Tuesday, December 30, 2008

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.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

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!