The SEC has filed against 12DailyPro, shutting them down. While this is not a final court decision, it’s certainly not good news for those who have been members of 12DailyPro and similar autosurf schemes.

The filing revealed that most of the money people earned from 12DailyPro came from membership fees - a classic sign of a Ponzi scheme.

I really feel for the people who were sucked into this and now have to worry about what will happen to them. Obviously, any money that was coming to them from autosurfing is probably lost, and I’m not sure if they’re allowed to keep such earnings from the past. Seems to me that I’ve heard such earnings can be used to pay back investors. This could get ugly for a lot of folks.

I’ve added links on what’s happening to the autosurf page of my work at home scams section. These things can take a very long time (years?) to make their way through the court system, so I don’t know how long it will be before this is resolved.

Gage turned 1 year old yesterday. He also had his 1-year checkup. He’s doing great on his height - around the 50th percentile, but he’s just beneath the chart on weight, at 18 lb, 4 oz. This means the doctor wants to see him again in 3 months to see if it has improved. No word on what we do if it hasn’t.

I’m not as worried as I might be. Gage had quite the growth spurt over the last 2 months (his 9 month checkup had to be delayed, and so was at 10 months), as he went from being in the 10-15th percentile in height then to 50th now. I think I know where all the food he eats went!

But we told my mother-in-law to give in to all her Italian grandmother tendencies and feed him up whenever he comes over. That won’t make much of a difference, as he’s at her house maybe once a week. She’s delighted by the prospect, of course.

The hard part is that I’ve been trying to cook low fat for my husband, since he tested high on cholesterol a year or so ago. It’s not going to be easy to increase calories for Gage while keeping them down for those of us who don’t need extra. I’ll probably focus on what I can get Gage to eat during the day when Daddy’s at work, so I can at least minimize the temptation.

I’m pleased to say I have my unresearched work at home job leads section now up and running. I’ve posted the first set of job leads from Craigslist and I’ll be figuring out the best way to find job leads on other sites.

This is something new for me, and it will probably take a while to work out the most efficient way to run this. I can’t spend all day on this one free service, after all, although I do expect to spend a good bit of time puzzling out the best resources and the best search methods.

I’ve added a few more links to articles on how things are progressing with the investigation into autosurfs. I’m withholding my own opinion while waiting to see what the FBI thinks - after all, their opinion is the one that will have the final say on whether not these are nothing more than Ponzi schemes or if they are acceptable business models.

It won’t surprise me to see it take several months for a final answer to come about. There are a lot of details to look into, and quite a number of companies, probably all with slightly different income sources (aside from what members pay in, that is). While I understand one company in particular appears to be the main focus in the media reports, I would be surprised if other companies are not also being checked out.

Just read a very interesting report from MarketingSherpa.com. One of the biggest challenges for a business is getting your name remembered. They did a study on what made a business most memorable.

You probably won’t be surprised to hear that promotional items work best. 76.1% of people could remember the name of a business that gave them a promotional item, while only 53% remembered TV commercials, and online ads scored worst at 27%.

Of course, promotional items get expensive fast, and you need to make sure the item is appropriate and memorable. People get a LOT of pens, after all. They’re pretty effective, but something more creative may work better.

Promo products are also a great way to have something to hand people you meet when you’re out and about. A business card is good, but there are things that are less likely to be thrown away.

I strongly recommend reading this report and thinking about ways to promote your business.