Shop To Earn

With the internet, running a scam is fairly difficult.

Suppressing the sources that either state, or imply that a company is a scam is merely going to cause more people to sit up, and copy that information elsewhere on the Internet.

Of course Shop to Earn suffers from a fatal flaw.

Furthermore, this flopportunity has a twist on the binary plan designed to ensure that the MLMer is not paid. Binary plans normally are written to provide for the illusion of paying out something.

Shop to Earn: Scam or Legitimate Businessis merely one article that explains why signing up is a bad idea.

And finally, applying the first question at The Legality Test:

Can one make some money SINGLE-LEVEL, that is, without sponsoring another business opportunity seeker?

From http://www.shoptoearn.net/cgi-bin/genesis.exe/CusSignup.html?p_notice=Y&sid=3stGwB1@7Jvz8---09108363408.c1 "Preferred Customers DO NOT participate in the Business Opportunity and therefore do not earn commissions for any purchases made."

Let's see how much one can earn as a "business opportunity seeker" without recruiting anybody.

* "Become a Business Builder and get paid to refer Website Owners! Receive $100 Training Bonus and 200 Bonus points every time. Refer 5 ($100) = $500 and 1000 points. Remember points = cash!
http://www.shoptoearn.net/cgi-bin/genesis.exe/3.html?sid=3stGwB1@7Jvz8---39108373808.08

# That excludes the person who does not recruit;

* Place website owners in your business on your left and right sides.
http://www.shoptoearn.net/cgi-bin/genesis.exe/4.html?sid=3stGwB1@7Jvz8---42108373808.e1

# That excludes people who do not recruit;

* Points come from everywhere. 1. Referral points: You receive 200 points for every website owner that you and other Business Builders in your business refer to ShopToEarn. 2. Shopping Points: When a Website Owner spends $100 at Drugstore.com (10% payout) that website owner receives up to $10 cash back and ten points are generated.

# That excludes people who do not recruit.

# The rest of the pages explaining how to make money are based on recruiting.

http://www.shoptoearn.net/cgi-bin/genesis.exe/1.html?sid=3stGwB1@7Jvz8---51108571408.f0 is the only page that provides information on how to make money without recruiting. It consists of one line: "Receive Cash Back on every purchase from your website."

http://www.shoptoearn.net/cgi-bin/genesis.exe/Retailers.html?p_name=O&sid=3stGwB1@7Jvz8---15108623408.f6 gave me the percentage that one could, theoretically earn, from companies beginning with "O"

OfficeMax purchases offer one a maximum of 4%.
At http://www.officemax.com/omax/home/custom.jsp?id=m220013 Office Max Affiliate Program we clearly see how much they pay affiliates:
* 4% commission on monthly sales up to $20,000
* 5% commission on monthly sales between $20,000 and $65,000
* 6% commission on monthly sales over $65,000

Office Depot is between 1% and 7%.
At http://www.officedepot.com/renderStaticPage.do;jsessionid=0000bkxRy5ilHxoX6nv4QFtrwlO:10gv1nd8u?file=/companyinfo/companyfacts/affiliateprogram.jsp&template=companyInfo Office Depot Affiliate Program we clearly see how much they pay affiliates:
* For Binders/Filing, Dated/Stationery, Notes, Adhesives, Labels, School Supplies, Writing Instruments, Desk Accessories and Breakroom/Janitorial Supplies = 6%
* Office Furniture, Storage & Filing, Business Cases, Imprint/Promo Services, and Books = 5%
* For Ink & Toner = 4%
* For Paper, Computer Furniture, Input/Cards, Surges/Cables, and Magnetic Media = 3%
* For Seating, Lighting, Extended Warranty, Broadband, and Customer Services = 2%
* For Telephones, Network/Wireless Access, Computers, Monitors, Mobility, Printing, Software, Memory, Wireless Services, Drives, Luggage, and Graphing Calculators = 1%
* For Office Depot Gift Cards and Office Depot Premiums = 0%

†At Office Depot's sole discretion, other commission rates and/or sales programs may apply, and commission rates and/or sales programs are subject to change or be discontinued at any time. Please contact your Office Depot Affiliate Program representative for specific rates and programs that may apply to you.

One possible Caveat: Their affiliate program works through LinkShare.
That program gives one access to most, if not all of the affiliate marketing programs that ShopToEarn offers. Furthermore joining it is gratis.

And for the really hard question: Spend money on a cookie cutter website, which research indicates will not generate revenue, or spend money creating one's own website, which research indicates will generate revenue.

Anyway, I think the following two quotes sum up ShopToEarn
1: "This simple test needs to be applied to two aspects of a business opportunity. The first aspect is the design. What do the company documents say about how one makes money? How does the compensation plan work? Not all the fine details of every commission, bonus or reward need be understood, but simply, can one make SOME money without sponsoring. Remember, one does not MAKE money when one buys any product or service for personal use. The application of this test should in no way imply that there is anything wrong or illegal about personal consumption. It is just that it alone cannot be the sole basis for a business opportunity.

2:

California Penal Code 327: Every person who contrives, prepares, sets up, proposes, operates any endless chain is guilty of a misdemeanor. As used in this section, an 'endless chain' means any scheme for the disposal or distribution of property whereby a participant pays a valuable consideration for the chance to receive compensation for introducing one or more additional persons into participation in the scheme or for the chance to receive compensation when a person introduced by the participant introduces a new participant. Compensation, as used in this section, does not mean or include payment based upon sales made to persons who are not participants in the scheme and who are not purchasing in order to participate in the scheme.

Google Searches

I always knew that Google didn't index the entire Internet. None the less, I was somewhat surprised to not find a blog post I had written.

I was surprised that the posts in this blog can be found using Google. The other blog is, perceptually, more popular.

Rescuing a yahoo list that is moderatorless

THIS IS HOW TO DO IT!! (THERE`s A SPECIFIC TRICK!!) READ THIS.

i`ll post this in a few threads but I FINALLY FINALLY hopped through all the hOOPS it took to contact one of the couple people who posted they were able to "save" an abandoned / orphaned group by becoming the new moderator ..but instructions didn`t work

HERE are the "revised instructions" with the ADDED bit of info needed!!

- - - - - - - - - -
STEP 1
Join the group.

STEP 2
Make sure it is truly unmoderated.
Click on members in the list on the left side of your screen when signed in to the group. The click on the tab near the top that says Moderator. If it says they have “bouncing” email there’s no point sending an email to them, they won’t get it. If it doesn’t say bouncing try contacting the moderator.
(editing in"..I`D ALso suggest to then try googling to find them too)
Next you want to search all messages for the moderators ID to see when they last participated (posted) in the group.
(The group I took over had one owner/moderator who had not posted in about 7 years and their e-mail was bouncing.)

(me editing in ..yEAH Personally i`d reserve the whole taking over as a new moderator for groups where the moderator REally completely disappeared years and years back.. if the moderator "Just Disappeared" they could be havig temporary email problems ..even if it`s for a number of months)

((!THIS NEXT IS THE PART NOT MENTIONED IN EARLIER POSTS!))

STEP 3
Click on Yahoo Groups - Help.(in the upper right corner on most yahoogoup-screens)
and you`ll get a page with an entry-box for a question and a button that says [Ask] ..type in any question, it doesn’t really matter,
‘cause no matter what you type they don’t have the answer you need. Nevertheless type in “owner bouncing need new moderator” None will be the right answer but click on the first one anyways. Then go to the very bottom where it says ”Click [No] to contact Yahoo! Customer Care.” Click [No]

Fill out the information requested.
Then tell them you have found a group that is abandoned and that the moderators mail is bouncing and for how long it has been doing so.
Tell them you would like to try and save the group.

(The reply I got mentioned the same instructions that have been stated in earlier posts.)

Post a notice in the group explaining that a new moderator can be voted in and asking for those who want to be in the running to come forward. ..Give it at least a week.

Then create a poll that allows the group to vote in a new moderator. The poll must be open for at 1 week.

At the end you email back Yahoo Groups-Help (reply to the same address they emailed you with)..and they will go to the group , see the poll results and make the winner the new moderator!
(NOTE: Some groups are set to not let group members create a poll. If that is the case with your group then e-mail Yahoo. )

Every time I have contacted them they have always responded within a day or two. The first time the person responding didn’t read my email properly and I had to reply and explain it again saying (politely) that they had missed the point. I wasn’t unhappy with the moderator, there was no moderator
- - - - - - -

me editing in again..AND I followed THOSE instructions and it WOrkeD!! ..
When I originally tried emailing "support@yahoo.com" I first got an automated useless reply ..then when re-emailed they still said "oh no we don`t do that" ..AND when I tried clicking on yahoogroups - help in the corner and typed a question..I then clicked [not even close] to the answer and filled in the pop-up form and sent that ..and THAT didn`t work. ..

It looks like you Specifically have to type the question..click the answer..then click the [no] button to get to the form that actually gets useful people.

Chris " creativnow "
http://www.ChristopherHillman.com

Grammar

Punctuate the following paragraphs correctly:

John where James had had had had had had had had had had had the teacher's approval.

Wouldn't the sentence I want to put a hyphen between the words fish and and and and and chips in my Fish-And-Chips sign have been clearer if quotation marks had been placed before fish and between fish and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and chips, as well as after chips.

The Pink Dream that isn't.

Back on 5 February 2005, MKSurvivors was created. A group for people who were trying to get out of The Pink Fog, AKA Mary Kay Cosmetics. Shortly thereafter, Thepinkingsheers.com was created.

Then came the blog explosion. Anti-MK blogs appeared and disappeared. In response, a number of pro-Mary Kay blogs appeared. Some blogs on both sides were informative. Most were rants. And a new battleground was found in Wikipedia's article on Mary Kay Cosmetics.

A number of interesting changes occurred in the Mary Kay World.
* Refunds for product returns were changed to check only;
* The number of Mary Kay consultants in the US dropped;
* Gross wholesale MK revenue dropped;
* Unitnet.com sites became password protected. (This is not surprising, since most claims made by a director could be disproven, using information provided by the director on their unitnet site.) ;

There were always two factions in the anti-Mary Kay world:
* Shut down Mary Kay at all costs;
* Work Mary Kay ethically, and legally;

What was unexpected was:
* Blogs that were pro-Tracy Cohen;
* Blogs that were anti-Tracy Cohen;

What is going on here? It appears that Tracy Cohen exhibits an extreme intolerance for dissenting opinions. She became a victim of her own claims. Techniques that she had no qualms about using on others, were used on her. And she came up short.

Whatever happened to the original idea of either:
* reforming Mary Kay?
* helping people not get sucked into the Pink Fog?

Dream Tools

Suppose there was a tool that enabled anybody to determine the medical condition of an individual, without the knowledge, consent, or authorization of the individual.

• Determine what illnesses one has;
• What medications one is taking;
• One's prior medical history;

Who would be allowed to use it?

Now suppose that tool was used for hiring people.
And that the medical exam it provided was done without the knowledge, authorization, or consent of the applicant.

How long would it take for the use of that tool to be declared illegal under existing ADA regulations?

That tool has been used for roughly 100 years in the United States. Thus far the EEOC has not issued any formal statements about it. It has not been subject to any ADA-related court cases.

Probably the major reason for this state of affairs, is that the vast majority of users of this tool haven't bothered to learn how to use it.

Linux, Microsoft and Patents

Microsoft claims that Linux violates some of their patents.
Microsoft claims that OpenOffice.org violates some of their patents.

Microsoft refuses to list the patents, because they fear that the affected FLOSS software will either be rewritten, or the patent will b e invalidated.

Translation:
Microsoft knows that all of their patents are invalid;
Microsoft knows that any patent related lawsuit will be treated as if it is a SLAPP;
Microsoft knows that their net worth 5 years after filing the lawsuit will be a negative number;