I worked nights because I enjoyed being away from the view of the "front office" and my perception was, they didn’t like seeing me that much anyway … nothing really major but a bit of friction from time to time.

One night yet another form was in my office mailbox.  It was a thick document with page after page of listings of all the various tasks we performed in our work … and a few I’d never heard of as well.  The form insisted we rate ourselves on each and every task using a very simple scale of only four levels of competency … expert, skilled, semi-skilled and trainable. 

Peeved with the perceived waste of time I sat down and made my way through the list marking a lot of the tasks "trainable", a great many "semi-skilled", all the ones I worked on a nightly basis "skilled" and perhaps 2 or 3 out of the entire list "expert".  Like many of you, I suspect, I have an aversion to self-proclaimed "experts" and I really hate "tooting my own horn", especially about knowledge I am already assumed to have.

Next night I had a note to see Mr. Bob Waters, a very senior civilian supervisor in our unit, two levels above my boss … a guy whom colonels often addressed as "sir".  Worried at what sort of jam I had got myself into, at the end of the work shift, instead of going home to bed, I made my way to Bob’s office and cooled my heels until he called me in.

On the desk in front of him was that self-appraisal form I had filled out the night before.  Hmmm,  First thing that came to my mind was he was going to question why I had marked myself expert on some things … probably was going to bitch at me for over-inflating my competency level … there was a connection in the future between that form and possible future pay reviews.

Turns out Bob did want to question me on that subject.  He told me he was very disappointed in me because I had ranked myself so low on so many tasks … especially because I had given myself so few "expert" ratings.

When I protested, Bob asked me if I realized why he allowed me to work nights for him?  Not knowing how I ought to answer, he asked further if people in my workplace ever asked me for help or took me with them on difficult tasks.

Well, of course they did I responded, many of the guys on my crew are younger and inexperienced so it’s part of my job to help them out and train them.

"Bingo!" was Bob’s response.  "When others come to you for help or look to you for guidance, you become an expert.  You are one of my most experienced technicians.  I honored your request to work nights berceuse I knew your skills and I knew you would keep these guys out of trouble and get airplanes fixed, on time.  Believe me, if I didn’t have that confidence in you, you’d be working day shift, right outside my office, where I could keep an eye on you.  Regardless of what you seem to think of yourself, Dave, you are one of my key experts in your field, or you wouldn’t be where you are.  Now redo this form and mark it properly."

I learned a lot about myself and about managerial and leadership skills in that five minute conversation with Bob.  And based on personal conversations and thousands of comments on other blogs that I’ve read, I will wager there are a huge number of you out there who would have benefited a lot from a conversation with Bob Waters as well.

Every one of you reading this post have expertise in certain things.  Those of you in my real target group, seniors and retirees who want to make money online have expertise in a world of tasks … you didn’t stay alive and support yourself to the age of 50 or 60 or 70 by keeping your eyes closed and knowing nothing.  Even if you’re a teenager in high school you know a lot more than you give yourself credit for … and someone out there would love to know what you know … the beauty of the ‘Net, and of blogging is … they can find you.  Don’t you be the judge of what you have expertise in …. get off the dime and put your expertise on the line and let the public be your own personal "Bob Waters".

I tend to write too long.  I’ll stop.  I’ll also highly recommend this article by Christine OKelly on increasing your perceived value.  She says what I wanted to say, but says it better.  Thanks, Christine.

Originally posted 2007-12-30 00:29:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The post Self Perception — or Self Deception appeared first on Retired Pay.

7 Small Business Ideas Most Likely To Fail

… The article states that “many people do a lousy job of picking businesses they can realistically turn into a profitable operation.”

The co-authors go on to say that most aspiring entrepreneurs consider small business ideas that are cheap or easy to set up, or start a business based on a love for the product or service – instead of basing their decision on true profit potential…

Here is the quick list of the 7 small business ideas they consider “overrated”:

• Restaurants
• Direct Sales
• Online Retail
• High End Retail
• Independent Consulting
• Franchise Ownership
• Traffic-Driven Web Sites

I’ve highlighted the 3 business models that are “work at home” options, but we could easily add Independent Consulting as a 4th model that can be done from a home office and/or as an online operation. …

Direct Sales – I agree with the authors that it is the Top % that performs well in direct sales. To some extent the model itself supports this, because as the company grows the top tier stands to profit most. However, the closing statement on this model didn’t sit well with me:

The result, Yancey says: “Most of them wind up with a bunch of jewelry or kitchen equipment sitting in their basement that they can’t sell.”

That they can’t sell… or that they don’t sell? …

I have to say Lynn has hit the mark with laser-like accuracy there.  There is plenty, and I mean plenty of scope to make money in direct sales, but tou can’t do it by trying to sell third-rate crapolla and better than first-rate prices.  That’s a recipe for disaster in any economic climate.

photo credit: Avia Venefica

A good friend I used to work with decided he was going to retire early and fund the short fall in his necessary retirement income with a direct sales website.  I thought iut a little strange, as he was thinking of marketing clothes, retail, and had no expereince at all in that field, but heck, anyone can make a go of nearly anything if they work at it.

Problem is, my friend didn’t work at it.  He signed up to some sort of ‘online mall’ membership deal and set ip a “free” website selling ultra-cheap looking immigration leather jackets and other schlock from China in competition with several other online mall members.  You don’t need Dominic Dunn to tel you the effort ended badly.  But that is not a failure of the business model (strategic), it’s a failure of how my friend chose to implement the model (tactical).

Read the rest of Lynn’s article, I think she makes some very good points, I’ll try to squeeze in a few more first-hand expereince comments later.

Originally posted 2009-09-09 15:58:00. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The post Ways to Fail? Or Ways to Succeed? appeared first on Retired Pay.

Online entrepreneurship can be successfully accomplished with very little investment and very little risk, but you must, at all costs, resist that urge to buy some eBook and go to sleep, envisioning that you’ll wake up rich in the morning.  The formula for success always includes educating yourself, work and patience … at least in any legitimate venture I’ve been able to make money at.

You can, however, minimize the length of time you need to spend learning and focus your work efforts in the proper direction by partnering in some way with reputable people who have gone on ahead and blazed the trail.

That’s one reason I consistently recommend my friend Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind service.  It’s a membership deal where you are asked to sign up for a monthly fee.  In return you get proven materials, techniques, member’s only interaction with others who are ‘doing’ and who have proved they can ‘do’ and direct access to Yaro … a guy who spent several years building up his online income from zero to a very impressive five figure a month level.

Yaro makes the vast majority of his money not from actual blog posts but from the technique of using his blog to drive business in other areas, including his successful Blog mastermind membership program.  It’s very hard to argue with the idea of tapping into Yaro’s experience and coaching for a very small monthly investment, with no long-term commitment … you can leave whenever you think you have ‘graduated’ or whenever you feel you have has enough.  Yaro’s average term of membership is six months plus, so these people must certainly feel they are getting what they paid for.

I’ve worked closely with several other very successful membership service ventures … I’ll write about a couple more of them in the future, I don’t want to make this one of my usual ‘run on’ posts.

I am, however, very much on a membership site’ kick right now because another friend of mine just opened a paid monthly membership site that allows members to build AdSense and affiliate sales oriented sites using only the free and popular WordPress platform.  This fellow announced his plan only a couple days ago, I looked at it, nodded, and made a note to check back in a week or so.  Forget about that idea.  He sent me an email this morning to announce it is already full … his goal of 70 members (limited so he can give good service to everyone) has been reached … at $39 USD per month.

Don’t bother firing up your calculator … that’s $2730 USD per month or over $32,000 USD per year just to show people how to set up and administer WordPress.  I was pretty impressed at the speed this guy put this program together … he’s an experienced Internet marketer but he focuses on technical stuff, like keywords and Google search algorithms.  I wondered how he had put a moneymaker like this together so quick and the answer to my question is a great resource for many of you I expect.

Go sign up with Membership Academy.  Sign up, you ask?  Just like that?  Yep, I do.  It’s absolutely free for a basic membership and I guarantee that even if you never upgrade you’ll make a big return on your non-investment   of course if you are sure you want to press forward with a membership=type site, the sky is the limit.  You’ll have everything you need on one simple dashboard and you can start signing up people the same day.  Membership Academy.  Recommended.

Originally posted 2008-08-18 17:17:11. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The post How You Build It Will Help Them Decide To Come appeared first on Retired Pay.

This does not mean you are stuffing your content with keywords; that will cause the search engines to ban your site. You need to add in your keywords in a way that makes sense. Avoid being viewed as a spammer by the search engines by watching your keyword density. Traditional copywriting is about writing for audience whereas SEO copywriting is about that and the search engines. You benefit more than just one way from mastering this more difficult writing style. Study the following tips to help you become an efficient SEO copywriter.

How do you write SEO copy that gets results? The main problem usually boils down to lack of preparation in terms of knowledge necessary to do the job right. Good quality content is important for many reasons, but the most important aspect is you want your content to be read and acted upon. It’s a tough situation because the search engines are always trying to find ways that only allow the best content to be ranked the highest. If your content is great, then it is possible that other sites will naturally want to link to you. This kind of situation only occurs when something happens that has something that can become viral in nature. The truth about that is it’s a bit rare and not the way to go when it comes to getting backlinks. Apart from that, when you’re creating your content, make sure that you use keyword variations so that you don’t end up keyword stuffing. So the solution is to use good synonyms for those particular keywords in your content. Keywords used with too much frequency can look like keyword stuffing and you could get penalized by Google and others. Using appropriate and relevant keywords becomes a totally new picture with the search engines, and it is looked upon favorably. Your pages will have good scores that have to do with LSI or Latent Semantic Indexing. So this all has to do with the degree of relatedness of the various words on your site relative to the main keywords you’re optimized for, etc.

If you’re definitely doing SEO, then be sure to avoid using any kind of frames on your site. SEO and site frames do not mix together well, so just skip over the frames until you find a suitable replacement. Yes, the search engine robots and spiders can have difficulty with languages, so be sure to code in HTML. The thing about frames is that it gives the search engine bots a hard time. You can easily see the problem here if they engines cannot crawl your site for SEO reasons. So just stay away from frames because they can be troublesome. Try to avoid going overboard with the fancy toys on your site, etc. It’s good to avoid frames just for compatibility reasons, and frames are very old technology. Your navigation and linking structures have a contribution to make with SEO, so set them up the right way.

Another thing you need to watch is your keyword density; it shouldn’t too high or too low. Many sites have been banned because they ignored this rule. Repeat keywords for clarity in your content, not to increase your keyword density. When you keep your writing clean and concise, the search engines will have to rank you Empire Formula.

Another thing you need to watch is your keyword density; it shouldn’t too high or too low. Ignoring this simple rule has gotten many sites banned before. Repeat keywords for clarity in your content, not to increase your keyword density. When you keep your writing clean and concise, the search engines will have to rank you. Try to bear in mind what you’ve read, today, and always get as much practice in as possible.

Be sure to read the full Keyword Winner Review and get the best Keyword Winner Bonus.

Originally posted 2012-04-08 08:51:34. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The post How To Supercharge Your Keyword Winner SEO Copywriting appeared first on Retired Pay.

When you begin participating in the Twitter community, it’s important to show your Twitter network that you’re a good person to deal with and not just someone who’s throwing sales posts at them. Besides, who wants to associate to someone who’s only interest is spamming people with constant sales spiels? If you post something that could be seen as offensive to them, it’s easy for them to stop following you. Finding followers on Twitter can take some time, but losing them can take a single unthoughtful post. However, if you post considerate tweets, those followers will look forward to more. Earn their respect by offering them your own respect first, and you’ll soon have a loyal following.

You won’t go very far if you try to please all of the different groups of people that are on Twitter. Instead, you must be smart and proactive as a Twitter marketer. Choose a specific group of people who agree with you and make them happy. This is a special plan that involves getting the approval of a specific market and then going forward from there. When you can make good decisions, people will view you as competent and intelligent. This is extremely important; especially when you have to win their trust. But overall, your marketing strategy shouldn’t be rule by what you want, but rather by what your target audience wants. So make sure that you apply this tip in such a way that you get what you want, and your followers get what they’re looking for. Empire Formula Review.

If you want people to notice your tweets, you have to make them noteworthy. Go out of your way to make your tweets noticeable and original, so they are not ignored. Yet you don’t want to send out random tweets on any subject just to be noticed. Nothing is more unprofessional than getting random tweets when you’re actually expecting something specialized. Empire Formula Review.

All in all, using Twitter for your marketing needs is now easier to master than ever before. So jump in and take advantage of a great opportunity.

leather messenger bags for men, mens leather messenger bags.

Originally posted 2010-03-10 19:29:57. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The post Twitter Marketing Tips – Unorthodox Strategies To Use Twitter For Your Online Business appeared first on Retired Pay.

One of my fav posts of Jeremy’s is this one: Shit Or Get Off The Pot – TFS

Today he had a guest blogger post another great one, entitled: Want to Succeed? Then Get Off Your Ass and Work

I suggest you read them both and peruse the comments.  They will teach you more than I could in a week of floundering about.  In particular I recommend wading through the comments today until you find the one from “Dr. Shoemoney”, Jeremy’s wife.  Good info and highly recommended to add to you daily reads.  Jeremy may seem over the top at times, but the man speaks volumes.

Originally posted 2012-03-02 08:40:10. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The post Want To Succeed Online — The One Single Super-Secret Revealed appeared first on Retired Pay.

Lifestyle – US;Retirees hit by longevity risk

Tom Brown
MIAMI (Reuters) – Like many other elderly Americans, Edie Stark has been hard hit by the meltdown in U.S. financial markets. She is 84 and has been worried a lot lately about outliving her savings.
A retired nurse, Stark is a prime example of what financial planners coldly call "longevity risk," a reference to the need for a secure income and lasting savings at a time when growing numbers of Americans can live for 30 years in retirement.
Life expectancy in the United States has already reached a record high of 77.8 years, up from 70.8 in 1970, according to the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. Fueled by continuing health gains, the U.S. Census Bureau projects life expectancy in the world’s wealthiest country will reach 79.2 years by 2015. .. read the rest of Tom’s honest, but depressing article on how a long and happy life turns into a risk here.

Here’s a lady who has taken a pretty good cut at explaining the ‘whys’ of the situation and incidentally some good thoughts at correcting the problem … ourselves, the way we were meant to … rather than sitting around whining about when ‘the government’ is going to ‘make things right’.  (hint … they ain’t going to) Recommended reading:

Why We’re Broke and How To Fix It

Take a Hummer full of average self-made millionaires. Strand them in the desert. Strip them of their money. Take away everything they own. Rob them of their connections, their networks, their families.

Ten to one they’re millionaires again in less than five years.

Can you be a millionaire in five years?

As it stands right now, probably not. So what is it that’s different about John Q. Millionaire? Why can he take his kids to Euro Disney and you can’t?

Because he depends on himself and the rest of the world depends on, well, the rest of the world. I(my emphasis)

… see the rest of Naomi Dunford’s excellent post on why we’re broke and how to fix it.

(Note, it really pains me to have to write this but my on frickin’ country has become such a nation of whiners and namby-pambies that I suppose if I don’t add this disclaimer someone will try to sue me.  Sigh.  Naomi is over the age of 21 and she occasionally tosses out a four-letter word or two … OMG in some of her other posts she even mentions the word s-e-x … so ‘bold’ as we say here in the Philippines … so if you’re a Ted Haggard fan from Colorado Springs, do not click on the link, kneel and Pray Away the Gay instead.)

OK, you have been warned and you have been given the keys to the Kingdom for solving the problem.  Now, what will you do?  Take action and empower your own retirement, or wait for government help that will only make you broker and less secure?  You already know what I am doing with my retirement, the question is, what will you do with yours?

Originally posted 2008-11-26 17:23:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The post “Live Long and Prosper” — Have Them Both appeared first on Retired Pay.

Trading the CFD Market is all about being able to find new or upcoming trends so that you can trade your money before what you predict happens. The faster that you can identify these trends the faster you can make money from Trading. If you are the first to be able to identify these trends, the more profit you are able to make compared to trading in a current trend.

To be able to identify a trend, takes a bit of luck, some great trading skills, a really good eye and a lot of attention to detail; most of you as a Trader you will need to have the necessary tools in reading technically analysis required to find these trends.

One tool which is proven to be very useful is CFD charts. Whish is also know as using technical analysis. The correct CFD training to use these charts, you should be able to identify the different patterns or trends that may appear. To get more educational information on technical analysis feel free to visit the CFD FX REPORTthey can help you with educational lessons as well as finding the Best CFD Brokerin the Market.

These patterns are the gold mines and to identify where and when they will pop up, it is essential to use a chart. The best possible outcome which you should aim to achieve with the use of these charts is to find a huge trend even before it happens.

When training to use CFD charts in order to find your gold mine, you would have to familiarize yourself with the seven different triangle patterns. These patterns appear differently and would form under different conditions. To become a master at currency trading with charts, you would need to learn and memorize each of these patterns and train yourself to identify them whenever they appear. In the end, all that hard work and meticulous work will pay off in a huge way.

So the more education and the more effort that you put into yourself to hone your skills the more chance you have of being a profitable successful trader.

Originally posted 2009-03-24 01:28:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The post CFD Trading Australia appeared first on Retired Pay.

Normally we talk about the stock market, we to take a closer look at a different way to make money in the financial markets. There’s a great deal of people that have found out about currency trading and want to know if they can make money, so hopefully this article comes in handy.

Since it’s easy to trade forex right on your computer, there is a lot more people making money with currency trading.

The theory remains the same – the idea is to buy when the cost is low and sell when the price is high. All currencies are constantly changing in rate, so if you can sell a certain currency for more than was paid for it, money is generated.

Let’s take a look at why various currencies will change in value. We’ll discuss a couple of the most common causes, although there are a lot factors.

The interest rates in a country plays a huge role on the value of their currency. If rates of interest increase this causes more outsiders to invest in the country. These new investments lead to an increased demand for that money and it increases in value. If you are able to anticipate interest rates will increase in a country and purchase their currency before it is announced, it is likely that you will earn a good amount of money.

Commodity prices will also play a massive role on some currencies. Certain countries that are big suppliers of certain commodities typically have a currency that changes as the cost of the commodity they supply does. The higher the price, the more demand exists for the currency from other countries and this leads to an appreciation of the currency.

If you want to make money with forex trading, please consider getting a currency trading program to give you a hand. These softwares are developed by pro traders and are able to use market data and then identify the currencies to trade. There are lots of currency traders use only these forex programs to earn their money, although I personally tend to use these programs in addition to transactions that are based on my own ideas.

Forex Trading is not only exciting, but there’s also a good deal of cash that you can make when you use the right tools.

Originally posted 2009-08-10 03:51:09. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The post Discover How You Can Make Money In Forex Trading! appeared first on Retired Pay.

So what are the advantages of using ebook readers? The first reason is for health purposes. Students have had to contend with carrying books on a daily basis starting from junior high right up to their college days, and the daily burden can lead to back problems later on in life. Often, teenagers also feel quite exhausted at the end of the day, in part because of having to lug around heavy books. The problem has become a major concern such that some companies have even designed bags that won’t put too much strain on lower backs. So how about they forget about carrying 50-lbs worth of books altogether and take a very light ebook reader instead?

Using ebook reading devices and ebook versions of school textbooks is also practical. All students have experienced the hassle of having to wait in line every start of the term in order to get the books they need. If you’re looking to get second-hand books that are still in useable form, no torn pages or unwanted notes of the previous owner, it’s even more imperative to get ahead on the line. Then at the end of the term, a student would have to stand in another long line to have the books sold. Now, if students use ebook readers, there would be no need for all these lines because books can be available in a matter of seconds through wireless connection.

Cost is another great, if not obvious, reason to make the switch. While a $400-500 ebook reader may not seem like savings, it pales in comparison to what the average student will spend on books. Depending on their major, some students may even spend that much on just one book! The ebook reader offers the opportunity to cut back on long term spending by making one investment. And nothing is worse than waiting an hour in line to sell your hundred dollar book back only to get nothing more than lunch money in return.

College students already have a lot of things to think about and if we want to make learning easier for them, giving them better alternatives than lugging around books or waiting in line will help a lot. With the advent of technology, students can now make use of ebook reading devices that will give them more time for academic pursuits and less stress worrying about bringing so many books all the time. Having ebook readers would also benefit the teachers because they won’t have to worry if their students have the reading materials they need. With all of these benefits, encouraging students to utilize ebook readers is something every university should consider.

Revolutionize your reading life with an Electronic Book Reader! Visit our site to know more about handheld ebook readers and why they have evolved to be one of the hottest gadgets today. You’ll also be able to read of the hottest devices so you can determine which one is best for you.

Originally posted 2009-09-19 02:18:59. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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