Because of the amount of scams out there, Affiliate Marketing has gotten a bad name for many people wanting to start an online business. But it is a very legitimate way to earn money!
The scams mainly come from those who want to take your money in exchange for a poor (or non-existent!) product disguised as an affiliate marketing system.
Here are the top 5 internet affiliate marketing scams that you will want to avoid!
No Actual Product But The Program Itself
If you are looking at a program and the only thing that you will be selling is the same program to other people, there’s a good chance it’s a scam. At the very least, it is not worth your money.
A lot of these programs operate like a pyramid scheme where you recruit people to buy the same system you did and get a commission.
Then these people recruit more people to buy the system and get commissions, and there is no actual product that anyone is selling other than the same system!
The first sign that a program doesn’t have a legitimate product is when their main advertising focuses on how rich you will get and how it will change your life.
I’ve researched programs where I spent 30 minutes reading their web page and listening to their videos tell me how I’ll be sitting on a beach near my mansion making thousands of dollars a month working 1-2 hours a day.
But the only thing I don’t know is what I’m actually buying, and I don’t have a clue as to how I’d be making the money!
A common theme among many of these programs is that they will do it all for you.
You just pay to join and then they handle everything like creating landing pages, giving you articles that you just have to “tweak”, even emailing your customers offers for you in some cases.
They say that all you have to do is drive traffic to the website that is created for you. Sounds good, right?
Wrong. These programs provide you with the same content and landing pages that everyone else gets, and no amount of tweaking is going to get you ranked well in the search engines.
If you can’t get ranked well enough in Google, Yahoo, and Bing, you’re not going to get any traffic, it’s as simple as that.
==>==> Is your dream job to work at home and make money online? You can do it here! <==<==
So in order to drive traffic to your website, their “education” is to use Pay Per Click advertising or traffic networks that are going to cost you money, and usually a great deal of money!
While traffic networks sound like a great idea, you’re not going to get the kind of visitors that are going to convert well to sales for you.
Just getting clicks on your website is not going to result in sales or commissions. The visitors coming to your site have to actually be interested in your niche and your content.
Without this type of targeted traffic, it will be difficult to convert any of the traffic from these networks into paying customers–so you could be literally be throwing your money away!
Programs that run similar to a pyramid scheme only make money for the founders and the few people who join in the beginning. As soon as they get big enough for most of us to hear about them, they are like a house of cards ready to collapse.
There will be enough people who see the program for what it really is, and when it gets big enough, the Federal Trade Commission will take steps to shut it down.
Once that happens, you will lose all the money you have put into it, which can be hundreds or even thousands, in many cases.
So if a program is not clear about what you are actually buying or if you can’t learn how to create any online business you want with their system, there’s a good chance you should be running, not walking, away from it!
==>==> Get my Proven 5 Step Plan To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing <==<==
Small Price, Huge Upsells
Every time I go to my favorite fast food restaurant and order my favorite burger meal, I’m asked if I want to supersize it. That’s called an upsell and can result it increased profit for the restaurant. I
t’s a common and legitimate way to market to your customers.
However, there are many scams out there that have taken this strategy to a whole new level to get you to part with your hard-earned dollars!
These are the companies that get you to purchase their system for a small price. But then they try to get you to buy higher and higher priced upsells in order to make their system work.
So the basic way this works is you buy their system that is supposedly worth thousands of dollars for a very small price, usually below $50 or so.
But once you’ve bought it, then you really need to buy this higher priced part of their system that will give you results faster!
But wait, then you should buy this even higher priced part of the system if you really want to be a success! And on, and on, and on.
All of these upsells are designed to be heavily discounted from their real value, and you’ll have to pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to buy these in the future.
==>==> See the legitimate program where I learned to make money online <==<==
High pressure marketing like this is also the sign of a scam or poor program.
One of the ways that people are convinced to purchase these programs and upsells is by offering a great money-back guarantee.
They’ll say that if you don’t make money within, say, 60 days, you’ll receive your money back and no questions asked. However, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever receive a refund.
If you don’t want the upsells and request your original payment back, most of these companies will just ignore the request. They know that many people are unlikely to actively pursue a refund of that amount over time.
If you request a refund of any upsells you purchased, there is usually something in the fine print that will keep them from having to pay it to you–like proving that you actually used all of their training or something like that.
So if you are looking at a system that says they’ll provide a great affiliate marketing system for a small fee, but then starts trying to upsell you higher and higher priced parts of their program, you should definitely think about getting out before paying more money.
==>==> Tired of seeing nothing but scams? See my #1 rated program here <==<==
The program that hosts my websites and gave me training, Wealthy Affiliate, offers a free membership with no credit card required to join.
I was able to see everything they had to offer, and there was just one other premium level that I could upgrade to whenever I knew that the program was right for me.
Those are signs of a legitimate system, and it’s my #1 recommendation for anyone wanting to start making money online!
Free Books
Have you ever seen an offer that says “Free! Just Pay Shipping and Handling”? It sounds like a great deal, but is it really?
There are a lot of books you can order that are marketed this way. However, what I’ve found is that most of the time these books are nothing buy promotional materials put out there by someone who is trying to market products or services to you.
Now, affiliate marketing is a valid business model where you promote products or services and get commissions.
But the marketing is based upon writing thorough reviews and posts, and the fact that you can earn commissions should be clear in the website.
But no one normally takes the time to write a book, goes to the trouble to have it published, and then just gives it away for the cost of shipping it to you.
The shipping and handling fee will cover the entire cost of the publishing and shipping, so the quality of the book is suspect from the start.
What you’re actually receiving is the ability for this company to continue to market all kinds of products to you since they have your name, address, email address, and know you are an online buyer.
Remember, you get what you pay for. So if you’re getting a free book, look for what else the author is getting by offering this promotion and be sure it’s not just a marketing pitch.
Selling Your Information
There are those companies who have been caught selling personal information to other companies that they’re connected with. Unfortunately, some of the biggest gurus in the industry have done this.
What happens is that an affiliate marketer buys into a program from one company, then that company sells their information to another company under the guise that they are connected.
Usually they will call and try to sell more programs saying that they are connected to the one you purchased. This makes it look like they are legitimate and can add value to what has already been purchased.
Always be on the lookout for this type of scam because many people have spent thousands under the assumption that these programs are connected and necessary for you to succeed.
==>==> Get my FREE Proven 5 Step Plan For Making Money With Affiliate Marketing <==<==
High Dollar Products
One of the most common affiliate marketing scams involves affiliate programs that sell training and high dollar systems.
There is a common perception that the higher something costs, the more it must be worth. Many times that is the case–but many times it’s not!
There are programs out there that tell you they have a system that will make you thousands of dollars.
All you have to do is buy it and learn how to promote the same program to others.
Most of the time you are buying the “right” the sell their program, and of course, they tell you that you can’t sell it unless you have bought it!
The marketing for this type of program shows people traveling the world, driving luxury cars, and living in mansions on the beach–all because they are selling high dollar products and making thousands on every commission!
But what they don’t tell you is that you have to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars buying these programs first!
Their training is supposed to be the valuable product that you are selling, but most of this training can be found elsewhere on the internet either for free or much cheaper.
People are lured into these programs because of the perceived value of these high dollar products. But most of them will never recoup their costs of purchasing the programs or the costs associated with trying to market them.
One of the most recent examples of this is MOBE, Marketing Opportunities in Business and Education.
On June 4, 2018, the Federal Trade Commission filed an injunction and halted their company from doing business.
MOBE was an overpriced affiliate marketing system that made money by getting people to buy their programs with the intention of these customers selling the program to others, and so on and so on.
There was no real value, with most of the sales coming from those “buying the rights” to the system. and the earnings were very exaggerated.
==>==> Get my Proven 5 Step Plan To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing <==<==
There Are Legitimate Programs Out There!
In spite of all the scams you can find, there are plenty of legitimate affiliate marketers, hosting and training programs, and affiliate networks.
So if you’re looking to learn about affiliate marketing and how this online business could benefit you, check out my resources in the navigation bar at the top.
For more information about internet scams in general, you can access the Federal Trade Commission site and learn about spotting and reporting scams.
Have you ever had a bad experience with an affiliate marketing program? Have any questions about how affiliate marketing works or how to start an online business? If so, feel free to leave a comment or question below!
I’ve found out that all of these affiliate marketing scams are telling you that you don’t need to put in any time and effort in order to be successful. All you have to do is to buy their system and wait for success and they will do it for you.
However, I don’t think any of these programs are going to work for me. So, I decided to join Wealthy Affiliate that I think will work for me just like you.
Thanks a lot for the great post!
I found Wealthy Affiliate to be the very best value, and they taught me everything I needed to know to make money online. Good luck and let me know if you need help along the way!
Over the last few months I have been compiling quite a nice list of potential ‘scams’ and sites to avoid. Your article has done one thing for sure. It has helped me regain some of the sanity that I thought I was losing. In previous times I have come across the first type of scam, where there is no ‘business’ just a never ending circle of buyers. I remember reading through the long, long page more than once,trying to find the relevant information, so I could decide if I was capable enough to take on the business they were selling. Now I know I wasn’t crazy. I thought I’d missed a ‘button’ or something.
The one that concerns me the most, well they all do in some fashion, is where you buy the ‘product’ very cheaply, only to find that you need to purchase ‘upsells’ to make the best possible use of the program. Of course, they offer you the 60-day money back guarantee but it doesn’t cover the upsells only the initial payment, worst thing is they are quite often sold under the ‘umbrella’ of a well known name, thus adding to the false trust. There should be better safeguards in place, for sure.
When I started this site, I wanted to educate people about making money online and give them the info they would need to avoid scams. What I didn’t realize was truly how many scam-type programs there are out there!
You definitely weren’t crazy, you have the good instincts to realize that these sales videos and pages didn’t contain relevant information–just promises of fast, easy money. Keep listening to your gut, and you’ll do fine!
I’m Honestly surprised that about the whole selling of information thing. Now that i think about it, it is the information of us people that is truly wanted by the companies. Even in our favorite search engines, we are sponsored with the ads that they somehow know that we want.
This also seems to be some kind of information collection and we do not know for sure that this information that they have about us is safe or not. Thanks for sharing this knowledge with us.
Sid
You’re welcome! Collecting emails for email marketing campaigns is a legitimate way to keep in touch with your visitors and send them updates and promotions that they might like.
But legitimate companies can be trusted not to sell your email address, and have an easy way to unsubscribe. So many sites collect information, such as email addresses, and then sell their lists to others. This results in the visitor getting a lot of spam and unwanted emails, and is very frustrating for most people!
Nice work, Janelle,
You have laid it doen so practically that it is admirable. Scams indeed come on all shapes and colors but they do have a common denominator: they are all out there to get your cash and leave you with no tangible product or service.
I like the way you even talk abou free books (or products) where they tell us yo pay shipping only. These offers are usually so enticing but looking closer into them, one sees the bait. Somehow, money gets lost or you pay overly high on the shipping.
I also agree thatvwithoutbrankin in Google, Bing and other search engines like YouTube there will be no mansions, flashy lifestyles, etc.
Could you point at a few legit sites that one may explore in the world of affiliate marketing?
Boniface from AndroidBix
I’d love to! There are 2 good programs that I can recommend–Wealthy Affiliate and Affilorama. Both provide good training for beginners, but Wealthy Affiliate is my top rated recommendation due to the price and awesome community forum that’s really active.
You can check out my reviews of each one: Wealthy Affiliate Review and Affilorama Review.
Good luck and let me know if you need any help or have questions!
First things first – thanks so much for listing and covering these points. I’m currently looking into working online part time, and I was a little worried about the horror stories and scams you hear about every day.
I’m looking for some straightforward training to help me get started with working online – no frills, I just want to learn. Could you point me in the direction of something legit on your site?
I’d love to! If you’re looking for a business model that has the greatest potential for good income working part time, I definitely recommend affiliate marketing.
You can get the information you’re looking for in my blog post, How To Make Money Online For Beginners.
Good luck and let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you!
Hi Janelle,
Thanks for sharing this article. Those are some issue were really serious. You have asked your readers… Have they faced some of those scam.Well from my side the answer is positive. I was offered to get some free books by just doing a spin on a website. On that time I have just got my credit card. I thought it wold be very go to have some new books as I am a book bug.😊.So after spinning I saw two box, and those were asking for my email address and password.I filled them up with joy.After finishing that process they mailed me and asked me for my credit card number.And ensured me that I will get my books within 3 days.Well I was really happy.But when any kind of gift or something didn’t came to my address.Then I said that to my father asked me,”Is you credit card ok or not.”I checked my card and found that through my card some one credit card.Well sir that was a scam that happened with me.
🔵 So what should I do?
🔴 Should I never let any one to have my credit card number?
It’s unfortunate that happened, and my mom actually had something similar happen to her awhile back. I would definitely be careful when giving out your credit card number to anyone who mails you or calls you on the phone. If you’re not sure that they’re a reputable merchant, research them before giving out any information. There are too many scams out there to take a chance on giving your credit card number to anyone that you’re not sure of!
I really appreciate this article you shared about affliate marketing scam..i believe this will be helpful and be a guide to people and the public as a whole that want to go into affliate marketing so that they will be able to choose the right affliate marketing programs..i will surely send this to my cousin that is about to register for affliate marketing and i believe this will put her on the right path..
I hope she finds it helpful!
I appreciate your reviews on this Top 5 Internet Affiliate Marketing Scams to Avoid. I’m so glad you took the time to see and share the type of hype on the internet. Some promise huge amount of money with little time requirement, unfortunately many people would would want to try and who can blame them, the cost to join is very low. Your content gives readers things to think about in an interesting way. Thank you for your clear information!
You are welcome!
Hey, nice article! I am working on affiliate marketing myself and must say, I agree, there are many scams out there. These are the people not wanting you to succeed, rather just looking to take your dollar with just about any means necessary. I thank you for making this article to help point out some of these things to look out for as I am sure it will be able to benefit people!
You’re welcome, and thank you for stopping by!
You are so correct about the vast number of scammy programs out there. You’ve got to be careful. Unfortunately, thousands of people fall victim to this sort of thing all the time. That’s why I’m glad that I’ve found things that do work for me. It’s not easy wading through the swamp to find the good stuff, which is why it’s great that writers like you are here to inform everyone about which roads to take and which ones to pass up.
Cheers!
You know, that’s exactly what it feels like sometimes when I’m researching these programs–like I’m wading through a swamp trying to find something good! There’s just so many low quality and outright scam programs out there compared to legitimate ones that actually teach you how to make real money online.
Hi Janelle
There are so many scams out there, and you are doing a great job by flagging up the red markers which indicate that a program is a scam. If you are promised the earth for no effort, then you need to run away fast.
So many people do not realise that there is no such thing as a get rich quick scheme, and they waste so much money trying to find the elusive one that will work when none will ever work!
I would definitely endorse your recommendation to join Wealthy Affiliate and find your way to a get rich slow online business of your own, and learn to correct way to go about that.
Very many thanks for your much needed post.
Chrissie 🙂
You’re welcome! Unfortunately, these get-rich-quick sales pitches often work on those who are naive and inexperienced. Hopefully they’ll do research and read reviews before spending their hard earned money on a program that just isn’t going to work.
Thanks for this review. Fake affiliate marketing platforms are all over the internet and they preach very juicy offers that make people fall for their scams. One huge mistake we should watch out for is trying to make a million dollar overnight. Also, before we going into any venture , we should check reviews by others and do our own research.
When I started reviewing these programs, I was so surprised at how many there were out there! Checking reviews and doing research will definitely save people time and money. Thank you for stopping by!
Hi Janelle,
thanks so much for sharing a good article to read.
As you well say, there are so many make money online scams out there, and most of them share almost the same content, “do as me, live in a great mansion right next to the beach… and pay me lots of dollars and I will tell you want to do”
I’ve tried a few of them and I got to the same point, nothing at all.
I already took a look to your #1 recommendation and it looks like it is the best place to learn how to build a website and work from home. I love to read about people starting from zero and achieving success within time and good work.
I’ve tried some of the programs as well when I was new. But when you’re a beginner, you don’t know what you should be looking for and all you have are the claims made on these sites. It’s what I wanted to hear, and now I’m amazed that I didn’t see them for what they were before.
So I’m glad you found the article helpful. I want people to look at the claims made by these sites and be able to evaluate how legitimate they are before they give their hard-earned money away!
I am impressed with your website and your reviews. You are spot on with the scams you have uncovered, there is too much of this type of hype on the internet, glad to see you uncovering some and letting the public know about them. I know several people who have been taken in by this kind of thing and it can be very costly!
Thank you very much, and I’m sorry to hear of those who have been scammed and lost money. I was one of them years ago and hope to keep people away from these types of programs!