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Am I starting to sound like a Google convert? Down with Microsoft? I don’t mean to be. But my experience thus far have been pretty staggering!

My email louds instantly. Searches that used to take minutes, take seconds.  Consolidation of all my email accounts while difficult, was worth it. And finally, transfer of all my email, via an Imap mailbox in google, took 3 days (but is now done).  That’s gigs of email, from 3 computers, now instantly searchable. No crashes so far (I crashed on outlook several times a day). This is so far, amazing!  Incredible. Beyond what I could have imagined.  My email actually works!  I’ve been in computers since the 80’s, and my email has never worked.  I simply don’t know how to explain it.

It’s too early for a clear decision, but so far, light years change.  This may be the first move towards an Apple (unthinkable, I can’t even talk about the possibility right now). For better or for worse, Micrsoft has glacialized business on a PC.

Oh, one more thing. I’ve add Google Apps to my SalsaCrazy doman. A domain that has been on the web since the 90s. For those that know, old domains get a lot of spam. How much? Over 5000 email a day! Interesting eh? Bet ya’ didn’t know that eh. Anyway, well, for the first time this decade, I have complete working access to my email. I have taken back my domain from the web. It’s amazing. More on Google Apps later too.

Suffice it to say, big changes!  Nothing short of an inbox revolution.

I don’t talk much about my niches or exactly what I’ve been doing in them here, especially details, however, I have begun to investigate social networking apps in two of my niches with impressive results (all tracked). 

My feelings about Web2.0 and all the big courses I have made abundantly clear. Avoid for now. Simple as that. These are poeple trying to capitalize too early, and it takes an enormous amount of time (and a bit of luck) to see any serious results. However, social networking itself, and running a network specifically, is interesting.  More later…

If you still haven’t signed up for the Underground Online Seminar® 4 - this is your last chance. I just found out there are only 29 seats left! (There might even be less by now.)

What’s even more important is this Friday, February 29th - you’ll have to pay full boat and the extra bonuses go away!

The Underground 4 is just about to SELL-OUT again (like it hasbeen every year). And if you want in - you need to go here right away:

INTERNET MARKETING SEMINAR!

The actual event is March 28-30, 2008 in Los Angeles, CA and there’s no time to waste..

Hope to see ya’ll there, and let me know if you’re going.

That being said, I just purchased yet another high profile course (doh), this time from Mark Joyner. Nope, not about Internet Marketing at all, but about becoming an author and selling books. Not sure how the course will be, but I’ve learned one thing - always get help from smart people.  Simple as that.

This person knows the industry, does SHORT courses that have no fluff, and doesn’t beat around the bush (too much). We’ll see if I can stand it.  Nope, no link, just check out simpleology.com to learn more.

Now, back to book writing for me, but not before I briefly mention my return of the John Reese course! Since i’ll likely buy everything he ever comes out with, people might be interested in why I returned his 3 day teleseminar course in February. First off, he’s a class act, and a real business, and there was no problem in the return. Second, it was actually good information, and I may have gotten something out of the full 3 days, however, after one day…I hadn’t. Nope, not a single thing. This is likely because a) I’m a know it all (that’s a joke people), b) I am terribly advanced at this stuff, having been successful online for many years, c) the large # of people in the course were not at my level, d) John was trying to cover ground to make up for C. 

No harm done, but I simply can’t afford three days, even at 3-4 hours a day. It’s too difficult.  The older I get, the more i make, the less time I can afford. Strange how that works, eh?

What can you afford?

Honestly, what can you afford? When I ran a video game company, my then boss (name withheld) explained to me his time was worth $5000 an hour. His reasoning, if he spent 5k an hour from now, for the rest of his life, he’d still have too much money. Fair enough, he was quite, quite rich (don’t do the math, you’ll figure out my boss). However, I’ve always remember that line. His argument being, if he could "afford" to be here, then we all should be able to as well. ;)  I was bored as hell at that meeting.

Anyway, I recently asked myself about the worth of my time, and apart from the impressively simple (doh!) algorhythm above, which will only apply to a handful of people (and is not useful), I used opportunity cost, lifespan, and averaged in, intelligence and things I like to do. I came to the realization, as likely you will, that your time is invaluable. Should you spend it watching TV or reading this blog, with family or friends or simply working on your business, it’s a limited asset. It’s also an asset that you should put a numeric value on, however you decide to reach it. My time is worth $500 an hour. 

This is what I charge for it. How about you? What do you charge. Remember to prove it to yourself, meaning, would you pay $499, to get that hour of yours back (i.e. whatever you think your hour is worth working, - $1).  I do SO many tasks that I should outsource, especially given how I value my time.

Why ask? Because, if you value your time above, say, even $10 an hour, you should be outsourcing a lot of stuff to free up your time. When you buy a course, the cost of the course is NOT the true cost. The cost of your time will likely outweight it many times (at least for some of you). For those of you where time feels unlimited, congratulations. I guarantee you this. Once the MarketingCrazy books come out, and you start realizing the true value of your time (because you’ll have experience real work, and the real freedom that true residual income provides), you’ll likely value it far more.

Anyway, this post cost someone $200, so back to work on this end.

Finally, I am honestly giving this a go! I am moving from Outloook to Gmail - really. That’s all my mail, including importing over 50 inbox accounts, over 150 folders, and over 8 gigabytes of past mail.  Did I mention this was a massive undertaking. It’s just begun, and I will report my findings and how life is after Outlook in about a month.

However, this task is so significant, and will likely affect so many people, that I had to blog about it. The move from Outlook to Gmail is a staggering one for me. I’ve been on Outlook (or Outlook Express) for my whole life. Brief run ins with Thunderbird or Eudora never took, and I never could get myself off of outlook…

Even though it has never worked well for me!  It checks mail glacially slow, constantly crashes, I’ve lost my email countless times … the problems with Outlook are endless! Yet, I’ve never truly believed I could make the move.

Well, now I’m trying it. Yes, really trying it. Transferring the accounts, and past email (which will serve as a great backup) to Gmail, from my Outlook Stores.

Best of all, you’ll hear about my experiences first hand! 

Why am I taking the plunge that will cost me days of hard work to move from Outlook to Gmail?

1) Reliability and Speed - Outlook was slow, Gmail is fast

2) Search - searching in Gmail is nearly instantaneous, whereas, after trying Desktop Search and even Google Desktop, I could never search my email reliably. My email, perhaps, is simply to big.

3) Travel Pains are Eased - I am now %100 ready to travel - with all my email accounts online, I am ready to travel (which, as you know, I do quite a bit).

4) My Outlok had simply stopped working (again), and was taking nearly 30 minutes to boot. The writing on the wall was clear. Either move, or lose my email yet again!

Concerns with Switching from Outlook to Gmail:

1) Transferring my mail is very slow. It will likely take a FULL week to transfer my mail (via creating an IMAP Google account in Outlook and copying)

2) The Gmail intereface is very different - will I be able to sruvive without folders?

3) Importing all those email accounts, and finding my passwords is a monumental undertaking!

4) I could simply ignore this and go play computer games, or start yet another Internet business.

So, here I go, off into the wild blue yonder of Gmail from Outlook.  I really believe this is a revolution. Vista is a disaster, and I will not upgrade. I am, for the first time, considering Apple as a computer to work on. This is no small question, as I have been a dedicated PC person my entire life. How dedicated?

Um, I’m a gamer, and obviously, an Internet Mareting guru (in hiding). What I use is beyond imagining. I have a Dell XPS 710 H2C and HP Blackbird 002, with 3 side by side 30 inch screens, connected to a 52′ Sony TV.  I don’t even know how much screen real estate that is, but let me tell you - when I sit in front of my computer, I feel like I could control a space shuttle mission.

Why is this important? Because, the switch to gmail from all things Microsoft, if all goes welll, will start me down a path of re-investigating my computer choices which have never worked as they should. Let me call this post Part 1, in a continuing saga towards an empire of Internet Marketing built on your most important tools (your computers) that actually work!  Could it be that Apple based Internet Marketers have always had an edge?  We’ll see.

However, as I embark towards Gmail from Outlook, I wonder what Pandoras box I might be opening…for myself, and for you as well!

Ok, so my earliest internet mentor, Cory Rudl (as he was for many, many others - he died in a tragic car accident), used to sell this course, Internet Marketing Secrets.  It was a great course, and even after his death, get revived every year with a new version. This was my bible for many years.

While I can’t credit it for my success, it is one course that I buy, every single year. I’m not sure whether it’s my dedication to my first mentor, or that I really read through the course when I recieve it each year, but get it I will…

and it releases tomorrow.

http://tinyurl.com/yqqxoe

It’s not a crazy expensive course, nor would I say it’s necessarily the best course (I can’t say, since I have not seen it), but in the past years, it’s been quite good.  I buy it certain that it will be worth the cost. It will be interesting to see how it stacks up against the IME course I spoke about earlier from Armand Morrin.

Am I recommending you buy it? Well, I already said, i won’t recommend things without seeing them first. However, if I am any indication, I am buying it hot off the presses as it’s released. It’s my dedication to my first mentor, whom has made me wealthy in many ways, and it’s a great way to stay on top of what’s really happening in the industry (beyond all the hype launches of this or that). That all being said, I have every previous version of this course (pretty much, ever released), and based on prior versions, I wouldn’t miss it.

This is the real meat and potatoes, and is my dedication to my first mentor.

http://tinyurl.com/yqqxoe

PS - The company is now run by Derek Gehl, whom I don’t know and have only brielfy met in passing.

DanceCrazy [3/5] Paying to much for SEO and Marketing

Ok, really short section here. Basically I signed up for the Link Building program (via NetworkSolutions), and also the SEO program (where you chose 10-50 keywords, and can “optimize” for them).

 A full year later, we had NO ranking in google above page 5. That’s right, no rankings in google above page 5 (and only a few of those). We ranked rarely in Yahoo and MSN, but no on the pages that were purportedly “optimized”.

Let me be clear. This is disastrous for an online store. None of our store built pages or products pages, ranked at all. This is a huge deal! You want your product pages to rank – that’s where your frekain’ products are there for (apart to sell your products). If someone is searching for, say, a swing video, you want the page of your “swing videos” to rank well for … “swing videos”, when typed into a search engine. Once again, NOT rocket science. We had none (that’s right ZERO) top ten rankings in any search engine – and frankly, we had few regular organic rankings of any level.

Why did our pages not rank? Well, they were dynamically constructed by the shopping cart, with poor SEO technique, so I’m guessing that has much to do with it, but in truth, I have no idea.  I just know what’s happened since then, and how we turned it around (and that’s coming).

But first, what did we do about nine months in? We complained and asked about the “Guarantee” that is provided. This is the part that’s going to make me look so foolish, but I’ll take the brunt of this, so that you might learn from it, and not make my (admittedly amateur) mistakes. Ok, so, um, we then received a report about how GREAT we were ranking, and how we had so many top search results.

Yes, that’s right. We received a huge report about how great we were ranking, and how we had been over-delivered to in every possible way, shape and form. We were getting NO traffic, so I was perplexed, until I had a major “aha” moment. I was such a sucker. This is the most embarrassing thing I’ll likely ever write.

The guarantee, which I failed to read fully, did not guarantee Top 10 listings in the major 3 search engines! It guaranteed top 10 Results in ANY of 30 search engines. Oh god. I am such an idiot. So yes, we did rank for some terms in some engines, and the guarantee held, and the service they said they would provide, they did, indeed, provide. It’s just a totally worthless service for us, and resulted in little to no traffic to our site.

Gotchy’aaa!  The link building service, unfortunately, was also very expensive, and since I promised to keep it short, falls into the same “guarantee” trap as above, and frankly, give you so few links, at such a middling quality, as to be completely worthless to me. Your mileage may (but likely won’t) differ. 

Want to read about link building and proper SEO?

Here’s the big tip for this article, and it’s no marketing course. There are TWO sites which I use for straightforward happenings. The first is:

PlanetOcean.com - $60 every six months I think, well worth it.

SEO Book.com – Free, but some additional services.

Read and learn about proper link building. It’s easy. A few directories, continuously outsourcing ink request emails, a few paid links, articles, and then rinse and repeat for the rest of your life. See…it’s simple!

Those are great tips, but frankly, there’s more to this story, and more things you can learn.  The worst is yet to come, and the tale of a an internet ecommerce disaster has much still yet to be told.

I could go on and on about this, but frankly, all of this is coming soon in our masterful (if I do say so myself), “Empire” course.