Vicky Nguyen is the Investigative and Consumer correspondent for NBC News. See her reports on “TODAY,” “Nightly News with Lester Holt,” and MSNBC.
Chelsea Ouimet has more than a million followers between her two Instagram accounts, “Chelsea the Affiliate” and “Hustle with Chelsea.” The self-described stay-at-home mom of three smiles broadly and shows off her beautiful home in video posts touting ways to make money — quickly — through a business model called affiliate marketing. “All you need is a phone, a laptop, wi-fi and one to three hours a day,” she says in one of dozens of videos posted on her pages.
The videos, she said, told her that she could be an affiliate for brands such as Nike and Lululemon. “But that’s not what they’re doing,” she said. “They just want you to resell their course.” In online videos, Legendary Marketer CEO Dave Sharpe tells potential customers: “I’ve gone from completely broke to living the life of my dreams.” On its website, the company says it has “$250 million in career sales” and “well over half of that has been paid out to affiliate partners.