I live on a small residential dead-end street. It is barely wide enough to accommodate two vehicles passing each other. At the end of the street there is a high school. There are only four properties on one side and six on the other. Heck, the street doesn’t even have sidewalks! Now, one should think it would be a safe place to live and that children would be able to play outside in the street. Think again!

Since we moved here over twelve years ago, on and off we’ve been having problems with people speeding up and down the street. On weekends when there are ball games at the high school, people will park along the street on both sides which narrows the street down to one lane. And even under these conditions people still speed up and down that street! After several calls to the City we finally got 25 mph speed limit signs.

Over the past few months another problem has materialized.  Apparently, now some teenagers and young adults started to consider this street to be their personal race track!  I have seen them coming down in cars and on motorcycles with speeds a lot higher than the posted 25 mph.

When I got home this afternoon, there were police cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance in the street, in front of my neighbor’s house. And a man laying on the side of the street! First I thought maybe a heart attack or something, but that just didn’t feel right.  After talking to my neighbor Chris, I found out that the thing that the neighborhood was worried about, finally happened! Two cars (neither of them had license plates!) were speeding down the road. The neighbor, trying to slow them down, threw a big piece of wood in the street when they turned around at the end of the street and came back. Instead of slowing down, they went around the wood – one on the right and the other on the left! The vehicle on the left hit the neighbor’s friend which was standing next to the street on private property. He was thrown on the hood of the speeding car (just like in the movies according to Chris!) and then fell off when the vehicle swerved back into the street. Neither of the cars even bothered to slow down much less stop! We don’t know yet the extent of the injuries the friend sustained, but he was taken to the hospital by the ambulance. So, when exactly did this street become a race track?

Chris was extremely upset. Not only did his friend get seriously injured, but it could have been his six-year old daughter or any of the other neighborhood kids! We (Chris, myself, and hopefully the rest of the neighborhood) are now petitioning the City to install some sort of traffic calming measure, like warning signs or speed bumps. Personally, I don’t think the warning signs will do any good since apparently the 25 mph speed limit sign isn’t slowing anybody down! But getting the City to install speed bumps is going to be an uphill battle!  Chris said if the City won’t install any, he’ll pour concrete on the street and create his own speed bump!

More on this after our battle with the City!

Before I decided to join John Thornhill’s Master Class, I bought the eBook website from him as well. And here it is – sitting there – waiting for me to do something with it.

Since I bought the website just about a week before I joined the Master Class, it took me a little while to figure out that these two (the Master Class and the eBook website) have absolutely nothing to do with each other. They are two completely different entities. Once I figured that out, I had to rethink everything!

I now have to figure out how to write an eBook (Paula Brett’s Operation eBook is going to help me with that!), how to upload different eBooks onto the website (if that’s possible), how to pick books to put on eBay and start selling them there, how to create the CD’s with all the links, as well as labels for the CD’s and covers for the CD holders! Even though John provides pretty good information and help with the website program, it’s a totally different story when you actually have to do it. Then I also have to find a suitable printer that prints directly onto CD as well as print covers. Research on that alone takes up quite some time (I’ve already spent several hours on that)! And then, most importantly, I need to get traffic to that website! And that will be my biggest challenge! Hopefully I will get some of that through sales on eBay. And of course, the Master Class as well as the My IM Mentors marketing class are going to help with that. And boy, do I need a lot of help, considering that I am completely new to all of this! I can handle all of the CD and eBay stuff, getting the lists is  going to be the hardest part.

I’ve also started to read up on stuff on the forum for the eBook website and picked up a few things there as well, but it is going to be quite a challenge making this business successful.

So wish me luck and go visit my eBook website – Around The Clock eBooks!

See ya later!

The video below shows how successful students of John Thornhill’s Master Class can become. This shows what can be achieved if you follow the course through to the end. Enjoy!

A couple of days ago I attended a webinar (my first ever!) with Adam Spiel and Jit Udall, the creators of My IM Mentors. Adam and Jit seem like a couple of easy-going, down-to-earth people. They were promoting their upcoming six-week coaching program. This program will help getting you started online and building viable lists. Apparently Adam is the advertising and tech guru while Jit is the master in creating squeeze pages, etc.

During the webinar, Jit and Adam explained some of the things they use to successfully create lists like JV Giveaways and AdSwaps. These are things I had heard of but didn’t have a clue what they were or how to utilize them. They also were talking about Turbo Traffic System and Total Web Traffic which are programs designed to drive traffic to your website. Another thing were affiliate programs and how to maximize commissions from these programs, what is needed to build lists and where to find websites for giveaways.

Their motto seems to be Keep it Simple. There are four steps to make the program work:

1. A Squeeze Page
2. A Free Gift
3. A Thank You Page
4. Free Traffic Generation

Sounds simple enough! And apparently it works for them! At the end of the webinar I was sure I needed their mentoring to get where I want to go. So, beginning March 10 I will be starting yet another class, trying to get this IM off the ground, start making money, and in the process help others to get to the same place!

More on this after the class starts.

The Go-Giver. What can I say about that book?

As part of the Master Class (homework for the first week of the class) John Thornhill asked us to get and read the book “The Go-Giver“, preferably before the next class started. And he was very persistent in this request. Okay, so I order the book. Of course it didn’t even get here until after the second week of class! And by the time I got done reading it, we were already in the third week of the class. I am normally never that late with an assignment! But once I got started on the book, I finished it in one afternoon.

Joe, the “hero” of the book, is a hard-working ambitious young man, a “Go-Getter”. He has a deadline, needs to meet his quota for the quarter. But no matter how hard he tries, it doesn’t seem to be happening. Even trying to call in favors fails. So, desperate, he seeks the advise of the Pindar, an extremely successful consultant.

Instead of being intimidating, Pindar turns out to be very likable, and after Joe agrees to Pindar’s condition, Pindar decides to share with him the secret of his success. The book then takes you through the following week, where Pindar, together with some very successful “Go-Givers”,  teaches Joe the secret of his success. Joe learns about the “Five Laws of Stratospheric Success” which will change Joe’s life. That’s about all I can say about the book without giving everything away.

The Go-Giver is well written and will make you think twice about the way you’ve been doing business! Once you get started on it, you’ll have a hard time putting it down! Go check it out!

As I have mentioned before, in addition to working a full time job (now actually a part-time job due to hours being cut) I also run a vending business.

We got into the vending business about ten years ago through a seminar and started out with about 12 machines. At the time we thought we had a gotten a really good deal! With time, we figured out that we got ripped off big time, but at least it got us started. We started buying other machines and/or locations from people for a fraction of the machines we had bought originally and got to a point that we had to hire a person to keep them all serviced on time (both of us were working full time at the time). We had about 200 machines in place and making money.

Once the recession set in, we started losing business and locations. Some locations are still pretty good, but overall business has dropped considerably. And good locators are rare and expensive. So now we have a ton of machines in the basement and no place to put them.

And then there are the VPs and managers! The workers in the stores and customers are happy to have the machines, yet the “big wigs” keep having a problem with them! What’s up with that?!? Why do those people make life difficult for the “little man”? They only show up in the stores every once in a while, yet they have a problem with vending machines! I had one the other day. That machine was in place for almost five years. The manager apparently didn’t even know it was there. Once he heard about, he had me remove it! His reason: “I just don’t want it.” Come on, can’t you do better than that? My husband says it’s probably because when he was a kid he didn’t get any candy, so now he doesn’t want others to have any either!

So now I think I’m selling that business and start concentrating on my blog and eBook business!

Til next time!

This post is about my horses. They are actually a big part of the reason I got into Internet Marketing. Currently, I work a full time job which I have had for 19 years, and also run a vending business. That does not leave me with a whole lot of time to spend with my horses. In addition, we live in Colorado and that leaves out pretty much most of the winter time (I really don’t like the cold and snow!). So we (my husband and I and our zoo) want to move south, probably Texas. And since I don’t want to get settled again with a full time job, we figured that maybe we can set up an internet business that we can take with us when we move (after all, a computer doesn’t take up much space). And that would leave me time for these horses that mean a lot to me.

Horses are really funny creatures. Considering their size, it is really strange that they are pretty much afraid of anything that moves or makes noise unless they are really familiar with it or they are trained not to freak every time they hear or see something. That of course brings up a whole other subject – training horses. But that is for another time.

Horses are amazing creatures. They are so beautiful and graceful and I just love watching them. Sometimes they just start running for no reason whatsoever and if one starts, the rest of them immediately follows suit. They are herd animals and normally, if one gets going, so do the rest of them. One time, I was working with Sassy, a 2-year old at the time. For some reason, the rest of them starting running like crazy, and she couldn’t stand it because she was on a lead and couldn’t run after them. I don’t think she had any idea why the rest of them were running, she just wanted to run because they did!

I have never been able to figure out how something that big can be so graceful at the same time. I just love being with them and wish I could do that all the time. When I go out there, all my troubles and problems that seemed so big before  just stay at the gate. The second I walk through that gate, everything else stays on the other side.

Sometimes I just spend time with them, brushing and combing. Sometimes I work with a couple of them. But, no matter what I do with them, it always relaxes me and makes me feel better. Well, except for mucking out the stalls – that part is not so great! Of course, when I do that I always have a couple of them standing around, watching everything I do, knocking over stuff, and getting into things. Basically, they are like little kids. And then there is the jealousy! Whenever you start paying attention to one of them, they all want some which does get kind of tricky sometimes, if there is only one of you and four or five of them. But it is so worth it!

So, here is my reason for starting the Internet Marketing. What’s yours?

Til next time!

I first heard of Paula Brett through John Thornhill’s Master Class. One of the “Homework” assignments was to study marketer’s blog and Paula’s blog was on the list of recommended marketers.

While studying her website, I ran across her book Emergency Surgery: Operation eBook. The title grabbed my attention and I took a closer look. Clicking on the link got me to another page with the headline “Desperate Housewife Performs Emergency Surgery on Herself Without Anaesthetic!“  Now the book really had my attention! The way the page was written totally fascinated me and I purchased the book, thinking if the book is written like the ad it would be different from all the other marketing materials I had seen so far. And it is!

After downloading it I began to read it. The book begins by telling you a little about Paula. It is written in a light-hearted way, yet very informative and helpful. In a humorous way, it takes you through the process of writing an eBook step by step. Along the way, Paula keeps encouraging you and lets you know that yes, you can write an eBook, even if you think you can’t. She also has included interviews with other successful marketers about how they started out writing and created their own eBooks. In addition, the book includes worksheets for every step of writing your own eBook.

I have seen other books on how to write an eBook, but they all seemed very dry and boring. Paula makes it fun, yet drives home the points you need to be aware of in order to write an eBook. All in all, I am very happy with the book and will definitely use it to help me get started writing my own eBooks. Thank you, Paula Brett!

I first heard about John Thornhill from Mark Ransom of Salehoo, a wholesale and dropship supplier. We had signed up with Salehoo because we were planning on opening an ebay business. John Thornhill was advertising his Ninety Day Powerseller package. After reading Mark’s review of John Thornhill and the package, we decided that this would probably better than trying to find physical products to sell. So we ended up purchasing the package and I immediately got to work on it, following John’s instructions about setting up the website, etc.

Before I even posted a single item, we found out about the Marketing Master Class. After debating it for a few days, I decided to join the Master Class.

On the first day of class, I ran into the first problem: I already had a website under a business name. John was asking us to set up the website under first/last name. What to do? I contacted John to find out about the reasoning behind the first/last name. John got back to me fairly quickly, explaining that your name works better for a blog. Then I contacted D9 Hosting to find out if I somehow could use the other website. D9 explained that all I needed was an Addon to the first website. Problem solved!

The rest of it was fairly easy, especially since I already had some of it through the other program. But even with that, I still learned some stuff that it would have taken me alot longer to figure out by myself.

Week 2: The first couple videos were easy – already had it through the other program. Then the fun started and I learned all kinds of new things that I knew nothing about. The way he walks you through the steps also makes it real easy to follow along. I also like the fact that the class is shown on videos that you can stop and rewind as often as needed.

Looking at the other blogs he recommended, I got totally sidetracked and spent much more than just half a day on these sites. I especially liked Paula Brett’s site and bought her book Emergency Surgery: Operation ebook. At Dave Nicholson‘s site I signed up for his newsletter and got free ebooks to resell or give away as well as a re-brandable book. The way they are set up and the content – there is so much to learn from these sites!

All in all, so far I am impressed with the way the Master Class is being taught and look forward to Week 3 (just as soon as I am finished reading the book assigned in Week 1 and the blogs from Week 2)!

This blog is about Club Pogo. If you are into playing games online, this is the place to go!

I had been playing the free version of Pogo off and on for years, never once considering to actually become a member. Without being a member you can play a lot of games, but quite a few are for members only. After getting an invitation as a guest, I found all kinds of games that can only be played as a member. So I finally gave in and joined Pogo. The price was actually reasonable – about $40 for a year.

The thing I really like about Pogo is that you don’t just have games – you also have chats and can meet people and “talk” to them! I have met people from not only the US, but all over the world and have become friends with a few of them. You can put people on a ”Friends List” which shows you if any of them are online and which game room they are in. And if you are trying to avoid someone that can be done too – you just block them and they can’t find you unless they go from room to room!

Another cool feature in Pogo are the Minis. Pogo Minis are online characters that you can design to represent you (or what you would like to be). There are cool backgrounds, fashions, goodies and even pets, all of which can be purchased in the Mini Mall! The purchases are paid for with the tokens you earn by playing the games.

Badges are another thing I like about Pogo. Every week there are 2 challenge badges to be had as well as a Personal Badge. Pogo decides the games (and the badges) for the 2 weekly challenges, you pick the Personal Badge  you want to get.  One can become a real “Badge Hound” with this feature.

So, if you are interested in online games, go check out Pogo!