"Hidden system to make £3,000 a day" websites

[PB2007]

We've all probably seen them. Long cheesy website extolling the virtues of some "hidden system" worked out by some 18 year Internet millionaire who is now going to sell the "hidden system" to me for just £50....

So what do you actually get for your money? Has anyone actually parted with cash for this or have some insight? A customer asked me about one and when i advised they give it a miss they asked "Why? What do you get for your money?" After i admitted i didn't actually know, it made me curious to find out what you get too...

I know it's a scam of some sorts (the people pushing these sites are probably far from millionaires themselves) but what do you get? Is it an over complex and elaborate business model? Is it a model that's impossible to understand / follow / carry out? Or perhaps an illegal business model?

Does anyone know? I've been looking for a write up from someone who actually tried it (either for real or to research the scam) but the closest i got was a "Sceptic" who then suddenly found it "really easy to make real money" and was now "making more in a weekend than he used to in 6 months".....

I did search JREF but can't see anything obvious....

[Wudang]

I suspect a Ponzi scheme or pyramid selling.

[Cavemonster]

Or just a crappy workbook or series of tapes with lots of exclamation points and flawed logic.

I just got back from visiting a friend who bought one of these courses, and essentially it advises him on how to create a blog and put ads on it.

Technically, if he was able to get huge amounts of web traffic, and they all clicked on the ads, he could be making those amazing amounts of money. But getting huge amounts of web traffic is both a skill set and a competition, that a pamphlet cannot do for you. If you have the search engine optimization skills to get that kind of traffic to your site, then you're qualified to make an even larger income doing SEO for professional clients.

It's sort of like saying "You can make millions of dollars a year by just typing words, Stephen King has been doing it for years!" and then the actual instructions say "1) Write a story 2) Send it to publishers 3) Watch the money roll in!"

Technically it is possible to make large amounts of money by posting ads on a blog, but in the same way that it's technically possible to make lots of money by writing a book, or buying a lottery ticket. It can be done, but what they're selling doesn't really give you the tools to do it.

[dtugg]

This is pure conjecture - perhaps these Internet get rich quick schemes are instructions on how to sell the very same get rich schemes to other idiots.

[NoZed Avenger]

Reminds me of an old advertisement:

A sure fire way to rid your home of all roaches without chemicals or harm to the environment!

Enclosed: Block A and Block B

Directions: Place cockroach on Block A. Strike solidly with Block B.

Repeat until all roaches in house are dead.

[GreNME]

What they typically are-- not based on experience, but on research-- in the packages that get sent to you basically amounts to a do-it-yourself startup kit for your own internet affiliate marketing program. Most of these guys are affiliate marketing, often using each other as references or 'testimonials' in the hopes to fake enough credibility to continue (and hopefully grow) the train of gullible dollars that inevitably trickles in. Sometimes these jokers will sell health programs, diet recommendations, or sometimes even self-published fiction (or what they claim is non-fiction 'research'*) on their affiliate marketing website, so it doesn't just have to be the get-rich-quick stuff. Often they'll shoot for the low-hanging fruit: get in shape, be more attractive to the opposite sex, learn the 'healing power' of meditation, and so on. For the person who doesn't want to actually work at a job and wants to spend the time to set up some of these affiliate websites, you can quite possibly make enough money to pay the bills for your tiny one-bedroom apartment or trailer!

* the notorious Ms. Dotty Murdock not only started with one of these websites, and is still involved (http://tinyurl.com/dorothymurdock) in this scam market.

[Bobert]

WOW whats with all the CT like threads in the computer/internet forum?

[GreNME]

Where's the conspiracy theory here? It's a scam market that uses obvious scam techniques. No conspiracy needed.

[PB2007]

Thanks.

A few ideas I'd already thought it might be and a few new ones. I remember a scam a while ago where their was a £30 / 40 / 50 guide on how to get free TVs, video, computers, etc Managed to find enough information to learn the idea was your ring up companies like LG, Sony etc and claim to be an "Independent Technology Reviewer". The claim was you'd then get the electrical goods to review for free for a month or so and if you kept it going you'd never have to buy another TV etc again...

I also noticed the websites are usually in the same format i.e. long, repetitive and always hinting at something amazing to be reviled if you just read a bit more..... I guess that's because, for the person at the top the scam, it "works" but i wonder how many people further down bother to even take any action. I'll bet a high % read what they bought and just bin it...

It would be interesting to read a real case study though...

I've also noticed an increase in the number of websites touting that for just £100 worth of common hardware parts you never have to pay your electricity bill again. In fact this wind generator will generate so much electricity you'll be selling it back to the grid! I did read a review somewhere that showed the parts cost considerably more than the touted £100 and might, on a good day, generate enough electricity to power one 100 watt light bulb for 8 hours, because the advise was to buy cheap solar garden lanterns and use 100s of the solar panels to make a solar grid / array!