It's not as easy as "run like hell" - because you have to know who to run from and where to run to. (Otherwise, you will be running right back into their arms...)
How do you know the scammers from the straights?
Mainly - do they promote how much money they made in their pitch?I've been doing a study of these, ever since I found Salty Droid and his take on what is going down in the Internet Marketing world. He was talking about someone else I wanted to chase down, and had pulled up the data no one else had.
(I don't appreciate his language, through...)
He's not always right on the money, but if you weed out the obvious mis-steps, a fair read.
What he uncovered was a video where Frank Kern mentioned starting a "Syndicate" of several "big name guru's" who were coordinating their releases with each other, and being affiliates to each other (sending their lists emails which were glowing about how they recommended this latest launch.) They also agreed to limit the number of packages made availalbe so that each launch would be a huge demand with low supply.
Technically, this perhaps isn't illegal. It's also very hard to prove.
This did bring up another point - which is: Is everyone like this?
The list of people in this "Syndicate" we are looking at was listed out (mainly) on this blog post. Scamworld was a Verge piece which names most of these.
The reverse of this - people who give incredible value all on their own schedules (and usually don't use the "standard" Jeff Walker launch antics) was found on Forbes.
If you look over that Syndicate list of "Internet Marketing" people - and look up their launch sales letters and emails - you'll see that the amount of money made is a big deal with them. (That blog post has a lot of that happening.)
The Forbes list has people into all sorts of marketing except just doing it to set new sales records.
Did you get your free "Get Your Self Scam Free" ebook?
Funny enough, I had a lady call me up the other day about how to deal with online scams. She worked with vets to help them get businesses started - and found they were being scammed all over the place when they wanted to look for "home business opportunities."I told her about the old Thrive Learning Institute and that scam book. (It's available for free on Scribd, or you can buy a copy on Amazon or almost anywhere.)
But at that time I didn't have a pat answer for how to detect them.
If they mention money in their headline, especially exact dollar amounts, then they are probably a scammer (or got trained by one.) So you leave these completely alone.
Real mentors deal with the ways you can make money online, true - but they use real benefits in their headlines. And, as I said, they don't usually do Jeff-Walker-type launches.
(To be sure, I've recommended Walker before - and you can get all his key data when he does one of his launches, just copy his launch videos.)
Syndicates and cabals abound in Internet Marketing
Both formal and informal arrangements occur in this area, particularly affiliate marketing. It's all based on "making money" (as opposed to "earning income") and keeping the channels clear so people can participate on a fair basis and not be swamped out by Big Boys.Dan Kennedy himself floated the idea of a cooperative cabal long before Kern got his "Syndicate" idea.
The problem with that Syndicate is that they are dealing with a very small percentage of people - their audience is well-heeled (or don't mind being in constant debt) and are hooked on this stuff like it's crack cocaine.
Of course, these guys (and their type) are easily detected. Because they are always out there with "how do we make tons of money off this stuff - and 'You Can Too!'" Eban Pagan and Ryan Diess I spotted early on. Guys like this are always moving their target. They don't stick with something (other than Jeff Walker, perhaps) - or not very long. And their descriptions and headlines are crazy with fantastic comparisons and terms.
Easy to spot. Just don't go there. And note who they recommend and stay away from them as well.
Look - see the Forbes list and go there, instead. Simple.
And when you find some guy recommending them in their emails, you can see where they got into this scene for a hefty split of the take.
How they get celebrity backing
Money, mostly. You'll see their price points are around $1000 -$2500. These also include residual income by mandatory memberships. They also include various up-sells that the affiliates can offer along with the launch-du-jour. It's all built on making money.That's these guy's Achille's heel and is how to detect them. Find the guys which constantly spout how much money they're making and you have these IM guys spotted.
Look, Internet Marketing is no secret. The Internet is constantly evolving. Google and others are constantly changing their algorithms to defeat the spammers and scammers. That's why these guys have to shift - because they are selling the "breaking-edge" stuff which is being the Mole in the Google Whack-A-Mole game.
They get celebrities into this, using their brand to push these launches. I recently opted-in to a Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) email which was pushing some new release. The videos all started out with how much this guy was excited with this new release about how you can make tons of money. The kicker was the price: Just 3 payments of $795 each over three months.
So if Kiyosaki was getting a 50% cut - then that's about $1200 per sign-up.
(The trick of this is that most of this is a 30-day refund policy - so they can't get all the data until they go three months. At that point, they can only get their last payment refunded. Cute.)
Does that help you make your decision?
It's really pretty much cut and dried like that. Read that book I linked to and you'll see why this works that way. There's a bit of technical stuff behind why scammers scam and how to scam proof yourself.For now, just look for the money. Because these Syndicate-type scammers are. Especially if it belongs to you...
