Okay there’s an extremely valuable lesson to be learned over at Jeff Johnson’s blog UndergroundConfessions.com.

Yes, you could post some comments on his blog and yes you could win one of those three cool prizes, however you need to look past all of that and find the value through observation.

Let me ask you first, do you have a blog? If not, why not?

They are so simple to setup and with a little time and energy you can start the flow of traffic almost immediately. Not to mention how well they rank in the search engines because of the simple nature of the way they are structured to provide new updated information on all kinds of hot topics.

Now back to Jeff’s blog. He’s put together a contest to activate his subscribers and motivate them to be participants and not just sit in the background as silent readers.

Too often you visit a blog and all you find are a few posts but very little activity (heck it even happens to me when I get busy). But, Jeff has hit one out of the park with his concept to offer prizes and incentives for people to participate.

There’s a great lesson in this and I would recommend that you head over to this blog and dig around a bit to see exactly how he’s positioning his contest.

I may even consider doing something like this myself in the future. So if you think it’s a good idea, what kind of prizes would you like to win? Post your ideas and suggestions as a comment to this post.

I’ve attended over 100+ business marketing events and live seminars in the past 6 years and although many of them were packed with great information, ideas, and strategies, Eben’s Altitude training covered the 20% that almost every other event didn’t even scratch the surface on.

You know the old saying…

“You know what you know and you know what you don’t know… but you just don’t know what you don’t know“

Another way of looking at it…

There are four stages we go through when learning new skills. This applies to business, marketing and life in general.

1) Conscious Competence

“You know what you know.” These are the skills and areas of your business that you’ve focused on and acquired knowledge in. Even as simple as checking your email.

2) Conscious Incompetence

“You know what you don’t know.” In this stage, you become aware of certain skills and knowledge that you lack, and either have not yet learned or have no intention of learning. An example might be PHP programming, cost accounting or 3D Flash animation.

3) Unconscious Incompetence

“You don’t know what you don’t know.” You are not even aware of what you need to learn and you may not realize that there is a need to change.

This is the most dangerous area because it represents your blind spot. Only someone else can point this out for you and help to educate you on what to do about it.

To sum it up, that’s what the Altitude Training program is about. It’s an intense training program in business and related marketing lessons that will uncover some areas that you
didn’t even know existed.

And by simply learning what those things are that you’re missing, you can dramatically increase your bottom line profits.

There is a fourth stage…

4) Unconscious Competence

“You don’t know what you know.” There is one final stage where the skills become so ingrained as habits that you don’t even have to think about them anymore.

Eben just released his DVD recordings of the Live Altitude even that I attended recently.

You can see them at DoubleYourAltitude.com

Yours for Online Profits,

Segovia Smith

So you’ve heard about Web2.0… SO WHAT!

What’s the big deal, what does it really mean?

The best interpretation of Web2.0 I’ve heard and I’ll paraphrase it, “Web 2.0 revolves around the social aspects of the web, where web sites, services and companies are creating entire networks of user driven content“.

Take YouTube, MySpace, and Flickr for example, great ideas, great web tools, but if you were to take the users and their content out of the system you would be left with an empty skeleton of a web site.

What is BlogRushh? (and no that’s not a typo)

Oh wait, you mean you haven’t heard of it yet?

It’s soon to be one of the Top Blog 2.0 tools available online…
And let me give you a quick tip, drop whatever you’re doing RIGHT NOW… and go get an account because in 3 months from now when the rest of the blogosphere (and the Internet) has adopted it to call their own, you’ll be left wondering what happened.

Oh and did I mention that it’s 100% FREE, and it will drive hundreds if not thousands of highly targeted visitors to your blog?

Let me give you just an idea of how powerful this concept is…

I installed the blog rush widget on my site exactly 5 days ago and I’ve already had 53 other bloggers join BlogRushh which has now earned me 451 syndication credits today alone and 1,909 in only five days.

But what are “Syndication Credits” you ask?

Good question… It would be a challenge to try and write out a simple explanation of this, which is why John Reese put together a great video demo of how the system works.

Take a look at it and let me know what you think by posting a blog comment.

==> http://BlogRushh.com

How does a Rushhhhhh of highly targeted visitors sound?

http://BlogRushh.com

I’ve been blogging for over two years, I’ve setup 13 blogs using everything from Movable Type, Typepad, Blogger, WordPress and a few other less recognizable solutions.

I currently run and operate 3 large blogs in various different niche markets (not including this one).

…And folks… history is being made today!

Having spent the better half of this year installing and testing blog widgets (close to 60+ to be more precise), my team and I have found that there are a few invaluable widgets that every blog should have. (I’ll post and update with a few more later)

But with as many cool tools, gadgets and widgets you can install and plug into your blog, I’ve not seen one that even comes close to bringing traffic to your site.

Sure there might be a few that will bring a trickle, and the ideas sounded good, but after testing them, it wasn’t enough to keep using them as they just take up space on your Nav Bar.

Today this changes…

My good friend John Reese has just released the beta for a new service called BlogRushh.

The simplicity and design of this new blog widget (which takes less than 5 minutes to install on your blog) is going to shake up the blogosphere and set a new bench mark for the entire industry.

He’s got an awesome little video clip that explains everything, so go check it out.

http://BlogRushh.com <-- See For Yourself...

As an Internet Marketer there are literally hundreds of ways to bring traffic to your site, however every internet entrepreneur must decide for themselves whether they are going focus in and become an expert at paid traffic or free traffic.

There are many pros and cons to both. In the long run I’m a firm believer that you should truly become an expert in at least one and then build a good knowledge base and understanding for the other.

Free traffic can take a lot longer to build up and acquire, however in the long run if you can master this skill, then you can truly build unlimited wealth.

Paid traffic is fantastic for being able to break into a market and immediately start to drive and convert visitors to sales.

With the recent craze of social bookmarking, online video and other Web 2.0 tools, it’s become more and more likely that even a newbie marketer can literally stumble upon untapped traffic streams by accident.

So when it comes to analyzing and dissecting web sites as I surf around the net, my number one choice for SEO Firefox Plugins would have to be a plugin called “Search Status” put out by Quirk.

This amazing little tool allows you to quickly see a web sites Google Page Rank and Alexa Rank right on your browser status bar.

It also has some other key features that I use religiously such as being able to highlight “nofollow” tags, pull up a keyword density report, as well as quickly access the number of backlinks or indexed pages in Google, Yahoo and MSN all with a single click.

So, if you are still in the dark ages of using Microsofts Internet Explorer (IE6 or 7), then it’s time to go download Firefox, and install some cool plugins.

There are some other SEO Firefox plugins available and Tamar of 10e20.com outlines a few more that are extremely cool.

I would estimate that I’ve probably tried and tested over 50 plugins for Firefox over the past year and there are about about a dozen that I swear by.

If you’re interested in some of my other plugins, please comment on this blog and I’ll take the time to make some more reviews in the coming weeks.

Does This Sound Familiar?

You are awake again, wondering what’s stopping you from making a living on the Internet.

Everyone else is doing it… Why can’t you?

You have this KILLER idea to make money from home! You read the testimonials, you downloaded the free E-Books and the Audio programs, and maybe you even bought a home study course.

You’ve attended some seminars, or you’ve at least participated in some online webinars…

You understand WHAT you need to do to make money online… the concepts make sense, from splash pages and landing pages to affiliates and newsletters… but everything you read leaves out one crushing detail:

How do you get the Domain Name and actually build the website?!?

Isn’t there an easier way?

YES!

I’ll repeat that: -> YES, there is…

I run into far too many people at seminars and other live events that don’t know a thing about how to put up a web page.

And quite frankly why would you, it’s not as if they were teaching this stuff when you were going through school.

And sure there are some guru’s who claim to be able to build million dollar businesses without ever learning how to build a web site…

…and their right. It’s not necessary if you have the money to pay other people.

But my take on things is; the more you know, the more power you have to communicate with your future designer, web master and other team members.

I stumbled upon a program that is truly the answer to so many peoples biggest fears about starting a business.

Look, if you plan on making money with the Internet, don’t you think it would be a good idea to learn a little about how to put up a web site or at least update one.

I’m not saying you need to know everything there is to know about programming and coding web sites.

But a basic understanding of the fundamental mechanics behind putting up a site will go a long way to making profitable decisions with your current or future business.

So if you don’t already know how to register a domain, upload files via FTP and crop an image for your blog and some of the other basic stuff outlined in this training program.

I highly recommend you invest a few nickels to learn this stuff. And when I say a few nickels, this is truly a steal of a deal for the amount of information being covered.
The Faster Web Master - Training Program

On the other hand, if you already know how to do all of the above, perhaps you are like me and frequently get asked “How do I put up my web site?”, or “Where do I go to start my business online?” in which case you can do as I do and simply refer them to this product.

Yours in Success,
Segovia Smith

PS. I got hooked on the story about the 61-Year old disabled grandma and then when I saw how ridiculously cheep it was selling for I said, “what the heck” and just picked up a copy.

And ‘YES’ even an online veteran like myself can pickup a few tips that make it all worth while.

Have you been struggling to get your site back to the top of the PPC engines?

Are you getting pushed around with ridiculously high bid prices for your best “Money-Terms” that used to bring in all the cash?

Or perhaps you’re “Suggested Bid Price” is fluctuating so frequently you can’t tell if it’s mapped to a tide chart or a yoyo.

If any of the following describe your symptoms of pain and frustration, you need to read this great article by Jerry West:

How to Dominate and Win Affiliate Marketing With Them

[… Landing Pages are the weapon of choice for Affiliate Marketers. Marketers who do not employ Landing Pages either do not understand the concept, or they are just plain lazy. Usually, it is the latter. Laziness is often contagious and it is often why 98% of Affiliate Marketers fail to earn over $1,000.00 a month. …]

It’s called “Installing Systems and Infrastructure”…

Ask yourself how much time you spend “Working On Your Business” VS. “Working In Your Business“?

Then ask yourself when the last time you sat down and either wrote out, planned, reviewed or created any of the following for yourself, your staff, an employee or an outsourced contractor…

• Systems
• Checklists
• Process Maps
• Policies
• Guidelines
• Instruction Manuals
• Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)
• Style Guide

Or any other template driven process in your business.

Let’s illustrate this with an example from my own business.

We use and submit press releases for both traditional press coverage as well as SEO traffic as a way to increase our back-links.

The first few times we sent out a press release, it probably took over a month, tied up a number of resources and cost much more than it needed to.

I knew this was an ineffective way to continue so we made some adjustments by creating an 18 step checklist with 6 distinct phases and everyone involved knew what they were responsible for and within what time frame.

We then created a process map (like a flow chart) to guide the team through everything from picking the topic of the press release, to preparation and submission, all the way through to statistical analysis and market penetration for the proceeding 90 day period.

By simply putting a little extra thought and effort into the entire flow of the project, we are now able to research, write, produce, submit and pull 72 hours of detailed screen captured statistics in under 10 hours of total human cycles with a realistic 5 day turn-around from concept to #1 rankings in Google, Yahoo and MSN news.

None of this would be possible had I not learned about how to create SOP’s, process maps and the many other systems that I now implement within our business.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to templatize and systemize your business and take it fro $0 to $10 Million plus, you need to find out more about what Eben Pegan is doing with his Altitude Training Program.

Yours in Success,
Segovia Smith

PS. Make sure you scroll half way down the page and read the part titled “Installing Systems and Infrastructure” and see how he puts his own spin on things.

This is so important that I’m going to feature this subject again. Sinse writing my previous post I’ve re-read this salesletter 3 more times (which is more of a story than a salesletter anyway.

Here is another small sliver of Gold that I managed to extract the 3rd time through.

It’s called “Remnant Space”…

Remnant Space is also referred to in the industry as “Last Minute Advertising” and this is where you can get some wicked good deals and stretch your ad budget as much as 1,000% or more with just one or two deals.

I’ll be honest that if you don’t even have an advertising budget then you aren’t truly in business to make money.

That being said, if you are a business owner this information is invaluable.

Advertising in general (especially when it comes to media buys) is a perishable commodity.

If it’s not sold, it will be lost, used for in house ads or as you’ll see in the case of Google Adsense; used for public service announcements.

You can snatch up some incredible deals in any and all of the following mediums:

Newspaper, Magazine, Radio, Television, Outdoors (Billboards, etc), Sponsorships, and of course Online Advertising.

Just like any other style of advertising or marketing such as Pay-Per-Click, SEO, Banner Ads, etc., you’ll have to take the time to learn about it.

But when you do, the payoff can be huge. And don’t think that this is only for the multi million dollar corporations, because anyone can get into the game with the right skill sets.

So if I can pull one nugget of gold from reading a simple story about Eben Pegan’s success at building his own business from $0 to $20 Million in only 6 years, just think what other great ideas can be found in this well written piece of content.

See you at the top,
Segovia Smith

PS. He also mentioned a great book which if you haven’t read yet; you should go order it on Amazon today.

It’s called “Pour Your Heart into It”, How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time. Written by: Howard Schultz.

PPS. To read my previous post click here.