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Posts Tagged ‘Tips’

I received this by email the other day from Willie Crawford so please take notice.

“First of all, DON’T click on ANY LINK in ANY Skype message that you get from me.  I rarely send links in Skype messages unless I am already in the middle of a conversation with you.

Apparently, my Skype account has been hi-jacked, which means that my hundreds of Skype contacts likely received a phishing message trying to get you to click on a link, where upon you’ll be prompted to log back into your Skype account, and they will hijack the account.  I don’t remember going through all that, but I DO remember a cryptic email from a friend (who normally sends fairly cryptic emails) asking me to take a look at something.

I intuitively asked what it was before clicking on the link, and was satisfied enough with the also cryptic response that I clicked on it.

At that point, Skype started to download something to my computer, and I stopped the download, but Skype logged me out, and when I logged back in, I guess that’s where the damage was done!

Over the next hour or so, I got emails and phone calls from a dozen friends telling me that they think my Skype account has been compromised… and they based that upon the REALLY poor English in the Skype messages they were getting.

One friend pointed me to this link which explained what was likely going on: http://getincomeblog.com/tag/cyber-vandals/

Skype doesn’t seem to have a convenient way for you to deal with the issue, a support ticket could take days to get a response… and there is no number on their site that I could find.  The hacker apparently changed the contact details to HIS email address, so I can’t retrieve the new password (since he apparently changed it) and I can’t delete the account.

Stay tuned, but I don’t currently have control of MY old Skype account.  I thought of starting a new one, but will try to resolve the issue through channels.  Skype has done one thing that indicates they are aware of the problem.

Starting a new account would mean that I’d lose the 500 or so contacts that I had in my account… many of whom I routinely communicated with

Apparently, this problem is pretty big, which is why I’m sending you this alert.

Willie Crawford”

Please keep this in mind next time you receive a link in Skype, even if it is from someone you know.

20 Productivity Boosting Methods For The Positive Mind

Individuals can get engrossed in the details of their lives and chase the next big thing without finding time to complete the projects they previously started. When faced with all of their incomplete projects, they often become deluged and start to procrastinate. You’ll find that their productivity decreases and they don’t produce the results or environment you’re used to seeing. What are the things on your list of things that need to get done?

Discover how you can…

• Get Rid Of It and Setting Daily Goals
• Dreaded First and Apex Cycles Of Productiveness
• No Communication Times and Micro-Mileposts
• Time Framing and Wake Early
• Pacing and Clear The Clutter

People who struggle in business and life will find these things in common:

• They don’t know how to set goals.
• They have no idea how to find their productive times of the day
• They are struggling with the idea of micro-mileposts.
• They also don’t understand time framing!

The time is right for you to  make the necessary changes needed for you to be successful!

 

Yes, I’m UPSET (No Furious) about them and I feel they have no place in Internet Marketing. I take a great deal of pride in NOT using them. I hope this matters to you. It sure does matter to me.

I have seen them for quite some time, but in the last few months, they have been EVERYWHERE!

You know the ones:

“CREDIT PENDING On Your Account”
“Download Request: ZH74L96WE – Please retain for your records!”
“RE: Refund”
“RE: DELIVERY NOTIFICATION”
“Order Confirmation – please save this email”
“Verification Email (Action Required)”

…and the list goes on.

What? Do these “other” marketers think everyone on their list is stoopid? (yes, I know I misspelled stupid) Did you really order something and forget that you did? Did you “REALLY” ask them for a refund?

They are simply playing with your mind just to get you to open their emails and that is WRONG! In my opinion, this is deceptive, unethical and ridiculous, maybe even cheating. You be the judge. They may and I said may even be breaking some of the rules in the can-spam act which is a law not just an “act”.

It is also giving us (myself included) a bad name in this business.  I’m fighting for every “opened” email I can get and yes, people in general are not opening as many emails as they once were. I am not a rich man monetarily, not even close. I am though “rich” in my beliefs that being honest, ethical and sincere is what is expected of me. It IS the right way to conduct yourself both in business as well as your personal life.

I will always believe that a subscriber list whether it be 100 or 10 thousand and worked hard for in a honest and ethical way is better than a “list” of 50 or 100 thousand that was achieved through deception and/or unethical practices or shall we say “TRICKERY”.

Which list would you be proud of? Do you like this being done to you? Do you feel insulted by this kind of marketing?

I bet you don’t care for it and I’d love to hear from you about it.  In a fairly short even one sentence statement, I would greatly appreciate your input.

I have set up a dedicated email address for this and if you would be so kind, please click the link and send me your thoughts on this matter. I will compile all responses after 5 days or so and share them with my fellow honest and ethical marketers plus send them out to you as a newsletter so you can see what other’s thoughts and opinions are.
A fellow IM’er,  Randy Koehler, wrote this email and I agree totally with what he has to say.  If you’ve been on my list for any length of time, you know that I have never sent subject lines like those and never will. If you would like to comment on these subject lines, send Randy and email at
goodmarketing@marketing-your-way.com

Any and all comments are welcome even if you think this form of  marketing is acceptable, I’d like to hear from you because I value every single person’s opinion that this letter will reach. Heck, tell a friend about it if you’d like.

I ask that you not be offended in any way by this email, but if you are, I’d love to hear from you as well. 

————- My thoughts on this subject…..

What I’ve usually do is go through and delete the emails with these or similar subject lines but now I will just be unsubscribing from them even though some that I’ve received have been from well known Internet marketers.  I know they are human just like me and there is no excuse for these sorts of subject line but it is still disappointing to see them using these.

I have received some comments so far from my mailing today on this subject, here is one and I will post more as I receive them.  Please feel free to post your thoughts about this subject and to send Randy your comments as well.

“Hi Martha,

YES!!!!!  I am VERY tired of those kinds of subject lines!  I have
tried to complain to marketers about it but most of them can’t be
reached easily and the few that have replied to my complaint always
defended their actions – so now I handle it much differently…

Whenever I receive emails from marketers with misleading subject lines
(and those I’ve listed below especially!) I ALWAYS do 2 things…

FIRST – I unsubscribe from any and ALL lists I may be on that belong
to that marketer…

SECOND – I delete every single email I ever got from that marketer
(often there are hundreds!).

Extreme?  Maybe – but that’s just how much I do NOT like those kinds
of tactics and if that’s the sort of thing the marketer is teaching then I do not want his emails taking up space in my inbox!
Some of the subject lines that irk me the most (in case you’re compiling a list) say something like…

“Paypal Payment Received” (or some such wording to imply you made a
paypal sale)…
…since I have a couple of websites that take Paypal payments this type of email always feels like a mean, juvenile prank.

“Clickbank Order Received” (or wording to that effect to imply a clickbank sale was made)…
…I also sell a product through Clickbank so these are just more mean, juvenile pranks.

“Re: Fill-in-the-blank”…
…any email with “Re:” in the subject implies that it’s a reply to something I sent (and it never is) – very misleading!

“CANCELLED By myName”…
…then after opening I find it has nothing to do with anything I may have cancelled – I’m relieved at first (because I don’t remember canceling anything) and then I feel angry that someone got me concerned and worried for nothing!

And like you said – the list goes on.

Please forward my thoughts to as many marketers as you wish – post it
on as many websites as you wish – or whatever.  You have my permission
to do anything you wish with any part of this email if it will help with this problem – it really is getting out of hand.

Thank you very much for allowing me to rant and share my irritation -
I feel much better now.

Have a terrific day today! 

Lynn”

Here is another comment…

”

Hi Martha.

Hope all is going well for you. Nice to hear from you.

I cannot agree with you more about these email subjects!

There have been many marketers doing this. I had been on one very popular marketers list since 2007 and got one from him a few days ago. Opened it and unsubscribed without giving it a second thought.

I am a really busy person and do not have time to read emails like these. There is a time set aside to read marketers emails.  When I get one that makes me think I need to stop and take action right then and there, ticks me off big time. Disrupts my time and thoughts.

Very glad you brought this up and as always, enjoy reading your emails.

Sincerely,

Terry Jett”

I received this earlier today and I knew I had to pass this
on to my readers.
Here’s what I found in the ‘Million Dollar Script Box with MRR’
after a cursory examination:

~ epay clone: Copyright (c) 2002-2003 Any redistribution without
permission of Todd M. Findley is strictly forbidden. (in index.php)

~ hotscripts.com clone: site name, email address, etc., from a
known hack / crack / rip-off site (Mafia Scripts) in config.php -
SCRIPT RIPPED OFF

~ imageshack.us clone: index page appears to be directly
ripped-off from image shack as almost every link in it is one of
theirs…

` myspace.com clone: index.php file is branded by ‘liquidice’
which upon a google search turns out to be a hack / crack group.

~ tinyurl.com clone: // Copyright(C), E-FoRuMTuRK LiNK ! . 2006 ,
All Rights Reserved. All forms of reproduction, including, but not
limited to, internet posting, printing, e-mailing, faxing and
recording are strictly prohibited. One license required per site
running E-FoRuMTuRK LiNK – script old & ripped off

~ xdrive.com clone: the config.php file is branded by scriptz.ws
which, upon another google search turns out to be another hack /
crack group. script ripped-off.

Should I keep going on or have you seen enough?

Obviously NetActivated.com will NOT be listing this script
package, and you shouldn’t either…

You could get in SERIOUS trouble for using or selling some of
these scripts.

Pass this on to your lists as well.

 

Owning your own business is a dream for many people. Being able to
call your own shots and set your own hours is certainly an
appealing idea. However, often people realize their dream only to
discover that working on their own and running their own business
is much more difficult than they ever expected.

 

There is a lot more to running your own business than simply
working day by day. There are distractions at every turn and often
people find it difficult to actually get anything accomplished. For
all these people who are struggling, what they need to do is focus.

Usually when you’re trying to run your own business, you have more
than one project going at once. So the first thing you need to make
sure you focus on is one project at a time. Beyond the projects,
you also want to make sure you have a very clear focus of what you
want to accomplish and how much money you want to make.

 

Before you can even begin to get focused you first need to make
sure you’re organized. If you’re one of those people who cringes
when the word “organization” is mentioned then don’t worry. You
just need to get organized enough so that you know what needs to
get done. This means you need to make a schedule that includes both
what you need to complete long-term and what you need to do for
that day.

 

Once you know what you need to get done on a specific day then you
need to focus on just those tasks. So break the tasks down even
further. How long will each of them take you? When exactly will you
work on them? Once you know these things then you just need to
focus on each task when you’re supposed to be doing it. In other
words, don’t worry about anything else except what you’ve planned
to focus on.

 

You want to be able to focus on each project and you also want to
keep track of how long each project takes you to complete. Then you
need to keep track of how much money you make from each project.
That way you can tell how productive you’re being. You can even
chart exactly how much money you’re making each hour and each day. This way you’ll be able to focus on the projects that are most profitable for you.

 

When you go into business for yourself, you can quickly lose
yourself in the avalanche of everyday tasks and your long-term
goals. That’s why it’s so important to focus on exactly what you
want to do.

 

Becoming focused and staying that way will help you know exactly
what needs to be done each day so that you are productive each day.
Focus will also help you complete your long-term goals faster and
focus will allow you to know how much money you are making per day, per week, and per project.

 

Focus will help you be more successful daily and with your entire
business.

 

The REAL Secret to Building A High-Profit Internet Business

By Jimmy D. Brown

My wife laughs every time she sees me doing it.

At least once or twice every week, I’ll be at my desk (or
at the dining room table) with my Franklin Covey planner
open and a stack of laminated checklists in hand.

“What are you doing, honey?” she calls, already knowing
the answer.

“I’m planning”, I reply with a smile.

She laughs and I get back to work.

She laughs because she swears I spend half of my time
“planning”.  But, if you ask me how I’m able to get as
much work done as I do in only 3 hours a day, I’ll point
to a black Franklin Covey planner with about a dozen
laminated checklists inside.

Building an Internet business is easy.  Seriously.  I’m
not saying that it’s not complicated, because it is.  I’m
just saying that it’s easy to accomplish if you just have
a system in place.

There’s very little in this world that can’t be
accomplished with the right set of action steps in front
of you.

Today, I’m going to give you such a system for building
your Internet business.  There are only 4 steps…

1. Decide What You Want To Do.  Do you want to run an
eBay(R) business?  Be an affiliate marketer? Buy and sell
reprint rights?  Get involved in niche marketing? While
all of those things will likely find their way into your
plan in time, you gotta begin with one thing at a time.

My recommendation:  Choose a “broad” topic you are
interested in and begin building a list of folks interested
in that topic.

2. Determine A Weekly Action Plan.  After you decide what
you want to do, it’s time to determine how to get it done. 
What I do is this:  I create a weekly set of action steps. 
That is,I have a set of things I do on Monday, on Tuesday
and so forth. Decide how many hours (as little as ONE) you
want to work each day and schedule yourself a reasonable
amount of things to get done in that time frame.  Repeat
this process week after week.

My recommendation:  Begin writing ezine articles to
promote your list … and affiliate programs.  It’s the
easiest way to get free traffic and build your list at the
same time.

3. Devote Yourself To Staying On Schedule.  The important
thing here is to stick to it.  The easiest way that I know
of to make certain you develop discipline in your schedule
is to NOT set unrealistic expectations.  Give yourself ample
time to do each day’s action step – don’t overschedule. 
Look for progress along the way to celebrate.  Reward
yourself when you’ve reached a milestone.  And, remember,
you’re GROWING a business.  Just like physical growth, it
takes time … it WILL happen if you remain committed.

My recommendation:  Weave in simple activities related to
the following categories – List building (ezine articles),
product creation(conduct interviews or hire ghostwriters),
site development (making your site convert more visitors into
buyers)and education (continuing to learn new ways to grow
your business)

4. Develop Additional Shortcuts.  As you get better and
better at working with your lists, creating products and
tweaking your site,you’ll want to continue to improve your
business with new ideas,strategies, tools and resources. 
The key is simple:  never stop learning!

Visit forums.  Read articles.  Download reports.  Identify
sites and resources that CONTRIBUTE to your success in
educating you. You want faster results, bigger increases,
automated processes,and other ways to get more accomplished
and more profit, with less work involved.

Everything depends on your developing a plan and sticking to
it.

And that is the REAL secret to building a high-profit
Internet business!

——————————
Jimmy D. Brown is the owner of the “List And Traffic” membership
site, teaching thousands of internet business owners
specific things they can do every week to multiply profits. 
For video training, weekly updated content and printable
checklist “systems” for growing your business,
drop by http://bit.ly/cc5CpR
——————————

 

The amount of awesome blogging resources on the net today is outstanding, and can truly make any average blog a special one in no time. There are millions of resources for you to tap into when it comes to blogs, a few of the best ones are highlighted here for your consideration.

Blogger.com is a website owned, and operated by Google that allows users to post blogs for free, and make money with AdSense. While blogger.com lacks the power of a WordPress, it is easy for those that are interested in implementing their AdSense ads in a simple, little code, manner.

WordPress.com is another blog publishing software that is known on the net as the most powerful, and sophisticated blog publishers out there. WordPress is also free, and allows users to build blogs that are much more advanced than a blogger.com site would be. WordPress.com also allows users to customize their blog more than most, and even implements free plug-ins that are also worthwhile.

Blogrankings.com is another great site that ranks all the latest and greatest blogs. The value of this site is to look at what other top bloggers are doing, and attempt to emulate it with your own blog. Understanding what makes a certain blog in your niche so popular can revolutionize the way you think about and post to your own blog, which could have long lasting positive effects.

TheFreeSite.com offers free blog resources that are as much fun, as they are useful. The site offers users free software, and plugins to enhance any blog, or even create one from scratch. Since so many blog updates are costly these days, TheFreeSite gives users a nice alternative with their free downloads of blog software.

Blogarama.com offers users a virtual telephone book of blogs from all areas of subject matter. No matter what your interest, or niche, this website can bring out the best and most popular blogs. This site is full of directory style listings, and even user ratings to help you search the net.

Ultimately the best blog resource is the one that caters to your needs, and thus must be sought out by you according to what you are trying to achieve. Seeking out your own best blog resources will certainly help you profit from blogs in the near future.

 

What exactly is affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is the single fastest growth industry on the Internet. It’s also true that affiliate marketing is one of the fastest and most creative ways to make money and have a career on the Internet.

 Simply put, affiliate marketing is selling products on a commission basis. You own a business that advertises and sells products for other companies. You may have a product of your own to begin with or not. The things that a successful affiliate marketer must have are:

 1. Your website is the jumping off point of all your marketing efforts. So the first step in any successful affiliate marketing business is building a good, credible and professional looking website. You must build a user-friendly website, which will attract your prospects and motivate them to click on the links to the products and services you are promoting and make a purchase. There are companies whose business is building websites that you can hire to build one for you.

 2. You must find products to sell, you must be able to determine whether there is a demand for those products and if people will actually buy them.  You may either have your own original product or products that are made by others. Which ever way you go, you must believe in the products.

 3. It will be necessary for you to become an adept advertiser and be able to tell whether the advertising you are paying for is producing more income for you than the advertising is costing you.

 4. It is necessary that you have good mathematical skills. You will need to be able to track your sales and determine profit, as well as, see to it that your suppliers are paid in full and on time.

 5. You need the full and unwavering support of your family so that you can devote the time and energy necessary to launch your affiliate marketing business.

 

Today, many of us want to pack up our jobs and be our own bosses.  The idea of working for you attracts many.  However, the reality of making it happen soon stops most.  In fact the vast majority of us cannot get a business off the ground due to 2 main factors; the first being money and the second being risk.

 

Starting even a small business takes a fair amount of money.  You need to buy or rent premises, purchase your stock and equipment and pay staff if you have them. You will also have other outside expenses such as advertising.

Risk is the factor that kills most businesses off.  Even if you’re lucky enough to get the capital to start, nearly 90% of all small businesses fail in the first year.  If yours is one of the lucky ones, you have to keep reinvesting your time and money to build up the businesses reputation.  It could be anywhere from 5-7 years before any significant profit is seen.  Most of us cannot wait that long which is what makes affiliate marketing such an attractive offer.

 

Affiliate marketing involves you, working as an affiliate for a merchant or company.  You sell either goods or services and you’re paid on how much you produce.  There are no costs and no risk.  You put in what you choose and are rewarded accordingly.

 

Running an affiliate marketing business is challenging.  You’ll have to work very hard to build it up.  However, you’ll be rewarded for your hard work not someone else.  Getting an affiliate marketing program going may seem difficult.  The truth is it is down to you and how much you want to put in.  There is no sure fire way to success but there are some good tips that you can follow to make you affiliate marketing scheme as successful as possible.

 

There are literally thousands of programs for you to choose from.  However, to get started you may want to choose something that you are familiar with.  This product or service may not be the hottest thing on the current market or make you a millionaire, but you will come off more confident and sincere with something you know and believe in.

 

This will also help when it comes to creating your site.  Something familiar will allow you to be personal and creative.  Trying to create a site around something you know little about will soon become boring and tedious.

 

Working with something familiar will also give you the some experience in the program.  You can always expand at a latter time when you are more familiar with how things work.

 

Another good piece of advice is to watch the number of banners that you put up.  A site full of banners will make the site look ugly and put off potential buyers. Carefully place your banners and use them to accent your site.  Stuffing it full will not help.

 

Remember, in the world of affiliate marketing there is no such thing as the perfect program.  Any particular program will be stuffed full of varying testimonials.  Some will be great, others will  not have done so well.  You need to decide for yourself and not be put off by a few bad experiences.  In the end it is down to you and how much you want to put in.

 

Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money and work for you.  The risk to you is minimal and there is no start up cost.  There are many great affiliate marketing programs out there and choosing the right one may seem like a daunting task. When you first start out remember to stick to what you know.  Find something you know about and have an interest in.  Make your site attractive to others and resist the urge to fill it with banners.  This may end up having the opposite of your desired effect.  Finally remember, there is no perfect program.  Some will have success where others have failed.  It is all down to you.  

 

Don’t give up!

 

More and more people these days are turning to one of the most popular businesses around – the business of affiliate marketing.  In this business, there are
no bosses, deadlines to meet, or piles of work that have to be finished by the end of the day.  In order to succeed, you only need the necessary tools.

 

There are basically five things you can’t do without if you want to make it in the business of affiliate marketing.  Below, you’ll find each quality you’ll need.

 

1.  Desire to learn
The first quality you must possess is the desire to learn, coupled with the willingness to be trained.  Treading through unfamiliar territory
is tough indeed, especially if your lacking the right knowledge. This is a combination of the right frame of mind, coupled with a strong work ethic.

When starting out, you’ll need to be willing to keep your eyes and ears open, using the experience of others to learn more as you go.

 

2.  Invest time and effort
The second quality you must have is the willingness to invest time and effort in helping your business grow, even if you don’t see immediate results.  Even
though weeks may pass without hearing good news, it’s very important for anyone who wants to get their foot in the business world.

 

3.  Determination
The third quality you’ll need is determination.  If you want to make it in the world of affiliate marketing, you must possess this to push yourself forward.  The ability to push yourself to greater heights will determine what type of future you have.

 

4.  Discipline
The fourth quality is self discipline.  If you teach yourself to work everyday with all of your heart and soul, you’ll be that much closer to reaching your goals and making your dreams come true.

 

5.  Optimism
The last quality you must have is optimism.  Bad attitudes should never discourage an affiliate marketer from pursuing their dreams in order to make life better for themselves or anyone around them.

 

The attitude you have towards the business should always be good, because you’ll have to realize that you’re the captain of your ship and your the one steering it towards destiny.

 

If you put the above tips to good use, you’ll go farther than you ever thought possible in the world of affiliate marketing.  You’ll need these qualities to succeed, as affiliate marketing can be a cutting edge career.  With the above qualities, you’ll do just fine in the industry.