Now she tells me!

I finally go ahead and link to my sister’s site, and she told me last night that she’s planning on changing the name soon. It’s a good idea, but just typical timing!

Of course, I’ve been hard at work too. I’m working on more and more content for Aspects of Home Business. Hopefully it will turn out useful to people. I’ve learned so much about many kinds of online business these past few years, I may as well do something with it.

I can’t help but wonder if I didn’t get some kind of odd spam. Someone sent me an email asking if I knew the contact person for a company, and when I replied that I wasn’t associated, I got an invitation to be an affiliate for that company from the same person. Very odd and I haven’t decided what to do yet. If it’s a legit company, the service is probably well worth promoting, but the contact method is just so odd.

Looks like a little change in the phishing scam.

Maybe others have seen this one a lot, but I haven’t:

Happy New Year!
Dear Valued Client, the management and staff would like to take this opportunity to thank all customers and affiliates for their loyalty and business during 2004. In the forthcoming years, we endeavour to provide new products and services in order to meet the needs of this ever-changing financial market. As our customer, we will keep you informed on our special offers and new products and services that may be of interest to you. Happy New Year to you from everyone at Wamu.

We offer you special discounts in all stores all over USA with your credit card and a special cupon offered free by our bank.This offer includes over 15000 shops located all over the country.

This is our New Year gift for our clients so please don`t miss this special occasion

All you have to do is to login in to your account and confirm your name and login and in 72 hours you will have your cupon. Please click below.

Link deleted, obviously

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.Happy New Year.

If you choose to ignore our request, you will lose the offer.!

Thank you for using WAMU!

Nice attempt at switching tactics to get that information. Of course, the link shows up as just an IP address, not a domain name.

It really saddens me that so many scammers try so hard to get people’s information, and that so many fall for it.

For those who are relatively new to this kind of scam, never click on the link. Type in the website of your bank, ebay, whoever they are pretending to direct you to, yourself. Odds are, there will be nothing about whatever the email is claiming, whether it be a problem with your account or discounts and coupons.

Bit by bit my sister’s site is making progress.

She runs the site Kaper Families, which is about combating obesity, particularly in children. To keep it fun, the site suggests making sure kids get out to play and coping with excuses for avoiding exercise. Considering how much of a problem this has become due to sedentary lifestyles, this could be a great site.

Of course, I’m helping her with it. I’ve sent her some links to directories, helped with the initial design (still a bit of work to do there) and just generally talked her through a lot of the process. It’s a lot of fun helping family get going online.

Now I just have to get time with my brother-in-law as well. He has a website idea, but no design knowledge, etc. I’m hoping to get together with them at the same time at some point, as they are facing many of the same issues in getting an online business started.

That takes care of the running around part of moving a home business!

Yes, I updated my FBN and business license today to reflect my new address. I wanted to get that taken care of the minute I was able to. I much prefer keeping everything legal, even though the odds of getting in trouble over a home business are slim, especially when you don’t have customers coming to your door.

I’ve seen some people say wait until you’re sure about your home business before getting a license. The general idea is that many people go through multiple businesses before getting the right one. My feeling is that you should get your license under a name that is generic enough for whatever you’re doing, whether direct sales, websites, product, etc., because if your area requires a business license for home business, the penalties are harsh if you get caught. Possibly into the $100s per day, depending on where you live. Not worth it if your license doesn’t cost that much.

They also talk about not worrying about your home business license because the IRS doesn’t care if you only make a small amount each year, and may in fact consider it to only be a hobby. That’s true, but the IRS has nothing to do with business licenses. They don’t care if you have a license or not. Heck, if you steal something, you’re supposed to report it to the IRS as income! I tend to be more concerned with how my city will regard my business when it comes time to decide whether or not to license.

Ariel was very well behaved for the most part during all of this. She did get upset when the girls she was playing with at our first stop had to go. She cried and wanted to follow. I know she gets lonely sometimes, and she was having a blast with those girls, but that’s why she has a class she goes to once a week. I need to find local playmates for her too, of course, so that maybe she will be able to play with someone more or less daily.

I also added the home business newsletter to Aspects of Home Business. I won’t do an issue right away, but it will get going soon. I’m planning a pretty simple bonus for subscribing - my list of free directories to submit your site to. I don’t have that uploaded just yet, but its release will be announced to any existing subscribers as soon as I get that together. Just seems more useful than another free ebook.

MTACC is the first website I’ve had to ban from my discussion boards.

For those who don’t know, it’s a medical transcription school. The ban is simply because they have suggested that they would include me in litigation they have going against another individual who has been making negative posts about them. Rather than refute the claims, which is what I still feel they should have done, they said if I left them up they would include my site in that process. At seven months pregnant, with a new apartment, a work at home job and business, a toddler and a husband new at his job, I really don’t have the time for litigation. So all mention of their school is no longer allowed.

This is a move I really hate to take. I much prefer free and open discussion, and I’ve had another company take a look at negative posts and try to defend themselves. Even if I don’t like a given company, I much more respect them if they try to do that rather than just threaten with lawyers. I really think it does a reputation much more good if you can say why these claims are false rather than simply trying to hide them.

With that in mind, I finally decided to add medical transcription discussion to my board. No mention is to be allowed of MTACC, of course. But any other school can be mentioned and discussed, as can employers, the usual discussion about transcription, etc. I have the right to decide who can advertise or use my board, and I am taking advantage of that. I have even blocked them from my AdSense account, in case they advertise there.