A Guide to Affiliate Programs and internet scams. Scam or Not? Want to know if something is a scam?
24 Jun
Writing this blog has been like being on a roller coaster ride. The screenshot below is from the web stats package that comes free with Bluehost web hosting. As you can see the first three months of this blogs growth has been more than exponential. I am immensely happy with this blogs growth as well as what it has taught me about blogging. Although it saddens me to sell this site, you can rest assured that the money from the sale will be re-invested in upcoming online ventures!

Site Stats
The Price
The bidding starts at $400. I am expecting lots of interested because this is such a bargain so be sure to get your bid in fast! Each new bid must be $20 or more than the previous bid. This is to deter people from bidding “$401″ and is a flexible rule.
What Exactly do you Get for your Money?
I am effectively handing over the username/password for this blog, my Bluehost web hosting account (which in itself cost $160!) and the bonus blog (see below).
All the content on this site will be at your disposal to do what ever you legally please with.
You get my other blog as well for FREE!
The bonus blog is http://videogamesaddictions.com. There is little content on it but it currently sits on page 4 of the Google SERPS for the highly competitive term “video games addictionsâ€. It wouldn’t take much to reach page 1! This domain name is very desirable and grows in value every day. It could easily be resold in the near future for a profit!
Bundling in this blog for FREE ensures a quick and simple transaction and makes this an even more juicy deal for you.
Things to Remember
This site has a vibrant community who love to take part with little reward. On my AdRaker post there are over 60 comments and I don’t even offer a link to top commentators!
This site’s traffic has been doubling monthly but it is very close to the tipping point where traffic will explode. It sits on page 2 of the Google SERPS out of 25 million competitors for the phrase “affiliate programsâ€. The SEO Book tool shows that 500,000 people search this term monthly. Over taking those few sites to get to page 1 will cause a traffic explosion! It also ranks page 8 for the term “Internet Scamsâ€, and has a productive long tail, with almost every review ranking highly in Google, Yahoo and MSN search. This was largely due to Garry Conn who conducted professional search engine optimisation on the site to ensure a steady traffic flow, even without posting daily.
$400 is the price of a review on John Chow.com but for the same price you will get this entire blog!
Traffic Stats:

Payment
The transaction will be quick and simple. Ideally it will be made via Paypal. Contact me for my PayPal address. If you have a problem with uing PayPal paypal then Contact me as well and we can hopefully arrange an alternative payment method.
Any Questions?
If I have made anything the slightest bit unclear, don’t hesitate to ask with a comment or by Contacting me. I value every individual reader of this site and if I can ask one thing of you it is to spread the word with a blog post or even just a brief mention!
I will be answering comments and questions very quickly and updating this post with the bids. Let the bidding begin!
Update on Bids!
So far there have been 2 bids! Garry Conn expressed a very strong interest also but is yet to place an actual Bid.
Bids so far:
1. *Bidder doesn’t wish to be named: $420
2. Akoemi: $450 (Top Bid!)
The next bid must be $470 or more. Don’t miss out, Contact me with your bid. If you have been ‘out-bidded’ feel free to make another bid!
22 Jun

While reviewing Niche List Profits I actually got déjà vu. Perhaps it’s because it consists of yet another wise guy offering to sell his secrets, or it could be because the name “Niche List Profits “ is so similar to MoneyListProfits. Either way it’s a bad sign.
Niche List Profits is the stereotypical ‘Guru sells his secrets’ site. The entire homepage consists only of hype. There are screenshots of large sums of money and promises that with just a few minutes a week, for 8 weeks everyone can be doing the same thing. There is no evidence of his expertise apart from the screenshots and checks.
Niche List Profits costs a whopping $127 to buy his secret “8 week system” and for that amount of money I would at least expect a video-cast of “Amik” demonstrating his knowledge so we could know he is someone of substance. Allow me to compare it to Yaro Starak’s Blog MasterMind who actually did made video casts and as a result is much more trustworthy.
My take on it all
I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that Amik is going to ‘teach’ his sign-ups how to build a site just like Niche List Profits and other small internet businesses that apparently “require almost NONE of your time, no customer service and the best part - no product!“.
For me discovering that he thinks having no product is a good thing sends any vague hopes I probably didn’t have about Niche List Profits swirling down the drain. He clearly doesn’t value customer satisfaction and it makes me think that Niche List Profits probably doesn’t have a product either.
Hype Gone Wrong
Amik may have taking screenshots of money down to a par but some of the things he says are clearly not thought through:
” imagine being able to wake up in the afternoon, go to your real mailbox and find it stuffed with checks (from companies you don’t even recognize because it’s been so long!).” doh!
The only reasons it would have “been so long” is because either you made that money ages ago and they took a very long time to send it to you (a bad thing!); or you only just reached the minimum payout because your earnings were so slow and you forgot even signing up to them!
What does Niche List Profits Actually Offer?
For $127.00 you get 8 coaching calls. Part 1 is the Introduction, Picking Niche and Choosing Affiliate Programs, but there are many blogs (including this one) that give away this information freely. Parts 5,6,7 and are all about getting traffic, which again there are many blogs dedicated to. The other parts are of a small value but definitely not worth $127.
No Privacy
The Disclaimer reveals this terrible truth about Niche List Profits:
“We may use your personally identifiable information to send you advertisements and other promotional information regarding our products and services or the products and services of our third party marketing partners and other communications related to the Site.”
In other words you pay $127 to get spammed. In addition the Disclaimer backs up my suspicions about the hype:
“The testimonials and examples used are exceptional results, which do not apply to the average purchaser”
Conclusion
Niche List Profits is in no way worth $127. I am tempted to add it to the Internet scams list but that would imply you get absolutely nothing for the $127, which probably isn’t the case. There are also a fair number of people promoting Niche List Profits who are revealed by a Google search. Nevertheless, I would not go there!
20 Jun

Affiliate money making programs can be tough to tap into when trying to make money online. There are a variety of questions that need to be answered when choosing which affiliate program to use which I have grouped under certain headings.
The Brand
If you are out to recruit ’second tier’ affiliates then the brand is especially important, but with any product being sold on the Internet it needs to have a certain image, E.g. modern, reliable, useful, honest, fashionable or a ‘brand of the people’. The answers to the following questions should all be positive ones:
Money Matters
People often make the mistake of putting too great an importance on the commission rate. Naturally an affiliate program that pays 50% commission has an advantage over one with a 25% commission rate, but it is not twice as lucrative because commission rates are only a single factor among many which influence overall earnings.
Relevance and User Satisfaction
With a blog, this factor has an added importance. A major power of blogging is building up a loyal reader base. Selling a product to a reader that they are happy with means they are more likely to return and may even buy again. Honesty is the best policy.
Help and Support
As with any hobby or business we are all at different places along the ‘learning curve’ and so a functioning support system is useful for everyone. There are two types of support system:
1. Those that actively teach new affiliates how to make the sales (like that of SFI)
2. Basic support every service should have where members can ask questions and have any problems they may be having fixed.
Payment
This simple part of an affiliate program has it’s own series of questions:
The final and most important question overall is will it result in conversions?
Conclusion
Given that all of that information is needed to be known about an affiliate program before making money with it, it’s no surprise that people have a hard time getting off the ground with affiliate programs. Nevertheless, with Adsense slumping affiliate programs are once again becoming a prominent way of making money online.
What other questions would you want to know the answer to before joining an affiliate program?
18 Jun

Plug-In Profit Site was designed by Stone Evans who claims to have made big money online. My first impression of Plug-In Profit Site was that is was yet another glorified package of e-Books and software that will apparently make us all rich. Upon reading through the site this initial impression was re-enforced in some ways, but I did find myself thinking Plug-In Profit Site has a clever system. It involves you signing up for a whole stack of affiliate programs in return for some affiliate marketing products.
What does Plug-In Profit Site offer?
There are a whole variety of ‘bonuses’ offered which are designed to persuade you that you are getting a good deal such as e-Books, basic training videos, software, a ‘website traffic generating system’ and access to an “internet marketing warriors site’. That site is different to the the Warrior forum where there is a members-only Plug-In Profit Site support forum, to which access is granted. Stone Evans claims this alone is worth $500 a year, but in reality having a forum for members really isn’t anything special (although it is useful).
As well as these pretty average products there are some slightly more interesting ones:
I was glad to see SFI is one of the affiliate programs Plug-In Profit Site requires you to sign-up for, although I struggle to see what the Plug-In Profit Site e-books and training could teach you that SFI cannot. Below is Stone Evans’ proof of payment from SFI.

Looking at Plug-In Profit Site for what it really is
All of the bonuses and frilly edges are all well and good, but what is the site really about?. Put plainly, Stone Evans has built a system where he acquires large numbers of affiliate sign-ups for affiliate programs (like SFI). He does this by bribing them to join with all of the ‘bonuses’ he offers, which cleverly have the added plus of teaching and helping his affiliates to make more money with the various affiliate programs, or at least encouraged enough to remain members.
What do I think of this method?
I would think that it’s a nothing more than cunning strategy for him to find success with affiliate money making programs. However, the ability to have your own Plug-In Profit Site is an interesting one and opens up all sorts of possibilities. I can see potential problems with this though, for example the duplicate content must mean search engine traffic is very limited for affiliates. That matter is very much open for debate.
Stone Evans kindly allows you to join all his affiliate programs (through his affiliate links) for Free!… There is a single fee of paying for web hosting for your own Plug-In Profit Site which costs $24.95 as well as the small cost for domain name registration.
Apparently the whole Plug-In Profit Site package is worth $1,250.00. However, as with almost all websites of this nature the given ‘retail value figure’ must be taken with a truck full of salt.
The Testimonials
I don’t normally pay much attention to the testimonials, but one was made by Jeff Schuman from Team-Schuman.com, who I have been in contact with before. I actually wrote a testimonial on team-schuman.com myself. However, in writing that testimonial I didn’t actually have to know very much about Team-Schuman.com, (i.e. it’s surprisingly easy to reel of a paragraph of how happy you were with something! - while avoiding lying). Testimonials are another thing where that truck full of salt will be needed.
Conclusion
Plug-In Profit Site has avoided the Internet scams section by it’s sound business model, but there is no way I can recommend it. This is because learning how to make money with affiliate programs can be done for free with sites like SFI and from blogs, whereas Plug-In Profit Site costs at least $24.95. All of the affiliate programs he recommends can be signed up for free, the information he gives can be found for free so effectively that $24.95 is for buying your own Plug-In Profit Site, which in my eyes is not worth it. If anyone tries it has tried it I would love to hear from you. What you do think about Plug-In Profit Site?
13 Jun
Beyond the Pod affiliate programs is marketed by Johnny Fuery, who you will notice has taken a position on my ‘related sites’ blogroll. Beyond the Pod is an innovative new affiliate program (established in 2007) that makes a refreshing change from the usual ’sell our products at a commission’ or PTR e-mail internet scams which form the bulk of this site’s reviews.
What does Beyond The Pod do?
Beyond the Pod offer the simple yet desirable service of paying you for your old and even broken iPods. I was surprised that even broken iPods are acceptable, but Beyond the Pod do take this into account when judging the value of the iPod.
“We perform testing and cleanup on every single device we receive to prepare it for resale. Broken devices, in a certain sense, are simply devices that require additional cleanup. By performing the service ourselves or connecting with buyers who are interested in units they can refurbish or use for parts, we are able to unlock the value of a broken iPod.”
Beyond the Pod emphasise on their about page that when you use Beyond the Pod, you are guaranteed a “simple, fast, and fair transaction”. I am inclined to believe them, largely because they work with The Drop Spot, Ltd that has been around for years.
The practical side of actually getting the cash for your old iPod is surprisingly simple. There are 4 steps:
1. Select you iPod (say what model it is)
2. Calculate iPods value, by answering a few questions about the condition of your ipod.
3. Ship your iPod
4. Collect your Cash!
Beyond the Pod also have a blog which has handy tips about iPods such as improving sound quality on your iPod
The affiliate program
Affiliates earn on a ‘per lead’ basis. A ‘lead’ is half way between a click and a sale, i.e. If they click your affiliate link and take some sort of action like signing up (giving Beyond the Pod a lead) then you make money. $2 is earned per lead and there is a 60 day cookie allowing someone to click your affiliate link first , and then join Beyond The Pod via a different route in 60 days and still count as your lead. Johnny Fuery is happy do negotiate special fee structures for top end ‘super-affiliates’
There are a only a limited number of promotional banners available to affiliates with there being only 1 banner (the one at the top of this review) in 4 different sizes.
Have Beyond the Pod got what it takes?
There are happy people out there talking about Beyond The Pod. I found this comment on tuaw.com very encouraging:
“I sent my 30GB iPod video to Beyond the Pod on Monday and I live in BC. Since I live in BC my payment will be in Canadian dollars right?!? Anyways they gave me great offer for my iPod. $110.00!! It was so great. I’ve never had a company offer me that much! Thanks BTP.”
Conclusion
I am sure Beyond the Pod is a genuine program and so they have escaped the grasps of the internet scams section. I think as an affiliate Beyond The Pod has the potential to be very lucrative given the ‘iPod boom’ that’s happening and with the impending release of the iPhone more and more people will want to trade in their old iPods for Cash. For this reason Beyond The Pod has made it into my recommended affiliate programs section!.. I’ll just go and send them my busted iPod mini…
5 Jun
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After months of what I can only describe as the most painful birth of a company the world has ever seen, the AGLOCO Viewbar finally arrived kicking and screaming.
I’m glad to say all it’s bits are there and they are intact
I’ve been a tentative supporter of AGLOCO throughout its development and it’s encouraging to see the Viewbar up and running. However, a lot still has to happen before we start seeing any scrumptious AGLOCO checks.
I’m predicting that this first month will be very important in determining AGLOCO’s success. It will largely consist of the masses dwindling numbers of loyal supporters downloading the Viewbar and doing their best to get their referrals to do the same. There will also be a promotional ‘mini-boom’ where AGLOCO fans utilise the Viewbar’s release to further promote AGLOCO and gain referrals.
Naturally I hope AGLOCO goes well and takes off again, but I must admit, it’s extremely painful to write about because I am so unbelievably aware of the ‘old-hatness’ of it all.
As far as I can see there are 5 stances taken towards AGLOCO.
Technically I fall into group 1 although I’m not much of an AGLOCO fanboy, I’m just up-to-date.
I downloaded my AGLOCO Viewbar this morning. Here’s a screenshot of what it looks like.
Spot the Viewbar

Evaluation
It’s no Paris Hilton (probably a good thing at the moment!) but it is pretty unobtrusive. I was glad to download the Viewbar, but I’m not about to go into the age old arguments about whether there is ‘anything to lose’ or not. Forget the referral bait and forget the hype. You decide.
3 Jun
Yesterday on the AGLOCO company blog it was announced that the AGLOCO viewbar is at long last being released tomorrow in the West and on Tuesday in Asia. They admit they still haven’t finished fully integrating the some of the Ads with the Viewbar but it seems it will function well enough for use. It is ’self-updating’ and so as the AGLOCO team develop it no more installs or upgrades should be required.
I struggle to get too exited about this release because all the hype, which is so vital for a start-up like AGLOCO died down long ago. However, it will be interesting to see how many people ‘come crawling back’ to AGLOCO and use the Viewbar. I will for certain, there is nothing to lose now.
Even the sceptics have a reason to join AGLOCO and surf using the Viewbar because it will allow them to understand it better. Ever heard of the phrase “know your enemy”?, it is the opposite of “know your product” but in this case both involve joining AGLOCO.
If you are interested to find out more about AGLOCO then see my review of AGLOCO or the AGLOCO Story.
2 Jun

My SFI Review demonstrated the potential of the SFI affiliate program and I was very happy to add it to the recommended affiliate programs section. The main gripe I had with SFI is that the vast expanse of materials they have available for affiliates can be a little overwhelming. Their ‘compensation plan’ is 6 pages long and so I thought a simpler version is required.
6 different earning options available to Affiliates
Options 1-3 are available to non-upgraded ‘basic level’ affiliates. Any combination can be used, providing the required ‘level’ of affiliate is reached. You need to gather 10 ‘SVP’ gain Executive Affiliate (EA) status.
1. Retail Commissions are the bread and butter of SFI. As a basic affiliate you earn 30% commission on all the products you sell (there is a wide range of products), as an EA this doubles to 60% commission.
2. ClickBucks is the simplest, quickest but in the long run may be less lucrative of all the programs . $1-4 is earned for each affiliate you personally ’sponsor’ (refer) to SFI depending on their activity afterwards.
If the affiliates you refer are repeatedly inactive you will be blocked from using ClickBux. The affiliates you sponsor are added to your over all Powerline but you do not count as being their personal sponsor. This means you do not get the Executive Matches or Team matches from them (read on to find out about these). Sponsorship of the affiliates is awarded to other SFI affiliates who have purchased ‘Eagle Co-op’ units.
Clickbucks is a good way to start with SFI because each $2 you earn from it earns you 1 SVP. I think it is the quickest and easiest way to reach EA status other than actually buying SFI products yourself. I suggest starting with Clickbux until you reach the required 10SVP to gain EA status that first month and then help your affiliates to do the same.
3. Fundraisers is the third and final way to make money with SFI affiliate program at a basic affiliate level. It involves you referring charity/non-profit organisations to SFI who can then sell products using SFI’s ‘Nice Offers’ division. The charity earn a big commission and you earn 7.5%, which doubles to 15% if you have EA status for each sale the charity makes.
Tasty Earning Options available to Executive Affiliates
4. The Executive Bonus is in my opinion the most juicy earning stream because all it requires is gaining EA status and then you start to earn. Every new member who joins SFI (not just your referrals, this is anyone in the world ever!) is put into your Powerline. I have been a SFI affiliate for a little over a week not and there are currently 15871 affiliates in my Powerline! The precise percentage of earnings is not revealed. It is bound to be a small percentage or this earning channel would cost SFI far too much. However, it continually grows and grows with no effort and as long as you upgrade before the deadline (of about 1 month after signing up) your position in the Powerline is ‘locked in’.
5. Executive Match is simply a ‘matching’ bonus, varying from 50%-200% of what ever your personally sponsored affiliates Executive bonus is. This is another passive income stream which only requires you and your affiliates have EA status.
Earnings Example for the Executive Match

6. Team Matches are only available to Team Leaders which is the level above EA status. You earn an 8% match of all your referrals’ referrals (over 7 levels deep) earnings from their Executive bonus. This is as far as SFI goes towards being a ‘pyramid scheme’ and is only a tiny part of what SFI is really about. It’s a way of creating a further bonus for super affiliates.
Conclusion
Believe it or not that is actually a summary of the compensation plans. If there is one thing I can conclude it is that SFI is a commitment and in no way a get rich quick scheme but success with SFI isn’t anything unachievable. All the information to teach you to be successful with affiliate programs is freely given by SFI (see my review if you don’t believe me!) and with EA status residual income streams are created instantly.
31 May

MoneyListProfits (MLP) has been very difficult to judge. At first glance the site has the look of a bog standard affiliate money making program where usually the main letdown is the product itself. The other immediate judgement I made is of the blatant use of affiliate marketing techniques. Of course it can hardly be expected for the marketer not to try and sell it, but the whole site is incredibly ’salesmany’.
A Warning against the style of writing used by affiliate marketers
Affiliate programs like MoneyListProfits generally consist of a few basic pages, a squeeze page (where they will send you the ‘free part’ if you enter your email address’), and the landing page where the customer is lead down the page by a sneaky series of hyped up promises ‘free bonuses’ and examples of what the money could be spent on.
I have nothing against these techniques being used, after all if I were selling a product using a similar affiliate program I would use elements of those techniques. However, it is important for customers not rush into the purchase. Take a breather; you could always come back the next day to the site when you have had time to put things into perspective.
Examples of hyped up promises and ‘free bonuses’
“Let’s take a look at these Two FREE Bonuses in closer detail…”
“If You Hurry And Order Right Now From The Bottom Of This Page, You Will Get The Entire MLP Platinum Membership Package For $39.85 One-Time ONLY Instead of $197.00!”
“This special deep-discounted limited-time offer
could be removed any moment without noice”.“I could be updating this page right now”
This is the oldest trick in the book, they never remove the special discount and it’s not really worth $197. The page is carefully written to make the customer think they are getting an amazing deal. This is reinforced when the affiliates who sell MoneylistProfits are paid a flat rate of $10 with no mention of what they would be paid if the price rose.
Despite being all too aware I was being manipulated the product actually has some interesting features.
“For that single downline you create at MLP (full step-by-step training included), the Bulk Downline Generator will automatically generate and manage multiple downlines for you at the 20+ Listed PTR programs”
The ‘Bulk Downline Generator’ sounds like a PTR nerd’s wet dream but with MLP it does seem to make sense. MLP recommends pretty much the same batch of PTR programs to all its members and so the new signups are put in the downlines of the ones who already signed up. This is boasted as being the main feature of MLP but if you remove the other not-so-great features this doesn’t really add up. It results in people finding themselves paying $39 because they know more people will do the same thing… it’s a odd concept because people normally sign up for PTR sites for free!
An unusual detail is that the position of being an affiliate must be applied for, or the MLP can be bought giving instant access, which is a clever trick but if an affiliate refers 4 new members the cost of membership is recovered.
Conclusion
I was amazed at the lack of ‘internet chatter’ about MLP and it’s affiliate program, which suggests it hasn’t ‘taken off’ yet. MLP has potential and it’s affiliate program could prove lucrative, however, I could find no proof of anyone actually buying the MLP program. At the moment there are just a few lonely affiliates posting about MLP in forums and the affiliate terms forbid affiliates from making open claims about their amount of earnings and also from displaying checks. I do not think MoneyListProfits to be a total Internet scam, but due to the current lack of evidence it cannot make it to the recommended affiliate programs section.
29 May
Ultimate Wealth Package (UWP) is a somewhat dubious looking affiliate money making program which has made more than it’s share if Internet cash. UWP is made by Mark Warren, who according to himself and other reviews of UWP is an Internet millionaire. UWP uses the Click Bank affiliate program and so has already avoided the Internet scams category. However, whether it makes it to the recommended affiliate programs section is a different matter entirely.
It is important to understand that the UWP is a product that you have to buy. You also have the option of selling the UWP as an affiliate. UWP claims to contain a successful formula to make money online; and as has become the accepted standard with such programs Mark Warren makes some pretty hyped up statements.
“All you need to do is activate your website and watch the money come inâ€
“this is not a get rich quick scamâ€
Mark also says that, “Your website will work similar to the way Wal-Mart worksâ€. This reveals who his target market is. He has tried (and succeeded) to make his product attractive to beginners and relates it to them by comparing it to Wal-Mart.
I found the site as a whole very patronizing; his photo’s of fast cars and happy people have nothing to do with the program itself and are classic affiliate marketing techniques which attempt to work on the customers hopes and dreams.
The phrase ‘affiliate programs’ isn’t even mentioned on the page. This is because the people who buy UWP are people who don’t know what affiliate programs are (stay tuned for my overview of affiliate programs which will explain everything you need to know about the ‘lingo’ needed to be successful with affiliate programs!).
In simple terms I am impressed with the UWP landing page and I am sure it helps generate a respectable conversion rate for affiliates of UTP. However, there is a problem with the product.
The main selling point of the UWP is that everything will be done for you and the parts that aren’t will be taught to you. The problem is that it is quite possible to learn almost everything you need to know about affiliate programs for free, without paying for the UWP. This can be done online (with a site like this one!) or with ‘all encompassing’ affiliate programs like SFI.
Conclusion
As mentioned UWP is registered with ClickBank and so will pay its affiliates and members. UWP has not made it to the recommended affiliate programs section because it has been ‘undercut’ by blogs e.g. John Chow’s E-Book, affiliate programs like SFI and other sites which give away it’s information freely. There is also a lot of competition for selling the Ultimate Wealth Package making is less profitable for affiliates, not to mention the very annoying audio that reads aloud what you are already reading in your head!