Business Opportunities and Internet Marketing Systems that Don't Work

Highlights

Business "Systems"
Currency Exchange
Mlm Businesses
"Free" Business Packages
Distributorship Websites
Private Investing
Home Business Directories
Pixel Advertising
Offshore Investing

Home Business Directories

What could be bad about the thousands of "Home Business Directories" out there, all of them claiming only "legitimate" information?

Their definition of "legitimate" isn't quite accurate. It excludes only outright scams, and most of the directories online are filled with half-scams. The site owners are rarely aware of what they are truly advertising, their examination of advertisers for their sites is usually cursory, and based on the seller's claims of honesty rather than a hard scrutiny of what they are really selling.

It seems that every day a hundred or so moms will decide that they want to build a home business, and the vehicle of their choice is a home business directory. They figure they can promote home business opportunities - only the good ones, mind you! - and make their income that way. They'll make money from advertisers and from affiliate links.

Problem is, the market is already flooded, so it is not a good idea to start with - hard to get traffic. That means that it is hard to get advertisers. Far harder than they thought it would be. The only people wanting to advertise are peddlers of business opportunities, and those are nearly all ones that would be impossible to succeed at. And affiliate links do not work well on sites that are all ads either - in fact, the only affiliate links that seem to work are those for half-scams - sometimes the site owners realize what they are, most often, I think they really do not know what it is they are promoting.

The majority of popular home business directories promote a LOT of stuff that I'd class as shady. I've yet to see one that did not have something directly advertised on it that was questionable, if not outright misleading - and I am NOT counting AdSense ads. If you think yours is different, by all means, ask for a review, but don't do so unless you want the unvarnished truth. If I find one worth recommending as 100% clean, I'll post it here.

Many other Home Business Sites not only have shifty advertisers, but they sell a lot of things that are not good - or they give them away as freebies. Bad internet marketing books are at the top of the list, followed by useless resale rights products.

If you want a home business, PLEASE do not go looking for a Home Business Directory site. And don't expect to find your lifeline there! Instead, think about things you'd really like to DO, and search on those, and look for options in those search results. You'll get much better information that way.

And I really beg you not to think that you can start a home business by creating another one. You might as well toss a piece of sand into the ocean and expect that it will land in an oyster and turn into a pearl that is waiting for you next time you wade in.

Written by Laura Wheeler, MicroBusiness Website Developer, and founder of the MicroWebmasters Alliance

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