Deceptive Advertising vs Peace of mind

[ironbull]

It is well known that there are lot of affiliates, that use deceptive advertising to promote offers aggressively in order to make the most money. You name it:

Example 1

FB campaign, Mobile, Sweeps landing, PIN submit offer

User navigates through Facebook and he "discovers" a post where he is told that he is the winner of an iPhone, he gets convinced due to tricky copy and landing page design, and in order to get it, he should verify his phone number. User wants the phone "for free" as he is the lucky winner, so he signs up to the offer, without reading the legal terms. User is automatically subscribed to a SMS marketing service were is charged around 35€ per month. User does not get the iPhone and gets charged for a service he does not intend to be subscribed to. User feels scammed and calls his carrier company to cancel the subscription.

Example 2

Pop campaign, Mobile, Virus landing, PIN submit offer

User navigates through a movies website, suddenly a pop up comes up and he is told that his virus was infected with a fatal virus while browsing through the last website. He gets convinced due to tricky copy and landing page design, and in order to remove the virus, he should verify his phone number. User does not want his phone to be infected with virus, so he signs up to the offer, without reading the legal terms. User is automatically subscribed to a SMS marketing service were is charged around 35€ per month. User does not get his phone cleaned and gets charged for a service he does not intend to be subscribed to. User feels scammed and calls his carrier company to cancel the subscription.

Example 3

Search campaign, Desktop, WhatsApp landing, CC submit offer

User searches how to "Spy WhatsApp" and lands on a website that provides a WhatsApp Spy tool. He gets convinced due to tricky copy and landing page design, that the tool works as expected. User places phone number to spy and gets a preview of the spy process. In order to get all the "spied content" (conversations, audios, videos etc.), he should create an account in a file storage service. User wants the information about the spied WhatsApp, so he signs up to the offer, without reading the legal terms. User is automatically subscribed to a multimedia service (nothing to do with storage service) were he has a trial period and after that, is charged around 45€ per month. User does not get the information about the spied WhatsApp and gets charged for a service he does not intend to be subscribed to. User feels scammed and calls his bank to cancel the subscription.

These are 3 examples of what is currently being done at the moment in affiliate marketing, but there are hundreds of them. I have tried them all.

Of course there are white hat niches where these problems do not arise. The user that signs up for the offers, does understand them, and wants to sign up to them with full knowledge of what he is buying / subscribing / opt in to.

However, most of the money is still being made with black hat niches (cloaking required), where the user is cheated, mislead, lied, tricked, scared, confused... The user that signs up for the offers, doesn't understand them, doesn't want to sign up to them, doesn't have full knowledge of what he is buying / subscribing / opt in to.

So my question is... for those of you that promote aggressively and use deceptive advertising to get the big money in this game:

- Have you had any legal problems with users? For example, a user filing a legal complaint because he felt scammed due to the advertising and offer that made him subscribe to something he didn't want to at first.

- Do you use legal disclaimers in your landings to get you covered? Explaining that you are not liable for anything, that the information might me incorrect, that the user navigates at its own risk, that you are not liable for third party links etc.

- How do you achieve peace in your mind? Taking into account that the way you are promoting offers does not benefit the user at all, using deceptive advertising to trick the user into signing up to the offer and in the end, charging the user for something he didn't expect to buy.

- If someone close to you (outside affiliate marketing), asks you about what you are doing in your "marketing and advertising" company (deceptive advertising), for example: family or friends, what do you tell them? I guess you tell them the nice stuff, promoting other's companies product on a commission basis, but that's not the whole truth.

All in all, I would like to be physically and mentally prepared to keep promoting these type of offers. I know it's not the most "clean" way to promote products, but if you want to earn big, there will always be risks involved. I would appreciate the input and advice from other affiliates doing this type of blackhat marketing.

 

[lafftar]

I stopped this man, Karma is very real in my life, I figure if you're constantly scamming people, someone will be more likely to scam you.

 

[ironbull]

I stopped this man, Karma is very real in my life, I figure if you're constantly scamming people, someone will be more likely to scam you.

What are you doing instead? I have also been scammed by other people, so I know how it feels.

 

[lafftar]

What are you doing instead? I have also been scammed by other people, so I know how it feels.

Whitehat stuff, food services, selling soap, (eventually selling marketing services). There are whitehat campaigns that are very profitable, where everyone makes money and everyone is satisfied; like roofing.

 

[Pavel Yudkevich]

Leads brought through scams are most likely useless to the company that orders a certain traffic.
If you want to successfully market an offer you need to put your mind gears into work and understand:

Who is a potential customer? - That way you know where to look for traffic.
What does the customer get from your product? - That way you might find more types of potential customers.
Does he \ she have the money to purchase the product? - That way you can filter customers from users.

There are no shortcuts when it comes to marketing, speak to potential customers and analyze the purchase data in order to continue improving. You are always competing with someone so checking what they do will bring you useful insights.

Send me a message if you have some specific questions I will be happy to help

 

[ironbull]

Leads brought through scams are most likely useless to the company that orders a certain traffic.
If you want to successfully market an offer you need to put your mind gears into work and understand:

Who is a potential customer? - That way you know where to look for traffic.
What does the customer get from your product? - That way you might find more types of potential customers.
Does he \ she have the money to purchase the product? - That way you can filter customers from users.

There are no shortcuts when it comes to marketing, speak to potential customers and analyze the purchase data in order to continue improving. You are always competing with someone so checking what they do will bring you useful insights.

Send me a message if you have some specific questions I will be happy to help

Lead quality is really good, or at least, that's what they told me from the Affiliate Network. This is something that impresses me, as people are not cancelling their subscription. Don't know if it's because they really like the service or because they forget to cancel.

 

[Pavel Yudkevich]

Lead quality is really good, or at least, that's what they told me from the Affiliate Network. This is something that impresses me, as people are not cancelling their subscription. Don't know if it's because they really like the service or because they forget to cancel.

If its a sms marketing company that you provide with phone numbers to spam than they are probably very happy with any kind of people joining even if they cancel later and yeah some will forget \ don't want to waste time \ don't know how to cancel so they stay. They might not even know that they are paying for it if they don't regularly check their expenses...
About 3 years ago my friends made a start up to automatically sue fraud sms advertisers which failed because of bureaucracy but I remember 2 main issues with the process:

1. It is almost impossible to locate the advertising company unless it sells a specific product.
2. Most people don't remember if they approved the reception of advertisements.

In any case there is a huge gray area when dealing with fraud advertising and in some cases you can get legal problems while in others you just keep riding the money train.

 

[ironbull]

If its a sms marketing company that you provide with phone numbers to spam than they are probably very happy with any kind of people joining even if they cancel later and yeah some will forget \ don't want to waste time \ don't know how to cancel so they stay. They might not even know that they are paying for it if they don't regularly check their expenses...
About 3 years ago my friends made a start up to automatically sue fraud sms advertisers which failed because of bureaucracy but I remember 2 main issues with the process:

1. It is almost impossible to locate the advertising company unless it sells a specific product.
2. Most people don't remember if they approved the reception of advertisements.

In any case there is a huge gray area when dealing with fraud advertising and in some cases you can get legal problems while in others you just keep riding the money train.

I mean, users sign up because they want. They need to place their details in order to sign up to the offer. It's not like auto-subscribing or iframing (shady techniques) where user does not really know that he is subscribing to an offer.

The thing here is that the user expects something based on the advertising funnel and receive something else. The user needs that advertised service/product so much that he does not even take the time to read the offer terms.

On the other hand, these kind of service/product usually have a trial period, where if you don't like it, or if it was not what's expected, you can cancel the subscription without a cost.

 

[T J Tutor]

Send me a message if you have some specific questions I will be happy to help

Keep the questions and answers in the forums, this way everyone benefits. you are on the right track with your answer!

Thanks

 

[T J Tutor]

Blackhat is here to stay for a while. It is immensely profitable, but you have a side to the business that is becoming ever more difficult. For example keeping with new credit cards, new IP's, new social accounts, new networks, and the list goes on.

With WhiteHat, you spend more time and money developing your business in the beginning, but the business does not require chasing cards, accounts, etc. Instead, you are on a steady growth model that develops loyal clients/customers, solid relationships with networks and advertisers, and will build a business that can be sold down the road.

Many are stopped by the ethics of BlackHat, or the lack thereof. Don't short yourself for feeling the karma of it. Some do, some don't. This is the world we live in.

A smart man once said, "Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do."

It is your choice. For me, I follow my gut and it is usually right!

 

[Pavel Yudkevich]

I mean, users sign up because they want. They need to place their details in order to sign up to the offer. It's not like auto-subscribing or iframing (shady techniques) where user does not really know that he is subscribing to an offer.

The thing here is that the user expects something based on the advertising funnel and receive something else. The user needs that advertised service/product so much that he does not even take the time to read the offer terms.

On the other hand, these kind of service/product usually have a trial period, where if you don't like it, or if it was not what's expected, you can cancel the subscription without a cost.

In that case I agree with T J Tutor and just listen to your gut

 

[ironbull]

Any more thoughts from people doing blackhat atm?

 

[Graybeard]

BH 'campaigns' short lived. And short money in the long run with some notable exceptions.

Good example is the people that do sleazy cross sells on credit card sign-ups on porn sites. There is a legally defensible way to do it -- that some billing processors will approve.

I just read that a new bill is moving through the California state legislature to make this practice better regulated and labeled for consumer protection benefit -- and -- to better define unlawful practices. If passed and enacted this new law in California will probably shape the national debate on the subject.

So in the end, the BH method is outlawed -- the loophole closed -- you need a new legal scam or you end up indicted. Fortunately (or unfortunately) no law can be ex post facto.

So just ask yourself: If you got tricked this way -- how would you feel and what would you do?

added* the GDPR is a good example also of outlawing questionable practices.

 

[ctgmedia]

My take is that it's not worth it.

If you'd be buying traffic than any decent network would not accept these as ads, and if you'd use something like that on your site, you'll destroy the user experience for just about anybody.

This is what destroyed a great deal of the adult industry back in the day, while those that came in first obviously made a huge amount of money (be it dialers, not so kosher billing practices, forced registration on mobile), in the long term it negatively affected users trust, and hurt a long-term, legit business to be done.

 

[awesomesauce]

More money can be made in whitehat than blackhat. You decide what you want to promote.

 

[ironbull]

@cashmoneyaffiliate would like to know your thoughts on this. I know you run blackhat almost all day long so it would be interested to know your point of view

 

[AdamLatiff]

Leaning more whitehat, there's great opportunities in Ecommerce and how it relates to the framework of CPA marketers. You can launch and scale up on Ecom products type of offers on the biggest traffic sources without worrying about getting your accounts banned. If you're thinking Ecommerce, hit me up and let's talk!

 

[Graybeard]

Well, I can see you feel you have nothing to lose ... Ever heard the song Desperado?

 

[Nanette]

I wouldn't do that sms technique
No way
Get started right with white hat
And
Scale it up

 

[expels]

Peace of mind hands down. Wouldn't you feel great if someone who gave you money actually loves your product?

 

[EJM Missouri]

It is well known that there are lot of affiliates, that use deceptive advertising to promote offers aggressively in order to make the most money. You name it:

All in all, I would like to be physically and mentally prepared to keep promoting these type of offers. I know it's not the most "clean" way to promote products, but if you want to earn big, there will always be risks involved. I would appreciate the input and advice from other affiliates doing this type of blackhat marketing.

My opinion as a newbie still trying to figure all of this out. It's a no-brainer. If it is not above board honest then just don't do it. How much money I may or may not make from such practices does not even factor into the equation. If what is being offered up-front sans fine print is not what is really being offered, don't do it.