Why Do I Have Insomnia?
Posted by Marty Dickinson on Jan 21, 2014
If you were up half the night last night, tossing and turning in bed, finally exiling yourself to your Siberia living room to watch endless hours of worthless early morning t.v., here’s a website you will want to know about. Checkout this independent study about 5 causes of insomnia among its participants. A link to the entire sleep study is available on the page too.
Why am I featuring this website on Website Waves? For three main reasons:
- Sleep is hot news – Seems like there is a news report every day about sleep. A lot of people must be having a hard time sleeping these days.
- SleepEasily.com is a website to watch – A boatload of time is being put into getting presence of this site onto social media and Google serps.
- It’s in our network of websites – We are personally evangelizing this product and doing whatever we can to get it into the hands of every adult in the world!
Plus, we engineered the affiliate program and the payouts are very generous! Keep tabs on this one. It’s starting out from ground zero but in the next six weeks or so it will have national attention.
New Website for Professional Speakers Announced
Posted by Marty Dickinson on Aug 17, 2011
Motivational Speakers Worldwide has launched as a new website for professional speakers and up and coming speakers to gain additional web promotion for their speaking availability and speaking business. Too many large-scale websites devoted to the promotion of speakers and trainers seem to be speakers bureaus where commissions are paid to the speaker’s bureau for every speaking gig the speaker is able to close.
Motivational Speakers Worldwide is NOT a speakers bureau but a simple directory where any speaker of any level can participate without knowing someone special in the industry. Only the first 50 participants are able to join for a LIFETIME, one-time payment of just $50.
Visit MotivationalSpeakersWorldwide.com for sign-up and details.
Social Bashing Takes to the Streets
Posted by Marty Dickinson on Aug 5, 2011
Social bashing started with what I call “hate sites” way back in the mid 1990′s where someone launched a website for the sole purpose of taking their frustrations out on a politician or business. Rarely did you see anyone go out of their way to make a hate site to go after a specific person for anything other than politics or poor customer service in business.
Hate sites are still around today of course, but bashing of anyone and everyone we come into contact with seems to be the craze these days.
Take this new website called Driver-Ratings.com where you can find a license plate in your state of someone who’s already been reported as a good or bad driver and then add your comments. Or, you can add a license plate of a car you saw on the road with a driver driving poorly and tell the world what you saw.
Now, I’m the first guy to yell at someone (with the windows rolled up so they can’t hear me) when they’re driving exactly 7 miles under the speed limit while in the left or middle lane.
…Or when someone pulls out of a parking lot and goes across 3 lanes of traffic to make a left turn and doesn’t even pay attention that there might be oncoming traffic (me! for example).
…Or people who start slowing down as they approach a stop light…and the light is still green!
…Or the cell phone user who’s too busy fighting with her boyfriend on the phone to realize the left turn signal has just turned green.
Of course the list could go on and on. My first point is that as much as I might yell at bad drivers, eventually I’m going to do something un-perfect on the road too and those same people will be giving me the finger and shaking their fists like I’m the world’s lowest of seed. And, then those same people will follow me right into the church parking lot on Sunday morning and wish me a “good morning.”
My second, and more important point, is that I really can’t see why we have to bash people personally on the Internet now for their bad driving habits. Heck, it’s just a free for all. You can make any comment you want related to anyone’s license plate. That just doesn’t seem right.
But that’s what the world seems to want, right? We apparently long for scouring the roadways to look for those bad drivers so that we can go to this website (and I’m sure many others coming) and secretly post a license plate and whine about bad drivers as if any of us are that much better. You and I made Amazon what it is today based on our brutal book ratings. You and I built up Angie’s List by looking for those less-than-pristine provided services so that we could bash their business online.
Do you really want to be that kind of person? I sure don’t. I’ll keep my negative reviews to myself when it comes to social bashing of unsuspecting common folk.
At least I say that for now. Who knows? Maybe someday we’ll start rating each other in the positive by how many negative reviews we have online. Could you see the spam message? “For just $99/month, we’ll GUARANTEE 75 bad ratings about YOU! Impress your friends…Increase your business! Buy now and get 25 additional bad reviews today only!!”
Are you worried about social bashing? Has it already happened to you? Should it even be allowed?
41 Money Management Tips I’ve Learned
Posted by Marty Dickinson on Mar 15, 2011
When I started helping people with their websites and Internet marketing strategy back in 1996, I immediately started getting occasional emails from designers and programmers wanting to know how I could possibly charge more than $10/hour for my services.
A few years later when I formed the official company, HereNextYear, Inc., I’d get a few emails a month asking, “How can you possibly be in business doing this Internet stuff as long as you have been?”
I still get those questions occasionally, but it’s interesting that more and more people are emailing me now with money management and investing related questions these days.
“Marty, do you suggest I get a ROTH IRA?”
“Marty, did you start your business with a bank loan? If so, how did you get one?”
“Marty, should I get one credit card for my business and keep increasing my limit or get more cards?”
ACK!!!! I am no certified financial planner!
Want to know a secret? I’m much better at answering questions about “selling” than I am about money.
I love to make money online, and love to share what I’ve learned with people about Internet marketing (Checkout my Web Marketing Book discussion page on facebook and click the “Like” button and then post any Internet marketing question on my wall and I will reply) but admittedly, I can’t say I’m the best money manager after I get it.
As my business has grown over the past 15 years, half of me has become more interested in becoming a better money manager and the other half has been forced into improving my money management skills.
Managing money and investing it are two things I rely on other people to help me make the right decisions. And, as you’ll see in one of the points below, is that “wealthy families ALWAYS have someone they trust to help them make financial decisions.”
So, I have three objectives for this blog post where I will:
1. Give you a slew of one-liners that I’ve learned about credit, getting business funding, and even investing in my kid’s and grandkid’s futures.
2. Introduce you to three people I completely and whole-heartedly trust with giving me suggestions about money and what to do with it.
3. Provide you with resources for you to consider that are offered by each of the three guys I’m introducing to you.
Please don’t take these points as some kind of promise that you’re going to make a million bucks next year because of it. This post isn’t about that. I’m no certified financial planner. I’m not offering you any advice that is so specific that you can go “do it” and make or lose money as a result.
I’m not trying to lure you into my financial practice either…because, haa, I don’t have one! Have I said it enough yet that I’m noooo financial planner???
Each of the people I’m introducing to you…well, yes, they each offer specific resources for you to consider and I’m going to give you links to those resources. But, I’m giving you those resources because you need to include them in your business and life plan. Simple as that.
One of those things where you should just “do it” and thank me later….
Let’s get started…
I’d like to introduce you to Darrell Hornbacher.
He started a company called Midas Financial more than 5 years ago and he’s known by literally everyone in my circle as the go-to guy for advice on credit and business funding.
He asked me a few years ago to be on his team to create a national conference to educate people about business funding + marketing.
It was so successful, we did two that year!
When the subject of credit or business loans comes up when I’m talking with a client, I practically demand they call Darrell immediately if they don’t already know about him.
A Few Money Management Tips I’ve Learned from Darrell Over the Years
Money Management Topic I: CREDIT
1. High credit card balances negatively affect credit scores more than anything. I’ve even heard of people taking on part-time jobs just to pay off their credit cards because they know how important it is to get those babies paid off!
2. Be careful of home equity lines of credit as they can destroy your credit score.
3. Paying off old “delinquent” debt actually hurts your credit score.
4. Having too much revolving debt is bad for your credit even if you pay all your bills on time.
5. Pulling your own credit report does NOT hurt your score.
6. If you have bad credit, you simply have to get someone to help you re-build your credit and improve your credit with absolute strategy and timing. Feel free to call Darrell and ask him about the credit re-building process and tell him Marty sent you. Or, you can go right to the tool that Darrell sends all his clients to Credit Builders
This resource, by the way, has helped 25,000 clients repair their credit. They have NEVER (and never is a big word) had a Better Business Bureau complaint. It’s also the ONLY credit repair company to have an A rating with the BBB! There’s even a “no-risk” promise.
So, sure, if you give their program a whirl, I’m going to get a little commission from it. But don’t let that deter your action. I’m simply referring a tool to you that was referred to me. And, that’s just smart networking.
7. Closing old unused accounts will hurt your credit score because it takes away from your history. In fact, you could get 5 points knocked off your score because your history is gone.
8. Making only minimum payments can hurt your score.
9. Delayed payments could impact your ability to get more credit, not because you’re a delinquent payer, but because you have a reputation for waiting until the last minute to pay.
10. Every time someone pulls your credit report (like a dealership if you’re buying a car), your credit score reduces by 3 points. But, if you have multiple credit inquiries within a 10-business-day period, you’ll only lose 3-5 points ONCE to cover all the reports made during that time frame. So, if you’re going to shop around for a car, be sure to do it with a 10-day period!
What should you do now that you know what Darrell has taught me about credit? I suggest you start improving your own credit with the credit building system he recommends to his own clients.
Note that if you do sign-up for this particular credit building program, I’m going to get a little cut from it. Let me know if you do sign-up and I’ll buy you a cup of coffee and a muffin! But, it’s something I have to let you know about…but there’s more!
Once you have improved credit, then and only then can you start thinking about business funding. So, here are…
Ten More Crucial Money Management Tips for Getting Business Funding
Money Management Topic II: CREDIT
11. Applying for numerous credit cards over an extended period of time is a big no no to your credit score. You can get multiple credit cards…there’s just a method to it so that your credit doesn’t suffer in the process. This is the ONLY website we trust where Darrell and I send our clients to get business credit cards.
12. The loan business IS coming back. Loan makers ARE opening up. All politics aside, the stimulus bill is actually working, so this IS a good time to get a loan.
13. “Well prepared” consumers are going to get more money in their loan attempts, not just the well qualified business owners.
14. Unsecured lines of credit have come back in the past two months, but they’re not giving as much money as they did before. And, they’re now checking business credit scores where this was not nearly as common practice as before.
15. Business credit, in the near future, will be as important as your personal credit. So, be careful what you use those company credit cards for and how fast you pay them off.
16. People are being denied business loans because they don’t even have a “business credit score” because they’re running their business using personal credit credit cards.
Just a side note here: You can get a $150K loan without producing a business plan, without using your social security number, all under your EIN number. This process was invented by Donald Trump and is why his credit has stayed stellar through all the bankruptcies…because of his business credit. This is the same method I used to get $105K available for my business in about 3 weeks.
17. Choose your business wisely and think ahead to the days when you will be seeking credit and loans. Many lenders have a diverse reaction to different types of businesses.
18. Business money is available to all types of business in many different fashions beyond the traditional “bank loan” you’ve always heard about. You just have to be introduced to the right person that can help you identify which funding type is right for you.
19. The worst way to attempt to get a loan is to go into a bank by yourself without a professional at your side to represent your interests and talk the talk of the lender.
So, Darrell’s thing, obviously, is to help you get the money you need for your business so that you can have the proper resources to grow your business.
What happens when you have the money from your business growth?
I have to admit that I’ve never been much of a fan of IRA’s or the 401(k) plan. After watching so many horror stories over the past two years of people having to cash-in, or their planned retirement values have reduced by 75% or even more on some CNN reports, I’m even more skeptical.
But, let’s get beyond the discussion of what you would expect to hear from a financial planner…because, remember? I’m NOT a certified financial planner! So, I’m not going to give you any financial strategy advice here. I’n not going to tell you what stocks to pick or what company to invest in.
But, I am going to introduce you to Jim Lorigo.
Jim Lorigo is the only person I’ve ever met that is certified in every state of the U.S. to sell annuities.
That means a couple of things. He didn’t start in this business just yesterday. And, he has one serious devotion to the industry if he went through the brain damage to get certified in every state!
Anyway, Jim has two main missions in life. One is to help me keep more of my money instead of paying it all in taxes. The second is to help me pass on what I don’t spend to my family…and that should be tax free too.
So, for the next few moments, clear your mind of everything you might have heard about long-term money.
Money Management Tips I’ve Learned from Jim
Money Management Topic III: INVESTING
20. There’s a myth behind annuities where most people think they are risky and can lose money. Since annuities are a contract between you and some insurance company out there, well, I guess there could be risk if you go with an insurance company that has a low or bad rating. But if you know the right people (like Jim) who know the right annuities that are with the right insurance companies, it’s the RISK that goes out the window and not your cash.
21. There are several different types of annuities to consider and it makes a big difference whether you pick the right one or not.
22. I knew annuities are tax deferred but what I didn’t realize until recently is that there are ways to pass that money onto your family…tax free!
23. IRA’s are taxable but, like annuities, there are strategies that allow tax free money to be passed on to your family.
24. I’ve always known about the ROTH IRA but what I didn’t realize until I dug deeper was that ALL gains are tax free with the ROTH.
25. CD’s are still a viable option afterall, but only in situations where you are satisfied with low returns.
26. It’s actually pretty easy to find the highest CD rate. All you have to do is go to BankRate.com
27. You must learn how to protect your assets because we live in a country that is SUE Happy!
28. The average person needs $70,000 each YEAR to handle their long term care costs. Again, that’s AVERAGE. Do you have a spare $100,000 or 2 lying around in case something happens? I think we all need to be thinking bigger as to how much money we really need to make today and over the next few years.
29. Whatever age we are now, we should all be planning for a “lifetime income.” Annuities are the only product that can guarantee a lifetime income.
30. Building a completely “tax free” wealth is not only possible, but lots of people are doing it right now by learning how the wealthy pass on money to their families…tax free.
31. The most important tip of wealthy families I’ve learned is that they all have professionals to guide them in financial planning.
32. I shouldn’t just be thinking of leaving money for my kids but leaving money specifically for my grand children’s education by setting aside assets that I do NOT need for income.
33. Probate is best described as a legal process that takes place after someone dies.This court supervised legal process includes determining the validity of your will, gathering of your assets, paying your debts and taxes. From what I hear, probate is a long and time sucking process. Apparently there are steps you can take to reduce or even totally eliminate probate…depending on your specific situation of course. Now, I don’t need to know what those steps are today, but I know the person to go to when I do need them. Do you have that someone in your hip pocket?
34. A living trust is a legal entity that is able to own property and other assets. The trust is a legal agreement defining how assets are going to be managed and distributed. Spend the time now to get living trusts for your parents and you and your significant others because things get a lot more difficult after a person dies.
35. I’m a ways away from being 62, but I thought once someone turns that age, they immediately sign-up to get Social Security checks. I’ve learned there are a whole slew of conditions for when to start getting your Social Security. Again, know the right person to go to when it’s time to ask the questions.
Jim Lorigo is the guy to ask.
I suggest you go to LeaveMoreLegacy.com where you can sign-up to get a free mini-book that gives a better overview of his methods. And, in the event that you pick up the phone to call him for a consult, know in advance that by law I cannot receive any commission from any services sales he makes.
And, that brings me to my third introduction. The man’s name is Ned Snead. He’s 82 and lives in Texas. He told me last week that he was once considered one of the best computer programmers in the region…and that was before we all had computers on our desks!
Ned is a fascinating person. He’s currently a partner of a $40MM/year business. He sits on the board of a major railroad. He’s an inventor, a father, a grandfather, a writer, occasional speaker, and even started a Foundation. He’s just one of those guys we can all aspire to be like and live like.
You just really need to know Ned.
I asked Ned to give me…
…A Few Choice Money Management Tips from his e-book called
Prosperity-21, currently selling through Amazon’s Kindle Store on Amazon for Kindle.
Money Management Topic IV: MONEY FOR LIFE
Here were his responses:
36. If you start with a hundred of Uncle Sam’s dollars, you could lose $99.75 in four
hours at a slot machine; lose $89.50 in a month on the lottery; lose $50.00 in 12 years just to inflation.
Meaning: By not planning and allowing inflation to take its toll, you are gambling just the same as you would be in Vegas.
37. Spend less each month than you collect. Then, invest your savings where you can get it back any time you ask, where it pays more interest than inflation, where it is not affected by government’s silly policies.
Meaning: Don’t let your investment strategy be at the mercy of things you can’t control.
38. Many of the things we own actually end up owning us.
Meaning: If you overspend, you are always at the mercy of the man who is collecting on the bills.
39. You can buy a car just by signing your name, but to fill it with gas you need a working credit card, or as a last resort, some of Uncle Sam’s printed money.
Meaning: A fancy sports car is of little value to you if you don’t have the cash flow to keep it
running. Well, I guess car collectors might take issue with that statement. But, you get the idea.
40. Learn to do two things that pay well and cannot be done better or cheaper overseas.
Meaning: You will always be in high demand if you have unique skills. Continue to educate yourself.
41. A new baby can cost $200,000 in twenty years.
Meaning: Maybe we should sell our kids! Naa, just kidding. Maybe just think it through before deciding on that “new addition.”
For more great insights from someone who has truly seen it all, and lives the lifestyle we hope to have when we’re in our 80′s and beyond, checkout Ned’s book on Amazon’s Kindle Store called Prosperity-21.
Note, I do not get a commission from Amazon by recommending this book…since they stopped paying their Colorado Associates in mid-2010 (Still carrying a grudge over that one).
Money Management Tips Summary….
I’ve just introduced you to three of the most influential money masters in my circle of business. To re-cap,
If your credit needs some work, go to Credit Builders.
If you need business credit cards, go to Biz Credit Card Store.
If you want to pass on the money you have to family after you’re gone, go here:
LeaveMoreLegacy.com
And, for just $5, go checkout Prosperity-21.
What one liner money tips and facts can you add to this discussion?
Free Online Blacklist Checker
Posted by Marty Dickinson on Mar 4, 2011
With spam, spoofing, and “sporting” (where your opt-in list ‘subscribers’ re’port’ you as a spammer by clicking a spam link either intentionally or non-intentionally), getting your IP address and/or your domain name blacklisted is easier than ever to achieve these days.
And, no, getting on email blacklists is definitely not something you want to have happen! But, if one day you find that your email system is in tact just fine and suddenly no one is receiving your emails, you have to start asking questions as to why you’re having problems sending email. One of the first questions you can eliminate before contacting your email hosting company is to check your IP address and/or domain name with various blacklists.
Today, I discovered today a free online blacklist checker tool as shown in the picture. I’ve blackened out private data, but you can see where the verification happens once I type in a domain name or IP address.
Until now, checking checking for blacklist status has always been kind of a pain. I suppose these kinds of tools have been out there for a while, but no one seems to be really promoting them in my circle.
Today, I discovered today a free online blacklist checker tool as shown in the picture. I’ve blackened out private data, but you can see where the verification happens once I type in a domain name or IP address.
Let me know how it works for ya.
Anyone willing to share their blacklist story here and tell us what you did about the problem?
Hot New Website for Coupons at Ask.com
Posted by Marty Dickinson on Oct 7, 2009
Coupons for any business and any product are getting hotter and hotter. Not only should every business owner be looking for a coupon before buying anything, we should also be offering coupons for practically anything we sell. This importance of coupons is evident in Ask.com’s launch today of Ask Deals, which apparently scours the web for you to find all available coupons and posts them for you.
New Web Site Announcement DenverActs.org
Posted by Marty Dickinson on Aug 22, 2009
Denver Colorado Food Bank DenverActs.org has just launched a new Web site featuring its programs including food bank, hot meals, drug and alcohol rehab, free clothing room, and non-denominational church services in both English and Spanish. They also offer back to work training programs. If you have a website or blog, please add a link to http://DenverActs.org and a mention to your Twitter followers and Facebook friends would be a huge help.
Small Biz College Launches Today and Worth a Look
Posted by Marty Dickinson on Feb 2, 2009
So Darrell is finally launching what could be the largest business resource the web has ever seen, short of a search engine I suppose, but without all the garbage. I’ve been hearing about this project for months and was wondering if it would ever happen. Well, it not only happened, but it’s going to be publicized starting tomorrow morning in a very real way. Inside of a week, an estimated 500,000 will know of this new resource called the Small Biz College. I just hope their server doesn’t crash! Check it out at YourSmallBizCollege.com as it’s definitely worth a look.
Jonas Brothers on Every AIM
Posted by Marty Dickinson on Nov 25, 2008
Why is it that AIM showcases the Jonas Brothers band every other day? I use AOL’s Instant Messenger program (AIM) to communicate online with up to 9 helpers, often many of them at the same time. AIM takes up one of my five computer screens every day, all day, and often a few hours at night too. With that kind of drive-time, you can imagine I see just about every marketing attempt AIM makes. But, one thing has me puzzled. Why does AIM feature a photo of the Jonas Brothers 3-4 days per week?
When one fires up AIM a home page comes up on screen. This is where they have a bunch of photos of celebrities and what dirt of the day is being dished. Obviously, the target here is adults. And, that’s why I am so confused with the Jonas Brothers photos all the time. What do 25′s and 30 somethings care about the Jonas Brothers? Isn’t that a band that targets junior high school girls?
What is your feeling?
Email Advertising Without Spamming Is it Even Possible?
Posted by Marty Dickinson on Nov 19, 2008
Okay, so I’ve been in this Internet marketing world for like 13 years now right? For years I have been among the many anti-spam people. If anyone even started talking to me about sending promotional emails to people who didn’t first choose (opt-in) to be on my list to receive something from me, I would run the other direction as fast as I could as if being chased by a wild rabid grizzly bear!
But, my friend, times do change. And, sometimes they change quickly, abruptly, and profitably too! I’m still a big anti-spammer. Don’t get me wrong. I have no intention of buying lists from a mail house and sending emails without welcome. But, if someone has bought a product online and somewhere and they have opted to receive similar promotions, or email from similar parties, then why would I NOT take advantage of that?
One of the projects I’ve been working on for the past few months is a business credit card affiliate program promotion which you are welcome to check out at www.SBCAlliance.com. Kicking an screaming to the partners “against” sending out thousands or even potentially MILLIONS of emails to people I don’t even know, they finally did it anyway. 5 MILLION plus e-mails sent over a period of 3 weeks or so.
Know how many death threats we got? Zero.
Curious how many weeks the FTC shut down our website for? Zero.
Want to know how many sales we got after emails went out to 4,900,000 people? Ha, well, let’s just say enough to cover the $120 mailing fee!
So, I’m a believer now and I’m ramping up 3 email campaigns for next week alone. Want to know how it works?
1. Here’s the company that provides email advertising without spamming.
2. What you’ll see when you get there is this screen shot where you’ll see steps 1 and 2. First you just fill in your email address. But, this is NOT the email address that is used in the email campaign. So, don’t worry about having your email address going out to 5 million people! I did!
But, the more important thing to check out is how many of each category this company has in their opt-in email lists. You could just pick one category or have a mixture of others.
3. Scroll a little more and you’ll see steps 3 and 4. Step three is a really cool feature to rotate the subject lines of your ad. It’s like automated split testing to see how many people will open your emails depending on what subject lines you choose. Genius!
And, then I just wanted to show how easy it is to create an ad using this system. Using familiar MS Word functionality, you can easily create a simple text post. Or, what we did with SBC is add a small text message alone with a graphic ad. That way the system would determine which one to display based on the type of email system the recipient is using. Another ingenius idea!
4. Finally, you’re in step 5 and 6 where you’re able to choose a country. So far I haven’t done any out-of-country promotions using this system or any other. Have you? What have your results been?
And, then if “LOCAL” promotion is what you’re after, promote to just your state or surrounding states. I love this tool!
So, you’re pretty much done at this point other than paying and waiting. It took us about 3 to 4 days to get our email in the queue and we were still visibly seeing visitation in our stats report 3 weeks after our initial email send.
Now, I gave you the link to this email advertising without spamming company right? Of course, that’s an affiliate link and I’m going to get a couple of bucks if you sign-up and give their promotion system a whirl. But, if you DO use that link, please let me know and I will send to you the steps we used to assure our email campaign was a success.
And, we’re just going to learn more every time. We’ll probably start using this system twice a month for various projects. I’ll keep you posted here hour our email campaigns go and what secret strategies we unveil. But, the good stuff will be reserved for those actually USING this system. And, you must do so through our affiliate link.
Rest assured this is a real company we’re talking about. I’ve talked to their support staff myself and some really good people are behind this email system. Check it out in confidence.
