Today I want to discuss an article located at http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090621/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_bloggers_freebie_disclosures. As you know, it is my main purpose to educate everybody on the issues that exist in the fitness industry and this article really struck home for me. The link was originally provided to me by a good friend of mine. It got me thinking.
Have you ever tried to use Google to find a review of “The Truth About Abs”? What did you come up with? I’m sure it looked something like this:
What happens if you click on the “reviews” or the “scam” links? They both lead to sales pages for the Truth About Abs program. How about the articles on the side that are also “sponsored links”? Where do they go? Every single one goes to a sales page for the program.
Now, there is nothing wrong with reviewing a product and then recommending that the reader purchase it and providing a link for said purpose, but where is the review in any of this? I see none! This is why you have to be skeptical of the things you read on the web. You think you are getting a real review and the reality is that you aren’t getting a review at all.
Interestingly, sometimes these reviews don’t even know who they are talking about. There are sites that will bag on one product while hyping another. What’s wrong with that, you ask? The problem is that they posted a picture of the author of the product they were bagging on and it wasn’t even him! If you are going to bag on someone, at least know who you are bagging on.
This type of behavior is shameless and it should be a huge red flag to anyone who winds up at a website like these. It is your job to do your research, but how can you do real research when people are paying to be at the top of the searches for these products?
The company I work for has had the same problem for years. A competitor of our’s paid for search terms that match our company. Thus, when someone puts in search words specific to our company they were getting the other company. This is the same bait and switch techniques used by the scam artists out there hungry to steal your money from you.
How about Clickbank? They perpetuate the problem by the crazy rules they have for payment. Let’s just say that if you don’t generate alot of sales in a short period of time, your money will disappear. Over time, if you don’t get sales from different places, Clickbank will refuse to pay you and they will chip away at your earned income. Eventually you get nothing. So you have scammers at every turn.
This is why you need to become part of the solution. Tell other people about this site. Have them join the mailing list. The more people we can gain access to the more people we will have to spread the word for us. Our upcoming membership site is going to be an awesome resource for people interested in this topic. Hopefully you will join once it is up!
