Monthly Archives: September 2007

Internet Business, Reviews

New Product Alert from the GrumpyOldChef!

So, what does a chef know about saving energy? You'd be surprised!  I met "Grumpy" on a forum about a year ago and was quite impressed with his imaginative writing style and his firm desire to NOT put pen to paper unless it is going to actually benefit you somehow.

As a relative newcomer to the internet business scene, this guy has come a long way and taken the first critical steps to success; 

Creating a Product! 

This isn't his first project, by the way.  Grumpy has an ebook website that he launched roughly a year ago.  I had the privilege to be one of the first to preview his Pasta Master Class ebook. Right away I was able to impress my wife with some authentic Italian cooking the way a real chef would do it!  For $9.97 it's a steal!  I'm constantly prodding him to raise his price, but he's a stubborn cuss from down under, and so far he's not budging.

OK, back on subject now.   Aside from being an awesome chef, he's got some great ideas on how to save money!  I've always thought of myself as being pretty good when it came to saving energy.  I turn off the light when I leave a room (ok, my wife trained me, hehe), turn down the thermostat a notch in the winter, etc.  My utility bills have always been pretty reasonable because of my habits.

Naturally I thought OK, this is probably a great read (Grumpy is a natural born writer) so honestly, I started reading the book thinking that I would get more entertainment value from it than anything I could actually apply.  After all, I already knew how to save energy, it's not exactly rocket science, right?

Well it seems that Grumpy showed me just how wrong I was!  This book was packed with ideas on easy techniques to save money that I never thought of before.  Just a few changes in my habits while doing the laundry, cooking, etc has really made a difference!  Plus, the book pointed out all kinds of energy "holes" that I was overlooking in my home. 

My electric bill has averaged $20 less per month since I first began applying these principles last spring (2007).  I suspect that my gas bill will be lower this winter as well.  Time will tell.  My summer bill has been around $12.00 per month (Last summer I was averaging $28.00!)  When you do the math, you can see that this really begins to add up!

I don't think Grumpy has missed a trick!  He covers the home from top to bottom.  Attic, duct work, furnace, bathroom, bedroom and more.  Applying Gumpy's techniques will free up more cash for things like reinvesting into your business each month. 

The Energy Savings Benefits ebook gives you a return on your investment that literally lasts a lifetime!  Like any ebook, if you want the benefits, you have to apply what you read of course. 

If you think that keeping more of your green in "hip national bank" is better than donating to the utility companies, then you really should check this out!

Here is the link to his sales page for more details:

http://www.energy-savings-benefits.com/

[tags]save energy, lower energy bills, create a product, cooking recipes, cook book, internet business, home business[/tags]

Internet Business, You Posts

Are You Ready To Be Successful?

Everybody has their own ideas of success.  To some its having a ton of money. To others it may be a happy family life, to others health & happiness, or maybe its a combination of all or more of these factors.  

Are you getting to where you want to be?  Maybe you're already there.  If not, what would you consider your biggest obstacle?  Is it getting motivated?  Maybe you don't feel qualified to take action.  Maybe staying in a cycle of eternal learning mode is comfortable.  This, for many is the perfect excuse to avoid success.  You can easily deceive yourself into thinking that you are taking real action because you are investing your time, energy & money into your future.  But are you really serious about building your future, or are you simply an info junkie looking for your next fix? 

Think about this for a moment.  If you're constantly "learning" but never actually applying the concepts, then your desired "future" will always remain in the future.  Only by taking action on an idea or desire can you bring that future into your present reality. 

If you're not happy with your current situation, you should realize that you created it with your past actions, or more likely, inactions.  Today will soon be the past.  Tomorrow will soon be the present.  Did you build towards your future "present" by taking some sort of positive action today?  Maybe you'd rather catch that action movie on TV tonight instead.  If so, then tomorrow should be pretty much the same as today.  Rinse & repeat until you die.  Don't like that idea?  Then do something about it.

Sometimes all we have to do is find a motivating factor to keep pushing us onto success.  Here's my motivating factor.

 

Here's my other motivating factor:

 

Need I say more?

Whatever your motivating factor, start actively building your future, even if your vision is not 100% clear.  Often times its the "push" that gets the creative juices flowing and the vision solid.  Decide on a product, create a product, build a blog, a website, sign up for an affiliate or CPA program.  Anything, just do something to begin the process of change in your future.  Now keep going.  The future will be your present much sooner than you think.  Make it a good one!

[tags]build a blog, affiliate program, CPA program, info products, creating success, self improvement, internet marketing [/tags] 

Internet Business, Other Blog Stuff

Winner of the Best Comment

In my previous post about the CD Baby contest I gave a story about James' adventure with CD Baby.  James selected my post as the best comment and I have won a gift with the retail value of $10,000.  What is it?  I have no clue, maybe I will reveal the answer if its not a problem with James, or maybe I'll keep it a secret anyway. 

If your curiosity gets the best of you, then participate at James' Internet Business blog and show your support.   You'll soon discover that you will be an instant winner just by reading the free info available on the blog. You will be awarded with an amazing gift.   The gift of new found knowledge, of inspiration to become better than what you are now, and the roadmap to becoming a 2%er.  All you have to do is open the package.

Thanks James! 

Internet Business, Other Blog Stuff

And The CD Baby Plot Thickens

2 Comments

James Brausch Experience 

I've been following the CD baby contest issue at James Brausch's blog regarding the facts stated by James and the stupidity defense presented by Derek Sivers, which are interesting to say the least!

Derek Sivers has claimed on several blogs that he has worked everything out with James and that he has won the contest by far.   This seems to be news to everyone except James himself who has repeatedly stated that CD Baby is still incommunicado.  We seemed to be faced with a staggering counter diction here. 

Would James lie to his readers over a silly contest to make Derek look bad?  I seriously doubt it.  Would Derek lie in an attempt to cover his own butt which is snowballing out of control?  Nah, he must be an upstanding guy, therefore I believe I have deduced the most logical explanation.  It is simply a misunderstanding.  Let me explain further how this miscommunication has likely come about. 

James was sitting at his laptop in tropical paradise Costa Rica and just clicked the record button to create an info product when at that very second he was zapped into space by extra terrestrials.  They then replaced James with an exact duplicate and zapped it back to Costa Rica an hour later.  The Automaton James was contacted by Derek and was told the good news about winning the contest.  "James" was very agreeable with everything that was discussed because the duplicate James was only functioning on the most basic cerebral levels.  After the conversation with Derek, the duplicate James began malfunctioning and was soon skipping down the street in his underwear singing show tunes from the '60s.  

The extra terrestrials were immediately alarmed by this so they zapped the duplicate James back to the mother ship and returned the real James back to earth.  They erased all memory of the event from James' memory to prevent psychological trauma of course.  James then glanced down at his laptop and noticed that there was an hour of silent serene sounds of the Costa Rican outdoors that had been recorded in his absence.  James not being the type of guy to waste a CD or an opportunity decided to release this wonderful CD to the public and launch a 24 hour special.

So my conclusion is that in reality, nobody is at fault.  Come to think of it, since Derek has the ability to change history, maybe he's an E.T. too!  Hmmmmmm!

Internet Business

Does CD Baby Like A Rigged Game?

James Brausch has entered a contest put on by CD Baby and it seems that there may be some shady practices going on behind the scenes.  Could they be tipping the scales in someone else's favor? 

You can read the details here.  If it were me, I would file the lawsuit if there was no doubt that they illegally rigged the contest.  I would, of course want to discuss it with the CD Baby owner first to give them a chance to show me that no malice was actually intended.  Sometimes, honest mistakes happen and events aren't always as they seem.

Let's just say hypothetically that CD Baby refused to work with James.  Obviously James does not 'need' the money, but there are other important factors that need to be considered.  For one thing, quite a bit of time was invested.  James' hourly rate is pretty hefty as his time (as should yours) is quite valuable.  Also, its likely that a huge increase in traffic would be coming his way as a result of winning the contest.  James already receives well over 4,000 visitors a day and it could crank to 5+ figures a day as a CD Baby winner. Publicity generated from filing a suit with CD Baby could help make up for that traffic.  Even if James didn't actually follow through with the suit, his time could be compensated for by tying up CD Baby's money, resources and manpower.  This combined with the financial compensation (albeit small) could be punishment enough for them to change things.  Also the lost extra traffic would be somewhat made up for by the additional publicity.  At some point, the FTC would probably step into this on their own after catching wind of what's going on.  Now let's cover some other aspects.

Personally, I'm not the "sue 'em" type, but in this case I would have to make an exception.  You can't let people get away with blatant illegal tactics at your expense.  This is something I would take personally, and if you have the resources, you can help prevent this from happening to others in the future.  By punishing them for their shady actions, you may make the internet just a little "cleaner".  Some people will keep cheating others as long as they feel like that they can get away with it.

If I were awarded the prize anyway, I would first have to determine on what basis I was awarded.  Was I legitimately awarded because I sold the most, or are they merely trying to cover themselves?  If they can show me that I won fair & square and that the 404's all worked out evenly among the matrix of competitors, thus actually showing a level playing field, I would not pursue any legal action.  However, if they are simply trying to pacify me and can't or won't show justification, then I would certainly move forward.  Why?  Because winning in this way would simply take any dishonesty a step further.  They would in effect be making me a part of their dishonest actions, and by accepting, I would be just as guilty as they are.  A good reputation is priceless and not worth ruining over accepting a prize not deserved.

Personally, I'm convinced that James' integrity is of the highest caliber, and he will give them every chance to prove that no harm was ever intended before ever making any kind of rash moves.  Whatever he decides to do, if anything, it will be the right thing, you can take that to the bank.