The Shill Trick

Google's easy definition of a Shill is;

"an accomplice of a confidence trickster or swindler who poses as a genuine customer to entice or encourage others."

Online, many persons will tout various sites; they will claim they were 'always paid' they will attack anyone who dares question the bona fides of that site.

They are not the average user, who is not pro or con, who might give a hedged sentence of support or distrust of a site; they are almost vicious in their defense of that site.

As so much flows past an average user, which would be challenged if said face to face, Shills proliferate and are rarely exposed.

You are on a site and someone pops on telling you how great Rite site is. Tells you how you will be paid for A,B,C.

Do you stop and say; "Hmmm... why is this person 'selling' Rite site?"

No.

You probably race over to Rite Site, believing what you were told, join, and do A,B,C and it is likely you will be paid that first time.

If you are a trusting type, you might run around, touting Rite Site.

You might bring in a bunch of others, and if Rite Site gives you a 'referral' code, every warm body you bring in nets you coin.

You are, in fact a paid Shill, 'hired' to tout the site.

If you get nothing for your work, you become an unpaid Shill.

But you are a Shill.

For you do not own the site.

In real life I shop at this supermarket, G.F.

It's very nice for me.
They treat me very well, and usually have what I want.
The prices are not the cheapest in town, but cheaper than the other supermarket over there.

I don't become emotional about G.F. I say, "I shop there," that is all I say.
I don't own that supermarket, I don't know if they run tricks, I can't swear for anything, because I don't know.

This mentality should hold online.

It doesn't.

I am only masking the name of the site.

Payz came into being when guy who used to Mod for another site opened his own and got five friends, Mods of that other site, to join him.

Payz was born with a pile of plagiarised stuff and stuff the Owner and his Pals posted under false names, (duals).

The Adsense Account belonged to the Owner.

The Owner and his Pals/Shills ran all over the 'Net telling people how Payz pays more than others and what a great site it was.

The Owner and his Shills split the money gained from those plagiarised articles.

The Owner then created a protocol. Everyone who wants to join Payz has to submit Five articles. These articles will be used as their 'resume' . If good enough, the articles will be published that member will be elevated to Writer.

That user will be paid for subsequent articles.

The Five 'Resume' articles are used to replace the plagiarised stuff. The money gained is split between the Owner and his Shills.

As more people joined Payz things were really booming for the Owner and his Shills.

Eventually there weren't that many new members whose coin they could steal, and the payment they had to make to Writers cut down on their take.

The Owner decided to target certain good writers. When they hit 100 articles he'd have his Shills attack the article. When the Writer responded, s/he would be dropped to Member.

All articles written by that Member would be confiscated. Members are not paid.

This is not fiction. This is exactly what happened.

The Owner and his Shills knew, for a fact, that specific writers were being dropped to members so as to steal their revenue.

They expected these writers to complain on other sites. They were ready.

As soon as the aggrieved writer posted about his/her experience on Payz, the Paid Shills went to attack.

However, on many sites, unpaid Shills were attacking the Writer.

These unpaid Shills had absolutely no idea what had happened. Yet, they were attacking a fellow writer.

When the Owner realised that he didn't need to pay anyone to Shill, that there were stupid people willing to do the job for free, he made the decision to open another site, move the stolen stuff there, and to abruptly close Payz.

He closed Payz without a word to anyone, not even his old Pals/Shills. He opened the new site, pocketing all the money everyone had earned on Payz.

The Owner of Payz realised he had cheated himself. Why pay someone to Shill for a site when there are zombies out their willing to Shill for nothing?

He'd paid his Shills to run around the 'Net and bring in users. He'd paid them to attack every person who criticised Payz, so as to destroy their credibility.

He didn't have to pay anyone to do this. Zombies will do this for free. They will defend him and his site, knowing nothing about the internal manipulations.

The Owner couldn't believe that people he didn't know, people who he semi-ripped off on Payz could defend him and his actions.

On the new site, the Owner had no paid Shills. They performed the tasks of soliciting members, of attacking dissenters, for FREE.

When he closed his second site without a word, and pocketed all the cash, he knew as long as he could run this scam he never had to work a day in his life.

Most of you who read this article will not change.

If you are the sensible type, who doesn't defend what you don't control, then you won't make a fool of yourself.

If you are the kind that will attack other users;

"I was always Paid! You must have broken the Rules!"

you will continue.

You will continue to defend sites which will rip you off, go down with all your earnings, and never catch the fact that you really shouldn't be the advocate when you have no control of the site.