The Shocking Lies Of Bloggers

Published: 7/9/16

*This page contains affiliate links

I feel like I can't tell people enough about all the deceptive tactics that some blogs and websites use to lure you in and have you sign up, click on, or spread their schemes around. These go around on Facebook all the time. As an honest, hard working blogger, I feel so disgusted when I see this going on. It happens on some very popular sites and they do it deliberately. It's all about the money for them. It is downright shameful.

They are not worried about the risk it imposes to you. The fact that you may click on something and get sent to a spam site, pick up a virus in your computer, or get added to numerous unwanted email subscriptions doesn't concern them. As I got into blogging and working with different affiliate companies, I realized that there are always some tempting, juicy offers that they hope you will post in order to make bigger profits. They make them so flashy, interesting, or sensational. I have to admit, they are hard to resist. But any honest person simply can not bring themselves to use these tricks.

Due to copyright infringement I can not show any images or mention any specifics blogs, but I am sure you will figure out who some of them are just by what I am describing.
Here's what to avoid:

The first thing I want to mention is that if you come across any type of questionable posts, downright scams, etc. THE WORST THING YOU CAN DO IS COMMENT ON THE POST OR ENGAGE THE POST IN ANYWAY. The best thing to do is to ignore the post. Why? Because every single comment, even negative ones, spread the post further on Facebook. The more likes, comments, or shares it receives, the more people Facebook will show it to on their timelines. ALSO marking them as "spam" may or may not help. The thing is many of these companies have something protecting themselves somewhere obscure on their websites. A fine print statement explaining their way out of any wrong doing. That is why Facebook must allow them to keep posting. As long as they have a disclaimer somewhere, it is all legal.
The next thing to avoid is sensational news stories that sound like they are too crazy to be true like "you won't believe what this man found in his food at such and such restaurant, see it here" OR "shocking ways to lose weight" OR "if you stick a glass over butter something sensational happens" etc. The titles themselves make you curious. I sort of tried to make the title of this article that way on purpose just as an example of these grabbing titles that some articles use. These articles are generally fake, inaccurate, or are just something they want you to click to get paid. There are tons of fake or satirical news sites out there. Unfortunately some freebie sites or other blogs use their articles as a way to make more money, they are paid by the sites to share them or they simply do it to increase their page views dramatically which in turn will make them more money. It is always a good idea to Google search and fact check these articles before clicking them or sharing them.
Placing "ads" right under the words "enter now" or "sign up" etc. when actually the place to click is further down below the ad is another ploy used by different sites. This tricks you into clicking the ad. Then they get paid. Please be aware, all blogs/websites run ads. It is no secret that many of us are trying to make a little money on our blogs for our hard work. In fact I have ads on this very page. But some pages purposely put them places you will accidentally click them. I never encourage anyone to click on any ads anywhere unless it is really something that interests you. Please note that not all ads are paid on clicks, some you actually have to follow it and sign up in order for the person to get paid. But most you are seeing on websites/blogs are click ads. The most popular are Google ads, which are randomly generated by Google. The bloggers/websites don't decide what ads are shown, however, Google does try to keep ads on topic with your site to some degree.
Advertising that you will get something awesome free like a case of peanut butter, a set of knives, an entire cookware set, etc. to then click on it and be lead to a bunch of long surveys. You will never get anything free from these sites. Many people want so badly to believe it's true, I see them keep trying over and over. There are plenty of good REAL freebies out there if you follow the right site (hopefully this one lol). Sometimes they will even advertise a legit freebie but still send you through all the surveys and then at the end say "click here" to get this freebie and it sends you to a direct form of a freebie you could have got without doing the survey. That is why you always see a few people saying that they got something from them. These are a waste of time. Any site that makes you sign up with them, sends you through a bunch of surveys, or requires you to sign up for their offers in order to get entries into one of their giveaways is bad news. There is no need for that. They are using it to their benefit. Plain and simple.
The old bait and switch is used quite often by sites who will do anything for money. Here is a perfect example that I just saw. There is a FREE Disney Park Planning DVD that I advertise and so do many other sites of course. We get a few bucks for each sign up, so it is quite popular to see advertised. However, I just saw a site that has a picture with a huge pile of popular Disney movie DVD's and a picture of a large stuffed animal and the post says "hurry and get a free Disney DVD". This is a great way to trick you into thinking you will get an actual Disney movie and that it comes with a stuffed animal. Some commented that they actually believed they would get all those DVD's pictured. This is just one example. Another that I see a lot also is the FREE Atkins kit. Many sites are still showing that you get the free bars with it when they stopped that awhile back OR worse they are showing a picture of this huge starter kit you can get at stores which has never been offered. This is just so wrong.

In conclusion, I completely understand using marketing tactics, but not when they are downright deceptive. I have tried to list some of the biggest ways that sites will trick you, lie to you, and generally be money hungry jerks. I am sure there are many more.
I hope you have found this article helpful and that it can help you to avoid sites like this in the future. Please comment below and tell me what you think. Have you seen any scams? Thank-you for taking the time to read this.

Where Freebies Are Queen