The Yeti\’s Cyber Smithy

You have read the Spam or maybe seen it on late night TV. Get rich quick, just send me a hundred bucks and I will share with you my wealth building secrets. Chances are you have even seen the spams and scams that tell you that no investment is necessary and chances are you have looked at a few only to realize that no investment necessary somehow translates into give us money.

So what does a person do when he thinks (note I said thinks) he is onto something that really can provide a full time income for doing nothing except participating and building an online service? Although it sounds nuts, just what is it that an author is paid for if not writing? What is it that an editor is paid for if not for editing? Did you know there are people who work at news services who are paid just to make the decisions about what to include in their news services?

Even with the great changes in the world and how we view it that have come about since the Internet became popular, some things remain the same. While you might think a guy named Tom owns Myspace.com, the truth is News Corp owns the place. Yep, the same multi-million dollar incorporation which owns Fox News. If you are wondering why Fox News tends to trash Myspace.com so much, well ‘no publicity is bad publicity’. I would not be surprised to find that News Corp. had secretly encouraged some of the many law suites, which were threatened against Myspace.com

What has changed is that instead of purchasing content and then making money from advertising spots when that content is disseminated, now News Corp. does not have to purchase the content. Instead, the members of Myspace both provide the content and watch the advertisements which put money into the corporation’s pockets. What has changed is that instead of having to pay a human being to decide what is shown, those decisions are made by what they call ‘Social Networking’. Of course the side benefit on the part of News Corp. is that they can use Myspace.com to promote the hell out of movies, TV shows, and other things which they produce.

What has not changed is that it is the huge corporations which make the huge profits associated with advertising revenues. I think that the little group of programmers I am associated with have come up with a way to turn that around a bit and to make a shinny penny for ourselves in the process. The problem being, it really does sound entirely too good to be true, nobody will make money from it in its early stages, but it will take people participating in the early stages to get it rolling.

Making matters even more scary, although not a scam (no fee is involved) part of the structure resembles a pyramid scam. You know, the earlier you get involved the better off you are. So just about anyway I can describe the thing, all the bells and whistles that warn people about a scam will go off.

Thus my boggle, how do you present something to the public which sounds too good to be true and is obviously structured after many of the scams which we find in our email boxes and on late night TV?