I hate to laugh at people who are out there trying to get their piece of proverbial pie using whatever means they can, but some of the money making programs out there are completely hilarious.

I was reviewing project payday this morning. You can click here to read my thoughts on whether or not Project PayDay is a scam. For a little over an hour I was stuck filling out forms on a number of different websites trying to complete one of the project payday sponsor trials so I could get access to the Project Payday training guide in order to get a better sense of what Project Payday is all about. I’d done a post about them a while back in my old blog under ‘The Scam Pit’, but I hadn’t actually used their program and some people felt I should try the program before I go publishing accusations that it’s a scam. I tried to remedy that today since they were supposedly running a special where you could get access to their training guide free of charge just for trying one of their sponsors offers. That turned out to be a waste of an hour and a half. I never got access to the training guide but I did get a laugh when I stumbled across another make money program known as ‘the work at home manifesto’.

It’s not so much the text that’s funny because it’s not really different from any other of its kind. Someone knows the secret to how you can make money online and they’re going to share it with you, help you make enough money working from home that you never have to work a 9 - 5 job again.

It was actually the 17-minute video that made me laugh, the way they set it up to make it look like someone was taking such a huge risk sharing this incredible secret with you that it was necessary to protect his identity by blocking out his face and mechanically altering his voice. They call him ‘The Jackal’, a so-called high ranked 15-year insider who, seeing the error of his former ways has come out of the shadow to shake the industry upside down and send competitors screaming for mercy. He apparently has the trade secret which he’s calling the work-at-home-manifesto. It’s apparently a completely different method which almost anyone can use to become a ‘kitchen-table’ millionaire starting from zero.

The jackal, kitchen table millionaire, work at home manifesto, I wonder how much time and effort went into coining these ‘clever’ names and phrases?

If you’re in the mood for a laugh you should definitely check out the video; but do yourself a favor and donate your dollar to charity or play the lotto with it. Play these numbers and send me some money if you win (05, 18, 23, 38, 47, 49).

Since Monika St. John (probably not a real name), Co-Founder of projectpayday.com was offering access to the Project Payday system free of charge until midnight November 15th, I decided to go ahead and sign up so I can get a closer look at the program to see exactly what it involves.

First I filled out the sign-up form. It asked only for my first and last name, an email address and preferred password. Simple enough. Simplicity is good when it comes to online forms. When you start to get detailed and invasive I usually don’t bother unless it’s something I have no choice about doing.

Naturally I did not provide my main email address. When you join these types of things your email address usually ends up on somebody’s spam list. I also did not give my real name.

So I clicked the “Create and continue” button and it pretended to load a new page with the following message (it really just scrolled down to the sales pitch on the same page but inserted the name I’d provided to “personalize” it:

Pat,

This may feel like a blow to the stomach, but I’ve got to say it. You probably don’t have what it takes to work from home and make money online like me.

Does that sting? Before you get up to slug me, let me explain. What I have that you probably don’t … is a lot of free time to work on my Internet business.

Most Average Joes don’t have the time to sit down and learn how to start a home business. They’re too busy working their rears off at low-paying jobs. Sometimes even balancing two full-time jobs.

Many Average Joes are going to school … sometimes in addition to working. And lots of Average Joes are busy with kids. Any of this sound familiar?

Another big obstacle is money …

Do you have endless cash to spend on business opportunities? Many “home business” type programs require you to buy supplies … risk loads of money on advertising … and more. How ironic is that?

The reason you’re looking to make extra money is because you need more of it! Not because you have a bunch of extra cash laying around to spend. Right?!

You’ve got bills to pay. Loans to pay off. Credit cards to pay down. Skyrocketing gas prices to deal with, and more!

These are the reasons I’ve always hesitated to share my primary money-making system with others. My paycheck is proof my strategies work, but I know most people don’t have the time or resources to make money the way I do.

And that’s ALWAYS a recipe for failure - so I vowed never to produce a “how to make money on the Internet” product for the Average Joe.

But as it turned out, I’ve had to eat my words …

I just had no idea I’d stumble on another stupidly simple way to make money online. Or that it would turn out to be the perfect system for the Average Joe!

I skimmed over the text, glanced at the PayPal screen shot that shows gross income in the amount of $4,915 supposedly earned by a Matt O’Connor from Palatine, IL between November 2nd 2006 and November 30th 2006. I read the testimonials from people who supposedly bought the program and started making money from their first day; then I clicked the “Click Here to Continue and Get Started Now” link.

After clicking the link I came to a page with the following message:

Risk-Free Account Activation Required
Welcome aboard Pat,To activate your account just Complete One (1) of the Free Sponsor Offers below. It just takes a minute, and you’ll get instant access to Project Payday.Like Miguel, you could make over $400 your first day, and consistently average around $4,000 a month. I bet that would reduce some of your financial pressures, wouldn’t it? Click Play to hear what he has to say …

I clicked to hear what Miquel had to say. He claimed he was a college student with a full-time schedule that made it necessary to seek out easy work at home opportunities. He said he’d tried everything from surveys to pyramid schemes with no success but managed to make $450 within 24 hours of trying out the project payday system. I wasn’t convinced that Miquel was not a paid actor; but I was determined to at least get to the point where I could actually learn what the Project Payday system is all about so I moved right on along, reading through the “Law of Gravity” $100 Guarantee that if I follow theprojectpayday system and don’t make money within 24 hours, I’d be paid $100. (By whom? I wondered. Who’s this talking to me anyway? Is it still Monika St John, if that is even real name to begin with?)

Whoever it was that was talking to me reminded me in bold type that I didn’t have to buy anything and there was no obligation. All I had to do was try one of their sponsors’ products at no cost for a short trial period … They outlined the steps in the process:

Step 1: Select and complete one of the free trial offers below

Step 2: Wait 1-2 minutes for your Project Payday account to update

Step 3: Access the Training Guide and start making money TODAY

Then they reminded me that the free no obligation offer would end at midnight on November 15th presumably in 2007. They didn’t state the year in which the offer would end at midnight on November 15th; but after November 15th, presumably in 2007, I would have to pay the normal membership fee of $34.95 which I could also elect to pay at that moment if I preferred not to have to complete one of their sponsors free trial offers before I could access the training guide. Since I had no intention of spending any money on a training guide that had a higher likelihood of proving useless, I went ahead and clicked on one of their sponsor offers so I could activate my account that way.

My first attempt failed because after I had filled out a name and address to receive Auction Monster’s Ebay success toolkit, I was taken to a page requesting my credit card information which no one clearly told me I was going to need to provide. Maybe it’s in small, practically invisible print somewhere but usually when warnings like that are made in small, practically invisible print it’s done like that so you won’t see it. They were only trying to charge me $1.87 for shipping but where I come from ‘no cost’ means no cost and I was not about to give my credit card information to sneaky people who try to make me think I’m getting something for free and then turn around and try to charge me even a penny for shipping. After they charge you for other things that they told you about in even smaller, more invisible print that you didn’t know anything about, you can try getting back the $99 they bill to your credit card.

So I tried another offer. This time before I clicked the button to get my free CD mailed to me from Ultimate Grant Secrets, I clicked to read the terms of service. In the terms of service I read:

A. User agrees to be charged by Ultimate Grant Secrets after 7 days of ordering the FREE CD in the amount of $39.95 for access to the Ultimate Grant Secrets Grant Help Center. The first day of the trial is the date of order. No refunds will be given for failure to use the requested and provided services.

B. The user will continue to be billed for $39.95 each month there after unless the user emails Ultimate Grant Secrets using our Contact Form.

C. If the user cancels their 7 day FREE trial into the Ultimate Grant Secrets Grant Help Center before the 7 trial days are up, the user will not be billed $39.95 or any charges thereafter.

D. By not cancelling Ultimate Grant Secrets Grant Help Center during the trial period or during any billing cycle, you agree that any reoccurring charges billed to you will be non-refundable.

This is all for a free CD. First they charge you $3.95 to ship the free CD and then 7 days after that they charge you $39.95 for accessing their help center, then every month after that they charge you $39.95 just because they can. Of course you can always cancel before you get charged so you’ll only pay them$3.95 to ship the free CD to you; but what they bank on and how they get people, is that we don’t bother to read terms of service agreements. It’s too tedious. The document is usually so long and so formal that we get a headache just contemplating reading it. And it doesn’t tell us anywhere else but in the terms of service document that unless we tell them not to by canceling their offer, they’re going to charge us $40 bucks every month for no other reason but that we provided our credit card to them, giving them the means to charge us $40 bucks per month.

Well I wasn’t about to proceed with that so it was back to the project payday website to try another offer. Surely at least one of the free offers would actually turn out to be free? Project Payday did promise in bold type after all that I could gain access to their training package at no cost. They never said I could gain access to their training package at no cost but after I paid one of their sponsors some money. This is what they said exactly:

And remember, you don’t have to buy anything and there’s no obligation.

Just try one of our sponsors’ products at no cost for a short trial period …

I was beginning to get bored and time was running away from me. I had work to do, but I’d started the process and I had to see it through so that I could base my conclusion on whether or not project payday is a scam on actual knowledge of what project pay day is about.

Unfortunately every last one of their sponsors offers was the same: get this program free, just pay shipping costs and remember to cancel within 7 days, 11 days an so forth, otherwise we’ll bill you $39.95 per month, $59.95 per month - you get the gist.

At least one the first questions I asked when I saw their sponsor offers was answered: why am I being offered a rebate if the cost to try the offer is $0. The answer: Because it doesn’t cost zero dollars.

So after an hour filling out forms to try to get to the point where I could access the project payday training guide I was faced with a dilemma. Either I would have to bite the bullet and give my credit card information to pay for shipping for one of the programs and try not to forget to cancel within the time frame to prevent being billed more money; or I would have to fork over $34.95 to Project Payday in order to get instant access to the training guide.

Well, folks, I wanted to be able to provide you with the answers you seek to your questions about whether or not project PayDay is a scam; but I will not be purchasing their training guide that they promised I could get for free, and I will not be providing my credit card information to companies that would try to trick me out of my money. And I don’t recommend you waste your time and your money either.