Scams When Looking For An Online Home Business

Keep your eyes open. There are all kinds of scams out there just waiting to take your money and not give you anything in return.

Stear Clear of sites that do not list their owner's name, phone number, and address. Even if they do, make sure that they are true by calling the number to see if you get an answer.

Google the name of the owners and company. You can do a who is search http://www.who.is/

*Golden Rule: Never invest in a business opportunity that isn’t licensed by its state or province.

Their references should be verifyable. If they're real, they will supply you with the ways to get a hold of the references. Be careful  that the people giving the references aren't being paid to give testimonial for that company.

If you have to take all the risk, walk away. They should be offering a written money back guarantee for products &/or services that don't work the way they say they will. If they do, make sure you copy it and keep it in a safe place.

If all they do is promise you that you will make money, and don't offer to help by showing you how unless you give them your information and  name, address and credit card details so an “opportunity package” can be mailed to you, run the other way. They may not even know how to do it.

My $1500.00 mistake:

When I began my internet marketing career, I didn't know anything, as most people don't. Everyone I read about said they were a Guru. ( I found out later, most, if not all of them, are self appointed Gurus.) "Who should I believe?," I thought. I didn't have a clue. Then I researched companies to affiliate with. Of course, I really didn't know what I was researching for. They all begin by giving it to you for FREE. They tell you that you can become rich by promoting their company &/or product(s). What they don't tell you is the FREE sign-ups don't make very much money, if there is anything at all. You have to become a pro member and pay every month, or something like that, to receive money for your referrals or sales. You usually make very little. You're still working to make back what you're paying every month. Think of it this way, if they thought you were going to sell a truck load of their merchandise or services, why would they have to ask you for a monthly fee. You're selling for them and they make money every time you sell for them.

Anyway, I get off the track.

I ended up signing up with a company that sounded real to me. I didn't check any of the things above that I told you to check. I didn't know. I just believed that the head of the company was real and knew everything and would help. They said he had a doctrate. Of course, I didn't know in what.

They were giving video/audio lessons (?) everyday and if you were an affiliate, you could go and listen and learn. However, if you wanted to make money, you'd have to pay for a platinum package (the more expensive) or a silver package( still about $185.00/month)

and get other people to do the same. There were also other expensive things that people could buy. I have since learned that have having an less expensive thing to sell first, gets the customer buying and then they begin to trust you and you can sell more expensive things. They didn't have this.

The thing that drew me to it was they were supplying you with a website and domain name of your own, and they were setting it up with your choice of template and domain name from their list. You could add anything else to the website if you knew how. They included what I thought was everything about their company on your new site.

Another thing they were supposed to give you was a bootcamp with lessons. I thought the lessons would be about selling on the internet and getting leads and other things. The bootcamp lessons turned out to be how to use your new website and send newsletters from their website. They gave you 25 leads & 25 newletter recipients for your initial money, but none of them really were interested in talking to me. The video/audio lessons were repeated constantly on what their website was giving you for the money and what you had to sell. Once you saw the first one, you didn't need to hear it again. All they wanted you to do was get people to come to listen to the head of the company give his talk on their company and for you to promote your website which was mostly about them.

I really tried. I spoke to a great many people and bought more leads which never paid off. When I finally found someone who was really interested, it was on  holiday weekend and I had belonged about 5 months. ( 5 X $185.00 + extra leads)  Our company was giving something away for people who joined but it would be over after that weekend. They only gave you 1 day to decide and buy. The person I was selling to was away for the weekend and needed to be able to buy that Monday morning. I called the head of the company. He wasn't at all nice. As a matter of fact, he was downright nasty. When push came to shove, he wouldn't wait for the money until Monday morning, and I lost the sale because the people interested were angry.

That was when I decided that this company wasn't for me, but I'd put in a lot of money. I couldn't make enough money to cover what I was putting in and they didn't care. When I called to tell them I wanted out, they said I'd have to give up my website and domain name, which I had more than paid for. This was only a win/win situation for the people owning this company.

For those who know me, I am hard at my work. I committed myself full out to doing what they suggested and went above and beyond their requests.

The biggest mistake I made was signing up.
The second biggest was not requesting a written agreement or money-back guarantee.

By the way, don't believe anyone who tells you you can make money without doing any work. No matter what you do to make money, you have to put in your time working at it. Well, I hope my tale helps you.

                        DON’T LET THE MEDIUM FOOL YOU

If you want to know the name of this company and its leaders, send me an email joanfriess@thewayiseeitmagazine.com. I'll be glad to tell you.

                                  To Your Success,
                                          Joan
                            http://www.freewebs/thecashmachine

You can also file a complaint with the U.S. Better Business Bureau at http://www.bbb.org/ or the Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus at http://www.ccbbb.ca/contact.cfm.