Maybe you’ve seen the ads in the money-making magazines. Pictures of huge mansions, luxury cars, boats, airplanes, and almost unbelievable stories of people going from poverty to wealth overnight. Inside this chapter, I’ll reveal the secrets behind the good, the bad, and the really, really ugly.
How to Make Over $387,000 Doing Absolutely Nothing
It’s funny how the titles of these opportunities never really tell “the whole story” behind them. The author of this opportunity reveals that by selling money-making programs in the business opportunity magazines and through direct mail, he generates a rather large mailing list of buyers. Every quarter he sends his list manager these names, and they’re rented by other companies who want to mail to them. Every time the mailing lists are rented, he gets a commission check. Since he started renting his lists out (through his list manager), he generated the large six-figure income in the title of his book. While you could argue that the title is accurate (once he sends the names to the list manager, the list manager does all of the work of promoting and renting the names, and he gets a commission check on a regular basis for “doing nothing”), it certainly doesn’t tell the entire story. To get those thousands and thousands of buyer names, the author of this system had to create a hot-selling product and invest money by marketing it through expensive magazine advertising and direct mail. Anyone who has run a mail order company knows that creating products, writing copy, and placing ads is not considered “doing nothing”.
How to Turn Your Junk Mail Into Cold, Hard Cash
There are a few variations on this money-making system. The first (and most popular) concept is to become a distributor for mailing lists and, as “junk mail” (also known as “direct mail”) arrives in your mailbox, you send your flyer selling mailing lists BACK to the marketer who mailed you the junk mail. The thinking here is that since the marketer originally paid for a mailing list to send YOU his information, he’s a BUYER of mailing lists and you’re more likely to get him to buy a mailing list from you. There’s one problem I have with that concept: IF the marketer has been doing direct mail for quite some time and is experienced in this field, he or she will have contacts with a list broker who can get him or her almost any list. It’s rare that they’ll buy and test a mailing list from an unknown source. (Not impossible, just rare). Other systems using this same concept have to do with selling the marketer printing (since he needs to print his direct mail pieces) or selling him other things, like copywriting services or display advertising in opportunity publications.
Another variation on this concept shows you “How to Make BIG BUCKS from Full-Page
How to Get Paid $2 for Each Envelope You Stuff
This is an OLD money-making concept and the very first one I ever fell for 19 years ago. There are a bunch of different version of this, but they all revolve around the same basic concept.
Here it is: Company A sells you their “Envelope Stuffing Kit” for approximately $29.95. Sometimes it’s less, sometimes more, but it’s often right around $30 bucks. With that, you get a classified ad to place in your local newspaper (or in magazines) and instructions on what to do with the envelopes. The system tells you to place the classified ads (which say, “Make Big Money From Home! Send $2 and Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope To [Your Address]”) and when people send you $2 and the self-addressed stamped envelope (S.A.S.E.), you keep the $2.00. You put a flyer in the S.A.S.E. that sells Company A’s home-business booklet for about $20 bucks. Sometimes you get to keep a portion of this $20 sale, but often, you don’t.
This is a GREAT deal for Company A and a horrible deal for the person who purchased the Envelope Stuffing Kit. Here’s why: First, Company A makes a bunch of money selling the envelope stuffing kit. Because the actual system rarely, if ever, works, the company counts on making 99.9% of its money selling the envelope stuffing kit. Second, virtually no one is going to send you $2 AND a self-addressed STAMPED envelope based on a few words in a classified ad. You’ll be lucky to get any response from an ad like that. And third, IF you do get a response, you’ve made a whopping $2. However, Company A now has the ability to get their offer to a serious prospect with NO RISK! The prospect sent in an envelope, pre-addressed and stamped, so if the prospect doesn’t buy the home-business booklet, Company A is only out the cost of a single flyer. BUT, if the prospect pays for the home business booklet, Company A pockets some money with no risk. It’s a no-lose situation for Company A and an almost no-win situation for the person who purchases the envelope stuffing kit.
Other companies have changed the basic concept to allow the “envelope stuffer” to become a distributor of the home business book and put their own name and address on the flyer, print up copies, and insert it into each S.A.S.E. Then when orders come in, the envelope stuffer keeps about 50% of each sale and sends the rest to Company A for drop shipping. Again, Company A still makes 99.9% of its money selling the envelope stuffing kit. Giving the envelope stuffer a portion of each booklet sale made it simply an enticement to get them to buy the envelope stuffing kit. Since the ad continues to ask for $2 and a self-addressed stamped envelope, your responses will always be very low.
By the way, if you’ve seen any of these offers, they make it seem as though they’ll be sending you the envelopes, stamps, and names to mail the offers to. However, if you read them carefully, you’ll see that most of them say, “All envelopes, stamps, and addresses WILL BE PROVIDED TO YOU.” Yes, they’ll be provided to you BY THE PROSPECT who responds to your ad. Wording that suggests that the company will be sending you these items makes your “small” investment of $29.95 seem like nothing.
How to Make Money Assembling Products From Home Ugh! I’ve heard nothing but horror stories about these “work-at-home assembling products” offers. The basic pitch is simple: A company that sells craft items is looking for people to assemble these items from home and get paid for each piece assembled and returned to headquarters. You can do as much “work” as you want, but the more you do, the more you get paid. Easy, right?
Wrong. Many of these companies (As far as I know, all of them) charge you a fee, from $15 to $30 or more, to qualify to assemble products. Then, the company sends you a starter kit of crafts to assemble and usually a completed sample so you can see how your craft is to look once finished. So you start assembling, finish one, and mail it back to the company for payment. Surprise, surprise. Your item wasn’t assembled “up to the standards set by headquarters”. It’s sent back, and you’re asked to try again. You try again and send it back. Once again, it’s rejected – with a note to keep trying. Often, you’ll never be paid for assembling these items. If you are, it’s next to nothing. And you’d have to assemble hundreds, even thousands of products to make any decent amount of money.
It’s a pitch that has worked very, very well over the years for the companies willing to sell it, because the work sounds so easy-- it can be done from home, you’re your own boss working on your own schedule, and it appears to be the perfect way to make a little extra cash. Unfortunately, the only person that profits from this opportunity is the company that sells the kits to the people who wish to assemble them.
How to Get Paid Big Money for Taking Simple Photographs Like most opportunity ads, the promises are great, but the details are sparse. The secret behind this opportunity is the fact that you work (as an independent contractor) for real estate investors in your area. You’re paid (per assignment) to drive around to potential real estate properties, take pictures, and deliver them to the busy real estate investor. The idea is that you can work for many different real estate investors in your area, spend your day driving around, taking simple photographs of potential investment properties, and get paid. I’m not sure that this idea is a winner. The real estate investors I know either check out the properties themselves, first-hand, or have a trained staff member check out each potential investment property. You’d have to do more research to see if this concept is a viable money-making idea.
How to Get FREE CASH GRANTS
from Foundations and the Government
In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, I did a bunch of research on grants. I wrote a book on getting grants and was the co-author of another book on free money. I’ve done hundreds of hours of exhaustive research on this exciting topic so I can give you the “straight dirt” on grants.
Here’s the truth (but you may not like it): You’ve seen the ads that seem to claim that you can get $25,000... $100,000... even $250,000 or more for virtually anything. Pay off your bills, buy a new car, pay off your home, go on vacation. The ads make it seem like there’s an endless pile of money that foundations and government agencies are willing to give away to anyone for any reason. I’m here to tell you, that’s NOT true.
First, MOST private foundations DO NOT award grants to individuals. Most foundations award grants to agencies and charities. Those agencies and charities then use that money to fund their good works. Second, the U.S. Government does give financial assistance to individuals, but you often have to qualify, fill out paperwork, and it usually comes with restrictions.
If you’re serious about getting a grant, understand that there’s a process for applying and qualifying for this money. You have to have a good reason for wanting the money. Paying bills or buying a home, while you might think is the perfect reason, will not satisfy most foundations or agencies awarding money. Money that is awarded is usually given for education, the arts, the advancement of science, or any of a number of humanitarian reasons. There’s a lot of paperwork to fill out, you must qualify, and then your application must be reviewed and accepted by a panel before it’ll be funded. Some foundations hold meetings to review grant applications only once or twice a year. So if you miss the deadline, you’ll have to wait a year before your application is even reviewed. And if it is accepted, you’re not cut a check immediately. Often, you’re given payments over time. And the foundation may wish to check on the progress of your project to make sure the funds are being spent accordingly. You may even have to provide an accounting of how the money was used.
It’s exciting to think about qualifying for FREE MONEY! After all, without the dream of “something for nothing”, no one would play the lottery or travel to Las Vegas. I’ve known two people who made an absolute fortune selling “Free Money” information. And there’s another person I heard about that’s selling “Free Money” information on the Internet at www.freecollegecash.com – and has made MILLIONS of dollars so far, and the money continues to roll in. It’s a “magic” topic that captures people’s imagination and it lures a lot of people in.
One of the ways people get hooked into buying information on grants and “free money” is that there are a handful of programs that do give money for housing and other types of financial assistance for individuals. However, the number of them are few, you must qualify, and often you’re competing for a limited amount of money with a lot of other highly qualified people. The fact that these programs exist does NOT guarantee that they’re easy to qualify for or that you’ll have any chance of receiving this free money.
When I was doing my research on grants, I stumbled onto some great books by author Laurie Blum. You can still find her books at your local bookstore or through Amazon.com. One of her more popular books is called The Complete Guide to Getting a Grant: How to Turn Your Ideas Into Dollars. Highly recommended if you’re interested in looking into getting grants.
How to Get Paid $1 For Every Name and Address You Compile If nothing else, the opportunity marketers are creative writers. The ad for this opportunity explains that you will get paid $1 for every name and address you compile. Send in 1 name, you make $1. Send in 100, you get $100. Send in 1,000 names, you get $1,000. You get the picture. The ad also states that there is NO LIMIT to the number of names and addresses you send in and you’ll get paid $1 for every one!
Here’s the secret: It’s the EXACT SAME secret as the ad that states you’ll make $2 for every envelope you stuff. The only thing that changes is the way the concept is presented. Basically, you again place an ad for a home-business booklet and ask the prospect to send you $1 plus a self-addressed stamped envelope. When you receive a response from someone who saw the ad, you keep the $1 and you send the S.A.S.E. (with the prospect’s name and address) to headquarters. The tone of the ad makes it seem as though you can write down names and addresses out of your local phone book and get paid $1 each. However, the truth is that you have to place ads (with your own money) and hope that someone will go to the trouble of sending you $1 AND a S.A.S.E. for more information. Again, as I stated before, you’re more likely to get struck by lightning than you are to get a response from these types of ads. And, if you do, it’s only $1 for you but a potential $20 sales for the company that sold you this kit.
How to Turn Your Fax Machine Into an ATM
This is yet another ad that doesn’t tell the entire story. If you run a mail order business selling anything, and you have a merchant account (which gives you the ability to process credit card orders), you can receive orders via your fax machine anytime, 24 hours a day. For example, it’s 10:50PM right now and a few moments ago, I heard my fax machine receive another order for a promotion I recently mailed out. In the past, I’ve had days where my fax machine has cranked out tens of thousands of dollars in orders. In just one day!
However, that’s a far cry from “turning your fax machine into an ATM”. The ad makes it sound instantaneous. The reality is that you must first create a hot-selling offer, market it to the right list, and THEN your fax machine can accept orders. And this process of finding the right market, creating a product, and advertising it can easily take weeks or months to do correctly. You can get a lot of money through your fax machine, but only if you have a hot offer that people are willing to buy. And, if you do, you’ll also receive money in your mail AND by phone.
How to Get Paid to Watch Your Favorite TV Shows
The opportunity marketers understand that the easier they can make their money-making schemes sound, the more likely people are to buy them. And how much easier can you make it than “getting paid to watch your favorite TV shows”.
The concept here is to become a TV Critic! You critique TV shows for your local newspaper and get paid. Ta Da! Yep, that’s it. Exciting, isn’t it. Of course, that’s much harder than it sounds. First, you’d have to have some writing ability. Second, the position would have to be available. And third, there are very few TV-only critics. I wouldn’t quit what you’re doing now to run off and become a TV critic. (You’d have more success running off and joining the circus!)
There’s another plan called “$1 Million Dollar Cash Vision,” which also shows you how to get rich with TV. However, this book shows you how to create and produce-- Your Own Infomercial. Another dismal idea! While TV infomercials CAN be highly profitable, they’re also incredibly expensive to produce and only a small number of infomercials end up making any money. It takes deep, deep pockets to produce an infomercial and even deeper pockets to keep it running while you tweak it until it finally starts working.
Make $25,000 for Assembling “One” Product
The “one” product here is an information product and by “assembling”, the marketers mean writing. The concept is actually good. You can make $25,000.00 by writing one information product. I know of people who have made millions of dollars writing information products. In fact, in this book I have an entire section dedicated to the business of being an information marketer.
However, from reading the ad, you’d never know that it had anything to do with writing and selling an info-product. The ad itself makes it seems as though you’ll assemble something, one time, and get a check for $25,000. What it really means is that you write an info-product one time, sell it for at least $25, and sell 1,000 copies. However, the ad does NOT mention the additional time you’ll have to spend “assembling” a sales letter or ad to sell the product. Or the money you’ll have to spend placing ads or mailing out direct mail letters. The opportunity marketer took a proven business idea but added a “twist” in his letter that made it sound different than anything else. And, in the opportunity market, something different creates curiosity and cash.
How to Make $15,000 a Day Mailing Dirt-Cheap Postcards There are a lot of variations of the basic concept, which is selling products or services by mailing out postcards. Often the product is a network marketing opportunity. Other times the product might be mailing lists or home-business booklets. The idea is that you can start making money by simply addressing and mailing out inexpensive postcards while you sit at home, watching your favorite TV shows. (Hey, this could be another way to “Get Paid While Watching Your Favorite TV Shows!”)
The problem is that postcards are good for generating leads and getting people to “raise their hand” for more information, but they are rarely a good medium for making direct sales. There just isn’t enough room on a standard-sized postcard to make a sale. I have had some success myself using postcards to generate leads and then mailing those leads a larger direct mail package with an order form. Using that method, you can see some positive results. But again, this is regular ol’ mail order marketing. As you’ve no doubt noticed by now, opportunity marketers are great at taking a tried-and-true concept and putting a new twist on it that makes it sound completely different and unique.
Make $17,500 a Month – Mailing Two Simple Letters
What are the two simple letters? The ad never tells you but promises to reveal the secret-- INSIDE THE $25 book. Here’s the secret: One letter is really a full-page ad that sells a moneymaking book for $10 to $15. The second letter is an advertising placement form that you use to place the ad in a money-making magazine. You mail the ad with your ad placement form (and payment) to the magazine; it runs the ad and you get orders. “$17,500 a month” as the ad states. (Actually, that number is VERY optimistic!)
Again, it’s plain ol’ mail order. My only problem with this concept is that it recommends that new entrepreneurs spend $2,500 to $5,000 to run a full-page ad in a money-making magazine selling a $10 to $25 book. At $10, you’d have to sell 250 to 500 of these books just to break even! And while these magazines do have large readerships, unless you have a hot product and a killer ad, I doubt you’ll be able to break even. In fact, most opportunity marketers use these low-cost $10 to $25 products as “loss leaders” that pull in buyers so they can sell them a large $250 to $500 back-end product.
Get Paid for Reading Classified Ads in Your Local Newspaper There are two main ways that these type of opportunities work. First, you have the real estate investing method. You’re supposed to read the daily newspaper and check the classifieds for motivated sellers of homes in your local area. Then, you offer them creative financing deals (lease options, no money down, owner financing, etc.) to gain control of the property. That’s one method behind the “Get Paid for Reading Classified Ads” opportunity.
A second version reveals that you should watch the “For sale” section of the classifieds and look for items (like TV’s, cars, exercise equipment, etc.) that are grossly under priced. Often, people just want to get rid of items around their home, so they’re willing to take next to nothing for them. The plan is to keep your eyes peeled for these types of deals. Then, you buy the item and turn it around and sell it for a slightly higher price in the same classified ad section. It follows the basic concept of “Buy Low, Sell High”. Today, with the Internet, this method can be even more effective. You now have the ability to buy under priced items through the classified ad section and sell them on the Internet, through sites like eBay. This can work well, but you need a constant supply of under priced items (that are in demand online) to create a consistent income.
Make Real Money Shopping and Eating at Your Favorite Restaurants When an opportunity marketer stumbles onto a unique way to make money, watch out! You’ll soon see ads promoting it as a way that almost anyone can make money, when only a handful of people are actually doing it. This particular opportunity has to do with becoming a Mystery Shopper.
A mystery shopper is someone who is hired (normally by a major corporation, or a mystery shopping agency) to shop at a store or eat at a restaurant and secretly review the store or restaurant on their service. Companies use mystery shoppers because when someone from corporate headquarters arrives all employees are on their best behavior. It’s impossible to gauge whether or not the business is being run properly. So a mystery shopper will play the part of a customer, buy something (or eat a meal)and then fill out a review form that gives corporate headquarters an actual idea of how customers are being treated.
Mystery shoppers are reimbursed for any money they spend shopping or eating at a restaurant, and they’re paid an additional fee for each review they submit to headquarters. Currently, in Dallas, there is an organization for agencies that hire and place mystery shoppers called the Mystery Shopping Providers Association.
If you’d like to find a mystery shopping agency in your local area, the best idea is to search the Internet. Within seconds of entering “Mystery Shopping Dallas” into Google’s search engine, I found a company called Feedback Plus, which pays mystery shoppers to review area businesses. However, BE CAREFUL! 99% of the mystery shopping websites on the Internet are
SELLING INFORMATION about mystery shopping and are NOT actually going to give you mystery shopping assignments. Many of these e-books on Mystery Shopping contain old, wornout information and dead links to websites that no longer exist. Some careful research on the Internet can pull up actual companies that want to work with real mystery shoppers.
NOTE: Do NOT expect to make a full-time living as a mystery shopper. Often, mystery shoppers may do one or two assignments a week, being paid $20 to $50 per assignment. At other times, a shopper may do one assignment a month or not do any assignments for a longer period of time. Since it’s such an appealing way to make money (shopping and eating), the number of people vying for these positions is overwhelming. And with the deluge of e-books and reports on the Internet pointing people to these mystery shopping companies, the competition is fierce. If you’d like to make an extra $25 to $50 bucks a week and being a mystery shopper sounds fun, do some extra research and see if this sounds right for you. Just don’t go into this field with unrealistic income expectations.
How to Pocket Huge Profits with Ordinary Tap Water
If you’ve seen the Wizard of Oz, you know that the “Great and Mighty Oz” that ruled the Emerald City was merely Professor Marvel behind a curtain. Once Toto pulled back the curtain, the illusion of the “Great and Mighty Oz” was gone and only the reality remained.
I’ve been buying money-making opportunities for almost 20 years, and I’ve seen just about everything. This opportunity is one that made the light bulb go off over my head. I realized that the opportunity publishers RARELY if ever find a real breakthrough way to make money. Instead, they take something that is already working for someone else, whether it’s mail order, real estate, the Internet, tax liens, buying & selling, etc. and they give it a little different spin or twist to make it look different. After seeing this opportunity ad, I was quickly able to see other ads and figure out (without even buying the system), the trick-- the actual money-making system they are talking about. Today, my mind automatically works that way. Even when the actual system isn’t revealed, I can normally think through their wording and decipher the secret behind their system.
This one was tricky. After all, HOW can you make HUGE PROFITS with tap water? The ad explains that you go to almost any sink, fill a glass with tap water, and shortly after, you leave with a check for hundreds of dollars. And you can do this over and over again, each time you fill a glass with tap water, you pocket a few hundred dollars in cash. Sounds like magic, right?
It’s not. Basically, you go to someone’s house, fill up a glass of water from their faucet, and pitch them on the BENEFITS OF BUYING A WATER PURIFICATION SYSTEM from you. You show them how dirty their water is. You have them do a taste test and compare the taste of two glasses of water-- their unfiltered tap water and filtered water. You explain the dangers of lead in the water. You talk about bacteria and pull out charts with examples of deaths due to bacterial infections. You pitch them on your water purification system, close them hard, and if you did a good job, you sell them an expensive water purification with a high-profit margin (of which, you pocket 50% to 75% or more).
Do you see what I mean? The ad only gives you 10% of the overall story. If it explained that you’d have to go door-to-door, selling high-priced water purification systems, you might not be interested. However, by pitching this as a way to “Make Money from Tap water”, it sounds magical. None of the actual work is explained. You’re led to believe that you simply fill up a glass with water, do something that’ll be explained in the system they’re selling for $25 bucks, and you walk away with cash. But like many get-rich-quick plans, you buy the booklet for $25 bucks, believe the “Wizard of Oz” is real, and when you get it, you realize that the man behind the curtain has duped you.
One lesson to take away from this, especially when you’re presented with a “blind offer” (Meaning: An offer where the actual system that creates the money is NOT revealed), is try to think through what the actual method could be. Training yourself to see past the hype and understand what they’re selling BEFORE you invest your money is a great way to keep your money in your wallet, instead of donating it to a multi-million dollar opportunity marketer.
How to Make Money Helping Others Get a Major Credit Card This opportunity gives you the ability to sell people a list of companies that offer secured credit cards. A secured credit card is a card that is normally “secured” by a savings account. This way, even if the person applying for the card has bad credit, the company issuing the card feels secure in issuing it, because their credit limit is backed by actual cash. If the person can’t repay their balance, it’s paid out of the secured account.
Online, you can also promote credit cards (both secured and unsecured) and get a commission each time someone signs up for a credit card through your link. One smart Internet marketer, Joe Lloyd, has created a program that can automatically create a ready-to-go website with multiple credit card offers. You simply promote the site and when people visit, they can browse through your credit card offers and choose the one that’s right for them. When they do, you get paid a commission. Complete details are available at www.creditriches.com
How to Fatten Your Wallet in No Time Flat
One of my favorite money-making books of all time is this book, written by a marketer named Lawrence Tabak. This silver book, roughly 131 pages, reveals how he made a bunch of money selling products by mail. It’s basically a starter course for anyone who wants to make good money in direct response marketing. However, it’s a great read, because Mr. Tabak is a very entertaining writer and really tells you the secrets behind writing sizzling hot copy, finding great markets, locating products, and building a large direct marketing business. The book was very low-cost, and from the pile of testimonials on the marketing piece he mailed out, I’m guessing he sold thousands of copies.
The back of his manual contains a special offer to join his Inner Circle Club and get his personal coaching for $1,950. And I’m sure that a good portion of the people who purchased his booklet invested in his coaching program. I have no doubt that Mr. Tabak used the marketing advice he gave throughout his book and created a million dollar fortune selling the book and his coaching program.
Today, Mr. Tabak runs a vitamin company on the Internet. He’s retired from the opportunity market – and no longer sells his book, How to Fatten Your Wallet in No Time Flat. I contacted him once to try and get the rights to re-publish it, but to no avail. Sometimes used versions are available through Amazon.com for between $9 and $12. I highly recommend checking to see if you can get a copy. Very highly recommended.
Make up to $9,600 in 24 Hours or Less