Perhaps the fasted growing internet phenomenon of recent years, the “how to make a fortune with your blog” scam, is particularly easy to spot when you know how. These ridiculous guides are all over the place and are usually advertised by unscrupulous bloggers who claim to make money with them. All of them have the following things in common that will allow you to click on your browser close button before you waste anytime reading their sales script.

1. One column layout with centre aligned text. This is used to draw your attention into one place and is an old direct marketing trick used by mail shot companies for years. Just as you start to give it your attention a floating box will appear offering you a special bonus ebook that will make you rich if you surrender your email address. Sign up for this and your email inbox will fill with up with more money making schemes and other assorted spam.
2. An unbelievable headline in very large text to grab you and shock you into reading more. Something like “Underground 6 figure blogger returns to unleash his secret to making $57,377 every month working from home just a few hours a week” or “Unemployed beach bum makes $49,677 in 2 hours after discovering secret google backdoor”. Tabloid newspapers have been using this tactic for decades. It works by flashing an idea in the readers head and making them want to read more on the off chance that it might just be true.
3. Underneath the headline there will be a number of bullet points, usually 7. These points will have a number of key phrases to draw people in. Examples include “Learn the one technique that no one will tell you about that will make you a million dollar blogger” and “The 7 biggest secrets that will guarantee a 6 figure income from every blog you create”. Notice how these bullet points contain emotive words like “biggest secrets” and “guaranteed income” to add credibility to the initial unbelievable headline.
4. A photograph of a young man relaxing on a beach wearing sunglasses and looking pretty happy with himself. This particular young man is seen on all of the scam websites and is pretty easy to spot. The photograph is to make you think that this man, the one lounging around in the sun, is the man who has made all the money and is going to tell you how to be rich and happy just like him. Other photos often used include a happy and attractive looking couple, some exotic cars, and more beaches and sunsets. This is all an attempt to make you feel like you are dealing with a human being and to feel at ease.
5. A very long letter, supposedly from the sun lounger king in the photograph, that will tell you how it is not your fault that you don’t make a lot of money, that it is all down to the secret information that has been kept secret until now, how he used to be in debt and couldn’t afford his rent, how his life was changed when he discovered the secret, how you can become rich, how you can have a life like his, on a sun lounger… This letter goes on for a long time because the scammers think it is easy to confuse verbosity with sincerity. Unfortunately many gullible people do confuse the two, thats why the scammers keep using this technique. Something that always makes me laugh is the way these letters are usually finished with a fake signature in a freeware script font.
6. Summary of earnings. Always showing massive growth in the first couple of days until a regular massive daily income is reached. Anyone with access to a spreadsheet could put this together in 2 minutes. But, just like the verbosity equals sincerity mistake above, the gullible will always believe charts and graphs simply because they look official.
7. Testimonials. A number of letters from apparent customers, all with genuine looking photographs, proclaiming success with this method and how their lives have changed, how they’ve become rich beyond their wildest dreams and, no doubt, how they’ve got a sun lounger by the beach.
8. The time limited offer. Often this is a flashing sign saying something like “$700 discount for orders placed today only – Order now for only $77.97″ accompanied by a count down clock. People love to think they are getting a bargain and are often persuaded by threats about prices going up. Of course, this offer is on every day.
9. Very often at this point there is some sort of thinly veiled threat. I’ve seen things like “Don’t miss this chance or you will regret it for the rest of your life” in attempts to close the deal.
10. Finally comes the money back guarantee which is as reliable as a chocolate fireguard. If you give these people your money you will not get it back.

Don’t get caught out. Of course, it is absolutely possible to make a very good income with your blog, but these scams won’t make anyone any money apart from the scammers themselves. I know that the majority of Upstart Blogger readers are far too intelligent to fall for scams like this but hopefully this guide will be seen by someone who is genuinely tempted to part with hard earned cash. Furthermore, and if these scams annoy you as much as they annoy me, unsubscribe from any blog that advertises them and help cut off their traffic supply.