Featured Article

Overnight Millionaire

By Aaron Peavy
Nexus Admin

It does not take long of being online to find an ad, or a couple of thousand of them, proclaiming that this new and exciting program is going to make the next wave of overnight millionaires by simply joining and paying a small monthly fee. The problem is that while the advertising and talk are cheap, the vast majority of these programs are nothing more than fluffed up, overblown, overrated, outrageous hype. How do I define “hype”? Simple. If you came to my front door and knocked, and I want to bow my head and escort you off my property 2 minutes into your speech, I am listening to “hype”. When on the internet, I read it with that same principle in mind: Would I allow this person to remain on my doorstep? If not, next page please!

So where are all these overnight millionaires? If they get talked about all the time, they surely must exist right? Truth in advertising, integrity, and all that fun “business” stuff dictates that someone cannot say something if it is not true right? Wrong! The internet basically the last unregulated advertising venue where the advertiser can basically say anything to get the sale and not have to back a word of it up. As far as the internet is concerned, we are still in a “buyer beware” market.

My intention here is not to discourage anyone from seeking their fortune online and making their dreams come true. However, I do think it is high time someone started inserting a little common sense into the picture. Yes, money can be made online, and quite a bit of it. There are the numbers to back that up. Yes, you can start a business from your basement, family room, or a corner of the kitchen and build it into a Fortune 500 company. The other side of those things is the dark little world that most of the people out here on the internet do not want to look at, and certainly do not want you looking at. Yes, it is going to take time. Yes, it is going to take a lot of work. Yes, you are probably looking at spending twelve to eighteen months to match an income that can be made part time at McDonald’s. Finally, yes it is going to take some money to build a business, even online. The bright side of all this is the rewards that come from all your hard work, long hours, frustration and denial of things you really rather be doing.

The internet millionaire exists, and more are being created everyday all over the world. While sometimes you do not know their names, we know the businesses they created: Google, eBay, Amazon to name a couple out of hundreds. The one thing they all have in common though are the long hours and struggles that were required to build those businesses to the heights they have achieved today. I absolutely guarantee you that no Fortune 500 company, no millionaire business person, did it overnight, or even a month. I would go so far as saying a year timeframe is very highly unlikely.

We, however, are not playing in the leagues of the Amazon.com and eBay.com and Google.com sites. Most of us are still where they were a few years ago looking for that right idea and pouring our heart, soul, and every waking hour into it to make it successful. Even the people using the hyped up trash of creating “overnight millionaires” did not achieve it themselves. Someone, somewhere, had to take the time to design the program, the site, the commission structure, write the e-book, develop the newsletter, do the initial round of advertising, and a host of other mundane chores that come with running a business. Do you really think all that was done in a night? Do you really think they are going to somehow teach you to do something they themselves have been unable to do? Do you really think that someone with the financial skills to guarantee an exceptionally high rate of return on an investment consistently (anything over 10% return is exceptional and rare) needs your hard earned $19.95? If they could honestly do that, they would be on Wall Street playing the markets with the billions of dollars from the institutional investors, not out here selling an e-book.

Now, I don’t hold it against anyone if they have fallen prey to this type of marketing. I hold the advertiser at fault first and foremost. To make things a little easier to swallow, I will even allow that most people do not hear about or even realize the work that is being done in the background of the various programs before they hit it big. It is very easy to believe that the people behind them did indeed become a millionaire overnight when a site explodes. Keep in mind though that the work, whether you hear about it or not, did happen, and all the profits they are making when spread back out over the development and planning stages shows clearly that they are not overnight successes. It shows clearly that they love what they do enough to dedicate a significant portion of their lives to it for no money, and only their planning and hopes to sustain them.

If you have the hopes, dreams and desire to make on the internet, you will. You will make enough money to allow you to do this full time. On the way though, do not let anyone discourage you or dash those dreams because you make the mistake of believing their hype upon which they could not deliver. Just make it a point to manage your business better, and deliver on your goals!

Nexus Update:

PRIZES AND SURPRISES

Here are the results of our recent referral contest:

For MOST PERSONAL REFERRALS each of the following members will receive a $25 gift certificate for Watkins fine products:

Third place (three-way tie)
--- Rob Gehring
--- John Higgins
--- Diann Taylor

Second place
--- Matthew Chan

FIRST PLACE
--- TONY TEZAK

OOPS, Tony Tezak will NOT be getting a gift certificate. At the support conference this week, Tony offered his gift certificate as a prize for attending the conference. At his suggestion, we threw names into a hat and drew a winner. Sandra Crawford, a first-time attendee, won the drawing! Again, you NEVER KNOW what will happen at a Nexus Support Conference!


For MOST UPGRADED REFERRALS, we had a four-way tie. As we are not financially able to award each of the four members with Watkins gift certificates worth $50, we are EXTENDING this part of the contest. Whoever (whomever?) signs up the most upgraded members between October 4, 2005 and midnight EST November 30, 2005 will win. This time extension should give our members plenty of time to promote, and give us time to figure out what to do in case of another tie...lol. ANY MEMBER can still win!

Thanks in HUGE part to our members' efforts, Nexus Exchange membership has past the 500 mark!! What will month three of business bring to us? More importantly, what will our third month of business bring to YOU, the members? Stay tuned ....

THE EXTERMINATOR IS ON THE JOB

Our recurring upgraded members have had to endure repeated offerings of our email message extolling, in excruciating detail, the benefits of their new membership status. Bear with us Gold and Silver members. Our crack programmer is fixing the crack. The problem is solved, but it will take another month to complete. So just one more copy of that really long email, and that will be it! Promise!

NORTH CAROLINA, HERE WE COME!

The Focus4TheFuture Conference in Charlotte, NC is coming up fast. Confirmation of hotel accomodations were sent out today. A few changes had to be made to the overall structure of the conference, but Aaron and Eva will be there without a doubt. Drinking coffee by day and Coronas by night, most likely. Expect a full report on the conference in an upcoming issue.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF US, PLEASE

Are you making FULL use of your Nexus membership? Our Free members can submit up to TWO URLs and TEN BANNERS for rotation. How can there be so many banners? Each campaign (URL) has a BANNERS icon. Through that icon, you can add up to five banners per campaign. The banners DO NOT have to point to the campaign URL, but the target URLs for the banners must meet our site acceptance policy and terms of service. TWO URLs, TEN BANNERS, and a FREE DOWNLINE BUILDER that includes the best traffic exchanges on the internet as ranked by Tony Tezak. Now, if FREE members get all that promotional muscle through Nexus, imagine how an upgraded membership can really empower you! More URLs, more banners, newsletter sponsor ads, contact information on personal referrals ... hmmmm.

This Week in Marketing:

You know, to tell the truth, I am not at all sure what has really been happening this week in the world of marketing online. I know I am getting what seems like a lot of email from Steve, the new owner of ClickMatrix.com. It is nice to see that he is definitely an active owner, but would be nice to have an email to let us know a little about him. Oh well, cannot expect to have everything now can we?

Time is drawing near and we have our hotel reservations for the conference in North Carolina. I must admit that the conference is pretty much the reason I am not real solid this week on what is going on in the rest of the world. As time closes in, Eva and I have a ton of work to get done before we head down there, not to mention keeping up with Nexus Exchange for all our valued customers. I just ask that you have a little understanding if the “This Week in Marketing” segment seems a little short.

Through the Eyes of Eva…

As a newbie on the Net, I kept looking for the free stuff. I truly believed, like many others starting out, that I could get something for nothing. The hype was gospel to me. I just needed to find the right opportunity and I would be set for life financially. If there was a price tag attached, I moved on. I knew that FREE biz opp was out there just waiting for me to find it.

Two years, a lot of research and more money than I care to admit to wasting, have taught me well. I learned what it takes to make an income online, and it is NOT free. It drives me nuts that most people do NOT understand what it takes to run an online business, and will not take the time to learn what it all entails. Admittedly, it was not until I bought into a traffic exchange when I really began to understand the resources needed for running an interactive website. But it never occurred to me to outright cheat someone.

Case in point: safelist submitters. Safelist submitters make life so much easier for the serious email marketer. Such sites send out email ads for their members to a number of safelists using their own server. Some go above and beyond that basic service for safelist users and owners. Submitters often charge fees to safelist owners for the privilege of including their lists. Some safelist owners complain about having to pay fees for such service. Often lists will mysteriously show up on a submitter without permission and thus use the service for free. As one safelist submitter owner wrote today in her forum, "... in a perfect world unlimited bandwidth, memory upgrades, servers and advanced processors would all be free. But, the reality is that we have to pay for all of this, ..."

There is a cost to doing business, online and offline. Unless you have all the resources and time to do everything yourself, you will end up needing the services and/or use of resources of another. Would you give up your time, effort, and/or resources to someone else without payment in return? Of course not.

Remember the old adage, "You get what you pay for."