Monday, March 17, 2008

The Renegade Network Marketer and Sieg's System Were the Beginning - What's Next?

Every day hundreds of savvy network marketers and even the old-school MLMers purchase Ann Sieg's Renegade System--a funded sponsoring proposal lead generation system--but a lot of them do it unknowingly.

What they initially picked up was a copy of her e-book, but after they read the book they realize they get a lot more than just words and ideas.

Just as Mike Dillard has done with his Magnetic Sponsoring, Sieg's book comes with her Renegade System. Although different in many ways, both set of books, resources and systems have empowered network marketers to move into a new era for the networking industry-the era of marketing.

First & Second Impressions about The Renegade and Magnetic Sponsoring...

Many progressive networkers, and even many of the old-school MLM types, fumble through the first pages of The Renegade e-book feeling almost anxious because they sense they just found the mother-load... like stumbling into a goldmine but realizing you can't carry anything home until you do some planning.

This is similar to how many have felt when they found Magnetic Sponsoring.

The Renegade had the greatest impact of me between the two, but that is because I saw a missing element that I could not fill with Magnetic Sponsoring-teaching others.

I had read Mike Dillard's Magnetic Sponsoring and had employed some affiliate marketing strategies and the funded-sponsoring proposal out of what I learned in his MLM Traffic Formula course, but it wasn't until I found The Renegade Network Marketer and its 'sister' System, that I felt I could teach any of this stuff to my team.

That's what's most important to me because in network marketing it's about duplication.

I had been teaching network marketing (the old-school way) for years, and coaching is a passion. So when I saw how well Ann had put her Renegade package together specifically for beginners, I was excited to expand upon it. I started planning how I'd gather my team and clients and come back to mine the gold together. And that's what we did.

Within weeks, people who had been wasting thousands of dollars on leads to build their network marketing business and getting no where, who were afraid of Internet marketing up to that point, were employing The Renegade System strategies by following simple tutorials we had set up.

Over a hundred people on our team made the switch within weeks. We threw out the cold-calling and warm market stuff forever, and started generating leads and new income with the Renegade. The prospects started calling people on my team and they were thrilled. Over a hundred of my clients (many from other network marketing companies) started generating their own leads list, and then monetizing it. The whole 'training experiment' was a smash.

What's Next for The Renegade'ers and Magnetic Gurus?

The next big movement in this new model for network marketers is teaching others how to set it all up in step-by-step tutorials like we've done. I've seen proof of its power. People flock to you by the thousands to learn.

If you want to create your own system to do this make sure it is set up for the beginner in very small bite sizes, and that it's visual so they can literally follow along.

Also, remember how much Ann Sieg emphasized monetization in The Renegade Network Marketer. Make sure your training system increases monetization not just for you, but also for your team and prospects who should be able to use your training system with the same benefit you do.

I think you'll see this kind of training take the MLM industry by storm, and to the next level of maturity because it's exactly what the majority of network marketers who have read The Renegade (or Dillard's stuff) need.

So find a system that does this, like one we've created called Renegade University, or create one that meets the criteria above and you'll be ahead of the curve, positioned to attract a huge number of prospects to you, while earning a lot more cash flow if you monetize it properly. Then, you can lead those prospects to wherever it is you want them to end up (like your MLM business, for example).

Saturday, March 15, 2008

A Brief History of Cisco Certification Training

Cisco Systems was founded in 1984 by a married couple named Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner. They were computer engineers employed at Stanford University near San Francisco, California. The name cisco, which was originally spelled using a small c, was taken from San Francisco. It created the first commercially successful multi-protocol router. This was exactly the right product at the right time as it enabled previously incompatible computers to communicate with each other. The cisco router was thus instrumental in the establishment and growth of the internet. The change to the standard Internet Protocol (IP) cut drastically into the need for a multi-protocol router, but by this time the company was well established and able to diversify into other networking system products.

In 1990, just six years after it was founded, the company went public and the name was changed to Cisco Systems. The founders walked away with a nice profit of around 170 million dollars. In the following years, the company continued to grow. Just before the dot com. bubble burst, Cisco Systems was one of the richest companies in the world. Today, the company has managed to stay on the cutting edge of networking systems technology and has retained its position as a leader in the field of Internet technology.

Around 1993, the Cisco systems became involved in training with the establishment of Cisco Academies. The idea was to provide global training for network associates. Since they were being trained by Cisco to use Cisco equipment, the establishment of the Academies contributed to the growth of the company. Cisco training was established as a benchmark standard for network associates and IT technicians. Cisco was also a leader in the introduction of formal certification programs to insure the competence and skill level of networking employees. The idea was that college educations by themselves were not a guarantee of a person’s capacity to do a job. Cisco Certification training was established to prepare candidates to pass the Certification exams.

Although in recent years, other companies have introduced Certification programs, the Cisco Certification remains an important indicator of the skill level of a potential employee. This is especially true in the networking field. At the current time, Cisco Systems sponsors 9 different Certifications. They range from CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert) to CCSI (Cisco Certified Systems Instructor). The most common and entry level Certification is the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate).

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Magellan Network Systems Joins Softswitch Consortium

Magellan Network Systems, maker of softswitches and enhanced telecom services systems, has joined the International Softswitch Consortium as a founding member.

The Consortium was formed earlier this year by Cisco Systems, Level 3 Communications, Enron Communications, Hewlett-Packard and other leading telecommunications vendors to promote open standards and applications permitting the convergence of the traditional telephone network with the Internet.

The 52-member Consortium promotes "softswitch" architectures that facilitate the interoperability of products supporting voice and multimedia communications over IP networks. Initial efforts are targeted at standard interfaces such as the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), the Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP), the Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) and the Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP).

Jeff Paine, Magellan vice president of marketing, said, "Our recently announced Mariner product, one of the first true softswitch implementations, is designed to provide call control and enhanced services in a legacy phone network, an IP network, or a hybrid of the two. The Softswitch Consortium's standardization efforts -- notably with SIP and MGCP -- will help us take Magellan's proven expertise in circuit-switched call control and apply it seamlessly to the ATM and IP network environments in controlling the gateways that run key voice services."

Founded in May 1999, the Softswitch Consortium is an international non-profit organization for global cooperation and coordination of internetworking technologies in the field of Internet-based real-time interactive communications and related applications. Many applications emulate circuit switching in software; hence the name "softswitch."

The Consortium identifies, selects and augments the development and distribution of standard interfaces for the call agents, media gateways and applications that make up IP networks. Additional information about the Consortium can be found on the organization's web site at www.softswitch.org.

Magellan Network Systems, founded in 1994, develops and markets carrier-quality, scalable telecommunications services platforms for a wide variety of service providers, including traditional telephone companies, Internet and Internet telephony service providers, and competitive and incumbent local exchange carriers.

The company's products offer an unprecedented range of enhanced services, including pre- and post-paid calling cards, long-distance resale, voicemail and unified messaging services, all with fully integrated billing and administration. Customers include British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, In Touch Telecom, Startec and Kertel. Magellan is privately held and has 125 employees. For more information, visit Magellan's web site at www.magellan.com.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

MCSE Certification - Requirements And Courses

In this article we're going to go over the current requirements for getting an MCSE certification. Please keep in mind that these requirements could be old news by the time you read this. No knock on Microsoft intended.

So, you want to get an MCSE certification. Well, in order to do so you're going to have to pass a series of exams. As of this article, seven to be exact. Five of the exams are what they call core exams and the last two are called elective exams.

The five core exams consist of four operating system exams and one design exam. The four operating system exams offer the following choices. The first of the operating system exams is the client operating system. You need to take one of these. The last three are for the networking system itself. There is a bit of an overlap here so we'll just cover the choices as they apply to both options.

The overlaps are courses 2151 and 2152 which are Windows 2000 Network and Operating Systems Essentials and Implementing Windows 2000 Professional Server. Also in the overlap is course 1560 which is upgrading from Windows NT to Windows 2000.

This is where we have the breakoff between client operating system and the networking system. The last client operating system exams are course 2272 and 2285 which are Implementing Windows XP Professional and Installing and Configuring Windows XP Professional. This concludes the client operating system exams.

The remaining exams for the network system itself are courses 2153 and 2154. These include Implementing a Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Infrastructure and Implementing and Administering Microsoft Windows 2000 Directory Services.

The design exam comes with a number of options which cover Designing a Microsoft Windows 2000 Directory Services Infrastructure, Designing a Security-Enhanced Microsoft Windows 2000 Network, Designing a Microsoft Windows 2000 Networking Services Infrastructure, Designing a Highly Available Web Infrastructure, Designing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Network Infrastructure and Designing Security for Microsoft Networks. The good part about the design option is that the student has a number of options to choose from.

The two elective exams are a bit of a blessing and a curse. There are numerous courses that can be taken for the two elective exams. The problem is, with so many choices a new student may have a difficult time deciding which one to take. With some being infinitely more difficult than the others, the choice can mean the difference between passing and failing the exams. Having said that, the more popular of the elective exams, which doesn't necessarily mean they are the easiest ones, are System Administration for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, which has been a staple for years, Implementing a Database on Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, which is usually taken with the other SQL exam, thus completing the elective section, Implementing and Managing Microsoft Exchange 2000, which has been another long time staple and finally its cousin, Designing Microsoft Exchange 2000 for the Enterprise. There are of course other courses but these are the most popular.

In our next article look for more information on MCSE certifications.