What do I mean by “Red Flags“? Red flags are those tell-tale signs that tip you off to something being a-miss about a home based business opportunity or work at home opportunity. It’s those things that hit you in the gut that make you feel uncomfortable.
Some see the Red Flags quickly, but others get so caught up in the Hype, they prefer
to ignore the red flags or don’t even catch them.
I believe it’s far easier to spot the Red Flags in Affiliate Programs than it is in a home based business opportunity. (And yes, there is a difference in Internet Affiliate Marketing and Network Marketing businesses.) In an Network Marketing opportunity, you usually have to comb through the Policies and Procedures, Business Partner Agreements and other legal, binding contracts to find them.
Affiliate programs, for the most part, usually only have a Terms Of Service as far as legal contracts go. Unfortunately not many people even read them until it’s too late.
What I’ll list here are the most common Red Flags. No matter HOW GOOD the program sounds, you’re headed for disaster in the long run if you ignore the flags….
A company claims because they are Internet Based rules of licensing and registering do not apply.
They use free webhosting sites like freewebs, live. Or their email address to contact is a free email account like yahoo, google, hotmail, gmail, etc.
They say the ‘special’ is only good for TODAY, “Limited Time Only”, or for the next 5-10-15– 100 people who join.
The program promotes itself as something that was previously only offered to the ‘elite’
The contact person only gives their first name or worse NO NAME.
The company provides no form of contact other than email… ie… no phone number, no physical address
The website has proof of payment screen shots (it’s illegal to make income claims and is called “Enticement”. If you look, on some sites, those proof of payment screen shots will have old, old dates on them, as with proof of payment checks.
There is NO Terms of Service posted on the site.
Check the Terms of Service to see where disputes are handled. If any dispute resolution is out of Country, off shore, etc… you could be in BIG trouble.
The Terms of Service states that the program can be cancelled at any time without notice.
There is a “NO refund policy”.
AlertPay, Safepay accounts are the only method for paying and receiving commissions. (Pay Pal has really cracked down over the years and does not like home based income opportunities…. too many disputes. If the program at least offers credit card as a form of payment, in some cases you can get the charges reversed should you find yourself in a scam.)
The offer sounds too good to be true, make $1000 a day, earn $10,000 in 2 weeks, only takes 15 minutes a day, etc…
Payment goes to an individual and not a company.
Last for this list – but not least….. Names of new members scrolling across the screen? Legitimate companies just don’t do that. Also, check out the names… are they real names or things like “Queen Bee”, “MoneyMaker”, “Big Daddy”, “IWannaMakeMore” … etc…. real companies expect REAL people to join and use their REAL NAMES.
As I said at the beginning, these are the EASY to SPOT red flags.
~Jennifer Fisher
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