Scam Sites Hijack Google

Recently, I have come across some 'TV Shows and Movie Download' sites. They offer the skies. With their SEO smartness they top the Google search results for many TV Shows Download searches. Only after few clicks on those sites I could realize that they all are doorway sites for another scam site earning money from innocent internet illiterates.

One example site is edogo.com. They top the Google Search for 'Download Sex and the City Episodes'. Similarly for other popular TV Shows search like 'Download Friends Episodes', 'Download Hannah Montana Episodes' etc.

Any download attempt on sites like edogo.com will take you to another site, movieandtvdownload.com, which requires you to pay a memebership fee to access their collection of 'all the movies and TV shows' ever made in this world. You will not get a chance to preview their content or a trial account prior to making a payment.

Once you buy a membership, what they essentially do is to connect you to various torrent sites. It is a way of making money out of nothing.

Another doorway site to movieandtvdownload.com that I came across is download-tvshows.com.

The sad part is, all these doorway sites and piracy content sites are topping the Google search, when legal sites are pushed back to second, third or fourth page. Google Search is hijacked by scam sites and copyright violators.

Hope Google will do something on this.

Money Making Business Opportunity - An e-Book

I got a comment in my previous post, introducing to a website offering Money Making Business Opportunity, though we all understand the intention of the comment is to advertise their site. The referred site is rupees.synthasite.com, which offers money making business opportunity. The home page talks about two money making business possibilities.

If you go in deep, you can find that you need to pay Rs.2000 (Indian Rupees Two Thousand) to start with. As per their FAQ, for the amount you pay, you get an eBook with a list of websites where you can earn money.

Their 'FAQ' says:

"After becoming our member by paying our consulting fees you will get one Database ebook.
In that e-book you will get all the details regarding to the business.
Step by Step business procedure instruction.
Step by step instructions for increasing you’re earning."

Their 'Join Us' page says:

"This Database Or E- Book Include
Your Paypal Account
+
Paid to click websites
+
How To Work Guide

Total Charges 2000 Rs Only"

Do you really wanted to pay Rs.2000 to get a list of website URLs where you can try your luck OR you rather do a Google Search and do a research on such websites?

Definitely the site represents a money making business idea that earns easy money to the owner / author, but may not much to those whose pay Rs.2000 to the owner.

But we appreciate one thing that the site has given their contact address and phone number to prove their genuineness. After all, selling an e-Book is no way illegal.

Update: Please look at the comments section for the clarification about this program by the owner of rupees.synthasite.com. I really appreciate his genuineness and openness.

earnparttimejobs.com - Another form-filling job offer

Recently, I got an email from one of my friends asking about my opinion on a new 'Earn Money' site, earnparttimejobs.com. I am sure, you too might have come across a referral link of this site in any of the discussion forums or chat rooms. As the youngsters are desperate to make money, such programs will always gain instant popularity on net.

earnparttimejobs.com offers usual 'form-filling part-time jobs' that require no qualification other than computer literacy and English knowledge. But the catch is that, before getting any such job, you must earn a minimum of Rs.2000 (Indian Rupees Two Thousand) from their referral program. That means, before you get any work from them, you need to refer the site to hundreds of people on internet. For every referral from you, who joins the program, you will get Rs.5 (Indian Rupees Five). So, at least 400 people must join the program through your referral link before you can get any form-filling job or a payment. (Those who experienced know that it is not an easy job.)

But what about those who managed 400 people to join the program. A search on internet shows that there are some who managed to get referrals, but never got any forms to fill in or the referral payment.

Now think about the money being made by earnparttimejobs.com. Because of their referral program, the internet is flooded with links to their site. Thousands of people are visiting them out of curiousity. And...... yes... Google ads are all over the pages of earnparttimejobs.com. They make huge money out of free traffic coming their way.

What an idea!!

Report Possible Scams

Have you come across a possible money making scam? Report it here in the comments section for the benefit of many.

Glorified Cheating

Recently I came across a review that boasted about a money making program on internet. This glorified writing was about an eBook for US$ 39.99, revealing a method on how to make money online with YouTube and domain parking. There are many known bloggers who wrote great about this book. All the blogs were directing to a forum thread at digitalpoint for more details.

There is no reason why you don't get excited and shell out US$ 39.99 (there are some offers as well). But only after you pay, you will see the content of the eBook. It is an amateurish word document on a very well known idea of posting videos at YouTube to promote a website. Park a domain at GoDaddy or Sedo, then promote that site URL by watermarking some videos with the site URL and posting them at YouTube.

Now to make the kind of money they promise, you need to watermark and upload atleast 200 videos. Only when you start doing you will realise the effort required. (They provide some sex video clips along with the eBook for you to watermark and upload to YouTube). You can only experience the worst part after all the efforts you put in. It is almost sure that either your domain account or the YouTube account will be banned by the time you are ready to collect your first check.

Isn't it cheating? Selling a well-known idea of using YouTube to promote a website? Will you be happy if I sell you an eBook on a revolutionary idea to quench your thirst, and give you a word document with a list of beer labels available in the market?

What I don't understand is why all those respected bloggers on net are promoting this eBook? Is there a conspiracy?

Where Is The Traffic?

So I created a website. But where is the traffic to generate money. I am the only visitor to my site until I do something to attract internet traffic.

You may find many advertisements offering you a pre-built website that can make you a millionaire. You will scroll down miles and miles to see the testimonials of many millionaires !! Beware..! Don't fall into such scams. OK.. We cannot say it a scam. But it is not as easy to make money from a website as they say. To make millions and millions out of a website you need trillions and trillions of visitors to your site. And that is not easy. In fact, you may not even get a single visitor just by creating a website. It requires time and lot of hardwork.

Now I have a website and I need visitors. Cheapest way is to post about the website on various web directories and forums. The other option is paid advertisement to generate a sure traffic. But will it make money or you lose? Lets see. I am advertising on AdWords for a small amount (to start with, just 2.5 dollars a day). We will have a revenue analysis shortly.

Own Domain For Individuality

To create an identity for this blog, I bought a domain name from GoDaddy.com for US$ 10.19 per year. That is the rate for .com domains. Luckily I got a short domain name, tim4u.com.

There was some confusion while configuring the domain name to point to this blog. Blogger Help says to create a CNAME record as below:

1. Log in to your account at www.godaddy.com.


2. Open the Domains tab and select My Domain Names. You'll be directed to the Domain Manager page.


3. Click the domain that you'd like to use with your blog.


4. Click the Total DNS Control And MX Records link at the bottom of the section entitled Total DNS.


5. Click Add New CNAME Record in the box labelled CNAMES (aliases). If you've already created a CNAME record for your blog's address, click the pencil icon next to the existing CNAME record.


6. For the Name, enter only the subdomain of the address you want to use for your blog. For example, if you picked www.mydomain.com as your address, enter www here.


7. Enter ghs.google.com as the Host Name. Specify a TTL or use the default setting of 1 hour.


8. Click OK, and then click OK again.

It all works fine for www.tim4u.com. But the help document doesn't say anything on how to make tim4u.com (URL without www) to point to the blog. It was just not working. Finally I forwarded tim4u.com to www.tim4u.com from the GoDaddy.com control panel.

So if someone types tim4u.com in the browser, first it redirects to www.tim4u.com and then to the blog hosted at blogspot.com.

Is there a better solution? If so, please share it in the comments section.