You hop on Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/YouTube real quick just to “check in” and “get it out of the way first thing”.

The next thing you know, it’s time to get dinner together and spend a little time with the kids before their bedtime.  Where did the day go?  And what kind of results are you getting in your business from the hours you just spent online?

Enter Empire Avenue.  This is a new kind of social media network – but the kind that is making big waves!  This social media stock market encourages it’s participants to expand, engage and evaluate their progress.  It turns connecting into a games that you can earn “eaves” and badges for.  I know what you’re thinking… (wha….?????) so let me explain a bit more.

The basic premise of the site is that your “stock price” is determined by the level of interaction you have in the EA community – sharing, engaging, etc.  The currency (called eaves) is completely virtual and it’s free to sign up for an account.

You earn eaves in several different ways:

• You complete basic achievements with your profile.  These are things like linking other social network profiles (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Google+, etc), having more than a certain # of connections on those networks, joining communities within EA – basic participation stuff.
• You choose to complete missions.  There are missions listed which are social media tasks such as liking a Facebook pages, retweeting something or sharing a video and these are all assigned an eaves value by the person requesting the mission be done.  One that I’ve completed a time or two is retweeting a story or video for around 1,500 eaves.  This isn’t hard at all to do.  You just click on Missions and browse the list until you find something to your liking.
• You get shareholders.  These are people who have “invested” in you by “purchasing” up to 200 shares in your stock (you).  The amount can be less than 200 – it really all depends on what the cost per share is and what potential investors think their return on investment will be with you – but 200 is the preset maximum.
• You become a shareholder in others and earn dividends. Pretty much just like regular stock market dividends – as a stock’s price fluctuates, you get a percentage of the rate of return.

Of course, just like the real stock market, there are more advanced strategies that can be used to maximize return on investment.  The whole point is to keep you involved on a consistent basis in order to win at the game.  Once you hit a certain level of “income” earned daily, you can set up your own missions and get people to syndicate your content, retweet you, like your Facebook page or whatever other mission would help you boost your online presence.

On Empire Avenue or want to give it a try?  Come connect with me!  I’d love to see you there!!

I went with the expectation of learning a few new things and getting new life breathed back into my business…but I could never have anticipated what I was going to actually get.

There were 18 speakers (not counting the hosts, emcee Ryan Angelo, panel moderator Mark Hoverson and the 6 panelists) who over delivered time and time again.  It wasn’t just fluff content – it was 100% pure usable information.

I’m going to be recapping what the speakers shared over the next couple of days and I know that if you even plug in to my interpretation of their information (and put it into ACTION), your business will get an incredible boost.

My Top 3 Take Aways:

1. Take ACTION! It is infinitely better to fail forward than to let perfection stop you from taking the next (first) step.
2. Invest in YOU! With the conference being in Las Vegas, the gambling comparison really made sense for me.  Who else has the inside track on whether an investment in myself is going to pay off than me?  Brand you, invest in you, market you.
3. Focus on ONE thing until you hit the goal you want to reach.  I admit to “bright and shiny” syndrome – wanting to buy the newest, latest, greatest whatever that promises the world for only 3 payments of $99.95.  After all, isn’t good marketing supposed to make you want to reach for the closest credit card so you can have it?  Absolutely!  The problem is that going after all the latest and greatest before really committing to the tried and true methods will leave you always at square one with not a lot to show for it.

I got so much more from this conference than one blog post could possibly contain, so I will leave you with this one simple thought for now.

What are you willing to do to reach the level of success you want in business? 

Leave your answer as a comment below or send me an email and I will be happy to talk over a plan of action with you.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to use it.

Naturally, I wanted to figure out the right way as quickly as possible.

I mean, honestly, who DOESN’T want the life they’ve always dreamed of??

It’s about more than just the sports car or beach house though.

It’s about fulfilling your ultimate potential and getting the very most that life has to offer you.

David Hooper’s book, Lucky You, is a concise guide to deliberately modeling your thoughts in order to create the kind of life you really desire.

The law of attraction has been a really hot button topic lately (I’m sure you’ve read or watched The Secret.  It’s ok.  You can admit it.  I won’t tell.)  but that is only really scratching the surface of a very potent tool for conscious creation.

It really is up to you to determine what kind of a life you want and Lucky You shows you how to go about creating it in a simple and easy to understand way.

It also addresses the issue of when the law of attraction doesn’t seem to be working.

The law of attraction is real but it’s not some kind of magic pill.

It’s not a genie in a bottle or some kind of celestial lottery.

It’s simply a way of thinking that guides your actions into opportunities that will give you the results you’re looking for.

It’s like a roadmap really – well, not even, it’s more like instructions on how to create your own roadmap for your life.

As the lyrics to Free Will by RUSH say, “If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.”

I mean, that really sums it up right there.

We have all been given free will which means that we decide what we do about what happens in our world.

We don’t get to choose everything that happens but we can choose what kind of situations we are in most often because we act according to our dominant beliefs and values.

If those beliefs and values are in line with what we really truly want, then we will get that.

If our beliefs and values are not really what we want, then we are self-sabotaging and that doesn’t help anybody – least of all us.

I mean, I’m a totally classic example.

When I first got started in internet marketing, I said that I wanted a successful business but my thoughts had been very scared and afraid to try for fear that I didn’t know what I was doing.

The fact of the matter is that nobody really knows what they’re doing until they take the plunge and just DO until they figure out which way of doing actually works.

It’s just that simple.

Donald Trump said, “You don’t learn baseball from a book.”

You don’t learn business from a book either.

You can read all the books you want and all the courses that every guru and their mother has put out but you will never really understand how internet marketing or anything else in business works until you actually get out and get it done.

You will see the fruits of your labor and if you spend all your time sitting back watching this webinar and that webinar and reading 5 bazillion free reports then all you’re gonna get is a big old head full of other people’s thoughts and no money in the bank.

You have to make a decision and create a belief system in your head that you are gonna take the necessary action steps to get the results you want.

That will mean stepping out of your comfort zone.

It’s a necessity if you want to get anywhere.

You will fail.

You can’t see failure as something bad.

You have to see it as a learning experience.

If you don’t, you’ll never make it in this industry because failure is THE KEY to success.

It is the single most important tool you could have in your arsenal as an internet or network marketer.

You have to know how to fail in such a way that you learn from it and go on to the next way of doing things.

Don’t assume that plan A is always going to work or be the best solution.

It is usually only after you have looked at a problem from multiple angles that the answer becomes clear.

Your belief has to be that you will be successful as long as you keep getting back up after failure.

Lucky You is really a total misnomer because there’s nothing lucky about it.

Conscious creation is a deliberate act that must be done every minute of every day to have the best effect.

You can choose to be a passive participant and let others dictate what they think your life should be like or you can take control and become exactly who you want to be and have exactly what you want to have.

The great thing about the law of attraction is that you simply need to have the belief and feel it sincerely and trust that it will happen for you then leave the how up to the Universe.

We don’t have to do the hard part!

I think that’s awesome.

The how is up to the universe as long as you keep the belief close to your heart and in your thoughts.

Be thankful that you’re getting everything you could ever desire.

Man, I’m getting so fired up about this I’m losing track of what I want to write.

It’s so awesome that we have the ability to dictate what our lives will be.

Take an active role or deal with what life dishes out for you.

I’d much rather be in control of things.

This doesn’t mean that you can control absolutely everything that happens to you.

Random things do happen but you CAN choose how to react to the things that happen to you and that will mold who you are as a person and what kind of life you have.

It is so empowering to know that you have some kind of choice.

You have a say.

You have a voice.

You get to choose…so exercise your right to determine your own life and quit worrying about all the other little stuff that gets in the way.

The law of attraction doesn’t ask you to be perfect.

It simply asks that you believe that what you desire is attainable and real then leave it up to the universe to work it out for you.

It’s an awesome article.  You should read it.  You may have a little happy dance of your own to do.

Tell me what you thought of it below.  I know I can’t wait to go through his archive to find more posts that get my blood pumping.

But here’s where the problem comes in.  Finding a lot of good information for free can be an invisible trap into the world of information overload and complete inaction for those who are not aware this danger exists.  Luckily there are a few simple steps these unfortunates can take to free themselves of this stopping point and get back on the road to success.

1. Be selective – It’s one thing to pick up a free ebook or video series that you instantly learn from and implement but too many times it seems that marketers get into a collection game.  It doesn’t really matter how much instruction you have in your inbox if you don’t have the time to actually learn from it and put it to good use.  It’s not like a video game where just bumping your head on a box a few times sends your points score through the roof (although, how cool would that be??).

It’s better to be more selective with who you choose to learn from.  Pick someone (or a couple someones – not 37) that consistently produces content that is relevant and useful to you. Unsubscribe from everybody else.  Bringing the number of incoming emails down will help you really be able to use what those people are sharing instead of simply thinking the info could be useful from reading the subject line of the email.  If you insist on keeping subscriptions to everybody and their mother just to make sure you don’t miss anything, set up your email to automatically funnel all but the 1 or 2 most important subscriptions into subfolders to go through at a later time.  This will help you avoid wasting valuable productive time by reading things that only remotely relate to your business.

2. Re-evaluate often – If you haven’t read an email from someone this past month, maybe it’s time to consider whether you really need to be receiving their emails.  If you haven’t found something useful and implemented it in the past 2 weeks, perhaps it’s better redirected into a subfolder for later viewing.  Keep what is helping your business grow at the top of your viewing priority and get to everything else later.  If it’s not helping you, it’s hurting you.

3. Focus! – Pick one or two methods to try, give them enough time to work, then continue or try something else. If you’re trying to implement the latest tip or trick from several different people each day, it’s too much.  You’re spread so thin that it will be really hard to get anything to really work the way it should.  Many leaders have the inside information on what works, however, most of the information works best when applied consistently with focus.  This is really an industry where being a jack of all trades and master of none is a surefire way to fail.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love optin offers but you really need to focus on what is helping and ignore all the rest in order to get the best results for your business.  In reality, it’s better for the people sending you the emails too.  I know I prefer to share information with people who are really interested rather than people who signed up just for the optin offer.

What are some things you do to avoid information overwhelm? Let me know what you think below.

There are a couple things that could be considered downsides to article marketing but it really depends on what kind of results you’re looking for.  Article marketing does take consistency and patience – meaning that you need to post at least one article every day for an amount of time in order to start generating leads.  It’s unrealistic to think you can write one article and build a $50,000 per month business off of that one single piece of marketing.  (If you figure out how to make this work, please let me know how!)  If you consistently produce quality, informative articles over a period of time – usually about 2-3 months – your hard work will pay off.

Some of you may be discouraged by the idea of writing an article.  Here are some questions and answers to help you out.

What should I write about? That’s pretty simple.  Write about what you know.  If you read a book or watch a webinar that teaches you something, put it in your own words and presto! You’ve got an article.

How should I put it all together? Put it together in a way that is easy to read.  One of the easiest ways to do this is to draft a basic outline with the main points and then use that as the template for your article – fleshing out each point as you write.

How long does it have to be? The standard rule for how long an article should be will vary depending on subject matter but for most intents and purposes 500-700 words is a great length.  This works out to about 1 page single spaced in Times New Roman font 12.  For a plan to write an article in 15 minutes, check out this post.

Where do I put it? The “go to” site is ezinearticles.com but there are lots of free article sites that you can post your content on.  Find sites that your target market is likely to visit and post to those first.  It’s also a great idea to post the article on your blog first and then include a link in the signature box of your article that links back to the original post on your blog.  This is the easiest way for people to connect with you outside of the article site.  You may also want to post the article on a generic lead generation site like MyLeadSystemPro and include another link in your signature box to the article on that site.

Once you get the basics down, you can move on to more advanced techniques like doing keyword research for search engine optimization.  There are free ways to do this.  One of the tools you can use is the Google Keyword tool.  This will help you identify the popularity of keywords relating to your subject matter.  When you include a keyword throughout your article, you are making it easier for the search engines to find your content – aka search engine optimization.

If you’re looking for a much more advanced method for aggressive article marketing, you can purchase software like Marketing Samurai for keyword research and article spinning tools like Automatic Article Submitter or Article Marketing Robot or Unique Article Wizard.  Spinning an article is simply using different words or phrases to convey the same message so that when the article is posted to multiple sites, it doesn’t register as the same exact article.  This helps keep your article in the top of search results when done properly.

Some people choose to outsource their article marketing which is a way to utilize this technique without really being involved.  The downside is that it costs money to do this – not ideal if you’re looking for a free lead generation method – and you don’t have full control over the content.

The best way to get involved in article marketing is simply to jump in with both feet and refine your technique along the way.  You’ll get a better feel for how things should go once you get writing.  Now get busy!

What other article marketing questions do you have?  Let me know.  I would love to answer them in another post.

It’s all true!! The tool I’m talking about is TribePro which describes itself as “syndication on steroids”. The idea of creating a tribe of people to help spread the word about a particular product, item or person is not a new one but TribePro takes it to a whole new level. Basically you join TribePro, find a tribe that interests you or is relevant to your marketing area, join and start sharing content. It’s that easy. You share other people’s content, they share yours. It’s beautiful.

There are paid membership options as well and, as one would likely suspect, they have a few more bells and whistles than the free membership. The great thing is that the free membership isn’t some gimmick just to get you to buy the paid membership. It doesn’t just show you all the cool things you COULD do IF you buy a membership. No, my friend. The free membership allows you to do most of the things a paid membership can do – it just doesn’t allow some of the automated features that make things a bit easier. If you can click a few share buttons, you can use TribePro to your benefit.

So, what exactly does TribePro offer it’s free members? Leader board participation, activity feed, training, follow people and have people follow you, share content manually and with AddThis, submit content, post blog comments, post YouTube comments/views/likes, and participate in real-time chats in the Tribe Chat Lobby. That’s a pretty good amount of perks for free.

If you want to see better results for your marketing efforts, TribePro is a must have tool. It also doesn’t hurt that they have a pretty cool affiliate program.  Check out their site and give a free membership a try. Let me know what you think of TribePro (or ask any questions you may have) below.

The first assignment was to make a video of my Goals for the challenge and Why I’m working from home. Enjoy.

The fact is that, while some of those programs have something legitimate to offer, most are just fancy systems to tell you what you don’t know you already know.

Knowledge alone will not get you where you want to go.  Wanting something will not guarantee that you will get it.  Affirmations are wonderful tools but they don’t work unless you have this one other essential business tool.

What is this seemingly elusive tool that will guarantee your success in any business you choose to build?

Action.

That’s all it is.  Action.  You can buy every success system out there but if you do nothing with it, you will get nothing from it.  Knowledge without action is useless.  Wanting something without taking the steps to get it is a waste of time.  Affirmations without action are powerless.

If you want to see a positive change in your business, to see consistent growth, then the answer is simple….

If you enjoyed this post, please quickly do me a favor and share with others and comment below.

What I like more is the fact that you get to share your knowledge with others – knowledge that may be just what they needed to reach the next level in their business or personal life.  Your words may have been the catalyst they were waiting for to get past the proverbial wall.  Kudos to you, inspiration!

The problem with article marketing is that most people think you must have the education of  a multiple PhD before your content will be taken seriously.  Not so, my friend.  The fact is that you simply have to know what you’re talking about.  Simple enough, right?  Pick a subject that you understand and explain it to others.  No sweat.

Some people worry about what they should write and how they should write and…..they get so worked up about “doing it right” that they don’t do it at all and thus their small piece of immortality is lost.  Never fear, I am here to help you.

Writing articles is really as simple as 1, 2, 3 (or should I say ABC?)

Step 1: Point out a problem
Step 2: Tell a story about or give an example of the problem
Step 3: Offer a solution to the problem

Bada-bing!  You’ve got an article.  Congratulations!!!

If you have found this post useful, please share it with your friends.