It’s nearly been a month since I blogged on here, mainly due to the amount of web design work I am doing.

One project is for a home security company, www.guardedhomes.co.uk, offering ipCCTV, gates, railings, shutters, safe rooms & the like, another new(ish) recruitment firm, as well as 3 home page mock-ups for another well-established recruitment company, not to mention a local escort agency!!!! On top of that, I’ve had a few other enquiries & just never seem to have the time for blogging at the moment. When I actually get paid for some of this work will be interesting though O

I’ve not been able to do much work on Cashback Shopper, or My Travel Extras recently & absolutely NONE on Love Your Pets or UK Shopping Spree & really want to redesign My Travel Extras to be less cluttered & more Web 2.0, but will have to wait for a quiet spell I guess. Once I get paid, I want to promote my dating sites a bit more I recently bought a number of new domains, but guess they will also have to go on the back burner for now: cheapcarhirealicante.com, webtraveloffers.com, travelcheapinfo.com, cheapsmallbusinessbroadband.co.uk, scifigoodies.co.uk, findmegaydates.co.uk, findmelesbiandates.co.uk, plus I wanted to try to resurrect easylolly.com for some sort of financial site.

On top of this Ei42 have just launched in the US, so I’ve been link building for www.cashbackshoppers.biz, in the hope that I can get some more interest in this, but think this is going to need some articles and forum postings to get anywhere…..I did start writing to schools asking them to consider joining as a way to raise funds for their school, but haven’t had the time to carry on.

Maybe I have my fingers in too many pies & am spreading myself a bit too thin, but we’ll see.

The plan for the Ei42 business opportunity is “so simple” that in truth many people you speak to will not believe it. “It’s a con”, “it’s a scam”, “too good to be true”, “it won’t work”, “it’s a pyramid scheme”. I’ve had the same response to my cashback site! Everyone is looking for a catch!

Despite all of the arguments every single day hundreds of people continue to join.

One statistic that is fascinating is the forecast made by the managing director at the very beginning. He said that everyone should work on the basis that on average all sales will generate 1% of distributable income (worst case) that is 1% to the buyer and 1% to the network (after Ei42 has taken its margin). Today, almost a year later and with sales (not commissions) into the millions the actual average percentage is 2.11% to the buyer and 2.11% to the network, more than DOUBLE what he told members to expect. In addition if we look at the total number of members today (bearing in mind that some have been members a few hours, some days, weeks, months and a few for almost 1 year), the average spend PER MEMBER is £98.15, with 13 days left before the end of the first year, we are on target for members to achieve more than double the first year forecast.

What was actually said was that the average household spends £940 per year on-line, so if every member of Ei42 spends £100 PER YEAR then you’d get at least 1% yourself plus the distribution from your network. It was also made very clear this is not nor will it ever be a get rich quick deal. (Legal things never are!)

So, what would I do if I were you?

Your first objective is simple. You need to build a team of 5 people who each have 5 people and then help/nudge/remind them to do the same. So Pick 5 people, some could be your existing people or they could all be new people, but make a plan “my job is to get 5 people” and every time you get a new member pass that simple message on; “If you are joining Ei42 your job is to get 5 people… pass it on:-)“. Once you have built a solid working 5 x 5 x 5 (you told 5 and your 5 told 5 each) then start a new 5. This way you can keep focused on helping your friends build their team of 5.

One other thing. Don’t expect the earth when you start! If you spent £250,000 buying a McDonald’s franchise it would take a considerable amount of time & effort before you got anywhere near making a profit and you certainly would not be considering giving up & closing it within a few weeks/months!

Stick with it, be patient, it will take time but it’s free and it will work. It’s a bit like losing weight we all want it now but if the target is 1 year away it becomes achievable.

And a Final Thought

Many people might say that they can’t really be bothered with Ei42 as you only earn pennies, so ask them if they have a Tesco Club Card! If they answer yes, ask them… “Why? it only pays 1p for every £1 you spend… surely it’s not worth bothering?”

I would rather earn 1% off a 100 people’s efforts than 100% of my own efforts. John D. Rockefeller

I blogged previously about the disappointing level of sales through Cashback Shopper in December & wondered if it was just my own site that was experiencing this problem!

However, a recent newsletter from Ei42 seems to indicate that this has been a problem experienced by many online retailers.

They state:

A few members have asked about the volume of sales achieved over the festive period and on the general economic climate in which we are trading. I think without a doubt online sales have been affected and that we have not achieved the volume of sales that we may have expected when we were looking into our crystal ball back in June. The reality is that shops in the high street have had to slash prices in order to sell the stock that they had on the shelves. As a result many of us that would have loved to buy more online and get goods delivered to our door were seduced into buying in the high street stores, and who can blame anyone for that.

Out of the negative of reduced sales comes the huge positive of ‘Increased opportunity’. Unfortunately many people are facing a reduced income in 2009 for a variety of reasons and circumstances. Whilst we would not profess to be able to offer an instant solution to anyone’s financial problems, the reality is that even in the hardest of times we all still have to buy things. Ei42 offers the opportunity to buy many things with a small rebate attached and the opportunity to build a business alongside whatever else you do.

So, with more high street stores expected to go into administration in the next month or two, the opportunity to make extra money, or build a second income will take on even more importance to hard pressed people!