Thursday, March 3, 2011

My Chat with TutorVista, a "Free" Tutoring Service


Welcome to TUTORVISTA !
Type your question in chat window below.
[ 02:05:01 PM ] Acad Coordinator : May I have your name and grade please?
[ 02:05:09 PM ] Guest : this is free?
[ 02:05:10 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Hello, I'm Krish your academic counselor for today
[ 02:05:10 PM ] : Welcome to TutorVista..!
[ 02:05:11 PM ] : How are you doing today..?
[ 02:05:17 PM ] Guest : excellent
[ 02:05:22 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Let me know your grade and subject to help you better.
[ 02:05:40 PM ] Guest : 11 calculus
[ 02:05:51 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Not to worry, you are at the right place for help.
[ 02:05:54 PM ] : Are you aware of our tutors how exactly they work online ?
[ 02:06:03 PM ] Guest : yes, they help you for free
[ 02:06:27 PM ] Acad Coordinator : But are you aware of the HUGE offer today..?
[ 02:06:35 PM ] Guest : yes
[ 02:06:40 PM ] : free tutoring is a huge offer
[ 02:06:41 PM ] Acad Coordinator : What is it..?
[ 02:06:45 PM ] Guest : and i am most grateful
[ 02:07:02 PM ] Acad Coordinator : What is the offer..that you know..?
[ 02:07:09 PM ] Guest : free tutoring
[ 02:07:40 PM ] Acad Coordinator : NO however today we are giving a FLAT 50% off on the regular price.
[ 02:07:41 PM ] : Today we are running a special promotion offer on subscription
[ 02:07:47 PM ] Guest : no thank you
[ 02:07:52 PM ] : i want the free level service
[ 02:07:52 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Please wait..
[ 02:07:54 PM ] Guest : thank you
[ 02:07:58 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Please wait..
[ 02:08:19 PM ] : I will give you a best deal
[ 02:08:28 PM ] Guest : thank you so much
[ 02:08:37 PM ] : you are god sent
[ 02:08:39 PM ] : working for free
[ 02:08:46 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Let me know how much you can afford..?
[ 02:09:03 PM ] Guest : no thanks, i only want the free service
[ 02:09:18 PM ] Acad Coordinator : To be honest with you there are no free online Live tutoring available at the moment.
[ 02:09:28 PM ] Guest : when will there?
[ 02:09:35 PM ] : is it appointment basis?
[ 02:09:44 PM ] : how about tomorrow
[ 02:09:46 PM ] : same time
[ 02:09:56 PM ] Acad Coordinator : We have more than 2000 well qualified tutors available round the clock so that you can get a tutor instantly
[ 02:10:04 PM ] Guest : oh great!
[ 02:10:14 PM ] : so youve got one now?
[ 02:10:24 PM ] : you just said they were all busy
[ 02:10:26 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Yes once you subscribe
[ 02:10:43 PM ] Guest : subscribe for free, right
[ 02:10:54 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Its just $49.99 a month.
[ 02:10:56 PM ] : For one subscription you can take all the unlimited help you need in all the subjects (Math, English and Science ) without any extra cost.
[ 02:11:15 PM ] Guest : perhaps i want to evaluate it first
[ 02:11:18 PM ] : with a free trial
[ 02:11:28 PM ] : after all, the site does say FREE HELP
[ 02:11:32 PM ] Acad Coordinator : I am sorry but all our demo tutors are busy with the regular session.
[ 02:11:37 PM ] Guest : ok
[ 02:11:41 PM ] : set me up an appointment
[ 02:11:41 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Our tutors give priority to students who has an account with us.
[ 02:11:44 PM ] Guest : for free help
[ 02:12:00 PM ] : surely one will become free within 24 hours
[ 02:12:08 PM ] : set me up an appointment tomorrow, same time
[ 02:12:15 PM ] Acad Coordinator : You can get help only once you subscribe.
[ 02:12:28 PM ] Guest : then your site is a lie
[ 02:12:44 PM ] : i gave you the benefit of the doubt
[ 02:12:53 PM ] Acad Coordinator : If this was a scam then we would not have been the NO 1 online tutoring company and we would not have survived for so long in this tutoring.
[ 02:12:55 PM ] Guest : and every chance to offer something free
[ 02:12:59 PM ] : no matter how small
[ 02:13:11 PM ] : funny
[ 02:13:14 PM ] : i didnt say "scam"
[ 02:13:26 PM ] : you must get accused of this quite often
[ 02:14:01 PM ] Acad Coordinator : Thank You for visiting TutorVista.
[ 02:14:07 PM ] Guest : No 1
[ 02:14:10 PM ] : according to what?



At that point, he claimed they were featured on NBC and ended my session.

Reader challenge: go to TutorVista and see if you can get them to admit more of their lies. I hear they sometimes offer $20-$50 subscriptions, but invariable end up charging $100. Or just have fun with them and post the transcript here. I recommend copying the text often because once they end the session, it's gone forever. Good luck.

Monday, January 17, 2011

My Autoblog Business Review

Brett Ingram of "myautoblogbusiness.com" goes as far as saying you will pocket $300 per month by doing absolutely nothing. The concept here is that you own and operate one or more "autoblogs," or blogs that run themselves without you writing any content or doing anything at all.

For those new to blogging, you must understand that original content is key. Computer programs are not yet advanced enough to write anything that would be interesting to humans. So how can a blog be "automated?"

Take a look at the blogs this thing has generated. If you scroll down the page on myautoblogbusiness.com, there are two examples. Brett doesn't link to his poster children of the autoblog world, but with a little help from Google, I found both sites.

The first one is Virus Scanner Reviews:
virusscannerreviews.com/freecss-aimbotthe-se7enth-ghost-multibot-100-vac-proof-as-of-10222010.html

Supposedly it's about Virus Scanners, but features a vid for a Counter Strike hack.

Does something seem off about this blog? It should. The entire content of this post (and all the others on virusscannerreviews.com) is copied directly from Youtube! See for yourself. Even the comments have been ripped off from the Youtube comments. The alleged comment box for this blog is just for show.

The other blog is Blu Ray Burners:
burnersbluray.net/is-the-asus-g73-a-good-buy.html

Here again, the blog content and comments are copied directly from a question on Yahoo! Answers.

These are called scraper sites and are frowned upon in the online advertising industry (your only source of income with this product).

Are these just a couple of bad apples from an otherwise upstanding product? No! These are the blogs that appear in the sales pitch! The prime examples of what this software does.

If you're thinking about trying autoblog despite the fact you would be ripping off advertisers, keep in mind, Youtube and Yahoo! Answers are owned by two major search engines. Do you really think they won't know who the content belongs to?

And if you're still thinking about it, you might want to look at some of the complaints that Brett isn't delivering.

Special thanks to MomentumAutoBlog for spamming your affiliate link so that I could find out about this one.

Registration complete

http://scumreport.blogspot.com/ and http://scumblog.blogspot.com/ Two blogs that are already registered. And both died in August of 2003. FML.