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10-29-03
Thanks for asking to be included in a special personal group that
I'm putting together to partner with on future projects.
A number of you contacted me saying things like, "I don't really
understand what I signed-up for, but I wanted to be a part of whatever you are
working on." That means a lot to me. For one thing, it means that you trust me
to treat you correctly and that you want to be involved.
So, let's make sure that you know exactly what this group is for.
That way you can make the decision about whether you want to be involved, just
stay in touch or get completely out of this.
Believe me, this will be EASY to get out of! I only want a select
group of people that really WANT to be here.
Don't worry, I'm not charging anything and don't expect to. I've
seen mentoring programs that people charge an arm and a leg for, but I would
rather that we just work together and see what we can do together to pool our
resources and come out with something that works to make us better together
than we were when we were out there fighting the wars by ourselves.
So let's talk a little bit about what we have in this group so
far. I took a quick peek at some of the email addresses and I recognized a few
friends here. Some of those friends are just starting out and some of them have
huge customer bases, so together we have some "reach".
I have a few ideas and several of you have written to me with
ideas that you have. Now ideas are a powerful thing and if you aren't careful,
you can get burned, so let's get this out in the open right off the bat...
One of the reasons that I got into business in the first place,
was that I wanted to be free to pursue ANY idea that I wanted to. So, if you
have an idea that you think is the greatest thing since ... (well you get the
idea) if you don't want me to use it, DON'T TELL ME!
Sorry for the yelling. Here are my thoughts on ideas for
businesses ...
First, ideas are easy to come by.
There are at least 20 ideas that could turn into profitable web
businesses right now that I haven't found the time or resources to put into
motion. I personally have at least 5 ideas that I DO HAVE in motion right now
and the way my life goes by the end of the day, I'll probably have another one.
No, it's not because I am so smart. It's because good ideas are
easy to come by. You find a problem that effects a bunch of people and you
mentally solve that problem in an affordable way and boom you have an idea.
But to put that into effect and actually PRODUCE, now that's
hard.
The point of all of this is that I don't want to limit my future
activities or projects. I'm not trying to steal your ideas, but I don't want to
find myself in a situation where you had a great idea to solve e-mail programs
and then when I come up with a project that involves e-mail, you think that I
stole the idea from you.
So, I'm not signing any non-disclosure agreements or no-compete
contracts. Just wanted to let you know in advance.
In fact, I'm going to share some of my ideas with you and let you
watch as I develop a web business out of it and if you take that idea and
create something even better, I'm not going to complain when you make a success
out of it.
I hope that we will all learn a little bit about what is working
and what does not. I'm going to take a bare frame and fill it in and let you
see what happens for better or worse.
I hope that I will be able to help you grow your own web
businesses too. No, not because I am such a nice guy. (I am an ok kinda guy,
but that doesn't help you much when you go to pay the bills.)
Here's the real reason. Whatever you do in this world comes back
and fills your life. Do good things for the people around you and you will be
better off right along with them.
Here's a real practical example:
I have a number of products and a number of my friends in this
group have newsletters and/or customer bases that they recommend my products
and services to. If I can help you double the size of your lists, what do you
think happens to the number of people that are referred to my programs.
So, that is one goal for me. Let's double everyone's customer
base.
Goal two is education... I don't know about you, but I'm
constantly trying to budget time to learn. Things change. Things that worked
yesterday may not work at all today and oddly enough things that DIDN'T
actually MAY work today. So, there is this constant educational process that
NEEDS to go on.
If YOU know what is working, then YOU can help me increase MY
profits.
If you had the time, you could spend 24 hours a day learning, but
since we DON'T have 24 hours a day, we need to focus that learning on the KEY
things that we need to know, so for right now, let's take a look at an example
project.
LearningFolder.com ...
When you signed up for Notes From Ken, you probably noticed that
the domain was learningfolder.com and if you were the curious type, you went to
the main page to take a peek and see what kind of site it was. If you didn't
then go ahead now, I know your curiousity is up by now.
http://www.learningfolder.com
Kinda empty huh? Well, that is where we are starting, but over
the next few months, I hope to be filling that in a lot more.
Let me tell you a little bit about the core idea and you can get
the picture a little better. LearningFolder.com will be a place to find quality
resources for learning. Learning can take all kinds of forms and we expect to
have a number of them represented. A Learning Folder will be a place that you
can find all kinds of resources to learn about a particular subject.
Imagine a place where you can find Learning Folders about almost
anything. If you want to learn about cooking, there might be a "Cooking
Learning Folder". If you are interested in model trains, maybe a "Model Train
Learning Folder".
Maybe you are interested in resources for a particular site, like
AffiliateShowcase or jvAlert. I'm sure that there will be Learning Folders for
those areas of interest too.
Within each Learning Folder will be a collection of QUALITY
learning resources. There will be articles, e-books, audio training,
teleconferences, tutorials, live conferences.
All of these resources will be up to a quality standard that is
established for the LearningFolder.com brand. Over time, people will know the
quality of those resources and the value of all of the assets within that brand
will be raised.
Next imagine that as a business or individual, you can become a
member of LearningFolder.com and create your own Learning folder site. That
site is branded completely to you and your business. You select from a wide
range of quality products and services and put them into your "My Business or
Interest" Learning Folder.
Instantly you have a full function Web store that is focused on
the particular area that you want to educate people about. You can even put
this site on your own domain name.
You get paid directly for all sales from your store. You control
the product selection and promotion and let LearningFolder.com take care of all
the backend management.
There are no worries about arranging for merchant accounts,
shopping carts, or payment processors, you just cash the checks from sales.
Or ...
Maybe you are a writer or content provider that wants to be
published with a built in market for their books or materials. You can be
exposed to a broad market quickly with an excellent return on sales and STILL
retain the rights to your materials. LearningFolder.com will handle all of the
recruitment and payment of affiliates, packaging and delivery of products and
all you have to do is cash the check.
Naturally, I could go on all night, but that is enough for the
first note. It's all a blank page right now, but let's take this vision and
build it into something. If you have any interest in working with me on this
project, you tell me how we might be able to work together.
Tell me your thoughts, impressions and ideas and in the following
notes we can create a discussion about how we can make this profitable, for me
AND for you.
If not, you still have a number of options ...
First, you could just quietly watch and read my notes.
Second, you could send me even better ideas.
Third, you could change your mind about getting my little (or not
so little) notes and leave the group. Whatever you decide, I wish you all of
the best in all that you do. Thanks for listening!
I
Kenneth A. McArthur
AffiliateShowcase.com
jvAlert.com
P.S. If you want to know who the heck I am and why
you might possibly want to work with me,
click here
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