Top 5 IM Scams--Add To My List!

We've all been a victim of some kind of either misleading, or--out and out full-blown scam from one Internet marketer or another.

Just for fun, I thought I'd list my top 5 prickly points I run into time and time again. Read 'em and weep. Add you own pet peeves if you'd like. I would like to read what gets under your skin as well. Let's take a ride.

NUMBER 1
"Hey Mike, got the link fixed."

I get dozens of these a day. Apparently the people, which include many well known marketers, think that others have never seen this one before--so they keep using it over and over.

You get an email one day from a guru which is essentially filler text punctuated with a plethora of affiliate links to some product they are promoting. The next day you get a follow up email which begins with the header, LINK FIXED. The email states that the link they provided you with yesterday wasn't working, but they've fixed it now and want you to take a look at it.

Yeah, right. It's just a way for them to send out exactly the same email two days in a row without you accusing them of spamming you. I don't know how stupid they think we are, but apparently it is pretty dog gone stupid!

NUMBER 2
"The bonuses I offer when you order through a link on my page are worth a total of $1,945."

Come on, stop bull-sh*tting me fella. If your bonuses are worth that much, why aren't you selling them instead of pushing the $27 product on your pre-sell page. Get a freaking life. Apparently most affiliate marketers depend on the gullibility of visitors to their site. Maybe you can profit form this technique. A lot of gurus use it. Me? I've got too much pride in the bonuses I develop myself to resort to this.

NUMBER 3
"Get Top Google Rankings."
This is a cute little trick but one I have too much pride to ever use myself. The site owner claims they can get top Google rankings for whatever term they choose. They show you a search term and, sure enough--they have a top Google ranking. But look at their search term. The only thing that matters, and I mean the only thing, is this: Can they get a top Google ranking for a popular product using the exact name of the product and that exact name only for a money page (a page with a direct link to a publisher's product)?

Feeder sites don't matter. Articles are the easiest thing in the world to get top Google rankings for in the world. But most article directories, such as eZineArticles don't allow affiliate links in resource boxes.

The other trick is for them to include one very highly searched term in their search phrase and then tack on another word or two. Their listing is not based upon anyone searching for their exact term, it is a result for people searching for the highly searched term they have put in their search phrase. If you put their search phrase in parentheses you see that there are very few pages returned for the same search phrase on Google. Misleading from the word go!

TRICK 4
Testimonials
If you visit very many of the pitch pages for products put out by the gurus you will notice one thing that stands out like a sore thumb. The first thing is that usually the vast majority of their testimonials come from JV partners doing massive mailings for them. If you are in on the product launch and can access the leader board, you will see that many of the names appearing on their leader board have also provided great testimonials for the product. It's a little misleading but I can understand why it's done.

The other thing you will notice is that you will find some testimonials from "average" individuals. However, if you surf the popular product sites you will find that there are dozens of individuals who submit comments to every new product that comes out. Why? Because many publishers will include the name of the person giving the testimonial as well as their web site.

There is a group of professional testimonial writers out there who submit testimonials for every single product in hopes to get some buzz for their site by getting their testimonials in sales pages for popular products. These are some reasons why I give very little credence to any testimonials at all.

TRICK 5
Clickbank earnings shots for 2-3 days.
Those don't impress me. There are a number of ways this can be gamed. First, any guru or "almost guru" with a mailing list of 10,000 names or more can generate fairly substantial sales whenever they wish simply by promoting a new product launch. And--if it is a high-ticket product of a thousand dollars or more, all they need to do is sell a product or two for a series of 2-3 days.

The other thing, a little more devious, is as follows. Suppose you were to invest $2,000 a day for some PPC campaigns and overbid to the extent you get top position for 3-4 popular products out there. You know that you will lose money, but suppose you can bring in$1,200 a day (even though you are spending $2,000 a day). There you have it--you have earnings statements you can show where you are making $1,200 a day (even though you actually lost $800 a day getting them. But if you have a big product launch coming up where you need earnings statemens, the $800 a day you lost each day over a 2-3 day period is peanuts.

What do you think--got any favorites of your own?