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How To Make Your Stiffest Competitor
Your Best Joint Venture Partner

– by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
The Net Reporter Ezine
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When someone threatens us, we instinctively look for ways to
either avoid, evade or protect ourselves from the perceived
threat.

In business, where money, security, and even our family’s
future rides on our every move, anyone or anything we
perceive as a “threat” usually causes us to go into
“protection” mode.

Once in “protection” mode, we close off to all possibilities
except avoiding or defeating the threat.

On the flipside, anything or anyone we see as able to help
us build our business, expand our reach, or improve our
profitability, makes us instinctively think of ways we can
use that to our advantage.

Once you understand this simple fact, it’s easy to see how
YOU can to turn your biggest competitors into your best
Joint Venture (JV) partners.

“Competitor” is nothing more than a label someone else
places on you because they see you as wanting to get the
same thing they want (from a limited supply).

In other words, if 100 customers exist, and your
“competitor” perceives you as basically selling the same
thing they do, then the race is on to see who can get the
biggest share of those 100 customers.

This behavior stems from a “scarcity” mentality of “The pie
is only so big and I need the biggest piece possible!”

My advice: STOP trying to divide up the same pie.

Bake a NEW PIE and get your competitors to *SELL* IT FOR
YOU!

Any competitor you see in the marketplace can actually turn
into your best Joint Venture ally and strongest sales person
if you know what to do.

Your job is simply to find out how you can complement what
they do rather than compete head-to-head with them.

For example: I sell an ebook (2 actually) on how to sell
thousands of ebooks on the Internet.

The material comes directly from my experience of actually
*doing* it – rather than regurgitating what others have
done.

Since I already have two ebooks on “ebooks” I have no
interest in promoting someone else’s ebook on the same
subject.

In fact, I get rather snitty when they ask because it shows
their complete ignorance of this principal.

On the other hand, what if they baked a “new pie?”

What if they created a piece of software that made
converting Word docs to PDF a snap and cost a fraction of
the price for Adobe Acrobat?

What if they baked a pie that made it simple for ebook
authors to automatically post their ebook for sale on all
the different online bookstores out there?

What if they created an easy-to-use system to help ebook
authors get their ebooks listed on Amazon and gave me a cut
of the action when I sent them new customers?

What if they created a system that made it easy for ebook
authors to offer a copy of their ebook on CD or in hard copy
form without expensive set up fees?

NOW WE’RE TALKING about things that, in my mind, would
immediately take them out of the “competitor” category and
place them in the “I’d like to know more about you”
category.

So if you want to bake a new pie (get your competitors to
view you as a friend and seek you out as a JV partner),
follow this three step formula.

First, step back from the marketplace and see what the vast
majority of people in your marketplace are selling,
promoting, or offering (they’re all doing virtually the same
things).

Second, think about how you can help them AND their
customers get MORE of what they want faster by complementing
what they already do and not competing with them.

Third, wrap your product or service in a way that your new
ally can not only make more money or more sales of both your
product and theirs, but also make their customers even
happier as a result.

–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-
step how to get anything you want out of life…

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Discover The Incredible 5-Step Goal Achievement System
That Gives You A Positively ** Unfair Advantage **
In Business… and in Life!”

Click Here => How To Get Anything You Want
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

** Attn Ezine editors / Site owners **
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your
ezine, blog, autoresponder, or on your site so long as you
leave all links in place, do not modify the content and
include our resource box as listed above.

Feel free to substitute your affiliate link in place of
our link in the resource box.

Affiliate details are available here:
“5 Steps To Getting Anything You Want” Affiliate Program

Jim Edwards here with a time-sensitive update…

Wed Night (7/13/05), expert copywriter, Michel Fortin, and
I are going to teach Armand Morin how to set up his
blog (Armand’s a complete novice when it comes to using a
blog to make M0NEY with content).

=> http://www.PowerBloggingSecrets.com/

We’re going to cover:

- Setting up the blog (what software to use and why)…

- How to make money with the blog…

- How blogs bypass spam filters that eat up your emails
and never get read by your target audience (hint:
it’s something called “RSS”)…

- How to attract hordes of qualified prospects to your site
almost at the drop of a hat (you post and BAM!, tons of
visitors come crashing in)…

- Discover what “RSS,” “XML,” “trackbacks,” “pings,” “feeds,”
“permalinks” and so on mean… and how you can make money
with them! (For example, do you know you can place ads
like Amazon.com or Google AdSense on your feeds and don’t
need to do anything?

… and lots more!

Claim your spot on the call right now!

=> http://www.PowerBloggingSecrets.com/

To your “blogging” success!

Jim

PS – the call is going to fill up fast! So claim a spot now

=> http://www.PowerBloggingSecrets.com/

… and now, on with this week’s article!

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Three Cool Things You Can Do Online

– by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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** Publish Your “Real” Book On LuLu.com **

“Print-on-demand” publishing makes it simple to get your
book into print without a traditional publisher.

“Print-on-demand” does just that: no copies of the book get
printed until after there’s an order.

This style of self publishing really hit its stride in the
last few years as a result of improvements in computerized
printing technology and the emergence of Amazon and other
online book sellers as legitimate distribution channels.

However, expensive setup fees and high printing costs per
book still kept print-on-demand outside the reach of many
smaller or first-time authors.

Lulu.com changes all that. Now you can publish your book as
easily as uploading a Word document, using a “wizard” to
design your cover, click a few buttons, and you’re
published.

LuLu.com will also list your book via Amazon.com and Barnes
and Noble’s website.

They don’t charge a setup fee and only charge 20% of the
book’s cover price as a royalty (on top of a per book
printing cost that rates as low or lower than most print-on-
demand publishers).

If you want to order a crate of books for yourself to hand
out as business cards or as Christmas gifts, you can get a
special cut rate where you only pay for printing and binding
costs.

Overall, Lulu.com rates a “must look” if you want to publish
a “real” book without the hassles and disappointment of
traditional publishing or the usual up front fees of print-
on-demand publishing.

** Get Free Tech Support **

Log on to HelpOnThe.net to find a wealth of free technical
support staffed by volunteer geeks and nerds who know the
“real” story behind those error messages.

Search their extensive collection of discussion threads to
find the answer to your question someone else probably
already asked.

Or, post your question in one of the forums and wait for an
answer.

As always, beware of free advice and take precautions to
back up files before making any changes to your system.

But, before you spend 2 or 3 hours on hold waiting for tech
support (did you know some companies started charging for
phone support?) see if you can find the answer to your
problem from The Tech Support Guy at HelpOnThe.net

** Create Your Own “Podcast” – Fast **

“Podcasting,” or audio “blogging,” enables content creators
to share their thoughts, rants and raves via MP3 audio over
the web.

A variation of traditional text-only “blogging,” podcasting
takes its name from the Apple Ipod MP3 player used to
automatically download and play MP3 audio files.

Despite many advancements in MP3 encoding technology, it’s
been difficult for many people to record their podcast and
get it on the Internet in a way others can automatically
download.

Log on to AudioBlog.com and your problems are solved. This
nifty online service enables users to record MP3 audio right
through your web browser or even over the telephone and then
publish the RSS feed (Real Simple Syndication) necessary to
create a podcast.

Basic accounts start at $4.95 a month.

–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-
step and click-by-click how to finally create your own
money-making mini-sites…

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Finally! A Quick and Easy Way For YOU to Painlessly Set Up
Your OWN Moneymaking ‘Mini’ Websites… Without Being a
Computer Geek, Buying Expensive Software, or Paying
Outrageous Fees To A Webmaster!”

Click Here => http://www.MiniSiteCreator.com
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

** Attn Ezine editors / Site owners **
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your
ezine, blog, autoresponder, or on your site so long as you
leave all links in place, do not modify the content and
include our resource box as listed above.

If you do use the material please send us a note
so we can take a look. Thanks.

© Guaranteed Response Marketing, LLC

Here’s another posting of the infamous “Mini Site Creator” Review.

If you want to learn how to create your own money-making mini-sites,
maybe this tool is the answer you’ve been looking for!

http://homepage.mac.com/dmcorp/C2051749313/E1480586961/index.html

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Software Patent Debate Rages Online

– by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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I recently attended a conference in Las Vegas where 3
presenters got on stage and said that consumers, software
developers, and website designers risked massive fines and
even criminal charges for using MP3 audio online.

After I recovered from my initial shock, I realized they
were talking about a software patent held by a French based
company, Thomson, which enables them to charge licensing
fees for anyone using their MP3 audio technology.

Upon opening this proverbial “can of online worms” I
discovered that a whole world of what many consider
unenforceable software patents exists online.

From my research, much of the online software patent debate
stems from patents issued in Europe that may or may not get
enforced. Did you know that someone patented the process of
an online shopping cart?

Sun Microsystems patented the “shopping cart” process and
could try to collect a royalty from anyone who uses a
similar system (which rates as anyone selling anything
online).
http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=EP807891

Another company patented paying with a credit card over the
Internet, which would definitely shut down the vast majority
of all ecommerce if they could enforce that patent!
http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=EP820620

Log on to www.nosoftwarepatents.com and
http://webshop.ffii.org for some startling information.

I contacted an attorney specializing in Internet law, Bob
Silber of www.InternetLawProducts.com, to get his opinion
specifically on the debate about MP3′s.

“The mp3 licensing issue is not new, but recently resurfaced
after an Internet marketer did a ‘scare tactics’ campaign
for his own marketing purposes. Thomson is the company
holding the portfolio of patents related to MP3… Currently
Thomson doesn’t require an mp3 license for non-commercial
activities or for businesses generating an annual gross
revenue less than US $100 000.”

So, unless you’re making MP3′s or software that creates
MP3′s and making over $100,000 a year doing it, it doesn’t
appear you need to worry about this particular patent issue.

Even then, it appears the owners of the MP3 patents would
find it very difficult to enforce their patents with so much
new technology emerging that builds on, and fundamentally
changes, the original technology.

But this does open up a greater debate about what should and
should not get patented when it comes to software.

I’m fully in favor of people protecting their rights when
they create any intellectual property (software, audio,
written material, etc.), but that’s a copyright issue, not a
patent issue.

“Copyright” means nobody can do it the way you did it (with exact words, computer code, etc.).

“Patent” means nobody can do it at all without paying someone else a fee / royalty or “TAX” because they patented the “result!”

That makes a big difference when you talk about fundamental
elements necessary to make the Internet and computers run.

It was fine for Bill Gates to copyright DOS, but what if he
patented “computer operating system?”

Would that give him dominion over every computer that booted
up for next 50 years? Impossible!

Unless the courts want to shut down the Internet or
computers in general, software patents are, by their nature,
unenforceable.

With so many different computer languages, methods, and
means to do anything with computers, it’s not fair or
practical for one person or company to own a “result” or a
“process” like online “shopping carts” or “online audio.”

That would be just like allowing someone to patent “bottled
water,” and charge us all every time we took a swig from a
plastic bottle.

–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-
step and click-by-click how to finally create your own
money-making mini-sites…

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Finally! A Quick and Easy Way For YOU to Painlessly Set Up
Your OWN Moneymaking ‘Mini’ Websites… Without Being a
Computer Geek, Buying Expensive Software, or Paying
Outrageous Fees To A Webmaster!”

Click Here => http://www.MiniSiteCreator.com
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

** Attn Ezine editors / Site owners **
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your
ezine, blog, autoresponder, or on your site so long as you
leave all links in place, do not modify the content and
include our resource box as listed above.

Feel free to substitute your affiliate link in place of
our link in the resource box.

Affiliate details are available here:
http://www.minisitecreator.com/affiliate.html

If you do use the material please send us a note
so we can take a look. Thanks.

© Guaranteed Response Marketing, LLC

For those of you in the States…Happy Independence Day!

Now even if you don’t celebrate “The 4th of July” like we
do in the U.S., today is still the perfect day to think
about your independence.

And for just that reason, we have 2 important articles to
share with you…

The first is something my buddy Yanik Silver released
briefly but had so many people raving about it that we’ve
decided to republish it for all our subscribers.

And the second article is from Dan Kennedy.

If you haven’t heard of Dan Kennedy let megive you the
quick run-down. He’s a speaker, consultant, business coach,
and author of numerous books as well as his famous ‘No B.S.
Marketing Letter’, which is considered the best business
building newsletter of its kind.

In fact, Dan is widely respected as one of the top marketing
minds on the planet.

Here’s to your independence,

Jim

P.S. One more thing – we’ve managed to secure you a 3-month
‘test-drive’ of Dan’s ELITE Gold Membership as a special
“4th of July” gift. You can read all about it here:

=> http://www.your4thofjulygift.com/jedwards/

=========================

When Is Your Independence Day?

By Yanik Silver

========================

July 4th for Americans is a chance to celebrate our
independence. Trust me, I’m not going to get on a soapbox
and start waving the flag – but I do think it’s important
no matter what country you live in to really think about
that word “independence” and its meaning for you.

My father reminded me that July 3, 1976 was his
“Independence day” since that’s the date my family came
over to the United States from Russia. (Pretty cool since
it was right before the bi-centennial celebration.)

For me, my independence day was on July 1, 1999.

That’s the date I left my father’s business to work on my
own. It was by far one of the hardest decisions of my life.
You see, I had worked for my dad since I was 12 and he
thought I was going to take over the company. I had that
same thought as well until I got the “bug”.

In fact, my wife, Missy, and I were talking about this
recently. She was talking about how when she met me 9 years
ago, I had only one thought: “how to grow my father’s
business”. I would stay late working on new ads and
marketing pieces. I was in early calling my accounts trying
to make sales, etc. etc.

Now I had been studying direct marketing, and results were
really paying off for my dad’s business. (Actually they
still use a lot of the ads I wrote in 1998 because they
still work today.) But with every ad I wrote I was getting
more and more aggravated. Not because the ads weren’t
producing sales – they were – but because of the grief and
politics I had to deal with. Everybody seemed to be an
advertising expert even though they’ve never studied or
read anything on the subject. People mistakenly believe
that if they wouldn’t “read all that copy” then nobody
will. Or if the ad is “ugly” and has no pictures or pretty
graphics it won’t work.

Complete and total crap.

For every ad I wrote I had to fight to get it out there. I
got sick of it and decided I would create my own product so
I could write ads for myself. My first product was to help
dermatologists who wanted new cosmetic patients. It was a
big kit (manual, tapes, reports, diskette, etc) based
around some marketing consulting I was doing on the side
for one of my customers.

I ran my first ad in April 1998 in Dermatologic Surgery
magazine. I got 10 responses so I sent them the 20-page
sales letter I’d written selling this $900 kit. Not one
order.

I waited…

Sent out a 2nd notice to those 10 respondents.

Nothing…

Then I sent a 3rd notice telling them the expiration date
to get all the free bonuses was only 10 days away. Finally
on the very last day of the expiration date I got one order
over the fax machine.

Yipeee!!

I still remember that doctor’s name in Flushing, NY. What
an incredible feeling. That was the start of my
independence. I realized I now had the power to chart my
course as I wanted. That first sale. That’s one of the
greatest feelings in the world – when something you’ve
created is sold. It took me a little over a year after that
first order to realize I wanted my freedom and I finally
quit on July 1, 1999.

Maybe it’s the new confidence you get when you realize
you’ve created something that people want and are willing
to exchange money for. That first sale is usually the
hardest (but also the most rewarding).

It’s wonderful when I help turn on that light in people.
I’ve seen it first-hand working my Apprentices and seeing
them launch their products. How amazed they are by the
money pouring from around the globe. I love it!

And my wife is striking out on her own with a little bit of
my help. She set up her first web site -
http://www.InstantThankYouLetters.com and she’s getting
checks each month.

So when will your independence day be?

If you’ve already achieved it – I bet you can remember it
perfectly. Sometimes the bleakest times that we believe are
terrible actually turn into a perfect opportunity.

Take my good friend, Jim Edwards’, for example. His
independence day came because he got fired. To him that
wasn’t a blessing at first but as he looks back on it -it’s
the best thing that ever happened.

I remember the conversation we had right after it happened.
I was drinking a bourbon and Jim was having a beer. We were
talking about different projects he could try and pursue
and do now. We were throwing around some ideas and we came
up with “33 Days to Online Profits”.

http://www.33daystotoonlineprofits.com

It was right there during that call that we outlined each
of the days and moved forward from there. And “33 Days” has
been a tremendous six-figure income earner for both of us
and it doesn’t seem to let up.

So what can you do to achieve your independence?

I’ll give you a couple things to take to heart. I can’t
remember the author who said this but he said if you show
me what a man does in his spare time I’ll show you the type
of man he’ll become. What are doing with your spare time?

- Watching TV or reading?

- Napping or practicing your copywriting?

- Yakking to your friends or studying direct marketing?

It all comes down to the choices we make every single day.
In fact, you shouldn’t let one day go by without making
sure you are taking at least one proactive step towards
your own independence. Just because the thought of you
doing what you want when you want may seem so far away -
don’t let that stop you from taking those baby steps each
and every day. That’s one of my rules and I hope you’ll
adopt it.

What else?

Learn to be different. The truth is you need to become
extraordinary to achieve extraordinary results. You can’t
be like everyone else (and why would you want to). That
means doing the things other don’t (or won’t) do. That
means not listening to their advice (unless they are doing
what you want to do). Frankly, if you simply did the exact
opposite of what everyone else is doing you’d turn out
okay. Why? If only 5% of people are truly successful and
the 95% are the mediocre majority – doesn’t that mean the
majority is wrong? Don’t engage in their thinking. Don’t
follow their lead. Don’t adhere to the same values and
standards the “95-percenters” do.

Two people who really helped me clarify my thinking on this
were Early Nightingale and Dan Kennedy. (See next article
for his insight and a special gift I’ve arranged for you.)

Please don’t get me wrong – in no way am I trying to be
elitist. I’m not. But it is tremendously important to go
through your day with your eyes wide open. The truth is
most of your friends (right now) probably don’t want you to
change and succeed. That would imply that they are losers.
That would mean they are failures. Nobody is going to
propel you to succeed except yourself.

So get on it and proclaim your own Independence Day
starting T-O-D-A-Y!

* * *

And here’s article #2 from Dan Kenendy for you…

=========================================

“3 Ways To Accelerate Independence”

By Dan S. Kennedy
==========================================

Most people reading this have goals.

If you do not, you need to stop reading, close your
business for a couple days, lock yourself away in quiet and
private and figure out what you want and don’t want. But
let’s assume you have goals. If you do, you would probably
like to reach them faster. After all, we live in a
lightning speed, amazingly impatient world.

What most entrepreneurs’ experience, at some point in their
lives, is what I call the “wealth sprint to independence.”
Yes, life’s a marathon. But almost every highly successful
entrepreneur has had the same experience I’ve had: a short
sprint of 3, 4 or 5 years where you achieve more than in
the previous 15, 20 or 30 years. What makes this sprint
happen? If you knew, could you force it to happen
immediately?

There are many factors in order to accelerate your
independence and I’d like to discuss a few of the most
important ones with you:

(1) INCREASED INVESTMENT IN VASTLY
SUPERIOR MARKETING AND PROMOTION

Virtually everyone who’s done the ‘wealth sprint to
independence’, kicked it off with advertising, marketing or
sales breakthrough or related business breakthrough, such
as premium pricing. For one, a TV infomercial; for
another, joint venture alliances or ‘parasite’
opportunities with other entrepreneurs; for another, adding
tele-seminars; for another use of the Internet.

One way or another, they found a new or better way to apply
some proven marketing strategy or tool to their business
and did so aggressively. This is why it is so vital to be a
very, very serious student of successful marketing. To be
on the constant hunt for that one idea, that one ‘tweak’.

(2) IMPROVED WEALTH CONSCIOUSNESS

I don’t mean to sound esoteric. But, believe me, us multi-
millionaire ‘independent’ entrepreneurs do think about
money differently from the rest of the folk. Profoundly so.
For example, we know that money is infinite, not finite;
that price is incredibly elastic; that everybody finds the
money to buy what they are really motivated to buy; that
it’s always a great economy for the adept marketer.

We have no hang-ups about sales, promotion. This is why it
is very important to associate with such people any and
every way you can, so their unorthodox thinking can become
your thinking.

This is why tele-coaching and coaching groups, tele-
seminars, tapes, books and newsletters from such bona fide
sources are of such immense value. Quite frankly, if
you’re not hitting your independence goals as rapidly and
easily as you’d like, it probably has a lot more to do with
your thinking than your business, its location, its
customers, its competitors or other external factors.

(3) INTENSE EFFORT

We do a lot and get a lot done. I’m amazed and dismayed at
how little others make happen, hour by hour, day by day.
Here’s a good question: if I came to your business on a
field trip and followed you around all day, every day, for
a week, how impressed and in awe would I be at…

Everything you do everyday to attract new customers?
Everything you do to convert leads, to get more value from
leads? Everything you do to analyze your business everyday?
Everything you do to nurture the relationship with your
customers? Everything you do to manage your time
effectively? Everything you do to improve your knowledge
and skill? Everybody you associate with?

Not just one or two things ­ everything ­ lots of things.

If I wouldn’t be all that impressed then you shouldn’t be
either, and you should be striving to up the ante on your
productivity.

**
Recommended Resource: Through a special arrangement that
we’ve set up with Dan Kennedy, you can test drive a 3-month
FREE ELITE Dan Kennedy Gold Membership, which includes 3-
months of his fantastic NO B.S. Marketing Letter.

For complete details click here:

=> http://www.your4thofjulygift.com/jedwards/

**

That about wraps it up.

Enjoy your 4th of July and Happy Independence Day to all our
valued subscribers.

- Jim