Top 10 Tips to Avoid Being Scammed

 Here is a list of the "Top 10 Tips to Avoid Getting Scammed" that I have put together from my past experience. They are not in any particular order but they are ALL very important to keep in mind.

 

1. Don't "risk" more than you can afford to lose (even if it's "guaranteed refund"). If the "getting started" cost is $100 or if it's $25, if you can't afford to lose that, DON'T DO IT!

 

2. Don't believe the hype..."too good to be true" is not always false, but it SHOULD be a warning sign! Even the legitimate opportunities do tend to "over-promote" how "easy" it is to achieve success.

 

3. Realize that those that do well, quickly, likely have a HUGE list already in place in order to have people to market to. It takes a long time to build up such a list so, don't necessarily expect immediate results . It CAN happen, but don't get crushed if it doesn't. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

 

4. DO NOT QUIT YOUR JOB until you have matched or exceeded your current income for SEVERAL months CONSISTENTLY! (1 month is NOT consistently....think more along the line of 6 months or more)

 

5. DO NOT QUIT YOUR JOB because it also puts way too much pressure on your to "make it happen". The more pressure you put on yourself (and that "opportunity") the less likely you are to succeed.

6. If you don't have the $$ to invest in advertising then understand that you CAN get people to work with you (or be your customers) with "free methods" but it will take more "sweat equity" and more time.

 

7. Do NOT use your "real" phone number (but also do not make up or use someone else's #)
           a. if you don't have an alternative, use a "time/temp" number
           b. use Google Voice by getting a "gmail account" - USE THIS!

 

8. Consider having more than one "opportunity" set up and running in order to increase your "streams of income"...
     - don't "bite off more than you can chew" but there should be some that you can do without a LOT of physical work/time on your end

 

9. Decide for yourself! You cannot always rely on the "Rip-off Report", for example. Many times these are people that wanted someone to do it all for them and expected "magic" to happen and, when it didn't, they began to cry "scam! scam!" The final decision will ultimately be up to you.

 

10. Risk vs. Reward. This could also be looked at as comparing the "pros and cons". Yes, get out a sheet of paper (or do it on your computer) and make a list of the risks/cons as well as the rewards/pros. Is the REWARD big enough to overcome some of the RISK involved? Know this: There is ALWAYS risk involved in ANY situation like this. Again, the final decision will be yours.

 

***BONUS TIP: Do NOT go to some site for "Top Home Based Businesses"...you will get SWAMPED with emails and phone calls. They are only turning your information into a LEAD for people to buy. There is NO set up or "matching" you up with the "perfect" opportunity for you! Again, this is a way for companies to sell your information. Understand, too, that your information will NOT be sold only once. It will likely be sold five or more times and this could go on for months as your information gets recycled through "the lead system".

***See the blog articles from October 30th on two scams that I specifically warn you about and October 31st on four opportunities that I share information about that require no or low cost to get started.***

 

I hope that this has been helpful for you. Again, take the time to do your "due diligence" along the way. Until next time, whatever you do, always be sure to... 

 

"Make it an AWESOME day! (Who else is going to do it for you?)"

 

Mike



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Watch Out for SCAMS!

 

 

I thought that I would share with you some information on a couple of SCAMS that I have come across and, yes, sadly and regrettably, got involved with. I'll explain WHY I did so and I will also explain what, in my opinion, it is about these systems that make them SCAMS to be AVOIDED AT ALL COST!

I'm going to share information on 2 separate programs that I tried and found to be scams:

1. XTREME CLOUD PROFIT or (Profit Cloud)

 

 

  Interestingly, when you try to access information on this program now you will come upon a page that will say "campaign not active".

So, in my mind, either the people behind this got their big financial reward, pulled the plug and ran with the money OR enough people complained about this scam that it got pulled.
WHY I GOT INVOLVED:
No, I did not expect to make over $700 per day as is guaranteed in the video (capture of that video on the right). My thought was, "What if it brought even a small fraction of this in for us? It's guaranteed and plain in what is promised." HINT: 100% guarantee's are absolutely worthless - always know that and do not allow that to sway your judgment thinking that they certainly can't make that promise if it isn't true.
The way it was explained DID make sense in that the person promoting this would get their share out of MY share so, hey, you would think that it would be (as is actually described in the video) in their best interest to follow through on their promises, right?
It's all promised to be free (just something like $15/for his "team" to get it all set up) and all done FOR you! Hey, with a "100% money-back guarantee" I thought, why not...what if it only brings me $700 per week or even $50 per day?
This next part is from a "so-called review" of the system (most of these are written by people promoting the product and are all usually worded almost exactly the same):

Inside Xtreme Profit Cloud

Inside Member Area of Xtreme Profit Cloud, you'd get software, videos, training material and exact step by step plan that you need to work with.

Nope. Absolutely nothing as far as software, videos or training material. A complete bust. After two days of going back and forth with their "support system" I was told (which I had already figured out) that I would have to buy traffic sources (Hey, guess what? They offer such in their back office! Convenient!) in order to drive traffic to the "website" that they had created for me (minimal site).

Oh, and by the way, you had to pay for 6 months of hosting up front which was $89.70 and, when I wanted my refund, I was told that I could get all but $14.95 back because that was for the domain name registration (which was promoted as FREE even during the sign up process).

Yeah, I know...I should have listened to my "gut" on this and never even believed that they would follow through on their guarantee. Lesson learned.

So, again, this particular campaign is apparently down and gone - at least for now. But, be aware of ANY system where you are seeing "Cloud Hosting" as part of the title. THIS is where the affiliates are getting their money. I did find a few "real" reviews of this product and that is what is agreed upon  ---- this is nothing but a "funnel" for the cloud pro hosting.

 

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2. ANYTHING with Anik Singal
 

 

This particular program by Anik Singal is "Inbox Blueprint" (that's Anik on the right). You may have seen the program advertised with a video showing 5 people that Anik took and, overnight, with his system, each was able to make over $1,000 profit.

I've seen this type of approach before and I do know that it is never as easy as it appears in the example. As a matter of fact, once inside this program, I did get access to other videos of this set up that show that, indeed, Anik helped get these people set up with some "extra cost" advertising, etc. to make it happen. You're never told how MUCH money was put in to make this happen and, even though they call the $1,000+ "profit", I'm guessing that this figure is what was made BEFORE taking out the expenses. I don't know that for sure, it's just what I think to be true.

WHY I GOT INVOLVED:

I have no real problem with the program, itself. I wanted to find a program to help me learn how to build  a list because, bottom line, anytime you see promotions "showing" you what a person did in a very short period of time, IF true, it was done through a list that this person has built up over several years.

So, does the program offer valuable material for people like me? Well, yes, I would say that it does and I actually consider myself to be a little over "beginner" when it comes to "internet marketing".

I also do think, however, that there is a LOT of hype in everything that Anik does. Even in the training videos or the "live" webinars (I'll get to that in a moment) a BIG part of the time is spent trying to upsell you to another program. Hey, he's a marketer, I get it but it gets a little old when, probably 50% of the time is spent on the upsell.

The webinars are promoted as being "live" but I do not believe that to be true at all. Why? Well, for one, there is no live "chat" screen during the webinars. You're told that this is due to Anik still trying to figure out how to bring that up. Think about that for a moment. He is supposed to be an internet marketing "guru" and he can't figure this out? Two, he REALLY played up the whole idea that, because he valued us - his students - so much, that he was even going to do some LIVE webinars while he was on his honeymoon! The problem with this is that, all you had to do was to go to his YouTube channel and see that the videos had already been recorded. They just were not accessible to the public yet.

So, those are things I didn't particularly care for, but they do not qualify this as a scam in my book.

However, what DOES qualify this as a SCAM in my book is the fact that you DO NOT get your refund back as promised!

This program is $97 per month for 3 months. Hey, I really thought that I'd likely learn enough to make more than that with this program per month so that the $97 would not be something to even worry about. They offer a "no questions asked, 60 day, money back guarantee".

Well, true, they didn't ask any questions when I asked for a refund of my initial $97 after LESS than a whole month.

That refund was supposedly granted on September 30, 2014 and today is October 30, 2014 and I have still not received my refund. I was told by their support team (that, my friend, is questionable) that the refund had been issued and that, since the card I was using was MasterCard, that it tended to take longer...maybe up to 2 weeks. It's been a month now.

As a matter of fact, I was told by support that they did their part and that there was nothing else that they could do! Are you kidding me?

So, I consider this a SCAM and would advise that you stay away from ANYTHING connected with Anik Singal.

If - by chance - I end up getting my refund I will come back to THIS article and update that information.

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I had planned to post some POSITIVE information about a few programs in this blog but, in my opinion, it is almost too long even now. So, I will post another article after this to share a few programs that I am involved in and, for the most part, I'm doing as a "free member" and am still able to make a little $$ doing.

 

One is absolutely FREE to join and do and there are others that  cost some money to really reap the benefits but, again, I'm doing as a free member for now and am still able to make a little money off of referrals and other things.

 

Anyway, I'll tell you everthing that I can about each of these so that you'll hear it from someone that is actually "in" telling you what's on "the other side" of that "join now" button!

 

Be careful! Feel free to contact me with any questions about what I've posted in this article or even if you're looking at a program that you'd like to check and see if I have any experience with (or thoughts about).

 

Until next time, be sure to...

 

"Make it an AWESOME day! (Who else is going to do it for you?)"

 

Mike





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Results Matter

 

DaniJohnson.com

 

 

Ever know of anyone to try to pawn themselves off as an "expert"?

 

I remember a teen once that tried so hard to pass himself off as "smart" when he wasn't anywhere near that. He just wouldn't learn NOT to do that. Once, while at a summer camp, he stood in a cabin of his peers and told everyone that he had been tested and it came out that he was pretty much a genius!

Everyone laughed, he got his feelings hurt and he started arguing with them that it was true and he was still trying his best to convince them all of that even as the last one walked out the door. I stayed behind on purpose to try to help him, but he'd have none of it. (Oddly, what you'll find is that most people like this will stand by this lie as hard as they would any truth!).

I asked him if he realized that he was just making it hard on himself when he said stuff like that and that he really couldn't blame them for laughing at such things. He continued trying to convince me that this whole thing was true and that the rest of the guys were just mean. There was nothing that I could do to help him understand that there was absolutely no proof (results) that would ever point to what he was saying (please know that I knew this young man quite well).

 

Thousands of people have been "scammed" by those who have called themselves "experts" and were able to get these people to cough up hundreds of dollars to follow them and their ideas. They had pictures showing them in front of a fancy house, car or even plane. It had to be true, right? I mean, look at the pictures! The house, car and/or plane usually doesn't even belong to that person.

 

DaniJohnson.com

 

I once worked with a preacher that would have a type of "marriage enrichment" workshop from time to time. He obviously presented himself as an expert in the field to get these people to pay money to come hear him discuss this topic. Later, I found out that he and his wife had not slept in the same bed in something like a decade and that there was absolutely nothing to their marriage. This was also about the same time that it was discovered that he was having an affair with a younger lady whose husband was dying of cancer. Obviously he was NOT an expert in the area of having a successful marriage.

 

Talk is cheap! Results matter!

 

As you can already tell, I'm big on Dani Johnson! Even before this article I have mentioned her many times before. DO go check out her website and absorb all of the free material that is available there in the area of relationships, business, spiritual equipping and building a home business.

 

She IS an expert and she knows what she is talking about! And, yeah, she has the results (proof) to back all of this up! Just look over the countless testimonials that are listed on her page.

 

By the way, testimonials are another area that you have to watch and approach with caution. ALL of  "gurus" have some testimonials - but pay attention to what they are saying and pay attention to how many they have.

 

DaniJohnson.com

 

Dani Johnson has the MOST in this area of anyone that I have ever seen and I actually have heard directly from many of these people to know that it is true!

 

I want to encourage you to get on her page and, like I said, take advantage of anything and everything on there that you can find that is FREE! There's lots of it. Check it out, test it out and then delve into investing in what she has to offer for sale as well. (No, I don't get anything from it!).

 

Caution: She holds nothing back! She tells it like it is and will likely step on your toes. Mine are "sore" but, you know what? I - like most of you - NEED THAT from time to time!

 

And, by the way, although I'm not an expert in the way that she is an expert (and I won't call myself that anyway), I do feel that God has blessed me with the ability to communicate! I share with you the encouragement that I feel I also need to keep going on my journey to my goals and my dreams and I will continue to do so. I will also continue to point you toward those that can give you the "step 1, step 2, step 3 approach" to moving on toward success.

 

Dani Johnson IS that person.

 

And as you continue to learn and grow, be sure to...

 

"Make it an AWESOME day! (Who else is going to do it for you?)"

 

Mike