FROM THE DESK, MIND AND HEART OF JEFF HODGES
Hey Guys and Gals,
Well, we’ve made it yet another week in this world of exceptional opportunities and unending possibilities. I trust that all is well with each and every one of you. Welcome back to my usual friends and welcome aboard to all my new ones. As always, if you have missed an edition or are new and just joining us, you can access previous editions by going to either:
http://www.letmemakeyousuccessful.com/links.html (bottom left corner of page)
OR
http://www.jeffhodges.blogspot.com
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Well gang, I want to cover what appears to be a chink in some peoples armor, and that is blowing your advertising dollars on bogus advertising and marketing. A week doesn’t go by that I don’t get a call or an email from someone that is spending sometimes hundreds of dollars on their advertising and marketing only to succeed in nothing more than spending more money than they are making. I have actually had people quit my business because they had exhausted there budget on gimmicks and traps. It is an easy trap to fall into, especially if you are new to being in business for yourself and, more importantly, if you are new to being in business on the internet. Now, this is not about which is the best method to advertise and market. This is about making sure that whatever method you choose that you don’t get taken for THE RIDE !!!
Here’s the deal. Years ago we lived in a time when people had morals, character and actually cared about their customers. Welcome to the 21st century !!! Now, we have a breeding ground for scams and rip offs known as THE INTERNET. It is the perfect place to take advantage of unsuspecting individuals who, do to their inexperience, usually can’t even tell they’ve been ripped off !!!
Please, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying to not do business on the internet. I’m simply saying to be careful of WHO you do business with. There is a wide variety of things that you can do to protect yourself but the most effective method is to remember this. If it sounds like they are trying to sell you oceanfront property in Arizona then they probably are !!!
That having been said, I would like to make some recommendations. First of all, look for evidence that they are a real company. I personally won’t do business with anybody that doesn’t have a verifiable brick and mortar address and phone number. If they are so secretive that they don’t want me to be able to contact them or find them on a map they are not going to see one thin dime of my money.
Secondly, ask questions around your company. Maybe someone has heard things about them whether good or bad. Or, even better, maybe they have actually used them and can tell you what they think of the product or service that they were provided. If there is a company out there that is using less than desirable methods of conducting business, news usually travels pretty fast. Also, before even choosing the company that you want to use you might consider going straight to one of the leaders in your company and asking for a referral. They probably have particular places that they conduct business with on a regular basis.
Thirdly, (and this is one of my biggest pet peeves !!!) NEVER do business with an advertising company that GUARANTEES any particular success rate. That is absolute HORSE HOCKEY !!! How, in the name of all that is intelligent, can they tell you how many people are going to buy your product or sign up for your opportunity ??? That’s INSANE but you would be floored at how many of them make those very claims.
Lastly, be very careful of Bulk E-mail companies and companies that sell GUARANTEED TRAFFIC to your site. The email companies almost NEVER provide any kind of proof that they even mailed your ad. As far as the guaranteed traffic people, there is this neat little tool called an IP ADDRESS GENERATOR. In other words, you buy 20,000 visitors (for example) and they give you a control panel site, back office or whatever they want to call it for you to supposedly SEE the ip addresses of all your VISITORS. This back office tracks the ip addresses of all your visitors that supposedly visited your site. The only problem is that they DON’T EXIST !!! The company was just hitting your site repeatedly with a different ip address each time. FOR THE RECORD, there are plenty of honorable traffic companies out there. The one I recommend is http://www.massivehits.us . The lady that runs that company is Michelle Raybourn. She is very nice and I have been doing business with her for a while now.
The bottom line is that there are plenty of good companies out there to do business with while advertising and promoting your business. You just have to pick through all the chunks of coal to find the diamonds.
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I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an "Honest Man."
- George Washington
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I read a poem once that has really stuck with me throughout the years. It has made me spend many hours thinking about my life. You see, sometimes we get so caught up in life and the pursuit of success that it’s kind of like living inside the eye of a hurricane. To you everything looks fine but all around you is turmoil, chaos and destruction.
Everything in life has a potential for a POSITIVE or NEGATIVE effect on your life. Success is no different. You get so focused on MAKING IT that you lose site of the very life that you are trying to make it FOR. You miss out on important things that, at the moment may not seem important but they are things that will never happen again and some day you’ll regret missing them. You treat people poorly because you stress over your business and take it out on them. You allow things to go in a direction that you don’t even realize they are going in until it’s TOO LATE !!!
Don’t get me wrong !!! Nobody is more for being successful than me. It’s just that I grew up really poor and even I had issues with dealing with success when I first started pursuing it. Success, PROPERLY MANAGED, is a phenomenal thing but it has an equally DEVASTATING effect on your life if you obsess over it and allow it to come between you and the REALLY important things in life. It’s like a medication that, if taken in the proper dosage, will do wonderful things for you but take the wrong amount and it can KILL YOU !!!
I would like for you to read this poem and then I want you to do some real soul searching. Sometimes it only takes a tiny nudge on the shoulder to make you see that you are off course and to put you back on it…….
“I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone from the beginning…… to the end.”
“He noted that first came the date of her birth and spoke of the following date with tears.
But he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.”
“For that dash represents all the time that she spent alive on earth
And now only those who loved her know what that little line is worth.”
“For it matters not, how much we own, the cars….. The house…….
What matters is how we live and love…. And how we spend our dash.”
“So think about this long and hard; are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left that can still be rearranged.”
“If we could just slow down long enough to consider what’s true and real…
And always try to understand the way other people feel.”
“And be less quick to anger and show appreciation more.
And love the people in our lives….. Like we’ve never loved before.”
“If we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile…
Remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.”
“So, when your eulogy is being read…. With your life’s actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say….. About how you spent your dash?”
- Linda Ellis
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“The man is a success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who leaves the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who looked for the best in others and gave the best he had.”
- Bessie Stanley
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Well, I always hate this part because this newsletter has become such an extension of myself.. Such a RELEASE… A way for me to reach out to all of you on a personal level and that is important to me. I always end with the thought in my mind, “If I could only know that I touched just one person in a productive way….” I truly enjoy this method of joining the end of one week with the beginning of another. It rejuvenates me. It clears my mind and strengthens my Spirit. I hope that all of you enjoy being here as much as I do. Until the Good Lord affords us the opportunity to do this again, just remember……
JUST SAY “NO” TO NEGATIVITY !!!
Sincerely,
Jeff Hodges
JeffreyHodges@thedreameffect.com
http://www.thedreameffect.com
http://www.letmemakeyousuccessful.com
http://www.jeffhodges.subuilder.com
http://www.jeffhodges.blogspot.com
615-230-7997
270-320-1324
Skype ID : jeffhodges1
