good god i’m SO tired of all these scams out there! i get advertisers all the time via my websites, and more often then not they are network marketing scams that are trying to hook unsuspecting and naive mamas.
i read a fabulous article called “Seller Beware“, about the world of the work-at-home scams. i already pretty much felt that way about the MLM and network marketing world…it just confirmed my feelings.
i don’t want to be advertising this crap. oh sure there are legitimate companies like pampered chef and usborne books and discovery toys and such…but they still have the potential to end up losing women tons of money in the long run. usborne books is the only direct sales company, actually, that i’ve seen successfully run to the point that still, all these years later, the mom is still doing quite well. i think that’s because they really do have fabulous products and all of us clamor to buy those books! but they are the exception to the rule, i think. there’s always at least one.
anyway, as a website owner that offers advertising, i’m always bombarded with crap. i always try to turn away the blatant crap, and have even gotten to the point of turning away the lesser known crap. i hate network marketing companies as a whole, so why should i advertise them on my site? well they do pay, bleh. its a real dilemma at times when our family seriously needs the money. but i don’t want my sites becoming a repository of crap ads like most of the rest of the net. it really cheapens the website.
and i don’t think people take your site so seriously when there’s so many crap ads on them. maybe even if there’s a bunch of ANY ads, even quality ones! well i suppose it depends on the ad.
well i’ve accepted some ads that i was ok with. but i just refunded some money and deleted a new network marketing ad. i knew right away that it was one of those scams, like all the thousands of other ones out there. i don’t want that on my site. i still have mixed feelings about some of the ads that i still have on my site, but i’m working my way through them.
i don’t allow anything that i know is melaleuca on my site anymore. that’s scam with a capital S! stories abound on the net about THAT company! the problem is keeping up with which companies are melaleuca! stayin home and lovin it & m.o.m. team come immediately to mind, but i can’t remember all the rest…there’s a ton!
i need to go through and purge my mommy biz directory again…i think some melaleuca and some other crap have slipped through.
all of this just makes me really want to figure out a way for moms to be able to work from home that is LEGITIMATE! something that they can trust me to tell them about…something that is real and up-front and i can employ other moms to help me with …something that will benefit me to benefit them, but it will all be totally true and real and easy to understand…hm, the only idea that comes to mind is my idea to have a local family resource site for people to set up like mine. sell a template of what i have. actually i will have to redo my own template first, since i’m not longer working with the designer that designed that one and i want to redo it anyway.
well, that’s an idea i’ve had for awhile and i plan to pursue it at some point truly. i think its a fabulous idea…although i don’t know how many others out there will think so too. we’ll see, i guess.
first i need to revamp my own site and then figure out how to package it for sale. well, it can be done! 🙂
i’ve also already written and published a book to share with other moms How Create a High Quality “Mommy & Me” Program! i just wish i could know if there were lots of moms that have benefited from it or not. i’ve sold like 50, but have yet to hear back from any of them how it went. 🙁
turnitupmom
Thanks for your thoughts on advertising, as I am just about to enter into this realm. It's good to be wary of all the scams out there. And THANKS for your thoughts on Play. I sincerely appreciate your comments. I just posted a piece about a new wave of parenting, and I'd be curious to hear your "take" on this. Stop by….