New Home Business Idea of the Week

A Home-Based Business Online

                     Practical home business ideas, opportunities
                         and solutions for the work-from-home
                                          entrepreneur

                               Issue 133 : May 13, 2002

                           Sent to 13,019 Opt-In Subscribers

                                     Editor: Elena Fawkner
                                Publisher: Fawkner Publishing
                                    http://www.ahbbo.com
                                   mailto:elena@ahbbo.com

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IN THIS ISSUE

1.     Welcome and Update from Elena
2.     Home Business Idea of the Week
3.     Feature Article - Ab Gizmos and Other Assorted Snake
        Oils
4.     Surveys and Trends
5.     Success Quote of the Week
6.     Advertise with AHBBO
7.     Subscription Management
8.     Caveat Emptor
9.     Contact Information

1. Welcome and Update from Elena

Hello again and a warm welcome to all the new subscribers
who have joined us since the last issue.

This week's feature article is a reminder about deceptive
and misleading advertising in your online business. "Ab
Gizmos and Other Assorted Snake Oils" is at segment 3.

The AHBBO quarterly 2-for-1 advertising sale exclusively
for AHBBO subscribers is still on. Details in segment 6.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this week's
issue.

Remember, AHBBO 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 .

2. Home Business Idea of the Week - Woodworking

If you're handy with table saws, wood lathes, and related
equipment and woodworking tools, a lucrative business is
the purchase, repair and resale of old furniture. Not just
davens or arm chairs either. Everything from baby furniture
and children's play equipment, to antique bedroom sets.

You can pick up just about anything at garage sales, moving
sales, yard sales, flea markets and sometimes find a bargain
at a second hand store.

Quite often you can clean out someone's attic or garage and
take the "junk" as pay for your services. Strip and repaint the
various furniture, tighten it up, change and modernize, do
whatever is necessary to put it in good saleable condition with
the least amount of time and expense.

Advertise that you purchase old and broken down furniture on
one side of the newspaper ad and on the other side your ad
can detail the large choice of all types of tables, chairs, baby
furniture, children's play things and other furniture and toys
you have available at bargain prices.

You can start out in your basement or garage, but eventually,
as your business grows you may have to rent or buy a workshop
and sales display area, or set up a retail outlet.

After you become more experienced you can specialize only in
those items that have the best market and make the most
money per unit. Then when you grow large enough, distribute
your works to various sales outlets on a distributorship or
wholesale basis.

-----

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3. Feature Article: Ab Gizmos and Other Assorted Snake
Oils

© 2002 Elena Fawkner

Big news this week. The FTC's going after the companies
behind the ab gizmos. You know the ones - develop six-pack
abs in 6 weeks without doing a single situp. All you do is
strap on this belt gizmo and it sends hundreds of electrical
charges to the abdominal muscles causing them to contract.
Voila! All the benefits of hundreds of crunches without any
effort.

The FTC's claiming millions of dollars from these companies.
This is just to disgorge the money these companies received
from customers.

Why? The ab gizmos don't work. It's all a big fat lie.

Well ... duh.

So why, then, have these companies made hundreds of
millions of dollars?

Because there are an awful lot of people who want something
for nothing. They don't want to have to wait, they don't want
to have to expend effort. They desperately want to believe it's
possible to get something now and without working for it.

So, they'll fork over $99 in 3 easy instalments for a gizmo that
will give them rock-hard abs in six weeks while in the meantime
they sit around the pool doing nothing but sipping Margueritas.
No matter that it won't work. Hope is alive and well and that's
what they've paid for.

And that's what these marketers are selling, after all. They're
not selling an ab gizmo. They KNOW they don't work. But that's
OK because what they're selling is hope. The hope that maybe,
with this doodad, you won't have to get in shape the way all
those other poor schleps have to. You won't have to go on a
diet to lose fat and exercise to build muscle. Nosiree, not you.
We're going to give YOU a magic wand!

Sound familiar? What was in your inbox this morning after
you finally downloaded all your mail? How many emails did
you receive telling you that you can make $3,000 a week
doing nothing? Or you can earn a full-time income with part-
time work? Or, how about this, "We'll do all the work!"?
(After you pay us $60 for your place in the matrix, that is.)

Or maybe you've written ads like these yourself. Smart
marketer that you are, you know that the best way to sell
your product is to market it as something that will take away
pain. You know that for your target market, working in a
J.O.B. (just over broke) day after day is painful. You offer
a way to escape that pain.

But take a closer look at your ad. If you're pushing a
matrix program, you know, deep down where it counts,
that you probably got in too late yourself and anyone who
comes in under you is even further down the pyramid (er,
matrix). You're not only engaging in an illegal activity
- a pyramid scheme (and no, sticking a matrix label on it
doesn't change what it is) - if you're advertising it as a
way for someone to invest $30 and take away $30,000
in 30 days (or ANY time period for that matter), you're
doing exactly the same thing as the ab gizmo companies.
You're selling snake oil. Think the FTC won't come after
you? Think again.

Or maybe you're not promoting a pyramid scheme. Maybe
you're promoting a legitimate network marketing program.
I'm all in favor of network marketing as a business model.
I'm involved in one myself. But I don't go telling people
they can get rich overnight just by slapping up a website
and spending a couple of hours a week sending email. I
tell people it takes a five year commitment, and long, hard
hours. Think that loses me sign-ups? You bet.

But I don't want get rich quick types in my organization.
Nor do I want those who are not prepared to invest any
time or money in their businesses. This is NOT a free ride.
There ARE no free rides and I don't want passengers. I want
drivers. I want people who are prepared to invest in their
businesses and their futures. Because that's what it takes to
make a success of any business. An investment of time, an
investment of money and an investment of directed effort.

Or maybe you're not promoting a network marketing
program OR a pyramid scheme. Maybe you're promoting a
great new book you've written (or someone else has
written) about how to generate bucketloads of cash running
an Internet business. Have YOU generated bucketloads of
cash from this book? Then don't sell others the hope that
they can either.

You may think those people who spent hundreds of millions
of dollars on a gizmo that was never going to work got what
they deserved by looking for a free ride. And maybe they
did. I don't have any sympathy for them. But that doesn't
let the companies who conned them off the hook. They
exploited weakness in others for their own pecuniary gain and
they did it dishonestly.

The FTC will make them pay for their deceptive and misleading
advertising. And it can do the same to you, too.

------

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------

Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ...
practical business ideas, opportunities and solutions for the
work-from-home entrepreneur.
http://www.ahbbo.com

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4. Surveys and Trends

© 2002 Ryanna's Hope

=> ADVERTISING REALITIES

Research is now showing that consumers have a long desire
to get back to some "norms" in their lives and as a result,
actually spend "less time shopping around," either in stores
or on the Net. That translates into a simple fact: they want
to save time shopping; they want you to have the product
or service right now (not in layaway) and they want the
proper customer support to go with it.

If you can't save them time, there's a good chance they are
not going to buy from you. And furthermore, you'd better be
able to convince them on the first try! (Source: America
Research)

=> INTRUSION ...WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

Online advertising is becoming more intrusive as marketers
vie for the attention of surfers with a new generation of
catchy Web ads that are hard to ignore.

Surfers have learned to ignore banner ads or click past
pop-up ads. But they often have no choice but to watch a
growing number of new ads, which stream across their
screens or block out portions of the Web pages they're trying
to view. These ads are designed so that they don't leave the
screen until the message has been delivered.

Some obscure all or part of a page; others, when clicked on,
transport surfers to sites they might not want to visit.

These new ads take three forms: floating or flash ads, also
known as vokens (short for virtual tokens), which feature
animation, such as a car moving across a computer screen;
interstitials, which are full-page billboards that pop up without
the user requesting them; and full-page commercials.
(Source: Ad Education Foundation)

=========================

Advertising Time Line...

1872 - U.S. Postmaster General is given authority to forbid
use of mail to "persons operating fraudulent schemes," which
constitutes first federal power to regulate misleading
advertising.

1929 - The volume of complaints about deceptive advertising
becomes so heavy that the Federal Trade Commission sets
up a separate Board of Investigation to oversee their
disposition.

=========================

=> THE TRENDS OF POPUP ADS

According to a report from Arlington, Va.-based Cyveillance,
more than 30 percent of top sites in the U.S. use pop-ups,
or ads that automatically launch in separate browser windows
when a user enters or exits a site. Pioneered by the online
pornography industry, pop-up ads are becoming more
mainstream as the economic downturn drives companies to
seek revenue by all available means.

Some advertisers that have used the technology include
eBay.com, Real.com Networks and X10.com, a consumer
electronics e-tailer that launched an aggressive pop-up
campaign last summer.

=> COMPANY INTRUSIONS

More than five percent of sites on the Internet adopt
"mouse-trapping" tactics, which disable the user's ability to
go back, exit or close while viewing a Web page. To increase
ad revenue though higher visit time statistics, sites also use
"framing" to keep visitors on the original site while viewing the
content of another through the original site's window.
(Source: Ad Education Foundation)

=> SUGGESTIONS ON THIS NEW TREND

Use pop-ups judiciously and sparingly -- don't bombard your
customer.

Don't display the pop-up every time the user visits your web
site.

Define the singular purpose of the window and don't clutter
it with multi-messages.

The window should close automatically after the user
responds.

Make windows unobtrusive and don't hog the page.

When used properly, pop-ups have proven to be an effective
method for eliciting a response from a specific audience. Try
this experiment: institute a simple survey on your site and see
how many responses you get. After a limited amount of time,
remove the survey and create another simple poll using a
pop-up window. You should see an increase in the number of
responses.

Whether you use pop-up windows for advertising, surveys, or
special promotions, it is important to respect the personal
space of the user.

Here's a good rule when creating pop-up windows -- less is
effective, more is annoying. (Source: Robin Greenspan, Inet)

=> WHEN YOU THOUGHT THE POPUPS WERE A PAIN!

What's the most irritating advertising trend right now? Junk
mail disguised to resemble important correspondence, growled
77 percent of readers, stuffing their wastebaskets with
papers that look like checks, wedding invitations and bank
statements.

------

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5. Success Quote of the Week

Sometimes the only thing we do to avoid success is refuse
to be energetic on our own behalf.
-- Barbara Sher

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===

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ezine itself.

Therefore, assuming you place your ad in an ezine with
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group of highly targeted prospects for your product or
service.

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To learn more about advertising in the AHBBO ezine,
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8. Caveat Emptor

Although all of the information presented in AHBBO is
published in good faith, I accept no 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.

**I do not endorse any advertisements unless stated to the
contrary. Your money, your decision, your responsibility.**

All advertisements are accepted in good faith. However,
advertisers are solely responsible for the content and
accuracy of their classified advertisements and I give no
warranties, nor accept any responsibility, in relation to any
classified advertisement appearing in this publication. ALWAYS
carry out your own due diligence! Remember, if it sounds too
good to be true, it probably is.

9. Contact Information

Elena Fawkner, Editor
A Home-Based Business Online
Contact By Email
http://www.ahbbo.com

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Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ... practical ideas, resources and strategies for your home-based or online business. http://www.ahbbo.com