ChrisBailey.info

As a Cognigen agent for almost 7 years(start date 03/19/2001), I’ve seen a number of reps concerned about the recent merger/acquisition with Commission River.

IMHO, I think this deal has a lot more potential upside than downside.

As the owner of the Work At Home Network Discussion Forums, I see nearly every “hot” home based business that hits the market.

While I love the fact that Cognigen has always been a no hype, honest home based business opportunity, the simple fact is that their free business model was not a good fit for the traditional style MLM/Network Marketing model.

Because Cognigen was not a pay to play scheme that required us to actually make sales to earn money as opposed to paying recruiting overrides on overpriced startup fees with little focus on sales, Cognigen simply could not compete with the other MLM structured businesses out there.

With the entrance of Commission River into the picture, Cognigen is essentially changing to a model that I believe is a much better fit for the business.

Gone is the 6 level MLM override structure for a much simpler 2 tier pay structure that is much more like the traditional affiliate networks like Commission Junction, ShareASale,  LinkShare, etc.

This will allow agents to earn higher commissions on the own sales and also those of their downline agents.  Since we only have one level of downline overrides, it will also those interested in recruiting sales agents to focus directly on just their front line as opposed to needing to worry if an agent 4 levels down is getting the appropriate help from a dormant sponsor.

Gone is the $100 sales paypoint.  Although I thought this was a very reasonable paypoint that I haven’t had trouble meeting over the last few years, it’s another obstacle removed to gathering agents and keeping them interested.  Now all sales commissions accumulate until you earn enough to get a check.

The owners and primary staff of Commission River are all familiar with the great history of Cognigen and what they have to work with in the agent base.  This should give them an edge in keeping the program attractive to established agents and making the necessary tweaks to help bring back some dormant agents.

I think Cognigen was getting stale and headed towards serious problems.  I hope that the deal with Commission River will help to reinvigorate the program and keep it going for many years to come.

I’ve always been proud to be affiliated with Cognigen and I’m happy to see an effort to stimulate growth.

In my time on the web, I’ve noticed many of us in the internet marketing world suffer from this horrible affliction.

If you are anything like me, you tend to come up with one great idea after another(well, at least we think they are great ideas )

The main problem with our “genius” is that we often tend to leave many of our projects unfinished as we jump from one to the next. I know I have a veritable minefield of unfinished work and ideas.

As I was searching on the net for others with this affliction, I stumbled across Andrew Wee’s article Internet Marketing Attention Deficit Disorder And A Solution?

I can’t come up with any better advice than Mr. Wee.

The main point of his article and advise is quite simple:

• • Go with the flow: You know you’re not cut out to do one thing for weeks on end, so don’t fight it. Break your day up into several pieces. Focus on product development in the morning (or whenever your peak periods might be), talk to joint venture partners or strategic partners as you feel you’re moving out of your zone. Answer email and tackle customer support issues during your downtime.
  • Focus, focus, focus: This was a major problem for me initially when I was doing consulting. You can take on 20 projects, and deliver below your optimal performance on all of them. OR you could charge a premium and work with your preferred 3-5 clients. If you work in performance incentives and revenue share, you might end up doing better with a select few, rather than attempt to take on the market.
  • Recalibrate, reorient and refocus: Take time out to audit your efforts. Is what you’re doing helping you move toward where you want to be? Evalute and do the equivalent of “testing and tracking” in your business. Jettison projects that are stumbling or backsliding. Declutter experts say there is limited space in your life. If you cut and clear away stuff that isn’t helping you (people, projects and places), you’ll free up more “space” for new things to come in.

Personally, I’m trying to hold off as much as I can on my next “great idea” and am working on what I’ve already started.

Some ideas I’ll be scrapping.  And the rest I will develop as fully as possible.