Have you ever felt like you’re being drawn and quartered and just haven’t come apart yet?

Yeah, I’m feelin’ kinda stressed around here. Trying to go in too many directions and not reaching any of the destinations.

That’s what happens if you try to do too many things that aren’t related to each other.

Having become addicted to downloading all the neat free offers and free trials, I’ve been going in too many directions for a while now.

It’s hard to resist email headlines like these:

“Last chance to download this free PDF report”
“Here’s your free report”
“Here’s your ready made income stream…”
“You can’t win without this…”
“Download this free video package”
“Did you pick up your free software?”
“This powerful report is just for you”
“This report / video/ course/ software/ ebook/ audio/ is just what you need”
“Open now if you like money”
“Download these products instantly”
“Get 2000 guaranteed visitors to your website today!”
“Have you tried this yet?”
“Grab this while you still can” or, “before it’s too late”
“Great freebie for you today”

And then there are the nifty catch words like, secret, incredible, sneaky, alarming, fun, deadline, before it’s too late, and
yes, even nifty is a great catch word.

I’m saving the headlines that make me click, for a “swipe file” of good subject lines, but I’m not the best test subject for this. I tend to be curious anyway, and it doesn’t take much to pique my interest.

And I’m not complaining about these email subject lines. They’re good. They got me to click on them. And they pretty much all have some great products. But are they related to what I’m doing? Or even to each other?

Mostly, not. And therein lies my dilemma.

It’s a funny thing about goals… you have to define them really well if you want one.

It’s time to read Alex’s modules again and get down to business… yet again.

How do you stay on track? How does anyone focus on only one subject when everything is so interesting?

I’d love to hear what you think!

If anyone still thinks Social Media marketing is a fad, they will find out soon enough things have gone far past that idea.

I’ve certainly found a great niche on Twitter and am reveling in the fine friendships I’ve made over there. We’ve also accomplished quite a lot, as well, as we share information and recommendations to help others. It’s amazing how much information you can dispense in 140 characters or less.

Others prefer Facebook, or LinkedIn, or any of the many others now on the scene. It’s not going away and as this video demonstrates, it’s a paradigm shift akin to that of the Industrial Revolution.

Enjoy:

This just in: Now it looks like we’re going to have to learn some new rules of the game due to changes in credit card order processing. Apparently, MasterCard and Visa have changed things without any warning.

This very likely will affect most of us in varying ways. For some, it will be completely debilitating, and for others, just a bump in the road. In either case, it will be a learning experience and will ruin some and strengthen others.

What is this change?

Remember “try before you buy?” Or “free plus shipping?” Or, “$1 now, then $37 (47, 67, etc.) per month?” It’s known as “continuity.”

Well, it seems those selling tactics have just been shut down. Suddenly, and without warning, you may not be able to do those anymore. Not with those credit card companies, anyway.

It’s probably a reaction to unscrupulous marketing, but it has the potential to ruin honest and straight forward marketers, too.

Boy, if you’re not being slapped around by Google, or fined by the FTC, now you can get in line with your fanny bared for a MasterCard/Visa spanking.

Where will this end? It’s getting harder and harder to make a living in any world, offline AND online.

So what can we do to survive, or preferably, thrive?

According to some of the experts out there, it looks like your LIST will still be your best asset to date. Focus on list-building and forging relationships with people and you should be OK. The high-flying, happy-go-lucky days of the wild frontier online are over.

This is going to be an experiment for me, as well as an attempt to share something of value with everyone.

First, this will be my first attempt at posting a video in here! If nothing shows up, I’ll cry, but if you see something, then you’ll know I lucked out.

Second, I thought this video was pretty helpful. It’s by my friend, Patric Chan, who coached me a couple years ago.

So, if I’ve embedded this video right, you’ll see as you watch it that it only shows the first five tips. Patric said he’s making another video with the last five tips, which I’ll put in here next time.

OK, here we go:

Watch for the next video! You can also visit his website at www.successtrace.com.

Oh, it’s a jungle out there, all right. Just when you think you’ve learned enough to protect yourself, someone comes up with a new way to ruin your day… or your website, or your reputation, or…

We all know better than to click on a link in an email from Nigeria by now, but did you know it could happen in your Twitter account too?

Typically, it will show up as a DM (you Tweeters know what that is…. “Direct Message” if you don’t) from someone you know or recognize. It will be something to pique your curiosity… a link to a funny video or a way to make 10 million bucks in 5 minutes… and you want to click on it. You can’t help clicking on it. So… you click on it.

As a rule, you’ll get a login screen that looks very official. You might even think it has something to do with Twitter. After all, there are quite a few useful and innocent apps available for us Tweeps to make our time there more fun and profitable. If you’re used to allowing apps to have access to your account, you will probably allow this one, too.

But don’t do it!

Why? Because the next thing that happens is that YOUR Twitter ID starts sending spam to everyone. You could get banned or
flamed or something.

What should you do? First, don’t click on these. If you get hooked anyway and start seeing the nasty results of this scam, immediately change your password. Then, go here: http://twitter.com/account/connections and see who has access to your account. If you don’t like what you see there, click on Revoke Access.

I just checked, and I don’t have anyone using my account but me. Whew!

But don’t panic if you have several in there. Just examine them and be sure they are there because you really did want their services or whatever.

Also realize that if you can be tricked, so can your friends and followers. Don’t flame them. Just realize they probably don’t know what happened. Send them a DM and advise them what to do to clear things up! Be a friend.

These may irritate readers but if marketers are still making a pile, maybe I should copy them.

1. The Hidden Price

Have you ever had to do a search for the dollar sign on a sales page just to find the price of the product in a hurry? What if the price is “hidden” in an image? The search won’t find it.

It’s usually near the bottom, but crafty site owners know their visitors know this, so they’ve taken to burying the price deep inside the text further up the page, if at all. This means you have to keep reading to find it. Or so the web site owner thinks.

That leads me to my last resort… to simply click on the Buy Now button and go to the order page. And there it sits… as clear as an entry in a ledger. The price. If I don’t like it, I abandon the cart. This may contribute to their cart abandonment stats.

Hiding the price does not make me read the whole sales page.

2. Insulting the reader (did they forget this is a prospect?)

Let’s say I’ve clicked the No Thanks button on a sales page and an alternate offer pops up. This offer is usually a lower price option for the same product, but perhaps with fewer bonuses.

I’m OK with that, but what really makes me boil is the nasty little comment at the bottom, where it says “No Thanks,” followed by a snide remark, like, “I’m not interested in being successful,” or, “I don’t want this product because I already know it all,” or, something equally insulting.

It’s not nice to berate your prospective customer for not buying your product. I don’t buy anything from anyone who criticizes my decision.

3. The deflating price tag.

I detest buying something, only to find it at half the price next week, then free a month later. I’ve learned to wait for a product because I figure it will be on sale soon. I’m one of the early customers who bought the Peel Ads for $27. Within a month, you could get that script for $7. Recently I saw it free somewhere. Lucky me, huh?

4. Forced Continuity

I particularly dislike these schemes. “Buy this for $1 today, totally risk free.” Translation: Pay a dollar now, then just try to cancel being on the list you just promised to pay $97 a month. A friend of mine fell for one of these and then discovered it didn’t meet her needs after all. She ended up paying a very well known marketer $291 before she could get it canceled, then also had to pay her bank another $50 for an insufficient funds charge during the third month of efforts to get unsubbed. This is “risk free?”

5. The Impossible Signup

I want to sign up for something, but I can’t. Why? Because I get a message that says, “Error. Our records show that you are already subscribed to this list.” OK, fine. Thanks for offering to send me something I can’t have. If I’m already on that list, why can’t they just give it to me with a download link in a regular email? Why must I sign up yet again? Especially when the repeat signup fails. This results in three possibilities:

1. Forget it, it doesn’t work.
2. I end up on a list more than once, if they accept duplicate subs. If not, then….
3. I have to subscribe with one of my other email accounts if I really want the offer. Either way, I get too many emails and end up having to spend some “housekeeping” time unsubscribing from duplicate emails.

Game over…. please?

It’s no secret that Ed and I are quickly entering our “golden years” and won’t be able to do the work we’re used to taking for granted. This is the time when people our age are looking at retirement and applying for pensions and Social Security.

But times are hard now, and not many people are ever going to see their pensions, and Social Security is in bigger trouble than ever. We don’t expect much there either.

But life online is a new way to go… a new, bright future. And we are now committed to building that new future so we can actually enjoy the golden years as we planned.

Thanks to marketers like Alex Jeffreys and many others who care about helping others, we don’t have to settle for a poverty lifestyle after all the work we’ve put in.

Come along with us here as we document our progress and pass along the help we’re getting so you can build your new future, too!

Had too much trouble with the last theme. The title text kept changing from big to little, and there were other things wrong with it, too. The page text was too small and pale. Hard to read. Let me know if this is easier to read. Meanwhile, I’ll keep trying to figure out how to put images in here and make the widgets work for me.