Fred Black: Internet Business Blog. tag:www.pqInternet.com,2012://1 2012-01-09T15:15:22Z How to Earn a Living Online One Step at a Time: Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Copywriting, Home Business and more... Movable Type 3.34 Conflicting Thought Patterns: Is Fear of being Unplugged a Sign of Impending Failure? tag:www.pqInternet.com,2012://1.240 2012-01-09T15:08:23Z 2012-01-09T15:15:22Z Conflicting Thought Patterns: Is Fear of being Unplugged a Sign of Impending Failure? Maybe I'm just getting old but I don't care about a lot of the things I used to care about... like staying online no matter where I... Fred Conflicting Thought Patterns: Is Fear of being Unplugged a Sign of Impending Failure?

Conflicting Thought Patterns: Is Fear of being Unplugged a Sign of Impending Failure?

Maybe I'm just getting old but I don't care about a lot of the things I used to care about... like staying online no matter where I happen to be, or, having a spotless car, or an immaculately manicured lawn. Ok... so if you know me well, you know I've NEVER cared too much about one of those things!
Fred's Corollary of Matrimonial Happiness: The amount of time a man spends relentlessly working in his yard is inversely proportional to the satisfaction level of his marriage!
What about business, what does this have to do with business? I spent some time thinking about people I'd worked with in the past, and which ones had succeeded and which ones had not... and I tried to find something that was common to each group. I found this tidbit: people who cannot unplug, who cannot isolate, are more likely to fail over time than those able to turn off the phone, email, social media, other distractions, and focus. This also parallels not obsessing on what others think of you or your ideas. To some this sounds radical. To some it's scary to unplug. Focus and unplug. Focus on one thing and unplug as much as possible. No one starts off at the top. Too many of us try to juggle multiple major goals as if we are at the top and have the resources, staff, procedures, and experiences in place to do so. Success builds success and therefore it's easier to add more and more successes as your successes compound. You get better at saying no, asking for help, surrounding yourself with the right people to help you succeed, etc. You get better at making decisions and identifying successful possibilities. Saying No... is Hard... Until you try it a few times. Keep your goals in mind and say no to additional projects, requests, and ideas that do not lead to your goals. You can't say no to everything, but successful people say no to a lot of things. Probably the more successful you are the more you say no. The unsuccessful tend to say yes to everything and are constantly overwhelmed and spread too thin (and constantly somewhat miserable).
Fred's Law of Success: Your potential to succeed in any given endeavor is directly related to singularity of focus and congruency of thought.
Conflicting Thought Patterns (CTPs) Most people have CTPs: Conflicting Thought Patterns (I think I just coined a new term!). The most common CTPs are about money, success, and relationships. For example a conflicting thought pattern: wanting more money while at the same time feeling contempt for those who have more money. A conflicting thought pattern for success: thinking you can't block out or unplug from the world UNTIL you're successful... i.e. once you're successful you'll have the ability to say "hold my calls" and "don't bother me" I'm working on something. Well color me stupid, but why not take that attitude now? There are a lot of "gurus" out there teaching and coaching and counseling on this very problem of CTPs. It is known by a lot of names. CTPs are hidden little curses that can wreck your life. Some are innocently planted in you when you're very young, even as an infant. Some you germinate yourself as you bounce your way through life. Most of the time you're not aware of them, only their effects show. Even becoming aware of one does not make it go away. Sometimes you can change quickly, however, it can take years to change some thought patterns. Start this New Year off looking under the hood for what makes you tick. Maybe you'll discover some small things about yourself you can change that will have a huge impact on your life! Until next time, Fred P.S. My yard's a mess! ]]> SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) & Protect IP Pending Bills tag:www.pqInternet.com,2012://1.239 2012-01-01T15:17:25Z 2012-01-14T22:05:56Z SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) & Protect IP Pending Bills Fear Makes People do Terrible Things... What does a child or an emotionally immature person do when faced with the loss of something? They act out of fear. The entertainment... Fred SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) & Protect IP Pending Bills

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) & Protect IP Pending Bills

Fear Makes People do Terrible Things... What does a child or an emotionally immature person do when faced with the loss of something? They act out of fear. The entertainment industry has been acting like a spoiled child for years, trying to stop the inevitable wave of change that technology has birthed. In the golden age of the recording and film industries they had it all: money, power, and prestige. Wanting to maintain their status quo, they've let fear instead of innovation drive their actions. Instead of embracing change (you can't really stop it) these industries have slowly driven nail after nail into their own coffins. Now, they've used their power and influence to back two bills that have the potential to radically change the internet forever. These bills, if passed, will drive more death nails, but not just into the coffins of the supporting industries, but rather into the entire online community and economy. These are bad bills and must be stopped. But Shouldn't we Stop Piracy? Yes. Piracy has always been with us. Before the internet people made illegal copies of albums by recording them to cassette tapes. Whatever technology existed people took advantage of it. However, with each step up the technology ladder, as piracy became easier, so did the distribution channels and connectivity between these industries and consumers. Imagine where we'd be if these industries had embraced these channels instead of acting out of fear? I agree that piracy is bad and people who create web sites that distribute illegal copies of copyrighted material should be stopped. But not the way these bills propose to stop them. These bills require hosting companies to become police and give our government, and some private companies, the ability to take over the DNS system and easily shut down web sites. Follow the Money... Want to know what the real purpose is behind most legislation? Follow the money. Always follow the money. If you look at the companies and organizations supporting SOPA and Protect IP bills you'll see big companies, unions, and organizations. These bills will make it harder and more expensive for individuals and small businesses to do business on the internet. All aspects of having an online presence will cost much, much more. The Inverse Is Sometimes Better... The problem that lawmakers have is that they think figures for commerce and revenue are static. For example, if reports show $1,000,000 online sales last month, lawmakers think that they can add fees and taxes and create x dollars of revenue for the government. They fail to understand that if they burden the system with fees and taxes that people will purchase less, so instead of $1,000,000, perhaps the figure will drop to $800,000. So their planned government revenue will be lower than expected... then they'll want to increase taxes even more. And revenue will go down even more. The key is to reduce taxes and fees, even though it's counter intuitive to most elected officials thinking, and revenue will go up. The same goes for regulations. Some laws and regulations are necessary. But each additional law and regulation causes more and more of a burden on businesses, primarily small businesses, until they can't survive. Only the large corporations and monopolies - who pushed the laws and regulations through - have the resources to comply. Relevant Articles about SOPA and Protect IP: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alexander-howard/sopa-information-2012_b_1166214.html. http://youtu.be/ypbJzfGQ3CE. http://gizmodo.com/5868545/the-stop-online-piracy-act-and-you-a-primer?tag=sopa. http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2011/12/28/stopping-the-stop-online-piracy-act/. http://gizmodo.com/5870241. Contact Your Elected Officials. Did a boycott of GoDaddy changed their position on SOPA?. And this from my friend Ryan Healy: Why SOPA and PIPA Must Be Stopped. Nuclear Option... Some of the biggest web sites on the internet are considering a "nuclear option" to make more people aware of these bills: SOPA and Protect IP Nuclear Option!. What can You Do? Contact your elected officials and tell them you do not support these bills. I have and will continue to do so. It's our responsibility as citizens to tell our elected officials what we want and don't want put into law. If they don't listen then we elect someone else. Contact Your Elected Officials Protect Our Freedom... As pointed out to me by a respected internet marketer I'd asked to contribute to this article, there are much larger threats to our freedom such as the National Defense Bill that allows the military to arrest people in the USA and hold them without a trial... pretty scary stuff. Unfortunately that one has already passed. What can you do about it? The answer is the same; constantly let your elected officials know you don't want laws like this. It's our responsibility to be involved with our government - don't let freedom slip away. Until Next Time, Fred ]]> The Lost Art (and Appreciation) of Quality tag:www.pqInternet.com,2011://1.238 2011-09-29T15:43:21Z 2011-10-11T15:04:37Z The Lost Art (and Appreciation) of Quality It's easy to make a broad statement such as "people used to care about quality but now they just don't"... but like most broad statements, it's only partially true. Today there's a quality... Fred The Lost Art (and Appreciation) of Quality

The Lost Art (and Appreciation) of Quality

It's easy to make a broad statement such as "people used to care about quality but now they just don't"... but like most broad statements, it's only partially true. Today there's a quality divide... it does not always follow income or wealth (but it usually does). The problem is that because of the race to the bottom by some retailers and marketers our choices of quality for some items is limited, hard-to-find, or non-existent. This same shortsightedness has led to a lot of less than desirable things... back in the days of video tape, the Beta format won out over VHS when Beta was higher quality. There are numerous examples, think the Wal-Mart crowd vs. the Neiman Marcus crowd. You may be temped to think that the shopper at Wal-Mart would prefer to shop at Neiman Marcus... in some cases you would be correct, but in a lot of cases you would not. This race to the bottom has led to generations of consumers that simply don't know any better. They don't know that laminated particleboard furniture you assemble at home is substandard to solid hardwood furniture with dovetail joints. They don't care that their shoes or electronics are made in a toxic fume laced factory in China by pregnant women and young girls. They simply care about price and nothing else. We live in a "disposable" age, where a good portion of the population is content paying for inferior goods and services. What's My Point? I'm glad you asked because I was starting to get off track! My point is that when you're creating your products, web site, sales pages, marketing material, etc. you need to understand which segment you're selling to. You can't mix them up. You'll fail if you do. For someone only interested in the best price, you have to only prove that your product or service is good enough and that your price is the best. For the person interested in quality, you have to prove you have extraordinary quality, better then the other guy's product or service. It's rare that one product or service would have both the highest quality and the lowest price - in that case you should raise the price! There are a lot of quality oriented consumers that will bypass a low priced product even if it was the best product simply because the price was too low. Too often price is directly associated to quality (no matter if it's a correct assumption or not) so don't try to fight that association. Update (10/11/2011) Seth Godin posted a great article that I relate to this article. Seth is talking about not shutting off the conversation between a customer or patron and a business, but I see it as quality of caring. You either care and open up the conversation, or, you don't care and shut off the conversation. It's all about quality and quality starts with caring... about yourself and the other person. Here's his post: Open Conversations (or Close Them) Until next time, Fred ]]> Knowledge without Wisdom is Dangerous. tag:www.pqInternet.com,2011://1.237 2011-08-02T20:10:02Z 2011-08-02T20:13:54Z Knowledge without Wisdom is Dangerous. Knowledge without wisdom is dangerous. This all too evident with governments. It's also all too evident with businesses trying to save money and get ahead by hiring young and/or inexperienced (cheap) people in key, or... Fred

Knowledge without Wisdom is Dangerous.

Knowledge without wisdom is dangerous. This all too evident with governments. It's also all too evident with businesses trying to save money and get ahead by hiring young and/or inexperienced (cheap) people in key, or even less than key, positions. Knowledge with wisdom is unstoppable, unconquerable, and unfortunately rare. It also cost more if you're trying to hire it - but it's almost always well worth it. Until next time, Fred ]]> 11 Reasons You're Failing tag:www.pqInternet.com,2011://1.236 2011-08-01T21:36:18Z 2011-08-02T15:55:56Z 11 Reasons You're Failing I want to do great things and make a positive impact on other people's lives. I want to be one of those people that other people look at and ask how on earth does he get... Fred 11 Reasons You're Failing

11 Reasons You're Failing

I want to do great things and make a positive impact on other people's lives. I want to be one of those people that other people look at and ask how on earth does he get all that done... and still write his wife love songs? This post is going to be a post I look back to each week to make sure that I'm making progress in the direction I want to go. Take Care of Yourself First! Like the safety warning you receive when flying (to put the air mask on yourself first and your children second), you have to take care of yourself first. This means physically and mentally. This is not easy if you have children, a job, or any other responsibility! But it's critical that you do. If you're married, getting your wife or husband on board with this makes it a lot easier. Encourage each other to workout and eat healthy. Unless you can help yourself no one will expect, or trust, you to help them. You can't really imagine the disheveled drunk from the street corner walking into the Whitehouse and telling the President and Congress how to solve the debt problem (although he could do a better job than the current fiasco administration I'm sure)... You can't help anyone else until you can help yourself. 11 Reasons We Fail God has given us everything we need to succeed... I'm not kidding, it's really true. If we're struggling then we're have one, or more, of the following issues... at times I think I suffer from all 11!
  1. We don't believe that we can - I call this the Eeyore syndrome.
  2. We are filled with fear (related to #1). The thing about fear is that it usually does not appear as fear. It's usually masked behind well thought-out and polished sets of reasons and excuses. This also shows up as "we don't believe we deserve it".
  3. We have underlying problems that are eating away at us. Financial, relationship, health, you name it. If we're not facing or dealing with it, then it's festering and fermenting and souring our subconscious. This undermines anything and everything we're trying to do. We may not be able to solve the problems, but the minute we start facing them we start making progress.
  4. We don't see the resources and raw materials that we have available to us. This can be physical as well as thoughts and ideas (creativity).
  5. We see the resources and raw materials we have, but don't see the path to use them.
  6. We ignore God's plan in favor of our own: we want to be a ballerina and we weigh 350lbs and have bad knees (see paragraph about taking care of yourself!). If we're constantly feeling like a salmon swimming upstream then we're probably not doing what we're supposed to be doing with our life.
  7. We are slaves to bad, detrimental, or time-wasting habits.
  8. We are selfish.
  9. We ignore or don't ask for help and guidance.
  10. We listen to the wrong people. Satan succeeds by confusion and division... and he's very, very good at it. What? You don't think Satan is involved. Wrong. Evil is real: it does not want you to succeed and create anything good for yourself or the world - lest of all help other people succeed and create something good for the world.
  11. We care about what people think or who gets the credit.
Until next time, Fred ]]> How to Change Your Life in 30 Days? tag:www.pqInternet.com,2011://1.235 2011-04-15T15:57:03Z 2011-05-15T02:47:44Z I recently read a short eBook that I found to be very, very engaging and powerful. I put it on my iPad and plan to read it a few more times and refer back to it often. That's how good... Fred 30 Days to Change Your Life. (note: this is an affiliate link - however I would, and do, recommend the book regardless) Personally, I don't think Mark's charging enough for this book; his message is easily worth several times the price! Until Next Time, Fred P.S. Please take a moment if you haven't already and "like" my Blue Solar Water Facebook Fan Page: Blue-Solar-Water - I really appreciate it! ]]> Barney Fife Chases the SEO Bandits at J.C. Penny tag:www.pqInternet.com,2011://1.234 2011-02-17T14:41:51Z 2011-02-17T14:58:36Z Barney Fife and the NY Times Chase the SEO Bandits at J.C. Penny The NY Times published an article on February 13th (the 12th online) titled The Dirty Little Secrets of Search by David Segal, that lambasted J.C. Penny for... Fred Barney Fife and the NY Times Chase the SEO Bandits at J.C. Penny

Barney Fife and the NY Times Chase the SEO Bandits at J.C. Penny

The NY Times published an article on February 13th (the 12th online) titled The Dirty Little Secrets of Search by David Segal, that lambasted J.C. Penny for a massive paid link campaign. This included playing elementary school tattle-tale and reporting their "findings" to Google - which in turn got J.C. Penny's search engine rankings flushed down the toilet. To me, and probably a lot of other SEO experts, the article is a joke. The condescending tone alone was enough to make me almost not read it. There are flaws in their "investigation" but come on; they didn't investigate Obama this much... had they, maybe our country wouldn't be swirling around, and around, heading down the toilet. I don't think all the "expert" SEO opinions in the article are accurate... more on that at the end of this post. Evidently Segal was irate that J.C. Penny was ranking so high for so many items they sold, and brought in an expert to do some research on why. This expert found that J.C. Penny had been buying links to boost their SEO rankings. Something Google says is against their rules. The article refers to link buying as "Black Hat". That's a joke. If anything, it's little off white or gray: nowhere, I repeat nowhere near black. People that actually know and use black hat techniques would laugh at the whole article. Woops... Segal should have done a little more homework on some of the sites he quotes in the first few paragraphs of his article. As he's naming various things like dresses, bedding, sweater dresses, etc. and questioning if J.C. Penny is really the best web site in the world for that product, he links to sites HE thinks should rank better... the problem is, he links to at least one site that buys links! Yep! You got it. And he gave them a no-follow link from the N.Y. Times to boot... I'll take one of those please! I spent maybe 5 minutes and found the rug site he links to has what appears to be paid links in link directories. J.C. Penny denied they were buying links, but subsequently fired their SEO firm. The SEO firm should have used other methods to build links and kept the paid links at a minimum. I'm sure J.C. Penny was paying big dollars to this SEO firm and the firm was being lazy and obviously didn't take the best care of their client. Buying links is common... my guess is Segal or someone at NY Times had a beef with J.C. Penny, or, owns a company that J.C. Penny was out ranking. Is Organic SERP Boosted by Massive PPC? The Times article also questions if there's a link between J.C. Penny's massive paid advertising spend on Google and their seemingly unnatural high search rankings. I think there is a correlation, however, I also think it's a subtle side effect not an intentional benefit rewarded by Google. Google is not God. Google is not infallible. Getting massive traffic from paid ads probably triggers an increase in organic rankings, but it's probably not much of an increase at all. I don't believe that Google rewards big advertisers by giving them a big jolt of organic ranking caffeine. But if they do, it's their business. They say they don't, so I believe them. If they do, then they shouldn't say they don't and that's the extent of it. My Take... My take on this "investigation" is: Get a Life! Go investigate something important and let Google police their own company and rankings. It reminds me of Barney Fife blowing something way out of proportion and making a big deal over nothing - and locking up the whole town. After all, J.C. Penny actually sells the products they ranked for - there was no trickery, you could actually get what you were looking for... and that's the point of searching for something. I don't agree with all the SEO "expertise" that's bantered around in this article - something I address in SEO Secrets - there are a lot of experts who state this or that, but when I've tested these things, they don't actually matter, or, even worse, will hurt your rankings... in this article I didn't read anything that would hurt rankings, but I did read a few things that they claim to matter that do not. Until next time, Fred]]> Have You Been Slapped by the Google Ranking Adjustment? tag:www.pqInternet.com,2011://1.233 2011-02-03T18:18:19Z 2011-02-03T18:25:32Z How has Google's Ranking Algorithm Adjustment Impacted You? What, you didn't know they changed something? A lot of internet business marketing types get all upset anytime Google changes (or noticeably changes) their ranking algorithms. The truth is Google tweaks their... Fred How has Google's Ranking Algorithm Adjustment Impacted You?

How has Google's Ranking Algorithm Adjustment Impacted You?

What, you didn't know they changed something? A lot of internet business marketing types get all upset anytime Google changes (or noticeably changes) their ranking algorithms. The truth is Google tweaks their rankings on a regular basis, sometimes they make public some of the changes, other times they do not. Below is an official link detailing some of the changes in this latest update that has a lot of Internet Marketers in a Tizzy: Google Search and Search Engine Spam As for me, I'm happy! Why? Because as I'll show you, a lot of my sites have improved in ranking. The ranking for this blog has suffered in recent months, not because of anything Google has done, but because I've not been posting on a frequent basis like I used to, and that matters in a competitive environment. So why are some people complaining and reeling while I'm happy? Because I practice what I preach, and I preach what I practice. Google and other search engines are in the business of dishing up what people are looking for. Give Google garbage to dish up and you'll get slapped. Maybe you will get your garbage ranked well for a while, but eventually you'll get ranked where you should be and that's way back in the pack. This latest update dealt with garbage and getting it out of the search results. Recent months have brought the spotlight on Google for some questionable search results in some areas. One person who sold eyeglasses had found if he treated his customers with distain and anger, practically stalking them in some cases, he would get enough bad posts and comments that it kept his rankings high... and kept business pouring in... not exactly what Google set out to create. Other items that were getting bad press were sites that were automated sites that "scrape" or copy content from other sites. These sites are generally not very human usable and low quality. There's nothing wrong with copying content - a huge part of the benefit of the Business of the Internet is the ability to do just that. In fact, at the end of each of my blog post is a statement specifically giving you permission to copy and use this content - provided you keep the source, author, and link back intact. A lot of high quality, very helpful sites copy content from other sites, either in whole or in part. It's all about quality and value to the user. And that's the secret to maintaining good, consistent rankings: it's all about quality and value to the user. There are a lot of other factors too, but without a quality base you're open to being slapped around a lot. Sometimes people follow bad advice (either free or paid for) and end up turning what would have been good work into something that gets flagged as spammy by the search engines. For example, if you're worry about keyword density while writing your web or blog content, then you need some better advice: www.pqSEO.com. Here's one example of a site that is a small site, has unique, quality content... look at the jump in ranking position for Google on 1/27:

Date

Google

Yahoo

Bing

2/3/2011

11

38

185

2/2/2011

11

37

187

2/1/2011

11

37

308

1/31/2011

12

38

313

1/30/2011

13

38

315

1/29/2011

13

30

301

1/28/2011

13

30

169

1/27/2011

13

30

196

1/25/2011

156

31

280

1/23/2011

165

31

181

1/22/2011

163

31

166

1/21/2011

163

31

140

1/20/2011

163

31

157

1/19/2011

165

32

126

1/18/2011

163

32

148

1/17/2011

163

32

142

1/16/2011

176

32

135

1/15/2011

169

32

130

1/14/2011

190

31

123

1/13/2011

185

31

123

1/12/2011

191

31

87

1/11/2011

191

32

88

1/10/2011

195

32

83

1/8/2011

188

31

82

1/7/2011

190

32

82

1/6/2011

189

31

82

1/5/2011

187

32

77

1/4/2011

179

32

81

1/3/2011

187

32

86

1/1/2011

177

32

89

Until next time, Fred ]]> Advertising on Facebook tag:www.pqInternet.com,2011://1.232 2011-01-26T20:01:21Z 2011-01-27T13:31:41Z Advertising on Facebook If you're tired of paying high click rates on Google for PPC ads, then you should give Facebook a try. Let's talk about some of the differences between the two and how you should approach each. Don't... Fred Advertising on Facebook

Advertising on Facebook

If you're tired of paying high click rates on Google for PPC ads, then you should give Facebook a try. Let's talk about some of the differences between the two and how you should approach each. Don't Spend a Dime Until You Do This... First, and this is important... no, it's UTTERLY, CRITICALLY, IMPORTANT... you should not invest one single penny in advertising unless you can actually measure its effectiveness. You may say "well duh", but people do it everyday. Everyday people pay Google, or Facebook, or some other site, to display ads... and they may look at various analytics about traffic, but unless you have your analytics setup to actually track when a sale (or other targeted event) occurs from a specific ad source (and even the individual ad), then you have no way to know what actually caused the sale. Zero, zip, nada. You may as well flush your money down the toilet. It's not all that difficult to track these things. You can do it for free with Google Analytics. But there is one catch: you have to have a page that you can put the JavaScript code on that signifies a goal has been met. A thank you page after the sale for example. So your order process goes something like this: Sales page, order form, Paypal or other payment processor, thank you page. The thank you page has the code on it to let Google Analytics know a sale was made. If the goal was not a sale, but rather a sign up form or something else, it works the same way. Not everyone will click through to the thank you page from the payment page, but most will. Once this is done, you can then look at your data in Google and view the goals met and the keywords that led people there from search engines (or other source). This will allow you to know if the money you're spending on PPC on a particular ad from a particular source is responsible for any sales and for how many sales (or completions of whatever the goal is). Why is This SO Important? This is important because here in the real world more than one thing usually happens at the same time. And unless you track everything you can, you won't know that the PPC ads had nothing to do with the little bump in sales you saw, that instead it was someone mentioning your product on a popular blog or web site. Or, you would know that for every $1 spent on Facebook you're getting $2 in sales. Now to my Facebook Tests... I really like the way Facebook handles ads.
  • They have a fast turn around on approval - I'm talking 10 minutes to an hour in my experience.
  • They have a easy to understand, real-time, display that shows each ad your running along with stats like impressions, clicks, and click through rate... and how much you've spent.
  • You can set low per-day limits - I set a $10 a day limit.
  • They make it easy to clone an existing ad and make a few tweaks.
The one thing I didn't seem to be able to do - and it may be possible, I just didn't see it, was to specify that my ads run at certain times of the day. But you can manually pause and restart your ads or campaign at will. But What about Keywords - How to Target? Facebook does not have keywords because its users are not searching, and therein is the big difference between advertising on Google and Facebook. On Facebook you select various profile settings to target where and to whom your ad is shown. You can select age ranges, male vs. female, looking for (male, female), location, and interests groups, etc. You can really zoom in on the perfect demographic for your product. One nice feature: as you tweak the demographic settings for an ad you see a real-time estimate of the number of possible people or profiles that could see your ad. What About Facebook's Suggested Bid Range? I didn't use their suggested bid range. I cut it a little more than in half. Once I had tweaked the demographics of my first ad sufficiently, the suggested bid range was between $1.02 and $1.80ish... I bid a maximum of $0.50, with a cap of $10 a day. I got as many impressions as I needed to reach my $10 limit - they do a good job of throttling the ads so that they don't all get displayed in 10 minutes - they were spaced out around the clock. And, a lot of the clicks cost a little under my 0.50 bid... Don't be Pushy... A Picture IS Worth a Thousand Words! Facebook users don't really respond to pushy sales ads. You have to hook them with an interesting photo and then some copy that peaks their interest. I read a really good post on Troy White's blog that his Facebook advertising tests showed that the most important factor in successful ads on Facebook is the image - and he is correct. I tested the exact same headline and body copy with several different images. Out of the 8 or so images tested only one had any click through at all. I got a few clicks (meaning literally 2 or 3 clicks) on one of the other images, but most received NO clicks at all. The same ad with the winning image received clicks - lots of clicks. What about My Results, My Sales? Please read the section above about tracking your ads. My weeklong test with 25 or 30 variations of my ad resulted in.... drum roll... Zero Sales. Yep... nothing. However, I thought after the first few days that it was. I had not looked at Google Analytics yet, just the Analytics on Facebook showing CTR, etc and was happy that I was seeing clicks and was making sales. My brain naturally saw the cause and effect. WRONG. Once I sat down and spent some time in Google (I had setup my goals as noted above before running the first ad). I could not find any sale that was directly related to Facebook ads. I did see a few where the person came from Facebook, but not from the ads. I did see where people came to the site from the URL from Facebook Apps (the ads) but that did not link to any sales. It's possible that one or two sales were the result of someone clicking the ad and then coming back to the site later. There are always those things that skew the totals a little. I will test Facebook again. It didn't cost much to run this test. But, had I not setup analytics correctly, I would have mistakenly thought the ad was working and kept spending money on it... money that would have been wasted. For this product, I didn't come up with a winning ad. It's a low cost product, so I didn't have much margin to work with: I had to have low click cost and some sales... I only got one of those, not both. Maybe if I'd raised my bid I would have received better placement or an increase in some other factor on Facebook I'm not aware of, but with this product, even if the ads had resulted in sales, at the higher click price I probably would not have broken even, I would have lost money. My goal was to at least break-even on the ad. Until next time, Fred P.S. Are you interested in a low cost tutorial on how to setup both Facebook ads and Google Analytics to do this? Leave a comment if you are.]]> How to Use Social Media to Grow a Brick and Mortar Business... tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1.231 2010-10-07T05:19:27Z 2010-10-07T14:08:26Z How to Use Social Media to Grow a Brick and Mortar Business... Social media is all the rage these days. It seems like everywhere you turn you run into it. Sure it's fine for web based businesses, but what if... Fred How to Use Social Media to Grow a Brick and Mortar Business...

How to Use Social Media to Grow a Brick and Mortar Business...

Social media is all the rage these days. It seems like everywhere you turn you run into it. Sure it's fine for web based businesses, but what if you own a real brick and mortar business? How can you use social media to bring in new or repeat business? What if you own a service business? Pretty much any business that deals with people can use social media to help grow the business. Anything from a hair salon, to a lawn service, to a car dealership, to a fitness center. Below I've listed out the steps that you need to accomplish to get started using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to promote your business. You should not use social media as a direct sales tool, but rather as a way to show appreciation of your customers and make them look good. Posting photos and videos of your satisfied customers and tagging them in the photos and videos will cause their friends to see and comment on their photos. In turn, this will bring awareness to your business.
  • Get a Digital Camera.
    • Cell phone cameras suck and should only be used if you have a really good one or can't get a real camera.
    • The camera you purchase does not have to be high dollar, a simple point and shoot digital camera is much better than a cell phone camera.
  • Get a Flip Video Camera
    • Flip video cameras are easy to use and come with software to easily edit and upload videos.
    • Kodak makes a video camera like the flip that has an external mic jack (something very handy at times), look at the Kodak Zi8.
  • Setup a Facebook account In Your Name
    • Apply for a name for your account so it's easier to tell people how to find you (example: www.facebook.com/FWBlack)
    • Send friend requests to all your customers
    • Have each employee do the same thing if possible (works well for hair stylists, salespersons, etc.)
  • Setup a Facebook page for the business (used to be called a "fan" page, but now is a business or official page)
    • Each employee sends a suggestion to their friends to "like" your business page.
    • After 25 people have "liked" your page, apply for a name for your business page so that you can tell people to go to www.facebook/[business name] and they'll be on the fan page (example: www.facebook.com/InternetBusinessBlog). You do this by going to: the "usernames for facebook pages" link on page where you edit your page.
    • Put the facebook business fan account URL on everyone's business cards along with their personal facebook account.
  • Set up a twitter.com account for the business
    • Connect the facebook fan page to the Twitter account so that updates to the facebook fan page are automatically sent to Twitter.
    • Connect personal facebook pages to the Twitter account so that updates are automatically sent to Twitter.
  • Get proficient, or have someone get proficient (more than one would be good) at taking a decent photo and video and uploading the photos to Facebook and Videos to either YouTube or Facebook.
  • Start posting photos related to your business.
    • For example, hairstylists could post before and after photos and videos of clients (it's great if they say something nice about either the salon or the stylists) to the Facebook business fanpage account, stylist's account, or both.
    • Friend the customer if they have a facebook account
    • Tag the person(s) in the photos if they have facebook accounts. Tagging the person in the photos and videos causing a message to show up on all their friend's walls so that people will see the photo you've posted.
    • Car dealers, boat dealers, motorcycle dealers, etc could post photos and videos of customers with their new cars.
    • Repair or service technicians could post before and after photos and videos.
    • Painters, lawn care, woodworkers, carpenters, etc should post photos and videos of their work, before and after photos, etc.
    • Always get permission - don't post a photo or video of a customer without asking them if it's OK!
  • Have the employees tell people to become fans (click "like") of the business account because you'll post special promotions and announcements (and then do so).
  • Start collecting email addresses of customers and prospective customers if you don't already do so. Mail special promotions and announcements to this list as well as posting on Facebook and Twitter.
Until next time, Fred Black P.S. Obviously these same techniques can be used for an online business too! ]]> Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 3: iFrames! tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1.230 2010-07-07T04:32:42Z 2010-07-07T12:06:44Z Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 3: iFrames! In Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 1 I showed how to setup a Facebook Fan Page and in Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 2 I showed how... Fred Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 3: iFrames!

Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 3: iFrames!

In Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 1 I showed how to setup a Facebook Fan Page and in Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 2 I showed how to use Static FBML to customize the page and to create a form that the user could fill out and it would send you an email using AJAX without ever leaving Facebook.

In this article I'm going to show how to use these techniques to make a Fan Page use Static FBML to display an iFrame.

If you don't know what an iFrame is, it's a method of embedding a web page in a web page. A portion of the main web page has a "window" that is another web page, from the same web server, or from a different web server. There's lots of uses for this and I won't cover them here.

I'm a little hesitant to show this information because I fear that Facebook will block it from working as they have other techniques to display iFrames.

You can see an example of an iFrame in a Facebook Fan Page on the Fan Page for my photo gallery site: www.facebook.com/pqGallery after you click the "Like" button, click the "Slideshow" Tab. Once on the "SlideShow" Tab, click the "Click to Load SlideShow" Button and you'll see an iFrame load that contains a dynamic image slideshow.

Why do you have to click the "Click to Load SlideShow" button? Because Facebook will not automatically start an AJAX command, they require the user to click something. This has the obvious down side of the user having to click something to see your iFrame, but the upside of giving you the ability to have several buttons that they could choose from to load exactly what they want to see.

So, how does this work? First, you HAVE to master what I covered in Part 2. If you can't get that to work, the iFrame technique will not work. Once you can do that, you can use the same technique to make the iFrame. Instead of processing a form and sending an email, the php code that you put on your server sends back to Facebook, via the AJAX connection, the code for your iFrame... and it works!

Below is the exact Static FBML code I use on the pqGallery SlideShow tab. Please Note: you will need to change the call to my server and my php file - I've put in a comment just before this line of code:

Below is the exact content of the PHP file that gets called. pqGallery actually generates this for you for embedding iFrame slideshows of images, so all I had to do here was to copy and paste the code it generated.

As with the examples in the previous articles, it can be frustrating to debug this type of setup. However, eliminating one element at a time until you get something to work is the best way, then, add back what you removed, again, one element at a time and then you'll find the offending code and can work to fix it.

Until next time,
Fred

]]> Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 2 tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1.229 2010-05-17T13:00:35Z 2011-01-18T21:55:00Z Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 2 In Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 1 I covered the basics of adding a tab and or box to your Fan Page using the Static FBML app to create custom... Fred Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 2

Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 2

In Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML Part 1 I covered the basics of adding a tab and or box to your Fan Page using the Static FBML app to create custom landing pages and information boxes.

Note: Facebook has disabled putting FBML boxes in the left column... so ignore those parts of my post below. It shows up as a tab on the fanpage.

In this article I'll cover using AJAX (AJAX is NOT a cleaning product! AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript + XML) to allow you to get information from, or to interact with, a visitor to your Fan Page without the visitor ever leaving your Fan Page. The operation appears seamless and totally integrated... because it is! If you don't know anything about AJAX don't worry - I'll give good examples.

If CSS, HTML, Inline Styles sound like a foreign language to you, get my FREE courses:

Exactly what does AJAX do? It enables a web browser to communicate with a web server without having to constantly reload pages. This communication allows information exchange to occur with the web server behind the scenes and then update the page and information the user is viewing, usually in response to user input.

The example I'm going to use is a simple form that sends an email to yourself. In a real world example, you may setup something to allow a visitor to ask you a question, sign up to your mailing list, order something... the ideas are as endless as your needs and imagination.

Static FBML can create a Tab or a Box in the left column of a Facebook Fan Page. My example is live and working as a Box in the left column of My Fan Page here: www.facebook.com/InternetBusinessBlog - go ahead give it a try, it works.

The image at the top of this article is what the box looks like. Below is the code. The top part of the code is the JavaScript / AJAX portion and it's pretty well commented and should be easy to follow. The bottom portion is the HTML portion that makes the visible part. Basically when you click the submit button an AJAX object is created to communicate to the web server. Then we create a call-back function (fancy way to say a function that the server calls when it's done) to do whatever we need to do with the results returned from the server, and, a function to handle any errors that may occur. Then we tell the user we're submitting the form and we then submit it. That's it... when the results come back we update our page with that info. If you use this example, or follow it, you will need to replace my server and my file with your own (note that it is in multiple places).

So much for the Facebook side of things, what about the code that runs on the web server? Here is the PHP file (in this example: facebook_comment.php) that gets executed to send the test email. This is pretty simple code that just sends an email. The sky is the limit as far as what you can do with your code.

Note: I cannot support everyone out there who may try this. If you run into a particular problem, post about it here and maybe someone will help you out.

The Trouble with Boxes...
Note: Facebook has disabled putting FBML boxes in the left column... so ignore those parts of my post. It shows up as a tab on the fanpage only.
Static FBML can create a box in the left column or a full page tab on your Fan Page. You can create multiple occurrences of Static FBML on the same fan page. See Part 1 for instructions for both. One note, I had trouble getting it to show up in the left column. I finally fixed it by clicking the "Boxes" Tab and my Static FBML form what there... Next I clicked on the little pencil looking icon in the top right corner and selected "Move to Wall Tab" and it showed where I wanted it.

Debugging Static FBML
Debugging your code for a Static-FBML page can be tricky. Facebook obfuscates the HTML and JavaScript that it renders so that if you look at a View Source it's hard to read. I use Firefox and watch the error console for clues as to where my problem may be. I also use the FireBug Plugin for Firefox as well to help with debugging both code and CSS.

When debugging, if instead of AJAX handling the return from you web page on the server and it staying hidden it suddenly pops up as a new browser window, you'll know that something with the AJAX call or call-back has a syntax error. If you're really stuck, removed as much of your code and functionality as possible until you get a very simple version working and then add back a little at a time until you find the line of code that is causing problems.

Note: Facebook has disabled putting FBML boxes in the left column... so ignore those parts of my post. It shows up as a tab on the fanpage.

Stay tuned for part 3...

Until next time,
Fred

]]> Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML - Part 1 tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1.228 2010-05-05T12:40:02Z 2011-01-18T21:56:07Z Customize Your Facebook Fan Page with Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language) What is a "Fan Page" Facebook Fan Pages are for businesses, bands, products, websites, and organizations. It works very much like a standard Facebook profile in that you can... Fred Create a Facebook Fan Page and Customize with Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language)

Customize Your Facebook Fan Page with Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language)

What is a "Fan Page" Facebook Fan Pages are for businesses, bands, products, websites, and organizations. It works very much like a standard Facebook profile in that you can post status updates, photos, videos, etc. For brick and mortar businesses you can configure your location, hours and parking information. You need a regular or personal Facebook page to setup and configure (administrator) a fan page; you can't just have a fan page. You can configure multiple administrator accounts so that more than one person in your organization can update the fan page. Custom URL for Your Fan Page: Once you reach 50 fans, you can set a custom URL for your Fan Page. For example: http://www.facebook.com/fwblack - Go to this link http://www.facebook.com/username/ to set a custom URL for both fan and personal pages. Note that you cannot change it once you set it, so put some thought into your URL. Like vs. Fan In April 2010 Facebook changed the "Become a Fan" button to a "Like" button. Prior to April, someone could click the "Become a Fan" button for your Fan Page and they would be added to your fan list. Now they click the "Like" button which does the same thing. Personally I prefer the "Become a Fan" button, but Facebook feels the "Like" button is "softer" and requires less of a commitment therefore should increase the number of fans. One of the nice things about a Fan page is that when someone "Likes" you by clicking the "Like" button it is displayed to all their friends that they "Like" you, and that should increase your number of fans. FBML = Facebook Markup Language Just like with a regular Facebook profile you can add tabs for different functions and apps, one of the differences with a "Fan" page is you can add a tab with an app called Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language) and use your own HTML and limited JavaScript. This lets you setup custom welcome pages, request forms, email signups, etc. You can even setup a form that submits using AJAX so the user never leaves Facebook. This is very important as part of the "culture" of Facebook is that people don't necessarily like to click something that takes them off of Facebook. I will show how to do this AJAX submission in the next post on this topic. Boxes vs. Tabs Static FBML can create a box in the left column of your "Fan" page, and/or, a new Tab. Note: Facebook has disabled putting FBML boxes in the left column... so ignore those parts of my post(s). It shows up as a tab on the fanpage only. JavaScript Facebook FBML does not let you actually use just any JavaScript directly. Instead they have compiled a library of JavaScript that you can use. If you try to use something besides the commands they allow, it will be commented out or removed when the page is rendered. Images You can embed images you've upload to your Fan page using FBML, but it's easier to upload images to your web site and reference them from FBML. Default Landing Page Once you create your Static FBML tab, you can set which tab a new visitor to the page (meaning a non-fan and a non-admin) will see first. (Once a person "Likes" you, or is an administrator, they will default to the Wall tab). To set this:
  1. Click "Ads and Pages" in the left column of your facebook profile.
  2. Click edit on the fan page and then
  3. Click edit in the Wall Settings Section
  4. In the "Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else" Select the name of your Static FBML tab.
Getting Started - Adding Static FBML to your page To add Static FBML to your account:
  1. Type "Static FBML" into the search box.
  2. Click on the "Static FBML" that shows and then
  3. Click "Like" this will make you a fan.
  4. In the left column click the link that says "Add to my Page", this will open a dialog box that lets you select which of your "Fan" pages to add the Static FBML app.
  5. Click the "Add to Page" button beside the "Fan" page or pages you want to use Static FBML, then
  6. Close the "Add Static FBML to your Page" dialog box.
  7. Click the "Home" link in the top right corner
Selecting Box vs. Tab Static FBML can add a tab and/or a box in the left column of your Fan Page.
  1. Click "Ads and Pages" in the left column
  2. If you have multiple "Fan" pages, select the "Fan" page you want to edit
  3. Scroll down until you see the "FBML - FBML" (or the name of your FBML tab or box) section and click "Application Settings".
  4. From here you can click "add" or "remove" to add or remove the box or the tab.
External CSS vs. Inline Styles You can use either. Like using external images, you call an external style sheet from YOUR web site. If you call an external style sheet, use this syntax: In the example below I used inline styles which are easier when doing something simple like this example. In one of my subsequent articles on this topic I'll change to external styles sheets in the example. If CSS, HTML, Inline Styles sound like a foreign language to you, get my FREE courses: Editing Your FBML Page
  1. Click "Ads and Pages" in the left column of your facebook profile.
  2. If you have multiple "Fan" pages, select the "Fan" page you want to edit
  3. Scroll down until you see the "FBML - FBML" (or, [name] - FBML once you give it a name) section and click "Edit".
  4. You can edit the HTML code here.
I prefer to edit HTML it in a text editor and paste it in vs. editing in this little box. Creating More Tan One FBML Tab for Your Fan Page If you want more than one, you can do that too!
  1. Click "Ads and Pages" in the left column of your facebook profile.
  2. Click "Edit Page" for the Fan Page you want to edit,
  3. Scroll down until you see the "FBML - FBML" (or, [name] - FBML once you give it a name) section and click "Edit".
  4. Below the fields for the box click "Add another FBML box";
Basic Example: Below I'll give you the exact HTML code I used to create the FBML tab for my pqGallery Fan Page.... I didn't use any of the FBML codes, just regular HTML and I referenced images from the pqGallery web site. As mentioned above, I used inline styles. Please visit the pqGallery Fan Page... and become a "Fan" by clicking "Like" - also checkout pqGalleryand setup an account! I've included a screen shot because in the next few articles on this, I'll keep modifying the code to create different examples. You can look at the code and this screenshot to see what it does.
pqGallery Facebook Fan Page Static-FBML Tab Example 1

pqGallery Facebook Fan Page Static-FBML Tab Example 1, Created using the code shown below.

HTML Code For pqGallery Fan Page Static-FBML Tab This is the actual HTML code used to create the Tab shown in the screen shot above and on my pqGallery Fan Page... Facebook Fan Pages and Static FBML - Part 2 Until Next Time, Fred ]]> Texting Social Media Updates - Useful vs. Useless tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1.227 2010-05-03T12:41:00Z 2010-05-03T15:56:30Z Texting Social Media Updates - Useful vs. Useless You know you need to have social media in the mix of tools you use to promote your services, products, Internet business, and web site. It's part of marketing yourself or your... Fred Texting Social Media Updates - Useful vs. Useless

Texting Social Media Updates - Useful vs. Useless

You know you need to have social media in the mix of tools you use to promote your services, products, Internet business, and web site. It's part of marketing yourself or your business. But... maybe you're one of those people who have to drug screaming and kicking into the social media fray! If you've not setup a Facebook or Twitter profile, you should. It's another way for people to find you. Like a lot of activities, there's not a direct correlation between the amount of time you spend on social media and the business return you get from it. However you need to utilize social media and used correctly it can add to your bottom line. Keep in mind that it can be a huge time draining activity. There is a danger that you can spend a lot of time interacting and posting and not get much work done. But, that does not mean that it's not a valuable tool. So what's a good way to balance the usefulness with the uselessness? One suggestion I have it to make short updates to Facebook and Twitter and not spend time playing games, socializing, etc. If someone comments on something you've posted, and you want to respond, then do so, but you don't have to treat Facebook and Twitter like your business phone. In other words, check it once or twice a day and do not jump to respond when someone comments. A good way to keep your profile current with fresh updates, if you're busy and away from your PC a lot, is to update from your cell phone. If you have a smart phone you can load an app to do this for both Facebook and Twitter. If like me, you don't really care for smart phones, you can use pretty much any mobile phone with text ability to text updates. This makes it easy to send a quick status update each day - you simply text what you want to say to a special number, just like sending a text to anyone. Below are the instructions for setting this up. Note that Facebook, because they support uploading photos and video via texting, does not support all cell phone carriers. Facebook
  1. Login to facebook
  2. Click on Accont in the top right corner and select "Account Settings"
  3. Click on the "Mobile" tab
  4. Click "Register for Facebook Text Messages"
  5. Select your country and carrier (step 1 of 3)
  6. Click Next
  7. Text to from you phone to the number shown with the message shown (on my test it was the letter f) (step 2 of 3)
  8. Click Next
  9. You will receive a confirmation code back in a message on your phone, enter it in facebook (step 3 of 3). Note: you may want to uncheck the "Add my cell number to my profile" box.
  10. Once configured, you can text messages (status updates), photos, and videos to the number shown from your phone.
Twitter
  1. Login to Twitter
  2. Click on "Settings" in the top right corner
  3. Click on "Mobile"
  4. Select your country and enter your mobile phone number (you can check or uncheck to let others find you by your mobile phone number)
  5. Send a text message to the number shown with the word shown (on my test it was the word GO)
  6. Twitter waits for you to send the message... it will then verify your phone.
  7. Once configured, you can text tweets to the number shown from your phone.
Until Next Time, Fred ]]> Success or Failure in an Internet Business Depends on Who's Looking Back at You in the Mirror... tag:www.pqInternet.com,2010://1.226 2010-04-28T04:04:07Z 2010-04-28T04:28:20Z Success or Failure in an Internet Business Depends on Who's Looking Back at You in the Mirror... Photo by Lee Hinshaw Success or failure in ANYTHING, not just an Internet Business, depends on your perception of reality. Does that seem... Fred Success or Failure in an Internet Business Depends on Who is Looking Back at You in the Mirror.

Success or Failure in an Internet Business Depends on Who's Looking Back at You in the Mirror... Photo by Lee Hinshaw

Success or failure in ANYTHING, not just an Internet Business, depends on your perception of reality. Does that seem like a strange thing to you? Do you think it depends on your email list, your copywriting skills, and your ingenuity in creating new products to sell? No. Those things can be learned, outsourced, bought, etc. and you will STILL fail. The key to success is knowing who you are, where you are, where you're going, how to get there, and the fact that you WILL get there. Do you think you have all those attributes? You may think you do, but you probably don't. I don't. But I'm getting there! What's the difference between you and Donald Trump? If you took Mr. Trump out of his tower and put him in your situation without any of his resources or contacts, how long do you think it would take him to amass a new fortune? They say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem... likewise; the first step to achieving any goal is identifying the problems, YOUR problems, that are separating you from success. Regardless of what goals you have set for yourself, either consciously or subconsciously, your chances of achieving those goals and obtaining success, is directly proportional to how accurately you see your current situation and reality around you. None of us see ourselves, or our world, as it truly is... we perceive it. Our perception skews reality, like shadows on a dark night keep you from recognizing a close friend walking towards you... or an enemy walking towards you. Take this example (true story) of an elderly woman in an assisted living facility. She's suffering from memory issues. She can remember 40 years ago like it was yesterday, but she can't recall yesterday to save her life. When she looks in the mirror she swears she's looking at her mother and that her mother lives "in there". It's a very sad, disturbing story. I believe the majority of people view reality with no more accuracy than this elderly woman. I think when you and I look in the mirror, the image we see is no more accurate than what this lady is seeing. In fact I could be even farther away from truth, farther away from reality. There are people who are grossly obese who don't see themselves as huge when they look in the mirror. There are other people who are pencil thin, who stick their fingers down their throat and make themselves throw up because when they look in the mirror, they don't look skinny, they see themselves as fat. Watch a few documentaries on the National Geographic Channel: actions, beliefs, and physical traits that to one culture may be desired and valued, to another culture may be shunned or disgusting. It's all a matter of reality, of the reality a person is living in. Maybe you're in a bad marriage. I doubt you started the marriage off not loving and liking one another. It's unlikely that when you said "I do" you were thinking "I'll give this a try, but in 3 years I'll probably have an affair with Mike from the office". Maybe you're in a bad financial position. I doubt that you set out to be in debt or broke. Those are common, understandable problems. Maybe you're a drug addict and will do anything, including trading sex for drugs, to get that next syringe full of your heaven to stick in your veins. It's all a matter of reality, your reality. For you to become a cheater, your reality had to make it ok for you to break those marriage vows. For you to stick a needle full of heroin in your arm, your reality had to make that an OK thing for you to do. The majority of people live in a reality that makes either activity unacceptable. Most people also live in a reality that makes financial failure the norm. It's reality. It's normal. We follow the well worn path: go to school, get a job, don't ask too many questions, pay too much tax, retire in debt, die... even if you manage to do really well by most standards and retire positive and not in debt, you still spent most of your life working. Why? Because that's our reality. What's the difference between Donald Trump and you? Or Donald Trump and the disheveled middle-aged man that took your order at the drive-through today? Their perception and expectation of reality. What do you think would happen if you switched places with Donald or if he switched places with the guy in the drive-through? Do you think Donald would still be working the drive-through in a year? How do you think the drive-through guy would handle taking on Donald's life? Both would face tough challenges but I would expect Donald to fair better, much better because his perception of reality is that he's a winner, he's a success, and that he will eventually come out on top. If the drive-through guy possessed that perception of himself he would not be working the drive-through. It's not only thinking you will succeed, that's no more than wishing. Its understanding how everything you do affects reality. Its understanding ALL the things you say, read, write, watch on TV, who you spend your time with, everything, I MEAN EVERYTHING, bends and alters your perception of reality. And your perception of reality IS your reality - there's not a difference. We need to start examining our reality with the same uneasiness that we hold for the elderly woman who sees her mother when she looks in the mirror. When we start to do this, we start to see the entrapments that keep us captive. Who's looking back at you when you look in your mirror, and what problems and limitations do they bring with them? Until next time, Fred]]>