Yahoo Success Center. $1.95 Shipping, then $59.90 a Month!

Are you aware of what type of programs or subscriptions you are currently promoting through affiliate networks… or a better question might be, do you even care? For some marketers (like myself), there is always a moral issue on what campaigns to promote, and which to stay away from. For other marketers, the bottom line is all that matters. I was reading through GoogleLady’s blog the other day, and noticed shes did a review on a new program called “Yahoo Success Center.” or “Search Success Center“… varies per network/landing page. Her post was mainly on the new program (which is available through a few affiliate networks), and how it’s setup to help you effectively setup a new business, using pay per click marketing through Yahoo. After reading GoogleLady’s review on the program, I wanted to look into’s details a bit further.

First off, the “Yahoo Success Center” (I won’t bother pushing this through an affiliate link, as I don’t recommend it) is currently available on at least two networks. One of them being NeverBlueAds, and the other is AzoogleAds. The program pays $28.50 per signup through NeverBlueAds and $27.74 through AzoogleAds. NeverBlueAds also shows that the offer is currently earning around .80 per click, across the network.

So what exactly is “lead” on this offer? For you to earn your $27+ commission, you simply need to get your traffic to submit their information and complete the 2nd-page with a credit card, which pays for the $1.95 S&H cost. Seems like a great deal for the customer, at first. Once you are a paid member of the site, “you will have immediate access to the Yahoo success center and will be able to begin setting up your new online business“. The only information shown on the main page is that you will receive a 14 day trial when you signup to the program. Once you fill out the main page with your user information, you are sent to the next page which asks for your billing information, and shows a $1.95 bill to cover the shipping and handling cost.

On the bottom of the 2nd signup page, if you are looking for it… you will see the following disclaimer/terms and conditions:

By submitting this form I authorize Pacific WebWorks, Inc./eAuction to immediately charge my credit card $1.95 for the shipment of Search Success Center for Yahoo. Please allow 5 to 10 business days for delivery. I hereby request that Pacific WebWorks, Inc./eAuction activate my account and authorize them to advance funds as indicated. Monthly Service fees will commence 14 days from the date of this purchase, and will be billed monthly thereafter. After the 14 day trial you will be billed $59.90 monthly for the continued service of the website, eBay auction software and for the membership to the TradeWorks product club. No refunds will be given for failure to use the requested and provided services. We reserve the right to transfer your billing to a third party Merchant of Record. This authority will remain in effect until revoked by me. This agreement will remain in effect each month until cancelled by me. You may cancel at anytime by writing to 180 South 300 West Suite 400, Salt Lake City UT 84101 or calling 1-800-497-4988.

I have not personally signed up for this program, or went past the second signup page… but imagine how many people are signing up to this offer and not reading the fine print and expecting to only pay the $1.95 shipping, then getting nailed for $59.90 a month! I can tell you right now, “Yahoo Success Center” must be pulling in some decent conversion rates to pay $28.50 per 2nd page signup. The average signup only has to stay for one month for them to make a profit. This is a completely legitimate business, and if their backend / members area provides what they promise, then it may be a decent program. The site is also a listed Microsoft Certified Partner, for whatever that’s worth… it seems easy to get. However, I feel if this was the case, they wouldn’t have to hide the $59.90 a month billing so secretly.

A few days ago Mark from 45n5.com wrote a post called “Do You Promote Things You Would Recommend to Your Friends & Family to Run Away From?”. Basically his post was on the same topic of what I’m talking about now. There is a big difference between running advertisements on your blog or website vs. being a ppc master. When promoting through ppc marketing, you really have no branding and no one knows who you are (when pushing other sites/products). However, if you were to advertise or recommend a product like this on your blog, how would your readers feel about you afterwards? If your family wanted to try and make money online, would you recommend an offer like this? I’m not battling the offer… just the ethical issues behind how these companies pull in hundreds of members thinking they are only going to pay $1.95 for shipping… then start getting hit for $59.90 a month. Yes, it is the customer’s fault for not reading all of the fine print… but I would prefer to work and/or promote a company that doesn’t have to play with their member’s billing to make a decent earning.

When choosing an offer to promote, do you look into the program details before setting up a new campaign, or recommending it to your blog readers?

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33 Comments

  1. It is pretty bad really. This program like so many others just doesnt look legit. We really need to increase transparency.

  2. Hey, I randomly found your blog and got sucked in. This is a good article. I only use affiliates whose product I actually use, but have considered using others. I will, however, not use this Yahoo one.

    Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Added you to my RSS. Keep on blogging!

    eBay Selling Guide

  3. Even if you personally don't promote the shady, misleading, confusing, or downright fraudulent offers, I think they make the "industry" of internet marketing look bad as a whole.

    I also don't think it's the customers fault for not reading the fine print. To me that's like saying you can sell an "xbox" on ebay for $300 and in the fine print put "you are paying for a picture of an xbox only".

    My perception anyway. Glad you are covering the topic, it's a really gray area that doesn't get much talk usually.

  4. I've noticed this a lot lately. I've been trying to find banners on Never Blue to promote. And a lot of them seem sneaky. It's nice to know others are concerned with this as well.

  5. I see a lot of offers that have a price structure like this and I think they are rip-offs. I always check the terms of service before I work with any of these affiliate deals. I'm juts not into earning money for steering people into $59.95 per month deals.

  7. First time i comment to this blog, and i want to give congratulations for this superb work.

    I too think it's very important what we recommend to our readers when our name is in stake. Great post, and again congratulations for the blog and your success.

  8. Now I know why you have been very successful for quite sometime now. You're ethical and you are legit…

  9. Well, isn't she a piece of work. It appears that she can't spell, can't form proper sentences and recommends crap to her customers. Nice. Glad you exposed this.

  10. some times, one forgets to read the fine print, and as a publisher some times you dont have time to read all the fine print. but if a advertiser is offering a hight payout for with small Conversation you know its to good to be true.

    Edgar

  11. Although I do agree that it's nice to not push junk, or flat out scams, but there is also that fine line on what is the customers responsibility. Sure there are a lot of sneaky "small print" type offers but those have been around forever and most consumers should know that it is up to them to read the small print.

    I wouldn't promote something I knew was a scam or made to flat out rip people off but this is just a sneaky way to take advantage of peoples laziness. Just like we know most people don't use the "30 day money back guarantee" the same goes for this method…even those that know they need to cancel withing 14 days, most will end up forgetting or putting it off too long. Of course it doesn't help that it takes the company 10 days to ship so you only have 4 days after receiving the product to cancel but if they read the terms and paid attention then they should know.

    I don't like the model and haven't promoted those types of offers but there are actually a lot like that. Most that I have seen are those diet pills and such that you see a lot on the incentivized freebie sites.

    It would be nice if more networks and marketers blackballed those types of offers to get them off that business model but I doubt that would ever happen. I mean even the ringtone industry, which is just as sneaky, took forever for anyone to say anything and people are still promoting the hell out of those lol.

  14. interesting post, but this is along the lines of any other free trial offer minus the 2$ slap.

    Many of the 'free trials' or other promotions give you a charge if you don't cancel within x days. This one is just a little worse

  15. The only thing i can add to this conversation is that i did sign-up for this offer, and the cancellation process was easy. There is an 800 number on the 2nd sign up page, and i called it BEFORE i signed up to make sure it was a valid number, and also to gauge their CSR.

    It is outrageously priced, and this is why i cancelled. My advice to anyone who buys "anything online", is to ALWAYS read the fine print. Always.

    Also i believe the offer is available through Affiliateer.com

    1. I, like a sucker, did not write down the second page. Could you plese post it or, maybe, email me?

      Thanks,

      Bonny Johnson

  16. I was going to try out this offer, but perhaps it's a good thing it wouldn't accept my credit card? I can't even get hold of their 1-800-497-4988 as it says it unavailable?

  18. Thanks for the thought provoking article, Zac. IMO this type of affiliate offer falls into that "grey" area because of the fine print (there are far worse examples). If we (as marketers) are aware of any conditions to an offer that may be funky, I think we have a responsibility to make those dislcosures. But if you're not aware of any tricky aspects to an offer, I don't think it makes you a bad affiliate or a scam artist — you just need to acknowledge your error as soon as you become aware of it.

  19. Zac,

    I was browsing some of the affiliate offers in one of several affiliate companys, and yeah some of the offers are shady! I started to research the company you mentioned, and I was like no way! I can't promote this offer. I don't care how much it could make.

    The thing is, I am a Christian, and sure wish some of the top affilate companies would offer more up, and up stuff for us to promote via PPC etc.

  21. This is actually standard fare in the business opportunity area. In fact, most users know exactly what they are doing and pay the $1.95, cancel, then take the info and run.

  22. I think it would be absolutely fine to promote something like this on your blog if you made the full costs clear – you may do well out of it as your readers will thank you for your honesty. Of course if the review only mentions the shipping cost and not the ongoing monthly fee, then the reviewer is being as sneaky as the program.

  23. Thank you for posting this! I signed up for this only to credits for a different program, and ith the intent on canceling before the end of the trial. A few days passed and I ould not find an email with how to login (so I could cancel). So I googled Yahoo Success Center and found this article.

    Thanks a ton!

    Halena

    ~Peachy!

  24. these guys are criminal and are ripping off theiugh credit card fraud

  25. I was just searching for a new campaign to add to my rotator. I didn't think this looked too good. Funny, according to the status bar that is filled in completely, this campaign is doing very well in the network. I am glad I researched it more. I will definitely not add it now. Thanks!

  28. I cancelled my order but they still billed me. Could anyone tell me how to fix this? I called the number they provided (1-800-497-4988) and they still billed me.

  30. They billed me the $59.50 and the $1.95, could I still cancel so they don't bill me another $59.50 the next month?

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