Say Goodbye to 2008

Goodbye 2008...
What a year it wasn't...I believe though, that 2008 will fade, not into obscurity but into oblivion. Did the year just seem to suck, for the most part, for you, too?

(Post your biggest 2008 whine story here)

On TV, I watched people on a NY street using an industrial shredder to chew up symbols of the year's worst memories--one lady shredding the email from the boyfriend who dumped her.
How nice it would be to just shred to pieces all the things that went wrong the last 365 days. But "Monday comes and there are no guarantees" (actually, Thursday this time). What do we do now?

That's the good thing about January 2--it's when the last box of Christmas decorations make it to the attic, college football takes a breather, the annual reports come in and the boss is either cleaning house or adding more to your workload if you survived the cleaning house.
Will you make ends meet this year? For most, the answer is scary. For some, it will be academic, as they use the new year's resolution of change for the better. It has never been more important to gain control of one's life in every aspect.
Do you remember the big whoopla over the book "The Secret"? Well, if you are conscious of being up on the latest trends, even if only for the social aspect of not appearing to have no clue in public conversation, you really should bite the bullet and investigate this book's underlying message. Yeah, you may have to roll your eyes at some of the deliveries but it does have a great point to make.

We are not "islands", as the saying goes. As much as we may think our successes are derived by our own hand, the truth is there are more connections to success than there are "degrees to Kevin Bacon". A comment, a referral, a friend of a friend can mean the difference in reaching a goal. And those are just haphazard connections--just think how far you can go and how fast if you orchestrate the connections.
I have just finished reading what could be the most important psychological epiphany of human interaction for mutual gain that has ever been written. And it has the most boring title of all time (which is the reason I never read it before). This book has been on every major list of entrepreneur, business marketing, sales education, make money online and just darn-good-stuff-to-read lists.
So, having run out of my favorite fiction author, I bought an old copy of Dale Carnegie's
"How to Win Friends & Influence People". The title made me think that it would be a lecture on how to get along with people--something I haven't done that well with in the past and certainly didn't want to pay someone to correct me on it. Was I ever stunned by what lay in the pages within! I can not believe how fascinating the stories were and how they unfolded. All the while revealing concepts of business and marketing and psychology that all worked together and getting a better sense of how reason--good and bad-- affects the outcome of any interaction. There is no way that I can fully describe it so that you fully appreciate the importance of this book. In your library--entrepreneur or not--this book is a "must have" for every intelligent person. Whether you own a small business, are an internet marketer and make money online, the principles are priceless.

Educating and re-educating yourself should never stop. For an entrepreneur, each lesson learned, each skill added, each endeavor brings one to closer to success. Stop learning and you stop succeeding (or eliminate the possibilities of success). What will you learn in 2009? Will you be in the same shape in 365 days from now? Chances are that you will be in either worse or better shape rather than the same. Which one will you choose? It is a choice, no matter what you may think, to be made. I made one when I retired from a 30 year business when I moved and had a choice. I chose another career, internet marketing, and with all the ups and downs, I have never once had to give up or lose the education I had gained. We all have choices--find the ones that get you closer to your goals and learn from those that get in the way of them. But make the choices--don't just sit there still trying to decide which ones to make. Even mistakes are education! And the alternative is success so how does ANYone consider ANY choice the wrong one?
Happy New Year and go with the future you decide upon.

Get your copy of "The Secret" and "How to Win Friends & Influence People" through these links and get a free copy of "How to Use What's in My Head for a Living" by Jay Russo. Just send a copy of your receipt to Jay(at)How2BooksandVideos.com to receive your free copy.

My first site--and my second--and my third, how easy it is!

Just what you want to be saying, right? Well, after having built my first sites in a free site builder, I was wondering if there was an easier way. Turns out it wasn't an easier way I should have looked for but rather an easier to use web host. Frustrated with a literally hand built site in Yahoo, add slow response to support questions and overpriced hosting plans, I made it my mission to find better.

And I did. The host I have now has been very helpful, easy to use and even though the time difference is four hours, they do get back with meaningful dialog and answers in record time. Their setup includes a shopping cart--something that has thinned my hair considerably while trying to find and understand how those suckers work! Whoever invented "fill in the blank" should have a monument dedicated to them.

I have chosen both free templates and purchased templates that my host loads for me. Not only that, but at any time I can change the template for the whole site with a button click. Great for holiday motifs. With the shopping cart installed (by them), I just enter the price, description and upload pics. I can assign the products to a multitude of categories, which I create by "fill in the blank". I can set up a sale price, discount, coupon code, gift registry, post articles, even offer an affiliate program!

Oh, I tried ZenCart and OsCommerce and lost a lot more hair struggling to get the look I wanted and still did not have a shopping cart solution.

Then I found everything I needed at PappaShop. Having come across a site I liked, there in the footer, was a link to PappaShop . The demo does not do it justice but they had tons of links to sites that had been built in their program. It took only minutes to get started and it has been so much more versatile, customizable, quickly updating and much more attractive than other site builders I have used. For as little as $9.95 a month ( or $4.99 hosting only), you can't beat the quality and the service. And as I add sites, they have plenty of servers to separate my businesses.

It's not often I sing the praises of anything to do with the internet (maybe not "evil" but frustrating and quite necessary), so this rare moment is one I have to pass on. No one else should go bald when there is a solution like PappaShop hosting.

Jay
PS be sure to visit my blog at http://www.How2BooksandVideos.com

....and for a peek at the sites I have built so far go to:
www.StorkandVeil.com
www.BabyBouquetsandBaskets.com
www.123MonogramMe.com

Stumble It!

Time to Get Serious about Your Internet Business

Derek Gehl, of the Internet Marketing Center has publicly released the newest edition of his famous "Insider Secrets" online wealth-generating system... this is information I highly recommend you have at your fingertips.

I want to make absolutely SURE his system will work for you.

So here is what he is proposing:

Derek will ship you (via Federal Express) a 10 lb. box.

In this box you'll find 3 resource CDs, 4 guidebooks, and 2 thick binders containing in excess of 1,385 pages explaining the step-by-step instructions on how to start and grow a wildly profitable Internet business.

Just follow the instructions. If you do this, one of two things will happen:

The system will work for you, and you'll start living the dream of "passive" income with your very own Internet business. You'll be literally making money while you sleep!

OR:

The system won't work for you. If this happens, Derek will personally write you a check for $200 as our way of apologizing for wasting your time.

In other words, the absolute WORST thing that can happen if you take us up on this is that you'll come out $200 ahead!

The best case scenario is something far, far more exciting... luxury vacations, new cars for you and your family, paying off your mortgage... It's up to you!)

All you need to do today is tell Derek where to send your package by clicking the link below:

http://www.marketingtips.com/

I personally make my living on the internet. With help from mentors like Derek Gehl, I have made my online businesses not only profitable, but learned how to repeat the process again and again in multiple markets. You will learn how that is possible once you have these materials.

P.S. By the way -- how about a few examples of the people who are *already* using Derek's system?

-- Rory M. from Ireland made over $1,000,000 last year selling a VERY strange gizmo from his simple little web site. (I still don't understand exactly what it does!)

-- Barbara J. is making a steady $8,500 a month telling people how to rearrange their old furniture. (She's a 60-year-old grandmother, and she works LESS than 1 lousy hour a day!)

-- Chris E. must be the envy of his Australian surfer buddies down at the beach... He makes over $200,000 a year working about 9 hours per week. Not bad for a 23-year-old kid!

If you're at all serious about making money with your own online business, then it is essential that you carefully consider this offer ("too good to refuse")...

You can read more of success stories, and find out all the details of how YOU can get started too by visiting:

http://www.marketingtips.com/

Business Survival in Today's Retail World

Chicken Little never had such a wonderful week--seems for a lot of us, the sky really is falling...

Case in point, after ten months in a retail location, our brick and mortar gift store is closing its doors. The economy was a big factor but so were a lot of tedius obstacles such as limited to no signage allowed in or in front of the shopping center, a two story wine store pops up in front or ours after the lease is signed (no visibility from the street), other tenants have totally unrelated markets than ours, and a few more I wouldn't want to bore you with (unless you need good advice on what NOT to do).

Our store wasn't the only one--five others in town with the same market focus folded before we did. Ours was the last to go---but guess what? We are the only one of those five who will still be in business! What's the big difference? Our busines is ONLINE--has been for three years. So we can happily announce to our customers "We are not going out of business--just moving it to our website". That's where they are shopping anyway, so goodbye landlord.

Businesses see the crunch of gas shortages--even ours made the news:
http://www.pr.com/press-release/108176

Now more than ever---a business online just makes a lot of sense. Beyond the savings in overhead over a brick and mortar store is the ability to own lots and lots of internet "real estate". More websites, more businesses and business formats to pursue. Physical products, digital products, drop ship, affiliate programs, referral commissions--what a plethera of options! And only one electric bill to pay...

Getting started with a business online is on the mind of people of all walks of life. Many a grandmother would shock you with the sales they make online. Why not you?
If getting that first website up is a challenge, read what I had to say about it on my blog at

http://how2booksandvideos.blogspot.com/ A really great tool is offered there that you just might want to check out if you are curious about where to start and need the right "toolbox".

You Can Learn From the Pros--Video Courses Make it Easy

Have you ever been faced with the task of having to write
an email promotion to your list,and then realized that you
didn't know what to say or how to say it?

Michael Rasmussen's new video course "Email Promos Exposed"
promises to solve that problem for you by walking you through
the actual process of creating killer email promos step-by-step.
I decided to see if Michael's videos live up to their promise
by trying them out myself. Here's what I found:

The first thing I noticed when I opened up the first video was
the stunning production quality.
These videos were made by someone who KNOWS what he's doing.

I also liked how Michael divided the videos up by section,
and then again by sub-section. For example, one video is all
about the subject line,and then there are different parts
of that video that each cover a certain area of crafting
a killer subject line.

It's impossible to list every single thing here,
but I want you to get a feelfor what each one covered,
and how well it covered it.

Just go ahead visit this URL to get instant free access
to these videos:

www.emailpromosexposed.com

Selling on the Internet--Who Knows What They Are Doing?

Okay, did you raise your hand? I recently read a thread on an internet marketing guru's blog and as clear as he was about the product he was launching, there were still comments posted that asked the very most elementary of questions--what is PPC, what is a thread, I am broke and have no credit card--can you help me make money? It would seem a bit pathetic at times but I applaud the ones who asked anyway. At least they are trying to better their situation.

But what if you don't know even the simplest, most taken for granted education we have in this medium of internet marketing, it is so very hard when you don't know and often very easy once you do know. Every day there is someone who wants to know what you already know. A character on TV made the comment that I found so simple but true: "The more you know, the more you don't know." Don't shake your head in confusion--say it a few times and really think about it.

It is at this point I am asking you to post your questions, no matter how elementary they may be to anyone else, and let's "get a thread going" on the subject of What is......

As a writer, it is tremendously important to know who to write for, who is the audience. Why write about subjects no one relates to or cares about. Post your questions so anyone can benefit from the answers.

Coming soon-- a glossary of internet terms for your reference. Ignorance is a word that has gotten a terrible rap---it simply means a "lack of knowledge". Don't ever be embarrassed by a lack of knowledge. Ask and you shall be educated.

Your comments are welcomed and encouraged...

Is Your Tank Empty?

Today I had to drive past eight gas stations before finding one that had gas to sell. A customer in my store told me about waiting 45 minutes in line to get ten gallons. Maybe my family in upstate NY aren't seeing what we are here in Atlanta but I can tell you that in one way or another, they will feel it.


Remember the phrase "trickle down theory"? It is alive and well and affecting every sector of our communities. But you already know that. So what is my point?


We have taken a lot for granted in our lifetimes. Change has been either good or mostly a bad experience to talk about once we got back on track. And we have always seen a track to get back onto. But in the years since 9/11 (and I use that only as a significant starting point, not as the only reason for our calamities), we have seen natural disasters--hurricane after hurricane, floods, earthquakes--and financial disasters ad nauseum. We aren't as resilient in our thinking about change for the "good"--about being optimistic. Those brave souls who use change as an opportunity are finding it harder to do so. While I have had inspiration in those people in the past, I am afraid to look across the boat I am in and see them there, too.


As competition falls, there will be few who will weather the hard times and still have the heart to remain. It is at great cost for all -- even the strong are only as strong as the economy that keeps them afloat.


It is no consolation to know that a wake up call to our way of life will make us more conservative with our spending, less wasteful in all areas, more appreciative of what we have. In the stock market it is called a correction. Something that was wrong should be corrected. But suffering, nonetheless, does occur.


If we wait until the tank is empty to find a gas station, we may be going nowhere. Maybe you don't have to sell a house right now. Maybe you aren't in danger of losing your job soon. Maybe your debt is manageable or nonexistent. But you would be in the minority and what happens to your neighbor affects you, too.


These changes affect buying methods. A business/entrepreneur will have to adapt and create new ways and new products to accomodate the changes to survive. New and creative means to maintain income will come from all this. While some products will suffer and die (SUVs ?), others will flourish (Smart Cars?) because of the changes. It is so important now more than ever before to be able to take charge of your income, even if it's only a supplemental income. The internet has become reachable for the everyday person. In its simplest forms, the internet can make money for "ordinary" people. It may seem like it would take a degree in rocket science (believe me, I have my days...) to create a business online, but the truth is even a 10 year old can blog. (Maybe even younger...) So why doesn't everybody do it?


Their tank is empty. They just don't have it in them emotionally or financially to look at and learn another way. The economy has taken its toll. Don't let this option be the one you regret not having tried. The opportunities are so vast, so creative. It is truly an economically equal opportunity for those who use it best. Don't wait until your tank is empty--chances are, the way things are going, you may need a way to get somewhere else.



Sell Online--Get your products from the most trusted wholesale resource