One of the proudest days of my life… the day I give you Internet success through a unique gift you can only get from me!

 

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Howard Martell

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Ludwig van Beethoven (1820) by Joseph Karl Stieler
By Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author’s program note. Today is a red-letter day for me… one of the most important days of my life. For such a day nothing short of one of our weary world’s greatest masterpieces, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” (1824), will do . Please play it before you read this article. You cannot but feel the thrill and exultation. If a human being can do this, human beings can do anything. Find it in any search engine and turn up the volume. Then you’ll know how I am feeling now as I prepare to give you a gift only I can give and which has taken me a lifetime to perfect.
Deaf… sublime.
When great Beethoven sat down to compose his 9th Symphony, of which the “Ode to Joy” is perhaps the most celebrated part, he was stone deaf. Yet in his capacious, extraordinary brain the music rang out to thrill the world. He could have said, “a deaf person cannot compose,” everyone would have understood such a conclusion and offered the usual words of sympathy… but that is not the way of people with a mission to improve the world. They recognize no obstacle! Do not give way to defeatism! And reach deep into themselves to find what they alone can give the world and its people who rely upon such genius for relief! Instruction! And improvement! For you see those who have such a gift must give such a gift… and today I give such a gift, the greatest I have ever given, to each of you.
The struggling world… and the profound promise of the Internet.
I have now been on the Internet over 18 years, about a third of my life. During these years I have witnessed humanity’s struggle to make sense of this monumental invention which has the undoubted power and demonstrated potential to connect people everywhere and enable them to say what they want to say without shackle or inhibition.
Now think a moment: for the first time, the very first time, in the long cycles of humanity each person can, with the simple expedient of an Internet connection, present himself, in all his wonderful uniqueness, to others who have the ardent desire to do the same, without the pernicious intrusion of any of the world’s Thought Police who have intervened with impunity and malice in all previous epochs.
The Internet brooks no interference… no one telling you what you can do…when you can do it. Yes, for the first time in human history each person has a voice that can be heard… that must be heard…. and so transform the world — for good and ill.
Is it any wonder then that I have selected “Ode to Joy” and recommended that you play it now… for on our troubled planet we need all the help we can get and the Internet is here to provide it.
Commerce…
From the very first minute far sighted folk saw that such a means of connection could prove to be a superb means of commerce. But how? Most didn’t know and so, without guidance, commenced a struggle which left them frustrated, confounded, angry and, too often, embittered. How, they wondered, could this astonishing invention produce a golden outcome for them? It was a question that millions asked — and continue to ask — but which only a comparative handful have ever answered successfully. With the almost daily assistance of my cherished partners George Kosch and Sandi Hunter, I have found such success… and been given the opportunity to give it to others. Today we celebrate that opportunity and its ability to uplift! Enrich! And empower people worldwide.
It all started with a blank sheet of paper.
I am not just a writer, but a published writer, which is a very different thing. To write to connect should be every writer’s objective… and it has certainly been my objective since my first article appeared in print 59 years ago, when I was 5 years old. You may well imagine what a heady thing it must be for that child, any child to experience such excitement. Once you’ve had it, you spend the rest of your life wanting more and doing what is necessary to get it. In this regard I have been most fortunate… having written thousands of articles and 18 books, mostly on business themes. My word has been carried — and frequently, too — on radio, television and on the lecture circuit. But my connection with the Internet has radically transformed the entire matter of content and given me the means to give you substantial advantage every single day.
How?
As I have often said and frequently written and emphasized, “the list is the business, the business is the list.” Thus each person desiring to succeed in business must spend a significant amount of time building a list, and this activity must be a part of each and every day that you desire to remain in business and increase your profit.
But maintaining your list, growing your list cannot, on the Internet, be your sole objective; that would be protecting your list and ensuring that you can use it daily to email ad copy to your subscribers. The problem is, if you only email ads day after day to these subscribers, they will quickly become disenchanted, even disgusted, with you… and manifest their displeasure by unsubscribing your list, thereby depriving them of all benefits you offer and yourself of their golden custom.
This is the exact situation in which most Web marketers find themselves… and why so many of these people are killing their lists, thereby killing their profits.
Here’s where I — and Bill Gates — enter the scene and why you need to pay attention to our message. Gates has famously and enigmatically said of the Internet, “Content is king.” What does he mean? Just that people will not put up with an unceasing avalanche of ad copy; they need more, much more. They need content… and if you create a blog and give them this content you can accompany it — every day — with the ad copy that generates the revenue. Problem is, most people cannot write engaging, meaningful copy and cannot afford the cost of hiring the people who could create such copy for them; it’s just too expensive.
That’s where I come in… I can and will produce such copy — for free. And today we recognize and celebrate the completion of the first 365 articles, one for every day of the year. These articles, all about 1500 words in length, are timely, intelligent, often provocative, always informative and, my signature and pride, beautifully written. Let me explain the importance of these articles and why you are fortunate to have them: they save your all-important lists from being destroyed by your subscribers, people who want more than a steady diet of ads and as such are invaluable.
Let us be very clear with each other: if you email nothing but ads, you will kill your list and thus obliterate your business. Thus, you have these options. Email the ads anyway and test my thesis (suicidal); try to write such copy every single day yourself (highly unlikely given your writing skills). Or you could hire the necessary talent to do the work, thereby breaking the bank. Or…
You could use the copy I have created for you… and which I give to you, thereby enabling your list and with it your business to grow and flourish while I provide the necessary (and always beautifully written) copy. And that is why we are celebrating today… not just for what I have written… or how well I have written — but because with these often lyric articles I am keeping your online business on the profit path.
“You millions I embrace you,” and give you the best of which I am capable for our mutual joy — freude! So now finish as we began… with Beethoven and his “Ode to Joy”. For we, now working together, have everything to be joyful about! Let the celestial sound soar… as we do — together! Freude!
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About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com . Check out Massive Traffic Ultimatum -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=sk9BRJWy

‘We need a little Christmas.’ Why I’m working hard right this minute to make Christmas 2011 the best ever.

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Howard Martell

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September 26, 2011 | Author: Jeffrey Lant | Posted in Dr. Jeffrey Lant’s Article Archive

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s program note. Every year, it seems, the opening date for Christmas marketing creeps forward, adding days, not just hours, to the already lengthy selling season. This year my cadre of Christmas watchers reported seasonal catalog and store sightings as early as Labor Day, September 8 . But you can count on this: as people worldwide read this article, they will surely report even earlier sightings. This happens every year… and as it does one of the interminable debates of our times reignites: when is this much too much Christmas?
Ask this query in a crowded room and, hey presto, there will be pandemonium, mayhem, and strident calls for the public lynching of the people who so tamper with and wantonly extend the most important and revered holiday of the year. Christmas creep is here… and you have an opinion on this matter; I’m sure of that. Everybody does.
Christmas is the promised land — for merchants everywhere. That’s the problem.
Christmas purists, and their number is legion, never tire of beating up the merchants who are, they aver, at the bottom of Christmas creep. From this moment of the year forward, a large percentage of Americans will get up on any soap box to hand and excoriate, insult, belittle and besmirch people who earlier in the year they knew and attested to be good, hard-working, service-providing, tax-paying citizens. But where Christmas creep is the issue, truth and justice are early casualties.
People will creep… it’s as American as apple pie.
Know any folks from California? Or Oklahoma? I do. They are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. They are also the descendants of creepers.
Take California for instance. There a grand gentleman named John Augustus Sutter was peacefully minding his own business when James W. Marshall on January 24, 1848 discovered gold on Sutter’s land, at Sutter’s Mill, near Sacramento. The nation didn’t say, “Good for you, Mr. Sutter.” No way. Instead they took to creeping on to old man Sutter’s land, a little bit here, a little bit there… until the creepers had everything and Mr. Sutter had nothing but lawsuits and a footnote in history. A little bit of gold in them thar hills and a whole lot of creeping got us the State of California, and that’s a fact.
Or consider the folks in Oklahoma. They’re not called Sooners for nothing. In 1889, the federal government organized the great land rush, whereby folks who wanted land could get it free by racing for it against other land-hungry folks. Problem is, a good many of the wanters couldn’t be bothered to wait… and so they crept out early and grabbed the good stuff. Yup, they were creepers and some of the best families of the state started that way, and that, too, is a fact. Creeping pays, and only a Grinch would disagree.
But Grinches proliferate the closer Christmas comes and its insistent, unrelenting messages.
Although there have been plenty of Grinches in our history, lives, and culture, the actual character debued in the 1957 children’s book by Dr. Seuss, who was by all accounts a Grinch himself. It was titled “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and was adopted into a popular television special in 1966. In an instant people with anti-holiday spirit and growly disposition were indelibly tagged as partisans of that scowling hermit with green fur, red eyes, and boots who lives in an isolated cave near Whoville.
Now exuberant Christmas lovers had just what they needed to characterize and lambast the nay sayers, “Don’t be a Grinch,” causing the justly labeled Grinches to writhe and squirm. Just as they deserve. We all know it’s fun — and de rigueur — to pick on each and every Grinch we know.
It’s a question of dates.
After the fall in 1815 of Napoleon and his gimcrack empire, a peace conference was convened in Vienna to divvy up the spoils. Participants included Russia, England, Prussia, Austria and — drum roll — the France now ruled again by its Bourbon dynasty and represented by the Prince de Talleyrand. One day Tsar Alexander I of Russia, who always made such a bad impression as he rattled on about God and morality, was being particularly insufferable on the matter of how to divide the Kingdom of Saxony, which had, in his imperial view, stayed loyal to Napoleon a little too long. Its king, he insisted, should be losing half his country, or more.
Talleyrand, polished, aristocratic to his manicured fingertips, the ultimate cynic and realist, scanned his colleagues, each of whom (but the English) had made deals with Bonaparte, and renigged on them, snapped out that toxic phrase, “That, sire, is a question of dates.”
And so it is with our Scrooges, our Grinches.
The person who wants no Christmas festivities at all, just strict, gloomy adherence to what they suppose has been ordained and sanctified…. are Scrooges to the people who want the Christmas season to exist for a day or two, but not more. These, in turn, get dubbed as Grinches by those who want more… and there are always those who do. And so it goes…
… merchants trying (especially nowadays) to make up for one punk month after another, delving deeper into the calendar….
… thereby fueling yelps of outrage and righteousness from folks who raise the cry of too much self-seeking commercialism too early…
… thereby forcing those who might even agree in theory, to push the adamant seasonal marketing forward and forward again, as an act of mercantile preservation and profit.
Each says, “Enough is enough”; each points fingers and mouths frantic imprecations; each postures, preens, pouts, and always acts and speaks as if truth lived in their house and only their house. So there!
Whoa! The baby at the center of Christmas has indeed been thrown out with the bath water, and this will never do. Thus some thoughts of reconciliation, offered humbly and with trepidation.
Christmas has had a significant commercial aspect since the three wise men of the Orient, who came so far and at such inconvenience, approached the manger and offered their expensive presents. Did they just happen to find such offerings — gold, frankincense, and myrrh — in their saddlebags? Doubtful. More likely, they had gone shopping at one of the great bazaars along the way; such bazaars, blazing with the riches of the rich lands of the East, were the malls of their times… even unto parking their camels, always malodorous and mean spirited. In such a place, even the most fastidious desires of the most demanding could be met, including those who shopped for the King of Kings, for whom they employed their most discriminating tastes and ample means, never rushed. Thus, commercialism and Christmas go hand in hand… as they always have.
These suggestions will help you cope with and better enjoy this best of all holidays:
1) Let every man set his own acceptable level for just the amount of Christmas he desires. A laissez faire attitude is not just useful, but mandatory. Stop worrying about whether the man next door is asking too much or too little from the holiday and instead concentrate on making yours the best ever.
2) Leave the merchants alone. They have had a bad year; even if we think they are going over board, let them get on with it without our jeremiads, lamentations and snide remarks. Where would we be at Christmas, after all, without them?
3) Remember Henry Ford II’s celebrated line, “Never complain, never explain”. Since the very inception of Christmas the Thought Police have attempted to coerce uniformity. Mr. Ford was right… you owe it to no one and nobody to adhere; simply believe in your own way and style. As the song says, “Have yourself a merry little Christmas…”
4) Select a few of your favorite Christmas carols and seasonal preferences and load them into your audio player. You’ll be a lot happier when you enter some establishment with music you detest, no matter how venerable, if you can hear the tunes you particularly like.
And one more thing, whether the Christmas you celebrate is long or short, the single day itself, or the 12 days with five gold rings and lords a-leaping, or something else altogether, remember this: the gift you should most give and be most fortunate to receive is love… it is the only true and essential element. All else pales beside it.
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About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com . Check out Massive Traffic Ultimatum -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=sk9BRJWy

Are you an entrepreneur? Check these crucial attributes and see if you really measure up. (You probably don’t.)

September 24, 2011 | Author: Jeffrey Lant | Posted in Dr. Jeffrey Lant’s Article Archive

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author’s program note. This is an article about bold, visionary, business risk- takers called “entrepreneurs”. Such people, by their intelligence, diligence, and shear bravado, overawe movie and sports stars in public awareness and regard and dwarf any renown which may come with mere public office, even the most high.
Entrepreneurs are the heroes of our age; never have they been more discussed, emulated, venerated and even worshipped as they are right now. On campuses around the nation and the world, the giants of entrepreneurial fame draw standing room only crowds while mere authors, statesmen, and musicians take second place, or worse.
Oh, yes, these are the heady days for entrepreneurs. It is no wonder you wish to enroll yourself amongst their ranks. But are you really cut out to be an entrepreneur? This article will make that clear, one way or the other.

To put you in the right frame of mind, I’ve selected the theme music for the hit television series “Star Trek”, which celebrates those who boldly go where no man has gone before. This music was composed by Alexander Courage for the series which debued in 1966. It is highly suitable for those who don’t merely move into the future… they create it. You can easily find it in any search engine. Get it now… turn up the volume… and closely follow the points in this article which will make it clear whether you will captain your own Starship Enterprise, or not…
What is an entrepreneur? Let’s start with the definition.
Entrepreneur was originally a French word taken over lock, stock and barrel by the English speaking world, much to the dismay of the Academie Francaise, official guardian of the French language. Its definition is “One who undertakes to start and conduct an enterprise or business, assuming full control and risk.” Now let’s see if you are this person.

1) Entrepreneurs see the world not just as it is… but as it should be. From this fundamental fact about entrepreneurs all other facts derive.
Scratch an entrepreneur and you’ll find a person who is not just tinkering with human reality today… but has been tinkering with it right from the get-go, even from the cradle. They never see just what is… in their mind’s eye they see each and every situation as it can be… must be; they have only to do their bit.

2) Entrepreneurs say with Harry S. Truman, who proved as president of these United States to have the soul and inclinations of an entrepreneur, that “You can’t have anything worth while without difficulties”. And, “Mistakes would be made. No one who accomplished things could expect to avoid mistakes. Only those who did nothing made no mistakes.”
Those without the blood and fiber of an entrepreneur live their lives in chagrined remembrance for all the mistakes, errors, miscalculations and bonehead decisions they have already made… and are sure, given the chance, they will make again. This paralyzes them… for they are sure that when they decide, that decision will be wrong. On this destructive basis no progress is ever possible.
Entrepreneurs are very different.
Each and every decision made opens the possibility for error. This is the real world in which entrepreneurs live and flourish… accepting whatever transpires as yet another valuable learning step, as they walk the road to improving the human condition.

3) Entrepreneurs are “people-people”. They understand their work, all their work, is for people, unlike those without the entrepreneurial wherewithal who, in this withering phrase, “love humanity but hate people.”
An entrepreneur looks at a given situation and sees people unable to fulfill their God- given potential because of a condition, an obstacle which can, given the idea, the desire, the resources, and their own time and energy, be changed, improved, or even eradicated, sent to the scrap heap of invidious, enfeebling circumstances that the collectivity of entrepreneurs and their active, can-do ways have  removed as obstacles to the perfectibility of mankind.
In short, while others immerse themselves in fallibilities and dismay, the entrepreneur activates Teddy Roosevelt’s celebrated recommendation to “do the best you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.”
They know to the depths of their being that there is nothing so wrong that cannot be righted by the sum and substance of their parts, their humanity, their problem-solving capabilities… and that je ne sais quoi that distinguishes them from the run of mankind which sees obstacles as finalities… not challenges which they can meet… with grace, joy, and gratitude that they had the chance to serve.

4) Entrepreneurs crash, burn, hurt… and get up to try it all over again.
In the international best-seller “Zorba the Greek” (published 1964), author Mikis Theodarakis writes of a young English entrepreneur who gets entangled with and wiped out by the bad advice and worse assistance of Zorba, who is at best a con man. He follows Zorba’s catastrophic advice… and in a memorable scene watches as the Rube Goldberg machine Zorba has created collapses, costing the entrepreneur every cent he has… and more. For an instant, stunned by the implosion of all his prospects, every dream and expectation, he is stupified, angry, lost. Then he shows the true grit of even the grieving entrepreneur, “Teach me to dance,” he asks  Zorba, not at all the line we expected… but should have. It is what a real entrepreneur would say… and dance the sirtaki.
This is how entrepreneurs face catastrophe… for as Thomas Alva Edison, revered of American entrepreneurs, said, â? I haven’t failed, I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work ât , commenting on what he learned from the exasperation of years of “failure.”  Sublime.

5) Entrepreneurs uplift, never cast down.
No one knows better than an entrepreneur how difficult the improvement of the human condition can be; certainly those without the entrepreneurial disposition and experience cannot.
Thus, on any opportunity, wherever they happen to be, entrepreneurs lift up, encourage, and ease the way. Thus they administer in friendship and human solidarity essential truths and elements which have benefited them and from which hopeful others may benefit, too.
Entrepreneurs carry with them at all times, truths and insights derived from their unique vantage points, practical advice and admonitions, steady advice, always utilitarian, on what to do… and what not to. They never think, as those without entrepreneurial proclivities do, that to give to others is to diminish yourself. Their point of view is radically different — and always helpful.
And one more thing…
Entrepreneurs, however much they have managed to achieve alone, know that their success is always predicated upon the dedicated assistance and endeavors of the crucial people who constitute their team. It is their honor, their pride and responsibility to recognize and thank these sinews of their success, and they are glad to do so.
When was the last time you did as much for the good people who have helped you? Isn’t it time you did, you who aspire to be an entrepreneur?

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About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com . Check out Massive Traffic Ultimatum ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=sk9BRJWy

What a great idea! Wish I’d thought of it! Cambridge, Massachusetts and MIT inaugurate Entrepreneur Walk of Fame.

Posted on September 22, 2011

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s program note. I live and work in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just steps away from Harvard Sq. This compact area along the MBTA’s Red Line arguably contains the greatest concentration of brain power and technological innovation on earth. I’m here to tell you about a great new idea hereabouts which you’ll want to come and see.
To set the background for this article and get you in the mood, I’ve selected “You have to admit it’s getting better” by the Beatles, 1967, from “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band.” It’ll certainly get your blood flowing… a feeling every innovator young or old knows well and just cannot get enough of. Go to any search engine, find the tune, then crank up the sound and prepare to do your bit to ensure the future will keep getting better all the time….
Just the other day, September 16, 2011, something new, creative, innovative and long overdue was inaugurated the shortest walk from the Kendall Square MBTA stop in Cambridge. It’s the brand spanking new Entrepreneur Walk of Fame… and I say, “Hurrah!” and special thanks to the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a handful of foundations and groups. The walk celebrates the essential importance of entrepreneurs, people who improve the nation and the world through invention and innovation, not least by being engines for the creation of new jobs; a task our nation’s capital and its bewildered office holders just cannot seem to do better.
For openers, the founders of the walk have honored 7 grand entrepreneurs, some of whom we know well, others we may not know at all, for all that we have enjoyed in one way or another the fruit of their experience and experiments. They include…
* Inventor Thomas A. Edison.
* Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates.
* Apple Inc. cofounder Steve Jobs.
* Lotus Development Corp. founder Mitch Kapor.
* Genentech cofounder Bill Swanson.
* Hewlett Packard Co. founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard.
How they were chosen.
Once the idea of the walk had been approved and financing was arranged, prospective honorees were canvassed… and, ultimately, inclusion criteria determined. These stated that those honored must be respected US entrepreneurs who developed an innovative, technology-based idea into a billion-dollar company, and who are known — and respected — as risk takers, thereby embodying the essence of the entrepreneur. They don’t need local ties, but must have had a big impact — creating jobs, or an entire industry. In short, these are the biggest of the big fry.
Why each entrepreneur was chosen.
The selection committee for the first seven honored released its reasons for each entrepreneur selected.
* Bill Gates… for creating the software industry.
* Steve Jobs… who embodies “bouncing back from adversity.”
* Bob Swanson… “showed that anything was possible. Created the biotech industry when he was in his 20s.”
* Bill Hewlett and David Packard. They “demonstrated the power of the team.”
* Mitch Kapor (always a local favorite). “Changed the entrepreneurial culture.”
* Thomas Edison, grandaddy of entrepreneurs, “created both inventions and a company.”
Inspirational quotes.
Each star in the walk is amplified by an inspirational quote. Here are a few of them…
Mitch Kapor’s “Building a workplace which engages a diversity of employees and brings out their best makes a far greater contribution than financial success alone.”
Bill Hewlett’s “Men and women want to do a good job, and if they are provided the proper environment, they will do so.”
Bill Gates’ offered this: “Never before in human history has innovation offered the promise of so much to so many in so short a time.” (I must say, Gates’ line is the best written, owing everything to Winston Churchill’s immortal remarks on the RAF pilots in the Battle of Britain. But then Gates had a Harvard education, though he did drop out long before he would have graduated.)
Interactive, innovative.
Innovatively, the walk also offers pedestrians such interactive stories as how Steve Jobs famously started Apple in his garage and how Gates left Harvard to become the richest man in the history of mankind, a tale from which restless undergrads have drawn all the wrong implications, to the chagrin of their worried parents who urge patience and the security of the degree Gates tossed away without a second thought. His parents worried, too….
Thoughts on entrepreneurs.
Let’s begin with the dictionary definition of the word, always a good place to start: “One who organizes, manages, and assumes the risk of a business or enterprise.” Entrepreneurs are bold, action-oriented, visionary, energetic, energizing. They can see the future and they want to do, will do, whatever it takes to deliver it. They are thrilled by challenges, not oppressed by them… and as a result they shape the lives of the rest of us… and reap unimaginable rewards… kudos, deference, money and — no matter how nerdy — the cute boy or girl of their dreams. It is no wonder, then, that the great age of the entrepreneur is here, now! It is a marvelous thing to be the cynosure of every eye with the deepest of pockets.
That’s why — right this minute — young men and (increasingly) young women throw off the comfortable and predictable to risk everything, knowing that failure is always a possibility, but proceeding anyway…
These folks, crucial to the economy, to the job market, and to the good of all, deserve just as much help as they can get. The Entrepreneur Wall of Fame and its many activities are an excellent start. Bill Aulet, managing director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, and his team should take a bow….
But it is not enough…
1) Every presidential candidate needs to visit the Walk of Fame and the MIT Entrepreneurship Center and see what it takes to make a better future.
2) The president of these United States should especially be invited. He knows nothing about the needs of entrepreneurs… and as a Harvard Law student never went near Kendall Sq. and MIT, and we are all suffering accordingly.
3) We need to establish and enthusiastically develop and promote a cabinet-level Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship where we do everything possible for the crucial people reshaping the world to general advantage.
And one more thing, we ought to chastise roundly the candidates who lambast Cambridge, Harvard, MIT and, in general, the brainiacs here about. Such attacks are despicable, usually are made by those on the right in an attempt to frighten the uneducated, and get us no where. America needs entrepreneurs and their daring; let’s celebrate, not trash, them, for they are coming up with the ideas we need, not you.
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About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com . Check out Massive Traffic Ultimatum ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=sk9BRJWy

Reflections upon the completion of 350 articles of commentary in the current series; what it takes to write commentary worth reading.

September 14, 2011 | Author: Jeffrey Lant | Posted in Dr. Jeffrey Lant’s Article Archive

Napoleon's office, Malmaison

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
It is still dark outside my brilliantly lit Cambridge, Massachusetts office at 5:31 a.m. Eastern time, September 14, 2011. I am happy not only because I have just a few minutes ago completed my article of the day… but because this is the 350th article in my current series. Today’s article was a series of way out on a limb predictions about the 2012 American elections; prognostications at once cheeky and magisterial. Quick, can you say President Rick Perry?
It occurred to me upon the completion of this article that I owed it to my millions of online readers, to posterity, and to myself to explicate my view of what constitutes superior commentary and how to provide it. Incipient commentators will want to know… and it is always a wise idea to record your side of any given matter before successors mangle, distort and rearrange the facts.
Where my commentary is written.
My office is situated across the street from Harvard Law School, a place of renown amongst whose graduates are the current president of the United States, the chief justice of the United States, and 5 of the 8 associate justices. It is a place where words matter and where students are instructed in the writing of limpid, precise, meaningful prose. It is a powerful example to have before oneself every day, and I strive to maintain these standards and be guided by them.
The actual room in which I write is unique. It resides on a piece of property originally owned by the Reverend Charles Follen, Harvard College’s first professor of both the German language (1825) and of gymnastics and physical education (1826). His abbreviated career at Harvard ended in 1827, perhaps because of his advanced political opinions.
Professor Follen was a reformer, an apt example for me. He wished, of course, to bring the latest advances in German pedagogy to Harvard… and he was also a rabid abolitionist at a time before such a viewpoint was acceptable. His views were so extreme they affronted his colleagues and neighbors who were undoubtedly pleased when a boat on which he was traveling from New York foundered on January 14, 1840. Dead prophets are so convenient… and it is safe to name myriad roads and places after them, as they memorialized the deceased Follen who no longer roiled the peace of their comfortable consciences. But here’s what’s important about Follen as far as I’m concerned. He had rage about the status quo, an acute desire to change and improve it, and moral superiority. All are useful to the commentator, and the spirit of Herr Doktor Follen envelope and reinvigorate me.
I call this room the “Imperial Webcast Facility” and that is accurate, if a trifle grandiloquent.
I used the word “imperial” for several reasons. First, it was a major subject of mine at Harvard, where I studied principally European history (from 1969), taking the M.A. degree in 1970 and the Ph.D. in 1975.
Second, I call it “imperial” because of the portraits and signed photographs which inhabit this space along with me. These include the boy Phillippe d’Anjou (born 1640) who became Philip V of Spain. Just 17 when he was made king by the decision of Louis XIV, he became the longest reigning Spanish monarch ever. He was never actually called an emperor but as ruler of 1/6 of the globe we may confer this courtesy.
His portrait by Henri Gascars, portrait painter to the Royal Children of France, Spain and England, is quite possibly unique… for when his Spanish majesty was a mere French duke he was of no importance whatsoever. Perhaps Gascars felt put upon painting such an insignificant subject; if so, I trust he kept his sentiments to himself, for King Philip was of a vengeful disposition. In any event it is a lovely picture of a young man elevated to rule by small pox and God’s will.
Two emperors of Austria hang near their earlier cousin of Spain, Joseph II (reigned 1764- 1790) and his brother Leopold II (reigned 1790-1792). These were just two of the many siblings of unlucky Marie Antoinette. Both pictures of these imperial brothers came to me in shocking condition, but the careful ministrations of my long-term London conservator Simon Gillespie brought them back to majesty.
Joseph’s portrait was by Josef Hickel, a well known painter who fathered an even better known painter son. It’s an artistic rendering that does full justice to the aesthetic man known to history as sublime Mozart’s patron. As for the painting of the Emperor Leopold, it is exceedingly rare because it shows him as Grand Duke of Tuscany, a training position for younger sons of the dynasty.
The room is packed with one royal, imperial, grand ducal and noble artifact after another, including two signed photographs of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, assassinated in 1914 along with his morganatic wife Sophie, the proximate cause of World War I. The 1890 photo of the young Franz is on my desk where I can stare at leisure into the eyes of this man of destiny. It is part of the palpable history that irradiates this special room. But important though this is, it is not the most important thing in this room…
… that would be the essential tools of the imperium, the keyboard where I compose, the screen where I daily webcast… and the unceasing flow of commentary from the one to the other. These tools and the messages are all mine, but the arrangement owes much to the office of another imperator, Napoleon.
When he was a young man on the make, Napoleon met the love of his life, Josephine, a woman made for love and pleasure who adored luxury and never minded the bills; someone, she knew, would always pay. That someone more often than not was her second husband, General Buonaparte. In 1798 he left his faithless wife to seek fame and fortune in Egypt. While he was gone inventing himself and his legend, she purchased a lovely country house neither could afford. She cared not; he was enraged… and so Malmaison, the estate where both were happiest, came to be.
In it, the soon-to-be emperor had an office, not so very much larger than mine. In it were fine examples of the grand and grandiose Empire style, so imposing, including his desk and chair. Of course such artifacts are off limits, never to be touched, much less used. But I knew at once I wanted an office like this… and so, while the slothful guards took a long break I sat down in the chair, positioned myself just so and reviewed every millimeter, opened every drawer… then starred out the window to the verdant lawn on which the couple Bonaparte found happiness together as they strolled and loved each other.
I was happy there, too… and mulled over what Napoleon would add to this room were he alive today.
The answer was obvious for a man who spent his life communicating to manage and administer his empire… live 24 hour a day webcasting … and so that is what I added to my international communications center and from which I talk to the world en masse and to every individual like you. Right now, there are over 100 people here… that number waxes and wanes throughout the day and night, but it is never without visitors. Now you must consider yourself invited for this is a place of culture, humanity, a progressive outlook and a can-do attitude, where learning is valued, solutions sought for grave social issues and personal dilemmas, and where the focus is always on uplifting, improving, enhancing… just like it should always be for every commentator… and is most assuredly the way it is for me.
* * * *
About The Author

How to read an auction catalog and intelligently participate in auctions worldwide.

How to read an auction catalog and intelligently participate in auctions worldwide.

August 29, 2011 | Author: Jeffrey Lant | Posted in Dr. Jeffrey Lant’s Article Archive

Dr. Jeffrey Lant

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s program note. The autumn auction catalogs have begun to pour in, a stunning library of things rare, notable, luxurious, just the kinds of things you know are necessary for the “look” that screams your name. You are — or want to be — a collector on an international scale… but you don’t know how to get started. You are seized with curiosity for what’s available but need a knowledgeable friend to show you the ropes. I am that friend, and it’s time to start your education.
I have selected Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” for today’s background music. Written in 1874, it is lush, grandiose, opulent in the Slavic style, just the kind of music that gets you in the mood for seeking the treasures which will enhance your life and present you to the world just as you like. Go now to any search engine and find the rendition of your choice; make sure to include the celebrated “Kiev Gate” portion. Then come along with me as I open a spectacular world to you… by giving you the practical details you need to participate.
A word about your guide… me!
For the last twenty years and more, I have been an active, even obsessive, participant in the auctions presented by the greatest auction houses in the world… Sotheby’s and Christie’s in New York, Rome, Paris, London, Amsterdam… Bukowskis in Stockholm… the Dorotheum in Vienna. Each sale always had a catalog… and I have learned what only other collectors, connoisseurs, museum officials etc. know: how to read an auction catalog and know the essential, hitherto unpublished facts, the facts which crack the code on participating successfully in these auctions. For you see, what the cognoscenti know they are not anxious to share with you. They want to hoard this information and keep it from you; the better to gather the treasures of the earth unto themselves and themselves alone… without being bothered by… you! That changes today…
The pivotal fall sales of the world’s great auction houses are now underway; nearly daily from now until the great pre-Christmas December sales take place, the eye-popping, mouth-watering catalogs arrive to titillate, frustrate, unsettle… for that is what these and all auction catalogs are so artfully designed to do… they aim to plant the seed of desire in your mind and so haunt you night and day. I know that siren song too well; it has insinuated itself into my brain often and expensively over and over again. And if you have an insistent eye for beauty and a need to acquire, it will insinuate itself into yours, too.
First, start today.
Success in auctions is based on these key factors:
1) the development of an “eye”
2) doing the necessary homework for each item of your interest
3) finding and listening to your experts
4) setting and living within a realistic budget.
Let’s look at these points one at a time:
1) Developing your “eye”.
Great collectors, sage and savvy collectors, are people who can see within even the most battered and mistreated object not just what it is now… but what it once was and with tender loving care can be again. This skill is pivotal and can only be developed by constant and detailed artifact review. ALL collectors know the value of doing their homework. The development of the Internet has made this easy, for the information you need is as near as your computer.
Gathering this information long precedes acquiring objects or having the necessary funds to do so. Thus, start visiting the websites of the auction houses mentioned above. ALL now post their catalogs online available for your scrutiny 24 hours a day, a benefit your parents and grandparents could only have imagined. With these e-resources you are able to be better informed than any previous generation of collectors. Use this advantage to develop the all-important eye.
The “eye” that it takes a lifetime to acquire through constant viewing, reviewing, and careful judgements is not something you can rush. Its development is predicated on constant catalog review, reading what experts have to say, attending museum lectures and events… assiduously working on seeing, perceiving, looking beyond the surface into the soul and meaning of each object. This is a lifetime’s occupation and should be undertaken as early as possible. People who do not do this are and always will be at the mercy of the market and will never develop a collection of merit that showcases your impressive knowledge and success on the never-ending hunt.
2) Doing the necessary homework.
Many wealthy people buy art and artifacts by the yard, advised by decorators who may know something about arrangement but who almost universally lack the essential knowledge of history, provenance, and underlying value and significance possessed by real collectors.
Like it or not (and you’d better like it) all true collectors understand the need for intense analysis of any item in which they’re interested. This information comes first by studying the catalog; then requesting a “condition report” from the auction house. This reports consists of what the auction house knows about the object in question. It will be honest but it may well raise more questions than it answers. If so, check the catalog to get the name of the auction house’s designated authority on this object. Either email or call. You will find these experts personable, candid, anxious to be helpful. Just remember at all times: they want to sell this object, and so condition reports must always been read with a grain of salt.
3) Finding and listening to your experts.
Because auction house experts all work to sell, you need your own experts, people who have no other thought than honestly advising — you. Where do you find such people? Auction house experts can help, by making referrals. They will know everyone who is anyone in the field. You will need their expertise. Take full advantage of it. As I can attest these folks, zealous in your service, can spare you the pain of expensive, embarrassing mistakes. Listen carefully too what they tell you, especially once you know they have that all-important eye.
4) Setting and living within a realistic budget. Have you begun to master the key points above? Good! Now it’s time to gather the funds you need to participate. Begin at once.
Depending on your particular area of interest, you may be able to start for as low as a few hundred dollars. Start small, start careful, go slow, as you come to know the vicissitudes of auctions. Remember, these great auction houses have existed for hundreds of years. Move forward with due deliberation. But don’t let deliberation become procrastination. Care is needed but so is the ability to take action as necessary, while always setting and living within your inviolable budget.
Last Words.
You are now ready to begin one of the most important and exciting journeys of your life… as you commence your walk down the red carpet towards the most beautiful, valuable, and important objects on earth. One last thing: don’t expert those who don’t appreciate such things to appreciate you and your sublime and never-ending search. Don’t let their uninformed remarks and blindness infuriate or irritate. By following these steps you will leave such people in the dust while embracing all the connoisseurs, experts, and knowledgeable friends who henceforth enrich your life. Be sure to include me amidst their number… and let me know how with this candid advice you get on with your passion.
* * * * *
About The Author

Skype: homeprofitcoach

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An open letter to every ambitious junior manager in the world from your most dedicated supporter, me.

Posted on August 23, 2011

An open letter to every ambitious junior manager in the world from your most dedicated supporter, me.

August 23, 2011 | Author: Jeffrey Lant | Posted in Dr. Jeffrey Lant’s Article Archive

 
By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s program note. In 1961 New York City went to work with a smile on its face and a can’t-help-but-like-it rhythm on the brain. It was Robert Morse and the ensemble of “How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” by author Shepherd Mead and composer Frank Loesser.
It is a story of corporate ascension, told through the mischievous eyes of J. Pierrepont (Ponty) Finch…. and, if corporate elysium was your goal, you just couldn’t get enough of this “I’m destined for success” production.
One of the most clever tunes in this so-very-clever show was “I believe in you,” in which Ponty stands in front of a mirror and serenades his most enduring supporter — himself. Now, before you begin this article about your success, go to any search engine to find this number. Then get prepared to let the irrepressible Morse, with that killer grin, provide the musical incense to waft you on your way.
Dear Junior Manager….
Every successful person in the world (including Ponty) has had something which you too must get… and which is now available to you and not a moment too soon.
Woodrow Wilson had Colonel House. Franklin D. Roosevelt had Harry Hopkins. Queen Victoria had Prince Albert while Prince Albert had Baron Stockmar… In other words, part of the kit of every successful person everywhere is the disinterested, devoted-to-you, completely honest and fearlessly outspoken confidential advisor. And now you join the ranks of these with your brand new completely candid counselor, coach, and goad… me. Nice to meet you, partner!
Here’s your situation. You are now a junior manager, a member of your company’s management cadre. Your foot on the first rung of business success, just. Congratulations, the thousand mile journey starts with a single step. Now the game becomes moving up the corporate ladder as quickly and nimbly as possible, leaving your less agile and well advised competitors in the dust. Here’s your first installment of insider information.
!) Your attitude determines your altitude.
Did you ever notice how really successful people maintain an upbeat “can do” attitude, even when (maybe especially when) the going gets rough? As Henry Ford II famously said, “You think you can. You think you can’t. Either way you’re right.” Success seekers know that the right attitude is the essential attribute for facing each day of what can often be a most complicated, difficult, and daunting business, your life.
2) Know the players.
In every organization, there are people who matter… and people who don’t. Your job, whilst always being pleasant and amicable to all, is to identify the power players, the players who are where they are with the powers they have for one reason and one reason only — to abet you in your upward mobility. Successful people are discriminating people. They know time is fleeting and that each day is an opportunity to move up… movement that can be either assisted or blocked by those currently higher in the pecking order. It is your job to make a knowledgeable friend with the business, someone older, wiser, better placed than you are… someone like the CEO’s long-time secretary and executive assistant. She knows things which you need to know. Make it a point to introduce yourself…. start the relationship off by being bright, cheerful, friendly, and always respectful and grateful for their willingness to assist — you. Make it a point particularly to greet this important contact daily; insinuate by bringing a dough-nut, a flower from the garden… and always your best manners and winning smile, always necessary.
Important insights: never wait for an introduction to the people you want and need to meet. Presumption is the root of success… presume that these people want to meet someone who’s as dedicated to the success of the enterprise as you are. You can, of course, after you’ve begun to develop that crucial relationship with your important inside source, ask that individual to introduce you. Remember, timing is everything; you cannot ask for introductions too soon… and you should never wait too long to request them. Too, you must never ask for too many. You’ll find out from your confidential source who is essential for you to know for openers… keep your eye on meeting, and impressing, this person, a rung in your ladder.
3) With friendship towards all, with intimacy with few.
Have you ever watched the people of your business as they come to work, who they greet, josh and joke with — and ignore. Now hear this: EVERYONE in your company, from the obvious highest to the often forgotten lowest has a place in your upward mobility. Most people, not as well advised as you of course, close relationships which it is easy and useful to maintain. Sure the custodian may not be the sharpest tool in the shed; it costs you nothing to treat this person with friendliness and good manners; someday you’ll be glad for that relationship, because I can assure you he has information that you will need… and which you’ll be grateful he gives you. In short, never disdain anyone. That is what the unenlightened and feckless do… not you!
4) Listen to the grumblers; never become one.
In every company there exists a group of grumblers, who have long ago forgotten (if indeed they ever knew) that assisting the business grow and thrive must be their goal, not denigrating it at every turn. Such grumblers are often headed by an overweight diva named Trudy whose motor mouth and nasty hygiene offend everyone. You must learn how to handle such people, just so. Always listen respectfully to what they say; there may, after all, be something worth hearing mixed into the bile. Maintain friendly, professional relations. But never, never join or be perceived as a part of this noisome claque. Such people are poison to your certain ascension.
Your task with such people is to establish and maintain what diplomatists call “correct” relations, relations which are totally and completely professional, which keep the door open, but never demand you go through. Remember, information is power. Remember, too, ALL information is useful at a particular point. Thus gather what is useful, to be retained and used later as necessary and useful for — you.
5) Be conscious at all times.
People who succeed are people of discernment, perception, judgement. They do not, as those who fail do, ever stop being aware. Too many people, including many who work at your company (but never including you) have long ago slipped into the rut of merely going through the motions of what is required to do their job. They have lost consciousness of what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how what they are doing can be used for their advancement. Dropping into this state of oblivion is absolutely fatal and can never be allowed.
You must do things very differently.
If you want the kind of organizational advancement with all its perqs as you say you do, then you must stay alert, conscious, always scrutinizing, analyzing, aiming for complete and total awareness of your situation and what you must do every day to advance, advance, advance!
And so our session for today ends, the first I trust of many. For I intend to provide you, over a long duration, the kind of rare and insightful advice at once desirable, hard to find and yet so necessary. By all means, come visit my blog, a site entirely dedicated to your success and always awaiting you. For you see, as Robert Morse sang in his signature number, “I believe in you…”
* * * * *
About The Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Jeffrey Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.
 Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell <a http://HomeProfitCoach.com  Check out 7 Figure Success Formula ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=ij6goAXm

Home truths from an old hand about what it takes to succeed online. You may not like them but you need them!

Posted on August 8, 2011

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Every day thousands of people worldwide wake up and, hey presto!, have a great idea: I’m going to set up a business for myself online. Tons of people have done that and oodles of money is being made.
Now hear this: you are now and truly entering the twilight zone… and I want to help you get through it with maximum success and minimum frustration.
Who am I? Well, I am an old Internet hand who, since 1994, has made his primary work place the Internet and has reaped over the years a very ample reward. Now it is time for me to share with you some of the lessons of these years of learning, growth, and profits.
I know what you’re thinking: “Yikes, another old geezer from ancient times trying to help me by offering useless advice that never in a million years could possibly apply to me and my situation.” Is that how you feel when those more experienced than you are (and more successful) offer up their nuggets of wisdom? If so, reconsider and feast your eyes on this:
Item: Most home-based Internet businesses fail unless they have certain crucial criteria in place. Without these factors, you will fail, too.
Item: Your online business is most vulnerable if you have never previously been involved in business and have limited Internet experience. The failure rate here is staggering.
Item: You are at severe risk if you are trying to run a one-person online business and have no one else to advise and counsel you. This is very likely the situation in which you find yourself right this minute. You will soon discover why one is the loneliest — and least successful — number.
Now, have I got your attention?
The minute you decided you wanted to make money online, you became a failure waiting to happen. That’s why you must pay close attention to the recommendations that follow. Not only are they the result of many successful years online, they are heartfelt, because online helpful friends are few and far between… and should be listened to with the utmost respect, even if you don’t like what they’re telling you.
Home truth number 1: Life online for most would-be Internet entrepreneurs is nasty, brutish and short. It looks like this: decide to have an online business, get a website, then…. absolutely nothing. No traffic! No customers! No money! You will know this description applies to you very, very soon if you are being at all honest with yourself.
How long have you been trying to make money online?
How much have you made?
How much have you spent to launch this e-enterprise?
How much time have you wasted?
What makes you think tomorrow will be better than yesterday?
These are tough questions… and most online business wannabees never do demand answers from themselves… or at least not before it’s too little too late.
Home truth number 2: You don’t know enough about developing your crucial prospect list.
People who make money online know that the list is the business and the business is the list. Do you know this and are you focusing your expertise, time and money in developing that all important list? Or are you focusing on such inessential factors as the colors used on your website, your domain name, how many business cards you should order, etc? All such questions collectively do not have the importance and significance of this single query: what did you do today, yesterday, the day before yesterday and the day before that to build the list, the list that is the business and from whence all your profits will derive, now and forever?
Home truth number 3: You have no marketing experience or success.
Who succeeds online? People who know what marketing is, have important marketing experience, and know what marketing they must know and do daily. Sadly, the wannabees have absolutely none of these things and their lack is both obvious and fatal. You cannot succeed in business online (or off for that matter) with only rudimentary marketing skills, hoping that that will be enough. It won’t be. A thorough practical knowledge of reality-based marketing is essential. You proceed at your peril without it.
Home truth number 4: Success online means having the ability to write cogent advertising and other copy.
How are your customer-centered writing skills? The truth, please, and nothing but the truth.
Successful Internet entrepreneurs are to a person good customer-centered writers. Or if they’re not they have solved that problem by hiring someone who is. Thus, your question is this: can I write the necessary copy that gets prospects to stop in their tracks, pay attention, peruse the offer and product details, and act? Merely “thinking” you can write such copy is just not good enough. Would you go sailing in a leaky boat? Then don’t deceive yourself here either. Excellent copywriting skills are a must.
Home truth number 5: You’re not selling nearly enough products.
Want success online? Sell lots of products. Want even more success? Sell lots more. Success online directly correlates to how many products you sell and your skill in presenting them.
How many products are you selling today?
How many yesterday? The day before?
If you are not adding new products daily, you are handicapping your ability to make money online.
Every successful online entrepreneur is engaged in a strenuous search and discover mission aimed at finding more products.
Are you? If not, your Internet obsequies are near at hand.
Home truth number 6: You are not skilled in essential traffic generation techniques.
In real estate, it’s location, location, location.
Online, it’s traffic, traffic, traffic.
The sad truth is you traffic generation skills and experience are minimal, certainly inadequate to generate the necessary traffic that ensures success.
Hopefully you’ll admit this is true. Then, assuming you are willing to knuckle down and master traffic essentials, the better to create and grow your list, you at least have a prayer.
However, if you do not have the necessary traffic generation skills… and remain unwilling to say so and do something about it, you’re DOA… 100% certain to fail.
Home truth number 7… but I must cease and desist as my space for today is now at an end. There is, of course, much more I can tell you… and undoubtedly will. For now, promise me this: that you will attend closely to these deeply honest observations. And when you implement them successfully, you’ll let me know. I’d like to know how you’re getting on, with my help.
* * * * *
About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc. at www.worldprofit.com, providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Cash Renegade -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=to0kJkVU

After 17 successful years online, I know the secret of Internet success. I’m spilling the beans right here.

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s program note. Because today, August 1, 2011, is such a happy day, I wanted something suitably grand and festive to accompany this article; the kind of music that makes you want to jump up, throw up the sash on your window and, at the top of your voice, shout “Huzzah!”, because you want the rest of the too weary and downtrodden world to be as excited as you are. I’ve found that music.
It’s a royal German military march called “Hohenfriedberger marsch”, and you’ll find it in any search engine. Go get it now and let one of the most soaring of marches lift your spirits and put you in the right frame of mind to develop your own online empire into a place where such grandeur is an everyday event… and where you do so well your generosity of heart, mind and spirit match mine on this anniversary day.
Over the last 17 years online, I have talked to literally thousands of people who have begged, wheedled and pleaded with me to reveal the “secret” of Internet success. It is now my pleasure to tell you, tell all, withholding nothing.
1) Never say “How do I make money online?”. Say instead, “How can I help my customers achieve what they want?”
People who succeed online make a fetish of helping people. They know that if you give enough people what they want… you will surely and most assuredly get what you want.
This sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? A piece of cake. However, you must never underestimate the powerful pull of human ego, selfishness, and self- destructive avarice. In short, humans find it difficult to focus on others, rather than themselves. Yet it is and will always be these others who control your ability to get rich online.
I tell my marketing students “Your money is in their pockets,” the “their” being your customers. The only way to get it out is by completely changing your focus from yourself to…. them.
Cautionary note: Like everyone reading this article, you will pledge your online operations to complete customer centeredness… and for a day or two you will be an empathetic paragon. Then imperceptibly you will slide back into the inveterate selfishness that condemns so many Internet entrepreneurs to humiliating, unnecessary failure. Remember: humans are born selfish, but it is only the customer-centered who succeed. Post this message so that you never forget, for to the extent you do is the extent to which you’ll undercut and block your own success.
2) Make it easy for your customers to connect with you.
We live in an age of true communication marvels with a myriad of ways to connect, connect fast, connect now. The problem is, we don’t use them properly, rather infuriating customers by misusing these tools, or, worse, not using them at all… so that the age of instant contact becomes instead the age of thwarted contact. Are you one of the culprits?
First, review each and every means you have for people connecting with you, including email, telephone, fax, etc., etc.
Then review them as if you were the customer. Look at how you use them. When you use them. Even whether you use them.
Are you a customer enabler… or are you a customer frustrater and avoider? You’ll SAY that you are doing everything humanly possible to expedite and improve customer contact and communication. But in all likelihood you’re not. The only way you’re going to know is by acting like a customer, ascertaining just how easy (or difficult) you’ve made things. You’re likely to be amazed at the maze and obstacles you’ve erected to frustrate customer relations. As soon as you know, re-arrange things so that you don’t just THINK you are customer-centered, but actually are.
3) Make an offer… then make a better offer.
To make money, give things away. To make more money, give more things away.
The richest people online are those who give the most away. They spend their days not just creating and discovering useful new products and services. That’s necessary and essential for success… but it isn’t the key variable. That key variable is the extras, the special offer you’re going to give customers for acting NOW! In other words, the all-important offer.
Now hear this: OFFERS are what get people to buy now… thus, the better the offer, the faster the sale. It’s as simple as that. So, let’s see what you’re doing now and whether the offers you’re making will take you to the financial destiny you desire.
First, are you making any offers at all? You’d be surprised at how many entrepreneurs have a “take it or leave it” attitude about what they’re selling… punctuated with this killer proposition: “what I’m selling is so good, it sells itself.” This is one of the most foolish of propositions. Nothing, absolutely nothing, sells itself. But if you don’t have a special enticing, motivating offer with what you’re selling then you’ve cooked your own goose. Immediate re-thinking is necessary.
If you’re making some kind of offer, good for you. At least, you’ve got you r foot on the right road. Now let’s see whether you’ve got what it takes to move ahead. Review your offer in the light of what your competitors are doing, easy enough on the Web. If what you’re offering to induce immediate sale is only as good as (or less than) what your competitors are offering… then you’ve got a serious problem… and you need some serious action at once.
The offer you make, the offer that delivers the sales and the cash, must be demonstrably better than anything offered by anyone… and the customer must be able to see this at a glance….
4) Create a customer-centered blog and use it daily.
Over the last 17 years online there has been one astonishing development after another. One of the most important is the creation and development of blogging; it’s a device that every successful Internet entrepreneur understands and uses daily, the better to achieve more substantial success.
You will succeed online only to the extent you understand blogging and blog daily. Let’s start by helping you understand why it’s so important. A blog gives you the opportunity to send out advertisements daily, without risking your list as people do who email ads and nothing but ads. Your blog is anchored by useful articles and information. These client-centered articles and information protect the integrity of your list. So long as your ads are accompanied by this useful content, you can email your list regularly. Sending ads alone cannot achieve the desired objective; instead you’ll list will dwindle into insignificance.
Enjoy the game.
Successful online entrepreneurs know they’ve participating in the greatest game of our time, a game that delivers customers and customer sales 24 hours a day and can turn even the smallest home business into an unstoppable cash cow. And isn’t that just what you want?
Don’t wait another minute to get started. Put a smile on your face and set about the task before you, making liberal reference to these recommendations. It’s the way to ensue 17 years of success online, as I’ve had, with many more successful years after that.
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About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Jeffrey Lant is also a historian and author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com.Check out Above The Matrix -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=qc7oyPYE

If you’re lucky and work hard, you get the partners you need to be the business success you desire. Here’s a tribute to mine.

Posted on July 31, 2011

From the song Friendship: “If you’re ever in a jam, here I am / If you’re ever in a mess, S.O.S / If you ever feel so happy you land in jail / I’m your bail / It’s friendship …”
By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s program note. I didn’t have to think twice about the music to accompany this important article. It’s “Friendship” recorded in 1940 by Judy Garland and Johnny Mercer. You’ll find it in any search engine. Go now. When you find it, give a  listen. It’s a peppy little number, touched by American corniness and with a special message for wartime: we’re in this together.  And not just in war, either.
The well-lived life is a series of absolutely essential relationships… parents to child, sibling to sibling, spouse to spouse… and business partner to business partner.
Luck, of course, the kismet that erratically injects itself into the business of living, is a always an  unpredictable factor… but so is the ability to seize that opportunity when it knocks… and to grow it into your personal empire. This is  the story of one particular man who when serendipity came, seized it with gratitude and enthusiasm, riding it for a lifetime of security, profit, and, yes, affection, the plus perfect beneficiary of partnership, its care and maintenance.
“A fairy tale.”
My 87-year-old father, a lifetime of business success under his belt, one day startled me with his description of my nearly 20 year relationship with:Sandi Hunter and George Kosch. “It’s a fairy tale,” he said. “That’s what it is.” What he meant was that this was a relationship which, on the surface, was improbable, even unlikely; but which once existing one could never imagine being without. Let me tell you how it happened…
One day nearly 20 years go, the telephone rang in my Cambridge, Massachusetts office. It was George Kosch. This call was the result of a crucial business marketing insight and tactic: always make it easy for your customers to find you and connect with you. I was, I believe, the first author in the history of authors to include follow-up details (and a catalog, no less) in every copy of every book I wrote; (to date there have been 18 such). Such vital, business-building details were also included with every article as well as with the usual business marketing communications. They were also, and powerfully, supplied to the world each time I went on radio, television, and ultimately the ‘net. Over time this constant infusion of total follow-up information provided a fruitful critical mass that resulted in a constant stream of leads… and lucrative, fortune-building business.
George was one of the many people who responded… and responded… and responded. For I was that most normal and prosaic of prospects: the one who wasn’t paying much attention to what the marketer was trying so hard to get me to see. Like all prospects, when George The Marketer rang my phone (as, remember, he had been invited to do in one of my books) I had other fish to fry, other places to go, other people to meet. Now from a distance of 20 years (and everything therein) I shudder when I think of how nearly life might have been so very different. Here the “what if’s” surface…
What if he hadn’t bought the book?
What if he hadn’t read it?
What if he hadn’t believed my invitation to follow-up and so didn’t do it?
What if he had not followed-up when I, already comfortable and with too much to do, didn’t pay attention… since follow up was necessary and required to make the future happen?
Faced by such questions, one at last, and perforce, comes to believe, no matter how rooted in rationalism you may be, in the power of kismet… what my father called the “fairy tale”.
But George knew this about marketing: that if you have carefully selected your prospect… and you are sure of the benefits you can deliver… then, to get the benefits you want, you must try and try again to induce your prospect to stop! Pay attention! Get enthused! And, finally, desire what you wish him to desire. And George did just that, introducing me to a subject I knew nothing about… which was to become the basis for the remainder of my life. George Kosch, then as now, was a visionary… far ahead of everyday reality.
I didn’t know it, although it is to my credit that I quickly came to see, but I was firmly rooted in the past… while he was a link to the future. I had made a fortune from publishing books, specialized card-deck advertising, and from the laborious, fatiguing and very lucrative lecture circuit which at its height saw me lecturing on a regular basis at nearly 30 colleges and universities and at one professional association after another. It was a grueling pace. George offered something better: he offered the future… and no man can ever be offered a better, more compelling gift.
“The Offer”.
George snagged my attention finally and for good when he offered me, via his electronic bulletin board, the opportunity to bring my popular business columns (which appeared in both print and in my nationally syndicated radio program) to a wider audience. I didn’t need to be offered twice. Here’s why…
In those days, these bulletin boards were wildly popular. From our vantage point with the glorious Web in place, it may be difficult for some to conjure up their attraction, but it was substantial. I remember one never-to-be-forgotten dinner party I attended where every guest, posting messages throughout dinner, kept jumping up to see all the avalanche of responses which just kept pouring in. It was rude, of course… but it was undeniably exciting and eye-opening. George Kosch offered a way into The Way Things Would Be, Like It Or Not!
I so liked it, and was so intrigued, that I flew to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada… because, by then, I had an inkling that in this unlikely place, with its uncongenial temperatures, my future was to be found… and I was right.
There at the airport, young, good looking, friendly, curious of course about their guest, were George Kosch and Sandi Hunter. I can see this moment sharply in my mind’s eye. It was a meeting full of possibilities which became, through careful stages, probabilities… then certainties. I have been a student of humanity since the day my eyes first opened on the human comedy… here I found two of the best. The first impression was impressive; nothing that has happened since has done anything but improve it.
The three of us promptly decided on a partnership which I think I may safely say has proven so beneficial to us all — and the world we have served. Here are some of the reasons why it works so well:
1) We each have our fields of expertise and so defer to  the experts in their area. George takes care of the technology he knows so well; Sandi is an expert in Web design and handles all the myriad “back office” and customer service details. There her deft touch, efficiency, organization and, above all, kindness are put to the test daily. She never fails. I remain what I have always been, the marketing man, the creator of endless blog copy.
2) We say less  than we know. A  successful relationship is predicated upon empathy, discretion, a carefully nurtured ability to know what to say, how and when to say it. It means giving up the often destructive luxury of saying anything that comes to mind. This is what the young and careless do, thinking they are honest, when they are simply immature.
3) We value the others and say so. We are, they from Ontario, me from Illinois, by heritage reserved. But that only make our words, when given, the more affecting. We make it a point to remember… for it easy to take for granted that which must always be recalled and celebrated. We do not take each other for granted.
4) Above all else, we are there for each other. I have never had to struggle to make these fine people adhere to any undertaking; they have never had to remind me to do something promised. Lifelong relationships flourish because the people  involved do what they say they are going to do… their word indeed their bond.
With such people, success, while never inevitable, is likely… and so it has been.
Which is why, soon to be 65, I embrace each day with unbridled enthusiasm… for I know that I am making the next portion of the great adventure of my life with just the right people. When you find yours, grab on to them as if your life depends on it, for it does…
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About The Author
Howard Martell has re-published the rights to this article via Dr. Lant.
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A tale of the city. Someone to watch over me

Posted on July 26, 2011

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author’s program note.
This article will touch you more deeply than you might otherwise allow if you find one of the innumerable renditions of George Gershwyn’s “Someone To Watch Over Me”. (1926, from the often-revived musical “Oh, Kay!”) The one by the late chanteuse Amy Winehouse (given the tragic and squalid circumstances of her end) is both ironic and haunting for she most assuredly had no one to watch over her… much less save her from herself. Go to any search engine now, find the singer you like… play it once or twice…for this is the desired, unmistakable sound for today’s tale… It starts with a boy from the Prairies… “Know thyself!” is perhaps the most famous (and surely the shortest) command (and admonition) of our culture. Pausanias, a Greek writer of the second century A.D., had the words chiseled in the wall of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. There’s been plenty argumentation ever since, as curious offspring seek to live those words, fully, completely, ardently… … while protective parents, wiser to the world’s ways, say and will say to the end of the universe “Over my dead body, buster! And be back by 11… or else!” If I tell you, confess really, that I was the boy who always was home early and never (except for one notable occasion, too notable to tell you here) knew what transgressing against “or else” might mean, you will perhaps have an inkling about the subject of this tale. I was always “The Best Boy”, sheltered, protected, indulged… I was not insensible of my privileged situation… but deep within (so deep for years I didn’t even know the notion existed) there was a desire to taste forbidden fruit and find out what happened when you walked on the Wild Side in dead of night Others were anxious to help me out of my deep-seated predicament. Once, at university, a determined bunch of boys, affronted by my puritan outlook, tied me to a chair and, for an unblushing hour or two spat every four-letter word, every expletive (none deleted), and every vulgar configuration known to advanced eighteen year olds at me… my hands tied to my side, no chance of protecting those virgin ears. I was appalled… horrified… but I emerged, despite their strenuous efforts, unscathed. What was more notable than their failure to brand me was the fact that every one of my outspoken captors, every single one, was a clergyman’s son… the apple of the bishop’s eye being by far the most advanced and knowledgeable about the devil’s flamboyant lexicon. In due course, he, too, became a clergyman… It didn’t matter where I was, people, being the helpful souls they are, sensed my situation… and wished to autograph it with a unique imprecation, malediction. One day, in about 1967, I attended a packed poetry reading given by Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982). It was standing-room only; I know. I was standing. Rexroth, with Satan’s own radar, read a poem, perhaps it was about innocence, then announced he would, dowser-like, find the most innocent boy in the crowd. As he searched, he made his way closer to… me. And then, to my acute embarrassment, he announced he had found him… and that he was…. me. Thereupon he planted a fervent wake-the-dead kiss on me. I sank to the very earth, red, abashed, humiliated… most of all for the unwelcome designation that came with the buss: the most innocent boy on campus. Worst of all, it may have been true… And, if so, it stayed true, for I was on the determined path to fame and fortune, which had not so much been prophesied as promised me… and I meant to have them, all of them, just as fast as possible…. It was then I discovered Nick and Nora Charles. Quick! Do you know who they are? Your parents could tell you. They were the utterly attractive couple invented by Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) the crime writer and brought so memorably to life by William Powell and Myrna Loy in a series of 14 “Thin Man” films from 1936-1941. They were what ever boy wanted who was sure life was what was happening wherever he wasn’t… and he yearned to go to that place at once, no questions asked, full speed ahead. As a result, I didn’t merely watch… I scrutinized Nick and Nora and every aspect of their wonderful lives. This included the way they dressed, how they made their martinis…. and how they comported themselves when they’d each had one too many (crucial for a boy who had never tasted alcohol at all)… and of course just who was included amongst their extensive acquaintance. Why, they knew everyone on both coasts, governors, mayors, congressmen, thieves, murderers, marauders of every kind. And, of course, a small army of the “little people” who keep big cities going 24 hours a day and who see everything and everyone. I learned a lot from just how Nick and Nora (who was always quick to follow Nick’s fancy footwork) treated these folks: always with courtesy, good humor, and no “side” whatsoever. It was an eye-opening revelation; you could be a convicted felon and yet be treated, by respectable folk, like the human being you were. I saw the same truth at work when in “Gone With The Wind” Melanie Wilkes met Belle Watling when Belle dropped off a pocketful of gold for Atlanta’s desperately needy hospital. Miz. Wilkes said she was proud to be under an obligation to Miz. Watling… This, I learned for good, was what a real lady would say. And thus, firmly convinced that each person I encountered, no matter how black their history or damning their circumstances, deserved my politeness, my empathy, my kindness, I embarked on Life 101 and began to collect an astonishing grab-bag of people from the gutter up. One day one of the most troubled of these, a young man whose life, at just 22 or so, so, resembled nothing so much as the essence of chaos, confusion, mayhem and pain, said that he respected me because I treated him the same way I treated everyone else, not like a petty criminal with a rap-sheet as long as my arm. It was one of the most profound compliments I have ever received. Such people called me “Dr. Jeffrey” and said that in the certainties of my life they found a refuge, no matter how limited, for the uncertainties of their own. And, of course, the “helps” (as Queen Victoria called them) helped, too; the food, the clothes I (the least fashionable of men) no longer needed, the few bucks that cost me so little to give… all these were thankfully received. Most of the time, it was just the thought that counted and the unjudging ear. But just the other day, the potential hazards of my behavior was borne home to me when I received a phone call from the bank that someone had just tried to cash one of my checks, only to discover just how well known I am, since the teller knew (as she would) that the signature was not mine. The miscreant fled… in unnecessary trouble for just sixty dollars. I probably would have given it to him… after all I know he has a young child. My valued bank officer Helen read me the riot act. How could I have let him in, into my house of all houses… and left my checks out? How could I explain… she would only say, and rightly so, that I might have been killed. But she knows nothing of writers and their needs; hers was the advice of common-sense and bankers. I took the dressing down like a boy of 20, not a respected man of 64. Then later that day I called the lady and thanked her for looking out for me, grateful for her concern and even the sharp words delivered with her Irish up. You see, I have someone, and maybe many such, to watch over me… while the thief I befriended faces misdemeanor charges and perhaps the dawning recognition of the worst that’s yet to come…. without anyone to watch over him.
* * * * * About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc. at www.worldprofit.com, providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Jeffrey Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.  Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell <a href=”http://HomeProfitCoach.com”>http://HomeProfitCoach.com</a>. Check out Income Hybrid ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=wd9GQode