This situation in the world causes misunderstanding, quarrels, and even frustrations, disappointments and stress.

That is why it is important to live with a clear perspective, a coherent philosophy of life, to see things as they are, and not as we wish them to be.

Here is a very good philosophy to guide us in our journey to life, written by Dr. Kent M. Keith.

People are often unreasonable, illogical,
and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, People may accuse you
of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some
false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone
could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the FINAL analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway

* source of image: www. sxc.hu

In addition, many bloggers want to make money from their blogs, the reason why they are running some ads, like Adsense which is a popular and giant ad network of Google.

Blog visitors vs. Customers

Whatever is your objective in blogging, whether to generate more visitors or traffic or monetize your blog by having many readers who click on your ads, it is important to convert your visitors into customers.

After all, your blog visitors may just bounce and exit right away, while your customers interact with you, read your posts and leave comments.  Customers also buy your online products and services or click your ads.

How do you turn visitors into customers?

Axandra, a search engine optimization firm, has provided six tips on how to turn your visitors into customers, as follows:

1). What is your blog all about and what’s in it for the visitor?

You have only a few seconds to keep a visitor on your page. If the visitor is not convinced within seconds that your site is worth reading, he’ll go away.

Clearly tell your website visitors which problem your product solves and why your solution is better than other solutions. This piece of information should be presented as prominently as possible.

2). Is your blog trustworthy?

Tell your visitors who you are and don’t hide your address. If possible, show customer testimonials. Show your website visitors that you are a real company and that you can be trusted.

Are you a member of an industry organization? Has your company received awards? Tell your website visitors!

3. Does your blog look professional?

Another way to create trust is to use a professional website design. Avoid clutter and extreme colors. Use a clear design that makes it easy to read your web pages.

If your website displays ads, consider if they distract your website visitors too much from the real content. Your website visitors might also wonder why your site shows ads for other companies.

4. Make it as easy as possible for your website visitors.

Tell your website visitors what you want them to do: “Download the free demo”, “Create a free account”, “Download the free white paper”, “Subscribe to our newsletter”, etc.

Focus on a single task. Don’t ask the customer to subscribe to your newsletter or to download the demo or to request more information.

Focus also on a single task and tell the visitor in great detail why it would be good for the customer to complete that task. Of course, you can use different tasks on different pages of your site.

Add user instructions to every task. The less your website visitors have to think about how to complete the task, the better.

5. Make it a risk-free experience for your customers

Emphasize your respect of privacy and remove unnecessary fields from your sign-up forms. Avoid registration forms or make the forms as short as possible.

The more fields a form has, the less people will fill it out.

Offer money back guarantees and other guarantees that show your website visitors that it is risk-free to complete a task on your website. Always deliver on your promises!

6. Give search engines what they want while pleasing your website visitors

The title and the major tag line on your web page should contain the main selling proposition of your website and one or two good keywords.

When a searches sees your website in the search results, the title will show the searcher that he has found a good match. The content on your web page should confirm and clarify this with more detail.

Increasing the conversion rate of your website is an easy way to increase your revenue without increasing the number of website visitors.

The more visitors of your website become customers, the more you will earn when your blog is listed on Google’s first results page.

I also come across many bloggers who said they earn sufficient monthly income from their blogs, primarily through search engine optimization (SEO).

Why SEO is important?

SEO is so popular because it enables bloggers and webmasters to get a great return on investment. For one, high rankings for the right keywords can have a big impact on your revenue.

Why is it important to choose the right keywords for SEO?  Well, because if you want to earn money from your blog, you can make money by choosing the right keywords.

How to find the financial value of your keywords?

How do you find the financial value of your keywords? Here’s a guide from Axandra, a firm engage in providing professional webmaster tools.

1. Start a Google AdWords campaign for the keyword, select “exact match” and point the ad to the page on your website that is most relevant to the keyword.
2. Track the impressions and the conversion rate of the ad. To get useful data, you should track at least 500 clicks. With that data, you can make a guess about the value of a visitor that finds your website through that keyword.

Here’s a concrete example

• Your ad might have had 10,000 impressions during a week and 200 visitors have clicked the ad to visit your website.
• 6 of these visitors purchased something on your website and the total profit was $500.

The keyword delivered 200 visitors and 6 buyers to your website. As the total profit was $500, the average single visitor who finds your website through that keyword is worth $2.50 to your business (200 visitors created a profit of $500: $500/200 visitors = $2.50/visitor).

What does this mean for your search engine optimization campaigns?

According to Axandra, the average number one ranking for a keyword has a click-through rate of 40% (according to several studies). In the example above, your ad was displayed 10,000 times.

While your ad was only clicked 200 times, you would get 4,000 visitors per week if your website was listed in the regular results on the top position.

As the average visitors adds $2.50 to your profits (see above) you would earn $10,000 per week with that keyword.

That is $520,000 per year with a single keyword! That is why businesses love search engine optimization.

This sounds unbelievable but search engine optimization makes it possible. It’s simple math and it really works, said Axandra.

source of image: melissaahale.com

Indeed, the world is our mental creation, for the reason that the thoughts that we constantly hold in our minds create the conditions by which we manage our life, our business affairs and everyday dealings.

Today I compiled inspirational quotes from great and famous thinkers to give us food for thoughts. These quotes offer advice, while others motivate us, give us new perspectives and encourage us to think, grow and keep going.

Here’s the twelve inspiring quotes that I like and am sharing here.

1.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain

2.

In bed my real love has always been the sleep that rescued me by allowing me to dream. – Luigi Pirandello

3.

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

4.

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily. – Zig Ziglar

5.

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. – T. S. Eliot

6.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. — Buddha

7.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

8.

You are surrounded by simple, obvious solutions that can dramatically increase your income, power, influence and success. The problem is, you just don’t see them. – Jay Abraham

9.

If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place. – Nora Roberts

10.

Begin with the end in mind. – Stephen Covey

11.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. – Kahlil Gibran

12.

In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm. In the real world all rests on perseverance. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

–o0o–

source of image: bluesplayer.co.uk

Since the article is full of nonsensical advice, I am posting it here to share to you, my readers.  After all, as the saying goes, Life begins at 40.

1. Focus on enjoying people, not on indulging in or accumulating material things.

2. Plan to spend whatever you have saved.

You deserve to enjoy it and the few healthy years you have left. Travel if you can afford it. Don’t leave anything for your children or loved ones to quarrel about. By leaving anything, you may even cause more trouble when you are gone.

3. Live in the here and now, not in the yesterdays and tomorrows. It is only today that you can handle. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow may not even happen.

4. Enjoy your grandchildren (if you are blessed with any) but don’t be their full time baby sitter.

You have no moral obligation to take care of them. Don’t have any guilt about refusing to baby sit anyone’s kids, including your own grand kids.

Your parental obligation is to your children. After you have raised them into responsible adults, your duties of child-rearing and babysitting are finished. Let your children raise their own off-springs.

5. Accept physical weakness, sickness and other physical pains. It is a part of the aging process . Enjoy whatever your health can allow.

6. Enjoy what you are and what you have right now. Stop working hard for what you do not have. If you do not have them, it’s probably too late.

7. Just enjoy your life with your spouse, children, grandchildren and friends. People, who truly love you, love you for yourself, not for what you have. Anyone who loves you for what you have will just give you misery.

8. Forgive and accept forgiveness. Forgive yourself and others. Enjoy peace of mind and peace of soul.

9. Befriend death. It’s a natural part of the life cycle. Don’t be afraid of it. Death is the beginning of a new and better life. So, prepare yourself not for death but for a new life with the Almighty.

10. Be at peace with your Creator …For… He is all you have after you leave this lif

image source: www. sxc.hu

In addition, some people want to have a short explanation about such marketing concepts and strategies as telemarketing, public relations, brand recognition, customer feedback, demand and supply, competition, and even market share, merger and acquisition.

While surfing on the net today I’ve encountered a succinct and funny explanations about the aforementioned marketing terms. I don’t know who the original author of this is, but here it is:

1). You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: “I am very rich. Marry me!” – That’s Direct Marketing. . .

2). You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you, says: “He’s very rich. Marry him.” —

That’s Advertising. . .

3). You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day, you call and say: “Hi, I’m very rich, Marry me.” –

That’s Telemarketing. . .

4). You’re at a party and see a gorgeous girl. You get up and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour her a drink, you open the door of the car and say: “Marry me?” –

That’s Public Relations. . .

5). You’re at a party and see a gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says: “You are very rich! Will you marry me?” –

That’s Brand Recognition. . .

6). You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: “I am very rich. Marry me!”

She gives you a nice hard slap on your face. –

That’s Customer Feedback. . .

7). You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: “I am very rich. Marry me!” And she introduces you to her husband. —

That’s demand and supply gap. . .

8). You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you say anything, another person come and tell her: “I’m rich. Will you marry me?” and she goes with him —

That’s competition eating into your market share. . .

9). You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you can say: I’m rich. Marry me”, your wife arrives.

That’s restriction for entering new markets. . .

10). You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You walk up to her and say, “I’m richer than your husband. Divorce him, claim alimony and marry me. Together we will be richer and more prosperous.” —

That’s Merger and Acquisition. . .

source of image: cleancutmedia.com

Thus, it is important to adopt to this development, considering the fact that search engines traffic is the only source of continuing and steady traffic to blogs, and it is free.

Is the Yahoo-Bing change relevant to your blog?

According to the latest comScore data, Yahoo and Microsoft sites had a combined search market share of 31.6% in June 2010. Google has currently 65% of the total search share.

Yahoo sites had 3.2 billion search queries and Microsoft sites had 2.2 billion search queries in June 2010. That’s a total of 5.4 billion search queries in one month.

If your website or blog is listed for the right keywords in the Bing results, you will get a lot of website visitors that are interested in what you have to offer.

Getting visitors from Bing will also make your website or blog less dependent on Google.

How to optimize your web pages for Bing

According to Axandra newsletter, optimizing your web pages for Bing is not much different from optimizing your web pages for Google.

Just like Google, Bing requires optimized web pages and good inbound links if you want to see your website on the first search result page.

The difference is the weight that Bing puts in the different ranking factors. Things that work well with Google might not have the same effect on Bing and vice-versa.

Axandra offers some tips that will help you to get the best possible results for your website:

1. Optimize some pages of your website for Google and other pages of your site for Bing. By targeting the exact algorithm of a search engine, you increase your changes of getting listed on the first result page.

2. Do not optimize the same page for more than one keyphrase. It is much better that a web page is highly relevant to one keyphrase than somewhat relevant to many keyphrases.

3. If possible, optimize each page of your website for a dedicated search engine/keyword combination. The more targeted the optimization, the more likely it is that the web page will be listed in the top results.

Is your blog now ready for Yahoo-Bing search engine results?

image source: blog.beliefnet.com

Indeed, the world is our mental creation, for the reason that the thoughts that we constantly hold in our minds create the conditions by which we manage our life, our business affairs and everyday dealings.

Yesterday I compiled inspirational quotes from great and famous thinkers to give us food for thoughts. These quotes offer advice, while others motivate us, give us new perspectives and encourage us to think, grow and keep going.

Here’s the twelve inspiring quotes that I like and am sharing here.

I.

The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it. – Andrew Carnegie

II.

You can buy a person’s hands but you can’t buy his heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm, his loyalty is. – Stephen Covey

III.

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it. – Colin Powell

IV.

You are surrounded by simple, obvious solutions that can dramatically increase your income, power, influence and success. The problem is, you just don’t see them. – Jay Abraham

V.

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. – Henry Ford

VI.

The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling — Ambrose Bierce

VII.

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision. – Peter F. Drucker

VIII.

Many great ideas go unexecuted, and many great executioners are without ideas. One without the other is worthless. – Tim Blixseth

IX.

Traditional thinking is all about “what is.” Future thinking will also need to be about “what can be.”—Edward de Bono

X.

In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product and profits. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two. – Lee Iacocca

XI.

The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease. – Josh Billings

XII.

We may need to solve problems not by removing the cause but by designing the way forward even if the cause remains in place. – Edward de Bono

source of image: www.bloggersbase.com

All riches begin as a state of mind.  This has been the secret of the ages.

Based on my own study, it seems that business owners or entrepreneurs are people with vision, daring, and positive mental attitude.

A positive mental attitude – or positive thinking– is the starting point of all riches, whether they be riches of a material nature or intangible riches, said the world-famous author Napoleon Hill.

The following are the five easy ways to start and grow your own business, using positive mental attitude.

1. Associate yourself with successful and positive people. People have vibrations and influences, and the influence people have over our own personal energy is amazing.  When you have people around you who inspire you, believe in you and want you to succeed, there’s no room for doubts.

As what Napoleon Hill, in his “Think And Grow Rich” said many years ago: “What your mind can conceive and believe, your mind can achieve.”

2.  Always think positive and make a positive affirmation. Holding positive thoughts in your mind and repeating it by way of an affirmation daily will give you amazing results.

It has been long established that repeating positive affirmations has been shown to get people through tough times and to actually help them truly believe what they’re saying.

Visualizing yourself to be the owner of a successful business, before it come to reality, and making affirmations like: “Everyday in every way I am building a profitable business” will someday make your thoughts come true in reality.

Many successful businessmen and women have used the same affirmation strategy to attain their success.

3. Avoid negative thoughts.  We all have negative thoughts from time to time, however, negative thoughts and emotions can derail us and prevent us from achieving all we desire.

When you find yourself thinking negative thoughts or having negative emotions, make sure that you forget it and replace them with positive thoughts, and focus on your goal, objectives, dreams and aspirations.

The affirmations mentioned above are a great way to turn the negative into the positive

4. Set goals/intentions and let it go. The law of attraction says that we attract what we focus on the most.  However, desperation, needing your business to be a success, sends mixed messages and a lot of negativity into the universe.

Set your goals and intentions and then let them go.  A certain amount of faith in yourself and in the power of attraction is necessary.

5. Be grateful.  Gratitude is perhaps the single most powerful and positive tool for success.  When you’re grateful for all of the wonderful things and people in your life the challenges you face seem significantly less important and are more easily dealt with.

Conclusion:

Success is within your reach and with positive thinking or mental attitude you can accomplish anything you set your sights on.  Embrace these five powerful mind success strategies and you’ll build a better business and live a happier, more satisfying life.

Last month, my two friends John and Jenny lost their hard-earned money that they had invested in a finance company which turned out later on to be a “pyramiding” scheme.

A pyramiding scheme is defined by Wikipedia as a non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, without any product or service being delivered. In short, pyramid schemes are a form of fraud.

Yesterday Maria, an acquaintance , sought my advice after discovering that she could no longer collect her recently matured pension plan policy amounting to half-a million from a pension plan company.

Maria had purchased her pension plan policy five years ago, and paid on an installment basis every quarter for the five years until she completed her payment. She was attracted to invest as the company promises a very high return, at 30% per year, in a form of a lump sum and monthly pension after maturity.

Since Maria’s has completed her payment and her policy has already matured, she would have entitled for a lump sum and a monthly pension.

However, at present, Maria could only cry. She has been experiencing emotional anguish because she could no longer get  her pension, nor recover her investment. Reason: the pension plan company was a sort of a fly-by-night company without a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registration.

Worse, when Maria went to the company office in a building that was supposed to be its principal office address to claim her pension, the company was no longer there. The company website could not be accessed anymore as it has disappeared without a trace.

That “there’s a sucker born every minute”, a phrase often credited to P.T. Barnum, an American showman, is still true today. For there are and always will be a lot of gullible people in the world, as there are a lot of scammers.

To help you protect your money, it is important to remember at all times that the higher the returns on investments, the greater is the  risk.

So, do not be enticed by the promise of extremely high returns.

In addition, always check the background of the persons who deal with you and the company that they represent. Make sure that the actual investment or product is registered with the SEC.

As always, an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. Forewarned is forearmed.