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A Beginners Quick Start Guide To The Customer Journey

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If you are new to business and online marketing, welcome! I know from experience that it can feel both exciting, yet overwhelming to know where to start. This article shows you how to get off the mark with the customer journey to your first few clients. It will address three core reasons why businesses fail as it relates to the customer journey. The three areas are, no product to market match, no compelling offer, and lack of funding. It will also cover some free and low cost assistive tools for online deployment.

Business Failure: No Market to Product Match

Before looking at all the bells and whistles that might comprise your marketing resources and essential toolkit, it's important to take inventory of what you are looking to bring to the table through your gifts and talents by way of a product or service. Having determined that, who is your target avatar and how does your product or service fit with the market? 

Research

Since a no product to market match is one of the cited reasons a business fails in the first few years, it is important to avoid the temptation to second guess the market. Let the market give you the feedback.

Step 1 – Collate

Compile research on your topic area from both a market data and educational perspective. Look at opposing viewpoints too. A simple free tool to start is to use your google browser to type in a buyer keyword to see what people are predisposed to buying in your category. Artificial Intelligence has also developed free tools such as SIRI and Google Voice. Google Keep and Evernote are valuable tools for capturing information.

You could also use social media sites such as facebook, linked in and google ads, or you could use special interest forums. Alternatively you can use sites like Fiverr or Upwork as a low cost way to get your research off the mark.

Step 2 – Engage

It's important to speak to your target market, in order to further test how your product or service will meet their needs. This will help you develop and refine your offer as you customize for an optimal fit. You can use typeform or google forms as a free tool to compile a brief survey. You could also print your form off and do this informally in your community or at your local business event. If you want to gather survey data on a more global basis, you might want to consider survey monkey as a more specific alternative to social media ads. This is a paid service.

Bear in mind that any data and research will form part of your marketing collateral later. Here is a free guide on how to create a lean canvas, which is a streamlined one page diagrammatic layout for your business model with research tips, by Ash Maurya. Keep it simple.

The Customer Journey

The whole process of sales and profits is not simply about how good your product is but also about the prospect you foresee becoming your customer. So it pays to understand the journey of sales from their perspective, not just yours.

Source Image: Customer Journey

For example there are various models which give out a structural formula from your perspective, and the most common one I see is the AIDA formula, which stands for Awareness or Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. That is client acquisition from your perspective, so you may wish to consider a more expansive process that covers the relationship from initial awareness to what it would be like to have a long term customer who is happy to espouse your services to others.

It is worth taking the time to profile your client as that will give you a depth of understanding which will enable effective communication as you create touch points. Psychographics is the term often used to describe this activity, where you examine attitudes, buying behaviours, desires etc.

Touchpoints

Touch points are the various ways in which you will communicate and educate your prospect throughout the customer journey. This may include email, direct messaging, business events and phone conversations. They will take on board the demographic profile of your prospective customer too. Demographics are to do with location, job, income for example.

If your solution is solving a problem a potential client does not even know they have, education is going to be a key part of your communication process. Bear this in mind as you move forward. Touchpoints should be a secondary consideration to building on the foundation of understanding your customer, as Mckinsey & Company conclude.

“We found that a company’s performance on journeys is 35 percent more predictive of customer satisfaction and 32 percent more predictive of customer churn than performance on individual touchpoints. Since a customer journey often touches different parts of the organization, companies need to rewire themselves to create teams that are responsible for the end-to-end customer journey across functions.” 
McKinsey & Company

You can create a visual template that maps out the customer journey using free tools such as mural. Or you could use microsoft dynamics. Here is an example of a simple design overview.

Source Image: Customer Journey Template

Education

This is an important factor and needs to be done in a way that rather than simply persuade, will help your prospect make an informed decision. This means including the benefits but also the downsides, or who this is not for. This approach helps to build trust, which is at an all time low in general. So be willing to take the time to build trust. An automated way to educate your prospects in a drip feed manner is by the use of an autoresponder. This way you can pre-sequence and deliver content at a reasonable pace.

Autoresponders do not come cheap and increase as your audience grows. The only exception to that which I found is trafficwave.net which keeps a consistent low price regardless of audience size. Better still is Markethive’s free autoresponder which has a one click sign up facility and great deliverability. For a walk through on the setup of this autoresponder watch this video tutorial.

You can combine that with a medium to educate your prospects such as live events or video. You can use audio too if you are camera shy but video is best in a world where trust is at an all time low. Education is where you get to showcase your expertise as to how your offer will significantly benefit your prospect. This may happen in an experiential online or offline event. 

The more you can show rather than just tell, the better.  You want your prospect to be able to experience a different future as a result of purchasing from you. Assistive free tools you can use are zoom’s video conferencing tool to interact, which is free to use for 40 minutes for a maximum of 100. You can also record videos too. OBS is a free video and live broadcasting tool which you can download to your computer and create educational content too. Markethive will shortly be coming out with its own inbuilt video conferencing in due course as it comes out of beta. So watch this space.

Business Failure: No Compelling Offer

When you offer your product it is important that it is a compelling offer, otherwise you will fail on execution. This is where proof of concept comes in.

Proof of Concept

Proof of concept is where you get to test the viability of your product or service through confirmed sales, prior to a full launch. This may come in a break even or beta form, where you give a discount in return for your prospects trial of your offer, and their video feedback for example.

The results can become part of your marketing on a bigger scale later. In the meantime, it is important to bring clarity and confidence to the prospect if they are to buy from you. While it is possible to conduct sales manually, you will also need to consider an online website and payment structure. 

When it comes to websites, your choice will depend on your business model. You could use a simple lead capture page to start with, which will allow you to integrate your chosen autoresponder. Markethive also offers free capture pages. WordPress is a popular free drag and drop website platform with free themes which shape the look and feel of your site. 

You will need a domain name and hosting for your website if you choose this route. You also may need to acquire a bit of technical knowledge to put it together. Here’s a tutorial. A less usual but cheaper and faster alternative is amazon S3 web buckets. Canva is also a great free resource where you can use templates to build websites and create graphics to get started.

For a cottage industry, you might prefer to start with a low key way to test the water and build community so one option might be Buy Me A Coffee, which has less of a corporate feel, and where you can connect to a payment provider called Stripe. For payments in general, you can always use paypal, stripe or wise, both of which have an invoice feature, and are global providers.

Business Failure: Insufficient Funding or Lack of Capital

This is a common reason for business failure and many funding attempts fail and are unable to compete with global corporations. However, If you construct your business plan in the manner described in this article, you will stand a better chance because you will have demonstrated a compelling offer to market match.

New funding sources are emerging all the time yet many of the conventional ways still are not working for entrepreneurs. Creativity is needed and it may be that you start simple with a self-liquidating approach where you use a skill as a side hustle to acquire cashflow for your business.

Another consideration that has serious merit is Markethive. Markethive is an example of an innovative ecosystem which has overcome the product to market match, has a compelling offer and a funding solution for the new and existing entrepreneur, in action.

Firstly, Markethive is meeting a demand in the markethive place with a compelling suite of offers in both free and paid membership. Built from the ground up, it is now powered by the blockchain as a social network and inbound marketing ecosystem combined, with free and cost-effective tools to help level the playing field for the entrepreneur just starting out. 

If you need to acquire marketing tools to reduce costs, you get at least $2000 worth of that in the free membership alone, including an autoresponder and lead capture pages to name a couple. You also get rewarded for contribution to the platform. When it comes to cash flow its unique ILP offer [initial loan procurement] provides a paid subscription which gives you even more tools while sharing in the profits of the company as the company grows. 

This unique offer is shortly to expire, so check out all this ecosystem has to offer and see where it might fit your needs. It was built for you. Consider how it will help you future proof your business.

Launch Party

When you finally launch your offer, celebrate! Consider having a launch party where you create a special offer for first time customers.  It is no mean feat to have created an offer to market match and one that is compelling. You have set your business up for success! Although this article has addressed how to get off the mark, the sale is just the start, and it will bode well to remember that. 

How you nurture your client, so that they become a returning customer, where appropriate, is going to be down to how you nurture and support that relationship, as well as the value-added improvements you make to your offer. You will also need to consider how to scale and automate key parts of your business, such as social media content sharing so you can focus on your expertise.  

Also remember to continue to communicate with those who did not purchase. Many buy later in time. Lack of follow through is also responsible for lost sales. According to one report 60% of customers reject offers four times prior to an eventual purchase.

On a final note, the beauty of surveying prospects is that they too can become a part of the journey of your compelling offer, helping you to craft the perfect offer through their feedback. This makes them more than a purchaser, someone who has become part of the creative journey and solution. They are your community, the ones that are likely to act like your marketing arm or ambassador in the future. Look after them and your business success will increase.

 

 

About: Anita Narayan. (United Kingdom) My life's work is about helping individuals to greater freedom through joy and purpose without self-sabotage, so that inspirational legacy can serve generations to come. Find me at my Markethive Profile Page | My Twitter Account | and my LinkedIn Profile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

General

The Psychology Of Marketing

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The Psychology Of Marketing

 

Marketing aims to identify and satisfy customer demands by providing products and services. The marketing process includes exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet a target market's needs, whether online or at trade shows and public events. 

The decision to launch a marketing campaign is reasonable based on several factors, such as the availability of products, the need to correct erroneous information, or a desire to drive traffic to a particular website. 

You can implement a marketing campaign to emphasize specific themes or attributes and select a target audience. These themes or features may inform customers about the value of that particular product or service or inspire them to purchase it. It is essential to know your target demographic, as it allows you to tailor your ads to meet their needs and desires.

Marketing arose as a result of the rapid development of civilization. As long as there was an excess of demand over supply, manufacturing companies could concentrate on production only. However, with the rapid growth of technology, the production process accelerated, and gradually the market began to satiate until supply began to exceed demand. At that moment, solving how and what to produce was already necessary. 

With the modernization and simplification of production, the number of companies on the market also grew, and consumers got more choices. With increasing competition, companies began to address the question of what steps to take to make consumers choose their products. And hence there was space for the emergence of marketing.

 

Thus, marketing creates links between the market and businesses. It is based on human needs and desires. The human factor is applied and manifested both on the demand and supply sides. It is evident that psychology will also play a role in marketing.

Five Basic Psychological "Tricks."

1. Reciprocity (commitment)

    – give a little something for free, and then it'll come back to you

      as no one wants to be in debt 

2. Liquidation Offer and Consistency

    – we don't all like to make decisions 

    – we are afraid of the new and the unknown

    – we'd better shop at a friend's

3. Price Anchor and Contrast

     – When something's on sale, we go and shop

4. Paralysis of Decision-making

    – make it easier for people to make a choice and make an offer that, at a glance, 

      is the best possible solution you can buy

5. Social Proof

    – a lot of people have already bought it.

More About These Five Points:

What is the principle of reciprocity?

One person gives another a "gift," and the donee feels obligated. Thus, they feel a natural obligation to return the gift (to meet the following requirements of the donor).

What is a liquidation offer?

It is an offer so convenient and cheap that we do not have to think about buying for a long time. The price tag of such a liquidation offer is often meager, so we just do not have to consider for a long time whether it will pay off for us or not.

How does the principle of consistency work?

The principle "advises" us not to take risks and do what we already know and have tried. It protects us from the fear of the unknown. It is the principle people follow when they shop in the same supermarket for years, even if a few meters away is a new modern supermarket, which is cheaper and has a broader range.

What is a price anchor?

Discounts in marketing can work precisely because of the price anchor. It is the price tag or value of the goods. For example, when a product costs 100 USD, the price anchor equals 100 USD. When the goods suddenly have an "action" price of 69 USD, it seems advantageous to us thanks to the price anchor.

What is the paralysis of decision-making?

It is caused by more similar offers where the customer hesitates on what to choose.

Eliminate selection where possible or pre-select the most crucial option – the most effective solution to decision paralysis.

How does contrast work in marketing?

It is similar to a price anchor. In short, we compare two variants (more expensive / cheaper). And naturally, we choose the more profitable one. 

If it is not evident at first glance which offers are better, then follows a decision paralysis. In this case, customers often choose neither because they are looking for the best possible solution (convenience, savings, etc.) and cannot make a choice.

What is social proof?

It's confirmation from other people that our decision is the right one. These are references, sales figures, but also, for example, restaurants full of people.

 

 

Half of all our activities are based on habit. 

In marketing, on the contrary, we need to break the potential customer out of his habit. But psychologists have observed that we are most accessible when we have a life change – we are moving, we have a baby, we are approaching 20., 30., 40., 50…. birthday. 

Finally, Something About Colours

Colour psychology is the study of hues as a determinant of human behaviour.

Carl Jung was one of the pioneers of the interpretation of colours and their significance for the human psyche.

Jung said,"colours are the mother tongue of the subconscious." Colour influences perceptions that are not obvious, such as the taste of food. Colours have qualities that can cause certain emotions in people. They can carry a specific meaning.

        

 

What Is New In The Last Years

Biochemical marketing, as the new type of marketing is called, can increase efficiency by up to half and reduce costs by 70-80% in the format of low-cost multi-layered marketing. And in doing so, it is enough to know and use the biochemistry of four substances generated in a healthy human body: serotonin, dopamine, endorphin, and oxytocin.

Each of these substances has its own features and functions. Still, they are all responsible for positive changes in the human body, increasing the level of trust between people, reducing stress and anxiety, and creating a sense of well-being. And thanks to this, low-cost marketing can be done through public relations, social media, events, etc., with the help of biochemistry.

 

In no case should we forget, whatever methods we use, that our goal is a satisfied customer who returns. The applied psychology of the marketing world helps to find the necessary keys to understanding how the human mind works and is the basic knowledge of getting potential customers to buy your products eventually.

 

Although, at first glance, marketing may seem like a simple matter, if you delve into the issue more, you may start to feel a little lost. Markethive will provide you with comprehensive marketing tools. It is a platform for entrepreneurs with many innovative features. You will find all the tools for your business under one roof and have the opportunity to contribute to the spirit of friendly cooperation.

"Marketing is a war of perceptions.“         Ivo  Toman

 

Sources:

https://www.marketingovenoviny.cz

https://foxentry.com

https://www.dusansoucek.cz

 

 

 

General

THE ESSENCE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

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THE ESSENCE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

 

 

The entrepreneurial spirit is a gift that inspires others to become the best they can be. Entrepreneurship is the act of starting a business, and it requires creativity, drive, and the ability to solve problems. 

An entrepreneur takes a risk and works hard to make money. There are many types of entrepreneurs. Some start businesses from scratch, and others buy already-established companies. Some entrepreneurs work alone, while others need employees to help them run their businesses. 

The word “entrepreneur” comes from the French word “entreprendre,” which means to start or undertake a business venture. Although it can be a lot of work, entrepreneurship is rewarding and very fulfilling. The essence of entrepreneurship is having a dream and a vision for changing the world, being willing to take risks, and sometimes being misunderstood. 

Also, be willing to put in the work, put in more than those around you, and be ready to be the one who is not afraid of the darkness but rather the one who steps into it first. Entrepreneurship is more than just having a great idea and starting a business; it’s about changing lives and improving our world.

 

 

From passion and positivity to leadership and ambition, here are the entrepreneurs that best define the entrepreneurial spirit.

Armour Of Entrepreneur – Main Features

Passion

No one embodies the word "passion" quite like Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin mega-brand. Part of Branson's passion lies in his insatiable appetite for starting companies. Founded in 1970, the Virgin Group has expanded to more than 200 companies, ranging from music, publishing, mobile phones, and even space travel. "Businesses are like buses," he once said. "There's always another one coming."

Positivity

Jeff Bezos knows the power of positive thinking. Living by the motto that "every challenge is an opportunity," Bezos set out to create the biggest bookstore in the world with a little internet startup called Amazon.

Adaptability

Having the ability to adapt is one of the greatest strengths an entrepreneur can have. Every successful business owner must be willing to improve, refine and customize their services to continually give customers what they want.

Leadership

A good leader is someone with charisma, a sense of ethics, and a desire to build integrity within an organization–someone who's enthusiastic, team-oriented, and a great teacher. All of these attributes were embodied by the late Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, a company that has helped more than half a million women fulfill their dreams of owning a business.

Ambition

At age 20, Debbi Fields didn't have much. She was a young housewife with no business experience, but what she did have was a great chocolate chip cookie recipe and a dream to share it with the world. 

Fields opened her first Mrs. Field's store1977, despite being told she was crazy to believe a business could survive solely on selling cookies. Fields' headstrong determination and ambition helped her grow her little cookie store into a $450 million company with more than 600 locations in the U.S. and 10 foreign nations.

 

Once More – The Main FIVE

– Passion, Positivity, Adaptability, Leadership, Ambition

Most of it you cannot learn from books. It is in your character, in your experience, and in your life journey. 

You hear it all the time from famous entrepreneurs: Long before they were running multimillion-dollar companies, they were flexing their entrepreneurial skills by selling lemonade on the corner, building gadgets in their garage, or hosting weekly college beer pong tournaments. It seems that behind every successful mogul is a kid who grew up knowing they were born for business.

 

If you notice where those who represent some of the most successful entrepreneurs come from, much of the world is missing out. In many countries, private business was interrupted by political developments – it was sometimes very limited, often totally prohibited. In some parts of the world, it was not possible for teenagers to sell products house-to-house or set up their first small business in a garage.

Those who spent their youth in countries with limited opportunities now have to catch up with many. Sometimes it's like jumping on a moving train and not knowing where the train is going. And that's why people from these countries, without business tradition or continuity, need something extra. A good dose of :

 

  • Courage 
  • Enthusiasm
  • Self-confidence
  • Persistence
  • Support of their loved ones

While they often lack the money for investment to have a good start, if they have true entrepreneurial courage in their hearts and can mobilize their energy, then with a little luck, they have a chance of success. 

 

 

 

General

BEWARE OF BELLS and WHISTLES and UNFOUNDED CLAIMS SOME HOME TRUTHS ABOUT ONPASSIVE AND PASSIVE INCOME

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BEWARE OF BELLS and WHISTLES and UNFOUNDED CLAIMS
SOME HOME TRUTHS ABOUT ONPASSIVE AND “PASSIVE INCOME”

 

At one time or another in our online journey, we’ve been led to believe we can get-rich-quick or live a luxurious lifestyle on passive income for very little to no work involved. Even more now than ever, there are millions of people looking to make an income online and are spellbound by the so-called limitless potential of the internet especially when someone tells you you don’t have to do a thing, it’s all done for you, so just pay the money and let the money roll in passively. 

Although some of us learn that this is just fantasy, others, particularly the tens of thousands of newcomers to the online world are sitting ducks for any so-called company promising great riches with no real evidence of the amazing proprietary technology they endlessly spruik about and the passive income promises they make. 

 

Passive Income Is A Risky Fantasy

Online technology has greatly evolved since the dot.com era with automated marketing and AI and although it has its place, there’s a lot more to building a business than relying on automation or other people to work it or bring in new recruits for you.  What makes a business work is by creating value on a personal level. If you're going into the business with the intention of having it magically provide money for you while you sip margaritas on the beach, then you often get roped into dubious companies making unfounded claims. 

The majority of people I see who are only interested in passive income haven't learned how to create value in the first place. They're just going along with the gimmicks, tricks, and formulas, basically wanting and believing they will get the lifestyle promised to them without doing anything to the point where it becomes a cult. 

 

Too Many To Count

There have been so many companies that have failed due to pyramid structure or matrix compensation plans which is the primary structure that pays the thousands of people their promised millions of dollars. Either intentionally or unintentionally they failed. 

Then there are the ones that intentionally create a business with no products on the back end, in fact, the websites never existed.  Just one example is PRSI. William Caudell offered people a wholesome internet business that turned out to be a bogus marketing scheme, which cheated them out of $13 million was sentenced to 11 years in jail, originally 14 years, however, it was reduced after Caudell cooperated with the authorities by giving up his co-conspirators. 

PRSI made its money by charging a $295 "application fee" that qualified users for the "Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) System" that would provide them access to their own site in an Internet shopping mall.

But there were no Web sites, nor any intention to provide them. PRSI was "selling air". Instead of providing Internet shopping sites, PRSI recruited "CyberManagers" who would recruit others to buy into the plan, and the new recruits would find more participants to pay the fee – a classic, illegal pyramid scheme that hooked 48,000 people globally. The company's Web site advertised that the company was dedicated to protecting children and creating a pornography-free e-commerce site that would spark the interest of any humane individual. Great hook! 

Tugging On The Heartstrings 

The latest current program, as it stands at the moment, and similar in nature to PRSI is GoFounders/Onpassive which hone in on the heart of people. Everyone wants to belong to something. They play on peoples’ sense of community and tug at their heartstrings, literally brainwashing their victims. GoFounders.net seems to be the matrix program and the funnel to access Onpassive.com, (awaiting launch), which is purported to be the marketing suite with proprietary products. (Although it states on their website that GoFounders is the product. See image below) 

One of the catchphrases is “Artificial Intelligence with heart”. AI is defined by its very name, it has no heart, it’s artificial. The heart comes with the human aspect of a business that provides value and personal experience the customer receives from a living person. So if the main feature that sells this concept is to automate everything so the business owner doesn’t have to do anything but rake in the money, they are doomed from the very start. Any professional, experienced marketer will tell you there is no such thing as “completely done-for-you systems”.

While I was researching this topic I found that GoFounders.com, the domain, is up for sale for $31,700. You can buy this domain from Epik Inc. Copyright © 2020 by Epik Inc. All rights reserved. Whois Privacy services provided by Anonymize.com. Obviously too expensive to acquire for the company that boasts two luxurious offices – one in Bangalore, India, and the USA headquarters in Orlando, Florida, USA. These two locations actually rent temporary (by the hour) office space to any business, and thanks to another scam researcher, Robert Preston, who went to the Orlando Office only to find Onpassive is not there. 

Ash Mufareh is going to great lengths to make ONPASSIVE seem like it’s growing into an IT tech giant, yet it suffers from a lack of quality control. For  example, the video says “In the heart of Disney Land.” First, Disneyland is one word, and in California, not Florida where Walt Disney World is.

NOTE: Ash Mufareh has also registered another Orlando, FL address for ONPASSIVE that is not the same as this office building. This other address is, 9924 Universal Blvd., 224-320, Orlando, FL 32819. When you Google that address, it comes up as The UPS Store.

On one hand, they proclaim you will earn $2 million a month passively for a one time fee, so unsuspecting people sign up, pay the fee, only to find they are now saying you must “work hard and smart” to achieve that, along with financial disclaimers according to Ashraf (Ash) Mufareh, the founder and CEO of GoFounders/OnPassive, in a zoom meeting held last week by a group of leaders that invited him to speak. In that same webinar, he stunned the attendees with his new and latest announcement of implementing an Onpassive Academy for school kids, due to the COVID19 situation. I wonder if this will delay the launch yet again! 

 

The Perpetual Prelaunch

This program has been taking money from people while in prelaunch now for over 2 years with nothing, no sign of any marketing software, except for the promise of “never been done before” automation and AI technology, but to keep these members placated, it had provided a URL shortening tool which you can access for free anywhere. Personally, I refuse to call it a company until I see proof of their claims and products.  

The normal procedure for a real startup company has 3 stages. Telling members they are holding off the launch till everything is perfect while stipulating a joining fee is a RED FLAG. 

  1. In the Prelaunch stage, a company starts to build an audience so it can actually have a product for people to try.
  2. Private Beta is where a company has products that members can use and do use. It can still be buggy at this stage and this is where the company continues to develop and fine-tune its systems while still continuing with member development.
  3. Public Beta is when a company can take on more members because it knows it has delivered and continues to deliver value as well as introduce and roll out further upgrades and services that are stated on the white paper and road map. 

Marketing should start at pre-launch and carry through to all stages. All genuine companies that integrate and use the latest technology have an official whitepaper and road map. In all my research I have yet to find an Onpassive White Paper or Road Map.  

Notably, I found only four videos. Three of them were hyped up videos of roughly around 90-seconds in length each, that belonged to Ash Mufareh himself, but not of himself on his YouTube channel that had a total of only 420 subscribers. The one other video was a presentation by one of his recruits. You’ll only ever actually see him on a few webinars of his top leaders in Onpassive at which he has been an invited guest. 

All meetings seem to be very Kumbaya with very little substance and all very vague of what is actually promised to the members in terms of its “seismic revolutionary technology” and marketing tools. The rest is excited hype. Transparency doesn’t seem to be one of Ashraf Mufareh’s fortes. All of the webinars are still there on YouTube with the repetition of the exact same things said a year ago, always being equally “excited” and “blown away” by all the wonders Mufareh keeps talking about, during these webinars – but of course, that’s all “proprietary”, so he can only hint at it. (the guy seems to think “proprietary” means “confidential”).

Video Compliments of Julian Leahy

The Matrix Of Infinity

Onpassive’s compensation plan was until recently, a 3 x 10 matrix, and since been changed to a 3 x infinity corporate matrix. Every individual has their own matrix they need to fill within the corporate matrix. Below I do the math on a 3 x 12 level matrix then go on to 20 levels for those that haven’t taken that into consideration up to this point. 

The initial joining fee of $97 upfront, locks you into the infinity corporate matrix. Then at launch, you need to become a customer initially, pay one of four levels $25, $125, $250, $500. This is a monthly fee, which the leaders claim will become self-funding, therefore not out of pocket once you fill your matrix.  Each level has a finite amount of tools available for use. If you want them all to complete your marketing suite, you need to pay for all 4 levels upfront totaling $950 monthly. Once you have your back office, with a click of a button you become an independent reseller even though it’s touted that you just pay a one-time joining fee of $97 now before it goes up to $997, then sit back and earn $2 million a month. 

What is noteworthy is that for any MLM company to be a legal entity, it needs to have retail customers yielding retail sales separate from the distributors or resellers.

There are no qualifications needed, just join up and get paid by every new member that comes into your team. According to one of the leaders, Mike Ellis, This comp plan is “revolutionary” and “really really cool, really really ingenious” as you as a member get your level 4 monthly membership (once you’ve reached level 4) paid by the “profits of the company.” (in other words, the money from the people that have come in after you that are in your personal matrix within the corporate matrix.)  

Revolutionary? No, it’s been done and failed too many times before. This matrix program is just hiding under the guise of the latest technology of the products (that no one has actually seen yet) that most people know very little about. Any real AI company will tell you it is very expensive to implement and maintain to keep it running at top-notch. 

 

Let’s Do The Math

In a 3 x 12 matrix pyramid scheme in which the top 3 people recruit 3 new people. Those 9 recruits 3, the 27 beneath them bring in 3,  81 beneath them, 243 beneath them, 729 and beneath them, 2,187 beneath them 6,561 and so forth down to just the 12th level is 4,782,969 recruits. 

On the 20th level, it equates to 10,460,353,203 people which is more than the current population on earth. Unfortunately, everyone that comes in, even the last person to be signed up thinks they are at the top of the matrix. (Psst… you are! – The top of YOUR matrix with nobody under you until you make the effort to recruit, and until then you pay the monthly fee for the tools.) but wait, there are no more people left in the world to recruit. 

What about spillover? Unless you come under a hotshot recruiter and particularly if you come in at a lower level there is no spillover, it dries up as the people who have been told they don’t need to recruit come in before you have their infinity matrices to fill before they even get close to you. Let’s face it, most people that are drawn into a program that promises to make them a millionaire don’t know how or even want to work for their dreamy lifestyle. 

 

Genuine Customers Who Want The Purported Services Of Onpassive Are Waking Up

One of many members that joined over a year ago, had this to say,

“I, unfortunately, joined this company over a year ago "yea I know stupid me" but I didn't believe the bullsh*t about making all that money with the matrix plan doing little work but instead was trying to find a marketing system that would help me with advertising my affiliate programs and other business ideas. For the last year, I have been hearing the company's mouthpieces talk about we are "just about to launch so get in now". 

Since that time the "Founders'' have gone from around 25,000 to now well over 110,000 and still, we are "just about to launch". I just wanted the services which were promoted in the beginning but now it's all about creating an online meeting platform like Startmeeting which is going to be "bigger than Zoom or Google". Well, I DON'T CARE about that. I just want to have a marketing system that works and doesn't cost an arm and a leg which I am beginning to see now is next to impossible. 

I have given up on the $97 sign-up fee but it just pisses me off the way people can so blatantly promise a service(s) and then just put off providing it because they are some sort of MLM marketing company in prelaunch. I wish I had done more research and looked for other videos like yours back then, but I was just so eager to find something that might work for me that I just went in blindly. Maybe eventually this company might prove me wrong and actually launch but then again maybe golden raindrops will fall from the sky the same day I win the lottery too.”

Or there’s this one…

This guy seems to know what he’s talking about… 


 

About Ashraf Mufareh – The Last 10 Years

Ash Mufareh has been involved with different work at home endeavors that have been shut down almost as soon as they start. In 2010 Mufareh founded a recruitment-based matrix scheme called AshMax. 

Mufareh stipulated AshMax was NOT MLM but on the contrary, has a 5×5 sales matrix, with each new member required to recruit 5 additional members within 20 days. If someone does not meet this requirement, the person is forced out of the matrix. The full 5 x 5 matrix comes into effect after 100 days (5 x 20 day periods), at which point the first level member can reportedly expect to earn in excess of $22,000 per month, recurring, for life.

According to one ex-member of AshMax, 

“things were well organized over there (AshMax), for a while – weekly webinar meetings, training sites, upline/sponsor communications on point. The crux for me, the goal post kept moving, things got shaky and no one was giving disclosure.  Long story short, things went pear-shaped, never got sorted, refunds never happened, etc.” 

In 2012 he became involved with a Ponzi scheme called TelexFree using his TelexMax. TelexFree had legal troubles in Brazil. In 2014 the SEC shut it down revealing TelexFree U.S. investors lost in excess of $3 Billion.

A couple of years later Ash Mufareh became involved with another Ponzi scheme based out of Brazil called PayDiamonds. That endeavor didn’t last long either and in mid-2018 it was closed down. It was at that time when Ashraf Mufareh started GOFOUNDERS/ONPASSIVE. 

Here is one of the three videos on Mufareh’s official YouTube channel. The title of the video is, “Ash Mufareh – The Visionary Behind the World’s Best Online Business Solution”. With a title like that, wouldn’t you expect to see or hear Ash saying something about his AI-Tech baby? How about footage of him working with his team? I certainly did and was left disillusioned when I viewed them. There was nothing but self-aggrandizing and hype. Ash is not the person in the video.

Absolutely none of the ONPASSIVE videos show footage of Ash Mufareh. You would think that if someone was creating the next best thing, that person would want to get out there and promote his new creation. Wouldn’t you expect that after 2 years of promoting and collecting an accumulative total of $11,640,000 from 120,000 GoFounder members at $97 a pop, he would be able to and want to reveal the progress to date?  You will always find a genuine owner of a startup out there in full view with updates and progress reports every step of the way.  

Trustpilot, as its name suggests, should be trustworthy about its reviews (you would think) however, a multitude of reviews look very suspicious to me… here are just two,

How can this be if they haven’t launched the marketing suite yet?

A Few Tips To Recognize A Scam 

Adapted from the FTC website

  • If a plan purports to sell a product or service, check to see whether its price is inflated, whether new members must buy costly inventory, or whether members make most "sales" to other members rather than the general public.
  • Beware of any plan that makes exaggerated earnings claims, especially when there seem to be no real underlying product sales or investment profits.
  • Beware of any plan that offers commissions for recruiting new distributors, particularly when there is no product involved or when there is a separate, up-front membership fee. At the same time, do not assume that the presence of a purported product or service removes all danger. 
  • Beware of any program that claims to have a secret plan, overseas connection, or special relationship that is difficult to verify.
  • Beware of any plan that delays meeting its commitments while asking members to "keep the faith" and keep taking on new signups that must pay a joining fee.  Many pyramid schemes advertise that they are in the "pre-launch" stage, yet they never can and never do launch. By definition pyramid schemes can never fulfill their obligations to a majority of their participants. To survive, pyramids need to keep and attract as many members as possible. Thus, promoters try to appeal to a sense of community or solidarity, while chastising outsiders or skeptics.
  • Finally, beware of programs that attempt to capitalize on the public's interest or naivety in hi-tech. Every investor fantasizes about becoming wealthy overnight, but in fact, most hi-tech companies only yield substantial profits after years of hard work. 

Summary and Reality Of So Many Team Building Pyramids

The victim, like the first investor, thinks of himself at the top of the pyramid but suddenly realizes that he is actually at the bottom, unable to find people interested in the program to build out his downline. He is not alone because mathematics shows that MOST investors will find themselves at the bottom of the pyramid when it collapses. The very structure of a matrix dictates that whenever the collapse occurs, at least 70 percent will be at the bottom level with no means to make a profit. 

The GoFounder members will be quick to say that ONPASSIVE is an AI & IT company and not an MLM. If that is true, why is a matrix-based multi-level compensation plan used to build a team? Those are MLM hallmarks!

In my opinion, it shouldn’t be frozen in a prelaunch for over 2 years while taking people’s money. It should have reached the BETA stage by now so those 120,000 members that have paid their money can start tinkering with it at least, with ongoing updates and reports from the engineering department and corporate body, not just avid over-excited members who have only been in it for 15 months, taking the lead and have obviously drunk the kool-aid. 

Right now the only thing that may attract a naive marketer is its claim of being “100% Hands-Free Completely Done-For-You Automated Online Success” and for the people who want to believe that there’s money-for-nothing ogle over the proposed passive earnings in the compensation plan. 

If you apply some simple logic to their claim against the actions of a member aggressively promoting and recruiting, it contradicts itself. It’s clear to me that anyone who joins has been swept up by the thought and promise of making millions passively. 

A successful business that brings real value does not put making money a personal priority and just wait for the money to roll in while you sleep. An excellent article explaining why “passive income” is a dangerous fantasy and points out 4 reasons why,

1. You Can't Stay Ahead of Competition Passively
2. You Can't Maintain a Loyal Tribe of Customers Passively
3. You Can't Lead Great Teams Passively
4. You Can't Create Meaning, Passion, or Purpose in Your Life Passively

 

My Final Thoughts

The evidence and timelines in this article are correct at the time of researching and writing. It certainly makes sense to me to BEWARE & to look out for RED FLAGS and apart from doing your own due diligence, logically think about what is really happening here. 

What Onpassive is promoting is nothing new or special in the technical aspect, in fact, at the moment it’s fresh air until it launches (if it ever does). Automated marketing and AI technology are already being used along with blockchain and cryptocurrency in the marketing arena for far less money and there’s been no need for a pyramidical recruitment matrix. 

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, a very successful entrepreneur revealed that Tesla has had a spectacular run this year despite the COVID 19 impacts. In a recent interview, he offered some advice to other entrepreneurs, suggesting that any company of any caliber put their investments first into engineering and developing a product that is superior before investing in Marketing,

“My advice, you know, to corporate America or companies worldwide is spend less time on marketing presentations and more time on your product. Honestly that should be the number one thing taught in business schools. Put down that spreadsheet and that PowerPoint presentation and go and make your product better.”

What Musk says speaks volumes to me. To be a legitimate company, there needs to be “a product” long before it starts taking money from interested parties. Even in the initial stages, you won’t see any investor just hand over the money on promises or without seeing at least the blueprint (or white paper) of the startup company’s products which should be available to the public. They need to see that it’s a viable company and marketing hype incessantly and publicly just doesn't cut it for savvy investors.

Before the claims of how “mind-blowingly, nothing out there like it” system is broadcast to the world, the company needs to be transparent with its products and after 2+ years, it should be well into a BETA phase and not continuously delaying the launch, repeatedly saying you still have time to get in at the cheaper price. Food for thought.

 

 

ecosystem for entrepreneurs

 

Deb Williams
A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept, and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals. 

 

 

 

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5 Reasons Why You Should Start Blogging 5 part series – Part 5

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be part of a community-melody christie

Photo by William White on Unsplash

 

5. Want to be part be part of a community?

Blogging will help you do just that.

Many people do not get the opportunity to travel or meet new people and the internet overcomes that. Now I'm not saying to just visit any site and start a conversation.

What you want to do is find the right platform to meet people with similar interest who would appreciate your advice and cheer you on.

I read somewhere that blogging is the shy person’s stage.. and I agree. You can publish a blog post on almost any topic under the sun and I'm sure you will find people who are interested in what you have to say. In addition, everyone loves for people to comment on their posts and if your posts are helpful, useful, funny or interesting, people will!

Blogging allows you to put yourself out there, offer advice, get noticed, increase your followers and likes and gain confidence, all within the safety of your own rules and limits.

Markethive is a great place to do just that. Markethive allows you to your very own piece of internet real estate where you can share whatever interests you (and hopefully others too!), whilst at the same time gaining inspiration from others and forming friendships along the way.

Markethive also has some useful features in place where you get a notification every time you have a new subscriber or comment on any of your posts. Markethive also has built in safety features where you can easily unfriend or block a person if they're harassing you. It's not often that this happens, but it happens 🙂

So, what are you waiting for? Click here to start your free Markethive account in 1 minute flat!

Melody Christie

Where life takes me..

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My Advice On Building a Link Building Strategy

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My Advice On Building a Link Building Strategy

Link building is a crucial element when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization). 


Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay 

The reason for this is clear:

A link building strategy gets you traffic to your site and greatly improves your search engine rankings. 

If you can obtain a link from another site to your site, this signals to the almighty search engines that you have something worth taking a look at and they move you closer to the front of the line. The more links you get, the closer you get to the first page of search engine results when someone does a search for a relevant term. And once you are on that first page, you will start getting more traffic. 

"So, What should be the components of a good link building strategy?" You ask.

1. Valuable Content

One of the best ways to get inbound links is to ensure that your site offers valuable information to your visitors or valuable reference pages that relate to your business. . .or both. Once you have proven that you have quality content, other website owners will link to your site without you having to go out and ask them to do so.

Make sure your link building strategy includes a concerted effort to always provide information your particular market is interested in. If you know your market well, identify the kind of informations they are interested in and give it to them.

2. Keywork Related 

Make sure your content is not only informative and valuable but also related to keywords that direct relate to your market's interests.

Keep in mind that the highest quality links are those that are connected by a keyword or keyword phrase, not links that go from another site straight to your simple domain name. So, for example, if someone links from his site www.ABC.com to your site www.DEF.com, this counts for something. But not as much if the same person links the text "red apples" from an article in his site to your article on red apples within your site.

3. Outbound Linking

Many marketers often ignore outbound linking but for a comprehensive strategy, it is worth including it in your overall strategy.

Choosing to do some outbound linking (you linking to another site) provides additional value to your readers and inspires others to link back to you. This also contributes to your link building strategy and is viewed well by the search engines. Don't overdo it though. Just one or a couple of links per page will be fine. 

4. Join Forums and/or Networks

This may seem out of place in a Link Building Strategy but the reality is that Forums and Networks offer you easy opportunities to get valuable linkbacks to your blog/web site content. The secret here is to first, learn how the forum/network operates and what behaviours it will allow, and then engage with other members. This can be time consuming but once you start contributing and helping members in your market, you will find lots of opportunities to suggest links to your content. The fundamental principle here is to be helpful.

Having said this, there are many forums I could suggest, like Warrior Forum, however, there is one absolute must network you should never do without. It is called MARKETHIVE  and it's tools are absolutely FREE to use. Every marketing strategy should include its priceless features.

SIDEBAR: You can also try link building services although it's important to do your research first. If you choose the wrong service, it can get you penalized by the search engines. It's easy to see why people do opt for these types of services–link building is a long, tedious process and hiring someone else to do the grunt work may be well worth the required fee. But it isn't worth it if your site ends up going backwards instead of forwards in search engine ranking.

Although going out and seeking links is somewhat frowned upon, it works. And it's a win-win situation if you come across a website that offers something of value to your target audience. It's important to keep in mind that it's not only the quantity but the quality of your links that will get you where you want to be. Also, the very best way to ensure that you will get links to your website is to create top quality content. 

These are the basics I suggest when it comes to implementing your link building strategy.

—

Maxwell Jacobs is the Owner of http://SolutionsforHomeProfits.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter. 

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Link Building Tools List

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Link Building Tools List

Anyone involved in Internet marketing knows that link building tools are an essential part of success. There are many such tools on the market. These kinds of programs will continue to grow as long as incoming links are so important to the life of your online presence.

 

Image by rawpixel from Pixabay

Here are just a few tools that can help you out:

1. SEOmoz Linkscape

SEOmoz Linkscape is a backlink tracking tool. If you opt for the free version, you can see how many unique links you get to each page of your website, as well as the rank of the page and of the overall domain. The paid version allows you to analyze other websites as well, such as those of your competitors. You can see how many links they get, the quality of the links, and the keywords that they are targeting, all of which is very useful in your own campaign. 

2. Yahoo Site Explorer

Yahoo Site Explorer is a well-known and popular free tool. It allows you to determine the number pages within a domain that are indexed by SLURP, Yahoo's own search engine crawler, and analyze relevant data regarding inbound links. You can also export the results you find useful into a TSV (tab-delimited file).

3. Majestic-SEO

With Majestic-SEO, you can track link information for any domain, whether it be your own, or your competitors or other sites. If you do own the domain (and you can verify it), you can get more detailed data which includes aspects such as unique links and anchor text. Similar to SEOmoz, this comes at no cost if you are taking a look at your own site and you can purchase credits to get information from other websites. Some of the data provided is downloadable, and this tool offers a "daily update" feature with an updated journal of new inbound links.

4. Raven

Raven supplies a complete set of link building tools including a Links Manager that helps you manage the link status, contacts and tasks related to each link. Another popular feature of Raven is that it automatically alerts you if any changes have occurred on an active link. For examples, if the no-follow attribute was added, if the anchor text was changed, if the rank changed, or if the link was removed. Reports and data can be generated and downloaded. 

5. BuzzStream Link Building

BuzzStream Link Building is one of the costlier packages and its main focus is to supply tools that help automate redundant tasks in relationship building, not just link building. Distinguishable features include finding contact info, tracking email, Twitter automation, managing link prospects, monitoring backlinks for anchor text, no-follows, banned words and outbound links, general tracking activities, tracking conversions, and more. The management and conversion tracking elements of BuzzStream are what makes it unique in the list of link building tools. 

There are many more such as these to be found, both free and paid, and the number available continues to rise.

BUT The Very Best Resource… 

for building links and establishing a comprehensive inbound marketing strategy is MARKETHIVE. Check it out NOW!

—

Maxwell Jacobs is the Owner of http://SolutionsforHomeProfits.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter. 

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Part 4 – 5 Reasons Why You Should Start Blogging 5 part series

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4. Want to Improve Yourself?

Once you actually start, you will realise that blogging has the ability to improve your language and communication skills (especially if you are blogging in a language that is not your mother tongue). This happens automatically as you start reading and researching your post topics.

The more you write the more you'll find yourself checking for grammatical and spelling errors and trying to get the message across more effectively. You also learn how to entertain and perhaps even coax readers through your writing.

Sidebar: To help with this you can try Grammarly. Grammarly is free and it helps ensure everything you type is easy to read, effective, and mistake-free. Grammarly also has browser extensions for Chrome, Safari and Firefox. 

Blogging also gets you connected to a range of new people from various countries, with different cultures and backgrounds. Who knows, you may even form relationships if you communicate with them through the comments section. 

It is really quite exciting watching more and more people subscribe to your blog, post comments, ask questions and just start interacting with you and other members. As you get good responses to your posts it will positively impact your self-esteem which will consequently improve your life.

Stay tuned for Part 5!

 

Melody Christie

Where life takes me..

Click here to start blogging & connecting with amazing people from all over the world!

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Part 3 – 5 Reasons Why You Should Start Blogging 5 part series

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Want to earn some money?

There are many ways people earn from blogging and you could too. Whilst it may take time to build a following and start earning a regular income from blogging, it is possible. Here are a few ways you can start.

1) Affiliate Programs

There are countless affiliates programs online and many of them provide you with marketing collateral like banners, images and unique referral links. If you write a post that is related to that affiliate program, you can easily add your affiliate links within the article itself. 

Alternatively, you can also add a banner at the beginning or end of your blog (similar to what I done here for Markethive).

You can also check out the Blog Posts section on my "Hacking Travel" Group to see how I've incorporated Amazon product links there and how you can do something similar.

2) Banner Advertising

Once your blog has a regular flow of visitors and you have the stats to show this, you can sell advertising space and invite companies with complementing products or services to buy a spot.

For instance, if your blog is about parenting you could invite companies that sell educational games or other children related items to buy an ad spot. 

If your blog is about places to visit in Colorado, for example, you can make a deal with your favourite local bakery and invite them to buy an ad spot or tell them you will advertise their bakery for free if they can give your readers a free croissant or coffee every Tuesday, or something like that. 

3) CPC / PPC / CPM Ads

Cost per click (also called pay per click) ads are usually banners that can be placed within your blog content or in the sidebar. Each time a reader clicks on the ad, you are paid for that click. Your reader does not actually have to buy anything from the advertiser. They only need to click the ad.

CPM Ads (“cost per 1,000 impressions,”) on the other hand are ads that pay you a fixed amount of money based on how many people view your ad. This is great if you have a high traffic blog.

One of the most popular networks that provide this type of advertising is Google AdSense. Many bloggers employ this method because they do not need to contact any advertisers as Google takes care of all that. 

You only need to place the banner on your site and Google will determine what ads are relevant to your content. When your viewers click on the ads, you will get paid by Google. That's it.

Of course, Google is not the only company to offer this type of advertising. There are other companies such as Infolinks.com and Media.net, that you can check out.

It is worth mentioning that you will not earn a large amount right of the bat, but as you continue blogging, creating a brand for yourself and establishing yourself as an expert, you will start to see the money come in.

4) Paid to Blog

Finally, there is a platform that actually pays you to blog. It's called Markethive. I personally prefer this method because my earnings are not solely dependant on anyone clicking my affiliate links or banners or ads. In addition, it allows me to earn with my very first blog post. Very few platforms in this world give you that opportunity. Plus they pay you in cryptocurrency!

Of course, my hope is that my readers find the content I provide helpful and useful and so they follow through to purchase whatever they need to through my links but knowing that I'm earning just for blogging, is nothing short of awesome! Want to start earning for every blog post? Click here.

Stay tuned for Part 4!

 

Melody Christie

Where life takes me..

Click here to start your free Markethive account in 1 minute flat!

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Part 2 – 5 Reasons Why You Should Start Blogging 5 part series

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Photo by Dakota Corbin on Unsplash

 

2. Do you want to help others?

Think about it, how many times have you desperately Googled for something and then found the answer you were looking for in a blog post?

In the same way, if you choose to blog on a topic you have some experience with, you could very well provide the answers to questions many people are searching for.

For instance, if you're an Entrepreneur, you could offer advice to others who are considering becoming one, talk about the things to look out for when choosing a business, potential pitfalls, the need to commit and spend at least a little time each day working on their project and such.

Or if you are a foodie (yes, it's a thing now), you could tell people where all the best restaurants, cafes and eateries are, the best time to visit to avoid standing around waiting for a table, etc.

Think of it as helping people. Put yourself in their shoes and consider;
– what they are searching for
– what they need help with
– what you already know
– what you are good at
– how you can help them

It's heartwarming going through the reader's comments knowing your post has helped someone.. even if it's a seemingly small thing like how to re-open a browser tab they've closed prematurely 🙂 (<– this was not a blog post but it was one of my early shares and the response was just great)

If you would like to test your blogging skills, Markethive is a free platform that provides you with everything you need to do just that. Plus it comes with a community of supportive Entrepreneurs who are happy to guide you along the way… and the icing on the cake? You get paid for every post you make! What else could you ask for?

Click here to start your free Markethive account in 1 minute flat!

Melody Christie

Where life takes me..

ecosystem for entrepreneurs