Hey folks,
One of the people posting to MySpace groups shared a photo that caught my eye and had me laughing for at least 10 minutes. Thought I would share it and ask that you share some of your cute pics.
Andy
| 1.8 |
| Dear Andrew,
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the day John McCain was shot down and became a guest of the North Vietnamese, spending much of his captivity in a prison camp which would come to be known as the Hanoi Hilton. Earlier that year, he narrowly escaped death aboard the USS Forrestal. A missile misfired on the deck of the carrier and it hit the fuel tank on John McCain’s plane. He jumped from the cockpit of his fighter jet into the inferno below, rolling to escape. After the fire on the Forrestal, he would have been eligible to safely return home, but John McCain volunteered to continue fighting and transferred to the USS Oriskany.
By the time John reached the infamous prison, he had received precious little medical treatment and was tossed into the care of Colonel Bud Day. His captors preferred that he die in American hands. But John McCain didn’t die. Colonel Day nursed him back to health. The Vietnamese soon realized that they were holding the son of the US Commander of the Pacific Fleet - they called him “The Prince”. They offered him an early release, but McCain knew accepting an offer would violate the military code of conduct through which he pledged, “I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy.” He repeatedly refused early release. The story of McCain’s five and a half years of torture, beatings and solitary confinement is well known. Less known is the powerful faith he developed in his God, his country and his fellow prisoners of war. He says his closest relationships and friendships today are with the men who served with him as a POW. John McCain came home more committed than ever to the notion of honor and service to his country. He has spent a lifetime in the service of the American people. We are lucky that a leader of his caliber, intellect and bravery is running for president. We have to do one job. It is essential that every man and woman who wants to see John McCain elected president give and give again to make sure he has every financial resource necessary to elect him. He has given so much - join me in giving him a gift of $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or even $2,300 in remembrance of his past service to all of us and in support of a future McCain Presidency. Sincerely, |
| 1.8 |
Google’s new rule have many up in arms.
Google the world’s leading search provider has made change to their search engine that resulted in many websites losing valuable page rank. Page rank being your position in their engine and search results and a loss meaning you could receive less traffic.
The new changes are targeted at websites and blogs with paid links including affiliate links. Many believe that this is a conflict of interest being that Google is in the business of providing paid links and controls the lions share of the market. Plain and simple if the paid links on your website come from other sources besides the Google Adwords program your odds of obtaining a a high search engine ranking on Google are now lower than ever.
Microsoft not too long ago ran into serious legal troubles when they tried to force other software providers to use a paid API to integrate with the Windows operating system. If this policy were to have been allowed, roughly 80% of all personal computers would be shipped with only Microsoft approved or supplied programs and Microsoft would earn income from nearly all software manufactured or sold world wide.
Monopolies are against the fair trade act, yet this action would mandate that in order for a webmaster to earn income from their websites and blogs they would have to choose one of 2 options. The first option is to accept pennies instead of dollars and go all Google Adwords for income sacrificing paid post and affiliate programs often paying hundreds for PPC revenue at a rate of pennies. This option would allow them to place higher in Google searches and garner more traffic and allow Google to earn cash every time they earn money with their website.
The other option is to choose higher paying pay for post opportunities and affiliate links and accept lower rankings in Google Search leading to less traffic to their websites. For many the drop could be enough to lower their overall earnings and mandate that they pay for sponsor ads to regain their ranks in Google. Again, Google wins and the little guy loses.
I am risking my status as a Adwords publisher and my very rank in Google and possibly could even be removed from their search results entirely by publishing this article. The problem is I stand to lose far more by following their policy and removing the paid links and affiliate programs from this website. These links provide much needed income for my family and offer opportunity for many to improve their quality of life by starting their own home based business.
Google already has rules that restrict me from using many free advertising resources such as traffic and visitor exchanges, safe e-mail list, and even limit’s the number of incoming links from sites like FFA and Classifieds websites they consider link farms. These rules serve to make it near impossible for a webmaster to avoid paid search engine listings to receive traffic and thus get high rankings. In short, if you are not paying Google and they are not earning income from you, they don’t want your websites and blogs online.
Our only recourse in this matter would be to lodge complaints with the Corporation Commission and FCC about this policy leading towards monopolizing the internet advertising market and hope for some resolve before many of us are forced out of business.
If I am removed from Google or banned from Adwords I will post their notice here for all to see. I will draw your attention to the fact that currently I am earning from the Adwords program though in 4 months time I have yet to earn enough to reach a $50 minimum paycheck. I must also disclose that as of about 3 weeks ago I have taken the helm of PPC Advertising for Easy Search Live and will also be heading their new auto response mailing services. My goal within the next few months is to build these services to the point where I can replace the Google ads entirely. Regardless of my position at ESL, Google’s new policies currently effect my personal websites and income and can be a factor in yours.
Andy Zeus Anderson
| 1.8 |
I’m only going to address one item from “the Dark Side” in this article - it’s been happening a lot lately, so has again risen to priority status in my mind.
There’s a conventional wisdom that says, “Don’t tell’em who you are” when you send a initial email in response to an ad you see on the Internet. MANY people in the industry support this bit of “wisdom”.
It really goes like this: “Find an interesting ad, send an introductory email sounding like you want information about the business, and then when you get it, decide which group you belong to fits the business, and offer membership in that group touting how much it will help the person’s business.”
Why is this a pet peeve of mine? Because over 4 years I’ve seen a rise in Internet deceptiveness, and this fits that category. I’ve seen the same people advocate asking the universe to bring you what you want, with promises that when it does you’ll share the abundance. Nice sentiment, unless followed by subtle training in being deceptive, as described above.
Remember please, that what goes around, comes around.
Remember the famous ad campaign, “Don’t mess with mother nature?!” When you ask God, or the universe, or your higher power for something, that asking is REAL. It has an effect. If you are deceptive, you may get your request answered - but you don’t know by whom and you don’t know what’s coming around the corner.
It’s not rocket science - if I want to fill a downline and practice even slightly deceptive maneuvers to get it done, who is my downline filled with? You got it, I’m sure. This practice doesn’t develop a downline of hard working, straight-forward folks.
Now, admittedly this is a little complex. I don’t always give out the name of one of my companies in an introductory email, because I want the opportunity to show the lead the details of why my business has something special to offer they haven’t seen before. But I don’t pose as one thing, and then turn out to be something else. When you respond to one of my ads, you find a serious business person on the other end of the email exchange or phone call.
Because I believe in a personal touch, I spend my time tailoring my response to the needs of the inquiry, and send it off thinking I’m might have a prospect to talk to in a day or so. The email I get back -quickly - is an offer to join the group, where I’ll benefit by exposure to “thousands” of serious buyers and joiners.
Let me be clear: it’s the deception, not the groups, that I have trouble with. If you’re going to send an email to someone who took the time to write an ad, maybe even paid for it - be honest enough to say what you’re representing upfront.
Why? Because if you do, and you did a good job with your email, I might respond positively. And if you do, I might say, “Gee, I already belong to that group” or simply “No thanks” FOLLOWED by - “but I appreciate your offer and wonder if there’s anything else we can collaborate on, or any way in which we can help each other?”
Deception = lost opportunity and a weak downline.
Honesty = open doors to new opportunities, solid relationship building, and ultimately, greater success in the areas that matter most, including but not limited to financial success.
Stay in the Light, and out of the Dark Side.
To your very great success!
Liss Miller
www.solidgoldmarriage.com
www.millerwellnessgroup.com (with Sam, in process)
www.totalwellnessbymiller.com (with Sam, in process)
My husband Sam and I are very excited about our new joint venture - to present information and consultations online and face to face (by webcam or in person with people living in the greater Sarasota, Florida, area) on total wellness - body, mind, spirit. Together we have 35 years of experience working with people in all aspects of wellness, with specialties in emotional and spiritual wellbeing. We now can offer assistance and tools for coaching, weight management, spiritual growth, consulting, and counseling.
Hey folks,
I figured it was about time I ran a V-Blog post and found some great video from Pay Per Post to share. This clip is one of several videos on their members blogs that takes you behind the scenes on a very successful start up. From raising money to get rolling, and doing their first advertising industry trade show, to clowning around and remembering that getting there means nothing if they can’t enjoy it, this team seems to be making all the right moves to accomplish their mission as a company.
What they do for advertisers: Pay per post offers services that allow advertisers to get 3rd person feedback on their websites and products on popular Web 2.0 sites, ranging from blogs to online communities. These sites syndicate the articles using RSS feeds so each post can appear on thousands of sites. Advertisers are paying up to several hundred dollars for just a single post and seeing almost instant rewards in traffic and link popularity.
What they do for Bloggers: Bloggers, or as they refer to us, Posties get paid to review websites, products, and offers on their blogs. We get a portion of the revenues generated from paid advertising for doing what we already do. Let’s face it, we surf thousands of sites a year, if we find one we like it gets posted to our blog and we earn nothing. Pay Per Post helps us find great sites and pays us to write the same articles we have been writing for free.
I have heard a few bloggers saying they feel like they are selling out with other services. They think the money motivates the ton of their post and makes them less real. With Pay Per Post, you choose the offers you accept, and can choose to review only products and websites you believe in and maybe even use daily, so don’t be a sell out, join Pay Per Post and start earning from your honest opinions.
OK, here is the video I promised, grab pop corn and click play.
Andy Zeus Anderson
| 1.8 |
What’s the link between knowing yourself, and success? Sometimes it can be hard to understand why knowing yourself matters - don’t we just go out and “do what we do”?
The link is this: until you are conscious of what you do and why, you can’t change what needs to be changed. And we all have things we need to change to give and get more out of life.
We all are more effective in some areas than others, and becoming effective in as many areas as possible contributes to our success in any endeavor. I’m not talking about learning more “outward stuff” but about knowing more “inward stuff”. Sometimes one leads to the other, as in the case of a business plan.
It’s important to have a business plan for two reasons: if you’re going to ask for a loan, you need to show the lender that you’ve worked out a realistic budget, have some funds to contribute, and have a plan for becoming independent by paying back the loan.
Even if you’re not getting a loan, a business plan is important in keeping you focused and accountable. It challenges you to do the inward work of organization, before committing to the outward work. It’s the path to success.
I’m not going to discuss business plans to present to a bank, because each lender has their own format and required elements. Many of the elements of a personal business plan are the same, though, so the following tips will be helpful no matter what.
The basic elements for a personal business plan are:
1) Choose a name for your company and get it registered as required by Federal and State law (this will help keep you thinking focused).
2) Write out a concept paper - a few paragraphs telling yourself why you’re starting this business, the scope of the business, and why it’s meaningful to you.
3) Work out that infamous budget. Be absolutely realistic. Don’t quit your day job - there are few if any overnight successes and you don’t want to put yourself or your family at risk.
4) Decide how much time you have to commit and mark it off in a planner.
5) Looking at your financial budget and time available for your new business, and use that information set your goals realistically yet in a way that challenges you “just enough” for you to stay at peak effectiveness.
6) Develop a daily to-do list in your planner: how many phone calls, personal contacts, presentations, will it take to get you to your goals?
To be sure you’ve considered everything (you’ll want to give yourself more detail than I can write in this article), please send an email to liss@lissmillerenterprises.com requesting my Six Steps to Success Business Planning Guide.
It’s free - a thank you to my now-deceased friend Spencer, to whom I’ve owed much for a fresh start in life - years ago, when I struggled to tell him how much he had helped me as a young mother, he said, “If I’ve helped you when you needed it, the only thanks I need is that you’ll pass it on.” Not a new philosophy, of course, but as a young woman down and out, it has given me a life-long way to honor him for the help he so freely offered me. Memory eternal, Spencer.
To your success in life -
Liss Miller
liss@lissmillerenterprises.com
Solid Gold Marriage
Our dear friend and contributor Mellissa Miller has just announced an all new blog on the topic of healthy marriages. Mellissa is a Psycho Therapist and well versed in the topic, making it a personal goal to help people find paths around every day issues, and success in their marital lives.
Mellissa has asked that I send out an announcement on this amazing blog, and ask each of you to share a story of your experience and success. My wife and I have been happily married for 7 years and counting and will be writing an article soon for Melissa’s new blog.
This day and age, there are so many reasons to get a divorce, and so few to stay together stressed in media such as television and print. Couples work long hours and multiple jobs, there is less family time and more stress. Marriage is work, and we need articles showing how you face each of those challenges. So please stop by and post your articles today.
Click Here to visit Solid Gold Marriage,
Andy Zeus Anderson
| 1.8 |
Plain and simple, your program you are in probably tells you that you can only focus on them if you want to be successful. Not even close to true. Why limit yourself to one stream of income, when one can pave the way for more?
Ever notice that most of these companies are owned by parent companies that own multiple companies and websites? Why should you follow their advise to focus on one thing and do it well, when they them selves don’t? These companies know that there is a set of basic rules to success.
Rules:
1. Own the product.
2. Build the sales force, (You).
3. Keep the sales force, Done by paying you enough to stay with them, but never enough to retire, or go into business for yourself. They tell you that you must be committed to building their business and not pay attention to other offers because they want 100% of any success you achieve to put dollars in their pockets. They want you to stay in their program, and not leave for more money, they want a sales force with built in blinders never seeing life outside the company.
4. Diversify. Don’t have too much money tied up in one product or strategy, create and maintain multiple stream income. They do it, but tell you no.
5. Have an exit strategy. When a publicly held company enters a new business venture they have to send a proposal to the members of the board of directors. Directors are primary shareholders holding majority interest, either by themselves or combined that make a ruling on the companies direction. In this report they have to provide a full business plan, WHO’S in charge, WHERE that target audience, offices, and operations will be, WHAT the product or service is and why it is in high demand, WHEN they will enter the market and how that timing relates to good sound business practices, WHY that timing is right, and projections to show the value of the offer. The final section must contain a FTC required exit strategy.
Exit Strategy: Large companies start planning on going out of business before they go into business.
The look at the cost to enter the market, the average life of companies in the market, the time to needed recoup cost, the amount of targeted profits required by investors, and how and when the program will end and they can pull out with those profits in hand.
I know you have seen this in action, if you read the business section of your local paper. You see companies sell strong subsidiary companies that are in the black but seeing a decline. The stock is still high, and they reap huge profits from the sales during their ownership. The companies that buy these venture buy them for one of 2 reasons.
1. They are a management group, looking to restructure, the existing focus of the company or capitalize on the pre-built brand name to introduce a new product or service.
2. They are a salvage firm, that looks at value in each component, all real estate, and licensing from a stand point of if I break it into 5 pieces and sell each, will I make more than the value of the whole. You will see a great deal of ventures that have been purchased by a firm with this mindset self off several high value aspects of the company. In the mean time they establish the company as a independent entity transferring debts and loosing ventures to it’s holdings, and will either use it as a tax write off, selling or operating it as a loss, or they will file for bankruptcy and claim the loss while ridding themselves of debts.
I know I strayed a little off course, but I wanted to share some economics 101 with you so you can see what will happen to your business venture once it becomes less profitable, or begins to even lose money for the owners.
The exit strategy includes how they will strip mine the remaining value and integrate it into ether the existing company or use it to start a new Venture. A good example would be one that Gerald English and I discussed on the phone a while back. A major water filter company who pioneered that market in MLM had seen major declines in sales and profits, they have been bought and sold at least 3 times since I left my MLM position with them in 1996. Gerald was telling me they have restructured and now sell a multi vitamin as well as maintaining the most profitable products from the filter business. Chances are that if I had stayed with them, I would have been slowly introduced into the new product line, and eventually weened off of selling filters, I would now be earning 100% of my pay from vitamins, and still depend on them for income.
So when your company says the only way to earn is stay focused on one program, have only the one income, don’t dilute the waters. They mean you, not them.
Another quick example is Wal-Mart. Wal-mart started as a small 5&10 store, as they grew from concepts of great service and low prices, they saw benefits in owning their own warehouses and distribution centers, and set on a clear path to save money and pass that savings on to you.
Besides that the Wal-Mart trucks you see on the road are only part of the fleet, as they own large portions of trucking companies such a Werner and Fleetline. They found many of the businesses they chose to do business with struggling and even failing, many of their suppliers are now owned or partially owned by them. From Ol’ Roy dog food to GV Brands products, Wal-Mart gains income from both the supply and demand ends of retail and even wholesale trades. They are both importer and exporter, and have fluent multi stream income in the billions. Others have failed along the way because they were only retailers, they only manufactured one product, only provided one service.
Big business is diverse, and multi streamed and yours should be too.
Andy Zeus Anderson
http://www.andyzeusanderson.com
| 1.8 |
I have a medicine bag.
Funny, to look at me most would not know I am 1/3 Souix Indian, and to look at my job history, you may never know I am a spiritual man. I have worked as a bouncer in biker bars. I have been in more fights than I care to mention and only came close to losing one of them, had it not been for friends stopping that barstool, I may not even be around today. I am tough as nails when I need to be but the real Andy is a calm and peace loving man rooted in the earth and all it’s wonders.
A few years back, well about 16 years ago I was looking to find myself and a little about my heritage. I was 17 and would spend days down the road at an old Indian swap meet vendor’s stand. The man made knives and jewelry while you waited out of hand made arrow heads. He did bead work and leather and made these amazing medicine bags.
The medicine pouch serves as a reminder of all things important. We often keep small stones and crystals instinctively, as we are part earth. The crystals contain energies, some healing some soothing, all calming. Their celestial beauty reminds us to look skyward for guidance and hope. When I open my bag I feel a sense of accomplishment as I look back into where I was, and see where I am, and think of what is yet to come.
My medicine bag has 4 crystals, a raw emerald, an old wheat back penny, and a few other odds and ends. It has things in there that remind me of various stages in my life, and places in my travels. It serves as a history of me, sort of a time capsule of the life of Andy Zeus Anderson. Of all the things in the pouch, one though is more important than all others.
The most worthy of all treasures held close to my heart is a simple piece of wood. It was carved flat on all sides so that there were 4 flat sides in all. I used a soldering iron to burn into the sides some words I believed even back then and still today to be the 4 secrets of success.
Strong Mind: You must never stop learning.
Strong Body: You must be able to put in the hours and meet the challenges, success brings.
True Heart: You must be honest with yourself. Ask the tough questions like, “Am I happy doing what I do?” and then share that same level of honesty with all who’s lives you touch..
Faith: believe in yourself, your abilities, your mission, your dreams. Never let anyone tell you that you are less than wonderful.
I have advised several people I have mentored to chart out a personal history of themselves.
1. When I was 10 what were my dreams, where was I at, what was I doing?
2. When I was 20?
3. Where am I today?
4. Where do I see myself in 5 years?
5. Where do I see myself in 10 years?
6. If I die tomorrow how would I like to be remembered?
I have told each to set realistic obtainable goals, and to set a time line or clear path of what must I do to get there for each item. I ask them to write down things they have learned that will help in the journey and things they need to know to complete it.
The answers were all different but shared a few common factors.
1. Time - They needed to budget and use their time more wisely in order to do more towards achieving their goals.
2. Knowledge- While each had a great set of tools and skills all agreed they did not know as much as they could or needed to know to reach their dreams.
3. Confidence- They all had confidence and doubt written in their words. From I could to I will is a big step. They all planned as I could and failed to commit to anything, when they switched the words around to say I will it gave them more than hope. it set them on a mission of will do and must do task.
4. Faith- All of these subjects listed reasons they couldn’t make time, kids, school, work, church, and about 30 other factors. They felt that unless their lives changed dramatically they could never be successful.
On the last subject, faith I told them to believe in themselves and make the changes. Don’t say but, don’t say if, just do it.
One guy found that he was always stuck in traffic on his way to work, he was losing 30-45 minutes a day to traffic alone. He started leaving the house 30 minutes earlier and beating the rush hour, he would take along a self help book or audio and a notebook. Each day he began his planning and wrote rough drafts, or learned something new sitting in his car in front of his office.
One woman with 3 kids, found ways to involve her kids in what she is doing online. She has her kids write post to a blog, help pick out colors for graphics, and has found she can still be productive and spend quality time with them too.
Along the way they shared tons of ideas that I had to implement into my own business and lifestyle because they just made sense. In the end the teacher learned from the students because even I know, you can never stop learning.
I would like to invite each of you to fill in the blanks, make your own chart and share with us what you found out along the way.
My name is Andy and I have a medicine bag.
Andy Zeus Anderson
http://www.andyzeusanderson.com
| 1.8 |
by Liss Miller
Liss Miller Enterprises
We all think real financial success comes from hard work - and of course, that’s often true. But there’s more to it than that.
In my first article (Maximize Your Opportunities for Success) I talked about adopting a success-oriented lifestyle. Exactly how does one do that?
It takes knowing yourself, character, and a “value added” approach to life. Meaning, in part, always give more than you get.
If you want to make money, Andy, or any of us can point you to a number of businesses that will allow you to make money. They’re proven. We’re interested in offering much more - the value added approach in action. Which will likely result in you finding a way to become successful in an Internet business, wisely chosen! To help, I have in mind something I learned a number of years ago, and still work at: deciding what is meaningful to me in life, and making it integral, or core, to every aspect of my day.
I’m not talking about the popular “decide what (materialistic) thing you want more than anything else, meditate on drawing it to you, and grab hold of it”. When you occasionally get it you’ll be glad, when more often you don’t, you’ll feel as if you failed. We’re not into the failure mentality here! I want to encourage you to develop a meaning base for your life that supports everything you choose to do. You must understand what moves you, excites a passionate response in you, before you can choose a business venture wisely.
I’d like you to consider the following:
In order to know yourself, you must have time for self-reflection.
When you take time for self-reflection, you are challenging your ability to organize your time.
When you organize your time effectively, you feel more competent.
When you feel more competent, you’re able to have a positive impact on others.
When you have a positive impact on others, you are on the road to success.
To get you started on self-reflection, I’d like you to complete the following exercise: write down on a sheet of paper the following columns: Faith/Meaning Base, Family, Physical and Emotional Health, and Wealth Creation; with room to write underneath each.
What do you already do to support yourself in each area? Remember, this isn’t a “to do” list - this list represents the things that you include in a balanced way, to enhance your life and get done what you need to in order to move you toward the goal of Balance. There’s no “crossing off what gets done” - these are ongoing choices; they can be revised, but they’re not crossed off like chores completed.
An example: under my “Family” heading, I have: Lunch with Sam x1 per week; write kids weekly; call boys x2/wk. They sound like tasks, but they’re the things I choose to incorporate into my life to make the quality of my life better. I’m out of balance if I don’t do these things. I don’t cross them off the list.
Another: under “Wealth Creation” I have: Develop 3 websites; attend networking mtgsx2/wk; write 2 articles. Again, the list is designed to help me limit what I do so I do enough to further my goals, while staying in balance.
When I list the things that support me, or that I do, in each of these areas, I’m more likely to be aware of or do them; and I feel an underlying stability that enhances my presence with my clients and business contacts. When I fail to keep my list up to date, or when one area gets too much or too little attention, I begin to feel more chaotic, and my clients and work could potentially suffer.
If you’d like a copy of the form I use for the above exercise, with some examples, send me an email at the address below, requesting it.
An exercise like this is one part of moving into a Success Oriented Lifestyle. Let me know how the exercise worked for you, and look for more on Step 1: Maximizing Your Opportunities for Success!
MYOS!
Liss
Liss Miller Enterprises
liss@lissmillerenterprises.com
www.lissmillerenterprises.com
www.websofine.com
Also contact me with questions about how you
can be in business and earning money for the holidays.
And beyond.
