As I suspected, my hard drive contains tons of duplicate files. Some of this is due to my own sloppy filing habits (those habits are improving; that’s how I figured this out in the first place) and part of it is due to the fact that that many marketers offer the same PLR / RR / “whatever rights” product as a bonus.

First, the second part. There’s no getting around the fact that lots of people simply grab stuff from a certain membership site that offers lots of great products that can be further sold — or, in some cases, even given away. How do I know this? I, too, am a member…

(Would you like to get your hands on a lot of this stuff? If you choose to join Dennis Becker’s Earn 1K A Day Internet business membership site by clicking on this linkThis is an affiliate link. If you click on it and purchase the product, I will receive an affiliate commission. Using this link to purchase this product enables you to show your appreciation and support for this site at no added expense to you. I am grateful for your support., I will give you a copy of anything I download from that site that I am allowed to pass along — and will pass along the maximum rights possible — at no extra charge for as long as you remain a member in good standing. Just submit your receipt and forum user name at Protector Support, my contact and help desk, and I’ll set you up. Keep in mind that membership to Earn 1k A Day is, at the present time, LESS than what a membership in the other site costs; you get the best of both worlds with this deal…)

I don’t say this to complain; I say this simply because a lot of people are doing it, and it becomes quite apparent when you start to clean up your hard drive(s) (more on that in a moment). It does add value to products when you offer this stuff as a bonus and makes everybody happy — until you go to clean off your hard drive, that is…

Get Rid Of Duplicate Files

I downloaded a program called “Duplicate Files Finder” (note that “files” is plural) from http://doubles.sourceforge.net/. It took a while to run on my hard drive (almost an entire 24 hour period), but it did finally finish.

I’m now going through page after page of the duplicate file report that the program created, deleting the duplicates (you can do this right from the generated report, which is nice — but time consuming. Keep reading to see my “solution” to this). This is when I discovered that many of the bonuses are not only duplicated between products — many of them come from that site I talked about earlier!

A lot of my duplication problem is due to my own habit of downloading files more than once, then filing them in different locations. I also like to copy files from a so-called “master repository” to a working directory but often forget to delete the working copy when I’m done with it. I’ll also make a copy for my laptop computer, etc — then back off my laptop to the hard drive I use to store data files (for maintenance, etc). So no matter how you describe it, I have a mess.

Develop A File System

So here is how I’m fixing this “challenge”:

* First, I always keep my downloads on an external hard drive. My current one is one terabyte in size and I have an identical drive that I use for backup. Both are password protected using the built-in encryption software. If I lose one, not only is the data protected; I have another “hot” drive I can plug in and use.

* I back up the drive at least once a week (sometimes more often) using the built-in backup software. It only backs up files that have been added or changed since the last backup, so it doesn’t take all that long (although the first one did take a while). Since I keep my computer on 24×7 during the week (for Forex trading), I simply kick off a synchronization backup before I go to bed so it doesn’t interfere with any of my work. I’m also careful to close out everything but my Forex trading software so that everything gets backed up.

NOTE: After I finish getting rid of duplicate files, I’ll wipe my backup drive, then do another full backup to get things started again. Otherwise, the synchronization software will simply replace the files I deleted, which kind of defeats the purpose… I’ll also hold off on backups — as well as adding any new files to the drive — until I complete the project.

* I’m going to start organizing files by topic instead of by product purchased. I don’t have all this worked out yet, but all of these duplicates are showing me that a topical storage system makes more sense.

* I’ll run Duplicate Files Finder once a week or so just to ensure that I don’t have a lot of extra junk. If I go with the internal web server method (described below), running a weekly report will tell me if I’ve downloaded a bonus that I already have, allowing me to get rid of the duplicate in a matter of minutes.

Where Did I Put That File?

One piece that I still need to work out is “where to find the stuff”. I’ll still keep some sort of system to track my purchases, and quite often I’ll see where a particular bonus can be profitably used with a given product. I want to be able to find that product, of course, when the time comes. I do have some products that claim to help with this; if I find one that clearly delivers on the promises, I’ll certainly report on it here.

In the end, I may set up an internal web server on my home office network and store all the stuff on it. That way, I can simply save the download page for a given product on my web server, then edit a copy of the page to link to the download on my web server. It just might work (and of course it’s only of many possible solutions). Then I can back up the web server once a week.

One advantage to this system is that I’ll be able to access my downloads from any system on my home network. The drawback will be the lack of portability when I travel, but if I back up the home network web server, I can take the backup with me. Actually, I’d take a “backup of the backup” and ensure that it’s on an encrypted external disk.

The report generated by Duplicate Files Finder is nice and I love the ability to delete duplicates directly from the report; however, given the number of duplicate files that I have, the process of deleting them one at a time is extremely time consuming. I saved the results to a text file — and that file is over 900,000 lines long! But it doesn’t take long to detect patterns of duplicate files, i.e. the places where you tended to create duplicate copies. At that point, it’s relatively easy — and quick — to open two Windows Explorer windows (or the file manager of your choice) to compare the two. You can then decide which one is going to be “authoritative” and delete the other.

One last word about travel: My “travel” disk may be one that uses a system like TrueCrypt. You can create a “hidden” encrypted volume on an external drive where you keep your sensitive files (that will look like a bunch of “noise” when examined forensically), then create an “obvious” partition with a few files that aren’t sensitive. That way, if somebody finds the drive, they won’t even know that there’s an encrypted partition that contains “good” stuff.

Footnote: A Word About Encryption

While I appreciate the governments of the world working hard to protect its citizens — which is right and proper (and I work on a government contract and play a small role in those efforts) — I sense a slow but steady eroding of rights guaranteed by the constitution of my country (the United States). And while I have nothing illegal, immoral, etc. to hide, I am still of the opinion that privacy against invasive searches without cause is a fundamental right that is worth protecting.

So, in this case, a bit of TrueCrypt “volume hiding” is a peaceful statement against such actions and trends. Encryption is your friend; use it. And in this case, Election Day is also your friend…

I don’t know if it’s news to you or not, but I heard over at Dennis Becker’s Earn 1K A Day online business membership siteThis is an affiliate link. If you click on it and purchase the product, I will receive an affiliate commission. Using this link to purchase this product enables you to show your appreciation and support for this site at no added expense to you. I am grateful for your support. that credit card processing companies have started refusing to accept transactions for “FOREX related products” (if you’re already a 1KAD member, you can read the thread by clicking here). The primary targets seem to be those that educate and those that sell software.

Good. Very good. Excellent.

Hit And Run Software

As I’ve mentioned many times on this blog, my search for an automated FOREX trading system has been an exercise in frustration. I’d venture to say that 99% of them flat out don’t work, primarily because they aren’t sold by those with FOREX experience — instead, they are sold by shady people who kludge together a system that works, then sell it in hopes that the thing remains profitable until the refund period expires.

I’ve even found evidence that there are “serial FOREX scammers” (and I don’t use that word lightly) because I’ve found FOREX launch after FOREX launch — all of which have the same basic sales letter, sales funnel… And I’ve even found evidence that suggests that the same entity is behind many of them. Patterns jump out and practically scream at anybody with analytical training (like me)…

Even The Good Is Bad?

I’m currently evaluating one FOREX expert advisor that I’d would put into the 1% “good” category (no names yet), but that one is frustrating me to no end. It’ll take off like a rocket on a trade — in one case, it was up 1% of my entire balance in the space of a few hours! — but then will let all of the profit go away while it falls to nothing, if not lower. Today’s “to do” list consists of searching through the documentation to see if I have something configured improperly. And this one is NOT a “set it and forget it” system; it requires weekly maintenance.

So while I’m still hopeful that I may have found THE system, I’m not holding my breath. I have a 90 day guarantee (and at least the owner will still be around, as he has been for some time now — yes, I did my homework), so I’ll give it a few more weeks before I throw in the towel.

…Those Who Can’t, Teach…

That leaves the “educators”. I’m also skeptical of them. Again, no names, but one that I have been following seems to throw out his gained knowledge one piece at a time. As a result, he is in continuous launch mode, ready to take your profits (if you somehow managed to snag some) for the “next best thing”. That is a business model you can use, but it gets old fast if you’re the customer.

Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. While I don’t expect anything to be free, I do expect my so-called “return on investment” to be multiples of whatever I pay for the course. So if I pay $1,000 for a course, I expect $10,000 in return — within a year. $2,000? $20,000 in return — within a year. Do that and I’ll gladly fork over some of my cash.

Haven’t experienced that yet… So I’m not going to cry for most of the educators out there. They seem to rely on selling their education to make money instead of relying on their FOREX trading skills.

A “What If?” Exercise

If I were to start over with FOREX and investing today (which, in a way, I am doing), here’s what I’d do:

1. Learn how to read, interpret, and analyze charts. I’ve been trained in analysis and in spotting patterns. I also believe that people trade technicals and news nowadays, and all that is in the charts. It’s just a matter of learning how to interpret them. Nobody can be right every time, but I’m confident that I can be correct 70% of the time once I gain some experience (and thankfully, there are “paper money” accounts you can learn on). That’s enough — as long as I stick to the rest of my plan…

Thankfully, I’ve been able to pick up some great investment books — books that would cost you well over $50 used on Amazon — for pennies on the dollar. The one I’m reading now (“The Visual Investor” by John J. Murphy) cost me a grand total of $1.99, plus tax. Yeah, used book stores are great, especially the one I use!

(By the way, it’s not that hard to learn how to analyze something. Just study the thing you want to learn to analyze a LOT. Eventually patterns and “unusual” will jump out at you, and you’ll learn how to take advantage of it.)

2. Develop a plan and stick to it. This prevents you from doing something dumb because you got emotionally involved in a trade. If your profit target is 40 pips and your trade hits 45, get out. Or set a stop loss at the 40 pip profit level. Or whatever your plan is. Just have a plan before you enter a trade, then stick with it until you exit the trade.

One thing about this, though: Evaluate your system between trades. Can you tweak it to be more profitable? Did something happen during the trade that you need to consider before your next trade? Always Be Learning.

3. Understand thoroughly the market you are in. Trading stocks? Learn everything you can about what you are buying. Options? FOREX? You’d better be an expert. Figure out how to make money, and perhaps even more important, learn how to avoid losing money.

4. Understand the risks you face and develop mitigation strategies. That’s one thing I love about this current automated FOREX system that I’m testing; the risk management instructions are very clear. If I have $1,000 in my account and I’m willing to risk no more than 1% per trade, the software exits a trade when I lose $10. Increase it to 4% and I’m gone once I’ve lost $40. No more “surprises”, i.e. waking up in the morning to see that I’ve lost 5-10% of my account when I thought I’d only be losing 1%.

Understand risk. Develop methods to mitigate it (i.e. stop loss at 1% of your account value). And only assume risks that will allow you to sleep at night (and pay the rent).

The Man With A Plan (Almost!)

So my current plan consists of reading every book I can get my hand on insofar as technical analysis and FOREX go, taking lots of notes, then squeezing a system out of it. I think that this is what most people do, and once they get there, they use the system. They might share it with a few friends, but I don’t think that most people would sell a successful system to zillions of people. And that’s why I’m a bit skeptical when somebody tries to sell me such a system.

And which is why I’m not crying about the FOREX software and education markets being cut off at the kneecaps by the credit card companies. Hey, guys, if you’re stuff is so good, why not just take your profits and go out and work your systems?

The silence speaks volumes!

My Other “Option”

There is only one system (an options trading system) that, to this point, has been worth the money I paid for it. The rest were either overpriced or a plain old fashioned rip-off. But all it takes is one system, right? Nevertheless, I would find it hard not to roll on the floor laughing if some of these so-called FOREX “gurus” were to become the victim of an incurable flea infestation… (OK, I do learn at least something from most of the things I buy, but still, gimme a break, guys! You know your junk is overpriced.)

But getting back to that one good system: I purchased the right to sell this course myself because I think it has potential. Potential. Unfortunately, the guy who created and sold the system (bless his heart! I really do like and respect the guy) can’t, in my opinion, teach his way out of a wet paper bag…

So I’m slowly weeding my way through the system and creating my own teachable version of the thing. Sure, you can buy the system online now; in fact, you’ll have your choice of vendors. But those are the people who are selling it to make a buck; they aren’t interested in teaching options trading.

See the difference?

Teaching – But With A Difference

Once my course is ready — even though it will take considerable time — I’m actually going to teach it. If you’ve ever taken an online college class, you’ll know what to expect. Twice weekly meetings. Homework. Study. Exams. And you won’t get Options 201 until you successfully complete Options 101 — with a passing grade. And I’ll be charging for it just like you’d pay for a college course (in other words, you’ll pay for my time, textbooks, etc.).

I won’t just throw a bunch of garbage at you and run away as I charge your credit card. Heck, it looks like I won’t be able to charge your credit card any more… (checks and money orders will most likely be the order of the day!).

So there’s my current FOREX ramblings. And be forewarned; there’s another major FOREX launch on the horizon (no matter when you read this!). It’s going to promise you the world. Please don’t fall for the hype. Get your basic education first.

Now THAT’S something I might be able to do for you all… A basic “go here to learn about FOREX” education directory. One that won’t cost you an arm and a leg (I’ll settle for a finger and a toe…). Just as soon as I get my other projects done!

Jimmy D. Brown has opened a new membership site called iBusiness OwnerThis is an affiliate link. If you click on it and purchase the product, I will receive an affiliate commission. Using this link to purchase this product enables you to show your appreciation and support for this site at no added expense to you. I am grateful for your support. ™. It costs $10 a month. According to the sales page, the membership site is…

For ebook authors, infoproduct creators, affiliate marketers, membership site owners, bloggers and others who own internet businesses.

$10 a month. Jimmy D. Brown. If you’ve been in Internet Marketing for more than a day, you know that’s a deal. So click on that link in the first paragraph (it’s an affiliate link) and check out everything that’s included in the membership. I’m 99.9% sure that you’ll agree that this is a great offer (that I’m going to make even better; keep reading for details!). (NOTE: Since I don’t control Jimmy’s site, the price is subject to change. My apologies if the price has gone up since I wrote this blog post.)

I won’t go into detail about what the membership site contains (no point in rewriting Jimmy’s sales letter, is there?), but I will give my personal opinion: If you are at all interested in Internet Marketing in any way, shape, or form, you should join iBusiness Owner ™. Jimmy has been around for a long time — at least ten years. He makes his living online. I personally think that he’s an individual of high integrity (and those aren’t words that I use lightly) and his writing and teaching styles are extremely clear (not to mention accurate). For $10 a month, this is a crazy offer that you need to take advantage of.

But I’m going to make it even crazier if you sign up using my affiliate link. Keep reading for details.

My Bonus Offer For Jimmy D. Brown’s iBusiness Owner ™

If you sign up using that link in the first paragraph, I’ll add you to a special mailing list. I often get products that I’m allowed to pass along to others. Sometimes they are for personal use only; sometimes I can pass on various rights, such as Resale Rights (RR) or Private Label Rights (PLR — by the way, did you know that Jimmy D. Brown — the creator of this membership site — was the first to coin the term “PLR”?). I’ll pass along whatever I’m allowed to pass along as a “bonus” for as long as you remain a member. I promise you at least one “personal use only” product a month on an Internet Marketing topic for as long as you remain an active, paying member if you sign up using my affiliate link.

After you join, just post a copy of your receipt at Protector Support (be sure to use a good email address). Once I validate your enrollment, I’ll add you to a notification list (not a "spam you with pointless offer after pointless offer" list) to let you know when I get a new product — and where you can access it. Between what you’ll get from Jimmy (always good, always fresh!) and what you’ll get from me, you should be able to learn everything you need to know to run a successful online business (and to be honest, you’ll probably learn “better” from Jimmy; my stuff is just the proverbial “icing on the cake”).

And if there’s something you don’t know about, please ask! I’ll do my best to find something that can help you fill in the gaps so that you can profitably and efficiently run your online business.

Should you ever decide to cancel your membership, all you need to do is contact Clickbank since he’s running the membership through them (so you’re guaranteed to get a “no hassle” cancellation). Of course, you’ll also be removed from my bonus notification list. So between Jimmy’s stuff and my "icing", I think you should join and never cancel.

Do This Now — Before You Forget!

Again, here’s what you need to do to take advantage of this offer:

1. Join Jimmy D. Brown’s iBusiness Owner ™ membership site using this linkThis is an affiliate link. If you click on it and purchase the product, I will receive an affiliate commission. Using this link to purchase this product enables you to show your appreciation and support for this site at no added expense to you. I am grateful for your support..

2. Before submitting your order to Clickbank, ensure that “[affiliate = everad20]” (without the quotes) appears at the bottom of the “Clickbank Marketplace Secure Payment Form” screen. If it does not, clear your cookies, use a different browser, buy a new computer… — Do what you need to do so that you get my affiliate cookie. If I don’t get credit for the transaction, you won’t be eligible for this bonus.

3. Send me a copy of your Clickbank receipt via Protector Support. Use your "good" email address.

4. I’ll verify your purchase and send you further details.

Thanks for considering my bonus offer. Hope to see you as a fellow member soon.

NOTE: Jimmy D. Brown and Benchmark Publishing LLC claim that "iBusiness Owner" is a registered trademark. A search of the US Government’s Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) on January 16, 2012 did not return any results for the search term “iBusiness Owner”. While I have included the ™ symbol in this post, I do so only because Benchmark Publishing LLC has included it in their promotional materials and I respect Jimmy D. Brown — and not because I have been able to validate the trademark.

Too funny to NOT report here…

John Delavera sends me a promotional email with the following subject line:

Autoblog For Cash!

Followed directly by an email from Jason Fladlien (click there to get 32 of his reports for no cost)This is an affiliate link. If you click on it and purchase the product, I will receive an affiliate commission. Using this link to purchase this product enables you to show your appreciation and support for this site at no added expense to you. I am grateful for your support. with this headline (yes, this really was the next email after John’s in my Inbox):

Autoblogging Is Finally Dying

So which is it, gentlemen?

Personally, I’d go with Jason’s headline. Autoblogging is, in my opinion, nothing more than a money-making “fad” that will soon pass (at least the way that most people do it). In my eyes, it does not provide value.

Now there’s nothing wrong with cueing up several blogs posts that will publish over a period of days, weeks, and even months — but where did the content come from? Is it unique? Is it original? Is it relevant? Or is it the same stuff that 1,001 other people are posting to their blogs?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (and I’ll probably have to say it a few zillion more times): Google / Yahoo / Bing / Search Engine Companies are smart. They want happy visitors who get what they want — information — so that they’ll keep coming back. The more they come, the more they click on ads, and the more money the search engines make. And the people keep coming back because they find what they want.

So is an Autoblog going to give the search engines something that is going to make their SERPs “sticky” enough to continue to attract clients? If not, then expect the next Google update (I’m going to code name it “Destroyer”) to remove them from the SERPs. Followed by a bunch of “what just hit me?” forum posts written by stunned marketers who thought they had found the best thing since sliced bread.

Hey, just my opinion, but eventually people are going to run out of “cash pump systems” that make money based on a search engine loophole. Hope you enjoy slinging fries when that happens! And if you don’t enjoy it, then why not work to build a REAL business — like the people over at Earn 1k A Day, The Internet Business Membership SiteThis is an affiliate link. If you click on it and purchase the product, I will receive an affiliate commission. Using this link to purchase this product enables you to show your appreciation and support for this site at no added expense to you. I am grateful for your support. are doing while you try to game the search engines using scraped content that could land you in a court in Brown County, Wisconsin (more on that in an upcoming post)?

(HINT: Right now, a few of the more prominent members over at 1KAD are talking about getting out of the Internet Marketing niche and off the “Warrior Special Offer” bandwagon because it is costing them money! Why not take advantage of the 10 day trial offer — just click on the link in the previous paragraph — and find out why? If you’re really unhappy with your trial membership, I’ll issue you a refund — although you’ll probably laugh when you see the price because it’s lower than a large order of fries…).

Welcome to 2012, and more specifically, Welcome to January. My morning got off to a roaring start when I walked into my office and hit the switch on my power strip, only to remember that I was running a program overnight to find duplicate files on my computer. Yes, that’s right: instead of turning ON the electricity, I turned it OFF — and lost all my work.

Like I said, welcome to 2012…

I was running the routine because I have tons of duplicate files scattered all over my data drive. Part of my desire to simplify / “minimize” my business is to get a handle on all of the files that are on the drive. My “challenge” is that I seem to start a new system every year about this time, which means that I most likely have up to 7-8 copies of some files, all under different files structures, etc. So this utility will find the duplicate files (it also includes a hashing function so that I’ll know for sure if the files are duplicate), and then I can eliminate duplicates and start on a new file system.

I’ll talk more about the duplicate file finding tool later. It’s a free version of software that you apparently have to register, and I want the routine to finish so that I can see if it holds the results “ransom” until you register. If that’s the case, I won’t recommend it because the vendor did not mention that on his site, and I consider such tactics to be “yucky”.

So that’s on the agenda for January and will probably take a lot of time. I’m also going through all my “stuff” with the eventual goal of being able to fit it all on two bookcases, one filing cabinet (for the papers), and one storage shelf unit (for tools and equipment). Considering that I have about 10 bookcases now, full of junk, plus numerous boxes full of papers and a garage full of “toys”, makes this a lofty goal. But I want to do it because all that “stuff” clutters my life, steals my time, and drains my energy (not to mention saving money if / “when” we move again). Just cleaning off my desk and rearranging everything yesterday ate up a lot of time. I won’t get this done during January (at least I don’t think I will), but I’ll at least get a good start on it.

Another part of this goal is to take notes as I read books. I want to start getting rid of physical books (at least 80% of them!), and taking notes as I read will enable me to get rid of some of the books after I read them. Some of the books I can eliminate right away, i.e. HTML reference (I can always look that up on the Internet). Some books I’ll get rid of because the subject no longer interests me, i.e. I’ll just hire somebody to write a program for me if I need one. Eventually I’m going to purchase some type of tablet PC and/or a book reader so that I can start buying books that way — and eliminate the need to lug a few thousand pounds of books every time I move.

And all of this means that I’ll be selling a lot of stuff. Craigslist and Ebay, here I come!

So here are January’s goals:

* Come up with a good file system for my digital files. I have an idea about how to do this; again, if it works out well, I’ll tell you about the product I used to help. I’ve created a separate folder on my hard drive to start taking notes on what I want.

* Get rid of papers and books where possible / practical.

* (Finally) set up my scanner so that I can start scanning and shredding papers.

* Put up five products for sale. I’ve joined a membership site that makes this very easy. I’m pretty confident that the products will be high quality and they come with “everything”. If I make at least $40 from them in January (the site cost me $37 a month, a special rate because I participated in the beta testing), then I’ll continue the membership.

* Come up with a simple system to drive traffic to those five products, then drive some traffic.

* I’m going to test an SMTP service that will send my emails for me. My hosting company (DathornThis is an affiliate link. If you click on it and purchase the product, I will receive an affiliate commission. Using this link to purchase this product enables you to show your appreciation and support for this site at no added expense to you. I am grateful for your support.) wisely limits the number of emails I can send from my account (to avoid spam complaints and IP blacklisting). I want to manage my own autoresponders (at least for now), so this service looks promising. I can send 1,000 emails a month for $30 a year, and this will be enough to test it. Again, if it works, I’ll talk more about it here.

* Set up the autoresponder. Of course.

* There’s going to be a small business conference that caters to local businesses in my home town later this month. I’m thinking about going to it with the goal of talking to 100 people about their web sites. I have a script (that I need to finish installing) that will analyze a web site, generate a report that tells you how it can be improved, and then I can offer services to help them. If I can get the script set up and working, plus generate $100 in extra business revenue to pay for the conference, I just might do that. Oh, and a few bucks for business cards…

That all sounds pretty ambitious, but do-able.

I also have an accountability partner for the year. We’re going to trade emails each morning to say what we want to accomplish, then send another in the evening to make excuses for not doing it… Hopefully the “excuse” emails won’t be very frequent.

What are your plans for January 2012 (or for whatever month you happen to be reading this)? Feel free to share them briefly in a comment below. Just be sure to post back at the end of the month to let us all know how you did (how’s that for “free” accountability?).

P.S. — My duplicate file finding routine reports that it will be done in 2,027 hours. That’s 84.5 days, so check back towards the end of March to see how it all worked out… (in reality, the time remaining will drop; it’s already down to 81.5 days in the time to took to write this sentence. I’m sure it will be done in a day or two!).

Here in Colorado, we have a little over 16 hours until 2011 is history. Many people are, like me, looking back at 2011 and looking ahead to 2012.

Yes, the dreaded “resolutions”. I think they are no better than the holidays created by marketers in that they create another excuse to sell you stuff. But that’s a subject for another post. I stopped making “resolutions” a long time ago because they seldom, if ever, result in positive, lasting change — and end up costing me money after I buy all the stuff I need to implement them!

Nevertheless, the first of the year is as good a time as any to think about what you want to accomplish during the new year, and having at least a general idea of what you want to accomplish during a given time period is a good idea. A year is kind of arbitrary, though, and some of the stuff I’ve been reading this week is making me think differently about the whole process. Yet other factors practically demand that I have at least some idea about what I want to accomplish over the next several months, as I’ll explain in a moment.

Regarding the “no goals” camp: One of my online business colleagues has decided to not set any goals this year. I met Lynn Terry this past summer at a conference here in Colorado Springs, and while the conference only lasted a couple of days (which means I don’t really know her THAT well!), I came away with the impression that there’s congruousness between what you read on her blog and who she really is. And when she mentioned that she isn’t going to set any goals in 2012, it makes sense. For her (and probably many others).

If I understand her background correctly, Lynn has been working on her business for about 15 years. In my opinion, she has reached the point where she can (and should) be a bit picky about what she does. And according to her blog post, her decision was influenced by a blog post over at Zen Habits, where Joshua Fields Milburn talked about why he no longer sets goals. Good post, good points — definitely worth the time it will take to read. And this plan will, I think, serve Lynn well as she moves forward. But I’m not convinced that fully doing things this way would be in my best interests.

I agree with the concept that you should do things because you want to do them (and in some cases, because you have to do them; try going without bathing and brushing your teeth for a few weeks if you don’t agree!). And goals for the sake of having goals isn’t a good idea, either, because the “doing” can interfere with the “being”. Setting goals simply to stay busy isn’t a good idea. You can lose Life and Living in your “busy-ness”.

But I’m going to contrast our situations for a moment. Lynn has been working on her business for 15 years, enjoys (deservedly) a lot of success with it, and really connects with her blog readers / viewers and customers. So perhaps she can afford the luxury of “no goals”? I’m not convinced that I can afford that at the moment. Or can I?

From a professional viewpoint, I’m doing well. I have my computer security certifications and a great job, both of which allow me to do somthing important (protecting the US military’s computer networks). But when I look at the contractor identification card they issued me, there’s a big ol’ expiration date of August 31, 2012. That’s 8 months from today.

What then? It’s not the first ID card they’ve given me that had an expiration date, and in the past, I’ve always gotten a new one. But in this day and age of huge budget cuts, will I get another one come September 1? It’s far from certain, and to act as if an extended contract is a certainty would, in my opinion, not be a wise decision.

So I don’t think that I can afford to live without “goals” of some type. As I’ve stated many times in the past, I love my job, I love my profession, and I have no intention of quitting my job at any time in the near future. But that date is staring me in the face, and while I can rationalize the situation until the cows come home, saying that I’ll still be working come September 1, Reality says that I can’t depend on it. In other words, while I have no plans on quitting my job, my job may quit me! So there will be “goals” — but those goals will be flexible and based on what I’ve been observing over the past few days.

I have the skills and knowledge to make money online but have been sort of “floundering”, for lack of a better word. I float from one idea to another and from one “system” to another. I sit down at my desk, unsure of what I’m going to be doing when I get there. A lot of this is due to the fact that I do have a good job that pays well. I need to change my basic mindset, stop depending on that money, and create a business that will pay for my life. Depending on a job is far too risky.

So I’m going to set goals. Not resolutions; they are the fallacy of American society. Make a resolution, invest in it fully, the abandon it before February gets here. You should see all the email in my Inbox about how to take advantage of the millions of people who are “resolving” to lose weight and get in shape this year — but do it NOW because the market will dry up by February! And if that’s not enough to convince you, just take a walk through your local warehouse club and look at all the diet and fitness books and equipment that’s currently on display…

My goals will be different. I’m going to sit down today with a tablet (the paper kind, not the electronic kind!) and take inventory of the things that I “like” to do. Things that bring me pleasure (like writing). Then I’m going to go through every thing I purchased in 2012 and figure out why I bought it. I most likely purchased those things because I saw a “pleasurable” way to ethically make money with the product (not always; sometimes, if the price is low enough, I’ll buy something because I’m curious. Most of those purchases, however, turn out to be a waste of money). Between the two, I should have plenty of ideas that will lead to “un-goals” for the first 8 months of the year. But they must contribute to my main goal, i.e. get to the point that I don’t have to rely on job income to pay for life.

Even without doing this exercise, I know that I love to write, so writing will be high on my list for 2012. I’ve even considered copywriting in the past; perhaps it’s time to get serious about that? But regardless how this exercise turns out, I will have goals (sorry, Lynn! ) — but the road I take to reach those goals will be a pleasant one.

If you are thinking about making “resolutions”, I’d like to encourage you to rethink your decision. Hopefully outlining where I am right now, and what’s on my mind, will help you turn inadequate resolutions into something much stronger — something that will improve your life in many ways.

Just a few random thoughts for a Monday morning…

First, after writing yesterday’s posts about figuring out how to activate Tasks in Gmail, I’ve gone a bit crazy with Tasks and my Google Calendar. Although it may not seem like it when you first see my office, I absolutely THRIVE when I’m organized. I work better if I know what I’m supposed to accomplish before I sit down, and if I don’t know EXACTLY where something is when I need it, I can waste hours (if not days) looking for it.

So 2012 is going to be the year when I get organized. My first goal is to spend (no, make that “invest”) 15 minutes per day in going through the piles of stuff in my office and either organizing it or getting rid of it.

“Gentlemen, Start Your Shredders!”

Gonna be a lot of that going on in my house come January… If I wait that long…

I’m also going to take, at the most, 15 minutes every evening to decide what I want to accomplish the next day, then review that list first thing in the morning and around 3:00 PM (when I get home from work). And I don’t want to work on my business for more than 3 hours on most days because it’s starting to interfere with family and personal life. Yes, I hear all of you “screaming” that I’m not committed, but instead of “committed”, I hear “fanatical” — and quite frankly, I do this for my family. No point in building a seven figure business if I drive away my family in the process. Besides, I can probably get more done in three organized, focused hours than I’m currently doing.

Your opinion may vary. Only you can decide what’s best for you and your business.

I’m also going to try to refrain from doing any business work from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday each week. Yes, it’s the Jewish Sabbath (or Shabbat), and no, I’m not Jewish, nor do I have any intentions of ever becoming one. In fact, I’m not even what most people would call “Christian” because that word has religious connotations, and in my opinion, religion has caused many / most / all of the problems we have in the world nowadays. Instead, I am trying to learn how to follow in the footsteps of Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth and live in the forgiveness he offers, and in order to do that, I need to learn more about the rich heritage of the Hebrew and Jewish culture that he was a part of. So “Shabbat” is on my to-do list now. Or is it a “not-to-do” list? I’ll probably write for my spiritual journey blog on those days (because I’m learning so much right now), but that’s about it insofar as work goes.

Another thing about yesterday’s blog post: You may have noticed that my blog looks kind of “spartan” in that there isn’t a whole lot of “extras” slung here and there around it. You know: stuff like ads, ads, and ads…

I do that on purpose because people visit blogs to read them — and all that “other stuff” gets in the way. Did you ever visit a blog where you had to get past a header graphic, 3 ads, and a whole bunch of other stuff you weren’t interested in before you got to the blog post — which was crammed into a column about an inch wide so the owner could post a ton of adds to the left and right of the blog post? Ugh!

There’s a right way and a wrong way to do ads (Pawel Reszka does it well — and also writes some pretty darn good content on his site! — so if you get hacked anytime soon, Pawel, it was just me, copying all of your themes and plugins…), and while I’ll probably add some type of ads to this blog at some point in the future, I won’t make you look all day to find the content. As a side note, I’ve already incorporated one change to this blog as a step towards future improvement… If any of you long-time readers can figure it out (Hi, Mom!), please leave a comment and let me know, OK?

(If you simply must know, drag your mouse over the white text area between the parenthesis. I wrote the answer in a white font… (I simply increased the size of the text column from 480 pixels to 600 pixels, which effectively increased the size by about 25%. Easy to do when you use the Thesis Theme! — and that is an affiliate link…)

But the graphics I added to the blog yesterday were nice. At least I think so! So much, in fact, that I’ve decided to start adding more graphics to this (and my other) blogs if they contribute to the information I’m trying to convey. And since I just upgraded to WordPress 3.3, it’s very easy to do so (as if it were a problem in previous versions…). So I’ll start adding more graphics and pictures to my blog. It should make it look nicer and will hopefully make it more useful for you.

By the way, the picture to the right is a quick photo I took of Pike’s Peak back in May of this year. It has nothing to do with this blog post (other than show how much I love living in Colorado Springs, with the mountains so close), but if I’m talking about adding pretty pictures, then I should probably add one to this post…

As always, I value and appreciate your feedback. Please let me know how I can make this blog more valuable for you.

I knew that there was a way to capture tasks as they come to mind in Gmail, but I haven’t used it in a long time and had completely forgotten how to access the capability. It took me about 13.7 minutes to figure it out this morning! Since others may be having the same problem — and there seems to be a lack of “visual” help for this — I thought I’d take a moment to document my “experience”.

Google does give accurate instructions for accessing and using Tasks in their help files; however, this is an instance where a picture truly is worth 1,000 words. This link tells you to “click Mail in the top left corner of your Gmail page, then choose Tasks.” 100% accurate — but for the life of me, I couldn’t find “Mail” in the upper left hand corner. For about 13.7 minutes…

For those who are more visually oriented, look for the WORD “Mail”, in RED type. Click on that and you’ll get the little context menu that lets you bring up the Tasks menu (see the graphic to the left). Click on “Tasks” and the little task list will appear in the bottom right corner of your Gmail window. It will look just like a Google Chat window.

I love it. Now I’ll be able to capture all those ideas that pop into my head when I’m at the computer. And since I use multiple computers throughout the day, I’ll be able to put them all in one place. I can also go back and assign a due date to it.

When you add a task, it automatically goes under the “No Due Date” category. To add a due date, simply click on the greater than sign (“>“) to access a screen where you can add a suspense date (and optionally add a note). I’ve circled the thingy you need to click in red in the graphic to the right (for the benefit of “visual” people like me!):

This is a great place to add a reminder about an annual subscription (for example). Simply set yourself a task to review the subscription a week or so before it is due to automatically renew, and if it no longer fits into your business plan, then you can cancel it before you get rebilled. Of course, you can also add it to your calendar — which, in my case, is now becoming Google Calendar.

I’ve started using Google Calendar for my personal tasks, again because I use multiple computers and Google is a convenient place to centralize all the stuff I want to capture. Outlook works fine for work tasks when I’m at the office (since I almost never bring work home), but I need that centralized place to store and capture all of my data, and Google serves that purpose just fine.

Google Tasks is a neat feature, and for those like me (who tend to be more visually oriented), hopefully this short little blog post will help.

Product Launch Formula Bonus

As you probably already know, Jeff Walker has re-opened sales for his Product Launch Formula product. In this post, I’m going to talk about why you probably don’t need it, but if you do, why you want to use my link to purchase (HINT: I believe in earning my referral commission and not just giving out garbage ebooks).

There are a lot of people who are sending a “canned” email to promote Product Launch Formula, then expecting people to click on a link and buy it. Others will offer you a humongous ebook / video / whatever package that you’ll never even bother to download, but if you do, you won’t even bother to extract the stuff from the Zip files.

So if that’s what you want, go for it… But if you want something better — if you want the affiliate to “earn” their commission — if you want something of tangible value in exchange for clicking on somebody’s affiliate link, then keep reading.

If you use my affiliate link to purchase Product Launch Formula (and that’s my affiliate link right there), I’ll give you “me” — an established Internet Marketer who is also a certified computer security geek. In fact, here’s what you get:

1. A minimum of five hours of free consultation. I’ll be happy to help you with computer security stuff, script installation, website configuration (to include security checks), or we can just talk about the weather over the phone (or via Skype). In other words, I want to earn my commission. And if you live in, or visit, the Colorado springs area, we can do it face-to-face (I’ll even buy the first cup of coffee). NOTE: Prior commitments may preclude offering services at certain times; this is offered with the understanding that both parties will be flexible when scheduling… Thanks.

EXTRA: If enough people take advantage of my bonus offer and I win one of the prizes Jeff is offering to those who are promoting Product Launch Formula, I’ll increase the number of free consultation hours for all who purchase using my link. The more, the merrier! It doesn’t matter to me if I earn my living by providing consulting or by promoting products, but if I can do it by promoting products, then I’m more than willing to use those “saved” hours to help those who made it possible.

2. A lifetime membership in “Protected Support” at no cost to you (less the Earn 1k A Day Membership). Ever. The concept is still in development, but it will include an “ask anything security related” forum (along with some other sections), plus I’ll be passing along a lot of products that I have rights to pass along. You’ll also get discounts on my consulting fees — always at least 10%.

3. Help with the product itself, to the best of my ability. Jeff Walker really is an expert with product launches and does a great job of supporting his customers (I should know; I purchased version 1 back in 2006 or so, along with a few upgrades along the way). But if you get stuck on something and Jeff and his team can’t help, I’ll do my best to assist you.

4. I’ll promote your first product launched after you purchase Product Launch Formula — as long as it passes the “Mom test” (i.e. would I be embarrassed to tell my mother about the product?). And I’ll consider promoting other products for you further down the road.

5. 99 days of “unlimited” email support. Please keep in mind that “unlimited” does not mean that I’ll be sitting by my computer 24 hours a day, waiting for your email… “Reasonable” is the word here.

6. Permission to ask for other stuff that you might need or want.

THE RULES:

1. Make sure you are using my affiliate link before ordering. Either delete your cookies before ordering or use a different browser that you don’t normally use. My apologies in advance, but if I can’t validate that you purchased using my link, I won’t give you the bonus. No exceptions.

2. After you purchase, visit my support site (at Protector Support). Fill out the form. Please use a “good” email address so that I can send you bonus details. Include a copy of your receipt (copy and paste it into the form).

3. If you request a refund, I’ll cancel your bonus (obviously).

Now before you click on that link and purchase, keep in mind that this is an expensive product. $1,997 — to be exact. This product is NOT for everybody; in fact, it’s not for most people reading this:

* If you can’t earn more than $1,997 extra on your next product launch by applying what you will learn, then this product is not for you.

* If you have to borrow money or will use the rent / mortgage money to purchase, then this product is not for you.

* If you are wondering if you can afford this product, then this product is not for you.

* If you have to choose between taking your family / spouse / significant other on vacation or purchasing this product, go on the vacation.

This is a serious product that can produce serious results, but it’s only for you if you can pay for it via increased revenue during your next product launch. This isn’t for you if you haven’t made your first $100 in Internet Marketing yet (and if you fall into this category, don’t believe the “hype”. Don’t buy it. Please).

If this isn’t for you but you’d still like to learn more about product launches, my next blog post (probably tomorrow) will have an inexpensive alternative. Please stop back soon — or better yet, sign up for my email list (the box is at the top right of this page) and you’ll get an email to let you know when my “alternative” is ready.

So it’s time to decide:

* If you want a product that can help you earn more during your next product launch, and:

* If you can pay for this $1,997 product with business revenue, and:

* If you agree that affiliates should earn their commission by providing REAL value (instead of just throwing a bunch of garbage at you):

Then click here to purchase Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula. And don’t forget to submit your bonus claim.

Thanks for reading this post — and thanks for considering my bonus offer.

DISCLAIMER: This post is stuffed full of affiliate links. If you click on them and purchase the product, I will receive an affiliate commission. But I think you already figured that part out… I’m promoting this product because I have purchased it in the past and think it can be of great value to your business under the circumstances outlined in this post.

I’ve been reading “EnterLeadership”, the newest book by Dave Ramsey. He’s learned quite a few things about business over the past 20 years or so while helping a whole bunch of people come to terms with their debt problems. This book is good, and his Financial Peace materials are great. I’ve made a commitment to not borrow money, and while it’s costing me opportunities, I’m confident that it will all work out in the long run.

One of the things I read in the book is that a business starts with a dream, but the dream has to be changed into a vision, the vision into a mission statement, and the mission statement broken down into goals (and then you get to work on the goals). I think that many in the Internet marketing world have a dream — but not much else.

Guilty as charged. So I’ve started working on changing my dream to a vision (the term “vision”, in my opinion, isn’t that well defined in the book — but at least he suggests other resources). But vision is simply the ability to see what people need. And I’m going to take my particular vision (help people who need to protect their business) into a mission statement, then I’m going to develop some goals and start working on them.

So Dave’s calling me a “dreamer” was my “Aha!” (or “Doh!”) moment. Fundamental, you might say, but that’s OK. There’s really not much in the book that is “new” (at least not to me), but hearing it from Dave Ramsey makes a difference to me. And I certainly don’t want him asking me three months for now if I actually did the stuff he wrote in the book… (Yes, the potential to be humiliated on national talk radio really doesn’t appeal to me! “Yeah, look at Tom; he just read my book and never did anything! And to top it off, he wrote about it from a blog called ‘Business Action Steps’! What an oxymoron…”)

One last word: As I started working on all this and further defining my business, I realized that a lot of BSOs (Bright Shiny Objects) started losing their appeal. And a lot (but not all) of Internet marketing targets those dreamers who have no vision — much less a mission statement or a plan on how to implement it. “They” really are taking advantage of you.

So take your dream, turn it into a vision, decide what you are going to do (i.e. a mission statement), figure out how to do it, and get to work. Once you do that, you’ll discover that those push-button riches products no longer appeal to you because you are finally working on building a business that delivers value to customers.

One last Dave Ramsey Tidbit: He said that we should follow the Golden Rule in our business, and I think the best way to describe that is to put yourself in the shoes of your customer. How would you feel about the product and service you deliver if you were on the buying end? Would you improve quality? Would you figure out a way to provide better support? Would you stop hammering your product update list with affiliate offer after affiliate offer? Would you change your price from $497 to $49 to better reflect the true value of your offer?

If so, then do something about it. Today. And don’t forget about those who have already become your customer; take care of them, too.