Is it a questionable niche? Yes. Is it a crowded niche? Yes. Can you make a lot of money in a crowded niche? Absolutely. I don’t want the whole pie…I just want a small piece. Even a few little crumb would do.

Since I’ve been thinking more about getting some affiliate commissions going again, I decided to put a past successful site back on the table again and do something with it. It was a generic viagra site where I sold access to my list of cheap online sources. I charged $49.95 and had a LOT of people sign up for access. The site did well over $100k in sales and commissions back then in the first and second year it was live, then the bottom dropped out when Pfizer and the FDA cracked down on the generic drug websites, especially those using the term Viagra since it is a trademark of Pfizer. All the sites that accepted credit cards and payments (ie. Paypal, 2checkout, etc.) stopped processing payments from any drug related sites. Forget about it…

I kept the site and just changed it around a little it to remove any payment options and basically just left it there – forgotten and never updated. It still generates about a hundred dollars a month to this day just sitting there. I just decided that I will be bringing it back to life right before your very eyes. The site still gets several hundred visits per month with no promotion of any kind and the same old, static, outdated useless information. It has to do better if I work on it a little bit, right? So…look for that if you’re interested. I will post more soon as I get started on it. First I need to change the format around. I’m going to make it a WordPress site. I’ve been looking at Joomla a lot recently as well but I have to learn a little more about it first. Looks very cool though.

As far as I’m concerned, there is no company there. Money has vanished from my account and there is just nothing going on. The company appears to be dead. If you are considering joining and you’re here looking for opinions on the company, here is one for you… don’t waste your time.

If you really want to get into the business of foreclosure prevention, I will be posting more info soon on a few ways to do that profitably. You can make good money, but there is a lot of work involved. If you are afraid of working hard, get a job, don’t start a business.

I’m actually going to be doing my own thing soon too so look for that. I can tell you that it will NOT be Freedom Foreclosure Prevention or any of the other companies that want a ton of money from people just to join. And there will be NO recruiting bonuses just for signing people up. I am tossing around the idea of a 2-tier affiliate deal, but details are a long way off.

At this point the plan is to build a free, informational, self-help type of site for homeowners who are heding toward foreclosure. Then I might add paid services and info products eventually. We’ll have to see how things unfold. For now, I think most so called “loss mitigation” services out there are just ripping people off. That is just my opinion of course. Much of what they do the homeowner could do themselves if they knew how.

Gotta run…more coming soon.

It seems there are several people that have found this blog and actually refer people to it to demonstrate that CSG is not a good business opportunity. They make a lot of claims and use a lot of negative comments to try and persuade people to avoid CSG. In case you didn’t know…they are doing this to try and convince you to join ther latest company and make money off you. These are typically people that jump from one business opportunity to another looking for the one that makes them money without any effort on their part (which doesn’t exist by the way).

Almost everything you will find when you Google “Consolidated Solutions Group” is there either to talk you INTO joining CSG or OUT OF joining CSG and joining a different company instead. Whatever company they are in just happens to be “the best” company with “the best” track record of success and they pay the most money and everything about their opportunity is awesome and so on.

Take it all with a grain of salt people. It is all HYPE. Most of these opportunities pay these agents a commission for getting other people to join. Some of these companies charge $1,500 to become an agent for them. They train you and you get to call yourself a “cosultant” and for that you get to do all the hard work in getting a loss mitigation case closed. I think, though I am not sure, the referring agent receives like $1,000 of that sign up fee. Do you have any questions where their motivation is?

CSG has a tiered referral model which pays on several levels. Most others pay on one or maybe two levels. I don’t think one is any better or worse than the other necessarily, it depends on your goals and what fits your style. I have never liked the free signup model personally because most people who sign up for something that is free don’t even know what they signed up for. Those that do work very little if at all and the ones that actually try don’t have any money to support running a business which makes it more difficult to succeed. In my opinion, you must bein a situation where you do not NEED money immediately to start a business. Any business. It takes time and effort to make money.

Here is he bottom line on CSG and some of the other Loss Mitigation Companies out there… CSG has a decent opportunity to make money. Their program takes VERY LITTLE effort on your part compared to most of the other Loss Mitigation business opportunities out there. You basically just make initial contact with the homeowner and enter the lead into an online form in you CSG Backoffice. THAT’S IT! The company takes it from there. They have trained, experienced people who assist with closing the lead and getting a workout arrangement in place. They succeed in closing between 10 and 20% of the leads that are submitted.

It is just a fact that most homeowners do not qualify for loss mitigation for one reason or another. It is another fact that many homeowners “flake out” during the process for one reason or another. They change their mind, they borrow money from a friend or family member to catch up, they sometimes just decide to give up and let the bank take their house.

I find CSG’s numbers to be pretty good despite the spin agents of other companies try to put on it. Most loss mitigation companies claim that they have 95%+ success rate. Sounds great right? What they fail to tell you is that they only count the leads that have already been pre-screened and pre-quaified by YOU. You are required to contact the homeowner and gather all their information. You are required to obtain copies of their mortgage statements, hardship letters, release letters, and their payment for the loss mitigation service. Once all that is done, the company has a 95% success rate.

Just for fun, ask one of these reruiting agents what percentage of leads an agent typically has to go through before they get a homeowner to give them all the required paperwork, documents and the company’s loss mitigation fee. The agent has to do all the hard, time consuming “leg” work. Also, ask them if they joined the company for the loss mitigation income or the recruiting income and decide why you are joining. If you are looking to pitch a business opportunity all the time, find a company that has a high referral commission.

Be smart. Don’t be sheep. Find what works for you. Don’t listen to everything you read.

As for me, at this point I am still with CSG and I have been paid all of my outstanding commissions. CSG is a young company and they have had some growing pains in the past. I believe most of their issues are now in the past. They are having much greater success now that they have flushed out most of the MLM’ers. Of course now all the MLM’ers are badmouthing the company in order to get you to join their company and make money off your signup fee (that is what MLM’ers do).

All I can say is watch out for these people. If you are considering joining CSG I would still be cautious however. They don’t seem to have their act together completely just yet.

 

I have BIG NEWS to share with YOU…

http://May1st2007.com/?x=1189901 The BIG NEWS: Internet Marketing pioneer Rick Raddatz is launching five major new marketing services in 2007.

Cost: Free

This is your last chance!!

Well things are all set with Schefren and Strategic Profits. I got my second refund with no issues at all. It is nice to have a company handle things properly and do what is right without making the customer fight for it. Like I said, I love Shefren’s program but I just cannot handle it right now. If you would like more info on him and what he teaches, the following link will take you to his FREE page where you can download his materials and watch his movies at no cost:

==> http://schefren.infusionsoft.com/go/vault/bizdream

Very good stuff. I actually got a lot out of the free materials before I signed up with them. His subscription materials are even better if you can handle it. Now on to the rest of my day. I will be organizing my office and writing up a 30 day action plan.

 

I have decided to drop the Rich Schefren program. The materials are very good but I just can’t justify the cost and time requirements at this time. Perhaps in the future but not now.

Now the fun begins with refund requests so we’ll see how they handle that. When I first signed up with them, they said there was a 30 day guarantee. I signed up on 2/12 and they didn’t even have the site up and running until early March. I requested the refund on 3/29. I was then charged a second time on 4/3. I received a refund on one month’s payment on 4/6.

So now I was charged for two months and refunded for one month. I have requested a refund on the second month now as well.

It has been over three weeks since my last post and I wanted to give a very quick update on things that are going on with me lately.

1. I just got back from Houston, TX where I learned about a strategy for investing in real estate that will change the way I do things around here dramatically. It is actually a proprietary system developed by a 25 year investing veteran who does 3-5 deals per month averaging about $10k to $15k per deal. And he does it without using his own money or credit and through realtors and mortgage brokers all above board and fully disclosed to all parties. And he takes it easy too. Pretty cool. So, I will be working on that. I’ll keep you posted.

2. Consolidated Solutions Group continues to take off like gangbusters. I am working on putting more tools together for my team to help them as I start to add their services into my business model as well. I now have 2,874 members in my group, which really blows me away considering i only have 77 personally sponsored. It goes to show that it is not about quantity when building a team, it is about quality. You could have 50 people on a baseball team, but if they all sucked, they would lose every game. I’d take 9 good players any day.

3. I joined Rich Schefren’s Business Growth Systems coaching program last month and absolutely love it so far. This guy is the cat’s meow when it comes to running a business. I wish I could spend a month going through all his materials but there is just so much knowledge pouring out I can’t keep up.

Here out up a special page called “The Vault” where all of his FREE materials ae posted. Here is the link if you haven’t been there yet.

==> http://schefren.infusionsoft.com/go/vault/bizdream

I guess the only compaint I could have is that there is so much to take in that it gets overwhelming. His videos are awesome but they are like 2 hrs long each!

I need to get back to work. Make it a great day!

I was doing some research for one of my niche sites (fireplace doors, screens, tools & accessories) and came across a company called NetShops. They have like 50 specialty niche stores that sell a wide range of products. I was amazed at the domain names they own. I am going to test them out immediately to see how they convert my traffic. The first niche site I’m going to link to them is http://www.centuryfireplace.com/ which currently just offers up Adsense ads. It gets about 430 pageviews per month and does pretty well with adsense but I’m looking to expand things a little to generate more income.

NetShops requires approval so follow this link to their site and apply as an affiliate. They do review each website before allowing you to become an affiliate so get it setup first. I think they are worth it from the look of their niche sites and their affiliate back office. They use DirectTrack for their affiliate management software which is a very nice product as well. 

Okay, so you want to start an online business. You’ve been looking for something that works for you. Here is the best source for REAL dropshippers and wholesale products anywhere online. Chris Malta has been featured all over the web for his work researching and screening sources for products to sell online.

Check out this free video to learn more about OneSource and Worldwide Brands.

It has been five days since may last update on CSG. My total downline is now at 1,835 and it just keeps on growing. This Thursday ends another pay period so I am looking for some good news on the commission front. I still have yet to see any team overrides, though I didn’t expect to see any real results for about three months because I was focusing on team building as opposed to client sales. It has been about 2-1/2 months now since I signed up so things should start rolling in any time. 

I signed up for the Strategic Profits coaching program (or whatever its called) this weekend. I like a lot of what Rich has to say, though I have a long way to go until I can be as process oriented as he is. I will certainly be working on it though because he and his students have made mega-fortunes in their businesses. I see no reason why I can’t do it too.

I agree with just about everything he teaches so this is like a wake up call for me. I have always been looking for the right business that will allow me to profit without being present. I do not want t business that I have to work at every day. I want something that takes care of itself for the most part and that is what he professes to teach. I have lawyer friends and sales friends that think they have it good but if they don’t go to work, they don’t get paid. What good is that?

I’m also waiting for more updates from another online marketer that I purchased this blogging package through. She has some very interesting information and software to share about getting higher natural page rank. I’ll keep you posted on that as well when I learn more.