Go Legit… and Make Everyone Happy

No matter what industry you are in, someone is out there to scam you. If you own a store, you always have to worry about staff taking money from the register. In internet marketing we have to worry about marketers sending bad leads, and networks shaving. Even in every day life, people are looking to use you, just to get ahead. It’s everywhere… but eventually, people get caught, hurting both the businesses they work with and themselves.

I recently made a blogger job posting and hired a few new writers. One of the writers was simply taking content from other sites, posting it to another blog, then calling it his own. The blogger job description laid out the terms very clear; “all work has to be original content”. So I contacted the guy, he simply replied back, “Those were copied, so please erase them.“. The results was he was fired without pay, and all of the copied content had to be removed.

My site wasn’t the only one he was writing for, and in the end he lost a few hundred dollars a month writing for both sites. However, if he had provided quality work, there was a lot of potential for longer term jobs and better opportunities, but instead his focus was to make a quick buck with little to no effort. Which in the end, was a waste of his time and mine.

This is just one example of how easy it is to scam and try to make a quick buck online, but a great majority of scams never even get noticed, but they also usually don’t last long. From simple things like fill out lead gen with fake info, to stealing and selling private information, scams and fraud is everywhere.

The bottom line is… it may be easier to fool around and keep trying to scam people over to make a quick buck, but a legitimate service and business model will win in the long run.

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13 Comments

  1. Hi Zac…there have always been and will always be…those who will deceive. The good news is that sooner these days rather than later, these sods get found out.

    I agree that one of the really annoying things after being scammed is having to remove the problem material. Makes one think that "if only I'd written the (expletive) article myself" …just think of all the time I'd have saved! Arh…The benefit of hindsight. Probably no help but you aren't Robinson Crusoe. All we can do is 'name and shame them' to hopefully save others.

  2. Hi, Zac!
    This is just a proof that there is no quick buck around and over the night, even with writing posts. The guy obviously hurt not just the blogs he was working for, but their reputation as well. Not to mention that it is not professional at all to do such things.
    Luckily, as you say, they all eventually get caught…the harder or the easier way.
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  3. Yeah its part of the blogging game, these stuff is bound to happen. Legit is always the best part or attitude to have in every part of life.
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  4. Yes, this brings outsourcing into a really new perspective. Sometimes it is just better to wait for guest posts or require previous works.

  5. I've been reading a lot of blog posts lately about the different scams that have been happening and it just makes me sick because as many of them as we know about and hear about, there are a LOT more that go unnoticed and uncaught. I wish there was something more we could do to avoid them! But for now I guess the best advice is to be legit yourself – if everyone swept their own front porch the world would be spotless, right? 🙁

    Laurie

  6. Unfortunately con men are everywhere, it is part of life in general, and we have to deal with it like it or not. If people like this were not trying to scam everyone like you said in your post they would get a lot farther ahead and maybe even make a few friends in the process lol. Good post Zac!
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  7. Hello Zac. I did a job in April and the guy scammed me out of $400. I learned then that you HAVE TO get a milestone payment. At least. With my offline clients I ask a full payment with a money back guarantee if they're not happy. OR at least a discount. Haven't had that yet, so I'm not sure if I should delete his online real estate… But ya, scamming everywhere, ESPECIALLY online.

  8. Maybe he didn't have the skills to produce original content? It's no excuse when he's taking money to do that but people lie about their "skills" everyday and it's certainly not confined to online. I wish I had $0.01 for every person that has ever lied on a job application. Then again I wouldn't mind the same amount everytime some MMO guru ships a product based on lies and deceit.

  9. Love the message here! It's so true, you can make a quick buck but that's about it… you don't have any long-term reward and you certainly shouldn't have a clear conscious.

  10. I totally agrie i’ve been reading a lot of blog posts lately about the different scams that have been happening and it just makes me sick because as many of them as we know about and hear about, there are a LOT more that go unnoticed and uncaught.

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