I hope you’ve had the opportunity to visit our daughter’s website. There is something wrong with the email link. The company that is guiding her says it is not ready to be published.
I have not listed her second website. The company has not received her W-9. Until then, that website is not published.
I have web pages, which are linked from this blog. However, I do not have a website. I registered another domain name and have paid and cancelled three services that promised step-by-step assistance with a website creation.
I’m not sure what the first two services actually provided. If I knew html code, would I be on line as they promised? I don’t know because I don’t know it.
I signed up with a third service today. They provide a downloadable manual that users are supposed to combine with their video instruction. In fact, the manual refers you to the accompanying video. However, Norton doesn’t like it. So I disabled Norton. But that did not stop Norton from keeping me from being able to view the video instruction.
Does it sound like I’m getting frustrated? You bet!
The service company that I signed up with gives me a website. It is a single website amongst their vast pantheon of websites. If you’ve been following this blog, you know I’m housebound. I need a public website to attract customers; one that is linked to my corporate site.
As you can see by this blog’s description paragraph floating in the middle of the banner, I’m not programming savvy.
Tomorrow is another day!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Daughter On Line
We are thrilled that two of our daughter's websites finally made it online.
The first is directed to shoppers looking for convenience in locating environmentally friendly products. Respondents to a study conducted in 2007 said they would purchase green products if buying was convenient. If you are interested in green products, check our daughter's affiliate website at http://greensourceshopper.com
Her website titled My Green Source is at the heart of what she hopes to accomplish.
The first is directed to shoppers looking for convenience in locating environmentally friendly products. Respondents to a study conducted in 2007 said they would purchase green products if buying was convenient. If you are interested in green products, check our daughter's affiliate website at http://greensourceshopper.com
Her website titled My Green Source is at the heart of what she hopes to accomplish.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Blue Monday
To start marketing all my company’s products, I had to take a certification course. Fortunately, the course is offered online as I am housebound.
The course was described as a 1-day course. I couldn’t wade through all the sections in a single day, but in the course overview was the promise that you could sign out and sign back in at any time without having to repeat course elements. The online course would remember where I had left off.
The first time I tried rejoining the class, it did not remember the segment I had left. When I tried to access the correct module, the whole system froze. I tried logging out and logging back in, but the system remained frozen.
There was a handy telephone number listed that I could call to report technical difficulties. Within a couple of minutes I was back watching the lectures.
Again, I lacked the mental concentration to plow through all the information, so I again logged out. Over the past few days we’ve had guests, so I put off finishing the course until this morning.
However, when I logged on I got the message I had flunked the course! And there was no option for me to log into it. Since the welcome page was also gone, I no longer had the tech support phone number.
I called my up-line sponsor immediately. She made a call in my behalf to the testing company (which turned out to be different than the company I’m working for). They gave her the name of a technical support person and their phone number. When I called, I got the techie’s voicemail, left a message, and two hours later I have not been contacted.
Because many office workers, including my doctor, set aside a specific time during their day to reply to messages I am not yet concerned.
But, as I promised to give you a blow-by-blow account of our journey into cyberspace marketing, I thought I’d write about my latest glitch.
The course was described as a 1-day course. I couldn’t wade through all the sections in a single day, but in the course overview was the promise that you could sign out and sign back in at any time without having to repeat course elements. The online course would remember where I had left off.
The first time I tried rejoining the class, it did not remember the segment I had left. When I tried to access the correct module, the whole system froze. I tried logging out and logging back in, but the system remained frozen.
There was a handy telephone number listed that I could call to report technical difficulties. Within a couple of minutes I was back watching the lectures.
Again, I lacked the mental concentration to plow through all the information, so I again logged out. Over the past few days we’ve had guests, so I put off finishing the course until this morning.
However, when I logged on I got the message I had flunked the course! And there was no option for me to log into it. Since the welcome page was also gone, I no longer had the tech support phone number.
I called my up-line sponsor immediately. She made a call in my behalf to the testing company (which turned out to be different than the company I’m working for). They gave her the name of a technical support person and their phone number. When I called, I got the techie’s voicemail, left a message, and two hours later I have not been contacted.
Because many office workers, including my doctor, set aside a specific time during their day to reply to messages I am not yet concerned.
But, as I promised to give you a blow-by-blow account of our journey into cyberspace marketing, I thought I’d write about my latest glitch.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Mother ventures onto web
While researching scams and legitimate e-business opportunities, I chanced upon two terrific multi-level-marketing companies and signed up with one.
I had been involved with Amway back in the 70s. While I didn’t lose money, I sure didn’t make much either. Part of Amway’s problem was convenience. With more that 50% of American housewives working, who wants to order even a superior detergent when you can purchase a national brand during your weekly grocery run? Also, when you ordered from me you had to arrange to be at home for delivery and you knew I was going to talk about other products and specials—taking more of your time and putting you in the uncomfortable position of having to say no.
When I found this company, I was literally blown away by their services. Truly, they are services no one should be without. I was not going to be involved in direct sales, but would this opportunity translate to the internet?
While the company has a lot of online material and it allows contracts to be completed over the internet, would I, housebound for the past five years, be able to develop a business from my computer?
I signed up for both services the first week of April. Five days later, we received our information package from one of the firms. On April 9th my husband and I mailed limited powers of attorney to the firm to act in our behalf.
The other service provider sent us their information a day or so earlier.
Once I was signed up as a member/customer, I could then pay my fee to become an associate, which I did. I was told by my up-line sponsor that this process could take up to two days handling it online, but I was accepted instantly. Investigating their full scope of services, I learned that I needed to become certified to be able to offer one category of services that is aimed at small businesses. The certification course is offered online.
I realize that it has been a few years since I attended class lectures, but I still know how to take notes! Nevertheless, my brain turned to oatmeal with the amount of material being presented. Also, there is a technical aspect to these services and I am learning a whole new vocabulary. As a result, the so-called 1-day training and certification (there are tests imbedded within the course that must be passed) has now entered its third day!
In addition, 14 states require licenses to sell these services. Mine is one of them. Initially, I was unconcerned with applying for a license because I knew it could be done online from the state government website. However, my state also requires fingerprinting. I cannot drive and I certainly can’t drive to the fingerprint site 30-miles away. Had I hit a brick wall?
I went back to my free company website and changed the name to include my husband’s. (These services cover spouses, minors and disabled children, regardless of age, if they are living with you. They also cover significant-others). So my husband is getting the license. The first appointment available for the fingerprinting is next week. Until then, I cannot enter a contract with a customer on behalf of the company for the services. I am using the delay to educate myself.
Be sure to come back and learn how I’m doing!
I had been involved with Amway back in the 70s. While I didn’t lose money, I sure didn’t make much either. Part of Amway’s problem was convenience. With more that 50% of American housewives working, who wants to order even a superior detergent when you can purchase a national brand during your weekly grocery run? Also, when you ordered from me you had to arrange to be at home for delivery and you knew I was going to talk about other products and specials—taking more of your time and putting you in the uncomfortable position of having to say no.
When I found this company, I was literally blown away by their services. Truly, they are services no one should be without. I was not going to be involved in direct sales, but would this opportunity translate to the internet?
While the company has a lot of online material and it allows contracts to be completed over the internet, would I, housebound for the past five years, be able to develop a business from my computer?
I signed up for both services the first week of April. Five days later, we received our information package from one of the firms. On April 9th my husband and I mailed limited powers of attorney to the firm to act in our behalf.
The other service provider sent us their information a day or so earlier.
Once I was signed up as a member/customer, I could then pay my fee to become an associate, which I did. I was told by my up-line sponsor that this process could take up to two days handling it online, but I was accepted instantly. Investigating their full scope of services, I learned that I needed to become certified to be able to offer one category of services that is aimed at small businesses. The certification course is offered online.
I realize that it has been a few years since I attended class lectures, but I still know how to take notes! Nevertheless, my brain turned to oatmeal with the amount of material being presented. Also, there is a technical aspect to these services and I am learning a whole new vocabulary. As a result, the so-called 1-day training and certification (there are tests imbedded within the course that must be passed) has now entered its third day!
In addition, 14 states require licenses to sell these services. Mine is one of them. Initially, I was unconcerned with applying for a license because I knew it could be done online from the state government website. However, my state also requires fingerprinting. I cannot drive and I certainly can’t drive to the fingerprint site 30-miles away. Had I hit a brick wall?
I went back to my free company website and changed the name to include my husband’s. (These services cover spouses, minors and disabled children, regardless of age, if they are living with you. They also cover significant-others). So my husband is getting the license. The first appointment available for the fingerprinting is next week. Until then, I cannot enter a contract with a customer on behalf of the company for the services. I am using the delay to educate myself.
Be sure to come back and learn how I’m doing!
Daughter’s first steps on treacherous path
After two months, our daughter is still not online with any of her web businesses.
In February, after taking extended medical leave from work, she started looking for online opportunities to work from home. Initially, she fell for two inexpensive programs. The first cost about $30 and promoted what they called incentivized freebie websites. She was supposed to create come-ons for free items like cameras and laptops. Interested visitors would then be linked to a site to take a survey where huge amounts of information about the person’s shopping preferences were gathered. Throughout those pages of questions were also offers for services and merchandise that the survey-taker had to buy in order to qualify for the free end product. Recognizing that this was no service, our daughter next paid about $40 to process rebates for major companies like Home Depot from home.
However, these companies were not involved. Instead, it was making your own coupons for products you sell. She had no products to sell.
Frustrated, she cast her search net once again on the World Wide Web. This time she was reeled in by a company that promised to get her started in an affiliate or drop shipping business. In affiliate sales, customers are redirected from your website to another retailer’s website through hop links or tracking links. The affiliate earns commissions on any products the customer makes there. In drop shipping, your website actually handles the financial transaction, and then the wholesaler mails the product(s) to the customer. She incorporated to do that.
She paid $6100 to this company, lured by the promise that she would be paired with a mentor who had successfully operated his own website for three years. The company was to build her website as well as market it. She still has no website. Her personal mentor is a group of people who often cannot answer her questions. She speaks to a different person each time she calls. She is being forced to create her own website under the auspices of a different company.
One of her first tasks was to select her niche. Our daughter wanted to market green products from drop shippers. But the company told her they had no green drop shippers. They advised she pay another company to put her together with wholesalers of environmentally friendly products, or to use their company affiliate program. Many of their affiliates did offer green products.
The company that is helping her set up her website has few options regarding layout and appearance. To attain a more professional-looking site, she would have to pay one of their web designers another $400 to create it. Keep in mind, that she paid $6100 to the “umbrella” company for a professional to build her site. All they really did was to put her in contact with legitimate e-businesses at their lowest level of service.
Because this was taking so much time, for example her banners show up as script on her webpage because she is having to do it all herself, she made one more investment of $115 in an affiliate program that directs shoppers to Amazon. While the $6100-company provided an email contract, this program required a written contract that needed to be faxed or mailed. Because she has no fax machine, signing up has taken more time. However, company tech support has already started working with her. Unfortunately, she came down with the flu and she has done nothing more with that program. When she does get started again, you’ll find her experiences here.
In February, after taking extended medical leave from work, she started looking for online opportunities to work from home. Initially, she fell for two inexpensive programs. The first cost about $30 and promoted what they called incentivized freebie websites. She was supposed to create come-ons for free items like cameras and laptops. Interested visitors would then be linked to a site to take a survey where huge amounts of information about the person’s shopping preferences were gathered. Throughout those pages of questions were also offers for services and merchandise that the survey-taker had to buy in order to qualify for the free end product. Recognizing that this was no service, our daughter next paid about $40 to process rebates for major companies like Home Depot from home.
However, these companies were not involved. Instead, it was making your own coupons for products you sell. She had no products to sell.
Frustrated, she cast her search net once again on the World Wide Web. This time she was reeled in by a company that promised to get her started in an affiliate or drop shipping business. In affiliate sales, customers are redirected from your website to another retailer’s website through hop links or tracking links. The affiliate earns commissions on any products the customer makes there. In drop shipping, your website actually handles the financial transaction, and then the wholesaler mails the product(s) to the customer. She incorporated to do that.
She paid $6100 to this company, lured by the promise that she would be paired with a mentor who had successfully operated his own website for three years. The company was to build her website as well as market it. She still has no website. Her personal mentor is a group of people who often cannot answer her questions. She speaks to a different person each time she calls. She is being forced to create her own website under the auspices of a different company.
One of her first tasks was to select her niche. Our daughter wanted to market green products from drop shippers. But the company told her they had no green drop shippers. They advised she pay another company to put her together with wholesalers of environmentally friendly products, or to use their company affiliate program. Many of their affiliates did offer green products.
The company that is helping her set up her website has few options regarding layout and appearance. To attain a more professional-looking site, she would have to pay one of their web designers another $400 to create it. Keep in mind, that she paid $6100 to the “umbrella” company for a professional to build her site. All they really did was to put her in contact with legitimate e-businesses at their lowest level of service.
Because this was taking so much time, for example her banners show up as script on her webpage because she is having to do it all herself, she made one more investment of $115 in an affiliate program that directs shoppers to Amazon. While the $6100-company provided an email contract, this program required a written contract that needed to be faxed or mailed. Because she has no fax machine, signing up has taken more time. However, company tech support has already started working with her. Unfortunately, she came down with the flu and she has done nothing more with that program. When she does get started again, you’ll find her experiences here.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Although something inside me knew the diagnosis was bad, I did not expect to hear the words “Stage 4 cancer” and “incurable.” Afterward, out in the clinic parking lot my tears rushed like the water that flooded Ward 9 after the levee gave way.
Three and a half years later while trying shop for Christmas presents with my hospice nurse, I collapsed. I haven’t been outside my neighborhood since.
You might think that my condition is enough for any person to contend with but two years after tears of self-pity washed over me, our daughter was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Over the course of the next five years, this painful condition has robbed her of her vitality, most of her friends, even her ability to work.
Two months ago she applied for a medical leave of absence under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). She had worked six days in the previous two months. Had she not had the security of a government job, she would have been fired long ago. She decided to use her twelve weeks of FMLA to try to set up an internet business with the hope of working from home.
My original intent for this blog was to provide researched strategies for dealing with chronic conditions like diabetes, osteoarthritis, etc. I still intend to do that in the future. But in the near term, I’m going to concentrate on online business opportunities.
What I discovered on the internet is a host of opportunists taking advantage of people like our daughter desperate to make income from an online business.
She started with no experience and little money and she has wasted a few hundred dollars of her FMLA money hoping to follow in the successful footsteps of self-proclaimed “internet gurus.”
What are my qualifications to report these experiences? I am a retired journalist and features writer. I know how to research a story. And as this story unfolds, you’ll find updates here.
Perhaps you are like my daughter, looking for a realistic opportunity to supplement your disability income or who simply needs to make an income from home.
Applying for disability is a long, often costly process. How are you supposed to support yourself between now and then? Even after being accepted for Social Security Disability Insurance, chances are the payments will force you to live a life of poverty.
Bookmark this blog and visit often. You’ll find lots of information to help you. If you wish to add your own experiences to this blog, contact me at peg.healthwise@gmail.com so I can set permissions for you.
Three and a half years later while trying shop for Christmas presents with my hospice nurse, I collapsed. I haven’t been outside my neighborhood since.
You might think that my condition is enough for any person to contend with but two years after tears of self-pity washed over me, our daughter was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Over the course of the next five years, this painful condition has robbed her of her vitality, most of her friends, even her ability to work.
Two months ago she applied for a medical leave of absence under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). She had worked six days in the previous two months. Had she not had the security of a government job, she would have been fired long ago. She decided to use her twelve weeks of FMLA to try to set up an internet business with the hope of working from home.
My original intent for this blog was to provide researched strategies for dealing with chronic conditions like diabetes, osteoarthritis, etc. I still intend to do that in the future. But in the near term, I’m going to concentrate on online business opportunities.
What I discovered on the internet is a host of opportunists taking advantage of people like our daughter desperate to make income from an online business.
She started with no experience and little money and she has wasted a few hundred dollars of her FMLA money hoping to follow in the successful footsteps of self-proclaimed “internet gurus.”
What are my qualifications to report these experiences? I am a retired journalist and features writer. I know how to research a story. And as this story unfolds, you’ll find updates here.
Perhaps you are like my daughter, looking for a realistic opportunity to supplement your disability income or who simply needs to make an income from home.
Applying for disability is a long, often costly process. How are you supposed to support yourself between now and then? Even after being accepted for Social Security Disability Insurance, chances are the payments will force you to live a life of poverty.
Bookmark this blog and visit often. You’ll find lots of information to help you. If you wish to add your own experiences to this blog, contact me at peg.healthwise@gmail.com so I can set permissions for you.
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