I’m talking about something a little different. It’s what I call the friend syndrome. I spend A LOT of time listening to audio content on my mp3 player whenever I’m not home.

I listen to podcast, teleseminars, courses, etc by Ed Dale, John Reese, Frank Kern, etc. Over time you get to know these guys (or gals). You understand their sense of humor, their personalities, quirks, etc. You get to laugh with them, cry with them, and share with them… (yeah, I know).

It’s easy to forget that they don’t know you. More-than-likely they’ve never seen you, talked to you, or had any interaction with you what-so-ever. This makes it very hard to refrain from being “too friendly” towards them.

Now I know you’re probably wondering how anyone can be too friendly, but it’s true. I’m a big believer in treating everyone with respect and befriending all. Anyone who follows me on twitter knows that I’m a friendly person. I’ll do what I can for anyone.

I’m sure you’ve experienced this many times. You meet someone for the first time and within minutes they are acting like you’re the best of friends and being overly friendly. Your natural reaction is to put up your defenses and wondering what they want? Why are they being so friendly?

This is the problem that I have with the, for lack of a better term, “gurus”. Other than Ed Dale, whom I’ve gotten to know over the last year or so, I’m still a pretty much a nobody to Frank and John (and other “gurus”). Sure I’ve had a few interactions with them via twitter, but as a whole, they don’t know me.

I find it very hard to hold back my immediate feeling of being ‘real’ friends and the slight feeling of disconnect when they don’t respond to me. Because I can’t turn off the fact that I ‘know’ these guys, I find it difficult to not joke around with them and talk to them like I’ve been friends with them for years.

Now is this a bad thing? Well it can be. If you attempt to communicate too aggressively and be too personal in your initial communication with them you can annoy them and raise their defenses. Immediately they’ll see you as a nuisance and wonder what you’re up to? what you want from them?

But on the other hand, this can be a benefit. Just like a prospective customer/market. You need to understand them to effectively communicate your message. If you spend a lot of time learning from a particular “guru” and get to know his/her personality, quirks, humor, etc you can adjust your communication to better match their personality. The key here is to be very subtle. You don’t want to come across as a “friend” to the guru, but you can communicate in a manner that is similar to their personality. People respond well when you are on the same level as them. No one likes a person who talks down to another person or attempts to make themselves out to be smarter.

So if you want to get to know your ‘guru friends’ a little better I have two tips for you. 1) Be yourself and don’t pretend to be anyone you’re not, and 2) be subtle and not over friendly to people you just meet or talk to the first time.

Take care,
Shannon

Take a minute to read his post (and my comments).  It will be worth it.

Shannon

I’m also planning on using the blog to post anything I want, but mostly about my journey to success online.    From time to time I may also write reviews/opinions about products that are being offered.     Speaking of which, Stompernet will soon show off their new product called FormulaFive.   I will be posting about this soon.

I hope reverting my blog back to recording my journey, I’ll be able to fit it into my busy lifestyle.  

Take care,
Shannon

Anyways. The reason for this post is to let you know that I have a Stomping the Search Engines 2 review uploaded. As you’re probably already aware by now. Stomping the Search Engines 2 is an amazing search engine optimization training product that Stompernet is giving away for FREE tomorrow at 2pm EST. Yes, I did say free. All you need to pay is the shipping & handling. Take a minute and check out my review.

If you’re new to Internet Marketing and looking for a friendly place to go for information and advice, check out Lynn’s blog.  It’ll be well worth your time.

Shannon

Yesterday I found out that I had to come up with over $600 to avoid disconnection of my Electricity. I attempted to work out a solution with my power company, but they weren’t willing to accept anything less than the $600.

With no where to turn, no money to borrow, and no way to get this money quickly, I turned to my friends online. With their help, I was able to gather my collection of markets and phrases, sort through available bonuses, and create a product to sell.

Through their efforts, support, guidance, and money (thanks for buying), I was able to not only pay that $600, but also bring the rest of my bills up to date.

My vacation starts on Saturday and it’s just a great feeling to not have that constant worry that someone will show up to turn something off.

With all my heart I am forever grateful to have such wonderful friends by my side. I’m still in shock to see that everyone chipped in and helped me in my time of need.

I just wanted to say thank you to Nez, Caro, Phill, Ed (NextInstinct), Lisa, Bill, Brent, Asbjorn, TechDogg, and especially Barb. It was Barb who used facebook to let the others know I needed help. Thanks Barb!

I also wanted to give a special thanks to Dan Raine. Dan went above and beyond the call of duty and for that I now put him in God status.. My wife has already planned on turning our dining room into a Dan Raine shrine.

Another special thanks goes out to Nathan for helping me get the product ready, suggestions, and helping me with the forum post copy. Without Nathan, I probably wouldn’t have finished getting everything ready.

I would also like to thank Joel Comm for purchasing a copy of my product and using his creditability to help me by posting his recommendation on my forum post as well as twittering it.

And finally, I want to thank each and every person who knew me or not, but purchased the product anyways. I hope you get great value out of the product and I really appreciate it!

Now I’m ready to relax and go to bed early.. I was up until 5:00am and had to get up again at 6:00am to go to work. I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

Best wishes to you all.

Sincerely,
Shannon

p.s. If I missed anyone above, I am very sorry. I did my best to make sure I included everyone.

Regardless of your personal opinion about product launches you really should look at what John has to offer. Although I haven’t met John personally, I have been following him (not stalking) online and listened to him speak at various events, tele-seminars, etc.

John is very smart and genuinely a nice guy. In every instance that I’ve had the pleasure to listen to John he has always come across as someone who really is interested in helping others.

That’s why I have no problem recommending John’s products.

But in saying that I don’t feel that Traffic Secrets is for everyone. If you don’t have any content online or a site to promote, then traffic secrets will be of no use to you.

But if you do have a site or a business online that you would like to grow, then this product MIGHT be for you. You noticed I said MIGHT be. Only you can make your own educated decision on if you need this product now or not.

So without any hype or fluff.. I’ll let you judge for yourself if this product is right for you or not.

Below you’ll find the three videos that John released for the launch. John has done an amazing job with these. The quality is amazing.

.

Intro & Results Detection
[flv]http://media.income.com/PROMO_1_500.flv[/flv]

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Owning More Of The Internet
[flv]http://media.income.com/PROMO_2_500.flv[/flv]

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The Most Overlooked Traffic Tactic
[flv]http://media.income.com/PROMO_3_750mbps.flv[/flv]

.

As you can from these videos John put a lot of time, money, and effort into making these videos the best they can be. That’s just how John works. You know his product is going to be good. The only question now is if you need it or not.

Now decide for yourself… Make up your own mind.. don’t listen to the word of others who didn’t even watch the videos and make posts that we’re all whores because we promote John’s stuff.

I’m no guru and don’t pretend to be. I’m a father of two children, working a full time job, and trying to grow my business online. So if including an affiliate link in this post offends you, I’m sorry.

In saying that, I wish you the best and hope your business grows to be very successful.

Shannon

p.s. Traffic Secrets 2.0 will be available today, July 15, at 12:00PM EST. Good luck and best of success to you.

If you look at it from your customer’s point of view.  Just pretend for a minute that you’re a gardener looking for information on pruning flowers.   As someone who’s looking for information on pruning flowers, you jump on the computer and do a search for pruning flowers in Google. 

The first result you find is a very nice squidoo lens all about prunning flowers.  The article is so interesting and informative you just have to know what other articles this person has written.  A few clicks later you’re on the profile page for this writer expecting to find other flower or gardening related articles.

To your surprise you find articles titled “10 Steps to Getting Rid of Male Yeast Infection”, “The Ultimate Guide to Underwater Kickboxing”, and “Speed Reading Tips for Ed ‘mankini’ Dale”.

Now what would be your first thought if you came across a writer who writes everything from pruning flowers to male yeast infection?

I know personally my trust level will suddenly drop and I would be more cautious.  I would certainly think twice about any product or service that this writer had recommended.  Nine chances out of 10, I would probably not buy the product they were recommending just because something seems fishy.

I would much rather just use pen names to keep each market separate.  I would rather John to write articles on male yeast infection and Debra write articles on prunning flowers.

That’s just my opinion, what are you thoughts?

~Shannon

I should know.. I’ve already won a James Bond 007 Omega watch!  This watch is valued at like $3000! How awesome is that?!?

And the best thing about the challenge is that it’s completely free.  No gimmicks or anything.

If you have any interest whatsoever in making money online with people who will keep you entertained, then the Thirty Day Challenge is the place to be.

Check it out: Thirty Day Challenge 2008

From the mouth of John himself, this little secret has probably been the most attributing factor to his great success.

And you too can know this secret.

All you have to do is crack the code and the secret to John’s wealth will be revealed.

This is no joke, this is truly the secret to his success…

Crack The Code:

“ZRUN”

Post your guesses below.

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