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I Was Scammed 37 Times, Don’t Get Scammed

….Wouldn’t it be nice to make a bundle of money quickly, with minimal effort, working at home in your pajamas? Of course it would. I for one would love to have money flowing into my bank account, working only a few hours a week from home, so I’d have more time to spend with my kids & my husband.

I began looking for «work at home» opportunities to make money on the internet a little over a year ago when the company I worked as a manager for 8 years went out of business and I lost my job. I had a good secure job, I thought, with a reputable company until one day out of the blue I was told to clean out my desk because the company is shutting down and I am losing my job.

Just like that, my $87,000 a year salary that took me 8 years to get, was gone and I started to panic. I knew I would not be able to find another job that would pay me $87,000/year. So I started to look for ways to make money on the internet instead of looking for another job.

I spent the next 6 months trying almost every work at home business opportunity online and offline and was ready to give up and quit and go try and find a real job.

I was disgusted with 99% of what I found. Many of the owners actually boasted about how many people bought their useless programs. I repeatedly found:

outdated information

non working links

links leading to other sites that asked for more money

no help section

no real email support

no refunds

I was scammed by 37 different «get rich quick schemes» and I lost over $7700 in 6 months. And it seemed everyone of those so called money making programs all said the same thing «they were going to help me make a lot of money without having any experience and costing basically no money » I was desperate at this point and I had to create an income quick, I had no other choice.

Even though I thought most of these programs were probably scams, I tried them anyway. There was this voice inside of me that knew that if just one of these programs worked for me, then that is all it would take.

Out of the 37 programs that I tried, 34 were complete scams that just took my money and were useless. Surprisingly, while sifting through all of the scam artist’s websites, I was able to locate a few individuals that actually ran legitimate programs. Only 3 of the programs that I tried actually worked and made me money and a profit.

Below, I am going to give you an honest review of the 3 programs that did work for me. Now although you might not make as much money as fast as they say you will, you will make money if you follow their steps.

Below is my brutally honest opinion about each program. If you are looking at any other program besides these three you are most likely wasting your time, because I have tried them all and these are the only 3 that work.

Well my search for legitimate Get Rich Quick programs has come to an end. I have to say I was thoroughly disappointed with most of what I found, and I strongly advise that you do not take chances joining any programs OTHER THAN the three listed below!

Whatever you do, I wish you a healthy, prosperous year for you & yours.

All the best.

~Jane.

No1 ==> http://tinyurl.com/2kbrgg

No2 ==> http://tinyurl.com/2zmkjh

No3 ==> http://tinyurl.com/2dngcw

How Can Local SEO Benefit Business?

Internet marketing has changed the way business marketing is done. Many worldwide corporations have engaged in SEO for selling their services and products and have succeeded in achieving their business aims thru this. As search engine dynamics change, the search engine optimization practices also keep evolving. Of late, SEO for local audience is gaining momentum.

This progress is happening in the light of large disparity seen in the search result patterns across different parts of the world. Moreover, a particular service might be appealing to an indigenous audience and may not make a difference to audience from another part of the planet. Local SEO has been a great way to bridge such disparities.

Local SEO permits results to be filtered and customised in accordance with the reception of a selected group of audience. For example, in running a web promotional campaign for a local school, fogeys resident in the town where the school is found should be taken as target audience. If the school ranks well in another country, it may get clicks, but will not convert the visitors to the site to admit their kids in those faculties. The purpose of any promoting campaign is to convert visitors who visit the site. Local SEO does this best for some niche products or services.

In doing local SEO, the competition bracket is also lesser. The competition is among local players in the market and there’s a higher chance of getting ranked sooner for relevant keywords. Local Search Engine Optimization is very effective since it is cost-effective, takes lesser time and targets important audience. Therefore, the businesses get more conversions through the site and stand to gain by online marketing.
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How To Handle The Occasional Oop-See!

Q: My company is really in hot water with one of our best customers. I can’t reveal exactly what happened, but suffice it to say that we really dropped the ball and the customer is furious. I’m not even sure we can save the account. What’s the best way to get back in a customer’s good graces after making such a mistake?
— Charles W.

A: Without knowing the full story, Charles, I can’t give you a specific course of action, but let’s start at the sharp end of the uh-oh stick and work our way back to see if we can come with up some advice that might help.

First off, it’s important that you understand that the magnitude of your mistake will determine the course of action you take to make amends. If your company’s error was such that it caused your customer a significant amount of lost time or revenue, embarrassed them publicly, caused damage to their reputation, or otherwise negatively affected their bottom line, you may face legal repercussions that saying «I’m sorry» will not deter. If that’s the case you should consult an attorney immediately and prepare for the worst. Whether or not the worst comes is irrelevant. You must be prepared for it.

Now on to dealing with more minor offenses. As anyone who has read this column for any length of time knows, I’m cursed with daughters. I used to say I was blessed with daughters, then they learned to walk and talk. Blessed quickly became cursed. Now my oldest daughter is an inch taller than me and getting all lumpy in places I’d rather not think about. She’s a sad case, really. The poor kid needs an operation. She has a cellphone growing out of her ear. But I digress?€¦

When she was a toddler she coined the phrase, «Oop-see!» Whenever she did something innocently destructive, like knock over a glass of orange juice on my new computer keyboard or shove a Pop Tart in the VCR tape slot, she would look at me with her huge brown eyes and say, «Oop-see!» My wife says there is a reason God made kids cute. Oop-see moments are evidence that she is right.

Oop-see meant, «Uh oh, I didn’t mean to do that. I was wrong. I’ll never do that again. Forgive me? Love me? Buy me toys?€¦ Oop-see worked like a charm every time. Now, I certainly don’t expect you to bat your eyes at your customer and say, «Oop-see!» but consider the effect her words had on me. Instead of screaming at the top of my lungs like I wanted to do (hey, have you ever tried to dig a Pop Tart out of a VCR) I immediately softened and found myself actually taking her side. «Aw, it’s OK, really, we all make mistakes?€¦»

What my daughter had figured out is that it’s hard to stay mad at someone who admits a mistake, sincerely apologizes for it, and vows never to let it happen again. Little did I know this was only one of many tactics she would employ over the years in her never-ending quest to wrap her daddy several times around her little finger, but that’s a whole different column.

Dale Carnegie said it best: «Any fool can try to defend his or her mistakes — and most fools do — but it raises one above the herd and gives one a feeling of nobility and exultation to admit one’s mistakes.»

Carnegie and my daughter were basically saying the same thing: When you (or your company) make a mistake, no matter how large or small, the best thing you can do is quickly admit the error of your ways and face the consequences, come what may.

Here are a few things you can do to help set things right with your customer.

Assemble the facts. The very first thing you should do is find out what went wrong and why. Meet with your key people and gather the facts. Ask specific questions like: What was the mistake? What caused it? Who was involved? What could have been done to prevent the mistake from happening and what can be done to prevent it from happening again in the future.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. I’ve been on both ends of the uh-oh stick and neither is very comfortable. My company has dropped the ball on occasion and we have also been negatively impacted when one of our vendors did the same. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and consider what could be said or done to remedy the situation from their point of view.

Take responsibility for the actions of your company. In my role as a company president there have been times when I’ve had to call up a customer and confess that a mistake was made, and as president it was also my responsibility to take the heat for it. Remember, you’re the head cheese, Charles, you get to sit behind the big desk and take home the nice paycheck. You’re also the one that gets to mop up when your employees makes a mess. It just goes with the job.

Do not place the blame on specific employees. No matter how tempting it is to put the blame on specific people in your organization (even if that’s where the blame lies), do not do it. It is unprofessional, counterproductive and can backfire on you, especially if the person you’re blaming reports directly to you. Saying something like «My sales manager is always making mistakes like this!» is not going to make your customer feel any better. To the contrary, such statements will make the customer question your leadership ability and the quality of all your employees, not just the one that made the mistake. If you don’t have faith in your company and employees, why should your customer?

Don’t deny that a mistake was made, especially when there is clear evidence to the contrary. You’re not Richard Nixon, for petesake, so don’t try to pretend that the mistake didn’t happen or stage some elaborate cover-up to try and dodge the blame.

Admit your mistake. This may sounds trite, but you must admit your mistake before you can move ahead and start to make amends. Don’t be so afraid to take this step. I doubt your company is the first one to screw up with this customer and I can guarantee you certainly won’t be the last.

Apologize for the mistake. The one thing that could make the situation better is often the thing that companies find hardest to do. I don’t mean to sound like Dr. Phil, but simply saying you’re sorry is often the best way to get a business relationship back on track. Ensure the customer that it will never happen again. After you have taken responsibility for the mistake and apologized in a sincere and professional manner, you must then start the process of rebuilding the trust that was lost. Promising that such a mistake will not happen again is a good way to start.

Compensate the customer for his loss. Even if your mistake didn’t cost the customer a dime, he will appreciate an offer of compensation. This can be something as simple as a lunch on you or a discount on his next order. The size of the compensation offered should be in direct proportion to the size of your mistake. A word of warning: don’t let the customer bully you into overcompensating him for your mistake. That can be more detrimental to the relationship than the mistake itself.

As my daughter understood all those years ago, Charles, a sincere Oop-see can help make things all better.

Here’s to your success!

Tim Knox tim@dropshipwholesale.net

Hottest Vending Machine Home Based Businesses

A few years back, I worked retail at a paper store. Needless to say, there were many days on which hours would go by without anyone coming in under the extreme duress of needing to purchase a ream of paper. And right between the register and the door was a full-size soda machine and a small candy machine that had m&m’s, Runts, and roasted almonds. I can’t even tell you how many times I emptied that almond canister, popping in quarter after quarter after quarter in pursuit of that savory, salted goodness. And I wasn’t alone; everyone and their business partner managed daily to scrounge up 25 cents in spare pocket change and push it into that coin slot.

Oh, almonds-now I want some again. But that wasn’t my point in telling my silly story; my point is that candy vending is an amazingly profitable business, precisely because the average American can’t avoid dropping a quarter into a machine for a tasty treat-after all, it’s just a quarter. And though a quarter doesn’t sound like much, when all the quarters are added up, some reports estimate that the average vending machine distributorship makes a little over $70 an hour, which is no small wage at all. But before everyone goes racing out to start dropping off vending machines around town, it’s important to choose your vending franchisor wisely. Here are what we would consider the big, trustworthy names in the industry.

Truth be told, most vending franchises are pretty similar, which doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out: machine, candy, and owner pretty much sum up what any vending outfit looks like. Still, there are some that carry an added punch that makes them worthy of a little extra attention. Uturn Vending is one such business, set apart from everyone else by their machines, which are some of the best in the industry. More interesting than the average vending machine, these «money machines»-as the company likes to call them-pivot around a central post, making 8 compartments available where a stationary machine would only have 4. And aside from the increased choices, the machines are some of the most sturdy available.

The machine, though, isn’t the whole story to a successful vending home based business. Of as much importance is the actual stock; what kind of candy do you have? If what your equipment is sporting is a knock-off brand of gumball or-heaven help us-something healthy, no one in their right mind is going to give you their hard-earned quarters. That is why Vendstar also makes the list as one hot vending commodity, providing only brand-name, recognizable treats. Although, there is something to be said for selling a new product as well. All of us like trying something novel-as long as it’s good-and few candies are more novel than the newest creation sold by American Vending Systems work at home franchisees: Buzz Bites. Though I will admit that it sounds like something you’d find at a bar, it’s really much more benign than that. It’s a tasty chocolate chew with a caffeine equivalence of a cup of coffee, and who doesn’t want one of those?

Not all vending machines sell food products, though. In fact, there are three great business opportunities in the vending market that specialize in not selling food, but rather selling everything from DVDs to lobsters-yes, seriously. If what you want is something original in your machines, one of these is for you.

First, the DVDs. The concept has made a huge splash in Europe, but it is just starting out in the US, and that idea is the automated DVD vending kiosk. DVDNow is leading the way in this country, renting out movies without the use of employees or storefronts, which keeps prices drastically lower for both owner and customer. And on the way home from renting a video, the consumer in question could very well stop off at a local supermarket parking lot to visit someone else’s Polar Ice Express franchise, which is prefect because the shopper doesn’t even have to leave her vehicle to use the machine. The ease of use for her is only beaten by the ease of ownership for the franchisee, who merely has to run periodic clean-ups, refill the ice bags occasionally, and keep up relations with the owner of the establishment he is renting parking space from. And finally, if this particular lady is feeling especially culinary, she may want to stop and get some lobster from a Love Maine Lobster Claw vending machine inside the grocery store. I’m not sure how many people actually manage to snag a lobster from the tank, but this machine makes money like no other, off of sheer oddity, because there is nowhere else that a person can actually work to grab their lobster of choice from the tank with the use of a small crane. They all may seem a little out of the ordinary in terms of the classic concept of vending, but DVDNow, Polar Ice Express, and The Love Maine Lobster Claw are all completely legit and well worth the investment of your investigational time.

All in all, there is a lot to be said for vending business opportunities. Kids always manage to get their parents to drop that quarter into the machine, hungry employees will always sacrifice a quarter to tide themselves over until lunch, and the rest of us appreciate the ease of getting a DVD without the trouble of human contact; as a culture, we cannot stay away from either candy machines or other kinds of vending machines. Anyone smart enough to get in on the business can certainly make a pretty penny. All they have to do is choose the right company to go with.

How Can a Virtual Business Help Me Survive the Recession?

A question I get all the time is «How Can a Virtual Business Help Me Survive the Recession»?
Unemployment is not letting up, businesses are not hiring. The best way to survive the recession is to take advantage of the economic turmoil and start a business. Not just any business, but a virtual business.

The benefits of a virtual business are endless. To mention a few:

1. Low cost to entry
2. Speed to market
3. You can work from home
4. You can run your business remotely
5. You can hire virtual employees

Therefore the answer is, start a virtual business!

According to Entrepreneur.com, these are the 10 hottest trends to watch for 2010. Not all of them can be set up as 100% percent virtual businesses, but their entire back-office and operations can.

Here is the list:

1. Economic turmoil: Results from Challenger, Gray & Christmas’ job market index revealed that 8.7 percent of job seekers gained employment by starting their own businesses in second quarter 2009

2. Green Power: Thanks to government incentives and changing public sentiment, clean energy is the most popular kid on the green movement block. The stimulus plan poured billions into renewable energy.

3. The Senior Market: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the aging-services industry composed of home healthcare, elderly and disabled services and community care facilities for the elderly make up three of the top 10 industries with the fastest employment growth.

4. Discount Retail: In 2009, secondhand shops increased revenue by $223.3 million, according to Ibis World.

5. Local Businesses: Demand is exploding for locally grown and made a product—which means more support for mom-and-pop stores. The dividend: For every $100 spent at a locally owned business, $68 comes back to the community. Only $43 re-circulates from national chain stores

6. Education: Huge numbers of people are going back to school—ducking the bad economy, retraining for new jobs, even reinventing themselves completely

7. Parental Outsourcing: Taking care of the kids, scrubbing the toilets, checking in on Mom, helping with homework, coaching Little League—more people than ever are paying professionals to do their domestic chores. The trend even has a name: Parental outsourcing.

8. Health and Wellness: Home care was the No. 1 growing industry from 2004 to 2009, averaging yearly increases of more than 7 percent, according to Ibis World. In-home care already employs a staggering 1.33 million people, and revenue is expected to grow beyond $72 billion by 2011.

9. Texas: Texas dominated 2009’s lists of best relocation destinations, home-building markets and job-creation cities. This very magazine also named Austin one of its own Best Cities for Small Businesses.

10. Affordable Alcohol: The alcoholic beverage industry has been growing steadily for the past three years and is expected to reach a record $455 billion in 2009.

You can see an example of a real sustainable, successful virtual business (100% virtual and paperless) at groupbenefitagency.com

Visit http://virtualbusinessdashboard.com to get the 20 insider secrets for starting your own virtual business on a shoestring and a video of the best business to start in this new economy.