Home Business Connection Scam
A couple weeks ago I received in the mail a netowrk marketing magazine called Home Business Connection. Over the last week or so I have spent time pouring over some of the opportunities that are offered in this magazine. The first thing I want to say is BUYER BEWARE!
I wanted to get that out there first as it will take me a little time to get to the meat of what I have found as I have researched some of these so called Work from Home online business opportunites. I know there are many good companies and products out there in internet land that are very reputable and legitimate. From what I've seen so far, the Home Business Connection is not the place to find them.
Although I have propably only researched about half of the opportunities I see offered in HBC magazine so far, I wanted to provide a service and let as many people as possible know about what I have found. I hope I can save you some time, frustration and money in doing so. I will get into detail of some of what I've found in a bit.
The first lesson I learned early on in my online marketing career, this after being burnt several times, is to google (look up) anything that you might be interested in purchasing, whether it be an online business purchase or anything for that matter. I would always get caught up in the hype of the sales pitch and pull out my wallet before doing my research because I wanted to believe, WOW, this really could be the one! After all it was only $39.95, right? Well, like I said I now google everything that I'm interested in, and it doesn't take but one or two negative reviews on something to quickly effect my enthusiasm for something. Or for that matter lack of being able to find anything about what I'm looking for. It has saved me hundreds of dollars over the years.
Now all this being said, from my preliminary research, I would say that probably 25% of the opportunities listed/advertised in Home Business Connection are probably legitimate. Most of those I would say are the ones that offer a personal insight into some person or family that is achieving real results online. Normally with that they will use their full name, reveal the business and website and other contact information. For example, I saw an article in there about Mike Dillard, whom I'm sure most everyone knows is a very legitimate and successful network marketing guru. However, if I were Mike or any of the other legitimate businesses, I would be leary of advertising in this magazine.
This is not just me trying to bash this magazine, this review is based on my review of some of these offers, what I have found, and it is strictly my opinion, but it is based on the facts I have found.
A couple of things to look for when analyzing an opportunity that will help you are these:
1. If something sounds too easy or too good to be true, or that you will make insane amount of money in record time, well, it usually is too good to be true, and most likely a complete lie.
2. Look up the mailing address of the company. If it ends up being a mailbox at a mailbox etc. Location or something like that, not a good sign.
3. Outrageous testimonials. Notice how they always put just a first name and an initial for the last name and a vague location of the person. I'd say that most of them are made up.
4. I've noticed alot of the bogus ones have a fairly common name attached, and it seems alot of times it is of someone famous. For example Gary Clark (former football player) Steve Gates, Rick Nelson (singer) I think these are made up names to throw people when they research on the search engines.
5. No real information about what the opportunity is, just something vague offered like fill out this form and send it away and the money will start pouring in.
So for sure the ones I have looked into and you should avoid at all cost are listed below. I thought I would include the reason why they seem to me to be scams, but this is already too long. Just trust me, I did the research on them and they are not legit. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or would like further explanation.
1. The Postal Money Order System
2. Get Paid to Watch TV
3. How to Make Money Fast (Miguel Arechvaleta, Tiran Zaken)
4. $480 for taking a roll of 24 'ordinary pictures'
5. MegaLazyCashSystem, with Sheri and Matt
6. Make an Unlimited Income from Gates Financial Ent. Or Gates Financial Inc. (Steve or David Gates)
7. Magic Kids and Company (actually fell for this one a few years ago)
8. $1,000 a Week Mailing our sales Letters from your Home (most of these are bogus) where they say they will give you $2.00 per envelope (trust me there is more to it and you won't like it.
Well that should be enough to make my point to be very leary of anything you see in this magazine. It's a shame, because like I said, I know some of the offers are valid and genuine, but those will suffer by association with this bad magazine and the so called opportunities they let advertise in it.
Another thing is that I didn't even subscribe to this magazine, it just showed up at my doorstep, so they probably pulled my name off an oppurtunity seeker list and sent it unsolicited. Just wanted to get this out there so I could help others avoid being caught up in these distasteful and dishonest programs.
To reiiterate, there are good online opportunites and marketing training offered. Most of the legitimate opportunities and products will require you to learn some things about netowrk marketing and yes you will actually have to do some work. I'm not here to sell you anything.in an effort to help all the others that have struggled as I did in the beginning, I will gladly offer you my availability and recommendations for online success!
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