tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10530184881225929502024-03-07T22:54:07.882-08:00MLM & Pyramid ScamsWhat is a Pyramid Scam? How do you tell? Is your friend or family member just suckering you into losing money? Is there ANY legitmacy to MLM's, Direct Selling, Referral or Network Maketing? Are colleges really starting to teach this? What happens if your MLM gets caught in a legal mess? Finally - which are "legit" and which are "scams". Please note, this blog is my personal opinion and I'm exercising my first amendment rights of free speech. You can exercise yours via "Comments".Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-43134584247873103332009-02-26T13:11:00.000-08:002009-02-26T13:25:26.085-08:00E4L.biz - the scam continuesBrad Morse doesn't even make promises anymore. The last email to would be E4L.biz members went out on December 14th 2008 and it pitched yet another non-E4L "opportunity". <br /><br />The last email that spoke to the "business" (and I use that word lightly) once again claimed their were issues with the database. The same BS excuse he's used for at least a year now. This was Nov 25th 2008 and it said <em>"I will take the rest of this month and next month to have our programmers work in the database."</em><br /><br />He would then get back to everyone in mid-January (an excuse to sell other stuff that benefited only Brad in the meantime) and on April 15th <em>"we will start selling no matter the condition of the database"</em><br /><br />I'm too bored with his lies to even look up the history of broken promises of when they would start selling Entertainment Products for Less. Brad Morse is a liar, and I hope this blog finds anyone who runs into his newest scams.<br /><br />His continue way of bilking his E4L downline (if there is anyone left) is to send them affiliate program pitches. Buy someone else's scam product from me, and you'll get rich. Of course Brad pockets the affiliate payment. You can see several of these on the E4L site at <a href="http://www.e4l.biz/invite.htm">http://www.e4l.biz/invite.htm</a>. To see it all you have to do is hover over 4 of the 6 ads on the page and read the URL. You'll see "mbmorse" which is his ClickBank affiliate I.D.<br /><br />Most ClickBank products are crappy eBooks that are sold via affiliate promotion.... one affiliate signs up, tries to sell it AND sign up new affiliates after them. The true profiteer is the eBook author, and the rare few who find ways to sell thousands of the programs. And the most clever programs, which aren't so clever any more, are those that promise to teach you how to get rich, and after you buy, you learn the secret is to sell that very eBook to others. Brad went so far as to create his own affiliate product which I panned on this blog. Hopefully no one got suckered into buying it.<br /><br />Brad - you are no better than Bernie Madoff and the Standford jackass. May you rot in hell.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-50026623069600023062008-12-08T22:49:00.000-08:002008-12-08T23:04:02.434-08:00Burnlounge = YTB = Illegal Pyramid scamLen Clements reports on the trial of a BurnLounge rep for promoting an illegal pyramid scheme. It's applicability to YTB? This is the last paragraph in Len's article<br /><br /><em>"Which leads us to interesting aspect #2: This is yet another in a long line of cases that seems to clearly define the act of making a profit from, and/or paying downline commissions on, the sale of the business, or more specifically the business's website, as being indicative of an illegal recruitment based pyramid scheme. Selling, profiting from, and/or paying commissions on lotions, vitamins, drinks, travel, telecom services and yes, even music downloads, is all perfectly fine. But you could carpet the entire surface of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with the legal red flag created by profiting from and/or paying commissions on the website, or any sales and marketing tool, that only those pursuing the income opportunity would purchase.</em> "<br /><br />I've posted the entire article below.<br /><br />My recommendation to all of you YTB reps.... first ask yourself where you, or your upline, earns the vast majority of your profits from? It is from the money paid by your downline on their "booking engines" or whatever silly name you call the web site. And if so YOU are promoting the exact thing that poor Rob DeBoer, a mere BurnLounge rep, was promoting and for which he is now being prosecuted. Argue all you want - but if your profits come from selling a travel store, a booking engine, or any other marketing website, try not to earn enough money to be the one prosecuted.<br /><br />And now, here's Len's full <strong>"Marketwave Alert #102"</strong><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Trial Begins for BurnLounge Top Rep</strong><br />October 17, 2008Former USC football star Rob DeBoer will go on trial Tuesday (12/9/08) to defend his position as the top distributor for BurnLounge, which was declared an illegal pyramid scheme by the FTC and shut down in 2007. DeBoer, who was not part of BurnLounge corporate, is accused of deceptively promoting the BurnLounge program. Other top promoters and corporate members have also been sued by the FTC. BurnLounge sold music downloads via an internet website. However, the large majority of revenue to the company and commissions paid to distributors came from the $430 fee charged for the website itself, which was referred to as an "online music store". The FTC declared it a scheme where most of the income was derived from recruiting new people into the business of selling music downloads, not from the sale of the actual music. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">A local news story can be read here: </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><a href="http://www.thestate.com/local/story/612167.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">http://www.thestate.com/local/story/612167.html</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">The FTC docket related to this case can be found here: </span><a href="http://www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/0623201/index.shtm" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">http://www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/0623201/index.shtm</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Commentary:</strong> </span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">There are two interesting aspects to this case: First, that a high level distributor is being named in the FTC action and individually tried. This always begs the question, How many levels down from the apex of the national distributor hierarchy do you stop becoming the perpetrator and become the victim? Is it one level? Ten levels? The top 5% of earners? <em>What?</em> </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">This reminds me of a case back in the early '90s. I was contacted by the D.A. in Fresno, CA to serve as their expert witness in an action against an elderly couple, let's call them Bob and Betty, who had just held a hotel meeting (about 50 attended) promoting a scheme called Marathon. They found me from an exposé of Marathon I had just published, which was indeed an illegal pyramid. But Bob and Betty didn't know that! In fact, they were simply following the lead of their upline sponsors, who likely did what their sponsor told them to do. When I asked the D.A. where Bob and Betty fell in the chain, he didn't even know. I asked him if any of the existing reps who attended with their prospects would also be prosecuted, he responded no because they were Bob and Betty's "victims"! I was now even more confused. So, the reps in the audience could have been much more experienced, with larger downlines and be even higher in the chain that Bob and Betty, but now the criteria between perp and victim seemed to be who happened to be hosting the meeting that night. I didn't take that case. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">I'm not saying Mr. DeBoer isn't a perp. My point is that being a distributor for a company doesn't exempt you from being declared one, and what defines you as such seems to be a very wide, grey line. All the more reason to have a clear understanding of what defines a legal direct sales business as opposed to an illegal pyramid scheme. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">Which leads us to interesting aspect #2: This is yet another in a long line of cases that seems to clearly define the act of making a profit from, and/or paying downline commissions on, the sale of the business, or more specifically the business's website, as being indicative of an illegal recruitment based pyramid scheme. Selling, profiting from, and/or paying commissions on lotions, vitamins, drinks, travel, telecom services and yes, even music downloads, is all perfectly fine. But you could carpet the entire surface of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with the legal red flag created by profiting from and/or paying commissions on the website, or any sales and marketing tool, <em>that only those pursuing the income opportunity would purchase.</em><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">Len Clements</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">Founder & CEO</span><br /><a href="http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001p-uWO3cZTTsswYzsYq8A04wINO20S0-E2r-rFfh2ZJf-7UtdKEySSqrLTWmEtO82-rqQGapbgLJiMatF7kwV6JCR8D3_sRpkITs6toz8T3egb_pZ_B_CGQ==" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">MarketWave, Inc.</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"> </span><br />_________________________________________________________<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">MarketWave Alerts(tm) is copyrighted material. Alerts may be freely copied or forwarded in their entirety only under the condition that they not be edited or revised in any way, the MarketWave web site address be included, and the non-subscriber recipient be agreeable to receiving it. It is the belief of MarketWave that the information presented is accurate and truthful as of the date of the Alert. Any and all commentary is the expressed opinions, views and beliefs of Len Clements protected under the U.S. Constitution. Len Clements is not an attorney nor should any part of any Alert be construed as legal advice, nor should it replace the advice of competent legal counsel.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-66169908867922514972008-09-01T09:07:00.000-07:002008-09-01T09:31:08.428-07:00E4L & Brad Morse now a "Super Affiliate" programBrad Morse still can't spell. His new scam <a href="http://emailguarantee.com/affiliates.htm">http://emailguarantee.com/affiliates.htm</a> will give you an idea of how dumb he is, with misspellings and all kinds of grammatical errors - AND the dumbest sounding sales pitch I've ever heard. "Make money even if you don't want to" has been repeated by him countless times before, so I guess no one has ever told him it's STUPID.<br /><br />Obviously the above site is NOT entertainment products for less.... it's over a year past when he promised to launch that business... and he is still promising to launch it... but is really trying to divert everyone to this simplistic and aweful sounding affiliate program.<br /><br />But instead of just calling Brad Morse a liar and stupid it's becoming pretty clear from the comments on the other E4L posts on this blog that a lot of people are now fed up enough to take legal action.<br /><br />Frankly I think the easiest thing to do is get the products he uses to bad him.... like aweber and paypal. We should all email them and ask that they ban him - maybe read this blog for evidence of his failed promises and lies. I doubt either company wants to be a culprit to a scam artist.<br /><br />To give a bit of background on E4L's litany of lies, here are all of the 2007 E4L.biz blog posts from first to last:<br /><a href="http://illegalmlms.blogspot.com/2007/07/e4lbiz-scam-or-legit.html">E4L.biz - scam or legit?</a> - 7/16/07<br /><a href="http://illegalmlms.blogspot.com/2007/08/e4l-update.html">E4L update</a> - 8/3/07<br /><a href="http://illegalmlms.blogspot.com/2007/08/e4l-update-or-lack-of-one.html">E4L update - or lack of one</a> - 8/14/07<br /><a href="http://illegalmlms.blogspot.com/2007/08/hotconferencecom.html">Hotconference.com vs. E4L</a> - 8/15/07<br /><a href="http://illegalmlms.blogspot.com/2007/08/comments-now-open-for-business.html">Comments now open for business</a> - 8/20/07<br /><a href="http://illegalmlms.blogspot.com/2007/09/e4l-stupid-or-scam.html">E4L - stupid or a scam</a> - 9/13/07<br /><a href="http://illegalmlms.blogspot.com/2007/10/e4ls-competition.html">E4L's competition</a> - 10/7/07<br /><a href="http://illegalmlms.blogspot.com/2007/10/e4lbiz-prediction.html">An E4L Prediction</a> - 10/8/07<br /><a href="http://illegalmlms.blogspot.com/2007/11/last-chance-for-e4l.html">Last chance for E4L </a>- 11/16/07<br /><a href="http://illegalmlms.blogspot.com/2007/12/e4l-sinks-to-new-low.html">E4L sinks to a new low</a> - 12/10/07Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-22347007346983609282008-08-13T18:56:00.000-07:002008-08-13T19:12:47.743-07:00YTB hit, then hit again, then hit againNot quite knocked out, YTB certainly is up against the ropes. At the risk of saying "I told you so" read my posts <strong>"</strong><a href="http://illegalmlms.blogspot.com/2007/10/ytb-nail-in-coffin.html"><strong>YTB nail in the Coffin</strong></a><strong>"</strong> and <strong>"</strong><a href="http://illegalmlms.blogspot.com/2007/07/ytb-travel-legal-or-illegal.html"><strong>YTB Travel - legal or illegal</strong></a><strong>"</strong> where a year ago I was questioning the legality of their business model.<br /><br />Keep in mind, if you've read this blog before, I'm not an MLM hater. But there are clear legal ways to run an MLM, and YTB clearly flaunted with the most obvious rules... those being that most of your income had to come from selling the end product, not internal marketing systems or pay directly for recruiting. When I was first approached about YTB the red flags jumped out immediately.<br /><br />Sure enough, last year the Florida Attorney General began an investigation. Last week the California Attorney General actually filed suit calling YTB a "gigantic pyramid scheme" and one story has it that it resulted from a 2 year investigation AND negotiation with YTB, and now per <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/yourmoney/story/26EFA66297E451B4862574A3000A038E?OpenDocument">this St Louis Dispatch article</a>, two YTB agents and sales reps have filed a class action law suit for $100 million.<br /><br />Hello YTB reps... time to get out.<br /><br />Also per the Dispatch article YTB has withdrawn their application to get onto the American Stock Exchange. Why they'd even apply when all they ever seem to report is red numbers???<br /><br />But the bottom line is that YTB makes the vast majority of it's money selling "booking engines" to new recruits and on recurring billings for those online travel booking sites... AND NOT for booking travel. That's ILLEGAL, at least in the way I understand the law... fortunately for me, California agrees with me.<br /><br />10... 9... 8... 7... 6.... 5... 4... 3... not much more before it's a knock out.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-64918059686443787682008-08-12T00:54:00.000-07:002008-08-12T01:00:10.100-07:00More E4L BSOver a year ago E4L was supposed to start selling Entertainment products online. A year later and Brad Morse doesn't even say anything about selling Entertainment products on his emails any more. He keeps pushing affiliate programs, and only promises to set up a "Back Office" for E4L'ers. After months and months of saying invites to the new back office were imminent, a count down for that happened over the last few weeks. And now he sends out an email that says "if you didn't get the invite" you have to sign up on at the "new member log in page".<br /><br />Now... let's do a little test here. If you've been on Brad's BS email list waiting for E4L to launch (or just following the lies like I am) use the "Comments" link below to let us know if you DID or did NOT receive an invite.<br /><br />My guess - NO ONE received an invite and he's getting everyone to re-opt in to his email campaigns, only to sell you more affiliate programs that have NOTHING to do with E4L's stated mission. Let the world know... did you get the invite promised, or not????Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-71278725407814416542008-04-09T18:00:00.001-07:002008-04-09T18:23:36.729-07:00"The Right Start Program"If Brad Morse gets lucky, there will be more reviews about this program... hopefully mine will be the only one ever.... but you have to listen to just how dumb he is via his audio at the site promoting this BS program here:<br /><a href="http://morsepromotions.com/rsa/">http://morsepromotions.com/rsa/</a> He tries to start out sounding smart, but he's so dumb it unravels into a tedious irrelevant story with numerous grammatical errors.<br /><br />I would think that by my pointing to his site it could help him sell this program, but it's pretty hard to not get just how dumb he is when you listen to him speak. And if you don't notice what I think is another obvious thing... let me mention it now. He talks about "this guy" who way back in 1994 started learning how to make money on the internet and spent thousands of dollars doing it. He alludes to him now being an expert.... but after finding out (after an incredibly long winded and boring story that most people won't make it through) that he's the "guy", you have to wonder WHERE are the stories and testimonials about him actually having made any money??? There aren't any, probably because he's never made any. Some expert right?<br /><br />He appears to be pinning his hopes on the "Right Start Program" after 14 years of trial and error. <br /><br />The problem with this is that a couple of years ago he thought E4L.biz could make him money, but now 2 years later and 9 months after promising to launch it, it's STILL not launched. What he has gotten though are 90,000 emails who he is now trying to sell this new program to.<br /><br />In case you're new to the Brad Morse and E4L story... there are plenty of posts on this blog about it... but he promised to set up an "Entertainment For Less" reseller site, and brought people in through an MLM structure, and by offering "free lifetime membership" he got 90,000 people to sign up. Now, he's put together the above "morsepromotions" site to promote what he's REALLY been working on these past few months.... an "affiliate program" that he wants YOU to sell so that HE can make a LOT of money. You the affiliate will make what most affiliates make... NEXT TO NOTHING. HE will make a killing if anyone actually promotes it and it takes off.<br /><br />ME???? I'm writing to warn you not to because it's total BS that he promised 90,000 people to start a completely different business, and continues to promise that it will launch, but it appears for all intents and purposes it never will. All he really seems to want to do is sell this BS affiliate program to. And he's now only promising to get the E4L back office up IN A MONTH FROM NOW (that would be 10 months overdue in the unlikely event he actually gets it up).<br /><strong><br />So here's my review without having seen the program (99% chance I'm right):</strong><br />YOU learn how to sell HIS program to OTHERS. YOU promise that they will make money by selling it themselves, and THEY promise to the new suckers that they will make money by selling HIS program too. Lots of sales for Brad, next to none for you. <br /><br />Since he loved the "Get Google Ads Free" BS program he'll probably promote that you should promote it on Google and hope that your expenses are paid by your sales, and then you too can call that "free" advertising. <br /><br />In the end, Brad has no testimonials of ever making an honest dime on the internet, but is now promoting himself as an expert who can teach you how to do what he's never done. And if you buy it, he will finally make some money... but I won't call it an "honest" dime. It seems incredibly dishonest to me.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-65708840062840597592008-03-29T13:46:00.000-07:002008-03-29T14:35:09.043-07:00More of the same from E4L.bizCan you believe it's now 8 months since E4L.biz was supposed to launch, and it's still not launched. And yet again, another email has gone out to those who "signed up" saying that more work needs to be done and it will be launched soon... and the email once again, is Brad Morse mostly pitching a get rich quick scheme that is designed to make him rich!<br /><br />He's now got a full fledged marketing site pitching a program that he'd like to sell to the 90,000+ downline who have been waiting for E4L.biz to launch. NOT for a totally different get rich quick scheme. So apparently he's been busy with all kinds of things that don't help launch E4L... which again makes me think that Brad is a con man who has no intention of ever launching E4L. He's been promising to launch it since August 1st 2007, and every few weeks an email goes out that says "this week" or "next week" a new back office will be launched... and that STILL has not happened despite about 10 "this week" promises over the past 6 months. In fact, the last time I checked the old back office wasn't up anymore and there was no new back office. No office... no biz in my opinion.<br /><br />So should you believe Brad? I clearly don't because the only thing he's launched is a program he'd like to sell to his downline. HOW did he find time to build it when he's supposed to be working on E4L???? Well, my guess is that he's not working on getting E4L launched. And as long as the "faithful" keep waiting around, and fork out money for his BS get rich quick programs, he'll keep making the same phony promises. The faithful have stuck around 8 months after the launch was promised... I wonder now if any more are willing to admit that they believed as early as a month or so ago, and have finally given up? I believed it right up until the August 1st launch... but once that date was missed I started thinking about everything else that was missing... and still is... like a pay plan, a commission structure, a peek at how the site is shaping up, a catalog of contacts and suppliers so we could verify he's really talking to actual people about real things.<br /><br />Well, as far as I know, 8 months later there still isn't a pay plan or anything else that proves the business will ever launch. I mean the 10+ failed back office promises for "this week" should be enough for anyone to scream SCAM... but apparently there are still quite a few believers.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-68846974277430078592008-01-15T22:43:00.000-08:002008-01-15T22:50:19.515-08:00E4L.biz about to blowA new email went out to members stating that Brad has been spending his time creating an audio eBook that he's going to sell to members. No word on when the business that he's sucked 90,000 people into will launch. Only that he wants more money from their pockets put into his own pockets. Another aside about server problems causing delays that will now be fixed... yada yada... same old same old when it comes to his annoying excuses... and then he throws in that he wants to sell the members on advertising... yup... more money in Brad's pocket taken from the poor followers who thought this messed up idea was a "dream".<br /><br />To see what the members had to say about this continuing travesty I checked their Forum where complainers complain, and zealots excuse... and they've LOCKED the forum to new posts.<br /><br />Absolutely incredible the depths this cretin will go. My comments section is open to all, and while I can delete them, I promise only to delete off-color ones. So E4L'ers.... tell me it's great and Brad should be excused and given more time... or tell HIM what you really think without fear of being shut down!!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-26813459336383046172007-12-29T12:29:00.000-08:002007-12-29T12:35:16.548-08:00Illegal chain letters and emailsTwo government sites explaining what about chain letters are illegal, and why:<br /><br /><a href="http://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/investigations/MailFraud/fraudschemes/sweepstakesfraud/ChainLetters.aspx">This page</a> from the US Post Office puts chain letters in the category of gambling.<br /><br />And if you'd like to report someone <a href="http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/chainalrt.shtm">this page</a> from the FTC provides a couple of complaint options.<br /><br />Do us all a favor, don't even forward "legal" chain letters or emails that promise good luck to those who forward it on, and bad luck to those who don't. It's all BS and it's frankly rude to wish someone bad luck if they don't spam others.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-89918736462380426492007-12-17T23:16:00.000-08:002007-12-17T23:56:58.661-08:00More PayPal scams: SitewealthI love the FAQ at <a href="http://www.sitewealth.info">Sitewealth.info</a>. The last Q&A is whether or not it's legal... here's the exact line:<br /><br />"Is this legal? <br />Yes, Sitewealth Club its 100% legal. In return for your investment, you are given access to the list of e-books indside our membership section. Any program that provides a product of any kind is legal."<br /><br />First off, how is it that none of the scam artists can spell? They use "its" instead of "is" to say that it's legal, and spell "inside" with an extra "d". Morons.<br /><br />But is it legal? Fat chance. Even if it was, PayPal will probably shut it down before you read this blog. They barely leave room for legal MLM's, and none for outright pyramids. From PayPal's <a href="https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/use/index_frame-outside">Acceptable Use Policy</a><br /><br />"Prohibited Activities<br />You may not use the PayPal service for activities that:<br />3. (b) support pyramid or ponzi schemes, matrix programs, other "get rich quick" schemes or certain multi-level marketing programs"<br /><br />So Sitewealth might get lucky and get shut down by PayPal before the Feds step in and sue their asses into the ground. The idea that you can sell "any kind" of product to avoid legal problems is utterly ridiculous. Either Sitewealth is full of total idiots (probably given their inability to spell) who actually believe that, or they are purposely scamming people. But the law doesn't care that you made a mistake when it's really easy to discover what you're doing is illegal.<br /><br />If it were true, I could sell blank pieces of paper... or the good guys at Sitewealth were even more clever... they're selling electronic paper... eBooks. You pay only $2.50 and receive access to worthless eBooks and that is supposed to make the illegal pyramid scam legal. They have no costs, and create a downline where they are at the very top.<br /><br />And guess where I discovered Sitewealth... on the E4L.biz forum where only idiots roam. They still haven't figured out that Lorna's pyramid scam is illegal. Nor do they realize that "biz" will ever actually launch. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.digg.com"><br /><img src="http://digg.com/img/badges/16x16-digg-thumb.gif" width="16" height="16" alt="Digg!" /><br /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-41077859682575989632007-12-15T01:53:00.001-08:002007-12-15T02:05:07.516-08:00Paypal "it's for real" - make $30,000 in 3 weeksWhen they have to say "it's real" that's when you know it's NOT. People, stop being so dumb and gullible. Scam artists send out emails and post to forums and various web sites explaining that you can make thousands and tens of thousands of money via PayPal "which is free". All you have to do... promote an illegal Ponzi or Pyramid scheme. Oh they don't call it that. They tell you it's legal. They tell you it's amazing. They tell you it's fool proof. What they don't tell you is that they hope you are a fool.<br /><br />First off, just read PayPal's rules... it CLEARLY states that ANY pyramid scheme is against their rules. Second, do a damn Google search when something sounds too good to be true. For some bizarre reason most of what you get when you try to Google this scam are the scam artists. <br /><br />"Massive return on $10"<br />"Turn $10 into 10000 in Just 14 Days"<br />"A Real Money Maker, it really works"<br /><br />Does any of that sound too good to be true????? Does the phrase "get rich quick" sound familiar???? <br /><br />It's an illegal pyramid scheme... illegal... as in get fined, maybe even go to jail. Of course, it DOESN'T WORK for most people, so most people don't get caught. Just a very few people actually earn any money... usually they're sending out thousands of emails with their own name in first position. And those are the folks getting in the most trouble.<br /><br />There are LEGAL MLM's out there... they have products.... you actually have to SELL SOMETHING... and people have to actually BUY SOMETHING... otherwise.... ILLEGAL.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-2097036139940986322007-12-10T18:15:00.000-08:002007-12-10T21:44:52.418-08:00E4L sinks to a new lowShocking! Stupid! Sad! What can I call this new E4L low??? The fact that not one person has picked up on what appears to be a truly 100% illegal pyramid scam being pushed by E4L's highest upline person, a woman named Lorna, is all of those things.<br /><br />I didn't get the email so I can't say this with 100% certainty, but... I'm about 99% certain... that Lorna has emailed a ton of people something that can get her, and anyone who falls prey to it, into a lot of trouble. Lorna is probably the first, or one of the first to get enrolled in E4L and apparently has the largest downline with many thousands of people below her. But with no E4L business, apparently she's also broke.<br /><br />Reading their Forum today, one member of E4L asked on the <a href="http://mlmsoftwarepro.com/communities/111117/">E4L forum</a> if they had gotten an email from Lorna that in part said "pay $10 via paypal to her and put my name on the list then resend it to 100 people". <br />Ouch - right there I knew it was one of those illegal pyramid chain email letters that collapse very quickly, and are so obviously illegal that they get some of the participants reported to the Feds. <br /><br />But not one person appears to have picked up on it. In fact, Lorna is the first to respond to his post.. and instead of apologizing, she insults him for "sensationalism". Yikes... how can she have no clue? It makes you wonder if she's ever responded to some Nigerian "attorney" who just needed $10,000 in order to give her 10% of some deceased billionaires fortune. How do people not see through these obvious scams? But there it is... her naked admission of being involved in a pyramid or Ponzi scheme... the kind that isn't iffy like E4L... it's 100% illegal.<br /><br />What's more, her email apparently suggests using PayPal... and of course that will get her account closed... because oddly enough illegal things are against the PayPal rules. And I believe E4L... if they ever pay anyone anything... is planning to pay people via PayPal.<br /><br />These things are so obviously illegal to me... maybe because I write about them. But I still don't understand how everyone else on that Forum has totally missed it too. In fact, a few of them are practically begging to be forwarded the email to they can get in on the scam. <br /><br />Sometimes illegal pyramid schemes are disguised so well that they are hard to decipher and easy to get sucked into. But this is an incredibly obvious one that you'd think only the shockingly stupid could possibly get sucked into. Now I understand why these folks are still sticking around E4L after a full 4.5 months of missing their launch date. They all appear to be gullible and/or stupid not recognizing an obvious scam.<br /><br />This scam is one sent via email, that says if you only send $10 to the person in the first position, and place your name on the list in the 5th position, and then forward the email to 100 friends, you'll earn some insane amount of money. It's usually something like $30,000 in 30 days, or $30,000 every month, so some "too good to be true" amount of time and money. <br /><br />Now if the above works, and you send off $10 to the person in first position, and the scheme actually works and you get moved up to a 1st position and people start sending you money... well, congratulations, you'll get a lot of money sent to you. Then, PayPal will shut you down, and someone who gets emailed will turn you in. You may get fined and you will certainly have to give the money back. But chances are the scheme will collapse before it gets to you... which will be the best thing that can happen. You'll be out $10 and PayPay won't be the wiser.<br /><br />When something sounds too good to be true... especially "get rich quick" promises... well... it's too good to be true. And if you're lucky, people who get sucked into these scams won't be the types of people trying to run your company. Ahh E4L... you guys are ridiculous.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-27204115631432169092007-11-22T14:00:00.000-08:002007-11-22T14:28:35.828-08:00Scammer Kevin Trudeau at it againFinally Kevin Trudeau picks a subject that he can probably keep himself out of trouble with since it's NOT health related. The book "Natural Cures they don't want you to know about", a total sham and lie of a book, was followed by "The Weight Loss Cure They Don’t Want You to Know About" which I didn't bother to read because it had scam written all over it, and sure enough it got him more trouble with the FTC AGAIN. Both were health related, and it's far too easy to cross the line by making health claims, which Kevin is infamous for.<br /><br />So this time he's chosen "debt" and money for his new book "Debt Cures They Don’t Want You To Know About". Now I am NOT going to buy this over priced book ($29.95 plus $11.95 in shipping) which includes a couple of "bonuses" (he is after all a master marketer... I'll give him that), because there are MUCH better sources for the same information.<br /><br />One of the tag lines on his site is "Kevin is blowing the lid off the banking and credit card industry". Well, since you can't get into legal trouble pointing out just how greedy these industries are, and how easy it is to get into debt, this is actually a legitimate topic for him to attack. However, there are so many great books, advisers and advice already, the last person you should send $40 to is Kevin Trudeau.<br /><br />Here's some simple debt cures:<br />- stop shopping for stuff you don't need<br />- rip up your credit cards<br />- call your credit card companies and demand lower rates - don't accept "no"<br />- create a budget and track every dollar you spend, then find things to cut out (like that $4 coffee when you can make a cup for pennies at home)<br />- improve your credit score.<br /><br />If you've never tried to improve your score before, there are probably some really easy and simple things you can do. To start, order your free credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com. It's a virtual guarantee there will be numerous errors on your report, like other people's names and addresses. Get online and on the phone with each of the 3 credit agencies and start cleaning up all errors. Late payments and collections are much harder to clean up, but even more important. There's plenty of free advice on how to do this... like <a href="http://robregan.blogspot.com/2006/09/free-credit-report-and-why-you-need-it.html">this article</a>.<br /><br />Cleaning up credit will make it MUCH easier to get the credit card companies to lower your rates. But don't wait to call your credit card companies. But the higher your score, the lower interest rates on car loans, credit cards and mortgages. it's probably the single most important financial thing you can do. Get your score as far over 700 as possible. <br /><br />Finally - don't waste $40 on any Kevin Trudeau product when there is probably superior information, from more trusted sources, for less money. If you're in financial trouble, find a trust worthy adviser, and Kevin Trudeau is anything but trustworthy.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-90442438767867767802007-11-22T10:53:00.000-08:002007-11-22T13:59:53.077-08:00Unanswered E4L questionsFinally E4L sends out an email that doesn't try to extract money from it's members... AND Brad now promises a December launch. Could be another promise about to be broken, or just maybe they'll turn this apparent scam into a legitimate business. But even IF they actually do launch, it's time to return to the still unanswered questions.<br /><br />The biggest and most important one is WHERE is the compensation plan? What or how will members be paid!!! Will they get a percentage of gross profits, a percentage of the gross sale, what??? <br /><br />WHY is this simple question not answered? Listen to the zealots and you hear how great it is that you get a "matching bonus" so if someone in your downline earns $10, then you earn $10 too. But not one person knows what their downline will ever make. Maybe they'll made 1 cent per product purchased, so it will require 5,000 purchased products just to earn a measly $50. <br /><br />Why aren't members kicking and screaming to get a published compensation plan? Why would they spend so much time and effort building a business (meaning their downline) with absolutely no idea what, if anything, they will earn from their efforts? <br /><br />My guess is that only Brad will make any "real" money if the business ever does launch. He's proven that he's OK shamelessly extracting profits from his members, so why should it be any different with the "real" business? And by hiding the compensation plan details... presumably until AFTER products start being purchased, he can introduce anything he wants AFTER he knows what his personal profit potential is going to be. He will have to pay that "matching bonus" but he can decide that very little initially gets paid so that there's very little to "match". <br /><br />So where are the screaming calls for a published compensation plan? How can a business launch without one? Will Brad pocket virtually all of the very limited profits from a very low margin business and laugh all the way to the bank? Only time will tell. For now, no one appears smart enough to demand details.<br /><br />If Brad can actually launch, and not pay for recruitment, he can put himself in the "legit" box and stay out of the "scam" box, and so my review job would be done. But I still predict a dismal failure of a business for everyone, except maybe Brad.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-36826091507933569872007-11-16T18:19:00.000-08:002007-11-16T19:10:01.286-08:00Last chance for E4LNow 3.5 months past their "count down" launch expired, Brad sends yet another email whose real purpose appears to be to sell the same crappy eBook, Get Google Ads Free. Except this email (with the usual numerous mis-spellings and 3rd grade grammer) makes some big promises, shows ENORMOUS naivety, and states the "very important" thing about this email is to make sure your email is right in the back office... hmmm... isn't that where you got the email to send this update email??? I really can't get over how dumb this guy is... you have my email if I'm able to read this "very important" thing.<br /><br />But let's start with what I think is important. The big promise... after all, these are the ones Brad constantly breaks. He said "next week" they are going to "export and import everyone" to the new database. This is a promise that has been made over and over again, and now we've got a "next week" date being promised (yet again), which as we all know is 3+ months late, but it's now totally unforgivable not to make it - after all, it's a simple database export.<br /><br />Now the naive idea: Brad says it's too hard to make money on video games (huh? what about offering the lowest prices any where for DVD's and other entertainment products - low prices EQUALS low margins - so his entire business has the same problem). So Brad's solution is to get programmers to build new games that will be branded "E4L Games". Now I'm sure the cool aid drinking E4L'ers will see this as brilliant. I see naivety. Have you played a video game in the last 10 years? How many hours of programming goes into these? This is not "Pong" or Tetris or Asteroids or some simple and bygone era of games. I give this idea ZERO chance of taking off because IF they get a programmer to build for them, it will be a simplistic and cheap game that are largely available as freeware on the Internet already. So they'd be luck to sell a copy for a buck or two. No one else will ever build for these guys, ever.<br /><br />But Brad does say "We will still sale the name brand games..." Oh, so you will still "sale" games? With the grammar and spelling errors in this email, you can only imagine the kinds of mistakes he's making if he really is building a site to "sale" Entertainment products.<br /><br />And the real point of the email.... looks to me like it was to re-pitch the eBook for the umpteenth time.<br /><br />Well... while U.S. marketers seem to start the Christmas shopping season on November 1st, to me it's still the weekend after Thanksgiving, which is a week from today. Brad's worst case promise has been "in plenty of time for the Christmas shopping season", so this is it... the final promise a legitimate person could make.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-12033995024337207142007-10-11T10:41:00.000-07:002007-10-11T10:59:40.813-07:00YTB nail in the coffinMy first post questioned the legality of YTB (<a href="http://illegalmlms.blogspot.com/2007/07/ytb-travel-legal-or-illegal.html">read it here</a>). But months later there appears to be no movement against them... but now their lifeblood may be cut off... per <a href="http://www.traveldailynews.com/new.asp?newid=40098&subcategory_id=96">this article</a> Royal Caribbean International "will terminate relationships with multi-level marketers (MLM's) which provide travel agency credentials and identity cards to consumers for the purpose of becoming would-be 'travel agents.'"<br /><br />YTB is not named, but it's obvious they are one of the primary targets. When I was being recruited to YTB one of the main benefits being pushed was my ability to travel cheaply since I would be considered a "travel agent". That felt fishy to me since I clearly was not a travel agent, and had no intention of becoming one, but since I like to travel, it is what got me to look into the business. I stopped looking once I saw that the primary way YTB'ers make their money is by selling the travel agent web sites... NOT from selling travel. My understanding of MLM laws is that you can NOT sell web sites as your primary business no matter what you call them.... so my personal belief is that it's a matter of time before the FTC tries to shut them down. <br /><br />Now though, if you're a YTB travel agent, the travel industry may shut you down. Certainly that should be a major concern if anyone else follows in Royal Caribbean's foot steps. According to the <a href="http://www.traveldailynews.com/new.asp?newid=40098&subcategory_id=96">Travel Daily News article</a>, Marriot "and other major players" are participating in a new designation program that travel agents will have to meet to get cheaper travel. Having been on the Scam.com forum recently this has been developing over time, and the "benefit" of cheap travel to "fake" travel agents has already started to disappear.<br /><br />So... whether YTB is able to continue without legal trouble from the FTC may not matter much longer if new recruits dry up when they learn they can't actually save on their personal travel. This will be especially bad if YTB is banned completely, even those who meet the criteria of the industry. My prediction... pain for YTB.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.digg.com"><br /><img src="http://digg.com/img/badges/16x16-digg-thumb.gif" width="16" height="16" alt="Digg!" /><br /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-2016605284720049862007-10-09T23:40:00.000-07:002007-10-10T00:04:41.103-07:00Now I call you a liarI give up... Brad Morse is pushing his eBook again... another "update" email that ONLY talks about this Saturday's "special training" but only if you buy the $67 eBook "GetGoogleAdsFree" from Brad himself. He lists four things the training will include... and #4 is (get this) how you can get Google AdWords for free.<br /><br />Here's a quote from the email:<br /><br />"Number 4 above is the big one. You will learn how to get all your Google ads for free, how to make thousands just for getting free ads and how you can start making this money at no cost to you."<br /><br />Please.... stop it, now you're flat out lying. He can NOT teach you how to get your ads for free. What he can explain to you is how you have to take out your credit card, buy thousands of dollars in Google AdWords trying to earn thousands of dollars from selling advertising. That is hard work, and requires money. It is NOT free!!!! Yet there he is in the above quote saying it is... all so he can get his greedy hands on your $67.<br /><br />What am I missing? Is this not a blatant lie?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-7373888279702327122007-10-08T15:10:00.001-07:002007-10-08T16:11:52.801-07:00An E4L.biz predictionI began writing the previous post (below) about GetGoogleAdwordsFree prior to seeing yesterday's E4L "update" email. I thought giving away the so-called "secrets" of the slimy misleading eBook was important... since anyone promoting slime is probably slime themselves. So after reading the E4L "update" email I was inspired to finish up the previous post... and now... I just have to share a prediction that all the E4L faithful can throw in my face in just a few short days if I'm wrong. <br /><br />MY PREDICTION:<br /><br />E4L will NOT have it's "grand opening" prior to Brad's "special training". In fact, the "grand opening" is probably weeks away (that's of course if it ever occurs).<br /><br />This isn't a tough prediction to make... as some of the E4L'ers who read the "update" email are smart enough to realize Brad didn't actually promise the Grand Opening at all... at least not any time soon. But others of you will only have seen the "positive" side and think he did promise it, and miss what the "update" really is and isn't.<br /><br />Let me explain... a "member update" email was sent yesterday with the "exciting" news that "we should have the website up by the end of the week or aleast the early part of next week."<br /><br />Within this update, for the umpteenth time, Brad finds a new way to try to convince members to buy the GetGoogleAdsFree eBook for $67 from HIS affiliate link where he'll pocket $45 per sale. This clever pitch to buy the eBook dangles a tantalizing carrot in front of members.... Brad will be conducting an "exciting training" in which you're going to learn how to make "1,000 to 4,000 dollars in your first 30 days". Wow - that's certainly worth $67 - right???<br /><br />Now, the training is <strong>scheduled for this Sunday</strong>... and, as I just pointed out, the web site is going to be up "by the end of the week" or "the early part of next week". So... first, I'll predict that the "website" won't even be up before Sunday.... but what's really easy to predict is that there will be no "meaningful" web site up this week before the training - what I mean by "meaningful" is one where you can actually buy entertainment products - or any physical product for that matter. <br /><br />Brad's clever "update" is very vague, and makes exciting sounding promises about the "grand opening", so why not trust him with $67 so you can get in on the training. Afterall, it's about to launch - right???<br /><br />I don't think so.... while the vague language may allow the excuse-mongers (you know, the "positive outlook" people who don't realize they're actually prescribing naivety, gullibility and ignorance while beating down people who ask too many questions) Brad does NOT actually promise the "grand opening" will happen any time soon at all. He says the "website" should be up by early next week... but the "website" could simply be the mock up of the home page posted on the E4L.biz URL. He could simply trade out one 1-page graphic for another. That's certainly not a "grand opening" is it?<br /><br />The "update" email then goes on to say "Then we only have to tie the databases to the website." And that, I have to assume, is the database with actual products - right? Well how the hell long is that going to take? Isn't that what everyone has been waiting for? Not trainings, not "websites", not more vague "updates". Will there or won't there be ANY products for sale on the "website"???? (oops - sorry - I'm being a negative person - asking too many questions)<br /><br />He then uses fancy terms like "advanced autoresponder" to make it all sound so good... but is it impressive that he's not using a non-advanced autoresponder? What is an "advanced" one anyway? Gee, let me guess... the one that costs $49 per month, not the one that costs $9.95 per month - right???<br /><br />So... another non-update from what I can tell... no "real" promise was actually made... but yet another attempt at making money off of the members by finding a new way to promote a crappy ClickBank eBook. Yikes - how can you trust this guy when he keeps doing things like this... updates that aren't meaningful and attempts at earning more money from you????<br /><br />For you folks who still believe in Brad, his "vision" and E4L.biz... and you REALLY want to sit in on his training this Sunday... here's my suggestion:<br /><br />Go ahead and buy GetGoogleAdsFree from Brad's affiliate link (remember, he doesn't seem to care if you already own it - you have to buy it from him to attend the training - he also doesn't say you have to have read it - he just wants proof that you bought it from him). Then, after the training, "return" the eBook back to ClickBank for a full refund on Monday. You'll get to hear all the ideas that I wrote up in the post below... realize no magic $1,000 to $4,000 in 30 days bullet was shared, and you'll get your money back.<br /><br />Then... when the "grand opening" becomes the new term (before we all thought "launch" actually meant launching... but no, we were then "in launch mode"... now we'll get the "website up" and I guess will be "in grand opening mode" waiting on the "grand opening") will there then be yet another newer term to take over for "grand opening" that we suckers will assume means an actual opening of a web site that really does sell Entertainment products????Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-68986690609749014302007-10-08T14:14:00.000-07:002007-10-08T15:04:26.309-07:00Get Google Ads Free from the Masked GuruWell Mr. Brad Morse of <a href="http://www.E4L.biz">E4L.biz</a>... the guy that can't get his "dream" launched, but does have the time to promote an eBook called "Get Google Ads Free" to the suckers who signed up into his MLM... <a href="http://www.maskedguru.com/">"The Masked Guru"</a> has chosen to review this eBook. The free newsletter from The Masked Guru reviews "guru" eBook's including "The Rich Jerk", "Day Job Killer", "Site Stealer", "Ultimate Wealth Package" AND "Get Google Ads Free". The Masked Guru's service is to review the eBook's so thoroughly that you are getting the majority of the key points and ideas being promoted. His belief seems to be that most of the Guru's are just re-hashing old ideas, and their main goal is to make money off of "suckers" who don't realize it's outdated, sometimes misleading, and occasionally totally worthless information.<br /><br />It took The Masked Guru all of 2 newsletter emails, or "parts" to review Get Google Ads Free - which is an insult in and of itself since The Rich Jerk got an 11 "part" review, Day Job Killer got 10 "parts" and for the ones that aren't worth reviewing, only 1 "part" for Site Stealer, and only 2 "parts" for Ultimate Wealth Package... AND for Get Google Ads Free.<br /><br />To open up his review of Get Google Ads Free he states "IMHO, this is the lamest, most misleading and downright untruthful ebook I've ever come across". WOW - and I just learned that Brad Morse of E4L is "conducting a special training call this Saturday" but ONLY those who he has verified have bought "Get Google Ads Free" from HIS AFFILIATE link will be allowed in this training. So if you've already paid $67 for what The Masked Guru calls the "most useless 'ebook' I've ever seen", and you haven't enriched Brad with another $45... you can't attend his training. <br /><br />For those who want to save the $67.... and can't wait for weeks or "parts" of the other eBooks that The Masked Guru reviews first.... here's my review of his review.<br /><br />First, I'd really like to skip the first 26 pages since Brad Morse says it doesn't get started until then... but one of my favorite parts is when The Masked Guru points on that the author's claim of getting $87 million in free advertising over a 16 year period is particularly stupid since Google is only a few years old, and the very first widely sold internet banner ads were sold by HotWire.com in late 1994... a mere 13 years ago. So... is the Get Google Ads Free already lying??? Clearly his claim has virtually nothing to do with Google which was founded 9 years ago and launched key word targeted ads 7 years ago.<br /><br />The first 26 pages do reveal the "secret" which I've already exposed in another post... you BUY Adwords... yes - you BUY them - usually with a credit card just like everybody else. You send the clicks to a site that you have to create. You then must sell a LOT of advertising to cover the cost of yours ads, and earn yourself a profit. So... you don't get anything for free... so this is a misleading, lying piece of junk that Brad is trying to push on you. And if you are not successful in selling advertising, you can go broke very fast since Google makes everyone pay.... duh!<br /><br />So, if the author of Get Google Ads Free really got $87 million in free ads, it means HE SPENT $87 million... AND then, if he profited, it meant he also SOLD MORE THAN $87 million of his own advertising. Really??? That's over $5 million per year on average every year for his 16 years... and he goes on to claim that he's paid Google (my words since he says he got the ads for free) over $12 million a year recently. Again... what you pay for, you have to sell plus more for a profit... if he really did sell more than $12 million in advertising online, then he's got a LOT of employees and a big company... trust me, I sold online advertising for a major company, and $12 million is a LOT of work to sell, manage, support, put up, etc, etc. I bet this is a minimum 5 person operation, and more likely 10 to 15 to pull off such a feat. It would also require highly paid advertising sales executives who travel to advertising agencies, and marketing directors at many, many companies. It also would require very professional sites... not crappy ones "noobs" would put up after learning this so-called get-rich quick technique.<br /><br />Anyway... let's get to the section that Brad says is so good... from page 27 onward.<br /><br />Page 27, according to The Masked Guru is the suggestion to write an article on a hot topic, drive traffic to it by paying for clicks via Google Adwords, and then selling ads to cover your costs. Page 28 is a claim that the author is making $2 million a year doing this. And page 29 suggests you install an Autoresponder to be able to follow up with anyone who signs up. Apparently through a bunch of these pages they have testimonials from people who swear they've used the system successfully. Unfortunately the testimonials use stock photos of people that you can find on the internet... which leads The Masked Guru to believe that they are "fake".<br /><br />Page 31 suggests you create your own "get rich quick eBook". AH HAH!!!! I get it now... the only reason this eBook was created was to get rich by telling you to write your own eBook whose secret is that your readers create their own eBook too!!!<br /><br />Pages 32 thru 40 are AdWords advice... which sound pretty lame since I happen to have quite a bit of AdWords experience... and what I've learned about AdWords is that the system is intuitive and easy to figure out for anyone with half a brain... you don't need a $67 eBook to learn how to use Google AdWords - especially since they have all kinds of free info on their site.<br /><br />Next, recommendations to sell ads on your own newsletter to whoever subscribes to it, and then, once you think you've spammed them enough, you should try to rent or sell your subscriber list. If you love spam as much as I do, this suggestion has to make you want to puke.... but good ole Brad of E4L thinks this eBook is the be-all end-all of top-flight advice on how to get rich in 30 to 90 days.<br /><br />The eBook goes on to make other simplistic suggestions like using link exchanges and posting on free classified ad sites to generate traffic (he doesn't mention that link exchanges will get you banned from Google AdSense - and that Google doesn't like "arbitrage" - the practice of buying Adwords clicks and trying to make the money back with Google AdSense).<br /><br />Now into the 50's... the eBook recommends paying for advertising in MAJOR newspapers and magazines like USA Today and Entrepreneur Magazine (do you know how much these cost - if you don't sell enough ads, you will go bankrupt VERY fast).<br /><br />The Masked Guru says he's fallen on the floor laughing after reading the eBook's "viral marketing" idea of building a page where you send your Google Adword clicks, put a funny video on it, add a "tell a friend" email feature and give away prizes to people who use the "tell a friend" feature. <br /><br />Some people like the above idea... if you've got the expertise and bandwidth to pull it off... but it's not a new idea... you see suggestions like this on all of the "guru" forum sites. And I'm going to take a guess, and assume this will be on of Brad's proudest training tidbits... what a brilliant and new idea - NOT!<br /><br />Finally, the eBook's last 25 pages are how to promote Get Google Ads Free... and here's a tip that The Masked Guru doesn't mention... I bet you can get 99% of this info by clicking on the free "Affiliates" tab at the GetGoogleAdsFree.com site... so once again, no need to pay $67 for information that is freely available. For more free information start visiting anyone of the Internet Marketing forums like warriorforum.com/forum and forums.digitalpoint.com and im4newbies.com/forum<br /><br />And if you want a real MLM... pick one already in business... or if you want to be someone first in on a new launch... review the business plan, research the founders, check the financials, and analyze the pay plan... of course, if they don't have any of that available.... it's either a scam, or run by an amateur, or just a plain old bad idea once you do actually research it. You know who I'm talking about :)<br /><a href="http://www.digg.com"><br /><img src="http://digg.com/img/badges/16x16-digg-thumb.gif" width="16" height="16" alt="Digg!" /><br /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-78628864113965299232007-10-07T19:34:00.000-07:002007-10-07T20:37:21.762-07:00E4L's competitionOh, poor E4L - why do I pick on you? Well, it's so easy. Today I introduce you to your competition. You say people would be dumb to buy entertainment products (and apparently "wellness" products) from anyone else since your prices will be the lowest. Well... you've got a LOT of competition... so you will have to price so low that you have no profits for which to pay your MLM distributors... and here's a small sampling:<br /><br />Let's start with one that looks a LOT like your idea:<br /><a href="http://www.netmarket.com/">netmarket.com</a> Oh boy, become a member and you get cash back and the lowest prices. AND they have a 200% Low price guarantee... so if you, E4L, can undercut them, they will undercut you back. Ever hear about gas stations doing this to each other... eventually they stop the madness after realizing that being the low price leader might sell a lot of gas, but eventually they'll go out of business without margins and profits. So the "brilliant idea" and "dream" that Brad had has already been done.<br /><br />Another... shopping online with MLM behind it... mypowermall.com<br /><br />But of course... there are many more competitors... those who just sell entertainment products or help you find the cheapest prices on every possible product:<br /><br />shopping.com<br />shopper.com<br />shop.com<br />buy.com<br />costco.com (ouch)<br />circuitcity.com<br />buydig.com<br />jr.com<br />amazon.com (ouch again)<br />pcconnection.com<br />tigerdirect.com<br />macmall.com<br />abesofmaine.com<br />eBay.com (triple ouch)<br />lcdTVs.com<br />bestbuyplasma.com<br />electroniqueplus.com<br />bestbuybusiness.com<br />moviesunlimited.com<br />dvdempire.com<br />movies.go.com<br />WholesaleDVDsForLess.com<br />shopping.yahoo.com (this is getting ridiculous)<br />ColumbiaHouse.com (oh my, what about the mail order guys who are now online?)<br />www.deepdiscount.com<br />Half.com<br />www.YourDvdMovies.net<br />BigScreensForSale.com<br />Ebates.com<br />GadgetCity.com<br />Overstock.com<br />nextag.com<br />Shopzilla.com<br />walmart.com (please STOP IT - how can you compete on price with these guys?????)<br />dealtime.com<br />target.com (just another small player)<br /><br /><br />OK - I think you get the point... the list goes on and on. Not only that, but these companies hired programmers to build sites that offer online shopping... and I doubt it took them over a year to build. Hire competent programmers with experience building any of the above sites, show them your favorite site, put them in touch with your wholesalers who deliver the database feed... and sit back and wait for "real" updates... where they show you their progress, and I bet within 2 months they'd be done.<br /><br />What exactly makes E4L a "dream" of an idea? The jury is still out about whether or not there is a legitimate attempt at launching their site... but for me, the verdict is in on the business concept... it's stupid... and I'm stupid for not doing a quick search earlier to discover just how many competitors E4L has... the above list is probably one-tenth of the competition... so I just don't see how consumers will get excited when E4L.biz enters this crowded market - do you?????<br /><a href="http://www.digg.com"><br /><img src="http://digg.com/img/badges/16x16-digg-thumb.gif" width="16" height="16" alt="Digg!" /><br /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-41946413969793904852007-09-20T12:28:00.000-07:002007-09-20T12:52:26.432-07:00Direct Sales article from ABC NewsDirect Sales & Network Marketing are hitting the mainstream more and more... they seem poised to explode where everyone will either be doing it, or know someone who is. For those interested in a basic explanation of the highlights and low lights of the industry and the work, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/TakeControl/story?id=3626238&page=1.">this ABC News.com article</a> is very informative and well rounded. <br /><br />Direct Sales is still sales... and those who fail tend to only hear the catch phrases that give the industry such a bad name... like "anyone can do it", "it's easy", "no selling involved", etc. For the most part it's simple... as in it's not rocket science... but to say it's "easy" is not true for people who aren't prepared for rejection and objections. Look at the first comment under my <a href="http://illegalmlms.blogspot.com/2007/08/monavie-fans-bill-clinton-wolfgang-puck.html">Sumner Redstone article</a>... the "objection" is vague and weird, and if you don't know how to handle people who just shut down, you can't succeed in Network Marketing. <br /><br />The good news... the industry is getting more and more mainstream recognition which should ease some of the objections to the industry as a whole. The bad news... you've got to work it like a business... read the ABC article for more on what that means. In addition... with really bad examples like E4L, the industry will continue to suffer from image problems... and unfortunately there are definitely more bad examples than there are good ones.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-19890836513136281672007-09-17T14:28:00.000-07:002007-09-17T15:01:58.576-07:00Kevin Trudeau - another lie from a born liar/scammerAfter buying Kevin Trudeau's "Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You to Know About" book after watching his infomercial, I fully expected a book about Natural Cures. Instead it was a rant against the FDA and the FTC saying he wasn't allowed to share "natural cures" because it was against the law. From that point on I've considered Kevin Trudeau to be a liar and a scam artist. After all, why didn't he called the book "Why 'They' Won't Let Me Tell You About Natural Cures". Don't spend an hour long infomercial promising all kinds of interesting "cures" and then deliver NONE.<br /><br />So <a href="http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/09/trudeau.shtm">today's news</a> that the FTC is charging Kevin Trudeau for violating a court order for misrepresenting his latest book... one for weight loss... is happy, happy news for me. I think this guy ought to get locked up for life. I detest Kevin Trudeau so much that I have to flip the channel immediately if I see him pitching something, and I certainly won't buy anything of his ever again. So I can't provide a book review here, but the <a href="http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/09/trudeau.shtm">FTC says</a> it all:<br /><br /><blockquote>During the ads, Trudeau claims that the weight loss plan outlined in the book is easy to do, can be done at home, and ultimately allows readers to eat whatever they want. However, when consumers purchase the book, they find it describes a complex, grueling plan that requires severe dieting, daily injections of a prescription drug that consumers cannot easily get, and lifelong dietary restrictions. </blockquote><br /><br />While the new charge isn't a surprise, what I didn't realize is that Trudeau has a long history as a con artist, thief and scammer. In 1991 he spent 2 years in prison for falsifying credit card transactions, he was cited in 1996 for questionable marketing practices, in 1998 the FTC had similar false advertising claims as today's, and in 2004 he made false claims about Coral Calcium and was ordered to pay $2 million.<br /><br />Please, please, please... never, ever buy anything that Kevin Trudeau is associated with. I agree with a handful of his views... but I'm not sure he believes in his own views... unless of course he can make a buck (or millions of bucks).<br /><a href="http://www.digg.com"><br /><img src="http://digg.com/img/badges/16x16-digg-thumb.gif" width="16" height="16" alt="Digg!" /><br /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-91444466522784991262007-09-13T16:17:00.000-07:002007-09-14T22:44:20.262-07:00E4L - Stupid or a scam?E4L.biz really confuses me... 9 out of 10 things make it look like a scam... it usually looks like the owner is trying to make as much money as possible and then skip town. The 1 thing that makes you think he's actually trying to launch a business is that he hasn't skipped town, and puts out tiny little - near meaningless - carrots for the faithful to latch onto.<br /><br />So let's take another look at the virtual non-update update on this "entertainment for less" business that was supposed to launch on August 1st (44 days late now).<br /><br /><strong>So far this is what is still missing:</strong><br /><br />1. There is no published pay plan. It would appear, that IF they really are going to launch, that they will do so with no specifics on how anyone will earn any money. In the most recent conference call with "Brad" the owner, he said consumers would get paid just for signing up, and get paid a lot for referring friends and family. But how will they decide what to pay since there is no pay plan? And don't get me started on the fact that selling at prices so low that people will be "amazed" means there is no profit to share... nothing to pay out. You can read my old posts for that rant.<br /><br />2. They say they will attract an enormous amount of customers via advertising. Well... let's see the ads. "Brad" shared mock ups of the new web site's logo and front page. So what kind of advertising? Where will they advertise? How much money will they spend on advertising? Have they hired an Advertising Agency for placement, creative, etc?<br /><br />3. Where is the money coming from for this major advertising campaign? I recall hearing something about "Brad" having deep pockets or self-funding. Well, if that's true,that's probably why this is all so badly run. Afterall, that means he didn't have to present a business plan to a bank, or investors, or a VC. It also means he can keep getting away with stupid ideas and missed deadlines since no one else's money (if there really is any money) being put on the line<br /><br />4. The business is called "entertainment for less" but "Brad" repeated for the umpteenth time that he's got a hankering for launching "wellness" products first. According to him "wellness" products are best because they are "perishable" (so you have to keep buying them, whereas you don't need to keep buying DVD's or TV's) and because it's the "fastest growing industry". Sounds to me like he screwed up... calling his business "entertainment for less" when he now really wants to be in "the best industry".... in wellness.<br /><br />5. Why is it that the single biggest update that has been touted for several weeks now is the scam eBook "Google Adwords for Free". If "Brad" were such a nice guy why wouldn't he just tell you that you can NOT get free Adwords, and tell you what exactly is so great about the eBook. Hopefully the faithful E4L followers aren't as dumb as he seems to think they are, and they realize that if they buy the eBook Brad makes money off of them. If Brad were sincere, wouldn't he suggest they buy the eBook from each other instead of just from him? Or do as the Masked Guru does and review the book sharing the "secrets"?<br /><br />6. They missed their August 1st launch date, today is September 13th, and the only time frame you hear out of "Brad's" mouth now is "soon" and "before Christmas". Why can't he be more specific? The message boards have one idiot excusing the lack of details as a good thing - huh? How can no details about any important be good?<br /><br />7. The exciting update at their August convention was showcasing the new Back Office. The old one is from MLM Software Pro and is crappy. I laughed my a** off when someone exclaimed that his previous MLM company used the EXACT SAME Back Office as the one Brad rolled out at the convention. So he's got yet another cookie cutter back office... which made me thing... if it's another off the shelf product... why did it take so long to roll out???? It just wreaks of scam.<br /><br />8. I have to say that Brad just sounds dumb. He says things like "so that's that there" when he completes a thought. Usually when people sound dumb, they are dumb. So if this is not a scam... well, I've already made up my mind that it is definitely STUPID!!! It's a bad idea - no margins, competing in a market dominated by the likes of Amazon and Best Buy, no business plan to be seen, virtually no employees, no evidence of any real financing, the reliance on scam eBook's as advice for starting an internet business - and the founder/owner sounding like he never got out of 3rd grade.<br /><br />9. The final "scam" feeling thing is their censorship of their Forum - erasing entire threads, erasing all negative comments in other threads while retaining the positive ones, kicking off members he didn't like, etc. With virtually no details on anything... from the pay plan, to the ad budget or plan, to the launch date... they are going to have criticism. If it's not a scam it's really easy to start explaining with DETAILS. So if they really are going to launch (some day over the rainbow way up high) it's seems guaranteed to be terribly executed with numerous dumb mistakes.<br /><br />And drum roll please.... for #10... the one thing that makes E4L not look like a scam....<br /><br />10. Brad is still in town, still holding conference calls, showing itsy, bitsy progression with his new cookie cutter back office and his web site designs. <br /><br />Brad's "promise" now is that the launch will be in plenty of time for the Christmas rush. That should be, at the very latest date, the day after Thanksgiving.... Friday November 23rd. Of course if they've done no advertising prior to that, they won't sell much of anything. So they'd better launch no later than mid-October - one more month - can he do that?????<br /><br />Brad - you've got 1 to 2 months. I'm sure "hartan" will stick it out until the end with you. <br /><br />Oh... and by the way... as for as legal or illegal... it's illegal to pay for membership signups - I believe the "VIP" club payments have been the way E4L'ers have made money in the past year... if so... they've been running an illegal operation for a year. Yes... definitely STUPID!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-63485260192181462842007-08-31T00:03:00.000-07:002007-09-04T19:05:08.738-07:00Get Google Leads Free EXPOSEDRead a so-called review of Get Google Leads Free or Get Google Adwords Free and there is probably a 99% chance the review was written by an "affiliate". The reason I believe this is that the <a href="http://www.getgoogleleadsfree.com/">GetGoogleLeadsFree.com</a> web site has an <a href="http://www.getgoogleadsfree.com/affiliates.html">"affiliate" page</a> that includes suggested "reviews", articles, blog posts, ads and more. So if you find a review on another site, compare it to the "affiliates" page at GetGoogleLeadsFree. The affiliate page is very interesting and I suspect about 90% of the eBook's content can be found within the suggestions found on this free page.<br /><br />The affiliate page is:<br /><a href="http://www.getgoogleadsfree.com/affiliates.html">http://www.getgoogleadsfree.com/affiliates.html</a><br /><br />Now, to kill the surprise - the Ads a NOT free. You have to pay for them. The so-called "secret" is that you use Google Adwords to drive traffic to your web site and "monetize" your site with your own advertising and/or via selling affiliate products. Of course the product they want you to sell is the very eBook they want you to buy. See my previous post for more on this concept.<br /><br />So... you can't get Adwords for free, but if you are web savvy and can build a web site, drive a lot of traffic to it, and "monetize" that traffic and make more than you are spending... that's the so called "secret". Does anyone call that free??? I don't. I call spending money on Google Adwords "advertising costs". <strong>Every business advertises</strong> with the goal of making more than they spend - duh. So do they consider their advertising "free" when they are successful? No, that's just stupid. And if you tell people your advertising is free simply because you made more than you spent - are you a liar? Yeah, that's what this eBook's "pitch page" seems to be doing... lying!!!<br /><br />So what are you likely to learn in the eBook other than this non-secret? Well again, my suggestion is to visit their "affiliate" link... it seems to give all of their "secrets" to driving traffic and selling their eBook. And if the eBook does have any other information that can't be found on the free affiliate page... then just visit the "forums" that they recommend you advertise/post/link on... at the forums you'll probably find all of the "expertise" or advice you need... as well as reviews of GetGoogleLeadsFree. And when the reviews are glowing... chances are it's an affiliate who took the advice of the affiliate page.<br /><a href="http://www.digg.com"><br /><img src="http://digg.com/img/badges/16x16-digg-thumb.gif" width="16" height="16" alt="Digg!" /><br /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1053018488122592950.post-70517627064765225002007-08-28T18:24:00.000-07:002007-08-28T19:21:03.628-07:00The Masked Guru, The RichJerk & Affiliate MarketingIf you're really skeptical, then you think anyone trying to make money in almost any way is a scam artist. On my most skeptical days I think every product promoted via <a href="http://www.ClickBank.com">ClickBank</a> is a scam. They all have the same type of "pitch pages", they are all eBooks, and they all seem to sell for $27, $47 or $97 (what ever happened to ending in a 9?), and everyone promoting them is an "affiliate"... which is someone trying to make a buck by promoting someone else's products. One of the biggest sub-categories is for eBooks that teach you how to get rich being an affiliate... and what they all seem to teach you is how to be an affiliate for the very eBook you just bought and are reading.<br /><br />Did you get that??? Buy my eBook to learn how to re-sell my eBook... and if you are really smart, you can learn how to write an eBook that teaches others how to write eBooks that promote the selling of that very eBook... and all of these get sold via ClickBank.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.therichjerk.com/">TheRichJerk.com</a> appears to be this first version... <em>buy my eBook and I'll throw in a web site that will help you sell my eBook.</em><br /><br />These days you see less and less of "TheRichJerk" but now there's "TheRichDude.com"... funny though that it goes to a site called "TheRichPrince.com" and the URL doesn't have either one in it... at least the one I found was "<a href="http://www.dotdothost.com">dotdothost.com</a>". This site "reviews" (and I use that term loosely - hence the quotes) other eBooks... and surprise, surprise, he is promoting 2 eBooks. He claims that he was scammed many times over by bad eBooks, and after 39 attempts found the 2 that are not scams. And guess what... one "TheUltimateWealthPackage" is sold via ClickBank... and the other is sold via another affiliate program.<br /><br />Now... do you believe he really read and tried 39 eBooks... and that he really believes in these two???? Since he gives one a 99% rating, and the other a 97% rating... and claims the other 37 aren't even worth mentioning... I choose to NOT believe him. How could 37 be so bad, and 2 so good? I'm not buying... literally. <br /><br />There are a LOT of variations of the supposed "real review" that aren't real at all. For example, since one of the biggest recommendations in all of these eBooks is to promote your site (the one promoting the affiliate links) by writing articles... most of these eBooks recommend you write lots and lots of articles about your "niche" (aka the affiliate product you are promoting), and post them on free article submitting sites like <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/">ezinearticles.com</a>. So watch out when an overly positive review is posted on that site... and watch out for any "review" site that can't seem to say a negative thing about any product... or don't allow comments so actual buyers can say what they really fee.<br /><br />Now we get to <a href="http://www.TheMaskedGuru.com">TheMaskedGuru.com</a>. I actually like his little trick because he does provide value, it's free to sign up, and he promotes his two affiliates (so far) in a more "real world" way. <br /><br />TheMaskedGuru says he's read the other "gurus" eBooks and he's going to "blow the lid" off them. Funny enough, one of the three he is promoting is "TheUltimateWealthPackage"... so you don't have to buy it from "TheRichDude" since "TheMaskedGuru" will review it so thoroughly that you are essentially getting the content for free. <br /><br />I signed up for TheMaskedGuru... and over about a 10 day period I got TheRichJerk review... a very thorough one... so thorough that now I don't feel the need to waste my money on it. And what little value is does have, I know now about. This week I'm getting his "<a href="http://dayjobkiller.com/">DayJobKiller</a>" review via email... one part at a time. So I assume next week I'll start getting "<a href="http://theultimatewealthpackage.com/">TheUltimateWealthPackage</a>" review.<br /><br />Now... what I really wanted was The Ultimate Wealth Package review... so The Masked Guru is pretty clever. He gets to promote whatever HE is an affiliate of for 3 weeks straight while I read his reviews. And what's The Masked Guru an affiliate of??? So far it only appears to be for a web hosting service, and an autoresponder service. But since TheMaskedGuru is actually doing "real" reviews... and TheRichJerk one was NOT flattering... I feel like I got valuable information for free (albeit a little slow) and I am much more apt to trust The Masked Guru's recommendation of the web hosting company (when I finally get off this free Blogger service) and the autoresponder (when I finally get serious about building a list :)<br /><br />So... are they ALL scams... well... if it smells like a duck, quacks like a duck, and craps all over your lawn... then you're more apt to think it's a duck. If it actually delivers what it promises... and then promotes something... I don't mind.<br /><a href="http://www.digg.com"><br /><img src="http://digg.com/img/badges/16x16-digg-thumb.gif" width="16" height="16" alt="Digg!" /><br /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com