I was first contacted by 12/09/2010 and I first told them no on that date. started with a sales pitch of only $5.00 US dollars a month to advertise my company and get me on the first page of Google.

I stopped them right there and said, if it was only $5 to get on the first page of google by keyword and not just by my company name, then Google stock would not be in the $400 a share range and after being in business for over ten years myself, I understand that the right advertising works and for every good advertising agency there are 5 bad. It's so sad really..

So, I looked into this a little more and had to see what the catch was. After only a few minutes of research, I found the dirt - 0.25 cents for a reference? "What the heck is that?", I asked the sales rep (that calls me hourly like clockwork). He/She said " 0.25 is the only price you will pay per reference." Which is almost the same as a paid impression for legitimate companies that don't need to change wordage The other difference is that your name may come up as much as 400 times in a day.

How?

The companies scam is pretty simple and if you pay attention to the wordage it's easy to catch.

First,your given the option to choose up to 6 categories or keywords. Most companies will choose the hottest keywords thinking they are getting a deal!

Wrong!

You are basically giving them your savings at this point. Because by choosing these keywords or phrases, your both agreeing that they need to get you the most impressions possible at 0.25 cents a piece. They will get it shown to anyone possible on thier site, even if it's someone like me who they suggest should check out the site themselves. I'ts not only a genuine impression with keywords it just cost one of their advertisers 0.25 cents or so because I wanted to see what the sales rep was talking about. It's very simple and clever.

Let me back up a second here and give some simple advice when dealing with these types of companies.

Immediataley ask for their number and extension and say, I will call you right back on this number. This will usually send them into a stutter.

Most of the time these types of companies will only be outbound and the so called sales rep will not only be using a fake name, but the number they are calling from is bad or dead. This means you can't call back.

Of course they offer a customer service number, but again. Get the number and call it. Act as if your a customer and call with a general problem. Chances are if the comapny is bad- your customer service call will be taken by another person with a fake name. Like that credit card commercial when you call up and it's some guy outside the country who says " Hi this is Laura or something " it's almost comical.

Other ideas range from asking about the weather or who the Mayor or Govenor is. Chances are if they say they are in Florida and you see it's rainy online and they say it's sunny. You should hang up the phone.

Never give out your credit or debit card information over the phone and especially your bank information to any company you feel un-easy with. Our suggestion is to use a pre-paid credit card. Companies can not charge you hidden fees, because there is no pre-paid credit card comapny out there that will cover these types of charges. If there is only $5 in a pre-paid account, then only $5 is available. Get it?

Contracts?

If the company says there is no contract, then there is no contract and since there is no contract allowing them to take funds or sue you for fraudulent charges. It also means that your chances of getting any money back that may have been taken from you are not good at all.

Stay alert! and know that if you are reading this, a good scam artist has read it too and is already thinking of a way around this advice.

There are many ways to advertise your business online, with or without a website. Since the online boom and fading of local newspapers, most local newspaper companies have turned to online advertising and they are usually local and affordable. Another source is the phone book, these companies often have online advertising and the sales repsare more than willing to give a name, phone number and address or meet in person.

Advertising is expensive, but it can be managed and you must stay involved. Don't ever think that you can just give anyone money and your company will be number one. It just does not work like that. Take a little time to educate yourself or waste your time making money and giving it away and as far as goes. I chose not to advertise with this company at this time and I would not recommend them to anyone. I found most of my information by typing in these key words - usdirectory scams and I had more than enough to reference my concerns.