KOSOMA PUBLISHING

We never even thought to put up a page like this, since most of our early customers and subscribers had done business with us before through the mail and/or by phone. As more and more folks come On-Line, we are now dealing with people who may have never heard of Kosoma Publishing before. So here goes:

Kosoma Publishing started out as a Partnership between Bryan Smith & Linda West. (more on them in a minute) Kosoma is a Choctaw Indian word that means "Stink Water". This is because of all the sulfur water that is in the area (which does put off an odor but has some very beneficial health benefits to it). Kosoma, Oklahoma is listed as a Ghost Town in Ghost Towns of America's. The Publishing Company is now operated from the 300 + acre ranch in nearby Moyers, Oklahoma in the beautiful Kiamichi mountains. All of the buildings that house the company's assets and the land are completely paid for and the company is debt free.

The idea was to publish an informational newspaper that became known as HEALTHY TIMES. Linda & Bryan saw a need for a publication that covered Nutritional Information in an Honest manner.  After the first issue was released they were soon approached by numerous Nutritional Companies (many of which were also MLM companies) about covering their various products. Since the two are not scientists, they would research the topics and do their own testing by supplying people with the nutritional products and report on the experiences.

Linda's husband Doug had been involved in Mail Order and the MLM or Network Marketing industry for over 20 years. He recognized that Linda & Bryan had come up with an idea that could be a big help to the industry. He suggested the format for Healthy Times that is used today. They would only report on products that they found to be of High Quality and/or value, and accept No Advertising! The paper would then be sold to natural product distributors that could use it as an inexpensive tool to tell people about their products.

Doug West had also been publishing a  paper, off an on, for over 10 years known as the OPPORTUNITY INVESTIGATOR. This publication was originally offered in the same format as Healthy Times - No Advertising. As you can imagine, it is very difficult to consistently put out a publication that has no advertising revenue. Doug's idea was that most opportunity publications will print anything if you have the money. Also, the companies they highlight are usually the ones that have purchased the most advertising. His idea was to report only on those companies that had proven themselves and/or had been investigated thoroughly and found to be of High Integrity and Financially Stability.

With the success of Healthy Times, the West's purchased Bryan Smith's half of the business and moved all of Doug's books, reports, tapes and OI under the umbrella of Kosoma Publishing.

OI is now primarily done online (OIO), and Kosoma, like many publishers these days, has been pulling away from print media. In OIO advertising is now accepted with a few rules:

              1) First - No advertising is accepted for any questionable opportunities. Since we are constantly investigating biz opps, we know of most of the scams that are out there. A few may slip an ad in OIO once in a while, but if we find out, it will never run again!

              2) Second - We do not post ads for the same opportunity by several different advertisers. In most Opportunity publications, you see many of the same ads all competing with one another. For instance several distributors all advertising the same MLM program. You will never see that in OIO!

KOSOMA's on-line efforts began as just an extension of the business. As sales quickly began to grow, the Internet became a larger and larger part of the company. Now, the majority of Kosoma's business is done on-line, including an online version of
OPPORTUNITY INVESTIGATOR -
OI ONLINE or OIO. You can now get a free subscription to OIO and view back issues on-line.

Krystal, Doug (Elijah), and Linda.

Here is the West family. Krystal (daughter), Doug (with grandson Elijah), and Linda.  Linda started Kosoma Publishing along with her cousin-partner Bryan Smith in March of 1997.  Doug has been in the publishing business for over 15 years and has authored several books including CREATIVE CREDIT, TRAVEL AGENT MANUAL & COURSE, HOW ANYONE CAN SAVE THOUSANDS ON THEIR HOME MORTGAGE WITHOUT REFINANCING, SUCCESSFUL MLM BY MAIL, and his most recent book SUCCESSFUL MLM BY EMAIL.  In 1998 The West's bought out the Partnership from Bryan Smith & transferred all rights from D.R. WEST Publishers to Kosoma Publishing. Kosoma is operated out of Buildings on the West's' 300+ acre ranch in SE Oklahoma. The buildings and equipment were paid for in cash and the company is debt free.  Kosoma now employs 5 people including daughter Krystal.

"Our place is paid for here and we have no intentions of ever moving it. We have plenty of land to expand if we have to! You can ask anyone in this area where Kosoma is and they will tell you. Certainly UPS (who comes by daily) and the Postmaster know who we are since we are their biggest customers! Checks are cut to our affiliates on a regular basis. We have no reason not to pay anyone since they don't earn anything until they sell something. I've seen companies  shut down for cheating people out of their commissions and I have been cheated many times myself. You can rest assured that that will never happen to you at Kosoma. We would be shooting ourselves in the foot if we did that! I don't understand companies that operate that way, but I know they exist. If you want to grow and survive in this business, the only way is to treat people the way you want to be treated."  Doug West.