Article submitted by Cynthia K. Lee

Dec. 6, 2005

Whether surfing the warm waves of Hawaiian beaches or surfing in cyberspace, "Kona Sam" Blankenship has always been a risk taker determined to follow his bliss.

Living in a custom-designed home in the hills above the ruggedly beautiful coast of Kona on the island of Hawaii, Blankenship and his wife Susan haven’t had to bother with day jobs for the better part of a decade.

A professional, full-time Internet marketer, Blankenship is one of a small, elite group of Internet marketing super-achievers commonly called "heavy hitters."

Heavy hitters have impressive track records in the areas of profits, the number of recruits they can bring into in a program or downline, and the size of their e-mail contact list and circle of influence.

Blankenship has been known to recruit up to 100 people in one day, has a list with contact information on more than 5,000,000 people and has joined the ranks of the very wealthy.

Passionate, intense, and humorous by turns, Blankenship attributes his achievements to his "determination to succeed no matter what; to persistence and consistent effort."

He also gives a lot of credit for his success to mentors whom he aggressively sought out, "even when it meant going over the heads of my sponsors."

Two of his most influential and well known mentors were Val Smith of Mentors in Motion and Terry Dean. Blankenship says that Steven Burke of Gold Calling System is his current mentor. He emphatically asserts that "to be successful you need to learn from successful people; the people at the top, who have proven that they have what it takes to be top performers in their field."

By the time he entered middle school in California, Blankenship had attended 27 schools. He remembers "always being called ‘the new kid,’ like it was my name. My dad was in construction, so we moved a lot."

After graduating from high school in Los Angeles, Blankenship moved to Hawaii. He remembers that "Surfing was my life then, so naturally I had to move to Hawaii. Later on, I moved to Puerto Rico after the world surfing championship competitions were held there. I stayed in Puerto Rico three and a half years before moving back to California.

"After just a few months of being back in California, I was asked to housesit for some friends in Kona for three months. By the time they came back, I had a job, new friends and a place to call home. I’ve lived in Kona ever since, going on 30 years now. I love it. It feels like it’s my own piece of paradise."

A seasoned Internet marketer with more than eight years of experience under his belt, Blankenship says that "Internet marketing is my life’s calling. I love it. I stumbled into it after having to retire from the postal service because of an on-the-job injury. I was still able to function but had to really limit my levels of physical exertion.

"So, at the age of 50, I ended up teaching myself to type and using a web-TV to sell people a course on how to get started in network marketing on the Internet. It cost $20 and was a very detailed and well put together information product. I sold 500 of those courses! It was the easiest money I ever made. That was it. I was totally sold on Internet marketing and my enthusiasm just kept growing."

Blankenship claims that "email marketing is going the way of the dinosaurs. A couple of years ago, email marketing was the only way to go for Internet marketing. But now, with all the spam filters, you can hardly get an email through to anybody.

"I believe the most cutting edge marketing technique now is automated phone calls to your opt-in contacts. The technology for doing this has been developed and is a tremendous boon to marketers. This means no more cold calling your leads. This way your contacts actually get your message and then a lot of them end up calling you back to beg for more information. How great is that?"

It sounds odd coming from a man widely considered to be a master recruiter, but Blankenship recommends that newcomers to Internet marketing "join programs where the program itself generates profits and becomes self-funding. Look for opportunities that will generate a profit without any kind of marketing or promoting. This gets rid of the stress involved with the programs that require recruiting. It also keeps people from losing money on programs that they can’t or won’t promote effectively."

He explains this position by pointing out that: "Only one out of a hundred people can market successfully. I’m no longer willing to waste my time trying to teach people to market who act like duck decoys. You know, the ones that look like ducks but don’t want to do what it takes to fly. If a program requires marketing, people shouldn’t join it unless they’re planning to work on promoting it. They need to have a strong desire and commitment to market it."

Blankenship’s favorite time of day is the morning, shortly after waking up, when he turns on his laptop computer and discovers how much money he made while he was asleep. He also finds it very rewarding to help friends and associates discover "how easy and fun it can be to make money" with his favorite self-funding, passive income programs. "These are programs anybody can do and make a profit with. They don’t require any special talent or effort."

What has required extraordinary talent and great and sustained effort is the successful career "Kona Sam"carved out for himself in the challenging and competitive arena of Internet marketing.

Story copyright © 2005 by Cynthia K. Lee, President of Kiteley Communications and Administrator of the Purely Passive Profits Team. On the Inernet at www.fullspectrumsuccess.com. Bringing you the top passive income (no recruiting required) opportunities on the Internet and an eclectic assortment of cyber-resources for success in all areas of life. Phone Cynthia at 1-888-650-3029 or email her at purelypassiveprofitsteam@yahoo.com.

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