You might have some memory of Admiral James Stockdale. He was the guy who was Ross Perot’s Vice Presidential candidate in ‘the US 1992 election.

He didn’t fare so well as a VP candidate, but he was quite an impressive military man. He was former president of the Naval War College and was the highest ranking officer in the dreaded “Hanoi Hilton” in Viet Nam.

He spent eight years in Hanoi and was tortured numerous times by his captors.

Mr. Thomas Barnett relates:

“Stockdale tells the story of the optimists who never survived their time in Hanoi, simply because they clung far too much to their dreams of release and in doing so couldn’t handle the brutal realities of what it took to survive the day to day.

“So instead of dealing with the here and now realistically, they tended to cling to the hope that they’d be home by whatever the next holiday was, and when that day came and went, their spirit would be diminished by that measure.

“Over time, they died because their spirit was extinguished by reality.”

Stockdale’s explains his “paradox” this way:

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end (which you can never afford to lose) with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

Stockdale was really describing the flagrant abuse of ‘positive thinking.’

And you know what? A lot of entrepreneurs are really just too optimistic. Worse yet, the business opportunity pitchmen exploit this and sell ridiculously unrealistic plans to starry-eyed people.

What a shame.

Then people flip to the other side, which is the CNN version of the world: Everything is hopeless. All you can do is talk your doctor into putting you on prescription drugs.

Both extremes are recipes for crash and burn.

I seriously doubt anything you ever face in business will be as dreadful as the Hanoi Hilton. Still, nothing can be worse for you than to walk into battle with a plastic sword and helmet, and then get cut down with tanks and machine guns.

You wanna survive… then thrive?

Here are some wise precautions that will prepare you for adversity and ensure your success:

* Assume that vendors will be slower than they promise – and that you may have to stand on their heads to get things done (not that you should accept this if it’s going on though!)
* Assume click prices and advertising rates are going to go UP, not down
* Assume Google’s gonna slap you sooner or later, even if you’ve got the most righteous product on God’s green earth
* Assume your best source of customers could dry up with no advance notice
* Assume the buying cycle is longer than you think it is, not shorter
* Assume it’s gonna get harder to raise capital, not easier
* Assume some unforeseen problem, like a product defect, legal challenge or financial setback may pop up
* Assume your top 3 plans might not work out, so have #4 and #5 in place too

Once you’ve assumed all that and planned for it – NOW you can look forward to great success, knowing that you’ve anticipated virtually every obstacle and can make it through. Because when you put those constraints on your plan, you’ll NEED to add a magic ingredient.

This will force your creativity to add one.

One of my Roundtable Members (Roundtable is my private $12K per year mastermind group) asked me about the slippery slope of making bolder promises in his sales copy, which as they got more unrealistic, would also be more appealing and boost the response.

I said, “Well if you make unrealistic promises, you’ll just get a bunch of unrealistic customers, and that’s what you’ll be stuck with – people who dream all day and never do anything. Meanwhile the ones you really want will never believe you anyway.”

That’s always been my approach. Tell people like it is, so they understand what’s ahead of them… then work with people who are not going to die of a broken heart with the 4th of July comes and goes and they’re not out of Hanoi just yet.

The liberating thing about this is, people who are prepared for tough sledding will make it. You will revel in your victory when it does come. With the right overall strategy, victory can be almost inevitable.

Perry Marshall

P.S. Our Roundtable members gather together in October and we kick off with a custom business rebuild in September. Apply at www.perrymarshall.com/roundtable/

About the Author

Entrepreneur Magazine says: “Perry Marshall is the #1 author and world’s most-quoted consultant on Google Advertising. He has helped over 100,000 advertisers save literally billions of dollars in Adwords stupidity tax.”

He is referenced across the Internet and by The Washington Post, USA Today, and the Chicago Tribune.
http://www.perrymarshall.com/10279/abuse-of-positive-thinking/

FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK HERE NOW

Comment
August 7,2010
Andrew Gallop @ 2:10 pm

Hello Perry, What a great article. I had forgot the Admiral Stockdale story. What an eyeopener, he was very wise. You put it right about promises in what you plan to give people when they join you. Show good leadership skills, but do not overload yourself. Thanks, Andrew Gallop

Basic Guide On How To Be Successful In Internet Marketing

Internet marketing can be a useful aid. No really, it can be. In terms of better promoting of your business and gaining more traffic and sales for your products and services is truly useful. To start learning some basics as to how to make this work for you, refer to the tips below.

Don’t accept everyone who wants to be an affiliate or a partner. It can be tempting to accept all comers, but be very discerning when choosing a person to partner up with. Find out what you can about the person, and whether they will be a good fit for you and your business.

Consider giving your loyal, large-purchase customers a discount as a thank you. Offer it on their birthday or on the anniversary of the opening of your company or website, and they’ll feel special. This will keep them returning to purchase from your website as they’ll never know what you might give them next!

When you are doing internet marketing, make sure that you website is compatible on all browsers and computers. You don’t want a MAC user not able to access your page correctly just because they are using a different browser. If you can’t do this, make sure to put a link for the customer to download a free browser that will work.

Internet Marketing

A fast customer service department can have a huge positive impact on an internet marketing strategy. Online business moves quickly and online customers are quick to grow dissatisfied. By addressing their concerns as rapidly as possible, successful business websites maintain a positive online reputation that can preserve and even expand their customer base.

When considering internet marketing for a content heavy site, be sure to keep content posting consistent. Your users expect to see new content on a predictable schedule, whether new posts appear hourly, daily or weekly. Keeping to a consistent schedule allows visitors to know when to come back to the site for the latest information you are providing.

Internet Marketing Business

Knowing who your competitors are can be one of the most important factors in making your internet marketing business successful. Once you have identified who your competitors are, analyze what you see as their strengths and weaknesses. Then develop a strategy to make you business strong where they are weak.

When trying to get an Internet marketing business known, try to get your web site’s pictures added to an engine search. Even if your Internet marketing business does come up in a search engine, you will have more success when someone does an image search. Be sure that you name your images with keywords that are relevant.

Internet Marketing Strategies

Perform adequate internet research before implementing any internet marketing strategies into your efforts. You want to know what your competition is up to and what techniques out there are working. You also want to know what is relevant to your business and what people you are targeting are looking for online.

Reciprocal linking is one of the most respected internet marketing strategies, but it still pays off for the diligent webmaster. The process of trading links with a related website raises both websites’ position on search engine indexes. It also drives interested visitors directly to a website, and an interested visitor is always a potential customer.

So, now do you see why internet marketing is such a useful aid? Creating a plan that helps further market your business and what you offer is indeed very useful. The tips above should have created a good foundation for you to build upon and create a better internet marketing plan.

Click Here to get my FREE REPORT on how 2 homeless guys taught, Andrew Gallop, A happy homeopathic cancer survivor,
how to earn a wonderful new lifestyle from the comfort of a Internet marketing business.

Improve Time Management for YOUR Work From Home MLM Business

I do a lot of coaching for network marketers and the number one thing I help them with is with improving time management. Something I always tell them is their success will be dictated by their time management. If you are trying to build your work from home mlm business, this post may point out exactly what you are not making what you could be making in regards to income.
This is Guaranteed to NOT Make Any Money

Studying. Setting up your system. Reading eBooks. Don’t get me wrong, I do ALL of those things myself but I am very clear that THAT STUFF DOESN’T MAKE ME MONEY! I am not instructing you NOT to do these things but I am saying don’t spend all damn day doing those things. In the phenomenal book called “Crush It” by Gary V, he explains how he spends a lot of time on his social media stuff but it’s done between the hours of 9pm and 3am. Not all of us can go on a few hours sleep every single day but here are some suggestions for you to improve time management.
Do the non-income producing activities during off-hours

I do the majority of my reading eBooks, watching videos, etc during the hours before 8am or after 10pm. Now some of you reading this may be thinking “Ray, you don’t understand, I work ALL day and then I am dead-ass tired when I get home”. You know what? I do understand and if you EVER want to change that, you need to make some sacrifices. Here is a quote I posted on my facebook yesterday:
‎”Everyone who got where he is has had to begin where he was.” Robert Louis Stevenson

If you want to assure never changing your situation, then keep doing what you are doing and voila, it will work like a charm everytime.
Sooo, how should I spend my time?

When you are desiring a larger income from your work from home mlm business, know that you do NOT get paid to study, straighten your desk or clean the house. You get paid for 2 things, retailing and recruiting. Spend the majority of your time, especially the “prime time” doing prospecting. Prospecting can be for people interested in purchasing your product or prospecting for people interested in having their own work from home mlm business.

If you want to drastically change your bank account, right now, improving time management is the key. If you improve time management to ensure you are prospecting each day not just burying your head in the books and webinars, your bank account will thank you!

To Your Abundance!

Ray Higdon
239.248.2182
rayhigdon@rayhigdon.com
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“

Comment
Andrew Gallop Says:
August 4th, 2010 at 6:40 pm

Hello Ray, Great post as usual, I should not be doing this now. I should be prospecting. I am using this as a linkback to my website so it is productive. Keep up the information for us. Thanks, Andrew Gallop

This is a VERY common scenario. I run into this question all the time. “Ray, you don’t understand, I have tried 12 of these companies and my friends and spouse have seen me fail at these every single time, How To Build Your Newest MLM Even When You Failed in the Past how can I possibly promote this newest mlm differently?” This blog is especially for those who have seen failure in network marketing and are considering or having a go at it again.
I have worn out my warm market…
I hear this often. MOST of the time, this is simply not accurate but let’s look into this common excuse. Do you realize that if you were properly trained you would NEVER wear out your warm market? Let me give you my brief story.
Ray, I’ve Gotta talk to you about making extra money, said Kyle
Feb. 2004: My friend Kyle called me and told me he was in a network marketing company and that this juice was the most amazing thing ever, he felt fantastic, it had helped a lot of people and so on. At the time I was doing well as a real estate investor. My friend was real adamant on this juice thing so I told him I would buy the juice, BUT I WOULD NEVER DO THE BUSINESS! After studying how network marketing worked and how the residual income worked, I was hooked. I worked my butt off and hit what the company called Ruby Executive in 87 days and then was surprised to find out that my first quarter I was #2 in the company as what they called a “starmaker”, that means I had helped a lot of people get their first 2 people in and I was the second-most person in the company as far as the number of people I had helped (at the time out of 600,000 people).
Sooo, what happened?
The compensation plan for this company was one of the old-school binary systems. You know, one that only paid you off your lesser leg and then paid you bonuses based on what level you were, which, was also based on your weaker leg. The first 3 months I had been able to perfectly balance then after that I saw 9 six figure earners spring out of my one leg (I built both myself, this was not spillover) but, I could not get my lesser leg to grow no matter what I did so my checks went down, down, down. I worked my heart out for 2 whole years at this, never hit a new level and also noticed none of my team hit any new levels either. Bummer right? Well, it taught me 2 valuable lessons. #1. Getting in during momentum is good but better to get in BEFORE momentum will make you a whole lot more money and #2 never, ever, do an old school binary again.
What the heck does this have to do with me?
Everything. I worked that business for two years talking to every single person that came within 3 feet of me. The company did NOT allow internet marketing so I did not know how to do that but every warm or even slightly warm person that came around me got pitched the juice! Even after coming out of the gate real strong and looking like a promising forever income, I never made more than $10,000 in a month in that company. I never won a vacation, certainly was nowhere near the top income earners.
I rolled the dice again, and if you ever do, this is what you have to understand
Remember, I loved the concept of network marketing. I love the fact that for very, very little risk you can get paid on the efforts of others and create an unlimited profit center. When I saw my current company I knew it was what I was looking for. A better comp plan, a better product and the chance to get in BEFORE momentum.
But, I didn’t just “join”
I didn’t just join, I was determined to put everything I had into this company. I decided that I was NOT going to just make a little bit of money, I wanted to make stoopid, ridiculous, travel around the world money. But, guess what I did…
I started with my warm market.
Most of you know me as an Internet marketer but I started with the SAME warm market I had beaten over the head with juice the prior 2 years. But I changed up my approach. Being that I believed in what my product was and I knew it was better, I walked with confidence. When I called my warm market that I had brought into the other company or had at least pitched them the other company, I did it in a very non-pushy, non-chasing way. Here’s what I said (and what you can say too)
Hey ____, this may or may not interest you but I just got involved in a new company that I think has a great product and has perfect timing. If you are interested I can send you a little video, if not, no big deal.
What do you think of that script? Simple. Non-Chasing. It tells them, Look, I am going to build this with or without you, I’d love to do it with you. If you roll the dice again and are trying to build your newest mlm, don’t half step. Don’t walk around with your weapon on safety. Don’t let others take your power. Don’t get discouraged. You failed before? SO WHAT. Big Deal. Get over yourself. If you focus on what you have failed at, you will only fail at this one too. You can do it and you deserve it!
Oh yeah, what happened to my rolling the dice once again?
In 12 months:
- I won a 5 day trip to St Kitts
- I won a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas
- I won a 7 day cruise through the Caribbean
- I won a 4 day stay in Atlantis
- I became the #1 income earner in my company
- Oh yeah, I won a BMW 7 series that they are awarding to me this weekend!
What will happen if you roll the dice again and do it with POWER?
If you enjoy this post, please do me a favor and share with others and retweet and comment.
====>>>The Biggest MLM Marketing Event of the Year, See you in Vegas! – Click here
To Your Abundance!

Ray Higdon
239.248.2182 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              239.248.2182      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              239.248.2182      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
rayhigdon@rayhigdon.com
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1 Comment For This Post

Andrew Gallop Says:
August 5th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Hello Ray, As always this is awesome. I sure like your simple approach to talking to people. Just an invitation is all it takes. Thanks, Andrew Gallop

Do you know what an alcoholic blackout is?
I will try to explain as best I can.

This is the question. If you are not sure, I will be of assistance to you. You can sign up for free emails to learn if you can do network marketing. If you think you are ready, go ahead and sign up for a money back guaranteed program.

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If you have decided to set up a home-based business there are several important tips to consider before you take the first leap as an entrepreneur. Setting up any type of business can be complicated, but worthwhile. The following tips should guide you painlessly to a successful home business.

A great home business tip is to not forget about your retirement. It can be easy to forget all about your retirement when you’re fighting tooth and nail to keep your business afloat. Make sure you set aside some money each month that you can put toward your retirement.

Seek out advice from a tax professional. They can help you find ways in which you may be able to reduce the amount of taxable business income at the end of the year. Paying a professional for an hour or two of consultation will pay off in the long run if it saves you money.

If you’re running a website business, make sure that you keep the site relatively clean. Ad revenue is always good, but a site inundated with all different types of ads is just a turn-off in every conceivable way. It’s hard to navigate a site where every page has a pop-up ad, a button, a banner, sidebars, and other types of advertisements.

Home Business

When beginning any home business, it is important to get your name out there on the market. One big way to do this is by giving away free products or samples, or coupons for discounts. Getting the customer to try your product and service is key to building a customer base and to making your business a household name.

When creating a design for your home business website, gather ideas from competitors’ sites but DON’T plagiarize their content. For example, you can look at what keywords they’re using throughout their site, but don’t copy them verbatim. Also, do NOT use your competitors’ company names or product names as keywords or visitors looking for their items can feel deceived.

Work From Home

There is a golden ratio in business, even when you work from home, that says 20% of your work time should be spent on learning, and 80% should be spent DOING. Doing means making money, so whatever your business might be you need to be actually creating, calling, emailing, whatever actions you must take to bring in income.

If you feel yourself getting stressed in your home business, take a breather. Sometimes when you work from home, it is easy to forget to take breaks. It’s more than likely your business on the line, after all. But if something stressful is occurring, take the time to relax for 10-15 minutes. You’ll come back to the problem with a clearer head and be more productive in solving it.

Home Based Business

Even if you work with a professional financial planner for your home based business, make sure you understand the financials of your business including expenses and income statements. This helps you make appropriate decisions based on an understanding of revenue flow and expenses and how different situations may affect your business.

If you have made the decision to quit your day job in favor of pursuing your own home-based business, do not put in a formal notice with your employer before all preparations have been made and finalized for your own business. Even the most well-laid plans sometimes fall through, and it is best not to burn your bridges.

Research is key to finding success in a home-based business. There is a lot of support out there for home-based businesses nowadays. There are so many factors that must be taken into consideration that one should be organized with their papers as well as their time.

Click Here to get my FREE REPORT on how 2 homeless guys taught, Andrew Gallop, A happy homeopathic cancer survivor,
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henrydavidthoreau Articles and Editorials
“Build A Better Mousetrap And The World Will Beat A Path To Your Door.”
-Henry David Thoreau, 1854

Henry David Thoreau lived in a different century than you and me. Henry David Thoreau never invented any mousetraps. And the world never beat a path to his door. I think that Henry David Thoreau was smoking Crack Cocaine. That was then, Mr. Thoreau, but this is now. Selling Has Changed.

Today, if you’ve got better mousetraps, new technology, or a superior solution to any kind of business problem, you’re faced with some very tough challenges. Your customers and prospects are inundated with choices. They’re relentlessly pursued by sales people. They hide behind their computers and guard against unwanted pests with their voice mail. You send them emails but they can vaporize your message with one touch of the delete button. Your website is just one among millions.

Have you ever said this to yourself? “I’ve got the most fantastic product—people love what I have to show them, if I can only get them to listen!” The most precious commodity in business today is attention.

This website is all about one thing: Getting and Keeping the Attention of your prospects and customers. Causing them to pursue you, instead of you hunting them down. Being certain that every dollar you invest in advertising and marketing comes back to you with friends attached.

Madison Avenue can sing and dance and entertain, but they do not know how to drive new ideas into change resistant markets. We do. They fear anyone who holds their advertising accountable for results. We don’t. Effective marketing is not a collection of slick techniques that temporarily tricks people into falsely believing that your stuff is more righteous than everybody else’s. It’s effective communication of your unique message – communication that is rooted in unchanging principles.

Perry’s articles on Guerilla Marketing focus on principles, not techniques, and apply to any business, and they provide a sound introduction to the Perry Marshall Marketing System:

Guerilla Marketing

With the economy in the state that it is many people are beginning to look for ways of making money in alternative industries. Certainly, network marketing is one of the best ways for people to learn either supplemental or full-time income from their own home and over the Internet. However, when you go out looking for a relevant network marketing opportunity, it is important for you to consider the company that will best work for you. As such, here are some thoughts on what to look for in a network marketing company.

There are certainly certain things that you have to look for and certain things that you have to avoid. One of the main things to avoid is any company that promises to do the work for you. This is used as a main selling point for numerous companies in order to catch people and get them to sign up. However, you need to use your common sense and realize that if you want to make anything out of any opportunity you are going to have to do the vast majority of the work yourself.

You should also avoid any sort of company that does not offer any tangible product or service. If you find an opportunity that is merely asking you to recruit more people to sell a product or service that doesn’t seem to exist then you should avoid this as this sounds far more like pyramid selling than network marketing.

When you come across any sort of network marketing company that interests you then it is important to do your research into them. Any real company will have some sort of reputation within the industry, whether this is good or bad. There will therefore be lots of information about any company on the Internet that actually exists. It is therefore important for you to conduct any research so you understand exactly what they have to offer you.

One comes to choosing the perfect network marketing company you should also look for certain things. One such thing would be to find a product or service that you understand and perhaps have a passion for. If you are trying to sell things that you have no understanding in then this will make everything much more difficult.

In addition to this, you also have to look at the commission pay plan that is run by the company as well. It is a good idea to work out how this pay plan is run and how many levels it might go down to when you start to recruit new distributors into your team. It is or is best to find a commission pay plan that goes down to as many levels as you can manage in order to earn the most income.

You also need to consider the level of investment that you have to make when you sign up to any opportunity. Pretty much any opportunity you come across will require some level of initial investment and so you need to work out how much money you are willing to put into it.

The amount of personal leadership and training should be a deciding factor. Good leadership skills are essential in network marketing. Find a leader you can work with.

These are just a few of the main things you should be considering when looking into network marketing as a way of making money.

Tired of doing your own network marketing? Well, with our network marketing company, you will work. We will make it easy for you to use and leave you satisfied. The numis network marketing company will do everything you need for your network.

How To Market Your Articles Like A Pro

Article marketing can be a great way to build site traffic. Article marketing is the process of submitting articles to directories so that others can post them to their websites as content. Each time someone posts your article you get a link, sometimes two, back to your site. You get traffic and they get great content. It’s a win-win situation and this article will explain how it’s done.

Your first focus in marketing articles should be about giving information not trying to sell yourself. While article marketing is used to increase your website traffic, you should steer away from writing articles that are only sales pitch orientated. Give information that readers will appreciate and perhaps learn something new!

Always give your readers the best quality content. Your article marketing success depends on it. Instead of trying to just crank out a bunch of poorly-written articles that are light on content, try to come up with engaging titles and answer them in your articles with creative and useful information.

Use social media to promote your articles and sites. Consider including a link to your facebook, twitter or other networking site into your author box. You can push out content to readers who have chosen to follow you which will give you an automatic jump on getting eyes onto your new content.

A fantastic article marketing tip is to branch out and get your own web site. With your very own web site you’ll be able to post your own articles at any length you want. You can even include advertisements from affiliates because you’ll have total control of your site.

A great article marketing tip that can help you is to do everything you can to make your readers happy. This might mean writing articles to cover new subjects they want to see. Keeping your readers happy is a great way to stay successful and to continue making money.

Start gathering your article ideas by seeing what others are doing. Do a search at eZine articles or other popular content websites. Check the number of views the articles are getting to figure out what types of information readers want. Look for the most popular, most viewed or most published information if it’s available.

Article Marketing

One way to boost the exposure of an article marketing campaign is to secure appearances as a guest blogger. This is when you ask a blogger in your field if you can post an article to their blog. You need to have established a reputation for expertise and trustworthiness to try this. If you get a guest blogger spot, your article will be exposed to many new readers.

Article Writing

Find a way to get and stay creative. Creativity makes your articles come alive. Many people within your competition, possess the same knowledge and aim to teach it through article writing. Creative ways to share what you know, stand out, regardless of how many others have written about the same topic.

To get your articles out to a massive amount of publishers, consider an article distribution service. For a small fee, a distribution service will submit your work to thousands of different sites and directories. This is a great option for anyone who wants to make article writing a full time job.

You can see just how effective article marketing can be at bringing traffic and attention to your web site. With these ideas you have all you need to start building back links with directory submissions. So, start writing great articles, submit them to the directories on a regular basis and watch your traffic increase.

Click Here to get my FREE REPORT on how 2 homeless guys taught, Andrew Gallop, A happy homeopathic cancer survivor,
how to earn a wonderful new lifestyle from the comfort of a article marketing business.