Has anyone seen this new affiliate technique/landing page (Warning: Scam Alert)

[Jack Duncan]

This almost had me fooled for a minute because it was a very clever designed ad on a news website...

So, you click the link and you land here: (WARNING..this is a live page...with affiliate links...DO NOT BUY...Just an EXAMPLE)

[Link Removed By Moderator]


Now...notice how they have really blurred the ethics line on this one...I honestly don't think this will be around too long...

I'm sure whoever put this up is raking it in though...reads just like a page you would fine on a news site..

I'm sure there is some good and bad you can take away from it...

Anybody else seen this today?

By the way...don't forget to check out that scammy disclaimer at the bottom!

Oh...and if you want a good laugh..check out that last line under the comments section:
Comments Closed Due To Spam (back soon)

[JennJessop]

WOW That is quite hilarious! You know the funny thing is at first I'm like hey this guy is from where I live! Lol. It looks quite professional. I have to admit its a good scam. Thanks for the heads up!

[Bondtana]

They do the same thing on TV now. Fake news broadcasts as commercials...

[Neromancer]

Hasn't this stuff been around for a while? Thought so.

[jendoe]

Even the ads down the right side all point back to this guys stuff.

And, yeah, seeing he was from "my town" got my attention too, quickly, even going in knowing it was set up that way, funny how that works.

It does seem to be pushing the boundary abit... I want to learn to *sell* to people, not to outright *trick* them !

[JayInOrlando]

That site is nothing. I've recently seen one that was a full on copy of a TV station news type site. "Channel 13 News" or something like that. It even had a freaking "Live" radar weather map and the whole shebang!

[Marhelper]

I don't know ... it looks like so many other scam sites to me. Perhaps I am jaded.

[ExRat]

Hi Jack,

Yes, there have been a few posts about this recently - they're just one of the latest type of flog.

These have a lot of info -

here

Further down in the thread in this one -

here

[mikeyman120]

The screen shot looks like it is some kind of Twitter/Google Adsense account.
That's either a fake image or there is some program out there that lets you cash in on twitter and adsense. Or cash in on twitter link clicks. There are a lot of twitter opportunities popping up so who knows!

Mike

[Jack Duncan]

Exrat...thanks for those links...

Yeah, the misspellings in the disclaimer are a big flag...you'd think someone who was this creative could at least run spell check?

[ExRat]

Hi Jack,

you'd think someone who was this creative could at least run spell check?

A handful of people are creative, a whole bunch of not so creative types copy them on a large scale.

The more you study them (and read the threads and search google for exposes on flogs) you'll see just how creative they are - much is hidden that is very innovative and psychologically smart. Yet the copycats don't even bother changing the images. Some poor stock photo model becomes (in)famous overnight.

[Karen Blundell]

here's the thing about those scams..it says you get the program for $1 right?
what they don't tell you is that it's a trial, and the next thing you know your credit card has been dinged for another $50 or so because you didn't read the fine print...(which is non-existent in most cases)

can you spell SCAM!

stay away and keep you credit card in your wallet

[Jack Duncan]

Listen, anytime someone works that hard to trick you into thinking "Legit"...your BS antenna better be 20 ft. high.

It's one thing to copy the layout of an editorial (Copywriting masters have done this for years...mimicking the layout of the editorial content)...but clearly there are laws being broken on this page...

Looking at the other threads ExRat posted above...it seems to be a pretty hot new trend...

Shame...

[ExRat]

Hi Jack,

FTC have homed in on girlsnamefatloss.com flogs.

So people moved on.

You can guess the next chapter.

As Karen said it's a continuity scam, and it's using CPA a lot of the time.

Find a few top ones, and trace the amount of traffic coming from media buys. That will make things a lot clearer.

Some of the diet flogs just had closed 'comments'. But many had what appeared to be working comments. So when someone left a comment (for example, a bitter buyer who returns to expose the con and speak their mind) it logs the IP (or similar), shows the comment as live to that IP, but not to anyone else.

The thanks button is bottom right Jack ;-)

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Been around a while now.

[Michael Taylor]

Originally Posted by Jack Duncan

It's one thing to copy the layout of an editorial (Copywriting masters have done this for years...mimicking the layout of the editorial content)...but clearly there are laws being broken on this page...

Which makes me wonder, Jack...if we as Warriors were to do something similar...ethically, mind you, but similar...how would we build one of these? Advertorial style, but on the light side of the Force...

[TrafficGuy Claude]

Lol @ this screenshot:



I didn't know Twitter bought out Google...

[marmo]

Lol the scammy ones like that always close the comments. There are plenty that set you up on an auto rebill that can be hard to get yourself removed from if you used a debit card. Lots of people get taken in by that scam sadly.

[Dana_W]

www.citychronical.com :: College Drop-Out Cracks the Code To Make Over $10,000/mo

This fake news blog uses the same guy's picture! I started a thread on this a week or two ago. It's so sleazy.

[Paul Myers]

They might as well have left the disclaimer off. Putting it in print designed to make it less obvious is worse than not having it there at all. I'm consistently surprised at how many people fail to understand that.

They're going to find that out if they're among the ones the FTC targets and they're hoping that grey text at the bottom will protect them.

Those sidebar ads might point to a useful way to test headlines and AdWords copy, though. Not in this kind of environment, but in a more legit system, that could be handy.


Paul

[John Taylor]

Paul,

Originally Posted by Paul Myers

Those sidebar ads might point to a useful way to test headlines and AdWords copy, though. Not in this kind of environment, but in a more legit system, that could be handy.

Those "ads" are actually just a single image with
an embedded link.

Therefore there's no way to track an individual ad
within the group.

John

[Dana_W]

Originally Posted by Michael Taylor

Which makes me wonder, Jack...if we as Warriors were to do something similar...ethically, mind you, but similar...how would we build one of these? Advertorial style, but on the light side of the Force...

The ethical way to do this would be to use a REAL person's story, and real people's testimonials and comments. Also, to sell a real product that actually worked and was successfully used by the person who is featured on the "newsblog".

This company and others like it use the same fake newsletter page to sell a whole bunch of different products. The link that I posted - the page pretended this fake guy made a fortune with Twitter, but then steered you to an Auction Profits product.

Oh, and another thing - ethical products wouldn't use hidden forced continunity, and then make it near impossible for people to cancel the subscription.

[Clayton Jolin]

Such fake blogs have been out there for a while now I guess. There was a thread here at WF with links to atleast 10 such LPs promoting GoogleCashKit!

There're tens of similar pages for AcaiBerry and stuff like that. The point it, this won't stop working until people stop being too carried away by fake comments.

Regards,
ClaytonJ

[Diana Lane]

These have been around for a while now. The minute I see anything now with my home city mentioned so prominently, I'm out of there. Coming from the UK, my home city looks particularly incongruous when it stands out on a page full of Americanisms. Not that I think these sites are solely produced by Americans - I just haven't seen one that isn't yet.

I expect it's only a matter of time before a 'genuine' New Yorker or Californian claims he could eat as much Yorkshire pudding and jellied eels as he liked and still lose weight with the latest fat loss supplement

[Tyrus Antas]

All this flog snafu has taught me something important: never pose as a stock-photo model.

Tyrus

[Truffle]

lol I love the comments section haha pre-made comments to "show" you can make money with it and then "comments closed due to spam" lol made me laugh

Hope he earns a decent amount of money with this.

greetz,
jobic

[Mike Hersh]

Unbelievable! People just don't understand that the real money comes from ethical ways to make it.

But I like the design of the page lol...

[Don Schenk]

Originally Posted by ExRat

Find a few top ones, and trace the amount of traffic coming from media buys. That will make things a lot clearer.

Roger, just a quick question... How do you do that? Or how can we do that? Check the amount of traffice coming from media buys.

Thanks

:-Don

[Scott Ames]

I want to nail the SOB to the wall.

Every time I place a Craigslist ad for my friend, I get lots of replies like this:


** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: craigslist | about > scams

Do you collect unemployment??

Then if I reply I get an autoresponder that links to that site and page, like this:


Hiii, thanks for mailing me back. I found this article on the Times
website: Is working online the next gold rush

{url here }

....and it's very interesting. I already made some money from reading
what the article had to offer you should check it out


I'm so sick of getting their crap.

[Bakai]

I don't get the uproar. This is just basic affiliate marketing. I have seen this and other pages like it advertised on adwords. What do you think press releases are for, real press releases? Personally I admire it as a great example of how to make money online.

[AffiliateMax]

Originally Posted by Bakai

I don't get the uproar. This is just basic affiliate marketing.

Basic affiliate marketing!? Since when did basic affiliate marketing involve a landing page full of lies and deception to promote something which is basically just a scam?

-

[Bakai]

Originally Posted by AffiliateMax

Basic affiliate marketing!? Since when did basic affiliate marketing involve a landing page full of lies and deception to promote something which is basically just a scam?

-

Um, since the beginning of marketing, maybe the stone age...

[bobsedge]

This is really bad for the industry. The problem is that these tactics work.

I personally don't get it. Why not just pitch a product honestly and let the market decide. I'm really tired of these long winded, over hyped sales letters full of lies and half truths. And when its not sales letters, it's crap like this.

The way to stop it is for all of us to become better consumers and stop buying into the next great thing.

[Sean Roberts]

I love it how they do this:

Step 1:

Get Twitter Cash Kit

Step 2:

Post Links given to you on Twitter

Step 3:

Deposit the checks you receive!


It's literally as easy as 1,2,3 folks!


B.S.


Anyone actually making good money online knows that you need a solid business foundation and mindset in place to do it, it's just unfortunate it takes most people quite a while to come to that realisation, if they do at all.


It's up until that point that they keep lining the pockets of people peddling hyped up junk like this. Fair play to them if they can make money like this, but it is pretty unethical and only serves to crush the hopes of many hopeful IMers!

[Simo]

...and this guy thinks using the media angle gives him the extra "edge"?!? lol. Geez-gutter "journalism" at its finest.

I'll buy it if the guy can get someone trustworthy like Rupert Murdoch to endorse it

[Bakai]

This technique has been going on forever in the offline world: newspapers. I remember seeing full page ads that were designed to look like news stories. Nothing new here at all, just online.

[Jon Steel]

Good info - thanks for the heads up...

js

[Max Whitson]

Hey, I live in Knoxville, TN~

[Todd Sampson]

Is it just me or does your scam alert go off whenever you see the
as seen on ABC, CNN, MSNBC crap on all of these pages.
That automatically raises the alarms and makes me think it is a scam.

-Todd Sampson

[Allen Graves]

LOL - I cracked up about him being from my little Florida town - 3,000 miles away from Washington!!!

AL

[Bakai]

It's an obvious promotional piece, I just don't see why anyone HERE would be offended. As a marketer I am impressed with a fine work of art.

[Allen Graves]

It may not be so obvious to a single mom who just lost her job and is going to spend grocery money on something that is being totally overblown here.

And this guy's probably gonna go spend that lady's money on a 12 pack and a box of smokes.

I don't like it, personally...but if you think its a fine work of art, then...well, whatever.

[Bakai]

Originally Posted by Allen Graves

It may not be so obvious to a single mom who just lost her job and is going to spend grocery money on something that is being totally overblown here.

And this guy's probably gonna go spend that lady's money on a 12 pack and a box of smokes.

I don't like it, personally...but if you think its a fine work of art, then...well, whatever.

I seriously think this guy is beyond the 12 pack and cigs level. He is raking in the cash with this site. For the mom who buys into it, well she just may get her self started on a new career. One step leads to another, and all is not as it seems.

But what I have been saying is this method has been used long before the internet.

[mikemcmillan]

This stuff is not okay or any manner of clever marketing. It is an affront to everyone who works honestly to make money online. Moreover, as Allen mentioned, there surely are people out there who are living lives of quite desperation just trying to put food on the table for their kids. The thought of them losing money to some scammer like this makes me ill.



The funny thing was that the poster did a search on Twitter for Mike Steadman and three twittlings were found; none of them had any followers on Twitter. Like the poster said, it's hard to believe a guy with no followers would be knocking down 10k a month tweeting. Ya gotta love it!

[Slyknight]

Originally Posted by Bakai

It's an obvious promotional piece, I just don't see why anyone HERE would be offended. As a marketer I am impressed with a fine work of art.

He makes waaayy too money obvious mistake.

1.Look at the comments for example: The "twitter-google" image. Clearly some edited crap.

2.The link twitter cash is being repeated too much. People tend to get annoyed when reading something that keep screaming "buy now, buy here, purchased there."

3. "it's easy as one, two, there...and it's for FREE."
Anyone can just think about that a bit and realize if money could be made that easy, no one would waste their time sharing it with others for free.

and much, much more

Seriously, I don't get why so many people fall for such things.

[rapidscc]

Originally Posted by Bakai

I seriously think this guy is beyond the 12 pack and cigs level. He is raking in the cash with this site. For the mom who buys into it, well she just may get her self started on a new career. One step leads to another, and all is not as it seems.

But what I have been saying is this method has been used long before the internet.

Hi Bakai,

Hope you won't take this personally..I was wondering why you keep on saying that what this guy is doing is ok..IMO it's not ok..We can all see that this site is a BIG SCAM!

Like you I know that this type of scam has been going around for a time now..But it's still not ok..

Even if this guy is beyond the 12 packs and cigs level he is still scamming people..and if anyone thinks that it's ok because this is a "GENIUS" idea, ouch! it's like saying that if you are smarter than a lot of people then you can go on and scam them..

I didn't want to post in this thread in the first place coz it only adds up "link juice" to the site..I was even wondering why this was posted in the first place...Imagine a high PR site like ours linking to a site like that..but I just can stomach the fact some people would actually say these things are "ok" because it's being done for a long time already..

Open your eyes..THAT SITE IS A SCAM!

oMar

[Joshua.E1]

thanks for informing us.

I have not seem it before, or any kind like this. Its quite funny, when you see it, it will display the country or state you are living in.

As I live in Singapore, it will show the word Singapore on the header. Just too bad that you discovered it.

[Good News Now]

I am so glad that the Warrior Forum exists. It helps some not to be scammed by these "marketers".

But I feel so sorry for others who unknowingly get trapped into those scams.

Vadimus

[Sid Kaplan]

Sounds to me like these guys go to the Bernie Madoff School Of Business

I have a degree in Marketing but sometimes I think I should have gone for a PHD (pile it higher and deeper).

Come on folks, if it looks to good to be true...

[Bakai]

I stand by my stance that this guy is NOT scamming.