I’ve said many times that I don’t like to call something a scam unless it truly is. After all, there are programs out there that might work for some, but not others. Just because I don’t recommend something, doesn’t mean it’s actually a scam.

Jocial, however, is pretty close to looking like an actual online scam. I owe it to one of my followers for bringing it to my attention.

Note that, although the actual site is jocial.com, I was forwarded to it via a site called bookmyposition.com. I’m not sure that it is another name for the site, but rather a “forwarding domain”. That’s the only reason I mention it here, in case you see this domain as well.

NOTE also: I did not pay anything to become a member. It is possible that, if you pay, you will have access to some other parts of the program, although I did not see anything that indicated that to be the case.

A History of the Jocial.com Domain and Company

The website domain name, jocial.com, was first registered in 2008, but the actual website has not been around that long. In fact the image shown below is a screen shot of the domain as of August 6, 2018, when the domain was listed for sale. As late as July 2019 it was also listed for sale. In my estimation it was sold sometime in late 2019 or early 2020 to the current owner.

The website is hosted in the United Kingdom, and the company, Jocial Advertise Ltd is also registered as active in Britain. Records show that the company was Incorporated February 28, 2020. I don’t live in Britain, but I have an understanding that it is relatively easy to register a company without any proofs of any kind.

The website footer makes a somewhat false-leading claim, leading one to believe it has existed since 2008.

The company and site owner is listed as Jamie March. Interestingly, there does not seem to be a Jamie March anywhere. I suspect that there is a slim chance that Jamie March first owned the domain name, but sold it.

The Linguistics of Jocial.com

One of the reasons for my questioning Jamie March as the owner, is that the language throughout the site does not seem to be from someone who speaks English as a first language, and the name, Jamie March, seems like it would be someone who spoke English as a first language. (aside from Jamie March being a person who is not locatable on the internet anywhere)

My apologies if my suspicious nature in this regard is offensive to anyone. However, if you are creating a website in English, it should be as close to grammatically perfect as possible – whether British or American.

As you can see from the screenshot of the login dashboard, they have used “You main list growing” a few times.

Another example, with many grammatical errors, which makes me very suspicious, including spelling errors.

Here is one more. Not only is the language lacking grammatically, this is supposed to be an “important notice”.

The “Online Digital Marketing Certificate Program”

At the bottom of the dashboard is a banner “Online Digital Marketing Certificate Program” with a blinking “start now”. Don’t hold your breath. Clicking on the banner does nothing.

At least for now, there is no certification course.

And there are hundreds of other examples throughout the website.

Influencer Marketing

“The World’s Leading Influencer Marketing Platform”

Their words, not mine.

Influencer Marketing is an interesting phrase. You can’t be an influencer unless you are, well, an influencer.

Influencers are people who have thoughts or opinions that are trusted in one sense or another. For example, the Kardashians have a sense of style that others are willing to follow. There is a belief – trust – that their style selections have the “it” factor.

If you join Jocial, it’s only to invite others to also join Jocial. You are not an influencer of anything other than Jocial.

Jamie March as an Influencer?

If Jamie March existed, and moreover, if he existed as an influencer, it would probably be easy to find him somewhere on social media sites trying to influence people, right?

In order to help “teach” you to be an influencer, and lead you through any kind of program as an influencer, I would expect to find an influencer leading the way. That does not seem to exist here.

The “P” Word…

Okay, so there are actually TWO “P” words – Pyramid and Ponzi.

Pyramid Scheme?

There is no question that this is a pyramid opportunity. You have to pay to join and are paid for those who you recruit and for some kind of campaigns. Here is a link to the pdf showing compensation. The actual compensation part starts on page 25 of 42 pages!!

Can you make some money? Yes, but it will likely take a while to get going.

Will you get paid? Yes, for a while anyway.

Ponzi Scheme?

This is obviously not a “Ponzi scheme”. They are not setting out to take people’s money. But sometimes a program like this, with value linked primarily to bringing in more users, can begin to fail. Eventually, it may become difficult for downlines to get paid, and the company could just fold, and the website could one day just be gone.

If that happens, who would you call? Good luck finding Jamie March. Whenever possible, it’s a good idea to know a little bit about the person or organization that is starting a program, especially if it is new.

The Bottom Line

I don’t like to give a red light and “thumb’s down” unless I truly think you should avoid a particular program. Unfortunately, this one is a total thumb’s down for me. If you want to become an influencer, there are many better ways.

If you have time, check out Wealthy Affiliate. I wrote a post about it, which offers an opportunity to be a true “influencer”. The Wealthy Affiliate platform lets you build a real online presence as a trusted authority in any business or niche in which you have an interest, making money promoting things that are of interest to you.

As a trusted authority, guess what? You become an influencer!

IS JOCIAL.COM RECOMMENDED?

A BIG NO!

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Wealthy Affiliate