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PROOF! - Pleasure seekers ARE more intelligent! June 24, 2008

Posted by Tony Shepherd in : Tony's Blog , add a comment

OK for a start I can’t prove the statement above so I’m lying.

And I’m not 100% sure of the meaning of the word ‘hedonism’ but I’ve always taken it to mean someone who lives life solely for the pursuit of pleasure, so for the purposes of this blog post, we’ll take that as the real meaning, OK?

I’d always thought that the pleasurable things in life were more attractive than the alternative. Despite having parents who come from Yorkshire, where people are brought up to think if something makes you suffer, cry or explode it’s good for you, I’ve always gone for a more pleasure-based approach to my activites.

Likewise most of the things that the various religious texts don’t want you to do seem to be a whole lot of fun, if you do them with the right people (or vegetable in some cases), and I’ve always been partial to good food, good sex, good wine and good company. There are things of course that I try NOT to experience too much of - work, debt and pain being at the forefront of these.

Now the people I know who share my love of pleasure also seem to be among the most intelligent of my friends, relatives and aquaintances and I always thought that it was BECAUSE they were intelligent that they sought out the finer things in life.

Not so it appears.

It would seem that recent science has proved (and no I can’t find the source - Google it yourself) that the endorphins released when we experience a pleasurable sensation are actually neuro transmitters, and these in turn form more connections in your brain and so actually makes you more intelligent!

So - which of these do you think releases more endorphins?

1. An 8 hour shift in a steel smelting factory?

2. A cream cake massage from a Swedish model?

Working, it would seem, doesn’t improve your intelligence as much as taking the day off to have sex with your partner.

What more can I say?

have fun!

Do Internet Marketers write emails in the nude? June 23, 2008

Posted by Tony Shepherd in : Tony's Blog , 2comments

Times are a changing.

Used to be that anyone who used a gmail address (googlemail in the UK) or a Yahoo or Hotmail email address had something to hide. These days even top marketers use webmail addresses such as these because they can be accessed from any PC or location and because they’re extremely convenient. We pull all our emails together at Laycock Publishing using a couple of Googlemail addy’s because it’s extremely convenient given that we can be working from home, office, different countries or even occassionally from a yacht.

Likewise some of the best and richest internet marketers work from a room at home, and have only one or two (if any) employees. Bill Gates looks like he shops at a jumble sale and many of the designer-clothed, flash car driving poseurs I see on a day to day basis don’t have (as my Gran used to say) ‘a pot to piss in’

The UK, US and Europe are no longer the only places to base a reputable business. Now you’re just as likely to see a stunningly profitable yet small business spring up in Hong Kong, India or China.

You can’t judge a book by it’s cover anymore.

Which is great for me, being a scruffy git. You can’t see me sitting here with wine stains down my shirt, scratching like a gibbon and losing my concentration as something out of the window catches my eye but that’s exactly what I’m doing. Let’s face it - I could be naked or dressed as a nun for all you know.

Likewise you don’t see the awkward moments I have in shops when the sales girl assumes I’ve stolen my Amex because I look like I can’t afford a decent coat, let alone buy sushi. This is also the reason why the barman always whispers to me ‘It’s sixty pounds a bottle’ whenever we have a modest family celebration with an even more modestly priced bottle of bubbly.

Because people ASSUME things about us because of how we dress, act and behave.

But this causes a problem online too.

Because online we can’t hide behind a thousand dollar suit. (I once wore a £1,000 suit and I make it look like it came from Asda (WalMart).

Despite what people think about internet marketing, if you want a long term business you can’t BS people online.

Online we can’t hide behind a facade of fancy clothes, big cars and flashy offices. All we have to offer, and the thing that people (customers) judge us on, is HOW WE TREAT THEM.

I got a slightly arsey email earlier today from someone who wanted some help with how to make $20,000 by next wednesday (I kid you not). I emailed back to say it was pretty impossible starting from nothing so he got angry and called me a con man.

My instinct was to fire off an email telling him where to shove his $20k but I didn’t. I wrote him a longer email explaining why it would be extremely difficult to achieve this goal and what the alternatives were. I took time to explain some alternatives and possibilites. I felt pretty good about myself afterwards.

When the reply came, I opened it, and waited to bask in the warm glow of his appreciation. I’d really gone out of my way to help this guy, which to be fair, isn’t always possible because I get a lot of emails. Sometimes my replies are shorter than I’d like them to be, but I have to earn a living too and don’t want to get to the point where I employ a ‘minion’ to answer emails for me.

Anyway - I opened the email and found myself reading a barrage of abuse and expletives. The guy simply didn’t want to hear ANYTHING that wasn’t going to get him $20k by next week.

But I did my part. I was professional and as helpful as I possibly could be. I did my bit and I won’t lose any sleep over it. Because as I said earlier, we’re judged, as internet marketers, SOLELY on how we treat people.

I always remember another marketer who’s been around for years said that she once lost her temper and fired off an abusive email to someone who’d done the same to her. Next thing she knew it was all over the internet and her rep was shot. I also know someone rather closer to home who’s had experience with the same thing.

So walk away from your PC for half an hour when you’re angry or frustrated with a customer or enquiry. You can’t afford to be anything less than perfect with your online business - because just as blind people compensate with a better sense of hearing or smell, your customers have nothing to judge you from except the tiny bit of direct communication they get from you in an email or blog.

Scary thought eh?

Oh - and if you want to make $20,000 by wednesday…………well, I’m still working on it - you could maybe get a sponsorship deal and call your next child Sony or Imac?

 Suggestions always welcome.

They should leave whales alone and cull internet marketing ‘experts’ instead! May 22, 2008

Posted by Tony Shepherd in : Tony's Blog , 34comments

I went for the first major medical check up I think I’ve ever had not so long ago. I seem to remember writing about it in another post too, which shows how much it rattled me.

I went because I’m over 40, and it seemed the right thing to do.

I sat in the chair and the female doctor pointed to a glass jar with a wide neck on the shelf and said ‘I’d like you to fill that with urine please’

I replied ‘What? From here?’

(REALLY sorry - old joke)

A few days later the tests came back and I’m more or less OK - cholesterol a tad higher than it should be and blood pressure similar but losing a few pounds should sort that out. So I’m OK.

So I’ve adapted my lifestyle some and have started to eat a little better…

YOU BORED YET???

Good - I was trying to make a point about boring posts, blogs and other writing…..

Have you ever really thought about how much store we place in other people’s opinions and views?

Probably far too much and what’s even worse is that sometimes we even give them MORE credibility than our own.

I post on the Warrior forum.

I don’t do it for fun - the place is full of nutters and people who take themselves far too seriously, but I still post there because it drives traffic to my blog and other sites.

I also post WSO’S (Warrior Special Offers) there too because I end up with more money in the bank afterwards.

If you’re going to use forum posting as a way of driving traffic to the link in your sig (signature at the bottom of each post you make) then you can’t go at it like an idiot. If you get sussed out as posting just to drive traffic they’ll kick you out.

So this means you should really read the posts and only contribute to relevant ones where you’ve something valuable to say. It’s a bit more fun that way and people soon start to realise you’ve got a brain in your head and (yep) visit your sites to check you out.

And it was while reading through the various posts to decide which ones I wanted to contribute to that I realised there are a HUGE amount of idiots in the Internet Marketing world.

Nowe I’m not talking about the newbies - the people who need help - they’re inexperienced not stupid. No - I’m talking about the halfwits that call themselves marketers yet seem to have no other function in life than to verbally beat down anyone who disagrees with their opinion.

A mate of mine divides the world into ‘human beings’ and ‘non human beings’ (I think this originally came from American Indian ’speak’ although could be wrong)

His take on it was that he’d only spend his (valuable and limited) time on earth speaking to ‘human beings’.

The rest could bugger off.

Of course he didn’t mean ‘non human beings’ were animals or anything, just people who were so far up their own backsides they couldn’t see much daylight.

The defining character of a human being was being able to see other people’s point of view, be unbigoted and able to empathise with their fellow man.

The other lot talked without listening, ridiculed anyone with a different opinion, viewpoint or taste.

And intelligence has nothing to do with it either. One of the senior lecturers in my department at University, Dr P*** was a seriously intelligent chap. he was also an intellectual and emotional bully, a sarcastic mocker and a sexist womaniser (two out of three isn’t bad :-) )

And some of the posts on the warrior forum reminded me of that.

Go read ‘em - you’ll find some newbies coming into IM with a very basic knowledge but full of passion and ideas only to be told in mocking tones ‘well THAT won’t work for a start’

So they never get off the ground. Simply because some bitter and twisted ‘guru’ or failed marketer has a flawed opinion, these fresh new minds that are still unfettered by all the crap flying around IM will probably never EVER launch the wonderful idea the were madly excited about just a few moments before.

And that’s not just sad, it’s damn near criminal in my book.

Who are these people to steal away the dreams and ideas of newbies eh?

Think about the ideas you had for your IM business before some ‘experienced’ moron told you it wasn’t possible.

Do you still feel an excited ‘buzz’ even though you’re scared to try them because of what ‘real’ marketers might say?

Don’t give more weight to other people’s opinions no matter how much money they make or how long they’ve been in the biz.

Because if you do, you’ll end up being a clone of them, and if they’re bitter and unhappy you’ll end up the same way. Even worse if they’re spouting a load of crap about being a millionaire when in reality they can’t afford their rent, then you could end up the same way as THAT too.

So try your craziest, daftest ideas out. At best they’ll work, at worst you’ll learn something on the way.

You ever noticed how most ‘IM type’ websites look the same. Most of ours do - banner, red, bold headline etc?

I noticed this when I first got into IM and told myself that mine would be different.

And now?

Nup - all our sites are (while not as bad as most) certainly ‘in the style’ of IM type websites.

And why is that?

Not sure really - if we’re honest it’s because when people first saw them they said ‘ohhhh your site doesn’t look very professional’ (meaning IM stlye) so we changed them.

But now we’re starting to think……

We recently did an experiment and changed one site so it had no banner, and no background - it was just a plain white page.

Sales increased by 25% from day 1.

www.wornpaper.com - it’s an earlier book but I think it’s really valuable for people just starting to get into IM, which is who it’s aimed at.

It always sold well, but now we changed the layout AWAY from IM-type design and it’s gone crazy. Is it because newbies are tired of the same old website design or because fancy graphics often make people think ‘he’s trying to SELL me something!’?

I don’t know - do you?

Exactly - and neither do any of the bloody ‘experts’ in the Warrior forum althoug I’ll bet you fifty quid that if you posted the question more than a dozen would have an opinion!

So where do we go from here?

I think we’ll change another website and see what happens.

Yep - I think so.

We’ll let you know. And in the meantime, why not run with your own ideas and plans, no matter how crazy they are? Because if you don’t you’ll just end up as a second class passenger on the ‘IM Opinions and Beliefs’ train. Your ideas are unique, why would you want to swap them for anyone else’s?

Cheers

Tony

PS Your comments are always welcome on this blog.

Jump on board May 17, 2008

Posted by Tony Shepherd in : Tony's Blog , add a comment

Don’t forget you can full access (for FREE) to all the back issues of my newsletter instantly by subscribing using the opt-in box at the top right of this blog.

 It’s free, and Martin Avis mentioned it as being one of the IM newsletters he reckoned are ‘really good newsletters…. that do consistently provide solid, useful content.’ In Kickstart issue 920.

Cheers Martin

The REAL value of being your own boss. May 13, 2008

Posted by Tony Shepherd in : Tony's Blog , add a comment

I prattle on about the work/life balance a Hell of a lot because it’s really important to me.

I could earn more money than I do, but I spent yesterday (which was a normal monday) teaching my kids how to gently take snails off the plants they were eating and put them into the compost bin instead. (If ‘friends of the gastropods’ are reading this just be thankful I didn’t have some garlic butter to hand).

We ate ice cream, had a few tantrums and kicked a ball about. It was wonderful.

This morning I popped into the dentist to make a check-up appointment and the receptionist seemed clearly surprised when I replied ‘anytime’ to the question ‘when are you free next week?’

Being a full time internet marketer allows me to do both the above - my work life balance is wonderful and I’m thankful for it.

But very recently I heard something that brought home to me the REAL freedom that not working for a boss brings.

Some friends told me about friends of theirs who’d been on a protest march about something very important to them, and although the event had passed peacefully the police arrived and threatened the protestors with arrest if they didn’t disperse immediately.

Now from what I’m told these guys aren’t scared by much - they’ve had run in’s with pretty violent factions who don’t share their views and have put themselves in dangerous situations to get their views across but they left the scene immediately when the words ‘arrest’ and ‘criminal record’ were mentioned.

Why?

Because they could lose their jobs if their employers found out.

 I once watched in amazement as a schoolteacher jumped out of a car, ran across a busy motorway and then climbed over several gardens to escape what he thought was a ‘police bust’ when a car we were in got stopped by the police, and he knew there was a half smoked joint in the ashtray.

Turns out the police stopped us about wobbly exhaust pipe, were very nice about the matter, even told us where we could get it fixed cheaply and didn’t seem to care a fig about the contents of the car ashtray.

You’re seeing what I’m getting at?

People are brave, principled, wonderful people who will stand in front of tanks, take on fascists and put their names to petitions that could in effect threaten their safety, but threaten them with losing their jobs and they crumble like naughty schoolchildren.

And I fully understand why - usually it’s not about themselves, rather being able to care for and support their families and as a husband and dad I fully agree with them. But there’s no sense of freedom like that of being your own person in a world full of employees. It’s like realising you’re the biggest chap on the nudist beach!

You instantly go from passive to active. You don’t ASK for a pay rise when you work for yourself, you GENERATE extra income. You don’t REQUEST time off to go on holiday, you DECIDE to take a break.

I know how uncomfortable this may be for some people to read - bloody hell it’s hard enough to write without sounding like a smug arsehole, but it’s FACT. Your marketing business - your online business - can give you so much more than just time and money (although that’s a good start), it can also give you BACK a piece of yourself that you’ve already handed over to your boss without realising it.

 Think about this - booking time off, asking for a pay rise, asking for half a day off work to go and watch your kids run in the schools sports day or because you know you’ll be hungover after three days at Glastonbury festival, or wanting to be in France for the Cherry festival or to spend the day in bed with your wife (or someone else’s) or whatever the Hell you just feel like doing when you wake up in the morning.

These are things you can’t ‘just do’ when you work for somebody else. Or if you do, then not for long before they sack you.

Yes this is another nag guys - get your online business up and running as quickly as you can ……….because the days they ticketh away at a frighteningly rapid rate, and while you’d be naturally delighted to marry a Spanish supermodel on your 92nd birthday, you might from time to time wonder why you couldn’t have met her in your twenties while you could still do 100 pushups.

Right - stop reading this blog and go and make the first move!!!!

Completely Free - 24 Hour Article Guru May 8, 2008

Posted by Tony Shepherd in : Tony's Blog , 3comments

Whenever we get more than a certain ‘magic’ number of emails asking how to do a particular thing we know it’s time to put a ‘how to’ togther to guide you through it step by step.

If you don’t know how article marketing / bum marketing / article submission / submitting reviews as an affiliate etc works then grab this excellent freebie at

http://www.24hourarticleguru.com

Compliments of the house :-)

 If you have any comments or questions just post them on the blog.

Get some perspective - quickly! May 2, 2008

Posted by Tony Shepherd in : Tony's Blog , 3comments

When my son was a baby he didn’t sleep well, as many babies do (or should I say don’t) so my wife and I spent many a long evening rocking back and forwards against the agony of a full bladder because going upstairs to the bathroom would mean another sleepless night.

We have a very old house and the exposed floorboards in the bathroom sound like a Vincent Price film if you even breathe on them. Standing on them to get to the toilet would surely cause the little chap to wake up and keep us awake until 4 in the morning.

One evening I’d settled him down to sleep and was looking forward to a glass of wine, some supper and a bit of quality time with my wife. It was a lovely summer evening and all was well with the world.

We settled down on our huge comfy sofa and turned on the baby monitor.

He was sleeping peacefully - drawing long contented baby breaths and making those little murmurs that only babies can when they’re dreaming of baby things. I felt my muscles in my ass unclench as the cares of the day lifted from me.

Then all Hell broke loose as one of the birds nesting in the wall directly outside my son’s bedroom began to chirp and cheep like a canary in a mine full of coal gas. I never knew anything with feathers could make that much noise.

Of course it woke him up - he started crying - I jumped to my feet and knocked my wine into my supper and …well it was all very stressful.

Once my wife had settled him down again - about 2o minutes later, she found me in the garden pacing up and down and staring at the bird’s nest. I wanted my revenge!

It was at that point I realised I needed a little perspective. Tiredness and frustration had got the  better of me.

It’s not that things go wrong - they go wrong every day in to some degree - it’s that they go wrong at the wrong time.

Take Ebay making the decision to ban downloadable products. I think it has been coming for a while, but I’m also positive that some poor sod somewhere had just started making a full time living online selling downloadable products when they dropped that particular bombshell on him.

He must have thought that either the world was out to get him or he’d run over a Gypsy on the way to McDonalds the day before.

Nope.

Bad timing - nothing else.

But I’ve not yet heard of a SINGLE internet marketer whose business has been finished off in this way. People adapt and make the best of situations, change strategies, products and ideas an somehow manage to keep their business going.

But when a dark scenario is playing out in your head it never works like that - how many things have you NOT tried to acheive because something might go wrong? Your wonderfully creative mind plays and replays the horrible things that surely will befall you if you even try to get your business going, quit your job or launch a new product.

Perhaps you won’t be able to pay your mortgage and the house will be repossessed?

Your spouse will lose faith in you and leave you, taking the kids, and the only time you’ll see them is every two weeks for half a day on Sunday??!!

It just doesn’t happen except in the deepest pits of your mind (and the tabloid press).

What does happen is that lack of perpspective, fear and doubt stop you being the person you could be - stop you even attempting to change your life for the better and leave you with the horrible empty feeling of ‘what if….’ that most people feel.

The worst possible outcome of any decision is far LESS likely to happen than the negative consequences of not even trying. And let’s face it - if things DO go wrong, you can probably put them right again in a few years.

On the other hand if you DON’T attempt to quit your job or build your business you’re going to be in the same miserable situation for the rest of your life.

Fear of the unknown is a terrible thing - often much much worse than the ‘devil you know’ who is slowly breaking your back and your spirit with a day after day, year after year situation that you just don’t want to be in.

So do a Don Quixote and tilt at some windmills - take on the fear - in little ways to start with - get some perspective on what MIGHT happen but probably WON’T.

….before you find yourself about to commit a horrible crime against a House Martin.

My ideal lifestyle cost $2600 April 23, 2008

Posted by Tony Shepherd in : Tony's Blog , 31comments

Did you know that your ideal lifestyle doesn’t cost a million dollars?

You really REALLY don’t need a lottery win.

My ideal lifestyle - and tust me, I’m pretty sure that I’m living it - cost just $2600 some years back.

That was the amount of money I needed to earn a month from my online business to be able to quit my job (actually to be able to dump my other business but it’s pretty much the same thing).

And it blew my mind. Suddenly I didn’t have to win the lottery or build a complicated, time-consuming internet business. I just needed two and half grand a month.  Yeah I know it might seem like a case of ‘well it might as WELL be a million bucks the way my business is going’ but that’s absolutely not true.

Building an internet business is pretty damn impossible if you look at it as just ONE task. It’s like looking at a pile of sand that you’ve got to move from outside your house to Bill Gate’s front door (probably at the end of a VERY long driveway) with a pair of tweezers.

So don’t even try.

Seriously - just DO NOT try to build your online business like that.

There’s an old joke about an American asking directions in IRELAND. The old Irishman looks at him for a while and then says ‘Well I wouldn’t start from here…..’

And that’s about it. There are already enough people who are happy to make your life difficult so why be one of them?

I tried to build a complete online business - to go full time online in ONE attempt. Well after the tears, the drinking and the anger against all things internet had finished I sat down and tried to work out where I’d gone wrong.

The answer was obvious. Little steps.

I know you’ve heard this before but listen to my take on how it works.

You need your internet business to ‘handle certain things for you’ - ideally monthly payments.

I started with my electricity bill. Wasn’t much - around $80 a month if I remember correctly. My first and ONLY online goal was to pay my monthly gas bill from my online earnings. Took me a while but I did it.

Sure I had another business at the time and could easily afford to pay my eleccy bill while my online earnings paid for a meal out with my wife or kept me in beer but that wasn’t the point.

Once I’d paid my electricity bill for a couple of monthly solely from my online earnings it was the turn of my car insurance. This took less time. Once that was done it was time for a biggie - my mortgage.

You see where I’m going?

Small, easily acheivable goals.

We’ve all heard about writing your goals on a postcard that you keep in your wallet, and repeat to yourself while looking in the mirror 3 times a day - ‘by 12th November of whatever year I will have a brand new Jaguar S-type parked in my drive’

November 12th comes and goes and the only thing in your drive is bird crap and leaves.

It’s not realistic. I think your mind - your subconscious needs proof that you’re putting the work in too. If you can show whatever cauldron of seething anxieties and neuroses you call your subconscious that you’re able to do at least something towards your goals then it’s all too happy to help you out.

If I do a decent launch I expect to see 5 figures from it. Usually this happens. It’s very nice but it’s no big deal anymore because I’m used to it and, well that’s just what happens. But go back some years and the thought of a five figure launch on the internet would be pretty unbelieveable to me by any stretch of the imagination.

And it’s the same with starting out. If you can show yourself that your online business is capable of supporting you in just one TINY area of your life, then you’re going to make an awful lot of money. Because I absolutely, completely believe that it’s harder to make your first $100 online than it is to make your first $100,000

Please try this out. Please.

It works.

Just concentrate your thoughts on paying one tiny bill - monthly ones are best - then work at your business with this in mind. Don’t worry about who is making $1000 a month, or $100,000 a month - they’re not your concern - they’re not coming round for Christmas dinner - it’s YOU and your loved ones that this is about, nobody else - at least not at first.

And get that first little bill paid…..and once you’ve done it, stand back because the flood gates of what’s acheivable online will well and truly OPEN WIDE.

The alternative?

How many hours - no, minutes in the day do you spend worrying whether your boss is happy, comfortable, and OK financially?

None?

Good - because that’s EXACTLY the same amount of time he spends thinking about how YOU’RE doing.

You have to make a start guys because there are strange times ahead. The most financially vulnerable place you can possible be, in terms of work,  is when you’re in ’steady’ full time employement. Because you pay for your home, your food and your clothing at the whim of someone else. If your boss decides to sell up and move to a hut on the beach he isn’t going to think for a millisecond about you.

But there’s a way out, and you’re looking at it - your computer. You’re not a newbie anymore - you know what I mean when I say ‘affiliate’ or ‘pop-up’ and the chances are you didn’t before you got into IM. Sure you might be JUST above newbie status, but above it you certainly are.

It may not seem like it but you’re actually in a better position than 95% of the people around you, and the fact that you could afford to buy a computer puts you RIGHT at the top of the tree in terms of being lucky, on a worldwide scale.

But don’t give yourself a guilt trip about any of this - you have the right to do what you want with your life and if this involves making obscene amounts of money on the net then get to it! If you feel guilty when you’re polishing your Ferrari give some to charity - Hell - give the CAR to charity if you want, but whatever your second thoughts about Internet Marketing please just give my method a go.

Make a start - Sara Brown (http://www.laycockpublishing.com) and I are here to help (and make our living too) as much as possible.

I’d love to hear how you get on - please feel free to comment on this blog - I’d REALLY love to hear how you get on.

 ’till next time

Tony

Madness among Internet Marketers April 17, 2008

Posted by Tony Shepherd in : Tony's Blog , add a comment

I got laughed at the other day by another Internet Marketer.

It’s not someone I’d call a friend (certainly not now I know the guy’s a prat) but someone I’d skpe-chatted with now and again. He asked me about a certain part of my business - it was article marketing actually - and asked me what I thought of the process.

I told him that I’m much more a fan of viral marketing - writing a small 5 page report, setting it loose on the internet and having it bring me an up front profit AND drive traffic to my sites for free. (The full process is documented in www.viralsneakiness.com)

But I also do some article marketing, despite not liking the process very much, because it works for some niches.

So he laughed at me, and REALLY took the michael because I still did the process myself - I don’t often outsource the article marketing process or use software.

He proudly told me how he’d just spent thousands on software and membership sites for a process that would almost totally automate the article writing AND submission process and told me in no uncertain terms what a fool I was for doing it myself. He didn’t actually word it much nicer either.

So I asked how much money he made from traffic driven from his articles before he’d automated the process. Turns out not very much at all. I then visited a couple of article submission sites and read some of his articles. They were awful. Really crappy.

So the next time we chat I’m going to ask him why on Earth he’s automating a process that DOESN’T WORK?

If the process was bringing in a good profit and driving vast amounts of traffic then sure - automate away and reap the rewards but if you have a dead cat, putting it on a skateboard isn’t going to make it a pet.

You know what I mean?

There are loads - hundreds maybe thousands of Internet Marketers who are obsessed with ‘automating the process’ and spend a fortune on software and outsourcing expecting it to reap rewards. But if the process doesn’t work in the first place, automating it won’t make the slightest bit of difference.

You’ll just end up with an AUTOMATED system that doesn’t work!

Better to tweak the way you do things and suss out why they’re not working in the first place, get ‘em working then automate.

Crazy.

Why self employed people have more money - and it’s not why you think…. April 16, 2008

Posted by Tony Shepherd in : Tony's Blog , add a comment

Ever noticed how people who work for themselves have bigger houses and more money?

Me too - cos I’m one of them.

But I’d never really noticed it before in terms of how obvious it was. Let me explain.

I was driving to the office a few days ago, and the route takes me down a wide, tree lined avenue with big houses either side. At least one has a helicopter pad in the garden at the back, so they range from nice, slightly bigger than average houses to whopping great mansions.

Now I don’t know who lives in most of these homes but I’ll bet you my half eaten sandwich that most if not ALL of the people who live on the avenue are self employed.

You meet someone at a party and (you get drunk and chat up their wife, but BEFORE the embarassing fight ensues in the garden) you indulge in polite chat which usually involves aking them what they do for a living. If they say they’re self employed, or own a business, or run a company or whatever you immediately get a picture of them in a nice house, couple of cars, bit more money than the norm etc.

I do. People would think the same of me if I didn’t look like I’d just been dug up.

BUT have you ever thought WHY people who work for themselves earn more money?

It seems obvious but it’s not. You think people who work for themselves earn more money because well, people who are their own bosses just…….earn more money!

Think about it - even self employed people who are what I call a ‘one man band’ such as a plumber or electrician all seem to earn more money than people who are average employees.

And it’s because of this - self employed people don’t earn huge sums of money - the earn what is normal for our society and the cost of living.

It’s the poor sods who work for other people whose earnings are kept at an artifically low level by their employers.

No wonder most people who work 9-5’s these days are fighting a losing battle against poverty, because the amount of money they’re paid is never EVER enough to cope with inflation, rising prices and the cost of having a home, family and decent standard of living.

And here’s the really bad news guys.

While you work for other people you will never ever get to the point that you always think is round the corner - you know what I mean?

‘Once I’ve paid my loan off I’ll get back on my feet’

‘Once my pay rise comes next year we’ll stop feeling the pinch’

I’m really really sorry - but as someone who’s been in both camps I’m telling you now that you will NEVER get back on your feet while working for someone else.

Maybe when you retire - pay off the mortgage things will get a little easier - maybe they won’t - but that’s at age 65 (could be 75 in a few years time if the politicians get their way) and that’s a major chunk of the best years of your life taken up in a bloody great struggle against poverty, worry and stress.

If you work for an employer make sure than you have some of your own income too - an online business is my obvious suggestion - because you will need a buffer zone against the result of his pained expression as he explains how your wage packet has gone up by 1.5% but the cost of living has gone up by 3.5% - ‘we’re having to tighten the belt’ he’ll say as he pulls away in his 7 series BMW.

I’m no socialist - I like money and free time. I don’t like work (which I consider to be anything that I don’t like doing) but I’ve also had the sleepless nights and been snappy with my family through financial worry. It’s not fun.

So (same old same old but GOD it’s important) pleeeeeease try to get your business off the ground. Your family, your health and your bank balance would all be grateful. None more so than you though - being your own person in a world of unfortunate robots is a heady feeling.

Going to finish my sandwich now……