Last month, two of my team members had an opportunity to go to Monrovia, Liberia to work on a project intended to save lives of those in the malnourished and HIV-stricken country. Chris Harper, my Video Producer, and Sarah Jane Griesemer, VP of Project Management, accepted the call to go to Liberia and meet the needs of people through a project called The Peanut Butter House. What they experienced during their week-long trip was undoubtedly... Continue Reading

While viewing my Twitter stream, I encountered a tweet from an associate that included an expletive. We're talking the F-bomb. I've heard this person speak before and I was reminded of how often he cursed in a keynote before thousands of people. While I have great respect for this indivdual and what he has accomplished, I couldn't help but wonder if he knew how much of his audience he was alienating. I put out a... Continue Reading

Do you have your cell phone handy? Stop what you are doing and go get it because I want to show you something very cool. I am going to give you a look into the future... the very NEAR future. In fact once you begin to understand the possibilities of what I am going to demonstrate, you are going to be excited! And it is going to keep you awake tonight. But it's going to... Continue Reading

Social media has changed everything. When the Web first took off, it wasn't clear how anyone could make money by putting words on a Web page. Then Google brought out AdSense, competitors rushed in with their own programs and people who produced good content, paid attention to their ads and worked hard and patiently at building their sites got to see their incomes take off. But it was all pretty impersonal. Early websites provided information... Continue Reading

As Twitter continues to mature, so does my usage of it. I'm rapidly approaching my ten thousandth tweet (yes, that's 10,000) and I've had a lot of time to determine how Twitter works best for me. Notice that I didn't say "how I work best for Twitter." That's important, because I regularly hear people ask me this question. "How often should I tweet?" The person asking the question is usually riddled with Twitter anxiety (Twanxiety... Continue Reading

The world is changing. But you don't need me to tell you that. The Internet of today is a far cry from the one I launched my first site on fifteen years ago. Technology has made major advances, meeting needs of many, and exposing other needs yet to be met. Just in the past few years, the way we market products and services online has changed. Continue Reading

It's great to see how Twitter has grown in the time I've been using it. But what's really impressive is the way that people are using it. Sure, there are spammers leaping on hashtags and trying to attract attention but they're a minority. And they're easily blocked. For the most part, people are using Twitter the way it should be used: as a way of building a community, broadcasting a brand and making valuable connections. Continue Reading

We are living in challenging times. If you are not feeling the economic pinch, you at least know others who are. Some blame the politicians, both Republicans and Democrats. Others blame the legal system. And many wag their finger at corporations who have failed to serve the customer in lieu of their own desire to become wealthy. Regardless, the end result is that unemployment is up and more people are having a difficult time making... Continue Reading

Though some people have labeled me as a visionary, I am incapable of predicting the future. And while I happen to latch on to hot trends before the curve, it doesn't mean I have a working crystal ball. Let's face it. I have no idea what is going to happen next. So how exactly do you know what your customer wants? There is a way. And it's actually not complex. It's not rocket science. Continue Reading

Whenever I teach people about making money with AdSense, I make sure to let them know how easy it is to get started. Once they understand that their original content can translate to a revenue stream, they usually want to know what to do. For someone who has never blogged before, I recommend they set up a Blogger account. Not only is it easy to use, but it is also free. And since Google owns... Continue Reading

WARNING: Today's post is going to rattle cages and put a spotlight on a potentially dark side of Internet marketing. Yeah, I'm probably going to tick some people off. That's life. I'm more concerned with speaking the truth. This is #2 in a series called The Truth About Internet Marketing. Part one was called "The Long Form Sales Letter. For some time it has been suspected that there is a "secret cabal" of Internet marketers... Continue Reading

WARNING: This series of posts may be hazardous to your preconceived notions of how to make money online. Reading it may save you thousands of dollars in pipe dreams and cause you to focus on the single most important aspect of running an Internet business. If you suffer from A.D.S. (Acute Denial Syndrome) or insist on believing that buying another product or service is the magic bullet that will cure all your financial ills, these... Continue Reading

When blogs first came out, no one really knew what they were for. They were supposed to be diaries, but diaries are meant to be private so why put them online? And if you did put one online, why would anyone want to read it? And if someone did want to read it, how you could earn money from those viewers? Continue Reading

Social media is a revolution in marketing. It allows businesses to identify their most important leads, understand what interests them the most, and talk to them en masse while still making each person feel like an individual. If that sounds like the kind of thing that a good speaker does, there's a good reason for that. Social media and conferences have a great deal in common. Social media marketing doesn't deliver the kind of depth... Continue Reading