Special Guest Post by: J.F. (Jim) Straw

When you have learned that 2 + 2 = 4, you have gained a useful piece of “information.” – When you have learned that 2 apples + 2 apples = 4 apples, but, that 2 apples + 2 oranges = 2 apples & 2 oranges, or 2 pairs of fruit, or 4 fruits, you have gained all-important “knowledge.”

Information is nice to know. It lets you answer the questions on tests (or when watching TV game shows). But, until you learn to use that information in a practical application, it isn’t knowledge.

Any child of 2 or 3 years of age can tell you that 2 + 2 = 4. They have heard it repeated, over & over, until they can repeat it themselves. But, when confronted with 4 apples, they are at a loss to apply that information.

The same holds true for older students (and even adults) who can readily tell you that Einstein’s Theory of Relativity can be expressed by the formula, E = M times C squared. – Until they know what the E, M & C stand for and can use the formula in a practical application, it is only information, not knowledge.

A fine line exists between information and knowledge. That fine line is nothing more than “use.” — You can memorize bits and pieces of information all day, every day, but, until you actually use that information, it is not knowledge. Once used, information becomes knowledge and, thereby, power.

SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE; whether they be self-employed or wage-earners, executive or common laborer, are seekers after knowledge. They absorb information from every direction. The information they can use becomes knowledge, while the information they have no apparent use for is simply stored on the chance that someday it may become useful.

UN-SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE, on the other hand, claim to be seekers of knowledge, but, they believe that knowledge itself can be imparted. Because the books they read, the courses they take, and the plans they buy contain only “information.,” they are forever disappointed. Because it is ONLY INFORMATION (not the “knowledge” they thought they were going to get), they never use the information and, thereby, the knowledge they sought is lost to them forever.

Since I am the author of a great many books, booklets, reports, articles and editorials about success and making & using money (somewhere over 300 so far), those people stick-out like sore-thumbs on my customer lists. They write me long letters detailing their trials and tribulations and explain to me just why the information won’t work for them. But, not one ever writes to say “I used the information and it didn’t work.” – Had they ever used the information, that information would have turned into knowledge and they could have reaped the rewards they have coveted for so long.

If there was a way I could “force” those people to use the information they have, I could literally GUARANTEE their success. And, in those few cases over the years where I have been able to shame or intimidate people into actually using the information I have provided, those people have achieved successes they had only dreamed were possible.

The RULES OF SUCCESS used by successful people & businesses since the beginning of time have never really changed. Those rules have been written-down for all to read, learn and use, but they appear as “information” only and can only be changed to “knowledge” by use. If there were a way to “force” every person and every business to “use” those known and proven rules of success, there would be NO UN-successful people or businesses in the world.

Statistically, 90% of small businesses fail, and 90% of people live a life of sustained mediocrity, simply because they will not “use” the information available to them.

In your quest for financial independence you MUST learn to force yourself to use the information you have at your disposal. — No one (but YOU) is going to force you to assume that responsibility.

Of course, some smart aleck reading this is going to say, “Yeah! But, I’m not going to use any bad information.”

Granted, there is bad (counter-productive) information out there. BUT – there is NO WAY of telling good information from bad information, UNTIL YOU TRY IT. Judging the value of information without using it is like trying to judge the flavor of a pie without ever tasting it.

If you learn nothing else from life, learn that information only becomes knowledge when you use it – and – the information you have used or failed to use in the past is the reason you are where you are today.

YOU can be your best friend, or your worst enemy. No one forces you to be what you are, or do what you do (or don’t do). – What you have today is a direct result of what you did yesterday. What you will have tomorrow will be a direct result of what you do (or don’t do) today.

It’s up to you!

Copyright – J.F. (Jim) Straw. All rights reserved

J.F. (Jim) Straw made over One Million Dollars ($1,000,000) in less than 60 days … over $50,000 in 15 minutes … on one single deal. When he told a friend what he had done, his friend made $20,000 in 3 weeks … without any money … doing the same thing. — Find out how they did it. 

Visit:  http://marketingyell.com/JimStraw

Tagged with: Marketing • Success

Adsense is operated by Google. This is a method of advertising that has become quite common on the internet. You will allow Google to place advertisements on your website for them and for other businesses.

There is no cost to you. However, in exchange for the space on your website these ads take up, you will earn money each time a consumer clicks a link from an advertisement on your website. This is a great way to generate some extra income. The amount of money you earn will depend on the number of ads you have on your site as well as the amount of traffic on your website.

You may be saying this is too easy, what is the catch? It is easy, but there is no catch. This is a great way for businesses to get exposure in various places all over the internet. It also helps them cut down on advertising expenses because they only pay each time a consumer takes a link from a website. Most other types of advertising cost a set amount regardless of if anyone looks at it or not. This is a great method for new businesses that have a low budget for advertising. The more traffic they can generate to their site, the more profits they will make. In turn they can afford to advertise more.

Adsense is a winning situation for everyone. Businesses use it as a low cost way of advertising, website owners use it as a way to earn money, consumers use it as a way to find other products and services they are interested in, and Google uses it as an effective way to earn more money. In fact, Adsense has become so common you will find it on numerous websites just by surfing around the internet a little bit.

Google has a great system in place to determine the best advertisements to place on your website. They will place ads that relate to your products or services offered but not direct competitors. Google is able to determine market trends, customer demands, and evaluate the best ads for your website based on accumulated data that has been analyzed in those areas. This means you have a very good chance of earning money because a great deal of research has gone into determining what consumers are after.

There are many places on your website that you can place Adsense advertisements including your homepage, blogs, emails, and anything else you wish to use. You don’t have to sell products or services to benefit from Adsense either. You may have an educational site or information site. Any type of website can be used for Adsense. Remember that the ads will be fitting and related to the type of website you operate.

The process of signing up for Adsense and start earning money is very simple. Just go to www.Adwords.com. You will need to fill out some basic information on an application. Within 48 hours you will get a response telling you if you were approved or not.

If you are not accepted you will need to contact them to get a full disclosure of why. It is important to have the application completely filled out as that is the number one reason why websites are rejected. Other reasons include personal websites that are not subjective enough and having a website under 15 pages.

Once your application has been accepted you will have to copy and page an html code into the pages you want ads to show up on. You can choose to display the ads vertically or horizontally on your website. You can even customize the colors to make them match your website better. Online help and customer service is available 24/7 if you have questions or other issues.

Remember making money with Adsense is very possible and simple. The more ads you place on your website and the more traffic you have, the more money you will make. Adsense is very simple to set up and you can choose to stop being a part of the process at any time. The ads will be relevant to your website yet not direct competitors. You don’t pay anything to become a member of Adsense, so what do you have to lose?

Tagged with: adsense

For the most part, affiliate programs are a nice, easy way to make money online.  However, like many other online opportunities, you need to be on the lookout for scams.

While it’s not quite the ‘wild-west’ it used to be there are many scammers out there waiting to prey upon the unexpected – And unfortunately, there are also scammers who are using affiliate programs as fronts.  Although it is hard to associate good news with internet scams, there is good news.

That good news is that there are ways to make sure that you join an affiliate program, make sales, and actually get paid for those sales. 

As previously mentioned, a large number of scammers are starting to use affiliate programs as fronts for their scams. These scams can take on a number of different sizes, shapes, and styles. One of the most popular affiliate program scams involves affiliate programs that do not pay. 

These programs are selling real, legitimate products. The only problem is that many of these affiliate programs do not pay.  Essentially, you end up doing a bunch of work for nothing.  Another common affiliate program scam involves selling a product that doesn’t even exist. Not only will you not get paid for your hard work, but you will also be participating in a scam that involves ripping off consumers, by taking their money without giving them what they paid for. 

There are a number of different ways that you can prevent yourself from joining an affiliate program that doesn’t pay.  One of them involves choosing a well-known affiliate program.  If you need assistance choosing an affiliate program, you can seek it online.  There are a large number of online websites that give accurate and updated information on a wide variety of affiliate programs.

There are also programs, which are regularly referred to as affiliate directories.  These directories are actually in charge of running a company’s affiliate program.  Many of these programs, which include LinkShare, come highly rated and recommend, as do the affiliate programs they have listed in their directories.

In conjunction with researching an affiliate program, you can also research the product that is being sold.  A large number of customers write product reviews.  Many of these product reviews, which can be both positive and negative, can be found online. You will also want to check out websites that are known as scam websites.  Scam websites allow internet users, just like you, to post ways that they have been scammed and by whom.  You can find information on poor quality products, individuals, companies, and even affiliate programs that are not considered legitimate. When researching an affiliate program or even a product, it is important to remember that nothing and no one is perfect.  While it isn’t uncommon to find one or two negative reviews, you need to be cautious of numerous negative reviews. 

Since it is relatively easy to avoid an affiliate program scam, you are advised to do so.  If anything appears out of the ordinary or if you suspicions are raised, you are advised to use your common sense.  In the long run, you will be glad with your decision to do so.  Not only can avoiding an affiliate program scam ensure that you get paid, but it will also help you save your own reputation.  The last thing you want to be associated with is an affiliate program that doesn’t deliver the products that they promise. 

In fact, your name or your company’s name could literally be drudged through the mud.  While you may think that this won’t have a long lasting impact, it might just, especially if you plan on selling your own products in the near future. Even if your products are quality products, many consumers might remember you as the person who scammed them before.

Although it is relatively easy to spot an affiliate program scam, there are a few that might “fall threw the cracks.”  If you later determine that you are involved in an affiliate program scam, or even just a program that is selling poor quality products, you are advised to get out as soon as possible. Severing your ties will help to ensure you get paid, as well as build a good name for yourself.

Remember affiliate program scams do exist, but you don’t have to live in fear of them.  Just use your common sense, when it comes to choosing an affiliate program.  Common sense goes a lot further than many imagine

Tagged with: Affiliate Marketing

Do you write articles or ebooks?  If so, how much of you day is spent writing?

If it’s too much and you wish it was easier to write faster, but without having to compromise the quality of your work then keep reading…

There are a number of different methods that you can use to write quicker, while keeping the quality of your work the same or even improving it. 

Just a few of these methods, seven to be exact, are outlined below.

(1) Comfort – If you would like to write quicker, you need to find a setting that you feel comfortable in.  In addition to actually feeling comfortable, you need to be comfortable. Whether you want to work from your bed or outdoors, you are advised to do so.  You are also urged to dress comfortably. When writers are comfortable, they are able to not only work quicker, but also produce better work. 

(2)  Distractions – All distractions need to be eliminated. Although this may seem difficult, it doesn’t have to be.  For instance, if you are a work-at-home parent, you can try sending your child to daycare, even if it is only one day a week.  You can also try working during nap times or even at night, after your child has gone to sleep.  The elimination of distractions is a great way to write quicker.  In fact, it is also known to reduce or completely eliminate the chances of developing writers block.

(3) Typing – Do you consider yourself to be fast at typing?  If you type less than fifty words per minute (wpm), you may want to think about taking a typing class.  One of the many problems that e-book writers face is that their fingers don’t go as fast as their minds do.  Once your typing improves to a quicker speed, you may notice a significant improvement in the amount of time that it takes you to write.

(4) Outlines – If you are an e-book writer who currently doesn’t use an outline, you may want to think about doing so. Outlines are relatively easy to develop and they have an unlimited number of benefits.  One of those benefits is that you know exactly what to write and how to write it.  This means that you can just focus on writing and not necessarily thinking about your next step. This, alone, can save you a considerable amount of time. 

(5) Spell Check – Spell check, without a doubt, is important to any e-book.  That is why it is important that you do it, but you may want to write first and spell check later.  If you use a program like Microsoft Word, all of your misspelled words will be highlighted and waiting for you. For that reason you are advised to wait until the end, doing so will eliminate small breaks; breaks that may bring on a case of writers block.

(6) Proofreading – As with spell checking, proofreading is extremely important.  Many e-book authors like to proofread after writing a chapter or a paragraph.  If at all possible, you are urged not to do this. You may want to write now and proofread later. Once you get on a roll with writing, you may not want to stop.  In the end, you may find that it results in you being able to finish your work quicker.

(7) Time – You are advised to not worry about time.  Even if you are on a deadline, you are urged to take your time and not think about it.  Worrying about just how much time it takes you to write will have a negative impact on your work.  In fact, it is likely to result in more mistakes.  Those mistakes take time to fix.  If you are looking to write quicker, you should try focusing on your writing, rather than time itself.  You may be surprised just how much it helps!

These methods are just a few of the many that exist and as you likely already know, what works for someone else, might not work for you.  With that in mind, I suggest you at least give these suggestions a try and see what helps you the most. 

Remember writing faster is a lot easier than many people think.  If you put your mind to it, could you be writing faster in no time at all.

Tagged with: content creation • writing