Some Great Work at Home Tips

Hey everyone, I know I've been gone for a LONG time.  But I wanted to share a great article I wrote that lists over 75 Tips to Work at Home!

Also check out some of the other articles I've written on the topic:

Avoiding Paid Survey Scams
Promoting Your Websites and Articles (and Referral Links)

While you can still look through the archives on this blog and find a lot of information, I will be posting new articles to the Squidoo site.

Have a great day!

The A.W. Surveys Scam

A lot of you are probably already aware of the fraudulent activity at this site. However, due to the large amount of links across the web and people falling for them, I felt it necessary to post this. I also apologize for the length of this post, but you need not read it all unless you still doubt that A.W. Surveys is a scam.

OK the first clue that they are a scam is in the fact that they promise big bucks for each "survey." I tried one for myself, which said it was offering $4. The so-called "survey" in this case was visiting a website and writing two sentences about my first impressions of it. There is no way that any company could afford to pay that much for such a small task.

In case you continue to doubt it's a scam, I'll dig even deeper. If you search the internet, you'll find numerous complaints from survey-takers who have not been paid. Apparently, A.W. Surveys has a habit of canceling accounts as soon as people try to cash out. Also, they have a history of disappearing for periods of time and then coming back.

Now I have a feeling someone's going to read this and say, "But I know someone who got paid." Well, that's their scheme. If you are very, very lucky you will get paid. They randomly choose people to pay in order to hide the fact that they're a scam. But it's a very small ratio compared to all of those who are not paid.

Another tactic that they're using to keep themselves afloat is their referral campaign. I've seen links all of the internet, including on blogs of people that I respect. These people do not realize it's a scam. All they know is that they are promised big bucks for referrals so they'll do anything they can to promote it. Plus, it is impossible to reach payout without referrals since they stop sending surveys after you've reached $20-$30. And you can not cash out until you've made $75.

If you still need further proof (because I've seen these people who have actually gotten paid fight this like crazy) just check out the report of A.W. Surveys at the Better Business Bureau. They gave it a score of an F. The reasons cited being that they are lacking important information, such as background information, a number of complaints filed against them, and failing to respond to the complaints. It also says that the BBB has not been able to contact them or even obtain accurate contact information. The only address they have on file is a P.O. Box.

It should also be noted that, according to GPTBoycott, Aclarn, Inc. (the company behind A.W. Surveys) is also believed to be behind other fraudulent paid surveys sites, such as Survey King and Top Surveys.

How to Avoid Scams

All the sites I recommend on this blog are legitimate so you should join those first. However, if you are still looking for more sites to join, these are some guidelines to follow with each site you come across.

• Never pay to join either a survey panel or a site that promises to give you access to a list of survey panels. Basically, just never agree to pay anything.
• Still, even if you're not paying for surveys, that doesn't mean sites are necessarily legit. They can still scam you out of your time and information (so they can spam you). They can also unfairly make money off of you this way, with payments from advertisers.
• Never give out your social security number or credit card information. Although there may be some legitimate sites that ask for this, it's really not worth the risk.
• Always do a quick search on Google of any site you are considering. Check forums, reviews, and general reactions. This does not include testimonials or advertisements, which are probably posted by the company itself.
• Make sure the company lists legitimate contact information. They should have at least an address and phone number listed.
• I know it's cliche but if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Use your logic. Payment should be within the same range as other sites, not ridiculously higher. Also, don't trust sites that say something like, "Make $100 a day!"
• While GPT sites will often pay you a bonus just for signing up, this is unusual for survey panels. If they do give a bonus, it should be relatively low (ie: anything more than $5, and that's pushing it, is probably a scam).
• If you have any doubts, read the FAQ, Terms and Conditions, Policies, etc. Make sure everything sounds legit and they are not contradicting themselves.
• If you are still unsure about a site after all of this, contact me. I will do my best to assist you and tell you everything I know about it :)

Note: Please, if you have ever been scammed by any paid survey, GPT, or other method of making money online, let me know through the contact form. I will look into it and post it in the Scam Alert section (with credit to you if you would like). You'll be doing a great favor to others by spreading the word so others won't end up victims as well.