As sort of a postscript to yesterday's story about iGameTester and iVideoTester, you really don't need to do what I did to find out whether the site is worthwhile, which is to purchase the stupid thing with a grimace and a deep feeling of being hopelessly screwed.
These are information for money sites, and there are three basic steps you can follow to make sure you aren't taken in by a scam and still get the information you are looking for.
1) Never join an information for money site.
2) Research via search engines or scam sites to find out other people's experiences.
3) Find the advertised information yourself for free.
1) Never join an information for money site.
This is the most important of the three steps. Just don't join them. They are all, with no exceptions that I've found, some degree of scam, and you actually can get the information on your own.
These sites prey on the notion that you are unhappy with your job/income/life and make promises that simply won't materialize. If you were unhappy before you signed up, you will be very unhappy after realizing that the yellow brick road you just helped to pave leads to nowhere.
This is not to say that the fields of dreams are all overgrown with briars. Take game testing and domain flipping, for instance; both of these are legitimate money-making opportunities. The problem is that very few people can actually make money this way, but lots of people can lose money trying to find out the "secrets" to success.
2) Research via search engines or scam sites to find out other people's experiences.
Simply put the name of the site into your Google search bar and start reading. It is sometimes helpful to add words like "scam" to your search. But there is a big WARNING that comes with this advice.
Scammers have found that it is helpful to flood the Internet with positive reviews of their sites or even partly negative reviews. Worse, some of these scams, like the Autopilot Profits program, actually create thousands of little scammers trying to sell the program. If you ever wondered what the Autopilot Profits program entailed, all you have to do is type "Autopilot Profit" into search engines and start looking. At first you might be confused. All you are seeing are sites that give glowing and vague reviews about the system and encourage you to buy it. In fact, on Yahoo there are over 3 million such sites while Google lists about 1.5 million. Then it hits you.
The system is about selling the system.
I haven't, and won't, purchase Autopilot Profits because now I know exactly what it is. It's a system for selling Autopilot Profits.
And then consider the site, ihatescammer.com. It is a site that does nothing but direct you to scams under the guise of being a consumer protection site. But even here a careful reader can often find information that is helpful. In their ad, and all their articles are ads, for game testing, they declare (somewhat buried) that a great game tester program to join would be one that listed at least fifty companies you could apply to. At the end of the exceedingly long article, they give you a link to their recommended company. Without spending a dollar, I can tell you that what you are going to get when you sign up is a list of 50 game companies. This list will include such obscure names as Microsoft and Electronic Arts.
This brings me to suggestion number 3:
3) Find the advertised information yourself for free.
Once you research and realize that game testing sites are all giving you links to places like Microsoft, you can just go directly to Microsoft. You don't have to pay someone $35 for a link to Microsoft, do you? If you are a huge fan of games and really want to be a game tester, look on the boxes of all your games and go to the developers' web sites. You've just saved yourself some money, and, who knows, maybe even found yourself a dream job.
And in the case of Autopilot Profits, why sell someone else's garbage? I mean, if you really want to be a scammer, just set up your own scam. There's a lot more money in being the primary scammer than in being the scammer enabler.
These are information for money sites, and there are three basic steps you can follow to make sure you aren't taken in by a scam and still get the information you are looking for.
1) Never join an information for money site.
2) Research via search engines or scam sites to find out other people's experiences.
3) Find the advertised information yourself for free.
1) Never join an information for money site.
This is the most important of the three steps. Just don't join them. They are all, with no exceptions that I've found, some degree of scam, and you actually can get the information on your own.
These sites prey on the notion that you are unhappy with your job/income/life and make promises that simply won't materialize. If you were unhappy before you signed up, you will be very unhappy after realizing that the yellow brick road you just helped to pave leads to nowhere.
This is not to say that the fields of dreams are all overgrown with briars. Take game testing and domain flipping, for instance; both of these are legitimate money-making opportunities. The problem is that very few people can actually make money this way, but lots of people can lose money trying to find out the "secrets" to success.
2) Research via search engines or scam sites to find out other people's experiences.
Simply put the name of the site into your Google search bar and start reading. It is sometimes helpful to add words like "scam" to your search. But there is a big WARNING that comes with this advice.
Scammers have found that it is helpful to flood the Internet with positive reviews of their sites or even partly negative reviews. Worse, some of these scams, like the Autopilot Profits program, actually create thousands of little scammers trying to sell the program. If you ever wondered what the Autopilot Profits program entailed, all you have to do is type "Autopilot Profit" into search engines and start looking. At first you might be confused. All you are seeing are sites that give glowing and vague reviews about the system and encourage you to buy it. In fact, on Yahoo there are over 3 million such sites while Google lists about 1.5 million. Then it hits you.
The system is about selling the system.
I haven't, and won't, purchase Autopilot Profits because now I know exactly what it is. It's a system for selling Autopilot Profits.
And then consider the site, ihatescammer.com. It is a site that does nothing but direct you to scams under the guise of being a consumer protection site. But even here a careful reader can often find information that is helpful. In their ad, and all their articles are ads, for game testing, they declare (somewhat buried) that a great game tester program to join would be one that listed at least fifty companies you could apply to. At the end of the exceedingly long article, they give you a link to their recommended company. Without spending a dollar, I can tell you that what you are going to get when you sign up is a list of 50 game companies. This list will include such obscure names as Microsoft and Electronic Arts.
This brings me to suggestion number 3:
3) Find the advertised information yourself for free.
Once you research and realize that game testing sites are all giving you links to places like Microsoft, you can just go directly to Microsoft. You don't have to pay someone $35 for a link to Microsoft, do you? If you are a huge fan of games and really want to be a game tester, look on the boxes of all your games and go to the developers' web sites. You've just saved yourself some money, and, who knows, maybe even found yourself a dream job.
And in the case of Autopilot Profits, why sell someone else's garbage? I mean, if you really want to be a scammer, just set up your own scam. There's a lot more money in being the primary scammer than in being the scammer enabler.
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