Business and Investment Center

If you turn on the T.V, or open up a newspaper you are likely to find an ad for a work at home company. These schemes are on the rise and you can find them almost anywhere, from the telephone pole flyers, to television commercials. These advertisements promise anything from a few bucks made on the side, to instant wealth and quick cash. But one has to ask the obvious question: Do these companies really deliver on their promises?

Caution should be exerted when looking into one of these advertisements. Most of these get rich quick plots, and work from home companies are just con artists looking to scam you out of your money. Most of the time you notice too late what has happened, and that these ads have left out some very important facts. They may have left out the fact that you will have to work many many hours to get the job done, and with out pay sometimes too. Some even charge fees which they do not disclose beforehand in their ads. Lying by omission is how most scams get into the business to begin with.

An unperceived number of work at home companies require their applicants to spend their own money to place newspaper ads, make photocopies, or buy envelopes, paper, stamps, and other supplies or equipment which they will need in order to perform their jobs. Sometimes, these work at home companies may even demand that you pay an additional amount for the instructions or “tutorial” software for training so you will be able to do your job properly. What they fail to say however is that this “training” or “instructions” that they speak of is actually available elsewhere, free of charge. Many consumers who have been deceived by the ads ran by these work at home companies have lost thousands of dollars. What’s more, all their time and effort that they invested on the schemes went down the drain.

Some classic schemes to look out for are things like:

Medical Billing: Companies pitch that there is a crisis in health care. The ads will say that in order to save money, doctors are looking for outside people to take care of paper work and billing over the internet. Such a job promises easy case, and lots of it, but what they will fail to mention is that you have to start the business on your own, gathering clients, advertising and generating revenues all on your own.

Envelope Stuffing: Work at home companies will ask you for a fee so that they will be able to send you “instructions” that tell you how to stuff envelopes and make money. But you will later realize that these instructions are actually the same ad you have received that they will tell you to send out in order to draw more people into the scam.

Famous is as famous does and the famous get known through publicity. Yes, that’s right, fame doesn’t discover you, you create it through strategic campaigning. What’s more, the techniques for increasing your exposure are not as difficult to attain as you might think. A great publicity campaign starts with courage, then planning, and lastly, it succeeds through persistence. If you’re not sure why you should seek fame, consider fortune because the two go hand in hand.

Fame will bring your business into the forefront of your target audience faster than any advertising campaign can hope to do. It solidifies you as an expert and creates a deep, abiding confidence in the consumer. It makes you a shining star with infinite possibilities. So what are the steps you ask? Well paste a gold star to your forehead and let’s get started.

1. Press Releases:
Increase awareness through a press release. Yes, I know, press releases have become quite the popular little tool around cyberspace with releases being blasted hither and there, but are they working? Probably not. Blasting your press release will bring blasted little results. Instead, thoughtfully put together a very dynamic one-page press release and target publications that would be most interested in you and your business. Don’t drone out the details; make that press release sing your praises. Then send it to a real live editor and follow up with a phone call. In other words, let the press release be the invitation to your follow up phone call. Begin making connections with the media. Be polite, be excited, and be patient.

2. Create A Press Kit:
A Press kit is basically an exaggerated press release turned into a package. It’s more complex, tells more about you and your company, and is all pulled together into a nice neat folder. Of all the questions I receive, first is, what is a press kit? Simply, it is a folder of information about you or your business. It should contain:

A. An Introduction Letter
B. One or Two Press Releases
C. A Fact Sheet
(This contains the facts about you or your business.)
D. Bio Sheet
(Which is a biography of you and your accomplishments.)
E. Copies of Published Articles
F. Company Literature
G. A Business Card

Send your press kit when an editor, publisher, or producer wants to know more about you.

3. Newsletters Offline.
Don’t forget that a whole world exists offline. Locate newsletters or smaller print publications offline and submit articles. This can be a very dynamic way to increase your exposure as well as add to your press kit. You can locate newsletters in your subject area by visiting the local university library reference section. Ask for a directory of trade newsletters and do your research. Once you have been published, it’s easier to step up to the larger publications. Fame starts small and then snowballs onto itself.

4. Speak Up!
Yep, that’s right. Start giving speeches on your area of expertise. Start locally at civic clubs and local educational programs. Then find the local talk radio shows and make your case to the producer. It’s surprising how many talk radio shows are actively looking for new speakers. Once you have achieved Talk Radio, the opportunities will start coming to you.

5. Publicity Pitches:
Put together several dynamic article ideas. Just the ideas, not the actual article. This is called a Publicity Pitch. Take those ideas and then pitch them to editors of targeted publications. This can work very well as it saves Editors time and puts the outline right into their hands. As a past Editor I know how well this works. Editors love ideas, especially ideas that are completely outlined and correct for their readership. This means don’t send pet article ideas to cooking magazines. Send pet articles ideas to pet publications. Seems like a no brainer, huh? But you’d be amazed at what editors see that don’t apply to their own publication.

Fame comes from planning and persistence. It has its rejections, but if you can learn not to take it personally, it will eventually work. Remember, once you start, keep going. Once you stop, you have to start all over.