Scam or Genuine?

Thanks to the legitimate business model of online affiliate marketing; many people are earning a good living working from home. Unfortunately there exists a series of affiliate program scams masquerading as genuine Internet marketing opportunities. These scams are designed to make their creators wealthy without providing value to their customers or associates. Email scams and work at home scams don't have any chance of long term success, so any time spent promoting them is largely wasted.

So what are the characteristics that reveal an Internet scam attempting to disguise itself as an honest affiliate opportunity? Since the nature and complexity of these scams change as quickly as technology, it's almost impossible to create a comprehensive list, but here are some strong indicators that a program should be avoided or at the very least examined with a fine-toothed comb.

No affiliate support contact.
When an affiliate program includes a toll-free telephone number, it's a good sign that things are on the up and up. However, the lack of a phone number does not necessarily mean the program needs to be avoided. The Internet lends itself to email contact, and most websites structure their contact support system accordingly. If the website for an online income opportunity does not include an email or a contact form, though, you are probably looking at an affiliate program scam. Once you locate the email or contact from, it's a good idea to send a message with a simple question to see how long it takes the company to respond. If you don't receive a response addressing your question within a few days, tread lightly. The company might not be intentionally trying to scam you, but if they can't quickly respond to emails, they are doing something wrong.

No web site.
Similarly a contact email without a website shouldn't instill much confidence. A legitimate online income opportunity will have a detailed web site, providing information and showing some time and energy has gone into planning. A simple website is not difficult to create, but leaves a slightly larger trail leading back to the creator than that left by a mass emailing. Again, while the presence of a web site is not a guarantee that a program is trustworthy, the absence of a web site should definitely be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism.

No free participation.
If you have to pay a company for the privilege of trying to sell their product and increase their profits, you aren't looking at an affiliate program. You've found an example of multi-level marketing (MLM). Not all MLM opportunities are scams, and some people are extremely successful at MLM. Unfortunately, if you aren't one of the few who can make it work; you'll usually spend a fair chunk of change discovering this MLM program doesn't fit your needs.

No positive testimonials.
Even though there is no financial cost for an affiliate program, you will be investing quite a bit of your most precious commodity, time. Before making that sacrifice, it's always a good idea to spend some time scouring the Internet for people who have some experience with your program. Don't rely on the testimonials a company provides on their website to give you a complete and accurate picture. Head to your favorite search engine and see what kind of dirt you can dig up. Even high caliber programs will likely have some negative reviews from people frustrated the program wasn't a good fit for them, so don't immediately condemn an opportunity for a little bad press. Unless a program is brand new, though, you should be able to find a few positive experiences and success stories.

No track record.
A good affiliate program is going to continue to be a good affiliate program for a while. Resist the temptation to be swayed by marketing hype that urges you to "get in on the ground floor" of a brand new opportunity. Of course, there's something to be said for being the first to market with a new idea, so you shouldn't be afraid to immediately embrace an affiliate program that you feel good about and doesn't set off any of the other red flags described here. If you are on the bubble trying to decide if a program is legitimate, though, you're better off waiting. In six months dependable affiliate opportunities with quality, high-demand products will still be around, and they'll still be plenty of money to be made. Meanwhile, most of the affiliate program scams will have collapsed.

Stay Home Millionaires Club

And there you have it.Mr Dennis Bay on your right and my cousin,Anil,who is also my upline on the left.So my cousin finally met Dennis Bay. He's the CEO of Stay Home Millionaires Club. Awesome person with alot of desires and dreams.Well my turn will come on the 17th!!

Looker or Leader

1. LOOKER – even if you don’t know you are looking

You are not in a networking business. The “Looker” is an individual who is open to looking at opportunities. Two of the largest groups are:

• The Consumer who is normally introduced to an opportunity by purchasing a product. This individual may decide to also choose to distribute for a company. This is also quite often done from a product perspective.
• The Entrepreneur is an individual who is looking for an opportunity to work from home. The focus of this person can be product focused, business focused, or both.

2. INVITER

You have chose your business and you are at the beginning of your career in networking. You have great enthusiasm and wonderful dreams. You are learning the art of “inviting” people from your warm market to your business. You will normally need some support from more senior networkers on how to explain the business opportunity to your “warm market”. You may also start to expand your inviting into “cold markets” and I have even seen some people venture into their “Chicken List” at this stage.

Areas of Development: You are working on creating a contact database. You are beginning to read and learn as much as you can about the business opportunity that you are in.

3. RECRUITER

The more inviting we do, the more we start to understand the “art” of recruiting. We are starting to fully formulate the importance of dialogue, relationships and asking questions. Recruiting is a very addictive stage of networking. It can be challenging and intimidating but the “ah ha” moment normally comes when we realize that it is just a simple process (really).

This is a stage of networking that can really make or break an individuals business. It is a huge area where many people have “full stops”. What most people think is that recruiting is sales. It is difficult for some people (many) to come outside of their comfort zone to be able to approach people. Recruiting can be done:

• Face-to-face: people you meet in person
• Phone: this does include cold calling
• Web/Computer: social networking; blogging; etc.
• All of the above

Recruiting is also a stage that many people really enjoy staying in. For those people who just enjoy meeting and interacting with other people, they can grow their business significantly as a recruiter. I do recommend that they get upline support in training, management, and leadership to support their team though.

Areas of Development: In the recruiter stage of networking, many people spend time on furthering their education on networking techniques and dialogue.

4. SPECIALTY/STRENGTHS

I debated where to add this category. I am adding it in after recruiter but some people will definitely move their specialty/strengths into their business in the inviting stage.

What is specialty/strengths all about? We all have innate strengths. Some people are excellent writers, some people have degrees or existing careers that assist to expedite the success of their home-based business.

When we move our specialty into our business, we bring that strength of “What we do great.” to our business.

Many people struggle with this category. I have people say, “Bev, I am not really someone who has great strengths.” Truly, we all have strengths, and whether we are closet case writers, the socialite, the computer geek, or the care-giver, I can promise you, we all have strengths. If you don’t know your strengths, ask your friends to tell you how they would explain your strengths.

Areas of Development: Many people who are developing their personal strengths will be developing more knowledge in their area of specialty. For example, someone who is a strong writer may develop more knowledge on how to write effective blog articles.

5. TRAINER

OK, so you have advanced from inviter, to recruiter, and you are applying your special strengths to your business. You are now at the stage where you want to show others how to build their business.

Trainers are so important to health and success of a business. Why? If you are doing all the work and not showing people how to do what you are doing, your business is in potential peril zone. Why? Network marketing opportunities are about the power of the many. People are more likely to continue with a business if they too are finding success. A trainer shows people in a team how to multiply/replicate their teams.

Areas of Development: In the trainer stage of your networking growth many individuals start to expand their education in networking. This is often a category where significant effort is spent on more advanced understanding of networking. This is not necessarily a learning stage of the opportunity you are in, but more a stage of learning about networking in general.

6. MANAGERS

Managers normally have larger teams (not always so) who they help through early stages of their networking career through to trainer level. Managers quite often are the keepers of a wealth of information that they can email to their teams with the push of a button. They maintain a contact database of their teams, key information on each team member, and an understanding of each person’s goals and why they wanted a home based business.

The manager role in an organization is important and they coordinate many different opportunities for the larger organization. For example, a manager is quite often the individual who will book speakers, events, and advise on different promotional and education material. They are usually a wealth of information on most topics including: products, company, networking, recruiting, tax, and just about every other topic in between. They often have extensive libraries of books, CDs, DVDs, and promotional material.

The manager is often also the individual in an organization that helps with any problem areas in a team or business plan. A good manager is someone who is able to keep their team on an even keel with focused goals.

They are the control center for networking teams.

Areas of Development: Managers are normally developing their databases of information for their team. They research current books on networking (all topics), and the wealth of information on the worldwide web for their team.

7. LEADERS

Oh, I can hear it now…”So what makes a Leader?”

Leaders, typically, are visionaries. They are individuals who have learned about networking from experience (good and bad). They are people who motivate, build and inspire their organization.

Leaders are not necessarily individuals who are looking at order but more likely to like dis-ordering things. They are individuals who are inspiring their teams “out side of the sandbox”. There are two types of leaders:

• A Conceptual Thinker leader is an individual who will lead with ideas and concepts that are unique and attract a following.
• A Charismatic Leader is an individual who through his/her force of personality will attract a strong following.

Leaders are often the people who are on conference calls, sizzle calls, public speaking and can also be authors, bloggers, creators of promotional material (i.e., training DVDs, CDs).

Leaders see most things as opportunities. They are not afraid of failure but are more inclined to see things more from an enlightened or learning perspective.

True leaders differentiate themselves by motivating and inspiring their team. They are not about control, they want to “breath oxygen into their team”.

Areas of Development: Leaders typically are life-long learners. They are sponges for information and ideas.

Love this quote by Arthur Rimbaud

“The poet makes himself a visionary through a long, a prodigious and rational disordering of all the senses. Every form of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he consumes all the poisons in him, keeping only their quintessences.”

-Tom Sparrow