notice the notification briefly go blank. It’s then replaced by someone taking Spot 15 … and then 16. You don’t take any chances and click the Let’s Get You Started! Claim Your Success Right Now! Immediately the top notification indicates, “FINAL SPOT HAS BEEN RESERVED – LAST SPOT DISCOUNT HAS BEEN TURNED ON” and at the bottom of the box, “LAST PACKAGE DISCOUNT IS NOW APPLIED”

The Count-Down and a Wait! Pop-Up

The Final Nail in the Coffin…The Verified Site Badges

They’re Convincing. They’re Colourful. They Verify a Website but They Themselves Cannot Be Verified. They Are Fake!
I did everything I could to find the badges that are laid out across the bottom of the box beneath the video, but I had some problems. I couldn’t find them – anywhere!

What Do All These Have in Common?
I looked for them by typing what’s on them – nothing. I tried to guess at possible websites and trying different possibilities based on the information on the badges. I made a screenshot of one of the more “popular” ones (the red one on security.) I checked for known badges. I simply could not come with a single match. Using Google Images to match the Verified Site Badge – Security Verified, I came up with the following…

  • Redoxon Triple Flavour Effervescent Tabliets
  • McVital’s Club
  • Rennie Orange Flavour
  • Kit-Kat Orange Bar
  • Trident Chewing Gum, Orange Flavoured
  • Sugarless Bubble-Yum Chewing Gum Orange

Yep – the badges shown above are little more than what I’ve found – eye candy. Looking at the image of trusted badges in the image to the right, what do they all have in common?

They all have the website’s name on them, such as eTrust.com, etc. The ones at the top of this section do not!

This concludes this study and based on what I’ve found here, even if the product does actually have some value, I hereby downgrade Your Profit Team as an outright…

Reason? False, misleading and fraudulent advertising that is clearly designed to trick folks into purchasing a product that most likely isn’t worth the pixels that it’s made of!

My Top Pick…

It is likely you are here because you found the Your Profit Team product and wasn’t sure about it. You wanted to look into this before purchasing. I hope I was able to show you why this product isn’t a good idea. I weigh very heavily upon the promotion of a product for reasons given above. It’s a serious matter and costs consumers millions of dollars per year.

I’m going to show you a real opportunity that can become a long-term profitable affiliate marketing business. You will be taught everything you need to know from the ground up, on how to build a find your niche, build a core website for it, write the content to put into it, learn how to know your audience, know how to optimize your content for the search engines (SEO) and incorporate social media. You will be provided all the tools you need to register domains, host your websites and get all the support you need, even from the owners! The community is composed of members who closely network with each other in a business and entrepreneurial environment. There’s no black-hat marketing, no funny stuff and no need for any of the kind of advertising associated with the product featured in this Review. There’s nothing to hide!

I will be bold (and proud to say) that Wealthy Affiliate is the place you’re looking for. If you are willing to work hard and know that there isn’t such a thing as getting rich quick in any Internet business (or any worthy ideal of a business at all) I have the place for you! Check it out by reading my Wealthy Affiliate Review. You can jump to it by clicking the banner below. You will be shown what Wealthy Affiliate is all about and if hopefully, you click through, you will see that Wealthy Affiliate is the Real Deal! Try it out…It’s free to try. You have nothing to lose…Click the button below.

Click Here to Go to My Wealthy Affiliate Review

Amazon Code Review – Don’t Get Taken by Their Emails!

by Leave a Comment

In this special Amazon Code Review, I focus in on this product’s email list campaign and show you how it is designed to take big bucks from you for the pathetically-inferior product you get out of it. Do NOT buy this product!

AZ Code Review – Product Overview

Product Name: “AZ Code”

Owner(s): Andrew Peterson (This person is fictitious)

Price: The advertised price is $37.  Once inside the user is presented with a $197 upsell.

Website: www.azcode.co

Watch Out and Keep Your Wallet Closed!!

This is an Amazon Code Review, but it is a supplement to one I have already done.  The Review covers what’s in the Amazon Code (AZ Code product) and barrels down on the fraudulent promotional campaign these snakes have used to already have taken in thousands of folks looking for income opportunities online!

This Supplement covers an area that I discovered after having written the first Review and found it necessary to add this.  This concerns the JV/affiliate promotional tools for this campaign.  There are 14 email swipe files the affiliates use in their email-marketing campaigns.  I have featured all 14 of the emails here and will have a bit to say about each.

This supplemental Review is about those emails and is meant to show you, the reader, the kinds of things these unethical marketers throw at you and how you might get tricked by this.

Email is much more personal.  The search engines do not see them therefore, they do not index what’s inside of emails.  This makes email marketing a remarkably effective tool to use in such voracity that can’t be used otherwise. Email lists, in the wrong hands, can be detrimental and costly to those who get taken to the cleaners by them!

A Short Bit about the Amazon Code Product:

What about the product?  The “system” referred to numerous times is merely two pdf files, one the so-called main guide and the other a bonus of sorts, the booster guide.

There’s no doubt that what’s in Amazon Code’s content is useful information but it’s nothing to boast about.  It’s simply isn’t anything that will make practically any user the kind of income claimed here.

Are You Getting a Deal Here?

Both of these files are all about how to import goods from China that you will use to sell on Amazon.  That’s the ticket here.  Both of the files come at a cost of $47 USD, but when actually purchaseing, you find a great deal here when you discover that the cost is actually $37.  So you’ve saved $10.

But, are these guides worth the money?  Upon looking into this, I say a resounding NO!

The Guides do provide information on how to go about the process, but I’ve also found two websites that have similar information on them and it’s offered for free to anybody who goes to the websites.  I have found that the content in the Amazon Code publications is basic information, has its fair share of filler material and does little good in showing practical illustrations and examples. This information, being found online for free, and the fact that

But Wait!

For another $197, you get the Real Deal!  How about going Pro!  Thatis right…

The Amazon Code (AZ Code) comes with the front-end product that consists of the above-said files, but to throw the frosting on the cake, they hit you up with a up-sell at the bottom of the Main Guide.  This link will take you to a simple page where you make the purchase and then you are presented with the download link.  What do you get?

You might have guessed – another pdf file that give you more of the same!  You get information meant for Pros – or do you?

Have a look at the Table of Contents…

Do it yourself – Google some of the stuff you find on here and it will come up.  It’s just more of the same – basic information that you find on the Internet for free!  Is this Guide worth $197 USD?  That of course is your call.  Aside from the off-the-top promotional campaign used for this product that is clearly incredibly over-hyped, this amounts to my opinion.

In my experience, anything related to Internet marketing, affiliate marketing, MLM, and any of the other popular online business models wherein the advertising, it’s easy, done for you, will make you incredible amounts money immediately is something to avoid.  It’s extremely likely you will not make a dime from it, so do not waste your money!

Now That You Know What This Product Is About, Let’s Look at the Emails…

The rest of this review is about the email swipe files I mentioned about above.  With what you see about this product in mind, I invite you to examine what’s in these very short emails.  These were taken directly from the affiliate marketer’s promotional tools area.  These swipe files were the only items on that page.  It may crack you up looking at them or invoke anger.  Sadly many people get taken in by junk like you’re about to see…

Invitation to the Exclusiveness Club!

Subject: Re: The Amazon Code

This appears to be the vanguard email you get in your inbox.  It’s very likely your name and email address wound up on a list or two that was made available through purchase or renting.  These snakes have gotten ahold of your email  You will get more.Right off the bat, you’re served up one of many sense of urgency calls that you will be getting throughout the promotional campaign.

Subject : Your Laptop + 10 minutes = $600,000

Exclusiveness to the core…

Here you’re asked if you have checked out this secret system. You are also served up the first of many bits that make up the false advertising you will be seeing regularly.  The sense of urgency is there once again when you are warned not to miss the opportunity to do the next thing tha characterizes fraudulent advertising in push-button applications like this – banking easy online cash today!

Subject : Your Cash: [NAME]

It’s short and to the point.  This email could be used as the vanguard, or leader in the sequence.  It probably is the alternative to the first one.  The instructions in it is straight-forward.

Ease of Use

We have already seen some ellusions to ease of use above.  The emails below are yet more.

Subject : The Amazon Code [AVAILABLE NOW]

The implications here are, it’s easy, it doesn’t take much time to implement and, though you don’t find it in these emails, the sales video itself tells you this is all done for you.  Hah!  Seeing what you get above, who is going to be doing all this for you?

That’s right…

No one!

Of course, considering the topic, this will take far more of your time and money to actually do considering finding Chinese suppliers you can trust, understand, and work out a deal with.  Then comes the hassles that come with importing the goods, and actually having them sent, all of which isn’t easy.  Then marketing on Amazon isn’t as simple as ten minutes of your time each day.  You also have to get the goods, warehouse them, get the product sent out if you haven’t used Amazon’s services to warehouse and take care of this for you – which isn’t free, and then deal with complaining customers, refunds, yadda, yadda, yadda!

Subject : $2,000 TODAY

Don’t be fooled by these email!

Subject : Your Online Job, [NAME]

This message is supposed to create an analogy of your work day as an employee.  The marketers of this scheme know that 70% of all workers in the US are not engaged with their job positions and some are actively disengaged with them meaning, they hate their jobs.

In this email, here’s your work day.

Curiosity

In the advertisning industry, the sense of mystery, intrigue and the lack of closure in messages, pique curiosity, which causes responses to these types of messages.  They’re used here as well…

Subject: 1 Message for {!name_fix}

Short and simple – What’s inside this message?  It gets opened.  Once opened, the message doesn’t change from the subject line of the email itself.  The hoplink gets clicked.  Clicking on the link becomes more likely by the ominous words below it, “Take heed!” which broadens the curiosity factor.

SUBJECT: MONNNNNNNEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

How convincing is this?  It’s like telling a toddler, “I’ve got some candy for you if you get in the car!” This is a sheer attempt at bypassing the reader’s intellect.

Subject ; Watermelon

Pure curiosity-getter.  It’s also a pure lie!  There’s nothing whatsoever about watermelons in the sales video.  I also looked through all three of the pdf files.  Nothing there!

Subject: FOR: [NAME]

This one is drole! It’s also another lie.

Subject: GUARANTEED: $500

$500 guaranteed by whom?  Who else wouldn’t want a free $500 to claim?  One would think everybody would know better, but that just isn’t true.  How well this email converts remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure – someone somewhere has fallen for it.

Subject: Winner – [NAME]

Not much to say on this one – it’s just another similar to Email 5.

They Get You by Creating a Sense of Urgency!

Nobody likes to be left out.  If it’s what’s happening, we all want a part of the action.  This is what the sense of urgency does.  You’ve thought about it but may have some objections.  Advertising like this often comes with a little bit of persuasion – that sense of urgency.  Nobody likes scarcity.

Subject: URGENT MESSAGE – [NAME]

It seems to me this email precedes the final one below though it may be placed anywhere in the sequence.  However placed, it will be the next to the last.

This final one is the end of the fireworks display. If they don’t have you by this point, they won’t. You’re not fooled by any of these emails and for good reason – it doesn’t take much of a mind to see the fallacies in these emails.  However, these snakes will do anything to get you to click through to the sales video which works on you that much further.  Notice that all of the emails shown here are very short and to the point.  They want your attention and to do this, the have to do this within the short attention span most people have these days.

The final message here has two subject lines.  This gives the affiliate the option to lie a lot or lie just a bit…

SUBJECTS:
Sold Out!
This Is Almost Sold Out!

This is the final email and it’s supposed to be the finale in the fireworks display. It packs a punch and is designed to shock you if you indeed felt a pull towards purchasing the Amazon Code. Unfortunately it gives you one final hope. You can be sure that this product isn’t going anywhere soon, until it runs its course and then gets taken down. It won’t last very long, but it will be there awhile. If you’ve not purchased this thing, congratulations! If you’ve not seen my other review on the sales video itself where I rip this thing apart, you might want to take a look at that now. the Review will open in a separate window.

My Recommendation:

As an honest and sincere person, it is my duty to expose the junk like that above and teach folks who are out trying to find a safe and truly rewarding opportunity. I am a member of Wealthy Affiliate and have been for almost 9 years now. I want to show you that Wealthy Affiliate is not like products or programs like AZ Code. Wealthy Affiliate delivers on everything found in its advertising and you will immediately find that the advertising itself is nothing like what you customarily see. You will not find any hype, or fantastic income claims that everybody who joins gets. You won’t find push-button fortunes here. The work is not done for you! You will be taught how to work in the affiliate marketing industry without the flashing lights and the hype. It’s not there. You will be informed that any worthwhile ideal in building a business comes with hard work and patience. You don’t make money overnight. Show me a business that has. Yes, but they’re very rare and unusual.

Wealthy Affiliate has been around since September 2005. It has freed hundreds of thousands of people like yourself from the rat race and working for employers. It provides everything you need, including several layers of support, the tools and business platform and a 1.3 million member community that you interact with. This includes highly successful folks, intermediate folks and those just beginning to learn. One thing you find with Wealthy Affiliate that you rarely do with any other so-called platform or product is that you are shown what it is and what it does. Wealthy Affiliate also shows you what you’re responsible to do to build your business and make the grade. Again, this is not a push-button system where you click your mouse a few times and get rich. It is however. a training system you will need to bring desire to learn, work and determination to master the industry.

You owe it to yourself to give Wealthy Affiliate a try. There are no obligations and you will be provided a Starter Membership through which you can experience the Platform for yourself and build your first website! The Membership is free and is intended for you to try it out to see if this is something you’d like to pursue. There’s also the Premium Membership, which is low-cost. See for yourself by clicking the button below to be taken to my Wealthy Affiliate Review to learn more…

Click Here to Go to My Wealthy Affiliate Review

AZ Code Review – There’s Info Out There That’s Better and It’s FREE

by Leave a Comment

In my Amazon Code Review, I analyze the shady advertising for this product. I also find the AZ Code isn’t nearly worth the price. The content is very basic & rehashed. DO NOT BUY THIS! It’s better quality elsewhere & it’s FREE!

Amazon Code Review – Product Overview

Product Name: “AZ Code”

Owner(s): Andrew Peterson (This person is fictitious)

Price: The advertised price is $37.  Once inside the user is presented with a $197 upsell.

Website: www.azcode.co

What Is It and Is It Worth the Money?

I’m going to answer the second part of this question first…the answer is, No.

AZ Code Review - A Lie Here!
No Doubt, This Is off the Top and You Won’t Be Getting There with AZ Code!

The reason I say this is because, even though you get two pdf documents, one being the main guide on how to set up and sell on Amazon and finding Chinese products to import and sell on the giant marketplace.  The Guide has 70 pages and the information that’s in it isn’t bad.  The problem is, that much of it, for starters, can be learnt on Amazon, which has tutorials.

Nobody is better suited to provide tutorials than the ones who know the marketplace – Amazon itself.

Furthermore, there is information in Guide that tells you about setting up accounts with Chinese suppliers, importing goods and even what to do with the language barrier when dealing with Chines agents.

If you really want the AmazonCode product, for as long as this works, on the Chrome browser, in the web address bar type,

“site:www.theazcode.com”

There are not many results With any luck, you will find “Chapter 6: Minimum Viable Product – The AZ Code.” This is the product. In fact, if you can get that far, play around with what you have in front of you.  I downloaded everything, including the up-sell from simple searching when I got thinking about what I had and wondered if the other two could be found.  Sure enough!  In my opinion, you are doing nothing wrong if folks are selling something and do not have the sense to secure it!

I’m writing a review on the product and have no interest in purchasing imports from China so I can resell them!

Upon glancing through these resources though, they are not bad, but they are not the best and they do have some filler in them. The same information ican definitely be had without cost (not in obtaining those using the method I found today, but two business websites with guides on working with Chinese imports from start to end.  These are:

Both of these websites are perfectly safe. I have them set to open in a new window or tab so you don’t lose your place here.  From what I can see, which also collaborates with what I’ve read today, these resources are superior to those of AmazonCode (AZCode.)

Now you know what the product is and even have given you a way to go get yourself a set of the pdf files (which I don’t think are worth $37 and $197 respectively and are outlandishly high-priced for what you get!)  I was quite surprised I stumbled into that find today!  I was going to write entirely about the advertising, which I still am, but maybe not in quite as much detail.

The following serves as a lesson to those who read it.  I am pretty put out by what I see in advertising like was used for AZCode, so here are those details for your learning…

The Advertising for AZCode Tells Its Story…

I did a review on what I believe is AZCode’s sister product, AZForumula. The entire review is about the advertising alone.  I felt I did not need to go any further.  What I found in the advertising should throw up red flags in front of anybody who sees it, unfortunately it actually draws them in and they get scammed.

This is why education about this type of stuff is so badly needed. The losses that comes from inferior and downright worthless products and services is beyond belief!  The advertising for this product is child’s play conpared to the earlier product I reviewed.  Nonetheless, the coersive persuasion found in both are very powerful and effective.

How folks who put out (in this case, “fair” infoproducts like this and claim that “all the work is done for you” and a whole slew of other ridiculous claims, is beyond me.  Here, we have three mediocre digital guides, probably slapped together and from what I see, is not only based on the free stuff you find already available, but very likely came from it!

The AZ Code Product – 3 Mediocre PDF Files on Exporting Goods from China and Reselling on Amazon – Not Worth It!

Let’s talk abut what’s in the advertising.  The objective is to compare what’s actually in those guides to how incredibly played up they are in the sales video

Flaunting Wealth

The very first thing that pops up are three examples of folks in various places making outlandish sums of money.  They’re average people who came across the AZCode system (frankly this isn’t even a system)

There’s not much to say here.  The entire sales video is riddled with the flashing of dreams, so-called proof of earnings and huge numbers.  You are no longer worried about bovine bosses, alarm clocks, working for someone else, traffic jams and the inability to being able to do things on your own terms instead, you are now concerned with where you are going to spend your next vaction, which expensive car you’re going to buy, etc.

You are shown figures of earnings that are simply over the top and then assured that your skeptical feelings are perfectly normal … it goes on.  the adverting is there to soften you up and get you in line for another sale.

Logical Fallacies

There are probably more, but two jump out at me when I watched the video.  The appeal to emotion is one of the most widely-used, most common ploys found in advertising.  The objective of using this logical fallacy is because not only is is very powerful and effective, it is the easiest way to soften someone up in any communication.

Flashing money and expensive goods (even of those mansions and cars were rented for the videocast!) excites the emotion.  Folks are up against it and this is an unrelenting conditions in the lives of most people.  This makes for sheer susceptibility to messages like this.

There is no mercy imparted from advertisers who use these tactics.

There is another fallacy that doesn’t get used as much, but it often leads to the emotional appeal, and that is the logical fallacy of the appeal to flattery.  The following two slides were used in the video.  I believe this little message was split across two slides for a reason though, this isn’t important here.  Here they are…

What you are seeing is an invalid argument.  Because you are still involved with the sales video, this necessarily identifies you as an intelligent and competent individual.  Just a little thought about this will tell folks that this is simply flattery though, anyone who may be naive or not with it, won’t see it that way and are actually flattered.

Yes, there are people whom this message will fool and it then does its job of taking a tighter hold of that consumer.

Why I Consider AZCode a Scam

It’s not that the products themselves are worthless because they do have some value.  They’re just not worth the prices being asked for, not by a longshot!

I especially look at the AZCode Pro Guide.  I was shocked at what little information is actually in it!  It’s $197 for a pdf files with 23 pages of information!  What’s worse, here’s what’s in it…

  • Costly Mistakes Amazon Sellers Make
  • Having an Ideal Marketing Mindset
  • Why Customer Service Is Important
  • Review Strategies (seller feedback, product review and to turn one into the other)
  • Leveraging EBC to Increase Conversion Rates
  • Pay Per Click Marketing
  • Creating a Sales Funnel
  • Creating a Squeeze Page

This is the Pro Guide!  I guarantee you, every topic found in this list can be found for free everywhere on the Internet.  People purchase these Guides because the advertising plays them up so much.  The worst of it all is…

The Lies!  The Lies!  The Lies!

Very Easily Forged, Yet Consumers Fall for It All the Time!

There’s much, much more that could be said about the advertising campaign for these three handbooks.  If I can find the sales video on YouTube, that’s going to grace the top of this Review because people need to see it and then read about it from someone who can see what’s happening and cares about others systematically-getting ripped off!

It goes without saying that, though it is possible to learn from those handbooks, they’re nothing to write home about and certainly not worth any bit of the money hundreds of thousands of people have already paid for!  If I can find that video there, it’s coming on here because people have to learn not to get taken by crooks like this!

Most everything in that sales video is a pack of lies, misrepresentations of the facts and deliberate intent to sell sizzle where there is no steak!  These guides may give you some basics about the topic in consideration here, but you will not get rich from what’s in these guides – not any one of them.  I am ever so glad I accidentally came onto them today!  It definitely makes for a better review!

The Ultimate Lies in the Sales Video – The Testimonials…

Okay, apart from the concluseion, I’m done with the writing.  There are four testimonials in this sales video.  I found three out of the four in Fiverr.com, the famous freelance marketplace where actors and artists of all kinds meet up with people needing their services.  One of these unfortunately are some people on there willing to create real-looking testimonials for folks like our AZCode creators needed for their bogus advertising scheme.  In the order the testimonials came in the video, I found #1, #2 and #4.  I could have found #3 as well, but didn’t think what I had already was even necessary, but here they are…

Conclusion

This is just one more case of fraudulent advertising that was used to promote a mediocre product, one that is helpful, but by no means one that would make you a millionaire in less than a year!  If you are looking for a viable opportunity to get education and learn a business, I am a proud member of one you might be interested in.  There’s no hype, lies or anything false in the advertising and it is a high-quality place of excellence in a community 1.2 million strong and growing.  I am going to include a comparison chart between Wealthy Affiliate and AZCode.  For what you hopefully didn’t pay ($234) for a little about 150 pages of just “okay” material, you could put another $150 with it and get an entire year of top quality training in affiliate marketing.  You can click on the button below the chart to see my Wealthy Affiliate Review.  The chart will follow this paragraph.

Thanks for reading and enjoy!

AZ Formula Review – I Smell a Rat!

by Leave a Comment

In my AZ Formula Review, I dissemble the sales video to find that it follows the same popular sneaky methods used by scammers to trick unsuspecting buyers into purchasing inferior & worthless products. My advice: Don’t buy it!

AZ Formula Review Header

AZ Formula Review – Product Overview

Product Name: “AZ Formula”

Owner(s): Steven Cook, CEO & Founder

Price: The advertised price is $47. However, just below the Getting Started button on the website, there is a small line that reads, Become a AZ Formula Member Today Only $37. According to a JV data page for this product, the User is presented with a series of up-sells after the purchase.

Website: azformula.com

What’s This Product All About?

Unfortunately, there is very little to go on inside of the sales video.  My best guess is that this is some sort of software, either desktop or online software that acts as a tool to increase sales for those promoting products on Amazon through their Associates Account (which is Amazon’s affiliate program.)  This is the only information that can be derived with a hint of certainty from the advertising campaign for this product.

Supposedly is Steven Cook, but Isn't
A Bogus Image of Steve Cook

Who the Heck Is Steven Cook?

I have not been able to find any information in an extensive search on the Internet for this person.  There isn’t a single thing that comes up that closely resembles this individual nor anything said of him in the product’s sales video.  I tried looking up the image but came to another dead-end there.  The image seems to have originated from one or more online stock image repositories that offers this particular portrait, which in full, is this individual standing against a wall.  The image has been used by dentist’s offices and who knows what…

That’s all the information I can come up with about AZ Formula and its founder.  Apparently the real information is intended not to be known.

Let’s now take a look at the next available thing we have – the product’s  sales video.  Most of this review will be devoted to this…

An Analysis of the Sales Video

For those who know what to look for in advertising, a lot can be said about the product itself.  Though this isn’t true in every single case, red flags in advertising can be a very determining factor about the product.  Some signs of a faulty product or service can be readily seen the use of logical fallacies and an excessive use of other types of subtle but coercive persuasion.

In simple terms, this is false and misleading advertising.

The advertising for AZ Formula closely follows popular methodologies used for inferior and downright scam products.

Flaunting of Wealth

Very often, this kind of persuasion is used.  The use of eye candy through the flashing of wealth excites the emotion in a number of ways.  This is a logical fallacy, the fallacy of emotional appeal which is often used in advertising. There surely is a fair share of this in every way, as the consumer sees, reads and hears it as s/he follows along.

The presence of information about wealthy in an advertisement doesn’t always mean the product is bad, but the practice of using it is commonly used by fraudulent marketers because it excites emotion in buyers. More on this later. The screenshot above, indicates that the motive for inserting the imagery shown below is, to excite emotional appeal in buyers for this product.

Unreasonable Expectations

These are outlandish claims within the advertising.  In this case, there’s fantastic amounts of income that is said could or will (both used in this video) result from the use of the product within a short period of time. There are claims that immediate results will occur upon setting up the product. These claims are also coupled with such ease that there is little to no effort required of the user.  (More on this in the next sub heading.).  The advertiser has made sure this is done by “doing it correctly” and and according to instructions.

No Work

Most people want things to be easy and simple, and will settle for having things done for them.  This is human nature,

Entire franchises have been founded upon this tenet.  Some of these are known as a Silver Bullet and The Big Red Easy Button.  Very often a simple three-step process is presented.  This lures people in because it’s easy and effortless.

Advertisers know this and it’s used everywhere in campaigns.  It is a form of assurance about a product or service and when used in fraudulent advertising, it leaves the user bewildered, frustrated and downright angry.

This sales video is riddled with this prmise.

Testimonials

When we research products and services that we find, we like to see how others have experienced them.  We believe in them because they’re supposed to represent customers’ use of the product and what they think of it.  It helps us with our buying decisions.

What if the tings that are said in the testimonials are not true?  They misrepresent the product or even worse, they’re from folks who have never used the product!

This is exactly what happens here in the testimonials found in the advert.  I have found two out of the five folks on there giving false testimonies.  This leads me to believe the tall of them ar bogus.

They’re actors from the well-known Fiverr.com, where folks hire themselves out to be spokespersons gigs for all kinds of applications.

This includes real-looking testimonials for folks who need them for their advertising. Fraudulent marketing includes the use of actors who pose as folks who have been exposed to the product or service!  They’re lies!  Check below!

The Testimonials Are Bogus. This One Was Done by a Freelance Actor from Fiverr.com
Here’s Another One. That’s 2 out of 5! I Suspect They’re All Bogus

Scarcity

It’s Not Gong Anywhere Any Time Soon!

If you’ve got an inferior product, or something that is complete junk, there’s two things you can do in your advertising to get out there and make boatloads of money, though this is as unethical as it gets…

Already using the appeal to emotion, unscrupulous marketers resort to having as little to say about the product as they can (called selling the sizzle without the steak) and then creating a sense of urgency in the consumer.  There are a number of ways this is done…

These Create a Sense of Urgency
  • Sales
  • Time limits
  • Expiry
  • Shortness in supply
  • Limited seating/slots
  • …and others…

In the rags-to-riches story in this advert, there’s an apparent reason why the product is in short demand.  Other apparently controlling entities have found out about this product and they have been angered by it, as if these folks could shut the system down, therefore, only a very few will be allowed in. Several times, the viewer is told to move quickly because the video might be taken down at any time.  Scarcity is outright used to invoke fear and urgency into folks who think they are looking at the deal of a lifetime and this breaks down the consumer’s ability to think rationally about the transaction before purchasing.

Rags-to-riches stories found in videos like this is extremely common in fraudulent advertising.  They’re there for good reason – they seduce rationality and invoke emotionalism  The story is a pack of lies as I will show you below…

Assurance

Owner Takes Such Attention Away from Himself!

Assurance is another tool used by marketers, and though there are times when such tools are needed.  However, assurance is also used as a ploy to amplify trust and diminish skepticism.

There’s two ways assurance is used in this advertisement, and is often used by fraudulent marketers in attempts to mask true intent:

The so-called narrator, Steven Cook takes a stand against the Internet marketing gurus and big-shots who show little remorse for the fraudulent crimes they commit.  He’s taking a stand against this and is downright angry about it.  This leads to the next way…

He’s right there for the small-time entrepreneurs out there trying to make their businesses go and his conscience can’t let him sleep nights.  This drives Mr. Cook to play out some altruism upon the “lucky” few whom he can take in under his wing.

These, and other forms of assurance are commonly used in false advertising of this type.

Finally!  Some Clues as to What This Product Is!

Intermingled with the It’s all done and set up for you spiel, Mr. Cook begins talking about online business sales and how they have overtaken conventional brick-and-mortar counterpart.  He brings up some statistics.  I have not checked these.  They may be true and they may be some more false information.

We also find, in one of the images shown of three statements, that the headers are Amazon’s.  Very likely the product is some sort of hack that helps boost sales in Amazon.  Cook asks how inventory can be managed, what to sell, etc.  Evidently this is what’s involved.

Is all this leading up to a product that is actually capable of making the fantastic earnings claims that are riddled throughout the sales video?  Let’s look at the next item…

The Down-Sell Sequence

This is where advertisers build perceived value.  This is done as a sort of shock to get folks to believe something is more valuable than it really is.  By now, this sales video has a lot of people hooked.  With what’s been discussed so far about AZ Formula’s advertising campaign, there is little to wonder why this would be so.

The above are powerful tools and fraudulent marketers cram adverts like this full of fallacy and junk.

If you were to literally remove the coercive persuasion, including the appeal to emotion, the rags-to-riches story, bogus testimonials, flaunting of wealth, and the lies, you would have less than a minute of stuff that even remotely has value to it.

Often used, and should raise a red flag, is the stepping down process just before the final call to action I call, the Down-Sell Sequence. This a version of the late-night infomercials, the “But Wait! order now and we will send you two pieces of this junk!” that puts a calming effect on prospective buyers.

Here, the price gets dropped from the ridiculously-high amount to the deal of the century – the famous $47!

Call to Action

The Call to Action Can Be a Buying Call or to Get Involved with the Advert.

In the AZ Formula case here, we have the typical call to action with embedded reminders of everything discussed in the video, telling the consumer what to do next.

A Call to Action within the body of the ad can also be there to get the viewer to do something that will likely get increase the likelihood that the person sways toward the closing of the sale. This tactic is used by nearly all experienced advertisers.

I have not gone any further with this.  This advert says enough about what to expect.  the lies alone found inside makes me write a great-big red SCAM across the product, even though it may work.

Now for the Frosting on the Cake…

This is very short and sweet.  Remember the 10 lucky individuals who are being admitted to this highly-exclusive program?  Let’s take a look at one more item here and let you decide whether or not you should let Mr. Cook get your emotions spun up or take a look at this one more fact and let your intellect guide you the right way here…

A picture is worth a thousand words, and I have already written more text here that might make some folks weary.  If only 10 souls are being admitted, than why is the following?

What you are looking at, are some of the joint-venture stats for this product. These stats contain several pages of data and graphs that tell the affiliate marker how the campaign is performing. Shown here is the header of the data belonging to AZ Formula. The line of text tells the most basic details about this product. Please consider the following…

First of all, there are marketplaces where affiliate marketers (folks who promote products and services on the Internet for businesses.) and vendors (the businesses that offer affiliate programs for the affiliates) meet up and do business with each other.  The marketplaces are called affiliate networks and serve as a brokerage for the two groups.

Clickbank is one of these and AZ Formula is being hosted there as of this writing. The product has just launched within the last day or two.

What makes the advertising we have looked at so misleading beyond anything else is the fact that there are thousands (very possibly tens of thousands) of affiliate marketers promoting this product.  There are millions of emails going out to inboxes across the globe.

Ten Lucky Ones?  Who in the heck could those be?

We do get another vital piece of information about this product – It contains up-sells.  In other words, you will pay the $

My Recommend…

I can show you a program that I recommend, not only because I have been a member of its business platform now for almost nine years and that it has a proud community of almost 1.3 million members strong, but because its basis is in paying it forward, which is taught in its courses and training modules.

If you are looking for an honest and true place to learn how to build a business suited to your passions and interests, you’ve come to the right place. Wealthy Affiliate has long been known for its quality and high-ticket signature training, tools and support you get at far less cost than you get with products such as the one above. I will compare AZ Wealthy Affiliate with AZ Formula so you see first-hand what you get in each. AZ Formula and others like it claim close-knit support systems that don’t exist. Their “systems” often turn out to be a cheap pdf file or two, or some other low-quality product, and take you by the hand and do that work for you? Forget it!

Not so at Wealthy Affiliate. Here you will learn the ropes of affiliate marketing and what you see IS WHAT YOU GET. Since 2005, Wealthy Affiliate has had no rivals. Take a look at the chart below. At the bottom of the chart is a button that will take you to my Wealthy Affiliate Review. Wealthy Affiliate allows you to come inside and experience it for yourself. No stone is left upturned and you will know first-hand what you’re getting. There are no obligations here. See it for yourself. Give it a try – it’s on the house! There is no cost to try it. I guarantee you’ve seen nothing quite like Wealthy Affiliate, and I am proud to say this.

Clicksure Went Kaput! Good or Bad News?

by Leave a Comment

Needs intro and images!!!

What Was Clicksure?

In 2011, Clickbank, an affiliate network (that is, a marketplace or brokerage where affiliate marketers and vendors meet,) realized and took action on a serious problem that was going on within its domain.

It’s reputation was on the line with mounting complaints about scam products being hosted by them.  In a ditch effort to turn this around, the network cleaned house, ousting thousands of these inferior products. Other affiliate networks followed suit to purge their lists of these baddies.

With no place to go, some of these angered vendors took to creating their own affiliate networks.  During the same year, one of these was the prominant Clicksure, which opened launched out of China and the [Malaysia Island]. Little is known whether the launch of the new network was the result of being ousted from Clickbank, but several points make this a very good possiblilty

  • Thousands of scammy products, many by the same vendors, were removed from Clickbank’s listings
  • This massive removal took place on September 1, 2011.  Clicksure launched on September 7, 2011
  • On the day of the launch, the new website posted a small message about Clickbank’s oustings.

Clicksure’s Affiliate Listings

Whilst it technically couldn’t be said of the affiliate network that it was a scam operation, as it was very similar in operation to Clickbank in many ways, the network did host a very high percentage of scam products and services.  To have been an affiliate in Clicksure was only for those who didn’t care about their reputation.

Indeed, there are lots of people out there that will make a buck, even if it’s shady.  It happens all the time.

Reputation at Clicksure wasn’t a high priority either.  It opened its doors to every country, including those reputable companies such as PayPal, bar from some or all of their services.  As a brokerage, Clicksure focused on making money from its listed opportunities whether or not they were scams.  They even provided services for vendors in marketing campaigns for a cost, which included things like the use of false testimonials in sales videos, not to mention lies and misinformaton and all kinds of logical fallacies!

Surprise!

Today I went to search for some bad products to expose.  I do this simply utilizing advertising campaigns used by unscrupulous vendors.  Many of these hosted on Clicksure had strikingly the same methods used throughout the board.

I found two fairly recent sources (both in June 2018) that Clicksure was closing down that the directors simply decided to, leaving vendors and affiliates scrambling for their money in their accounts.

I visited Clicksure’s website.  Sure enough, all the links pertinent to starting a new account, affiliates, vendors, in fact, most of the links, though the text, graphics and special effects are stil there, the links are not.

So, what does this mean?

Clicksure’s Closing – Is It Good News?

The good news is, this is one more source of piracy and scammy products and services that have been interrupted.  These people are now going to have to find other places to host their scam products.  Many of them probably will but they’re not going to have it as easy as they had it in Clicksure.

That network was all about providing hosting for such rubbish.  They didn’t care as much about reputation as they did pulling in the dough.  The network was also from out of China.  the Chinese government apparently has no legislation against the kind of fraud that went on with many of the vendors.

The affiliates who made huge winfalls of money off the sales from these scam products are now going to have to look harder to to replace what they had lost.  The products meant big money for them, not because there was any value to the products, but that the advertising for them was so powerful, that alone did the selling.

As any shady operation is capable of doing, suddenly hundreds of thousands of vendors and affiliates suddenly find things at Clicksure are not function the way they should.  This came without warning.  Upon contacting Clicksure’s support, this is what they got…

Unfortunately Clicksure directors have decided to close the network.

Hmmm.

Play with fire and you will get burnt if you are not careful!

Yes, this is great news!

Clicksure’s Closing – Is It Bad News?

However, though the affiliate network has shut down, what does this mean?

This isn’t going to stop the scams from occurring.  These people will just find other ways to push it, if many of them haven’t already.  For people like myself, going to Clicksure and looking up these scam products to, not only expose in reviews, but launch-jack them, that is, getting into their websites before they launch to find things like the fake testimonials and so forth to write about.

For those of us who go after this stuff, it’s going to be harder to track it down and though similar marketing campaigns (i.e. sales video loaded with fake testimonials, appeal to emotion and blatant lies) will still exist, Clicksure had its way of pulling this stuff off and it was quite unique to Clicksure.

Much of this stuff still abounds on the Internet.  It’s not yet been taken down or has been re-homed with another host that will take them.  This remains to be researched.

The marketing will become more varied though many of the same elements that make up fraudulent campaigns can still be seen of those who know what to look for.

On the Look-out for New Clicksures.

They’re out there.  I will find other sources.  Surely clicksure wasn’t the only place out there.  It was just the best known of these shady Clickbank counterparts.

However, Clicksure was a thriving place.  Without warning, it dropped the ball on its entire network. Good enough for Clicksure and the vendors and affiliates who chose to rip off people!  It’s not so good for those within the network that did have reputable products as, there were those from countries that are banned from the better networks, not because they are bad people but because they live in those countries where fraud is rempart.

The serious danger that comes from these operations is that they locate themselves in places where they are out of reach from countries that regulate online fraud, and many that do, do not ban these operations from being accessed by those who prefer to.

Some of these bad vendors will close up shop.  Others will find other ways to scam the unwary. Yet others will find a new home for their products.  Yet others may even start a new affiliate network to honour the passing of Clicksure.  Whatever way, people like myself will continue to seek these scam products and services out to expose them, helping save some of the unwary from being taken to the cleaners by these snakes.

There’s still plenty of them out there coming out every day!

Conclusion

One of the many awesome things about Wealthy Affiliate, where I have been a proud member for almost nine years now, is that it teaches how to market on the Internet ethically, honestly and with excellence.  Many folks who put out reviews that expose bad products are members of Wealthy Affiliate, especially those who actually get inside them or are rightfully knowledgeable of the products.  Unfortunately a few members have not followed the instructions at Wealthy Affiliate and have put out bad reviews, but there are certainly many out there that have saved folks from being scammed.

Some of these people have instead of getting caught in a trap, joined Wealthy Affiliate’s learning opportunity to become an honest affiliate marketer, have learned which products to promote and do so with excellence.

 

 

 

 

Recent Posts

Recent Comments