Why You May Not Be Making As Much Money As You Think You Should

Issue #2071

• WEALTHY: Why you can’t afford NOT to go global (Andrew Gordon)
• HEALTHY: Double your fat-burning potential (Craig Ballantyne)
• WISE: Mark Twain on getting the salary you deserve

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• The real reason your CEO makes more than you do (Michael Masterson)
• 2 easy, free ways to research your market (Paul Smithson)
• It’s Good to Know… about traveling overseas
• Add "supernal" to your vocabulary

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The Grass Really Is Greener in Ireland (and Other Foreign Places)

By Andrew M. Gordon

The U.S. market is having a pretty good year so far. But global markets are doing better, and that’s not going to change in the foreseeable future. Taking into account their relatively high volatility and low transparency, here’s how to invest in them:

• Look at European markets first. They’re most similar to ours when it comes to regulations, economic development, competition, and liquidity. But keep in mind that those markets have very different consumer trends: smaller cars, higher gas prices, more cellphones, Internet TV, etc.
• In developing countries, invest only in large caps or dividend-paying companies, which (like those in the U.S.) are more attentive to shareholder needs.
• Put a strong emphasis on funds for your global investing - especially those that have a conservative bent. Make sure you know everything about it, starting with its track record. You also want to know exactly why the fund manager makes his selections.

Global investing has worked for me. In my Wealth Advantage portfolio, I have a Canadian company (210 percent annualized returns) and two Chinese companies (9 percent and 96 percent), and I very recently added a German and an Indian company (which I expect will be taking off any minute). The only small companies in the portfolio are in the bunch from developed countries (Canada and Germany).

These companies give the Wealth Advantage portfolio some nice diversification, while taking advantage of several very strong growth markets - which is why you can’t afford not to go global.

[Ed. Note: Andrew Gordon, ETR’s Investment Director, has authored several books on energy markets, global countertrade practices, and the hot growth sectors of China and Russia. A former professor of marketing and finance, he is the editor of INCOME, a monthly financial advisory service that uncovers income-generating stocks that promise safety (first and foremost), along with much-higher-than-average profit potential.]

"Even Noah got no salary for the first six months partly on account of the weather and partly because he was learning navigation."

Mark Twain

Why You May Not Be Making As Much Money As You Think You Should

By Michael Masterson

If you’re lucky, loving your job is its own reward. But when it comes to satisfying your sense of self-worth - and building wealth - the size of your paycheck can have a big impact. In fact, a 2006 study commissioned by the American Business Collaboration found that 49 percent of respondents listed salary as the factor that’s most important to their satisfaction at work.

So if you’re not making as much as you think you should be, is it time to start looking for a new job?

Before you start scanning the "Help Wanted" section of the newspaper, take a good hard look at what you do. Is your work really worth what you think it is?

I had a conversation yesterday with a writer - a friend I’d hired to work on a newsletter I consult on. It was contract time, and I had promised him "the best deal possible" - which is exactly what he got. He wasn’t satisfied. "Let’s face it," he told me, "The success or failure of the newsletter’s renewals depends on me - and my writing is good."

"I agree that your writing is good," I told him, "but in the business of newsletter publishing, my opinion doesn’t count."

What does? As JDG, a colleague of mine, likes to say, there are three sacred letters when you are in business - ROI (return on investment) - and they are the jury when it comes to determining the quality of what you’re selling.

Writers - screenwriters, novelists, magazine writers, and advertising writers - are valuable in business if and to the extent that they can generate positive ROI.

Writers who understand that can become very skilled very quickly and make a ton of money. Writers who refuse to believe that are doomed to spending the rest of their careers unhappy and underpaid.

But it’s hard to explain this to a writer who’s new to the business world. He feels, understandably, that since he’s smart and clever and works so hard, his writing is - or has to be - supernal.

Most writers I know (including yours truly) would like to think themselves equal to the greats: H.L. Mencken, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ernest Hemingway, etc. And given the time, energy, sweat, and blood they put into their writing, why shouldn’t they get paid a ton of money?

That’s what Stephen Gaghan used to think. Gaghan - who directed and/or wrote screenplays for many films, including Traffic, Syriana, and Rules of Engagement - found that no one listened to him when he was a mere screenplay writer. But when he became a director, he had an important revelation:

"Decisions, actual decisions, upon which money would be spent and movies created, were happening in flurries. The studio and producers were no longer impenetrable, implacable forces aligned in the cause of movie prevention but well-tuned, experienced machines for the production of movies. Suddenly, everyone seemed to be pulling together and they were looking to me to help them do it. In fact, as far as I could tell, the moment you remove the screenwriter, things actually begin to happen," Gaghan wrote in an article for The New York Times.

"I don’t completely agree with this system," Gaghan continued, "but there is a reason nobody listens to the screenwriter: He isn’t accountable. The screenwriter is like an economist or political commentator who says, ‘If you don’t cut interest rates right now, there will be a 3 percent decline in housing starts next April.’ But nobody checks back next April. Nobody remembers or cares. Because you don’t have to act on the decision, you aren’t responsible for the fallout. You are an adviser, not a builder. And if ‘real housing starts’ decline by 20 percent and the construction industry lays off thousands - well, you still have your comfy chair and nice view out the window.

"For the director, it is the exact opposite. The time for theorizing is over. It is yes or no, and pretty soon you have an aesthetic. Period."

The same holds true for other advisory professions: accountants, artists, architects, attorneys, IT specialists, customer-service managers - basically anyone on staff or hired to help. The number of exceptions are few:

• CEOs
• profit-center managers
• salespeople
• anyone else whose compensation is primarily (not incidentally) based on the success of the end product

If you want to make a good living, be good at what you do. Accountants and artists and screenwriters who are good will be recognized as good. If they promote themselves and shop around for the best compensation, they can make very good, very steady, and relatively low-stress incomes.

And if you want to take that route, you can still build wealth - slowly and carefully - by following the advice we’ve been giving you in ETR about investing and saving.

But if you are not satisfied with that and want to get cut in on the bigger money, you have to step up to the line and do what the big-money people do. You have to be willing to risk not only your time but also your financial safety.

This is a hard lesson for most people to learn. And if you see no sense in it, I can’t imagine you’ll be persuaded by the little story about Stephen Gaghan’s conversion. You may choose to spend the rest of your life feeling under-appreciated and under-compensated, just as so many do. That won’t get you what you want - but you will have the feeling that you’re getting screwed to warm you up at night.

My friend, the newsletter writer, is a smart guy. He’s going to argue his case as hard as he can and get as much as he can to do the job. But he’s doing something else too. He’s learning how to write marketing copy. He’s learning the principles of selling. And he’s studying the marketing business as closely as he can.

Some day in the future, he’ll step over to the other side and be fully accountable for the financial success or failure of his literary output. When that happens, he’ll be negotiating contracts with writers who may want more than he is willing to give them. Then he’ll come to his own conclusions about this age-old debate. I’ll be interested in seeing what he does.

== Highly Recommended ==

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Alternative energy stocks have turned into a red-hot profit opportunity for early investors. That’s why visionaries like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Richard Branson and Ted Turner are heavily invested. Over $2 billion in venture capital poured into the sector in 2006 alone.

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Reader Feedback: "The information in ETR is uplifting, timely, and useful."

"Good morning. I just wanted to say thank you for all you do! The information provided in ETR is uplifting, timely, and useful. I have availed myself of the copywriting course and presently I’m working through it, as well as taking to heart the info from Dr. Sears. Please keep up the good work!"

Rick Cutter
Boca Raton, FL

Should You Proceed With Your New Product, or Table It?

By Paul Smithson

When big corporations and people who do business offline want to see whether their product ideas will fly, they usually conduct a feasibility study. Studies like these can help you determine things like how marketable your product concept is and how much the market is willing to pay for it.

While feasibility studies can be time-consuming, expensive undertakings in the offline world, they are surprisingly easy to conduct on the Web. You can actually do a feasibility study for free - and get the results in record time.

Here’s how:

• Go to chat rooms, discussion groups, and online forums that deal with topics related to the product you’re considering. For example, if you’re planning to sell memory-foam mattresses, you could go to groups that talk about conditions that can be helped by these products (such as arthritis, fibromyalgia, sleep disorders, etc.). Post some questions asking where they are buying the mattresses, what challenges (if any) they’ve faced finding good-quality foam mattresses, how much they’re paying for them, and so on. You’ll be surprised at the quality of information you’re able to gather from the responses you get - information that will help you market your product better.
• Send a product survey to your target audience. Doing this is actually easier and simpler than it sounds, because there are countless survey services available online - including SurveyMonkey.com, Zoomerang.com, SurveySite.com, FreeOnlineSurveys.com - some of them free. Many of them allow you to simply send out an e-mail that includes a link that will take the person who clicks on it directly to your survey form.

Using these results, along with the results of your keyword research (see my articles in ETR #2057, #2065, and #2068), you will now have a pretty good idea as to whether your product idea will succeed in the marketplace. And, who knows - you might even come up with a whole pile of new product ideas!

Now it’s time to start selling.

[Ed. Note: Ready to step up to the plate and start your own Internet business? If so, online marketing expert Paul Smithson and ETR’s team of friendly experts are standing by to help you. We’ve partnered with Paul, creator of the XSitePro website-building program, so you’ll be able to come to ETR’s 5 Days in July conference with nothing - no product, no marketing skills, no technical know-how - and walk out 5 days later with your own online business. No experience required, and and it only takes a few minutes to get started!]

Boost Your Metabolism and Melt Away Fat

By Craig Ballantyne

As a regular Early to Rise reader, you already know that aerobics and traditional "cardio" exercise can strain your heart and cause injury to your joints and muscles. But you don’t have to put your health at risk to burn fat. A new study published in the prestigious Journal of Applied Physiology showed that strength training boosted metabolism after the exercise by 10 percent and increased fat burning by 100 percent.

The participants in the study followed a standard strength-training program, including multiple-muscle exercises that can be done at most health clubs - pull-downs, leg presses, chest presses, leg extensions, and leg curls. They did three sets of 10 repetitions of each exercise.

After strength training, your body is scrambling to recover and, therefore, uses more energy and more fat to fuel this process. So while strength training doesn’t burn as many calories as traditional aerobic training during the actual workout, it continues to burn calories AND fat long after you’ve left the gym. This is known as the "afterburn" - the result of "turbulence" put on your muscles during the strength training itself.

In addition to the muscle- and bone-building benefits of strength training, post-exercise fat burning is one more reason to add it to your fitness regimen.

[Ed. Note: Craig Ballantyne is an expert consultant for Men’s Health magazine. If you’re looking to burn fat, build muscle, and quickly step into the body you have always wanted with just three workouts each week, check out Craig’s fat-loss system, Turbulence Training for Fat Loss.]

It’s Good to Know: About Traveling Overseas

Of course you’re not going to hop on a flight to Iran, Iraq, or Afghanistan this weekend. But did you know Americans are being cautioned about visiting many other countries - including Israel, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines? Or that students and teachers can get an International Teacher Identity Card for reduced airfares and other discounts? And would you know who to phone if you are falsely arrested while touring Mexico this summer?

Before you book an overseas vacation, check the U.S. State Department’s travel advisory website (travel.state.gov). You’ll find everything from general tips for making traveling abroad easier to specific warnings about things like possible terrorist attacks or crime targeted at tourists.

== Highly Recommended ==

Confidential Report: Disillusioned Trader Opens ‘Money-Floodgates’ to YOU…

Rob Banks Legally… With an Inside Job!”

Are You Ready for a “Smash and Grab” on The World’s “Hidden” Money-Mountain?
Great! The getaway car’s leaving…

- Patrick Coffey

Word to the Wise: Supernal

"Supernal" (soo-PUR-nul) - from the Latin for "situated above" - means "celestial/heavenly."

Example (as I used it today): "It’s hard to explain this to a writer who’s new to the business world. He feels, understandably, that since he’s smart and clever and works so hard, his writing is - or has to be - supernal."

[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker … build your self-confidence and intellect … increase your attractiveness to others … just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR’s new Words to the Wise CD Library.]

Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007