Easy Money Making Scheme
The internet is a very dangerous place. Many have said that, and I agree. But after yesterday, I can't agree more than ever before.
THE INTERNET IS A VERY DANGEROUS PLACE!
Mark that into your subconcious, always use common sense when you find some new information. Double checking if your research returns a solid answer. Sometimes, even being cautious isn't enough. I've been digging some valuable resources for the past few days. When I say valuable, I mean information that is hard to find and mostly not of interest to the majority of public.
Through a link from one of the blogs around. I learned of Blog Explosion, and it's power to increase traffic and exposure of your blog. Blog Explosion serves as a Click Exchange Programme, making you surf through other blogs on the internet, and grand you with Internet traffic from other bloggers who, like you hopes for exposure and traffic for your blog. Blog Explosion seems harmless, though you might risk getting your computer infected with viruses or trojans brought in by certain anonymous blog sites that you surfed.
Initially, I thought. Who would have thought of such ridiculous yet succesful (in demand) method of gaining internet popularity? And worked it out as a form of business? Surely, it'll not survive long.
Then I came across MyBlogCafe.com, a new weblog directory websites, serves as a brand new blog community. The webmaster and I had a short email conversation, and from there, I learned of StudioTraffic. The name of the website sounds professional, and the layout seems like a reputable company. I soon learned that, this is some what similar to BlogExplosion (BE). (And I thought the webmaster of BE would be some brilliant guy.) Since we know all this is mere copy cat.
Studio Traffic (ST) brings traffic to your website, not restricted to blogs. It claims that by surfing 200 webpages per day, you'll earn 1% of what you invest in them. (means you'll need to dig out some small amount of money) So, 1% may seem to be a small amount, so small, it's pretty worthless. But if you were to put the amount in days, within 3 months, you would have earned back the amount of money you put in, and within one year, you would have 4 times the amount of money in your account.
I read through the explanation over and over again (who wouldn't when you found some easy-money-making scheme?) It didn't occur to me in the first place that this is money-making-scheme in the first place, at all. Althought I'm not desperate in cash, it does interest me. Who doesn't?
The FAQ was written in terrible English, and the method of explaning the whole process are pretty unclear and to me, very immature. It reminded me of the days when I visited some direct-selling friends. Very enthusiatic, but baseless.
Like I said, I thought that it did not occured to me as a money making scheme in the first place. I have a reason for this. As some of you may know, I have been participating in Google Adsense. Google's text advertisement, like the one above. I learned from there that, certain advertising companies, like the banner at the very top of this page, earns revenue through the number of times it's being displayed. That's how blogdrive survives, through hits. (damn phases says hits doesn't matter, though i doubt you'll be reading this, bleh)
StudioTraffic bring hits to your website, increasing the number of time your banner is displayed. It's cheating, no doubt. But it also explains where their source of revenue is coming from, and hence able to explain the 1% generousity.
Wait, it still didn't make sense to me. If you put in $10, you'll get back $40 per year for 365 days(though according to StudioTraffic, you get more, but let's not get in to that). Now, that's nearly 4 times what you invest, and all you do is, surf 200 webpages per day.
You may think that $40 is not a lot of money. Now think again, with $1000, you'll get back 1% each day, in one year, you would have recieve 4 times more money than ever. You could have paid of your internet fees, bought a new hardware upgrade and more just by doing this. Is it true that advertising companies are really paying that much to these websites for hits?
Obviously not. I run another search on google, and I found this. It explains all.
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Now that I know it's a scam, and that it isn't something that comes that easily. I thought of BlogExplosion, I thought of the forums I visited, I thought of Adsense. How do you know if any of this is another hoax? It looked so promising, and it was recommended by a (somewhat) friend.
The other thing that really scares me is, the forums. I visit many forums every now and then, including webmasterworld. And many times, forums poster appears to be the same person, with a different name and location. All with the same message. There are certain things that bring out the desire of more and better wihtout much efforts.
And they worked.
What's more alarming is that, they are based in Malaysia. With a very large community whom responce to such greed.
