Paid To Place Review Of Red Flags

Kathy Garcia?

Kathy Garcia?

Note: All details of the Paid To Place sales page, terms and conditions, privacy policy, etc. as outlined in this post have preserved in multiple ways, including video recording.

7/6/2013 Update: Latest site being run by the same people is the Karen James Home Income Site.

6/10/2012 Update: I STRONGLY Recommend you avoid this program.

3/19/2012 Update: New Sales Pages/Sites Are Going Up For Paid To Place, Including The Following:

  • Verified Home Income | VerifiedHomeIncome.com
  • Apply For This | ApplyForThis.com
  • Cash 123 Stream | Cash123Stream.com

9/13/2011 Update: Paid To Place is cranking out different versions of sales pages like crazy.

I noticed today, 9/13/2011 that there is a new sales page for Paid To Place that focuses heavily on Michelle Boudreau’s background with CBS News, The Home Shopping Network, as well as her appearances on Fox News, abc, NBC, & CNN.

You might remember her from John Beck’s informercials. You can read some of her dialogue in the FTC Complaint Against Amazing Profits here where Michelle introduces John Beck with the following words:

FTC V John Beck

FTC V John Beck

The testimonials now clearly disclose that the photos are stock photos – and they do NOT claim specific amounts of money made as in the previous sales letter I reviewed did.

New Red Flag #1) There is no longer ANY disclaimer that the photo of Kathy Garcia is a stock photo.

New Red Flag #2) The sales letter claims “Easy work, great pay, NO selling.” But later the sales letter states: “Get your unique tracking code for online and offline placements” and also “as a “Paid to Place” affiliate you’ll get paid three-ways.”

Paid To Place even has a calculator it wants you to use to dream about how much money you’ll be raking in “just placing ads”. And the first field in that calculator is “New Sales From Ads Each Week”.

So they’re TELLING you that you will be doing affiliate marketing, there TELLING you that your earnings are based on selling, and they are TELLING you that you”ll be paid commissions on whatever you sell. Now there’s nothing wrong with affiliate marketing – selling products such as Green Smoke, Ashton Cigars, or Lasagna recipes.

So according to Paid To Place there’s no selling involved, but you get paid when you sell something? HUH???

New Red Flag #3) Paid To Place appears to leave out MUCH of what you have to do to actually generate income.

Paid To Place claims there are only 3 simple steps involved:

“Simple Step #1: Get your unique tracking code for online and offline placements.
Simple Step #2: Place the ads (we show you where and how)
Simple Step #3: Logon and see how much money you have made.”
Really?

How much do you want to bet that there are quite a few OTHER steps involved?

New Red Flag #4) The Security Seals on the Paid To Place order page are NOT clickable.

What follows is the original review of the Paid to Place sales page:

Kathy Garcia, who also leads a double life as a stock photo here, wants you to believe you can make $225 per hour for posting links online. Of course she leaves out a few details…OK…she leaves out way more than a few details.

Let’s take a look at some of the red flags of the Paid To Place “program”

Red Flag 1: Kathy Garcia is a stock photo. I guess the upside to that is that since she’s just a photograph she’s probably a good listener.

Red Flag 2: Paid To Place displays a table so that you can imagine all the money you can make by posting links. The problem is that the table isn’t based on reality…not even close. Why? Because the only way you get paid in a program like Paid To Place is if someone finds your link, clicks on your link, then takes an action such as buying product, filling out a form (such as filling out a detailed insurance quote form that will allow an insurance company to follow up with them).

In other words, just because you PLACE an ad containing a link, does NOT mean you’ll get paid from doing so. In fact, most of the time you probably WON’T.

Red Flag 3: Use of customer testimonials claiming they made specific amounts of money. Why is this a red flag? Because here’s what the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has to say about these types of testimonials:

“The use of a disclaimer such as “results not typical” is no longer a safe harbor for the claims made in testimonials. Third, while you may use atypical or best-case testimonials, if you do, you should clearly and conspicuously disclose the generally expected results consumers can expect in the depicted circumstances.”

Red Flag #4) Claims of fast money

Paid To Place claims:

“You’ll Be Able To Sit Down At Your Computer And Start
Making Money Right Away.”

They also show a bunch of alleged customers who made money fast with the Paid To Pace program.

….both of which are quite strange, especially since Paid To Place also says,

“This isn’t for you if you’re trying to “get rich quick.” Fact is, these things don’t really exist and they are all scams. (Ask me how I know, I fell for a few of them myself.)”

OK. Maybe in their mind “get rich quick” and “make money fast” aren’t the same thing, and I suppose technically they aren’t, but both ideas are constantly used by questionable business opportunities to suck cash out of vulnerable people.

Red Flag #5) Two different Paid To Place students claim show the SAME pictures of separate vacations.

There are several versions of the Paid To Place sales page – one version shows pictures of Kathy Garcia’s vacation. Another sales page is supposed to show pictures of another student using the name “David Cox”‘s vacation. Both “Kathy Garcia” and “David Cox” are presenting the EXACT same pictures of their separate vacations.

Red Flag #6) Paid To Place runs a site called PaidToPlaceScam.com warning people about sites WARNING people about Paid To Place.

Paid To Place has set up a website called PaidToPlaceScam.com warning people about the sites WARNING people about Paid To Place. I don’t know about you, but that seems more than just a little odd. No product I’ve ever recommended has ever had to resort to doing that.

Update: A person named Mike who claims to be the affiliate manager for Paid To Place has offered to answer questions. I’ve asked him some questions in the comments section, which I’ll repeat here and add to as I think of more. You can check for his answers to these questions in the comments section here.

  1. As of 8/28/2011 are there still only 92 places left in the program? ;-)
  2. How did you document this part of your sales page, “What if I told you that the average you’ll make per link posted is $15″?
  3. How were the values of the Paid To Place, Quick-Start-Guide, 50K Self Funding, And 7 Ways To Make $100 A Day Online determined?
  4. I did notice that whoever did the salespage at the ptop.securewebsystem website left off some of the information from the regular PaidToPlace website, such as the disclaimer the regular PaidToPlace mentions stating that the image of Kathy is a stock photo. Are you surprised they left that off?
  5. I’m a little unclear about what results the consumer can generally expect by using the Paid To Place program. Can you tell me where to find that information?
  6. I’ve seen about 3 different versions of the sales page for Paid To Place now, so I’ll have to clarify which one I’m talking about here. There is one that shows 3 checks with Paid To Place as the payor where Kathy Garcia says, “…These are just a few of the affiliate checks I get in the mail every single month.” What types of products/services/leads are those checks for?
  7. Is Michelle Boudreau compensated in any way to endorse the Paid To Place Program.

Just out of curiosity, is the regular PaidToPlace site really a WordPress blog? I checked with BuiltWith.com and looked at the code and it didn’t look like one to me – especially the html for the comments section.

Is PaidToPlace site really a WordPress blog? I checked with BuiltWith.com and looked at the code and it didn’t look like one to me – especially the html for the comments section.

Builtwith.com will identify WordPress blogs as follows:

“WordPress
WordPress Usage Statistics – Websites using WordPress

WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.”

But it didn’t identify PaidToPlace.com in that way.

American Money Report Promotion Of Paid To Place

Paid To Place is currently being promoted by an advertorial site (fake news site) called American Money Report. The site tells the story of Kathy Garcia and claims that, “Thanks to the Paid To Place program Kathy now enjoys more time with her daughter Stella”

If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, you’ll find this disclaimer:

“*For purposes of privacy, the creator of The Paid to Place is using a pen name. This story is based upon the real life adaptation of the parties involved. The Company reserves the rights to the name and any uses of it as affiliated with the product. Any improper uses by unauthorized parties is strictly prohibited. Testimonials are from members who have purchased the optional support system”

The question is whether or not the FTC would consider that clear and conspicuous – that’s only something the FTC can decide, but I encourage you to take your best guess on that one. You can read through the FTC’s Advertising FAQ’s if you need help forming an opinion.

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Internet Job Placement review of Red Flags

Have you run across the site InternetJobPlacdement.com? If so, you might want to read this Internet Job Placement review of red flags. Here they are:

Red Flag #1) Internet Job Placement states:

“If You Have 60 Minutes A Day, Here’s A Certified, Proven And Guaranteed Way To Make $225 And More Every Day… The Easy Way… From Home!”

First of all, what exactly is a “certified” way to make money from home? And how exactly is it “proven and guaranteed”? Plus the $225 amount is completely randomly, made-up number. Why? because the business earnings develop from commissions and they’ve got no clue what products you’re going to be advertising and marketing or simply those items’ commission amounts.

Red Flag #2) The very top of InterentJobPlacement.com tells you the product creator’s name is Michelle Miller, has an image of “Michelle Miller” and a “talking video” of “Michelle Miller”. Of course the Michelle Miller name is completely made up and the person talking on the page is a paid actor.

Red Flag #3) Utilization of substitute testimonial pictures. StayAtHomeIncome states in their disclaimers towards the end:

“For purpose of family privacy, testimonial pictures have been adapted and results may vary.”

Although testimonials used on InternetJobPlacement.com could be authentic, it’s worthwhile to keep in mind that numerous internet sites began using this type of language for the reason that were getting outed by means of Federal Law Enforcement in addition to consumer protection sites for utilizing stock photos inside their testimonies.

Red Flag #4) Utilizing paid testimonials from others. A different legal disclaimer states:

“All testimonials have been remunerated.”

Bizarrely, the disclaimer also says, “± Images have been renumerated and are not common.” whatever that means.

Red Flag #5) Internet Job Placement states that you’ll “get a free one-on-one phone consultation with a Search Engine Agent Advisor to discuss your individual goals and map out and ensure your quick path to financial success.”

More often than not this type of 100 % freeAssistanceis used as a ploy to allow them to get you to communicate to a sales rep that will try to pressure you straight to spending cash on higher priced items you don’t really need or possibly that are of dubious quality.

Red Flag #6) Incredibly bizarre banner referencing “Search Partners”

The  Stay At Home Income Website has a banner which lists the following companies as “Search Partners”:

  • Ask
  • Bing
  • Google
  • Miva
  • MSN
  • Yahoo

The banner makes  NO sense in the context of the InternetJobPlacement site. As a matter of fact, the only way it COULD make any sense at all is if InteretJobPlacement purchased advertising through those specific companies – or if they possibly sold the services of those companies….both of which ANYBODY could do.

Those are issues I definitely hope you’ll give thought if you are considering buying this product.

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24 Hour Cash Connection Review Of Red Flags

I ran across 24 Hour Cash Connection when I was reviewing the sales process just notified that another product called Home Income Surge was currently operating under the name of Home Working Connection. Site looks just like the Home Working Connection site and has some of the same issues.

All The Usual Red Flags

Most of the usual red flags are at 24HourCashConnection.com. The pricing information is more visible on this new site as compared to the previous one (HomeworkingConnection.com). The pricing information at the 24HourConnection site which you can see below the arrow on the order page is:

“To access your website, a nominal charge of $1.95 USD is needed for us to know that you are a real person. Upon payment, you’ll receive instant access to your very own website for a 5-day trial-enrollment. After your trial-enrollment expires, in order to keep your website active and available on the internet, you agree that your card will be charged $29.95 per month for hosting and maintenance. There are no hidden fees and no long-term contracts. You may cancel anytime simply by calling our office toll-free at (888) 613-2498.”

Of course, if you don’t keep your website “active” then you’re out of luck. But more importantly why would anybody pay $29.95 to keep a website active when you can keep a great number of websites access for as little as $10/month?

TIP! Opening and maintaining a new business can be incredibly time consuming. Building an online business is no different. Be prepared to put in some serious work.

Of course there’s the mandatory fake countdown timer which you can reset by simply refreshing your browser. While a fake countdown timer is sometimes considered a minor red flag, when you combine it with all of the other red flags at the site it’s an important reason to avoid the site. It’s something that the FTC often brings up when they are investigating fraudulent home business offers.

TIP! Always document EVERYTHING when dealing with a company like 24 Hour Cash Connection. Of course the most important thing to do is to AVOID dealing with the company, but if you do end up getting scammed by them, make sure you keep notes of every single interaction you have with the company. Keep a journal of your interactions in chronological order.

Strange Testimonials – Stranger Disclaimers

There are two testimonials on the order page: One from “Barry M.” claiming he made $120,000 in his first six months. The second from “Marybeth W.” claiming she made $10,000 within her first 3 months. Just like their other scam, apparently this new one didn’t “get the memo” from the FTC about use of testimonials which states:

“The use of a disclaimer such as “results not typical” is no longer a safe harbor for the claims made in testimonials. Third, while you may use atypical or best-case testimonials, if you do, you should clearly and conspicuously disclose the generally expected results consumers can expect in the depicted circumstances.”

ALERT! On October 5, 2009 the FTC published their final guidelines regarding the use of testimonials and endorsements. Two key aspects of those guidelines were:
  1. Clarification of the long-standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed.”
  2. Disallowing advertisers to simply use the disclaimer “results not typical” when including testimonials. According to the FTC, “Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect.”

What’s even strangers is that the front page and order page of 24 Hour Cash Connection there’s a disclaimer which says:

“Photos used in this advertisement are not of the actual testimonial individuals and personal earnings claims of any type are strictly against our policy.”

Can someone explain to me how a company that has earnings claims can seriously claim that personal earnings claims are against their own policy?

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