On September 1st, 2010, I weighed in at over 225 pounds. I didn't step on the scale often because it wasn't very good news. My energy levels were low. My blood pressure was high. And I was moody. I didn't want to feel that way anymore. I had lost weight in the past, but I wasn't sure I could do it again. After all, I DID balloon back to my previous weight AND put on... Continue Reading

A couple days ago I blogged about the lack of integrity amongst some Internet marketers. The post attracted thousands of readers and many comments were posted. Clearly, this topic is one on many people's minds. It almost feels like picking at scabs because there is a great deal of wounding in this area. While I appreciate the kind words people shared, this issue is NOT about me. This is about an industry that has been... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Tim Golen) I'm going to tell you a true story. When I was first hired at Infomedia, I helped develop an online training program that turned into what today is known as The Profit Vault (http://www.theprofitvault.com). It was designed to be a 13-week course that contained all of our company's knowledge about how to set up a website and start earning revenue from it. I was in charge of developing the... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Tim Golen) The other day I was asked by a colleague why developers in general have a hard time setting firm deadlines. I thought it was a valid question. I am by no means an authority on this issue, but I can speak for myself and for others that I have witnessed and talked to. I think that there are several reasons why developers find it difficult to set a firm... Continue Reading

In order to be successful online, you have to put yourself out there. Running a business online is a very public endeavor, and it differs from running businesses in the past in that you can't just hide behind your storefront or LLC. These days, people want to know exactly who they're dealing with, and social media marketing works best when there is a face and a name. So you steel yourself and start making your... Continue Reading

Providing your audience, customers, and potential customers with free, valuable information is a cornerstone of running an online business. If you give enough stuff away for free, and make sure that that stuff is high-quality and indicative of your high standards, then enough people are going to want to pay you to get to the rest of what you know that you will be able to make a nice living from your online income. One... Continue Reading

Death. Now there's a way to start a blog entry! It's been said by Steven Covey that we should "begin with the end in mind." Well, it doesn't get any more "end" than death, does it? At least as far as our lives on earth are concerned. We live in a culture that is death-averse. We are fascinated with concepts of the afterlife, but death itself is a horrible thing that we'd rather not look... Continue Reading

Last year my company released a revolutionary new platform for the iPhone. It was called GameDock, and it was the world's first multiplayer gaming platform for the iPhone and iPod Touch. While OpenFeint and Plus+ were creating leaderboards and achievement functionality, we had done what no other developer had done... created a matching system that would allow you to add friends and invite them to play our games in real time from anywhere in the... Continue Reading

Lots of people set out to make money online by selling a product whose audience they don't fully understand. They might make some logical conclusions based on a set of facts and decide that a given product has the potential to make a lot of money. But do they really put themselves in their customers' shoes? Not only do you need to know your niche inside and out, you also need to understand your competition... Continue Reading

It's not uncommon for marketers to use upsells and downsells in order to gain a new customer and make a sale. Downsells typically offer the same product or some derivative of that product at a discounted price. Upsells will usually come after a sale has been made, and offer extra goods or services for an additional fee. There's nothing wrong with upselling or downselling in theory. But I do believe there are cases where integrity... Continue Reading

It's Monday morning and I am thinking about what I should write about today. As I ponder the things happening in my life, I consider my options. The new Twitter is coming. But I haven't seen it on my account yet, so that will have to wait. I'm a week into Project Fit, but I'm feeling kind of under the weather today. I've been invited to speak in Asia. It's exciting, but I don't think... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Tim Golen) There is a new trend in the smart phone market share. Sitting at the top of the market is still Nokia. Tied for second place are Apple, Google, and RIM (Blackberry devices). Right now Google enjoys a 14.9% market share but in the next several years, according to Piper Jaffray, Google is poised to capture at least 50% of the smart phone market share. This would cement their dominance... Continue Reading

Have you ever thought of launching an online business to be a lot like running a race, but with plenty of hurdles in the way? I did an interview today and the person asking me questions wanted to know what the biggest hurdle is that people face when running an online business. Is it search engine optimization? Is it social media? Is it product development? I laughed and replied that none of those were the... Continue Reading

I'm not a very good cook, so I tend to eat out a lot. I don't do a lot of fancy dining, but it's not unusual to find me and my family at a national chain or local diner. My experiences as a patron of restaurants has helped clarify what I believe makes a good waiter and what makes a bad waiter. Waiting tables is a difficult job. Hectic kitchens... unruly customers... angry cooks... wrong... Continue Reading