When I look at the image so many people like to project; of the sports cars, luxury yachts and sunny beach lifestyle, I find it grates - at first. I sometimes think many people (myself included all too frequently) miss the real point of all the hard work we do, to have our own businesses. It goes much deeper than the material manifestations of wealth. Time freedom and the ability to be there for the ones you love are the key things for me. And … eventually, I am sure, financial freedom! To me those kinds of freedoms are worth far more than the big house, the Merc or the yacht. And then, when I wind my inverted snobbery down a notch or two and look carefully at the message that the “flash car photo” entrepreneurs are putting out; it’s actually the same as mine. We’ve all got dreams of an ideal lifestyle and we project a picture to catch people’s attention. It doesn’t necessarily define our values.

When I left my job and was able to see my kids out to school regularly, I knew I had found the start of my own road forward. I was looking at a pretty scary fall from high power assistant headteacher to unemployed and broken down ex teacher. I was ready for the change though and the initial “poverty” has been very “motivating”.

You might be amused by my tag of CosmicRay and it might surprise you to know that there isn’t a shred of hippy in me! It’s all the fault of a friend from York 25 years ago, who spotted me strung out on the crux of a hardish rock climb in the Lake District, when I was an aspiring hard(?!)man. “Blood*@ hell,” he shouted up in his wry way, “You’ve got better! You must be getting cosmic Ray!” He was shocked to see I’d progressed onto scary routes. Not too helpful at that precise moment, as I was looking at the prospect of taking a big fall, because I couldn’t work out the sequence to get around a steep nose of rock. When he realised I was in trouble, he quietly told me about the “secret” hold around the corner - I breathed again and an eighty footer onto a ledge was avoided (in contrast to a lad from our club the previous weekend, who had missed the hold). Fortunately he was young and bouncy and got over his battering in a couple of weeks.

This marketing game is a bit like trying to tackle a climb that’s harder than you have previously attempted at the sharp end. Jumping off the career carousel was just as scary in its own way because more was at stake - it wasn’t just me any more, I now had children in a disintegrating marriage to look out for. But now, as then, the quiet word(s) from a friend (and a competitor of sorts) was enough to see me on the road to success and safety. It’s turning out to be a rerun of that same tale, as people give me little pointers and go out of their way to steer me round some of the more obvious pitfalls. I have been amazed at the constant help that is available - we only have to ask. It is very difficult for a person upline of you to know whether your lack of success is due to inaction or a misunderstanding of a new technique you’ve been trying. At the moment I am trying to get to grips with advertising on Craigslist and I am running into all the problems that are mentioned, a bit too quietly in that new course you bought!! BUT I will succeed, I will put into action all the tips that I hadn’t absorbed from my course materials and the new information I am turning up in various blogs. In my next posting, I will try and explain how I have gotten around the difficulties of using Craigslist, without hopefully having broken the rules or misused the resource.

My measures of success may be different to yours, but whatever it may be I am here to help you achieve it, no matter how material or “Cosmic” it may be. What I can’t answer myself, I can soon point you towards an answer, because that’s the way we become successful - by networking and building up relationships with each other. It’s a relationship game! Just like the day when a pal who was very competitive about his climbing realised there was a real problem and was there with a ready answer, a “secret” key that those in the know had access to. If you are looking for a business where help is constantly available from myself and many more experienced folk, I’ve listed some character sketches of my main focus. I’m sure there will be one of these busineses that suits your individual approach.

CosmicRay and the NorthernView bring you a range of opportunities from fast money start ups for beginners to high commitment, serious long term earners.

Prosperizer - a great opportunity with all your tools in one place. Join a superb community populated by individuals who are committed to helping and guiding you to success

eLottery - the ultimate system for playing the UK lottery and EuroMillions. With a little effort you even play them for FREE. If you are looking for a more sensible way to have a flutter, with a business that has an extremely low initial investment then this could be the one.

Plug in to Profits with NorthernViewWealth this is one of many turn key full on solutions. It is almost the legendary “business in a box” that many people need.

uVme - this is going to be the standard by which all on-line skill game web sites are judged. Pure fun and games with a built in business plan, which avoids any gambling connections. :wink

Join me in any of these ventures and we will build strong supportive teams that last.

I left my employment as a teacher on December 31st 2007.

I know my BIG WHY now, with a crystal clarity that I didn’t have before today. More importantly, I understand that nagging gut feeling that I couldn’t articulate for so many years. It was called unhappiness and I never knew.

So, as a newly “ex” teacher and newbie at marketing online, the rest of the entries in this blog will detail how I find ways to overcome the hurdles of a completely new and for me, an almost totally unexpected way of life. The details of how I went from scared beginner to gradually build a list of subscribers. I’ll detail the ways I am learning from experienced people, how the different courses and ebooks rate: the ones that deliver the useful information that is helping me grow my business. I’ll describe the opportunities that I am using to help me reshape my life, including: uVme and elottery from VWD; Prosperizer the most supportive of new start up projects; traffic exchanges and viral list building. I’ll tell it the way it is and describe my cock ups and crowning glories in the hope that you the reader can take something from my experiences and shorten your learning curve on the way to growing your business.
With all best wishes,
Ray of Team CosmicRays
aka MisterC
Oh and by the way, look out for The Northern View!

PS.
What wouldn’t we all do to be at the top of Google’s search results? Well for a limited time - and I suggest you’re quick- 1 on 40 are beta testing their package for getting subscribers to the top of, not just Google’s, but at least 39 other search engine’s results. They guarantee to do this within 120 days and if you get in during this beta phase, you won’t pay them anything until you are top for your 5 keywords for at least a week. Even if it doesn’t work, it’s got to be worth a punt! It’s the first no hype - no brainer I’ve come across in this game. When you go to the web site, just be aware that there is a client login and an affiliate login that you need to keep clear in your mind or your records, to navigate their websites easily. Get ready for the traffic and sales flood!

Then the inevitable breakdown happened. As bad as it felt, I was lucky, because I had friends (including my wife) who forced me to get talking again. They persisted when I couldn’t do anything apart from get outdoors and focus on the beautiful simplicity of climbing a piece of rock or ice. Not that I could even organise myself to sort the gear out for climbing or a bit of paddling. All the time school hung over me like a black cloud on the horizon. I got back to work eventually and made it through to the summer holidays. After the years of stress and dissatisfaction at home my wife and I parted company just as the holidays arrived. We managed to keep everything very civilised. It was hard. She had already met an old flame and she was visibly blooming as her fires were rekindled. She had enough sensitivity still, to keep things relatively discreet to my eyes. Slowly we adjusted to the new order. ( I haven’t even mentioned the children - but they coped in a way that still makes both of us very proud and is quite humbling).

By this time I was slowly waking up to the fact that I was in several places I just didn’t want to be. I had already started dabbling in the on-line marketing world, just to see if it was viable, as I already spent a lot of time at the computer. I thought, “… if I can get my computer habits to make me a living, I might be onto a winner!”. Indecision and prevarication were, unfortunately, the flavours of the day back then. I was going nowhere. Except for one thread that had persisted. UVME was in its pre-launch period and I knew that this was a project I wanted to be involved with. Strong reasons for my WHY were beginning to form in my mind. I just couldn’t put my finger on them at that stage. In my next post, I’ll show exactly how clear my WHY has become.
Ray

And that’s after only my first month of effort since breaking free to pursue this line of business. Obviously I am a powerful force on the marketing scene. LOL

Well, the drugs have worn off now and the real world has come back to haunt me.

The truth is, I’m a pretty raw beginner, but I’m in for the long haul as this will succeed. These Internet businesses are genuine. That’s the first truth that it took me a while to accept.

Secondly, these businesses are eminently doable. Like everyone, I imagine, I spent the last year or so of tentatively “looking into” this world; feeling totally overwhelmed by the sheer volume and diversity of information that was pushed my way as a “Newbie”. For a long time I was studying one programme, then another, then another… and sure enough I made the semi-fatal mistake of letting myself get drawn into too many programmes (English spelling - the real word!!) at once, so my little nest egg is dwindling rapidly towards cut off point.

Until quite recently I lacked the confidence to jump in and make my own splash pages and I am still nervous about the idea of blogging unless the mis-adventures of a numpty marketer could be a saleable item? So I hope this first foray isn’t a turn off for anybody looking in.

I have however, been fortunate to be taken under the wing of Paul Ward a pretty successful UK marketer. So I now feel a lot more on track. It’s amazing how quickly a guy, with a bit of mileage, can crystallise seemingly divergent ideas, into a coherent whole. Oh yeah - that’d be like a teacher then!! Thanks Paul.

During the summer, I started looking into real world conferences and on-line seminars and to be honest, I felt like a fish out of water. I was almost frightened to approach these apparently confident giants of marketing who were strutting around the foyers. I was very uncomfortable letting people see how clueless I really was. Until, I actually started an email conversation with one person, who turned out to be an ordinary bloke like me, or you or the lady over there.

So, what’s the point of this negative sounding monologue? Very simple; if you are new to this game and floundering, get in touch with your up-line and pick some brains. A recurrent theme in much of the sales copy is that it doesn’t take Einstein to work these systems. It may have been someone with a streak of the Einstein about them, who developed the system, but it was in their interest to develop a straight forward(ish) but DUPLICABLE SYSTEM.

The upshot of that for you new guys and girls, is that behind all of the glitz, the hype, the mega launches and the “never been seen befores” are just a few variations on a system or three. Most of these systems will work for you if you don’t system hop and YOU APPLY yourself seriously. Don’t be taken in by the instant wealth that is implied by much of the advertising copy you see. You’ve got some hard graft ahead of you to start building your own list of potential customers. That list and your relationship to the people those names represent is your starting point. It took me nearly 6 months to grasp and visualise what that simple point really meant. More about that in a future posting. If you are looking for someone to help you build your business, who isn’t already up there in the stratosphere, please get in touch. I’m not Terry the Tip Top Mentor, but by getting a gang of of us new guys together and swapping experiences we could probably save each other from a load of grief. I promise I won’t SELL everything at you in one go!! Honest! And together, I bet we couldn’t half pick some up-line brains!!

Seriously though, what I will show off now are the businesses I am involved with, which despite being too numerous for a simple bloke to keep a handle on, are the projects which seem to be genuine opportunities for producing life changing incomes. After a month of real focus, I haven’t “life changed” my income yet, but suddenly my lists have started to grow and I have pulled in my first couple of proper customers.

So, my main threads are: firstly, the best of the bunch, UVME This is a fantastic mixture of straightforward (!?) games of skill played on-line for cash prizes; with a superb and rapidly evolving social marketing system and the whole lot nicely capped by a superb back office to support the business opportunity. This is going BIG. It’s not cheap to commit to, but it really is a quality business. Before the “.com” games platform launched a couple of weeks ago, there were over 300,000 pre-registrations with lots of these becoming paid sign ups; once people had to show the colour of their cash.

Even more exciting is the news, revealed at the last training webinar: that there had been 15,000 completely new people who had signed up to play the games. Best of all, despite the hammer the servers were getting and despite the fact that we are only in soft launch / beta testing mode - the system works amazingly well and is being improved almost daily by 3 dedicated teams of software engineers, game developers and multi lingual support staff. Apologies if this gets close to hype, but it is a genuinely exciting on-line business opportunity with a highly desirable product - it’s cool folks! And you can have a look at (preferably) my site here. If you like what’s on offer, I wouldn’t say no to a few new associates in Team CosmicRays!
Go here for the games and play for free
Go here to see the business opportunity.

My second favourite is a new project by Paul Ward and his associates. Prosperizer’s best feature is that the team who have put it together are trying to build a resource and a business model where newcomers to marketing do not suddenly lose the support of their up-lines when the auto responders have banged out their last emails. If you are unsure of a direction to take, this is genuinely worth a careful look. It is developing into a very supportive community without the hype often associated with programmes trying to grab the newcomer.

Power Up Your Income With Prosperizer

At first I sank a lot effort into Stone Evans Plug in Profits programme. It’s a hell of a system even though it could be quite an expensive start up, if you blindly follow all of his recommendations straight away. Its big advantage for a newcomer, is that it opens up 6 separate but related streams of income. It does need a very focused approach but there are lots of subgroups of entrepreneurs who are willing to help or who offer full on mentoring. The products cover a very wide range from Vitamin supplements and audio books for your MP3; to Marketing and self development information; all the way through to Web hosting and domain name services. It’s a very broad church.

Plug in Here For Profit

For traffic building I am starting to get results now with Vital Viral. This clever set up, is a way of organising your activities in multiple traffic exchanges and then, if you gain an affiliate in Vital Viral, you gain that affiliate in the other exchanges as well.

Organise your surfing by using Vital Viral as explained here

So I’m up for networking but I daren’t get involved in any new projects unless they are very powerful, because I’m up to my eyeballs at the moment. But, instead of that sinking feeling that’s been around me for 2 years or more, I feel like I’ve just started surfacing.

All the best for a fantastic New Year in 2008
Ray