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Before you spend that money, let's talk about history

Have you noticed all of the advertisements on the Internet from"gurus" and people who have "made it" with their Internet business?You know the ones, they tell you how in demand they are. They tell youhow they get several thousand dollars for each seminar they give. Theytell you how they've made hundreds of thousands of dollars online. Andthey tell you they'll give you their secrets and formulas for the"ridiculously low price of $99.95"!These characters are all really slick. Their one page web site isdesigned to draw you in, convince you, and take your hard earnedmoney. Some of them are written really well and the product is verytempting to buy. But does a little doubt linger somewhere at the backof your mind? Is there something holding you back but you just can'tquite put your finger on it? There might be a valid reason for that. Let's travel through history a bit and see if we can figure out whyyou get those tiny doubts....Orson Wells. Heard of him? War of the Worlds. Heard of that? I thinkalmost anyone in the U.S. knows both names, but for amusement I'llsummarize the story. The War of the Worlds was a fiction radio story.I think it was broadcast in the 1940's or 1950's era but I don'tremember the exact date. This story happened to be science fiction,and happened to involve aliens landing on Earth and starting a war.Now the story was put on in full production mode -- just like thefiction movies you see on TV today with professional actors. The onlyproblem is, many people tuned into the radio show while it was inprogress, and they had no idea it was a fictional story! Panic andchaos ensued.Jump to the 1960's era. Did you know there was a book that was put onto best seller lists, even though the book didn't actually exist? Yep.A radio DJ cooked up a plot to "fool" some people. He arranged to havelisteners go to bookstores and request a specific book. The bookdidn't actually exist, and this was part of the prank. To his and hislistener's surprise: Their requests for this book stirred up interestacross the world. People were talking about the book everywhere --reviews were even written about it! And soon enough it showed up on abestseller list. But the book did not even exist. The non-existentbook was called "I' Libertine", and due to the furor created from theprank, the radio DJ went on to write a real book by that name later inlife.Now let's jump ahead about 30 years. In the 1990's, some of you mayremember computer communities called a "BBS". BBS stands for bulletinboard system, and back then this was a computer that you dialed in to.Once connected, you could download files, chat with other members andplay games. The public Internet was not available back then, so thiswas as close as you could get. One BBS was having a difficult timegetting itself off the ground. They had one major competitor, and theycouldn't seem to win customers away from that competitor. So theowners decided to entice

the customers. The customers were almost 100%male back then, and one thing they were all looking for was a friendlyfemale. So one of the owners of the new BBS -- a man -- took on a BBSpersonality of a female. They set up a charade basically, with all thetrimmings. This man would pretend to be female and chat with all theguys on the competitor's BBS. During the chats, "she" would make surethey all understood that she could be found more often on this other,newer BBS. So, if they wanted to talk to her more, they would have togo over there. And they did.Jump ahead to the later 90's and the Internet is just coming into playas a business medium. I'm personally aware of several companies whichmade themselves appear much larger than they were. How? Primarily byputting up pictures of their "office" building on their companywebsite. The pictures they put up however, weren't actually theiroffices. They were in an apartment, or basement in reality. But thepictures showed gorgeous, upscale office buildings. They madethemselves look much bigger and successful than they actually were.And today we have thousands of one page websites which tout theaccomplishments of their owners. These websites make many claims andsometimes those claims are hard to believe. You see, there really are consultants in this world who make severalthousands of dollars for seminar presentations. But those consultantsusually have a corporate style, polished website. You can tell as soonas you get there that they've spared no expense in getting the siteprofessionally done. You'll find links on the site too -- links tocorporate and/or consultant information, links to additionalresources, links to recent and upcoming seminars. There are links totheir books too of course, and sometimes these links lead to Amazon orthe publisher's site. If the book is electronically published, you caneven buy it right on site. The point is though: there is detailedinformation there, not just sales hype. In short, there is supportingevidence that they are who they say they are.History shows us that people can be fooled into thinking the world iscoming to an end just from a radio show. History shows us that peoplewill believe a book is wonderful even when they've never actually seenit themselves. History has shown us that what you think you see orhear is not actually what you've seen or heard. So, when you land on one of those slick, one page sales hype Websites. Before you spend your hard earned money, stop and think a bit.Is the person behind the site more likely telling the whole truth --or skewing it in a way that will make you believe what they want youto believe? About the Author
Kathy has been a successful freelance writer and small business ownersince 1997. Find her Palm Pilot articles and reviews athttp://www.PalmPilotFiles.com, Cool gadget articles and reviews athttp://www.TheGadgetFiles.com, and book reviews athttp://www.EBookCritique.com

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