Your online business, Part 4

There is one thing you can absolutely, with out question, count on when it comes to online busness: If a scam and/or scammer was successful once, THEY WILL BE BACK. Most sites which practice and deceptive or out and out fraudulent businesses do so over and over again because of the very nature of the Net: it is big.

However, a little investigation prior to signing up for a company or site can yeild good results and sometimes prevent a lot of grief (and lighter pockets.) One thing you can do is run what is called a whois. A whois is a look up service that takes the domain you are considering and comes back with information like who owns the site, admin email address, physical addresses, telephone numbers and other business informatiion. I use this service a lot: http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/whois/index.jhtml

One of my favorite scammers who just keeps coming back again and again with basically the same programs over and over again operates out of Queensland Australia. He runs the same basic scam over and over again, using the same type programs and even the same wording on every program he starts and then closes. I first joined one of his traffic sites back in Jan. 2004. He also offered an "investment" program that ran along side his traffic site. I never upgraded or invested in the paid programs, but watched them both with interest as I surfed the site to market my own sites.

About 3 months after joining, it simply disappeared. Gone, left the building, no where in sight. Then, later late spring, early summer, I started seeing email ads for the programs. The owner claims to have been hit by hackers, then massive host/server issues in which he lost his database and etc. But, he wasn't going to let that "get him down." I was cool with that. So, I rejoined and invested in his paid program as well. Then I promoted his site - a lot.

When he started back up, it was with the claim that he would be the #1 paid to surf site on the planet. That no other paid to surf site would compare to what he would be paying and etc. And, he set a date for that paid to surf to begin. I promoted his site - a lot. Date for paid to surf came and went. Wrote him. No response. Couple weeks later, lots of promises on paid to, still nothing. I wrote him again. No response.

Now, all this time I had been promoting his site based on the paid to surf motif. So, I am starting to look like a scammer here. I finally got the owner to answer my emails and an "frank" series of emails entailed. He deleted my account and my very large downline. He did refund my investment, so I was not out that. Paid to surf never materialized. Then, towards the end of the year 2004, his site went down AGAIN! Same story, same mysterious hacker, same host/server issues, same loss of database. Good bye everyones money who had upgraded at his account and invested in his other programs. Then, he disappeared again.

Only to resurface recently with yet another traffic site! And, as before, although calling this one something different, he uses THE EXACT SAME PHRASES AND CLAIMS AS BEFORE. Upon seeing the site, I ran a quick whois, and sure enough, there he was and guess what? His site WENT DOWN AGAIN!!! Same story, same reason as all the times before.

You really have to wonder about some one who runs a business that is constantly being run out of business for the same reasons. Usually one learns and takes precautions. Lol.

His site is back up and, again, making the same promises of guarantees, best paid to anywhere and of course this: This exchange is not running in the paid to surf mode just yet. The exchange is open to free members at the present time, so enjoy the benefits.

Since this time, I have my own traffic sites and have gone through hackers, host/server issues and etc. Stuff happens, you get through it, you take precautions, get on with the business at hand. Usually, if it involves money, you have database backups and etc. Back ups are highly restorable. Except when you don't want them to be.

So, when you are looking to get involved in a site as an affiliate or as a business, a little investigation and a whole lot of questioning are in order. Even if we are not talking about a lot of money, we are talking about your time and effort! Not to mention that if you are going to be involved in something, you want it to be a good reputable site, not something that engages in "shady" business practices.

- Cherie Halliday
http://www.xtreamsurf.com

Your online business, Part 3

Last time we left off here: "However, all is not lost or gloom and doom! The point and purpose of these articles is to 1. Make you aware and then 2. Show you how to analyze so you can 3. Pick the great opportunity and affiliate sites out there worthy of your time, effort and money."

This is where logic kicks in. Every business in our know Universe is subject to basically the same principles: 1. You have costs and overhead 2. Your profits come from a positive difference between costs and sales 3. How you treat your customers/members and affiliates have a direct impact upon the health and longevity of your business as do 4. Your moral and ethical business practices as a whole.

So, there you are, lured by promises of a site. Time to analyze. You must review every point of a site, test it and make sure it makes sense and does not contradict another claim or statement. To do this, you are going to use a very simple and basic logic formula: t + t + t = t or true + true + true = true. In order for a site/opportunity to add up every thing must be true! It is simply impossible to have true overall statements if any element of the statement is false. Period.

You find a site that offers you 1. free membership. You need to test that statement by reading the FAQ, perhaps continuing on to the sign up page. If you then find in the FAQ or at the sign up page you must now PAY SOMETHING, this statement is false. This is not free, it was a ploy to get you to sign up for something probably to harvest your email, or to lure you into making a payment. When I see this, I need go no further. This site is a complete waste of my time.

Site has free membership, is free and you sign up for it only to discover: 2. You must upgrade, upbuy or purchase something to benefit from the site. More waste of time. And deceptive. Tell me upfront what it costs to benefit: do not waste my time luring me with promises of free membership which is essentially useless. This is a false statement and renders the entire site false and not worth your time.

3. Site tells you that you will not have to sell or promote to earn. ??!! How does any one figure this? Now, if you are talking about some online banking investment thing like a certificate of deposts or savings account, yes, ok that can happen. You do not see very many of these as sites offering cds and savings accounts must be registered and secured within the banking industry of some country!! Off shore does not count here. Otherwise, any business you invest in involves goods and or services and promotion to bring customers to your offered goods and or services. ANY SITE WHICH TELLS YOU OTHERWISE IS LYING. Also called "smoke and mirrors."

These are three facts to consider this article...next time we discuss the "repeaters" and how to investigate and then avoid those.

- Cherie Halliday
http://www.xtreamsurf.com

Your online business, Part 2

Last time we discussed your online business in terms of off-line business and left you with this question: "consider all the 'opportunity' sites, product sales sites and etc you have ever seen and see today. What happens when you decide to go with that site?"

We are now going to address this question as it is a very important one. Once you go to a particular site to examine it more closely and perhaps even sign up for it, do you thoroughly examine that site first? Do you read and analyze what it is saying or telling you? Does what you read add up?

This is important to address because in my experience and what I see on a daily basis at my traffic exchanges specifically and within the safelists as well: 50% or more of the sites offering opportunities do not add up to legitimate businesses or anything in which one should spend anytime promoting, any money on, or in any way consider investing any of their resources in!

I am going to take this discussion back to article 1. Every business, opportunity or whatever is subject to and governed by proven business facts and principles. Period. Every business, opportunity, or whatever has costs, upkeep, and advertisting to consider. Every business PROVIDER is subject to the same principals of business! Online or off. Every provider either adheres to sound business practices and principles or does not. Online or off. Every provider adheres to moral and ethical business practices or not. Online or off.

It is up to each of us to decide whether or not a business provider is adhering to good business practices and governing themselves under sound moral and ethical principles.

To repeat myself, 50% or more of the sites I see on my traffic and safelist/email marketing sites fail the above litmus test. Yet, people with generally good common sense flock to these sites, join, pay money for, promote and otherwise waste their time and resources on for no other reason than it is on the internet. People, who in the offline world would scream "scam" and run away from immediately, are for some reason hypnotized into thinking that all those "too good to be true" sites and other affiliate venues are just the best thing to hit the planet ever.

They are not....yet, these sites and the people who run them COUNT ON THIS VERY REACTION FROM YOU! Just like they count on you to not make a fuss over $2, $10, $25, or whatever it is you end up losing with them. Just like they count on you to not make a fuss over the hundreds of hours you spend promoting their site, or the money you spend to promote them. They win regardless of what you do or happens to your account. And, when they disappear, the only reappear again under another name to prosper because they know there is no one to prevent this from happening and the next batch of members will be just like the first.

Pretty sad and discouraging all in all.

However, all is not lost or gloom and doom! The point and purpose of these articles is to 1. make you aware and then 2. show you how to analyise so you can 3. pick the great opportunity and affiliate sites out there worthy of your time, effort and money.

Think on this a bit. Part 3 is next.

- Cherie Halliday
http:www.xtreamsurf.com