Q: Help!  I went to a seminar for a home-based business last night for a company called Nouveau Riche.  I felt like I was at a revival.  Please, can you tell me if this business is a scam?  I am desperate to get out of the law office that I work in and find a business where I can stay home.  I also want to help others.  Isn't there a business that I can make money that is "creative" and not "competitive"?

I have to admit I don't know enough about Real Estate to say for sure, but it seems like an incredibly risky proposition to me.

You can check them against John T. Reed's check list here:
http://www.johntreed.com/BSchecklist.html

Write ups about Nouveau Riche here:
http://www.johntreed.com/Reedgururating.html#Anchor-Nouveau-35882
http://snipurl.com/cnnriche

I checked RipoffReport for 2008 and there were 412 complaints. Now you can't
just take that number at face value because it depends on how big the company is, but
412 is still a lot of complaints in one year - but again unless you really know volume of

transactions you have to take it with a grain of salt.

http://snipurl.com/nriche

The only data I have to go by is the traffic reported at various traffic analysis sites & their site doesn't really seem to get a lot of traffic, but that could be because most of their business is done offline.

The ones I looked at are Compete.com:

http://siteanalytics.compete.com/www.nouveauriche.com/?metric=uv

Quantcast:

http://www.quantcast.com/nouveauriche.com

&

Alexa:

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/nouveauriche.com

On the other hand, they only have 10 complaints at the BBB within the past 36 months:

http://snipurl.com/bbbriche

"This company previously had an unsatisfactory record due to a pattern of complaints concerning selling practices. However, recent file activity reflects improvement in this area. Any complaints processed by the Bureau in its three-year reporting period have been resolved. The number and type of complaints are not unusual for a company in this industry."

And the fact that they are NOT a BBB member actually is a factor in NouveauRiche's favor when it comes to BBB rating them as favorably as they have (the BBB requires dues and tends to be more lenient with members).

I'm not sure what you mean by "creative". Can you be more specific?

There's a page I helped put together for writers here:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Make_Money_Writing_for_the_Web

And if you want to combine writing, making basic videos, and learning strategic
web promotion, I would recommend Surefire Success:

http://www.clickhereforsurefiresuccess.com

More…

In addition to what I have at:

http://www.workathometruth.com/top-10-home-businesses.php
and
http://www.workathometruth.com/self-funding-home-businesses.php

You could also think about leveraging your existing experience
as a Virtual Assistant. http://www.vanetworking.com has a great
free community where you can get a lot of information about
starting up this type of business.

The other reviewers I think do a good job on other types of
online businesses, are:

http://www.ivetriedthat.com (we don't always agree 100%, but they
will definitely look out for you).

&

http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/ which has a very helpful discussion forum.

&

http://www.quityourdayjob.com (this is more of a affiliate marketing training site, but the
training is free and excellent.

Let me know if you need more info anytime.

Paul