Work From Home Choices

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 #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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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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Many people are so anxious to make quick and easy money online that they become simple targets for scammers. The article, links, and video below will teach you how to protect yourself from work at home and home business scams.
Internet Business Scams - How to Avoid Them
By Andrew Schirmacher Jr

Internet Scams have become big money to the people who are looking to make a quick buck on the internet. Who out there hasn’t won the Irish lottery, been asked to be a representative for the widget corporation collecting money to keep Ten percent or been sent an email by your secret admirer. Three not so nice sounding characteristics will go a long way toward protecting you from internet “work at home” scam artists: cynicism, skepticism and gut instinct. Put those together with a little knowledge and add a sprinkle of common sense, and you are not likely to bit by a dirty rotten scoundrel. Here are five rules to help you avoid internet scams.

Money won’t come easy despite what they tell you. Either it isn’t money or it isn’t easy. Anybody who tells you that you will get rich sitting by your pool side sipping Pina Coladas is lying. Think about this, if it were that easy would they be advertising it to you? And if they want you to send them money (or your credit card number), they are lying. Again, why would they allow you to use their process which could potentially cut into their profits. They wouldn’t and you can take that promise to the bank.

Look for how they are making their money! What is the vendor doing for his income? If you are the source of his money, there is an excellent chance that you are being cheated. Here are a couple of meaningless or nonexistent products to be on the lookout for when looking for an internet business:

· An ebook that tells you how to make money. If the book is so great, why is it not on the New York Times Bestseller list? Not everybody who sells an ebook is trying to rip you off, but let’s look at the facts here. Anybody can write down anything and sell it on a website. They can charge as much as they want for it and they get to keep 100% of the profit-no risk and all reward. Also, are they offering you a money back guarantee? If not you should be running in the other direction. Now, I am not saying that all ebooks are scams but you should investigate before you buy.

· Anything that begins with, “I can teach you how to make money…” That goes for those seminars that promise to teach you how to make millions, too. You know the old saying applies here. Those that can do and those that can’t teach. Look at the gurus background before committing any sum of money to a training program.

Look through the hype. Sometimes it seems like those hyped up sales letters are everywhere-they’re in your mailbox, your inbox and on the websites that want to sell you a chance of a lifetime business opportunity. When you think about it, most of them are trying to get you to buy some kind of product or program. Why do they need so many bells and whistles?

Half the time, it’s to confuse you and disguise the fact that they want you to send them money but you won’t get anything in return. Here’s a test for you to try: Print the sales letter out and cross out everything that is in bold type, colored type, italicized, underscored, or large type. Next, cross out all adverbs and adjectives, so that you only have nouns and verbs left. Whatever is left is the real truth about the product. And if nothing is left, then you have your answer.

Never buy a list. Some work-at-home business opportunities give you the opportunity to buy lists of people. This is a list that they sell to you for a nominal fee. They are people who are looking for crafters, envelope stuffers, typists, free-lancers, and so on. Half the time the lists are full of dead ends, filled positions, or even fictional companies. Even when they are legitimate email address, you can find the same sources all on your own without paying a dime. Job lists are never a good idea.

Be very cautious about Multi-Level Marketing. Some multi-level-marketing businesses are legitimate, but there are many variations on a scam in the MLM world. In Fact, MLM’s are not even legal unless the money you make is from a product, not from the recruitment of other people. Before you spend your hard earned money on an MLM, have a lawyer check the contract to make absolutely certain that it’s both legitimate and legal.

Skepticism, cynicism and your gut instinct are best three weapons for avoiding internet business scams. Listen to them, and you can usually avoid getting ripped off.

I have been working on the internet for over 8 years now and exclusively from home for the last two. My main website, How To Audio Books Online provides customers with quality audio books that they can listen to while reading along, riding in cars or on their ipods while doing other tasks. New books are being added all the time with an affiliate program that can help you earn money from home.
Stop by and visit me today at http://www.HowToAudioBooksOnline.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Schirmacher_Jr
http://EzineArticles.com/?Internet-Business-Scams—-How-to-Avoid-Them&id=812429

Links - Blog articles about internet scams:

Pharming , Fake Online Degrees, 4 Rules to Avoid Being Scammed

Below is a video for using Ratings Hub to avoid being scammed.

Learn about the latest work at home scam: reshipping. The USPS actually made this video sort of Law and Order style, so it is not half bad as far as informational videos are concerned.

Click the arrow below to watch Work@Home Scams: They Just Don’t Pay!