With the recent debacle of the world economy resulting in mass lay offs not only in North America but around the world as well, income at home businesses is fast becoming the in thing for those who are trying to make ends meet while waiting for the economy to ease up.
And with every crisis there are those who would take the opportunity to make money out of the desperation of others. One such field is the online income from blogging. although there is a legitimate source of income to be had by writing " about nothing" as long as you have the audience who doesn't mind reading if only to entertain oneself (although I admit there are blogsites that are informatively interesting).
As a response to Harpal Dadi's sales pitch for some supossedly blogging gurus Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick, Tari Akpodiete wrote on Immigrant Network:
"I'm a bit concerned that you've reproduced a marketing sales pitch from people who specialize in separating others from their money. You make it sound like you are best friends with them when actually you're just on their mailing list. And they'll take anyone willing to pay. There is no true urgency. These are standard 'internet marketing' techniques. And as for it being 'the best' blogging course in the world, that's very subjective and just more marketing. You've also included an affiliate link, meaning that you'll get paid if people sign up. Nothing wrong with making money, but you should have disclosed that fact. Of course, you've also failed to mention a price, and with good reason. It's not inexpensive, and most people will NEVER made back that money by writing a blog"
Tari further wrote:
"Harpal's primary intention was clearly to help himself make money by getting people to sign up for an expensive program so that HE would make money without disclosing this fact.
This may not have been totally clear from his first post, but it IS very clear in his post to me where he ignores the points I made about him not giving honest disclosure and also he makes excuses for re-using the high pressure sales bogus language. Despite how the pitch was worded, those people are not our friends (or Harpal's), they are after the money in our wallets (as is Harpal).
To say that people should do their homework and decide if the opportunity is up to them is somewhat disingenious, and it is blaming people who get victimized by someone who is putting themselves first. It sure sounds good, and all the testimonials on the sales page are all glowing. The FINE print is more telling, but that's very easily missed.
When people can't be sure of something that seems like a good opportunity (but isn't really), they often place a certain amount of trust in someone who is similar to them, in this case, a fellow immigrant The term for when they get ripped off like this is called: AFFINITY FRAUD and it's quite common.
There are many coaches and gurus and so-called experts all promising big bucks to teach people how to make big money from bloggging and other online activities. A few people will make a little, most people will make nothing, and will actually end up losing money, mostly by paying for all these very expensive courses. When they don't make money, they will be told that it is because they didn't work hard enough.
They will be encouraged to take more courses. They will get emails from friends of these people who will say stuff like "take this course, watch this video, come to this event for xxx dollars". And of course, the people in the ring all know each other, and are all orchestrating it and sharing in the big money.
It's an old, old scam re-wrapped for the online age. An immigrant community is an EXCELLENT place to recruit because such people tend to be well-educated, hard-working and very motivated to succeed in their new homeland. They are also not aware of that this sort of situation is one designed to take advantage of them and empty their bank accounts. In the long run, they will be not only poorer, but also somewhat demoralized, and even angry".
So all you immigrants out there......beware
