On the surface this portal appears to be on the up and up. They use SSL and have the credit card images in the footer to implore credibility, however, as someone that has tried this service our opinion is much different.

So far they have neglected and or failed to payout an outstanding balance due, they do not have a customer service phone number, do not respond to inquiries and no where on the site is there a physical address of their business….strike three. This site has all the elements or making of a scam portal. When you whois the domain name it is protected which means you cannot glean any contact information on the developer or owner of the site….strike four.

A credible business will post a physical or business address, phone number and contact information. Gazhoo has none of the above. Well if you are like me you simply chalk it up or write off the experience and move on…sort of moving on as writing this article to make others aware is my only recourse. The lesson was minor, yes they sold some of my information but they did not physically steal money out of my pocket, they only cheated me out of my intellectual property by reselling it to unsuspecting third parties and not paying the rightful owner. Be warned (caveat emptor) and advise your colleagues of the Gazhoo fraudsters as it is posts like these or reviews from credible people that help police the internet. If this article goes viral and puts Gazhoo on the right track it will discourage the scammers or ripoff artists from taking advantage of people. Help us make an example out of them, please forward or post this article on your site.

If anyone has had a similar experience let us know or if you have been paid in the last month we would love to hear from you.

UPDATE: April 4, 2010 Gazhoo finally made payment. We have opted to leave this post up in an effort to hopefully keep them honest.

Proof of scam..

If you are trying to generate a revenue stream with your website and you do not have your own products you can sell others by using an affiliate program like CLICKBANK. If you are thinking about selling a product or if you have an e-book your want to promote… CLICKBANK is a good choice. It has a history in the marketplace and when investing your time into building a successful online business you want to partner with a vendor that plans to be around for the long term.

Now that you have selected your product to market you should consider using a statistical program to track results and performance. Here is a great tool to help you follow statistics generated by your link. As much as some of us hate tracking or reporting, to be successful, it is critical that an affiliate marketer glean results from their links to determine effectiveness.  http://bit.ly/

To build a successful following one needs to offer your readers valuable content, solve problems, build trust and in the end hopefully a relationship. Trust is the biggest factor when it comes to any online transactions. Offer up plenty of free items to entice your readers to join your e-mail list, protect their privacy and only transmit offerings when you have something valuable to share. It is then and only then will you begin to build a profitable client base….many online marketers send you every lame offer because this is how they make their money. Peddling affiliate programs is their bread and butter so they are not putting the customer first they are thinking profit. BIG mistake and this is troublesome . When I see the quality of offerings stoop to this level I quite often opt out of their listing and they lose creditibility in the marketplace.

To manage your opt-in mail marketing list you can use several free software services such as Gammadyne Mailer or Your Mailing List Provider. Once you grow your list you will want to move to a provider like AWeber …they do offer a free test drive to see if their service meets your requirements.