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Denise Hall Publisher/Editor denise@home-business-on-a-budget.com http://www.Home-Business-on-a-Budget.com Home Business on a Budget Newsletter is a bi-weekly publication. My mission is to help you succeed in your home business without spending an arm and a leg. Each issue contains useful tips, information and articles. Good luck in your business ventures! Translate this newsletter to another language: http://world.altavista.com/ Do you have a friend who would like this newsletter? By all means, pass it on please. The more, the merrier, as I always say! 
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My 2 Cents Worth - Editor's Chit-Chat
Hi All! Welcome to another Sunday with yours truly and thanks so much for letting me be a small part of your day. :~) If you're new today, a warm welcome to you. I hope you'll enjoy the issue. Well, summer is un-officially over now that Labor Day is behind us. A few trees have already started to turn yellow, orange and red here in northern Michigan. Some of the leaves even fell to the ground, enough so that I had to do a little raking in the yard yesterday. I know summer really isn't shorter than any other season of the year, but it sure feels like it. It whizzes by so much faster than winter does. LOL I wrote a rant about gifting programs for my blog the other day but due to technical difficulties it won't add the post. Grrrr! So I turned it into today's Feature Article for you. And the fact that I've been waiting 5 days (at this point) for tech support for the blog caused me to write a rant about poor customer service in the Expert Advice column. The last issue brought about several comments from you guys, so be sure you read the Reader's Feedback column below. I'll see you here in 2 weeks. Until then, be profitable! Denise
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Feature Article
Gifting Programs are NOT Businesses! By Denise Hall I get so tired of seeing so-called "business opportunities" that are nothing more than chain letters (which happen to be illegal in the U.S.). You know the kind - you send $5 to 10 people and they send $5 to 10 people and then move your name up on the list, and eventually your name is at the top of the list and you'll end up with a million people sending you $5 each. (Yea, RIGHT!) I just finished reading the sales letter for one of these programs. (One of my newsletter subscribers called me with some questions about it so I started digging around.) It's enough to make me SCREAM! The owner of the site is using a mild form of "Rich Jerk" tactics to get people to buy into his crap. The program looks like a combination of a chain letter and an envelope stuffing scam. I will give the guy some credit, though. He's upfront about what his program is. I don't get the feeling at all that he's trying to hide anything. He's even got his phone number on the website and a toll free number to call for automated messages that contain more information about the program. But that doesn't change the fact that gifting programs are illegal in the U.S. and probably some other countries, too. What bugs me the most about this one is the cost - $1,000 minimum that you "gift" to another member PLUS $100 fee for your "team leader" whose job it is to actually recruit your prospects PLUS $300 membership fee. (The membership fee gets paid every 6 months!) So just to get started at the "lowest" level you'd pay $1,400! And believe it or not, there are 2 levels higher than this, too. You would spend over $5,000 for level 2 and $13,000 for level 3! The reason it's so expensive? According to the owner of the program "you have to think of price vs. profit and be concerned about value." Excuse me? VALUE? Let me tell you what you'll get for your money: Some FLYERS AND POSTCARDS that you mail out (you buy the stamps) with your referral ID on them to send people to this guy's website. Once there, IF they sign up for his "newsletter" (I use that word loosely) they'll receive more information on how the program works. Oh, and the other reason it's so expensive is because "this program works so it's not cheap. With $50 or $100 programs you won't make much money." And he's "been doing this for 9 years and made 20 million dollars" so that makes him "the cash gifting expert." And, get this... the guy had the gall to say that sometimes people ask if they can get started for free and pay him when they've received some money. His answer is no because "people who want something for nothing have the mentality of a thief." Ummm, WHO is a thief??? I mean, let's get serious here... how quickly would YOU jump on this "opportunity?" If your answer is 'not very fast' then just how many people do you think you'll be able to sign up who are willing to "gift" you $1,000 or more? And this guy is collecting a minimum of $600 a year for "membership fees" from each poor soul who falls for this so HE'S making money. I'm sure it makes no difference to him if anyone else makes money or not. My first thought after reading about this program was to turn the guy in to the FTC. Then I noticed this (I paraphrased it here): "This program is owned and managed by a private offshore company, comprised of only foreign entities and is completely outside of U.S. and Canadian jurisdictions." Funny, because his toll free phone numbers are either in the U.S. or Canada and his voice (assuming it's him) on the automated call I listened to is also either American or Canadian. Now back to my title - Gifting programs are NOT businesses... PLEASE don't fall for the kind of crap that I just described. If you want a business then for Pete's sake start a REAL business. Get your own website and/or product, or at the very least get an autoresponder, build a mailing list and sell affiliate products to your list members. But DON'T get caught up in all the get rich quick garbage and always remember if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. ------------ About the Author: Denise Hall is the publisher of Home Business on a Budget Newsletter which is dedicated to helping you succeed without spending an arm and a leg. Subscribe for bi-weekly issues and marketing updates at http://www.home-business-on-a-budget.com/subscribe.htm This article may be reprinted with the resource box intact.
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Grins 'n Giggles
This was taken from a newsletter that I receive each day. Get daily Internet tips, tricks, jokes and information: http://www.resource-a-day.net/member/index.cgi?gifts_n_things2002 A photographer for a national magazine was assigned to take pictures of a great forest fire. He was advised that a small plane would be waiting to fly him over the fire. The photographer arrived at the airstrip just an hour before sundown. Sure enough, a small Cessna airplane was waiting. He jumped in with his equipment and shouted, "Let's go!" The tense man sitting in the pilot's seat swung the plane into the wind and soon they were in the air, though flying erratically. "Fly over the north side of the fire," said the photographer, "and make several low-level passes." "Why?" asked the nervous pilot. "Because I'm going to take pictures!" yelled the photographer. "I'm a photographer, and photographers take pictures." After a long pause, the 'pilot' replied "You mean, you're not my instructor?"
Expert Advice
Each week I'll publish some tips or advice. I'll try to cover every subject I can think of, but if you have any suggestions, please send them to me at the e-mail address listed below. This week I decided to address something that irritates ME, and I know it must irritate others, too - POOR customer service. If you buy a product and don't receive the download link, or if you need technical help with a product you bought, what do you do? I'll assume you do what I do - email the person you've purchased from for help. So what do I expect from this person? Their HELP, of course, and I expect it within a reasonable amount of time, not 3, 5, 7 days or 2 weeks later! As far as I'm concerned, anyone who can't bother to reply to me within 24-48 hours at the most probably isn't worthy of my business. Just because their business is online and they can't see me face to face, doesn't mean they should ignore me until they feel like replying. Nothing spells disaster quicker for your online business than POOR customer service. Once your customers realize you don't care about them, just their money, your business is in the toilet. Some people will claim that they don't have time. They're busy working on projects, creating a new product, promoting their business, etc. Well, I understand that and I do the same things. But I take time every single day, several times a day, to check and answer my emails. It's the courteous thing to do and it's how I make sure my customers are happy. After all, if these people were running a brick and mortar store and I walked up to them for help would they ignore me for an hour, let alone DAYS, while they finish stocking the shelves? You can bet your bottom dollar if you or I ever got treated like that at an offline store we would NEVER go back there again. We would also tell our friends about our bad experience and our friends might not shop there either. So remember, unhappy customers = NO future business from those customers. It also means setting yourself up for a very bad reputation and throwing away all your hard work. Send your suggestions or questions for the experts: mailto:denise@home-business-on-a-budget.com?subject=ExpertAdvice
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It's Your Dime - Reader's Feedback
Whoo boy, did you guys send me emails after the last issue! If you missed that issue, you can read it at http://www.home-business-on-a-budget.com/hbb0826.htm to understand what these emails are about. Hey Denise 4 years, are they crazy, who did he pay off? For all the mess those families went through, and you said he has a record for driving violations. I don't know what to say about that one. Yes the lawn mower story was hilarious, especially since I would have done the same thing LOL Take care Donesia KDM Publishing http://kdmpublishing.com Denise, Funny story about the lawn mower. I personally maintain our lawn mower and that includes adding gas and oil. Yes, I cut the grass all by myself. I'm glad you trusted your neighbor enough to help you out because repairs to lawn mowers are very expensive. You know I love you, so with that said, keep instructions to all major appliances close at hand! Karen Gates http://karengates.com Hi Denise, Good Denise-is-a-dork story. Don't be surprised if your son never takes anything you say seriously again. (regarding small engine/power tool repair). You might suggest that he take "Auto Shop" next semester. (They usually start with small engine repair to warm students up, before getting into the car engines). About the truck driver's slap on the wrist. The court should also fine the trucking company, heavily or, open a class action civil suit on behalf of the victim's families. One of my numerous offline jobs, before starting my own business, was driving truck. The company is just as responsible, if not more, than the driver. So many times I saw drivers who were, passed over, for the "good runs" because they were known by the management/dispatch as, "safety anal". The drivers who were known for being willing to ignore the safety precautions, such as, length of shift, were always rewarded with the higher revenue loads. The drivers are nearly forced to ignore such safety precautions or, face second-class treatment. The catch 22 is that with smaller revenue loads, they have to work more (longer hours) to earn a decent living. Generally speaking, people choose to drive for a living for two reasons; 1. They LOVE to drive. 2. They don't qualify for a better paying job. What do you think that poor SOB has to look forward to when he's released, after 4 years in the clink, when all he was trying to do was support his family? He'll not likely get another driving job and, I'll bet, he ends up selling drugs or worse, when he gets out. If he still has a family to support, in four years. Just 'my' 2-cents. Cheers, Mark. Thanks to everyone who wrote. Now, in my own defense on the lawnmower fiasco, I wrote Mark back and told him it wasn't my fault. LOL I told my son I thought the black stuff that leaked out was dirty gas because it had gone through the dirty air filter in order to leak out. He didn't believe me and insisted it was oil. :~) Your contributions here. E-mail your comments, profiles, or feedback: denise@home-business-on-a-budget.com?subject=Here'sMyDime
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Editor's Closing Comments
I hope you've enjoyed today's issue of Home Business on a Budget. I always welcome reader's feedback, comments and suggestions. Please feel free to e-mail me if you ever have any questions that I can help you with. I am always willing to help in any way I can. I also accept guest articles for publication. Please send them to the e-mail listed below with "article" in the subject line. Denise Hall Publisher/Editor Contact me: denise@home-business-on-a-budget.com Website: http://www.Home-Business-on-a-Budget.com
LEGAL STUFF
I accept no responsibility whatsoever for the content, profitability or legality of any published articles or advertisements contained within Home Business on a Budget Newsletter. And, although all of the articles have been selected for their content, the publishing of such articles within this newsletter does not constitute a recommendation of the products or services mentioned or advertised within those articles. Be responsible! Always do your own Due Diligence before responding to any offer. I respect the privacy of my readers. I will never supply or sell your personal information to any Third Party!
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