Question / Discussion People who infiltrate other forums with their referral links to ‘mop up’

BooBoo

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I have just been made aware of an attempt, by someone from the Moneyshed, to infiltrate a forum of mums in order to promote their own referral links (to places like Profit Accumulator, FreeTrade etc) at the expense of other mums sharing their own referral links with each other and, therefore, sharing the rewards amongst themselves.

A poster on Mumsnet has been running very successful ‘Make £10 a day’ threads on their site for over a year. The threads are packed full of ideas for earning extra cash and have been very popular as a result. One poster has even managed to fund a round of IVF treatment with all her ‘£10 a day’ earnings and now she is pregnant! This is a major success for the ‘£10 a day’ threads. Another mum didn’t have to return to her hated part time job after maternity leave as a result of the income she was earning from the ‘£10 a day’ threads. How heartwarming eh? We all felt great to have been a part of it. Really chuffed.

Alas, someone from TheMoneyShed tried to cash in on all that joy. They joined, claimed to be an expert, and started giving out their own referral links. Of course, people who are a bit wary are more likely to go along with a referral link from an ‘expert’ as opposed to one from another online mum.

What happened? Well, many of the referral links posted by mums have been pushed aside as people wanted to go with the ‘expert’. Now, many links posted by the mums are showing as ‘unused’, where as before, people were begging for links. People are following the ‘expert’s’ links and ignoring all those posted by fellow mums. Now all the links posted by other mums are sitting there unused. Therefore, no mum gets a free share. All because, some greedy infiltrator from MoneyShed has decided to start posting in there to grab all the referrals.

As if women don’t have enough sexism and oppression to deal with? We can’t even have our own safe platform to chat without some greedy bloke from here trying to take over. You disgust me.

How can that be fair? It isn’t. So why did you do it? GREED that is why.

If you are married and you have a daughter, you have now contributed to the sexism and oppression they will have to deal with every single day of their lives. Well done.

Do you not have enough members? Why try to take over a mums’ discussion space? Yes, some will bow down to you as you are a MAN. The rest of us will look and think, ffs. Glad you have been banned. You were not posting there in women’s best interests, just your own.

VILE

If you make your money by infiltrating spaces occupied by mothers and women, you are welcome to that cash. You have been taking referral money from mums referring other mums. You jumped in as the saviour. How can you sleep at night? You disgust me. I await by ban from here.
 

BooBoo

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I am really disgusted if THIS tactic is seen by The Money Shed as ‘making money’ legitimately.

Join a women’s group and take over their referral links with your own.

I find that cheap, abhorrent, underhand, and exploitative.

Whoever has done this has shown their hand. Women are second class citizens, thick, and need to be lead by a man. We must jump in to help (exploit) them.
 

homie

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Jon

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hi @BooBoo

hope you are well

I am going to guess you are talking about this thread https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_...abulous-february-10-a-day-thread?pg=13&order=

ive worked with otterses on content for her Mumsnet threads for probably over a year, they are a member here as they receive our newsletters and when I have produced content which can help the mums and dads over there earn money it’s always been shared with them.

I would say I didn’t post links to blog content (not really affiliate links) compared to anyone else on those threads who endlessly promote their signups offers. I think I just have posted about under 10 direct affiliate links on Mumsnet in all the time instead of actually direct links to blog content which is what I mostly did.

Providing links to “how to guides” is utterly different than just providing a straight up affiliate link. Every link on a “how to” style blog post isn’t an affiliate link. It earns no money!

It’s a shame you feel this way as over PM I have helped so many mums over the years (we are talking 100+!) turn their finances around and avoid going back to work after maternity or help improve their work / life balance as a whole which is just an extension of what we offer here.

I’m also Not sure how you jump to the “women are second class citizens” thing. We help both men and women on here, what they are has nothing to do with it! We just help when with money. Both males and females on here have earned thousands of pounds by joining in with the community and sharing their opportunities and knowledge, makes no difference to me. Looking at your post history I can see we’ve helped you get audio work / Lionbridge work / helped with tax questions, sharing your Freetrade links. People are helping / providing work links to GAIN anything from you, it’s just about helping!

i will say that promoting content on various platforms is part and parcel of being a content producer. It’s why people do it on here, on social media, on reddit and just about everywhere.

If people ask for help you provide them with links to the help, that could be in many forms but the important thing is that you help out!

People posts links to their blog content, affiliate links (yourself included) and all sorts on here everyday, it’s great. It’s all moderated and it helps people!! TMS is an open platform where anyone (mostly not me!) can benefit by sharing their content!
 
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Blackpepper1

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I really like this Forum because it is full of info and not just full of a load of referral links.
 
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BooBoo

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Well, Mumsnet mods have banned you for trying to take over the top money making thread on their own platform, so that tells you all you need to know. They didn’t appreciate it and neither did a lot of their members, hence all the reports.
 

Jon

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Well, Mumsnet mods have banned you for trying to take over the top money making thread on their own platform, so that tells you all you need to know. They didn’t appreciate it and neither did a lot of their members, hence all the reports.
Mumsnet mods can ban me that’s fine.

but making out women are seen as some sort of weak demographic because they ask for help or click links to blog posts is more than a little off

I don’t really get what someone’s gender has to do with how much help you give them?

people in financial trouble just need help! I’m not sure they are bothered which gender gives them that help!
 
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BooBoo

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It’s sex not gender.

Mums and women have long been seen as easy targets. A man steps in and a lot of them turn round to listen, because a man has spoken. We live in a patriarchal society. Not blaming you, it’s just how it is. But I resent anyone attempting to exploit it.
 

hanna.obrien.79

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I'm not really sure I get what the problem is. Not wanting to wade into a heated discussion but just because someone posts a referral link, doesn't mean you have to click on it (chances are you will though). I rarely give it a thought about the other person receiving the referral money as I am so focused on what I am going to get out of it and the money it will allow me to make. I often don't even notice the sex/gender/anything else about the person posting the referral.

Maybe I'm not fully understanding and maybe I should hit the delete button....
 
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Simon Gardiner

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What a weird response but not surprising from mumsnet.
Are all men banned from posting on that thread or just Jon?
How will you screen it? For example I'm a woman logged in using a man's account on here.

Some serious accusations on that thread and Jon's opportunity to respond has been censored to fit your narrative.
 

PhilN

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If Jon has been banned for breaking rules then I'm sure he will accept that.

However, some of the accusations about him here are very unfair. Jon has been helping people to earn money on the side for years. For many, it's been a real difference-maker and I'm sure there are plenty of mums in that long list that would have high praise for Jon.

Does he earn from referral links? Sure. But what he has done is no different to you coming on here and posting your Freetrade referral link several times in someone else's thread. Of course, I don't think there's actually anything wrong with what you did there but in the same way that Jon's link may have prevented someone else earning, the original poster here will have missed out on clicks from people who used your link.

I'm not sure what set this all off but unless Jon isn't allowed to be posting there because he is male then I can't see anything wrong with what he has done. He is not a link spammer. Just look at the endless in-depth content on his blog. He provides valuable information and includes links that can help him to earn on the side.

Nobody knows enough about strangers online to state whether posting referral links is an act of greed. Jon may not be a mum but he will have mouths to feed and bills to pay like everyone else.

Hopefully, this was just a misunderstanding, but these kind of posts aren't the norm on TMS, and it's the friendly environment that has kept people around here for so long.

Good luck to you.
 
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Chammy

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Well, if it wasn't for @Jon "infiltrating" another "mum"'s forum I wouldn't be here! I wouldn't have been self-employed for the last 5 or so years. I wouldn't be earning enough to ensure that my husband could quit the job he HATED to return to university full time chasing his dream. It's just common sense that people go with the advice of someone who is experienced...I wouldn't follow his advice about eating healthily or how to crochet because, well, he has no clue. Making legitimate money online, yes, he's an expert, it's what he does day in and day out for his job.

I'm all for equality and stuff but your original post comes across rather hostile towards the fact he was a MAN posting rather than the actual content of the posts. Men aren't all arseholes! Would it have been different if it was me? Or say @katykicker who had posted links to our affiliates who do this as a business? I'm going to say no because we're MUMS and I'd probably be close in saying Jon and Katy have a similar income so...yeah...my thoughts.
 

Iamcrabstix

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I'm absolutely disgusted by your sweeping generalisations @BooBoo

You're making it about sex when it absolutely is not, it's about who is an expert ( no emphatic use of quotation marks needed) and a trusted source.

Would I trust someone who makes a good living from sharing helpful guides on making money and practices what they preach or would I trust Kelly? Kelly who tells me Herbalife is going to revolutionalise my life and posts social media pictures of one holiday they paid to go on 8 months ago like they are still there and living la Vida loca when we all know she's sat at home on her laptop DMing new mums on Instagram.

I'm not sure why you've come on here to share your opinions when they are ill-informed.

Jon is none of the things you've accused him of being. He's one of the biggest supporters of people living their best lives and not being unhappy at work - he supports many people, like myself, with no financial incentive to do so.

If people are not clicking on the other links, I think that tells you all you need to know about Mumsnet audience. They have no loyalty to anyone but themselves. So please don't come here preaching about women supporting other women. People trust people who walk the walk not just talk the talk regardless of sex.
 

Ar_

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This is some straight-up horseshit and I'm going to put it down to the fact it appears to have been rage typed at 2am. Jon's done a lot to help people here over the years and to try and take an ill-thought pop at him for sharing links elsewhere purely because he's a man is just reaching, to a ridiculous degree.

Besides. if other people chose to click through and listen to his content then it should have been because of the value of exactly that, his content. The fact you're suggesting it had anything to do with him being male says a lot more about you and your perception of the women on that forum than it does about anything else, to be honest.
 

Chammy

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Top-quality shade there. Just ask him about his plan to take over the world with .pizza domains. :D

I've seen his cheese and breakfast bar meal plans alongside cheap rum so know he's the last person I'd ask though probably the first I'd be giving advice to ;)
 
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katykicker

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I personally wouldn't have took the leap to start my own website without @Jon !

I think the real issue here is someone being salty because no-one is using their links they're using a mans instead. I see no difference in Jon sharing a blog post with affiliate links than Susan from Sunderland pretending she cares about everyone else while scooping up a free share for herself and then no doubt not declaring that income to the taxman.

I've had a skim on the Mumsnet thread and I saw someone say "None of us saw this thread as an advertising slot." and it's clear that people are incredibly naive online. At least we're open about the fact we use affiliate links and make money. Well, I am, not sure about Jon ;)

The distinct lack of disclosure on that thread is startling.
 
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