Paul uses the same exact sales tactics used by the scammy sales pages, but just exaggerates the numbers a bit. The result? A hilarious parody not too far from what we’ve actually seen in the past. It’s a perfect mockery from the names used, to the fake comments, to the ridiculous fine print.

Here’s a sample.

In March I finally found the only legitimate, scam-free way to work from home. I signed up and made Ten Million Dollars my first week! Needless to say both my wife and I were in total shock. Three weeks later I was making $42,893,622.51 or more EVERY SINGLE WEEK. We were totally blown away, this was more money than I made doing paid surveys!

The humor doesn’t stop there, of course. The fine print is filled with plenty of quality information, including.

Some individuals purchasing the program may make little or NO MONEY AT ALL…well, probably nobody will make any money, but someone might so we don’t want to completely crush your hopes and dreams. … In the event you do not cancel within your alloted number of trial days, you will be automatically enrolled in our convenient home delivery plan and your credit card will be charged $2,972.34. Thereafter, 30 days from your initial order, you will be billed the monthly charge of $5,241.22 each month. … You are entitled to a refund of one month if you contact us within 2 days of the original trial order date and you have not logged onto your computer or visited any website on the internet from any internet access point at all (this includes free wifi spots and paid hotspots).

Do yourself a favor and spend time looking over the $10 Billion Dollar Sales Page and then spend some time over at Paul’s http://www.workathometruth.com. It will definitely be worth your while.

Work from Home! says the text at workfromhome.com. Build a rock solid income around your schedule.

The page is simple and looks good. It features a three-minute intro video and a lead-capture form where you can put in your information. It promotes a simple business you can do from home. All you have to do is follow the steps. Step by step by step, like the video narrator did, leads you to the lifestyle you want.

They’re looking for people who will listen, people who will learn, and people who will work.

I can tell without doing any further research that it’s some kind of MLM (multi-level marketing) business. How do I know? The big benefits sign lists all the catch phrases that MLM pitches always use:

• Build a profitable business from home
• Live your dream life
• Be your own boss
• Step by step instruction by a successful coach
• Growing industry

They all say at least those things. It must be required, or something. The association of MLM pitch writers must have gotten together and market-tested some key phrases and come up with these.

It’s an Herbalife Introduction

Herbalife might be a great company and maybe there are successful people doing it. My complaint is that MLM companies don’t tell you up front what you’re about to listen to. I know because I was in the granddaddy of them all, Amway. We were trained NOT to tell people what we were talking about until the very end. We were taught to evade the question. We were taught to lie because if we answered “yes” to the question, “Is it Amway?” we would be letting the prospect believe something that wasn’t true.

Amazing twists of logic, eh?

So I’m not going to spend the 30 minutes or more it would require to wade through all the material after submitting my name and contact info, only to find out it’s Herbalife, an MLM I already know I have no interest in.

Flame away.

Here’s how iJango says it works:

After you pay those fees, you get your own iJango Web site. Anyone who comes to the Internet through your iJango site helps you earn money.

When they buy a song from iTunes, as long as they get to iTunes through your site, iJango says you get a cut.

“This is where I get excited because you get paid anytime that people you know search, e-mail, shop, blog, read the news,” said Sharpe.

iJango claims it’s partnered with hundreds of retailers to kick a commission back to you.

The only problem?

“A lot of these affiliations that iJango is claiming, we were really unable to identify,” said Dufner.

Sharpe says the company has partnered with Google, Rhapsody and iTunes to name a few.

But Google told the BBB, “We are not affiliated with that company. Our trademark team is looking into this issue.”

A Rhapsody spokesperson said it was “not affiliated with iJango.”

And iTunes wrote, “There is no business called iJango in our affiliate program.”

There is another way to make money with iJango.

Local 2 Investigates has learned many of the customers have already been paid, not for commissions, but for recruiting others to join and pay the $149 down payment.

That is what caused the Austin BBB to utter the “P” word.

“A pyramid scheme is certainly illegal if people are just getting paid based on the recruitment of others, and there’s really no exchange of a product,” Dufner said.

iJango’s web portal wasn’t even working until Aug. 5. It was impossible for anyone to make money from commissions or by clicking on links and ads, but people were paid weeks before.

We’ve learned the state attorney general’s office is looking into iJango as well, asking its own questions.

Be sure to read the rest of the news article by clicking here.
There is also a video of the news report here.

Don’t get sucked into iJango.

I attended the Las Vegas Launch Party at the Encore. I was approached by Mr. Sharp. Very nice guy, but he was very thin, and seemed to be wiping his nose a lot, and his eyes were a little out of whack.

Now on to the presentation. Steve Smith opened the event by telling you that they have the best legal staff on the planet, I think he said they now have over 4 lawyers on staff. (That should scare anyone, why would you need so many lawyers) Steve went on to say that now, his son, with no real experience, is now the CEO of the company. (That makes you feel so safe in this investment).

Mr. Sharp took the stage crying, telling everyone that he was so proud that so many people who could not afford this trip to Vegas, came. It was very moving. He introduced the guy behind the software which is IJango. Me told everyone that he with 3 other programmers have made an amazing product. (Wow they have more lawyers then they have programmers for a software company. I wonder if Google has 15,000 lawyers)

They then jump into showing you iJango. It is clearly iGoogle, but now it is green and has iJango at the top. No other changes, but now they have removed the Google, Yahoo and other names from the top. They want to show everyone how you make money, so they go to Hulu, and want to show you a movie. The movie begins to play and it opens with a commercial. The commercial is Vaseline. I thought Mr. Sharp was going to fall off the stage. Wow, how right on was that presentation. It was clear that was not the commercial they wanted everyone to see. (But if you are going to get screwed, you better have some around), then the clip that was shown of the movie was about a drug addict. Again, wow.

But, not the kicker, I wanted to know how this thing was going to make money. And very quickly, and lines written by the attorneys, Mr. Sharp stated, “if you direct everyone to your iJango personnel page, and they then click on Hulu, then BAM you make money” You will all be making money by every click.

He said it so fast, then focused everyone on the making money part, that no really heard what he said. People have to go to your personnel iJango page. NO ONE WILL EVER DO THIS, NO ONE. You are kidding yourself to think that people will want to see your personnel iJango page, and then use it to go to sites that you want them to go to.

I looked around the room, and wanted to stand up and scream, run people run, don’t drink the kool-aid, but it was clear that everyone was wrapped up in the hype, that they were not thinking. It was very sad.

There is a chance that the iJango website will be a moderately successful Affiliate website and that the company may make some money on the internet portion of their business model, but the overwhelming evidence is that they will generate almost all of their revenues from people paying the $390 a year for the privilege of being a distributor. If they can get a couple hundred thousand people to use iJango as their home page and then get people to use these pages as there home pages (very unlikely) and then get a portion of them to purchase from sponsored links, they may make a little money on this activity, but it will pale in comparison to the money iJango receives from people signing up for $150 and then paying $20 per month.

For those of you signing up to be a distributor, just know that the money you will be making will be from convincing others to pay $169 to sign up, not from future commissions on internet usage. If you are comfortable with that, then you can probably earn some money with iJango by convincing others to part with with $390 per year.

PLEASE DO NOT DRINK THE KOOL-AID

Another year. Another hype.

That’s a pretty big claim, even for your Googles, your Yahoos! and your Ivetriedthats.

But coming from a company that hasn’t even officially launched yet, it’s, well, laughable. Kind of like the chihuahua with an attitude that screeches and yaps at the big dogs on the other side of the fence. “Yip! Yip! Yip! Come on over here and see if I don’t tear your ugly heads off your mangy shoulders! Arf! Arf! Arf!”

(True tangent: My in-laws used to have a hihuahua-Pomeranian mix. Mitzi. One day during dinner we heard her start to squeal in the back yard. We rushed out, sure that she was being dismembered by the little brat who lived next door. But there was Mitzi, screaming bloody murder, pinned to the ground by (I kid you not)…a rabbit.)

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against marketing slogans or tag lines. “We lose money so you don’t have to” ring any bells? But your marketing slogan should have some footing in the reality-based world.

Is IJango.com a Scam?

It’s too early to tell. And honestly, I don’t think so. But here’s what we now know that it is: A network marketing company (yes, an MLM) that claims that you can earn money just by doing what you always do online and recruiting other people to do the same.

When you become an “Independent Representative,” you are set up with an iJango “portal,” which is kind of like a home page for all your online activity. Your shopping, searches, social networking, and everything else is done within the iJango portal.

iJango gets paid a commission for all your purchases and traffic and then pays you and your downline (ah, how I hate that term) a percentage.

That’s it in a nutshell. I won’t go into the compensation plan, which I have read twice and still don’t understand. I do understand this, though: To get started with your magical portal to Nirvana, you will have to pay a refundable $50 “application fee.” But if you really want to get serious about your ijango business, you’ll have to pay $149 to become a “Director,” and $19.95 per month thereafter for your “back office maintenance fee.”

The intro video uses all the MLM industry buzzwords, including these perennial favorites:

• “Work for yourself but not by yourself!”
• “Our success depends on your success!”
• “Building wealth depends on being in the right place, at the right time, with the right opportunity!”
• [An interchangeable schlocky quote, dubiously attributed to Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, or other rich dude.]

I’m Not Impressed Yet

Nothing here looks new. We’ve seen the model where you supposedly get paid for doing what you were going to do anyway (Amway, My Power Mall). And we’ve seen the promotional videos of people who are “so excited to get started” and who say “it’s a no brainer.”

But nothing in the promo materials tells me that it will work. Here’s why, and all MLMs I’ve ever seen have the same weakness:

People that you recruit to be in your downline will be all jazzed and will say things like “no brainer” and “I’m so excited” to perfectly nice friends and family. They will change their habits for a time.

But people who are not in the MLM won’t change their habits just so you can become rich.

From what I understand, you have to recruit 20 customers who are not Independent Representatives. That means you have to convince 20 people to use your iJango portal as the gateway for everything they do online. But why would they? What’s in it for them other than a customizable home page, which they can get many other ways? They might tell you they’ll do it, but they won’t.

Maybe your mother will do it to help you out, but don’t count on it. Not if your mother is as technically inept as mine.

Bottom line, I don’t think Cameron Sharp or Steve Smith (from Excel Communications) are trying to rip you off. But I do think they’ll make plenty of money from people who sign up, even if those who sign up never make a dime.

Want to Make Money from iJango?

Then, here. I’ll give you a free business idea. Pay a licensing fee to Cameron Sharp so that you can print up t-shirts and coffee mugs with clever slogans on them and sell them at iJango conventions to iJango reps with permasmiles are so excited. I’ll give you some for free to get you started:
Do you jango?
Who needs coffee? Ijango.
You can’t handle the jango!
I jangoed all night with a hot chick in Belize
If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the jango.
iJango. It’s like Amway but with clicks.
iJango. Not a single vampire.

The $30,000 Google Adwords Mistake

Earlier this week, a user by the name of medlounge posted the following question to Google’s help forum.

Dear Google Billing Dept.

I am very new to this google adsense and posting ads. Last night I wanted to do a “TEST RUN ONLY” for Google to monitor before I could run any ad for my blogger.com. This morning 04/27/2009 I see a cost bill of almost $30,000.00? Oh my GOD, how could this happen? PLEASE HELP! This is a mistake! Please fix this problem and remove this cost of almost $30,000.00 from my account. I don’t have that kind of money. I’m a single mom and I’m not even working. Please help. I look forward to your response to my request.

This poor lady spent almost $30,000 in one night! I don’t even know how that’s possible. Of course the validity of the post has to be questioned. I would think Google would prevent a new, inexperienced user from being able to spend that much money in such a short amount of time. She also seems to be holding back quite a bit of information.

Okay okay, supposing the above story is real, do you think Google should refund this poor single mom her costs? On one hand, this opens the door to a lot of “I didn’t know what I was doing!” type of excuses if they let her go. On the other, the people behind Google will look like jerks taking money from a single mother in this economy. What do you think should be done?

The overall point I’m trying to make is that you really need to be careful with pay-per-click advertising. If you don’t know what you’re doing and you don’t properly setup limits, you might see staggering, jaw-dropping bills with little or no return on your investment. These things take a lot time to learn. Be sure you fully understand what you might be getting yourself into.

The following is a collection of websites that I like to read frequently. They contain a lot of user reviews, and best of all: no bullshit. You’ll get all of the facts and none of the upsell. Be sure to add them to the list of websites you follow. Doing so could save you plenty of time and money in the future.

Ripoff Report
http://www.ripoffreport.com
Ripoff Report is a community effort to expose scammers worldwide. Nearly all of the content found here is created by consumers. Reporting is completely anonymous and consumers are able to file complaints and identify individuals and business who are in the market to scam others. The only drawback here is that while Ripoff Report urges it’s users to remain as open and honest as possible, the fact remains that submissions are anonymous and may not always be 100% factual. This is a great place to start your background research, but be sure to look elsewhere as well.

Work at Home No Scams
http://www.workathomenoscams.com
Work at Home No Scams is probably one of the best scam-fighting websites out there run by a single individual. The blog is maintained by Eddy and his goal is to provide you with a s much information on a particular work at home scam as possible. He does a great job with providing background information and he is one of the few work at home experts I trust personally. Eddy wants to protect his readers, not sell them something, which is an admirable quality that you don’t see very often on the Internet. Definitely bookmark his website.

Work at Home Truth
http://www.workathometruth.com/blog/
Work at Home Truth is similar to I’ve Tried That and Work at Home No Scams, but it has an even more direct approach. Paul updates his blog fairly often with quality information and often follows a scam until it’s demise. He frequently posts updates and FTC warnings about scams he’s previously reviewed. We’ve worked with Paul in the past to expose the rebate processing scam. I can personally vouch for Paul’s legitimacy and overall concern for ensuring you don’t get scammed.

The Consumerist
http://www.consumerist.com/
The Consumerist isn’t exactly a resource for those looking to work at home, but it is definitely a website you’ll want to read if you want to save money. This website provides it’s readers with tales from the consumer. They’re more inclined to post stories of bad interactions between customer and business. This is good because not only can it save you money, but it also shows you the true side behind some of the world’s biggest corporations.

There you have it. These are the websites I follow when it comes to saving money. What about you? Other than I’ve Tried That of course, are there any blogs or sites out there that you read religiously in order to save money?

Fortunately there’s a lot of great information out there to answer the need to learn the ropes. We’re going to try to do a better job of pointing you to it rather than just recommending the occasional good program or strategy.

We’ve been reading IttyBiz (”Work from home tips to help you stay sane”) for some time now. If you would like to learn how to make money online using your blog or other site, IttyBiz is required reading. It offers a dose of humanity, irreverence, and knowledgeable advice that is refreshing and unique to our slime-ridden niche. Take a sip:

The only thing I really hope to accomplish with this post is this: If you feel shitty, you’re not alone. If you feel like, now that you’ve got your itty bitty business off the ground, you’re furious with yourself for not skipping with glee every moment, it’s not just you. If you feel like nobody on the goddamn planet understands what you’re going through, at least I do. If you feel like, now that you’re at home full time, you should provide your children with home-cooked meals and wash the sheets every other day and only show quality, commercial-free programming on your television and have sex with your husband six nights a week and have a floor that’s more carpet than ground-up-Cheerio, you’re not the only one.

Naomi, who runs IttyBiz (and works topless, apparently) has written an ebook called SEO School:How to Become an SEO Ninja. If you don’t know what SEO means, you will. It’s one of the keys to successfully using your blog or site to make money. And since you have to learn it, you might as learn it from someone who’s funny and works topless. I’m going to buy a copy as soon as I figure out when I’ll read it.

Head on over and subscribe, tuition free. It’s as raucous and educational as college, but without the stupid spirit song.

The following is a list of some of Firefox’s features:

• Security
  For starters, Firefox is much more secure than Internet Explorer. Incorporated directly into the program are the following features: anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-phishing, parental controls, password manager, pop-up blocker, and automated updates.
• Speed
  Firefox also operates a lot quicker than Internet Explorer. In fact, Firefox 3 uses less of your system’s resources and is faster than any other browser on the market today.
• Customization
  Firefox has thousands of different plug-ins, extensions, and themes that will allow you to customize both the look and feel of your browser. My favorite plug-in is the weather dock. It tells me the current weather forecast and much more every time I open my browser.
• And Much, Much More…
  Built in feed reader, download manager, spell checking, session restore, image loading, full zoom, search suggestions, smart keywords, integrated web search, tabs, save on exit, offline browsing, live support, and hundreds of other features that would take too long to list.

Firefox’s World Record

Join the millions of people today who are pledging to download Firefox 3 to set the world record for the most number of downloads of a program in 24 hours. I know I’ve already upgraded every computer in my house and I highly suggest you do the same.

Overall, Firefox is simply the best web browser available today and it’s absolutely, entirely, 100% free. Don’t put yourself at risk due to negligence. At the very least, download and install Firefox now. You don’t have to switch over right away, but I guarantee that once you start using Firefox, you’ll never go back to Internet Explorer.

Those two categories pretty well cover it. No one has ever written to tell me how sexy I am. Not even one time! Is it because I just turned 40? Is it the hat? I just keep telling myself it’s because we’re a work-at-home blog and my personal assets are irrelevant. It makes me feel better.

The second kind of message always strikes a chord with me. I know all about the endless pressure of needing more money and the emotional roller coaster of hope and disappointment that Internet searches can bring, especially in the work-at-home arena. There are far too many people just waiting to take advantage of your need by selling you the latest “membership” so you can start creating affiliate ads that will never make you a dime.

The Bad News
The bad news is that yes, the view really is that bleak from where you’re sitting. 99.92734% of the “work from home” businesses or opportunities you’ll find through standard search methods are either outright ripoffs or can’t possibly deliver what they promise. You could spend your time chasing the .07266% that might be real, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

The Good News
The good news is that there’s a fairly simple solution: you’re looking for love in all the wrong places. There are real telecommuting jobs available, with more being added all the time. But you’re not going to find them by doing what you’ve been doing. That’s where we come in. Our e-book will be available next week. It will show you where and how to look for the real jobs, how to spot a junk job listing from a mile away, and how to land the job once you’ve found it. What would you do with a couple hundred bucks extra per month?

The Really Good News
Telecommuting is a growing trend and the long term prospects are excellent.

Almost 4.2 million people worked at home in 2000, up from 3.4 million in 1990, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That 23 percent increase was double the growth in the overall work force during the decade. According to the International Telework Association and Council, the number of Americans who spent at least some portion of the week teleworking jumped from 19.7 million in 1999 to 28 million in 2001, up 42 percent in two years.

42 percent in two years?? Nothing has a growth rate like that except iPod sales and the number of pissed off Comcast customers. This means that more industries and more employers are turning to telecommuting, and they’ll need people who can do it. Is your current job something that can be done from home? Ask your employer about telecommuting. I work from home at least 2 days per week because I spoke up and asked about it.

Look at This Resource
Until our e-book is ready, take a look at FlexJobs. Job services like this are going to grow like weeds as the telecommuting trend continues to skyrocket. FlexJobs claims, “FlexJobs™ is the leading site to find flexible and “work from home” job opportunities. We offer legitimate jobs — no scams! Plus, it’s FREE for job-seekers.” FlexJobs seeks to match employers looking for telecommuters with employees able to work from home. Give it a shot and let us know what you find.