Article by Charlie Wright

I’m testing to see whether I’m too negative about life.

So I’ve got this cup of coffee in front of me and I’m asking myself whether it’s half-full or half-empty.

Thing is, my only thought is, “What’s in it for me?”

And obviously the answer is coffee.

Hmmmm…

I hate stupid psychological tests anyway

Why am I dwelling on this pointless task?

Because after my weekend rant, I got dozens of emails from fellow Victor Meldrews like myself.

They agreed with me about my views of a certain PC superstore. (Who cares that I inadvertently named the superstore as PC World? Free speech, yes?)

Nobody DISAGREED with me on the principle that these big Mc Superstores seem to HATE good customers. And yet still the swing doors of that store fill with new customers.

How can that be?

Am I being too negative?

Are you?

Well, I don’t think so. My theory is that you and I, we’re the intelligent ones. We get infuriated by the drones of society who just accept what they’re given, right?

We dislike the big Mc Superstores. The big Mc Brands that all the idiots buy.

We’re fans of little known businesses beneath the radar…
ideas that that really work… PROPER, lasting businesses that we can start up ourselves and be proud of… businesses that make our customers happy, successful and proud, too.

Just because we’re in the biz opp world, doesn’t mean we’re any less good at business than the big boys.

Or that we’re dirty, illegitimate, or stupid.

In fact, compared to PC World, if you only sell a couple of decent products in your entire life – you’re BETTER than they are!

So it really irritates me when people in the biz opp world give the rest of us a bad name.

Especially US companies who come over with their slick pitches, hoping to take advantage of the strong pound… treat us like idiots… and sell us thin air for monstrous amounts of cash.

I’m talking here about Stores Online.

This great email says it all

Check out his letter from one of your fellow readers, K.A. She
writes:

“Hi Charlie, I have to tell you about a narrow escape I had yesterday with the above company.

They invited me to an all day seminar in a posh hotel, which turned out to be a relentless, high pressure sales pitch to buy into their website building business.

“They insist on a minimum of 3 websites at a cost of £3000, promising help and support the whole way and that you can make money within days of starting. But it’s not a get rich quick scheme, huh?

I escaped before they could relieve me of the money and when I logged onto Google later, I found loads of reports warning people off storesonline, who seem to be in a lot of trouble with the authorities in the us where they’re based.

Tell people to keep away from them and to bin these invitations as soon as they come through.”

Consider it done, K.A.

Now, I’m not trying to put people out of business here. I’m positive when I find something good, really I am.

It’s just that I believe I should pass on what I hear with as little bias as possible. So if you’ve had an amazing experience with StoresOnline, then do write and tell me.

But in the meantime, if you’re about to go to one of their free seminars, here’s what I know…

Stores Online is a multi-level marketing software company based in Utah, USA. It’s a subsidiary of a company called iMergent.

At the moment, they are swooping through the UK, promoting their web design services. You’re most likely to get an email from them, or something through the post.

As you can tell from K.A’s email, you get invited to a free 90 minute conference on “How to Make Money on the Internet’.

Now, there’s no scam here. You could go to this conference and leave without paying anyone any money. Nobody holds a gun to your head and barks ‘BUY YOU FOOL!’

But these guys are supposed to be super slick. They’ll roll out the biz promises and put pictures in your head. The pictures will be of you with two Rolls Royces, your own million dollar business within 6 months, and Girls Aloud in your bed.

You know the kind of thing.

Now they use the ‘drop in the bucket’ trick

The idea they pitch is that you sell your products through the shops that they sell you. Or you find a business and go into enter into a marketing venture with them. You have to pay huge amounts of money up front.

KA mentions £3,000, but it’s often as much as £5,000 to £8,000.

Sounds a lot, but they’ll use the ‘drop in the bucket’ technique. This is an old direct mail mind trick where you hammer the prospect over the head over and over again with big money promises.

“You could make this money back in your first few weeks… £50,000 in your first few months… £250,000 in your first year.”

So when they ask for the cash, you find yourself saying, “YES”.

One comment I found on a forum says:

“This is the slickest operation I have ever seen and it appeared so plausible that we very nearly got taken ourselves. At the end of the day there were at least 50 people queuing to hand over their money. The only people who will talk about it are those that escaped (I’m one).”

The problem is, there’s no money back guarantee. When you pay, it’s gone. And some people even enter into a financial agreement with them, so they pay for months and months for something that I hear is rubbish.

They say you can exploit niche markets with your own website.
Which is true. Then they will claim to help you do this. But all you’ll get is up-sells that cost even more money and do nothing extra.

Please folks, this is help and support you can get online yourself, or from any of the online products reviewed on this site.

You could even hire your own personal, professional web designer to do the job for that price. It just doesn’t seem worth the money to me.

But on the plus side… before I get too negative…

I have got something NEW for you

I do have something for you that’s new, and genuinely good.

It’s a way you can set up your own web business with no website.

You simply use other people’s!

Now before you think this is network marketing or affiliate programmes, or any of that old hat stuff which, frankly, I’m not that into.

This is a new and REAL publishing business where take articles that someone has already written, then put them on sites that other people own.

Sounds weird? It’s not. It’s great!

But I’m get ahead of myself here. I will write the review in the next few days and get it to you for the weekend.

In the meantime, enjoy the sunshine, pop pickers.