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John L. Dilbeck's News Archive
John L. Dilbeck's Ramblings
Whatever strange and wonderful ideas tickle this big brain of mine.
ISSN: 1533-8193
Being a voracious reader, I go through lots of news and stories. When I find one of interest that I think will benefit you, I write about it here. Your feedback is always welcome.
News Archives
(See menu at left for the old archives.)
December 2002
New Years Resolutions
Posted by johndilbeck on Tuesday, December 31 2002 at 10:12 PM
Category: (default)
I rarely make New Years resolutions.
It's a fact that most new resolutions are broken in the first week or two. So what's the point?
This year, I'm making a resolution. And it's one I'll stick to, as well.
Lose weight? Nope.
Get more sleep? Probably not.
Set specific goals and work to achieve them? That's it.
I've decided that my number one goal for 2003 is to succeed by helping others succeed. I'm working on smaller goals, check lists, action steps, and milestones to help me work towards that major goal.
If you're at a point where you want to change your life and you want some inspiration and solid ideas you can use, let me recommend a book that made a big difference for me over 30 years ago.
It's an old book, but it has stood the test of time and still ranks in the top 300 books sold at Amazon.com.
Do yourself a favor, read Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill.
If you're ready, and you're serious, it can help you change your life.
Growing rich isn't just about money, either.
Buy it, borrow it, check it out of the library -- just read it.
EzineBlaze - Grow your prospect list and sell more online
Posted by johndilbeck on Tuesday, December 31 2002 at 8:08 AM
Category: (default)
(Updated January 29, 2002, see end of this article.)
Are you looking for a no-risk way to get your product in front of the most targeted audience out there and create an extra income stream at the same time?
Does that sound too good to be true?
Here's an opportunity to be part of an exciting new Internet marketing and promotion service. You can get your product, service or business opportunity in front of the most targeted audience possible. Do you know what that means to you? Leads -- lots and lots of them.
Who can make money without leads? No one! Period.
Here's the deal. What they're launching is called Ezine Blaze and it looks like it will be very successful.
Here's why:
1. Because the one thing that all successful Internet marketers do is use Ezines to build their own targeted list to promote themselves.
2. No one has figured out how to capitalize on the Ezine concept to promote as well as earn, until now.
Leads are essential; leads are vital. They are the lifeblood for all businesses, especially online. Nothing is more cost effective and nothing works better.
Fact: The # 1 thing all top earners have in common: They all use Ezines to build their lists as the most important part of their lead generating.
It's all about making, growing and maintaining your list!
Don't confuse an EzineBlaze message with your very own mailing list or autoresponder list. While it can be used in similar ways, it is a bit different, so look at what they offer and make sure it will fit your needs. It does have the advantage of bringing leads in from all members' advertising and not just your own -- if you have a pro account.
EzineBlaze will grow your targeted lead list with the best, most responsive, prospects possible. They do this in a couple of ways. Your ezine will be listed in their directory, and you can promote it online and offline with a simple URL such as:
(Link removed)
You can modify your single ezine message at any time and you can send it to your list whenever you choose. With a free account, which may not be available for long, you can broadcast to members you've referred yourself. With a pro account, you can broadcast to everyone who has entered the system since your last broadcast, and that could be hundreds or thousands of new members.All of the people who receive the message will have opted into the system and will be receptive to your message.
Apparently, the way this grows is by attracting new members who register for a free membership. Part of the users agreement is that you'll accept messages from the folks with the pro memberships, unless you cancel your free account. There are advantages for free accounts, but the real power of the system is only available to pro members, if I understand the concept correctly.
But there's more, with EzineBlaze you can make money while advertising.
They offer a new type of compensation plan (see website for details) that may bring you significant income. (You must upgrade to a pro account for about $18.00 per month to be eligible. The price looks reasonable for the service being offered and is competitive with similar services that don't offer all the benefits of EzineBlaze.)
Even if there were no chance to earn an income, it could be a profitable service if you could send your message to hundreds or thousands of new members for less than $20.00 per month, which is less than a yellow pages ad that may never be read, and is less than paying for a month of classified ads in a small circulation periodical.
Here's the best part: It's simple and easy to use.
Become an early adaptor.
Don't just take my word for it. Try it for yourself. (Link removed.)
This concept has the potential to become recognized as a new standard in online marketing. Don't wind up kicking yourself for not being in from the beginning.
Update: January 28, 2002.
I tried it. I joined and watched for a month to see what would happen. Please note that I didn't buy a pro membership, just opened a free account. I'm glad I didn't spend the money.
There's nothing like joining something so that someone can send you the lamest spam every day. Every "Business Opportunity" under the sun was promoted to me, and about ten percent of the messages I received were marginally incoherent.
In one month, I received a couple of (quote)Ezines(close-quote) that were worth reading and checking out. All the rest were simply tossed as spam.
Unless you purchase the Pro upgrade, it is mostly worthless. You can send your "Ezine" to those who signed up from your link, but you'll received "Ezines" from darn near everyone, it seems.
Do you want to promote your site or program? I'd advise steering clear of this service. It only takes a few weeks before anything sent through this site is lumped in with the rest of the spam and I think it would reflect poorly on you.
Is it legitimate? I suppose so. It does what it says it would do, to the best of my ability to determine. Is it effective? I don't think so.
If you just want to send out lots of "opportunity" messages, perhaps you'll find it to be of some benefit, but think twice. When you sign up, you're given the opportunity to use two different email addresses, one for administrative use and the other for receiving the emails that are sent by the service. I suspect the folks who are getting any benefit of this service use a free, throwaway account for receiving the lame spam that comes through the service.
You'll have to decide for yourself if you want to be a part of this. I didn't, so I cancelled my account today and now I'll see how long it takes to quit receiving all the "Ezines".
Do yourself a favor. Steer clear. There are too many other ways to promote a quality, above-board ezine.
Online Business Basics by Angela Wu
Posted by johndilbeck on Sunday, December 29 2002 at 3:00 AM
Category: (default)
If you're looking for good information on starting your business on the web, or making your existing business more successful, you should look into Online Business Basics: A Practical Guide to Starting an Online Business on a Beginner's Budget by Angela Wu.
This ebook is available in PDF format for users of just about any type of computer. Check it out today!
Six Figure Income Marketing Group
Posted by johndilbeck on Sunday, December 29 2002 at 12:49 AM
Category: (default)
Two days ago, on 12/26/02, I wrote a long article called "Too Good to be True" about multi-level marketing in general and one company in particular, SFI .
At that time, after looking at several states's Attorneys' General websites, the FTC, and others (see the resource section of the December 26 article), I wasn't sure who to believe. Are all MLM companies scams and pyramid schemes, or are some of them legitimate business opportunities for people who want to build a home business to either supplement their income or to serve as their primary revenue source. I still think that a lot of the sites I visited touting overnight riches with no effort are nothing but scams, pure and simple. I'll have nothing to do with them.
Yesterday and today, I spent many hours reading everything I could find about Six Figure Income Marketing Group, until my eyes would no longer focus and I had to have some sleep.
I could find nothing -- and that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't exist -- that disparaged this company in particular. In fact the Better Business Bureau gives them a good recommendation, and I could find nothing about the founder that would make me suspicious. They list a real business address with multiple ways to contact them, both online and offline.
So, last night, I went back and signed in to my affiliate account, again. I re-read a good bit of their training materials and searched through their affiliate discussion boards (which contain some remarkable good support information) for phrases such as "pyramid scheme" and "scam".
I found multiple postings from disgruntled affiliates, but they seemed to be from new affiliates who were just learning how web promotion works and they were unhappy that they weren't seeing immediate results. Some of those affiliates had been enrolled for less than a week!
We all know -- at least those of us who have built and managed a home business -- that it takes a lot of focused work and quite some time to build a business, even if it is a part of a larger business framework that is already in place.
In every instance I could find, more experienced affiliates offered support, encouragement, and specific advice on what the new affiliates could do to get better results in their promotional activities.
In many threads, the subject of affiliate recruitment, or building the downline, was brought up. Older, more experienced affiliates consistently reminded others that there is no money to be earned by recruiting affiliates. Money is only earned by selling merchandise or services -- and SFI has many to offer.
While it was stressed that it was important to find referrals for possible affiliates, and there was a lot of information on how to support the affiliates in your downline, to motivate them, and to help them succeed, the advice mostly centered around the importance of leveraged efforts. In other words, it was important to learn how to sell products at retail, and then to recruit others and train them in your methods.
In a couple of very good threads, a plan was set out to learn what you're doing, start making sales, and then duplicate yourself and your efforts every month by recruiting an affiliate and training him or her to do what you know how to do. Using the leveraging power of exponential growth, it was shown how this could result in substantial earnings over a year or more, but that it would start slow and build gradually. It was also pointed out several times that you have to learn how to promote the company and its products and sell them at retail level before you can really support anyone in your downline to duplicate your results.
As is often the case, at least I have found evidence that this is true, it is often the case in MLM organizations that the person who is supposed to be supporting your efforts may be fairly new him- or her-self and doesn't know how to teach you to succeed in building your organization as a part of the larger umbrella organization.
In the case of SFI, the message boards were a great advantage, for both experienced and new affiliates. Lots of helpful advice is freely offered, and people are encouraged to set goals, plan action steps to achieve those goals, and then review their progress or lack thereof, which would then be a part of the process of revising their business plan and goals. This is a time-honored method of improving your business and doesn't feel anything like some of the other fly-by-night scams I've been reading about.
I re-read the rather difficult-to-understand compensation plan (could they make it a bit more difficult to understand!?!) and then re-read it again. Eventually, it started to dawn on me that there *is* no compensation for bringing in new members -- only the leveraging effect of bringing in a downline and teaching them how to sell products.
So, I focused on the 10 SVP requirement for becoming a Multi-Income Qualified Affiliate (MIQ for short), and realized that I had misread it the first time. There is no requirement to do this. You are free to remain a basic affiliate and you will earn commissions on any retail sales that result from links you promote. SFI is basically a "superaffiliate" of many other affiliate programs (including such notable retailers as Barnes and Noble, Half.com, Wal*Mart, and dozens more), and affiliates, whether they are MIQ or not, earn commissions on sales they refer to these merchants. (MIQ affiliates earn more than basic affiliates.)
There is an incentive to become MIQ, however, if you want to take part in other possible income streams in the future as your efforts start to pay off and you develop affiliates in your downline who learn to promote and sell products. You don't have to pay anything to become MIQ, if you can sell enough products to your visitors to earn 10 SVP per month.
There are many ways for an affiliate to become MIQ through purchases they themselves make, but it is NOT a requirement. I was mistaken when I originally read that and reported on it two days ago.
They do a good job of marketing and do their best to entice you to purchase those products (which is a good thing in a marketing organization). The magazine subscription looks good and so does the Full Circle Success membership. This is what I was talking about when I objected to having to pay $29.95 every month just to become MIQ on an ongoing basis.
But, I've always hated to judge something for which I have no experience, so I decided to put my money where my mouth is and I bought a subscription to the Full-Circle Success website. I was immediately qualified as MIQ (I went and checked to be sure), and was given access to the members-only website.
I wasn't sure what I'd find, and to be honest, I was a bit skeptical. However, I found that there were several resources available that were more than worth the $30 I'd just paid.
I've been planning to re-do my business plan, set goals, devise action strategies, and put them into place next month. I found several excellent articles and links to other websites that gave me many tips on how to go about this. I've been writing business plans for two decades, and I learned several things that I'd never thought of in all that time. I think that alone was worth the entrance fee. So, I have to recommend the Full-Circle Success website, and plan to re-new my subscription for at least the next couple of months.
Another advantage to subscribing to the FCS website is that I get a free subscription to the Six-Figure Income Magazine. If you'd like a free sample subscription, just click on the previous link and apply for a free trial subscription. There's no obligation and you can cancel after your first issue if you don't like it.
Cancelling is easy. Every email has a link for cancelling the receipt of that email, and the members administration section of the affiliate site has a link for cancelling standing orders, such as a subscription to the magazine or the FCS website.
I also learned on the message boards that there is going to be a substantial change to the SFI compensation plan and to the Full-Circle Success members-only website starting in January, 2003. They want to narrow their focus on their business. I look forward to seeing what these changes are, and I also learned that anyone who is a Multi-Income Qualified affiliate in December 2002 will automatically be grandfathered in to the new plan. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I'll know more in a few days.
So, since the company makes its income by, and the affiliates are compensated for, selling products, what does the company sell other than linking to affiliate sites?
They offer low-cost long distance telephone service, access to the Full-Circle Success website (you don't have to be an affiliate to purchase this subscription), Shawn Casey's Mining Gold ebook, a free subscription to the SFI Newsletter, Internet Access, their Great Domainia domain registration service (overpriced), and quite a few other products including nutritional supplements (which I don't promote).
There are new products in the pipeline for introduction next month.
So, do I think this is a good idea? Do I think you can build a home business and earn enough income to make it worthwhile? Yes, I think you probably can, but you're going to have to learn how to do effective promotion on the Internet, build a website, get it into the search engines, develop targeted traffic, and follow-up with any new affiliates who sign up under you.
I'm going to take a bit of a different tack. Yes, I'll be introducing a new website in a couple of weeks devoted to this company and to affiliate and multilevel marketing. I'll devote a month or more to building the website and promoting it, and I'll make a commitment to spending regular time supporting, training, and helping to motivate anyone who decides to join my downline.
But, I'm going to move most of my efforts offline. I want to start a study group here in Murphy, NC of a dozen folks or so who are highly motivated to earn money through affiliate and MLM marketing. We'll work together to help each other learn and promote our individual businesses -- it'll be a cooperative venture, but won't be incorporated as a corporation. It'll just be a loose association of folks with similar interests. I'll do whatever I can to help. If you're in Cherokee County or Clay County, North Carolina and you'd be interested in being a part of this, email me at jd@johndilbeck.com and let me know. I hope to start this in March or April. We can work together online in the meantime. I've set up a mailing list for just this and if you'll email me and tell me you're interested, I'll tell you how to subscribe.
Over the next year or so, I'll post updates here and let you know if I think it has been worth the effort.
Is it too good to be true? Time will tell. But, it won't happen overnight.
Resources
Learn more about affiliate marketing, website development, and building traffic to your site by taking the free Affiliate Masters Course, which shows you how to become a high-earning affiliate champion. Send a blank email to tamssellmoreonline@sitesell.net. If you decide this course, which lasts about a week, isn't for you, you can unsubscribe at any time. Instructions for unsubscribing are in each email message. I took this course the first time about two years ago and then took the revised and enlarged course early this year. It has dramatically helped me promote JohnDilbeck.com.
See Does Your Site Sell? for more information on products and free email courses from Ken Evoy and Sitesell.com.
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How To Promote Your Local Business On The Internet!
Posted by johndilbeck on Friday, December 27 2002 at 2:54 AM
Category: (default)
Sharon Fling has written an ebook that finally addresses the subject of businesses that want, and need, to attract local customers on the web.
By the time your local business gets on the Internet will it be too late? Your customers are online and so is your competition. How much longer can you afford to wait?
Did you know that 48 million adults went online last year looking for local businesses just like yours? Would you like to know how to turn these hungry consumers into your customers?
Savvy business owners are catching on to the fact that the local online market is booming and is predicted to be a $50 Billion market in 2006.
More businesses than ever are using the Internet to reach local markets. If your business isn't one of them, you're going to be left behind.
But it's not enough just to be on the Internet, you must have a site that effectively markets your business to the customers you want to reach.
For less than you probably spend on coffee for a single month, Sharon Fling's new ebook (in Adobe Acrobat PDF format) can help you remedy this situation and market your business to local consumers.
Don't make the same mistakes so many small businesses make. Learn how to effectively promote your business to local customers.
Check it out today: How To Promote Your Local Business On The Internet!.
Too good to be true?
Posted by johndilbeck on Thursday, December 26 2002 at 6:02 AM
Category: (default)
You know what they say, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
I normally have a good bs filter. I receive scams every day. If you've been on the web for any time and you post your email address, it seems that you open your mailbox to every unscrupulous huckster in the world -- and a few people who just get sucked into the hype without meaning to deceive or annoy anyone.
After a couple of years of slowly building my online business and starting to receive an income from it, I think I just walked to the edge of the precipice and nearly fell in.
It's easy to do, especially if you've never been exposed to the claims. Heck, it's even easy for those of us who normally cruise through cyberspace with our shields up.
I find myself sitting here at 4:00 am and wondering how you tell the difference between a legitimate marketing opportunity using new techniques and a pyramid scheme. Sometimes it's really hard to tell the difference.
Lured into seeking new opportunities by some marketing success, I spent a couple of weeks looking into dozens of business opportunities. But were they opportunities or simply a way for someone to pick my pocket over the Internet? Lured by glowing testimonials and the greed factor of easy money, I signed up with several companies that I thought were legitimate multi-level marketing opportunities that would help me build a more successful home business.
I even started promoting a couple of them, but I think I've been able to cancel the ads and not associate with them until I've had an opportunity to check them out further with the Better Business Bureau and the North Carolina Attorney General's office.
Upon sitting back and reflecting, several of the companies are obvious pyramid schemes. They want me to purchase an "upgrade" from my free membership and they send ever-more-strident emails urging me to do it NOW! before the opportunity is gone forever.
I learned a long time ago that something that is a good deal today will probably be a good deal next week or next month. When I start to see deadlines and increasing pressure, I start to back away. It reminds me of a timeshare I bought into years ago.
But, there's no doubt that the Internet has changed a lot of the rules. Websites and email do offer new ways of promoting your business and making a living on the internet. It is possible to earn a living in a home business, but it won't come easy, and it won't come by luring all of your friends and unsuspecting website visitors into your downline.
Affiliate marketing is a legitimate way of earning extra money. I receive (relatively small) checks from several companies as my commission for helping them sell things that are useful to you, a visitor to my site. But, I've always put my respect for you higher than my desire for money.
Does that make me reliable and helpful or am I a chump?
I like myself. I like looking at myself in the mirror and having no regrets. But, I think I just came close to stepping over the line and becoming one of the scum that I detest.
How?
By being lured by the bright lights, pretty graphics, well-crafted sales letters, glowing testimonials, and promises of lots of money if I followed their program. I could become my own boss.
(As if I haven't been my own boss for years.)
But, then, I started examining it a bit closer. What was the company selling? Would I earn money by selling products or by luring others into my downline?
Most of the legitimate affiliate programs I've joined have a maximum of two-tiers and a few offer four or five tiers of income. This means that I earn a commission for selling products and I earn a smaller commission from products that are sold by people who sign up as affiliates through links on my site. Most of these companies offer either one tier where I earn income from what I recommend, or two tiers, where I earn income from what I recommend and from sales made by affiliates who signed up from my link.
In both cases, the object is to sell products. If someone signs up under me, he or she is in my second tier. If someone signs up under him or her, that person would be in my third tier. With two-tier programs, I would earn nothing from anyone in my third tier, so there's no appeal for signing up lots and lots of people on deeper and deeper levels -- or what starts to look like a pyramid when it's diagrammed.
But, some of the programs I just joined (and I stopped just before reaching for my debit card) wanted me to spend money to be an affiliate and promised riches if I could build a downline of hundreds or thousands of others -- and building that downline is easy as more and more people find themselves in need of more money in a bad economy where there is no security in jobs or investments and where we've learned that even the biggest corporations sometimes turn out to be nothing but scams.
So, we're lured to be our own bosses and build prosperous home businesses. Are these "opportunities" legitimate ways to earn an honest income or are they just another variation of the letter stuffing scam? Or, are they a new high-tech version of the classic pyramid scheme.
If you see an opportunity and suddenly you have to pay to receive a commission, or if you are pressured to get your friends and family to join your downline, and you don't see a good product to market then raise your shields immediately. Even though some of these companies offer legitimate products, do they want you to pay for the opportunity to sell them? Are their prices competitive with other sources of the same products?
I'm still investigating a couple of companies that I'm not sure if they are legitimate or not.
One that looks particularly promising is SFI Marketing Group, also known as SFI. They do sell products, but I can earn a commission by selling most of those same products by affiliating with the companies they represent, and it won't cost me a dime. SFI sells a magazine that looks good. It's called Six Figure Income magazine and it sells for $49.00 per year. I wouldn't mind spending that much if it gives me just one idea that I could use to increase my sales in a manner that is fair to my customers and is completely aboveboard.
They offer a free newsletter, too, and I've subscribed to it. I want to see what it offers. Does it provide real valuable information, or is it just thinly-disguised propaganda for their program. I don't know, yet, and I find myself hoping that it offers real information.
I have no problem with buying stuff or selling stuff. But, I started to get a bad feeling when I realized that I had to have what they called 10 SVP every month or I wouldn't be eligible for my share of the pie. I could get 10 SVP by selling a certain number of their products to visitors to my site, or I could do it quickly by subscribing to one of their services at $29.95 per month. So, it would cost me $360 per year just to try to earn money from them.
Wait a second. What?
I understand that the great majority of affiliates never do anything and there should be some way for a merchant to identify non-performers and remove them, so there may be something good about a quota of sorts, but why should I lose any opportunity by not meeting that quota?
They offered me a program I could follow, step-by-step, that would lead me to riches. But, then, they said I couldn't promote other opportunities to my downline. Was I going to be building my own business, or was I about to be locked into their straight-jacket? When someone starts to tell me I can't talk about whatever I want to talk about, the hairs on the back of my neck start to bristle.
So, am I being too suspicious, or am I being reasonably cautious? Am I trying to be a good source of legitimate information and products to you, or am I a chump for not taking this shortcut to riches?
I'm not saying that SFI is a scam or a pyramid scheme. I'm saying that I just don't know if they're legitimate or not. And I'm going no further until I know for sure. So, I'll contact my state Attorney General and see if they have any complaints. SFI is a member of the Better Business Bureau Online and their report seems to be a good one. I think I'll follow it up by contacting their local Better Business Bureau offline and see if what I learn there matches the online version.
(Update: Please see my article of December 28, 2002 entitled "Six Figure Income Marketing Group" to see what I've learned about SFI in the last two days.)
It was bad enough when it was just the Nigerian scam or an occasional chain letter. Now, it seems that scams are everywhere. I was looking into traffic generating sytems over the last few days and some of them look good and appear to be legitimate, like TrafficSwarm, which I talked about a few days ago and continue to use.
Others that I looked into are nothing but a pyramid scheme. I'm sure I'd see a little more traffic to my site, but I'm also positive that it would cost me much more than it was worth, both in terms of dollars and self-respect.
Similarly, how do you tell the difference between a viral marketing promotion such as the classic one that built hotmail.com into such a big success and a pyramid scheme that is out to bilk you for as much as possible. Hotmail.com was free and they planned to earn income through selling ads and participating in affiliate sales. They grew large by offering free email accounts and each message sent through the service offered free email accounts to the recipients. So they grew quickly and defined the nature of viral marketing.
Pyramid schemes or Ponzi schemes seek to bilk you out of as much money as possible, and then get you to recommend others that can be bilked as well. People who get in early make some money, but most goes to the originator of the scheme. Folks who get in late take the brunt of the losses as the pyramid inevitably collapses -- either because no more distributors can be lured into the program or because state or federal regulators put a stop to the illegal operation.
Visit your state's Attorney General's website and read the press releases. Look at all the scams that are going on and are being stopped. From telemarketing fraud, to credit card fraud, to just about anything you can imagine are being investigated and prosecuted on a daily basis. The anonymity of the Internet and the speed of communications make it a particularly lucrative and inviting platform for these scams.
People who know me will tell you that I'm cautious and don't believe everything I hear. Some people would even say I'm cynical.
But, deep down, there's also that part of me that wants to build a really successful business, and that may be my Achilles' Heel.
I'm going to keep investigating some of these companies, and maybe I'll find a gem in all the trash, but if you're thinking of jumping into the multi-level marketing field on the Internet, watch out for yourself. Hide your wallet, guard your credit cards and count your fingers after every metaphorical cyber-handshake.
If anyone reading this has any experience with SFI, either good or bad, I'd like to hear about it. I think it will be likely that you have heard about them, because they have over 7 million affiliate members and they're growing by thousands every month.
I just don't believe that many people can get rich working a simple program. Feel free to convince me otherwise, and back it up with facts. Email me at jd@johndilbeck.com if you have something to say about all of this.
In the meantime, I'm going to cool my jets, flush the dollar signs out of my eyes, and continue looking for quality products and valuable information that can help you build a legitimate home business, whether you sell a product such as high-quality arts and crafts, a service, or something else. It is possible to build a good home business.
Just don't get sucked into the swirling vortex of all the hype that's out there.
Resources
Books about scams.
Home Businesses You Can Buy: The Definitive Guide to Exploring Franchises, Multi-Level Marketing, and Business Opportunities Plus: How to Avoid Scams
Paul Edwards and Sarah Edwards have written several books about working at home and building your home business.
Federal Trade Commission
FTC: Business Opportunities
Fraud.org
ConsumerAffairs.com
Missouri Business Development Network - Businss Scams
Google.com Directory > Business > Opportunities
Google.com Directory > Business > Opportunities > Opposing Views
What's Wrong with Multi-Level Marketing?
Open Directory - Top : Business: Opportunities
Open Directory - Top: Society: Issues: Fraud
A listing of state Attorneys General, or you can search on Google.com for your particular state's attorney general.
Better Business Bureau
I searched for "Six Figure Income" on the Better Business Bureau's site. The search returned two results: Six Figure Income Marketing Group, which is the group I joined last week. They appear to be a legitimate business.
(Update 12/28/02: Please see my article on December 28, 2002 entitled "Six Figure Income Marketing Group" for more information about what I've learned about SFI in the last two days.)
The search also returned Go-doitnow.com which uses SFI and Six Figure Income in it's dba names. This does not appear to be a legitimate business.
Internet ScamBusters
Place classified ads in hundreds of newspapers
Posted by johndilbeck on Tuesday, December 24 2002 at 4:22 AM
Category: (default)
Nationwideclassifieds.com offers a service where you can place classified ads in hundreds of newspapers across the United States. Choose individual papers by state or select specials placed in groups of newspapers.
They have low rates because they buy so much ad space, and it couldn't be easier to sign up and place an ad.
I haven't tried this service yet, but I plan to early in 2003. I'll let you know how it goes.
The main reason I'm passing this along to you at this time is that I think it will be a good place to test new ads in small papers for a few dollars, and then, if the ad works, you can choose medium circulation papers for a secondary test. If it works there, try one or two large circulation papers. If you make a profit there, you can then roll it out to as many papers as your advertising budget allows.
By testing in smaller papers until you get good results, you'll save lots of money and take less risk. Once you know you have a good ad that gets your readers' attention and then prompts him or her to take the action you want, it is easy to duplicate the ad in as many papers as you want, all from a single location.
The website is a little spartan and the design could be better, but if it does what it claims to do, it could be a winner for you.
Do you need targeted traffic to your site?
Posted by johndilbeck on Tuesday, December 24 2002 at 2:28 AM
Category: (default)
For most people, getting high-quality targeted visitors to their site is probably one of the most difficult things to do. Unfortunately it's also the most important.
The reason it's difficult for most small businesses and online marketers is that the majority of popular site promotion strategies either take up a lot of time, cost a lot of money, or are too risky. Right?
I want to let you know about TrafficSwarm, a new, fully-automated traffic-generation system that can send 1000s of targeted prospects to your site, every single day, absolutely FREE!
Would you believe that this new system is:
* 100% Free! - Always has been, and always will be
* Automated - 5 minutes to set it up, then forget it
* Targeted - you'll get only real, targeted traffic
* "Viral" - your traffic will increase exponentially
After you sign up, for free, you can list up to 10 pages you want to promote through the service. Each page will be categorized to insure targeted visitors, and you can edit the headline and description at any time. As things change, you can modify your listings, delete any of them, and add new links, up to a maximum of 10.
You get 500 page views for your links as a bonus when you sign up and there are several ways to earn more page views. Best of all, to me, is that you don't have to display banners on your site to participate. In fact, you don't even have to have a website. This is a good service for leading new prospects to gateway pages you promote (but be sure that you're promoting legitimate businesses and not one of the many scams proliferating on the Internet).
I haven't been a member long enough to know exactly how effective this will be, but I'm pleased with the results I've gotten in less than a week.
Anyway, do yourself a favor and check it out ASAP. It's still pretty new and you will benefit even more if you create your free account now before most people join.
TrafficSwarm - give it a try and see for yourself.
Do you want a successful home business?
Posted by johndilbeck on Sunday, December 22 2002 at 4:07 AM
Category: (default)
The free Six Figure Income Newsletter is filled with marketing tips, how-to articles, home business news & stats, and invaluable articles, insider strategies, and information from the planet's highest-earning home business entrepreneurs.
Sign up today to receive your free newsletter.
Please note: I have removed the link to this company, pending further investigation on my part. I have doubts as to whether this is a legitimate multi-level marketing program or a pyramid scheme. I've spent hours on various websites including the FTC, several state Attorneys General, and other consumer protection sites. Business opportunity scams are proliferating and I don't want to mislead anyone. I'm still investigating this company, but I'm not promoting them at this time. I've removed all links to them pending the results of my investigation.
You have the right to remain silent...or do you?
Posted by johndilbeck on Friday, December 20 2002 at 2:39 PM
Category: (default)
For over 30 years, on TV shows and movies, and perhaps in real life, you've heard the phrase that begins, "You have the right to remain silent..."
Since the Supreme Court made the Miranda decision in the 1960's we've all assumed we have the freedom from coercive interrogation by the police as one of our inalienable rights as United States citizens.
But do we?
The US government wants police to have the right to coercively interogate us, and the Supreme Court is again going to decide on this issue. Are we going to let our fear of terrorists bring on the new Inquisition? Or are we going to stand and demand our rights from such heavy-handed tactics?
Learn more about this case in Joanne Mariner's FindLaw column at CNN.
Do you hate selling?
Posted by johndilbeck on Friday, December 20 2002 at 2:15 PM
Category: (default)
I've always detested selling.
There, I said it.
But, that was before I started to understand selling...or rather the art of making a sale.
What's the difference?
I've taken sales courses and seminars, read books, and tried my hand at selling things. But I was doing it wrong, and they taught me wrong. They taught me tricks for coercing a purchase, mind-control techniques, leading questions, deliberate misunderstanding, and lots of other ways that may make a sale, but leave a serious distaste in both the seller and the buyer.
Over time, I've learned that selling isn't about tricks or coercion. It's not about my sales quota or that car payment that's due next week.
When you start to understand sales, it gets easier. If you want to sell, you have to learn to listen to your customer. What does he or she what? How will something help her?
They don't care what I want, and why should they?
After decades of learning the hard way about selling, I finally found someone who knows this, and he's busy in Atlanta training people how to do it.
And, after years of testing his training method, Len Foley has written an ebook that will help you learn how to sell and enjoy doing it.
I stumbled upon his website a few days ago by accident, and it has turned out to be quite fortuitous. I've been corresponding with Len and I'm enjoying getting to know him better.
I'm looking forward to reviewing his book in January or February and letting you know what I like and don't like about it. After reading the first three chapters, I like what I'm seeing, and I look forward to reading the rest of it when I have a bit of time.
Sales Without the Sucker Punch -- check it out for yourself today.
Interviews with real SiteBuildIt! users
Posted by johndilbeck on Thursday, December 19 2002 at 3:59 AM
Category: (default)
Mikino.com is a new website that focuses on interviews with real-life SiteBuildIt! users. If you want to know more about how well it works from the folks who are using it all the time, visit Mikino.com today.
SiteBuildIt! 2-for-1 sale until Christmas
Posted by johndilbeck on Thursday, December 19 2002 at 3:54 AM
Category: (default)
From now until midnight on December 24, SiteSell is running their last 2-for-1 sale.
This is your last chance to take advantage of this opportunity which won't be repeated next year. Buy SiteBuildIt! and get any other SiteSell product FREE. You can choose any of their highly respected ebooks or even choose to take a second SiteBuildIt! site. You can build two sites for yourself or give one as a gift.
Last Chance! Ken has promised this offer won't be repeated next year.
Are you sending spam without even knowing it?
Posted by johndilbeck on Wednesday, December 4 2002 at 9:15 PM
Category: (default)
We all know that spam is increasing and is stealing more and more of our time, energy and patience.
(A pox on spammers! *spit*)
But, did you know that your legitimate email may not be reaching its recipients? More and more ISPs are having to institute filters to stop the ever-increasing flood of spam and, depending upon how you write your messages and newsletters or the style of your writing, your message may be tossed with the trash.
I've read on Tid-BITS and in a couple of other places where they are having more and more trouble getting their newsletters delivered. Do you know if the same thing is happening to yours?
So, how do you find out?
Ken Evoy and the technical gurus over at SiteSell.com have announced a new free service that enables you to use some of the same technology they build into their Site Build It! webhosting service.
They've implemented a service that interfaces with SpamAssassin, the premier spam filtering service, and lets you test your email to see how the spam filters see it!
It's even easy to use.
But, before I tell you where to send your message, I have to tell you how to make it work for you. The first word in the Subject line must be TEST (in all caps). Otherwise, their service will just assume it's receiving spam and will delete it rather than mail you a report on the "spamminess" of your message.
So, if your Subject line is, for example,:
The Finishing Touch, Summer 2002 Edition
You need to change it to:
TEST The Finishing Touch, Summer 2002 Edition
I use this example because I just tested a message I sent out a few months ago for Arch Avary's Finishing Touch newsletter.
I sent the message to:
spamcheck-sellmoreonline@sitesell.net
(Don't forget to add TEST to the subject line before sending it!)
A few seconds later, I received a reply from the Spam-Checker. On days when they have lots of messages, it may take a few minutes to receive your reply.
It told me the total spam score for Arch's newsletter was 3.5.
The higher the score, the more likely the e-mail will be considered spam.
According to the report I received, the following scale is used.
0 - 5 Nice and clean, no problems except tiny ones below; no action required.
5 - 8 The strictest may object; clean up the easy-to-find issues.
8 - 12 Getting into dangerous territory; clean up any big issues and the easy-to-find smaller penalties
12 - 16 Likely over ISPs' limits; review and clean
16+ Major problems; overhaul needed -- systematically clean, point by point and then re-test (this may require two or three SpamChecks).
So, what were my errors, in order of importance?
(1.6 points) You e-mail contains a moderate amount of the following: terms, formatting, or aggressive writing common to everyday spam.
Consider reworking.
(1.0 points) BODY: No such thing as a free lunch (3)
(0.4 points) BODY: Says: "to be removed, reply via email" or similar
(0.3 points) BODY: Satisfaction Guaranteed
(0.2 points) BODY: Free Offer
It is NOT important, of course, to remove every single item. Any score under 5 is great. And 5 - 8 is likely fine.
So, thanks to Ken Evoy, Sitesell, and SpamAssassin, we now have a way to cut down unintentional spam on the sending end rather than being tossed into the trash on the receiving end.
So, feel free to use this service. Just remember to add the word TEST to the start of the subject line before sending your test message to:
spamcheck-sellmoreonline@sitesell.net
It's as easy as using a spell checker and potentially more valuable. Customers and friends may overlook a spelling error or two, but they may not get the chance if they never get your message.
Try it today. I know I'll use it.
Tell your friends about it, too.
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