…and perhaps some you didn’t.

This labor of love took more then one day to create. It is currently 1913 words. I’d greatly appreciate you reading it all the way through at least once, even if you think you know everything in it.

A tweet/share won’t be forgotten either. ;-)

My name is Dennis Edell, pronounced E-dell not eh-dell or even A-dell (some people are truly weird), and I turned 40 this year (2010).

First things first, above and beyond anything and everything written below, this blog is my Flagship. The HUB of my burgeoning empire if you please. Anything and everything I do from here on out will be announced here first.

Now, on with the show…

Direct Sales/Customer Service in one form or another has been my entire adult life, if not sometime earlier. I’ve done it all from the 9-5, to being a “independent rep” for some direct sales companies, to finally running my own to complete the trifecta; with my own reps. Woot!

Why This Blog Exists

Like I said, I’ve been a rep for several companies and studied many many more. Do that and you are sure to come away with at least one distinct and unsettling fact as I have…..these “companies” SUCK at teaching anything promotional/marketing related.

Offline was horrifying enough. Then someone one day said, Hey check out this internet thing! Lets give every rep the exact same website (commonly referred to as cookie-cutter), and let them smack there name on it!

Oh but we can’t give them ANY inner control over it, just tell them to “advertise” and they’ll make millions!

Just thinking about it gives me that real dull ache behind the temples.

I decided it was time for someone with a lifelong passion for direct sales, tired of the lunacy, to step in and train newcomers the right way. Promotion, Marketing, and most importantly, Customer Service.

What and Who We’ll Cover

This blog, known in short as DEDC is geared toward two things primarily…..Beginners in Direct Sales.

However even the more advanced should be able to find a golden nugget or two. And, a good amount of the tips provided should fit just about any blogger.

We, you and I, will cover three separate key areas. As the tagline reads – Small Business Blogging, Making Money Online and e-Commerce (static physical product website) Marketing. None of which will be done the same way as anyone else is doing it.

Other articles will cover general business, inspirational-motivational with even some personal thrown in for good measure…this blog is my name-sake after all. ;-)

Oh my, I can’t forget to mention we might do a little offline marketing as well.

All under the heading of personal coaching…I’m open to one and all throughout.

Lets go through them individually, shall we?

Small Business Blogging

First and foremost baby, that’s right. Nowadays ALL static websites MUST have a companion blog. It is the most important promotional and marketing tool at your disposal.

Your online business is dependent on your business blog. To put it simply, I’ve come up with the catch phrase you must memorize…..

*You promote your blog. Your blog promotes your business.*

Or vice-verse, it works either way

FACT

Assuming you don’t own the size and popularity of an Amazonian type site, gone are the days of promoting a content-less product based website EVERYWHERE without looking like little more then a shameless spammer.

90% or more of your promotion should be in/around/with your business blog, the companion to your website.

Notice the category drop-down menu over on the right. You’ll see I have two top level cats for blogging; Building and Marketing. Notice how the sub-categories are lining up and you should be able to see where I’m going with this.

If not, ask your questions!

Just so we’re crystal clear…..first showing you with a website that you really really must have a companion business blog, then showing you what to do with said blog, then showing you how to promote,market, and everything else with said blog (phew!) this will be the heaviest part of this blog.

#1 in my business model, the backbone of my algorithm you might say. (Link building Google fanatics should appreciate that.)

This was originally slated to be it’s own blog under the domain SmallBusinessBlogCoach.com

Making Money Online

Destined to be it’s own blog someday under the domain WebIncomeExperiments.com, it will be one of the only REAL Coaching MMO/Affiliate marketing blogs on the net.

Alas, for now, we’ll all have to settle for one of the only REAL Coaching MMO/Affiliate Marketing categories on the net. A category under the same name btw. :-P

Read that name again, it explains exactly how things will be. This blog/Category will NOT be two things:

1. Some Bullshit “MMO” filled with links and banners for crap, written by someone making NOTHING him/herself.

2. An unethical ego trip that doesn’t actually teach you anything.

Simply put, the largest percentage of it will be “me” experimenting with different money earning opportunities; different income streams.

If something works; if I generate an income stream from it, I’ll blog it to let you try it for yourself.

Even if it doesn’t work for me; if I earn nothing, I’ll blog it to see if you wish to give it a shot.

There may also be a small percentage of opportunities that I don’t try myself at all, but still blog about it. If I come across something that doesn’t fit my business plan/model, but I feel you may benefit from it, I’ll still blog it.

After all not all income streams can be expected to work for everyone. Different strokes, ya know.

I’ll always be upfront about it all. Whether I personally tried it or not. Whether I personally earned money from it or not, etc.

No one benefits in the long run, when it starts with lies. Besides, no matter which way it turns, if I blog it I’ll be using an affiliate link if applicable. :mrgreen:

You’ll notice the biggest difference between mine and almost all others pretty quickly. I will not be blogging on it 14x per day, lol. It takes time to actually/accurately test something. ;)

You may have noticed, Income Experiments and Affiliate Marketing are two separate categories; curious? Simple really…

While some articles may fit both, not all experiments will come from affiliate marketing, and for sure not all affiliate marketing articles/tips are there to produce immediate income

Make sense?

e-Commerce Website Marketing

Static HTML content-less physical product e-commerce websites.

All long I’ve been saying, blog blog blog, as in my experience online there is little left in the way of successfully marketing this time of site on it’s own…..but there is some, and we will of course cover it.

For sure it will not be the largest portion of this blog.

General Business, Inspirational-Motivational, etc…

Many helpful article not fitting main categories will also be published; example: the Think On This category, clever eh?

I’m sure the cleverness won’t end there. ;-)

Offline Marketing

For 100 years or more direct sales thrived offline. Door to door, home parties, and so on.

Those that started after the invention of the net chuckle and sneer at offline methods. It definitely has taken a hit; a big one in some cases, but it is most certainly not dead…..not by a long shot.

Door to door, OK not so much. But lets discuss home parties for a moment, I’ll clue you in on a little something…

$200–$1000+ PER. A good full-time rep will do upwards of 5 parties or more PER WEEK.

That’s just the physical products. There is also plenty of offline promotion/advertising you can do even as a strictly net based business, such as  blogger or Internet marketer.

Personal

I was joking recently with a fellow blogger in the comments of one of their posts. We were discussing jobs and job titles for some reason, I don’t really recall.

I was reminiscing about the good ‘ol title of simply “office clerk”, which basically meant your duties were whatever the hell they wanted you to do.

Well, this is my blog, it’s even under my namesake, so I can blog whatever the hell I want. Woot!

Heck, it’s a good distraction from the serious from time to time and y’all know what they say about all work-no play, right?

I like to consider myself anything but dull. 8-)

Future Additions to DEDC

A forum, a live chat-room, a newsletter or two or three, and what else?

Who know what, who knows when. You can’t mark a calender just yet, but count on them rising sooner or later.

The Newsletter

There are two absolutes – - 1. blog post updates (RSS feeds will no longer be a subscription option). 2. An actual newsletter.

The original debate was/is, all in one or two separate.

Real Soon I Hope

I have some things to figure out on my own, then most likely I will poll you as the reader.

After all, it is you that will have to subscribe or not, so you should get a say in what/how. ;)

It IS Coming

I am merely here now to tell you, there WILL be an actual newsletter coming your way. At least one. I’m working on it as we speak.

There will also be a new subscription for blog updates. Current RSS subscribers will also be asked to resubscribe when the time comes.

I know, sorry, possibly a slight irritant but it should only take a second and will be well worth it.

Forum and Live Chat

Again, no calendar date for either yet, but they are both absolutely planned.

There’s even been some chatter of making them a paid option. Even a nominal fee should kill the spammers and non-serious before they even start.

The Forum

There is a darn good reason why no one has seen a forum created by me yet. I want to be sure to do it right, right from the jump.

You think there are dead blogs all over the ‘net?? I’d venture to guess there are just as many if not more, dead or dying “marketing forums”.

As with blogs, forums are super simple to put up, especially if you need no bells or whistles. They’re everywhere. They hit like a raging storm, and unfortunately it seems 1 out of every 2 die just as quick.

I’m not going to get all up into the WHY, that’s not what I’m here for today. I’m here just to tell ya, one is coming for sure. :)

The Conference/Chat-Room

Now this is going to be really cool when it happens. A live chat room with web-cam and microphone capabilities.

There are many awesome possibilities for uses, but we’re not getting into that today either.

I suppose my biggest issue will be pouring over all the software available today, though I’m confident I’ll come up with something. :)

Over to You

Phew! I think that’s just about it. All about DEDC as it stands, and at least a glimpse into the future. For those of you that were excited about the network, I’m sorry nce again, i was excited too. I definitely see it sometime down the line, just not in the near-future.

For those with no idea what I’m talking about.

Now, any comments/questions for me?

I realize there is a lot here to digest and truly appreciate you taking the time to read it all. I’m going to do something here you won’t see many bloggers do…..give you permission to break up into multiple comments if you wish to comment on multiple items neatly.

This gives you the opportunity for multiple links via Commentluv.

Please do not abuse this generosity. If you wish to make 4-5 or more separate comments, awesome! Just make sure ALL are genuine. Perhaps this might help.

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