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Internet Articles Writing:

Many newcomers to Internet Marketing learn early on that it is a good idea to promote their website of choice by becoming an Internet articles writer, using an automated article submission service to distribute their article, gain readership among interested readers, and send these same readers back to their website of choice. The drawback is many of these same new Internet Marketers can not write effective articles, that is, until now.

Almost everyone who has graduated from high school knows that Benjamin Franklin was a famous American. Most folks can also come up with one of Benjamin Franklin's famous sayings (A stitch in time saves nine). Few of us, however, know that Franklin was America's best scientist, inventor, writer, business strategist and diplomat of his time. Benjamin Franklin was indeed awesome, and now we find out how he became was so awesome.

I have become so sick and tired of online gurus offering scam products and opportunities that I must reveal the truth about what I have discovered. It is simply this: In virtually every ad I have read and responded to online a sinister tactic has left me disappointed and dismayed. All of the solutions I had been promised left me unable to achieve any real success whatsoever. Learn the sinister tactic being used.

Learn how he did it by forming a new part-time business and using the legal tax deductions from his business to reduce his net taxable income.  By doing so he took the money he saved and wiped out all of his remaining personal debt to become debt free.

Internet Marketing:

How To Set Up A Web Page and Start Earning Money

Guest Article by Steve Shaw from SubmitYourArticle.com

Breaking Barriers - How Advances in Technology Affect the Way We Communicate in Today's World

This guest article by Brian Steinberg appeared in Advertising Age magazine, which provides analysis and data on marketing and media, and explores the changes that may affect television as it converges with the Internet and web-connected devices in today's world. It makes me think about moving along a steam much quicker but perhaps not deeper as our method of communication expands. For anyone in sales, marketing or Internet marketing, the demographics provide valuable information; when I move this article inside my web site it will appear in both my Lessons in Life Section and in my Internet Marketing Section. I have highlighted some of the demographic information to draw more attention to the figures.

Shopping Online = Caveat Emptor (Latin for Let the Buyer Beware)

Internet Marketers shopping online are presented with a problem because they cannot examine the goods before they commit to buying. This fact of purchasing works in the seller's best interest, and the seller, not the buyer, will do anything to keep it that way, including, but not limited to, exaggerating claims, playing upon your emotions, pressuring you to make buying decisions, and being disingenuous in an attempt to relieve you of your money.

When I first became involved in Internet Marketing I was looking for some way to make money without a lot of time commitment and investment. This led me to online surveys and the lure of cash for giving my opinions. Alas, I was snookered. The truth is most online surveys involve identifying and qualifying people to be sold goods and services that in many cases they do not want or need. So how stupid is this online survey hoax? Very stupid. Read this article to find out why.

Can a guru help an Internet Marketing newcomer too much? Maybe. The guru is not giving you a free web site, hosting and all of the other amenities because he is feeling rich, blessed and altruistic (that is only what he is telling you with a straight face). He is giving you all of this because he can stuff his pockets 100 or 1,000 times more with affiliate web sites than without them, and so he spends his time creating affiliate web sites. It is called leveraging your time and money, his (the guru's), not yours, he is bleeding you dry.

You will always know a leader when you see one. That is because you never have to announce the coming of a leader. Leaders, you see, announce themselves, just as naturally as they step forward the instant they perceive that something should be done in a certain situation when nothing is being done. So it is with Internet Marketing advertising today, it is, in a word, a "mess" waiting to be cleaned up, so an Internet Police Patrol may be in order.

It is easy for a guru to list all of the reasons why "losers" never get anywhere in the Internet Marketing business, but that is not the only point worth making when talking about the probability of success in this business. Sometimes it is the little stuff that just as easily drives prospects away. After big shots and gurus have been around awhile, they assume newbies know all of the stuff that they do when in fact a real newbie might be doing well just to turn on his computer and get online.

Who would have the best read on which day of the week to send your e-mail offers to get the best results: Yahoo! Search Marketing or an Internet Marketing Guru? One analyst knows the recommendations of both, has tried both, has noted the results, and says this: I will go with the guru in this case, and skip the Yahoo! brain trust.

When it comes to Internet Marketing offers, we are so obsessed with instant gratification. Naïve newbies hang on every word of a sales page offering, hoping that this opportunity, among all of the other opportunities they have tried, will be the one that works. Alas, it usually does not work for them. How can we separate the good opportunities from the bad? Follow Mark Twain's advice when he said "I never let schooling interfere with my education." Learning is a lifelong process.

The Internet is a sprawling expanse that covers the Earth. If there are two companies that could arguably be identified as the best and the biggest prowling the Internet they might well be Empowerism and the mighty Strong Future International Marketing Group, better known as SFI. Here is my experience with each of these affiliate marketing opportunities. Part 1 of 3.

The Internet is a sprawling expanse that covers the Earth. If there are two companies that could arguably be identified as the best and the biggest prowling the Internet they might well be Empowerism and the mighty Strong Future International Marketing Group, better known as SFI. Here is my experience with each of these affiliate marketing opportunities. Part 2 of 3.

The Internet is a sprawling expanse that covers the Earth. If there are two companies that could arguably be identified as the best and the biggest prowling the Internet they might well be Empowerism and the mighty Strong Future International Marketing Group, better known as SFI. Here is my experience with each of these affiliate marketing opportunities. Part 3 of 3.

The idea has been around since we first ditched the barter system for a monetary system of coinage. You could create a system of growing money by making entrance to the system affordable, rewarding people for bringing others into the system, and using leverage to build volume and profit. It is called a forced matrix. An analysis of one offering would result in 8.5 billion people being involved after 33 days. Does this make a lick of sense? Part 1 of 2.

The idea has been around since we first ditched the barter system for a monetary system of coinage. You could create a system of growing money by making entrance to the system affordable, rewarding people for bringing others into the system, and using leverage to build volume and profit. It is called a forced matrix. An analysis of one offering would result in 8.5 billion people being involved after 33 days. Does this make a lick of sense? Part 2 of 2.

A while back an Internet Marketing forum comment suggested that potential affiliates should be qualified before being allowed to sign up for a marketing program. I say nuts to qualifying, let the free market remain free to all. A free market will correct itself according to supply and demand in the marketplace when it is left free to do so. Some will make it, others will not. Circumstances can force us to become the winner we were meant to be. Let me be free to set my own standards and live or die upon their merits.

Almost any Internet Marketer can open his or her e-mail tomorrow and read a popular formula for writing a sales pitch repeated in 100 different advertisements for another opportunity to provide a product, service, or attend a seminar. You will be introduced to Internet Marketing Doublespeak: The Offer Is Free (But It Is Not Free). The pitch will be in English, the language will be in doublespeak.

Newcomers to Internet Marketing may not be faced with a more daunting task than trying to figure out search engine rankings. There seems to be no shortage of sellers who spend a great deal of time and effort trying to convince newcomers that their particular software program is the answer to generating improved rankings and more traffic to your web site. Should you simply bite on the sales page bait because it is there, or figure out a different way to effectively compete with the gurus?

Almost any recognized Internet Marketing guru making you an offer today will mention somewhere in his sales pitch that a mailing list is really important, however, his primary objective is to get you to buy whatever he is selling. Competition is stiff in acquiring names, and some Internet Marketers have less resources than others, resulting in some pitches to sign up without being given any information on which to make an intelligent decision.

When you run a business and sell a product or service as a sole proprietorship you will have a ton of liability. A sole proprietorship is the second worse form of asset protection after a general partnership. I advise my clients to form an umbrella company that is a limited liability company (LLC) with members who have an equity interest in the corporation. This is a far better business structure for your asset protection. Learn why in this article.

Money is but a tool that does the bidding of its master. Money has no actual value other than the value we attach to it. Money has no actual meaning other than the meaning we attach to it. Clearly, the world turns on a dollar bill. I am not judging what causes our economy to work (greed is its greatest motivator), but I am suggesting we need to be street smart about how our money system works. Understanding the money game does not make us better or smarter people than others, it does make us more aware and savvy when opportunity knocks on our door.

October 26, 2006

Internet Marketing:

The Easiest Way to Become an Internet Articles Writer

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

 All speakers and writers who become great speakers and writers have two needs.

To be a great speaker you need to have:

1) a real and valuable knowledge of the subject you are addressing, and

2) a burning desire to share what you have to offer with others.

To be a great writer you need to have:

1) a real and valuable knowledge about the topic you are writing about, and

2) a burning desire to share what you have to offer with others.

In other words, be a good storyteller so people will listen to or read your stories.

We all must begin where we are at, whether we think we can become an Internet article writer or not.

So what exactly is good writing? The best writing glides along the ice like a speed skater in a 1,500-meter race. You ride on his effortless stride, you marvel at his form, you feel his intensity and sense of controlled urgency, you appreciate his sense of competitiveness, you find yourself with him, stride for stride, measuring his distance from the leader of the pack, wondering if he can actually win, suddenly you lose control and jump into the race, you lean as he leans going around the curve, you wonder if he has what it takes to close the gap, your attention becomes riveted as he begins to narrow the margin, your heartbeat increases as he gains ground, you are glued to the moment, and then he puts on a final sprint, finally draws even, and wins by the blink of an eyelash! My God, you were there. When he mounts the awards stand and the flag of his nation rises, you rise with it. He was your choice, and he won!

Is it any wonder that athletes have such a strong following among spectators? Athletes become our heroes in any vicarious way possible. We wear a jersey when we watch the game. After the game, we play a pick-up game with our kids in the back yard. We love the feel of being in the thick of the competition, and winning.

Switching back to our main topic, what exactly is good writing?

Some people think a good sentence should be short and simple.

To the point.

Obvious.

In the first example above, the sentence goes on and on and on (168 words!), and yet you kept reading.

Writing can be either way and be effective, and there are Pulitzer Prize winners to prove it. For simple writing with short sentences, read Ernest Hemingway’s "The Old Man and the Sea." Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. For sentences that go on and on and on forever, read William Faulkner’s "The Sound and the Fury," it is filled with long, convoluted sentences. Nonetheless, Faulkner, like Hemingway, also won the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. Both were legendary novelists with opposite writing styles, and therein lies the easiest way to become an articles writer.

What is important is developing a style of writing that you are comfortable with. Even more important is getting your thoughts, some thoughts, any thoughts, onto your monitor. Until you put the letters on your keyboard onto your monitor, you are not a writer. The moment you do you have the potential to be an articles writer.

Once you have a sentence, any sentence, in front of you, you can pick it apart and make it better, because you have taken the thought out of your head and into the workplace of improvement. Write something on your monitor and it becomes manageable; try to formulate the perfect sentence in your head before you put it on your monitor, and your article may never get written.

The frustration of trying to write the perfect sentence brings on writer’s block, the inability to put your thoughts into meaningful sentences. Forget about being an articles writer, just get started and you will become one.

Go ahead, start. Begin now. Write anything down, and then make it better.

You are now on your way to becoming an Internet articles writer.

October 27, 2006

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

Almost everyone who has graduated from high school knows that Benjamin Franklin was a famous American.

Most of us have read that Franklin used a lighting rod to prove a theory he had about electricity. Others remember that he was the one who invented the bifocals which many of us wear today. (I just ordered a new pair of trifocals; thanks to Ben, I see better.)

But few of us also know these facts and observations about Benjamin Franklin:

Franklin was America’s best scientist, inventor, writer, business strategist and diplomat of his time. He was also one of the era’s most practical political thinkers!

Franklin’s interest in electricity led him to note the distinction between insulation and conductors, the idea of electrical grounding, and the concepts of capacitors and batteries.

Franklin discovered that the big East Coast storms known as northeasters, whose winds come from the northeast, actually move in the opposite direction from their winds, traveling up the coast from the south, thus beginning the science of weather forecasting.

Franklin combined both science and mechanical practicality by devising the first urinary catheter used in America.

Franklin declined to patent his inventions, freely sharing his findings, as his love of science was born of curiosity.

Franklin became the first person in America to manufacture type, because there was no foundry in America for casting type when he opened his print shop.

Franklin reprinted an English novel--Pamela--thereby publishing the first novel in America.

Franklin created America’s first great humor classic, Poor Richard’s Almanack (Almanac, in today’s usage), which Franklin began publishing in 1732, combining two goals of his doing-well-doing-good philosophy: the making of money and the promotion of virtue. His aphorisms and observations soon became legend.

Franklin’s genius as a 16-year-old writer was obvious when he authored 14 essays anonymously that were published in his brother’s newspaper, creating the character Silence Dogood, a widowed woman. Franklin’s ability to speak convincingly as a woman was remarkable, and his writing style would introduce a new genre of American humor: the wry, homespun mix of folksy tales and pointed observations that would later be perfected by such great American writers and humorists as Mark Twain and Will Rogers.

Franklin became America's first gossip columnist.

Franklin became the patron saint of self-improvement guides by writing many personal credos that laid out his pragmatic rules for success. Dale Carnegie would follow in his footsteps, as well as hundreds of positive thinking, modern day self-improvement authors.

Franklin manufactured the first recorded abortion debate in America, not because he had any strong feelings on the issue, but because he knew it would help sell newspapers.

Franklin was the consummate networker, forming a club of young workingmen he dubbed the Junto, which met in a rented room and, by pooling the books of its members, became America’s first subscription library.

Franklin created a volunteer fire force (the forerunner of today’s volunteer fire department), and established the academy that would later be renamed the University of Pennsylvania.

Franklin was appointed to the top post office job in America by the British government. Within a year, he had cut to one day the delivery time of a letter from New York to Philadelphia. (The United States Postal Service manages to get the same letter delivered in an average of three days today!)

Franklin retired at age 42, with an assured income over the next 18 years of approximately 650 pounds annually; in his day, a common worker earned 25 pounds a year, so Franklin retired with an annual income 26 times a normal working person’s wages! (In today’s money, if you were making $50,000 a year in income, Franklin was getting by in retirement on an income of $1.3 million--$1,300,000--annually.)

Franklin became America’s greatest diplomat by negotiating the support of France (its money, its recognition and its military support), that led to the success of the American Revolution, and creation of the United States of America as an independent nation.

Franklin was instrumental in shaping the three great documents of the American Revolution: the Declaration of Independence, the alliance with France, and the treaty with England.

Franklin was the only person to sign all four of America’s founding papers: the Declaration of Independence, the treaty with France, the peace accord with Britain, and the Constitution of the United States.

Franklin’s most important vision was an American national identity based on the virtues and values of its middle class.

Franklin came up with the concept of matching grant money, showing how government and private initiative could be woven together for the common good.

Franklin was America’s first great publicist. He carefully crafted his own persona, portrayed it in public, and polished it for posterity.

Franklin perfected the art of poking fun at himself, recognizing that a bit of wry self-deprecation could make him seem even more endearing.

Franklin was the first to note that “nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.”

Franklin was also the first to remind us that “a penny saved is a penny earned.” Franklin might also have said “a penny, invested wisely, could be the start of a small fortune.”

Benjamin Franklin would have been one of the first people of his time to use computers, and would have been one of the first to start an Internet marketing business. Franklin loved to make money, and he loved the virtues of independence, self-reliance, hard work and innovation, all virtues associated with making a lot of money.

Franklin would have been front and center with today’s Internet marketers, in constant contact with his fellow entrepreneurs through online forums, e-mail messaging, and hobnobbing at seminars around the country and overseas (Paris was his second home).

Was Benjamin Franklin awesome? Absolutely.

February 15, 2010

Guest Article

(Ed's Note: If you want better quality, better security, and a better business model, go my Internet Marketing Section Home Page and click on the top banner ad. This is the best of best, and the company that I use and support because of their quality, dependability, caring, and responsive attitude.)

3. Build Your Sales Page

If the product you want to sell did not come with the web site and graphics to help you sell it, then you're going to have to build the sales page yourself.

Now I'm not going to be able to teach you HTML in the space of a paragraph, but there are plenty of great resources online available so go learn! Either that or make use of a competent friend or relative, or if you can afford it, hire the services of a web designer.

The most important part of any sales page is of course the sales link, without which you won't sell a thing. The sales link should link to a secure server page where visitors can key in their credit card information and purchase from you.

The more complicated route is to apply for a merchant account. The simplest option, and the one I recommend, is to use ClickBank. You can find out more information and sign up at http://www.clickbanktoolkit.com/selling - there's just a small upfront fee and you can be up and running and accepting payments on your web site within a couple of days (compared to a few weeks if you go the merchant account route).

4. Build Your Thank You Page

All you need to include on your thank you page is the download link to enable customers to download what they have purchased, and an email address so they can contact you if they run into trouble.

If you're with ClickBank, you'll also need to include another piece of information - the full process is detailed at http://www.clickbanktoolkit.com/selling.

5. Get Traffic!

Once your web site is up and running, and you've tested it to your satisfaction, you're ready to roll. Now it's time to attract targeted traffic to your web site.

But first do a bit of extra testing.

Set up an account with Overture.com or Google Adwords, and pay for some targeted traffic to your web site using suitable keywords.

Measure your sales against the number of visitors you have received, and this will tell you your sales conversion ratio.

If 1% or more of your visitors are purchasing, you're doing okay - if it's any less, you need to re-examine your sales page (or the keywords you are targeting) and do some tweaking to improve this percentage. This is however a big topic, so do as much research as you can online.

Other effective traffic-pulling measures include writing and submitting articles to ezines and directories, ezine advertising, running your own ezine or newsletter, and so on.

However, attracting traffic is a skill and takes some time to develop, so just learn as much as you can, and be persistent.

Finally, once you've got traffic coming to your site, ask them to subscribe to a mailing list, and follow up with them - otherwise you're throwing good traffic away.

December 21, 2009

How Advances in Technology Affect the Way We Communicate in Today's World

(Ed's Note: This guest article by Brian Steinberg appeared in Advertising Age magazine, which provides analysis and data on marketing and media, and explores the changes that may affect television as it converges with the Internet and web-connected devices in today's world. It makes me think about moving along a steam much quicker but perhaps not deeper as our method of communication expands. For anyone in sales, marketing or Internet marketing, the demographics provide valuable information; when I move this article inside my web site it will appear in both my Lessons in Life Section and in my Internet Marketing Section. I have highlighted some of the demographic information to draw more attention to the figures.)

By Brian Steinberg

In its heyday, "This is Your Life" was seen by a broad swath of viewers tuned into their Philcos all at once, never dreaming that someday it could be rebroadcast, paused live, accessed on another gadget, or that its entire run could be contained on a thin metal disc.

Almost 50 years later, we're almost similarly in the dark. Those Samsung flat screens in our living room might still be the go-to device, but they are fast being joined by computer monitors, laptops, gaming consoles, iPods and mobile phones distributing content once solely accessed by TV, or in some cases, content that competes with TV.

It's conceivable -- and probably inevitable -- that TV/web convergence will lead to us ordering up movies, pizza and even advertising while watching custom-tailored content and interacting with social-network buddies at the same time.

The question is how these services will work together and who will manage and monetize them in a world where the TV networks operate with a mass-media mentality and are anxious to keep $60.5 billion in ad revenue from going the way of Philco.

A host of companies are already salivating for some of the billions pumped by marketers into advertising on broadcast and cable outlets, syndicated TV programs and local-TV stations.

But there simply can't be enough money around to profitably support video on YouTube, Hulu, Xbox, Apple's iPhone and other platforms as well as on Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC and the rest.

TV dominance "is certainly up for grabs," said Bobby Tulsiani, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, "and there are a lot of hands in the cookie jar."

Fact: Traditional TV viewership is waning, while other kinds of video entertainment consumption rise. The top 20 shows on broadcast TV during the 1979-1980 TV season—including "Three's Company", "That's Incredible" and "M*A*S*H"—individually had a household rating of at least 21.7.

These days, the titans of broadcast TV—CBS's "NCIS" and NBC's "Sunday Night
Football"—notched an average household rating of 13.0 and 11.4 between
the start of the 2009-2010 TV season and Nov 1.

Total viewership for the top four broadcast networks in the current season through mid-November has slumped 42% since the same period in 1994, according to statistics provided by Brad Adgate, senior VP-research at Horizon Media. Including the CW, total viewership for the period is off about 38.5%, he said.

In the meantime, other technologies that provide access to video keep growing.

More than one in four U.S. households contained digital video recorders (31 million TV households, or 27% of the total) at the end of the first quarter of 2009, according to Interpublic Group of Cos.' Mediabrands; the figure is expected to rise to almost half (51.1 million, or 42%), by 2014.

Video on demand was used in 43.1 million TV households, or 42% of 2009 TV households, and is likely to reach 66.6 million, or 64%--nearly two-thirds of households—by 2014. And these are just the TV-viewing experiences that involve the traditional living-room apparatus.

When the big screen in our living room finally converges into one that can deliver both TV and Internet content, the game will certainly change. It doesn't take too much imagining to foresee that in five to 10 years, many consumers will be able to access their online life with a TV remote, and the big screen will behave more like a touchscreen: It will know what shows we like, what music to offer us, and which social network sites and e-mail to feed us.

A realization has already begun to emerge that the TV screen is really just a monitor, said Phil Leigh of Inside Digital Media, a Tampa (FL) market research consultant. "Whether it be a monitor for video games, DVD players or even a laptop computer . . . TheTV is functioning essentially as a giant window into the Internet cloud," he said.

And when content can be filtered through one big screen, those who know how to command an audience can choose to feed those consumers directly. Witness Oprah Winfrey's decision earlier this month to end her top syndicated talk show on broadcast TV, and instead develop her own 24-hour cable network.

Sports leagues and, for that matter, movie studios, could arrange to have their own channels and sell directly to the audiences they amass directly, or sell those audiences to marketers. The National Football League currently has several deals in place with broadcast and cable partners, but it also has already put its own cable network in place.

And there's little impediment for marketers to set up their own video streams constantly at the ready to pitch consumers with their latest goods, or set up interactive options that allow you to order a movie, pizza, or anything that Amazon sells with the push of a button.

Social-media sites will allow consumers to chat with friends about the shows they are watching, or direct one another to videos, movies or content to view.

Forrester's Mr. Tulsiani sees a day when TV viewers will be able to watch a show on TV for a while, then "pick it up at the same point on their PC or mobile phone." TV users will be able to use their phone to program their DVR and do so much more, analysts predict.

"The variety of content itself will just be exponentially greater, from the networks to cable to digital cable and even more . . . more content choices and the quality content will be coming from not only studios but many independent creators," Mr. Tulsiani said.

What's To Come

This holiday season's hot new gadgets and entertainment services offer a clue to what's coming next, and who's looking to get a piece of that ad money.

Netflix selections are available for streaming on everything from Microsoft's Xbox 360 to TiVos, as well as TVs made by LG Electronics and Sony and the Roku video-streaming device. Best Buy recently took a stake in a company that produces CinemaNow, a video-downloading technology that the electronics retailer plans to make available in the goods it sells that can connect to the web. Of course, there's also Apple's TV, which could over time allow viewers to order up programming on demand.

Already, rivals are dipping their beaks into the water. At Microsoft, executives hope to see the popular Xbox evolve into "a very all-purpose media consumption device in the living room for 100 million, 200 million people," said Mark Kroese, general manager-entertainment and devices for Microsoft's advertising business group.

The gaming device also functions as a venue for watching content on-demand from Netflix, but one idea is to boost its potential to reach live audiences as well, he said.

Rather than suffering through ads that interrupt the entertainment, users can opt to explore marketers' entreaties that are part of Xbox's "home" platform, and in exchange see entertaining videos or movie trailers. "Xbox can definitely support a live TV environment," Mr. Kroese said. "Whether the business model evolves for us to do so remains to be seen."

Others are working to weave advertising into emerging viewer behavior. TV users will do more fast-forwarding, pausing and searching for content with their remotes, and advertising can surface during those interactions, said Tara Maitra, VP-general manager, content services and ad sales, TiVo.

Imagine seeing a full-motion ad pop up when you pause a show, that "may be contextual to the content: "'Your pause was brought to you by Audi,'" suggested Steve Tranter, VP-interactive and broadband, at TV-technology concern NDS. Another idea: sponsorship of fast-forwards and rewinds.

And there's lots of talk about addressable advertising, a technology that could prove destabilizing or lucrative, depending on who's doing the talking. Soon, ads for hot dogs could be dispatched to one home and ads for Pampers to another, depending on available consumer data.

Networks might charge a premium for such ad inventory because it's targeted more finely. And because multiple advertisers could appear in the same 30-second space, networks would also be able to do business with a broader range of clients.

Some of the money, however, could be up for grabs, with cable systems or even media buyers inserting themselves into the process. Media agencies have considered buying up inventory and reselling it to their marketer clients.

Experimentation has been underway for the last few years. In Huntsville (AL), Comcast worked with Publicis's Starcom MediaVest Group, sending ads from marketers such as General Motors, Discover Card, Hallmark, Kraft Foods, Mars, Miller Brewing Company and Procter & Gamble to viewers who matched up with pre-defined demographic segments.

The companies found that homes receiving addressable advertising tuned away from the commercials 38% less than homes that received non-addressable advertising. Even so, the industry has been slow to put technology in place, and web-connected TVs could render this idea obsolete.

New Way of Selling

TV networks, meanwhile, will work to retain control over the advertising that has for years bolstered their fortunes. But many TV executives acknowledge a day is coming when some of that revenue will be shared.

CBS Corp. already envisions selling ads in a somewhat new fashion: An ad might run in "CSI," the TV episode, but also in all streams of the show online for one week, suggested David Poltrack, CBS's chief research officer.

In the future, "we'll sell you 'CSI' across platforms. You will get your advertising in the episode that goes on TV that week, and you'll get your ad running in all streams of any episode of 'CSI' online for that one week," he said. "Now you're building up more of a significant amount of Internet coverage and then the same thing could apply to mobile."

At the same time, a realization has begun to set in that in an on-demand world, others will insert advertising into the process. Widgets and interactive-TV services will be able to advertise around programs in some ways, said Mr. Poltrack, but CBS will try to make the best of the situation by leveraging its ownership of the content.

"If they are adding value, they've got to get compensated for that, so it's probably a revenue-sharing project as opposed to something we would not totally control," he said. As for new-media players who "bring an enhancement and are looking for revenue-sharing models, certainly, we're open to the conversation."

New technology and the upheaval it will cause are fascinating to discuss. What's not so much fun to talk about is severity.

TV has always been an advertiser's tool of preference to reach giant audiences, goose fast-food sales, launch movie openings and push foot traffic into retail outlets. Imagine the difficulty in doing just that when ads will have to be tailored not only for specific viewers-a cooking show is quite different from an adventure drama-but also for how each of those genres is being viewed on a big screen, a mobile device, or on a DVR.

Ads, too, will have to evolve, designed more at eliciting an active response-or even indication of purchase-from an active viewer, rather than merely dazzling a couch potato. Yes, it's true: In the future, TV will survive. But mass marketing may not.

How We Watch

These days, the majority of viewers of ABC's "Desperate Housewives" watch the program when it airs on the network, Sundays at 9 p.m. But an increasing number of people have begun to watch and keep track of it in new and diverse ways.

So, yes, for instance, approximately 4.2 million households watched the ads slotted into this season's debut of "Desperate Housewives," according to Nielsen, but approximately another 700,000 watched those ads within three days of the program's original air-date, thanks to playback on a digital video recorder.

Meanwhile, the program had 217,255 Facebook fans as of Nov. 23. As technology gives rise to other means of accessing entertainment, those smaller numbers will grow more important to TV networks—and the advertisers who support them. Time-Shifted TV

Digital video recorders were in 31 million TV households, or 27% of the total, at the end of the first quarter of 2009, according to Interpublic Group's Mediabrands; the figure is expected to rise to 51.1 million, or 42%, by 2014. Video on demand was in 43.1 million TV households, or 42% of TV households at the end of the first quarter of 2009, and is likely to reach 66.6 million, or 64%, by 2014.

Look for marketers to start tailoring more of their ads to the specific programs in which they air, such as Sprint did this past season on "Desperate Housewives"—the better to entice viewers who tune in because of the show, not the network or the time the program aired live.

Mobile Video

Apple sold 7.4 million iPhones in its recently completed fourth quarter, each capable of playing video representing 7% unit growth over the year-earlier period—just one indication of the potential growth of mobile video.

Computer Screen

Nielsen says video streams online rose from more than 95.3 billion in 2008 to more than 104.3 billion between January and October of 2009. The year, of course, is not yet over. Mediabrands sees households with broadband access growing to 87.4 million households by the end of 2014, compared with 71 million households at the end of the first quarter of 2009.

Hulu

Overall streams per month at Hulu, the video-sharing site owned jointly by Walt Disney, News Corp. and NBC Universal, stood at 583.2 million in September of 2009, according to comScore Video Metrix. Overall streams at the site for the year-earlier period stood at 145.8 million.

Facebook and MySpace

Nielsen says time spent viewing video on social networking sites increased 98% year over year, from 503.8 million minutes in October 2008 to 999.4 million minutes in October 2009. In conjunction, the number of online video streams viewed on social-networking and blog sites increased 45% year-over-year, from 240.8 million streams in October 2008 to 349.5 million in October 2009.

And Coming Soon—Streamers

A host of gadgets will start to function as ersatz set-top boxes, allowing us to find content and stream it to the screen we want. Blu-ray, Microsoft's Xbox, Roku, and Apple TV are just some of the devices that stream movies and other web-ready content, but in the future, users might just rely on them to watch TV series as well.

New Screens

This Christmas, a new category of internet-connected TV set is due out in stores from such manufacturers as Sony and Samsung. Retailer Best Buy will be including the CinemaNow service that allows users to download movies and other content through the TV they purchase. While these are likely to be aimed at early technology adopters, they mark a first step towards the ultimate goal: A TV that streams high quality content while allowing for interactivity.

November 1, 2006

Shopping Online = Caveat Emptor (Latin for Let the Buyer Beware)

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

Any newcomers to Internet Marketing who would like to gather a little field intelligence on the landscape and competition need only to surf "Traffic Swarm," which bills itself as "the fastest and easiest way to instantly increase traffic, visitors and sales to any website, product or service."

Well, that claim is certainly debatable as there are more than a hundred offers on the Internet today that make the same claim with a straight face. Be that as it may, Traffic Swarm also lets you know instantly that its service is automated, targeted, cheat-proof, proven and "viral marketing" (a heady term that makes one think that he might now indeed be in possession of cyberspace), all five of these claims are Internet Marketing buzz words more common than a thousand bees making small talk at the entrance to their hive.

The uninitiated would learn that you can join Traffic Swarm free, post an advertisement of your own, and then surf (look at) other marketer's ads to earn credits, which you can in turn spend to draw traffic and visitors to your own offer. It is a very nice little package for beginners which, even if it does not bring you sales of your product or service, does give your website or offer page exposure and presence on the Internet.

Traffic Swarm is where I surf to find out what is going on in the world of Internet Marketing offers.
There are dozens of other sites that could provide me with the same fodder, but Traffic Swarm has, in my experience, proven to be as good as any other at what it does.

My message has nothing directly to do with Traffic Swarm; it has to do with the users of Traffic Swarm, who hawk their goods like any merchant in a loud, noisy marketplace with vicious, unrelenting competition for your hard-earned dollar.

All of which brings us to the Latin phrase "caveat emptor," which means let the buyer beware. The New Oxford American Dictionary (we bow to the King's English) says this about caveat emptor: the principle that the buyer alone is responsible for checking the quality and suitability of goods before a purchase is made. Herein lies the problem with online purchasing: we cannot examine the goods before we commit to buying whatever it is a person may be selling.

This fact of purchasing works in the seller's interest, and the seller, not the buyer, will do anything to keep it that way, including, but not limited to, exaggerating claims, playing upon your emotions, using psychological ploys to move you to the action they want you to take, pressuring you into making buying decisions with no opportunity to see what it is you are purchasing, and being disingenuous in an attempt to relieve you of your money.

I have begun to examine Internet Marketing ads online very closely, not to determine the legitimacy of any particular offer, but rather to determine the quality of language used in supporting the legitimacy of the claims made in any particular offer.

An e-mail that came to me this morning offers an example. It uses this opening sentence to hook you into linking to their sales page: "As incredible as it may sound you're about to discover a system how you can drive 1000s of potential customers to any website or affiliate website at $0 cost to you!"

(The hoped for reader reaction might be: My God, this is an answer to prayer, a system that can finally drive traffic and business to my website so I can make my first sale in 24 months as an Internet Marketer after indiscriminately spending hundreds of dollars on useless offers.)

As I analyze this opening sentence, remember the use of the words "incredible" (as in I am so lucky to find this offer, today, on the Internet), "discover" (my god, this is totally new and I could be the first one in and make a killing) and "$0 cost to you" (and to think, all of this without any expense to me).

As a newcomer to Internet Marketing I hit the link to the promised land, and the sales page greets me with this: "I'm Revealing My Secrets I Personally Use To Drive Thousands Of Potential Customers To My Websites!" This is coupled with the reassuring phrase "you can drive 1000s of potential customers to any website or affiliate website and $0 cost you!" Again, remember the reference to "$0 cost to you."

The most powerful word in this opening is "secret" (as in only this very successful person and I are going to learn the secret). The word "secret" and "guru" in Internet Marketing go together like matching bookends.

There is, really, no big secret; there really is just one-upmanship in thinking there is. Literally hundreds of other marketers are successfully using the same secret. The inexperienced buyer simply has not yet apparently acquired the knowledge, applied the knowledge and profited from the experience. The reader is then reassured that "This works for any product, website or affiliate website" (as in it can work for you too).

Then there is an invitation to "Join my Marketing Tips Newsletter and I will show you free marketing tips – worth $500" (wow, what I deal for me). Once signed up, you will in most cases be immediately put into an autoresponder, which bombards you with e-mail messages on a timed basis (like every other day for the next 400 days). You can opt-out of these messages at any point in most cases, but most newcomers do not figure this out until they become very annoyed with the process.

This entire sales page takes a sharp left turn here, the idea being to get the person on a mailing list in case they are not buying into the for real paid offer that follows (remember, we started with "discover a system how you can drive 1000s of potential customers to any website or affiliate website at $0 cost to you!" (as in free).

Prior to learning the actual price point that is coming (as sure as there is handwriting on the wall) is this claim: "I absolutely guarantee that if you use these tactics, you will get substantially higher rankings" (in search engines).

This, of course, is an asinine statement to make as the author of the statement controls neither the search engines or their ranking of websites. At best, the author could only guarantee to return the buyer's purchase price should he or she feel dissatisfied with their particular results in using the tactics offered.

The bottom line is if you really want the advertised information the discounted price ends up at $49.97, with the admonition that it will be raised to $79.97 on December 1 (so it is a Limited Time Offer and you better act now or be left out). These ads invariably pressure for immediate action.

One could argue that the statement "discover a system how you can drive 1000s of potential customers to any website or affiliate website at $0 cost to you!" is literally true, what is not being said up front, however, is that it is going to cost you $49.97 to get the "secret information package" that would allow you to do so.

Given a more than cursory view of the offer, you must now decide how credible the offer is, and whether you will act immediately in your own best interest, because there is no doubt that the author of this ad is acting in his own best interest.

December 14, 2006

Internet Marketing:

How Online Surveys Prey on New and Unaware Marketers

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

When I first became involved in Internet Marketing I was looking for some way to make money without a lot of time commitment and investment. I wanted to avoid the dozens of overblown opportunity pitches that screamed "this is going to be labor intensive and complicated" even when they said it would be easy as pie.

Surfing the web led me to this come-on: "What if I could show you how to make $25 in 8 minutes, over and over again, sitting at home in your pajamas, would you be excited?" Not convinced yet? Try these stunners:

Get paid to take online surveys and make from $5 to $75 each, or more.
Get paid to participate in focus groups and make up to $150 an hour.
Get paid to take phone surveys and you can earn as much as $120 an hour.
Get paid to preview new movie trailers for $4 to $25 an hour.

And then this disclaimer: "I don't drive a Ferrari or wear $5,000 suits but I'll never have to argue with my wife about money again, that's for sure."

The desire to do something casual in my pajamas led me to this online survey directory service. Just sign up, register with about 20 to 40 survey companies, and side money would be on the way.

Once involved, you figure out pretty quick that you are going to get a lot of something but it will not be cash. Every survey source dangles a carrot in front of you named cash and prizes, but what you really earn for your effort is squat, as in nothing of substance, and especially cash.

Most of the surveys available offer points toward some distant, unknown product or target, or the promise to pay one survey taker a sum of money in a drawing for those who complete the survey.
I was never, ever offered cash to take a survey of any kind.

Here is a good example of the subterfuge you put up with in online survey opportunities:

This one is from Survey Rewards and the subject line says: "Answer this JC Penney survey & get $500!" Right away they want all of your pertinent identification so they know where to send your $500 JC Penney gift card. The info includes your name, address, phone, birth date and gender. Sounds innocent enough.

In the fine print below is this injunction:

"To receive the incentive gift you must: 1) register with valid information; 2) complete the user survey; 3) complete at least 2 Silver, 2 Gold and 2 Platinum offers; and 4) refer 1 unique household(s) that also complete these requirements. Purchase may be required. Please read Terms & Conditions for details."

Excuse me? I thought you were paying me in goods, services or cash for my survey responses rather than me subsidizing your lame and inane offers.

Stupid does not begin to describe this online survey exercise. You are offered dozens of choices to become involved in goods and services you do not want or need and every single one of them is calculated to relieve you of your hard earned cash.

You can sign up for a Discover Gas Card, Columbia House DVDs, Discover Platinum Clear Card, Disney movies, BMG Music Service, Vioderm (think Botox), yourmusic.com (CDs), Video Professor, Gevalia 12 cup coffee maker (and on and on). And remember, you have to commit to accepting 6 of these offers and then convince the relative you least like to do what you are doing. It sounds like Amway all over again.

Lest you think all of this is just harmless fun for people who have no day job and lots of time to kill, fear not, this online survey game is pernicious to the core.

The truth is most online surveys involve identifying and qualifying people to be sold goods and services that in many cases they do not want or need.

For example, you are asked to do a survey on financial issues which is really designed to set you up for a call from the representative that can solve all of your financial problems. It is kind of like not wanting to get wet and then being pushed into a pool when you cannot swim. The slick sales person answers all of your questions, like "why would I even want to talk to you?"

I found out that I did not fit into the online survey taker profile. The opportunity does not work when you are debt free, have no credit cards, have no revolving charge cards, do not want any credit cards, do not want any revolving charge cards, do not want to buy an expensive new sports car, do not want Cuban cigars (well, you get the idea).

So how stupid is this online survey hoax? Here are actual survey offers from my e-mail:

--Find Nursing Degree Programs!
--Looking For Financial Aid?
--Time For A Raise? Get A Degree!
--Start Saving Today on Your Auto Insurance
--Find Latino Singles In Your Community Today!
--Shed Unwanted Holiday Flab

Do these sound like genuine surveys? Or more like blatant sales pitches? You decide. One thing is for sure, the money trail will not be going from them to you, it will be traveling from you to them.

This online survey game is meant for people who will spend $200 to get a $20 coupon. Survey takers are really just being taken. Sadly, there are takers who believe they are getting a great deal. H. L. Mencken had it right when he said "you can never underestimate the stupidity of the American people."

Too bad online survey makers were not around in Mencken's day. He might have had an interesting observation about their occupation of choice.

November 22, 2006

Internet Marketing:

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

In the time it takes you to read this article another several thousand newcomers will be surfing the Internet for the first time. Many will be excited, then delighted (especially if they enjoy cable hook-up), become anxious and finally overwhelmed.

All of this can and does happen because on the Internet, home of Internet Marketers (kind of like having your in-laws and outlaws in the same room at the same time), many Internet Marketers believe if they do not relieve you of your money first, there will be none left for them to get.

If you thought they were going to give you a congratulatory greeting and a helping hand, then your education will progress very rapidly.

This rush to get into your pocket is exactly what financial institutions and predators do to young adults after high school. These money grubbers (also known as money lenders) want nothing to do with a marathon in chasing the naïve, they will choose the sprint every time, without fail.

Financiers know the first one to tie up a young person with a car loan and several credit cards has a leg up on enslaving the young, naïve borrower forever; it becomes a done deal when they lock in the same borrower with their first home mortgage (real property loan).

At this point, the young borrower is now exactly where the fastest lender could bring them to: years of hard work, unfair taxes and a lifetime of debt.

I felt like going down to the local credit union and slapping the loan officer that set my son up with a loan for a new car that he acquired with a part-time job, no assets and no real credit rating. My son thought he was king of the hill (mind you, this was no $2,000 used car loan, this was more like a $20,000 new car loan).

My son figured it was easy to get loans. He kept going back until he was in for about $300,000, and then all of the lenders backed off like he had developed the plague and was contagious.

The point is a 30-year-old or 40-year-old man could have gone to the same credit union, or bank, or whatever your lender of choice is, asked for the same loan, and been laughed out of the building. Surely you get it, the first one in gets the prime filet mignon, the rest of lenders get the crumbs off the table.

You may imagine it could not get worse online, and you would be dead wrong. At least my son drove away with a car and had the transportation he thought he needed. Newcomers to the Internet many times buy products and services that simply do not perform (I have bought my share), never mind whether the newcomer wanted or needed the purchase of the moment.

All of this comes back to me today as I received an e-mail from what appears to be a nice, concerned fellow Internet Marketer, which says:

"I don't normally pay much attention to these internet (sic) marketing giveaway events (that is why I have received another similar offer from the same marketer this week) that spring up every now and again (looks like at least a dozen in my e-mails today), but when I seen some of the tools available free at the 'Blank Blank Giveaway', I wanted to make sure you had the chance (so very thoughtful of him) to check it out . . ." (followed by the link to the web site).

Turns out that "Not only can you grab 200+ hot Internet marketing tools without spending a dime, you can also build a list at the same time!"

Any newcomer to the Internet that has just started an Internet Marketing business may already know the idea is to generate traffic to his web site. This looks like another can't miss deal, but is it?

Let us look at this offer from the perspective of a newcomer:

1) Many newcomers have virtually no technical knowledge or skills (I was one). How overwhelming would it be for me to download 200+ Internet tools, install them (if I can), and then use them effectively? Talk about being overwhelmed.

You might ask, why does this happen (the big time offer of 200+ tools)? Probably, a long time ago, some enterprising marketer offered one software tool as an incentive to sign up a newcomer on his mailing list, and then, you guessed it, things got out of hand, and soon it took 100+ free Internet tools to get that same newcomer to volunteer for a mailing list.

Look for someone to offer 300+ Internet tools soon, as the Internet is nothing if not a copycat business of the first order. There is such a lack of originality in marketing on the Internet that if the Internet exploded, it would probably take 1,000 years to resurrect it.

2) There is a great possibility that response to this kind of offer leads to the newcomer becoming a list member who will then be exposed to hundreds of offers to make instant money with a free web site, free hosting, free everything, and no requirements to think, do or say anything (the money, of course, will fly through the newcomer's front door because the whole system will be automated).

But what is really happening here? Only this: You will probably be asked to advertise to drive traffic to your new, free web site (with access to the "secret" money-making techniques of your guru, and his personal schmuck-proof help), at your expense, in exchange for earning a commission on something sold.

Sounds OK, but what do you get besides the commission? Answer: nothing. Who gets the names for their mailing list? The guru, not you. What have you really accomplished? Only this: you have helped build the guru's mailing list at your expense. The guru now has more newcomers to sell to over and over again, and you, you have nothing.

Well, not exactly. You, of course, have more advertising expenses, which we surely hope you can pay for out of the commissions you earned, assuming you earned any commissions. What you are really doing is subsidizing your guru, and he is making the money you want to make.

The guru (or any other Internet Marketer) is not giving you a free web site, hosting and all of the other amenities because he is feeling rich, blessed and altruistic (that is only what he is telling you with a straight face). He is giving you all of this because he can stuff his pockets 100 or 1,000 times more with affiliate web sites than without them, and so he spends his time creating affiliate web sites. It is called leveraging your time and money, his (the guru's), not yours, he is bleeding you dry.

Gurus will quickly fall all over themselves telling you there are thousands of marketers making millions of dollars a year in affiliate marketing, and that may be, but will you be one of them, and what are you willing to do to make money at someone's expense without really telling them the truth about what is happening here?

Some gurus (and other assorted folks) may be better off as an Internet Marketer if they have no conscience whatsoever.

November 17, 2006

Look in Your Rear View Mirror:

Internet Marketing Advertising Really Needs a Police Patrol

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

You will always know a leader when you see one. That is because you never have to announce the coming of a leader.

Leaders, you see, announce themselves, just as naturally as they step forward the instant they perceive that something should be done in a certain situation when nothing is being done. So it is with Internet Marketing advertising today, it is, in a word, a "mess" waiting to be cleaned up.

It is not that anything so terribly illegal is going on (at least I hope not). Marketers are exercising their First Amendment right to freedom of speech when they offer their goods and services on the Internet, some a little more zealously than others, and a few are camped out in a circle reserved for the most devious among us.

Devious as in showing a skillful use of underhanded tactics to achieve their goals, such as lining their pockets at someone's expense.

Virtually everything that appears to be a "mess" is under the protection of the First Amendment. You will recall the Constitutional Convention formally drafted the U. S. Constitution in 1787, in Philadelphia. The U. S. Constitution was adopted in 1789 after being ratified by nine states.

(Would you believe that Philadelphia in the 1750s was the largest city in America with a population of 23,000. When Benjamin Franklin went to London, London was the second largest city in the world with 750,000 inhabitants, second only to Beijing with 900,000.)

Two years later, 1791, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution (commonly known as the Bill of Rights) were ratified.

The first of those amendments said "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Some of my loyal readers (since Ed Bagley's Blog was launched exactly 21 days ago) have discerned what I have discerned, that while no laws are being broken (at least not yet), some marketers' lack of judgment has left them with little regard for exaggeration, loose facts and personal credibility.

Several of my Internet Marketing articles have gently poked fun at this lack of judgment and discretion, including these titles:

Shopping Online – Caveat Emptor (Latin for Let the Buyer Beware); Mailing Lists: If You Must Err, Then Err on the Side of Caution; Forced Matrix Opportunities: A Slippery World of Sinkholes – Parts 1 and 2; It Is Internet Marketing Doublespeak: The Offer Is Free (But It Is Not Free); and In America, We Are Really Silly About Our Instant Gratification. You get the picture.

Everyone appears to be looking the other way, either because they are making money hand over fist and do not want to interrupt their good fortune, or because they are afraid to recognize what is happening and throw up a caution sign. Welcome to Ed Bagley's Internet Police Patrol.

Following the lead article in Ed Bagley's Blog, I will be carrying this notice:

Who is this guy Ed Bagley? Well, for one thing, he is a Self-Appointed Officer for the Internet Police Patrol for Higher Standards, at the moment not issuing tickets for violations, but only gentle warnings. We can and must do a better job of bringing more quality to our work and our livelihood on the Internet. Get with it or get found out.

I will also be hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise when I see course corrections worthy of note. Should my humble start at Ed Bagley's Blog gain the kind of readership I believe it will, then Internet Marketers will benefit greatly should I have a following for the good.

Do not for a moment think that I am going to make a career out of looking only for what could be better in Internet Marketing advertising, I also write about business, jobs, careers, sports, movie reviews and what I call Lessons in Life, which covers such germane topics as honesty and integrity, the latter being a character trait apparently lost on some marketers.

Occasionally I end articles with a totally unrelated comment, and here is one:

And to my Mystery Woman out there, wherever you are: All I ask of you is forever to remember me as loving you.

November 11, 2006

Internet Marketing:

Beware, Sometimes It Is The Little Stuff That Drives Them Away

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

It may be fair to say that you officially become a big shot or guru in the Internet Marketing business when you make so many hundred-dollar bills that you would choke yourself to death trying to eat them.

Since even less than 1% of the people involved in Internet Marketing make the big bucks in cyberspace, we all might be well advised to be less assumptive about our customers on our way to amassing a fortune at their expense.

The Internet landscape is littered with stories by marketers who signed up for this or that offer, and were never able to make it happen at the same level as the gurus who told them how easy it would be with their materials and personal instruction.

It is easy for a guru to list all of the reasons why "losers" never get anywhere in the Internet Marketing business, but that is not the only point worth making when talking about the probability of success in this business.

Sometimes it is the little stuff that just as easily drives prospects away. After big shots and gurus have been around awhile and have stuffed their pockets full, they assume newbies know all of the stuff that they do (after their own years of failing and then succeeding) when in fact a real newbie might be doing well just to turn on his computer and get online.

After purchasing some "targeted visitors" advertising the other day (at a fraction of the cost of a PPC campaign I might add), I also took advantage of an add-on offer to have my URL enhanced with a LinkBooster campaign that included Search Engine Submission to 300 leading search engines, Targeted Directory Submission to matching directories, and Blog Search Engine Submission to 60+ blog search engines and directories.

Man, I was on it like a bee on honey, just a goosey little newbie all excited and not paying attention to business. I took the time and trouble to ad track the incoming targeted visitors so I could know just how well this service would work for me.

My provider of this wonderful opportunity sent me a LinkBooster Submission Report (very impressive), with 12 pages listing every search engine that was contacted on my behalf.

The report was, of course, automated, because this is a major buzz in the business: automate, save yourself time and effort, and post an extensive Q&A section that lists everything anyone with half a brain in their head needs to know.

Imagine my chagrin when I realized for the first time that the URL I gave my provider was not my URL (http://www.edbagleyblog.com) but the AdMinder URL re-direct to my web site. How many times does a newbie to Internet Marketing have this sinking feeling?

I immediately fired off an e-mail to my provider, asking this question: "When you submit such an URL like this, does in actually get listed? This is obviously from a link tracking service and does not even contain my actual URL."

That was 10 days ago. So far, no answer. I suspect I never will get an answer from the provider. They may go on to a very successful career ignoring me, and still make a small fortune in the process. However, their lack of communication is noted.

Should they have been sharp enough to notice my apparent newbie oversight, contacted me and said, our service is very good and worth the price, however, we need your actual URL to do you any good. They were sharp enough to bank my money. You be the judge.

Should I be chasing them to get an answer to my question of concern? I want to know if my mistake makes my investment worthless. If it makes no difference whatsoever, and I am totally off base even worrying about it, then I would like to be reassured of that as well.

Little things create no concern for some and amount to big concerns for others. Little things do not deserve attention, or a reply. Little things just fade away, and perhaps future business fades away as well.

November 12, 2006

Internet Marketing:

Can a Guru Match Wits with the Mighty Yahoo! Search Marketing Machine?

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

A couple of months ago (well, September 30, 2006 to be exact) an e-mail popped up on my monitor from Yahoo! Search Marketing touting the Best Practices for 2006 Holiday Planning, analyzing some key statistics from last year's gift-giving season.

Included was the "preferred day" (not the best day, mind you, but the preferred day) for B2C (that would be Business to Consumer I believe) marketing e-mail campaigns. (Apparently, in Internet Marketing it is mandatory to communicate in Internet Marketing "speak " so as to distinguish marketers as somewhat unique, or perhaps distant, from the English language.)

The best day, according to the brain trust at Yahoo! Search Marketing is Friday, rated at 31% (one assumes, always dangerous but necessary in this case since it is not given by the source), apparently for the response rate.

In Internet Marketing, you see, everyone is supposed to know what you are talking about. My perception is marketers explain their every offer to death with 30-plus-page sales letters in order to justify the investment, and then turn around and spout out important technical terms with very little explanation at all, other than, you should know.

That said, Yahoo! Search Marketing (hereinafter referred to as Yahoo! because you are supposed to know) identified the worse day of the week to send an e-mail offer as Sunday, rated at 11%.

In between, in descending order, was Wednesday (26%), Tuesday (22%), Monday (20%), Thursday (19%) and Saturday (16%). OK. There you have it, folks, keep those cards and letters coming, preferably on Friday, leading into the leisurely weekend when the surf's up and people have more time.

I was now going to reveal to you the results given in one guru's confidential report covering, among other information, the same topic as Yahoo! addressed, but I cannot. In reading the preface to his or her (to protect their identity) report, I am enjoined from doing so as it would be a violation of their copyright.

I am an authorized holder and user of the information in question. Suffice to say, their advice differs dramatically from Yahoo! research. I have found no other worthy sources on the subject, and so cannot make the comparison.

So what can you learn from the information I have given?

One thing might be that if you are a guru, and have something to say worth listening to, then write a report on your exact results, and offer it up as an inducement in building an opt-in mailing list, the probability is you are going to get a lot of takers.

Whether there is a guru out there with genuine results that is willing to sell the information for a profit I do not know. When I do, I will let you know. If I had to choose who I will listen to, I will go with the guru in this case, and skip the Yahoo! brain trust.

November 15, 2006

Internet Marketing:

In America, We Are Really Silly About Our Instant Gratification

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

There is no lack of silliness in America. Many of us remember The Three Stooges: Larry, Moe and Curly, and their slapstick brand of humor.

The key to their silliness, according to Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia), "was that no matter how hard anyone was poked, slapped, punched or prodded, the pain immediately went away, and no one was ever really hurt by it."

And so it is with so many Internet Marketing offers today. We are obsessed with instant gratification. We want everything now. Why wait? This is America.

"Somebody owes me a job and a fat paycheck, and success, because, well because, I was planted here. Just because I do not understand how the offer and opportunity could possibly work in reality, why won't it work? It says right here, it will work. Read it yourself."

You can hear the refrain over and over: "Play it again, Slappy, I like that tune." And the accommodating answer: "Don't mind if I do." (Sorry, I could not resist using slappy, even though you will not find it even in a dictionary of slang, much less The New Oxford American Dictionary.)

Anxious, naïve newbies hang on every word of a sales page offering, hoping that this opportunity, among all of the other opportunities they have tried, will be the one that works.

I can still hear Curly saying (when it is all said and done, and on to another opportunity), "I'm a victim of soicumstance!" (circumstance, in Curly speak).

Do not despair, anxious, naïve newbies, there is no shortage of peddlers to take advantage of your misguided, good intentions.

I was reminded of this the other day when I came upon a sales page inviting me to join "The Golden Circle," which said "Join Us Now And Collect Your $1,750,000" (pardon me for thinking this could be my lucky day!). I had been invited to join "one of the world's most rewarding financial associations."

I would be told "how to collect $1,750,000 so we don't really need any fancy tricks" (naturally I was wondering how this could be). Simple answer: "Being open and straightforward in these matters we have to explain here that your money comes from a commission paid to you on sales made by other Golden Circle members."

And what are we selling? Why, "thousands of copies of a certain Product from YOU over the Internet for $16 each." (I guess the P in product makes it more important, and I love the word YOU, it is my next favorite word after my name.) Gee, I wonder if the Product we will be selling will be what I am reading here?

No matter, as apparently the "information-based product which you are 'selling' will be produced and distributed to your clients automatically FOR YOU by the Golden Circle Server – Computer. So you don’t need to know how to do this – or indeed anything technical about computers at all. It is all done automatically: You need to do NOTHING." (Man, this is great, I do nothing and get $1,750,000.)

Well, not exactly, I do need to pony up $16 to "buy ONE product from ONE of our members for $16. That is all" (the author's italics, not mine). And, of course, there is a "Full Money Back Guarantee."

And get this: "After you make your single $16 purchase from another Member, YOU can first receive $7,000 Front Money and then move immediately to the Team Leader Position to receive your $1,750,000" (the author of this sales pitch does not mention if the $7,000 will be received during my liftetime).

It made me wonder what would happen if the creator of this opportunity were hauled into court and forced to exhibit even one example of a newbie's $16 investment generating a $1,750,000 payout.

Does the expression from the sublime to the ridiculous ring a bell? As in the sublime (of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe—kind of like guru worship) to the ridiculous (as in deserving or inviting derision or mockery).

You may or may not be interested to know that the first FREE (there is that pesky word again) report you receive in this "open and straightforward" explanation (their words, not mine) is titled "How You Can Avoid The Wage Slave Trap," (please do not laugh, I am being accurate here).

Who says you need to go school to get an education? Surfing the Internet may prove more valuable than nailing your MBA degree (Master of Business Administration).

Mark Twain said "I never let schooling interfere with my education." Somehow, it is so much easier to like Mark Twain than the author of this Golden Circle opportunity advertisement (and more sensible too, I might add).

December 7, 2006

Internet Marketing:

Affiliate Marketing Opportunities: Assessing Plug-In-Profit (PIP) - Part 1

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

The Internet is a sprawling expanse that covers the Earth. If there are two companies that could arguably be identified as the best and the biggest prowling the Internet they might well be Empowerism and the mighty Strong Future International Marketing Group, better known as SFI.

I know a little bit about each of these organizations because I have helped Empowerism and SFI become what they are by being an active, paid member. I am no longer a member of either opportunity and have not been for some time.

I will write about my experience as a Newcomer with each opportunity and will start with Empowersim.

I came to Empowerism as a member of Stone Evans' Plug-In Profit (PIP) opportunity because joining Empowerism was a requirement of PIP.

I came to SFI the same way, through PIP. The only difference was my membership in Empowerism required a monthly fee of $19.95. While I was not required by PIP to become a paying member of SFI, I did choose immediately to upgrade my membership in SFI with a qualifying purchase of $29.95 monthly.

There is a lot of evidence to suggest that both Empowerism and SFI are opportunities that some affiliate marketers have developed successfully. I am not one of those marketers.

Almost all Internet Marketing opportunities tell you that even the village idiot with no experience can make fantastic money when you follow their training programs, advertise like mad, and hang in there until you die.

They, of course, are dead wrong, but it certainly would hurt sales if they suggested that there are some marketers who could not build successful businesses even if their life depended upon it.

Smart, successful marketers know this to be true. If you do not have the skill set, ability, interest level, determination and initiative to make something happen, it will not happen, but who wants to tell a newcomer that they might actually have to do something and invest some money to even have a chance of succeeding.

Even if you try your level best to do everything right, the likelihood of it happening is still problematic.

The owners of the company that present the opportunity and a few distributors may earn some money, but I bet any company would be hard put to show that even 10% of its subscribed members are actually profitable after they subtract their expenses from any commissions earned.

Each of these opportunities give affiliate marketers a connection to a company server which generates a no-charge Internet site to promote their business as well as the company business.

Empowerism allows you to send prospects to any page on your website except the sign-up page. As a newcomer to Internet Marketing, I did not immediately pick up on the significance of this necessity, but it is this: Every prospect my paid advertising generated went to Empowerism and became part of its mailing list, whether my prospect signed up or not.

Every large, successful business tries to leverage its efforts to increase productivity and profits, and Empowerism and SFI are examples of this practice.

Once Empowerism has the e-mail address of a new prospect, whether they join or not, the new prospect is immediately inundated with e-mail pitches by auto-responder, which could potentially sent e-mails to a prospect every day for a year.

When newcomers, eager to learn the nuances of Internet Marketing, respond to dozens of free offers for software programs, secret techniques and insider information from gurus and assorted lesser lights, you can imagine the result.

This barrage of e-mails has nothing to do with the fact that you took advantage of the opportunity. They will continue until you opt-out of the sender's offerings.

I found Empowerism's iSend.info auto-responder to be beyond my technical skills and made little use of it. It annoyed me that unless you upgraded your membership Empowerism put its messages on top of your messages, calculated to not miss another opportunity to promote themselves even though the system was advertised to be of greatest benefit to the members.

Then the new Get Response system arrived, apparently because the iSend.info auto-responder system was not working as advertised. After using the Get Response system, it struck me as overpromoted, overused and not very effective.

I used paid advertising to drive hundreds of prospects to Empowerism's sign-up page, and received the benefit of the 50 leads Empowerism threw in monthly. After months of experience I would learn that Empowerism's 50 free leads monthly was one of the greatest examples of tokenism known to man. The result was that I sponsored in no one.

Remember that my paid advertising and the advertising of thousands of other members was adding prospects to Empowerism's ever growing, massive mailing list. I suspect the powers to be at Empowerism were merely recycling names that they already had faster than a hungry man could chow down on a bowl of Cheerios and milk.

I was sitting there, looking at the list of my hundreds of prospects who chose not to sign up and speculating that "you would think that someone would see Empowerism as the best thing since chocolate chip cookies."

(Editor's Note: Another installment of this article about Empowerism continues tomorrow, and then I will tackle my experience with the mother of all behemoths, SFI.)

December 8, 2006

Internet Marketing:

Affiliate Marketing Opportunities: Assessing Empowerism - Part 2

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

Empowerism touted its massive and intensive training system. I do have to admit that it went on forever, seemingly with the stated objective of leaving no stone unturned in answering questions.

In fact, Empowerism's knowledge base was so huge that it purported to answer 99.9% of all possible questions about its wonderful opportunity. So comprehensive and effective that I was not allowed to e-mail them without first reading and apparently memorizing the knowledge base.

This is not an uncommon occurrence among big time marketing opportunities because automation is such a big deal. It was pretty clear that Empowerism preferred not to answer any e-mail questions whatsoever, and, of course, it was impossible to talk to a real person on the phone (which would be akin to committing a sin of unmentionable proportions).

Empowerism in particular fancied itself as having the gold standard of all training programs. Any question asked seemed to have an extensive answer, whether it answered the question efficiently or not.

Empowerism seemed to have so much written material one could get overwhelmed just attempting to read it all. I thought Empowerism had raised giving extensive information to an art form, and more often than not with a feeling of righteousness.

I know this: Empowerism was dancing around a topic to such an extent that it was impossible to find clear, concise answers. The same point was repeated so many times so many different ways that after awhile I had to stop reading just to stay awake.

Empowerism also offered two apparent investment programs, a "Revenue Sharing Value Plan" (RSVP) and a "Most Valuable Player" (MVP) program (I think I have these acronyms correct, and give Empowerism credit for two examples of snappy and effective, if not trite, acronyms).

As I remember it, when leads were sold to Empowerism members the funds were paid into a pool and then commissions were paid out to members.

You could apparently invest as little as $25 in a leads package and eventually could be paid as much as $2,000 over a timetable not mentioned or guaranteed. Your fortunes rode with the company. I bought some of these packages.

Empowerism said at the time that it had paid out more than $5 million in commissions and touted RSVP as "the most successful business model of its kind" (Empowerism's words exactly).

All of this came back to me in early November when Empowerism sent me a letter. I had stopped building the Empowerism opportunity for some time and stopped paying my monthly dues, so I was not a member at the time.

I had assumed that when I stopped paying my dues I had forfeited my right to any commissions and any investments I had made. I wrote off the investments and continued on with my life.

Basically, Empowerism's letter said "long-awaited changes to RSVP and MVP" had been implemented because "we can all agree that the current status of RSVP and MVP is not appealing to anyone." It appears that the original program could not continue to pay out as forecasted.

To make good on any prior investments, purchasers were given 3 injunctions:

1) You would need to be a paid subscriber by the close of the month (Nov. 30, 2006).

2) Starting in December 2006 "a leads purchase equivalent to 1% of your total RSVP order value must be made before the end of the month."

3) Starting in January 2007, "a solo mailing (ad package) purchase of $2 for each $200 MVP order and $1 for each $100 MVP order is required by the end of the month."

Empowerism's letter did not disappoint in that it spent two pages outlining every detail of the conditions to make good on any prior investments.

The thought immediately occurred to me that investors were being asked for more money in order to return their original investment.

I am sure there was nothing immoral, illegal or dishonest about Empowerism's RSVP and MVP programs, but these programs have a habit of running out of gas at some point when more people and more investments become involved. It was just a matter of time before it went bust.

It must have taken me 3 seconds to decide to ignore the letter, and let Empowerism keep the investments I had made. I could not see how subsidizing Empowerism was in my best interest, Empowerism clearly needs the money to straighten out its affairs much more than I do.

(Editor's Note: Another installment of this article continues tomorrow, when I will tackle my experience with the mother of all behemoths, Strong Future International Marketing Group, better known as SFI.)

December 9, 2006

Internet Marketing:

Affiliate Marketing Opportunities: Assessing SFI - Part 3

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

My first impression of SFI was pretty positive. I read the come-on headline that said SFI was getting 4,000 prospects into the program every week (not every month, but every week).

Man, I figured, this is it, they are in more countries around the world than you can shake a stick at, and this thing is growing like mushrooms on lawns in the Pacific Northwest (we get a lot of rain in the winter). And trust me when I say they had some products and services, more than 600 of them. What's not to like?

SFI immediately threw out a Smart Start Training Program for newcomers like me, and I went though that baby like a hot knife through butter.

Upon completion of my Smart Start Training, I received notification from SFI that I had qualified for my free shares of Eagle Co-Op. This led me to personally sponsor in two prospects, and at that time I had done nothing to promote my business other than complete the Smart Start Training and become a paying Affiliate. My $29.95 purchase every month qualified me as an Affiliate to earn commissions on my production.

The Eagle Co-Op Program got my attention because I like eagles. Essentially, you buy into the Eagle Co-Op and the company recruits prospects for you, then you try to get the prospects to upgrade and become a paying member of SFI. That's when the money starts flowing in.

So I bought into the Eagle Co-Op program and dumped some bucks into paid advertising and before two months were up I had 48 prospects (11 of which, or 23%, came from the Eagle Co-Op and 37 of which, the remaining 77%, came from my paid advertising driving prospects to SFI's sign-up page).

Thirteen of the 48 prospects became Affiliates as I had done, and I received a couple of really minuscule checks. Then the Affiliates did something I was not expecting, after upgrading they quit. Even with all of the support from auto-responders and online training guides and forums, they quit anyway.

The prospects got in and got out so fast I thought an IRS agent was knocking on their door.

It was then that I began to realize that recruiting prospects was one thing and keeping them was another. Now I would not want to beat myself up too much for the effort and investment I put in SFI. I really expected that the mighty SFI, with all of its self-proclaimed beneficence and clout, would have helped to keep them and grow them, but it was not to be.

I would bet that the founder of SFI would have been almost indignant to learn that someone (like me) would had even suggested that the Empowerism training system was more intense, massive and focused than his SFI training system.

SFI also had a free package which included "eight exciting home-business training products and tools valued at over $585" that you could give away to prospects. This was called its Secrets of Internet Millionaires (SIM) package.

I never received one myself because I came in through the PIP opportunity (mentioned in Part 1), but I knew I could drive traffic to the SFI site on the Internet, and my prospects could check it out big time.  Apparently the Secrets of Internet Millionaires package got SFI more excited about its program than it did a lot of prospects.

When I finally slowed down enough to look for some evidence to convict me of being successful at SFI, I could find none. It was not long after that I took a closer look at the vaunted Eagle Co-Op Program that touted its ability to separate the wheat from the chaff when it came to prospects.

When I looked at my scorecard more closely and focused on who had produced, this is what I saw: Ed recruited 77% of the prospects through paid advertising, and SFI recruited 23% through its Eagle Co-Op Program.

Every prospect that I recruited and every prospect I sent to SFI's sign-up page (a ton more) became part of the SFI master mailing list. I had no mailing list because I was not set up to build one. Then I began to wonder if the names SFI was selling me were the recycled rejects of potential prospects another Affiliate drove to SFI's sign-up page.

Shoot, I had apparently been snookered into another opportunity, and, gosh darn it, had actually enjoyed myself in the beginning of this unfruitful venture. My few measly checks were dwarfed by the time and money investment I had put into SFI.

I began to wonder just how long it was going to take me to realize that affiliate marketing was not for me, and that I was playing to someone else's strength with my weakness.

Some time later I got the announcement that the same SFI founder had made some sweeping changes to his opportunity because it apparently was not working according to script.

I did not consider this any big news flash because I understand that if a business does not continually re-market itself over time it will cease to exist. Just as the market SFI competes in changes over time so do the buying habits of its consumers.

The final straw came when I attempted to totally opt out of SFI, and much to my chagrin learned that you do not, repeat, do not, just opt out of SFI. No sir, you get their permission to opt out. You cannot opt out unless and until you select a reason for opting out.

If you refuse to give a reason, you cannot leave. While staring at the box at the top of the page that said "Reason is required" I felt like I was being scolded for being a difficult child.

Then I thought, "What is reasonable about this?" I know companies like to survey, but I always considered it a voluntary exercise, not a mandatory sentence for being involved in and helping subsidize SFI's business. Talk about ingrates.

It all seemed just a tad too controlling, like both the Empowerism and SFI opportunities, overblown and annoying from my prospective.

This article mercifully completes the three-part series about my experience with Empowerism and SFI. I can move on now and become successful as an Internet Marketer.

November 3, 2006

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

The idea has been around since we first ditched the barter system for a monetary system of coinage. You could create a system of growing money by making entrance to the system affordable, rewarding people for bringing others into the system, and using leverage to build volume and profit. It is called a forced matrix, and it is just one of many variations of using money to create money.

Banks have been doing it forever. They will safeguard and insure any money you put into a savings account and pay you perhaps 3% annual interest on your deposit. The bank will then use your money to finance a credit card account that another customer opens, and he or she will pay 18% interest on any balance carried over to their next monthly bill.

The difference between the 3% the bank is paying the savings account customer and the 18% the bank is earning on the customer's credit card account is called the spread, and it is this 15% revenue generated, less its operating expenses, that accounts for the bank's profit.

People used to exchange goods and services for other goods and services before money was created, and some people still barter today to avoid using money (mostly for tax reasons I am told). When we learned to produce coins from metal our marketplace expanded rapidly as more people could be involved in producing and consuming goods and services. Coinage leveled the playing field so a person in need of food did not need to exchange a more valuable item for a meal.

All of this came back to me today as I was surfing the Internet and came across a forced matrix opportunity with this very prominent headline: 2 new members + 12 days = $11,776.

I thought it has been a long time since I made $11,776 in 12 days. After that thought, I reminded myself that I have never made $11,776 in 12 days. Now you can appreciate why an Internet Marketer surfing the Internet might be interested in such an opportunity.

This is all possible, according to the offer, through its "OPFM HYPER-MATRIX, The Perfect System That Can Not Fail." I am guessing that this claim means it is not only fail safe, but fool proof. I found this reassuring as I would not want to be made a fool by losing my time and money should I choose to participate.

It sounded like a pretty simple system. The $7 fee to join makes it accessible to almost everyone. You then pay $7 monthly to maintain your membership, and when you are able to get two people to join with you in the system, your overheads are paid because it generates a 50% commission paid from their joining fee.

Apparently it is a 2x matrix, meaning those first two people you got to join are on your first level. Then you teach those first two people how to do what you did, and soon a baby sapling begins growing roots into the ground that extend farther and wider than you could see on a clear day.

The logical extension of this is that, even though no one started out to conquer the world, a real possibility is created, so to speak, as this doubling effect in only 29 days would have more than 536 million people involved, which would be 236 million more people than reside here in the United States, as we just passed the 300 million mark in population growth.

A mere 4 more days would have the matrix at 8.5 billion people involved, which, of course, would not technically be possible since there are currently only slightly more than 6.5 billion people on planet Earth. It is refreshing to encounter someone who thinks big!

Could this logical extension happen? Well, why not, since the stated intention of the offer reassures us that "we can create $11,000+ monthly incomes for our entire team!" This is really pretty heady stuff for a dinky 2x matrix. Imagine the effect of a 10x matrix, assuming, of course, we could find a thinker 5 times as big.

One thing is for sure: Should this logical extension happen, it would dwarf the generous many-billion-dollar-plus contributions Bill and Melinda Gates are making to needed causes around the world. One would have to concede, however, that raising the annual income of all people in underdeveloped countries around the world to $11,000 plus per annum would be a stunning achievement that even Gates could not match with his wealth.

But, alas, it is not be, because upon reading further I discover this 2x matrix offer is capped at approximately $20,000+ a month, which means the matrix is only intended to fill out to "x" amount of levels.

(Editor's Note:  This ends the first part of this analysis on a forced matrix; the conclusion comes tomorrow.)

November 4, 2006

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

Potential $7 a month investors in this sort of thing do have questions, and thankfully the offer has some answers.

1) Why will I not lose people I pay for? Answer: The low $7 monthly maintenance fee, and 50% commission on your first level means sponsoring only two pays for your $7 overhead every month.

Also, "unpaid downline members (apparently all members do not pay their $7 every month) will remain in your downline for three months. If during that time you or your upline place 2 new members under your unpaid member, their membership dues will be automatically paid."

(Did I just read that the unpaid member for that month could collect a 50% commission when someone else places two members on their first level? Usually, when someone does not pay their monthly membership fee, they would not be eligible for commission in many opportunities.)

(Or did I just read that if you pay the two downline members' monthly fee for the unpaid member, then their monthly fee would be paid by you? Yes, you would be out $14 up front but your deadbeat downline member could then apply for a continual handout every month at your expense. If this is the case, then it is apparently considered a good business practice in a 2x matrix, after all, the advice would be coming from the architect of the plan.)

2) How long will it take to fill? Answer: It is up to you. "I personally plan to pay for as many new members as I can. The way I see it, it is like paying for a lifetime of income. It is a no brainer for me to purchase an annual income at $7 per member." (Presumably, purchasing at $7 per month per member ad infinitum (forever), or until the system collapses and everyone goes home to their own monitor.)

In fairness, a crack team of "skilled, active marketers who know how to build matrices" would help teach you how to be successful in building the matrix. (Let us hope so.)

3) What if I cannot get 2 under me? Answer: "First of all you will. Internet recruiting is based a lot on curiosity, need and trust. With this program, you are (sic) can give it away, the curiosity and need for money is a given. You will not have the trust barrier to break through." (I am glad that trust is not a factor in building an Internet Marketing opportunity; were it so, it might be a good deal more difficult to succeed.)

Another comment: "If you are not able to afford to pay for 2, advertise your recruiting page and help the team in any way you can." (Was I just given the opportunity to advertise to recruit? I hope all ads I place are free and work, otherwise, I might be incurring additional expense in building the matrix.)

Also, you will receive help from the OPFM University by "some of the most prolific Internet marketers and trainers in the business. Matter of fact, I know all of the secrets of Internet marketing and have always been willing to share my knowledge with my teammates." (Well, I guess that settles it, no need to worry. It is refreshing to deal with someone who knows everything; after all, it is not every Joe walking down the street that could create this system.)

4) Is the OPFM HYPER-MATRIX a legal matrix or a pyramid scheme? Does it have a product? Good question. Answer: "The OPFM HYPER-MATRIX is a completely legal matrix that is inspected by a U. S. Attorney for compliance with U. S. regulation (sic)." Apparently the $7 monthly dues you pay for your tuition to the OPFM University makes it legal. So much for the Q&A.

The actual offering goes on for 16 pages but a few parting facts near the end caught my eye:

1) "This is a $7.00 2x15 matrix that automatically feeds a high paying 4x4 matrix."

2) "The OPFM HYPER-MATRIX was designed to pay massive commissions early. Matter of fact, you will earn over $11,000 with only 5% of your downline filled." (If the 2x matrix is 15 levels deep, then it must have 32,758 available member spaces, and 5% of 32,758 would be 1,638 members. So this is it: Figure out how to amass 1,638 paying members in 12 days and then your commission check will be $11,000+ per month.)

(He said over but I think he really meant more than; over means "above" in this case, as in "he high jumped over 7 feet," whereas more than means "to a greater extent" or in this case "in excess of $11,000." I do not want to pound on this because it is, in my judgment, the most common error in English language usage today; however, it does not make it any more acceptable.)

For the record: A 2x15 matrix does apparently have 32,758 spaces, which is only 422 less than the current 33,180 population of Lacey, my city of residence in the State of Washington.

My analysis on this 2x matrix opportunity is almost complete. If you were wondering, a sinkhole is a cavity in the ground caused by water erosion, and providing a route for surface water to disappear underground.

You, dear reader, will have to make your own decision about what to do when considering this same opportunity. Should you pass, do not feel stressed about it, when you open your e-mail as an Internet Marketer tomorrow, there will be another 100+ opportunities at your beck and call.

April 16, 2007

Internet Marketing:

Let Us Succeed or Fail on Our Own Merit and Always Remain in Control of Ourselves

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

A while back an Internet Marketing forum comment suggested that potential affiliates should be qualified before being allowed to sign up for a marketing program.

The idea was to try and separate out the losers so they would not be allowed to enter any program, thus reducing the failure rate that in most programs is 75% within the first year.

This is a fact that is kept from many newcomers to networking programs for obvious reasons. If newbies knew that 3 out 4 people they worked so hard to sponsor into a program would do nothing and quit within the first year, they would not bother sponsoring at all.

It would be too negative for some to handle.

I say nuts to qualifying, let the free market remain free to all. A free market will correct itself according to supply and demand in the marketplace when it is left free to do so.

Sure, there are affiliates who will sign up all goosey and ready to go, and then haul off and do nothing, too scared to do anything and afraid of their own shadow when it comes time to actually help themselves.

There are also a lot of bright, ambitious, determined Internet marketing newbies who will grow their business without any significant help from their sponsor; they can read, follow instructions and are coachable.

Some will figure it out over time with very little direction and motivation.

There are also newbies who might act like losers, but who will find themselves because, for the first time in their life, they have been given an opportunity and are called upon to do something.

It is the same in wartime. You may never really know whether fight or flight is inside you until you face death. You may discover you are a winner, and never really thought you were.

You may never have been put in a situation where you had to perform or die.

In John Steinbeck's novel (I believe The Grapes of Wrath), a young boy asks an adult, "When does a boy become a man?" The adult answers, "When he has to."

Circumstances can force us to become the winner we were meant to be.

Please do not shield affiliates from hardship or failure. Treat them as seeds to be watered and weeded, then put them in the sun so they can germinate and blossom.

Should my sponsor come to me and complain about what "his affiliates" are not doing, and asks me what he or she should do, my answer would be terse: sponsor someone else!

I am of the very strong opinion (despite the fact that an effective case could be made to the contrary) that leaders are not made, but found. I believe with every fiber in my body and experience, as in the case of wartime, many men do not know they are leaders until they are put in a situation where they have to become one.

I also believe that leaders who know they are leaders will announce themselves despite the obstacles they may face, and this will happen with or without any significant help from their sponsor.

Leaders separate themselves out very quickly. There is never a vacuum for followers; there will always be a vacuum for leaders.

Twenty affiliates will gladly and contently follow the leader who will take responsibility and direction for the group. It is much easier to follow than lead, and always will be. And yes, almost all leaders were once followers who became leaders.

Let us succeed or fail on our own merit and remain in control of ourselves. We deserve the right to succeed or fail with dignity and without the judgment of others.

Let me be free to set my own standards and live or die upon their merits.

Never let anyone set standards for you. They will set your standards so low you will trip on the bar walking across the room.

November 14, 2006

The Language of Subterfuge:

It Is Internet Marketing Doublespeak: The Offer Is Free (But It Is Not Free)

(Ed's Note: People who write the kind of advertising I am presenting here fancy themselves as great marketers because, through deceitfulness, they attempt to say one thing when they mean another that accomplishes a means to an end for them, not you. This is the kind of bullshit you put up on the Internet that is festering with wannabe millionaires who really only have one goal -- to relieve you of your money at any cost. They could care less whether you are actually helped at your point of need.)

January 24, 2007

Here Is My Analysis:

Reader Wonders If WealthToolbox Opportunity Is Really the Next Scam

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Recently Ann Chase, one of my Blog readers, became concerned about an opportunity she joined. Here is Ann's e-mail:

"I get a feeling you do not like scams (or) scammers. I have reason to believe a fairly new one with a different twist is going around. Have you heard of http://wealthtoolbox.com? It sets up an account for you with $50 and offers $50 for each one who joins under you. They get the same each time someone joins under them.

"I had accumulated $3,382 in my account from people joining under me. However, when I checked my account this morning (1-18-07) it showed no account by that sign-in or it had not been activated. It suggested a new account be opened so I tried a new account . . . and never got anything from them. Scam? Can you shed any light on them?"

Ann, you score big points in my book by simply searching for some better information and answers when things do not seem right.

If something about this apparently new opportunity gave you cause to ponder, then it is very likely that many other Internet Marketers have had the same experience and thoughts.

I did check out WealthToolbox as best I could, and here are some comments and thoughts about your situation:

First, something very similar happened to me. I am involved in the Success University opportunity and one of the things I really respected about the program was that it avoids "flushing" when computing commissions for affiliates.

When I first encountered the word flushing I immediately thought of a toilet, which is a real negative; however, in this case, flushing (when honored) is a very good thing.

It means that when a Success University affiliate has great growth in his (or her) organization yet does not yet qualify for the commission generated, the potential commission stays in place until he qualifies to receive it.

In almost every other opportunity you lose potential commissions when you do not qualify during a specified time period. I had the potential to earn $4,000 a month when I could build out the other side of my organization and still appreciate the fact that some of those commissions remain when I do so.

I too checked my commissions one day as you did, and the commission holding was missing from my account. I was devastated, but had enough presence of mind to call the company and ask about the situation.

The answer I received made a lot of sense when explained. When companies figure commissions on a monthly basis (or whenever they come due) they have to remove the figures to tally up what's due and then adjust each active account accordingly. I was told to wait a few days and that the figures would re-appear.

This is exactly what happened, and also happened in your case.

Ann wrote me a second e-mail three days later (on 1-21-07) and said this: "Showed back up this morning. No explanation. Now I wonder if it is a scam."

In the meantime, I went about the business of learning more about WealthToolbox, and here are my observations:

1) There is apparently no fee to join the WealthToolbox opportunity. The pitch says you can earn money, which implies real money. The company apparently funds your account.

I wonder how many people see what Ann saw (her account growing to $3,382) and mistakenly think that at some point they will be able to withdraw $3,382 in U. S. dollars from their account. You must understand that this makes no sense whatsover.

Without actually saying so, I think WealthToolbox is considering any money they put in your account as a "credit," as in you now have $3,382 in credit toward purchase of their products. You must understand that they cannot create money in thin air, give it away because you are a nice person, and stay in business.

This is not made clear in the opportunity pitch, and should be made crystal clear.

In most situations like this, the company "credit" and the products offered are recycled, all but useless garbage being passed off as something of value.

The key to this assumption of mine comes from their statement that "our focus is helping you learn to make money on the Internet. We believe that the more you learn, the more you'll earn."

2) WealthToolbox is not saying that you will earn money because they have created an account and put money into it for you.

The information on WealthToolbox is incomplete and their intentions are unclear, and I expect so on purpose. If people who signed on actually knew what really was going on, I suspect very few would sign up.

3) Why would WealthToolbox even bother offering this opportunity? Simple, WealthToolBox and its promoters are probably trying to do nothing more than collect names to build a mailing list.

They could even sell these names at a later date as "hungry, really interested, Internet marketing prospects." It goes without saying that they would be interested in developing a trusting relationship with prospects such as yourself Ann.

4) When you read the WealthToolbox Terms of Service very carefully you will find that they are responsible for absolutely nothing, promise nothing, and can change the deal at any moment.

I had not been exposed to this opportunity until Ann e-mailed me. If I had been exposed and checked it out, I would not join but run away as fast as I could.

You will notice that nowhere in their pitch does it identify the company involved, the individuals involved, any phone number to call to get information, or any e-mail where you could get more and better information about this opportunity before you get involved.

This is a big red flag. This is not a good opportunity for any long-term marketer who enjoys wearing his shirt while it is still on his back.

5) People who are up front and trustworthy identify themselves and where to find them. You found me Ann, will you be able to do the same with WealthToolbox when you have no one to e-mail, no one to call and no place to go?

Thanks for your interest in identifying a possible scam, Ann. My best advice to you should you continue to believe in this opportunity is good luck and God speed, you will need both and then some.

January 22, 2007

Here's the Scoop:

Reader Cannot Figure Out What I Am Selling on Ed Bagley's Blog

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

A reader wrote me an e-mail on January 8 and asked this question:

"What exactly are you selling.  Membership to myecon? (sic)"  I replied to ask if I could use their name in my Blog and received no reply, so they shall remain nameless, however, it is a very good and attentive question, and this is my answer:

Dear Nameless,

You ask a really great question that deserves a really great answer.

First, let me congratulate you on spending your valuable time surfing Ed Bagley's Blog. I have a lot of material, and in order for you to find any real or imagined sales pitch for an opportunity is a task not many readers would put up with.

I say this because I am inundated with at least 40 opportunity offers every day; even when I opt out of offers different offers keep coming from the same source.

People who surf the Internet, and especially those who have Internet Marketing businesses, are constantly exposed to offers. It does seem strange when you visit a site and the site owner is not trying to sell you something, whether you are interested or not.

The whole idea among 99% of all Internet Marketers is too get your money now before someone else does. This is the idea behind the advertising that touts "this offer may expire tomorrow" or "this is a one-time offer for today only."

I love this last one because I know if I go to the site tomorrow, the same offer and the same urge to buy will be present again.

The short answer to your question, nameless, is that I am not really trying to sell anything at the moment, and have not really tried to sell anything since I started. My Blog is less than 3 months old today. At the moment I am just having fun.

I will tell you that I am a business associate with the myEcon opportunity and also with the Success University opportunity.

I am not promoting the Success University opportunity right now, but I am paying my $50 monthly tuition fee because I have a vested interest in staying qualified. You see, I have 1,038 people in my business as of today, 1,029 people on my left side and 9 on my right side.

There is just a slight problem with how my business is built at the moment. If they were all active I would still be receiving checks monthly. I was sitting on a potential income of $4,000+ monthly, but missed my opportunity to cash in because I did not know how to sponsor people online.

I started with explosive growth only because Stone Evans of PIP (Plug-In Profit) fame was good enough to include me in his initial push in Success University, putting approximately 300 people down my left side which quickly grew to 600+ when he stopped. I put some folks down my right side and began to get commission checks.

However, I could not figure out how he was doing it. Later, when Stone Evans stopped feeding people into my business and a lot of other businesses, he told us how he did it. Apparently it was by using what are called solo ads in his mailing lists as well as others.

Many people, including myself, starting pumping money into solo ads just like he did. The only problem, and it was a huge one, was Stone Evans forgot to tell us that he had already milked that cow until it could not stand up.

When hundreds of down line members of his organization starting doing the same thing, they quickly discovered the method had been more than saturated, it was bone dry before we started. The 2 or 3 members we picked up did not do us squat.

The tragedy of all of this was that I was willing to pump more cash into this exercise but simply did not know what would work at that point in time.

This is the valuable lesson learned: people who make money in Internet Marketing never, repeat NEVER, really tell you the successful thing they are doing. They know if they did, the market would quickly be diluted and their profits much harder to generate.

When Stone Evans announced how he had done it, it is my considered judgment that what he was doing was more than on the way out, and while his down line was trying unsuccessfully to repeat his success, he was off doing something else entirely different so fewer people would be involved and his success would continue.

Said simply, gurus lead you to the water, but you are not allowed to drink.

If you think this is an unfair comment to make about Stone Evans or any other guru, then answer me this question: Why didn't Stone Evans reveal what he was doing while he was building his huge Success University organization?

A little thought does clarify this situation instantly.

My current mission is to learn, on my own without the help of any big-time guru, what they have discovered and are loath to tell you. They give you just enough information to keep you on board and their commissions active, but then the information flow stops abruptly to preserve their good fortune. Greed is one awesome motivator.

Now, on the matter of myEcon, I am not really promoting that opportunity at the moment either. I am running a page telling about how myEcon helped me financially and personally, but frankly, I am convinced no one really gives a crap about how myEcon has helped me.

I say this because I have never really earned any significant money from my affiliation in myEcon. I know you are not supposed to say these kinds of things publicly because it hurts your perceived image as a successful marketer. You only do what I have done if you are truthful and have integrity.

I could care less what you think about me. What you think about me is none of my business. What is most important is what I think about myself.

I try to always remember that no matter what anyone is saying to me from the outside, the most important conversation is the one I am having with myself on the inside.

There is a page on Ed Bagley's Blog with this headline: What Two Sentences in a Book Led Ed Bagley to Retire $269,000 and Become Debt Free? This page is not heavily advertised on my web site, and I am not paying for advertising to drive traffic to it. You really have to be reading stories on my site to even find a reference to it.

So what's the deal? Just this: Nobody reading my page on myEcon wants to hear about how some opportunity reduced my personal debt by $269,000 by using the success principles that myEcon led me to when I investigated the opportunity.

Why? Simple, what I did requires discipline and also a difficult little four-letter word people do not want to hear. It is called work. (Shame of you for even thinking that!)

Trust me when I say my discipline and effort (also known as consistent, persistent work) has left me at least $269,000 richer by not having to pay interest on the $269,000 in debt, and actually more than $500,000.

Do you really appreciate how much interest you pay on your debt every month? Most average folks (singles making $60,000+ a year or couples making $100,000+ a year) are paying anywhere from $1,500 to $4,000 a month just in interest.

I know this is boring reading for you. No matter. You need to understand how the financial services industry is silently and methodically killing you with their interest-bearing contracts.

Do you understand that one stupid credit card with an outstanding balance of $10,000 at 18% interest takes 40 years (yes, 40 years) to pay off if you make only the minimum payment of 2% per month? And that is even if you charged nothing else on the card for 40 years.

Do you know that the default rate on many credit cards has now risen to 29%? There is no end to the swine in the financial services industry, there are hogs everywhere who are willing to loan you money you should not be given, and then squeeze you with rising interest rates until you blow up. They love it, that is why they are pigs.

At 62 I would be dead long before the debt was paid off if I owed even $10,000 on a credit card. Thank goodness I have the good sense to no longer have or use credit cards. I do not need credit or credit cards, I pay cash for everything and like it that way.

Think about how much you pay in interest on your mortgage payment every month, on your car loans, on your credit cards (I know, just because you have 12 credit cards does not mean you do not pay your bills on time), on your student loans, and on every other debt you have, including your late payment charges on living expenses like your heating bill, telephone bill, cable hook-up bill, etc.

Do not try to deceive me. I have been there. If you will lie to yourself about this you will lie about other things, and I do not want to hear your lies. There are only two possible outcomes to your situation: results or excuses.

Anyway, people do not want to hear about reducing their debt $269,000. I could care less what people do not want to hear. I am not paying a single cent in interest every month. I am debt free and happy to remain so.

People want to hear about how they can make $269,000 in a year with this great new opportunity, whatever it is. It does not matter, just so they think if they get in, it will happen for them. So they are taken advantage of all the time.

It happened to me many times before I wised up and began to recognize how to become successful rather than join opportunities with the hope I would become financially successful.

I was stung by my experience in Success University. I now realize I cannot rely on a guru for anything, I will have to become a guru on my own. No one will be able to do for me what I can do for myself.

The bottom line for me in myEcon and Success University is this: I am not pushing these opportunities on anybody because anybody will not do what I am willing to do to become successful.

When I figure out how to sponsor people online, effectively and consistently, then I am going to bring my friends and associates with me in making a lot of money.

Right now I have people involved who are willing to pay for advertising to sponsor people for themselves and their down line, on both sides in the case of Success University, not just one side.

I will not take their money and encourage their participation until I spend my money and learn how to sponsor effectively and consistently online. These are good people (many of them are the salt of the Earth) with good attitudes and intentions, and I do not intend to let them down.

There is money enough for all to prosper; let us raise the bar so all can benefit rather than just a few.

You cannot do a financial service for others too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late (and that includes your wife and family).

So nameless, I understand your frustration in trying to figure out what exactly I am selling. You come to my site in good faith and find some very helpful, great articles without any charge. You find no real high pressure pitch to buy products and services you may not want or need.

You are bombarded with so many high pressure sales pitches that you feel like a boat in the harbor without an anchor when you are not inundated with them.

All I can tell you is that it is coming, but not until I am satisfied that I have something worthy to offer for your hard-earned money.

To take your money without giving you something of real value would cast me as no more than a common criminal, robbing you at the point of a weapon with no real purpose other than to relieve you of your money so I could stuff my pockets at your expense.

It is called integrity and I guard mine very closely

January 27, 2007


Liz Writes from Down Under:

Blog Reader Wonders If the myEcon Opportunity Would Work in Australia

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Ed Bagley Blog readers are some of the smartest people in the world. I know this because they keep writing to me with great questions and comments that deserve great answers.

There is a synergy going on here that has now stretched from Lacey, Washington in the United States to Down Under in Australia.

Could it be possible that when enough dots are connected around the world through the Internet that we will create a giant web that looks like a road map for individual and collective success?

Here is Liz's recent e-mail message:

"I read and enjoy your blog. I have been looking at this myEcon opportunity and want to know if it would be of any benefit to me given that I reside in Australia?

"I know that our taxation system is completely different from the American system, and so I wonder if I could gain any benefit from the information and support provided.

"I do recognize that the basic principles of debt management I have seen so far on the site are no doubt beneficial to anyone, anywhere, but I would probably be looking for something that I could apply to our system of doing things here.

"Is the information generic enough to do this?"

I love your interest and your question, Liz, and am pleased that you asked. I have some good news and some less good news for you.

First, the good news: You are quite correct that the basic principles of debt management and even financial management are the same around the world.

Second, the less good news: the myEcon opportunity has not spread overseas yet so the opportunity for you to join myEcon is not yet available at this time. But all is not lost because you have a conduit for the information that matters: me. I am experienced, accomplished and full of good information.

Unlike some sources that are a fountain of misinformation, I am a fountain of good information, and will design and market a product that will essentially bring you much of the information included in the myEcon opportunity.

You Liz , as the inspiration for this new project, will receive the first available copy of my work gratis because I already like you even though I have not had the pleasure of knowing you.

Most of the information in the myEcon opportunity is unusual because you will not find it anywhere else today in the Internet Marketing industry. Most so-called "money making" opportunities are a misnomer.

The reality is that 1 in 100 participants in network marketing opportunities net real money ($5,000 to $50,000 a month after all expenses and any taxes).

Another 15 in 100 cover their overheads (expenses to participate) and make a few hundred a month while putting on a brave face and acting like they are stepping in high cotton (an apparent Southern expression for raking in the big bucks).

The other 84 in 100 are only covering their overheads or losing money every month they are involved.

Participants in these kinds of opportunities only hang around because of two reasons: they are making money or they still think they are somehow going to magically make money; otherwise, they eventually quit.

Most networking participants would be surprised to learn that 75% of people involved in these opportunities quit within the first year, therefore, your turnover rate is 75 in every 100 that you bring in every year. Now you understand why people grow tired of sponsoring very quickly.

Show me virtually any networking opportunity and I will show you an emphasis on sponsoring in people and selling products or services. These are businesses after all, so no one should be surprised this is the case.

For those that figure it out and work it is a good deal. That would be the 1 in 100.

For the other 99 in 100 it is just a matter of time before they bite the dust.

What makes the myEcon opportunity important at this moment in history is that myEcon teaches you how to survive financially while you are trying to arrive where you want to be.

The leaders of myEcon know that you are never going to really make it if you are saddled with burdensome debt. They know your chances of making it are not good if you have to feed your new part-time business to keep it operating.

They know you are not going to make it if you are so broke you cannot see straight, on the verge of divorce or already involved in a divorce, have been in a horrific accident, or if you have a terminal disease.

Networking opportunities are not designed for people who cannot pay their bills on time; stupid people or people with the personality of an ashtray. If is far better to be ignorant than stupid; ignorant people do not know any better, when they know better they can do better by applying what they learn.

The bottom line is you will either get with it or be left behind to die alone.

Networking opportunities are designed for prospects (participants) who have full time jobs with a decent income, have stable marriages or relationships, are not dead broke and living paycheck to paycheck, and who understand that few things in life are ever accomplished without a high interest level, hard work and determination.

That is how they got where they are before they became involved in a networking opportunity.

The 5-step plan offered by myEcon is designed to get you financially stable first and then concentrates on trying to build a successful, profitable part-time business. MyEcon leaders teach you:

How to start a part-time, home-based business which allows you to turn your expenses into legal tax deductions.

How to use your legal tax deductions to reduce your net taxable income from your full time day job, saving you thousands of dollars annually in taxes that you used to have to pay because you were not in business.

How to minimize your expenses to create seed money for your new business, allowing you to finance your business without increasing your family budget or reallocating the budget items you already have in place.

How to eliminate your debt faster by becoming financially savvy about how you created your burdensome debt, and then doing something about it to ultimately become debt free before you die.

How to invest the money you have created through your business and begin building a contingency fund for emergencies, accelerate savings for your retirement years, and create income-producing assets so you can stop working your job and start living a fuller and more productive life.

I can teach you every one of these steps. It is always (repeat, always) a good idea to seek advice from those who are competent through their own experience and success to give it.

Why bother becoming involved in myEcon or becoming financially successful? W. Somerset Maugham said it best: Money is like a sixth sense without which we cannot make a complete use of the other five.

There are only two possible outcomes to your financial future: results or excuses. Some people are not comfortable in life without excuses for their failures. Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best when it comes to excuses: This time, like all times, is a very good one, when we know what to do with it.

If you do not know what to do with it (your life), you need myEcon a lot more than myEcon needs you, and you need me a lot more than you need yourself.

If you are not living the life you want to live the way you want to live it, you either do not know how to do it, you chose not to apply the strategies of how to do it, or you are just plain lazy. It takes no talent to be a failure; it takes a lot of talent and initiative to be a success.

I have made my choice, you are stuck with yours.

You want help, call me (1-800-965-6484) or e-mail me (edbagley@comcast.net) and get into the myEcon opportunity now, and ultimately thank Liz in Australia for what I am about to create that will help Liz (who cannot join myEcon from Australia) and you in the United States (who will be able to learn some valuable financial lessons).

It is 1:09 a.m. in the morning. I have had 4 hours of sleep each of the last two nights. I am tired and I am going to bed debt free and successful. You, on the other hand, have a decision to make. We are not talking about anything important here, just your future.

November 30, 2006

Internet Marketing:

Is There a Better Way to Serve Newcomers Who Need Traffic?

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

Newcomers to Internet Marketing may not be faced with a more daunting task than trying to figure out search engine rankings.

There seems to be no shortage of sellers who spend a great deal of time and effort trying to convince newcomers that their particular software program is the answer to generating improved rankings and more traffic to your web site.

Another offer arrived yesterday touting a new version of a top-rated Top 10 Optimizer.

I glance at the offer and do not even bother to get excited. I cautiously glance again at its message like I would confront a hungry wolverine trapped in a small corner of my attic about to protect her young from my approach.

I have been hyped so many times by sales pages on the Internet that I think I am developing attention deficit disorder (ADD).

Deep inside I feel a welling up of my inbred caution. My bulldog instinct suddenly takes over. I put on my helmet and shoulder pads, dust off my cleats, and work up my steely-eyed look that says, "Not in my house, you undersized furry punk" (like Clint Eastwood I can occasionally make my day).

And so I take the bait on the sales page, knowing a war for my thought process and my very soul may well be at stake. No matter, I am determined to be an Internet Marketer despite my fragile newcomer status.

It is time for the kick-off, I wait for the first volley, and here it comes: (Our product) allows you to immediately optimize your web pages . . . in three easy steps" followed by the more prominent claim of "3 easy steps to top 10 search engine rankings." I cringe at the words "immediately" and "easy."

My gut feeling is to run as fast as I can in the other direction, but I realize that would be poor sportsmanship, and so I assess the damage to my psyche as I digest the two words. And then I ask myself: Why are they selling me this software program rather than providing a service to do this for me?

I mean, really, their business is apparently search engine optimization (I think the term is SEO).  What makes me, a technically illiterate newcomer, think I have to learn all about this when it has taken them years to acquire the knowledge and expertise they have?

Every bloody aspect of making it in Internet Marketing is requiring me to overcome one learning curve after another. Anyone who knows anything about Internet Marketing apparently is not about to tell you squat (too busy raking in the money), even though all of his or her literature cries out about how they are going to help you by revealing their "secrets" and "amazing programs" no one knows about. Do not ask me to give examples.

All right, if you must: How about instant affiliate web sites that do not cost you a dime?
They tell you about how easily it is going to work (you will develop 4 to 5 streams of income within hours, or sometimes even minutes, without really doing anything).

They do not tell you that you will be spending your hard-earned money on advertising to drive traffic to their host server where they add your prospects to their sales list, allowing them to build a bigger list of subscribers to whom they sell more products while you continue to subsidize their success. They get free advertising, free prospects and free sales. You get experience when you are paying attention.

Sometimes they even steal commissions you might receive by taking the entire sale as their own. They can do this as they control the server and the process. If you generate no sales commission (as is most often the case) then you cannot even cover your advertising costs, much less make a profit.

In your fifth month you drive 825,000+ hits and 35,000+ unique visitors to their site in 30 days and get not a single sale, for the fifth consecutive month. You see thousands of dollars in investment flying out the door without a single affiliate sale and you wonder: is this going to happen in my lifetime?

Your trusty ad tracking service (another important expense) swears upon pain of death that there were 10 sales made on the sales page, but you never see the sales (they somehow disappear in cyberspace). Later, if the sales were in fact pirated, you will be thanking them for the service they have provided you (this comment will make more sense later in this article).

Back to this SEO offer, and how I can "benefit from top 10 search engine rankings on Google & Yahoo!" (The sales page copy proclaims this straight up in a fit of benevolent excitement).

I call for a timeout, go to Google, and punch in the term "Internet Marketing" and up pops the first of 94,800,000 (that is 94.8 million) responses. Now, how is this going to work for a newcomer? I buy their software, study my head off, and I am going to immediately (their term, not mine) appear in the top 10 among 94.8 million responses?

What will happen when they sell 1,000 of these software programs to 1,000 Internet Marketers whose key words are Internet Marketing?

When I put in three other keywords important to me, I get 4.4+ million responses, 17+ million responses and 9.9+ million responses. If it is so easy, why are they not doing it for me, and charging me for the service?

Logic tells me they are going to have some serious problems with about the 11th customer for each keyword (or keywords) available.

I recognize some tech head may be able to take this software program offer and do something with it, at least for awhile, but what about newcomers who have no technical knowledge or interest in learning the technical side of the business, like me?

The easy answer, of course, is to learn or to get off the Internet so serious people can do serious business without having to put up with people like you.

The cost of the software? Just $250 less a nickel for the Standard version and $450 less a nickel for the Business version. I decide to pass on both.

I guess I should be inordinately concerned about Google, Yahoo, MSN and the rest, but this is how my mind works: I could buy the software in question, spend hours and days gaining some ground in the SEO race, and never effectively compete against a guru in this area because I do not have the skill set, ability and talent to do so. Bottom line: why bother?

I need to play my game on a different field with different competitors, and that is what this newcomer is going to do: mind my own business and skill set, with the emphasis on "own." I will invest the $250 I would have spent using my strength: writing articles.

And, by the way, could that acronym for search engine optimization (SEO) sometimes stand for "Scammed Every Opportunity"?

November 2, 2006

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

Almost any recognized Internet Marketing guru making you an offer today will mention somewhere in his sales pitch that a mailing list is really important.

I believe mention best describes the amount of attention the guru is giving to mailing lists at that moment because his primary objective is to convince you that the absolute most important thing in your Internet Marketing business development is to buy whatever it is he is selling.

Nothing could be more important than what he is offering. I know this as I read through his copy because he is telling me, over and over and over, how effective his sales item is, how easy it is to use, how it does not matter that I have no experience in business or marketing or anything else, that his secrets are being revealed for the first time, that he cares about me and he wants to help me, that his offer is discounted, but I must act this instant or his price may go up, or his offer may be taken away.

I am sure they place this much importance on their offers because this is clearly a life and death matter, especially to them. You cannot, mind you, overestimate the ego and self-importance of a genuine, Internet-certified guru. Well, you can, but is not considered good form.

Without actually saying so, his underlying message is "success is automatic," but only with his system, his materials, his training, and his mentorship. The message is Internet Marketing is not complicated at all, and I do not know why anyone would make it so.

After all, in almost every such offer as this, there is no prospecting, no calling, no selling, no contact with people, no quotas, no huge investments (a few are even touted as free), and no need to create a website (their business-in-a-box leads you to believe that it does it all for you by providing you with a complete website, ready to make money while you watch the money roll in).

Many times the ads that lead you to these sales pages with offers have bright, happy colors, music, streaming headlines, dancing dollar bills, audio messages by guru hired help, gorgeous homes, fancy yachts, and even expensive sports cars zooming away (apparently success is a fast ride).

I have not noticed any sites like this that say you also need no brains, no critical thinking skills, no personality, and no people skills, but perhaps that is in the future of the industry as it develops alongside technology.

So what about these mailing lists? Well, competition is stiff in acquiring names. There is currently such a plethora of high-tech, clever approaches to getting names on the Internet that apparently some Internet Marketers with less resources have been reduced to settling for a more moderate approach.

Witness this e-mail I received yesterday: "Finally (huge letters) A Work at home Opportunity That Anyone Can Do! (Did I mention how easy this Internet Marketing thing is, even idiots need not apply, they are welcomed on the Net)"

The ad continues with "We have No Selling, No Autoship, No Referring Required, No Investment Required, that's Right Join Now Free! No Out of Pocket Expenses Required Ever" (I am not making this up; I am quoting this word for word, letter for letter.)

It concludes with "More Information (large letters) and immediate access to our website:"; and then asks for your First Name, Last Name, E-mail, Confirm E-mail and Phone (all required information).

You will forgive me if I could not figure out 1) who I am dealing with, 2) what is the company name, 3) what product or service are we talking about, and 4) why would someone need my phone number if there is no selling involved?

I have not a clue what I am signing up for. Did I mention earlier that if I am to err, then I would like to err on the side of caution?

Another e-mail, received two days later, shows a picture of a $100,000 bill on the top with no information whatsoever about a real person, a real company, a real product or service, and what I might be receiving when I subscribe to their mailing list. I believe this is what we call blind trust.

Before you jump off of the roof in a fit of excitement while indiscriminately giving your name and e-mail address away, you might want to calculate the drop distance, and exactly how long it will be before you land, hopefully on your own two feet.

April 14, 2007

Internet Marketing:

The Wrong Business Structure Can Destroy Your Financial Life

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

When you run an Internet Marketing business and sell a product or service as a sole proprietorship you will have a ton of liability. A sole proprietorship is the second worse form of asset protection after
a general partnership.

A general partnership as a business structure is not good because when 8 physicians work together in a combined medical practice all 8 partners are liable for the misdeeds of any one of the partners.

The situation is not much better in a sole proprietorship because when you are sued and end up with a judgment for damages against you, you could lose your business and also your house, cars and everything else.

Business people use a C Corporation or an S Corporation for asset protection because when sued in the same situation (looking at a judgment), the owner of the judgment may get your business but may not get your personal assets.

The basic difference between a C Corp and an S Corp is that in an S Corp the tax consequences of the business pass through to your personal tax return.

When you are getting started in business, or operating a small business, achieving asset protection seldom works because lenders will not loan you money in a C Corp or S Corp without you personally guaranteeing the note.

So asset protection in a C Corp or S Corp is not automatic. The corporate veil (so to speak) is pierced much more than it protects.

I much prefer a Limited Liability Company (LLC) that is not a sole LLC but has other members (with an equity interest) attached, and you run the LLC as its Manager.

In this arrangement, you have much more liability protection than in a C Corp or an S Corp because payment of a judgment against you may not be automatic.

When you create your LLC with accompanying Articles of Formation your asset protection may increase if you insert a judgment creditor clause among your articles. In many states you will acquire more asset protection.

The last time I checked, about half of the states allow a judgment creditor clause, and half do not (California being one).

Adding a judgment creditor clause has no affect upon your being sued or receiving a judgment against you. What adding a judgment creditor clause does do is create a question about whether the LLC so formed has to pay the judgment timely.

If, in the unfettered discretion of the Manager of the LLC paying the judgment would cripple or destroy the LLC in its operation, then the judgment would not be paid until the LLC disbands, at which point the judgment would have to paid from the remaining assets.

Why? Because the other members of the LLC, the members with an equity interest who had nothing to do with being a party to the suit against any one member of the LLC, would be damaged by payment of the judgment, and their interests must be protected.

You may be interested to know that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) does not recognize an LLC as a business structure in and of itself, they only recognize it as a corporation which is what it is.

This is why when you set up an LLC as a solo LLC (single person corporation) you will be filing a different tax form than if you set up an LLC with members, in which case you would be filing a Form 1065.

If you create a solo LLC you will not have the same protection as if you create an LLC with members.

When I ask an attorney what is the best form of asset protection and he or she says to buy an insurance policy, I can not sprint away fast enough in the opposite direction. Their answer belies their knowledge of the subject.

I have found the vast majority of attorneys to be pretty useless as their understanding of asset protection issues is marginal at best.

It has been my experience that many attorneys today are so busy trying to make their second million, or simply trying to survive in practice, that they do not have the time or interest to keep current in their profession.

Professionals in this position are consumed by the need for profits to either pay their bills or create enough wealth to retire early.

If you want to have some fun, open up the yellow pages in your local phone book, and in the listings where the attorneys pay to be put under a certain category (such as business law or divorce actions), look up asset protection and see how many are listed.

I did this in an area of 500,000+ population, and there was not even a category for asset protection, much less a single listing. Asset protection is not an area of law that is widely practiced, much less understood by many attorneys.

If you understand the advantages of having an LLC with members as I do, you may wonder how to structure an LLC when you have more than one company. Many business people think that if they start another business they need to form another LLC.

I have had both a C Corp and an S Corp in traditional businesses, but I would never do it again as an LLC provides much more asset protection than either a C Corp or an S Corp. This could be a concern if you have assets to protect.

I advise my clients to form an umbrella company that is an LLC with members who have an equity interest in the corporation.

Two clients of mine each set up their own LLC with a 95% equity interest and another member with a 5% equity interest. They both became each other's 5% equity interest since neither was married, had no significant other nor children.

I used the creation of my LLC as an umbrella company. I have several businesses (actually money making activities) as part of my LLC and all of the revenue and expenses from each of these activities flows up to the LLC for tax and reporting purposes.

When I start another business activity I will not have to create another business structure. If I were a real estate investor I might create an LLC for each property, but I do not currently invest in real estate.

If the new business activity makes money I continue to build it, if it does not, I dump it and try something new. I am interested in building multiple streams of income, that is one reason why I started an Internet Marketing business.

Since the laws regarding limited liability companies vary from state to state, it never hurts to talk to an attorney. I simply do not take an attorney's advice unless he or she is willing to share the thought process and belief system, and is willing to answer any and all of my questions and concerns to my satisfaction.

October 8, 2007

There Is No Other Way

The Only Way to Become Financially Free in America Today: Start Your Own Business

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

I have become so sick and tired of online gurus offering scam products and opportunities that I must reveal the truth about what I have discovered. It is simply this:

In virtually every ad I have read and responded to online a sinister tactic has left me disappointed and dismayed. All of the solutions I had been promised left me unable to achieve any real success whatsoever.

And the sinister tactic being used? Let me simply call it the sin of omission in the solution being offered for my hard-earned money and time.

As strange as it might seem to a man, think about baking a cake that has 5 ingredients. What I have been getting from online gurus is generally 4 of the 5 ingredients, or 80% of the knowledge and application it takes to make the big bucks like the gurus.

Without the 5th and final ingredient the cake making process and the cake are a flop. Worse yet, the gurus know this and purposefully withhold the final ingredient, knowing that if you knew it, you would then join them in the success circle.

They nonetheless advertise and sell their information as if they are giving you all of the ingredients and the full story. In the process, I was being really cheated out of my investment in their products and opportunities.

They were literally lining their pockets at my expense while acting like successful online entrepreneurs willing to share their success information for a price.

The online business of selling information to unsuspecting prospects without giving the prospects all of the information and help they need to succeed has become a multi-million dollar industry.

These online gurus are worse than spin doctors in politics. They will literally steal you blind and act like they are doing you a real service; there is apparently no end to their righteousness and profits, not to mention their disingenuousness.

Enough is enough. I am sick and tired of all their lies and ad copy that drones on for 50-plus pages, spewing out their "exclusive" knowledge, how "easy" it is to succeed like they do, all the "evidence" of their newfound wealth, all the "testimonials" of the common folk and superstars who worship at their feet, all the "crap" you are going to get (minus the real information you need to succeed), how their information is "worth" thousands, how "you can buy it" for hundreds, and how you must "act immediately" to take advantage of their time-sensitive offer.

All of it crap. I have never had a single one of these gurus help me with sincerity at my point of need. They are only interested in selling me more of their personal and company products, books, tapes, seminar tickets, etc., all of which they make money at my expense.

Here is what I believe you need to know before you begin a journey toward becoming financially free:

1) Unless you are a famous rock star, professional athlete or chief executive officer of a major corporation, you have no chance of becoming financially free. You cannot be hired help as an average worker and become financially free in America.

You should have figured out by now that you are not going to get generous raises each year, get more time off, and get better medical, dental and associated benefits. You are an employee, not the owner of the company.

2) As long as you are hired help, you are going to pay too much of your earnings in taxes. Workers are taxed to death. You should know by now that even if your government taxed the rich three times as much, the combined middle class taxpayers still pay far more taxes.

Take the middle class out of paying taxes and the United States would collapse. There would not be enough money to pay all of bureaucrats who regulate our lives and our incomes.

3) Your government does not reward you for being financially responsible, your government punishes you. Your government taxes you on your savings. Your government restricts the amount of tax-free money you can contribute to your retirement accounts. Your government encourages you to go farther into debt by giving you a bigger mortgage interest deduction for a bigger house with a bigger mortgage payment.

4) Very few Americans can save enough for retirement because their incomes are too low, their taxes are too high, and by the time they pay their bills, too many live month-to-month, unable to save enough for retirement.

So what is the answer? Let me share with you not what I think, but what I know.

5) First, you need to go into business for yourself. Do not quit your job, simply start a part-time business on the side so you can begin to generate some income, and accumulate more legal tax deductions. The tax deductions will enable you to lower your taxable income. Then you can take the tax savings and invest in your retirement and/or expand your business.

6) Second, this is not rocket science. You do not need a college degree or special advice from your banker or financial expert, 95% of whom will lie, cheat and steal to take your money while trying to convince you that they are your best friend and helping you. If you doubt this, just start reading the real life articles I write in the Lessons in Life section of my Blog.

7) Understand that as hired help you have so few legal deductions you can count them on one hand. As a business owner, you have a minimum of 200 deductions and hundreds more if you are a major corporation. You simply cannot continue to pay the taxes you are paying as hired help and get ahead.

8) Do you know that as a business you can legally arrange your affairs so that virtually all of your business travel expenses are 100% deductible? This lowers your net taxable income, and reduces the net taxable income your business generates.

9) Do you know that if you have children ages 8 to 18 you can hire each of them to work in your business, and pay them approximately $5,000 a year? Do you know that this income for each of your children is tax free to them, and you can take the combined employment expense as a 100% business deduction?

10) Do you know you can start a legal business for a one-time investment of as little as $200, and maintain your business for as little as $20 a month? Yes you can. I have done it, and you can too. 

May 19, 2007

What Two Sentences in a Book Led Ed Bagley To Retire $269,000 and Become Debt Free?

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

When I first thought about becoming an Internet Marketer, I thought about becoming debt free.  I did not like the idea of paying hundreds of dollars a month in interest on my obligations.

I was reading one day and came across this quote from a British author that seemed to capture my feeling exactly: "Money is like a sixth sense without which we cannot make a complete use of the other five."  Nothing before or since has made more sense to me.

I realized I could not reach my full potential without becoming debt free and financially independent once and for all.

But how?  I was led by the myEcon business opportunity to buy a copy of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki's book about financial intelligence.

I read the book, then read the book a second time and was impressed by Kiyosaki's personal financial advice, but I got stuck on two of his thoughts:

1) The first thought was "making more money will not solve your personal financial problems if cash flow management is the problem."

I then understood that either I needed to get in control of my personal finances, or spending, increasing debt, and paying interest on debt would be in control of me.

2) The second thought was "you really need to become debt free BEFORE you start investing." 

I then understood that if I was paying 18% to 21% on my credit card debt, for example, and not earning squat on my investments, I was going backwards about a 1,000 miles an hour.

Both of these thoughts were upsetting to me because I knew he was right as right can be.

If I did what everyone else did, I would have what everyone else has, and for most people, what they have is years of hard work, unfair taxes and a lifetime of debt.  And let me tell you, I had some debt.

It is not unusual today for a middle class family to have $100,000, $200,000 or $300,000 in personal debt, if for no other reason than many middle class families are making payments to the bank while owning their home.

I then understood that I needed to change my thought process about what I was doing financially, and why I was doing it. 

I realized that if I lacked the will for change, there was no one who could show me the way.

So I became determined to get in control of my cash flow, and eventually retired $269,000 in debt to become a free man.  

I became very thankful that I was led to Robert Kiyosaki's book, and had started my Internet Articles Writing business. 

Getting rid of the interest I was paying on $269,000 in debt was an incredible blessing.   

I learned how to minimize my expenses, how to minimize my taxes, how I could eliminate my debt, and how I could invest my money in assets rather than paying taxes and debts.  I leaned I must be in business because being in business would allow me even more legal tax deductions.  By doing so I lowered my net taxable income.  This allowed me to keep more of my money to reduce my debt.  Unless you have done it, you cannot imagine how off-loading $269,000 in debt feels.  

I have been in opportunities where I sunk money in and got nothing out.  No one, or no company, ever really cared enough to help ensure my financial future while they were lining their pockets at my expense. 

I simply got sick and tired of subsidizing other opportunities while I got all of the motivation and training in the world, but no strategy to actually succeed.

The U. S. Economy:

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

My favorite quote about money comes from the British novelist W. Somerset Maugham: Money is like a sixth sense without which we cannot make a complete use of the other five.

There are probably millions of wage earners who wish they could use their five basic senses to see, hear, smell, taste and touch life without any concern for the necessity of financing their life, but money is a stern taskmaster who keeps their noses to the grindstone.

Even the struggling artist who abhors capitalism and the money chase must find the money to purchase his canvas and oils so he may lose himself in his craft.

Art certainly offers appeal as an activity that is more creative, inspiring and noble than the pure pursuit of making money, but the true capitalist or investor can paint with joy on a much larger canvas when he knows and understands that money has no actual value in the marketplace, or real meaning in the greater scheme of life.

Money is but a tool that does the bidding of its master. Money is neither good nor evil. In any drug transaction, money is not the evil element. In the payment of wages for time spend working in honest labor, money is not our savior.

We can make money the right way or the wrong way. We can spend money productively or unproductively. We can help people or hurt people in our use of money.

Money has no actual value other than the value we attach to it. The barter system would still be practiced today if the participants did not agree to set a value on a piece of printed paper that represented the value of the goods and services they had to offer.

When the users of money lose faith in their currency, its value drops sharply, causing inflation. When the productivity of a country stalls, its currency on the world market plunges, again causing inflation.

Money has no actual meaning other than the meaning we attach to it. Our rational mind tells us that a surplus of money can not buy us love, respect, admiration or health, yet we know that an abundance of money can buy us opportunities, financial freedom, better health care, better housing, better nutrition and a more convenient lifestyle.

Here starts the connection between rendering service and making money.

We know that nothing in our material world can come from nowhere or go nowhere, nor can it be free as there is a price to be paid. Our government can render us service through its employees, but our government is never a source of goods. Everything produced is produced by the people and everything that a government gives to its people it must first take from its people.

The only money that government has to spend is money taxed or borrowed from people’s earnings. Earnings come from productivity. All productivity is based on natural resources, human energy and tools. Tools are the only factor among the three factors that is limitless. The primary tool that is used to create productivity is money.

Businesses and organizations need to understand that you know what drives their existence; it is not giving service, it is taking in revenue to support what they are doing. Service is simply a
by-product of making money.

Do not let businesses or public service organizations fool you into thinking that they exist to help or serve people; helping or serving people is merely a by-product of generating enough revenue to be in a position to do so.

There are some people in government providing services who would have you believe that their primary mission in life is to render service, but if they believe this, they do not understand much about our economy and its role in their survival.

The primary role of any business or governmental unit, large or small, is to find and keep a revenue source. Without a budget to create programs and hire the people (employees) to deliver the programs (services), there would be no services delivered. When budgets are cut, programs and the employees to deliver them are reduced, and departments get reorganized.

Clearly, the world turns on a dollar bill. I am not judging what causes our economy to work (greed is its greatest motivator), but I am suggesting we need to be street smart about how our money system works.

Here is another sobering thought: Our entire economy and all of its employees are created by less than 5% of our population, and not a single one of the 5% work for government, or any other public service organization.

That is because nothing happens in our economy until a product or service is sold to satisfy a want or need, and less than 5% of the income generators in our economy are professional sales people.

Non-profit corporations and governmental units have no profits to tax as any earnings generated by them must be reinvested. There would be no earnings to tax unless business created the profits to be taxed, and created the jobs that also created taxes from the wages earned by the workers.

Seen this way, true capitalists and investors understand business is as much about art as it is about science. The great business people and giants of industry in our country are not really the bean counters and tech heads, they are the masters who paint on an economic canvas much more than that of the solitary artist.

The solitary artist creates an oil painting on a canvas. The creative business person takes the canvas to market and creates more opportunities for the artist to ply his craft.

H. L. Mencken was fond of saying “never underestimate the stupidity of the American people”. I do not belong to that group and neither should you; that is why it is important that you understand the money game even if people around you do not.

Understanding the money game does not make us better or smarter people than others, it does make us more aware and savvy when opportunity knocks on our door.