26 Weeks to Freedom: Creating an Internet Business

Bob Mann

It’s a beautiful day along the coast in southern California, and I’ve been soaking up the sun, the perfect ocean breeze, and an awful lot of history on board the original Queen Mary, now permanently stationed in Long Beach harbor as a museum and hotel.

I’m a native of Long Beach and lived in this area for the first 42 years of my life.  I remember what a big event it was in 1967 when the Queen Mary made her final voyage and pulled into this harbor at last (she had to go all the way around the tip of South America to get here, since the Panama Canal was about 8 feet too narrow for her to squeeze through).  I’ve seen the ship from a distance many times, of course, but never came on board until today.  I must have assumed it was not worth seeing—just another tourist thing—but I was certainly wrong about that! 

Being onboard (and especially having one of the hotel “staterooms”) gives you an appreciation for this ship’s incredible history.  Not just as an elegant passenger ship that set the standard for the “golden age” of transatlantic travel, but also as a wartime transport ship that moved some 750,000 troops back and forth during World War II.   All around the ship you’ll see memorabilia from those times, including huge photos of royalty and other celebrities who sailed “across the pond.”

Anyway, next time you’re in southern California be sure to visit the Queen Mary—I think you’ll be glad you did!

Copyright © 2010 by Bob Mann

‘

Bob Mann

Continuing my journey down Interstate #5 today, I had the good fortune of passing by one of the most beautiful mountains in the world just as the clouds parted and I happened to be approaching a perfectly-located freeway exit where I took this photo.  Mt. Shasta, perhaps the most beautiful of all the Cascade peaks because at 14,000+ feet it so completely dominates the surrounding landscape, always provides a “wow!” moment when you’re lucky enough to see it like this.

Earlier I had been convinced that I wasn’t going to see it at all, as the clouds were quite thick around the summit.  Then, unexpectedly, I looked over and there it was!  Hmmm……could there be a lesson about life here also?  Just when you start assuming that something is going to continue the same disappointing way it appears right now, sometimes you get an unexpected surprise!  And when that change occurs, you’d better be ready to take advantage of it!

By the way, today was a day of temperature extremes along my route:  As I left Ashland and headed up I-5 to the beautiful but often-dreaded Siskiyou Summit at the Oregon/California border (where the weather is notoriously dicey, even at the modest elevation of 4350 feet), there were light snow flurries and the temperature dropped to 30F.  By the end of the day, as I made my way down California’s Central Valley, my on-board thermometer topped out at 80F!   There is nothing like a dose of reliable California sun to make one feel better about the current “January in April” weather in Portland! 

Copyright © 2010 by Bob Mann

Bob Mann

After writing last week about jigsaw puzzles and the step-by-step patience necessary to put them together, I knew you’d want to see the finished product, so here it is!   This 500-piece  ”artist’s whimsical view of Seattle” puzzle’s dimensions are actually 24″ x 18″ and there is an incredible amount of detail (for example, all those tall  buildings are of a different design, and therefore they were the hardest parts to figure out.  Besides Mt. Rainier and the Space Needle (which you can see here), the artist also included Pike’s Market, the Monorail, and a zillion other small features that don’t show up clearly in this photo.

Now if I can just be as diligent about achieving my business goals as I was about finishing this puzzle, I’ll be in great shape!  But that brings up an interesting point, and it’s something that Barbara Sher talked about in the video I featured with my Day 57 post.  When you’re doing something you actually like doing—whatever it may be—you have no problem staying motivated to get it done!  And in fact, the purpose of doing something you like is not even to “get it done”—rather, it’s to enjoy the process of doing it!  Consider this:  I suppose if I was talking with Barbara Sher and she asked me to name some things I really like doing, I wouldn’t even bother mentioning “solving jigsaw puzzles” because it seems so trivial.  An amusing pastime, nothing important, and I would probably even consign it to the “wasting time” category.  Although I enjoyed doing  jigsaw puzzles as a kid, this is the first one I’ve tackled in many, many years because….well…..because now that I’m grown up there are so many other more important things to think about.

I suspect that Barbara, hearing such an explanation, would stop me in my tracks and tell me to pay close attention to exactly what it is about solving jigsaw puzzles that I like!  No, she wouldn’t be suggesting that I seek employment as a professional jigsaw puzzle solver (I haven’t seen any “help wanted” ads for that position lately), but she would  want me to identify what it is about the process of solving puzzles that appeals to me—and then, using my creative imagination, try to think of actual marketable skills in which I could use that same ability and drive.  She would say it’s critical that I identify that particular motivating force because it taps into something I’m really passionate about, rather than just settling for what seems “realistic” or “practical.”

So if you missed Barbara’s video, I suggest clicking on the March 29 (“Day 57″) post and watching it (to the end, where there’s an “Aha!” moment that has something to do with gorillas).  I’m glad she’s around to keep reminding us that it’s OK to do what we really like doing—and by using a little imagination, we might even be able to figure out how to find or create a job for ourselves that taps into that passion!

Copyright © 2010 by Bob Mann

Bob Mann

This video, one of many featured on Google’s Business Channel at YouTube.com, does a good job of explaining the potential value of using AdWords “cost-per-click” advertising for your business.  It’s a little long at 15-1/2 minutes, but fortunately the “cute dog” portion comes near the beginning when they interview the owner of the “Happy Hound” dog day care center in California.  So even if you don’t care about AdWords, I think that segment will bring a smile to your face!

Of course, since this is an advertising piece created by Google, it certainly doesn’t tell you everything  you need to know about how to win at the AdWords game, which has definitely become more challenging in the last few years.  But because Google’s revenue from AdWords depends largely on their advertisers’ success, once you’ve opened an AdWords account they do provide a lot of training and support to help you succeed.  They don’t necessarily cover everything you should know, and it helps to have an AdWords expert like Greg Cesar (see www.TheAdwordsDominator.com) on your side who does not work for Google.  But either way, it’s well worth taking the time to educate yourself on how to play the AdWords game correctly so that you can increase the odds of having a profitable advertising campaign. Unfortunately, most people who give it a try do not fare very well because they don’t take the time to learn—which is a shame, because Google’s tutorials are free (and so is setting up an AdWords account;  you only start paying when people start clicking on your ad—i.e., when you start getting results).

Which reminds me again of something that I often forget—the unbelievable wealth of absolutely free information that exists on the Internet, no matter what subject you might want to learn about.   I think too many of us (and I am guilty of this myself) still want to pretend that it’s “too much trouble” to expand our knowledge about this or that…..when, in fact, it couldn’t be easier.  We have, at our fingertips, a free and lightning-fast resource for information that people in the past (from the beginning of human civilization up until about 25 years ago!) couldn’t have imagined in their wildest fantasies.  And already we seem to be taking it for granted, as if it’s always been around!  What’s wrong with this picture?!

Anyway, enjoy watching the “Happy Hound” story and think about using Google AdWords for your own business if you’re not already doing so…..

Copyright © 2010 by Bob Mann

Overlooking the beautiful Greek isand of Corfu, Sept. 2007. Photo by www.EuropeJourneys.com

Happy Easter!  Today I spent some time educating myself on a brand new Internet Marketing tool that will be released later this week. It’s called “IM Eye” and it’s another cutting-edge product created by Steve Clayton and Tim Godfrey (best known so far for their very comprehensive Commission Blueprint 2.0, which I’ve recommended previously).

What makes “IM Eye” so valuable is that it reverses the usual hit-or-miss process of trying to find the right keywords for attracting visitors to your website or your online ads.  As Steve Clayton puts it, instead of you trying to find the right keywords, IM Eye is designed to “let the right keywords [i.e., the most worthwhile marketing opportunities] find you!”  If you’re curious, check out Steve’s pre-launch IMEye demonstration video.

That new product, along with their existing arsenal of several other top-notch Internet Marketing tools, might give you an idea of why I am so looking forward to participating in Steve and Tim’s upcoming Las Vegas seminar in June.  (That’s the one where each attendee will leave with a 6-month business plan for creating a consistent online income.)  I am so glad I acted quickly (please note:  I did not procrastinate!)  when the e-mail announcment for that event came out a couple of weeks ago, because it is limited to only a hundred participants (which is very small in comparison to most other such seminars) and it did, predictably, sell out within a couple of days.  There will be some people coming from as far away as Europe and Australia, but all I have to do is traverse the 700 or 800 miles between Portland and Vegas.  I think I can handle that!  (And right now, after a week of chilly rain in the Northwest  that feels more like January than April,  those 100F-degree dry summer days in Vegas don’t sound too bad!)

I also spent some time earlier today on the Google AdWords site, where I opened an account several months ago and had even made some half-hearted attempts at running “cost-per-click” (CPC) ads of my own.  I will do so again in the future, but not until I feel like I really know what I’m doing.  As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, winning at the Adwords game has become a lot more complicated than just being willing to pay more per click than your competitors (which, believe it or not, doesn’t even guarantee that your ad will be in the top spot!).   I sometimes think that the single most important thing I could do to achieve my goal of having a successful online business is to zero in on Google AdWords  and learn everything I can about it. That’s exactly what Greg Cesar from Atlanta  (whom I’ve mentioned before)  has done.  Several years ago he decided to become an AdWords expert exclusively, and it has paid off nicely for him. (You can check out Greg at www.TheAdWordsDominator.com.)

Finally, if you’re wondering how I’m doing on that jigsaw puzzle I featured in yesterday’s post, I am making progress, although it is very slow.  That artist’s whimsical view of the Seattle waterfront is a very “busy” scene with lots and lots of little details.  But no, I haven’t cheated and looked at the picture on the box—and I’m determined not to!  When it’s all finished, I’ll take a new photo and you’ll see it here…..

Copyright © 2010 by Bob Mann

(Compensation Disclosure: in today’s post there are clickable links for Steve Clayton and Tim Godfrey’s Commission Blueprint 2.0 and IMEye.  If you click through and subsequently make a purchase, I would receive a commission. Questions? E-mail me at Bob@BobMannOnline.com.)

Bob Mann

                                                                                                                   After yesterday’s solemn pledge to become more serious about sticking to the day-to-day activities I need to do in order to achieve my online business goals, you may be wondering why on earth I’m starting today’s post with a picture of a jigsaw puzzle!   Actually, there is a connection—as I’ve just discovered, by accident, that the process of putting together a jigsaw puzzle can teach us a lot about the right way to approach the other “puzzles” we’re trying to solve in our lives!

When I noticed this puzzle (which somebody had given me a few months ago) sitting in its unopened box on a shelf  last night, I wasn’t doing anything else and thought it would be interesting just to see if I could dump the pieces in a pile and begin to make some sense of it.  I think it’s been about 20 years, at least, since the last time I tried to tackle a jigsaw puzzle.  Anyway, I intentionally did not take a close look at the box cover to see what the finished version is supposed to look like; I figured it would be more challenging just to proceed piece-by-piece.  All I knew was that it’s an artist’s whimsical view of the Seattle waterfront.

I began, of course, by looking for the “edge” pieces (which are easy to identify), and then tried to separate those pieces into more recognizable parts of the landscape, like water, boats, fish, buildings, and sky.  Gradually, piece-by-piece, the outer edges of the puzzle began to take shape.  This morning, after taking the photo, I made some more progress, putting little clusters of pieces together and gradually filling in the parts closest to the finished bottom edge.  The side and top edges are still mostly undone,  but I’ll keep working on it until I have the satisfaction of seeing the whole thing completed.

So, how does assembling a jigsaw puzzle relate to the more serious challenges of life?  Well, although we may be starting with just a pile of confusion—not even knowing what the end result is exactly supposed to look like—we do know what our first steps should be, which is to “find the edge pieces.” In other words, start with whatever simple steps we can do, knowing that after those steps are completed, it will then be possible to figure out what we should do next—and so on.  The subsequent “pieces of the puzzle” always build upon those already assembled.  And eventually, if we are patient and use our intelligence as we go along (including plenty of trial-and-error), we’ll start to fill in more and more of the big picture.  And as we all know from putting together jigsaw puzzles, the more pieces you fill in, the more momentum you gain in speed and excitement as the number of unassembled pieces shrinks and the big picture gets clearer and clearer. The same is true when we get closer to achieving any goal in real life.

Of course, you can gain an extra advantage with a jigsaw puzzle by referring to the picture on the box as you go along.  And, in a sense, the same is true of real-life goals: we should keep our “eyes on the prize” as we go along so we don’t get discouraged by the day-to-day, “piece-by-piece” details and obstacles that get in our way.  But I think it’s more satisfying not to refer to the exact picture on the box (i.e., not to be obsessed with a specific outcome), because it gives us a chance to be even more adaptable and imaginative in seeing what kinds of connections we can make and things we can create as we go along.  Which is an important skill to use in real life as well—since, as you may have noticed, that ideal  ”picture on the box” never looks exactly the same  by the time we get there anyway :-)

Copyright © 2010 by Bob Mann

Bob Mann

Recently, in my post for Day 58, I asked the question, “Do you ever get tired of listening to your own excuses for not taking action?”  I certainly do, and today is one of those times when I’m very aware of my well-worn  reasons for not being consistent in making progress toward the goals I want to achieve.

Writing this blog every day is something that has been relatively easy for me to do for the past two months, because I seem to have a talent for writing and it usually doesn’t take more than an hour or two.  And I think most of the time it has been interesting—to one degree or another—especially when I’ve included videos.  But I’m also aware that I have (more often than not) drifted away from the original purpose I had in mind, which was to keep track, on a daily basis, of exactly what I’m doing to achieve the goal of creating an online business and having a decent income to show for it. Just writing the blog itself each day, even if the content is interesting,  isn’t enough.

So it’s time to fix that situation.  Today marks the first day of the third month of this accountablity project, so I think it’s about time for me to get serious about being accountable!  As I’ve mentioned to a couple of friends, even if nobody else ever reads these posts, just the fact that I am putting all this on the Internet (and therefore somebody could be reading it) should be motivation enough for me to take it seriously.  As one who long ago perfected the art of procrastination, I’ll use this or any other “gimmick” I can think of in order to keep myself proactive on a consistent basis!

So, starting tomorrow, these daily entries will be devoted mainly to what I have actually done, since the previous post, to move myself forward in the direction of creating an online business.  That doesn’t mean I won’t also include other things (like videos from interesting speakers, and photos of blossoming cherry trees and tulips!), but it does mean that my “accountability” actions will be the main topic each day.  And if I haven’t done anything meaningful in that regard, there won’t be a post for that day.

So even though, as I’ve mentioned recently, I have extended this original 6-month project to include as much as 5 additional months to coincide with the very solid business plan I’ll be getting at the June seminar in Las Vegas, that does not change the necessity for making the best use I can of each day between now and June.  In fact, it makes my daily efforts now (to prepare for that) seem even more important, because at that event I am going to be in the company of some Internet marketing “heavyweights” who are very serious about making money online. 

I also hope that, by watching me go through this unglamourous process of facing down my doubts and fears and old habits in order to make a major life change, it will be helpful to others who read these posts.  As Frank McKinney says, referring to his own annual challenge to run and finish the ultra-brutal “Badwater” race in Death Valley, each of us has our own Badwater-type goals that require “relentless forward motion” if we are serious about achieving them.  Clearly this quest to create an online business is, right now,  my own personal “Badwater” challenge.  (By the way….what’s yours?:-)

Copyright © 2010 by Bob Mann

Here’s a second photo from my visit yesterday to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm about 30 miles south of Portland.  But getting back to business:-) the main thing I want to talk about today is one of the ways—in fact, perhaps the most important factor of all—for achieving a high ranking for your website in Google’s “organic” (i.e., unpaid) listings.  And when I say “high ranking” I’m referring specifically to Google’s first page.  I don’t know what the statistics are, but I’d be surprised if more than 5% of all searchers on Google ever bother going beyond the first results page.  I know that I almost never do—how about you?

One of the really cool tools I’m using from Steve Clayton and Tim Godfrey’s Commission Blueprint 2.0 program is something called “Authority Hub.” This software allows you to type in whatever keyword phrase you want, and then, after displaying the top ten organic search results from Google, it shows how many “backlinks” each of those sites is getting from other sites, and which backlinks are the highest quality (i.e., the most valuable ones to have linking back to your site).  I’ve heard that of all the factors that go into Google’s “formula” for ranking web pages, nothing is more important than the number of high-quality backlinks.

To give you an example, consider the keyword phrase piano lessons portland oregon.  Using “Authority Hub” I discovered that the most highly-ranked web pages for that search term had several backlinks from such high-quality sites as Local.Yahoo.com, MojoPages.com, and UrbanMamas.com (a Portland site that has lots of resources for parents and children in the Portland area).  All three of those sites have been given high “page ranks” by Google and therefore any backlinks from them are considered very valuable.   Yahoo, especially, seems to be a goldmine of valuable links, whether it’s from their “local” business search function or their “directory.”  (When doing a similar search for the keyword phrase real estate agents in portland, “Authority Hub” showed the top sites getting lots of backlinks from the Yahoo Directory.)  I think one major reason these particular sites are so popular (and thus valuable for their backlinks) is that they allow visitors to give and read reviews of the local businesses that are listed there.  So if I’m looking for, say, a piano teacher in Portland, I’m most likely going to check the sites where I can find reviews from previous customers.

Of course, there are other important factors that will help determine your web page’s “organic” ranking in Google and the other search engines, such as how “complete” your website is and how effectively you use the keyword search term in your page’s content and within the domain name itself.  But high-quality backlinks seem to count the most.

Copyright © 2010 by Bob Mann

(Compensation Disclosure:  in today’s post there is a clickable link for Steve Clayton and Tim Godfrey’s Commission Blueprint 2.0 program. If you click through and subsequently purchase their products (which I use and enthusiastically endorse), I would receive a commission. Questions? E-mail me at Bob@BobMannOnline.com.)

Bob Mann

Today I wasn’t expecting to be visiting the famous Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm (about 30 miles south of Portland), especially since the weather this week has been rather cold and wet.  But after driving down to that general area this morning for another reason altogether, I decided to take a detour over to the fields since the sun was out and I knew it wouldn’t be crowded (unlike on the weekends).  And as you can see from the photo above, my timing couldn’t have been better!

Over the past 25 years, owners Ross and Dorothy Iverson have turned their “Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival” into quite an attraction for about 3 weeks every spring—late March through mid-April—when the tulips are at their peak.  They grow dozens of different varieties. And of course there’s a store right there where you can order bulbs for delivery next fall, as well as taking cut tulips home with you now.  They have some extra attractions to keep the kids amused, so it’s a great place to take the whole family.  Here’s a little tip: when you drive in, you can either park in the first parking area immediately ahead of you (near the stores and food stands—then walk or take the tram out to the tulip fields), or you can drive through and park right next to the fields.  They charge $5 per car on weekdays and $10 on weekends.  If you can go during the week I highly recommend it—not only does it cost less, but it will be far less crowded. 

So yes, I confess—I haven’t done much in the way of Internet marketing work today.  I’ll get back to that tomorrow.  But hey—when you can hit a glorious sight like this during a sunny break in an otherwise chilly and wet week, how can you blame me for goofing off?

Copyright © 2010 by Bob Mann