Goodbye 2008...

What a year it wasn't...I believe though, that 2008 will fade, not into obscurity but into oblivion. Did the year just seem to suck, for the most part, for you, too?

(Post your biggest 2008 whine story here)

On TV, I watched people on a NY street using an industrial shredder to chew up symbols of the year's worst memories--one lady shredding the email from the boyfriend who dumped her.
How nice it would be to just shred to pieces all the things that went wrong the last 365 days. But "Monday comes and there are no guarantees" (actually, Thursday this time). What do we do now?

That's the good thing about January 2--it's when the last box of Christmas decorations make it to the attic, college football takes a breather, the annual reports come in and the boss is either cleaning house or adding more to your workload if you survived the cleaning house.
Will you make ends meet this year? For most, the answer is scary. For some, it will be academic, as they use the new year's resolution of change for the better. It has never been more important to gain control of one's life in every aspect.
Do you remember the big whoopla over the book "The Secret"? Well, if you are conscious of being up on the latest trends, even if only for the social aspect of not appearing to have no clue in public conversation, you really should bite the bullet and investigate this book's underlying message. Yeah, you may have to roll your eyes at some of the deliveries but it does have a great point to make.

We are not "islands", as the saying goes. As much as we may think our successes are derived by our own hand, the truth is there are more connections to success than there are "degrees to Kevin Bacon". A comment, a referral, a friend of a friend can mean the difference in reaching a goal. And those are just haphazard connections--just think how far you can go and how fast if you orchestrate the connections.
I have just finished reading what could be the most important psychological epiphany of human interaction for mutual gain that has ever been written. And it has the most boring title of all time (which is the reason I never read it before). This book has been on every major list of entrepreneur, business marketing, sales education, make money online and just darn-good-stuff-to-read lists. So, having run out of my favorite fiction author, I bought an old copy of Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends & Influence People". The title made me think that it would be a lecture on how to get along with people--something I haven't done that well with in the past and certainly didn't want to pay someone to correct me on it. Was I ever stunned by what lay in the pages within! I can not believe how fascinating the stories were and how they unfolded. All the while revealing concepts of business and marketing and psychology that all worked together and getting a better sense of how reason--good and bad-- affects the outcome of any interaction. There is no way that I can fully describe it so that you fully appreciate the importance of this book. In your library--entrepreneur or not--this book is a "must have" for every intelligent person.

Educating and re-educating yourself should never stop. For an entrepreneur, each lesson learned, each skill added, each endeavor brings one to closer to success. Stop learning and you stop succeeding (or eliminate the possibilities of success). What will you learn in 2009? Will you be in the same shape in 365 days from now? Chances are that you will be in either worse or better shape rather than the same. Which one will you choose? It is a choice, no matter what you may think, to be made. I made one when I retired from a 30 year business when I moved and had a choice. I chose another career, internet marketing, and with all the ups and downs, I have never once had to give up or lose the education I had gained. We all have choices--find the ones that get you closer to your goals and learn from those that get in the way of them. But make the choices--don't just sit there still trying to decide which ones to make. Even mistakes are education! And the alternative is success so how does ANYone consider ANY choice the wrong one?
Happy New Year and go with the future you decide upon.

Get your copy of "The Secret" and "How to Win Friends & Influence People" through these links and get a free copy of "How to Use What's in My Head for a Living" by Jay Russo. Just send a copy of your receipt to Jay(at)How2BooksandVideos.com to receive your free copy.

This stuff really works! Affirmation is grand..

For the past two years, I have studied many ways of making money online. I have learned to create sites that sell physical products, learned how to sell other people's products, made money online with Adsense, and become ever more knowledgeable and experienced with Google Adwords advertising.

If any of this sounds a bit foreign to you, don't feel alone. Two years ago I had no idea what these things were, where to find them, how to use them. Not that I am a total expert, no one can really know all the changes the internet goes through every day but I am making profitable use of this new found knowledge every day.

I have been greatly intimidated yet curious about all the hoopla that internet marketers throw out--grandiose claims of huge returns made me skeptical and more intimidated. How could I possibly learn what they know and use it so well? And were their claims real?

My decision was to pick something and just dive in. Sure there were a few times when I bought something I didn't understand. Very quickly I learned to either ask questions or ask for a refund, only to come back and buy the product later on when I knew how to use it. Some struggling "newbies"( as the unenlightened and non-savvy are called), like me at the time, need a friend or mentor to learn the ropes. I found a couple, asked questions and was pointed to ebooks, videos and newsletters that explained the processes I was currently stumped on.

Now I find in conversations with non-internet friends, how very little "the public" actually understands the workings of their internet searches and purchases. Many are so intrigued, they want to learn, too. Having already done the struggling and searching and making the mistakes, I can offer some real advice and shortcuts to getting a business online and making money on the internet. Ecommerce (selling products) or using search engine advertising to get commissions on referrals, are just a couple of the many, many ways to make money online.

To relate to my title above, and the reason I have been prompted to chat here, in the last week I referred a great product just by buying ads on Google and made commissions totaling $1800. Now it's not the $10,000 in "X" amount of time that so many internet marketers wow you with but by golly, it's pretty big to me! I did it without a website and without a mailing list. It means it works, it means it's a start, it means it CAN be done. If one method can do this with just 2 sales, as this one did, just think what 5--10--20 opportunities might make me? It has been worth the effort and money spent by me but I am determined to make the trip a lot shorter and less tedious for others.

That's why I am starting a "School for Newbies" with advice, questions and recommended reading and products. And you can enroll for free just by emailing me at

jay@how2booksandvideos.com

Your first lesson will arrive in a few days. Please do fill out the survey as it will help to identify what areas the courses must address. Don't be shy! Tell us your "blank spaces" and your questions and let's get started making money online!

Where are all those people going and why aren't they visiting MY website?

How can you be sure that people will visit your site?

Not every web-user will know just how great your site is. The internet is filled with a vast number of websites, many similar to yours. And each site claims to offer something unique. Whatever you can name, there is a website for it. Name any type of business and you can expect it probably has a website. With all this competition, how do you plan to make your mark and stand out from the rest?

How do you bring internet traffic to your website?

Web surfers know how to use the search engines. This internet tool that bridges the gap between the users’ search for a particular thing and the website that offers just that. To find what they want, they just need to use words or phrases that relate to their need.

For example, if you are doing a search on gardening. You just type in keywords like “flower gardening”, “vegetable gardening” or “gardening tools”. The search engine will immediately return an exhaustive list of websites on the gardening niche you are interested in.

Obviously, the websites which are featured at the top of the search engine result page get the highest number of clicks and visitors. Being in a top position translates to “authority” and “best” so a visitor will search those first, almost all of the time. There is enormous competition to reach the top positions in the search engines, so that visitors get to see your website displayed first among many others. Getting the top rank is, however, not easy. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) makes this possible.

What is search engine optimization? Considering all the aspects of optimizing a site, it does come down to a few focused but not entirely complicated, tasks that will not only help you achieve a high listing in the search engines for your site, but will also ensure more internet traffic to it:

Keywords that are relevant to your page

Many web users do not use well-thought-out keywords in their first search. After a few attempts at “gardening”, when what they really needed to learn about is “planting iris plants”, they start narrowing down to a more focused query. You should focus on a keyword (or keyword phrase) that is what your site or a page on your site is most about. The page about “iris planting” should have those words—in your description, your content, your alt tags (image names), and your navigation and page name. How else can the search engines find your page without this information?

Lots of links (if they make sense)

The more links to your site, the more “popular” your site is perceived to be by the search engines. If other sites and other pages are pointing to your pages, you look like the Big Man On Campus, right? So get as many links as possible to your site—both internal links that link the various web-pages within your site and external links that link to other websites. But also consider this analogy—if the BMOC is surrounded by, let’s say, not so attractive and non reciprocal link buddies, his status can drop, rather than grow as it would with the top, highly attractive and related interest campus stars. You don’t want to be one link in a sea of weak links on someone else’s site but rather a strong link among fewer links. Choose your link partners wisely. And remember that your own internal page links count just as well. The more internet “real estate” you own that links to itself, the better. The more links from other sites who link back (essentially "voting" for your site), the more powerful your ranking possibilities.
Note: there is a tool that does the legwork for you and shows you how the top sites do it so you can, too.

Lots of content

Content plays a vital role when it comes to ranking high in search engines. Keyword-rich content always creates opportunity for a high listing. The search engines rank websites based on their content proportion. Relevant content on your site maximizes the chances of keyword inclusion. Remember, however, keywords alone don't do the whole job. Search engines do not rank websites very well if they are rich in keywords but scarce on content. Understand that the search engines couldn’t care less what you are selling—they are there to provide information sources to web users. Make sure you provide information that will be “rich content” in the form of articles, news, descriptions, tips, reviews, whatever will create an air of “authority” for the subject/product you present on your site.

While many of these techniques will get you closer to the first pages of the search engines, one other factor will also make a difference—time. The age of your website will mean even more as you remain in business, and your authority moves upward.
So among all these methods to implement, it may be that the practice of patience could be the most important of all.

You must know EXACTLY why the top 10 ranked sites in Google are currently ranked where they are. You can't guess by simply looking at their web page itself.
Drive traffic to your site with search engine listings that will rank right up there with the big guys with your own SEO tool.

Stumble It!

The Way of The Web? Or Natural Progression

The way to get our attention today as compared to yesterday, last year, a decade ago, has moved from the lemonade stand at the end of the driveway, to an ad in the newspaper, to a website with pictures and a few descriptions, to the ultimate visual--video "commercials" online. It's not likely that many of us have managed to keep up with how fast a message gets delivered or how thoroughly we must "keep up with the Joneses" just to be heard.

At my house, we like to rent old TV shows. Watching Miami Vice, it seems incredible how the good guys (and the bad guys) managed their jobs with no cell phones or Google. You could call it a simpler time when using your wits and your resources was the norm. Even looking at how many wonderful inventions and services we now take for granted for using in our daily connections, there is still room for learning and adapting to new challenges.

In the past, I could print out a basic, double fold, self designed newsletter to send to my clients (I had a portrait photography studio). In time, it took a slicker newsletter, professional printed, to keep up with the image my clients came to expect. With other studios copying my efforts, I always resorted to "the newest and next big thing" to keep my competition jumping. Many did not take the time to learn how or to implement the techniques that makes clients take notice and I was determined to out do any imitations of my business.

Today, websites have reached a point that there is either too much going on (music intros, lots of flash, girating images) or bland (a header, some sales copy, and maybe a product or two). Take into account the differences in the builder/owner/designer of these sites. Someone who loves to show off their technical skills (but may lack marketing skills) can sometimes go a little overboard. Sometimes the owner of a site has no skills to build it and doesn't know any better than to contract a designer to have "carte blanche" to create their baby. Or a do it yourselfer may pick a template for economy of time and skills and gets too generic.

Enter today's stand out in this crowd of over/under done online businesses---the online video. Another adaptation to accomplish! When life stops throwing you challenges or you stop catching them, you are either retired or the alternative.... Over the next few weeks, I will be studying this phenomena and taking the challenge to learn how I can do this myself. Not to age myself, but I remember (in the "old days"??) when personal video meant 8 feet of tether cable to the 50 pound VCR recorder box to tape my son at play. Now I can make a video on my laptop and add it to my website just like the big boys at Turner Broadcasting do every day---well, good enough for selling my products. That's the point, isn't it? I already learned how to send personal images--who'd a thunk this would work for a business? It ain't YouTube because it's better.

Subscribe to my blog and follow along as I tell you about my adventure in 21st century advertising, online video style....who knows, you might tell your kids you were there in the "old days" when video was a new idea online.

"Today is a gift--that's why they call it the Present".

Finding Products Wholesale the Easy Way

Boy, did that title make me think--never have I thought of locating wholesale suppliers for my business an easy task. Until this last week.

The A#1 problem that ANY one has on the first day is "what the heck do I sell?" followed closely by the next question "what the heck is selling?". I have found more than just a tool for discovering both answers.

In the past, I bought every $47 software that came my way, touted as the savior of my search for wholesale products and suppliers. I admit, the first ones got me a leg up over doing everything manually, if there is such a thing. I was able to determine a few niches that looked promising but only after giving the software up to several hours to sweep the internet and give me results--often not very useful and tedious to wait for.
Then there was the one that based its data on what was selling on eBay. Well, while there are a lot of people making great sales with that model, I am just not an eBay person (comments welcomed but I am not ready to be converted :-).

Flash forward to this week and picture my astonished face when I got a series of videos from my old friends at World Wide Brands...and how I must have wanted to look over my shoulder and see if these guys were listening to me grumble about my product searches. They have completely filled in the blanks (my head still has plenty of blanks but at least these were filled to overflowing!), giving me not only the tools to find what to sell and what sells, but the tremendous amount of support is more than I have ever seen. They have been there all along but very quietly raising a voice I was grateful to be hearing (or should that be seeing since it came by way of video?). Just the blog posts alone contained an entire webinar or ecourse on getting started the best way possible in making money online.
But the reason for my ravings and accolades will be obvious when you read the blog posts or see the videos. And forgive me for telling you so late--the Whole$ale training and resource addition to the membership is on SALE today. I wish I could have given you a heads up sooner but I am not an internet marketer who jumps on the "get it before it's gone" bandwagon. This is definitely a personal recommendation. At the very least, get the membership info. It is worth gold.
If you really have struggled as I have to figure out the mystery of getting products to sell, especially those that are NOT info products someone is pushing, you owe it to yourself to listen to what this company has to offer.
I give it an A#1 approval rating...
Check it out here.

Greetings! First let me tell you my purpose here.

After two years of teaching myself how to start internet businesses, I have finally cracked the "code" and found my way. I can now literally have a business idea and follow it through to launch in a short period of time.
Though there are a lot of ecommerce instructors out there, it is always the path one must take to learn who and what to learn and to believe. As I make my journey through the good and the bad, the failures and the successes, I hope you will follow me along side while I bear it all to save someone else the pain of struggling--to avoid my mistakes or decide if my successes are repeatable. Only an entrepreneur would think that a lousy climb up the ladder would be "fun". Keep me balanced and maybe somewhere along the way, I can be your boost when you need it or your reason to say "I told you so" and not have it backfire on you.
Till the next reason to post......seek whatever you desire.
Jay