At the time of making this video it was New years eve 2011 ..with the onset of 2012

So due to being asked by quite a few people, I felt I should do my first ever ‘Years’ overview both in terms of business and personal life

It ended up being a slightly lengthy video, but hey it’s full of absolute gold if you watch the whole thing through

By watcing this I want you and me ‘Both’ to have an awesome 2012 and once you have watched it, i’d luv your feedback below and if you can, share it with your friends

So sit back, grab your low calorie popcorn and watch the awesomeness in this video

When you hear some of the things this guys achieved and at what age it’ll blow your socks off (And if you havent got any socks then go out there and get some)

I also really encourage you to check out his blog at:

http://www.reedfloren.com/

Rather then me rant on i’ll let you watch this short interview i did with him recently.

Afterwards I seriously encourage you to check out his personal Blog:

==>   http://millionaireat24.com/   <==

At that point I thought to myself that this kid was a chip off a very serious block, therefore upon launching my Blog I knew I had to get him to spill the beans on How he did it.

So below is the interview I did with him so let me know in the comments section your thoughts.

Peace

~Z~

—– Click HERE To Check Out Maksuds Blog —–

Its not often I get to speak to other long haired & bearded Internet marketers ..Men that is not women.

So hooking up with fellow marketer Matthew Wolfe in late 2010 was really cool and something I wanted to share.

I met Matt at the time Easy Video Player 2.0 was about to launch and as he works very closely with Video Boy (AKA Josh Bartlett) all us guys kinda hit the ground running about how some of the social media techniques I had up my sleeve could fit in with raising the profile of their launch; and how their fashion tips could help me attract more women.

After the launch me and Matt became good friends on cyberspace and it proved after all, the crazy world we live in; building up a good relationship with someone I have yet to meet in the flesh ..obviously with clothes otherwise that’ll just be plain wrong.

Rather then me rant on any more why dont you check out the interview I did with him below, but please be warned this interview was very adhoc so I didnt get time to have proper lighting and do it from the work space I usually work from ..my priority was to take action and just get it done

Leave comments below to let me know what you think.

Peace

~Z~

kk

—– Click HERE To Check Out Matts Blog —–

—– Click HERE To Check Out The WordPress Classroom —–

This Article will hopefully demonstrate how in such a short space of time Marketing Online, you could go from a position of Learning to a position of Teaching.

Lets rewind back slightly though, as most of you guys know I started online at the end of 2009 after attending an event in London, you know the ones where you’re totally mesmorised by the gazillion dollar paypal screenshots appearing on the large screen, shown by one marketer after the next ..yep that type of Event.

Well not long after that I attended an Internet Marketing event by Mark Anastasi who is pretty much the biggest Events orgnanizer in the UK for such Events, bringing in top speakers from all over the globe.

Attending his first Event literally changed my life, this is where I first met in person a lot of the top Marketers im now honored to call my Friends.

This also demonstrates how important it is to be constantly networking when it comes to ‘really’ growing your business. Too many marketers I know to this day have never ventured out of their bedroom and have never taken the effort to meet people in person ..yes that voice at the end of your skype conversation really does have a tangible physical element too.

After attending that Event in London my Business grew from strength to strength and showing my (Hairy) face at such events became a fixture on my Yearly Wallchart N.B. If you guys dont have a Wallchart then seriously get one and plan out your year ..My Birthdays on October 1st

Forward to 2011 and a weird exchange of Skype messages took place, and no they were’nt from one of Ex’s, rather they were from Mark Anastasi and his Team themselves ..this was totally unexpected.

It transpired that a couple of big names in the IM community who are also my friends, messaged him individually and recommended that I speak at his upcoming Facebook Event due to be held in London ..When I heard this I was blown away and Humbled!

So after prepping up my talk and some funky slides on keynote (Which is the superior version to Windows Power-less-point) I was ready to go.

I turned up on the First day of the event to be greeted by over 500 people ….No pressure then :-S

It was that packed they literally turned away over 80 people just in the morning session.

Mark Anastasi hosted the morning session and as the minutes grew closer my heart pumped faster due to the adrenalin building up, although I had a spare of Undies on standby in my Holdall.

Then my time came up and as I walked towards the stage my heart ran faster and faster until I got onto the stage and turned to face over 500 attendees ….All eyes on me.

I had been giving this advise by other speakers that the first 2-3 minutes you’re as nervous as O J Simpson on trial but after that you settle into a groove and feel a lot more comfortable.

Ultimate Facebook Marketing Seminar - Zed Shah

Being able to speak on stage was truly a humbling process as I even pointed out to the attendees that not even a year earlier I had been sitting where they were setting eagerly taking notes and committing myself to massive action.

Also being up on stage in front of so many people was an activity I could now tick of my Bucket list and also according to research is the number one activity that people are most scared off ..me being one of them :-S

Plus I got to wear a Mic like Madonna so that was even more cool ..obviously without the pointed bra as that would have been too disturbing.

I spent most of the 4 days at the event mingling with the attendees and meeting my peers in the industry up for some drinks in the Hotel lounge ..some of them having more then the one drink and as they say the rest is history.

On the last day of the event we attended the speakers dinner at an awesome Greek Restaurant in Earls Court (London), I was hoping for some plate smashing but unfortunately I had to leave my stereotypes for another occassion.

I recorded an adhoc video which is below so it’ll hopefully give you a taster for the kind of awesome speakers I was honoured to share a stage with at the event.

Let me leave you with this folks (que violin and bucket), but no seriously, keep going with whatever you’re doing and if it is your intention to get on stage and share your knowledge with the world then actually set that as your intention and dont let any bugger get in the way.

Im no different to you (Except for my lovely long ‘naturally’ curly hair) so if this dude can do it then so can you

Peace

~Z~

Considering this is one of my first posts I have put up on my Blog, some might consider it whacky that I immediately quote someone else’s Article.

Well under normal circumstances I’d agree but when you’re quoting one of the biggest Internet Marketers in the world AKA John Reese, you’d very quickly see why i’m allowed the green light.

For those of you who don’t know of John Reese (what galaxy have you guys been hibernating in lol ??), then John Reese is that rare breed of marketer who’s been marketing online from before the Web ever even came into existence ….no seriously i’m not actually exaggerating, he started way back in 1990.

John created one of the first ever Autoresponder services on the Internet in 1994.

Since then he’s created and launched well over 110 products online which is amazing by any ones standards.

Also more impressively he was the ‘First’ ever Internet Marketer to make ‘One Million’ Dollars in 24 hours when he launched ‘Traffic Secrets’

John Reese has always been known to create high quality products and is a very savvy marketer, who’s willingness to share his expertise is second to none.

Speaking of sharing his experiences, the email below is the ‘Exact’ email I received from him very recently in my inbox (one of the few marketers i’ve stayed subscribed to).

Reading his email I was genuinely blown away and considered it (and still do) one of the best and most profound pieces of content i’ve read in my Internet Marketing career to date.

So without further ado I’ll let you read his Email below, copied and pasted word for word….

(September 2010)

In light of my upcoming 40th birthday, I want to share 12 valuable mini-lessons that I’ve learned so far as an entrepreneur…

These range from mistakes to avoid, to making strategic decisions, of how to get cash flow to come in the fastest, etc.

They are in no particular order…

1. ALWAYS DO MORE THAN IS EXPECTED OF YOU

I learned this at an early age from my Dad. He had a very successful career as a business executive and engineer, and this the core principle that created his success.

You can apply this to your business in many ways… over-delivering to your customers, giving unexpected bonuses to your employees or outsourced workers, and more.

Most people do just the bare minimum. Do more than is expected of you and it will do amazing things for your business.

2. STOP DREAMING AND START DOING

Too many entrepreneurs get caught up in the big dreams of how they will one day be rich and how their life will be amazing …but they never end up doing anything.

They buy courses, read all they can, jot down little notes and ideas in a notebook, but nothing ever actually gets created.

A web site doesn’t get made. Advertising isn’t run. Markets aren’t tested. Nothing.

If you want to make a lot of money the only way that happens is getting stuff done. Period.

3. DON’T LET LEARNING DELAY ACTIVITY

Most people that have studied Internet Marketing much already have the basic skills that are needed to build a million-dollar business.

That’s worth REPEATING…

Most people that have studied IM much ALREADY HAVE the basic skills that are needed to build a million-dollar business.

You can get stuck learning new stuff FOREVER. There will always be new methods and techniques that get discovered. The Internet changes on a DAILY BASIS. This is a given.

Don’t get caught in the trap of “I’m going to start building my business right after I go through this next course…”

You can start building your business TODAY while you are studying and learning new things that you can easily apply TOMORROW.

Things will NEVER perfectly align for you and your business. There’s no such thing. So don’t wait. Get started NOW and take action. Get some stuff going and go from there.

4. MULTIPLE IDEAS CAN BE THE KISS OF DEATH

It’s okay to work on multiple projects and ideas. It’s almost impossible to stop entrepreneurs from having tons of new ideas at the same time.

BUT…

No new money comes in the door until you get ONE project launched and making money.

Something has to be launched FIRST.

5. MAKE JUST ONE DOLLAR FIRST

No one has ever made a million dollars in sales without generating $1 first.

ALL successful businesses start with that first sale and then grow from there.

It doesn’t matter what your income goals are. The faster you make your first dollar, the faster you will reach your goals. PERIOD.

6. DO THE IMMEDIATE CASH PROJECT FIRST

What should you work on next? Whatever will bring in cash the fastest for your business — and of course, I mean that in a moral/legal/ethical way.

If you analyze all the great ideas you are probably sitting on, I bet you can realistically prioritize them in the order of which ones would actually make money come in the fastest (if it succeeds.)

THAT is the project you need to focus on.

Cash is the lifeblood of your business (and your life.)

Save some of those “big” ideas for the future. Focus on the ones that stand the best chance of getting new money to come in right away. Once you have some stable ongoing cash flow in your business, then you can take a chance on that project that may take longer to pay off.

7. EMAIL MARKETING KICKS THE CRAP OUT OF EVERYTHING ELSE

When it comes to growing a business online, nothing generates long-term cash flow like an email list of engaged subscribers & customers.

Email marketing is the best way to generate traffic. It’s the best way to ‘recycle’ the same visitors again and again to any of your projects. It’s also the best way to convert prospects into buyers.

RSS, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, BLAH BLAH BLAH

Yes, those methods can generate leads. Yes, those methods can generate some sales. But time and time again little old email marketing kicks their butts — by a long shot.

So make building a list, and a solid relationship with it, a top priority in your business.

8. RUN A LEAN OVERHEAD MACHINE

I can’t stress this one enough.

When you start growing a successful business it’s really easy for your overhead to get out of hand. It’s easy to start hiring a bunch of people and committing to a bunch of expenses.

Take it from me, when you have months where your fixed expenses (doesn’t include advertising, etc.) are well over $100,000/MONTH (and growing) it can put you in a tough position to make healthy profits.

I used to have fixed overhead that high but never again. I realized there were smarter ways to do things.

What you need to realize is that REVENUE doesn’t mean jack squat. It’s your profit (income) that matters.

So while running a $10,000,000/year business (sales) is impressive, I know people running a $1,000,000/year business that nets MORE than the person that owns the $10MM/year business.

It all comes down to your expenses.

Sometimes it certainly DOES take heavy expenses in order to make a lot of money. But that’s not my point…

My point is, your overhead can really get away from you. If your sales experience some dips, and it’s almost guaranteed they will at some point, then you can LOSE YOUR BUTT very quickly.

So add to your overhead as a last resort.

9. MAKE ACCOUNTING A PRIORITY

This is a big mistake that most entrepreneurs make — and I’ve been guilty of it as well.

Keeping the books and doing accounting work is the LAST thing that most entrepreneurs want to mess with. We have more fun by coming up with new ideas and trying to make them grow — not spending hours of our time inputting receipts and figures into QuickBooks.

If you don’t like accounting, immediately pay someone a few bucks to handle it for you. Just make sure your accounting is always up to date. It’s very important.

As an extension of this, make paying your taxes a priority — even if you pay them in advance.

I have paid a small fortune in tax penalties because of being lazy and filing late. And it’s too easy to let one delay turn into another and for the problem to get worse. So make it a priority.

Don’t “rob Peter to pay Paul.” This is a trap most entrepreneurs fall into — again, I’ve been guilty of it in the past myself.

It’s easy to start making a bunch of money and think “I’ll just use this money to make more money instead of paying my taxes on it now and I’ll just pay the taxes later after I’ve made even more money.”

Or the same thinking is applied towards delaying payments to a vendor, or some other expense that needs to get paid.

This is probably the #1 mistake entrepreneurs make that can create problems and a lot of wasted money in paying penalties and interest. So make sure your accounting is taken care of and your taxes get paid on-time for you.

10. DON’T LEASE OFFICE SPACE

(If possible.)

As tempting as this might become if your business starts to grow, avoid it at all costs.

If you’re like me, what will happen is that you will eventually stop going to the office and just work from home where you always were more comfortable anyway. And/or you will end up realizing you really didn’t need it.

Having an “office” is not required to have a successful business. We live in a Digital World now and it’s just not important anymore.

Even if your business grows and you need employees, you still don’t necessarily need an office. There are people out there running $20MM+/year businesses with no office; the employees all just work virtually. This is becoming more and more common.

* There certainly are exceptions to this. My team in the Philippines works out of an office I leased. But they are collaborating on software projects and NEED to work in the same location. And, of course, it’s also very inexpensive.

Most office leases are thousands of dollars per month and usually don’t turn out to be a good use of cash.

11. ALMOST EVERYTHING TAKES LONGER

When creating new projects, or having some software made for you, or having an ebook ghostwritten, or anything else, know that things almost always take more time than originally expected.

This is the #1 reason why you need to act TODAY to start putting things in motion to grow your business. The longer you wait, the more into the future you push your potential of getting money to come in the door.
12. THE MONEY IS IN THE MARKETING

Don’t get caught up in trying to make Web pages and learn HTML, or studying how to create javascript, or learning to master Linux so you can administer your own server, or how to use Photoshop to create little logos, etc.

You can certainly do that stuff if you want, but know that it will most likely just be a HOBBY.

It’s no surprise that some of the most successful entrepreneurs I know are also some of the LEAST TECHNICAL people I know.The main thing they do right is to simply pay others to do all the “nuts & bolts” stuff that makes online business work.

It allows them to spend all their time on the marketing — which is where the money comes from.

BONUS LESSON

…See how I’m over-delivering as mentioned in the first lesson?

SPENDING TIME ONLINE ISN’T NECESSARILY WORKING ON YOUR BUSINESS

Just because you spend hours a day online doesn’t mean you’re working on your business.

You can do ‘research’ forever and never make a cent.

You need to be spending most of your time on:

• Generating Traffic
• Communicating With Your Customers (i.e. blog, list, etc.)
• Creating Content

Don’t fall into the trap of reading blogs & forums, chatting on Facebook or Twitter, checking stats, reading news, etc. for hours upon hours.

Just know that almost all of that stuff (with rare exception) is LOSING YOU MONEY more than making you money.

I hope you enjoyed these mini-lessons. Hopefully, you can apply them to your business and be a lot more successful!

Yours For Online Profits,

John Reese

…So there you are folks, was that one of the most seriously humbling and powerful emails you’ve ever read?

Dam, i found it so powerful the first time I read it, that I read it again straight after …and every so often I go out of my way to read it again.

Once again I take ‘No’ credit for this post, the only credit (if I were to be given any) is that I had the honor of sharing it with you on my Blog

Let me know any thoughts and opinions below.

Watching the following presentation that was taken from the D.I.C.E. summit which is an established event for video game developers, was a stark reminder on how the future ..which is not too distant by the way, is changing at an astonishing rate.

Check out parts 1 and 2 with open ears and comment below once you’ve seen them, let me know your thoughts.

Part 1

Part 2