Month: November 2011

That’s a pretty bold title haha and damn is it eye-catching. It doesn’t exactly seem like good business to advertise that your own website is a scam, does it? I’ve always done things a bit differently here though.

I started this blog in 2007 and started working on it full-time in 2009. It’s my baby. I love it and I love all of you. Without you guys, there would be no I’ve Tried That. Some 3.5 million people have visited this site since I started it. For the most part, people seem to enjoy my work. You guys like to email me or leave comments on my blog thanking me for opening your eyes to new scams.

I used to try and keep track of how much money has been saved by this blog, but the task became very tedious. I’d have to guess that it’s within the tens of millions of dollars by now (mainly due to all my work exposing wire transfer scams.)

But alas, some people are not happy about I’ve Tried That. They accuse me of having ulterior motives (“wolf in sheep’s clothing” comes up as the most common insult) and taking advantage of people who want to learn how to make money online. It sucks, but with 3.5 million visitors, someone is BOUND to get angry every now and then.

So, I decided to collect a laundry list of complaints against the site. Here are the most common complaints that pop up (in no particular order)…

I’ve Tried That is a Scam!

Steve promotes the same products he bashes!

“How can you bash data entry or home typing “jobs” because they sell affiliate marketing training and then promote a company like Wealthy Affiliate that ALSO promotes affiliate marketing training?!”

I completely see the confusion. I’ve called out plenty of programs that sell affiliate marketing training programs and I DO highly recommend another. There is absolutely no denying that whatsoever.

The thing is, I don’t bash a program for promoting affiliate marketing training. Affiliate marketing is one of the few legitimate ways of making money online. I bash programs who disguise the fact that it’s affiliate marketing and overload their sales pages with hype to try and deceive people into thinking affiliate marketing is a quick and easy way to make a lot of money online.

The biggest offenders here are companies that label themselves as data entry or home typing jobs. If you paid money to become a data entry employee, what would you expect? Probably something along the lines of getting paid to transcribe data from paper into digital form, right? Would you expect a packet of information on how to do affiliate marketing? Is that at all related to data entry? No! Herein lies what I advocate against.

Here’s a visual aid to help illustrate my point. The following two programs are both selling Affiliate Marketing training. One is the type I warn you guys against, the other I actively promote. Spot the difference!

Again, both are selling Affiliate Marketing training, but it should be immediately obvious which one is actually going to help you and which one is using insane amounts of hype to trick you into think affiliate marketing is something that it’s not.

Affiliate Marketing isn’t a job in the traditional sense of the word. It’s a business that you start. It CAN eventually become a job, but it does take quite a bit of time and effort. It’s not easy to go from knowing nothing about affiliate marketing to living solely off the income you make as an affiliate marketer. It takes a lot of work. I realize affiliate marketing isn’t for everyone which is why I also make recommendations on telecommuting jobs, and other miscellaneous ways of making money online.

Steve wants you to trust him so he can sucker you into wasting money!

My good friend Eddy over at WorkAtHomeNoScams.com (check it out if you’re looking for more ways to make money online. Eddy’s site rocks!) had this to say…

The fact of the matter is you provide various ways to make money online legitimately. Many are free. But when it comes to running a business it requires an investment in the business and or training to run a business. It’s no different than someone going to school for an MBA. You have to pay tons of money to do that! So why would it be different for an online business.

The issue here is there is a lot of misinformation out there about fees and making money online. Too often sites and people are running around saying anything that requires money is a scam. But what really should be said is that you probably shouldn’t pay for a job but when it comes to a business there is going to be an investment involved. In which case you should still do your research to determine if the business is legitimate.

Smart guy that Eddy. Seriously check out his site.

I’ve covered this plenty of times in the past though. When I say “you shouldn’t pay to start a job” I mean, avoid websites that are guaranteeing you’ll make a set wage doing things like data entry, typing, filling in forms, surveys, etc. If they make it sound like you’re going to be an employee of a company and you’ll make x amount of dollars per hour, but want you to pay some fee up front, they’re most likely trying to trick you into buying information and NOT offering you an actual job.

On the other hand, we have “paying to learn how to make money online.” The distinction here is that you’re paying to learn how to do something that you didn’t already know how to do. You want to learn how to make money online? A good place to start would be to seek out a mentor or a training program. Find someone who can teach you the things you don’t know. This costs money because you’re paying for someone’s expert knowledge. You’re not paying for a job; you’re paying to learn. It’s no different than attending classes at a school. Make sense?

Steve is a millionaire!

Ha. Ha. Ha.

God I wish this one were true.

Did a binary “watchdog” group lead you to this page?

I have extensively covered HUNDREDS of these binary option programs over the last 14 months. I’ve said just about everything I possibly could have on these scams.

I also seemed to have made quite a few “review” sites angry by not actively promoting ANY binary option programs. It’s hard to promote something you willingly know will be robbing people of their hard earned money. The people affected by these programs are the ones who usually have it all on the line and stand to lose the most. I could never comfortably live with myself knowing I was making money in that way.

These fake review sites like to point fingers and claim that I AM the one lying to deceive folks. They essentially accuse me of the exact tactics they are using. It’s definition insanity.

Why I Don’t Deposit Money into Binary Option Brokers

A new binary option program pops up daily, sometimes 2 or 3 open shop, each and every single day. These programs are designed for one purpose: to get you to deposit money into a foreign brokerage account that is not regulated by any U.S. law. Meaning, you have little to no recourse at ever getting any of your money back, filing a complaint, or sometimes even withdrawing the money on the off-chance you win one of your bets.

These programs typically have a $500 minimum deposit. With two popping up per day, I would have to spend $1,000 of my own hard earned money, every single day just to test their claims.

Listen, I don’t need to punch myself in the face to know it’s going to hurt. And I also don’t need to send $1,000 per day overseas to know I’m not going to become a millionaire just by pushing a button or by following some secret algorithm.

Here’s the Million Dollar Reveal…

There’s a program being touted as a guaranteed winner right now. Numerous fake review sites are popping up promoting it. It’s called Fast Cash Biz and they 100% guarantee you’ll earn $10,000 per day on average JUST BY PUSHING A BUTTON.

I am not personally exaggerating this. These are the exact claims made by Fast Cash Biz, taken DIRECTLY from their website.

Here is a screenshot directly from their page…

Let’s think about this rationally for just a second.

If it were that simple to make $3,650,000 per year, why on Earth would I ever advise against joining? We could all be millionaires overnight! There is literally no reason for me to ever say a bad word about this program.

Unfortunately, reality falls far from their claims.

Did you know that Fast Cash Biz pays out $250 in affiliate commissions? That means, any of those fake review sites are paid $250 every time a new user follows one of their recommendations.

Last time I checked, my Fast Cash Biz review was averaging over 100 views per day. If I were to review it positively and recommend that people join it, I suspect I could convert on average 10 people per day. This means, I would make $2,500 per day in affiliate commissions from Fast Cash Biz ALONE. This is close to A MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR just for one article.

Hey… are you starting to see why so many of these fake review sites are popping up?

And this is just ONE PROGRAM. I have HUNDREDS of these reviews in our database. I am comfortably sitting on millions of dollars worth of commissions if I were to give these scams a positive recommendation.

Why on Earth would I ever advise against joining a Binary Option program? You already know the answer to that…

Because what they claim isn’t possible.

The only people making money here are the scammers suggesting you deposit money into these shady brokers. Not you. That’s all there is to it.

The Good News

The FTC is currently on to these scams. I suspect we’ll start seeing some of these fake review sites shut down in the coming months. Expect to see headlines where they issue millions of dollars in fines and possibly even jail time. It’s happened before with scams I’ve covered previously. It’s only a matter of time at this point.

The claims being made by these programs are also getting increasingly outlandish. Their marketing methods are becoming ineffective and these are last ditch efforts to attract new victims. This is a cycle I’ve seen time and time again. And I will continue to work behind the scenes to make sure these scams are properly persecuted.

On our side, I’ve Tried That has been around since 2007 and has become one of the most trusted voices on the web. I’ve celebrated my site’s 8th anniversary this year and I am happy to continue to work tirelessly for all of you for years to come.

Steve doesn’t care about his readers!

Of all the complaints against I’ve Tried That, this one hurts the most.

If you’ve spent any time on the site or have sent me an email, you’ll know my goal is to protect and help others. I can’t even begin to count the hours of free support and help I’ve given out over the years. My I’ve Tried That email account currently has 65,000 emails in it. That’s about 44 emails per day since starting this blog! That doesn’t even include the times I’ve purged my email because I was running out of space.

It’s greatly upsetting to know that people think I don’t care about my readers. I know I shouldn’t let the opinions of a few upset people get to me, but it occasionally does.

One things is for sure though: I’m going to keep on doing what I’m doing. I’ll continue to point out scams, provide legitimate ways of making money online, offering hours of email support, and just helping out all of you in general. I truly hope this blog has helped some of you.

Enjoy the music as well.

Bottom Line: I’ve Tried That is no scam. Feel free to drown out the naysayers and leave a comment below. I always love hearing from you guys.

Love,
Steve