How To Spot Blogging Scams From A Mile Away

This is a guest post, authentically created from the heart by one of the most elegant and heart centered bloggers on the web, Ryan Biddulph. 

For more about Ryan, check out his blog, aptly named, Blogging From Paradise. 

Now, let's hear from Ryan. 

Yesterday I emailed someone who addressed me in Thai.

I knew it seemed scammy but since the initial email found my inbox I gave it a shot.

Turns out, this was a scam. Allegedly, some Western woman living in Indonesia needed my funds to exit a sticky situation. She seemed as trustworthy as the individual who emailed me recently in regards to the dethroned Nigerian prince buddy of theirs, so I junked the email and moved forward.

Unfortunately, not all blogging-related scams are easy to see. Some SEO agencies give off the appearance of being legitimate but accept hundreds or even thousands of dollars for terrible quality, black hat, guaranteed to fail, work.

I know; I used one such agency as a new, green blogger over 10 years ago. After investing hundreds of dollars in boastful promises, all I got was articles written by someone whose 3rd language was English, rife with grammatical errors and more wordiness than an auctioneer, posted to Ezine Articles.

As soon as I saw the low quality of their work, I immediately fired them and told them to cease publishing content under my name.

How can you spot blogging scams from a mile away?

Follow these tips.

Follow Only Happy, Heart-Centered, Successful Bloggers

Happy, heart-centered, successful bloggers tell the truth through their generous, abundant content.

Follow only these folks. Compassionate, successful bloggers never scam people because all they do is legit, proven, sound, honest, truthful and from the heart.

For example, I charge $1000 for my flagship blogging course. Some see 1 grand as small potatoes, others, a decent chunk of change. But anybody who spends 5 minutes on my blog quickly sees the 40,000 hours I spent generously serving people sound practical blogging tips and even more sound mindset blogging tips knows: my course rocks because this is what I genuinely did to become an island-hopping, pro blogger.

After digging deeper, you see I have been featured on Forbes, Virgin and Entrepreneur. I write for 1 million members of the Positively Positive community, alongside Mark Cuban and Seth Godin. Energetically, you see I tell the truth, so my course is, literally, good money.

Follow the happiest, most successful, compassionate bloggers who offer sound, practical tips. Avoid scams.

Which brings us to the reason why you need to follow the most loving, caring, genuine pros, to avoid scams…….

Soak Up Heart-Centered Pro Blogger Advice to Power Up Your BS Detector

If you follow top bloggers who blog from the heart, and soak up their advice, you know blogging is a fun, freeing, sometimes scary journey, involving persistent, detached work, patience, and an extremely high level of tolerance for uncomfortable situations.

Anytime you come across advice 100% contrary to all heart-centered, pro blogger advice, you know it is a scam, whether from an SEO agency, blogger boasting through their course, or, heck, anything, or anyone.

I promise you how to retire to a life of island hopping through smart blogging at Blogging From Paradise. Then, you see me in a gazillion places, and learn I spent 40,000 hours of the past 10 years generously serving people, based on the sound principles of creating and connecting. Sounds legit to you. Live a movie-worthy life by putting in a movie-worthy effort.

But the split second you see a blogger promise $10,000 a week after one month, or, a push button, turn key system, or how to reach page 1 of Google in 3 days, or any other douchebag claim, that is 100% opposite to heart-centered pro blogger advice, it is a scam, a lie, dishonest, and needs be avoided.

Trust the guy who has been featured on Forbes. Not the jackass making ridiculous income claims in your spam folder. Accumulate proven blogging advice from happy, compassionate pros to spot the riff-raff from afar.

Beware Income Claims

Some fabulous, kind, generous, successful bloggers get fully clear on making income claims from a detached energy. These folks tell the truth. Pat Flynn is not scamming anybody. He’s a great dude and as generous as they come.

But when you come across bloggers who constantly make income claims but never seem to share how they do it - for free - or, why they do it, or, who seem shadowy, tough to reach, run, don’t walk, away from these people.

Beware income claims unless the blogger shows you how they did it with sound, practical advice, backing up their approach. Read their blogs, watch their YouTube channel and trust the content, before you trust the claim.

Get to Know Bloggers

You have thousands upon thousands of videos of me chatting from all over the globe. I am real. I am human. Get to know me.

You have thousands of pictures of me, snapped from all over the globe. Check ‘em out. Get to know me.

I share my successes, failures, wins, losses, my suicidal days, my movie-worthy-travel life, my death-defying travel experiences, my mom’s terminal illness, my mindset work. I am a living, breathing, blogging guinea pig.

Everything I share through my free and premium content has helped me and my readers live their dreams, so you can live your dreams. Only the Walking Dead, poisoned by the demons of fearful distrust, would not see this. All sane humans see I tell the truth because I love you guys.

On the flip side, if you cannot get to know a blogger through their content, and if they seem to be hiding all types of stuff, stay away. Either they are kinda legit but untrustworthy, because they do not trust themselves, or they are a scammer, outright.

Wrap Up

Most people online are super awesome and legit.

If you get scammed, learn from the experience.

Move forward to connect only with heart-centered, positive, successful bloggers.

Ryan Biddulph helps you become a successful blogger at Blogging From Paradise.