One thing that seems to be cropping up in many online Forums (of which I am a member of a few) in recent months is Guaranteed Signups for various online Affiliate and MLM programs. It would appear from the trends in those discussions; that there is, to some extent, a lot of confussion about definition. A decent number of companies or websites offer this service and a Google search for the term returns over 57,000 hits along with a huge list of PPC Ads. This post is about determining whether Guaranteed Signups are scams or they are a means to FastTrack growth and increasing your earnings from online Affiliate programs. Are they worthless However, the first order of business would be to define or describe what Guaranteed Signups are or are not.

The general confusion seems to lie in the misunderstandings surrounding the definition. Guaranteed Signups (GS) are prospects that sign up for your Affiliate program, they are usually intended for free signups. In other words, they are leads. Guaranteed Paid Signups (GPS)are prospects that sign up for your program and purchase an upgrade within the alotted upgrade period. Guaranteed Paid Signups are also sometimes called guaranteed paid upgrades.

The differences should be clear from the above paragraph, but as you can see; it can be confusing at first glance. Particularly so for Internet Affiliate newbies (eNewbies). This confusion or thin line differential is what makes it easy for the misrepresentation that is rampant in this arena. That is, the companies or sites that sell this service play the word games in their Sales Ad copies to make the sale.

The percentage of scams are so high that it is mathematically acceptable to say that they are all scams!!! However, I have come accross a few Net marketers that vouch for services rendered by about four (4) companies/sites.

It is quite common for these companies to promise GS and instead deliver harvested email addresses and 'lifted' personal data (mostly harvested from the internet). What this means is that you end up with a bunch of leads that are not leads and never in fact signed up for your program. They do this by paying programmers to write them autosubmitters to your signup page. The potential for SPAM complaints is very high in this instance. You could loose your website, your affiliate membership, and that is in addition to loosing your money!

How do you recognize a potential GS scam?

a] You may be offered a lot outrageous freebies.
b] You may be offered affiliateship.
c] You may be offered shares.
d] Company is only a few months in business.
e] Owner was involved in previous scams.
f] Sounds to good to be true.

How do you protect yourself?

a] Avoid GS altogether.
b] Check company background from blacklisted company lists.
c] Check Forum threads by doing a keyword search.
d] Obtain written documentation with clearly defined services.
e] If you decide to bite, make sure you use a credit card.
f] Purchase buyer protection where possible.
g] Purchase only guaranteed upgrades.
h] As always caveat emptor! (buyers beware).