Own a Home-Based Business For $1.95
written by Michael Kwan
It’s been said time and time again that if you want to make money online, starting up a blog probably isn’t the most lucrative option. Instead, you can try to start up a content-based site like The TechZone or you can launch an e-commerce site to sell whatever products happen to tickle your fancy.
The main problem with the second possibility is that it could involve a fair bit of financial risk. You’ve got to stock inventory, you’ve got to design a site, and then you’ve got to staff an email response and/or call center to handle all of your orders. But e-commerce doesn’t need to be that complicated. You can get started for less than two bucks with HerbalBiz, the home-based business affiliate program that serves as subject of this review.
HerbalBiz In a Nutshell
If you stop to think about all the costs that go into opening an online store, it can be quite daunting. You’ve got to prepare a product, design a website, set up the back-end, and ready a customer service system, and this is before you even have any physical inventory ready to be shipped. The HerbalBiz home based business takes care of all of that. All you have to do is show them the money. And by money, I mean less than two bucks.
HerbalBiz offers “a complete line of herbal and skin care products”, or rather, you will be offering a complete line of herbal and skin care products. You can have your own personalized website, complete with unique brand presence and an online shopping cart. The affiliate income payout is also quite lucrative as you earn 50% on every sale.
Here’s a look at their demo store:
They’re also quick to remind you that HerbalBiz is “absolutely not an MLM, pyramid or network marketing program.” It’s an opportunity for you to own your own online business with next to zero startup costs. You’ll naturally be responsible for your own marketing, but at least the store is up and running. Because you don’t stock your own inventory, there is very little risk as well.
What’s Up With This Dude?
The HerbalBiz website features a pretty clean Web 2.0 appearance, complete with lots of white space, mated with a soothing green and blue color scheme. Navigation to the site’s various sections — like About, Testimonials, and Contact — is very straightforward and easy to understand.
Despite this professional appearance, the HerbalBiz site has one serious negative and it involves a very intrusive guy in the corner.
Upon arriving at the main page, a video ad immediately starts to play in the lower-right corner. It’s just some guy in a suit, giving you a brief introduction to what HerbalBiz is all about. It’d be much better if this wasn’t set on autoplay, because it just comes off feeling spammy and infomercial-ish. As if the whole “own your own business selling herbal products” didn’t sound enough like an infomercial already.
Two Pricing Plans
There are two plans available on HerbalBiz, neither of which involves any monthly fees. Instead, you pay a one-time setup fee and then it’s up to you to maintain it.
The Basic plan is $1.95 and it gets you the features that you can see above, including all the code you need to have a “fully loaded website with HerbalBiz products.” I’m thinking that this might be a subdomain off HerbalBiz.com.
If you step up to $49.95 Premium plan, you also receive your own dedicated domain name, your own toll-free number and call center, and one year of web hosting. The numbers for these features (who pays $34.95 to register a domain?) are a little out there, but just the 1-800 number makes the Premium plan sound like the better option. I’m thinking that you have to pay $49.95 each year to maintain the hosting and call center.
Path to Financial Freedom?
Even if you get 50% of every sale through your HerbalBiz home-based business, I imagine that you have to make quite a few sales before you can quit your day job. The whole system, especially with the testimonials and promises of “how easily you can start being your own boss” remind me too much of cheesy infomercials. We’ve all heard of similar schemes in the past.
An alternative approach would be to set up your own shopping site of some kind, filled with affiliate links. Of course, you’d have to go through the process of coding such a site and all sales would be handled by a third party. With HerbalBiz, you get a fully functional e-store from the get-go and it can carry your own branding (presumably).
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(28 votes, average: 1.46 out of 5)
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It looks like a great site for affiliates, although I think $49 is little high for a one time fee, no matter that it comes with a one year hosting plan and your own domain (domain reg:$10, webhosting for a small affiliate site doesn’t cost too much).
I feel dirty just reading this post.
Your saying $49.95 or whatever it is is high for a domain, one years free hosting and an #800 toll number with 24/7 support
Im not, Im saying that if you think this is a home business you are an idiot.
I wasn’t refering to you, I was actually referring to “Cash Dominator - Money Maker” hence the pricing etc
My apologies for the idiot remark than
Call me skeptical but anytime someone is really quick to point out they they’re network selling or a pyramid scheme it always sets off alarm bells in my head..
NOT network selling or a pyramid scheme.. not not not.. hah
[...] Chow has just posted a website review over on his website about a new online business opportunity from a company called [...]
The plans seems interesting but the price is a bit high but what is wrong giving it a try especially for those who want to become a boss.
I hate the fact that the page scrolls to infinity for me. I was going to sign up for the 49 dollar plan but I scrolled right by it and into oblivion… good bye everyone!
This is kinda cool and great price. I wouldn’t want to do it but I would suggest my friends to. Remember, “do as I say, not as I do, I am too stubborn…”
Bull Shit, just like that Agoloco shit you had us sign up.
LOL. Since when did affiliate programs start charging a set-up fee?
John never forced you to signup. You chose to signup, hes giving you the option to
You chose to sign up for Agoloco, did you forget that?
A review for an affiliate program. Wow.
why doesnt john do reviews on his own blog anymore?
Its smart. You make enough from reviewme reviews to pay someone to write the review for you. It’s the best use of your time.
I think John should start reviewing them again after all he’s making $200 after 50% reviewme fees per review :razz:, which isn’t that bad for 10-15 minutes work
Sounds interesting - but i don;t think i will try it .
Michael writes good blog reviews..This review is just a little off from what you normally write.
The most important question to ask about this deal:
Who controls the content? Is it proprietary or does my $49 investment give me the right to write my own content?
“It’s been said time and time again that if you want to make money online, starting up a blog probably isn’t the most lucrative option.”
Good way to motivate people. $27,000 a month sounds pretty nice to me.
Actually, I would 100% agree. I have sold (or currently sell) physical products, informational videos and guides, memberships etc. I’ve also done plenty of affiliate marketing and run a couple of blogs.
Blogs require months of work before you see any real money at all not to mention there is no guarantee you will EVER make any money. Also, blog readers are fickle and expect content daily. If you go on vacation or get injured and don’t update for a week you can easily lose 25-50% of your readers and that can mean 25-50% of your profits.
Blogs can be used as a “funnel” into your other businesses but honestly, if you think you can just start a blog and be the next John Chow- isn’t happening for 99% of the people out there.
Sounds like most businesses to me. It takes some work and could make no money.
Ok…good luck with that blog then.
John Chow is discouraging people to start blogs because he doesn’t want too much competition! LOL
Hahaha true. He does have a good point though, it’s not very lucrative until you start getting a big list of readers.
is a MLM. I never believe in MLM and it doesn’t work only for those who is desperate. Good Luck!!!
Dang, these sites are popping up EVERYWHERE!!!
-Mike
Clever way to charge for affiliates to join your program!
I like it.
I like the evil
way John’s site (Tech Zone) was promoted inside the $400.00 review for the herbal products. Slick JC!
Also, I don’t know where the products come from, who makes them or if they are safe. I’ll pass.
I am desperate to find ways to work at home. Even so, this one doesn’t do it for me, for several reasons:The site is…boring and appears frugally done. It certainly doesn’t make me want the product, much less the site.They want money up front! If the product is that good why not just give me the hosted site and pay me a commission on sales, or do the normal affiliate program? Why don’t you use your money up front!?
not something I want to be a part of.
Dude this says like payed review all over.
THat’s because it is a paid review.
Perhaps with a stronger FDA stuff like this would be better regulated.
i’ve seen better business opportunities
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John forgot to mention that it cost $1.95 to join and $20 to cancel within 30 days. As John could not find the information if $49.95 is for one year or just one time. Will the affiliate be charged $299 for hosting after one year? When some important information is missing, the program becomes a bit fishy.
Thanks for the information.
Ouch… $20 to cancel within 30 days?
Indeed, the review does not have all the info needed for most webmasters. It does seem a little off and perhaps a bit fishy to me.
I’ve been crawling this blog for a while and figured this would be a good time to post my comment
why would it cost $20 to cancel?
thats pretty strange!
also charging $2 to get people into the program is quite brilliant. with John Chow’s reach, they’ll probably make two or three times the cost of the review just from the people who’ll spend the 2 bucks just to check it out.
Who is going to buy a product from such stores? Not interested in this kind of offers!
If it is such a great deal why charge anything at all?
it can be a great deal. thanks for the information
Where are the products manufactured? Who formulated them? When entering the natural supplement world having these facts is important. There is a program similar to this called JoeBucks but doesn’t charge for “membership” and gives 50%…
Great, another outfit that sells scammy male enhancement pills. No thanks. Some affiliate marketers just don’t fall for this nonsense.
its good.
thanks for info.
Seems like all the rest. $1.95 sounds great, but then you don’t get much. Not interested.
Eric
Lol, not another article business startups. I’m writing an e-book with a business-theme and found you whilst googling. Thanks for the information.