Work From Home Choices

O.K., this survey stuff is beyond annoying.  I hope you aren’t waiting on the edge of your seat for one of these companies to payout so that you can make your internet fortune.

I still am waiting for another survey from AW to land in my email box. I am beginning to believe they never pay out because the company makes it impossible to reach the payout minimum.

As for Greenfield, (Grrrrrrrr) they let me waste my time filling out a survey and AFTER it was completed said, “Nevermind, we don’t need anymore of these.”

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It has been 5 days and I have only been sent enough surveys from AW to earn $27.00.  Their site’s FAQ basically states that they send you surveys when they send you surveys. You have no control of the situation.

I am also trying Greenfield Online.  Greenfield is another free paid survey opportunity. Many of these surveys enter me into sweepstakes. (So far, I haven’t gotten any emails or solicitations from filling out sweepstakes entries.)  This stinks because you don’t get paid to fill out sweepstakes forms. In the last 3 days, I have earned a whopping $3.00 with Greenfield.

For $35.00, I joined a paid survey company called Paid Surveys Etc. I signed up yesterday, but have not received any surveys from them yet.

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If you are in the direct sales, network marketing, insurance, mortgage, real estate, or a host of other businesses, new clients and prospects are your life blood. You must be constantly stuffing your pipeline.

If you have ever purchased “fresh leads”, “surveyed leads”, “live leads” or even “verified leads” from online, then you know what a crap shoot they are.   The most productive and cost effective leads are the kind that you generate yourself.

The best free leads come from referrals. Always ask for them. Offer rewards for them. With every order I placed with our grocery delivery service, they offered me free food in exchange for referrals. Think along these sames lines. You don’t have to offer a reward that costs you anything. (After all, we are talking about free leads.) Be creative.

This series will focus on ways to generate different types of leads online.

AW’s site has been down every time that I try to use it. It will be hard to get to the minimum payout when I can’t use the site.

Also, Greenfield Online, another company that I am trying is down.

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We’re going undercover to find out which of those online paid survey companies are legitimate and which ones are time-wasting online scams designed to fill your email box with junk mail.

Over the next few days, we are going to be reporting on which paid survey companies that we tried actually paid out. If you are interested in this type of work at home job, stay tuned. We are experimenting so that you don’t have to.

Our findings will also be published on a Squidoo lense at http://www.squidoo.com/paid_surveys_free_paid_surveys.

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By Randi Gerber 

Full of enthusiasm I attended a “free” internet marketing seminar. A whopping $2,395.00 later, I had the full training kit that I supposedly needed to get my business online and begin marketing. When I put the first CD Rom into my computer, up came a 300-page manual. This was followed by other CD’s that were just as long. The manual attempted to teach how to blog, drive traffic, and a bunch of other “stuff” that I didn’t understand. (To this day, I am still not totally convinced that it was actually written in English.)

It became clear to me that the time it took to blog and market online was so consuming that one would need to work day and night, and have vast computer knowledge to really be successful. As a working mother with two kids, that was enough to end of my online marketing dream…

This lie is all too common and has caused many to fail before they even start. You do not need to spend thousands of dollars in initial investments to have online success. There are programs for under $500 initially that will help you start your business and teach you what you need to know to market a very successful business online. Some overly expensive programs are only looking for a quick buck from suckers. Don’t be fooled by these scams.

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Lie # 9: There are so many buyers on-line you can sell anything at any price to the right niche market and make great money.

Realize the internet is one of the most competitive markets in the world. People who shop on-line are looking for great deals and are savvy shoppers. In a brick and mortar store you may not need the best prices to make a sell because people have to inconveniently drive down the street and go into another store in order to compare prices. Online they can Google what they are looking for and have 50 competitors prices right at their finger tips. If you are interested in selling online, you must sell unique items, or have the lowest prices on common items to have real success.

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Lie #8: Traffic = Sales

“It’s important to understand that most people don’t get online to buy something…. they get online to find information. I’ve found that the key to success for the little guy is building a quality web site around your passion and putting “selling something” on a back burner until the time is right.”

-friendsinbusiness.com

“If people like you they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you they’ll do business with you.” - Zig Ziglar

Advertisers spend incredible amounts of money learning what causes customers to purchase. Wal-Mart has enormous foot traffic, but some products just don’t sell. They don’t know what customers are really looking for, or they aren’t in ads, or there box is easily missed. No matter what the reason, understand that there is a big difference between sales and traffic. Only sales will bring you income. You must keep trying new ways to sell to customers to capitalize from your traffic. Again this comes down to educating yourself and learning from masters and mentors. Sometimes one word in a sales copy can make or break the sale.

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Lie #7: You can learn everything you need to know in a few short days.

 ”God got his name from being able to do anything and everything and be everywhere at once. Despite what we are taught from an early age many people still insist on believing they themselves are God. Ever found yourself answering the phone, making a sale, running a sales meeting, welcoming customers and doing your company’s accounts all in one day? Sure you have. You’re trying to be God and do everything and be in more than one place at one time. You will fail. People do this with their website too. Rather than just stopping at providing content (which is where you should stop and hand everything else over to the professionals) some people think that despite no professional training or education in the subject they are experts in web design, website marketing, graphic design and business consultancy. Remember - stick to what you know, leave everything else to the experts. Your job is to run your business - not to run around like a headless chicken trying to create a website, market a website, do the books, answer the phones and make the tea.” –Mike Cheney

You can learn enough to get started and have a web-site up and running in a few days, but you cannot learn everything that you need to know to be successful. There are many secrets to successful online marketing, and those who are truly successful never stop learning and or discovering them.

Again, educate yourself. The best online business builders still spend a lot of time learning from others. Plan on continually educating yourself like you would for any business.

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By: Randi Gerber

Lie #6: If you just sign up for “this program” you will have everything you need for your home based business.

Online opportunities may can be very misleading. They persuade you to sign up for our program, and sell all of these e-books or join all of these affiliate programs and you can sell everything online and make great money with no hassle. This sounds great in theory, but is a nothing but a lie.

A few years ago my husband signed up for a $250 program and $150 a month so that he could be an affiliate to over 500 companies, and have access to sell thousands of products on eBay etc. Unfortunately, out of 500 companies, he could not find even one product that he could sell online or a reasonable profit. It is possible to make money with affiliate programs, but not on eBay or other auction sites like so many online businesses claim. You must have legitimate marketing system and your own site to sell from if you are going to make money promoting an eBook or affiliate products. Having stuff to sell is not enough.

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