By releasing the SOC Box program, Send Out Cards jumps from network marketing/MLM business model into the retail affiliate marketing realm.  This new and provocative approach opens the door for a wider range of ordinary people to access the company’s biggest selling product (creation of a two-panel card with your own images) but also to make a little extra money for a nominal fee if they desire to do so.

What’s in the SOC Box?

Open the box and discover your key to becoming a SOC user and access many of the key features of the Send Out Cards system.  The basic SOC Box retails for $49.00 (USD) and includes:

• Your specific license to use the SOC Box software system;
• Access to Picture Plus enabling you to add your own images to the cards;
• Sample cards, SOC brochure and DVD presentation; and
• Initial credit for 10 two-panel greeting including postage.

Once the initial 10 greeting card credit has been used, the system can be recharged with another 10 greeting card credit for $20.00 (USD).

Remember each card in the SOC Box system includes postage plus SOC prints, stuffs and mails each card!

Want a little extra cash? Consider the optional SOC Box Retail Affiliate Program for only $25.00 (USD) more …

Once you see how easy it is to create a card and the quality and power of a personalized, heart-felt SOC greeting card, you will likely be eager to share you new found gift with those you admire and love.

Another amazing feature of the SOC Box system is the inexpensive investment (an additional $25.00) to become a retail affiliate and make a little extra cash. Each SOC Box is purchased by a retail affiliate (or SOC distributor) at the wholesale price of $25.00 and when sold at the retail price of $49.00, the affiliate makes $24.00 profit!

SOC corporate also pays a bonus of $100.00 for every 10 SOC Boxes activated within 30 consecutive day period.  A quick check of the math shows the potential to make $340.00 profit for each 10 SOC boxes sold an activated within that 30 day period.

The SOC Box makes an excellent Christmas gift for anyone with access to a computer. What a great way to share an amazing gift idea and cover the cost of your own holiday expenses at the same time!

Try the system for yourself!

Access the super easy SOC card creation system for yourself by clicking on the image below and completing the form on the next page for a free card-sending trial!

The only reason why I say I was somewhat fortunate … after scanning through the training materials available on the site, I was wishing I had found it much earlier.

For the last four years, Ed and his associates (Dan Raine, Guru Bob, etc.) have facilitated a 30 day crash course on the fundamentals of Internet marketing with the goal of having participants make their first online dollar.

The training program assembled for the 2008 Challenge started everyone out defining their intended market then progressing onto market research (last year using a new market research software package … Market Samurai … (though it is paid software there is a 40 day trial period for challenge participants)) then up through establishing your central content hub, building a web presence, evaluating analytics, etc.

They also highly encourage the formation of teams to support one and other in various ways before, during and after the challenge is completed.  The atmosphere appears fantastic.

It truly seems to be a phenomenal training resource about Internet marketing at an amazing price … it’s FREE!

Following is a video tour of the 2008 Thirty Day Challenge site that I made a few days before it came down to prepare for the 2009 version that runs in August.  Take a few moments and see what I mean:

Ed Dale and crew also conduct a periodic 30 Day Challenge UStream broadcast both during the event and throughout the year with updates and follow-up to the current or previous year’s event.  During the last few shows, Ed has indicated an even stronger program for this year’s challenge including guest instructors on podcasting and social media marketing.  I know I will be participating in this year’s challenge and invite you along for the ride as well!

If you are interested in learning more about Ed Dale’s Thirty Day Challenge or  participating as a team member during this years challenge, complete the form found via the “Contact” link located on the top of this page.  I’ll contact you straight away to discuss this “Awesome” event …

and as they say around the Thirty Day Challenge camp …..

“there is no charge for awesomeness!”

Where the nature of the overall market is set by the product or service being offered, Internet and affiliate marketers run into difficulties when trying to auger down to identify more specific sub-markets especially the highly targeted “niche market” areas.

In the following video, Ed Dale of the Thirty Day Challenge fame demonstrates a few simple approaches to further refining an overall market into various niches using readily available web sites such as Amazon and Google (both the search and RSS reader):

I think you can see where Internet and affiliate marketers applying this simple approach can help identify a number of potential niches in their specific target market.

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Note: Ed Dale’s video was “borrowed” from the You Tube channel (eddale) and the general repository for all of the Thirty Day Challenge videos (the current collection were mainly assembled from the 2008 Challenge; the 2009 Challenge is set for this August).

A review of the 2008 Thirty Day Challenge will be posted within the next few days.

In the meantime more information on the Thirty Day Challenge, visit the web site at:

Thirty Day Challenge

P.S. – Access to the 2008 Thirty Day Challenge site and lessons is FREE!

Though I had heard people talking of Seth Godin and this book ever since it was released late last year,  only recently became acquainted with his writing after finding his blog and subscribing t his email feed.

It only took a week or so of reading his blog posts to convince me to grab a copy of “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us” via Amazon and see if everything I heard was true …. I am more than happy to report, I wasn’t disappointed in the least.

I have to admit though, when I first started skimming through the book, I was intrigued by the lack of a “Table of Contents” or “Index” we normally expect with many non-fiction-based books.

As I continued to scan the pages, I quickly noted the reason …. this book is not structured like many conventional personal development tomes … it was structured like a BLOG (just without the dates on the entries)!

Upon reading the book and researching other information about Seth Godin, the fact that “Tribes” is formatted like a blog (non-conventional approach in book form) seems to align perfectly with the message of the book and the man in general …

He is definitely an agent of change and he refers to leaders as heretics throughout the book.

Even with the non-traditional format, the information conveyed by Mr. Godin is nothing short of masterful and virtually every snippet of information drove home a deeper realization pertaining to his view true leadership in today’s world.

One entry in particular seemed to summarize much of the content’s message and here is a peek at what you can expect when you read “Tribes”:

“The Elements of Leadership

Leaders challenge the status quo.

Leaders create a culture around their goal and involve others in that culture.

Leaders have an extraordinary amount of curiosity about the world they are trying to change.

Leaders use charisma (in a variety of forms) to attract and motivate followers.

Leaders communicate their vision of the future.

Leaders commit to a vision and make decisions based on that commitment.

Leaders connect their followers to on another.”

(excerpt from Tribes – page 126)

For those of you unfamiliar with Seth Godin or the Tribes concept, here is a video of an interview where he is discussing some of the ideas behind the book and may provide some additional insight:

Based on discussions with other people who read his book, Seth Godin left an indelible impression on all of us about the need for and qualities required of anyone who will lead their tribe.

Do yourself a favor and grab a copy today!

I suppose to the “run of the mill” business person the answer maybe a definitive …. NO!

Why you wonder?

To keep it short, this marketing expert/guru approaches problems and situations by normally thinking “outside the box” and is definitely an advocate of change (if you have any doubts, pick up a copy of his latest book “Tribes” and give it a read!).

So anyone familiar with Seth Godin and his work of marketing magic would expect the content on his blog to deliver his message with an equal tone … and he doesn’t disappoint ….

I have only been following Seth Godin’s blog via an email RSS feed for a few weeks and what I have found is a near-constant (every day or so)  flow of marketing magic.

One recent gem delivered fabulous insight about word of mouth advertising (Mechanics vs. intent) and how the desire to deliver the message is more important than the tools facilitating delivery.

Another of his blog entries entitled “Making Commercials for the Web” inspired a re-post on my blog several days ago.  Another marketing gem with insight on things to consider when preparing video commercials to post on video sharing sites like You Tube or other venues.

What’s really cool is that most of Seth Godin’s blog posts deliver his marketing magic jewels in 400 words or less … palatable to the busiest of web surfers ….

A sibling of his previous Magnetic Sponsoring book defining the fundamentals of online attraction marketing, Mike Dillard’s Building on a Budget uncovers several of the secrets behind the low to no-cost online marketing methods described in the course text.

Mike Dillard’s “Building on a Budget” Course Overview:

Consisting of six concise, easy to read and follow chapters, the last five chapters in “Building on a Budget” comprise the actual meat of the content.

Through those chapters, Mike Dillard goes beyond the simple “what to do” explanation found in many similar books by providing the basic “how-to” steps that helps propel your online marketing efforts forward.  These key chapters overview online marketing via:

1. Use of CraigsList with specifics on:
   1. Setting up your advertisement
   2. Writing the ad (a few copy-writing hints thrown in as well)
   3. A method to enhance traffic generation
2. Getting Free Traffic from Videos by:
   1. Getting set-up for videos
   2. Defining your target audience
   3. Send the proper message of attraction
   4. Including a call to action
3. Using Press Releases Optimize Search Engine Results by establishing:
   1. The proper title for the release
   2. Formulate a compelling summary
   3. Prepare an informative yet enticing body to the release article
   4. End with a call to action
4. Using Blogs as a Traffic Magnet describes:
   1. What is a blog and why you MUST have one
   2. Selecting the right topic
   3. Choosing the right blogging platform
   4. Launching your blog
   5. Posting content to your blog
   6. Driving traffic to the blog
5. Incorporating Funded Proposals to Convert Traffic to Leads and Sales
   1. Details of a funded proposal system
   2. Specific overview of MagneticSponsoringOnline.com

Beyond “Building on a Budget”: Magnetic Sponsoring Online System

One of the other “perks” included helping enhance the information provided in Mike Dillard’s “Building on a Budget”, Magnetic Sponsoring or any associated Mike Dillard course is the insight, training and tracking you can access via the Magnetic Sponsoring Online system website.

Even though Magnetic Sponsoring Online is available as an affiliate program, the training information and funded proposal system meshes perfectly with any of the products further enhancing the “usability factor” for the information found in Building on a Budget or the other courses.

The following screen-capture image of the Magnetic Sponsoring Online Back Office website shows the different resources available to any registered user:

Each of the tabs listed at the top of the site facilitates access the detailed training resources and features designed to optimize both your education and use of the Magnetic Sponsoring Online as a complete funded proposal system.

In my opinion, Mike Dillard’s “Building on a Budget” course book provides more than the $25.00 (e-book version) cost in education alone. Beyond the educational benefit, it is essentially required for anyone interested in using the Magnetic Sponsoring funded proposal system to generate leads opening the door to build future business relationships.

Watch your status updates, tweets and RSS readers for future review and guided tour posts about other Magnetic Sponsoring-related courses as well as the back office environment.

Read the post, watch the videos and let me know your thoughts about making video commercials for the web by commenting below!

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“TV advertisers are finally discovering that YouTube + viral imagination = free media.

The good news for you is that money is not a barrier, which means that marketers of any size can play. But the rules are different, as they always are online.

Because media is free but attention is not (this is flipped from TV world) you need to make a different sort of ad for a different sort of audience.

1. Assume that the viewer has the attention span of an espresso-crazed fruitfly. That means slapstick, quick cuts and velocity.

2. Find a word or phrase that you can own in Google, that fits in an email, and that comes up in discussion at the cafeteria table or in the playground.

Castrol gets both rules right in this inane commercial.

3. Length doesn’t matter. 10 seconds is fine and so is five minutes. Media is free, remember?

4. Challenge the status quo, be provocative, touch a social nerve or create some other sort of interesting conversation. In other words, a commercial worth watching.

Dove does both in this now-famous commercial.

Because of the power of free media, I expect to see a whole host of commercials that would never be deemed effective enough to spend big media money on, but that generate huge views online. Look for plenty of irrelevant slogans and catch phrases and off strategy content… anything for an eyeball.

Also, understand that this is out of your control. Once launched, what happens, happens. One commercial I know of caught fire and ended up with millions of views. The client then called the producer, screaming in anger. He wanted to be able to turn it off, to decide how it got used, who talked about it, etc. You can’t. Once it spreads, it belongs to the community, not to you.

The biggest shift is going to be that organizations that could never have afforded a national campaign will suddenly have one. The same way that there’s very little correlation between popular websites and big companies, we’ll see that the most popular commercials get done by little shops that have nothing to lose.” (Re-post of  “Making Commercials for the Web – from Seth Godin’s Blog“)