Email Lottery Scam

The subject of emails from an unknown source to you will, probably show, something similar to, “Congratulation! You have own a lottery”. With minor variations text in most of these letters is virtually identical.

The letter, usually, claims to be issued by a Lottery Company based in some countries like The Netherlands, Switzerland, England, Canada or USA.

And then it says that you are one of many people randomly chosen from all over world to participate in a lottery of a very large sum. You along with some others have won this lottery. You will be asked to contact them immediately to claim your prize money. Most certainly, letter will also warn you to keep this as a secret and will specify that offer has a time limit.

If you contact them after receiving this letter; there are number of variation how thugs will try to swindle you. They are quite imaginative and sometimes very innovative in their endeavors.

In general idea is – you have to pay a fee before lottery company can release amount to you. The pretexts are, usually, an investigation company has to make sure that you are right person who won lottery, as a foreigner you have to pay a tax before you can get your prize and there is a processing and handling fee that has to be paid before hand, etc.

'The Only 5 Things You Can Sell' by Palyn Peterson

So, you want to start an internet store do you? What is it are you going to sell? This really is first thing to tackle, because without any products your store will fail, guaranteed. All jokes aside, let me share some insight on broad this topic.

First, do you have anything to offer that you can make? Crafts, exotic bird houses, jewelry, doll houses? Most people will answer "No" to this one, but that is ok! Lots of options are still available. In fact, most online stores do not create their own products.

Affiliate programs are another great choice. An affiliate program is when a company gives you commission to sell their products. You direct customers to their website, and that is it. You don't manage inventory, sale or shipping. Some companies may provide web space and site creation support, but be careful about going that route -- they may want to charge you setup fees and maybe a membership fee. If affiliate program is worth it, it will most likely be free. Here are other points to pay attention to:

1. How much commission you will receive with each sale. 5%- 10% is on low side. Try to stick with companies that will pay you 20%-35%. I've even come across some affiliate programs that pay as much as 50%. 2. Read affiliate agreement. Some companies state you can only sell their products on your website, and no one else's. If this works for you, great. If not, be sure to read agreement and make sure this is not case. 3. What pay out amounts are. Know how much you need to make before a check is cut and mailed to you. 4. Do you receive support? Many companies offer their affiliates marketing material to help sell products. This could include website content, pictures, banners, cut-and- paste emails, and classified ads.

Some people pull in many thousands of dollars a month with affiliate programs, they can work, but remember to be careful! There are many wolves in sheep clothing just waiting to take your setup fee and monthly payments just to leave you without support and no sales. If affiliate programs interest you, there are a number of good affiliate program directories. Here are a few:

1. www.affiliatesdirectory.com 2. www.associateprograms.com 3. www.affiliatematch.com

Next, a very popular and incredibly practical choice is drop shipping. Drop shipping is when a wholesale distributor maintains product inventory, you create a store selling those products and take customer's orders at retail prices. You then turn around and send customer's order to wholesale distributor who ships products to your customer, often with your company name on package.

The customer receives their products not knowing that you are running business with no inventory and from comfort of your home. And no inventory means you only spend money when you are making money. In other words, you only spend money buying products at wholesale when you are just going to turn around and charge retail price to a customer. How great is that? This is one of most popular methods of running a retail business on internet, and for good reason!