John Dilbeck Musings

Healthy Coffee House (Murphy, NC US)

Come visit the Healthy Coffee House, Bed & Breakfast, and Bakery.

Have a drink on us!

Buy one, get one free any drink in the Healthy Coffee House.

Stay one night, second night half price.

Free wireless internet service.

Expires: This coupon expires on January 24, 2009.

Restrictions: One coupon per week per customer

Click the “Get Details” link below. You will go a new page where you can have the required coupon e-mailed to you instantly. Then print out the coupon and redeem at:

Healthy Coffee House
215 Peachtree ST
Murphy, NC 28906, USA

Questions on this offer?

Contact: Healthy Coffee House via Phone: 828-837-1515

Get Details and Money-Saving Coupon

If your business is located in one of the major metropolitan areas of the United States, you may want to try the new Shop For Ethernet service offered by Telarus and Cognigen.

Why is Ethernet the future?

Ethernet is a matter of plugging your network directly into a telecom provider’s network and bypassing your local phone company. Having direct access to customers allows the broadband Internet provider to control the user’s experience from end to end and reduce the cost.

These savings are passed on to you.

How does Shop For Ethernet work?

1. You enter your building address in the form at Shop For Ethernet.

2. You will see a map with your location along with markers of surrounding buildings who have been “lit” by the major telecom service providers.

3. If you would like to learn more, you can enter you contact information to receive a phone call from our staff of Ethernet service experts.

How is Shop For Ethernet valuable?

The GeoQuote Ethernet locator is valuable for people or business who are looking to:

* move into a building with existing carrier facilities.

* substantially upgrade their current broadband connections.

* establish a direct relationship with a provider without the local Bell in the equation.

* find a carrier who provides QoS (Quality of Service) guarantees. Since the carrier you select is in complete control of your connection, it is much easier for them to provide QoS.

* gather information that will be helpful in the planning stages of broadband deployment for a new real-estate development.

Is Shop For Ethernet free?

Yes. We do not require that you pay a fee to access this information - however, we do require that you purchase service through us if you decide to buy. We are compensated from the participating carriers when you order through us, which pays for the development and maintenance of this web site.

Can I order Ethernet service online?

Not yet. Even if our Ethernet lookup tool shows you are in an On-Net building, we must still go through a manual check on both pricing and service availability. However, know that our Ethernet Experts are here to assist you with every step of the process.

Shop For Ethernet is not for all businesses

Shop For Ethernet is for the largest businesses that need lots of bandwidth (100 to 1000 mbps) and are located in areas with buildings that are served by fast ethernet and gigabit ethernet providers.

It is not for all businesses and certainly not for residential broadband provisioning.

Other alternatives: Business T1, DS3, and faster

If fast ethernet isn’t available in your location, or if you just don’t need that much bandwidth, you can find what is available in your area. Shop For T1 offers real-time lookup of broadband providers offering T1, DS3, and other Internet connections. Our broadband experts have helped hundreds of companies provision better service connections and most of them have saved money in the process.

Small business and residential DSL, Cable Modem, and Satellite broadband

If you are looking for affordable broadband for your small business or home use, Shop For DSL offers real-time lookup of DSL, Cable Modem, and Satellite broadband providers in your location.

We can’t find a broadband connection for everyone - I live in an area without DSL access, for instance - but the first-class providers we help you find are extending their networks every day.

Act on your dream!

JD

(This article is part of my Marketing Tools and Techniques: Traffic Exchanges series.)

Normally, I won’t be promoting the latest and (supposedly) greatest thing, so don’t be afraid that I’ll bombard you with untested programs that may be here today and gone tomorrow.

I prefaced this recommendation because Soaring For Traffic is a new traffic exchange, but I believe it will be around for a long time and I think it will rise to be one of the best.

I’ve known Ray for a few months and I have seen for myself that he knows quite a bit about Internet marketing and is always working to learn more and to share what he learns with others.

I first met him on the Affiliate Funnel forum, where he answered some of my questions about ad tracking on traffic exchanges. I did some searching and found that he is the owner of Private Success Team, where he is busily helping others learn how to market on the Internet more successfully.

I recently learned that he has been working for about a year to introduce Soaring For Traffic, his free traffic exchange and downline builder.

Lately, I’ve become more discerning when it comes to traffic exchanges and I’m reaching the point where I probably won’t join too many more.

Over the last year, I’ve joined and used about 75 traffic exchanges with varying amounts of success. Now, I’m a member in about 60 and actively use about 20 of them.

I am an upgraded member in about a dozen exchanges, and I just upgraded my account with Soaring For Traffic.

Although Soaring For Traffic is free, you will get more traffic with less time and effort by upgrading to one of the two upgrade levels. I chose the highest upgrade and I’m looking forward to using this exchange a lot in the coming months.

I added about 170 sites to this exchange in one fell swoop by using my Page Swirl rotator and spent another hour or two advertising it on some of my marketing pages, including my LinkScout marketing site.

After I’d finished setting everything up, it was time to surf the new exchange and see how I liked it.

I found a couple of small errors when setting up to use the exchange, but surfing the sites of other members was easy and the site responded quickly, even on my very slow dial-up connection.

The downline builder part of the site contains five money making affiliate programs and I’m a member of three of them. I didn’t count the number of traffic exchanges in the downline builder, but almost all of my favorites were there and I saw only a handful of sites I’d never tried before.

I know that Ray will be a helpful and responsive owner, and that is a big part of being an upgraded member of an exchange.

Even though Soaring For Traffic is new, it already has nearly 1,500 members and is growing quickly.

Regarding the problems I encountered, one was just an incorrect height and width attribute in the HTML code for a 100×300 sidebar button link. That was easily corrected, and I’ll let Ray know about it as soon as I publish this.

The other was a bit more of a problem, but probably has an easy solution. The site offers a way to personalize one of the splash pages that can be used on other traffic exchanges. It features your name, photo, a banner, and a testimonial.

I filled in the form and submitted it, only to be told that the banner URL was incorrect. No problem; the exchange is new. However, the real problem, for me, was that the error page did not preserve the entries on the form that were correct. As a result, a very complimentary testimonial was lost.

Ray, if you read this, I said some nice things about you that nobody will read because the form lost my heartfelt compliments.

With only a couple of minor negatives (which I’m sure Ray will fix quickly) and lots of positives, I heartily recommend Soaring For Traffic to you.

If you want to be a free member, this exchange is better than most.

If you plan to upgrade, the prices are right and the One-Time-Offer page offers good discount pricing for an annual or lifetime membership.

If that doesn’t fit your budget, the second One-Time-Offer (OTO) page offers a 33% discount on the highest upgrade level, making it a good buy. Normally, the highest level, Soaring Eagle, costs $14.95 per month, and I think that is over-priced for a 1:1 surf ratio and anything less than 1,000 credits per month. However, the second OTO page offers the Soaring Eagle level for $9.99, and I think that is the proper price for what is offered.

I don’t know if either of these discount pages will be available should you join, nor what they may offer at that time. These things are always subject to change.

If you don’t take advantage of either OTO page, you’ll pay more, perhaps a lot more, in the long run.

Soaring For Traffic will be one of the dozen or so traffic exchanges I’ll use on a regular basis.

You can join Soaring For Traffic for free and see for yourself how well it works for you.

Act on your dream!

JD

Have you been thinking about trying Site Build It?

If you have, Ken is offering his annual holiday special. Until midnight, December 25, 2006, you can buy one and get one free.

That is a real bargain.

You have several options.

You can buy one for yourself and get a second one free. If you choose to do this, you can start building one and wait up to nine months to start the second site.

Or…

Buy one for yourself and give the second one to your husband, wife, son, daughter, mom, dad, friend, business associate, or anyone else to whom you want to offer the gift of learning how to build a part-time (or full-time) online business using the proven tools and techniques that Ken will teach you and your friend.

Or, team up with someone else and buy two sites. Split the cost and Sitesell Support will help you transfer the second site to whomever it should belong.

You don’t have to take advantage of the special pricing, but now is the time to do it if you want to save money. You could even buy now, and find someone next week or next month to sell the second site to.

Just don’t miss this special if you have been on the fence about getting Site Build It for yourself.

I can tell you that finding Ken Evoy a few years ago has made a big difference in my life.

I have been Mom’s full-time caretaker for about five and a half years now. When I decided to bring her back home instead of putting her in a nursing home, I knew I would have to find a way to work inside the house near her and still earn a living. I closed my metalsmithing business and concentrated on helping her.

After I’d quickly blown through my savings, I had to get serious about earning an income while still working at home.

Luckily, amongst all the Internet marketing hype that was calculated to relieve me of my hard-earned money, I found Ken Evoy.

I learned how to start earning money from affiliate marketing by reading his Affiliate Masters Course, and started making sales and earning commission checks when I put what I learned to work on some of my web sites.

Later, I purchased his Make Your Site Sell! ebook. That was the best $30 I ever spent and now I earn it back many times over every month.

I took what I learned and re-built all my sites (and this took about six months). In a matter of weeks, my sites were being found and people started buying what I recommended. It was the real turning point in my home business.

This fall, Ken decided to give away Make Your Site Sell! as a free download. Even though I still believe it is worth much more than the previous price, it is now free. If you have a website and you want to earn more from it, download this book and read it. Then put to work what you learn from it.

Ken explains on the site why he decided to give away Make Your Site Sell! and concentrate on making Site Build It even better.

Eventually, I was able to scrape up enough to purchase my own Site Build It subscription.

For just $300 a year, I got not only a website, but an ever-growing collection of integrated tools (meaning I never have to install and manage scripts), a members-only community of thousands of helpful SBI site owners, regular newsletters with information to help me improve my sites and earn more, and the benefit of Ken Evoy’s wisdom and experience.

In a sea of Internet marketing hype, Ken presents the voice of experience, calm, and making slow progress towards building our businesses.

Ken is not one of the “gurus” who cleverly craft a marketing business to drain us of the money that remains in our wallets and bank accounts. If you go to Ken’s Blog and read his article on “Mooch Marketing,” you’ll know what I’m talking about.

I have never lost money when I follow Ken’s advice. More often than not, I increase the size of my commission checks, and for that I remain grateful to Ken.

I don’t want to mislead you. I am not getting rich and I don’t think I will, but that’s not my goal.

Right now, my main goal is to do what I love doing, and earn enough from it so I can continue to care for Mom and let her live in the house she has lived in for over 30 years.

I have worked hard at this, but I have to share part of the credit with Ken Evoy for being able to make this work.

You will note, I hope, that I don’t mention anyone else when sharing the credit for building my home business. I have learned from others. I have lost hard-earned money to others. Ken helps me keep on course and continue to build my business.

I do maintain quite a few other sites that are not powered by Site Build It, but I’m re-evaluating that decision. I have had problems with hackers destroying several of my sites. I’ve had problems with updating and maintaining scripts on them.

I am seriously considering closing most of my non-SBI sites and putting my efforts into doing more with Site Build It rather than continually bashing my head against the wall with the other sites.

I have learned a lot, and if I had to drop all my sites but one, it would be powered by Site Build It.

I hope you enjoy your holiday season and have a happy, prosperous, and healthy new year!

John L. Dilbeck

AYearFromNow.com - Act On Your Dream!

My primary blog: John Dilbeck And Friends

Dan Nickerson has done it again.

Every time I turn around, Dan has come up with a brilliant idea and implements that idea before you can turn around.

This time, he has created the Newbie Report to help new Internet marketers learn more about the tools, processes and sites you need to master to profit from your marketing efforts.

It’s free to sign up for the newsletter.

The site already has links to some of the best marketing sites a new online marketer needs to find. Not all of the sites I’d recommend are listed, but it’s an outstanding start. I’m sure he’ll be expanding the listing as time goes by.

It even comes with a free affiliate program.

Go to the Newbie Report, sign up for the newsletter (the sooner the better, you’ll see why when you do it), and learn how to be more successful in your marketing efforts.

I’m not a newbie, but I’m looking forward to learning more from Dan.

Check it out right now!

The Power Blog is a brand new, hands-off, affiliate marketing service which combines the simplicity of dynamic internet marketing with the power of a search engine optimized blog needed to create a real profit pulling internet marketing campaign.

Join free or see all the benefits of pro membership.

After I discussed the idea with Peter Dobler, creator of the Power Blog, I set up a Success With Power Blog group on MySpace.

I’m inviting you to come and participate.

The more we discuss the Power Blog, the more we can succeed with it.

As long as I was promoting the Power Blog, I also created a lens at Squidoo, Success With Power Blog on Squidoo, to present it to new potential members.

I have a MySpace page, John Dilbeck, and I invite you to come view my profile.

I invite you to get a MySpace account if you don’t already have one. They’re free.

Sign in to your MySpace account and visit my profile page. Invite me to be your MySpace friend, if you want.

Then, come join the Success With Power Blog group and let’s spread the word.

BRMEMC.NET Launches High Speed Internet Technology Initiative Focused on Advanced Data, Communications and Entertainment to Homes and Businesses

YOUNG HARRIS, GA – May 15, 2006 - BRMEMC.NET announced today that it intends to bring High Speed Internet Connectivity to Members of Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation. Service will be delivered by deployment of emerging Technologies such as Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH), Broadband over Power Line (BPL) and High Speed Wireless (Wi-Fi).

With this service, BRMEMC.NET will be addressing the growing need for widely accessible data and communications to homes and businesses. Currently, access is available only in limited areas due to the constraints of telephone lines and equipment. By deploying a wide-area fiber network in conjunction with BPL and Wi-Fi, limitations such as geography and/or distance can be overcome.

At the end of 2005, BRMEMC.NET purchased fiber that encircles the entire BRMEMC service area. This fiber will serve as the backbone of our new data and communications network. From this backbone, fiber can be run directly to homes and businesses or can be used to feed Wi-Fi Access Points and BPL.

Brian Anderson, Director of Internet Services for BRMEMC.net said, “Our investment in a regional self-healing fiber-optic network will help us provide broadband services to many of our members that have never before had the option of high-speed Internet.”

Members will have access to reliable, high speed Internet connectivity and new options for data, voice and video. Bandwidth can be used to simultaneously provide high speed Internet access, phone service, video, and a host of other exciting features.

Response to this new project has been immediate and larger than expected. Local Real Estate Developers are already requesting that fiber be installed in existing neighborhoods, and many are planning for fiber to be installed simultaneously with electric utilities in new developments.

High speed Internet service will be priced comparably to DSL, but will offer higher speeds. Additional services such as telephone service or Voice Over IP (VoIP), Video, etc., will be offered through strategic alliances and/or partnerships with other service providers. Pricing for additional services will be forthcoming as those projects develop.

An online form has been created to assist in planning the deployment schedule. Customers can submit a response form at www.brmemc.net/response which will be analyzed to determine areas with the greatest initial need. Areas with no high speed Internet access will be given priority, and the goal will be to serve as many members as is possible. Keep an eye out for announcements for a deployment schedule on the web site at www.brmemc.net.

Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation is a member-owned electric cooperative headquartered in Young Harris, Georgia, serving over 45,000 customers in Cherokee and Clay Counties in Western North Carolina, and Towns, Union and Fannin Counties in Northeast Georgia. Organized locally in 1937, BRMEMC has invested nearly $100 million in physical infrastructure in its mission to provide reliable electric services to its members where those services would not otherwise have been available. In 2002, BRMEMC.NET began operation with a similar mission in mind: to provide high-speed Internet connectivity to our underserved region. Now over 3,000 customers strong, BRMEMC.net is forging ahead in its effort to make the Western North Carolina and North Georgia region a leader in the technology age.

Massive Broadband over Powerline Rollout in Texas [Wi-Fi Networking News]

For those of us in remote areas where DSL, Cable, and other broadband access services are not availble, BPL (broadband over powerlines) offers hope that we will one day be able to get fast access at a reasonable price. While there are technical issues to overcome, it’s heartening to see large rollouts of BPL.

Maybe it will come to your location, and mine, one day.

(Update: September, 2006 - These articles offer more information about Broadband over Powerline Internet access at Wi-Fi Networking News.)

Ken Evoy’s free Internet search utility has just gotten better, if you have any interest in RSS, XML, and blogs or for specialty hubs and directories.

Search It!, which does NOT involve downloading anything to your computer, is a utility that makes it easier to find information relating to business and ecommerce on the Internet. By using a multi-step process (usually three steps, but sometimes four), it will build the searches for you and go to the appropriate search engine, directory, or content site to find the information in which you are interested.

One item you’ll see in the Step 1 dropdown box is “Reference Library for Content.” By selecting that, Search It! will automatically populate the Step 2 box with appropriate choices. There is a link to get help for using the tool once you have selected your choices for Step 1 and Step 2.

The new searches listed in the Reference Library for Content choice in Step 1 are:

Yahoo! RSS Domain Search
Feedster Blog/RSS Search
Syndic8.com RSS Search
Google RSS Content Search
Yahoo! RSS Content Search

It’s taken me years to learn how to search for some of these things and where to go to find them, and Ken has just given you that power for free.

Not only that, but he just added four more searches related to hubs and directories. Select “Specialty Hubs and Directories” in Step 1, and you’ll see the following new searches in Step 2:

Google Wide
Google Tight
Yahoo! Wide
Yahoo! Tight

The help link below Step 1 and Step 2 gives information on how to use these new searches.

I use Search It! just about every day. It’s easy to use. Leave the small window open in the top-left corner of your screen so it will be available when you want to find something of interest. The more I use it, the better I like it.

I was surprised to see that I have several sites listed in the top 10 for both the Yahoo! Wide and Tight searches for the following keywords: Step 3 = “Murphy NC” and Step 4 = “travel”. It looks like the work I’ve been doing for the last several months is starting to pay off.

Cognigen agents now have the ability to market and sell long distance service to Canadian residents. Canadian long distance services will be provided by Cognigen’s alliance with one of our newest vendors, Convergia Networks.

Convergia is a world-class provider of voice, data, and Internet services for residential, business and wholesale customers. Using their state-of-the-art switching facilities and end-to-end network, Convergia presents the fullest potential of today’s broadband revolution. By introducing leading edge and innovative products and services, establishing global alliances, and always striving to improve existing business, Convergia is changing how the world communicates.

• Convergia offers Tier 1 voice quality to calls anywhere in the world
• Long distance calls across North America for as little as 4.9 cents per minute
• International toll free available
• Save more than 70% on international calls
• Huge savings on International calls via our own privately held network that spans over 152 points of presence in 45 countries
• Detailed electronic billing using our state of the art billing platform
• Choose between direct billing and credit card payment options

If you live in Canada, look into what Convergia offers you.