See, i’ve done the “free” thing and i know. What do you think is free?

Article marketing.

I beg you go look at my Betternetworker profile and try to find a pattern between the articles that did well and the ones that didn’t. I’ve written over 1000 articles since i got into online marketing. And i found that when you want to make money, you’re going to have to spend a little too.

Don’t worry, i plan to explain this to you.

Have you noticed that some of my recent posts have included images at the very start of the post?

It would seem like just a way to make the post look pretty. But really, it’s a second chance to get someone to read the rest of the post.

When precisely placed, the image will catch the eye first. And the text before and after it will make them curious to read more.

Not only that. When you share your post, in Facebook, you can choose that image as a way to catch people’s eyes on your Facebook wall!

Perhaps those two things were obvious to you, now that i point them out.

But now you’re saying, so what, I can get free pictures to put on my posts. done. right?

Not really. You see, i have experimented with different pictures and photos on my articles. But there’s a certain type of image that can make or break the article.

Unless you are an artist or a photographer, you should use a service like istockphoto.com to get pictures to use in your posts. Do not copy other people’s stuff because it is illegal and will get you sent to jail. You can buy “royalties” to the pictures and photos others make at the iStockphoto website.

The price for a license can range from 1 credit (about $1.50 i believe) to as much as $45.

Usually photographs cost the least. Drawings tend to cost more because they are editable and very high resolution.

So guess which images people respond best to in an article post?

You guessed it. The high resolution drawings.

For the life of me, i don’t know why but this is how it is. And every time i have spent the $40 to have a high res drawing placed inside the body of my article…the article received a lot of views, comments, and interactions.

Free traffic makes a great marketing pitch. But the reality is, that’s all it is.

if a thing can’t sell on its own merits, then short of telling an outright lie, “split testing” sure won’t sell it.

this is a parasite

i’m sure i just pissed off a handful of split-testing advocates, but let ‘em piss off because at this point, they’re beyond saving.

the state of the marketing industry is horrible. get up here, take a look at it with me.

It’s carnage. Look at them, at the outskirts…poor little guys don’t know what’s waiting for them on the inside.

Someone just a little inside the fence, on the “tempting” side does a little dance. He offers them a chance to get rich quick.

One takes a bite. Watch.

Inside, there are predators, scavengers, and parasites. Everyone here is prey to the other. Big guy, eats little guy, slightly bigger guy, eats slightly smaller guy.

Every man, woman, and child fends for themselves.

If you offer temptation, someone is bound to come sniffing.

When did “Get Rich Quick” stop being tempting?

I wonder then, when did “get rich quick” stop being desireable? Does it make any sense that more than 50% of the people with Home Businesses haven’t yet made their first sale?

It’s weird. Everyone wants to get rich quick. It has to be easier to sell this “biz op” and “info” products about money-makin’.

See that guy over there? And that one?

Yeah. Those really big ones.

Don’t be scared.

You’re safe here.

That, my friend, is a parasite.

He feeds off people, by telling them…

…The Sham of the Split-Test.

Now, split-testing is alright, and i do lots of it. But i’ve been fortunate to work only with people like Mike Dillard, Ben Settle, David Schwind, and “Doberman Dan”…all guys who know how to make things that people want to buy.

Regardless of the exact method of marketing. Regardless of how good or poor the traffic sent to them is.

But i’ve also sent traffic to affiliate products from Clickbank or Neverblue. And the first thing I tested for was if i could get a sale within a couple hundred bucks of spending. There’s no point split-testing to “improve” response to something that isn’t naturally interesting to anyone.

How Parasites Feed

See, the thing about the split-test, is that some people use it as a scapegoat. A way to put the ball in the victim’s court. An excuse for why their instructions aren’t working as quickly or easily as they promise.

Here’s how parasites execute this:

They tell their victims,

“look at me, i know how to get rich quick. i’ll show you exactly how”.

Victims approach promptly.

The parasite rattles off some basic and intuitive instruction.

But, quickly. Quickly, rapidly, and ever so quietly…he whispers a tiny disclaimer: “you need to split-test and optimise till it works”.

Oh? That’s interesting. Hm doesn’t sound very quick if there’s some guess work in it. But anyway, look into the pit.

Look how the parasites pick up little fat guys and show-case them to the audience who gather around them.

What’s this?

A testimonial. The crowd of unknowing victims cheer.

The parasite beats his chest and he claims all the credit. Others flock to him.

Half Eaten, Betrayed.

Meanwhile, he kicks aside a little guy whose half eaten head dangles from his lifeless corpse. That’s what happens. This poor eaten soul is the one who believed in the split-test.

It’s what kept him coming back for more.

Split-testing is stupid.

Not all of it, of course. Split-testing something that works is smart.

But what makes a thing sell is its sheer temptation. The very things forbidden in many religions and frowned upon in many cultures. Those are the things that have to do with a person’s desire:

Food, power, sex, and money.

They also happen to be the easiest things to tempt another human with.

“Get Rich Quick” appeals to human temptation & should sell easily.

It’s really easy to figure out where the break down, why so many people haven’t made any or many sales yet. By understanding this, i hope we can together help fix it.

Suppose someone tempts a little guy to buy a “bizop” which is basically a money-making-idea. Apparently, the offer was good enough for the little guy to buy it…surely it would tempt another person, and another, and another. Assuming all things equal, of course.

So let’s move on. The problem is not the idea…it has intrinsic appeal to a human desire.

Let’s turn then, to the systems they’re using to sell these ideas. Most people starting out online are using affiliate systems, bizop systems, etc. Are they, perhaps, making the idea of “getting rich quick” less tempting?

It would seem, no.

Systems are sold as a solution for people starting out. It gives them a simple starting point that apparently makes “getting rich” something they can start doing “quick”. Is that tempting?

Yes. All the proof we need is that the system has sold at least one account.

So let’s move on. If the problem is neither with the idea nor with the system. What’s left?

The marketer. The little guy. Right?

The “little guy’s” short-coming? NO!

Many will be quick to blame the little guy because he didn’t stick it out long enough. Because he didn’t work hard. Because he just hadn’t bought enough courses to learn to market properly.

My question, as we look into that desperate PIT…my question to you is, why do billion dollar companies not have these elaborately tested and split-tested ad campaigns? Why do we let the parasites laugh and mock their ads while they sell us their useless “info” products?

Think about McDonalds…do they have some elaborate direct response campaign with carefully split-tested and crafted ads?

No. They sell with brand awareness. “Hey, by the way, we sell food here,” they say.

Countless millions of people around the world visit mcdonalds and are upsold into drinks, sauces, and fries without any major effort. Their agents are not expert salesmen and women either.

How come then, when the product of one business is a desire. And the product of the other is a desire, why must anyone “optimise” to make their first sale?

Friendship in the Pit

Is it because, maybe, the little guy’s “friendship” is not tempting?

I don’t know…

If i was starting out today, the idea of a helping hand, a friend to guide me in that pit below…honestly, it might be a mistake, but I would take my chances with that guy….just so i’m not alone.

Most people starting out are SCARED.

I expect they too will take the first offer of help from an honest looking face.

People who haven’t made a single sale in this business. They’re imitating that parasite down there. You see him feeding? Or that one there. Only the parasites feed.

The rest want to be someone they’re not. And many of them are unwittingly modeling deception—but unfortunately, they don’t do a good job of that either.

In fact, they model others so long, and talk the big talk they can’t back up…that …

…Their face just doesn’t look honest any more.

All the split-testing in the world can’t sell that.

Sigh.

Walk back with me. Back to the pit. Friend.

Promise me, you stay true to you. As long as you do, you will always meet many good companions who could use your gentle guidance.

what’s happened to jim? he was all over the place for a while. Not seeing much of him these days.

And i decided it’s time i write about this and totally lay it out there. the whole uncensored ugly truth. Well, it’s not so ugly really…

If you read my story on my “About Me” page, that’s kind of where i was about 5 years ago. You can see the style is different, the language. it really was a different me.

This past year, i’ve sort of come to maturity as an online business owner.

But my mission was the same. You could see it clearly back then and you can see it now. I wasn’t in this to get a “good income”.

I didn’t want to just put food on the table, or have that fast car, or that fancy house, or to travel wherever i wanted. I didn’t want to fire my boss. I didn’t hate my life.

From childhood, i just knew what i wanted to be. I wanted to be a name on everyone’s lips. I wanted a vision so grand that people will remember me for years to come.

I wanted to become a legend.

And when i started to make money on the internet, that was pretty cool. I have to admit. When the money got big, it was even better. I had a great time, blew a shitload of money, saved a whole bunch, invested a little, and just had a blast being “regular-people-rich”.

But then last year, i told myself,

“the fun’s over. Let’s get back on our mission.”

So I scaled down my life. Put away the training wheels, and started looking at the next thing.

One thing i did know, was that there was something to people who were in the media. It seemed that they had the biggest reach of all and could influence and affect people’s emotions however they want.

What do i mean by that?

Well, an actor like Tom Cruise for example, fucked up as his religious ideas might be, he seems like a pretty smart guy who figured it out. Same with Will Smith. After all, their names get mentioned on a movie title and fans are moved from their path of daily life…to remember them well for an hour or two.

Or a lady like Celine Dion who has reached BILLIONS of people and discovered how to use her voice and artistic team to sway emotions. How her music now remains eternal anchored in people’s memories and emotions….well after she leaves the earth.

It is a beautiful thing.

To be alive beyond the grave…it’s…a raw instinct, the NEED to LIVE–

taken to extreme.

One day, I’ll never forget…a few years back.

It was in the days of Sydney. I lived in, understand, a very humble home with scarce and torn furnishings. And there i was making myself a little lunch with the tv on the other end.

So it’s Celine Dion on Oprah. Two very successful ladies who i admire greatly. Celine in particular has always been a favourite of mine. Naturally, i turned up the television and wanted to hear what she had to say.

And as I watched, i realised that she had the composure, not of some care-free woman. She didn’t look like a person whose whole life consists of bopping around, singing, partying, signing autographs, and having a great time. No.

Someone adored and worshiped around the world by BILLIONS of people seems to know a lot more about influence than i do.

She has a SERIOUS operation, going on!

Though she didn’t use copy, or even words to do it. She just understood how to give people an EXCITING adventure. And THAT is the reason why people are willing to go out of their way and leave whatever problem is occupying their mind right now…and they take 4 or 5 minutes to remember a feeling they had at a time in their life which they associate with the song.

Needless to say, I wanted to steal her powers.

It also made me understand, from a business perspective though, that it takes a REAL business to create their “celebrity” brand. These people, Tom, Will, and Celine…are not just individuals. They’re corporations, brands, and labels.

They have employees, accountants, lawyers, managers, promoters, and everything.

They are living, breathing, businesses of which they have grown into a very valuable image.

A marketing image!!

Because, it seems, wherever they are, fans spend money. Kind of like…an affiliate

The only difference between what you and i are right now…is that we’re “celebrities” to a much smaller set of people.

If that’s awkward to get in your head, think about an online business instead. One that has achieved fame.

Google. Apple. Microsoft. YouTube. Amazon. EBay.

Who isn’t a fan?

And while that might not be the level that most people want to play at…

I DO!

Which makes the game very different for me, compared to your average “launch-every-other-day”-guru.

And so i’ve dedicated my time over these past months to updating the map in my head for reaching that goal. Which as you may imagine is more of a journey of the emotions than the mind.

Because you wander, seeking truth and meaning for your life.

I’m still formulating the plan but i think i am getting closer to it. As you can imagine, such a change shouldn’t be drastic or it will set me back if i try to grow too quickly.

Instead, I plan to use my online business presence to complete the transition gradually. so you will notice some changes every once in a while if you subscribe here.

For example, you probably have seen by now my latest “offer”. Done For You Traffic.

Which is by no means anywhere near a complete offer. It’s just one part of a giant puzzle and gives me all the data i need to construct the rest of the plan.

My “guru” buddies don’t know this, so they ask me:

why would you offer to do people’s traffic for them? It will surely get you in trouble…you should teach it or only give away a part of the solution.

Yes, good advice. If i wanted to avoid liability with customers, in case they can’t get my traffic to convert.

But is that the stance of a man?

No! It’s the stance of a coward!

Real leaders, people worthy of remembering, they don’t back away from responsibility. My vision is far greater than the confines of this “info marketing” game.

If you fail, I’ll take the blame.

I compare my stance to Google’s. Which have affected almost everyone in the world. Google will remain, forever, a legend in human history…engraved on the very crust of the earth. You can only get that by being bold and brave.

As a search marketer, i see the fucked up things people type into search.

Seriously, just open another tab right now and try typing:
“i am terr” into the Google homepage and see the messed up crap people are looking for.

(if you can’t be bothered to look, when you type that into Google (at least when i last checked), it will suggest for you:
“I am terrified of chinese people” and various other forms of the same.)

Keep in mind that these suggestions are based on real searches. And what you’re seeing, those happen to be the most popular ones!

Yet, Google doesn’t back down from the challenge. They don’t tell you “no results found”.

They bring you results, every time. No matter how messed up your query. No matter how ridiculous.

You know what else they do?

Even when the searcher screws up and misspells their search, they still get him results.

Even when the website owner spams and black-hats and seo’s and does whatever…Google does a fine job of hiding the time-wasting results. They spend MILLIONS improving their search mechanism.

Yet, even when the website owner is making it hard for Google to do their job, and they find they’re a match to the searcher’s desire, they’ll find a way to connect them.

They believed in a vision no one else did at the time: Give every searcher exactly what they want, 100% of the time.

They bravely staked their money and time on it, like any good business. And they made it nearly a reality! The world is a better place for it.

And so, no i don’t care. I take responsibility for your lack of results. Because it’s a part of a much much bigger plan.

It conducts my life and my business.

The vision. It’s everything. Promise me, you’ll remember that.

jim

I was curious. Always wanted to know why this or that works. I had piles of opened toys, gutted of their insides, mechanical, electrical. Anything…and everything was open.

My absolute hungering NEED to “know why”…it was a programmed instinct…engraved on every chromosome of my being.

I just wanted to know why things worked

I remember the first time i discovered chat on the internet. I was happy. I bounced off walls with a stupid smile on my face.

One day, I could be speaking with a university student of medicine continents away. Another day, I could be asking questions of the Apple mac lover community…so scarce in those days.

Chat opened WORLDS to me.

From my father’s computer lab at his Malaysian office…all the way to people from Canada, Australia, the world. There was something so “Matrix-ly” adventurous about it all.

You’d have a hard time imagining that sort of excitement if you were of the younger generation. They take for granted this new way to communicate.

Of course, the technology in those days wasn’t as good as now. The most popular chat systems were basic…lines of text on a black screen like Instant Relay Chat (IRC). And what was really in those days was, “Web Chat”–

A basic webpage showing the last 10 lines of past conversation…It refreshed itself automatically every few seconds to show any new posts.

I remember looking at how my favourite webchat behaved, like Luke Skywalker might have looked at a robot and just knew instinctively how to re-engineer it… A bubble popped above my head, i snapped my fingers,

–”Why Golly, I bet i could build something JUST like that!”

I ducked into my own "Dexter's Lab" and made my business website

Ducked out in my little “Dexter’s Lab”, I programmed the shit out of it.

The end result was beautiful. I gave for free the features chatters were used to paying for. Such simple things as being able to chat in colour was usually something only an “operator” could do with a paid monthly membership.

I still had a paid membership program. But I made their features so cool. They weren’t available anywhere else. Like, for example, I integrated chat with mobile phones and instant messengers. Come to think of it,

I may have been the inventor of the world’s FIRST Instant-Messenger…

Even at 16 years old, I knew what a $37 a month fee from hundreds of members would add up to.

I programmed the “shopping cart” with my own bare hands. Merchant solutions were rugged and raw in those days…they didn’t do much. So I coded automatic billing, expiring unpaid accounts, and upgrading existing ones.

My upgrade packages were IRRESISTIBLE. I knew what to do to get more money from existing customers.

When it was all done, i unleashed it.

My old chat community were my website’s earliest guests. They arrived in flocks and told their friends. They had loads of fun.

So how did free leads KILL my business?

Well, my biggest challenge was getting traffic to my website. And I made a fundamental mistake that I see so many marketers make now. Perhaps you’ve been making the same one.

See, I noticed that when I advertised, I had no problem getting people to login to the chat. But they’d almost immediately leave.

When there was no one else online to talk to, there was no reason for new people to stay. What use was the most incredible chat service if it didn’t provide a way for them to be entertained, a way to socialise, and give them an opportunity to meet new people?

I needed my chat to have chatters at all times if i hoped to keep new guests. So that when someone responded to an ad about the chat, they’d arrive and see that the site was busy and full of potential new friends.

So I cheated.

Don’t give me that look of disapproval. I was 16.

I programmed a set of random nicknames as fake users. So that if someone tried to see who was online, they’d see a hundred people or whatever. I even went so far as to create simple “bots” that would automatically respond to common phrases like “hello”, “how are you”, and

“What’s your bra size?”

I didn't care what traffic i got, even if it was people looking for naughty things

I’d stuff keywords like “sex” and “nude” into the keyword tags and descriptive text. I figured those were the most popular searches people were doing on the internet lol. And they were!

Although you can’t do that so easily any more, I think most marketers these days are doing something similar. And i’m not talking about using the wrong keywords…it’s something far worse.

I eventually sold that community site to an investor for a lot of money. And aside from a few maintenance calls, I didn’t hear anything about it again.

Little did i know, that I was learning many lessons in business and that I’d eventually use every one of those lessons.

When I grew up, I came back to online marketing.

Once more, I was faced with the same problem. How do i attract people to my website?

I found myself doing SEO and banner advertising all over again. It brought back memories of my chat.

What’s changed since? I wondered

Aside from how much more difficult it is to get found today with so much brutal competition…not much changed.

People didn’t fall for my fake chatters nor for my sex keyword “optimisation” back in the days. And they weren’t going to buy because of my fake “positioning” strategies where I claim i don’t work with everyone because i’m so awesome and in such high demand. They certainly wouldn’t buy because I managed to get listed #1 in the search.

And forgive me for saying this, but so fucking what if google ranks my webpage as #1 for a search term?

Big whoop. Google thinks i’m relevant. But what does the person who clicked to my website think? What does my potential customer get from clicking my website?

I think when we do this traffic thing, we all get so caught up in making Google like us, or Facebook to put our ads near the top of everyone’s profile, or for youtube to give us a featured listing…that we forget what this business is all about.

People.

Because ultimately, it’s people we market to.

They ask me all the time,

“Jim, why do you write these long posts, don’t you know the optimum article length is 400 words? Why aren’t you filling out the meta tags and description text? Why don’t you use this plugin or that…”

… and i don’t have a good answer.

I don’t write for the search engine. I write for YOU.

I know if you have a great time reading my posts, you’ll come back voluntarily. You’ll look for the RSS feed on my blog, god knows if it even works, and you’ll wait to be notified of my updates. You’ll always be excited to receive email from me. Even when I’m selling. Even when i’m being an idiotic wanker. Even when i’m fucking up and sending out broken links or misspelled words.

Even when i’m calling you out on your bull.

You know what?

A few people noticed that this blog doesn’t allow people to leave links in their comments. And they’re angry.

Is there some “traffic” reason behind it? Is it because “I don’t want to leak Page Rank”? Do I want to discourage people from leaving comments?

Not at all. I don’t want you to leave a comment to get something in return. And I don’t want to send you OFF my website.

I want you to leave comments because you receive so much value from me. I want you to have fun here and on your own go and tell everyone else what a great time you had.

I want you to devour my website, and read one post after another. I want you to have such an AMAZING educational, entertaining, experience that you’ll voluntarily share stories from me with your friends by email and twitter.

THAT is what motivates me!

And this has been my approach to traffic. Whether I’m doing PPC or blogging. Facebook or Video marketing.

I want my website’s visitors to feel they got value from me worth more than the time or money they gave me.

It’s from this place of servitude that I conduct all my business. It’s why I get traffic and money with ease.

People who haven’t had success advertising their business yet, they usually get buried in learning the mechanics of traffic and sales, that they neglect the very essence of what they’re doing:

And it’s not to create back-links or beat the quality score.

It’s simply to give something valuable, and exchange it for people’s time or money.

In practice, that’s probably harder than it sounds. But if you’re like me and you believe that it’s all about people, not traffic.

Relationships, not sales…

Then let me help you realise your vision for your business. Let me be the person who finally paves you a way to serve your customers so they love you. Let me be the guy in your story about how you made it…

Hypercard was one of the early multimedia solutions for Apple Mac

Dad wanted to stall me so he could finish his work and knew exactly what buttons to push to dismiss me. He convinced me (somehow) that if I’d just learn programming I could make all the games I wanted. He got me all excited & gave me a computer MANUAL about an old multimedia design application that only came out for Apple called “Hypercard”.

Off I went to study it in the other room.

Soon after reading like 5 pages, I started to get really antsy. All I wanted was to DO IT. And I was back in there bugging him for the computer again.

That’s probably why I’ve never understood this whole thing about “information overload”. It’s physically impossible for me to get it–because I’m sorta trigger-happy with whatever new info i get. I need to use it right away, whether i can make it work or not.

I did that in home-school with Math too…

I hated reading the lesson. I’d seriously start at the assigned problems. Obviously since I hadn’t bothered reading the lesson, I had no idea how to answer. So I’d look for something similar in the worked examples to copy, and then i’d work back-wards to the theory if it was necessary.

That’s why I can come off as dismissive of info-overload as a REAL problem in this industry.

I do understand, though, that not everyone is able to filter information effortlessly.

Today I came across a video that addresses the problem head on and provides a solution. I knew it would be the right thing to do to share that with you here. Especially that it’s something I hear oh so often from most of my coaching students. They’re always telling me, “Jim, I got too much information and I just don’t know where to start!”

This video has one of the clearest and most impactful explanations I’ve seen of the following:

• which exact TWO tasks you should focus on when building your business
• which products and mailing lists you should completely ignore and even unsubscribe from
• the exact traffic source that will ALWAYS work forever no matter what new innovations come out
• how to acquire information in a way that it could never confuse you
• how to make sure you move forward every single day regardless of how tiny the step you take is
• and much more cool stuff it would be unfair for me to try to summarise here

If you’re bombarded by information and you’re feeling totally confused by which traffic method you should be working on and which tasks you should be doing with your business…if you can’t get your website up, and all the technology is freaking you out…

do yourself a favour and head on over to watch the video below…

Watch The WWN Video Here

your friend,
jim

I’ve missed you. I haven’t talked to you in a couple months and I wanted to see if we can meet and work together sometime in the next week or so.

Here’s what’s been happening with me…

{ secret location }, CA.

I just got to [SECRET LOCATION] in California. Traveling is a bit overrated when you have to spend 30 hours locked up on a plane with a bunch of strangers. So these days, I only go to the States when i absolutely must. And must, I did.

Now, I don’t mean for things to sound so mysterious, but i’m working with a few folks who are pretty secretive. This particular project has been conceived and hatched as far back as two years ago. I saw the proof on a whiteboard sheet dated 2008 in The Rich Jerk “secret” headquarters where we spent last night and today working.

Oh i like the sound of that. Secret headquarters lol. I’m such a spy.

Though I can’t tell you what we’re working on, I can say who’s in: Jimmy Davis, Raymond Fong, and Ferny Ceballos. If you’ve been in the networking industry for a little while you definitely know the names. And you may even know what they’re best at doing.

Jimmy Davis, the Godfather of Network Marketing

Jimmy Davis considers himself an “all round badass”. And for good reason, since he’s one of the most connected guys in our industry. He’s pretty much The Godfather of the Networking realm. His ring is kissed by networkers who travel from around the world to have their downline blessed by him.

He’s the guy the gurus call on when they need an intro or a problem solved.

Just two nights ago he got me on the phone with “The Rich Jerk” and introduced me so enthusiastically that we got invited to The Rich Jerk’s office to hang. I never thought I’d meet him, let alone be in a position to work together…he throws some rad Internet Marketer parties and now i can get on the guest list WOO!

Raymond and Ferny are CAPOs of free traffic (SEO)

Jimmy might be the networker’s Godfather, but Ferny and Ray on the other hand are the Capos of Free Traffic. They’re most famous for their ability to rank their websites in top positions in search engines. But that’s not all they do. I’ve come to know them as the guys who drive GIANT projects forward from an idea into multiple products, sales letters, funnels, and everything in between.

Jimmy and I flew in to meet with Ray and Ferny and embark on our HUGE project–so top secret, even we don’t know all the details. We just knew that once we got here, we were all going to work like slaves every day for the next couple weeks putting this thing together. It’s been awesome. Though it’s a HUGE undertaking, mark my words…in about 3 months your jaws will be on the floor when we introduce it onto the world…:)

Anyway, while we’re here, quite a few of our marketer friends were a little jealous of the “dream team” we compiled. Which is pretty exciting, because between the four of us, the impossible becomes possible.

Since we’re all in one place, we decided to hold an intimate Mastermind gathering as a gift to a few lucky subscribers. And I want to extend an invitation to you to join us.

Here’s why I think this will be useful for you, specifically.

You’re a unique person. You’re at a stage in your business that’s very different from the other guys and girls who’ve been through any of my training products. And one of the challenges of writing a training course like PPC Domination or Search Suicide is to figure out what your CURRENT challenge is, what’s holding you back and impeding your success…and then helping you overcome the challenge.

I can only guess at what’s troubling you, you see?

But when you and I are in a room together, everything changes. I only need minutes to identify your challenge and tell you what your next step should be.

Michael Jordan could help you correct how you shoot and you'd get the hoop EVERY time.

Think of it this way…Say, you want to improve your basketball shooting skills. One way, which most people who don’t have a trainer end up going, is to buy training courses and watch videos. You’ll need to, on your own, translate the instructions into action.

But what if you had access to Michael Jordan for a day? You could show him how you shoot and within 2 minutes he’ll be able to tell you why you keep missing the hoop. In most cases, you’ll find it’s something as simple as you’re facing SLIGHTLY the wrong way when you shoot.

Except you wouldn’t have a way to know this… BAM. Jordan shows you the right shooting stance, and the ball goes in the hoop every time. Forever.

If you’ve been in this business for a while and you’re not getting quite the level of success you want to have, then you should join us this week or next. We can help you move light-years forward in your business.

Here’s how it’s going to work:

We’ll hold a mastermind session here in California within the next 2 weeks. It’s not gonna be a seminar where for hundreds of people. It’s just a tiny intimate session with at most 5 people in the group.

Jimmy, Ray, Ferny, and I are going to spend an entire day and work with your mastermind group. For you, for your business, it will be a turning point…no question about it.

You have a PPC traffic challenge? I can help you fix that in an instant.

You got a burning SEO? Ferny and Ray got your back.

You have a closing or conversion challenge? Jimmy can help you with it right away.

Between us, your biggest problem is childsplay.

You see it’s one thing to buy a course on PPC. It’s another to have the BEST PPC guy in the industry work on your account with you.

If you have a question about how to close your lead, Jimmy’s gonna grab the phone out of your hand and show you how he closes.

Being In Business Is a Lonely Game

I have been in this industry for a while now and I know the most difficult thing about this business is the feeling of complete loneliness we have. I know. I’ve always envied anyone with a partner because they had someone to share the burden with them. Sometimes it’s frustrating to be the only one who cares about your idea. There’s no body around who wants to hear you talk about it. Your friends shut you up and get irritated with you constantly rambling about your gurus and their sayings.

But a mastermind barely wants to talk about anything else.

It’s the closest thing you can have to a partnership. Members of your mastermind allow you to draw on their experiences. In most cases, they have a different skill-set from you and have connections with people who can help you. This small group you agree to work with becomes an “advisory board” for all the things you’re not so good at.

And this is related to our top secret project.

By the time you leave you will have clarity of mind like you have never experienced before. You will bond with your mastermind group and your relationship will continue beyond our little gathering.

As you can imagine, many of our subscribers who hear about this will jump through hoops to work with our dream team. Heck some Gurus would give their left leg to be included

But we only want at most five people in a session. Otherwise it becomes a seminar instead of a mastermind.

It also allows me to select who I work with. Some people really shouldn’t be doing this business, and I don’t want to be responsible for them. I want the good guys like you to get a shot while keeping the wrong people away.

We are still finalizing the details but here are some of the things you need to know:

• We will be charging for the mastermind. While I have done sold out seminars for 5k+, that’s not a reflection on the cost. Though we haven’t finalised the price, we know it will be AT LEAST $997. If you cannot afford $997 please do not apply.
• You will need to sign a confidentiality agreement, because you’ll hear about some aspects of our new project. And Raymond is PARTICULARLY brutal about keeping it on the downlow.
• We will record some of this. That’s why we’re willing to run the mastermind at a significantly low price. We’d like to keep the recording and you need to be ok with being on video. Please make us look good, since we plan to use the footage for other promotion.
• Our mastermind gathering will be within the next 2 weeks. You have to be able to fly/drive out here in that time. For your convenience we’re going to strive to make it a weekend. But do keep in mind I’m actually booked to leave the US in 2 weeks, so we’ll need to do this soon.
• You will be responsible for Air fare, hotel, and food. This is not an all inclusive trip. Jimmy will pick an affordable hotel out here in California for everyone to stay at. Raymond will show you around. I will make you laugh. And Ferny will drink your beer.

I promise for the 5 people who come to this event they will come to know themselves as somebody they have never known themselves to be.

Click Here To Apply

Good luck.

Jim

This creepy story about the little boy who went without food or water... isn't for the faint-hearted

Gurus lie.

There I said it. And I don’t trust them. There’s only a few legitimate guys who “spit” truth. But their image is smeared with the rest of the hall of shamers that make up the majority of Information product marketers.

Like seriously…check out these headlines:

“Dumb Kid Earns $301,866.50 in One Weekend”
“How To Use Twitter to Get 50,000 followers”
“How I Made Over 4 Million In 24 Hours Using Nothing But E-Mail”

Ok, it’s marketing and if that gets people to listen to you, it’s fine. But I guess my trouble is that customers buy the story as it is, without questioning its reality.

What if I told you,

“11-Year Old Fasts From Food and Water for 30 Days Straight and Survives.”

Would you believe me?

You should. Because this story is true. In fact, it’s a page torn right out of my own childhood. But at the same time, there is an element of untruthfulness to it. And I knew this when I wrote that headline.

After all, I suppose it got your attention because you incorrectly assumed certain things from my phrasing that made the story seem extraordinary. Because the truth certainly is NOT exciting.

Bear with me, I’ll tell you my creepy story from the start…

I was a “fraidy cat”.

Night was my most dreaded time of day. I am not even gonna try to deny that. When I was five-years-old I had so many nightmares that I once ran myself into an honest-to-goodness fever.

My dreams were filled with ghosts and demons

My dreams were full of the demons and ghosts my neighbor’s older sister put in my head with her frightening stories. Often, I’d wake up in a cold sweat and rouse my mother claiming I was thirsty–just to feel the safety of her company. She’d bring me water and stay up with me holding my hand across my baby sister’s sleeping body.

On this one night, I wake up to discover that both my parents gone.

I’m alarmed. Where are they? It’s pitch-black and I can’t see a thing. I feel around nervously for them. Did they leave me home alone with my sisters?

I don’t know. I lie in bed breathing heavy as I consider the scary possibilities. My heart pounds fast in my throat.

Suddenly, I hear noises in the distance.

Who is it? Intruders? Murderers? Thieves?

Or could it be just my parents?

I strain my ears to hear if the voices are friendly ones. But I can’t make out a THING.

I remain motionless under the covers afraid that the voices may discover me. Time passes and my mind keeps racing with horrible possibilities.

Had my parents been kidnapped…or worse…murdered?

I debate with myself to get out of bed and check or just stay in bed and hope for the best.

Finally, I can’t take the suspense any more. I muster up my courage and get out of bed, creeping in the dark to the doorway. My sister’s light snores are behind me. I take comfort in her nearness as I peek out into the hallway.

What’s that?

The kitchen light is on...who goes there?

The kitchen light is on.

I strain my ears again. Is that mum’s voice?

A few seconds pass before I make my way slowly down the corridor toward the lit kitchen. I keep both my ears perked for danger.

As I approach the kitchen, the voices become clearer. It sounds like mum and dad speaking quietly. All of a sudden, I become aware of how far i am from my sisters now. I feel an unsettling chill in the dark hallway and wrecklessly run the last few steps into the kitchen.

I halt at the entrance.

The light hits my eyes and hurts my dialated pupils. The voices stop. I rub my eyes and my heart jumps to my throat. I swallow it back down.

There, on the kitchen floor, sit mum and dad with concerned faces staring up at me.

To be honest, I think it’s a look of guilt they’re giving me. I feel like I caught them in the act of doing something behind my back.

Because the kitchen floor is where we normally have our meals. And in front of them is the pink disposable nylon we usually eat on.

i wrecklessly run the last few steps into the kitchen imagining ghosts behind me

Atop the nylon is a spread of saucers filled with goat cheese and olive oil, thickened yoghurt, strawberry jam, a plate of tasty scrambled eggs, a bowl of honey and half-empty cups of tea and coffee.

My heartbeat settles slowly.

I’m hurt. “A secret midnight meal!?” I think to myself. “Why didn’t they tell me?”

Mum calls out to me, with mouth slightly full, “Hi habeebi (my dear). Do you want me to make you an egg?”

I nod silently. I know my voice is still hoarse with sleep. Dad asks me to come sit with him.

I sidle over slowly and sit confused and groggy. My nostrils flare as I soak in the mouth-watering smell of hot olive oil and frying egg from the stove.

My mind is racing. What’s going on? How long has this been going on for?

“Dad,” I say hoarsly. “What are you guys doing?”

My mother looks over from the stove and laughs. “We’re having sohoor. Today’s the first of Ramadan.”

“What’s Ramadan?”

I ask curiously. My voice working a little better now.

“In Ramadan we aren’t meant to eat the whole day. We need to eat now so we don’t get too hungry,” she responds.

As I later learned, my parents would be fasting the entire month. No food or water from sun-rise to sun-set. They’d been doing it forever around the same time each year.

Now it DID sound difficult at first, didn’t it? Until I just revealed to you that fasting was only for part of the day. Actually, there are two main meals that my parents would have each day. One, is called Sohoor–which is what I caught them having–the morning meal before sunrise. The other one is named Fotoor (break-fast) which they would have later, at sunset.

And only between those two meals was there no eating or drinking.

So as you can imagine, fasting Ramadan isn’t so hard. And while my story’s headline earlier would lead you to believe that the “kid” was starved and thirsty for an entire month,

it’s simply not true.

That’s why, when I read a sales letter headline, I always implicate the essence of the incredible statement. But I never take it literally. And neither should you.

As you’ll discover, in time, most of these raw dollar numbers are in fact revenue, not profit. Meaning, the sales letter is quoting you a number of dollars they collected in sales. Which does not factor in the cost of advertising and the months–and more often years–of failure it takes to acquire the skills that eventually result in those ridiculous numbers.

For example, if you hear of someone who made 4 million dollars in 24-hours, it’s very likely they spent 2 million dollars in affiliate commissions, and a few grand for copywriters, designers, and programmers. Which is still incredible, no denying that.

But is it really something a “dumb kid” can replicate without a large marketing budget?

And can a “dumb kid” really pull off such a stunt? Doubful. Mate.

There is no “dumb” person who makes 300,000 in a single weekend or 4 million in 24 hours. Unless it’s dumb luck, like in a lottery or something…

Which, let’s face it, isn’t exactly teachable.

No. In most cases, the person behind the headline is a savvy business person who either built (over time) a bigass list or has access to a network of BIG BOYS with lists.

It could have taken them 5 years to build up an email list that would buy 4 million dollars worth of product in a single weekend.

I’ve been in the game long enough to know the part you’re not told is what makes all the difference. I’ve seen some of the worst marketing campaigns with poor sales letters written in second-language-English…still making a fortune in sales…only because the marketer tapped into mailing lists of millions of subscribers.

Last year, I attended a seminar where a guy claimed to earn over

$100,000 dollars per day in affiliate sales.

He told me personally that he spent between $50,000-$100,000 per day on Google to make that money.

And yet, even when he launched his own “guru” product, he partnered with some of the biggest marketers to make 2 million in sales. Of that 2 million, he gave at least 1 million in commissions to his affiliate partners and spent a further few hundred thousand in prizes.

The lesson here is that no big result comes without an equally large investment of time, networking with the right people, and financial spend.

Before that, it’s all baby steps.

After all, that’s how every amazing feat is achieved in real life. An olympic swimer wins a gold medal in days. But no body wins that gold medal without having spent his or her life dreaming about it, working at it, practicing, failing, and trying again and again.

In fact, that’s how I was able to start fasting with my parents at such a young age.

As I eat my egg beside dad,

I listen to his conversation with mum, and I feel more left out. I want in on this secret “club”.

The next morning, I ask my mother if I can fast Ramadan with them. But she didn’t think it was a good idea.

“Honey, you’re too young right now. You need to eat or you’ll be tired all day and won’t be able to study.”

For a while they didn’t let me.

But I drove them crazy. I begged my mother all day and night to let me take part with them in this “fasting” business. She finally yielded and allowed me to do it until the afternoon.

“Ok, mum. But if I find it easy, can I do the whole day?” I asked with wide-eyed enthusiasm.

“Sure, why not.”

For the next few days, I fasted until after school. It was difficult missing lunch when all the other kids around me were eating. And saudia arabia, where we lived at the time did not have the mildest of weather. By the time I got home, my lips were parched with thirst.

All the same, I was proud of myself. I showed off to my friend from upstairs while we played on the staircase.

Soon, he too started fasting with his parents permission. And we competed at who could last longest.

These are the baby steps that made my above headline possible.

That’s the part most marketing neglects to tell you.

If they were to tell you the real work it takes you might not buy whatever they’re selling.

Before I learned to fast Ramadan, I wasn’t QUALIFIED to be a part of the “club”. No matter how badly I wanted to be included. In the same way as many students of marketing are not yet qualified to take part in the marketing game at the same level as the big boys.

Few of the marketers who teach lead generation actually use those methods in their own business. Because it takes too long that way. But that’s the part of the game they don’t tell you.

I was talking recently with a colleague who told me he knows that only about three of the most well-known information marketers actually generate their own leads.

The rest commit “incest”…

with each other’s lists, bastardising the crap out of them with multiple-launches.

The truth is, they belong to a club of “big boys” who few people are qualified to talk to…let alone run with.

If you want to know who those guys are, just watch your emails when a major product launches. How many emails do you receive from all your most respected gurus?

Last week, I unsubscribed from all of their lists. Because I simply got tired of the tens of emails I received every few days about the same product. I don’t trust their recommendations any more. I know they don’t even bother to check out what they’re promoting before they decide it’s really worth staking their reputation on it. I may as well make my own decisions about what to buy or not buy.

You’ll notice I rarely ever send you a promotion for anyone else’s product. Unless that product is one I actually own, benefit from, and I genuinely believe you should own.

And all the same, I don’t expect you to take my word for it. Because a product or tool I find useful may be a waste of your money and time.

I Finally Did it When I was 11.

As for my fasting experience, you probably have figured by now that I eventually managed to fast from food and water for the whole month of Ramadan. It took me all the way until I was 11 years old before I was finally a proper part of the “club” though.

In fact, many young children around the world are pulling this off every Ramadan. And their parents teach them to fast with the same baby steps.

He scored his first computer consulting contract. Amazing. Fuzzy little boy, dressed in daddy’s shirt and tie, with awkward, patchy blond fluff growing out of his upper lip. Everything about him screamed,

“Don’t hire me!”

Could you imagine this guy as a consultant?

Silly-looking teenager. Wanna-be consultant.

It was me.

I suppose it’s hard for you to imagine me like that. You know, since I grew up into such a handsome, cool, heart-stealing, hairy feller. Haha. On second thought, maybe it’s just me mum who sees me like that, aye.

So there I am, standing at the doorway of the office building. Uncle Trevor hurrying me along as I stopped to tie my shoe laces. Dipping my tie on the concrete. I looked up to see an attractive, well-dressed Chinese woman at the entrance.

“Hello,” she said to Trevor.

“G’day,” he called out. “This is Jim, the fella I was telling you about.”

She leaned out with her arm extended and smiled. I firmly shook her hand and mumbled something. Could’ve been “hello” under my breath. I was a notoriously shy mumbler. But hand-shaking, I was used to.

I wondered for a moment if maybe I was in over my head.

Just a few days ago, I was a regular high-school kid. And today I’m a consultant, shaking hands with the CEO of an international company. Intimidating, certainly.

This deal was brokered by Uncle Trevor. A family friend from New Zealand who had moved to Malaysia a little before we did.

As we walked through the office-cubicles and they spoke of business deals, my memory drifted back to Friday, the week before.

Uncle Trevor often dropped by dad’s office on the way home from work to ask us over for dinner or check-in on us. He was a good ole’ Kiwi bloke.

That particular Friday afternoon, I was pretending to do some homework.

The grown-ups spoke.

I eavesdropped on their conversation and heard Uncle Trevor complaining to dad about a communication difficulty they were having with their various international offices.

I looked up from my books and interjected, “Why don’t you get them to use the Internet?”

Even though I was pretty new to the web myself, I was already creating websites and internet applications. Few people even knew what it was at that time.

But to me, the Internet was AMAZING. I thought it was the solution to just about anything. My idea was that they equip all their offices with modems, get internet subscriptions, and communicate by chat and e-mail.

To you that might sound like it’s “duh” obvious. Except you’re forgetting it was 1995 in Malaysia. My Hayes 96,000 bps modem was considered cutting edge.

My old Hayes dial-up modem loved to download at a whopping 7kb/sec lol

Dude, I was downloading at 7kb/sec and that was the shit!

Trevor liked my suggestion. A week later, he phoned me to ask if I would be interested in coming to his office and speaking with their CEO about my ideas.

I agreed.

And that’s how I got myself in this big mess.

“Why did I open my big mouth?” I wondered. Homework was never so appealing as it was today at Uncle Trevor’s office.

But there was no running away now. And I’d look like a right fool if I ducked behind my father’s friend.

The CEO’s name escapes me, but she was friendly enough. As we chit-chatted, I became more comfortable.

All the while, I was having a conversation with myself. I was insecure about my appearance. I knew that in spite my best efforts, I wasn’t fooling anyone into thinking I was some bad-ass, hot-shot consultant.4

How could I gain their confidence in my abilities?

How could I make them forget my age and awkwardness?

In an instant, I knew.

My plan was marketing in its crudest form. Even as a boy, it was pure instinct.

I had many disadvantages working against me.

• I was a kid. That was a fact.
• I was unprofessional. That was a fact.
• I was a one boy show. And that was a fact.

What possible reason could they have to hire me instead of another expert, older, and more experienced?

They could certainly afford someone else. But I was confident I could serve them well.

And that was my biggest advantage. I was actually very competent as an advisor. It’s important when you are disadvantaged that you draw on your strengths. Computers were my thing. I lived and breathed computers.

I could offer a better deal, faster, for cheaper, and still deliver the same service someone else would.

My reading material in those days consisted of technical manuals–I read them for sport. I downloaded nerdy jokes. I programmed computer games.

For god’s sake, I used to prank-call computer technicians and operators to ask them questions they wouldn’t be able to answer.

Then…

I’d swear and call them names before hanging up.

Silly, I know.

A simple presentation technique I discovered when I was 14 allowed me to nab that consulting contract for myself. And even today, I use it to build trust with customers so they will choose me over everyone else.

With my short-comings and all.

Have YOU felt this way when marketing online?

For example, you might have a small downline or customer base. You might make a few bucks here and there instead of hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. Or you might still be stuck in a 9-5 job rather than get a full-time income from home.

Who hasn’t been there, aye?

In my early days of selling business opportunity, I wished I could drive a half-million-dollar car like my upline’s. I imagined that would make it easier to presuade prospects to buy. I didn’t know, of course, that this had little effect on recruiting real business partners.

Funny, that as a kid I had better sense than I did three years ago, when…

I was naming my unemployment “financial independence”.

Little did I know that my prospects were smart enough to see through that. Just as easily as the CEO could tell…

My stupid “consultant” clothes were just a front.

Presentation of expertise flips the perception of your prospects.

It’s critical for building credibility and trust.

Companies rent out large office buildings in the heart of town to present themselves as professional. They spend millions of dollars on a single television ad campaign to present their products and services in the best light. They print letterheads and logos and come up with corporate-style slogans to present a large and experienced image.

Billions of dollars are spent every day on this type of presentation.

You can do the same without spending a cent.

Because the kind of presentation I’m talking about isn’t achieved by “dressing for success” or faking your image. It’s achieved by demonstrating real honest-to-goodness authority. The greatest advantage prospects have in dealing with you.

After all, everyone is an expert in something compared to other people.

She was no Computer Expert…

When I met the CEO, I discovered quickly that she was no computer expert. No one else on her staff had more than a basic knowledge of how to use their computers. I only had to demonstrate that I brought to the table the expertise they lacked.

And I certainly could.

Yet, without making a display of my expertise, I would rely on nothing but my unfortunate appearance. Something I couldn’t change.

When the CEO let me get to work, I looked at her office’s computer set-up. I explored each computer in the DOS prompt. That black screen with white characters flying up the screen was intimidating on its own.

I appeared thoughtful. I let it sink in. That this is some heavy, technical shit. Certainly not something that just ANYONE could do.

Then I spoke rapidly in geek-talk:

“The specifications of your machines are too low to handle the load of a TCP/IP application. You need faster CPU, an expanded RAM, and more hard drive capacity. You could communicate with your other offices by getting a server setup in each office with a 96,000 bps modem or a dedicated fibre optics line. Then you’d need Ethernet cards with LAN connections to create intranets within each office.”

Of course, she didn’t understand.

She wouldn’t be able to do much with that vomit of jargon.

I only said it to show that I was an authority. Had I left it at that, I wouldn’t have got the contract. She still needed to understand what she had to do.

I repeated slowly, “You need to get at least one modern computer in the office and setup the others with a special part that will connect the office computers to one another. You need one more piece of hardware that communicates between offices through the phone line. Kind of like a fax machine lets you use the phone lines to send documents”

This set the CEO at ease.

I nailed it home by showing her I had a complete and simple solution.

“I will write for you a full report to explain what you need and where to get it from. As well as an estimate of your cost. Then I’ll suggest a few experts I trust to install the setup for you. How’s that?”

“Of course. That would be wonderful,” she replied.

And just like that, the deal was made.

Be careful.

You don’t want to come off like a show-off. People don’t buy what they don’t understand. Excessive jargon will only confuse your prospects.

Only the tiniest expert language is needed to demonstrate your knowledge. It helps implicitly address all their objections by letting them know that YOU know what you’re on about.

They rather buy an expert than learn all that complicated crap by themselves.

If prospects trust that you have a thorough knowledge of the product or service you’re selling, they’ll automatically trust your advice.

By the way, this isn’t just a face-to-face sales “trick”.

You can pull it off just as easily in a google ad, a sales letter, or even a video presentation. Lightly sprinkle a specialized word here and there. And you’re in.

For a long time, I didn’t know that what helped my upline sell was not so much his flash car or his numerous business trips. But rather that he kept up with current events in the stock market and real estate. He sprinkled that information in conversation and stories he told. And it was in fact, the very reason I had trusted his advice when he suggested I start a home business.

Whether he really did well in real estate or not, I believed he had. And when a savvy businessman tells you that he’s building a Network Marketing business full-time, you listen.

Imagine if Donald Trump told you that a building was a good buy, you’re likely to take his advice.

That evening, when I returned home, I told Dad the full day’s events. He beamed with pride as I explained what I did to established authority.

Later, he gave me a report template and helped me create a professional written presentation of my recommendations.

I submitted my consultation along with a $3,000 bill for my services.

The Apple model I bought with my consulting money...

With the money I made, I bought the first computer I ever paid for. It was an Apple Power Mac I had my eye on for months.

Because David and I were guzzling those things for 6 days straight. He came in on a delayed flight from another speaking event and it was non-stop from the second he walked in.

Neither of us got any more than 10 minutes of sleep a night as we planned, taught, and socialised with our students. In fact, in Kansas, I have to tell you there was never a day without some kind of weird and out of this world adventure. What with the possum that attacked one of our students (who was actually a well-known Network Marketing leader)…and the UFO David swears he witnessed out of my bedroom’s window…

All stories i’ll share with you in time.

But what I wanted to tell you about was this video we shot for you before we left Kansas to go work on our next big project.

We were sitting around a bon fire roasting marshmellows and smores in pitch black amongst the cow and buffalo. When we received an E-Mail from Mike Dillard announcing the release of MLM Traffic Formula 2.0. Which if we understand correctly is an overhaul of the original Traffic Formula course. 

As we sat around the fire, each of us in turn told our war stories about the hardships we had in the industry and how our students are now filled with hope and success. And it brought back memories for the both of us, David and I.

Because, three years ago, we were in our own dark places of struggle and poverty. It was around then that a course called the MLM Traffic Formula first launched. We scrambled to buy our admission to the live calls. And later when I received the recordings I think I had listened to them maybe a million times. I swear i put the cds on loop for weeks on end falling asleep to them some nights, and driving around town on others with the voice of Mike and his experts blaring through my subwoofer around Sydney.

That course was the beginning for me. After going through it, I finally began to generate leads online and sponsor distributors. Which led to many good things. This year I already had a successfull $0.5 MILLION dollar launch, generated 1,000 leads a day and as many as 15,000 leads in a single month. Sold out a live event in 45 minutes flat, trained, and worked with the top distributors in the industry.

Now that MLM Traffic Formula 2 is coming out, I think it will be the beginning for you too.

Get Traffic Formula 2 Here when it goes on sale tomorrow.

Oh, by the way, I’ll be contributing all the training on Pay-Per-Click marketing in the updated version. So if you want to hear more about that from me, I promise I’ll pull out some of my best information to share with you there too.

One of my Simpler "Midnight" Snack Trays I've Made Famous on Twitter

I’m a creature of the night.

Since I was in high school, I preferred working when everyone else was asleep. Some how, the quiet of the night helps me be more productive and creative.

Of course, all the hard work makes me hungry!

If you were to ever visit me, you might be surprised to hear clanging of dishes, and pots and pans in the kitchen when I get the midnight munchies. My snacks are usually quick to make, light, and balanced. It’s about the only way I keep healthy lately since I rarely get any exercise in the winter.

You might know that recently I’ve been posting on Twitter, updates about my various “dinner” trays and their content.

Couple of nights ago, I was low on food-variety in the house…so I came up with a simple snack. When I laid it on my desk ready to be eaten, I noticed the camera lying on my desk and I thought I would take a snapshot for my curious marketing friends.

Does it get simpler than this?

Lebneh (thickened yoghurt) seasoned with red pepper, black pepper, and zaatar, served with olive oil

Here’s a plate of thickened yoghurt called Lebneh in this part of the world. It’s made by slowly straining fresh yoghurt in a cotton cloth overnight. Most of the moisture drips out and what’s left inside the cloth is a thick, cheese-like yoghurt.

Usually it’s served with aged olive oil drizzled on top. And it’s eaten with a warm loaf of lebanese bread.

I like to make it a little more interesting, so i put on some green chilli, red pepper, black pepper, and zaatar. Zaatar is another traditional food usually served on a saucer with a bowl of olive oil and you use small pieces of bread to dip in the olive oil then in the zaatar which adheses itself to the bread.

Zaatar is a blend of Thyme and sesame seeds.

Salad of apple, cucumber, banana sprinkled with pepper and sugar

On the side is my salad. It’s not a proper salad because it’s eaten with hands. There’s large slices of a whole apple, a cucumber, and a banana. Sprinkled on top is black pepper and a couple of pinches of sugar. They help lift the flavour and make the combination work together.

And in the glass is my apple juice.

Simple and quick. Try it if you wanna feed your marketing brain what my marketing brain eats haha.