I was curious and I looked through the GAP website. My conclusion is that technically, it might not be a scam but it has all the telltale signs of a business that's profitable for the people running the program but not the people participating in the program.

If you look carefully through the website and read between the lines, it's not clear what you will be doing in your home based business. They promise...

I was curious and I looked through the GAP website. My conclusion is that technically, it might not be a scam but it has all the telltale signs of a business that's profitable for the people running the program but not the people participating in the program.

If you look carefully through the website and read between the lines, it's not clear what you will be doing in your home based business. They promise leads to your website and assist you with marketing but they never mention what it is that you'll be doing or selling. They only talk about the benefits without even mentioning what hurdles you have to overcome to make money.

Another big red flag for me is the requirement of up front money. The amount of money is not insignificant and for that kind of money, you could run some search engine advertising and get just as many leads. They throw in everything including the kitchen sink to make it seem like you're getting your money's worth but if you evaluate each of the packages individually, you're not getting anything really useful to help market your business.

I would strongly urge your husband to reconsider participating. These programs aren't illegal because they get away with a loophole which says that they're providing something of value (ie. all the extras you get with your marketing package) and can therefore charge you upfront. They don't guarantee that you'll have a successful business. The only successful business will be the GAP program which will collect your money and then provide dubious marketing services for your website.

Also, when evaluating these opportunities is to look at the product or service that you'll have to end up selling. If you have to sell some dubious products based on leads generated by GAP, you have to ask yourself, would I be enticed by a program like GAP to buy that particular good or service? If I arrive at some random website, would I be likely to make a purchase. If you don't feel that you wouldn't go through with it, chances are that other people will not go through with it either.

One last tip is that you should ignore all the testimonials from other members of the program. This is a classic Ponzi scheme technique where they pick a few users who make money and then promote the hell out of them. They can then earn several times their money from other users who follow the few successful people but never get their business off the ground.

My instincts are like yours, but I couldn't find anybody saying anything bad about it. Fortune Magazine endorsed it, and I used to trust that. My lifelong experience is that some of these do good at first, and then don't. Seems to be all right for now.