In Search Of Heroes Spreads Good News About Everyday, Real-Life Heroes Who Deserve Recognition For Their Good Works

Click Here to visit Len's In Search Of Heroes page to read the entire transcript and the RED PLAY BUTTON below to hear his awesome interview.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, in our lives we come across a lot of people, people even in our own family, who upset, offend, and oppose us. How important is forgiveness and forgiving those who upset, offend, and oppose us?

Len Thurmond: Forgiveness is a strange thing; it’s a strange concept even. When you are truly hurt by something, you’re scarred. I don’t believe there’s anybody who can truthfully deny that. So what is forgiveness? Do you ever really forgive those who really hurt you? I don’t think so.

Len Thurmond: I think somewhere down deep you never truly forgive them. But there is acceptance. You don’t want to hurt them; you don’t want to get back at them; there’s no retribution involved. It’s acceptance. But forgiveness, I’m not really sure that it is a reality. I don’t really think there is forgiveness.

Len Thurmond: Jesus may have said to forgive, but I’m not sure that he didn’t mean accept. I don’t think you can truly forgive. Forgive means that it’s okay, and it was never okay. It will never be okay that you hurt me. It will never be okay, I’m sorry. That’s just the way it is.

Len Thurmond: But to say, “I can accept that you did it and I will not hold it against you any longer. I will love you anyway,” that’s acceptance. That’s not forgiveness. I think there’s a fine line there. This silliness of, “It’s okay;” it’s not okay.

Len Thurmond: We’re going to get hurt through our whole lives. It’s going to happen. People always stand in your way. I think a lot of it is that it’s really an understanding of where they’re coming from. People who stand in your way and tell you that you can’t do something, that you’ll never be able to do that, or what’s the matter with you, go get a job, whatever the situation happens to be, are people who have no self reliance of their own. They don’t believe in themselves, and if they can’t do it then you certainly can’t.

Len Thurmond: And they can’t give you the benefit of the doubt, so it’s their problem really; it’s not yours. In those kinds of hurting situations, I don’t think it’s a matter of forgiveness. I think it’s a matter of accepting that it’s their problem. You have to just say, “I’m not going to let them keep me in my place because they can’t get out of theirs.” That’s really what it comes down to.

Len Thurmond: And the real hurts, the ones that scar us to the bone, as I said, I don’t think there’s really ever any forgiveness. There’s acceptance and I think that’s where love comes in. You have to love them enough at some point to let go of the anger. But the forgiveness I don’t think really exists.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, do you experience service to others as a source of joy?

Len Thurmond: There again, service. What does that mean? Do I like to see people happy for things that I do for them? Absolutely. I was here when you interviewed Donna. Donna said she enjoyed that spark she saw in people’s eye, that “aha” moment.

Len Thurmond: I do too. I can’t agree with her more. I live for those moments of clarity. It’s not when you’re trying to teach somebody how to make a web site or something and they say, “Aha!” It’s the inside moments where they suddenly realize, “I can do this!” It’s where they suddenly gain a measure of self confidence in themselves in those little things.

Len Thurmond: All those little pieces of self confidence build up to become an “I can do anything” at some point, so those are the victories. If that’s service to others, then absolutely, I live for that.

Len Thurmond: I was a math whiz when I was in school. It was the only subject I liked and I barely made it through anything else, but there was something about math that just intrigued me. It was such an exact science and everything was always the way it was going to be, and there was nothing you could do to change it. I used to love to come up with theories and theorems that would blow my teachers away. They were totally different than what they had taught me to arrive at the same place.

Len Thurmond: They would teach me to do multiplication and division one way and I would do it the other way. I would multiply from the left to the right instead of the right to the left. Just because I enjoyed it, it was fun to play with those kinds of things.

Len Thurmond: But my two girls have a problem with math. Their mother is not really good at math and I guess they inherited that, I don’t know. But to see the look in their eye when I can explain something in a different way that it suddenly just makes sense and they can say, “Oh, I get it!” They were thinking they can’t do this, and now they know they can. So that self confidence is built up and it shows in all of their school work.

Len Thurmond: Now they know that if they can just understand it, if somebody can just explain it the right way, then they can do it and there’s no question in their minds. That’s self confidence. It’s those moments that make my life worthwhile whether it’s with my clients, with people I’m coaching, friends whom I’m trying to help or explain something to, family members, whatever.

Len Thurmond: If that’s service, then, absolutely, I live for that. I don’t see it as service. I see it as necessity. I see it as that’s what life is about and that’s what we’re here for.

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To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Len's Programs are:
Traffic On Steroids
Article Automator
Auto-Blogger
Free Traffic Seminar With Shawn Casey
Mark Joiner Special
Auto Web Design

Posted by ralph at 10:22 PM | Permalink

If you're a Low Volume Seller, you need to run multiple Dutch auctions to really make a killing on Ebay. Consider this example; you sell designer watches on Ebay for $150.00 each and you have 200 different types of watches. Therefore, you decide to run 200 separate featured in category auctions in the Jewelry and Jewelry > Watches categories.

If you don't make use of the Dutch option and list only one watch at a time, then your maximum potential for sales each week is 200 watches.If your profit margin is $75.00 and your average percentage sales equals 60%, then you're weekly income is $9,000. Not bad, but not $100,000 per month either!

Now let's modify that example. Instead of listing 200 auctions of one watch at a time, you should instead list 200 Dutch auctions selling 100 watches at a time for each style of watch you carry. You would still have 200 auctions online each week, but your sales potential jumps from 200 to TWENTY THOUSAND (200 auctions x 100 Dutch watches in each auction = 20,000). Obviously, you won't sell 20,000 watches each week.If your product is popular, you might sell 5-10 watches on average from each Dutch auction you feature. Now let's recalculate your weekly income after running the Dutch auctions:

10 watches x 200 auctions x profit margin $75.00 = $150,000. A little better than $9,000, isn't it? To be on the safe side, let's allow for a FIFTY PERCENT MARGIN OF ERROR in our calculations. Perhaps you only sell 5 watches per auction, or you only make $37.50 per watch, or you only list 100 instead of 200 different types of products.

You would still make $75,000 per week! Even if we allowed for ANOTHER fifty percent margin of error on the second calculation, you'd make $37,500 per week!

As you can see, Dutch auctions are the key to success on Ebay. When you combine the Dutch option with the featured or category-featured option, then you're playing a winning game. High Volume Sellers need not worry about Dutch Auctions in general, but Low Volume Sellers (the most common and often the wealthiest) must use this option to rake in the profits!

Please Note: An eBay member must have a feedback rating of 50 or more in order to place a Dutch Auction and have been with eBay for 60 days or be ID verified (See http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/id_verify.html for more information.)

In my next lesson, we will talk about... "Market Analysis"

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 03:07 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Do you think it’s important and beneficial to make decisions quickly?

Jason James: Definitely. Personally I’m a quick decision maker. Just last night I was with my girlfriend at dinner and we had been to this Mexican restaurant several times.

Jason James: I look at the menu for maybe 30 or 45 seconds. I review it and boom, I know what I want. My girlfriend has been to this place several times but this is a recurring theme. She takes forever. She has to keep telling the waiter or the waitress to come back because she doesn’t know what she wants yet. It’s like, pick something, you know.

Jason James: I think in business you have to be a quick decision maker. You have to think real quickly. Am I going to pursue this or am I not going to pursue this? Am I going to do this or am I not going to do that?

Jason James: You waste a lot of time dwelling on things that you don’t need to be dwelling on. I think it’s important to be a quick decision maker. Explore things in as much detail as possible, make a decision and move on.

Ralph Zuranski: Once you make a decision are you slow to revise or reverse that important decision?

Jason James: Personally, no. I’m not slow at all. I think business is sort of about adapting to change and adapting to things that happen so if I make a decision and I’m not happy with it I will revise or reverse it pretty quick. I’m not slow at all to do stuff like that. I’m one to take action quickly.

Ralph Zuranski: In the pursuit of your goals and your dreams, I know you were in the military for a while and you’ve been challenged by loss of your job and loss of your car and I know that creates doubts and fears. How are you able to overcome your doubts and fears?

Jason James: By not having any choice and sort of realizing that this is my life, this is the only life I will ever have; this is the life that God gave me. You just sort of have to have that hope that there are better times ahead.

Jason James: You just sort of have to keep moving forward and take one day at a time. Take things one day at a time and do small things each and every day that move you toward your goals.

Jason James: For me in those really, really difficult times when I woke up each day feeling really badly about myself but there was also this small part of me that was like, “Things are bad now and they can’t get much worse. So it’s going to be better times ahead. I know there is. Just have faith that there is.”

Ralph Zuranski: Do you think that it’s important to readily forgive those who upset, offend and opposed you?

Jason James: I do, actually. I learned this a long time ago. For example if someone wrongs you or if someone did something to you that you didn’t think was right I think the power of forgiveness is great.

Jason James: I can relate this to online business. Someone, for example, screws you over some way online and time passes and then as you come back and maybe that person comes back and they email you in the future and say, “I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. That was wrong. I apologize.”

Jason James: A lot of people would say, “Forget you; I’m not going to work with you.” But for me personally I think the power of forgiveness is powerful because what good does holding a grudge have? What good is it saying, “No, I’m not going to work with you. You wronged me.”

Jason James: When you forgive someone what you end up with is friendship and experiences. You know about that person and they came back and they forgave you and what you have is a friendship and a future business relationship.

Jason James: If you take the offence and want to hold a grudge and not work with them, what do you have then? You have an enemy, you don’t have that business relationship, and you don’t have that friendship. I think to forgive is very important no matter how hard it might be sometimes.

Jason James: People make mistakes and if they are willing to admit those mistakes it’s very important to forgive.

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 08:41 AM | Permalink

Click Here to visit Len's In Search Of Heroes page to read the entire transcript and the RED PLAY BUTTON below to hear his awesome interview.

Ralph Zuranski: You know, Len, in your life you’ve done a lot of different projects and some have been successful and some have not been. Once you make that decision to go down that trail, how valuable do you think it is to be slow to revise and reverse an important decision?

Len Thurmond: I think it’s imperative to always be open to change. I can’t think of a single success that I’ve ever had that has ever ended up the way it started out.

Len Thurmond: When I have an idea for a new project, whatever it happens to be, it invariably becomes so much more and so different in the end that it would be totally unidentifiable with what I started out with. So I think you need to be open to changes that present themselves.

Len Thurmond: In the course of creation, things are constantly changing. They are constantly in a state of flux where you make one thing, you do one thing, and it creates another problem or it creates another situation. If you look at that situation and you say, “Okay, how can I better what I’ve done already by looking at this situation?” and then take that into account, it’s continually evolving and changing.

Len Thurmond: When you reach the final edition, the final subject of what it is that you’re doing, whether it is a book or writing or a job or whatever you’re doing, even writing a theme paper at school, you have to be open to those changes. Then you will end up with a far better result than you would have if you stick to what it was to begin with.

Len Thurmond: There have been so many software products and ebooks that I’ve done. If I had stuck with my original idea and refused to change, they would never have been successful because it was the end product that made them special.

Len Thurmond: There have been so many times that I have failed to make things done because I wasn’t willing to make that change and so forth. So, yes, it’s absolutely essential that you’re open to change and then, basically, that you go with the flow. Be open to what comes up.

Len Thurmond: My career has been one of being open to what comes up. Not just in my software creation or in my newsletter or anything, but back to the days of construction and I owned an art gallery. All the things that have happened to me, my entire life has been one of being open to what came up.

Len Thurmond: How do you make the jump from being a carpenter to owning an art gallery? It’s because I was open to what happened. I was a closet photographer at first and then it became my passion and I needed a place to sell my stuff, so I ended up with an art gallery. The art gallery led me to the internet because I was trying to publish the works of art online when the internet was in its infancy.

Len Thurmond: One thing has led to another, but if I wasn’t open to those things I’d still be driving nails right now. I was making a good living driving nails, but I had passions that I had to follow and I had to be open to them.

Len Thurmond: Everything happens for a reason, and you need to follow what comes along.

Ralph Zuranski: Boy, Len, that’s really inspirational to follow your passion and just have self confidence. I know that the world and just the educational system seeks to destroy your self confidence and destroy your ability to pursue your dreams and even believe that you can.

It’s a horrible thing to be paralyzed by fears and self doubts. How do you overcome fears and self doubts? It’s something that everybody deals with on a daily basis.

Len Thurmond: I don’t allow fear to rule me; I face my fears head on. I’ve been doing it as long as I can remember. The more scared I am the more apt I am to jump in the face of that fear. Somehow, somewhere along the line, and I honestly don’t know where it came from but I know it to be true, I realized and was taught that the only way to overcome your fears is to face them.

Len Thurmond: Invariably, the only thing there is to fear is fear itself. It’s an old saying, but it is very, very true. How many times have we all been afraid of whatever just to be suddenly forced into a situation where we didn’t have any choice but to face it, and then realize, “What the hell was I so afraid of?”

Len Thurmond: It happens all the time. When I was a kid I was diagnosed with bone cancer when I was about six years old, and it basically just went away on its own. Nobody knows what it was or what happened, but they put me in the hospital, they did all these surgeries on me, and they were constantly sticking me with needles to the point where my father at one point grabbed the doctor and literally threw him into the hall and said, “Leave my son alone!”

Len Thurmond: To this day I’m afraid of needles. I have a fear of needles because of that, but it doesn’t keep me from going to the doctor. And when they tell me I get a shot, I don’t run out the door, you know? You face your fears and every time it’s like, “Oh, that wasn’t so bad,” regardless of what it is.

Len Thurmond: I think it comes back to what I said a little while ago. Most of us are afraid of failure more than anything else. In most cases the fears that we have are a fear of not being able to perform whatever it is we feel we should perform in any given situation.

Len Thurmond: You have to face those fears and just do it anyway, and most of the time you will overcome those fears and it will help build self confidence so that when something else arises you’re not as paralyzed by it. You get to a point where you realize, “Yeah, it scares me; my heart’s beating really fast, but I know I’m going to survive this. And I know tomorrow I’m going to wake up and wonder what I was scared of?”

Len Thurmond: And the next day when I’m faced with something I’m going to be more self confident and less afraid. To answer your question, I think the only way to deal with fear is to face it head on and realize that it’s just the fear itself that we’re afraid of.

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To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Len's Programs are:
Traffic On Steroids
Article Automator
Auto-Blogger
Free Traffic Seminar With Shawn Casey
Mark Joiner Special
Auto Web Design

Posted by ralph at 10:20 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Yes, it’s important to have positive thoughts. Do you feel it’s important to make positive statements about yourself, the type of person you are and your goals?

Jason James: I think it’s important to make statements for me personally. I write stuff down all the time. I keep goals on paper and I have post-it notes all over the place.

Jason James: Right in my office, on a big huge piece of paper I have characteristics of success. Things like determination, commitment, dedication, discipline, courage, so I have stuff all over the place with sort of positive affirmations.

Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel that it takes courage to pursue new ideas?

Jason James: It does take courage. Like I mentioned earlier I’m in the middle of a product launch right now. It was very hard for me to get started because as you get started and are working really, really hard on something you don’t know where it is going to lead.

Jason James: You aren’t sure of if you should even be doing this. Is this doing to work? Should I be doing something else that is going to make me money? It’s just very hard because when you are working hard on something, like for me in this new project I have thousands of affiliates who have said they will help me promote this thing.

Jason James: I have 20 different contributors who have made a video for this web site I’m putting together. There are times of doubts where I’ve invested all this time and money and is it really going to work out? Is it going to happen for me?

Jason James: So there are always times of doubt and I think it’s just important to just take each day as it comes and keep working hard towards your goals and put the rest in the hands of God.

Ralph Zuranski: Do you think it’s important to be willing to experience discomfort in the pursuit of your dreams because, just as you say, whenever you have a dream and you are pursuing it there are times of doubt and discouragement.

Jason James: So how important is it to be willing to experience that discomfort?

Jason James: Nothing great was ever achieved without some discomfort involved. If you want to be successful in online business, for example, you have to step out of your comfort zone.

Jason James: You have to attend live seminars. You have to email people. You have to get on the phone if you want to arrange a joint venture or something.

Jason James: It’s an American thing, I think, to be lazy and find the easy way and expect things to be done for them. It’s very common in our society.

Jason James: If you want to be successful I think it’s very important to step out of your comfort zone and do the things that are difficult for you, whatever it may be.

Jason James: I think when you are doing something worthwhile you are going to experience discomfort. There are going to be things you don’t want to do. I think that is just natural and if you work through those things you will be better in the end for it.

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 09:40 PM | Permalink

Listen to the Interviews of the Leading Entrepreneurs in the World Who Are Heroes That Are Pursuing Their Dreams With Every Ounce of Strength and Faith.
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Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker and consultant. His specialty are long copy sales letters and websites. Watch him rewrite copy on video each month, and get tips and tested conversion strategies proven to boost response in his membership site at http://TheCopyDoctor.com/ today.
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So,

The Internet is not a broadcast medium. It's much more than that. Of course, the Internet is a medium. But it's not a broadcast medium in the same sense as TV or radio. It is a direct response medium. It is interactive and dynamic.

It is user-driven. That's a big difference.

I'm not alone as even the government thinks the same way I do. For example, my country's telecommunications watchdog -- the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (or the CRTC, which is comparable to the American FCC) -- officially declared so in 1999.

In the wake of rumored proposals to regulate the Internet, the CRTC ruled out the possibility by declaring that the Internet is not a broadcasting medium.

It based its decision on the fact that the web is interactive with its audience -- unlike the television, radio and other media one-way media. As a result, regulators concluded that the Internet could therefore police itself.

However, my point here is not a political one but a marketing-related one.

It is based on the premise that many webmasters and online business owners look at online marketing as a mere communications process. And often, they do so by turning their web sites into billboard-littered graveyards. They tend to forget that their electronic "brochures" are sales tools as well.

The greatest limitation of ecommerce is the lack of touch and feel online -- for example, people cannot physically inspect the products they are buying.

Moreover, the Internet is cold, faceless and impersonal. The lack of human interaction takes away the emotional element in the sales transaction, as well as the ability to persuade visitors individually and overcome their objections.

Understandably, a salesperson's enthusiasm for, and belief in, his or her product are easy to convey in person. That person's unique set of sales skills, product knowledge, personality and expertise is equally advantageous in offline selling. Most of all, her ability to slant presentations in order to meet specific client needs, goals and desires are also easier in the physical realm.

But online, these abilities are virtually nonexistent.

That's why copy has a much greater job online than offline.

Like a salesperson, a website must communicate emotions that empower people to buy. But then it must also direct visitors to take some kind of action. And in both cases, the responsibility boils down to the words.

Radio or TV may or may not use direct response. But online, there's no choice.

Online, you must use words that drive your readers' actions and compel some kind of response. Even if it's to simply keep reading. However, dealing with this issue in greater depth requires an entire article on its own.

So for now, let's stick with the biggest challenge we face with online copy, even before we elicit some kind of response from our readers. And that is: benefits.

Why? Because before we compel some kind of response, words should appeal to specific buyer motives and make offers truly irresistible. Common wisdom dictates that the first rule in doing so is to stress benefits over features.

Sounds simple, right?

Not really, for if it were the Internet would be literally filled with successful websites. So in an attempt to provide you with some guidance, here's a tool to help you in developing compelling benefits.

The Product Analysis Worksheet
In "Personal Selling: An Interactive Approach," Ronald Marks, Ph.D., a professor of marketing at the University of Missouri, discusses the ability to convey benefits over features using a tool he calls Product Analysis Worksheet.

Product benefits usually consist of four principal levels. They are features, advantages, benefits and motives. Each layer has its own set of attributes and characteristics, which varies depending on the product type and the market to which the product caters.

To illustrate, here's a brief description of each layer:

Features -- what products have
For example, "This accounting software has a reporting feature."

Advantages -- what features do
For example, "This reporting feature provides real-time, on-demand, updated mission-critical information to key business managers."

Motives -- what motives do features satisfy
For example, "Cost-savings, greater control, increased production, etc"

Benefits -- what those features mean
For example, "Managers are able to keep their finger on your company's financial pulse at all times, thereby reducing costs by as much as 50%, maintaining greater control over expenditures, and increasing their output by 10-20 times at any given time -- in just a few clicks."
Obviously, benefits are essential to successful online selling. But describing them in a way that's appropriate for, and directly related and targeted to, specific audiences is a difficult process.

For example, a common problem among webmasters is to develop content using a language their users will understand, when often they end up using words that only they can understand -- or "technolese."

This is quite normal as we write in the way we think or talk.

However, the goal in writing good, compelling copy is to think and talk like our readers. And this is where much of the copy I see fails, in my estimation.

We're too married to our product, or we're too disconnected from how and what our readers think, feel and communicate. We often can't see the forest for the trees. If this is you, then use the "product analysis worksheet."

First, list all of the features of your product or service, including standard, technical, supportive or abstract features. Then, with each feature, develop a subsequent list of relative advantages.

This is where most business owners and copywriters fail.

They assume an advantage is a benefit, when it's not. The "benefit" is much too broad or one-sided. For instance, you were probably taught that a feature is what a product has and a benefit is what that feature does. Right? But...

... A benefit is what that feature means.

A benefit is what a person intimately gains from a specific feature. When you describe a feature, say this: "What this means to you, Mr. Prospect, is this (...)," followed by a more personal gain your reader gets from the feature.

Therefore, turn it around. don't focus on a certain feature's benefit. Rather, focus on how those features specifically benefit the individual.

Here's an example using my private membership website, where members get access to videos of me tearing sales copy apart, and revealing copywriting tips, tricks and actual, tested conversion strategies in the process.

Feature: Watch a top copywriter in action as he writes killer copy, all recorded on video, using real salesletters and websites from real clients.

Advantage: You get to learn how to write copy faster by understanding the logic behind successful copy (not just how to write it), and also learn copywriting tips, mistakes, shortcuts and proven results in the process.

Motive: Reduces the learning curve, the risks, the effort and the costs involved in trying to do it all yourself.

Benefit #1: This means you get real-world examples and actually see the process done before you, instead of plain textbook theory or swipe files that leave you scratching your head.

Benefit #2: Using real-world examples means you can appreciate and understand what goes into world-class copy, so you can easily repeat the process on your own, in the future.

Benefit #3: Repeating the process on your own also means you don't have to pay an expensive copywriter to do a rewrite.

Benefit #4: Not having to pay for a copywriter means you save money and get it done faster by learning proven, tested strategies you can apply immediately -- without having to wait for someone to do it for you or explain it to you in some "how-to" course.

Benefit #5: And learning proven, tested strategies means you eliminate the need to search for, find, test and learn everything yourself, and avoid making costly mistakes -- without having to figure out what works (and what doesn't) on your own.
... And on and on.

Can you see the difference?

Now, once achieved, look at your worksheet and then ask:

"Did I cover all the benefits that a specific feature has? Did I go deep and specific enough?" (To help you, just keep asking, "what this means to you, is," and work it until you run out of reasons. Once you're done, you then move onto the next feature.)

"Did I use benefits that truly reflect and cater to the situations, problems, needs and desires of my target market? Was the language chosen easy for them to understand?" (To help you, think of expressing benefits in terms that relate directly to each individual in that market.)
Nevertheless, remember that "features tell but benefits sell."

And contrary to popular knowledge, benefits are not vehicles for creating hype or puffery. As illustrated above, they are effective tools you can use to get your readers to fully understand and appreciate your product's true purpose.

Remember, different words mean different things to different people.

In other words, forget features and what they do, which is what most people think are benefits. Think of what a feature means to the customer and the words that communicate this meaning at an individual, personal and emotional level.

Listen to the Interviews of the Leading Entrepreneurs in the World Who Are Heroes That Are Pursuing Their Dreams With Every Ounce of Strength and Faith.
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Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker and consultant. His specialty are long copy sales letters and websites. Watch him rewrite copy on video each month, and get tips and tested conversion strategies proven to boost response in his membership site at http://TheCopyDoctor.com/ today.
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Posted by ralph at 02:53 PM | Permalink

To Feature or Not to Feature. Featured auctions get more bids. They also cost more - a lot more. Before deciding whether or not to feature your item, you need to evaluate its popularity. You should perform a basic market analysis.

There are 2 types of featured auctions - those which that are Gallery Featured ($19.95) and those of which that are Featured Plus! ($19.95)

By choosing Gallery Featured, your item will periodically appear in the special Featured section above the general Gallery. Your picture will be almost double the size of non-featured Gallery pictures, and will also appear in the general Gallery.

Featured Plus! gives your listing prominent placement in the category list and search results. Your item will be featured prominently in the Featured Items section of the category list you choose for the item. It will also appear in the regular, non-featured item list.

Note: An eBay member must have a feedback rating of 10 or more in order to place a Featured Auction or a Featured Plus Auction.

In my next lesson, we will talk about... "Dutch Auctions - Your Key to Making it Big"

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay Power Seller
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 07:59 AM | Permalink

How Customer Complaints Can Make You A Fortune:

Yesterday I went shopping for luggage. This has become an annoyingly familiar experience. I go through suitcases, roller-bars, what-have-you, in record time.

Am I harder on my luggage than other people?

I don't think so.

Here's why:

First, a little background. I thought of all the stores I had been to before, and the problem was either

a) low-quality luggage, or

b) too expensive for the value

A friend had recommended I join Costco (box store, huge selection, giant quantities) so I thought this might be a good time to check them out.

I did, and I found an "Executive 26-inch Expandable Trolley" for about half of what I would pay for a discounted TravelPro (which I like, and I own a carry-on, but I think they're overpriced).

OK... to the point about complaints and disappointment:

I need two: one for me and one for products. (I'll be bringing about 35 pounds worth of information products as sales table display units to a conference I'm speaking at later this week).

Right on the front of the little brochure attached to the suitcase were the words "U.S.A. Cordura® by DuPont® Ballistic Nylon" (made in the U.S.A. to military specifications)"

Inside the brochure:
"Full honeycomb memory frame construction made of lightweight, industrial strength ABS composite material for maximum durability and strength."

On the back of the brochure:

"U.S.A. Cordura® by DuPont® Ballistic Nylon, invented by DuPont, was originally developed for bullet-resistant, military applications..."

Hmm... seems to me a LOT of people have trouble with luggage that doesn't go the extra mile.

My disappointment: On my last trip, the pull-out handle that you use to drag the luggage around, wouldn't pull out. And then one of the zippers snapped off.

It wasn't cheap, by the way, but it was something I bought at the last minute from an adventure-travel-goods store that really wasn't in the business of providing rugged or long-lasting luggage. (Unfortunately, this one wasn't a TravelPro... but anyhow, that's the way the story goes... )

So... here's the major point of all of this:

If you KNOW what your customers are upset about... ESPECIALLY with what they're getting from your competitors... and you can HIGHLIGHT a solution to that problem in your copy...

... it will get a lot of frustrated people to gratefully buy what you have to offer.

It did me.

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

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Posted by ralph at 09:18 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel that it’s important to maintain a sense of humor in the face of serious problems?

Jason James: I do. I’ve never been a big worrier. Things could be going wrong in my life but I always joke about them. When my car got repossessed I laughed it off, as serious as that is because I had no car. That is one of the reasons I got fired from my job because I couldn’t get there.

Jason James: It did damage to my credit report which is so important in these days. Everything is based on credit. I just kind of, well, it’s a learning experience. It happens and I’ll learn from it and I’ll learn never to buy a car that I can’t afford with $500 payments and I’m only making $800 a month.

Ralph Zuranski: Wow, what kind of car was that?

Jason James: It was a Mitsubishi Eclipse when they first came out with a new model. I went out and got one, which was really stupid.

Jason James: Cars are a depreciating asset. Unless you are really doing well I wouldn’t go out and buy one that you can’t afford. A car is just transportation from point A to point B.

Jason James: Especially these days there are kids who have these fancy cars and you know that ¾ of their monthly income is going to pay for that thing.

Ralph Zuranski: Do you invest time in daydreaming about what your life will be like when you attain your goal?

Jason James: I actually do, all the time. I have these goals for my business and for myself. I’m not a material person but I’ve worked real hard and one of the things that I want is a boat.

Jason James: I live in Virginia Beach, Virginia, currently. I’m originally from Boston. There’s a dock up the street and I want a nice modest boat to just go out on the water one day and relax.

Jason James: I feel that I’ve worked hard for that and that’s my goal is to have a boat. I also think about throughout the day just being able to do things like pay for my child’s college education in full when I do have a child some day.

Jason James: My girlfriend is actually struggling right now. She’s in a tough place in her life with her job. She doesn’t like her job and she isn’t making all that money. She has a mortgage and her room-mate moved out. She’s struggling financially.

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 08:39 PM | Permalink

The key to making enormous profits on Ebay is to develop a detailed and efficient strategy long before you list your first item. First you need to know what type of product you want to sell, where to find your niche market on Ebay, and develop a profile of your average customer. In addition, you should already have determined which categories are appropriate for your product. Now you are ready to set your strategy for the business. Read this part of the guide very, very carefully. I'm going to present you with a strategy that you can apply to virtually any product you wish to sell on Ebay. I will generalize the outline so you can fill in the specifics related to your own particular niche market and merchandise.

There are two types of sellers on Ebay which I will call High Volume Listers and Low Volume Listers. High Volume Listers are those who list more and keep more than 10 auctions online at a time. Low Volume Listers keep fewer than 10 auctions online at a time.

The profit margin of the product you sell determines which category you will fit into.

For example, if you sell real estate and make $10,000 per sale, you may only need to list a few properties each week on Ebay to make a real killing with your internet business. The same applies for the sale of expensive jewelry, automobiles, and other items with a large profit margin. However, if you sell magazines or other inexpensive items you may only make $5-10 per sale. In this case, you would need to list hundreds of items at a time to make large profits, and thus you would become a High Volume Lister. I know what you're thinking - why would anyone go through the effort of listing so many items when it seems so easy to list a few large items and make a fortune? The answer cuts to the heart of internet sales itself: ONLINE BUYERS ARE MOST WILLING TO SPEND UNDER $50.00 FOR A PRODUCT. This makes sense - would you pay thousands for something you have never seen? Another reason that High Volume Listers are more common and often make more money on Ebay is that it is very easy to buy inexpensive items at wholesale prices, but very difficult to buy real estate or automobiles at wholesale prices.

Armed with this information, you must consider the product you're selling and make an intelligent, informed decision on whether to become a High Volume or a Low Volume Seller. If you have plenty of free time to devote to your new business, I recommend you opt for the High Volume option. But if you are an Ebay seller at nights and on weekends, you may wish to start off with the Low Volume option until your business really takes off. Again, only you know best which option to choose based on the amount of time you have available and the profit margin of your merchandise.

Once you determine what type of seller you will be, you are half-way to developing a sales strategy on Ebay. The next step is to integrate everything you have learned so far in this guide and project your selling strategy into the future. For example, let's assume you have decided to sell jewelry on Ebay. Here is a test case for consideration: You have identified your niche market and found the associated categories. You know that your buyers will probably spend $50.00-100.00 per purchase and you realize that the average profit of your auctions will be about $60.00.You have plenty of time and your profit margin is low, so you decide to become a High Volume Seller on Ebay and choose to list 100-200 auctions per week. You estimate that 70% of your auction will end with winning bids, which is the eBay average. Based on this prediction, you calculate your weekly income at $6,300. You have a wholesale account set up with your jewelry supplier and have already purchased enough inventory to cover your first week of Ebay sales. You plan to re-list every auction as soon as it ends and place one weekly order to fill your inventory along with one weekly outgoing mailing to your buyers. Your basic sales strategy is set and you are ready to begin listing your auctions!

In the example above, you will notice that the seller thought of EVERYTHING before listing a single item, making sure that he/she was prepared for the task ahead and establishing a solid game-plan. Before beginning, you should project your sales strategy into the future and run through all possible problems, resolving them in your mind. If it helps, write out a paragraph like the one above and analyze it for errors of logic. KNOW YOUR SALES STRATEGY BEFORE YOU BEGIN.

I strongly recommend listing all of your auctions as regular auctions before you begin. Do not feature them or use the Dutch Auction option at this time. Test out your sales strategy and evaluate the popularity of your product in its niche market for several weeks before continuing. The rest of this guide contains advanced tips designed for sellers who have mastered the concepts already set forth and who have performed a basic market analysis of their products based on the results of several weeks of auctions.

Please note, when and if you ever decide on Dutch Auctions (the selling of more of the same item at one time to the highest bidders) An eBay member must have a feedback rating of 50 or more in order to use the Dutch Auction Feature or be ID Verified. (See http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/id_verify.html for more information.)

In my next lesson, we will discuss... "To Feature or Not to Feature"

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay Power Seller
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 03:58 PM | Permalink

Click Here to visit Len's In Search Of Heroes page to read the entire transcript and the RED PLAY BUTTON below to hear his awesome interview.

Len Thurmond: Honestly, Ralph, for me it’s not a matter of courage. It’s a matter of necessity. I don’t know how it is for everyone. I’m a very creative person and I have been all my life. If I’m not creating, which means coming up with ideas and trying them whether they be music or new products or software or writing a book, I’ve got a novel, I mean, regardless, if I’m not creating something I’m miserable.

Len Thurmond: But that’s just me. I don’t think it takes courage to try something new or to create something. I think people who don’t feel they have the courage to do it are really afraid of failure. It’s not fear of the unknown; it’s not fear of changing; it’s not fear of trying something new. It’s fear of failure.

Len Thurmond: If they don’t make it, then what? If you have a great idea and you need to quit your job to do it, it’s not a fear of what will happen if I create this thing or if I go down that road. It’s a fear of what if I fail and I don’t have my job?

Len Thurmond: I think that all really comes back to believing in yourself again. If you believe that you can do it, you can do it. What the mind can conceive, the body can do. That’s just the way it is. It is a proven fact over the millennium. You must truly believe, and that means believing down to your toenails, not telling yourself, “I can do it! Yelp, yelp, yelp!” That’s the way it works.

Len Thurmond: But if you truly believe in your soul that you can do something, then there’s no question. Then it takes, I don’t know if courage is the word, but it would take more courage not to do it than it would to do it because how could you live with yourself if you didn’t? I couldn’t. I absolutely couldn’t.

Len Thurmond: If I have an idea that I feel is something I need to do and I don’t do it, then for the rest of my life I’ll wonder why. I think you just have to believe in yourself.

Len Thurmond: Unfortunately, I think we’re brought up not to believe in ourselves. As an American culture especially, I’m not sure that it’s that way worldwide, but in America we’re brought up to work for somebody else, to not think for ourselves, to never believe in yourself, basically, beyond the fact that you can do what you’re told.

Len Thurmond: I think that’s totally wrong, and somehow we’ve got to change that in our children and in society in general, and let everybody believe in themselves. It’s okay to work for someone else, but you’ve got to believe in yourself. You’ve got to know that that’s what you want to do, you know? It’s not because you have to or that you’re not good enough to do anything else. That’s where the fear comes in.

Len Thurmond: Trying something new is essential for everybody at all times. Otherwise your life gets stagnant and then what’s the point? But it’s fear of failure more than anything else, and that can only be overcome by believing in yourself.

Ralph Zuranski: As a creative person, you definitely make a lot of quick decisions. How important and how beneficial is it to make decisions quickly?

Len Thurmond: I’m not really sure that I would categorize it as making decisions quickly. What I would say is that it’s essential to act on things when they come up.

Len Thurmond: It’s been my experience over my entire life that ideas come and go, things happen, but they’re fleeting. And if you don’t act on them right now, they’re gone. I can’t count the number of ideas that have come to me that I didn’t bother to write down or act on or whatever, and they were gone forever.

Len Thurmond: Opportunities and ideas, creativity, creation in general, are things that are floating around in the cosmos. It sounds cryptic and weird, but I can’t think of any other way to put it. And that’s not really the way I look at it, but I can’t really put it into words.

Len Thurmond: They’re there, and they’re like little birds that are just flying around and they’re constantly lighting on your shoulder. And if you don’t grab that bird when it lights and make it your pet, make it your own, then it’s going to fly away and light on somebody else.

Len Thurmond: That’s why so many people have had ideas that they didn’t do anything on, just to find out a month later that somebody else did it instead. It’s not that we’re such geniuses that we’re the ones that thought of it. It’s just that the idea came to us, and if we don’t take that and act on it quickly, and that would be your making decisions quickly, then it will go someplace else and somebody else will.

Len Thurmond: So making decisions quickly; I’m not sure that it’s so much decisions as it is acting on opportunities, and thoughts. It’s knowing yourself. You can have a thought like, “I want to kill somebody,” and that’s not something you obviously something you want to act on real quickly.

Len Thurmond: It’s a difference between believing in yourself and knowing what is a good opportunity and what it is you need to act on and not. Obviously, the bad things you shouldn’t act on. But you need to be open to the positive, and when positive things come to you I think you need to act quickly, or at least decisively if not quickly.

Len Thurmond: It doesn’t mean that you have to create whatever it is immediately, but you do need to start the process or it will go away and become somebody else’s.

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To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Len's Programs are:
Traffic On Steroids
Article Automator
Auto-Blogger
Free Traffic Seminar With Shawn Casey
Mark Joiner Special
Auto Web Design

Posted by ralph at 09:19 AM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Is it valuable to have highly charged emotions about achieving your goals?

Jason James: Most definitely. I think having a passion for what you do really shows to other people and having a passion for what you do will, I think, you will be more successful when you have highly charged emotions.

Jason James: When you are passionate about what you do you just put your heart and soul into something. Put yourself into a project that is very important and I think when your heart is into something life can go by much easier as opposed to something that you are fighting and you are not into and you have emotions but they are negative emotions.

Ralph Zuranski: Is it useful to take a positive view of setbacks and misfortunes and mistakes?

Jason James: Absolutely. I’ve had tons of, not bad things happen to me but unfortunate experiences. I’ve been there where I’ve been fired from a job. I’ve had money problems. I had my car repossessed. I had big-time credit problems.

Jason James: I’ve learned from all these different things. They can all be learning experiences. Granted I’m only 29 years old but I’ve been through a few things that have really helped me.

Jason James: Now where I’m at in the place in my life to sort of learn from where I’ve been. I’ve been down in the dumps. I’ve been there with no money, no prospects for a job, being a college drop-out. I’ve been there.

Jason James: All these things that have happened to me have contributed to where I am at now. I run a pretty successful business and I’m happy with where I’m at.

Jason James: In January of this year I was able to buy a house and I bought a car that I paid for with cash. I really attribute my success to having been in a bad place and having learned from those experiences.

Ralph Zuranski: When you do have setbacks and misfortunes and mistakes is it important to have optimism?

Jason James: Absolutely because no matter how bad things get for me or for anyone who is listening to this, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. You can’t appreciate life now as it is if you don’t have a feeling for how bad it could be. I don’t know if I said that properly.

Jason James: When you are down and not where you want to be it’s very important to just stay positive, stay working towards your goals and stay optimistic. That is very helpful and very important.
Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 08:37 PM | Permalink

Click Here to visit Len's In Search Of Heroes page to read the entire transcript and the RED PLAY BUTTON below to hear his awesome interview.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, I wanted to ask you this question about the subconscious. I know you’re quite aware about what goes on in the mind and how powerful the subconscious is. Do you take time to feed your subconscious?

Ralph Zuranski: Everything needs food, and it seems the subconscious is the primary factor that determines how successful we are and what we do and sort of the thing working behind the scenes that gets things done.

Ralph Zuranski: What do you do to feed your subconscious?

Len Thurmond: Feeding the subconscious? I think that the conscious is fed by the subconscious, not the other way around. I don’t think that we feed the subconscious.

Len Thurmond: The subconscious is the door that’s open to all that is. The subconscious is where ideas come from. The subconscious is where creativity comes from. The subconscious is where inventions come from, songs come from; anything that’s creative and inventive comes from the subconscious.

Len Thurmond: Then it’s fed to the conscious and the conscious is then, if it’s open to it, allowed to make that into a reality. I honestly don’t believe that we have to feed the subconscious. We have to feed the conscious. We have to allow the subconscious to do its thing. I think it’s inherent of the way life is.

Len Thurmond: If we cut off that connection between the two, then we’re robots and we don’t get anything done except what the boss tells us to do. People who are entrepreneurs, people who get over adversity, people who become successful, people who invent things are all people who have opened that door between the subconscious and the conscious and allow that thought to flow.

Len Thurmond: When I was younger I was a singer and song writer, and I played bars and stuff like that. And I wrote a lot of songs and the majority of the songs that I wrote were written while I was asleep. I would hammer on my guitar all day trying to hammer out a song. I could not get it. I’d have the melody and I’d have an idea for the lyrics, but I just couldn’t make them work.

Len Thurmond: I’d go to sleep and I’d wake up in the middle of the night, about 4: 00 in the morning, and write down the lyrics for the song. It’s because that door is automatically opened when you’re asleep. If you can train yourself to let that door be open when you’re awake, then the thought processes that go on let that unconscious idea feed into the conscious.

Len Thurmond: It’s like a machine. The conscious can then make that a reality. It’s like the subconscious draws the blueprint and then the conscious is the factory that hammers out the product.

Len Thurmond: You have to be open to that. Feeding it? I don’t feed my subconscious. I relax my subconscious. When I’ve had a stressful day or whatever, I relax. I listen to Windham Hill and Narada, soft jazz and classical music when I go to sleep. I turn it on and I go to sleep to it.

Len Thurmond: It soothes my subconscious and opens that door. There is a reverse polarity there where if you’ve got too much crap in your conscious it can feed back into your subconscious. That’s where nightmares come from. That’s where all that happens.

Len Thurmond: I soothe it instead of feeding it with music. And my way is music. There are lots of other techniques. I was talking to a lady at dinner last night who is putting out some CDs with, basically, hypnotherapy, small snippets of hypnosis that allow you to overcome different situations that you’ve gone through and relax and so forth. She’s got different things for different ones. But I think it’s a genius idea.

Len Thurmond: However you do it, whether it’s through certain herbs or whatever; if it’s through music; some people can just zone out by watching a movie and let all the crap go away. Whatever it takes I think it’s not so much feeding the subconscious as it is soothing the subconscious so it can get back to doing its job.

Len Thurmond: We really are controlled by our subconscious to a great degree.

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To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Len's Programs are:
Traffic On Steroids
Article Automator
Auto-Blogger
Free Traffic Seminar With Shawn Casey
Mark Joiner Special
Auto Web Design

Posted by ralph at 01:18 PM | Permalink

This is what is all comes down to, you take everything that you have learned and you put it to good use. You know what you want to sell, you know how you want to describe it, you know what your starting bid will be, and you have a picture or two up on the Internet that you want to use in your ad. You are primed for action!

This next step can really make or break any ad that you have come up with. If you’ve looked around eBay or other auction web sites, you couldn’t tell one from another. You know what that means? You probably are not inclined to buy from those ads.

You did see a few ads through, that you thought "wow that's cool." You know the ones that used different fonts, in different sizes, with bold letters, or different colors that really caught your eye. And they used a great photo of the product, and even some cool graphics, right? And, those are not only the ads that people remember; they are the ads that people BUY FROM!

If you take the extra time to make your ad look good, the people who are bidding on the item will realize that they are dealing with someone who cares about what they are selling. They are dealing with someone who will go the extra mile to make sure that they are happy with their purchase!

If you are already familiar with HTML, the language that you use to create web sites, than you can pretty much skip this section. What I’m going to show you here is how to make your ads look like a custom web page using simple HTML.

There are a lot of different programs out there that can help automate this task for you. Programs like Microsoft Front Page are a full-blown web design tool that you can use. Or you can even use the more recent browsers from Microsoft or Netscape to create a simple web page. The programs will let you work in a WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET environment, and will let you create some awesome looking web pages without needing to know a whole lot about HTML.

The section on eBay that asks you for a description of your item, the section that says that HTML code is accepted. What this basically means is that you can include any of the tags that HTML understands. These tags can do anything from make the text larger or smaller, make the text bold or italics, center the text and graphics on the page, or even link up to another website. The possibilities are endless.

BASIC HTML TAGS

What I’m going to give you here are the bare basic tags that you can add to your eBay ads to make them look better. This is not a full guide in HTML, but you can find a web site address later in this section that will take you to a full tutorial on HTML if you are interested in such things!

If you have placed any ads on eBay, you have seen the screen where you enter the ads into the system. You enter your vital information, like your e-mail address and your password. When you get down to the box where you enter your description, it says something there that you may or may not understand. It says that HTML tags are acceptable. What this is telling you is that you can use little bits of HTML tags to help your ads look better.

Attaching Images: Most auction sites make it very easy to attach an image to your auction when placing a listing.
(Note: URLs for images will all end in either "gif" or "jpeg." These are file formats for images. GIF images are limited to 256 colors, but JPEG images can contain up to 16 million colors and provide photo-like clarity.)

Many sellers have decided to go the extra step and create personal Web pages, which can include information about them, their auctions, and the kind of items they specialize in. It's a good way for buyers to get a better understanding of whom they're dealing with. Many Internet Service Providers offer a small amount of free Web space on which to host a personal page. In addition, Web-building software, tutorials, and HTML books make it extremely easy for even the most technologically challenged to be the masters of their own domain space.

Ever wonder how the HTML pros do it? Well, it's very easy to discover the tricks of the trade whenever your browser is on a given Web page. If you're using Internet Explorer, click on View on the menu bar and then select Source. If you're a Netscape user, click on View on the menu bar and then select Page Source. This should bring up a Notepad file in which you'll be able to view all the HTML commands and codes that went into the creation of the page you're visiting. It's a good way to familiarize yourself with all the different elements that go into a Web page.

FREE COUNTER

We can see how many people have actually bid on our auctions, but how do we know how many people have stopped to look at our ad for the item we're selling? You can obtain a FREE counter for your eBay ad when you create a listing.

However, if you wish to have more details stats about your auction listings a program called "Sellathon" will tell you such things as: How users found your auction, what search terms were used, how much time people spend looking at your auctions, and more. Use the link below to get more information on Sellathon: http://sellathon.auctionresourcenetwork.net

In my next lesson, we will discuss... "Your eBay Strategy"

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 12:54 PM | Permalink

Click Here to visit Richard Schefren's In Search Of Heroes page. I will be interviewing Rich in the middle to late part of July. He is offering a valuable Special Free Report that is jammed packed with useful information on how to make more money in your business and spend less time.

Richard Schefren is the person many of the Internet gurus turn to when they need guidance on growing their business. So while you may never have heard of Rich Schefren, you’ve certainly heard of the people he consults with and coaches.

During the time Richard has been working with a group of insiders, most of his clients have posted an incredible record of business growth. And many of them, such as Rob Bell, the head of 1Shopping Cart, attribute a great deal of their success to the advice Rich has given them.

And during the period Rich has been working with the gurus, he’s inspired successful joint ventures with people like Jay Abraham, Jeff Paul, Stephen Pierce, Alex Mandossian, and John Carlton.

Rich has done something very unexpected. No, he’s not selling anything. In fact, quite the contrary. Rich is giving away a special report that summarized some of the steps he has taken with many of the leading Internet marketing gurus.

I’m going to suggest you hurry over to Rich's Strategic Profits Website and grab that report while it’s still available. Rich’s report will force you to think about your online business and suggest ways you can increase your business profits by actually working less.

Here’s what marketing guru Jeff Paul said about Rich, “Rich has more real world business experience and entrepreneurial savvy than most business owners can accumulate in 10 lifetimes.

He's been featured in the media for his business success, from The Wall Street Journal (being featured as "an unbelievable retail turnaround story") and CNN (appearing several times and labeled as an expert in retail marketing)...... To Crain's, Newsweek, Entertainment Tonight, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, MSNBC, Vogue, GQ, MTV, VH1, The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, Cosmopolitan, The Daily News, The New York Post and too many others to list.

Now, here's a dirty little secret about Internet marketing: Most Internet marketing "gurus" who brag about living the "Internet lifestyle" are... in actual fact... working their asses off like slaves!

Why? Because they don't know the REAL secrets to owning a hands-free Internet business. There's much, much more to it than just "automation" and "outsourcing" that everybody and their dog talks about. And there's no better person to teach you all these secrets (that NO-ONE else talks about)... than Rich.”

Here's a small sample of what you'll discover in Rich’s report:

The REAL difference between Internet millionaires who consistently rake in buckets of cash and struggling Internet marketers who can't get off the ground!

The insider's secret that no-one online ever talks about but it's the reason why rookies work ten times more hours then they need to - while guru's are raking it in even when they're out playing golf!

Discover the shocking truth about outsourcing... and the biggest fallacies about outsourcing that no-one else is telling you!

Why almost all the advice you'll get online about niche marketing is 100% wrong!

A simple step-by-step plan to dominate any niche that you enter!

The real secrets for making insane amounts of money with your website - completely and totally hands off!

The unknown story about how success guru Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich) died almost dead broke and why if you don't learn from his mistake the odds are high that you just might end up there too!

The biggest 'cash drain' on an online business, and how to overcome it quickly and easily!

I’ve read this report and it is powerful. Rich is revealing concepts almost no one is talking about in Internet Marketing today. I have had the opportunity to hear and photograph Richard Schefren at numerous internet marketing seminars and his knowledge and experience blows everyone away.

Richard definitely knows what he is talking about and is one of those unique people who actually can back up what he says with what he is doing. I look forward to doing his heroes interview in the middle part of July. This is going to be exciting because few of the internet marketers have been so successful.

I suggest you grab this report and find some time to read it – today. Since I am using Napoleon Hills "Think and Grow Rich" model for the In Search Of Heroes Program wealth building training, you would benefit greatly from reading this report if you are starting a business, own one or even thinking about it.

Posted by ralph at 11:04 PM | Permalink