Beware The Matrix,
(c)copyright 2002 Robert Walkama
As an Internet entrepreneur, you are most likely on the lookout for any business opportunities that come along. I am. Some are legitimate; some are sketchy.
I like to keep a tight hold on my money. I don't want to invest in anything unless one or more of the following conditions can be met:
1. I like to know with a certainty that I will get more than a full return on my initial investment. The "return" on my investment may not necessarily be monetary. It could be leads. Nonetheless, the "return" has to be there.
2. If the return is financial and I am not certain whether I will get a good return on my investment, the financial investment has to be small enough that I will not lose sleep or kick myself when I realize I just blew my money. What is a *small* investment, of course, varies from per- son to person.
3. I like to know as much about the opportunity as possible. This oftens entails my rereading all the information I can gather from the web site, and the accompanying emails if there are some. I often look for testimonials.
4. If I find testimonials and the people live in the United States, and the town and state are listed, I try to see whether I can find their phone number or email listed on the net. If I can, this further strengthens my resolve that this may, in fact, be a legitimate opportunity. Of course, there is *a lot* that can be faked.
5. Many opportunities require some sort of investment to get started. It is more or less standard nowadays to either pay via PayPal or ClickBank. There are many other companies out there, but these are very common--at least in my experience. If a company offers some wonderful opportunity, and people are supposedly tripping over themselves to get on the bandwagon as quickly as possible, one would think that the company would strive to meet some sort of standard. But again, one company can just as well use these and still be a scam.
6. If I do join, what is required of me? Do I do a lot of advertising, selling, what? I want to know these things because if it requires a lot of advertising and it is still a good deal, I need to know how much of my income I am willing to invest. If it is selling, do I really want to do that? Many are not comfortable with that. I am the middle of the road kind of guy. I don't like to push, and I will not sell something I don't believe in. It is a conscience sort of thing. Also, I need to know how many hours of my week may be invested in this.
7. Is it believable? If it sounds fishy to me, it probably is. Simple, but true.
Today, I nearly fell for an opportunity called "The Perfect Matrix." Have you heard of it? Basically what they promise you is that if you purchase an ad for $104, which runs for one year, you'll immediately, or within one to two weeks, start seeing a daily income, which *very rapidly* grows to $1,000 per week in a matter of three-to-four months.
What do you have to do? Nothing, really. All you are asked to do is make the payment and then occasionally visit their Cash Out Ads Mall and check out the ads from advertisers. Your commissions come from the advertising of others. I could go into more depth, but I won't. I invite you to visit their site for more information: http://www.theperfectmatrix.com.
Well, this afternoon, I tried numerous times, to make my payment, but had one difficulty after another. This turned out to be a good thing. I resolved, after my frustration, to mail them a check. First, I had to go the YMCA and work out. I like to stay in shape and it helps to clear my head.
While I was driving there, I got to thinking, Am I making a mistake? Is this company legit? If it is legit, how come I don't see the ezines flooded with ads for it? If it is legit, wouldn't just about *everybody* want to join? I mean, after all, you don't even have to advertise or anything. The money just appears in your account.
I had a good workout. I squatted 585 pounds today. You probably didn't care to know, but I like to share it because it took me a long time to get there, a lot of hard work and patience. I thought about that as I squatted and said to my- self, Is anything really free? There always is some cost, or catch.
When I got home, I decided to get on http://groups.google.com to see whether I could find anything to encourage me or discourage me. I did a search on "The Perfect Matrix" and the word "scam." I found loads of listings warning against it. I found not one person who made any money. I did find people who paid and never saw a dime after being promised and guaranteed thousands of dollars.
I then went to http://webcrawler.com and did the same search and was brought to
http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/Delivered/net-based.htm among others.
Well, the results were not good, but I was happy. Not blow- ing my money, I was just as happy as though I had made $104.00.
So what is the moral of my story? Be careful. Be very careful. As I always say to my children: Don't take any wooden nickels.
=========================================== This article was submitted by Robert Walkama, Publisher of the Wake Up And Smell The Coffee Newsletter. To subscribe, simply send a blank email to mailto:wakeupsmellcoffee-request@internetcash4u.com?subject=subscribe Copyright (c) 2002 Wake Up And Smell The Coffee Newsletter ===========================================