The Five-Minute Hype Check

Before you even start a trial, the tool's own marketing page tells you a lot — if you read it like an inspector instead of a customer. Five things to check, five minutes total.

One: countdown timers and “price goes up Friday” banners — manufactured urgency is a signal the product can't sell on merit. Two: income claims. Any tool promising specific dollar figures is selling a fantasy, because your results depend on your work, not their software. Three: the word “revolutionary” doing the job a feature list should do — if they can't tell you plainly what it does, that's an answer. Four: whether real screenshots of the actual product appear anywhere, or just stock art and testimonials. Five: whether a pricing page exists and is findable — hidden pricing usually means a sales call and a price that varies by how eager you sound.

None of these alone kills a tool. Two or more together is a pattern, and the pattern rarely lies.

Takeaway: urgency timers, income promises, vague claims, no product screenshots, hidden pricing — two or more of these and you close the tab.