I don’t know why, but the concept of monetary inflation seems to elude most people’s thought process. Not a single day goes by when I don’t hear someone say “Well this was $100 brand new in 1960 and its $100 today, its value is the same!”

It’s like… UHG.

Alright, basic economics 101:

Generally speaking, money is worth less each year. $400 today is not “worth” the same as $400 10 years ago. It’s called inflation. Inflation causes many issues, especially in our current economy where wage increases are less than inflation.

I swear, I’ll scream the next time someone claims $100 today is the same as $100 30 years ago.

That’s all, now back to your regularly scheduled programming…

This post is day 5 of the A Week Of Staying Safe series.

Affiliate scams are all over the place. Perhaps you have seen one of those “Make Fast Money” sites. They really aren’t that hard to spot, and some simple research can help you avoid problems you may have with unethical affiliate marketers failing to deliver what they promise:

Who Is The Affiliate “Expert”?

Personally, I would never buy anything that promises “money” unless I know who the person is that is selling it. Are they a huge affiliate marketer known all over the world for their great work, or are they just a scam artist? Have they written a book, or is this “make money” ebook their first? And most importantly, do you trust them? Take note of any controversy surrounding them.

Does The Creator And The Product Have A Clean Record?

If they are well known and have a clean record (run some Google/Yahoo searches) then they probably aren’t a scam artist. One thing that I have found helpful is to look on blogs that give reviews of the product and read the comments. If the product is bad there will be some negative comments, especially if you wait a few weeks after the post appears. Don’t forget to check forums as well.

Just a tip: when you run a search type in their name plus “scam” and see what comes up.

Testimonials Are Crap - Don’t Trust Them

A general rule of thumb is any testimonial for any “make money” products are crap. Don’t trust them. Even if the creator of the product is well known, it isn’t that hard to find random pictures of people and put fake testimonials next to their name. Many people do just that.

Count The Number Of Times They Say “Money”

Excessive use of the word “money” is a sure-fire sign that they are offering a bogus product. If they offer a voice recording of themselves also take note of how they sound and how many times they say “money”.

Don’t Trust Positive Reviews By Other Bloggers

Nowadays anyone can order a review of their product on many blogs. Also, many affiliate marketers are either A) friends with bloggers who show off their “make fast money” product, or B) convinced the blogger to get in early to steal money and join in on the pyramid scheme. Just like with testimonials, never ever trust positive reviews of “make money” schemes by bloggers.

Wait A Few Weeks Before Trying A New “Make Money” Product

Let other people buy the product first and check up on popular blogs to see if they talk about it and read any comments that result from the post. After a month or two run a search in Google for the product name plus “scam” and see what comes up.

Read The Terms Of Use 10 Times

Read and memorize the terms of use, that is the contract you agree to when you buy/use the product. Memorize the hell out of it and mention it if you have to report the person as a scam artist. If it seems a bit “odd” be weary.

Call Your Credit Card Company And Report The Product To The FTC If You Get Scammed

If you recently bought the product and found out it is nothing more than a big hoax and you payed with your credit card, contact your credit card company immediately (they may get your money back). If it really is a hoax chances are they have heard of it before, and if it is a big enough problem they could very well report them to the authorities. Don’t forget to report them to the FTC yourself.

Even if the business is out of the country the FTC can really cause some huge damage. Plus if a business out of the country and sells stuff to consumers in the U.S. they are still subject to many of the laws of the land, especially international laws. The FTC won’t get your money back, but if they get enough reports of illegal activity they could very well make sure noone else gets scammed.

Most Importantly… Don’t Buy The Product

To be 100% honest you can find the information in most “make money” ebooks online for free. Actually that’s pretty much true with any ebook.

A Week Of Staying Safe Articles:
Day 1 - The Ultimate Guide To Detecting E-Mail Scams
Day 2 - Huh? Who Sent That? - How To Find Out What Server Really Sent That E-Mail And How To Deal With Spam
Day 3 - Having A Good Host Can Sure Save Your Sanity
Day 4 - Top 3 Ways To Secure MySQL
Day 5 - Avoiding Make Fast Money Affiliate Scams
Day 6 - 17 Ways To Avoid Spyware Forever
Day 7 - Password Rotation

Google has once again changed some chunks of the Adsense policies. I guess you could say the new policy “forces you” to comply with the Page Quality Guidelines. If you are one of those people who runs a very low quality site/blog with little useful content, you better watch out, the Google monster might just send you a cancellation e-mail!

Over the past few weeks Google has essentially given Adsense a much needed overhaul by banning tons of users for running MFA (made-for-adsense) sites and blogs, and by ditching the honor system.

Well, it appears as though the AGLOCO Viewbar has finally been released. As I said in a comment on NetBusinessBlog (see link), I still honestly believe this entire thing is over-hyped BS. Very few people will get any amount of money that makes it worth even signing up for it, and I bet the company will fail in a few years just like AllAdvantage.

Basically the entire system is one of those “the rich get richer” type of deals. The only people who will be able to make even $100 run popular websites and have thousands of referrals, but the vast majority of the userbase (99.99999999%) will probably only walk away with a dollar or two. Let alone, when those users decide it is worthless and leave the popular/rich people will leave as well, thus leaving the company to slowly disappear with the tides of the ‘net.

On a sidenote, NetBusinessBlog’s new owner did his first post today. He has a very impressive record, but I am still curious if Matt Coddington will be doing frequent guest posts on there. I have a feeling it will be a slow transition. They will split the week up for a little while, then slowly but surely the new owner will take complete control of it. I mean, how often do you hear about a blog being sold and the previous owner just disappearing forever and not making another few posts?

Apparently Google might start banning adsense users who run strictly made-for-adsense sites and who run poor quality sites that don’t give a good ROI for the advertisers.

ShoeMoney has done a quick video for his blog, he doesn’t seem worried about it at all.

Then again who knows what the hell Google is doing, every website and blog is reporting this thing slightly differently…