This entry is part 6 of 11 in the series Internet and Home Business Scams Revealed

Earlier in the series we discussed the buying and selling of free information over the Internet. An extension of the same subject, slightly modified is the selling of  instructional courses online.

Of course we’ve already covered the free information sellers, but there are other ways to lose money with instructional “how to” courses not related to the free information types mentioned earlier in this report.

While there are many high quality instructional courses available online, there are even more that are completely bogus.

At the top of the bogus list are the courses that promised to teach you ‘data entry’. The data entry scam has evolved and takes on many forms disguised as virtual assistant jobs under many names today. This course will teach you nothing about data entry nor will you land a decent job as a virtual assistant from their programs. This course teaches you how to sign up for affiliate programs and expects you to place advertisements to recruit others into buying the same program.

This program and others are affiliate marketing products in disguise. Affiliate marketing is definitely not a scam, but when a product such as the data entry and other work from home jobs are misrepresented with the intent to con people out of money — these avenues become the scam not the affiliate marketing process itself.

Before spending your money for an online instructional course, ask yourself a few questions:

  • Can I find this information myself elsewhere maybe for free?
  • Can this information really help me?
  • Is the information being offered what it appears to be?
  • Is there a guarantee?
  • Will I be required to spend additional money to execute the information?
  • How stiff will the competition be?
  • Is the person teaching the course knowledgeable or well-known in his or her field?
  • Does the advertisements sound too good to be true?
  • Will I commit the time needed to learn the information?

Always be sure to look elsewhere on the net by doing some searches to find the opinions of others about the product before purchasing. Testinonials on the product’s website may sound terrific, but will always be biased. By searching the name of both product and seller you may avoid costly mistakes by learning from others who were willing to share their experience or reviews of the product.