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A Home-Based Business Online
Practical home business ideas, strategies
and resources for the work-from-home
entrepreneur
March 4, 2001
Sent to 8,691 Subscribers
Editor: Elena Fawkner
Publisher: Fawkner Publishing
http://www.ahbbo.com
Contact By Email
ATTENTION: You're receiving this ezine because you, or
someone using your email address, subscribed. There is no
other way of being added to this list. If you'd like to remove
your address from the AHBBO subscriber list, please see the
instructions in segment 7. below. Please note you CANNOT
be unsubscribed from AHBBO by replying to this email. The
AHBBO subscriber list is NOT made available to other
companies or individuals. I value every subscriber and respect
your privacy.
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IN THIS ISSUE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
1.
Hello again and a warm welcome to all the new subscribers
who have joined us since the last issue!
This week's article is a salutary warning for all of you who
make your articles freely available for reprint. Believe it or
not, you can be the unwitting recipient of a spam complaint
and get shut down by your webhost just because an ezine
publisher runs your article.
As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this
week's issue.
Remember, this ezine is for YOU! If you have comments
or suggestions for topics you would like to see addressed,
or would just like to share your experiences with other
subscribers, I want to hear from you! Please send comments,
questions and stories to Contact By Email .
Yes! You can make thousands of dollars on the
internet. I'll teach you my simple system. This
is a home business you'll be proud to own. It's
fun and very rewarding. Free newsletter: "How
to Really Make Money on the Internet".
2.
I'm the first to admit cleaning house is definitely one of my least
favorite activities. Couple that with a chronic lack of time and
you're describing a huge segment of the population. One that
isn't going to be shrinking any time soon.
As a cleaning services broker you can tap into this market. A
cleaning services broker basically brings together people wanting
cleaning services performed and those prepared to perform that
service for a fee.
Start out by advertising for cleaners. You'll need to check
references and test their skills. You may also want to consider
bonding them. Once you have several cleaners on your books
(as independent contractors, not employees), you can then
start advertising your services to prospective clients.
A Yellow Pages listing is a good place to start (although this
does require quite a bit of forward planning) as well as classified
ads in your local newspaper. Professionally produced flyers/
brochures that can be distributed in a letter box drop in the
geographic area you are targeting will also generate good enquiry.
You should set yourself up so that you bill the client for the cost
of the service and you pay your cleaning contractors. The
difference between what you pay your contractors and what you
receive from clients is your commission.
You can gradually expand your business too by adding more
services over time. Logical extensions include window washing,
garden maintenance, carpet cleaning and pet sitting, to name
just a few examples. And don't forget to think outside the box
when targeting clients. Consider, for example, real estate agents
who need cleaning services for rental properties between tenants.
Useful Books:
Home Cleaning Business : Your Step By Step Business Plan
by Susan Bewsey
How to Make Cleaning a Successful Business
by Pamela Glasby
-----
There are many more ideas like this at the AHBBO Home
Business Ideas page at http://www.ahbbo.com/ideas.html
with more being added all the time.
ARE YOU TIRED OF NOT MAKING ENOUGH MONEY ONLINE?
Learn the true Insider Secrets to Marketing YOUR business
on the Internet from someone who has done it. Find out how
at
3.
© 2001 Elena Fawkner
"Automatic complaints are sent when a filter whose action is
set to Kill after complaining is triggered. For each filter, you
can configure who the complaint should be sent to. ... The
message body is also scanned for e-mail and website
addresses. If any addresses are found, they're added to the
lists mentioned above."
Source: http://www.spamkiller.com/Features.html
SpamKiller is spam filtering software. Its purpose is to
scan incoming email for spam and take appropriate action
in response to those messages that are identified as spam,
such as automatic deletion. Another handy function is that
the software allows the user to generate automatic and
manual complaint emails which the user then sends to the
webmaster of the offending domain as well as any number of
other recipients such as spam-reporting "authorities" and
the webhost and/or ISP of the person sending the offending
mail.
Good idea, you say? Fair enough, you say? Well ... maybe.
Note the quote above: "... The message body is also scanned
for e-mail and website addresses ... [and] added to the lists
mentioned above", i.e. the list of recipients of the complaint.
Now, imagine this. Let's say you're a paying advertiser
in my ezine. Your ad contains your URL and email
address. I spam mail my ezine or send it to someone
who forgets they subscribed and they think it's spam.
Imagine further that the recipient of my so-called spam uses
SpamKiller software (or some similar program). The software
scans the message header and extracts the relevant
information about the person who sent the email (me). Fair
enough. Assuming that it IS spam, of course.
But the capability of the software doesn't stop there. As
mentioned in the above quote, it also scans the message
BODY, which contains your ad, and adds your URL and
email address to the list of recipients of the complaint. The
ever-diligent big-spam-hunter also makes sure that one or
more spam-reporting "authorities" is copied on the
complaint.
WeStopSpam.net*, diligent, professional organization that
it is, immediately and automatically forwards the complaint
to abuse AT yourdomain.com and your webhost, an equally
diligent, professional organization shuts your site down
for three days for spamming.
You, of course, learn about all of this AFTER the event.
The actual downtime was two hours. By that time I had
threatened to sue and they finally got around to actually
READING the offending email and realizing that I, in fact,
was just an innocent bystander.
There is so much that is wrong in this whole scenario that
it's hard to know where to begin.
THE PERSON WHO GENERATED THE COMPLAINT
Let's start with the individual who generated the complaint
in the first place. This is the person using the SpamKiller
software. His email to me (which was auto-generated by
SpamKiller) contained the following subject line:
"UCE Complaint (So-and-So Newsletter*)"
The body started out:
"I have received the attached unsolicited e-mail from
someone at your domain. [He had not.]
"I do not wish to receive such messages in the future, so
please take the appropriate measures to ensure that this
unsolicited e-mail is not repeated.
"--- This message was intercepted by SpamKiller
(www.spamkiller.com) ---"
The full text of the intercepted message followed.
The header of the offending email clearly showed that the
sender of the email was someone from so-and-so.com*.
Unfortunately, the newsletter concerned contained virtually
nothing but my article interrupted by what I assume were
paid ads.
I'm sure that the paid advertisers in this particular ezine
also received a complaint and that WeStopSpam.net received
a copy and automatically forwarded it to the advertiser's
ISP and/or webhost who may or may not have shut them
down, at least temporarily. (Hopefully not all webhosts
are of the calibre of DumbHost when it comes to this sort of
thing.)
So, this individual, in his zealousness to rid the Internet
of spam, blithely dragged the names and reputations of at
least half a dozen perfectly innocent bystanders through the
mud.
The moral of the story? If you use spam-filtering software
and the complaint-generating function that comes with it,
have the common decency and responsibility to stop and
think about who you're adding to your hitlist. If you don't,
and you get it wrong, don't be surprised to find a process-
server on your doorstep.
SPAM FILTERING SOFTWARE
To give SpamKiller its due, it appears to be an excellent
product. There's a free 30 day download available at
http://www.spamkiller.com . I downloaded it myself to
see what, if any, cautions are given to users about the
need to make sure that the recipient of the complaint is,
in fact, responsible for the email concerned.
Well, there is such a caution but it took me a good 45
minutes to find it. The software comes with an excellent,
comprehensive built-in help facility. Tucked away at the
end of the page on "Sending manual complaints" is the
caution:
"Note: SpamKiller does not check that the loaded
addresses are appropriate for the selected message. Don't
use a ... complaint unless you are certain that its recipients
are responsible for the spam that you are complaining
about."
I would respectfully suggest that this warning be displayed
in a more prominent position, coupled with warnings about
what can happen to those who use the software in an
irresponsible manner so as to ensnare innocent parties.
WESTOPSPAM.NET
Now, let's take a look at WeStopSpam.net's role in all of
this. In my case, "all" they did was forward a complaint
they had received from our friend in the previous section
to my webhost. Here's what they sent:
"From: 17846286 AT reports.westopspam.net
To: abuse AT dumbhost.com
X-Loop: one
Subject: [WeStopSpam (http://www.ahbbo.com) id:17846286]
So-and-So Newsletter
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2001 23:14:50 -0700 (MST)
X-Mailer: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98)
via http://westopspam.net/ v1.3.1
- WeStopSpam V1.3.1 -
This message is brief for your comfort. ...
Spamvertised website: http://www.ahbbo.com
> http://www.ahbbo.com is 63.249.189.106; Tue, 27 Feb 2001
02:56:58 GMT
Offending message: ..."
So, my website was reported for spamming because it was
"spamvertised" - lovely butchering of the English language, I
must say. This appears to be a coined term for a website that
is advertised by means of spam. This means that any paying
advertiser in the ezine itself is treated as a spammer, merely
because spam was used to send the ezine.
I checked out the website of the ezine concerned. It proclaimed
that its 85,000 subscribers were all "opt-in" i.e. that the
subscribers each took some positive step to have their email
address added to the ezine's mailing list.
Any reputable advertiser is going to be concerned that the
recipients of the ezine are opt-in, so this would have been of
comfort to the advertisers concerned in this instance.
Mind you, when I sent an email to the address displayed at
the publisher's site, it bounced. Maybe this person IS a
spammer. I don't know. And that's the point. How are you
supposed to know that if you're just the advertiser or article
author?
But, as far as WeStopSpam.net is concerned, that doesn't
matter. The mere fact that the advertiser's opportunity was
advertised in the allegedly spam email is sufficient to make
the advertiser a legitimate target. In my case, I didn't even
advertise! The publisher of the ezine ran my article. How
many of you out there make your articles freely available for
reprint?
WeStopSpam.net would presumably have you restrict the
reprint rights to your articles to only those publishers who you
know for a FACT are sending to a 100% guaranteed opt-in list.
How do you do that? Quite simply, you can't. To expect any
such thing is just unreal and smacks of an appalling lack of
understanding about how the online world works.
A reasonable compromise would be if reprint rights were
granted to publishers who send their ezine to an opt-in list. I
would have no objection to that. Of course, that wouldn't help
you with WeStopSpam.org because their policy is to shoot
first and ask questions later ... but wait, on second thought,
they don't even ask questions later. They just shoot.
You don't get a "please explain" or anything else. You're
convicted first and then it's up to you to prove that you're
innocent. Of course, by then, the damage is done. But
WeStopSpam.org doesn't care. I'm sure they see it as just a
casualty of war.
DUMB HOST
OK, now let's turn to the real bad guy in all of this. The webhost
who shuts down a website on the grounds of nothing more than
the say-so of an unverified spam complaint. In my case, it's
DumbHost but I know there are many other webhosts and ISPs
out there who are just as irresponsible.
Here's the email I received from DumbHost informing me my site
had been shut down:
"To whom it may concern,
"We recieved [sic] the following spam complaint regarding
ahbbo.com. Your domain will be temporarily disabled for 3 days.
You can have your domain re-enabled at the end of this 3 day
period by requesting so at enable AT unsupportteam.net. If we
continue to recieve [sic] complaints, action may be taken to
disable your domain.
"Regards,
Abuse Response Team"
Regards!
The email that followed was the one from WeStopSpam.net.
Note that my site was shut down because "[w]e recieved [sic]
the following spam complaint regarding ahbbo.com". Not
because I had SPAMMED, mind you, but because DumbHost
had received a spam COMPLAINT. The notification that my
site had been disabled was the FIRST communication from
DumbHost on the matter.
An appropriate response would have been: "We've received a
complaint of spamming against you. We take all complaints
of spamming very seriously. Please let us have your response
to this complaint so we may take appropriate action". But I
guess that would have been too much like due process for
DumbHost to want to bother with.
Here's what followed:
From me to DumbHost:
"If you even bothered to read the "offending email" you will
see that it came from so-and-so.com, NOT ahbbo.com.
The publisher of the email in question reprinted one of my articles
in his newsletter. That article contained a resource box which
contained a link to my domain.
"If my site is shut down for ANY length of time as a result of this
complaint, expect a lawsuit without further notice."
Their reply (from "Level II Customer Care Representative" -
ha!):
"Was this bulk mail authorized by you? This is considered an
offense of our terms of service no matter where it originates as
long as the email is sent or authorized by you. The email
advertises your website, that is why your domain has been
disabled for 3 days.
Regards,
Abuse Response Team"
Me again:
"No! I've never heard of these people before. It is common
practice for newsletter publishers to publish articles written by
other people. The author's resource box is always included
at the end of the article. If this person's newsletter went to
someone who wasn't subscribed, then it's the newsletter
publisher who should be reported for spamming, not the
innocent author who is unfortunate enough to have their work
reprinted.
"Did anyone even read the email concerned before shutting
my site down? It's obvious what happened. If my site is not
reinstated today, I will be issuing legal proceedings tomorrow.
"By the way, don't you think your question should have been
asked BEFORE shutting me down, not after?"
Them again:
"Okay, I was asked to take a look at your account, I will forward
this information to abuse and they should get back to you
shortly...
"Best regards,
Jordan M.
Level II Customer Care"
(They apparently don't use full names at Level II Customer
Care. Can't imagine why.)
Finally, this one from the "Abuse Response Team" at DumbHost:
"In light of this new information, I have gone ahead and re-enabled
your domain. Be advised that any mass emails such as this will
be considered a violation of our terms of service. You may want to
take steps to ensure that services such as this are not sending
out this kind of advertisement for your site.
Regards,
Abuse Response Team"
Me:
"They did not send an advertisement for my site. My articles
are publicly available for reprint, as are thousands of other
authors'. It is usual practice for authors to give permission
for reprinting provided the newsletter publisher publishes the
author's resource box at the end of the article. It's a way of
generating traffic to the author's website.
"The author has no control over who uses the article in this
way. Is a paying advertiser in an ezine shut down if the
publisher of the ezine sends a spam email (assuming that
it was spam in the first place)? ... That policy makes no
sense whatsoever."
Them:
Nothing. Zip. Nada. No apology, no nothing.
Nice going DumbHost. You must be proud.
PLAN OF ACTION
My experience was pretty trivial in the scheme of things. I
was able to get my site restored in just a couple of hours.
Consider the damage that could be done to your business if
that didn't happen though. What would be the impact on
YOUR bottom line if your site was shut down for 3 days?
Or a week? Or for good?
So, what's the innocent party to do in a situation like this?
Here's one plan of action:
1. SUE irresponsible complainer for defamation.
2. SUE irresponsible spam police for defamation.
3. FIRE webhost.
4. SUE fired webhost for lost profits.
THE SOLUTION
I for one am not generally in favor of government regulation
when it comes to the Internet. This is one area, however,
that I must say some form of governmental control should
be taken. Where else but online can you have a situation
where it's commonplace for someone to take punitive action
against an innocent bystander BEFORE giving them a fair
hearing? Where else but online can ignorant and/or malicious
individuals be allowed to cause such injury to someone else's
livelihood without being called to account? Try that in the
real world and you'll be answering a charge of vandalism,
defamation and trespass to goods just to start.
It's high time someone took a balanced approach to the
issue of spam and recognized that, although spam is an
undeniable problem, so too are anti-spam zealots and plain
malicious types who think it's sport to trash some innocent
person's business and reputation. They should be held to
account for the damage they cause.
In addition, in recognition of this unfortunate fact of online
life, a fact, I might add, of which webhosts are only too well
aware, webhosts should also be held accountable for shutting
down livelihoods based only on the prosecution's case in chief.
The defense is entitled to be heard and any conviction that
results from a one-sided hearing is nothing short of an abject
denial of due process. The legal profession can't get away
with that. Why the hell should webhosts?
------
* Fictionalized names.
------
** Reprinting of this article is welcome! **
This article may be freely reproduced provided that: (1) you
use the autoresponder copy which contains a resource box;
(2) you leave the resource box intact; and (3) YOU ONLY
MAIL TO A 100% OPT-IN LIST!
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4.
1.
In response to the concerns of many people who complained
they were unable to sign up 4 people within 3 days (and
thus qualify for the $10 per name deal), the owners of the
Listmaker program are shortly going to be introducing a free
trial membership program.
All current members at the time will be upgraded to the $10
commission level and new people will be able to earn their
first 4 referrals to get $10 qualified through either free or paid
members who join under them.
Free members will have a time limited trial, be able to earn
commission, but only on the first few levels.
Importantly these free members will be added to your mailing
list making your investment even more valuable.
2.
Here's the lowdown on the CCC program:
1. Costs $9.95 to join. For that, you get a start up
package which includes camera ready materials and a 1/4
pound candy sample.
2. You have to purchase products - this is MLM, NOT a
pyramid scheme! You have to spend $30 a month
on product in order to earn your commissions.
3. You have to WORK. If that puts you off, stop reading now.
If not, then you'll be happy to learn that as part of the system
you receive a 30 day training course, one instalment a day.
Although a lot of the promotional and advertising resources
are free, you WILL need to spend money on advertising. That's
the nature of business ... any business.
4. Payout on the program is 70% over three levels - 40%,
20% and 10% with up to an additional 15% profit sharing
bonus.
5. Other factors to take into consideration:
=> Products that people actually WANT, not that they are
forced to order.
=> An established, reputable business. These people have
been in business since 1983 and started network marketing
in 1996.
=> You get a free website to promote that includes a chat
room as well as a forum where you can obtain additional
help and support. This free website, along with the 30 day
marketing training course, provides a simple system that
has brought in more than 50,000 distributors.
=> Same financial rating as Nestle & Hershey (Dunn &
Bradstreet).
If this sounds like an opportunity to you, you can find out
more by visiting the Cajun Country Candies website.
Click here:
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5.
TIP #1:
With Windows 98, you can drag items around directly on the
Start menu to change the order or which sub-menu an item is
located on. You can also right-click and delete, or see the
properties of the shortcut on the Start menu.
TIP #2:
To quickly change screen resolution for different applications,
right-click anywhere on the desktop, and then click Settings.
Under Screen area, move the slider bar to the desired resolution.
Your video card will determine the number of colors you can
use at a particular resolution.
------
Tips by Tom Glander and Joe Robson of The Newbie
Club. The best Newbie Site ever to hit the Web.
http://newbieclub.com/?start_here
6. Advertise in A Home-Based Business Online
A zero tolerance policy applies at AHBBO in relation to
undeliverable mail. This means that the recipient address
for emails returned "undeliverable" (including where the
recipient's mailbox is full) is automatically deleted from
the AHBBO subscriber database.
This policy has been introduced to more accurately reflect,
in the subscriber numbers, the number of eyes who will
actually see your ad. Because AHBBO classified ad rates
are calculated on a $CPM basis, this policy is intended to
maximize the return on your advertising dollar.
Current ad rates, subscription numbers and placement details
are at . Choose from
sponsor ads, single ad placements, Ad Paks (4 ads for the
price of 3) and exclusive mailings.
7. Subscription Management
Please note: email addresses for ALL returned mails are
automatically deleted from the AHBBO subscriber database.
If you have a free email account and want to continue
receiving this ezine, please make sure you clear out your
mailbox on a regular basis!
To SUBSCRIBE to this Newsletter
To UNSUBSCRIBE from this Newsletter
(Processing of unsubscriptions is automated. Please make
sure that your email is sent from the account you subscribed
with otherwise you will not be unsubscribed. If you've tried
to unsubscribe but keep receiving AHBBO, please make
sure you've tried to unsubscribe with the address you
subscribed with before contacting me.)
To CHANGE your Subscription Address
and in the body of the email tell me what your old address
was and what it needs to be changed to.
If you find this newsletter valuable, please forward it
in its entirety to your friends, family and associates!
8. Caveat Emptor
Although all of the information presented in AHBBO is
published in good faith, neither the publisher nor the
editor accept any responsibility as to the accuracy or
otherwise of the information presented. By making use of the
information contained in AHBBO the reader assumes all risk
that certain information may prove to be incorrect.
All advertisements are accepted in good faith. However,
advertisers are solely responsible for the content and
accuracy of their classified advertisements and no
warranties are given, nor responsibility accepted, by the
editor or the publisher in relation to any classified
advertisement appearing in this publication. ALWAYS carry
out your own due diligence!
9. Contact Information
Elena Fawkner, Editor
A Home-Based Business Online
Contact By Email
http://www.ahbbo.com
All Rights Reserved