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Real Home Business Reviews… from Real People

Jan 7

Posted by Garry in 5 Stars | No Comments

REAL Home Business Ratings and Reviews…

for Newbies

  • Are you tired of wasting money on businesses that aren’t right for you?
  • Disappointed that the home business opportunities you’ve invested in assume that you have prior knowledge or experience that you just don’t have?
  • Do you want a complete, step-by-step system for making money at home?

If this describes you, you’re not alone… heck, I’m right there with ya. I can’t tell you how much money, and how much time I’ve  spent over the years on business opportunities that just didn’t seem to be all they were hyped up to be.

The home business reviews you find here will be different from the others you’ve seen!

Our Home Business Ratings and Reviews assume:

  • You are brand new to the business
  • The opportunity is the only program you need to get started
  • Real reviews – not just re-hashes of sales pages

I hope to help you find the best home business opportunity… for you.

Please feel free to leave comments and submit your reviews!

What is a Niche Market?

Jun 18

Posted by Garry in Articles | No Comments

What exactly, is a niche market?

If you are looking to make money from home in affiliate marketing, (selling other people’s products,) then you no doubt want to find a niche market to sell your products to.

Perhaps the biggest mistake beginning internet marketers make is not properly defining the specific market of people that they are trying to sell to. Let’s face it, there are probably thousands of sites related to your product that are more established on the internet that you must compete against to try to get your share of the customer’s money. There’s a lot of competition, and you must be able to set yourself apart from the others in order to get people to see your offer, and then, hopefully, buy from you.

Successful affiliate marketers make their livings marketing to small, but very profitable niches, or groups of people.

These marketers identify specific problems that groups of people are having, and offer them information, and a solution to their problem.

Niche Marketing Examples

Here are some examples, both good and bad, of internet marketing niches:

“Bad” Examples of Niche Marketing:

  • Dog Training
  • Golf better
  • Weight loss

“Good” Examples of Niche Marketing:

  • Train puppy to stop biting
  • How to cure a golf slice
  • How to lose weight for diabetics

If you concentrate your marketing efforts on the second group above, your chances of success are greatly increased as you’ll be able to use low and no-cost internet marketing techniques without having to create a massive website in order to compete.

How to Find a Niche

A little niche marketing research will go a long way towards helping you create a successful, and profitable, online marketing campaign.

Here’s a great video showing you how to do niche marketing research using Google search to help you find a specific niche to market to:

Need help with your niche marketing research?

Or better yet, would you like it done for you?

Check out the service offered by InstaCash Keywords. You can get a week of their service for only $4.95 to see if it’s right for you.

Visit InstaCash Keywords

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How to Make Your Own Website for Free

Feb 22

Posted by Garry in Articles | No Comments

Thinking About Making a Free Website?

It’s very tempting, when you are just beginning, to want to make a website for free. Hey, no one wants to waste money, in fact, I started out using free websites myself, they are a great way to get your feet wet, and learn some of the ins and outs of website creation. I was also under the (mistaken) impression that a “real” website was expensive and difficult to create.

Where to Make a Free Website

Here are some of the better places to make a free website:

  • Blogger.com is a great place to start a free blog. It’s super-easy to get a blog started in just a matter of minutes. It’s run by Google, so it’s easy to add Google Adsense to your free blog to help make some money.
  • Squidoo.com has a page creator that’s simple to use, and can create a nice free webpage. You can’t really make a free website here, but you can make a series of pages, and link them together.
  • Weebly.com lets you make a free website with their site creator that more closely resembles a real website. They also don’t have advertising embedded in your free website, like many of the other free website hosts.

Disadvantages of Making a Free Website:

  • No Control – free website hosts are kind of famous for changing their terms of service. They may, at some point, decide not to host websites with particular content. I’ve had sites removed because the free website host changed their minds on what they wanted their site to be about.
  • Limited Advertising – many free website hosts limit what kind of advertising you use on your website, and some allow advertising supplied only by them (where they get a cut of your money.)
  • Your Free Website Could Just “Disappear” – many free web hosts just “lose” your website when they do updates, etc. It stinks, but it happens all the time.

Making a Website for Free Makes Sense if…

  • you are making a website just for fun, or experience
  • you don’t plan on making money with your website

How to Make Your Own Website for CHEAP

It really doesn’t cost much to own a website that YOU have absolute control of. No need to worry about changing terms from the free website hosts limiting what content you have on your website, or how you choose to make money with your website.

You can make your own website for under $20… yup twenty bucks!

That $20 includes your:

  • Domain name – you can get a .com name for $8.95 a year at Go-Mama, just plug in your desired domain name in where it says “Check Domain Availability.” If the name you want is not available, it will give you other possible domain names that are available.
  • First Month of Hosting – I use HostGator. It’s $9.95 a month (less if you prepay) and comes with unlimited domain names on just one hosting account. No need to buy a new hosting account for each website you make! No matter how many websites you choose to make, they’ll all get hosted for this one low monthly price!
  • To Make a Website, I use WordPress. It’s a blog-style website where your visitors can interact with you. It’s very flexible, and your website will be picked up quickly by the search engines.

Need Help Setting Up a WordPress Website?

If you’ll get your hosting through my Host Gator link, I’ll install and configure a WordPress website for you FREE. (I get paid by the Gator)

To Get Your Website:

  • Buy a domain name. I don’t care where you get it, but you can use the go-mama link above to get a .com for $8.95.
  • Buy Your Hosting Through the HostGator link above

Then, Send me an email with a copy of your hosting payment. We’ll then set up a time to talk on the phone, or web chat, then we’ll get you rolling. I’ll even do a little keyword research for you, point you to some nice free tutorials giving you the ins and outs of internet marketing, and answer further questions for you through email for 30 days. If you need help choosing a domain name, email me at the link above.

If you’re ready to own your own website, this is a great way to get started!

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Project Quick Cash Review

Feb 7

Posted by Garry in 2 Stars | No Comments

Product: Project Quick Cash

Author: Alok Jain

Website: ProjectQuickCash.com

Type of Business: Internet Marketing

Cost: $47

Reviewed by: Garry

Review of ProjectQuickCash by Alok Jain:

ProjectQuickCash gives you 5 money-making ideas by using internet marketing.

  1. Cashing the Spike Part 1 tells you how to research hot trends and find keywords that people are searching for at the time. He shows how search trends can change even hourly, and how you can “cash in” on them. You then find a product to promote, and create a Google Adwords campaign to run ads to try to take advantage of the trend, and send people directly to the merchant’s website. Good info for experienced internet marketers, but not near enough help for a new marketer.
  2. Cashing the Spike Part 2 shows how to create a “funny news” catch-all free blog to take advantage of the same trends spotted in part 1, then use social bookmarking sites to promote that blog to try to get Google Adsense clicks. Again, ok for experienced marketers, but there are too many nuances involved for new marketers, in my opinion.
  3. Underground Niche Profits is probably the best section for inexperienced marketers, but I personally, don’t like this style of marketing. It involves participating in forums to sell products through a forum signature link. Please.
  4. Super Placement Targeting involves targeting potential customers with Google Adwords by advertising strictly on sites that used Google Adsense. WAY above what a new marketers should be even contemplating using as a home business.
  5. Leeching on a Launch involves trying to muscle in with the big boys by promoting new affiliate marketing books when they are released. Newbies should stay away from messing with this niche, it’s WAY too competitive!

In Summary: ProjectQuickCash is way above the heads of internet marketers that are just starting out. It has some decent information for highly experienced marketers. I did find interesting the section on spotting search trends, but that was information that’s easily available online at no cost.

My Rating: From a newbie’s perspective… I give it a 2 out of 5

star Project Quick Cash Reviewstar Project Quick Cash Reviewemptystar Project Quick Cash Reviewemptystar Project Quick Cash Reviewemptystar Project Quick Cash Review (2/5)

PS: This product is no longer available. The author says he is protecting his customers by not flooding the market further. Good.

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Honest Riches Review

Feb 6

Posted by Garry in 5 Stars | No Comments

honestriches Honest Riches ReviewProduct: Honest Riches ebook

Author: Holly Mann

Website: HonestRiches.com

Type of Business: Internet Marketing

Cost: $37

Reviewed by: Garry


Review of Honest Riches by Holly Mann

I’ve been subscribing to email lists from the so-called internet marketing “gurus” for years, and I’ve been slammed by emails from these gurus pushing every book and internet marketing course you can dream of…

Every new release of anything from any of the gurus gets me at least a dozen emails… ugh.

Holly Mann’s Honest Riches has never been promoted to me (still to this day!) by those gurus, I just kinda stumbled onto it after clicking link after link trying to find some real help with my internet marketing questions.

And I figured out why it’s never been promoted to me…

It was all I needed to get started in business for myself! I guess the gurus figured out that if I bought Honest Riches, I wouldn’t need anything else they “offered” to me.

She shows you step-by-step, everything you need to know on how to:

  • do keyword research
  • make money without a website
  • set up free and paid-for websites
  • advertise

It’s set up into 10 sections, each giving you step-by-step, easy-to-follow  instructions for the topic covered.

My Opinion in a nutshell:

If you’re struggling to get started in affiliate marketing, and are looking for a path to follow, definitely try Honest Riches. I think you’ll be amazed at how different it is from most of the other home business ebooks.

My Rating:

Easily, the tops

star Honest Riches Reviewstar Honest Riches Reviewstar Honest Riches Reviewstar Honest Riches Reviewstar Honest Riches Review (5/5)

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Online Marketing Course (it’s FREE!)

Jan 29

Posted by Garry in 5 Stars | No Comments

Found a fantastic FREE online marketing course for ya…

If you’re looking for real internet marketing help, then check out InternetMarketingforMommies (don’t worry, guys are welcome too!)

It’s a great blog by a stay-at-home mom who has taken the time to create excellent  step-by-step tutorials for beginning internet marketers. I’m absolutely amazed that she doesn’t charge for this information. If she were to charge for it, it would be worth every penny, no matter what she charged.

If you’re strapped for cash, there’s an excellent online marketing course for creating free niche websites with Squidoo. She’ll show you step-by-step how to make a small network of pages promoting a product, which you receive commissions for sales.

If you’re interested in making money blogging, there’s an online marketing course for that too. She’ll show you step-by-step how to use internet marketing blogs, both free (blogger) and hosted (WordPress) with installation, setup, content, and advertising tutorials.

Why does she give you all this info for free? She’ll offer to review your Squidoo lenses for a small charge. A great service for beginners, just to get an experienced internet marketer to make sure you’re on the right path. Internet marketing help that cheap is pretty rare… and refreshing!

If you’re looking for a great online marketing course for making money blogging, you’ll get some real internet marketing help at InternetMarketingforMommies.

P.S. Make sure to grab her free Squidoo course, just sign up for her mailing list!

My Rating: Even though it’s a FREE course, I’m going to rate this information anyways…

star Online Marketing Course (its FREE!)star Online Marketing Course (its FREE!)star Online Marketing Course (its FREE!)star Online Marketing Course (its FREE!)star Online Marketing Course (its FREE!) (5/5)

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One Week Marketing Review

Jan 28

Posted by Garry in 5 Stars | No Comments

Get Free Info! Product: One Week Marketing by Pot Pie Girl

Website: One Week Marketing

Type of Business: Internet Marketing

Cost: $47

Reviewed by: Garry

Review of One Week Marketing by Pot Pie Girl:

Finally!! A Complete, Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Marketing

If you’ve been struggling to get going in internet marketing (selling other people’s products,) then you’ve no doubt spent some money on some of the “guru” guides that promise you’ll be rich within days… if you’ll just follow their so-called “system.” Then, when you get the guide, it’s not really the step-by-step system you were promised. The author assumed you had prior knowledge or experience which you just didn’t have.

That is not the case with One Week Marketing. Jennifer (a.k.a. Pot Pie Girl) walks you absolutely step-by-step how to create an entire  niche marketing campaign, within a week, using only FREE marketing techniques. Of course, she’ll recommend tools to make your life easier, but you can absolutely this program with no other investments of money.

She shows you step-by-step how to:

  • Find a niche to market to
  • Find a product to sell them
  • Find keywords that the market is searching for
  • Create a FREE website
  • Advertise your website (lots of detail here, which is pretty rare!)

Until I found this guide, I’d picked up bits and pieces of how to create an affiliate marketing campaign, but this gave me the absolute step-by-step map I had been desperately searching for.

I have since moved my efforts away from free blogs, websites, etc. in favor of websites with hosting, but if you’re reading this review, it is because of what I learned in One Week Marketing.

I will tell you, that this home business opportunity WILL take some effort on your part, you won’t make money simply buying the information, but if you’ll commit to 10-15 hours a week to your business, you’ll build a nice business over time.

If you’re looking for a great home business that you can start part-time, with the potential to go full-time, check out One Week Marketing by the Pot Pie Girl.

My Rating: very easily, a 5 out of 5

star One Week Marketing Reviewstar One Week Marketing Reviewstar One Week Marketing Reviewstar One Week Marketing Reviewstar One Week Marketing Review (5/5)

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Can You Get Paid for Taking Surveys?

Jan 23

Posted by Garry in 1 Star | No Comments

This post is going to be a bit different for the others, as I am not reviewing a particular product, but a group of home business products…

One of the most prominent so-called home business “opportunities” on the internet regards getting paid to take on line surveys.

Are on line surveys a scam? not really…

Can you actually get paid for taking surveys on line?… maybe

Does that answer your question? ; )  let me explain…

How On line Surveys Work:

  • You register with a number of different survey companies, and answer what could be pages upon pages of information about you, your family members, and your spending habits. The time spent simply registering which just one survey company can be considerable.
  • When survey opportunities arise, the company sends the survey offer to those that may be qualified to respond to the survey. Sometimes though, you may answer 5-10 minutes of questions, thinking you’re actually answering the survey for money, but, you’re actually only doing the “screener” survey, where the survey company is further weeding out people. They are usually screening further people that are actually using not only a particular product, but also a particular brand of that product. If you’re not using that particular brand of product, you’re disqualified, and don’t earn money, though you may have spent considerable time answering the screener questions.
  • Also keep in mind that the particular survey company has a database of thousands of survey takers, but a particular survey may only need, say 100 respondents. If you’re not in those first 100 respondents, you don’t get to take the survey. These survey opportunities could be gone in a matter of minutes.

You can make money with on line surveys IF…

  • You are able to do surveys as soon as you get the notification email. In other words, you are available anytime during the daytime.
  • Minorities (especially Hispanic women) will get many more opportunities, than say, a single, white male.

You will not get paid much for taking on line surveys IF…

  • You try to do the surveys only on nights and weekends. Sure, you may make a couple bucks, but nothing significant.
  • The typical survey I received has averaged $1-3. Every great once in a while, I’ll receive an opportunity paying $5-10, but they’re always expired by the time I get to them.

My Rating:

For me, on line surveys are a complete waste of time and money. I’m sure some people have made some money from them, but I wasn’t one of them.

I give them a 1 out of 5

star Can You Get Paid for Taking Surveys?emptystar Can You Get Paid for Taking Surveys?emptystar Can You Get Paid for Taking Surveys?emptystar Can You Get Paid for Taking Surveys?emptystar Can You Get Paid for Taking Surveys? (1/5)

No referral link, I don’t want to be responsible for when you realize the time involved without much pay. : )

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MicroNicheFinder Review

Jan 21

Posted by Garry in 4 Stars | No Comments

micro2box1251 MicroNicheFinder Review

Product: MicroNicheFinder
Website: MicroNicheFinder.com
Type of Business: Internet Marketing
Cost: $97
Reviewed by: Garry

Review of MicroNicheFinder:

If you are an internet marketer, you know how time-consuming research can be. Finding a market to advertise products to can easily take hours in order to find a single, potentially profitable niche market. I’ve spent countless hours searching for markets, only to be frustrated in the end. MicroNicheFinder has helped me find nice niche markets to sell products to in just minutes, instead of hours. It’s super-easy to use, and quickly gives you the information you need in order to make a decision as to whether or not your chances of succeeding in a particular market is good.

MicroNicheFinder is a great tool for internet marketers to help them find:

  • What people are searching for
  • How much competition there is for that market
  • Whether or not that market is likely to spend money

To see this nice tool in action, visit: MicroNicheFinder Videos

Warning: This is NOT a stand-alone home business, in my opinion, you WILL need a basic understanding of affiliate marketing, and how to create a presence on the internet in order to fully utilize MicroNicheFinder.

For help in getting started in internet marketing, I recommend:

My Rating:

For what it does, it’s definitely a 5 out of 5, but MicroNicheFinder is really not set up to be a business in itself… you’ll need another program related to internet marketing in order for this to be useful.

From that standpoint, I give it a 4/5

star MicroNicheFinder Reviewstar MicroNicheFinder Reviewstar MicroNicheFinder Reviewstar MicroNicheFinder Reviewemptystar MicroNicheFinder Review (4/5)

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Address America Review

Jan 18

Posted by Garry in 5 Stars | No Comments

Boardwalk 30 Vicksburg Address America ReviewCompany: Address America
Website: AddressAmerica.biz
Type of Business: Reflective Address Signs
Cost: $20 plus cost of signs
Reviewed by: Garry
Review of Address America:

If you’re looking for a more “conventional” home business, you may be interested in what Address America has to offer.

They sell night reflective address signs that are totally unlike anything else available on the market. The numbers used are similar to the reflective material used on highway signs, and are visible from quite a distance.

Address America’s marketing plan is absolutely beautiful in it’s simplicity, anyone can do this. You simply put flyers on people’s doors, if they are interested in purchasing a sign, they are instructed to tape the flyer in a window visible to the street. You simply drive down the street the next morning, take note of your orders, and fill them. You are then paid by the customer on delivery. The only time you really ever have to talk to anyone is when you collect your money, though they have a plan to avoid it then too!

Many cities are requiring homeowners to have clearly visible house numbers, and some even require numbers on the back of the house, doubling your opportunity for a sale.

I, personally, sold the curb-lite numbers with very nice success, and did reasonably well selling the signs at flea markets, local festivals, etc.

Additional Money Required:

  • You’ll need a local business license (assumed name) and a Tax ID, as you will be required to collect, and pay sales taxes (check local requirements.)  I think my assumed name was $10 or so, and the tax id was free in my state.
  • You’ll also need a starting supply of signs and materials from Address America, although they do have a plan where they create and mail the sign directly to your customers (your profit margin will not be as good.) You can get a nice starter kit for about $300 or so.
  • You’ll need an order of the sales flyers which Address America can print and mail to you at a great price, or you can have them done locally. When I was working with them, I did the Monday special and got 5000 flyers for under $100, though I don’t know their current price.
  • If you are distributing your own flyers, you’ll need a local solicitor’s  license from each city. Police departments want to know who’s going door to door. The cities I dealt with were under $50/year for the solicitor’s license.

What I did was spend 3-4 hours each morning distributing flyers, take a lunch break, then go back in the afternoon to fulfill the orders from the previous day. I’d do them in the afternoons so I could catch the customer at home then, and collect my money. Those 3-4 hours a day I spent walking helped me lose some weight too!

Overall, Address America offers an excellent opportunity for just about everybody. Their service and support are fantastic, and their marketing plan is a simple, complete, step-by-step program. They even have “Boot Camps” where the owner and marketing manager travel to different cities to personally train their distributors… at a great price ($25 when I went.)

My Rating… easily a 5

star Address America Reviewstar Address America Reviewstar Address America Reviewstar Address America Reviewstar Address America Review (5/5)

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Kaeser and Blair Review

Jan 17

Posted by Garry in 5 Stars | No Comments

bestBuys Kaeser and Blair ReviewCompany: Kaeser and Blair
Website: Kaeser-Blair.com
Type of Business: Sales of imprinted items (pens, hats, mugs, etc.)
Cost: $85 (refundable)
Reviewed by: Garry

Review of Kaeser and Blair:

I’ve been a dealer for Kaeser and Blair for about 10 years now. I don’t actively sell for them now, but I do still make some nice money from them, as I still have a couple customers that call me for yearly orders.

They’ve been in business for over 100 years, and act as sort of your “go-between” between you, and say Bic, for example. You sell the products, send the orders to K & B, then they forward them to the manufacturers for fulfillment and shipping. Generally, items are in your customers’ hands within 10 days or so, so turnaround time is pretty quick. Kaeser and Blair mails commission checks weekly, so you’re paid quickly. Your commission averages 15-20% of the sale. K & B takes care of sales taxes, credit cards, and check processing, so you don’t have to deal with any of that.

You are assigned to a group of representatives ( I have had the same one for years) and they do a great job of helping you with questions that you or your customers have. Everyone I’ve dealt with over the years has been very professional, and extremely helpful.

Their $85 start up kit includes a nice training manual, and a huge box of samples to show your prospective customers. It is refundable once you hit a certain sales volume (the amount of which  I don’t recall right now.)

You will need some extra supplies to get started with:

  • Business cards
  • Catalogs and brochures (very reasonably priced though)
  • An imprinted item to give to prospects (hard to sell the idea that they should give away items if you don’t)

Overall, Kaeser and Blair offers a fantastic home business opportunity for those with outside sales experience, or to those that are outgoing with a sales aptitude. It’s generally not a hard sell, as K & B’s prices are amongst the most competitive in the industry.

I will tell you though, that imprinted items generally do NOT sell well over the internet, if you’re considering this as a home business where you can simply sell items on eBay, you should probably look for something else. To me, the hardest part of this business was explaining to customers about camera-ready artwork, and the proper layout of artwork for effectiveness. K & B helped with all those matters though.

Overall, Kaeser and Blair offers an excellent opportunity for outgoing salespeople, though it is definitely not an opportunity for everyone.  Their home business opportunity is a complete, step-by-step system, with excellent support. I give it a 5/5.

Rating:star Kaeser and Blair Reviewstar Kaeser and Blair Reviewstar Kaeser and Blair Reviewstar Kaeser and Blair Reviewstar Kaeser and Blair Review (5/5)

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