Beware the Pyramid Scheme

Every age has its peculiar folly: Some scheme, project, or fantasy into which it plunges, spurred on by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the force of imitation.

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

Probably one of the first scams people interested in starting their own home business run into is a pyramid scheme and I was no exception. To my embarrassment, the brand of pyramid scheme that took me in when I first began was the classical chain letter (this is back in the dark ages about 10 years ago before most people had email).

I already knew about the bad reputation that chain letters had and I knew that most of the people who sent them out never made any money but desperation seems to shut down the critical reasoning areas of your brain and I was able to ignore the downsides while convincing myself that if I got creative enough this would work.

For those rare people who have never received one I'll explain how they work. The typical chain letter will have a list of about five names and addresses and you are suppose to send a dollar to each person on the list. Then you are suppose to put your name and address at the top of the list and remove the name of the person at the bottom. You then mail the letter to five people that you know. If everyone who receives this letter follows these instructions you wind up receiving thousands of letters with a one dollar bill inside.

This sounds great at first glance and it did make the first people to start chain letters very rich but if you follow it to it's logical conclusion you'll realize why it's now considered a scam (it's also illegal). Even if everyone followed the instructions exactly, the only people who would make money are the people who got started before everyone else got involved. Since the letter goes out at an exponential rate it doesn't take long before everyone has received their copy of the letter so who do the last few people who get the letter send their letters to?

Most people are immune to this form of pyramid schemes now but this concept has proven to be remarkably adaptable and has taken many other forms. Since I could never possibly cover every form it has taken I'll just leave you with some basic questions to ask yourself when you come across a new opportunity...

1. Does it have an inherent benefit that is worth whatever it costs to participate? For example, if there is a product involved would you buy that product even if there were no business opportunity attached AND for the price that it is offered?

2. Does it require that you recruit other people in order to get your benefit?

If you would like to read more I recommend you read the information from the US Postal Inspectors about Chain letters and Wikipedia has a nice article about pyramid schemes in general.

Making Money With Google Surveys?

Hi all,

I was going to do this first post on one of my first home business attempts but I thought instead I would talk about the Google survey offer since it is current news.

This particular offer certainly won't make anybody rich but since Google is paying up to $75.00 per hour for some of the surveys it might just pay a few bills if Google decides to hire you. Yet another nice thing about this offer is that you don't have to worry if it's a scam like you do with so many of the survey offers floating around the web.

Basically there are four different types of surveys that Google is doing:

1. A survey conducted at a Google office (there are several offices in different locations, see the FAQ to see if there is an office near you).

2. A remote call survey where Google calls you and you analyze their services over your internet connection. This survey requires that you have a high speed internet connection.

3. They actually come to your house to conduct the survey.

4. An online, self conducted survey. (This option probably pays the least.)

You can read more on Google's FAQ page. To sign up just log into your blogger blog and look for the announcement on the dashboard or you can sign up here.

I found it fairly easy to sign up though there were quite a few pages to fill out.

Will I get selected? I don't know but I'm guessing that the odds that I will are probably low since I'm sure they are bursting at the seams with eager survey takers. However, like I said it was pretty easy to sign up and you have to throw your hat in the ring if you would like a chance at something .

I'll post an update if they do choose me and let you know how it goes.

Welcome to Wendy's Homebusiness Adventures

Hello and welcome,

Many people are now searching desperately for a new source of income. For some it's because they just can't make enough money to pay the bills with their current job, for others it's because they are in danger of losing their current job (or they have lost it), for yet others their current job is so miserable that they practically have to put themselves in a metaphorical headlock in order to get themselves to go to work. Maybe you are all of the above, it certainly describes my situation.

So for those of us who are now in this predicament a new hope shines on the horizon... start your own home based business. I started to gain an interest in various aspects of this field when I was working in my first full time job and I began to realize that life simply wasn't going to work with the kind of jobs I was qualified to get. At the beginning of my work life when I should have the most optimism I realized I faced a lifetime of hard work in jobs I wasn't really good at for pay that didn't cover the bills (even when living in ratty apartments and driving a car that was paid off). Poverty isn't pleasant for anyone but if you grew up in the middle class it's especially distressing. You can still enjoy life if you don't have much as long as you are better off then you were before but if your life is getting worse you have the extra stress of knowing that things are going in the wrong direction without knowing where the slide is going to stop (or even if it will stop). This is an all too common story now (with the exception of the very rich) with most families perched on the financial edge.

I've spent every year since I first gained this interest in exploring various options and since so many of you out there are going through the same search I thought I would share what I have been learning along the way. Why should we each have to reinvent the wheel?

Here's to all our success.