Originally posted by kagome303:
We got our money back, finally!!! Yes!!! Yes!!! Yes!!! Yesterday, my husband called our credit company, and we already have our refund!!! I praise God for that!!! We did it in a different way… We got our credit bank statement and we saw the 197 dollars charged, and next to the description there was an 866 phone number (866-885-8126), so, my husband called them and requested them our money back… It was the only way that worked!

I had sent many e-mails requesting technical support first, but no answers, then I sent many more requesting my money back and I got no one answer, then I talked to a supervisor and he hanged me up when I requested my money back, I made many calls and nothing happened… Until we received our credit bank statement, we saw that 866 number and we called them.

So, they gave us a number like a confirmation one and told us to allow them 5-7 business day to receive it back!!!

Keep trying! Try the number I gave it to you!

Good luck and praying for you all.

Angela Penbrook Complaints - I got my $197 Refunded!!!!
Review all Angela Penbrook complaints
Angela Penbrook
Posted: 2008-05-08 by Gina [send email]
I got my $197 Refunded!!!!
Complaint Rating:
Company information:
Angela Penbrook
California
United States

I got my $197 refunded. I am writing to tell you how to do it. It will take some work on your part. I had no success with Process from Home/Penbrook Productions. I called CareerBuilder and complained to them because the advertisement for Process from Home/Penbrook Productions was on their web site and I wanted it removed. You can call Careerbuilder at (866) 438-1485. It has a Trust and Site Security Team (TSST) it will transfer you to, or you can fill out a complaint online. Go to Careerbuilder.com, then click on Help-Contact us (bottom), then in the Email section, click on Trust and Site Security. Type your complaint, and copy and paste the Process from Home/Penbrook Productions add found on their website. I keep seeing it when I do job searches in the 95677 area code. Here are what they look like:

(1st ad)
Work at Home
Make $225.00 And More Every Day…No prior experience, education or special skills required…

(2nd ad)
Make $225 a day from Home
If You Have 60 Minutes a Day, Here’s a Certified, Proven And Guaranteed Way To Make $225/day…

I also emailed Careerbulider the email receipt/confirmation that I paid $197.

I was paid because Careerbuilder threatened to pull Process from Home/Penbrook Productions ads if it did not refund my $197 as promised.

I am taking the time to tell everyone this because Careerbuilder is still running the ads. I hope if enough people complain it will pull the ads forever.

Most online coaching programs charge in American dollars, and since the US dollar is anywhere from 5% to 10% stronger than the Aussie dollar as I write this, that’s a 5% to 10% price saving for you if you join Blog Mastermind.

So if you were thinking about it, now is the time. You can sign up here.

By now you probably know about Blog Mastermind. Thanks to the Conversion Blogging video, the Blog Profits Blueprint and the interview with a million dollar blogger, Yaro’s blog coaching program opening built up a lot of buzz last week.

If you haven’t seen any of the videos, or read the Blueprint or listened to the million dollar blogger interview, you can start right now (it won’t cost anything) by going here.

Already over 300 people have joined and are busy studying the materials, interacting in the community forums and using the Social Traffic Club to drive traffic to their blogs.

Yaro explained to me that he wanted to charge in $USD, but his Australian bank would not accept the currency, and since it was so close to the opening of his program, he decided to just go with $AUD.

In case you don’t know, Yaro is from Australia, though he sounds a lot like a Canadian sometimes because of his parents.

He did say that his bank would change in the near future, and as soon as $USD is accepted he would switch back.

If you want to lock in the discount by paying in Australian dollars, you should join Blog Mastermind as soon as you can. Here’s the order page

Blog Mastermind is not just a course where you are left on your own to go through the training by yourself. It’s a real community, led by mentors who are successful bloggers, including Yaro himself.

If you are still not sure, but because of the cheaper price you are interested, you should head to Google and type in “Blog Mastermind Reviews” and see what other people are saying about the program.

500 people have participated in the course since it’s first run back in 2007 (it was closed since December 07), so there is plenty of feedback online coming from completely impartial people who have already taken the course.

It’s a smart idea to do research before joining any program, and I think in this case you will find the general consensus is that Blog Mastermind is well worth the cost of admission, especially when it is in Australian dollars.

Here’s the link for more information (and make sure you watch the behind the scenes tour video Yaro presents at the start of the page).

Good luck with your blog! We’d love to feature some of them here at I’ve Tried That once you get up and running. Drop us a note if you’re interested.
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I Was New to Making Money Online

Before I begin I think some background is in order, so that readers understand what my level of knowledge was when I bought Build A Niche Store and began building websites. (BANS is a program that allows you to create websites and earn money by becoming an eBay affiliate.) I first purchased BANS in early December of 2007. My knowledge was almost nil when it came to building sites and making the Internet work for me to generate money. The most I had done was get myself an eBlogger page. In fact, when I first purchased BANS it took me an hour to understand how to unzip the files and find the installation instructions. Yes, that is how much of a “Noob” I was to internet marketing.

The Truth About BANS

Its main source for generating your revenue is through eBay’s ePN program. For me, the software purchase price of $97 wasn’t easy to part with. I’m 49 years old and have fallen victim to my share of scams, so I’m suspicious of everything I read. I visited the BANS site and read the testimonials. I Googled “BANS” and read reviews, both good and bad.

The good reviews far outweighed the bad ones. I figured out the extra costs of buying domains, a host server, and FTP program. I calculated bare bones costs to be around $150 up front and a recurring monthly fee of $15. Remember that I had no idea how to use an FTP account, or even what a “host server” was. But I plunged ahead, believing that I could be “ready to go” in an hour, allowing for my inexperience.

As a Noob, I was almost immediately lost. I finally figured out how to unzip the files and open the installation instructions. There was of course, the search for a good domain name. I, like most Noobs, made the mistake of purchasing a domain that infringes on a copyright— but that’s another story. I purchased my domain from Godaddy (a good reputation and less expensive than most) and had to call them almost immediately because I didn’t understand the concept of “pointing” the DNS. I also had to pick my host server plan with Hostgator (again, good reviews and not expensive). By the way, I didn’t know at the time I had to upload to my “public_html” folder. I tell you this as a further example of my lack of knowledge.

One of the first things I did, among those mentioned above, was to join the BANS forum. At that time BANS had just about 4000 members on the forum. As of this writing they are approaching 9200, which means that in 6 months they doubled the membership it took them to achieve in their first year. This may be the reason the forum is now a much different place than it used to be, but more on that later.
With all the delays of figuring out host server problems, getting the domain name, learning the FTP program, joining affiliate programs, and succeeding in uploading a working site, it took me 3 days before I had a site that looked similar to this template.

Setting It Up Is Easy; Making It Work Is Not

There was much cursing and crying along the way. Certainly not the “10 minutes” I was reading about when I purchased it. However, I was lucky. I joined at a time before it was over-sold. Before the Trolls got balls. A time when Adam and his brother Kelvin were still active in the forum and a half dozen moderators patrolled the threads. Many may have been there to sell their wares, but they contributed with help and advice along the way— including new code snippets for improvements and actually troubleshooting some sites at no charge.

Now, about 9 months have passed since I first joined BANS. I have 16 BANS sites in various stages of a build, from one with some limited tweaking and SEO, like CoffeeTweek.com, to a site that is tweaked and had its coding changed to give it a totally unique look, as I did with NostalgiaFinder.com. It was a huge learning curve for me. I didn’t know even basic HTML to create these looks when I first began. To actually go into a cPanel and change script was a heart stopping experience. This has to be done, though, as the web is now being filled with those who join BANS and other web building programs, set up an out-of-the-box site, attach an eBay feed and walk away, doing nothing to improve their website. Those who build 100+ of these sites, because of the unlimited licensing BANS offers (allowing you to build as many stores as you like) are the scourge of the internet and have given BANS visitors a bad taste in their mouth.

Even I had a concept when I started that this would be work. For the first month I spent every waking hour of my weekends and 3 hours each work night doing SEO and manipulating the two sites I was then working on. As I finally near completion of my sites, getting them the way I want them and performing the SEO they require, I am now moving onto a blog. It is in a sorry state at the moment, but The Tweak Show will become a great SEO tool for all my sites in time. Nobody should believe that this, or any internet marketing venture, is an overnight money maker. If you are new to the internet and have nothing established with social networking or existing blogs, then it will be months before real coin can be made.

Problems with the BANS Forum

When I joined the forum a Noob could ask a question about a problem they were having with getting something to operate correctly and 10 people would volunteer an answer without hesitation. When you are new to anything more than email, even reading a manual is like reading Greek. I was one of those that saw much of it in Geek, not Greek. Yes, the same question might have been asked by a half dozen people in a month, but they would either be pointed to the thread with the answer or given the answer. It was a community of helpful individuals wanting each other to succeed. In fact, my ineptness at getting my first store running had the founder, Adam, correcting a database problem I caused myself and getting my store operational. That has changed for anyone now joining.

The BANS forum has become a nasty place because of a few rogue members. One, a crotchety old man from the Netherlands, likes to call some Noobs names for asking a question. “Bonobo” seems to be his favorite tag to a Noob who asks what would be a simple question to those of us who now understand the basics. He has told new members to go away and to basically not ask questions, making them feel stupid and unwelcome. This, from an old goat who had plenty of questions when he first joined the BANS community. Some members have gone so far as to display “RTFM” (Read The Friendly (ha) Manual) in their avatars, berating those who dare ask a question that can be found in the manual, but may not be understood.

Where are the founders, Adam and Kelvin? Many of us wish we knew. They posted the fact that they were moving a few months ago, but rarely make an appearance and don’t mingle with the paying customers any more. If only 10% of those who paid for BANS didn’t join the forum that means 10,000 people bought BANS. If the founders average approximately $50 on every sale (if an affiliate sends the customer, the affiliate gets $47, otherwise BANS gets the $97). Do the math. If you raked in $500,000 in 2 years, would you want to deal with a forum filled with some real assholes? In fairness though, they do provide updates needed when eBay makes a change that affects the affiliates. Where are the old moderators who kept some order in the forums? Nobody knows for sure, but I believe they recognized that the ride with BANS is coming to an end because of the individuals now arriving. This morning I responded to a post from a new member who expected to be getting rich in a few days. Seriously.

Yes, I Make Money with BANS

My first month I recovered about half my expenses. I was more than even by the second month. I now make a few hundred dollars each month after expenses and having upgraded to an SEO hosting account, which is more expensive than a basic host plan. That amount has been steadily increasing. Slow, but steady.

My bottom line? At this point BANS is not for the Noob who has no experience with script, HTML, uploading, SEO, and everything that goes with marketing on the internet. If you are so new that your not understanding how to do the basics would cause you to ask a question on the BANS forum, then you should think about saving your money to try another venture. You are likely to remain lost if a forum member decides to derail your post in which you ask a question. It IS NOT a simple “10 minute” program for the inexperienced. I would still recommend it to the mid-level internet user who has a basic understanding of uploading files and tweaking sites, along with performing SEO.

Until the BANS forum has an attitude adjustment forced upon it by the founders, or the belligerent members move on to their next shiny bauble that catches their eye, BANS isn’t for the inexperienced, or those who can’t afford the money and time it will take to learn it on your own.

Still interested in BANS? Click here to read our past review.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/IveTriedThat

Feel free to explain it to me.

Update:

Badges. Nifty.

Prior to starting I’ve Tried That, Joe and I had little to no experience making money with a blog. It’s a little over a year later and this blog is consistently breaking over $1,000 a month. Not bad for part time work, eh? We spend maybe 4-5 hours each per week updating and maintaining the blog and money continually flows in. I’m telling you this because it’s entirely possible for you to make a similar income online with a blog.

Start with Blog Mastermind

We started this blog under absolutely no instruction. I bought the domain name, installed WordPress and we just started writing. Looking back, this isn’t the best way to get started. Yaro Starak realized that too many people are taking the exact same approach and ultimately failing at making money with a blog. Yaro, being the kind soul that he is, decided to help those who wanted to get started with making money with a blog and created Blog Mastermind.

Since we call ourselves I’ve Tried That, we had to try this program. Joe became a student of the program and instantly we were using Yaro’s teachings on our blog to increase our income. We’ve since completed the course, but constantly refer back to Yaro’s material in order to better our work.

Blog Mastermind starts by teaching you the basics, including how to completely setup a new blog. You’ll be surprised at how incredibly easy it is to actually setup a domain and a blog. From there, you’ll gradually advance to more intermediate topics that big-name bloggers are using on a daily basis to pull over six-figure incomes from their blogs.

If you have been holding for a legitimate way of making money online, Blog Mastermind is it. I highly suggest you join if you’re interested in pulling income online. We’ve tried it and made a lot of money doing so. We’re still offering $25 back if you sign up using the link below. Just be sure to email us after you join so we know where to send the money.

Click here to visit Blog Mastermind

It was created by Yaro Starak, who is a professional blogger making between $5,000 and $20,000 USD per month from his blog. He just re-opened his acclaimed mentoring program today for people who want to earn a full time income from blogging part time. We’ve taken the course here and can vouch for its effectiveness. Every day we use the strategies Yaro developed to pull a nice income from this blog. Are we at full-time wages yet? No, but we’re pretty damn close.

Proof of Yaro’s Earnings

If you’ve ever doubted Yaro’s success, you can literally watch over his shoulder with his latest video and take a look at his earnings. Click here to watch Yaro display his earnings through blogging.

Be one of the First 100 to Join and Receive..

If you are one of the first 100 people who sign-up for Blog Mastermind today you will claim all of these fast action bonuses.

Bonus 1: “Conversion Blogging Revealed” - Live Teleconference With Yaro Dissecting The Conversion Blogging System

Yaro writes, “I presented the strategy in the Conversion Blogging video, in this teleconference I’ll break it down so you can directly apply it to your blog. I’ll also take your questions live in a special Q&A session just for the first 100 new Blog Mastermind students.”

You will learn -

• How to craft a compelling offer to convince people to join your email list
• What incentives work best to maximize the number of opt-ins to your email newsletter
• Where to put the newsletter opt-in box for best results
• What type of email messages you should send to your newsletter to build relationships
• How to use your newsletter in tandem with your blog for big profits
• And a whole lot more, completely dedicated just to Conversion Blogging…

Bonus 2: “How To Use The Power Of Video To Market On The World Wide Web” - Live Teleconference With Gideon Shalwick PLUS six brand new videos from Gideon, the man behind the fantastic BecomeABlogger.com videos

Yaro: “Gideon is the guy who has taught me everything I know about online video so far, and he’s a lot better at it than I am. Video is obviously an important part of the strategy for Blog Mastermind and it’s amazing how good a marketing and teaching tool it is. You simply have to get on top of this aspect of Internet marketing, and if you are one of the first 100 people to join Blog Mastermind, Gideon is going to help you get started.”

Gideon’s offering six brand new videos and will jump on a teleconference with me to teach us -

• Exactly what kind of equipment you’ll need to record perfect video
• The secret formula for creating powerful video scripts
• How to setup your shooting area to increase the quality of your videos
• How to capture and record your first video
• How to edit your video using a free and easy to use editing program
• How to get your new video onto your own blog or website
• Plus you can ask Gideon any questions you may have about video marketing

Bonus 3: “How To Boost Critical Conversion Points In Your Blog Business” - Live Teleconference With Will Swayne on testing elements of your blog and email newsletter to improve conversion rates

“Will Swayne and his company, Marketing-Results.com.au, are my conversion specialists. They help by testing my opt-in forms and sales pages to increase conversion at each point in my business process.”

In this live teleconference with Will, only for the first 100 new Blog Mastermind students who join today, we will review the critical conversion points of a blog business, including -

• What are the critical elements of a blog post to test to make more sales
• How to sell more affiliate products by improving upon what you already do
• Simple tweaks you can make to your email newsletter to improve open and click-through rates
• How to change your newsletter opt-in form to boost how many people join your email list
• And lots more simple tips to improve your conversion rates…

Save $25 and Receive Free Tech Support

In addition to everything Yaro has to offer, we here at I’ve Tried That would like to offer you a special discount and one-on-one technical support. If you sign up for Blog Mastermind using our affiliate link, we’ll refund $25 of your purchase. You sign up; we send you $25 after you’ve finished the first month. It’s that easy. The $25 rebate offer is only good if you sign up by August 8th, so you’ll have to act fast.

We are also willing to work with those one-on-one who run into any problems with Blog Mastermind. Joe has already graduated the course and has a full comprehension of what the course has to offer and I’m a full-time webmaster with plenty of technical knowledge. We’ll be more than happy to help you succeed, including working with you on your writing.

Other Links of Interest

Here are just a few more links to help you learn more about Yaro and his program:

• Yaro’s Interview with one of his students and his five-million dollar blog
• How Yaro makes money with his blog
• Yaro’s Blog Profit Blueprints free e-book
• Yaro’s introduction to blogging

Yaro is the Real Deal.

We get more than enough emails asking if we know of any legitimate programs. We can safely say that everything Yaro has to offer will be extremely beneficial to you financially. Blog Mastermind was developed by a seasoned pro at making money online and he is sharing his wealth of knowledge through the Blog Mastermind Mentoring Program. You, too, can be well on your way to making a full-time income doing part-time blogging.

Click here to save $25 and join Blog Mastermind now.

Sure, these results are not typical. But what if you were just one tenth as successful? Hear exactly how he did it in this video interview.

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• Great content
• Consistent traffic
• Money makers (monetization)

Though the formula itself is simple, it’s not easy to implement it. That’s why you need training. You need to learn what exactly makes great content and how to produce it. You need to learn how to bring in a constant and growing stream of traffic. And you need to learn how to leverage that traffic to make money. Finally, you need to learn from someone who’s done it and who’s demonstrated an ability to teach others to do it.

Great Content

Successful blogging is all about providing high-quality, updated information to your readers on a daily basis (or something very close to daily). As a successful blogger, you will develop some sort of authority on your topic and others will want to know what you have to say about it.

Many of you already have a great deal of knowledge in some area that you could turn into a respectable blog. Do you feed wild birds? Collect stamps? Have an in-demand job? Know everything there is to know about tennis rackets? Each of those areas of expertise could be the basis for a great blog.

Common mistake: Blogging on topics of no interest to you. Nothing can kill a blog faster than your lack of interest in the topic. If you start blogging on a topic that you don’t care about, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle against yourself. You need passion on a subject to keep you writing and publishing articles on a given topic.

Traffic

What’s great content if no one is around to read it? Driving traffic to a website is, without a doubt, one of the most difficult tasks of being a webmaster or blogger. And yet, those blogs that are highly successful and have tens of thousands of readers did not attract that traffic by accident. They produce quality content and are smart about ways to draw readers.

Common mistake: Failing to market your blog. Great content is not enough to draw readers to you. Knowing how to score high in Google search results is not enough. You need to regularly and actively market your blog.

Money Makers

It’s time to get paid and rewarded for all of your hard work. But where do you start? Even if you have outstanding content updated daily and thousands of readers, you won’t make a dime if you don’t know how to monetize your blog. “Monetization” is a slightly offensive word that means, in this context, that a blog is designed to generate income. You can do this in many ways—many more than you would imagine if you’re new to this scene—some more effective than others.

Common mistake: Choosing all the wrong advertisers. Keep advertisements relevant to your content! It doesn’t matter if that auto-part store is offering 100% commission on $4,500 rebuilt engines; your blog dedicated to new moms will never see a single sale.

Learn More

If you can wrap your head around these ideas, you might have what it takes to make money with a blog. Learn more by reading our most recent posts about blogging, and most important, follow the links in the posts to some amazingly good resources where you can learn from the best.
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You’ll learn how he earns six figures per year with his blogs. He’ll show you how to blog so that you’re not a slave to page views. Among other things, you’ll learn:

• How to combine Internet marketing with your blog for residual income
• How to handle the biggest challenge: getting and keeping traffic
• How a blog is the answer to that and the other online income challenges

You’ll have a behind-the-scenes look at his blog income streams and email list so you can see exactly what he’s talking about.

There’s a LOT more than I can tell you about. Go watch the video and imagine the possibilities. It will make a blog believer out of you.

What Does Freedom Look Like to You?

I’m not going to promise thousands of dollars per day. That’s unrealistic for most people, and though all of us would like that kind of income, most of us don’t need that much in order to improve our lives.

You might need only $1,000 more per month to enjoy the kind of freedom Yaro describes in this article. And that $1,000 is a realistic goal. Here’s a taste of the article, but you need to read the whole thing:

The Internet provides the tools for a mobile lifestyle, yet very few people who make money online can realistically leave their computer during normal working hours. If you lack key systems or follow bad models, the web can become just as much a trap as an offline business or job.

Click on over to learn more about how you can build an online business that allows you to walk (or fly) away but keeps growing when you’re not there.

You’re Probably Making These Blogging Mistakes

If you already have a blog and are trying to make an income with it, watch out for these common mistakes that can torpedo your success:

• Becoming a page view slave: If you rely on page views for pennies-per-click advertising, you have to work your butt off to be successful. Yaro will show you the way out.
• Settling for work more=earn more: That’s a linear model that will keep you tied to your keyboard and Internet connection. The article will point you to a model that lets you walk away.
• “Running the goal-chasing treadmill: If everything you do is about climbing further up a status ladder, increasing your wealth or your fame and essentially - your ego - you can never become satisfied.”

There is a LOT of stellar, practical advice packed into the article about having a mobile business. Go check it out.

I’ll post another great resource for you soon—a video explaining the system Yaro Starak uses to make between $10,000 and $34,000 per month with his blogs. (Who’s Yaro? He’s the author of this free report about making money with blogging.)

Update: Here’s the link to the video: click here to view the Blog Mastermind video by Yaro Starak.