Introduction
Is it possible to start with zero money and make a
fortune working on the Internet? In this article I
aim to provide some guidelines on how anyone with
a computer and access to the Internet can in fact
make money without having to invest or risk any of
his or her own money.
To make money on the Internet you will have to invest
some time. Much of that time will probably have to
be spent on learning some of the "tricks of the
trade." Initially, you may earn relatively little
for the time you spend. However, as you acquire some
Internet skills and expand and improve your operation,
your earnings per hour will increase. If you focus
on the continuous upgrading of your own skills and
actions and your presentation on the Internet, your
earnings per hour will increase. After six months
to a year, you could be earning enough to pay all
your bills and make a decent living. After a few years,
you could be earning hundreds or even thousands of
dollars per hour worked...
A Real-Life Example
A few days ago, someone wrote to me:
>I stumbled across your website only last night.
I think that
>if I had not done so, my discouragement about
Stockgeneration
>would have reached depressing levels. Seeing all
those other
>opportunities gives me hope.
>
>Hope for what? Let my give you my story in brief:
5 years ago
>I got economically sodomized by the Canada Student
Loan
>program. The debt load and level of aggressiveness
shown by
>the collection agency has made me unemployable
(administrative
>burden). Even the military (my last resort) rejected
me on the
>basis of my credit situation. I was on my last
frayed hope when
>I ran across Stockgen. A friend of mine had been
working in
>a chicken factory. Then he got into Stockgen and
soon bought
>two houses with his earnings and is now on a six-month
vacation
>in South America.
>
>I knew it sounded "too good to be true."
They give you money to
>start and almost promise to make a fortune with
it. Then they
>wouldn't answer my emails. Then I found your site
and tried hard
>to ignore the big red letters next to Stockgen:
"Not currently
>recommended." On the other hand yours is
the most professionally
>sound website and offers many interesting alternatives
to Stockgen.
> >Now I have more questions:
>
>1. What would you recommend that is as easy and
cheap >to get started with as Stockgen?
>
>2. Can you recommend a plan of action to go from
ZERO >to something spendable, through programs
like Stockgen?
Some of the early Stockgeneration players did make
fortunes. You could start by filling out their survey
and receiving a free account with $50 in it. You could
use the $50 to buy shares in a "virtual company"
that doubled in price every month. You could refer
others to Stockgen and earn referral fees of up to
30% of the money your referrals put into Stockgen.
You could use this money to buy more virtual shares
that doubled in price every month. So Stockgen was
a means for someone to make a fortune on the Internet
without risking any of his or her own money. It was
an example of zero-risk money-making.
I don't know if the above correspondent's friend
risked any of his own money or not. But he certainly
could have earned the money to buy two houses and
go on a six-month vacation in South America without
having risked one cent of his own money!
(In December, 1998 I personally joined Stockgen.
I spent several hours studying the game and decided
it was a "good bet." I risked $6,000. My
first objective was to recover my initial capital
as soon as possible so I could get into the wonderful
"can't-lose" position. I did this in about
three months. By the end of 1999, I had taken about
$100,000 out of the game. By September 1999 the game
had deteriorated considerably and got steadily worse
during the ensuing months with ever-increasing payment
delays and other problems. During March/April 2000
Stockgen effectively "raided" all or most
player accounts, reducing them to zero or amounts
like $3.17. Now, in my opinion, it's unlikely that
Stockgen is still a viable game.)
Paying for Market Share
One of the wonders and great blessings of the Internet
is that lots of things are free. This is because many
companies are willing to provide you with services
and even products in return for your attention and
the attention of other visitors you may direct to
them.
This is why Stockgen, through its survey, was willing
to pay people $50 to open an account. So what they
provided was even better than free!
As other examples, there are many companies that
host your website on their server (computer) for free.
They do this in return for placing some advertisements
on your website. Any time you, or any visitors you
attract, access your website, the advertisements are
likely to attract attention. Similarly, you can get
as many free email addresses as you like.
See Website Hosting & Free Hosting and Free E-mail
Services.
There are many companies that are willing to spend
money in order to expand their market share of whatever
products or services they offer. Some of these companies
are willing to pay you for your time and/or attention.
For example, MintMail will pay you to read emails.
They also pay you on two further levels for emails
read by people you refer and read by those they refer
-- it's a three-tier compensation plan.
Many of these companies will also pay you for recruiting
others who watch their advertisements or listen to
their music. (Such companies make their money from
selling advertising.)
No-Cost Marketing
By "no-cost marketing" I refer to marketing
that doesn't cost you money. It will, however, cost
you time.
One of the great advantages of the Internet is that
you can do a great deal of marketing without having
to spend any money. You can also market to people
you don't know in places where it's appropriate to
do so. For many things, the worst people to try to
market to are your family, friends, and coworkers.
(Personally, I've had very little success marketing
anything to family, friends, and coworkers. I've been
much more successful marketing to strangers via direct-mail
and direct-response advertising and marketing on the
Internet.)
Most people who attempt to market money-making programs
to family, friends, and coworkers, are usually met
with ridicule, condemnation, and/or rejection. They
quickly become discouraged and give up. This is probably
the main reason why about 90%+ of people in MLM-type
programs fail.
So you may want to focus your marketing efforts on
"new" people you meet on the Internet. How
do you meet these people? Realize that most people
want to make more money. There are millions of potential
prospects on the Internet. You can create your own
"community" of people who want to make more
money and market to them. You have a multitude
of free tools and resources available to you for this
purpose:
