It's AMAZING to me how often I see hints of the
fear of success from the online entrepreneurs I
stumble upon each and every day.

It's easy to get it. We've been brainwashed
all of our lives that "failure is not an option."

For example, we're tagged as a "loser" if we
start a business and crash it into the ground.

Even entertaining the idea of bankruptcy is
worse than a new case of Herpes simplex encephalitis.

What's confusing is our education system (and the media)
brainwashes us into thinking that failure is a bad thing.
Yet they give us mixed signals because they also
quote stories of how now-successful business gurus
relied heavily on failure as inspiration that ultimately led to their success.

This is "Orwellian doublethink" – a word coined by
George Orwell in the novel 1984… describes the
act of simultaneously accepting two mutually
contradictory beliefs as correct.

In simple speak, we're constantly told that
failure is not an option, yet the most successful
business people we know failed a lot to
ultimately become successful.

It's like saying voting is rigged, but vote for Ron Paul.

It's no wonder everyone is confused.
And it's easy to understand why most
sit on their hands instead of moving forward.

Went broke, then made millions (or billions)

I can name several examples of this twisted logic…
one of the biggest failures in modern history is Donald J. Trump.
Trump managed to pull off at least 19 business failures
over the course of 17 years,

Another example of a mixed message is the story of
Colonel Harlan Sanders (of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame).
We're told the Colonel failed 1,009 times before someone
bought his secret fried chicken recipe when he turned the
ripe old age of 62. (Talk about persistence.)

But wait… there's more: Microsoft founder and super-rich "geek"
Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard and started a company called
Traf-O-Data (a service that read the raw data from
roadway traffic counters and created reports for traffic engineers).
It was a colossal failure as the company only booked a
few thousand of dollars in revenue.

Henry Ford (reportedly) went broke five times before
successfully launching the Ford Motor Company.

I could go on and on with these rags-to-riches stories,
but I'm guessing you see the pattern… that is,
successful people failed a lot.

In fact, I only know of one business person I've
ever met in my life (a well-known Philadelphia jeweler)
who claims to have hit it big without a hiccup.
Everyone else failed their way to the top.

So why are we given two completely opposing mantras
about the path to success?

It sure is confusing. In fact, it was this email I got this morning
which inspired me to write this blog post:

Markus,

I need a little guidance. Since the health and fitness niche is so big should I be concentrating on trying to pick something that we can put a unique twist on or should I pick something that everyone is selling and let your marketing system do the rest. I think I'm getting caught up in the fact that I'm trying to find a niche within the health and fitness area that is not totally saturated and it's driving me nuts. Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way and over thinking it.

John

John is a client of mine…

… (I teach writers how to create online infoproducts).
And I sense John is like most business people I consult.
It sounds to me as if John is under tremendous pressure to succeed.
And his social network (i.e. family and friends) are subconsciously
pressuring him to get to the top without failing.

Motion beats meditation

The IDEA of failure is so immense, that most find it easier
(and way less risky) to delay or overthink than to "just do it."

Copywriter Gary Halbert is often quoted as saying,
"Motion beats meditation."

While there are very little guarantees in life,
I'm 100% certain that suffering "analysis paralysis" and
stressing about failing is a surefire way to get stuck.

And it's a terrible condition because most tend to get
distracted and procrastinate when they're stuck (rather than do stuff).

Tiger Woods and his balls

Say what you will about Tiger Woods -
but you've got to admire his attitude on the golf course…

… One reason he wins is he doesn't fret about failure.
For example, I've never seen Tiger putt a ball and
have it stop short of the hole. Because if the putt
lands short, it's impossible for the ball to drop into the cup.
His putts either go into the hole or they roll just past the hole…

… The same is true in my world, if I don't type,
my words won't get read. If I don't create videos or audios,
my content doesn't get seen or heard. And since I'm
not a believer of remote viewing, if my stuff can't be
soaked in by my website visitors, I don't get paid.

On the flip side, when I publish content,
my bank account increases. No exception.

Let me repeat this because it's important…
every time I publish content on this blog
(or as a paid infoproduct), I make money.
And that money gives me the ultimate prize – FREEDOM.

The importance of this simple, yet crucial advice
shouldn't be overlooked… the bottom line is if
I don't publish stuff, I don't get paid. And that's 100% guaranteed.

I'm the founding member of the
"I-Don't-Give-A-Crap-Club-For-Men" -
(Wanna join me)?

I do quite well selling my online infoproducts these days…

… But that wasn't always the case.

That's because I wasted over 12 years of my adult life
analyzing, worrying, wondering and stressing about
whether or not someone wanted to buy my writing.

"Will they buy my infoproduct?"

It didn't end there. I worried about what people
thought about the brand name of my sneakers…
my religious affiliation… even the kind of car I drove.

I worried so much about how I was perceived that
I didn't have enough time to care for myself.

Over time, I S L O W L Y realized that
catering to others was insane.

As a result, I've developed a very thick skin over time.
And I made a conscious decision to eliminate the
barriers our society challenges us with.

Eventually, I got over the social stigma of this
odd thing known as failure.

Today, I don't see failure as a result of making mistakes.
Rather, I see failure as a necessary process to
reach my personal goals.

Now don't get me wrong – I don't rush things
just for the sake of "taking action." That's just careless and
ultimately leads to unnecessary stress.

With that said, I no longer fear failure.

My solution was to setup a sort of secret organization inside my head.
I refer to it as the "I-Don't-Give-A-Crap-Club-For-Men".
And as the name suggests, I make decisions that benefit me first.
Everyone else in my life comes second.

This goes totally against what we're told to do.
They even invented a word for this (i.e. selfish)…

… But something rather remarkable happened as I
adopted this controversial mantra. As a result of being selfish,
I'm truly happy for the very first time in my life.
The stress of making everyone else happy has
evaporated into thin air. My stress level is near zero…

… And much to my surprise, I've had a bunch of people RESPECT
me for this new lifestyle (instead of spurning me for being so damn egocentonic).

Just say no to "friends" and family

With this said, some people HATE the "new me".
They want the old Mark back… you know -
the guy who was all politically correct,
\got pushed around, etc. Unfortunately for them,
those days are over. Because there's a
new sheriff in town and his name is Markus Allen.
Ya'll be cool. Right on (and I quote Eddie Murphy in the movie 48 Hours).

Here's what I've discovered. Once I put myself first,
it's impossible to go back. And yes, there's collateral damage.
I've lost a bunch of friends over this… even family members, too.

But the good news is life is really awesome these days.

Say adios to toxins

The reality is most people I used to hang out with
were toxic to me which ultimately delayed reaching my #1 goal – FREEDOM.

I used to hang out with people who LOVE their servitude
(working 9 to 5). They'd rush home from their job,
barely wolf down dinner, dart off to their "kids'" games,
limp back home exhausted – turn on the TV and
hit the sack.

Rinse and repeat.

And if life wasn't complex enough,
the worst invention in the history of mankind
has completely taken over our lives…

… Of course I'm referring to those smartphones.
Nowadays, these same slaves (yes, I said slaves)
are now 24-hour-a-day workers as "the corporation" is
tethered to these workers via their smartphones
every single second of the day – even weekends and holidays.

Yet everyone thinks this technology is somehow cool
This is FRIGHTENING to me.

In order to cope with the stress of this nonsense,
these "friends" were intolerant, drugged up,
out of shape and made really poor personal
choices in almost all aspects of their lives.
And they would bitch about their life to me.
Even worse, they were always a paycheck away from
homelessness (and ruin).

That's no way to live life. Instead, everyone I used to
hang out with were miserable. And their misery
bubbled over to me. So if I wasn't politically correct and
endorsed their life of servitude to the corporation,
I was "uncaring", a "kook" and "weird."

Ending my toxic relationships took time.
It wasn't easy. At first, I was lonely and
wondered if I made the right decision.

But today, I KNOW it was the
best move I ever made in my entire life.

"Take massive action"
(Another "guru" stretch of the truth)

Ask any guru or expert why their "students" fail and
they'll always scream, "They didn't take massive action."

Yes, it's true – sitting on your hands and doing nothing is a
surefire way to nothingness. But at the same time,
taking the WRONG action isn't going to help, either.

If I lost everything today and was forced to start all over,
I'd be doing the EXACT same thing I'm doing right now.

I can't think of any other business I'd rather be in.
Because for a little more than $100 a month, I own a
REAL, online business (that I started from scratch) with
VERY low overhead and VERY high profit margins.
As an infoproduct publisher, I literally get paid
every time I write, replay an audio file or show a video.

I publish content. I get paid for my content.
My freedom increases. Rinse and repeat.

The best part is I "create the wheel" once, and
I turn it over and over again for life. It's the
ultimate set-it-and-forget-it business.

Let me tell you about a "failed" infoproduct I crafted
more than a decade ago. It was called,
101 Instant Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business.

It was literally my best 100+ marketing ideas ever -
all organized by category and complete with quick how-to tips.
I literally POURED everything into this online book.
I even invested a ton of money having it professionally edited
(which in retrospect was a colossal mistake by the way).

And I was CERTAIN it would be a runaway best seller.

Unfortunately for me, it didn't sell so well.
In fact to this day I have no idea why it didn't take off.
I mean, it's packed with my best stuff. The
online salesletter hit on all of the right pain points.

And it was priced right (at $19).

What's interesting is those who bought it RAVED about it.
Yet word of mouth referrals never spread. And over time,
orders stopped coming in.

Now, I could have pulled out the violin and
chanted "Shakespearean" woe is me -
hoping that somehow that would change things…

… Instead, I waited many many years and
created an online infoproduct system that would
revive my online book.

(Click here to get my FREE infoproduct training course
to see my system in action).

And that's exactly what I did – I pulled the
online book off the market. I updated it.
And now I use this online book as a giveaway.
To get it FREE, just enter the access code of:

amazingsecrets

Here:
http://www.marketing-ideas.org/101/login.php

Turn lemons into dough rey me

Giving away this online book
gets new visitors onto my email list.
And from time to time, I send announcements of
new infoproducts I offer for sale. A percentage
of those on my list buy my stuff.

Taking my "failure" and giving it away to build my list
is just one of many ways I get paid to write.

So back to John's original concern:

I think I'm getting caught up in the fact that I'm trying to find a niche within the health and fitness area that is not totally saturated and it's driving me nuts.

First of all, creating infoproducts should be
super fun, obscenely profitable and stress free.
If this is "driving you nuts", let's fix that pronto.

The beauty of my infoproduct creation system is
there's no pressure to sell sell sell. Your cost of
doing business is the same whether you
sell one infoproduct or 100…

… That is, webhosting and your email marketing service provider
are basically the same cost month to month. And once you
create an infoproduct (using my evergreen strategies that are timeless),
you can create it once, and sell it for life – right from your website.

Because we're NOT selling our stuff the traditional way
(e.g. bookstores, Amazon or even ClickBank),
there's no need to worry about profit margins.

With my system, there are no affiliates to pay and
no cost of goods sold. You're merely selling
how-to solutions to people with problems -
all delivered over the Internet.

There's nothing to lose -
this business is OBSCENELY profitable

It's all ones and zeros… so there's
no real cost to deliver your infoproduct.
For the exception of processing fees,
you get to keep the VAST majority of the
revenue for yourself.

The only business that comes even
close to this model is religion…
but my business has no need for
expensive buildings with stained glass and
doesn't have to payout billions to quiet the pedophiles.

No matter what topic you pick, there's
always a demand for it (when you use my system).

For example, if I try to sell something
(and it's not selling well), I pull it and
offer it as a bonus gift inside one of my
other infoproducts. Or, I offer it as a
FREE giveaway (to capture leads into
my email autoresponder). I can even
use it as fodder for my blog or even
content for a guest post on my competitor's blog.

Turn each word you write into cash

Either way you look at it, every word you write…
every audio you record and every video you capture is
going to always pay off. It's literally impossible
not to make money with my system. Impossible.
(Of course the amount of money you make is
directly proportional to your work ethic.)

This concept is SUPER DUPER IMPORTANT to grasp.
Because every minute you think about it (instead of doing it),
you're missing out. Every time the clock ticks and
you're not offering your pearls of wisdom in
one way or another, you're GUARANTEED a $0 payoff.

Let me offer this example to inspire: this blog post about the
fear of success is going to generate some nice dough rey me
into my bank account over the coming years.

On average, the ads at the top of this page
pays me roughly $50.00 every time 1,000 people
see this post.

Even better, a percentage of the visitors reading this are
going to join my email list. The industry average is roughly
$1.00 per email subscriber per month. (I'm a bit
lower than that because I don't hype
crappy products to my list.) Let's go on the
really low side and say each email subscribe
on my list is worth 50 cents a month…
the math tells me just 100 new subscribers
who stay with me for 5 years is worth a whopping $3,000.00.

(And yes… with my system, most of my subscribers
stay on my lists for years.)

Again, that's just for getting merely
100 subscribers onto my email list.
That's a PIECE OF CAKE with my infoproduct system.

The bottom line is if I didn't write this post,
I'd LITERALLY be giving up thousands and
thousands of dollars in easy, long-term money.

If I instead suffered analysis paralysis and fretted
whether or not to figure out what niche I wanted to
start with, I'm to be GUARANTEED zero dollars from
my lack of effort.

My suggestion is to just get started. Use my Keywords for Traffic and
Customer Pain Points' tutorials to find a starving niche to serve.
These tutorials combined show you EXACTLY what to write about…
it even shows you how to get your buyers to help you
write your online salesletter for you.

But the best part is these tutorials help you
create content so the search engines refer you
precisely-targeted traffic to your site (who have
credit card in hand and are virtually
BEGGING to buy your infoproduct)…

… Then take a few moments picking a niche that
you're most passionate about (because it's
much easier to create content in a niche that you like)…
and start cranking out the content…

… If you find that your content isn't selling well – that's cool…
just take it in another direction. Pull apart your product into
several "chunks" and give it away to build your email list.
Then shake off the setback and try it again until you
find a niche that is willing to pay you
handsomely for your solutions.

I don't know of a single business person that
wins 100% of the time. Most are THRILLED
when one of of five ideas pay off.
And you're never going to find that winner
unless you're doing the work.

Remember, motion beats meditation.

Bottom line

Never give up.
Always be creating content that offers solutions to the pain points of the marketplace.
Just say no to the fear of failure.

But the old tried and true methods aren't working anymore.

In the past, web marketers could rely on 100 different ways to get more traffic to their sites. Unfortunately, those days are over.

For example:

Pay per click is almost 1,000% more expensive than just six years ago. And "Quality Scores" almost neuter our ability to convert visitors into leads (or customers). Even worse, Google and Facebook are banning us from paying for traffic – often without giving us notice (or the reason why we're banned).

Social media marketing is impossible to rely on. I've tracked Twitter clickthru rates for years and they're embarrassingly low. For example, when Oprah "tweets" to her 10 million Twitter followers, less than a few thousand actually click onto her recommendations. That's brutally bad. And it's an unreliable traffic source because many "follow" just so you follow them back.

Mobile marketing is certainly growing, but it's still not very responsive. Most still prefer their computers to take action (like subscribe to an optin or buy something).

Even FREE organic traffic (i.e. search engine referrals) is getting hit hard these days. Real hard. Even if your site is rich in content and doesn't employ a single black-hat scheme, many sites are getting "de-indexed" (i.e. your website's pages are getting deleted from showing up in a search result).

Even offline methods are becoming quickly irrelevant. Do you remember that thick stack of pages called the phone book? Even coupon carriers like ValPak are replaced by the online sensation Groupon.

TV ads? Dead. Newspaper advertising? Dead. Telemarketing? Dead.

And what in the world is going on with the postal service? I understand more than half of all bulk-mail processing centers have quietly been shut down.

All marketing channels lead to the Internet, right… but the little guy (like us) is getting "slapped."

Yikes… every traffic source is dried up -
what do we do now?

Obviously, this is VERY troubling. To get more traffic to your blog (or website) is crucial. It's the lifeblood of any online marketer. And without leads, we have no buyers to spend money on our stuff.

But while most are complaining about this, I instead focus harder than ever to fix this problem…

… And for me, one of the answers is to focus on the Big G – because Google is the King of this mountain. And whether it's fair or not, they dictate much of how we survive (and even thrive) into the foreseeable future with our online marketing efforts.

Tap into the second-largest search engine tonight

Did you know Google owns the second largest search engine on the planet? It's true… Google bought YouTube back in the fall of 2006 (yep, almost six years ago).

And in this video, I reveal four solid and dependable types of YouTube traffic that I'm able to tap into to funnel precisely-targeted visitors to my website:

Click here to see my Fiverr tutorial…

But as this expose reveals, any small business owner can quickly and easily bypass these BBB "Accreditation Standards" if they simply pay for it…

… Watch this amazing and revealing video about the BBB:

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you know I don't trust the media… they're just as bad as the scammers the seem to expose. These media companies lie 24/7 and pretend to "be on our side" as our whistleblowers. But the video (above) is hard to ignore as Steve Cox (President of the BBB) admitted to a "few errors."

Quite frankly, that's propaganda and public-relation's spin… and this followup video seems to show a pattern that the Better Business Bureau is nothing more than a small business extortion telemarketing firm:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN4MKqDXGmY

Even worse, Google bolster's the "trust and authority" value of the BBB by assigning their website a PageRank score of a 9 (out of 10):

No wonder most people still truth the Better Business Bureau as the world's go-to whistleblower.

The Better Business Bureau isn't the only feedback service in the extortion business…

… Last year, several lawsuits emerged accusing Yelp.com (founded by two PayPal employees) of shaking down business owners to advertise in exchange for positive reviews.

And the wildly popular (and darling of Google's search results) RipOffReport.com offers to turn negative reports into positive one… scammers are given the "opportunity" to pay up to $50,000.00 to join RipOffReport's "Corporate Advocacy Program" and have their entire history of rip off reports negative reports vanish from the site.

I know, I know… you're probably asking yourself, "Who can you trust?"

My answer is nobody. Seriously. I personally don't trust a single feedback service (as a whole). What I do trust are most of the feedback comments posted online to help me make a better buying decision…

… Here's how I skim the cream from the top and find the best people to do business with:

Look for "complaints" or "sucks" websites
Anytime someone invests the time, money and energy to host a "suck" site, you know there's both smoke and fire.

Take a look at this:

Some scammers are tricky and actually bully suck sites to hand over website to the scammer. That's EXACTLY what Mike Filsaime (ex- car salesman by the way) did at this site:

(Interesting that he uses this "Mike Filsaime Sucks" website to show (in a YouTube video) how he used a legal loophole/technicality to literally steal away this website from its rightful owner – what a douchebag.)

Of course we can use the WayBackMachine (www.archive.org) to unearth what the site looked like before Filsaime snatched it:

Don't look at overall grades
When a site gets a 4 out of 5 or an A- grade, that doesn't mean much… feedback is easy to game. Some business owners game the system in their favor and competitors rig the ratings, too.

I'm much more interested in individual feedback.

Be sketpical of some 5-star ratings
Tons of people on the popular outsource site Fiverr.com are willing to accept a lousy $5 to give its employer an A+ feedback rating. It's easy to spot these fake endorsements and testimonials… just check out their profile and see if they give everyone the best scores.

Pay special attention to the lowest feedback
As the most skeptical person on the planet (and proud of that tag), I zoom to those who give the worst feedback. Their comments reveal a lot:

Here's a great example of how I'm able to extract gold nuggets of information from a 1-star review:

From this single review, I was able to make a (non) buying decision… it told me almost everything I needed to know about this book.

Bottom line: The real problem is us… this information about the Better Business Bureau scam has been around for many years. The problem is we're often apathetic about this stuff and bury our heads in the sand…

… Instead, we can make a difference. Forward this to a friend or colleague… Facebook like this post (see below)… get angry and spread the word – that's what I'm doing.

I'm writing this blog post on the exact same day Blog World 2011 (#BWELA) kicked off in Los Angeles.

An no, I'm not attending. Why? Because I'd rather watch chrome rust. Seriously, I'd rather show you how to make a fulltime living as a blogger – click here to get my blogging tutorials (it's 100% FREE).

I'm continually amazed how a never-ending carousel of bloggers flock to each year's "circus." Seriously, at least P.T. Barnum gave us an entertaining show for less sheckles than it costs to see a movie.

Holy crap, where do I begin?

Okay, let's start with the price of admission:

If these prices don't make you choke on your chicken, you're a better blogger than I (and I make a full-time living at it). Seriously, you're paying an entrance fee to get sold an upgrade. Every aspect of this expo is a sales letter in disguise of "blogging breakthroughs." It's a pitchfest from every angle.

I could go on and on about this scam (and yes, it is a whopper of a scam and so many ways)… here's why:

Strange bedfellows
BlogWorld is sponsored by Ford, Century 21, Johnson and Johnson and Dun and Bradstreet. What in the world does a car company, a home seller, and bandage company and a credit rating agency have to do with blogging?

But the "VIP Sponsor" this year is Heineken. Okay, that makes sense now…

… Because that's the REAL reason most bloggers fly into BlogWorld – for the "social" aspect. In simple speak, Blog World is a party.

Social media marketing
Very, very few bloggers make any dough rey me using social media. It's a total fraud and scam. The only people who make cash with social media marketing are those selling tools and tutorials on how to cash in on social media marketing. It's a total circle jerk (and you're on the receiving end of the jerk).

Noise
According to Lincoln Adams (who attended last years Blog World in Las Vegas), you get hammered with an "endless, unceasing, outside, inside… even in the hotel room noise. It never stops."

Rookies
When you pay up to $1,297.00, you expect the expo to literally hand over the keys to the blogging kingdom and show you EXACTLY how to blog for profit. Instead, you end up getting a lecture on how to do the most basic things. That's because most of the audience is made up of newbies… blog rookies who barely know how to install a WordPress plugin.

BlogWord boasts a field of 275 "experts in the field"… ready to spout their path to blogging success in over 150 sessions. Instead, you often get stuff you can find in almost any under-$10 Kindle ebook.

Shiny, magic bullets
If you're looking for those intrepid, insider secrets only the gurus pretend to know, attending these expos is going to be a huge disappointment for you.

But you will be given the IMPRESSION that you're just a click away from instant internet riches. Just meet the speaker at the back of the room and (once again) hand over your credit card for the next greatest blog business in a box.

Instant social
Most attendees (even the shy ones) claim to dig the social aspect of these conferences. And I can understand why on the surface. Instead of trading texts back and forth with your colleagues, you get to meet them in the flesh – usually for the very first time. That's cool… for about 15 minutes or so.

Then it hits you like a brick why blogging by yourself is so awesome. Because you don't have to deal with idiots all day long.

My daddy always told me that mass networking was for losers. And he's right. You'll never see really successful people dishin' out a business card in a big 'ol meet and greet.

Now day one is killer. You're totally suffering from jet lag and the first day of conferences takes a brutal toll on you physically and mentally. But right on cue, someone in your group reminds you that the greatest blog party to ever exist is just hours away. You're beat, but don't want to be a party pooper and you go (even though it's NEVER even close to your hotel room).

We all know what happens next. You drink way too much. You make an ass out of yourself. And the next thing you remember is sitting in another "session" on day #2 – starving to death and tired as all get out. Good times! (Not.)

But hey, at least you got to ride the wave:

Wow. Now that's entertaining (dripping with sarcasm).

Dog food
Whether you're a foodie like me (or not), you're going to be HIGHLY disappointed by the selection of food you get during this trip. While it's true that your $1,297.00 all-access pass includes lunch and snacks, I wouldn't even give it to my dog it's so bad. And there's nothing worse than trying to learn when you're hungry.

And good luck finding good food near the conference center… no matter how much you pay, tracking down good eats is nearly impossible near this expo.

Fat ass
Don't be fooled by the dates at Blog World 2011. The calendar might say November 3rd 'til the 5th, but the truth is you're going to be away from home for at least five days. And when you come home, you're going to be so exhausted, you won't get back into your rhythm for at least another few days…

… For me, that's almost a week without proper eating and proper exercise. I mean, it's bad enough we make a living blogging all day at our computer, but at least I get to exercise almost every day. But thanks to Blog World, I'm guaranteed to add more than a few pounds to my backside.

Swag
This takes the cake for me… a lot of attendees roam the aisles of the exhibit halls looking for "swag"… free nicknacks like popcorn and logo-filled shopping bags and gimmicky plastic things that one would expect to see at the local state fair. Really folks? You travel thousands and thousands of miles… pay thousands and thousands of dollars in conference fees, hotels, flight and meals – and you get all excited about swag? Oy vey my brother.

Smoke and mirrors
Most people I talk to almost unanimously feel the session descriptions are "inaccurate" (that's political correct speak for "bullshit"). There's nothing worse than waiting for session to start, then finding out half-way through it that it's not targeted for you. That's a lot of wasted time that you can't get back.

Paneling
Blog World loves to give us panels… a series of industry "experts" ready and eager to blurt out amazing nuggets of blog gold. But much like fake wood paneling, it just sucks. And a lot of attendees complain about this.

Bottom line
There's no reason for you to hunt and peck for blog tips from an overpriced Blog World 2011. If you're ready to finally make a full-time living blogging right now, you might want to click here to grab these blogging tips, techniques and methods…

If you're a frustrated:

- book author…
- freelance copywriter…
- blogger (or online entrepreneur)…

… and you're looking to turn your words into cash (or fame), you MUST take a listen to this:

As the name suggests, pain points are written (and even spoken) "cries for help."

Collecting a list of pain points helps you understand what your prospects truly desire. Referring to these same pain points in your blog writing and ad copy helps your prospect better relate to your offerings. It almost instantly builds rapport which leads to a higher trust factor.

Take a look at this:

In almost all cases, when you offer solutions to your prospect's problems (and the price is profitable for both buyer and seller) a purchase is often made.

How to find your prospect's pain points in mere seconds

There are several places where internet users are offered space to vent about their issues:

- Email
- Twitter (and Facebook)
- Message boards

In most cases, anyone with a computer and internet connection (that would be you) can literally peak over the shoulder of their prospect and listen into these complaints.

I say "most" because I know of no legal, ethical or technical ways to intercept your prospects emails.

(Of course you can be on the receiving end of an email complaint. This is certainly one way to get a pain point, but it's not exactly the most proactive way to collect pain points.)

But, it's astonishingly easy to view private conversations within social media sites like Twitter. It takes just 2 clicks of your mouse and you're in. And it's 100% legal and legit', too.

For example, let's say you write a blog about weight loss. And you want to find pain points to help inspire you to write that next blog post. Just search Twitter using the following formula:

[keywords] frustrated -http

Like this:

(Adding the search syntax -http removes any website links… those are typically "tweeted" by marketers, not by frustrated Twitter users.)

In less time then it takes me to sneeze, I found these gold nuggets during a Twitter search:

And this:

And even this:

HOLY COW! How awesome is this? Can you see how you can take these pain points and flip them around into ad copy?

For example, turn this:

"Forever frustrated at life because I'm still hungry after breakfast. How am I supposed to stick to my diet."

And turn it into this benefit bullet:

–> How to stick to your diet without feeling hungry after breakfast.

Turn this pain point:

I'm so frustrated with my moms weight problem: plz give me ur best idea on motivating someone who doesn't care! #health #diet #weight #fat

And turn it into:

–> 7 fast and easy tactics to get your family members to BEG to join your diet (in 13 hours or less).

This pain point:

I am really getting frustrated trying to find the right diet for working out…

Turns into this benefit bullet:

–> This elite Navy Seals' diet is PERFECT for those who work out hard and want to gain muscle rapidly…

A MUCH better way to find pain points

Discovering customer pain points via Twitter is cool…

… But using a combination of message boars forums and Google is way better.

Take a look at this example. I discovered this amazing post in just 45 seconds:

This particular post is a treasure trove of pain points. The entire paragraph is one pain point after another.

Basically, anything that's either "negative", references the word "help", or is in the form of a question – is typically a pain point.

I've included only the pain points here:

–> I feel like all I do is talk about losing weight and I don't ever actually do it.
–> I don't know where to start or what to do.
–> No matter how many books I read or people I talk to I fail.
–> Coming here reading success stories make me happy but not enough to push me.
–> It just makes me doubt myself and think Ill never do it.
–> Now if only i could get my eatiing on track and stop binging.
–> Im just not sure what else to do.
–> Someone help me.
–> What did you do to start out???

Armed with these pain points, we can either write new content (for a blog or for an article) or create benefits/advantages for our advertising…

… I created a blow-by-blow tutorial on this -
click here to grab my tutorial on how to convert customer pain points into cash-grabbing ad copy…

Backlinks are like votes. And the search engines rely heavily on these votes to determine what position you show up in a web search.

We're all guilty of listening to all of the wrong "gurus" and "experts" and make classic backlinking mistakes… everything from using automated tools to using link wheels with "footprints" — even backlinking too much, too fast.

Yes it's true. Getting too many backlinks too quickly actually works against you. Let me prove it to you below…

… Here's a snapshot of my webstats. Here we see my how-to tutorial on writing a personal biography example gets me a lot of traffic – 67,232 visitors in just 90 days:

This webpage has been on my site for years. And while I currently average more than 700 visitors a day to this webpage, it wasn't always so bountiful…

… I too listened to the wrong people and made all of the backlinking mistakes one could make. It even got me banned from showing up in Google's search results for years.

So back in the Spring of 2009, I reversed engineered some sites and figured out how to make Google happy and get a steady parade of traffic to my webpages. To my surprise, I found that working too hard and too fast actually worked against me. Instead, I invest just 15 minutes a day on building links.

As a result, I'm getting this:

See how the graph continues to steadily grow in numbers month after month?

The best way to build backlinks is to "prime the pump". Go slow. I avoid automated backlinking tools – they leave "footprints" and "signals" that you're trying to game the system. Instead, I shoot for less than a dozen backlinks to get my webpage on the first page of Google – take a look:

When you look at the top, you see I have SEOQuake installed… and it shows the PR:0 (I have a PageRank of zero… yes that's a 0) and Y!:8 (yes, just 8 incoming links to my webpage). So once again the "gurus" and "experts" are all wrong – you don't need to have hundreds or even thousands of backlinks to show up tops in the search results to get 700 visitors to your site each day. In almost every case, my most visited webpages have less than a dozen inbound links.

Just 8 incoming links to my site gets Google to send me this:

See how I'm getting hundreds (even thousands) of free organic traffic referrals from Google? If I were to pay just 10 cents a click using Google AdWords' pay per click advertising program, this would set me back thousands and thousands of dollars. Instead, I get this traffic 100% FREE!

Most of the keywords are a result of showing up on the first page in Google. (And I got a bunch from Yahoo! and Bing, too.)

So what's my secret? How in the world am I able to get just 8 backlinks to my site and get 66,182 visits in just the last 90 days?

Here it is – the tactic that made the BIG difference:

One of my secrets is to post a "nofollow" link. Yep, while all of the "gurus" and "experts" tell us to avoid "nofollow" backlinks, it was this link above that made all of the difference. I know it because I track this stuff… and as soon as I posted that link (shown above), my visits more than doubled the very next week. And since then, traffic to this webpage of mine has gone up more than 11 times.

Later today I'm holding a teleseminar about this. I'm going to reveal my #1 backlinking secret location that no one is talking about…

Update: I just completed this seminar about backlinking. And this email from John Patten just arrived shortly after:

… This teleseminar is FREE when you join my Marketing Junkies Club. And dont' fret if you can't make the call… I record everything and make the replay available the very next day. To access this call, look for the 7/7/2011 teleconference replay.

But the VAST majority of site owners I speak with are frustrated with trying to attract free website traffic…

… They're tired of creating the best content, spending hours on link building but have nothing to show for it.

They're on the verge of giving up their internet marketing efforts because of Google's ever-changing rules to get organic traffic.

These same website owners try to rank first in Google – but don't because millions of other websites show up ahead of their search result's listing.

It's true. Getting free web traffic is harder than ever.

But I have great news for you… this blog post is the world's largest collection of FREE internet traffic secrets ever compiled.

The following tips, techniques and methods are surefire ways to get eyeballs to your blog or webpage. Just put these strategies into action and soon you're going to show up first in Google – along with Yahoo! and Bing.

(By the way, If you've got a a free website promotion strategy that you'd like to share here, that's great! If your traffic secret makes the cut, I'll post it here with a link back to your website. Click here to post your traffic secret now…)

Let's skip the fluff and get right to the stuff… attract buyers and subscribers to your blog or website with all of these FREE traffic secrets:

Marketing on CraigsList – How to attract free web traffic with tiny classified ads

My #1 best-kept secret to get 100% free blog traffic is to post a tiny classified ad to CraigsList.

It's true… CraigsList is beyond amazing. I wished I posted there years ago.

With that said, most people I know tried CraigsList marketing and failed miserably… they posted an ad and got banned almost instantly. It's true – CraigsList is REALLY cracking down on spammers. But that's good news for us legitimate marketers.

Here's why I love CraigsList (and think you should, too). I posted several 59-word classified ad posts and so far registered a whopping 3,207 visits to my blog over the course of just 60 days:

And that number continues to grow day after day without any additional effort on my end.

Now take a look at this – see how many different search queries Google, Yahoo! and Bing sends traffic to my Trump blog post:

That's just the tip of the iceberg… CraigsList helped me get the following search queries ranked tops in the major search engines almost overnight:

These days, Google, Yahoo! and Bing sends me steady traffic to my not-so-flattering blog post about Donald Trump. That's awesome because normally I'd half to invest a ton of time doing link building, blog commenting and message board posting. But with CraigsList, I literally invest about 15 minutes a day for 14 days. That's it!

You see, CraigsList is one of the most popular sites on the Internet. Think of it as a gigantic classified ad service, but instead of it showing up in your Sunday paper, it's available in just a click of your computer mouse over the Internet.

CraigsList is divided geographically into regions… you're able to place your ads in CraigsList San Francisco to CraigsList Morocco. And when you post an ad in the right section of CraigsList, you get instant visits back to your blog or webpage.

But the best part is it's totally FREE. Post ads all day long… weekends and holidays, too.

Here's why I love CraigsList marketing and know you should, too:

You get instant traffic – When you format your CraigsList classified ad the right way, CraigsList approves your listing almost instantly.

It's almost too good to be true because just moments after posting, you see FREE website traffic arrive on the webpage you choose.

And surprisingly, this traffic is responsive. Unlike other free traffic sources, CraigsList referrals take action… they're willing to click on my webpage ads… passionate about subscribing to my email list… and they're buying my stuff at a nice clip.

While instant traffic is good, I prefer:

Almost-instant traffic – The most fascinating aspect of CraigsList is who scans their classified ads.

Apparently, a lot of influential types (like bloggers and social media mavens) swing by for a looksy… because just a day or so after I post an ad, a bunch of different websites link to me. And when this kicks in, I'm seeing a lot of traffic come to my site from all different directions.

So while I dig instant traffic and almost-instant traffic, my absolute FAVORITE benefit of posting classified ads to CraigsList is:

Set-it-and-forget-it, long-term traffic – Out of all of the link building methods I've tested, nothing comes even comes close to link building with CraigsList.

Nothing.

I wish I knew about this method years ago.

Even though CraigsList ads only stay active 7 to 30 days (depending on the city), the link juice you earn never runs dry.

Long-term, steady traffic starts to kick in about 75 days after posting. Take a look:

About a week ago, I hit the low point of the curve… but in another week or so, I FULLY expect my referral traffic from Google, Yahoo! and Bing to jump. I'm expecting at least 750 visits a day to this Donald Trump page – every day.

Not bad for a few free posts to CraigsList, eh?

Here are some tips I use to make CraigsList marketing pay off:

Best time to post – When you post too soon, you ad "moves off the main page" and doesn't get seen. And when you post too late, everyone is asleep.

I find the "sweet spot" is between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. local time. And skip posting on weekends or holidays – you're likely to waste your time.

Get your ad approved – Years ago, CraigsList was a spammers paradise. You could upload blatant ads without worry.

Today, half the battle is getting your ads to "stick" (i.e. to be approved and not deleted).

The best way to get your ads to "stick" is to avoid any hint of selling. Instead, redirect your visitors to a blog post or webpage on your site.

Go naked – Even though CraigsList gives you the option to place ads in HTML code, I recommend plain text.

And never ever format a link with SEO anchor text (like this). This is a surefire way to get your post deleted every time.

Instead, use a naked link format like this:

http://www.truthin7minutes.com

Write a killer ad title – Make sure to include a your optimized keyword phrase in the title of your ad. Just about every major search engine takes notice and sends link juice to your webpage as your reward.

Bottom line: Posting tiny classified ads to CraigsList is a surefire way to put your traffic generation on autopilot…

… But it is tricky if you don't know what you're doing. That's why I created a step-by-step tutorial to help guide you and navigate you through the trickiest parts of posting classified ads to CraigsList (available for members of my private Marketing Junkies' Club) -

Click here to access my CraigsList tutorial.

What is the New Age, you may ask? The New Age is both a social and religious movement. It mixes groupthink with utopia.  It's teachings are used quite extensively in the self help and personal development industry.

Ironically, the New Age is based on the Old Age. It's loosely based on the far-Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism. And these religions have been around since the beginning of time. Some say they're the oldest religions ever, permeated with mysticism and pantheism.

It's easy to convince most to buy into the New Age promises as we live in an never-ending world of chaos, hard economic times, food shortages and crisis.

This naturally gets people looking for solutions to their problems. And since most people are lazy, the New Age is quite appetizing.

Who wouldn't want to channel themselves into a utopian world – it sounds fantastic. And for those selling us these do-it-yourself self-help powers, it's the shiny magic bullet everyone begs to obtain.

Pushers of the New Age couldn't have asked for a better product to sell – millions and millions of people clamoring for a solution and it costs hardly nothin' to deliver the solution (via a book or a CD/DVD). Selling the New Age is an amazing profit center.

Think it + repeat it = magical outcomes

No matter what you call it, the principle is always the same… the New Age offers us a mindset to convince the average person that they can produce their own magic and produce 'spiritual' miracles by simply thinking about it. All one needs to do ideally is "manifest" perfected outcomes of particular problems blocking your path and if you do it just right, solutions appear magically in front of your eyes.

Manifesting gives anyone with faith to "CYOR" (create your own reality) through visualization, positive thinking, goal setting and affirmations (a declaration of an oath – usually repeating a desired outcome over and over again).

In simple speak, if you see an outcome in your mind's eye and think about it over and over again, it's going to come true through the power of positive thinking. But…

Being negative is NOT an option and highly forbidden. Negative thinking and the New Age are like oil and water… they just don't mix.

Eliminate the word "coincidence" from the dictionary

When you enter the world of self help, suspending self preservation skills and eliminating basic logic is essential.

The New Age offers us an endless parade of anecdotal "evidence" proving the validity of this mind magic. The stories of social proof are never ending and abundant… for example:

A real estate agent was going through a year-long drought. She couldn't list or sell a single house. But after arming herself with the "5 Levels of Manifesting", she affirmed in her mind the idea of closing a deal sometime this week. Three days later, an 'Agreement of Sale' floated onto her desk and a commission check was cut on the spot.

I could go on and on and on with similar stories of proof. The self-help industry mastered the art of story telling.

When it comes to the New Age, there is no such thing as coincidence. And there's no room for luck, being in the right place at the right time or having opportunity fall into your lap…

… Nope, because when you master the art of "visualization", it arms you with the tools to manufacture your own Pollyanna-esque dream world notions, a.k.a. -  coincidences.

(Note to self: Can blind people use "visualization" to manifest their own destinies? Scratch that – can't anyone take a joke anymore… Surely hellbound for even thinking out loud like that.)

Meet Oprah Winfrey, the undisputed Queen of the New Age movement

The New Age surfaced here in the States over 100 years ago, but it's been heavily pushed only recently as our evolved New World Order religion.

Yes, I said religion. Because the New Age is really a twist on the Old Age… based on the oldest religion ever created: Hinduism.

It's new in the sense that just 20 years ago, there were barely a few book shelves selling any New Age offerings. Yet today, this represents a HUGE section of any bookstore.

Many are involved in the New Age, but no one pushes it harder or more convincingly than Oprah Winfrey. Just about every New Ager "guru" or "expert" is linked to this Queen of media.

A cult of personality surfaces when a nation's widely recognizable celebrity, who is considered to be a leader, uses hypnotic mass media to create a heroic public image through unquestioning flattery and praise. Oprah Winfrey conveniently fits the bill for this. Tens of millions of dreamy-eyed fans (mostly women) have been galvanized to follow her across the country, live by her words and literally worship the airwaves she's seen on. That's why Oprah has authorized a very long time ago (specifically on her September 18, 1987 broadcast about the New Age) to make this new religion a must-be-part-of their agenda.

Oprah Winfrey has done her job well. For multiple decades she's enthusiastically and consistently pushed and exponentially multiplies her New Age beliefs through countless New Age authors…

… Some of the most well-known business "gurus" that got noticed because of Oprah include:

- Deepak Choprah

- Seth Godin

- John Assaraf

- Joe Vitale

- Randy Gage

- Bob Proctor

- Earl Nightengale

- Normal Vincent Peale

- Eben Pagan

- Frank Kern

- Tony Robbins

- Jim Rohn

- Maxwell Maltz

- Echart Tolle

- Brian Tracy

- Zig Ziglar

- Napoleon Hill

New Age golden nuggets

In order to pull off any scam, you have to throw some gold nuggets into the mix. And the New Age certainly does this.

There's no doubt thinking where you want to be in life is a great start to your achieve success (or fixing a problem that needs solving).

For example, if I want to live a life off the grid, free as a bird and only work 4 hour weekdays, I need to THINK about the finish line. For me, that requires $180,000 a year in income. Knowing what my wife earns helps me calculate what additional income I need to bring in. So that's a great New Age tactic — think about where you need to be and work backward…

… So if I need $100,000 a year in extra income to live the internet lifestyle, I can work through the math and calculate I need to bank $274 a day. That means I need to sell x amount of online marketing courses and sign up x amount of new members to my secret marketing club. It's really that simple.

But here's the abrasive rub. And it's something hardly any New Age "guru" or "expert" dispenses: You need to TAKE ACTION to make your goals come true. They fail to mention this because action takes sweat and energy… magic doesn't. And when given the choice between the two, almost everyone takes the magic option (and are willing to pay hundreds or even thousands for it).

I went all "woo woo" for more than a year!

As title holder of the world's most skeptical person (I'm 100% guilty of this), you might be surprised to know I actually tried manifesting, visualization and affirmations. Of course, it was in the spirit of scientific experiment testing (and for giggles).

I posted pictures of my favorite car (the Infiniti FX50S) all over the place. Even a desktop background picture. I even created a Twitter account about it… posting a link to a new YouTube video about my "new car."

Every single day, I stared at that 390 horsepower work of art for more than a year. Every day I imagined myself driving in it as wind flowed through my long, blonde locks of hair and hot chicks froze in their tracks to unconrollably imagine riding in the passenger seat beside me…

… But the reality is I have short, cropped  auburn hair… women are repulsed by my dry, wicked sense of humor (imagine that)… and the agine 1996 Toyota RAV4 continued to reside in my driveway. Oh, and that Twitter account about my dream car? It's long gone. (Actually, Twitter deleted it – claiming I was a spammer).

The bottom line is: Visualizing my dream car was nothing more than a sick exercise in mental masturbation…

Is the New Age really a scam in disguise?

So am I saying the New Age is a scam… or even a hoax?

There is a difference between these seemingly similar words:

A scam is a dishonest "scheme."

A hoax is a fraud.

So I'm thinking the New Age is really a sort of perverted combination of the two… a "scoax" (I just made that up… don't steal it or you'll have bad Karma the rest of your life).

Introducing my 7-step formula to success and happiness

Many of us are guilty for looking to the easy way out of our problems. We long for the path to success without bumps. Most truly believe the power of positive thinking is the path to realizing a better life.

But for me, I find taking action… actually doing something (not mind hocus pocus) offers the surefire way to success and freedom.

Over the years, I've created a sort of homespun formula to success and happiness…

Set low expectations – I've interviewed a lot of "successful", set-the-bar-to-the-max people. These were self-starter entrepreneurs that can afford to retire today and live without worry for the rest of their lives…

… And with just one exception, they were are all gawd-awful MISERABLE. Most even admitted this.

The pressures of high expectations drove them virtually insane. They worked all kinds of crazy hours… sold themselves to the devil multiple times and always worried about makin' more money.

They never had a finish line.

(By the way, the one person who told me he was happy being rich turned out to be a liar. He was never rich to begin with.)

I roll the opposite way. I set my expectations low.

While everyone is swinging for the fences trying to hit home runs, I choose to be "the Pete Rose of internet marketing" and string together a bunch of singles. And it's working quite well for me (thank you very much).

One thing is for sure, I'll never be super rich. But I am super free. And I LOVE it that way.

Fail fast – Failure is a necessary evil to your path to success (and/or solving your problems).

In business, the most successful people fail the vast majority of the time. The difference is they fail fast. They learn from their mistakes. Then they improve. And they look at failure as the needed step to reaching their finish line.

Think about the best bowlers. They didn't score a perfect 300 game the first time they bowled. In fact, I bet they bowled thousands of times before they got their first perfect game. That's thousands of failures before achieving a single success.

We've all heard the story of how often Thomas Edison failed before perfecting the light bulb, right? Edison's a prime example of relentless action, never giving up and ultimately pursuing success.

I could go on and on and on with the rags to riches stories.

Just do it – Whatever you think about Tiger Woods, you have to admire his putting abilities. He almost NEVER putts short of the hole…

… Every time Tiger strokes the ball, he gives himself the opportunity to drain each putt. Most golfers do the opposite and leave the ball short of the hole… scared the ball might roll past the cup. And when this happens, it's IMPOSSIBLE for the ball to land in the cup.

Most business failures occur because of the lack of taking action.

As Gary Halbert's protege Doberman Dan Gallapoo likes to remind his members, "Motion beats meditation."  It's true. Thinking and dreaming about success doesn't bring in success. Taking action (even if you fail, flat on your face) is ultimately going to bring you closer to meeting your goals. Because you have to fail fast in order to slowly succeed.

5-minute rule – When I'm not exactly in the mood to get things done, but need a psychological kick in the pants,  I force myself to work on something for at least 5 minutes.

This little mind trick moves me away from procrastinating and gets me working on productive stuff. What's interesting is I've never quit after just 5 minutes.

Skip the money myth – They say it takes money to make money. I say that's total crap.

In fact, people with money take MUCH longer to fail than those who don't. Having money to fail with is almost always more expensive than having no money.

That's one of the reasons why I don't have lines of credit to tap into… I found that anytime I had money to blow, my failures happened much too S L O W L Y.

It doesn't take money to make money. Really.

Just say no – Think about all of the time you waste talking on the phone, reading emails, posting on Facebook and gossiping. This is a TREMENDOUS drain. And when you're distracted, you're not taking action.

The most successful people refuse to answer their own phones… they check their email just once or twice per day, and chit chat only when all of their work is complete as their reward. They also skip posting on social media (unless they're looking to buy cheap leads on Facebook).

Rub elbows with successful people – They say you earn the average income of your 5 closest friends. That's why I hang out with success people weekly. I met with them every Thursday afternoon for a virtual lunch (see below how you can hang with my friends, too).

Mentor with secret successes – Unlike phony gurus, I find the most successful people I know hide under the radar and keep to themselves.

These successes avoid the limelight. They're often shy. And they've got nothing to sell us.

But the good news is these secret successes are happy to pass along their wisdom as their legacy.

Unlike the gurus, these success aren't going to promise to make you rich. Instead, they just get tremendous satisfaction out of helping you make your first sale… showing you how to fail fast and helping you get to the next level of growing your business.

All of my adult life, I've been meeting up with these under-the-radar successes. And I've convinced them to hang out with me and share their pearls of wisdom…

…. If you're in business for yourself, there's no reason for you to struggle and look to the New Age for help. If you're ready to turn your business from good to great starting right now, click here to join my Marketing Junkies Club…

… For less than the cost of half a Dunkin Donuts' cup of coffee a day, you get inside secrets to help find you as many customers as you desire.

Most of my members add a zero to their business bank account within weeks of joining. Plus it's just darn fun rubbing elbows with other successful marketing junkies dotted all throughout the world.

But the best part is joining my club doesn't require any manifesting, purple stones or chanting with palms open. Instead, we just brainstorm business-building ideas to attain success and freedom.

Are you interested in rubbing elbows with us? If so, click here to join us right now…