Hi, Jenny, Peter et al,

To address the question at the head of this forum - you must choose your programme or opportunity using the same principles as you would if this was a 'real world' situation.

If you went for a job interview:-

Would you pay to sell somebody else's product?

Would you spend a fortune on ephemerous literature and equipment from 'somebody else' in order to feel that you would have a better chance of selling 'somebody else's' product?

Would you recruit others to sell somebody else's product?

Would you buy a hand full of lottery tickets every month to see if you can win something?

Would you join a bilious, rumbling, triple somersaulting, my God I feel sick, forced matrix?

Would you be happy to be constantly told that the great opportunity you joined is no longer the best?

Would you be happy to see the wheel constantly re-invented?

Would you really believe the lies, half truths and sheer, unadulterated B.S. that spews from the keyboards of people you are supposed to respect and learn from?

I don't think so.

So why do it on the internet?

What happened to those wonderful mobile phone chargers "as seen on Oprah"? Did any body make any money with those?  I know a few people got upset because I told them that, at $25 a go they were terribly over priced (they are less than $2 here in Spain). Gone quiet, now, though.

And what about 'The Secret'? The money that has been made by the perpetrator of this, probably the longest lived and most profitable hoax on the net is unbelievable. I'm still waiting to find out if I am going to face charges for 'manifesting' the deaths in my immediate family.

While the hype and hyperbole with which this type of programme is swallowed, hook, line and sinker by a gullible and credit card wielding crowd of Internet Marketers - I think it is fair to say for most that they do not choose their programme or opportunity, they are co-opted into it.

If it won't work on the high street - it won't work on the web unless you initialise it and time your escape just right.

The Old Coot

Hi Jenny and everyone else!

I recently broke my own personal guideline. Join Free!

       I joined JerkyDirect and paid my $12.00 but this is the rare
       exception  where you get a tasty product (at least for some!)
       as well as the website for a low price and a great url of your
       choice !! BethsVentuers.JerkyDirect.com  !!

But,  I also had the recommendation of a great many here at Adland as well.

Now that I think of it the second program I ever joined was also free to join and was recommended to me by someone in the real world...

Recommendation. That may be something I didn't see as I perused this LONG thread. I wonder how many people start online without truly having it recommeded and knowing anything.

I did. I have a great spam filter/white list thru my local ISP provider and this nice ad promo email got thru anyway ... so I read it. And before I knew it...   I was a Vemmabuilder... but I did love the product. Vemma ... I just didn't know a thing about how to promote online and didn't realize the Vemma craze had swept thru Adland long before I joined! (smile) and before I knew what an online business community even was!

So,  now I promote and encourage others to join and I wonder if they do so on my recommendation and don't get their sign ups or place enough ads or whatever it is one does to network your way into signups... will I have let them down?

then there's the opposite situation...I  recommend a program... they bring in their downline who all take the time to sign up and the program website business doesn't break out of pre-launch... instead it  languishes! ...

But these are/were FREE to Join.... that's why I go by the guideline Join Free Advertise Free! .... with the occasional exception!

Beth