Today, August 19th, my colleague, Irene Watson, has gathered together leading authors and experts, to show you new ways to lift your life to breathtaking heights — including transformation, personal growth, and creating an inspiring life.

I’m working with her to make you this offer. If you purchase her award-winning book: The Sitting Swing: Finding Wisdom to Know the Difference today, you will be on your way to receive the many gifts entitled to you.

All you have to do is go to http://www.readerviews.com/RV-amazon/index.html and follow the link to purchase your copy of The Sitting Swing: Finding Wisdom to Know the Difference at Amazon.com. Then enter your Amazon transaction number in the space provided and you will be directed to where you can claim your gifts.

All proceeds from the sale of The Sitting Swing will be donated to Higher Power Foundation, Inc., a foundation created to give financial assistance for people to attend recovery based spiritual and life training events.

So don’t delay, go to http://www.readerviews.com/RV-amazon/index.html and claim your copy of The Sitting Swing today, August 19th.

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Just today, I received two emails about my Google AdWords acount. I use Google AdWords, so I was definitely interested. HOWEVER…

Neither email was legitimate.

Here is one of them:

Subject line: Your payment didn’t succeed, so your ads have been suspended.

Oops - what’s wrong with my payment??

This is the body of the email:

Dear Advertiser,
——————————
We were unable to process your payment.
Your ads will be suspended soon unless we can process your payment.
To prevent your ads from being suspended, please update your payment information.
————————
Please sign in
to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login,
and update your payment information.
————————————
We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords.

It looks legitimate, I don’t want my ads to be suspended, and they were kind enough to include a link to login to  my account. When I click on the link, the page  looks exactly like a Google AdWords login page.

These guys are tricky - and they catch a lot of unsuspecting people this way.

So - how do you protect yourself?

1.  NEVER go to a website from clicking the link included in the email. Instead, open a new browser window and type in the link to the website. Access your account from there.

2. Check the link included in the email. On the surface, the above link is a Google AdWords link. But when you look at the embedded link, it is not at all the same. This is where you really end up from the link in my email: http://www.adwords.google.com.cdoip.cn/select/Login   See the cdoip.cn portion of the link? That is not a Google link.

How do you check this? If you put your mouse over the link, look at the bottom left of your computer screen. Most of the time, the address you are going to will show up in the corner.

 3. Report fraudulent or suspicious emails. These companies want to protect you. Go to their website and look for Customer Support.

Someone had already reported this email - when I checked this “google” website, I was greeted with this:

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Blogs are the website-of-choice and in many cases are the way to go - it you’re going to keep up with them. A stagnant blog leaves the impression that you aren’t around, aren’t available, still in business… egads! At least with a traditional website… well, you don’t expect them to be updated so frequently!

I’ve spent literally hours over the last few days visiting different blogs - on most I spent only as long as it took to click over to the next blog, but there were many that held my attention for quite awhile longer. What made the difference?

Content.

I’ve had many conversations over the last several months with my buddy Chris Muccio about creating good, solid content. Trouble is, everyone is beyond busy - tapped out, overwhelmed. It’s tough to find time to blog consistently or be actively involved in whatever social media/networking you choose.

It’s easy enough to find content providers to fill in the gaps, and on occasion I’ve used ghost-written content myself (not for this blog, btw). But this is not the content that provokes conversation or brings people back on a regular basis - it merely keeps the posts somewhat current. The content that brings people back - at least that draws me back - is interesting, thought-provoking, informative, edgy… not the same ol’ same ‘ol.

Naomi Dunford’s blog, IttyBiz, fits all of the above. While giving out solid small business advice, she weaves in interesting tales of her life. And there’s always a marketing lesson to be learned.

Blogs afford an opportunity to connect with your visitors, and because of their interactive nature, allow them to connect with you.

Especially for those in business, it brings home the point… people do business with those they know, like and trust. What better way to let your visitors get to know you than with a well cared-for blog?

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I have an online scheduler, which is a great convenience for coordinating schedules, but sometimes we still run into the Time Zone glitch. I have just found an interactive map that hopefully will help get everyone on the same page. It’s too cool not to share!

See the map in action here

For a buck a month, you can have the advertising removed. What’s not to love about this one? Visit Zebra Map here

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Join Attorney Bob White (Gunster Yoakley), Bruce Rector (The Rector Group) and Chris Muccio (SFGI Solutions) as they discuss “Social Media, Focusing on Balancing the Business Growth Potential with Legal Concerns and Considerations.”

These three gentlemen bring to bear over 70 years of combined business experience successfully helping companies from $250,000 to over $12 Billion accelerate their growth.

This promises to be a lively (free!) webinar as they discuss point and counter-point the legal considerations of Social Media.

Register for the free webinar here: http://www.SocialMediaMadeSimple.com/teleseminar

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Given the power of Social Media and how it might help your business, I’d like to invite you to a teleseminar on May 19th, at 7PM EST, where Chris Muccio, the CFO Strategist and I will introduce you to, and begin to help you sort through the Social Media puzzle. To register for this free call, please go to http://www.imarket20.com/teleseminar. If you can’t make the call, but are still interested in hearing it, sign up anyway. We’ll send out the recording.

Hope to talk to you Monday!

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