The site was not worth anywhere near what the man had paid for it. My friend said there was so much work to be done to fix it that she would have to charge him for her time. In addition to what he has already paid, plus the fee she will have to charge him, the man will also have to pay an ongoing fee to the company that hosts the website. In other words, he has already spent thousands of dollars and he will continue to pour more money into this site ... not knowing if he will ever sell a single product!
To make matters worse, the "drop shipper" who handles the merchandise for him is simply turning around, entering the orders on Amazon and having Amazon ship the products. The drop shipper plans to charge the man who purchased the website an additional $37 a month to handle this fairly simple process. In addition, because the drop shipper marks up the prices, the prices on the website are significantly higher than the prices on Amazon ... which means it is even less likely that the man will have any sales.
When my friend saw how badly this man had been cheated, she said that she plans to redesign the website and eliminate the drop shipper so he can order the products directly through Amazon himself. However, there is still no guarantee that he will ever successfully sell anything and it is highly unlikely that he will ever recoup the thousands of dollars he spent.
As my friend said, "scammers are very clever at their trade - they prey on vulnerable people who are trying to better their lives." They take advantage of people who do not know how to earn money on the internet on their own without getting ripped off.
There are far too many disreputable companies out there who work day and night to lure people in with promises of training and ongoing support ... which virtually disappears as soon as the clients send in their money to purchase a website.
When my friend was discussing this situation on an online forum, another writer said that she, too, had been scammed by a company called Your Own Store. This buyer said that she had paid $9000 to buy an affiliate website that could not possibly have ever generated enough money to earn back her investment. She pointed out that she was computer literate and a school teacher, yet she still fell victim to this scam. The owners of the company assured her that they would train her and give her all the help she needed. However, all they did was teach her what are known as "blackhat" techniques ... which means trying to attract customers in ways that are not acceptable by Google and can ultimately get your site in trouble or even cause them to close it down.
In this woman's case, she worked for three years to try to reach the goal they set for her of 250 visits a day in order to earn a passive income. She worked constantly to try to achieve that goal, without success. Eventually, the company shut down her site because she could not afford to pay them the monthly fee to maintain her domain.
When she filed a complaint with authorities and learned more about the company, she discovered that the company had sold hundreds and hundreds of these sites and not one person had made a profit. To add insult to injury, the principals of the company were able to take millions of dollars in profit and disappear.
The women who told me about these two incidents said that they were extremely upset that so many new people continue to be cheated in this way. We were discussing this on a forum where writers share information about InfoBarrel and Hubpages, two legitimate affiliate sites that let you write reviews of Amazon products and earn commissions. In sites like these, there is no cost to join, no ongoing expenses and no outlays other than the effort involved in writing your reviews of Amazon products ... which can include books, movies, video games, electronic equipment, kitchen accessories, toys, etc. Your reviews might or might not be successful and earn you much money. However, whether you earn anything or not, you have not spent money in order to try to sell products and earn money.
In addition to InfoBarrel and Hubpages, there are other legitimate websites where writers can earn money writing reviews about Amazon products. These include DailyTwoCents, and Writedge. While the income may not be large, especially at first when you have only written a few reviews, at least you will not be losing money. In addition, your income will grow as your library of reviews increases.
Some experienced online writers also eventually develop their own websites or blogs and write product reviews on them. A blogger blog, for example, can be set up for free and, if you have already become an Amazon affiliate through another site, you can write reviews on it and earn money at no cost to you!
Another site where thousands of people earn a couple of hundred dollars a month is Bubblews. Participants only need to write short articles (about 100 words long) about their community, their lives, their hobbies, or their opinions and they can earn money from these short articles.
Before investing any money to buy an online business, check out the legitimate sites that allow you to earn money without paying a fee. If someone tries to sell you a website, don't fall for their lies.
You are reading from the website: http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com
Photo credit: Photo of cat at computer is property of author, Deborah-Diane; all rights reserved.
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