Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - Volume 1 Issue 3
Colin Evans, Editor (mailto:
)
In this issue
1. From the Editor
2. Did It Work For Me?
3. Featured Articles:
--- Observing Successful People - by Chris Widener
--- Do We Really Need The Internet? - by Jim Edwards
4. Motivational Quotes
5. Take A Break: The Bear and the Atheist
6. Tell Me what You Think
From the Editor - Colin Evans
Hi Everyone 
Welcome to this edition of Cols-A-To-Z.
Well I finally finished building the Cols-A-To-Z.com website. Every section and every page is present and working properly.
Notice I did not say that I'd finished the website, that's because the website will never be truly finished. It will always continue to expand and be improved.
But why am I telling you this?
Because I have overcome one of my biggest personal stumbling blocks.
This is the first major project that I have started that I have completed. For years I have been a psychological captive to the statement "you never finish anything you start".
That statement has grown out of proportion to such a degree, that it controlled me, I literally could not finish anything that I started.
Every time I started a project I would get about half way and then my subconscious mind would ask "why are you doing this? You know you never finish anything you start".
And that would be it. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get any further. I would find every excuse under the sun to stop what I was doing. My subconscious would come to my rescue (or so I thought) and would furnish me with loads of reasons why I couldn't carry on and reasons that I should go do something else, preferably something real easy.
Well guess what?
Those days are over, I've licked that particular demon. I have a real ongoing example of a goal that I set out to accomplish and I succeeded.
Now when my subconscious tries to tell me "you never finish anything that you start" I can reply "you can finish what you start, look at Cols-A-To-Z.com".
Did It Work For Me? by Colin Evans
Total Marketing Live, Empowerism, IOSRegister, Top Level Marketing, the list goes on...
These programs all have two major things in common:
- they offer training for internet marketing
- they operate some form of payment system for referral commissions
But they differ in cost. Some require a one time payment and some require monthly payment.
How do they work?
In all cases you will have to pay to join these programs. For some of the programs you will be required to pay a monthly fee in order to stay a member.
You will be provided with a referral URL for promotion purposes. Every person who joins the program from your referral URL will be your referral, and you will earn:
- a one time commission for the one time payment programs
- a monthly commission for the monthly paid programs
Most of the monthly paid programs operate what is often a difficult to understand payment matrix, and I'm not even going to try to explain what a payment matrix is - well not this in this edition
All of these programs offer training in internet marketing, with some having very comprehensive training systems.
Do they work?
This is another of those "how long is a piece of string" questions. And your success depends on many different factors.
If you are lucky enough to be sponsored by somebody who is active and a successful internet marketer, you will be successful as long as you are prepared to put in the work and follow your sponsor's instructions.
If you have a large responsive list, you will probably make quite a few sales to start with, but keeping your downline will take a lot of work.
But for those of us who have never been contacted by our sponsor and who don't have large responsive lists, chances are we'll struggle.
I struggled and lost a small fortune. But I learned a lot, so here's a few tips:
- Don't try to promote more than two or three programs and even that's pushing it a bit.
- Take a careful look at what the program offers in comparison to what you'll be paying, many good monthly paid programs will offer:
- autoresponders
- hosting
- a new e-book each month
- leads
- a new software package each month
- Compare programs against each other, why pay twenty five bucks a month for something you could get for less than twenty bucks? Weight up the costs and the benefits. Be aware that internet marketing training is available elsewhere on the internet at no cost. However the best programs on the internet very often cost over fifty dollars a month.
- Be careful of live training. Live training is a good thing but only when you live in the same time zone or have access to cheap telephone rates. A good program will offer live training using the internet, at different times and will also offer videos you can download.
- Before you join a program, make sure that you can proudly talk about it in public and explain how the program is benefiting humanity at large.
- Make sure the program has been in existence for a good many years, that way you'll have some confidence that it won't go under any time soon.
- Make sure the program offer a simple payment system. A fancy matrix is meaningless when you aren't earning anything and to start with you won't, the average person doesn't earn anything for months...
And don't believe in filling a matrix - it doesn't happen often.
Featured Article: Observing Successful People by Chris Widener
I thought about my subscribers on Saturday night and realized that you can learn a lot from observation. Simple, right? Let me explain.
A good friend of mine bought, virtually on a whim, a new, nearly
$3,000,000 home. I didn’t even know he had purchased it. They were
“keeping it a secret.” Then he invited me over to play pool,
billiards if you will, which we do quite regularly. But, of course
he had to give me the new address.
It was stunning: 16 acres. 7500 square feet. Beautiful custom
woodwork. Tens of thousands of square feet of outbuildings,
including horse barns (though he is going to raise Yaks – don’t
ask me why) and what is to become the new indoor basketball court.
An indoor pool rounded out the best of the offerings. And, of
course there was the billiards room. As we were going through the
house I kept thinking, this would fit into most people’s dreams…
including many of my subscribers.
And that got me to thinking. I really needed to step back a bit
and look at my friend again. I mean, I know him too well. We play
basketball together. We play pool together (He beats me at pool,
I beat him at basketball). We have shared some of the very highest
points of life and some of the lowest. We have laughed together
and we have fought with each other.
But what is it that makes him tick and be able to become so
successful financially? I had never thought about that before.
As I did, I realized that you can learn a lot from observing
successful people… if you do it.
A little about my friend: 40 years old. Runs 1/5th of one of
America’s most well-known companies (you may even use them today).
Married. 6 children.
But here is what I realize when I look at what makes him so
successful:
Intense. One thing my friend is, is intense. Whatever it is that
he is working on or doing, he puts every ounce of energy into it.
It is all or nothing. This keeps him going when it gets hard.
Focused. Similar to intense, or perhaps going with it, is that my
friend is extremely focused. When he sets his mind to something,
he gets his eyes on it like a laser beam. This helps him achieve
it.
Strategic. He “begins with the end in mind.” He tells me frequently
that the day you start a company is the day you plan on selling it.
Whether you agree with that or not, it does indicate that he is
thinking well down the road, which is a lesson we could all learn.
This helps him keep his mind on the big picture.
Hard working. My friend puts in long hours. In today’s get-rich-
quick-without-much-work mentality it is easy to forget that most
fortunes are made by plain old long hours. And most people just
aren’t willing to do it. If I want to get a hold of my friend
between 6 am and 6 pm, I call the office, because that’s where
he’ll be. Just as a side note, he knows how to relax too: He just
got back from a three week bicycling trip through Europe with his
whole family, ending with a seven day cruise through the
Mediterranean.
Competitive. When my friend gets in the game, he wants to win. He
doesn’t play to lose or tie. He goes all out, within the rules as
well as the spirit of the rules, and he doesn’t let up until the
game is over. If he wins or if he loses, he is gracious. Well,
okay, most of the time he’s gracious. Sometimes he rubs it in a
little bit when he beats me!
Risk-taker. One of my favorite stories about my friend is how he
went to his boss at his company and told them they should begin to
develop a certain product because they would need it in a year or
two. The boss told him it wasn’t in the cards. So my friend quit
his job and went and started a company that produced that product.
Guess who bought the company from him shortly thereafter for many,
many dollars? Yep, his old company, where he now runs a huge part
of the company.
Fun. When it comes right down to it, my friend is a lot of fun. He
is never boring – that’s for sure. He and his family have 25 bikes
and use them regularly and competitively. He loves sports and plays
them well. He laughs, even when he loses. That helps him keep
perspective and enjoy life.
My friend isn’t perfect. No, I have seen not only his best, but
also his worst. He is, like the rest of us, making his way through
life the best he can as a person who is not perfect. But he does
have quite a few things down pat that you and I could learn from,
lessons that would make us more successful in life and work.
So let me ask you:
Are you intense? Are you focused? Are you strategic? Are you hard
working? Are you competitive? Are you risk taking? Are you fun?
These are the characteristics of successful people; people who
achieve great things in this life and make a difference for their
families and others as well.
Chris Widener is a popular speaker and writer as well as the President of Made
for Success and Extraordinary Leaders, two companies helping individuals and
organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their
lives and achieve their dreams.
Join subscribers in over 100 countries around the
world! Get Chris' FREE weekly Made for Success E-zine by sending a blank email
to
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Get his FREE daily SuccessQuote™ with action point
by sending a blank email to
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Get his FREE monthly
Extraordinary Leaders E-zine, one of the world's most widely distributed leadership
newsletters, by sending a blank email to
or visit his
websites at
http://www.madeforsuccess.com
and http://www.extraordinaryleaders.com
Copyright 2002 Made for Success. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Featured Article: Do We Really Need The Internet? by Jim Edwards
As someone who earns their living entirely online, I considered myself the last person I ever thought would ask the question, "Do we really need the Internet?"
However, the extended power outage of almost 4 days, ongoing loss of Internet access, combined with many other events surrounding the recent Hurricane Isabel caused me to reassess my priorities.
When "high-tech" business gets into a head-on collision with a natural or man-made disaster, we all need to ask, "Do we really need the Internet?"
Well, when you're in line for 3 hours to get gas so you can siphon the tank to run your father-in-law's generator in order to save $1,000 worth of food in three freezers - you don't need the Internet, you need the expectation that you'll find gas.
When you're driving around for 2 hours trying to find ice so you can have a cold drink and make your family more comfortable on a 90+ degree day - you don't need the Internet, you need patience and a sense of humor.
When a good friend of yours falls 30 feet off a ladder while helping his neighbors cut a tree off their house, fractures his back and neck, punctures a lung and must be airlifted to the hospital in critical condition - you don't need the Internet, you need faith he'll be okay!
When the hurricane's destruction threatens to ruin the surprise 50th wedding anniversary party you've been planning for over a year for your parents - you don't need the Internet! You improvise and set up a human communication network that spreads the word to dozens of people who still show up and throw a party that creates memories that will last a lifetime!
When you can't turn on your computer to get work done, you can still grab a good old-fashioned pen and legal pad and get more work done in the peace and quiet without phones, fax or email to distract you than you could ever get done when things get back to "normal."
It struck me last night as I struggled to get my high-speed Internet connection going again that I was much more stressed over getting a stupid piece of hardware to function than I was over driving 50+ miles to find gas just two days before!
In fact, looking back, I was more proud of the fact that on Saturday I found what was probably the last cold six pack of beer in all of Southeastern Virginia than I was about my last successful online product launch!
And after spending many days and nights in the dark, I realized that the Internet represents the ultimate convenience, but it's also the ultimate business risk because so much can happen to shut the Internet down or prevent you from accessing it.
If recent events taught me anything, they taught me these three truths about life:
- Life is fragile and valuable - don't take it for granted.
- Nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of family and friends. Sometimes it takes a calamity to remind us.
- Anyone who depends on the Internet for their entire livelihood should seek to diversify how they make their money - just in case the Internet disappears one day when you least expect it!
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr-e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...
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"Turn Words Into Traffic" reveals the secrets for driving Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate links... without spending a dime on advertising!
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Motivational Quotes
The one without dreams is the one without wings.
- Muhammad Ali
Success...seems to be connected with action. Successful men keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit.
- Conrad Hilton
Take A Break: The Bear and the Atheist
An atheist was walking through the woods one day in Alaska, admiring all that evolution had created.
"What majestic trees! What a powerful river! What beautiful animals!" he said to himself.
As he was walking alongside the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. Turning to look, he saw a 13-foot Kodiak brown bear beginning to charge towards him.
He ran as fast as he could down the path. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was rapidly closing on him. Somehow, he ran even faster, so scared that tears came to his eyes. He looked again and the bear was even closer. His heart pounding in his chest, he tried to run faster yet.
But alas, he tripped and fell to the ground.
As he rolled over to pick himself up, the bear was right over him, reaching for him with its left paw and raising its right paw to strike him.
"Oh my God!"
Time stopped...
The bear froze....
The forest was silent.....
Even the river stopped moving.
As a brilliant light shone upon the man, a thunderous voice came from all around:
"You deny my existence for all these years, teach others that I don't exist and even credit creation to some cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament?"
"Am I to count you as a believer?"
Difficult as it was, the atheist looked directly into the light and said, "It would be hypocritical to ask to be a Christian after all these years, but perhaps you could make the bear a Christian?"
"Very well," said God.
The light went out.
The river ran.
The sounds of the forest resumed...
... and the bear dropped down on his knees, brought both paws together, bowed his head and spoke:
"Lord, thank you for this food which I am about to receive."
Tell Me What You Think
I would love to hear what you think of this issue of the "Cols-A-To-Z" Newsletter.
And of course, if you have any suggestions for upcoming issues that you'd like to
share with me, please send those, too!
Just e-mail me at:
To subscribe to my "Cols-A-To-Z" Newsletter, go to the following URL:
http://www.cols-a-to-z.com/join.html
Written by Colin Evans
President, Cols-A-To-Z.com
© copyright 2003 Cols-A-To-Z.com
