Last week I attended BigSeminar 13 in Las Vegas. Boasting a lineup of 11 big name millionaire internet marketing personalities, the potential of this meet was self-evident. Speaking for an average 90 minutes each over 3 days in total, a wide range of internet marketing tools and techniques was covered as each guru addressed the specifics of his – that’s right, sadly there were no women speakers – chosen speciality.

Unfortunately, for attendees to really get in on each expert’s choicest tools, secrets and coaching programs would take an added commitment costing upwards of $1500 for each speaker’s products. This time around, my financials were already too overstretched to respond to the hard sell messages permeating each presentation. Perhaps I was being naive in attending a pitchfest of this nature at all, thinking I could come away with sufficient FREE information to take my online business to the next level. Well, despite a self-imposed spending moratorium, I was determined enough to give it a darned good try.

“So who’s this author?” you ask. And how did he get to enter my “contest”? Well, wanting to obtain something to read on my (all-up) 26 hour journey back to Brisbane, Australia, I browsed the meagre range of business/self-help offerings at one of McCarran Airport’s bookstores and settled on, drumroll …

Gary Vaynerchuk’s meteoric rise to Internet stardom derives from his combining an intimate knowledge of everything to do with wines, with his choice of social media platform to evangelize that expertise and create a huge following of raving fans: videoblogging at Wine Library TV. But Much more important, in my view, is Gary’s infectious ability to inspire people the world over. He is also not afraid to voice his opinions no matter what the so-called prevailing wisdom.

Hence you see why I was attracted to Crush It! I’d recently watched a video of a keynote presentation Gary had given in which he challenged the audience to break away from the norm if at all possible. For example, he’s a champion of FREE. If he had his way, meaning that if they shared his vision and passion, all 11 speakers at BigSeminar would be compelled to give away a large proportion of the material in their high end programs. Period.

So what’s Gary’s message done for me already? Easy – he’s inspired me to put myself out there in the public arena more frequently and formulate a plan to differentiate myself and my message so that people will gladly come back for more.

Gary Vaynerchuk is huge on the importance of establishing a personal brand. Taking him literally, because I agree with the business principles he teaches and upholds, I’ve already named myself “The No BS Internet Guy”. In so doing, I realize I might ruffle a few feathers now and then.

No matter what we think of ourselves, our online reputations stand or fall on the judgement of our audience. I want to be known for my honesty and I’m not afraid to expose questionable practices in the interest of enhancing the quality of everyone’s online experience.

You will find that for many of the people and products I discuss and promote on my sites there will be affiliate links, meaning that I derive some financial benefit if you click my links and then purchase. Gary’s book link above to Amazon is one such example. But it’s up to you – it’s perfectly fine for you to go to your local bookstore too, of course. My main purpose is to share insights and information that has helped me, in the hope you too may benefit.

Next stop for me is The League of Extraordinary Minds webcast, starting in 5 minutes! Gary V happens to be one of the expert panelists. Click the link and you can catch the same webcast at 8pm your time on November 12.

Q. When is a webinar not a webinar?
A. When it’s an audiofeed of a panel discussion streamed to you according to your local time.

Renowned experts Jay Conrad Levinson, Paul Cherry, Vicki Kunkel, Al Ries, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Sergio Zyman feature in this week’s League of Extraordinary Minds panel. It all happens Thursday, November 12th at 8:00 PM your local time.

The brainchild of Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren, The League brings a refreshingly new perspective to internet marketing.

Here’s the official Topic being discussed by Panel #3: “Pre-Emptive Marketing: Innovative Tactics That Outperform What Everyone Else Is Doing”.

And this is one further reason why I can’t wait to hear the Panel – celebrity videoblogger Gary Vaynerchuk is going to be on it. He’s the author of “Crush It!: Why Now Is The Time To Cash In On Your Passion”. It so happens that coincidentally I bought his book yesterday to read during my 26-hour journey home (3 airplanes) from Vegas to Brisbane.

What a book! Already I’ve started rebranding myself, and I’m only halfway through the book!

How come I can gain more actionable imperatives from half a book than I can from 3 days of attending BigSeminar 13? Hey, good topic for another post.

Ok folks who can’t yet play, the screenshot above shows what retweets look like in “retweet beta” enabled Twitter accounts. Check out Twitter’s description of this new addition in the feature box at the top.

Note that a Retweets link has been added in the list of links in the sidebar. When you click that, you get the 3 tab display as shown above. Cool huh?

NOTE: Tweets shown originated from my @ragrs account.
My normal Twitter account is @stewshaw but it hasn’t yet been upgraded by @twitter.

Takehome: Twitter’s on fire – 2 new features in the space of a couple of weeks! Coders must be due a bonus for the Holidays.

Further Note
Never underestimate the power of a tweet or two, especially if it involves the well-connected. In a story explained in more detail here a couple of customers of a cafe chain with WiFi enabled premises complained the stores had censored out any incoming tweets containing URLs shorted with bit.ly.

Within a short time the company replied with this tweet.

Interesting.

…And They Don’t Want Many of Their Students To Climb To Their Level

Stew Shaw here, checking in LIVE from Las Vegas.

OK class, 2 questions:

Q 1. Which conversion rate would you prefer to achieve during your pitchfest?
A. 12 people (out of 500) each paying $1997 or
B. 367 people each paying – shock horror – a mere $197 for the very same program

Q2. And which subsequent results from which group of attendees would you be most proud of – those from A or B in Q1?

Ok, time’s up. Tomorrow we discuss your answers.

Happy Halloween everybody!
What a mighty fine metaphor Halloween presents me with to briefly bring you up-to-date with my latest internet marketing thoughts and plans. The question is: Where are the best opportunities to make money online, and after finding them, how do you seize the moment and take action? And when you knock on the door of an internet marketing guru do you get a trick or a treat?

I confess to being easily tempted by many of the “make money” promises that daily flood my inbox. I’m not proud of admitting it but what saved me during this past week was my credit cards were maxed. So maxed out that I couldn’t pay for gas at the service station. It’s not fun to see a credit card transaction fail right before your eyes.

Let’s see what opportunities I had to pass up just during the last few days. There was an automated system for PPC display ads; as well as ready made business-in-a-box websites with everything “done for you”. And on and on. New PLR content, new coaching programs, new seminars, must-see webinars – the constant barrage is mind numbing in intensity. So many miracle schemes are promoted that any gems among them threaten to get lost in the background noise that passes for today’s internet marketing tools and training infomarketplace.

This incessant clamoring for my credit card dollars – when the cupboard isn’t as bare – reminds me of when I was a tourist in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, about 10 years ago. What I needed to buy was a simple bus ticket to get me back to Singapore. I clearly remember that at the downtown bus terminal was this double row of booths each containing an independent ticket vendor literally screaming above the din for my attention. The funny thing was they were all selling tickets for the same few bus companies going to the same destination. Multiple voices, limited opportunities!

Let me tell you something that running out of money (credit!) taught me. You have to make whatever tools and programs you already own start paying their way. It crystallized my thinking like nothing had before in my entire life. And when the funds do become available again you need the wisdom to choose only the very best programs or offers.

In the coming week I am returning to the USA for Armand Morin’s BigSeminar13 in Las Vegas. Yes it will be an internet marketing pitchfest, no doubt about it, but more importantly for me it will provide marvellous opportunities to network with like-minded entrepreneurs. The speakers will share a lot of internet tips and know how too, maybe not everything in their toolbags but hopefully at least sufficient knowledge to be able to break through the barriers holding us back.

In the last few months I’ve learned first hand that it is near impossible to succeed on your own right out of the blocks, no matter how strong your desire and intention. We all need to align ourselves with mentors and join mastermind groups. Somehow most humans are wired to need someone else to hold us accountable for carrying out what we promise. I guess that means laziness is a default condition.

Going all-out to achieve success online is what we all desire, yes? The question is – does a half-hearted effort cut it? I can tell you first hand that it doesn’t. My recently aborted Halloween online project is a case in point. I started making what seemed to me to be all the right plans, bought fresh PLR content, and joined some affiliate programs. Upgraded this Wordpress premium theme to a multi-site license. Then threw together a site that is so limp that I’m too ashamed to give its URL. OK, if you insist you can find it at http://www.funthishalloween.com.

Point made? Just like there’s no such thing as being half pregnant, my take home lesson is that internet projects need to be followed through to completion. How else do we expect website visitors to show sufficient interest in what we’re offering that they’ll purchase from us in order to have their needs met?

I’m determined not to repeat my halloween debacle in whatever I turn my online attention to from here on. As I’ve said in this post already, to achieve success I need the support and goodwill of others, be they gurus or newbies like myself. I also need to remain vigilant and be astute enough to identify the genuine opportunities that if grasped and acted upon will help move me forward.

Everything else is a marketing trick that could not only help send me broke again but will deflect my efforts in a wasteful manner which could very well end in discouragement and humiliation.

Let’s refocus our attention on the online marketing treats that will surely come our way.

Got to admit it to you folks, there’s something strange going on. And I like it.

In the last 24 hours I’ve seen the Light, or more specifically some unseen force has Lit Me Up.

Bigtime.

Here’s an outline of the story, which I truly think is stranger than fiction, in line with the cliche. It involves 2 guru-featuring videos and subsequent conversations triggered by a brand new blogger.

Tony Robbins – Mr “late night Infomercial King” as I know him in Australia – is one of the gurus. The non-Internet marketing one in fact. In Video #1 he, let me say it subtly, “staged” an interview with two self-made internet gazillionaires. It so happened these 2 dudes were in the neighborhood and simply showed up at the hotel in which Tony was filming other new programs!

The question bugging both Frank Kern and John Reese? “Tony, please help explain to us why it is that so few people who buy our (expensive) programs ever USE them?” Their rationale being that if only their followers could be somehow persuaded to take action then the awful failure stats for new online marketers could be reversed. A perfectly logical proposition.

So I watched the video. And normally for me that would have been the end of the story. No big deal. My internet marketing “plate” was far too full to be bothered lingering further. Geez, I’d already spent 38 minutes of valuable time viewing it from start to finish.

The intrigue began soon after on the same day. Somehow I happened upon the very 1st post on a brand new blog. This remarkable lady wasn’t about to make a sheepish entry into the blogosphere. Oh no! Without fanfare or apology she set about defending the integrity of Frank and John in responding to another blogger’s thinly veiled video critique. It was an exchange I couldn’t resist engaging in so I duly added my comment(s). I too defended the internet marketing guys – after all, I had been impressed with how Frank Kern delivered an impromptu talk at a conference I attended in Las Vegas a month ago, on the very same topic! Before that I never knew either of them.

Guess what writing those comments forced me to do, for accuracy – trawl carefully through Video #1 to learn exactly what the arguments and consensus opinions were. I transcribed the important bits and summarized the rest. Unbeknown to me, the imprinting had begun.

Fast forward to 5 days later when Tony Robbins, in concert with a veritable tribe of guru internet marketers, announced Video #2. This one had Tony zeroing in on exactly how it was that John Reese could go from a starting point of being $100K in debt to later becoming the 1st ever internet marketer to have a “million-dollar day”. Prior to that, this daily income threshold level was an unimaginable achievement to all online gurus …except John!

Singlehandedly, the quiet, unassuming “regular guy” John Reese had managed to crack internet marketing’s sub-4 minute mile. The 16-minute video interview is jam-packed with ALL the elements necessary to START achieving online success.

In thanking John at the end of the video, here’s what Tony said: “…I think it’s going to make a difference for a lot of people”.

Certainly has for me. Already.

And for Tina, the fearless blogger! In less than 2 days she’s already created a totally new infoproduct to sell online and begin to create momentum. Inspired by a statement of John’s in Video #2, she’s nicknamed the project her “Pebble Theory” Momentum Series Self-challenge. All from a zero starting point. Wow – that’s my lightning bolt!

P.S.
Warning to all current internet marketers – there’s an almighty Steam Train comin’ down the line Real Fast. No it’s not me (yet); it takes the form of a smooth talking tall guy with freakish teeth and a LOT of influence. Be swept up or swept away. You read it here first.

Links:
Video #1
Video #2
Tina’s blog

The older I get the more I seem to hanker after mentors from long ago.

For example, my entrepreneur extraordinaire of the day is Robert Kiyosaki of “Rich Dad Poor Dad” fame. Today I checked out what he’s up to online. On Twitter @theRealKiyosaki doesn’t tweet a lot, but seeing as he joined in April ‘09 I’ll forgive him! However that’s been long enough for nearly 18,000 loyal fans to become his followers.

As you’d expect, Robert now uses his websites to spread his influence to whoever has internet access. You can find him at http://www.richdad.com/ and also at http://www.conspiracyoftherich.com/. He also featured in Time Magazine, and you can see how he answered 10 questions from the public at this site http://bit.ly/fFZyO.

Let me get straight to the point of this post. Over 10 years ago an incredible opportunity arose which gave me access (of sorts) to Robert’s inner circle in my country. You see, I became an accredited sales affiliate of the Rich Dad product line in Australia. I attended many of his live seminars first as a paying customer then later in a volunteer helper capacity.

Guess what I did with the incredible content of his teachings from those value-packed workshops?

Nothing. Yes, you read right – nothing. Nada, ziltch.

So that means I’ve had 10 years of lost potential in the investment field. In rejecting the idea of becoming extraordinary financially, instead I chose to remain a financial illiterate. Doesn’t that sound so stupid?

Knowing what I do now, and seeing how none of what Robert taught back in the ’90s has lost any of its relevance, my intention is to somehow make up for that lost time. I now finally claim the right to become successful, by holding nothing back in my quest to help people online.

I suggest that you do the same. Do grab opportunities the very second you see them. Whether online or in the world of bricks & mortar businesses.

“…we know that no one excels at dreaming and having fun more than kids.”

So stated Jim Berra, Chief Marketing Officer for Carnival Cruise Lines, in recently announcing a contest for kids, with the winner set to become the world’s first-ever cruise ship waterslide Godchild. To enter, kids simply have to complete the sentence: “I’m always dreaming up fun stuff. Wouldn’t it be awesome if…” and to submit a corresponding hand-drawn illustration.

Berra’s comment got me thinking: What does it mean to be able to dream like kids do in this way? According to the dictionary, in this figurative sense dreaming means to imagine, to think possible. As you know, this was the meaning made famous in MLK Jr.’s 8/28/1963 “I have a dream…” speech.

Unfortunately for most adults, something at sometime extinguished this seemingly innate ability to dream and have fun. Especially the dreaming part. Instead we have become complicit in mediocrity so that, as Thoreau observed in the first chapter of Walden, most of us “lead lives of quiet desperation.” That was written way back in 1854 at the dawning of the Industrial Age; I wonder what he would say of the way we live our lives today?

Here’s what one current influential American recently noted about modern living: “The way things are these days it seems a lot of people feel they’ve lost control.” [blogpost by Donald J. Trump, 8/11/2009]

I put to you that one symptom of this loss of control is the inability to dream of new ways of living our lives. Instead people resign themselves to the way things are, and in essence become victims of their present circumstances. Those circumstances may induce unhappiness due to unsatisfying jobs or breaking relationships or poor health; the list is endless.

But the good news is that as long as we have life we have the potential within us to change. It’s our wonderful minds which hold the key to new imaginings. Try to spend some quiet time thinking and planning ways to better yourself. For sure, few of us will have the luxury of putting our busy lives on hold to spend 2 years doing this as did Thoreau. But maybe if we devoted just 2 days to deep thought this may be enough to spark the beginning of a better way of life for us and our families.

In his concluding chapter of Walden, Thoreau noted: “I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

First we need the dreams; we need to conceive of new possibilities. With our life experience and maturity surely we can out-dream the kids! I say it’s now time for us to reclaim the ability to dream and imagine.

Personal disclaimer:
On January 9 I’m taking my wife on the Carnival Dream for a 7-day western Caribbean cruise. I’ll be there as a guest of Mike Filsaime and be privileged to learn from some of the world’s top Internet marketers he’s assembling for this annual event. Believe me, I won’t want to keep that knowledge to myself, so between now and then I invite you to sign up and join my Massive Action group of Internet go-getters.
I have a dream! Do you?

Picture Credit:

1. I won’t send invitations to you asking you to reserve a spot on my webinar, have a confirmed email sent to those who desire to attend the online meeting, then upon trying to join the Webinar the follower gets this:

2. I won’t write something in an email specifically stating the requirements that need to be met to be accepted into a “free” add-on program, then the very next day change the rules by adding an extra more costly precondition. And go on to blame it on an editorial oversight.

3. I won’t spend any of my time promoting other people’s offers. How does this leave you feeling if you’ve recently spent $997, $1997 or even $4997 on that guru’s program paying for dedicated coaching, then instead of receiving timely assistance all you seem to get is more and even more pressure to join someone else’s program through your guru’s affiliate link – or else you won’t get the huge special bonus products?

4. I won’t promise to instantly ship you a physical product on launch date then somehow “forget” to fulfill that obligation. In one instance it is now 8 weeks later and this customer – me – is still waiting.

5. I won’t do business on the run by heavily promoting a so-called must-have membership program but instead be guilty of rushing a product to market that’s obviously nothing more than a basketful of empty promises.

Why do I make that promise to you today? Because all 5 of the above have recently happened to me, 4 of them today for 4 different Big Guru programs.

And let me remind you, it does not feel good to be dudded does it? To have somebody not deliver on their promises leaves one feeling hurt and bitterly disappointed, aside from the actual monetary loss.

So what do I stand for? OK, my principles are hereby stated in black and white: I want to be ethically sound in all my online business. To be renowned for dealing fairly with those who have entrusted their hard-earned funds in any of my yet-to-be-announced programs.

To base an online business on such principles is the least I can do for my fellow human beings wherever you may be. After all, deep down we pretty much all wish to live by the Golden Rule don’t we?

Wishing you all the very best in your daily life and business.

Stew Shaw

OK folks it’s time to lift the pace and the action!

First up, I’m sorry this post is biased a little towards the petrol heads among us, male or female. Sure most people in the West drive cars, and some of us ride motor bikes either regularly or infrequently. I’m in the latter category. And I follow the MotoGP series on TV.

Professional motocross riders exist to thrill crowds. A few hours ago I videoed two of these guys strutting their stuff in front of the night-time crowd at the Ekka – a nickname for the much-loved Royal Brisbane Show in Queensland, Australia. Anyways, check it out, if for no other reason than to see what results 1000s of hours of practise, passion and dedication can produce.

I removed the native soundtrack since it contained original music and a professional commentary, both of which might have contravened YouTube’s terms of service. So the current music comes from YouTube’s own approved library. The unedited footage was shot with my trusty little Sony Webbie HD. Sorry about the handshaking wobbles and the frequent poor focus – most shot at nearly 20X digital zoom.

Put on your headphones, wind the volume up to near max and… Enjoy!
Motocross Freestyle Tricks at the Ekka

Or would you rather see some fireworks? It’s another of my latest YouTube videos from the 2009 Brisbane Ekka.

Can’t let you go with out an unashamedly personal plug. What do MX freestyle tricks and a professional fireworks show have in common with a Remarkable Online Entrepreneur? Well they all involve:

* Gravity-defying Action
* Incredible Firepower
* Passionate Entertainment

If you want to come aboard and be helped to create your own action-packed Internet career, enter your first name and email address in the boxes opposite. You deserve to shine and be free!