Opportunities at CityStar®
From CityStar Wiki
Now I would like to invite you to join us in our venture. We need your help
to take the International Business Directory to the top of the directory
space in the U.S., and then worldwide.
We offer free training, a contract as a CityStar® Associate, certification
as an Internet Marketing Specialist (IMS) and ultimately, we want you to become an Owner
Associate.
Although there is a lot of money at stake, I will never ask you for
one dime. As a matter of fact, we are offering you an extremely generous
compensation plan. Our company believes in creating opportunities for talented
people, and helping them reach their full potential.
The learning process at CityStar® has a two-fold purpose. The
first is to get you prepared to begin your work as an Associate.
The second is to provide on-going training in the elements of business
development as practiced in the directory space. To accomplish that, CityStar®
created Basic Training, and The Academy.
When you successfully test out of Basic Training, you'll be an
Associate and able to start making money right away. But we would like to
invite you to continue to learn, so that our clients will see you as someone who
can help them promote their websites.
When you are perceived as knowledgeable in Internet marketing, they will
start sending you referrals. They will return to you when they launch a new
business, or make changes to their website. You will be seen as an authority,
and when you speak, they will listen.
That is why we want you to continue into The CityStar® Academy, which
offers more information and advanced educational tools to aid you in acquiring
the needed skills to accomplish everything CityStar® has envisioned for you, our
valued Associate.
CityStar's Business Development Director, David Gregory Taylor, worked
closely with me to create training and testing materials for our official
Associates Program, with the goal of recruiting local Associates in cities
nationwide. When you graduate from Basic Training and make the decision to
continue into the Academy, you will get more than ten hours of video training in
many different aspects of our business. It's amazing to see how these
accelerated learning techniques work, conveying a lot of powerful information in
a short period of time.
Are you ready to get started?
To help take our network to the next level and to promote the
brand, CityStar® is currently purchasing tens of millions of online ad
impressions every month. Dynamic radio, TV and print advertising is now in
production. A powerful public relations initiative is also gearing up.
By offering you free internet marketing training and a full featured,
interactive company intranet, we intend to expand our network to dominate the
directory space in the U.S. in the near term, and eventually, worldwide.
From 1997-2008, CityStar® functioned as an ISP (Internet service
provider), and our people learned a lot about Web design, hosting, Internet
access and Internet marketing. We know a great deal about the Web and its
functionality. When we sold those businesses in 2008, we agreed to a seven-year
non-compete. We are totally out of the hosting, web design, ISP, and search
engine marketing (SEO) businesses. We provide listings in the National Website
Directory. That is the focus of the company.
We are aware that some of our Associates are SEOs, and we want to assure
those who are that we are not competitors in that arena. The corporation that
bought our ISP now licenses the CityStar® brand, but we are not associated with
them, and do not share information or activities with them.
Our goal is to be the best national business directory in the
country. We believe we already are, and we are going to get even better with
fresh ideas that will energize the field. We have been in this profession for
fourteen years, and our expertise is considerable. We are of the opinion that a
company like CityStar®, with its unique selling proposition, is poised to do
great things.
From our perspective, with our experience and our rock-solid
foundation, we see tremendous potential. It is right around the corner and we
invite those who have a need for growth, both personal and financial, to join us
in what we see as an adventure.
Basic Training is a term we are using for getting you ready for
work as an Associate at CityStar®. When you graduate from Basic Training, you'll
have the necessary information and skills.
CityStar® is, in the world of the Internet, a seasoned company. We are
successful in several areas, but for the national expansion plan we envision, we
decided to focus on one thing and then do that better than anyone, listings. We
have sold or discontinued activities in everything but our core business.
Here is why we are unique. We are the owner of the top spot on Google,
Yahoo, and Bing for the keywords International Business Directory, along with
literally thousands of other keywords. So we are a directory, but we are also a
search engine within the 288 individual city websites, 4,908 cities and towns
for the more than 96,000 businesses that list with CityStar®. We are poised for
phenomenal growth.
Our goal in Basic Training is to introduce you to the major concepts and
the business practices of CityStar® so that you can quickly get about the work
of being a successful Associate and enjoy the benefits of our years of
experience and the effort we have expended to ready CityStar® for a new
adventure.
CityStar® is the product of our years of planning, building relationships
with major players in the economy of the Web, and preparation for a national
expansion of the CityStar® brand.
To get into CityStar® Basic Training, you just need to apply. We want
you to be successful!
We want CityStar® to be the best thing that ever happened to you.
What we can do is offer you entrée to a corporate culture that will give you an
education in the field we have mastered. It's a part of our job. You start out in
Basic Training, but, if you have the right stuff, energy and determination, you may
continue into more advanced training in the CityStar® Academy, where you will learn to
be the go-to person for your clients.
No customer buys a product because they want to spend money. They do it
to solve a problem. Every client has challenges. When it is exposure on the
World Wide Web, we have the solution. In order for you, the CityStar® Associate,
to make it a no-brainer that the customer chooses CityStar® --and you-- as the
problem solver they turn to when dealing with the Web, we teach you everything
you need to know to be that person!
The best Associates and the most successful ones are problem solvers who
untangle thorny issues for their clients...with the product they offer. To solve
the difficulties you'll find in businesses that need to gain exposure on the
Internet, you need to know as much as you can about the solutions that dissolve
the knot your customer is seeking to unravel.
CityStar® Basic Training is your launchpad to becoming the professional
problem-solver who provides the solution to challenges every customer faces.
That solution is CityStar®!
How much can you make? It's up to you, really. We put no limits on
your income.
Listings are provided
to our clients on a subscription basis. Clients are billed month-to-month,
and commissions are paid after their payment is received.
Once that process of month-to-month subscriptions starts to snowball,
with new clients being added to your existing clientele, you can start to experience the
real benefit of this commission structure.
A hypothetical example is useful in explaining this concept. Let
us say that Associate A gets mostly small Listings, mostly local, maybe one
national Listing, and does not acquire very many clients. In other words, this
person is a relatively small player in CityStar®'s program.
Associate A closes, in their first month, a combination of Featured,
Featured w/ a Button, animated screenshot and other add-ons, both in local and
nationwide Listings. Their total volume of business for that month is $500. After the sixty day
"Sandbox," the commission base for every month these clients remain customers is
$500 + X (X=$500). Assuming Associate A continues at that rate for the next 12
months, the monthly tracking of Associate A's progress goes like this:
...and so on. By the 12th month, Associate A has created a monthly income of
$2400. Associate A's commission moved into the the 40% range (the commission
rate doubled), but even if business remains on that constant level, with no growth
month-to-month, and Associate A continues in CityStar®'s program, they still get
a raise every month.
Remember that this example is hypothetical, but on average, people get
better at performing tasks over time. So a more likely scenario for Associate A is
that they will generate a bit more revenue each month. In that set of circumstances, the
above monthly tracking would be much more impressive, for they would have rising
revenues, and they would move into higher commission brackets. But the chart shown
is useful to show that, even if Associate A's performance does not improve over
time, their income does.
Monthly numbers go up and down. The goal is always to achieve higher
revenues, and each number displayed is dependent on the client paying their bill.
But any seasoned professional knows that this is one of the reasons
people go into business development. With hard work and determination, the sky
is the limit. A good Associate can make a very substantial income, and it lasts
as long as the client and the Associate are with CityStar®.
Part of the hard work involved is maintaining the client relationship in
good standing. Your continuing training in Internet Marketing is geared toward
you being the one your client turns to for help in improving the marketing of
their website. If you are already experienced in these techniques, you are a
step ahead of the field. If you are not experienced, CityStar® is where you can
get the knowledge necessary to be a ready resource for marketing strategies, and
that can be the basis for your continued success.
Know your product line. It's not complicated, and surprisingly easy to
perform an upsell. Knowing where your prospect's competition is listed, maybe in
CityStar®, gives you the advantage of presenting options to the customer that
are to its benefit.
In Basic Training, you will learn about the three types of
listings:
- Featured Listing with button
- Featured Listing
- Website Listing
...about adding Page Status:
- Additional text links
- Animated screenshot
...about CityStar® sites in your area, and nearby town pages on these
sites. You will learn about the 40 categories in CityStar®, and the best fit for
various types of businesses.
But the most important thing you will learn is to think like a client.
What does a prospective client need that you can provide? In our business, they most
often need to be well-positioned in a Web directory, because that is where the top search
results on Google most often link. An individual business, as a rule, gets lost in these
search results, and finds itself on the second or third page of search engine
results, if they're lucky. That's not where a business hoping for success wants to be.
They can pay per click for keywords in the major search engines. That's really
expensive. In the long run, it is likely to be unsustainable.
Your task is to help that prospect understand how today's Internet is structured,
and by doing so, bring that prospect into CityStar® and thereby provide something
they need for long-term success.
I was speaking to a friend today, and mentioned the nationwide expansion
of CityStar®, and when he understood what it is, he said, "I'd be interested in
that. In my line of work, if it brought in just two customers a year, it pays
for itself." This is a guy who charters fishing trips and captains the boat for
deep-sea fishing. He wants a national ad, since his customers come from all over
the United States.
What is he thinking?
He told me, quite candidly, that the future of advertising is on the Web,
and he needs to be where his potential customers are looking for chartered
fishing trips. It's that simple.
Why does your prospect want to purchase an online ad? Answer: Because
print ads are in decline.
Everyone searches the Internet for what they want. The future is on the
Internet. Their competition is already there. Many clients tell us they missed
out on the beginnnings of the Web and are trying to catch up, and some have been
at that for some time. Some with little success.
Here's where the instruction you receive in how to effectively create a
Web presence through your knowledge of search engines and how they "think"
becomes a great business development tool.
Why do they want to do it now? Answer: Because the recession is over and
it's wise to be prepared for the recovery.
In reality, CityStar® is not difficult to work with. What we provide is
fundamental to the business cycle: Exposure. Your client's potential customers
need to see Acme Tools in black and white, with a screenshot of their homepage,
in order for Acme Tools to enter into their buying equation.
In Basic Training, I will give you just a taste of the kind of things you
will learn if you are certified as an Associate, and choose to continue on to
the CityStar® Academy. In my workshop, Internet Marketing 101, you will
learn why some sites are more successful than others. You will find out why it's
important to give back to the internet, about the Google paradigm, piggyback
marketing and other Internet marketing strategies that really work.
It's really only a taste of what is in store for you at The
Academy. But it's priceless information, and it can change everything for
you.
CityStar.com was developed as the International Business Directory by
CityStar® Group, Inc., a Colorado based media company. For over 14 years,
CityStar has been a leader in technology, interactivity, and multimedia. The
people who created CityStar® have collective decades of experience creating
entertaining and informational media.
Today, CityStar® is a network of 300 city portal sites attracting up to
12 million hits a month. The network has been extensively promoted via TV,
radio, print media, outdoor advertising, direct mail and on the Web. Thousands
of Web sites have linked to CityStar®, and its pages have top positions in major
search engines for more than 2,100 keywords. There are currently over 96,320
websites listed in the International Business Directory.
CityStar's administrative and support facilities are located in Colorado
Springs, Colorado, and its servers are in Colorado Springs, Los Angeles CA,
Houston TX, Knoxville TN, Green Bay WI, Miami FL and Fayetteville NC.
CityStar® first became a federally registered trademark in 2002. That
same year, starting with 33 sites in Colorado, 288 unique city websites were
gradually added for cities in 47 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Great
Britain and four Canadian provinces. 20 of these 300 city sites are currently in
development, including a major expansion into several more countries. Each of
the CityStar® city directories includes pages of listings for resources in other
nearby cities, covering a total of over 4,908 cities and towns.
Early in CityStar's history, we established strategic alliances with
local community groups such as Convention and Visitors Bureaus, Better Business
Bureaus and Chambers of Commerce of various cities.
In the Internet community, we have strived to be good citizens as well,
working with Google, Yahoo! and Dexknows.com to create relevance in our local
city sites. We have presented dozens of workshops on Internet marketing through
our partnership with the Better Business Bureau of Southern Colorado and various
local community groups and library districts.
So apply for this opportunity now, or get more information on our wiki. CityStar®
Associates essentially own their own business, so they decide their own working hours.
Every CityStar® Associate is an independent contractor.
It is the policy of CityStar® Group, Inc. not to discriminate on
the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability (where
reasonable accommodations can be made), disabled veteran status or veteran of
the Vietnam era status in its contracting and employment policies. In addition
to complying with federal and state equal opportunity laws and regulations, the
corporation through its diversity policy declares harassment based on individual
differences (including sexual orientation) inconsistent with its mission and
goals.
