Five Cornerstones Within The Online
Consumer Services Industry

The EMG business model combines five established marketplace trends to create a compelling suite of online consumer services.  This report provides an overview of these trends, and explains how they work together within EMG’s overall business strategy.

MARKETPLACE TRENDS

The delivery of information is now advancing at an unprecedented rate.  With the advent of the Internet and advanced digital technology, direct access to all forms of knowledge on a worldwide basis is now a reality.  Furthermore, information that was previously limited to text and photo images has come alive through streaming audio, video and flash animation.  This reality is now transforming every segment in the field of education, so much so that long-held education standards are being shaken to their core.  For example, every year another one million families opt for home-schooling, directly assisted by Internet technology.

While online learning is an industry still in its infancy, there now exists a huge quantity of high quality underused content in hundreds of categories.  Technology is advancing at such a rapid pace so that higher standards for content delivery will be developed every two or three years.  Consequently, while the industry itself is exploding, many e-learning business models are flawed in their delivery format, and in their individual growth projections. 

Internet technology has catapulted the ongoing revolution in the small office/home office arena.  Ebay is clearly one of the biggest online success stories, and much of their auction activity is driven by home-based entrepreneurs.  Over 400,000 banner ads for Amazon.com are hosted on small business web sites worldwide. Amazon pays a 5% to 12% sales commission to these affiliates. This helps Amazon generate over one hundred million dollars in sales every single week!

A few Internet giants have grown to dominate their respective categories.  This includes companies like Yahoo! (portal), Ebay (auctions), Microsoft (operating system & browser), Amazon (books & CDs) and Google (search).  During the same period, thousands of smaller companies have focused on specific niche markets, carving out successful business ventures in specialized categories. 

The business of connectivity continues to expand.  While consumer cable & DSL access is still monopolized by telcos and cable operators, thousands of smaller independent companies provide small business DSL, wireless, consumer dial-up and T1 service, at very competitive rates, to a vast and very stable marketplace. More and more, we see connectivity being packaged with other business and consumer services, and profitably sold through creative niche marketing.

Another area of increasing interest is the category of social evolution.  While the trend in the U.S. is still in its very early stages, the European Union is taking the lead in developing an online education agenda, directed at the mass market, that addresses a comprehensive solutions-oriented approach to individual growth, health and healing, community development, ethical business and more conscious government.

These emerging trends are clear and obvious – learning-on-demand, shared opportunity, outstanding consumer value, niche marketing, relevance and social evolution. EMG strives to address all of these trends in a simple, practical and uplifting manner.   

ONLINE EDUCATION

The entire planet is now undergoing an information revolution.  Fueled by digital technology, the body of knowledge of the next generation will totally eclipse all previous generations.  This is already apparent in areas of business and practical knowledge, and is beginning to radically influence other disciplines such as religion, art, politics, psychology, philosophy and healthcare.  The fact that e-learning is prolific across every sector is obvious to any informed consumer.  Anyone who experiences a simple online lesson, such as “computing the area of a circle”, presented as an audio and moving flash illustration, will clearly see the power of this new medium to assist in the learning process. Corporations use e-learning for employee orientation, safety training, human resources management, technical training and sales training.

Manufacturers use e-learning for effective product demonstrations.  The online college is now a preferred option for millions of students.  Grade school and high school courses are accelerating a massive shift to home schooling, as well as greatly enhancing the role of traditional education systems.  Most courses can be easily transferred between CDs and the web, and most coursework is interactive whereby students can assess their level of comprehension through simple digital testing formats.

While e-learning can be very efficient, eliminating the need for pre-printed books (that quickly become outdated), another result of this exponential growth of inter-active learning, is a plethora of high quality content that is simply underused.  This situation presents the opportunity for a practical low-cost subscription-based business model that aggregates this content into a low-cost “clearing house” for consumers.  EMG's MiracleMind is exactly that – a clearing house for online education.  The consumer market for such a service is worldwide, while the many sources for this quality content are also international.  According to Pew Internet, the sales volume of fee-based e-learning in the U.S. alone is now approaching $1 billion per month.  

HOME-BASED DIRECT SALES

Working from home is really nothing new.From 1960 to 1998 the number of home-based businesses in the U.S. grew to nearly 11 million.  Companies like Amway^®, Shaklee^®, Tupperware^®, Mary Kay^® and dozens of others have been around for over 40 years.  Today’s advanced Internet technology has now transformed the direct sales industry by facilitating business automation on a worldwide basis in the areas of sales affiliate partnerships, billing, shipping, mass customization of communications and overall data management.  Home-based businesses in the U.S. now number nearly 20 million, and many of these operate within the online branded environment of billion dollar companies, taking the ideas of “virtual business” and “turn-key” to new heights. Today, there is a literal “underground economy” consisting of hundreds of companies, selling billions of dollars in goods and services through effective word-of-mouth networks.

There are other key issues to consider.  Consumers can now use the Internet to shop the lowest price for nearly any consumer item.  The days are numbered for the network sale of overpriced vitamins, cosmetics and other consumable items.  Today’s new breed of home-based sales rep desires, more than anything, to represent products and services that deliver value, relevance and quality that will result in long-term sales consistency.  For this reason, the past ten years have given rise to affordable membership-based subscription programs that provide access to deeply discounted products and services – that are also sold through word-of-mouth networks.  AmeriPlan^® (discounted healthcare services), and Pre-Paid Legal^® are just two of many examples. 

NICHE-ORIENTED SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

After over seven years of consistent presence, low-cost online subscriptions are now a major segment of the U.S. economy, representing tens of billions of dollars in sales every year. Low cost subscriptions (monthly and annual) are a practical impulse purchase in dozens of consumer categories including financial advice, music, gaming, Internet access, newspapers, trade publications, e-learning, software applications, dating services, sports news, alumni communities, weight loss, genealogy research, media archives, etc.

Subscription sales are fast becoming one of the favored revenue models for Internet commerce.  Some proponents promote subscription-based e-commerce without reservation.  “This (subscriptions) is a model that is no longer questioned,” Peter Kann, Dow Jones Chief Executive, told Reuters News Service in January of this year.  The clear success of The Wall Street Journal Interactive Web site, one of the largest paid subscription sites on the Internet, attests to Mr. Kann’s   statement.

Unlike magazine subscriptions, online services are usually priced higher, and are most often billed monthly.  For obvious reasons online subscriptions can be maintained with very low overhead, the accounts are easily managed and for these reasons the business models can do well financially at very low subscription rates.  Niche-oriented subscriptions can command a higher-than-average price, and can sell their services worldwide through email.  For this reason, many subscription services with as few as 1,000 customers can easily maintain profitability.  The future looks bright for many companies offering a wide range of subscription services covering dozens of categories of specialized interest.  You can find additional information at www.sandlot.com, which is an authoritative resource serving the subscription industry.

CONNECTIVITY

While the shift to broadband is certainly clear, the future will likely be split among cable, telco, wireless, satellite and power line (electric grid) communications.  Dial-up will continue to maintain a strong presence of more than 25 million U.S.  residential accounts through 2008.  This is true for several reasons.  Underused infrastructure has already dropped many wholesale and reseller prices by as much 35% in recent years.  The quality of service has increased due to uncrowded networks.  V.92 modems allow easy use of a single phone line for voice and data.  Advances in technology, such as web acceleration (page compression), have increased typical dial-up download speeds by as much as 500%.  Unlike cable and DSL, dial-up is portable, and a single account can be used by computers and laptops in different locations. 

While residential cable and DSL remain under the control of incumbent providers, wireless access bypasses the cable and telco monopolized infrastructure, and remains a wide open area for hundreds of smaller independent operators.  Likewise, commercial DSL and T-1 service is a very active category for small independent carriers and resellers.  COVAD and DSL.net are facilities-based DSL carriers who work with independent virtual resellers.  Even the major Bell Companies ( RBOC's ) have partnered with independent operators.  Qwest has been working with business-class resellers, on a nationwide basis, for the past several years.  IP telephony, much like long-distance telephone service back in the ‘90’s, is also a viable service for so many independent resellers.  As we mentioned in the introduction, packaging connectivity with relevant educational content, consumer benefits and other discounts, and then targeting the small office/home office ( SOHO ) market, is an outstanding strategy to secure a profitable share of this lucrative marketplace.  The addition of a simple word-of-mouth revenue-sharing business partnership makes package far more attractive.

RELEVANT CONTENT & SOCIAL EVOLUTION

Socially relevant information, in the form of news feeds, streaming video and online courses, is now beginning to appear on the web, and is already sparking a literal revolution in thinking in the areas religion, metaphysics, community development, political reform, health & healing, childcare, education, business ethics and international relations.  Moreover, the strength and organization offered by many cohesive online social communities provides additional resources for millions of individuals in every age bracket and demographic profile.

While at the present time the Internet may be clogged with a massive volume of “noise” in the form of spam, gaming, pornography, drugs, illegal software and thousands of self-serving e-commerce sites, there is a rising “wisdom culture” that grows steadily every single day.  This new progressive culture is beginning to reach the mass market out of the need and demand for relevance in these many areas of personal and social evolution.

One central theme of socially relevant content is consumer empowerment regarding mainstream advertising.  While its no secret that so much corporate advertising is devoted to subtly inducing the public to consume products, there seems to be a “veil of delusion” that has grown more apparent in recent years.  Of particular concern is the aggressive agenda of pharmaceutical companies who target uninformed consumers whose aches and pains may be swept away with “pills” that carry a pleasing brand name.  In many cases the side effects from these drugs are downright frightening, and often life-threatening.  In so many cases health problems can and should be alleviated through simple dietary changes, detoxification, lots of clean water and mild exercise.  But, because there is no profit to be had in educating and motivating these consumers, the right messages never reach their eyes and ears.  Media hosts are not interested in public service announcements (especially ones that would be in conflict with the interests of their paying advertisers).  Media sponsors maintain billion dollar corporations that thrive on people’s bad habits, their self-image and/or their fears.  This is true for alcoholic beverages, healthcare, tobacco, fast foods, gas guzzling cars, business opportunities, financial services, high fashion and a host of other categories.

Online education provides a unique vehicle for delivering socially relevant information that can empower millions of consumer in quite meaningful ways.

CONCLUSIONS

Through its primary online brand, MiracleMind, Evolution Media Group will strive to incorporate an attractive blend of services that are both practical and socially relevant.

By utilizing a pricing structure that offers outstanding value, is affordable to almost any online consumer, and that incorporates an effective word-of-mouth delivery system, EMG positions itself within the heart of the active online consumer audience, thereby establishing a widespread and sustainable retail distribution network. 

By aggregating high quality underused content into a “clearing house” subscription model, we serve both suppliers and consumers with a large-scale “middle-man” framework that provides a cost-effective “win-win” exchange of organized multi-media information.

By focusing on under served niche markets, EMG is assured of ample market share, net profits and long-term stability even at low subscriber volumes.

Finally, EMG’s plan to include socially relevant subject matter, including “edumedia” advertising and courses in media awareness, takes “consumer relations” to another level and represents a truly comprehensive value-added package for its subscriber base.