Operation Bob

There are a lot of people looking for ways to make money online. If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of them. There are also a lot of people looking to take your money online in exchange for an empty promise of making you wealthy. In the sea of crap out there it can be hard to find legitimate, honest income opportunities. But, there are a few techniques that you may find helpful.

The first thing we all do is google a phrase like ‘make money online.’ You’ll get a lot of results, and most of them will be garbage. Those keywords are highly bid on by the folks who are making money telling you how to make money. Google, or any search engine, is a great resource, but you have to be a little more creative. Try adding the word ‘review’ to your search.

The goal is to find word-of-mouth recommendations from people who have tried things. Since you probably don’t know these people, you need to read into the reviews a bit and make sure they aren’t just cut and paste sales copy published by an affiliate whose only goal is to get a referral commission out of you. I’ve done this and found word for word the same review on several different sites, blogs, and forum posts. That’s a clue that I’m not getting a real review but a pitch disguised as one.

I should stop and say that there’s nothing wrong with an author including an affiliate link in their review. If they took the time to do an honest and thorough review and told you about a good site, there’s nothing wrong with them getting a commission for referring you. After all, they did refer you.

Don’t stop with just one review, look for several. If the review is on a blog, read the comments that follow as well and see if the readers share the same experience as the author. When reading a review, look for signs of credibility. For instance, does the author include constructive criticism or is it all hype? Is every review by the author a glowing endorsement, or do they tell you straight when an opportunity didn’t work for them?

Check out my Get Paid page for a list of income opportunities. But hey, don’t take my word for it - do you’re homework too!