What to Avoid When Looking For Online Income Sources

I won't try to sell people on actions or systems to make money that don't work. I just won't.

I also will not promote something that maybe makes some money but is dishonest. Just won't do that either.

So I thought it would be fitting for a website that talks about how to make money online, to spill the beans on exactly what to stay away from...

Paid Surveys - What is This All About?

I might be stepping on some toes here, but paid surveys - do they pay? Sort of - well - uh, not really.

I signed up with various survey companies - some of them cost me money to join and some of them did not. Now I want to be clear here, because I haven't tried them all by any means but my experience is that they don't pay off by a long shot.

I did these for over a month and did make some income but I sat down and calculated out about how much I was making per hour on it and it came out to some ridiculously small number like $1.00 per hour - something to that effect.

But - there are the focus groups. (Focus groups are groups of hired surveyers who get together and give their opinions about a product or service.) This pays better and some survey services have this available. However they have it on specific days and at specific times, and they don't occur very often. At any rate I was not able to make this work because I'm a rather busy single mom - I needed the surveys to be on a schedule that I could work around. This is probably the exception to the rule. My understanding on this is it pays about $40 per person for each focus group gathered. Still not fabulous, especially when you take the driving time and other time spent into account.

So, what is all of this hoo-ha about "make money over and over" and advertised dollar amounts such as $70 per survey and such? I have no idea, but this advertised "make lots of money online for your opinion" is the closest thing to an outright lie that I have seen advertised online.

Note: If you have a different experience on this, please let me know (send me an email). I'll be happy to retract this if I'm wrong, but I don't think that I am.

Watch out for these - they will take your money and (a lot of) time, but not give much in return. It's dishonest as well because it gives a very misleading impression up-front and is frankly a waste of time.

About "Plug In" sites

Plug-in sites were among my first ventures online.

Can you make money with them? Yep.

Are they honest? Nope.

Can you make a dependable, long-term income from them? Definitely not.

Here's how this goes: You arrive at the site - what is advertised is that you can sit back and make huge amounts of money for doing almost nothing, get your own incredible website system and do it all for - get this - "Absolutely Free". Well, it's a long shot from being free. It's also a far cry from "doing almost nothing". An incredible amount of work is involved, especially if you're new to the internet marketing game - and this is the audience that is targeted with their advertisements.

If you're going to make any money at this type of a venture at all, you have to sign up for multiple companies, services, etc.,
and you must pay monthly fees for most or all of them. But you are sure not told that up-front and you are so busy that you don't even have time to find out what these services are for! So - why sell them?

Here's something else - I could never figure out exactly what was being produced - What was I selling? Internet marketing. Well, internet marketing for what? Was someone buying something that they could use? No. Well, what were they buying? Internet marketing. Why? So that they could also sell internet marketing. Internet marketing for what? It was a circular thing and made me feel like my eyes were crossed with stars floating over my head when I thought about it.

Basically the Plug-in sites are an elaborate version of MLM - and there is nothing wrong with MLM/Network marketing and many people are successful at it, but when you enter this game there is enough deception and "cloudiness" about it, and it becomes so confusing that pretty much all that you know is you're supposed to be making money by following the given instructions. I never felt right about it so I got out - as fast as I could.

Deception to lead people into something that that they probably don't want to be involved in is - well, it's legal but I consider it highly unethical. People should know up-front what's in front of them and what to expect before they are lured into a money-spending trap, which is basically what the Plug-In Sites are.

Okay, bottom line? My advice is to stay away from them - you are being taken advantage of if you join up with one of them. And again it's a whole lot of effort for not enough return. And it's certainly not a reliable source of stable income over a long period of time.

The Ultimate Scam: Stuffing Envelopes!

Holy cow! You mean I can make money stuffing envelopes full of stuff?

Well, no.

This is the ultimate scam - envelope stuffing.

I saw one of these on Craigslist one night - it was an ad for a job stuffing envelopes for $10 per envelope! I looked into it a bit further by doing some research on it, and I even emailed the person back about how someone would actually go about this? I got a response that was basically a website address where I was invited to send money so that I could receive the envelopes. I researched the company name and found out on a forum from many people that this was a scam and that the person (or persons) doing it were taking people's checks, cashing them, and the person that sent the check would see no envelopes, much less stuff them. Then the low-life would change the company name so that they couldn't be tracked down.

This is a well-known scam by dishonest people who are looking to steal money - that is all. Don't bite.

The Bright Side of Making Money Online

Is there a bright side to all of this, or are all money-making ventures online scams?

There are a number of scam-type "jobs" or "businesses" that have given internet marketing and other valid online businesses a real BIG black eye. They really irk me - there are a number of people who really need to make an income but when one of the scam-type "businesses" comes along, all it does is prey on the people who actually need some help.

But they're not all scams, in fact the majority of online businesses are not scams in my experience. It's the few bad apples that make the whole scene appear to be a rip-off.

I will not pretend to know what all of the "make money online" ventures are, and how many of them are scams but I can tell you that the above are ones to stay a long way away from.

I also know that the actions and services that I recommend on this site work, and they work well. Just make sure that you are not expecting overnight millions for sitting back in an easy chair - it's some work but it's quite fun!

And that work can get you on the road to a stable, long-term income online.

Honest.

Internet Marketing: Getting Too Much of a Good Thing

This may be the most important thing to stay away from - too much, too soon, too fast. I believe that this is the #1 cause for people failing who are trying to create an online affiliate business.

There is a tendency for people who are just getting their start with an online business to dive into every promising opportunity that they can within a short period of time. It's hard to resist the temptation to try to fit all of it in, but what ends of happening - without exception - is that none of the ventures succeed due to the fact that they simply cannot get to all of them - there is too much to learn so they end up not learning any of it well and cannot apply it to make an income. Then they get frustrated and eventually give up, stating "It didn't work."

Even when someone is working one program or system this can happen. For example in Wealthy Affiliate University - which is a completely valid affiliate business program - several different types of internet marketing are taught that can earn money. If someone were to try to do more than one of these methods at a time - especially when just getting started - it becomes to much to learn at once and becomes overwhelming. (I know, I've tried it.)

For example, if someone were to just be starting out and they are interested in marketing with PPC (pay per click) and articles and he or she tries to do them both that person will probably not go anywhere.

Here are some good rules of thumb to follow when it comes to making money online:

• Pick one thing that looks like it is something you would enjoy and do that thing until you know it well and it is making some money for you.


• When you feel comfortable adding something to your routine, then start learning something new, but make sure that it will compliment what you are already putting your efforts into (for example, learn article marketing well, then move into learning how to write PPC ads for Google, etc. for the same or a related campaign).


• Discipline yourself to stay on the path that you are on. You will probably spend some time in forums and on other pages when you are working an online business that recommend other products, etc., and they promise to be "the best". Well, maybe they are good or whatever but if you switch over or try to add it you're not going to make it. Stick to what you are doing and make it work.


• If you don't see income - or much of it - for a while, that's fine, and it doesn't mean that you have failed or that it doesn't work. The nature of internet marketing campaigns is such that it will take a few months to really make a noticeable income from it. Just plan on that and work around it in your life and you will see that in a few months you start seeing some serious traffic and business coming your way - provided you really follow the program that you are doing.

On the pages of this website there are a number of different ways to make money online. I don't recommend that you try all of them. In fact, I don't want you to because one of the reasons I have this site is to help people succeed, not just to try and sell something. I want for people to experience the fact that it can be done.

My best advice is to first learn internet marketing through a good system/program that is valid with plenty of coaching and one-on-one help when it is needed (Wealthy Affiliate is the best), stick with it, have fun and build a profitable, long-term business!