I have 3 online stores, and while I am still new at it, I try to put my customers first and foremost.; I don't want a customer for a "first sale", I want to build a relationship with them by giving them good products at a good price and backing that up with a money back gurantee. I treat my customers like I want to be treated. My phone number and email addresses are listed in all my stores, and I want my customers to be able to get in touch with me at any given time.

Hi and thanks for posting this issue.

Some have posted here that they actually  drove by the homes of people who are on line network marketers and found the person was not living in a mansion but a run-down  house  with junk yard.

My advice is  to watch for inconsistencies between what people do and say.  For example, anyone asking for money here who has claimed to make large amounts of money is a lie.

Look at profiles, if the person is sitting in the basement next to the laundry and electrical box they can't claim to be making thousands a week.

It is always good to watch, evaluate, before leaping to any industry.  Sad to say but the nicest appearing people can be the biggest scammers.

You might check programs before joining by going to scam.com.  Just search a site name.  If nothing comes up, create a query.  Others who have had good or bad experience will come and answer.  there is nothing like the advice of those who have had actual experience.

Always to do the math.  How many downline would it take to make the money promised you.  I once figured that on one highly promoted here would take 1,025 people buying a $5 on line gardening magazine.

Teresa,

First of all, I would like to thank you for inviting me to this forum and would enjoy you inviting me this particular forum in the future.  I think this is a good thing to bring up with people regardless of if they agree or do not agree with what is being mentioned here.  Let me first explain to all that I don't just promote products and services, I only promote products and services that I feel is affordable and/or would be of help to the general public.  This means I don't promote every single thing I see out there in order to get a buck, but I do promote alot that I feel people would have an interest in or need.

I have not put all the stuff on my website that you have mentioned.  I will mention some of the stuff I have put on my website when I opened it back in May of 2008.  If anyone has visited the contact page of my website they will notice I have a picture of myself taken with my mother and brother, a professional picture that was taken in April.  I have, on my videos page, one of my many videos that I made with personal pictures of me and my family and animals which is quite personal.  I feel that the people visiting my website should have some sort of personal connection to me, something that shows people who I am.  It builds trust and hopefully I can build honest friendships with others when I show them a little bit of me.  But it can also leave you feeling very vulnerable if you are not cautious. 

I give a P.O. Box address on the contact page rather than my street address.  The businesses I go through have my home address for billing, payment and/or contact purposes.  The P.O. Box address is for the general public if they want to contact me or send me something by mail, they still can and yet my personal address is not known to the whole world.

People will take you more seriously if you have a website of your own and show that e-mail address.  I have a personal e-mail address, which is yahoo, for my personal stuff, and my own website address for business purposes.  If I am trying to do business with anyone, people wouldn't take me seriously if they saw the word yahoo in my e-mail address. 

I get alot of spammers sending me junk at my personal e-mail address and also at my website address with yahoo listed in their e-mail addresses from where they are sending it from, or gmail.  In the beginning I read some of them and then deleted them off, but now I erase them as soon as I see them.  Anyone can make up a name and put it to a yahoo or gmail address and then try to claim they are a real person with a company, but the people like me and many others using these email programs know better.  It is real easy for anyone to create an email address through these, therefore you don't know if what you are getting is real quality or a scam from someone wishing to just rip money off of you and then take off and change the email address and their name to something different for the next person. 

People tend to see a website address with an email promoting something and they're more likely to believe that what they are getting may have some truth to it.  Though people are still cautious if they have never heard of it before.  A website address definately is a better way to go.  It is why I got my own website to promote the stuff on that I do, so people can take me more seriously about what I do have.  It looks more professional and legit. 

Since I promote other companies products on my own website, I have not created any terms of service.  All the companies I promote have their own terms of service, so there is no need for me to create any for my site.  Rules are, people can enter my site whenever they please and they don't have to leave their name and address if they don't want to.  I don't like getting spam, and I know they wouldn't either.  So to get them to trust me and not be worried about getting spammed, I do not make them sign up to anything if they do not want to.  It is really hard getting prospects and leads this way, but I do not want to make them do something or hand over the information if they are not comfortable with it themselves.

Frequently Asked Questions.  This is really good to have on alot of websites.  It's a real time saver.  Though some questions do not seem to get answered this way and you end up having to e-mail the company or website anyway.  Because I promote alot of things it is easier for me not to do this.  It would take forever and a day to write all this down.  So whoever has a question about something can email me at the website address I provide on the contact page.  Provided it is a real question with a real interest in something I have on the site that I am promoting. 

I get alot of spam that has a question or request in the subject line, then when I open it the person wants to sell me a get rich quick business opportunity and has no interest in what I am selling.  Or when I explain things in the first email, then by the second email they say they are not interested but want to tell me about a really great business opportunity that you know is going nowhere.  It is their way of not looking like they are spamming you, while wasting the time I could have spent on something else I needed to attend to.  People can email me with questions, provided it is a real question and they are sincere about what they are asking.

Doing business online or offline can be risky as you say.  There are alot of scams and alot of the wrong kind of people that don't really care about the number one thing, which is the actual person they are trying to sell the item to.  They care only about getting the money and not about whom they may be taking advantage of.  It can be difficult to weed these people out, ruining it for alot of us who are trying to make an honest buck.  It can be very easy for us to start our own websites and businesses these days online, but it can be very hard to make a buck online because of all the bad things that happen online to people.  It is hard sometimes to know the right things to do in order to get people to understand that you are a real person and you want to help them as well as help yourself.  People need to make money to make a living, but money should not be their first concern, people should be.

 

Roger I was not refering to you at all and I never want to offend people. I was speaking pluraly of my experiences with people who have taken me for a ride and taken my money. I am a walking living commited Christian and I will always stand up and speak up on the vunerable people in our society. I never point the finger at anyone Roger and sorry but I have never heard of you before. I minister to many people who have been taken for a ride and I show them how to set boundries, forgive them and move on. Have a fantastic Roger and God bless you, Peter James.