News By Tom Brownsword

I’ve lost money to shady characters in my efforts to build an Internet-based business. It’s a part of the risk that I have to accept. In most cases, I do make an attempt to get my money back, but simply store away lots of details and move on. Perhaps some day the opportunity will arise to get that money back (and it does happen).

In other cases, the business deal simply doesn’t work out quite the way you hoped it would. For example, I’m getting absolutely no value out of a mentoring program I paid for (which is still active) because the mentor publicly insulted a friend over something that, in my opinion, should have been kept quiet. Yes, I could raise a stink about it, but why bother? From my perspective, it’s better to simply move forward and take care of Now. The world is big enough for both of us and I’ve become apathetic to his cause (hate requires negative energy and effort; apathy is much better because it frees you to do something else).

In another case, I invested a chunk of cash in another system. That one didn’t work out at all like I hoped it would. I understood the risks going in, completely trusted the person running it (and still do), and know that I’ll get at least some of my money back if some of the issues ever get worked out. Yet I still get emails and private messages at forums asking if I still “believe” this person or telling me that I’m a fool for trusting this “scam artist”.

No, the deal just went bad. That’s all. Furthermore, in keeping with my “move forward” philosophy, if I know that the deal simply went bad, I know that I wasn’t “scammed”. In the case with this person, were she to come forward with another business proposition similar to the one that didn’t work out, I’d take a serious look at it because I know and trust the person behind it.

(On a side note, I’m still holding on to the naive hope that I might see some money some day, even though it has been several months since I stopped investing in this deal. The nature of the deal was such that I should have been paid within 3-4 months at the most… Then again, if it happens, it happens; I’m not at all obsessed with it.)

So please; STOP calling every failed business deal a “scam”. It’s not. If you can’t handle some risk (and don’t have a plan to manage it), then go get a job (of course, that’s risky, too, since you aren’t in control of your paycheck).

And above all, don’t try to draw me in to a protracted argument about the merits of a person. While I might tell you my opinion (which I tend to not do in public nowadays for a very good reason), you have already convinced yourself about the “character” of this person, and nothing I say is going to change it. Your “scam artist” is my “friend” or “business partner”, and Who They Are is completely separate from What Happened. Enjoy your opinion while I move forward and take advantage of Now. And the sooner you learn to separate people from issues, the better it will be for you.

One final word: If you can’t afford to lose the cash, then don’t invest it in your business. Period. Calling somebody a scam artist when the real problem is your inability to manage risk is only going to lead to you running into even more so-called scam artists. Stop passing the buck and take responsibility for your own actions.

Thanks for listening,
Tom

I’ve just downloaded some “next generation” anti virus software that’s recently been released by a company that I know and trust. I’ve been working with their products since 2001, and to be quite honest, I’ve been looking forward to testing this particular brand of anti virus software.

Why am I eager to test it?

• It’s getting a lot of favorable reviews in the security community.
• It combines anti virus software with anti spyware capabilities in one package. No need for two applications!
• It supposedly is NOT a resource hog. That would be very nice… From what I can tell, it was written from the ground up instead of trying to build (and bloat) an outdated engine that can’t keep up with modern malware.
• It’s “next generation” software. Hopefully this means that it not only detects malware but also guards against behavior that is typically exhibited by malware (for those times when signature based detection just doesn’t work).
• It has rootkit detection.

So I’m going to install it on my computer and test it for several days. I’ll report back — and, of course, recommend it if it works as promised (!); if not, well, I’ll tell you about that, too…

Sorry, no names for now, but I did want to alert you about something that looks to be both new and promising in the computer security world. Check back soon for the final word!

Thanks for listening,
Tom

UPDATE: Here is the link to that new anti-virus software: VIPRE Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware Software by Sunbelt Software

There. I said it. While I like helping people and enjoy life, I need to make money — and I do make money from this blog.

I just wanted to say that because some people get upset once they realize it, for some reason. So be it; I just thought that I’d save you the time and trouble of possibly reading this blog for months before you realize that I’m in it for the money (among other reasons).

So what does this mean to you?

First, the only way I’m going to make money is if I can provide my customers (hopefully you — you can become one by purchasing this computer and website security interview — see, I just tried to make money!) with more value than what they give me in exchange. Money is a universally accepted instrument that represents value. In this case, when you give me $27, I need to convince you that I’m giving you at least $27 worth of value before you’ll pay me. If I can’t do that, you don’t pay and move on.

So who got more value? I always try to ensure that my customers get more value than I.

And the next reason why I’m so self-centered is best revealed in Dr. Robert Anthony’s Secret of Deliberate Creation course (oh no, not again! ). I’m listening to it again, and just today I heard about how we are constantly creating. That creation takes on the form of positive and negative creation. And we can’t help BUT create — we were made to create.

Now if we focus on all of the bad stuff around us and try to change others, all it does is drag us down to their level. In what may appear to be a paradox to most people, the only way to really help others is to focus on improving yourself. Focus on yourself, think positive stuff (more or less; I’m glossing over a lot), and things get better for you. And guess what? Once your lot in life improves, you have something to give finally, don’t you? And there’s a universal law about giving that says you get it back — just not from the same source you give it to — and you get back much more than you give.

So I do focus on making money so that I’ll have more to give. Heck, if I didn’t make money, I couldn’t even afford to pay to host this website and you wouldn’t be reading this. In other words, how can I help you if I don’t make money?

OK, this post may be a bit strange, but it was inspired by a thread that’s currently running over at Willie Crawford’s Internet Marketing Inner Circle (Argh! Another money-making attempt!), it’s spur of the moment and entirely impulsive, and I’ll probably regret it at some point in the future. But then again, who wants to read the same old boring stuff day in and day out?

Oh, one parting random thought: I absolutely despise people who try to take advantage of me. Both my wife and I are extremely generous, but if we find out that somebody took advantage of our generosity when they could have taken care of themselves, we’ll cut you off at the kneecaps. And don’t put one hand in my wallet while the other one is stabbing me in the back.

OK, now I’ll get back to being my nice old self…

Thanks for listening,
Tom

P.S. — I’ll be posting some “before and after” pics on my raw foods blog in the next day or so. I’ve lost over 60 pounds since January of this year and some of my readers of that blog would like to see pictures… plus I like to show off… So I’ll post a link here once those pictures are posted. If nothing else, you’ll know who I am so you can avoid me if you want!

I recently joined Dennis Becker’s Earn 1K A Day membership site. I’m glad that I did. There’s a great forum there, lots of great support, and everybody is focused on helping you get your first $1,000 day — with many happy returns.

While I won’t go into details, I actually have had a $1,000 day, long before I joined, but I need more consistency in my business and finally decided to join about a month ago.

I’m glad that I did so when I did — because Dennis just announced that the price will soon go up. Dennis has recently brought on some people to help him run the site (a very good business continuity practice, by the way), plus signed the ink on a deal to provide yet another membership site free of charge (and this one makes 1K A Day good for even people who are new to online business building. Dennis has discouraged so-called “newbies” from joining in the past).

Here’s what’s included in your membership to Earn 1K A Day now:

• The superb (and active) member forum.
• Lots of free downloads courtesy of Dennis. And I do mean LOTS! Some are just for your use, but there are several that you can resell, depending on the license.
• Membership to Super Simple Marketing. This is the new addition and normally costs $27 a month if you purchase it on your own (you can click on these links to verify my claims). This is the membership that’s designed to help newcomers and helps fill out the gaps in Dennis’ site.
• Membership to Instant Cash Generators. This one will normally cost you $9.95 a month.
• Free access to Sell Your Writing Online. This also costs $9.95 a month on its own.

You can get all this, which would normally costs you $46.90 a month — PLUS access to Earn 1K A Day — for just $29.95 a month — IF you sign up before the pending price increase (which I think will happen sometime after the first of the month (July)).

If you decide to order using my links, please let me know by putting in a ticket at my Help Desk. While I can’t think of anything to add to Dennis’ excellent site, if you’ll put in a ticket with your forum userid, I’ll keep an eye out for you and do my best to help if you need it. I’ll also give you 30 days of no-cost access to my coaching site (which will be launching soon) — no credit card required (no forced continuity).

Again, if you want to get in on this incredible deal before the price increase, click here now to sign up. It will still be a great value after the price increase — but why pay more than you have to? And even if you cancel after a month, the materials that Dennis will give you (which includes his Five Dollars A Day Course) will be worth much more than the $29.95 you’ll pay for one month’s worth of access.

Thanks for listening,
Tom

P.S. — For blog announcement list subscribers: I’m not going to send an email on this post. While I strongly believe in the value and want to get the word out before the price increase to save you money, it is, in a way, a promotional post. If I should have sent it anyway, please leave a comment or send me an email (just hit “Reply” to my most recent blog announcement post email) to let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

I’ve been listening to Brian Tracy’s “The Psychology of Selling” for the past several weeks as I’ve been driving about. I’ve listened to the complete set at least ten times now and will continue to listen to them until I can either quote them in my sleep or the tapes fall apart (in which case I’ll send them back for replacements; Nightingale Conant offers a lifetime replacement warranty!).

One of the reasons for listening to these tapes so many times is that I often miss stuff the first time around. As you listen, you hear something that you want to think about for a while. Of course, while you’re doing this, you ignore what’s currently playing, so replaying the tapes can be quite valuable. You also need help with different things at different times in your life and career, so even if you think that you’ve obtained maximum benefit from something, dusting it off after a year or so can result in even more benefit from a tape set. In my case, it can take me many times before I realize something anyway, which is why I really want to practically memorize these tapes.

Another reason I’m obsessed with this tape set is that, as Brian says on the tapes, nothing happens until a sale takes place. That’s one reason why I don’t particularly care for the “Internet Marketing” term. It’s about business. It’s about sales. Marketing plays a role, but nothing happens until a sale takes place. So why do we put so much emphasis on marketing?

Internet Selling, anybody? Would that make me an Internet Selling-er?

People also have to like you and trust you before they’ll buy from you. So we need to communicate. They also usually don’t buy until after the fifth contact. Email is important, as is a blog. And so forth and so on. There’s just so much in this set that can help people like us as we work on our websites and business.

And these tapes are over 20 years old! Wonder if they have an updated version?

But moving on to the main point of this post, Brian also said on those tapes that people procrastinate in sales for one reason: fear of rejection. Instead of getting out in front of prospects, they’ll do anything and everything to avoid making contact because most people will reject their offer. They engage in non-selling “busy work” — checking email, checking messages, whatever — to avoid getting in front of a live human being who is qualified to make a purchase decision.

That’s the first thing that I want to point out. The reason for rejection is not what you might think it is. When people reject your offer, they are not rejecting you personally! Your offer is just “too” — too expensive, too complex, too unnecessary… In other words, your offer is not right for them.

But fear of rejection is the flip side of procrastination. Sales people procrastinate because they do not want to face the possibility of rejection, all the time ignoring the fact that the end result is the same: no sales. And if they did face rejection, somebody might actually say “yes”…

Of course, this also ties to those of us working to build an online business. In my opinion, we procrastinate because of fear of failure — but the difference between sales rejection and Internet business rejection is subtle yet distinct.

In our case (for those of us working to build an online business), our fear is not so much one of rejection; instead, it’s a fear that what we’ve been taught won’t work. Why write those articles? Why build that website? Why create that product? Why attend those live events? Why join that membership site? Why do anything, we say? It won’t work!

This “thinking” is, in many cases, completely unfounded. How do we know it won’t work? On what do we base our opinions? Have we personally tried it? Do we have first-hand knowledge of somebody who tried it and failed? If we do, what factors led to their failure? Or does it simply seem to be so unbelieveable that we write it off as improbable?

(NOTE: Following a proven plan will work. Keep reading for a place to get some “proven plans” that have worked for others.)

At any rate, the end result is the same. Instead of doing the things that will put money in our pockets, we do stuff like hang out at forums, do “research”, and flit from one idea and system to the next, never completing a single thing and never giving ourselves the opportunity to learn that something will work. We are always seeking but never learning what truly works.

In other words, my theory (not very eloquently stated!) is that we procrastinate because we truly fear that what we are doing won’t work. Like the sales person who fears rejection, we fear working on ideas that we think won’t make us any money. As a result, we have guaranteed failure before we’ve even tried anything.

Is there a solution? Yes! As I mentioned above, simply follow a proven plan and your odds of success are grealy enhanced (but nobody can guarantee it).

I recently joined Dennis Becker’s Earn 1K A Day membership site. Now in my opinion, Dennis isn’t one of these flashy “Gee, look at me rake in the big bucks” kind of goo-roos. If anything, Dennis would qualify as a “do-ru”, but a flashy goo-roo?

Nope.

But the membership site is solid. Great ideas, lots of extras to help you build your business — and all at one affordable monthly price. It also includes a copy of Dennis’ Five Bucks A Day report. The goal of that is to get you think of ways that you can earn five dollars a day, then focus on one of those ideas each and every week. While the report itself is awesome, joining the Earn 1K A Day membership site will drop you smack dab in the middle of an incredibly supportive community that will make the job easier.

But the biggest part of the whole thing is focus, and by joining the membership site, you’ll be able to bounce ideas off of people who have journeyed down the road to success before you. Remember, these are people who, like Dennis, are too busy working and being successful to act like a flashy goo-roo — but isn’t that what you want? Wouldn’t you rather bounce your money making idea off of a bunch of people who, from experience, will have a good idea of whether your idea will work? While it won’t guarantee success, it can certainly help you avoid an obvious failure (if you are teachable and willing to listen), and if you know that something has a chance of winning, won’t you be more inclined to work on it instead of procrastinating?

So is Earn 1K A Day the cure for procrastination? I won’t go so far as to say that, but if you dump the other stuff you have and work on that, it most certainly can help — if you let it.

So I’m glad to add Earn 1K A Day membership site to the list of business building membership sites that I can recommend. And I’d love to see you on the inside, with Dennis and me (and a lot of other people).

Buy some “failure insurance”, so to speak, and take a positive step towards healing yourself of your fatal case of “procrastinationitis” today.

OK, I’m starting to sound like a copywriter, I’ll stop!

Thanks for listening,
Tom

P.S. — I don’t see anything about a guarantee on the sales page, but since you’ll be signing up for your subscription with ClickBank, YOU are in control and can cancel it at any time. At most, you risk one month’s worth of membership fees — and the forum is full of valuable downloads that are worth far more than that. So why not give it a try?

Here’s that link again: Click here to join Dennis Becker’s Earn 1K A Day membership site

NOTE: My eyes are doing weird things as I finish this post, making proofreading difficult… I reserve the right to later edit this post. Thanks for understanding!