How To Avoid Getting RIPPED OFF On-line

Millions of you dream of someday starting your own business and
achieving financial success and independence--it's a universal
dream. Many also discover the internet and are led to believe
this is the perfect medium for making that dream a reality. Which
is true, because you can accomplish things on the internet that
you don't have the resources to accomplish off-line.

However, many of you looking to start a business on-line also
have a big fear of being ripped off. And yes, there is very good
reason to fear being ripped off! There is a good chance you will
be ripped off by some half-witted money-making scheme. The fact
is that there's even a chance you will be ripped off by someone
who doesn't even know he's ripping you off!

"But how can you be ripped off by someone who doesn't even know
he's ripping you off?" you ask. Many people with no real product
create one by taking someone's advice -- often extremely bad
advice -- and compiling it into an info product. By passing this
along to you in an e-book or manual, and giving you a "clear road
map" they not only waste your money...they make you worse off
than you were before you started. This is true because you will
waste time, money, and energy trying to make something work that
has absolutely NO chance of working.

For example, the business of "making money, teaching others to
make money, by teaching others to make money" is one of the
easiest ways to make money. Agreed, there is a large market for
this product. But, it's also a very dangerous place because
common sense is often over-ridden by greed and very deep-seated
dreams and ambitions.

So how do you avoid being ripped off? The BEST way IS using your
common sense. Ask yourself if something makes sense. Also ask
yourself, "If the person telling you how to do something has
really discovered the secret, why isn't he using it to get rich!"
There are very few "real secrets" -- information travels very
fast on the internet. Yes, there are many proven methods and
techniques that do work, but if you look hard enough you will see
them in everyday application. Go to any famous "guru's" site and
make sure you see that he is actually using what he teaches.

Avoiding getting ripped off involves, to an extent, learning who
you can trust. A trusted friend who really cares about you simply
won't give you bad advice. A trusted advisor won't recommend bad
products or services to you.

Here is a very big challenge I am faced with weekly: I get lots
of people sending me trial versions of their products or review
copies of their books. They want my "thumbs up"...my
recommendation. I know that if I give this recommendation...this
testimonial...and the product is not extremely good -- I will
cause harm to a lot of people. I also know that I will destroy
one of my most valuable assets...my goodwill, AND the reputation
I have spent six years building with my potential on-line
customers. So, I'm COMMITTED to closely guarding that trust, and
putting my clients' best interest FIRST. You need to make a
similar commitment BEFORE you even open your business.

Until you develop a few trusted friends whom you can call or
email for recommendations, learn to ask a lot of questions. If
you are thinking of buying a product or getting involved in a
certain business -- ask around. Discussion boards are a good
place to ask what people think about a given product or service.
Ask in a way that you won't be perceived as trying to promote the
product yourself, because that type of post will simply be
deleted. Also ask in a way that you aren't bashing a product or
individual. Discussion board operators don't want the legal
hassles from a post on their board unjustly harming someone's
business.

Also, just spend a lot of time surfing relevant discussion
boards. Read the hundreds, if not thousands of posts already
there. There are boards set up just to warn you about rip-offs.
My favorite is the Friends In Business board. This board was
started by a lady who got ripped off, and years later it's the
perfect place to go to find out about hundreds of scams. That's
the sole purpose of the board. In fact, you should add this board
to your bookmarks. It's:

Some of the best discussion boards are closed communities. These
are member's-only sites; some with tens of thousand of members
all banned together for a common purpose. Two of the
member's-only sites I belong to are The Internet Marketing
Warriors and The Affiliates Club. Both are "support groups" where
you can brainstorm and bounce your ideas off people building
on-line or home-based businesses. I am a moderator at one of
these groups and have written many articles exclusively for the
other (my articles are often published in The Affiliates Club
before they appear anywhere else).

For more information on the Warriors, visit:


For more info on The Affiliates Club visit:


When considering a business opportunity, one of the wisest things
you can do is to ask for referrals. If they are as good as they
say they are, they should be able to refer you to lots of
satisfied customers. If you were considering getting involved in
a franchise or business venture off-line this is how you would
check it out. On-line should be no different. If it's a large
investment you're thinking of making you'd be crazy not to. Email
these references, or better yet, give them a call. There are
things you can detect in a person's voice that you can't "hear"
in email. Off-line, if at all possible, I would pay them a
face-to-face visit.

Another common sense approach to avoid getting ripped off is to
simply research the site or product that you are considering
investing in. It's fairly easy to research an individual or
company on the internet to see if their own businesses
demonstrate that they really know what they are talking about.
For instance, is the person selling the "How To Explode Your
Traffic" ebook getting any traffic to his own site?

This can easily be researched by utilizing the Alexa Toolbar.
The Alexa Toolbar shows how popular a given site is. It isn't
foolproof but is a good indicator of how successful a site really
is. It shows a sites "ranking." You can learn about and get the
free Alexa Toolbar at:


Along the same lines, research the private site that's going to
teach you "All the secrets of improving your SE ranking" by
checking where they are listed in Google and AltaVista. If they
are going to teach you this, they certainly should have already
attained these results for their sites. Just this little bit of
investigating, using the search engines, can save you from
buying into some theory offered by someone who has NO CLUE what
he is talking about.

We all know that there are no internet police. However, many
parts of the community are self-policing. These are the parts of
the internet community that agree to adhere to certain standards.
Members who fail to live up to those standards are investigated,
and if they are not adhering to community standards they are not
allowed to retain membership. Two such communities that I belong
to are The Better Business Bureau Online, and The International
Council Of Online Professionals. You have to invest in an annual
membership in both of these organizations once you qualify.

Both of the above organizations require applications, and you
have to demonstrate that you are ethical and meet the
organization's standards. They actually investigate your website
and look at the products or services you offer. The Better
Business Bureau actually sends someone to your place of business
so that they can better understand your whole business operation.
If you survive the application process, you are given an emblem
to place on your website that is hyper-linked to their sites. A
visitor can click on the emblem to continue investigating you
before doing business with you. For more information on I-Cop
membership visit:


Membership in BBB Online requires that you be a member of your
local Better Business Bureau. That often requires that you have
been in business for at least a year, and the application process
can take several months. In the Northwest Florida Division, a
committee reviews each membership application. If you're
interested in BBB membership, look in your local phone book.
Better Business Bureau membership is only available in the US and Canada.

Millions of you migrate to the internet looking for an
opportunity to supplement your income. Far too many spend a lot
of time and other resources trying to build a business -- only to
be very disappointed. If you apply the common sense advice
offered above, you GREATLY reduce your chances of becoming one of
them.

Reread this article several times, then start applying what it
teaches. Reading and knowing something without using it is
actually worse than not knowing, since you have no excuse. Many
of you already intuitively knew everything in this article. Yet
by failing to apply that knowledge, you were still susceptible to
being ripped off. Now, hopefully you're not :-)