Cognigen / Commission River ..... Breaking MLM News

Since the unfortunate passing of Kevin Anderson .... founder of Cognigen .... much has been happening to keep Kevin's dream alive and moving forward. Following is the latest news on the present AND future of Cognigen.

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Cognigen/Commission River Merger Complete

That's right. There is now one company - with one vision: to become the preeminent Internet marketing company in the world. Think it can't be done? That's what they told Adam Edwards (president of Commission River) and Patrick Oborn when they started Telarus just 5 years ago (A Division of Cognigen ..... see ShopForT1 and ShopForDSL for examples). Now it is one of the top commercial telecom Master Agents in the country. They're going to do it again here. That much you can take to the bank.

With the merger completed Cognigen and Commission River are now one company. The official name going forward will be Commission River, subsidiary of Cognigen Networks which will continue to trade under the symbol CGNW.

The Team is Back!

With the completed merger, there is a whole new staff working at Commission River. Let me list them off so you know who is on the other side working for your success:

* Adam Edwards, President (Cognigen agent since 2001, founder of Telarus)
* Patrick Oborn, VP Marketing (Cognigen Webmaster 1999-2002)
* Robert Probst, Director (Cognigen National Trainer 2000-2004)
* Gene Culver, Training Director (Cognigen National Trainer 2000-2003)
* Keith Grey, Database Programmer (Cognigen Head Programmer 1998-2006)
* Jeremy Hicks, Database Programmer (Novell 2003-2007)
* Ned Hamzic, Web Designer (Cognigen Webmaster 2002-2007)
* Natasha Kocharov, Support (Cognigen Agent Support, 1997-2007)
* Tom Pleas, Support (Cognigen Agent Support, 2003-2007)
* Glenda Probst, Agent Support (Cognigen National Trainer 2000-2004)

As you can see, the people who made Cognigen a success in the past are now back. They've only been working together for less than a month and they're more committed than ever to building up the new company so that it can put more money in your pocket.

New Support Structure

Every Cognigen/Commission River member has been assigned a full-time sales coach who is an employee of the company. Your sales coach is compensated by the company for every sale you make, so please use your personal coach to help you formulate strategies to sell our services. Right now the two full-time coaches are Robert Probst and Gene Culver. The system automatically assigned you to a coach, but you can change your preference at any time in your agent profile.

New Web Sites



They are in the process of retiring LD.net and replacing it with something 1000 times more powerful. You'll be able to send your clients here without worrying if the site is too cumbersome to navigate. Likewise, you'll be able to see how Cognigen/Commission River markets these services so that you can generate ideas for your own web sites.

Below is a summary of our 2008 web site technology roadmap:

* brand new "LD.net" web site
* brand new Agent Back Office
* revamped international best rates calculator (with PHP-include, Cold-Fusion-inclue, and XML scripts)
* randomized content management software (with PHP-include, Cold-Fusion-inclue, and XML scripts) This will allow you to keep your site up-to-date without having to worry that it is the exact same as another agent.
* brand new GeoQuote commercial telecom calculator
* brand new ShopforVoIP.com - for residential and commercial VoIP sales/leads

Real-World Training Back on Track!

2008 is going to be a year of serious training and education. Let me summarize the ongoing and future planned training activities here:

* Live Real-World Sale Training - Gene Culver, our Training Director, makes live "real world" sales calls on behalf of agents every Monday at 12PM Eastern. (404-920-6611 PIN 650265). You get trained, and you get the sale when Gene closes the deal!
* New Training Site - we are preparing a fresh installment of Internet marketing boot camp with new articles, phone calls, web seminars - all focusing on how you can find more customers online
* Real-world Training Events - 2008 will be full of small one-on-one training events in hotel throughout the country. The first one will take place in Orlando, Florida on January 14. Stay tuned for details.

Lastly, Gene wanted me to let you know that he is available for any agent who wants to make sales calls over the phone (or in person). You can reach Gene at (866) 292-4543 M-F, 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern time. If you have any prospects that you think would be interested in the products (1-800-FREE411, T1 service, Conferencing, Security Systems, Cellular, etc.) but are too afraid to make the call, give Gene a try.

New Products

I would be remiss if I did not mention some of the new and exciting products they're working on for 2008 - products that are on the cutting edge of technology and that pay residual commission:

* Residual Credit Card - we are working with a few banks on developing a credit card that offers the customer the best rates available .... while paying you a residual commission on ALL of the profit the bank makes on the customer.
* VoIP Providers - we plan to enhance our VoIP offerings with new carriers that will offer more flexibility and price plans. These providers include Zingotel, Lingo, Via:talk, VoIP Your Life, and others (existing providers such as Packet8, Opex, and VoIP.com will remain).
* Wireless Phones that Connect to WiFi - somewhat like the iPhone, we are working on a product that connects to a wireless data network to save money on cellular minutes, not to mention a wealth of video and Internet applications that will run on the phone.
* Mortgage and Refinance Leads - we are putting together a deal with companies who want to pay us to generate mortgage and refinance leads for them, with variable commission plans that could even pay bonuses when our leads close.

Again, these are not "done deals", but products that we are working on bringing you during the first part of 2008.

New Year, New Compensation Plan

You just got a raise!! We are excited to move into the new year with a new compensation plan! The problem with the old plan is that it didn't pay enough money to people actually making sales, not to mention the many loopholes and exceptions that became standards. Now everyone gets a chance to get the "big" commission, all while paying a base rate of roughly DOUBLE the old plan. The new plan will go into effect for all sales made after January 1, 2008. All sales made before then will continue to pay under the old plan for the life of the accounts.

Here are the details of the new compensation plan:

* Each agent gets paid according to the Pay Level (or Tier) they have earned with each individual service provider. The Pay Level is determined by the sales volume you achieve with that vendor over a 90 day window. Once you advance a Tier, you stay advanced for the next 2 months, even if you don't hit the volume requirement again.
* You earn a tiered override on all agents you personally recruit (IE: on your Level "1")
* You can see which Tier you are on using your back office.
* A monthly recruiting pool of $1000 is paid out to all agents who recruit new affiliates who make their first sale (IE, active agents). If you recruit 50% of the new active agents this month, you earn $500 of the pool money.

Soon you will be able to view your commission (both on the old and new plans) in your Commission River back office. We anticipate this change will be made before January 31, 2008. Again, everything you've done under the old compensation plan will continue to pay out indefinitely. Only new sales placed after January 1, 2008 will be paid through the new "affiliate friendly" plan.