Food for thought

This is a point of view you won't hear in the good for nothing but depressing your ass media. I got this in an email from Ken McCarthy inventor of the System Seminar that's responsible for launching the careers of many rich guys on the net. I will be at next year's system seminar, but i digress.....

Check out his thoughts on the economy. Oh and I agree 150% I'm sick and tired of this "bad economy" shit so I dont' watch tv nor read the left leaning washington post.

I'm sure you've noticed that everyone today
is talking about "the economy" in worried
tones.

"Where is the economy headed?" "The economy is up."
"The economy is down." And on and on and on.

Commentators look for "signs" about where things
are headed. Politicians beat their chests and
present bogus solutions.

Here's the deal for entrepreneurs:

There is no such thing as "the economy."

There's only your market and your customers...and the
whole game of entrepreneurship - the whole game - is
adapting successfully to circumstances whatever they
may be.

So let's face the Big Fear and get it out of the way
right now:

A deep recession, or even worse a full-fledged Depression.

*** Can the worst happen?

Sure it can and all the "rah rah" guys who are telling
you it can't are doing you a grave disservice.

This is reality and in reality ANYTHING can happen
and not all of it's nice.

Frankly, given the insane misbehavior in the credit
and banking industries in recent years, "the economy"
is probably due for more pain.

But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if
you are a real entrepreneur...and I'll PROVE it
to you right now:

Let's look at a really hard case...

The Great Depression of the 1930s.

Over 25% of Americans were out of work. Bread lines.
The Grapes of Wrath.

Total disaster, right?

Traumatic for many to be sure, but 75% were employed. These
folks continued to buy goods and services without so much
as a hiccup.

Because costs were so low - rents were cheap, salaries were low,
material costs were low - it was a great time to start a business.
In fact many of today's most successful businesses had their
roots in those "bad" days.

Just Google "founded in 1930" and check it for every year
of the 1930s. *Millions* of results come up.

For 1937, in two seconds I came up with Krispy Kreme; Kaplan, the
test preparation company; Saab, the auto maker; and T. Rowe Price,
the stock broker.

*** The so-called Depression was boom times for many

During the Depression entire industries experienced explosive
growth. "Little" ones like broadcasting.

Now, if you depend on a J-O-B and you have a limited skill set
that ties you into one industry, like selling sub-prime
mortgages or making gas-guzzling SUVs, you may be in trouble.

But the issue is not "the economy." It's never "the economy."

It's where YOU are and what you are doing.

Here's the reality:

No matter how bad things get, they never go to zero everywhere.
There are always big winners in every "economy."

The entrepreneur's job is to go where the action is.

Let's take an Internet example...

In 2002, you could see the tumbleweeds rolling down the
streets of the Internet marketing world.

Practically everyone had bet it all on the banner ad and then
suddenly banner ad prices crashed. It was a definite Depression
in the Internet advertising world... and many were caught
like deer in the headlights.

A lot of people closed shop and left the industry for good.

Then what happened?

At the very bottom of it all, Google came out with AdWords in
the spring of 2002 and the rest is history.

As a result, Google, which in 2001 had less net income than
I did, is now one of the richest businesses on the planet and
they've made it possible for countless entrepreneurs to build
multi-million dollar businesses.

So for heaven's sake, stop listening to all the drivel about
"the economy" and start paying attention to the Google-sized
opportunities that are laying around untouched in every economy.

That's what being an entrepreneur is all about.

*** Learn how Google does it

Speaking of Google, did you know that Google sent one of its
key executives to teach at the System Seminar this year?

Google has a very successful three-legged system to help
entrepreneurs make m'oney online:

AdWords (traffic), Google Analytics (tracking) and Google Website
Optimizer (testing.)

The System Seminar was one of the very first places on earth
you could go to learn the Google AdWords system long before
anyone else "got" it. (System grad Perry Marshall who gave that
early course went on to become of the top world's top AdWords
experts.)

Tracking traffic has been a System Seminar topic literally since
Day One. In fact, one of the students from our early trainings
way back in 1994 was the first online ad rep to provide "clickthrough
rate" data to his advertisers.

This year we completed the loop.

Tom Leung, Google's testing whiz, came to Chicago to show System
attendees how to get maximum profits from every advertising dime
they spend...using the very same techniques that Google uses when
they test.

Do you think Google has a little traffic to analyze?

Do you think they might have a few real world case studies
you can learn from?

Tom surprised us several times, especially when he pointed
out that some of the things taught by the gurus as
"traffic secrets" don't in fact work at all.

The phrase he used over and over was "I'd like to see their
data because our data says..."

I wonder who knows more about traffic and conversion, Google
or the latest overnight Internet Wunderkind?

Gotta be the wunderkind, right? After all, look at all the
cool cars he poses in front in his ads :-)

Seriously...

You missed System 2008 and I'm sincerely sorry that you
did. Not for my sake, but for yours.

It amazes me how many people there are struggling to succeed in
Internet marketing who have never made it to a single System
Seminar.

They're making it too hard on themselves.

Why would you not want to get the training that started
it all and that consistently cranks out more success stories
than all the other trainings combined?

*** Let me make it easier for you

For years, I have never sold the recordings of the
System Seminar. The reasons are somewhat complex, but it
boils down to this: I wanted to focus exclusively on the
quality of the live training.

Now, after teaching this stuff for 15 years and offering the
System Seminar for six, I think I've got the live training
where I want it.

If you missed System 2008, you missed something you will not
be able to recreate no matter how many "guru" offerings you
try.

But that doesn't mean you have to miss the boat.

This year, I'm changing something fundamental about how
I make the System Seminar available to people.

Read why this is going to be your best year in Internet marketing
ever and, while everyone else is worrying about "the economy,"
you're going to be laying the foundation of your new empire.

APPROVED!

eZine articles approved my rewritten article. YEAH BABY! and even better news is that they're going to feature it on the homepage. Know what that means?? submit more articles ASAP.

I also added a links page to my site and will be updating that later tonight with 15-20 more links. My store's getting regular clicks now and I'm curious to see how this will play out once I build more backlinks and rise in the SERPS. I was on the first page of google saturday but it's looking like the site's going up and down in the rankings. So I'll need somemore articles and backlinking.

Life Update

This week has been a good week. Busy but good. My micromanaging, manic depressive, OCD douchebag of a boss was on vacation. Needless to say the office was peaceful, I got alot done. I also sent out my resume wednesday for another position that's a bit over my head and to my pleasant surprise, they scheduled an interview the VERY next day. I didn't expect to hear from them until next week. I'm pleasantly surprised, it's a straight 9 -5 job, no overtime, no weekends, it's more money, and it's closer to home. I'd be taking the METRO (DC's version of a subway) to get there which isn't really that big a deal. I can park at the subway station and get home quickly. I'm excited, I haven't done project management full time, I'm more of a techie, BUT I've managed a big SOX compliance project at Fannie Mae last year. Now what in the hell does that have to do with BANS and internet business....... Be patient Wilbur I'm getting to it............
See, I've been listening to alot of Dan Kennedy's stuff, ya know the Phenomenon, Wealth Attraction for entrepreneurs, the No B.S marketing letter etc..... and I'm putting it into action and I'm seeing results. The money isn't flowing in yet but I'm seeing the stream rush faster and the momentum's building. It's exhilirating.(hope I spelled that right) One of the things he talks about was "simultaneous as opposed to sequential". In other words, doing multiple projects, implementing multiple systems at the same time to achieve exponential results. My other goals is multiple streams of income. Conventional wisdom says focus on one thing at a time and then move on to the next. A then B then C. Well that's fine, but there's a hidden group of millionaires in this country who's income is literally exploding in RIGHT NOW despite of this "economy". And what they're all doing is launching projects quickly, moving from one thing to the next and implementing multiple systems creating and launching multiple products at the SAME time. One millionaire - Scott Tucker said it best "success comes from a messy kitchen"
Sooooooo in that light I'm planning on moving to another full time position paying more money, so I can invest more in PPC campaigns, build more niche stores, as well as the fact that I've been implementing some cpa marketing campaigns and there's HUGE potential in that. As a matter of fact I just got my first check from market leverage, and while it's not a big check ($105), it's a start. I expect my next check to be double, maybe even triple that. NOW some would say, focus on BANS. Fine for you but I want to accelerate the time that I can tell corporate America to pucker up and Kiss my black ass! So I'm creating multiple income streams. Plus, I'm seeing that so much of this business can be automated, that once the initial system's in place, all that's left to do is scale it. By next month I expect to be earning $150-200 per day in CPA marketing, $200 per month with my profitable niche store with another one under construction that'll hit $200 per month in within 60 days of launching and $200 per month with bum marketing. Conservatively that'll put me at $5100 per month. I can't retire on that BUT, add that to my IT job money, that's more money to invest in ppc campaigns, and it allows me to buy tools to automate my other activities to scale the business. By October I expect to be at $300 per day with cpa marketing. And that's on the low end. It could and most likely will explode faster than that, but again, I'm being conservative. I'll be done working for "the Man" sometime next year "if I" so choose. The only reason I'll keep working is because I like my job, and I'll need that W2 income to buy a house. Once I'm in it, I can leave, but job $$$ is sweet. One of the best feelings I've known is to have a side hustle that pays you just as much if not more than the day job and your money can stack quickly. Now that I don't smoke dro and drink Remy like I used to it's stacking even faster.

Next move- NEW apartment then operation FHA - raise credit score to buy nice home.
Then by that time I'll be able to furnish the pimp pad LOVELY off cpa money.
Oh yeah, I also set a goal to buy myself a Jaguar XJ8 as a reward for making it through the last few years. I owe it to myself as I crashed my Lexus last year and I've been through ALOT since 06. I get knocked down by life and I keep getting up and pushing forward. By 2010 I plan on living the robb report lifestyle. And the results, and knowledge started moving forward when soggy took me under his wing. It was then that I saw results in my actions, had a plan to put in place and the plan's working. even though he's teaching me bans and SEO it opened my eyes to other opportunities and i can use what he's showing me on other projects. SEO is SEO and all sites need it.
I'm also considering setting up shop as a Local Search PPC Consultant for local mom and pop businesses in my area. That's sometime next year once I have some results to show them. But in closing I just want to say a big THANK YOU!!!!!!!! to soggy.
And Luke Sample. These guys are internet marketing genuises. Stay tuned..........

UPDATE: Dropped like a stalking boyfriend

Earlier this week I attempted to log into my epn account to check my bids and clicks. I had my browser set to remember my password, and it didn't work. I clicked the forgot password link and....... NOTHING HAPPENED. I was slightly pissed as I'd made some money and was thinking it may have disappeared. To add to my frustration, the epn folks didn't bother to send me an email so I figure I'm screwed. Well I contacted Soggy The Man-The Myth and he told me to fire off an email to them which I did. It was curse word laden so I saved it as a draft and sent off another, more civil, PG email asking what happened. EPN replied back today saying that there'd been some "suspicious bidding activity" at my store, whatever the f*ck that means.
Anyway, they said my account is active again and I'd receive my July earnings in the next pay cycle. I hope they haven't hosed any other money I may have made as my site is on the first page of MSN and Yahoo for 3 of my keywords. I'm also ranking higher than ebay in organic search, so I'm moving up. Once my articles go live in ezine, that should push me even higher. Stay tuned............

Is Ezinearticles anal retentive? or maybe OCD?

Or could it be that they're really thorough? Who knows, I haven't come to a conclusion on that. What I do know is that they kicked back one of my articles saying it was "too" keyword optimized. Apparently they have a ratio to determine how many times a keyword should appear per 100 words. Blah blah blah. To me it's bullshit, but I've got to edit my article to get it in their directory. The article sounded right to me. It's not like my particular keyword was used every other friggin word. But whatever, I'll edit it today and get it resubmitted.

In other news I've got another niche I'm going after and I'm not telling. I'm buying a domain today and will begin construction on it. To speed the process I may do some PPC as well as soggy's SEO program which works like a charm. It takes some time to see results but you will see results with patience. Now here's another question with my new store, should I do a regular bans with a custom template or will I go with a wordpress niche store? As it stands I'm leaning towards a wordpress store powered by the bans script. Why? Wordpress has 50 million themes, it has built in SEO features, Google likes it and finds it quickly and there are tons of SEO plugins to work with it. We'll see, I have a couple days to make a decision.

The joys of article marketing

I love article marketing. Especially when I DON'T have to write the articles. One of the biggest lessons I've learned about running a business, a real business is to outsource what you A. don't like doing, B. aren't good at doing, C. low dollar tasks that don't add to your bottom line so you can focus on MARKETING, MARKETING and more MARKETING. Writing articles was something that I really don't like doing, so when I found out that there were services out there that provided that, I was onboard. I joined www.need-an-article.com and so far I've been pleased. I send in a request for an article and it was finished that same day. As a matter of fact, later that evening when the system load was high. So far I'm pleased with them and will be using them more and more in the future.

The results are in!

The tedious work of optimizing pages, and links in the store have paid off. I'm on the front page of MSN for 2 keywords and yahoo for all 3 of my main keywords. It feels good to see some results of your hard work pay off. I'm looking forward to building more stores once i'm done with this class i'm taking. I'll be finished in 2 weeks and will have more time to devote to the store. I was considering purchasing an SEO book but after doing this work, i realized something: that can wait, i learn best by doing and seeing things pan out. The critical lessons I learned optimizing my site will be applied to all other sites i do, BANS or not. I feel as though I got a college education on search engines and how to get in them in the past 4 weeks.

I'd imagine that over the next few weeks organic traffic will begin to increase which will lead to bids and sales. As of last month the store made $46.48. Just think 2 more months like that and I can quit my job! sike, just kidding. it's paid the bill and then some and this was made on 196 clicks. So far this month I've had 50 clicks in ebay partner network and it's still the 1st week of the month. We'll see how much better this store does. My only wish was that I picked a tighter niche, but it's all water under the bridge now. I have to work with what I've got and the next store will be centered around a tighter niche which less "seo savvy" competition.