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Entrepreneur / Empresario: Prepaid Legal work from home opportunity! (la gran obra de la oportunidad casera)

English:

Prepaid Legal work from home opportunity allows you the opportunity to help others! In these challenging times, this is a blessing in itself. Please contact me (using the form on the contact page, if you would like to discuss this opportunity further!)

Espanol:

Prepago trabajo jurídico de la oportunidad casera le permite la oportunidad de ayudar a otros

prepaid legal spanish membership equal access

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Entrepreneur / Empresario: Great work from home opportunity! (la gran obra de la oportunidad casera)

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Eliminating Stress

by Michael Masterson

You can’t lead a happy, healthy, and productive life when you are feeling crummy. You can’t work very well. You can’t be creative. And you can’t enjoy the company of others.

So why is it that so many people, so much of the time, are downright miserable?

Is it the existential situation - the psychological default program that kicks in when we realize we are alone? Is it the result of thinking we are alone when we are not? Is it what happens when we live without purpose, as Victor Frankl suggests? Or is it merely too much sugar?

Answer: All of the above.

But what do you care? You can’t avoid getting into a funk now and then. However, you can learn to recognize the onset of a bad mood and get yourself out of itbefore it ruins your day (or your life).

I should know. I’m a moody bastard. If I could gather up all the time I’ve spent fretting, frowning, grousing, and/or complaining, I’d have enough to become a medical doctor and start my own emergency clinic. (That would cheer me up!)

Grumping around is not only wasteful; it’s limiting and potentially destructive. When you feel bad, you lack the emotional strength to try new things or overcome obstacles. As a consequence, you tend to spend your time on very ordinary chores, the kinds of tasks that will ensure the same old ho-hum life.

I once read a book on optimism and pessimism that made the case that the difference between feeling sad and clinical depression is not one of kind but of degree. If this is true, two conjectures come immediately to mind:

1. That moodiness should be actively combated, because moodiness can lead to despair.
2. That despair is an extreme form of moodiness, and so some of the techniques that eliminate moodiness can cure clinical depression.

Versions of despair - cynicism, anger, and fear - have no place in your business or personal life. If you let them in, you will give up too easily - and that can cost you.

Bad feelings are usually triggered by stress - some external event that creates a feeling of emotional discomfort. To lead a psychologically comfortable life (free of unnecessary stress and open to happiness and other good things), you must learn to recognize stress in its early stages and do something to reduce it.

Avoiding a bad mood is much like avoiding a common headache: If you can feel it coming on early enough and get some aspirin into your system, you’ll never be in pain. But if you wait till the pain is planted in your head, you’ll have a very difficult time getting rid of it.

Eliminating Stress
One way to deal with stress is to get rid of the external cause of it. If, for example, a new client is a royal pain, figure out how to deal with him or pass him off to a competitor. If a new set of regulations is making your routine work difficult, master them and they’ll cease to give you stress.

Another, sometimes more practical, way to defeat stress is to change the way you react to it. As Victor Frankl pointed out in his classic book "Man’s Search for Meaning", it is impossible to control the external circumstances of our lives. We must accept what comes to us with equanimity.  But we do not have to accept the way we respond.

Frankl argues that if you see a purpose in your role in life, you’ll have a much easier time avoiding the stress of not knowing what to do. Two thousand years ago, Marcus Aurelius said, "If you are distressed by anything internal, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to the view you have of that thing. How you view anything is a power you can revoke at any moment."

Here are 12 ways to deal with problems without getting stressed over them:

1.  Forgive yourself for feeling bad. Depending on your biology, your upbringing, and your circumstances, you may feel blue rarely, sometimes, or often. Accept it as normal.

2.  Count your blessings.

3.  Take a nap. You’d be surprised by how often you can make yourself feel better simply by taking a 10-minute catnap.

4.  Take a stress break. If you work as hard as I do, you will be forever on the verge of a nervous breakdown unless you do something about it. One of the best things you can do is schedule at least two (and preferably three or four) stress breaks every working day.

• A stress break is not a stress break unless:
• You get at least 10 feet away from your desk.
• You are completely distracted by it.
• It lasts at least five minutes.
• It relaxes you.
• It energizes you.

If you have good control over your daily schedule, you can plan stress breaks between tasks. Ideally, you’ll want a five-minute break every 90 to 120 minutes. If your schedule is too frenetic or unpredictable to do it that way, use an egg timer and simply break away from whatever you are doing when it rings.

5.Cut out the crap food. Remember, sugar and starch are poisons. Be aware of how they affect your moods.

6. Spend as much time as you can with upbeat people. Moody people are often helpful, productive, inspiring, and useful. But they are always an emotional drag. If your life involves moody energy-sappers, refresh with positive friends.

7. Follow Dale Carnegie’s Three C’s: Don’t criticize. Don’t condemn. Don’t complain.

8. Make sure you are getting enough sleep. If you are not sleeping well, chances are you are irritable and somewhat unproductive. This is a vicious circle. Get out of it. Get some sleep.

This will not only keep your stress level in check but will also improve your overall health. And remember this: The sleep you get before midnight is twice as good as the sleep you get afterward. So go to bed early. In fact, your entire health-and-fitness program should be based on the "early to rise" concept. Get to bed early enough so that you can wake up refreshed and stress free, eat properly, get your cardio workout done, and get to work at least an hour before you have to. (Two hours earlier is better.)

9. Exercise. Intense exercise will tire you out, but it won’t reduce stress. Walking, biking at a medium pace, swimming slowly - these are the sorts of exercise that can reduce stress.

10. Play. Again, be cognizant of what forms of play reduce stress and which add to it. Golfing is mostly, from what I’ve seen, a stress producer. So are most competitive sports. Yes, they’re fun if you have a competitive nature. But they don’t reduce stress.

11. Work to improve things. If you are bummed out about problems at work, do this: Compose a list of your five most pressing incomplete jobs. Then break down each job into specific tasks that can be accomplished in an hour or less. Arrange those tasks in order of priority. Finally, choose one. Just one. Put everything else out of your mind and get to work on it. Immediately. No excuses.

12. Listen to classical music. Researchers have discovered many interesting things about the effects of classical music - especially Mozart’s - on the brain. For example:

• In 1996, the College Entrance Exam Board Service conducted a study of all students taking their SATs. Students who sang or played a musical instrument scored an average of 51 points higher on the verbal portion and 39 points higher on the math portion of the test.
• In a controlled University of California study, students who listened to 10 minutes of Mozart before taking SATs had higher scores than students who didn’t.
• Major corporations like Shell, IBM, and Dupont, along with hundreds of schools and universities, have started using classical music to cut learning time in half and increase the retention of newly learned material.
• And in a University of Washington study, people who listened to light classical music for 90 minutes while copyediting a manuscript caught 21% more mistakes.

Even if you rarely listen to classical music, give it a try. "The Mozart Effect" will help you on some level by having a positive, lifelong effect on your health, learning, and behavior.

Posted to Quality of Life

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

How to Build a Recession-Proof Stream of Income

by George Dahir (05/4/2009)

Even in tough times, opportunities present themselves… if you look in the right places.

One of the best ways to build a recession-proof income? Become an affiliate marketer.

Affiliate marketing is the process of using your website to drive traffic to a merchant’s website… and receiving a commission for sales that are generated. It has quietly become a $6 billion industry and, according to Jupiter Research, is expected to grow another 13 percent year-over-year through 2012. Jupiter Research also states that online marketers’ spending estimates for 2008 were $2.1 billion on affiliate marketing fees, with U.S. online affiliate marketing spending expected to reach $3.3 billion in 2012.

One reason affiliate marketing has experienced such massive growth is that it is a win-win opportunity - for the merchant and the affiliate. The merchant pays affiliates for their advertising efforts only when sales are actually made. Affiliates become an extension of the merchant’s sales force and receive nice commission payouts by driving sales traffic to the merchant’s website.

Many affiliate marketers do this as their only source of income and make a very nice living.

So what’s stopping you? If you aren’t making the money you need to live the life you wish to live - or if you just want an additional source of income - affiliate marketing may be for you. Early to Rise’s Affiliate Program has had a large turnout since its launch back in February (with 900 affiliates thus far) and the sales continue to roll in.

[Ed. Note: George Dahir is ETR's Affiliate Marketing Manager. 
If you are ready to make money as an affiliate, join Early to Rise's Affiliate Program today by clicking here. You'll get $20 just for signing up!]

dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

What If You KNEW You Couldn't Fail?

What if you knew you couldn’t fail at making money? I mean it…

What if you had miraculously ingrained into your mind to attract such wealth that deals came to you effortlessly?

Opportunities you never thought possible PLOPPED into your lap with a note attached that read, “These dead presidents are for you…”

Not just any money… but a financial windfall that is so huge you think a rich relative died and left you an inheritance… THAT type of wealth.

GONE are your unpaid bills… GONE is that old clunker of a car and now you have a Mercedes… GONE is the stress of never having to worry about making lots of money and your family never suffering again!

Now, how would your life change if you had a Billionaire Mentor reveal to you his “wealth attraction secrets?”

And what if I told you could learn all these billionaire money-magnet strategies in just 30 days- guaranteed?

Well, you are about to find out…

Click here to get all the inside details…

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and

John Carleton: What Makes an Entrepreneur?

A few weeks back, I visited my hometown (yeah, I grew up in Cucamonga, what’s it to ya?) to see my family. Pop still lives in the same house he bought just after WWII, and it’s hard for me not to feel like I’m 15 again when I’m there.

Not that I feel all young and vibrant. Naw. More like I get back in touch with how freakin’ clueless I was for the first half of my life.

It was a great childhood, a gruesome adolescence, and even now ghosts from my past haunt every corner of the neighborhood.

Always interesting/spooky/insightful to go back to old stomping grounds. I love my family. And I’m still chewing over how that town shaped who I am today. In fact, it got me pondering long and hard about what “makes” an entrepreneur.

A lot of people - including me - talk about the value of goals in launching any entrepreneurial venture. Figuring out what you truly want … setting a plan in motion to attain it … and following through.

There is, however, a difference between “understanding” goal-setting behavior … and actually DOING it.

So here is what I propose you do this weekend: Give yourself a brutal reality check.

Are you spending enough time figuring out what you really want to do when you grow up?

This is not a trick question. Most rookie goal-setters need to refine their skills at this over a frustrating period of time.

The first goals you set are likely to be things you actually don’t want, after all. There is an art to looking deep into your own heart and soul and coming to grips with what REALLY rocks your boat … and what will continue to make nice waves in your future.

It’s never enough to want to be “rich.” You must spend time thinking about what “rich” means to you. Not to your buddies or your colleagues or anyone else. You.

And if you decide you want to be filthy rich … well, you’ve got to do more than just set that as a goal. Ya gotta work out your plan to get there. With lots of little goals along the path.

If you’ve yet to make dime one online, for example, then a goal of becoming a billionaire online isn’t a goal … it’s a dream. You’ve got to earn your first buck. Then your second. And go on from there.

Your first goal may be to weed through all the info available out there … find the resources you feel you can trust … and dig in.

Those subsequent “dig in” steps - the actual goal-by-goal stepladder that will take you toward your desired destination - cannot be glossed over.

And there are consequences to consider. You may not yet know what awaits you as a cash-generating genius. But you sure can examine how your life starts to change as you go.

Every detail of your life can morph in strange ways when the money starts coming in. Your friends and family may wrestle (often unsuccessfully) with your rise in status, liquidity, and self-confidence.

It won’t always be pretty. But the more you “arm” yourself with insights like these, the less surprised you’ll be when you hit each milestone in your quest for a better life.

You’ll be … uh, what’s the word? … prepared.

Goals are great. But I’ve known too many people who ONLY set goals. They never go after them.

Movement is key. And you’ll feel better about moving toward your goals if you spend some serious time thinking about them.

Play with them. Mold them. Constantly put them through your “What if?” grinder. (What if you can’t do it with your first idea? Will you try again? Try something else? What?)

The “secret ingredient” of great goal setting is to cogitate obsessively on the consequences of actually meeting each goal once you set it. This not only helps you blow through failure … it also creates a “vision” of yourself that keeps your motivation hot.

This requires “forward thinking” … which doesn’t come with the default equipment you’re born with. Ya gotta exercise it.

Without goals, you’re just being taken for a ride by Fate.

Goals do not guarantee anything … except, once you take steps to attain them, you will move SOMEWHERE new in life. And you’ll be doing as much of the driving as possible.

Fate will still screw with you. But you’ll no longer be helpless.

At first, even five minutes of focused “forward thinking” will make you sweat and want to go do something else.

Get over it. Stick with it. Soon, you’ll be an ace at peering into the fog down the line, and you’ll be able to exert more control over events than you ever dreamed possible in your pre-goal-setting days.

This weekend, get your five minutes in. Move through the sweat and avoidance.

Jumpstart something new.

[Ed. Note: Now’s the perfect time to start setting your goals for making money in 2009. Follow Internet marketing expert John Carlton’s advice and take a little time this weekend to practice focused thinking. Once you know where you’re headed, pick up a copy of ETR’s 2008 Info Marketing Bootcamp DVD Library. It will give you dozens of money-making marketing ideas you can use to help accomplish those goals.

John Carlton is an expert copywriter, a pioneer in online marketing, and a teacher of killer sales copy. He knows marketing inside and out. Discover how to get your hands on the kick-ass secrets of the world’s smartest, happiest, and wealthiest marketers.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

When the Sky is Falling, Should You Invest?

By Andrew M. Gordon

The good news: The market is offering bargain-basement sale prices on many stocks.

The bad news: Prices got that way from falling these last several months.

Should you invest in falling stocks or not?

Fast-falling share prices didn’t prevent legendary investor Warren Buffett from taking big stakes in Goldman Sachs and GE. And Buffett is a cautious investor who loves undervalued companies with a penchant for generating consistent profits year after year.

But it’s risky investing in falling stocks unless you have a very good idea of what you’re getting into. With a portfolio loaded with financial and industrial companies, Buffett was treading on very familiar ground with his latest investments. And don’t think that he wasn’t aware that these companies were also leaders in their respective sectors. He invested in the cream of the crop.

In a falling market, you have to be extra careful. Cheap value isn’t always good value. Invest in companies with outstanding track records of growing profits and leading their industry. And don’t stray outside your expertise and experience. By doing these things, you can greatly reduce risk and end up with some great stocks in your portfolio.

[Ed. Note: This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com. The economy may look bleak right now. But you still have opportunities to prosper - if you look in the right places. ETR Investment Director Andrew Gordon has pinpointed a method - which has been accurate 92% of the time - that you can use to make money on stocks as they fall. It all begins with a "red flag announcement." Learn what this "red flag" means, and how it can make you money, right here.]

Living Without Limits

by Brian Tracy (09/23/2008)

The starting point of great success and achievement has always been the same: Dream big dreams. There is nothing more important, and nothing that works faster, than to cast off your own limitations and begin fantasizing about what you can become, have, and do.

As a wise man once said, “You must dream big dreams, for only big dreams have the power to move the minds of men.” When you begin to dream big dreams, your levels of self-esteem and self-confidence go up immediately. You feel more powerful about yourself and your ability to deal with what happens to you. The reason so many people accomplish so little is because they never allow themselves to lean back and imagine the kind of life that is possible for them.

A principle that you can use to dream big dreams and live without limits is contained in what physicist Elihu Goldratt calls the “Theory of Constraints.” This is one of the greatest breakthroughs in modern thinking. What Goldratt found is that in every process, in accomplishing any goal, there is a bottleneck or choke cord that serves as a constraint. This constraint then sets the speed at which you achieve the goal. But if you concentrate all of your creative energies and attention on alleviating the constraint, you can speed up the process faster than by doing any other single thing.

Let me give you an example. Let us say that you want to double your income. What is the critical constraint or the limiting factor that holds you back? Well, you know that your income is a direct reward for the quality and quantity of the services you render to your world. Whatever field you are in, if you want to double your income, you simply have to double the quality and quantity of what you do for that income. Or you have to change activities and occupations so that what you are doing is worth twice as much. But you must always ask yourself, “What is the critical constraint that holds me back or sets the speed on how fast I double my income?”

So what is holding you back? Is it your level of education or skill? Is it your current occupation or job? Is it your current environment or level of health? Is it the situations that you are in today? What is setting the speed for you to achieve your goal?

Remember, whatever you have learned, you can unlearn. Whatever situation you have gotten yourself into, you can probably get yourself out of. If your real goal is to dream big dreams and to live without limits, you can set this as your standard and compare everything you do against it.

The three keys to living without limits have always been the same. They are clarity, competence, and concentration.

• Clarity means that you are absolutely clear about who you are, what you want, and where you’re going.

You write down your goals and you make plans to accomplish them. You set very careful priorities and you do something every day to move yourself toward your goals. And the more progress you make toward accomplishing things that are important to you, the greater self-confidence and self-belief you have, and the more convinced you become that there are no limits on what you can achieve.

• Competence means that you begin to become very, very good in the key areas of your chosen field.

You apply the 80/20 rule to everything you do, and you focus on becoming outstanding in the 20 percent of tasks that contribute to 80 percent of your results. You dedicate yourself to continuous learning. You never stop growing. You realize that excellence is a moving target. And you commit yourself to doing something every day that enables you to become better and better at doing the most important things in your field.

• Concentration is having the self-discipline to force yourself to concentrate single-mindedly on one thing, the most important thing, and stay with it until it’s complete.

The two key words for success have always been focus and concentration. Focus is knowing exactly what you want to be, have, and do. Concentration is persevering, without diversion or distraction, in a straight line toward accomplishing the things that can make a real difference in your life.

When you allow yourself to begin to dream big dreams, creatively abandon the activities that are taking up too much of your time, and focus your inward energies on alleviating your main constraints, you start to feel an incredible sense of power and confidence. As you focus on doing what you love to do and becoming excellent in those few areas that can make a real difference in your life, you begin to think in terms of possibilities rather than impossibilities, and you move ever closer toward the realization of your full potential.

[Ed. Note: This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com. Clarity, competence, and concentration will bring you very close to success. The final step is to take action and turn your dreams into reality. Brian Tracy - one of the world's leading authorities on the development of human potential and personal effectiveness - can help you discover a simple and easy-to-learn way to get everything you want out of life. Get all the details of his Ultimate Goal Achieving Package here.

Owning a multimillion-dollar business is no longer just an idle dream. You can get 12 specific strategies that will help you turn your online business into an Internet powerhouse at ETR's 2008 Info-Marketing Bootcamp. In fact, you could be making $1.2 million or more in 2009...]

How to Become an Early Riser

"I would have inscribed on the curtains of your bed, and the walls of your chamber: 'If you do not rise early, you can make progress in nothing.'"

                                                                                          - William Pitt

By Michael Masterson

When I walked into FSP's London offices at 7:25 a.m. that first day, I expected the place to be deserted. I was surprised to find the lights already on - and when I approached my temporary office, I saw that Ben, Nick, Gary, and Woody were already there working.

"Good morning!" I chimed, feeling that I had come upon new members of my secret fraternity. "You boys are here early!"

"Early bird catches the worm and all that," Nick said.

I went into my office with a smile on my face. These four early risers comprised half the creative team of FSP. The fact that they were at work more than 90 minutes before 9:00 a.m. impressed me. Their good mood impressed me even more.

"I am going to be able to accomplish something here," I thought.

You've seen the studies: Early risers are happier, healthier, and more productive at work. They stay in better shape, earn more money, and report that they are more satisfied with their lives. And even if you haven't seen the studies, you've read about them in ETR.

"Get up early and seize the day!" we keep telling you.

Lots of ETR readers I've talked to say they can rationally accept the argument that early rising is good. But they can't muster up the emotional or physical energy to actually do it.

They tell me they are "night" people. They have more energy at midnight, they say, than they do at 9:00 a.m. In fact, they say, they'd prefer to go to bed in the wee hours and wake up at noon if their jobs/spouses would allow it.

There is some scientific evidence to suggest they may be correct. Lots of research has been devoted to sleeping patterns in the past few years, and it's clear that for some people (about 15 percent, I've read), "late to bed and late to rise" really is more natural.

But just because it's a little harder for you to be an early riser doesn't mean you shouldn't try. The benefits are just too great and too numerous to ignore:

You will get more work done.
You will accomplish more important tasks.
You will advance your career more quickly.
You will be more respected at work.
You will make more money.
You will have more time to exercise.
You will be healthier.
You will be happier.
If you'd like to become an early riser but are having a difficult time convincing your body to cooperate, follow this 12-step program:

Early Riser Step 1: Stop blaming yourself.

It may not be a lack of willpower that is making you want to sleep till noon. It is more likely a combination of your genes, blood sugars, hormones... and bad habits. But aside from your genes, these are all things you have some control over.

Early Riser Step 2: Take melatonin, not chemicals, at night.

To get up early, you have to get to sleep early. If you have trouble falling asleep, try taking a melatonin supplement instead of a sleeping pill. Dr. Sears calls this hormone - which is produced by the body in response to darkness - "nature's sleep regulator."

Early Riser Step 3: Sleep in the dark.

The less light, the more melatonin your body naturally produces. So block out as much light as possible in your bedroom. Use blackout curtains or shades, and open them as soon as the alarm goes off.

Early Riser Step 4: Get plenty of fresh air.

Fresh air is good for sleeping and for wakefulness. If you sleep with the windows closed, get outside and breathe in some fresh air first thing in the morning.

Early Riser Step 5: Don't eat before you sleep.

Your last meal or snack should be about three hours before you go to sleep. You'll sleep sounder and feel much better in the morning.

Early Riser Step 6: Don't use the snooze button.

According to the Sleep Disorders Center at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, you will have a much easier time getting up when the alarm first rings, rather than waking up, falling asleep again, and then waking up a second time.

Early Riser Step 7: Put flowers in your bedroom.

Researchers at Harvard reported that "non-morning people" said they were happier and more energetic if they woke in a room with fresh flowers.

Early Riser Step 8: Brighten up your walls.

Some studies have indicated that vibrant colors help activate the energy cells, so paint your bedroom a bright, cheery color to wake up to.

Early Riser Step 9: Stretch.

Five to 15 minutes of stretching in the sunlight will do wonders to get rid of any stiffness that may have settled in overnight. Yoga stretches are especially good.

Early Riser Step 10: Exercise.

Supplement the stretching with exercise. After stretching, I alternate between calisthenics (Hindu push-ups, sit-ups, etc.) and a PACE routine - usually sprinting or stair climbing.

Early Riser Step 11: Start the day with a smile.

Before you even wash your face, do a set of 25 smile repetitions. Just stand in front of the mirror and smile as brightly as you can... 25 times. The physical act of smiling produces endorphins that will give you energy and drive.

Early Riser Step 12: Wake up just one minute earlier every day.

It wasn't until I hit my thirties that I came to understand the value of waking up early. I was bringing home the bacon, as they say, having mastered the art of making money. But rising at 8:30 every morning left me no time to accomplish other goals. So I started setting my alarm for one minute earlier every day.

Soon I was up at 8 a.m.... then 7:30... then 6:30... and, eventually, at one point in my career, 5:30. (These days, I wake up a little later - usually 6:00 or 6:30.)

Rising early has given me the time to write fiction, study Spanish, get in great physical shape, spend more time with my family, and more. Become an early riser yourself, and there's no telling what you can accomplish.

[Ed. Note: This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com. It's amazing that something as simple as waking up a minute early every day can have such a dramatic effect on your life. But it can. It's worked for multi-millionaire Michael Masterson - and it can work for you. Get 189 more proven techniques to help you get everything you want out of life right here. 

You can meet Michael Masterson this November... and talk to him about exactly how to increase your income and become more successful. Just come to ETR's 2008 Info-Marketing Bootcamp. Find out more about ETR's Internet Ultimatum right here.]

A Free Way to Come Up in Google's Top 10

"The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can."

- Robert Cushing

By Paul Lawrence

Getting to the top of a search engine results page is a never-ending quest for Internet business owners. But guess what? I've found that banging out a few short articles - on a subject I already know - has a powerful effect on the amount of traffic my websites get. And you can harness this power for yourself by following a few simple guidelines.

You may be wondering how much a little article can REALLY do for search engine rankings. Well... more than you would think. For instance, as I'm writing this, the keyword phrase "sell a reality show" brings up three links on Google to articles I've written and posted on article-publishing sites. And those three links are all in the top-10 organic search results. (Remember, unlike pay-per-click advertising, you don't pay anything to be in organic search results.)

Since most people don't look past the first few pages of organic results, this is a major coup.

When a person clicks on one of those links, they find my article and a link to the website where I market my course on how to sell a reality show to Hollywood. Those highly ranked articles have attracted more than 10,000 visitors to this site.

If you're interested in getting free traffic to your website, publishing articles is one of the best and easiest ways to do it. (You have to admit that the results I just mentioned are pretty impressive.) And I've discovered a few "rules" that will help you achieve maximum success.

Rule #1: Post your articles on high-traffic sites where they're likely to get read.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of websites that allow you to post articles. I've tried at least 20 of them - and not all have gotten me a significant number of reads. (Most article-publishing sites have tracking tools so you know how many people are reading your article and clicking through to your link.)

To improve your chances, search for the keyword or keyword phrase you want your article to rank for. If an article-publishing site comes up when you plug in that term, your article will likely come up too when you post it there. I also now check the volume of articles on the website, the quality of articles posted on it, and whether the site seems to be well established. (My postings that got few reads have been with new sites.)

The three article-submission sites I've had the most success with - achieving high rankings for specific keywords - are Wikihow.com, Howtodothings.com, and Ezinearticles.com. But there are many others - so do some digging before you start posting.

Rule #2: Understand the way the site works.

When I first posted on Wikihow, I included a link to my website in the body of the copy. I was bombarded by angry e-mails from people who felt that this was too commercial for the site - and it was. One reader moved my link to the resource part of the page, which is where it belonged. And since then, everything has been fine.

With Wikihow, other people can edit your articles. Maybe that's okay with you, but if you're going to post on this site, it's something you should be aware of.

There are things you need to be aware of with any article-submission site. Many require you to customize your article to fit a certain style. Some, for instance, want you to write your advice as steps that the reader should take. There might be a section for warnings or suggestions. Or a specific way to insert the link to your site.

Because there are so many differences in the way these sites work, I don't recommend using any kind of software that will supposedly post your articles to hundreds of them. Each submission has to be done individually and properly.

Rule #3: Make sure your content is good.

Telling you to "make sure your content is good" may sound obvious - but it's important. Most article-publishing websites allow readers to post comments. And the more positive comments your article gets, the more likely it is that other readers will want to read it. On the other hand, if your article doesn't include much good, specific, useful information, it will probably get bad ratings and/or reviews. Even worse, an article with no real substance won't convince readers that you know your stuff... and they won't be inclined to visit your site.

Unfortunately, there are some people out there who seem to get a kick out of being super-critical, so even a good article can get a handful of negative reviews. Don't let it bother you. If the quality is there, other readers will come to your defense.

By the way, you don't have to be a talented writer to write articles that will get the attention you're looking for. If you're stuck for an idea, try this one from David Cross: Interview an expert in your field - maybe even yourself. In my experience, the interview format never fails to produce great content.

While there are many effective ways to market online, the ones I'm interested in are those that cost little to nothing. Posting articles on popular article-submission sites has gotten me plenty of free exposure - and some amazing results in terms of organic search engine rankings on Google.

Try it!

[Ed. Note: This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com. Marketing your business online doesn't have to be an expensive endeavor. In fact, starting an online business is one of the most inexpensive ways to create your own fortune. This fall, you can get 12 insider secrets to making millions online - and could be making $1.2 million or more in 2009.

Paul Lawrence is an expert on entrepreneurship. For dozens of business-savvy techniques and strategies that you won't find in any business-college textbook, check out Paul's Street Smart Business Program. For dozens of "no-nonsense" tactics for the small-business entrepreneur, click here. ]

Managing Customer Criticisms and Complaints

by Michael Masterson (09/1/2008)

When customers complain about the product or service they are getting from  you, what do you do?

Of course, you know what you should do. You should:

• Say something that shows you sympathize with them.

• Rephrase their complaint, so they know you fully understand the  problem.

• Tell them you want to resolve the problem to their satisfaction.

• Make every effort to make them happy, even if it means giving them more  than they deserve.

If you find that you are failing to follow that protocol, you must ask  yourself why. Why are you pitting yourself against them?

Based on my own experience, it’s probably because you’re taking their comments personally. You’re upset. You want to defend yourself.

But over many years of dealing with customer complaints and criticisms (not too many, but enough) I’ve come to understand that personalizing them is a mistake. Some complaints are legitimate. Some are not. But when a customer is angry enough to pick up the phone or write a letter or e-mail about a product or service I’m providing, I have to disconnect myself. I think, “Here is a person with a problem. If I can solve that problem, it may convert him into a better buyer. And even if I can’t completely satisfy him (some people can never be satisfied), trying to make him happy will improve my business.”

If you have ever owned or worked in a restaurant, you’ve run into customers who complained about the food and/or service… even if there was nothing wrong with it.

Customer: “Waiter, I told you I want no oil on my spaghetti. Why is there oil  on it?”

Waiter: “There is no oil on it, sir.”

Customer: “Look! Can’t you see it? The pasta is glistening with oil!”

Waiter: “That’s not oil, sir. That is water vapor. It has just come out of  the boiler.”

Customer: “Don’t argue with me, boy. Bring me another plate of  spaghetti!”

Successful restaurants are those that train their staff to treat the customer as if he is always right, even when he is clearly not.

You might think it’s a bad idea for a restaurant to give in to irrational complaints. That it will encourage more irrational complaints. But from what I’ve seen, it has the opposite effect. By happily agreeing to replace a dish the customer complains about (and sometimes not charging for it), they turn snarls into smiles. And the restaurant develops a reputation as a high-class joint.

Since most of my clients are publishers, the irrational complaints they  receive tend to be extremely odd and subjective.

• “I don’t like that editor’s last name. It sounds foreign.”
• “I hate your criticism of that stock. My father works for that company.”
• “You are wrong about eating more protein. Protein is the devil’s food.”

How do you handle complaints like these? Something like this: “Yes, sir. I can see that you are upset about the statement Dr. Smith made about protein. Is it fair to say that you wish we would never recommend protein again? Well, I can certainly understand how you feel. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to change Dr. Smith’s view on this. After all, he has an MD, a PhD, and has won the Nobel Prize. Still, I will pass your comment on to him. We do have a special report on vegetarian cooking. It’s a $10 value, but I’ll be happy to send it to you for free. Will that be okay?”

Getting the customer service protocol right is essential if you want to build an increasingly profitable business. And the person at the top has to set the standards. You must teach your employees how to depersonalize criticism and satisfy your customers… even when they don’t deserve it.

Many businesspeople don’t agree with me. They want to be good to their reasonable customers and stern with their unreasonable ones. But this adds a costly burden to the organization. Customer service reps must then play two roles: They must judge the worthiness of the complaint, and then respond in a way that is appropriate - in their view - to their judgment. Asking your customer service people to do that is unrealistic.

The simpler and better answer: The customer should be treated as if he is  right, even when he is wrong.

I’m not saying you should cave in to absurd requests - e.g., a demand for a refund long after your money-back guarantee deadline has passed. But you can still appease the customer by treating him well. By calmly and patiently explaining why you can’t do what he asks… and then offering something else - perhaps a discount on a future purchase. If you are clever, you can even turn a complaint into a sale.

Not only can you turn complaints into sales, you can use them to enhance your credibility and strengthen your relationship with your customers. How? By answering them publicly on your website or in your newsletter.

Porter Stansberry, publisher of Stansberry & Associates investment advisories, handles the harshest criticisms he receives in the e-letter he sends to his customers. And he does it in a way that completely defangs them.

Publishing his most acrimonious critics is a shrewd strategy, one that most businesspeople would shy away from. But by doing so, he includes each and every customer who might have similar complaints - even those who might be more upset than the people who write in.

Porter answers the criticism patiently, sympathetically, and rationally. If he made a mistake, he admits it. He presents his point of view, but without being antagonistic. And then he includes comments from other customers that back up what he just said. This has the effect of making the complainer look like exactly what he is - unreasonable. And not because Porter said so, but because other customers did.

While I was writing this article, I received an e-mail from an editor who had just gotten off the phone with an angry subscriber who strongly disagreed with something he had written. He handled it well. The subscriber was mollified. But it bothered him that the criticism was made in the first place. He wondered whether he should change his editorial policy so that such a criticism wouldn’t be launched again.

“Don’t kowtow to the malcontents,” I told him. “You have to give your subscribers the best editorial product you can. If they don’t like it, they can cancel their subscription. Remember, you’re in the business of publishing contrarian advice. And any time you take a contrarian position, some people are going to get upset with you. Don’t back away from your principles.”

You can’t avoid criticisms and complaints - especially if you are running a cutting-edge business. But you can - and should - pay attention to them… and have a procedure in place for managing them.

That means:

• Being polite, patient, and sympathetic.
• Making it clear that you fully understand the problem and intend to resolve  it to the customer’s satisfaction.
• Making every effort to make them happy, even if it means giving them more  than they deserve.

[Ed. Note: This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com. As Michael Masterson points out, dealing with customer criticisms and complaints is an unavoidable part of being in business. So what? You can do it! Don't let that prevent you from building a powerhouse Internet business.

Join Michael and the ETR team this November at ETR's 2008 Information Marketing Bootcamp. We've got 12 expert money-makers lined up. And each of them has promised to show you exactly how to make between $100,000 and $1.2 million your first year. Reserve your  spot here.]

Posted to Business Skills, Entrepreneurship

Make Money from Home

 

Lessons from the Donald

After spending a lot of time researching the best books and online courses to help enhance my company, I settled on some CD's from Trump University. - The Trump "Wealth Builder's Blueprint" series of CD's have remained in my car so that every day when I drive to work, I can be reminded of the fact that I am on a mission to form my own company, live my own life and work for myself. I have the Trump CD's rotating with the some Dale Carnegie CD's I picked up as well.

While I like the Dale Carnegie CD's because of the leadership (and professional and personal) principals they teach, the courses from Trump University have an abundance of information about starting a business, accounting, career development, how we learn and marketing strategies. I was nothing short of impressed by these as the price for them was reasonable given the abundance of information.

I had spent a lot of time researching other courses and CD / DVD collections available (especially by 'newer' entrepreneurs who are investing in real estate) but nothing matches the brand that is Donald Trump and Trump University.

Now if Mr. Trump and his team could only send a little more 'inner strength' to jump in with all of this new found knowledge I'd be all set...

How to Be on Top of Everything

"I do not fear failure. I only fear the 'slowing up' of the engine inside of me which is pounding, saying, 'Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you?'"

- General George S. Patton

How to Be on Top of Everything

By Michael Masterson

Since January, I've been writing a series of essays in ETR intended to give you tools to help you "master plan" your life. As you put this master plan into action, you will find that you will be able to accomplish more than you ever have before. Much more.

People will notice how much you're getting done. And, as a result, some of them will come to you for help. Or advice. Or simply to give you more work because you have become your company's go-to person.

This is all good and fine. It gives you more power. And more options. And more opportunities to advance in your career. But unless you have a system for managing all that extra work, you will soon be overwhelmed. And if you become overwhelmed, the happy movie you have been making about yourself in your head will turn into a horror story. People will be disappointed in you. Then angry at you. Before you know it, they'll be planning to get rid of you.

You don't want that. You want to be in charge of how much work you do. And you want to keep track of that work as well as all the work you delegate to other people. Keep in mind that the higher up you go in your business, the more delegating you'll be doing.

As you get busier, you want to get better too. In particular, you want to:

Be prepared for all the meetings you go to.
Meet all your deadlines.
Answer all the questions you've agreed to answer.
I am not, by nature, interested in details. I have always prided myself on being a "big picture" sort of person. I am pretty good at figuring out possible causes for problems and coming up with solutions. And I can push to have them implemented. But I don't like keeping track of things.

I am also, by nature, a gregarious person. If someone asks me to do something, I like to comply. But I have found that my natural proclivity to please inclines me to take on more than I should. And that - in the past - often led to forgetfulness and missed deadlines, which led to disappointment and frustration.

Years ago, I realized that if I wanted to be able to run a company and lead smart, independent people, I would have to get better at keeping up with what they were doing. I could not afford the foolish luxury of excusing my insufficiencies in this area by crowning myself as a big-picture person. I had to adopt techniques and learn skills that would allow me to maintain control of the critical details of my business.

Since I had no natural inclination for organization, I was not able to conjure up any clever systems on my own. The organizational system that I started to follow then - and continue to follow now - is a composite of what I learned from several of my past mentors.

I've described my goal-setting, task-setting program in previous ETR essays. It's based on establishing yearly goals, monthly objectives, and weekly and daily task lists, and then organizing those task lists in terms of priorities. The lion's share of my progress in personal productivity has come from using this program, and I can honestly say it has revolutionized my life.

What the program itself does not do is give me a way to keep track of the many details I need to be aware of in order to implement all those tasks effectively. Take a look at the illustration in my article on using daily task lists to accomplish your goals and you'll see what I mean.

To keep track of the details, I use a very simple manual system consisting of two file folders. Here is how it works:

Documenting the Details
Let's say one of my goals for the year is to publish a book of some sort. To do what I personally have to do to get that done (write the book and approve the final layout and publicity), all I have to do is make the book a goal for the year... insert the appropriate monthly objectives... and then, based on that, put together my weekly and daily task lists.

But what about all the other work involved in getting the book published - the work I'm not going to do myself? What about finding someone to edit the book? What about the proofreading? What about getting a marketing team together and making sure they follow up with their plans? All of these necessary activities will be coordinated by my publisher. And since I won't be there during those discussions, I ask for a summary of the details to be sent to me by e-mail.

Filing the Details for Future Reference
When I receive that e-mailed summary, I usually skim it, just to remind myself of what it is about. Then I scribble some note at the top (such as "Ideas about publicity for new book") and I file it in a folder I keep beside my desk. The folder has 12 pockets, one for each month of the year. I put the document in the appropriate one. If, for example, the first marketing meeting for the book will take place in April, I put the meeting notes in the pocket marked April.

When April arrives, I take those notes out of the folder (along with all the other documents stored in the April pocket) and insert them into another folder. This one has 31 pockets, one for each day of the month. I put the meeting notes where I think I'll need them. Maybe the day of the meeting. Or maybe a day or two beforehand so I will have time to review them and prepare.

Out of the Folder and Into My Brain
Each night before I leave the office, I make up my task list for the following day. To make that list, I review any tasks from the previous day that did not get completed, as well as my weekly task list for tasks not yet assigned. I also take out the following day's documents from the daily folder (the one with 31 pockets), and look at each item to reacquaint myself with the project it refers to.

Sometimes a quick review is all I need to bring myself up to speed. Sometimes I have to schedule some time the next day to study it. (Thirty minutes to an hour is usually more than enough.) Then, when it comes time for the meeting, I am equipped not only with the original notes in hand but with some fresh ideas stimulated by my preparation.

I use this system to keep track of just about everything. Projects I delegate to other people, projects I take on myself, and even correspondence I intend to answer later on. When I come across (or have sent to me) articles of interest, I often put them in the daily folder and bring them out to read one at a time.

It's a very simple system, but it has been a big help to me. And it allows me to see, very plainly, when I can't take on any new projects - because the monthly folder is overstuffed!

I am sure there are plenty of computerized programs that approximate what I do with these two folders, but those I've tried so far have proved to be cumbersome and time consuming. I prefer to do it manually.

As the master plan I'm helping you build with this series of articles starts to change your life, you will begin to take on more responsibility than ever before. Don't count on your memory or natural intelligence to keep you on top of important details. Use this simple filing system.

[Ed. Note: This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com. You truly can change your life and accomplish all your goals with simple strategies like Michael's filing system. For dozens more ways to achieve your dreams - plus tons of goal-setting tools and motivation to get going - sign up for ETR's Total Success Achievement Program. Learn more here.]

Anthony Robbins: The target that shapes you...

The target that shapes you: 1. Certainty 2. Uncertainty 3. Significance 4. Connection and Love 5. Growth 6. Contributing beyond yourself. - How cool is this?