Kathy Garcia?
Note: All details of the Online Income Solution sales page, terms and conditions, privacy policy, etc. as outlined in this post have preserved in multiple ways, including video recording.
9/13/2011 Update: Paid To Place is cranking out different versions of sales pages like crazy.
I noticed today, 9/13/2011 that there is a new sales page for Paid To Place that focuses heavily on Michelle Boudreau’s background with CBS News, The Home Shopping Network, as well as her appearances on Fox News, abc, NBC, & CNN.
You might remember her from John Beck’s informercials. You can read some of her dialogue in the FTC Complaint Against Amazing Profits here where Michelle introduces John Beck with the following words:
FTC V John Beck
The testimonials now clearly disclose that the photos are stock photos – and they do NOT claim specific amounts of money made as in the previous sales letter I reviewed did.
New Red Flag #1) There is no longer ANY disclaimer that the photo of Kathy Garcia is a stock photo.
New Red Flag #2) The sales letter claims “Easy work, great pay, NO selling.” But later the sales letter states: “Get your unique tracking code for online and offline placements” and also “as a “Paid to Place” affiliate you’ll get paid three-ways.”
Paid To Place even has a calculator it wants you to use to dream about how much money you’ll be raking in “just placing ads”. And the first field in that calculator is “New Sales From Ads Each Week”.
So they’re TELLING you that you will be doing affiliate marketing, there TELLING you that your earnings are based on selling, and they are TELLING you that you”ll be paid commissions on whatever you sell. Now there’s nothing wrong with affiliate marketing – selling products such as Green Smoke, Ashton Cigars, or Lasagna recipes.
So according to Paid To Place there’s no selling involved, but you get paid when you sell something? HUH???
New Red Flag #3) Paid To Place appears to leave out MUCH of what you have to do to actually generate income.
Paid To Place claims there are only 3 simple steps involved:
How much do you want to bet that there are quite a few OTHER steps involved?
New Red Flag #4) The Security Seals on the Paid To Place order page are NOT clickable.
What follows is the original review of the Paid to Place sales page:
Kathy Garcia, who also leads a double life as a stock photo here, wants you to believe you can make $225 per hour for posting links online. Of course she leaves out a few details…OK…she leaves out way more than a few details.
Let’s take a look at some of the red flags of the Paid To Place “program”
Red Flag 1: Kathy Garcia is a stock photo. I guess the upside to that is that since she’s just a photograph she’s probably a good listener.
Red Flag 2: Paid To Place displays a table so that you can imagine all the money you can make by posting links. The problem is that the table isn’t based on reality…not even close. Why? Because the only way you get paid in a program like Paid To Place is if someone finds your link, clicks on your link, then takes an action such as buying product, filling out a form (such as filling out a detailed insurance quote form that will allow an insurance company to follow up with them).
In other words, just because you PLACE an ad containing a link, does NOT mean you’ll get paid from doing so. In fact, most of the time you probably WON’T.
Red Flag 3: Use of customer testimonials claiming they made specific amounts of money. Why is this a red flag? Because here’s what the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has to say about these types of testimonials:
“The use of a disclaimer such as “results not typical” is no longer a safe harbor for the claims made in testimonials. Third, while you may use atypical or best-case testimonials, if you do, you should clearly and conspicuously disclose the generally expected results consumers can expect in the depicted circumstances.”
Red Flag #4) Claims of fast money
Paid To Place claims:
“You’ll Be Able To Sit Down At Your Computer And Start
Making Money Right Away.”
They also show a bunch of alleged customers who made money fast with the Paid To Pace program.
….both of which are quite strange, especially since Paid To Place also says,
“This isn’t for you if you’re trying to “get rich quick.” Fact is, these things don’t really exist and they are all scams. (Ask me how I know, I fell for a few of them myself.)”
OK. Maybe in their mind “get rich quick” and “make money fast” aren’t the same thing, and I suppose technically they aren’t, but both ideas are constantly used by questionable business opportunities to suck cash out of vulnerable people.
Red Flag #5) Two different Paid To Place students claim show the SAME pictures of separate vacations.
There are several versions of the Paid To Place sales page – one version shows pictures of Kathy Garcia’s vacation. Another sales page is supposed to show pictures of another student using the name “David Cox”‘s vacation. Both “Kathy Garcia” and “David Cox” are presenting the EXACT same pictures of their separate vacations.
Red Flag #6) Paid To Place runs a site called PaidToPlaceScam.com warning people about sites WARNING people about Paid To Place.
Paid To Place has set up a website called PaidToPlaceScam.com warning people about the sites WARNING people about Paid To Place. I don’t know about you, but that seems more than just a little odd. No product I’ve ever recommended has ever had to resort to doing that.
Update: A person named Mike who claims to be the affiliate manager for Paid To Place has offered to answer questions. I’ve asked him some questions in the comments section, which I’ll repeat here and add to as I think of more. You can check for his answers to these questions in the comments section here.
- As of 8/28/2011 are there still only 92 places left in the program?
- How did you document this part of your sales page, “What if I told you that the average you’ll make per link posted is $15″?
- How were the values of the Paid To Place, Quick-Start-Guide, 50K Self Funding, And 7 Ways To Make $100 A Day Online determined?
- I did notice that whoever did the salespage at the ptop.securewebsystem website left off some of the information from the regular PaidToPlace website, such as the disclaimer the regular PaidToPlace mentions stating that the image of Kathy is a stock photo. Are you surprised they left that off?
- I’m a little unclear about what results the consumer can generally expect by using the Paid To Place program. Can you tell me where to find that information?
- I’ve seen about 3 different versions of the sales page for Paid To Place now, so I’ll have to clarify which one I’m talking about here. There is one that shows 3 checks with Paid To Place as the payor where Kathy Garcia says, “…These are just a few of the affiliate checks I get in the mail every single month.” What types of products/services/leads are those checks for?
- Is Michelle Boudreau compensated in any way to endorse the Paid To Place Program.
Just out of curiosity, is the regular PaidToPlace site really a WordPress blog? I checked with BuiltWith.com and looked at the code and it didn’t look like one to me – especially the html for the comments section.
Is PaidToPlace site really a WordPress blog? I checked with BuiltWith.com and looked at the code and it didn’t look like one to me – especially the html for the comments section.
Builtwith.com will identify WordPress blogs as follows:
“WordPress
WordPress Usage Statistics – Websites using WordPressWordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.”
But it didn’t identify PaidToPlace.com in that way.
American Money Report Promotion Of Paid To Place
Paid To Place is currently being promoted by an advertorial site (fake news site) called American Money Report. The site tells the story of Kathy Garcia and claims that, “Thanks to the Paid To Place program Kathy now enjoys more time with her daughter Stella”
If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, you’ll find this disclaimer:
“*For purposes of privacy, the creator of The Paid to Place is using a pen name. This story is based upon the real life adaptation of the parties involved. The Company reserves the rights to the name and any uses of it as affiliated with the product. Any improper uses by unauthorized parties is strictly prohibited. Testimonials are from members who have purchased the optional support system”
The question is whether or not the FTC would consider that clear and conspicuous – that’s only something the FTC can decide, but I encourage you to take your best guess on that one. You can read through the FTC’s Advertising FAQ’s if you need help forming an opinion.
Home Working Connection Review Of Red Flags
I was just notified that another product called Home Income Surge is now operating under the name of Home Working Connection. The following video would seem to indicate that as well:
Most of the usual red flags are here at Home Working Connection, such as the arrow pointing to the order form “above the fold” of many browser, with the pricing information underneat the arrow. By the way, if you missed the pricing information at the HomeWorkingConnection.com site, it was as follows:
Of course there’s the mandatory fake countdown timer Home Working Connection which you can reset by simply refreshing your browser.
There are two testimonials on the front page:
One from “Barry M.” claiming he made $120,000 in his first six months. The second from “Marybeth W.” claiming she made $10,000 within her first 3 months.
Apparently HomeWorkingConnection.com didn’t “get the memo” from the FTC about user of testimonials which states:
What’s even more bizarre is that HomeWorkingConnection states on the page where they PUT those testimonials:
So, if “earnings claims of any type are strictly against” policy…then why are they DIRECTLY on the page where HomeWorkingConnection.com has that disclaimer?
And why is that verbiage in brown print on a brown background which you can see below:
Home Working Connection brown on brown disclaimer
Here’s that same text highlighted:
HomeWorkingConnection.com highlighted disclaimer