My name is Rachel and I have been working online, or should I say trying to, for around 11 or 12 years now. I have joined countless business opportunities over the last few years, most have disappeared without trace, some were nothing more than elaborate ways to part people from their money and offered no real products, some had potential but went nowhere due to poor management or lack of support from upline.

Originally I joined many different business opportunities (although to call most of them business is stretching things rather!) and as we all do when starting out trying to work from home, I jumped from one to another as each offered to be different, to make me rich overnight with no work required. But after much wasted time, effort and money, it dawned on me, that running an online business is really not much different to running any other type of business - you must still have a good product to sell that people want (not some pointless ebook, report or over inflated membership resource area), you need to advertise and promote this product and you need to sell it...no business can survive with no new or repeat sales and no new customers. Do not listen to these websites stating you will get rich by joining them and there is no need for you to make sales or refer people. Every business constantly needs a supply of new or repeat customers to stay in business. I used to try and work and promote a number of business opportunities at once. I would spend hours posting to safelists, sending out mass mailings, surfing hit exchanges, all to receive one or two enquiries a month if I was lucky and then these people were usually just interested in trying to get me to join their business opportunity and had no real interest in mine.

Towards the end of 2006, after nearly 8 years of trying to make some additional money online and losing probably close to thousands to various scams, get rich schemes and other opportunities and having a cupboard full of energy drink packets, numerous ebooks and reports I could supposedly resell for lots of money, I decided enough was enough, and combined with a move to Bulgaria from the UK, I gave up on making an extra income online and from a home based business and opted to concentrate on my main business - property investment and sales in Bulgaria.

I was not going to join another opportunity or pursue my dream of making a good income from home using my computer. I had had enough. Too many broken promises, very little money back for a lot of hard work and so I had basically given up on the home based business game. And to be honest it was a relief. After years of chasing leads, promoting one opportunity after another, wasting so much time and money, it was lovely to be able to just concentrate on life again!

But first a little about all the things I have tried through the years.........

For me, it all started when I was talked into trying to sell herbal diet pills through Herbal Life whilst trying to decide which direction my life should take, having just finished University. I wasted hundreds of dollars on buying stock that I couldn't sell, having flyers printed, advertising in newspapers etc, then one day I decided to try and sell via the internet. I had no experience at all but taught myself how to build a simple website and how to promote online.

Of course along the way I gave up on the diet pills as I had absolutely no success selling them and had never heard from my sponsor again after joining. I got more involved in online business and I joined every next big thing going. Each promised riches that were easily attainable; just join up, pay your fee, recruit a few others and watch the money roll in.

But it never works like that; after a few weeks the program is no longer the one everyone is clambering to join, you can't get any referrals, the 'products' you purchased are being given away somewhere else for free and to top it all off you suddenly find the site, (along with any earnings you have made) has disappeared!

I could give you a list a mile long of online so called business opportunities I have tried and lost money at. I have tried everything - get paid to read emails, get paid to click programs, selling diet aids, energy drinks, ebooks, subscriptions to members area and so on and so on....dodgy investment schemes, various matrix programs......

Whilst it can be a good idea to diversify your income streams, I also believe you need to concentrate on only one or two things if you are going to be successful and not try and spread yourself too thin promoting numerous programs.

Programs I've given up on/Lost money with

Herbalife

This was the first MLM I became involved with. I answered an ad in a newspaper and the guy talked me into going to a meeting with him. Well of course there were loads of happy Herbalife members there, all saying how much money they had made, how wonderful the products were and how easy it all was. And yes I hate to say it, I fell for it, signed up for the starter pack for around $130 and then spent hundreds more on leaflets, flyers, adverts. I spent hours trailing round car parks putting leaflets on the windshields (often receiving abuse from angry car owners) and how many people responded to an ad - not one. I then started to try and sell online but again got only a couple of enquiries and no signups. Gave up after around a year, around $500 out of pocket!

LifeForceInternational

Apart from its not - international that is. I was doing OK in this and had had a few people placed under me and was told that to get my commissions that were due I would have to buy a certain amount of products. So I spent just enough to get my commission, only to find out they were then shutting down operations in the UK so I could no longer participate. Another one bites the dust as they say. 

TripleYourMoney

I actually think this would have been a good opportunity, I joined this offline actually but never did much with it. When I picked it up a couple of years later, I had a couple in my downline but couldn't ever get them to answer emails. The company did respond though and were fairly helpful. However when I then spoke to them a while later the owner said that basically due to lack of interest he was no longer promoting the program. 

All the SFI programs such as Superhits, MoneyTree, LuckySeven, $2 million dollar safelist program....

These all started off as the 'next big thing'. Basically SFI and associated people just kept churning out similar programs whereby you bought some useless product such as a few banner impressions, safelist membership etc and got placed in some matrix or other and then you would cycle and earn $1000's. These would have worked but not with so many similar programs being brought out without decent products. They all had a big start and were heavily promoted and then waned until now you don't see these anymore. 

Global Opulence

This started off fantastically. The guy even called me from the US and we met in the chat room a few times. It all sounded great and really exciting. Proper products - loads of online courses teaching you everything you need to know about computers, internet marketing, finance etc. Good payplan and achievable aims. All went well for a few months. Then I began to worry when my debit card never arrived so I couldn't withdraw my earnings. Each time I asked about it, I got fobbed off with excuses that they were moving to a new provider. Then things kept getting changed and updates became less frequent. Then things on the site stopped working and after several emails I eventually got a reply saying the program had been closed. After a lot of digging and complaining to scam report sites I eventually managed to get my $1200 back (paid by the payment processor not an actual refund from the guy) but not without a fight. This guy now runs another program that he placed me in instead and this will apparently make me far more than my $1200 I nearly lost - still waiting years later!

Skeptics Heaven

Should have stayed skeptical I guess. This was meant to be one of those programs that you could join and forget about as they placed people under you. Well I certainly forgot about it as nothing ever happened. I had been offered a special upgraded membership if I brought in more members from my newsletter and other contact lists. When I questioned various aspects of the program and didn't bring in loads of members they terminated my membership. 

Sales in Minutes

You purchased an autoresponder/list builder which was actually pretty good and then the company would fill your downline and you also earned a bit for each referral you introduced. Worked well for a while, and they kept sending updates and adding new features. Then everything went quiet and couldn't log into autoresponder and site disappeared. Another one dead in the dirt and another $60 wasted. 

The Perfect Matrix

Just not very perfect! This was one where you bought an ad for a year on their site for $99 and then they were meant to fill your matrix with company sales and as you cycled through the bonuses were amazing. Another too good to be true program! Never got much from them, if I emailed them I just got told that it would take time. Well in 2 or 3 years I have not received a single cent and the site doesn't seem to load now. Another $100 down the drain! There was also another program similar to this that I joined and again lost around $100 but the name escapes me. So if anything sounds too good to be true it usually is.

MyNewPC

One time payment of around $67 got you access to ebooks (never bothered to look to tell you the truth) and placed in a 3 x 3 matrix. When you completed that by recruiting or spillover, you got $1500 in egold and a re-entry or a laptop. Was going great and people were being paid, then things went quiet, then all we heard was that the owner was having 'legal difficulties' and was not allowed to run any businesses online. Whether this is true or whether he has just disappeared with the money, who knows but the program is no more!

ForeignFund

An investment program with referral commissions. Looked promising at the start and then there were talks of them setting up their own bank etc....then all went quiet and they ran off with all the investors money!

The $20 Miracle/WTIA

The $20 miracle was a feeder program to the Wealth Team International Association. For $20 you were basically placed into a 3 x 2 matrix and the first time you cycled when 12 people were below you, paid your entry into WTIA and each cycle after that paid you $120. There was no real product just some pointless download. WTIA could potentially (apparently) earn me over a million over 13 levels but again had no real product. Cost $99 a year and paid for a couple of years as I tried to feed people into this but then swapped hands and all went downhill so gave up. I did get paid a small amount from the $20 miracle but was really going nowhere. 

ThePrivatePage --> ThePerfectProgram

I am not really sure how to explain what this was all about because the system and pay plan changed that many times no one knew what was going on. Started out as costing $25 I think and did seem promising and support seemed good. There were then different levels you could progress to earning VOIP products, various training packages and so on. Then it changed to ThePerfectProgram incorporating the 'Magic Shower System' and a $5 program was introduced....and then I got lost. I did receive my 'Magic Shower' - something that ionized the water? Made no money but lost a lot!

StudioTraffic

Do I really need to say anything about this one! So many thousands lost money in it. I had managed to build up around $2000 in my account and was earning through this and referral commissions a steady $800 a month or so. I did mange to withdraw around $100 out of StudioPay.

Absolute Business Connection (The $5 Program from JISL)

JISL, a Dutch company have been running this program for ages and by writing about it here I am in no way saying to is a scam. For $5 you get placed in a 3 x 11 matrix which if full would pay you $35,000. Technically the cost is $5 a month but you only pay if you have enough earnings. The product is the JISL online Chronicle and this lets the program down as not really worth $5, let alone $5 a month. The idea is everyone should recruit just 8 others, which seems easy enough but in reality people would join and do nothing and you never progressed. The Absolute Business Connection is a group that uses the $5 program as its base and you progress to higher paying programs. The support was good and it had potential but far too many sales/referrals needed to see any money and never got anywhere despite being in it for many years. 

HYIPMagic

I can't believe that I fell for this one - after all the money I have lost on HYIP programs and I still gave it a go! I joined on the recommendation of a guy who's program I was in, invested around $10 of e-gold and watched it grow 600% a week - only problem was I could not withdraw it and 3 weeks or so down the line the site disappeared along with my money. 

SuccessTeamInternational (STI)

I was with this opportunity from more or less the beginning and it started out looking very promising. It was only $3 to join and although the 'product' was a little dubious in being some blaster you could get free elsewhere and then even this disappeared, admin were initially helpful and friendly. STI fed into various opportunities but many of these did not appear well researched and many disappeared. After a couple of years the STI website was never really updated, things changed weekly and then over the last year or so it basically died and no new members seemed to be joining, the forum was only used by a few moderators and hard line members and all admin ever seemed to do was send emails promoting dodgy HYIPs and other schemes. Whenever I posted about getting STI moving amd concentrating on STI instead of telling us about all these other bizopps we should join, there was little support and admin basically became rude and offensive until I asked for my money back. To be fair I did receive a refund for some of the money I had invested in the program. I just lost all faith in this as seemed to be going nowhere with admin that appeared more interested in promoting get rich quick schemes than their own program. 

M2CGlobal

In 2005 I was persuaded to join M2CGlobal. This company seemed to offer a good product in a herbal energy drink and appeared to have a good company strategy and management. At first my upline was great, helped me build my downline and soon I was starting to see commissions and could actually withdraw cash from. I finally thought I was about to succeed at home based business. But then after a few months, the rules of qualifying for commissions changed to make it harder to get paid, commissions were late in being credited to distributors' accounts and product launches were late or never happened. Slowly my upline disappeared and opted to work different programmes. As a non-US member it became increasingly difficult to get my earnings and so after eventually fighting to get the few hundred dollars I was owed, I gave up with M2CGlobal in early summer 2006. I still have loads of the ACT energy drink product lying around and every now and then my sponsor contacts me to ask me to either close my position or work it.

NitroFX

This was another company that was backed by great science and had great products. I still have loads of the expensive miracle cure lying around. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. But it was expensive and not worth the monthly qualifying amount. After spending loads on designing websites, getting forums & blogs up and running and more, I gave up on this. My sponsor has since tried several other programs and my downline gave up as I did.

Healthy Chocolate - MXI Corp

Sounds a great idea in principle. I joined at the infamous pre-launch phase and got a few under me in my downline but samples were not available, to qualify for commissions you had to commit to hundreds a month and so on. Never took it any further thank God.

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There are many others I have lost money to over the years, egold games, matrices, downline programs. You name it, I've tried it and usually been burned. So I basically gave up and would strongly recommend anyone thinking of getting involved in the 'online business opportunity' game to steer well clear and put your hard earned cash into something else - property, premium bonds, under your pillow...just do not waste hundreds on joining some pointless MLM program and waste thousands on products, promotions and more. There is more to life than spending all your hours in front of a PC screen trying to get a few signups for your program. Sorry to be blunt but that is the way it is.

Now I do run a number of mainly online busineses - http://www.theskibug.fr, http://www.thetravelbug.org and http://www.gofarmer.com.

I also now do freelance writing and search engine optimisation.

Last Updated 21st December 2011.

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