The Don Lapre ™ - Infomercial King Exposed

*[Although I am not legally required to use the trademark symbol when writing a factual article on a well known personality, to appease the legal department of Mr. Lapre, who is the owner of the Don Lapre trademark, I will use it so everyone will know that lawyers can be pretty big douches, although Mr. Lapre may not be all that bad of a guy.]

This article is now in two parts to accommodate both of Don Lapre's infomercials - The "Tiny One Bedroom Apartment" infomercial from a few years ago and the current "Greatest Vitamin in the World".

Have you been fooled by Don Lapre or any of those late night infomercial Internet millionaire gurus? Can you really make money using the method he sold for almost $40 (dropped from a price of $79.95)? Will you really benefit from overpriced vitamins that can also get you rich? Is there a Don Lapre scam? Is he a con artist?

Who Is Don Lapre?

Don Lapre was born May 19, 1964. He attended Sunny Slope High School and dropped out. Decided to become an entrepreneur. Launched a dating service the same year he got married in 1988. In 1990 was charged with consumer fraud in Arizona over his now defunct Unknown Concepts and ordered to pay civil penalties and more than $5,000 restitution. He did, in fact, make money from classified ads (selling a 36 page booklet about recovering a Federal Home Association insurance refund) and 900 numbers before selling the big program that brought him the fame as one of the well known late night infomercial personalities.

"The Making Money Show with Don Lapre," was on in 1992. It was a fluff package telling basic, common sense tips on how to make money. The basic package is not exactly what was promised in the infomercial. In order to make something like that work, more information was in order. It eventually became the company New Strategies.

In 1994 and 1995 he faced legal challenges in regards to not paying proper state taxes and properly registering his business. In 1997 he had trouble with the IRS. In 1999, he filed bankruptcy when his business interest was bought out by Universal Business Strategies which used unethical methods to promote the business model Mr. Lapre created. They continued to use the name and image of Mr. Lapre and they telemarketed the customers to pressure them into buying things in order to make the program work, and even their products they sold to make it work were questionable at best.

In 1997, he approached Doug Grant to develop the idea to market what would become The World's Greatest Vitamin. Originally touted to cure all kinds of disease, they were ordered by the FDA in 2005 to stop making such claims. Then they hyped the aspect of how to make their customers rich by offering to pay $1000 each time a distributor you sign up gets 20 or more people to try the vitamin.

I am not going to deride the man for dropping out of high school, which is not a good thing to do and I hope he does go back to further his education. I am not even going to taunt him for making very bad business decisions, all entrepreneurs are entitled to make mistakes. I will however say I do not condone anyone who tries any cheap trick to make some quick bucks. It will ruin your reputation and credibility faster than anything. I hope he takes some time out to think about a really good product he believes in, one that benefits both ways - himself and the customer.

First Infomercial - Making Money From A Tiny One Bedroom Apartment

A common newbie misunderstanding is that there are multitudes of people making a fortune out on the web and they can be self sufficient or rich by tapping into the Internet. How can you do it?

In case you don't know who Don Lapre is, here is the short version. He is the infomercial king who claimed he made over a million dollars from his "tiny one bedroom apartment" by placing tiny classified ads and his empire grew from there.

Not to just pick on Mr Lapre, but there are many other plans out there spouting the same misinformation as his plan. For clarity's sake, when I refer to Mr Lapre and his commercial, it is in reference to the commercials run by the company who bought him out years ago. As Mr Lapre was the spokesperson for this product and his name, image and likeness is used to promote this garbage, he is the one mostly everyone will identify with. He is the factual person behind the infomercial that this report is based upon.

He basically states in his commercial that you can make money by placing tiny classified ads, or through a 900 number that will pay you huge checks each week, or through buying and selling. And to make money online you don't even need a computer.

What you will get for your $40 is a bunch of impressive looking manuals which contain very little information on how to actually work a plan and most of that information can be found free anywhere. The bulk of what you are buying is sales material for YOU to buy more from him. Not that there is anything wrong with that, this is a common practice in sales to get a foot in the door for future sales, the problem is spending that kind of money on information that is not worth the paper it is printed on.

Don't waste your money on this plan. The little, and I mean little, information in the kit can be found free in any library or on the Internet. Yes, you can make money placing classified ads, with a 900 number or buying and selling merchandise - BUT - with such little information given in the package you will have to either start completely from scratch and seek out information on your own to start a business OR buy the extra kits and services which is the majority of the package. In other words, for $40 you are buying 95% ads asking you to buy more stuff with 5% actual information which can be had free anywhere.

If you want to make money placing classified ads, through a 900 number or buying and selling, you don't need this system. Get the real story here FREE.

Note: The links above are to articles related to the topic at hand and not blatant sales pitches.

The Greatest Vitamin In The World (Now The Nutraforia Program)

What exactly is one's need for vitamin supplements? That all depends on you. If you eat a well balanced diet and exercise on a regular basis, you really do not need a supplement, but it couldn't hurt. If you skip meals or have poor eating habits, a vitamin supplement is very useful. If you have medical conditions or are undergoing treatment, your needs should be discussed ONLY with your doctor because your particular circumstances should be monitored.

For the most part, a simple bottle of basic One-A-Day™ type of vitamins is all anyone needs to supplement their diet. Yup, a bottle of vitamins which cost under $12 a month is all you really need.

Your body can only take in so much of a vitamin or a mineral before it becomes either toxic or is disposed of by your body in waste. There is no point in trying to take more than you need. After a certain point, more is not a better thing.

It sells for $39.95 plus $8.65 for a 30-day supply. Nothing really bad about that, just overpriced for what it is. However, if you are buying it because you want to stake your riches on it, think about how competitive the health market can be, especially in selling vitamins. You have a product that is really not that much better than any other on the market and cost more than what you will get over the counter or even from health food stores which sell versions without the fillers to which some may object.

The Greatest Vitamin in the World has been derided as a cheap ploy to pay excessive amounts of money for a vitamin that is really no better or worse than any other on the market with a chance for you to sell your family and friends on the idea of buying it from you so you can eventually get a bonus of $1000 by getting only 20 of your friends to try it. However, they will try and upsell you to help you sell the product. You can literally spend hundreds on a web site and sales aids. If you are not good at sales and have no clue on how to promote your business, no amount of money you throw at your business will help you make money.

You may even notice some blogs that are way too obvious a marketing ploy by the company to try and deflect the real critics to the program. A tell-tale sign that there is fear behind what the critics are saying about it might actually be true. Just do a search and you will find sites with consumers who complain about their experience with it. Infomercial Scams is one. Rip Off Report, a CBS News story, Associated Content Quack Watch is another. Also, check the The Don Lapre Better Business Bureau record. When you read those glowing praise blogs that seem more infomercial than reality, keep these critic sites in mind.

World Venture Travels

He is now selling vacation and travel plans. Good for him. I hope he keeps it on the level. I hope he finds the true and honest success that has been eluding him. I WILL be watching.

Getting Your Feet Wet With Minimal Risks

When you are thinking of doing an online business, but have no experience, you are always afraid of taking a risk for what could end up in a financial disaster for you.

It's not that all the programs out there are lying to you, just a lot of hype and unrealistic expectations. As long as you keep it real and work at it, you could make money in these methods.

Just keep in mind if it sounds too good to be true in the offer, think carefully before you buy into it because it is more than likely hype. Any good business venture will take hard work, education of some sort (even self-education counts), money and time before success is an option.

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