Hey, I am sure you have been waiting with baited breath for my verdict on Mark Joyner’s blogging course… And the verdict is in: it is great.

This is coming from someone who has paid thousands of dollars on learning how to blog… But I am a perpetual learner, and besides the course is free. You can’t beat that.

The Simpleology Blogging Course… A Gem is a post from: Sophie's Blog

Click here to get your own player.

testing podcast link is a post from: Sophie's Blog

As you know I am part of Tellman Knudson’s Black Diamond Line, which is an expensive (for me) coaching program with weekly question and answer type calls.

Tellman came up with a brilliant idea that will energize the program and cause “longevity” of participant: creating cooperative projects or businesses that he can coach us in.

3 groups got formed, and I am part of 2….

Oops, I have to go, I’ll continue later…

New Project: The missing puzzle pieces of The Secret is a post from: Sophie's Blog

I found a new site, owned by (if I understand correctly) The Purple Cow author, Seth Godin.

It is fun and funky. I have created a site there (they call it lens… I don’t know why just yet) and my address there is http://www.squidoo.com/newincomesource/

My site is nothing much yet, but other sites are spectacular. Go visit.

Squidoo.com is a post from: Sophie's Blog

I have been working feverishly in this new business to be. Part of that is testing the material on “apprentices”, like Marion and Jan, even if they don’t know that I am testing and practicing on them. Sorry Marion and Jan.

Second part is learning, re-learning this whole niche thing. I have been feeling very confident… except. Today I listened to one of my teachers’ Joshua Shafran’s live presentation with Randy Gage and a 3rd person whose name I didn’t catch.

One of the attendees of the seminar had a niche for smoking cessation… the said it is not a good niche, if your product is working you have to start to look for new customers… And that, even though I may have heard it before, had a dramatic effect on me: a client/friend/provider/collegue, of mine, Pam, has just picked a niche: addiction. And even though it feels like a sexy topic, it is not a good niche, you can’t offer them products for years, because outside of their problem nothing is in common with them… of course if you were in the business of giving them what they are addicted to: you would have a goldmine. Wow… I am embarrassed and elated.

Jan’s temporary site is here

Embarrassed… or elated? is a post from: Sophie's Blog

Hi! It is Sunday night, and we just finished four days of an intense learning event, Jim Edwards’ Marketing Bootcamp. It was tremendous, fun, and a lot of work.

It was the first multi speaker event where I have a feeling that I am actually going to implement a lot of what I learned here… so I definitely got my money’s worth.

Jim Edwards is the most generous marketer I know, and it is great to be a beneficiary of someone’s generosity at last.

I am going to sign up to be an affiliate of his stuff later tonight and I’ll post some links to my favorite stuff that he has published: they are definitely worth buying, whether I make a commission or not, highly recommended.

So stand by, and watch this blog for further info. xoxo
Sophie

Jim Edwards’ Internet Marketing Bootcamp, Atlanta, GA is a post from: Sophie's Blog

I have always had the dream of influencing a lot of people without having to convince them, persuade them, sell them, individually, one-on-one, piecework. (I say the word “piecework” and I cringe. I don’t want to do anything that’s piecework… I even cook for 10 people at a time, eat one portion, and freeze the 9 for later.)

I published my magazine to realize that dream. I wrote an editorial, and the next day 90 thousand people read it.

I have been training to be a trainer, to realize that dream. You stand in front of 5-10-100-1000 people, or if you are Billy Graham, in front of 50,000 people and speak. A certain percentage of them will hear you. But that’s a far cry from the 6 billion people that live on this planet.

If 85 percent of the US population has a consciousness level of 150, yet the average consciousness level is 207, that means that us, people who want to effect the level of consciousness on the planet, will have to start to speak to the masses, and be heard, and be effective to raise consciousness, because the 207 number means, that the ones that have a higher level of consciousness have little more to go… and the wars, and fights, and the destruction of the planet comes from the 85 percent, undisturbed by the 15.

I have come to the realization that if I really really really want to reach a lot of people, I want to have leverage. Leverage means that you put one effort in, and you get more than one result out.

In Internet Marketing, leverage works through having an affiliate program, where hoards of affiliates market YOUR product for a percentage of the price: a good deal for both the affiliate and the author of the product.

In my chosen vocation, Influencer (is there such a vocation?) I am planning on becoming a trainer’s trainer, and among the many trainers I may train, there will be some that have the same purpose I have, and by making them more effective in the major areas of training, they are working FOR me and the Light, in a way, delivering an influencing message, and make the world a better place for everyone.

What do I say the major areas of training are?

Nice of you to ask…

I think that being able to market effectively, sell well, gain credibility fast, fill rooms, create trainings that don’t need you to be there, or even be involved, yet it is your message that gets delivered, create joint ventures effectively, create a viral marketing epidemic about your product and message.

Of course everyone teaches what they need to learn most, so I learn something new every day… Like David Wood explaining that if you want to take them with you you need to meet them where they are and then walk with them and then take them with you, wherever you want them to go.

That, I coined it “alignment” has intrigued me forever. Because what does it take to meet them where they are: it means that you have to get out of your agenda, look and see where they are at, go there, be there, without resistance, without making it wrong, without condoning it, just be there, like where else should you be. This means energy level, this means point of view, this means emotion… whatever “there” means in that moment. Once you are there, with them, you can walk with them, and then walk with them where you want to go… emotionally, energetically, intellectually, physically… and there you go! 6 billion people walk with you.

So, to kick off this whole new trainer’s trainer business, I am putting together a 14 week course, on the phone, online, in writing. What do you think the topics should be? would you share your ideas in a comment, please? Thank you.

I Have Found My Niche! is a post from: Sophie's Blog

I just stumbled across a cool site. I think you will like it too. It works on the spiritual law of reciprocity. You pay $1.23 and have access to almost 300 gifts, totalling in value over 10K. In return, I guess, they get traffic, exposure, members to their list, neat concept.

It’s at http://www.123giftforme.com

Check it out.
P.S.
I liked it so much, I even gave them a gift
for them to give away to all of their members.
Let me know if you see it when you become a member.

http://www.123giftforme.com

this really impressed me is a post from: Sophie's Blog

My beautiful girl friend Larisa Belliveau is working on a new project: marketing cell phone shields that seem to make talking on the cell phone less bothersome, and hopefully prevent brain cancer. Especially teenagers are at risk: their brain is still in the development stage, and brain cancer is on the rise. I will inform you about the developments: I will do some of her marketing. To be continued…

What Larisa is working on… is a post from: Sophie's Blog

I have a friend, Keith Terracina. He used to work with me, for about 2-3 years (feels longer!) while I was publishing the magazine.

He invented the title for himself: Go-Go Man, but other than go-go photography, he is really good at capturing images of people, sunsets, etc.

He works in NYC, and has some time during the day to take digital pictures of passer-by’s.

I am trying to land a great idea how to showcase and make money for us with his pictures… any ideas?

In the meantime I set up a blog for this purpose on http://livejournals.com that allows the use of audio for posting, perfect for Keith who is not computer literate.

The link to that blog is http://mavensophie.livejournal.com/

UPDATE: that live journal project didn’t work, so nowadays he just calls me and I record our phone conversation. Hey, some people can only talk when someone listens to them. They thrive on the feedback, especially if it is different from their opinion. Keith is like that.

Anyway, we now have a site, http://www.PortraitsOfNewYork.com that has almost 10,000 great pictures.

I would definitely appreciate some feedback how we could monetize that great art project, so paying the rent isn’t an overwhelmingly difficult task every month.

I was also thinking about a contest of creating different little stories of the different pictures… and give a lot of small prizes and one really big prize.

Any more ideas? Please use the comment form to let me know. Thank you very much.

New Project: Portraits of New York is a post from: Sophie's Blog