Today we are using Clear High Speed wireless and Sudden Link for TV and a backup internet connection.  Sudden link has been adequate for TV.  Sudden Link internet speed still sucks.

Clear is not much better here is a list of the problems reported to Clear:

• System went down after upgrade to”new high speed modem”.  Excuse–we upgraded to fast should be working fine by Oct 5, 2010.
• System Went down due to upgraded modem failure.  Clear shipped “new improved modem”.  System immediately went down reason unknown–trouble ticket filed.
• System down for a week due to upgrades.  However the old 1.5 meg system worked at about 1000 K.
• System down called for status.  Tech could not give a reason for system being down.

There are other problems, but I believe that Clear will eventually get their problems solved.

Update on Sudden Link:

• TV is still good but promised new channels have not materialized.
• Internet is still bad.  Problem is that Sudden Link has oversold their bandwidth.
• Sudden Link has been taken over by Charter Communications.  Charter has the worst record for customer service in the industry.  Expect your internet service to get worse.

I really don’t have a good internet service provider at this point.  Benton REA our local electrical coop is in the internet business also and are trying hard to get better speeds, however they recently signed an agreement with Charter to provide them with band width.  So for me this does not look like a good solution either.

I personally thank everyone that has commented on this blog and will try to answer some of the comments.  Almost all comments have been great.

Bud

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

For reading the article and also read some cool
content visit the link below

Internet Marketing Strategies

This is a slanderous response to put out on the web.  Am I a terrorist, a spammer or just someone that managed to hit a sore spot with twitter or  some of the media powers.  I took a shot at the Trump Network as it is obvious that a lot of people are going to loose money with this scam.  I also took issue with Sudden Link Communications for not fulfilling their implied promise of band width for the subscribers in the North West.

My real issues is not that they canceled my account.  I only want to be treated like everyone else.  In the last month I have done a lot of research on twitter and have not found one account that has not violated at least one of twitters rules.  If one account is canceled for a violation then all should be canceled.  If you agree or disagree please leave a comment on this blog.

It is not a question if Twitter Corporate discriminates but a question of who they discriminate against.  This article establishes the pattern http://twitterdiscrimination.com/ .  I know from personal experience that twitter will use their power for their or their venture partners benefit.  I wrote two blog posts that criticized the Trump Network and Sudden Link communications.  http://www.bcredneckmarket.com/?p=84 and http://www.bcredneckmarket.com/?p=94.  My mistake was to post these links on twitter.

I was a bit aggressive in my marketing posting but no more so than such ones as the Chris Voss Show and several large corporate auto accounts.  I got curious about twitters funding and did a little research.  http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2008/11/17/story6.html?q=Twitter%20corporate%20funding This article points out a critical flaw in twitter.  The business model does not have a clearly defined method of revenue generation.  Advertising can be sold on twitter, this is a given but will the twitter users remain loyal if this happens.

Research indicates that unless Twitter get an influx of capital or finds a way to monetize their business, they will be bankrupt by June of 2010.   This is my opinion and please take it as such.  Do your own research.

My second biggest problem with twitter is that they will not answer questions about the suspension. I have sent this request several times and get the answer that no request has been submitted.

It is really hard to know what you did wrong if they will not respond.  In order to correct incorrect behavior one must know what was done wrong.

If any one else is having these kinds of problems please post a comment.  I am trying to decide if legal action is warranted.

Bud

If you are having long term problems with Sudden Link High Speed Internet service. Please leave a comment here.

You may contact me at charleslevans@ratmtent1.com.  Please place sudden link in the subject line so that I will find the message if my spam filter kicks it out.

These folks really need to fix their problem.  The service has never performed as advertised and I think it is time for some action.

Thanks,

Bud

If you are a dreamer, a planner, a human, an adult or a child at heart you need this free book.  It is one of those things that changes lives.  As unusual as it may seem I don’t even have an affiliate relationship with this one.  This book was a best seller in class (I believe) at one time.  Barbara Sher has truly made a great gift to the world by giving this book away.

The site does not require a sign up to down load the book.  Just download read and enjoy.  It is important to your dreams and your life.

Bud

“1.  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed ab outnwith so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

2. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith: who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the sdhame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Taking these two verses without looking to the rest of the chapter does not make much sense.  It has always been my feeling the we are given knowledge precept up on precept.  In other words as we need the knowledge to live our live it is supplied to us.  We are being told to endure to the end and in doing this we are to keep all of God’s Commandments to the best of our ability.

In doing this there are temporal things to be accomplished (wealth/self-sufficiency) and spritual things to be given through the living prophets and by communications through the medium of the Holy Ghost.  I can help you with temporal or earthly things.  Those of the spirit are you choice as you are given the agency to make your own choices of how you will live this life.  Every choice has a reward associated with it.  This may be a good reward (a blessing) or a bad reward (sin or cursing).  Each person must make his/her own choice.

I have a blog devoted to self sufficiency.  The information here can help you with earthly things.  Path to Self-sufficiency

How to Take Over Twitter

Today, I’d like to introduce you to our guest author, Harris Fellman. Harris recently launched CoupDeTwitter – a course on how to properly get started with twitter, get lots of followers, and turn those followers into cash.

He is by no means a Social Media Purist, but still he teaches what he considers the “right way” to interact on Twitter & other Social Media platforms (hint: it ain’t by spamming people your offers). Harris has a number of years of success in the internet marketing realm and I feel very honored to have him as a guest author today.

With that … here’s Harris’ blog post entitled “How to Take Over Twitter”:

It’s everywhere. From blogs to newspapers to books at Barnes and Noble. And it’s loud. Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet.

It’s Twitter. And whether you like it or not (yet) it’s going to be around in some form or another for a long time I suspect. Might as well get used to it, right?

A couple of months ago I was in the same boat many of you might be in right now, wondering whether all this Twitter madness was of any use to me at all or whether it was just a bunch of noise, literally. But I started to hear a lot of Twitter related stories and talked to people that I personally know who were using it in ways that I hadn’t considered before.

And the lightbulb finally went off for me. There was some serious power in Twitter! People were not only using Twitter to make connections and network with others, they were making money too. Some of them making LOTS of it as I came to find out.

The biggest thing that stood out for me is this…

From a marketing perspective, Twitter = Listbuilding. Plain and simple. Proper listbuilding is all about building a list AND building relationships with the people on that list. And in many cases the people I was talking to confided in me that their Twitter contacts were more responsive than even their e-mail lists were. As a long time email marketer, I was pretty shocked. But I started doing research and I discovered several truths that I want to share with you.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to go about using Twitter, and some rules of thumb to keep in mind along the way. But there are several crucial steps you’ll want to take note of.
Here’s how this works:

1. Get followers. Sounds simple right? But there’s a lot of stuff out there that will make you think you can just automate the process and be done with it. BEWARE, Twitter is watching. If you do it wrong, you’re sunk. Account Suspended. Tweet no more.

2. Build a relationship with your followers. Yes, that’s right, you’re going to need to start talking with your followers! You want to treat them like you would anyone you might meet at any other social gathering, stipulating that you’re not at a professional wrestling event and everyone is already yelling at one another. <G>

3. Get them Clicking & ReTweeting. Once you build that relationship with them you want to encourage (gently) them to start clicking links you provide with items of interest and most of all to get them Retweeting your posts. Why? Because the *real* power of Twitter is NOT in your own list of followers. Nope. The real power is in the power of the exponent. If you give things of value to the Twitterverse, the Twitterverse will return the favor… Tenfold.

4. Last but not least. You want to make money right? Of course you do. Once you’ve completed steps one through three, there are a ton of ways that you can start to monetize your followers…their followers and their followers followers. But also beware: Twitter spam is on the rise and people are becoming wary of anyone who just jumps into the pool and starts shouting Marco Polo at the top of their lungs. You have to be very careful to craft your Tweets so that people are still getting maximum value from you.

4 seemingly simple steps, and they’re not rocket science, but they do take some finesse and time to do properly. If you’d like to learn more about how to properly implement these 4 steps, I welcome you to join me and my Coup De Twitter system. It will teach you how to do Twitter the RIGHT way as well as 7 easy ways to make money with it plus a handful of advanced tactics as well. Please visit Coup de Twitter to watch a free 35 minute video that I have prepared for you (no opt-in required).

Thanks for reading – if you liked this article, let me know on Twitter – my ID there is @harrisfellman.

Harris Fellman
CoupDeTwitter.com

Get Coup de Twitter here.

UP DATE–Trump Network Compared To Other MLM Programs

UPDATE

THE BLACK HAT SIDE OF THE TRUMP NETWORK

Remember the old Black Hat Amway tactics. Remember the great of Amway and the great shows that they put on with groups like the Goads. The big pitch was that you could not succeed in Amway without attending their functions. The functions were several hundred dollars that included hotel, food, and meeting tickets. I spent a lot of money on these things and never made any money. The curdling event happened one time when I heard a couple of the “Amway great” discussing the “marks” and “sucker” referring to their audience and downline. This stimulated some thinking.

Investigation of their actual Amway sales and commissions revealed that they could not be making the kind of money that they claimed from product sales. The most of their money was coming from the “BLACK HAT” activities. The mandatory functions, tapes and motivational materials. Some of this was good but the majority was junk.

Why is this important to a discussion of the Trump Network. When you sign up for the Trump Network the first email that you get is—you guessed– is an invitation to attend a function. Good marketing if you are selling functions and plan to make the majority of your money selling hype. This appears to be the plan of the Trump Network. One thing is sure the Trump Network is going to put a lot of money in Donald’s pocket. (It will remove this money from the majority of those that sign up for it.

The latest hot item on internet marketing is the Trump Network. How does the Trump Network compare to other network marketing programs. The following areas were evaluated to compare two of the most popular internet network marketing programs:

• Commission Schedule

• Products

• Consumer involvement

• What is included in entry kit

• Annual fees.

• Projected annual household income of customer.

• World wide shipping arrangements.

• Cost of tools and training.

The two Multilevel Marketing Programs (MLM) that will be compared are Strong Future International (SFI) and the Trump Network (TN). The internet is alive with the pre-launch hype for the Trump Network while SFI has been around since 1998. Both of these networks have the goal to allow folks to make money online.

Commission Schedule

The Trump Network appears to be heavily load to produce large income for the higher levels of the upline and the lower tiers are the pawns to the upper levels. SFI has a more balance approach but levels for earnings are higher. Both will be very profitable for the person that make an effort and realizes the limitations of the individual program.

Products

Trump Network at this time has release information on only one product. It is a updated version of the old Amway Vitamin line. The hype is that this one is individually tailored to meet your needs. I take this with reservations. It is an expensive product costing about $60 per individual per month.

SFI has a large and diversified product line. This company provides some product that anyone can get excited about. They even have a sales site in the Triple Clicks line that allows you to sell items in much the same way as eBay. They offer the MaxMall line that has over 170 stores to chose products from.

What Is Included In Kit

The SFI entry kit is basically a web site access that has the only cost of being your email address. This give you access to their affiliate program and the ability to by products and sign up new affiliates in your down line. This gives you access to the complete training program. The only upsell to this basic entry level is the “eye earn program” and it cost 20 bucks.

The Trump Network has two entry levels. The quick start method that sells for $497.00 and the basic level that sells for $48.00. The only difference that I can see to these two levels is that for the first couple of months the high priced version allows you access to some of the higher level stuff what ever that is. I have not viewed the Trump Training program.

Annual Fees

The Trump Network has an annual fee for membership as can best be determined from the web site. (I have not yet purchased a membership) The annual fees may well be discussed in the membership package.

Since SFI is a free entry MLM business no annual fees are charged.

Projected Annual Household Income of Customer

Since the cost of the product for The Trump Network is $60.00 per month per individual the annual income of the customer family for a four member family would be about $100,000 per year. Assuming that only the two adults in the family took the supplements the cost would be $1400 per year for the family. In order to have $1400 per year discretionary income the family would need to bring home over $80,000 per year or about $100,000 gross income.

SFI has no minimum requirements however they also would like you to sign up for a minimum program. All MLM’s push minimum product usage. This ensures the life of the program. Even if clients only buy for themselves the company is secure.

World Wide Shipping Arrangements

Trump Network may not be able to ship their product, at least the current product world wide. There may be many governmental and health restrictions for the import of these product in many countries. The folks at SFI have become a truly world wide company with the addition or regional supply centers and local business where there products can be picked up.

Cost Of Tools And Training

The cost of tools to build your MLM business is always a consideration in the decision to join a program. The entry level cost of the Trump Network is either $497 or $48. The $497 program seems to have more tools and training available. The $48 is a bare bones entry program and it appears that you are mostly on your own at this level.

The SFI program has no cost to join but they offer a basic advertising package for $20.00 called the Eye Earn package. It looks to be a pretty good deal.

The cost of training for the SFI program is included for free. It consist of many pages of text and a lot of video. I can’t tell you exactly what the Trump training program looks like but for the cost it better be good.

THE BLACK HAT SIDE OF THE TRUMP NETWORK

Remember the old Black Hat Amway tactics. Remember the great of Amway and the great shows that they put on with groups like the Goads. The big pitch was that you could not succeed in Amway without attending their functions. The functions were several hundred dollars that included hotel, food, and meeting tickets. I spent a lot of money on these things and never made any money. The curdling event happened one time when I heard a couple of the “Amway great” discussing the “marks” and “sucker” referring to their audience and downline. This stimulated some thinking.

Investigation of their actual Amway sales and commissions revealed that they could not be making the kind of money that they claimed from product sales. The most of their money was coming from the “BLACK HAT” activities. The mandatory functions, tapes and motivational materials. Some of this was good but the majority was junk.

Why is this important to a discussion of the Trump Network. When you sign up for the Trump Network the first email that you get is—you guessed– is an invitation to attend a function. Good marketing if you are selling functions and plan to make the majority of your money selling hype. This appears to be the plan of the Trump Network. One thing is sure the Trump Network is going to put a lot of money in Donald’s pocket. (It will remove this money from the majority of those that sign up for it.

Conclusion

What is the best program? The Trump Network definitely has the best media coverage. I question that if it will have that in ten years. This will certainly get it off to a flying start. If they had the products to back up the media hype it would be an excellent opportunity. Without a much broader product line it is going to be hard to make any money except for the fast start method where a chunk of the $497 sign up fee is passed to the up line. This kind of reminds me of the chain letter thing. Just maybe you can become a part of the Trump Network “BLACK HAT GANG.”

The SFI opportunity is a proven track record. They have been in business for over 10 years and are in the middle of one of the largest business expansions ever attempted. The number of new lines and stores is hard to believe. The cost with their most expensive package is less than $100.00.

If you are interested in building a business that will continue to grow and can be passed down to your kids as a profitable business is the way to go.

Another interesting thing is happening. All MLM sites that I have tried to set up as affiliates using Bit.ly URL shortner are flagged EXCEPT THE TRUMP NETWORK. I wonder where the money is?

Links to the two networks:

Trump Network http://bit.ly/uXOw9

SFI http://digg.com/u1Gdmr

PET PEEVES ABOUT INTERNET MARKETING

I have been involved in Internet Marketing for the last three years. There are a couple of things that really jerk my chain. These practices cost good folks a lot of money and are clearly deceptive in practice.

The first if membership web sites. Yes some of them are very good. They provide a lot of valuable information. I belong to a couple.

• The Traffic Geyser program provides a valuable method for advertising my brick and mortar repair business as well as a method to post videos on lots of places on the web. They make no bones about charging you a monthly fee. The other side is that they provide a valuable service for this fee.

• John Delavera’s Turbo Marketing membership is another that I belong to. When I first joined it provided a lot of valuable free content for the membership fee, however lately it has not provided the quality of information that it has in the past. My second peeve with this membership is that the “Angels” never answer an email. I am considering dropping this site. In all fairness there is a lot of free software and other stuff on this site that if used properly make it a valuable resource.

The one that really bother me are the membership sites that offer a freebie to get you to sign up and then it is really difficult to unsubscribe. I have had a couple of those that took me over a year to get off my credit cards. One was Prosper Learnings membership site associated with their web coaching program that is very expensive and next to useless. I spent $10,000 with them and gained next to nothing. Robert Allen wrote some great book but his Prosper Learning program is not worth the money.

My second pet peeve is the offer. Buy our stuff and by the end of the month you can quit your day job. Anybody that says you will get rich quick is full of some thing and it ain’t honesty. There is not a get rich quick scheme that works that is honest and can be done with integrity. You can follow directions to shorten the process. You still must do the work.

There is something about a membership site that entices you in with a free offer and then makes it difficult to get off their list that if fundamentally wrong. As a side note three companies settled out of court class action suits for this very thing for 10’s of millions of dollars. Internet marketer need to get some honesty and integrity. It isn’t all about money.

Mark Joyner has several membership sites tied to his World Class Simpleology program. I have purchases some of his stuff and never had a problem canceling a subscription after I got the free stuff. He has great information and gives a lot of it away.

The one that really get be are like this.

These are the one that give you a free introduction and then if you really want this to work you must buy our $497.00 coaching package. Now some of the programs are probably worth the money. But the ones that seem to have value don’t offer to make you rich for no effort. It just doesn’t work that way. If you truly know any rich folks you know that they work hard to accomplish their goals.

Just got one of those phone calls, “I am looking for those people that have decided to make a lot of money on the internet.” This call came in while I was writing this article. I can tell you that after listening to this sale person for about 5 minutes it was obvious that he was broke. Asked them to provide empirical data not just testimonials. Ask them what percent of the people that start their programs make the 6 figure income. This fellow stated that 100 percent did then he started adding reasons that caused them to fail. Through all of this I did not get one solid figure. My answer hang up the phone and run away.

In summary internet marketing is a great thing. Spend you money wisely. Do your research. Don’t fall for the offer that this will only be available for the next hour. These things have a way of showing up again and usually for a lot less money. If it works it will be around for a while. The cutting edge is not always the front edge. This concludes my tirade on my pet peeve for internet marketing.

Internet Marketing–Are You Ready To Start (Don’t Click this link Yet!)

Do you know where you want to go? Is your internet marketing business the vehicle to get you there? Starting a business is a lot like driving a car from one place to another. First you need a car then you need a map of how to get there. If you wanted to drive from Virgina to Washington State what would you need? You would need adequate money for gas, food, lodging and a good reliable car. That is not a lot different than what you need to build an internet marketing business. In both cases after you have gotten the basics you need a plan or a map to get you to the destination.

What do you need to start an internet marketing business or to just sell some stuff on line:

• You need a computer.
• You need an internet connection.
• You need motivation.
• You need a plan.

It is safe to assume that you have the first two if you are reading this.  The next two depend upon you.  First you must look deep down into your soul and determine if this thing is for you.  There are a lot of sites out there to help you decide.  I would advise you to look for the fee stuff about being an entrepreneur.  Look for the characteristic that define a business owner.  No matter how you slice it if you are going to succeed on line you will be a business owner.

Do you have these qualities:

• A deep seated need to achieve.
• Self motivated and a self starter.
• Are you action oriented?
• Does achieving a goal motivate you?
• Can you be persuasive?
• Are you resourceful?
• Are you tenacious and persistent.  (My kids call me stubborn).
• Are you resilient–do you bounce well from setbacks?
• Are you tolerant of the unknown?  Can you do new things without someone to hold your hand?

Take a careful look at these items before you decide to be an entrepreneur.  These traits plus a computer and an internet connection are your vehicle to internet success.  If you have these basic items then you need a plan.  There are lots of people out there willing to sell you a plan including my self.  However I am not going to give you a link to a plan to buy that will make you an instant millionaire.  There ain’t no magic plan–trust me.  This is like any other business you put in your time, energy and some money to earn the reward.  Think about these things and we will discuss methods to build a plan in another post.

If you are smart? You will follow this link to a free internet marketing training site and plan.  I was supposed to put up a squeeze page before I gave you the link to this site.  MAGIC BUTTON Click the magic button now!!

DUMMY YOU DIDN”T CLICK THE MAGIC BUTTON!  DO IT NOW–IT”S FREE

MAGIC BUTTON