Buried Under the Hype

I checked my inbox yesterday evening and saw what seemed like a newsletter from Joe Vitale (and being as neurotic as I am, I glean his words with a fine toothed comb to see if I can discover any wonderful copywriting tips or nuances in his word selection).

I didn’t think it was an absolute literary masterpiece, but it was certainly well written. That’s when I got another newsletter, and one paragraph stuck out like a sore thumb:

But what you may not know is that he’s getting
married. Not only that, but he and his bride-to-be
have a lot more in common than most couples.

I thought to myself…hmmm…that looks extremely familiar, come to find out it was the same newsletter that Joe had sent out — verbatim.

This morning, again I find myself receiving the same damn sales letter from yet another marketer…at least thing one included his own introductory paragraph which made it a little more difficult to spot.

I have but one thing left to say about all the hype that’s floating around: it sucks. Chances are this program they’re all promoting is no better than the programs you already have collecting dust on your bookshelf.

It’s very apparent that the only reason most gurus even run a newsletter anymore is just so they can shove “the next best thing, end all, be all, you’re nothing if you don’t have it” product in their subscribers’ faces. It really is sickening.

While I respect Joe and the other newsletters I subscribe to, if they can’t even write up their own personal endorsement for the product, I don’t see myself purchasing it and I really don’t see any reason to continue as a subscriber.

So, before you go throwing money at someone because the guru in your inbox told you so…stop…take a deep breath and investigate whether it’s a true product endorsement or if they’re just trying to earn a commission off of you.

The Sad Truth About Working for Yourself

Today sucked to put it mildly.

I had a toothache. Not just any toothache. I had a throbbing, painful, so bad that I stayed in bed and cried toothache. I got no work done, not even for my clients.

I’ve scheduled an appointment with my dentist, but because it’s “not an emergency” I will have to wait – in pain, and to make matters worse – I ran out of Advil (and I don’t have any other pain killers in my home).

When I’m in pain, it’s hard for me to stay conscious (literally). It’s definitely hard to drive when you can’t stay conscious.

It’s evening now and this is the first time I have been able to sit at my computer without screaming out in pain all day. I’m hoping that I can stay conscious long enough to go to the store and get some pain killers.

Since I work for myself there was no work done today – sucky. And since I am my sole source of income, days like this definitely hinder the flight to financial freedom…gosh I hope tomorrow is better.

I’ll be meditating on it.

First, We Learn

Since I am achieving my goals by utilizing some foreign techniques (to me, at least), I figured it was time for me to collect some reading material. I decided that I will not choose to learn “the hard way” – it’s kind of redundant, and if someone’s already done it for me, why in the world would I put myself through the same torture .

<sidenote>
When starting an online business, it’s a good idea to budget for business expenses such as learning materials, domain registration, hosting, and marketing costs.
</sidenote>

I mentioned earlier that I purchased Google Adsense Secrets Revealed: What Google Never Told You About Earning Money With AdSense and I highly recommend it.

I am very glad I own this book because it will help me in structuring my three content sites. A full review has been placed on my “neverending” to-do list.

I’ve also purchased James Martell’s 2005 Affiliate Marketer’s Handbook and I will be structuring my main content site based on it’s instruction.

It’s a fairly thick book and something I probably won’t get through in the next day or two, but I feel it will definitely help me in the long run. It’s one of those “long term business” plan type books (and it’s definitely good to have a long term business plan). I’ve also added a full review on my “neverending” to-do list.

Total business expense for learning materials so far: $246 (it may even be tax deductible – please consult your accountant because I’m not one).

Both of these books were pricey to me (if you haven’t already picked up on it, I’m very cheap). I did my research to see if I could get by without these two sources, I asked trusted friends and did some research on the authors. I weighed the pros and cons and realized, I will probably earn more and faster with these books than without.

While most of the information in these book can be found online with a lot (and I do mean a lot) of research, tracking, notation, & trial and error, I don’t have that kind of time.

My best advice, do what’s best for you to get you where you need to be. If you cannot afford the outlay for instruction right now, you’re going to have to roll up your sleeves and work a little harder.

My final education purchase will be regarding traffic generation. In order for the AdSense revenue to come pouring in, I will need quality traffic and quality rankings.

That’s all for now. I’ll update when I’ve found a suitable program for getting traffic.

Accountability, It’s Not Just a Word in the Dictionary

Apparently, this is a hard concept for people to grasp, but we cannot control the actions (or inactions) of anyone but our own self. To further this point, we are not responsible for anyone’s actions (or inactions) but our own. Let that sink in for a few moments.

The first thing I tell my clients when they approach me is that they will be held accountable for their portion of the project. I will not do their projects for them, I will do their projects with them.

They will receive a to do list, I will receive a to do list, and we each receive a time line. Under no circumstance will the other person be liable if one of us does not get a task done properly or on time. We both need to deal with the consequences of our own actions.

I should note that accountability and consequences are two different things and consequences are not necessarily bad.

If we both complete our portions of the project as outlined, the consequence is having a wonderfully completed project (good). If one of us does not complete our portion of the project, the consequence can be a delay in the project (bad).

Having accountability means that if there is a hiccup, we can look through what needed to be done, but wasn’t – then correct it.

If a client is unwilling to be held accountable for their own actions, then that is a client you do not need or want. It’s usually the indicator of a person who doesn’t want to do anything for himself and wants someone else to run his life for him.

If a person shows that they do not want to be responsible for their own actions – then that person has another think coming and it’s someone you should disassociate from ASAP. You may just find yourself being blamed for something you had no control over.

With that said – remember that you are only in control of yourself. Control over anything else is an illusion. Live your life to the best of your ability. Say what you mean, do what you say, and mean what you do because you are responsible for it.

Getting Stuff Done

Today was definitely better than yesterday and 100 times better than the day prior to yesterday.

I got a lot of work done for my affiliate site and also found some inspiration for future affiliate sites.

I initially set my goal to get at least 5 inbound links to my affiliate site. Somehow, I found myself on a linking hayday and by the time I finished I had requested (manually by emailing webmasters) 5 link exchanges and submitted my URL to 20 website directories. Yep, 25 inbound links (20 are confirmed).

I found a good number of link partners simply by doing a Google search and submitting URLs to the first 2-3 pages of results. The search term I used was allintitle: keywords directory (substitute keywords with your website’s keywords or niche).

Another good thing is it really didn’t take me all that long – it was an hour of my time well spent. I also got some more good news when I checked my stats and I see that Googlebot finally decided to make his way to my site. He crawled most of the pages and he was the last of the three big boys to get there.

And before I close up this post for the evening. I finally broke down and applied to another affiliate because I have not heard any word from the initial company I applied to. I think their affiliate manager is asleep at the wheel. The only problem with the new company is that I cannot link directly to specific products, so I am still holding out for the first affiliate company.

The website is almost done and I will be adding the search script tomorrow and I will be promoting my website’s directory so that I will obtain even more link partners.

Oh yea, one more thing – I’m finally due to get my first check from Google this month and I am extremely excited. Since I cannot disclose actual numbers, suffice it to say that it’s a larger payout than I expected.

That’s the business update.