A Walk Of Life .com
( AWOL )
This website will always be evolving. Therefore, it will always be "under construction." I am going to be very careful and very selective about what gets endorsed, or even evaluated here. It will never be your garden variety "links page." In fact, for the moment, I am only going to appraise one program. I will post the link below – but, please, don't go there just yet... Let me talk about it a little bit first, and why it might be worth your while to look it over.
“There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.”
Roger Staubach
One of the biggest challenges for any Internet entrepreneur is traffic. Whether you are a struggling, failing novice or a seasoned, successful pro, you probably want more traffic and/or better quality traffic. Because, regardless of the quality and value of what you are offering society, people in general are simply not going to do business with you if they can't even find you. They're not buying if they don't even know you are there. And this dilemma so often breaks the bank, (and the spirit!), of the novice entrepreneur. You invest a little, (or a lot!), in myriad programs that promise you the world overnight. One program promises to pay you 25% commissions. Another one pays 50%. And still another, 100%. But nothing spectacular, indeed nothing good at all, is going to eventuate if you don't get those programs in front of some enthusiastic, buying eyes. After all, one-hundred percent of zero in sales equals zero in commissions. You need more.
Buyer and seller need to find each other. So, without an abundance of non-agendized advice, you invest blindly in advertising. And now that money is gone, too. There aren't very many people out there who don't want your cash. And even fewer who won't take it. You're at the upstream end of a mono-directional cash flow, and that is never a happy place to be. You know what Polonius said: "A fool and his money are always welcome..."
I am usually hesitant and always wary, of the much overused, ho-hum phrase, "win-win situation," because all too often there is a "lose-lose" shrewdly attached to it. When I hear the phrase “win-win,” a flag goes up automatically. But an intuitive, responsible, percipient man by the name of Mike Deese seems to have come up with a solution which is, (dare I say it?), win-win. Mike calls his long overdue innovation My Advertising Pays. And that's what this essay is about. But first, a little more about Mike...
“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.”
Francis Bacon
Mr. Deese is a disabled military veteran - but a very enabled Internet veteran. Having grown exasperated with the quintessential, Ponzi-style, online income programs, (You know the type I refer to - you probably get their daily spam.), Mike ventured to do something about it. As he asserts: "I am not in the ‘here today gone tomorrow’ business. I have been down that path and all it did was hurt me and those that followed me." Mike felt, through experience, that due to the obvious glut of ephemeral pyramid, matrix, Ponzi, and rev-share schemes, there was actually a need, indeed a demand, for a sustainable program with a blueprint and platform of integrity, substance, and sound business protocols. Of his own vision for MAP, Mike states flatly: "I know, that’s a grand vision. But it’s about time someone steps up to the plate and does right by its members. I am a disabled United States Air Force Veteran and have continued to live by its Motto ever since joining;
• Integrity First
• Service Before Self
• Excellence in All We Do"
“Sweet are the uses of adversity...”
William Shakespeare
My Advertising Pays is, of course, the emerging, evolving, happy consequence of that vision. And as you peruse Mike's voluminous blog entries which chronicle the program's evolution from its inception through in-process, you will sense the manifestation of that motto from each entry, each day, and every development to the next. No problem is left unaddressed. Every adversity Mike had to vanquish as a buyer has been dealt with. Every fence and hurdle Mike had to jump over has been knocked down for MAP's customers. So much of what is “broken” in the industry is herein fixed. Mike goes miles out of his way to insure that there is no "man behind the curtain." That's because there's no curtain. We're talking about complete transparency here - one of the ingredients missing from all too many "secret" online income recipes for failure. If it is true that you are either part of the problem or part of the cure, then MAP is part of the cure. Here's why:
A traditional advertising venture on your part would typically have brought with it at least four handicaps which you'd have no choice but to accept:
1. Incalculable risk.
2. Exorbitant capital outlay.
3. No return of capital.
4. No shares-in-profits.
1. Incalculable risk. Will your ad be displayed? Where? When? Will anyone see it? Will that person be looking for it volitionally? Willingly? Or is it being forced on him? (Is it merely a nuisance?) Is he targeted at all? Or are you merely floating it out there aimlessly, and hoping for the best? (Advertising carpet-bombing.) Will he buy?
2. No refund of capital. Advertising costs are non-refundable, regardless of the results and experience of the campaign. Win or lose, traditional advertising is bite the bullet and hold on tight. Either way, like it or don't, you're out the money. Best wishes.
3. Exorbitant capital outlay. You are paying, judiciously or otherwise, for all of the above risk, for all of the above problems. Some economists call this non-value cost. That is, the cost does not add to the quality or value of the product. But, in fact, it can add to the cost of the product, thus rendering that product more expensive and therefore less attractive to the prospective consumer. So, unless your spendable resources are bottomless and infinite, margin-killing advertising costs can erode the value of the product.
4. No Shares-In-Profits. Simple boiler plate here... If the ad agency doesn't return costs, how and why would it pay a dividend? It isn't a bank. It isn't an insurance company or mutual fund, etc. It merely sells you advertising. If your ad moves your product, then that is your dividend. But, either way, it isn't coming out of the ad seller: It's coming out of you, the ad buyer. He's just the middleman. Caveat emptor.
“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
Thomas Edison
My Advertising Pays takes an entirely different approach. As Mike Deese points out, it is a total paradigm shift...
1. Risk is calculable and known. Even the duration for which your ad will be viewed is controlled and hence, calculable. Your ad will be positioned in an environment called the Traffic Exchange, wherein everyone involved is looking for an opportunity like the one you are offering. In fact, Mike has set it up so that his members are required to look! They have to click on and view ads in the Traffic Exchange daily in order to get paid. So, you're not risking a venture out into the void: You ad will get looked at, and every single person who sees it will be a targeted prospect. This is true targeting. Further, your ad will remain available and active until it has been clicked on and viewed at least 400 times. Again, this is guaranteed. You control risk.
2. Capital is refunded. That's right. In MAP, all money that you spend on Credit Packs will be returned to you. Every nickel of it. And those returns begin shortly after you've made the purchase, and continue every 20 minutes until your entire cost is recovered. (Way beyond that, actually! More below...) This, profit sharing/shares-in-profit, is guaranteed – no maybes about it. Did I mention that MAP takes an entirely different approach?
3. Economical capital outlay. Due to the creative efficiency of MAP's revenue recycling, advertising is sold in affordable 49.99 increments, (Credit Packs). What this means to you is that not only are you not paying for a lot of non-value, you're not paying much for value. In fact, as your ad costs are returned to you, as mentioned above, in the end you aren't really paying anything for it! (Keep reading. It gets better...)
4. Shares-In-Profits. In fact, the payments being refunded to you don't cease at the moment your initial cost is completely returned: They continue every 20 minutes until you've been paid back $60.00 for every $49.99 that you've spent. Yes, you read that right. So... even if your ad never makes a sale, your advertising costs are being refunded to you – plus 20%! Again, guaranteed. No maybes. Where else on this abundant planet have you seen or experienced anything like this? And this is as good a juncture as any to talk briefly about something that is important to any business or individual: Liquidity. As a very general rule of thumb, the greater the liquidity of money, the lower the return on it. For example, your checking account is very accessible, very spendable, very liquid. But how much is the cash in it earning? Money that is parked in a non-interest-bearing account for the sake of liquidity is losing its purchasing power, losing its buying power. A year or two from now it will probably not be able to buy, dollar for dollar, as much as it can buy today. It is actually depreciating - like a parked car. It is losing value. So, let's say you have a lump sum of money sitting in PayPal, a non-interest-bearing account. You're thinking about investing it, or part of it, in a certain product, but the product isn't ready yet. Or, you want to take a little time to see how the product performs. Or, maybe you simply aren't ready yet. Or, perhaps it's a high-end, top tier product and you don't have quite enough cash to afford it yet. So the parked money is safe – that is, safe from just about anything except inflation. But the thought that it is just sitting there warming the bench, getting old and losing value would bother anyone, like yourself, who is trying to use money to earn money. I mean, how much practical difference is there between hiding it in PayPal and hiding it in your sock drawer? So now you're justifiably anxious about waking it up and putting it to work. It is precisely that anxiety, that itch, to do something, do anything, with it that can cause you to make a bad choice, to take a hasty, ill-thought-out risk. And that is another good recipe for losing.
“We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential.”
Eric Hoffer
So, here's one solution: Buy some Credit Packs. By using MAP's Traffic Exchange as a parking place for your Internet money, your money is safe, and it is earning! You might not have quite as much liquidity as with a PayPal or checking type of account... But, don't forget: Immediately after purchasing Credit Packs, you begin to get shares-in-profit paid back to you, guaranteed. And that is money you can spend any time and any way you want! It's your money.
My Advertising Pays offers a combination of ways to earn. And let's pause briefly to consider that very operative word, “earn.” What Mike Deese has wrought here is a chance in a lifetime opportunity to do just that: To earn. You're not being gifted anything. You're not winning or inheriting anything. You've got to earn it. There is an old expression that there are no guarantees in life. Well, that is misinformation. That is simply wrong. There are guarantees – and one of them is that if you don't make some kind of effort, you won't be successful. That's a guarantee you can bank on.
Failure is the default position. Thou shalt do something.
(My quote. Should've copyrighted it.) MAP's Traffic Exchange conceives an opportunity for anyone involved in Internet Marketing, buyer, seller, or both, to earn, to do something. In order for you to get paid your shares-in-profit every 20 minutes, on your Credit Pack purchases, obviously you have to purchase Credit Packs/advertising. So let's say you belong to other programs, or you are selling a product, advertising an event, a charity, or maybe even your brick-and-mortar business. You purchase Credit Packs and advertise the entities of your choice in the Traffic Exchange. In order to earn your shares-in-profit, it is your responsibility to click on, daily, at least ten ads placed there by people who are advertising just as you are. This required activity is what enables MAP to guarantee that your ad will be viewed at least 400 times – and not by just anybody: Viewing your ad is a person whose journey through Internet Marketing has taken him to the very Traffic Exchange that you are using. And his reasons for being there are the same as yours: To buy, to sell, to earn. He is not obligated to click on and view any one ad in particular: He is viewing your ad because there is something about your ad in particular that interests him. You cannot have a more attracted, relevant, targeted prospect! You haven't forced anything on him – he is looking at your ad because he is interested. And if your ad is linked directly to your merchant account website, you could conceivably have a paying customer on the spot. In the very short time since its creation, MAP's Traffic Exchange has already become one of the best repositories of relevant, congruous, revenue generating web-based programs on the Internet. And, as people are paying to advertise there, they are likely to put their “best foot forward.” That is, they are not likely to advertise programs they don't believe in - they, too, want results! And, of course, this results in a refreshingly high quality, high value assortment of advertised entities. Take your time. If you are looking for the program that is just right for you, MAP's Traffic Exchange is the place to look. And there might already be some other great programs you've considered joining, but you're hesitant because you didn't know how to get them into the right kind of traffic... Put 'em into the Traffic Exchange: They'll get looked at by a lot of eager people – people who are not afraid to act, and to spend. Sooner or later, they probably will. So, careful here... Remember the old proverb: “He who hesitates is paid by the hour.”
Personally, between my inbox and my junk box, I receive, daily, hundreds upon hundreds of spammy, hyped-up emails promoting get-rich-quick income programs. Truth is, I do take a look at a fair cross-section of them, just to remain abreast of what's “out there.” It is disappointing, and not pleasantly, how many times I get multiple emails, frequently from different sellers, all hawking the same product. It's enough to discourage and daunt just about any novice in the business, and it makes the entire industry look bad. Opening up emails, (and capture pages that don't want to be closed!), clearly, is not the best way to go shopping for income opportunities. I was amazed, perusing MAP's traffic Exchange, at the plethora of high-quality, low-hype, content-rich, authoritative, opportunity sites I encountered there. It is so much more rewarding than sitting in front or your email page, opening spam after spam of rhetorical bling, island scenes, exotic cars and McMansions all promising plenitude in time for brunch. “Insane profits!” I prefer sanity. MAP is sane. You'll see that. Yes, you have to make choices. And yes, you have to act on those choices decisively. But when it comes to something as crucially important as your family's financial health and well-being, is there something wrong with exercising a whole bunch of prudence and intelligence? Is there something wrong with getting it right? With a resource like MAP's Traffic Exchange, you are so much more enabled to do just that.
“Different roads sometimes lead to the same castle.”
George R.R. Martin
My Advertising Pays offers yet another powerful, simple potential income stream: Recruiting commissions. When you enroll someone into MAP, you will earn, depending on your paid involvement level, up to 18% on every Credit-Pack he purchases. This is in addition to your shares-in profit, and it is not merely a one-off event. Every time your recruit buys another Credit-Pack, or, better yet, bundle of Credit-Packs, you make up to 18% of the purchase price. This can evolve into a powerful proposition for you: Let's say your recruit has a favorable investment experience with his advertising campaign... He's making sales... Doesn't it make all the sense in the world that he would continue to advertise at that level? Or even increase it as he profits? Then you continue to get the commission on his spends for as long as he remains a buying member. So, even if you do not buy any Credit-Packs and/or advertise in the Traffic Exchange - when he does, you earn. This passive residuary alone makes MAP an exciting enterprise that every person involved in Internet Marketing ought to give some serious consideration. Don't miss this boat.
In the limitless cosmos of Internet entrepreneurship, as you already know, there are more ways than can be counted of spending money for the purpose of making money. And there is no one vehicle, no one venture, no one program that is absolutely right for every entrepreneur. But, in My Advertising Pays, Mike Deese has successfully come up with a sustainable game plan that any player can follow – and win with – whether you are a rookie or veteran. And sustainability is crucial. Unlike a Ponzi-based scheme, there is an honest-to-goodness product – advertising sales – which drives revenues and funds shares-in-profits. MAP is built to last. The advantages to getting a good seat are, 1 - You'll be earning that much sooner, and, 2 - It's better to recruit your contemporaries than to be recruited by them. But you do not need to rush blindly into it. The program is designed to flourish perpetually: When you are ready, it will be here. Meantime, here, below, is the link I promised way back when...
http://www.myadvertisingpays.com
Take a stroll over there and kick the tires. In fact, the test drive is free for a month – that gives you plenty of time to understand and appreciate the power and potential of this well-thought-out, long-overdue, light in the forest. (When you go to the free sign-up page, make sure it says Edward L. Conaty in the Sponsor window, {That's yours truly.} Your sponsor cannot be changed later.) Take your time and get to know the program, its features and benefits, thoroughly. Mike Deese has taken great pains to lay out everything concisely and clearly, without any hype to cloud the material. I have explained much of it here, in my own words, because, frequently, things are easier to understand when you've had them explained in a couple of different ways. (Hence the phrase, “In other words...”) For even more information, developments and history of MAP, check out the blog under the same name at WordPress. Read the evolution of Mike's vision, starting at the beginning, from its inception to in-process, as your time permits. You'll see what I mean. He gives you much to believe in.
http://myadvertisingpays.wordpress.com
People don't just invest their money. They invest their hope.
This will ring particularly true for you if you are someone who has yet to make any meaningful money on the Internet. You've lost so much, so many times, that you are afraid to hope. Or perhaps you are brand new to online marketing – you are looking to build a conservative, safe, foundation for other riskier, possibly more lucrative, higher stakes enterprises later on. (A very intelligent approach - ask any financial planner!) Or maybe you are doing fine and see MAP as one more essential brick in the infrastructure of your online business. You might even be someone who has a great job that you love – but you need a simple way to supplement your earnings without spending too much time, (or money – which you get back anyways...), developing it. My Advertising Pays is a system that can work for just about anyone who aspires to earn an online income. And that is key: It works. It actually works! The system works, so work it – you're worth it.
THIS WEBSITE: Substance Is The Gimmick
As I happen to own the domain name, “AwalkOfLife.com” I will probably convert this free site to a full-featured pay version sooner or later, depending upon how things go. That way, the “webstarts” can be eliminated from the url. For the time being, though, I am experimenting, so this free configuration is fine. Here's why the title, A Walk Of Life appeals to me, and what it is about – if you are involved in online marketing you will know about this: As you are setting up shop, paying your dues, experimenting with all kinds of income and traffic programs, particularly if you are spending more money than you are making, people in your offline life can be very skeptical, very cynical, very discouraging. They'll tell you, “Hey, you need to forget about all that Internet stuff and get yourself a real job – something with benefits, something you can depend on... Forget about virtual – you need real!” Again, it can be very discouraging. And as you go deeper and deeper into debt, coming up empty time after time, you begin to wonder if they might be right. They don't regard your online entrepreneurship efforts as a valid, bona fide, walk of life. For them, your entrepreneurship is a pipe dream, a distraction, pie in the sky, but not a walk of life. This website is for creative, ambitious, enterprising people like you who are trying to improve, people who are discontent with the same old, same old status quo, and who are seriously, earnestly using the Internet to develop their own walk of life. And as your Internet pilgrimage becomes more established, more profitable, even lucrative, it takes on a whole new sense of validity. It becomes, indeed, a walk of life. Hence the name. Also, it gives rise to the acronym “AWOL.” So, yes, if you're going to make it as an entrepreneur, you might have to “go AWOL” from the kind of restrictive, limiting mindset that keeps so many people living in chains for their entire lives. And it is very important, I think, to remember that the more successful you are, the more value you bring to the table of society. So, go AWOL. You don't need anyone's permission.
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that, but the really great make
you feel that you, too, can become great.”
Mark Twain
THINGS YOU WON'T SEE HERE...
Hype: Hype is like fog. It makes everything hard to see. It's hard to go around it, or under it, or over it. You have to go through it. One problem with hype is this: It doesn't only distort and manipulate our perception of mediocre programs – it treats altogether too many of the worthwhile programs the same way! For example, you won't see any hype at the MAP website – it's just not what Mike Deese is all about. But there will always be those people, members, affiliates, who use hype to market and promote MAP. And this can be harmful to just about any worthwhile program. It makes a good program look bad.
“Explode Your Profits!!!” Explosions are destructive.
“Insane Commissions!!!” Insanity. Mental illness. This is supposed to be good marketing?
“Massive Traffic!!” How 'bout “Massive boring.”
“Quit Your Job!!” Doctor, please don't quit your job - at least until you sew me back up. We need you.
“Fire Your Boss!!" Next time you're riding on an airplane, be thankful that the stewardess can't fire the pilot.
And then there are the capture pages... Beaches, island huts, McMansions, dollar bills, cabin cruisers, Lamborghinis... I already have my dream car. '95 Mustang GT rag-top. Been driving it for years and wouldn't trade for that Lambo. Why? Because I like it. That simple.
Self-righteousness blabbing, ad nauseum, about how honest I am. That's is for you to decide, if you must. (Don't forget, this site has no merchant interface... I can't get your money!) Ponzi said he was honest. Pinocchio said he was honest. The H-word gets marketed all over the place in this industry.
“Being honest is like being a lady.
If you have to tell everybody you are...
you're probably not.”
Not only that, honesty is not the only credential one needs in this business. Let's face it: We all know at least one honest person who can't solve a lunch bag.
Excessive Videos: If I have to make use of videos periodically, so be it. But some of us still like to read and write. It's really only a matter of preference. It's my preferred way of communicating. It's my way of transforming my understanding into content. That's what this site is about: Substance. Content.
Lots of Links: Listings... This isn't your run-of-the-mill, buffet-style links page. That is way too easy.
Scam / Negative Reviews: I will not be reviewing scams – they won't get here in the first place. Nor will I be mentioning sites I neither believe in nor belong to. I'm not out to badmouth anybody, or any program. I wouldn't like it if they did that to me.
The above items might seem rather negative for a site which will strive to be motivational and positive, part of the cure rather than part of the problem – but there are some unhealthy problems out there, and it would be unrealistic, irresponsible, self-destructive, and just plain dumb to pretend that they aren't there. Okay : We won't dwell. Let's move on...
AND, THINGS YOU MIGHT SEE HERE...
It is widely accepted by now, that one of the most important ingredients of just about any marketing recipe is that of creating and communicating an identity: Branding. And who can argue with that proposition? A multinational food manufacturer I used to work for has two whole generations of consumers believing that its products are created by some elves in a hollow tree! (What were we saying about honesty earlier? Never mind... I don't want to lose my pension...)
So, in terms of branding, perhaps it would be a good idea for you to appreciate that there is a real person, (me!), behind this website. And that person is defined and animated by some of the following passions and interests:
Motorcycles. You already knew that... Careful out there – everybody's on the phone.
Poetry. “A poem should not mean
But be.”
If we start talking about that, we'll never finish...
Treadmill. I walk 6 -10 miles every day at 4mph. It is a good way to dissolve the boundaries, if any, between mind, body, heart, soul, and spirit.
Syracuse University. My Alma... Go Orange!
American Civil War. More correctly, the things that caused it, and the things that it caused.
Guitars. Luv those semi-hollows. And hollows. And solids. And acoustics. And electrics. And all others.
Parenthood. Like the Hokey Pokey, that's what it's all about.
Roses. The poetic and visual unfoldment of Hope.
Cats. I have two. Sisters. They drive me crazy. Ever wake up in the morning with a sore neck because a cat slept on your head half the night?
Cigars: Not complicated. "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." (Sigmund Freud)
Life. Gotta love it. Don't blink.
There's more. Maybe I will start a blog. We'll see...
BELIEF, HOPE, FAITH
The big three. They're all related. Without them, nothing good happens. There are precious few Internet marketers who made it big right out of the gate. Maybe none. Most took it on the chin, kissed frogs repeatedly before actually getting anywhere. Many got discouraged and quit. They've right-clicked on their dreams and sent them to the recycle bin. That isn't you – people who've quit are not reading this. It isn't supposed to be easy. If it were easy you'd be doing something wrong. Quitting is easy. Quitting is a choice and quitting is losing. Winning is hard, and it, too, is a choice. The odds of winning in this business are something like the odds of winning the lottery. But what are the odds of winning the lottery if you don't buy a ticket? Problem is, in the lottery you have no choices about the outcome. In this business you do. You have choices. You have control. You govern you. There is a Billy Joel song, “You're Only Human (Second Wind).” I think it ought to be the official theme song of the Internet marketing industry. And Joel knew what he was talking about when he wrote it: Way back when he was starting out, his peers told him to forget about music as a vocation. He'd never make it. He'd never amount to anything... Fortunately for all of us he remembered his second wind. He refused to quit. There is no defining difference between you and Billy Joel. At least not yet. If you choose to quit, there will then be a defining difference: You chose to quit. He chose not to quit. Don't choose that difference. If you are reading this, and you are, then I already believe in you. Because you believe in you.
A while back, I wrote a book called Rosescapes. It is about a secret place within each of us where the roses dream. In that place, there is no room for the crutch of cynicism. It's not allowed. It just doesn't fit very well in a place that is governed by Belief, Hope and Faith. You have to leave it outside.
You've probably heard the story of Pandora and how she opened the container, and let all the evils out into the world. They never tell you the whole story though. As it turns out, seeing what she'd done, she closed the container just in time to catch one thing: Hope.
So I have copied a poem about that from Rosescapes, below. I hope you like it.
Sonnet on a Pretentious Rose
So you can clutch your jaded silver spoon,
Your laurels and insipid escapades
And exploits in the cloying, honeyed moon,
White elephants and musty accolades.
And we don't need your bullion or your mint.
Your values waltz the big board in caprice,
Like gold dust alloyed down to pocket lint.
And you can keep your purloined masterpiece.
And we'll possess the capital you waste
Like time itself, it visits and it goes.
The aspirate you squander in your haste
Pandora tabernacled for the rose.
The crutch of cynicism you can leave
Outside the rosescapes. Here, we still believe.
***
Next time somebody calls you a dreamer, just say, “Thanks!”
Your feedback is welcome:
edconaty@gmx.com
THIS WEBSITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION...
