I know I’ve warned you against rebate processing in the past, but I got another piece of spam telling me I could make $390 a day from home. The offer took me to a site that said:

Positions Available: Companies like Home-Depot, Blockbuster, Amazon.Com, and thousands more, need your help…

Get Affiliated Immediately And You Can Begin Making $390 A Day From The Comfort Of Your Home

You must be willing to work at least one hour per day and you must have a computer with internet access!

You don’t need any experience, special skills, or education. All training will be provided. And you can receive your first payment in as soon as 15-days!

Limited number of positions, check availability below…

I love how it says “get affiliated” because that’s basically what these programs do. You don’t process rebates, you promote other companies and get affiliate income. Most these programs indicate you have type or do data entry which translates into using a program like AdWords. And getting paid in 15 days? That indicates to me that the program will teach you to use ClickBank which pays its affiliates every two weeks.

If affiliate marketing is a legitiamte opportunity then why do I say this is a scam? I don’t like rebate processing offers because they use deception to make you think you’ll have a job process rebates. Further they make it sound as if all you do is type a little bit for an hour a day and reap in the big bucks. It just doesn’t work like that. In fact, done incorrectly, you can lose a great deal of money especially if you use a program like AdWords to promote your affiliate links.

If you want to do affiliate marketing, pick up Rosalind Gardner’s or Ewen Chia’s books or materials. They are reliable esources that provide you with the real deal and step-by-step help to make a living in affiliate marketing.

Google Adsense is one of the monetization options I use on my websites and blogs. While I can’t know every ad that is run all the time on all pages, I do periodically scan them to weed out any scams. A recent banner that was running peaked my interest. It was a site that was set up to look like a blog, but was in fact a landing page promoting two affiliate products; one about making money from Craigslist and another from Google. Because it is possible to make money from both these resources, I wasn’t immediately concerned about the site. But as I looked at the site, I noticed that it had a pictures of television personalities presumably discussing these money making options.

The first picture is of Oprah and a “Dr. Stern” who is supposedly saying, “”There is more work from home opportunities on Craigslist than all job sites combined … ” I’m not sure of the truth of that, but that’s not what bothered me about the photo. What bothered me is that I’m pretty sure the picture includes Dr. Oz not Dr. Stern. And why would either of them be discussing money making options with medical gloves on? While this appears to be taken from a show, there is no actual video to verify what is being said. But the picture, to me, is a fake. What do you think?

Screen Capture of Site using Oprah and Dr. "Stern" Likeness

Below it is another picture of a CBS News Team. Because the Oprah picture is questionable, I have to assume this one is too. Especially since there is no video or audio.

The result is that I put this site on the blocked list on my Google Adsense account. While I have no reason to think the products themselves are bad, I can’t in good conscience let it run using deceptive (and illegal) representations.

Unfortunately, I can’t catch every scam or questionable program, so I’m hoping that by sharing this, you’ll learn to evaluate programs on your own. Testimonials and third-party recommendations can be helpful, but only if they are real. Don’t assume that any organization or celebrity has endorsed the program just because its on the site. Instead, check it out! Go to the source and ask. Do some research to verify that what the site is saying is true. Any site that has to use decpetion to promote its product, even if the product is really good, should be avoided.