Big Payouts Big Lies?

by Scott Jangro on 01 February 2008

shoemoney-adsense.jpg
I get this question pretty frequently, and just got another one yesterday, so I thought I’d write a quick note about it.

The recent attention to this comes from a new site out there called S.eriously.com, published by an affiliate marketer for the purpose of displaying the various big payouts that some affiliates claim to be earning.

There, you see screenshots and photos of paper checks with 5 and 6 figure amounts, in some cases very high 6 figures for a month of work.

The question I get is, are they real?

I don’t watch closely enough to be able to judge whether any individual is capable of earning those big dollars and I don’t care to speculate. But I can tell you that numbers like the ones you see posted are certainly possible. They’re not even the biggest monthly payouts that I’ve seen or heard of.

But here’s the thing. There’s a big difference between gross revenue and profits. You could get a monthly check for $1M but it may have cost $950,000 in PPC advertising spend to earn it. Still $50,000 is pretty sweet profit for a month for any individual, even for a small company, but it’s not a million. (Just the same, that $1M payout may have cost $1.1M to earn.)

I’m guessing that many of these guys fall into that category.

I’m not knocking it, The business model of spend a dollar to earn a nickel is not a bad one if you can scale it. And regardless of the profit, generating sales and commissions at that magnitude is no small feat. If you can find something that produces at that volume, there’s got to be a way to make it profitable.

It is dangerous to run so close to the edge, so be careful. It’s very easy to lose your shirt in PPC arbitrage.

As for why they feel the need to brag about it? Marketing, and pretty effective marketing at that.

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  • Those were my thoughts exactly – 'are they real?'

    When I first started looking at how to make money online, I passed by all the A-listers (i.e., John Chow, Problogger, Cashquests, ShoeMoney, etc.).

    And I ain't gonna lie; I was impressed and (naively) thought I could do the same.

    9 months later, I'm a lot wiser and a helluva lot more cynical.

    It takes a lot of hard work – and I don't think this is something a lot of the A-listers point out. I'm not necessarily saying it's their responsibility, but if you're quick to share your successes, I'd love to hear about the dark days too. Actually, I'd find the latter a lot more inspiring as it humanises the journey they made to get to where they are now.
  • "There’s a big difference between gross revenue and profits."

    I agree with you. It's important to take earnings claims with a grain of salt unless you have the real inside story on how the money was made - what amount was invested/spent on advertising/marketing. Even then, it's may be difficult to ascertain the actual profit made because off-line methods may have been used as well as organic search engine optimization.

    Self-promotion is vital if someone truly wants to become an authority on their subject matter. Therefore, you really can't blame these people for doing it. As someone once told me: "you have to toot your own horn sometimes because no one else is going to do it for you".

    Unfortunately, in the online marketing community, there are a lot of scam artists out there. So for anyone who is utterly impressed with earnings statements and considering doing business with them, remember to check the background of the person out thoroughly by speaking with people they know or have dealt with in the past and doing some digging around forums/blogs. Searching by using their names sometimes yields very interested results. Organic listings showing complaints by past clients or negative blog postings certainly don't reflect well on the person. One example of a website that publicly calls people/companies out is ripoffreport.com. Regardless of how well-known someone is, it is always a good idea to do some background checking online.
  • Interesting post, and very interesting comments.
    The reason these guys are showing off, is probably a little for ego, but also to build themselves as an authority. When their names are like a brand like Shoe, then you get incredible traffic and link love which makes you more money. Also I see people talking about buying clicks to sell clicks yeah some people make money that way, but all you have to do is build a great site, and get traffic naturally. It takes years, but it works. I don't pay for hardly any clicks anymore, and I see well over 12,000 unique visitors per day.
  • Scott
    Nope, nothing more than that it's one of the more well known check photos.

    I have no doubt that Jeremy has received a number of checks that large.

    BTW, I'm not calling anyone a liar. It was reflective of the question posed to me.
  • Hi
    Any particular reason why you posted that picture with Shoe's legendary check in this article, considering the subject? :D
  • In the NFL this is the sort of stuff that gets you a 15yrd penalty after a touchdown or fined. I mean is that really necessary to take a picture with your paycheck!? In any business salary is confidential and here are guys that love to flaunt it. Good for them, I'm proud of them but do you ever hear anyone talk about how many hours they spent over the last month to earn and like you said nowhere does it give the full story about what they spent to earn that.

    Showboating! 15-yrd penalty in my book!
  • Great point. HUGE difference between profit and earnings. I would rather earn $1000 a month, and spend only $10 than what many people do.

    I think many of the big name guys are legit, but I'm more interested in the non-internet marketing niche. It seems like its a circle of earning money by telling people how to earn money. I don't agree with that unless you've done it elsewhere and it's provable in that way.
  • I think some of those top affiliates are making the money that they claim they make. But for the rest of them I think they are all full of it!
    A lot of affiliate marketers use the old "Amway" approach. Does anyone remember Amway?
    Look busy, act busy, act rich...sell 'em!
    Well guys, I've got to get back to my $1000 a day blog...
    Chris
  • It looks true enough, but mind-boggling figures. I didn't have the will to go any further than The plentyoffish guy with his almost $1million check. Makes my $100 adsense checks look quite pitiful.
  • Great post. I'd be interested in seeing their stats. Cuz like you said, PPC vs. Payout is definitely going to be much smaller.... either way, they're still successful. Kudo's to them, no matter how they do it.
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