…So I decided to do so. I have very few Twitter followers (so few it is too embarrassing to mention – especially for someone in the SEO field) so I get very excited when I get a few new followers – which is quite easy to do if you use the right hash tags.
But even though it is quite easy to amass followers, the Twitter world, which you will learn soon if you are new (or have already learned), is a place where people will follow you and try to get you to follow them just so that they can “SPAM” (it’s not really spam) your news feed with a lot of stuff that is on their agenda for making them money. I came across one of these types of twitter accounts recently and it led me to a very curious web site. One that, well if it wasn’t for legal litigation, I would say was promoting a pretty big scam.
I won’t disclose the twitter name (chances are he thinks he is doing a lot of people a huge favor and chances are he truly believes that) but I will say that his whole goal was to get people to watch this video.
It’s about the company Global Domains International. My first and immediate impression of the video was “This is a scam. No “if’s,” “and’s,” or “but’s” about it.” But, as I let the video humor me for a minute, I was simply amazed at how much effort they put into and how much the hype about it would could actually work (it probably would have seen like the coolest thing since sliced bread if it wasn’t for the fact that I have been providing SEO services for last three years and have come across all sorts of things like this in my time). The video was so well put together and the speakers did their job amazingly, and the most important things about it is that well, they actually do have a product.
They offer hosting services and allow you to purchase a domain name with the “.ws” extension (which they claim stands for “Web Site” but what it really stands for is Western Samoa).
Now, even though they offer this product only $10 a month, this is not the real reason that they want you to buy their product. What they really want you to do is become an “affiliate.” I put affiliate in quotation marks because any true affiliate will not force you to pay a sign-up fee to become an affiliate, which is the trade mark of a pyramid scheme.
There is a “difference” between a pyramid scheme and multi-level marketing (which is what GDI tries to market itself as), and that is that multi-level marketing actually has a product, while pyramid schemes do not. Unfortunately, there are tons of ways to disguise a pyramid scheme and multi-level marketing, and this is what GDI does the best.
As this review of GDI claims, there are way better products out there for your money than what GDI offers. GDI hopes to make most of its money off of you. The way they do this is, is by promising you thousands of dollars a week by saying that it is completely easy for you to make money (another trademark of a pyramid scheme)… one of the lines they use is “All you have to do is hand this video to other people.”
Affiliate programs don’t get you to sign up by promising that you will make tons of money if you join their program. They leave that up to you to decide. Plain and simple.
This artile was contributed by Philip Russell. Philip blogs for www.AcneCentre.com – a website where you can find Acne Products. He enjoys writing about SEO and Internet marketing in his spare time.