[Suzanne 3FC]

It's hard to search the internet without stumbling over countless websites designed to sell ebooks, all promising to hold the secret to successful weight loss, and revolutionary tips that will astound us. Many offer the sale of ebooks with free bonuses valued at several hundred dollars, which are also more ebooks.

Have you ever been tempted to buy one? More importantly, have you wondered who was on the other side, collecting your cash?

A new member, Joseph Cole, signed up for our forum this morning and posted a helpful response to a question by a member. He was friendly and had our attention. This new member also had a signature containing a link to his revolutionary diet ebook. Most of you know that signing up to advertise or self promote is against the rules, so he was banned. But it gets worse - Upon browsing his website and incredible offers, we found his affiliate offer page that explained his true motives behind this ebook. What we are about to post below is very similar to most other diet ebook affiliate offers.

Dear Affiliate,

How would you like to receive $24.38 for every quick sale you make to one of the easiest products to sell online? Allow me to back up my claim with a couple of quick facts.

Fact - the weight loss market contains hoards of RABID buyers. A rabid buyer is someone who purchases as many products they can get their hands on to solve their problem. They are so desperate for a solution, price is often not a factor.

Fact - 96% of dieters FAIL within one year. This means there is a constant stream of unhappy buyers desperately seeking a solution that works.

Affiliate Programs - Not All Are Created Equal!

If you're in the affiliate game, you've probably stumbled across a few products that sell like wildfire, and a few more that do nothing but eat up your ad budget. What's the difference between a run-away success and a miserable failure? The Offer.

The Offer is what makes the difference. More than the website design, even more than the sales copy. Present an irresistible offer to a desperate crowd, and the result will be more sales notifications than you can count in one day.

Formula for high sales conversions:

irresistible offer + desperate crowd = many, many sales

(edited)

Weight Loss - A Whopping Market!

The second requirement is a desperate crowd. As talked about in the facts above, you'll see we've picked the perfect "crowd" to market to. According to Yahoo/Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool, 647,612 people search for the term "weight loss" every month. 986,732 search for "diet". Not counting all the other terms, that's at least 1.63 million people desperately seeking to fix their weight problem every single month.

We felt insulted after reading this.

[sweet_talker]

Ughhh!!! That leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.

[alinnell]

I don't consider myself desperate.

I think the majority of us here at 3FC are informed rather than desperate. I'm glad he was caught and banned.

[jillybean720]

I wonder if these same marketers would be in favor of selling an ebook with a fake cure for cancer--after all, aren't cancer patients often desperate for a cure? And aren't there more and more patients being diagnosed with cancer every day? Sickening...

[Meg]

I hope with all my heart that he comes back and sees that he's been outed. I want him to regret the day that he decided to mess with all the desperate chicks at 3FC.

[Heather]

The really really sad part is that he may be right about enough people being desperate.

Though I have to hope he's wrong, and the people getting scammed are not the "desperate" people seeking to lose weight, but those he scams into his pyramid scheme to try to sell to the 'desperate" ones.

[LindaT]

Scum sucker!!!!!!!!!!! Bah

[nelie]

Really, it doesn't surprise me. I mean every new diet pill that comes out must be thinking the same thing. "People are desperate, if I claim it works, they will buy it".

At least this is one less scum that we will have to deal with.

[kaplods]

Unfortunately, there are a lot of cancer cure scams going on offline, so I'm assuming online as well. People seeking pain relief, money, spiritual guidance or salvation, romance and companionship are also targeted because of their "desperation."

Even though most people aren't fooled, the numbers of people targeted are often so small, that even a tiny % of a response can make a few scumbags wealthy. I think every time we're tempted to try something that sounds to good to be true, we have to think of this. We might not be desperate ourselves, but just willing to "take a chance" on an unproven product if it seems inexpensive. However, buying the product makes it that much easier for the marketer's of these products to take advantage of people who are truly desperate and can't afford to throw their money away (though do any of us really have the money to do that).

[rockinrobin]

It makes me soooo angry that people want to prey upon people who are struggling with a problem. So very angry. And they do it so freely, with no remorse. Disgraceful.

You probably won't believe this, but I have never, ever purchased a "diet" book. Never. Not even the newer ones which I know have valid information in them. Something about it always bothered me. Always. They always seemed to me to be trying to capitalize on my situation. And besides that I knew in the back of my mind that I always knew what to do in order to lose weight and purchasing a book laying it out for me wouldn't be of any help to me whatsoever. That the answers to my problems did not somehow lay within the pages of a book. The answers were right there in my brain. But I certainly know I am the rare one. So many people have made so many millions of dollars all in the guise of helping others. I just want to add that I am aware that there are some very legitamate weightloss and lifestyle books on the market that have truly helped many, many people to better their lives. Boy did I get off topic here. Sorry for the ramble.