While the video is an amusing parody, the subject matter is EXTREMELY serious.  People have asked me what my take on the housing crisis is, and like all things on this planet, this is one of those issues that is inter-connected with lots of other issues.  It can get complicated easily, and if you listen to all of the pundits out there, especially Realtors, HGTV shows and stock-market talking-heads, you’ll be so confused that you won’t know where to turn.

Here’s The Problem

In a nutshell, the problem is simply one of supply and demand. When there is a lot of something available, and/or not many people want it, the price of it is very low.  When there is little of something availabel, and/or lots of people want it, the price is very high.

Housing In The U.S.

Currently in the United States, there are a little over 100,000,000 (one hundred million) households.  That is, there are approximately 100 million houses (or apartments, condos, town-houses etc.).

Here’s the problem; there are 20,000,000 houses that are unoccupied!  That is, nearly 20% of all available housing is empty. Put another way, there is 20% more housing available than demand.  What do you think THAT does to house prices?  Yep, house prices go down.

Complications

Now there are plenty of other things that come into this, but I don’t want to discuss these because they only confuse what is basically a very simple equation.

You may wonder, in that case, why there is an increasing number of homeless people.  That’s easy to answer; just because homes are available doesn’t mean that people can afford to buy or rent them, let alone pay for water, sewage, heating, cooling etc.

Jobs

Until there are plenty of jobs available, ones that pay enough money for people to afford these homes, house prices will continue to tumble………….well, FREE-FALL is a more accurate description I think.  The so called “jobless recovery” is nothing more than an oxymoron, and abundant jobs will NOT be available while manufacturing is done in other countries.

It’s THAT simple.

The Big Question

Now the question should be asked “who will make the U.S. an affordable place for business owners to run their factories?”.  Off hand, I can’t think of anybody who has the intestinal fortitude to make this happen, because it would mean all kinds of changes to tax laws.

The U.S. is a country of over 300 million people, most of whom are happy to work for a living.  It can be a great country again.  I hope it’s allowed to be all that it CAN be once more.

Luke.

As an internet market I like to keep abreast of all the new ways that are being invented to make money online.  I also like to understand the psychology behind salesmanship and marketing.

I recently read an EXCELLENT article by Avish Parashar, the man behind MotivationalSmartAss.com.  His article was all about how people sometimes make the mistake of thinking they have superpowers like our comic-book heroes, but how, in real life, we have to settle for, well, reality.  I couldn’t agree more (and I wish most others thought this way).

We CAN Use Superpowers

Let me address each of  his 7 ideas:

Mind Control

Avish says you can’t have mind control over others.  What do you think advertisers, preachers, politicians etc. do ALL the time?  MOST people believe pretty much the same stuff that millions of other do.  This is NOT a coincidence.

Body Swapping

Here, Avish is referring to movies like ‘Freaky Friday’ where the personality of one person goes into another.  The gist of these kinds of movies is that each thinks the OTHER’S life is better, UNTIL they try it themselves.

You CAN get into the minds of other in various ways.  Good parents do this all the time with their children by simply REMEMBERING what is was like when they were young.  Good salespeople do it all the time by “mirroring” their prospects (their body movements, facial expressions and mood etc.) so that they can be seen to be “just like” their potential customer.

Mind Reading

Though you can’t know specifics about the exact thoughts going through somebody’s mind, you DO know for certain that they are thinking the following:

1. How can I be happier?

2. It this good for me?

3. How can I be healthier?

4. How can I live forever?

5. How can I get more respect?

6. How can I get more affection?

7. Will this make me feel better?

And the list goes on.  People are RATIONALLY self-interested, though this is used against them by politicians, religious leaders etc. to manipulate them.  There is NOTHING wrong with being like this, and even if there was, you CAN’T change it.

Precognition

This is the superhero version trick of being able to see into the future.  Here’s what I ABSOLUTELY DO know:

1. The earth will keep spinning, which means the sun will appear which we call morning and disappear which we call night.

2. People will disagree on what life is all about.

3. People will disagree on what happens when we die.

4. Things will happen that you don’t like.

5. Things will happen that you DO like.

6. You will die.

7. People you like will die.

8. More people will be born.

9. People will starve.

10. If you jump out of an airplane at 40,000 feet without a parachute, you will die.

And lots more KNOWN events of course.

Time Travel

The stories go, you can go back and change your past, be killed and never be born etc.  While this cannot happen, the scientific studies say that you CAN travel forwards in time, perhaps one day even being able to skip forward many hundreds of years with the right technology.

However, there are several psychological tricks you can employ that make it easy to change your MEMORY of the past, so that you can have a better and more productive future.  This has also been proven to be very negative sometimes.  False memory syndrome has put people in jail for crimes that were never committed.

I’ve PERSONALLY experienced a memory that one of my family insists is their memory. To this day, I know don’t know if it is MY memory or not.

Reality Altering Magic

While I agree with Avish that “magic” doesn’t happen, as Arthur Clarke once noted, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

For example, if you could show a television set to somebody from the middle-ages, or even as recently as the 17th century (on this planet anyway!) they would think it was magic.  As we evolve and those rare few REAL producers (inventors, REAL business people et al) make our world more magical with each passing year.

Channeled Rage

This is the whole ‘Hulk’ story, that big green fella with a bad attitude.  While Avish says that rage is never good (and for the most part I certainly agree) sometimes people are put into situations that are so dangerous that, given the choice between freezing with fear, or lashing-out with rage, RAGE is the best choice for your survival.

Many veteran soldiers and police have experienced this (and also fear of course) telling stories about how they would not be alive today if they hadn’t gone “a little crazy” and incapacitated several assailants all by themselves.

Conclusion

Read some of Avish’s work.  He’s EXCELLENT.  Also consider that fact that you CAN use your superpowers to improve your life and those of others.

Luke.

As an internet marketer, you  spend a lot of time online.  Some of that time is probably spent looking at YouTube (okay, I DO spend some time looking at YouTube, but mostly so that I can post some interesting items for you….really!!!).

Gold

Here’s a question for you.  Historically, how many loaves of bread can you buy for 1oz of gold?  ”But WHEN in history” I hear you ask.  ANY time in history! Whether it’s NOW or 1,000 years ago.

The answer, you might think, would be different for different years wouldn’t you.  But it ISN’T.  ONE OUNCE (10z) of gold will currently buy you about 350 loaves of bread.  This is approximate of course, depending on the store you buy the bread in and whether it’s a “designer” loaf with walnuts etc., but very roughly, once ounce of gold has ALWAYS been able to purchase about 350 loaves.

Price Of Money

The price of a “fiat” currency, which all countries now have is about to be paid.  It’ll be paid through hyperinflation, where your money (whatever currency) will be worth less and less as each day passes.

Inflation is about to cause massive changes in the world-order (better understood as the Pecking Order of countries). Who will rise to the top?  Any country that has a MANUFACTURING base, that’s who.  In the industrial revolution it was Great Britain.  Post World War II it was the U.S.A.  Next it will be China.

Like anybody else, I don’t know EXACTLY how it’s all going to play-out, but the die has been cast and now it’s a matter of waiting to see which country becomes the next U.S.S.R. and which country the next U.S.A.

Luke.

Very briefly, here is a list of the things that you should consider doing to attract people to your sites.

Article Writing

Squidoo Lenses

Ezine Advertising

Blogging

PPC

Press Releases

Viral Marketing

Video Marketing

Link Getting

Forums

Social Marketing (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc.)

Webinars

Teleseminars

Search Engine Optimization

List Building

Blog Commenting

List Swapping

Social Bookmarking

Ad Networks

Directories

Media Buying

Yahoo Answers

And, of course, there are more.

Do any three of these things well, and you will get all the traffic you need.

Luke.

How The News Is Reported

This very brief post is really nothing more than a quick RANT.  Why am I annoyed?  It’s because yet again the news is reporting things POSSIBLY accurately (who knows?) BUT (and this is my point) they are presenting it yet again in such a way that people viewing it will have their opinions created FOR them.

As I write this (on June 22nd, two months ago) the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is still spewing oil.  Of course I can’t know yet what the outcome is, but it can’t be good whatever happened, but WITHOUT A DOUBT, your opinions are going to have been controlled and possibly even DICTATED by the news/media.

How Are They Controlling What You Think?

For YEARS, certainly for as long as I can remember (and I’m old!) when referring to gasoline, GALLONS were used as the unit of measure by EVERYBODY (including the media, such as newspapers and TV etc.).  When referring to Oil, these same people always used BARRELS as the unit of measure.

So What?

NOW that OIL is being leaked into the Gulf of Mexico, GALLONS are the units of measurement being used!  Why is this significant?  Because they are deliberately MANIPULATING what you should think.  In this case, they want to make you think the oil spill is about 50 times WORSE than it really is (because there are approximately 50 gallons to a barrel).

So, instead of saying something like “20 barrels of oil per hour are leaking into the Gulf” they will instead say “1000 gallons of oil per hour are leaking into the Gulf”.

What Does It Matter?

In this particular instance, it MAY NOT matter.  However, if they are prepared to do this on this issue, to (in effect) sway your opinions, what ELSE will they do this about?  Politics?  Health? Social Welfare? World conflicts?

The next time you watch the news or read it, just think about HOW it is being presented to you.

Luke.

Keywords

A LOT has been written about keyword (or keyphrase) research, but what many people fail to mention is how important ACTION words are used.  These are the words that BUYERS (or at least, potential buyers) will use.  What are these words?  Well, to get your creative juices flowing, here are a few that you should consider using in your next (or current) campaign:

cure

help

remove

get rid of

treatment

relief

symptoms

remedy

solution

comparison

how to

fix

repair

buy

buy online

training

want

purchase

There are lots more of course, but this should give you a good start.

Luke.

Gerald Celente

Mr. Celente’s point is this; to make change in anything socially, you only need about 20 people out of every 100 to choose a new path; the other 80 will follow, because most people (way more than 80 percent in MY opinion) are sheeple.  That is, they are basically FOLLOWERS of others, not leaders.

This is a GREAT point, though I believe far fewer than 20% are ever required to make significant changes; changes that are either really positive for a society (e.g. the Renaissance) or really negative (the Nazi party).

20% Or Less Can Cause Change

Going along with this theory, I’ve noticed in the lifetime (which is quite LONG now) that it’s usually just a SMALL handful of people (often way less than 20%) who make all the really BAD things happen in the world.  They are typically the people that the sheeple follow; i.e. Religious leaders, politicians, union leaders, minority groups etc.)

What’s The Answer

There are two sides to this, simply because a very small minority can make such a big difference. As an individual, you have two choices;

1. Think for yourself

2. Let other people do the thinking for you

If you choose option #2, then you have nobody but yourself to blame for any problems that come into your life.  Sadly, if you choose option #1, the same thing applies! (Ironic isn’t it).

The GOOD part about choosing option #2 is that you can whine a lot about how bad things are and that’s it’s NOT YOUR FAULT.  Which, by the way is SARCASM.

The GOOD part about choosing option #1 is that your life will be much, MUCH better.  Why?  Because you and ONLY you can decide what is best for YOUR life.  Nobody else can, no matter what they rhetoric is.

Think for yourself, be it in business, love or anything else. If you don’t, you are giving up your one precious life to other to control.

Luke.

P.S. Purely by coincidence, 20% of the workforce in the U.K. AND the U.S. have government jobs!

I HATE Spam!  I will never spam anybody and I expect the same courtesy…………but not everybody thinks like that.

How Your Inbox Gets Full

As a budding internet marketer, you will often find yourself signing up for all kinds of things, from email courses, to pdf ebooks, to re-brandable software.  Sometimes you’ll REALLY want to subscribe and hear more about what the website owner has to offer, and sometimes you just want to check out the free offer.  Either way, it would be best INITIALLY to use a fake email address, just until you’re certain you want to hear from them again.

Free Fake Email

There’s a really excellent FREE service called MailExpire, that allows you to create a TEMPORARY email address.  It works by you entering a REAL working email address that you have set-up on your computer (in Outlook or whatever).  Then you enter the Captcha text and click the “Create new alias” button.  They will  then send you a confirmation email to your real address with you new temporary address.

You can then use this temporary email address to sign-up for whatever you want to receive, safe in the knowledge that you will not be hearing from then ever again, unless you want to that is, in which case you will have to sign up to their list with your REAL email.

Temporary

The default setting is for 12 hours, during which you have time to receive confirmation emails from the list you’ve just joined, but once you’ve received whatever it is they’re offering, you can simply go back to the MailExpire page and cancel the temporary email address IMMEDIATELY.

Great service and FREE too!

Luke.

This is about how REAL, IMPORTANT. WORLD CHANGING news simply ISN’T told to people.  Nothing else.  It’s not about the right or wrong, the benefits or dangers of this technology, it’s just about THE NEWS.

The News

What Craig Venter and his team has done is MOMENTOUS, by any standards.  In my mind, it’s even more incredible and certainly has more far-reaching effects than landing humans on the moon.

LIFE has been created on a computer and in the lab using chemicals (like Deoxyribonucleic acid).  This very act SHOULD have created all kinds of debate and probably massive outcry (from the religious community mostly) but NOTHING has been said about it and for this reason:

ALMOST NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT IT!

Why?

Most people have the “tabloid mentality”.  This mindset is summed up pretty much as GOSSIP!  Rather than hearing about REAL, IMPORTANT news, they would rather hear about some women being abducted, or a child going missing. They’d rather gossip about how terrible it all is and how “somebody should do something about it”.

Human Interest

The newspapers are told what to publish by their editors, and the editors are told by the newspaper owners what kinds of stories are to be published.  The owners want REVENUE (money) from advertisers, and they know that “human interest” stories are the best way to get people to keep reading their newspapers and therefore keep the revenue flowing.

Rather than newspapers (and Television) giving you the news, they give you gossip.  It’s that simple!

History

I have no doubt at all, that the history books of the future will tell of Dr. Venter and his team’s work as being of monumental importance.  At the same time, I also believe that the newspapers of the day (probably electronically delivered) will STILL be telling the gossip hungry tabloid readers of people going missing, and how some singer’s dress was a little too revealing.

The Media

Like all good businesses, the media gives people what they WANT, not what they need.  If TV news and newspapers gave people what they SHOULD have, we would currently all be amazed by this incredible feat, and we’d be scared out of our wits by the holocaust that we are going to experience in the coming decade.

If you want to know what’s happening of IMPORTANCE in the world, DON’T turn the news on, because that’s NOT where the important information is.

Luke.

Article Marketing is one of the best ways to get people to come to your site.  It’s also one of the best ways to get backlinks to your site, which will push your ranking up in Google (because Google likes to have lots of other sites telling it where to point to when your readers type into their search field).

Problem

There is, however, a problem.  There are literally HUNDREDS of article directories!  Some are specialized in that they only take articles about a certain subject, and other are, well, to put it bluntly, pure garbage.  They are garbage because many search-engines have BANNED them, so any articles you submit to them won’t ever be found, or WORSE, the search-engines may penalize you for having an article with your links ON the those directories.

Automatic Submission Software

While you probably don’t spend the time (or have the time) to submit to all of these article directories, automatic submission software makes this possible.  The problem with using this software is apparent, for the reasons given above, so it’s best to choose only the best (most ranked by Google, Yahoo and Bing) ones and submit manually.

Article Directories

Here is a list of the best article directories that I would recommend you use:

EzineArticles.com

WebProNews.com

ArticleAlley.com

ArticleClick.com

ArticleBase.com

ArticleDashboard.com

ArticleCity.com

IdeaMarketers.com

e-topic.com

WebArticles.com

ArticleFeeder.com

Luke.

Just remember that when you do this, ADD something to the conversation.  You wouldn’t just tell somebody you were talking what a good job of talking they were doing, would you?  No, of course not, so don’t do it when commenting on somebody’s written work.  ADD something of interest and people will see that you are a person of substance and knowledge and then they will come to visit YOUR website.

Here’s an excellent case-study done by my friend Cenay Nailor, one of the most genuine and competent tech-based internet marketers out there.  I strongly recommend you check it out.

behindthecurtain.bycenay.com

Luke

How Democracy Is Flawed

This is heresy to most people, but I feel it HAS to be said by somebody and I’m just the idiot to do it. The assumption that a democratic society is the best way for people to get along has several innate flaws, but I want to address just one of them right now.

JUST to make a point, and for NO other reason, let me propose a fictional situation:

Here’s the scenario; 100 people (or any number you choose) represents the town, city, nation, world or worlds (depending on your idea of how many salient beings exists and where).  Democracy is the chosen political system.  That is the majority rules; 51% (that’s 51 of them) is all that is required for a law to pass, and the other 49% (yes, that the other 49 of them) have no say in the matter.

THIS is the VERY BEST that democracy can ever offer (well, 50.000001% would be better of course, but you get the idea).

Free Lunch

Let’s now say that the 51% vote for some politician’s new law that states that everybody should get a free lunch each day.  That is, of all the 100 people who pay into the system, each of them gets a free lunch.

What then, if only 99 of them worked and paid into the system?  Well, that means that ONE of them really WOULD get a free lunch (one that HE/SHE didn’t have to pay for).  That’s no problem, because there are 99 others working and contributing.

What then, if only 49 of them were contributing?  Well, that means that 51 of them (being the democratic majority) are ENSLAVING the other 49 to FEED them a free lunch every day.

The argument then is, what if only 33 worked and contributed and the other 67 didn’t? How bad would THAT be, ONE THIRD of the 100 supporting the other TWO thirds?

Well, you can see where I’m going with this.  FREE IS NEVER FREE!  SOMEBODY’S time, skill and effort has to pay for all these free lunches (or health care, or baby clothes, or ……………….).

What Do Politicians Want?

More than ANYTHING else, politicians want POWER.  They are power junkies and, like all junkies, it’s very hard for them to do anything other than want MORE power.

Because of this, and because the way that democracy works, you can ONLY ever expect the system to take MORE from the people who produce (things, ideas, labor etc.) and GIVE to those who produce less (or nothing at all, other than, perhaps, lots of babies).

While this sounds very harsh, I’d like to know from anybody who thinks this is incorrect.

What’s The Answer?

The SIMPLE solution to this is to have people stand on their own and look after themselves. When they can do this, they are THEN capable of caring for others, perhaps their family, their friends etc.  While people are being raised to EXPECT handouts from other people, they won’t bother putting forth the effort to learn how to look after themselves, and this is a shame for ANY country that adopts this system.

Note: Did you know that the Amish people do NOT involve themselves in the Social Security system? (paying in or taking out …………they LOOK AFTER THEMSELVES!!!). There are other groups who’ve opted out of the system too, and you can find out who they are by going online and using your favorite search-engine.

Luke.

Well, if the video above isn’t proof enough, let me expand on the idea.

People HATE Facts

What do I mean by this?  Very simply this; given a choice between an easily proven fact that is just a LITTLE uncomfortable to understand or accept and a complete load of nonsense that has been made up (either on the spot or over the course of centuries) MOST people will choose the nonsense (sometimes called a “truth”) over the fact.

Examples Of Reality (FACTS)

1. You will die

2. You will have times of discomfort

3. You won’t always be happy

4. People you love will die

5. Change is inevitable

I could go on, but you get the idea.

Examples Of Belief (Truths)

1. You will live forever (here or in some magical kingdom)

2. You will always be comfortable

3. You can have everything

4. Somebody will always provide for you

5. Things will go on as usual

Why Are We Like This?

We are like this because it’s EASIER to be like this.  It’s easier to believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.  It’s EASIER to believe that all you have to do is VOTE for somebody and they’ll take care of you.  It’s EASIER to watch movies ABOUT real life than to EXPERIENCE real life.

Life Can Be Hard

Living can be very difficult.  You are reading this, so you probably live in a highly advanced country.  Technology can make life VERY EASY indeed, and has, for the most part, made millions of people’s lives better AND longer.  MOST people DON’T live in highly advanced cultures, and their lives are VERY harsh indeed.  Most of us in the “Western World” have NO IDEA what it’s like NOT to have three meals a day, access to clean drinking water and medicine on demand.

Excitement

Instead, we get our excitement by watching movies about OTHER people (actors) going through tough times, and IMAGINING how great we would be in those situations.  In reality, most of use would be really CRAP at the things we see in the movies, and most of us would simply give-up and/or die.

Entertainment

Hollywood and the rest of the world of entertainment does a great job of “make believe”.  Even movies “based on a true story” are dramatizations of what REALLY happened.  Soap Operas are extremely popular because anything and EVERYTHING happens in them.  One day a person is destitute, the next, they are a surgeon.  Broke one day, the next they own a multi-billion dollar industry.  It’s all NONSENSE.

These things make us think that they COULD happen to us, if we just HOPE enough for it.  Or pray enough.  Or wish enough.

While these things can be comforting, eventually you have to accept reality.

Reality Is Fun!

It’s only when you go out into the world and really LIVE that life, with all of its difficulties, that life becomes fun.  While you sit at home and watch the world through your TV, or at the movies, you may just as well be dead.

Go out and live.  REALLY LIVE!  You don’t have much time, and you’ve probably wasted a lot of it already.

Luke.

It has been suggested to me that creating money (on paper or digitally) doesn’t negatively affect people, because the amount that people are paid ALSO goes up.

Yes And No

While this is accurate in principle, it is not TECHNICALLY factual.  Here’s why:

If wages go up in direct proportion to the amount of money supply (”created out of nothing” money), then YES, the value of your currency is still the same.  This, however, is NOT what is currently happening.  Wages have been STATIC for several years now, but money supply has been increased at an alarming rate (see graph below).

As you can see, the Y2K scare in late 2000 and the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in September 2001 made the Federal Reserve increase money supply slightly,  but they quickly brought it back down by absorbing it back (taking back digitally invented money and ACTUALLY burning physical notes!).

These were mere blips on the radar compared to what is happening now, as you can see.

Borrowing

Also, you must consider the amount of money, (in the form of goods that are imported and paid for in the form on promises on paper, sometimes called Treasury Bills.  These promises have been used to artificially prop up people’s standards of living by making it possible to buy lots of cheap, imported goods.

Soon, these will not be available as other countries, mainly China, refuse to accept (buy) T-Bills any more.

Standard Of Living

While your standard of living may have improved over several decades, this was NOT because the U.S.A. was getting wealthier, but simply because it was getting further into debt.

This can’t (and won’t) go on, as you will see in the coming years as prices of things keep going up, and your wages don’t.

Manufacturing And Exporting

Like all trading, whether it’s between two people, two states or two countries, you HAVE to have something that the other party is willing to trade you for.

Without a strong manufacturing base, countries like the United Kingdom and the United States can ONLY regress their standards of living.

The ONLY things that can stop this happening to countries like these are:

1. Start to produce things (manufacturing) that other countries will trade for

2. Go to war to TAKE what your country wants/needs

History shows that when politicians (who do NOT understand economics for the most part) have messed up so badly that they have nowhere to turn, they will take “their” countries to war.

Yes, they’ll blame it on other people or other countries, because it’s NEVER THEIR FAULT.

Luke.

Politicians

Here are some DICTIONARY definitions of a politician:

As an internet marketer, you have to deal with people.  Yes, I know you’re not dealing with them face-to-face, or even on the phone (for the most part), but you ARE dealing with people.

Lots Of People Are Crazy

I mean clinically, diagnosably unstable; OCD, ADHD, Schizophrenic or just plain WEIRD in some way or another.  There aren’t enough resources on the planet, or in ANY country to deal with these people, which means that they are out there, on the streets.  So, who cares for them?  Well, WE do, that’s who.  We may be volunteers and we may not, but either way, society as a whole has to care for them.

Socialism

Many countries are moving towards socialism (whether you call it that or not) which is a “system” by which a small group of people take the efforts of producers (like you) and give it to those who can’t or won’t produce for themselves.

Humans have been doing this for a very, VERY long time, WITHOUT the need to be FORCED to do it.  For short while now, we’ve been forced to.

My Strange Allergy

I have a strange condition, whereby whenever I eat Citric Acid (which is in LOTS of things naturally and is ADDED to many foods as a flavoring and/or preservative) I have symptoms very similar to an allergic reaction; blurred-vision, hives on my face which then peels my skin (like sunburn), stomach cramps….. you get the idea.

It was so bad that it was one of the main reasons I quit my job as a National Sales Manager; besides the discomfort, how could I meet people and make presentations to them if I didn’t feel confident, and while I looked like I was very, VERY ill all the time?

I DID Find A Solution To My Problem

After three years of suffering, I eventually figured out WHAT was triggering the symptoms (citric acid) and how I could fix it.  It took lots of experimenting on myself, lots of reading, talking to doctors etc.  but I managed to come up with a way to fix it.  Now, I don’t have a problem with it at all.

To help others with this condition, I set up a small website and I wrote a 25 page report on how I dealt with it.  This costs me money for the domain, time and effort to create the site, and effort and knowledge to create the report.

As an internet marketer, I thought that people would be willing to pay $10 (or even as much as $25) for this report, with a money back guarantee IF I DIDN’T WORK for them.  That is, if my knowledge fixed their problem and they could live a normal life again (like I can now), it would cost them a mere $10.

Well, this is a little known food intolerance, but those people around the world who suffer from it are finding the site and a few are buying the report.  I’ve had NO REQUESTS for refunds so far.

The Freebie Seeker

As an internet marketer and business-person, you KNOW that people like free stuff.  But something happened recently that took me completely by surprise.  A person had found the site, had emailed me about her problem, joined my mailing list (for updates should I ever find out anything new to report) and then, upon realizing that I was offering a solution for $10, wrote this:

“i thought you were a true sufferer, someone trying to find answers and help each other as I do. but once i clicked join, i see you are out to make a quick buck off of it.”

This is cut and pasted, so I apologize for the wording, grammar and punctuation.

I have no idea what HER idea of “a true sufferer” is, but I’m sure she has some kind of idea in her confused mind that it’s somehow noble to suffer, though  I can tell you from my experience that there’s NOTHING noble about it.

Offering a SOLUTION to hundreds or maybe thousands of people for a few dollars MAY be noble, but suffering certainly is NOT!

Doctors and Hospitals

Here’s my point (finally!).  Doctors and people in Hospitals have been charging fees to help fix people and their problems (real or imagined) for centuries.  I had to ask myself:

“why does this person expect ME to fix HER problem for NOTHING in exchange?”

Does she feel it’s her RIGHT?  Is she special in some way (other than the obvious!). Has she done so much already for society that she feels she is OWED this?

Personally I don’t think it’s any of these things (though I could be wrong of course).  What I think is this: as we (in the U.S.A.) move closer to a society of communism, entitlements, benefits, socialism, fascism, nationalism (call it what you will), people simply EXPECT everything to be provided FOR them.

They don’t EVER think “where does all this stuff come from?”.  Instead, they just ASSUME there’s a huge magical pot of STUFF (money, things, services etc.) that should be there FOR THEM.  They NEVER think “well, SOMEBODY has to mine for metals, SOMEBODY has to create plastics, SOMEBODY has to grow food, SOMEBODY has to manufacture things”……….. etc.

No, instead, because of this very, VERY lame idea (fascism/socialism/communism) it causes people to become even MORE useless than they already are.

What Does This Mean To You?

As an internet marketer, you WILL have to give stuff away. Your time, your energy, your knowledge.  But, you DO NOT have to give away everything.  That is NOT required of you, and it’s simply NOT POSSIBLE, because YOU have to eat too!

While producers like you will always have to support those who can’t or won’t support themselves, your FOCUS should always be on making your OWN life better, by offering things that improve other people’s lives, IN EXCHANGE for something (be it money, or something else).

You are not on this planet for the sake of others, even though this is a widely accepted concept.  You MUST look after yourself.  After all, if you can’t look after yourself, how can you possibly look after others?

Luke.

3D Pack

3D Pack.com offer a FREE way to product ebook covers, boxes, dvd/cd covers by simply uploading any images you have (which could be anything you’ve photographed or downloaded from the internet) to thier site.  Here’s what their interface looks like:

Once you’ve uploaded your images, you simply choose what kind of image you want (cd cover, ebook cover etc.) and then click the ‘Create 3d-box.  You images will then be rendered onto a template like the one below:

Output File Type

With this done, it’s simply a matter of choosing the file type that you want by clicking one of the button (above).  You can then save the file to your own computer.

eCoverSoftwarePro

There are limitations to this service of course, because it’s a free service.  However, if you want your very own desktop application, there is some excellent software called eCoverSoftwarePro.  It was originally priced at $197, and is, in my opinion, well worth it, but it is currently available for only $27!  Here’s what the interface look like:

It’s incredibly easy to use and comes with 28 templates, inclucing iPods, credit-card, ring-binders, books, cd cases boxes and combinations of cd’s with boxes.  If you want to buy yourself a late Christmas gift, this is definitely worth considering.  You can get it by HERE or by clicking the image above. It’s compatible with Windows XP , Vista and Windows 7 only.

Luke.

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This is Google’s Wonder Wheel, introduced in 2009 and only JUST discovered……………by ME at any rate!  Put simply, it’s Google’s very own instant Mind Mapping features.  Mind Mapping has been used for centuries, but it is now integrated as part of the most powerful search engine in the world.

How It Works

As you already know, typing a search term into Google will bring thousands (more often than not) of results.  The Wonder Wheel feature simply shows the top 8 results as an image.  Now look at the next image:

Having chosen one of the 8 initial results (in this case ’solar battery charge’) other related results are given, all in the excellent graphical representation of the wonder wheel.  Now that you have this, you can select yet another option and drill down even further.

Why Is This So Good?

As an internet marketer, this makes is a lot easier to find SUB-NICHES.  For example, I could keep drilling down until I found a product or service (or any other area of interest) that only had, say 5,000 results pages.  This would mean that there ARE competitors out there for that subject, but not SO many that you couldn’t compete.

Obviously, you’d have to do your normal research to make sure that you have a good chance of competing, and that there ARE products that you could offer this niche, but it’s a good, easy and quick way that your BRAIN understands a lot more easily than just simply text, like the normal search results.

Give it a try.  I like it and I think you will too.

Luke.

What happened in Athens (Greece) to cause these riots, where people are DYING?  Ostensibly, it’s because their government told them that they had to make cut-backs.  Cuts in salary, services and benefits.  People don’t LIKE being told that their standard of living is going to go down.  They don’t like the fact that they are going to have to live WITHIN their means.

Other Countries

The WORLD economy is messed up.  How?  Well, what’s happening is that individuals, organizations and governments have been BORROWING so that they can live BEYOND their means for several decades.  Now, it’s time to pay up, and there’s no money to be had.  It’s all been spent AHEAD of being made.

YOUR country, whether you live in the U.S.A., Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, United Kingdom or anywhere else, WILL suffer the consequences.

How Did We Overspend?

What happened is this;

1. Individuals

Individuals borrowed money for houses they couldn’t afford.  Speculation and demand made the prices go too high (higher than wages being earned could afford).  People then thought they had free money because they paid X for their house and now it was valued at (but NOT worth) X+X.  They then borrowed MORE against this (unreal) equity and bought more “stuff” that they didn’t need, but WANTED.

2. Organizations

Organizations like mortgage firms (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac etc.), stock markets around the world did pretty much the same thing, but made even BIGGER bets; they gambled BILLIONS on the fact that stocks (not just houses) would keep going up in price, and they paid no attention to the fact that the stock (shares of a company) were simply NOT worth what people were paying for them.

3. Governments

The biggest gamblers and power junkies out their, the world’s governments perpetuated this myth and even found some super-expensive wars to get involved in.  While their own countries were going bankrupt, they chose to spend even MORE than they ever had before, knowing that they had printing presses (or the electronic equivalent) that they could simply keep running.  Money out of thin air is NOT REAL MONEY!

What To Expect

The next round of nasty stuff is the same as is happening in Greece.  There will be more of it (and worse) in Greece, but this will start to happen, most likely in YOUR country (wherever you live).  You see, EVERY country is probably going to be affected by this because the WORLD ECONOMY is broken.  The game that politicians and their stock-market buddies have been playing no longer works.  The rules are changing and they simply can’t keep up.

If you think what is happening in Greece is bad, think about this.  People are dying there (just a few at the moment) based on their government just TALKING about cuts (benefits, wages etc.).  What will happen when they actually IMPLEMENT these changes?    What will happen when, because of inflation (or even hyperinflation) the people can no longer afford to pay their mortgages, or they can’t afford gasoline?  What about when they can’t afford food?

Prepare

If you don’t prepare for the worst now…………that’s NOW, then you can only blame yourself.  Read about what’s going on.  Look at Youtube and other video sites BEFORE the internet (or the search engines and the video sites) are closed down.

Stock up on bottled water.  Buy a water purifier. Stock-pile food (dry or canned). Keep some cash at home for when the banks close (which they will, albeit for only a few days at first).  Buy a tent and some camping gear while it’s still affordable. Secure your house.  Get to know your neighbors.  Read Sean Brodrick’s ‘The Ultimate Suburban Survivalist Guide’ and other, similar books.  Get books on what wild foods you can eat (if things get REALLY bad).

DON”T expect to hear REAL news on TV.  You WON”T get it.

Luke.

While I think this is a mildly amusing prank, the point here is that you can go to Sam’s Club (Walmart’s so-called “Wholesale Store”) and buy just about anything.

Clickbank

Clickbank is, of course, the predominant place that internet marketers go to find products that they can sell to their OWN customers, in effect “buying wholesale”.  The great news is, of course,  you don’t have to buy anything up front, like a lot of small retailers would do at Sam’s Club.

What you may NOT realize is that you can also buy products DIRECTLY from Clickbank.

Why Buy Directly?

Many of us internet marketing types typically wait for information products to be offered to us via our emails, from other, more advanced internet marketers.  But, if you think about it, this is a bit like waiting for Sam’s Club (or Safeway, or Kroger etc.) to send us the food and household goods that THEY think we want or need.

This is quite patently a very BAD idea.

Surely, this simply doesn’t make sense.  Why would you wait for a store (Sam’s Club OR Clickbank) to send you offers for products of THEIR choice, when you can simply go there directly (or in Clickbank’s case, to their website) and look for EXACTLY what you want?

Google and Yahoo Etc.

When you want to learn something about becoming a better internet marketer, you will probably go to Google or Yahoo, because you want to find the most relevant information about the topic you want to learn, be it getting more traffic to your site, or how to build an email list.

Often, the search-engines will come up with results that are, indeed, both relevant AND exactly what you are looking for, but very often the results are compiled of reviews of products that will teach you what you want to know, or sponsored links for these same products.

As this is the case, you may do a lot better and have a lot more choice, by simply going to Clickbank.  There are two ways to search Clickbank when you want to find products to buy.  Look at the image below:

As you can see from their interface, in the “Buy Products’ tab, you can either use the search box at the top, or browse the categories down the left hand side.

When using their search function, remember that you might not find what you’re looking for because it will only find words that you are typing; it simply can’t understand what you really want, though it will show all products that include the words you type.

Categories

In my opinion, the better way is to use the categories list down the left side.  The listing is quite comprehensive, and though I have found a few products that could have easily been put into other categories, for the most part, Clickbank does put the right information products into the correct sections.

In conclusion, the next time you are thinking of taking your internet marketing skills to a new level, try the Clickbank Marketplace to find the right information product that will teach you what you need to know.

Luke.

The World At War

While people in countries around the world have been fighting each other for as long as human have been on the planet, usually for food, sexual partners or territory, it’s only quite recently that they have been fighting over religion.  But humans do it really, REALLY well.

Well?

Yes, of course I’m being facetious, but my point is this: over the past few millennium, humans have perfected the art of fighting over exactly NOTHING!  That is, they fight over BELIEF.  Now, as strong as belief is, one would think that people would realize that EVERYBODY is entitled to, and can’t help but have, BELIEFS.

Yes, people DO accept this, but what some humans do is choose NOT to accept this, either by really THINKING about it, or simply being too lazy or too stupid TO think about it.

Lazy

I can almost forgive the lazy ones, because, let’s face it, thinking is hard work, and if you can still manage to live your life without having to think (because there’s a nice Grandmother type government which is looking after you with other people’s money and resources) then I can’t blame you.

The Thinkers

The thinkers, on the other hand, I CAN’T forgive.  Why?  Simply because they CHOOSE to make life miserable for MILLIONS of people.  They do this by writing nonsense books, preaching nonsense (sometimes from other people’s nonsense books) or by worming their way into positions of authority (sheriffs, mayors, governors, prime ministers, presidents etc.).

THESE people KNOW what they’re doing, and they STILL take millions of “their” people to war, all in the name of protecting “their” nation.  What complete and utter crap!

The World Today

At the time of writing this (about a month before it’s published), the world is teetering on the edge of another MASSIVE war, a war that WILL affect almost everybody on the planet.  Is this reported in the newspapers or TV?  Of COURSE it isn’t!  The newspapers and TV have their profits to consider, which means pleasing their sponsors who place expensive advertisements with them.

You will NEVER get REAL news that AFFECTS you from TV or newspapers.  You can either accept this or not, but think of this.  Is it REALLY WORLD NEWS when a person is murdered in another state, or abducted in another country?  How does this affect you?  IT DOESN’T!  These stories are purely for “human interest” (otherwise known as humans lust for blood-lust, proven to happen every time there’s a car-wreck on a highway and the OTHER lane slows down so that people can see the gore).

The World’s Leaders

The leaders of the world (religious and political) got us INTO this mess, so DON’T expect them to get us out of it.  It’s down to YOU to help yourself and yours.

Prepare

Nothing is going to change human nature, at least not for thousands of years, IF we make it that far.  Your best hope for a saner future is in yourself, your family (if you like them that is) and your community.  Some really bad stuff is coming your way, so start preparing now.  That’s NOW!

Is it time to panic?  No, absolutely not!  Why?  Because panicking is NEVER the answer.  All panic does is lead to poor thinking (or no thinking) and even more problems.

All I’m saying is this; if I’m totally wrong and the world is as wonderful as ever, then you’ve only lost a little bit of money  (by stocking up on non-perishable food, gasoline, water, some cash etc.) and you can ALWAYS use these later.  Just don’t rely on stores and gas stations to have what you need WHEN you need it.

BUT, if I’m right, you’ll be grateful you put a few simple strategies in place for any short-term problems.  If it’s long term, then we’re ALL screwed!

Aren’t I just a ray of sunshine today!!!?

Luke.

The Problem With Articles

The problem with articles is that you have to use them EXACTLY the way they are, and you must include the author’s bio-box.  This lessens YOUR impact as an expert in the field and also drops your Google page rank a little by bleeding some rank of to the author’s site.

Press releases are great free content for your websites.  Whenever a company or individual wants to let the world know about an event, they release a press release.

Why Are Press Releases Better?

Press releases are significantly better because you can freely (legally) modify the content to your heart’s desire, making each release YOUR OWN!

This means that you aren’t losing any page rank to the author, because you don’t have to include the bio-box, and you are seen as the expert who wrote it.   Somebody ELSE has done all the hard work for you by researching the topic, and you can simply come along, modify it slightly (or a lot) and then publish it.

Here’s is a list of sites where you can go for this totally free content:

PRWeb.com

WiredPRNews.com

OpenPR.com

PRLeap.com

So, the next time you’re looking for great content, go to one of these sites and check out what’s on offer.

Luke.

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The guy above has actually made himself a lot of money by telling people how to get OTHER people’s money.

Apparently, all you have to do to get free money is to ask!  Regardless of the country you live in, your government probably has “FREE MONEY” programs, often known as “benefits” or  ”entitlements”.

Is It REALLY Free?

Of COURSE it’s not free!  Well, it may well be completely free to the people on the receiving end of the largesse, but SOMEBODY has to pay for it and usually, the small amount that actually GETS to the person receiving the money actually costs about 10 times MORE than that amount, because of all of the bureaucracy (red tape) that is involved in GETTING IT TO that person.

Who Pays?

EVERYBODY pays, that’s who.  When a government gives money to somebody (for whatever reason), you should ask yourself where they GOT that money from in the first place.  Your first thought might be “taxes”, and you’d be right, to a point.

Tax is actually the LEAST amount of money that a government gets.

Where Else?

The next way ALL governments get money is to borrow it.  This is done by selling IOU’s (Treasury notes etc.) to other gullible countries who will give physical goods like electronics, furniture, oil and food for these notes.

There IS NO HUGE POT of money that governments draw on.  No government has ever or will ever produce any money of it’s own.  They COST money, they don’t create money.  Well, they DO PRINT it and they DO just SAY it’s there (by telling an organization’s bank that it can now add lots of zero’s to its bank account), but real wealth? No, they NEVER produce wealth.  They don’t have the ability or the inclination.  Why should they, when they can simply print it?

This is known as INFLATION, and you’ll be experiencing the results of this in the coming decade.  It won’t be pretty, and I suggest you start preparing for this now.  How?  For starters, read Sean Brodrick’s “The Ultimate Suburban Survivalist Guide”. It will help you prepare financially AND physically, WITHOUT heading for the hills.

Charity

While I do think that it’s a good thing to be charitable and help those that need help, this, in my opinion, should be purely voluntary.  People shouldn’t be forced to give of their time, money or effort, but that’s EXACTLY what is happening when a country’s government gives “entitlements” (i.e. other people’s money) to people.

Things ARE getting bad and they WILL get worse.  This is 100% set in stone now.  Will it lead to World War three?  Possibly.  However, there’s no point worrying about this as you CAN’T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

What you CAN do is prepare yourself in advance, both mentally and physically. Learn NEW skills, like internet marketing.  Learn how to live on less.  Learn how to make money from home.  Be USEFUL to other people.  Have skills and knowledge to offer them in return for things, like food, shelter and water.

Entitlements

The days of “the free ride” are coming to an end…………..rapidly.  Living beyond your means (whether an individual, a family, a city or a country) ALWAYS ends badly.

The world and its people will survive the coming holocaust, (most of them anyway) and your job is to ensure that YOU and YOURS are among the survivors.  The world will be a better place, I’m sure of that, but it will be very harsh for us for 10-20 years to come.

Luke.

Other People’s Videos

According to the nice people at Youtube, 24 HOURS of video is added to their servers EVERY MINUTE!  With all of that video being added, wouldn’t it be nice if you can jump on the really popular videos back and take some of their viewers to YOUR websites?

How?

It takes some time to find the right video, but once you’ve found it, you can contact the channel owner and ask if you could pay them some money ($10 - $30 maybe) to put a clickable link in their ‘Comments’ section just below the video, along with an annotation IN the video saying something like “If you want to make X dollars, just click the link below!”.

What IS The Right Video?

Obviously, it’s best to find videos that are related to your area of interest (your niche, though I hate using that term….. I don’t know why), but if you can’t find one, you CAN simply try ANY video that meets the following criteria:

1. Must be current (published within the last 12 months)

2. That must not be a link in the comments section

3. Must be over 100,000 views

4. Must be INCREASING in popularity (shown in the drop down menu by the number of  views)

Once you’ve found your video, contact the channel owner and send them a nice message asking them if they’d like to make some money.  As always, be honest with them and tell them that you are a marketer and that you’ll pay them via paypal.

Then What?

If they agree, send them your link details along with the ‘annotation’ you want in their video.  They MAY need technical help doing this, and if so, find an instructional video ON Youtube explaining how to do it and send them a personal message via their contact details WITHIN their channel info (click on their channel name to find this).

Thought this may not be TARGETED traffic, in this economic climate, sufficiently high views of ANY video will get some people to come and look at your site.

Luke.

The body panels of the Trabant are made from wood, cotton and resin (pressed paper about 1/2″ thick).  These cars were often delivered to the purchaser 15 YEARS after the order was placed (NO, not because there was such high demand!).

I wonder where the Western World is currently headed????

Luke.

Hitler

The test compares the Founding Fathers of the United States with Hitler.  When told ONLY SOME FACTS about each, most students chose HITLER (yes, the mad, stupid-looking, genocidal maniac) over the likes of Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.

You can read about it more here:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer52.html

My ONLY point today is this; whatever you do, DON’T vote (by purchasing OR checking a box on  a machine or piece of paper) based on ONLY the information that the people SUPPLYING the information give you!  If you do this enough times in your life, not only will you destroy YOUR life, you’ll destroy everybody else’s as well.

This single thing may be (making choices based on information supplied by the people who stand to gain the most) is what has created the world we are living in today. Perhaps the very LAST people who should be voted for are the very ones that WANT to be voted for.

Luke.

Google Scores Big Brownie Points

Yep, the nice people at Google have done it again; they’ve given EVERYBODY the ability to quickly and easily create their OWN version of their wonderful 2010 Superbowl ad.  As an internet marketer, you can, of course, use this tool to create sales pitches for your sales efforts, or for simply getting a message across to the world.

Here’s an image of the very simple interface:

Just click the image below and you’ll be taken to this excellent FREE tool!

Luke

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However, you need a list of people to email, and there are a few of ways to do get this list. You can rent a list, borrow a list or create a list yourself.

Of the three ways, the very best is to create your own list, but there is a drawback to this; it takes quite a lot of TIME to get a good sized list.

Renting a list is hit-and-miss and I wouldn’t recommend it.  You might get lucky and find a good broker who has up-to-date lists to rent you, but it’s unlikely and in my experience, it’s mostly a waste of time.

Creating your own is great mostly because of the quality of the list.  You KNOW people are interested in what you have to offer, because you created it yourself AND you can keep this list updated by emailing it yourself and keeping a note of any emails that are returned (or if somebody unsubscribes, which is never a good thing).

To do this, you need to use an autoresponder service, because you simply don’t have the time to do it manually.  The one I use is GetResponse, but there are other good ones out there.

To get people onto your list, offer them something of value at no cost.  Don’t be cheap!  Give them something of real use.  An ebook, and audio or some video tutorials perhaps.  You’ll need an opt-in form on your main website, but GetResponse will provide that for you for no additional fee.  Their cost to you is about $15 per month.

Make sure that the initial message that is sent to them, once they’ve signed-up for your freebie, informs them that they are now on your email list, and let them know that they can expect some more free things from you over time.  This is so that they don’t unsubscribe once they get your free gift.  Oh, and DO send them some things once every other month or so.

Make sure the subject line reads something like “Here’s the free e-book you requested” so that they don’t delete it because they forgot that they actually DID subscribe to your list.

Email them about twice a month with updates, and always remind them to come and visit your site to read your latest materials or see your more recently added products.  Make the emails short and to the point.

Don’t use HTML, just use plain text otherwise it may not get delivered, because not all autoresponder services can deal with HTML, though GetResponse and AWeber etc. are doing a much better job these days with HTML.

Make sure that you include your name and contact details in case they want to email you back.  This is also good practice because they may have trouble buying something from your website and you DO want to help them buy from you, don’t you?

The third way is to borrow a list.  To do this you need a JV or Joint Venture partner.  In effect, you are offering your partner a large percentage of the sale price in exchange for her to promote your product to her list. Once somebody from her list has bought something from you, they are then on YOUR list.

You can find a partner at JVNotifyPro

Finally, ALWAYS BACKUP your lists! Your list is a goldmine if you know what to do with it. But always keep in mind, it’s NOT  ”the money is in the list”, it’s “the money is in what YOU CAN DO for the PEOPLE in your list”.

Happy emailing!!!

Luke.

The single most important graphic element on your Web site or blog is, without a doubt, your header graphic.

If your site lacks an eye-catching, targeted and topic-specific header graphic, it runs the risk of being ignored by untold numbers of potential clients and readers. But an attention-grabbing, well-designed header graphic does three things that are absolutely essential for your site to survive and thrive:

1. It lets people know what your site is about instantaneously.

First Impressions Count

Congratulations, someone has visited your Web site! Now, whether he stays to look around or immediately hits the back button to escape depends largely on your header graphic.

Your header graphic is the first page element your site visitors will see when they arrive at your Web site or blog. An effective header graphic assures site visitors that they have arrived at the correct destination and it confirms that your content or product is exactly what they are looking for.

If your header does not clearly communicate your site’s topic, visitors will leave in search of another site that fulfills their needs and expectations better.

Your Expertise

2. It distinguishes your site as professional and authoritative.

Your Web site or blog visitors must trust your expertise, whether you sell a product or relay information, in order for your site to be successful.

A sloppy, fuzzy, boring or poorly designed header graphic indicates amateur site management and will earn you the skepticism of everyone who sees it. A polished, error-free header graphic with clear images, sharp fonts and site-specific art, however, will earn your visitors’ trust because it lends credibility and sophistication to your site.

If your site design looks professional, visitors will expect that you are, too.

3. It brands your site with a unique identity.

Your Brand

Identity recognition is everything when it comes to building a successful business or personal reputation. You want your site visitors to be able to recognize your site next week, next month and next year, even if they only visited it once before.

A strong, unique header graphic combined with a positive user experience at your Web site or blog will ensure that your site visitors never confuse you with someone else. If your header graphic is doing its job, your site will stand out from the crowd and convey the message that visitors can count on you for products, services and information they won’t find anywhere else.

XHeader

XHeaderPro included 5,000 superb quality and PROFESSIONALLY DESIGNED header graphics for less than $50.  In other words, for less than 1 penny each, you get a superb header graphic AND the software to modify it to suit your own website………….or 5,000 websites.

Click the image below to see what others are saying about it:

You can use the graphic headers with ANY software, be it XSitePro (by FAR my favorite), Dreamweaver, Microsoft Expression Web, Kompozer etc.

In my opinion, this is the SINGLE BEST DEAL you’ll ever get on website graphics, and you can use them FOREVER!

Luke.

How?

Well, you COULD use Kuler to try and find a close match, or you can do it the easy way and get it EXACTLY right.  I’ve found a super FREE piece of software called ColorPic and you can see its interface below:

With this neat little tool (about 500kb only) you can hover your cursor at ANYTHING on your computer screen and you will get, not only the exact Hexadecimal number for that color, but also a magnified view of what you’re hovering over in a preview pane below.

More Features And Benefits

Here are some other things about it:

• Easily pick any color from the screen
• No popup adverts or spy-ware, it really is free
• Colors shown in hex and decimal
• Adjust Hue, Saturation, Value, Red, Green and Blue values
• Easy to use with any other program
• Re-sizable magnification area
• Overlay a grid for quick color-picker alignment
• Use arrow keys to nudge mouse pointer for more accuracy
• Save multiple palettes of colors automatically
• WebSafe Colors and names displayed
• Point sample, 3×3 or 5×5 pixel sampling
• Adjust color with four advanced color mixers
• Edit color-picker values after selection
• Easy to use collapsible sections
• Works with ALL Browsers
• Runs on ALL Windows Systems
  

Why Is It Free?

Iconico, the company that gives this away, is hoping that you’ll find it so useful (which it is) that you’ll upgrade to the pro version, which I may well be doing.

This is a great little program and it’s at my favorite price!

Luke.

Is This Ad For Real?

Sadly, YES, it’s a real commercial for a plastic surgeon.  If you don’t believe it (like I didn’t at first) you can check it out for yourself by “Googling” (that is a word now, right?) his name.

Good Or Bad?

No, I”m not talking about his ability as a doctor, he could be wonderful for all I know.  No, I’m talking about the commercial itself.  You see, using testimonials in your sales page (or video etc.) is an important (some say essential) part of internet marketing and sales in general, but if done poorly it can actually harm your conversion rate.

After all, if you’ve gone to the effort and expense to get somebody to VIEW your sales pitch, then surely you should make sure it has the highest chance of converting into a sale as possible.

Getting testimonials isn’t necessarily difficult; simply offer something of value in exchange for the time and effort that the customer spends on producing it, something similar or complementary to what you’ve already sold them. But how do you make sure that they are GOOD testimonials that will help your sales letter convert potential buyers?

How To Get Great Testimonials

The best way that I know of to ensure that your customers give you first class testimonials that help you convert new potential buyers into actual buyers is to give them a framework.  This should take the form of a series of simple questions.  Here’s an example below:

1.    What might have prevented you from buying this product?
2.    What was the major result of buying this?
3.    What features did you like most about it?
4.    What are some other benefits about this product?
5.    Is there anything you’d like to add that comes to mind?

Doing this means you can get personalized messages that also ensure that the most important selling points (the benefits to the potential customer) are highlighted.

Testimonials really are one of the most powerful selling tools.  They show what is called “social proof” that your product has already delivered what it promises.  Social proof is simply saying “lots of other people benefited from it and you can too”.

Use a framework like the one above, and I’m sure you will see your conversion rate improve.

Luke.

What The Search Engines Like

It’s widely recognized that duplicating content (strings of sentences and paragraphs) from site to site makes the search engines, especially Google, frown…………and pitch a fit.  What they REALLY LIKE, is original and RELEVANT content.  That is, strings of sentences that haven’t been published online before and that have a LOT to do with search terms (keywords) being entered into the search boxes.

DupeFree Pro

This is where DupeFree Pro comes in.  Dupe (duplicate) Free (you guessed it) Pro (professional) is a small, simple and very effective way to ensure that any article or post you publish to the internet is NOT the same or even similar as your source material.

Now, if you’re working straight from your own experiences, this won’t be of any concern to you, but, like most internet marketers, much of what they have learned and publish, comes from OTHER internet marketers.  Hey, we all have to learn from somebody, right?

Free Software

Here’s the interface in action;

As you can see, the simple interface lets you enter two articles (or any other text) and when you press the ‘Compare’ button, any STRINGS of words are highlighted in THE SAME color, making it really easy to determine what needs to be adjusted.

There are plenty of other features, and you can read about them all in their unnecessarily long sales letter, by clicking on the image at the top of this post.

Why Is It Free?

The guys who created this say that they are giving it away to establish themselves as software developers.  While this may or may not be true, they are certainly GREAT MARKETERS.  They want your name and email address before giving you this software, so that they can offer you other products later.  As they say,  “the money is in the list”, though I really, REALLY hate that attitude.

The money is in what YOU CAN DO, FOR the people in the list!

Luke.

Like all junkies, perhaps those that crave the power-drug the most should be the ones who are denied it.

Luke.

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Hope this video helps to keep you safe from any would-be scammers out there.

160,000 NEW Jobs!!!

Great news!  160,000 new jobs have been added to the work force in April.  That IS good news right?  Well, not exactly.  Why?  Because those new jobs aren’t what you might call, productive.

Census

They are all temporary jobs taking census information.  Every 10 years, the U.S. Constitution says that everybody living in the country must be counted, so that the population is a known quantity.

So, I wonder if a mailed letter would do the trick just as well?  Yes, they’re mailing out letters, but they’re also going door to door (with hand-held GPS mapping devices for some reason).  My question is, why not just rely on the mailed questionnaires? Surely it would be cheaper an more efficient?  I mean, if you’re going to lie on a paper form, you’d be equally happy to lie in person, right?

Economy

While the census workers have found some temporary relief from unemployment, the REAL state of unemployment has not changed.  A month or two of work, which is totally UNPRODUCTIVE (because it doesn’t add to the country’s Gross Domestic Product), really doesn’t help these people long-term, nor does it help the country get out of this economic depression.

Oh, and employing 160,000 people even for a couple of months is very, VERY expensive.  I wonder where that money is coming from?  I’ll think about that and get back to you when I know the answer.

Luke.

P.S. This is interesting too:

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Clearly, the world is changing exponentially.  More people are being born and more information is made available to us at an ever increasing rate.  More information is ALSO BEING ADDED to our knowledge base every day.  So, can we keep up with it all?

NO!

Plain and simple, not only can’t we even begin to keep up with what’s going on in the world, it’s really not a good idea to even try.  Here’s why.

We humans have evolved (or been created depending on your core beliefs) over millions of years (or 6,000, again, depending upon your beliefs) and technology has only really been created by humans over the last few centuries.

How Humans Developed

As hunter-gatherers, humans survived by being able to think at a more advanced level than other animals.  However, the BASIC nature of humans is no different to any of the other animals; we still need and want water, food, shelter and sex in that order.  This is for our survival, both individually and as a species.

The more advanced our society becomes, the more difficult it is for us to cope, because we are not well adapted (or created) to deal with so much information, information that is not only added to, but also keeps changing.  What is important today in technology will be outdated within a very short time.

What To Do

Just look at how computer programs change every other year (or more often).  You have to almost re-learn the whole thing each time as the companies that produce them try to stay in business by offering better products.  Any Windows .95 users still out there???

The answer to this situation is, I think, very clear.  You DON’T try to keep up.  If you try and fail (which you will) you’ll feel bad about yourself and think you’re not very smart.

In my opinion, you should concentrate on some of the core factors that will probably NEVER change in humans.

Core Desires

It’s quite well known that people will pay a lot more money for something that they WANT than for what they need (other than extreme situations such as a starving person who would give EVERYTHING they own for food etc.).

As this is the case, the answer to the “overload’ problem is that you should focus on the CORE desires of what people want, and then simply become a supplier of those core desires.

What Do People REALLY Want?

Though it’s easy to think that people want bigger houses, nicer cars, lots of vacations to exotic countries etc. the FACT is that this is not the case.  What people REALLY want is the following:

1. They want respect

2. They want to feel safe

3. They want to feel significant

4. They want to leave something of value behind when they die

5. They want to liver forever (in this world or another)

Once you understand these things, all of the other STUFF out there becomes almost meaningless, because ALL of that stuff is still aimed at achieving the five things.

As an internet marketer, as any business person, keep these things in mind whenever you offer anything to your customers.  It will save you a lot of time and money trying to keep up with the world.

Luke.

Nicolaus Copernicus is famous for figuring out that the earth is, in  FACT, not the center of the universe.  One of his lesser achievements was to determine that that is such a thing as “bad money”.  Some time after he did this, another man, Thomas Gresham, made this idea popular and it became known as “Gresham’s Law”.

What Is Gresham’s Law? Gresham’s Law basically states that bad money will always drive out good money.  It’s that simple.

Good Money vs. Bad Money

So what IS good money?  Good money, according to Copernicus and Gresham is money that either HAS tangible value (anything that can be traded for something to eat, drink or protect yourself in effect) such as gold, silver and other precious metals or gems.

Bad money is money that is back by FAITH (i.e. belief without proof).  Fiat currencies are now used in place of REAL money because it’s a lot easier to manipulate, erm, I mean, manage.  It can be printed at will, or simply typed into a computer to create higher numbers in an organization’s account, be it a small company, a large company or indeed an entire government.

Rome

Historically, one of the first nations to use fiat currency on a grand scale was Rome.  Originally, their government simply used precious metals (silver, gold and copper mostly) and created coins that were valued at exactly each coin’s “melt value”.  In other words, it was worth as much as a coin with some politician’s face on it as it was WITHOUT the face.

Debasement

As the Roman politicians took Rome to war (many, MANY wars) they had trouble paying for them.  They also increased the size of the government and of course, this took MONEY to pay for a lager government (because governments can ONLY COST MONEY, they NEVER create wealth).

They initially tried openly taxing the people more, but this was met with dissent.  So, rather than face their displeasure, they came up with a cunning plan.  Instead of making the coins ALL gold (or silver etc.) they thought that they could make the “gold” coins out of gold AND copper, because copper was more abundant and so, more easily available.

This was called “debasing” the coins.  In effect, they were TAXING the Roman people without them knowing it, so that they could pay for their ever expanding government and empire.

The Politicians Went Further

Realizing how easy this had been to fool an entire nation, the politicians of the day went further, MUCH further.  Eventually (over a period of many years) they had put so much “filler” metal into the coins that they were mostly made out of bronze; a nice looking an very durable alloy. They could then keep the gold for themselves (REAL money) and hoard it for a rainy day, one that eventually came with the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Once, the most powerful nation in the world, Rome was no more.

Gresham’s Law Revisited

So, Thomas Gresham realized that good money (gold etc.) would always be drive out by bad money (fiat currency, or coins with no intrinsic value) and this happened because it allowed governments to simply mint or print (or digitally create these days) money out of thin air.

The bad money will increase in supply because it’s easy to create and the good money will find it’s way into the hands of the ruling classes.

On a smaller scale, individuals will always exchange something with NO intrinsic value for food, water, shelter etc. rather than something that DOES have intrinsic value, because, like the ruling politicians, they want to keep the good stuff for themselves.

Bulgaria

On a trip to Bulgaria one year, I experienced this myself, when four local hotels grouped together and printed their OWN currency and would rather accept these “vouchers” than the official currency of their government (the Lev), because the Bulgarian government had overprinted their national currency to the point that nobody had any faith in it.

Doing this created an underground economy, where people traded goods directly (cutting out the tax on sales etc.) and also creating a high demand for other countries currencies, which were considered (at the time) more stable than the Lev.

Luke.

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continued from Monday………….

Who Won The Battle?

The GENIUS, Nikola Tesla, that’s who!  Tesla won the electrical-distribution battle.  He is responsible for AC voltage as opposed to Thomas Edison’s DC voltage, which is great for small local applications like toys and electric cars, but is useless for long-distance applications like lighting up and powering a city or a country.

But guess who died broke???  Same guy, Nikola Tesla.  You see, though he was no doubt a REAL genius, who didn’t have much idea about money.  He gave up many of his royalites that Westinghouse owed him, so that that company wouldn’t go out of business.  He was amazing successful as an inventor and engineer, but had the entirely wrong idea about money.  Money was just a means to an end to him, which is a good thing, but he simply didn’t realize that he had to MANAGE his money.  He couldn’t manage his SUCCESS!

The Businessman

Thomas Edison, on the other hand, was an incredibly good businessman.  He invented and produced products that people wanted the benefits of, and he did this not through genius-insight (like Tesla) but through sheer hard-work and lots of trial-and-error (LOTS of errors, but he NEVER QUIT TRYING).  He then took the products to market using other people’s money, just like any great businessman would do.

So, back to Mr. Napleon Hill.  What did Mr. Hill glean from all of the successful people that he spent 20 years interviewing?  The person who actually gave Napoleon Hill the commission for interviewing these successful people was Andrew Carnegie (not to be confused with Dale Carnegie who was not related to Andrew).  Hill’s payment for doing this 20 year study?

Napoleon Hill Was Paid………

Nothing!  Huh!?  NOTHING???  Yep, no money, BUT he would be given introductions to the interviewees by Andrew Carnegie (one of the most powerful and wealthy men in the world at the time and the man responsible for public libraries).  Hill would also be allowed to use any material he obtained to write his book.  That was payment enough for him, and it still earns Hill’s estate money to this day based on royalties for the book he published in 1937!

Napoleon’s Rules

So what exactly WERE Napoleon’s rules, his rules for success?  Here are some of them:

1. Definiteness of purpose - knowing WHAT you want

2. Mastermind group - be with like-minded people who want success

3. Attractive personality - people are drawn to strong, confident people

4. Applied faith - believe in what you WILL achieve

5. Going the extra mile - give MORE than what is expected of you

6. Persistence - NEVER quit (just like Thomas Edison)

7. Self discipline - control YOURSELF, don’t let others control you

8. Learning - learn from defeat and failure and keep moving towards your goal

9. Focus - when you’re doing something, do it with all of your attention

10. Habit - get into good daily habits, which will naturally get you out of bad habits

There are others (read the book!) but these are some key ones.  Try to understand that though you have thousands (millions really) of choices in your life, there are only two main choices.  You can either let life happen TO YOU, or you can MAKE A LIFE FOR YOURSELF.

What’s The Difference?

The difference between the two are MASSIVE but to make the difference doesn’t take a lot; just small choices every hour of every day.  Will you write that extra article to promote your site.  Will you work that extra hour. Will you eat that extra piece of cake. Will you run that extra mile. Will you smoke one less cigarette each day and so on.

Nobody has control over your life UNLESS YOU GIVE THEM CONTROL!

Follow Napoleon’s rules and control your own life.  The alternative is unimaginable and certainly not something any sane person would want to live through. My biggest fear (really) is that the world is about to go out of control, but YOU can still control what you read, listen to, eat and THINK.

Luke.

Think And Grow Rich

Napoleon Hillis most famous for his book ‘Think And Grow Rich’ which is one of the best selling books of all time.

He was really an investigative journalist who died in 1970 at the age of 87.  He is THE father of all personal success literature, and if you haven’t read this book yet, I suggest you get yourself a nice inexpensive used copy off of Amazon (or similar).

What is significant about Mr. Hill (other than being raised dirt-poor) is that he was little more than a newspaper writer for a local Virginia newspaper who hit upon the idea of finding the formula for success…………success in ANYTHING.  How did he do this?  He interviewed as many successful people as he could and took the essence of what they all told him and put his findings into his short book. Who did he interview?  Here are some of them:

Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Charles Schwab, F.W. Woolworth, William Wrigley and a few Presidents also.

What Did He Learn?

So, do you think, after 20 years of speaking with these kinds of people he knew what he was talking about?  Yep, darn right he did.

Now, I’ve never really been one for all this “positive thinking” stuff, BUT (and this “but” ISN’T negating everything prior to it…………I promise) I DO believe that NEGATIVE thinking ABSOLUTELY will bring you down and keep you down.  So, because of that alone, thinking positively HAS to be better than the alternative.  Personally, I’m more of a realist (yes, I know EVERYBODY thinks that they are realists, but that’s patently not true of most, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many religions in the world!).

Be A Realist

A prerequisite for success in business is realism.  Don’t let the hype fool you; running a business takes work and starting a business takes a LOT of work.  However, you’ve chosen the right field in which to start your business, because making money online gives you the opportunity to make mistakes and correct them without much loss of working capital or customers.

Do you need to be a genius to start and run a successful business?  Absolutely not! (see article on Donald Trump).  There have been a few real geniuses in the world (Leonardo DaVinci, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin etc.) and many of them never achieved financial success, though some did.  However there are THOUSANDS of normal AVERAGE people who HAVE made financial successes of themselves.

Edison Vs. Tesla

There’s a famous battle between two of my heroes, one of whom was a REAL genius and the other was a great businessman.  You can decide which was which.  Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla fought for many years over using two different systems for transporting electricity around the world.

Can you guess who won the battle?

Part II on Wednesday.

Luke

Note: I’d REALLY like to hear your opinions about this video I found on Youtube!

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Have you ever heard anybody refer to “the elephant in the room”?  It’s quite an old saying which means nothing more than this: there is something BIG in the vicinity that everybody is ignoring.

What Is This Elephant?

While the stock market has rallied somewhat (Dow Jones still down 40% from its high), this has little to do with the REAL world’s economies.  I say that because the stock markets around the world are places for the BIG players to gamble other people’s money.  The stock markets are NOT reflections of how well a country’s economy is doing, but rather, a reflection of how people THINK economies are doing.

The elephant I’m referring to is the DEPRESSION that many countries (including the U.S.) are currently in.  While this isn’t being said aloud, many people KNOW this to be a fact; from people without  jobs to most politicians, they KNOW what is going on, and they are very, VERY scared.

The News

You will not see this information on your television, nor will you read about it in your newspaper, because the very last thing people want to talk about is how the world’s economies have been messed up. The media (TV, Newspapers, Magazines, Journals, Radio etc.) will typically give the public what they want, NOT THE FACTS.  They do this to make money and to have power.  Money and power are often the same thing, but  not always.

Money and Power

Money stops becoming power when nobody will exchange anything for it; not their time, their effort, their possessions or their emotions (love, greed, fear, affections etc.).  This has happened many times in history and it will happen again (not might, it WILL).  Money loses its value to people when enough people lose faith in it (faith = belief without proof).

It’s happening in Zimbabwe now, it happened in Germany, Hungary and many other countries and people lose their trust in it because of inflation.

Who Caused This Depression?

EVERYBODY who spends more than they earn are the cause of inflation.  Whether it’s an individual, a household, a town, a state or a country, when people spend more than they make (live beyond their means) they cause inflation.

Zimbabwe has for several years simply printed money to pay for things that they couldn’t actually afford (Zimbabwean Dollars) .  At one point, in 2008, $4 (U.S.) would buy you 10,000,000 Zimbabwean Dollars (that’s ten MILLION).

When people become this out of touch with reality (and I assure you people DON”T know when they are out of touch with reality) lives are ruined by the tens of millions.  Proof of this is in the history books, and you only have to visit a couple of Second World War museums around the world to understand this.

Wars

Wars are fought for ridiculous reasons and instigated by ridiculous (ridiculous = worthy of ridicule) people.  When humans feel threatened, be they regular Joe’s or world leaders, they will fight for their livelihoods.  The “politician mentality” will ensure that the world will see many more wars and I just hope I’m not around to witness one.  But the stark reality is, there may well be a big one on the way.  When economies collapse, politicians and religious leader (often one and the same person) will look for ANY way to lay the blame at somebody else’s feet, often another country.

While this may be considered “scaremongering” I don’t think it is at all.  Being prepared and simply NOT IGNORING the elephant in the room.

We ARE in a depression and wars often follow economic depressions.  That’s not scaremongering, it’s just history.

Prepare now; it starts with a survival mindset. Understand and accept what’s going on.  Acknowledge the elephant in the room.  Then read as much history about previous economic depressions as you can.  Finally,  DO something to get ready for some bad stuff.

A policeman friend of mine once told me why he uses a particular sidearm (one with LOTS of BIG bullets in).  He said “I’d simply rather HAVE the firepower and not need it, than need it and NOT HAVE IT.”

That’s a really good survival mentality.

Luke.

The image above (from Wikipedia) shows the current state of usage for the most popular internet browsers.  As you can see, Internet Explorer is still the main contender, with Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari (Macs mostly) chasing it.

What’s The Problem?

As an internet market promoting affiliate products, your customers will be using one of these browser and you won’t know which one (at least, for the most part that is).  So, you have to make sure that your Clickbank affiliate hoplinks are working.   If you simply create a hoplink and use the encoded URL directly, you won’t have a problem, and the link will look something like this:

http://f3d710yiijokbyecjct8jv0r9k.hop.clickbank.net/

If, however, you use the ‘resolved’ hoplink (which is what you see appear in the browser’s address bar) you WILL ONLY GET PAID if your customer is using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox!  A resolved hoplink looks like this:

http://www.truthaboutabs.com/ab/?hop=YOURNICKNAME

Differences

Because each browsers compiles the information from each website in a slightly different manner, some information is NOT included when the browser renders the html into something that humans can read.

For example, if your potential customer uses Internet Explorer or Safari, your affiliate information will NOT be read, and you will NOT get paid.  As Internet Explorer still constitutes over half of internet users, you are potentially losing more than HALF of your clickbank affiliate revenue.

Conclusion

DON’T use the resolved hoplink, ONLY use the coded hoplink directly from Clickbank!

Luke.

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I was in Washington D.C. two weeks ago with my wife (she was on a business trip, so I just tagged along for the ride). I’d been there several years earlier on business myself, but I didn’t have the opportunity to see any of the attractions.

This time it was vacation (for me anyway!) so I went along to the Mall; I visited the Smithsonian Building, the Library of Congress, I saw the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence; amazing things, all of them. Then I went into the National Gallery. Now I’m not much one for art, but my wife suggested I go as she’d been before and really liked it, so I went and I very glad that I did.

Monet etc.

Why? Because I saw some of the most INCOMPETENT “art” that I’ve ever seen!

I saw paintings by Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Matisse. Some were INCREDIBLE (sorry Paul and Claude, you’re not included); paint applied with incredible skill, stunning subject-matter; superb…………..in MY opinion. Others were obviously painted by a three month old Chimp! (not really, though it DID look like it!).

Worth of Your Stuff

What about your car? Is it worth what you paid for it? Well, my car is worth a LOT more to me than it is to anybody else. I know how reliable it is, what condition it’s in, how much money I’ve spent on it and so on. So what if you took your car to a dealer to sell or trade it in; what do you think HE would give you for it? Yep, you guessed it, a lot LESS than you think it’s worth.

What Would YOU Pay?

But why, you ask, is that I good thing? It made me realize how people value things. Just because I didn’t like something and wouldn’t pay anything for it, doesn’t mean that somebody else wouldn’t.

I want you to think a little more deeply about value and worth. These are both extremely subjective.

Show 50 people an object (wristwatch, pen, an old chair) and ask each of them to write down what they would be prepared to pay for it. You’ll get 50 different amounts, guaranteed!

Value

So where am I going with all this? Well, because everybody values things differently, YOU can benefit from this. How? Very simple; YOU have a vast amount of information inside your head, which you may not realize is WORTH something to other people! Other people might be willing to PAY YOU for that information, and pay you well.

Think about what you know, how difficult or costly the knowledge may have been for you to acquire (in money, time, effort or discomfort) , then think about how you might find OTHERS who would PAY you for that information.

Then SUPPLY it to them!

Do it once, then do it again…………….then you have a business.

Luke

Toyota

What can killing an elephant have to do with Toyota?  Please bear with me for about two minutes.

Toyota has been making excellent cars for decades now, with three main brands: Toyota, Lexus and Scion.  They have been regarded as the most reliable cars and among the best value over each cars lifespan. What’s changed?

Some months ago, it came to the attention of the media that Toyota cars were experiencing problems with the cars accelerating out of control.  At first it appeared that this was simply the car-mats getting stuck on top of the gas pedals, and people were too stupid to use the BRAKE (which will ALWAYS override the power of a car’s engine).  At the time I write this, the media is saying it’s a software problem, though Toyota denies this.

Whether it’s driver error, car-mats or software, none of this has anything to do with the point I’m about to make.

Toyota and Killing Elephants

In his attempt to discredit Westinghouse Electrical Inc. and his greatest competitor, Nikola Tesla,  Thomas Edison suggested the use of A.C. electricity to electrocute an elephant named Topsy.

Nikola Tesla is the man responsible for the electrical power distribution throughout the world today, namely Alternating Current.  Thomas Edison, though very clever, was, I believe,  more of a businessman than he was an inventor.   The killing of Topsy was meant to show the world how dangerous AC was compared to DC (the fact being that at a high enough voltage in either AC or DC can kill elephants……………and humans).

The question I’m asking myself is this: are there similar things happening now in the business world as this?  I believe that there is and always has been.  I’ve actually HEARD sales people try to discredit their competition during sales calls and presentations.  When I was first in sales I did it myself, but soon learned that it was not only immoral, but also counter-productive.

What YOU Should Learn From This

Because I KNOW this happens on a small scale, I asked myself if this also happens on a grand scale, perhaps the scale of the current “Toyota crisis”.  In my opinion it certainly can, and probably does.

Now, I’m not saying that this is what’s happening with Toyota, because I simply CANNOT know.  However, I think that as an internet marketer, or just as a business person, you should consider that this DOES happen and you should choose NOT to do it yourself.

Not only this, but I think the MAIN LESSON to be learned from this kind of industrial warfare is that the media (newspapers, TV, internet etc.) are VERY powerful and they DO influence people’s beliefs.

The FACT is, there MAY be absolutely NOTHING wrong with Toyota’s.  Equally, it’s ALSO a fact, that there MAY be something wrong with them.

Free Money

Why would so many people suddenly start reporting that their cars are accelerating out of control?  Well, as a suggestion, PERHAPS they want some free money.  NO?  You don’t think people want money for nothing?  Have you ever bought a lottery ticket?  Have you ever gambled in some other way?  If you have, then you wanted free money.

I would even argue that handing out speeding tickets (and other fines) is simply legalized theft, but that’s for another post.

The fact is, LOTS of people want money without having to work for it, and it’s POSSIBLE that this is the reason there are suddenly so many people coming forward with their horror stories about their Toyota cars.

THINK for yourself, don’t rely on the TV or newspapers to do your thinking for you.  If you don’t think for yourself, it’s VERY likely that somebody (probably a politician or religious leader) will happily do it for you.

Luke.

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You MUST Have A USP

Unless your company has absolutely no competition now or in the foreseeable future (which is HIGHLY unlikely), you’re well advised to find and then DEVELOP your USP.  As you already know, a USP is something that differentiates your business from all of your competition.

Sales Proposition

For you to succeed, you have to identify and understand what you or your business does or can start doing for your prospects and customer,s that provides them with a result that is superior to your competitors. This is called your unique selling proposition (USP). Your unique selling proposition is the distinct advantage or benefit that sets your business apart from the competition.

What Might Your USP Be?

Your unique selling proposition can be based on better quality, faster service, greater convenience, more experience, lower prices, larger selection, or any other attribute you want to be known for.

The important thing to remember is that before you can get a greater share of the market, you first have to get a greater share of your prospect’s emotions. You can do this by selecting and developing your unique selling proposition.

It’s All About Benefits

Your USP should be one that is a natural benefit offered by your business. Never offer a USP that is pure baloney. For example, if you sell super high-end products on your website, you shouldn’t consider lower prices as your unique selling proposition.  NOBODY wants to buy a Rolex from a Beverly Hills jeweler at a discount.

So what is your USP?  Here are some ideas to get you started.

1. A broader selection.

2. Less expensive (like Walmart’s “Always Low Prices”).

3. Convenience (location, immediate delivery etc.).

4. Better assistance by phone, email or fax etc.

5. Very BEST products available.

6. Easiest ordering process.

7. Best service.

8. A more comprehensive guarantee.

9. Any other benefit you can offer your customers that the competition doesn’t.

The possibilities for building a USP are virtually limitless, the important point being to focus on one niche area, need, or want that is most lacking in the marketplace.  Above all, never adopt a USP that you cannot fulfill.  You don’t want unhappy customers EVER if you can avoid it.  Rather, you want customers who are delighted with your company, so much so, that they write and say great things about you to all of their friends and business colleagues.

Things To Bear In Mind

In choosing a unique selling proposition, keep these three things in mind: your competition, your operation, and, most importantly, your target audience . Make sure you pick a unique selling proposition that suits all three.

It’s Also About Emotions

All of your marketing should create an emotional connection between your company and your unique selling proposition. As an example, you can choose quality as your USP, while still promoting your service and location. But you’ve got to communicate the idea of quality in all your marketing, so when a customer or potential customer thinks of you or your company, they immediately FEEL that they are dealing with the very highest quality (products, personnel etc.).

Make It Meaningful

If you don’t offer a clear and meaningful unique selling proposition, your business will stand for nothing, and you MUST make your web-business stand for SOMETHING.

Successful companies study their market looking for vacant niches. You want to be able to OWN (or almost own) a niche, and you must do whatever is necessary to live up to your unique selling proposition.

Own More Of Your Market

The small number of businesses that actually develop and incorporate a unique selling proposition always own a larger share of the market then those without one. By developing your USP and incorporating it into every aspect of your business you’ll have a major advantage over your competition.

Luke.

To the uneducated, enlightened self-interest is called selfishness.  To others (including me) it’s called FREEDOM!

Making Money Online Through Trade

I STRONGLY urge you to watch the entire program by John Stossel (there are six part on Youtube) to understand the philosophy behind Ayn Rand’s book ‘Atlas Shrugged’.  I also recommend that you READ the book, available at ALL libraries because of its classic nature.

Ayn Rand had a first-hand understanding of how politicians and other bureaucrats want power without earning it, because THEY KNOW THAT THEY ARE INCAPABLE OF EARNING IT through their own efforts.

Watch the videos and read the book.  The book is a great love story and a scary prediction of what is happening in the world RIGHT NOW.

Luke.

.

Man Who Hits Balls Around Field Is Found Cheating On Wife!

You admit it right?  So, what’s this about?  It’s about concentrating and focusing your effort and education on making money!  What’s the best way to do that?  Simple, you IGNORE most of the crap that passes for “news” and thinking ONLY about what makes you money and what improves your life.

What’s REALLY Important?

You must determine whether YOUR life (which involves your family and friends) is more important that somebody who you DON’T KNOW and who LITERALLY hits balls around a field for a living cheats on his wife or not?  If your answer is “yes” then you should just join the rest of the sheeple…….oops, I mean people who do EXACTLY this with THEIR lives and don’t even bother to improve your own circumstances.

Read newspapers (which really don’t tell us the news), watch gossip TV which passes itself off as news and talk about what these people you don’t know and NEVER WILL know do with their lives.  Talk about the morals of it all.  Talk about whether it’s “right or wrong”; listen to people’s opinions and take a side.

But…………

But if you do, DON’T expect to EVER improve your own life because you are just being like MOST people on the planet, and that (I’m afraid to say) is NO WAY to be.  Why not?  Because this mentality will keep you nicely cosseted in a world of make believe.  A world of “Survivor” and “American Idol” and all the rest of the junk that passes for “reality TV” these days.  Reality?  Nothing could be further from the truth.  These shows are simply scripted and staged to a LARGE degree (I know people in the industry who have confirmed my suspicions).

Create Your OWN Reality Show

While some of the stories on the “news” and in the newspapers are truly tragic, they DO NOT affect your life.  YOUR life is about YOU.  Your successes are dependent upon what  YOU do and NOT on what happens in the lives of others.  If you truly want an interesting, varied and successful life, you must create your OWN reality show.  YOU should be the center of OTHER people’s discussions; it’s YOU that others should talk about; the books you write, the blog you run, the businesses you create.

STOP right now watching news shows; they ARE NOT news.  The broadcasting companies do nothing more than feed the public’s (sheeple’s) thirst for horror stories under the disgusting guise of “human interest”.

Don’t be one of them.

Luke.

You have your squeeze-page and cash-site all setup. You’re getting visitors to your website and people are signing up to your mailing list, but you agonize over what to write about on your blog and in your newsletter. Your screen stares at you expecting a response, but your eyes glaze over and your brain begins thinking of what is on TV. Then you start doing things…….anything so that you don’t have to deal with writing what you KNOW you must do eventually.

The Sales Letter

Another day goes by and you STILL haven’t gotten around to writing.  And still no ideas because of the fear of writing COMPELLING messages that CONVERT readers to take action.

Well fear not, because not only aren’t you alone, but MOST people can’t write well and that INCLUDES professors in higher-education (I know this for a fact because my wife is a Dean at a very prestigious University and I’ve read a lot of what her professors write.

Okay, they’re not trained to write good sales copy that converts lookers into buyers, but hey, they SHOULD have some idea right?  WRONG.  There are very specific techniques that the best copywriters use to convert readers into buyers.

A Learn-able Skill

Writing your messages in a way that pulls your reader into your sales message is a skill.  Like any other skill, it CAN be learned, but you really don’t HAVE to learn it if you don’t want to.

Cash Creators was produced with people in mind who know HOW to get website traffic but who aren’t yet proficient in converting these visitors into buyers.

Message Sets

The message-sets that you can copy and paste into your sales message are created by expert copywriters; the messages use techniques that not only make your visitors want to buy your product (or click your affiliate link, or sign-up to your newsletter………..) but makes them afraid that if they DON’T, they will be missing-out on something that will change their lives for the better.

These messages are designed to be used with Clickbank products, in other words, digital, downloadable products, but you can of course, adjust them so that they will work for other of your products too.

We can’t all be experts in everything.  After all, it’s been estimated that it takes somewhere between 8,000 hours and 10,000 hours to become an expert at ANY major skill.  So, if you have time to study how to write great sales-copy, great.  If not, try Cash Creators.

A.I.D.A.

If you WANT to learn copywriting skills, here are the basics:

A = Attention

Get your readers attention with a compelling headline.  Ask a question or, better still, tell your reader up front EXACTLY what solution you have to offer.

I = Interest

The next few paragraphs must capture their interest.  This means telling them something NEW or simply putting a spin on something they already know.

D = Desire

Now you must make them really WANT what you are offering.  This entails pointing out all the features and the associated benefits that they will enjoy by buying your product.

A = Action

Now you just have to make them take action.  In this stage, you are restating the benefits, how the cost is minimal in comparison to the value they will get in return and how they must act quickly before the price increases.

Simple stuff, but it’s been working for decades (or more).

Luke.

One of my favorite Internet marketers is Michael Cheney. His teaching style is excellent and his attention to detail is second to none. My wife is the Dean of a University and she has seen Michael’s work: the first thing she said about him to me was he could be a Special-Education teacher.

Special Ed Teachers

Only the VERY best teachers can teach people the way that Special Education teachers do, so this was a BIG compliment to Michael (not that he knows about it).

Affiliate Millions

Michael has now produced another excellent program called ‘Affiliate Millions‘. This is primarily a video tutorial course (his favorite medium) but he does include all transcripts in pdf format and audios (mp3’s) so you can either read them, or listen to them on your way to work (yep, the job you currently have which you probably hate!).

What’s In The Course?

The course consists of 10 tutorials and it teaches you how to make money online using affiliate marketing.

He uses wonderfully colorful metaphors such as “the river of doubt” and his (now famous) line drawings are something to behold! (okay so I’m not being serious about his drawings).

• In Affiliate Millions he covers topics such as:
• How to find the most profitable products to sell
• How to convert your website visitors to buyers
• How to make your site operate on “Auto-pilot” and
• How to get a list of “red-hot prospects”
• So, I definitely recommend that you check it out for yourself.

Here’s the web address: www.moneyaffiliatemillions.com

Luke.

I’ve been doing some thinking lately, a rare occurrence I know, but when it happens, I come up with weird stuff like this.  My wife and I were discussing our finances, and I tried putting a few things into perspective (for both of us).

The discussion got me thinking about number, and how we (well, ME at least) have a very poor concept of numbers when they get above the cost of the most expensive things we (don’t) own, which is our house.

A Million

The number one million (1,000,000) seems like a lot, and many people who are termed “millionaires” are considered very wealthy.  This WAS the case once upon a time, but now, you can own a house in many parts of the world which would cost a LOT more than that.  I could buy 5 of my house if I had one million to spend.

A Billion

NOW we’re talking! A billion (1,000,000,000) has three extra zero’s, which means it’s a LOT, especially if you’re talking about money.  However, it’s NOT a lot when talking about something there’s a lot MORE of, such as bacteria. I can’t even imagine how many bacteria there are on the planet.

There are a handful of billionaires on the planet, including Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, but there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of others who are ONLY worth a little over 1 billion (like poor Donald Trump).  See, I just want to put things into perspective.  By comparison, Mr. Trump isn’t worth that much.

A Trillion

Now we get into CRAZY size numbers, especially if you’re thinking about money that is.  As you can see from the video above, 1,000,000,000,000 (only an extra three zero’s) is an amount that many of us (including me) can’t get our heads around.

For example, if I said that a I miscalculated an amount I owed from 1.35 trillion to 1.5 trillion, it doesn’t sound like very much does it.  I mean, what’s .15 trillion after all?  Nothing much really, is it………………….is it?

.15 trillion (in your currency of choice) is 150 BILLIONS!  Or put another way, it’s 150 thousand MILLONS!  Now, with one hundred and fifty-thousand MILLIONS, I could buy a lot of stuff………….unless it’s in Zimbabwean Dollars that is, in which case it might by me a dozen eggs (bad joke).

Other Numbers

Here’s something else interesting I learned while I was researching numbers; Walmart is the single largest private EMPLOYER in the U.S!  Yep, Walmart employs approximately 1.5 MILLION people, most of them full-time.  What is that in relation to the available U.S. workforce?  Well, the current available workforce in the U.S. is approximately 150 million; that’s people who are prepared to work, even if currently a LARGE proportion of that 150 million is looking for work.

So, ONE private company, Walmart, employs 1% of the entire U.S. workforce.  Pretty amazing isn’t it.

The moral of this is simple; start putting things INTO PERSPECTIVE.  Compare things.  Compare your life and lifestyle with others around the world, and around the country.  You’ll realize you’re not so badly off after all.

Luke.

P.S. The single largest employer in the U.S. is the government, employing 30 Million people (that’s 20% of the workforce).  If you click the image below, you’ll be taken to a 50 minute recording of David McAlvany discussing some interesting statistics.

Commission Junction is, as you know, one of the premier companies that internet marketer look to when they want to find products to promote as affiliates.  With Commission Junction, you can really make a lot of money by selling OPP’s (other people’s products), and that includes physical products as well as digital ones.

Clickbank

Clickbank is currently THE place to go for both selling your own, and other people’s DIGITAL only products, such as software, ebooks, video tutorials etc.

Are There More?

You betcha!  Here’s a list of each of the two giant’s competitors, along with some information about them.

Google Affiliates

Of course you can’t forget Google!  Their affiliates network connects advertisers and publishers who want to increase sales and drive leads.  As a publisher, you can market your site to advertisers who are in the network, earning a “referral bounty” on any sale made.

ShareAsale

Currently ShareAsale has over 200,000 merchants in their network, each one having a different product or range of products.  You simply decide which merchants products you want to promote and HOW to promote them and you’ll receive a commission based on sales.

So, if you are promoting a whole RANGE of a company’s products, they’ll consolidate those sales into a monthly check, or direct deposit into your bank account (should you choose to give them your bank details). They’ll need our tax information of course.

LinkShare

This company is a full-service provider of online marketing solutions.  They specialize in lead generation, but they also get involved with direct affiliate marketing too.

OfferForge

A South African based company, OfferForge operates in South Africa and the U.S.A.  They have a very user-friendly system that includes a network of companies that offer money in return for ads shown on your websites.  You can of course, offer their advertisers products in your e-mailings in the form of links.

Share Results

Great software and a good network of advertisers make this ShareResults.com a very good company to work with.  They are focused on building long-term relationships with both product owners and affiliate marketers.  They specialize in educational products, entertainment and women products.

AffiliateScout

This company has a wide range of products for the affiliate marketer (that’s YOU) and they arrange their products in such a way as to make it easy for you to find the right products for your kind of website (remember, it’s ALL about relevance!).  If you’re interested in learning more, just go to www.affiliatescout.com for more info.

Plimus

Plimus sellers include some of the best known producers out there along with their best known products.  It’s growing like crazy and could over-take Clickbank (in my opinion).  Easily one of the best choices for a newbie or intermediate marketer alike.

WebGains

This company was formed in 2004, so has a good history already.  They are very professional with an aim “to provide the best affiliate marketing network in the world”. As an open network they allow full access to all their merchants, so as an affiliate, you wouldn’t be limited as to which of their products you can sell.

AffiliateBot

AffiliateBot has great tracking and reporting so you always know what you’ve sold and when (and most importantly, how much money you made).  As an affiliate, the merchants offer very attractive percent commissions.  You can of course, promote their products through your websites, forums, blog and mailing lists.

The Future?

What does the future hold for affiliate marketers?  Well, in my opinion, it’s very bright.  There will be more companies offering more products through even more networks like the ones above.  The world is changing FAST (in MANY ways) and the people who will win-through are those who have the vision and determination to make their living in the “new order” of things.

While large corporations will probably always show their products on television, and rely on their retailers to put them on the shelves, smaller companies will flock to these affiliate networks.  Either as an affiliate, or as a product owner, you should start to become more aware of how the world is changing.

The future is looking great for some, but very bleak for others.

Luke.

Gary Halbert is one of my all time “heroes” in the area of sales and marketing.  Unfortunately Gary is now dead (why does deceased sound so much nicer?) but he left an amazing legacy of books and videos.  I strongly recommend you study his work if you want to become a better marketer.

What the above video (and other related videos on Youtube) doesn’t show is the most basic thing that most sales people are NEVER shown and NEVER discover.  If you think I’m exaggerating, just know that I’ve been a SUCCESSFUL salesman for over 15 years…………………..and I’ve been in sales for around 20!  (do the math!).

Sales People

Salesmen and women are PART of the marketing process; they are the people who are expected to do these things:

1. Follow-up leads provided by the advertising department

2. Close the sale

Sounds easy, right?

The Reality

But in reality……………..IT IS EASY!  Here’s the problem with both online and offline sales pitches.  They are pitched to the WRONG PEOPLE, or the right people AT THE WRONG TIME!

While this doesn’t sound likely, it’s true (AND factual, which are two VERY different things of course).

As a ex-National Sales Director, I’ve seen this first hand.  Very well groomed, well-spoken sales people giving fantastic presentations but to the wrong people.  Once I even witnessed a guy selling to a secretary (erm, I mean, Personal Assistant), who, of course, had NO POWER to make a buying decision whatsoever.

Sell To THE MAN

No ladies, that’s not sexist at all.  What I mean is sell to the M.A.N. Who’s the M.A.N?

M = Money

A = Authority

N = Need

Money: there’s no point making a pitch to the person if they simply can’t afford it.  In your online marketing efforts, why would you try to sell a $10,000 course to somebody who has only ever opted for your free products?

Authority: there’s equally no point trying to sell to a personal assistant, unless your sales pitch to him/her solely aimed at getting an appointment with the M.A.N.

Need: there’s little point trying to sell dental floss to a toothless man (unless of course he intends to use it to fish)

This includes “wants” of course, but then the acronym would read M.A.N.W. and that looks a bit silly. My point is this, until you’ve found the right person to sell to, save your breath (or as an online marketer, save your Pay Per Click budget).

Luke.

What Launchy Does

What does ‘Launchy’ do? Quite simply, it makes accessing just about anything on your computer very quick and very easy.  Above you’ll see a choice of appearances or ’skins’ that you can choose from.  You can have it start upon booting your computer, or you can have a desktop icon to start the application.

How It Works

A bit like a search engine scans the internet, Launchy does this with your PC.  It works very much on the same principle as Outlook 2007 search function.  All you have to do is type into the box the ‘thing’ you’re looking for, and Launchy will offer you a list of things that contain that word.

Once you click your ‘Enter’ button, or select from the list offered, Launchy will immediately open the file, folder, search engine or application that that word relates to.

And……………

The best part is, it’s totally FREE!

You can get it by clicking the image above, or you can go here.  I WOULD suggest donating a few dollars if you can, because it has been painstakingly created by an East Coast grad student (who apparently likes Ramen Noodles!).

Luke.

XHeader

A while back I was lucky enough to find the XHeader header design software for free online for creating my new website’s headers. I wasn’t expecting much from something free, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found out XHeader was more than powerful enough to create the professional looking header I wanted. XHeader impressed me with an easy to use interface, simple software layout, and professional results that made me look like I’d been using graphic design software for years. Read on for some details on why I found XHeader to be a solid addition to any blogger or web-master’s toolkit.

User Friendly Interface

One of the first things I noticed about using XHeader was the easy to use interface. XHeader provides a great visual header creation system that lets you build your header without learning any esoteric graphics software techniques. Since XHeader is designed to focus on doing one thing it is able to have a simple, straightforward interface that anyone can jump right in and use. The XHeader website offers a great tutorial for getting started, but I found that this extra help was completely unnecessary.

One major problem I’ve always had with graphics software is saving at a quality level that will load quickly without sacrificing looks. XHeader makes choosing a JPG quality level when you save extremely simple and allows you to preview the results as you go. The appealing visual interface makes it incredibly simple to just jump right in and start creating your website header.

Simple Layout

Part of XHeader’s ease of use comes from the program’s consistent and easy to understand layout. When I started XHeader, I had no trouble finding all the functions I may need to work on my header. XHeader walks you straight through choosing a header image, creating a website title, and altering both as you see fit. Everything is arranged in a logical and consistent manner that let me go directly to what I wanted to do as soon as I wanted to do it without ever touching the tutorial.

Extremely Professional  Results

I was shocked (in the best possible way) by the professional  results I was able to achieve with such a simple piece of free software. XHeader is so easy to use that until I tried it I expected the results to be lackluster, at best. I was wrong. While the interface may not be complicated, the power to create a professional header is definitely there. XHeader provides everything I needed for giving my website a solid and professional looking header, with the simplicity coming from focusing on only creating headers.

I was especially impressed with the images XHeader made available for me to use with my website. I went ahead and registered to get the 500 images package, and I wasn’t disappointed. There was a wide variety of professional looking header images available, enough to match any style of website design and content. With the image set XHeader offered, I had no problem making a professional looking header that fit in with my website.

XHeaderPro

Two days ago the company that produces XHeader released a Professional version called (wait for it) XHeaderPro.  This has a couple a enhanced features, like saving to png image type rather than just jpeg, but what is REALLY spectacular is that it comes with 5000 (that’s five THOUSAND) professional header graphics, which you can modify to suit your own website’s name.  The price?  You won’t believe it, but it’s only $47! (That’s less than 1 cent each).

Conclusion

I was impressed by XHeader,  even more impressed with XHeaderPro, and I can solidly recommend the software to anyone looking for a way to create a professional looking website or blog header without being a Photoshop pro.

XHeader gives me all the tools I need to work on my header without bogging myself down with pointless extras that would complicate the interface. XHeader is solid software, and I’m amazed it’s being offered for free.

It works seemlessly with XSitePro2 and ANY other website design software.

Luke.

I want a lot of things……………happiness (primarily), health, water, food, shelter, security, respect, love, a nice house, a nice car, a nice yacht………………………hang on………did I say yacht?

Wants

Well, I know I WANT a nicer house than my friends and colleagues, and a nicer car, and a prettier wife (I have that already!) and I want to live in a nicer neighborhood than my friends and I really want a very expensive car and a very expensive house and I want to be a member of an exclusive country club, and I want world peace and I want everybody to have as much food as they can eat, and I want everybody to be happy and I want……………

Needs

Okay, you get the point.  I WANT a lot of stuff but (and it’s a big but, riddled with cellulite and trying desperately to defy the laws of gravity………..well, it’s not THAT bad yet!) however, what I want and what I need are two very different things.

Any Country’s Government

Pick a country, any country will do……(there are about 2oo ish to choose from) and think of its government.  NO, a countries government is NOT the country, it’s just a bunch of people who managed to get elected somehow to “govern”.

These people are elected for the WRONG reasons more often than not.  They are elected for what they PROMISE they will GIVE to the voters.  The problem is, they don’t HAVE anything to give to the voters, so they have to TAKE it from somebody else.  Who?  Why, other voters of course!

Wants vs. Needs

There has been a great deal of debate over the years regarding what a government’s role should be, but one thing has always been the underpinning principle, and that is, they are responsible for organizing the protection of the people who are part of that nation.

The Problem

What you should really ask yourself is this: “what else do I vote for when I vote to elect somebody to office?”.  The answer frequently “a lot of things that I DON’T want them involved in!”.

Once they have arranged to make the nation in which you live secure from outsiders, they should make sure that people within the nation DON’T HARM ANYBODY ELSE WITHIN THAT NATION.

After that, they pretty much have nothing left to do.  The problem of course, is that they ALWAYS WANT MORE.

More power, more of your time, more of your money, more of your respect, more of your…..everything.

Why?

The reason for this is simple; they are very insecure people who want power to make themselves feel secure.  The problem with that is, insecure people can NEVER get enough power to make them feel safe.

When any nation’s government is made up of people who are like this, they will offer ANYTHING to keep and increase their power.  They will do this through coercion, threats of force, or force itself.

A nation that votes based in what some other people (the politicians) will get for them, is headed down a very dangerous path.  I hope that the country YOU live in doesn’t find this out the hard way.

In my humble opinion, no country’s government should be in the business of providing ‘wants’.

Luke.

P.S. This is what Ben Franklin had to say about it:

“They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.”

Take a look at the crudely drawn image above.  It shows a graph, along the bottom (the x axis) starting on the left are short-tail keywords (S/T) and to the right are long-tail keywords (L/T).  The Y axis going up and down shows the amount of competition for the keywords.

Short Tail Keywords

A keyword is most frequently a string of words rather than just one word.  The word HORSE would be a short tail keyword.  This would have a massive amount of competition, simply because it is far too BROAD a term.  There are so many things associated with the word horse, that competing for it is almost impossible.

Long Tail Keywords

‘Horse riding” is a longER tail keyword, but still too short for most people to compete for.  Now, if you add the name of your town, state and country such as ‘Horse riding tempe arizona usa’ you will suddenly find the competition for that keyword drop massively.

Relevance

If you look at the graph again, you’ll see a vertical like on the right.  This represents how the more specific (the longer-tail) keyword you use, the more relevant it will be to your product or service offering.

Offering something to the wrong group of people, or at the wrong time is simply a waste of time (yours AND theirs) and using long-tail keywords is the best way to avoid doing this.

Load your website with plenty of long-tail keywords that define exactly what you are offering, and you will see the amount of traffic to your site increase exponentially.

Luke.

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” - Earnest Benn

.

The Lost World

This is probably the coolest, most poignant and smartest videos I’ve ever seen.  Unlike a palindrome that reads the same backwards as it does forwards and has the same meaning, this reads the EXACT OPPOSITE backwards as it does forward and equally has the opposite meaning.

With all kinds of nasty environmental things going on in the world, including natural disasters like the earthquakes in Haiti, and with the world’s economies in chaos, it’s easy to think that this is the end of the world.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

The Facts

The fact is, there are just as many people (more actually) on the planet than there were a year ago, there is the same amount of resources that there ever was, and there is MORE intellectual power than ever BECAUSE there are more people.

The Problem?

How can this be you ask?  Think about it this way; if there’s less of everything, WHERE HAS IT ALL GONE?  Less energy?  Can’t be.  Energy is neither created are expended, it just changes form, that’s just basic physics.

More people?  yes, but the MATTER (the atoms and molecules that go to MAKE people) has not come onto the planet from outside, it’s ALWAYS been on the planet.  Humans and other animals are MADE from the same materials as what makes everything else.  When we die, out physical bodies will be re-absorbed into the planet and the molecules and atoms will go to make other “stuff”…………..decaying bodies make GREAT fertilizer.  While is sounds a bit odd, it’s factually accurate.

The REAL Problem

The real problem is that most humans including (especially?) the world’s leaders simply DON”T UNDERSTAND enough about the world and how it all works in harmony, to run it properly.  They know VERY WELL how to manipulate people into getting what THEY WANT, but they care nothing about their FLOCK, other than what they can GET FROM THEM (money, power, respect, fear etc.).

If you think this is a very cynical view of the world IT IS!  However, don’t EVER think that being a cynic is bad.  A cynic accurately believes that everybody does what they feel is BEST FOR THEMSELVES.  Hypocrites, on the other hand, SAY that they are doing things for other people when in REALITY they are only doing things that MAKE THEMSELVES FEEL GOOD.

End Of The World?

This is NOT the end of the world.  The coming 5-15 years will be very tough, but CHANGE is always tough.  That is ALL that is really happening, the world is changing.

I can’t predict exactly what will happen, nobody can.  But I am convinced that humans will emerge from the current state it’s in, healthier, mentally stronger and in a better position to do more amazing things than we can currently even dream about.

200 years ago, the thought of flying was nothing more than a dream.  In as little as 160 years, humans were on the moon, sending moving images back to us on little boxes in our houses.

Humans……….some humans………..are amazing.  BE one of them!

Luke.

What’s Wrong With Dreamweaver?

Nothing.  Nothing that is, if you can afford it!  Oh, and it has a VERY steep learning curve.  It’s not one of those programs you can just open and intuitively know what all of the terms mean.  It has improved over the years, certainly, but it has also become more complex, being able to do some truly incredible things.

What’s The Alternative?

Well, there are several, including the new Microsoft Expression.  But as you know, I like FREE stuff.  Here’s a list of some of the free ones:

Aptana Studio

Screem

Bluefish

Quanta Plus

Kompozer

Amaya

Now, these don’t all work with all operating systems, and each one looks and feels a little different, enough, perhaps, to put a person off of trying them each in turn.

Enter TRELLIAN WebPage

Trellian offers a superb FREE altrnative to Dreamweaver called WebPage.  Why do I like it more than the ones above?  Simply because it looks like, and works a lot like, Microsoft WORD (the 2007 version).

In other words, the learning curve is extremely shallow.  You really can be up and running with it the same day that you download it. This is NOT software designed for the professional web-developer who likes to change the html code, but it’s definitely one of the best if you simply want to do some WYSIWYG editing.

Why Is It Free?

Trellian is currently giving it away free of charge so that they can email you offers.  They’ll get your email when you register the product; you can always unsubscribe of course, but personally I’m not going to.  If their FREE product is as good as I’m learning it is, then I may very well try some of their paid products.

Oh, you do sometimes get a little advertisement when you open the software, but it’s not at all annoying and it DOES remind me to check-out their other offerings.

Check it out for yourself here: Trellian WebPage Download.

XSitePro

The final option I would like to discuss is XSitePro. While this is a paid product, it is, without ANY DOUBT in my mind, the best software for internet marketers.  Yes, you CAN learn Dreamweaver (which is, of course, and excellent tool for professional website designers) but Dreamweaver is anything BUT intuitive.

XSitePro is both intuitive AND full of features that Dreamweaver doesn’t have.  Features such as inserting Google Ads, Amazon products, PayPal buttons and dozens of others.

For the professional internet marketer, there simply is NO OTHER software to consider.  The support is superb, and doesn’t cost anything.  Yes FREE online support for any problems you may have.  These are REAL people (based in England) who I know will help you whenever you have a problem

Intellimon, the company that produces XSitePro, also has a fantastic new internet marketing course, called the Complete Guide to Website Building, the title of which does NOT do justice to the contents.  The course LITERALLY starts from assuming you have ZERO knowledge, and ends with you having your own website created and monetized!

If I were to recommend any ONE thing to new internet marketers, and even to wannabe internet marketers, it would be this; BUY XSitePro and BUY the Complete Guide to Website Building.

I promise you, you’ll be glad you did both for many years to come!

Luke.

Note: I think she’ll make a great politician one day!

To a large degree, the success of an internet marketer in making money online is due to how much they know about their website’s visitors.  Put simply, the more you know, you can make better informed decisions.

Piwik

Piwik is a downloadable, open source (GPL licensed) web analytics software program, providing you with detailed r reports on your website visitors, the search engines and keywords they used, the language they speak, your popular pages… and so much more. Piwik aims to be an open source alternative to Google Analytics.

How Does Piwik Install?

It’s a PHP MySQL software program that you download and install on your own webserver. At the end of the installation process you will get a JavaScript tag, and you simply copy and paste this tag on websites you wish to track, or use an existing plugin.

Other Info Provided

Piwik also offers the following information about your chosen website:

1. A graph showing last visits

2. The length of that people tend to stay on the site

3. The browser that the visitors are using

4. The country in which the visitor is located

5. The list of keywords used by the visitor to find your website

6. A list of external websites

7. Which search-engine is bringing most enquiries

8. Visits by server time

Google Analytics

Is Piwik any better than Google Analytics?  Hard to say really.  It’s a little like comparing two different fruits; you’ll usually like one more than the other, but you’ll grow accustomed to whichever one you use (or eat) more frequently.

You can see an interactive demonstration of this nice piece of server-side software HERE.

Luke.

Strange title for a post I know, but this relates DIRECTLY to your efforts at making money online as an internet marketer.  As you read this, please refer to the diagram above.

Communism VS Capitalism

As a business person, you will very likely agree with me when I say that making money is not only good, but it’s probably the best way to demonstrate your personality, because to get money you have to do it in one of fiveways:

1. Take the money

2. Wager for money

3. Invent the money

4. Persuade for money

5. Trade for money

Take

This is what thieves and politicians do.  They simply take the result of your labors, the only difference being that the politicians tell you that they’ll spend your money wisely.

Wager

You might initially think I’m talking about betting on horses or going to Las Vegas, but this is only the TINY fraction of where the BIG money is gambled.  Wall Street, the London Stock Exchange and the other 50 exchanges around the world are where TRILLIONS of dollars change hands as people gamble on whether stocks will be worth more or less each day.  When they get it right, they make lots of money.  When they get it wrong, taxpayers lose money (this is a joke………..kinda).

Invent

All world governments invent money.  When they can’t take it by force or with threats of force, and when no other country will lend them money (often in the form of goods) they will simply print it.  This, of course, can only lead to inflation, where your country’s currency is devalued because of over-supply.

Persuade

Persuasion is used by con-men, otherwise known as confidence tricksters.  They use a combination of fear, guilt and greed to get you to part with your money.  ALL confidence tricks are based on these three emotions.  All charities such as Churches use  these same emotions to get contributions, but I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.

Trade

This is where YOU come in.  Instead of getting your money in the way that the scum above get theirs, YOU have chosen to create something of value (be it a training course, an ebook or whatever) or you spend your time looking for great products produced by other people and promote them on their behalf as an affiliate, bringing VALUE to both the product buyer and the product owner.

Communist Or Capitalist?

I struggled for many years trying to decide if was a left-wing socialist thinker, or a right-wing capitalist thinker.  Take a look at the diamond chart above.  As you can see, and what I finally realized, that it’s not about being left or right, communist or capitalist AT ALL.  It’s about being controlled (by communists OR capitalists) or NOT being controlled.  It’s about freedom to do whatever you want, so long as you don’t harm anybody else DELIBERATELY.

Think about what’s in the diagram.  I’d love to hear what you think about it.

Luke.

- George Shaw (Note from Luke: “But that’s not always a good thing!)

The National Debt

As an example of simple economics, I want to take a look at one country’s economy.  Let’s say Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia)……………….no?  Oh, you don’t care about other countries? Well, okay, how about the U.S.?  Good.

FACTS: It took over two HUNDRED years for the national debt to reach $1 trillion. The national debt is what YOU and I owe other countries because of the spending that OTHER PEOPLE have done……………….on our behalf of course! (I’m being sarcastic in case you didn’t spot it).

Then it took a mere TEN years to DOUBLE to two $ 2 trillion.

In the first nine months of 2009 an further ONE TRILLION DOLLARS was added to the deficit.

Math

It doesn’t take a genius to figure-out that getting into debt, whether as a nation or as an individual is NOT A GOOD THING TO DO.  Nor does it take a genius to figure out that there will be CONSEQUENCES to getting into debt.

You should ask yourself this question: “where is the money that the country’s leaders come from?”.  Here is the answer:

1. Taxation: this is a small source of “income” and is getting smaller all the time, as businesses go bust and individuals lose their jobs

2. Borrowing: this is a larger source of income and relies on other countries (like China) to produce goods that other countries want (like the U.S.) in exchange for dollars.

3. Print it: this is known as inflation.  Printing money with nothing to back it (precious metals, other minerals, manufacturing capability etc.) is a way of getting money without working for it.  What happens si that money currently in circulation is worth LESS because there is more supply, in effect diluting it’s purchasing power.

Deflation

We just reaching the end of the deflationary period that I’ve been writing about during 2009.  Companies have been lowering prices (such as Safeway) drastically to be able to compete with the likes of Kroger and WalMart.  This cannot continue for very much longer.

Now that 2010 is upon is, you’ll start seeing runaway inflation.  This MUST happen; it’s simply unavoidable.

You must learn to make money or provide for yourself and your family some other way.  You may WANT a Yacht a mansion and a sports-car, but you NEED water, food and shelter (in that order).

For your own sake, study what’s going on in the world and LEARN new skills. It may be the difference between survival and living on the street.  I’m SERIOUS.  If you don’t want to live in a tent-city and hope somebody else will give you food, start learning how to make your living some other way.  Do it NOW!

Luke.

Company Formation

As specialist company formations agents for businesses worldwide, we are able to offer you an excellent value package whilst maintaining a level of quality and customer service that is second to none.

Articulate

It couldn’t be a more appropriately named.  Making money as an internet marketer online has recently become a lot easier and a WHOLE lot more professional, thanks to the people behind Articulate.

Articulate software is currently the best software available for getting your training course to your customer.  I first discovered this superb suite of software while studying XSitePro’s ‘Complete Guide to Website Building’ which is the best training I have EVER seen for newbie and intermediate marketers, and it demonstrates Articulate’s software to its fullest.

The Suite

There software consists of four programs:

1. Engage

2. Encoder

3. Presenter

4. Quizmaker

What It Does

Using these four programs will make any training product you have come alive.  They add the kind of professionalism that is sorely lacking in the internet marketing industry, empowering you to interact with your customers in a way that, up until now, only face-to-face presenters could do.

I’m convinced that once you’ve tried these software programs, you’ll want to use it for everything else you create, and I won’t be at all surprised if we don’t see many copycat programs appearing soon.  This is WAY more advanced that simply creating a screen capture with Camtasia Studia (though you CAN incorporate Camtasia videos if you want to).

What is particularly good about it all is that you kind try the suite yourself FREE of charge.    Just click the image at the top of this post, or click THIS LINK.

I know you’ll be very impressed with it and your bottom like will reflect this.

Luke.

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In other words, just because the majority of people say or believe something, YOU can still be correct and THEY can still be entirely wrong. - Luke.

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I have a friend (at least, he TELLS me he’s my friend) who seems to be a good guy.  He’s always saying nice things to me, and promises me lots of good stuff, all completely FREE of charge!  Well, when I say “free”, he does actually take money from me every week, but hey, he’s a nice guy and does give me things, which I suppose kind of makes up for his stealing.

Nice Guy

When I say he’s a nice guy, some people might disagree with me, and that’s because he’s always borrowing money from lots of his other friends, but he only does that so that he can give ME stuff, so perhaps I can forgive this borrowing that he does so much.

Paying Back His Debts

He’s not great at repaying his debts though, and it took me while to figure out why he was like this.

You see, while he is a nice guy, he doesn’t actually make any money himself, but I think that’s just because he’s always doing things for me, so he doesn’t really have the time to make any of his own money.  I suppose I should just forgive him though, seeing as how he looks after me so well.

Money

When I say he doesn’t make any of his own money, that’s not strictly true, because when people won’t lend him any more money, or when there aren’t any more people to take money from without their permission, he prints some.  Some people would call that counterfeiting, but I don’t, because he’s always so good to me.

Printing More Money

Just recently he’s actually been printing a LOT more, but that’s just because he owes SOOOO many other people money that  have worked hard for, but he figures that if he can’t just print enough money, they’ll start lending him money again.

You see, he KNOWS that he should pay back his debts, and he KNOWS  that he can’t keep doing this, but he’s been getting away with it for so long now, that I think he doesn’t realize what the heck he’s doing.

But I say, so long as he has MY best interests at heart, I ‘m going to continue to let him steal from me each week and I’m not going to tell anybody else about his borrowing and money printing.

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Craig’s List

PopURL’s interface resembles Craig’s List, in that all you have on their home page is a LONG list of subjects and then sub-headings showing what people from all around the world are currently talking about, blogging about, reading about and viewing.

How Can POPurl’s Help You

While perhaps not immediately obvious, if you think about it a little, what most internet marketers need is information, particularly about WHAT OTHER PEOPLE WANT.

Many companies, such as Coca-Cola produce a product and then spend multiple millions of dollars convincing us with their television advertising, that we SHOULD want it.  As an online marketer, you have to be a approach it differently (unless that is, you have millions of dollars to spend on advertising, in which case you’re selling products online for the fun of it and you don’t really want money!).

Finding Your Niche

With the advent of the internet, just about every kind of business has found a new way to communicate AND exchange goods electronically.  You can now have a small area of expertise that just a few hundred people in every state our country are interested in, but because you can access ALL of them, the potential for business can be high enough to warrant trying to sell a product or service to them.

PopURL’s shows you immediately what people around the world are interested in.  The list consists of subjects as as movies and music, and as diverse as ‘Gadgets’ so you won’t run out of ideas to try with your next website.

Research

Once you have an idea, research will of course be critical.  It always is.  Yes, you might get lucky if you don’t research your potential market and it’s chances of success, but for the extra day or two it will take you to do the research, it really isn’t worth taking the chance of NOT doing it.

PopURL’s gives you a great STARTING POINT.  From there, it’s all up to you.

Luke.

Time Wasted At Wrong Forums

This is the problem!  Many internet marketers who could be making money online actually ruin their chances of making an online living because they spend too much of their valuable and irreplaceable time doing their marketing research on forums.

Research Your Next Website

Research is of course CRITICAL to your website’s success.  If you don’t know whether there is a market for what you are planning to offer, you are just gambling (that is, HOPING) that you have chosen the right subject matter.  You also need to know what keywords you should be targeting, and you should understand the jargon used in that particular niche.

A great place to find out all of this information is in forums.

BoardReader

While you CAN use Google, Yahoo, Ask or Bing to find forums, it would be a lot easier for you if you used BoardReader.  Like the other search engines, you only have to type-in the term you THINK you are looking for.  This dedicated search-engine will then search its index of ONLY FORUMS and come back with results that will be much more targeted to your keyword phrase.

This can save you many, MANY hours, time much better spent on marketing your site, or writing your next great ebook or video tutorial.

Try it.  I know you’ll like it.

Luke.

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Niche Marketing

Earning money online with internet marketing is done two ways; you can either have a massive organization that gets people to your website by advertising  on Television and radio, or you can find a small area of business that enough people from around the world are interested in.

As you don’t have millions of dollars to spend on advertising, you have to do the latter; this is called Niche Marketing.

How Dummies.com Can Help You

Getting ideas about what market to go into can be quite daunting, because there are hundreds of thousands of areas that you could consider, and millions of sub-niches below those.  So, what you probably need is some IDEAS about what you COULD possible consider.

If you click the image above, you will be taken to the dummies.com store.  In the left navigation panel is a list of 21 categories, from art to travel.  Here’s the good bit……….WITHIN each category is a sub-category, and you only have to click the main category once to see the sub-categories.

Researching Your Niche

While this probably won’t give you the EXACT niche that you’re looking for (though it MIGHT), it WILL demonstrate to you how they have sub-divided each main category.  All YOU have to do, is find (or create) a sub-sub-category, by copying what Dummies.com did to create their sub-categories.

Remember that the people who publish the Dummies series of books have ALREADY done most of the research for you, and the Dummies books are among the most successful series to have been published EVER!

While there is no fool-proof, guaranteed way of knowing if there is a strong market for what you are considering, this is one way to make researching your niche a little quicker and easier.

Luke.

Note: The robot in this video is Honda’s ASIMO.

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The “no-follow” attribute simply tells the search-engine spiders to stop in their tracks.  That’s it. Look at the image below:

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Backlinks

Getting links back to your website is critical if you want to rank higher in the search engine indexes, but putting out links that have the “no-follow” attribute attached to them is pointless, unless all you want is for HUMAN readers to come and look at your site (based on the content you left on somebody else’s site).

While this isn’t the prettiest diagram, it clearly shows whenever a link is instructed (by the website owner where the link is located) to “no-follow”, then what happens is that the search-engine spider/crawler (software that Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. use to find and then index web content).

In the diagram, the bug-like creature represents the “spider” software from one of the many search engines.  It looks at a web-page (not website but the web-PAGE) and will follow links FROM that page, UNLESS the website owner has made the link in that page “no-follow” links.

Why No-Follow?

The main reason website owners make many of their links “no-follow”s is that they simply don’t want parts of their site found and indexed.  Another reason they may do this is because they don’t KNOW that they’re doing it, and some programs (like some blogging platforms) are set, by default, to not follow links.

Real Link Finder

There is some great FREE software called Real Link Finder that will determine if links on a particular web page have the “no-follow” attribute or not.  You can get it HERE.

Luke.

Your back-up your C-drive regularly.  Of course you do………….NOT!  Let’s be honest here (it’s just you and me), you don’t back-up nearly as often as you should.  Yes, you might make copies of your word-processor or spreadsheet files, but what about your emails and all the SETTINGS?

The Reality Of Re-Installing

In reality (that thing we humans detest so much and avoid as much as possible) re-installing programs is just the proverbial “tip of the ice-berg”.  The real fun starts when we have to set-up our email accounts and all the small applets and add-ons for our various browsers and software programs.  It’s a PAIN IN THE BUTT!

Macrium Reflect

Macrium Reflect will make a back-up image (that is, an EXACT COPY) of your hard drive, or a partition OF your hard drive, so that in the event of a crash (and one of your computers one day WILL crash), you can easily restore it to it’s former state, emails, settings, add-ons, browser bookmarks and all.  Macrium offers a free version, which you can get HERE, though it is somewhat limited when compared to Acronis True Image.

Acronis True Image

Acronis’ program called True Image IS BETTER.  It’s easier to use and is extremely stable, but the difference is, Acronis charges for their program ($49 at the time of writing) but Macrium does not.  Macrium is an Italian company, so they have provided pretty good tutorials in English, whereas Acronis’ tutorials were originally in English so don’t have to be translated.

If you want a complete review of Acronis’ excellent True Image, you can read Cenay Nailor’s review HERE. Cenay is the master (or should I say “mistress”?) of technical marketing, and she knows this software inside and out.

Other Back-up Software

There are other programs available of course, and you can find them simply by doing a search online for the keyword “backup software”.  Acronis True image is definitely the winner as far as I’m concerned, and the $49 it costs is easily worth the peace of mind you get and the hassle you WON’T have WHEN your computer crashes.

Luke.

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IT Support Birmingham

UK Support, IT management, and hosted desktop services.

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Adobe Acrobat

If you don’t know what Adobe’s Acrobat software is or does, you probably won’t be interested in this, but if you DO and if you can’t afford the $499 that Adobe currently charges, then you can use some superb FREE software in conjunction with Adobe’s own free Reader and have basically the equivalent of Adobe Acrobat.

What It Does

PDFsam stands for Portable Document Format Split And Merge.  This wonderful full-featured program allows you to manipulate pdf files, allowing functionality very similar to what Adobe’s Acrobat will do.  There is even a pdf tutorial you can download so you can get using it straight away.

You can get the tutorial HERE.

There’s a basic version of the software, along with an enhanced one.  To get the enhanced one (which I recommend) you’ll need to give your name and email by registering, but the creator of the software very rarely sends emails.  He also has versions for MAC as well as PC’s. Just click on the image above and you’ll be taken to his download page.

It’s a great program and will take up about 12mb on your hard drive.  Get it while it’s still free!

Luke.

Inflation

For those of you who are new to this site, I’ve been writing a lot more lately about inflation and the world economy so that you can better prepare yourself for the coming years.  If you’re a regular reader, you know I’m convinced that there are some tough times ahead for all of us.  The reason it’s going to be bad is because of inflation.

Causes of Inflation

While the causes of inflation are now obvious to many people, for the vast majority, it’s still a mystery.  The causes are simple and are based in simple supply and demand.  The more there is of something, the less it is worth; the same applies to whatever currency you happen to trade with.  Read more HERE.

When a country’s government (any country, but Zimbabwe in Africa is a good example of a country that is suffering from their government’s over-production of Zimbabwean dollars) chooses to print money with nothing to back it other than wishful-thinking and prayer, they are actively devaluing whatever money is ALREADY IN CIRCULATION; that is, the money in YOUR BANK ACCOUNT!

The U.S. and U.K.

A similar thing is happening in the United Kingdom and the U.S. at the moment, and if you click on the graph above, you’ll be taken to a more full explanation of the process.  While none of us have the ability to do anything directly about the decisions being made and the effect they WILL have on YOUR money (regardless of where you live in the world!), you CAN do something about your OWN situation.

If you are not running your own business and are employed by somebody else, you’ll have to hope (and ASK FOR) a substantial raise to keep pace with inflation.  If you’re running your own business (online or otherwise) you’ll have to either increase prices, improve profitability (which may mean cutting costs wherever you can) or simply accept a lower standard of living than you currently enjoy.

Take Action

You can sit back and wait for your country’s government to save you, but if you choose this path, all you are really doing is putting your fate into the hands of people you don’t know, probably wouldn’t like if you DID know and even if you DID like them, CANNOT solve the problem that THEY created in the first place.

You have to take action yourself, with your OWN finances.  This is taking responsibility for yourself, something most people are loathe to do.  LEARN about making your income in other ways.  The days of working for a company for 50 years, retiring with a gold watch and living off of a company and state pension are OVER.

Take a look at some programs where you can learn how to be valuable to other people.  There are some in the sidebar to the right ————————————————————————————->

Also, look around on the internet for people who are making money themselves online, and are willing to train you.  Cenay Nailor is one of the best in the business, and her fees are very reasonable when you consider she will train you how to make your living online without the time and cost (and headache) of going to work for somebody else every day.

Don’t wait for a knight in shining armor.  BE YOUR OWN SAVIOR!

Luke.

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Optional Website Research

While it’s absolutely CLEAR that keyword research is critical, the lines are a little blurred when it comes to other kinds of research that you should consider doing when planning your next website.

As you can see from the diagram above, there are four other areas that you should consider, and whether you do them or not is sometimes a choice.

Competitive Research

This is simply checking what competition there is and to find out what they are doing right or wrong.

Traffic Research

This is simply determining if there is ENOUGH potential traffic.  Google Adwords Keyword tool is great for this.

Qualitative Research

This is finding out whether the traffic you might get is of the right kind.  Keyword phrases such as “buy XYZ” rather than simply “XYZ” will determine whether or not there is enough traffic of the right quality.

Customer Research

Without knowing what your potential customers want, there’s little point in trying to sell them anything, so go to forums to find out what they are asking for help with.

Conclusion

Research is absolutely necessary for the success of your websites, but always keep in mind that you should not OVER ANALYZE any of them, and consequently suffer from “paralysis through analysis”.

Do SOME research, then get your site going.  DOING will ALWAYS win over thinking, and while this isn’t always necessarily the best thing for the world, it’s definitely best for your internet business.

Luke.

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Website Research

As an online marketer, your objectives should ALWAYS be the first thing you should consider when planning your next website.  Your websites are, after all, your storefronts.  If you were to have a bricks-and-mortar store, you would want it not only to look good, but you’d want it in the right location; that is, where potential buyers are.

Web Traffic

Get traffic (potential customers/visitors) to your site is, of course, critical when building your site, but it’s not nearly as critical as get THE RIGHT visitors.  Just getting a flood of visitors isn’t any good if you don’t offer them the solutions they want when they arrive at your site.  So, doing research FIRST is the most important thing you can do when planning your site.  Making it look good is secondary (but still very important).

Website Planning

As you can see from the image above, it all starts with your OBJECTIVES.  If your objective is simply to get a mailing list together, then your site is going to be very different from the Wikipedia site.  So, firstly, you need to plan what TYPE of site you will need.

The four basic types are: Sales Letter, Squeeze Page, Mini-Site, Content Site.

Keyword Research

Then you MUST do your keyword research.  This can be as simple as going to Google’s Adwords Keyword tool and typing in the seed word that you THINK will be what people will search for.  You’ll then be given a list of words to use.

Other Research You Should Do

Finally, you have a choice of various types of research you can do.  Some should DEFINITELY be done, and others are optional, but this will depend upon the type of site you’ve chosen to use.

The optional research subjects are: Qualitative, Traffic, Customer and Competitive.

I’ll talk more about these in my post on Wednesday.

Luke.