You tell me… Well I’ll tell you, yes they are nearly as powerful as ever.

These psychological levers (Right click and save or just click on the link) are One Time Only offers, countdown offers, max download offers only and others.

They all do the same thing, put fear in front of you that you won’t get “Whatever it is” they have if you don’t get it now.

I see these all the time and am getting much better at looking past them, however If I’m looking for a certain “Thing” and I see it with a time limit, I admit; I may very well act on it.

To easy  to bookmark and look for a better deal elsewhere, but if I’m on your page and want that product, a $20.00 off one time offer (OTO) can hook me in a second.

Want a psychological lever on your site? For free? Go now (Right click and save or just click on the link) because I will remove this  tomorrow… See what I mean? it works.

First off, I’m not taking this down tomorrow, or the next day  but my point is well taken.

I received these from Ian Traynor, a marketer who’s list I have been on for years. Ian is terrific at uncovering valuable information and not so good at subtle selling.

I say that as a compliment because he hides little if anything when he gets ready to offer you something for sale. He tells you, this is for sale at this price for this long and then it goes to this price… and it does, I really like this guy.

Anyway, check out this free download to help you create more urgency today.

Don’t be deterred as you will be required to obtain a key to unlock the software. It is a one time thing and Ian does this to get you on his list and hopefully keep you. Just unsubscribe if what he says doesn’t interest you, but I would give him a chance or two as he is a good guy.

Go here and get these psychological levers (Right click and save or just click on the link) for your website today and see how they can help you.

“If it can’t be automated or nearly automated don’t do it. There are too many low hanging fruit opportunities online to waste time chasing “jobs” that require all your time, effort and energy.” Jim Cockrum, MySilentTeam

Most of us have heard of Jim and mysilentteam or will in the near future.

I was introduced to John Thornhill through MySilentTeam. Like minded people hang with like minded people.

I have learned to look at the whole picture when listening to someone I respect.

you see, in my teachings I believe people who are doers can understandably have the gift to teach.

There are great minds out there that cannot portray what they mean because they do not have this gift.

When these gifted people start rolling, they can’t be stopped and Jim C. is one of these people.

He leads by example so well that many times it is easy for me to miss little pieces of invaluable knowledge and information when he speaks (Writes).

Point in case:

In Jim’s latest newsletter, which is short, sweet and always to the point; he said the above quote.

so I read it and moved along as I was busy. A day or two later as I always do with my newsletters I reread Jim’s and this quote stuck like super glue. Nothing I wasn’t aware of or had heard him and others say in the past, just this time I really got it!

I am not technical and am intimidated by some technology I see on the net. I therefore turned my effort towards article marketing in the early days and had success.

Article marketing is easy as long as you like to write and have time.

Well I’m not a big time writer as it takes me time to do them and time is not another thing I have endless amounts of.

But, article marketing I grasped and started down the path with.

Now, I’ve had success with articles and moved into outsourcing and flipping articles. I started making a little money by having articles written for $1.00 (Yes, one dollar) and submitting to AssociatedContent.

I had to take these $1.00 articles and make corrections before submitting. You get what you pay for, but I was making about $200.00 dollars a month doing it.

I realized that was no way to go as I was working maybe 40 hours a month which averaged out to $5.00/hr or so. But I made money and proudly so.

This is exactly what Jim is referring to in his quote. I was working a job, I had commitments to pay my ghost writers, I had to proofread and correct the articles, submit them, follow up and so on.

It didn’t take long once I started selling on eBay to see exactly what this quote meant.

This article isn’t about outsourcing but through eBay that is exactly what has happened.

I made money through eBay, plus refereed sports in my off time to have articles written for me.

I think Jim’s quote is one of knowledge and experience and should be taken to heart.

We have an opportunity to shape not only our business, but our lives.

Don’t create a business that you will be a slave to. Create a business you can live life through.

MySilentTeam is where my inspiration and belief that I can really make a living on the Internet comes from.

I can’t tell you for sure but I believe at least once a month I get something invaluable, some out of the way info I call an added little extra gem from this free newsletter.

Work to live, not live to work is my mission, and Jim clearly states that in his own words.

Focus, determination, risk, knowledge? Name another if you’d like.

Well what do you think the most important building block to a successful career is?

I believe it is not a single building block but two. Belief and focus. Without belief there will be no focus and without focus there cannot be belief.

Your determination is for not. Your risk is costly and there will be no knowledge because you will move from this to that so fast you won’t remember the last great idea you had without belief and focus.

I bring “Focus” and staying on the straight and narrow path up a lot for personal reasons.

I, like many have spent hundreds; maybe even a thousand or more dollars chasing a dream that became a nightmare. I now believe 100% the reason I failed was simply due to lack of belief and focus.

I saw something at 3:00 am one night way back when the baby was fussing (He’s now 15, 6’2″ and 225lbs) and that was the answer.

Later on I read something on the net and that was the beat all to end all – I think I yelled to Sue and told her she married a rich guy…. She’s still wondering where that guys at by the way

Listen, I may have been onto something, but the belief wasn’t there, I mean shoot I was looking at the fancy house and cars and boats and everything else and dang it they said you didn’t need to work at it, so I didn’t work at it and never believed in it to begin with. Hello failure

I believe most everyone has to learn the lesson of belief and focus. My Grandfather was an uneducated man who raised his family on grit and hard work. He knew what he knew and did what he had to.

After working years in the coal mines of Kentucky he packed everybody up and moved to Detroit, got a job in a factory and started grinding parts.

He became a master Grinder and then worked on the first ship that landed on the moon.

He loved what he did and he was proud of what he did.

He was a Master Grinder in Detroit for 40 years and was a sought after journeymen.

He believed in what he did and he stayed focused!

So did Babe Ruth, Joe Lewis, Our President of the United States and John Thornhill, along with my 12th grade American history teacher who just passed away.  Mr. Alger taught for I believe 38 years in Cadillac, he had belief and focus. You can name quite a few people with belief and focus can’t you? It’s not about money or power here, it’s about success and seeing it through.

Get my drift? Don’t kid yourself. Have complete belief in what you are doing and keep focus and you will not fail. Ask anyone who has did anything for an extended period of time, they have the two main building blocks to a successful career.

Stay true to your belief and focus.

I wrote a post about outsourcing and referred to article writing.

Since then I have had a couple emails and a reply from Betty inquiring about keywords and keyword research, so I thought I would post: How Alan Does Keyword Research.

There are to many ways to research keywords to mention here, and in my opinion every last method has its merit.

I have heard some seasoned Internet marketers say they still stand by the “Throw it at the wall and let it stick” method and I’ve also read a couple of articles referring to keyword research and honest to God I still don’t know what they said – way over my head.

Here’s my method (This is no secret btw) and I know it works for low hanging fruit (Keywords that get searches and have little competition).

I love boating, don’t get to do it like I use to. Man what a feeling when it’s 90 degrees out and and the waters splashing on you… oh, sorry daydreaming again.

Boating, now I’m doing this without any narrow niche in mind. You see boating is a broad term and means many things such as boat motors, sailboats,boat seats,etc, etc, etc

Let’s see what I come up with? I take my keyword and put it into Google’s keyword tool and a ton of results come up.

I click Global Monthly Search Volume to get the monthly searches from highest to lowest.

Take a look at the keyword – boats. It has 55,600,000; we’re not getting on the first page for the term boats. Time to move on.

I usually go for keywords that have a about 1000 searches a month and then I will break them down to see if I can get on the first page of Google, I don’t want the second page, I want the first page.

So, let’s check out – boating marinas. This keyword has 1000 searches a month. Lets break it down and investigate to see if I can get a good ranking.

First off I go to Google.com and put boating marinas in quotes like this – “boating marinas” and then click search. I get back 24,300 results, this is loosely based on using the keyword in the article and maybe in the title. Might be a little high, I like to stay around 10,000 or lower to have a good chance, but lets see where this goes.

Now I put boating marinas into Google.com with quotes around it right after allinanchor: so it looks like this – allinanchor:”boating marinas”

The reason I include allinanchor: and then boating marinas with parenthesis is I want to know how many competitors for my keyword (boating marinas) have incoming links with the anchor text – boating marinas.

I believe this is where my competition is, in knowing how many other links have boating marinas that point back to them. Anchor text , this is an example of an anchor text. This is what the link is labeled as. I might send you to yahoo.com through click here. The anchor text or label is – click here. So, we will soon see there are only 139 sites that have an anchor text with boating marinas as its label.

Just because Boating marinas is in the title or in the article doesn’t mean they are serious competition.

This is not complicated and takes minutes.

So allinanchor:”boating marinas” (If you were interested in army ants it would be allinanchor:”army ants”) returns 20,500 competing pages.

Next to search where you put your keyword into Google there is a link called  – Advanced search, click on it.

When the page comes up, follow down to Need more tools? Just below that you will see Results per page, change that to 100 and click advance search.

Now, we have a page with 100 results instead of 10. Go to bottom of your page and  and you will see there are two pages total. There might be 5, 7, or 100 anyway click on the last page possible. In this case page 2.

Take a look at Results which is near the top of the page and you will see 101-139 results for allinanchor: “boating marinas”.

Anything under 225 and I’m getting excited.

Now just because the results show only 139 competing anchor text for boating marinas does not mean we are done yet.

Take a look to the right side of the page, are there ads over there? These are people who are paying to have their ad placed on these pages (Google adwords). This is another indicator this is a good keyword; people are paying money to be here and hopefully we will be there for free.

Now here is a major indicator of whether I can get on the first page of Google for my chosen keyword. Are there any authority sites?

What is an authority site. An authority site is a site that has been established, is very well known, has many out going links as well as incoming links. Heres an example: Google.com or alans-schearchengine.com. Who’s the authority site here. Google authority sites if you want to know more.

Now looking under allinanchor:”boating marinas” at the results there are no authority sites, cool. Even if there was 1 or maybe two I would consider this, but to many authority sites and hit the road you will lose.

I believe boating marinas is a keyword I could get a first page ranking on.

So here’s my formula in as clear and easy terms as I can say it:

Let’s say my niche is about wind energy.

#1 – Google: Wind energy. I see it has 38,400,000 results and has AdWords ads along the right side meaning people are paying to have their products on that page. I think this is a popular keyword and people are talking about it.

I Googled Wind energy forums and there are a bunch, this is a popular niche.

#2 – Is this my product, or is there one I can sell available. Go to Clickbank, Commission Junction or sometimes I Google: the niche keyword products (In this case, Wind energy products, could be frog cleaning products or whatever) and find one from there to be an affiliate for.)

So I do have a product I believe in and would be proud to represent. Good, moving on.

#3 – Google: Wind energy with allinanchor: like this -  allinanchor:”wind energy”. I see the results on the last page are 601-608 to high for that keyword. Don’t worry we will find one.

#4 – Lets go back to our Google keyword tool and type wind energy. Click Global Monthly Search Volume to put searches in order.

Look for a 1000 searches or so a month. I see -  wind energy products, it has 1000 searches a month.

#5 – Put “wind energy products” in Google.com and it shows 12,000 results. Cool, close to our 10,000 competition target.

#6 – Put allinanchor:”wind energy products” in Google.com. Last page results are 248 allinanchor competition. Alright!

There are paying ads on the right side of the page, man I think I am good to go!

If I write a quality article and submit it to ezinearticles with an author box that has a click-able link to my product/product I am representing, I think I will get on the first page of Google for the keyword wind energy products.

People, I have articles using this formula that are two years old and last month I made $37 off a product I wrote an article on 11 months ago! Did nothing else with that article after I wrote it!

This works.

The downside for me, I hate writing.

I believe this is all some people do and are making money. I think this is a viable way to make money, I think this is a lot of work, and there are easier ways to make money.

I believe if someone could write 10 well written articles a week, with quality products that he or she could see some nice returns down the road.

I think in my next post I will show the one keyword tool I use and how I use it to expand on my niche and grab a wider targeted audience.

Anyway, this is How Alan Does Keyword Research.

Here is a pretty cool piece of software called XHeader (xheader.com) and here is my 5 minute header (alanparcell.com/xheader)

XHeader is offering 500 free header designs in various niches to edit and alter just about as you see fit.

This software allows you to build headers and I believe footers as well, I did not attempt to alter footer but believe I can.

To start with, you need to optin to get the software.

The software is easy to install and easy to use.(48MB)

There are two videos on their website that basically explain XHeader.

1st video shows features and functionality.
2nd video shows the process of creating graphics from start to finish.

Inside, they have a help section but I did not use it as I put a simple header together (alanparcell.com/xheader)  and the video was thorough and easy to follow.

Once installed, when you open the software, you will be offered a one time offer (OTO) to purchase 5,000 headers for $37.00, instead of the regular price of $47.00. I also received this in the welcome email, but after opening and closing the software and clicking the OTO in my email I was still offered it for $37.00.

I did not purchase the upgrade but I might in the future, if I use the software enough and see all they have to offer.

So I clicked “No thanks” to the OTO and up popped the software.

From there I followed The 2nd video and had a pretty cool header inside 5 minutes. Not bad for my first time.

When I went to save the header, the video showed a button at the top that isn’t there now (Must have updated the software), so if you try it and want to save your header just click on “Save as” near the top and then you will be able to save your header as a jpg.

Now remember, if you want to go back to your software to change your header, when you open the software you will click on “Load image from hard disk” and then navigate to the file your header is located in. Put your file in the file John had you create earlier or one you will remember.

I then added a page to my blog – alanparcell.com/xheader, uploaded the header, adjusted the height and added some info.

what I didn’t like was no spell checker, but for all I know there might be one I just may have not seen it.

I’m impressed, there’s no way I was making this header in 5 days much less 5 minutes without a lot of help if I hadn’t used  XHeader.

I personally recommend this software as my header is proof of the quality and ease the software provides. Will I upgrade, I don’t know? I need to see the quality of the rest of the headers, then maybe.

To optin and download go to xheader.com

I don’t know if it’s me at that stage in life called reflection or being alone has me thinking about so called simpler times in the past.

I’m a family man, devoted to seeing my wife and children get all they need and a little of what they want.

As I replay my goals for Internet marketing and what I want to achieve it all keeps coming back to time.

I’m 48 years old and have lived, well ever since my first born arrived with a got to work to take care of my family attitude, fix the cars attitude, fix the house attitude, just fix every damn thing attitude.

Now I sit here alone…

Our house is a home. Not fancy, but a real touching stone for our kids and us also. It is alive and happy; breathing hope, resilience, expectations, safety and a whole lot of attitude from out teenagers.

Right now, they’re all on their way to Florida for spring break and once again I stayed back.

I seriously have not one good reason for not going!

I just think for so long it was all I new to take care of these guys that I just now realized, I”VE GOT THE TIME to go; but didn’t? This time work could have waited.

Times were simpler for me when I was younger, all I did was work, play and worry. I never gave serious thought to when I was 28 and a new dad what life would be like at 48?

Man, I’ve got it all and I don’t mean money that’s for sure.

One thing I don’t have enough of is “Stop and smell the roses” in my life.

I have been so busy keeping my foot on the peddle that there are no more throwing the kids in the back seat, grabbing a bucket of chicken or making sandwiches and going two-tracking in the woods.

I am slowly learning to appreciate life. I had few examples as a child to learn this as my father was a business man who put the dollar before his own family and still does and my mom was just, mom. She tried.

I can’t imagine not seeing my grand kids unless I physically couldn’t, what could be more important?

As I continue life, I want to be successful in all walks of life, not just money.

Yesterday I had a chance to stop and smell the roses and it passed me by, just like countless times before. But really it’s not the same because in the past when the kids were little Sue didn’t work and it was all on me.

Well, for sure I still have some learning to do and priorities to rearrange, maybe this is a start because this one hurts – I should be with those guys!

What I’ve learned about me:

- I still talk more than do with my family, even after I said it would be different.
- I am now recognizing this flaw (A little to late in this case) and am trying to stop.
- It’s not to late to change and I must take action.

So, if you are motivated by your future and the Internet, make your priorities the ones you will do over the exact same way 20 years from now and start by taking time to smell the roses.

Outsourcing in the simplest terms to me means,
having someone or something else do it for you.

Makes sense.

I hear many people say I can’t outsource because
“I don’t have the money”… not true.

You might not have the money in hand but you do have
something that can become money.

If you want to outsource and don’t have the money,
trade! Outsource your time to outsource your needs.

Listen, I’m not interested in article marketing as
far as writing… Can’t stand it! But there is a
17 yr old young lady who’s father is a friend of mine
and she wants to be a writer. Oh how she can write. You
seen American Idol? Yeah she would be a contender if
the show was called American Writer.

Anyway, she’s not into marketing, is going to college in
the fall and we have got quite a partnership going.

I tell her what to research and write about, she writes the
article, slaps it into TheBestSpinner, makes about 20 variations
of the article, I pay her, I send the articles out to directories
and get back links.

See, this is outsourcing at the simplest.

I make enough money to pay this young lady $500.00/mo through
commissions from Clickbank, Commission Junction and I also pay
her by means of other ways I call trading.

I trade… I trade just enough to get what I want. Well written
articles that drive my sites to the top of the search engines
by using long tail keywords.

Here’s the deal for me. I don’t make enough money with this scenario
to pay her, say what! You just said!

I bet you thought I was going to solve your outsourcing problems
with my secret formula that will make you a million dollars a month
starting next week and here’s my site with my mansion and Lamborghini
and million dollar water view to prove it.

Did I forget anything in that spiel??

Oh yes, back to reality.

This way to outsource is obvious to many, but not to everyone. Outsource
in a different way.

If I make $500/mo on eBay, my writer is paid! If I referee in the sports
leagues in my area and make $500/mo she is paid. if I take a part time job
for $500/mo… Yes! She is paid.

Do you get the idea here I would rather do something else than write articles?
well your right, I would.

Now many will say this is wasteful, but for you, maybe it is helpful.

Outsource your time to outsource your needs.

I know what I want and what it will look like in a finished product, I just
don’t have the patience or willpower to achieve it, so I have someone else
do it for me and I pay them by doing something else that I would rather be
doing.

To me this keeps my mind healthy. I want to market and love the concept
enough to invest with John Thornhill and to be successful I need to outsource
article writing without taking money out of my pocket. So I trade time for
articles.

Figure out your needs and if you want to outsource to achieve them, then
outsource your time to outsource your needs if you don’t have the money.

Just one more thing. If your wondering, I write 100% of the content on this blog. No ifs ands or buts it’s all mine. C’mon, does this read like American Writer material? 

Just checked my email and received an email with
a tone of discontent.

A couple days ago I came across a blog from a lady who
is just starting her marketing career.

I thought her blog was decent, like I think mine is.

Nobody’s work is perfect all the time and although I
mentioned in my email I thought she had a great start
that something was off with her site. Well for a fact
something wasn’t right.

I won’t say what here, as I do not want to upset her more
than she is. I won’t make public what she said as this
might reveal her and that is not the object.

I will say this, I went back to her blog and she corrected the
the inconsistencies and it looks much better.

Hey, I’m no no-it-all guy and if I was, I would never want to
intentionally offend anyone. If there is something wrong with
my site, please take a minute and email me (My contact info
is under my about page).

I posted this article because I try to learn from every situation
and angle I can, as I believe the only thing standing between my
dreams and reality is me.

I have read and reread my email to this young lady to see what went
wrong? I thought her blog was a great start, and I let her know that
as well as a problem; I believed it was a problem anyway and she
has changed her blog, so she saw something to.

But she let me know she worked her butt off on it, that she isn’t
perfect and maybe “I should look in my backyard” before I “cut down
someone else’s work”…ummm

I still believe I communicated to her all the good work I saw and still
do. I believe I encouraged her to stay focused and work her plan and not
to get side tracked. I mentioned to keep the big picture in mind and take
minor setbacks as learning experiences and go from there. (Through a series of 3 emails)

I don’t think she saw anything I wrote except her blog had a mistake and
she might want to correct it and she is a loser cuz I said so.

Here is what I learned. No matter how much you try to write it, communicating
by any means except face to face can leave room for a misunderstanding.

I need to double make sure when I write or communicate through any form
that I look from the other person’s view.

I also need to remember that very few people want to disrupt me and my life.
Few people are going to go out of their way to cut me down and to take
what someone says about my online presence into serious consideration but
not to personally and that anytime you lay something out in the open for
people to see you must have thick skin.

I am me and that’s just how it is. Today I reminded myself to think twice
before communicating (Kind of like; measure twice, cut once) and to grow
thick skin, especially when you honestly wanted to help someone and all they
could do is cut you down for it.

Does anyone else in the world have satellite Internet?

It is by far the fastest internet service you can get if you are not in a city and cannot access high speed any other way.

Still, it is much slower than normal high speed service; that part
I can deal with.

What I can’t deal with is limited bandwidth. With any satellite Internet
service plan you will only have a certain amount of allowable daily
bandwidth, at least in the US (This is law).

Now let me tell you, I believe I have upgraded to the plan with the most
daily bandwidth available through HughesNet which is 425 megabytes per 24
hours. Yes I pay $80.00/mo but I need high speed access.

If I exceed that my access is severely limited and basically my service
becomes inoperable. This is a total drag. Pay attention to 425 megabytes
it can go fast.

I am constantly looking for ways to save megabytes and not exceed my daily
allowance. Of course the best way is to go into town and surf the fast stuff,
but thats not always possible.

One way is by using http://www.downloadhelper.net/

Downloadhelper is a free FireFox plugin, meaning you must have the FireFox
browser to use it (FireFox is free).

Downloadhelper is a tool that allows you to download most videos to your
computer. This is very valuable to someone in my position because if I
download an instructional video it may take up 150 megabytes of my daily
download limit just for one video. You guys with high speed unlimited
access have no idea how lucky you are.

Now if I download that video on to my computer, I can watch it over and
over without incurring that megabyte usage again and again. Plus I have
the video to refer to for further reference when I need it.

It’s easy to install with simple instructions to get started.

If you have satellite Internet service  this is a must have to save bandwidth.
Even if you have unlimited bandwidth this is a sweet program to D/L videos
to your computer that you otherwise couldn’t.

Checkout http://www.downloadhelper.net/ it is completely free and totally cool.

Now some times a video will be set up with no download available. In these
circumstances there is awesome software called Replay Video Capture made
by Applian Technologies.

This software has the ability to record all videos.

Key Features:

- Record ANY Web Video
- Turn DVD’s into WMV or MPEG files.
- Capture Webcam Sites
- Make PowerPoint Videos
- Capture Video Chat Sessions

Replay Video Capture does one thing and one thing well and that is record anything you watch from your PC.

Replay Video Capture is not free. There is a free trial for 7 days (2 minute
recording max to test it) and then a couple of options at $39.95 and I
think $79.95.

Check out:

These tools make it easy for me to save bandwidth and download anything I’m
watching on my PC.

What do you consider the real value of a solid business
relationship or any relationship as far as that goes?

As I make my way through John Thornhills Masterclass I try to
pickup on the not so obvious stuff.

Sure the classes are excellent, well thought out and easy to
follow and understand, but it’s the behind the scene stuff that
can be valuable.

I’m beginning to notice who John surrounds himself with. Not just
people who will promote him, become affiliates or can make him money.
All of which I’m sure the above applies, but the people around him
are the ones who seem to be there day in and day out. People he trust
not just as JV’s but people he hangs with in his everyday Internet life.
People he turns to for not only business purposes but real advice and
ideas that do not have an agenda behind it.

As I continue on with the course, I realize this is not common. In past
posts I make mention of clearing my email from unwanted mail. Not spam,
I mean people who I’ve subscribed to; email me everyday wanting to sell
me something without any thought behind it. I noticed these guys have
little or no content. Sometimes my name, you gotta check this out and a
thanks? wtf!.. Excuse my language.

I’ve started to interact with a few of John’s associates and they seem
to be straight forward and show the kind of mentality John shows. They
do what they say and follow through with it. This doesn’t surprise me.

What I am seeing is a group of like minded individuals with the same core
belief of giving and then receiving. Makes a lot of sense and although
talked little, is front and center as to what these people are accomplishing.

For me, another lesson learned. Don’t just say it. Live it and do it.
Doing the right thing in our world still means a lot to a lot of people.
Seems like the people not doing right are the ones in the headlines

Business relationships form through mutual needs and wants. Lasting
business relationships form through mutual respect, similar thinking
and doing what is common and right.

I bet the people I unsubscribed from have no idea what I’m talking about.
It’s easy to say it’s important to form a bond with another, but it’s not
always easy to do.

For me the real value of a business relationship is keeping the other
person’s best interest at heart. That and honesty is a simple mix that will
take an acquaintance in the simplest form and turn them into a valued
solid business relationship.