Never believe marketing hype. This is my mantra when it comes to dealing with sales people. I research before I buy. I look at the brand name, quality and though I look for bargains I certainly don't jump onto something that is easily to good to be true.
That is why I hate cookie cutter web sites. E-bay even tells you because of the number of web sites sold on their auction site. Ezine @rticles also warns you of the same. Finally Search Engine Journal rounds up the disaster one gets in using the cookie cutter web site approach.
I like anyone else looked at ways to make money and I got caught in a similar scam for classified ad placements in newspapers. Let me tell you right here, right now, the only people who are really making money in this type of deal are the ones selling you the material in the first place.
The so called 10 free web sites deal has several restrictions. You have to use their designs, You have to follow their program etcetera and so on, blah blah blah. Oh and yeah they host the site on their servers, which means they control your content and traffic. Add to that even if people buy the products on your particular site they are actually paying you a small commission. The final point, the price of the product is set by them. You are NOT ALLOWED to run your own promotion pricing. Which leads to a final question, are you really running a business?
Then there are other factors to consider. Here in Texas in order to open a merchant account that allows you to take credit cards you must have a business license. This law, which was recently passed, was designed to stop on-line credit card scams and theft. To make this perfectly clear if you have a web site that takes credit cards you as the individual must obtain a Texas Tax Identification Number and separate business license. You can no longer use a corporate sponsor to simply take a credit card on-line on your behalf. The sponsor can still handle all aspects of the transaction but your business must be registered with the state of Texas. You as the individual business owner are responsible to make sure that all Sales Taxes collected get paid to the the State. That's a big obligation if the parent company suddenly goes belly up. (cutting off your income if you are somehow making any) leaving you holding the bag to pay for uncollected Sales Taxes.
Me personally, I would rather collect the sales taxes myself and make sure that Texas gets paid. Trust me I worked for one company that got in trouble for that. I have no desire to be on the receiving end of Susan Comb's wrath for failure to collect and pay my taxes. (I do not mean her personally but trust me her staff can make hornets look tame.)
Many states have a whole slew of laws concerning e-commerce alone. Bet your A** they enforce them. You need to know what laws you have to abide by in your state. Many a MLM company and individuals involved in said MLM are finding this out the hard way. Oh and guess what, you may have to follow more than one state's laws as well. You have to know any and all that can affect you.
Finally I will leave you with this from PEK INTERACTIVE
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