Internet Marketing 101

2007-02-12T21:47:00.000-08:00

New Years Resolutions

Here we are one month into the New Year and yet some of us have already both proclaimed our New Years Resolutions and broken them as well.

Although I had a pretty good idea why most people didn’t keep their promises to themselves to lose weight or find a better job, or get in better physical shape by exercising regularly or any number of other resolutions, it only occurred to me recently one of the major flaws in our ability to keep these promises.

Right after the new year, during a training session by my friend, business associate, and our team mentor, he mentioned that he had given up making resolutions some years ago as they rarely were accomplished. Coming from someone this successful, this statement came as a surprise. He then went on to say he had replaced his resolutions with a simple business practice, one that made sense but still didn’t explain why Resolutions were so hard to master and be successful in completing. His practice was very basic and simple, To ask himself every day, “What can I do today to be productive that will move my business forward.”

I contemplated on this for a couple of weeks until last week, when I stumbled upon a poster displayed in a classroom where I occasionally substitute teach. The answer I had been searching for finally suddenly occurred to me. My Mentor had discovered the answer but his message was not as apparent or profound as the statement made by the poster.

The poster was entitled “The Top 10 New Years Resolutions For Business Success”. After reading the top ten list, I had the “Why” I was looking for.

The New Years Resolutions we aspire to are usually stated in the form of a goal or end result. That is the problem. New Years Resolutions in the form of an end result usually do not include a specific course of action needed to achieve our desired goals, resulting in abandonment due to lack of progress. Resolutions should be stated in the form of an action to be taken on a regular and consistent basis to successfully achieve our desired results.

Here are the Top Ten New Years Resolutions For Business Success.

1.) Learn How to Delegate and Do More of it.
2.) Promote Your Business Regularly and Consistently
3.) Make Business Planning a Weekly Event
4.) Learn Something New.
5.) Join a Business Organization or Networking Group.
6.) Give Something Back To Your Community.
7.) Put Time for You on Your Calendar.
8.) Set Realistic Goals.
9.) Don’t Make Do – Get a New One.
10.) Drop What Not Working For You and Move On.

2007-01-21T20:14:00.000-08:00

A MAYONNAISE JAR AND 2 CUPS OF COFFEE

Author Unknown

Setting priorities in life allows us time to fit everything we want into

our lives without becoming stressed out and having to omit important

things because we failed to plan for them .

George Marshall

When things in your life seems almost too much to handle, when 24 hours

in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.

When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty
mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the
students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar.
He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the
golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full they agreed
it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of
course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar
was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and
poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space
between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to
recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the
important things - your family, your children, your health, your
friends, and your favorite passions -- things that if everything else was
lost and only they remained your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and
your car.

The sand is everything else -- the small stuff.

If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for
the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your
time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things
that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with
your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to
dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and
fix the disposal."

Take care of the golf balls first -- the things that really matter. Set your
priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee
represented.

The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no
matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups
of coffee with a friend."

2007-01-18T11:56:00.000-08:00

Enjoy Your Coffee!

Author Unknown

I received this little bit of wisdom from a very good friend today and wanted to pass it on to share with all my friends, associates and team members.... We should all take note.... it holds a very good lesson.

.......George Marshall

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and in life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain-looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee, and cream and sugar.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, THAT is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases, it is just more expensive, and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups . . . And then, you began eyeing each other's cups."

"Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change, the quality of Life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee.

Lest we forget, true success in life comes not from our having reached a destination, but from having enjoyed the journey along the way.

2007-01-16T10:58:00.000-08:00

Why Most Internet Marketing Coaching Sucks
by Gregg Hall

I received this article from Apex Marketing, which was posted on Gregg's Blog... Marketers Mind, a very insightful post which brings me to a very important fact I will later divulge.... George Marshall

Have you ever wanted someone to call on to help you with internet marketing related questions like web promotion, search engine optimization, blogging, social bookmarking and other important issues related to online business? Maybe you have tried a coaching program and were dissatisfied. Well, if so you are not alone.

The problem with most coaching programs in the first place is that there is no one-on-one consulting available. You get access to a website with a forum and monthly tele-seminars but no real access to the so-called guru you are paying. If you do get access it is usually to some third party outsourced by the guru and probably in another country. In addition a great many of the so-called gurus can only talk to you in the evening because they are still working a regular job!

A big problem I experienced myself when I first started was that no one would give you exact answers. Many of the coaches are the same today. They won’t tell you what you need to change a headline or title tag to, just that you need to change it. I don’t know about you but I was looking for exact advice not suggestions on what to try. You would think that if someone has been doing something for a long time they would know what works. Someone experienced should be able to look at your site for five minutes and show you the things you need to change. Of course evaluating linking, backlinks, keywords, and other issues may take a little longer but 95% of websites have simple things wrong with them that can make a huge difference in their search engine results.

Another issue of course is the price. With most internet marketing coaches charging anywhere from $250 to $800 per month or even several thousand dollars upfront the average person can’t afford it. Yeah, it may be okay for members of large corporations with deep pockets but not for the little guy just trying to learn the ropes or the person who is trying to just get to that point where they can finally say goodbye to their J.O.B. and actually earn a living online. I think coaching needs to be affordable to the people who really need it.

Another issue is that the coach doesn’t really care. All they want to do is take your money and just like the owners of health clubs they don’t really care if you use the program or not. A coach that is really concerned about your success will email you and remind you that you need to talk to them. If you are guaranteed a certain amount of time per month to be able to speak to the coach, he wants you to use it. Do you have a coach like that?

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Beach, Florida. For more on internet marketing coaching go to http://www.AskGregg.com

internet marketing coaching
internet marketing tips
internet marketing resources

Filed under Blog, Internet Marketing by Gregg

I could not agree more with Gregg's synopsis, most of the coaching I have found is pretty lame. That is until I ran into a business building system called Pay-It-Forward-4-Profits.
Not only does the system come with a built in comprehensive Success Marketing Guide that is layed out step by step, so simple anyone with an internet and computer sauve that is at least average, can follow without much difficulty. It is also backed up with an unparalled mentoring team of extremely successful internet marketers that are completely accessible to each and all but the amazing part is, their services are totally FREE. Hence the name Pay-It-Forward, based on the Movie. Anyone that desires to gain enough internet marketing knowledge sufficient to become successful and create an income from the internet, can do so with this system. The system is also designed to generate an endless supply of leads, prospects and even an income from those leads to sufficient to fund the advertising costs.
A truly amazing business building system that is revolutionizing the way internet marketing is being approached. ...George Marshall

2007-01-06T22:47:00.000-08:00

Pay It Forward--The High Road To Success In A Network Marketing Home Business By George Shears

George Shears is a friend and business associate in Pay It Forward 4 Profits, a business building funded sponsoring system that we share in while helping others to build primary businesses. George has done an explicit job in illustrating the true meaning of the phrase Pay-It-Forward... George Marshall

If you're in network or internet marketing--or if you're considering starting a home business in one or both of these closely related industries--I strongly encourage you to do yourself a big favor and watch the movie, "Pay It Forward"--and/or read the book of the same name by Catherine Ryan Hyde. Even if you've already seen the movie, you might benefit from another review.

This charming story, starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, and Haley Joel Osment, made its debut in the year 2000. It's main protagonist is an idealistic 12-year-old boy named Trevor. As a result of getting an extra-credit assignment in school to "think of an idea for world change, and put it into action," he rediscovers the ancient wisdom of unconditional altruism and enthusiastically puts it into action.

Here's how he describes it to his mother and teacher: "You see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to Pay It Forward. To three more people. Each. So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven."

He then turns on his calculator, punches in some numbers and says, "Then it sort of spreads out, see. To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?"

Anyone who has sat through a traditional network marketing recruiting session is likely to recognize that this is like hearing a very familiar word, with the emphasis on a different syl-LAB-le, so to speak. In the prevailing network marketing counterpart of Trevor's "three paying it forward to three" idea, it's commonly called "three GETTING three." And what a huge difference that word, "getting," can make!

Whereas Trevor's approach is driven by pure altruism, its traditional network marketing counterpart, unfortunately, is commonly tinged by a fair amount of greed. After over four years in network marketing, I'm strongly convinced that this emphasis on getting, instead of giving, contributes significantly to failure--or, at the very least, significantly reduces one's level of success and satisfaction in network marketing.

I think that a strong case can be made, in fact, that the very heart of successful network marketing consists in helping others, or "paying it forward," to use Trevor's term. In this regard, when I'm personally interviewing a prospective business partner, one of the most important things I want to know is to what degree s/he likes helping others.

For network marketers who enjoy helping others, developing and maintaining a strong, consistent pay-it-forward mindset is highly rewarding in at least the following ways:

1. Helping your business team members be successful generates a high degree of consistent satisfaction for you, which can help enormously in sustaining you while you're on your way to reaching your financial goals.

2. With this emphasis, you simultaneously provide the support, guidance, and mentoring that is absolutely essential to THEIR success. Without this kind of consistent support, many or most of them are likely to become discouraged and give up.

3. Maintaining a consistent pay-it-forward mindset will help you to stay committed to the day-by-day PROCESS of building your business, instead of being preoccupied with how much (or how little) money you're earning. Anything that helps you in this regard is pure gold--especially in the early stages of business-building.

4. By consistently modeling the pay-it-forward philosophy in relating to your apprentices, you will teach them in the most powerful way possible to emulate you. Absolutely nothing else you teach them will pay bigger dividends than this as they pay it forward to the people they sponsor.

5. As you strongly internalize the pay-it-forward attitude with its intrinsic emphasis on giving over getting, others are likely to sense that you're someone who sincerely wants to help them, rather than just have them as pawns on your chessboard, so to speak. The more you project this attitude, then, the more you will help create a climate of trust. And this, obviously, will help you to build strong relationships with everyone you work with.

6. There's an old saying in network marketing that I think has considerable validity--namely that the people you're looking for are also looking for you. Given that "birds of a feather flock together," as you assume a pay-it-forward posture, you're likely to attract others with a similar attitude and a readiness to join you in building a pay-it-forward business. The more of them who join you in your business, the more successful and satisfied you're likely to be.

7. In the circus-like climate of hype and excessive emphasis on getting rich quick that currently pervades internet advertising, anyone who offers instead a sincere pay-it-forward approach is likely to stand out like an eagle in a flock of crows. Paying it forward, then, can be far more effective as a means of advertising to highly qualified prospects than promising them instant wealth through endless forced matrices, powerlines, "turnkey systems" and the like.

As Trevor learned, however, not everyone is a good candidate for paying it forward. So it's important to have an effective method for determining who are the best people to pay it forward to. A simple and effective way of doing this is first to offer very clearly your willingness to help EVERYONE who joins you in your business and provide a simple initial assignment for them to complete. Those who complete the assignment, whatever it is, or who ask for help of some kind in completing it, are the ones who are most likely to reciprocate as you offer further assistance.

You can use a similar approach in seeking qualified prospects for your business. Begin by simply offering them something of value in exchange for their contact information so that you can follow up by offering them further valuable information. Through this process, they will get a foretaste of the pay-it-forward orientation that you offer as a business leader. When you then offer them the ultimate gift of joining you in your business, the ones who respond positively are likely to be the people you're looking for.

In order to not fall into what some have called "idiot compassion," however, it's important to continue paying forward only to those who show through their actions that they are similarly committed to paying it forward to others.

When all members of your business team share this strong mutual commitment, your business will be primarily organized around the principle of paying it forward or helping others, rather than being primarily focused on just making money. Paradoxically, however, the greater the emphasis is on helping others, the more likely it is that you'll also have optimal financial success.

George Shears is a retired psychologist and psychotherapist who has spent most of his adult life helping others to become more successful in their lives. In retirement, this continues to be one of his primary missions. His main venue for doing so is network and internet marketing through a revolutionary new online business-building system called Pay It Forward 4 Profits. He is currently seeking new apprentices to train and mentor in using this remarkable, proven system.

He can be contacted at:
gshears@hcctel.net 651-204-0523
http://yodaspal.googlepages.com/sh
http://yodaspal.googlepages.com/dana

2006-12-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

Why Has The Free Franchise Concept Taken The Online World With Such A Storm? By Don Keith

I received this article in this mornings mail from SubmitYourArticle.com. Truly, Pay-It-Forward-4-Profits has become a legend in its own time. It's time has arrived; a MLM business building tool, the likes of which have never been seen before, has experienced such an enormous success, like never before seen in Internet Marketing . Don has taken the time to analyze just some of the reasons why it has become such a "hit" with Internet Marketers...An excellent and straightforward expose'. George Marshall

When one realizes the phenomenal growth of some of the Free
Franchise systems since early 2006, the question of "Why?"
often comes to mind. Well, as with most new phenomena,
there is more than one good reason and I'm sure I haven't
identified them all but here is what I believe to be the
"big" reason for this growth explosion.

The idea of a free franchise for online business building
has addressed a large and obvious need in the Network
Marketing, Multi-level marketing or MLM industry. There are
more than one of these systems where they provide a proven
step-by-step type of franchise system for marketing almost
any product or service successfully online using the
internet. Following a generic proven process of online
marketing allows almost any distributorship or MLM to work
successfully for the "average Jane or Joe" without the age
old "dread" of having to "take it" first to ones friends
and family.

A few years ago the movie Pay It Forward demonstrated the
value of investing today in people and resources and then
making them available for free to benefit the lives of
others. It's a little different slant on the old theme of
"we reap what we sow". This principle of "paying it
forward" ie: investing today in people with the expectation
that the good fruits will return to you in the future has
boomed online since early 2006.

Those who have started these free franchises have invested
thousands of dollars and hours and then taken their finely
tuned success system with vast resources of training and
made it available to the masses for FREE. They could have
charged large fees for their system and training as most
traditional franchises do, but instead, they have chosen to
"pay it forward" (using the movie's terminology). The
results are seen in an amazing growth within these
franchises as people from all kinds of different businesses
start to learn and use these systems as the vehicle for
growing their existing business or starting a new one
online.

When one starts poking around in the free members areas of
most of these systems, it is almost overwhelming. There is
such a vast array of live and recorded training, member
forum activities, tools and resources. These are available
to help one learn and use the system to realize profits
that can then be used to fund your business's accelerated
growth. The main thing that prevents it all from being
overwhelming is the clear and straight forward step-by-step
or "paint by numbers" system they use to walk you through
the learning curve.

There are hundreds of companies that use the MLM approach
to marketing their goods or services because of the low
start-up costs and quick to market results that often
accompany that venue. The appeal of MLM to the millions
who would love to become independent and "take their job
and shove it" is well known. Equally well known however is
the traditional (and VERY unappealing) approach of trying
to take the "opportunity" first to friends and family
(commonly referred to as your warm market).

What the developers of these free franchise systems have
done, is to provide a system to train and educate the
average person (including those with minimal computer or
internet experience) in successful internet marketing
without any out of pocket cost for the training and
sometimes personal mentoring. With these new skills in
hand, the "newbie" starting out can get their business up
and running and profitable before they ever go talk to
their friends and neighbors about "the opportunity" or
their products or services. In fact the systems are
designed so that you really never need to talk with any one
until they have already responded to an impersonal online
invitation and thereby shown an interest and asked for more
information.

When a person starts with a proven online marketing system,
they are directed to the top productivity tools on the
internet. These are among the very best in their class -
proven over time by the system developers. While the tools
do cost money, with many of them, there is also an
affiliate or commission program that can also earn cash to
put into or "fund" the promotion of one's main business.
This quicker cash flow that then funds the building of the
main or primary business is why the systems are often
called "funded proposals".

By making small amounts of cash with business building
resources like website domain and hosting, lead generation,
networking, traffic and advertising tools or services, the
online business person then has fresh cash to "fund" the
growth of their primary business. These systems not only
point the uninitiated to the best tools and services, they
often provide audio and video training on the best and most
effective ways to use them. The developers have really
taken thousands of dollars worth of trial and error out of
the process of building a business on the web if a person
follows the proven system.

I have been very impressed at the number that really "tell
it like it is". With the best of these, you are warned
that if you are looking for that ever evasive "silver
bullet" that will solve all of your problems without any
expense or effort then you need to look elsewhere. These
successful (and sometimes multi-millionaire mentors)
actually tell you that you have to invest your time, talent
and resources and be patient and persistent if you want to
be successful.

They give you training, point you to the tools, programs
and techniques that are proven to help you in the process,
but they also regularly "hammer home" the principle that
there "is no free lunch". Success comes as a result of a
burning desire, determined effort and your own actual
ACTION.

Would you like to work at home or work from home and be
your own boss? Are you tired of all the hype - the "make a
million in minutes while sipping your pina colada" sales
pitches and the "quick easy money" seductions (because
you've tried them and lost both time and money)? If so,
then one of these free franchises for building your
existing business online (or starting a new one) might be
just right for you.

Because they are free, you can register and then go look at
the steps. Listen to the training, ask questions of other
members in the forum if they have one and decide (with no
pressure) if you really are willing to work and invest in a
realistic and proven way to gain your future financial
freedom. If you are, you might be the path you will want to
follow is one where you have the benefits of a proven
franchise but where the system and training are free. Take
some time and check them out - it may change your future
dramatically.

About the Author:

Pay It Forward For Profits:
http://PayItForward-4-Profits.com
Global Domains: http://www.my.ws/peachtx
Traffic Oasis: http://www.trafficoasis.com/index.php?141005
Direct Matches: http://www.directmatches.com/dkeith
Success University: http://dkeith1.successuniversity.com/

2006-12-10T21:26:00.000-08:00

Using Failure to Further Your Future

By Chris Widener

Does anyone remember how many times Abraham Lincoln failed, not only in his political career, but his personal life as well before he was finally elected "President Of The United States"?

We should all take the hint to heart....... George Mashall

Tip! A man doesn't become a failure until he is satisfied with being one.

"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it." Margaret Thatcher

Failure. Even the word sounds bad, doesn't it? That is because since the time we were just young children we were taught that failure was bad. But is that true? Is failure bad? Let's consider some things.

Tip! Failure is merely an opportunity to start over, wiser than before

I like a baseball analogy. Do you know what the record is for a season batting average (That means how many times the batter successfully hit to get on base)? It is a gentleman by the name of Ted Williams and his season batting average was .411 one year. That means that out of 1000 times at bat he would get a hit 411 times. That is considered by baseball fans as one of the greatest records ever. There are players making millions of dollars who hit .280!

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But what does that stat also tell us if we flip it around? It tells us that the best season any batter ever had in the major leagues was a FAILURE RATE of .589! Even the best fail on a regular basis!

What about the richest people on Wall Street? Do they fail? Of course they do. They pick the bad stocks sometimes, but they cut their loses and learn from their failure.

Did Michael Jordan miss shots? Over 50% of them!

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So what about all this? What does this mean for us? The fact is, I think we can learn a lot about failure that will actually make us a great success. So here are some thoughts to help you use failure to further your future!

Failure is inevitable if you are trying for greatness. Failure is something we must accept as a part of the road we travel to success. This is a very important item and number one on the list because a lot of what stops people from pursuing success is their fear that they may fail and not reach their destination. When we embrace the fact that we will fail, and that is okay, then we have nothing to fear anymore. Instead, we keep our eyes open and pick ourselves up, adjust from the failure, and move on.

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Failure is never failure unless you fail to learn something from it. That's right, we ought to stop calling these bumps in the road "failures" and start calling them "Learning Experiences!" When you fail, the first thing you should think is "What can I learn from this?" If you can pull just one idea out of that question, then the experience was worth it.

Sometimes failure is a blessing in disguise. Just ask the 3M Company. They were looking for an incredible adhesive and actually got a sticky paste that held, but not permanently. What a failure! No, instead, they spread some on the back of little sheets of yellow paper and called them "Post-It Notes." Have some? I'm sure you do. The 3M company thanks you for rewarding their "failure."

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People won't think poorly of you if you fail. This is perhaps the biggest myth, and the one that causes us to never attempt our dreams. We don't try because of what Aunt Martha may say about us at the family reunion. The truth is, however, that people will actually respect you for trying. The only thing I have found that people think poorly about you is if you handle yourself badly when you fail. Sore losers get the bad press, not people who attempt great things!

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Failure isn't the end but the beginning. One of our greatest fears is that our whole world will collapse if we fail. Or at least the project will. The truth is that that rarely happens! Most of the time we can pick back up again, make some adjustments and be on our way! This is a new beginning. Now there is no need to go down the road you have already taken, so there is one less option you have to try on your new journey.

Sometimes we miss out on success because we quit in the middle of a problem and it becomes a failure instead of an obstacle we could have persevered through. When people encounter trouble they have a tendency to quit. And then they see themselves as having failed. My question is this: What if they would have kept on going - persevered? Perhaps they would have struggled a bit and then broke free again. The failure happened only because they quit! So don't give up - keep pushing - and perhaps you will see yourself through to victory!

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The greatest thing to overcome is the fear of failure. Most of the battle is right between our ears. It has been said that "we have nothing to fear but fear itself," and that is true because in most of our "failures," the end result is usually much less than we feared it would be. Yet in giving into fear and not trying, we suffer the ultimate consequence - no success! So begin to tell yourself the good stuff! Change the direction of your thinking and begin to see the possibilities of success, not failure.

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Remember, properly looked at, failure can help you further your future!

Bonus:

Questions to ask yourself when you "fail":

What can I learn from this?

What did I do right in this?

Where did this go wrong?

How can I start again?

What resources do I need to make sure this doesn't happen again?

Then use the answers to these questions to plot your new course.

About The Author:

Chris Widener is a popular speaker and writer as well as the President of
Made for Success, a company helping individuals and organizations turn
their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and
achieve their dreams.

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To see Chris "live" at the upcoming Jim Rohn Weekend Event as he speaks on
the subject of Secrets of Influence go to
http://Chris-Widener.InspiresYOU.com/ or call 800-929-0434.

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2006-12-04T10:33:00.000-08:00

RSS Feed and Blog Etiquette

Since Blogging has become a necessary integral part of the process in any network marketing business, I thought it might be helpful to post this article I received in an email from Article Review written by Sharon Housley. Following the rules of journalism, both written and unwritten, makes for better reading and as Sharon points out in her article, increases your credibility and hopefully your business, which is why you have a blog in the first place. Whether you are a newbie or a veteran, I hope you can use this and here's to your blogging success........ George Marshall

Citizen journalists and writers have become common place onthe web. Perhaps you are considering blogging, but are unsure of how to enter the world of online journaling. As the medium has grown, I thought it might be a good idea toput together some general guidelines for new bloggers and reminders to veteran bloggers about blogging practices.

There is no Emily Post in blogging that offers etiquette advice, or a Miss Manners that details appropriate behavior. That does not mean there are not acceptable and unacceptable actions that bloggers should take. In order to efficiently communicate as a blogger on the Internet, it is critical to understand the unwritten rules of blogging etiquette.

If you copy another blog's post should you link to them?

Yes, blog manners dictates that you make every effort to credit the original source of the blog post, this should be done through a link. The link should not contain the"no follow" tag. Generally speaking the commentary about the quoted post, should be at least as long as the post that is copied.

How much can you quote of another persons blog post?

Fair use allows for posts or portions of posts to be quoted, but it is generally good practice to only quote what is necessary to retain the context of the post. When posting an excerpt from someone else, it is imperative that the context of the post remain intact.

If someone complains about having a blog post copied, what should you do?

The appropriate course of action would be to remove the offending post and replace it with text that explains why the post was removed. Even if you feel the post was simply fair use, and not a copyright violation, net courtesy dictates that you respect the wishes of the original poster and remove the content.

Why should you credit your sources?

Always credit the sources of your information. Attribution is important, it not only extends your credibility but it also will help build your channel for future content. Sources seeing that you give appropriate attribution will often reward you with additional information in the future.

How do I validate information?

As a blogger, reputation is everything. All items should beconfirmed prior to posting. Consider using two sources to verify that information is accurate prior to posting. Also always use credible sources. Second sourcing and relying on credible sources will ensure that posts are accurate.

I made a mistake, what should I do?

If you have a change of heart, or posted something that is not 100% accurate, apologize to your readers and correct the information as soon as possible. Not only is it the right thing to do, but often feeds or blog posts are syndicated and unless a correction is made the words could perpetuate unchecked. If the mistake occurs in a blog post in addition to posting an apology, go back to the original post and strikeout the incorrect content and add a comment indicating why the post has been changed.

How should my posts be formatted?

Break posts into readable chunks. Generally the best posts are broken into multiple paragraphs. Be careful not to alienate readers by using ALL CAPS, this is considered "shouting" online and is thought of as very rude.

Do I have to use proper grammar in by blog?

Proper grammar matters, grammar and spelling may be inconsequential when instant messaging with your friends but blogs, immortalize your words, the Internet is becoming an archive for the past. Appropriate grammar should always be used when blogging or posting to an RSS feed.

What does off the record really mean?

Always respect your sources. If you are told something "off the record" do not report about it, post it or share it with anyone.

What exactly is copywritten?

Any creative works are copywritten. In the US and many other countriesm, even if the creator does not apply for a copyright, the creative works are protected by the copyright laws the moment the creative work is created. Unless the creator waives those rights, the creative cannot be reproduced or modified without the creators permission. Copywritten work includes images, text, music, or software.

If posting a controversial piece, is it appropriate to include the opposing view?

It depends on the style of your blog or RSS feed, but in general, it is best to include an opposing view point on any controversial items. Let your readers view both sides to the controversy, they will respect the balance you provide. Following basic net etiquette when blogging and posting to RSS feeds will build credibility and a following of loyal readers.

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for Feed For All http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts.

In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net awireless text messaging software company.

2006-12-03T16:54:00.000-08:00

"Imperative Motivation"

The following article came from an email from a business associate George Allan
He is a long time Internet Marketer and a very successful one at that...There is a good lesson here for all of us.....Enjoy...
George Marshall

If you are like most people in the U.S., you drive an automobile -
but - how often do you really think about what you are doing while
you are behind the steering wheel? -- You don't think about
applying pressure to the accelerator. You don't really remember
how you decide how much pressure to apply ... too little, you slow
down in the middle of traffic ... too much, you get a speeding
ticket.

Or, how about steering the car? -- Without remembering what you are
doing; or how you are doing it, you easily keep the car in your
lane of traffic. And, when you want to turn left, or right, you
just turn the steering wheel in the direction you want to go and
guide the car smoothly and accurately into the correct lane of
traffic in the chosen direction ... without considering the
coordination of steering, accelerating and braking you have
accomplished.

You don't think about it, you just do it. But, it wasn't always
that way.

If you will remember, back when you were first learning to drive
you probably had a hard time just keeping the car between the
ditches. -- It took a conscience thought ... and no little effort
... to get the car to go where you wanted it to go, at the speed at
which you wanted to go ... without bumping into, or running over,
something.

The reason you drive so well (I hope) today is because, at the time
you were learning to drive, your dreams of driving yourself to and
from school events, or to a job, or cruising with your friends ...
chasing girls (or boys) ... was all-important to you. Nothing else
was quite as important. Your social life and economic future were
irretrievably linked to your ability to drive an automobile.

Driving an automobile meant freedom ... freedom from depending upon
your parents ... freedom to go the places you needed or wanted to
go when you wanted to go ... freedom to explore places you had
never been before and do things you had never done before ...
freedom to be yourself. -- If you didn't learn to drive an
automobile, you knew you would forever be dependent upon someone
else to get you to where you wanted to go.

Aren't those 'reasons' for learning to drive an automobile very,
very similar to the 'reasons' you've wanted to own your own
business?

Owning your own business means freedom ... freedom from depending
upon someone else for a paycheck ... freedom to have the things you
need or want when you want them ... freedom to pursue the
activities you just can't afford on a paycheck ... freedom to be
yourself. -- But, in all too many cases...

It Just Ain't That Important!

Think about it. -- Learning to drive was all-important to you when
you were young because, if you didn't drive, you simply couldn't
survive in our mobile society. Even the survival of the human race
seemed dependent upon your learning to drive. After all, if you
couldn't drive, you would be less likely to find a mate and
procreate.

But, owning your own business isn't quite that imperative.

Without a business of your own, you can still get a job and earn
enough to afford, at least, the basic necessities of life. And,
even people who have never held a job have mates and procreate ...
and procreate ... and procreate some more.

Beyond that, when you were learning to drive a car, you were more
than willing to pay the price to achieve your goal. -- Even though
you had giant butterflies in your stomach every time you seated
yourself behind the steering wheel you persisted.

There were times you just knew you would never learn to control
that great iron-beast, but you persevered. -- After all, your
social and economic life depended upon you learning to drive ...
not learning would mean the death of your hopes and dreams.

While owning your own business is a worthy goal, less than 2% of
those who pursue that goal do so with any kind of dedication. --
They have the desire but not the ...

Imperative Motivation!

Talking about 'motivation' is easy - but - getting 'motivated' is
not an easy task ... especially when there is no imperative (life
or death) reason to become motivated.

Face it, most people would like to be rich and successful ... or at
least be better-off than they are. -- Some dream of driving a
luxury car, living in a big home in a fine neighborhood, and taking
vacations at exotic locations around the world. Others envision
paying-off their debts, having a little-extra in their saving
account, and being able to just go on a vacation.

The dreams are real - but - unless the person having those dreams
is 'motivated' to make their dreams a reality, it will never
happen. After all, they won't die if they don't achieve their
goal; no matter how grandiose their goals may be.

Young people won't die if they don't learn how to drive a car
either - but - they firmly believe that, if they don't learn how to
drive, they won't have a life; which is just about the same as
being dead to them.

When you think about it, it really is a ...

Sad Commentary On Life!
While over 90% of the young people in this country find it
imperative that they learn to drive a car, less than 2% of those
who want a better life ever do anything to achieve it.

It is especially disheartening when you receive a 'note' like this:

"Jim, please take me off your mailing list. I have been reading
your materials for over 20 years. In all that time it has never
made me any money. I'll be 65 this year. I really wanted to make
some money from your programs but I guess I'll just have to live
off my Social Security."

Sad. -- Over the same 20 years he was reading my material, I was
making millions upon millions of dollars doing exactly the same
things; the very same way, I was teaching him (and all my other
readers) to do it.

Although there are thousand upon thousands of books, booklets,
reports and courses on the market on almost every subject relative
to making-money, no one has yet discovered a way to get the people
who read that information to "use" it.

What is the "Imperative Motivation" that separates the 2% who
succeed from the 98% who only dream? -- Maybe we will never know.

It's up to you!

-----------------------------------------------------------

I told you,,,it is wonderful isn't it?

2006-11-26T17:08:00.000-08:00

Personal Development 101

The Following 4 Part Series on Personal Development was posted on "YourGreaterSuccess" Blog by Merideth Cohr, a friend and business contact who possesses a great insight for success in internet maketing. If you want to become successful in this or any business, learn from these tips in Personal Development.

When I first started In Multi-Level Marketing some 30 years ago, there was a phrase often used that I will always remember. "Leader of One, Leader of Many...If you can't Lead One, You can't Lead Any."
The first time I heard it, I didn't fully understand it, but it didn't take long once I understood what Multilevel was all about.....George

Originally Posted, Tuesday, November 14, 2006

I have been doing some soul searching lately about a topic very near and dear to my heart - personal development and how necessary it is to our success as businessmen and businesswomen. For a long time, I was of the mind that I just needed to find the 'formula' for success in my home business...that all I needed to do was figure out the right places to advertise, and the right ad copy to use. Piece of cake. A very striking result of being a Type A Operations Planner in the military...everything has a logical solution (with corresponding checklist!).

But this is absolutely not the case when it comes to finding success in your home business. What I realized is that your attitude is reflected in every thing you say, write, draw, create, etc. If you think the phone calls you're going to make will result in nothing but rejection, they WILL. Your prospects will hear or sense the negativity and lack of confidence in how you speak, in the tone of your voice, etc, and will respond accordingly. Don't believe me? You should....I have seen this first hand with my own actions over the years. I can tell you almost to a T when I'll be successful and when I won't because it's what I project and what I expect.

Anyway, I could ramble on for many hours on this subject (and I will, but I'll save my thoughts for other posts!), but I'd like to present this article to you. It's a pretty great one written by Tom "Big Al" Schreiter. ENJOY. This marks the first in a series of personal development articles I'll be sharing with you over the next several weeks.

“I am shy. How can I change and learn how to overcome my fear of talking to people or selling to strangers?”

Do you ever notice that the successful network marketers have a positive personality type?

Does the positive attitude come from them being already successful?

Or, maybe these successful network marketers had the positive attitude first -- and that positive attitude propelled them to success?

You be the judge.

While it is easy to have a great attitude when you are already successful, usually the positive attitude comes first and demonstrates itself by attracting success.How can people overcome their fear of contacting prospects?

It’s a matter of desire. People usually get what they want most.

For instance, there is a choice between a good television show and attending an opportunity meeting. Some people will want to see the television show more than they want the success that comes from attending opportunity meetings with guests.

So, they watch television because they truly want that more than the long drive to hear a boring speaker at the meeting.

The same holds true when talking to people. What does a person want more?

Does this person want the calm, non-threatening day-to-day life void of rejection?

Or, does this person want prospecting success more than he desires to avoid rejection?

Sobering, isn’t it? Many people say they want success, but deep down they want activities that pose a lesser challenge.

What your prospects would really like to know.

When I conduct training workshops, I don't spend any time talking about my credentials. In fact, I don’t even introduce who I am. The workshop participants don't care about my credentials. And, they are right. My credentials won't make them a cent.

I wrote six books on how to sponsor distributors. Because I wrote those six books, not a single workshop participant will earn an extra dollar on his or her bonus check. Even if my credentials included a Ph.D. degree in Networking, my credentials don't mean a thing.

Why?

The training workshop attendees don't want to know about credentials, they want to know about experiences.

Book theory and my personal bank account balance won't put money in the workshop participants' pockets. Real life experiences, case studies, proven "real world" strategies and techniques are what distributors want to hear.

The same principle applies to sponsoring.

What don’t your prospects want to know?They don't want to know how big your car is.

They don't want to know how big your bonus check was last month.

They don’t care what management or leadership title you’ve achieved.

They don't care how many heavy hitter awards you have won.All these things are things you have accomplished. Your prospects may not believe they have the same skills or abilities to match your accomplishments.

So, what do your prospects want to know?

Experiences.

They want to know how you helped other distributors become successful. They would like to hear about how other people in similar circumstances have been helped by you to become successful.

If you're successful in networking, you should have lots of these real life experiences to share with prospects. Your prospecting and sponsoring presentations will be easy.

For instance, let’s say that you have your own web page. One of the links on your home page could send prospects to a special page where some of your distributors tell their stories. A few of your distributors might have a story like this:“I joined on August 1. Of course I was nervous. I didn’t know anything about having my own business. However, my sponsor (that’s you) sat down with me and we filled out a short “to do” list. My sponsor did all the talking and presenting for the first three days. I observed.

“Well, after those three days I already had six new distributors in my organization and I’m eligible for my first bonus check. For the next two weeks we worked closely together. Now I have 21 new distributors on my team.“

I wouldn’t have even started in this business without the help and assurances of my sponsor (that’s you). Now I’m on my own and this business just gets better and better.

”If a prospect read this on your web page, what would the prospect think? I bet he’d think:

"Wow! Everybody promises support and they say that their business is easy, but this person really delivers.”

What if you're not successful in networking or just starting? What should you do then?

Sounds like a great time to start building your successful experiences. Instead of sponsoring wide, wide, wide, why not concentrate on your best distributor? Put some extra effort into helping your distributor make it to the top.

Once you have your first success story, move on to your next. You'll soon get the reputation of being "somebody who makes people successful." That's a great reputation to own. And, prospects will be attracted to you.

It makes sense. Prospects don't care what you have done for yourself. They want to know what you have done for the people you sponsored.

technorati tags: network marketing MLM home business personal development personal growth personal confidence

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Personal Development 102 - The Strangest Secret

This article in my personal development series focuses on what it takes to be successful. Many people may read this article and say to themselves, 'oh no kidding...', but it is one thing to understand how to do something and quite another to actually do it. Put these concepts into practice, hold them close to yourself and make them your own. Only then will you truly find yourself moving toward true success in your life.

The Strangest Secret By Earl Nightingale

When we say "nearly five percent of men and women achieve success" then we have to define success. The following is the best definition we've found: "Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.

"If a person is working toward a predetermined goal and knows where to go, then that person is successful. If a person does not know which direction they want to go in life, then that person is a failure.

"Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal."Therefore, who succeeds?

The only person who succeeds is the person who is progressively realizing a worthy ideal. The person who says, "I'm going to become this"… and then begins to work toward becoming it.

Have you ever wondered why so many men and women work so hard and honestly without ever achieving anything in particular? Why others do not seem to work hard at all and yet get everything? We sometimes think it is the magic touch or pure luck. We often say, "Everything they touch turns to gold." Have you ever noticed that a person who becomes successful tends to continue this pattern of success? Or on the other hand, how a person who fails seems to continually fail?

Well, the answer is simple -- those who succeed have established personal goals.

Success is not the result of making money; making money is the result of success and success is in direct proportion to our service.

Here are five steps that will help you realize success:

1. Establish a definite goal.

2. Stop running yourself down.

3. Do not think of all the reasons why you cannot be successful -- instead think of all the reasons why you can achieve success.

4. Trace your emotions back to childhood -- discover where you first got the negative idea you would not be successful -- face your fears.

5. Renew your self-image by writing a description of the person you want to become -- Act the part -- You are that person!

George Bernard Shaw said:
"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them."Well, that is pretty apparent, isn't it? And every person who discovered this believed – for a while – that he was the first one to work it out. We become what we think about.

Now, it stands to reason that a person who is thinking about a concrete and worthwhile goal is going to reach it, because that's what he's thinking about. And we become what we think about.

Conversely, the man who has no goal, who doesn't know where he's going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion and anxiety and fear and worry, becomes what he thinks about. His life becomes one of frustration and fear and anxiety and worry.

And if he thinks about nothing…he becomes nothing.

So decide now. What is it you want? Plant your goal in your mind. It's the most important decision you'll ever make in your entire life. All you've got to do is plant that seed in your mind, care for it, and work steadily toward your goal, and it will become a reality.

How do you begin?

First: It is understanding emotionally as well as intellectually that we literally become what we think about; that we must control our thoughts if we're to control our lives. It's understanding fully that…"as ye sow, so shall ye reap."

Second: It's cutting away all fetters from the mind and permitting it to soar as it was divinely designed to do. It's the realization that your limitations are self-imposed and that the opportunities for you today are enormous beyond belief. It's rising above narrow-minded pettiness and prejudice.

Third: It's using all your courage to force yourself to think positively on your own problems, to set a definite and clearly defined goal for yourself. To let your marvelous mind think about your goal from all possible angles; to let your imagination speculate freely upon many different possible solutions. To refuse to believe that there are any circumstances sufficiently strong to defeat you in the accomplishment of your purpose. To act promptly and decisively when your course is clear. And to keep constantly aware of the fact that you are, at this moment, standing in the middle of your own "acres of diamonds."

And fourth: Save at least 10 percent of every dollar you earn.

It's also remembering that, no matter what your present job, it has enormous possibilities – if, you're willing to pay the price by keeping these four points in mind:

1. You will become what you think about.

2. Remember the word "imagination" and let your mind begin to soar.

3. Courageously concentrate on your goal every day.

4. Save 10 percent of what you earn.

Finally, take action – ideas are worthless unless we act on them.

technorati tags:
network marketing
MLM home business
direct sales
personal development
business growth

Personal Development 103 - Finding Motivation

The quest to find and maintain motivation is a journey that each of us undertakes at different times in our lives. Some of us struggle with this more than others of course, but the issue is common among us all. There are times when we have no desire to iron the laundry, scrub the pots, or clean the sink, but we do those things to avoid living in a filthy mess. There is no such obvious negativity waiting for us, however, when we choose to not turn on the computer, write that ad, or pick up the phone. The negative effects are there...your business does not grow!...but they are not so easy to see (or smelly).

The home business industry is all about motivation... But your duty here does not end with starting your quest toward financial freedom or time at home. No my friend...that is only the beginning...Enjoy this article.

Yours in Greater Success,
Merideth

Finding Motivation:
What To Do When You Don't Feel Like Doing Anything
by Chris Widener

The measure of your success usually comes down to who wins the battle that rages between the two of you. The 'you' who wants to stop, give up, or take it easy, and the 'you' who chooses to beat back that which would stand in the way of your success - complacency. -- Chris Widener

In all of my interactions with people, I've never found anyone, regardless of their level of success, who doesn't sometimes find themselves simply not wanting to do the things that they need and want to do. It is a part of human nature that there will be times that, in spite of all that we need to do, and even desire to, we will find ourselves not wanting to do anything. And what separates those who will become successful from those who will maintain the status-quo, is the ability at those very crucial moments of time when we are making decisions about what we will do, to choose to find the inner motivation that will enable us to conquer our complacency and move on in action.

I find that I confront this issue in my life on a regular basis, so the following success strategies are not merely pie in the sky techniques, but proven ways to get yourself to go even when you don't feel like doing anything.

Honestly evaluate whether or not you need a break.

This is the first thing that I usually do what I find that I don't want to get to a specific action. The fact is that oftentimes we will have been working very hard and the lethargy we are feeling is really our body and emotions telling us that we simply need a break. And this is where it takes real intellectual honesty because when we don't need a break our mind is still telling us we need a break! But sometimes we do need a break. I'll give you a good example. I don't particularly like to exercise, but I do almost every day. Sometimes, I find myself before going to the club thinking about how I just didn't feel like going. Most of the time I am just being lazy. However, sometimes I realize that my body needs a break. So from time to time I will take a one or two daybreak from working out. The benefits of this are two-fold: One, my body gets a break to regenerate itself. Two, after a day or two, I begin to miss my workout, and eagerly anticipate a turning to the gym.

Other examples: Perhaps you are a salesman who has been phoning clients for a week straight, day and night. You wake up one morning and just don't feel like doing it any more. Well, take a break for the morning. Go to a coffee shop and read the paper. Go to the driving range and hit some golf balls. Take a break and then get back to it!

Start small

I'm at a point in my workout schedule now where a typical workout day for me consists of 30 to 45 minutes of aerobic exercise, and about 30 minutes of weight lifting. So when I find myself not wanting to get up and go to the gym, I will sometimes make a commitment to go and just do a smaller workout. Instead of deciding not to go, I'll commit to doing 15 to 20 minutes of aerobic exercise and 15 to 30 minutes of weight lifting. This is also good for two reasons. One, I actually get some exercise that day. And two, it keeps me from getting into a cycle of giving up when I don't feel like moving toward action. Other examples: Maybe you are a writer who simply doesn't want to write today. Instead of the long day writing you had planned, decide that you will at least outline a couple of new articles. You will at least get these done, and you may have found that you put yourself into the writing mood after all.

Change your routine

I have found that what keeps me in the best shape and burns the most calories for me, is to do 30 to 45 minutes on the treadmill every day. Now let me be very blunt. I find running on the treadmill to be extremely boring. Usually I can get myself to do it, but sometimes I need to vary my routine. So instead of 30 to 45 minutes on a treadmill, I will break down my aerobic exercise routine into a number of different areas. I will do ten to 15 minutes on treadmills, 10 to 15 minutes on the reclining cycle, 5 to 10 minutes on the rowing machine, 5 to 10 minutes on the stair stepper, and then back on to the treadmill for five to 10 minutes. I still get my exercise, but I'm bored a lot less.Other examples: Maybe you are in construction and you have been working on the plumbing for a week, and it is getting monotonous. Don't do the plumbing today! Go frame-in the office.

Reward yourself

One way that I motivate myself to do something when I don't feel like doing it, is to tell myself that if I get through the work that I need to, I will give myself a little reward. For instance, I may tell myself if I to get up and go to the club I can take five to 10 minutes off my treadmill exercise, which will shorten my workout routine, and I'll allow myself to sit in the hot tub for a few extra minutes. Hey, it works!Other examples: Maybe you are a mortgage broker who feels like sleeping in. Tell yourself that after the next three mortgages you close you will take your kids to the fair, or your spouse to the movies. Maybe you'll give yourself a night on the town with old friends.

Reconnect the action with pleasure rather than pain

Psychologists have long told us that we humans tend to connect every action with either pleasure or pain. Tony Robbins has popularized this even further in the last few years with something he calls Neural Associations. That is, we connect every action with either a pleasure, or pain. When we are finding ourselves lacking motivation, what we are probably finding about ourselves is that we are associating the action that we are thinking about with pain, rather than pleasure. For instance, when I'm considering that not going to the health club on any given day, I am usually associating going and working out with having no time, the pain of exercising and weight lifting, or the boringness of running on a treadmill for an extended period of time. What I can do to re-associate is to remind myself that by going in and doing my exercise I will feel better about myself, I will lose weight, and I will live longer. This brings me pleasure. When we begin to run those kinds of tapes through our minds, we find our internal motivating force unleashed and changing our attitude about the action that we are considering.Other examples: Maybe you are a counselor who really doesn't want to spend the day listening to people. Your association may be that it will be boring, or that you will be inside while it is sunny outside. Instead, re-associate yourself to the truth of the matter: Someone will be better off because of your care and concern. Think of your clients and the progression they have been making recently and how you have been a part of that.

technorati tags:
network marketing
MLM
home business
direct sales
personal development
personal growth
motivation

Personal Development 104 - Personal vs Professional Development

For the fourth installment of this personal development series, I wanted to share this really interesting article on the 'difference' between personal and professional development. I actually get asked this question every so often, and I'm glad to find an article that articulates my often rambling responses a bit better ----------

Personal and Professional Development - What's the Difference?
By Kevin Eikenberry

When people ask me about my business, I tell them I’m in the learning business – that we help organizations, teams and individuals reach their potential through learning. This is a fine statement and it does describe the breadth of what we do, but it often leads to the follow-up question like . . . “Do you do personal development stuff or just business skills training?”

My answer is yes.

Because I don’t believe there is a significant difference between personal development and professional development.

Why do I say that?
The Reasons Why

Since my opinion might differ from yours, or perhaps you’ve never thought about it this, it makes sense to explain myself. There are at least five major reasons why I think personal and professional development are the same thing.

Learning is Learning. We were granted an amazing potential for learning at birth. Most of us haven’t used very much of that potential. It’s like we are mowing our lawn with a jet engine. Sure the jet engine has enough horsepower to turn the blade, but it has virtually unlimited potential that isn’t being used. When we are learning we are increasing our capacity to learn more because we are flexing and exercising our “learning muscles.” In other words whenever we are learning we are increasing our capacity to learn even more.

All Experience Counts. One of the powerful ways that we learn is by connecting new learning to what we already know. As we continue to build our knowledge and experiences, it allows us to make new connections faster. In other words, the more we learn, the more successful we will be at learning new things and in most situations; more quickly with deeper understanding.

We’re a Whole Package. It isn’t like we go to work and don’t use anything we know from our personal life to be more effective professionally. And while we may not need to know how to repair rotating drum equipment at home – those skills might help you diagnose the problem with your washing machine. And even though you don’t have to back up the system database at home, you might be able to deal with your home PC better because of what you learned at work. And while you hope you’ll never need to follow the new Customer Service procedure at home, that procedure might teach you something a following a process, or being more understanding when you are the Customer.

The bottom line is that we are complete humans, and as such we take our entire work knowledge home, and bring all of our personal knowledge and experience to work. So any form of growth or development will benefit you both personally and professionally.

The Most Important Skills are Always the Most Important. Where does being a better listener help you – at home or at work? Both, of course. When you learn how to coach more effectively at work does it make you a better parent? It sure can! We could make a long list of these valuable skills, from communication to dealing with conflict, to learning how to learn, to giving better feedback to being more creative… you get the idea (and have probably thought of five other examples yourself by now). There are many skills that we might learn as “self improvement” that will help us at work, and vice versa. So why label it one or the other?

Serendipity Rules. Because our learning grows based on connections, you never know when something you learned on the Discovery Channel might give you an ‘aha’ at work, or that the insight shared by the seminar leader at work helps you solve a vexing problem at home. Again, all development, all learning, all growth helps us in all parts of our lives.

But Wait

Does all of this mean that as I become a better knitter or bowler, I’ll be more productive and successful at work? Yes, for the reasons I described above (and some others too).That doesn’t mean that your organization should send everyone to knitting class or bowling lessons, but it does mean that there is substantial merit in supporting any form of learning regardless of the content.

In the end, my goal is to help you view all skills more broadly in their application – instead of classifying some things as “personal development” and therefore they don’t matter at work.Learning is learning. Personal development is professional development. When you stop worrying about the distinctions, but rather think about the applications, you serve yourself and others much better.

----------Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert and the Chief Potential Officer of The KevinEikenberry Group (http://KevinEikenberry.com), a learning consulting company. To receive a free Special Report on leadership that includes resources, ideas, and advicego to http://www.kevineikenberry.com/leadership.asp or call us at (317)387-1424 or 888. LEARNER.

technorati tags:
network marketing
MLM Home business
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personal development
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Kevin Eikenberry
business consulting

2006-11-20T13:55:00.000-08:00

“Am I Doing The Right Things”

A couple of weeks ago, after enjoying a family meal at my wife’s favorite oriental establishment, we shared the insights of our Fortune Cookies’ scripts. My wife’s was most intriguing as I contemplated its message and suddenly realized its true value.
The message read, “Before asking yourself, Am I doing things right, you should be asking yourself, am I doing the right things.” This struck me like a bolt of lightning.

How much time is spent researching, preparing, and often second guessing yourself in an effort to make sure you are doing things right, when more often than not, it is overkill, and you should be focusing on what is productive and doing those things that are going to move your business forward. With so much coming at you, so many demands made upon your time, phone calls to return, so many emails to filter through everyday, it is easily to be tempted to click on something that looks interesting and get sidetracked. Staying focused is becoming increasingly more difficult. Staying focused on what things you can do to achieve your goals is of utmost importance. One of my business associate and mentor’s favorite phrases is, “What can I do right now, today, that will move my business forward.”

We all have, or should have, a daily “To Do List”, of planned activities or tasks, not just for our business, but for all areas of our life that are directed toward achieving our life’s goals. We should be continually checking these tasks, re-evaluating their effectiveness in achieving our goals, and re-adjusting the list to make sure we stay on track and on target.

Just like a missile guidance system that keeps the primary target in its memory bank, it is continually making adjustments, going up, down, and around, avoiding obstacles while maintaining its course toward the target. It is just as vital to keep your “Target” in your memory, and the vision of your goal crystal clear even though you may not be thinking about it all the time.

Getting distracted and losing sight of your ”Target”, can be fatal to your business. There are so many different types of distractions that can, and often will cause temporary loss of focus and cause your target to become temporarily fuzzy or even out of sight.

Keeping your vision, your goals on what it will take to obtain your vision, and your “to do” list of what you have to do to achieve your goals, must be one of the first things you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night, to make sure you keep on track and on target to overcome distractions, interruptions, and loss of focus.

In case you are wondering what my Fortune Cookie’s script said, I found to be just as valuable, but not so profound. “Begin, the rest is easy” So instead of contemplating the “how to’s” or the “what if’s” or all the other things you do to insure you do it correctly, just do it, right or wrong. Get the ball rolling, once you start the process, energy and momentum will take over and you can make corrections or adjustments later. Getting started can sometimes be the hardest thing to do…but once that first step is taken, things become much easier and sometimes things seem to happen even without your help. Just keep doing the right things.

2006-11-18T05:52:00.000-08:00

Goal Setting for MLM and Network Marketing
By Jill Koenig

Goal setting is a must for anyone wanting to improve their situation no matter what their career choice. If you want to get ahead in life, you must set goals, otherwise you are at the mercy of anything and everthing that comes your way with no real comtrol over your where your life is going, and... you probably will not like where you end up. The following article was posted on Rick Jorgenson's Blog, a business associate, friend, and mentor. The article does an excellent job of illustrating the importance of Setting Personal as well as Business and Financial Goals. ...George

I have coached thousands of clients over the past 10 years, many of whom were just starting out in a part-time home based business. It is estimated that at least 50% of Americans are involved in a home business.
In the beginning, the vast majority of clients I coached were people who still worked a full time job but were either dissatisfied, had a desire to be near their children, set their own schedule or wanted to create another source of income with no ceiling and no boss. Every single person desired more freedom.
The fact is that any and all of these reasons are great. Your own internal reasons are always the best motivators in life.

One of the easiest businesses to start at home with minimal investment is in network marketing. Sometimes referred to as MLM, they used to get a bad wrap, but they can be the perfect starting point for someone who is a newbie entrepreneur. I don't know of any other business that a person can start with less than $100 and be provided with a built in support system and unlimited income potential. Your support system is your upline, the company and it's support staff, training materials, marketing materials, and a proven product line.
Tip! You give a two-hour network marketing presentation to a very interested couple and as soon as you finish, they want to show you *their* network marketing presentation.

One crucial key is choosing a company that is right for you. My first and only experience with Network Marketing was with a wellness/nutrition/weight loss company. I watched a friend who went from $0 to making $10,000 per month within just a few months and that was all I needed to take a closer look.
I thought, if she could do it, then I could do it.

My friend agreed to mentor me and away we went! A nutrition/weight loss MLM was a perfect fit for me because I was a fitness fanatic. I was always outdoors, went running daily and lived an active lifestyle. I was inspired because I would actually get paid to help others get healthy. It is incredibly emotionally fulfilling and financially rewarding AND you get to make a major positive contribution to people's lives.

Goal setting was easy for me when I first started. In fact, my goals were downright primitive. I needed to earn $_____ to pay the bills, so I needed ___ many customers in order to achieve that. I did have larger dreams of wealth, but my immediate needs were to provide for myself.

As I grew in my business, I needed to look at the bigger picture of creating a residual income by building an organization and mentoring my downline to achieve the results they were seeking.
Fortunately in my company, the marketing plan was easy to learn and follow and provided it's own goals to strive for. When a person reaches a particular milestone, there is another step, another goal inviting you to achieve it, with a hefty financial bonus waiting for you when you succeed. Your residual income only rises when you are helping others simultaneously reach their goals and achieve success.
Your next major goal is always to reach the next level in the marketing plan. You will inevitably reach the next level when you are helping others reach their next level! As you grow your business, you are constantly learning, growing as a legitimate entity in and of yourself, and growing your business skills and strengthening entrepreneurial muscles.

The key to goal setting in MLM is to focus on the marketing plan and whatever the next step is for you in it. Then you can break down your monthly goals into weekly goals and break the weekly goals into daily goals in order to achieve it. Figure out how many customers and new prospects you need to serve in order to achieve your goals and then go do it.

One of the biggest skills any MLM'er can learn is how to keep accurate gauges and stats of their business on a daily business. It is the only way to know whether or not you are on track to reach your goals.
Tip! Don't rush into network marketing. Look around and find a good company that suits you and your needs.
As you progress in your MLM home business, the three most important factors that determine your success are:
Discipline Goal Setting Time Management
Since you no longer have a boss directing your day's activities, it's easy to get off track. You must have a 90 day plan and a daily method of operation that are tied to your goals. Your mentor should help you until you master this and if you are fully investing yourself into your business, your mentor will be standing by to invest in YOU!

The finest network marketing companies will train you and actually groom you, so that over time you will become a super successful entrepreneur in your own right. My mentor helped me to grow faster than I ever knew I could.

I was a kid from the south side of Chicago who knew nothing about business when I started. But with a good mentor who held me accountable, a reputable company with amazing, in demand products, and with my own desire and commitment, I rose to the top 2% of the company of over one million distributors in dozens of countries. It's easy to get comfortable and stop growing when you reach that level. I had a huge house, two cars, got to travel and often this is where complacency sets in. It is easy to get comfortable here. Goals at this point are just as crucial as when you first started out. Having a mentor and a coach can help you set goals that are right for you, regardless of the level you currently reside.

I never would have achieved a six figure income that quickly without all of those ingredients. I had my own goals of income and production that I wanted to achieve and then I had the goals and the extra incentives and rewards the company created in it's marketing plan and promotions. Consistently setting goals within the company's marketing plan always kept me on track.

One major secret to my success was that I sought out educational and motivational products and newsletters, like the one you're reading now. When you run your own business, you are part of a team but you are always 100% responsible for your own success. Rising to the top requires investing in yourself. This includes reading on a daily basis and listening to motivational audio programs on success, personal growth, leadership, goal setting and time management.

There used to be a stigma attached to MLM. These days, one of the smartest moves you can make is to start a MLM home business. There is minimal investment, outstanding proven products, training and materials, you set your own schedule, there is real potential to quickly earn hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, and you get all the benefits of owning a business without all of the overhead of creating it all yourself.

So work with your mentor, keep your eye on the marketing plan and set goals that will enrich your life and the lives of others.

In case you're wondering, I'm still in madly love with my MLM and their products have been an integral part of my life since that very first day!

Cheers to your health and wealth,

Live Your Dreams!
Jill Koenig

Jill Koenig, the "Goal Guru" is America's Top Goal Strategist. A self-made millionaire, she is an expert on the subjects of Goal Setting, Time Management and Business Success. She publishes the world's largest Goal Newsletter and offers free resources at: http://www.goalguru.com/

2006-11-13T21:57:00.000-08:00

Hopes & Dreams...or Blood, Sweat, & Tears?

I grew up constantly hearing the over-rated phrase, "Knowledge is Power". It wasn't until I took high school physics that I realized that the statement wasn't exactly true. It was missing a very important element. Knowledge can be described as Potential Energy. Energy that is stored, sitting, waiting to be put to use. But, until it is put into motion, it remains idle. It is only when Knowledge is acted upon or put into action, like putting Potential Energy into motion, does Knowledge become Power or Kinetic Energy or Energy in Motion. Merideth's article below, illustrates the point very well.
......George

I saw this post in the Home Based Business forum this afternoon and it got me thinking (surprise surprise!):
2 months back, I ate in a local chinese restaurent and found this message from the fortune cookie. "It is the hope and dreams we have that make us great"

Right after seeing this message, I started to relate this to the movie [sic The Secret]. What do you guys think?

Personally, I think this is a great quote, but one that is missing a pretty vital component...the one thing I would add to it is that, while hopes and dreams can greatly inspire us, it is the action and the commitment to achieve those dreams that truly make us great. You can sit around each and every day dreaming of a million dollar paycheck and want it with all your heart, but you will never actually get it unless you take action.

That is a huge component of personal development and wealth generation that people often miss or choose to skip over. One of the things I look for when I'm interviewing prospects is if they are people of action who are not content to wait for life to hand them the apple. They're going to do whatever it takes to climb up the tree, pick that apple, and savor each and every bite of it. Then they are going to do it again. I have actually turned people away who go on and on about how much they want that apple but expect me to climb up there for them and lower a rope ladder. True success doesn't work that way - it has to be earned. And trust me when I say that success is so much sweeter when you know you are the one who earned it.

Yours in Greater Success,
Merideth

technorati tags:
network marketing
MLM home business
direct sales
personal development
Beyond Freedom

2006-11-06T10:44:00.000-08:00

Two Of The Most Effective Online Marketing Tools

Summary: Writing articles and participating in online forums are the two most effective online marketing tools that a person promoting a business can do, as they are free, giving the most bang for the buck, and are one of the fastest ways to become recognized as an expert and establish credibility in marketing oneself, which is a precursor to marketing anything else.

Article Writing As A Marketing Tool

Whether you are targeting a niche market or a wider more general audience, one of the most effective tools to reach those interested in what you have to offer is writing and submitting articles concerning your particular craft. Article marketing is a great way for the average person to do some great things with their marketing efforts. One of the reasons it is so effective is that it allows the marketer to truly project the writer’s own business ideas, values, and expectations into the article itself giving the reader a real sense of the writers character thus establishing an immediate bond or sense of trust and instills confidence in the reader for the writer, product and or service. At the same time, it can also reveal character flaws in writers of poorly written articles. The fakes will eventually make themselves known. Anyone who knows something and can write, or even pay someone to write for them can use articles to their advantage. Here are a few tips in writing an article that will attract the most readers.

It will help your sales if you keep your articles short and to the point, as the cliché goes, long enough to cover the subject but short enough to keep it interesting. 500 to 750 words is long enough to give your readers information they can use and implement instantly and still be short enough not to bore them.

When people read articles they want information that they can put to use immediately. I've found that if you're targeting the Internet Marketing niche, you'll find your articles will get a better response and you will make more sales if you give people a plan they can use to make money from your article. If your writing the article for a niche market you want to sell to, tell them the benefits of your items and how the readers can use or apply them to make their lives easier, get things done faster, or whatever it is your items do.
One of the most important parts to your article is your article title; it can make or break your article. Describe in your article title what the article is about or what information it will disclose. Example, if your writing about how to prepare good quality and quick after work meals, you might compose a title such as “5 Easy And Delicious After Work Meals You Can Fix This Week” Not perfect but you get the idea.

Article writing works as a very effective online marketing tool because it goes hand in hand with learning to market yourself as your primary product rather than focusing entirely on a particular business or program.

To help you along with your own efforts with articles here's a fewe resources I highly recommend:

*ArticleBuilder.Net A very useful article building tool to help in the formulation and mental stimulation for ideas and the actual creation of the article. It has a very large database of articles to draw from.

*ArticleMarketer.com A very useful service that will submit your article to 30,000 publishers

* EzineArticles.com Hands down the best directory to submit your articles to for maximum exposure. Pretty strict "quality" policy too so once you're in; you gain some instant credibility. But you have to live up to it with each subsequent submission too...plus I'm listed as an Expert Author. Sweet!

The Value Of Forums As A Marketing Tool

Another extremely effective online marketing tool is the use of online business or general information forums. Simply put, recognition as an expert in your field leads to acceptance and respect which in turn leads to Sales! One of the fastest ways to become recognized as an expert is to offer helpful and valuable posts on a regular basis in forums where your target market or audience gather.

A forum is an online community for discussion among Internet users, used by some of the best Internet marketers in the world. It is also a training ground for the up and coming. It is a place to share ideas, find answers, solve problems, make friends, and develop partnerships. It is also a support system or resource for most any business, on or offline.

It is no secret, but takes some longer to learn than others, that to be successful you must market yourself first. Forums are the perfect place to promote yourself and your business. By adding value to discussions, you are promoting yourself as an expert in your field, gaining recognition. There is a legend in most forums that the more posts you have, the more money you make online. By becoming an active contributor to forums, you gain recognition, and people pay more attention to your posts.

Search “forum” plus the topic of your choice using Google or AltaVista to find a whole list of forums available. You may also contact some of the professional organizations in your trade to see if they have a forum.

Posting to many forums can be a little tedious if you have to log in and browse through your previous postings or find new topics you can respond to. I recommend an automated posting package or software to enable multiple thread tracking. This will speed up the task of message posting and an unlimited number of forums while managing multiple conversation threads. You can automatically track all replies and organize them as you continue to respond and post to multiple forums. I am sure there are many to choose from but I use and recommend Forum Fortune as the submitter of choice.

technorati tags:
home business
internet marketing
network marketing online marketing
downline building

2006-11-05T10:42:00.000-08:00

How to Enroll Someone in the Next 24 Hours I love to share the wisdom of my friend Tony Rush...especially recently as we have started working together once again. Great things are in store, and I will keep you aprised of everything that's changing for me in the next several weeks and months. But one of the things I love about Tony's writing is that he just has a knack for cuting through the junk and getting right to the point. Case in Point is this simple tidbit every netwoker should copy and post on their refrigerator... Merideth Cohr

----------

How To Enroll Someone In The Next 24 Hours

In my experience, most network marketing training is lacking in specificity and practical results.

In other words, there's no shortage of MLM training that's designed to tell you all the ways you can promote your business. Or all the ways you can meet strangers. Or all the ways you can approach friends and family.

And if you want tips and tricks on how to advertise your business online and in the community for little money...there's lots of that stuff available, too.

But, it seems that no one wants to put their head on the chopping block and say, "Here's what you need to do in order to enroll someone in the next 24 hours." Everyone seems focused on the mamby-pamby training that teaches you to create better business cards...do better breakfast meetings...

...or (snicker) how to design a business flyer that fits on the Tootsie Rolls that you're handing out at Halloween. (I swear to God I'm not making this up.)

So, here it is: if someone asked me EXACTLY what they needed to enroll someone in the next 24 hours, here's what I'd tell them they need:

-- A list of qualified prospects who are looking for a home business. You can generate these leads yourself or you can simply buy a list of fresh, qualified leads from any reputable lead broker.

-- A benefit-driven presentation (preferably one that don't have to do yourself which allows you to leverage someone else's time for YOUR profit.) The gold-standard for efficient presentations is either a live or recorded conference call presentation. It doesn't require people to drive across town and it offers huge leverage. With a single phone call, you can do a presentation for hundreds. No more one-on-one presentations or home parties for four couples.

-- A follow-up Q&A session that will clarify any remaining questions and assist them in determining if the business is right for them.

And, of course any one of those items can be detailed to the nth degree. (I hear some of you saying, "But, what if I don't have money for leads?" Or "Yes, but HOW do I answer their questions after the presentation...?"That's fodder for another conversation.

But, at the end of the day, this business all boils down to:

-- how many people did you speak with?
-- how many people agreed to look at your business?
-- how many actually looked?
-- how many did you follow up with after the presentation?
-- how many did you enroll?

Obviously no one can guarantee your results. You might be stupid. Or lazy. Or inflexible. Or a procrastinator.

But, on the other hand, if you're coachable and trainable and willing to master a few transitional phrases (learning WHAT to say, HOW to say it and WHEN to say it)...

....well, there's no reason in the world that you can't enroll someone in your home business anytime you want to. It's just not as hard as most network marketing gurus will have you believe.

----------

I hope that makes an impact with you...it's a basic, fundamental truth of this industry...one that so very few actually take onboard. Do yourself a favor and adopt this as a truth.

Yours in Greater Success,
Merideth Cohrs

technorati tags:
home business
MLM
network marketing direct sales
WAHM
lead conversion
downline building Tony Rush

2006-10-30T19:15:00.000-08:00

Network Marketing Residual Income--How To Predict When You'll Reach Your Financial Goals

This information is from a friend and business associate George Shears. His wisdom and insight in the network marketing business is both enlightening and inspirational. Enjoy.
George

The single most important goal for most network marketers is to achieve a high level, stable residual income that will enable them to have the lifestyle they want without having to trade hours for dollars. Amazingly, however, even seasoned veterans in this industry can get so caught up in their dreams of success that they never realistically assess how long it will take them to achieve their goal. This article provides a simple and easy way to fill in this common blind spot.

One of the most attractive and important advantages of network marketing is that it can provide a superb way for people of modest financial means to generate a very comfortable and stable long-term residual income in a relatively short period of time.

At the same time, however, its main downside as an industry consists in the sobering fact that only about 5% of its members are successful in achieving this goal. The other 95% either fail completely or end up working for what some have described as "MLM minimum wages."

There are many factors that contribute to this extremely high rate of failure. One of the most important is that the vast majority of people who are attracted to this industry simply lack the necessary talent, skills and understanding that are essential to high level success.

The purpose of this article is to focus on one particular kind of understanding that can greatly increase one's probability of success in network marketing. Surprisingly, as important as it is, it's often not given much emphasis even by seasoned MLM veterans. It was only after four years in the industry, for example, that I personally became fully aware of it. When that happened, it was like having a very bright light turned on in a semi-dark room, and I was quite shocked at what suddenly became very clear to me.

My basic assumption here is that the ultimate aim in all network marketing is to achieve financial freedom by generating a stable, long-term residual income that is adequate to support the lifestyle that one desires. If this is true, an extremely important question presents itself to all network marketers: How long will it take me in the company I'm with to generate the level of passive residual income I want to have?

You can get an accurate answer to that key question by carrying out the following simple steps: (Before doing so, however, I suggest that you prepare yourself for a possible shock.)

1. What is the monthly residual income you wish to generate?

2. What is your current monthly residual income?

3. How many total members do you presently have in your organization?

4. Divide #2 by #3. This will give you the average monthly income you are currently generating per member.

5. Divide #1 by the figure you got in #4. This will give you a good estimate of the total number of members you will need to achieve your residual income goal.

6. How many months has it taken you to build the organization you now have?

7. Divide #3 by #6. This gives you the average number of members who have joined your team per month up to this point in time.

8. Divide the answer you got in #5 by the answer you got in #7. This will give you an estimate of the total number of months it will take you to reach your residual income goal.

If you've been in your company for a very short time or if you're still in the process of considering a company to join, you can ask your sponsor to provide this information; or, alternatively, you may be able to obtain it from other team members.

If you're in the process of investigating a particular company to join, you can also request the necessary data from that company to calculate the average income that is being generated per member, per month. If you encounter resistance in trying to get this data, however, you might take this as a red flag and move on to consider other companies.

When I personally carried out the above calculations for the network marketing company I was with, I was shocked to realize that I would need around 15,000 members in my organization to generate a residual income of $10,000 per month; and, further, if my team continued to grow at the same rate, it would take me about 192 years to reach my goal!

Happily, after doing a lot of due diligence, I have now joined a highly stable and respected company with a long track record of success that will allow me to reach my goal with a total of 500 members or less. What an amazing difference!

Moreover, I'm using the same 100% duplicatable and revolutionary new online business-building system that my sponsor has been using to enroll over 4 new members per month. Although it's too early for me to carry out the above calculations for myself in this new company, there's strong evidence that I'm now on a track that will get me to my goal "in this lifetime," as Kim Klaver likes to say.

If you have questions or want to know more, please go to my website or contact me by email or phone.

George Shears is a retired psychologist, wellness consultant, and network marketer living in the northwoods of Minnesota. One of his main missions in retirement is to mentor and support other network marketers all over the world in using a new online business building system that avoids the main major pitfalls of traditional network marketing.

He can be contacted at:

gshears@hcctel.net
651-204-0523
http://yodaspal.googlepages.com/myp

2006-10-28T20:21:00.000-07:00

This article posted on Thursday, October 26, 2006 by Merideth Cohr.

Merideth Cohr is a true Internet Marketer in every respect. She has the insight and the touch, and I am a Big Fan....she has some of the best blogs for everyday use in terms of perspective and where we need to pay attention.......George Marshall

LEAD Your Network Marketing Team to Success

Today, I'm going to share a certain philosophy with you that my friend Tony Rush shared with me. It is a philosophy that literally caused me to lose money during my first three years in online business.But, I'll tell you upfront that it is noble and admirable. It'll get you warm smiles and a pat on the back from your sponsor. But it will sidetrack your focus to an area of great failure. Here it is...Merideth Cohr

"I'm not going to focus on my success. I'm going to only focus on the success of those in my team. I'm not going to worry about my income. If I can just get my team making money, then I know my bank account will be great."

Sounds good right? It certainly looks good on paper. And it is probably the single philosophy your upline has taught you (other than buying lead after lead after useless lead)...But, the philosophy is totally backwards.

Here's the philosophy of a leader...

"My first responsibility to my team is for me to be successful. The best thing I can do for my team is to LEAD by example, to SET the pace, to SHOW them what's possible. To be laser-focused on my goals so that they can clearly see that they, too, can have the same experience as I."

I cannot do that if I'm spending my time commiserating with my teammates about their challenges. I cannot do this if I'm sitting by the side of the road sympathizing with them as though I'm having the same struggles. I cannot do this if I engage in conversations with them that do nothing but reinforce the level of thinking that's producing their current results.

I can only do this by encouraging them to GET UP and run alongside me. There, I can encourage and support them. But I'm not sitting in the ditch holding their hands. That's an activity that's sure to decrease my own profits and make me useless to my team.I cannot earn a check for another human being.

Subsequently, I can never build my own income by spending my time trying to coax someone to build theirs. I build my income by taking leadership and responsibility for my OWN business. And when I do this in front of my team, I'm giving them the highest level of support and service that is possible.This doesn't sit well with the "warm and fuzzy" crowd.

This doesn't sit well with those who want to be on the Work-At-Home Peace Corp. But, every top earner I've met...every person I've known who's earning six figures per year and up agrees with the statements above.

Or, to put it in a smaller nutshell: sympathy and empathy are NOT the same thing. Look it up and see what I mean...Tony's a smart man right?

I continue to learn from him and I hope you will continue to learn from me.

Yours in Greater Success,

Merideth

technorati tags: network marketing home business MLM downline building business promotion wealth generation

2006-10-21T21:56:00.000-07:00

The Law of Attraction
Originally Posted Monday, September 18, 2006 on Merideth Cohr's Blog "Your Greater Success"

Both of the next two articles dwell on a very facinating subject. The Universal "Law of Attraction". It is my objective to not only give some insight to the phenomonen itself, but also to give a better understanding on how we can effectively use it, without falling into false perceptions. View the 90 minute video on the "Law Of Atrtraction" for yourself, click the link in the right column.......watch it 7 times and it will change your life!........... George Marshall

This article speaks to me on a very basic level as it discusses personal energy, focus and attraction marketing...the key elements in all my marketing campaigns and my fundamental philosophy in business. It's easy to forget how much your attitude affects your surroundings, but it is a fact. People will flock to you when you display confidence and a positive attitude, and turn away from you if you display negativity or uncertainty. Remember that YOU control your fate.----------Merideth Cohr

The Law of Attraction

By Michael Losier

Have you noticed that when you need something, if often just falls-into-place or comes to you from an out-of-the-blue phone call? perhaps you have met the perfect client or life partner - just by being at the right place at the right time? All of these experiences are evidence of the Law of Attraction in your life.

Many of us use words or expressions that describe Law of Attraction experiences: out-of-the-blue, serendipity, coincidence, fate, karma, luck, fell-into-place, and self-fulfilling prophecy. If you find yourself using these words, that is evidence that the Law of Attraction is working in your life.

Do you have friends who are in bad relationships - consistently? Yet they're always complaining that they keep attracting the same kind of people. For them, too, the Law of Attraction is at work.

The Law of Attraction is, "You attract to your life whatever you give your attention and energy to, whether wanted or unwanted." This is how you can make it work for you.

With every breath you take, you are experiencing a mood or feeling – also known as a "vibration" - which is either positive or negative. For example, if you are excited, content, in appreciation, or feeling gratitude then you are offering a positive vibration. If you are angry, sad, disappointed, feeling poor, unlucky, or defeated then you are giving a negative vibration.

The Law of Attraction responds to whatever vibration you are presenting, whether wanted or unwanted. Law of Attraction does not decide whether it is good for you or not, it is obedient and responds to whatever you are offering vibrationally.

Over the next few days, pay more attention to what you are vibrating when it comes to money, relationships, job, career, clients, and customers in your life. What are you saying? What are you thinking?

Are you wondering what you are vibrating in any one area of you life? Simply take a look in that area and see what you are getting - it's that perfect a match!

Yours in Greater Success,

Merideth----------

technorati tags: attraction marketing magnetic sponsoring internet marketing

2006-10-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

Do You Make These "Law of Attraction" Blunders? - By Bob Doyle

While searching for information I could use in putting together an article on this subject, I ran across this article by Bob Doyle, and it was exactly was I was looking for. He pretty much says it the way it is. We should all learn from it. A masterpiece in phraseology. George Marshall

Learning about the "Law of Attraction" can be one of the grandest blessings you can receive in your life. When you learn the true "cause" of your experience of reality, and that you can actually ALTER that reality in any way that you wish, it opens a door of Infinite Possibility!

After all, imagine that any level of wealth can be yours! Your life can be enriched with the most fulfilling relationships imaginable! You can spend your time doing only those things you love, and in return, experience abundance that seems impossible from the outside looking in!

However, too many people learn only the "basics" of the Law of Attraction, and as a result make 10 common mistakes that make it appear as though this universal law does not apply to them, and in fact gives them results completely OPPOSITE of what they desire.

Before going into these mistakes, let's review what the Law of Attraction actually is. It's deceptively simple: Energy attracts Like Energy.

Broken down a little more, this means that everything in this Universe (physical and non-physical) IS Energy that vibrates at various frequencies. And it is the nature of the vibrations of this Energy to "attract" themselves to vibrations of a similar frequency. In other words, one "cluster" of Energy attracts itself to other "clusters" of Energy in which it is in vibrational resonance.

This happens on both a very small and very large scale. For our purposes, we are talking about the very common idea that our "thoughts create our reality".

This simple statement leads to people making the following mistakes and assumptions, because while thought IS Energy, and it DOES attract, it's not always so straightforward.

How many of these mistakes apply to you?

1. Believing that "Positive Thinking" is enough to attract what you want.

The reality is that many people use various forms of positive thinking on a conscious level (such as affirmations), only to cancel out those thoughts on a subconscious level.

For example, telling yourself "I am lean, healthy, and energetic" when the mirror says something different, usually results in your subconscious saying, "No you're not!!". Further, this subconscious rebuttal is generally highly charged with emotion, and thus a very powerful attractor.

Therefore, if left unchecked, the use of affirmations can give you a very strong OPPOSITE result of those things you are affirming, because at a much stronger level of conviction, you are canceling the positive message with a negative one.

2. Asking yourself, "Well, where is it?"

People ARE impatient. When they learn about the Law of Attraction, they often have high hopes that they will simply make their lists of desires, cut out pictures, or in some other way design their reality, and then after a couple of days, weeks, or even months, they're looking around saying, "Well?? Where is it??".

The problem isn't that the Universe can't deliver quickly. The problem is that you were never REALLY vibrating in a place of trust that what your desires is yours. You are more "testing the theory", then becoming impatient when the Universe doesn't deliver on your time schedule.

What you may not realize realize is that from the beginning of the process, there has been resistance. There has been a lack of "allowing" in terms of how and when your desire will be fulfilled, which shows itself through your expression of impatience.

Which leads to mistake number 3:

3. Determining ahead of time, HOW and WHEN you will attract what you want.

The Law of Attraction works because and when you allow it to. The nature of the Universe is infinite. Our conscious minds are not. When we have a desire, we very often tend to "figure out" how the Universe is going to deliver - be it through our jobs, the lottery, or some other source in particular.

When you attach yourself to one particular outcome, you are cutting off an infinite (literally) number of other ways your desire can be attracted.

4. Allowing your emotions to be led by "external evidence".

This is where people tend to give up. Because their experience of reality is different than what they are trying to attract, they allow themselves to feel frustrated, which of course, only acts to attract more of what will frustrate them.

This all starts because there is, on some level, a basic lack of trust that the Law of Attraction actually has scientific basis. Because after all, if you have TOTAL trust/faith, then your vibration will reflect that and two things will happen: 1) Your desire will come to you as quickly as possible, and 2) You literally won't give external reality a second thought, because you'll realize that what you're looking at now is simply a result of what you've been attracting to that point, and that change is on the way provided you hold your NEW vibration consistently.

5. Not taking care of your limiting beliefs that run at a deeper level.

As mentioned earlier, you have a lifetime of limiting beliefs that have helped to create the reality that you are now trying to change. You have manifested everything around you based on these beliefs, and the feelings associated with those beliefs.

These beliefs run so deep, that you hardly consider them "beliefs". They occur to you as just "how things are". Further, these beliefs have very specific emotions attached to them, and chances are you can FEEL these emotions on some level every time one of these beliefs shows themselves.

How will this show up?

Let's suppose you're wanting to manifest a large amount of money. When you think about that, there might be a certain emotion that immediately comes up for you. This might be associated with a thought like, "I'll never be able to attract that. It's too much.". This might be connected to a feeling that you don't DESERVE that amount, or you might feel frustrated with the "bigness" of it.

Either way, these negative emotions are the very energy that is REPELLING what you want! When you learn to RELEASE those emotions, you clear the way for the Universe to deliver what you desire, whatever it is. But until and unless you eliminate the resistance, you will not be in vibrational alignment with what you desire, and thus you can NOT experience it!

There are several "releasing" methods available, such as "The Sedona Method", and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) that can quickly and easily eliminate these energetic blocks.

These are just 5 of the more common mistakes that "newbies" to the Law of Attraction make. There are several more that we list at our web site, http://www.wealthbeyondreason.com, where we also delve into how to reverse these mistakes so that the Law of Attraction can become a monumentally powerful force in your life! A free multimedia "Law of Attraction" seminar is also available at the Wealth Beyond Reason web site.

Bob Doyle is the founder of Boundless Living and the producer of the "Wealth Beyond Reason" workshop - a complete course in creating Wealth using the principles of Quantum physics and the Law of Attraction available from http://www.WealthBeyondReason.com

2006-10-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

Prosperity And Abundance: Your Attitude Will Determine Which Side of Town You Live On!

I found this little treasure in ArticleBuilder.net......definitely worth repeating....and to think how many people out there just can't quite get past that little invisible wall that keeps them from having what they desperately want.....to be able to break free of a meager existance and live life in abundance. In flying, your attitude is your orientation with respect to the horizon. Some still seem to be flying around in a cloud, not really knowing if they are going up, down, or what...a little disoriented with respect to their horizon and what's important. Its wise to always know where the ground is as a point of reference so you can move in the right direction toward abundance and stay on course....George Marshall

By Maria Moratto

Tip! Attitude Is Everything

Imagine you are walking in the woods and you see a beautiful brook running along your path. You decide to sit by it and observe your surroundings.

You notice that your senses are excited by the smell of the water and plants around you, or by the sound of the splash of the water hitting the rocks and trees; you also hear the birds singing.

Tip! In Flying, Your Attitude is your Orientation With Respect to the Horizon.

You see the water running ever so smoothly; you feel a cool or warm breeze touching your skin...

You are most appreciative and grateful for the opportunity you were given to be able to delight in the place. You are now rested and continue your walk.

As you go along, you now see a puddle of stagnant water. It is dirty and it has a certain stench which you don't appreciate. The place is a breeding ground for mosquitoes and this is all you can hear, and feel, and see.

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There is some rotting wood in the puddle and green stuff covering most of the water. It is not a pleasant place at all, and, disgusted, you can't wait to get out of it and move on.

Now, if you have to choose, what experience would you prefer? The one that makes you more connected with the true energy of life or the one that makes you want to run away from?

Of course, we all prefer to savor the delights of a place that brings so much to our life experience. Well, it is the same with our finances and our attitude about them.

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When you realize that the energy of money can be appreciate from a standpoint of pleasure and delight or muck and stagnation, you don't need to be too clever to choose the first instance. However, many times you dream of the beautiful brook but keep standing in front of the murky water. It seems you are paralyzed and you don't know how to get out of it.

Now, you can rejoice and know that there is a way and that way is all about your attitude towards money and prosperity. If you have an attitude of poverty, no matter how much money you make and how many things you receive, you will always be poor, for your mind is set that way.

Attitude Is Everything Resources to build a better attitude and help you succeed from motivational speaker Jeff Keller, author of "Attitude is Everything." Audio, video, seminars and more. Free monthly e-zine.

So the trick is to change your attitude. Easy task? Not at all! But very doable! So this is what you do: Accept the fact that money loves you. Appreciate it. Appreciate what it brings you. Appreciate those who give it to you.

Grab some money and keep looking at it and declaring your gratitude for it. It doesn't matter how much it is, really. Grab a dollar bill or a 100 dollar bill. Speak with it (better do it alone or with like-minded people).

Say to your money: "Thanks for providing me with the ability to pay my bills, or to buy food, or to pay for gas... anything. I know you love me as I know there are plenty of people who love to give me money. I am truly grateful for that."

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See? Here you are not the one doing the action of loving the money. You are simply appreciating it because you are receiving the good energy it has to offer you. You task to simply acknowledge your gratitude.

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This exercise will change you attitude and soon you will truly be sitting by the brook and enjoying what it is has to offer you. Go for it!

Want to have more abundance, health, time, love, fun, and blessings? Visit Prescription For Bliss at http://www.rx4bliss.com, sign up for the newsletter and receive a fr*ee ebook called "Happy People Are More Abundant!" Dr. Maria Moratto is the author of "The Inspired Healing For Your Body, Mind, and Soul," "The Inspired Healing Journal: Mending Your Broken Heart," and "Attract Money Journal." Visit her site to get fr*ee affirmation cards.

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You may reprint this article in its entirety as long as you add this resource box.

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2006-10-09T23:03:00.000-07:00

Search Engine Optimization for Blogs - The Complete ProBlogger Guide to SEO

While browsing blogs on the internet, I ran across this excellent column about a subject that up until recently I knew little about and was trying to find out more about the subject of SEO. Darren makes a good living at it. He explains it well. We should all learn from it... Unfortunately it is rather long so I am only showing the intro and first few paragraphs...you will have to go to his website to read the column in its entirety. By the way, this column was at the top of Googles Search Engine...George Marshall

Darren Rowse is the guy behind ProBlogger. You can read a little more about his journey of blogging on the About ProBlogger page -

He is a 34 year old Australian living in Melbourne, and lives in a wonderful inner suburban part of the city. A full time blogger making a living from the medium now for well over a year.

He's been blogging since November 2002 on a number of sites, starting out with just one at Livingroom - a site about Spirituality, Pop Culture, Life in Australia and miscellaneous topics that take my fancy from time to time.

Search Engine Optimization for Blogs - The Complete ProBlogger Guide to SEO The following is a compiled version of my recent Search Engine Optimization Tips for Blogs series (part of the 31 Days to building a better blog project ) It has been edited slightly for the purposes of keeping it flowing as one article, Written on August 15, 2005 by Darren Rowse

Search Engine Optimization is something that makes many blogger’s heads spin - I know this because every time I write an SEO article I get comments from bloggers telling me that its too big a topic and that they’d rather just write ‘quality content’.

Whilst I’ll never argue that quality content should be anything but a first priority in blogging, the fact is that there are many millions of pages of great writing languishing around at the bottom of search engines results pages that deserve to be read by many but which rarely see the light of day because their authors have failed to understand that just a few simple tweaks in the writing process could see them ranking considerably higher.

So it’s time for another series

People often ask me ‘how do I get ranked number one in (((insert favourite search engine here)))?

My answer usually starts with - ‘I don’t really know what I’m talking about….but….’

You see whilst some of my blogs rank very highly on different search engines - I often don’t really know why. Much of what I do is educated guessing and experimentation. I do read a lot of other people’s advice on the topic, but the more I read the more I realize that I’m not alone in my guess work - virtually every article I read is a ‘best guess’ of some kind.

My main advice to people wanting to optimize their blogs for Search Engines is to keep it simple. Start with quality content on a specific topic and then tweak it using the best current advice going around.

Before I start I want to encourage bloggers not to be overwhelmed by Search Engine Optimization. Whilst it can seem complicated and can become something of an obsession for blog owners you should know that blogs have many of the things I’m going to write about built into them and are more often than not quite well set up for SEO. What follows is intended as a primer or a background briefing on some of the issues we should be aware of - don’t fall into the temptation of becoming an SEO addict - rather file it away and allow it to naturally impact the way you blog.

The remainder of the column and more about Darren Rowse can be found at:

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/08/15/search-engine-optimization-for-blogs/

2006-10-08T08:11:00.000-07:00

The Value Of Forums In Business Growth

Simply put, recognition as an expert in your field leads to acceptance, respect which in turn leads to Sales! One of the fastest ways to become recognized as an expert is to offer helpful and valuable posts on a regular basis in forums where your target market or audience gather.

To be honest, a membership in a forum offers more in the way of advertising value than all the eBooks, training programs, and membership training sites you could possibly join. Have you noticed that most of the publishers are in fact active forum members themselves?

It has been said that to be successful, you have to hang out with those who are successful in whatever business you have chosen. Is there any better place in the world than a Forum?

If you participate consistently in a forum, you will learn quicker, and start earning more, and you can take that to the Bank!

There is etiquette in forums. Most forums do not allow sales pitches in general or business discussion areas, but some may have a section designated for posting ads. Other topics that are taboo include disparaging or derogatory comments. Foul language, and or anything of a sexual nature.

Registration is a simple process in most forums, entering basic information of user ID and a password along with a verification email sent to your primary email address for you to click on to validate your email address as being real. You will also want to fill out the signature box which posts below your content posting in which you may ad a short comment about yourself or what you do plus a link.

Once registered, there is usually an introduction section to introduce yourself before browsing the forum topics. You can post a simple hello to introduce yourself to learn the ropes and become familiar with the forum’s SOP. (That’s Standard Operation Procedures).

There is a legend in most forums that the more posts you have, the more money you make online. By becoming an active contributor to forums, you gain recognition, and people pay more attention to your posts and your signature file.

George Marshall

http://g-marshall.ws

2006-10-05T22:26:00.000-07:00

Your Best Whys
This an awesome coaching tip by Ralph M. posted by Michael Lemm on Home Based Business Forums a few months ago. It may be an old post, but the meaning is just as applicable today as it was then. Enjoy...Your best why's...... Merideth Cohr

For everything you do, there is a reason why. It may be silly, it may be profound, but in every case there is some reason or other. There are those things you gladly do, those things you reluctantly do, and those things you put off until the last possible moment. For each one of those things, there is a reason why. If you were to think about each why before you acted on it, consider what would happen. Many of those things that only end up causing regret and dismay, you'd never do at all. And those things that bring value and accomplishment, you'd find yourself doing more and more. Because instead of blindly following any old why, you'd pick the ones that matter most. Life is filled with whys, yet following them all is not very wise. Decide to follow the ones that mean the most to who you are and the person you would like to become. Think of the why behind what you do, before you ever do it. Pick the whys that matter most, and you'll get where you truly want to go.

Do you remember the phrase, "It is human nature to keep repeating the same action, yet each time still continue waiting, expecting a different result." Life is filled with whys, yet following them all is not very wise. I once heard someone say, "It is the wise man that learns from his mistakes - but it is the genius that can learn from the mistakes of others."We all make mistakes, but when we stop and analyze why, only then can we change the behavior....George

2006-10-01T14:31:00.000-07:00

Rick Jorgenson is a good friend and very successful Internet Marketer as well as advertising campaign developer, having created successful campaigns for the likes of IBM, Microsoft and DirecTV. While marketing yourself, don't be afraid to "Toot Your Own Horn"...Geo

Toot Your Web Horn - Tips for promoting your home business web site

Copyright © Rick Jorgenson

http://rickgw.payitforward4profits.com

Traffic on the freeway is bad. Traffic on the Internet is good. With over 60 million web sites on the Net, you need a solid strategy for steering customers to your home business web site.

Search Engines

Search engines are the yellow pages for a home business web site. Over 80% of Internet surfers use search engines to find information on the web. To get the most traffic to your site, list with the big search engine players Yahoo, Google, and MSN. Smaller search engines also get results from the big three so you'll be covered in case customers visit less popular engines.

Looking Good

Your home business web site can be simple or complex but it must be functional and attractive. Make sure your site does what it is supposed to do - provide customers with concise, useful information about your product or service. Be wary of making things too complicated. The site should be easy to navigate or customers will look elsewhere.

Your home business web site should also look professional, not cheap. If you aren't design savvy, spend money on a good web designer. The investment will pay off by attracting more people to your web page.

On-line Ads

The Internet has many sites where you can list your home business web site for free. To guarantee the greatest exposure, place your ad on several (20 or more) sites and repeat the process every month.

Banner advertisements can be as effective as TV spots in increasing customer awareness of your business. A banner ad should be direct, i.e. promote a benefit of rather than just the name of the product or service. Try participating in a banner exchange program such as LinkExchange that connects your home business web site to other company sites that have similar customer bases.

Affiliate programs offer an excellent opportunity to promote your home business web site. Affiliate businesses post links to your web page on their sites. You pay them a commission or set fee based on the amount of traffic sent to your web site. Pay arrangements vary and can be based on the number of people who visit your site or the number of customers who purchase your product.

Bloggin' It

Bloggers are the hot new information medium. Getting them to write about your home business web site is an excellent way to gain exposure to potential customers.

Technorati Blog Directory provides a listing of blogs by industry. Do your research here to determine which blogs might be interested in writing about your business. Send a short, personal email to a few blog writers describing your web site and asking the blogger to write about it. Offer the writer something in return, for example, free product or a link back to his blog on your web site.

Off-line Ads

Cruising Down the Highway

Your car is a moving billboard for a home business web site. Window decals and bumper stickers are inexpensive ways to get the word out about your web site. Spend a few extra dollars for a personalized license plate with your web address.

Old Media Standby

Regardless of what the bloggers say, people still read the printed page. Run ads in the classifieds of large and small papers, trade magazines, and free weeklies. Your choice of print media will depend on the product or service offered and whether you do business locally or nationwide.

Sources

Gaebler Ventures, "Advertising on the Web" (gaebler.com)
Data Synthesis, "Internet Solutions for Today" (ictks.com)
"Top Ten Ways to Promote your Website" (agora-business-center.com)
"Using Blog PR to Promote Your Site" (sitepronews.com)

About the Author:
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To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
http://rickgw.payitforward4profits.com

2006-10-01T13:08:00.000-07:00

Another Little Gem - Does The Phrase "Law of Attraction" Ring A Bell?

An excerpt from Merideth's Blog, Enjoy!!! and take notes!...

.....Geo

Where's Your Thermostat Set?

There is a small handful of people that I've met in our online community over the past few years that I have the utmost respect for. I think their business values and personal ethics are beyond reproach and I feel honored to call them friends (even though I have never actually spoken with a few of them!). Tony Rush is one of these people, and you'll find that I make it a point to share his stuff in this blog as I think you'll get a lot out of his words. I know I do... Merideth Cohrs

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From Tony Rush:

Want to know what the temperature is in your house? Go look at the thermostat.

A thermostat is a wonderful piece of equipment. You simply tell it what temperature you want it to be and -- if it gets too cold, the heat will turn on. If it gets too hot, the air conditioning will come on. A thermostat is an automatic, goal-seeking mechanism that's designed to produce EXACTLY what you choose to experience.

Your mind is the same way although many people don't know it. It is an automatic, goal-seeking mechanism that's designed to produce the circumstances and situations that are in complete alignment with what you choose to experience.

Want to know why your business is earning you only $1,000 per month? Because that's where you've set your thermostat.

Want to know why your annual income is only $50,000? That's where your thermostat is set.

On another thread, we're talking about how simple it is today for someone to accumulate $1,000,000. The statistics are that 1 out of 14 households is a millionaire household. Pretty cool, huh?

You know why? Because those people have their financial thermostat set for $1,000,000 or more.

Did you know that it's impossible for Bill Gates to be "just" a millionaire? Same thing for Donald Trump Because, if they lost all their money right now.....their thermostat would automatically produce the situations, circumstances, people and opportunities that would allow them to once again earn billions of dollars.

THIS is the key to success. This is the only thing to understand about why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Learn to adjust your thermostat with fingertip control and you'll never lack for money or any other resource in youir life.

To your IMMEDIATE success!
Tony Rush

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technorati tags: network marketing , home business ,
affiliate marketing , personal development , business mindset , MLM

2006-10-01T12:51:00.000-07:00

wow....No truer word were ever spoken: Likewise, I too will leave as is , enjoy and read carefully! Michael needs no introduction, Meredith is a True Marketer with a great deal of insight. ...George

Market Yourself First

Below is an article by Robert Probst and was posted by Michael Lemm on Home Based Business Forums last month. Obviously, Robert is incredibly articulate and I see no value added by trying to rephrase his words here. I hope you enjoy this article.

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I think perhaps the biggest mistake people in this industry make is aggressively marketing their business opportunity, but fail to market themselves. Now you may think that's a ridiculous statement, so let me explain. To quote Tom 'Big Al' Schreiter, "People do business with you because they know, like and trust you" Did you get that? People will get into a business with you because they know who you are, and because you are likeable to them, and because they trust you. They will not get into a business relationship with you because of your beautiful website and slick flash presentations. These are simply tools for you to share information. People will get into business with you because of you.

The better job that you do of marketing yourself, the more people you will attract to you, and the more opportunities you'll have to build relationships; potentially offering partnership with you in your network marketing business. Ok, how do you do that?

All the world is a stage, and nowhere is this truer than on the internet. If you contribute regularly to discussion forums, you have a great opportunity to build your credibility and market brand you to a worldwide audience. By being an active contributor on a discussion forum, this gives you the opportunity to show people your expertise, and build your credibility and trust. Let's get more specific now.

Let's say for example that you stumble across a good MLM (multi level marketing) discussion group like http://www.mlmsuccess.com and find what appears to be a person asking questions about a particular company or biz opp, your first inclination might be to post something powerful and spectacular about your own opportunity. This would be the worst possible thing you can do, because this individual doesn't know who you are or a thing about you. To him or her, you are merely intruding on an existing conversation by pitching your deal. However, what you could do is, post something in reply to the persons request that is related to their potential success or complementary in nature. A well thought out post in a public place will usually draw a great deal of attention, but on the other hand an "In Your Face" type of reply with such memorable phrases as "CHECK IT OUT" or "EARN MONEY WHILE YOU SLEEP" are laughable and will go totally unnoticed. This is a very common mistake that new network marketers make, and one of the leading causes of failure-- lack of results. It's much like fishing, where you have to be patient and use the correct bait.

One thing has to happen before you can showcase your credibility and expertise. that is you have to believe you are an expert in your own mind. This can be accomplished by reading books, hanging out with the leaders in your network marketing company and absorbing what they know. Follow by example. Duplicate the successful people in your life, not those who are in debt and have nothing but negative experiences to offer. If you want to learn how to become proficient at something, the worst thing you can do is associate with people who have failed at the same thing. (here's an example) Your brother in law joined a multi level marketing company, which sells soaps and household cleaning products, and after just a few months he became discouraged and quit. Obviously, he will have nothing good to say about his involvement in this industry. What can you possibly learn from him at this point? On the other hand, a friend of yours may have enjoyed tremendous results in a different company, and could be a great inspiration to you. This is the person you'll want to study and duplicate. It's kind of like the blind leading the blind, and too many people fall into that trap. I call these people "Dream Stealers" Avoid them like the plague.

Practice what they teach you, and before you know it you'll be a leader in this industry and people will flock to you asking you to teach them and possibly even ask to join you in business.

My business was built to a very large degree based on relationships that I formed on discussion forums and internet communities. Sometimes these relationships took weeks, or even months to develop to the point that the person raises their hand and says "Hey, show me what ya got" When that happens, you know you have arrived and your prospecting takes on a whole new attitude.

When posting a message to a forum or discussion group, make sure to use your real name and create a hyperlink e-mail address. Most bulletin boards have this feature built in, so use it whenever possible. Do NOT create links to your business opportunity!! You may think this to be strange, but believe me, the more you market you, and the less you market your opportunity the better. They'll find out in due time what you have to offer, but the secret of internet recruiting lies in getting them to ask YOU questions, not you telling them about what you have for them. Call it reverse psychology if you will, but it works.

There, now you have my secret.

Below is a list of some popular discussion forums that have proven to be good breeding grounds for relationships. Use them responsibly.

http://mlm.com
http://mlmforums.com
http://www.talkbiz.com/cgi-bin/mlm.cgi
http://www.onlinemlm.com/gforum/gforum.cgi

For the experienced and those not faint of heart:
http://www.bio-byte.com/amos/10033.html

by Robert Probst

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Most people out there will not really HEAR (or READ) what you have to say unless you're able to establish a connection through a medium that can be intensely impersonal. The Internet opens a world of possibilities, but it also causes a lot of disconnect with people. Bricks and Mortar businesses are all about personal relationships and I'm not quite sure how this concept was lost online... I, for one, have never purchased a product or joined a business with someone I didn't already trust and have repor with. I expect nothing less from my prospects, and you should expect nothing less from yours.

Quit marketing your mass-produced company adds and make it personal! Make your advertising unique and make it about you and your story. Market yourself first and your company/product last. See what happens. Attraction marketing...quite the concept...

Yours in greater success,
Merideth

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technorati tags: business opportunity home business MLM network marketing self promotion attraction marketing

2006-09-30T19:34:00.000-07:00

While browsing through Forums, I ran across this little jewel......really good stuff. I have not run into Merideth Cohrs....but She hit the nail right on the head...Congrats Merideth....for all you newbies out there...PAY ATTENTION......the rest of us already know most of this. But it is worth repeating.....we all need refresher courses once in awhile to stay sharp!!.

10 Things You MUST Do to Succeed In Your Home Based Business

Many people dream about working at home in their own business - it's the next step in the American dream. You have the opportunity to be your own boss, create your
own hours, and truly become the master of your own success and prosperity. There
is no dependence on tenure, pension or promotions, and the money you bring in is
directly correlated to your efforts - not a predetermined salary. Pretty powerful stuff.

There are many different types of home businesses online, to include network
marketing, direct sales, and affiliate sales. All of these allow you to work at home in
YOUR comfort zone. But, all of us who have been in the industry for awhile will tell
you that, although there are a multitude of business building and marketing
approaches you can take, there are a set of groundrules that are consistent across
all industry lines. In order to be truly successful, these must be followed.

(I've seen this list published at least a dozen times by a dozen different authors, so
rather than crediting all of them, I've changed it enough to suit my philosophy)

1. Treat Your Business Like a Business - NOT a Hobby: I have seen so many
people fail in their business because they do just the opposite of this. How much
does a hobby pay? NOTHING - enough said.

2. Be Consistent: Pick a single marketing approach and master it before moving on
to something else. If you are running an e-zine campaign, commit to submitting adds
every week - not every month or when you feel like it. You must be consistent if you
want to be taken seriously.

3. Make a Schedule and Stick To It: You don't need to work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week to be successful in your business, but you do need to need to work and the schedule needs to be established. What would happen if you only showed up to
your current job ‘every so often’? How long until you were fired?

4. Advertise & Market: You cannot grow (or even start) a business without this. It amazes me that people think they can put $10 into a home business and then put
$10 more into advertising and expect to be rich in two weeks. Doesn't work like that.
People won't know about your perfect product or ground breaking opportunity
unless you tell them about it.

5. Stay POSITIVE: There will be challenges - do not even doubt this and don't be
surprised when they come up. The important aspect of this is how you choose to
react to these challenges. If you get down every time you're presented with a
roadblock, you won't get too far. Do not let negativity steal your dreams. Get around
and stay around positive people. Do this in your personal life and in your business.

6. Keep Learning: You should make a point to read at least an hour a day. The
latest criminal thriller does not count...I'm talking about books that will educate you
on how to drive your business and personal development forward to the next level.
Look for books on network marketing, personal development, leadership, etc. A
great place to start is John Milton Fogg's book, The Greatest Networker in the World.

7. Create a Budget: Especially if you are just starting out, you have limited funds to spend on advertising. You need to know exactly how much you can spend each
month and exactly how much certain forms of advertising will cost you. Focus on the
things that will create a bigger bang for your buck. In the beginning the money will
be slow to come in...understand that and plan ahead.

8. Write Down Your Goals and Identify Your WHY: This is probably one of the most important items on this list. Without clearly identified goals, you will have no idea where you are going. If you don't know where you are going, how will you know how to get there?

9. Stay Focused: Do not lose sight of your goals...you must focus your attention and energy on these every day. Do not let little things or the 'latest and greatest'
product distract you.

10. Dedicate a Work Space: You must have a space (no matter how big or how
small) that you can call your own while you are working. Lock the door, turn off the
TV and focus. Don't let anyone or anything enter that space that will cause
distraction.

If you can master these 10 things, you will be that much closer to becoming
successful in your home business. Welcome to a truly wonderful and inspiring
industry.

Yours in Greater Success,
Merideth Cohrs

Learn the Art of Attraction Marketing and Never Pay For Another Lead
Merideth's Blog - See How I'm Making Money Online
http://yourgreatersuccess.blogspot.com/2006/09/10-things-you-must-do-to-succeed-in.html

2006-09-29T07:25:00.000-07:00

Website Promotion 101 - For Newbies

If you are new to the internet world you are not alone. There are a lot of people who are not too familiar with the internet, but want to join in on the profits that are available. If this sounds like you one of the most important things that you will need to learn is how to promote your web site.

When it comes to promoting your web site there are many options available. The good thing is that a lot of them are free, or will only set you back a few dollars. But at the same time there are also a lot of ways that you can promote your web site that will cost you quite a bit of money. But either way, if you follow a few simple basic guidelines, you will learn what you are doing, you will be able to get the word out about your web site quite effectively.

As far as free web site promotion is concerned, one of the best things that you can do is join in on the discussions that are taking place at some of the online forums. For instance, if your new web site is targeted towards the clothing industry, you will want to find forums that discuss this topic. When talking with others you can run ideas past them, and also market your new web site to them. Make sure that you add your web site to your forum signature. This way, every time you make a post anybody that reads it will be able to click on your link. Believe it or not this will drive plenty of traffic to your site.

See Article: "Avoid These 5 Website Blunders" Previously Posted (http://internetmogul.blogspot.com/2006/09/internet-marketing-101-tips-and-snares.html)

2006-09-21T07:56:00.000-07:00

Internet Marketing 101 - Tips and Snares

http://georgewm49.payitforward4profits.com

surely some of us have at sometime or another been caught up in what seemed like a good deal at the time, but later turned out to be just what our first intuition told us....."too good to be true" Unfortunately, in this business, after you have built a "list" of some significance, the consequences of such a mistake, can be potentially fatal to your business and your future income. As Gary Knuckles so elequently puts it in the following article, when we have more than just our own interests to be accountable for, just prudance and due diligence must take charge. Once you have done your "Due Diligence" and decided on a business opportunity, don't allow yourself to get distracted by what may seem to be a good deal. Stay Focused on task at hand.....and your goals. "What Did Ever Happen to Accountability?"

Accountability - What happened to it?

It was 11:30 pm when the email arrived. It was from a person I had heard of, and it was promoting this "new" program that would be the next rage on the internet. Anxiously I sped over to the site to check it out. For some reason once I read the pitch, I just wasn't comfortable with all of the "whys and hows" of the program.

In the coming 2 weeks I watched as the program sped over the internet, everyone was joining. Sadly about 1 week after that, I watched as the many members of the program started to post negative comments and how they were not making any money.

The worst part is, many invested money, time and promotion efforts into a program that "seemed" too good to be true, but yet promised great results and potential profits.

Even more sad is the fact many couldn't afford it.

Why did they join then, when it seemed to good to be true? Because "someone referred" them to the program.

How many times do we see the above scenario happening today?

Look, I'm no guru or well known marketer and maybe have no place to even write this article, however I have made a VERY comfortable living from the Internet for almost four years.

During that time I have only referred a program 2 or 3 times, and fortunately they are still around today generating profits for the owners and members.

My concern is what has happened to good old research and investigating a program before just shooting out emails to all your friends and family?

Why is it so many fall prey to the emotions of "GET IN EARLY" and have all those sign up in your downline or whatever?

Why is it many don't consider the "after math" if their referral turns out to be a bomb instead of a treasure chest?

Now that's not to say they are completely to blame, it goes further than that. It goes to the originators and founders of the program as well.

WHERE is the accountability we once so valued?

What about the trust others put in us and our referrals, words, and examples we set?

Do many people no longer think about the long term effects of their referrals? What about the next time they refer a product or program, do you think the sheep will be as quick to follow? How does this affect you as a long term business person?

What happens the next time these owners or founders attempt to start a new program?

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not targeting any specific program or product of late, hey, there are plenty of great programs, products, newsletters, and people that promote them. The Internet has leveled the field of business and commerce and afforded many the ability to make a great living online.

Instead I'm targeting the whole concept of accountability and our responsibility as marketers, no make that "as people" to those that trust us!

I'm just asking you to think, investigate, ask questions and confirm before shooting out a quick referral from a hot tip.

============================= Written by Gary Knuckles

http://budgetware.com/accountability.htm

As much as we want to succeed at an online business, most of us certainly didn't get into an online business to become Internet Marketing Professionals, writing articles, blogs, distributing newsletters, and creating a website for the purpose of advertising your product and or producing sales. Howver, we should have soon learned that to be successful, it is a very integral part of the process and to reach the numbers of people needed to become successful, it was indeed necessary. Alexandria K. Brown, the Queen of E-Zine, has in all sense of the word, mastered the art of E-Zine advertising. In the following article she lists five major blunders that should be avoided in designing and publishing your Website.

Avoid These 5 Web Site Blunders!
by Alexandria K. Brown, “The E-zine Queen”

The Web is intended to help people find information quickly and easily. So why do so many sites make it difficult for users to get what they need? While neat design can add impact to your message, make sure the message itself doesn’t get lost in the mix.

As president of a copywriting firm that writes and edits dozens of online projects a year, I've come across several common blunders that prevent effective communication via the Web. Here are my top five:

BLUNDER #1: Hiding who you are and what you do.

It's sad that many sites make it a challenge to figure out what they're about. Yes, it may be cool to have a giant dancing logo on your home page, but don't forget WHY your visitors are there: to learn what you can DO for them!

Be sure your home page includes a *short overview* that clearly and concisely describes what you have to offer. It's also a good idea to repeat your tagline or a short mission statement on *every page* of your site. Why? People can pop in and land on an inside page via a search engine/directory link that you may not be aware of. Make sure they know who you are right away.

BLUNDER #2: Writing for print.

Reading copy on a computer screen is different than reading printed text. We read online text more slowly, and we tend to scan rather than read because, visually, the words are harder to digest. Help your users find key words and concepts quickly by making your copy "scannable." Instead of intro paragraphs, use subheads. Use shorter sentences, paragraphs, and pages. Use bulleted lists. And use hyperlinks to give readers more info if they want it.

BLUNDER #3: Writing too formally.

Online readers expect a personal, upbeat tone. If you write like a bureaucrat, you risk turning off many users. Think ACTIVE voice rather than passive. (For example, instead of saying “the computer must be turned on” say “turn on the computer.”) Write to your customers like you'd talk to them, and nix any industry jargon they may not understand.

Interestingly, I occasionally see the opposite problem. For example, a respected law firm's site shouldn't shout excitedly at customers as in a sweepstakes offer. Ask yourself: "How do my customers like to be talked to?" and that's your answer.

BLUNDER #4: Designing cryptic navigation.

Unfortunately, many sites don't seem to be truly designed with the end user in mind. Consider why users are visiting your site, then turn those reasons into your main navigation choices. Try to limit them to 8 or less. Then, create sub-navigation within those choices. But if there's an especially popular page on your site, why not put a special direct link from the home page? For example, on the home page of our site, we keep a direct link to our latest article or information about new awards we’ve won.

BLUNDER #5: Making it difficult to contact you or place an order.

I recently visited the Web site of an acclaimed furniture manufacturer, and I was ready to order one of their renowned ergonomic chairs. I clicked around, found the chair I wanted, and then quickly grew irate. Not only couldn't I find where to order it online, I couldn't even find their phone number to call and order one or find the nearest dealer! The results? One lost customer.

Put your phone number, an e-mail link, and a link to your order form (if you have one) on EVERY page of your Web site. Don't rely on your users having the patience to take a few extra steps. Make it as easy as possible, and they'll be much more likely to follow through (and return)!

(c) 2002 Alexandria K. Brown

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alexandria K. Brown, “The E-zine Queen,” is author of the award-winning manual, “Boost Business With Your Own E-zine.” To learn more about her book and sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit her site at http://www.ezinequeen.com.

Bringing Our Products or Services to People or In The Case Of Internet Marketing, Getting People in front of Our Website, is the lifeblood and Survival of Any Online Business And What Advertising is all about.

Rick Jorgenson, in my opinion holds many useful and successful keys to building a fast downline or "List" in the way he advertizes. One such technique called "Key Word Marketing" is a much mis-understood and in some cases feared, as it seems somewhat intimidating to the newby, but can be quite simple and extremely powerful when explained in simple terms as he does in this article.

The Importance of Keyword Marketing for Newbies
Part 1 of 2

I can’t begin to tell you how amazed I am that so many people who are new to advertising their product or service on-line don’t know the Importance of keyword marketing. Trust me, your keywords are one of the most essential aspects of your webpage site, even more so than your content, and I’ll explain why in the following.

If you came to do an interview with me, a renowned dog specialist, about dog fairs, but I never said the word dogs ONCE in our dialogue, would you even belive I was competent at all? Would you inform anybody I was an specialist after that experience? So, if anybody you know asked you if you met anyone they could speak to you about dogs….Would you direct them to me? Maybe not. That’s how search engines function.

Let me ask you something. Go take a look at the keywords (just after the tag in your home page’s source HTML. Let me guess what they show. They have in it the name of your website, the name of your product or products, and a few, very general keywords such as “golf” or “pets.” Right?

So, when somebody you meet on the street inquires what your website is about, what do you communicate them? Let’s stick with the golf example. You tell them, “Oh, our page is all about golf. We have a whole area on Ping and other brands of golf equipment, a section on the best golf tours in the US, golf clothing, and famous novelty golf items! Now, go check out your keyword marketing phrases: golf, golf clubs, clothing, Great American Golf Source.

Well, those few words are what the search engines’ spiders are looking for when they come to check out your website. They get there and find your keywords. You’re saying to them your page is all about golf, clothing, American, Source, Great, clubs……So, these search engines are going to begin attributing your site the reputation for those particular words.
A reputation? How does something like a webpage get a reputation? This sounds like I’m back in high school!

Yep. The search engines remember what you are telling are the most relevant words that depict your web page. Then, they categorize it so that when someone is searching for those same words; your page will be shown with any others that have those similar keyword marketing phrases too.
So, here I get online, and I’m looking for a golf present for Father’s Day. I go to Google and do a search for “golf presents.” Do you think Google serves up your site to me at all? You said the guy on the street you have important novelty golf gifts, but did you inform the search engines?
No.
You informed them your site is about Source, golf, clothing…..
So the hope of me ever finding your page is pretty close to zero.
Here, let’s do a Google search for the word “golf” right now. Go ahead, open another browser and let’s do this exercise together. Right as I’m writing this article, there are a total of 689,000,000 webpages that have “golf” listed as one of their keywords. Yikes. That’s a whooping number of sites to compete with! And yours is just a little one.

So, now, remember what you told that guy? “Novelty golf presents.” Let’s do a fast search for that. Oh wow, only 9,000,000 pages have that more specific keyword phrase in their . What are the chances that I will be able to locate your page if you are competing with 9 million sites versus 689 million web pages?

Um, sorry to respond… both are millions and millions of web site pages to compete against!
So, what do you do?
If you are just starting your niche market online business, the recommended keyword marketing strategy is this:

1. Select about 8 keyword phrases that explain what your site is offering, but don’t have a bazillion competing web site pages. Just do a search in Google or other major search engine and see how many sites you would be competing with.

2. Go to inventory.overture.com and do a search for the phrases you have selected, and make sure they have enough people really searching for those phrases! If you have a good keyword phrase that doesn’t have a lot of competing web pages, but only 2 people per entire month search for that particular phrase, you aren’t going to get much traffic to your site! A good amount to shoot for is phrases that get about 2,000 searches a month at overture.com. A general rule of thumb is that you can double the overture search counts (which are by month) and that is about how many searches there are per month in Google (Google doesn’t have a way for you to find out exactly how many people are searching for an exact keyword phrases very month). That is why a phrase like “Great American Golf Source” is a horrible keyword to have in your list. Unless you are a household name like McDonalds or Q-tips…putting your business name or product name as a keyword marketing phrase is not as valuable to you as using a more descriptive word such as “novelty golf gifts”.

3. Next, once you have put your keyword phrases, it is imperative that you actually use those words in the content of that page! If you are telling the search engines that you want to be found for “novelty golf presents”, but then never state that phrase EVER in that site….do you think you will get a reputation for being a specialist in the area of novelty golf gifts? Chances are slim to none.

So, search engines look for what you tell your page is expert on, and then looks through your text to see that you in actual fact ARE an expert in that area because your page tells all about things in connection to your keywords. They take note, and the next time no matter who does a search for your keywords, your site makes it into the list of webpages that are served up to them. There’s a lot more you need to do now that you have your keyword marketing list set up the right way. In my next article, we’ll talk about some optimizing you should be doing to your pages to ensure that when you are served up in that list, that you make it up high enough (like in pages 1-3…of 9,000,000) so that people will actually find your link, click on it, and go visit your site!

About the Author:
Rick Jorgenson
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To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
http://rickgw.payitforward4profits.com