Season 6 of the ShoeMoney Radio Show on webmaster radio kicked off last week.
With all the recent hubub about Oprah and dr Oz and others suing the companies I wanted to get the low down from a insider.
I asked Mark Olsen of Acai Soda to come on the show to talk about the issues. Mark has many years in the space and shed a lot of light on who and what is in trouble.
Mark also really opened my eyes to how huge of an issue fraud is for the continuity people as a whole.
To listen to the show click the play button below or you can also download the show here.
[podcast]http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/mp3/shoemoneyshow/09/SHOE082709.mp3[/podcast]
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2416 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
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.
Images provided by ShutterStock
Things Internet Marketers Can Learn From The Pickup Artist 
My Basic 3 Pronged Approach To Website Analytics 
Are You a Conference Speaker Douchebag? 
{ 57 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice, good topic, good discussion. For some reason you dont do the radio or discussions anymore though, been a while since the last one.
rebills are lame.
with netflix you know what your getting when you sign up
with rebills you pay for one thing and get another.
fraud is when you promise one thing and deliver another, that’s what most of these rebills are doing.
I agree with you, most rebills deliver a totally different product, or most of it are fakes or dup product
good interview, very informative…
Inevitable backlash was inevitable.
The acai berry thing is a passing fad.
Thanks for the share Jeremy. Rebills are evil!
I agree, SEO as an industry is in deep shit.
Alternatives:
1) Create good publications and stay involved in your community. You will do WAY better naturally.
2) Performance marketing/paid lead services are the other way to go.
But most people are cheap AND lazy. No one is going to do it for you people.
Industry in deep shit cause of few guys who are trying to dominate SEO stuff…lol
Another form of fraud that is HUGE with rebills are pre-paid credit cards. These fraudsters will go out and buy a bunch of visa gift cards for the amount of the free trial($5.95), then collect the $40 CPA and when it comes time for the rebill, guess what. the card declines.
It was a nice show this week. Thanks Greg Ellison
Acai Berry supplements are definitely not the first or last fitness scam. Gotta be extremely skeptical and careful in what you buy.
Mark defended SEO.com and SEO in general because apparently he works for SEO.com. Did he disclose this?
Check out his Linkedin profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markolsenseo
Good interview. I would love to see Acai Soda on one of the big networks like Pepperjam.
Great, now I just need to know – when is the next Q&A?
I’m actually happy that all those flogs (fake blogs) are banned. What do they expect, when they are actually promoting products that ripped off the customers (through continuity program that the customers never realized)?
Yes i agree with you saying andi.
crazy stuff going on in the Acai space.. To bad people are bound to mess up the rebill space with shady stuff..
I enjoyed this episode. I got it via the podcast feed last Thursday. Good to subscribe.
Great post and great information since Oprah and Dr Oz are suing the Acai Companies.
Nice, good to hear someone elses point of view on this. I don’t think rebills are necessarily bad, but a lot of these Acai companies are doing some dodgy stuff.
Sean
I’m going to listen to it tomorrow on my way to class and back. Sounds very interesting. Thanks!
Well I guess it was a good idea of mine to dedicate a section of my blog to scams exclusively http://www.money-era.com/category/scams/
That is good to hear. Fraud hurts anyone trying to make an honest buck.
Very interesting podcast Shoe
Whats the use? Its not gonna last long, and the seller wont build any credibility either.
hey, you got featured on failblog
http://failblog.org/2009/09/01/photoshop-fail/
lol
damn awesome wondered where the big spike in traffic was!
You got sense of humour … really
Good One Shoe!
Good post Shoe. One of the reasons I never got into the Acai Market
Although I never really did more than buy a good domain for Acai Berry aff marketing, I am glad I decided to focus my attentions elsewhere. Having said this, I do own eacaiberry.com and it is up for sale on SEDO if anybody wants a great domain.
Nice interview. Lets hope the rebill offers get their suff together. They can have a piece of the market as long as they follow some simple rules.
Thanks for the great information. Waiting for the next podcast, Shoe
There are reasonable ways to do rebills–and then there are other ways.
Regardless of whose responsibility it is to make sure that the customer reads the ToS, it’s a 100% sure thing that these kinds of offers are not bringing affiliate marketers the best kind of publicity.
Its still the buyer responsibility to check every detail before making a purchase.
That means government should allow drugs to sold at public place and this is the buyer responsibility to buy it or not …
Amazing dude …
So…the acai berry pr turned into something of a dingleberry ?
Good point of view, open my perspective about acai berry now, thank You for sharing
Isn’t acai just a glorified blueberry? Companies that promote it as a wondercure deserve to be sued.
I think the biggest problem (and reason that some affiliates are successful) is that they make claims that can’t be substantiated, and desperate people are willing to try it to lose weight, improve health, or cure a serious disease.
Very interesting interview. I have never really understood this acai berry scam. But I got a different perspective from listening to this recording.
Very cool interview.
I agree with you Jeremy, there’s so much “victimhood” out there. Where’s the personal responsibility for the decisions people make day to day? If people expect the government to protect them from their own decisions, that’s the beginning of communism.
However, having said that, some of the shady tactics that have been used by affiliates lately to promote Acai are blatant lies. You can’t create a website where you claim to BE Dr. Oz, and then say that you endorse a specific brand of Acai Pill and that it CURES and expect to get away with it.
I’ve seen that out there.
It’s crap like that which gets the whole industry slapped and even just having a logo that says “As Seen on Oprah” gets you into trouble when in fact the product may have been seen on Oprah.
Anyway, I think it’s good that advertisers are coming out with “Legit” versions of the Acai Berry offers, and with products that actually contain what they say is in the pill.
I liked this interview.
Ya Paul that is right my friend. I totally agree with your saying
People are making huge money through this and thats why other people are also getting into this market.
You raise the finger and I think this will help to some extent that’s why Squidoo also stopped showing this kind of lens.
Jeremy:
Great interview. Any chance I can download this interview and post it on my site? This is some good info for my visitors.
Thanks,
Travis
This theme definitely brought me thousands of USD in link sales.
If you make false claims, whether it’s on TV, on a billboard, in a newspaper ad, or over the internet, ESPECIALLY when it comes to a health related product, there’s going to be hell to pay eventually. Some of these people even claim that some of this stuff will make you immortal – gimme a break. It’s just juice from a plant and it’s not going to cure your cancer or the common cold.
When I was at costco the other day I noticed for the first time that there is a shitload of acai berry products. I guess the times where you can make money from acai online are definitely over.
This is a big deal as many are getting scammed. I have setup an acai review site at acaihub.com for the very purpose of letting users rate and review acai products.
Even though its been out a while, I’m just getting around to find out what all the hub-bub is about. Like any other health claim, there are things to be cautious about. It’s a shame about the re-bills. Glad something is being done about it. Maybe others won’t get caught up in it.
very good video
i’m very love your blog shoe, full of interesting content
There are far too many acai berry scams.
My favorite drink at Robek’s used to be the Acai Smoothie.
It’s disheartening to see these fads come and go with so much support behind them. After reading “in defense of food” I suspect its all a way to ensure food industry meets its bottom line requirements.
Good interview Shoe, having great and useful information about Acai scam. I was willing to know more about Acai Berry scam.
After looking at acaisoda.com I would never buy anything from these people. The site says “Discover the secret that TOP celebrities & professional athletes already know” below photos of B-list celebrities and a few athletes who obviously posed with a free sample at some unrelated event and had probably never heard of it until a few minutes before the picture was taken. What is a “top” celebrity? And why should anyone care what their opinion is about a health drink? Then the free trial link goes not to a free trial, but a $60 box. And each little 2-4 oz drink costs $2. LOL. And then there are all the dubious health claims made on the site. These people are not fooling people into a continuity ripoff, but they are still making claims that they cannot deliver. Funny to bring an acai berry scammer on a show about acai berry scams.
I like this site. Do you guys have a twitter I could follow to make it easier to follow your updates? I’m not so good with this internet stuff. Thanks!
My favorite drink at Robek’s used to be the Acai Smoothie.
It’s disheartening to see these fads come and go with so much support behind them. After reading “in defense of food” I suspect its all a way to ensure food industry meets its bottom line requirements.