I have been asked recently about programs on the internet that promise riches, and how to go about weeding out the scams, knowing what is legitimate, and as my website suggests, who to trust. HonestMoneyMaking.com is all about building trust, as I believe it is the foundation of any solid business and building relationships with your customer base. I found this article on scams that I think should help! I hope you find it useful!
Copyright © Stephanie Foster
It's not always easy to spot a scam. Many times, checking with
the BBB and other resources simply is not sufficient because
the scam is too new. But when you are looking for a work at
home opportunity of any kind, it helps to know what red flags
to be aware of, whether in a job or business opportunity.
The first rule of thumb is can you follow the money? That is,
can you figure out how the company will be earning money from
your efforts? If you're offering lifetime free services to
someone and earning a large commission every time someone signs
up, where does the money come from? It's easy to tell yourself
it can't be a scam because no money is being spent, but you
need to consider more possibilities. What information are you
giving them? What about your customers? Can that be used
against you? Do you have to download anything at any point?
Spyware and/or affiliate commission theft could be the goal.
Second, is the pay commensurate with the effort you are putting
forth? If they are offering 2-3 times the going rate for a job,
but you have to pay for training, it's probably a scam. They're
relying on your need to earn money and desire to earn lots of it
with little effort to cloud your judgement. Similarly, if you
are earning commissions for your efforts, does it look like the
company you will be representing can possibly be making a
profit? This is very similar to point #1 above, but worth
considering on its own.
Next, what kinds of promises are being made to you and to the
customer? Are they even remotely possible? This can be either a
bad case of exaggeration, which may concern the FTC, or a sign
of a scam. In either case you do not want to be involved.
In the case of home business, I am always wary of pre-launch
hype from marketers I have never heard of. If they don't have a
name in the business, how do I know their product will be any
good? It could just be a way to get information, get you to
download something, etc., rather than the introduction of a
real, quality product. Pre-launch marketing does get used by
reputable marketers too, but not very often. After all, if
you're offering a quality product do you really need to get
people excited about it before they can see it. It might be
fun, but not all that necessary. Pre-launch hype also has a way
of annoying potential customers, as they wade through months of
excessive advertising and spam about the product. It generally
makes much more sense for a company to launch a product when
ready, rather than give a buyer time to change his or her mind
because they're tired of the hype.
There is no guarantee, however, that a given opportunity is a
scam just because it looks like one. It is possible to
misjudge, but you have to decide if you would rather miss an
opportunity that could hurt you financially or destroy your
reputation if it is a scam than take a chance on it. If too
many warning flags go up, it is probably not worth it in my
opinion, but you have to decide for yourself.
About The Author:
Stephanie Foster is the owner of Home with
the Kids, a resource for stay at home and work at home parents.
For more advice on work at home scams, visit
http://www.homewiththekids.com/scams/
Copyright © Liane Bate
Social bookmarking has been around for a couple of years, but for me, it's a whole new concept as I learn more and more about internet marketing and how best to get traffic to my site and blog. It is a process that is becoming more and more popular as a means of generating traffic and page rank, so it's something I want to get started with right away! Most of us who own a PC know that when we come across a website that we like, we can add that site to our list of favorites or bookmark it for our own future use. Social bookmarking takes that organizational process a step further by making public the list of sites you frequent. This article will discuss what social bookmarking really is, its advantages, and how it can help your website.
What is social bookmarking? As mentioned above, social bookmarking is a system of organizing websites that you want to re-visit, but rather than bookmarking them in a folder on your computer, you bookmark them on a special social bookmarking website. If you do a Google search for "social bookmarking websites" you will find a list of the top social bookmarking sites that you can join to add your favorite sites to. The way you go about this is to use keywords that represent your favorite site's content, or in other words, you "tag" it. You can then make your entries public or private. The ones that you make public can be seen by anyone who visits the social bookmarking sites and looks up the keywords you used to describe your bookmarked sites. The public display will also show who created the bookmark, when, and how popular those keywords are.
There are many advantages of using social bookmarking as opposed to simply bookmarking. By making your list of popular sites public, you have the ability to share information with others who are looking for the same type of information. They will be able to find a list of sites that display exactly what they want just by logging into a social bookmarking site and typing in some relevant keywords. This is a tremendous way of helping others find useful information, or sharing resources with a group of people. For example, a group of network marketers may want information on prospecting, so they would log in, type in "prospecting" and receive a list of bookmarked sites on "prospecting", and other related topics, just like that! Not only will you find links to sites that you are interested in, but you can find out who has bookmarked your own site and how popular it is. Also, if you want to contact others who are interested in the same topics and sites as you, or know more about it than you, you can easily make a new connection with someone! How handy is that?
Aside from the benefits of resource sharing, social bookmarking can help generate traffic to your site and blog. You can set up your blog to link to your favorite tagged sites, and allow your blog visitors to easily bookmark your site. This will result in more traffic, possibly a better Google Page Rank, and potentially more sales! Some of the social bookmarking sites that you join allow you to add your bookmarks to your blog. In this way, your blog can be updated with tags and links on a daily basis! If you know how important it is to update your blog frequently to get the search engine spiders and traffic over to your site, then you will appreciate this feature! Not only that, but you can use your social bookmarking sites to post links to your website, thereby increasing your traffic and PR with a backlink from authority sites!
I have yet to discover the disadvantages of social bookmarking, but its advantages, as listed above, are enough to get me excited about this relatively new way of marketing my website and blog! I hope you are excited too, and will take action to improve your websites and blogs! You never know, you may even connect with an expert in your specialty area that can help you achieve your goals and dreams!
About the Author:
Liane Bate owns a Plugin Profit Site web business, is a member of Success University and the IAHBE. To learn more about how to drive traffic to your site and increase your PR, visit:
http://www.HonestMoneyMaking.com,
Plugin Profit Site, and
Success University
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Psst!...Have you Heard the Buzz? 
