It starts with something called Affiliate Marketing.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
It's simply a referral fee.
A very intelligent business model for businesses with an online presence.
For example, you've created the worlds best paperclip.
You know it'll be a hit and everyone will buy.
How do you sell it to the masses?
The internet - obviously.
So you create an expensive website.
Great! You're online, and ready to take orders.
Ummm.... Why isn't anyone visiting your site? Why no orders?
Well, you can't just throw up a site and expect the world to see it.
You need to learn or hire expensive marketing firms (SEO, copywriters, etc) to attract customers.
Well, instead of doing this yourself or burning through cash, wouldn't it be nice if there were people who could bring customers to your site?
Enter Affiliate Marketing...
There's an army of people out there who make their (very profitable) livings promoting other companies'
products/services.
By setting up your affiliate program with CPA networks - viola, an army of
very experienced and effective marketers are driving hungry traffic to your site.
You only pay them after their traffic bought something.
Now, you're selling your paperclips like crazy!
Every (successful) online business has an affiliate program.
An example of a company taking advantage of this business model is the biggest retailer with an online presence : Walmart
On walmart.com, look for "Affiliate Program" at the bottom of the home page.
Signing up, and having a website that drives buying traffic to them will get you paid 1% to 4 commission.
So what does this have to do with BigCrumbs?
BigCrumbs (in my opinion) is an honest and legit Affiliate Marketing company, giving you a portion of their own affiliate commission.
Other companies do the same thing (MSN's bing.com-cashback, ebates, fatwallet, etc).
Read On...
What makes BigCrumbs different from the rest?
BigCrumbs offers an interesting twist - network commissions.
A.K.A.- Mult-Level Marketing (MLM), Network Marketing, etc.
They split their affiliate commission with 5 levels of referring people.
Is this bad? A this a scam?
Not to the customer...
Let's say a customer pays $5 for a wallet. This person will pay $5 with or without BigCrumbs.
As a matter of fact - BigCrumbs, being a large affiliate, gets special deals/coupons, and commissions that normal affiliate marketers don't have access to.
This translates in not only a portion of the affiliate commission for you, but also a cheaper price to boot.
BigCrumb's network commission works the following way:
1) You sign up as CrumbEarner
2) You sign up 5 people through your "Referral Link"
3) Those 5 people sign up 5 people themselves
4) Repeat this 3 more times till there's 5 generations
5) Wait for BigCrumbs to get paid by the store, and they send you money when any one of these (very) many people get their own cash back from purchases
NOTE: Signing up as a CrumbEarner gets you "Cash Back" as well as an income from other people you referred getting their own "Cash Back".
Signing up as a CrumbSaver gets higher "Cash Back" for your own purchases compared to a CrumbEarner. However, CrumbSavers don't make money off referrals.
This is the only resemblance of a "Pyramid scheme".
People usually cringe at that term.
Usually because only those at the top of the "Pyramid" are making real money.
For example, some companies charge 4 times the actual value of what they're selling so that the commissions can be paid up the levels(generations).
Kinda like a job:
The company makes profits through your hard work, the executives take most the profit, and you get a measly hourly wage.
This is why "Pyramids" are usually considered a scam.
The customer gets ripped off, the direct salesman is ripped off (b/c of the very small piece of the pie), etc.
With that said - Is it BigCrumbs just a Scam?
I said it's no scam for customers. So who can it scam?
Affiliate marketers may feel "ripped off" and label it a "Scam" because of the small percentage compared to promoting the stores themselves.
Well, I say - why not lightly market it - and watch it grow on its own into a nice income?
For regular folks reading this - it's actually pretty darn cool if you want to save money AND potentially make some extra cash to help the bills. These days - that's a blessing.
The best part is it's 100% free to join and use.
They only ask for enough information to know where to send the cash!
I know what you're thinking:
Why not just create a website with an affiliate link, and buy directly at Walmart.com through your own affiliate link and keep the whole commission?
One word - fraud.
Walmart'll kick you out of their affiliate program and confiscate any commissions.
So why join BigCrumbs?
Why not just be Walmart's affiliate marketer, and make the full 1%-4% commission?
Guess it just boils down to that old saying - it's better to make 1% off 100 people's efforts than make 100% of your own efforts.
The idea meaning - work less and make more.
In the particular case of Walmart.com, BigCrumbs pays you .4% for your referrals' purchases - no matter what it is (at the time of this writing). This may may not be a lot for one referral commission.
But if you have a nice full organization making purchases, and getting their own cashback, and referring their own people (building your organization further) - it far outweighs the 4% you'd make on your own.
As an affiliate marketer you only get paid once when a customer clicks your link to walmart.com - and buys something. Anytime the same customer buys from Walmart.com in the future, you don't get a penny unless they re-click your link (highly unlikely).
What's nice about BigCrumbs is the moment a customer signs up for either CrumbEarner or CrumbSaver - you get .4% everytime they buy - forever; and from any of their many stores!
Yes, the people above you in the "Pyramid" get a piece of BigCrumb's affiliate commission too (.4% as well)
But really, who cares?
BigCrumbs keeps a small percentage, and splits the rest with 5 regular folks above you - who get a small percentage too.
To top it off, you get a commission every time the customers in your organization buy from any of BigCrumbs affiliate stores!!! (And trust me - there's so very many - Best Buy, Target, 800-contacts, Toys-R-Us, Guitar Center, and the list goes on and on).
Conclusion on whether this is all just a scam:
It really depends on you.
I'm a professional affiliate marketer, myself and wouldn't classify this as a scam at all.
I refer products I buy, and buy products I can refer (here's an example - a TV I bought recently (TC-P65V10).
It's an honest review, and even shows the reader how to save money on it with BigCrumbs).
Referring products/services is awesome money, and very rewarding hooking up a customer with a product they really want, and getting a commission for doing all the work.
It's even cooler since I only review products/services I love and believe in!
Honestly, I use both:
1) I promote products/services on my own and get the full commissions
2) I also belong to BigCrumbs, putting in a little effort talking about it, let people decide on their own - and just watch the income grow automatically -and also save on my own purchases :
You now have enough info to decide for yourself if this is all a scam or not.
Or simply click here to go to BigCrumbs, and sign up yourself (it's not like you have to pay anything).
So whatever decision you make - I wish you all the luck and best!
If you do join after clicking on any one of the BigCrumbs links, and become a CrumbEarner, I'll help you out (along with others in my organization) by giving people your referral link. This will help you build up double time, and it doesn't hurt me to help you out - I'll get the same commissions as you :)
All I ask is to pay it forward - niceness is really inexpensive, and you can make somebody's day.
PS: If you're interested in learning Affiliate Marketing from the place where I learned, then click here and check out Wealthy Affiliate
You're paying a measly monthly fee to have millionaires guide you to becoming a successful marketer.
It takes work, and you get out of it what you put into it.
And yes, I'm their affiliate, but I also pay the minuscule low monthly charge at the same rate you do.
Here's an example of their banner they give you to put on your sites, blogs, wherever: (they have a few choices)
