Some time ago (a few months) I received Avril Harper’s Ultimate Public Domain Profit Plan and, to be honest, have only spent some time on it in the last few weeks.

I have read quite a lot about using material from the public domain in the past but Avril’s guide is the most comprehensive I have seen.

What I failed to realise is that there are lots of rules about using any public domain material and you must ensure that the work you want to use is truely public domain material. Avril’s manual and CD package goes through all the pitfalls that you must be aware of.

More importantly perhaps, Avril offers lots of advice and ideas for using copyright-free books etc to create your own copyrighted work which you are free to sell and keep 100% of the profits.

There are lots of misconceptions about the public domain, what you can and can’t use.

For example, I recently noticed a post on a forum where one lady had got it completely wrong. She had basically said:

As far as I am aware all material on the internet is in the public domain

Her post didn’t last long – a moderator deleted it before too many people read it.

What should be taken from this is that material on the internet is certainly NOT always public domain

But it does highlight how someone can get it so utterly wrong and leave themselves open to serious problems i.e. lawsuits.

There’s plenty more info on the site if you are interested:

Click here to read more about Avril Harper’s Public Domain Profit Plan package

I saw a few posts on a forum today where the poster was spamming the same content over and over along with an affiliate link for a product known as “Survey Scout”.

It reminded me of a question I was asked about this time last year:

---

“Firstly, congratulations on a clear no nonsense site with pertinent observations. Your Andrew Reynolds and Tim Lowe reviews set the tone. This is my first visit.Have you any comments on two of your advertisers operations, firstly Russell Shedden’s V-Services.co.uk and secondly cash4homework.co.uk 

Inevitably as advertisers I cannot expect a super critical report, but I am looking for a simple way to substantially boost a pension. Limitations? Very poor computer abilities.”

 

---

The person posing the question had mistaken Google AdSense for people paying me to advertise on the site.

 

My reply was:

---

“(1) Cash4Homework.co.ukThis seems to be a scheme whereby the promoter shows you how to find “paid for surveys” kind of work. It is true that you can get paid to take part in surveys and online discussion groups but the problem is two-fold: 

(a) This information is free if you spend an hour or two looking for it. ciao.co.uk is one scheme, there are many others. What you will usually find is that instead of making money, you earn points to redeem against gifts.

(b) These schemes are often extremely over-subscribed – there are thousands of stay-at-home mums, students etc who flock toward these surveys and they go offline quickly. Also, the companies tend to target specific social groups – young mothers, kids etc. If you don’t belong to the group, you cannot take part.

In short, not a great income opportunity.

(2) V-Services.co.uk

I can’t figure out what Russell is offering here as he does not give a good explanation of the business he is in. He sells a £10,000 a month scheme for £50 or so and if you were earning £10k a month, would you sell the idea on?

The guarantee is not rock-solid. It looks like you have to work for 12 months before you can claim your money back. Would you throw good money after bad to regain £50?

As I mentioned in the last email, the adverts are placed on my site by Google, I do not choose them although I do earn money “per-click”. Some offers are a lot better than others.”

 

---

As you can tell from the above, I don’t think much of these “paid survey” schemes.

 

My recommendation would be to avoid them, unless you fancy earning a few points towards some free gifts…

At the end of May I heard about a new investment scheme called Fantastic Pay which sounded ridiculous and too good to be true.

Despite my complete conviction that this high yield investment program was probably a scam, I invested $25 as they promised a huge monthly payout if I kept my money invested for six months.

The deal was that if I invested $25 then they would pay me $50 a month every month forever. Surely, I thought, this is a load of crap but I figured $25 was not a great loss if it all went wrong.

I invested on the 25th May 2006 and, for a while, documented the progress on the site:

http://www.BizOppsUK.com/fantastic_pay.php

As you can see, I got bored and forgot about my investment in the middle of August but this last week I got an email with the subject line:

“FantasticPay has just sent $23.66 to your SafePay Solutions account”

It turns out that the owner of this HYIP scheme has decided to rebate everyone’s investment and so I got my $25 back (minus fees which SafePay took for processing).

According to the site I am still eligible for the monthly payouts too! Lucky I had faith then!

I’m in a pickle now – I am only a few dollars down as it stands but stand to pocket just short of $50 a month for no work.

Should I reinvest the monthly payouts or just pocket it until the scheme collapses? I think the latter…

In the meantime I have been reading around and Fantastic Pay have closed the doors to new members from the 6th October 2006. Maybe they were taking on new people for a “limited time only”…

I will keep you updated

Go back a couple of months and I seemed to be on a “scam-busting” crusade.

First I wanted to stop people from getting sucked into the incredibly poor “Data Entry” and “Type at Home” schemes which were being advertised anywhere there was an internet marketing or work from home topic printed.

In relation to Data Entry Pro, I even wrote the following in the newsletter I freelance for:

“…the instructions are so poor and the scheme so mis-sold that you may find you lose a lot more than the cost of the opportunity…”

It must have been due to the massive refund rate for Data Entry Pro and its copy-cats but Clickbank pulled the plug on all of these “products” a month or so ago. Good ridance.

Whilst on my “crusade” I also did a whole load of research on the Prosperity Automated System which was introduced to the world by Mr Bill Osterhout. Most people could see that this particular scheme was just a money-go-round Pyramid Scheme where the vast majority of participants would lose thousands of dollars.

I thought it would collapse with the heavy hitters running off to leave everyone else with a negative bank balance.

However, the SEC in the US brought a stop to this particular pyramid scheme at the end of September. Of course, Osterhout has been stopped for the moment but there are similar schemes which have risen to continue in the same vein as PAS.

Let’s see how long these ones last…

Got my second issue of the Internet Marketing Review today. Great read once again. I think this will be a very worthwhile investment. One page of the newsletter was a quick report on the Yanik Silver Underground seminar from September 2006.

The line-up was very impressive, as well as the two Neils the speakers included Yanik, Jeff Walker, Phil Gosling, Ed Dale, Ted Nicholas, Gary Vurnum and more.

It sounds like a great event and I think I will try and get there myself next year.

One thing’s for sure, I will definitely be going to Robert Puddy’s Focus 4 the Future event again. I still have to cover Saturday night and Sunday’s sessions from the last one which I will do over the next couple of days.

 

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I have purchased Mike Filsaime’s Butterfly Marketing Manuscript which I have been reading steadily.

I must admit that when the whole BM launch was going on in January of this year I didn’t really pay much attention as I didn’t know much about Mike. When I heard him speak in September though, I took notice.

This is an eBook that is perhaps not for the internet marketing newbie but for someone fairly experienced who wants to sell a lot of their product. It has certainly given me a lot to think about.

In fact, I am seriously toying with the idea of buying the whole Butterfly Marketing package… I will keep you updated.