I get this email all the time… maybe 1-2 times a week. I am sure you all get it something similar too:
From: <mweeks@rogers.com>
Date: November 27, 2008 8:00:23 PM CST
To: <jeremy@shoemoneymedia.com>
Subject: I’ve visited your website http://www.shoemoney.com/2006/09/04/my-top-10-worst-ideas-to-make-money/Hi,
We’ve seen your website at http://www.shoemoney.com/2006/09/04/my-top-10-worst-ideas-to-make-money/
and we love it!We see that your traffic rank is 88919
and your link popularity is 3153.
Also, you have been online since 5/20/2004.With that kind of traffic, we will pay you up to $4,800/month
to advertise our links on your website.If you’re interested, read our terms from this page:
1stsite.caSincerely,
Marie Weeks
The ContactThem Network
So in every email it says I could earn up to $4800 per month.
This is one of those things that make me go “hmmmm”.
I wonder why the 4800 price point. I mean why not say 5000 ? Normally 4800 would be a good price point if someone was buying something but here you are trying to drive home how much I can earn right?
Anyway ….
- Comment Likes 
- Comment Dislikes
August 30, 2009 at 11:45 am
yeah, I totally agree.
May 13, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Well, this is just another scam. Do you remember Nigerian e-mails? (If not read about it on my blog). Somewhat same mechanism, just different scenario…
April 29, 2009 at 2:21 pm
sounds fishy but if the check clears (give it 10 days)…
December 19, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Oh gosh I recieve this same email today.. interesting..
June 19, 2009 at 1:11 am
They are also offering you $4800 … so according to them your blog is also equivalent to Jeremy blog.
Congrats …
December 19, 2008 at 7:32 am
I think this proposal sounds very good. But I doubt whether it is or not?
December 18, 2008 at 10:00 pm
What I like are the people who reply to a classified ad you post and waste your time emailing back n forth only to finally say …. yeah I’m actually buying this for my cousins nephews brothers neighbor who just left the country to study abroad in the field of exotic danish cheescake cooking .. so I need you to ship it to Africa.
December 14, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Did you ever find out if this was for real, one of those, if looks too good to be true…..
December 11, 2008 at 9:54 am
i think this is a joke thank you.
December 11, 2008 at 9:53 am
i think this is ajoke
December 6, 2008 at 5:23 am
Why do you even waste your time reading spammy crap like this. These people just get me annoyed all the time. I already got used to emails like this though.
December 2, 2008 at 11:56 am
Sorry but i don get that kind of email, but $4800/month to advertise is more worth it. I think they just can’t afford to pay $5000/month or they just love that number
December 2, 2008 at 8:49 am
I think I’d reply and say, “that price is fine but I have a minimum of 5 links and 6 months for advertisers”
December 1, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Id like to reply, “Yes…I accept your offer. Send me the check first!”
December 1, 2008 at 7:31 am
ooo.I got the same email as you..but the price still $4800..is this meaning that my blog has the same value with you? haha impossible!
December 1, 2008 at 4:24 am
I used to receive such offers ($4800) for one of my site having Alexa around 300,000. The offer amount is constant for all websites. I can see nothing special in this deal.
Probably it is an automated script that calculates alexa and PR of websites and send notification to the owners.
November 30, 2008 at 9:01 pm
haha I get these all the time there just great =D
November 30, 2008 at 4:52 pm
http://themoneyaround.blogspot.com/
November 30, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I think this is calculated by your PR or something. Nothing special.
November 30, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Shoe, …, STILL waiting on the $50 Facebook vouchers you said would be in the November newsletter. Been weeks and weeks now. Last you said you were looking into a solution. You said the code expired because it had been used by too many people. At this point, because you never responded with another code, I’m doubting the offer ever was legitimate. Especially since all facebook vouchers I’ve ever seen have a 16 character code (e.g., 123A-B456-C7DE-89FG) and yours was “shoemoneynl” …
SO …. really hoping you will respond, … either with an “F off” or something just so we know wether to bother checking back or not.
November 29, 2008 at 8:46 pm
i know this e-mail.I got this message in my spam filter last month.
November 29, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I wrote a similar post to this not to long ago, but it was based on an entirely different “text-link-ads” concept.
November 29, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Yeah, seems 100% legit to me….Oh Wait!
November 29, 2008 at 4:32 pm
fricken scammers man… jeeeeshh
December 19, 2008 at 8:09 am
Thieves and con artists make up more than half the world’s population.
November 29, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I also get same message for my site!
Looks like it’s some “quality” spammer
It uses Alexa ratings!
November 29, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I agree all of you said about Why $4800.00 A Month ?
November 29, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Shoe! you got to go easy on the cakes and pick up your damn exercise. You are gaining weight again. I’m heavy myself, and I ‘m really conciense of what I put in my mouth.
November 29, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I agree that the $4800 is an attention getting method, I once learned at a seminar that to get people to come to your meeting on time use an odd time like 4:03 instead of 4:00 to get their attention.
November 29, 2008 at 12:24 pm
If it’s a scam, I can understand the $4,800. The more detail you add to a story, the more people will believe it, and the less generic an offer number, the more plausible it might seam that it’s a real offer.
December 19, 2008 at 7:37 am
I think this is a real scam.
November 29, 2008 at 6:58 am
I get those for my personal sites and sometimes they sound interesting but if I follow up it’s usually something like a timeshare. I might be willing to sell a link to something else, but my personal bias is against timeshares.
November 29, 2008 at 5:19 am
i got some message in my email,I think it’s spammer
November 29, 2008 at 4:59 am
I do get those too but the price goes down to less than 100 bucks
I’d say yes anytime to $4800.
November 29, 2008 at 4:41 am
Spammers trying to latch onto successful sites. Avoid at all costs!
November 29, 2008 at 12:01 am
Having an even stated number like $5,000 doesn’t catch the eye, but having a few odd-ball numbers just out there would definitely make a person look twice!
-Mike
November 28, 2008 at 11:22 pm
that email seems it’s a spam, they are right you will be paid by simply putting their link to your blog
November 28, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Weird… Still $4,800 does sound pretty tempting.
November 28, 2008 at 8:02 pm
no dont see links to those.
such emails sell bunch of links at the end of post..
November 28, 2008 at 6:59 pm
$4800 keeps me just shy of the Elite Retreat. So, I guess I will not be contacting the ContactThem Network.
November 28, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Sounds like a phishing scam… They’re looking for you to register to give them the remaining info whois can’t…
Avoid them.
November 28, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Nice, they aren’t offering you $4,800 just because they want to, they want you to earn it through sales…
From their site:
You are NOT paid per click, per impressions or for the period of time our banner is exposed on your website; you are paid per sale generated.
November 28, 2008 at 5:19 pm
exactly… that is what the asterisk means
November 29, 2008 at 7:38 pm
which they failed to leave out of the email. heeh
November 28, 2008 at 2:16 pm
The aim of the advertiser is achieved, they wanted to be featured on your site and now they have been.
November 28, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I have got the same thing a few times too. I don’t want to be limited to $4800 lol.
November 28, 2008 at 12:44 pm
well u can contact me on my mail address abt thiss matter..
November 28, 2008 at 12:31 pm
It’s Stephan Ducharme, the former “ FreeAdGuru” guy. The Contact Them software data mines to get a list of more people to send this email to. The Contact network is more interested in making you an affiliate for them than paying you for dedicated web real estate. Classic pyramid.
November 28, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Just what I was going to say! These have been going around for a long time. I took a look the first time and it didn’t take much to find out what was really going on.
November 28, 2008 at 10:44 am
Yea, seems kind of sketchy to me. They should be asking “How much for this ad spot” instead of pulling some random figure out of their ass.
November 28, 2008 at 10:37 am
Just a spammer, no need to think more about it. But if they give 5.000 $ accept it:)
November 28, 2008 at 10:35 am
I got the same message and wrote an email back to find out what it was about. He asked for a dedicated spot on my blog, but couldn’t guarantee or show proof of the income potential. Not only that, you have to invest $49 which he stated he made back in 3 days. I sent him an email stating that I would sell him ad space on my website, I haven’t heard from him since. It also seems that he runs a legitimate website and brick and mortar business, but somehow bought into this scam.
November 28, 2008 at 10:46 am
“He” is a collection of “volunteers” on the Internet. Did you ever notice that not one of the people who email you with these deals is the same person?
ContactThem is a “get rich quick” scheme. The people who opt in to send these emails are clearly clueless. I hope they realize that when they pocked $0.00.
November 28, 2008 at 11:16 am
Another get rich quick scheme on the interwebs. I hate hearing about people who fall for these kind of things.
November 29, 2008 at 4:35 am
There are batteries of them out there, trying to make some money….
November 28, 2008 at 10:32 am
I keep getting that “final notice” message.
November 28, 2008 at 10:18 am
$4800 sounds more realistic than $5000… Round numbers like $5000 make people think that the number was just pulled out of thin air.
November 28, 2008 at 10:36 am
$4768.45 sounds more realistic.
November 28, 2008 at 9:38 am
I think I’d reply and say, “that price is fine but I have a minimum of 5 links and 6 months for advertisers”
November 28, 2008 at 9:32 am
I get tons of those emails as well! lol
November 28, 2008 at 9:26 am
Have not gotten that email. Might have something to do with my traffic counts.
November 28, 2008 at 10:52 am
Believe me, you don’t want them in your email.
November 29, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Will you want them?
November 28, 2008 at 9:13 am
I do get those too but the price goes down to less than 100 bucks
I’d say yes anytime to $4800.
December 1, 2008 at 12:33 am
And what if you realise its a scam?
November 28, 2008 at 9:13 am
I got ton of this message in my SPAM FOLDER
December 3, 2008 at 2:54 am
But these guys will manage to get directly into your inbox folder again by changing or adding a numer or letter to their email address to bypass your set spam filters. I hate it when they do that.
November 28, 2008 at 8:54 am
I get this email every 2months or so and one of my sites is 2months old and they give the same quote of 4800 dollars , im pretty sure the company is contact them or atleast they both do the same kind of emails.
November 28, 2008 at 8:50 am
This definitely makes the list of “what were they thinking”. Here’s a screen shot of one that I get at least once a week in the comments of my blog:
http://twurl.nl/rf4frj
I mean common’… seriously… who in their right mind wants to receive spam?
November 30, 2008 at 1:18 am
If only the spam bots that crawl my websites counted as visitors to the ranking engines or if getting spam could be an advertising bullet point: Listed Top 100 Blogs, Average Income per blog $35k/per year, Ranked Top 10 Spammed Blog.
November 28, 2008 at 8:26 am
I believe its MLM marketing… also had the same message and upon looking ive found out that that certain 4800 is only on the first month and then i noticed the dreaded asteriskw which says you have to refer people then
basically i believe Every new member receives a software that is supposed to “finds thousands of Leads: Clients, visitors, subscribers, network marketing leads (Yes, MLM leads!), Internet marketers, affiliates, website owners & business partners.
sometimes i just imagine wht if its legit..
November 28, 2008 at 8:04 am
I would say, take it. That’s good money per month. check their credibility before biting the bait though.
November 28, 2008 at 8:04 am
You know what I do when I get those emails? I hit “Report as Spam.”
I HATE the ContactThem network.
November 28, 2008 at 4:29 pm
+1 Same
Hahaha.
November 29, 2008 at 4:21 pm
LoL, yeah these are what spam buttons are for.
November 28, 2008 at 7:49 am
Is this one of those messages that gets ended up in the spam folder? I don’t like the tone of it.
November 28, 2008 at 8:41 am
Yea you’d really need to look into this company before actually advertising with them. You would hhope that they would be providing you a phone number to call them with, especially considering the size of the suggested monthly payment!!
December 17, 2008 at 12:53 pm
yup…lijit companies are always transparent……
December 1, 2008 at 12:32 am
Neither do I… Too impatient!
December 3, 2008 at 2:47 am
yeah, I totally agree.