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Programs I've joined and Dropped
We'll start off talking about some of the programs that I have joined
and dropped and why. I wouldn't call these real Scams, but they all have problems. Though the first one, Infinite
Abundance, comes closest to being an out and out scam, in my opinion. And that's all this page is about, my opinion, based
on years in this business and common sense.
Infinite Abundance
I joined this for the wrong reasons. It had just launched and I got an E-mail from someone I trusted with
the link and a lot of hype about being in at the top and all the spill that was going to happen.
Sound like something you've gotten?
This program offered a couple of simple Splash sites. One that linked to an Autoresponder which went on and on about how
great IA was and all the money you could make with it. The second Splash site was generic and was to be used with any program
you had.
Also, there were to be Ads placed for you every month. That proved to not work, so it was switched to Leads every month
that were fed into a responder asking them to go to your IA Splash site to get more information. You were also supposed to
be able to use these leads yourself for anything else.
The problem...
The leads were only E-mail addresses and that's all. The messages sent to them from IA were hard hitting
and full of hyped up garbage all focusing on money. Mailing again to these poor souls and competing against IA Hype was crazy.
They promised something everyone wants, an easy system controlled by them and people assigned by you to sell prospects
on the deal. Only if you felt you couldn't do it yourself.
This was not cheap, with a high start up and slightly lower monthly cost. I got sick of getting calls
about this from people who believed the hype that someone else could do the work for them and make them Money. I knew
it would take months and months to build any income and cost a ton of cash.
I dropped them.
Cashevolution
This thing was Hyped to death when it launched. Promises of downlines built by so called heavy hitters.
That never happened. The product was financial advice. The product and the program never lived up to it's hype.
It was promoted all over the Web with garbage talk of joining under some so called Internet Guru who was going to be pushing
this thing forever. Thus building a downline and an income with no end. Never Happened.
The problem...
Over Hyped product that was not useful to normal people and might have been illegal to boot. Even if the product
were great, the Hype Killed this.
There have been some attempts to bring this back. But it's effectively dead.
I dropped it.
Moneykey/DashPO
This is an interesting program, but....
It was in a so called Pre-Launch forever and during this time E-mails were sent out asking members to upgrade to
some kind of profit sharing position. I never fell for it.
The product is some kind of fancy Web Browser that does everything but wash the dishes for you. There's an almost
impossible to figure out commission plan that revolves around reading E-mails sent to your DashPro address and I think shopping.
I have never understood how exactly it is supposed to work.
The problem...
The Pre-Launch lasted for over 3 years, and even as I write this now, not all the promised versions of the software
are ready. I have downloaded an early version of the Browers and while cool to look at, was not easy to work with.
All the requests for members to spend more money on founders or whatever they called them, positions turned me off. How
can you ask people to lay down more money for a product that they have never really seen?
When it was free to join, it might have been something to give try, but now they require a small fee to join. And
the YEARS of Pre-Launch has effectively killed this for the time being.
I'm still a member, but I am not promoting it or recommending it.
Going Platinum
This is something I had High Hopes for. And it's a hard one to give up on.
The idea was to create a Web Portal site much like Yahoo with News, Shopping, Search, Forums and more. And then share all
the revenue with the members. Good idea I thought.
But it took forever to get off the ground. Management kept members on the hook waiting and waiting. It
finially launched about 2 years after it was supposed to. And was a much different program by then.
The Problem...
Poor Business judgement and bad management seems to have been at the heart of what could have been. Claims
to have offices and large and expensive support hardware were never really there.
The program seemed to change with the wind at times. At first free to join, then a fee, then back to free
with options. Members who paid a small $25 one time fee were promised a free dial up ISP for life. That changed.
Members were promised the company would be doing it's own advertising and spill over would help them build their downlines
and thus their income. Hasn't happened yet.
Like Moneykey/ DashPO, the long delay in getting something launched, plus promises made that were never kept have effectively
killed this program from doing anything close to what was to be.
On the Plus side, the members from across the planet are a Great Group. Always helpful and considerate
of others. I love them and I hope something happens to bring this back to life. But I fear that unless it's bought
out and some new owner puts a Ton of money into it and even changes it's name, it will never offer what those wonderfully
trusting and loyal members deserve.
I have dropped down to a free member, but I am not promoting it at this time and cannot recommend it.
Downline Clubs
There are a lot of these and they pop up all the time. To me, Downline Clubs are set up for losers.
Most of the time they are free to join, but in order to make money, you are going to have to join whatever the downline
club throws at you. MOST People who join for free, will NEVER Join anything the Club puts out.
Also, you will be expected to join whatever is offered, no matter what it is. Do You Like being Told What to Buy
with your own Money?
I don't.
There are some Downline Clubs that use some kind of force to get members to join whatever the Club offers. Either they
are required to join things, or they have to join everything in the order offered. Again, Most People Will NOT do this. So,
even if you promote the Downline Club like Crazy, there's still a better then average chance you won't make much if anything.
I have joined Downline Clubs before. Notice I Do Not Promote them.
Other Types of Programs and Schemes to watch out for:
Gifting Clubs
Whatever they're called, whatever they make you sign that says you're doing this on your own with no expectation
of anything in return, Gifting Clubs are illegal in my eyes. There is no product, no service, it's just another form of money
game.
Now, they will tell you that anyone can give up to $10,000 tax free to anyone. And this is true, you can. Of course most
of these gifting deals don't ask you to gift anywhere close to that kind of money. But let me ask you this, if someone
you didn't know came up to you and asked you to Give them $100, no questions asked and nothing in return or repayment to
you, an out and out Gift.... Would you do it?
Of course you wouldn't, or most of use wouldn't. But that is what true Gifting is, Giving someone
something and expecting NOTHING in return.
But with a Gifting Club, you see that by Gifting that $100 or $200 to someone you don't know, you do expect something
in return, otherwise you wouldn't do it. You don't expect that person to repay you, but someone is going to, you
expect that, otherwise you wouldn't do it.
Therefore, Gifting is really just a slick Scheme to move money from the many at the bottom, to the few at the
top. And those Many at the bottom are betting they can find enough Suckers to buy into this, so they will someday
be at the top and receive the gifts. It's garbage, it won't last and if it comes to the attention of the LAW, it will
be shut down and the Many will Lose.
Stay away from any Gifting Clubs.
Chain Letter Type Deals
We've all seen these things come in the mail, there's a list of names, and you're supposed to send $5,
let's say, to everyone on the list, then remove the top name, move everyone up one place and add your name to the bottom.
The idea is when your name moves to the top of the list, hundreds if not thousands of people will be sending you $5 bills.
Chain Letters are Illegal.
And you see the same kind of thing here on the Internet, oh they try to make it sound legal by saying you're buy Reports
or E-books or whatever silly so called product they've come up with. Doesn't matter to me what they call it, when
you see that kind of structure, it's a Chain Letter and whether it's on the Internet or comes in the mail, it's Illegal.
Both the Gifting and the Chain Letter will qucikly run out of steam and if brought to the attention of the LAW, will
be Shut down and those involved could even be prosceuted or held responsible for all the money they claimed people could make.
Stay away from both of these types of things, no matter what the Website or someone else tells you. They will
Fail, and You will Lose out in the end.
More Information
I can't possibly give you all the advice you need on this one page. So, on My TGIF Marketing site, I have written several pieces or as I like to call them, "Sermons" that will help you understand what you need to look
out for and what you need to be ready for if you get involved with any Home Business Opportunity. Here's a list of
some of the Titles and links to their pages. All links on this page open New Windows.
Other Helpful Links
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Things to Look for and Look Out for
We all get these E-mails offering to make us Rich with little or no effort on our part. 99.9999% of the time
it's all garbage and hype. Don't wast your time, just hit the delete button and move on to the next.
Get Rich Quick is a myth that it seems will never die. As long as there are people who can be sold on the idea of making
money doing nothing, there will be Con-Artists offering these things. I have a page about this Myth on my TGIF Marketing site. You should read it.
What to Look For
Here's a list of things you need to look for when you first see any Website telling you about some opportunity.
- A Real Product or Service that people will want.
- A FAQ page with real questions that you want answers to.
- Contact information. Who and where are the people behind it.
- Low cost to start.
- A Professional Website.
- The Product or Service is competitively priced.
It seems silly to say look for a Real Product or Service, but you would be surprised at how many programs don't
have one. Or just have one for show, one that can be had for free else where and is only there to hide the fact that
what's being offered is just a money game.
I remember looking at one opportunity and going to their FAQ page only to see them tell me, that if I didn't already
have the answers to any questions, then I was not what they were looking for. How fast do you think I left that site?
A Real program offering Real Products or Services will give you the name and contact information on who is behind
it. Look for not only E-mail addresses, but a street address, state, country and a phone number.
Many programs will require some kind of start up cost. And at times that's reasonable. But it should be
within reason for what you get.
Look at the Website. Does it look like something brother Bob put together in his spare time? Any Real
opportunity will have a Website that looks like they hired a professional to build it.
Whatever the product or service is, it should be priced competitively with other similar ones in the market place.
Many opportunities will over price their products or services to pay for all those commissions to members.
What to Look Out For
The lack of some or most of the items above is the simple answer. Below is my list of what to look out for:
- No product or a worthless one.
- No place or way to get questions answered.
- No contact information or very little.
- Cheap Website.
- Very High start up cost and/or high product price.
- Focus is on Recruiting and not Product Sales.
- Some kind of Time limit that requires you to join now.
Sometimes a program will offer some cheap product or service like a Safelist subscription or a ton of E-books or
reports. Something like that is really just an excuse to move money around and not a real opportunity. Most Safelists
offer free memberships of some kind or other and many programs offer E-books or reports as a come on to get you to join or
as a bonus for joining.
But some programs don't even go that far. They offer no product what-so-ever. They are illegal and
that's all there is to it. There must be a real product of some value.
Let's look at some of the things programs call products but aren't...
- Member self-replicating Website to market the program with. Sorry, thats not a real product. Every opportunity
worth anything offers this to their members free of charge.
- Affiliate tracking or downline tracking. Sorry again, every program worth it's salt offers this.
- Members Forum to exchange ideas. What do you think? Many programs offer this as a way to help members
and build a community.
- Banners and ad copy to help market the program. Give me a break... That's like saying the water given
to you in a restaurant is a product with a price on the menu. Every program offers marketing help like this.
None of the above are real products and shouldn't be concidered as such. And here's another thing
to watch out for, a program that charges members to be able to have an affiliate site to sell the product or service. Doing
it doesn't make the program a Scam, but it sure is cheap. And it's a money maker for the program. It's costs next
to nothing to offer members an affiliate site to sell from.
If there is no FAQ page, or hardly anything on it, or if what is on it are not any of the questions you need answers
to, look out.
Also, if the only contact information is a name and an E-mail address. This is a Red Flag in my book.
Any real opportunity will not hide like that. They will have all the contact information you need.
Cheap Websites, are a dead give away and the biggest Red Flag of all. Now keep in mind, the cheap looking
Website may have been built by one of the Members themselves, so look it over for links to the Real Programs page.
Many programs will have some kind of start up cost that is higher then the normal monthly costs. Sometimes
Much Higher. Watch out for this. It's the companies way of making money off new members. Many will be happy to pay, and the
company makes the money whether or not the member ever makes a sale. And most Never do, so the company makes out like a bandit
while the new member loses even more money.
If the only way to make money is by signing up others to do the same, it's illegal and you should run to the
delete button. There has to be a product or service being sold. This is a gray area though, many programs sell their
product or service and then throw in the opportunity to make money by selling to others as apart of the program at no additional
cost. Or don't offer a way to market the product without buying it. Is this legal? I don't know...
One of the oldest sales techniques in the book is, the Limited Offer. While there are some real limited
deals out there, chances are most of them are a come-on ploy to get you to stop thinking, and join right Now, before the price
goes up, for example. 90% of the time, there is no real hurry. If it's a good deal today, it will still be a good
deal tomorrow.
And let's not forget the Over Used, Pre-Launch, Get In Now ahead of Everyone Else, technique. Yes, it's
possible they are in a real Pre-Launch, but many programs use this as a way to get members signed up before there is a product
of any kind. If they want you to start paying before the product is ready, Be Careful.
If you're not sure, don't let anyone force you into deciding right Now.
Other Red Flags
Any Program that promotes with the money to be made and not the product or service. If the money is the
focus and not the product or service, the program will DIE at some point.
Any Program that tells you they will do all the work and you will make all the money. This is garbage
designed to attrack the do nothings and will also DIE at some point. If no one is promoting, how is the program ever going
to grow?
Any Program that is Free to Join, but tells you that you're going to make money with it. If no one pays
for a product or service, where is the money coming from to pay Anyone? Be Very Careful of Free to Join Programs.
And last but not Least:
Programs that tell you that you don't have to recruit or sell yourself, that they will do it all for you. This
is BULL.... and you need to know it. Even if their intentions are honorable, they will run out of steam if
no one else is promoting or selling. You Will Have To Promote and Sell, or you won't get anywhere.
Plus, any program that promotes itself like this, will not be around long. Take a pass....
I know there is a lot more to watch out for, but this page
is long enough as it is. The main thing to remember, is to Keep Your Wits about You. Think before you act or spend money.
And if you are not sure about a program, either Pass It By or ask someone who's been around for a while.
Online Business Academy
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if you want to build a Home Based Business. And NO, they are not going to sell you something.... All they
offer is help and advice... Click Here
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