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Do you care much about the you offer promote? Legit or scam.. (29)

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Hello,
I got all setup to run some offers for Russian bride offers. But just looking in google and they appear just to be a scam. Would you still promote this offer? Like, if there dumb enough to sign up its their own fault. Your feedback is appreciated!
Regards,
Brian

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An ethics issue... I wouldn't myself but how can you be so sure? There are folks out there who creates blogs that has the term scam to get people's attention to click.

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Google -> "Dating Site Name" Review

It's quite easy not get scammed by these websites if the user does some basic google searching. But some people take advantage of this by creating "is this a scam" blog/sites.

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That's a big question, and one that only you can answer for yourself.

I've had several discussions about it, once regarding payday loan offers, another time regarding Acai rebills...but never about Russian brides :-)

In my personal opinion, the right thing to do is to check things out before you promote them. For instance, a big issue with the Acai rebills was that there was no working phone number for cancellations - and the number at the front of the offer was fake. Obvious scam - especially since people who signed up would often get huge (unrelated) charges on their credit card bills shortly after.

Consider this:

1) would you want your mother / sister / other family member to fill out the form?
2) does it make you feel guilty (i.e., if the police showed up at your door would you think it was about this offer?)
3) are you helping anyone?
4) are you going to have a hard time sleeping?

The answers will be different for everyone.

In any case, if you're running it with the premise that "anyone who fills this out is an idiot," then maybe it's better for you to go with a different offer that you can feel good about.

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Ogilvy once said "don't create advertisements you wouldn't show to your own mother" I think Liane is totally right in those 4 points.

Some people might do anything for the buck, but I have to personally draw the line somewhere. When I see someone post up a story about how their friend/family member etc. signed up for a rebill and "fell" for this shit, I think why are we promoting it in the first place?

I create ads that sell because I like to sell. I don't like to "trick" people into making impulse buys. To me there is always a line and that's the difference between persuasion and and lying. By the way if your an affiliate that has constant quality issues and is booted from offers left and right this is exactly why.

I don't want it to sound like I have an ivory tower to sit in, I've of course promoted email subs, mobile offers, dating sites that I don't do the slightest bit of research on etc.

It's always been a pet peeve of mine that when you look at the thousands of affiliate offers out there if you ask only the questions...

1. Is it a good product created by someone who wants to build a real brand/long term business?
2. Is it in anyway providing a truly helpful service/benefit to the consumer?

The number of offers shrinks to a very small amount.

As long as the business is young and there is cash to be made I think the poor ethics and greedy nature will continue. Shady offers are (usually) run by shady people it's no wonder that shaving, non-payments, etc. run rampant in this industry.

Hopefully things will continue to get better, I know I get down right excited when I find a quality offer that does exactly what it's supposed to do. I'm much more motivated when I'm promoting something that I actually believe in. Maybe that's why I never had a successful rebill campaign.

/rant

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People need to buy, period.

The overwhelming majority of what you buy everyday is a WANT not a NEED.

Think about it, if we never WANTED anything and just survived with NEEDS, we'd never accomplish our full human potential.

So basically, every time you buy something, you are evolving and healing emotional wounds with a nice dopamine/serotonin rush.

The placebo effect is a powerful thing.

If I can get people excited for 5-10 minutes of their otherwise hellacious lives, so be it.

This obviously doesn't mean I don't have ethics, I always think about my customer and have their best interest in mind.

Anyways, my 2 cents. :-P

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ok thanks everyone for your replies. The answer is probably no for me. As if I wanted to find a gal from Russia and completed the offer. Started to correspond back and forth with a fake person. Then after some time realizing that the person doesn't exist. There's a lot of emotion there and it's not worth it for $3.50

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1) I HATE the 'Is xxxxxx a scam?' sites that litter the web. They are the shit that has riled the likes of Google (and rightfuly so IMO) to try and clean things up.

2) If an offer looks like a scam I won't touch it regardless of the payout. I'm a firm believer in 'Treat users well and they will continue to feed you'. Without users we've got 100% of nothing.

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There are a number of message boards with numerous guys saying they lost so and so. The person was not real, letters were typed etc.

Regards,
Brian

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yea brian,

doesn't seem like it's worth it for $3.50 man.

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I have no ethics.

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I used to not care back when I first started. All I could see was I was making money and it was great. Didn't think beyond that. Now though, I don't want to use my time and energy to make other people's lives suck more. So I won't touch the worst offers. The ones in the gray area are up for grabs though, because at some point people have to be responsible for themselves.

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I will note that I have no problem at all with selling someone stuff they don't "need". Hell our economy is founded on a principal of planned obsolescence. Nobody needs a rolls royce or an espresso machine, but that doesn't mean you can't convince them otherwise and let the consumer yield the rewards/benefits/satisfaction of a new toy I just don't want to be responsible for causing actual/direct harm to people even if there is money to be made.

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If "ethics" is a problem for you then you need to get out of advertising and marketing RIGHT NOW.

Do you think McDonald's ads on TV is ethical? Do you think its okay for them to brainwash people with 1000's of ads every day knowing that it kills people? Do you think its okay to market their meals as "Happy Meals"? How about hiding their ways behind the smoke screen of the Ronald McDonald House?

You can call it scams and unethical but its really just brilliant marketing. They know more than anyone how to jump on to trends. There will probably be a Twilight Burger soon now that the Harry Potter Happy Meal craze is over.

There are thousands of examples like this. Think back to the days of cigarette advertising and you'll see that the issue of what's legit is a very blurred one.

If you are looking for negative reviews you will easily find it for any product/service online. Its easy to bitch and throw tantrums online - and most people like to vent while hiding behind the anonymity of a computer screen.

Think rebills are scams?
How is that any different to the negative billing that cell phone companies impose?
Ever tried getting out of your mobile phone contract?

If something is blatantly ripping people off then I doubt that any of the networks will work with them.

For me, as long as there is an exchange of value, the offer is good to go.

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Ok ok, easy.. I would agree on about everything you said. In my case I didn't think it was worth it to promote a Russian bride offer for $3.50

When it was a scam, no doubt about it. I'd rather not promote a service that is fake and have people go through that emotion of finding out it was just a scam.

Example:
You correspond back and forth for 4 months with a girl you think is a possible future wife. Then you find out you have been just wasting your time and talking with a fake person that doesn't exist. If you feel all right promoting that offer have at it

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grrr... may have sounded a bit harsh. apologies.

Funny thing, on 60 Minutes (Australia) 2 weeks ago there was a piece on Russian dating and guys marrying Eastern European girls. Try and find it online. You'll see that its definitely not a scam.

Its a service like any other dating service. By the looks of it, it works very well. Lots of fat old men getting hot 20-something girls (in exchange for a visa - or "true love" as they call it)

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sure, np. Ok about the Russian dating. Sure sounds like scams after countless stories. But who knows for sure without using the service.
Regards,
Brian

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Yep, people tend to be bitter when something does not work out for them - hence the bad reviews.

Contact Stephanie at Dream Marriage. They have HUNDREDS of confirmed testimonials of actual marriages.

Also, have a look at the billing terms. When you sign up with your credit card then its very clear wheat you are signing up for.

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Tell it to the judge. No just kidding.
I have read up on the offer and I'll just try something else.. But a good debate in this thread nevertheless.

Regards,
Brian

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Well with that logic about dating offers, which dating offer would you actually promote? Im kinda curious as to which are legit and which aren't. I thought they all were using fake people to message others.

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Not true.

Maybe on some landing pages but dating is probably the most legit vertical in CPA.

They have millions of REAL paid users. Some of the biggest sites on the internet are dating sites.

If any dating sites uses fake people to message others then they should be shut down. There is too much at stake for that to happen. Dating sites are policed very well and "fake" people are sniffed out quickly.

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Okay, I didn't know all that about dating was just what I thought, thanks for clearing that up!

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That's not accurate. Some of the big sites out there (speed date, fling.com) have fake profiles, fake chat message pops up, and do unauthorized billings. Shady practices are pretty rampant as soon as you get out of the top 10 sites (and even then...). Not that this would stop me in promoting it, but I don't see this vertical as legit at all.

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Just look at all the offers FB has banned people's accounts for promoting because of their scores on mywot: http://www.mywot.com/

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Exactly...

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The dating vertical is definitely filled with tons of dating sites and many of them do have fake profiles, especially if they are just building up their dating site, but there are good legit ones you can promote. Jdate is pretty good, adultfriend finder, match, eharmony, pof. I mean it's hard to catch all the fake profiles but they do a good job and I would say a large percentage of their members are real. Just hookup, true, untrue, asian beauties, etc (which I've promoted) have a lot of fake profiles, they may have a few real profiles but with all the fake profiles its hard to tell.

If you want to be ethical, moral in what your promoting in the dating niche, I would sign up for the dating site you want to promote, become a real member, test it out, it makes since anyway so you understand how the site works, its features and whether other people may have good luck if you referred them.

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Honestly, quit affiliate marketing if you want to talk about ethics. Whenever there is money involved, it is very unlikely that you'll see a business that runs 100% legally.

Look at China, they could even produce "fake eggs" just to make money from people, regardless of the side effects that will caused to human body. If everyone consumes an egg/day in china, that would be millions of eggs sold per day.

I would say we are all involved in promoting offers that are not 100% legit, and consumers do have to bear responsible or themselves for not filtering these fake farticals, blog reviews and stuff like that. Yes the marketer is to be blamed for promoting offers that scam ppl off (rebills), however, the advertiser that created that rebill is the culprit behind all these and I guess he should be blamed at the first place.

I remember my marketing lecturer used to tell me that, no matter how shitty a product is, if you know how to market it, you can make sales on it too.

And here is a question... What if a particular person promotes rebills, and made millions of dollars from it, then he donated 50% of them to charity, would you say he is unethical?

I believe the answer is somewhat.. Grey. Aren't we all living in such society?

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Honestly, I really would like to promote ethical things.
But there's one reality that really pisses me off: human stupidity.

And I would like to demonstrate with politic.

Want an example?
Here in Europe, most countries have said no to a global Europe, controlled by banksters.
Citizens have been heard democratically in some countries through a referendum, in France, in Netherlands, in Ireland... they said no.

But here's what happened, corrupt politicians have transformed that "no" into a "yes".
With some political tricks, they made it happen through what you call in the US "the congress" I think.

And guess what: europeans have seen the results. They are screwed, there's no issue, all europeans have to pay for a fucking debt for a money that have never profited to them.
Banksters lend money they don't even have, with interests, to governments that didn't need them in the past when they were financially independant.
Capitalism = profits are private, but losses are public.

Now European politicans have worked to give all the power to banks. And it worked, they just created some sort of "super IMF".
An organization out of control of every government in the world: "European Financial Stability Facility". It will be long to explain and my english is too bad for that but anyway, they screwed people, they screwed us, politicians are betraying us since the birth of politics.

In Italy, they did not even vote for the guy that has replaced Berlusconi.
He was appointed this year by banks directly! No elections, no referendum, nothing!
At least, the message is clear isn't it?

So here's my point: in this electoral year in France, everything has been said about politicians.
Democrats or republicans, both have proven a lot of betrayals.
One of the most important betrayals: giving power to the bank in the 70's by stopping governments to make their own money.
Both have proven their allegiance to the finance and the bank, both have cheated and screwed people.

Information is all over the Internet.

And despite of that, french citizens have continued to vote for the same scumbags, again and again.

So in my opinion, fuck them.
Some people are definitively stupid, you have to deal with that.

I wanted to believe that there are some causes for which you have to fight.
My education told me that I have to be a nice guy and I have to work with ethic in order to not screw people.
But guess what? People love to be screwed, or they are too stupid to understand they're about to be scammed again, and again, and again.

It's a situation that causes me some kind of schyzophrenia, as I'm really a good guy, I love people, I want to help them, I want to live in harmony with all human being.

But it's just impossible.

At least, I will never promote anything related to: finance, guns, credit etc.
That's my poor contribution to this world.

After this electoral year, I'm convinced about something: some people don't deserve to be protected about misleading speech.
Marketing or political, whatever, they don't deserve to be spoken with respect.

Fucking stupid lemmings.

Sorry for the hate, but I'm so disillusioned with human nature.
And to be honest, I regret it very much

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Trust me , 90% of dating sites have a LOT of fake profiles. Just try signing up at any site similar to adult friend finder / hookup sites. You will immediately get 3-4 messages of girls that want to talk with you . And that's even without uploading a picture first... What are the odds of them being genuinely interested girls?

The ration on these sites of men / women is 9:1 ( 10% women ) . This was confirmed after talking to an ex adultfriendfinder manager , and they are supposed to be one of the biggest around.

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