I was researching some sites recently about scams and illegal pyramid schemes. A memory popped into my head about this note I received many years ago. I think back when I was in the Boy Scouts on a camping trip weekend. I had one of the kids in my troop tell me to give him a quarter. For whatever reason, I did not ask why.. I just gave it to him and he gave me a note with words similar to this attached picture below. I think I quickly got my quarter back without really thinking about it being something that was unethical or wrong. ..definitely a lesson in there about how to treat people and be fair to people. I didn’t really forget this lesson … just forgot the memory about it until recently.
Anyway before you knew it, there were a bunch of these notes flying around the camping grounds..Someone had mass produced them and was making money by being the one that benefited the most from this crazy chain letter. A PONZI scheme was moving throughout BSA council where only 1 or 2 people made money. A big problem was that it was being duplicated over and over in a very short time. You can guess..eventually it reached a Scoutmaster and it was quickly put to rest. I think most people got their quarter back and the scouts that started making the notes received a strong talking to…..
There are so many scams out there looking to take money from innocent people just wanting to get ahead. With the growth of the Internet and the ease of staying anonymous or even portraying yourself as someone else, there are more and more scammers taking advantage of people. I have been the victim of some of the software programs or tutorial kits that promised to make me a lot of money. I have also signed up for MLMs hoping to build a huge network of people eager to make me a lot of money. Of course, I knew there might be a catch. Most of the time it was an illegal pyramid type set-up or it involved selling something that was useless to a lot of people…kind of like this note. Sure I could try to sell the useless piece of crap I just bought to get my money back OR I can stop the chain.. at least from going further through my network.
I have built a lot of websites over the last 10+ years. I have built some to promote my services. I have built a lot of sites and spent a lot of time to promote the beach music industry. I am constantly approached from people I meet in this industry with ideas for events, or products, or services that they want me to help them sell through websites and my network. I can tell you a lot of them have NOT worked and have basically just used up my time that I should have spent doing something else. (BTW, if you are reading this and are thinking…is he talking about me? I am sure we are still friends. Experience also makes you better and smarter for the next time. I am starting to learn to say no or at least get paid some money up front to test their ideas.)
Making Money Online
I recently posted my rippln review, which I believe to be a scam. I may end up being wrong, but I have a lot of friends and colleagues that support me in this opinion. I think eventually a lot of spam ad crappy products is going to move though this network. I don’t want to be connected with this communication and product.
Read this before you Try Empower Network, its not a full review, but it sums up the reasons why I think you should stay away from EN.
I have also posted my Wealthy Affiliate review. This is a program that I support. I am a premium member and feel that I am getting much more than I pay for this service. There is a free option that gives you access to a lot of information. You can get some features free for 7 days (acccess to a lot of successful affiliate marketers) before you have to upgrade for the full use of the site. You can stick with the free option and still learn a lot. You also get 2 free websites with the basic free membership. Give it a try! That’s right 2 free wordpress websites to learn and test out your ideas.
