O C E A N S I D E Network

Retirement: Three magic numbers – Yahoo! Finance

Dwayne Stevens — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 13:52:30 +0000

I was over on Yahoo Finance this morning reading up on some financial news and came across this great article.

Enjoy !!!

Nothing is more frustrating than trying to figure out how much to save for retirement. You know the amount you’ll need to save depends on what kind of retirement lifestyle you want. But how can you decide that without having some idea of how much it will cost? Is dreaming of endless vacations and a 44-ft yacht realistic? Or should you be aiming for walks in the park and the occasional meal out? Many people have no idea what they’re aiming for—and after a lot of sweating and calculating, they end up right back where they started.
We can help. While many retirement plans use complex formulas to calculate what you’ll need, we find that many Canadians just want a ballpark to aim for. If your retirement is still quite a ways off, it’s often good enough just to know what you’ll need to save to achieve each of three levels of potential retirement: a bare-bones basic retirement; a middle-class retirement with two cars, some restaurant meals and vacations every year; and finally, a deluxe retirement complete with a vacation home or regular jaunts around the world. Interested to know what kind of dent each of these three scenarios will make on your nest egg? Read on and we’ll price them out for you.

Retirement: Three magic numbers – Yahoo! Finance

Tips to help you keep your readers coming back and keep a constant flow of new traffic.

Dwayne Stevens — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 08:45:32 +0000

I remember it just like yesterday the WordPress blog was installed, I was stuck! I had all these ideas and instructions from reading blogs about blogging, and sat there wondering where to start. Is this you too? Well I am going to give you an idea on how to, well, get an idea.

Like all good habits, if you post a new blog every couple days for 30 days, you will find it becomes easier to get your thoughts out of your brain and into a screen like this one. So where do you start? Here is the first tip. Let’s say that you belong to an investment program that offers people 5% performance bonus on personal referral’s , (hehe, yeah all you know what I’m talking about). You can simply do a example of what a performance bonus could do for your income. Don’t try to just sell because it won’t work as well as simply sharing what you love about a program. Focus on one little thing each time you post and you will find that there is lots to write about.

Three Really Easy Tips To Getting Constant Traffic To Your Blog.

• Reader Friendly Content – At all costs keep your content – articles, poems, photographs, videos – reader friendly, that is to say, it should keep more and more readers interested. The more you post the more your readership will increase and this can lead to increased traffic and income. You should let your personality bleed through to reach the reader so they feel they are at the center of your post. Your readers will feel that he or she are getting something out of reading your post.

• Worthwhile – Never let the reader feel that he has been tricked into reading your post or clicking on your blog link. I’ve see this done and it’s just wrong. It’s back alley business practice that you will want to steer clear of. You are destroying any and all of your long term chances of that reader ever coming back to your blog. This of course can very well lead to your blog rankings over the long haul an future of uncertainty.

• Check for errors – Making grammatical and spelling errors can be a major put off for many readers. Rex and I actually don’t like this rule because well, it’s a nuisance but being alert to typos can help keep your readership. If you are careless, then they may not wish to visit your blog again simply because the errors that you make are too numerous. Always proof read your blog, which of course is a good reminder for Dwayne but you too. It pays to be professional, and fun of course. Look, a small typo here and there can be understood, but make sure you don’t make any major errors too often and if you do catch an error, simply log in to your admin panel of your blog and edit the post. After all, we’re all just humans and well, life happens.

As always “Free Your Life…..Live Your Dreams”

Dwayne

Oceanside Network temporarily closed to US based investors.

Dwayne Stevens — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:06:53 +0000

Directly from the President of Oceanside, Broker Jones

Oceanside Network = CLOSED Temporarily, to US Based Investors. — Oceanside Forex Managed Accounts are Open. We are working on a $2,500 managed account solution.

COMING SOON: Full managed accounts coming shortly for all investors.

Check for updates on our corporate blog.

Then click HERE to open an account.

((If you sat on the fence on this one……you’ve missed out for the time being.))

Facebook adds new Android app. A much needed improvement.

Dwayne Stevens — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 10:31:30 +0000

Facebook’s once features-bereft mobile application for the #2 mobile operating system has just been updated, and it’s worlds better than the original.

When I read that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg downloaded the Facebook for Android app for his personal use last week, I wondered a few changes might be in the works for Facebook’s mobile offerings. They certainly were quick on the turnaround, however; clearly, this update has been quite some time in development.

If the update isn’t showing up in your notifications bar, just search for “Facebook” in the Android Gallery and reinstall the official app.

The home screen now shows messages, notifications and friend requests separately. On the bottom of the home screen, you can see a swipe-to-scroll slideshow of your friends’ recent picture uploads.

Notifications, which comprised the greatest pain point for users we polled last week, now appear in a slide-up bar along the bottom of the screen, similar to the Android OS’s slide-down bar for notifications at the top of the screen. While the Notifications bar doesn’t seem to be working quite smoothly with the rest of the app yet (it keeps launching Facebook’s mobile touch site), an upcoming software update will address this issue soon.

You no longer have to navigate out of the app to Facebook’s mobile site to do any normal Facebook actions, such as approve a friend request, view a video, RSVP to an event or respond to a message. You’ll use your device’s browser when you click through to shared links, but getting to those links is much easier now. You click through to a screen showing your friend’s post with the link in question, then you tap on the link itself to be redirected. It’s a much better interface than the app’s previous iteration.

Also, “likes,” Facebook search and mobile photo uploads are now as easy as a single touchscreen-tap in most cases, and the overall navigation and interface have gained a few new touches that are subtle but elegant and welcome.

These upgrades are the first significant attention Facebook has paid to its Android app since its launch last fall. All things considered, we’re very happy with the improvements. Facebook for Android has become a pleasure to use rather than the out-and-out hassle it was before.

We’re sure there are still improvements to be made — Facebook Chat is one feature that comes to mind immediately.

MLM VS NETWORK MARKETING VS ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Dwayne Stevens — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:34:35 +0000

I am sure that this is going to ruffle a few feathers, and I’m fine with that, but there are just some things out there in the Home business Industry that just baffle me. And to be honest, I would love to hear people’s opinions and their own experiences with what I’m about to discuss. And I want to make a disclaimer right here, right now… There is no judgment here, I don’t care what you are involved in as long as you are acting with integrity, are passionate about what you are doing and about the product or service you are promoting.

Now, I’m not going to go into the depths of each of these models as this is not what this is about. This is about making the decision to join an MLM or Network Marketing business and make someone else rich selling and promoting their products for them and not starting your own venture and branding yourself and your own products!

Firstly, MLM or Multi Level Marketing, I mean lets face it, this business model has been around forever. Some of the oldest businesses that follow the MLM business model are Amway, Avon, Tupperware, Herbalife and the new kids on the block Monavie, you cannot deny they do bring in some huge company profits and the mere fact they have been around forever must say something about them right? Aside from these popular few there are also 1000′s of other MLM companies out there for you to choose from.

Secondly, Network Marketing is very similar to MLM however generally the Compensation Plan is different and the general structure of your team or how you recruit into your business is different also. You will hear big names like Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki, being bantered around when people are talking about big hitters or well known entrepreneurs who back this Network Marketing business model idea.

I personally don’t have an opinion on what is best or what isn’t as this is an individual experience and opinion. I only have an opinion on my own experience and that is what I want to share with you today.

My story… I have been involved in both Network Marketing and MLM and really did not like the experience of being part of either business. Now while I did have my share of success I never felt like I was doing what I should be doing. I really, truly believed with all my heart that I was passionate about the product I was promoting but after a while I started to realise I wasn’t “passionate” about the products personally. I could simply see the value and benefit of the product I was promoting. I was in love with the idea of the value and benefit. Something just always felt like it was missing.

The more I grew as an entrepreneur through courses or Personal Development the more I realised that I was truly missing something, that key ingredient to my success. That was when I started to look at things differently. I started to realise that what I was actually yearning for was my own success, my own true financial freedom. It clicked… I needed to recreate myself . I needed to launch myself based on my passion, to help people become financially free.

Then I got thinking… if I am going to spend all this time and effort on personally branding myself, why don’t I take advantage of that work with the thing that all people need. MONEY. At this point I started working with my business partner Broker Jones in launching Oceanside Network and putting all my energy and resources into something I was passionate about. Building someone else’s business is not ultimately going to make you richer isn’t it? I mean when I was involved with the MLM and Network Marketing with all the compliance you had to follow and the other restrictions, it was starting to feel like I was still “working” for someone else.

Now I’m not a quitter, this word (along with “try”) is not even in my personal vocabulary. But what I have learned from all my experiences working online is that you need to understand and be mindful that as you grow and educate yourself in your passion or Personal Development, the potential to “outgrow” your MLM or NM business is really quite high, especially if your first time experience in working from home is by you joining an MLM or NM business. Now I’m not saying that you or your personal brand are literally becoming “bigger” than the Tupperware or Avon name or brand… I simply mean that you might find yourself or your passions newly aligned elsewhere. What you need to understand is that if you decide to leave and try other things don’t feel you are quitting. I hear so many stories of sponsors/team leaders etc telling their team they are quitting and giving up if they choose to follow something else. As long as you are being true to you, that’s all that matters. It is far more productive to be spending your time doing something you love than staying with something because someone is telling you to!

Some people also stay in their MLM or NM business with the goal in mind of making money in the MLM or NM to fund their own business or create their own products. To those I say this, be mindful or how much time & $$’s you are spending every month keeping the MLM or NM business going… Would you be far better off putting that time and money into your own venture??

I truly believe now that the lines are becoming blurred between Personally Branding yourself with the goal in mind to recruit to some sort of MLM or NM business and Personally Branding yourself “as your business”. The latter is far more appealing to me and in my opinion more effective and entrepreneurial. And will make you a lot more money at the end of the day!

Would love to hear all your opinions and especially your experiences in MLM, NM or better still if you are like me and have been inspired to truly create your own brand and start your own venture like I did please share your stories with me below! And feel free to inspire all your friends on Twitter and FB by passing this on, you never know who is looking for inspiration to launch themselves in a brand new direction!

Current members enjoy weekly news update on Oceanside Forex expansion and account performance.

Dwayne Stevens — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:27:16 +0000

So for those of you who don’t like to watch videos online or maybe your connection is too slow, here is a brief overview of the news update from Oceanside Forex for last week.

Spokesperson Daryl Rene does a fantastic job of keeping Oceanside investors updated with the current news.

The Waverunner system receives a partial software update to its Surfboard feature, helping secure additional profits.
ETA on the New Zealand based Oceanside financial entity is 2 weeks.
The newly hired US Securities attorney for Oceanside advised that Oceanside was under jurisdiction of the NFA(National Futures Association) not the SEC.
Oceanside Forex’s Demo Account is 2% since July 16th.You can download the demo account for free using the link above.
The live showcase account is currently 6% for the month and trading on 8 currency pairs. Members should receive a solid 5% return on investment this month.
Oceanside is beta testing an additional Forex Typhoon system, that if testing go well, will run in addition to the Waverunner system.
Elite Diamond member investors attended a private webinar on the 24th, hosted by Broker Jones and JD Kaiser. Information was shared on the new NZ corporation and a sneak peek into the future of Oceanside.

So how did this person find my blog ?. If you don’t know, you need Google Analytics !!

Dwayne Stevens — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:09:58 +0000

You only have to do a little research around Google Analytics (GA) to realise there are true fans, there are those who sceptical and those who sit on the fence. However the fact is that Google is king and using their analytics is a must in measuring your website traffic.

For those who have no desire to jump into the murky depths of the true capabilities of GA, lets look at the basics of what they can highlight for your website:

1. Traffic Sources overview: Without analytics (doesn’t have to be GA) you wont know how visitors use your site, or come to find your site. If you look at your dashboard you will notice a pie chart in the bottom left hand corner. This will tell you:

# The percentage of people who found your site through search engines (higher the better if you have an organic SEO campaign), like blogging.

# The percentage of direct traffic you receive e.g people who have typed in your URL.

# Referring sites is when a visitor clicks on a link to your site from another site.

2. Content Overview: You can monitor the most visited pages, the time spent on those pages. Which means you can focus your highest converting key phrases around these pages.

3. Keyword tracking: you may find over time your carefully selected keywords might not be the most appropriate, or that you are missing out on a little golden nugget you had not initially thought off.

4. Track and improve your conversions: A website is there to promote your business, by tracking your conversions you can build upon what works. Monitor market/seasonal trends.

5. Bounce Rate: You will see how long visitors spend on your site (bounce rate), this indicates that visitors are not finding what they are looking for and are clicking away instantly. It is well worth taking the opportunity to re-think your content, design or products.

Google Analytics can provide you with an extensive never ending amount of useful information about your websites performance. This article literally scratches the surface, well it doesn’t really even do that, but I hope it at least gives you an understanding of what is on the surface.

The sceptics don’t like that Google being the “super power” it is, has the ability to see how visitors from all search engines find and use your site. Meaning should they want to, they can undermine all your SEO efforts, in all fairness SEO is constantly evolving and nothing is set in stone. Google’s aim is to bring the searcher the most relevant results to a query, should google wish the change the game, SEO consultants are going to have to up theirs.

So my advice is to learn more about your website traffic and adjust accordingly.

Are you stressed ? Well, these banks failed their financial stress tests.

Dwayne Stevens — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 02:15:06 +0000

So I am over on Yahoo Finance just reading the headlines and I see “ Seven banks fail EU stress tests, most cleared”.

I thought I must be getting really tired and misunderstood what this heading really means. Nope, I was right the first time. 7 banks mostly in Spain failed their financial stress tests.

Say what, are they serious…after all the problems with the Euro you would think that all banks would get their act together.

Article goes on to say that these 7 banks, would have a short fall of $3.5 Billion, Yes that is Billion with a “B”. Well, if I had my savings in one of these banks I would get it out asap…..

What are your thoughts on this….personally, if my bank failed their test I would start putting my money under my mattress.

Seriously though….get your act together people and start thinking about your clients and customers and not the bottom line so that the president of the company can go out in his speedboat this weekend.

Ok, enough ranting for today.

Just one final thought. If you are worried about what your bank is doing with you money and would like to make more money. Contact me directly and we can see what options you may have more joining Oceanside.

Branding yourself, personal branding is more important than any product you are promoting.

Dwayne Stevens — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 01:46:40 +0000

There are a number of reasons why personal branding is important, and I intend to hammer home the point, so be warned.

To start with an opportunity that may seem brilliant today, may seem out dated tomorrow, and if you have built your business around this brand, you’re in trouble. Imagine if Google had a free tool, and you build your entire business around teaching people to use it. All of a sudden Google or someone else brings out a better tool and your website is left as the solar powered gramophone. Interesting but completely pointless.

Now consider if you had concentrated on personal branding, and instead of your product or course, people came to hear what you say. If its you not your product you have built up, then when the next big thing comes out, they all rush to see what you have to say.

The internet changes everyday, piece by piece in small but definite ways. Either you are building a business based around your personal branding, or the branding of your product. The trick is to maintain the ability to be fluid like the market you are operating in. Be like Google who change as necessary, and not Bing who have left themselves playing catch up.

Hopefully you now understand that if you aren’t working on personal branding, you are wasting your time. On the other-hand, if you build your business around your personal reputation then the changes that come to the industry will not affect you. I know…I know, you now agree, but how do you do it?

Personal branding really isn’t as hard as you may think. To start with you need to forget about promoting other guru’s and so called experts, and seize that role for yourself. If you publicly continue talking about how someone else’s product is so great, and how wonderful they are, then you just look a fool. If the other person knows so much, why are they listening to you instead of going to listen to the source. That person who did work on personal branding and managed to get you to so heartily recommend them, isn’t going to return the favor. They will not only sell to the customer, but also increase their reputation and hopefully sell again and again to them.

Personal branding

One of the most important methods for personal branding you can use involves your messages to your list. Forget generic sales jargon, and try making it personal. Don’t forget the old axiom “people buy from people,” because it is as true online as offline.

If you use personal branding in your email campaigns, you will see an improvement in your sales ratio. So to achieve this personal branding effect you need to do several things.

Include something personal
Mention your family
Talk about how you did something, instead of how they should do it
Ask for their opinions

The trick with personal branding is to become a real person, and break through the computer barrier to your readers. Don’t worry this isn’t hard, you just have to forget most of the sales rubbish you have learned from so called guru’s. If you are on vacation with your family, don’t be afraid to mention it. Often mentioning something from your day to day life that is similar to theirs will cause more of a connection than some brilliantly bullet pointed sales lingo.

Do talk about your family in your emails, and do ask for peoples opinions. Remember your aim with personal branding is primarily to let them know you are a real person.

Now when the market shifts and you are left out in the cold, it doesn’t matter. If you have worked on personal branding, the first place your customers will come to look for something better is you. Seriously you will receive emails telling you that they would rather buy from you, but someone else is offering blah blah, and could you offer something similar.

Always build your name instead of the product you are promoting. If you have personally branded yourself sufficiently shifts in the market cannot harm you, and if your product becomes inferior you can update it without a hitch.

So what does personal branding really mean? It means being you just as hard as you can, and letting people see. I am not suggesting something complicated, just that you allow your personality to come across in your words, and build a reputation with your list and website visitors.

This has been a hard lesson for me to learn. After building teams in both Quixtar(Amway) and Monavie, I have come to realize that people join people not companies.

I learned this because after walking away from my team in Monavie and joining another good friend, Broker Jones. I found out who found was going to follow me and who stayed behind.

Just so you know, those who did follow me to Oceanside are making more money now than they ever did in Monavie and all that stayed behind are not making any money at all.

So if any of my former upline or downline are reading this, there is a home here at Oceanside for you.

Oh, and what is my personal brand now…..Helping people with their own “Success Mission” and that starts now…..get ready

Wow, that was a great website !. Gotta bookmark that one. Does your blog have that first impression ?

Dwayne Stevens — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:28:31 +0000

One of the toughest obstacles in making a website stand out is creating an interesting home page or blog. You can have the best content on the web, but if the first page a person sees is drab or a garbled mess, they’re going to leave, probably never to return again.

It doesn’t matter if you blog about the best care for your goldfish or trying to craft the perfect family vacation, you need the first thing a visitor sees has instant impact and want them to click through the rest of the site.

So the first thing you must realize is that you must bring out the big guns. Your best feature is often the most eye-catching. If you’re trying to attract people traveling to Florida, you have the most popular Disney attractions front and center. Couple your words with bold images and the winning combination is a good first step to holding a person’s attention.

The main attraction may be the hook – but you must offer more content if you want to reel your audience in. You want to stay current and you want to be interesting. Popular attractions, current news and even something as simple as the weather – as long as you stay on topic and keep things easy-to-read, people will be more apt to continue through the rest of your site.

Links are important as well, but only if utilized correctly. You can experiment with fonts, shapes, even sounds in the right context – but if you go too far, sensory overload will turn people off. This goes along with graphics too. It may seem obvious, but clashing colors, random text, missing pictures (the dreaded red X) and dead links spell certain doom if they’re not addressed.

Finally, you must have something unique. Make no mistake, if you have a website, I can pretty much guarantee someone else has had the exact same idea. So you must decide what’s going to set you apart from the pack – and it doesn’t have to be just one thing – the more innovative you are, the better chance you have at driving traffic up.

Tailor specific features for your site, but things such as articles written by the staff, a calendar of events filtered specifically for site with the ability for user-generated content or special offers unique to a site will all help drive traffic. Offer something helpful, interesting and useful and you will find people more inclined to visit often, and recommend it to others.

So whether starting a new site or updating an existing one, remember that you only have one chance to make a good first impression. With the right blend of design, usability, content and unique feature you too may find success is just a click away.

O C E A N S I D E Network

Retirement: Three magic numbers – Yahoo! Finance

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Tips to help you keep your readers coming back and keep a constant flow of new traffic.

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Oceanside Network temporarily closed to US based investors.

Then click HERE to open an account.

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Facebook adds new Android app. A much needed improvement.

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So how did this person find my blog ?. If you don’t know, you need Google Analytics !!

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Are you stressed ? Well, these banks failed their financial stress tests.

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Branding yourself, personal branding is more important than any product you are promoting.

Oh, and what is my personal brand now…..Helping people with their own “Success Mission” and that starts now…..get ready

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Wow, that was a great website !. Gotta bookmark that one. Does your blog have that first impression ?

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