Well friends…Here’s a quick look at what illegal aliens are costing us (us as in the American Taxpayer which is the foundation of the U.S. government.) This is such a depressing topic, I have to tip my hat to Newsvine.com for their article "Estimated 30 Million illegal aliens and the cost to U.S. taxpayers," by Curtis Low.

I can not imagine why the presidential candidates (and my representatives) are not talking about this? Why isn’t this covered more thoroughly in the media? Add up these amounts.  The total is $421,790,000,000.  That’s $421.79 billion. 

With the US population somewhere around 304,025,000 people, that means each man, woman and child will have to pay $1,387.00 in ADDITIONAL federal taxes to offset the yearly cost to the government and economy.  And, if your neighbor is unemployed or on welfare, you’ll have to pay his share and your share too!

Caroline Middlebrook blogged about a topic that hits close to home and has been a burr under my saddle for some time…forced continuity marketing.

By definition, “forced continuity” means setting up a system where the consumer purchasing a product also incurs a recurring charge for some service or additional product. Usually it’s in the fine print of a sales page, or very briefly mentioned over the phone.

Direct-mail marketers selling books and CD’s used this approach with great success for years. They would offer 5 to 10 titles at a fantastic discount with the requirement that customer would accept monthly “review copies” of additional titles. If the customer didn’t want to keep the book or CD, they could simply mail it back to the publisher. Most publishers started adding minimum purchase requirements to their offers once they figured out that the consumers would purchase their discount offer, receive the next month’s offer, then cancel their “subscription.”

With the advent of the internet, the profit potential of “forced continuity” skyrocketed since, for the most part, these programs were very low overhead. In the case of a monthly newsletter or membership site, there is NO overhead involving recurring-charge customers. Whether the customer ever logs into the marketer’s site or reads the newsletter has no effect on the marketer’s cost (except a little delivery bandwidth.)

Membership sites and newsletter publishers could generate huge monthly revenues with zero out of pocket expenses! The best part for some marketers has been the ability to become almost completely anonymous.

Their offer will have a title, which in many cases not contain the marketer’s name. Titles like “best-content-club” or “top-tier-monthly-templates” or “marketing monthly” are typical. The shopping cart or credit card gateway will have a much shorter name. This could be something like “BC cnt 24″, or “CAInc01″ or just about anything else.

Your credit card statement will show the monthly charge (say $99.95) by “CAInc01″ and nothing else. If the charge was through a credit card gateway (not Paypal, or 2checkout, or PayDotcom) then there is a good chance there may be a contact phone number on the credit card statement. However, if the charge was through PayPal, or 2checkout, or PayDotCom then there’s NO contact number, and no description.

Here’s the problem. There’s no requirement that the ID on the credit card statement match anything else. The marketer’s name could be “Mark Wundurful”, the “subscription” could be called “Best-PLR-Content”, the corporate name used with the third-party processors might be “Come-Again, LLC”, and the charge is labeled “CAInco1.” With this setup, there’s no easy way to connect the dots.

Now, to add salt to the wound, the marketer will set up his autoresponder with a name like “Mark W” or “Mark W Support” or just “support”. Same thing with his support desk. None of the names match anything you’ve read or used thus far. And, believe it or not, there’s a real good chance that the “support desk” has little direct contact with the originating marketer. (It’s a “virtual” company–that could be based in India or anywhere else–who basically passes messages back to the marketer’s US-based “virtual assistant.”)

Here’s how this plays out.

• You sign up for a free 30-day trial for a membership site called “Best-PLR-Content-Club”. During the sign-up you create a username and password.
• You’re second attempt to access the membership site fails with “invalid username or password.”
• You click the link labeled “Support” on their web site’s home page, but keep getting re-directed to a static page that says contact us by email. (Evidently there’s NO support desk.)
• You send them an email, but receive no response…no bounce back, just no response.
• You send a couple more emails and get nothing back.
• Thirty days later, your credit card is billed “CAInc01″ for $99.95. Since this charge is one of over 100 other entries, your bookkeeper puts it aside to find out what’s being billed. In the mean time, the monthly credit card bill is paid.
• The bookkeeper contacts you to verify the charge and find out what was purchased so that it can be entered into the accounting system.
• Since you have NO idea what “CAInc01″ is, you have the bookkeeper contact the credit card company.
• The credit card company explains in a support ticket that this is a charge from “Come-Again LLC” but has no other information. Your request to have this charge stopped can not be handled by the credit card company because you have not initiated a “charge back” or claim a fraudulent purchase. The credit card company says contact the vendor.
• At the beginning of the next month you receive an email (from a third-party processor) that your credit card was billed $99.95 for “CAInc01″ and for questions you should contact “Come-Again, LLC.”
• You contact the third-party processor’s support desk and ask them to stop the charge and identify the entity making the charge.
• The third-party processor agrees to stop the recurring charge, but says any refund arrangements will have to be worked out with the vendor “Come-Again,LLC.” Unfortunately they do not provide contact information information. They will, however, forward my “complaint” to the appropriate party. ??
• Finally, you get an email from someone at “Come-Again.com” stating that you should have contacted their support email if there was a problem, and that their policy is NOT to issue refunds since their material could have been downloaded and used.

This scenario occurs over a four-month period (counting the 30-day free trial.) During that time the credit card company and the third-party processor play dumb. The end result is 3 months of billing up in smoke. That’s almost $300 lost because marketers can play a shell game with their information.

Joel Comm has been taking some pretty good hits lately for his latest introduction of website templates. Evidently the “fine print” was really fine because a lot of people were surprised to have agreed to a “forced continuity” program. Instead of buying a $97 template package, they were signing up for a $97 per month template membership .

I’ve read where Joel apologized for the confusion and had re-vamped his program. I think that’s commendable. I also think it’s a sign of the times. Marketers are looking for “bigger bucks” and throwing more expensive stuff against the wall. If it sticks, they’ll use it, if not, they move on to something else.

The Bottom Line

If you want to subscribe to a membership site or agree to any form of recurring billing, contact the vendor BEFORE you sign up! If you can’t reach a live body to answer questions, it’s a good bet you won’t reach anyone if you want to cancel your subscription. Over the last two years I’ve signed up for more than a dozen membership programs/sites and most of the time, it’s a hassle getting “unsubscribed.”

Your best protection is to use something like Paypal’s subscription system. At least you will have control over the billing. When you decide to cancel, it’s as simple as few mouse clicks. You don’t have to worry about going through someone’s support desk or getting a response to email (or missing the email.) You simply delete the subscription and it’s over.

The next time you hear some “guru” tell you “anyone can do it” or they recite the Nike theme Just-Do-It, take note. You are about to be “conned”.

If you think you can quickly become an internet marketer, or make fast money on the internet you are exactly what the “gurus” are looking for — an easy sale. There are a number of “experts” who have the gift of gab and no remorse about selling you the ball glove, bat and promise of a skyrocketing major league career. They don’t care if you’re blind or in a wheel chair or have never played the game before. They know, without doubt, that their product will make you a champion! You may be dumber than a box of rocks when it comes to business, but you’ll be slugging out new products and joint venture deals like a pro!

It’s the on-line version of the snake-oil salesman. Be wary and stay vigilant or you’ll be parting with more money than you would ever admit to.

Before you jump head-first into the “internet marketing opportunity” you need to understand that the internet and its forms of marketing ADD layers of complexity to operating a business. Income creation is NOT less complicated, it is MORE complicated.

On top of understanding marketing, advertising, pricing, customer service and financing, you also have to deal with technologies that change on a monthly basis. Most of those technologies are not under your control, so you also have to develop the ability to roll with the “punches” and learn to adapt on the fly.

I read an article on another blog (John Chow) titled “Get Out of Your Own Way.” In that article, John Chow suggested that the most common problem that prevents someone from making a living online is the person’s own beliefs.

Here’s a quote from the meat of the article:

The Biggest Problem Standing In Your Way Is…

You. When it all comes down to it, you are the only thing that is stopping you from achieving whatever it is your heart desires. Success is a attitude. It is not money, wealth or power. Take away the money of a successful person and he’ll have it all back and more in a few years. Give an unsuccessful person a million dollars (lottery winner) and chances are he’ll lose it all within a few years. The difference is their attitude.

Let’s get something straight. I believe what John said is true … to a point.

But, you’d better have more than just “attitude” or you’ll starve!

It’s not attitude or positive thinking that puts food on the table, it is action! People don’t buy “attitude”, they buy what they think are solutions! And that’s where the marketing “gurus” ply their wares! They offer “solutions” guaranteed to “put money in your pocket”!

Like the man says … get out of your own way! But, before you jog down that path, read about a couple of friends I knew.

They were contract house painters and good workers. One of them read a book about success in business and came to believe that their only drawback was their attitude. They knew they had skill they just needed to change their approach.

These fellas always showed up on time and had the right equipment. They were always courteous and neat about their work. (You could tell they knew that their income was directly related to their “production” by their hurried pace and the spring in their step.) It was easy to see that they were willing to work hard to make their business succeed.

Eager to expand, they agreed to paint a large house in a neighborhood adjacent to the area they normally serviced. This house was more than three times the size of anything they had worked on in the past. Their task was to treat and paint all the siding and trim on the additions of the home. Being a big project, they agreed on a price and a firm start date (including bad weather clauses) with the owner. They ordered, mixed and purchased the required paint and supplies and had everything ready to go well ahead of their scheduled start date. True to form, they arrived at the project on the scheduled date and began what they had figured would be a five day job.

The job went smoothly the first three days and they were happy with their progress until they spotted some paint pulling away from the siding. Upon inspection, they found that the paint did not adhere well to the surface of the old siding, even though the siding had been scraped and primed. Frantic for a solution, they called their paint store representative.

The representative arrived at their job site, looked at the siding, checked their brushes and spray equipment and asked to see one of the un-opened cans of paint. He assumed there was a problem with the paint itself. To his dismay, the painters pulled a couple of un-opened cans of paint from under the back porch. The representative immediately saw the problem. The paint had been stored outdoors and had been allowed to freeze and thaw. The paint had to be stored above 45 degrees to maintain its properties (and warranty.) This left the painters with no recourse. They would have to repair the damaged areas and purchase more paint since they didn’t want the job to look unfinished.

They scraped and re-painted all areas of the home that looked suspicious, and made sure the final product looked first-rate. They were losing a little money on the job, but they figured they were breaking into a new neighborhood and had already acquired another customer.

At the end of the job, they picked up their gear, checked the entire building and left their completion certificate and invoice.

The painters received a phone call from a very angry homeowner a couple of days later. The homeowner demanded to know who authorized the work on his house and explained that he had been out of the country for the past month. The homeowner told the painters that who ever signed their contract was NOT the real owner and had no right to order the work. He said he gave his brother-in-law access to the home and security system to pick up mail and newspapers and had briefly mentioned that he was considering painting the addition. But, he made NO commitments and had not requested any work be performed.

The homeowner reminded the painters that they didn’t have a signed contract by the legal property owner and didn’t require a down payment. He also mentioned that they hadn’t bothered with the other legal formalities of a high-ticket job (UCC-1, right of rescission letter, job scope description, insurance forms, and positive ID through a driver’s license or state ID card.) Worst of all, the homeowner didn’t like the color, and had planned on painting the siding a much lighter shade. In short, the homeowner was not going to pay for the job and was considering a law suite to force the painters to restore the siding to its original color.

The painters realized the jam they were in. Initially they figured the job would be “money in the bank.” What they did not do, was compare the signature on the contract with the owner’s property records or looked at the address labels on the US mail that had accumulated near the front door of the house. Because they felt secure with a signed contract, they didn’t bother with a UCC1 form, and had not obtained a customer signature on a “right of rescission” form. Legally, their only recourse was to go after the brother in law which would be a neat trick since they didn’t have any contact information, phone numbers or any other form of identification.

To sum up — they got out of their own way … and headed straight to bankruptcy court.

Since they didn’t get paid for the job and lost more than five working days of income, they didn’t have the cash to pay for their paint and equipment rental. Once they were on COD with their vendors, it became hard to competitively bid work since they always needed a down payment to purchase material. This put them at a disadvantage when their competitors would accept signature-only contracts with no down payment and were set-up to handle financing with the appropriate credit and security forms.

Eventually, their referral business dried up, cash-flow stopped and they were forced to liquidate their business and go to work for a competitor.

What’s the morale of the story?

All this stuff about “positive attitude” and determination and getting out of your way is a bunch of baloney.

If you don’t know how to conduct business, you need to learn. And it would be wise to learn before committing large blocks of time and money. If someone hands you a “blueprint” and says this is exactly the way to make money … you’ve got two choices. Either believe them and blindly follow that blueprint religiously, or don’t believe them and move on. If you’re lucky, the blueprint will be accurate. If you’re not lucky (like most of us) then you’ll be heading to the poor house.

Forget the “blueprint”, stop looking for the short-cuts and get an education on operating some form of internet business. That means you need to learn all the ugly things; the technical stuff like building web sites, copywriting, graphics manipulation, marketing and traffic generation, accounting and insurance. Yeah, I know, you can “sub it out” and pay someone else to do it. That’s great as long as you have “deep pockets”, can afford the mistakes and understand what your chosen market niche requires. There’s nothing so “fulfilling” as finding out the custom upgrades (you just paid $2,500 for) to your shopping cart software aren’t working correctly, and the last 14 days of advertising expense is wasted because you’re NOT recording the orders!

I laugh every time I hear some “guru” say, “Yep, I made four gazillion dollars last year and I don’t even know how to work my computer! I couldn’t do a web site if my life depended on it. I hire it all out. And that guy in Guiana knows exactly what I want.”

There are a lot of people throwing a lot of BS against the wall looking for suckers like the rest of us (me included) to bite and cough up some cash for the “next big secret.”

If attitude and determination were the only requirements for being a successful blogger or internet marketer or business person, everyone would be on easy street cashing the big checks.

Whether you want to believe it or not — all the “mental gymnastics” in the world won’t earn you a dime if you can’t or don’t provide some kind of value to the marketplace. For every blogger with a big check, there are 50,000 who can’t make a dime, and another 100,000 who haven’t really tried. For every testimonial on a “gurus” website exclaiming how this widget saved his bacon and changed his life, there are a thousand “regular joes” getting fried and living the same old life.

There is no magic bullet. There are no potions, no programs, no methods that will take you from 0 to $100,000.00 without some serious hard work and at least a little smarts.

Terry Didcott put together a simple tutorial that takes you step-by-step through the process of creating an HTML web page, using a little PHP to make building a web site easy, and connects it all with CSS.

I know there are plenty of books on the subject (I own a lot of them) but, I’ve never run across a more straight forward approach that easily shows the relationship between HTML, PHP and CSS. Now don’t get all concerned about the PHP. Terry only uses a single command to “include” other HTML page information, like pulling in the navigation links without constantly having to worry about them.

Frankly, his teaching style helped me understand why CSS is preferable, and how easy it is to build a style sheet from scratch.

You can view Terry’s article at http://www.thehonestway.com/articles/a_21.php.