Twitter Rocket Scam?
2:12 PM Posted by GloryBug
That's what I keep asking myself. I have learned enough in life that when that little voice in the back of my head tells me something's fishy... well, that something is indeed fishy.
So I've done some internet searching, and have come across quite a few reviews of Twitter Rocket. Considering how new it is, it's surprising how jazzed everyone is about it. So jazzed that they are already promoting it themselves, and their websites conveniently have a link for YOU to order your own Twitter Rocket. Some even provide screenshots showing proof of their thousands of dollars earnings in less than a week.
Sounds good so far... so what's fishy about it?
The Twitter Rocket is the newest 'Pet Rock' that is being promoted by a site called 'The Upstart Blogger'. I read and reread all the hype that was being pushed there for it, and a few things stood out to me.
The first thing was that it basically looks like most of the money is made just by getting other people to buy the Twitter Rocket from you for $97. You keep about half and The Upstart Blogger people keep the other half.
Then, there's the thing about promoting it by Tweeting about it constantly- how you've gotten thousands of new followers and made so much money. You need a website for all those new Twitter people to go to in order to give you your $47 share. Which is convenient, because the Upstart Blogger people recommend that your blog be hosted by 'AN Hosting'. Which is who they use as host, and they've conveniently provided a code, 'UpstartBlogger' in order to get 3 months free hosting.
Now, when you sign up with AN Hosting for your service, The Upstart Blogger gets $85 commission. But that's ok, because when all those thousands of new Twitter followers of yours will be told that you recommend that they use AN Hosting, and when THEY sign up with AN Hosting, you'll get a $85 commission. I'm getting dizzy already.
I Made Thousands With the Twitter Rocket!
I'm no math whiz, but here's the numbers I came up with-
For every person you convince to buy the Twitter Rocket from you, and also host a site with AN Hosting, you'll make $132! So, if only 10 people a day buy you'll make $1,320... and if a hundred people a day buy, you make $13,200! Every DAY! (And, respectively, the good folks at The Upstart Blogger will make $50, $500 or $5000 from your sales).
Am I the only person that can smell the obvious breakdown in this process? Like market saturation? Does it seem likely, considering that this is not a re-order product, is not linked to a tangible product, will eventually have no customer base? No doubt, a handful of people will make good money before it falters- namely, The Upstart Blogger people.
While it isn't exactly a pyramid scheme, it is similar. It's not even trying to pretend it's very different. And when it finally peters out, there will be people at the end of the chain with nobody to sell the e-book to in order to break even. If you purchase that ebook for $97 and a years AN Hosting at about $100, you would need to sell either 4 ebooks, or 2 An Hostings, or some combo just to break even. But, The Upstart Blogger will have earned anywhere from $97-$182 from you if you sell nothing, and another $200 from you if you sell 4 e-books and you only break even.
I can see the marketing genius in that! A guaranteed money tree from you of anywhere from $97-$382 to them. But no guarantee that you will make any money or that the people you sell to will make any money. The Startup Blogger people and AN Hosting will be sitting pretty, though.
All for a little 'e-book' that tells you that you can make money by sending out uninformative, annoying Tweets telling people to buy the e-book that teaches you how best how to send out annoying Tweets! Which, of course, should NOT be considered SPAM.
Someone else has actually researched all of this and more in a much clearer and more detailed way. She even shows side-by-sides of how it appears some people are manipulating the graphics of their earnings 'proof' to make it appear they've made more than they have. I'm not sure, a small tag line makes me think that The TwitterRocketReview has some non-Twitter Rocket-type program up their sleeve, but as of now they don't, so I don't mind telling you to check that site out.
As of now, I'm having fun watching this new 'Pet Rock', and I'll be interested in seeing how it eventually crashes. I don't want to get in on the 'ground floor' as I'm sure many will- because I just don't like scammy things.
August 8, 2009 at 3:15 PM
Perhaps you should actually study the information in Twitter Rocket, as it's obvious from this post you haven't. What it's teaching you is how to grow your Twitter Base, so you can grow traffic to your own blog/website/offer. Nowhere did I see you HAVE to promote Twitter Rocket, it's just some people have seen that this is a very sensible & lucrative product to promote, especially if they have not as yet got there own website.
If you're going to review something, get it right!
August 9, 2009 at 12:11 AM
Hello there, Bruce. Have you read the section in Twitter Rocket called "How to make money with your Twitter account if you haven't got a blog"?
That's the part which invites people (who don't have their own website) to join the Twitter Rocket affiliate program and promote Twitter Rocket by posting occasional tweets.
This is an important teaching of Twitter Rocket, and even if you "don't have to" do it, you also "don't have to" grow your Twitter base using all the things listed in the ebook.
Are you sure you have studied the information in Twitter Rocket yourself? It appears from your comment that you need to read the ebook again.
August 10, 2009 at 6:34 PM
Thank you for making that point, Bruce. You are right- nobody HAS to sell the Twitter Rocket to make money.
But, as Twitter Rocket Review states, it is suggested that you do that. And I have yet to read one person who claims they are (or will) get rich from the Twitter Rocket saying exactly how having a larger Twitter base will help them in their particular business. Probably because they are all in the business of making money by selling eBooks and systems like this.
I would love to see some detail about how this eBook is specifically being used by a real business person in order to increase their sales of tangible products.
Thanks for commenting.
August 11, 2009 at 4:49 AM
The website you link to - twitterrocketreview - is the scam. Can't you see that?
The person behind it is Manuel Viloria, an internet con man from the Philippines!
The history behind this is that Manuel asked Ashley Morgan (the owner of Upstart Blogger) to send him some free copies of his products.
Ashley refused and then Manuel threatened to rubbish him all over the internet.
Ashley still refused and then Manuel started putting together sites like the one you are linking to.
If you want to get to the bottom of how you are being pulled into one of Manuel's scams then interview me.
Think about it for a moment and it will all make sense.
August 11, 2009 at 4:37 PM
This is absolutely pathetic. You refer to someone as "The Upstart Blogger" clearly showing that you have no idea what you are talking about.
You make this worse by saying "the people behind Upstart Blogger".
Have you even read Upstart Blogger? Do you have any idea what you are talking about?
You then spout more rubbish about a book that you clearly haven't purchased or read.
And then you link to a blog that is such a huge pack of lies (twitterrocketreview) that it has been taken down.
Luke is right. And you are very, very wrong.
August 11, 2009 at 4:40 PM
Look.
http://www.upstartblogger.com/deception-deceit-and-blackmail-in-the-blogosphere
Maybe you should share your uneducated views there and see how long your argument holds water. You'll find plenty of people there that are using Twitter Rocket to make plenty of money.
August 11, 2009 at 5:17 PM
Welcome, Anonymous.
Too bad you want to remain anonymous. Especially when you're calling me out for NOT using someone's personal name.
I generally don't use a person's name, especially when they have a website. If, however, if Ashley really wants me to, I guess I will. But then I will have to note that of the only 15 people I've seen tweeting about the Twitter Rocket, there are two 'Ashley's' and an 'Ash'. When you combine those three, the 2 accounts of the German guy and the 3 accounts from the husband/wife team in Canada, it sure makes it look like only a small handful of people are tweeting about it. Which is odd, considering how much money it is supposedly making so many people.
Just sayin'.
August 23, 2009 at 7:27 PM
Is it true that this blog post no longer accepts comments? Or that new comments are simply being blocked?