I have been reading some of the big ‘Make Money Online’ blogs recently and have come to this conclusion… John Chow’s site, along with a few others, are used just like a pump and dump stock scheme.
The site is a simple blog. He has quite a few visitors so there is a wide audience. He makes occasional posts about restaraunts and food, there is the big monthly income post, the paid reviews and the rest are schemes. Most of the posts are about a new affiliate program or a new way to make money online, all laiden with affiliate links. I have to hand it to the guy though, he claims to have made $20k from the website just in September. That is serious bank.
So anyway, his large audience is like a huge, highly targeted mailing list. He is in on what ever it is at ground level and hypes the product-slash-deal all while using affiliate links and collecting commissions. I doubt he cares about what the product is or how he is pimping it as long as it brings him a return. I also doubt he cares much about the people jumping on his bandwagon as long as his bottom line is better.
A penny stock invester may do the same things… you’ve have all recieved emails about the next stock ready to explode. They are sent to as large an audience possible in hopes of a small percentage of clickthroughs or idiots who actaully buy the crap. And they do.. that is why there are so many of these emails sent. The orginal share holders, the ones that were in it at the beginning make the money when other people jump on the bandwagon and when the stock goes up a little the originals sell everything while it is hot and are on to the next one before anyone else has a chance to make a profit.
If you have an ameritrade account or something simliar, check out the stocks that are in the emails sometime. They will be trading at a level two or three times what they were earlier in the week. By the time you look at it the profit has already been made.
Seems to me that is how sites like John Chow works. Once you jump in on the offer, the money has already been made for the guys hyping it.
Just my two cents, I suppose.. any thoughts?