Ordinary Internet Marketer

It has been a long time

2007-09-10T18:22:00.001-07:00

I have been away for a long time and it is about time I get back to doing productive things in my life.

90 Days Came and Went

2007-04-18T15:54:00.001-07:00

My 90 day challenge to earn $10,000 with internet marketing was a complete bust. 90 days came and went and I did NOTHING. I did not create anything. I was frozen in place and did not move.

It makes NO SENSE. It is not logical, and it is not how I want to be remembered in life, but it is a fact. NOTHING!!

How can that be? The only thing I can come up with in the way of an explanation is depression. I do not consider myself a depressed person. I do not have emotional problems or mental problems and yet it could be depression is my problem.

Those who know me would think of me as a fairly level headed person with no major problems. I drink only in moderation, one or two beers. I bought beer yesterday and then did not drink any when I got home. I have never done drugs. I do not gamble or have other vices that might hold me back. I do not even buy lottery tickets.

So, what is going on that in 90 days I cannot create products, webpages or any other activity? Beats me? I wish I had an answer.

Possible Reasons: 1. My rental home went up for sale when I started this challenge and that was upsetting. The owner had an open house so strangers could walk through my home, more stress. I do not have the money to move if the house sells (first and last months rent and any deposits). 2. My father spent the last 13 years of his life calling me stupid. Am I fulfilling his expectations of me? If I succeed I disappoint him. If I fail I am exactly what he expected. 3. WHO CARES! Reasons and excuses are plentiful for anyone.

What is the answer to overcoming situations in life that hold you back? I am not sure. If I had the answer, I would solve my own problem.

Since the 90 day challenge is over, I will stop posting to this blog regularly.

Rethinking Where I Need To Go

2007-04-11T11:35:00.001-07:00

This week I have really been thinking about all I have not done. I am rethinking where I need to go with my online efforts.

First I need to increase my Ebay activity so that my main source of income increases. This needs to be a change from the way I have been doing things in the past. Maybe I need to sell off wholesale lots of items instead of individual pieces.

Selling digital products on Ebay is how a lot of people are making extra cash. I understand some are doing very well at it. This is another avenue I could follow. This would combine my current Ebay abilities with internet marketing products.

Yesterday I had another windfall day on Ebay. To just get by I need to make $100 a day on Ebay. That in addition to my retirement check pay the bills with a little to spare. Yesterday I made almost a weeks wage in one day.

My problem is this is all coming from old inventory that I cannot duplicate and keep doing over and over. Often my items are $10, but we still have some that go for $100, $500 and just once in a while more. The trouble is I do not know which items those are until someone starts bidding.

Our Ebay business is interesting to say the least. It earns our living, but it needs to be revamped. We need to improve it so we get ahead far enough to take time for other internet marketing endeavors.

Tax Time For Me

2007-04-09T13:12:00.001-07:00

I wish I could pay $100,000 in taxes. Yes, it is tax time for me. The more taxes I pay, the happier I am. CRAZY? NO! The more you make the more you pay. MAKE, is the key there. To pay $100,000 in taxes yo have to make a lot of money.

My plan was to get my taxes done early, but as always, here is is 8 days until they are due and I just started yesterday. Luckily I use TurboxTax for my taxes and it makes it much simpler. I do not have complicated taxes. I have income, expenses and that's about it. I do not claim interest payments since I do not have any. I do not own a home. My taxes are simple and fast to file.

OK, today is April 9th and I officially declare my $10,000 in 90 days a TOTAL bust. I did not even get started. My mental blocks kept me from doing anything. I was hoping a challenge like this would make me overcome my situation. It did not.

HOWEVER, this challenge has been very enlightening. I have seen my demons at work and knowing them makes it a little easier for me to plan how I am going to conquer them.

My lack of activity is ridiculous, but it is a fact. I have all kinds of reasons (excuses) for not doing anything, but none of them hold water in the light of day.

So, what is my plan now? I am going to set some small goals for this month. I am going to work at accomplishing those. When I get the little ones going, I can add more little ones and work at them. At some point the big goal will just naturally fall in place.

I am an eternal optimist. I believe I can do this. I believe I can do anything I set my mind to. I know success is available any time I choose to embrace it.

Bottom line is that I did virtually nothing with internet marketing, but my Ebay sales got some very nice extra income that I normally do not get. Also, I have begun making more headway in getting my Ebay sales more consistent.

I cannot say this challenge was a failure. I was forced to focus on what I am doing and it improved my business. I made at least $6000 over what I would have normally made in the same period of time. I am not sure where the money is. OH, my two landlords have most of it. I am really over my head with rent.

Looking For Success

2007-04-06T11:04:00.001-07:00

Have you ever wondered why you seem to be looking for success in all the wrong places. That seems to be what I am doing. Why I look here and there for answers, all the answers I need are right in front of me.

I am having major problems trying to get my internet marketing business started. Oh, it is actaully started and I earn about $150 a month from adsense and affilate marketing, but my reall goal is to GET STARTED seriously.

The $10,000 challenge is what I had hoped would spur me on to greater productivity. It did not. This is a serious problem. If I can find answers to my situation, I am sure I can help others who experience similar lack of activity.

I read in forums that people are having trouble. I think many are doing similar things as me. They do a lot of planning, buying and thinking, but never seem to get it all together and create a worthwhile business.

There is an opportunity here for someone. Someone needs to figure out how to get people going. Many people have problems like procrastination, fear of failure, fear of success and other things that hold entrepeneurs back from from success. I know I fall in that catagory somewhere. I know and want to get myself going, but something stops me dead in my tracks.

Failing to move forward makes no sense. I feel I am a pretty together person. I am fairly smart. I am capable. I have every asset I need to do the job. So, what has held me back? When I find the answer to that question I should soar.

Maybe I do not even need the answer, maybe it is just a matter of getting the proper reason or motivation and it will all fall in place.

My Answers Are Slow Coming

2007-04-04T14:53:00.001-07:00

I hope your efforts at whatever you are doing is working well. My answers are slow in coming. My saving factor is that I just never give up. I keep on keeping on. I know that if I keep my goals in front of me long enough something good has got to happen.

Over and over again, I keep on trying to come up with answers that work for my situation. I know the stock answer is TAKE ACTION, but even that is not always as simple as it sounds.

Each of us has things we need to overcome. Some of are in social situations, personal situations, business enterprises. We have roadblocks that we need to work through or work around.

My $10,000 challenge in 90 days is one of those challenges. I have learned a lot about my self and it is not over yet. The 90 days is over on April 17. I think this challenge has been a success in one way. It has opened my eyes to things I knew but did not think about.

Doing this blog HONESTLY and saying that I just cannot seem to get going AT ALL forces me to look more deeply into my circumstances. This introspection has me getting my Ebay business back on the track it should be on. It has my sales up. It has given me some unexpected cash because I was working at and focusing on making money.

Now, I just need to keep the focus on where I want to go and find the vehicle that I can use to take me there.

Getting Things Together -- A Day Late

2007-04-02T14:22:00.001-07:00

Well, I am finally getting things together. Of course, I am "a day late and a dollar short". My Ebay sales have picked up and we are doing more toward selling our physical inventory. I am laying out my plans for internet marketing.

This challenge to earn $10,000 in 90 days was in my head since October of 2006. In January of 2007 I was asked to challenge myself to anything publicly. I thought the $10,000 would be good. It wasn't.

At the time I started this I was told my rental home was up for sale -- STRESS. I was told we WOULD HAVE an open house -- STRESS. Open house means any stranger who wants to look inside your home comes in and and checks things out. Stress to the edge of depression.

We make our living on Ebay, but it is month to month. STRESS. That is why I want to get internet marketing going and truly believe it will get out of the month to month bill paying.

Ebay has picked up during this 90 day challenge that ends April 17. We are making sales way in excess of what we normally would, but we can't seem to get ahead. As soon as we make a windfall profit we slack off.

So, you can see some of the excuses I have for not making good on this challenge to this point. HOWEVER, they are just that EXCUSES every problem we had could have just as easily been an opportunity.

Opportunity often comes disguised as work. Getting ahead to move would be work. Adversity is a wake up call, but we hit the snooze alarm. It is time to get on track and accomplish our objectives.

$10,000 in 90 days is only $111 a day. It means creating a website that produces $5 to 30 dollars a day and duplicating it. Creating products that sell for $7 and sell 5 a day in addition to the websites, then duplicate that.

For those of you facing similar challenges as Sharon and I, I wish you the best of luck. The answer is to keep up your hope, dream your dreams and make plans. At the right moment you will take action, if you keep focusing on what you want. I know we will get there!

Success Comes In Different Forms

2007-03-28T13:08:00.001-07:00

The idea behind this blog was to chronicle my efforts at earning $10,000 in 90 days. My efforts have been a total bust so far EXCEPT unexpected income has been created. Success comes in different forms and not always the way you expect it. My plan was to make this money with internet marketing. There are 21 days left in the challenge and I am still struggling to get started with IM.

HOWEVER, I have over $5000 unexpected income from other sources and it appears my total will exceed $6500 by the end of this "challenge". This was not my plan. My plan was to create income from digital products I sold online. My income has come from selling unexpectedly higher dollar items on Ebay.

My Ebay success is from old items I have had stored for year because I believed they had low value or I never looked in to their value.

The problem is that I am not creating a repeatable system. I am just doing what I have done in the past, but getting lucky by searching my inventory more carefully. Once old inventory is sold it is gone. I cannot get more of the same thing.

So, how do I feel about this challenge? I think it has been a very positive influence on my wife and I. It has opened out eyes to sales we might not have made without. It has emphasized our need to find a way to get going with internet marketing. Pick one avenue and go down it.

There are a lot of reasons (excuses) for our lack of internet marketing efforts. It is counterproductive to get into those. We need to concentrate on what we have done correctly and do more of that.

The Law Of Attraction

2007-03-21T16:50:00.001-07:00

Many are put off by "magical" answers to life's questions. Some answers are really not all that magical. The "law of attraction" is one of those mystical positive thinking "miracles" that fits this NON-magical description.

On the surface just wishing for something and believing it will come to you seems like cult worship or unrealistic thinking. If you look deeper into "the law of attraction", it makes a lot of sense. It basically says that what you focus on you get.

If you focus your energy and believe you will get a new car, you are very likely to create the energy to get that car. Energy? OK, you may put in extra hours at work. You may get a second job or you may start telling your parents how beat up your old car is.

"Magically" a new car (or at least new to you) appears in your life. Your thoughts were on attracting a new car and you put your energy into acquiring it. You believed you could get a new car and somehow you did.

If you focus on something and believe in it strongly enough you will begin to attract that into you life.

I set myself a challenge to earn $10,000 in 90 days. I have not even gotten started earning that money and have less than 30 days left. My plan was to earn that using internet marketing.

I am focused on it (but not as strongly as I wish). Is is going to mysteriously appear in my bank account or am I going to win the lottery at the last moment. I seriously doubt it.

HOWEVER, I do seem to be attracting more money into my life in my normal Ebay sales business. My income is going up and I am making larger sales. Over the last 60 days of my 90 day challenge I have had over $5000 of income over and above what I would normally earn.

It is not magically coming into my life. It is coming in because that is what I am focusing on. I am putting extra energy into my work. I am do things to earn money on Ebay that I had not been doing in the past. I am attracting new energy into my business because that is what I am focusing on.

Does the law of attraction work? I believe it does. I am sure attracting more into my life than I normally would have expected. Sure it is because of working for it, but that is what I have focused on.

The Secret

2007-03-19T10:56:00.001-07:00

Have you seen the online movie, "The Secret"? It is about "the law of attraction" which states that what you focus on you get. Some believe fervently in this principle and others say it is rediculous.

Those who do not believe in "The Secret" say that you cannot improve your life by wishing for things. You cannot focus on having a new car and then miraculous get a new car. Many of these people do not believe in postive thinking type seminars and the RAH! RAH! RAH!, YOU ARE GREAT type thinking they promote.

I am one who does believe in postive thinking. I believe that what you focus on you get. I believe in believing. I am not sure that if I think of attracting a new Cadillac or Mercedes into my life that it wii manefest itself out of thin air.

However, I do believe that if I focus my attention on the things that will bring me that new car, and I truly envision having it, that it it very possible that I will get it a lot sooner than if I never thought about it. It may not appear out of thin air, but it could easily appear out of applied work and preparation for having it.

Is is possible that I would do more things correctly in my life if I expected a new Mercedes than if I expected a used, older beater of a car. If I truly wanted a new Mercedes isn't it possible that I would go after it?

As The Secret says, I think we often focus to stongly on the things we do not want instead of the things we do want. I often focus on what I have not done for the last day instead of what I can do today.

If my thoughts on what I did wrong instead of what I did right, could it be that I will attract more of the wrong instead of the right? That is the premise of The Secret.

The official website for The Secret is at The Secret I do not know if this is authorized, but it is also viewable at Free, The Secret

Decisions verses Action

2007-03-16T08:45:00.001-07:00

We often decide that the time has come take action on some task. It could be dieting, spending more quality time with the family, getting a job or a new job or starting your internet marketing career.

My decision was to earn $10,000 in 90 days using internet marketing. The answer to any decision is TAKE ACTION. For many this is the most difficult part of life. Taking action is often the part of decision making that never happens.

The best intentions are often clouded by indecision and inactivity. This has been my problem regarding this challenge. I have not even been able to get it off the ground.

HOWEVER, in spite of that, my overall income has increased. I am working more effectively in our warehouse. I see more hope than I have for a long time. I still have 32 days left to create something out of this challenge. Who knows what I could do in 32 days.

Do I feel bad about where I am. Not really. I feel that being force to look at $10,000 signs everyday has made me more aware of what I am doing and what I need to do.

I have written plans and made decisions. Many would say, the next step is simple TAKE ACTION. For many that is a simple step. For many more it is a challenge that needs to be turned into an opportunity. Many people are READY AIM, READY AIM, READY AIM and never reach FIRE!

You are never out of the race until the day you quit. If you do not quit, you are still an inch away from success. Keep the faith and keep your dreams. There are answers.

Saving Money On Ebay

2007-03-14T11:08:00.001-07:00

Today is 20 cent listing day on Ebay. I need to pay more attention. The notice came out yesterday, but I did not read the Ebay notice page (my homepage in Internet Explorer) or my email from Ebay. I love saving money on ebay, whether buying or selling.

So, with that in mind I need to keep this post short and sweet and spend my time trying to make some money this month. We are ahead and I want to keep it that way.

Ebay is easy for me to do when I put my mind to it. I wish I could get the same results from internet marketing. OK, I know. I have to work at it to get results. I am still fighting myself trying to get going. Every time I try, I STOP for some reason.

This is really frustrating. I know what to do. I have the resources to do it with. I can learn anything new that I haven't tried yet. I am fairly bright. I can write halfway decently. BUT, I do not do what it takes to make money with internet marketing.

I am held back by some mental block that stops me cold. Do any of you have that problem? You need to do something, you know it should be done and yet you just never seem to do it. Maybe I need a swift kick in the posterior.

Ebay Pays The Bills

2007-03-12T13:07:00.001-07:00

I am not having any luck getting myself going with a new income in internet marketing, but I am doing OK with my Ebay sales. What made me think of that is someone just bought a $579 item. This was something I paid over $600 for a couple years ago and never used.

That is not the way to make money, but it is nice to be able to sell excess personal stuff for just a slight loss after deciding it is not needed.

Ebay is one of the quickest ways to make some quick extra cash. Sell some excess items from around the house and you can have cash in your PayPal account in a few days.

Everything sells on Ebay. Check the competition's prices and then list and sell. Some might say sell yours for a lower price than everyone else. I often sell for a higher price than most others.

My Ebay strategy to to see what the highest price an item sold for recently and then price my item just under that high price. Sometimes an item that I would have gotten $49 for, I get $99 for using this pricing method.

Fees are higher when you price high. My way to deal with this is to list an item once and if it does not sell, move it to my Ebay Store. Store listing are a few cents instead of a few dollars for an item like the one I just sold.

OK, that item was listed as an auction and did not sell. I moved it to my Ebay Store and that is where it sold from.

Sometimes at the end of the month I will list an item for 3 days and if it does not sell, I will relist it for 7 days and then if it does not not sell, I will move it to my Ebay Store.

At the end of the month I often need money to pay a bill or the rent, so I sell using 3 day auctions. I prefer 7 days auctions as they get more exposure.

Auction length depends on the item. If I have a hot product that ALWAYS sells, I will list it as a 3 day auction. I pretty much know what it will sell for and price it accordingly. If an item is one of a kind and I do not know how well it will sell, I want as much exposure as possible. Antiques and high priced items fall in that category for me.

Finding Answers

2007-03-09T16:07:00.001-08:00

The key to success is finding the right answers. However to begin with you have to ask the right questions. In my case, "What do I really want?" or "What am I really willing to give and give up to succeed?"

I am looking for a reason, a purpose that is strong enough to make me want to give up anything else to achieve it. Not give up just anything, but give up anything unimportant.

Of all the things on my life I would like to achieve, daily activity tops the list. Yes, just simply being active when I am supposed to be active. Or, "work when I am at work" would be another way of saying the same thing.

When I evaluate what I have done at the end of a day, even on my most productive days, I cannot say that I put in a honest day of labor. I daydream, or spend too much time reading CNN or read and re-read posts in my favorite forums.

On a day to day basis, I get excited when the money flows in. I get motivated to do more and continue the efforts to do even more. Then I look for more high dollar items to sell and do not find them.

I sit and wonder what to do next and that can take a lot of time, just wondering. I can see that action is the only answer. To do low dollar tasks when high dollar tasks evade me.

Creating consistent action on a daily basis is the answer and action I need to succeed. I think this is what many need. From all I read and hear, there are a lot of people looking for answers and too often they are "looking for answers in all the wrong place".

I will never find answers to my situation on CNN online. How about you? Where are your answers and where are they NOT?

Life's About Changes

2007-03-07T10:23:00.001-08:00

There is a country song with the lyrics, "Life's about changes, nothing ever stays the same." and that is what success is about. My problem is that life changes and I try to stay the same. It does not work that way. We have to change and adapt to what life puts in front of us.

This may get old, but "If you do what you've done, you will get what you got". How true that is. For the last three days I have changed my work routine. I start the day working in the warehouse, organizing and getting things to sell on Ebay for the day.

This simple change has increased my daily output. We really fell behind last month. I need all of the help I can get and small changes seem to be helping.

Oh, it is ten o'clock and I have stopped working in the warehouse and have moved into the office to get my Ebay listing going.

I have my Ebay business that pays the rent. As I work in the warehouse I see that it is imperative that I get my internet marketing efforts ramped up to the next level. There is no way I can empty this warehouse by simply selling on Ebay piece by piece.

My wife and I want to move on with out lives, without physical products. That should be enough for us to be motivated. So far it has not been. I am not sure how many of you relate to our situation and inability to do what is need to succeed, but I do know it affects a lot of people.

We are looking for answers to motivation. Answers to taking ACTION. Answers to taking action when you have trouble doing just that.

Locating More Ebay Items

2007-03-05T16:39:00.001-08:00

Often I cannot see the forest for the trees. I have a warehouse full of obsolete computer and test equipment. Locating more Ebay items sometimes is mission impossible and other times I find things that sell well.

I have decided that the best way for me to get this $10,000 challenge completed is to concentrate on Ebay sales and increasing them beyond what we normally earn.

My hard drive has a bunch of public domain ebooks I could put on ebay also.

The challenge for me is to WORK EVERY DAY as if my livelihood depended on it. IT DOES! I have been slacking off a lot lately. I need a head adjustment. I am tweaking my daily activities and looking for ways to improve what I do daily.

In the past I have done the same thing over and over and I keep getting the same results. Now I am changing my daily routine to see if that helps. Instead of arriving at the warehouse and turning on the computers, I am waiting until 10 o'clock to turn them on.

The first hours are now devoted to finding and getting items ready to list on Ebay. I just started this, but it seems to be paying off so far. I am finding some of my higher dollar items and an getting more done.

This all goes back to the saying, "If you do what you've done you'll get what you got". My wife and I are trying to do some things differently. We are starting by changing our routines and will adapt as we go.

Making Money, BUT.......

2007-03-02T15:10:00.001-08:00

OK, I created challenge to earn $10,000 in 90 days. My expectation was to generate this by creating new internet marketing projects and getting a new career started.

The interesting thing is that I have earned $4095 in unexpected Ebay and off Ebay orders of physical products. I have another potential $2880 pending. All of this is over and above what I would expect to earn.

I have taped tags saying $10,000 all over the place. They are on my bathroom mirror, my work desk, my computer monitor, the door leaving this room and other places.

I cannot seem to get over whatever it is that is holding me back from beginning an effective internet marketing campaign, but money keeps coming in.

Maybe the law of attraction works in its own way instead of my way. I guess the bottom line is it does not matter how income is generated, but that it is.

The next thing I need to do in this challenge is get off my back side and take some action with all the internet marketing resources I have.

This morning I was talking with my wife about how many people we have known over the years who just could not get started. We have know Amway people, some in Shaklee and other MLM (multi-level-marketing) programs that recruit people who just never get going.

Many people, from my observations, have difficulty creating wealth in new areas. They get all excited about the prospects and then never get their dreams off the ground.

Have you ever been to a seminar and got all fired up about the prospects presented? Then the next day it excitement has faded a little and by the day after you are not better off than you were before you attended the presentation. This is too often what happens.

When I find the triggers or answers that help Sharon and I get our act together and move forward, I will need to share them with you.

Overcoming Stress

2007-02-28T09:07:00.001-08:00

Part of success in any endeavor is overcoming any stress that is holding you back. The first step is recognizing you have stress and admitting it out loud to yourself. OK, you do not have to talk to yourself, but knowing you are procrastinating for a reason is the first step in "recovery".

That sounds like a disease. Maybe it is. Procrastination, lethargy, depression, stress and similar mental blocks to productivity must be recognized and then dealt with as effectively as you can.

With the internet there are a lot of self help sites. No one method will fit everyone. Some people like to read physical books. Others do as well reading a computer screen. Some people like to see a video that helps them and others work best with an audio program.

The magic of the internet is that all of these are available. Books, videos, audio programs and online information can easily be found using your favorite search engine.

This blog is not going in the direction I originally planned. I expect it to be about all of my internet marketing successes, instead it is about my challenges.

Maybe that is good. Seeing that others struggle with getting ahead may help someone overcome their own situation and move forward. Maybe this blog will be motivation to a few who are like me and struggle to succeed.

So, let's talk about motivation.

The Greatest Motivation: Success

What better way to motivate ourselves to move towards our goals than to have the object of our fascination as a source of motivation? If we want to live in a bigger house, let that house be our motivation. If we want to have a better job, let that new job with a big paycheck be our motivation. And if we want to have an international business, why not let that international business give us the nudge we need to trudge forward.

We understand that the biggest obstacle and challenge to being successful is the lack of motivation. Sometimes, when we’re halfway through a journey, we find ourselves slacking. It’s like writing a novel. Novel writers will happily tell you about how easy it is to start a project and how difficult it is to see it through to the end. Achieving success is a lot like that. You have start a million and one times, and almost never have a completed task. Or even if we have lots of endings, most of them are premature and way off mark.

Never lose sight of success

The fastest way to success is to keep your eye on that success all the time. Consistently. Never peel your eyes away from the fact that one day, you’re going to get what you want in life. It’s not hope. It’s not a wish. It’s not even a goal! It has to be a fact. When you think success is not an option but a fact, the faster you will get it.

Take, for example, Olympic swimmers. If Olympic swimmers want to get their gold medals, they are trained to go through a series of mind-boggling workout sessions every single day and are consistently psyched up about WHEN they are going to achieve their goals. Not IF but WHEN. Only when they start viewing the gold medal as a necessity, envisioning the gold medals hanging from their clothes hook on their wall will they feel adequately motivated to move unwaveringly towards that goal.

Surrounding yourself with success minded people

We’ve personally heard of people who are so geared for success that they are literally living in a world of success, enjoying the things that they would enjoy when they are successful. This plays up the part of it being the biggest motivation, and when it is all around you, you cannot ignore it.

By surrounding themselves with successful people or success-minded people the rewards are limitless. Not only are their friends able to share their positive views on how to better reach their goals, they are in the position to motivate each other and share tips and tricks! Regardless of what an optimistic person you are, you are still susceptible to feeling negative, sad, disappointed and impatient about achieving your goals. Positive and success minded people can offer a sympathetic and understand shoulder to cry on and then help nudge you on your way.

A book of vision

And we think there’s nothing better than self-motivation. Try making a book of dreams to help remind you of your goals. Cut and paste pictures of people or things that can remind you of your goals…and let yourself smell success every time you flip those pages.

Fixing Your Life

2007-02-26T14:14:00.001-08:00

Sometimes the things you do are not what you really need to do. Fixing your life to match your goals can be a challenge, but challenges can break you or make you.

Answers are not always easy to see and to figure out, but if you recognize what is going on that holds you back, it becomes easier to "fix" the problem.

For the last nine days I have been in need of a different outlook on what is going on in my life. Negative changes are creeping into my life that I seemingly have no control over. My rental house being for sale. My landlord having an open house with strangers walking through my home, etc.

Things always get in our way. These "things" in my life are either good or bad depending on how I interpret them. Maybe the house for sale is my wake up call to get my internet marketing business going, make some money and gain some control back.

The trouble with wake up calls is we often hit the snooze alarm over and over again. The answer is to take any adversity and turn it around. Take the problems and turn them into challenges. Turn negatives into positives.

Sharon and I are forcing ourselves to look more carefully at how we are responding to life.

There are still 51 days left in my $10,000 in 90 days challenge. Up until now I have done nothing that really moves me toward that goal. Money has come into my life that I did not expect. I am attracting wealth, but not the way I wanted.

Today I am listing more on Ebay than usual. I will go through some digital public domain books I have that I can list on Ebay. Since Ebay is what I know that is the direction I am going to take this week.

Looking At Options

2007-02-23T08:09:00.001-08:00

When you have what seem like overwhelming odds, you need to start looking at options. You can continue like you are. "Do what you've done and you'll get what you got" OR You can begin making small changes that create a slightly different situation.

A slight change compounded over days and weeks adds up to a lot of change and often in a short period of time.

Sharon and I are actively seeking that change in our lives.

Here is a story I heard on a tape by Brian Tracey.

A pair of golfers were about to tee off and one said to the other, "Let's make this a little interesting. Let's bet 10 cents a hole" The other agreed. The first said, let's make it a little more interesting, "Let's double that 10 cents on each hole". The second golfer thought that sounded reasonable, even if he lost every hole, so he agreed.

This starts out fine. 10 cents, the 20. 40 cents then 80. 80 cent then $1.60. At the nineth hole it is up to $51.20 and now the first golfer starts to get worried. At the 13th hole it is up to $819.20 and at the 19th hole that simple 10 cent bet is $26214.40

Small changes compound over time can lead to major changes without even realizing they are happening.

We are currently looking for small changes on a daily basis that will add up over a fairly short period of time. Small changes in attitude could mean in "19 holes" our depression will be behind us and we will have moved toward out $10,000 goal in 90 days.

Reasons Why NOT

2007-02-21T15:04:00.001-08:00

If you are not where you want to be, what are the reasons why not? There are a lot of excuses that come to mind; no time, no money, no knowledge and so many more.

Last night I may have discovered my "reason" for not reaching the levels of success I really desire, DEPRESSION.

I do not feel depressed. I am not down all the time. I do not feel despondent or suicidal. Actually I consider myself a fairly positive person. However, I am tired all the time, but have no health problems. I do not do anything, but I am capable. I look at a 6000 square foot warehouse of stuff and cannot find anything to sell on Ebay. I am listless and unproductive.

My wife and I have a 1988 motorhome with a mechanical problem, so we have not been camping in almost a year. Last night Sharon announced that we would miss an upcoming RV get together. Someone sent her an email saying the let him know if he could help in any way.

Sharon read me that email. I felt teary. Normally I'd say I was touched by their friendship, but this went beyond touched when tears rolled down my cheeks.

I do not cry over nothing. I am not prone to overly emotional response to things that occur. I felt down for about an hour or more.

After I got home I was thinking about my emotional response to a simple email. It occurred to me that what I was displaying were symptoms of depression. Other things in my life indicate possible depression.

This is an, "AH HA" moment. Depression is a state of mind and like any state of mind can be changed. I am not talking about someone who is severely depressed and needs medial or psychological help. I am talking about people like Sharon and I who normally function fairly well and suddenly do not seem to be doing so well.

What is the answer? It is consciously deciding not to die a thousand deaths. If you were to discover you were going to die and everyday you worried about death, you would die a thousand deaths before you actually died. If you focused on life instead, you would only die once. No, neither of us are dying.

The solution is to focus on things that are good about our situation instead of what is bad. We tried that in the past, but not strongly enough.

Our rental house is for sale and we will have to move. Our landlord held an open house and we had strangers walking through our home. Add that on top of our other life situations and it apparently became more than we could handle without some change of attitude.

As of today Sharon and I are concentrating on the good in our lives instead of the bad. We are standing taller and looking for positive answers where we did not see them yesterday.

If we stay focused on living life to the fullest with what we have, I think we will be back on track toward our $10,000 in 90 Days Challenge. More than that I think we will be on the way to getting our lives back.

If life overwhelms you at times, remember that there are others who experience the same thing. It is not what overwhelms us, but what we do about it that matters.

There was a time in my life when I would have given anything to be where I am today. Years ago, I had a job I hated. I never liked Monday, Hump Day (Wednesday) meant the week was half over and Friday was TGIF. The weekends were never long enough. I did not like my boss and dreamed of freedom.

Years ago I dreamed of having my own business and now I do. Back then I would have given or given up anything to have my own warehouse full of junk to sell. I have it today and am having difficulty with the concept.

My problem is a problem of perception. Although I consider myself a positive person, my glass was half empty. If I will adjust my thinking just a little my glass will be half full again.

Watch for changes in this blog in the days ahead.

Looking For Success

2007-02-19T16:07:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I feel like I am looking for success in all of the wrong places. My main source of income is Ebay, but I try to get internet marketing going and my Ebay sales suffer.

I have challenged myself to earn $10,000 in 90 days and it is not happening in the manner I had hoped.

The mysterious thing is that one week I earned $3300 over what I normally earn. This past week I got $3000, but it was taken as a loan against my 2004 Nissan truck.

The loan is because we are in a FOR SALE rental house and I need to move, but do not have the cash for a the first months rent plus and equal security deposit. Cheap rentals in our area start at about $900, none less and that is for a place you may not want to live. There are rare exceptions, but not often.

So far $6300 has come into my life that I did not expect. It is not from where I wanted it to come from. I am attracting money, but not from internet marketing.

Maybe this is a case of, "Be careful what you wish for because you may get it". It takes a more precise plan than just wanting something.

Including today I have 58 more days in my 90 day challenge. I need to start averaging $180 a day more than I normal earn to meet this challenge.

Life Gets In The Way

2007-02-16T08:59:00.001-08:00

My $10,000 in 90 day challenge is about getting me activated and doing daily tasks that guarantee an ongoing income online. The problem I have is the life gets in the way. I keep backsliding into old habits.

Right now our rental house is for sale. Tuesday our landlord announced that she is having an open house Sunday. That means ANY ONE can stroll through our house and some may "case the joint" for a late night visit. We live a block away from a problem area of apartments. This has me stressed out this week. I cannot control someone selling my house out from under me.

I have often found that life's circumstance block us from some goal or activity we desire. The thing is to IMMEDIATELY pick up the pieces and move on. In the past this would have almost stopped me. Actually it did stop me yesterday as I did nothing productive all day long. Today I am moving on.

Life throws a lot of obstacles at us. How big the obstacle is depends on how we interpret it. It is really a decision we have to make. Is it good or bad. If it is bad how can we make it better.

The need is to find answers that are bigger than the problem. Positive answers that allow us to move forward. There is a saying out of "Think and Grow Rich" that says, "Every adversity brings with it the seed of an equivalent advantage." Or, out of anything bad, you can find good if you look for it.

I am looking at this landlord thing as a opportunity to find a better place to live. I am also looking at it as a wake-up call to take action on my $10,000 Challenge and put myself into a position that obstacles have less impact on my life.

OH, today I am giving my landlord her 30 day notice that we are moving.

Plan To Take Action On Plans

2007-02-14T09:32:00.001-08:00

One of the big problems my wife and I have is that we make a lot of plans. We write the plans down. We detail them out, but then we never make a plan to take action on the plans. We write up business plans, personal plans and all sorts of plans. Next we file the plans away before any action is taken on them.

Does this sound like you? Are you forever planning to do things and never doing them. If so, the biggest plan you can make is to plan to take action on one of your plans.

For those who just jump in and do things, this may not make sense. Their answer is to simply take action. Taking action is scary. We live live on two principles, pain and pleasure. What is painful we avoid, what is pleasurable we do.

Pain and pleasure fall into two categories, knows and unknowns. If something is known to us we are comfortable with it and it is pleasure. If something is unknown, it makes us uncomfortable and it is therefor pain.

Pain and pleasure, knowns and unknowns. I have trouble getting internet marketing going. PAIN. IM is an unknown. Yes, I know the details but I lack the experience, unknowns. It is more difficult to try to accomplish an unknown than a known. Our subconscious gets in the way.

The answer is to "Eat an elephant one bit at a time". What I mean is to break any new thing down into small chunks and work on a single "bite" at a time. A project can be overwhelming, but writing two paragraphs is fairly easy. Completing a complex project may be an unknown, but writing a couple paragraphs is a known. We have written a few sentences in the past, we can do that.

Guess what the project in internet marketing is usually just a bunch of paragraphs arranged into a finished product. So, a paragraph here and a page there and the "elephant" (project) gets eaten (written) one bite (paragraph) at a time.

Join me here. Plan to make a plan to work on your plans. Decide you can achieve new and unknown things as you take on just one small aspect of them at a time.

MY $10,000 challenge in 90 days is ending April 17. That is not a lot of time and yet it is more than enough time to achieve even more. It all depends on taking action on plans. As taking action continues is becomes a know and a pleasure rather than the pain of an unknown.

Weekly Goals Make Sense

2007-02-12T10:41:00.001-08:00

We are often overwhelmed by a HUGE task or goal. I have talked about "Eating an elephant one bite at at time". My wife, Sharon, and I are breaking our $10,000 in 90 Days Challenge down into more bite sized chunks. One way is short term weekly goals. Weekly goals make sense.

Our current goals do not even involve money, they involve activity. We have small goals to get reactivated. We have been doing nothing for so long it is a habit. A bad habit that we are breaking with the help of Richard Butler, the success coach.

Yes, we have been working. We are self employed selling on Ebay. Between the warehouse we work out of and our home, we pay $3050 a month in rent. Obviously we have to work/are working to keep up with the rent and the rest of our bills. We just do not work hard or smart enough.

We have no credit, so we have no credit related bills. This is good, but also scary. If a car breaks down we have to pay cash to fix it. We cannot "solve a problem" by using a credit card. We either pay cash or it does not get paid.

The work habits we have are sloppy. RUSH at the end of the month to pay the rent. RUSH when bills come due. RUSH! is not the way we should have to live life.

A simple attitude adjustment could alleviate the RUSH syndrome and bring a little tranquility to our lives. A plan of action that includes a plan to take action on the plan is what we are working on.

Join us. Make a plan and another more powerful plan that says, "Take action on my plan".

I have written many plans over the years. I just have never written a plan of action to follow my plans. I hope that makes sense to you. It is sort of like New Year's Resolutions that never are fulfilled. We make the resolutions, but not the plan to follow through on them.