Julie BroadYour Non-Fiction Sidekick for Writing, Publishing & Marketing a Book That Builds Your Brand and Grows Your Biz

I Paid for Media… It Was a Scam (But It Still Worked)

5 May 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:28

In this monologue, Julie Broad recounts how she used a paid‑media placement to satisfy the U.S. green‑card requirement for proof of extraordinary ability. After receiving an email offering a "feature" in a magazine for a fee, she negotiated the price down from $1,500 to $600. The publisher subtly altered the outlet’s name—changing just one word—so the article appeared to be from a prestigious source without the reader noticing. Julie submitted the article as part of her immigration petition, and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services accepted it as legitimate media coverage, allowing her to obtain her green card. The story highlights the loophole of paid‑for media, the importance of scrutinizing source credibility, and the ethical gray area of using such tactics for immigration purposes.

Chapters

One thing that just came up is, is the opposite of being paid, which is paying for. And so if you haven't already, once you have a book or once you have some sort of a platform, you're going to get all these great news that you are now have been selected to be on the COVID of X magazine or featured in this place, and it only costs $2,500 or $800 or whatever it is. When I was going to the green card process, there's like a little sliver of legislation that allows the type of visa I had to actually convert to a green card because technically it shouldn't have, but I had to prove that I was worthy of living in this country. And to do that, I needed an extensive amount of letters and recommendations and referrals and just proof of amazingness. Okay. So one of these little emails came in, it says, okay, you're going to be featured in this. And my lawyer was saying, I really needed, it was a very specific article type that I needed explaining what I was doing and like all these things. So I contacted them back, right? Normally it goes in the trash, but I contacted them back. Okay. What's this article going to look like? What are you going to include? So they told me exactly what it was. I was like, how much? They said, I think $1,500. I'm like, I'll do it for $600. They're like, okay, great. Now here's the funny part, but it was like, instead of US publishers Weekly or whatever it is. They change a word so it still sounds like the prestigious magazine or newspaper or whatever it is. They changed one word. And so if you don't pay really close attention or you don't actually go to the website and follow through, you won't know because it sounds great. So it worked for the green card like a charm. They thought it was major media. You know, it did what it needed to do. And Julie lives in the US another day. I do. I got the green card.