No I didn’t drop off the face of the earth, I’ve been busy making sure all my ducks are in order.

You see, while I’ve been a business owner ever since I can remember, I’ve only been free from traditional employment since 2005; and with this recession I’d like to make sure I stay there.

No more evil employment!

Back in March I wrote Have You Recession Proofed Your Home Business? If you haven’t read it, head on over, and then check out these other great posts about the topic.

Telecommuting Diva shares 5 Ways To Recession Proof Your Home Business.

Remarkable James tells How To Recession-Proof Your Business in 13 Steps; here is part two.

Biz Chicks Rule lists 9 Recession Proof Industries. While you could use this list to start a job search, if you are really savvy you might find a way to start a new business or add another aspect to your existing business.

Blevins Franks Accountants writes about Protecting The Small Business From Recession. My favorite tip is “Try and find additional income streams so that the hit isn’t so big if you lose one.”

It can be tough, but by staying ahead of the curve, keeping up with trends, and diversifying like crazy you can watch your home business grow and avoid returning to employment.

Good luck!

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I get worked up about bad customer service experiences. Since I haven’t updated in awhile, allow me to tell you about my bad experience with Vonage.

I signed up for Vonage in March of 2007. I heard the horror stories so I decided to ask lots of questions, especially about canceling. The person assured me that if I canceled after a year, then I wouldn’t be subject to any fees.

Fast forward to today, May 2008. I haven’t used my Vonage in awhile so I decided to call and cancel. I read online that they have rebuttals for every reason you’d want to cancel so I simply told them I wanted to cancel because my dog doesn’t like the service.

I threw the Vonage lady off a bit, but she still tried to weasel me in by offering me one month free, then two months free, then a discounted monthly rate.

I said no, the Vonage lady put me on hold, and then told me I’d have to pay a $40 cancellation fee.

Excuse me?

She said that I had a two year contract as per the terms of service. I told her that I was told that I was committed to one year, and that either she was lying or the person who signed me up was lying.

So my question is, who is lying at Vonage?

I have a feeling that if I try to cancel after two years, they’ll tell me I agreed to three years and so on.

We went back and fourth for a half hour and she refused to transfer me saying she was the highest level and if I wanted to talk to someone else I’d have to hang up and call back.

Nice customer service Vonage.

So I told her to give me the two months free and in the meantime I’d be contacting someone from corporate. Now I am starting to rethink that, I think I will just call back and cancel Vonage. Meanwhile I’ll be devising a clever SEO plan to warn people about Vonage.

Here are some more experiences with canceling Vonage.

Tom Keating tries to cancel vonage and records the call.

Here’s another post about the annoyances when trying to cancel vonage.

Here are some more recent complaints about Vonage. Oh look, someone else was orginally told it was a one year term and then when they went to cancel they were told it’s two years.

I haven’t tested this number, but apparently you can call 1-888-288-7435 to cancel Vonage.

P.S. Vonage got booted by the BBB.

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If you want people to read your blog, you have to reach out to the blogosphere and comment on other people’s blogs…right?

Well that all depends, but generally it’s a good practice but only if you do it correctly.

WHY COMMENT ON BLOGS?

When you comment on blogs the right way you get your name out there, and perhaps you’ll pick up tons of backlinks and a great amount of loyal readers. However if you do it incorrectly you’ll simply have wasted your time and you might even get your domain blacklisted.

HERE’S WHERE PEOPLE GO WRONG

I saw this comment on one of my blogs and something was a little odd about it….it just didn’t fit.

I finally decided to write a comment on your blog. I just wanted to say good job. I really enjoy reading your posts.

Tina Russell

So being the nosey person I am I decided to Google the entire comment, and what do you know there are 80,600 results.

Come on, who gave you this advice? You are spamming blogs with the exact same comment?

That’s too bad because this persons name and domain name are probably set in a lot of spam filters. In fact, they are because today I’ve gotten made the same comment on other blogs of mine and they went directly into spam moderation. Ever heard of spam karma?

MY ADVICE

Dear Tina Russell,

Somebody gave you some bad advice. Here’s a tip, comment all day and all night, but only if you have something useful to say. Save the copy and paste job or automated software for the real spammers.

Signed,

A Very Busy Lady

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