Today's Adventure in the Biz Opp Jungle:
'In which Charlie reveals the strangest betting story he's heard... and offers his controversial thoughts on the latest "GREAT NEW NETWORKING OPP!"'
Hi,
I'm not really a Sun reader.
That said, I like to scour as many different newspapers as I can each week.
It keeps me in ideas for these Biz Opp Jungle emails, and keeps me tuned into the hot moneymaking products and offers.
All good fodder. You know. Just in case I run out of things to say.
(Taking into account my manic verbal diarrhoea, this is unlikely... but you never know!)
But it was one of your fellow Biz Opp Junglers, Jon Matthews who emailed me the other week to tell me to buy The Sun on Saturday October 27th.
Why?
...He was in it!
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The strange story of the
death-defying bet
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Jon was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer in April last year. Doctors said the longest survival time for his disease was 25 months.
He was told not to make plans for Christmas.
A year went by. Jon was still going. So he walked into William Hill and placed a bet on him living until June 1st 2008. This would break the previous record.
Jon put £100 on odds of 50/1.
He told The Sun: "I'm determined to live long enough to collect my winnings. And then I'll ask for odds on me living for another year."
What a legend!
Jon, I really hope you break the record ten times over. I'm sure that all the rest of your Biz Opp Junglers also wish you well.
So keep going, mate!
If you want to read the Sun story and see a photo of Jon in a cool shirt (if I may say so myself) then click here.
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Have you heard of Yuwie, yet?
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I'm beginning to lose count of the "amazing new moneymaking opportunities" I'm sent involving the "latest networking craze."
I've now been told about at least three new websites that are going to be the "next myspace" or "even bigger than Youtube".
These networking sites are trying to grow virally by using Multi Level Marketing techniques.
Each person is encouraged to get people to sign up and extend the downline, with the promise of money per page view.
The latest "next-big thing" is called 'Yuwie'.
The site makes its money by selling ads. The idea is that you get a share of money for every "page view" you get.
Yuwie also gives you a percentage of money from the page viewing activity of the friends you've invited, along with their friends, and their friends' friends... and so on and so forth...
Sounds good?
Well, on the plus side, you don't have to pay any money to join this MLM. So it's risk free.
The downside...
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A flawed plan in my view
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Again, I'm going to get angry emails about this from everyone who has joined Yuwie, but I'm going to say it.
Personally wouldn't join this scheme.
Why?
No, it's NOT a pyramid scheme. Absolutely not. It's perfectly legal. And as long as you don't mind getting lots of sp~m, you won't lose anything, except vastly inflated hopes.
But the business model is in the SHAPE of a pyramid, in the sense that people at the top make money by an ever expanding downline.
In my view, the people at the top can't possibly pay out the promised amount.
Those at the bottom won't get the rich pickings enjoyed by those who used their MASSIVE lists to make a lot of money early on.
If you look att he details of this, not all page views count. The small print says that "Results listed in Yuwie.com's example charts, and videos are not typical, and are in no way guaranteed".
Finally, Yuwie is actively encouraging users to inflate the number of people who view a page, regardless of whether they are the sort of people who'd buy the advertising on that page.
It's a bit like having a email newsletter with 50,000 names on it, except only 100 of those people are likley to ever buy products that are advertised.
Worthless.
It's not a powerful, long-term business plan.
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Why Google is different
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Google works because it has a giant client base and makes sure advertising is legal and ethical.
It grew organically. People search it for information, knowing it has useful information from a variety of sources.
Yuwie is hoping to create a type of google-esque network, simply offering financial incentives to view the pages. Everyone is trying to get their friends to view their pages in order to make money.
All I can see is this growing into an unsustainable bubble. And that's only if it's successful.
It's one of many of these new start-ups that I've seen, all vying to be the next big thing, offering people the chance to make money out of other people making money out of other people.
I'm dubious. That's all I'm saying.
But you know my views on these matters by now. So I'll end my grumpy rant here.
For more of my views and reviews, why not use the 'search' facility on my website?
Go to:
http://www.bizoppjungle.com
Type in any term you like and you'll see all the related articles, reviews and past issues.
Later alligator
Charlie Wright
The Biz Opp Jungle