Technological advances are meant to add conveniences to our everyday lives. Yet these same conveniences are giving rise to a growing national concern regarding the dangerous practice of DWT (Driving While Texting).

While it is not known how many traffic deaths contribute specifically to text messaging while driving on an annual basis, it is believed that accidental death from texting while driving has overtaken drunk driving fatalities on public roads. It is no secret that text messaging has become the main form of communication among teenagers. This understandably has many parents very concerned. And though the majority of those who text and drive are between the ages of 18-34, more and more people of all age groups are partaking in this risky practice on a daily basis.

Parents aren’t the only ones concerned about this growing danger. Recently, a group of Tampa area High School Students drafted and submitted a bill in Tallahassee to stop anyone under the age of 18 from using a cell phone while driving. They don’t think those their age should be texting or talking on a cell phone while driving.

Thankfully, lawmakers have embarked on a bill-passing mission to crack down on texting while driving and other forms of DWD (Driving While Distracted) activities. Seven states (and the District of Columbia) have thus far banned text messaging for drivers - Alaska, California, Connecticut, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey and Washington. Utah recently approved the ban, which takes effect July 1st, and Maryland is close to passing the measure into law as well. In addition, nine other states have banned new drivers with restricted licenses; Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

The statistics reflecting driving while distracted are alarming and account for almost 85% of all driving accidents and 65% of near accidents in the US according to the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). The NSC (National Safety Council) estimates 636,000 crashes in the United States due to drivers on their cell phones causing 330,000 injuries and 2600 deaths.

Researchers in the UK have discovered a person’s ability to focus and respond while texting and driving is greatly affected. They tested subjects between the ages of 18-24 using a driving simulator and found the reaction time of the participants was slowed by a whopping 35% as they sent or received text messages compared to 21% while driving under the impairment of marijuana and 12% after consuming alcohol.

Hope on the Horizon

Companies are hard at work to find solutions to keep drivers safe. Virtual Management, Inc., has developed the EVA (Electronic Virtual Assistant), which provides a live transcribing service which can send or receive email or text messages via voice mail. The company says this service will save businesses money through tax write-offs and expense accountants.

A company in Utah is using Bluetooth technology that, while the car is on, makes it impossible for a driver to text or talk on their cell phone. Ronn Hartman of Accendo LC, the company working to commercialize the technology, said “This is all about saving lives and safer driving.”

An application for Google’s Android platform, called Textecution, integrates with the phones’ GPS to detect whenever the phone is moving faster than 10 mph, at which time the application will deactivate the phones SMS capabilities.

This application was developed for adults looking to keep their teens safe who are at greater risk of car accident and injury due to the fact that they are inexperienced drivers.

Safer Roads Starts With You

Until additional laws are passed to address this important issue and/or additional technologies become mainstream, remember to always be cautious before considering using your cell phone while on the road. Drivers are strongly advised to pull over to the side of the road or into a parking lot to use their mobile device safely if necessary.

Chat to Text Messaging and Consumer Safety

The folks at LiveChatToText.com want to remind those that use the Chat to Text service to be sure and set their chat status to ‘offline’ mode prior to embarking on an appointment to avoid driving distractions from possible chat requests via our service. This can be accomplished by logging into the Chat to Text account and selecting the settings feature under the Profile tab.
If needed, set your computer alarm or schedule a time on your daily planner when setting appointments to remind yourself to turn your preferences to ‘offline’ prior to your appointment and then back on when you return.

Do You Twitter?

Join the cause and spread the word about safety while texting and driving. Follow @TextSafely then tell your Twitter friends by clicking the Easy Retweet button below:

It seems like the bent of the article was more along the lines of scaring people away from making that move than anything else and I wish it wasn’t so because I feel that this recession is going to fuel the rebirth of small businesses in America.  Starting a business should be embraced, not feared.

After all, companies are not there for you these days.  There is no job security for the worker anymore and even if you are retired, the benefits you worked so hard for can be swept away by a bankruptcy court should a company fall on hard times.

The blinders are off folks, and if you are still living in a world where you believe that companies are there for their employees through thick and thin, for better or for worse, then you are out of touch with reality and better think again.

I’ve been telling everyone that I know that they need to start a small business.  Some type of small business.  ANY type.  Online business can be launched for WELL under $2,000, and that includes the training, hosting, and the software tools you need to get you started.  Compare that to taking on an apprenticeship as a plumber or machinist or something.  Stocking a specialty toolbox can run upwards of $5,000…and that’s not factoring in the materials needed to do the work!

But regardless of whether you decide to go with an online business, a service business, or a bricks and mortar business…as long as you know the basics of marketing you can run your own show and never have to worry about someone taking away what you worked so hard for again.  You’ll at last be in charge of your own destiny and the actions or mistakes of corporate CEOs that are money mad won’t effect you.

I’ve been an entrepreneur since my separation from the Marine Corps and return to Michigan in 2005.  Things have not been easy, but it’s not been easy for anyone else either.  The good thing is that I LOVE what I do every day and I KNOW that my efforts will pay off in the long run.  I couldn’t say that when working for others in the past.

So how does this relate in any way to Chat To Text?

Quite simply you can boil the entire Wall Street Journal Article of fear down to one major obstacle which is, “Can you make enough money to support the needs of the business and the needs of your family at the same time?”

This is pretty much the only problem out there.  Most people can generate enough cash flow each month to either grow a startup business or take care of their household bills, but not both.  It’s a real issue and many people never try to start a small business because of this one obstacle.

The solution is to have some type of steady income stream that takes care of the monthly nut that is your household expenses regardless of what happens to your startup business.  That way if your business only generates enough cash flow to cover its own costs (a break even month), you don’t have to worry that the car note isn’t going to get paid.

Chat to Text is an ideal solution to help with this on two levels:

1)  Small Business Integration – you’re smart enough to know that if you have a small business, you are going to have a website or blog promoting your company in some way/shape/form.  You can integrate the Chat to Text widget into it which adds a new medium of communication for your customers.  More methods of communication is good and the live chat medium has proven to work well for many business owners because of its ability for customers to get live interaction from a real person while remaining semi-anonymous at the same time.

Online retailers, both large and small,  recognized this a few years ago and now pay through the nose to have “Live Chat” buttons on their site that are being monitored 24/7 by a sales rep somewhere halfway around the world.  The monthly fees for these types of services can get very costly very fast, but the return is there so they are kept up and running.  Chat to Text gives the SAME type of capabilities to the small business owner who wants to build a better relationship with his or her customers at a fraction of that cost.

2)  Continuity Income Stream – if you decide to promote the chat to text service to others, you can very quickly put together a network of participants underneath you that will enable you to generate enough income each month that you don’t have to worry about how fast your “main” small business is growing.  If you want to dedicate 100% of your company’s income into marketing for new customers…you can! This gives you peace of mind which helps you make better decisions for that business which leads to higher profits overall.

So if you have been thinking that a small business may be in your near future, but are worried about making the leap…don’t be.  Instead, sign up for Chat to Text and start using the service.  Focus for three weeks on finding unique ways to promote it to others and help them catch the vision.  They will reward you for your efforts by signing up and you’ll be able to feel a little more confident about the future (at least YOUR future) regardless of the recession.

To get a better picture of exactly how the Chat to Text service works, as well as a detailed overview of the business side of things, check out the video at http://www.ChatToTextMessage.com and most of your questions will be answered.  If you have more questions, just feel free to contact me directly (even by phone) and I’ll try to give you any help I can.

For the most part I’m seeing post after post of people slapping up a quick overview of the service and (sometimes) a call to click through to watch the main video and sign up. A quick search of the Twitter public stream shows similar activity.

This pattern is likely to continue as signups grow exponentially over the next two to three weeks. Unfortunately, this type of hard core self-promotion doesn’t tend to produce the desired results, so if you are planning on promoting Chat To Text this way in the future it will most likely get you shunned as a spammer and here’s why…

Consider how you react when greeting people that show up at your front door. Initially you’ll peer through the window sash to see who’s there. If it’s someone you don’t know, like a local salesman offering to update your home’s windows or siding perhaps, then your reaction will probably be to dismiss the visitor outright or take some information and excuse yourself after only opening the door a crack.

Moving up the familiarity scale you might notice that the visitor at your door is an “acquaintance”. Someone you know, but not very well. Maybe your kids go to the same school or something. You don’t have a solid relationship but you feel you know the person well enough that you are not worried that you’re going to be robbed.

This second-tier type of person will get an open door and maybe even invited into the foyer to find out if they need to borrow a power drill or some sugar. Certainly a warmer reception.

But compare that to your reaction if the visitor at the door was an old friend who you’ve not seen in months. Such a meeting would be completely different. The door is thrown open and the friend is embraced. Your friend is not just invited in, but escorted directly to the kitchen and told to choose a tasty beverage for themselves from your refrigerator which you recently stocked full from a recent grocery shopping run.

Consider how drastically different your response is to the unknown sales person vs. your close friend. Yet while your close friend was welcomed with open arms, they are probably not going to be asked to come up to your bedroom and sit on the bed where you and your spouse sleep every night to catch up on things.

Now I’m willing to bet that in the very near future there is going to be a wave of people launching major self-promo campaigns on the most popular social media sites in an effort to get Chat To Text signups.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of these idealistic types who feel that all things in the world of Web 2.0 should be “free” and “nofollow” in an effort to keep the next generation of web sites chaste and adherent to some unwritten code of non-commercial purity. Sure, social media sites are for building relationships with friends and family, but they are also a valuable tool for getting a marketing message out to the world.

If you do it right.

Blatant self-promotion is akin to being a salesperson showing up on a stranger’s front step, pounding until someone opens up, and then barging in while telling the homeowner that you need them to follow you into the bedroom so you can sit down with them on their bed and explain why they need what you’ve got to sell.

You can see why this type of thing doesn’t get very far. So what is the right way to share what you have to offer without getting yourself blackballed?

There is a lot of information on this floating around, but you can pretty much boil it down to two main principles to follow:

1) More About YOU, Less About Your Stuff – on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, the glue that ties everyone together is relationship. Spend a lot of time sharing what is going on in your life as well as links to interesting, helpful, or humorous content and you’ll earn a lot of good karma from your base. From there you can tastefully plug your product or service without causing offense. Just be sure to sprinkle these in sparingly like spices in a recipe. Don’t overdo it.

There are exceptions to this like @Woot which is 100% self-promotional, but these are the exceptions to the rule, not the norm…and probably not where you want to be.

2) Give Something of Value for Free – I am on the email list of this guy Dave Guindon who teaches internet marketing, mostly through video. Dave will send me a promo of some affiliate product about once a week…but he does it in a creative way by giving me a video that demonstrates the value of the item. He also is usually offering me some type of free bonus should I buy the item offered through him. I buy what he’s sharing with me about once a month almost always because of the video.

A similar approach can be employed when promoting Chat To Text. Ask yourself what type of widget you can come up with that brings value to those you are communicating with. I’m working on a free ebook, video series, and blog theme that I’m going to give away for free to Live Chat To Text readers which is going to be called the “Chat To Text Blueprint’. (make sure you sign up for email updates if you want to be notified when the freebies are made available) These types of incentive breed good will and make it easy for people to take a closer look at what you have to offer.

3) Sell a Cheap Niche Product – here is a sure-fire way to get results where others won’t. Consider marketing outside of social media sites. I can think of ten different ways you could get the word out, but let’s throw down one right now that will be included in greater detail in the Chat To Text Blueprint.

Start by getting someone to interview you about Chat To Text so you can answer questions about how it works and why it’s such a great service and income opportunity. Record the interview directly into your computer using two basic microphones and the free Audacity software. Burn it to CD. Then sell the CD on Ebay.

Load the title up with “make money” keywords and a well laid-out description then start the bidding at a penny. Keep the shipping low. Maybe even free. Try to do whatever you can to remove the barriers from the path those who might be interested in order to help induce them to place a bid. That’s it, just get them to bid. And no matter who wins, make sure you send out a second-chance offer to everyone DID end up placing a bid…even the guy that only bid a penny.

Sure, you’ll initially break even, or even lose a buck or two on every CD you send out, but your enthusiasm for the program will be carried through in a way not possible through Twitter Tweets. And because you mailed an actual CD, there will be greater perceived value on the part of your potential customer which will put you out ahead of others who are focused on spamming up every social site instead of taking this type of forward action.

In conclusion, Chat To Text is destined to be one of the greatest network marketing opportunities of the year. Its cross application adaptability makes it a valuable service for millions of people so it would be a shame to destroy your ability to share it with others because you were branded a spammer.

Chat To Text has been getting an increasing amount of buzz lately on the blogs and social media sites.  The response so far has been pretty much favorable, but there is a healthy amount of skepticism going around as well with people expressing concern that Chat to Text is a scam.

The central argument being expressed is that Chat to Text is nothing more than a “pyramid scheme” that will end up going down in flames, taking with it the hard work and money of those involved.

The problem with this line of thinking is that it is making a common mistake in confusing Network Marketing (MLM) with a Pyramid Scheme.  Such oversights are pretty much the norm whenever a new Network Marketing venture is launched because the public at large tends to judge any new Network Marketing venture as a pyramid scheme because all MLM business models are built on a pyramid structure.

It’s only after years of proven performance that this type of stigma disappears.  Well known Network Marketing companies like Amway, Premier Designs Jewelry, and Tupperware eventually lost the “Pyramid Scheme Stigma” after years of brand establishment.

The major downside to this common series of events is that if someone decides to get involved with a Network Marketing venture only after years of brand building, the market for that particular product or service become saturated and it becomes very difficult to get a foothold when so many other people have a such significant head start.

The key then is to be able to distinguish between a valid Network Marketing opportunity and a pyramid scheme.  Once you have that knowledge you can evaluate a MLM launch such as Chat To Text and determine for yourself if it falls into the category of “great opportunity” or “scam”.  Let’s identify the qualities of a Pyramid Scheme first…

If you do a Wikipedia search you’ll find a Pyramid Scheme defined as:

…a non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, often without any product or service being delivered.

So the core characteristic of these types of scams is that there is not an actual product or service being offered, but instead the business model is sustained by the addition of new members only.  When new members are not added to fuel the machine, it loses it’s ability to function and collapses inward on itself.

The Wikipedia entry for Network Marketing however indicates that a Network Marketing business

…is a business-distribution model that allows a parent company to market its products directly to consumers by means of relationship referrals and direct selling.

The key difference then that separates a Pyramid Scheme from pretty much any other true business model is that it does not have any real product or service that is being offered.

So when evaluating any Network Marketing opportunity, and particularly that of Chat to Text, you need to look at the business structure and see if a true product or service is being offered.

The Chat To Text program can be summarized as a service that enables integrated text message communication between online blog and social sites and someone’s personal cell phone.

But does this service have any value?

Fortunately we can determine that already because there is one micro blog platform that incorporates the heavy integration of this type of text-to-cell communication already.  That would be Twitter.

Now I have a Twitter profile and happen to know a few Twitter addicts, and they are ALWAYS on their cell phones texting back responses to those who are sending them messages via the Twitter site.  They are junkies.  Seriously.  This service is one of the main reasons the term “Crackberry” was coined and truly went viral.

The downside to Twitter is that it is only available to people that want to sign up and use their particular service.  That leaves out the millions of people that are not Twitter users and who don’t want to learn their way around “another” social media tool.

That would be where Chat To Text comes in.

Designed from the ground up to be integrated into the sidebar of any blog or social media profile, it creates the same type of experience for anyone who visits any of your personal site pages.

So is this a valuable service?  Based on how Twitter users talk, I would say yes.

Well then, is Chat to Text a scam doomed to fail as the newest pyramid scheme?  My money is on no…which is why I signed up and you should to.