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Archive for April, 2008

4 Common Reasons Why Most People Fail

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Everybody is pursuing for success, no matter who you are now today, you want to be successful in everything you do don’t you? I believe that even if you ask a beggar, is it that he wants to be successful? You bet, he will say yes. Everyone wants to be successful, but more than 90% of them are going to fail this quest. Why? Good question, let us discover why…

Success Is 99% Failure

In my opinion, there are only a few MAIN REASONS that make people fail. Below are the 4 main reasons why most people never achieve their goals in life. If you can overcome these 4 obstacles, you can practically achieve anything.

1. Limiting Belief

The most important thing, our belief system. Ask yourself this question, do you actually believe that you can earn $10,000 a month? Do you believe that you can achieve anything you want in your life? If you don’t believe it, how are you going to achieve it? Many people dream about how they live their perfect life, how much they earn, where they want to go vacation, what car they are driving, but they are just merely dream about it.

They never really committing any rock-and-solid actions to make their dreams come true. Think about it, when you are driving in your car, and suddenly your ‘dream car’ overtake your car. What comes into your mind? Most people will think it this way, “Nice car, but I can’t afford it”. This is the limiting belief that is going to stop you from achieving it!

You now know that these are nothing but limiting beliefs. Unless we break past these generalizations about ourselves, we will never dare to design goals that drive us to the next level. Your Beliefs Determine Your Success, very true, read it and you will discover how our belief system plays an important role in our life.

2. Not Having A Clear Goal

Many people know that they have to be successful in life, but they don’t know what they want actually! All they know is that they have to somehow achieve something, but they never really know what is it that they want to achieve. They don’t have a clear goal. This is one of the big problems that most people face today.

It is not that people don’t know what they want. What has truly happened is that most people have stopped daring to dream. I believe that as kids, all of us had fantasies and dreams of what we wanted to have and be when we grow up. However, as we went through life, we meet with so many failures and disappointments that our rationale, critical mind has forbidden us to continue day dreaming anymore.

You must be very specific about what you want in life, only then you will achieve it. Take Tiger Woods as example, he knew that he wanted to be the number one golfer since he was still a kid. What about Warren Buffet? He too, knew that he wanted to make millions with investment. So, if you still blur with your path today, spend some time to find out what exactly that you want to achieve in your life.

You cannot reach somewhere without knowing where is it that you want to reach. I mean, it is a common sense, if you don’t know what you want, how are you going to achieve it? To set clear goals, you must follow some steps and some criteria, if you don’t know how, click and read this, The #2 Ingredient For Success.

3. Fear Of Failure

Does this mean that people who keep setting goals do not fear failure? Frankly, do you failed before? Do you afraid of failing? Many people have this ‘phobias’ toward doing what they failed before. This fear of failure, of rejection and embarrassment is what probably paralyzes most people from even starting out. Failure? I don’t believe so. I think everyone hates and fears the feeling of failure, including myself.

What then gives them the courage to set high goals and go for it? It is how we define failure to ourselves. The only one who can tell us that we failed and make us feel bad is… ourselves. Yet, this is how we often shoot ourselves in the foot. The moment we do not achieve what we want, even on our first attempt, we tell ourselves we have failed, and feel really bad. This pain is what prevents us - and this goes for the majority of people - from daring to try for high stakes, to taking risks.

Have you ever heard of the story of barracuda? If you haven’t, then be sure to read this post of mine, You Are Not A Barracuda. Read it, it is an interesting post, and I believe that it will open up your mind about how you perceive failure.

4. Staying In The Comfort Zone

There are still many other reasons making people fail in their life, this is not going to be the last. Just that in my opinion, these are the 4 common reasons people fail. So, in order to be successful in your life, you have to get out of your comfort zone. If you keep on staying in your comfort zone, you are not going to achieve anything.

Ask yourself this question, “Are you going to achieve what you wanted if you keep on with your life like this?” Most of the time, the answer will be a NO. Simply because many of us are staying in our comfort zone, we are afraid to change, we fear for the pain due to changes. Take consistent action from now on if you really desire for success, The #4 Ingredient For Success.

Most people are risk averse because they are addicted to a way of life: a soft life, a cushy life with habits and material comforts they are loathed to change or risk losing. Unless that comfy life-style is imminently under threat, they won’t do anything that calls for iron will and discipline. Setting goals and really going for our goals often means changing habits, sacrificing time spent hanging out with friends. This is why people make half-hearted attempts. As soon as their new path
impinges on their old habits, they withdraw… it’s too hard.

These are the 4 common reasons why people fail. You know that to achieve great success, you have to put in real efforts and be committed with it. Remember this, there are no shortcuts to success. So, always be prepared to make what appears to be ’sacrifices’ and, if you do, the rewards are there.

Posted by Shawn on April 30th, 2008

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What is The Level of Acceptance For Your Income

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This is an important lesson if you want to achieve financial freedom in your life. You have to understand this, the level of acceptance you set in your life. Do you know what it is? If you don’t, no worries, because I’m going to explain it to you. However, let me first ask you one simple question…

Many People Set Goals, But They Still Can’t Achieve It, Why?

So can you find the answer for this question? It is because of this, our level of acceptance. You and I both know that many people set goals, and these goals will inspire them. However, most of them are not going to achieve it. Let me give you some examples so that you will be more clearer about it. Most of the people may aspire to earn $20,000 per month, but they are willing to accept earning $3,000 per month. Although many people would love to live in a million-dollar house, but they are quite willing to satisfy for a small apartment. Although many people would love to be at an ideal weight of 60kg, but they are willing to live their life at 75kg.

So can you see it now? You may set a goal to earn $20,000 a month, but if you are willing to accept earning $3,000 a month, then $3,000 a month is what you are going to end up getting. This simply because $3,000 a month is the level of acceptance that we make it a ‘must‘ for ourselves. We will not allow ourselves to earn below that level of what we believe is our minimum. This is our level of tolerance. Before you start setting your goals, ask THESE 5 QUESTIONS to yourself.

What If Your Level Of Acceptance Is The Same As Your Goals?

The minute that we think we are going to go below our acceptance level, our mind hits panic mode and we will do whatever it takes to get above that. Again, when we are committed to do whatever it takes, we will eventually get it. Those people who earn $20,000 a month are those who accept that their incomes must be at least $20,000 a month. They cannot accept that if their income is lower than that. Whenever their income level goes below $20,000, they will do whatever it takes to get above that line.

Donald Trump, the billionaire real-estate mogul, cannot accept being second to anyone. It is this ‘I must be number one’ that drives him to be the best. Tiger Woods, has very often been heard to say, ‘Why go into a play tournament unless you are going to win?’ This is why he has achieved the most number of wins in a season and is ranked as the world’s number one. (This is The Power of Dreams)

You Must Raise Your Level Of Acceptance

Yes, if you want to be successful and achieve your goal today, you have to raise your level of acceptance. Unless you raise it, or you will never do what is necessary to achieve your goals. Now, consider what influences our level of acceptance? Why is one person willing to accept a lifestyle based on $3,000 a month while another has set an acceptance level triple that amount?

Well, the standards we have come generally from our family, friends and our environment. The people whom we spend most of our time will define the standards we measure ourselves against. A research shown that people normally earn 10% more or less of the 10 people they mix around most with.

Now, I’m not asking you to leave all your friends who earn less than what you always dream of. What I’m suggesting here is that if you can break out of your comfort zones and raise your level of acceptance, you need to invest time with people who will push you up and go forward.

Think about this, if you are a tennis player and keep playing with people who are no better than you, will you improve? Hardly. What if you started playing with people who are top at the game? Sure, you will get yourself whipped many times, but it will change your standard of play altogether. The same thing holds true for every other area of your life. You need to start investing time and playing with the best on the field. This is how you will grow.

Put Yourself On The Line!

Here is a strategy that you can use to ensure you will achieve your goal. This secret is to put yourself on the line. In other words, you have to put yourself in the situation where you don’t have any choices but to do whatever it takes to achieve what you want. When you don’t have any choices to make, you will definitely find a way to achieve it.

One way you can do so is by making a public declaration of your goals. Better still, you can always get other people to involve in the process of attaining your goals. Don’t chicken out, just tell the whole world of what you want to achieve, what is your goal. This is because if you do so, you simply leave yourself no other way but to achieve it.

For example, to put yourself on the line, this is what you can do. If you wanted to become a millionaire and earn $500,000 every year, what you can do is this, you can start by telling everyone around you. Then, you can go immediately and pay a 6-month advance for a financial course membership. The idea is to put yourself in a situation where it will be more painful if you can’t achieve it.

Here is one post which can help to put yourself on the line, a MUST read, 3 Action Keys Toward Your Goals. So are you ready to put yourself on the line? Are you committed to your dreams and goals? Do it now!

Posted by Shawn on April 28th, 2008

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5 Super Tips to Build a Successful Blog

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Well, if your purpose of blogging is because you want to earn a living, then you can’t miss these 5 super tips to build a successful blog. You should know that if you want to earn a living with your blog, then you will have to be serious with it. Nothing can beat the level commitment. Want to see how the level of commitment determines your success? Read this post, The Commitment of Sylvester Stallone.

I know that every bloggers out there wanted to have a successful blog, but most of them won’t achieve it. Simply because they are not committed to their goal. If you are reading this right now, I want you to be clear and understand this, for most people, their goal is not a must, they can live without their goal. That is why they take no action and live in their comfort zone. Let me tell you this fact, actually, most people want to be rich, they want to be a millionaire, they want financial freedom, they want to be successful.

However, 95 percent of them will not achieve what they want. Why is this so? This is because even if they did not achieve what they want in their life, it will be fine for them! They are not going to die if they don’t achieve it, nobody is pointing a gun on their head, so it will be fine if they did not achieve it.

So the first rule, if you want to build a successful blog today, be committed in it. Give everything, give all out, do what you have to do. If you have to write 2 posts, then sit down and write them, don’t procrastinate, don’t watch movie or go out with your friends.

Once you are committed with blogging, here comes the 5 super tips that can help you build your successful blog:

1. Get The Important Task Done First

This is it, first thing first, do what is important. You have to do your important tasks first every time you start. For example, if you just have one hour, but you have to do two things, posting and replying comments, what you need to do is to choose which is more important and get it done first.

I cannot give you the right answer for which task should be done first, because every blog has its own important tasks. What I can suggest here is that you know what you are doing, go for the one that you think is important. Take posting and marketing your blog for example, posting can be done daily, but it is not necessary. In the meantime, marketing your blog can be a crucial task, because it is going to help you boost the traffic to your blog, expose your blog to the world.

So, first thing first. Do what you suppose to do. Divide your blogging schedule nicely, and stick with it. Here are 2 posts which can help you, Schedule Blogging and How Often Should You Post In Your Blog.

2. 60% Marketing and 40% Building

Here is what most people did not know about. Most bloggers thought that they should keep on updating their blog, keep on coming up with quality post and traffic will come by itself. No, not this way. If you are just starting out, keep on posting for your blog content is a right thing, however, once you have the content, what you should focus more on is marketing your blog, and not building content anymore.

I don’t mean that building content is not important anymore, content is still king. However, it is not something that is so important. After your blog is filled with quality content, you have to market it. If you did not market your blog, nobody will know about it. Don’t expect that people will come to your blog and help you promote your blog. This is your blog, not theirs! Nobody will do this for you except yourself.

Spend 60% of your blogging time into marketing your blog, and the rest goes into building your blog like updating, posting, etc. Marketing strategies like article marketing, forum marketing, comment marketing, social networking are very important tasks, they can expose your blog and create the visibility of your blog.

Don’t get it wrong by thinking that all you have to do to build a successful blog is keep on posting.

3. On-page SEO and Off-page SEO

This may seem like a fancy term, but don’t worry, search engine optimization is not as difficult as you can think of. If you don’t know what is SEO and how it relates to your blog, just read this post of mine, 6 Premium Search Engine Optimization Strategies For Your Blog. It is a great post which you must read if you want to get your blog to rank number one in search engine.

SEO is something you must do every single day when you update your blog. For example, you do do some on-page optimization in every of your post, like, bold the keywords that you are targeting, insert text links in your blog post, etc. As for off-page SEO, article marketing is one very effective strategies. Simply because people will use your articles as their content, and whenever they do this, they will include a link back to your blog. That is how you can build tons of back links for your blog.

Another great strategy for off-page SEO is by using forum and comment marketing. Try to leave your link after every reply in forum or comment. This will also help yo build the number of links pointing to your blog. Remember, don’t simply spam links, people hate it.

4. It Is About Quality, Not Quantity

Blog frequently, but not too often. Most bloggers will agree that two or three posts a week is a pretty good frequency. The key is to make your posts count. Don’t post about anything and everything in your field just because you have to. Posts that are original, meaty and full of opinion are more likely to get read and linked to than posts that are just a few words with a link to the news source.

So why do I still post every single day? This is because I’m building the content for my blog right now. I’m in the phase of building quality posts. I’m going to switch into the next phase, which is marketing my blog soon. Right now, all I do is trying to come up with quality post, that is why I keep on posting everyday. Not because that I have nothing to do, but this is just my blogging principle. I want to create a blog full of great content before actually marketing it. If you are running out of ides of what to post, read this, No More Topics To Blog? 5 Tips For You.

So think for yourself, if you feel your blog is filled with great content, then you can start to market it. For me, to build a successful blog, it can break into 4 phase. The first phase is where you just get started, learn everything and get use to blogging. The second phase is where you build quality content, because without content, nobody will come to your blog. The third phase will be marketing it, and the final phase is monetization.

5. Keep On Learning and Updating Yourself

The final super tips is this, keep on learning and keep on updating yourself. Learning is a very important process, however, learning itself will not bring you any results. You have to apply what you learn. Be balanced between learning and taking action. Say, maybe 30% learning and 70% taking action. If you have one hour, don’t spend that one hour reading an e-book teaching you how to blog.

Instead use part of the one hour to build your blog, and the rest go for learning. I found that many people keeps on learning, but they never actually take any action. If this is happening to you, then you have to change your routine. Take more action from now on. It is action that produces result.

Often, you can also subscribe to other bloggers which are in the same niche as yours. This way, you can learn from them and see how they progress. Learning from your competitors is one of the best ways to understand your weakness.

I hope that all these 5 super tips here can help you build a successful blog. Always remember this, building a successful blog requires time, it is not something that can be done in just 1 hour. Building your blog is the same as building your asset, its value will increase over time.

Posted by Shawn on April 26th, 2008

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No More Topics To Blog? 5 Tips For You

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I know every single blogger face this, running out of content to write. No matter how great a writer you are, you will somehow run out of content and don’t know what to write. I believe that this is also one of the killer reasons that make most bloggers out there fail. For me, writing a post is easy as long as if I have the idea of what to write. Before this, I have also written an interesting article how I find most of my content, you can read it here, Where I Find Most of My Content.

Ideas to Blog

You should know that you will have to update your blog constantly in order to build a successful blog. Don’t know why you should update your blog? Read this post, Why You Need A Constantly Updated Blog. If you are running out of content and don’t know what to write, don’t worry. Today, I’m going to tell you 5 tips, how you can overcome this problem. In fact, if you are running out of content and don’t know what to write, you have come to the right place. Read these tips, and I believe that you will never ever running out of content anymore.

Tips #1 - Post What You Have Posted

This is what you can do if you are running out of content. You can search for your older post which have higher views and comments, then re-type it, give it a spin before you post. This way, you will have another new article to post. For example, if you are a search engine journalist, and last week your position was that most mainstream sites need Google traffic to survive, try proving and re-type your point from the “con” perspective, instead of the “pro” position.

There are tons of ways you can write a same article, the main idea remains the same, just the way you present it to your readers changed. Just write from another angle. By putting your point another way, you might give your readers a totally new perspective, it can even the the point where they found their ‘ah-ha’ moment.

Tips #2 - Write What Others Are Writing

If you truly don’t have any ideas what to write, this may be a good alternative. You can always visit those popular blogs in your niche, then just see what they are talking about, get the idea, and post it in your blog with your own words. Another strategy is this, you can also talk about what others are talking about. What I mean here is that you can write something, like a review of what others are posting. Of course, you will have to choose those from your niche market, or else it will be out of topic.

Friendly debate can often spark the soap-opera like drama that will have both your audiences visiting both blogs to see what “the other fella” had to say. However, make sure that you are saying is real and don’t put ‘fire’ on other bloggers. You should know that words can spread like wildfire in blogsphere, so mind what you are saying.

Tips #3 - Guest Blogging

Another tips here is that you can invite somebody else to write for you. Just like submitting articles to article directories, the same concept applies here. You invite someone to write an article, and post it in your blog. But, you will have to insert at least one link to the desired website of the writer. You can choose only to accept those articles of your choice, for example, choose those that are related to your niche.

Guest blogging is a great way of posting, you just have to make sure that all the posts are not out of topic and properly written. There is no need for you to worry that your readers will follow the links in your post and never come back again. If you truly provide what they are looking for, they will come back for sure.

Tips #4 - Jotting Down Whatever Comes Into Your Mind

This is what I will always do. Whenever there are any ideas come across my mind, I will jot them down. This may seem like a kiddy stuff, but I can assure you, try this and you will see the results. This thing really helps a lot. Every time when there is an idea comes into my mind, I will write it down with my hand phone. As easy as that, and this is a very effective strategy. Try it.

Tips #5 - Post What Is On Demand

So how to do this? Very simple, just head up to any forums, or social networking site, or even Amazon, eBay, or Google News. Then search for the hot topics that everyone is looking for and talking about. Get the idea and post it in your blog. Don’t forget that you will have to choose those topic which is in your niche.

Remember, internet is flooded with information. Let me tell you a little secret about internet. Do you know that you can actually obtain ANY information from the internet without having to spend any money? Just perform your searches well, and you will find a lot of information, more than you can ever think of. So if you are out of topic, just perform the search with search engine.

Blogging Your Experience

These are the 5 tips that I have for you whenever you run out of content to write. And there is one thing I want to tell you before I end up this post. Blogging is about experiences actually. What you blog is your experience. It can be what you have gone through in your life, it can be what you have learned over the internet, in your life. You are actually blogging your experience. Meaning to say, if you want to constantly come up with quality post, you will have to learn from your experience everyday.

That will be all for today. If you are still running out of ideas and are looking for more blogging secrets, read my posts, Blogging Tips.

Posted by Shawn on April 25th, 2008

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Event + Response = Outcome

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Now this is truly a motivation article, read this and I believe that you will get motivated just like I do. Well, before we start, you should know that the law of polarity exist in our world. What is this law of polarity actually? It is the same concept as Yin and Yang, for every outside, there is an inside, for every north, there is a south, for every crisis, there is an opportunity, for every head, there is a tail, and so on and so forth.

Law of Polarity

So what it has to do with our life? Very simple, everything you do, there must be something opposite. I still remember that in the movie ‘The Matrix’ (one of my favorite movies), the Oracle told Neo, “Everything that has a beginning has an end”. It is the same as in the law of polarity. The meaning we choose to attach to an experience is the meaning we create. When we interpret an experience as negative or bad, we will get into a miserable state, take lousy actions.

In the meantime, if you interpret something as positive, you will straight away get into resourceful state, you will get motivated straight away. So can you see it now? It is how you choose to respond to what is happening to you. What you choose to respond will determine your outcome. One of my previous post, I wrote about how Oprah Winfrey transform her life from deep down until she becomes a successful person. It is a must read, if you haven’t read it, you can read it here, The Oprah Winfrey Success Story.
Here is a famous quote:

Event + Response = Outcome

This wonderful formula is given by Jack Canfield (Co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul). Many people believe that it is the events around us that shape our outcomes. They believe that it is the events that happen toward those successful people that makes them successful. If you don’t believe me, ask your friend, what makes Bill Gates so rich, what makes Warren Buffet so wealthy? I’m sure they will say something like they are lucky, they hit the market at the right time, etc, etc.

What people never see is this, the hard work behind those successful people. Do you think that Bill Gates or Warren Buffet achieve all these amazing results all by being lucky? That is impossible. You and I both know that this is totally untrue. It is not the things that happen to us, but rather how we choose to respond to happenings and external circumstances that ultimately shape our outcomes. Here is one thing that is very important, in fact, if you can handle this thing well, you can handle your life, you can even change your life and achieve what you want. This is the fact:

“As you know, we cannot control every single thing that happens to us, but we can control how we choose to respond to it.”

For example, if you go sailing, you cannot control where the wind is going to blow. You can complain and blame the wind all you want but it is not going to be of any use. However, you can control how you maneuver the sails, and that will control the outcome of your boat’s direction. This is why people often say this,

“I can’t the direction of the wind, but I can adjust the sail to always reach my destination.”

There are so many real-life stories that have proved this principle, this law of polarity. One classic example is this, How A Woman Transform From $50,000 Dept Into A Multi-Millionaire. So as you can see now, we have heard so many stories of people who were born with all kinds of handicaps and despite all the odds stacked against them, they managed to create a life most others can only dream about.

When we look at things (an experience, an incident, an event) from one perspective, it may seem totally bad. However, when we change the way we look at the same thing, i.e. from a different context, the meaning completely changes. In other words, there is no meaning in life except the meaning we choose to give it.

It depends on your perspective, the frame in which you are seeing it from. People who succeed and live fulfilling and enriching lives don’t experience better events, they just re-present things and respond in a much more powerful way. So I hope that after going through this article, you will learn the law of polarity. It is the meaning that you choose to give that matters. Remember this, life itself is meaningless, it is how you choose to give meaning to your life that shapes your life.

Posted by Shawn on April 24th, 2008

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6 Premium Search Engine Optimization Strategies For Your Blog

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Well, before you start to optimize your blog for search engine, you must first understand the term “search engine optimization” or simply SEO. So what does SEO mean? To put it simple, if you do SEO for your blog, you are doing something to make your blog rank higher in search engine whenever somebody searches for some of the keywords. So why SEO for your blog? One simple reason, to get free traffic from straight away from search engine.

I believe that you want your blog to show up at the top of search engine when someone searches for something related to your blog right? Then you will have to do SEO for your blog. A lot of bloggers worry that if their blog is search engine friendly. Don’t worry about it, blog is one kind of software and website that search engine likes, it is content-base and it is updated frequently.

Premium SEO Strategies For Your Blog

Here are some search engine optimization strategies that you can follow to put your blog rank higher in search engine. Just follow all these rules and you will never run out of track.

1. Use Your Primary Keyword In Your Domain Name

No matter what type of domain and hosting you are using, just make sure that you have the keyword that you want to target in your domain name. This is the first and the most simple strategy. For instance, if you are targeting the golfing world, you can use www.improvegolfskill.com instead of www.shawnlim.com. It helps in SEO and the search engine spider can recognize your blog more easily.

Besides this, having the keyword in your blog’s domain name also help to build your visibility and credibility. It is common sense that people will go to the website which is more related to what they are searching for. Let me ask you this, if you are looking for ways to earn easy money online, which domain you prefer? Is it www.makemoneyonline.com or www.trainyourdog.com? So can you see it now? It is plain common sense here.

However, if you want to go for branding, like www.yahoo.com, or maybe www.google.com, these 2 domains don’t mean anything, but they are hot and everyone knows them. This is the branding type of domain name. If you are new in internet marketing, it is not advisable to for for this kind of domain names, just stick with the basic, choose a domain name which is related to your market, and make sure that your primary keyword in there. Do you know why you need your own domain name? Read this, You Need A Domain Name! and you will know why I strongly recommend you to have your own.

2. Use Your Primary Key Phrase In Your Blog Header Tags and The Title of Your Posts

If your primary key phrase is “business blogging” make sure that the word business, or blogging, or both, appear in your blog headers (the H1 or H2 tags) as well as the title of each of your posts. Most blogging software will take the keywords in your post title and put them into the file name of the permalink posts it creates.

For example, if you are using Blogger, and the title of your post is “How To Earn Easy Money Online”, then Blogger will automatically create a page with your post title as the file name, “How-To-Earn-Easy-Money-Online.html”. With other server-side software like Wordpress and Movable Type, you may require the mod_rewrite command to save the title of your entries as a permalink.

If you are using WordPress and you don’t know how to do this, simply head to WP support and tell them your problem, they will lead you there. It is not as difficult as you can think of. If you are doing this the first time, yes, you may be confused, but keep on staying with it, and everything will become easy.

3. Use Your Secondary Keywords In Your Post

After you have done the first 2, the next thing you can do for better SEO for your blog is this, you can use your secondary keywords in your blog post. For instance, if your target keywords are like “blogging”, “earn money online”, then you can often use these keywords in your post. Meaning that you are writing something related to your targeted keywords.

However, remember this, you don’t want to repeat all these keywords and make your posts sound odd to read. You still have to consider for your readers. I know that you want to get high rank in search engine, but without good readership, your blog will not grow. Think about this, you are wiring for your readers or you want to write for search engine spiders?

My suggestion is this, write for your readers. After all, it is people who read your blog, not computer. Of course you can include your keywords in your blog post, just make sure they are not overloaded and make your post odd to read. For most people, 3% - 5% of keyword density will be fine. Meaning that if there are 100 words in your post, 3 to 5 times of your keywords appear in your post will be just fine. Learn more about on-page optimization here.

4. Use Your Keywords As Hyperlink or Anchor Text

Another strategy is this, you can make your keywords into hyperlink or anchor text. Where should you link to? You can link back to your older blog post if you don’t have any link destination. This way, you will direct readers to read more in your blog. Having your keyword in hyperlink or anchor text is more important than just having them in plain text.

The same concept applies here, do it, but don’t over do it. In fact, I encourage you to use this strategy more. Simply because if you are doing this, it somehow makes your blog seems more lively. It is not just a ‘dead end’ blog where everything stops in just one post. When there are people reading about your blog post, and if you have hyperlink in your blog post which link back to your older post, the reader may follow the link and find more information about it.

This is going to encourage readership, and in the same time, your older posts will not just buried deep in your blog. I’m sure that you want people to read all of your what you have written right? Then insert more links in your blog posts, direct readers to the information they are looking for, you will earn an extra point doing so.

5. Get More Back Links For Your Blog

This is what you need if you are serious in getting your blog to rank number one in search engine. Back links is the most important factor in SEO. The more back links you have, the higher higher percentage your blog is going to show up in search result. Meaning to say, if your blog has a lot of back links, search engine will rank it higher because it thinks that your blog is relevant to what people are searching for.

There are a lot of ways you can look for back links for your blog. For example, forum marketing, article marketing, comment marketing, link exchange, reviews, buying links, etc, etc. There are many ways you can generate back links for your blog. The main challenges here is how long can you stay with it? Some people decide to go for article marketing to build back links for their blog, but most of them won’t stand it because it is a long-term process which requires a lot of your commitment and persistence.

Once you have decided which strategy to use, make sure that you stay with it, the longer you can stay with it, the higher chance you are going to achieve what you want. It is persistency that counts here. Remember, master one of the strategy first before you go on to the next one. Here is a tips for you to attract more back links, How To Get Your Blog Rank #1 In Google.

6. Learn It, Live It, Love It!

This is the last strategy that you will need. Learn it, live it, and love it! Always take the initiative to learn more about internet marketing. The more you learn, the more you can improve. Once you have learned it, then live it. Means that you have to take action, learning without applying is just a waste of time. What for if you keep on learning about how to earn easy money online without actually applying all the strategies? It is going to be a waste, because you are ’storing’ all of your knowledge.

The final step is, love it. Love what you do, and money will follow. Just like what those very successful yet wealthy people always do. Look at Bill Gates, look at Warren Buffet, and look at Donald Trump, do you think that they work for money? No, they work because they love it. Money is just the by-product of their hard work, money is the measurement of their achievements. Want to find out more about these people? Read, The Real Millionaire Lifestyle.

I believe that you will be clear how you can improve your search engine ranking for your blog by now. Just stick with all the strategies here, and you will find your blog’s ranking climbing up to the top.

Posted by Shawn on April 21st, 2008

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Are Big Brain Attracts More Wealth?

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I came across this article in Yahoo, “Are Big Brain Smarter?“. Frankly, do you really think so? Is it that those who earn more money are those who have bigger brain? Here is some part of the article:

One thing scientists do agree on: A big brain alone doesn’t equate with smarts. If it did, elephants and sperm whales would win all the spelling bees. Rather, scientists look at brain mass relative to body mass in order to make any speculation about a creature’s cognitive abilities.

Are Big Brain Smarter?

So while an elephant noggin, at 10.5 pounds (4,780 grams), could squash a human think box in a purely physical battle of brains, you and I take the cake in a war of wits. Our brains, which weigh an average of 2.7 pounds (1,200 grams), account for about 2 percent of body weight, compared with an elephant’s under one-tenth of a percent.

So you can see now, big brain does not equal smarter and it does not mean that if rich man are smarter. We all born equal, you and I both have the same bio-computer, that is our brain. Then what makes some people so smart in math? What makes some people so well in communication? What makes some people so clever in geography? Some in marketing, some in chemistry? Why is there a huge difference if it is not because of our brain?

It Is The Experience

If you are good in mathematics today, it doesn’t mean that you have a bigger brain. The truth is this, it is because you are expose to more mathematics in life. It is because of your life experience, it is because of what you have been through. For example, if you are good in math, maybe it is because of your parents teachings, they are good in math as well. We need to understand how our brain works. Our brain which consists of more than 1,000 billion neurons, each capable of processing information at a speed greater than a P4 personal computer. Do you know that you already have the most powerful resource in your life?

Our talents, skills, behavior, abilities, thought are determined by how our neurons are connected, not by how much neurons we have. So, if someone who is very talented in mathematics, it is because he has a richer neuro-connection in the area of mathematical-logical thinking. Our neuro-system will develop once we were born, and after that we will get influent by role model around us. You can be very talented in singing, but you may have less talent in calculus.

Meaning to say that, if you can replicate the brain of how Warren Buffet is thinking, you can then replicate his amazing achievements. Successful people is successful because they know how to run their mental program effectively. So today if you want to achieve great results in life, just replicate those who are successful in the field you want, you can be just like them.

To Become Rich Has Nothing To Do With Our Brain

Maybe you have heard of some people saying that they are not rich because they are not smart enough, they are not clever enough, they don’t have the knowledge, they don’t have any PhDs, etc. However, you know that all of these are lousy excuses, they are the limiting beliefs that prevent you from getting what you want in life. So if you want to be a successful person, you want to make big money, then commitment and action are what you need.

Just like Sylvester Stallone, did you know how much he had gone through to achieve the results that he has today? Do you think that Arnold Schwarzenegger achieved all his results from his talent and luck? Frankly, I don’t think so. Read this post, The Commitment of Sylvester Stallone, and you will find that to achieve great success in life, does not require any luck, it is not knowledge that makes you success. It is the commitment and the action that you take.

Another success guru I want to share with you is this, Adam Khoo. He is my favorite success guru. He achieved all his great results in life all by himself. He made his first million at the age of 26, and I read a lot about him. If you are going to learn all the secrets of success, then you should definitely learn from him. Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires is one of his product that I bought and I will strongly recommend to anyone who are serious in achieving great financial success.

Posted by Shawn on April 20th, 2008

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The Real Millionaire Lifestyle

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Millionaire, millionaire, millionaire… Everyone wants to be a millionaire, if it is possible for you, do you want to be? Of course, nobody would want to live their life poor right? So what kind of lifestyle a millionaire posses actually? Is it that a millionaire is someone who spend lavishly? Is it that a millionaire someone who dine in the finest restaurant in the world? Is it that a millionaire is someone who drive luxury car?

It may seem so, for the media. However, in real-life, it will be totally opposite. If you want to find out how media describe the life of a millionaire, read this post of mine, Don’t Go Wrong Together With The Media. A real self-made millionaire will not live their life this way. What I mean here is that, a self-made millionaire will not simply spend lavishly, dine in the finest restaurant, drive luxury cars. I don’t mean that they won’t buy all these things and enjoy their life, but they will only do all these after they have achieved their goals and with extra money to spend.

Some Real-Life Examples…

Did you know that IKEA’s founder, Ingvar Kamprad is the unofficial richest man in the world? His net worth is $53 billion. One of the reasons he managed to accumulate so much money is because of his frugal nature. Up to today, it is said that Kamprad flies economy, drives an old Volvo and even waits until the afternoon to buy his fruits and vegetables, when the prices drop significantly.

What about Sam Walton? If the founder of Wal-Mart is alive today, he will be the world’s richest man, Sam Walton. If you take a look at Forbes list of the ten richest people in the world, five of them are the Waltons who inherited their money from Sam. How did this once poor farm boy accumulate so much wealth? Again, he was well-known for sharing rooms during business trips to save money, flying only economy and wearing clothes from his own discount store.

Warren Buffet

Another classic example is Warren Buffet. It is said that Warren will not buy a brand new car as he thinks it’s just not worth the money. Back in the ’60s, Warren remarked that if he spent $20,000 on a new car, it would be worth little or nothing in ten years, He also knew that he could achieve a 25% annual compounded return on his $20,000 if he were to invest it. Going by this returns, investing $20,000 would bring him $158,518 in ten years, $1.26 million in twenty years and $9.96 million in thirty years…he figured that $9.96 million was just too much to waste on a car!

Why Make All These Money If You Can’t Enjoy It?

Many people have the wrong idea about what being a millionaire is all about. They believe that millionaires live lavish lifestyles and all that self-indulgence brings lasting happiness. However, now you know that all these are not true. A real self-made millionaire will not simply spend their money on something unnecessary.

And if it is so, you may ask this question, “why make all this money if I cannot actually enjoy them?” Here is the answer for this question, do what you love, and money will follow.

Do What You Love, and Money Will Follow

All these successful people, they are rich because they do what they love. Look at Bill Gates, look at Warren Buffet, and look at Donald Trump. They like what they do. It is not about money, it is doing what they love to, and money is just the measure of their achievements. Remember this, self-made millionaires did not enjoy their life by spending the money, instead, they enjoy by doing what they love to.

Make this clears, if spending money is what you enjoy doing, then you will never ever be rich! However, if you enjoy by creating wealth, then your wealth will be guaranteed. I hope that you can see how people think toward money. Read this post as well, To Choose Between Money, Or Happiness?

I have heard an audio program from Robert Kiyosaki before, what he says is this, too many people cannot see through the other side of a coin. What they can see is just one side of the coin, where money is not enough. If you can see the other side of the coin, the world where money is in excess just like the air you are breathing, then that will be the day you change your life forever.

Posted by Shawn on April 19th, 2008

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5 SureFire Ways to Build Your Blog’s Readership

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You should know that there are millions of blogs out there, and if you have a blog today, one of the biggest thing you may lack is this, readership. You can have a blog set up in 5 minutes, however, if your blog doesn’t have any readers to read, then all of your effort will be wasted. Just imagine this, you spend 1 hour to come up with a good post which you think it is what people are looking for, and you have searched for all the nice pictures to include in your post. In the end, you found that there are actually no people there to read it.

If this sounds like what is happening to your blog right now, this is the right article you should read. In fact, it is fine if your blog doesn’t have any readers, only if the purpose of your blog is just for personal matters like you just write it for your girlfriend or for your family members. That will be fine. However, if your purpose to blog is not personal, you want to earn money from your blog, then you should come to know that readership is very important in your blog.

Think Like a Marketer

This is the world of internet, and marketing has a common concept with marketing, that is communication. Can you communicate well with your readers? I bet that you can, to communicate from blogs are as easy as talking with your friends. So often operate from the mindset of a marketer. You have to learn how to market your blog, as long as your goal is to grow your blog, then you will need to learn how to market it.

Before this, I have also written an article about how you can raise your blog’s readership, you can read it here, How to Increase Your Blog’s Readership. And today, I’m going to tell you exactly how you can build your blog’s readership, all in a different way, from a different angle. I truly hope that you will benefit from this article. Here we go:

1. Stay On Course

Unless you are a very famous people, you should always write something about your market. If you are Bill Gates or Tom Cruise, it will be find to write what you have eaten for your breakfast. However, if you are nobody, then I don’t think that people are interested in what you ate for your breakfast. Here is an example, if you are in the entertainment industry, let’s say movies, then make sure that you write something related to movies in every of your post. That’s the way to stay on course and that’s the way to do it.

2. Write As You Are Talking With Your Friend

This is another good blogging tips. I guess, nobody will want to read something like a ‘lecture’s talk’ after they came back tired from their work or school. You have to understand this, this is a blog, and it is just like your personal diary. Therefore, you have to write in the way just like you are talking to your friends. If you are afraid of grammars, then use this tool to help you, SpellCheckPlus. I use this tool to check for my spelling and grammar before I publish any post in my blog.

3. Add In Your Opinion

Always add in your own opinion in your blog posts. Like I said, this is a blog, you can always add in your own opinion about some issues. In fact, this is what other people want to read about. Your blog is not a company’s brochure or a sales page, people want to read about what you think, and that is the reason people subscribe to your blog posts! Make sense? Your readers like what you write, and that is the reason they subscribed to your blog post. Do you know why people visit your blog? Follow this link, The 3 Reasons That People Visit Your Blog.

4. Update Frequently, and Don’t Give Up

Another thing is this, you have to update your blog frequently, don’t get frustrated and give up because you don’t get any traffic in the first month. Everything needs time to develop, it is the same for your blog. It is impossible for you to become a millionaire overnight, you will have to spend a lot of time into making it comes true.

Remember, your blog is just like a real-estate, its value will increase with time. Meaning to say, the longer you stay with your blog, the more valuable your blog will be. Most of the bloggers out there can’t stand this, they just give up updating their blogs. And if you can cope with this, you are considered a great blogger. If you don’t have any idea how often should you post, read this, How Often Should You Post In Your Blog?

5. Serve Your Readers

This is what I have learned from my blog, it is a very valuable lesson. You have to serve your blog readers. Think about it, what is the different between a successful blog with an ordinary blog? The only different is that the successful blogger post something that really valuable for their readers. Successful bloggers post with the mindset that they want to serve the readers, how they can do more to help their readers, what are their readers’ problems, how can they design their blog so that their readers can read withe ease? These are the differences between a successful blogger and someone who are not.

I believe that with all these 5 keys here, you can greatly improve your blog’s readership. Of course, there are more tips and guides to increase your readership. These are only what I think are important to you. So just stick with them and you will see the results real soon. Once you have build up a huge readership, you should then learn How To Maintain Your Readership.

Posted by Shawn on April 18th, 2008

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The Oprah Winfrey Success Story

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Today, I’m going to share a very inspiring story with you. I believe that this real-life story can motivates you and inspires you to take even more actions in your life. After I read this story, I felt that I’m not using my full potential in life, and I’m so motivated after reading it.

Have you ever heard of this woman, maybe you have but you didn’t know of her background. This woman was born to an unwed 13 year old mother. Alright, with no father, because her mother was raped and she was the result of the rape. Now if you think of a woman like that would you think that she would have a bright future? Probably not.

So when she was born she was abandoned by her mother. She had no family and she was adopted. But to her misfortune when she was adopted the people who adopted her were irresponsible, were very cruel, they sexually and physically abused her over a period of 15 years. She was forced to take drugs, she was sent to a juvenile home for delinquency.

She went in and out of rehabilitation for cocaine abuse. She was forced to steal. But the sad and ironic thing is this. At 13 year old herself, she was also raped. She got pregnant and she gave birth to a still born child. Now as I told you the story of this woman, would you feel sorry for her? A lot of us would. And let’s say today this woman is a complete wreck, totally depressed, on drugs, would you blame her? A lot of people won’t blame her, they will say it’s not her fault it is the environment.

But what if I tell you what happened to this woman today, she is one of the most successful respected and wealthiest women in the world today. Oprah Winfrey. Have you ever heard of Oprah Winfrey. How many of you have watched her show Oprah Prime Time? Is it inspiring? And on the show she talks about things that inspire people. She talks about social issues; she interviews celebrities like Bill Clinton, Tom Cruise etc.

Oprah Winfrey

But that was not how she started. When she started her talk show ten years ago she was a nobody, and being a black woman there was a lot of racism. And when she first started her talk shows, do you know who she interviewed? She interviewed people who had been raped, people who went through emotional trauma. People, who are divorced, people who have attempted suicide. And during her 1 hour talk show, she would inspire and counsel them. And people who have attended her talk show, they would say, “My life is better after talking to her and I will conquer the world”.

And when people saw her show on TV that’s how they became inspired and that’s how she also became as famous as Oprah. The woman can change lives. And recently someone interviewed her. And they asked her, Oprah, what gave you the ability to do what you do today? You know what she said?

It’s because of what happened to me last time. She says it’s because of my tough childhood because of the pain that I went through that it has made me a very strong woman. And today nothing can shake my foundation.

And she said when I look at the difficult issues at society, when I look at people suffering, I can talk about it, and I can connect with all these people, why? Because I can empathize, I was there before. And I can use my life as a role model to change their lives. That’s why I am Oprah Winfrey. So successful people they all believe one thing, it’s not what happens to us that defines who we become. It’s what we choose to do about it. And she also said one thing that really inspired me.

“Whatever happens to us, it happened for a reason.”

Do you believe that things happen for a reason? I don’t know about you, but I believe that everything in life happens for a reason. The worst things that happen to us happen for a reason. But the question is what the reason we want to give ourselves. Do we say for ourselves it is a curse? Or do we say to ourselves that it is a test? (“Why” Is More Important Than “How”)

I will leave this inspiring story for you to digest the meaning in it now. You have to find out the reason for yourself, only you will know why. I hope that this story inspires you as well. So if you were born ‘luckier’ than Oprah today, then make sure that you use your full potential to achieve amazing results in your life. You can also read this post of mine, The Commitment of Sylvester Stallone.

Posted by Shawn on April 17th, 2008

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