When I first started on my divine money making quest, some of the first programs that I used were in the Paid-To-Read (PTR) category where you can earn money by reading emails. While it was an easy way to start, most of the emails only paid about $0.02 so I quickly stopped reading them – but they kept sending them and I’ve currently got 2567 of these emails ($50 worth!) in my ‘junk mail’ folder waiting to be read. If ‘Affiliate Programs and Internet Scams‘ was around then, I might have been able to avoid these worthless emails and spend my time getting started on the big money makers!

‘Affiliate Programs and Internet Scams’ is the brainchild of long-time supporter of this site, Matt Jones. The site aims to help bloggers make money online by reviewing the various affiliate money making programs available on the internet and letting you know which ones are scams and which ones you can actually make a dollar or two with!

Marketing magic

The concept for the site is pure genius for a number of reasons. Making money online is a hot topic at the moment and with the information available on Matt’s site, he’s providing lots of useful information for those looking to make a buck on the internet. Not only that, he’s also saving you a lot of wasted time and money by letting you know which internet money making scams you should avoid and not bother with at all. I’ll back up my belief in the site’s usefulness with the fact that I’ve tried some of the programs that he warns against and also found them to be a complete waste of time!

The site breaks up the programs into a number of categories such as paid-to-read, paid-to-post, revenue sharing and paid-to-search. Amongst the scams, the largest number of sites appear to be the PTR programs and Matt has dissected all of these programs and explained exactly why they’re a scam. I love this extract from one of the hidden terms and conditions of a PTR program:

“Payments will be made within 100 years or a reasonable time after. Admin fee for payout is 100%.”

If that doesn’t tell you it’s a scam, I don’t know what will!!

Apart from the scams, Matt also recommends his favorite affiliate programs (with included affiliate link) to help you make money. He doesn’t reveal how much money that he’s made from these programs, but considering that he doesn’t call them scams, I have to assume that’s made some money from them.

From a marketing perspective, Matt has created a site that’s going to get a lot of search engine love! That’s something that I definitely need more of! The title of the site, “Affiliate Programs and Internet Scams” contains keywords that are popular search terms and when other webmasters link to his site, they’re going to be using the keywords as anchor text which will see his rankings soar.

Furthermore, when researching an affiliate program, one of the most popular search terms to use ‘program name + scam’ in order to find hype-free reviews of whether the program makes money or not. Having his site loaded with the scam keyword and the program names is some great search engine optimization. After all, one of the hottest keywords to find my site is “AGLOCO scam”!

How to be a super scam buster

I could criticize Matt for having affiliate links included in the “recommended programs” but I do it myself and the fact that he’s using them shows that they really are recommended!

My thoughts for site superstardom are:

• The site contains two search boxes which is a waste of space and makes it confusing to know which one to use. I’d drop the Technorati search and use the Wordpress search feature or a Google search.

• The eternally popular oversized RSS button! Argh! It’s not really a ‘subscriber focused’ site and is more likely to be found through search engine referrals. This could be taken advantage of by putting the “Top Posts” feature in the button’s place so that search engine visitors can quickly see what the site is about.

• Get a graphical header. This applies to any site – unless you’ve got your own logo or banner you’re really not going to be able to market and brand your site.

• Drop the large Digg buttons at the end of each post. Most of them contain “0 Diggs” and this just shows new readers that nobody is digging it.

• Create a greater distinction between ‘sites that pay’ and ‘sites that are scams’ and make it easier to find information on a specific program. I’d have each program’s name listed in alphabetical order on the homepage either under a “Make Money” or “Scam” header.

• Perhaps this one is just me, but I wouldn’t list AGLOCO as being one of my top affiliate programs. Disregarding my well-known feelings about AGLOCO’s future, it hasn’t made a cent yet and shouldn’t really be recommended as a top program.

Servicing your scams

Overall, Matt’s created quite an informative and useful site that has a lot of growth potential. Before considering a money making program, you should head over and see if he’s written about it. If he hasn’t, just ask him to and he’ll review it within 48 hours. Now that’s service!!

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