Tie Your Face Book Account into Your Blog

I wanted to share some of the viral success I have been having lately using social networking. In all the years I have been writing I have never seen the number of reads for my articles build up so quickly. I am able to track this at Ezine Articles and it seems to me it has tripled.

The primary reason is the number of people I have been making friends with on Face Book. One individual after reading my article passed it on to 50 people. Who knows where it went from there. Write a decent article and it seems it will get to everyone.

It has been said that Face Book is a party and your blog is your home.

It seems some of you don't have a home yet and I want to encourage you.

Face Book is where you chat and mingle and get to know people on one level but your blog is where you invite people to know you on a more intimate level.

Don't be like the guy at the party who stands in the corner and won't talk to anyone.

I don't know if everyone realizes it but a blog will be crawled by the search engines spiders that are hungry for content. If you want to know if your blog has a presence on the Internet simply plug in the name of your blog and your name into Google and see what comes up. The same can be done for any article you have written by simply putting the "title of your article" in quotations in the Google search bar.

Personally I like to use blogger as my blog choice for a few reasons and here are a few things I suggest you should do if you use blogger.

1) Do change your blog template from time to time

There a number of templates to amuse you if you get bored with one. Simply click on layout and then choose a template. You can preview it before you publish it and commit to it. I find that lighter backgrounds with darker print are easiest on the eyes. You can fool around with colors, fonts, or style of writing at any time on any template.


2) Do post a banner for your business on your blog

This is done by pasting your html code from your banner in the blogger back office. First click layout and then add a gadget. Next select html/javascript and paste it in there. Give it a title and click save. Also create a badge from Face Book and add it to your blog. You will find this on the bottom left of your profile page at Face Book.


3) Do have a You tube area

If YouTube is the number 3 most visited website (and Face Book is number five) getting billions of hits a day it will pay you to take advantage of this traffic. Have a YouTube area on your blog where people can watch videos. You do this by once again clicking add a gadget and then add video bar. Don't check off anything in the set up area. Only select the topic of the videos you want to rotate on your blog in the keyword area. Punch in the keywords and leave it alone.

4) Do post to your blog regularly

This freaks a lot of people out because they feel they have no content to use. If this is the case don't sweat it. Simply use other people's content. Go to Ezine Articles and poke around. Every article there can be republished as long as you keep the links from the author in tact on your blog. There isn't an article writer with Ezine Articles that doesn't want you to post his article on your blog. Take advantage of this. Just remember to keep the author and his links on your blog post and you know longer have to fuss about having no content. If you do write articles remember your posts are sent to the search engines each time you do.

5) Do embrace other blogs that are similar to yours

If you tie yourself to other people's blogs and they to you there is reciprocal traffic everyone receives. Try to post comments on other people's blogs and invite comments on your posts. You can moderate them if you like which will require you to look over people's comments first and either reject or publish what they said. Remember the more you comment the more links you have out there for the spiders to pick up on.

The power of social networking can propel you forward very rapidly if you are diligent. Just do the little things daily and watch it snowball.

There's Still Barf On My Face Book Wall!

I thought maybe we could put a dint in this sucker but I was wrong. I thought if we did a podcast with Frank and Mike called "don't barf on my wall" that people would listen. Frank even did a video of the same title and posted it at you tube. It seems all our efforts may have been in vain.

Why you ask?

Because I'm still getting barfs on my face book wall everyday. They even show up in my inbox.
I'm weary of all this scrubbing and I'm out of cleaner.

What's a barf you ask? A barf is some one who posts an ad for their business on your wall the second they meet you. They don't bother to check your profile to see that you already have 2 businesses that you are working, or ask anything along the lines of getting to know you or offer something of value to you to start the friendship off.

No their first course of action is to barf an ad for their business on your wall.

It is kind of like meeting someone at a party who before they shake hands with you they throw up on your shoes. Aren't you charmed to meet them.

Or the telemarketers you slam the phone down on. Or the vacuum cleaner salesman you threw out of your house for being obnoxious.

So I posted this on my Face Book profile.."don't lead with your business..get to know people first" thinking I had finally come up with a slogan people would grab.

Maybe THIS would work I told myself.

Three people showed up and said they agree with me and said good things.

Then a fourth guy showed up, said he agreed too... and then he posted a barf on my wall for his business.

This is amazing I thought to myself.

Who taught people to do this? Are they getting results this way?

I'm starting to think it is some sort of barfing virus going around that has no cure.

Maybe there's a Face Book secret society that meets at midnight dressed in black hoods that circle a bonfire chanting "must barf on wall..must barf on wall". Yes a bunch of Face Book zombies who just can't help themselves.

I can always tell when I'm chatting to people when they are going to burp up their business on me. I haven't even asked them anything about their business but here we go. It's like I'm standing in front of them and I can see that queasy look on their face. "Look out..here comes a barf"


I don't know what to do to stop this tidal wave of puke coming at me from every direction.

Maybe I need to run across America like Forrest Gump. I'll call it the "Face Book anti-barf run". All the anti-barfers could join me and we could all get in shape at the same time. We could finish up at the White house and have some sort of focus group discussion.

Although I'm sure the president has better things to do.

Maybe I'm just going to have to face it. It never stops.

I'd ask you to pass this article around but your probably busy cleaning up barf off your own wall.

How to Take Your Face Book Marketing to a Deeper Level

I am going to assume some basics about your Face Book experience so far. There are lots of videos on Youtube out there on how to use Face Book for marketing so we'll say you have seen them and are up to speed somewhat.

I am going to assume you know how to set up your profile so that it looks professional. You have some pictures of your family and you talk about your interests and your pet peeves. You have been quite extensive on your favorite movies, music, books, sports and spiritual persuasion..etc

All of it designed to give people a glimpse of who you are.

Let's say your profile picture is not something foolish you were doing at a party or a cartoon . It actually looks professional and respectable.

I am going to presume you know how to add friends by typing in the search bar your target market or the type of people you want to know. You have been taught how to add 20 or 30 friends a day and are faithfully doing it growing your list.

You also understand that you can send out a broadcast message by using that box on your page to all your friends on what you are doing and you also occasionally ask people to join your business in this area too.

Let's assume you faithfully post on other people's walls because you were told this was the thing to do to get traffic to your page and your business.

Maybe you have even started your own group and have a large amount of people contributing to your group and sharing ideas with you.

Still people in your business are not coming in fast enough. What is it you are not doing?

The answer is so simple and obvious isn't it.

You forgot that social networking is a contact people sport. You forgot to take an interest in other people lives first before you rammed your business down their throats.

I can't believe how many people try to get me to join whatever they are doing without so much as a hello. Right off the bat I get a canned spam message about joining their business in my inbox immediately after I added them as a friend that morning.

When people engage in this I immediately send them to the bonehead file in my mind. I'll give them a little grace but if they continue to be STUPID I simply delete them as friends.

If I hear "you need more leads and you need more money in your pocket" one more time I am going to the kitchen to get a fork so I can stab myself in the EYE over and over.

So what is it you should be doing you ask.

Here's the deep secret all successful internet entrepreneurs know. Build your list..GET TO KNOW YOUR LIST..then and only then market to your list.

Take an interest in people and what they are about before you even mention your fabulous business you are working. Try to give people something of value to start with before they ever hear about your business.

You will be amazed how talking about trivial things and common interests produces results.

Personally I like to steer people to recent marketing videos I found interesting or send them a free e-book that was helpful.

The truth is only one out of ten people you talk to is ready to join your business. The other nine are already in one, or busy doing other things. Timing in your marketing is everything.

The best you can hope for is to make friends with people. Friends may help you down the line or steer you to someone who your business may be right for. Friends can contribute wisdom to you in many areas. Friends may be able to give you a heads up about a lot of things.

Enemies or people you ticked off because you spammed them will make sure they contribute to your demise. Face Book themselves will label you a spammer if you are too aggressive.

In conclusion I'd like to quote one of my favorite lines from "Fast times at Ridgemont high" when Sean Penn refused to wear his shirt in the restaurant and Judge Reinhold pointed to the sign that said "no shirt, no shoes ,no service" and then he said real slow..." READ it... Learn it..... Live it."

This quote is directed at those of you that are going to continue your business spamming ways.

Automated Lead Generation Systems Versus Social Network Marketing

I am always amazed at how fast things change in this world of technology we live in. Lately I have been thinking about all these lead generation programs one could join and if perhaps they are about to go the way of the dinosaur. I can't believe the people in this type of home business are doing that well and if they are I don't believe it will be for much longer.

I guess the question is to me is why do I need some lead capture page (or youtube video) bragging about how I generate leads? Then I'm supposed to advertise all over the net in the hope of attracting some poor deluded soul just because he happens to be bored and gullible enough one day to fill out his name and email and hand it over to me. Now I'm hoping he comes on board with me and my automated system. Why? So I can teach him to email people to death extolling the virtues of my automated lead generation system and how it is working for me generating me 100's of leads a week and making me rich.

There is only one problem with pushing a lead generation program.

What if my new sign up happens to watch the news? There has been countless stories lately on social network marketing.

What if he learns that face book has some 150,000,000 users or My Space an estimated 240,000,000 at last count. Then you got Friendsters, Direct Matches, Twitter..the list goes on.

What if he figures out he can open an account for free and establish a profile in either My Space or Face Book (or wherever) and even put links to his home business right on his page.

What if he could learn things about other people simply by looking at their profiles?

Then there is the chance that he might just figure out how to add friends to his friend list to the tune of 30 or 40 a day. All he would have to do is punch in the type of people he wants to add in the search bar and bang thousands at his fingertips just a click away. Then of course his friends will have friends who may want to add him. Suddenly his list is going upwards daily.

Then of course he may just notice the chat thing at the bottom of the page. Oh my goodness all my friends are online right now he discovers. What if he starts a conversation with them and starts talking about their businesses and a little about his.

Suddenly he can figure out who may want to look at his business and concentrate his efforts. He can even go to his friends profile and see the business they have or lack of one. Talk about who you may want to target or not target!

OK I am being a bit of a comedian here. My point is obvious or at least it should be to everyone.

Why do I need some insensitive system to generate leads for me when I have millions on Face Book or My Space that I can actually see what they are about before I ever even mention my business to them.

To me and a lot of people it is just far a superior way to bring people into your home business. No doubt some people are going to dislike me for saying all this and exposing that their thinking is most likely obsolete. I think they need a new business because leads are simply not a problem any more. At least to me. I hope you can see the writing on the wall.

Anyone who thinks that social network marketing doesn't work for business is just silly and I hope I have explained why.

Wow..Amazing New Home Business In 2009. 4 Things to Consider Before You Join!

Well here we are in the new year and no doubt you have the opportunity to join the latest online business in Pre-Launch. How about becoming a founding member so you can make $10,000 a month to start. How about never having to sign up anyone or do anything and still make a huge income. Could it be true?

I want to give you a bit of a heads up before you lose money because you didn't really think it through. Just in case you thought the internet was some sort of parallel universe where only sugar coated things can happen.

Of course I am having a bit of fun here making light of some of the catch phrases out there. The truth is the internet is a breeding ground for every scam imaginable. I hate to say it I have been suckered in more than a few times in my day. As a measuring stick if you write articles and you haven't lost at least 500 bucks to some program you are a rookie and don't have my respect yet. I dare not read your article because your turn is probably coming to be taken. Seeing how I have I am now qualified to speak on this.

Enough rambling! Without getting too negative here what should one do if one is pretty much new to the internet. Let's say you want to start a good online business but don't know what to look for.

Here are a few good common sense pointers before you join any program.

#1) Who is the CEO of the company you want to go into business with?

This is obvious but you would be surprised how often this gets overlooked. I actually joined a program once and then I googled the guy who owned the company and found out he was a major scam artist with a trail of angry people following him. Needless to say I dropped that business opportunity quickly and ran like a scalded dog.

It only takes a second to do a little background check on the person at the head of the program. If you can't email the guy and talk to him, or get an idea where he lives on the planet chances are he is trying to be elusive and is not someone who is capable of caring about your success in his company . You should be able to see and talk to the CEO of the company if they are worth your time and money.

2)Research the company goals and direction first.

How creative is the concept and timely for these economic times. Do they have a winning track record. Any past success you can look at as a benchmark. If they have a website click on "about us" or the "compensation plan". Reading the fine print can be enlightening. What looked like a lucrative pay plan may have a few qualifiers before they let you make any money.

3)What is their marketing strategy?

How do they plan to attract clients or affiliates. What is the target market? Do they have leads for you or are you on your own there? What does your back office look like and what kind of tools are there? What is your role and what do you do to keep business coming in?

It has been my experience that if they tell you that no work is involved for you to earn money then you'd be better off to stab yourself in the eye with a fork than join up. That's how it's going to feel anyway after you march along paying your monthly fees only to find out there is no "magic spillover" from the sponsors above you and you end up hundreds of dollars in the hole.

4)Who is the person introducing you?

How much experience do they have and can you talk to them. What interest do they have in your success. Can you pick up a phone and get help from them if you needed it? Maybe they just wanted to sign you up and are too busy to care about you. Getting to know your sponsor is never a bad idea ahead of time before you join.

So there you have it. Don't say I didn't warn you. If you can't be bothered to do these then there is a good chance you will lose money. Make a good choice with your new amazing online business.

I Hate Snow

Hey gang. It has been snowing forever up here in Kelowna and everything is buried under 3 feet of snow. I pretty much can't drive anywhere (except down to the mailbox to see if anybody loves me) because where I live unless the snow plows come by I'll never get out of my neighborhood even though I have semi good tires on my Mazda.

Well when I say semi good I mean they're all seasons but at least new. Yet when it snows like this I'm a little hooped. I can't go very far.

All I can do is hang around the house and wait for things to happen and gawk out my front window.

But hey I can watch some of my neighbors whip around the neighborhood in their big SUV's,Trucks and Hummers with their big snow tires. Burning donuts and grinning. I hate that.

And I can also watch people walking their dogs with big leashes( so they can poop on my lawn) and looking happy about it. I don't know what so fun about winter and dog walking. I hate this ritual too.

And shoveling my driveway. I must of done it 15 times in the last week. I need a bigger shovel and a new pair of gloves. For sure I have come to hate that.

And I'm pretty sure deer hate snow. There are quite a few roaming around my area. I saw one at six in the morning yesterday looking for something to eat. But everything is under 3 feet of snow. He went away hungry with a "this is pointless" look on his face.

And I'm pretty sure the police, ambulance attendants, and tow truck companies also hate snow. I've seen too many ugly accidents lately. Nothing funny about this.


And I'm starting to hate Christmas music. Especially Shania Twain and Celine Dion. They're both Canadian and so am I. So I can hate them if I want to. Shut up already both of you.

No I can't really think of anyone that likes snow. Except maybe skiers, snow board freaks, snow mobilers and ice fisherman,. And you guessed it. I hate them all too.

But maybe I'm getting a little stir crazy. Maybe I'm the grinch and this is "whoville" Maybe I should settle down and just be thankful for a house, food, hot coffee, Christmas lights,
my computer, my guitar, my beautiful wife, my kids and my health.


But on second thought why does it have to SNOW so much. I hate snow!

Business Social Networks. What to do and what not to do

Business social networks are the latest rage that everybody is getting on board with. There is a right and a wrong way to use these sites and I want to touch on a few issues.

What these sites are not is a place for you to blast your ad daily to other contacts there. It doesn't seem to matter how many times this gets said there are still people that seem to want to send you canned business spam messages non stop. They even post to the forum discussion area of the site as though their business is some sort of a discussion. Stupid to the max!

Don't misunderstand me. Everyone is there to promote their business opportunity and we all know it. The fact of the matter is nobody signs up with somebody they don't even know. You should be there to actually get to know people and people should get to know you. If I were to go into business with you what could I expect from you along the lines of friendship and expertise.

It is actually exactly the same as the real world. I am much more likely to buy a product or service from someone I know and trust as opposed to salesman who jumps on me when I walk in the door.

The way to think of these sites is like a big party. You wouldn't walk up to people and say "Hey want to join my business" without even introducing yourself. You'd be the biggest jerk at the party.

All of the preceding chat may be a bit redundant so here is what I feel should be done to be successful.

#1) Daily invite others

New people are joining rapid fire and this is your chance to make a first impression. Just saying welcome and inviting them to be your friend is all that is necessary. Try to do at least 5 people a day. Read about them first. There may be some people you don't want or need to connect with.

#2) Comment on others blog posts

Showing genuine interest in other people's blogs is the key. Once again there seems to be people that want to blast their ad here. Stupid to the max again. Just be real and don't even comment if you don't really care about what they are saying. Although I think you should leave a hyperlink to your business somewhere in the comment. Truthfully I have learned a lot about marketing just by reading other established internet entrepreneurs thoughts.

#3) Ask questions about others

Go to their page and ask genuine questions about their business or family. Once again we are building relationships.

#4) Add videos to your page

Make your page as educational and interesting as possible. There are lots of people on Youtube that have a wealth of wisdom you can tap into. Download their video and put it on your site.

#5) Participate in groups and discussions

Set yourself a goal like I will post 5 intelligent comments to discussions today. Be consistent and once again hyperlink your business in your posts.

Success in home business is a matter of getting your presence about you and your brand out there on the web. What kind of reputation do you want? Remember bad reputations travel twice as fast as good ones.

Traffic to Your Website. Are You the Tortoise Or the Hare?

We all know the old fable of the tortoise and the hare. I have come to realize that the tortoise is what you want to be when trying to get traffic to your website.

The hare approach takes you down a path of believing that one can be made rich overnight. Buy this tool and your troubles are over. Follow this method and then traffic will suddenly appear. It never happens and you just run around in circles wasting money.

Well like it or not the internet and running an online business are still subject to the laws of the universe that all of us live in. Hard work and perseverance will work here just like anywhere else offline you may be working. People will take notice of you if walk down the right paths on the internet.

The following is a list of things that the tortoise would do everyday to promote his business.

#1)Make a least 5 contacts everyday. There are lots of lead sources out there for FREE. These can be found on sites like face book, my space etc. They don't even have to be business contacts at first. Making friends is wise and the more contacts you have the better. Even if they have no interest in your affiliate program or starting a home business. They may have friends that they will steer to you down the road if they like you.

#2)Join a social business network. These sites are the new rage and your target market is going to be there. You don't have to join a lot of them. Just one or two good ones. The important thing to remember is not to bash people over the head with your business. Treat it like you are at a party. Build friendships by genuinely taking an interest in other people's businesses and lives. Posting blogs, adding comments,adding friends,posting videos of others,creating your own video, and participating in discussions is the tortoise approach and it will work over time.

#3)If you don't have a blog website get one and post to it daily. It can even be like a public daily diary if you want. Search engines will pick up on your blogging. Remember you are building a brand and your blog is where people will find out about you. Lots of pictures of yourself and your family are good here so learn how to use the blog layout in the back office. You can put your affiliate link somewhere on the page thus promoting your business. Start a blog network and add other peoples blogs you like. This will draw traffic from other blogs to you as well. Link a few other sites with traffic to your blog but not too many. Otherwise it can look too busy and cluttered and turn people off.

#4)If you can, learn to write articles and submit them to free article sites. It is really not that hard and everyone has a field they feel expert in. There are lots of categories for you to write in and at the end of every article is your signature box where you can steer people back to your blog where your affiliate links lurk. If your articles are good they will get picked up by other websites and it will have a viral effect and your link will be found on lots of pages. Write them all the time and get your name out there.

#5)Consider joining Twitter. This is the latest rage where people with similar interests share short little comments like "I'm at the airport" or "my car won't start". Your chat can only be 140 characters and Twitter counts it down for you when you post. The amazing thing is you are forming friendships which eventually turns into business for you. It may seem pointless when you first look into it but like I said it is the latest rage.

So there you have the things I know will work over time for your home business. There are tons of good affiliate programs and home businesses out there so in my mind that isn't the key factor in your success. Finding the right program with the greatest pay plan is secondary. Can you do the tortoise things? Can you eat an elephant one bite at a time? Yes we can(as Obama would say)

"NO THANKS" he said "I have a REAL JOB"

In this day and age should we have a home business or put all our confidence in the traditional good paying job?

I emailed a potential prospect the other day with an invitation to join me in my home business and he e-mailed me back. "No thanks"he said" I have a real job" boasting as though having and working a home business was foolish and a waste of time.

Well I have a real job too I thought to myself. I own my own window cleaning business. Although my window cleaning is very profitable I still have to be there to make it fly. If I don't go to work the money stops. I guess I could hire employees but why be bothered with that hassle.Yet still I am my own boss and I set my hours and to a certain extent my rate of pay. Personally I love the freedom it gives me. I can take any day off I want too. Far better than working for someone else.

So this guy has a " real job " What exactly does that mean I pondered. I say it means "Just Over Broke". You see the company tells him when to show up and when to go home. He trades hours for dollars. Usually 8 hours a day. They pay him what they decide and maybe he gets a 50 cent an hour raise every 6 months if he sticks with it but truthfully it is not enough to make ends meet.

Then of course they can lay him off if they want too or even fire him. But hey he likes the company benefits he pays for like medical, extended health, and maybe life insurance. At the end of his "working for someone else" career he gets a gold watch and a pat on the back. Maybe they throw him a retirement party or maybe not as they hand him his hat and coat on the way out the door. What then? Maybe he qualifies for a pension but it isn't enough to live on. He looks back on the years and his family and realizes he doesn't really know them because he was always working to get ahead. Getting ahead never happens though because the power was always on the employer's side. But hey he had a "real job"

Now let's look at a home business. The term residual income should be the key word here. That means it is money that comes in even if you stop working. Possibly it can still build as you can benefit from the work of others you have introduced to the company. This is called leverage. Leverage and residual income are terms Bill Gates is very familiar with.

So let's say you continue to work it a just few hours a day. It still has the potential to grow even bigger and here's the thing. With today's technology on the internet you don't have to do the old fashion thing of having silly meetings in your living room or making a list of your warm market and then bugging your relatives. No everything can be done by group mailers or voice dialers. Hardly the same as the old days.

I guess it is kind of like the flee in the jar syndrome. You can take the lid off but the flee never jumps out of the jar. Why? Because the flee has been trained that is as high as he can go. Most people would rather be the flee. Sad isn't it.

No it's not even an argument to me. Why not have a real job for a season and work a home business too. I think I would be a fool not to try to add another income especially when it only takes a few hours a day. My friend the flee can have his "real job" and put all his eggs in that basket if he wants too.

My Cheating Wife. Email Told The Story

After 7 years of marriage you'd think I'd be beyond suspecting my wife of cheating. You'd think I wouldn't dare go reading her private email. It seems that's not the case at all. Maybe it is because she is such a little hottie most of me can't figure out what's she is doing with me anyway (scroll down the right of my blog for proof).

Oh sure I was handsome a few years back but lately at 46 I'm feeling not so attractive. She is 34 and in her prime. I know men are hitting on her daily.

So there I was snooping through this thing called facebook that she was a member of for some reason. I know her passwords so it wasn't that hard to gain access. Although I don't really get what it is all about it seems to me it's some kind of sleazy single site. Red flag number one.

Checking her inbox I read through a couple of her emails from her co-workers. Just looking for something incriminating I guess. But WAIT! Who is this Shane guy. It seems he is coming to town and wants to maybe meet her for coffee. I couldn't believe what I was reading. "It sounds like fun" she replied. Ooh... wasn't that SPECIAL!

I snooped a little further to see how long they had been communicating. I discovered he was single and having trouble meeting a good woman. My wife even offers some advice on how to go about it. Maybe she plans to be his good fortune. Getting really bugged now.

It seems they had been carrying on for months. Back and forth in email. " Love Shane" and "Love Ady" all over the place. Jealousy demons perked up on my shoulders and began to throw thoughts at me. "Talk about your smoking gun" and " your such a fool" they jeered.

I decided to print out every email and circle in pink felt pen all the troubling parts. I even added little comments like" I wonder what Doctor Phil would say about this". Then I would throw it in her face when she got home from work. Or maybe I would call her on her break which was coming up soon. Oh the drama of it all. What could she possibly say? I had the proof right there in black and white and pink. Part of me was into this although I felt like a sap for not picking up on this sooner.

The interesting thing was we were just about to move out of the place we were in as the landlord had sold and was wanting us out. Perhaps the timing was perfect for me to get a place of my own. I could start over I told myself. I had been through divorce before.

I thought about calling my lawyer for advice. A paper trail is important in divorce. I decided to first call her as it was now her break. After all if my life with her was over I needed to know now.

So I called her work. " Could I have Ady in the kitchen Please" I said. "One moment" the receptionist said. "Kitchen Ady speaking" "Oh hey honey how is it going" I said planning to start our usual conversation and then confront her with my revelation of what a TRAMP she was. " Oh not bad but it is so busy.. she went on for awhile about her co-workers.... Finally I interrupted and said "So honey I was reading your emails and I just want to know, who is this Shane guy" with a matter of fact tone in my voice as though I had just discovered a box of money in the attic or something.

There was silence for a bit.

"You were reading my emails" she said mildly protesting." My cousin Shane you mean"

"Oh your cousin" I said sheepishly " yea I told you about him, remember, what about him? " Never mind " I said " See you when you get home "

Like Solomon says in proverbs a wise man gets both sides of the story before he forms a conclusion.

Blog Tagging. What's It All About?

Ok. Maria did this tagging thing with me. She doesn't know either who started the game, but it's a fun and creative way to get links back to your blog. If you get tagged, expect to write a post giving your reasons for blogging, include a link back to the person who tagged you. Just like I did with Maria above. Then tag 5 other bloggers. They will in turn put your link in their post just like this post. Personally I blog to get readers to my site and to build friendships. I hope you respond to this tag game.

God Idea Or Just A Good Idea

Are you doing things for God or are you doing the things of God? Does it seem odd to you that churches are always building new church buildings, buying sound systems, or starting programs they can't seem to afford. Every Sunday they spend more and more time grinding out offerings and perverting scripture to crank out the bucks for these projects.Then they insist God told them to do it.

What we need to understand is there is the permissible, and the perfect will of God. It is possible to do programs or ministries that WE have invented to do. Don't get me wrong God will bless it as far as he can. You can't give a cup of cold water in his name and lose your blessing. I believe that ministries that the Lord is truly behind and leading you into, and that are in the perfect will of God, will be supernaturally financed by God. There will be no need for begging, whining, or sending out appeal letters for money. Where the Lord leads the Lord provides.

I know of a teaching ministry who began his ministry with rather odd instructions from God. He was told to send out all his teaching tapes for free, pay for tape duplication, buy the postage and the envelopes, and never let another human being know of any need he may have. God said he would be his source. All of this he started with 10 dollars in his pocket and no source of income in sight at the time. He was told to go to God for any need he may have. Today this man's ministry is worldwide on the internet and he still sends out no appeal letters nor does he take up offerings anywhere unless it comes from the pastor's prompting. He is well taken care of and God has done countless financial miracles. I believe this is a man who has heard from God. To me this is a God idea and the way we all ought to operate when we start out in ministry. The things God tells us to do are probably going to seem completely bizarre but because God is leading it will be blessed.

I know of a prophet who spent 12 years as a pastor who became very unsettled in his spirit. He said it was like taking a bath with your socks on. Something just wasn't right. Yet the church he was pastor of was providing him with a good living. One day he was in prayer when he heard the Lord say he never called him to be a pastor in the first place. The decision to become a pastor was his and not the Lord's. This man then went on to become one of the major prophets of our day. Kenneth Hagen is his name. It is very possible to get off track when it comes to hearing and moving in our call.

We can not always go by the written word. Paul was planning to go to Asia to preach. According to the written word in Paul's mind preaching everywhere was a good thing however the Holy Ghost forbade him to go to Asia at that time by way of a vision. The timing of God is pertinent and he has a perfect season for all things.

The Holy Spirit has the perfect plan and timing for us in all things we do if we will spend time to hear his instructions.

Tithing or God's Grace. Which Prospers You. Part 3

For years we have been taught that the way to prosper was by our giving. I submit to you it is by a deeper relationship with Jesus. Jesus will tell you what you need to do to prosper.

The fact of the matter is still that everything you hear on Christian television says that it is according to your tithing and how much we give which causes you to prosper." If you don't sew you won't reap " is what they try to say. The trouble is most of the scriptures they use are being lifted out of their setting making them say something that they are not at all talking about. They also use mostly old testament scriptures which were directed to servants of God who weren't born again. God treats his sons and daughters who have the nature of Christ in them a lot different than his old testament saints who had a death nature.

The first point you may want to consider is what Jesus said in Matthew 6 "look at the birds of the air; they don't sew or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they." He went on to say "look how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith." He then went on to say "seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

In case you haven't heard you are now a joint heir with Jesus. We are no longer under the supervision of the law. Paul spent most of his time in the new testament writing about this. You have access to all Jesus provided for you by way of the cross. When it comes to prosperity your foundational scripture should be 2Cor8:9 " For you know the GRACE of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor that you through his poverty, might become rich."

So what is the problem? Why isn't the body of Christ prospering the way it should? Why are we forced to finance the gospel with garage sales and bake sales and Hollywood has all the money to pump out whatever level of garbage they want?

I submit to you that lack of money is not the problem at all. How can I say that? Well because the word of God is true. The scripture I mentioned above means Jesus came to provide your prosperity on the cross and he succeeded. He did it once and the work was complete. Notice it doesn't say according to your tithing you might become rich.

So why aren't most of us walking in this truth? I think the reason is we are just flat out IMMATURE! We don't seek his kingdom first. We don't pray and submit to God in the area of our finances. Most Christians are in debt up to their eyeballs. Sadly we wouldn't even consider attending a budgeting class and yet managing your finances with Godly restraint is totally biblical. Does your church even have a budgeting class? Probably not because most churches are spending money on what they think is a good idea instead of what God has lead them to do. As a result they are also in debt up to their EYEBALLS.

The truth is God cannot pour out finances on Christians because they would spend it totally on themselves in a heartbeat. Even if Jesus did show up on a white horse with the golden wallet and say " I have come my child to get you totally out of debt" within a year most Christians would be right back in the same mess. No God is not out of money. Christians can't be trusted. Christians have itching ears when it comes to prosperity doctrine. We still are looking for our prosperity. It's time we grew up isn't it.

Our attitude ought to be how can I prosper the kingdom today because I know my father has all my needs met. This takes a willingness in prayer to change your heart and it's motive.

The more you pray the more the Holy Spirit will point out what you need to change. The answer most likely is not that you need to give more money. The answer most probably is that you need a relationship with God where you can hear clearly his counsel to you. Then respond to areas he is talking to you about. Some of us need to love our spouses more. Some of us need to care about our brothers more. Some of need to forgive someone..etc. I think you get my drift here. It is all about relationship with Jesus if we are ever going to be like him. God bless you as you consider these thoughts.

Internet Marketing. What Does And Doesn't Work? Part 2

Welcome back to our discussion on my experience of internet marketing. I will assume you read my first article and we will pick up where I left off. I only will talk about things I have tried personally.

Blogs And Blog Comments

As I have written before about blogs the spider engines love to crawl them for content and you stand a much better chance of achieving higher rankings with a blog than a traditional website. Blogs are a lot like forums and allow you to become part of a community of others blogs with similar niches.

Commenting on other blogs and asking intelligent questions is an effective way to build back links to your blog. Only market yourself this way when you can be the solution to a question or problem posed by another blogger.

Having a "my blog network" list right on your blog front page will attract other bloggers to be a part of your network. Posting frequently to your blog will have the search engines visiting often. Blogger.com even pings your posts automatically for you to alert search engines of new content.

Blasters

At one point I was faithfully blasting out ads to so called millions of opt in subscribers that were supposed to be out there hungry to join my program. That was until I was able to track hits to my affiliate link. I discovered that this yielded not even one hit after a week of blasting. Need I say more?

Free Classified Ads

Although some people say they have had good response from this method this has not been my experience. I got some response from people trying to sell me on the program or marketing method they were in but no real interest in my program.

Free For All Listings

A complete waste of time. Being found in these can actually hurt you in the search engines. Slap yourself if you are doing these presently and cease immediately.

Forum Marketing

I have had good success with forums as they allow you to have a signature box at the bottom of all your posts. To join these go to www.bigboards.com and you will find lots. Faithfully make a few posts to these with intelligent questions or comments daily and watch your hits to your links climb.

Article Marketing

Of course article marketing is the most effective way of building a web presence there is on the net. This is because people primarily use the internet for information. It took me years to discover this. It doesn't take long to learn how to write articles if you have a little motivation. Submitting articles to article directories is the wisest move you can make.

Concentrate on the big ones like Ezine Articles and Article Base. A lot of people are intimidated by this because they think they can't write. As the saying goes if you can make a grocery list you can write an article. Once you get going instead of submitting manually you can get some article submission software which allows you to submit much quicker. Writing is a learned skill and what you should do is get a mentor and you'll be off to the races in no time.

So I hope this helps you in your internet marketing. All comments or questions welcome.

Internet Marketing. What Does And Doesn't Work

Let's talk a little more about the experiences I have had with Internet marketing online. In the interest of saving you some of the anguish I have had trying some of these methods. I am assuming you have an affiliate program that has given you a link and you are wondering how to market it. The first thing you may want to do is buy a domain name and forward your affiliate program link to it. Even better if you have a blog. Marketing your blog url is liked much more by the search engine spiders.

Safe lists

One of the first things I tried was safe lists. These are little groups of people that agree to receive emails from each other about affiliate programs they are in. There are literally thousands of them out there one can join for free. It then becomes a game of "Hey you join my program" and then they reply with " No thanks, I have a program but hey you join mine". Well you get the point here. Unfortunately I can't say this is a very effective way to find sign ups for your program. Also you have to agree to receive email ads from others and everyday you wind up clearing off hundreds of emails from your email account. If you are smart you can collect email addresses from the ads you receive and strike up business friendships by inquiring about other people's programs. This takes longer but is much more effective than shooting out email ads about your program everyday.

Traffic Exchanges Manual And Autosurf

These are websites that show your site to others as you view other sites. This is real traffic to your site but I would say manual exchanges where a person actually has to be there and view your site are preferred. This ensures they at least view your site for a time. Trafficswarm is the most effective one I have found simply because of it's text ads,the size of it's overall network, and it's search engine aspect which I feel produces targeted hits. I have gotten sign ups from them in my programs.

I would say stay away from these autosurf sites where you can leave the room or take a nap and it surfs itself racking up credits for you. These autosurfs where you can earn money tend be scams and the site simply disappears when they have suckered enough people into buying. Then they open up under another name. DO NOT PUT ANY MONEY IN THESE! You may win for awhile but eventually you will lose it.

Pay Per Click Search Engines

Of course the biggest and most familiar is Google adwords. What you do is bid on keywords that are frequently searched in Google. Others are also wanting these keywords so the more you are willing to pay the closer to the first few pages you will wind up when a search is done. You only pay for actual clicks from actual visitors so these are targeted hits. It can be very expensive with Google or any of the big search engines so set your self a budget.

A better route to go may be with some of the smaller search engines. Why? Because they have sign up incentives. They will offer you free pay per click money to get you going with them. Bonuses range anywhere from $5 to $550 in click credit. Even though these search engines are not as familiar they still will produce targeted hits to your site although at a slower pace than the big guys. To find these simply do a search in Google and punch in "free pay per click money" or anything along those lines. Meteor surf, Search post and Mammoth search are a few that offer money that I have tried with favourable results. Using a keyword search tool first to figure out what people are searching is wise.

Internet marketing is a big topic so I intend to write another article on this in the future so stay tuned for part 2.

Revival. False Christian Doctrine Has Got To Go

In the coming revival, we are not only going to see signs and wonders but I believe we will also see a revival of doctrine. All kinds false christian teaching is presently floating around out there. I believe Jesus is abruptly bringing it all to an end.

Just in case you thought Jesus isn't concerned with this you may want to consider some of the discussions he had with the Pharisees when he said " you whitewashed tombstones" or " you brood of vipers" when they tried to promote their own religion and put words in God's mouth.

Ever wonder why we have all these different denominations that have different beliefs about the scripture. It's because we have drifted away from the teacher. THE HOLY SPIRIT! The Holy Spirit always backs up Jesus and everything he did. There aren't 52 different ways to interpret any given scripture there is only one. God's interpretation. After all there is one God, one baptism, one saviour and one divine truth.

The Holy Spirit is not confused about what the Bible says. He was sent to lead us into all truth. The problem is that most denominations would rather hold to their little church doctrines. Most of the time they are trying to exclude vitally important principles of God. God has tolerated this in the past but I believe this will change in these final days.

"Well Brother, we just don't believe in that speaking in tongues thing. We think that passed away with the disciples. We don't accept that here in our church".

Is that so? I guess you'd better rip a few pages out of the Bible then. I have a problem with that because Jesus said this at the end of Mark 16:17 "and these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and they will drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people and they will get well."

As you can see Jesus clearly says if you are a believer you will speak in new tongues. Paul said " I thank God I speak in tongues more than you all". Speaking in tongues is actually the Holy Spirit in you praying the perfect will of the father on your behalf. You can either believe the scripture or you can hold to church doctrine and be politically correct among the church.

If you aren't speaking in tongues presently you are missing out on hearing from God. It has been my experience that the more you speak in tongues (not knowing what the spirit is praying) the quicker you begin to hear God in English (or whatever your native language may be) in your spirit. Detailed specific instructions will begin to come forth for your specific call. God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him.

This natural body we live in was not meant to understand the things of God as they are spiritually discerned. Our flesh is constantly warring against God. Even after we get born again we still have to learn to put to death the ways of our flesh.

In the second chapter of acts we see that God sent the baptism of the Holy Spirit. After this all the disciples moved in power and were able to lay hands on the sick and even raise the dead.

In these last days, in the coming revival, we will see this happening more frequently. It will come through those who are bold enough to step out of false doctrine and believe God for power to do the same things Jesus did and even greater things. Those who spend long hours speaking in tongues in their prayer closet. Those who put to death their fleshly ways and embrace change towards Christ. Every revival is always first birthed in the spirit by prayer. This is an exciting time we live in.

Article Writing: Great Tips On How To Write An Article Part 3

Welcome back to our discussion on how to write an article. I trust you have read the other articles I have done so far on this as they kind of pick up where I left off. I will touch on a few more things I think are vitally important. As a matter of fact you might want to write these on the inside of your eyelids.

1) Write Articles On What You Feel Passionate About

What heats your chili? What fries your bacon? What gets your mojo going? Whatever your mojo is. It is a lot easier to come up with content on something you are very familiar with and excited about. Also you won't mind doing the research because you love the topic. I admit this one is obvious but you'd be surprised how many people try to write on things they couldn't care less about because someone said they should. If you bored with your topic it will come across to people.

2) Write Lots of Articles Not Just A Few

With all the hype on the internet there seems to be this thinking "if you write it they will come" and that all you have to do is write 1 or 2 articles and traffic comes racing to your site in an overflowing river. Hogwash! It will take time. It is true trafic comes but as a platinum writer for Ezine Articles I am making it my goal to hit 50 articles this year. The more you write the better and the more points of contact you have out there directing people back to your site. I am getting more traffic now than ever before but think of where I will be in a year. You should do the same. Make it a goal to write 25 articles and then see how much traffic you are getting.

3) Write a Provocative Summary

This is where you want to grab them. Your summary should not be dull and dry and full of big intellectual words trying to impress people with your boundless wisdom. It should be able to pull the reader into the article. I know when I am reading articles I often just read the title and the summary to decide whether or not I want to read on. I can't remember who I heard it from but I like this little formula for writing articles. He said " tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell what you just told them".

4) Learn To Use Your Resource Box Properly

If you miss it here you may as well not even write an article. The whole point of an article is to bring in visitors to your site. This is done in the article body and more importantly in the resource box. I can't believe how many people go on about their accomplishments here as though that is going to draw people. I purposely will not click through to anyone who brags about himself here when I am reading an article. Why? Because they should know better. Truthfully NOBODY CARES what degrees you hold or what plaques are on your wall. What is in it for the reader if they click through to your site. Everybody wants to know what's in it for them. Learn to set up your resource box properly.

5) Track Your Article

If you want to see where your article is being picked up simply type your article title in Google in quotations. This will bring up every link out there where the spiders find your article. This is another reason to have a good unique title because if your title is the same as a lot of other articles you will bring up all of them as well.

Of course I have only skimmed the surface here and there is so much more we could touch on when it comes to writing great articles.

Christian Divorce. What to Do When It Happens To You Part 2

Part one of "Christian Divorce" that I wrote got a tremendous number of reads so I thought perhaps I should expound a little further. As I said before I want to encourage all believers out there that are going through the pain and darkness of divorce. Having gone through divorce myself there are a few things I can share here from my experience that I hope are useful to the believer.

1) You May Need To Change Your Circle Of Friends Or Church You Attend

One of the first things you are going to find out is the church is mostly confused on how to handle the divorce hot potato. When I say the church I am talking about the circle of believers that are supposed to be there for you when hardship comes in your life. You are about to find out most of your friends won't be there for you.

If you can find anyone that you can lean on in this time you are truly blessed. Sadly we like to shoot the wounded and avoid anything that may be awkward. If you are the innocent party in your divorce, and even if everybody in your church knows that, don't expect anyone to treat you with grace and not judge you unjustly. Chances are they will remove you from ministry of any kind until this thing " blows over" which may be years before it is resolved.

It will be hard finding a church that understands that your righteousness is only because of what Jesus did and not some holiness badge you earned that the church gives out. Somehow you have to qualify by your good works to be in ministry or hold any position in the church where people see you. Now if you do have a good church that is totally mature I stand corrected and by all means stay there and reach out. It is just that It has been my experience that they are hard to find.

Meanwhile they have painted you with the divorce brush even though you may be the innocent party. In any case if this is your scenario it is probably best to consider changing churches or even take a break for awhile. That way nobody can put any flaky judgments on you. There is a big difference between church doctrine and how Jesus handles this situation.

2) Learn to Pray and Hear God Daily

The best thing you can do right now is set aside time daily to cast all your care on Jesus. The more you pray the more you can speed the healing process. I guarantee you God is totally close to you with comfort and council to give you hope without any condemnation. Listen closely in your spirit and he will talk to you in your prayer time.

All those court issues need not have power over you to keep you awake at night if you are standing on the side of righteousness. God upholds his word and he will fight for you in court. It will turn your way if your spouse has lied and been less than Christian about certain things.

This is a good time to listen for God's voice as he will guide you and speak to the things you are feeling deeply wounded about. The many hours I spent in prayer brought me revelation of the things I felt cheated by and gave me new perspective. Work out forgiveness towards your spouse. Time doesn't heal all wounds, you and Jesus do. As a friend told me at the time " life does get better" so hang in there.

Most importantly of all find and confess scriptures that bring you hope. You need to confess God's word to your circumstance and not your feelings. Do this out loud in your prayer time. " The young lions do hunger and suffer lack but they that seek the Lord lack no good thing " was one of my favorites but there are lots more that are just as good.

Make Jesus your closest friend because he does have the answers. Remember God is walking through this divorce with you and he is wanting to unfold plan B seeing how plan A didn't pan out. God bless you.

Article Writing: Great Tips On How to Write An Article Part 2

Welcome back to great tips on how to write an article. We'll cover a few more things I feel are pertinent for successful article writing that I have discovered.

1) Learn To Write A Good Catchy Title

The first thing you need to do is do a keyword search by using http://inventory.overture.com . Your keywords should have been searched at least a thousand times in the preceding month. You can multiply this number by five to come up with the total interest for this keyword among all the major search engines. Try to use your keywords in the title and at least once in the article body. Remember a search engine spider reads from left to right just like we do so don't waste your first four words. Notice above how I phrased this article title and guess what my keywords are.

2) Get Yourself Some Good Article Submission Software

This can be done by punching into Google " free article submission software " or anything along those lines. Some of them you can try out for free for a time. They will range in price from $15 to $300 depending on what you can afford. The one I use cost 37 bucks and is more than sufficient. You'll be able to submit your articles to hundreds of sites a day this way. Manual submission is cumbersome and you'll love how quick this makes things. You will still have to go through each article site and punch in a category for your article but it sure beats copying and pasting everything. Hits to your site will sky rocket.

3) Always Write Your Articles in Notepad and Then Copy and Paste

When I first started I had a lot of declined articles because I didn't understand what hard line breaks were. What this means is when you create your articles you need to use notepad and don't stop in the middle of a sentence unless it is a new paragraph. When you copy and paste from notepad click on format at the top and change the word word wrap function which will stretch out your article horizontally. If you do this you will avoid getting declined with your articles.

4) Try To Make Your Article Easy to Read

Notice how I have spaced this out by using subheadings and paragraphs. This is because it draws the reader along and they don't get tired looking at how much they might have to read. In this present day we don't want to spend a lot of time on anything and the faster we can get the point the better. When I first started writing articles I think my articles were too long. Now I try to keep them shorter and more intense.

So there you have few more good tips on how to write an article. Stay tuned for more on this in coming articles.

Article Writing: Great Tips On How to Write An Article

So you have figured out that article writing will bring targeted visitors to your website but you are a little fearful of how to go about it. This is going to seem obvious but I know I didn't do it when I started article writing and I really wish I had.

" WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT IS SEARCHING OUT A GOOD ARTICLE WRITING MENTOR."

So before you say " I don't have unlimited cash flow to sign up with some expensive program at this point " let me say this. It won't cost you a dime if you do this.

I am going to recommend you start poking around a few of the big article directories to begin your search. Why? Because the mentor you are needing should be writing regularly in one or all of these directories. Ezine Articles, Article Dashboard, Article Base, and Article Blast in my opinion are the four big kahunas I would recommend at this point. They are the ones I have been getting the most exposure from with my articles. If you are not a free member of these go ahead and sign up because in the future you are going to want to submit your articles to them.

Of course now you are going to read articles on " how to write an article " or " article writing " for the next little while. Give yourself a week or so and don't commit to anyone financially. When you find a few good articles written by a potential mentor go ahead and do a search on him in Google. He should be well established and have his articles all over the internet. I am talking about millions of links to his websites. If he doesn't why would you want to be schooled by him. That's what you want isn't it? Lots of links back to your site.

Next thing is step out of the boat onto the water. Chances are he has a free newsletter he sends out or something along those lines. Go ahead and give him your email and sign up. At this point you still haven't committed a dime.

What you are going to do is glean as much teaching as you can for free from the newsletter or whatever it is you are now getting from him. Pay special attention to how your mentor writes his articles. You'll be surprised how much you can pick up about writing good titles, keywords, article templates, good topics..etc.

Lastly let me say that no good mentor who has your best intentions in mind demands money up front. He should be willing to build a genuine friendship with you before you ever buy anything from him. I think you should be able to talk with him too. If you can't kick him to the curb and find a better one. You still will have learned a few good things from him even if you ditch him.

So there is my first golden pointer on writing articles. If you embrace it you won't make all the mistakes I did when I started article writing.