Stay Away from the MLM BS Kids

People who should know better always seem to fall for these MLM scams. No matter what "product" is being sold or the type of pay "matrix" when it comes down to it all this garbage follows the same script. We mentioned Amway failures before, but there are many opportunities just as bad or worse. MLM by any other name still smells like shit.

What I really hate is there really ARE legit ways to Make Money at Home on the Internet. But most people are uninformed or just plain lazy. No one wants to do any actual work but everyone wants a "business." It's too bad that so many people would rather ripoff people and even scam their family than put in some time and effort doing something productive.

Let me give an example by comparing 2 Home Business Opportunities. I would think this one is a no-brainer but I guess I am wrong.

Opportunity 1:
No fees; $0 to join
Get paid commissions on sales of actual services
Allowed to use competitive vendors/programs to offer the best deals
Your market is the world- serve millions through online or offline marketing
No need or pressure to recruit other agents- Compensation based on your efforts
Commission is very high- either a very high residual or % or high double digit spiff

Opportunity 2:

Pay $500 to join
Get paid commissions mostly on recruiting, services are secondary
Has one offering, no competition on quality or price
Prohibited from selling online or marketing in any way, can only sell to warm market
Only get paid anything significant if you talk SEVERAL people into parting with 500 bucks
Commission on services ( similar services to opp # 1) is pennies

Now do you know which one of these people seem more likely to choose?

Don't do it, kids.

Multiple Income Streams: Huge Key to Online Business Success!

For the past few months now, one of my huge focuses in my online businesses, has been to bring in multiple streams of income, so that there is always a security blanket, if one of my income streams are struck down for whatever reason. For years, I've worked on bringing in my income from my cell phone site, and that has done well, but as with anything, there are ups and downs, and nothing is totally 100% secure. If there was ever a roadblock or a change in search engine ranks for my phone site, I'd need something to fall back on....basically, you don't want all your eggs in 1 basket. This blog was one of the original ideas we had to expand out, and build some other sources of income, being that I'd seen a few other online business people blogging, and sharing their ideas on making money with blogs. Google Adsense was the first step, and pretty easy to do some research on the best ways to set up and utilize it. Then it was moving on to learning about affiliate sales. Basically seeing what's out there and related to your website or blog, then offering it to your readers for a % of sales in most cases. Finally in the last month, I've seen revenue come in from 4 different sources, with others building as well. So I've reached a small goal as far as the security of having 4 sources earning me income, now I just need to build them so the amounts are a nice big secure number. The whole idea here, as I stated, is to build different sources of income, so that you can afford any disaster that may happen to one of your sources, and be backed up by so many others, that you're never left in a tight spot, and your income is always protected. Also keep in mind, you don't want to spread yourself all over the place. If you start 1 thing, and it doesn't work in a month or less, don't jump to the next thing and drop the first. Sometimes building 1 stream can take a long time, but usually pays off in the end if you put in the work required. When you have 1 stream working for you, then may be the time to look at what else could be done. Once your rolling well, 5-6 sources paying you in the thousands each month, will give you security, and a very nice monthly income, just be careful which programs you go with, and explore all options and narrow down to what works best for your site. I personally hope my current 4 streams, will soon be up to 5-6, and hopefully I'll be reporting back here that the streams have grown, and the stability I've been working at for the past few years may be reachable very soon.

Business Building, College, Marriage.....Time to Update!

Time to get this blog updates, as it's been neglected for awhile now, just because life has been very busy. As I've posted here before, I'm back in college, while balancing keeping all my online businesses running smoothly while growing at the same time, and I even got a week long marriage and honeymoon in there! The base of making it all happen was the college decision. Basically, I run my websites in hopes of making money....college grants and loans are there for the taking, and that money will help you go to school and get educated in your field (mine being e-commerce of course,) so why the hell would you not take the free money, get the education, and just run full speed from there. You're getting paid to get educated, which only helps you do more and make more down the line. Anyone who says free college money is for losers, must just enjoy making life harder on them self. The extra cash from school has helped greatly while I continue to work towards building my streams of income from online business. School does take up some time that could normally be used working on directory submitting, blogging, etc., but I've also noticed that by not having all that free time, I tend to think up a LOT more ideas about things I need to do or could do. Many times I'll have assignments due, and I'll just brainstorm what I'd do on a blog or something if I had that time free. Then when I do find some free time from school, I get the blog post up, so things have been productive on all fronts. I'm hoping when school is done, I can be more productive and get a lot more things done.

One major change that I haven't been a part of as far as "hands on" goes, but does affect me, and I've enjoyed watching, is the transformation/merger of Cognigen, the company I've been a member of for years, and which the company that brings together all the telecom services I offer, to Commission River. The new management team has come along, and brought a ton of much needed updates and improvements, which has given me a much needed boost to once again dedicate more time to working on selling more telecom services. Cognigen has always been a reliable company that always paid and I never had to question the integrity of the company. It simply had become outdated and behind the times. I think in order to keep selling agents happy, the company has to give us the latest tools, and show them they really want to help them succeed, which is exactly what the new team is doing. Luckily, I had the patience to learn about Cognigen, and was lucky enough to find some people already in Cognigen, who were willing to help and get me going. Once I was in, it was hard to get someone else in the company, and have to explain everything to them, without a whole lot of tools or references from the company. I think Commission River will not only help new agents understand how to get started, but will also deliver everything that veteran agents need to promote the products, and make the sales. I've had my cell phone site now for a few years, but this change in management, and their motivation for the company, has me wanting to work more and expand out with our VOIP services, and eventually our new service, which is credit card ordering and comparison. With all this going on, I'm hoping to get some free time to update this blog more, and keep a record of my progression, as I now have a few streams of income finally coming in, so all the working and waiting is slowly showing some pay off, so with patience and even more hard work, the progression I've made in a few months, will soon start snowballing into something bigger.