Working at Home on the Internet

Things Can Still Go Wrong, Even With a Game Plan

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 Well, my desktop has finally had a fatal crash!

The end was a bit drawn out. Tuesday night, it had a minor crash, but I was able to revive it with a little tender loving care and maybe a little name calling.

Yesterday, it rebooted on it’s own as I was in the middle of typing something, but when it came back, it couldn’t find the hard-drive. I went into the extreme back end of the setup and convinced it that it should boot from my backup disk and reintroduced it to the hard-drive.

Today upon booting up, it wanted to do a check-disk test, so I let it go through and everything was fine for about an hour. Then I started smelling something electrical. You know that pungent smell of ozone. Well, I think it was the hard-drive taking it’s last breath. All the power went off and stayed off!

I knew the end was coming and even made plans to go out today and get another desktop. The lappy is fine for travel, but it doesn’t have all my everyday files etc. just the things I use while I am away from my home office.

The plan was to get the new computer, transfer all my files from my old baby to the new guy and everything would be just honkey-dorey. Well, we all know that saying about “The best laid plans…” nothing goes the way you want and it definately never goes smoothly.

So, even with having a really good plan and a backup of files I need, this is just going to be a pain to accomplish a simple little task that should have only taken an hour.

I’m off to get the new desktop in a couple of minutes, wish me luck!

May 8th, 2008 at 10:31am | Posted by Joe | Attitude, Rants | reader remarks | Print This Post

Hey BlogKits, You Owe Me Money

 I doubt you noticed, but there have been some changes in the advertising I have been running around here. Mostly, some of the low (or no) profit affiliates are missing. There is good reason, they are taking up valuable space and some are are actually making money on clicks and I’m not.

Others were good options in the beginning and we both made some money, but after a little while, there was just no action on their ads.

While still others owe me money because they got clicks and sales, I have cash on the books, but I didn’t make their minimum requirements for payment. These are the one’s I want to warn you about.

Rant Ahead! 

Most of the major advertisers and affiliate programs have minimum amounts you need to meet before payment, and for the most part they seem to pay once you have exceeded that minimum. But, what if you never meet the low end of sales requirements and decide to call it quits. Neither you nor the affiliate are making tons of money, but THEY have made at least something from your sales/clicks. You have money on the books, but not enough to get paid.

How do you get the money that you have earned in good faith? I have no idea, but I have sent e-mails to BlogKits requesting that we break up amicably. Pay me and I will delete my account. I have already taken down their ads and would never refer them as an income source to anyone.

Just in case you missed it Mr Ryno Saayman… “It’s My Money, and I Want It Now!”

February 6th, 2008 at 01:16pm | Posted by Joe | Advertising, Affiliates, Rants | 2 reader remarks | Print This Post

Work at Home Mom Could be Fined $10 Million for eBay Business

 Well, Former Work at Home Mom. You see, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has driven her out of business. (Now she works as a Dental Hygienist and it’s possible she could lose her license to practice because of this fiasco.)

Although there are no laws on the books in Pennsylvania (or any other state as far as I know) governing online auctions, the Department of State has decided it needed to set a precedent. It chose Mary Jo Pletz.

Picking on the Little Guy?

The Peltz’s daughter, 6 months old at the time, was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2004. Mary Jo knew she couldn’t work full time outside their home and take care of the baby, but she still needed an income. That’s when she decided to start D&J Virtual Consignment selling things on eBay.

It seems she got very good at it and would sell things for friends, neighbors and eventually built the business into something to help small onetime sellers who had no online presence for a fee.

She even declared the income from the business on her taxes.

In Comes the DOS

A couple of days after Christmas in 2006 a guy from the Department of State paid a visit to Mary Jo and told her the business was being investigated for violating state law. It seems she didn’t have an Auctioneers License and each violation was a $1000 fine.

With 10,000 sales through eBay it’s easy to figure out, even without a calculator: $10,000,000.

She shut down.

What’s the Point?

I don’t really know. Figure 10k in sales at a 30% fee couldn’t equal very much money over 2 years, at least not enough to attract the ire of the Government. Especially when she paid taxes on the income. I doubt it was even enough to pay for the baby’s medication, doctors visits and tests (she seems to have stabilized  now).

I guess there are really two point to be made here…

1. A perfect reason to become a Work at Home Mom
2. When the Government gets involved, you’re screwed.

What do you think?

Mary Jo, if you happen to read this, I’d love to do an in-depth interview with you to make sure we all get the story straight from you, with no middle guy.

As of this writing the Department of State has Not dropped the complaint.

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer

January 30th, 2008 at 05:10pm | Posted by Joe | Attitude, Rants, Work at Home | 9 reader remarks | Print This Post