Danger, Will Robinson! Ijango is bad for Google advertisers.

This post is a public service announcement aimed at advertisers who use the Google Content Network.

A new MLM scheme called iJango has recently reared it’s ugly head, and it directly threatens your ROI.  Unfortunately, iJango was able to get a Google Adsense account, even though it clearly violates Adsense program policies. If you read the policies page, please notice the 2nd topic labeled “Encouraging Clicks.”  It states the following:

Encouraging Clicks
Publishers may not ask others to click their ads or use deceptive implementation methods to obtain clicks. This includes, but is not limited to, offering compensation to users for viewing ads or performing searches, promising to raise money for third parties for such behavior or placing images next to individual ads.

The part I put in boldface describes what iJango is all about.

Ijango is a hacked up version of Omar Al Zabir’s Dropthings, a free, open source, AJAX web portal. An easy way to prove this is by simply doing a site:president.ijango.com query in Google.  The person programming iJango forgot to change the built-in meta descriptions, and Google indexed it the last time it crawled the site.  In case you are catching this article after they fixed it, here is a screenshot of the query at the time this article was written:

Proof that iJango is using the Free, Open Source, portal script called Dropthings

A month before it actually launched, there was a lot of hype and propaganda generated by the people behind it.  It has been pitched as a way for people to make money by using the internet, viewing ads, and performing searches.    Here is a link to their latest video, and it is a great example of what I’m talking about: http://www.ijango.biz

The type of people who are falling for this scheme all have the same type of mental deficiency.  They are all ignorant as to how internet advertising works, and they have a disturbing sense of entitlement to YOUR online advertising dollars.  They all believe that this is some revolutionary idea that has never been done, and that they are all going to become millionaires by simply surfing the internet.   Ijango is nothing more than the old “paid to surf” scheme, wrapped up in a new and shiny package, and being sold as something else. It’s one of those “accepted scams” in the sense that it’s a little bit of truth mixed in with a lot of lies, and pulls the wool over the eyes of the ignorant.   The good news is that it has not worked since it launched on Saturday.  The bad news is you’ve got an army of brainwashed, “get rich quick” people chomping at the bit ready to run up your CPM ads and click your CPC ads, so that they can GET PAID!  Here is a screenshot of some tweets about iJango from it’s “directors.”  This is an excellent example of the mentality of the people using and promoting iJango.

Example of the mentality of iJango directors.

What can I do about the iJango threat?

Glad you asked, because that’s the whole purpose of this post.  The most important thing you can do is to add ijango.com to your site exclusion list.  In case you are not sure how to do this, I am providing this simple “step by step” guide on how to block your ads from being served to the rabid dogs on iJango.

Step 1: Log in to your Adwords account and select the 4th tab over labeled “Tools.”  You will see a drop down appear, and you will want to click on “More Tools >>”  as seen in the screenshot.

Select More Tools in the Google Adwords interface

Step 2: You will now be at the “Tools” page for your Adwords account.  On the left column, look for the header labeled “Optimize Your Ads.”  The 5th clickable item is called “Site and Category Exclusion”, and you will want to click that.

Click on "Site and Category Exclusion" from the Adwords Tools page

Step 3: You should now be on the “Site and Category Exclusion” page as pictured below.  If you are running multiple campaigns, you will need to select one from the drop down menu.  Once your campaign is selected, simply enter ijango.com into the text box, and click “Save All Changes.”  It’s important that you put in ijango.com WITHOUT the www.   iJango has subdomains for all it’s users, so doing it this way will block your ads from being serviced on iJango sitewide!  If you have multiple campaigns, you will need to repeat this process for each one!  Now your advertising dollars are protected from the people that feel they are entitled to it for doing nothing!

Enter ijango.com into the text box, and click Save all Changes

Sorry for the delay on this.  I decided to do a video because it’s a lot easier to explain this way.  The video below shows how iJango is not unique, and that it uses technology that has been around of years.  I also show a serious contradiction in what is being advertised about iJango, and what is actually in it’s terms of service.

You cannot make money by giving iJango away!

Also if you read the original article, please take note of the update I made.  I address some of the comments made about Cameron’s “side of the story”, and posted a link to it if you are interested in reading it.

Stay tuned for Part 3!

Ijango Scam

Today I will be addressing the iJango scam that has recently popped up on the internet. You probably found this by searching the internet to see if indeed iJango is a scam. I can tell you that, Yes iJango is a scam! To start let’s investigate iJango CEO, Cameron Sharpe.

Cameron Sharpe the notorious Con Man & Deadbeat Dad

I first came across the iJango scam when a client emailed me about it, asking if it was a legit opportunity.  By the way he described it in the email, I knew it was a scam before I even looked at the website. For fun, I decided to check it out.

I started watching the video of some guy describing this new pyramid scheme, and about fell out of my chair laughing when he said, “What if you could multi-level Google?” I knew it was a really bad scam when he said, “How would you like to get paid everytime YOU or people you know use the internet?”  Anyone in the internet marketing industry with half a brain knows this type of scheme NEVER WORKS!  It failed with AllAdvantage and Agloco, and it WILL FAIL WITH IJANGO!  BET!  So now that I had this basic information established, the next question was who is this guy?  In the video, he looked like he came straight from the pages of Hot Chicks with Douchebags.  Stepping out of the Maserati in the no parking zone definitely added some extra doucheiness.  I began doing some research and was literally floored by all the dirt I was able to dig up on this guy.

 Barrett Stone started up a dating scam called Ultimate Singles in 2000 with another criminal named Jason Breakey.  This company was responsible for all the street sign spam you may have seen in your city at one time or another.  If you Google the company, or either of their names with the word scam; you’ll see lots of results on various complaint sites.  Here is just one example I found of bad reviews on Complaints.com, that details exactly how the scam worked.  They would advertise websites in each city they were in that tricked the residents into believing it was a local company.  These people would unknowingly enter into a contract totaling up from $5,000 to $15,000.  The complaints on the web all tell the same story, which was the actual service wasn’t anything close to what was advertised.  When a victim would try to cancel, they found out there was no way to do so.  When they refused to continue making payments, he was able to turn them into a collection agency.  After a couple of years, the Texas Attorney General’s office had received a plethora of complaints on Cameron Sharpe and his company, Ultimate Singles.  I actually found a judgement against him on the Dallas TX County Clerk’s website dated 10-02-03.  In case you have trouble using their document viewer, I have inserted a screenshot below:

Judgement for $5127.00

It describes in detail how he SWINDLED one Susan Baker out of $150,000, and then filed bankruptcy to avoid paying her back!  This lengthy, 39 page PDF file shows you who the real Cameron Sharpe is.  Some of my favorite parts are:

Ms. Baker testified that Mr. Sharpe’s manner of dress led her to believe that he was a wealthy man.  She also testified that based upon his demeanor and appearance she thought he had money.  Ms Wokowitz also testified that Mr. Sharpe led a lifestyle that led her to believe he was a successful, wealthy person and that she believed Mr. Sharpe intended to lead people to believe that he was a wealthy person.

… what is remarkable about Mr Sharpe’s testimony throughout the trial, though convoluted and often confused, is the sense of a desperate, “pie-in-the-sky” optimism on his part that maybe, someday things will work out his way and he will be as rich as he aspires to be.  The parties also agree that, in addition to dressing extravagantly, Mr Sharpe lived extravagantly, flying on a business associate’s Lear jet, dining in expensive restaurants, drinking expensive wines, and shoping in designer boutiques and expensive stores, such as Cartier.   Ms. Baker also presented photographs to the court, one showing Mr. Sharpe beside a Lear jet and one of a mansion, as evidence that Mr. Sharpe wished to portray himself as a man of significant means.