Join the most powerful affiliate program in the world!

Commission River Inc. was founded in December 2005. Although, up to that point, the primary business interest of the founders of Telarus had been commercial telecommunications. Many independent agents and clients requested that Telarus put its award-winning technical staff to work on a program that offered agents more than just business phone services. Over time, the chorus of requests became so resounding that the founders of Telarus; Adam Edwards and Patrick Oborn, decided it was time to grow in a new direction using the base of relationship marketing experience gained from commercial telecom sales.

Commission River is an independent, privately held corporation, owned by the same shareholders as Telarus, Inc. The focus of Commission River is to offer unique, strategic, and complimentary residential-based offerings that the other "big players" in the online affiliate marketing space have undeserved or missed altogether. Commission River does not add a vendor to it's portfolio of advertisers unless it can bring something original to the table. This ensures that the publishers and independent agents who work with us have a strategic advantage when they take these products to market.

Even though Commission River itself is just a few years old, the people behind the scenes have years of experience building, managing, and supporting online affiliate marketing programs. The director of Commission River, Robert Probst, is a great example of leadership and integrity in the online affiliate marketing space. With over 5 years of experience at the helm of other programs, Mr. Probst brings with him the ability to create agent-friendly, vendor-profitable programs that last.

Adam V. Edwards President

Mr. Edwards is a co-founder of Commission River, Inc. and currently serves as its president. Prior to co-founding Commission River, Inc. in 2005, Mr. Edwards was the VP of Finance for Quest Manufacturing, Inc. where he lead the acquisition of a new operating unit in 2001 and helped structure the unit for financing in 2002. Mr. Edwards served from 1999 through 2001 as the VP of Finance for Silicon Film Technologies, Inc. In this role at Silicon Film, Mr. Edwards prepared the company for its successful financing in 2000 in which the company raised $6 Million. Mr. Edwards has a background in public accounting and worked as an auditor at KPMG LLP. Mr. Edwards experience at KPMG ranged from auditing small private companies to working on SEC filings for large international and public companies. He was also involved in the Korean Practice and the Structured Finance division. Mr. Edwards holds a B.S. in Accounting from Brigham Young University and is a CPA.

Patrick K. Oborn VP of Sales and Marketing

Mr. Oborn is a co-founder of Commission River, Inc. and currently serves as its Chief Innovation Officer. He is responsible for web design, internet marketing strategy, search engine optimization, agent web marketing tools, and training. Mr. Oborn is an expert in search engine marketing and is highly respected by agents who attend his seminars and web trainings regularly. Prior to co-founding Commission River, Inc. in 2002, Mr. Oborn was a web designer at Cognigen Networks, Inc from 1999 to 2002, where he helped develop and deploy over 50 online affiliate marketing web sites now in use by over 225,000 sales agents worldwide. During his time at Cognigen, Mr. Oborn developed BottomLine long distance bill comparison technology, featured in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Mr. Oborn graduated with Honors from Brigham Young University in 1997, with a Masters degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a minor in Spanish Literature.

Robert W. Probst Director of Operations

Robert Probst is the director in charge of business development and affiliate operations for Commission River. He is responsible for interfacing with new advertisers, overseeing the support of affiliates, and general strategy for expanding and improving the business. Mr Probst has over ten years of marketing experience starting in 1995 with Excel Communications, WorldConnect, Inc. and Cognigen Networks, Inc. Prior to becoming the Affiliate Director for Commission River, Inc., Mr. Probst was instrumental in the development of large agent programs with numerous telecom companies. When asked what his most significant contribution has been, he stated, "I think my ability to understand the wants and needs of the sales agents, and deliver the products and services they want to sell has been a primary reason why my affiliate programs have been so successful." Mr. Probst also stated that "Negotiating good contracts that reward the agents, as well as protect their commissions is also a key factor in the success of any affiliate program."

Glenda K. Probst Affiliate Support Supervisor

Glenda Probst is the supervisor in charge of affiliate support for Commission River. She is responsible for making sure all of our publishers have the tools and training they need to succeed in our system. One of her most important roles is making sure all affiliates are paid the correct amounts, and taking urgent and immediate action whenever issues arise. Mrs. Probst comes to Commission River, Corp. with over 15 years of experience with affiliate marketing programs, offline sales systems, commissions tracking, and FCC Compliance. For the past five years agents have been quick to recognize her Midas Touch when solving their problems. Glenda's history in telecom dates back to 1993, when she became involved in sales and training for a long distance company. By 2001 she was promoted to National Trainer for Cognigen Networks, Inc.; traveling with a team that included Patrick Oborn and Robert Probst. As a National Trainer, Glenda was instrumental in working directly with sales agents, training them marketing strategies to increase their sales.

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If you run a business that has locations distributed around town, or around the country, MPLS can help you make more money as an enterprise. Bold statement? Yes. With MPLS you can tie all of your locations together, eliminate carrier hardware in your telecom closet, and prioritize all of your data traffic so that voice and video run flawlessly - even when the network is at its busiest.

Multiprotocol Label Switching is a flexible, cost-effective wide area network solution for linking all of your locations via a secure and scalable network infrastructure.

Advantages of MPLS include:

Network Efficiency - Label based switching methods allow routers to make forwarding decisions based upon the contents of a simple label, rather than by performing a complex route lookup using the destination's IP address.

Traffic Engineering - The ability to set the path traffic will take through the network and the ability to set performance characteristics for a class of traffic (voice, video, email, internet traffic, etc.)

VPNs - Using MPLS, service providers can create IP tunnels throughout their network, without the need for encryption or end-user applications. In addition, MPLS is protected by carrier-based security. With VPNs, if one gets hacked your entire network is vulerable.

Start Your Search Here

Ethernet is, quite simply, plugging your network directly into a telecom provider's network. When you bypass the local phone company you cut out an expensive transport step. Having direct access to customers is a carrier's goal as it allows them to control the user's experience from end to end while reducing cost. These savings are passed on to you.

"The market for managed metro Ethernet services is expected to grow by 30 per cent a year until 2010, when it will top $25 billion (?2.3bn) worldwide."
Infonetics Research - July 2007

"Over time, Ethernet will overwhelm SONET in the MAN/WAN market. Ethernet is cheaper, has better economies of scale and allows for simpler, more unified networks. Ethernet is at the gates, and it's coming in."
Greg Collins - July 2007
Business Communications Review Magazine

Here at Telarus, parent company of ShopforEthernet.com, we pride ourselves on our ability to partner with diverse and unique companies within the telecommunications industry; especially those whose focus is Ethernet and other "up stream" services. Our IT department has produced many cutting-edge software solutions that make it easy to do business with us, whether you are a one-man-shop or a Fortune 100 company.

Use the links we provide for you below to learn more about the programs and software we have created to expand your business.

Master Agents

If you maintain your own master agency and are feeling the pressure to provide your subagents with top-of-the-line back office software and stable carrier contracts, Telarus is the perfect place for your business. We have invested millions into the development of MARS (Master Agent Reporting System) that you can private-label and roll out to your network of agents, taking away the need to partner with a generic software provider that doesn't allow much if any modifications from the standard. Likewise, our carrier contracts offer you a safe haven in the midst of the massive "telecom squeeze" that is happening courtesy of all the merger activity taking place. Fact is, carriers want more and more revenue to come from less partners, forcing the smaller agents to see refuge with the larger master agents.

Value Added Reseller / Network Integrators

One of the main focuses of Telarus is Value Added Resellers and Network Integrators. We understand that a meaningful relationship consists of more that just an occasional plea for new business. Our VAR Network program allows our agents to recruit VARs into one main pool, and drives equipment leads to these VARs based upon their individual qualifications and preferences. We currently specialize in generating leads of people looking to buy Avaya, Cisco, NEC, Mitel, Nortel, ShoreTel, Polycom, and more.

Traditional Agents / Product Specialists

The real strength of Telarus resides in the quality of agents we work with. This is not cliche? Telarus has attracted some of the brightest, honest, and most integrity-filled agents in the industry. This "honor code" allows agents to partner with one another to close deals and split the commission accordingly, it allows them to receive warm leads generated by other agents, and it allows them to offer honest feedback to the IT staff at Telarus on the performance and utility of the software we create. Telarus is more than a "contract shop" that pays the "highest commission" and offers the "lowest rates". We offer our agents true value: software, support, and a sense of family.

Referral Affiliates

The Telarus Affiliate Program was created with the internet marketing expert in mind, not to mention people who are naturally gifted at social networking. Which ever the case may be, Telarus pays affiliates to generate leads for our Product Specialist agents to close. To accomplish this, Telarus has created XML plug-in technology that allows all of our affiliates the ability to add our GeoQuote real-time price tool to any existing web site (that runs PHP or Cold Fusion). We have also created an extensive library of Search Engine Optimization articles authored by our co-founder, Patrick Oborn, SEO expert. If you have a web site and/or relationships and you would like to begin earning a residual commission (and spiffs) by generating telecom service and equipment leads, you've come to the right place!

VAR
The Telarus/ShopforT1 VAR Program is very simple in its form and powerful in its function, opening up new windows of opportunity for you to earn money in commercial telecom sales.

A Value Added Reseller is someone who is:

Authorized to sell a specific brand of telecom equipment
Certified as a skilled technician to support the hardware he/she sells

Most business telephone systems are somewhat complex in nature. The vast majority of PBX and VoIP hardware is not "plug and play". A skilled technician is required to program the system according to the customer's needs.

Likewise, most new commercial telephone systems cannot be purchased directly from the manufacturer or any other retail outlet - you have to buy them from a local authorized sales partner. This means that VARs in your local area perform both the role of technician and also as equipment dealers.

In performing these valuable services, VARs build up a clientele who are accustomed to calling on them for any and all telecommunication needs, from wiring, to hardware, and even to long distance and high-speed internet service provider recommendations.

a VAR (Value Added Reseller) can be anyone whose core business is selling and installing hardware devices (PBX systems, routers, switches, firewalls, etc.) and servicing those same products.

VAR's have direct relationships with customers and have already built a reputation for giving the customer the equipment or service they need.

A VAR's recommendation for telecommunications service is highly regarded by their customers, in fact; approximately 35% of decisions around telecom service are influenced by a VAR#. This is an enormous number!

With all the money spent on the direct sales efforts of telecom carriers and the millions of dollars spent on advertising, still, over a third of purchasing decisions are influenced by a VAR.