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Is ReceiptPal a Scam or Worth Your Time? – [Review]

ReceiptPal is an app that pays you to shop… in a way. But its much different from other popular cashback apps out there and actually its not even considered a cashback app. So what the heck is it and is it worth your time? Is ReceiptPal a scam that you should avoid?

In this review I’ll be going over all you need to know about ReceiptPal including what exactly it is, how it works, complaints and more.

ReceiptPal Review

ReceiptPal is an app created by The NPD Group that pays you to upload your receipts. Now you may think of popular cashback apps like Ibotta when you hear this, which pays you cashback to buy certain products, but its actually very different. ReceiptPal is not a cashback app. Their purpose is not to promote different products or brands. Instead, they are interested in product research.

The purpose of this app is to collect shopping data so that companies can use it to make better product/services… which makes them market research focused.

The outcome on your end is the same however… you get paid to shop in a way.

How It Works

The process is simple:

Step 1: Submit Your Receipt

You will be able to snap a photo of your receipt within the app. This is easy to do. If you do not have a physical receipt because you purchase something online or just had the receipt emailed to you, then this is even easier. You are able to give ReceiptPal permission to access your e-receipts from your email that you signed up to ReceiptPal with. This is done automatically.

Step 2: Wait

That is really all you have to do. Now you just have to wait until the receipts are verified and you are given credit. You will be credited in the form of points which can later be redeemed for rewards (which I’ll go over).

What Type of Receipts are Accepted?

You can upload receipts from any merchant. So clothing stores, gas stations, hotels, restaurants, etc are all allowed. On the receipt there just must be a date, the merchant name and the total price, which any normal receipt will have.

Utility bill receipts are not accepted however. So you can’t get credit for paying that gas or electricity bill. The same goes for things like paying for car insurance, internet, cable, etc.

In order for a receipt to be accepted it also must be submitted within a week of purchase or by the 3rd day of the following week. So you can’t stockpile a bunch of receipts and upload them at once… you have to consistently upload them on a weekly basis.

Getting Rewarded

As I said, you will get rewarded in points which can be redeemed for rewards once you get enough. The different rewards you can get include gift cards, donations, and sweepstakes. You will automatically be entered into sweepstakes drawings when you submit receipts.

When you get the app and sign up you will be credited with 150 points as a signup bonus. Then after that you will get 100 points for every 4 receipts that you submit.

Complaints

Weekly Limit

With ReceiptPal you can’t just go uploading tons and tons of receipts. They have a limit in place where you can only upload 12 per week, which means it is impossible to make much with this app.

Expiration

You have to upload your receipts within a week of purchase or by the 3rd day of the next week as I mentioned. This new rule has made a lot of users upset because they would wait longer and upload a bunch all at once. But I understand that it may be easier on ReceiptPal’s side if everyone does this and I don’t think its a big deal.

Failed Submissions

There are a fair number of complaints about the app just not working properly, such as trying to submit receipts, it failing and the user then having to force the app to shut down.

Rejected Submissions

So the complaint above was about the app encountering technical problems where it wouldn’t let people submit their receipts. However, there are also a number of people complaining about ReceiptPal flagging and rejecting perfectly fine receipts claiming that there is some problem with them where they cannot be accepted.

E-Receipts Not Working

Going along with this there is also a trend where I’m seeing people complain about their e-receipts not being picked up by ReceiptPal for no reason. People claim that they are doing everything right and that they never used to have these problems until recently.

Conclusion on ReceiptPal – Should You Get This App

You can earn rewards with ReceiptPal and it is easy. However… there are a lot of users recently that are saying this app is going to be deleted off of their phone after they are able to redeem their next gift card. The overall opinion seems to be that this app is going downhill. They are imposing more and more restrictions and just making it much more difficult for the users to get credit for their shopping, which is almost certain to end badly as far as I see it.

The ReceiptPal is definitely not a scam by any means, and its still a pretty cool app, its just that older users are disappointed that things are getting more difficult for them and less rewarding.

Something else you might be interested in is taking a look at the Ibotta app. Its a cashback app that pays you to upload receipts of certain products.

Also if interested be sure to check out this program I use to make money online. I’ve been a member since 2015 and make very good money with it.

Please leave any comments or questions you might have below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you 🙂

MLM's

Is Zija International a Pyramid Scheme? – What You Should Know

So I’m guessing that you were possibly approached by a member of Zija International and asked to join in. Or maybe it is someone that you know that was asked to join in the business. Things seemed a little bit suspicious to you because maybe the person was being a little too pushy or whatnot, and now you are wondering is Zija International a pyramid scheme where people make their money just recruiting others into the business beneath them… Is it?

In this review I will be answering exactly this. And by the way I am in no way affiliated with this company so I’m not going to be trying to make the business opportunity sound better than it really is. There is a serious downside to joining this business and I will be focusing largely on this issue, which anyone trying to recruit others into the business will not sell them.

Zija International Review

Zija International is a MLM company that sells natural health products. I’m not here to review the products, but I will say that I actually like them. Moringa is in ingredient in many of their products and I am actually a big fan of this “superfood” and take moringa supplements regularly. I am also a fan of essential oils and many other of the natural health products that they sell.

However… The business opportunity seems to be what many are worried about and are suspicious that it is possibly a pyramid scheme. Why does this question even come up? Well because as I mentioned above, Zija International is a MLM, or multilevel marketing, company where distributors can recruit in other people to join the business and earn commissions from their efforts.

A lot of their business model is based on recruitment, which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a pyramid scheme, but it should raise an eyebrow and deserves a little extra research and looking into.

The Compensation Plan.. How You Make Money

In their compensation plan there are eight different ways that you can make money as a distributor, however I will just be going over some of the main ways to do so which show you what it’s all about.

The first way that you can make money as a distributor is through retail sales.

Retail Sales

There are two ways you can make money from retail sales. One, you can purchase Zija International products yourself at a discount and sell them directly to customers at the retail price, which means you will profit the difference. Or, you can refer customers to the Zija website and earn the same profit from the difference between the discounted distributor price and the retail price.

Team Commissions

The “backbone” of the compensation plan are the team commissions. Team commissions are all about recruiting in other distributors beneath you and building up your downline.

These team commissions are paid out through a binary structure, where you have a left leg and a right leg. How it works is you will get paid commissions based on the sales by those made in your “lesser leg” which is the leg with the lesser amount of sales volume. In the little diagram below is an example of how you could earn $50 in commissions from the sales of your lesser leg, assuming that you are what they call “active 150” and will earn 10% commissions.…

And then there are six other ways you can earn which include: leadership check match pool, diamond leadership pools, one time bonuses, multiple business centers, special incentives, and team Benz car bonus. All of these other six ways to earn are based on recruitment as well. They are all about building up a team of distributors beneath you.

There are also many ranks within the compensation plan including builder ranks, leadership ranks, senior leadership ranks, diamond executive ranks, and the senior diamond executive ranks. The rank that you are at makes a big difference in how much you will be able to learn. The higher the rank the more earning potential. And moving up the rank is all about building up your team. I don’t know if you can read it, but in the table below you can see that the qualifications for each rank require a certain minimum number of RV be met, which stands for Rank Volume and is the commissionable volume that gets passed up to you from your downline. Other requirements for moving up the ranks include having a certain number of people or groups of people in your downline.

Pyramid Scheme?

What separates a legitimate MLM business from a pyramid scheme is the amount of focus that they put on recruitment.

If you are looking for legitimate opportunities you want to look for companies that reward distributors for selling products on their own. Of course Zija International does do this, but do they put enough focus on this? When and MLM opportunity begins to focus too much on recruitment and not much of their revenues are coming from product sales to the general public then they start to cross the line and become a pyramid scheme. This is why you see more and more MLM businesses lately requiring distributors to make 50% or more of their money from retail sales to the general public.

Whether Zija International is a pyramid scheme or not is something that the FTC can determine. In my opinion it is definitely on the “Shady” side of things. Not only can distributors make money in the form of commissions from the products that they are recruits make, but they are also able to earn commissions from the products that they are recruits purchase for their first orders, through what they call “fast start orders”.

The Problem With MLM’s Like This

MLM opportunities like this often advertise themselves as the key to financial and time freedom. But they leave out the big downside to everything and this is what I’m going to be going over here.

The downside is that, although they have tons of potential to earn massive amounts of profit from building downlines of distributors, they also make it much more difficult for the majority of distributors involved.

If you think about it all makes sense and this is the reason MLM’s have such high turnover rates.
In MLM’s there is a pyramid-like compensation structure where the money that is made by those at the bottom gets sucked away from them and paid to those above them in the form of commissions. So those high up on the pyramid with a good-sized downline benefit from this structure but those near or on the bottom find it more difficult. And if you look at a pyramid structure you can see that there are always going to be way more people near or on the bottom of the compensation plan than at the top, which means the overwhelming majority of distributors will find it more difficult while the few will reap most of the rewards.

This is how it is for all mlm’s, Rodan and Fields, Hempworx, Youngevity, you name it. This is always true at least to some extent, but it depends on how deep their structures go among other factors.

Conclusion on Zija International – Good Opportunity or Not?

Whether this is a good opportunity or not for you really depends on you. You have probably seen video presentations from distributors trying to recruit others into their team and making the opportunity sound really awesome. People like this probably do make a heck of a lot of money like they claim to but not everyone can expect to have such success.

It takes a rare type of person to really be successful with MLM businesses like this. You have to be a very good communicator, have that salesperson type of personality, be self-motivated because you will be working as your own boss, and so on. Personally I would be no good with an opportunity like this because there’s no way I’d be able to recruit a bunch of other people in, which is absolutely necessary if you want to take full advantage of the compensation plan.

But anyway, in closing: Zija International has some pretty nice products that I really like but their business opportunity is something that I’m going to take a pass on. Is it a pyramid scheme? Probably not because I have seen and looked into many different MLM’s like this that focus on recruitment just as much as this one.

Before you go you might also want to take a look at how I make a living working online since you are looking for a work from home opportunity where you can be your own boss. You can read my guide here where I go over what exactly I do, how it all works, and what I considered the best way for beginners to get started.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please leave them below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can 🙂

Paid Survey Sites

Is BigSpot.com a Scam? – I Wouldn’t Join This Site

So I’m guessing that you saw an ad online or maybe even on the TV for BigSpot.com. It’s advertised as being an easy way to make a little extra cash online. All you have to do is share your opinion… But is there a catch to all this? Is BigSpot.com a scam?

Since you are reading my review here I’m guessing that you’re a little suspicious of the claims made. Maybe it just seems too good to be true, maybe you have had bad experiences with paid survey sites in the past, whatever the case the bottom line is that your suspicious and hesitant to join. You need more information on this and in this review I’ll be giving exactly that. BigSpot.com is not your normal paid survey site and I’ll be going over what I mean by this.

BigSpot.com Review

BigSpot.com is one of the few paid survey websites that I have seen advertised on the television. You would think that when a site like this is advertised on such a large media outlet that it would be legitimate, would you not? But if you were to think this it would turn out to be not all that true.

BigSpot.com is actually a site that I don’t recommend. I reviewed paid survey websites all the time and this is one that I would avoid. If the reason is because it’s not really even a paid survey website. They do not offer surveys such as Swagbucks.com, PaidViewPoint.com, etc and pay you for them. What they do is different…

How BigSpot.com Works

When you first landed on the homepage you will be prompted to enter your personal information such as your name, email address, date of birth, gender, ethnicity, and the country that you live in. This is all pretty standard when it comes to joining a paid survey site. They want to know who you are and the good paid survey websites out there will go on to ask you more detailed information such as education, income level, hobbies, and a bunch of other things so that they can build an avatar for you. The point of this is so that they can match you up with surveys that better fit you.

However BigSpot.com, like I said, it’s very different. After you fill out the basic profile information and sign up you will see this page next…

They will provide other survey companies and try to get you to sign up for them. Now these survey companies that you see may be different from the ones that I have pictured above, but the point is that they are trying to get you to join other sites. If you look around the rest of the BigSpot.com website you will not find anything. This is all there is to the dashboard… Nothing else. Nothing else to see and nothing else to do.

Literally all BigSpot.com does is refers you to other paid survey websites. Now if I were to join any of these paid survey websites that is recommending to me I could actually make money by taking paid surveys through them. All of the sites shown above that were recommended to me, including i-Say, MySurvey, and GlobalTestMarket are sites that actually provide surveys and pay you for taking them. But the BigSpot website itself only refers you to them, as do other survey sites like Survey Sheep for example.

What The Heck Is The Point of This?

You may be wondering what the point of this even is. Why would you join the BigSpot website in the first place if you are just going to get referred to join other paid survey websites. Why not just join the other paid survey websites in the first place?

Well this is what I would recommend doing. I would recommend just joining other paid survey websites in the first place.

But anyway… The reason that BigSpot is referring you to these other survey sites is so that they can make money off of you. When you enter your personal information to join BigSpot they use this information. I mean why would they require you to enter it in the first place if they weren’t going to use it? Now they have your email, your name, your date of birth, etc.

The other reason that BigSpot exists is to make money off of referring you to these other sites. Pretty much all paid survey websites have referral programs where you can make money when you refer new members to them. How it usually works is you will make a portion of the money that they make.

Are The Sites They Refer You Too Any Good?

They are all decent. i-Say, MySurvey, Global Test Market, etc. are all your typical paid survey websites. They are legitimate and you can make money with them… It’s just that the money you do make will not be very much.

The reality when it comes to paid survey websites is that you will not make much money at all. Generally speaking you can expect to make between $0.25 and two dollars for each survey you take, but this will vary. If you are expecting to make more than this then you are probably going to end up very disappointed. With all the new survey sites online it is very easy for market research companies to collect people’s opinions, which means they don’t have to pay much to do so, which means you don’t make much money.

Conclusion on BigSpot.com – Avoid

BigSpot.com is just not worth your time in my opinion and I don’t see why anyone would argue with this. As I showed you, literally all they do is refer you to other paid survey websites. So save the time and save the personal data harvesting by just going directly to a paid survey websites that actually offers surveys and pays you.

I don’t really recommend paid survey sites at all just because I think they are a massive waste of time, but if you do want to sign up for one I would suggest either Swagbucks or PaidViewPoint.

Something else you may be interested in since you’re looking to make money online is how I make a living working online. You can read my “make money online guide” here for more information on this. In it I go over what exactly I do, how it all works, and what I consider to be the best way for beginners to get started.

Also, if you have any questions or comments please leave them below. I will get back to you as soon as I can 🙂 and if you have your own review of BigSpot.com that you want to leave you could write it down in the comment section as well. It could help other viewers of my blog when looking into joining the site.

Cashback Programs

Mr Rebates, Scam or Good Way to Earn Money Back on Your Shopping? – [Review]

Mr Rebates is a cash back shopping program that anyone can use to earn money back when doing normal shopping online. But is it really worth your time? Or is Mr Rebates a scam that isn’t going to do what it claims?

I’ll jump straight to the point here and tell you that no Mr Rebates is not a scam. It is a legitimate cashback program that has been around for a while now and that many people use to earn a little money on their shopping. In this review I will be going over how this place works, how much cashback you can actually make, complaints and more.

Mr Rebates Review

Mr Rebates (at MrRebates.com) offers cashback if you shop at over 2500 stores. Additionally, they also offer coupons for certain stores which can save you money.

The reason that they pay you is because they make money for getting people to shop at the stores. They get paid commissions when you shop at the different stores they are promoting the end of a share of these commissions with you in the form of cashback. So cashback is the incentive they give for you to shop at all of these different stores which makes both you and Mr Rebates money.

Overall Mr Rebates is a decent cashback program but it is not my favorite, and you will see why in this review.

The Process of Getting Cashback

The process of getting cashback is pretty simple. First of course you have to sign up for an account, which is free by the way, and then you simply search for stores that you are planning to shop at.

You can choose from a list of different categories for stores that fall into these categories, you can search for specific stores or products in the search bar, you can look at their featured stores, newly added stores, etc. There are a lot of ways that you can go about finding stores that you want to shop at here and all in all its pretty simple and straightforward.

So just as an example I clicked on babies, kids, and toys. And as you can see there are quite a large of stores available to shop at here. In this category alone there are well over 100 different stores.

As you can see things are laid out pretty simply. It tells you the store name, the amount of cashback you will earn, the number of coupons they have if any, and then to the very right there is the shop now button. When you click the shop now button you will automatically be directed to the online store to shop.

And that is pretty much all there is to it. You search for the store you want to shop at, you click their shop now button, and you show up just as you normally would shop online. The cashback that you earn will automatically be deposited to your account once your purchase has been confirmed. There is no need to do anything else. Once you click on the shop now button and go to the store that you were going to buy something at there is no need to return back to Mr Rebates.

How Much Can You Make In Cashback?

Mr Rebates’ cashback percentages are pretty typical compared to other programs. I have reviewed probably about a dozen of these cashback programs and Mr Rebates is good but nothing great. One thing that I always do when looking into these programs is look at the cashback percentage offered for big name stores like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc. And right now as I’m writing this both Walmart and Target are offering 2% cashback… Which is pretty normal.

Usually what you see on sites like this is the bigger more popular stores offering cashback percentages between 1 to 3% and the lesser-known stores varying a lot more. It’s not uncommon to see some stores offering over 10% cashback but don’t expect this for major retailers.

BeFrugal is another cashback program which is very similar to this one but from what I have seen offers slightly better cashback percentages.

One Thing That I Really Like About Mr Rebates

One thing that I really like about this program is that they make it really easy for you to earn the cashback you’re trying to get. They have a Google Chrome extension that will automatically alert you when you are on a website you can earn cashback on. And when it does alert you of such an opportunity all you have to do is click a button to activate it.

This makes things very easy for you and you will be able to earn cashback stores that you otherwise wouldn’t even know offered cashback.

They also have apps available for both android and IOS devices which make things more convenient at times.

Complaints

Overall the general opinion of Mr Rebates is pretty good. But you will find complaints which are typical of cashback programs. Some include…

Not Getting Credited With Cashback

Your purchases will be tracked so that you get credited for them. This will happen automatically but there are times where the tracking code will get “messed up” for one reason or another. And this means you won’t get credited with your cashback. Most of the complaints you find are about this.

Its doesn’t happen often but it does still happen. If you do run into problems like this you can manually submit a cashback claim to Mr Rebates and they will sort things out. However, this can get very frustrating and annoying.

No In-Store Shopping

It would be nice if they had in-store shopping offers but they do not. This is just a little complaint of my own worth mentioning.

Conclusion on Mr Rebates – Good Opportunity or Not?

Like I mentioned earlier, Mr Rebates is good but not great. This place definitely isn’t a scam but at the same time I think there are better choices out there. If you are looking for a program that is very similar but better, in my opinion, than I would take a look at BeFrugal. They have better cashback percentages and a lot more offers available.

And if you are interested in some good cashback apps that are out there then I would suggest DOSH and/or Ibotta.

As always, leave any questions or comments below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can 🙂

Easy Money Scams

Robin Moore Work at Home Program Scam – AVOID!

So I sat down today and was thinking what I should write about when I realized that I had not written anything warning people about the Robin Moore work at home program scam… Said that is what I want to talk about here in this post. This work at home opportunity presented by Robin Moore may sound like an incredible and easy way to make a living online, but in reality it is a nasty scam that everyone needs to avoid.

I have been looking into scams like this for quite a while now and the am very familiar with this particular type of scam. While it is possible to make some money with this, it will be nothing like they claim it is and and is in no way worth anyone’s time.

What She Tells You

Robin Moore leads people to believe that they can make easy money posting links from home. She tells you that companies need people to post links for them from the comfort of their home, which helps out the companies because they do not have to pay for office space, equipment, etc. And while some of what she tells you is true, but overall it is very misleading.

She has people believing that they will basically just go around posting links and earning money every time they do so, which only takes a couple of minutes to do. But… This is not the reality. If it were this easy than everyone would be doing it including myself, which I am not.

The Reality

The reality is that this is not the super easy work at home opportunity that is presented to you. This “link posting” opportunity is what you call affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is one you promote products for companies via affiliate links and you get paid commissions when someone clicks on your link and buys the product you’re promoting. It is a legitimate business model and actually is how I make a living working online.

Robin Moore isn’t lying when she tells you that companies are looking for people to work from home posting links. Amazon, Apple, Best Buy, Walmart, and the literately just about every big company out there online will pay people commissions to promote their products.

So some of what she says is true to some degree but overall there is no one who is going to listen to what she’s thinking get the correct overall picture of what’s going on. You don’t just go out there and post links everywhere expecting to make money. If you do this no one is going to click your links and you will not help make any sales, which means you will not earn any commissions. But this is something that she completely leaves out. You are led to believe that you will earn money from posting links alone when in reality you only earn money when someone actually clicks your link and buys the product you are promoting.

If you are interested in learning affiliate marketing, or what they call “link posting”, the right way then I would suggest taking a look at the Wealthy Affiliate program. I became a member of this program back in 2015 when I first started affiliate marketing and am still a member to this day… Making a living doing it now. But just know that is not nearly as simple as they make it seem in this scam link posting program. It takes real work and real time dedication.

Same Old Scam Program

This same basic scam program has been around for years and is continuously being promoted under different names including Home Internet Income, The Computer Geeks, Accelerated Income, Home Based Wealth System, etc. The reason it changes names so much is because people catch on to it being a scam and in order to avoid this they simply rebrand it under a different name.

The name of the woman that supposedly is behind the program also changes. There have been many different names that I’ve come across including Kelly Simmons, Kelly Richards, Mick Moore, Bobby Robinson, etc. These programs are always presented by a woman who claims to have once been a struggling mother, working paycheck to paycheck, and then suddenly coming across this amazing work at home program where she is now making tons of money posting links at home.

Conclusion

There is no question about it that Robin Moore’s work at home program is a big old scam. I guess it’s not a complete scam though because you do get training and a website. The problem is that the training is outdated and ineffective, and the website is a cookie-cutter website that should cost no more than a couple dollars.

This program is nothing more than a scam that lures people that are looking to make money from home in by making claims of being able to make easy money in short amounts of time. I am not telling you what to do with your money, you can buy into this program if you would like to but it is definitely not something I would ever recommend doing. I mean just think about it… Doesn’t sound too good to be true? It sounds like some fairytale opportunity.

The old saying “if it sounds too good to be true than it probably is” has saved my butt more than once and is definitely something you should think about before getting involved in work-at-home opportunities. If it sounds too easy, if something doesn’t make sense, if they make claims about being able to make money really fast, etc.… Then it probably is a scam and you should probably avoid it.

But like I said, affiliate marketing, which these scam link posting programs are loosely based around, is a legitimate way to make money online. And if you are interested in making money promoting products and earning commissions then, as I said, my recommendation would be the Wealthy Affiliate program. At Wealthy Affiliate you are provided with tools and training to make money doing this. And one of the great parts about it is that the training starts off at the very beginning as if you have no experience and proceeds in a step-by-step fashion, making a great for beginners and easy to follow.

I’m not going to get into detail here but you can read my Wealthy Affiliate review if you’re interested in it.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the short review. If you have anything you would like to add, such as your own experience with Robin Moore’s work at home program, then leave a comment in the comments section below. Likewise, if you have any questions leave them down there to and I’ll get back to you when I can 🙂

MLM's

Is Hempworx a Scam?.. Pyramid Scheme Maybe? – My Review

Hempworx claims to provide “the most powerful and potent hemp products on the market”. But are these products really any good? Or is this whole business just some big pyramid-like marketing scheme that doesn’t live up to the hype? Is Hempworx a scam?

There has been a lot of attention surrounding this business lately so I decided to finally get to writing my review of it. And as a disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Hempworx in any way. So I’m not going to be trying to make this sound better than it really is. I’ll be reviewing both the products that the company sells as well as the business opportunity that they present. But mostly I’ll be focusing on the business opportunity because I know there are a lot of people out there wondering if this is a pyramid scheme or not and this is something that I want to address.

Hempworx Review

Hempworx it is a MLM (multi-level marketing) company that sells cannabis based products. In particular their products have what is called “Cannabidiol” or CBD. As they stay on their website, CBD is one of over 85 cannabinoids that is known in the cannabis plant. Cannabinoids such as this are increasing in popularity a lot recently due to many of the health benefits they have been found to have.

While there is a lot of hype surrounding this new emerging industry, much of it is well deserved. The health benefits of cannabinoids are becoming more and more well documented and proven with scientific testing.

Hempworx’s products consist of skin creams and drops that contain this CBD. Skin creams are supposed to revitalize your skin health and make it look younger and healthier, and the drops are supposed to be ingested, in drinks or however you want to ingest them really, to improve your overall health.

Are The Products Worth The Price?

This is debatable, but in my opinion they are definitely overpriced. If you go to purchase through the website you will see that it cost $69 plus shipping for all of the products below… And for the 750 mg bottles cost an extra $20. It is common to see inflated prices like this with new emerging markets that have a lot of hype surrounding them… They capitalize off of all the excitement.

Now will these products work? Or they really what they say they are? Well… Although there is more and more scientific proof of the health benefits that these can provide, it is still all pretty new. But if you want to know my opinion… I’m all for cannabis-based products.

Another reason why these prices might be so high is because this is a MLM business, which are well-known for having overpriced products like this.

The MLM Business Opportunity… Pyramid Scheme?

Since you are reading this there is a good chance that you were approached by an affiliate of Hempworx and asked to join the company, even there is a reason for this. The reason is because affiliates of the company and recruit in other affiliates to join and make money off of their efforts.

MLM businesses have pyramid -like compensation structures where there are multiple levels and affiliates are able to earn commissions from the people that they recruited in, the people that those people recruited in, and so on. You will also be able to earn retail commissions from the products that you personally sell. How it works is like this: you will be able to receive a 25% discount on the products, which you can buy in then sell at the normal retail price, earning a profit.

Below is a chart of the commission structure for what are called “jump start bonuses”… Which as you can see goes 10 levels deep. This means that you can earn commissions from the people that you directly recruited in (level 1), from the people that they recruited in (level 2), from the people that those people recruited in (level 3), and so on all the way down to level 10.…

So they give the example if you were at the rank of “Executive”and were selling the Spray Package. As you can see you earn the highest commissions from the levels closest to you and as you go down the pyramid -like structure the commissions get lower and lower. It’s kind of like a trickle effect where the money trickles up the pyramid from those beneath you and into your pockets.

There is also a binary compensation structure in place but I’m not going to get into that here. It’s the same sort of deal where you earn commissions from the people beneath you.

And one thing that is very important to know is that there are many different ranks in this commission structure. The more products you and your team (a.k.a. your downline) sell the higher you will move in the ranks, which will allow you to unlock more of the compensation plan. When you just start out you will not be able to earn anywhere near 10 levels down as was shown in the example above as if you were at the Executive rank.

As you move higher and higher up the ranks the focus begins to shift more towards recruitment and less on your personal sales.

Sounds Awesome… But There Is a Downside

MLM’s sound awesome. They sound like an incredible way to make money, but there is a big catch. The catch is that they make it much more difficult to make money for most of the people involved in them. The reason is because of their pyramid -like structure, where the money gets taken away from those at the bottom and paid to those above them in the form of commissions. So pretty much the people low on the totem pole earn less money than they could potentially be making if there wasn’t a MLM structure and the people high up earn more money. And of course there are always a lot more people on the bottom of a pyramid -like structure which means that the overwhelming majority of people will find it more difficult to make money with.

Which is why mlm businesses always have very uneven income distributions. I review opportunities like this all the time… Rodan and Fields, American Income Life, you name it… its always the same deal when it comes to this.

Is a pyramid scheme? Legally probably not but this is arguable. What determines if a MLM is actually a pyramid scheme or not is how heavily they rely on recruitment. If they rely mostly on recruitment and much of their products are being sold to new business affiliates, then they are more than likely a pyramid scheme. But if they focus enough on selling products to the general public than they are not.

Pretty much what it all comes down to is how and where they make their revenue. The more revenue that a MLM business makes from sales to the general public, the more legitimate they are.

Conclusion on Hempworx – Good Opportunity or Not?

I would love to try some of these products but I’m not willing to spend the money to do so. It would just be too expensive to purchase these month after month.

And as far as the business opportunity goes, this depends on you. Its not a scam in my opinion but this doesn’t mean its a good opportunity, as you can tell from what I discussed about mlm’s above.

For me there is no way it’s worth it because I just don’t have that salesperson type personality where I would be able to recruit people in left and right. Because the bottom line is that make good money with this you are going to have to recruit others in, and you are going to want to do this consistently. If you don’t you will not be taking advantage of the compensation plan, instead it will be taking advantage of you.

So join if you want but just know that MLM business opportunities like this or not easy to make it in, which is why they always have extremely high turnover rates.

Something else that you might be interested in taking a look at since you are looking to make money with your own home-based business is how I make money online. You can read my make money online guide here where I go over what exactly I do, how it all works, and what I considered to be the best way for beginners to get started.

Leave any comments or questions below and I will get back to you as soon as I can 🙂

Funnel Sales System

Is Funnel X Project a Scam System or Can You Really Make $300/day With This Funnel? – [Review]

The Funnel X Project, aka “Funnel X System”, comes off very scammy so its no wonder you are reading my review here. When I first came across this system I though it was surely just another scam.

In this review I’ll be going over what Funnel X Project really is. It can be a little confusing how this all works if you are new to stuff like this so I’ll be giving a big picture view and my opinion of it all… which isn’t good. I am not promoting this system so I’m not going to be trying to make it seem better than it really is.

Funnel X Project (Funnel X System) Review

Funnel X Project is advertised as being a system that can make you $300 per day and profit. Sounds pretty good right? And to top it all off they claim it is normally priced at $997 and you can get it for free.… But there’s gotta be a catch to this right? Well, he tells you that it is “100% free no strings attached”.

This system was created by a guy named David Dekal who claimed to have went from struggling to make money online back in 2013 to making $18,000 per month by his third month after hiring a personal coach. He then took a break from the online world for a while and has since decided to get back to it all. Now he is promoting this “special funnel” that he claims is making him and other people tons of money all while working very little.

But what the heck is this “secret funnel” that he is talking about and how can you possibly make $300 a day just sending out emails for a couple hours each day?

Well if you entered your name and email you will see see what the system is all about, But if you didn’t I will break it down for you here…

How It Works

General Overview – Basically what you are going to be doing is sending out emails and getting other people to join the Funnel X System, which will make you money as you will see. That is the basic overview of the system.

He tells you that: leads + offers = money

And step 1 to doing this with this system is signing up for MoneyLine.

Step 1: Create a MoneyLine Exchange

This is true and for your first step he tells you to sign up for your MoneyLine account at GlobalMoneyLine.com. This place is basically a very spammy marketing site where people promote their network marketing or work at home opportunities. You will see all sorts of crap on this site… I know because I used to use it.

You can create a free account here and the purpose is to be able to communicate with other people and collect leads, which is the first part of the equation. Basically what you are going to be doing is telling everyone how great this funnel is that you just got and why they need to try it out too.

Step 2: Join MCA

This is the offer part of the equation. You will join MCA and then earn money when other people join.

MCA, or Motor Club of America, is a MLM business that sells vehicle related services, the main one being roadside assistance. But this isn’t the main reason that people join. Sure, who wouldn’t love knowing that they can get roadside assistance whenever their car breaks down? I’m sure everyone would, but the main reason that people join MCA seems to be to earn money from it.

You see with a MLM business like this you can recruit in other members to join and earn money from their efforts and off of their monthly membership payments. So for example, after you join MCA for $39.90 for the first month and a $19.95 per month charge thereafter, you can then go and recruit others to join MCA beneath you. You will earn commissions when they pay their monthly charge and you can also earn commissions from the people that they recruit in.

So by referring people to the Funnel X Project they are then funneled into buying into MCA, just as you were, and you will be able to earn commissions from this.

Step 3: Sign Up For Aweber

Another thing that David tells you to sign up for is a Aweber. This is an auto responder service that you can use to send out automated emails to people. I actually use the service for email marketing, but have nothing to do with this Funnel X Project. It’s a very popular service and works great.

Basically what you will be able to do is send out automated emails to the leads that you capture. So you could set up a series of 20 emails or so to be sent out daily to each lead that you collect trying to get them to sign up for some offer.

There cheapest plan is around $19 per month and just like MCA, you will be able to earn commissions from this. You will still do the same thing, send people to the Funnel X Project, where you hope they will join, and if they do they will be going through the same process that you do in which they will join all these other programs, earning you commissions.

Final Step: Create ClickMagick Account

ClickMagick Is and analytics platform where you can track your finals to better optimize your conversions. The cheapest plan for this is $12 per month and just as every other part of this system, you can earn commissions with it when you get someone else to join Funnel X Project and they sign up for it.

In a Nutshell

Okay, so I hope I wasn’t too confusing with my explanations of everything and if I was here is how it all works in a nutshell:

The Funnel X System itself is free. However, You are going to have to take out your debit card if you want follow along with the system. If you don’t spend money you will not make any money doing this so while the system itself is free, there are a lot of paid components to it.

The only thing that you will be doing is promoting the Funnel X Project. When you promote the system and get other people to join, which will then lead to them joining MoneyLine, MCA, Aweber, etc., you will earn commissions from all these different programs that they join.

How is this possible? Well after you join Funnel X Project and join all the programs that it is promoting in that are part of the system, you will be able to insert your affiliate links into the funnel. So then when you promote the Funnel X Project and someone goes through the funnel, they will be clicking on your affiliate links when they join these other programs.

And that’s pretty much all there is to it. Its very similar to the Digital Genius Lab system that I recently reviewed as well as Easy Income System which also promotes MCA.

Can You Make Money With This?

You can absolutely make money with this but you can make money with a lot of things online. The real question is whether or not the time you put into this will pay off.

It isn’t a question about making money. All of these different programs that Funnel X Project is funneling people into buying do pay people to get others to join. There is no doubt about this. However… I can pretty much guaranteed you that you are going to find this to be more difficult that it seems. I know this because I have seen plenty of other programs that work in similar ways to this before. The problem is that like you are now, many people are going to be suspicious of them and will avoid joining.

Really its just a big marketing funnel. You are joining MCA and getting others to join just to make money and not really for buying the product itself. People tend to avoid programs/systems that work like this.

Conclusion on Funnel X Project

I definitely would not call Funnel X Project a scam, however I would say its a bit of a “shady” system for making money online. You are luring people in with the hopes and dreams of making $300/day and then you are making money off of them by getting them to buy into the same bunch of programs that you just bought into… all from the same darn funnel system.

I don’t know…. join if you want to but this sort of thing just isn’t for me. Something else you might be interested in taking a look at is how I make money online. You can read my “make money online guide” here if you want to where I go over what it is that I do, how it all works, and what I consider to be the best way to get started is. And… it has nothing to do with some “secret funnel”.

And as always, leave any comments or questions below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can 🙂

Investing

Is Agora Financial a Scam or Are Their Investment Newsletters Worth It? – [Review]

Agora Financial is an independent financial forecast team that sells many different financial newsletters, which basically just give advice on different investments, market alerts, financial loopholes, and so on. But is Agora Financial a scam? Will the financial advice given live up to all the hype of the products sold? Or are the over-the-top sales pitches that you commonly hear for products that are published by Agora Financial hollow and unbacked?

One thing is for sure, there are a heck of a lot of complaints on this company. I’m guessing you are probably already aware of this which is why you are wondering if they are a scam. In this review I will be addressing some of the major complaints against the company and giving my opinion on whether or not it’s all just a scam or if their financial forecasts really do work.

Agora Financial Review

I have reviewed quite a few different publications from Agora Financial. Some of these include Real Wealth Strategist, True Momentum, Big Book of Income, and maybe some others.. I don’t remember.

One very common theme I have found for all of these different newsletter products is that they are all promoted in a very misleading way. You will see all sorts of crazy sales pitches for their financial forecast newsletters.

For example there is that the “Freedom Checks”sales pitch that makes people believe they are somehow going to get free checks from some private institution just for being a US citizen and writing their name down on some list, when in reality the entire sales pitch was part of a funnel to sucker people into buying the Real Wealth Strategist newsletter and these “freedom checks” that were being talked about so much or really just dividends that you could possibly get paid by following the newsletters investment advice.

Or then there is the True Momentum newsletter that is advertised as providing investment advice that will grow your account “a minimum of 300% over the next 12 months”.

And then there was the “This Magic Metal” sales pitch which was another funnel to buy into Real Wealth Strategist that lured people in by having them thinking they were getting investment advice on some “magic” metal that is going to be the investment of the millennium.

And we can’t forget the “Big Book of Income” that has people thinking they are going to be making “$35 an hour walking on the beach” if they order this free book and pay shipping… But it’s really just a sneaky little ploy to subscribe people to the Lifetime Income Report newsletter.

The Main Complaints I’ve Come Across About This Place

As you can imagine, misleading advertising and related complaints are some of the most common thing you will see when you search around online and look for complaints/reviews from customers. Below are some complaints that I took screenshots of on the review site PissedConsumer.com…

And there are plenty more where these came from. On the site Agora Financial has over 130 reviews (at the time I’m writing this) with a 1.5 out of five star rating. That’s pretty darn bad. And as you can see below some of the top complaints on this site include misleading advertising, deceptive practices which is pretty much the same thing as misleading advertising, and poor customer service.

Another common complaint that I have found on this company has to do with being overcharged for subscriptions. Apparently there are a fair number of people out there that have problems canceling their subscriptions and also get subscribed to newsletters without even knowing they are getting subscribed to them.

Agora Financial seems to make it one heck of a hassle to cancel your darn subscription. Their customer service is absolutely atrocious and this often leads to customers seeking help in getting their refund from customer protection services such as the Better Business Bureau. You will find all sorts of complaints on this site about not being able to get refunds although the refund policy states that they should. The reason for this is because Agora Financial ignores refund requests from individuals. But then when individuals go and complain to places like the BBB they get their act together and will respond to refund requests.

Some complaints I took screenshots of you can see here…

Overall on the BBB’s website Agora Financial’s rating is horrible. They don’t actually have an official rating because they are not a BBB accredited business, but if you look at the customer review rating it is 88% negative. And they also have a massive number of 223 complaints, as I’m writing this which will surely increase.…

Ok… Misleading Advertising and Overcharging Customers…. But Does Their Financial Advice Work?

From what I see the investment advice is somewhat of a hit or miss. I have read reviews from customers claiming that the advice given has led to them profiting, while I have read others complaining about losing money from listening to certain advice.

Now of course this largely depends on where the advice is coming from, for example which newsletter you are subscribed to and who the editors are, and you also have to consider the fact that people are more willing to write negative reviews online than positive ones. But all in all my opinion of the many different investment advice newsletters published by Agora Financial is that, like I said, it’s somewhat of a hit or miss.

Based on what I see I would say that the advice is decent, not great and not bad either. But when you answer this question you have to look at the advice as a whole. Some investments will lose and others will win.

Conclusion on Agora Financial

I really don’t know what the heck Agora Financial’s deal is. If they want to stay in business they need to get their act together. They seem to be in it for the money more than anything else and continually treat their customers like crap by suckering them into buying newsletters with misleading information, signing customers up for subscriptions that they don’t even realize they are getting signed up for, and making it really difficult to cancel subscriptions. There is a reason they have such a bad reputation in the financial world and this is it.

Personally, I would never subscribe to a newsletter from Agora Financial. They seem to be in it pretty much solely for their own benefit and although there is good advice provided at times, nothing seems to be that spectacular. So for me the reward just isn’t worth it, but of course this is just my opinion and you may have one that differs.

If you have a personal review of Agora Financial or a comment/question on anything please leave it below the end I will get back to you as soon as I can 🙂 I hope you enjoyed this review and I hope I gave you a better understanding of what the company is all about.

Ecommerce

My Ecom Club Review – Scam Program or Can You Really Make Good Money With This?

My Ecom Club is an ecommerce training program created by Rocky Lin that supposedly can teach you the ropes and get you set up with your own little ecommerce store to make money online with. But is this program really any good or is it something that you should avoid? Is My Ecom Club a scam that is just going to be a waste of your time and effort?

In this review I’ll be giving you my honest opinion of the program and going over some important things that I think you should know. I’ll be giving an overview of what its all about and what it includes, how the method it teaches works, a little background on the creator, what other people are saying and more.

My Ecom Club Review

My Ecom Club is an program that teaches people to make money in the realm of ecommerce. Not only does it provide training but it also provides tools and, if you pay enough, a partly done-for-you ecommerce website.

There are 3 different products/memberships, that are sold here which vary in price and what they include of course. They have the Inner Circle Membership and the Gold Membership along with the Instant Ecommerce Website Template.

The Gold Membership costs $97 and is what you need if you are new to all of this. It provides the tools and training to get your ecommerce business up off the ground. From what I have read from members who have went through it, the training is fairly lengthy and detailed, so that is good.

The Inner Circle Membership costs $37/mo and gives you access to the “inner circle”. You will get access to a private Facebook group, be able to ask Rocky Lin and other leaders in the industry questions, and more. This is like the cherry on top. Its the next step of you are looking for an edge that the Gold Membership doesn’t give you.

And the Instant Ecommerce Website Template is a service they provide for $37. What they do here is basically design your store a bit and set it up for you. This covers just the basic design so that hopefully it converts customers better but is not a completely done for you service by any means.

My Thoughts on Ecommerce

I was involved in ecommerce for a little over 2 years and just closed my stores recently due to having too much going on and them not being profitable enough. I got started with some top-notch training from Aidan Booth and Steve Clayton, which costed me a heck of a lot more than this by the way…$2,497 I think it was.

What do I think about ecommerce and selling from your own store? I think it is a great type of online business and I personally know that you can make a killing doing this. I had several ecom stores running, most of the time they weren’t very profitable but there was a point time I was doing very well. I also know people who make more than doctors and lawyers doing ecom business.

Its not easy though. It takes a lot of testing, trial and error.

What My Ecom Club teaches is what is called “dropshipping”, which is what I did. This is when you list products on your ecom store for sale but you don’t actually have the products. When someone buys a product from your store you simply purchase that product from somewhere like AliExpress, Ebay, etc and ship it to them. So you are like a middle-man. Its a great method because you keep no inventory and can easily put many different products for sale on your site.

All in all I like where this training is focused. Its definitely a good way to make money online and is something that is do-able. However, is the training really a good choice? There are some concerns that I have…

Concerns About My Ecom Club

I originally came across My Ecom Club after reviewing a scam program called Free Biz Account which lured people in thinking they were getting some free program that was going to make them tons of money only to find out that they were being pushed to buy My Ecom Club’s Gold Membership.

So I was suspicious of this all right off the bat. It wasn’t a good first impression. And to make matters worse I read another review which pointed out that Rocky Lin, the creator of it all, was involved in a scam in the past called My Secret Sites. This was an extremely misleading scam that you could buy into to get “secret sites” created for you that would give you complete and automated cash freedom. It had a very scammy sales pitch that was absolutely ridiculous and it was created by Rocky Lin as well.

Now I’m hoping that Rocky turned over a new leaf and doesn’t do this kind of thing anymore but its just something worth thinking about. You can form your own opinion from this information.

What Other People are Saying About My Ecom Club

If you go on My Ecom Club’s Facebook page there are a lot of reviews…. over 120 reviews total with an overall rating of 4.5/5 stars, which is pretty darn good. Most people say that the coaches are wonderful and that the training is very good.

HOWEVER… there is another concern that I have which I found from reading over member reviews. Apparently the price tag is much higher than the memberships I talked about above. In order to continue with the training at a certain point you will have to pay over $1,000, which is a price that is going to be out of budget for many, meaning that this is going to be a waste of time.

Something else that concerns me is that I read reviews from people claiming that you have to refer in other members to continue with the training. I only saw one review saying this but its still concerning.

I don’t really know what is going on here but one thing is for sure…. they NEED to be more transparent!

Conclusion on My Ecom Club – Good Opportunity or Not?

My Ecom Club provides training and tools for what I consider to be a good way to make money online, which I have experience in doing. However there are concerns that I have and need answered before I would be willing to tell people to go ahead and sign up for this program. But anyway… the choice is yours. It appears to be a good program, there are just some little things I worry about and I really don’t care for the lack of transparency here.

If you are a beginner to making money online I would actually recommend Wealthy Affiliate over this. Why? Because this is what I got started with back in 2015 and am still a member today. They focus on a different online business model that I think is more suitable for beginners. But anyway, you can read my Wealthy Affiliate review here for more info.

Please leave any comments or questions below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can 🙂

Work At Home Jobs

Fancy Hands Virtual Assistant Job Review – Is It Worth Your Time?

Thinking about making a bit of extra money online by getting a Fancy Hands virtual assistant job? Wondering if its really worth your time? Well then you are in the right place because In this review I’ll be going over a few things worth knowing beforehand.

Sure its nice that you can work from home at anytime of the day and for however long you want… but as with any job there are downsides to it as well. I’ll be going over it all.

Fancy Hands Review

Fancy Hands is a virtual assistant service that provides online help for people looking to get help with various tasks, usually requiring research on your part, which you of course get paid for.

As a VA you will get to set your own hours. This flexibility is what lures so many people to apply for this position. You are your own boss and you choose when you work.

Overall Fancy Hands seems to be a decent VA position at best. I’m just being honest here. There are too many downsides to ignore and I want to do my best to let you know what you are looking into.

What The Job Is Like

On the website they advertise the service as a team of virtual assistants being able to tackle peoples’ “to-do list”. What does this mean? It means that as a virtual assistant at Fancy Hands you will be getting all sorts of tasks and never really know what to expect.

A to-do list can contain all sorts of strange things. You could be planning someone’s vacation to Puerto Rico one minute, looking for the cheapest medical school in Florida the next minute, entering some boring data into a spreadsheet the next, and doing some product research later on. There is no telling what type of tasks you will have available.

You will be able to pick and choose what you want. So you can be picky but sometimes you won’t have the luxury. It all depends on what all is available and the amount of other VA’s picking up tasks at the same time (your competition).

Anything that can be done online and that may or may not require a cell phone is possible.

When it comes to the hours you are able to work whenever and however long you want. However, its not like you can just hop online at anytime and expect to get a bunch of good tasks. The demand will vary so you have to shift your schedule around to when the best time to work is.

Requirements for Becoming a VA

I couldn’t really find a list of requirements that you have to meet to become a VA, so really don’t think its a hard position to get.

It seems that you just have to speak English, have good communication skills, good grammar, and you must be able to complete a task with flying colors as a test.

If you are good on a computer and can communicate well then it shouldn’t be a problem.

Complaints

Low Pay

I’ve read over quite a few negative reviews about VA’s getting paid $1-$2 per hour after doing all the calculations. This is something that is absolutely unacceptable yet seems to be happening all too often. If I were you I would read over all the VA reviews on Glassdoor, and other sites so that you can form your own opinion on this.

Its probably the most common complaint I have come across.

Unsatisfied Customers

I’ve read through complaints from VA’s claiming that some customers will be unsatisfied no matter what. They might have you complete a task that involves you opinion on something and not like your opinion, and since Fancy Hands’ is all about satisfying the customer you are the one that will get screwed.

Unfiltered Tasks

Apparently Fancy Hands is getting pretty lenient on the tasks that they allow to be posed. Many of the “short” tasks turn out to be all day events, according to many assistants. They are supposed to take no more than 20 minutes to complete but this isn’t even close to being true half the time.

Overall Mistreatment of The VA’s

As I mentioned above, Fancy Hands is all about providing the best customer service possible, which means you get the short end of the stick when it comes down to it. So if you get some ridiculous task that was vary vague and has you searching the web on a wild goose chase, Fancy Hands doesn’t seem to care about this, they want you to keep working until the customer is satisfied. They don’t seem to care much about the VA when compared to the customer, which is sometimes understandable but other times down right wrong and illogical.

One Key Point to Take Away

If you do go ahead and apply for the VA position please do not do it thinking you are going to be able to make money to live off of. This is best looked at as a way to earn some extra money. If you go in and try to make this your full-time job you will only end up disappointed and discouraged.

The pay is low and you never really know what to expect. Its just not something you can count on to pay the bills.

Conclusion on Fancy Hands – Good Opportunity?

Fancy Hands seems to be an “ok” way to earn a little extra money online but there are a lot of complaints recently and VA’s who have been with them for years claim that things are going downhill. I’m not going to tell you to avoid this place but I want you to know what you are possibly getting into. But don’t just take my word for it, do your own research as well.

Some other somewhat similar job places you might be interested in include MicroWorkers and PicoWorkers. Also you might be interested in taking a look at how I make money online working for myself. You can read over my guide here where I explain what I do, how it all works, and what I consider to be the best way for beginners to get started.

Questions or comments? Leave them below and I’ll get back to you soon 🙂

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