I was listening to a training call for my online business on Wednesday Evening. The speaker was a guy named Michelangelo, a leader in the business that I’m part of, who is an excitable speaker and charismatic teacher.

The gist of Michelangelo’s talk was the importance of giving things away. During his talk, he gave us his username and password to a location where he stores hundreds of dollars worth of software and e-books. I couldn’t believe he did that, but quickly jumped in and downloaded everything I could get my hands on. I felt like I was on a shopping spree, running around the store trying to fill my shopping kart as quickly as possible.

Why would he give us all those valuable tools? Doesn’t he realize that we are all competing for the same business and we’ll use those tools to our advantage?

Today, I found this story that emphasizes the principle that Michelangelo demonstrated to us.

There was a Midwestern farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won the blue ribbon, the top prize. One year a reporter asked him a question and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors.

“How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.

“Why sir,” said the farmer, “didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”

So it is in other dimensions. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.

The business I’m part of is called EDC Diamond. The members of EDC Diamond share a philosophy of working as a team. Being part of a team makes us all stronger. We grow better corn because we help our neighbors grow better corn.

I like that idea. Watch here for when I post some free goodies for you. Wait till see the value of the items I choose to give away.

I received a phone call the other day. It was someone who had come across my EDC Diamond website and they were promoting a free web conference call that would help me to “make more money with EDC Diamond than ever before.”

He told me that the speaker on the call was the “Best Trainer in the World.” He told me that Craig Garcia and Michael Corcoran of EDC Diamond both know this speaker.

I asked, “Who is the speaker?”

He responded, “He’s the best trainer in the world!”

Of course, he was using an approach on me to try to get me on the call, then they would sell me on some other business opportunity. But I decided, “What the Heck! I’ll listen in and see if I can learn something.” So, I agreed to participate in the call that was scheduled for later in the evening.

But, before it came to conference call time, I began thinking it over. First, EDC Diamond offers so many training opportunities, I don’t have time to take them all in. I have to pick and choose from all their training calls. Otherwise, I might spend all my time listening and learning, and none of my time doing the things that I’ve learned.

Secondly, Craig Garcia and the lineup of guests and business leaders that he has on his training calls are so full of knowledge of the techniques that work, I don’t believe that there is anyone out there that can give me any better training. I this guy was truly “The Best Trainer in the World” Craig would have him present his training to our team.

I used my time last Friday evening for much greater benefit than “The Best Trainer in the World” could have provided me.

Here’s another reason to be on the EDC Training conference calls each week. It’s also a good reason to become a member of EDC if you are looking for an amazing business opportunity.

Last night, Craig Garcia announced that they have put up several new capture pages for their members. These are high quality designs that are working well for several of the members. Because, in EDC, we work as a team, and all the members want to see the other members succeed, these leaders have made their capture pages available for all members to use, totally free of charge.

Take a look at the sample pages that we have available.

Martin Line’s page

Chris Jones’s page

Robert Probst’s page

Rick Van Ness’s page

Shay Patil’s page

Peter Grudner’s page

Lance Frisbee and Brian Troiano’s page

I’m using the Dave Dubbs capture page and it’s working well for me, but as you can see, all these capture pages are awesome. As an EDC Member, they are all available for your free use. Just go to the “capture pages” link in the “marketing tools” area of your EDC backoffice.

Last night on a conference call, Craig Garcia announced that EDC will be holding their first corporate event. This will be a huge training opportunity. Of course, Craig Garcia and Michael Corcoran will both be there. Additionally, Dwayne Golden, Jeffrey Coombs, and all of the top EDC producers will all be there for two full days “jam packed” with the best training and motivation that the business world could offer.

Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity. It will be held in San Diego, California on the 11th and 12th of April, 2008. It’s price of $99 is intended to cover the cost of the event, only. Craig doesn’t want to make any money off the event. He onlywants to help the EDC members to become wealthy.

Go to the EDC Corporate Events site for more information.

Get more information about the EDC Diamond business opportunity.

I received a phone call, recently, from a very annoying, high-pressure salesperson, who was a self-proclaimed master of the art of closing sales. He explained to me how he could train me to be able to close on 90% of all my prospective business associates in my Easy Daily Cash business.

This guy claimed to have been referred to me by the owners of Easy Daily Cash, who supposedly had recognized the power of this guy’s approach and wanted him to teach their affiliates how to utilize this method.

He proceeded to summarize his program for me. Admittedly, some of what he said made sense and I agreed with him. That’s because it was common sense stuff.

Where he lost me was when he started using his program to try to close the deal with me to buy his program. He asked me what else I needed to know before being willing to purchase his program. I told him that I needed to know the name of his company and some references so that I could do my due diligence and be sure that he was who he said he was and to verify that his product is as valuable as he claimed. Then I told him that I first wanted to speak with Michael Corcoran or Craig Garcia, the owners of Easy Daily Cash, whom he said had referred him to me.

He gave me the name of the company and their URL. He told me to call Chris Campbell, “You’ve heard of Chris Campbell, haven’t you?” he asked.

No, I hadn’t.

But then he told me that it wouldn’t do much good to call Michael Corcoran because, he said, “He’s not a power seller. Talk to a power seller.”

Then he proceeded with the hard close. He directed me to the “buy now” button on his website and asked me to get out my credit card.

I told him that I wasn’t getting out my credit card. I hadn’t done my due diligence, yet. I hadn’t spoken with any references, yet. I didn’t know enough about him to drop $2,500 into his wallet at that moment.

I guess, since my answer wasn’t and emphatic, “yes” he didn’t hear me. He did start to belittle and berate me. He began to interrupt every time I began to speak. Then he told me that this offer wouldn’t be available to me, ever again.

I told him, “OK, goodbye!”

Next, I immediately got on the phone to Michael Corcoran. He answered, (Have you ever been part of a business where the owner of the company will answer the phone when you attempt to call them?) and I told him about the call.

Interestingly enough, Mike had not referred the guy to anyone, and in fact, had never heard of the business. Secondly, the reference they gave me, Chris Campbell, had been a former member of Easy Daily Cash, but had been banished for using unscrupulous tactics.

I’m so glad that I insisted on doing my research before getting involved in that program. But, you know, I could never treat people the way that this guy treated me. I don’t even care if his program works. It’s important to me to feel good about the way I earn my money.

I guess I became that guy’s 10%.

There are so many unscrupulous business people on the internet. In fact, if you’ve heard my story, you know that I’ve been the victim of some of those swindlers.

Here’s how it happens. A person will become a member of a home based business program and begin to sponsor other members into their business. After they have developed a large enough following, they can buy into another high entry fee membership business program. Then, they begin to market their new business plan to all the members of their old business program.

It’s not real difficult for them to get their group to follow them. After all, they’ve been very successful in building a large business base to begin with. If they sell their group on the importance of diversification, their group will follow. If they brag to their group how the new business is so simple that they made $10,000 their first week, the group will want to do the same thing.

What they aren’t telling their group, is that the $10,000 they made last week was from members of the first business joining them in the new business. The bottom line is that there is only one person getting rich in this plan, and it’s the sponsor, not the sponsored.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve fallen for this con exactly 3 times. Okay, I admit it. I am a slow learner, but I learned, and I teach that to everyone in my group. If you have done your due diligence prior to joining a business program and are satisfied that it is worth your investment to enter, don’t even think about jumping into another business. The grass isn’t really greener.

Here are the benefits of sticking with your business plan and not allowing yourself to deviate:

• You keep your momentum going and will eventually benefit from your effort. When you skip to another program, you give up all you’ve started. You lose your momentum. You have to start all over again.
• You maintain the credibility with the people who have subordinated themselves to your leadership. Trust me, people will eventually figure out the deception and will quit jumping from program to program (or they will run out of money and just quit).
• You can sleep well at night knowing that your income was derived from the misfortune of others.

If you can learn from my errors, it might save you from claws of the vultures who are lurking around waiting for the opportunity to remove your money from your wallet.

My lead generation is now going viral. Bubonik is taking it to a new level. It’s worth it to check this out.

Bubonik, a FREE lead generation system, uses a viral system of creating a lead list by leveraging your lead building activities. This system is unique and explosive.

Here’s how it works:

• You sign up here. (It just takes a second and it’s completely free)
• You promote the system. (Their website suggests many options for promotion and it converts very well)

Everyone who subscribes through your link becomes your front line. Everyone who subscribes through the efforts of someone on your front line goes into your second line. And this goes on through six levels. I guess, in a way, it’s a Multi-Level lead building system. But they will never charge anything and you will not be required to buy anything, ever.

You are free to send an email to everyone in your “downline” once per week. If you’ve got 6 on your first level, and they each have 6 on their first level, and so on through six levels, you will have a network of more than 50,000 people as leads. Imagine sending a message, or an advertisement, or a newsletter to each of those 50,000 every week, all for free and with very little effort.

So what’s the catch. Well, remember, you are on someone’s front line. The person who advertised the link that brought you in has the right to send you an email every week. Remember that that person signed up through someone’s link. That person has the right to email you each week. And that goes on through all six levels above you. That means you will never receive more than six emails each week.

So for the cost of receiving 6 email per week, you can have the opportunity to reach thousands. To me, that’s hardly painful, at all.

So, what’s stopping you? Get more information here.

My, oh my! What I wouldn’t have given to have read this book a week ago! And I’m not even a complete “green” beginner.

Caroline Middlebrook wrote a 41 page ebook called, “How to Develop Money-Making Niche Sites with WordPress”. It describes the process for setting up static niche websites using WordPress. The book is well written, logically organized, and complete with the details necessary to set up a WordPress blog on a hosted account. Surprisingly, she’s giving the ebook away for FREE.

In addition to a WordPress website setup tutorial, she includes many handy tips and suggestions. She covers the topic of monetizing your site with AdSense ads in great detail. This discussion includes information about finding a specific niche as a topic for your site.

What stands out to me most in the book is on page 23. Caroline suggests a plugin (I was previously unaware of this one) that would have resolved my problem with the blog crash last week. This recommended plugin routinely backs up your blog at your predetermined interval.

Never again will my blog be taken down like this without my ability to restore it.

Download this FREE ebook, right here, right now: “How to Develop Money-Making Niche Sites with WordPress“

By crashing my blog, last night, I destroyed several months worth of work. All I could do was get completely away from my computer and clear my head.

After thinking about it, I realized that this situation gives me a great opportunity to start with a clean slate and create a better, more useful, blog with a clearer theme and direction.

I’ve decided to do some blogging over at “Blogger”. I’m doing that for 2 reasons.

1. It’s a free service. One of the things I’ve been working on is to blaze a path to traffic and profit without spending lots of money. Many people will spend all they have to get into a network marketing business and then find out they need more money to advertise, buy leads, etc. I want to show them that they can get traffic and develop their business without having to spend more money.
2. It’s part of creating a presence within the social media. I believe in dominating your niche. To do that, you have to have a broad presence on a variety of domains. If you were to Google the phrase match (with the quotes) “InstantCashFlood”, you would find that this blog shows up on Technorati, StumbleUpon, Digg, Ezine Articles, and many, many, more. Blogger will soon be on there as well. Don’t you suppose that Google likes Blogger blogs?

Don’t worry, this blog will continue. It will come back with a new strategy - better and stronger than ever.

Just remember, despite whatever challenges come up, God is greater…than any situation in your life!

I have never been so frustrated in my whole life. Well maybe I have, but I’m pretty frustrated right now.

I just attempted to update my Wordpress to a newer version and ***kablam*** everything’s gone.

I guess I did it wrong.

Now I start over.