About Me

So here I am sailing through New York harbor, We were sailing from Rhode Island to Maryland. That was the trip I got seasick on for six hours.

Hi I’m Rick Lednum, and  welcome to my website The Cogent Affiliate. I have always been drawn to the freedom of working online.

If your’re anything like me you’ve dream of that freedom too. That’s not to say it came easy, because it wasn’t I’m not a rocket scientist, a software engineer, or anything like that. I just liked the idea of setting my own schedule and work from home.

Hi I'm Rick

I grew up in Maryland, my family were working class water men, working on the Chesapeake Bay. My granddad and my dad were the first two generations that were not water men.

I was the youngest of six kids and had a knack for getting into trouble with my brothers, sisters, and parents. (Think: BB-gun shootouts and decapitated Barbie dolls and accidentally burning down my family’s garage… to get some ideas). Anyway, one day, probably to keep me out of trouble my mom (who was an art teacher) gave me wood chisels, a mallet, and a log. She showed me how to hold the chisels so I didn’t gore myself and left me to do my thing.

I started carving away, making a Native American Totem Pole. In truth, it looked more like a Mr. Potato Head with horns sticking out on one side. I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen! (I was, only seven, what did I know?) But, I made it myself and that was the cool bit. I’ll come back to this.

After high school, I traveling around the country doing medical research studies (yes I was a guinea pig) the studies paid very well and I really liked the freedom traveling bought, new city’s, crazy adventures, and really cool new friends.

I headed to Alaska one summer to work on fishing boats. I wanted to work on a Longliner fishing boat. The fishing fleet wintered in Seattle and headed north in the spring. I arrived in Seattle two weeks after the fleet left. (If only they had the internet back then)  So I stayed in Seattle and bartending, for the summer (It was there I discovered the horrors of eating dehydrated meat and chocolate covered espresso beans. (Can you say intestinal distress!) Also whats with those giant spiders there?

I also had the good fortune to work on the LadyMaryland a 104 foot Pungy Schooner from the 1840’s. I was an educator/deckhand teaching school age children sailing, navigation, and marine sciences.

Working Online

Roald Amundsen, the first explorer to the Southpole in 1911, once said,

Adventure is just bad planning.”

Adventure is just bad planning; at the time I could relate to this because I rarely had a plan. But, that was getting old.

My first attempt at doing anything online didn’t go well; my experience was other people made money, by taking mine. ( perhaps you can relate). I was like the proverbial dumb kid saying, “Hey Mister, show me that trick where you take all my money, again?” “Sure thing, kid, it’ll cost you $497.”

I made tons of mistakes and felt disgusted; I even quit trying a few times.

My dad used to say to me, “There’s no free lunch.” (My dad had a subscription to “Dumb Old Sayings Monthly”). What does that even mean? But, I think my dad was trying to say there’s always a cost to everything, and internet marketing is no different, the cost is the time you put into learning.

When I think about the times I was scammed; it’s because I tried to shortcut learning and fell for the hype. I had shiny object syndrome, jumping from one thing to another in a desperate attempt to make something work. And also because I wasn’t treating working online like a real 9 to 5 job. Maybe you’ve had a similar experience?

Why I’m motivated and why I care?

When my mom gave me the chisels and just a bit of instruction, she gave me the gift of self-worth, through accomplishment.

I mentioned working on a sailboat, but what I didn’t say was how much I loved it or why. Teaching those kids navigation and sailing gave me that same feeling of self-worth but through their accomplishments. 

” I love helping other people because it makes me feel, awesome!

“It’s a classic case of doing the right thing, for the wrong reason.” Quote from the 2016’s Zootopia.

Many people feel like they’re in competition with everyone else, but I have another idea about that; the only real competition in life is with ourselves. The challenge of life (as I see things) is to be a little better today, than you were yesterday.  

The goal of this website

None of us likes getting ripped off by internet marketers’ gurus selling shiny objects. My goal is to partner with you, to build a business you can be proud of, that gives you time freedom, and makes you money. 

Do you need yet another website telling you for the millionth time how to make money online for only $497. probably not? 

So I will tell you what works for me and what doesn’t. It’s simply my attempt to share my experience from my successes, so you can avoid my mistakes.

Also, for full disclosure, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t need to make money from my efforts. If I review a product and give a recommendation it will be because it really helped me and I feel it will help you too. If you purchase something through my affiliate link I will receive a payment from the seller it has no bearing on the price you’ll pay and will in most cases give you a cheaper price.

Warmest Regards

Rick Lednum