Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

One Stop Web Support Newsletter #59 Coming
The latest issue of my newsletter is due to arrive Sunday, November 4.

This issue will focus on a topic that is too often overlooked by business owners as they jump from one thing to another in that hope that some get-rich-quick idea will win them the jackpot. The topic isn't glitzy, but it's sure effective:

Use Procedures To Grow Your Business

If you haven't signed up for my newsletter, you can do so at www.onestopwebsupport.com/newsletter-signup.htm. And I'll make it worth your while if you do. I'll give you $250 worth of free gifts for signing up!
Jeff

Labels: newsletter

Hot Offers for November 2, 2007
Some pretty good offers from last week are still available for a few days:

• A chance to check out an exclusive SEO resource for 30 days and boost your rankings with it
• A deep discount on the tool I recommend most highly for building your site
• A 15% discount on the original--and still one of the best--keyword research tools

Click on the links to go to my Hot Offers page and find out more.


30 days access to Search Marketing Lab
Think you need to be a technical wizard to score a top 3 ranking for your website in Google, Yahoo, and MSN?

Wrong!

You can discover how to boost your search engine rankings and get tons of free traffic...

Find out more on the Hot Offers page
or
Go sign up for your 30-day trial and see for yourself


SiteBuildIt! Day of the Dead Special
Ken Evoy's SiteBuildIt! is running a special to coincide with Latin America's Day of the Dead celebration.

If you've been reading me for any length of time, you've heard me describe SiteBuildIt! as the MOST COMPLETE tool for getting started in building a profitable business online.

It gives you extensive training every step of the way to go along with all the tools you need to build your website and make it successful. It simply ROCKS! (And that was a stodgy 53-year-old saying that).

Find out more on the Hot Offers page
or
Go right to the offer and check it out for yourself


Discount on Wordtracker Keyword Research
If you want to what your customers are looking for, there's no better way of making sure that they find you than by knowing what keywords they're typing into the search engines.

Wordtracker was a pioneer in helping marketers find out those keywords and it's still one of the best.

Find out more on the Hot Offers page and pick up the discount code you need for this offer.


Those are my picks for this week.Incidentally, you can still check out some ongoing bargains that give you great value for free or for next to nothing.

Enjoy!
Jeff

Labels: hot offers

Is It OK to Be Afraid?
I just want to clear up something from my post yesterday. I went all rah-rah on you about venturing out into the unknown and treating the building of your business as an adventure of overcoming obstacles, like in the movies.

I don't want to come across as saying that you have to be Indiana Jones, always cool, collected and fearless, in order to stand a chance of succeeding. Most heros in the movies are far from that when they start out.

Consider Luke Skywalker, for example. At the beginning of the movie he's whining about how his uncle refuses to let him seek adventure in exotic new world of college.

So Luke stumbles upon these silly droids who take him to this crazy old man who tells him, "Guess what, Luke. We're going to go off together and save the universe!" And what does good old adventure-starved Luke say? "But... but... but... my uncle needs me at home to tend the crops!"

Yep. Good old Luke. When faced with a real adventure, he suddenly wants the safety of home.

And you find that with the vast majority of characters in the stories we love. They won't take on the adventure on their own. They have to be forced into it.

It's only after they find themselves with no choice but to move forward that they do. And it's only the growth they experience along the way that enables them to act heroically at the end.

It's the same thing with our adventure on the good ship entrepreneur. As we sit back in the safety of working for somebody else, we all long for the benefits of running our own business -- the income, the freedom, the status.

But as soon as we face the reality of what it takes to build a business, we go all "But... but... but..." on ourselves.

We discover that we need to do a lot of new things we know nothing about and we are tempted to shrink away from them into the easy and familiar. For many people, that's where the entrepreneurial adventure ends, with us "But... but... butting" ourselves right out of business and back into the old, familiar life we were trying to escape.

No, being afraid of the unfamiliar path we need to take is nothing unusual. It's part of the journey.

But, like Luke, we need something to force us into action. For Luke, it was clear-cut. The evil Empire destroyed all that was familiar to him and gave him no choice but to take the path of adventure. For us, it usually isn't.

No evil Empire is going to come along and force us to journey down the unfamiliar path of entrepreneurship. We have to take that initiative ourselves. We need to recognize the pull of the old and the familiar, the time-wasters and the dead ends, that suck us away from tackling the tasks that actually propel us toward our goal.

To a certain degree, we actually have it tougher than Luke did. Somebody made the choice of adventure for him. And once he was on that path, there was no turning back.

We walk a path where we have to motivate ourselves daily to continue forward. Because the easy chair of our old life is always right there within easy reach for us to sink back into.

Don't give in to the fears, the uncertainties, the apprehensions that try to send you scurrying back to the old ways you wanted to leave behind. Move forward. The Marines have a saying, "Pain is just weakness leaving the body."

In the same way, fears, uncertainties, and apprehensions are just weaknesses leaving your heart. Move forward. Your journey will strengthen you. And who knows. It may just strengthen you enough to be a hero to somebody else.
Jeff


P.S. The first step in becoming an entrepreneur is to change your mindset. And I know of nothing better to help with that than BANABU.

What is BANABU? It's a no-nonsense set of exercises to help you change your mindset to a more successful one. It was created by someone who has overcome some pretty dramatic obstacles in his life to enjoy a pretty awesome life.

It has definitely helped me. In my opinion, it's definitely worth checking out.

Labels: BANABU, mindset, motivation

Who's the Hero of Your Story?
Who's playing the leading role in your life story right now?

My youngest daughter, Lydia, loves stories. Whether it's novels or movies or TV or the stories she writes, she loves to immerse herself in adventures where people overcome great odds to achieve what they never would have thought possible.

Right now, though, she has little time for any story but one--her own story.

She's in the final week of testing at Navy boot camp. She needs to pass strength and endurance tests to graduate and move on to her chosen training school. She needs to complete a 1.5 mile run in 15 minutes, or else she'll be held back from graduation until she does.

The problem is, she has blisters on both feet and a bad case of shin splints. Every step she takes is painful, but she has to pass the test to move on to the language training she wanted.

Her situation got me thinking how she is now living the kind of overcoming-obstacles adventure that she loves to read.

You know that kind of story--the situation gets worse and worse for the hero, but the hero guts it out and overcomes it all to succeed.

Lydia has become the hero of her own life story, facing long odds to overcome an obstacle that seems overwhelming.

It's not unlike what all of us face in starting a business. None of us come into business knowing all we need to know. Much of what we face is totally unfamiliar.

Yet the only way to succeed is to press on despite the obstacles and the uncertainties. It is an adventure in which we are the main characters, thrust into new situations and emerging successful only by facing the unfamiliar and overcoming it.

Are you acting as the hero of the story of your business launch? Are you moving forward in the face of obstacles? Are you discovering new reservoirs of resources within you as you venture into the unknown?

Then keep going! You're on the right track!

Or are you sitting back, hoping timidly that everything will simply come together for you all on its own? Are you hoping that some off-the-shelf shortcut will do all the work for you?

If so, get up and get going! You have journeys to make and dragons to slay!

If you're starting a business, you've undertaken an adventure. And the only one who's going to play the hero in that adventure is you.
Jeff

Labels: goals, motivation

A Difference in Perspective
Some time back, I got a notice from the city that my house was in violation of some new housing code. I needed to redirect my rain gutters to conform.

Now, I don't consider myself much of a handyman. In fact, most of my life I've been down on myself for my lack of fixit knowledge. So I procrastinated the gutter work until actually past the deadline for conforming.

Finally, I set aside a day to do it. As is usual with my handyman work, it took me innumerable trips down to the basement for tools, two trips to the hardware store, and six hours of trial and error. But at last I got it done.

With past handyman projects, I've beaten myself up for my efforts. I would look back at the finished project and feel inadequate because I hadn't gotten everything perfect in the snap of my fingers.

I've found that kind of perspective very damaging, though, and have been working to root it out in all parts of my life.

With this project, I chose to look back on all my mistakes and obstacles not as indictments on my abilities as a handyman, but as proof that I can overcome all sorts of obstacles and find a way to succeed.

The difference is huge! Seeing it in terms of mistakes only increases reluctance to take on other necessary projects. Seeing it in terms of obstacles overcome builds confidence.

The same thing works with business tasks. Is there something you've been putting off because you're not sure you're up to it? Jump in.

If it's something new to you, you'll probably make mistakes. But rather than beating yourself up over them, find a way to overcome them. Then look back on the finished effort with increased experience and with increased confidence that you can overcome future obstacles as well.

Change your perspective. It's amazing how much the way you look at what you do can affect not only your satisfaction with your efforts, but also your ability to accomplish even more.
Jeff

Labels: mindset, motivation, personal growth

New and Revised Newsletter Coming Out
Along with reactivating my blog, I am rejuvenating my newsletter in a new format. I had planned to send out the latest issue yesterday, but transforming it into a new format took longer than I expected. I hope to have it out tomorrow.

This issue will focus on:

Why Being Too Smart Can Cripple Your Business

If you haven't signed up for my newsletter, you can do so at www.onestopwebsupport.com/newsletter-signup.htm. And I'll make it worth your while if you do. I'll give you $250 worth of free gifts for signing up!
Jeff

Labels: newsletter