How NOT to Make Money Online

This falls under the category of stinkers, as opposed to winners! (Yes, even the ones that seem the best to start can turn out to be stinkers!) 

Basically, there is a very simple way to lose money online, rather than making it. That is to get into an "opportunity" that looks too good to be true. 

 Here are a few simple rules: 

1.) HYIPs: If it requires very little investment and promises huge returns - you are going to lose whatever you invest. While a few who invest initially and pull their money out quickly will make money - that's just part of the scam. They start telling everyone how much they're making, people sign up in droves, the company gets rich, and the plug gets pulled. Simple. 

2.) Automated wealth programs: No work, no calls, no big investment - what can I say... there's no such thing as a free ride. If you want to make big money, you have to put in big effort. Anyone who tells you anything different is lying to you. 

3.) "New Secrets to Online Wealth" are hogwash in any form. This goes back to the old scheme of telling you to send a stamped, self-addressed envelope and $5 to get the secret to quick riches. You receive a note that tells you to post ads everywhere that tell people to send you $5 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to find out the secret to quick riches. 

 4.) The age-old rule: If it looks too good to be true, it IS too good to be true. Protect yourself and your friends by staying away from such things and by sticking with things that require hard work, perseverance, and entrepreneurship. That's the proven way to wealth. 

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Horse Pucky!

Perhaps those who grew up in warmer climes or wealthier families than I did will not understand the term, "Horse Pucky." It is a somewhat more polite term than the one often used to describe some of the absolutely worthless and crooked money-snatching programs I've been deleting today as I clean out one of my inboxes. 

Look at this one advertising a new course put together by someone I KNOW needs to take a course, himself: "It's a complete A-Z training program to guide you step-by-step to internet success." 

Yeah, right! Horse Pucky!! 

 And to top it all off, look at the P.S. he has tagged on at the end (errors included): "P.S: Make no mistake -- This is a blueprint to internet success. Many people have tried this system and is making money part-time or full-time." 

Like I said, I'm not blowing steam, here; I KNOW this guy - don't throw your money away. (This guy is actually a friend - imagine what I might say if he was an enemy! LOL!!) 

How about this one: "I Just Couldn't Recommend It to You" (Why? Because it was priced at $1500 and I felt really stupid that I actually paid that much for something that really didn't work properly, anyway, and I didn't want to admit that I bought this Horse Pucky for such a ridiculous price.... But NOW that the market has been flooded by suckers - errr - clients who paid way to much for an inferior product - I now want to recommend that you waste only $97 on it...) 

Guess what? For virtually ANY marketing software or ebook, program, etc, all you need to do to realize just how useless it is AND to get it free is to wait. You usually won't have to wait very long before it's being given away for nothing more expensive than your email address on a capture page.

Here's a real beaut: "I Need 200 Success Stories" My goal is to take 200 average people and show them how to make $1,057.50 every week within their first 30 days." Follow the links, and you find out that it's SO valuable that it's now being given away on an email capture page... 

Man, if it was REAL it would really be worth a fortune. Do people really believe some of this stuff? No wonder so many online entrepeneurs have no money and huge credit card bills. 

 Another email promises: "Ryan & Andrew can show you how to do nothing and generate over $10,000 a month." I don't need to make any further comments on that piece of Horse Pucky! 

Shawn Casey (Oops - did I actually just tell you the name of one of these so-called "gurus? ") makes this claim: "If You Can Click Your Mouse, Then I Guarantee You'll Make At Least $1,000 In As Little As 48 Hours Starting From Scratch." 

 If you part with the $39 for this 825 page ebook, I can at least guarantee one thing - you'll be poorer by $39! Note also that when you actually read through the long, LOOOOONG sales page, you'll find that he actually hides a little disclaimer in amongst all the hype that tells you that not everyone will actually make the kind of money he's talking about.... Wow! Big surprise! 

In fact, most people will fall asleep long before they even get through the first hundred pages... 

More Horse Pucky - pure scam - "Turn $30 into $279,300 IT IS POSSIBLE! Anyone can do it!" 

Next, here's one from a guy who just feels SO bad that so many people are getting scammed and losing money that he's taken it upon himself to let you in on all the secrets that all the other money-grubbing gurus are keeping to themselves: "Make up to $250 in 60 Minutes, over and over again, sitting at home in your pajamas!" For just under 50 bucks, you can make him feel all warm and fuzzy for letting you in on this "secret." 

Horse Pucky! Beware of ANY so-called money making program that tells you that you don't have to sell anything! If you're not offering a product or service in return for hard cash, you're not in business and you're NOT making money! 

I could go on and on and on and on... about so-called "bootleg videos" of internet "gurus" spilling their guts, guaranteed free targeted traffic, unlimited wealth "secrets," How to get Your keywords listed in the top 10 on Google (yeah, if you choose the right words and they are almost meaningless as a search term), and so on. 

The facts are that in order to make money online, just as in the offline world, it requires a product or service (there's nothing wrong with an affiliate program), and lots of learning, research, hard work, persistence, advertising and more hard work. Any program that promises instant riches with no work is just... Horse Pucky. 

Horse Pucky - noun - frozen, hockey puck-shaped object left behind by a large solid-hoofed herbivorous mammal of the genus Equus (a horse). 

Learn how to market online at TargettedMarket.com

Community Stinkers

Grrrrrrrrr....! Piggybackers!! 

The time has come when I need to make it clear to all my friends, fellow bloggers and community members, that if you don't see my name attached to a thread or a blog I've created, it's definitely not endorsed by me! 

Lately I've been getting a ton of people "piggybacking" on my forums and blogs. When that happens, I simply delete it and let the person who stuck it there know it does NOT belong there! 

If you see a new one there, just ignore it. I've been about as polite as I can get, but it's still happening. My personal reputation is on the line on my blogs and forums, and particularly in the ones where I endorse carefully researched products and programs. 

So far, none of the people who have blatantly disregarded proper decorum, respect and just plain decent ethics when posting on my sites have been on my list of friends in the first place. They seem to just prowl communities, blogs and bulletin boards looking for a reasonably popular place to flog their junk, rather than introducing themselves first and asking me to actually take a look at their wares. 

On some of my other forums, I've actually made it clear that posting a new thread is just dandy and welcome if it fits the context. 

Most of my writing is based on my own studies, digging and personal experience, and they are NOT open to anyone (without my express permission). I don't think it could be much plainer or simpler than that! 

OK - there's my rant for today. It's probably happening to you, too, but hopefully we can find a way to get this practice of "piggybacking" stopped.

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Junk Salesmen

Oh... Man... How long are people going to continue to send me email with "Buy My Junk!" in the subject line? 

 Of course, that's not literally what their subject line says, but it might as well be. 

 My first thought, if I even think about it at all before I delete all the junk that floods my accounts every day is, "Who Are You?" 

 My second thought is, "Why SHOULD I buy your junk? I know absolutely nothing about you... Except for the fact that you're obviously very rude." 

 Who, but a person who is very rude, (or an utter idiot) would walk up to a complete stranger on the street and say, "Psssst... Wanna buy a house? or a car? or a nice dinner at a restaurant?" 

 What would you think if someone you had never seen before walked up to you and asked, "How would you like to make an easy million dollars?" Call the cops... quick!! 

 I have a few words for all the strangers who send me "Buy my Junk" spam every day... you're NEVER going to sell me anything! Ever! I have absolutely no respect for you and think you have no respect for yourself, either. You're desperate to make a sale, and I'm really uncomfortable around desperate people (get me a flack jacket - quick!) 

 Selling anything, whether online or off, requires selling yourself, first. Most products or services can be bought from hundreds or thousands of different places or people, and the thought is always going to go through a prospective buyer's head, consciously or unconsciously, "Why should I buy from you?"

 No one is comfortable buying from a complete stranger. The buyer wants to trust the person he or she is buying from, and that's completely impossible if the buyer knows nothing about the seller! 

 These Junk Salesmen need to learn this stuff. Perhaps if they read my blog or other articles I've written they'd at LEAST get my name right (it's NOT FIRSTNAME!) Perhaps then they'd address me as Dave, rather than Friend (I'm not their friend!!) Some people who don't know me actually address me as Dearly Beloved!! What rock did they crawl out from under?? Send me a note if you want to, and make sure to call me Dave! I'd enjoy getting to know you.

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