Cloak of legitimacy

Check it out: iPhone app for self-motivation

Some days I wonder if it is fate that sends me to find specific sites that are better left unexplored. Yesterday, I ran into a site on Twitter and later in the day, I ran into exactly the same site using another search. What’s so ironic about this you might ask? I was actually looking for something LEGIT to write about rather than tripping across yet another questionable opportunity. Yet, here it is. I will disclose here I am NOT a fan of MLM shemes of any kind, but this one is more shady in my mind that others (like…

Six or Seven Figure Income: Save your money!

By Doreen Martel

I just love running into things that smack of schemes that are designed to separate people from their hard earned money. This morning, I was “cleaning” my Twitter account (which is a disaster looking for a place to happen!) and ran across a site that promised me I could have multiple six-figure months in the next twelve months by investing in their program. Unfortunately, while I was doing my homework (which I’m wont to doing) I found another site that is promoting one section of this “worthy” program promising me a potential of multiple seven-figure months. Go figure. Before you…

Screwed by Google

By Doreen Martel

I received an Email from Google telling me my AdSense account has been disabled. I’ve had this account for something in the area of seven years. In those seven years, I’ve received a total of 2 checks from Google (ya, it takes me months to cash out, almost 8 in most cases). During the first few years, I earned NOTHING because I had no clue how to monetize anything. Needless to say, I learned. Here’s the text of the email: “Hello, With our advertising programs, we strive to create an online ecosystem that benefits publishers, advertisers and users. For this…

When the BBB Fails

By Doreen Martel

I am a huge proponent of people checking out the BBB when they run across a work at home position. Because of this, it is typically one of the locations I check when I trip across a work at home opportunity. Yesterday, I found this work at home position posted at a reputable jobs website: “ Thank you for showing interest in our customer service position. The main objective of this position is managing Customer Accounts. Our Representatives handle everything from payment issues to password and user ID recovery. For the first part of the interview process we will be testing…

Cuppa Crap

By Doreen Martel

As most of you know I spend a lot of time searching for legitimate opportunities as well as calling out scams. Well while I was in Utah a fellow writer, Nigel Foster who wrote “The Making of a Royal Marines Commando” (and others), emailed and asked if I’d look into something for him. I promised I would and finally set aside some time to do so. Now I’m going to start off this rant with a disclaimer: This site is probably not designed to scam anyone. What it is primarily designed for is to collect a database of names. The first…

Making a living on the backs of others

By Doreen Martel

I have no problem with people making money. When you run a business after all, you have to make money to survive. We all need money to live, to keep a roof over our heads and what not. I have even hired other writers to help me create content from time to time. However, what I cannot abide is someone just raking someone over the coals. Let me show you an example of what I’m talking about. I ran across a job posting today at oDesk. Now in fairness, I would not have applied for this because rewriting work that…

Mail order advertisement scam

By Doreen Martel

We are at it again! We are still allowing scam Work at Home Digest and scam Work at Home Business Opportunities the benefit of the doubt. So far, their record is horrific. I think I stated before that I think my dog could have done a better job “vetting” these work at home opportunities. Now this one that we’re reporting on today is a tw0-fer. The irony is that the advertisement in of itself is a flat out lie. The links from this advertisement have no more to do with mail order than this blog does. The link however is…

Internet Marketing and Ethics

By Doreen Martel

For my regular readers, you already know that I typically call a spade, a spade. Other times, I’m not as flattering as that. I write about things I believe, I do not accept assignments that I consider questionable, contain bogus health claims and I almost always avoid product reviews. However, after working on my other blog where I call out work at home scams, something occurred to me…..As I’ve mentioned in other posts. In fact, I spent some time writing up a page on HubPages called “The care and feeding of Internet scams” – it suddenly dawned on me today…

Cheap business owners

By Doreen Martel

Just when you think you have seen everything, something happens to really make you wake up and pay attention. Now before I get accused of not knowing my facts let me be clear about a couple of things: (A) I don’t work for low rates on freelancing sites and (B) I’ve never been “invited” to take part in one of these assignments. However, that does not change the facts that they are out there. I always have pointed out to freelancers that they are working mostly at odds with clients. After all, a freelancers primary goal is to make as…

Spending instead of earning

By Doreen Martel

Multi-level marketing by any other name is still multi-level marketing! Frankly, when people are exploring opportunities to earn money online, there are several free options and there are still others that cost you a fair amount of money. But, I don’t subscribe to the idea that you should pay someone an ongoing fee to continue to earn money when you have to continuously sell a program in order to make money. Now these sites don’t necessarily fall into the category of a scam, they are legitimate. But it’s what they don’t tell you that is problematic. Enter: GDI – Global…

Well worth repeating

By Doreen Martel

Today, rather than do a new post, I’m going to link to another post that I did because I think it’s crucial that people LEARN ABOUT STAFF.COM it’s important for all freelancers to understand what this less than great site WILL NOT do for them! I tripped over a fascinating website today doing my usual perusal of online work options. I actually found a site that encourages companies to hire people to work from home but with a couple of fascinating twists included. First of all, they are not interested in freelancers, they are actually searching for people who are…

Why I believe Freelancers Union is Bad

By Doreen Martel

There are many challenges that are faced by freelancers, however as small business owners, those risks are inherent to doing business. Are you ready to allow the government to interfere in your freelance business more than they do? Freelancers Union is committed to allowing the government to regulate how you do business. Freelancers Union is NOT what they are cracked up to be! Epic Fail Why did you become a freelance professional? Chances are that you did so because you were not happy working for someone else. You made a decision to become a business owner. As a business owner…

Writers Beware: Uneven playing fields

By Doreen Martel

Freelance writers beware, there is no such thing as an even playing field when you are writing on content sites. It does not matter what site you elect to write on, there is not an even playing field. Even playing fields are impossible when other writers or editors are managing content. Period. This includes sites that depend on editors and also that depend on writers to rate content. Here is why these sites do not offer the same opportunities for everyone: A) Favorites happen – Editors are human whether writers think so or not. As objective as an editor might…

Freelancing and More|Ethics and Morals

By Doreen Martel

Recently I had reason to comment on a forum about something that I believe falls into the category of ethics and morals when it comes to freelancing. This is not the first time that I have come under fire for this type of comment, I have a very strong objection to people who are trying to game any type of system and more of a problem when people are trying to game a client. Here are two distinctly separate issues that I have encountered recently. My Children Are Old Enough To Help Me This sets me off in so many…