Update: I have now cancelled the account, so many of the links below may not work. Read my final details here.

I announced last week that I was going to try out a “get rich quick” scheme to take a look at what the catch is (and if there’s no catch, maybe I really would get rich, and quickly!).

So, I tried it out. Am I rich? No. Not yet at least.

What’s the Scheme?

This scheme I signed up for is called GDI Goldrush (that link has my affiliate link on, but the original was obviously someone else’s). As you will see it claims (hidden in all the waffle) to only take 30 minutes to set up, and “Once you’re done, just sit back and watch money pour into your account.”. It also claims that you don’t have to pay anything.

Sounds great? Well I signed up.

Basically the scheme sells .ws domains through Global Domains International (GDI) , and they send you a link to “training” which shows you how to do it.

GDI in itself is an GRQ (I’ll use this abbreviation from now) scheme, and I would say it verges on being a pyramid scheme in that although there is a product being sold, it is being marketed purely as a way to make money (off other people who want to make money.

GDI sell you a .ws domain for $10/month (you get a 7 day free trial which is how the Goldrush scheme can claim it costs nothing to set up). For your $120/year you get your domain, hosting, email and a sitebuilder. Admittedly that’s slightly cheaper than all those features if you were to buy a domain without joining the scheme, but it’s a lot if you just want the domain. They really don’t market the domain as a product though.

What they are selling is the opportunity to make money from your “downline”: other people like you who sign up. You make (I think) 10% of everyone up to 5 levels deep. Potentially the earnings are good if you refer people (and the right people who will refer others), but it’s ultimately unsustainable (see Wikipedia for more). I would imagine most people sign up and get nowhere.

Then comes the “training site”. This is emailed to you by the person who refers you. There are motivational videos which you “must view” (maybe that’s where I went wrong – I skipped them), and then information about how to buy lots of leads (so much for costing nothing). This is above the “original” training which involves using various pay-per-click free trials to get loads of referrals. Unfortunately most of these weren’t available in the UK. I did sign up to Bidvertiser for $20 free, but that soon got used up, and they automatically charged my credit card (required for signup). I’ll spend that money and see where it goes (I’ve got them to put me on manual topup now). There’s certainly nothing groundbreaking in the training.

I can’t help thinking the guy who put together the training must be doing ok, as there are lots of affiliate links in there (to things like bidvertiser) which aren’t customised to send the benefit to the person who referred me.

So how much have I made? So far I’m down $45! I’m going to give it a month or two and see if I get anywhere. If you have a good cheap place to advertise, or a good list of people who will be up for it and won’t mind you spamming them it may be worthwhile. Feel free to sign up using my links. If you try for 7 days it truly is free to try! If you have any questions let me know, I’ll be as honest as I can.

Is it a scam? Not strictly.

Is it as good as they say? No. Of course not.