* Highly Recommended *
The Billionaire Way
I would recommend "The Billionaire Way" program to anyone who is contemplating a new enterprise or business start-up, or is already in business for themselves. It enabled me to look at my life, attributes, and habits in a refreshing new way. I was delighted to discover that I too have a number of the traits and qualities that many who are successful in business possess, which I hadn't realized. I am very excited to apply the principles that were presented in the program to my new business ventures.
A tremendous benefit was to be able to talk with the author of the program, Bob Cox, about my own business strategies and ideas. Bob spent an hour on the phone with me after I finished the program, and his personal insights and suggestions were very helpful and inspiring.
I know that I will often refer back to the information provided in "The Billionaire Way"
- Catherine McNeil, Monte Vista, Colorado
Ante Up!
By Rick Pendergraft
I learned to play poker when I was five years old. My grandfather, who lived in Virginia, came to stay with us for the winter and taught the game to me. We used M&Ms as our betting "currency."
I love playing poker almost as much as I love trading ... and I would like to think that playing poker all these years has helped me succeed in my trading career. Perhaps that early lesson of not wanting to lose my candy had something to do with it.
There are several similarities between poker and trading (as opposed to long-term buy-and-hold investing). And if you're interested in either, you'd be wise to use these three guidelines for putting your money into play.
1. Money management: You don't want to play every hand in poker, and you don't want to make every trade ... only those where the odds are stacked in your favor.
2. Betting: If you are betting on a hand/trade that "isn't made yet," bet small. Here's what I mean by that ...
In poker, if you have four cards into a flush or a straight and you need one more card to make your hand ... that's an example of a hand that isn't made yet. An example in trading would be needing confirmation that a trend has reversed or that a trendline has held.
3. Reading your opponent: Having a good idea of what the other players/investors are thinking is critical to your success.
In poker, if your opponent does something that unintentionally gives away information about his hand, it's called a "tell." You might, for example, notice that he always sips at his drink when he's bluffing ... or puts down his chips with more force when he's got a good hand. In trading, sentiment analysis "tells" you what other investors are doing.
[Ed. Note: Rick Pendergraft, ETR's options expert, wrote an extensive article about the similarities between poker and trading in the December 11 issue of Investor's Daily Edge, ETR's daily e-letter. For more insights into the investing world, sign up for your free subscription.]
"For some reason, I was stimulated by marketing and fascinated with how commercials would sell a product. So I got my degree in marketing."
- Carrot Top
4 Ways to Build Your Info-Marketing Business
By Michael Masterson
At ETR's Info Marketing Bootcamp this year, I finally got to meet Brad Antin. Brad, who runs The Antin Marketing Group, is an expert in small business and direct marketing - and I found him to be very bright and full of firmly held opinions when we co-counseled an attendee about a start-up business challenge he was facing. ("Do I need to learn the mechanics of the business myself, or can I let my son do that, since he's the one who will eventually be running the business?")
Brad has had an interesting career. He has (often with his brother Alan) owned and operated many successful businesses, including companies in manufacturing, wholesale distribution, retail sales, and mail order. "No matter what business we were in," Brad told me, "we were always fascinated by the marketing."
By studying the classic texts and testing out theories in their businesses, Brad and Alan gradually learned direct marketing. By the time Brad met marketing master Jay Abraham at a conference, he was so knowledgeable about the subject that Jay advised him to go into business for himself.
Encouraged by Jay's suggestion, Brad and his brother wrote their own book on direct marketing - The Lost Art of Common Sense Marketing - and it became one of the best-selling marketing books of all time. (At the Bootcamp, Brad told the story of how he got Office Depot to sell 257,000 copies of the book. It's a good story - one you can learn from. If you don't have notes from the Bootcamp, I recommend you get our DVD recordings of the whole event.)
When one of his clients, Bill Harris of Centerpointe Research Institute, asked Brad to take over the marketing of his business, Brad jumped at the opportunity. "I recognized that Bill had a great product and that his business was servicing a fast-growing industry. I was sure I could help grow his business," he told me.
In the few years he had worked with Bill Harris as a client, Brad had helped the business grow from about $374,000 a year to about $5 million. And today, four years after Brad joined Bill Harris full-time, Centerpointe will do about $12 million.
During one of our conversations at Bootcamp, I asked Brad various questions about information marketing that I thought my ETR readers would ask him if they were in my place. I asked some questions from the perspective of someone with little business experience, and some that would be more helpful to someone who is already engaged in an active business.
This is what I found out:
1. Brad Antin on Choosing the Very Best Business
The most important decision an information entrepreneur can make, Brad says, is what kind of information he will sell.
"Sell what you love, because you need that love to drive you forward and succeed. Anyone can become an expert in just about anything, so long as he loves it. When you love something, you learn it more quickly. And you learn it without feeling like you're working. And when you sell something you love, you sell it with passion and enthusiasm. That passion fuels your motivation. And that enthusiasm comes through in your advertising.
"It is so easy to make money in Information Marketing today. It's so easy, in fact, that you don't have to focus on the money-making part of the business. Just pay attention to the subject matter you care about, and make up your mind to learn it better than anyone else has ever learned it before."
2. Brad's Specific Advice on Becoming an Expert in Your Chosen Field
"Let's say you love gardening. Go to the library and look up Bowkers Books in Print. This reference guide lists most of the books in print by subject matter. Look up the top 10 books on gardening published in the last two years. Buy all those books and read them and take notes on everything you read.
"Then go to SRDS, a directory that lists all the major (and many of the minor) magazines, newspapers, and newsletters. Get the volume on newsletters, and identify all the newsletters on gardening. Subscribe to those that look interesting. When you get issues, read them carefully - for both content and hints on marketing. Take notes on how you could apply what you're finding out to your own business.
"Another important way to develop your expertise is to interview experts. By reading all of those books and newsletters on gardening, you'll know who they are. Call them up and set up appointments. If you like their ideas, make notes and use them yourself. Don't worry about being original. Just focus on getting the best ideas. If you take someone's specific idea - even if you paraphrase it - give him credit. Most times, though, the ideas you borrow will change as you express them to suit your product and your audience. They will gradually become your ideas."
3. The Art of Expression: How to Write Like a Pro
"As your knowledge increases, your ideas will get better," Brad said. "Soon it will be time to begin writing articles and booklets and getting your name, as an expert, out into the marketplace.
"At this stage, most people worry that they don't have the writing skills to do a good job. Don't worry about that. So long as you express yourself the way you speak, your readers will be happy with your writing. Remember, they're paying attention to the ideas. So try your best to express yourself conversationally, using pretty much the same words and phrasing you use when you speak. Don't make the mistake of trying to 'write like a writer.' Your own voice is best.
"As time goes on, you will come up with all kinds of good ideas from your own point of view. That's the way everyone becomes an expert."
4. The Funnel: The Best Pricing Structure for Information Marketing
"One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make," Brad said, "is in the area of pricing. Most beginners start with a $99 or $199 info product, and rush out to try to sell it. But that's a mistake. A big mistake. My recommendation is to use a structure that works well for many info marketers. We call it the 'funnel.'
"When you go into a new market, your customers don't know you. To begin the relationship, you must start with broader topics of nearly universal appeal that are priced cheaply ... or even sometimes given away for free. That's the top of the funnel. And, of course, the goal is to get lots of customers and potential customers going into that funnel.
"As you provide more information to those customers, they will be willing to spend more money with you. The better they feel they know you, the more money they will invest in your products.
"As the relationship develops, the products become more targeted and the prices go up. Eventually, you can sell very high-priced products. That's the narrow end of the funnel.
"Let's say, for example, that you start with a free report: 'How to Break Into the Info Marketing Business.' Since it's free, the customer is happy to get it and read it. If it's good - and it has to be good - he'll be interested in a low-priced offer from you. So he'll respond to the $50 offer you send him for a book that is similar to, but includes more than, the report he just got for free.
"The $50 book delivers more than was promised and comes with additional, unexpected bonuses. The customer is impressed. Soon after buying it, he gets another letter from you, thanking him for buying the $50 book and providing additional ideas that you 'couldn't fit in the book.' He is grateful for those free ideas and, to reciprocate, he's happy to listen to your next promotion for a $195 manual.
"He buys that, and is similarly impressed with what he gets. Then he buys another, more extensive program for $495. And then, later on, an even more elaborate course for $895. Then he spends more than a thousand dollars with you for a seminar ... and then $5,000 or more for personal coaching.
"That's how the funnel works."
[Ed. Note: Want even more business-building advice from Brad Antin? Order ETR's Info Marketing Bootcamp DVD Library, and you can watch Brad - and the rest of Michael Masterson's League of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs - give their full Bootcamp presentations.]
* Highly Recommended *
The Early to Rise 2006 End-of-Year Blowout Sale
What are your resolutions for 2007?
To increase your salary by $15,000? To finally start your own profitable online side-business? To locate an incredible real estate deal?
Whatever your dreams, hopes and aspirations may be… ETR is here to help!
As 2006 comes to a close, we’ve compiled a dozen of our best success programs into a year-end blowout sale with our lowest prices ever… so there’s no better time for you to start making your dreams come true in 2007 than right now.
This offer ends when the New Year begins, so don’t put it off and risk paying more a few days from now. Act today and you’ll get the best deal we’ve ever offered, guaranteed.
Stop by our ETR 2006 End-of-Year Blowout Sale now.
- MaryEllen Tribby
Almonds - for Heart Health and Blood Sugar Control
By Al Sears, MD
Whenever you indulge in high-carb meals - as most of us do during the holiday season - here's a tip to help keep your blood sugar in check ... and boost your heart health too. Simply eat some almonds at the same time.
A recent article in the Journal of Nutrition found that almonds have the remarkable ability to balance your blood sugar after eating high-carb foods. Just one serving of almonds can prevent the blood sugar spikes associated with high-glycemic foods like bread, cake, pasta, and grains. (These spikes lead to obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.)
Almonds also have a dramatic effect on your heart. They act as antioxidants and neutralize the free radicals released by high-carb, high-sugar foods. Not only do they fight diabetes and heart disease, they're a great source of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and a wealth of other critical nutrients (including vitamin E, magnesium, fiber, potassium, calcium, and iron).
[Ed. Note: Dr. Sears, a practicing physician and the author of The Doctor's Heart Cure and 12 Secrets to Virility, is a leading authority on longevity, physical fitness, and heart health.]
Feedback Friday: "Proof That Manners Aren't Dead"
After reading Suzanne Richardson's article titled "Proof That Manners Aren't Dead" in Message #1863, several readers wrote in to share their own examples of random acts of kindness. Here are a few of those responses ...
"Last weekend, I was in Vancouver, BC for the first time in my life, and my 21-year-old son and I were riding the Skytrain to the downtown from our hotel in Burnaby. We were standing, when a single seat some feet away became available. Two teenagers were standing next to the seat, and one of them got my attention and motioned for me to sit down. I politely refused, since I wanted to stand next to my son, but they offered again. And when I still didn't sit down, neither of them sat either, as if to show that they really meant for me to sit.
"I saw this again later on the same trip. An elderly lady came on the train, and the teenager on the seat nearest the door immediately got up and offered his seat. I wondered at the time if it were a Vancouver thing, a Canadian thing, or just some polite teenagers - but the incident described in Suzanne's "Proof That Manners Aren't Dead" article makes me think that perhaps it is Canadian. I have never seen it happen in American cities where I have ridden public transportation - which doesn't mean it doesn't happen - though I have seen it often in Japan, where I go on a fairly regular basis.
"P.S. Thank you very much for ETR. I not only read it to inspire me to work harder and smarter in my 'home-based business' of online college teaching, but I have more than once used the articles (with attribution, of course) in my business and ethics classes."
- Jim Massey
Winter Haven, FL
"I actually learned this from a kid at the elementary school where I was volunteering at the concession. One of the students was a nickel short to purchase an item. A girl standing next to him reached into her pocket and added her nickel to his coins. He happily left with his lunch item. I said that it was nice of her to give him that nickel, and she said, 'That nickel wasn't going to buy me anything anyways, so he should have it.' I realized from that day forward that a nickel sometimes is more than a nickel."
- C. Findlay
Victoria, BC
"Here in New Hampshire, my adopted state, kindness is the password. Recently, with a temporary, portable oxygen tank over my arm, while putting my groceries into my car, a young father and his two boys stopped and, smiling, put all the bags into the car.
"Earlier that day, the electric cart provided by the supermarket for me to shop lost its power. A young man offered to help. I asked him to tell an employee that I needed a new cart. I sat and waited what seemed a long time. Just as I was about to try to find an employee myself, the young man appeared driving another cart!"
- Kell Frost
Epsom, NH
"I very rarely witness good manners with my own eyes, even though I'm out and around people very often. But I get comments at least once or twice a month that I'm 'one of the very few gentlemen left in the world.'
"Last night, I was waiting on the last table of the night (I'm a 20-year-old server, by the way). One of the ladies from the table was taking the rest of the table's picture, so I offered to take the picture for them so she wasn't left out. It's small things like that which make a person get noticed."
- Jeremy Reeves
Harding, PA
"Actually, I don't believe acts of kindness or good manners are random, but I would like to share a story about a client of mine. She was in the grocery store in the checkout line behind an elderly woman. The woman had $8 worth of groceries, and had left her wallet in the car. My client could see that it would be quite an inconvenience for the somewhat frail woman to go out to her car to retrieve the wallet, so she pulled out $8 and paid her bill. I imagine it made both their days!"
- Dina Crawford
Chester, NH
[Note From Michael Masterson: I sometimes think more good can be done in the world by individual, random acts of kindness than by all the government planning and charitable mega-organizations. Take a look at how much has been accomplished through donations to the clinic that's supported by our Rancho Santana community in Nicaragua:]
* Highly Recommended*
3 Dividend-Paying Stocks You Should Buy in the Next 5 Days!
I’m urging everyone I know to buy three stocks in particular -- three income-generators that offer you steady sources of income that could begin in the next 90 days.
Click here to get the actual names of 3 income-producing stocks -- their names, histories, stocks symbols, everything -- you should rush and BUY in the next 5 days before they shoot higher.
Word to the Wise: Physiognomy
"Physiognomy" (fiz-ee-OG-nuh-mee) - from the Greek for "judging character by the features" - is the general appearance or aspect of something.
Example (as used by Donald L. Miller in City of the Century): "It was an urban physiognomy different, Bourget thought, 'from every other since the foundation of the world,' an unvarying flatland of industrial neighborhoods that rolled on - backward from the horizon - for miles and miles until it climaxed in a silhouette of towers tightly wedged between river, rail lines, and lake."
