Article by Charlie Wright
If I were to do a rundown of top 3 biz opp DON’T DO ITs…Or “No no”s… or “Don’t touch with a bargepoles”. Then I would roundup my Top of the Flops with this…“AT NUMBER ONE… for the fifth year running… it’s WORK FROM HOME SCHEMES”.
Yes, those good old “You send me money, I’ll give you work” promises. The work is usually data entry… stuffing envelopes… assembling a craft product….And usually you…
- Don’t get the work
- The work is rejected every time so you don’t get paid
- All you get is some directory lists of companies and told to “get on your bike and look for work”
Which brings me to someone who emailed me this week to ask…
“Are there any legitimate work from home agencies that you know of that deliver what they actually say “work from home” on a full time and regular basis?”
The answer is, work from home is usually a scam if the company asks you for money… but legitimate if it’s a proper job offer.With a proper work offer you get an interview. They’ll train you as part of the job. And they won’t ask for money up front. So if you see a job advert in a newspaper that offers work from home, make sure it’s a proper company that’s looking for staff. Otherwise there are no genuine work-from-home schemes as far as I know. I’ve never recommended one.
Insider’s Edge directs you to business plans/blueprints/ideas. But these are for you to take on and use to make money as an entrepreneur – they’re not ‘job offers’. They all take some effort and innovation.
For a long time I’ve raged about dishonest work from home schemes. If you want more information go to the Scam Watch page on this website.
In summary – if you fancy running a home enterprise (with the pitfalls of time, effort, investment) then Insider’s Edge will have something for you – Amazon, eBay, online publishing are all good ones to get into. Just use the search function on the homepage.
If you want a job for a few days a week then I would apply through the usual channels through which you’d look for work. Be wary of anything that asks you for money in order to ‘work’.
Next up…Another reader emailed me with a question this week.
“Do you know of any cheap web-builders?”
He asked because he has developed a workable home business… but he needs to find more customers.
I replied that he needed some kind of web presence – a blog style website and an email newsletter, ideally.
If this interests you – and you want a website for free, check out How to set up a WordPress website in 7 clicks
And finally today, a warning….
Why you should avoid the Home Website Centre
One of my readers emailed me to say…
“Just a quick few lines to warn readers about an opportunity from Home Website Centre. What they basically sell are ready made websites…. you just fill your details in and post them.
It seems pretty straight forward, and they offer you 1 site, which they say is free, to suck you in. FREE, I just paid £35+!!!
You are then encouraged to dig deeper into your pockets (cursed WAIT! pop-ups again) to enable you to become a PRO Member, which will give you 10 sites. At every opportunity, they attempt to bleed you dry.
As you might expect, it is a Yank operation, very slick. Snake oil slick in fact. I did give it some time, and apparently I had over 1000 hits on the site (in three weeks!), which was selling a diet programme by the way, but no sales. Don’t know about you, but I reckon even 0.5% of those hits would’ve resulted in a sale.
Thankfully, it is a ClickBank product, so I did eventually get my money back, but if any other junglers out there have heard something about it, and are thinking of getting in, I would advise against it, or at least tread very carefully.”
Thanks for the advice!