I know you’ve heard the saying the money’s in the list, but the money isn’t just in your email or mailing list. It’s in your to-do list too.
Increasingly I am of the opinion that life is all about lists. Lists of short term goals, lists of long term goals, task lists, checklists, etc…
To my right on my rather messy desk are to-do lists written on post-it notes for my various projects. On my computer there are several checklists I’ve created for courses and how-to guides. On the wall to my …

Wow, I feel like it’s been a while since my last post.  Well, here’s the low-down.
Remember I took that trip last month and was gone for a couple of weeks. I had a great time but taking time away from my business (obsession) really derailed me. For the past three or four years I have been laser-beam focused and insanely driven and perhaps a bit too comfortable here at the computer.
Being driven hasn’t been all bad. In the past few years I’ve managed to write two books, create two home-study …

I spent the weekend at the Stephen Pierce Infinite Income Workshop. If you’re unfamiliar with Stephen he is a motivational speaker and marketer who raised himself  from poverty and crime to accountability and success.
Today he travels the world advocating online wealth through affiliate marketing, blogging, and selling information products. He has taken the stage with notable people such as Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powel, Brian Tracy and numerous others.
I first saw Stephen at Mike Filsaime’s Seven Figure Code seminar. I can’t remember what he was talking about then but I must …

My sister and her family came to visit from Ohio. They’re Catholics and very right wing. They live on a farm and have guns and shoot varmints.
They home-school their children and have a goat share where they sell shares of a goat in exchange for a certain amount of goat milk each month. They do this to get around a law prohibiting the sale of unpasturized milk.
My sister tells me with grim seriousness “Oh you don’t understand…Obama is a bad bad man…he’s not who you think he is. He’s not …

Jim Rohn talked about the difference between those who are successful and those who are not as being not great. A series of small steps in one direction or the other will set us on our course either to failure or success.
I’ve witnessed this truth many times among friends, family and myself.  We fail to do the right thing and our lives suffer. Failing to do the right thing doesn’t always mean doing glaringly wrong things like cheating on your spouse, committing fraud, or not paying your taxes.
Failing to do …

Information - can’t live with it, can’t live without it.
An interesting book came out a few years back by a guy named Andrew Keen called the Cult of the Amateur “How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture.” While I didn’t agree with everything in Keen’s biting critique of what he considered the “Cult of the Amateur,” I found the book thought provoking.
Ever read forums? I sometimes read marketing and copywriting related forums. Often I can see Keen’s ideas played out -  amateurs distributing information second or third hand without stopping …

I just wanted to keep you updated. I am still working on my membership site but things are progressing slowly as I have been busy with copy, design, and consulting gigs lately.
Anyhow, a couple of things.
First, remember in part one I said that I was trying to find affordable video hosting. I have over a hundred videos and they take up about 8 gigs of space. I purchased a couple of years of Godaddy Grid Hosting but recently discovered an even better solution. Amazon’s S3 service offers incredibly low cost …

Membership sites can be a great way to earn recurring income each month. Nearly everyone has something they can teach that people are interested in. But, even if you don’t have something you feel comfortable teaching you can always find something you want to learn,  hire someone to teach you and then record the process with audio and video and turn it into content for your site.
We have four magazine subscriptions. Half the time I don’t even look at them. I find myself going online  because the content is more …

If you are going to be an entrepreneur or solopreneur you’ve got to be a leader.  You are captain at the helm and unless you steer your ship nobody will steer it for you.
I see people buying course after course, waiting for one of those courses to have some magic formula that propels them toward instant success. It just doesn’t work that way, and the more I have thought about why people fail in their businesses or fail to make the most from courses they buy the more I think …

Remember dreaming about all the things you would do and be and have growing up? If your life is anything like mine then you know that the reality of adult life doesn’t necessarily play out like the dreams of childhood.

I have climbed more than a few mountains and yet the most difficult mountain to climb has been the mountain of entrepreneurial success. There is no set pathway or trail, the climb is long and steep, many times we are surrounded by people we need to carry or pull up the mountain, we are in charge of planning, logistics, mapping, charting, organizing the expedition, operational details and execution.

I am definitely a broken record when it comes to learning by doing. You can read, and read, and read but unless you get out there and do something nothing is going to happen.
Of course we can’t act on all that we read but…I know people who read everything on self help and personal development but who have been in the same place in life for years. They certainly have the foundations to do something to improve their lives but  never act.
The online world can be another great place to …

Most people who pay $500 per month for a membership program have the same questions. Even if you make good money you don’t what to give it away for nothing. So, what would make a membership program worth $500 per month?
I signed up for Armand Morin’s AM2.0 program a couple of months back. I’ll be honest, the only reason I joined was because I thought I would get a free ticket to his “Big Seminar” in Vegas over the 6th,7th, and 8th of November.  I figured I would sign up …

The least memorable products or advertising campaigns or companies are those with  a wishy washy story. Their boundaries are ill defined and because of that they suffer. They try too hard to be all things to all people. They make few enemies and because of that they make few friends.
Get your story straight.  Your business or your product needs a story. Not just any story, a good story. Lets look at five qualities of a good story and relate them back to our businesses.

Interesting (and polarizing) characters. Yeah, that’s right, …

That was a headline from a Yahoo News article today. The article went on to list various careers and the impact that going to a top school would have on the wages of workers in those careers.
Undoubtedly going to a top school will open more doors and provide more opportunities for higher earning.  As the saying goes, “birds of a feather flock together.” That’s not to say that you can’t earn a decent living going to an average school.
What I found most interesting about the report however was it’s reinforcement …

If you answered yes, I recommend Michael Gerber’s book, “The E-myth Revisited.“  I have to say, that out of all the books I have read on business or entrepreneurship this is one of the best.
Something like 90% of all small businesses fail within the first 5 years.  Why? If you are in business for yourself now you may be acutely aware. If you aren’t, let’s look at the scenario.
You…are some kind of technician, perhaps you are a programmer, engineer, carpenter, plumber, cake baker, or retail worker. Whatever the case, you …

I know there are a lot of you out there not making squat. You try this and that but you can’t seem to squeeze even $1 lousy dollar from your efforts.
Could this be because you aren’t really doing much? Are you always in the forums and looking for some magic formula or some piece of software that is going to make you rich overnight? Sorry friend’s it just doesn’t work like that.
Today, I talked to Darin from Adsense Strategies and Internet Marketing Tips (which is a great site by the …

We all drift, and even the most disciplined of us. I often find myself wasting time checking email more than I should or drifting unproductively through some research task.
How many of you have found yourself at the computer an hour later wondering what you sat down to do in the first place. I know I am guilty of doing so from time to time. In fact, I just caught myself starting to drift into “cleaning up my desktop” mode.
As much as I hate to jump on the bandwagon with everyone …

I attended a Toastmaster’s Leadership Institute training this past Saturday. Darren La Croix former Toastmaster’s world champion of public speaking and professional speaker gave the keynote speech.
To my knowledge Darren is not a copywriter but he does know how to craft a speech and tell a story. And, though he spoke on becoming a better speaker Darren had a good grasp on some of the elements important to good copy. I will pass along some of Darren’s knowledge here:

Darren advised people to start a story file where they keep copies …