Michael Flowers' Official Blog

New Blogsite Launched

2010-04-17T06:49:00.000-07:00

Following the successful workshop on Achieving Success, I have the pleasure to inform you that a new blogsite, that is dedicated to ACHIEVING SUCCESS, has been launched. Please browse the new blogsite via:

http://www.michaelflowers.biz/

I wish you success in all your constructive endeavours.

Flowers

ACHIEVING SUCCESS PT-12

2010-03-27T03:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome back. Today is the final day for the ACHIEVING SUCCESS WORKSHOP. I thank you for your time and interest. I am optimistic you will succeed in all your business endeavours. Today's message is simple and straight-forward. You have all the tools to get your great business ideas off the ground.

QUIT TALKING, BEGIN DOING

For your quick reference:
Achieving Success Part I
Achieving Success Part II
Achieving Success Part III
Achieving Success Part IV
Achieving Success Part V
Achieving Success Part VI
Achieving Success VII
Achieving Success VIII
Achieving Success IX
Achieving Success X
Achieving Success XI
Achieving Success XII

I wish you a Financial Success!

ACHIEVING SUCCESS PT-11

2010-03-20T05:23:00.000-07:00

Dear Workshop Participant,

You are on the floor today... and I am all ears and eyes eagerly waiting to learn what you've been up to. Today is the 11th meeting, and we've got one more to go as the workshop ends on 27 March 2010.

Why is it your turn today?

Simply because we have covered a lot of interesting Getting Started topics and I am quite certain that you've already started something. Please register today in order to post comments or invite us to your website or blog so we can follow up.

Click here to REGISTER.

Tell us what you've done so far.

Phrase for the day: Quit Talking, Begin Doing!

ACHIEVING SUCCESS PT-10

2010-03-13T06:36:00.000-08:00

BECOME OR BUILD A BRAND NAME

Today's presentation will be a KISS — Keeping It Simple and Short. We've talked about how to develop niche products and services, including authoring information materials. Today's message is about staying unique in order to stand out. You are unique because you've got something others haven't got. If you haven't done so already, then start a blog site that covers your area of expertise. When? Today. Build a name for yourself. Brand your name. Allow people to connect your name to the topic and information you will share through your blogsite. Do you need a domain name to launch your blog? Nope! Simply go to http://www.blogger.com/ and create an account. Start something like this blog-based workshop you are now viewing OR something like what you see on http://www.theauthorpreneurs.com/.

Alternatively, join online forums that discuss your knowledge area and share information too. You can build a name and earn respect through that. Let people read what you know. Exhibit your authority. When people begin to trust in what you write, they are likely to have confidence in the information you would bundle into a product or service.

Thanks for your time... I can't wait to visit your blog site.

ACHIEVING SUCCESS PT-9

2010-03-06T05:26:00.000-08:00

BUNDLE YOUR KNOWLEDGE INTO A BOOK

Have you made that move yet? Have you started driving your life forward? Another thing you can do today is perhaps consider translating your skills, expertise, knowledge and the like into a book. Yes! Write that stuff your friends told you would make a bestseller. Are you an excellent parent? Write about parenting. Are you a great wife? Write a book on "How To Get Your Husband To Cook Dinner". Are you being abused in your marriage? Your life is a book... Tell your story in a book.

Do you know that the blueprint to becoming a bestseller is to put your life into a book.

To access FREE articles on:

* How to write your story or novel in 50 days.

* Why you should create information materials.

* How to write a killer book proposal.

* Exploring marketing campaign secrets that work.

* Etc.

Click to visit THE AUTHORPRENEURS today.

Please don't postpone this move.
Go to http://www.theauthorpreneurs.com/

ACHIEVING SUCCESS PT-8

2010-02-27T03:27:00.000-08:00

AFFILIATE MONEYMAKING BUSINESS

If you're not yet ready to develop your own business product or service, then launch your business as an Affiliate. It is simple, cost-effective and requires no start-up budget. In most cases you don't even need to have a website to get started. The affiliate program you join might assign you with a unique website template and URL. All you do is promote a product or service that has already been created.

UNLOCKING THE AFFILIATE MONEYMAKING MACHINE CODE

Affiliate marketing as a “get paid for performance” business:

Affiliate marketing is a method of promoting Internet businesses in which an affiliate (you, for instance) is rewarded for every visitor, subscriber, customer, and or sale provided through your efforts. You earn commission based on a certain value for each:

• Exposure — Cost Per Thousand or CPM

• Visit — Pay Per Click or PPC

• Registrant or new customer — Pay Per Lead or PPL

• Sale — Pay Per Sale or Revenue Share

• Or any combination of the above

Presently the most active sectors for affiliate marketing are the adult, gambling and retail sectors. Other sectors such as the mobile phone, finance and travel sectors are expected to see growth. The software, entertainment (particularly gaming and music) and Internet-related services (such as broadband) sectors are also growing in the Internet marketplace.

You simply partner with a company to promote and sell their products or services online, and you earn money for your efforts. You are the one between the Affiliate Merchant and the Customer. You are the Middleman or Salesperson. The interesting part is that you don’t have to travel to the company to collect samples of the products they sell, and go from door to door to sell. The marketing strategy depends on you, and the company will help you with marketing strategies. In most cases you don’t need to have a website to become an E-Rep for a company. The company will provide you with a unique template loaded with web content. This is quick, and you don’t have to deposit any money to sell products via your affiliate link.

RULE #1: Never pay money to any company simply to sell their products.

RULE #2: Always remember Rule #1.

Some companies will charge you to join their affiliate programs. That is sheer nonsense. Never pay a dime for any affiliate program. The only money you should have to deposit is the cheque you’ll receive from your affiliate earnings… which you should deposit into your personal bank account. As an affiliate you do not resell products. All you do is to educate and direct the consumer to a product, and you get paid. The more sales you direct, the more money you and the merchant will reap.

Getting started?

You need one basic thing to get you started… and that is an access to a computer with a connection to the Internet. If you own one, that’s excellent. If you don’t have a PC that is connected to the Internet, visit an Internet lounge. Getting started depends on your particular circumstance. If you own a PC and are connected to the Internet, then you can work from the comfort of your living room or garage. Design a simple website to promote the affiliate programs you subscribe to. This would cost you less compared to using an Internet lounge where it is a pay-as-you-go business.

Deciding on what to sell — choosing an affiliate program

There are quite a large number of affiliate programs out there, each inviting you to apply and promising there is so much cash to earn through your efforts. The Internet marketplace is very huge, and so is the competition. You need to decide what to sell. The products and services you want to promote and sell online should suit your interest. Don’t follow the crowd, and decide to sell just anything. If you are an architect, you wouldn’t want to promote a porn site just because it is promising so much cash to affiliates. Would you? Practically you want to sell what you’re interested in, so that you can promote it with passion.

Don’t fall for the vague impression that all that is required to start reaping money from an affiliate program is simply plugging a link or a banner onto your website, and then you would start downloading money onto your desktop. That is not the case. You need to develop strategies to promote your affiliate website. More importantly, either your personal business website that links to your affiliate website or the actual affiliate store must be of an acceptable standard. Visitors to your website would judge you according to the theme of your website templates. Always assume that you have only one chance to impress. You have to be selective, and fussy about quality standards. The Internet is a vast business world, and very public. Do something silly, and your website will be in a topic-related online forum. You’ll become a topic… And you will be discussed. You’ll be named and embarrassed.

In terms of keywords, make a list of products and services you are interested in or that relate to your profession or website that you want to sell. Then use one or two of the popular search engines to look for Affiliate Merchants. In deciding what to sell and whose stuff to sell, put your interest first. When it comes to Affiliate Business, you come first. Trust me. Read the terms and conditions set by the Affiliate Merchant thoroughly before accepting their policies. Do not rush into anything. Affiliate merchants run affiliate programs simply to acquire customers. Some merchants design their programs such that the affiliate website may be cut out of the loop on subsequent purchases. This then becomes a monkey works, baboon draws business. If you’re looking for long-term relationship with the merchant, ensure you carefully read their terms.

Areas worth investigating for your selection criteria:

1. When, how much and how do you get paid? — Does the affiliate program pay you fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, etc.? How much do you make per sale, considering the fact that you’ll be investing in marketing campaigns? What is the minimum payout amount? What are the modes of payment? Set up your own selection criteria, and match them against affiliate program offers. Put your interest above everything.

2. Is the affiliate company a reputable one? — A reputable affiliate company will have a well-managed affiliate program. They normally have dedicated staff that manages the affiliate programs, usually referred to as Accounts Manager or Affiliate Manager. Beware of affiliate sites that have no contact information.

Creating a win-win situation:
When you decide to become an affiliate marketer, you will be placing affiliate promotional banners and text links on your website and or ask the affiliate company to also place your logo on their website. The latter increases traffic for both… and hopefully increases sales. Ensure you have a rich web content to get a top web-based company to put their logo on your website.

Regardless of the fact that you want to increase traffic to your site, you need to be selective of which company you partner with. Affiliate companies are equally selective of who they choose to get on their affiliate programs. To be precise, you need to avoid creating unfair competition. Do not promote the same type of products or services or particular labels you sell on your website. You may offer similar brands through an affiliate program, but not the exact items you sell. You don’t want to perish your own market, do you?

Marketing campaign — promos:
Once your application as an affiliate is approved by the company you select, it’s up to you to get the word out via a number of different marketing techniques. Whether you use your own business website or your unique affiliate website, you’ll need to explore an extensive marketing campaign to get buyers to find you. I’ll put my thumb up on having your own simple domain name for your small but content-rich website rather than using the usually long URL the affiliate company assigns to your so-called unique website. You can place banners and text links to your own unique affiliate website on your content-rich website. Update your website regularly.

In later sections you will learn more about decoding the marketing campaign secrets; how to increase traffic and attract visitors to your website; and convert each click on your website into potential sales. You will also learn how to write a salesletter, and explore result-oriented marketing tools, such as email marketing, offline marketing schemes, autoresponder, etc.

Increasing and protecting your payments:
An excellent way to protect your payments from affiliate merchants is to sign-up for affiliate programs that are well-established advertising networks. It is also good to select the affiliate programs of other well-established sectors, if you want to get paid for your work. Above all, it is safe to work with major companies especially those in the ad network business. Google Adsense affiliate program, for example, is excellent for you to generate money that accumulates rapidly to allow you reach the payout threshold in a shorter time.

REMEMBER

"Never pay a dime upfront to become an affiliate. It should be absolutely free."

To increase your income, you can choose to partner with 100 companies. Target ad networks for advertisers who pay Affiliate Merchants hefty money, granting you the opportunity to get a percentage of their earning. Yahoo! and Google Adsense are typical examples. There are thousands of other affiliate programs on the Internet. Do extensive search to find the right ones that meet your particular interest and field.

*****

Thank you for your time. See you on Saturday March 6, 2010.

*****

REVISIT ACHIEVING SUCCESS

2010-02-20T07:59:00.000-08:00

Dear Workshop Attendees:

Today's posting is about revisiting Achieving Success Parts 1 — 7 and any TO DO notes you took along the way. If you've prepared any BUSINESS TO DO list and are yet to take action, please use today to drive your TO DO list forward.
On February 22 from 8 - 9pm E/7C/5P, a FREE TELECLASS featuring Kathleen Gage, Christine Kloser and Lynne Klippel leads you to "How To Quickly, Easily And Affordably Grow Your Business By Becoming A Published Author This Year!" Learn more via http://tinyurl.com/becomeapublishedauthor. If you wish to become an Authorpreneur, which requires zero capital investment, then register for FREE at http://www.theauthorpreneurs.com/ to access related how-to articles for FREE.

See you next week.

Thank you for your time.

ACHIEVING SUCCESS PT-7

2010-02-13T11:39:00.000-08:00

PRODUCT AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT 2 - FINAL

Assuming your client or your business website ranks poorly and you want to increase traffic to your (or client's) website. First, you’ll want to make a list of the factors that cause poor web traffic and poor web monetizing. The main factors that cause poor web traffic and monetizing include the following:

• Inappropriate use of keywords

• Placing keywords in flash images

• High density of text, poor readability of text

• Poor web layout

• No contact information

• Inadequate product or service description

• Static information

• Dead links

• No feedback forms

• No refund-guarantee-policy

• Limited payment options on storefront

• This web page is still “under construction”

• No customer support

• Sorry “we are experiencing system error”

• “Check back for more information” messages

• “Enter credit card information again… and again”

• Etc.

The ISHIKAWA FISHBONE diagram for the above problem would look like:

Based on the above fishbone for the Web Traffic Improvement problem, you’ll want to consider the following during your brainstorming sessions:

1. Understanding how search engines work?

2. Exploring keyword research tools.

3. Understanding search engine optimization (SEO).

4. Writing down appropriate keywords for your web site.

5. Placing the relevant keywords in page titles, meta tags, and web content.

6. Calculating keyword density for each web page.

7. Ensuring your storefront or eCommerce feature is user-friendly and fully functional at all times.

8. Optimizing the structure of your web site, and updating information periodically.

9. Submitting your site to search engines.

10.Monitoring your web site using appropriate tools.

CREATING AN ORIGINAL PRODUCT OR SERVICE

Refer to your Concept Folder, evaluate your ideas and expand on the excerpts you’ve written for each product or service idea. You’re not going to develop a product or service overnight. Rome was not built in one day. Poco-a-poco... and you’ll get there someday. Continue to brainstorm, putting required product or service components under each product heading in the folder. You can play around the fishbone diagram to help you list the features and benefits of your products or services. Be creative.

As you progress, continue to assess the commercial viability of the product or service you want to develop. Marketing ideas will spring to mind; put them in a separate notebook or folder labeled as Marketing Ideas.

Adopt the Fishbone diagram technique for the product or service you want to create or redesign.

Thanks very much for your time. I wish you success. See you soon.

ACHIEVING SUCCESS PT-6

2010-02-05T14:53:00.000-08:00

PRODUCT AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT

This section is to help you learn how to capitalize on your constructive ideas… and to translate them into products and services without paying a fortune to a consultant. All you need is to open your mind to new window of opportunities.

If you possess the ability to come up with great ideas, and you’ve not been able to create as many products or services as you want, you are about to learn how to do so in simple and straight-forward steps. Do not keep a database of ideas in your head. Put them on paper and start to develop them. This is what makes you innovative and unique.

Have the following ready and next to you for your reference:

1. List of your interests and strengths.

2. List of the firsthand keywords or keyword phrases that describe your interests and strengths.

3. List of your targeted core customer base.

Take a few minutes to ponder over what kind of products or services you want to create. Have a notebook beside you, and write down anything new that comes to mind. Most of today’s hot products and services in the marketplace came from ideas that sounded absurd on Day One. In essence, write down those crazy ideas that might have a serious marketing potential. Give your notebook a title: Concept Notebook. Alternatively, you can use a physical folder for this purpose. If you are comfortable with a folder, write across the front cover: Concept Folder.

Next: In either the Concept Notebook or Concept Folder, write down all your good ideas, bad ideas, and the crazy ones too. The following rules hold:

Rule Number 1: No idea is a bad idea.

Rule Number 2: Always remember Rule Number 1

Next: Write an excerpt for each idea. Each excerpt should list the product or service benefits to the end user (the customer or client). Remember to always seek benefits to the customer or client rather than brag about features of your product. This translates into the “Customer Comes First” thing. The client or customer is prepared to spend money to get your product or use your service. He or she asks: “What do I get in return?”

Exploring problems to create a new product — quality indicators

Set aside a second folder or notebook. Label it Quality Indicators for Performance Excellence. In this folder you are going to make a list of the products or services you and or your family use a whole lot, but actually spend more time whining about their poor performances.

How many times have you been using a particular piece of equipment in your local gym, and said “Who on earth designed this stuff? It could have been done this way or that way”? The stuffs we identify and complain about everyday are actually good stuffs. This shape is not too cool, that part should have been designed this way and that way, that knob is under stress and should have been placed the other way round, and this and that blab blah blah… We call them quality indicators. We need to hear about product or service complaints in order to improve product design concepts or services.

Make a list of the products you and others complain about due to poor quality. Assess your capabilities, and ask yourself whether you have the required knowledge to improve the quality of those products. If you answered a BIG YES, then the next thing you’ll want to do is:

1. Make a list of the things you and others complain about those products you’ve listed.

2. On another page in your product development book, give each product a unique name.

3. Next, label the complaints for each product as quality indicators, and place them under the respective products with unique names. At this stage, you now have your own product names with quality indicators to help you create new products that will solve the problems the original ones have failed to solve.

4. Brainstorm for solutions you can factor into the new product to eradicate those product complaints. Remember to take into consideration your strengths and interests and the needs of your targeted core customer base.

Thank you for your time. See you next Saturday 13 February 2010 for:

ACHIEVING SUCCESS PART 7: PRODUCT AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT 2

ACHIEVING SUCCESS PT-5

2010-01-29T17:40:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to the free workshop on ACHIEVING SUCCESS:

Topic: Moneymaking Capabilities Part 2

Assessing your interests and strengths

You are most likely to succeed in what you do with passion than just joining the crowd to do anything because you think it would bring you millions overnight.

Brainstorm.

Take the time to assess your interests and strengths, and then make a list. Your interests and strengths include your background, expertise or authority in a particular field or discipline. If you are an authority in a particular subject, then start with what you already know. Your prior knowledge will offer you a lot of advantages. For example, if you have an extensive knowledge in Quality Engineering, then you already have what it takes to write a book on Quality Management for Performance Engineering. Because of your prior knowledge in the field, you already know what components to employ to give life to the book as well as which audience to target.

If your passion is music and you know much about voice management and stage performance, then you can quickly write an eBook on the subject for next year’s American Pop Idol, Britain’s Got Talent, Deutschland Sucht den Superstar, Das Supertalent, contestants. Your target audiences include the vast majority of those who want to be discovered next year. This makes life easier for you—product identified, market identified.

TO DO
Please do the following:
1. Assess your interests and strengths.

2. Make a list of your interests and strengths.

3. Add flesh to the list in 2.

4. Make a list of your firsthand keywords that describe your interests and strengths.

SEARCH
By now you should have a list of selected keywords or keyword phrases. If your target niche market is mainly for computer users, then go to search engine websites such as www.Google.com and www.Yahoo.com and type in your keywords or keyword phrases one after the other. Take note of the results each search engine generates. This will help you determine whether a market exists online, and what the market is searching for. However, if your market targets offline customers, then you don’t have to necessarily bother yourself with online market trend search.

At the end of your search, you should be able to conclude whether your niche idea is:

• Commercially viable.

• Worth a further market research.

• Worth pursuing.

ACTION
1. Return to the list you generated for your interests and strengths, and write down everything you know about your interests and strengths.

2. Add flesh to your interests and strengths. Stop tearing your friends and family’s ears with your interests and strengths. Write. You’re taking action now, and so write.

3. Next, narrow each item down to a word or short phrase under the heading KEYWORDS. The words or short phrases you derive at this stage to describe your interests and strengths will serve as your firsthand keywords.

4. Make a list of your core customer base.

BRAINSTORM

You have a lot of brainstorming to do with reference to your TO DO lists above. ACHIEVING SUCCESS Part 6 will cover Product and Service Development Techniques, and your fleshed out TO DO list would be a major requirement.

Please have the following ready and next to you on Saturday 6 February 2010:

1. List of your interests and strengths.

2. List of the firsthand keywords or keyword phrases that describe your interests and strengths.

3. List of your targeted core customer base.

Thanks for your time... and for giving me the opportunity to share information with you.

ACHIEVING SUCCESS PT-4

2010-01-22T19:31:00.000-08:00

MONEYMAKING CAPABILITIES

In Achieving Success Part 3, we defined niche market and learned about the three modes of developing what we want to sell. As we're taking a start-small-today grow-big-tomorrow approach to achieving success, we shall frequently occupy our minds with the term "niche business". A niche business venture can be profitable simply because it targets a smaller competition. It is, therefore, very essential to capitalize on a niche market that has customers who are accessible, that is growing fast enough, and that is not already owned by one established BIG vendor. Within the confines of a niche market, you can proceed with your financial journey by finding and serving small but potentially profitable market segments... and designing custom-made products or services that meet their needs. You are targeting a small market segment that has money to spend. You don't want to start off by competing against the likes of King Kong or Godzilla or Amazon.com. Start small. Quite a number of today's giant companies started from university dormitories, garages and basements.

Find the best niches in which to market your product or service

In your quest to determine what product or service to develop and sell, do not commit the common error of developing a product or service without considering the need to first identify a problem. Developing the product or service first and then trying to find a market for it can pose a serious threat to its commercial viability. This would require an additional budget to launch an extensive market campaign in order to create awareness for the product or service.

The best approach to product or service development is to first look for a problem and solve it with your product or service. Alternatively, find a market first that spends money, then find out what they need... and give it to them. This is a straight-forward Demand and Supply approach. This will give you an edge over your competition in the niche marketplace.

Brainstorm for ideas. And put all ideas down in writing, regardless of how silly they might sound from the moment of conception. Next, research the moneymaking capabilities of a niche on the Internet and or in your small town. This will cost you nothing. You're simply researching what people are talking about or seeking. Listen to the news, watch television, read the dailies, etc., and take note of the most searched or talked about topics. Are parents discussing HOW TO TAME YOUR ANGEL GONE WILD on TV Talkshows? If you have an experiential insights on taming a son ordaughter gone wild, write a how-to guide fordesperate parents (target audience). Are wives discussing HOW TO GET THEIR HUSBANDS TO COOK FOR THE HOUSE? Bundle your experience on how you got your husband to start cooking for the house into a self-help book for the household.

RECALL
Information Products is among the top two hottest products in the largest marketplace. It will cost you nothing to write how-to, self-help, what-to-do, self-enrichment, self-development, etc., books... and it would cost you nothing to publish them.

USEFUL SOURCES
Apart from your local newspapers, TV programs and other areas to research hot topics you can bundle into products or services, search the Internet marketplaces such as Amazon.com and eBay. For instance, you can visit http://pulse.ebay.com to learn about the popular and most wanted items on eBay.

eBay Pulse contains a significant number of dynamically generated lists showing popular searches, stores, products, and more. Browse http://pulse.ebay.com to see what people are looking for across eBay this very moment. Check the largest stores at eBay Pulse to see what they’re selling. Ponder over what they must be doing right to stay large on the market. As you generate ideas along the way, make sure you put them down in writing. Please do not keep ideas in your head. At the “Category” panel, select a product of interest from the drop down menu and click on update to display popular searches of the selected product at eBay.

Search the departments at http://www.amazon.com to view products on the market. Books, for example, account for a large portion of the Internet revenue. Therefore as you carry on with your niche market search for ideas, look out for titles that people are searching for that they can’t find through the mainstream booksellers. You could become the number one resource for the “hard-to-find books” on a particular subject.

Choosing a title for your Information Product
If, for example, you plan to write a technical book on “material surface improvement” and are not sure of the title, you’ll want to start your search through the following steps:

STEP 1
Go to http://www.amazon.com.

STEP 2
Select “Books” as the niche product, and then type “surface coating” in the search field. Hit the ENTER button or click on GO. Write down the total number of the search results. Let’s assume you found 7938 books having “surface coating” in the title.

STEP 3
As in Step 2, but type “surface engineering” in the search field. Take note of the total number of search results. Let’s assume you found 3385 titles.

STEP 4
As above, but type “thin film coating” in the search field. Write down the total number of related titles. Let’s assume you found 1276 titles.

STEP 5
Search for books on “diamondlike carbon coating” in the search field. Let’s assume you found 20 titles.

STEP 6
Compare the search results in terms of the total for each title. What did you learn from the four sub niche (titles) searches? First, when we searched for a more general subject under surface improvement by typing in “surface coating”, we found 7938 results. This indicates that there is a significant level of competition under the more general subject. Secondly, we tried “surface engineering”, another general topic. This yielded a result of 3385. Thirdly, “thin film coating” narrows our subject search results to 1276. This is not bad, but we need to narrow our subject in order to stand out. Lastly, we typed in “diamondlike carbon coating”, which is essentially another thin film technology for material surface coating, but refers to a specific surface coating technology. This yielded a search result of 20. This indicates that, for now, there isn’t any tough competition out there for the selected title.

STEP 7: CONCLUSION
The result in Step 5 indicates that the sub-niche, a book on “diamondlike carbon coating”, is not mainstream. The result is much better, for there is a market potential here… And essentially there is less competition in the Amazon Marketplace for this sub-niche. This hints that it is practical to present a specific topic for an academic book rather than a broad title. Mainstream publishers are likely not to select a broad title anyway. They would say: "Your material sounds interesting and we believe it has a potential... rah rah rah... but unfortunately we have several titles in this field. Good luck with your publishing ambition... Hmmm where is that bin?"

A book that deals with a specific subject, such as How to Prevent Breast Cancer, is highly likely to target a specific and ready-to-spend-money group than a book that is entitled How to Combat Cancer. If you are a genius and know everything about any form of cancer and how to prevent them, then split your ingenuity into How to Prevent Prostate Cancer, How to Prevent Cervical Cancer, How to Prevent Ovarian Cancer, How to Prevent Cancer of the Blood, etc. Once you are subject-specific conscious, you’ll be able to target the group that is at risk to any of the areas you address.

AUTHORPRENEURSHIP
Authorpreneurship can be defined in simple terms as the art of translating your writing ability into an income or a second stream of income. This follows that an Authorpreneur is an author who gets paid to write. He or she is the writer who seriously treats his or her writing capability with a business approach.

Who is an authorpreneur?
YOU. Once you decide to let your writing potential create an extra stream of income for you... you become an Authorpreneur, your second profession.

Becoming an authorpreneur is quite simple. The attractive part is that you don’t necessarily need to write your entire book before you get paid. First you write a book proposal, and a publisher will give you an advance, which you can bite on while you complete the entire work. How does that sound? Do the smart thing, give yourself a second profession.
By submitting a book proposal you’re determining the commercial viability of your niche product for a niche market well in advance. This is how you avoid costly mistakes. The submit-book-proposal-first approach is a good reminder of the fact that “it pays to find a niche market for your book before writing the entire work”. Selling a book based on its proposal is much easier than selling a book that you’ve already written.

What if I don't find a publisher?
Self-publish your work. Do not allow mainstream publishers to dictate the course of your ambition. If they turn you down, shake their dusts off you... and move on to self-publish your book without any delay. It's free to do so.

That's it for now.
Thanks for being generous with your time... and for giving me the opportunity to share a few tips with you. Please send comments and related questions to help me better my presentation. And please be kind enough to share the lesson with your friends and family.
If you are an expert in this area, please click on comment to contribute your self-enrichment knowledge.

See you again on Saturday 30 January 2010.

ACHIEVING SUCCESS PART 5: MONEYMAKING CAPABILITIES 2

ACHIEVING SUCCESS

2010-01-15T08:42:00.000-08:00

WELCOME TO THE FREE WORKSHOP ON

ACHIEVING SUCCESS

Official Start date: Saturday 16 January 2010 at 2:00 PM

Official End date: Saturday 27 March 2010 at 11:55 PM

Please CLICK on the following to access workshop:

ACHIEVING SUCCESS Part One

ACHIEVING SUCCESS Part Two

ACHIEVING SUCCESS Part Three

Please Note: If you are an expert in the subject-matter… and are filled with great innovative ideas that might help others in need walk through Success Lane, then please I cordially invite you to access the course and click on comment to share your expertise.

Achieving Success PT-3

2010-01-11T10:29:00.000-08:00

Achieving Success Part 3 will touch on Becoming a Business Entrepeneur.

QUE: What are the two most popular hot products in the marketplace?

ANS: Information and Software Products.

Do you know that Information Products and Software Programs remain the hottest and fast selling products in the Internet marketplace? Information products and software programs can be bundled into digital products and easily made available online for fast selling and fast downloading. This eliminates the services of the Post Office.

Do you know that it would cost you ¥0.00 to prepare your first Information Product? Bundle your knowledge or skills or mastering in parenting, for example, into a PDF… and make it available online for ¥0.10 per download. That is a stream of income.

Achieving success means exploring your inner voice, the voice within, your potential, your knowledge, your capacity, your talents, your untapped inner resources, and your innovative abilities to do this or that… to the fullest. These inherent or learned characteristics or acquired skills or capabilities are the resources almost all corporations pay a fortune to “borrow from you”.

What type of product or service do you want to sell?

Have you already explored a niche market?

A niche market is essentially a focused, targetable portion or subset of a market sector. It may be referred to as a narrowly defined group of potential customers. In this regard, a business that focuses on a niche market attempts to address a need for a particular product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream businesses. A niche marketing presents a moneymaking playing field that is leveled for all businesses. Targeting a smaller segment of your market over the entire market can be very effective.

In order to explore a niche market for your type ofproduct or service, you first need to understand the trends of creating your product or service... and then brainstorm over what is it that you really want to develop and sell... Oh yeah, with passion.

AUDIENCE-DRIVEN

The "audience-driven" approach considers the target customer as an audience in the context of a reader or viewer. This approach to product development takes a subject-matter (combating cancer, fighting obesity, health, global warming, renewable energy resources, stock market, job creation, etc.) into consideration. If you are an environmental scientist, create aninformation material on Global Warming; if you are health scientist, produce a book on Combating Obesity in Five Easy Steps, etc.

PRODUCT-DRIVEN

This approach of creating a niche business is simply product-stimulated. It allows you to start selling what people are already buying (sought-after published books, toilet rolls for your neighbourhood, etc).

SERVICE-DRIVEN

Indicators for the service-driven strategic approach are particularly derived from what the people around you are complaining about: lack of adequate transport facilities, electricity, communication systems, jobs, Internet lounges, etc. If those are the people’s everyday cries, then supply services in any of these categories in your neighbourhood. You are then guaranteed a small market segment (niche) that has money to spend.

What is it that you want to sell? Brainstorm.

That's it for now.

Thanks for being generous with your time... and for giving me the opportunity to share a few tips with you. Please send comments and related questions to help me better my presentation. And please be kind enough to share the lesson with your friends and family.

If you are an expert in this area, please click on comment to contribute your self-enrichment knowledge.

See you again on Saturday 23 January 2010.

ACHIEVING SUCCESS PART 4: MONEYMAKING CAPABILITIES

I wish you a financial success!

Ich wünsche Ihnen finanziellen Erfolg!

Kong xi fa cai!

Pénzügyi sikert kívánok az új évben!

Achieving Success PT-2

2010-01-04T11:57:00.000-08:00

Welcome back. Hope you had a great Christmas and New Year celebrations.

In Achieving Success Part 2, I will touch on the following topics:

The Right Syndrome
Re-inventing Yourself
Psychology of Personal Development

The Right Syndrome

Are you argumentative just for the fun of it?
What do you like to argue about — something constructive or destructive?
Do you argue with people in a reversed-psychology manner simply to get them to feel they're nothing... and then you feel you know it all?
Do you always have to be right?
Are you ever wrong?
Have you lost some great friends through your unnecessary argumentative nature?

If this is you, then know that you have a Conditioned Reflex.

For your own good, please do the following:

Let go of your argumentative nature, lest you become authoritative and too difficult to work with.
Learn to listen and learn... and to appreciate the views of others.
If you can't say anything constructive, please shut up. Silence is golden.

Doing away with such bad attitude would help you open up to opportunities.

Reinventing Yourself

To achieve success, you must reinvent yourself... and that means:

Neutralizing the closed mind and related elements inside you.
Transforming your focus into doing.
Stop the negative self-fulfilling prophecies.
Stop treating others as if they have no brains.
Respect others.
Treat people with honesty and sincerity.
Learn to listen to others attentively and with enthusiasm.
Avoid impulse spending to help you save.

Do not keep your dream to succeed dancing in your head. Keep your focus on your action plans and execute them step by step. This will drive you forward.

Psychology of Personal Development
Culled from Dr. Joseph Adonu's How To Excel and Have Fun At University

Without bothering you with needless psychological jargon, let me simply describe how the mind works. The brain, which is the most important organ of our body, makes it possible for us to hold memories, perceive, imagine and think. With these abilities, we are able to possess knowledge, values, beliefs and impressions, which we generally refer to as ‘mind’. We are then able to think, feel and behave in particular ways. The mind works by creating patterns called schemas, by which our habits and behaviors are governed. Our schemas are continuously created, modified and entrenched through daily experience and learning. Our conscious mind gives us access to two broad categories of thoughts: memory and imagination. With our memories, we are able to replay the past, and with our imagination we are able to pre-play the future. Memory enables us to revisit previous the experiences or bodies of knowledge we have acquired. Imagination enables us to create mental pictures of things that are yet to actually occur. So in fact, everything is created twice: first, mentally; second, physically.

Within the boundaries of our natural talents, we can develop skills to their highest possible levels. So invention and re-invention are all possible by the use of our mental powers in the guided and appropriate way. Human potential researchers and speakers have often noted that we usually see only the tip of the iceberg of a person’s potential. In addition, just a hand-full of us dare to realize our potential to high levels.

Many a time, we surprisingly become victims of our memory. We form schemas that determine how we perceive and react to particular situations in life. We may be caught up in certain unproductive operational patterns in personal life or business practice. We are able to function only to the level of our personal restructuring of these schematic patterns that constrain our activities.

So entrepreneurial innovation must begin with the re-invention of the entrepreneurs’ own inner resources of perception, imagination and attitude to the changing business environment.

When you change your thinking, you change your beliefs;

When you change your beliefs, you change your expectations;

When you change your expectations, you change your attitude;

When you change your attitude, you change your behaviors;

When you change your behaviors, you change performance;

When you change your performance, you change your life.

– Author Unknown

That's it for now.
Thanks for being generous with your time... and for giving me the opportunity to share a few tips with you. Please send comments and related questions to help me better my presentation. And please be kind enough to share the lesson with your friends and family.

If you are an expert in this area, please click on comment to contribute your self-enrichment knowledge.

Next free course

Course title: Achieving Success Part-3

Click on ACHIEVING SUCCESS PT-3: Becoming A Business Entrepreneur

I wish you a financial success!

Ich wünsche Ihnen finanziellen Erfolg!

Kong xi fa cai!

Pénzügyi sikert kívánok az új évben!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2010-01-01T14:48:00.000-08:00

I wish you a HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR. May this year open a fresh beginning in your life. This is your year. Stop talking about the problems and challenges you encountered in 2009. Put the past behind you... and look forward to achieving success. This year is a fresh year... and it is yours.

I wish you a SUCCESSFUL YEAR!

Greatly missed

2009-12-27T07:47:00.000-08:00

On Friday 25 December 2009, I whistled and Bluemle responded as usual, though with a faint voice. She moved towards the cage to assure me she was still strong. I rushed into the kitchen and brought her salad. She looked very weak and could not move toward the salad. We gave her cucumber. She managed to take a bite, but was too weak to eat anything. It made our Christmas day a worried one because Bluemle did not eat throughout the entire Christmas Day. We noticed the cancer tumours have advanced.

On Saturday 26 December 2009, Bluemle breathed her last. Alas! our lovely guinea pig is gone. It was very painful as I laid her body in a carton box. I wept. My wife wept too. We laid her to rest just behind our window near the garden.

Schlaf gut, Bluemle.

Achieving Success PT-1

2009-12-03T04:59:00.000-08:00

Welcome note
I am delighted to welcome you to the Achieving Success course that I am pleased to deliver through this blog site. In the coming weeks, I will share with you business and self-enhancement strategies that work for me and others... and might work for you. Based on the revised and expanded edition of my Innovation and Entrepreneurship driven book—The Moneymaking Code—I have derived the Achieving Success blog course specifically for you... and it is absolutely FREE.

Discipline yourself in order to achieve success.
Getting a financial life as well as achieving success begins with self-discipline.

"Change your mind-set and your attitude," — Magic Johnson, Chairman and CEO of Magic Johnson Enterprises.

Are you worried about the so-called credit crunch? Don't, because most small businesses achieved financial success in the heat of the financial crisis. Translate your challenges into opportunities. It's possible.

"CNN started in the 1980s economic recession in the United States... Disney started during the US depression," — Tony Robbins, CEO of Anthony Robbins Companies.

The most important element of success is to "open your mind" to possibilities. The opposite, which is "closed mind" seals off innovative ideas, preventing any possibility for new windows of opportunity. A closed mind keeps you marking time; where you are in life; where you have been for the past ten years; and will probably continue to be for the next X years. A closed mind is that part of your mental faculty that continues to create a constant struggle to achieve or get started. A closed mind is that monster in your head that says: "Oi! Guess what... 2009 is gone and you did not get to improve your financial life. It will certainly be the same for you in 2010... you'll never make it... stop trying."

Is that all?

Nope! A closed mind is that Big Mouth inside your head that gives you the envy and the rubbish you talk each time you hear about someone more successful than you.

What must I do to succeed?

Answer: Divorce your "closed mind" this minute... and keep an open mind to possibilities.

What are the elements of your "closed mind"?

THOUGHTS
You've thought of starting a small business. In your mind you say: "I want to start a small business." This appears like a positive thought, because you want to do something positive by creating an extra stream of income. However, the phrase "I want" keeps you wanting to start a small business rather than actually starting the business. So, you continue to want to start a small business—never achieving your goal. You are marking time simply because you are stuck in your thoughts.

FOCUS
Focus leads to the trends that cause "thoughts" to be formulated in your thoughts. You constantly focus on the small business you want to start. You study different small business operations and visualise what your small business would look like. You smile... and continue to build castles in the air. You think this is a positive focus, because it keeps the goal constantly dancing in your mind.

Is it a problem to keep my great business idea constantly dancing in my mind?
Glad you asked. The problem is that you're stuck. Your actual focus at this stage is on "wanting versus starting". Rather than moving toward your goal, you are dreaming about it.

SELF-SPEECH
Self-speech is what you mentally and consciously say to yourself and to others about you. It is the negative and self-labeling voice within. It is the voice that makes you attribute the following to you:

It's too late to catch up with the Internet age.
Today's technology is for the young. I'm too old to join in.
My friend was right... I've lived my life and need to give up trying.
I'm too shy to ask for help.
It's too late to learn new stuffs.

This attitude will limit your capabilities, talent, potential and opportunities. You say you are... and so you become what you say you are. That is called "self-fulfilling prophecies".

Focus on your positive and creative inner voice to help you achieve success.

"There is a powerful driving force inside every human being that once, unleashed, can make any vision, dream or desire a reality," — Anthony Robbins.

What do I do about the negative stuffs I say to myself?
Remember that the things you say to you are what actually define your personality. Make a list of the negative things you say about yourself. After compiling the list of your negative attributes, ask yourself whether this is what you want to become.

Strike through your negative attributes... and say to yourself, very loud: "This is not me!"

That's it for now.
Thanks for being generous with your time... and for giving me the opportunity to share a few tips with you. Please send comments and related questions to help me better my presentation. And please be kind enough to share the lesson with your friends and family.

If you are an expert in this area, please click on comment to contribute your self-enrichment knowledge.

Next free course date

Course title: Achieving Success Part-2 (PT-2)

Click on ACHIEVING SUCCESS Part-2 main topics are:

The Right Syndrome
Reinventing Yourself
Dr. Joseph Adonu's Psychology of Personal Development

I wish you a financial success!
Ich wünsche Ihnen finanziellen Erfolg!
Kong xi fa cai!
Pénzügyi sikert kívánok az új évben!

China 2009

2009-11-27T12:25:00.000-08:00

Ni hao.

I love China... I really do. On Tuesday 1 September 2009, I checked in at the beautiful and cosy YuNing Hotel, Shenyang, China. Shenyang is one of China's manufacturing strongholds. I was in China to present an engineering paper on global manufacturing systems at the 7th International Conference on e-Engineering and Digital Enterprise Technology hosted by the Northeastern University (NEU) in Shenyang... and I had prepared my mind to enjoy every bit of China.

The conference was successful thanks to my mentor who encouraged me to attend the conference.

I made great friends at NEU where I spent nearly my entire one week in China. The campus is beautiful...

...and the grad students at NEU are exceptionally down-to-earth and lovely. They have great sense of homour. We had good laughs at all times.

I had so much fun... and tried everything Chinese: I learned to speak a few Chinese words and sentences; I enjoyed Chinese foods... Right now "wo xiang chi mi fan."

...and I used the chopsticks a few times too. Hei hei.

...Oh yeah, I would never forget my Chinese tea tasting with Jay on my right. Ganbei!

Although I am in regular correspondence with my great friends in China, I must sincerely admit that I miss them a whole lot. Saying "zai jian" (goodbye) on Monday 7 September 2009 was very teary. I wished it had rather been a "mingtian jian" (see you tomorow).

All work and no fun...

2009-11-27T10:10:00.000-08:00

If you love the adrenal rush from the mystery, horror, thriller and suspense genre... and have a strong stomach for serious stuffs that also contain laughs... then why not take a break to:

Business Workshop

2009-11-26T08:58:00.000-08:00

I was in Ghana for a 52-day visit from June-August 2009 during which time the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) requested for a 2-day workshop on Innovation and Entrepreneurship that would benefit 32 African university students currently being sponsored through the Deutsche Akademische Fluechtling Initiative (DAFI) or Albert Einstein Academic Refugee Initiative Fund. As a DAFI Scholar myself, it was a honour and privilege to be given such a great opportunity to give back to the refugee student community thanks to the UNHCR.

The structure of the 29-30 July 2009 workshop on Innovation and Entrepreneurship was based on the recently published second edition or expanded version of The Moneymaking Code—a "what-to-do" and"how-to" self-help course material that is designed to help you discover moneymaking capabilities of niche products and services in the niche marketplace. You may have been pregnant with great entrepreneurial ideas, but a few obstacles here and there might have prevented you from progressing your business and innovative ideas to the next level.

As refugees face many challenges particularly in the job hunting department, the workshop placed emphasis on how to create one's own business very little or no start-up capital. It was practically about:

Sharing straight-forward, easy-to-follow, non-jargonistic information on how to unlock the moneymaking secrets.
Helping you quit talking, and begin doing.
Helping you create extra streams of income while you keep your present job or continue doing the stuffs you love.
Encouraging you to become an entrepreneur with minimal or zero start-up budget.
Helping you translate your writing ability to becoming an authorpreneur—getting paid for writing.
And the list goes on...

From left to right: David, Elton, Melanie, me, and Allison

With the generous involvement of academic colleagues (David Ako Odoi, Elton Owusu, and Allison Felix Hughes), Melanie Flowers and Nurideen Ibrahim of the Flowers School of Technology and Management, the support of the UNHCR, Christian Council of Ghana (CCG), KLK GmbH, Gatlin International LLC, and Kojo Denanyoh CEO of Primestar Productions, the workshop was successful. If you are interested in reading the Analysis of the Course Participant's Evaluation (courtesy of Dr. Joseph Adonu), please click to DOWNLOAD or view workshop photos.

Above all we had fun.

Norway 2009

2009-11-26T07:19:00.000-08:00

On 17 May 2009, Norwegians proudly celebrated their national Constitution Day anniversary in grand style. The celebration included parade of school of kids, brass band march, musical and traditional dance performances, high school grads (RUSS) in red, blue or black costumes marching through the principal streets. Joe and I proudly joined in the parade and attended the Church service at Volda.

Sassy, frisky and family

2009-11-26T06:34:00.000-08:00

Bluemle is our 4-year old 4-legged family. She is frisky, sassy, full of energy... and has an attitude. In summer 2005, my wife and I went away on holiday... and so Bluemle had to stay at my aunt-in-law's, who has two rabbits. We later learned how Bluemle, then at only 11-12 months, chased out one of the rabbits. Although my wife's aunt and family were shocked at how a tiny visiting guinea-pig could chase their rabbit out of the rabbit's own territory, my wife and I weren't. We burst out laughing. Typical Bluemle. Sadly Bluemle has been diagnosed of suffering from advanced stage cancer... and the doctor has given her 2-6 months. We believe in the power of prayer and so we continue to pray for the guinea-pig... And guess what? She is doing great, getting all the best parts of the salad and cucumber.