Personal Update – The Importance of Diet in our Industry!

I love using Colinklinkert.com to write reviews, business advice and industry news… But today I wanted to write a personal note, about working in this industry.

Possible drawbacks of running your own online business:

–       It is Addictive (meaning even though you might not ‘need’ to work 15 hour days, you find you will, because it is fun)

–       You don’t leave your computer chair much, so no fixed eating times

–       You are your own boss, so you have to be self motivated

–       You eat what ever is handy or nice, and you eat at your desk

Short Personal Story:

I travel a fair bit and always get my blood work done in Australia, as I like and trust the system here. (People trust who and what they already know, good to remember for your marketing campaigns) – In 2007 my results were quite good, everything in normal range. I carried extra weight as my lifestyle is lots of meals either out with friends or in front of the computer (takeaways normally) but the blood sugar, cholesterol and live was all fine.

2010 were my next results and WOW, what a change, high cholesterol, liver readings off the charts and a few other ‘highs’ where they shouldn’t have been. I was 97kg (213lbs) and stand 180cm tall (6ft), so well over ‘normal’ range considering I am a computer guy with a fairly low muscle mass.

I decided it was time for a change, and ‘dieted’ aggressively for a couple of months and dropped my weight to 87kg (191lbs) and felt good, so I went back to my old habits, and ended up doing even less exercise than before. The weight came back and now for this year…

2011 – More blood tests, weight was now 96.5kg again (212lbs) but this time I got a shock. I now had high fasting blood sugar levels and needed further blood tests to see if I was diabetic. The results came back negative, I am ‘pre-diabetic’ and have a glucose sensitivity (basically means I don’t digest sugar well and my system is out of whack) so the solution…

I am vegetable juice fasting… 5 veg juices a day and no food. This is day 2. I found out about my high blood sugar just over 2 weeks ago and have already lost 5.7kg (12.5lb). After a 10 day Juice fast, I will eat the right foods until, as well as after I hit my goal weight of 80kg (175lbs)… and here is where you come in:

Vital ingredient to be successful in online business & life:

Your health is your most prized possession, and your functioning mind is your most valuable asset, so here is some short tips to look after it…

  • High Protein intake to control blood sugar and protect muscle mass (the body’s main fat fighting tool)
  • Lots of Vegetables. 80% of Americans DON’T get anywhere near enough veg. Vegetables are the vitamin and nutrient base for your body, this is your medicine. I used to hate veg, now I see it as my friend, and my best advise to you, for a functioning mind (clarity important in business) and a happy body is to increase your veg intake. Either freshly squeeze a juice once or twice each day, or increase your raw veg intake on your plate each meal. The more you eat, the better.
  • Very low carbs… This is filler food, it is a waste of calories. Things like breads, pasta, rice, and even some fruits like orange, banana and pears… Don’t eat these, (or in massive moderation) Instead, eat more protein and more veg.
  • Exercise – This one is Vital… Movement is what our body was built for, it is what our body wants. Even 30 minutes walks each day with a bit of stretching time is enough in most cases if you really don’t want to go to the gym and currently don’t play any sport. Swimming is also one of the best, low intensity, high efficiency activities you can do, so if you have access to a pool, or the sea, use it a few times a week

This is my plan going forward and I will keep you updated occasionally on how it is going. I expect to hit my goal weight before March next year… and then it is about maintaining the healthy lifestyle.

If you are feeling a bit out of shape, or feeling a bit consumed with your business, take some time each day for yourself. Make healthier food choices and take a few walks, where you can think about your next business move 🙂

 

Author:
Colin Klinkert
Can you still Retire Rich in the Current Crisis?

“The collapse of the economy has led me to drastically restructure my own retirement plan,” says Dr. Richard Besdine, the 69-year-old director of the Brown University Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research. “It’s a lot simpler now — I’m just going to die in the office.” – CNN Money

Funny… but unfortunatly, due to events taking place over the last two years, potentially true. The retirement age of Average Americans is likely to increase by 10 years due to the setbacks being seen right now. Not sure about you, but the though of working until 75 doesn’t sound too appealing to me.

There simply has to be a better way to earn an income then ‘working for the man’! This is where the internet puts it’s hand up and yells: “Pick Me… Pick Me!”

Truly, anyone can do it, provided you think about each action you take. The saying “Every action has a reaction” wasn’t made up purely because it ryhmes. Don’t do any action without thinking about it first. Why go and post a spam link on other peoples blogs promoting a ponzi scheme? How long will it take before that comment is deleted, if it is approved at all? How many people reading that comment are likely to think “Wow, this sounds good?” I would go as far as to say none will, but everyone else will think of you as just another spammer. That really is NOT the way to do it. Rather, eductate yourself on what successful people do, and think about each action you take. Ensure there is purpose behind it.

I thought about this post before writing it. The reason for me making this post is because I know I can help you to take actions that produce the positive kinds of results. So drumming it in that you can do it, if you do it the right way, should, lead to you signing up to my mailing list and following my posts.

Follow me on Twitter: http://www.TwitterColin.com/ – i’ll follow you back 🙂

Author:
Colin Klinkert
Online Marketing Partnerships

The Power of Partnerships

So you’ve heard about online and affiliate marketing and have learned that they are a great way to make money online, but are you new to the process and don’t know where to begin?

If so it’s time to objectively take stock of your skills and learn what you need to in order to succeed.

At its most basic, online marketing breaks down into two principle parts:  search engine optimization (SEO) and sales copy.  The SEO will drive traffic to your sites, and good sales copy will convince those visitors to buy the product from you.  When you begin to get traffic and sales, you will have the basis of your own ‘list’ of clients. But what if you don’t know a lot about either?

Focus on one or the other to start with and once you have something to bring to the table, you can look for someone to partner with for a campaign.

Sales copy will likely prove to be the valuable skill, and as such is a great place to start.  Look for online resources, books from the local library about copywriting, anything you can get your hands on.  Also, read through the websites that other online marketers have produced.

For every person that wants to be an online marketer and has good sales copy skills, there is another person who is good at SEO but has problems stringing together words into compelling sentences.  Check with forums devoted to online marketing, and you can probably find somebody who is willing to team up with you.

Especially in your early stages of internet marketing, it is better to split all the profit generated than not make any profit at all.  Once you gain some experience, you can strike out on your own, or you may find that you like the partnership and continue with it.

Either way, by combining your skills and somebody else’s at the beginning of your online marketing career, you can start making sales faster.

Where To Find People

For Viralurl, Frank and I teamed up as we had skills that complimented eachother. Viralurl has been a big hit and we have plans to take it to the next level as well. I met Frank a while before we partnered through networking. A great new business social network that you can use to meet people to partner with is ViralNetworks! I am on ViralNetworks as well as 18,000 other marketers, so come join us and get networking! 🙂

Author:
Colin Klinkert
Membership Sites – Matt Bacak Has Them Mastered

Video Intro to this Post can be viewed: http://viralnetworks.com/view/hjPkL

At the World Internet Summit this month, one of the key speakers was Atlanta-based Matt Bacak. He first began investing his earnings at age 12, and in the following 15 years survived botched partnerships, failed businesses, credit card debt and bankruptcy. He must have learned a lot from these bad times, because now, 15 years later he is a multimillionaire (he made his first million at age 27).

With this knowledge setting the picture, and his introduction showing pictures of his home, his Hummer, and his private jet – the audience was immediately tuned in to what Matt had to say.

Matt’s forte is membership sites and making money from them was what he was there to talk about. Here are his tips:

1. Before you launch a membership site, work out your expenses – personal and business. Write them down and really understand that it costs you $x to live.

2. Determine how many memberships you need to meet expenses, e.g. if you need $5000 per month, that could be 500 memberships at $10 each per month.

3. Put things into perspective. What do you want? Imagine what it would be like to have an extra $5k, $10k etc per month.

To start a membership site you will need the following:
• An Opt In Page
• An Autoresponder
• A Front End Offer/Sales Letter
• A Membership Website and Software
• Traffic

Identify Your Market
Matt advises people to “think with the end in mind”. Sell something with a bigger product in mind down the line. Think “what’s next?” He believes a great way to find a market for membership sites is to look at monthly magazines on the news stands. The people who buy these magazines are already committed to paying a certain amount each month for this information – so it is likely that they will also pay for a membership to deliver similar material. This is a great tip!

Driving Traffic
Matt believes that the best ways to drive traffic to membership sites are PPC (pay per click), Joint Ventures, and Article Marketing. He is also getting great results from CPV (cost per view) advertising.

Matt is running 3 multimillion dollar companies, all of which were built online. His first company grew by 1057% in 2008 alone. Matt’s strategies saw him run one of the largest internet promotions ever, acquiring 14,897 customers in less than a week.

Want To Learn About Setting up Your Own Successful Membership Site?

Frank Bauer and I have created a course that is not for sale yet, but will be in a few months. Reason it is not for sale is because we are spending our time creating other membership sites. If you subscribe to my email updates, you will be alerted when it is available. Frank and I run multi million dollar membership sites and apply all the info we learn from all the best courses released into one program, so be sure to join my mailing list.

Author:
Colin Klinkert
Internet Marketing Business – Beginners Tips

Watch The Video Into to this post here: http://viralnetworks.com/view/NJD56

When starting to set up your own internet marketing business, it’s important to recognize the enemies to your success:

• Being lazy – you do have to put some work into it. Don’t believe all the hype about waking up to finding more money in your account – unless you have put in the time and effort to set up your money making machine.

• Being negative – don’t put yourself down. Understand that even though you don’t know a lot about running an internet marketing business, use what you do know, and make a commitment to learn more.

• Afraid to take risks – you have to put yourself out there, tackle new concepts and embrace new learning opportunities.

Everyone will tell you that you need to find a niche to focus your energies on. Instead of looking for what you consider ‘sexy’ topics, take a look at things you know a lot about, or are passionate about. These could include sports, hobbies, cooking or health. If you have some knowledge in a particular area, chances are someone else is just learning about it, and will pay for your skills or techniques.

By starting with something about which you are passionate will make the marketing tasks, like blogs and forum posts, and writing articles, just that much easier.

Don’t expect to make millions first off – take the small profits because they will all add up. If you write an eBook about your hobby, you might only sell 4 a week at $20 each, but that’s $80 each week more than you had before, $240 a month, $2880 a year. Write another couple and watch the profits multiply. And with things like an eBook, you only need to write it once, and it can look after itself for years to come.

By collecting the contact information of your buyers, you have a ‘list’ of qualified customers who will be more open to buying another product on the same topic (yours or an affiliate product) in the future.

Join forums related to your niche, establish a presence there and be sure to contribute worthwhile posts (the ‘give’), while including a link to your site (the ‘take’) in your signature file.

A Good Place To Start is ViralNetworks – Join us in the forums and start learning & helping!

Author:
Colin Klinkert
America’s New President Sworn In…

I live in Europe and holiay in Australia, but the promise Obama brings to America has further reaching implications then maybe any of us realize. This could have more affect on my lifestlye then the elections in my home country. I am glad Obama is the man elected to fill the worlds most powerful position, lets hope that he lives up to all the promise (even half of it will be a massive improvement).

It is important to note, no president has come to office with so many problems needing his urgent attention, the economy (not just of America, but the whole world), the budget deficit, the aid promises made to third world countries, the two wars and the bailout plans.

God-Speed Mr. Obama:

Here is to the hope of a new beginning for prosperity, not just for America, but for the World!

Author:
Colin Klinkert
Video: Cry For Help – Start with No Money

I get emails like this quite often, decided to use this one as an example and put together a little video that went a bit longer then planned, but does cover a fair bit of info I think…

Email:

Helllo,
xx xx here and it sounds great there is only one huge problem! I have no clue what I am doing with this. I thought it would have been so much easier if I would have known what I had to do before I got started. I am really sorry about this but I need a lot of help if I am going to make this work as bad as I need it to. I have been out of work since last Feb, and I have gone through all my credit cards, savings and checking I have nothing left. I was not even able to give my children the Christmas they so well deserved. I have never felt like such a bad mom in my whole life. I hope and pray I never have to go through that again!! So, can you help me? Let me know please as soon asap. God Bless and I will be waiting to hee back from you.I do understand if you do not have the time to help me so do not feel bsd if I can not find the other side of my rainbow!!

Warm Regards, xx xx

Video Response:

Follow Me on Twitter: http://www.TwitterColin.com/

Author:
Colin Klinkert
Hanging with a Nutty German

A crazy German came to visit me in Brisbane / Gold Coast where I am holidaying for Christmas and the New Year before I head back home to Europe.

We are working on a new product together and progress has been good. I can tell you now it will be a high ticket training course that will cover a great deal of information. The Crazy Nutter goes by the name of Frank Bauer and happens to be my business partner in Viralurl.

We went to Wet and Wild today as we are about both work and play… the Interactive Marketers lifestyle! 🙂 Here is a picture of us trying to look tough:

Colin and Frank
Colin and Frank

More Info coming soon on the product we are creating… Will be released early in the new year!

Follow Me On Twitter: http://www.TwitterColin.com/

Author:
Colin Klinkert
New Iphone for Colin… Why did I buy it?

I am sitting in the Hong Kong Airport on my way to Australia for Christmas and I just logged onto ebay and purchased myself the new 16gb 3G Iphone for $818us (inc. Shipping), not a heap purchase for a phone, but wht makes it even more nuts is that I have the Nokia Equivalent the Nokia N95 8gb. I have only used 1 gig on it and havent even installed the software or added the nokia maps to the phone yet.

Why did I buy myself a new phone when I have one with the same functions (some might say better, the camera on my nokia is a 5megapixel the Iphone is only 2)

Because The IPhone is COOL!

I am telling you what you already know, Apple have built a wonderful brand and even though I know I’m spending $800 on something I already have (and I have another sony phone too, seeing as I can only use one at a time, it was not a purchase that was required) I want it because it has a shiny interface, a cool layout and most of all, it has an apple logo on the back!

I got suckered in by marketing, and more specifically ‘public opinion’ and I knew it before I chose to search Ebay for it and I know it now after submitting payment…

Marketing lesson? – Build a Brand! It is a must, be it your personal name you want to brand or an alias like I am still considering doing with ViralKing, listen to another company that is cool, and know’s how to push peoples emotional triggers, Nike… Just Do It! People trust what they know and will buy from you or your brand based on 3 things:

* They Know You (Hence build a brand)
* They Like You (Make it a Cool Brand… Apple… Cough Cough)
* They Trust You ( Provide a Service You Would Like Others To Provide You)

Just Build Your Brand Already, what are you waiting for?

Author:
Colin Klinkert
Winner of Commenting Contest

Content here has been slow as im launching a new site and have some other things behind the scenes going on. For this reason I’ve decided that December we wont have a contest, but will start it up again in January. Here is me paying the winner of the last one 🙂 Good work Karen

BTW… Dont have your speakers too loud, for some reason the volume on this recording is VERY loud, and yes, if you watch closely you will see I did misspell commenting in my haste to get it done fast 🙂 Sorry for that Karen

Author:
Colin Klinkert