Knowing that many disabled people may have special needs and vulnerabilities, scammers target them frequently.
They even pass themselves off as being disabled or as helping to raise money for physically and mentally handicapped people as a way of conning money from the general public.
People suffering from a mental disability, especially dementia, are especially at risk but others with sensory and mobility handicaps have also fallen victim in recent incidents.
Click here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
Friday, June 24, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Host Gator is a Great Web Hosting Site from My Personal Experience and Great Affiliate Program.
Hello. Host Gator is a great host for your website needs. I have been using it for a year. And when ever I have a question, Support gets right back to me almost immediately! It is very affordable too.
Hostgator is Starting at 3.96 a Month with Unlimited web hosting, a Free site builder, easy control panel and more.
The Host Gator Affiliate Program is free and I have made money from this program.
http://shortquik.com/hostgator/barb2birds
Have a great day!
To your success.
Barb :)
Hostgator is Starting at 3.96 a Month with Unlimited web hosting, a Free site builder, easy control panel and more.
The Host Gator Affiliate Program is free and I have made money from this program.
http://shortquik.com/hostgator/barb2birds
Have a great day!
To your success.
Barb :)
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
The Secret $8 Billion Wireless Scam: How AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Game the System
Alternet / by David Rosen and Bruce Kushnick
Telecom giants Verizon and AT&T have gamed the system, using regulations designed to foster competition to snatch up ever more of the wireless spectrum.
On May 11, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing astutely titled, "The AT&T/T-Mobile Merger: Is Humpty Dumpty Being Put Back Together Again?"
At the hearing, Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, raised a fundamental challenge: “At present, four companies control nearly 90 percent of the national wireless market. The proposed acquisition would further consolidate an already concentrated market for wireless communication.”
Click here to read the full article.
Alternet / by David Rosen and Bruce Kushnick
Telecom giants Verizon and AT&T have gamed the system, using regulations designed to foster competition to snatch up ever more of the wireless spectrum.
On May 11, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing astutely titled, "The AT&T/T-Mobile Merger: Is Humpty Dumpty Being Put Back Together Again?"
At the hearing, Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, raised a fundamental challenge: “At present, four companies control nearly 90 percent of the national wireless market. The proposed acquisition would further consolidate an already concentrated market for wireless communication.”
Click here to read the full article.
Alternet / by David Rosen and Bruce Kushnick
Friday, June 17, 2011
Common Bait and Switch Tricks and How to Avoid Them
Bait advertising," the FTC explains, "is an alluring but insincere offer to sell a product or service which the advertiser in truth does not intend or want to sell.
"Its purpose is to switch consumers from buying the advertised merchandise in order to sell something else, usually at a higher price or on a basis more advantageous to the advertiser."
Trouble is, it's not against the law to use a come-on to lure buyers into the net, provided whoever's doing it can prove that they did have the merchandise in question, that it was genuinely available and that they made the conditions of its sale clear.
Click here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
"Its purpose is to switch consumers from buying the advertised merchandise in order to sell something else, usually at a higher price or on a basis more advantageous to the advertiser."
Trouble is, it's not against the law to use a come-on to lure buyers into the net, provided whoever's doing it can prove that they did have the merchandise in question, that it was genuinely available and that they made the conditions of its sale clear.
Click here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Urban Legends Tour Around the US
Most urban legends, true or not, gruesome or not, develop and change over time, as the tellers embroider and exaggerate the tale.
Mostly, they're historical stories with an unexpected, weird or spooky angle. Sometimes, they can cause distress, especially to those of a nervous disposition!
We think it's important to be skeptical about the outrageous stories you sometimes encounter online and in conversation.
Certainly, we encourage you to think twice about passing on emails that purport to be genuine and supposedly circulate to offer advice or serve as a warning to others, when, frankly, they're just too weird to be true.
Click here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
Mostly, they're historical stories with an unexpected, weird or spooky angle. Sometimes, they can cause distress, especially to those of a nervous disposition!
We think it's important to be skeptical about the outrageous stories you sometimes encounter online and in conversation.
Certainly, we encourage you to think twice about passing on emails that purport to be genuine and supposedly circulate to offer advice or serve as a warning to others, when, frankly, they're just too weird to be true.
Click here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
MARKETING WITH THE 80/20 RULE
By C.J. Hayden
You know about the 80/20 rule, right? It's the guideline that 80% of your return comes from 20% of your investment. For example, 80% of your referrals come from 20% of the people in your network. 80% of your new business comes from 20% of your prospects. 80% of your new contacts come from 20% of the networking activities you engage in. And so on.
Like all such guidelines, this one is inexact, but helpful. If used correctly, it makes you stop and think. Where are most of your returns coming from? And where is most of your effort going?
Imagine how much less time and money you could spend on marketing if you could simply identify the 20% of your current efforts that are really the only ones that matter. You could let go of 80% of what you're doing.
I can't guarantee everyone can do this. Some of you are already pretty smart about how you market yourselves. But here are some places to look:
1. Where are your clients actually coming from? You may think you know the answer to this question, but I find in many cases that people's assumptions don't match the data. Review every client you've worked with in the past two years and try to determine how that client entered your life. Make a list of not just the source of each client, but what you may have done (or made available) to produce clients from that source.
For example, "Referred by Mary Smith. Met her for coffee last month," or "Inquiry from my website. Signed up for my special report two weeks ago." If you can't uncover data like this about every new client, now is the time to start tracking it for the future.
Notice any patterns this analysis suggests, and strategize how you might reproduce these successes. Where could you find more referral sources like Mary Smith? Or what potential referral sources already in your network have you never met for coffee? If most of the new clients originating from your website are those that requested your special report, is that request form available on every page?
2. Where are your highest paying or lowest hassle clients coming from? The quality of your clients can make as much difference to the success of your business as the quantity of them. Select the top 20% of your clients from the list you made above -- either the ones that paid you the most or troubled you the least -- and consider how you might acquire more clients like them.
Notice not just the source of these top clients, but also what characteristics they might share. You might discover that your highest paying clients are those who themselves are in a higher income bracket. Or that the clients who give you the least trouble are the ones who have worked with professionals in your line of business before. These are valuable clues to where the majority of your marketing efforts should go.
3. What marketing approaches are costing you more money than they bring in? When you can see exactly where your clients are coming from, you can also determine where you're paying too much to get them. Common places for overspending are print and online directory listings, pay-per-click ads, search engine optimization fees, and multiple association memberships.
Compare not just what you are spending on each potential source of clients to what revenue you received from it, but what profit you ultimately made. A $500 ad that brought you a $500 client has earned you nothing. And an ad that produces many inquiries but little paying business consumes time you could better use to produce income.
4. What are you currently doing that you haven't gotten a single client from? Some marketing techniques take time to pay off, but if you've been using a particular approach for several months and no clients have yet resulted, it's time to reconsider. You probably need to either abandon this approach or fine-tune it.
If you belong to a networking group that isn't producing referrals for you, consider whether you should seek a different group that's a better match for your target market, or stick with the group and start meeting its members for coffee. If you've been cold calling corporate prospects without results, you may need to drop cold calling and focus on referrals and introductions, or your telemarketing skills may need considerable improvement.
By making judicious use of the 80/20 rule, you can eliminate the least productive marketing activities you engage in and ramp up those that are more effective. You can also focus most of your marketing on the client sources and type of prospects that have worked well for you in the past. And that can put you in the 20% of entrepreneurs who have a successful business instead of in the 80% who don't.
Copyright © 2011, C.J. Hayden
Read more free articles by C.J. Hayden or subscribe to the GET CLIENTS NOW! E-Letter.
You know about the 80/20 rule, right? It's the guideline that 80% of your return comes from 20% of your investment. For example, 80% of your referrals come from 20% of the people in your network. 80% of your new business comes from 20% of your prospects. 80% of your new contacts come from 20% of the networking activities you engage in. And so on.
Like all such guidelines, this one is inexact, but helpful. If used correctly, it makes you stop and think. Where are most of your returns coming from? And where is most of your effort going?
Imagine how much less time and money you could spend on marketing if you could simply identify the 20% of your current efforts that are really the only ones that matter. You could let go of 80% of what you're doing.
I can't guarantee everyone can do this. Some of you are already pretty smart about how you market yourselves. But here are some places to look:
1. Where are your clients actually coming from? You may think you know the answer to this question, but I find in many cases that people's assumptions don't match the data. Review every client you've worked with in the past two years and try to determine how that client entered your life. Make a list of not just the source of each client, but what you may have done (or made available) to produce clients from that source.
For example, "Referred by Mary Smith. Met her for coffee last month," or "Inquiry from my website. Signed up for my special report two weeks ago." If you can't uncover data like this about every new client, now is the time to start tracking it for the future.
Notice any patterns this analysis suggests, and strategize how you might reproduce these successes. Where could you find more referral sources like Mary Smith? Or what potential referral sources already in your network have you never met for coffee? If most of the new clients originating from your website are those that requested your special report, is that request form available on every page?
2. Where are your highest paying or lowest hassle clients coming from? The quality of your clients can make as much difference to the success of your business as the quantity of them. Select the top 20% of your clients from the list you made above -- either the ones that paid you the most or troubled you the least -- and consider how you might acquire more clients like them.
Notice not just the source of these top clients, but also what characteristics they might share. You might discover that your highest paying clients are those who themselves are in a higher income bracket. Or that the clients who give you the least trouble are the ones who have worked with professionals in your line of business before. These are valuable clues to where the majority of your marketing efforts should go.
3. What marketing approaches are costing you more money than they bring in? When you can see exactly where your clients are coming from, you can also determine where you're paying too much to get them. Common places for overspending are print and online directory listings, pay-per-click ads, search engine optimization fees, and multiple association memberships.
Compare not just what you are spending on each potential source of clients to what revenue you received from it, but what profit you ultimately made. A $500 ad that brought you a $500 client has earned you nothing. And an ad that produces many inquiries but little paying business consumes time you could better use to produce income.
4. What are you currently doing that you haven't gotten a single client from? Some marketing techniques take time to pay off, but if you've been using a particular approach for several months and no clients have yet resulted, it's time to reconsider. You probably need to either abandon this approach or fine-tune it.
If you belong to a networking group that isn't producing referrals for you, consider whether you should seek a different group that's a better match for your target market, or stick with the group and start meeting its members for coffee. If you've been cold calling corporate prospects without results, you may need to drop cold calling and focus on referrals and introductions, or your telemarketing skills may need considerable improvement.
By making judicious use of the 80/20 rule, you can eliminate the least productive marketing activities you engage in and ramp up those that are more effective. You can also focus most of your marketing on the client sources and type of prospects that have worked well for you in the past. And that can put you in the 20% of entrepreneurs who have a successful business instead of in the 80% who don't.
Copyright © 2011, C.J. Hayden
Read more free articles by C.J. Hayden or subscribe to the GET CLIENTS NOW! E-Letter.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Why You Should Always Check Your EULA
When did you last check a EULA? Not even sure what it is?
It stands for End User License Agreement, and every time you install a program on your computer or mobile device, and sometimes even when you just use a new piece of hardware, you implicitly sign up to everything that licensing agreement says.
That can be a pain in the neck because, let's face it, most of us don't read them.
In fact, we can guess that around one-thirtieth of one percent of users read their EULAs (pronounced "you-las") since one software company that offered $1,000 to the first person to spot this prize buried away in its licensing agreement recorded 3,000 downloads before anyone claimed it.
Click here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
It stands for End User License Agreement, and every time you install a program on your computer or mobile device, and sometimes even when you just use a new piece of hardware, you implicitly sign up to everything that licensing agreement says.
That can be a pain in the neck because, let's face it, most of us don't read them.
In fact, we can guess that around one-thirtieth of one percent of users read their EULAs (pronounced "you-las") since one software company that offered $1,000 to the first person to spot this prize buried away in its licensing agreement recorded 3,000 downloads before anyone claimed it.
Click here to read the full article.
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org
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