I'd have no problem calling out these clowns by name. Let me know the names and why they are shit, and I'll rip em. Or if you want to guest post.

Side note; it's amazing that the free software you give away is better than 99% of the crap out there.

I suppose the strongest position we have is regrettably
to return the product,so far i have resisted as i apply a rule
that i never return; this has made me very careful and i always
check what others are saying on forums …i have only bought
one product this year[$699] , i have another one on a monthly service to do[ $25 pm]; but this is from a trusted source.I USALLY pay top prices which i am happy to do for extremely good product.But i have seen product at $4000 just to be in the company of so bloke for 1 day - and friends of mine have been sucked in- and it is going to be a rehash of tired old stuff , well i wish them well.

What I do is to test it out fully within the guarantee period and if it is a scam or a poor rehash, or if it doesn't work as described, I always return it for a refund and then write a fair and honest report and post it to the Warrior forum, so at least others who take the time to do a lookup there before they buy, have half a chance.

Its not enough to think, oh well, they were good enough to give me my money back - just remember it IS your money and don't forget it wasn't worth what they made you pay to buy it (sight unseen), or the lies they told about it to make you part with the cash.

The problem is, this doesn't really help the 'noobs' who don' yet know enough within the guarantee period to know that they've bought a lemon, nor do most of them know that they might get some help on the forum, if they look there before buying. But at least it might dissuade a few affiliates from taking it on since nobody likes to have to refund their 'earnings' and that would cut down the opportunities for selling poor offerings.

The key is, I think, to get the IM industry to police itself properly. And buy that, I guess I mean, maybe there should be a real "scam" review site somewhere. For everyone to be able to get some benefit though, the site would always have to come up top in the organic and sponsored SERPs though, and that would cost both time and money.

Both are available I am sure. Its perhaps more a question of the will, rather than the way.

What are your ideas Matt?

Hey Matt: Sometimes the market is the best arbiter of these issues. The number of newbies that get sucked in and never do anything with IM products is I am told up to 80%.

I am careful to buy only from people I know, like and trust and they can demonstrate it by their actions. Others caveat emptor.

When people go to excess viz the recent Oprah,Dr Oz lawsuits for using unfounded endorsements they deserve the consequences.

When people violate trusts in online communities they will get their own from ostracization and word of mouth.

Two rules 1: Golden Rule- Do unto others…
2: Would I sell it to my well informed Grandma.

Thanks for all of your good work Matt. You I know like an d trust from your demonstrated contributions in Gauher's forums.

Matt,
I know just how you feel. Just this morning so far I've received 7 emails about new IM products… All of them are selling a different version of the same thing except one. How many courses do I need explaining how to find the right niche, do keyword research, find an affiliate product and promote in… Plus make six figure incomes in the process?

It's nice that there are some people out there that stand up to their claims for the books and software they sell… Like You! And thank God that the FTC and other regulators are starting to get wind of the bad apples.

I've been at this for quite some time now and thus have an edge in judging the quality and usefulness of a product before I buy. Even so, I've found myself falling for some crap every so often… But what about the naive newbie? I clean out my email box of marketers that keep sending buy now emails every other month. That's a step in the direction of not hearing about unscrupulous claims and leaves me with a trusted authority group that have delivered in the past…

Matt, I´m new to this IM universe(about 2 months of research right now) and never put any money in any Internet Marketing program, tool, for 2 reasons: first, most, if not every offer I received looks like scam and second, I´m too newbie and just learning and testing ideas around first. I have in mind that if I´m new to something, it´s better to keep reading and researching before I invest some money, I won´t put money in anything blindly.
Anyway, I think the best to do when you have nothing to fear is to make public what are the products by reviewing them here in your blog, listing them so good people can avoid spending money in such BS.

Hey Matt, Im trying to activate your Keyword Sniper. I get the activation email and then click the link to activate it, which says it worked. However, the actual software keep telling me to Activate it every time I load the software.

Any ideas?

What's even more amazing to see is that these bozos keep launching new crap products and people still buy them like crazy. Hot copy works against our own intuition.

Matt,

You started me thinking when you wrote this piece and I've not been able to get the ideas out of my head. Maybe it was because you echoed some of my thoughts and I share the same frustrations as you. I dunno. Could be it's just time for me to do something really big.

So, rather than just moan about it, I've decided to DO something about it. I'll drop you an PM in a day or so and ask for your involvement. See if you're willing to put your motivation where your mouth is…

Hey Matt,
I sent you an email earlier but have received no response. Can you please tell me the differences between Laser URL and Site Sniper Pro? What additional benefits are gained with the latter?

Hey Matt,
Do you have any information/reviews on the latest program that is similar to Site Sniper Pro, called Keyword Rockstar?
Was wondering what you thought about it?

@Josh… Keyword Rockstar looks very interesting. It certainly covers more ground than Site Sniper Pro… or any other "specialty" tool I'm aware of.

If I had a criticism of it, it's actually that it tries to do too much without being best-in-class in any one area.

So it finds placements… but not with all the power of SSP (for example, it doesn't identify placement positions on the page, which is critical for many of the really powerful placement strategies).

And it creates bulk ad campaigns… but not with all the power of AdGrenade or SpeedPPC.

And it does keyword research… but not as well as Keyword Elite.

You get where I'm going?

So I'm impressed with the ambition of the project. And they do some really cool stuff in there (my own Image Ad Builder project started after seeing a Rockstar video).

And yet my sense is that you won't get the best of anything… just some of everything.

Of course, it would be much less expensive to start with Keyword Rockstar than all the actual best-in-class tools. And that's a big benefit.

But starting around month 3 or 4 you probably would have been better off buying the individual tools as the monthly charges begin to add up.

Overall, though, I think they've done an admirable job. however, I don't know that they'll ever be able to provide the features of specialty tools.

And going for quantity, while it often looks appealing up front, is typically more expensive than quality in the long run in lost profits and opportunity.

My 2 cents.

Start an honest review site and call them out in comparison to good products

Check out http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/05/AR2009100503620.html and you'll see your prediction about "if we don't clean up our act, they'll do it for us", is coming true.

KeywordRockstar.com uses similar image ads, image text ads with hand drawn red circles & arrows. Google has been rejecting many imageAd graphics lately, for the following reason:
Ad Status: Suspended - Pending Revision
Ad Issue(s): Poor Image/Video Quality

KR has redesigned there image ad format approx 10/17/09