slamboard

The information in my title is a statistic taken from AmeriPlan’s® own disclosure page. They use ‘text as image’ for anything discouraging that they are obligated to disclose. This means that they meet their obligation without having to worry about the facts showing up in any kind of diligent search by someone who is considering working with AmeriPlan® .

I was not considering Ameriplan® , I was weeding through work at home scams and I had to look very closely at their business model in order to figure it out. It was hard, because the company and its IBO’s do everything they can to obscure two things. First, the product being sold is designed to look like a viable alternative to medical insurance but it is not. Second, the whole thing is an MLM.

If you are not risk averse and if you don’t have a problem selling people on something that may not be of much use to them, you might want to consider AmeriPlan® . You will, of course have to convince several other people that it is a good idea in order to ever see any money for your efforts.

In the life of a salesman, sales leads are like oxygen. In this analogy, sales leads are all around him and all he has to do is breath to survive. That used to be true, but this analogous world that our business man is walking through is now over crowded and polluted. Buying the services of a sales leads company is like buying one of those little oxygen tanks.

Kingsbridge Marketing Partners, Inc. comes highly recommended and I gather that this is because of quality customer service and, most importantly, results. Providing direct mail sales as well as telemarketing and e-mail lists services is what they do.

This early report comes from the folks at Mastercard. Growth in consumer spending from last year’s Christmas shopping season is a low 3.6%. While it is disappointing, it is not unexpected. Gas prices and economic pressures related to the housing market are major factors. I think another factor was the lack of cool stuff. I am a bit out of the loop, but I can’t think of an iconic must have toy for Christmas 2007. There was a largely failed attempt to get people worked up about a possible Wii shortage. There have to be more buyers than there are items for a shortage to exist.

“If you see one, buy it. Don’t assume that you can come back later and find one.”

On a brighter note, the same report says that online spending for the same period is up 22% from last year.

Sources for this story: NYT, engadget

I have heard several different success stories relating to online marketing and I have noticed some recurring trends. Often there is an engaging personality who creates something in an online social setting to which other people ascribe a value. At first there may be an informal non-monetized way in which the supply and demand is met within the original social network. And then a voice says “You should have you own website and have an online store!”

This voice might be inside the creator’s head, or it might be a friend or a fan.

I have actually witnessed one instance where the person in question ignored that voice. If you have heard that voice but you are having trepidation, take some time to look at the ecommerce hosting and cheap business web hosting solutions offered by AQHost. They are a design and hosting service with packages ranging from an amazingly affordable starter pack right up to corporate hosting.

All packages include an easy to use control panel. When you get a business level, you do away with a few limitations that are inherent in the starter packages. You get an unlimited number of email accounts. You get an unlimited number of FTP accounts. You even get unlimited MySQL 4 Databases. Money making websites range from eStores that sell homemade jewelry to paid membership sites that sell ideas and insider information. A merchant account with AQHost will mean that you can accept credit card payment from major credit cards. I was not surprised to read that 85% of transactions online involve credit card payment. If you have a business model up and running that does not accept credit cards, you could expect at least a 40% increase in business from just that one change.

I am not a gamer. When I read an explanation about why games cost $60 and will continue to cost $60, I was surprised. I am a parent who has successfully denied my children the basic human rights that are XBoxes, PS3s and Wii’s. I didn’t even realize how much modern games with high definition graphics cost.

$60 is a lot of money.

There is nothing in this chocolate bar that is harmful to female human beings. The warning prohibiting girls from eating it is a marketing ploy. Nestlé is a big, BAD company. I feel a little bit guilty about buying this chocolate bar. Marketing an item by humorously telling 50% of your market that they can’t buy it is not something that a small company with a limited number of products would do.

Given the record of Nestlé with regard to exploiting third world labor and promoting dried baby formula in countries with poor access to safe drinking water, I agree that this bar is NOT FOR GIRLS. It’s NOT FOR BOYS either. Buy Fair Trade Chocolate, Coffee and Tea instead and help an ethical world economy grow while putting irresponsible multi-nationals on a diet.

Among some social circles, saying that you’re in sales will get you funny looks and cold shoulders. I always find this to be a huge hypocrisy. I contend that everyone is a salesman in some way, shape or form. I think that any technical or vocational training program should have an element of sales training included. The Sales Training Courses UK plumbers can get from Avand.co.uk is a great example of what I am talking about. This company has gotten involved in sales training after recognizing a need. Their original field of expertise is in training plumbers to do, well plumbing. When I sat here trying to empathize with a plumber, I realized that they often find themselves in a position that many salesmen would envy. I don’t mean the position where they are crouched under a sink with their butt-crack showing. I mean that they are standing inside the inner sanctum of a homeowner that has needs. I recently spoke to a man who mentioned that he gained his wife’s good graces with a tasteful upgrade in bathroom fixtures. A plumber who has good sales skills could plant the seed of that strategy in a client while fixing a toilet.