The products and the Body by Vi Challenge keep the business opportunity simple, and the Three for Free promotion lets distributors get their products at no cost.

“The whole message is super simple: Lose weight, get fit and save money because you’re replacing meals with our shakes, literally saving people a couple hundred dollars a month,” Mallen says. “Then we layered in Three for Free, which removed all financial objections and barriers. We let our customers and our distributors refer three other people. Then their own products are sent to them free. We’re averaging over $400 in monthly product revenue for every distributor in our company. That’s unheard of! And our retention is dramatically better than the industry average.”

Retention results from several factors, including a strong compensation plan that lets new distributors promote quickly.

“We pay out up to 80 percent payout at the highest levels,” Blair says, “and we have a car bonus at the lowest rank of any competitor we’ve looked at.” More than 1,500 distributors have already qualified for a BMW, making them members of the company’s fancifully named Bimmer Club.

But the comp plan is intentionally skewed toward the bottom and middle ranks of producers, helping them quickly earn income that makes a real difference in a family’s budget.

For more information, CLICK HERE

Excerpted from ViSalus® article

People do not set out to over-eat and gain weight.  It is my contention that with some knowledge about calories, a person can not only lose weight and improve physical fitness, they can also increase their health and overall well-being.  Times have changed.  The amount of physical work we do has reduced while the availability of empty calorie snacks and over-cooked meals has increased.  We are an age of convenience and it is killing us!

Most people would consider the menu below beyond a reasonable diet.  In fact, most would have to reduce their intake to achieve this diet.  Yet if you read on, you will see that this menu, though our grandparents would consider it a balanced and healthy meal, will add pounds of fat on a daily basis if you are not engaged in active physical exertion every day.

What if you eat a reasonable, healthy, moderate diet?

Don’t kid yourself!

It is not likely that you are only eating the above diet.  There are no snacks there, no extra flavored drinks, no desserts and no fast-food meals factored in.  Snacks and treats are everywhere and have become part of our culture.  Most people are eating at least 3,000 calories daily and thus creating the obesity problem in the United States and elsewhere.

You only have to look at your grocery bill and how much you spent at restaurants or on snacks to see whether or not you stick to a diet such as the one above.  Nevertheless, even that diet is TOO MANY CALORIES unless your doing an hour or more of daily exercise.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
Basal Metabolic Rate is the number of calories you’d burn if you stayed in bed all day. If you’ve noticed that every year, it becomes harder to eat whatever you want and stay slim, you’ve also learned that your Basal Metabolic Rate decreases as you age. Reducing how much you eat in hopes of losing weight decreases your BMR which is just the opposite of what you want to accomplish.

Determine your BMR:  A female, 5’4” weighing 200 pounds at age 35 would have an approximate BMR of 1654 per 24 hours.  With a sedentary lifestyle, the strict but healthy diet shown above will leave 678 unburned calories daily.

Now let’s turn that age around to 53 and the BMR is 1569.4 – see how it dropped?  Now you’re leaving 763 calories unburned every day. Drop the weight to 160 for the 35 year old and the BMR drops to 1480. Ever hear people say that the last ten to twenty pounds are the hardest pounds to lose?  And, if that 35-year-old is on the diet shown above and has a sedentary lifestyle, he or she is leaving 852 calories unburned every day.

If you eat 3000 or more calories every day, which MOST people do, how do you burn it off?  It’s a lot harder than you might think.  Here are some facts on that:

How do I burn those leftover calories?

To burn only 122 calories, you would need to do any of the following:
34 minutes of walking
14 minutes of jogging
10 minutes of swimming
19 minutes of cycling

Therefore, if you eat the above meals which are considered a reasonable, healthy and moderate diet, you still have about 700 calories unburned and you’ll need to do one of the following just to maintain your weight:

• 3 hours of walking
• 1.5 hours of jogging
• 1 hour of swimming
• 2 hours of cycling

This answers the question “Why am I overweight?” and why obesity is a problem for a growing number of our population.  Most people do not know about calories, how to calculate them or calculate how to burn them off.  Nobody wants to be fat.  Yet few realize they are causing it daily by eating whatever strikes their fancy, exercising when it is convenient and recklessly heading down the path to obesity and major health problems.  Most people ignore the situation until the major health problems kick in and only then do they seek professional help.

What about the diet plan programs or surgery?

Some plans do not work simply because they do not handle the root of the problem.  If you cannot stay on the plan, if it is not appealing, if it is too expensive or forces you to ignore your hunger, it will have a high likelihood of eventual failure.  Surgery, even if covered by insurance plan, has some very serious risks and does not handle the probiotic and metabolic rate issues.  Even if they offer “diet plan counseling” most surgery or food plans do not supply the super-nutrition or metabolism repair needed.  Once the band is removed or the food plan ends, the weight comes right back on.  All that misery may be wasted.  But don’t despair.  There is a way to get your calories down and your nutrition up.  I can say that because I have seen over 4,000,000 pounds of PURE RESULTS!!!

Why the  ViSalus® Body by Vi 90-day challenge is the Most Recommended Plan.

By replacing two meals with a ViSalus® protein shake, made with unsweetened almond milk, each meal costs less than $2.00 and is only 130 calories.  The patented protein/probiotic blend helps lean muscle replace fatty tissues whether you are exercising or not.

Your diet would then look like this if you still ate the lunch shown above:

Breakfast:  cost:  $1.90  calories = 130

Lunch:  cost:  $1.05   calories = 487

Dinner:  cost $1.90   calories = 130

Total daily cost:  $4.85        Total daily calories = 747

YOU SAVE MONEY DAILY and EAT LESS CALORIES than you burn even if you do not exercise!

That’s just one of the reasons why the ViSalus® Body by Vi 90-day challenge WORKS. 

FIND OUT MORE – CLICK HERE

Or, watch this short video on how easy it is to have a delicious and FAST breakfast!

ViSalus® also provides community weight loss support, lots of tips and even an exercise plan, all packaged up in a 90-day challenge to meet your fitness goals.  You can even win a vacation and other prizes.

Facts on calories and nutrition can be found at this other helpful links:

http://health.discovery.com

http://www.calorieking.com

The Contagious and Infectious Ideas That Led To Financial Ruin

Doctors now agree that a single factor can predispose a person to disease. That factor is stress. Understanding what stress is and how it comes about would be, therefore, an important study. In my previous article, the definition of financial ruin was given and the family unit as the building block of a nation was examined for changes. The question of why the change occurred was raised.

If a woman were to spend her family out of house and home, they would say she was mentally ill. They would proclaim she had no self-control and needed drastic treatment. If a man were to gamble away the family’s life savings, it would be indisputable grounds for divorce. Suppose also, that upon questioning that frivolous husband or wife as to their purpose for the overspending they claimed a threat from neighboring towns. This they might claim, required security systems, guns, bombs and artillery with the intention of bombing a neighboring city if need be. You might say they were psycho, right? Good thing this is only a hypothetical husband or wife. Or is it?

Let’s take a look at the relationship between war and the national debt.

World War I was waged from 1914 to 1918 under Woodrow Wilson. See how that relates to the National Debt:

07/01/1914 = $2,912,499,269.16

07/01/1915 = $3,058,136,873.16

07/01/1916 = $3,609,244,262.16

07/01/1917 = $5,717,770,279.52

07/01/1918  = $14,592,161,414.00

07/01/1919 = $27,390,970,113.12

That’s a $24.4 billion increase!!!!

For 12 years the debt was being paid off and got as low as $16.8 billion in 1931 but it never down to the $5.7 billion range. It then rises at about $3 billion per year during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

World War II came next and the debt rose more than 500%.   See the figures below:

06/30/1941 = $48,961,443,535.71

06/30/1942 = $72,422,445,116.22

06/30/1943 = $136,696,090,329.90

06/30/1944 = $201,003,387,221.13

06/30/1945 = $258,682,187,409.93

That’s a $210 billion increase.

To put this in perspective of our analogy, that would be similar to the wife or husband driving their debts up from $500,000 to $2.5 million within four years.

When Herbert Hoover took office (1929 – 1933), he actually reduced the debt by about $3 billion until his final year. Under Dwight D. Eisenhower, the debt went up by $22 billion. Under JFK the debt went up by $17 billion in only two years. Barely noticeable compared to the skyrocket climb to over a trillion during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. At the time of this writing, the national debt exceeds $10 trillion.

Some argue that the only way to see the true trend is to measure “per capita” or in ratio to the U.S. population. Alright, let’s be fair then. The U.S. Census projected 311,352,899 people in the United States.as of 2010 with 225,206,000 over 18 years of age. Basically that means every adult 18 or over would have to pay $60,174 in order to pay off the debt. Compare that to 1970 when people over 18 could have shelled out a measly $2,810 and made the U.S.A. solvent.

Some financial experts claim that we are now in a hyper-inflation, with the debt increasing at an average of $4 billion per day since September 28, 2007. Scary. No wonder people are buying gold and silver and banking outside the United States. Historically speaking, hyper-inflation is followed by bankruptcy. In fact, 14 countries are near bankruptcy or already bankrupt.

If You Can Keep Your Head While All Others Are Losing Theirs…

Our government is a government of the people. Before you gasp, point fingers and blame the government for this financial disaster, realize that Americans have been gladly going into debt for decades then taking the easy way out – filing bankruptcy – leaving their creditors high and dry. So again we must ask “Why?” and examine what changed the society from a handshake agreement and a skilled budget, to skillful manipulation of credit and non-payment of our obligations?

In the next article, we will examine where and how the financial responsibility and sense of fair exchange went awry.

Click here for more information about success with a Home Business.

For a 5-Year Buy Back Guarantee on silver and gold coin collections, CLICK HERE.

Old School, New School, No School Like an Old Fool

As explained in “From Fool To Fortune Part One,” economy was a way of life for the generation that survived the Great Depression from 1929 to 1940.  The bullish ambitious approach of those who did well were not the majority.  Frugality, humility, hard work, well-cared for family and the like were vital lessons learned by those who had worked on farms, stood in soup lines and lived in tents.  Some say this world economic disaster began with Black Tuesday, the day the stock market crashed.  Others say the stocks only reflected the stalled industry.  Most likely the latter is true.

Whatever the cause, those who emerged from that time period would never take employment for granted again.  Many took to hiding their money in locked metal boxes hidden beneath the floor boards.  One can only imagine what it must have been like to lose your job and think that you at least put some money away to tide you over only to discover that your bank has gone bankrupt and your money is gone.  Suddenly, you have nothing.  There are no jobs.  It is only a matter of time before they take your house.

Naturally, you will pass onto your children the valuable lessons you have learned — even if it kills them.  For the average citizen, cutting back on spending, finding work, hunting for food, sharing shelter, and other penny-pinching tactics were what kept their families alive.   It was not necessarily the right thing to do.

Companies that found wealth, such as Kellog and Proctor & Gamble, took aggressive action instead of the usual attempts of cutting back. In fact, those who did well during the Great Depression refused to buy into the idea that consumers would not buy.  They simply advertised even harder.

Robert Kiyosoki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” was a worldwide situation.  There were those who stooped to any depth to survive and those who ignored the economic weather and advertised their entrepreneurial way to wealth.  The money did not go away, it simply shifted hands.  Those who understood this built empires.

TMI (too much information) Changes the Family Unit to the Core

Something happened that brought about a shift in the American frame of mind, an entire drug culture, a change in morality, a severe breakdown of the family unit, a drastic drop in work force, a decrease in small business growth, a “buy now, pay later” finance, a materialistic approach to life, a loss of faith, a loss of patriotism, a loss of national pride, no longer caring for one’s neighbors and more.  And it happened all in one generation.

There are so many theories about what caused “The 60s” that even those who lived it are not sure.  But a careful examination of the major changes can bring some understanding.

Television was invented in 1926 by J.L. Baird of Helensburgh, Scotland.  Broadcasting started in Germany in 1935.  American broadcasting started in 1941.  The average person did not own a TV set, however, until the 1950s.  If people wanted to know what was happening around the world, they had to buy a newspaper, listen to the news on the radio or read a magazine.  If they were “movie goers,” they might see newsreels before the main feature.  Children under the age of six were not exposed to worldly news unless they overheard it from their parents.

In 1949, there were only about a million TV sets in the U.S.  However, by 1959, there were 50 million.  Parents did not prevent their youngest children from watching and, in fact, TV watching was fast becoming a family ritual.  During the 1960s, color TV made watching even more popular and the number of television sets in the average American home grew exponentially.

What was America watching?  What was the effect on the average family unit?

Segregation was a way of life before television.  One knew one’s place in society and children were raised according to their parent’s religion and expected to “marry well” which meant a person of your own race who equaled or exceeded your social status.  This applied to every race and religion within each community.  America had become a melting pot of race, religion and culture but our communities were contained and controlled except perhaps at the workplace.

During the 1950s, viewers watched the Lone Ranger (an outlaw and an Indian), the Cisco Kid with his barely-speaks-English friend Pancho, I Love Lucy featuring a redhead married to a Cuban musician, and other visual concepts flashing into our eyes from a cathode ray tube.  Adults might have understood it to be fiction but to the impressionable toddlers, this was part of life and our parents seemed to enjoy it.

There was violence on TV right from the start.  In the average middle-class neighborhood, crime and violence were scarce.  On TV, Superman, Cisco Kid and the Lone Ranger fought crime every week and often shot the bad guys.  The good guys never died.

TV had two major effects on the average American family.  One was that TV replaced the time when families sat in the living room after dinner reading, knitting, talking, reading from the Bible, playing board games and other family activities.  The second effect was the invasion of ideas from outside the family into the home.

The Generation Gap Begins

Nowadays, what is seen on TV may not seem very important since a couple of generations have gone beyond this type of entertainment.  One would have to compare it to before TV to understand the contrast.  Before TV there were community activities and charity functions.  There were swings on the porch and swings hanging from tree limbs.  There was fishing, hunting, horseback riding, lawn games and picnics by the lake. There were family get-togethers and everyone brought food.  Children were sent out to play in any season while the adults played cards and talked politics.  What a child learned he or she learned from his parents or possibly a favorite teacher.

With TV, heads were filled with jingles about things to buy.  Coffee, cigarettes and alcohol were part of life.  If you wanted a girlfriend you had to use Brylcreem on your hair (a little dab will do ya) and get a new car, preferably a convertible.  Times change but the cultural change that came with TV was faster more drastic than any other in history.  The parents of the 1950s had no experience to prevent what exposure to TV would do to the family unit and parental control.

This one factor alone put the mindset of the baby boomer generation dramatically opposed to the previous generation.  The belief in God was questioned, the rightness of one religion versus another was investigated.  The idea of segregation no longer made sense.  The families shown on TV were compared to our own.  No longer was suffering with illness necessary when over-the-counter drugs were so easily available.  You could eat whatever you wanted because vitamins had been discovered and were now widely available and affordable in the form of a pill.

TV was not the only factor but it was a major one.  Never before in history had a family and community been so easily infiltrated with ideas outside of their control.  The effects created have been proven many times over by comparing the mental illness and social upheavals of America to other countries who do not have TVs.

In Part Three of this series of articles, we will examine the environmental effects that led to cultural shock.

Here we have yet another good argument for stimulating internet marketing business:

For those who would like to know more about how to start a home business, CLICK HERE.

Viewing Financial Ruin As A Condition

What happened to our post-depression financial utopia?  When did we stop having substantial savings, paid for homes, sufficient retirement funds and paid-for college educations?  And more importantly, why did the majority of Americans forsake this way of life?

Take a walk with me through the last six decades and see if you can spot the key points.   Avoid the long debates and suppositions.  Focus instead on the people of the United States.  If you never look outside the subject of finance, you may never understand how the United States came to owe so much money, how unemployment figures got so high or why the middle class is disappearing.  It is people that manage money and it is the people that make it work or fail.  So let’s look at what happened to the people.

What is “Financial Ruin.”

Financial:  adj. – having to do with money; related to money management

Ruin:  n. – a fallen, wrecked, or decayed condition

A few examples of a fallen, wrecked or decayed financial condition:

1. Income decreased without a greater decrease in expenses
2. Expenses increased without a greater increase of income
3. Temporary surges in expenses occurred beyond the ability to pay
4. Assets were lost such as a house, car, investment, saved funds
5. Insurance or other guarantee coverage was lost putting finances at risk
6. Obligations coming due exceed the ability to pay

Americans, for the most part, have one or more of those seven conditions in their lives at this very moment.  The distasteful truth is that the majority of U.S. citizens are in financial ruin.

Income Minus Expenditures = Profit or Loss

You don’t have to be a mathematician to see that spending less than you make equals profit.  It is simple arithmetic.  It also works in reverse.  Spending more than you make equals debts.

A cursory look at the tremendous debts that our country and citizens have tells us that the skill of using a budget has escaped the majority.  However, any good researcher keeps asking questions.  How was the skill of using a budget lost?  Who in their right mind would rack up a debt they could not possibly pay off in their lifetime?   What factors led to a complete change of lifestyle in just one generation?

We cannot ask your friends and neighbors.  They are in denial.  If you ask them about their finances, most of them will likely tell you one of two things:  (1) I’m in a bit of a bind (2) I’m getting by.  Only in privacy will they mutter to themselves “I’m ruined!”  Few if any will pull out graphs and pie charts to show you their fiscal year.  Most people focus on income and few sit down and “manage” their money from all angles.

It was only a few decades ago when it was the norm to have more money in the bank than the total amount of debts.  Even a car was “saved up for” and a budget was as common as grocery shopping.  People paid for things with cash.  The idea of walking away with something that had not been paid for had not yet been drilled into society — with one exception:  The family home and its twenty-year mortgage.  But even that was part of the overall financial plan.

Middle-class citizens would buy their houses on a twenty-year mortgage then start their families.  This worked out perfectly so that by the time the kids went off to college, the mortgage was paid off and the next twenty years could be used to build a retirement fund.  In a grand finale, the last twenty years could be spent doing what they wanted to do. This formula was the perfect solution that brought Americans out of the Great Depression.

This plan worked best for career-minded, middle class families who stayed together and they were the majority from 1930 to 1950.  For those families, it is still a workable formula.  In contrast, even during that time period, it did not work out for families whose parents divorced, had unforeseen emergencies, suffered job loss or whose incomes did not keep up with inflation.  However, we’re dealing with the building block of a nation – the family unit – and our subject is the majority.

Economy Means Household Management

Middle English yconomye, management of a household, from Latin oeconomia, from Greek oikonomi, from oikonomos, manager of a household.

Why did the plan-for-the-future, budget way of life eventually fail?

Post-war financial budgeting worked only as long as the family unit worked.  The majority of family units were holding together in the 1940s.  They could plan their future in a way similar to a small business.  By the 1960s, divorce rates had increased to a shocking 50%.  That bears repeating:  Divorce rates went from 14% to 50% in only one generation.

“14% of white women who married in the 1940s eventually divorced. A single generation later, almost 50 percent of those that married in the late sixties and early seventies have already divorced. … Between 1970 and 1992, the proportion of babies born outside of marriage leaped from 11% to 30%.” – Amara Bachu, Fertility of American Women: June 1994 (Washington D.C.: Bureau of the Census, September 1995), xix, Table K. Cited on page5 ofThe Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie Gallagher

In the 1950s work was understood to be a good thing.  The Great Depression was fresh in the memories of the masses and having a job was a blessing not to be taken for granted.  Small business was encouraged and loans were available to stimulate new enterprise.  Men who did not work, who did not take care of their families, were socially shunned while women who did not stay home and raise their children were pitied — as were their children.  It was not socially acceptable to have a “broken home.”

Whether this was right or fair is not the point.  The family unit and work ethic was alive and well up through the 1940s.  Ambition thrived and dreams of making a good living and having a comfortable home were common.  Children during this time were taught economy and planning for the future, especially their financial futures.  So what changed?

Walk with me through the next decade and perhaps you’ll understand.  I will show you how a generation was brought to its knees with too much information, how the young got their education on a world gone mad and why in the 1960s we had to stop caring as a simple survival mechanism.

Stay tuned for Part Two.

There are several criteria that determine which home businesses I will recommend.  To see what I require of a business before I will recommend it, click the words below:

My Home Business Criteria

At this time, I recommend the following companies:

My Shopping Genie

Available in 50 countries (as of May 1, 2011)

What is it? By my categories, this is a marketing tool that provides affiliate and business building income.  It is a free shopping app that finds the lowest prices, a quick link to discount travel offers, a tool for advertising, a quick link to Daily Deals, a binary network marketing business with excellent bonuses, a way to make extra money by giving away a free app, a source of video emails and video conferencing.

What does it do? There are several features and benefits.  One, it saves money on purchases.  Two, it allows for advertising on the app for the person who distributed it.  Three, it links to site that is similar to Groupon, called Daily Deals.  It provides several sources of income for the fully licensed distributor.

Where is it? Corporation is MyNet Universe located in Dallas, TX.  This company and its products are available to over 50 countries.

When did the company start? The Shopping Genie has been active for about four years.

Any rating in BBB? Yes, no complaints.

How easy is it to use? It takes less than 30 seconds to download and set up.  It appears only when doing a search.  You simply click on “compare” for your country and it brings up ten pages of the lowest prices for whatever item you were searching for.

How much does it cost? The application is free.  The business opportunity varies as show below:

Business Option One:  MSG Genie System (USD $189) & Registered Representative (USD $10) enrollment includes the Genie Rocket video email and video conferencing, an ongoing education/training program, custom branding feature, web profile builder, a coupon/voucher creator and re-distribution rights for the Genie Web App/Software.  Included is your Website link with an automated MyMarketingGenie online marketing system – (Optional $34.95 Monthly License)

Business Option Two:  Registered Representative (USD $19.95) enrollment includes your MSG Website link, Online Back Office with an automated MyMarketingGenie online marketing system + tax for Texas Residents. A Registered Representative cannot distribute the MyShoppingGenie Application or earn Genie Usage Commissions.

What is their purpose? Savings

Internet Value? An international business with wide application as a tool for building other businesses as well as consumer value.  Key words related to savings, coupons, discounts are in the millions monthly.

Support? Our team offers the best support of any company I have ever seen.  The Skype chat support system gives instantaneous results plus several websites set up by our leaders, leaders in the company and by the company itself.  The only down side is that the “official” company support is by ticket submission. There is a phone number but it is not a customer support line.  Responses do come within 24 hours however.

To find out more about this company, watch the PRESENTATION

Global Virtual Opportunities

Available in most countries (debit/credit card required)

What is it? Hosting Plus which includes, domains, a website builder, video hosting, video conferencing, autoresponder for email campaigns, and more.

For building it as a business or just to get all the above free, they provide a system called the recruiter, a prospecting system with about 16 adjustable capture pages, ad tracking and more.  You earn affiliate income for referrals on a matrix design with bonuses and contests.  This company is headed by known and successful affiliate marketers.

What does it do? Provides vital internet marketing tools for any business making it a widely needed commodity for any business.  Get enough referrals and your hosting and autoresponder services are free.

Where is it? This company is located in San Antonio, Texas.  As a business, it is available to anyone with a credit or debit card.

How easy is it to use? They offer a $1 trial during which you can check out the features.  You log in, follow the menu items from top to bottom.  Video tutorials are available for each step.

How much does it cost?

Titanium Web Hosting	Platinum Web Hosting	Silver Web Hosting
Monthly Cost	$44.95	$24.95	$18.95
30 Day FREE reseller Web Hosting Trial!
Hosted domain names	Unlimited	Unlimited	4
Web space	70000 Megs	70000 Megs	3000 Megs
Bandwidth	200000 Megs	70000 Megs	10000 Megs
MySQL databases	Unlimited	5	3
Sub-domains	Unlimited	Unlimited	75
Email accounts	Unlimited	Unlimited	500
Autoresponders/Forwarders	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Web Host Manager
Cpanel
Fantastico

To make use of their matrix pay plan and earn back the costs named above, you want the platinum level minimum to get these tools:

Titanium Web Hosting	Platinum Web Hosting	Silver Web Hosting
	Unlimited Blog Creations	3 Blog’s Creation
	Unlimited Campaigns	1 Campaign
	Unlimited Video Creations	3 Video’s Creation
	10 Seat Conference Room	3 Seat Conference room

GVO offers a 2 week $1 trial.

What is their purpose?  To provide all the tools necessary to international business leaders for leads, traffic and ultimate sales to your website.

Internet Value? The tools and training provided by GVO are invaluable to an internet marketer.  Buying each of the tools and services separately that GVO includes in their one-cost package would cost much more in time and money PLUS you have the opportunity to make the costs back by referring others.

Support? Yes, excellent support.  They have phone, live chat, ticket system and email support.  Our team also provides Skype chat support and an additional team website.  The only down side is that they email you other opportunities, however, you can easily unsubscribe from any offer.

To find out more about this company, watch the PRESENTATION

7-Minute Workout

Visalus

Every week I connect with dozens of network marketers online, most of them still struggling to achieve the success they desire.  One of the most common questions I get asked goes something like this:

“I’m trying to get my business off the ground, but I’m on a very limited budget. I need to make money fast. What are the best low-cost marketing strategies!?”

And you know what, that is a real good question.

If you are on a limited budget, you will have to approach your business from a slightly different perspective…but it’s very doable.

One of the worst things you could do is go out and spend every last dollar you have on buying leads, PPC campaigns, postcards, banners, or co-ops.  Because if you spend your $500 on leads, PPC, fliers, business cards, or a postcard campaign, you might get a few prospects, but if you don’t sponsor any of them, you’re back to square one. There’s no way to LEVERAGE the results. Also, you’ve violated a very important rule:  “Get proficient in one marketing technique at a time.  Don’t become a user of all, master of none.”

What you want to do is invest your funds into “high leverage” skills and simple activities, which you can use over and over again to quickly and easily produce more leads any time you want… for FREE.

Okay, you’re not only on a budget, you don’t have a lot of time.  In the beginning, I had the same situation.  That’s when I came up with my 7-Step Plan and it goes like this:

1. Write a blog
2. Write an article
3. Write an ad
4. Write a capture page
5. Write an email
6. Write an update/message
7. Write comments

Here’s an example of using all seven steps for a (fictitious) vacation package:

Blog: Planning a vacation?  Talk about information, horror stories about bad vacations, name facts and figures, compare that to how it can be done right, suggest they fill out form.

Article: Very much like the blog but without mentioning personal links or particular companies.  On the signature, write “Planning a vacation? For customized itineraries suited to your needs, go to (capture page),” and “For more articles on how to arrange the ideal vacation, go to (your blog).”

Ad: Headline it with “Planning a vacation? Tell us what you need.  We can help.” Then send them to the capture page for FREE information. Ads can be classified ads, flyers, drop cards, business cards, post its, Solo Ads, Traffic Exchange…anywhere you can find to place it for free.  As long as you can put your message and link on it, it’s an ad.

Capture Page: Planning a vacation?  Tell us what you need.  We can help.”  Direct them to fill out the form, telling what they need, assure them you’ll do all the rest.

Email: Write subject line:  Planning a vacation?  Body text:  Dear (name), Are you planning a vacation now or in the future?  We’ll design a package based on your needs.  Simply go to (capture page link) and fill out the form.  Our travel agents are trained to design the best and most economical vacation designed specifically for you.  See article at (link) or visit our website (link).  Ideal vacations are our specialty.  (signature, all those links again and a PHONE NUMBER)

Social Network Update: Planning a vacation?  We specialize in customized vacations designed according to your needs (link).

Comments: Find blogs and Forums that have high traffic (use Alexa.com to check on how much traffic they get).  Search your topic and leave comments signing them with your name and blog or article link.

All of the above would be one campaign.  Cost?  Nothing.  It’s all time.

The beauty of this one is that your articles and letters, once done, are done.  In other words, it is not work you have to do over and over.  I know you’ll have questions like where to publish your articles (EzineArticles.com) and how do I do that and, and, and….but all I’m putting here right now is the seven steps.

If you have only a little time and NO money, this is the plan for you.  When you start getting leads YOU WILL HAVE TO CALL THEM.  But that’s in another blog.

As you get the hang of the 7 steps, there will be other things to consider but let’s keep this simple for now.   If you were going to market online in the past, you had to be a certified search engine expert, or a wizard at pay-per-click with deep pockets full of cash in order to get enough traffic.  Well thanks to new sites like MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube, CraigsList, Pressmania, StumbleUpon, Ebay, (the list goes on and on) you don’t have to spend big bucks to tap into this massive flood of FREE traffic.

I mean why pay for leads and advertising when you can get them for free!?

And the best part is that you don’t even need to be a computer expert to start using these simple tactics TODAY…

Now, if you don’t even have a Facebook account, you’ve got some work to do to get started on your online marketing.  Subscribe to this blog so you can log in to: http://www.cherylcurrie.com/school/download-ebooks which is the free library and find Facebook 101.  Once you’ve got Facebook set up, start getting some friends and Followers on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.  Later you can expand out to even more social networks.

WARNING: Don’t just make friends with anyone unless you like getting swamped with spam.  Use Jim Chao’s 12 steps outlined in his talk at:  http://jimchao.net/ttofb/

If you have ever joined a network marketing group or signed up for a home business, you have probably asked this question:

“What do I do next?”

Experience has shown that the critical time period for a new customer, network marketing member or entrepreneur is within the first three months. This is important information for you for two reasons.  One, your own financial success is best attained in the first three months.  Two, helping others attain financial success is best done within the first three months.  Those who quit a business, usually quit within the first three months.  One MAJOR reason is because they did not get that question answered… “What do I do next?”

With our Pro Marketing System, for example, you have two links given to you immediately to help you get started.  There are tutorial videos all along the way.  There’s a chat group 24/7 to give you support.  You are given my phone number for personal help.  The question of what to do next is answered.

People who bring others into a home business and get asked how they can promote that business on the internet are often frustrated by this question because they have no one direct answer to it.  Everyone is not at the same knowledge and skill level.  People with NO experience on a computer do not start at the same place as someone who is already established on the internet.  Discovering from each person what they know and what they don’t know can be time consuming and embarrassing for the tentative business associate.  But there is one answer for everyone…

Get started!

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  It is better to have tried and failed than to wallow in the self pity of believing that your dreams can never come true!

When a person is satisfied with their present income, when they have all the time in the world to spend with their loved ones, when there is no one who needs their help, that person is in a static condition.  On the other hand, there are people who truly need the extra income or spare time but are not willing to work for it.  That person will never be motivated enough to do what it takes to run a home business.  Therefore, we have another crucial element to internet marketing.

Get motivated!

Consider a financial opportunity as a long and winding road that has milestone markers along the way.  Each milestone is a point in a growing business.  You’ve been told that this road could take you to the place you have always wanted to go.  YOU know what that place is.  In your imagination you have seen it many times.  It causes a physical reaction when you think about it – perhaps a dreamy smile, tears, a knot in your stomach.

Entrepreneurs call that a “Why” or a “Goal” or the “Dream.”  Whatever you call it, it makes people move.  It is your MOTIVATION.  People without dreams are dead.  Some dreams may be small such as getting through a traffic jam to a good dinner and a favorite TV show.  Some are huge such as fame and fortune.  It is up to you to decide what level of motivation you have.  If you don’t have any, start dreaming.  If your associates don’t have any, get THEM dreaming.

To walk down a long and winding road to get to a place you cannot see, you will need motivation.  It is just too easy to turn around and go back to the comfort of what is familiar.  Also, it is important to understand that this motivation is personal.  If you understand that motivation is personal to each individual, you won’t shove YOUR dream down someone else’s throat.  Your dream may be wonderful but it is THEIR dream that will keep them on the road.

Get Persistent!

If you have not made a home business financially successful before, then you have not seen the FINAL DESTINATION except in your own mind.  You hope it will be everything you imagined, you hope it will get you the things you need, but for now, while you are on this road, you have to take everybody else’s word for it that you are on the right path.  That can be scary if you are not the adventurous type.  If you are, it can be pure fun and excitement.

So, what do you do next?  There is plenty of study material to help you figure that out.  But those three basics above are the very first things you should get before you start anything.

Then, find yourself a good mentor, some free training, and start learning what you should be doing.  Your first steps toward financial freedom can be an agonizing struggle or a fabulous adventure and learning experience.   It truly is up to you how it goes.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions recently about how to build your social network sites with like-minded people as well as keep your thank you messages, updates and direct messages going without spending your whole day doing it.

The answers are here …

SOCIALOOMPH

Now I’ve been saying this for a long time but it is amazing how many people do not use it.  Looking into why people take so long to build up their Twitter and Facebook friendships brought to light some misconceptions.  Some people thought they had to pay for the premium to really get anywhere with it.  Some felt it was too complex.  Well so did I when I first saw it.  So I’m going to help you out with some answers.

First of all, you do not need to pay anything to build a couple of social networks with SocialOomph.  The cost comes in when you decide to expand on the features.  Here is what SocialOomph offers at each level, starting with FREE:

Base Features – FREE

Schedule tweets — Plan, set & forget.  Schedule tweets and keep your Twitter, Google Buzz and StatusNet streams ticking over with new tweets even when you’re not in front of your computer. Publish tweets when you know your international followers are online and you’re asleep.

Track keywords — Empower yourself, Set up alerts and track keywords in the public Twitter stream. We will monitor the Twitter tweet stream and periodically email you a digest of the tweets that contain those keywords. You can also use this to track your @replies.

Extended Twitter profiles — Promote yourselfThe profile area on Twitter is very limited. We enable you to write your own long and detailed social profile (including pictures and hyperlinks), and link this extended profile to your Twitter account. When folks click on your “Web” link in Twitter, they come to your extended social profile that is hosted on our site. Check out our extended profile as an example.

Save and reuse drafts — Save hours of typing Save draft tweets, frequently used text snippets and URLs and reuse them in your scheduled tweets. Save tons of time by avoiding repetitive typing. Save a draft once and use it as a template for updates on Twitter and StatusNet accounts, plus other types of accounts for Professional users.

dld.bz URL shortening — Track your clicksWith our own in-house URL shortening service, dld.bz, you can track the clicks on your shortened links, and get all kinds of useful and insightful click statistics.

View @Mentions & Retweets — Efficiency With more than one Twitter or StatusNet account it can become a real chore to keep track of your @mentions and everyone who has retweeted your tweets. We make it a breeze for you by showing your @mentions and/or retweets for all your accounts on one page, in one integrated timeline. Yes, that’s correct, you see your StatusNet tweets integrated with your Twitter tweets.

Purge your DM Inbox — Keep it tidy [more] You will probably agree that it’s a bit of a pain to manually delete DMs from your Inbox, especially since they accumulate so quickly. You can run a purge on your Inbox to delete everything, or DMs older than 7 days, or DMs older than 30 days. This feature is not available on StatusNet accounts because their API cannot delete DMs.

Secure Twitter & Buzz access — No passwordsWe use Twitter’s and Google Buzz’s secure OAuth method to access your Twitter and Buzz accounts. That means you never have to give us your Twitter password or your Google account password.

Personal status feed — Your own tweet engine Grab your own personal 140-character tweet scheduling engine and RSS feed. You can schedule and publish tweets that don’t go to Twitter, they go to your personal tweet stream, which is available in RSS, XML and Javascript formats.

Respect StatusNet site limits — Be nice Some StatusNet site owners set update limits, such as a maximum of 20 updates every 10 minutes, per user account. Our system fully respects those limits and will not allow you to schedule tweets more frequently than what the site owner will allow. In addition, our system also prevents excessive duplicate updates from being sent to a StatusNet site. Nobody likes a StatusNet account that stutters the same text over and over again. The same update text cannot be sent to your StatusNet account more frequently than once every four hours.

Unlimited accounts — No charge.  Add and manage as many Twitter and StatusNet accounts as you want. We don’t charge you a dime.

FOR $3.97 a MONTH

Twitter Automation Features (Fee^* Applies)

Follow those who follow you — AutomateAutomatically follow people who follow you and save a ton of time while your Friends list builds itself.

Vet new followers — Semi-automationEven though you’ve selected to auto follow new followers, we will interrupt the process for 72 hours and give you an opportunity to manually review new followers and decide if you want to follow, ignore, or block each new follower. What’s more, you vet both your Twitter and StatusNet followers on one integrated console. On Twitter accounts, you can add new followers into any of your Twitter lists, straight from the vetting page.

Send DMs to new followers — Automate Send a nice non-promotional DM to new followers that focus on them and your future interaction with them, or simply to thank them for choosing to follow you.

TUTORIALS:  http://www.socialoomphblog.com/tutorials/

START-UP WALKTHROUGH: (by Cheryl Currie)

Sign Up

Log in

Left Menu

“Social Accounts”>Add New Account >Add Twitter

“Followers/Friends” > Friend Finder > Configure Friend Finder

“Followers/Friends” > Friend Finder > Friend Finder Keywords

When you have followers and if you are paying $3.97:

“Followers/Friends” > Vet Followers/Friends (to approve or not)

“Schedule Updates” > Schedule New Update

Type your update in the large box and save as a draft.  Best updates are questions that your target audience can answer yes to.

Go back to that same page and click on the draft, choose your update and schedule it for every 2 days or so (don’t do unlimited daily because that would really be spam and good followers will probably drop you).

“Direct Messages” > Edit Welcome DM > Your Twitter Account (follow instructions)

Do the same for your other accounts such as Facebook.  Use target key words that get followers YOU want to associate with.  For example, if you offer a tool for finding the lowest prices, use target words like “bargains, shopping, save money, etc.” and SocialOomph will find the people that are talking about those subjects.

For UNDER $30 you can get these additional tools for your business…

PROFESSIONAL FEATURES:

Ready to use this amazing tool to build your social network?

Then click here:

SOCIALOOMPH