Could This Be A Possible Scam If So What's In It For The Scammer?

Golden rule. If it looks scammy or even just a little off, don't do it, whatever it is. This rule can apply to many things.

Like laurencewins says

If it something sound too good to be true it probably is.

Don't bother with them and place their emails in the spam folder.

One thing I have realized is that once you reach a certain level of success on the internet, you tend to be approached by individuals and companies wanting to do business with you.

What you should do is do the research.

Look at up the company on Google. Search for their email address to see if anyone else knows them .
If you can't find any information about them or if you see scam alerts then you have found your answer.

Hope that helps

If it was a scam more than likely you were really only dealing with one person. I cant necessarily guess what it was they were up to, but either they wanted to get deeper knowledge from you or to somehow try to steal from you in some fashion (money, time, coversions, or knowledge). Like Frank said, "knowledge is power."

One thing is for sure if someone is trying to scam ya, you are doing something right. Just keep on keep'n on

D

They may have just been wanting to advertise on your blog and sent out a mass email.

It happens a lot, too.

What would they have to gain? Better SERP placements, targeted traffic, a new relationship with a webmaster, lots more -- more sales & money.

I replied to an email like this a couple of years ago.

They wanted me to install some special code so they could track the traffic. I told them I would host the banner and link it to wherever they wanted, but I wasn't going to install their code on my site. They never replied back.

Be careful even hotlinking to their banner graphic host. They can change the banner image to whatever they want, whenever they want.

It is something fishy.
On the other hand, were you able to ask why? I mean, other than ads thing.
Since they are the ones who approached you then you have every right to ask.

They offered me $10-20 per guest post and additional money (either monthly or on a CPM basis for banner ads. I would have to insist on posting everything myself (after receiving payment) as I’m not really sure I would be able to trust someone who with all due respect is a stranger to me to post things to my site. Assuming this is legit of course. I still find it weird that they’d want to advertise on a blog that I basically use to promote a particular product.

You posted their add, but they did not paid you. Morally they should pay you. I think they really take money from the actual company as a freelancer. They contacted to the company they will make post from various IP, so they get profit from that contact, but make a cheating with you. Do I make you understand?

People buy backlinks all the time. You're overthinking it.

I don't see anything "fishy" here.

You have the 100% control over this deal. You should accept upfront payment for this adverting. And don't just give them access to post advertisement on your website from their behalf. Rather you should do it yourself after the "advertisement" is verified by you.

So if this offer seems lucrative to you, you should accept the deal. Moreover you can ask for more money. Most likely they will accept that too .

Someone wants to pay you to post an article they write on your site and you have to ask others if it could be a scam before deciding to do business???

Don't be sure a wimp.... Send them a paypal money request after you approve the content they want you to publish on your blog. After the payment clears publish their content or ad... you can always unpublish / delete it at any time.

Of course they could use a credit card to make payment to you via Paypal and then report the charge was unauthorized and get the charges reversed. Doing business requires a willingness on your part to accept a certain amount of risk.... it you want to play it safe get a job and work for someone else. Of course they could scam you by not paying you.

Life is full of risks but it you are afraid of taking such a small risk as this, then how will you ever grow a business? Get out of your comfort zone... make mistakes and learn from them... it's the only way to grow.

Someone wants to pay you to post an article they wrote on your site and you have to ask others if it could be a scam before deciding to do business???

It's not like they are asking you to give them your login details, they just want to purchase advertising right?

Don't be surch a wimp.... Send them a paypal money request after you approve the content they want you to publish on your blog. After the payment clears publish their content or ad... you can always unpublish / delete it at any time.

Of course they could use a credit card to make payment to you via Paypal and then report the charge was unauthorized and get the charges reversed. Doing business requires a willingness on your part to accept a certain amount of risk.... it you want to play it safe get a job and work for someone else. Of course they could scam you by not paying you.

Life is full of risks but it you are afraid of taking such a small risk as this, then how will you ever grow a business? Get out of your comfort zone... make mistakes and learn from them... it's the only way to grow.

You can just accept the payment and put their ad yourself.

I do not understand why everyone is jumping so quick to call this a scam with barely any information. They are just inquiring about advertising on a site. Companies advertise on sites all the time. It is likely something perfectly harmless.

Probably because there are so many scams that are being perpetrated on the internet, so people are paronoid when a deal sounds too good to be true. Being approached by those who want to pay to advertise on your site is common, so why be paronoid over this common practice.

Success to all,

I agree with others in stating that this may not be a scam at all. Something similar happened to me and come to find out they were pushing a offshore betting site. Many advertising companies don't allow these kind of sites so they resort to going directly to webmasters. Probably they were targeting small sites who might want an alternative to Adsense.

While technically this turned out not to be a scam in a monetary sense, I feel it may have ultimately resulted in a huge waste of time. Reason being, I ended up being signed up as a publisher for a lesser known Ad Sense type program, and was never really being approached by an individual or organization wishing to directly advertise on my site, but more or less people looking to refer me to this ad network as a publisher.