So many times in life we are tempted to take the easy road.  We wonder if anyone will even notice the difference if we don’t really give our all.  Worse yet, we get down on ourselves and feel defeated even before we start.

But sometimes people do notice.  Most of all, we know it about ourselves even if no one else does.  If you make a commitment to do something in your life…give it your all!

Even if no one else sees it or notices, you will wake up every day knowing that you put 100% of your best into crafting the life of your dreams.

Here’s a great little story to remind us…

Click here to view the embedded video.

So we really have to ask ourselves, “How do I go the extra mile in my life and work?”

Feel free to comment below.

Have you ever asked that question?

If so, I found this great video where the Google Master himself, Matt Cutts explains exactly how it all works in just a few minutes.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s a pretty amazing amount of work to crawl through and index all of that information, just to serve up the most interesting, relevant and current news on Katy Perry or the latest mud ball thrown in the upcoming election, don’t you think?

—————–

One more thing… I got this from a client a few days ago. Just wanted to share and offer John a big Congratulations!

Things are busy here in Hawaii and just about ready to close on a $1.4M Portlock home from a client I met on facebook (he commented on one of the articles that you posted and the dialogue led to this sale.)

Thats like……..5 extra sales in the past 6 months from MySMARTblog activity.

That equals about $87K in extra revenue.

Have a great spring buddy,

Aloha, John Keoni Welch
————————

Brendon Burchard is at it again. He’s GIVING AWAY hardcover copies of his new book RIGHT NOW!
His new book is called “The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives that Make You Feel Alive”.

Get yours before they’re gone:

CLICK HERE TO CLAIM YOUR FREE BOOK

Everyone is already saying the book is INCREDIBLE:

“The Charge is an inspiring guide to the one thing we all want: more life in our lives. Brendon Burchard proves that we can harness our emotional drives to feel more alive, and that it’s our internal charge that helps us meet life’s challenges with joy and courage. I love this book.”

–Paulo Coelho, New York Times best-selling author of The Alchemist

“There hasn’t been a game-changing book on personal development in a long time. The wait is over. The Charge confronts our very notions of what drives us as humans, and it brilliantly illuminates the path for how you can feel more alive, productive, and fulfilled. After reading this book you’ll find a new internal charge that’s stronger and more energized than you ever imagined possible.”

–Jack Canfield, co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series
and author of The Success Principles

“Every once in a while you read a book that completely changes how you think about your life, igniting within you a new internal drive to be more, do more, and give more. This is that kind of book.”

–David Bach, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Automatic Millionaire and Start Late, Finish Rich

“I look for authenticity and proof when I learn from someone, and I can share that Brendon Burchard is one of the most engaged, energetic, and enthusiastic people I’ve ever met. I’ve always wanted to know how he developed such a remarkably strong internal charge. This book reveals his secrets. If you too want to perform at higher levels of joy, engagement, and productivity–buy this book. It’s a must-read for any serious student of success and high performance.”

–Darren Hardy, Publisher of SUCCESS magazine and
New York Times best-selling author of The Compound Effect

“The Charge will change your life. Our brains are hard wired to meet specific human drives, and learning to harness and activate those drives is the secret to success and happiness. This is a smart and beautifully written book, and it will electrify your life. Get this book!”

–Daniel G. Amen, MD, New York Times best-selling author of Change Your Brain, Change Your Life

I suggest you get the book now while Brendon is giving them away before the official release. You can definitely see in this video he’s EXCITED!

Details here:
CLICK HERE TO CLAIM YOUR FREE BOOK

Brendon’s last book was a #1 New York Times bestseller. I’ve heard this one is even better!

I’ve been a fan of Brian Buffini for almost 20 years now.  I was in his coaching program and it was some of the best money I ever spent to learn the skills that helped me become a top producer in the mortgage industry.

I’d highly recommend taking advantage of this free training opportunity to learn from one of the masters of referral marketing!

Hilton Scottsdale Resort

6333 N Scottsdale Rd.

Scottsdale, AZ 85250

9 AM – 12 PM

I got this question today from a previous client who thought her SPAM Comment problem came from adding more content on her blog using our service.  Although I guess it could be argued if one didn’t have any content at all, then adding content, however it gets there would open opportunities for comment spam to exist.  However, it’s pretty clear that spam comments on a WordPress website is a problem that extends across the globe.

Just to clarify, this client had her own WordPress website and we just provided our Engagement Content Channel ghost-written to her website.  Since we didn’t build her website, we weren’t able to change her blog settings as we do for our SMARTblog clients.

Here was my response:

I’m sorry to hear about your site crashing.   It sounds like your site got targeted by a spam comment robot.

Comment spam is a common issue with WordPress websites and has nothing to do with our service.  The more content you publish, the more opportunities there are for comment spammers to use your website to create back links. (Which is why they do it.)

Check out this link from WordPress:  http://codex.wordpress.org/Comment_Spam

We turn off blog comments automatically for all of our clients in order to prevent comment spam.  There are a number of other ways to encourage client engagement that don’t require blog comments, and comments don’t really help your website as much as they help create back links for the people who post comments.  Unless you have a high volume of legitimate comment related conversations going on with clients, I’d suggest you turn off all comments on your site as well.

Alternatively, you can activate Akismet, which is a blog comment spam filter run by the folks at Automattic (who also own and run WordPress).  This comes installed on every WP blog and you just need an activation key.

Lastly, as your voice mail indicates, there are other options like requiring commentators to register before posting comments.  This will stop robots, but many people pay employees overseas to manually post a ton of comment spam, and they will take the time to register to get the comments on your site.

You’d probably want to prevent any comments from going live before a moderator verifies them if you really want to leave commenting open, but then this takes a lot of non-productive time unless you outsource the management of comments yourself.

I’ve purposely left comments open on this post if anyone has something real and meaningful to say….

Rich is known as the “Guru’s Guru” as he teaches and coaches the best online marketers how to do their business better, more enjoyably and more profitably.  In fact, Rich has a stable of clients who pull in more than $350 Million per year using his strategies.

The lesson’s that Dustin pointed out were short and simple, but really help you stay focused on some critical points.  That’s why I thought I’d share them with you here.

Rich Lesson #1: Build Customer Lists

Opt-ins are good but buyers are better. Move focus away from building free lists and start building customer lists.

Get current non-buyers to spend something with you with front end offers, such as free plus shipping and price points under $100. Get them to show that they are willing to invest in themselves and in your products.

An added advantage of focusing on getting buyers is you will get more data. Which you can do things such as phone follow-up and direct mail, separating you from online only competitors.

Rich Lesson #2: Consider Descension Funnels

One of Rich’s funnels, is an automated webinar so as Business Growth System for $2995.

Is this some ninja marketing mind trick?

Pretty audacious price point considering that most of the folks entering the funnel are just beginning a relationship with him. Almost like decoy pricing.

In addition, this positions you differently in the marketplace as most people only build a ascension funnels.

Rich Lesson #3: Follow Up…..MORE

I know. Not the killer ninja strategy you were looking for. Well check this out…

Rich shared a recent webinar Promo produced $14,000 the night of the webinar.

However, that number skyrocketed to $95,000 when multiple replays and follow-up was implemented.

Trends are showing that now, more than 50% of the sales take place after the online event of course.

However this won’t apply if you don’t implement replace and proper follow-up.

Rich Bonus Lesson: Invest…..Less?

Rich recommended the following book, Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works.

Essentially, most people’s plan a will never work.

If this is the case, your thought process going in should be…

“What’s the least amount of time I can invest with plan A… So I can get to plan B., C., X.?”

So there you go.  Those are the lessons that were passed on by Dustin in The Movement newsletter.  Visit his site from the link above and subscribe to it if you like the info.  I’ve been impressed by what he shares, and there’s a ton more great information in every single issue.

A few of my own notes on these points:

1. I love the idea of focusing on customer lists.  I’ve always believed that a good business is built on long term relationships with customers.  Those relationships rely on trust and confidence which starts with their first purchase.  Then it’s up to you to deliver world-class service and make them feel like a million bucks.  Plus, it’s always easier to share new ideas with happy current clients than try to convince new clients to make their first investment with you.

2. The idea of “descension” funnels is interesting because it allows you to showcase the higher end value of your product or service.

I always like to “frame” the value of our SMARTblog Social Media Marketing Machine with potential clients before I quote our price because I want them to understand the real-world value that we deliver as opposed to pegging the value to the price that I allow them to invest in it for.

If you can show tons of value to a prospective client and then offer to implement your service at a fraction of that amount of investment, it goes a long ways toward developing trust and confidence in you and your business.

Last point on this, if someone isn’t ready to invest in your total service, you can “descend” them to a lower priced product or service to get them started.  This lower price point might fit better in their budget or comfort level and still give you the opportunity to start a customer relationship earlier.  Make it easier for them to upgrade down the road.

3.  As they say, the fortune is in the follow up.  It’s really cool that there are so many technology tools that you can use to make this easier on yourself.

A few ideas off the top of my head are autoresponder drip follow up systems that you can easily implement through companies like MailChimp and Aweber.

You can also add them to a monthly newsletter mailing program similar to the one I got from Dustin.  This one is going into implementation in my business right away.

There are a lot more options to automate your follow up and consistently stay in front of your most important referral partners, customers and other contacts.  Unfortunately too many to detail out in this post.

Let me know if you have any suggestions that you’d like to share in the comments box.

And don’t forget to like, share, comment and tweet this out below!

Would you like to learn the tips and secrets that I’ve been sharing with high producing real estate professionals all over the country….for FREE?

Did you know that there is no online marketing system or technology that equals the power of content marketing?

And that using the WordPress framework is the ONLY way to really capitalize on all that this super-successful marketing strategy offers?

Well, if you’ve been wanting to get a top-shelf, referral-generating social media marketing juggernaut working for you sooner rather than later,

Then you’ll want to attend this free WordPressClass featuring Mikel Erdman, founder of MySMARTblog.com

In this class you’ll learn:

• How to cost-effectively promote you and your business and blow away any other marketing system in only minutes.
• Exactly how you can have a Million Dollar Image online to compete with the heavy hitters without breaking the bank
• The top-secret tricks of real estate marketing superstars to keep you in front of your customers and driving referral business….automatically! (Even when you’re on vacation)
• Step-by-step instructions on how you can set up and manage your complete WordPress marketing machine in just a few minutes
• And much more!

Here’s what one of Mikel’s real estate website customers recently said:

“Real estate biz has been crazy good and I attribute a significant portion if that to MySMARTblog. I get a lot of calls to chat about the market and the other topics that are posted in my blog.

It is the perfect opportunity to talk about real estate needs and in the last two months I have put over $4m in escrow and have a steady stream of buyers and sellers ……..yahoo!!!”

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P.S.  When you do register, I’ll instantly give you these 7 FREE Internet Marketing E-books!

A: George Lucas

Director, writer and producer George Lucas was raised on a walnut ranch in Modesto, CA. He originally set sights on becoming a race car driver, but a near-death car accident just before high school graduation radically changed his views on life. The force was definitely with him that day–the car rolled and the racing harness snapped, throwing him from the car. Had he not been thrown he would’ve been crushed to death by the steering column when the car smashed into a walnut tree, uprooting the tree.

While earning his associates degree from a local community college he channeled his love for racing into a new passion–cinematography. After transferring to the University of Southern California he produced several short films including a futuristic Sci-Fi film called THX-1138, which won a student award and later became his first full-length film. Shortly thereafter he was awarded a scholarship by Warner Brothers where he met Francis Ford Coppola. They became fast friends.

Lucas drifted a bit after getting his bachelor’s degree in 1966. He was turned down by the Air Force because of his many speeding tickets (you can take the girl out of the city!), then had to drop out of the Army after being diagnosed with diabetes. In 1967 he re-enrolled in USC’s graduate film production program.

His suburban upbringing and early love for motor racing served as inspiration for American Graffiti, released in 1973, receiving Academy Award nominations in five categories. Lucas is probably best known for his Star Wars series which was inspired by Flash Gordon and Planet of the Apes. Surprisingly, it was turned down by every major Hollywood studio. 20th Century Fox finally gave him a chance, even though they thought it’d flop, after he agreed to waive his directing salary in exchange for 40% of the box-office sales and all merchandising rights. According to Lucas, he didn’t take control over the merchandising to get rich but, rather, as a commitment to safety and quality. He didn’t want the name ‘Star Wars’ to end up on a piece of junk. It paid off–the movie broke all box office records, earned seven Academy Awards and Lucas became rich almost overnight.

Despite the stellar success of the Star Wars trilogy, Lucas resorted to making money doing TV commercials until Jurassic Park came into the picture. The technological advances renewed a spark to create three new Star Wars prequels. Lucas also wrote and produced the Indiana Jones films–all huge box office hits. He got the idea while vacationing with friend Steven Spielberg in Hawaii.

On the personal side, Lucas has always been passionate about kids. He gained custody of his adopted daughter, Amanda, after he divorced in 1983 and has since adopted two more kids–Katie and Jett. All three appeared in his Star Wars prequels. In 1999 Lucas told a NY Times reporter, “Children are the whole point of life.”

Although George Lucas writes in longhand in a loose leaf binder, his name is synonymous with technology and innovation. In 1975 he created a state-of-the-art special effects company, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and a sound studio, Skywalker Sound, so he had more control over the finished product. His THX System revolutionized the movie theatre experience. Lucas received a medal from President George Bush for outstanding achievements in movie technology and in 2005 was recognized with The American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Today, George Lucas’s moviemaking empire, where he routinely makes technological magic, sits serenely in the midst of 3,000 acres in the hills of Marin Country, CA. The complex includes a baseball field, vineyard, three restaurants and a fire station.

Lucas’s storytelling skills are legendary. Here are just a few highlights of where his inspiration came from and how he shared parts of his personal story on film:

THX-1138, the name of this first real movie, appears in many films. The license plate number on Milner’s deuce coupe in American Graffiti was THX 138. A battle droid had 1138 written on his back. Luke Skywalker said, referring to Chewbacca, “Prisoner transfer from cell clock 1138.”

The character Han Solo was based on Francis Ford Coppola.

His nickname in high school was Luke which became the name of his Star Wars hero, Luke Skywalker.

His wife was upset when Lucas failed to use their dog, Indiana, in the night scene in American Graffiti (he wanted a white dog).

He agreed to put Indiana’s spirit in the next movie which is where the Wookee, Chewbacca, got his good looks. He was also the inspiration for the name of the Indiana Jones character.

He sold Lucasfilm’s Computer Graphics Division to Steve Jobs and it later became Pixar Studio

According to special-effects wizard Lucas, “A special effect is a tool, a means of telling a story. A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing.”

Lesson: Never underestimate the power of the story. People want to be entertained and your story is the perfect way to connect with them on an emotional level. Don’t be afraid to include quirky little pieces or yourself in everything you do. Be authentic–that’s all the differentiation you need.

LinkedIn is one of the most powerful social media networks on the planet.  LinkedIn specializes in connecting businesspeople with each other to form high-value relationships.

How can you take advantage of the leads and referrals that are waiting for you in LinkedIn?

Start with the basics first.

Make sure your LinkedIn profile is complete and gives enough personal and professional information that people feel like they have a good understanding of you and your business.

Use LinkedIn to identify and target high quality, influential leaders that can either purchase your products or services, or connect you with the people who can and will.  Ramp up your lead generation efforts using LinkedIn by learning 6 proven strategies to generate leads right away.

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PS.  Here’s an additional link to a powerful live LinkedIn Video Training!

You might be tempted to call them a ridiculous and ill-informed idiot, but wait! If you resort to name calling and personal attacks, you will be perceived as a complete jerk no matter if people are swayed by your counter argument or not. There is another way that you can express your disagreement while holding onto your dignity and respect.

Here are some tips for arguing fairly:

Discuss the Point and Not the Speaker

Although it might feel good in a childish way, calling your opponent names is not the way to engage in an intelligent debate. Separate what the person is saying from who is saying it, and discuss the point that they are making.

Don’t try to say something like, “Well, you would say that because you are ______” or “You don’t know anything about that because you are __________”.

Think about how frustrating it would be if someone tried to discredit the point you were making by making personal comments about you!

Acknowledge What They Get Right

Listen carefully to what your debate partner is saying, and don’t forget to acknowledge the parts which do have a bit of truth to them. They could have the right facts, but might be just interpreting them in a way which doesn’t make sense.

When you say things like, “I see what you are saying about X, and I agree. However, I don’t agree with the conclusion you are making,” it shows people that you are taking their argument seriously and listening to them.

State Your Opinion and Evidence

When it’s your turn to say your piece, state your opinion clearly and succinctly. Explain what it is that you think, and provide concrete examples which support what you are trying to say.

You can even site common criticisms of your position, and explain why you think they are irrelevant or why you disagree. Say what you want to say in a straight forward and confident manner, without attacking, accusing, or blaming.

In the end, the saying “You can’t change a stubborn mind” might apply to your opponent and they may leave the situation still holding their view. However, if you have expressed yourself confidently, clearly, and respectfully you can be proud of yourself for standing up for what you believe in.