Seems like just yesterday I was talking about how any day now I expected the FTC to start going after all the fake weight loss and grant “blogs”.
Well yesterday they had a press conference announcing investigations. Affiliate marketers will get a kick out of some of the questions and how retarded people like the clickz reporter is who doesn’t know what arbitrage is.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
More about Jeremy at http://www.shoemoney.com!
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August 4, 2009 at 4:08 pm
These people are such a pain in the ass!! Time to bring out the ‘natural treatment’!!!!
March 21, 2009 at 1:21 am
I got so sick of these I started a Free Grant Kit Scams blog about it.
To anyone who boo-hoos about the FTC ‘crackdown’ (right…): I don’t care if you’re making money with these programs, and how much you will not make after the FTC gets
a clueinto gear. If you affiliate these kind of things, you’re an @$$. Period.March 10, 2009 at 3:10 am
To the commenters who think this is regulating the the internet, you’re wrong. Most of these violations come under mail fraud. The federal government has traditionally always cracked down on this. You guys just got used to the Bush admin, where they turned the other cheek on all regulation. This is small potatoes. The scams that sunk our economy. That god the feds are finally enforcing the law.
March 8, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Well I guess I’m gonna have to do something else. Those were some quick ways to make some cash too.
March 8, 2009 at 1:49 am
I actually dont seem why to regulate, I prefer to keep internet as a unruled land. You just have to learn not ot fall into any scam, investigate before doing anything, thats all it needs.
March 7, 2009 at 6:27 am
Good things dont last long dont they. Anyways thanks for the heads up.
March 7, 2009 at 2:31 am
That lady from the ftc was absolutely clueless as to what a publisher is. As a matter of fact she had no idea how aff network-advertiser-affililate worked. She gave a non-answer when asked about if the site does display terms and conditions what happens, etc…
Some of you here might be happy they are going after this niche, but trust me if we allow the ftc to run the internet, it will only be a matter of time before they come after your niche.
March 7, 2009 at 12:02 am
I don’t know if I’m more concerned about the scammers or about the “stimulus” plan itself.
March 6, 2009 at 11:33 pm
So your expectation and thoughts was right. Nice to see that we got the early hints from your post Jeremy.
March 6, 2009 at 8:34 pm
It was a only a matter of time before they would go after the weight loss market.
March 6, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Look at 14:20 in the video.
funny stuff…
Not to mention, if you can’t read what you are agreeing to, buy everything with cash and get off the internet…
March 6, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Move the arrow in the middle of the video.
March 6, 2009 at 3:00 pm
About damn time… my $.02
March 6, 2009 at 1:53 pm
The ability to engage in coherent speech is in fashion now!
Have you ever heard Obama without a teleprompter? He is a master in incoherent dialect in speech.
March 6, 2009 at 7:48 am
End of all…
March 6, 2009 at 4:31 am
Shoe is great and long live the legend
March 6, 2009 at 4:31 am
I always believe that whatever happens …happens for good….
March 6, 2009 at 3:35 am
It would make things easier if there where less scam artists on the web. But I guess not with the bad economy even more people will try to make a quick $ that way.
March 5, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Thank god for this.
Finally those who scam others in their time of need will be put where they belong: in jail.
March 6, 2009 at 10:27 am
Ya your right. Its a great move
March 5, 2009 at 9:02 pm
I think its time to clean all the mess or… expect the worst black hat evolution.
March 5, 2009 at 8:07 pm
I agree that this is a problem, but the last thing we need is the FTC trying to regulate the internet. This is what will inevitably happen. They will at first, promote their cause as just. For example, they say people are getting scammed, ergo, let the government help fix it. They will then attempt to fix the problem, but will ultimately fail, just as they have with every other past and present attempts to fix something. Once their failed attempts are realized, they will not admit fault, they will instead insist that more government is needed, which means more regulation. In the end, the internet will be controlled, just as the boob tube, newspapers, and radio.
These activities are fraudulent anyway. We have laws against these types of acts. Anybody who is a victim can prosecute the proper party as criminals at any time. The last thing we need is bureaucrats controlling the internet. Believe me, this is detrimental to our 1st amendment rights and our civil liberties.
March 6, 2009 at 9:00 am
I don’t think this is the Gov trying to regulate the Internet. It is simply an entity protecting their own service offerings. Let’s say for example that you owned a non-profit that took charitable contributions and you disbursed the funds to wherever your organization saw fit. Would you be OK with people charging money for the same thing you are giving out to try to help people and capitalizing on your charitable efforts? Would you stop it if you could?
March 14, 2009 at 5:49 am
Adam, I agree with you 100%. The Federal government grew too big, too bureaucratic and way too willing to protect the “little guy” with the New Deal back in the 1930s. The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”
– Thomas Jefferson, letter to E. Carrington, May 27, 1788
March 5, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Hahaha, they applaud Facebook!
How about Facebook pay back the millions they made by running the ads. What a crock!
March 5, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Jeremy – Though the Clickz reporter keep rambling and doesn’t ask a coherent question, she does have the definition of arbitrage correct. Arbitrage does take place within ad networks, when inventory is filled by other ad networks, potentially at multiple levels. Arbitrage is not just PPC->Adsense/CPA/Anything else.
March 5, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Just time to find the next top niche
March 5, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Hm… Immoral? Yes. Illegal? I don’t think so.
As much as I don’t agree with shady marketing tactics, it kind of bugs me that the government has to look out for the stupid people. Do you REALLY think the government is just going to give someone a $25k check for nothing? I doubt it.
Just bothers me how they refer to the sites as scams when in fact they’re just extremely smart marketers taking advantage of the less intelligent…
March 6, 2009 at 9:29 am
First, yes stupid people are stupid for getting in this trap. Getting money from any “.com” sites should set off a “Danger Will Robinson” alert in your mind.
Second, the government does give away free money $25k or more, just look at the bank and car companies bail outs. Those are going to go to waste and everyone under 30 years old will have to pay it off as well as our children and our children’s children.
March 5, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Clickz couldn’t even ask a coherent questions much her background STOP TYPING on national TV. what a ditz
March 5, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I’m glad i hate these little fads every where you turn on the internet it’s grant offers. I hope this will help but i’m sure we will keep seeing them for months even with a crack down. People are raking in on these offers and i’m sure they won’t give up easily.
March 5, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Yea, and just like warez and other illegal stuff they will move it offshores.
March 5, 2009 at 4:56 pm
clean up time…. the party is over…at the end it will be a good thing…it will be ugly before… the good affiliates will still make money and the black hat non ethical are going to feel that hard…
March 5, 2009 at 4:09 pm
In the long run this is a good thing for affiliate marketing. And so is Google’s recent crackdown on some of the acai berry ads featuring Oprah and Rachel Ray. I hope they continue to crack down and I hope charges are filed against some of the bigger abusers. I also hope google takes action against websites who run exit chat scripts and some of that other garbage that affiliates are employing.
March 5, 2009 at 4:05 pm
The party always comes to an end.
March 5, 2009 at 3:59 pm
I knew it wouldn’t last much longer.
March 5, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Thank god it didn’t.
Giving affiliate marketers a bad name anyways.