It’s been a while since I’ve posted due to some unforseen difficulties and my recent move to Florida. Anyway, I’m back and have been wanting to share a story with you that will hopefully alert Internet Marketing Newbies as to how important it is to read the fine print when purchasing and/or joining work at home opportunities online.

A couple of months ago a friend of mine went online looking for work she could do from home. She came across a work at home opportunity that looked good to her and was seemingly inexpensive. She paid the small amount to join and got started on trying to figure out what to do to start making money. A few days later she called me and said she thought she had messed something up with the blog she was given and I told her I’d see if I could help her fix it. When she told me the name of the program and said that it cost her under $2.00 I asked if she had read the TOS “Terms of Service”. She said she did and that the $1.97 was all they were charging her.

When I went into her account for this program the first thing I did was pull up the TOS (Terms of Service). Well, in the TOS it did state that they charge $1.97 for a 7 day trial period. But, after the trial period the cost would be $69.00/mo.! Of course I called her right away so she could cancel before the 7 days was up (knowing she couldn’t afford it).

So why did my friend think that she had read the TOS? Well, a lot of sales pages have a little box for you to check agreeing to the Terms of Service. It’s possible to think that what you’re reading above the box you have to check is what the terms are, but they aren’t the terms. Under the box there is usually a tiny link in fine print you can click on to read the TOS (although it could be somewhere else on the page). This link is easily overlooked since the sales page states that all you need to pay is $1.97. Well, there isn’t much out there for $1.97, so most likely you get a trial period then a monthly fee immediately after. Always, always click on the TOS link and read the terms.

Some sales pages will have a clause in fine print stating the trial period and monthly fee (this could be located anywhere on the page), so make sure to look closely and read everything on the page before purchasing.

I’m not saying that any of this is illegal, just that it’s a little deceiving, especially if you’re new at internet marketing.

You don’t want to end up overdrawing on your bank account or spending money you don’t have because of overlooking the TOS agreement. And yes, I admit it, this happened to me plenty of times when I was just starting out!

So, remember to….READ THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND EVERYTHING ELSE ON THE SALES PAGE BEFORE PURCHASING! This will save you a lot of headaches and money!

Take care,

Lori

Hi Everyone,

I recently found a great free place to get your site and products out there! With Super List Explode you get your own personal mailing list built for you! Super List Explode is only a couple of months old and is growing rapidly. For example I have over 1600 people on my personal mailing list since I became a member a little over one month ago. And remember, it’s free to become a member!

The way Super List Explode works is that you become a Free Member and read 5 e-mails from other members each day then in return you get more members added to your personal mailing list. In my case I haven’t read member e-mails everyday, I’ve read maybe 5 a week, and my list is over 1600. Imagine how BIG my list would be by now if I HAD read 5 e-mails every day (I couldn’t during my move, I didn’t have much time to be online, but I wish I could have!)

So, if you want an additional way to get yourself out there this is a really awesome site. You’ll also get a “friends page” and you can post blogs and chat!

Here’s the link to become a free member: Super List Explode

Why not give it a try?

Have a great day,

Lori James

http://www.everythinghomebiz.com

lorijames@everythinghomebiz.com

Hi Everyone,

I haven’t been very active online lately because I’ve been very busy moving! I still have tons to unpack and organize, but I’m getting there. I couldn’t believe how much stuff I actually had! I guess after 17 years in the same place it all accumulates. But still, I really didn’t know I had room to fit all of that STUFF! There’s so much to do, I still haven’t changed my address (not enough time in the day as usual!.

Anyway, I have some really great stuff I’ll be putting up on my blog in the next few days. I’m really excited because I have so much to share with you, and not being able to be online much lately it’s all I’ve been thinking about!

Here are some hints as to what is coming – Great Social Media info, a really awesome How-To eBook, some great training sites and social sites, traffic tips and so much more!

So, check back soon!

Lori James

http://www.everythinghomebiz.com

lorijames@everythinghomebiz.com

Mark Joyner from Simpleology is giving away a blogging course! I’ve always wanted to try out a Simpleology course, from what I’ve heard they have some really great courses! Mark Joyner also asks for everyone’s feedback on this course, and you can post what you think about it on your blog. I can’t wait to see what his blogging course is like. Read on to see how to get your blogging course from Simpleology.

Have a great day,

Lori James

http://www.everythinghomebiz.com

lorijames@everythinghomebiz.com

Hi Everyone,

I have been extra busy the last few days working on getting traffic to my site. Now that the holidays and my grandson’s birthday are over I’ll have much more time available!

Here are some things I’m doing to get some traffic to my blog:

Technorati Favorites Blog Exchange

- I went to Jack Humphreys blog and participated in the Technorati Favorites Blog Exchange. What you need to do is favorite Jack Humphreys blog on Technorati, then leave him a comment with your URL and your Technorati user name and he’ll favorite you back! You can also favorite everyone who left him comments with their information.

I’ve heard that this is working well for some of Alex Jeffreys other students, so I finally got a chance to try it out. I will be going back to Jack’s blog today to favorite everyone who left their info in their comments. I think this one is a really great idea and could work well for getting traffic.

Social Bookmarking

- I visited J.T.Martin’s blog and saw that he had a great idea for Alex’s Students to start utilizing social bookmarking when visiting each others blogs!When you go to a fellow student’s blog and read a post take a few extra minutes to bookmark their post. This is something that will be helpful to all of us!

After reading J.T.’s post I signed up for a free account atOnlyWire. You will need to create an account with each social bookmarking site listed, which will take a little time, but it’s worth it in the long run. With Onlywire you will be submitting to 20+ social bookmarking sites all at once which will save you a lot of time. OnlyWire has a Wordpress plugin you can use, or an html script you can paste into your site to to add the “bookmark and share” button.

Then, of course, you can visit some of the other student’s sights and bookmark their posts!

Other Social Bookmarking Sites

I also created an account at Digg, which is very popular.
Reddit is another good site to sign up with.

I’ll be creating a Squidoo lens tonight!

Have a great day!

Lori James

http://www.everythinghomebiz.com

lorijames@everythinghomebiz.com

I had wanted to get off to a great start this weekend with getting traffic to my site, despite having to do my shopping for Christmas, bake cookies, and my grandson not believing in “sleep” lately. Even while I was busy with every thing else I kept thinking about how to get traffic to my site, and could hardly wait until I could get on my computer at night!

Well, it turned out to be a very frustrating weekend. I realized that their was something wrong with my “Twitter” account, then found some other problems with my Firefox browser. So, Friday night I had to uninstall, then reinstall my Firefox browser. Thursday night I had added a lot of students to my blogroll, then Saturday night I added even more students to my blogroll, posted on my blog, added some other links, etc…

This morning my grandson was watching a movie, so I figured I had 10 minutes or so to go online and check my mail and visit a few more of the other students blogs. I was shocked to see that the only thing on my blog was the Name of my blog, and nothing else, the rest was totally blank! I lost a lot of posts, a lot of student links, and some other links I had put on my blog in the last week.

I still have no idea how that could have happened! Anyway, I tried a few little things that didn’t fix it, then I tried to repair it, but that didn’t work either. So, I had to restore everything. I had backed-up my blog a week ago, but a lot of work I did after that back-up is gone. So, tonight I’m going to be adding students back onto my blogroll, and trying a few ways to get traffic.

Needless to say, I wasn’t generating any traffic to my site over the weekend. The earliest I had gone to sleep all week was 4:30am., so I guess doing my back-up was the furthest thing from my mind.

What happened to me could have been avoided if I had kept up with my back-ups. So, please remember to back up your work so you don’t lose it unexpectedly like I did! I know I’ll be remembering to back-up from now on!

I have to go generate some traffic now!

Take care,

Lori James

http://www.everythinghomebiz.com

lorijames@everythinghomebiz.com

Hi Everyone,

Here is a free plugin I came across a few days ago and wanted to share the info with you. It’s called Tweet My Blog. This powerful plugin works for you in 3 different ways:

- Every time you post to your blog you will automatically “ping” your Twitter account, and since your Twitter account will automatically contain a link back to your blog post you could end up driving a huge amount of traffic to your blog.

- You will also receive a blog “widget” that will automatically show your recent Twitter posts.

- The Twitter “pings” and the blog “widget” both contain a link back to Tweet My Blog that contains your affiliate link. So you will also make money as an affiliate.

The plugin is easy to install, and the directions are very good. This is a great way to start generating more traffic to your blog. And, remember, it’s FREE!

For more information Click Here.

Enjoy!

Lori James

http://www.everythinghomebiz.com

lorijames@everythinghomebiz.com