Free is always good.

I have special powers as a founding member of Big Value Depot. I have decided to pass this special blessing onto my facebook/twitter friends. If you have ever listed something to sell with ebay or craigslist this should be of special interest to you. I will be giving a limited number of people a 30 day free listing with Big Value Depot.
This will be on a first come first serve bases as I only have a limited number to give out so act fast.

Just send me an email at adyb04@hotmail.com with your name and email address. Please type "Interested in free voucher code" in the subject line.

To see Big Value Depot site click here.

Ady

And Then The Fight Started....

1)My wife sat down on the couch next to me as I was flipping channels. She
asked, 'What's on TV?' I said, 'Dust..'

And then the fight started...

2)My wife and I are watching "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" while we were in bed. I turned to her and said, "Do you want to have sex?" "No," she answered. I then said, "Is that your final answer?" She didn't even look at me this time, simply saying, "Yes." So I said, "Then I'd like to phone a friend."

And then the fight started...

3)I rear-ended a car this morning. So, there we were alongside the road and slowly the other driver got out of his car. You know how sometimes you just get soooo stressed and little things just seem funny? Yeah,well I couldn't believe it.... He was a DWARF!!! He stormed over to my car, looked up at me, and shouted, "I AM NOT HAPPY!!!"

So, I looked down at him and said, "Well, then which one are you?"

And then the fight started.....

4)My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary.
She said, 'I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3
seconds.' I bought her a scale.

And then the fight started...

5)My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion, and I
kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a
nearby table. My wife asked, 'Do you know her?''Yes,' I sighed,
'She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to
drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she
hasn't been sober since.'

'My God!' says my wife, 'who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?'


And then the fight started...

6)I took my wife to a restaurant. The waiter, for some reason, took my order first. "I'll have the strip steak, medium rare, please."He said, "Aren't you worried about the mad cow?" "Nah, she can order for herself."

And then the fight started...

7)A woman is standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror. She is not happy with what she sees and says to her husband, 'I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly.I really need you to pay me a compliment.'The husband replies, 'Your eyesight's damn near perfect.'

And then the fight started...

How to Take your Face Book Marketing to a Deeper Level..Part 2

In my opinion the whole key to success in social networking is turning strangers into friends and friends into business partners and/or perhaps customers. I am tempted to go on a rant here but I will restrain myself. I am not the only one saying this so if this sounds redundant that's because it probably is but I feel it is worth repeating.


The problem is most of us don't want to take the time to build relationships. We would rather believe that somehow people clicking on our affiliate link by way of Google adwords or pay per click is the answer. That some company or automated system we pay money for will quickly build us an income by delivering hits to our website. But hits to our website or affiliate link in my opinion are nothing more than tire kickers at a car lot. People who are curious but not really serious.


Having tried all of these methods in the past and measuring it with the current success I am having on Face Book and recently Twitter I can say without hesitation that social networking will wipe the floor with any method out there when it comes to finding customers or people to be in business with you.

If you do the right things DAILY. If you have the right attitude.

The following is a list of things you should be doing daily:

1) Build Your Friend List

Like I said a lot of this is going to be redundant perhaps yet there are still people that can't seem to even get started doing this. If you have no friends or people you are following how can you possibly expect to go forward in the social networking arena. This is not the place to be quiet and lay back and wait for something to happen. Like my hockey coach used to say "get out there and make something happen boys"

2) Genuinely Make Friends with Your List

I am starting to see that it makes no sense to have tons of friends and not know very many of them at all. The more people I connect with and care about on whatever level the more the hits to my blog goes up. I didn't join twitter for a long time because I couldn't see the connection between listening to all the little things of people's lives and how that translated into business partners but now I do. Does that mean I sign up everyone to my program. Of course not. What it does mean is I suddenly have tons of people who know me and who may just help me in one way or another. Face Book and Twitter really is like a giant party.

3) Post Interesting Content

Even if you don't have a blog at this point (but you really should) you can still post good interesting content on your face book page. It might take a little searching around to find content you are excited about but as I have mentioned before it doesn't have to be your content if you don't write well or do videos. Most of us out there who write articles, do videos, or podcasts are thrilled that you want to use our content. Just give a mention back to our website and anything is fair game for you to use in most cases. There have been times when I have slowed up on this a bit and wondered why I wasn't getting any action to my blog. In a nutshell "he who doeth nothing getteth nowhere" is the slap in the teeth I needed.

4) Keep Chatting it UP

You may want to set a goal of getting to know 5 to 10 people a week or even more if you're aggressive in your efforts. Imagine where you will be friend wise down the road six months. Remember friends have friends and so on and so on..well you get it. Eventually someone stumbles onto you that is right for your product or business by way of your friends.

5) Stop Barfing Your Business at People

It doesn't seem to matter how many articles I write or how many times it gets said there are still people that can't seem to stop this idiotic approach. I have discovered there are many different forms of barfers. Chronic barfers, under the table barfers, sucker punch barfers, brain dead barfers, my business is the only business barfers, this is the me universe barfers..etc. In case you don't know what barfing is it is someone who can't talk about anything until they burp up their business opportunity at you. They haven't bothered to get to know you and they don't care who you are. You don't even have to ask them about it because they are just looking for an opening to puke at you at some point.

Here is the end of the matter.

IF I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS I WILL ASK YOU!

There that should settle it (probably won't even scratch the surface on this problem though)

Lastly don't get discouraged and start buying into all the crap floating around out there. Networking is not a sales business or a numbers game or even a million hits to your website.

Although it is important to do a certain number of tasks a day as I mentioned above it is still all about building a good reputation.

People need to find value by connecting with you. Do this and you are a brand people can trust.

Your sales and business partners will show up and you may not even know where or how.
Posted by Lance Brown

DON'T QUIT!

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,

When the road you're trudging seems all uphill.

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh.

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest if you must, but don't you quit.



Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As everyone of us sometimes learns.

And many a fellow turns about,

When he might have won had he stuck it out.

Don't give up though the pace seems slow,

You may succeed with another blow.



Often goal is nearer than

It seems to a faint and faltering man.

Often the struggler has given up,

When he might have captured the victor's cup .

And he learned too late when the night came down,

How close he was to the golden crown.



Success is failure turned inside out,

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt.

And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems afar.

So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,

It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.
Author Unknown

How To Take Your Face Book Marketing to a Deeper Level

I am going to assume some basics about your Face Book experience so far. There are lots of videos on Youtube out there on how to use Face Book for marketing so we'll say you have seen them and are up to speed somewhat.

I am going to assume you know how to set up your profile so that it looks professional. You have some pictures of your family and you talk about your interests and your pet peeves. You have been quite extensive on your favorite movies, music, books, sports and spiritual persuasion..etc

All of it designed to give people a glimpse of who you are.

Let's say your profile picture is not something foolish you were doing at a party or a cartoon . It actually looks professional and respectable.

I am going to presume you know how to add friends by typing in the search bar your target market or the type of people you want to know. You have been taught how to add 20 or 30 friends a day and are faithfully doing it growing your list.

You also understand that you can send out a broadcast message by using that box on your page to all your friends on what you are doing and you also occasionally ask people to join your business in this area too.

Let's assume you faithfully post on other people's walls because you were told this was the thing to do to get traffic to your page and your business.

Maybe you have even started your own group and have a large amount of people contributing to your group and sharing ideas with you.

Still people in your business are not coming in fast enough. What is it you are not doing?

The answer is so simple and obvious isn't it.

You forgot that social networking is a contact people sport. You forgot to take an interest in other people lives first before you rammed your business down their throats.

I can't believe how many people try to get me to join whatever they are doing without so much as a hello. Right off the bat I get a canned spam message about joining their business in my inbox immediately after I added them as a friend that morning.

When people engage in this I immediately send them to the bonehead file in my mind. I'll give them a little grace but if they continue to be STUPID I simply delete them as friends.

If I hear "you need more leads and you need more money in your pocket" one more time I am going to the kitchen to get a fork so I can stab myself in the EYE over and over.

So what is it you should be doing you ask.

Here's the deep secret all successful internet entrepreneurs know. Build your list..GET TO KNOW YOUR LIST..then and only then market to your list.

Take an interest in people and what they are about before you even mention your fabulous business you are working. Try to give people something of value to start with before they ever hear about your business.

You will be amazed how talking about trivial things and common interests produces results.

Personally I like to steer people to recent marketing videos I found interesting or send them a free e-book that was helpful.

The truth is only one out of ten people you talk to is ready to join your business. The other nine are already in one, or busy doing other things. Timing in your marketing is everything.

The best you can hope for is to make friends with people. Friends may help you down the line or steer you to someone who your business may be right for. Friends can contribute wisdom to you in many areas. Friends may be able to give you a heads up about a lot of things.

Enemies or people you ticked off because you spammed them will make sure they contribute to your demise. Face Book themselves will label you a spammer if you are too aggressive.

In conclusion I'd like to quote one of my favorite lines from "Fast times at Ridgemont high" when Sean Penn refused to wear his shirt in the restaurant and Judge Reinhold pointed to the sign that said "no shirt, no shoes ,no service" and then he said real slow..." READ it... Learn it..... Live it."

This quote is directed at those of you that are going to continue your business spamming ways.

for more of Lance's articles go here

Fun clean joke from my good friend Carol...I miss you Carol!

Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering.

Finally fed up, God said, 'THAT'S IT! I have had enough. I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does the better job.'

So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away.

They moused.

They faxed.

They e-mailed.

They e-mailed with attachments.

They downloaded.

They did spreadsheets!

They wrote reports.

They created labels and cards.

They created charts and graphs.

They did some genealogy reports.

They did every job known to man.

Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell.

Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off.

Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld.

Jesus just sighed.

Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers. Satan started searching frantically, screaming:

'It's gone! It's all GONE! 'I lost everything when the power went out!'

Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work.

Satan observed this and became irate.

'Wait!' he screamed. 'That's not fair! He cheated! How come he has all his work and I don't have any?'
God just shrugged and said, JESUS SAVES

My New Found American Friends/My one and only article to date :-)

This blog was inspired by a new American friend of mine that I met on Face Book who commented on my people skills. I've been thinking about that a lot and considering what it is I am doing that people are responding to. I thought perhaps I would share some ideas here and maybe get some feedback.

I am of the opinion that "if we are not moving forward we are standing still". This whole social networking thing is definitely a learning curve.

I want to make the following points about people skills.

1)Empathy

I think it is very important that we have empathy with our fellow human beings.I know myself I have so many failures on my conscience to overcome. The people I love have an enormous amount of grace for me. Therefore I am able to share that grace with the people around me. We are all on a certain path in this life and making mistakes is part of finding our way.


2)Practice being grateful

Appreciation is another quality that I have acquired over the years. I wasn't always this way. I have lost some important relationships throughout my life that I may have took for granted. As the song goes "you don't know what you have until it's gone". The older I get the more I see it is important to cultivate and nurture relationships.


3)Everyone is unique

What kind of a boring world would this be if we were all the same? My husband and I are completely the opposite in our personalities. This can make for a good fight at times. Truthfully I wouldn't love him if he was like me and vice versa. It is great to meet people so different from me on Face Book.


4)Try to be personable

I try to think about and remember who I am talking to. It is always good to have people's profiles open when you are talking to them. For me it helps to say their name in conversation with them. It has been said "a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language"


5) Listening not talking

I think it is essential to show a genuine interest in people. We can do this by listening. I try to encourage people to talk about themselves. Which most of us like to do. It is not a time for me but a time for them. Be a listener and you are in demand.

6) Positive attitude

How much are we bombarded with negativity everyday? It is hard to watch the news. We think it has no effect on us but it does. With all that is going on in America having a positive outlook and faith for things to work out paints one in a light people will be attracted too.


People are important and were created by God. We have a divine purpose and calling.

As a Canadian perhaps I am not experiencing the trials that Americans are going through. But I do care and want to help any way I can.

God Bless.

There is Still "BARF" on my Face Book Wall

I thought maybe we could put a dint in this sucker but I was wrong. I thought if we did a podcast with Frank and Mike called "don't barf on my wall" that people would listen. Frank even did a video of the same title and posted it at you tube. It seems all our efforts may have been in vain.

Why you ask?

Because I'm still getting barfs on my face book wall everyday. They even show up in my inbox.
I'm weary of all this scrubbing and I'm out of cleaner.

What's a barf you ask? A barf is some one who posts an ad for their business on your wall the second they meet you. They don't bother to check your profile to see that you already have 2 businesses that you are working, or ask anything along the lines of getting to know you, or offer something of value to you to start the friendship off.

No their first course of action is to barf an ad for their business on your wall.

It is kind of like meeting someone at a party who before they shake hands with you they throw up on your shoes. Aren't you charmed to meet them?

Or the telemarketers you slam the phone down on. Or the vacuum cleaner salesman you threw out of your house for being obnoxious.

So I posted this on my Face Book profile.."don't lead with your business..get to know people first" thinking I had finally come up with a slogan people would grab.

Maybe THIS would work I told myself.

Three people showed up and said they agree with me and said good things.

Then a fourth guy showed up, said he agreed too... and then he proceeded to post a barf on my wall for his business.

This is amazing I thought to myself.

Who taught people to do this? Are they getting results this way?

I'm starting to think it is some sort of barfing virus going around that has no cure.

Maybe there's a Face Book secret society that meets at midnight dressed in black hoods that circle a bonfire chanting "must barf on wall..must barf on wall". Yes a bunch of Face Book zombies who just can't help themselves.

I can always tell when I'm chatting to people when they are going to burp up their business on me. I haven't even asked them anything about their business but here we go. It's like I'm standing in front of them and I can see that queasy look on their face. "Look out..here comes a barf"

I don't know what to do to stop this tidal wave of puke coming at me from every direction.

Maybe I need to run across America like Forrest Gump. I'll call it the "Face Book anti-barf run". All the anti-barfers could join me and we could all get in shape at the same time. We could finish up at the White house and have some sort of focus group discussion.

Although I'm sure the president has better things to do.

Maybe I'm just going to have to face it. It never stops.

I'd ask you to pass this article around but your probably busy cleaning up barf off your own wall.

4 things to consider before you join that "New Amazing Business" in 2009

Well here we are in the new year and no doubt you have the opportunity to join the latest online business in Pre-Launch. How about becoming a founding member so you can make $10,000 a month to start. How about never having to sign up anyone or do anything and still make a huge income. Could it be true?

I want to give you a bit of a heads up before you lose money because you didn't really think it through. Just in case you thought the internet was some sort of parallel universe where only sugar coated things can happen.

Of course I am having a bit of fun here making light of some of the catch phrases out there. The truth is the internet is a breeding ground for every scam imaginable. I hate to say it I have been suckered in more than a few times in my day. As a measuring stick if you write articles and you haven't lost at least 500 bucks to some program you are a rookie and don't have my respect yet. I dare not read your article because your turn is probably coming to be taken. Seeing how I have I am now qualified to speak on this.

Enough rambling! Without getting too negative here what should one do if one is pretty much new to the internet. Let's say you want to start a good online business but don't know what to look for.

Here are a few good common sense pointers before you join any program.

#1) Who is the CEO of the company you want to go into business with?

This is obvious but you would be surprised how often this gets overlooked. I actually joined a program once and then I googled the guy who owned the company and found out he was a major scam artist with a trail of angry people following him. Needless to say I dropped that business opportunity quickly and ran like a scalded dog.

It only takes a second to do a little background check on the person at the head of the program. If you can't email the guy and talk to him, or get an idea where he lives on the planet chances are he is trying to be elusive and is not someone who is capable of caring about your success in his company . You should be able to see and talk to the CEO of the company if they are worth your time and money.

2)Research the company goals and direction first.

How creative is the concept and timely for these economic times. Do they have a winning track record. Any past success you can look at as a benchmark. If they have a website click on "about us" or the "compensation plan". Reading the fine print can be enlightening. What looked like a lucrative pay plan may have a few qualifiers before they let you make any money.

3)What is their marketing strategy?

How do they plan to attract clients or affiliates. What is the target market? Do they have leads for you or are you on your own there? What does your back office look like and what kind of tools are there? What is your role and what do you do to keep business coming in?

It has been my experience that if they tell you that no work is involved for you to earn money then you'd be better off to stab yourself in the eye with a fork than join up. That's how it's going to feel anyway after you march along paying your monthly fees only to find out there is no "magic spillover" from the sponsors above you and you end up hundreds of dollars in the hole.

4)Who is the person introducing you?

How much experience do they have and can you talk to them. What interest do they have in your success. Can you pick up a phone and get help from them if you needed it? Maybe they just wanted to sign you up and are too busy to care about you. Getting to know your sponsor is never a bad idea ahead of time before you join.

So there you have it. Don't say I didn't warn you. If you can't be bothered to do these then there is a good chance you will lose money. Make a good choice with your new amazing online business.