Avoiding Dot-Cons: On Internet Business Scams

internet advertising
Internet Business scams abound. And you probably figured out why; it is because there are a lot of people who do fall for the earn insert-6-digit-amount-in-4-weeks schemes.

Well, some people, especially those who pioneered a market niche or came up with a revolutionary application or method, do earn serious bucks, such as Google or Amazon and E-bay. There are also marketing consultants (the real ones, at least) who know what they are doing and what they are talking about, and earn income by mentoring dedicated people who want to try their luck, and their marketing skills, online.

The thing is there are actually a lot of ways to earn a quick buck online, especially for not-so-honest people. If you are thinking of starting an online business by acquiring that internet business opportunity that some random fellow sent you an e-mail about, you might want to keep these things in mind in order to make sure that you will not fall a victim to internet business scams

What changes hands?

While there are legitimate Multi-level marketing businesses, there are pyramiding schemes that masquerade as MLM firms. You have to be very careful and check whether the income is commission-based or member-recruitment-based. Most fly-by-night businesses actually sell distributorship instead of products. In this case, take a step backward and ask yourself - is it really necessary to acquire distributorship for that price? If the product is a market leader, that is a possibility, but take note that reputable companies would normally let you sell pr advertise their product, and let you earn part of the profit, instead of selling you some run-of-the-mill website.

However, do not confuse MLMs with two-tier affiliate programs where you can 'link' your site to a 'middleman' who will earn a cut from another company by the sales or traffic you generate. This might work, and some actually take advantage of this. But you can always eliminate the middleman and be the affiliate yourself, right?


What are the so-called add-ons?

Some of these con artists would tell you that they can give you a bonus by letting you have 'free advertising' in dozens of search engines. Most people would like this idea, since everybody knows that search engines are a sure-fire way to gain traffic and eventually earn brand recognition. However, only a handful of these search engines deliver considerable traffic (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Dogpile, to name a few), and the others are relatively insignificant. So why would you care for that 'free advertising'?

How wonderful is wonderful?

Most people fall for internet business scams because of much hyped-up 'wonderfulness'. Some would tell you that they can generate 50,000 clicks or site visitors in a day, when the truth is, they could not even guarantee a hundred. Others will tell you that you can earn, say a hundred grand, without telling you that it will actually take 20 years. Some of these 'offers' do not give you what you were promised and it is up to you, to find out whether they could or couldn't. When checking into a company's background, do not be fooled by testimonials, guarantees and huge income potentials. You can check a company's trustworthiness by checking whether it is a Better Business Bureau member, for starters.

When all else fails, remember that if it is too good to be true, it probably isn't. Note that the operative word is 'probably'. There are offers that are blatant internet business scams and others are much more difficult to spot and might even be legitimate. You might miss out on an opportunity; however, when you are about to shell out hard-earned money for that opportunity, sometimes it is good to investigate whether what is offered is a gift, or a burden.