The significant challenges that we face today cannot be resolved by the same level of thinking that created them.

When I first started working online I placed ads for a company and was compensated for the responses to the ads I placed. It was a very hard way to earn a living.

One thing I did learn quickly was that my ads had to be unique in order to draw any attention. If everyone ran the same ads with the same headline, you wouldn't get very far. It's one of the main reasons so many affiliate marketers fail in their attempts at online advertising. They choose to run the same 'canned ads' that everyone else has already seen. Advertising on the web is no different than any other form of advertising. You need to capture the attention of your audience and do it quickly. Treat your headlines as the 'ad for the ad'.

There was one individual in my group who used to copy my ads verbatim and then just change the ID at the end of the link. It really ticked me off because I had worked hard to create my ads. But it's the nature of the business. You'll always find people who are too lazy to do their own creating.

When you get right down to it, does any one of us have an 'original thought'? Our online businesses bring us into contact with numerous people, websites, forums, etc. and we all gleen information and ideas as we go along. I've attended some pretty fascinating teleseminars too. The thing is this is where ideas and concepts are formed. Whatever you do, do not just copy someone else's work. This is an infringement on the basic copyright protection for the creator and you can get yourself into a whole pile of trouble.

Even if two people happen to come up with similar ideas for a software product for example, they likely will not turn out the same because no two people think exactly the same.

This discussion ties in well with Willie Crawford's Cutthroat Internet Marketing Product Creation which is today's Feature Article.

Our Special Feature Thermometers and Thermostats comes to us from Steve Goodier. There are so many people who believe that they have absolutely no control over what happens to them in their lives. This just isn't true.

Have a great day and keep smiling.

Publisher, KIT and the Home4Success Channel
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Create a winning piece of software in the Internet marketing arena, and expect to see someone trying to copy it within a week!

Launch a profitable website around some unique and innovative concept, and expect to see someone setting up something similar within a week.

Create an ebook or other information product on some new idea (or an old idea expressed differently), and expect to see other experts on that topic mysteriously appearing within a week.

In other words, if you create and market a product online, there are other online marketers who will see that your concept seems to be working better than theirs, and they will probably copy it. This can be very IRRITATING to someone who spends months ... perhaps even years, developing something only to have it quickly reverse engineered.

This is actually not a problem unique to the online world. In the offline world, before a business introduces a product it protects itself with patents, copyrights, trademarks, and similar forms of legal protection. They take enforceable, legal steps to protect their brand and their invention. Most people introducing products in the Internet marketing arena don't do this, perhaps because it can be an expensive proposition. They are often in business on the Internet rather than offline BECAUSE starting a business offline has so many barriers to entry ... such as high start-up costs.

Both online and offline, when someone creates a new product that's in-demand, they can literally charge whatever the market's willing to pay. If they face no competition, this price is higher than it would otherwise be. Without some form of legal barrier, others notice that a given business is earning a higher than "normal" ROI (often referred to as monopoly profits), and this attract competitors. Competitors enter a market, charge less, and drive the price down which ultimately benefits the consumer. This quickly erodes profits for the original product creator.

Governments and other entities often grant legal protection (copyrights, patents, trademarks, etc.) to protect businesses from competition. For example, they often do this when there's a huge research and development cost involved in bringing a product to market, and companies need to be incentivized to go ahead with creating the product. Without some type of protection to ensure that a drug manufacturer could recoup their huge R&D costs, most large drug manufacturers probably wouldn't proceed with developing many much-needed drugs. As soon as they’ve recouped some of their costs, regulatory agencies generally allow other to produce cheaper (generic) forms of the same product.

Taking this discussion back to the Internet marketing arena, how does someone creating software, an ebook, or some new service-product, protect their creation? How do they keep some copycat from reverse engineering their software? How do they keep some "low-life" from going to Elance.com and asking some programmer to create an EXACT duplicate of their just-released software?

There are differing forms of legal protection available to online product creators. To determine which is best for your product you need to consult a lawyer who specializes in this topic. There are international agreements that protect your online creation across many different countries ... Again, you need to discuss this with an attorney who specializes in this topic.

Companies like Google and Ebay aggressively protect their brands and their patented technologies. They have "deep pockets" and can more readily do this. The budding netrepreneur often has to seek less conventional methods of protecting their profits ... for at least a short time. Over time, most forms of legal protection against those who would copy or reverse engineer a product expires.

One line of thinking is that lots of competition stimulates innovation and continuous product improvement. This implies that the way to out maneuver would-be competitors is by producing a better product, positioning it for a different segment of the market, or begin focusing on the next product upgrade as soon as a product is introduced. In actuality, large corporations such as Sony, and automotive manufacturers, thrive because they deliberately stay several product releases ahead of their competitors. Before they even release a product, the next several generations are already on the drawing board... or maybe even in production!

The bottom line is that many people in Internet marketing (as in many other niches) are hoping to create and market a product or service that's going to make them rich and famous. It's much easier for them to copy a proven concept...something that there's proven demand for, than it is to create something new. It's safer to produce something for which there is a proven market than it is to develop something for which the demand hasn't been validated.

If you're going to create your own Internet marketing product or service, realize that it's a cutthroat business, just like many offline businesses. This doesn't make it any more palatable for someone who sees their product being copied the day after it's release, but perhaps thinking about the fact beforehand better prepares you for it :-)

Willie Crawford is a corporate president, published author, seminar speaker and host, tele-seminar speaker and host, retired military officer, karate black belt, network marketing trainer, and lifetime student of marketing. He shows people how to actually generate substantial income on-line using very simple systems. An example of such a system can be studied and DUPLICATED at: => http://ProfitMagician.com.

Learn to find the blessing in pain. Practice observing the pain rather than owning it.

Loving sacredly means loving what is, even if you don't comprehend the deeper meaning behind it.

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.
- Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)

Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music--the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.
- Henry Miller

Talent is only a starting point in business. You've got to keep working that talent.
- Irving Berlin, composer

Do you know the difference between a ther­mometer and a thermostat? A thermometer simply measures the temperature. It doesn't do anything about it.

A thermostat measures the temperature and then responds. If the temperature is too high, a thermostat may shut off the heat. If the temperature is too low, a thermostat may trigger heat to turn on. It measures temperature and it does something about it.

While a thermometer is a passive tool, a thermostat is an active tool. They both experience the temperature, but a thermostat responds.

Some people are like thermometers - they passively allow what may harm them to just hap­pen. They have problems and difficulties and they believe there isn't anything that can be done about it. They feel helpless as they watch life happen. They feel as if they have no power.

Others are more like thermostats. When they are faced with difficulty, they kick into action. They believe that something can be done; a solution can be found; a hurt can be healed. They respond; they make decisions; they go into motion.

Advice columnist Ann Landers said, "If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity, it would be this: expect trouble as an inevitable part of life. When it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye, and say, 'I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.'" In other words, re­spond courageously and creatively.

Do you know that you can be bigger than any trouble that comes your way? If you have be­come stuck because you feel frightened or helpless, it is time to respond. It is time to go into motion. It is time to activate your faith. When you become big­ger than your problem, it cannot defeat you.

Today - will you be a thermometer or a thermostat?

Steve Goodier's books & newsletter: http://LifeSupportSystem.com.

I visited the house of a friend over the weekend, and he used the button on his strip-type surge protector to turn his computer on and off. Whoa – backup Jack.

It will not be of any benefit to you if you use it as a power strip (i.e.: by turning the power switch on and off to control your computer and whatever peripherals you have plugged into it.

When you turn these type suppressors off, you are also eliminating the power supply to the surge protection circuit, thereby rendering it useless.

So, if a surge comes across the power line with the switch in the off position, you have NO protection; however, if the surge protector is left on at ALL times, the circuit is energized, and you will have whatever surge protection your particular circuit is rated for.

Bottom Line – buy a cheap power strip and plug it into the surge protector. Plug all your other “stuff” into the power strip and use the switch on the power strip to turn everything on and off. But never, ever, (and that is a very long time) use your surge protector as if it was a power strip.

->With thanks to Bob Osgoodby of http://adv-marketing.com/business/subscribe2.htm

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