Are all “work from home” ads scams?

In: Marketing By: Brian Armstrong

13 Feb 2009

Got this message from a reader today:

Hi Brian,
I just signed up to your blog and find it interesting and worthwhile to follow through. You come across as a knowledgeable person who doesn’t mind to share your findings with anyone who asks and this Brian…as you know, brings instant credibility and builds a positive brand identity to your product and services. However I have a question which pertains to third parties products announced in your site. Do you check the legitimacy of those offers? Specially with so many “work from home” scams in the Internet nowadays. Wouldn’t this compromise the trust you are building among your readers and subscribers to your blog?
Best,
E

Hi E,

Very valid question…and the answer is no, I don’t check the legitimacy of the ads on my site. And yes, I do believe that 99% of “work at home” ads on the internet ARE scams. As a matter of policy, I personally do not buy anything sold on the internet with a typical long, hypish sales letter. I find them annoying, actually.

So the banner ads which appear on the site I can’t vouch for. This probably does reduce the credibility of my website, but I also feel it’s worthwhile to make money from it, so this is a tradeoff for me personally. In many cases if people just click an ad, I get paid something, even if they have the good sense not to buy whatever the ad is selling. I may reduce the number of ads in the future, especially if I see a better way to monetize the site.

All ads that run on Google Adwords aren’t scams of course. I have personally used them a number of times to market various things. But for some reason, this particular industry of “make money at home” seems to attract a lot of losers so you have to be careful. The world of internet marketing in general is not something I’d advise people to get too involved in. There is something to be learned from all people (and I’ve learned a lot about marketing from reading various books, etc), but if you get too involved in it you can end up with a business you aren’t proud of.

Here is an example of a website which uses good fundamentals of marketing (strong benefits, call to action, credibility indicators, lead capturing, testimonials, etc) and manages to keep it classy:

Now here is a site by someone who has gone to too many internet marketing seminars advertising a “work at home” product:

If you ever do see a product like that second one sold online, I’d advise you not to buy it. Just remember, if those guys really were that rich, why would they need to create this silly product to sell online? Wouldn’t they have better things to do?

Anyway, you’ve caused me to do some soul searching with this question. Maybe it is time to find some better monetization strategies or get rid of some ads. I’ll have to think on that one. In the mean time, hopefully this was insightful – and if you’d like to avoid the ads, try subscribing to the RSS feed which has hardly any.

Until next time, keep breaking free!
Brian Armstrong

Tags: hype, internet marketing, scam

17 Responses

Tylor

February 14th, 2009 at 11:49 am

Good advice. I used to think that all Adsense Ads were scams. But once I started working on my site, and I had a need for them personally, I looked into it. I started putting out ads and soon realized that I had a very skewed perspective before.

With some practice, I think anyone should be able to look at something and tell if it’s legit or not. As a general rule: “If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is”. Nothing comes without hard work.

Brian Armstrong

February 19th, 2009 at 9:21 pm

Good point Tylor. I know what you mean about ads. After I bought some I started looking at them more as well.

Manuel Zeh

February 14th, 2009 at 4:57 pm

>As a matter of policy, I personally do not buy anything sold on the internet with a typical long, hypish sales letter. I find them annoying, actually.

I know you are, as much as me, a great admirer of the work Eben Pagan has done in this field. Yet that is exactly the type of marketing he recommends – no fancy design that distracts from content, a strong benefit drive headline with heavy “eye gravity”, and then a huuuge sales letter, the size of which alone qualifies potential buyers.

Do you disagree with Eben here or would you say “Yeah Eben does those typical long sales letters, but he does it with integrity”?

Greetings from Colombia mate!

-Manuel.

Brian Armstrong

February 19th, 2009 at 9:22 pm

Hey Manny, I think Eben often does it with as much integrity as possible, certainly much more than most marketers. That being said I still don’t buy his stuff. Hope you’re well :)

Nicholas Powiull

February 15th, 2009 at 2:00 pm

The easiest way around this dilemma is trust your feelings. Human being are such powerful creatures and have a very keen guiding system (rather you call it your gut, instincts, intuition, sensing, etc…).

This guiding system is the key to all things in life.

Feelings are the language of ‘the soul’ and you can be aligned with who you really are by paying close attention to how you feel about something, your first reaction is always right.

This is how you ‘can know’ what will work for you (or has the potential) and what will not.

Thank you Brian for this post. I stumbled it.

I agree we should be paid for our work. People, people, calling all people! Have a click on Brian’s ads, just don’t buy ;)

Brian Armstrong

February 19th, 2009 at 9:23 pm

Haha, thanks and good point :)

Adam Holland

February 16th, 2009 at 10:43 am

You’re going to find three kinds of “work from home” ads:

1.) some affiliate product, like ‘type at home’ bullcrap that’s the biggest ripoff of the century..

2.) an opportunity to buy an info product that talks about how to become an affiliate marketer using cpa networks and such.. (this is not a scam, but does take your own money to learn, test, and develop…)

3.) a network marketing opportunity.. which is an industry based off of people that learn from others who are where they want to be in life…

IncomeExperts is an example of #3. They sell a personal development product online and do it from the comfort of their own home. Now, I’m am in NO WAY endorsing their opportunity but it’s good to know what you’re getting into rather than just writing off all of these opportunities as scams..

Hope that helps,
Adam Holland

Brian Armstrong

February 19th, 2009 at 9:20 pm

Good info, thanks Adam!

BJM

February 16th, 2009 at 1:17 pm

You know those biz ops to sell information, or sell reports? Years ago I fell for one. I have been posting those reports on my site for anyone to take for free. Have a look if your curious.

Brian Armstrong

February 19th, 2009 at 9:24 pm

Good list, thanks BJM! Good to get this info out for others.

Matt Thomas

February 16th, 2009 at 6:15 pm

Very interesting post. I find that there are so many “work from home” scams out there because there is such a huge demand to make a lot of money from home part time.

These marketers know these demands and understand the mindset of looking for this kind of solution. They also are well aware of the ease in conversions in turning viewers into buyers for this kind of business.

Matt Thomas

February 16th, 2009 at 6:17 pm

(I accidentally pressed enter)

I wouldn’t say that I would suggest against buying from a site that has a long sales letter as ad copy, but rather, make sure that the product comes well recommended from outside sources before considering buying.

Brian Armstrong

February 19th, 2009 at 9:25 pm

You’re right Matt, there can be some good ones sold that way. The price points on those are often scary…a book at Amazon costs $20 and often has just as much good info.

Rob

February 20th, 2009 at 2:05 pm

As the saying goes – “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.”

I crack up when I see tags like:
Secrets revealed….
What the richest people don’t want you to know…
People just like you are making thousands a month…
Work from home a few hours a week…
They said it couldn’t be done….

I’m amazed at some of the stupid infomercials the TV networks allow.

Michael Hamburger

March 16th, 2009 at 10:55 pm

Thanks for including my website on your blog. I find it amusing that you stated I have been to too many internet marketing seminars… I have NEVER been to an internet marketing seminar. I am a world traveler for sure & have worked my home business for the past 6 years. I am 48 hours home from my most recent trip to Acapulco, Mexico. If you wish to engage in dialogue, please feel free to contact me directly, as my home phone is on the website – IncomeExperts.com

I wish you all the best & look forward to speaking soon!

Enjoy some of the photo’s from the week…

* http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20796&id=1145261355&l=8cf694d979
* http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20804&id=1145261355&l=475e2240c4
* http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20798&id=1145261355&l=2efa103d9b
* http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20800&id=1145261355&l=5b42df8d5b

Make sure you look at the last one above! It’ll crack you up!
Let me know what you think about my black tie!

DREAM BIG!!!

Michael Hamburger

Brian Armstrong

March 17th, 2009 at 4:10 am

Hey Michael, thanks for stoppin by…didn’t mean to hate too much on your website so glad you didn’t take it too seriously!

What are your thoughts on work at home products sold online and how legit they are? The aggressive marketing tactics are a turn off for me personally but curious to get your thoughts.

Breaking Free

Are all “work from home” ads scams?

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