We’ve never been impressed by them, and I’ve lost patience with them, truth be told. So if you have an urge to write to us and say, “Hey, have you checked out get-paid-to-read-emails.com? They say they’re different than EZ-email-cash.com,” I suggest that you step away from the keyboard and go for a brisk walk. I don’t know how much longer I can suppress my snarky replies to such requests.

If I did reply, not that I ever would, you understand, but IF I did and Steve didn’t stop me in time, the reply might go something like this: If you have time to sit there clicking junk mail, despite all our warnings, in the hope of getting paid a couple of pennies per click IF you meet the max required for payout and IF the company doesn’t cancel your account just before you do, which in our experience is about as likely as you winning the lottery or as me getting a date with Meghan Fox, then you have time to get a real job, and may I suggest one in which your safety doesn’t depend on brain power.

So you see, the less time we spend thinking or talking about getting paid to read emails, the better it is for everyone.

And yet, the lure remains. With so many billions of emails buzzing through cyberspace, surely there’s a way to make money with email?

You’re right. There is a way to make a significant income from email. It goes by various names, but here’s the most direct one: email marketing. What follows is a crash course meant to help you decide if email marketing might be for you

What is Email marketing?

Simply put, it’s a way to sell stuff to people using email. You use email to tell people about a product or service, they buy it, you make money.

Sounds Like Spam

Spam is one form of email marketing. An extremely annoying and relatively ineffective form. Why is it ineffective? Because it pisses us all off! My Gmail account has 2,385 spam messages in it right now, which is about a week’s worth. My work email software filters out dozens of spam messages per day.

But when you do it right, email marketing is not spam because you will only send messages to people that want to hear from you about your offer(s). That’s a HUGE difference and it makes good email marketing one of the most effective ways to create consistent income.

And here’s why I think this topic is relevant for you: you can learn to do email marketing well. You don’t have to become a spammer. But you can create a solid income.

How Does Email Marketing Work?

I’ll tell you more about the process in a future post, but here’s the ideal roadmap:

1. You build credibility and authority in a niche.
2. You build an email list of people interested in your niche subject.
3. You find or create products/services of value to those on your list.
4. You tell them about the products/services.

The key is in steps 1 and 2. You won’t be a spammer because you will have street cred about the subject. Even more important, in step 2, you’ll get permission to email people about the subject. Then when you do, because you have street cred and you’re not sending spam, people buy the product or service you’re promoting and you get paid.

How do you get started? (In which we want to hear from you)

With the first step, of course. What is a subject on which you are or could become an authority? Someone, somewhere, cares about what you care about and wants to know what you know or have what you have. What is it? Answer that question and you’ve found a niche market. True, not all niche markets are equally profitable, but all successful email marketers have to start there.

So speak up, people. We know that I’ve Tried That readers are full of good ideas. In the comments section, please tell us about what you know or do that might lead to a niche market and we’ll discuss. Don’t be shy! Share your knowledge. Rising water floats all boats. If you’re reading this in a feed reader or in email, click here to visit the thread and post your comments.

Well about two weeks in, the in-depth review became less of a priority as other projects entered my work space. I may have spent a day or two here and there by the pool when I should have been working, but there’s no way of possibly knowing for sure.

The past is long behind us and I’m here today to say that the in-depth review is now back on track. My plans are to finish the first niche website I’ve started this week. I want to hopefully have it ranked in the search engines by the weekend and making money by early next week. I also have ideas for two more sites I plan to launch. I’ve already bought the domain name for one of the sites and will have that up and running as soon as I finish the first site I’ve started. The review is seriously back on track.

If you’re just hearing about Niche Blitzkrieg for the first time now, then here are the posts you need to read in order to catch up.

1. Our initial Niche Blitzkrieg Review.
2. My first post on revisiting Niche Blitzkrieg.
3. Niche Blitzkrieg Update: 06/04/09

That’s where I currently stand. I’ll have update for you later this week. Until then, stay tuned, and click here to learn more about Niche Blitzkrieg.

If we accepted your offer, you already got an email from me. If you did not get an email from me, it means we did not add you to our list. I know that seems rude and snobby and I apologize. We still love you, however.

We have a solid pool of reviewers, so the offer is now closed. Thanks again to everyone who responded.

The teaser page where you put in your info says that you’re about to learn about a guy who built four billion-dollar companies and is about to build his fifth and, wouldn’t you know it, he is looking for partners to help him.

Wouldn’t you want to work with the successful builder of businesses by creating your own home-based business?

So I put in my info and watched the presentation so you don’t have to. No need to thank me.

It’s Shaklee. The miracle business builder is Roger Barnett, current CEO of Shaklee. The business model is network marketing. According to the presentation, you don’t have to sell anything. Just use the products and get “your team” to do the same.

Sigh. Been there, done that. Network marketing might be the ticket for some, but not for most who try it. And certainly not for me.

What is negative option marketing?

That’s the odor you smell when you read the terms and conditions at such sewers as Google Treasure Chest and Easy Google Cash and [fill in any Google name here]. There are probably thousands of such sites.

Negative option marketing is when you sign up for free x, but you’re also signing up for y and z at the same time. If you don’t cancel y and z after the “free trial period,” your credit/debit card is hit with surprise charges.

The problem is that sometimes you are not told about y and z, and sometimes you are told but not clearly, and sometimes you just don’t read the terms and conditions. (Not “you” you—I’ve Tried That readers are too smart for that. I mean the other “you.”)

So What’s the Good News?

The FTC fined two companies for a total of more than $9,000,000 for their negative option marketing practices. You can read the full source article here, but here is the money quote. This is how the companies attracted the attention of the FTC:

Failing to disclose adequately that consumers who order a “free” sample are enrolled in a continuity program, that their accounts will be debited or charged to pay for the program, that they must cancel to avoid extra shipments and debits and charges, and how and when they must cancel to avoid the debits or charges

Debiting or charging accounts of consumers who cancelled or tried to cancel, or those who were not adequately informed of the negative option features or terms and conditions, and therefore did not provide express informed consent for the debits or charges.

Sound familiar? Those are exactly the complaints of thousands of people who signed up for Google Golden Egg Goose (or whatever). If FTC could smack down these diet pill companies, why not the Google scam guys? I’m speculating, but I think there are several reasons:

1. There are thousands of sites, all of which take pains to hide the owners’ identities.
2. Many of the sites could be hosted on servers outside the US and owned by citizens of other countries.
3. Is there a jurisdictional issue? FTC thinks it’s an FBI Internet Crimes Division problem?

Who knows? But it can only help if people continue to file complaints. If you have been a victim of deceptive negative option marketing, click here to file a complaint with the FTC.

I’m reminded of Homer Simpson, who said, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Or was that someone else? I forget.

Anyway, here are some of the patterns I can see as plain as day after doing this for a mere two years. I bet if we really cared to do it, we could group 95% of the junk we’ve called out in one of the repeating patterns below. Use this list as your fool-proof, always-right, scam detector. I submit that if any one of these patterns is present, then you are being misled. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong.

• $1.97
  I’ve never seen anything legitimate that costs $1.97. Have you? On the other hand, Google Treasure Chest, Google Money Tree, Google Cash kit, and on and on and on ALL charge $1.97 for their “free” kit. What, did scammers get together and decide to charge that much? I don’t get it. The catch, of course, is that when you give them your credit card info for the $1.97, you give them permission to bill you, after just seven days and monthly thereafter, for as much as $112 for memberships you didn’t know you were getting.
• Obscure terms and conditions
  If terms and conditions are hard to find, only appear after you’ve purchased, or are hard to understand, run away. [Exception: Our e-book. We don't have a T&C document. Why? Because it would say: "You pay the price. We send you an ebook. If you don't like it, tell us why and we'll probably refund you."]
• Saying black is white
  They call affiliate marketing or Google Adwords ad creation “rebate processing” or “data entry.” That is a lie. Don’t give your money to people who lie to you.
• Obfuscation
  After reading a sales page or an offer, you should know exactly what you’ll be doing and what you’ll be getting if you sign up. Exactly. Meaning you can explain it to 4th grader and she’ll get it. If you can’t, run away.

That’s it. The answer to life, the universe, and everything. The holy grail. The grand unified theory. The sum total of all we know about work-at-home scams at I’ve Tried That.

Uh-oh. Steve? Now what do we write about?

I’m pretty sure Steve had boxed Mac-n-cheese tonight, or maybe a Big Mac, but I had chicken cranberry bleu cheese salad. It took all of 20 minutes to prepare.

Yes, it was delicious. How did my wife do it? Is Her Hotness a genius? A gourmet chef?

She’s not a chef, but she might be a genius. All she did was sign up for E-mealz.com. Now we eat awesome, balanced meals every day, and the recipes and shopping lists are delivered right to our computer screen.

No more wondering what to make for dinner. Now that time and energy goes into something else, like family time.

E-mealz.com is very cool. At $5 per month, you’ve got very little to lose and a lot to gain (like crusted filet of Dover Sole). Check it out.

For more information, see my previous post on e-mealz.com.

No, not you.

Yeah, you. If you who know that there are no quick and easy answers, you might be a career renegade.

If you know that big rewards take hard work, you might be a career renegade.

If you have ever been doing something that you really love and thought, “Damn, it would be cool to get paid for this,” you might be a career renegade.

What’s a career renegade? No, it’s not you going Chuck Norris on your boss. It’s you turning what you love into a significant source of income. Career Renegade, by Jonathan Fields, will help you do it.

Why Should I Read Career Renegade?

I don’t know. Maybe you shouldn’t. I don’t know you from Adam. But I do know that if it appealed to me, it will appeal to a lot of other people, too.

I was intrigued by the very first paragraph:

Much to the contrary of what we’ve been told for the better part of our lives, we do not exist for the sole purpose of paying our bills, grooming our kids to be able to do the same, and maybe, someday, retiring to finally enjoy life, should we ever reach that point.

I was hooked by the second:

We are here to let our lights shine as brightly as possible, to drink in the joy of friendship and family, to server and better the greater community, and to tap into and inspire passion in everything we do. We are here to come alive. In doing so, we serve as an example to others that a life beyond muddling by is not only possible, but mandatory.

If this guy could show me a practical application of that philosophy, I was willing to do whatever he suggested. Toward that end, here is what Fields insists is possible, and also the main point of the book:

You don’t have to be world-class great to make a great living doing what you love if you are willing to step outside the box, approach your passion differently, find innovative ways to mine that passion for money, and work like crazy to make it happen.

What Is a Career Renegade?

It’s a person who opts out of the rut in favor of monetizing what she really loves to do. A career renegade finds something he is passionate about and figures out how to make it profitable using one or more of the renegade paths:

• Redeploying your passion in a hungrier market
• Refocusing and mining the most lucrative micro-markets
• Exploiting gaps in the information needed to excel at an activity
• Exploiting gaps in education
• Exploiting gaps in gear or merchandise
• Exploiting gaps in community
• Exploiting gaps in the way a pursuit is provided

The book devotes a chapter to each of these paths, describing them in detail and giving you the nitty-gritty steps you need to get started down the path to career awesomeness.

What’s Inside?

Click this link (it opens in a new window) and take a look at the Table of Contents by clicking the “Look Inside” image at Amazon. It will give you a good idea of what the book will teach you.

But the Table of Contents doesn’t show you the inspirational details—the examples of real people who have done what the author is teaching (including the author himself). There are stories about women who love art and figured out ways to make it pay big. Stories about online successes, including people you might have heard of like Brian Clark of Copyblogger.com and Gina Trapani of Lifehacker.com.

How Do You Monetize Your Passion?

If you care enough about something to spend hours reading about it or doing it, you subscribe to magazines about it, or buy stuff for it, chances are good that many other people do, too.

In other words, there is a market around that interest. All you have to do is figure out a way to serve that market. Here’s how the book will help you do that:

1. Market research
   Chapter 11 is a comprehensive guide on how to conduct online keyword and market research. It is worth the price for this section alone. It introduced me to research tools I’ve never heard of—tools that will help you see what people are talking about and how they’re searching for information.
2. Information sales
   Almost everyone is an expert at something. And if you’re not, you can become an expert and then sell the knowledge. The book shows you how to go about doing that as well as how to market the expertise you might already have.
3. Got an invention idea?
   The book gives you very basic, practical advice about how you might pursue that idea, up to and including getting a prototype built and/or licensing your idea.
4. Marketing on a budget
   No matter how great your ideas, they’ll flop if you can’t get them in front of the buyers you want to target. The book shows you how to do that without breaking the bank.

Also check out the Career Renegade blog at Amazon. See profiles of career renegades, read the author’s answers to questions, get a podcast for regular inspiration, and more.

Is the Career Renegade Path For You?

Maybe. But at $11 or less, it won’t cost you much to find out. Get the book, read it, take the plunge. Life is too short to 9-to-5 it away.

And for many people, it’s more realistic to supplement your income by looking around your neighborhood and town instead of online.

We have promoted one such opportunity recently—Scott Ritter’s independent recruiting business kit.

In addition, one of the things I like most about In Your PJs is its powerful brainstorming tool to help you find those opportunities lurking in local businesses and communities. Its philosophy is don’t wait for a job. Go out and create your own income. And then it shows you how.

Tomorrow’s post is a review of another book with a similar philosophy. It’s called Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love. And it’s a real book. With paper. So you don’t have to read through a sales page to get it. Just tune into the review and decide if it’s something that might be good for you.

If you have a passion, something that charges your batteries when you do it, chances are good that you can figure out a way to make money from it. Maybe a lot of money. Career Renegade will show you how.

Your passion doesn’t have to be Web based, but the book shows you how you can use the Web to monetize it. What could possibly be better than doing your hobby full time and getting paid well to do it?

Until tomorrow, then.

If you sign up for their program, you’ll automatically be enrolled in their “membership program.” I don’t exactly know what this entails, but I do know that if you don’t call and cancel the membership you didn’t sign up for, you’ll be charged $72.21 in just seven days. You’ll continue to be charged the same amount each month until you manually call in and cancel your fake membership. Again, there is no mention of this within their sales pitch. You have to dig through their terms and conditions in order to find this lovely bit of information.

Another interesting note is that this program is in no way endorsed by Google. I’m actually astonished that Google hasn’t issued a cease and desist for attaching their name to these programs. It’s just a matter of time I suppose.

You can read more about this in our Google Money Tree post.

Are there more companies peddling these same tricks? Let us know in the comments below.