If reader doesn't have a large list to send an ad to, it's likely there will not be many people buying new opportunity. The "big" gurus and publishers have contacted most every reader and resource that you can imagine advertising to.

If I see an ad a few times, I might look into it out of curiosity, or to see if it's a scam (I used to run a scam reporting site). If I see an opportunity advertised 15-20 times, I WON'T look into it. It's already in over-kill and making people sick of seeing it - and that includes me. I start to delete emails of publishers who push a program more than once for his own interest and earnings.

The caution signs I look for are - ð product not yet released but you have to pay anyway, ð product so new no one has had a chance to use it or know it, ð program has a monthly cost requirement, ð it's a rewording of a known scam, ð too much hype and promises, ð guru has previously been worthless in his prior support, ð would one feel "guilty" pushing this on someone else, ð and a few other clues that don't feel "right."

I can't understand why so many people jump on every new opportunity, just to feel failure of every other prior opportunity that went nowhere. They spend money they don't have, and get no return. Mind you, I don't say all these programs are scams - some are, some are not - but can you actually make money from them?

"Beneath chaotic dot-com busts of last half-year, an overlooked breed of Internet companies - mostly small and nimble - is thriving.

"They have no public stock, no Super Bowl commercials, no million-dollar product launch parties, and no naming contracts with professional sports stadiums. Their small size has allowed many to weather a storm that has quickly taken down hugely stupid, profligate and unlucky internet firms.

"This year's grim portrait of Internet economy has largely been painted by big-money Wall Street nose dives such as those by Priceline.com, Drkoop.com and Etoys.

"By contrast, mundane dot-com survivors are small operations with few employees that have trudged along, slowly but steadily, in a parallel universe that more closely resembles so-called Old Economy."

Well, gee, no kidding. Finally dust begins to settle and resulting landscape resembles, well, something suspiciously like real world. And WE, "mundane dot-com survivors" are ones trudging along in a parallel universe? I think not. We've always been firmly rooted in real world. It's "hugely stupid, profligate and unlucky [and what's "luck" got to do with it?] internet firms" that were always living in a parallel universe of their own imaginations.