Best Home Business
Something which cropped up in a Skype conversation I had recently with a fellow marketer got me thinking; we were talking about how we conquered our fears of doing something different, moving out of that comfort zone of familiarity. The quote '20 seconds of bravery' was her way of dealing with that fear of the unknown, in other words just be brave for that short period of time and go ahead; make that call, knock on that door, whatever it is you were concerned about, be brave for just those 20 seconds it takes.
The quote is actually from the movie "We Bought A Zoo" (based on the memoirs of a British journalist who really did buy a zoo in Devon, England) and the exact words of the lead character (played by Matt Damon) were:
"Sometimes all you need is just 20 seconds of insane courage – literally, just 20 seconds of embarrassing bravery."
How many times have you stopped yourself from going out and doing something different, perhaps through fear of the uncertainty? People in full-time employment, for instance, who may be considering striking out on their own and doing something new but are held back because of the possible insecurity that would come with leaving a steady job. The thing which most people overlook is that their steady job may not always be there – what if your firm is taken over, or if you already work for a large firm, what if your department is outsourced? The latter happened to me several years ago and the lingering uncertainty which surrounded the office from that point on was worse than the fear of the unknown which comes with doing your own thing, because as an employee who was transferred across from one company to another, you have no control over your destiny. It is decided by unseen executives, those who only see employees as figures on a spreadsheet.
With the explosion in opportunities for ordinary people to earn a good living using the Internet, there are many ways in which you can take charge of your own life, your future and the security of your family. All you need to take that first step is that "20 seconds of embarrassing bravery" in order to get over your own fears. There are many people who have done just that and are enjoying the freedom that comes with taking charge of their own destinies, rather than have it determined for them by faceless executives.
If you're feeling brave for 20 seconds, that is all you need to click this link or fill in the details to the right for more information on how you can Map Your Life!
See you on the other side?
The dictionary definition of a contrarian is simply this: one who expresses a contradicting viewpoint , especially one who denounces the majority persuasion. Going along with the majority is not always the right thing to do; the majority of people once believed that the Earth was flat and those who theorised otherwise were considered mad. Only when science proved it beyond doubt did it become accepted that the Earth was indeed a sphere, those who thought that to be the case against popular opinion were contrarians.
Being a contrarian doesn't mean taking an opposing viewpoint for the sake of it; it means taking the viewpoint opposing the majority because you sincerely believe it to be the right one. Contrarians can exist in many walks of life, and one such contrarian who is well-known in the financial world is Warren Buffett. Buffett has become successful and wealthy by practising his beliefs, namely that the time to invest in a particular stock is when the price has been beaten down owing to the market's shortsightedness. A famous saying of Buffett is that one should “buy winter coats in the summer”; that is, buy something you will need in the future when the price is lower and there is little demand for it.
A good example of contrarian thinking today is in the world of finance. Most people are totally unaware of the way finance works and are saving in the wrong things. If you're putting your savings into a bank account, the interest that you will earn is such that when the time does come for you to retire, what you invested will not be worth very much at all. A contrarian would look at other ways to invest, tangible assets that do not depreciate. Investing in currency is what most are doing, but when you consider that banks in the US and worldwide have been printing more money in recent years (quantitative easing, as it is known), that money cannot be worth as much when more of it is in circulation. The financial crisis is not yet over, and in fact the signs are collapse is imminent. While it is still 'summer', one should be buying their 'winter coats' now and investing in things other than a fiat currency. Few people are even thinking about this, yet are working long hours and finding their bills increasing year on year, and having less and less to set aside for savings. Those that do save, are saving in the wrong things. Only the few who do understand that things cannot continue as they are with banks printing money to try and get out of debt, will be in a position to live comfortably in their later years.
To conclude: rather than think the exact same way as everyone else you know, your friends, family, co-workers, why not think the way the few do, the ones who are successful? Your friends and co-workers are unlikely to be rich, indeed they may be struggling to make ends meet as you may be yourself. To change that situation, you need to change your whole mindset.
I would like to invite you to view the short video linked here and to take the first step towards changing your mindset, changing the way you think about money and starting yourself on the road to financial freedom. Please click the link and fill in your details at the end for more information.
I'll see you on the inside!
I hope everyone has had a very happy Christmas and New Year.
The start of any new year is always a time for looking forward, and perhaps making plans for the coming 12 months. Most of you will be returning to work after the holiday, to the traffic jams, the crowded buses or trains, and the daily grind. You might even find that the bus or train fares have risen, eating further into your salary.
The past two years have seen severe economic turmoil and 2012 promises to be just as turbulent. Many more people are waking up to the realities about the global money system, and much of what is unfolding now has been foreseen by many of the experts that I am currently studying under. At a conference I attended in Las Vegas, my eyes were opened by what I heard from some very eminent speakers, some of whom came from an investment banking background.
If you are working for a monthly paycheck and finding it is having to stretch further and further, if you are burdened by debt, taxes, if you are finding that planning for your retirement is getting tougher and tougher, or if you have been looking at a franchise business and found that the start-up costs are prohibitive, the business of financial education could be for you. One thing is clear, a storm is brewing and when it comes there will be two groups of people: those who are financially educated and those who are not.
The company I am with (Wealth Masters) offers several levels of financial education; from a multimedia course encompassing audio, video and the Internet, to conferences held in locations worldwide.
I would like to invite you to watch the video presentation which I have linked here and if you have any questions, please contact me.
For further details please see the site linked at the bottom of this post and I look forward to seeing you on the inside!
We've all been to networking meetings I'm sure, where the person you are talking to is eager to get straight into whatever it is he or she is pitching. They talk at length about the product and what it can do, without ever thinking first what it is the person that they are talking to actually does.
If you've ever been to a corporate presentation, or perhaps if you are working and your company has outsourced the department off to a contractor, you will have seen all the slides about the new company's history and their achievements. Whether you are being sold something, or are being sold off yourself, the chances are you did not care two hoots about the company's history!
In both scenarios the selling is pushed on you, and you are naturally put straight onto the defensive. Who is this man/woman, what do they want from me and why are they pitching their product so hard? When people come to networking meetings, or even network online, it is because they are looking for something, most likely a solution to their problem. They don't care about the history of the vendor, they only care whether or not you can help them in the way they are looking for.
In short, they are looking for a leader. Someone who can show them how they can achieve their goals, not someone who wants to sell them yet another product. They want to be pointed in the right direction, not simply parted from their cash. The best marketers understand that before people will buy from them, they have to sell themselves as a leader, as an expert, first.
When you are able to show yourself as a leader, then people will come to you instead of you chasing after them. This is the basic principle behind Attraction Marketing.
In attraction marketing, you first of all need to have your own presence on the World Wide Web. This usually means a blog, and you can either use a free online platform like Blogger or Posterous, or you could self-host using Wordpress. The latter involves a little more setting up, but you have greater flexibility. Your home page should be branded to announce yourself to the world, that means a picture of yourself and a short tagline. Say who you are, and what you are about (an 'About Me' page is usually the way to achieve this). Alternatively, if you are on Facebook, why not link to your profile or page? (Your profile would need to be professionally-oriented, which is a subject for another blog).
Make sure your site is clean, well-laid out and easy to read. Templates are readily available for Wordpress which fulfil all these requirements, or you can choose a similarly-clean template for Blogger or Posterous from their selection. If you are feeling adventurous, you could design one yourself or have it made for you professionally. Remember – keep it simple!
Avoid pushing your product onto people – this can't be stressed enough! Attraction marketing works by providing value, leadership, to your visitors and this can be anything from regular tips given from your blog, perhaps a downloadable PDF file with some helpful information on it, or a short video clip with useful content. The essential thing is content – provide good, helpful content and you will be seen as a leader who provides value.
Anyone who comes across your site is likely to be a new internet marketer themselves. They're almost certainly confused, and are looking for someone who can help them understand the way the industry works. You should become that someone! Even if you yourself are a newbie, if you have something of value to share, then share it! All people want is a way to make their life easier, a way to work smarter and perhaps to save some money. Rather than pitch your latest whizzo product at them, you will get their attention more easily by offering them something of value.
In short, you are selling yourself first, not your product. Once you are established as a leader, it won't matter what you are selling – provided you are continuing to offer value people will naturally be interested in what you have to offer. Attraction marketing is a skill-set that not too many understand, but those who do, are the ones who are the highest earners.
Now that you understand the principle of attraction marketing, you can learn more about how to take advantage of this strategy with a free webinar. Yes, I said 'Free' (remember – offer value!) 
If you would like to know more about Attraction Marketing from some of the industry's top producers please follow the link by clicking the image below.
If you watched the video of the speech by G. Edward Griffin (I know, it was lengthy) which I posted in an earlier blog, you may have heard him mention fractional reserve banking.
When I first heard about this myself it shocked me how easy it is for money to be created out of nothing. The fact that money is no longer backed by precious metals such as gold or silver but instead is simply conjured up, was actually quite hard for me to grasp. Most people are totally unaware this is going on; they are not educated about finance.
For those who didn't watch the whole thing, or have not read Griffin's book 'The Creature from Jekyll Island' then I'll attempt to explain the fractional reserve system.
Essentially, a bank which has, say, $100 deposited in it from a customer, can then loan out a multiple of that $100 to other customers. The limit it can loan out is determined by how much it holds in its vault; so if, say, the amount it can loan out is at a ratio of 9 to 1, it can loan out $900 for every $100 it actually holds. The animated short I am posting here is a simplifed history of how banking started, and it also explains fractional reserve banking:
The last part I found particularly interesting: in the event of a run on a bank, the central bank would support them with emergency infusions of gold. The United States is no longer on the gold standard, so what do the central banks support the smaller member banks with now? Bailouts? Ultimately they're paid for by the taxpayer. So whenever a bank fails, the taxpayer picks up the tab to replenish it. Marvellous (!)
For an eye-opening documentary on the conspiracy against your money, please click the image.
I've recently become aware of a powerful new platform called TribePRO, which uses social networks to gain rapid exposure for your website, through something they call 'The Tribe'.
What do they mean by the Tribe? Essentially, it is a grouping of like-minded internet entrepreneurs, which helps you to spread around your website, blog posts, videos, or other content to their social networks which are already built. The upshot is that your brand becomes expanded, you generate more of a 'buzz' online and therefore increase traffic to your website.
The whole point is to leverage the use of social networking (which we all know is essential to market online these days) and save you time. Instead of trying to syndicate your content yourself, let the Tribe do the work! In the words of the people from TribePRO themselves, Socialise, Share, and Succeed!
There are three pricing platforms which offer more features the higher you go, but you can sign up as a free member right now and see for yourself what TribePRO can offer you.
See how you can share your message across social networks with minimal effort! Just follow the linked image and join the Tribe:
I saw a report today that a company importing bananas has been fined over £7million because it was involved in a price-fixing cartel.
Such cartels are of course illegal, and are rightly punished by anti-trust authorities (in this case, the European Union). However, there is another, long-established cartel which operates quite freely and with the co-operation of the government with which is it partnered: the US Federal Reserve.
A little background on how the Fed came into being, for which I am indebted to G. Edward Griffin (The Creature from Jekyll Island, ISBN 978-0912986456).
The Fed is not, as many believe, a US government agency. It is no more 'Federal' than Federal Express! It came into being in 1910, at a highly-secret meeting between leading bankers at a place called Jekyll Island, Georgia. The banks were concerned because whenever there was a run on a bank, and people wanted their money but could not pay (a consequence of Fractional Reserve banking, a subject which is for another blog), the banks went bust. So several of these banks met up, in total secrecy, and got together and agreed to set up the cartel.
Now as I said before, cartels are illegal. The reason this one is not, is because they actually went into partnership with the US government and had their agreement passed into law by Congress. And so, by 1913, the Federal Reserve Act came into being. It was sold to the people as a way of actually protecting them against the large banks and their grip on the economy – but it was actually created by the same large banks!
So we have the situation whereby it is not the government who controls the money supply of the United States, it is the banks in a cosy cartel. Understand that and it begins to become clear why there is always a 'bailout' or 'stimulus package', whenever one of these banks gets into trouble. The cost is always placed on the taxpayer, i.e. the ordinary person, however.
Of course, whoever controls the supply of money is effectively in charge of the country, no matter who is elected as 'President'.
Back to our banana cartel: it was exposed because one company blew the whistle to the authorities. That's never going to happen with the banking cartel called the Federal Reserve though: it is in partnership with the government, therefore all parties are committed to the system.
Besides, if a fine was imposed, given what we know – who would pay? The taxpayer, of course!
Mr Griffin's book is still available and is recommended reading, but you can hear much of what he says at a speech he gave in 1994. This was several years before the crisis which is now upon us, and it was entirely predictable.
Put simply: There is a conspiracy against your money. It is better to be educated about the financial reality than not, and for more about this please either put in your details in the box to the right (on ronniesoo.com), or click this link:
In the old days before there was such a thing as the Information Superhighway, businesses needed to be able to get people through their doors. The amount of 'traffic' they generated was vital, so placement of their premises was important. A business sited on a busy street would always get more people than one tucked away in a quiet side street.
The difference today is that everyone on the Internet can live on the same virtual 'street'. Therefore it is easier to get traffic through your virtual door than it was in the old days, but although there are more potential eyeballs for your business, you still have to attract them to your site.
To get traffic through to your website, you need to rank well in the search engines. This is so obvious, yet 99 percent of websites fail because they fall foul of just one of four "golden rules" of search engine optimisation.
You may have your website all ready to go, articles, content and everything all set up, yet you're not getting the traffic you hoped for. A great piece of software which I've been using for some time now helps even the internet marketing newbie generate more traffic to their websites, and as we all know, more traffic means more leads, more purchases!
The software is available as a free trial and you can go ahead and try it out for yourself right now. In addition, you will also get sent 4 short video tutorials which will show you how to get much more visitors to your site.
I have this software myself and can attest to how powerful it is – you can see what keywords give a good search ranking, what do not, and which has low competition. This is absolutely essential stuff!
To get your hands on your free trial download and training videos, just click this link.
Market Samurai Traffic Hunting Software
One of the key concepts for the new internet marketer to grasp is search engine optimisation (SEO) or, put simply, how to get your site to appear in the search engine rankings for a given search term.
There are many ways to tweak your site so that it is search-engine friendly; making sure your chosen keyword appears in the title, the body text, even in any image titles are basics for what is known as on-page SEO.
However the real benefit is in off-page SEO, and that entails generating backlinks TO your website from other websites. The common method of achieving this is through Article Marketing; that is to write an article relating to whichever niche it is you are marketing and to submit that to article directories along with a backlink to your own site, with the link suitably titled to include your keyword of course (something known as 'anchor text').
At this point you may be thinking: "oh no, does this mean I have to write lots of articles and submit them to a raft of different websites to get the backlinks?" Yes it does, but there are ways to make the process easier.
One such way is to use the Article Marketing Robot. You can find out more by clicking the link, but essentially what it does is take a lot of the drudgery out of the process, by using the tool to submit your article automatically to a whole variety of article hosting sites out there. It can schedule your articles to go up when you want, or it can 'blast' them. One other feature which the new marketer will find essential is the 'spin' feature. This allows you to change aspects of the article text so that the exact same wording doesn't appear everywhere. For search engines to recognise the links, this is vital.
Presently they are offering the tool as a 30-day no quibble trial; try it out for 30 days and if unsatisfied, they will refund your money. The tool is already available at a discounted rate and is a highly-recommended tool if you need to boost your search engine rankings. Click the image to order:
If you're new to internet marketing and you are looking at setting up your own website, you'll see there are a whole heap of providers out there.
You may have heard of GoDaddy; one of the biggest and best-known providers on the market. They offer good prices and claim over 8 million users. Recognised by the industry as a leader in the fight against online fraud such as phishing, and against spam, GoDaddy can be seen as a safe bet when looking for a provider. If you are considering your own site you will be looking at setting up Wordpress – GoDaddy offers support for MySQL and PHP, but do choose the Linux hosting option for PHP to work.
Alternatively, you may wish to consider Hostgator. Also offering competitive prices, they advertise unlimited disk space, bandwidth and guarantee 99.9 percent uptime. Hostgator also use the popular cPanel interface which is specifcally designed to make the entire process of hosting a website that much easier. Of course hostgator also supports PHP and MySQL, for when your Wordpress masterpiece is ready.
Whichever you choose to go with (and there are many more out there besides the two I mentioned) do make sure they offer all the features you need; for instance not every provider offers PHP support out of the box. Also, if you were considering a bespoke content management system for your website, that system may not allow you to use your own server-side code and you may be forced to work with what they offer. You may also not like the interface on some CMS systems.
A couple of years ago I worked alongside some colleagues who were agents for one popular CMS, now owned by one of the biggest technology companies in the world. Although it was powerful, and great for someone who just wants a website out of the box, it wasn't long before I found the system too restrictive to work with for my marketing purposes. For instance, it did not support PHP, and the interface was difficult to work with; it was designed to resemble Microsoft Word and only provided a small window in which to enter content or code. The CMS was meant to be an all-in-one solution, and it was a tough sell to small businesses who may already have some parts working and were understandably reluctant to throw all that out in favour of a completely new setup.
For these reasons I have changed to using Wordpress myself; the system is remarkably straightforward to set up and there are all manner of 'plugins' you can obtain (free) which vastly increase the functionality. For a marketer such as myself, Wordpress fits the bill far better than a hosted CMS which may be more orientated towards an actual online store. Wordpress's roots are in blogging, and as any internet marketer will tell you, content is king. Frequently updating content is vital and the SEO-friendly nature of Wordpress makes it more suitable for this business.
But – I'm getting ahead of myself. To have a site, first you need a provider. Either of the two I suggested will suit the new internet marketer (or you can do your own investigations) and I shall provide links to both GoDaddy and Hostgator here:
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+Ronnie Soo
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Former IT technician turned internet marketer and blogger, with an interest in the ever-changing world of search engine optimisation and the use of Social Media for business.
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Former IT technician turned internet marketer and blogger, with an interest in the ever-changing world of search engine optimisation and the use of Social Media for business.
Copyright © 2011 Ronnie Soo. All Rights Reserved.
