I have been doing the Internet Marketing thing for many years now, and working from home full time just over 2 years and I can say that I thoroughly enjoy this lifestyle.

I love getting up in the morning because my body tells me it’s time – not my alarm clock. In fact, I don’t use my alarm clock any more.

I love the ability to walk my 6 year old son to the bus stop every morning.

I love the ability to decide if I want to work from my home office, or drive the 9 miles to my outside office.

I love being able to go out to lunch with my wife pretty much any time I want.

So many benefits!

But there is one downside that not many people talk about. A side that, if left unchecked, can be disastrous.

Your health.

Let’s face it – working this business is NOT very physical. I spend a LOT of time in front of the computer, sitting. Sometimes with a nice snack at my fingertips, lots of coffee throughout the day and so on.

So last year, after my annual physical, my doctor had me go out for another round of blood tests after just 90 days. Then again. Then once more. After that third time he sat me down and said that, while overall I am healthy (for a 45 year old with a sedentary lifestyle) my blood-sugar was trending upwards. Borderline diabetic – not fully, but heading in that direction.

Not coincidentally, my weight had also gone up over this time to 210lbs. I am 5′10″ so that’s pretty heavy – the heaviest I have ever weighed.

So, the doctor said that before putting me on any medication he wanted me to do the “diet and exercise” thing.

Now, diabetes is definitely in my family – my mother had it. And at 45 I figured I am much too young to have to go on medication for an extended period of time. I worked in the pharmaceutical business for 20 years – I know what goes in to those drugs – no way I wanted that!

This was back in October 09. So it was time to make the choice.

I dusted off the trusty treadmill in our basement and renewed my gym membership. And of course, started documenting everything I ate.

Note: I think that documenting what you eat on a daily basis is the BEST thing to do. Sometimes we have no idea what or how much we eat. Doing this for just a week will seriously open your eyes (if you do it honestly). You can help not only track, but also know the nutritional value of the things you eat. I do this with the help of a site:

http://www.livestrong.com/

I use this site to track what I eat, get ideas for exercise and weight loss, get inspiration and motivation and more. There’s a free version, and Gold membership is very affordable (around $40 – $50 for the year).

Anyway, starting on the treadmill, I would walk 30 minutes per day at 4 mph (2 miles total). I loaded up my Ipod Touch with music I like, stuff I can move to. I also put on things like Tony Robbins courses, etc. Stuff to suit any mood while I walk.

After the first month I decided to try throwing some jogging into the mix. The first attempt I could only do about a quarter mile without stopping. Ouch. But I didn’t get discouraged…

Now I am up to 2 miles without stopping. Some days, I run, some days I walk on an incline (between 6 and 10 degrees). Either way I burn calories.

Fast forward to this week…

Back to the doctor on Tuesday to get the results of my latest bloodtest – I am back in the “normal” range. Officially I have lost 11 pounds (so far) – which isn’t bad considering I started in October and went through the holiday season!

And there’s side benefits…

The daily heartburn is now gone – no more Pepcid. My energy level is up. My knees feel better than they have in quite some time. My moods have been great. My motivation for other parts of my life are off the charts.

So many benefits. My only “regret” is waiting so long and waiting for a health issue to get me going.

Diet and exercise – two words that scare off many people. But let me tell you, laziness today will bring you WAY more problems tomorrow.

Now if I miss a day on the treadmill, I feel it. I have started to actually look forward to the time. Because the time I spend walking or jogging, with my Ipod playing (whether I use my treadmill at home or at the gym), is now my “ME” time. My reflection time. My planning time. My alone time.

Do yourself a favor. Make sure you get to the doctor regularly for checkups. My doctor is thorough and thanks to that, he helped me avoid the next 20 – 30 years on medication. This also saved me from other medical issues that being overweight and unhealthy brings.

Get up and get moving. Join the site I linked to above. Don’t try to do too much at once – be patient and persistent and you WILL succeed. Set measurable goals so you have a target to work towards. My target weight is 185. I will achieve it and maintain it.

If I can do it, anyone can.

To Your Health!

Traffic. Traffic. Traffic.

It seems to be all we hear about these days, right?

Well, there’s a good reason for that. Traffic is one of the most important elements for your on line business. No traffic equals no sales equals no income. Pretty straight forward.

I am no stranger to generating traffic for my own sites, as well as for others. But there are so many ways to get traffic it’s hard to decide which way to go.

As far as where to get good, up to date information on some of the traffic techniques being used today, that can be a chore to find as well.

Unless, of course, you already know where to turn – like I do.

My good friend Jonathan Gunson has an awesome interview site where he gets traffic experts to reveal their secrets on how they drive traffic. In fact, he interviewed me on my method.

Traffic Cafe – Jonathans site – has 22 such interviews with various experts. But  the best part – they are all free. Just go there and sign up and get instant access to his interviews with me, Dr. Mike Woo-Ming, Mark Joyner, Jack Humphrey, Matt Bacak, David Frey, Carrie Wilkerson…and many more.

If you are a traffic newbie, or a traffic expert, you will get quite a bit out of these interviews.

Like I said, if you don’t know how to get traffic to your site(s), then don’t waste your time creating products, or get into affiliate marketing, etc. Traffic is King.

Click Here to get these interviews now!

Been a while since I have written…that’s what happens when you get so busy

I wanted to tell you about a brand new video site that was just launched by my good friend and business partner Ron Douglas:

http://inmarkon.com/videoforward

Now, if you sign up from the above link, you get 21 days for free, then there is a small, annual fee.  That in and of itself is a good deal.

But because Ron and I are friends, he’s letting me tell you about a special JV Invite that he has.

http://inmarkon.com/videoforwardjv

Join from this second link and get your account for free…for life!

I predict Video Forward will be the next great video posting site and now you can get in on the ground floor! Sign up now!

http://inmarkon.com/videoforwardjv

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Mike Filsaime’s 7 Figure Secrets…

Well, if you have not heard of 7 Figure Secrets by now you must be either very new on line or live in a cave 

When this site first launch almost 2 years ago, you got a great report, plus some terrific bonuses.

You also had to sign up for the newsletter to be able to take advantage of this offer, but there have been some changes recently…

- The newsletter is now OPTIONAL. Even though you do NOT need to subscribe, I highly suggest you do. The newsletter has undergone a very extensive overhaul and is much MUCH better and information packed than before!

- The newsletter is a little cheaper now…

- You get access to Instant Affiliate Website whether you subscribe to the newsletter or not. It USED to be that if you canceled, you lost access to IAW – but not anymore!

Now, even though 7 Figure Secrets is free, there IS a small shipping and handling charge. You  are shipped a physical product. But the content is worth 100x that small fee.

Take advantage of this now. You get some killer information by one of the most successful marketers on line today.

http://inmarkon.com/7fs

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There you go…two great products for free! Go grab yours now.

Over the past year or so, I have noticed some changes regarding a few of my websites/products and traffic that can only be attributed to keywords and relevance.

What do I mean by that?

Well, keyword research and page relevance is something I never paid close attention to in the past. As a result, I would usually end up paying way too much for my PPC campaigns and have an extremely high bounce rate on my sites.

That meant spending a LOT more per sale than I should have been.

But really…who has the time to do the proper research for all of that? I sure didn’t.

When my partnet Jim took on the PPC part of my business, he showed my just how much I was tossing down the drain in those PPC costs.

He took some of the campaigns I started and ignored from an average of $0.47 per click (on various keywords in the IM niche) down to an average of $0.09 per click.

That alone is about an 80% savings.

What this did was allow me to drive as much as 80% MORE traffic for the same amount of money.

How was this accomplished?

Simply – good, solid keyword research, writing relevant ad copy and making it all tie together on my landing pages (the free ones and the paid ones).

http://www.centralnetmarketing.com/KWElite

So what’s the downside to all of that? Frankly, the time involved in researching the very best keywords for your target site. Identifying which keywords had the right amount of searches, and the right amount of competition.

At first, Jim was doing this manually – and for free – using the Google Keyword Tool.

Yes, it is a useful tool. But once we discovered this OTHER wonderful tool, man, it made life so much easier.

http://www.centralnetmarketing.com/KWElite

There’s something to be said for automation…

There’s something to be said for tools that make your life easier.

Now Jim spends his time on much more valuable things, such as the new Adwords course he is creating. More on that later…

If you are someone who balks at spending money on tools because there are “free alternatives” out there, then you can stop reading here. This isn’t for you.

But when you talk to some of the most successful people on line, in almost 100% of the cases, they will tell you that tools to automate mundane tasks are a MUST (along with outsourcing).

Brad Callen’s Keyword Elite 2.0 is the next generation to an already proven tool. I wasn’t sure he could take an already great tool and make it better…but he has.

Stop wasting your time…and start profiting more.

http://www.centralnetmarketing.com/KWElite

To Your Success,
Michael Ambrosio

P.S. More on Jim’s Adwords Course coming soon, but what I can say is so far, he has 47 videos in this package (mostly 3 – 5 bite-sized minutes).  I am not sure when it will launch, but I DO know we will need some reviewers.

So, if you take advantage of Brad’s Keyword Elite 2.0 right now, I will personally create an account for you for Jims Adwords product. The same guy that reduced my PPC costs by 80%.

Think of what you can do when you use these two products together…

Just send me an email with your receipt and you’re IN!

http://www.centralnetmarketing.com/KWElite

Affiliate marketing in the CPA networks has been, for the most part, very difficult to do. Even getting approved in these networks can be futile.

Until now…

By now I’m sure you’ve heard about Affiliate Jump (They couldn’t keep it ’secret’ for too long)

So here’s the deal.

For over 6 months, Mike Filsaime and his partner Joe Holland have been quietly working together on an ‘under the radar’ affiliate technology which has been in private beta since June.

In fact, it’s been called ‘The Ultimate Affiliate Connection’ by some who have seen it in early action.

Here’s a link to the webinar where we open the curtain for you to see what it’s all about:

http://www.centralnetmarketing.com/AffJump

(Yes, you can watch it right now.)

When you watch, you’ll also get a complimentary copy of this $97 value report, CPA Profits Revealed which you can download and print out or read on your computer.

http://www.centralnetmarketing.com/AffJump

This launches on August 13th at 2PM eastern, so you’ll want to gear up for putting your CPA and Affiliate Marketing into overdrive.

I’ll have a couple of bonuses for you too…one is so new it hasn’t even launched yet. But it will be HIGHLY relevant to this launch.

Stay Tuned… I have been using the system for a month now and I love it. Once you see how easy it is to set up and use you will never look at CPA in the same way again!

Here’s the link again:

http://www.centralnetmarketing.com/AffJump

(it’s only a few minutes and gives you a great idea about how this program will work for you.)

Are you still catching fish one at a time? I hope not.

Gone are the days where you sit by the edge of the lake with a fishing pole hoping something will bite. Don’t do that! There are better, more powerful ways of doing things today.

Use a net instead! Then, go to a spot where the fish are plenty and they’re jumping up at you!

One of the fastest ways of building your customer base is to seek out mutually beneficial joint ventures.

The key words here are “mutually beneficial”. Find marketers and business owners who already have large “responsive” mailing lists and make them an offer they can’t refuse! Just make sure your offer benefits them as well – in a big way.

Many people have tried using this strategy. Most have failed miserably. I’ll tell you why.

The problem with most people is that they are only focused on what they can get out of the deal. You’ll never get it if that’s what your focus is on.

When you’re working on forming joint ventures, focus on the other party and ask yourself “What do they need? What can I offer them that would be of value to them?”

Sure, you can just offer the other person a cut of the profits if they agree to endorse your product to their list. But that’s what everybody does. And these days, that’s not enticing enough. How is your offer unique?

Here’s a better way of doing it…

What if you were to create a product specifically for one marketer. Offer them exclusive rights to distribute the product as they see fit.

You don’t have to create a hundred page masterpiece. It’s not the number of pages… it’s the content! You can have a 5 page report that contains solid gold. And you can have a 100-page mammoth filled with garbage.

Want to do one better?

Offer to help the other party with something first. Anything – without bringing up your joint venture offer. Then, when you’ve created some value for them, you can ask them to help you out with something. (Say a joint venture, perhaps?)

Do you see how this strategy differs from what most people try to do out there?

Heck, I’ve even seen people requesting joint ventures by just sending a one-line email note to the other person which reads, “Want to promote my product? Here’s my link…”

Do they really expect the other person to even respond to that note? It just doesn’t work!

Be unique. Create value for them. Make it worth their while. Make them an offer they can’t refuse!

Keep in mind that…although the above strategy increases your chances of striking a deal astronomically, not everyone will say “yes” to your offer.

I’ve approached some people who just had too much on their plate to begin with and just weren’t able to work with me. It happens.

Don’t take it personally.

The trick is to not quit after the first “no”.

Forming powerful, mutually beneficial alliances with successful marketers is the best strategy available to us. And it is well worth your time to continue pursuing joint ventures until you strike a deal or two. But, you don’t have to stop there either. Get as many as you can.

Remember, you are not just seeking a one-time deal here either. You’re seeking an alliance. Great ongoing business deals and friendships can be formed this way.