The last time I checked we live a free society. The only way we will remain free is to not only stop this onslaught of continuous new legislation to regulate us the way they see fit, but we need to overhaul the government in a big way. I don’t mean fundamentally change it either. I mean restore the system to what it started out as 234 years ago. Elected officials who spend most of their time living at home and go 3 months out of the year to make legislation. With our technological advances it isn’t even necessary for them to go to Washington anymore. They could conference call from their town hall while the constituents listen in and give feedback.

We have a representational form of government. How much do think you are represented when the average congressman has 500,000 constituents. States play districting games depending on which party is in office so it leans one way or the other. They come home to town hall meetings and make comments like it is their town hall meeting and they’ll run it the way they want to. We should petition the ratification of 50,000 population limits that is in the constitution but never ratified. We should be repesented from our local neighbors who go off for 1 term and come back sending another of us to Washington. That was the vision of the founding fathers. Not a lifetime job where millions are spent to get elected. If we do a complete turnover every 2 years they’ll spend so much of it trying to figure out what they are supposed to be doing they won’t have time to be telling us what to do.

We need to mandate that the federal government does what it is good at, defending the nation. End of sentence. We don’t need Cap and Trade based on faulty science. We especially don’t need it being dictated by the President in an end run when Congress doesn’t pass legislation by telling the EPA what to do. We don’t need Health Care that is done by one party behind closed doors and voted on by representatives who never read what they are voting on. We don’t need representatives that say behind closed doors when they think nobody can hear them that it doesn’t matter what the Constitution says we can do anything we want.

Americans don’t offer lifetime appointments to elected officials and they should quit trying to have them. If you don’t believe in the Constitution don’t run for Federal Elected Office. We are a Constitutional Republic so quit calling us a Democracy cause we’re not. If your hero is Mao Tse-tung, Che, Karl Marx or any number of other Socialist ideologues and you hold Federal Political Office, we the tax paying citizens of American would be more than happy to give you a one way airfare to an appropriate regime more suitable to your convictions. But be it now known we will not tolerate you fundamentally changing our nation.

We will use our first amendment rights to practice our religion and free speech to speak out against those who would do harm against our nation. We will exercise our 2nd amendment rights to bear arms and maintain state militias. Just so you know the founding fathers intent for bearing arms and militias was to protect the states from those who would corrupt our government and try to change it. We are watching and are willing to defend our Constitutional Republic.

We stand against the Progressive Movement. You apparently haven’t learned from history or you wouldn’t publicly proclaim yourselves as progressives. Americans are just as much against the movement now as they were 100 years ago. We’re not interested in being nudged. We don’t want to be like Europe, if we did we would go live there. Clearly it’s not working for them so we’re not interested in any new imports.

I don’t know what your political persuasion is, I had always thought I was a Republican but recently found out I’m a libertarian. It really doesn’t matter what party affiliation you are any more as the people trying to take over the country aren’t that anyway. So if you like being nudged and thought of as a stupid idiot who can be easily controlled then go ahead sit back in your recliner they’ve got you covered. But if your tired of where America is heading then prepare to do something in November, turn them all out of office and replace them with Constitutionalist Candidates. Candidates that believe in the Constitution of the United States.

You can go on ebay any day of the week and buy brand new never opened expensive training programs because of the 5% rule. So how does the 5% rule apply to you. The 5% are the action takers. In this case it is a negative action, but it is still taking action.

The packages on ebay were formerly owned by the 95 percenters. You guessed it, the ones who take no action. The wealthiest people in the population are the top 5%. Again they took action and got where they are today. They weren’t smarter, faster, richer, prettier or more handsome than the 95 percenters, they just took action.

The only thing standing between you and reaching your goals is taking action, and when you do you will join the 5% club too. As they say, if you always do what you have always done, if you are one of the 95 percenters, your probably sitting on the couch watching television.

So you may be thinking, if I’m a 95 percenter what can I do to change. Glad you asked. If you are happy being a 95 percenter then you don’t have to do anything. I imagine if you are still reading this article that isn’t you though. So here is my starting action plan.

1. Develop your goals and your desires.
2. Brainstorm with your spouse or significant other.
3. Have a family meeting, they will be on this journey with you too.
4. Write out where you want to be in 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years.
5. Not just your goals, but the group goals as well.
6. Create an accountability group of people who believe in your goals.

Now using this action plan as your starting point, make it a habit everyday when you get up to pick the most important one thing you can do today to move towards your goals. Then add as many additional things as you want in descending order. Each day be sure to do that 1st most important step. Do this every day for 21 days. After that it will become a new behaviour that is standard practice on a daily basis.

After 30 days your life and your future should start taking on a whole new look. I will add one more thing to your list at this point. Extract the negative and poisonous influences from your life. If your family and friends are constantly negative about where your new direction in life is headed, get new friends.  This is so important that if Noah had listened to all the negativity around him, including his own family, there wouldn’t be a soul on the planet today.

Find people who are where you want to be and start associating with them. Make it a habit to bring more and more 5 percenters into your life. This will greatly motivate you as you approach your goals. Other action takers may have just the connections you need just when you need them. You will find that once you make friends with one action taker your circle of like minded individuals will expand. Action takers tend to gravitate toward each other and towards you as you take action too.

Apply these principals to every facet of your daily life. It isn’t just your business or finances that this applies. If you want to be more spiritual, read your bible more, pray more, associate with other spiritual people.

If you want to lose weight, associate with those that don’t have a weight problem and model yourself after their behaviours. Use your accountability group for any goal you have. You won’t be alone and others will make sure you stay on course.

If your planning a family vacation, these rules apply equally. Pick where you want to go and what you want to do. Prepare your budget. Your daily action plan may be no more than dropping unnecessary expenses and putting that money into the vacation fund.

Whatever you have as goals use this action plan as layed out and then do the most important step of all, take action. You’ll be glad you did. And welcome to the 5% club.

Martin Blakley
http://www.martinblakley.com ]]> http://martinblakley.com/are-you-a-5-percenter/feed/ 0 http://martinblakley.com/are-you-branding-yourself-or-are-you-just-another-joe/ http://martinblakley.com/are-you-branding-yourself-or-are-you-just-another-joe/#comments Sun, 31 May 2009 21:21:14 +0000 Martin Blakley http://martinblakley.com/?p=22 No matter what your niche or service you want to provide on the internet, you need to brand yourself. After all they don’t buy from a niche or a slogan they buy from you. You are the expert they look up to.

Don’t brand yourself with some cutesy name, be yourself. That is the easiest person to be. If I see one more internet guru god who just keeps sending me affiliate links, I think I’m going to toss my cookies. They’re not a guru of anything they just follow everyone trying to make a buck off me.

If you really want to stand out in your niche, be yourself and not something your not. If you can’t put every page in first position on google then don’t brand yourself that way. The expertise that you do have is bound to have a group who would be more than happy to follow and learn from you. They’ll say who and what you are.

So let’s get to branding. You do have yourname.com right. You don’t, well then you need to stop right now and go register that baby before someone else does. I’ll wait.

In affiliate marketing, there are many ways in which you can increase your earnings and maintain the account that you have worked so hard for already. Most of the techniques and tactics can be learned easily. No need to go anywhere and any further. They are available online, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

One of the more important ways of increasing your affiliate marketing bottom line and sales is through the use of product recommendations. Many marketers know that this is one of the most effective ways in promoting a certain product.

If the customers or visitors trust you enough, then they will definitely trust your recommendations. Be very careful in using this approach, though. If you start promoting everything by recommendation, your credibility will actually wear thin. This is seen especially when recommendations are seemingly exaggerated and without much merit. Be sure you use it before you write a recommendation or you will lose any credibility you have gained.

Do not be afraid to mention things that you do not like about a given product or service. Rather than lose any points for you, this will make your recommendation more realistic and will tend to increase your credibility. Furthermore, if your visitors are really interested in what you are offering, they will be more than delighted to learn what is good about the product, what is not so good, and how the product will benefit them. When you are recommending a certain product, there are some things to remember on how to make it work effectively and for your advantage. Sound like the true and leading expert in your field.

Make Clean Recommendations When Promoting Affiliate Products. Use What I Use – Power Link Generator

Remember this simple equation: Price resistance diminishes in direct proportion to trust. If your visitors feel and believe that you are an expert in your niche, they are more inclined to making that purchase. On the other hand, if you are not exuding any confidence and self-assurance in endorsing your products, they will probably feel that same way and will go in search of another product or service which is more believable.

How do you establish this aura of expertise? By offering unique and new solutions they would not get anywhere else. Show proof that what you are promoting works as promised. Display prominent testimonials and endorsements from respected and known personalities, in related fields of course.

Avoid hype at all costs. It is better to sound low key and confident, than to scream and seek attention. Besides, you would not want to sound unprofessional and have that thinking stick to your potential customers and clients, now would you? Best to appear cool and self-assured at the same time.

And remember; prospects are not stupid. They are actually turning to experts and may already know the things that you know. If you back up your claims with hard facts and data, they would gladly put down hundreds, or even thousands worth of money to your promotions. But if you don’t, they are smart enough to try and look at your competitors and what they are offering.

While recommending a product, it is also important that you give out promotional freebies. People are already familiar with the concept of offering freebies to promoting your won products. But very few people do this to promote affiliate products. Try to offer freebies that can promote or even have some information about your products or services.

Before you add recommendations to you product, it is given that you should try and test the product and support. Do not run the risk of promoting junk products and services. Just think how long it took you to build credibility and trust among your visitors. All that will take to destroy it is one big mistake on your part.

If possible, have recommendations of products that you have 100% confidence in. Test the product support before you begin to ensure that the people you are referring it to would not be left high and dry when a problem suddenly arouse.

Have a look at your affiliate market and look at the strategies you are using. You may not be focusing on the recommendations that your products need to have. You plan of action is sometimes not the only thing that is making your program works.

Try product recommendation and be among those few who have proven its worth.

Martin Blakley
http://www.martinblakley.com

That heading recently bit me good.

I’ve been using computers since 1985 and have been on the net since 1999. Lately I’ve been building websites to sell on ebay. I had built one in particular, a tinyurl clone, and just never got around to putting it on ebay. Recently I was reading tweets on twitter and kept seeing tinyurl.com redirects and got me thinking about the site I had built. So I thought I would go check on it. Now I have never promoted this website, didn’t do anything with it actually. In fact, the ad box at the bottom still had the text telling you edit ad.php and now I wish I had.

Went into the admin area and boy was I surprised to see that I had 16 pages of 50 to a page listing of redirects. My site was being used in spite of me. Now these weren’t 1 and 2 hit redirects, some had 3 digits and there were even ones with 4 digit hits, more than 1,000 hits. So I decided to check my cpanel stats and boy was I ever shocked. In October 2008 the site had over 1 Million hits with 32,000 unique visitors and over 1,000 unique visitors a day. I don’t know what happened in October but I sure wish I had had it monetized then.

I’m still averaging over 80 unique visitors a day and I now have it monetized. The point I am making is don’t turn your back or you might miss something. God only knows what I missed by not monetizing the site earlier. Currently when using the site everyone sees an ad that stays at the bottom of the screen when they click the link. I am preparing to launch tub.bz as a free to join site for internet marketers without the ads. It will also have an elite membership with a dashboard to view statistics on your links as well as the ability to edit and delete them. I will be posting the progress here.

Learn a lesson from me and stay on top of your marketing or you could be losing instead of gaining. I really love the internet, it not only supplies me with the biggest source of information in the world but the levelest playing field when it comes to making money. Whether you are IBM or just a guy living in a 22,000 square foot former furniture store building in Shamokin PA (lovingly referred to as the Mansion in Shamokin) you have the same opporutnities.

So get out there and build your websites, monetize them, keep an eye on whats happening and make some money on the net.

Martin Blakley
www.martinblakley.com