A Review from Lies Uncovered

Note: This is a review from Lies Uncovered.

While searching Google last night for research on various “how to make money on the internet” type programs I came across a paid advertisement telling me how I could make $150 dollars per day guaranteed.
The website I was redirected to was called Affiliate Junktion (I recommend you don’t sign up! - but feel free to read what they have to say).
What we are led to believe
Affiliate Junktion allows you to join their affiliate program for free. When you join they will give you a free “professionally” designed website (worth $199) to promote their global affiliate network and within 30 days you will be “able” to earn $150 a day.
“When you join the Affiliate Junktion Program you can expect quality results, superior personal support and an ongoing income online through our performance-based program. We set a high industry standard for program quality and provide the most sophisticated tools. Affiliate Junktion operates the only truly global affiliate marketing program where you are guaranteed to earn money.”
Affiliate Junktion will pay you $2 - $5 for every lead you give them that signs up to join their affiliate program.
“Many of our affiliates are earning well over $15,000 per month, working only a few hours per week online, from where ever you connect to the internet.“
Once you sign up, and confirm your email, Affiliate Junktion congratulates you for joining their program. They also mention:
“Affiliate Junktion is the only affiliate network that will assist you to be able to earn a $150 per day or more within 30 days, or we’ll pay you $150 per day untill you a’re (sic) able to earn this amount or more with our program.”
What actually happens
This is where it gets a little bit suspicious (well apart from the cheap looking site and the numerous spelling mistakes). In order to receive your free website - designed to make you all this money - you have to have a domain name and hosting account.
But… unfortunately this miraculous website won’t work on any host - it only works on the IpowerPro Hosting Plan, and you have to use their affiliate link to sign up.
The hosting currently costs $59.40/year (was $7.95/month in November 2007) and the domain name costs $6.50. So you will have to spend $65.90US to participate. Once they receive your email with your hosting account details and they have confirmed that you used their affiliate link, they will upload your website and credit your account with $75 dollars to go towards your first payout.
Users are then instructed to use the $30 worth of adwords and $50 worth of Search Marketing from Yahoo! to advertise their affiliate website on “make money online” type search results pages. And if a user signs up for the affiliate program your account is credited with $2.
The logic being, refer 100 people to join, receive $200, etc, etc.
Problems with the system
Unfortunately most affiliates will never get paid. Simply because to qualify for your first commission payment, you must have earned at least $150 (which includes your $75 hosting credit) and have operated an active and approved account for a minimum of 45 days.
To get your needed 38 referals ((38 x 2 = 76) + 75 hosting credit= $151), your $80 dollars worth of advertising won’t necessarily work. Simply because the “get rich online” or “online home business” adwords are very competitive, and are not cheap if you want a high ranking. Also there will be increased competition from every other affiliate targeting the same phrases.
You will have to dip into your own wallet to purchase more adwords, or work very hard trying to promote more traffic to your affiliate website. Which is beyond the means of most affiliates.
The Beauty of the Scam
The people behind Affiliate Junktion have thought of an ingenious way to make money. I kind of have to give them credit for the way they have set up this illegal (in many countries) and highly unethical scam.
The way the scam works is for every IpowerPro Hosting Plan they sell, they get $100 US in commission from Ipower.
They would be getting a lot of commissions from the thousands of people who have signed up to promote the affiliate program. Who doesn’t want to spend $65 to earn $150 a day, particularly if it’s guaranteed.
The $75 hosting credit they give affiliates to cover the cost of hosting is actually in New Zealand dollars, at the moment $75 NZD equals $59 USD. So for each new affiliate AJ is netting at least $39 USD (100 - 59 - 2 (commission to the affiliate who signed up the affiliate) = $39).
Also when it does come time to payout those affiliates who have earned more than $150, they also pay them in New Zealand dollars. $150 NZD = $118 USD; that’s a profit of $32 dollars per payout.
As for the guarantee that you’ll earn $150 per day or they’ll pay you $150, it’s conveniently disappeared from the terms and conditions, or it’s because you haven’t followed the instructions step by step.
To summarize, let’s say Affiliate Junktion had 10,000 affiliates. A guestimate of 60% of these would never qualify for the first payout (6,000 x $100(Ipower commission) = $600,000), while 40% may actually refer enough people to get paid (4,000 x $32 = $128,000).
The thing that may be even more valuable is Affiliate Junktion now own a very valuable email list, full of people who are interested in making money online. They say in the privacy policy that they won’t sell it to anybody, but they also say “AffiliateJunktion.com reserves the right to change this policy at any time.”
There have been reports of some people making money, but like every pyramid scheme like venture, the majority of people won’t make any money, they’ll just lose it.
Affiliate Junktion is definitely not recommended by Lies Uncovered.
Links
Affiliate Junktion Review
Affiliate Junkion, scam or truth. A real test - day one.
Aftermath of an online ‘opportunity ‘ experiment (Affiliate Junktion, one month later).
Ipower
The only good thing to come out of researching Affiliate Junktion is that most of the affiliates who were caught out by the scam, are actually happy with the service and reliability they have received from the host, Ipower.
If you’re in the market for a new host, consider using Ipower. If you sign up for a yearly hosting plan using this link, you’ll be helping out Lies Uncovered by giving them the commission.
Alternatively, $100 is a big commission, so if you have a hosting style website or blog, I recommend you sign up as an affiliate of Ipower.