Fortune Seeker Blog

I stumbled upon a really great resource called GoToWeb20.com. It is a directory of over 2100 web2.o applications and services.  It has a tag search feature to focus your search.

Just skimming I found a site on there called Youlicit. It’s kind of like Del.icio.us, Digg or Stumbleupon that helps users discover new sites based on the page they are already looking at.

Pretty cool, right?

Let’s say you are researching a woodworking niche. You enter “woodworking” in your interests and it finds sites you’ll love and not only that, you can then drill down deeper and deeper to find more specialized sites and sites like them. When you find what you are looking for, just click the “more like this link” and I guarantee you’ll love it too.

And that’s just one of the sites listed in the directory.

Check them out at GoToWeb20.com and be prepared to spend a couple of days if you want to look at all the sites.

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I was reminded this morning of the Yogi Berra quote:

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else”

I love that guy.

Does this describe your experience? 

I’m sorry to say that for too long that was exactly my situation, and even now, I’m sometimes surprised to find myself ending up somewhere else, usually because I’ve lost my focus.

We all set goals even if we think we don’t, if you have a home business, your goal is likely to earn a profit or spend more time at home, you see. Most of us don’t act on the goals we have. But a goal without a measurable outcome is just a fantasy. Reaching your goals requires a plan to get there, one that makes sense.

Setting business goals is fine, but let’s be honest, the real thrill and what we get excited about is ACHIEVING the goal. The ones who consistently reach their goals will follow specific guidelines to realizing their dreams.

The FortuneSeeker Six:
Six necessary elements for setting and achieving your goals.

1. They must be attainable.

As much as I believe that we can achieve anything, reality plays a real part in the process. Too often, we’ll set unrealistic goals and then are disappointed that when they don’t come to pass. It would be unrealistic to set a goal of losing 50 lbs. before this weekend’s company picnic, short of losing a major limb. But to say you want to lose 7 lbs a week is completely doable.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying to make your goals comfortable. They should always be bigger than you think you can attain, to inspire you to take action.

2. They must be specific
In order to reach your goal, your mind needs to know exactly what you want to accomplish. Be specific. If you want to earn money from your home business, don’t be vague. Be careful to be specific, for example, “I am earning $5,000/month”

3.They must be meaningful.
An achievable goal is one that you absolutely must have. It will be the thing that gets you up in the morning raring to go and make it hard to go to bed at night. It will change your life. Face it, if it isn’t and you don’t care about it, you’re going to quit at the first roadblock, if you ever get started in the first place.

4. They must be tangible.

Your goals need to be something your mind can wrap itself around. Simply saying, “I want to be rich” isn’t the same as saying “I’m making six figures a month”. See the difference? Make it something definite that you get excited about. Feel it.

5.They must be written down.

It’s a proven fact that writing down your goals increases your likelihood of success. Be certain to write them in the present tense as if already achieved. The act of writing your goals will enable you to visualize your goals in detail and help your subconscious mind work out the details.

Doing this every morning will reinforce the effect and you will gain an edge, with less than 5% of goal setters doing this, if you make this your habit. Your desire will increase and your focus sharpen by the repetition of re-reading and concentrating on your goals.

6. They need to be consistently acted upon.

Every action, no matter how insignificant, will move you closer to achieving your goal. Do not underestimate the power of this. Be tenacious, your goal isn’t going to just happen, there will be all kinds of roadblocks. Don’t give up and your desire will be yours.

You can take that to the bank.

An online goal setting tool I found that you might like is at MyGoalManager.com.
It guides you step-by-step in creating a comprehensive roadmap to personal success.

For all online marketers, the money is literally in your opt-in list.

If you want to succeed, then building your list of subscribers, prospects or customers should definitely be one of your highest priorities. Because once built, your list can continue to provide sales for you for years to come.

Here are my nine essential tips for building your list through effective email marketing.

1. The most important tip on this list…Only, and I really mean ONLY, send emails to people that have requested them. Use a “double opt-in” subscription process. This process requires your prospective subscriber to submit their email addresses and then receive confirmation requests to which they must reply in order to join your list and receive your next mailing.

2. Your permission to send email to your customers is not permanent. Be sure to include instructions to easily unsubscribe from your list in every message, to comply with the current CAN-SPAM legislation.

3. It is also important to have your company’s privacy policy readily available to your prospective list members. I include a link to my privacy policy at the sign up form.  Let them know what they can expect, like whether or not you will share their email address or other information they provide with a 3rd party or is it only for internal use.

4. You’re trying to build a long term relationship, so make certain that your sign-up form describes clearly what what your subscriber will receive. Be careful not simply use some vague promise of news or special offers. Be sure that the content of your email is what the person has requested and is expecting. Remember, long term.

5. Segment your list. Don’t send customers your prospect mail and vice versa.  For me, it is extremely irritating to receive email from an autoresponder that doesn’t realize I already bought the product.  A customer is not a prospect, treat them differently.

6. Set a schedule for email delivery and don’t deviate.  Whether it’s daily, weekly or whatever, be consistent. Deliver what you say you will and when you say you will.  Daily is overkill, unless it is a e-course.

7. Create your message in both plain text and HTML.  A small percentage of your list will see a message with nothing in it, if you don’t include a plain text message.

8. Use your company name, newsletter name, or your own name in the “From:” field for your messages. It could mean the difference between getting read or deleted. Also, don’t use all CAPS or multiple exclamation points in your subject line, it will possibly be flagged as spam if you do.

9. Always be building your list. All your correspondence should have an offer to join your mailing list, don’t forget your email signature or forum signatures.

Well, I realize this is a tip too, but I liked the way nine sounded better than ten, so let’s call it a bonus tip.

Bonus Tip:

You really need to get an autoresponder service. I use Aweber. They have excellent support and make it easy to manage your database, grow your list, optimize your templates, test your content, and measure your email campaign results all for a measly $19.95/month. And did I say they have excellent support?

If you sign up with them, Aweber has a free video of Jonathan Mizel’s AutoResponse Seminar, an hour of excellent content.

For most people, getting high-quality targeted visitors to their site is probably one of the “hardest” things to do and unfortunately it’s also the most important.

The difficulty for most small businesses and online marketers is that the majority of popular site promotion strategies take up way too much of our time, cost a lot of money, or are too risky. Right?

Well, I want to let you know about a new, fully-automated traffic-generation system that can send 1000s of targeted prospects to your site, every single day, absolutely FREE!

http://www.thefortuneseeker.com/trafficswarm.htm

Would you believe that this new system is:

  -> 100% Free! - Always has been, and always will be
  -> Automated - 5 minutes to set it up, then forget it
  -> Targeted - you’ll get only real, targeted traffic
  -> “Viral” - your traffic will increase exponentially

I thought it was too good to be true at first … but after testing it out, the results have been extremely profitable. And the feedback so far has been great:

“It’s Not Just About the Traffic! … TrafficSwarm is sending me 1,000’s of the EXACT type of visitors that I need. Traffic to my site has increased 10 fold. Book sales are climbing and my newsletter is growing exponentially. You would be crazy not to use this service.”

Anyway, do us both a favor and check it out ASAP. It’s still pretty new and you will benefit even more if you create your FREE account now before most people join.

http://www.thefortuneseeker.com/trafficswarm.htm

Well there it is.  Go, give it a try and let me know what you think …