I’ve had some feedback on my make money online reviews. My readers what to know why I rate everything so low.
This is really a great question and I’m quite happy to explain to you my reasoning behind my ratings.
But before I go into my explanation I want to point out that some of my reviews have incredible ratings, such as my Wealthy Affiliate review which scored an incredible 98/100! In fact I wanted to score this 100/100 but I couldn’t do that because as much as I love their platform there is no product or service that has no room for growth and improvement.
Also check out my Affilorama review and my Chris Farrell Membership review for examples of good ratings.
Table of Contents
Make Money Online Scams? What does this mean to Me?
So what constitutes make money online scams to me? It is quite simple really, any website that conducts itself in any sort of unethical way, is dishonest to it’s members in any form, rips people off, steals anyone’s money and/ or steals anyone’s time.
I just want to emphasize a point from that little list… TIME.
This is something a lot of people seem to just ignore. The way I see things if someone steals my time they are stealing my money! Time is incredibly valuable and to be honest sometimes I think I would be less pissed off if someone ripped me off financially instead of purposefully and knowingly wasting a whole day or more of my precious time.
Firstly I can use time to make money, so every minute of my time wasted is money I see seeping out of my bank account.
Secondly I can use my time in a way that means a lot more to me than money. Instead of wasting my time on a scam I would much rather go pick my kids up from playschool early and go play at the beach. This is time well spent to me. Or I could lie down on the bed and close my eyes, I never get time to myself to just rest and take a break for my busy lifestyle. If someone steals my time I am prevented from doing things like this as well as losing money.
Take a look at this review of Mintvine, this is a perfect example! In an attempt to see if I could earn some money I wasted an entire day. Is this not time theft?
Anything I deem to be a downright scam, a time waster, unethical in any way, dishonest to it’s members in any way, rips people off in any way or steals anyone’s money gets a big fat ZERO. Yes this is always the case.
So if I give a Zero Rating you can’t make Money?
I am not saying you won’t earn money from the reviews that I give a big fat zero to. Quite the contrary, some I think you can make some great money!
You can become an affiliate for loads of scam websites, promote their scams and make some great money I’m sure. There are lots of people doing it, check out the reviews where I give a zero rating and you will find hundreds of positive reviews from affiliate marketers.
If this is what you want to do then my website is most likely not suited to your needs…. and good luck sleeping at night.
The web is a breeding ground for scams and unethical practices. I set myself apart from this. I won’t be involved in any way.
Am I Saying I Don’t Make Money from My Reviews then?
Of course I do, I earn money from affiliate marketing as well as earn money online in other ways like my online baby store!
If I think something is great I will become an affiliate and earn commission for promoting it. This is a great way to earn a living. I just won’t affiliate with anything that I deem to be a scam or a time waster, I also won’t affiliate with something I think is only mediocre. I only promote what I think is a really good product and what I think you should give a try.
And Why Do I Give Such Low Ratings in General?
Well this website is called Small Online Business Opportunity… that should give you a clue 🙂
This website is intended to help readers find a way to start their own online business, something they can quit their day job for, something they can call a career.
If you can make money from something but it is not enough to do full time, or at least make a substantial difference to your income I will give a low rating. Here are the things I ask myself while reviewing an online business opportunity:
- Is this a scam/ time waster/ unethical website? If so it gets a big fat zero!
- Can I make money? If you can make money (even if it is a tiny little bit) it will get some points.
- Can I make enough additional income to make a difference to my lifestyle?
- Can I make a full time income doing this?
- Can I call this a career?
- Will I be proud of myself doing this?
- Will this give me a feeling of job satisfaction?
I guess now you can understand why things like clicking on ads, playing games and liking Facebook pages really don’t sit well with me. These are things I really wouldn’t want to do all day even if I could earn good money (which you can’t). Completely mundane, useless activities. Oh and did I already say you can’t make money doing it?
I honestly try and be open-minded with every opportunity I come across, but the truth is maybe I am too harsh and maybe I should give more of these opportunities a chance… then again you are here reading my personal opinion about these opportunities. If I try and give these websites a higher rating then it won’t be my honest opinion anymore will it?
Another thing, is that if I am unsure of something I will say so, I will not rate something a ZERO if I am unsure.
What you can be assured of is that if I give a high rating, it really is good.
Are you tired of scams or working online for pennies? Check out my #1 Recommendation!
Be wise and vigilance for investing money, effort and time. Bad experience has thought so much to learn, even you are an open minded person we will reach the point of giving the bad impression in first attempts of their introduction, the sound of money is for them not for you That the big fat zero.
Hi Renelyn
Yes I really agree with you, there are so many people that don’t research and then lose their money! Thanks for visiting and sharing your opinion 🙂
Hey, Lynne!
I do understand now why you can’t give even the best opportunities top marks because every online training program and opportunity always has room for improvement. So it does make sense 🙂
TIME is incredibly important because time is valuable, we can’t afford to waste it, and it does also represent money, as you suggest.
Online scams certainly do waste our time, and the owners should be paying us money instead of vice-versa. Perhaps we should send them invoices to make them think twice about scamming people. LOL.
Thanks for clearing things up about your online money making review ratings.
Neil
Hi Neil
I think that is a brilliant idea, from now on every website that wastes my time will be emailed an invoice for an hourly rate LOL!
The thing is, Lynne, you really don’t have to look very far to find online scams that are worthy of zero points. When it comes to the “make money online” niche, so many of the products and services on offer are indeed scams. Of course, there are some that are in that grey area between scam and legit, but there are still a lot that are outright scams. The great thing is, you are simply telling it like it is. If something is a complete con, why pretend otherwise?
Have you ever fallen for a scam yourself? The worst scam I ever fell for was when I got sucked into an online gambling system back in 2008. I learned a big hard lesson then.
Hi Marcus, I fell for Amway years ago, which I consider to be a scam even though it is apparently an MLM company… what a load of s*** I think. But that wasn’t online, I was suckered in by a neighbor.
Online well, I have tried a good few things that have cost me time, but not money. I hate losing time 🙁
And of course I tried out Semalt when I was still learning about working online and then I learned that they are dodgy, but they are a website that claims to help rank you, they are not a make money online company.
I appreciate you taking the value of people’s time into account. I agree with you that it is in many ways worse for someone to waste your time than to simply steal money from you. Also, I always feel foolish after wasting my time on something and I get cynical about people in general, which isn’t healthy!
David
Hi David
Yes you have brought up a big time point there, I also feel foolish when my time has been wasted and that also leads me to not trust anyone easily and I also sit with feelings of resentment and anger! Thanks for bringing that up.
hi Lynne
I totally agree with your reasoning. Let’s face it, there are a lot more scams out there then there are genuine opportunities to make money. We live in the era of fast and furious and everyone wants to make money now. So a lot of programs capitalize on that, making false promises to those who do not know better. So yes low score reviews are necessary so that people know the truth and do not get lured in. I agree that a lot of programs are a waste of time and effort. And I would rather know before I try it than after.
Hi Emily
Thanks for your feedback and for confirming my opinion. I just can’t bring myself to give a lot of websites higher ratings when I consider them to be dodgy and unethical!
Of course there’s a lot of grey area between scams and very good products. But you’re right in giving a lot of them ultra low scores: it might help people realize there’s no such thing as an easy fix (unless of course you get extremely lucky and win the lottery). So power to the zero 🙂
Hi Dave
Spot on and yes I play the lotto sometimes. I doubt I will ever win big but at least I know where I stand and I know I am probably throwing that little bit of money away. However I have once won R7900 and another time R2700 with the lotto! But yes back to the dodgy websites, there are so many that really suck and those will get a very low score lol.
Hi Lynn, this is a great read and gives me a better understanding of your rating system. I totally agree that time is valuable and I have wasted a lot of time on a lot of useless products over the years. I wish I had put in the time to find honest reviews like yours prior to spending time on those products.
I also appreciate you bringing dishonest marketing techniques into the light. I’m sure it will save a lot of people a lot of money.
Hi Christian
It is a pleasure, so sorry that you wasted so much time on valueless products, such a shame when people are looking for honest ways to make money online.
Hi Lynne, I think it’s great that you rate so many companies poorly. Why shouldn’t you if they deserve it. I had never thought about theft in terms of time, but I like the way you put it, and agree with you wholeheartedly. What upsets me is when decent, hardworking people who are just trying to create a business and make some money, are sucked into a scam, costing them money they could ill afford to lose. Great job and keep exposing those scams. You’re doing your readers a huge service.
Hi Hindy
Thanks for stopping by again. Yes theft of time gets me badly. The thing is I don’t part with my money easily but I am happy to work hard to try and make money, so this is where I get suckered!
Lynne, I like your style!! Thank you for a fabulous refreshing site… would you mind if I add a link to your site from mine? Am about to write a review of Wealthy Affiliate myself.
Hi Lauren, thank you I am flattered! Yes of course you are welcome to link to my website! I am always keen to have my website promoted in any way.
However you would really want to promote your own website wouldn’t you? Why not link to content and training within WA instead? 🙂 Let me know if you want to chat, I sent you an email.