This is kind of general, not about a specific business opportunity, so it may be misplaced.

I tried a variety of business opportunities several years ago. One that I remember specifically was with a hard goods product seller, Specialty Merchandise Corporation (SMC). Many of you have probably heard of it. Although I found the products to be of good value, It wasn't successful for me. I just didn't have the knowledge or passion for that type of sales.

One thing I remember, is that they offered websites (like an online store), for selling the merchandise. I still wonder, how many of those cookie cutter sites are out there today... most of them lost on the Web, never to be found by anyone.

I also have heard that some product affiliations only allow you to use "their" sites to promote their products. I think it's nearly impossible to get organic traffic to to these types of sites... unless you want to write a ton of articles to drive traffic to it.

Internet searches are usually looking for information... If you have gotten involved in a business opportunity like this and want to drive traffic to one of these "cookie cutter" vendor sites, the best thing to do is find a concept that's related to the product, or one of the products, and build a content focused informational site about that concept.

Of course, you would want to research the popularity of the concept and any related keywords to determine profitability. Build your site around this concept and frequently searched keywords. I would recommend that you use a more narrow (but popular) niche, rather than a very broad niche that may be too competitive to win over at the Search Engines.

Then, you naturally link to the product site within your content. It's a pre-selling technique. You drive targeted traffic to your store this way. Otherwise, it's hard to get targeted organic traffic in a saturated market of cookie cutter sites for that product. It's a great concept and really works, if you do it right!

As a bonus, you can use other monetization models with your informational site as well (i.e., Google Adsense, other related product affiliations, etc.).

Just my 2 cents. Hope I'm not off topic for this forum.

It's nice to hear others' experiences. So ~ thanks for sharing yours!

Happy to hear of your successes on the net.

Who would you advise or what companies through all of your experiences...should people stay away from?

Stay away from using a hosted proxy account for you site. You maintain total control when you own it....

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I think that any business, especially network marketing is now all about building relationships.

Those that think they can just put up a mirrored website and succeed are mistaken.

Now you can build a website about you, your beliefs and experiences and over time that will work.

Anything that promotes a Get Rich Quick product. Success takes hard work, proper planning, and time.

It's been almost five years since I tried anything new. Since I found Site Build It!, nearly five years ago, I haven't looked any further. It gave me everything I needed to research, plan, and build a successful online business.

I can't really remember all of the scams and dead ends that got me before that. Don't know if I've blocked them out, or it's age...

Yes! I think this is great advice!
When you build a Website correctly, you not only build a great relationship with your visitors, you build great relationships with the Search Engines and other businesses related to your site concept/theme.

Yes, again! If you stick to a theme about something you "know" and/or "love", you'll come off as a real expert and you will enjoy your work as well. Enjoying your work??? That's a bonus we could all use!

Yes, in any field, success requires all that. You learn from mistakes and move on. Eventually, experience will be your great teacher.