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It's a Sad Thing to Watch...
...and we know that for a fact, because we've been watching
it for many years. People like you, who work so hard to
start an ECommerce Business and build a better future for
yourself or your family, getting scammed online over and
over and over again.
There is an entire industry out here on the Internet that is
dedicated to doing nothing more than getting as much money
out of you as they possibly can. When they find out that
you're looking for ECommerce products, like Web Site
Builders, Auction Educators, eBay Consultants, Wholesale
Product Sourcing companies and more, they start going after
your bank account with a vengeance.
Their web sites look very convincing. They make incredible
promises. They've gotten very good at looking and sounding
legitimate. You'd be surprised at some of the names of these
companies; we'll bet you know of and probably trust many of
them already.
The TRUTH is that these people are sickening. They have no
morals. They deserve no respect, and they have not the
slightest conscience or common decency. And guess what? They
are ALL OVER the Internet.
Literally eight out of every ten Search Engine Results in
these categories and more will lead you to someone who is
hell-bent on selling you as much garbage as your bank
account can stand to pay for.
So, let's show you how they operate, so they don't Scam YOU!
Search OneSource™ for FREE:
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Sales Lead Generators posing as Wholesale Directories
There are several so-called "Wholesale Directories" and
"Wholesale Product Sources" that advertise heavily at the
top of the Search Engine results for Drop Ship, Wholesale,
etc. Their prices are low, they look very legitimate, they
make wonderful promises, and there's something they DON'T
WANT YOU TO KNOW.
Their "Directories" are either pure junk, or in some cases
information pirated from other places, but never updated.
They don't care, because selling and properly maintaining a
real Directory or Wholesale Source is not what they're
interested in.
THEY WANT YOUR PRIVATE INFORMATION.
These low-cost "Directories" are simply a way for them to
get ahold of your Name, Email Address, Phone Number, Home
Address and your Credit Card Number. THEN THEY SELL YOUR
INFORMATION to hundreds of other INTERNET MARKETERS. Pretty
soon, you start getting emails and phone calls from people
trying to sell you thousands of dollars worth of business
systems, training CDs, expensive coaching programs and more.
IF YOU BUY any of these other programs, the seller of the
original junk Directory gets a COMMISSION on that sale.
That's why these people are called "Lead Generators". Your
Personal Information is the "Lead" they really want.
The product they sell means nothing to them; they don't care
whether it's any good, or whether you succeed with it, no
matter how much they appear to care. All they care about is
getting your personal information, so they can sell it and
make their REAL money by doing that.
"Wholesale Review" Sites with Hidden Agendas
This is something new that began happening in 2006. One
company put up a web site that claimed to "independently
review" different Wholesale Product Sources. Of course, that
company was a Wholesale Product Sourcing company themselves,
and gave their own company the best review.
Looking at the Review web site, though, you'd ever know that
it was actually owned by the company that gave themselves
the top review. It was built to look like an independently
owned review web site.
That opened the floodgates!
Internet Marketing Affiliates, which are people who make
money by advertising other companies' products, caught on to
that idea. So-called "Independent Review" sites began
popping up like canker sores all over the Search Engines.
These sites are not independent, and do not give accurate
Reviews.
The Products that get the "Top Reviews" on these sites are
always the products that pay the "Review Site" owner the
highest commission! It doesn't matter that the products
getting the "Top Review" are junk products. The "Review
Site" owners are only in it for the money, and their Reviews
are not accurate. Don't fall for it!
Broker
Networks
In order to earn the most possible profits on the products
you sell online, you must work directly with genuine
wholesalers. Anyone who gets in between you and a real,
factory-authorized Wholesaler is simply turning your order
around to someone else, and taking a profit from it. That
profit should you yours, not theirs!
Broker Networks that you'll see advertising as Drop Shippers
and Bulk Wholesalers are not illegal, and are not scams, but
in our educated opinion they are not what they want you to
think they are.
Broker Networks can best be described as something similar
to the Multi-level Marketing business model. In order to use
this "Network", and take advantage of the "millions of
products" they claim you can have drop shipped, you must
first BUY thousands of dollars worth of products yourself
(many times from large retail stores).
Then you BECOME a "Broker" yourself, trying to sell those
products to other "Brokers" within the "Network". You and
those other "Brokers" in the "Network" (people just like
you) actually become the "wholesale suppliers" these sites
want you to think you're signing up with.
Many times operations like these will not even complete your
"application" unless you can prove that you have several
thousand dollars to use in order to start buying products,
so you can become a "Broker". Be VERY careful with your
credit card information, and ask a LOT of questions!
Not what you expected from the advertising on their front
page, is it! If you're okay with that kind of business
model, fine. Again, it's not illegal, or a scam. Just
remember that this is NOT direct wholesale supply in any
traditional fashion whatsoever.
There are some Broker Networks that claim to be wholesale
suppliers of tens of millions of products. To the best of
our knowledge, there is no single wholesale supplier
anywhere on the planet that is anywhere near that large.
There are some Broker Networks that claim to be wholesalers
of a huge variety of Brand Name products. They are simply
passing your orders on to the real sellers (other "Brokers"
just like you, and even retailers, in some cases!) of those
Brand Names, and taking part of your profits.
If you want the best possible profit margins, the
transactions you make when you buy products to sell online
should be between you and a Factory Authorized Wholesale
Supplier ONLY.
TV Infomercials
The late night "Home Internet Business in a Box" TV
Infomercial.
The ones that show you "Amazing Systems" that will make you
"Thousands of Dollars a Week", with little effort on your
part. They offer you "Easy, Step-by-Step Instructions". They
want to sell you "Interactive CD ROMS that Teach You
ECommerce in No Time".
They offer to reveal "Amazing Secrets of the Pros" that will
make you rich. They promise "Instant Web Sites"" and "Access
to Thousands of Products That You Can Sell right Now!" They
show you beautiful people lounging around pools, swimming in
crystal-clear Caribbean waters, and sitting under palm trees
while their "Businesses" magically make them all the money
it takes to afford those things.
C'mon, folks! You and I both know better!
It's extremely tempting to buy into the fantasy that there
are "Secret Formulas", "Hidden Methods of the Pros", and
"Businesses in a Box" that will make us rich with very
little effort.
Common Sense tells us it's NOT TRUE. That it never has been
true. In our minds, we all know this. However, in our
hearts, we long for it to be so. That's what the
disreputable among these people prey on...our hearts and our
dreams.
We at Worldwide Brands know these people. We've been in this
business a long time. We're very good at it, and very we're
highly regarded on the Internet.
Different infomercial people have approached us over the
years, wanting us to endorse them and let them include our
information and our Product Sourcing Directories in their
half-hour trips to Fantasyland. We've had multiple
conference calls with the owners of many of these companies.
We've had conference calls with the people who handle their
advertising, and produce their infomercials. We have turned
them down, every time.
We will not allow our name and our reputation to be ruined
by being associated with people who claim that getting
'rich' on the Internet is easy. Don't let your chance at a
real business be ruined by them.
We know the 'get rich quick' Infomercials. We actually do
stay up late at night and watch them. In our experienced
opinion, they are selling a white-washed fantasy that has
little to do with the real business world.
They start out by telling you that their "Amazing System"
costs only a small amount of money.
Then, when they have you hooked, they tell you that you need
to spend hundreds more on an "Upgrade". Then they tell you
that you need to spend hundreds more on "Advertising and
Email Campaigns". Eventually, they'll end up telling you bit
by bit that you need to invest thousands of dollars with
them if you want to be successful. We have heard from a
tremendous number of people who have lost a lot of money to
these operations. Don't let them fool you!
Drop Shippers of "more than 3500 products"
There are literally THOUSANDS of companies out there who are
acting as MIDDLEMEN for ONE real drop shipping company. All
of those thousands of so-called drop shippers lead back to
the same supplier.
I'm talking about a big supplier of imported off-brand
merchandise that does drop ship directly from their
warehouse. They sell some nice products; I actually worked
with them a few years ago. You won't find any well-known
brand names there.
Their line consists of about 3,500 widely varying products,
mostly decorative figurines, home accents and giftware.
Again, you won't recognize any of the brand names...it's all
imported merchandise, probably mostly from China and the
Pacific Rim. We'll call this company "XYZ Wholesalers", for
the purpose of this discussion. That's not their real name,
of course.
You can sign up with "XYZ Wholesalers" directly and sell
their merchandise on your web site, for a hefty account
maintenance fee. I did that a few years ago, as I said.
However, I no longer work with them. I found the products
difficult to sell, for one very good reason. As I said
above, they have signed up THOUSANDS of people, who are all
trying to sell this exact same merchandise on the Internet.
That kind of competition, plus the fact that there are so
many more people (millions of people!) already trying to
sell giftware in general on the 'Net, made it impossible for
me to make any real money.
Now, here's the problem: along comes Joe Reseller. He signs
up with "XYZ Wholesalers" as a retailer, and has the right
to sell their products on the Internet. Then he advertises
himself as the WHOLESALER. He tells you that he IS a company
like "XYZ Wholesalers", and tells you to sign up with his
web site. He'll drop ship all those products to your
customers and make you rich. What he's really doing is
sitting in his bedroom in front of his computer, re-sending
your orders to the REAL "XYZ Wholesalers", and making a
profit from you that you should not have to pay.
$3 Lists of Drop Shippers and Wholesalers
Ever see an ad like that on an auction site? So have we. We
buy them. OK, we KNOW we're getting ripped off, but we just
have to see them. A few days after paying for them, we get
two Xeroxed pages in the mail containing the most worthless
information we've ever seen. Or, we get an Email that's
supposed to be a Product Sourcing list. (An EMAIL!) Or we
get a $15 CD chock full of the same garbage the guy who
charged us $3 was peddling. If I thought I could make money
on the Internet selling wooden birdhouses made in somebody's
garage, I'd go into business with my neighbor.
These lists sell for anywhere from $2.50 to about $59. Why
do you think they're so cheap? Because nobody had to put any
EFFORT into them! It's easy to hit a search engine, type the
word "wholesale", throw the first 20 responses on a piece of
paper, and sell it for a few bucks.
Will it help you earn money? NO!
98% of all Wholesale Directories on the Internet
We're the other 2%. :o)
Yes, we bought them. ALL of them. They call themselves
"Ultimate", "Essential", "Connection", "Directory Pro",
"Global", "Millennium", "Central", "Wholsalers.xxx," and
"Incredible" lists and sites of Drop Shippers and Bulk
Wholesalers. Some of them even have names that sound like
the names of famous, well known web companies, in a sad
attempt to associate themselves with legitimacy.
Again, we knew we were getting substandard information. I've
seen these things floating around for YEARS, and have tried
to use them before. But just for the sake of doing our
research before telling you what they are really like, we
bought them.
These printed lists and "directories" of Drop Shippers and
Bulk Wholesalers have been circulating the same, tired old
listings around and around among themselves for years. If
you think you can make money selling customized return
mailing labels, or novelties like fake vomit and dribble
glasses, or used books from some dingy old warehouse, then
by all means, give it a try.
They all claim to contain "hundreds", or "thousands" of
companies who will drop ship for you. Some of them contain
hundreds of listings, but that's easy. Once again, just go
to a search engine, type in "wholesale" and copy the first
500 responses you get. Then slap them in a rag-print
magazine and call it a "Directory". Same result.
Our Research Manager actually spent a month trying to
contact ALL of the 202 "drop ship" listings in one of the
oldest and most well known of these (don't ask which one;
you know you've seen the ads!) Only 18 of them responded,
and only 3 of them (THREE out of 202!) were real drop
shippers. The 18 companies who did respond didn't know they
were even listed in this "directory".
When we research OneSource, we contact EACH AND EVERY
COMPANY WE LIST. Then we ASK THEIR PERMISSION to list them.
After we verify that they are a REAL Wholesaler Supplier, we
enter them in OneSource and list their products, their brand
names, their email addresses, phone numbers, physical
address, contact person, credit information, ordering
procedure, etc., etc., etc. NONE of these other so-called
"directories" do anything remotely like what we do. We're
constantly amazed that they get away with it.
Lists and "directories" such as this sell for anywhere from
$7 to about $59. They look very legitimate. We've even seen
a couple of new ones surface in the past few months.
Amazingly enough, they're circulating much of the same
worthless information that the OLD ones are! Must have taken
a lot of research, don't you think? :o)
'Super Drop Ship and Wholesale CDs'
You've probably seen these on auction sites as well as web
sites. Tell you what, we'll make this one short and sweet.
Read the warning above this one, dump all THAT junk on a CD,
and sell it for six bucks. Same thing.
'Complete Home Business' Opportunities
Have you ever come across a "Home Business Opportunity" like
this: (?)
They'll create a storefront for you. They'll provide you
with THOUSANDS of products that they'll drop ship for your
store! They'll provide you with Merchant Services so you can
accept credit cards without having to open a bank account!
All for a ONE TIME PRICE of just $50! (Or $149, or $300,
etc.)
Wow, doesn't that just seem too good to be true?? That's
because it IS too good to be true. Oh, sure, they'll do what
they say. It's a legal business. But tell me this...just how
much money do you think you'll make?
Think about it for a minute. THEY establish accounts with
wholesalers. THEY mark those wholesale prices WAY up. Then
they get YOU to put in all the time and effort to SELL those
products to people, at a VERY slim profit margin for YOU.
Congratulations! You've just become a commissioned salesman
for someone else's business! Um, not quite what you had in
mind, was it?
Wholesalers with Membership Fees
Run across one of these yet? A company who claims to be a
"drop ship supplier" or a "bulk wholesaler", but has a
"setup" or "membership" fee?
Let me say this very clearly:
A Real Wholesale Supplier does not charge a Fee just to do
business with you!
ANY company that wants you to BUY YOUR STORE'S PRODUCTS FROM
THEM, and wants you to pay a setup or membership fee, should
be AVOIDED at ALL COST! Almost without exception, these
companies have raised their so-called "wholesale" product
prices so high that you will never be able to compete on the
Internet. Your prices will have to be so much higher than
anyone else's that you will never make any real money.
And guess what?
You don't get to SEE these companies' "wholesale" product
prices until AFTER they have your money! See how that works?
There will be a NO REFUND policy. Bet on that.
Wholesale Middlemen
There are a LOT of places out there who would have you
believe that they are wholesale suppliers, when they are
not. We spend a great deal of time sorting these profiteers
OUT of our list of Directory candidates.
Here's how they operate:
They put up a site that contains all kinds of unrelated
product lines, and tell you they'll drop ship for your
internet business.
They may charge a small account setup fee.
You sign up with them, thinking that they are an actual
distributor, and you place their products for sale on your
site.
Your customer orders a product from you, and you send the
order to this fake "drop shipper".
The fake "drop shipper" in turn places the order with the
REAL supplier, and has it sent to your customer.
You end up paying a lot more than you have to for the
product, because the fake "drop shipper" is marking up the
price to YOU.
You lose profits that should be yours.
Many of these people are very clever. Their sites look
legitimate and they present themselves well. All they really
are is just another middleman that is sponging off of your
hard work. You DON'T need them.
Free Drop Ship or Wholesale Information
This is an easy one. Once again...you get what you pay for.
No exceptions.
We've checked out these sites. Over and over again, we see
them listing companies that we've turned down for inclusion
in OneSource. Middlemen, companies that charge large
"membership" fees and then give you over-inflated price
lists in return, companies that require minimum orders in
the THOUSANDS of dollars.
The producers of these sites are simply hoping to get people
to click on them so that they can claim high numbers of
visitors, and sell advertising space. We've never seen
anything useful on one of these irresponsible excuses for an
informational site, no matter how sincere they claim to be,
or how many false "testimonials" they list.
This is a Real Problem...
...and more and more people are victimized by these Scammers
every day. So be very careful!
About the author: Chris Malta is the official
product sourcing editor for eBay Radio. He also hosts
both
The
Entrepreneur Magazine EBiz Radio Show, AND The Entrepreneur
Magazine Product Sourcing Radio Show.
Click here to
join OneSource now!
Click here to
get instant access to the world's largest database of drop ship
and wholesale suppliers. You'll have unlimited, lifetime
access to millions of products and instant market research
anytime you want! Worldwide Brands and OneSource is the
only information provider certified by eBay.
OneSource is personally recommended by the
Dean of eBay
University, Author of The Official eBay Bible, and Host of the
eBay Radio Show, Jim (Griff) Griffith.
Click here to see
how you can use OneSource to grow your business today!
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