Hi,

I have been working online for over 12 years now, and I haven't been hurt by an online scam yet. I know they are out there, though. I sure hear about them from time to time.

I have sold things as an affiliate before and didn't receive my commissions. I guess that might be considered being scammed. But other than that, I guess I've just been fortunate.

Have you lost a lot of money in a scam? And I don't mean that you just joined something but couldn't get any sales. I see some of the so-called "scam warning" forums listing just about everything as a scam. I mean real scams where people try to get money from you and then run with it.

Any thoughts?

Paula

Hi Paula,

I don't think I've ever been scammed. There have been times in the long-ago past when I put money into businesses, both offline and online, and then I sat there and didn't promote enough, or when I first started in marketing, assumed tons of cash would appear in my real-world mailbox.

I didn't know I had to promote heavily and consistently, that's something I learned before I got online 15 years ago (in mail-order it took much longer and was not free), I knew that fortunately, but there are lots of people online who don't realize that they DO have to promote CONSISTENTLY every day to as many ad sources as possible, AND NETWORK with people and gain name-recognition and photo recognition.

Money is not going to fall on anyone's head, and if they join a business and think it will, they need to wake up and get themselves into high gear and start posting ads and communicating with people, and putting their name & photo out there everywhere and become well-branded.

You're right about so-called scam warning sites trying to make everyone believe that everything online is a scam. People need to do their own research, don't let the opinions of scam-discussers scare you off from taking a serious look at online businesses for yourself. Some of those scam-discussers just give bad ratings/reviews on everything, or especially when people they personally dislike have earned money online, the scam-discussers will badmouth the business as a scam just because of personal issues with other people. Scam-discussion sites are opinion-based, and lots of those opinions are given by people who've never been members of the businesses they bash, or if they were members, they didn't put their full focus into promoting heavily and consistently, and didn't network or brand themselves for the longterm, so they try to blame the business or call other marketers "scammers" because they themselves didn't do well with something or were afraid to try or didn't put in longterm commitment or didn't do a lot of things they could have done.

The Have-Nots want to have what the Haves have, but the Have-Nots don't want to work for it, so they just don't want the Haves to have it.

Hi,

You are so right about having to advertise consistently. If it wasn't for advertising, I would have no sales at all. I've actually had people write me and ask me why I keep working everyday -- like after awhile you can just sit back and rake in the dough or something. lol I figure I'll be working my whole life. I love working online, though! It's way more fun that other work I've done in the past. I really enjoy it.

I've been really annoyed with some of the supposed scam warning forums lately. I try my best not even to look at them. They even go around making fun of peoples' looks. Reminds me of forum trolls or something. lol Grownups should really start acting like grownups after awhile, I think :-) It does look like they are just jealous of people who succeed online. That just makes "them" look bad.

I did spend some money on things I probably shouldn't have. Actually, I still do buy things online that I really don't even end up using. I love learning new things, so I'm always looking for something else to learn. There are so many topics about working online that I just don't understand at all. Guess I'll be learning for life!

Paula

Paula,

They ARE forum trolls, even worse, internet trolls who give misinformation and allegations and resort to personal attacks when they can't prove that businesses are a "scam" as they try to tell everyone that everything online is a scam and every marketer online is a "scammer" and try to make everyone believe that nobody really earns any money online. Notice how lots of scam-discussers don't use their real photos while they attack other people?

I ignore them most of the time also because they keep changing their minds about if they are "scam busters" or just having "opinion based discussions". They are very childish, and their audience is mainly sheeple who don't take the time to read carefully or think for themselves or do their own research about businesses.

When I said in my previous post that I've never been scammed, that's because I read a lot, and try to find other people to communicate with who've been in the businesses I'm looking at, and ask how they best promoted, and if I have a sponsor who doesn't help me, I find the owner or a top earner in the business and ask them tons of questions, I find help from somewhere, and I don't shell out large amounts of money unless I think I'll have success with something. That's what people should do. Other people have contacted me, when they're not in my downlines, if they have unhelpful sponsors, and I know people probably contact you also for the same reason.

People who want help and want to be successful and avoid scams, will find the answers from people who are in the businesses they are thinking about joining. It's better to find those answers from business networks where people are advertising, using their real names & photos, not at "opinion based scam discussion" sites that bash everything & everyone all the time, while most of those "scam-discussers" are not using their real names or photos.

Hi,

I really had no idea the scam forums were just trolls at first. I thought they were legit. Anyone who reads in there for long will find out soon enough. It sure doesn't take long to see what they are doing, that's for sure. I'm sure not "all" scam warning forums are like that. I probably just ran into the worst ones. lol

As for helping people, replying to emails is the #1 thing we can all do to help each other. I don't do training or anything like that, but I always try to reply to questions. I wish I did have time to setup big teaching forums or websites, but right now I just don't.

I try my best to only join opportunities that have help in the member area (like sample ads, ideas for advertising, etc.). Plus I can always answer questions, too.

You'd be surprised how many upline members I've written with questions before (or admins, even) who didn't even reply. There is no excuse for that ... unless everything is going to a spam folder by accident.

I know I've sure written you with plenty of questions. lol You always reply!

Paula