The Truth About Making Money Online

the truth about making money online

The Truth About Making Money Online – If it Walks like a Duck…

the truth about making money onlineThe truth about making money online is no secret but the lengths that some people will go to make money dishonestly never ceases to amaze me. This was brought home to me again recently when the first online business “programme” I and some 400,000 affiliates were involved in was closed down. I’m talking about Banners Broker – some of you will have heard of it – some of you may even have been involved in it

Banners Broker started back in 2011 and quickly became one of the most popular online business opportunities around. It was based on the undeniably vast internet banner advertising industry – you know , those banner ads that seem to follow you around the web. They are on every page, every site you visit and they represent very, very big money. Every time someone even sees one, someone is getting paid.

Banners Broker came up with a way to ‘broker” banners to individuals so that they could earn a slice of that money. They could build up a portfolio of advertising space and buy traffic to send to banners placed on those spaces. There was an MLM aspect to it as well. Affiliates could introduce others to the program and get traffic credits for doing so. Whilst this didn’t earn affiliates money directly (like in a ponzi scheme) it did help them to grow their business faster. If affiliates didn’t want to refer others however they could just buy the traffic from BB and still build a sizeable business.

The Truth About Making Money Online VS The Illusion 

With beautiful and obviously extremely expensive websites, back offices , weekly live webinars, professional trainers and some big, respected names handling PR and compliancy, its no wonder the business was a huge success – at first….They even managed to get Mastercard to endorse the prepaid card that affiliates profits were paid to. They held massive live events and recruitment drives in Portugal, Britain, Canada, The US and the Caribbean.

For almost 2 years everything seemed rosy. Payouts were regular and lots of people made lots of money. Then things started to go sour. At a huge UK event BB announced that Mastercard were pulling out: There had been a huge amount of negativity and doubt surrounding the business from the start. When Mastercard got wind of this they didn’t want to be associated with it. Another version of the truth about making money online is that if someone is making money online, someone else stands to profit by saying it’s a scam. It’s like the music biz saying – “where there’s a hit, there’s a writ”.

So BB made some changes. They revised the programme to satisfy the financial institutions and banks that were getting interested in them. They found other ways to pay affiliate earnings and they brought in changes that made affiliates “earn” their money as never before. Payouts continued for  a while but gradually started to become less reliable, less frequent. Eventually they dried up all together. With the benefit of hindsight these changes were designed to increase the need to introduce new people to the programme. New people = new money = Pyramid/Ponzi.

the truth about making money online

The BB Gravy Train

Riding The gravy Train

For 18 months they maintained regular weekly webinars. They held live events and offered plausible sounding excuses about the problems they were having, assuring affiliates that a solution was just around the corner. Now if you’ve read this far you may well be thinking this was obviously a ponzi or pyramid scheme from the start. It now appears 99% certain that you’d be right. They’ve been closed down. liquidated and the key players are under investigation. But…

If that does prove finally to be the case it will be one of the most sophisticated and long running ponzis in the history of the world. Banners Broker had big fancy offices in a number of parts of the world. They had a large staff, experts and well paid programmers, legitimate professional trainers and industry experts on their staff. Some of their affiliates were very intelligent, astute business people who had researched every aspect of the business.

The owners of the business were public figures. They held live events regularly and spent a fortune creating the illusion of a genuine, legitimate business. So even as cracks started to appear, BB had a very loyal customer base who were prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt. They were in fact satisfactorily audited and investigated by authorities several times.

Banners Broker was a catalyst for many “copycat” programmes that came and went over the 3 and a bit years they were around. The fact that BB’s doors remained open when so many other obvious scams didn’t seemed further proof that they were OK. This is what criminal masterminds are capable of. They can seem incredibly plausible. The brains behind BB were very intelligent people. Imagine what they could do if they were doing something genuine and honest! They clearly put countless hours of work in to it after all.

What can we learn from all this? The Truth About Making Money Online? 

the truth about making money onlineIn short – “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is”. That’s a phrase that followed BB around during their existence. Some of their biggest associates even used the phrase to market the business. “Finally a business that seems too good to be true actually isn’t !!! “

Strange as it may seem I consider my experience with Banners broker to have been worthwhile. I made some good money when it was working. More than that though it introduced me to some amazing people and I I learned a very valuable lesson: There are no shortcuts to making your living online. At least none that will be around for long. That is actually the truth about making money online.  I look forward to the day, and it won’t be long I hope, where this wonderful industry is free from the scammers, criminals and scumbags who mislead and swindle people. In my opinion the only reliable and honest way to do this is by learning how to market good, honest products and services and to provide enormous value to others by doing so.

A Refreshing Absence of False Promise

That is behind everything that the SFM and DEA do. They do not promise quick. easy riches through some clever scheme or other. The provide an education in online marketing, all the tools professional marketers use and an option to partner with them if you believe in what they are doing. I certainly do. They speak the truth about making money online.

I genuinely hope this long post has been useful to you. Whether or not you decide to join the SFM community please at least be aware of the difference between this and what I’ve described above.

Benefit from my experience in other words and leverage it.

The truth about making money online – the laptop lifestyle – is a fantastic way to live if you do the right things. Spending time and money on schemes, programmes and fast track riches is not going to provide reliable, sustainable long term income. People these days will buy anything online. If you are going to be one of the people selling those things you need to choose carefully what they buy from you.  Concentrate on real things – there are plenty of them after all.

The truth about making money online is also the name of a free webcast by Super affiliate and co-founder of the Six Figure Mentors and Digital Experts Academy Stuart Ross. Catch it at a time that suites you by clicking the link below and registering.

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