Articles

An Internet Marketing Dream – Part 1 of an Article Series on the sometimes ‘Rocky Road’ to Internet Marketing Stardom

In The Beginning … When I was growing up, owning a business was my dream.

Now, I have some rather specialized talents, I am a developer and designer of customized company policy and procedural documentation. I can design and write standard operations and health & safety programs and training programs, project co-ordinate the development of shopping centres, manage and train others to manage retail shopping centres and commercial buildings, and all the rest of it, standing on my head.

Then I discovered Internet Marketing, and the thought of being able to work as a self-employed online marketer was oh so enchantingly appealing. Now, although I knew that I could make a lot of money doing what I was and had been doing for many years, it seemed worth the sacrifice to be able to set my own hours, be my own boss and, heaven be blessed!….. set up my very own internet business.

Unfortunately, I knew little about how to promote an internet based business what not to do, what to look out for, what the pitfalls were and just how many traps and scams were out there.

So, I ask you to ‘Look closely before you leap!…….

Are You Tempted By Those Work From Home Income Opportunities, Data Entry Jobs etc?

In this day and age, you’ll routinely hear people gripe about their jobs. Why do you suppose this is? I think I have a grasp on the problem. They feel obsolete or unsure about their future. You never know when you just might be canned and/or replaced. Surely you’ve noticed that oodles of workers get booted out for simple reasons. Maybe they are no longer needed or the company is downsizing. But what do they do then? Well hopefully they leave with some sort of severance package. At least this way they have some cash to pay the bills while searching for the next gig. Those who don’t, often have it rough. Now, you may be wondering what I’m getting at, so I’ll cut to the chase. First and foremost, if you are thinking about a personal Internet business, or independent company , make sure it is actually yours.

Ok, so you’re absolutely fed up with your current job. You go into work, day after day, spending your money on gas and office clothing and have nothing to show for the entire effort. You’d much rather be a stay at home Mom/Dad or person and find one of those working from home data entry jobs you’ve heard about from friends. You’ve gone so far as to look online for these jobs, feeling certain that there’s a plum job just waiting for you. If you Google ‘work from home data entry’, you’ll find hundreds of thousands of results.

When you click through to some of these sites, you’re told that you can make large sums of money, much more than your current job pays. The work is easy and with just a few hours a day devoted to this work, you can pay the bills and have money left over. What’s wrong with this picture?

For one thing, 95% of these ‘opportunities’ require a nominal – let’s say $25 – fee, up front, in order to gain access to the full details, or to cover the costs of ’setting you up in business’. Plenty of people fall for this ploy. They figure that it’s a small price to pay if, as a result, they gain freedom from the same old 9 to 5 and no longer need to spend big bucks on gas, proper office attire and day care expenses. The outcome is always disappointing.

We have all come across the sites that claim that you can make thousands of dollars a week spending a few minutes a day whenever you want to. Most of these sites call themselves ‘data entry opportunities’. They tell you that if you can type an email you can do the job and make thousands of dollars a week. Of course, and disappointingly, the information that is not shared prior to buying into the company is that you need to spend a great deal of time and, in many cases, money posting the advertisements that you type up. I paid to learn more about the data entry positions. In the hype portion I was told that all I needed to do was to fill out forms and post them on the internet. I was not told that I first had to pay to get the forms and then had to pay to post them. I also had to research which company had the greatest potential of helping me recoup my money as well as make a profit

The fact is, those working from home data entry job offers are almost always, without exception, scams. Think about it. If an employer had a legitimate need for people to do data entry work from home, why wouldn’t that employer hire from within the company? Why would they put out an ad on the net to an audience of millions of hopefuls? That employer’s staff would be drowned in resumes and applicants. If there were such a need, a simple newspaper ad would produce all the applicants he’d ever need in a lifetime.

This is not to say that you cannot find a work from home position. You will however, need to look a little harder and focus your attention on skills other than data entry. There are a few legitimate websites which screen employers for you. You should not ever pay a fee, and most particularly not for a working from home data entry job.

Here’s a suggestion which might produce a real job: Google ‘telecommute jobs your-skillset’. If the website or agent wants a fee just to show you what he has, move on. Be diligent and consistent in your search effort and you may just get lucky!

For anyone that watches late night television and infomercials it is not news that there are many business opportunities on the internet. There are advertisements in print media, television and a few months ago I even heard a commercial on the radio.

There are many sites that make huge claims about making money online. In my research I found that some of them are complete scams and others are complicated business ventures and frustrating MLM ventures. I did come up with a few pitfalls and tools that I used in sorting out the opportunities. It is very easy to get caught up in spending money to obtain information. That is the first pitfall that I fell into. When looking into making money online ‘do not pay for information about the opportunity’.

I did not learn the first time and foolishly anticipated that the second data entry opportunity would be the ‘real thing’. Well guess what! Yep, I wasted both my time and my money again. Another thing these guys are famous for is their ability to completely ignore support or help tickets….now due to the nature of the business they can’t use the ‘it must have got lost in the mail’ tactic. No, they just plain ignore you.

I found it to be a very complicated and misleading experience. The next pitfall that I fell into in trying to make money online was the completion of surveys. This is the biggest rip off that there is on the internet. For one thing you can join companies to get mailed the surveys without going through a third party. The third party has you pay money then they simply give you the websites of the survey companies. I ended up spending money joining music and makeup clubs as well as ordering magazines. There was one survey that I took that I was paid $1.50 for taking. The third party company stated that you could make hundreds of dollars a week spending fifteen to twenty hours. This was not a sure bet in making money online for me or anyone else. The person that was making money online in this case was the one that found the survey takers for the companies, who in turn bought from the companies.

Making money online is possible, but it is not a get rich quick scheme and the old saying “if it sounds too good to be true it probably is” definitely applies.

A passionate penchant for writing. I have been writing, designing & developing corporate submission documentation, standard operations, policy/procedures & training manuals. A natural born analyst, my venture into Internet Marketing was to expand my writing market exposure. My IM learning curve I now use to provide newbies & the less informed of what really lurks, works & sometimes sucks in internet Never-Never-Land.

Part 2 – Did Someone Suggest Trying Job Boards?

Job postings are like stepping through a minefield and more often than not are filled with weird jobs or scams of some sort or another.  Internet job boards seem to be the worst offenders and should come with a ‘danger warning’. Not surprisingly, many of these turn out to be links to other directories, instead of actual job offers. You could spend all day just going from link to link in a never ending circle of loops. Last but not least, there are the links that take you to shopping sites where you can buy a myriad of books on how to get a job!

Of course genuine jobs do exist, and there are some terrific opportunities out there, should you want to be a mud wrestler, pole dancer or such like. Job boards for writers and journalists range from the excellent to the ridiculous. I have come across publications that border on ’sweat shop’ tactics by advertising for freelancers to write and research 600 word articles for $4 to $5 per article. This it would seem is designed to entice rookies and the plain desperate.

Then of course there are the con artists!!, experienced job hunters eventually get to know how to sniff out these guys from a mile off. Most often these little snippets are termed as ‘work at home opportunities’ and  promise high returns for very little work. Annoyingly and wrongfully, some even ask for an ‘upfront registration fee’ to cover their administration costs. As I mentioned in my previous article, you should never have to pay for this under any circumstances.   Job boards are filled with data entry positions, typing at home, filling paid surveys and other amazing ‘left-to-centre’ offers. Some do offer genuine work at home jobs but they are few and far between. Although being paid to do surveys and mystery shopping is available, they will never provide enough money or return for you to retire on.

Regular job hunters get to know the more reliable job sites as well as those to be avoided. The thing to remember is that there is no such thing as a free lunch.  Thankfully, there are some web sites that have been set up with the express purpose to expose these scam merchants. Having already been stung themselves or personally knowing someone else who has fallen victim, these sites are usually operated by people who want to share their knowledge and experience in an effort to warn others . Also remember that some dodgy schemes are designed to look extremely attractive and convincing.  These charlatans will tell you that they want to share this fabulous opportunity with you and everyone else just because they believe in spreading the good fortune around.

If you find  good job boards, stick to them. They are the ones who have built a good reputation and won’t want to damage it for the sake of the quick, slick buck.

Part 3 – Next Week ……..Is There Is Light At The End Of The Internet Income Tunnel?