There’s not much new with Internet-News-Daily.com (a.k.a. ”Online Jobs Journal”) but, it’s interesting to continue to see the increase in flogging after the July FTC crackdown on negative option scams that used affiliate flogs as a primary presales technique. The type of flog (fake blog) being used in these cases used fake stories with fake screenshots of checks and fake testimonials.
As we’ve seen before the amount of traffic sites like Internet-News-Daily.com continue to get is alarmingly high: 
Internet-News-Daily.com tells the familiar Mary Steadman story which claims that she makes $7,000/month submitting small texts and ads on Google….ah, whatever happened to the good ol’ days of just posting “links”? 
You may want to take a look at Michael Brown’s write up about the to “Make Money Posting Links on Google Scam” if you aren’t sure what I’m talking about in that last remark.
Internet-News-Daily’s recommendation of Google Profits
"Kevin M." and family - a.k.a. iStockPhoto 00006556811
If you click through on the Internet-News-Daily Google Biz Kit link you”ll be taken to a page on site called SecureFormNet.com which promotes a program called Google Profits which bizarrely claims to be a trademarked name. I guess their next move will be to claim trademark rights for the Google logo they’re using on their site.
Google Profits presents a testimonial from “Kevin M.” who claims to “make more money at home watching TV” than (he) was at (his) previous job working 9-5″.
As usual Google Profits is using a stock photo for this testimonial. What’s a bit strange though is that they don’t have the usual weird disclaimer saying that they are using alternate pictures to protect the privacy of the person giving the testimonial.
And of course there are the usual ABC, MSN, CNN, and USAToday logos with no explanation at all as to why they are there.
But probably the funniest thing on the page is the “HURRY, Only 57 Kits Left!” considering that the whole sentence is part of a larger image.
The Google Profits order page contains all too familiar elements:
"Aaron H." performing his duties as a stock photo at IStockPhoto
Of course there is requisite stock photo used for the testimonial on Google Profits’ order page, which I just bought from iStockPhoto.
Apparently Google Profits must get tons of refund requests really fast, because the order page states that there are “Only 37 Kits Left!” (again the phrase is part of the image), but when I went back to the original page 3 seconds later there were 57 Kits Left again.
Assuming a 12-hour sales day, that would be 20 refunds per minute x 720 minutes = 14,400 refunds per day!
Anyhow…finishing up the order page we find the terms in tiny white print at the bottom of the page AFTER the large graphic ”FREE TRIAL!” arrow which points to the large red “Rush My Kit!” image, which state:
“I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy/Terms and Conditions. By submitting this form, I am ordering the Google Profit™ CD trial for $1.97 shipping and handling, after the 30 day trial I will be charged $99 for the program. I also agree to the 14 day trial to Google Profit Resource membership for 47.50 per month there after should i choose do not cancel. Charges will appear on credit/debit statements as “GoogCD866-995-9812″. For questions, call 1-866-995-9812 M-F, 6am-7pm, PST.”
For “some” reason the hyperlink for “Privacy Policy” is in the traditional blue hyperlink convention whereas the Terms and Conditions hyperlink is not. Hmmm. I wonder why they did that?
Hyperlink coloring at the bottom of the Google Profits Order Page. Click for full image.
Even more interesting is the fact that in the actual terms and conditions there is the potential for ANOTHER monthly charge NOT mentioned at the bottom of the page. The last part of “Fees and Pricing” under the Terms and Conditions states:
“You have also been enrolled into a seven (7) day trial to the eBay Money Resource Center. Should you choose not to cancel your eBay Money Resource Center, you will be billed seven dollars and seventy one cents ($7.71) each month for the eBay Money Resource Center. If you wish to cancel your eBay Money Resource Center subscription, please call 1-800-215-1752 to cancel.”
How much money is the affiliate running Internet-News-Daily making?
Obviously, I don’t know his exact numbers, but my best guess is that a presell like Internet-News-Daily.com would convert this type of “biz kit” offer at between 5% to 10%, but even if you assume a 10% clickthrough rate on the fake news site to the Google Profits site which it promotes then you get the following astonishing number:
(800,000 unique visitors) x (10% clickthrough on Internet-News-Daily) x (5% conversion rate) = 4,000 conversions per month from just one affiliate.
To get a sense of how much companies are paying for leads on these types of offers I took a look at a couple of the affiliate network comparison engines – OfferVault.com and oDigger.com and it appears the payout averages around $30.00 per lead.
If that affiliate is earning $30.00 per conversion, then he or she is bringing in $120,000.00 per month before expenses.
Considering that the affiliate is likely running multiple offers in different markets where flogs are pervasive – i.e. health, diet, anti-aging, teeth-whitening, etc. - it’s not unreasonable to conclude that one affiliate could be bringing in nearly a half million dollars per month (before expenses), if not more.
It seems a safe bet that given these types of numbers, flogs promoting questionable negative option offers will be around for a VERY long time.
