Is The Online Hosting Network a Scam?

by El Plumber (admin) on October 19, 2009

We received this comment from Antony (who never leaves a website address in his comments or we’d link to him) on Why Your Amazon Affiliate Site Is Failing Miserably regarding a place called the OnlineHostingNetwork.com and a terrible Amazon affiliate store we stumbled across.

Hey El Admin,

You have just uncovered another scam. I wonder if you realize that. How about making this one yet another cautionary tale for your readership?

The owner of the first site – dwlane.com is likely out a lot of $$$ right now. Far more than the few hundred $$ a month than the Google Cash types take folks for.

While dwlane.com doesn’t look like much, it cost anywhere in the neighborhood of $1500.00USD to $6000.00USD to have “developed”.

The poor owner of dwlane is an innocent who fell for the high-pressure sales tactics of a group called the “Onlinehostingnetwork” who promises to build you an “Amazon Store”, often with a banner or two from a couple of other popular affiliate programs. They also promise a minimum of say, 10,000 (useless) clicks to “get your business off the ground”.

Of course, as El Admin notes, dwlane’s store is not likely to generate much if any sales. dwlanes “Coach” at the “Onlinehostingnetwork” will soon offer “help”. The “help”? Well, because s/he only invested $1500.00USD for the “Basic” package, the “coach” will do a hard-sell to get dwlane to upgrade to the “Platinum” package for about $3500 which is absolutely certain to generate the promised riches — likely another banner or two and some more empty promises.

Of course, even the Platinum level will begin to wear down dwlane’s patience after a while. However having invested so much effort (read dollars) in this website, the Coach will aggressively suggest upgrading to the 5K “Gold” package.

Of course the “Gold” package will be similarly yield nary a sale. At this point, the “Coach” gets harder and harder to contact since the max $$$ have been taken from the unsuspecting dwlane and heaven forbid dwlane should contact an attorney or the FTC or the local DA’s office in Phoenix. These schemes seem to thrive in AZ, possibly because of some loophole in the law. Also the “Onlinehostingnetwork” is likely to undergo a name change if things get complicated and will morph into one a new company name among the galaxy of similar operations that operate in this cruel manner. Company names in these sort of schemes change faster than you change your undergarments.

IMO, this sort of high-pressure, heavy-duty, big ticket scam is much more pernicious than even the slimy “Adwords Riches” spam offers that are all over our Inboxes each morning. The Adwords type scams which will create the headache of cancelling credit cards are pikers on the scale of evil compared to the outfits that “helped” dwlane create that “store”.

Those “stores” often wipe out the life savings of the unsuspecting and folks desperate to make a living in this so difficult times. Contracts are signed, in-your-face high pressure “investment” tactics have been honed by the “Coaches” and the companies behind them.

It’s enough to make one almost thankful if they’ve only been taken by a “Google Millions” scam which I believe was the impetus for El Admin starting this blog to educate folks to the lies and just barely within the law “opportunities” that we’re inundated with.

El Admin, I think it’s time for a new thread devoted to these types of operations. While I’ve only read of angry folks taken by “Google Riches”, I’ve been brought near tears after reading of folks who “invested” thousands of dollars in a “store” like dwlane.

Antony

Wow!  Thanks for the tip Antony!  Now we can not say anything for sure about the Online Hosting Network as there is not much information on their website at all and we have not heard any first hand stories of any users of their service.  But, a quick investigation yields the following:

Bad Sign #1: No Information on the Online Hosting Network at the Better Business Bureau

There is no information on them at the Better Business Bureau that I could find, searching in both the US and Canada.  That makes any claimed refund policy very hard to trust, since there is no history on if they have actually honored it.

Bad Sign #2: Onlinehostingnetwork.com Has a Private Registration

Try to do a whois lookup on onlinehostingnetwork.com.  It’s registered through the Godaddy proxy service which keeps registrations private.  There is no way to check on the businesses actual location or principal operators names or business history.  You really want to give them thousands of dollars?  Note that we here at The Electron Plumber have a private registration, but that’s to protect ourselves as some of the “offers” we call out have some very unscrupulous characters behind them.  And we do not ask you for anything or sell anything.  A real business that asks for your money through an online site should never have a private registration.

Bad Sign #3: The Website ohnlive.com Was Registered In June 2009

That’s about 4 months ago.  onlinehostingnetwork.com was registered in March 2009.  If they try to tell you they have been in business for longer than that, find out what their previous name and website was and let us know please.  Looks like they are either brand new or might be trying to hide something.  Either way, not instilling a lot of confidence.

Bad Sign #4: Plenty of Bad Reviews, Only One Good Review

Look around the internet and you’ll see nothing but people asking on various sites if they’ve just made a huge mistake by signing up with them.  You can find one glowing amazing review on a Google help forum which in my opinion is either faked by an employee of the company, or from someone who doesn’t realize how badly they have been taken.  That comment was written the day their website was registered, so maybe it’s a real customer who just did not realize yet.  They claim how the site is amazing and how it will be money in the bank.  Luckily they link the site name.  Go look at the site and it’s a total failure.  A bunch of affiliate links and direct links to Amazon.com pages, no content at all.  There is only one link to it according to Yahoo from one Ezinearticle that is on an entirely different topic and no traffic whatsoever according to both Alexa and Compete.com, despite being close to two months old.  Even a bad site with a tiny trickle of traffic should have been ranked by Alexa in two months, even if poorly.

The sad thing is, for the money Anthony is talking about for their lowest level package that yielded that junk Amazon site, even if he had no experience building websites, he could have two Site Build It sites and then have enough left over to pay a good article writing service for 100 articles at $8 an article, and a couple hundred bucks left over to buy some links from a link building service and had a couple of real useful income generating site for themselves.

{ 242 comments }

Why Your Amazon Affiliate Site Is Failing Miserably

by El Plumber (admin) on October 17, 2009

amazon best shopping season Why Your Amazon Affiliate Site Is Failing MiserablySome of the mainstays of Ethical Affiliate Marketing are always provide readers and search engines valuable content, never use any black hat techniques for driving sales or traffic, and only promoting real products that have real value.

With that in mind, we’ve been part of the Amazon Affiliate program for a year now, and have used various techniques and websites to drive traffic to Amazon and earn over $10,000 in profits since starting last fall.  Part of that was by advertising Amazon products on Google Adwords before Amazon decided to stop the practice.  But the rest comes from a couple of websites we made that did product recommendations and reviews.

Amazon can be a fickle beast for affiliates, since the affiliate cookie used to track the purchases only lasts for 24 hours, but Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world and thus move a CRAP TOP of products.  Their revenue last year, meaning the amount of money they brought in for sales of products and advertising and everything else, was $19 BILLION dollars.  That’s Billion with a B.  A big B.  From that they made over $600 Million in profits.  So if you can guess at an average item price they ship, I’d say it’s probably hovering around $15.  That’s an average since they sell lots of paperbacks for $5, bestsellers for $15-20, and tons of larger items like video games and power tools in the $40-$40,000 range.   That’s right, you can buy a $41,000 150 kW generator on Amazon from a third party seller.  Divide $15 per item by the revenue and that makes… carry the 1… probably over 1 BILLION products sold.

So the Amazon Affiliate program is quite popular despite the fact that it only pays out on average 6-8% of a sale (it’s really 4%-15% depending on product types and numbers sold) and only for items added to your Amazon cart within 24 hours of clicking your affiliate link to Amazon.

Thus there has grown up an industry to basically scam people into thinking they can use a magic script to create an online store filled with Amazon products and have money just start pouring in!  Ummm, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but really?  You thought it would be that easy?

Let’s break it down with some examples.  If it seems to you that we’re bashing on your site, look at it as practical advice and a free link!

Look at your Amazon Affiliate Site From an Outsiders Perspective – Does It Attract You In?

Would you buy anything from your Amazon affiliate site?  Look at it with a very critical eye and think, if I came to this site from some other site, would I be interested in clicking on anything?  Of would you head for the door?  Your site must be well laid out and relevant to what a visitor is interested in.

Bad Example: dwlanes.com.  There is nothing on the home page but blinking banners and ads.  Even if I did click through to one of your categories (which I never would), they’re just pages with one Amazon widget on them.  Google will hate your site.  There is no original content to attract search engines to rank your site well.

Good Example: besttoysguide.com.  Well designed and attractive.  Plenty of original reviews over 500 words long which include YouTube videos of the product in question.  Updates with new reviews frequently, 1-2 per day on average.  Main page has links to their targeted keywords.  No Amazon affiliate links on the homepage only sub pages. Google LOVES stuff like that and besttoysguide.com site ranks very well for a number of popular search terms.  I bet they’ll make a nice chunk of change this Christmas season and the site deserves it.

Do You Have Traffic?

Lots of people comment in the Amazon Associates forum that they bought a site from someone and they get no traffic and can not imagine why hordes of people are not spontaneously typing in their URL greatthingstobuytoday.com into their browser.  You need traffic, which you get either through paid advertising or through getting links back to your site from other sites.  The more links you get, not only are there more ways for people to find you, but your site will rise up in the search engine rankings.  If you expect Google to send you traffic because you setup a site that just duplicates a bunch of descriptions from Amazon then links to them with your affiliate link, you are sadly mistaken.  You need clear compelling unique content with targeted keywords to rank in Google.

Bad Example: life-user.blogspot.com.  Subject matter is all over the place, any traffic they get is likely from people clicking the “Next Blog” link in Blogspot then quickly moving on.  Start over life-user.  Go grab a real hosting account and three domains around your top two interests, heavy metal, geek tech, then FOCUS the each site on that topic.  Signup for a Google Adwords account and use the keyword tool to find top keywords for those interests, then write posts around them.

Good Example: dvdbeaver.com.  Clear relevant products and advertisements laser targeted to the sites focus.  People come there for DVD reviews and advice, and the site delivers.  Traffic is high for a site with just DVD reviews, with Alexa putting them in the top 50,000 sites on the planet out of hundreds of millions.  That ranking puts them in the thousands of visitors a day level.

Is Your Traffic Relevant To Your Ads?

If you think you have “traffic” but are not getting clicks or any actual sales, is your traffic targeted to your site and what products you are promoting.  Again, look at it from an outsiders perspective.  How would you get to your site?  And not just how would you get there, but would you be looking for the products you are promoting when you do get there?  For example, if people find your site through an ad you place or search engine, is the page what they are looking for?  Good traffic can have a click through rate over 20% and a conversion rate (that’s the rate of purchases made vs clicks through to Amazon) of 10% or more.   Bad traffic can have a click through rate of less than 1% which basically represents misclicks and no conversions.

Bad Example: paulanealmooney.com – Paula does a lot of things right on her sites.  She targets trending keywords which Google loves to rank highly for a few weeks.  Sorry to pick on you Paula, can I call you Paula by the way?  You left a comment here a few weeks back and have multiple pages that talk about various Google scams that are heavily targeted to search engine queries for the scams, yet the sidebar is filled with ads for books about how everyone is going to Hell when they die.  Maybe you want the Google Biz Kit scammers to go to hell, but that stuff is not relevant at all to the visitors you are trying to attract.   Luckily your blog is Wordpress based and can easily be fixed.  Create categories for your posts, then use a plugin called Widget Context to deliver targeted ad widgets to the content for that category.  Hell books for posts in the religious categories, money making books for Google scam categories, toys for toy posts, etc.  Do that and I’d bet you double your Amazon earnings easily.

Good Example: gosale.com.  Most pages are just price comparisons between different Amazon 3rd party sellers, but the pages are very relevant to the product search that will bring a person to that site.  Similar products to the one searched for are listed and a review is there for each product.

Want Us To Review Your Amazon Site?

Drop the site in the comments below if you are feeling brave and want actual unbiased and truthful feedback.  We’ll give it to you…

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The Best Google Kit Scam Disclaimer

by El Plumber (admin) on October 16, 2009

Disclaimer The Best Google Kit Scam Disclaimer[ad]

Found this awesome disclaimer on the fake news site consumer-weekly.com.  I think they are under the mistaken impression that somehow they can comply with FTC disclosure requirements by stretching the truth about earning potential and cost as long as they toss a giant disclaimer in tiny light gray text at the bottom of their fake news site.  Like I’ve said before, we’re not lawyers at The Electron Plumber, nor do we pretend to be, but if you read our article on Free Trial Scams And The FTC you’ll see why we think this type of disclaimer is useless.  Basically it’s up to the advertiser and merchandiser to draw attention to necessary negative option disclaimers, not bury them.

This publication provides the Author’s opinions and neither the Publisher nor the author intends to render legal, accounting, financial, business or other professional advice with this publication. With regards to licensing of a business enterprise, any legal accounting or tax matters. Author and publisher is an Affiliate of the company offering the business opportunity and are remunerated by advertiser. Author and publisher strongly suggest that the reader seek the services of appropriate licensed business, financial and or legal professionals before proceeding with any actions and comply with the local, state and federal licensing and guideline requirements which the reader resides or conducts business.

Google is in no way associated with this website. The Publisher and Author disclaim any personal liability, loss or risk incurred as a consequence of the use and application of the offer, either directly or indirectly, of any advice, information, or methods presented in this publication. Individual comments are unedited and not the opinion of Author or Publisher and not liable for their comments and opinions.

INCOME CLAIM WARNING: Testimonials do not result typical result. Photographs or images are depiction of individuals and payment methods. These income examples are representative of some of the most successful participants in the program. Some individuals purchasing the program may make little or NO MONEY AT ALL. These claims are not a guarantee of your income, nor are they typical of average participants. Individual results will vary greatly and in accordance to your input, determination, hard work, and ability to follow directions. No person or company can guarantee profits or freedom from loss. Any and all use of this website certifies you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions

*Google Cash Success Kit: Billing To activate your trial membership to OnlineCashSuccess KitTM you will be charged the refundable Delivery Fee, you will then be granted instant access to Member Services. After your one (1) day trial period you will be charged Seventy-nine dollars and eighty-six cents ($79.86) per month for your OnlineCashSuccessKitTM Membership. Remember, you can chat with live operator by calling 866-481-8192 within one (1) day to arrange instant cancelation, and you will not be charged. At the end of your trial period your Membership will be automatically charged each month at the then-current membership fee on or about that same date to the Active Credit Card. If for any reason you are dissatisfied, chat with a live operator to arrange for immediate cancelation of your Membership. Disclaimer of Warranties THIS WEB SITE IS OFFERED “AS IS” TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PROVIDED BY LAW. THE COMPANY IN NO WAY MAKES ANY WARRANTY REGARDING THE USE, OPERATION OR CONTENT OF THIS WEB SITE OR ANY OTHER WEB SITE LINKED TO OR ADVERTISED ON THE WEB SITE. THE COMPANY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. THE COMPANY MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT THE SERVER THAT MAKES THIS WEB SITE AVAILABLE IS FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. Some states or jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, or conditions or limitations on how long an implied warranty may last, so the above limitations may not apply to you. You may have other rights which vary from state to state or jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Limitation of Liability To the greatest extent permitted by law, the Company shall not be liable for any loss or damages (whether direct, indirect, consequential, incidental, or otherwise) resulting from any use of this Web Site. Some states or jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental, consequential or special damages, so the above limitations may not apply to you.

* Google Profit House Terms & Conditions of Sale (“Conditions”) Terms & Conditions 1. SCOPE & APPLICATION 1.1 By submitting an order, you automatically receive a 5-day trial to the Start up Internet subscription. Your 5-day trial begins immediately upon placing your order. You will be billed $1.97 at the time of order submission. Once Your trial is active you have 5-days to decide whether to accept Your Subscription. Prior to the expiration of the 5-day trial period, You may cancel Your subscription by calling toll-free at 1-800-440-4397. Should you fail to cancel Your Subscription within the 5-day trial you will be billed $79.97 at the completion of the 5-day trial and $79.97 every month thereafter for continued services and hosting of your internet web tools software unless canceled by you. 1.2 You unconditionally and expressly agree and accept the Conditions set forth herein as a binding contract (“the Agreement”) enforceable by law. The following are the terms and conditions of participation in the Subscription (“Subscription”) or any other Product on this Site, all such references to Subscription or Product combined shall be (“Product”). “Customer”, “I”, “You” or “Your” refers to you. “Site” means this World Wide Website located at our website, an authorized online reseller, and Your contracting partner reserves the right to amend this Agreement from time to time. It is agreed that any such amendment will apply to Customer. We agree to inform Customer of any amendment to the Agreement. Should Customer fail to object to any amendment to the Agreement within one week, such failure shall serve as an acceptance of the amendment. 2. TRIAL PERIOD AND BILLING 2.1 2.1 You authorize us or associated product owners or resellers* to initiate debit/credit entries to your bank deposit account or credit card as indicated upon sign-up and enrollment. This authority is to remain in full force and effect until You cancel Your subscription. 2.2 If Your payment is not collected by credit card within 30 days of the due date, Your Internet Start Up Subscription will be suspended. If You wish to cancel and not be billed, You must call toll-free at 1-800-440-4397. You expressly agree to the automatic monthly billing set forth herein. You expressly agree to honor all charges and fees due in association with this Subscription. 3. RETURNS AND CANCELLATION POLICY 3.1 You may cancel Your subscription at any time by calling Customer Care at 1-800-440-4397 Monday through Friday 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM EST. 3.2 You may Cancel at anytime during the initial 5-day trial and but will not receive a full refund of Your $1.97. 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Prior to the expiration of the 10-day trial period, You may cancel Your subscription by calling toll-free at 877-317-0193. Should You fail to cancel Your Subscription within the 10 day trial, You will be billed $39.95. Additionally, You will be billed $39.95 again 30 days from the beginning of your trial to renew Your monthly membership subscription and $39.95 every 30 days thereafter for Your monthly Subscription unless canceled by You. 1.2 You authorize Grant Line Pro to initiate debit/credit entries to your bank deposit account or credit card as indicated upon sign-up and enrollment. This authority is to remain in full force and effect until you cancel your subscription. 1.3 If Your payment is not submitted either by credit card or check within 30 days of the due date, Your GrantLine Professional Membership Subscription will be suspended. If You wish to cancel and not be billed, You must call toll-free at 877-317-0193 You expressly agree to the automatic monthly billing set forth herein. You expressly agree to honor all charges and fees due in association with this Subscription. 2. RETURNS AND CANCELLATION POLICY 2.1 You may cancel Your subscription at any time by calling Customer Care at 877-317-0193. 2.2 All Shipping and Handling Fees are non-refundable. 2.3 You explicitly agree to the following statement: “I UNDERSTAND THAT I MAY BE LIABLE FOR PAYMENT OF FUTURE GOODS AND SERVICES UNDER THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT IF I FAIL TO NOTIFY THE SUPPLIER NOT TO SUPPLY THE GOODS OR SERVICES DESCRIBED.” Trial Periods and Cancellation Policies You will receive a 14-day trial upon completion of your order. You can cancel your subscriptions any time before your trial periods end you will not be charged. The following will be billed to your credit card if you do not cancel within the given free trial period: You will then be billed $34.95 monthly beginning 15 days after the sign up date for the program. You have the option to cancel this program at any time. To cancel your subscription for this product, you must phone our customer service department at 1 (866) 575-3991. 30 day money back guarantee on all products if not completely satisfied.

THE STORY DEPICTED ON THIS SITE AND THE PERSON DEPICTED IN THE STORY ARE NOT REAL. RATHER, THIS STORY IS BASED ON THE RESULTS THAT SOME PEOPLE WHO HAVE USED THESE PRODUCTS HAVE ACHIEVED. THE RESULTS PORTRAYED IN THE STORY AND IN THE COMMENTS ARE ILLUSTRATIVE, AND MAY NOT BE THE RESULTS THAT YOU ACHIEVE WITH THESE PRODUCTS. THIS PAGE RECEIVES COMPENSATION FOR CLICKS ON OR PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS FEATURED ON THIS SITE.

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Amazon quietly rolled out a new feature to take some of the sting off 3rd party seller price gouging in the past couple of days (we’re not even exactly sure when it went live) without any announcement that we could find, then quickly removed it.  No idea why it was removed, but hopefully it will be back.

What is the problem with Amazon Sellers?

There are many what are called “Amazon Sellers” where you could have your stores item listed for sale on the same page as the Amazon item. If your price is lower that the Amazon price (including shipping), you item will show at the top of the list on that page and people coming to buy it will click on yours. If the item is not carried by Amazon or is out of stock, the Seller items rise to the top by default. And many Sellers have been using this fact to price gouge unsuspecting consumers thinking they are paying regular price to buy from Amazon when in fact they could be paying 150%-500% or more of the list price for an item to buy from some random Joe that does not even have their own web store.

Amazon has had this problem for a couple of years now and has done very little (as in nothing really) to dissuade the practice.  There are some Amazon Sellers who appear to make a pretty good business of price gouging.  There is one Seller that has over 241 items listed for sale and over 1341 ratings for products sold over the last 12 months.  Every single item they sell is listed for 3-5x the suggested retail list price.  Every single one.  And the items are priced anywhere from $30 to $300.  Many of them are discontinued items that are hard to find anywhere else, but would not be considered collectables by any stretch.  That means they are making PROFIT anywhere from $10 to $200 per item for the most part.  Do the math, especially considering that most people likely never come back to rate the store they bought from and the 1341 ratings are probably just a fraction of what they are shipping.

How Do Amazon Seller Price Gougers Do It?

It seems that they live on the fringes of the product inventory that moves through Amazon everyday.  Picture a popular item at Amazon, maybe moving hundreds of units a day.  At some point the Amazon inventory system will show that item as Out Of Stock and the 3rd party sellers items rise to the top of the list as being for sale.  If an item normally sells for $40, they mark it at $120 or $160.   Maybe a couple times a week their item will rise to the top of the inventory stack when everyone else runs out.  And maybe, just maybe someone comes along that needs that item just enough to decide to pay through the nose for it.  Or that does not realize the item is not normally priced that high, just see that it is popular.  Either way, it seems to be working, at least for some of them.  To become a seller it costs $39.95 a month and approx 15% of everything you sell, which does change slightly depending the items one is selling.

Why has Amazon let it go on for so long?

Let’s be h0nest here.  It is hard to say if the behavior of any large corporation is due to actual bad business intentions or due to the sheer inertia and incompetence that very large organization can fall prey to.  And I will not be making any judgments in intent here one way or another.  Suffice it to say that since Amazon earns 15% per item, they do not have a large incentive to stop this practice.  After all, people are buying of their own free will.  If you do not like the price, do not buy the item.  Simple.  It’s an example of the free market at it’s best.  You need it, they have it.

What Are They Changing?

Now for the possible change.  This morning at around 8am for a short time Amazon started identifying items that are priced by third party sellers as far above their typically price.  A quick scan only showed a small number of items that had this designation, and only for items that it looks like Amazon normally stocks.   It basically said right below the price in giant bold black letter “$54.47 above list price, list price $14.99″

Tonight as I finish writing this, the functionality is completely gone.  It’s possible that it was just a glimpse of future functionality that they plan to roll out around Christmas time to hit the price gougers at the time when they seem to be at their worst.  Here is an image I was able to recover from the Google cache of the item that clued me into it.  It no longer displays the “above list price” message as of this writing approx 14 hours later:

Amazon Above List Price

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Is Grants 360 a scam?

by El Plumber (admin) on October 12, 2009

grantslogo Is Grants 360 a scam?

Can you get millions of dollars for free from the US Federal Government and never have to pay it back?  It’s what Grants360.com wants you to believe and as you have hopefully guessed, it’s not all that true.  Is it a scam? Does the US Government give out thousands of dollars to people for working at home and filling out one form?  Are there sites you should pay to teach you if there is?  Judging by the number of complaints against them and what we found in their Terms and Conditions, in our opinion if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck.

Lets take a walk through this one and see if it falls down shall we?

First off, take a little walk around the Internet.  You’ll find tons of complaints listed on various complaint and scam web sites about how Grants360.com did not honor the claimed 24 hour trial period and charged them immediately despite calling and even receiving a “confirmation” number from them.  Then many also report continued charges for other odd amount on their card from this and various related companies.

So why not go check the authority on how well businesses operate, the Better Business Bureau?  A quick check on Grants 360 yields nothing of course, and a quick check of the Terms page on Grants360.com yields the reason why.  The parent company to Grants360 is called “positive thinking management ltd” (their lower case letters oddly enough, not mine) and is located in the UK!

Wait a sec?  A company helping people find free grants with the US Federal Government that is based in the UK, more or less out of the reach of all but criminal US jurisdiction? And what the heck is a UK company going to tell you about applying for US grants?  And why do they want my credit card number AND 3 digit magic number for a shipping fee?

Note, and this is a very important fact, there is an actual site run by the US Government that has details on how to find and apply for pretty much every grant out there and it’s 100% free for everyone.  No need to give them your credit card at all. Just go to Grants.gov.  Simple, easy, free.

But back to Grants 360.  So you go to the sign up page enter your information and are immediately asked for your credit card.  In tiny font on that page is the following message:

Submitting this form instantly activates your free trial and you will be charged a $1.95 processing fee. You will receive access to our grant package for a full twenty-four hours to evaluate the product. If you’re happy, do nothing and you will be charged $57.61 every thirty days for uninterrupted access to the latest content. There are no obligations; you can cancel anytime via our customer support line or online ticketing system.

Which in itself might come slightly close to satisfying the FTC requirement for clear and conspicuous disclosure, IF that were the only charge they were going to whack you with, AND if they did actually wait 24 hours (which many people have claimed on various sites and message boards is untrue, that you are charged the full amount immediately, and they have no return policy).  Check out the real charges that are hidden in their Terms on another page:

Clicking the buy button will activate your trial membership with Grants 360 and provide instructions to the supplied email address! To activate your trial membership to Grants 360 your card will be charged $1.95 and then you can immediately take advantage of the exciting savings Grants 360 has to offer! After your 1 day trial period it’s just $57.61 for each 30 days for Grants 360. Remember, you can chat with a live operator by calling 1.866.955.1669 within the 1 day period to cancel or emailing us at support@grants360.com and providing detailed information to enable us to process your request, and you will not be charged. As an exclusive bonus we are offering our customers 2 days of unlimited access to our work from home guide for a charge of $1.95. Cancel anytime during the trial period to avoid any further charges. Otherwise, a one-time fee of $38.21 will be charged to your credit card. Marking the checkbox and submitting the form constitutes an agrement(sic) to these terms on your part.

Note that one, there is no checkbox for agreeing to the terms (as required by the FTC at the VERY LEAST) and two that even if you cancel the first thing they charged you monthly for, they are still going to nail you for that second charge without you ever knowing before hand.  Oh, did I mention the site has no mention of any refund policy at all, one way or another?

But best of all, I love this little tidbit here:

If you are not 100% satisfied with the information available to customers in our Grant information Kit, simply contact our customer service department, and we will work to resolve the issue… no hassle!

Wait a sec, no refunds, but if I don’t like the information available you’ll “work to resolve the issue”?  What does that mean?  I’m not satisfied, you want to resolve the issue right?  Wait, why are you hassling me about my desire for a refund since I canceled within 24 hours?

Anyway, steer away from this one folks if you have not been sucked in already.  Just go to grants.gov instead.

How To Cancel Grants 360 Monthly Charges?

Well, they do provide a phone number you can call.  The number to cancel is 1.866.955.1669.   HOWEVER, a number of people have suggested that calling their number is not the right thing to do.

If you call to cancel, they now have a record of you contacting them and if you later try to dispute the charge with your credit card company, they can show the record of your call to your credit card company as proof of the transaction.  Only go this route if you can’t afford to cancel the card in question or if it is a debit card which is much harder to dispute.

Here is what we recommend:

  1. Don’t feel bad! Seems like hundreds if not thousands of people have been taken in by these sort of “negative option” offers that trick you by not clearly disclosing you are signing up for monthly charges. You were tricked, it happens to the best of us.
  2. Call/write your credit card company, dispute the charges and report the card stolen. Since this site does not meet the FTC requirements for clear disclosure for the charges you received, consider your card stolen This will make sure they can’t charge you any more and that they can’t sell your credit card number to anyone else. If they tricked you once already, what makes you think they won’t try to squeeze every penny out of you they can?
  3. Start ID theft monitoring right away! Click here to sign up for Experian Protect My Id monitoring. You just gave some shady website your name, address, phone number, credit card and secret 3 digit card number.  You can get Experian ID Protection for free for 30 days, then it’s $9.95 a month. I’d suggest signing up for AT LEAST the free month to check your credit report for free and make sure no one tries to change your address or open a new card using the current cards details you gave away.

I Didn’t Get Taken, But What Can I Do To Help?

Wh can you do to stop these guys from taking in more people? Warn everyone about it!

  1. Click Here to Share this on Facebook! Hit “Post to Profile” to warn your friends.
  2. Use the “Share This” link below to Digg or Stumble or Reddit or Email or whatever service you use to share this so that other people might see it before they get scammed too!
  3. Click Here to ReTweet this article to warn all your faithful followers.

But I Wanted To Make Money Online, Not Get Scammed!  Is There Anything Real Out There?

Yes, there are many people who earn a living working at home sitting in front of their computer.  And you can actually be one of them!  Check out our article on The Best Way To Learn To Make Money Online.

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What Is An Affiliate Cookie And Do I Care About It’s Duration?

by El Plumber (admin) on October 7, 2009

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I realize recently that I was falling into the same trap that drove me crazy when I first started attempting to make money online last fall. Everywhere I went, people were talking in terms and acronyms that I did not understand in the least and had to spend tons of time researching what they all meant.

One was something called an affiliate cookie and many sites I looked at that had an affiliate program talked about how long their cookie duration. Same thing on forums, people bashed the Amazon affiliate program since the “cookie duration was so short.”

A cookie is a small data tidbit that websites can leave on your computer so they can identify you when you come back. It’s how most major sites such as Amazon, Google, Yahoo, and the like can tell that you have returned and auto fill some of your login information for you, or immediately present your account and recommendations in the case of Amazon.

An affiliate cookie is the same as a regular cookie, but instead of login information, it transfers information about your affiliate account to the site in question so that you can get credit for referring a customer to that site in the case they decide to buy something.

So your affiliate cookie duration is important as an affiliate marketer as cookies eventually time out and for all practical purposes evaporate off the persons computer that you referred to a site if they do not buy something right then and there.

Most affiliate programs have cookie durations in the 30-90 day range, where as a select few of the highest performing ones such as Amazon.com (the number one single affiliate program in the world) have a very short cookie duration, in Amazon’s case it’s a mere 24 hours before your cookie turns to smoke.

So does the cookie length really matter?  Is a 60 day cookie really better than a 30 day cookie?  I personally do not think so.  Unless an affiliate offer represents a huge expense that a customer is going to research and hem and haw over, the likelihood of them returning on the same computer that your cookie is on and not having clicked on someone elses affiliate link after the clicked yours is slim.

You should be more concerned with the affiliate payout and number of conversions than anything else, since they translate more directly into actual cash in your pocket.  The two largest affiliate programs on the planet have terrible cookie durations, with Amazon clocking in at a mere 24 hours, and eBay recently totally dropping their affiliate cookie duration and payout in favor of PPC payments (pay per click), yet they pay out far more yearly than any other affiliate program.

Focus more on making a sale to a customer RIGHT THEN and THERE, rather than hoping they somehow return to the site you advertised and buy with your cookie on their computer some weeks or months later.

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News 3 Show and News3insider.com Scam

by El Plumber (admin) on October 5, 2009

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Before you go any further, no, Google is not hiring people to work from home.  They are not providing any kits to work from home, especially for the low low price of $1.97 which gets you to cough up your credit card number and later you notice you’ve been whacked for multiple card charges monthly.

Want more details, check out our report on the Google Biz Kit for how this whole thing operates.

Wow, this Google Work At Home Kit scam fake news site came on in force!  Take a look at this Alexa ranking chart:

alexajump News 3 Show and News3insider.com ScamSuddenly in mid September, out of nowhere an unknown site with no home page jumps into the top 500 sites ON THE PLANET and stays in the top 1000 for weeks. Seriously, there is no home page.  Try going to news3insider.com and you get a standard Hello World page.  They link to deep pages to make you think you are hitting some hidden news story.

This is not normal folks.  For a comparison, Time.com is around number 550,Technorati.com is 626, and gizmodo.com is number 722.  We’re talking an average of about 300,000 people a DAY hitting these sites.

So how does this happen?  Someone spends a CRAPTON of advertising dollars EVERY day with fake stories about Google hiring random internet surfers who give up their credit card, or about how Brittney Spears is endorsing a new pill made of Acai Berry for weight loss in the hopes of convincing good people like you to cough up their credit card for some free trial and make them money when you don’t or can’t cancel the free trial. They show up on Facebook and Myspace and Bebo and Meebo and Greedo and Harpo and any other 1st, 2nd, or 3rd tier website they can buy advertising on.

To get 300,000 hits at even some low amount PPC like $0.05, that’s $15,000 per day spent on advertising.   If you get 1% of those clicks to give up their credit card, that’s 3000 people, and at a $40 affiliate payment by the people running these Google Money offers, the advertiser could be earning $120,000 from that $15,000 advertising investment.  That’s the rosy day scenario.  Replace it with a $.10 PPC cost and only a 0.5% rate for 1500 conversions and you are still making $30,000 a day on a $30,000 advertising investment.   Even if it’s half that again, it’s still quite a chunk of change isn’t it?

The site that the News 3 Show links to is another one of those Google Money sites that says you can earn up to $200-$900 a day with Google.  This one, securesiteoffers.com at least now has the terms and conditions for this offer on the actual offer page.  Not sure if it actually meets the FTC guides for clear disclosure, but at least they are there.  It certainly does not meet the FTC guidelines for clear disclosure of material terms and realistic expectations on how much you can earn.  Here are their terms are in case you were wondering:

Terms, Disclosures, and Electronic Signature Information. NetPro Marketing’s authorization to provide and bill its services is obtained by way of your electronic signature. Once submitted, this electronic order constitutes an electronic letter of agency. NetPro Marketing’s reliance on your electronic signature, as obtained above, is done pursuant to the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act and the electronic Signatures in Global and National Transactions Act. Both laws specifically preempt State laws that recognize only paper records or handwritten signatures. By submitting this form, I am ordering the Click Money CD™ and trial membership for $2.29 S&H. After the 7 day trial, I will be charged $59.95 a month thereafter if I do not cancel. I also agree to the 14 day and 21 day bonus trials to the Fast Grants Members Site™ and Network Agenda™ for $14.95 a and $9.95 a month thereafter, should I choose not to cancel. I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions. For questions, call 1-888-249-4806, anytime, 24 hours a day.

Of course, it does not seem like a good deal at all in our opinion here at the Electron Plumber, but it’s your money.  If you want to spend your hard earned money to sign up for three continuity programs that you have to call three different numbers to individually to cancel where we are unable to find any reference at the Better Business Bureau for any of the sites or companies you will be giving your credit card number to.

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The Best Place To Learn How To Earn Money Online

by El Plumber (admin) on October 5, 2009

Work from home2One of the things that amazes me about many of the “Google” money making offers have almost no information about what you will be receiving when you sign up, what you will be doing, how much added investment is necessary and the like. People are blinded by the thought of working at home and making hundreds of dollars a day doing it, which coupled with the seemingly low cost of a few dollars makes for an insidious trap for the average internet consumer.

Let’s face it, you’ve probably read stories of people who started a web site or blog and are now earning a living working from home full time, or even better earning a full time income but only working part time. And who wouldn’t want that? But how the heck do you learn how? Who do you trust to yeah you that isn’t just trying to earn their living scamming YOU from home.

There really is only one trusted source to learn how to start your own web site, optimize it, get people to come to it, and how to earn a living from it. That place is SiteBuildIt.com.

Over and over again in our article comments we see people wanting to make money online, wanting to work from home, but with no idea who to trust or where to turn with so many scams out there.

Here at the Electron Plumber we receive hundreds of visits a day from people who saw one get rich scheme or another and had the good luck to look it up online before giving away their credit card for something that appeared too good to be true. Unfortunately we also receive hundreds of visits a day from people who fell for the scammers and saw their credit cards or bank accounts hit for recurring charges they never knew that had signed up for.

Look, you VERY likely came here to The Electron Plumber because you were curious about a get rich quick scheme you saw advertised on a web site, and either:

A) Hopefully suspicious enough to recognize it as too good to be true and look for more information.

OR

B) Were scammed and came looking for information on how to get out of it.

Either way, you were interested in taking that first step toward freeing yourself by learning how to make money online and making you life better, getting out of debt, quitting your job, and living the life you’ve always wanted.

You can take action today and start your life on a new path or you can certainly find yet another excuse to stay where you are right now.  Maybe you are out of work, or in debt, or just plain sick of getting up every morning and busting your hump to scrape by while the people you work for get rich.

What makes SiteBuildIt different than all the other programs out there?

One difference is that it’s a trusted solution for OVER FORTY THOUSAND customers (you read that right, it’s 40,000 customers) who learned how to build their one website and start earning money from it. Unlike all the scam sites out there, SiteBuildIt has tons of real testimonials for real successful sites that you can actually visit and see.

Another difference is the teaching of techniques and depth of inforamation.  Far far more than just a hosting company or a make money e-book, SiteBuildIt will provide hosting for your site, all the tools you need to build it and get traffic, and all the classes and tutorials you’ll need to build a successful site that goes beyond just a website and becomes an online business.  It’s evident in their successes.  Over 65% of the sites built with their tools rank in the TOP 3% of all web sites in the world based on industry standard traffic rankings Alexa and NetCraft.

Another HUGE difference is that SiteBuildIt has been around for over 12 years, since 1997, and is a member in good standing with the Better Business Bureau. You can actually go look up their rating by clicking here and see that they actually do stand behind their no questions asked return policy 100%. You truly can try Site Build It risk free for 30 days and get a FULL refund if you do not like it. And then you can get a prorated refund each month after if you decide building a home based online business is not for you.  So try it for a few months then cancel and you’ll get 10/12’s of your money back!  The company can stand behind what it sells because they know once you try it, you’ll realize how it is actually what you have been looking for, a clear blueprint for building an online business.

workathome The Best Place To Learn How To Earn Money OnlineThink back to how you arrived at this site today and at this article.  The Electron Plumber has only existed for less than a year as I write this.  Ten months ago I took action to take control of my life away from my boss and put it into my families hands.  I have not quit my day job yet, but based on how fast we are growing and how much we earn today, I can  see that time down the road.  We do not pay to advertise, yet here YOU are, reading this.   If I can create a site that draws people in then certainly so can you.    You found your way  to that rare place that tells you the truth about making money online, do not let the opportunity pass you by!  You can find a million excuses not to take action and start down a new path right now.  Instead find just one excuse to go for it and change everything.

Seriously, if you finally want to start your own online business and take control of your destiny, Site Build It is the real deal.  If you do not take my word for it, at least check it out for yourself.

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Adsense Vs Chitika Experiment Week 1 Report Delayed By Cold Feet

by El Plumber (admin) on October 3, 2009

GoogleLogoOnWall Adsense Vs Chitika Experiment Week 1 Report Delayed By Cold Feet

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Well, I was typing up my first two week cycle report on the little Adsense vs Chitika experiment I’m running on one of my niche sites, when I started to get cold feet. Literally because it’s autumn where I live and the basement under my office is unheated, and figuratively because the Adsense Terms of Service dictate that you may not disclose material information on Adsense statistics provided to you from Google other than gross earnings.

You can check out the Adsense TOS here. Specifically check out Section #7 which describes confidentially.

And while I’m certainly no Adsense millionaire, I am enjoying our Adsense earnings enough to certainly not want to have my account canceled nor run into legal trouble with the great and formidable folks who live at the GooglePlex.

So I’m checking into just how much I can report here. I think I may not be able to give percent comparisons on Earnings Per Click since that only comes from Google, but I should still be able to give a percent total earning comparison, total impressions, and Click Through Ratio (which I can measure through my local analytics package) without running into trouble.  But I’m going to ask anyway.

Needless to say, I think I’m fairly safe in saying that the first week comparison was basically a slaughter, with the Adsense week earning much more than Chitika.

Stay tuned.

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Were You a Victim Of Consumer Fraud?

by El Plumber (admin) on October 2, 2009

ElderlyWoman Were You a Victim Of Consumer Fraud? [ad]

We get a LOT of visitors here at The Plumber who ran into one of those fake blogs and fake news sites that keep sprouting up all over the internet.   The Google Biz Kit and Google Adworks and Google Fortune sites all appear to be variations on the Google Treasure Chest scam that was investigated and settled with the FTC earlier this year.

Hopefully you had the luck to find a site or a post or a REAL news story exposing these types of products for what they really are.  False advertising, false promises, and false hope that you only need to pay $1.97 or $3.87 for a kit that lets you make money at home with Google.

However, many are taken in by these people.  What should you do about it? Call and cancel?  Call the police? Hire a fraud lawyer and start a class action lawsuit?  While we are not consumer lawyers here at the Electron Plumber nor do we claim to be, here are our suggestions:

  1. Don’t feel bad!  You have experienced the Internet equivalent of a mugging.  You want to work at home, make some money online, other people are doing it, why not you?  So you sign up, since it’s only $2 or $3 right?  Then BAM, you start getting hit with recurring charges over and over on your credit card or debit card, odd charges with funny names like Search Payday or Health Biz Online for $69.87 or $78.64. then Grant Searcher for $29.95, and a couple others.
  2. What do you do next?  Many people report that when they call to get a refund, they are told no, can’t get through, or worse yet, told they have canceled and still get charged anyway.  Some can “cancel” one of the charges at that number, but cannot get a refund since technically you received the “product” that you signed up for, despite the fact you were never told it was $79.87 + $29.47 + $9.95 A MONTH in the first place.  Typically the person you call will be a third party answering service.  Yell at them all you want, if they are not authorized to give refunds you aren’t going to get far.  You can dispute the charges but if you used a Debit Card you do not have much recourse here.  They took your money, they have proof that you went to their website and entered your card number, and with most debit cards it’s much harder to dispute charges.  The bank views the transaction as if you wrote the vendor a check.
  3. You can certainly report them to the authorities like the FTC, the ICCC, and your local Attorney Generals office, but so what?  They’re trying to catch killers and rapists and money launderers and mobsters and big time scammers.  They likely do not have the time or resources to go after someone who may or may not have tricked you out of $75 on your credit card number that you willingly gave them.  And if they do, these guys are slippery.  The names and address of the companies running these Google Money scams keep disappearing and reappearing with different names in different states every month or so.  This is how they operate.  They keep the amount they take from your account low, under $100 typically in the hopes that you will just give up and get on with your life rather than try to go after them.  They skirt the edge of the law and so far seem to be getting away with it for the most part.
  4. Protect your identity!  While we cannot lump every Google Biz Kit type scam into one basket, the possibility certainly exists that the information you gave to these people will not be safe and that your credit card and information might be used to steal your identity.  Report your card lost or stolen and use a ID Theft monitoring service to keep an eye on all your credit accounts, at least for a few months.  Check out our report on what makes Experian the Best ID Theft Protection services.
  5. Hire a fraud lawyer and try to start a class action lawsuit.  There are lawyers who specialize in consumer fraud cases who would love to take down one of these Google Money types.  They get lots in fees, the lead plaintiff gets a nice big cut, everyone else gets $5 and the Google Money scammers get bankrupt.  So you really want to be the lead plaintiff here and not just another person who gets $5.

And if you do go the fraud lawsuit route, please stop back and let us know how it goes.

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