I've Tried That - We lose money so you don't have to!

This is the second post in our series, “Who Watches the Watchdogs?” Many sites claim to review work-at-home-job offers. They claim they’ve thoroughly researched all the jobs out there, 90% of which are scams, but they know the secret formula and will show you the 10% that are proven money makers! Sound familiar? Yeah, you’ve seen them.

In the first post, we warned you about sitereviewauthority.org. In this one, we sign up for and give you the goods on top10workathomejobsof2008.com, possibly the longest bleedin’ url in the history of telecommuting. For that reason, it’s hereafter called top10.

The First Red Flags
When you visit the site, you’ll spot some of the warning signs we’ve harped on for the past year: shiny happy people from stock photography and buzzwords such as “financial freedom” and “live the life you deserve.”

And the page is a little too corporate to feel real, you know? I mean, it’s a good looking site! Nothing wrong with that, of course, but in Internet job hunting as in love, good looks are often used to hide a morass of nothingness.

But what the heck—we decided to give them a chance. After all, it’s free. I put in my name and email address and waited for Nirvana.

After Signing Up
The “welcome” screen after I signed up was very polite and told me to check my in box for the work at home opportunities I’d been promised. It also gave me a banner to click on to see the top researched opportunity. I clicked the banner and was led to…wait for it…a paid surveys site!

We’ve checked out survey sites and have only seen a couple that we like. The others lead to long lists of affiliate links and other work at home “programs,” and we’ve found them to be a waste of time. So I’m not willing to go down that road again. If top10 wants to impress me, they’re going to have to do much better than that.

The Welcome eMail
And just like the site said would happen, I received an email containing the good job information I requested.

The email was polite and well written, which is itself refreshing (sadly enough). It gave the predictable spiel…we’ve researched thousands of jobs…only found a few that are legitimate…etc. Then it described the #1 opportunity of 2008: Freelance Home Writers!

Wait a minute, I thought. The welcome page said paid surveys was the top opportunity? Oh well. It must just be a mistake.

Here is how the email describes Freelance Home Writers before giving me an affiliate link to realconsumersolutions.com:

This work at home job requires you to enter data on your keyboard in exchange for pay checks… We labeled this our #1 home job of 2008 because of ease of start-up.. All you need is a computer and internet connection and you can start typing at home for dollars today…

Uh-oh! I’ve been a freelance home writer, and believe me when I tell you: that ain’t it. This sounds an awful lot like the data entry “jobs” and rebate processor “jobs” we’ve trashed. But since I like to be sure, I clicked on the link to check it out. I signed up at freelancehomewriters.com and was promoted to step 2 of the process.

The description of the freelance work I’d be doing was kind of new, but still sounded a lot like affiliate marketing, not a job for which I would get a paycheck. In fact, if, every time the site said “write an article,” you substituted “process a rebate,” they’d be almost identical! I went to the next step and that’s where I stopped. They wanted 2.95 (before the bonus timer runs out!), which was a slash in price from $69. All of these are hallmarks of misleading sites. And even though it’s only $3, it’s $3 I don’t feel like giving to someone who’s not telling me the whole truth.

I’ve Seen Enough
The fact that top10workathomejobsof2008.com promotes Freelance Home Writers, which sure smells like “data entry” in new clothes, is enough to convince me that you can’t trust top10 to give you objective reviews. They’re posing as reviewers, but their real objective is to sell you the programs they review for which they receive affiliate commissions.

I have nothing against affiliate sales. In fact, I’m a big fan! But, darn it, tell the whole truth, not just select parts of it.

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