'What'll I do/When you are far away/And I am blue/What'll I do?' The van Otterloo bequest.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. Before you dip into this article, I ask you to consider a situation which may now, given your present realities, seem absurd, unbelievable, impossible. If you expect to stay in such an ignominious position, then, yes, you are right to skip this report for its information is far in advance of what you need. However, if you plan to retire as a person of means, nicely well heeled, then my every word should transfix you, for this is a very important subject indeed....

.... the disposition of valuable objects from your estate, items you love, which you worked an ardent lifetime to secure, and which require your swift and total attention, so that all is done the apple pie way you require and is best for the prosperous future of the items in question.

I have chosen for the musical accompaniment to this article one of the most romantic of tunes, composed by a master who knew exactly what it took to touch the heart. Irving Berlin wrote "What'll I do" in 1923; it was used in the 1974 "The Great Gatsby" film. It is a song about love, separation, pain, and "dreams of you/That won't come true/What'll I do?"

What'll you do? Plan, that's what you'll do, plan... and finagle.

"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early..."

So wrote F. Scott Fitzgerard in "The Rich Boy" in Capri in 1924 while waiting for the publication of "The Great Gatsby," the event which both made and destroyed him. He was better at acquiring than preserving, most of all how to preserve himself and his integrity as a man. In this key particular he did not understand and surely never emulated the characteristic habits of the very rich, who to a person value the preservation of wealth, in all its many varieties, as their most important trait.

That is why I am so enjoying the cat-and-mouse game going on right now with Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo and their stunning collections, particularly 17 masterpieces from their collection of 17th century Dutch and Flemish art. including works by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and others.

Just this portion of a trove that also includes rare 17th century Dutch furniture and over 10,000 monographs, catalogs and rare books from the 17th century is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

First, acquire.

Neither Ejik van Otterloo nor his wife are particularly "old". Van Otterloo is 76; his spouse 67. However, theirs is the time of life when people with meaningful assets and to excess begin to give serious attention, not to the hitherto enthralling business of acquiring, but to the indispensable matter of what to do with all that's been acquired. And in the case of the van Otterloos, gifted with ample funds, focus, the best advice available, and an "eye" that got better and better from the 1990s when they started, that "all" is breathtaking.

Then, give.

But you can't take it with you. You depart. Your treasures remain. What's a body to do? Museums know: give us your prized possessions and we'll treat them right and keep your munificent gifts in the pristine condition they deserve and your honored name alive forever. It is a potent argument and has been successfully used over and over again to build the great museums of the Great Republic. I suspect the van Otterloos would have been responsive to such an argument, as late as 2011 after the Peabody-Essex Museum of Salem, Massachusetts mounted a large and distinguished show of their paintings and furniture.

At that time van Otterloo told The Boston Globe that "if he had been ready to give the collection away then, it would probably go to the MFA", (Boston Museum of Fine Arts).  Was this a promise? Certainly not, said Rose-Marie, certainly not. And here is where the story gets so very interesting...

The ties that (apparently) do not bind.

In 2011 the smart money would have bet on a  huge bequest to the MFA. In 2013 after Rose-Marie's statement the odds the lot would go there would have dropped. Something had happened, but what? Eijk a former MFA trustee is a member of the museum's art of Europe visiting committee. Rose-Marie, currently an MFA trustee, chairs the MFA collections committee. And, of course, there is the fact that over the years the couple had given 278 works of art, primarily European prints and drawings, including five works by Rembrandt, the whole valued between $5-$10 million. With such a history, not giving the latest haul to the MFA would be, at the very least, a black eye for director Malcolm Rogers and an astonishing coup for the lucky institution getting the lot.

But the once unthinkable must now be thought. For the van Otterloos have now let it be known that they are talking with directors at the Peabody-Essex Museum, the National Gallery in Washington, the Harvard Art Museum, and the Huntington Library... as well as the MFA for which the gilded couple has already done so much. What is poor Malcolm Rogers to do? An admirable display of his British phlegm suggests a  man walking on egg-shells. The 17 works in question, he said, "would transform any museum it was given to. I cannot preempt their decision or read their minds. But I think the MFA would make a marvelous setting for their collection." How he must be gritting his teeth, reserved in approved pukka style, supremely cautious in what he says and does.

Cherchez la femme.

Of course this famous maxim applies here. What must Malcolm Rogers have done to have to endure such abashing treatment now, and in public, too? Did he step on a toe or merely forget that to be engaged is not necessarily to marry; that the romance can never stop if one wants its fruits?

Or is it merely that Madame wants more for her money? She has, I think, developed lordly tendencies of late. For instance, with their usual generosity, the couple has leant the great and recently reopened Rijksmuseum a wondrous river view by Salomon van Ruysdael. But they crisply informed its administrators that no gift was intended or likely. "We really think Holland has all it needs." So there!

What a thrill it must be to treat great institutions, even great nations, so. Thus has the circle of possible recipients of this great gift been expanded, and expanded again. "I am not going to call the Art Institute of Chicago, but if the Art Institute of Chicago comes to us and said, 'We want to talk,' we will listen," Rose-Marie said. Of course... for all suitors bear gifts, if only to the ego. Thus, the more, the merrier.

And so, Madame (for it is sure to be Madame) will receive (or decline to receive) the legion of silver-tongued acquisitors, comme il faut in presentation, language and plausible plans for displaying to the advantage the marvelous works, including Rembrandt's "Portrait of Aeltje Uylenburgh", the gem of the collection, worth in excess of $50 million.

Her every whim, reasonable or not, will be gratified, every movement and comment subjected to the most erudite and thorough analysis. She will have deference, their total focus, and fun. No one else will, for all that they will be received at the van Otterloo's new primary residence in Naples, Florida. For most the trip must be  happiness enough... for there can only be one winner, the collection unlikely to be divided, thereby diminishing its profound impact. And that would never do.

All good things...

Sadly, all good things come to an end even the most delicious of flirtations. The van Otterloos aren't getting any younger. And they are anxious that their magnificent collection be handled properly. Where will that be? Personally, I think Malcolm Rogers and the MFA still have the edge and making sure he twists in the wind for a while will help him focus on these two grandees of the art world who have done so much for him and his administration, perhaps while he took them for granted. Thus I expect these master works, all 17 of them, to remain in Boston to beautify the lives and excite the imaginations of generations to come.

However, whoever gets them will cause the van Otterloos the same problem: the pangs of loss. For you see, once the destination of these pictures has been decided, once they have been packed, shipped and unpacked, the walls will be bare and the sense of acute loss palpable, for all they are going to the best of homes. And that is where Irving Berlin steps in, for he understood that "What'll I do?" moment....

"What'll I do with just a photograph/To tell my troubles to?"

They'll think of something, something grand and unexpected, for the really rich are different from you and me and our drab concerns... which is why they will always get our full and complete attention, especially when the story is as good as this one.

About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is a well known business author, historian and art collector. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com

 

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Why you will NEVER be rich. Why you will never live la dolce vita. And what you won't do about it.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. This is an article about something you've craved, desired, wished for... but now, aging and chagrined, know you will never have... never be any closer to than when you were sixteen or the last time you seriously consulted "Esquire" for a fashion make over.

And that is financial independence.

You don't have to believe me, probably won't. So (smelling salts at the ready) take a look at your assets. Pathetic, isn't it? And the sad fact is... you won't do anything about it. Probably can't.

But before we develop this maudlin theme further, you'd better imbibe some of Nino Rota's masterful score from Fellini's perpetually edgy masterpiece "La Dolce Vita" (1960). You'll find it in any search engine. It is about the craziness of love, money and desire played out in Rome, where the unending search for the sweet life will devour you as it has devoured generations before you, including a whole College of Cardinals, and expectant generations still to come.

Now let us begin, for you have wasted far too much time, and have so little left.

Time.

The first reason la dolce vita will elude you is that you've waited too long to use the present to shape the future. Now hear this: to become rich by your own insistent hands and devices, you must start from the first minute you glimpse the awful and shocking truth that you are not going to be young and beautiful for ever. What? Moi?

Yes, I'm afraid so. One of these days some current play fellow of yours, who just a moment ago complimented your bodacious curves and knock-'em-out bootie, will be considering the unfairness of fate whilst scrutinizing your flesh-specked skull, for all the world like Hamlet and hapless Yorick.

Dire, but who cares?

Very well, you muffed your biggest advantage -- time. Sadly, the more you wasted; the less organized and efficient you were, the fewer options you have. There are two things you can do about this: 1) radically alter your lifestyle or 2) do nothing. You'll say, of course, that you'll make adjustments, but we both know, don't we, how lazy and incorrigible you have been in the past... and intend to be in the future. In other words, you'll continue to talk the good, the plausible, the smooth game... but you won't lift your pampered pinkie to achieve the objective.

What objective?

The plain truth is you have never had a specific, written financial objective; the older you get, the more glaring its omission. For example: have you checked to see just how long a person of your age, gender, and health can expect to live? In other words do you know what you're working with? It figures. You want the dolce vita, but you haven't got a clue about how much "vita" is left. So, for openers let's play "This is the rest of your life." For most of you even Ralph Edwards, a man with helium in his leather pumps, couldn't squeeze much optimism from the too sad facts.

Napoleon, no objective, St Helena.

The most celebrated man in history who lived without objectives was the great Napoleon himself. It's what brought him down from the highest of pinnacles and human achievement to life on a poky little sheep ranch called St. Helena. You see, before each campaign he'd steal the soldiers he'd need and the money. Then, without forethought, he'd set down the road... without goal, without objective. He was, you see, the ultimate wing-er. Goals, he reckoned, could take care of themselves...

Europe offered him this province and that if he would say just what he wanted and, in time honored fashion, stop with the current larceny; in other words once he was bought, stay bought. However,if things were going well, he declined to parlay; it they weren't going well, he declined to parlay until at last the aristocrats understood they must work together, did so, and snuffed the man who, if he had a reasonable goal, would have ruled the roost and been the greatest sovereign since the Caesars. It is unrecorded if his imperial majesty liked mutton. I doubt it.

Now, assets.

A detailed look at what you loosely term your "assets" now is necessary. Gather what you jocosely call your "financial records," you know, that laughable pile of gum wrappers, lottery tickets, naughty Internet sites, and legal mumbo-jumbo about a stock you once owned. You'll need pencil, paper and true grit for this crucial exercise.

Now, sit down and start.... And, pray, don't snivel,  whine or sob!!!; much less "special plead" and "explain" as we review the little you wish to transform into the enough, the more than enough, and that fast receding life you once though would arrive without much effort or work of any kind. Oh, how the ill-informed and grossly self-deceived have fallen.

What assets?

Get a grip on yourself. You are about to do the hardest of tasks; telling the truth about you, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It will cause you pain; it will make you squirm; it will make you perspire and cause your life with every wrong decision and miscalculation to flash before your horrified eyes.

Why have I put that gun on the table? Because I know given the chance you'd be out of here like a jack rabbit. So, shall we begin?

The overwhelming number of folks have just about $30,000 in assets upon retirement. That's probably within shouting distance of where you are now, assuming you wish to retire in, say, five years. I hope you're smiling, sugar, because you're going to have to place a brave face upon this dismal reality. And while you're at it, try learning the lyrics to Charlie Chaplin's moving song, "Smile though your heart is breaking...." Just remember this, when he wrote it he was probably the best known entertainer in the world and amongst the richest men on Earth. It's easy to weep into your beer and warble movingly under those conditions.

Under water.

So.... grimly...you list your primary asset, your house. The Great Recession of '08 wiped out such assets for most people for the better part of a generation. If you're looking here for salvation, look again. It's not coming any time soon and certainly not to fund a lifestyle less dolce every day. And as for any other "assets", you know and I know their collective value is negligible. And as for that grotesque Chinese vase your auntie bought 50 years ago in San Francisco, you'll be waiting a long, long time before "Antiques Road Show" tells you it's fake, Ming indeed! Nice try.

Two choices.

So, what are you going to do? You could get realistic and stop wishing for something that's not going to happen. Take your $30,000 (or so) and give yourself a week in Paris Greta Garbo would envy. Splurge. When it's over, it's over. Enjoy  what you've had; don't pine for more. You've had a nice taste of what you wanted. Be grateful. This is not the American way, of course; no matter how much you get, you want more... and moan to high heaven when you don't have it, can't afford it, and can't get it.

The solution? It's right in front of you. It's called the Internet, and it's a gold mine... if you work with the right people and follow simple directions. I know what I'm talking about. Nearly twenty years ago, when the 'net was new and primitive. I made a calculated decision that it would be the most important, the  transformational technology of my life. Without hesitation I affiliated way back then with a genius named George Kosch who explained to me, already a successful businessman in publishing and direct mail, why the 'net was the big play. As a result I made millions of dollars.

Now hear this: you can, too. Everything you need is just one click away, easy to understand, easy to start. What's more you'll never work alone, will always have assistance and instruction and need to know absolutely nothing about technology. Now see for yourself. Go to worldprofit.com and immerse yourself in your successful future.

But we both know, don't we, what you'll do... thereby killing your last chance (short of a winning lottery ticket or the timely demise of an unknown relative) of much "vita" at all, much less any that's dolce.  Caio, bella. We'll miss you on the Via Veneto. And remember, to be rich, is to be beautiful... forever. 
 About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com

'But there are dreams that cannot be And there are storms we cannot weather.' Of Aaron Swartz, 26, Internet visionary. Dead by his own hand, January 11, 2013.

by  Dr. Jeffrey Lant.

Author's program note. Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman and Aaron Swartz had been an item for 18 months or so. She was sharply aware of the dark melancholy that could come at any time out of nowhere, seizing him, casting him into a despair without end, without mercy, without reason and with utterly no hope whatsoever. It was always frightening for both of them because it left both exhausted, anxious, never knowing when it might return... only to stay forever, locking her out and him within, lovers separated by bleak futility. So were their young lives and love blighted and made uncertain.

On Friday, January 11, Taren was up, getting ready for work. Aaron was still in bed. Instinctively, she knew that if she could get him up, entice a little food in him, put a smile on his pale face, he was better positioned to meet another day and his particular demons. And so as she told The Boston Globe in a telephone interview, "I really tried everything I could think of to get him out of bed. I opened the curtains, played music, tickled him, and eventually it got to the point of throwing water on him." Nothing worked. She was terribly worried... knew he was in a "really difficult place" with his trial dead ahead... didn't want to leave him, was already late for work.

He smiled and told her he needed rest, that he'd be fine, that he'd stay in bed and sleep. Yes, he'd be fine, urging her on her way. Then he smiled again, perhaps the last smile of his young life. So she smiled and shut the door. He and the melancholy he called "Raw Nerve" were now alone together... together with God Almighty, omniscient, omnipotent, omniparous...

Throughout the morning, Taren texted him with affectionate messages and the ideas he loved. There was no answer, no response at all to the concern of his beloved. Nor to anything else. Aaron, firebrand, computer prodigy, revolutionary, lover of humanity, seeker after truth... was already beyond the cares of men, free of even the miseries that had assailed him just minutes before, turning life into unendurable burden.

At last, and by his own determined hand, he was at peace... the countenance of God lighting his way, lightening his load; inscrutable no longer but welcoming, accepting, the God of eternal love.

"I Dreamed a Dream."

For this tale of our wired times and one of its gifted creators gone awry, now gone forever, I have selected one of the greatest achievements from the fertile partnership of Claude-Michel Schonberg (music) and Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel (lyrics). It is "I Dreamed a Dream" from "Les Miserables" (1985). It is a tune that bites deep and makes the tears run hot and fast, for like Fantine we have all believed... and been disillusioned; loved and been abandoned; given and been spurned...

... oppressed by "dreams that cannot be And... storms we cannot weather."  Thus we have all known our own particular version of Aaron Swartz' story... and can therefore attest to its validity... and its excruciating pain, searing, so fundamental a part of our human experience. You'll find many fine versions in any search engine. Go now... and let it move you.

Aaron's story.

Swartz was born November 8, 1986 in Chicago, the son of Susan and Robert Swartz. His father had founded a software company and from an early day young Aaron was obsessed by technology, ardently studying computers, the Internet and its unique culture. When he was just 13, Swartz was a winner of the ArsDigita Prize, a competition for young people who created "useful, educational, and collaborative" Web sites.

The prize included a trip to Cambridge, Massachusetts to the august Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Thus, unknowingly on both sides, did the protagonist of the tale, American computer programmer, writer, political organizer and Internet activist and the "scene of the crime" come together in an uneasy embrace, from which even death did not part them.

MIT, of course, citadel of America's technical might and constant innovation, knew prodigies of course; they were common along Massachusetts Avenue in the inelegant concrete bunkers which disdained any grace or artistry whatsoever. Harvard students, on the other side of Central Square, might sniff and condescend to the "nerds" but these nerds wore their social awkwardness and bad manners like the red badge of courage. They knew that the planet's future and the well being of millions would be shaped by them, however socially inept, ill at ease, unwashed and disheveled they might be.

Swartz, slight, a wisp of a lad, looking like a child up too late, hair an outrageous mop, eager to know you, befriend you, learn from you loved the 24-hour-a-day, projects-always-percolating environment. Its high energy, high stakes, high destiny lifestyle grabbed him like fly paper. He was to this manner born... and it took him, quirks and all, to its ample and exuberant heart. Aaron was home...

"I dreamed a dream in days gone by/ When hope was high / And life worth living"

To understand what happened next you must know something of the Internet, something of the tech community and something about MIT, at once corporate giant and bubbling cauldron of constantly new and exciting ideas. It is a place of the youthful enthusiasm that only comes once in life; a place where the best and the brightest constantly advance, discuss, shape and discard ideas, all night, all day, thereby inventing our future.

It is a place where change, transforming change, is the object of the day and the ideas of the past, no matter how serviceable they may once have been, are derided as old hat and unapologetically cast aside, only to be replaced in their turn.

Swartz loved this culture and its unending focus on making the world, in every aspect, better and better still. He approached this objective from many directions for he was a man glad to share, hoping you'd share with him as people were generally glad to do. Sharing, not selling, information became his mantra... and his downfall; increasingly because what he "shared" did not belong to him, was not his to give.

In late 2010 and early 2011, Swartz downloaded about 4 million documents from the JSTOR ("Journal Storage") archives. In the process he crashed some of JSTOR's servers. By now a host of people were involved in this matter, including officials at MIT, JSTOR... and the FBI.

On January 6, 2011 Swartz got the knock on the door he must have hoped would never come. He was arrested and charged by Carmen Ortiz, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, with wire fraud, computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer and recklessly damaging a protected computer.

This was a felony charge; the kind of charge major criminals get. Not least the kind of charge which, if proven, would deprive Swartz of his right to vote, give him up to 35 years in prison and a million in fines.

All of a sudden the world was a very different place, threatening, ominous, determined to crush and obliterate.

"I had a dream my life would be/ So different from this hell I'm living." 

Once Swartz was arrested all the characters of the final chapter began to assemble... Aaron's lawyers and supporters... prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's office and other law enforcement agencies... representatives of JSTOR and MIT... partisans of the prosecutors who wanted to "make an example" and his supporters who cited his previous squeaky clean record and willingness to sign an agreement not to do anything like this again.

But perhaps most important of all there was "Raw Nerve" which wiped out all hope and exacerbated all despair until Aaron Swartz bore only a semblance to the high energy, far seeing, joyful reformer he had once been, and not so long ago.

Now was the moment for humanity... to read Swartz the riot act for he had transgressed... but without locking him away for even the four to six months proposed; convicted felon; no right to vote ever again. Now was the moment for empathy... for understanding... for an appropriate deal; a deal that would admonish Swartz without destroying him... for the nation needs such audacious thinkers with their profound knowledge of the Internet, its technology, and its burgeoning uses.

Where was this person? How could so many who knew Aaron and his plight see him and yet fail to perceive his need... how could this happen?

"There was a time when men were kind/ When their voices were soft/ And their words inviting... /There was a time/ Then it all went wrong." No more so than with Aaron Swartz..

Envoi, Aaron's words, his timeless warning to us...

"And it will happen again; sure, it will have another name, and maybe a different excuse, and probably do its damage in a different way, but make no mistake, the enemies of the freedom to connect have not disappeared. The fire in those politicians' eyes has not been put out."

Thus does dead Aaron Swartz, far too soon taken, show us what we must do. Now we must do it and keep the faith.

About the Author Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com.

10 Marketing Mistakes Revealed!

By Sandi Hunter

I've been in the home business and online marketing industry for nearly 20 years. These are 10 of the most common marketing mistakes I hear or see most often from both Newbies but also from people who assure me they know what they are doing. Here's the critical mistakes to avoid and what you should be doing instead to maximize your results.

Marketing Mistake #1
You send all your traffic to your primary website. Most people involved in online marketing or affiliate marketing,  are selling more than one product or service. By all means, list all your products and services on your site, but don't rely on your website for lead generation.  Your website can be too busy and too big to funnel your buyers into the section or item they are looking for.  Fussy, large, poorly organized websites can cost you leads and sales.   

What you should do.

You should send all your traffic to landing pages NOT to your website. Ideally you should have one landing page for each product or service you offer.  This way you can target specific markets and cater your copy and offers to that population. Landing pages are clean lead-generating machines. Effective landing pages start with a compelling attention-getting headline, then drive home the benefits of what you offer, point by point. Landing pages that get results always have an OFFER to generate an action by the reader - in most cases this action is either to get a contact form completed, or an instant sale.   Every person who lands on your landing page (squeeze page) is a highly valued prospect.

Marketing Mistake #2

You focus only on lead generation and not list building. Newcomers to online marketing, and even seasoned marketers often make the mistake of posting static information on a website or a landing page.  They fail to do the most important task of all. That task is to include an opt-in form on your landing page that encourages the prospect to sign up for your newsletter, or your email updates, or your special promotions email. 

What you should do.

Every landing page you create should include OPTIN boxes so respondents can check off interest in other services you offer including your newsletter, special promotions, or related products and services. Every successful marketer knows that the key to sales now, today, and the future is based on a solid mailing list.  The best way to generate your own email marketing list is to encourage people to agree  (opt-in) to receive your email.  This can be made easy for prospects by having check boxes on the lead form included on your landing page. They simply check off what they would like to receive additional information about.   Mail order companies have known the power of a good mailing list for years, now online marketers need to understand this too.   

Marketing Mistake #3

You tell not sell.  You ramble on with details and jargon that bores your prospect to tears. You don't offer the exciting benefits of what your product or service offers -  what it will do for them to make their life better, or solve or eliminate a problem. Prospects stop reading long before they get anywhere near becoming a lead or a buyer. 

What you should do.

Use sales-generating copy tells the prospect the BENEFITS of what you offer. Include a special offers that motivates a response!   Stop boring people by TELLING  the minutiae of what they are buying and start SELLING them on why they must get your incredible product TODAY.  Sell all the benefits of what you offer, make an offer to get it today, then limit that offer so they understand they will miss out if they don't act now - right now!   Every statement in your copy should be moving towards the sale.  You get this, this and this too but you must act now! Punchy copy that is laden with value and excitement gets a response.  Your marketing copy must speak directly to the needs of the reader, they want to know what is in it for them. Your only need as the marketer is to get the point across that your offer is outstanding and must be responded to right now.

Marketing Mistake #4

You are trying to BUY success. Many inexperienced marketers will buy the services of an SEO company in an attempt to artificially force their website to the first page of Google and other search engine sites.   I hope you have a money tree because you are going to need one. You'll be out of money before you know it with no sales to show for it.

What you should do.
Learn how to do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) yourself. If you don't you will always find people with their hand out ready to take your money, and your return for this kind of service will be minimal. Here's why. SEO is not that hard, you can easily learn how to do this yourself if you are willing to learn, give it time and are very patient.  There are TONS of free courses, free ebooks, low cost software and training programs that teach you how to increase your website ranking.  At least first give it a try yourself, save yourself a lot of money, learn for the sake of long term growth of your online business. See Marketing Mistake # 5 for more on this.


Marketing Mistake #5

You rely on automation or short cuts to fast-track your marketing. You've bought software or services that allow you to:  - Spin articles - Mass blast ads - Generate mass link submissions - Blast messages out to Twitter and other social media sites   - Mass product fake content pages

Guess what? The folks at Google and Bing are smart cookies.  Every day they tighten their algorithms a little bit more to decrease or eliminate the search returns generated by automated programs. The result: one day you are on the first page and the top 10 search returns, the next day your site is dropped for no reason and no recourse for the unfortunate site owner.  I don't have to tell you that this can cost you a LOT of money.   The search engine sites don't have to tell you why your listing disappeared, they change how they rank sites all the time. As soon as there is an obvious pattern, or sometimes just a hint of artificial attempts to jimmy your rankings from automated software, look out!

What you should do.
Forget about automation, it may work now, you may get away with it for the short term but in the long term, it won't.  Google themselves will tell you the best way to get high ranking is with fresh, natural content posted frequently.    Yup. That takes time, sorry folks, no way around that but it is time well spent. Stop thinking you have to get rich over night, start thinking of your online business as a REAL business, not a hobby. A legitimate business takes time to build, consistent effort and some learning along the way.   Read, learn, download ebooks on the topic, take a Bootcamp training course such as the one offered at Worldprofit, and work on building your web footprint one day at a time.  Every had a tap dripping into your bathtub. It doesn't take long till the tub fills then starts to overflow. Use the FREE and plentiful tools available on the web to learn and understand how to increase your ranking.  You can get started right now! Set time aside as you learn and do a little every day. Create social media profiles, create blogs, post an ad, build a WordPress site (the SEO is built in already), write an article, comment on an article, be a guest blogger, tweet, Facebook, LinkedIn.  

Marketing Mistake # 6
You don't track your advertising results.  No clicks on your ads means no intelligence on which ads are working at which places.  You are marketing with a blindfold.

What you should do.

The beauty of online advertising is that when you post an ad you can check to see if you get hits. This is smart!  The only way of knowing if your ads are working, if your time was well spent, or your advertising dollars were well spent is to know if you get clicks on your ads.   Tracking your ads and the response allows you to tweak your ad copy, better your offer, identify both good and poor advertising sources.  Most online advertising sites provide you with a Member area where you can login to check your statistical data on your advertising response.

Marketing Mistake # 7
Buying ads on Google and Bing without knowing what you are doing. Newcomers to online marketing do this all the time. They put up a website then buy ads at Google. Google loves you for this but you won't fall in love with the cost. 

What you should do

Research key words in your industry so you know what people are using to find businesses, products or services that you offer. How do you do that? Easy. Google has a key words tools within their Webmaster Tools to help you with your ad campaigns. It's free whether you advertise with them or not, and a great way to get started learning about key works so you can use this information in your marketing.

Marketing Mistake # 8

Not promoting consistently.  You are short on time, and short on money, so you post infrequently.  You don't vary your offer, your products, your ad copy.

What you should do.

Successful marketers know that promotion is something you must do every day, and if not every day as often as you can.  People short on time make the grave error of buying large quantity mailings to massive amounts of people in one shot, instead of doing  small amounts of promotion to target markets on a continual consistent basis.  Do you ever notice that big companies NEVER stop marketing? They are always in your face.  What do they know that you don't know? The consumer has a very short attention span and if you are not in their face they quickly forget about you.  My colleague Dr. Jeffrey Lant impressed on me the 7 time rule of marketing.  The idea of this is that people have to see an offer, or an ad as much as 7 times before they do anything.  Ever notice that when you watch the morning news while getting ready for work, that the same McDonald's commercial plays over and over again! Why? They know you are watching the news getting ready for work and want you to stop in for a breakfast sandwich. Repetition in marketing is key and give the competition out there for various offers, it's important that your message be seen.  Post your ads often. You are NEVER done promoting. As an online marketer your job is simple. Promote often, promote consistently.  This leads into our next critical mistake.  

Marketing Mistake # 9

Only advertising at a few places and not constantly looking for new advertising sources.

What you should do.

New marketers tend to find one or two places to advertise then only advertise there. The web is filled with great places to advertise. You must try to continually expand your reach, tap into new markets, target new customers.  Don't put all your eggs in one basket and rely exclusively on single sources or you will be cutting off your profit potential.   Look into all kinds of different types of advertising including pay per click, login ads, banner ads, safelists, traffic exchanges, ad swaps, classified ads, joint ventures. Avoid vendors that offer extremely large lists, or leads for a ridiculously low cost, chances are good they will be fake or computer generated.  

Marketing Mistake # 10

Underestimating how much marketing focus is required to drive your business. 

What you should do.
Understand that marketing is and should be 90% of how you spend your time in building your online business.  This one thing alone dooms so many Newbies to failure, they don't spend enough time on marketing in order to get results.  I hear people say 'this product is so good it will sell itself". That has got to be one of the worst errors in thinking I have heard when it comes to making money.  You've got your products or services you want to sell, now focus on promotion. When, where, and how. Then stick to it.  I've had people tell me they are spending 12 hours a day promoting a product and not getting results. I tell each and everyone of them this. "If that's actually true, you are doing something terribly wrong."  If this is you then go back and read over these common marketing mistakes. You are making one or more and this is sabotaging your own success. Sometimes you just need to step away, take a breather, and review what you are doing. You may think you are working hard but you aren't focusing on what will get you results. Something is perhaps distracting you, something is eating up your time, something you are doing is not what you should be doing.  One person who told me they were spending dozens of hours a day with no result, was actually spending most of their time blogging and Facebooking. When they evaluated what they were actually doing they then saw that what felt like work was really just time wasted in front of a computer. The bottom line is this, reassess but never never give up.   

Summary: There is so much money to be made online it's mind-boggling. It's a type of money making that is not what most people are familiar, it's a steep learning curve for many but it's worth the time to learn. There’s unlimited choices of products and services to sell. You can build an online business for very little cost but treat it seriously. Be realistic about what you can earn  and put in the necessary time to learn and understand what you are doing.  Affiliate marketing is a huge growth industry now with no signs of slowing.


About the Author Sandi Hunter is the President of Worldprofit, Inc., a company providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com.

An accomplished Master gives you the secret to becoming an Internet millionaire... the most important article you'll ever read about making money on line.

by  Dr. Jeffrey Lant.

Author's program note. It is Christmas Day, the most important day in the Christian calendar into which I was born nearly 66 years ago. As such I shall spend a happy portion of this special day with beloved family and friends. But some time, important time, I shall do that which has made me rich and will make me richer still. I shall, that is, tend my business by promoting it, for this is as necessary on this blessed day as on any other day.

Where this will take place.

Want to get rich? Then create for yourself a space dedicated to one thing and one thing only, a space where the focus is exclusively and solely on getting rich, where NOTHING else is ever allowed, tolerated, or accepted. I call this place the "space capsule", and I want to give you a brief but mind-altering tour.

Some 30 years ago, when I was just starting the business which has made me a multi-millionaire I saw this space late one Friday afternoon. It was exactly what I'd been looking for for months; it was big enough to suit but not to overwhelm, perfectly located across the street from Harvard Law School and the storied Harvard Yard. In short it was the perfect location for who I am, where I should be and what I must do.

Thus I purchased it on the following Monday and long ago erased the mortgage, paid for in part by payments (and tax deductions) from my home-based business therein situated. Since purchase, its value has appreciated by over 1000% and is not done appreciating yet. I recommend such a wise purchase for you, too; that is if you plan to get old and well-heeled. You do, don't you?

The decoration of such a place.

Remember the line from the old English nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Six pence", the line which directs you to the King's office, the counting house where he delighted to while away a lazy afternoon counting his money? This sapient sovereign knows something about money that you have so far disregarded or never knew: the making of fortunes is expedited by being surrounded by and seeing as many manifestations of your wealth as possible. In other words, if you've got it, flaunt it.

But, you wail, you have no manifestations of wealth, nothing to flaunt, hardly even an idea of what you'd like to flaunt, even if you could. No problem. Take a dollar out of your impecunious wallet and staple it to a piece of paper. Then post it where you can see it every day. That dollar, that single dollar, is the single step that begins the thousand mile journey to wealth.

Then regularly add to your gallery of wealth objects. Post copies of bounteous bank statements, or receipts that show you are polishing off your mortgage, each payment another step to your goal.

In due course, you'll be posting evidence of much greater wealth and of the process that produces it. Thus, in my office, hub of my "space capsule", I am surrounded by things of consequence, including a dozen Old Masters, masterpieces painted before 1800. Each one, and all the other treasures in this room, are tangible, beautiful evidence of successful promotions, of prospects identified, offers made, offers accepted, money in the bank. Each is tangible evidence of your success... which is constantly "in your face" to remind you of what you must still do to advance further and faster.

Make sure everything you need is at hand and readily available.

As I write it is 1:36 a.m. Eastern time. It is a night of howling winds and driven snow. I needed extra padding against the gelid temperatures and the cold distractions playing themselves outside my window. This is where planning comes in. Write down everything you're going to need to do your significant and necessary work. Then make sure you have it readily available and in sufficient quantity. When you are supposed to be marketing, you shouldn't be wasting precious time trying to discover just where you left your bunny slippers.

The crucial mantra.

It is now time to "psych yourself up", to put your brain in the proper state and condition so it can do its essential work. You need a "mantra."

In Hinduism, a mantra is a sacred verbal formula repeated in prayer, meditation, or incantation, such as an invocation of a god, a magic spell, or a syllable or portion of scripture containing mystical potentialities.

Here is the mantra I have written for you:

Promote!

When you are ready... promote./ When you are not... promote. When it rains... promote/ when it's dry... promote. When you're rich... promote./ when you're not ... promote. When you feel like it... promote./ When you don't... promote!

The great thing about a mantra is that is can easily be customized for you. Thus,

"When my kids are screaming... promote/ When they're not... promote!" Get it?

Mantras are designed to put yourself in the place you need to be, your subconscious mind ready to take you there.

Your "power song."

Music is good for more, much more, than soothing the savage beast. It can give you the essential beat you must have to feel bright, energetic, motivated, a power player about to astonish the world with deeds of derring-do, or at least achieve today's promotion quota. (You do have one, don't you?).

Here's a good tune to get you up and active, alert, dauntless, ready to roll. It's "High Hopes"; published in 1959, popularized by Frank Sinatra, it helped elect John F. Kennedy President of the United States. High hopes, indeed. You'll find it in any search engine. Here is its most famous stanza:

"Once there was a silly old ram/ Thought he'd punch a hole in a dam/ No one could make that ram, scram/ He kept butting that dam/... Just remember that ram/Oops there goes a billion kilowatt dam."

Set the day's objective.

If your goal is wealth, and if not why not, now's the moment to play the numbers game.

If you're marketing on line (you are, aren't you?) you need to set FOUR numbers: the number of ads you need to email; the number of clicks from those ads; the number of prospects (at Worldprofit.com we call them "associates") from those clicks, and finally the number of sales and dollars therefrom. These 4 numbers are crucial and must be set and reached DAILY, Christmas or not.

Now just do it!

It is now just 4:26 a.m. Eastern.. The winds have died down a bit but it's snowing harder. It's damp, cold, dark outside the Space Capsule. I don't really want to be here but my Power Song is working its magic and, like the oldest war horse, I feel the sap rising. It's going to be a great day, a day I make money. "Oops there goes another problem kerplop." The mantra is working its magic... again. Yes, it's going to be another fine day for making money. 

 About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com

Cost of college degree in U.S. has increased 1,120 percent in 30 years, Bloomberg report says. Here's something practical that will help pay the burgeoning bills.

 by  Dr. Jeffrey Lant.

Author's program note. His given name was Hubert Prior Vallee, and he was born July 28, 1901 in Island Pond, Vermont.  Boyishly good looking, suave, charming and a real life Yalie, the world (particularly its female moiety) came to know and love him as "Rudy". He was the world's first pop star, barnstorming the country with saxophone, raccoon coat, megaphone, college pennants and beanies galore and a happy-go-lucky disposition that wasn't quite his but suited his moment of maximum glory to the proverbial "t".

Told by his family, friends and even his own band members that he should give up vocalizing because of a voice that was thin and reedy, he listened instead to that inner voice each successful person seems to have. As a result, he blazed a trail many other crooners would follow, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como.

He also had a major influence in creating the brand-new American collegiate experience -- now with girls! College now became the place to go if you were one and twenty; providing suitable young men with the skills the Great Republic and all its enterprises needed and the sheepskin to prove it... and young women with access to these reliable males, the world their oyster; just the kind of men they were expected to impress and bring home for vetting and beaming parental approval.

They were called "Betty Co-ed" and in 1930 Rudy Vallee released the popular song of this name. It reached #4 on the charts and helped make college and its uniquely American environment the place to be if you were aspiring, bright, toothsome and ambitious... and so it has remained from that day to this. Thus, for the musical accompaniment to this article, I give you the bouncy "Betty Co-ed", the gal who "gets the men in rushes by well-cultivated blushes. And she's happy with a fellow on each arm." You'll find it in any search engine. Oh, yes, college it had to be by all means.

The problem was that paying for the college experience began to take all means... as I myself learned later as I watched my father struggle with the ever increasing financial forms and requirements dispatched by colleges to ensure he kept his nose to the grindstone the better to keep three kids in the best possible alma mater. Indeed, it seemed at times that he was working for the colleges his children attended. And so were all the other parents with children hoping to attend college, in college, or having graduated from college leaving a mountain of debt as proof of matriculation and attendance.

Alarming proof on just how bad this situation is and how much worse it is likely to get.

According to a new report just released by Bloomberg, the cost of a college degree in the United States has increased 1,120 percent over the past 30 years; that's an over 12 fold increase, far outpacing the price inflation of consumer goods, medical expenses, and food. Records used to study this walloping increase have been kept since 1978 and prove that the rate of increase in college costs has been "four times faster than the increase in the consumer price index". By comparison, the report notes that medical costs in this period have climbed 601 percent, while the price of food has increased "just" 244 percent.

A flurry of alarming news.

Bloomberg's detailed alarum is not the only distressing intelligence on this subject; not by a long shot. Earlier this year, the Associated Press reported the average tuition at four-year public universities increased by15 percent between 2008 and 2010. Private universities were also found to have had significant price increases.

"Soaring tuition and shrinking incomes are making college less and less affordable," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told Bloomberg. "For millions of young people, rising college costs are putting the American dream on hold, or out of reach."  Then the punch line, the obvious deduction: as tuition costs continue to rise and the national student loan debt hits $1 trillion, some people  have been left wondering if college is even worth it anymore. And that in the name of Rudy Vallee and his Betty Co-ed is a tragedy in the offing. Everything, and I do mean everything, must be done to save that paradise of rah-rah and "roguish eyes, telling lies, breathing sighs". And so in due course the matter came to the attention of the Honorable Barack, who in the best traditions of his ilk never met a cream puff he didn't like and couldn't finesse.

Thus the word came down from on high at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue; the President likes colleges; the President is agin' gouging tuitions; the President is shocked by the fast escalating numbers; the President particularly wants to assist beleaguered members of the middle class; the President feels your pain. You get the picture. He said the same kind of thing for Mom, apple pie and homeless kittens. Gosh, what a guy.

"Details? Who needs details!"

Like all successful politicians the Honorable Barrack knows how to turn a random crumb into a bakery. No where is his undeniable talent for producing gold from straw more evident than in his "plan" to cut the growth of college tuition in half over the next decade. Now if he had stopped to consider the matter, he would have asked himself, "Self, just how am I going to do this?" He would have responded, "Darned if I know."

But politicians, especially the highest muckety-mucks with a paragraph in history books, aren't like you and me. No way! We'd be asked for details, for specifics, for a clear statement and assessment of every assumption and contingency. The Honorable Barack didn't do any of that. He simply said he'd achieve this goal by using the powers of the Great Republic and his high office to force colleges to toe the line -- or else face the music.

Now I ask you... do you want the federal government intervening in the matter, dictating what colleges and universities can charge; what they can and cannot do? The Honorable Barack thinks it's a swell idea... but he achieved his goal of thumping his chest for middle class votes the minute he opened his mouth on the subject.

He didn't provide any details because he didn't have them and certainly wasn't going to wait to expatiate on the issue until he did. That was for lesser folks... not presidents of the Great Republic. It's "Mad Magazine What Me Worry?" "trust me", mystery politics at its most insidious. But what does the Honorable Barack care? Helping hard-pressed folks with their whopping college bills was never the objective; getting the votes of such people was.

A better plan from me right here right now.

Now hear this. Maybe the Honorable Barack can merely trifle with this issue... but you can't. You need real money... not deceptive words and false promises. You need to go to any search engine and search on categories like "scholarships for college," or "college awards, honors and prizes," "money sources for college tuitions", etc.  (Note: this is where learning how to refine your search is key. Brainstorm your categories, write them down; then search and refine again.) What you find will thrill you... thousands of potential funding sources.

I like Gale's "Awards, Honors & Prizes" and "Winners, the blue ribbon encyclopedia of awards", edited by Claire Walter.

Your search will garner resources that cover thousands and thousands of possible collegiate (and other) funding sources. Now the real work begins -- familiarizing yourself with each funding source and the appropriate entries for you in each. This takes time, patience, and judgement; not precisely the best traits of adolescents. But if you want the money you cannot simply rely on school guidance counsellors; you need to be fully engaged with the process yourself, treating it as the priority it is.

Does this work? It most assuredly does. It's what I did starting my junior year of high school and, because I was a fanatic, my labors lead to one gratifying money-making prize after another. I became something of a celebrity at school.

Will this produce enough money for all? Sadly not. But it will produce needed funds for people like you; perhaps even the crucial dollars that make the difference between going to college at all, or not. With them you won't miss these crucial moments of your life, the classes, the friendships, the games and of course... Betty Co-ed majoring in artful flirtation, oodles of charm and...you!

 Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com.