Since the worldwide Covid-19 Pandemic, many people have taken to working from home, mostly online.
Government agencies and businesses have enabled employees to continue their employment by working from home. Many have started online businesses from home.
Shoppers around the world have changed their shopping habits from in-person to online, which has paved the way for the online affiliate marketing sector to flourish.
With this in mind, many online newbies may be asking “What are the popular online scams I should avoid?”
We aim to give you some answers in this article and detail the most obvious ones below.
So, if you are about to embark upon an online career, be sure to do your due diligence.
We aim to give you this information so that you will know what to look for and can avoid such scams.
Don’t let them take your money until you’re sure its legit!
The Sneaky Upsell!
So, you buy a product that you think is reasonably priced (say between $10 and $50) and will teach you about the online world.
Then, as soon as you’re in and set up, the upsells begin!
They include special coaching with a 1-on-1 mentor; a tool to help you research keywords; advanced training program; website development, and even more.
You may be asking yourself if all this should be included in the price in the first place.
Indeed, it should.
This is definitely a scam and you should proclaim a very loud “NO”, and run fast in the opposite direction.
Online Surveys That Offer A Reward and Share Your Information.
I was certainly taken in by this system in the early days. So I received an email asking me to complete a short survey.
The surveys ask questions about your likes and dislikes, shopping habits and more, with multiple choice answers.
After I had completed the survey, almost immediately I started receiving calls and emails from different companies.
The companies were insurance, finance, mortgage lenders, motor vehicle distributors, shopping retailers, and so on.
I realized straight away that I had made a mistake and started unsubscribing from emails and text messages.
I now avoid taking surveys of any kind. Even hotel surveys after I have stayed there.
You should certainly learn from my mistake and do not get sucked in. By the way, I never received any reward!
MLM Programs Claiming To Be Affiliate Marketing.
Multi-Level-Marketing programs abound in the online community.
I’m not saying that MLM is a scam because often the scheme has a legitimate product to sell.
What is different is that affiliate programs and networks are free to join.
If you join a MLM program, you are required to pay a joining and sometimes annual fee.
Then you are required to buy a certain amount of product on a monthly basis to ensure that your position in the hierarchy is maintained.
In addition, you are required to enroll other people into the scheme and your commissions are based upon your own sales, the number of people you enroll and their sales.
The only people who make any real money are those at the top of the tree.
If this is what you want to do, by all means, get involved. But be warned that this is not Affiliate Marketing!
A Free Product Or Book, Only Pay For Shipping Costs.
You must think I’m really foolish, but this is another one about which I have personal experience.
This was a beauty product that had a free trial and I only had to pay for shipping.
I placed the order, provided my credit card details, through a secure site, to pay for shipping. The product arrived shortly thereafter.
A month later, another delivery of the product arrived, which I had not ordered!
I checked my credit card statement and, sure enough there was a charge of just under $100 for the product and shipping.
The company had automatically sent me the product and charged my credit card without my permission.
Of course, I sent the product back and got my credit card company to recover the funds and stop future payments.
I learned a good lesson that day – beware of false promises!
Done-For-You Instant Profits
I really don’t have to tell you much here other than to warn you against anything that offers “done-for-you” landing pages.
These scams offer instant profitability with virtually no work on your part.
You can check out my Review of 5-Minute Profit Pages right here.
Do not get sucked in – it is a scam!
Real Affiliate Marketing Is Not One Of Those Popular Online Scams!
As you can see I’ve done my fair share of trying out scams before I realized they were.
But, I want to reassure you that real Affiliate Marketing is NOT one of those popular online scams.
I like to think a little like Thomas Edison when he said ” I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Well, thank goodness I haven’t found 10,000 ways, I’ve only found a few (popular online scams) that don’t work. But they are enough to make me recognize the good ones.
There are many good affiliate marketing training programs that do work, that don’t cost a fortune and can help you to make money online.
We have reviewed some of them on this website and you can check them out under our Reviews tab at the top.
Wealthy Affiliate Is A Real Affiliate Marketing Training Program.
Well, I finally found my way here to Wealthy Affiliate which is a legitimate affiliate marketing training program.
This website is hosted on the Wealthy Affiliate platform.
So, the platform has been created for affiliate marketers by affiliate marketers.
They know what works and have incorporated the necessary tools into the platform.
In addition, you can begin your training with a FREE TRIAL called Starter Membership. Yes, I said FREE!
This is a way for you to check out the training and see whether this is an avenue that you wish to pursue.
You get access to the platform for seven (7) days to help you make a decision.
After this, you should be in a position o decide whether to invest in your future with this platform. If so, you can decide to upgrade to Premium Membership at $49 per month or Premium Plus Membership at $99 per month.
if you take this path, you will very soon learn everything you need to know to run a legitimate affiliate marketing business online. Please click on the image below to learn more about Wealthy Affiliate.
Have You Been Taken In By Any Of These Popular Online Scams?
Before I close, I just want to reinforce that there are many great affiliate marketing training programs.
The training can help you to understand the online space and the requirements to be successful.
So, if this is something than intrigues you, or you’ve always wanted to try, then get started today.
I hope that if you’ve ever been scammed online maybe you’ll share your experience in the comments below.
I would welcome your feedback on this article and your own experiences. Let’s make sure that we expose all the scams and guide newcomers to the good opportunities.
I love that you have highlighted the scam that is up selling, and the free book just pay postage one. Luckily i haven’t been sucked into that one yet an after reading your post i will stay clear of these kind of offers. There are so many great affiliate marketing companies and i have to agree the WA is one of the best I have seen
Thank you for your comment about my post on Popular Online Scams and I’m glad that you found it useful in being able to avoid the obvious ones. I agree with you about WA training – it is awesome!
Oooh shoot, I must have been fooled a couple of times. Definitely with the “only pay the shipping costs”. It’s such a great article to read, I’ve fell for a couple of these already :D. Just wondering, as you are also mentioning MLM in your list. Do you think every system that runs an MLM automatically belongs to the “scam”-list?
Virendra, thank you for your comment. I’m glad that I’m not the only one who got scammed by some of these Popular Online Scams. Of course, MLM is not necessarily a scam, but I thought it worth mentioning because people can sometimes be confused about the difference between MLM and Affiliate Marketing. Some MLMs do have actual products to sell, but you won’t make much money unless you recruit lots of new people and they and you keep buying products. If you are happy with this kind of model, then go ahead.