FriendsWhoCare Blog

This is a test

2008-11-19T12:19:00.000-08:00

I'm testing a new poll service with this poll.

Excerpts From A Dog's And A Cat's Diary

2007-03-07T09:15:00.000-08:00

My son-in-law sent this to my daughter who sent it on to me since we're all dog and cat owners. I hope you get a chuckle from it like we did.

Excerpts from a dog's diary:

8:00 am Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 pm Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm Milk bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm Wow! Watched TV with my master! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

Excerpts from a cat's diary:
Day 683 of my captivity:

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape... In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the floor.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of.

However, they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am. The audacity! There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of "allergies." I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow -- but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released -- and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded! The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. The captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe....... for now....

-------------------------------------

While we don't own any birds I do have a fish. I doubt our cat thinks the fish is an informant however I have arranged protective custody for him so he is safe...for now...

Hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into your pets thoughts.

To Your Success,
Susan

Different Christmas Poem

2006-11-16T17:45:00.000-08:00

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,Transforming the yard to a winter delight.The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then thesure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,And I crept to the door just to see who was near.Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child."What are you doing?" I asked without fear,"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..To the window that danced with a warm fire's lightThen he sighed and he said "Its really all right,I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night." "It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,That separates you from the darkest of times.No one had to ask or beg or implore me,I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,"Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',And now it is my turn and so, here I am.I've not seen my own son in more than a while,But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,The red, white, and blue... an American flag.I can live through the cold and the being alone,Away from my family, my house and my home.I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.I can carry the weight of killing another,Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..Who stand at the front against any and all,To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,Your family is waiting and I'll be all right.""But isn't there something I can do, at the least,"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?It seems all too little for all that you've done,For being away from your wife and your son."Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,To stand your own watch, no matter how long.For when we come home, either standing or dead,To know you remember we fought and we bled.Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The message below was attached and signed.

PLEASE, Would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S.service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq.

Dads Are (Harried) Parents, Too!

2006-08-31T06:29:00.000-07:00

In a recent mailing I included the statement:
"(The mind is the first thing to go when thereare young children around and it's followed quickly by money.)"

The next day I received an email from a subscriber telling me about an article she had written because the statement hit close to home and reminded her of the article.

The article had been written for Father's Day but I think it's true for all parents all the time so I am putting it here for your enjoyment.

--------------------
Dads Are (Harried) Parents, Too!

My husband thought he was immune to the apparent "Lost-Mind-Syndrome" that had afflicted me during our childrens' toddler years. What, you haven't heard of "Lost-Mind-Syndrome"? Okay, so maybe it's nothing more than being scatter-brained from having ten thousand things to do each and every day! But read on to see that even the most practical-minded man is no match for the beleaguered mind-weariness of parenting!

I think it was during our toddler invasion years (we had three at home) when I realized that losing one's mind--particularly a portion of the memory feature--was an unavoidable by-product of parenting. Why didn't the baby books warn that lost car keys, lost eye glasses, lost bottles and pacifiers--things that turn routine days into triathlons--would become par for the course? There is probably a specialized branch of the government mothers should work for. Who else can conduct a frantic search for vital home security items in less than a minute--and still make it to the pediatrician's office on time?

My husband has hinted that "lost-mind-syndrome" (or, LMS, as we affectionately call it) after parenthood can only happen if one is prone to it in the first place. In other words, that I was really just plain nuts and parenting was bringing it out. Ha! Little did he know that his day would come!

I admit that I had been displaying grave signs of the malady: There was the time we were traveling with two friends when we had to stop so Mike (my husband) could check the engine. Climbing back into the driver’s seat he complained that he'd gotten some antifreeze on his bare arm. Instantly a wayward maternal instinct leapt up in me like an alarm and I blurted, “Don’t lick your arm!” To peals of laughter from the backseat, my husband thanked me profusely for reminding him not to lick his arm since, of course, he was in a terrible habit of doing so.

Another time we were visiting friends and I spotted a pretty lamp, which our hostess explained was a "touch-lamp," the kind you simply have to touch to turn on. They were NEW at the time, and, impressed, I gushed, “Oh, so it’s good for blind people!” For the split-second the thought was in my head until I spoke it aloud, it actually had made sense. Acute LMS in action.

Fortunately lots of parents display symptoms of the syndrome, so I never feel alone. For instance, at the supermarket you can always spot the harried parents at the checkout: they are the ones rocking the shopping cart back and forth. No matter that baby is home—they don’t even know they’re doing it.

Or the 19 mothers in the department store who turn their heads simultaneously when a young child cries "Mommy!" The brain affected by LMS always thinks, "that could be my child!" So what if we left the kids home with Dad? Reality has nothing to do with it. Yup, and friends tell me I am not the only one who has offered a visitor a nicely warmed bottle of milk instead of the tea they were expecting. And I've actually seen other people begin to chop meat into teensy, tiny little pieces--for their spouse.

Often, when bottles or Binky's were missing, my husband would shake his head. "Didn't we just buy a few?" he'd say. I could answer that yes, we had, without even thinking about it--we were ALWAYS just buying a few.

One evening I had just finished bathing our two older kids. As I walked past the den Mike spotted me and asked, worried, “Is the (baby) gate on the stairs closed? Make sure it’s closed!” I saw that Matthew, our youngest at 16 months, was safe for the moment, but I checked the gate anyway. It was closed.

When I passed Mike again shortly afterwards, he fretted, “Did you leave the bathroom door open? Matthew could be getting into the bathroom!” He was worried that I had left water in the tub, and that Matt might be at risk. I had not left water in the tub and stopped in my tracks, suprised to see Mike getting even more indignant. I hadn't even answered the question when he demanded, “Where is Matthew, anyway? WHERE IS HE?!”

I gazed at my husband, shaking my head softly. In a gentle voice I broke the news to him: ”Honey, you’re feeding him.” I felt sorry for the guy as he looked down at Matthew on his lap, sucking quietly from a bottle, and it hit him: He, too, had lost his mind!

Ah, isn’t marriage and parenting great? Give the dad in your house an extra big hug this Father's Day. He deserves it!

Linore Rose Burkard writes Inspirational Regency Romance as well as articles on Regency Life, Homeschooling, and Self-Improvement. She publishes a monthly eZine "Upon My Word!" which you can receive for FREE by signing up at her website quickly and easily. Ms. Burkard graduated from the City University of New York with a Magna Cum Laude degree in English Literature, and now lives in Ohio with her husband and five children. If you are a faith-based writer and would like to contribute to her textbook project "Revelations" go to: http://www.linoreroseburkard.com/RevProject.html for more information

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linore_Rose_Burkard

---------------------------

Hope you enjoyed the article and Thank You Linore for sharing.

To Your Success,
Susan

"Oh well, let's make the best of it."

2006-08-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

On August 9, 2006 I asked my readers what they thought of the high price of gasoline and 1 of my subscribers included some information concerning the "Oh well" syndrome.
Here is an excerpt from the newsletter with my response to his information -

-----

What upsets me more than the gas prices is another thing Darell included in his message, "... one of the editors at our paper wrote a column in the paper recently about the "Oh well" syndrome. It told that today, no matter what happens, if a mistake is made no matter what size the answer is Oh well. He went on to say, that what bothered him was that it was accepted as an answer, with little or no after thought. Oh well."

While I do agree that no one needs the extra stress of worrying about things we have no control over and can't change - I also contend that there is very little in this world we have no control over and can't change. We can't control the weather or whether or not the sun will shine and as single individuals we can't control inflation, gas dependency, or the high cost of health insurance.

And maybe that's the real problem - we all think like "we're only 1 person" so we have no control. But Thomas Jefferson was only 1 person, Mohandas Gandhi was only 1 person, Winston Churchill was only 1 person and Florence Nightingale was only 1 person. Yet all of them and many more did make a difference by showing us that we can take control.

I am glad none of them had the "Oh well syndrome."

Sorry - now I'll get off my soapbox.

-----

Now I was going to leave this subject alone and move on however after the disturbing call I received from my youngest daughter last week, I've decided it's time to make a stand on both the "Oh well" and the "Let's make the best of it" syndromes.

Just so you'll understand why I've included the "Let's make the best of it" syndrome here's a brief description of why the call was disturbing -

-----

Background:
Daughter getting married and putting photos in invitations. Invitations are done like a scrapbook so photos must be included.

When pictures were to be taken the studio did not give them the place or opportunity to check appearance or choice of backdrops.

When proofs were shown they were so small and fuzzy they could not be seen however the photographer insisted it was the old computer and the pictures were all quite good.

When they picked up the pictures my daughter kept saying she didn't like the pictures but the photographer and her fiancé stated they were acceptable.

While she was assembling the invitations she asked her friends and they didn't think the pictures were good either but she should "make the best of it." And when she talked to her fiancé he stated the same thing.

Call:
Daughter in tears because the pictures made her face look distorted and she was ashamed to send them out.

Side Note - Although I am a biased mother, my daughter is very attractive and photographs well. Every professional picture taken to this point has made her look like live porcelain doll with large blue eyes. She also looked good in home photographs.

Also, weddings are 1 of the most important events in a woman's life and 1 where they want everything to be perfect or at least the best they can be.

-----

Not being a person who subscribes to the "Oh well" or "Let's make the best of it" syndromes I immediately told my daughter, "You paid for something you didn't get so stand up for yourself and have them do it right."

I also explained that this should have been done immediately either when they saw the proofs (she said they could not see them well enough to know at that point) or when they were picking the pictures up. She agreed and was then hesitant to do anything because these times had passed.

I then urged her to call the studio manager and explain everything as she had done for me and tell him how upset she was. She didn't have to get mad, just express her true feelings. (Sometimes you do have to get mad but that's a last resort and doesn't have to be done often.)

She did as I suggested and the result was - free retakes.

According to her the new pictures are so good they even ordered more.

Now back to my soapbox.

In all matters of your life you do not have to accept everything as "that's the way it is so let's make the best of it". You have the right to expect and get a certain degree of excellence.

Examples:

If you go to a restaurant and they undercook or overcook your food you have the right to send it back and have it prepared properly.
If you purchase a defective tool and it breaks the first time you use it (you should be using it properly) you have the right to return it.
If you purchase a food item before it's "sell by" date and find it bad you have the right to return it.
If you pay for a professional service and don't get professional work you have the right to either get a refund or have them do it right.

You have all these rights and more!

The "Oh well" and "Let's make the best of it" syndromes are ruining the quality of products, service and life for everyone.

When the majority people don't demand good quality and just accept what they're given, quality goes down for everyone and only those who are willing to say "I want what I paid for." will get it.

Living in a world where people will say -

"Oh well, let's make the best of it and fill up on mashed potatoes since the chicken is undercooked." or
"Oh well, let's make the best of it and use a dinner knife since the new screwdriver broke." or
"Oh well, let's make the best of it and snack on our dry cereal since the milk was sour when I bought it." or
"Oh well, let's make the best of it and see if Mom can trim the uneven hair in back."

should not be acceptable to anyone because everyone deserves some degree of quality.

As an individual I've had every one of the above lack of quality experiences however I didn't say "Oh well, let's make the best of it." I've gone back, expressed my concern and have been given refunds or the product/service with the amount of quality expected.

Did I expect perfection? No. Nothing is perfect however things should be at least satisfactory.

Did I get made and yell? No. Acting calmly and friendly is the best way to go.

Did I get what I expected? Yes. I had to point out what was expected and they agreed and gave it to me.

The first step to improving the quality for everyone is for you to join me and take a stand to not be an "Oh well" or "Let's make the best of it" person. While 1 person can not change the world, if we act together and become the majority, the quality of things must conform to the demands of the majority and things should get better for everyone.

Will you join me? Will you start standing up for yourself and the rest of us and demand good products and services? I sure hope so because it's been a lonely battle for a long time.

To Your Success,
Susan

Laugh and Learn

2006-06-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

While doing some research this morning I ran across this great video clip done by Tom Asacker.

Tom is known as a "marketing guru" and knows a lot about branding. He's also a fantastic public speaker as you'll discover when you watch this video.

There's no sales pitch and nothing to sign up for - just some good laughs as Tom shares some insights into the world of marketing and branding.

So enjoy, learn and post a comment to let me know if you like this type of post.

To Your Success,
Susan

Save The Internet

2006-04-28T21:06:00.000-07:00

One of your fellow subscribers, Martin, sent me an email with the above title
as the subject line. He included the following information.

"The internet is being "killed" by some big company. You can read the full
story here

http://civic.moveon.org/alerts/savetheinternet.html and sign a
petition to the government here

http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet/ to save the
internet."

So I did some checking to see what's happening.

Here's how one site describes the problem -

"Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the Internet's First Amendment -- a principle called Network Neutrality that prevents companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from deciding which Web sites work best for you -- based on what site pays them the most. Your local library shouldn’t have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to have its Web site open quickly on your computer." read more...

And if you want to read more about it, here are some more places to visit:

http://www.networkworld.com/edge/news/
2006/022106-internet-neutrality.html

http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/
0,aid,124654,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp

http://www.freedomworks.org/newsroom/
press_template.php?press_id=1662

http://telephonyonline.com/broadband/
regulatory/telecom_neutrality_nets_scapegoat/

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/
2006/04/verizon_neutrality.html

http://www.technorati.com/tags/
Internet+neutrality - blog postings

You'll notice I've put a banner on the blog to support network neutrality because I am not ready to compete with Google and Yahoo and pay for internet users to access my sites.

Are you?

To Your Success,
Susan

A Christmas Warning

2005-12-15T08:24:00.000-08:00

This week 2 subscribers, Lisa and John, sent me this
warning and now I would like to share it with you.

I'll warn you that the message comes with audio
and the audio buttons are at the bottom of the
page.

See the Christmas Warning at:

http://www.friendswhocare.us/christmas2.htm

You've been warned,

Susan

ANNOUNCING The 5th Annual Internet Toy Drive!!

2005-11-18T06:55:00.000-08:00

Help Us Help Children!

We are proud to be a partner with the official U.S. Marines "Toys for Tots" program in The 5th Annual Internet Toy Drive. It's a sad fact that millions of children in the United States will NOT have a singlegift to open on Christmas Day! We aim to change that and make sure EVERY child has at least one present 'from Santa' under their tree. Help a needy child in YOUR community right now:http://www.internettoydrive.org

We hope we can count on You to Help Kids this Christmas!

Have a Wonderful Holiday!

Susan

A Good Bumper Sticker

2005-11-08T07:18:00.000-08:00

While in Kansas City last weekend we happened to stop behind a car that had a bumper sticker with the following:

The problems we face today cannot be solved by the same minds that created them.

When I first read these words, I got a chuckle and thought, "Boy, isn't' that the truth." I then read it to my husband who was watching the traffic signal. He also chuckled and stated, "They got that right."

Of course neither of us was thinking about any of the problems caused by any of our actions but were applying the message on the bumper sticker to others, specifically the those who make the decisions for our nation and big corporations.

Having now had time to reflect on the message displayed, I think I would like to add the follow so that it would read:

The problems we face today cannot be solved by the same minds that created them unless they adopt a new way of thinking.

Let me know what you think.

To Your Success,
Susan Carroll

How To Track All Your Website Traffic For Free

2005-11-03T21:38:00.000-08:00

Tracking your site's visitors is extremely important and many don't do it because they don't think they have the budget for it.

Today I found an article written by Louis Allport that not only explains why it's important but also how you can do if for free.

Susan

--------------------

How To Track All Your Website Traffic For Free
Copyright © 2005 Louis Allport

Do you know:

* Exactly how many people are visiting your website?
* How long they're staying on your site before they move on?
* Exactly where those visitors are coming from, each day?
* How much of your website traffic is repeat visitors?
* The exact paths people take as they click their way through your website?

Here's what I'm getting at:

If you don't know your visitors, it makes it *very* difficult for you to improve the performance of your website and turn more visitors into customers - AND - get more quality traffic. For the simple reason that you're effectively working blind.

Without knowing how people visit your site and what they do on your site, any attempts at growing your traffic and improving the profitability of your website is working with one armed tied behind your back, at least.

And unfortunately - the web stats that come with your web-hosting are generally not enough these days.

Depending on your web host, chances are you've either got Webalizer, Analog Stats, or AWStats installed on your server. Here's how that software works:

It takes the "raw" (unreadable to the human eye) information your web server stores of everyone that visits and presents this in an easy to understand way.

Unfortunately, due to a number of technical reasons, this information is often presented in quite an inaccurate way.

And in my personal experience, these software packages don't present this information in a particularly helpful way either for someone trying to improve the conversion ratios and profitability of their website.

What I personally do, and what I would suggest you do is use a "Tracking Solution" that accurately tracks and reports all your visitors in an easy to read and understand way. These solutions come in two forms: Software & Services

Both these options have their pros and cons, but what they both do very well is present exactly what's happening on your website right up to the minute, and in a way that's very helpful to you for making good (and profitable) decisions for your business.

To start with here's a software solution you can install and use for free on your website:

Now before you go and install it, you should of course be familiar with installing software on your server. If you're not comfortable installing software on your website, a tracking service (which I'll come to in a moment) would probably be best for you.

And it's also important to note that installing software on your website can often put more strain on the server. This is particularly true if you're on shared hosting.

I've personally used the following free tracking software and it works well. See what you think. Go to http://www.curve2.com and look for "TrackPro". As I write this, version 2 is in Beta and is downloadable from the site at the following address: http://www.curve2.com/trackpro.php

You'll also find many further free tracking software solutions at http://www.hotscripts.com.

But personally speaking, what I've found works very well and avoids putting any increased strain on my existing websites is using a third party tracking service.

The only things really to worry about when using a third party service are:

* How long will this service be around? (If they stop their service after a year, you wouldn't be able to access your past data and will have to change all your tracking codes on your pages too.)
* What is their privacy policy regarding my web stats? (Are they honest and trustworthy in other words. You don't want the service owners studying and then duplicating your successful business plan.)

Over the past month I've been using ecommStats (http://www.ecommstats.com). Now, this service isn't free, but at this time they give you 50,000 free page views per domain, and depending how busy your site is those page views can last you a very long time.

The service works great and is very easy to add to your pages -- simply add three lines of code at the bottom of each of your pages (you can easily do this with Server Side Includes if you're comfortable with that) and all your visitors get tracked accurately and in great detail.

Alternatively - an entirely free (at this time) and very established service is StatCounter (http://statcounter.com). It even has a rave review from Tucows.com (one of the largest download sites on the internet) which speaks for itself and adds a lot of credibility to the service.

And just in case you're wondering how a free service like StatCounter makes money, well - since it's such a popular service with many webmasters logging in every day (and many I'm sure even more than once a day just like me) that it's made it very easy for them to sell a lot of advertising on their site. They also offer an upgrade to their advanced paid service.

But thinking beyond free services, as your business grows you may choose to upgrade to high end paid services that provide even more in depth information about your visitors...

Services like Urchin (Urchin.com - owned by Google) or Deep Metrix (DeepMetix.com). However, to help you grow your business to that point you need to keep a close eye on what your visitors are doing and where they're coming from, and free tracking software and services is a great way for you to start to do this.

--------------------

Louis Allport is an online product developer and marketer and recently revealed a simple and *proven* four-step formula for creating best-selling products practically on demand: http://www.friendswhocare.us/createoffers.htm

Determination Is A Key Ingredient

2005-10-05T12:46:00.000-07:00

Normally I don't post articles from my weekly newsletter
on this blog but this week I'm making an exception
because of an unforseen event. An event that is
described in the article and affects many of my subscribers.

If you happen to be one of the affected subscribers and
you would like to continue receiving my mailings, please
visit the newsletter site and re-subscribe.

If you are not a subscriber please feel free to visit
the newsletter site and join us at FriendsWhoCare.
We are always looking for new online business
friends.

Here's this week's article -

Determination Is A Key Ingredient

Today I received the following email from one of my autoresponder services. It was sent to their customers on September 14 but due to a misspelling in my email address, I didn't get a copy until they responded to a service request I sent yesterday.

----------

Dear DemandMail Customer,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your patronage of the DemandMail system. We have been providing the best quality autoresponder marketing system for over three years and I hope it has been a benefit to you.

As I am sure you are aware the email marketing environment has become very challenging recently because of the mis-use by some and the continuing new laws regarding the transmission of email.

First we had the enactment by the US Government of the Can-Spam act and most recently the enactment of laws by Utah and Michigan called the child protection laws. These later laws allow anyone to bring suit against someone who sent an email to a child in their state that contains prohibited material. The problem is that the there is no definition of what prohibited material is.

Additionally, they do not freely publish "don't email" list. You can wash lists through their system but at a cost per email that in our opinion is prohibitive.

Because of these developments we have determined it is too risky to provide the DemandMail service and take the risk of multiple lawsuits, fines, and imprisonment that this legislation provides.

So it is with great sadness that I must inform you that DemandMail will be closing it doors on October 1, 2005. It has been our great pleasure to serve you over these many years and I personally want to thank you for your business.
...
----------

I am sharing this message with you because I used this service for more than 3 years and had more than 4/5 of my subscribers located there.

Now even though I have backups of my subscriber lists and can import those names into a new autoresponder the impact of losing a fundamental business service is not inconsequential.

I know this from experience.

You see, a little over 3 years ago, I had this same thing happened to me with a different autoresponder service.

Because spam was becoming such a big issue and the service I was using had received enough complaints about various customers they decided to close down early and avoid the rush.

Since double opt-in was a way to avoid most spam complaints, I chose that route when I imported my list to a different service. Unfortunately, unexpected confirmation requests are usually deleted so I experienced a 96% loss of my subscribers. Because I again won't be able to tell my subscribers to expect a confirmation request, I expect the same type of loss.

With all the new legislation and legal threats it looks like double opt-in autoresponder service providers are running scared and I don't think their fears are unjustified. I do think that many legitimate service providers and users will suffer more than those who are causing the problem.

But this tip is not an editorial about spam and it's impact on online business. It's about determination.

You see, if I wasn't determined, now would be a great time to give up.

But I am not giving up. Instead, I'll salvage what I can, try to implement a plan to avoid going through this a third time and go on.

Remember, if you are going to succeed online you must be determined. You must be able to recover from things like your website being down or hacked, losing your hosting or autoresponder service, receiving "not nice" email, being accused of spam and a host of other things that can and do happen everyday to legitimate online business people.

To Your Success,
Susan Carroll
FriendsWhoCare Newsletter

This Is Not An Urban Legend

2005-09-12T06:06:00.000-07:00

As a subscriber to the Newbie Club Newsletter,
I was sent information today that everyone who
cleans their equipment with "canned air" should
know. Pease read the posted report and pass it
on to as many people as possible because it
reveals yet another risk to the lives of our
children and grandchildren.

http://www.snopes.com/toxins/dustoff.asp

Susan Carroll
FriendsWhoCare Newsletter

PS If your not a member of the Newbie Club I urge
you to check it out. Membership is free and they
provide a lot of useful information.

http://www.friendswhocare.us/newbieclub.php

Hurricane Katrina Info

2005-09-02T07:57:00.000-07:00

I just finished sending the following message
to my subscribers and am posting it here
because of its importance.
----------
Hi,
Yesterday I was going to write you about the
lack of email I'd seen concerning Hurricane
Katrina. Fortunately, I didn't get it sent and
today I see that the online community is again
evolved in the helping of those who have and
are suffering from a disaster.

At the bottom of this message you will find
several links that point to different organizations
accepting donations to assist those affected by
Katrina but before I give them to you I wanted
to pass along a warning.

In all aspects of life there are those who try to
take advantage of others. This is unfortunately
true when people are suffering and in the most
need.

Right now there are many legitimate places you
can go and make donations to help the victims of
Hurricane Katrina. Likewise, there are many
places that are using this terrible disasterto make
money.

Here are 2 known scams that you should avoid:

Any site asking you to enter your email
address to get information either about the
hurricane or offering to tell you how you can
help. This information is free - just go to
Yahoo and do a search. You do not need to
get on someone's mailing list because you
want to help.
Any site offering to donate part of their
profits from a sale. If you want the product
you may want to buy it but you have no way
of knowing if they will actually donate any of
the money to the cause you want to support.

The 3 links below all go to non-profit sites setup to
help the victims of Hurricane Katrina:

http://www.usafreedomcorps.gov/

http://www.fema.gov/press/2005/resources_katrina.shtm

http://www.redcross.org

For those of you who would like to make your
donation through PayPal, Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian
has set up a site that accepts donations through
them. In addition he does offer a free PDF report
(no information required to get it) just for visiting
his site. While I don't agree with his"Firesale"
wording, I am including the link because he has set
up a way to donate through PayPal and know this is
the preferred method for some.

http://www.reach-n-relate.com/katrina.htm

Please take a few moments from your busy
schedule and visit one of the above links to
make a donation.

Thank You,
Susan Carroll

In case of emergency : I C E

2005-07-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

Until Joe sent this information, I had
not heard of I C E. Please take a moment
to read it. Joe has included a link
where you can get some background
information and I although I found
several other links, most of them had
the same news article so I've just included
1:

'ICE' Cell Phone Plan Would Help Rescuers
__________

In case of emergency : I C E

Paramedics will turn to a victim's cell phone for
clues to that person's identity. You can make their
job much easier with a simple idea that they are
trying to get everyone to adopt: I C E.

ICE stands for In Case of Emergency. If you add an
entry in the contacts list in your cell phone under
ICE, with the full name and phone no. of the person
the emergency services should call on your behalf,
you can save them a lot of time and have your loved
ones contacted quickly. It only takes a few moments
of your time to do and could potentially save your
life and those you care for.

Paramedics are learning what I C E means and are
beginning to look for it immediately.

ICE your cell phone NOW then spread the word!

I just Did and I think your loved ones would
appreciate it too.

Please pass this one along Please!
http://simplewealthplan.com/mp.cgi/JH1965/index.html

__________

Thanks, Joe, for sending this information
to us.

To Your Success,
Susan
http://www.friendswhocare.us

The Iinfo-Security 6-day mini-course - Free

2005-07-15T15:27:00.000-07:00

Recently I signed up for a mini e-course on security
because is said that if I sold digital products I needed
to know this information.

Well, guess what. They were right. Everybody who
is selling digital products on their site needs to know
this information.

Some may already know some of the things taught
in this free e-course. Some may not know any of it.
And some may be like me and should have known
but never thought about it.

In the second day of the e-course, they point out
how people can find all your download links
because you've neglected to do 1 simple thing.

I confess, I was guilty of making this mistake and
took action immediately.

So if you're like me and sell digital products on your
site, protect yourself and get the information in this
free e-course. Of course the report will try to sell
you something - they all do. But this report gives some
very valuable free information that you need to be
aware.

Get the report today.

The Iinfo-Security 6-day mini-course.
FREE for a limited time
Learn how you could be getting ripped off
and how to avoid it.
If you are selling digital products,
you need to know this information

Protect Yourself And Your Products,
Susan
http://www.friendswhocare.us

TEN THINGS GOD WON'T ASK ON THAT DAY.

2005-07-15T00:18:00.000-07:00

The following was sent to me by my daughter
and she received it from one of her friends.
None of us know who wrote it.

I have this posted on one of my "Fun" pages but
since Sean like the previous posting, I thought
would put it on the blog to get a little more visability.

TEN THINGS GOD WON'T ASK ON THAT DAY.

1... God won't ask what kind of car you drove.
He'll ask how many people you drove who didn't
have transportation.

2... God won't ask the square footage of your house,
He'll ask how many people you welcomed into your
home.

3... God won't ask about the clothes you had in your
closet,
He'll ask how many you helped to clothe.

4... God won't ask what your highest salary was.
He'll ask if you compromised your character to
obtain it.

5... God won't ask what your job title was.
He'll ask if you performed your job to the best of
your ability.

6... God won't ask how many friends you had.
He'll ask how many people to whom you were a
friend.

7... God won't ask in what neighborhood you lived,
He'll ask how you treated your neighbors.

8... God won't ask about the color of your skin,
He'll ask about the content of your character.

9... God won't ask why it took you so long to seek
Salvation.
He'll lovingly take you to your mansion in heaven,
and not to the gates of Hell.

10... God won't have to ask how many people you
forwarded this to,
He already knows your decision.

----------------------

Remember, success comes in many forms.

To Your Success,
Susan
http://www.friendswhocare.us

WILL I EVER FIND GOD?

2005-06-27T09:19:00.000-07:00

I've copied a story that was sent to me
by Joan, a fellow subscriber. As she warned
when she emailed it, "This is a little long,
but so terrific I had to share with you."

-----
John Powell, a professor at Loyola University in Chicago writes
about a student named Tommy in his Theology of Faith class:

Some twelve years ago, I stood watching my university students
file into the classroom for our first session in the Theology of Faith.
That was the day I first saw Tommy. My eyes and my mind both blinked. He
was combing his long flaxen hair, which hung six inches below his
shoulders. It was the first time I had ever seen a boy with hair that
long. I guess it was just coming into fashion then. I know in my mind
that it isn't what's on your head but what's in it that counts; but on
that day I was unprepared and my emotions flipped. I immediately filed
Tommy under 'S' for strange, very strange.

Tommy turned out to be the "atheist in residence" in my Theology
of Faith course. He constantly objected to, smirked at, or whined about
the possibility of an unconditionally loving Father/God. We lived with
each other in relative peace for one semester, although I admit he was,
for me at times, a serious pain in the back pew.

When he came up at the end of the course to turn in his final
exam, he asked in a slightly cynical tone, "Do you think I'll ever find
God?"

I decided instantly on a little shock therapy.
"No!" I said very emphatically.

"Oh," he responded, "I thought that was the product you were
pushing."

I let him get five steps from the classroom door, then called out,
"Tommy! I don't think you'll ever find Him, but I am absolutely certain
that He will find you!"

He shrugged a little and left my class and my life.

I felt slightly disappointed at the thought that he had missed my
clever line: "He will find you!" At least I thought it was clever. Later
I heard that Tommy had graduated, and I was duly grateful.

Then a sad report came. I heard Tommy had terminal cancer. Before
I could search him out, he came to see me. When he walked into my
office, his body was very badly wasted, and the long hair had all fallen
out as a result of chemotherapy, but his eyes were bright, and his voice
was firm for the first time, I believe.

"Tommy, I've thought about you so often. I hear you are sick," I
blurted out

"Oh, yes, very sick. I have cancer in both lungs. It's a matter of
weeks."

"Can you talk about it, Tom?" I asked.

"Sure, what would you like to know?" he replied.

"What's it like to be only twenty-four and dying?"

"Well, it could be worse."

"Like what?"

"Well, like being fifty and having no values or ideals; like being
fifty and thinking that booze, seducing women, and making money are the
real biggies in life."

(I began to look through my mental file cabinet under 'S' where I
had filed Tommy as strange. It seems as though everybody I try to reject
by classification, God sends back into my life to educate me.)

"But what I really came to see you about," Tom said, "is something
you said to me on the last day of class."

(He remembered!)

He continued, "I asked you if you thought I would ever find God,
and you said, 'No!'which surprised me. Then you said, 'But He will find
you.' I thought about that a lot, even though my search for God was
hardly intense at that time.

(My clever line... He thought about that a lot!)

"But when the doctors removed a lump from my groin and told me
that it was malignant, that's when I got serious about locating God. And
when the malignancy spread into my vital organs, I really began banging
bloody fists against the bronze doors of heaven, but God did not come
out. In fact, nothing happened. Did you ever try something for a long
time with great effort and with no success? You get psychologically
glutted; fed up with trying. And then you quit. Well, one day I woke up,
and instead of throwing a few more futile appeals over that high brick
wall to a God who may or may not be there, I just quit. I decided that I
didn't really care about God, about an afterlife, or anything like that.
I decided to spend what time I had left doing something more
profitable."

"I thought about you and your class, and I remembered something
else you had said: 'The essential sadness is to go through life without
loving. But it would be almost equally sad to go through life and leave
this world without ever telling those you loved that you had loved
them.' So, I began with the hardest one, my Dad. He was reading the
newspaper when I approached him.

"Dad."

"Yes, what?" he asked without lowering the newspaper.

"Dad, I would like to talk with you."

"Well, talk."

"I mean it's really important."

The newspaper came down three slow inches. "What is it?"

"Dad, I love you. I just wanted you to know that." (Tom smiled at
me and said it with obvious satisfaction, as though he felt a warm and
secret joy flowing inside of him.)

"The newspaper fluttered to the floor. Then my father did two
things I could never remember him ever doing before. He cried and he
hugged me.

We talked all night, even though he had to go to work the next
morning. It felt so good to be close to my father, to see his tears, to
feel his hug, to hear him say that he loved me. " It was easier with my
mother and little brother. They cried with me, too, and we hugged each
other, and started saying real nice things to each other. We shared the
things we had been keeping secret for so many years. I was only sorry
about one thing - that I had waited so long. Here I was, just beginning
to open up to all the people I had actually been close to. "Then, one
day, I turned around and God was there! He didn't come to me when I
pleaded with Him. I guess I was like an animal trainer holding out a
hoop; 'C'mon, jump through. C'mon, I'll give You three days, three
weeks.'

Apparently God does things in His own way and at His own hour. But
the important thing is that He was there. He found me. You were right.
He found me even after I stopped looking for Him."

"Tommy," I practically gasped, "I think you are saying something
very important and much more universal than you realize. To me, at
least, you are saying that the surest way to find God is not to make Him
a private possession, a problem solver, or an instant consolation in
time of need, but rather to open up to love.

You know, the Apostle John said that.

He said: 'God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with
God and God is living in him.'

"Tom, could I ask you a favor? You know, when I had you in class
you were a real pain. But (laughingly) you can make it all up to me now.
Would you come into my present Theology of Faith course and tell them
what you have just told me? If I told them the same thing it wouldn't be
half as effective as if you were to tell them."

"Ooh ... I was ready for you, but I don't know if I'm ready for
your class."

"Tom, think about it. If and when you are ready, give me a call."
In a few days, Tom called, said he was ready for the class, that he
wanted to do that for God and for me. So we scheduled a date, but he
never made it. He had another appointment, far more important than the
one with me and my class.

Of course, his life was not really ended by his death, only
changed. He made the great step from faith into vision. He found a life
far more beautiful than the eye of man has ever seen or the ear of man
has ever heard, or the mind of man has ever imagined.

Before he died, we talked one last time. "I'm not going to make it
to your class," he said.

"I know, Tom."

"Will you tell them for me? Will you... tell the whole world for
me?"

"I will, Tom. I'll tell them. I'll do my best."

So, to all of you who have been kind enough to hear this simple
statement about love, thank you for listening. And to you, Tommy,
somewhere in the sunlit, verdant hills of heaven - I told them, Tommy,
as best I could.

If this story means anything to you, please pass it on to a friend
or two. It is a true story and is not enhanced for publicity purposes.
With thanks, John Powell, Professor Loyola University, Chicago

-----

Thank you Joan for sharing. You can visit
Joan's site at:

http://www.locoweedproductions.com

where she offers "Fine Gifts and Home Decor"

To Your Success,
Susan
FriendsWhoCare

IMPORTANT - Do You Publish With MP3

2005-06-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

Gaida, a fellow subscriber, asked if I had received the
warning about making and selling products using
MP3 from Louis Allport.

I had but just in case you didn't, Gaida, from
http://www7.OnlineMasteryGold.com
and I want you to know so you can protect yourself.

Here's the warning we received with a link to
more information.

----------
Hello Susan

I've only known about this for a few days, and it's got me
very worried...

If you publish any kind of MP3 audio online, there could be
a team of very high-priced lawyers after you soon.

Sadly, I'm not joking either.

I'm right now in the process of converting all my audio into
a different format, and if you publish any kind of MP3 audio
online I would strongly suggest you do the same.

The simple fact that I've become aware of in the last few
days is that MP3 audio is NOT free to distribute. Expensive
licensing fees are due to a billion dollar corporation.
And they're clamping down on this hard now.

To make online publishers aware of this issue, a press release
was sent out in the past 24 hours by online copywriter and
publisher Joe Robson.

He's also made a free report available to help guide you
through this situation and to help you get working with new
audio formats ASAP (these new formats do NOT have any
licensing fees of any kind, ever).

You can read the press release and download his free report
at the following address:

http://www.ogginfo.com/

Sincerely,
Louis Allport

----------

If your selling or creating products using MP3, please
heed this warning.

To Your Success,
Susan Carroll
http://www.friendswhocare.us

Announcements - Raffle Ticket And Syndication

2005-06-24T06:28:00.000-07:00

This message was to go out on June 23, 2005.

Hi,

If you've come to the blog to find out why you
haven't heard from me since Wednesday, June 22,
the answer is - the responder system I use to send
you mail has been down since Thrusday morning.
Some subscribers were able to get this message
on Thursday but most didn't.

So in an attempt to keep in touch until the responder's
technical difficulties are resolved, I am posting a
slightly edited version of the email I was trying to send.

----------
I am sorry to say that none of us won the raffle last
night. The wining ticket numberwas 492233 and was
held by Terri M. the mother of 2 swim team members.
So to everyone who bought one or moretickets, I am
sorry but we do thank you foryour support.

Also, I am thankful because unlike Terri, I didn't have
to purchase 44 tickets to make sure we sold our 50. I
also have a surprise gift for everyone who bought 1 or
more losing tickets but you have to read this whole
note to find out what it is.

On Wednesday I mentioned I was working on
syndicating my newsletter articles. Well I am all done
except for putting some finishing touches on the article
page template and putting the syndication information
on some of my existing pages. So today, you get to be
the first to see what I've been up to.

Go to http://www.friendswhocare.us/classifieds.htm.

After the Marketing and Advertisting box you should
be able to find an FriendsWhoCare Internet Marketing
Feed area where there are3 articles listed.

Now I haven't had time to get a page put together to
tell you how you can use this article feed on your site
but the information is available on the pages with the
articles.

When you go to a page with an article you'll notice that
there is a yellow area at the top and under it there are
words that say "RSS Feed Sponsor." One of the
finishing touches to the template for these pages is to
put in an ad rotator. As soon as I get that rotator in
place, I would like to offer my losing raffle ticket holders
a spot in this rotator - one spot for each of their losing
tickets.I can't tell you how long it will be in the rotator
just yet since I am still working out the details but I can
tell you that it will be for at least 1 month or longer.

So consider this an advance warning. If you bought 1
or more raffle tickets, you better start working on some
small text ads. When I get the rotator in place and know
the exact requirements for the ads I'll let you know.

If you didn't buy a raffle ticket I will be selling ad space
on these pages but that's even further off since I haven't
worked out the details for that either.

That's it for today and I hope you like the new feed that's
now available from FriendsWhoCare.

To Your Success,
Susan Carroll
FriendsWhoCare Newsletter

PS - By the way, our team did great last night. Austin got
2 1st places, 2 2nd places and 1 3rd in the 7 events he was
entered. Brianna unfortunately didn't win a ribbon in any
of her 5 events but she'll do better next time.

The Most Important Things I've Learned About Having An Online Business

2005-06-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

When you have an online business one of the
things you read from almost every "guru" is that
"You Must Have A List". They may not tell you
how to get one, what to write to them or how
often to send messages but they do stress that
you must build one.

Well guess what? They are absolutely, positively,
100% right. You do need a list.

So what's one of the most important things I've
learned?

It's not that you need a list - already knew that.

It's not that they are potential customers - already
knew that too.

It's not that they are regular people - since
everyone is different, I'm not sure what a
regular person is.

One of the most important things I've learned is:

Be yourself and have a list of friends who
share a common interest and desire. Friends
who not only take the time to listen to you
but who also spend the time to reply to
your messages and requests. Friends who
not only want your advice but who are also
willing to give you theirs. Friends who want
to get together and spend some time with
each other.

To prove my point here's how my list
responded to recent request for some
assistance with a local fund raiser.

First, I'll tell you that my list is aimed at those
doing internet marketing. Every "guru" will
tell you that a list of internet marketers is a
hard list to sell to because either they've seen
it all or else they're new and probably
experiencing information overload.

With that in mind, here's what happened:

Not knowing how well my list would respond to
a request to purchase raffle tickets for a local
fund raiser, I asked them if they would be
interested. Then I waited, fearing the worst
that either no one would respond or they would
unsubscribe because supporting a local fund
raiser is not exactly "professional internet
marketing" material. Also, there would have to
be a great deal of trust on their part since I
would be the one with the tickets.

I can't describe the feeling I got when the votes
started coming in. Most voted they would help
support my local fund raiser and many of those
who voted "no" offered an apology and
explanation of why they couldn't. (And believe
me, I totally understand being overwhelmed
with your own fund raisers. That's why I took
a leap of faith and did the poll.)

Now before you start thinking that the
subscribers who voted "yes" all lived in
surrounding areas, I'll tell you that they
don't. The closest one lives around 100
miles away in a town that has a group that
competes with the local group I was
supporting. (Thanks again Darell.) The rest
are from other states and countries (Thanks
again Gaida, I think your home in Australia is
the furthest away.).

Because of the responses to the poll, I
set up a page to sell the tickets the day I
got them and sent a short email telling
everyone that the sale of the raffle tickets
was starting and where they could get them.
The message went out late Friday afternoon
which is suppose to be the worst time to email
your list.

Within a few hours I was receiving PayPal
receipts for ticket purchases!!!

Will I sell $384,297 worth of raffle tickets?

NO, my list isn't that large.

I will sell enough to help support our local
swim team with more funds than I could
afford on my own and that was the goal.

To sum up this long story, here are the
important things to remember:

Build a list.
Build a trusting relationship with your list.
Ask them what they want or need.
Give them what they want and need.

These 4 things are the most important
things to remember with ALL online businesses.

Susan Carroll
http://www.friendswhocare.us
http://www.friendswhocare.us/hurricane.htm

PS - My subscribers are the best group of
friends anyone could ask for and knowing
them is the truly the greatest reward of

my business.

Procrastination

2005-05-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

Right now I am suppose to be either:

working on my niche product sales site
writing a couple of ads for a new JV site
working in the backyard
painting my front porch
or one of a million other things on my to do list.

So what am I doing? I am performing some
"structured procrastination."

In case you're not familiar with that term, I'll explain.

Structured procrastination is when you do something
you've been meaning to do but never found the time
until you had other things that needed to be done
first. It usually happens when the thing you've been
putting off is more appealing that the things you've
now got to do but want to put off.

So today, before I start one of the things I really should
be doing, I chose to write a blog article about procrastination.

I am sure you already know what procrastination is but did
you know there are a lot of quotes about it? Most of them
tell you about how it leads to failure and offer some type
of motivation to have you stop.

But......

I found these 3 that I liked because they were fun.

"Procrastination: A hardening of the oughteries."
Anonymous

"The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to
catch up."
Anonymous

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they
make as they fly by."
Douglas Adams

I think the last one is best don't you?

Guess I've procrastinated enough and get back to
work. I think I hear the back yard calling me.

Susan

How To Expand Your Keyword List For Free

2005-04-28T07:24:00.000-07:00

How To Expand Your Keyword List For Free

While catching up on my ezine reading today
I found a link to a free video explaining how
to use your word processor to expand your
keyword list.

In the video Jason Lesis uses MS Word but
you can use any word processor to do the
same thing. In fact, a lot of text editors
have the same capability. I know MS Notepad
does.

To use Notepad or another text editor,
you just need to open it again to get a
blank page when Jason says to open a new
document. Notepad does have the "ReplaceAll"
feature under the "Edit" menu just like Word.
The only thing Notepad and other text editor
don't have is the capability to give you a
line count. But hey, if you can add then
there's no problem. Just keep a piece of
paper next to you so you can note how many
words you're pasting onto the original list.
Then when you're done, add them all up.
(Don't forget to put down the word count of
the original list.)

So if you would like to see a free video
on how to expand your keyword list here's
the link:

Free Expand Your Keyword List Video

Since the video isn't mine I don't know
how long it will be available so you
might want to spend the next 14 minutes
watching it now. And it really is free
since I didn't see or hear a single word
about any product being sold.

Susan

PS - Jason started his basic list by
using the services of wordtracker. They
offer a free trial and sell a single day
membership that's very affordable.

The Phishers Are Still At Work

2005-04-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

I've warned you before and I am warning you again to
be care about what links you click in your email.

Since my PayPal account was broken into once I get
very nervous when I get email saying that someone has
tried to wrongfully use my account. Yet, I got a message
that said just that on Sunday.

The email came to my email address that I use on PayPal
and had the subject line of:
"Your PayPal Id logged in from Spain"

The message was suppose to be a warning but it also
said I should check out my account through the link
provided and if I didn't my account would get suspended.

Now I've read what PayPal has to say about mail it
sends and they tell you to NEVER use those links contained
in the email. Their advice is to go to your browser window
and type in the URL yourself. Then log into your account.

Well I did what PayPal recommends and saw no unusual
activity so I am guessing that someone was phishing.

Please remember. If you get an email telling you to check
one of your "sensitive" accounts, Don't use a link sent
in the email. Always type in the URL of the main site and
log into your account yourself.

Stay safe and keep your identity to for yourself.

Susan

How To Encrypt Your Email Address

2005-04-21T12:13:00.000-07:00

With all the harvesting of email addresses many site
owners are now afraid to post their email address on
their own site. And while I understand why they don't,
I don't recommend leaving if off because that can hurt
your business.

One of the easiest things to do to hinder someone
from harvesting your email address off your site and
still have it available for your site visitors is to encrypt
it. I won't guarantee that it will stop everyone but I
encrypt my email address on my site and it has greatly
reduced the amount of spam I get.

Unfortunately I can't put the JavaScript code in the
blog because it won't show up so I've created this page
where you can copy and paste the code and get the
directions for editing it to hold your email address.

It's not hard to encrypt your email address. So don't
cut your site visitors off, include your encrypted
email address on your site.

Susan

Some Free Tools

2005-04-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

How many times have you downloaded an ebook
and told yourself that you'd read it later? I must
admit that I've done it a lot. I've also scanned ebooks
and thought they were so good that I knew I'd find
the time to read them later.

But you know what? Later is related to tomorrow
and it never comes. There'll always be another
tomorrow and more time later.

So today, while I still have the information in front of
me, I am going to share some great free links I just
found in an ebook.

Search only Google sponsored links at:
http://www.google.com/sponsoredlinks

Keyword database based on the best selling
items on Ebay:
http://www.nichewords.com/

A free download that will find the owner of a domain
name or IP
http://www.whoisview.com/products/whoisview/

A free online tool to find out who owns a domain name.
http://www.hyperwhois.com/cgi-bin/whois.pl?cartid=&basic=1

Yahoo top searches
http://buzz.yahoo.com/

Lycos top 50
http://50.lycos.com/

Hope they can help.

To Your Success,
Susan

God's Love Is Not Dependent On E-Mail !

2005-04-07T07:23:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in this week's newsletter, I am
posting an article sent in by a fellow subscriber.

Joe has sent me many fine things and this is
one of the best. Although he didn't write the
article and even though it doesn't pertain to
internet marketing, it is something we should
think about.

The article came with no title so I have used
the last line to name it.

----------

God's Love Is Not Dependent On E-Mail !

As you might know, the head of a company
survived 9/11 because his son started
kindergarten.

Another fellow was alive because it was
his turn to bring donuts.

One woman was late because her
alarm clock didn't go off in time.

One was late because of being stuck on the
NJ Turnpike because of an auto accident.

One of them missed his bus.

One spilled food on her clothes and had
to take time to change.

One's car wouldn't start.

One went back to answer the telephone.

One had a child that dawdled and didn't
get ready as soon as he should have.

One couldn't get a taxi.

The one that struck me was the man
who put on a new pair of shoes that morning,
took the various means to get to work,
but before he got there, he developed
a blister on his foot.

He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid.
That is why he is alive today.

Now when I am stuck in traffic,
miss an elevator, turn back to
answer a ringing telephone...

all the little things that annoy me.

I think to myself, this is exactly where
God wants me to be at this very moment..

Next time your morning seems to be going
wrong, the children are slow getting dressed,
you can't seem to find the car keys, you hit
every traffic light, don't get mad or frustrated;

God is at work watching over you.

May God ! continue to bless you with all
those annoying little things and may
you remember their possible purpose.

Pass this on to someone else, if you'd like.

There is NO LUCK attached.
If you delete this, it's okay:

God's Love Is Not Dependent
On E-Mail !!

Written by "Anonymous"

----------

This article was submitted by:

Joe Huguenard - The Dream Builder thedreambuilder@tampabay.rr.com
-:¦:-
~ ~ ~ ~
~ _[]_____ ~
¸...¸ __/ /\_____
,·´º o`·, /__/ __/\__ //_____/```)¨(´´ l±±±±±±
¸,.-·²°´,.-·~·~·-.,¸ `°²·-. ¸,.-·~·~·-.,¸ :º°¸,.-·²°´

PS - The design above is for a house and looks much
better in a true text editor. Susan

This Sunday Is Mother's Day In The UK

2005-03-04T08:58:00.000-08:00

They say you should learn something new everyday
and today I learned that this coming Sunday,
3/6/2005, is Mother's Day in the UK.

Debbie was kind enough to tell me this when she
sent in the article I have included in this posting.

I must admit I didn't know that Mother's Day was
celebrated on different dates in other countries so
when I read her comment that it was this Sunday
I was confused. But I checked it out and it's true.

So to all those living in countries where Mother's
Day is this Sunday, read the article and enjoy and
Happy Mother's Day.

To those of us who celebrate Mother's Day in May,
read the article and enjoy because even though
our languages are slightly different, I am sure you'll
understand and appreciate it.

======================================
"Good & Not So Good Advice From Our Moms (UK)"
- by "Dangerous" Debbie Jenkins
(c) Debbie Jenkins. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.BookShaker.com
======================================
Our moms were always full of good advice when we were
growing up and they had to put up with a lot of crap
(quite literally) from us... So don't forget to thank
your mom for all her good advice this Mother's Day!
Why not give her a call?
Forward this article to 3 or more of your friends to remind
them just how much their moms taught them too.
Together we can make Mother's Day really special
and bring a smile to people's faces.
When We Were Littl'uns...
---------------------------------------
* Of course it stung you - wasps don't like to be stroked.
* No, her face isn't melting. Those are called wrinkles.
* Don't hit your brother while he's sleeping!
* Take that crayon out of your sister's ear!
* No, the man doesn't have a baby in his belly.
* Put that down! You don't know where it's been!
* Where are your clothes?
* Humans don't eat cat food
* Take your feet out of your mouth
* Please don't blow in the dogs ear
* No your sleeve isn't a hanky
* Don't put that in your mouth, you don't know where it's
been
* Stop trying to ride the dog, he doesn't want to play
As We Got Older...
--------------------------------------
* Close your mouth when you're eating
* Stop pulling faces - if the wind changes you'll
stick like it!
* Keep laughing and I'll give you something
to cry about
* Stop picking, it'll go septic.
* What if your friend jumped off a cliff?
Would you do that too?
* Money doesn't grow on trees.
* Somebody's going to end up crying.
* You're going to have somebody's eye out with that!
* Eat those carrots, they're good for your eyes.
You don't see rabbits wearing glasses, do you?
* I'm going to give you until the count of three.
* Wash behind your ears or you'll have potatoes
growing there.
* If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at
all.
* Don't come running to me when you break both your legs!
* Don't run with a lollipop in your mouth.
* Don't sit too close to the television, it'll turn your
eyes square.
* I don't CARE if all the other kids are doing it,
you're not doing it
* Less said, sooner mended
In Our "Terrible" Teens...
--------------------------------------
* Why? Because I said so that's why!
* I would have never talked to MY mother like that!
* Look at me when I'm talking to you.
* I wasn't born yesterday you know.
* After all I've done for you, and this is the
thanks I get?
* You'd better wipe that smile off your face before I do!
* Don't look at me in that tone of voice!
* You can't find it? Well, where did you leave it last?
* I'm not here just for your entertainment.
* If you opened your eyes as wide as your mouth,
you'd be able to find it!
* I don't embarrass you, do I?
* As long as you live under my roof, you'll do as I say.
* I'm not just talking to hear my own voice.
* How can you sleep in an unmade bed?
Now we're older... We find ourselves sometimes too busy to
enjoy the time we used to have with our moms. If you can
get to see her do it. If not be sure to phone! Maybe buy
her a gift... If your mom is no longer with you, I hope this
brings some fun memories.
Send this article to 3 or more friends, bring a smile to
their face and remind them to thank their mom...
this UK Mother's Day - Sunday March 6th.
====================================
Develop Powerful Persuasion Skills
For Business and Pleasure at...
http://www.BookShaker.com
+++ Articles - Previews - Reviews +++
====================================

Newsreaders The ATMs of Email

2005-02-17T09:53:00.000-08:00

In a recent polls I asked my subscribers if they
thought the old method of emailing ezines was dying.
Surprisinly, 60% didn't think so.

However, one subscriber who is also a fellow
publisher did think that ezine mailings would soon
be a thing of the past and stated that she was
looking at newsreaders.

Now Jane pointed out that there were 2 problems
with newsreaders:

The publishers' cost - these things aren't free and can get quite expensive. The cost alone will keep many legitimate publishers from using them.
Getting subscribers to use them - people are used to reading their email and opening a new program to read a newsletter places another burden on the subscriber.

Now I am not going to go into the pros and cons of
using a newsreader. Instead I am going to make an
analogy between newsreaders and ATMs (something
most of us are very familiar with). And while the
analogy may seem a little far fetched to you - it
makes perfect sense to me.

Newsreaders The ATMs of Email

I can't remember exactly when I first encountered
ATMs but do remember that I was using my companies
credit union for all my banking needs when they
first appeared.

Now being a person who is drawn to most types
of modern technology, especially when it provides
a way to do things easier, you may think I would have
jumped onto the ATM bandwagon and started using
them to their fullest capability when they came out.
But no, I didn't.

You see, with my computer and business background
I found many flaws in the advantages they promised.

They promised:

24 hour access to my money - OK, I did buy that one.
24 hour capability to deposit my money - I could already do that.
No lines to stand in - If everyone uses them, there would be lines.
Easy to use - With all the different types around you have to read the directions to know which buttons to push.
Safe and Secure - Even I can think of ways to rob ATMs and I don't have a criminal mind.
Less Expensive so Banking Costs would go down - Another way to downsize and replace a person with a machine.

Now what has happened with the use of ATMs in the
last 10+ years?

You can access your money 24 hours a day for a fee unless you use the right ATMs.
You can deposit your money if you can find the right ATMs - usually at the bank.
There may or may not be a line.
Some are easy to use while I 've found some where I've just given up because the buttons don't line up with the commands and I've gotten too frustrated to continue trying.
We've all heard the news stories about the hidden cameras capturing information and the fake ATMs. ATMs have proven to be anything but safe and secure.
For the banks, ATMs may be less expensive but I have not seen any of those savings passed on to the customers. Instead I've seen raising bank charges and new types of ATM fees.

So how do I now compare ATMs to Newsreaders?

Well, newsreaders are one of the newest ways to get
a newsletter out to your subscribers and they
promise that:

You can send out your ezine anytime.
Your ezine will always get through because they will not be blocked by spam filters.
Your subscribers will see when you've sent a new issue/article/whatever.
Your subscribers can add other ezines to the newsreader so they won't have to have more than one
There is no cost to the subscriber.
For the subscriber the newsreader is easy to use.

Now these promises are slightly different than
those of the ATMs but let's look into the future
and see what may really happen. I'll use the
history of ATMs to make these predictions.

You can send out your ezine anytime may still be true but it's going to cost - probably more than it costs now.
Your ezine will never be caught by the now conventional email spam filter. But spammers are clever people and I bet they'll figure out some way to get into the newsreader system. Not being a clever person myself, I don't know how this will happen - just that I can see that it has a 50% or better chance of happening. (Remember, no one counted on hidden ATM cameras or fake ATMs either.)
Your subscribers will get notified when you send out something new assuming that your subscribers still have the newsreader loaded and are still using it.
Your subscribers don't have to use more than one newsreader. Would someone please point me in the direction of the newsreaders that will allow a publisher who is not paying them to get added into the subscriber's newsreader. (Remember when using ATMs was free - now if you use another banks ATM they charge a fee to get your own money.)
Since those providing newreader services are out to make a buck I am predicting that as soon as they think they've captured the ezines that have a loyal following and have convinced them to not use traditional email, it will cost subscribers something to use the newsreaders. The fee may be small but even $1 a month from millions of readers will make them a fortune.
As a subscriber using a newsreader I must now remember to keep the newsreader loaded whenever I change computers or reload my OS. I must also remember to add all my ezines into the reader - Opps, forgot about that ezine - and I really liked it too. The newsreader is a great place to store all my favorite ezines and I'll start reading them again as soon as I finish keeping my inbox clean while I'm waiting for Aunt May's vacation pictures. I've been waiting for 3 weeks and sure hope she sends them soon.

I won't try to predict whether or not newsreaders
are here to stay but I will say they're aren't as
new as many would have you believe. I actually
joined a "free" one more than 2 years ago. I never
used it because it required me to load my subscriber
list into someone else's database for it to send
the updates out. Sorry everyone, no newsreader here
because I don't share my subscribers' information
with anyone!

During the Christmas giveaways I did download a
newsreader because it was a requirement to get the
free gifts. The publishers giving the gifts had
to pay to use the newsreader to be part of the
giveaway. Now the "smart" publishers also added me
to their email mailing lists and sent their stuff
using both methods. I don't think they were trying
to overwhelm me. They understood that most people
aren't used to using newsreaders and therefore
don't pay attention to them. So even though I
never really opened my newsreader and then lost
it when I reloaded my machine last week they
didn't lose me.

Am I part of the norm with my use of newsreaders?
I don't know but guess that there are enough people
like me that those who do know don't rely on
newsreaders very much just yet.

Are newsreaders the wave of the future for ezine
publishers? I don't know that either but will tell
you that I will be kicking and screaming the whole
way if they are.

Newsreaders and ATMs provide different types of
services but capture the market of those looking
for an easier and safer way of doing something.
ATMs are now on almost every street corner even
though they have failed at being secure and safe.
I fear that newsreaders may follow the same path
and we may all reap the same benefits.

Susan
FriendsWhoCare Newsletter

It May Be Old - But It's Still Good

2005-01-27T11:06:00.000-08:00

The last couple of weeks I have been negligent in my
blog duties and other things because I have been trying
to make some changes to my site. And , like many, I
am a self-taught web programmer so it's taking awhile.

But today I decided to catch up on some of the ezines I
get and guess what?

Many of them are still sending articles about owning your
own domain names and having your own sites.

Why?

Because while the advice may be old - it's still very good.

Sure, there's a lot of new advice for internet marketing and
lots of new products to help you achieve your goals. But
that doesn't mean all the old advice and products aren't
good. In fact, most of the new stuff is designed and written
for those who have already mastered the old. In other
words, you must have the basics in place in order for you to
use and master the new information and products. And having
your OWN web site and domain name are about as basic as
you can get.

To find some free and inexpensive resources to help you
build and get your site up check out my startup page at:

http://www.friendswhocare.us/startups.htm

To Your Success,
Susan

PS - I've included a tip on the startup page that tells you
how to put your affiliate pages on your own site so you
don't have to have any ideas on how to design a site or
even know any html.

http://www.friendswhocare.us/startups.htm

Working On The Forum

2005-01-10T08:11:00.000-08:00

I'll be the first one to admit that
I take on too much and expect things
to get done faster than they actually
will but - I am working on the forum.

Right now I think I have the first several
areas open for posting - down to Traffic
Generation. I did post a few things in
some of the beginning area and will
be posting to other areas after I get
everything unlocked.

So check out the forum to see if there
are any other areas you would like to
have added and stop by the Member area
to introduce yourself.

http://affiliates-win.com/phpBB/index.php

All the areas of the forum will be open
for everyone to read and some of the
areas will be open for everyone to post.
Most of the forum will be set up where
only subscribers of the newsletter may
post. If you have any thoughts about
how the permissions should be set up
please let me know.

To enforce the subscriber only
restrictions it will be necessary
for people to become a registered
member of the forum and only
subscribers may do that.

Anyway, thought I'd let you know what's
happening and I'll keep you informed
as things progress.

To Your Success,
Susan

PS - If you have any problems getting
registered please let me know. I still
don't have all my email tools in place
since I reloaded my operating system
so I may miss some of the requests to
join right now.

Thanks for being so understanding and
let's all work together to get this
forum going.

Microsoft Finally Did Something!

2005-01-10T07:39:00.000-08:00

This may be old news to you since I am
always the last one to find out about
everything but Microsoft has finally
done something about spyware.

While I was trying to clean up my
computer on January 10 I accidentally
found out that Microsoft has written
a tool to remove spyware. This tool
also has the capability to detect
when it is being downloaded onto your
computer.

Of course there is no guarantee that it
will catch everything but it does seem to
be better than the other 4 anti-spyware
programs I've tried and right now it's free.

In case you don't want my long story just
go to:

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

to read about their beta version and
get your free copy.

Here's my story -

I have been using 4 different anti-spyware
programs for the last several months but
knew I was badly infected anyway. You
know the symptoms: slow machine, pop-ups
that weren't blocked, home page set to
some strange place, etc.

And while some of my anti-spyware programs
told me I was infected none of them could
ever totaly remove the infection.

During the first week of January I gave
up and reloaded my operating system. It
hen was able to run on a clean machine
for a few days when things started happening
again. So off I went to get those anti-spyware
programs running.

Now I didn't run the one anti-spyware
program I paid for since I recently read
that some of those paid-for programs actually
load junk on your machine. Instead I ran
the free one given me by my DSL provider.

Since it didn't remove the same junk it
couldn't remove before, I went to Microsoft
to get the free ones they recommended.
(That's where I had gotten the other 2
I had run before.)

That's when I discovered the beta version
of Microsoft's anti-spyware program. Since
they wrote the system I figured they ought
to know how to clean it up so I downloaded it.

I took about 20 minutes for it to do a
complete scan but found 22 things to remove
and it DID remove them.

Now my system seems to be back to its
clean self again!

The good points of this anti-spyware program
are:

1. It catches and removes more spyware.
2. It can be scheduled to run automatically.
3. It has an advanced feature that allows
you to erase some types of things on your
computer.
4. It alerts you when something tries to
change one of your Microsoft files or
settings.
5. Right now it's free.
6. They give automatic updates when available.

The bad points are:

1. I don't know if it catches everything.
2. It may take a little longer than some
other anti-spyware programs (but if it
works better - who cares).
3. The download will expire after a set
time limit (I have 202 days left).

I am not an affiliate for Microsoft - in fact
I am not even an avid supporter of them. I
just use their products because that's what
dominates the market. But if this thing works
I'll use it.

I have no idea how much they are going to
charge for this product when it finishes
its beta trial but I doubt that Bill
will fix his product or protect us for
nothing (not his style).

I am not going to recommend that you
download or try this beta version. I just
want you to be aware that it does exist
and right now it's free.

Here's the link again:

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

To Your Success,
Susan

December Email

2004-12-13T09:06:00.000-08:00

Do you ever get overwhelmed?

Well, I do and here's one of the reasons...
December online offers!

During the month of December just about everyone
with an online business is offering a free gift or a
super sale. And I mean everyone: big corporations
like Hickory Farms and Home Depot and online marketers
like Shawn Casey and Rosalind Gardner. And yes, even
I am doing it too.

Now I won't go into the reasons we are all doing this
since it is obvious. I'll just admit that it does get
overwhelming at times even for those who are doing it.

Why am I breaking some unwritten law and admitting this?

Last Friday I had some updates I wanted to share with you
but didn't get it out because I spent all day looking and
reading all the great offers coming into my mailbox. The
result of my effort was as they say ... zip, zilch, nada.
I didn't find the "golden fleece", didn't find the gift no one
could live without and didn't find a single piece of advice
that would improve my life.

Then on Saturday I figured better late than never so I
was going to send out my updates but I didn't. Not
because I was busy reading my email but because of
the number of emails I received. I wasn't busy reading
email ... I was sitting and staring in awe at the number
I had received overnight. I figure you woke up to a ton
of email on Saturday too.

With all that email going out to be read on Saturday
and Sunday I then decided to wait until you had a chance
to clean out your inbox before sending out my updates.

So what's the point of this article? I haven't got a clue.

It's just my way of venting about the number of emails
being sent this month.

Don't Forget To Clean Out Your Inbox,
Susan

PS - I have a separate mailbox for your important mail so
feel free to write even during this hectic month because
hearing from you is one of the highlights of my day.

I won't post my email address here but you can find it
at: http://www.friendswhocare.us/thisweek.htm

Susan

Happy Holidays

2004-12-13T07:59:00.000-08:00

Christmas is the time of giving and you can really pick up some
great free gifts being offered this year by many online publishers.

I won't mention all the sites currently offering free holiday gifts
since I don't know all of them but will share with you the ones I
have joined.

http://www.EZasMagic.com/Cheers

http://familyfunforyou.info/holidaygreeting.php

I just finished downloading the 3 free holiday e-books from
http://familyfunforyou.info/holidaygreeting.php
and must tell you they are great. No selling of products, no
advice to help you make money, just some things for you
to enjoy during this season.

So check out both sites because I'm sure you'll find something
that will catch your interest.

Happy Holidays,
Susan

It's Less Than 3 Weeks Till Christmas

2004-12-05T17:08:00.000-08:00

It's December 5th and that means that Christmas is less than 3 weeks away.

When we lived in the Denver area it was easy to find ways to help
kids that were less fortunate as ours. In every mall and outside
almost every grocery store you could either find the Salvation
Army Giving Trees or Bell Ringers. The Toys for Tots campaign
was big too and was easy to find the locations to make your
donations. And in a lot of the smaller suburbs like ours the police
departments set up workshops to collect and even fix toys for kids.

Now we live a very small community and it's not so easy. The 2
grocery stores in town have no Bell Ringers or Giving Tree and
there is no mall. No one advertises Toys for Tots. But, the
churches do try to work together to help as many as possible in
this small community. They advertise and collect for the local
organization that assists less fortunate families. And for this I am
very thankful.

Christmas is a time of giving. So while you are out doing all your
very important shopping, remember that there are children who
live in a home where Christmas is just another day of the week
unless someone takes a moment out of their busy life to make it
special.

Please be that special person to a child this year. Add to your
list of gifts a special present for someone by either adopting a
person on a Giving Tree or making a donation to the Toys for
Tots or your local community organization.

Putting a smile on a child's face is one of the best gifts you
can receive this year.

This year I am again proud to be a partner with the official
U.S. Marines "Toys for Tots" program in The 4th Annual
Interne Toy Drive.
Click to find out more and help a needy child in YOUR community right now!

To Your Success,
Susan

PS - There will also be many organizations asking for donations
for food and clothing. I ask you to not make a choice of a toy or
food or warm clothing. Please help in as many ways as you can.
If you have kids you can donate their outgrown coats and gloves
to help keep another child warm. If you give up getting yourself
an afternoon snack once or twice you would have more than
enough to get some mac and cheese or canned vegetables.
Warm clothing and food may be taken for granted by many
of us but for others they are not. So please help.

And then remember to give yourself a special present by
giving a child you don't know a toy.

Here's a Fun Site

2004-11-27T07:30:00.000-08:00

On Thanksgiving Joe sent me a fun email and I wanted to
share it with you. Since I won't add your email address to
the site where it came from I will share the link with you
so you can get a laugh:
http://www.funpages.com/fatguydance/

Now after I had a good laugh I checked out some more of
the fun things they have to offer. If you're a chocoholic like
me then you'llappreciate this one too.
http://www.funpages.com/chocolate/

We all need a good laugh once in awhile so take a minute
and enjoy.

And thank you Joe for finding this site for us!

To Your Success,
Susan

It's Starting Already

2004-11-19T08:16:00.000-08:00

Well it's started already. I thought I was getting
an early start but no, others started before me
and are already sending out their mailings for...

The Busiest and Most Profitable Time of the Year.

I am not talking about the mailings from Hickory
Farms, Home Depot, ToysRUs or any of the other
major retail stores.

I am talking about those who are signing up as
many new affiliates for their affiliate programs
as possible before Christmas.

Today I received 2 mailings from programs I am
in reminding me to advertise my referral link as
opposed to selling or helping me sell their products.

I don't have to tell you why they want more people
to sign up but I will anyway. The more people trying
to sell their products - the more sales theywill make.

And that's good business!

Now whether you have your own affiliate program or
not, becoming an affiliate for a good program is
still a good idea. Even the very successful online
marketers join other affiliate programs.

By joining multiple affiliate programs that offer
similar products, you have more to offer your
customers.

You don't do most of your shopping at Tide stores
or Sony stores. Sure, there are specialty stores
but most of these products are still available in
other places that attract more customers because
of the wide variety of products and manufacturers.

As I have stated in many of my newsletter articles:

Learn some of your online marketing techniques from
what works offline.

BUT... there is one very important thing to
remember while you are joining affiliate programs.

Join "Good" ones because you don't what to sell
valueless material or earn next to nothing on
your sales. Find honest, solid and dependable
programs that offer good products or services
and pay you a decent commission for your work.

I have joined many fine affiliate programs and
have some of them listed here:

http://www.affiliates-win.com/pbi/

and here:

http://www.friendswhocare.us/tools.htm

To Your Success,
Susan

PS - Here's the link to free affiliate program
that has already started recruiting new affiliate
for Christmas. They have many fine products, pay
a good commission, don't require you to earn a
large commission before they pay you and give you
2 ways to get paid (check or PayPal). You can get
all the details on Neil Shearing's Affiliate Program
site.

Our Forum Needs A Facelift

2004-11-04T06:57:00.000-08:00

I am sorry to report that right now our forum is not getting much
traffic, very few postings and no new registered members.

What's the problem?

Too new to expect much?
Too restrictive?
Not enough groups to get anything of value?
All of the above?
Don't know?

Me, I don't know the answer but a couple of registered members
have made some suggestions - you can see them on the forum
and since we need the traffic, go there to read them.

Since this forum was set up for you and right now it needs all
the help it can get, I am asking you to visit it, become a member
and post something. Most of the discussion right now is on how
it should be laid out and who should be allowed to post. One
subscriber even has a poll to see if you think this forum or any
one like it will work. So please vote!

I am willing to:

define new groups
allow some subscribers to be the administrator of some of the groups
allow groups to be open or restricted
take suggestions on what else to do

If we can't get some traffic and postings on our forum then
what's the point of having it?

So it's up to you. Let me know what you think so we can either
make this forum work or close it.

To Your Success,

Susan

Optimizing Your Graphics

2004-10-26T15:04:00.000-07:00

While reading a lesson from one of the e-courses
I am getting (yes, I still subscribe to some of
those free courses), I found a fantastic free
site that I know I will be using and thought you
might find a use for it too.

By free, I mean free. You don't even have to
sign up for an ezine, register or anything else!

Now you can significantly decrease your site's load
time simply by optimizing your gif graphics. This
process will decrease your graphic's file size without
sacrificing the graphic's quality. You can optimize
your images right online.

Visit GifWorks for further information.

http://www.gifworks.com/

Guilty By Association

2004-10-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I posted an announcement in the newsletter because I thought that it didn’t go out.

I was WRONG!

The mailing went out but I didn’t get it and neither did anyone else who uses the same ISP as I do for my personal email.

I am really upset by this and I’ll tell you why.

One of the autoresponder services I use to send out the newsletter mailings is DemandMail.com. I have used them for a couple of years and have been very happy with their inexpensive service because they allow me set up an unlimited number of autoresponder accounts for one low monthly fee AND they have fantastic tech support.

When I didn’t think my mailings were going out because I wasn’t getting them or the “mailing complete” messages I wrote tech support. I expected to wait about 24 hours to hear a response but got one in just a couple of hours.

According to them, I wasn’t getting my messages they were sending because my ISP was using Spam Cop. They had sent a message from their service, discovered the problem and had to use a different email account to respond to my trouble request.

I immediately wrote my ISP about the matter and requested they remove Spam Cop from my account. It took them about 4 hours to respond with the following – your trouble ticket has been closed and please send the error message you received so we can forward it to Spam Cop to correct the problem.

How can the trouble ticket be closed when I still have the problem?

What error message?

I, the intended receiver didn’t get an error message. I didn’t get any indication that I wasn’t getting some of my email? I checked my email account to see if they had placed my blocked messages in some special folder but found nothing.

Well, to make this long story longer:

I have re-opened the ticket and told them to keep it that way until I find out if there was any error message to my autoresponder service.
I have requested the error message from my autoresponder service.
I checked into Spam Cop and found that I had to go through Alexa to find their contact information.
I have sent Spam Cop an email reporting the problem.
I also found out that Spam Cop doesn’t block individual email accounts or filter on words. They block messages according to the IP of the sender. In other words, if you are using an autoresponder or hosting account to send out your mail, your mail may not be getting through if they have your services IP on their blacklist.
I also know that Spam Cop doesn’t send the email address of the person reporting spam to the service sending the email. Thus, the autoresponder or hosting service can not request proof of opt-in and can not request that you remove the person from your list. As a result, your account may be canceled even if you could have provided proof that the person had opted-in.
I also know that some of the “big” places that offer free email accounts and where we all get a lot of spam – like Yahoo and MSN are not blocked.
I know that if you aren’t getting all your email you may not know it. And if you do and try to find those that were blocked, you can’t find it.

There are only 8 people on my list who use the same ISP mailbox that I use. So I know those people won’t get my mailings.

But what about all the others? I have no idea which ISPs use Spam Cop so I have no idea how much of my list is not getting my mail.

Am I upset? YES!!!

I have been found guilty of sending spam to myself and others by someone I don’t know and who doesn’t give me the opportunity to defend myself. I have been blacklisted because of some report by a nameless person who may not even know they complained.

I am guilty by association with a service that provides contact information on every page and has a strict anti-spam policy. I am guilty by association because someone, somewhere reported spam sent by someone using that same service.

Was that person guilty of sending spam? I don’t know.

Was that person allowed to offer proof that they weren’t sending spam? No.

Is that person still using the same service? Probably not and here’s why:
“We get some complaints from SPAM Cop without the complainers email or name so we have no way to remove them from anyone's' list. We have had to delete several accounts from our system because of the heavy handed tactics of SPAM Cop.”

May your day be better than mine,
Susan

Does Your Left Hand Know What Your Right Hand Is Doing?

2004-10-05T09:04:00.000-07:00

Last week I got a JV offer from the owner of
Spyware Nuker. Nice offer, but the timing
was off since I already bought the product.

Well, I replied to the offer and mentioned
that I had already purchased the product and
use it regularly.

Jon replied that he had another new product
and offered a JV for it. Since I am so happy
with Spyware Nuker, I replied immediately
that I would love to try the new product.

Well, Jon then passed my message on to his
staff because I received a mailing on his
behalf. Unfortunately, they don't read their
mail too well since they offered me a free
key to Spyware Nuker.

I am sure we will sort this mess out but it
did point out a good lesson.

If you have others assisting you in your
online or off line business, make sure
everyone keeps current on what's going
on.

Don't think you know what's happening.
KNOW

Don't assume you know what is being said.
LISTEN and READ

Don't allow spyware and adware to infest
your computer.
Run Spyware Nuker.

Heck, even if Jon and his staff are
confused, they do have a great product
and I do clean my computer with it a
couple of times a week.

To Your Success,
Susan

Copycats - There Should Be Rules

2004-10-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

We all know that there are a lot of copycat
programs on the web. Some good, some not.

Now I am not going to throw stones if someone
copies an idea - heck I did it myself by accident.
When I came up with our new forum I thought
I had an original idea only to discover that I
didn't. But that's OK.

Why is it alright to copy things?

Because if we didn't, there would only be one
marketing forum, one hosting service, one
autoresponder service, one vitamin company,
one insurance company, one ...

In fact, without copying things, the whole idea
of viral marketing wouldn't work.

So, copying a good idea and going with it is good
but ...

There should be some rules!!!

And one of the rules should be -
Don't force people to give up something they
may have worked or paid for to join your new,
copied program.

What prompted me to come up with this rule?

As some of you know, I did join a list building
program this last year. Now I don't join these
things often because as I have stated before,
I don't have much luck with them. But Joe is
good friend and subscriber so I decided to give
it a shot and joined under him.

Then last week while surfing I ran across a
fantastic sales page offering The "Bulletproof
List Building System" created by two well know
internet marketers. And since it was free, I
decided to check it out.

Guess what? They had come up with a great way
to market the same list building program I joined
under Joe only they promised - "How To Rocket
Your List From Zero To TENS OF THOUSANDS
Of Red Hot Opt-In Subscribers In 30 Days Or Less!
The SECRET Is In The FREE SYSTEM!"

Wow, I thought. Now I can give Joe and I a real
boost in this program.

Wrong!!!

Here is an excerpt taken from the "readme" file
for those who want to use their program.

Begin Quote
-------

If you have already used opportunity.com to grow
a huge list and do *NOT* wish to CANCEL your
current membership, then we regret that you may
not participate in this automated list building
system. (See the Opportunity.Com membership
agreement and terms of service. We regret that we
have no control over their service terms). We are
however confident that should you decide to
sacrifice your current Opportunity.Com down-line
(if any) to participate in this campaign our system
will enable anyone to match and surpass their previous
down-line tally in record time.

Opportunity.Com does NOT permit it’s users to
open multiple accounts. If you are already an
Opportunity.Com member, please **DO NOT** use
your existing membership details. Simply CANCEL
your current membership and SIGN UP USING THE
LINK PROVIDED IN THIS EMAIL (above). If you are
caught by our automated signup-tracking log
attempting to 'cheat' the system by inserting an
existing member ID, your account will be immediately
terminated and you will lose all rightto email your ads --
even if you built up a downline of 5,000,000. We
promise to do everything we can to protect you from
downline theft and to help you build a larger list
FASTER than you could ever dream possible before.
--------------------
End Quote

I must admit that I don't have a large downline
in the Opportunity.com system so giving it up
would be no great loss. But, I won't give it up.

In fact, after reading the rules for this new program
I wonder about the ethics of those who created it.

Who are they really trying to help?

If they are trying to help me, they would allow
me join under them but not require it.

So the answer is obvious -
They are building their own large list even at the
expense of others.

Not Fair!

To Your Success,
Susan

PS - I am not including a link to the system
mentioned in this article for a good reason
but I will give you my Opportunity.com link.
http://www.opportunity.com/r/smc2002

A New Blogger Exchange

2004-09-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

We all know that Blogs have become big news
on the internet over the last 6 months.
And since they are so popular we should have
guessed that someone would figure out a way
to help generate even more traffic to them.

Today I discovered that a new traffic exchange
specifically designed for bloggers has been
started. It was launched last week and it makes
for very interesting reading.

Blogexplosion does not allow blogs that simply
promote traffic exchanges and business opportunities.
All the blogs must be about discussion and visiting
interesting sites about travel, technology, relationships,
hobbies, art, culture, sports ...

So if you want some interesting surfing, this
is the place to check out.

And if you have a blog you may want to generate
more traffic to it by joining this new exchange.

To Your Success,
Susan

FriendsWhoCare Affiliate and Network Marketing Forum

2004-09-30T06:21:00.000-07:00

If you read this week's newsletter you already
know about the new FriendsWhoCare Affiliate and
Network Marketing Forum. But in case you missed
it I'll repeat myself.

The forum was created to give you a place to
promote the free sites you were given when
you joined your affiliate and network marketing
programs.

Unlike most forums than ban advertising,
advertising is one of the major purposes of
this forum.

You can read all about it at:

http://www.friendswhocare.us/forum.htm

And if you have any comments about how to
make this forum work or the about the rules
or anything else for that matter, please
send them to me.

This forum is open so you should be able
to start posting your affiliate and network
marketing information right now. If you have
any problems, let me know and I'll work on
getting them fixed.

I'll be looking for you at our new forum.

To Your Success,
Susan

Is your website idea a "bad" idea?

2004-09-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

Why I posted this article.

I expected to see some comments about my article on the
article "Seven Facts You Should Know About The Internet
Marketing Niche" but haven't. Now while I stated in the
article that I didn't want to discourage anyone from entering
this niche, I am afraid I may have.

So, as my way of telling you that you shouldn't give up if
that's the niche you thought you wanted, I am posting an
article written by Chuck McCullough because he entered
this same market and was able to be very successful.

So read it and do what you think is best for you.

To Your Success,
Susan

====================
Is your website idea a "bad" idea?

I've gotten many emails lately from people that were
having trouble figuring out what topic they should
develop their website around.

One even stated that every time s/he came up with a
great idea, then did some research on it, the topic would
come up as having too much competition, or already
over-populated.

This is a very interesting point because everything you
read tells you to find a new, un-tapped niche and become
the top expert, and then dominate that niche.

We are told that this is the ONLY way to make money
on the Internet.

Finding a niche CAN be very profitable, but it is also very
difficult to discover a new niche.

Why?

Because it isn't as simple as just finding a topic that no one
else has found yet: That topic also has to have people
dedicated to it that have money to spend, that want the
products that you are selling, and that are willing to buy
anything to begin with.

It is very difficult to find that perfect mix... especially now
that there are so many other people online trying to do
exactly the same thing.

When I started AffiliateMatch there were already a ton of
affiliate program directories. There were also several
"big players" out there that dominated the market.

I still managed to do the things necessary to build it into
a profitable website.

Did I bump any of the "big players" out of their positions?

No. But I realized that I didn't have to.

There are many, many, many people surfing the Internet
today. And even though you may have a competitor that
has better search engine positioning, or more newsletter
subscribers, you can STILL reach people that have never
heard of your competitors.

You don't have to concentrate so much of your time and
effort trying to find that undiscovered niche. If you have
an idea that you like, and that you feel you would enjoy
rying to make money from... go for it!

Figure out if there is a way that you can do things a little
better, or a little different from what your competitors
are doing.

Find a slightly different, more focused aspect of the subject
area that want to go into.

For example: Instead of tackling "Real Estate", try "Real
Estate for Texans", or whatever state you live in.

By narrowing your focus you can greatly decrease the
number of competitors that you will have.

If you can't narrow the topic down any, that's ok. As long
as it is a subject you will enjoy learning more about, go
ahead and do it anyway.

As you learn more and get more experience you will start
to see niches form that you would have never been able to
spot in the beginning.

Don't hold off your online business while you wait to
discover the next million dollar niche. This approach is
like putting off enjoying life until you have won the lottery.

The problem with this is that if you never actually win the
lottery, you will have missed out on some great chances
to enjoy life.

The Internet is the same way: Don't risk passing up great
opportunities because you were on the sidelines trying to
find that ONE idea that will make you rich.

So, when you ask me if your website idea is a bad idea...my
response is:
the only bad ideas are the ones that never get acted on!
=========================================
Chuck McCullough shows you exactly how to get more
traffic to your website in the Website Traffic System.
Click here to learn more:
http://www.friendswhocare.us/trafficsystem.htm
=========================================

What's Wrong With Internet Marketing Today

2004-09-10T11:21:00.000-07:00

Here's one example of what's wrong with internet
marketing today:

A lot of proclaimed internet marketing experts
are in such a hurry to be the first one to
announce a new product that they aren't taking
the time to write an original message or an
original idea. Instead they are using the
pre-written sales copy.

Here are two examples:
-----------------------------------
Hi Susan:

Mark your calendar.

On the 10th of September, you'll be able to read all
about a Top Secret Internet Marketing Experiment.

The results of this experiment will change:

* The way you think
* The way you behave
* The way you see the Internet
* The way you view money
* The way you MAKE money

Bottomline: It'll be a life-changing experience, and
that goes beyond a guarantee.

It's a promise!

... etc, etc....
--------------------------------------

Did you get any of these?

I got 3.

All of them were exactly the same.

Or how about the day John Reese's package came
out?
--------------------------------------
Dear Susan,

Some Great News about Traffic Secrets

*** "Florida Man Gets Hit By 2nd Hurricane! ***

The servers were at an absolute crawl this morning.

The load was so intense that, due to the enormous
strain, the launch was delayed by a few minutes to
remove the demonstration videos.

No one got a chance to see them! It was a traffic hurricane.

I'm really sorry if you went to the site to watch these
demo videos. But that site got more traffic today than
most websites on the Internet get in an entire year!

... etc, etc....
-------------------------------------

I got so many of these that I actually lost count.

*** Side Note ***
Of course there were a few wiser marketers who sent
out original messages and some of them even offered
a bonus for buying from them.
*** End ***

Now give me a break! We all know that writing your
own sales copy and your own personal recommendation
is the best way to sell something. I mean, every
so called internet marketing expert keeps telling us that.

So what's up? Why are all the "big money makers"
sending out canned sales copy? Don't they know that
they are going to lose some credibility by violating
one of their primary rules for email advertising?

I don't know about you, but when I see the same
subject line in multiple email or recognize an
email as one I have already read, I just start
deleting them. And while I know that John made
over $1,000,000. in one day which means he sold
about 1,000 copies (not a bad days sales!) what
I would really like to know is the percentage of
sales to emails sent. The joint venture partners
he had for this package all had huge mailing lists.

The point of this article is:

If you are going to promote something, either as
an affiliate, joint venture partner, or product
owner, take some time to write or at least modify
the pre-written sales letter. Make your offer
different. Put some thought and some of your
personality into it.

Whether you have a list or are paying to advertise
to someone else's, don't send out a mailing that
the readers will recognize as a "canned" message
and automatically delete. Write your own headline
and message and give the readers a reason to open
the email and read it.

To Your Success,
Susan

PS If you agree or disagree with this article,
please make a comment.

Free Meta Tag Tool

2004-08-24T06:39:00.000-07:00

In case you aren't using Meta Tags because you aren't
sure what they are or how to write them, I have created
a new page that has some information about Meta Tags
and a free Meta Tag Generator. Feel free to use it as
much or as little as you like. If you have any problems
be sure to send them to me at:
mailto:susancarroll@friendswhocare.us.

To Your Success,
Susan Carroll

Current Marketing Blitz

2004-08-17T09:36:00.000-07:00

Wow!

Have you read any of your email today? My inbox is bursting with
all the email about John Reese's new traffic package. This is the
biggest marketing blitz I've seen in quite awhile!

No, I am not going to tell you how great it is or tell you to buy it
because I am not going to get it. With my little FriendsWhoCare
site it's way out of my budget.

The reason I am writing this is because I just wanted to make
you aware that every big online name is currently marketing
this package and to give you a little personal advice:

If you are going to buy this package compare all the offers
and buy it from one that is offering an incentive you also want. So far I have seen several offering personal bonuses that include free software, site memberships and a CD package.
If you are buying this package make sure you are buying it to use and then really use it. At almost $1000 this package is too costly to gather dust on your shelf.
Thinking of becoming an affiliate for this package? It's a closed affiliate program and I have no idea what the requirements are but to compete with all those who are already promoting this site, you better have a really great bonus to add to your offer. Getting people to part with $1000 is not all that easy and you'll have some stiff competition for those dollars.

Enough advice.

To Your Success,
Susan

"Dont Let This Happen To You " America's Identity Theft Nightmare

2004-07-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

Last night I read a new e-book written by a
fellow subscriber on identity theft. Sadly
I must tell you that the book was written
because of first hand knowledge about this
horrible crime.

Jeffery and Karyn became victims of an
identity theft crime through no fault of
their own and weren't even the intended
victims. Now they are trying to put their
lives back together and help others avoid
being caught in this type of terrible
nightmare.

This e-book contains a lot of information
that everyone, and I mean Everyone
should know.

Things like:

* Many of the ways identity theft happens
* Things everyone should do to protect themselves
* What to do if your identity is stolen
* Who to look to for help if it happens
* How susceptible you are to having it happen
* and a whole lot more.

I must admit that this e-book was not a fun
read because the stories it tells are tragic.
But every story is true and conveys just how
horrible this type of crime is.

Did you know that identity theft can have
more than one victim?

Did you know that identity theft can go on
for years without detection?

Did you know that you could be accused and
arrested for a felony crime when you are
actually a victim of identity theft?

I didn't until I read the e-book.

Again I'll state - This e-book contains
information that everyone should know.

To find out about this new e-book go to

http://www.idtheftnightmare.com/index13.htm

To protect yourself you need to be aware.

Your concerned friend,
Susan

MLM Essentials

2004-07-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

Carole Pagan of ConvenienceNet.com is one of your
fellow subscribers and she wrote me yesterday to
tell me about a new e-book she has written and is
giving away.

I downloaded and read the e-book and think it
would be very beneficial to anyone entering into
an online business. While some of the resources
are specific to MLM most of the topics and
resources could be used by anyone doing online
marketing.

The name of the e-book is "MLM Essentials" and
it's the first viral training, tips, and tools
handbook for network marketers.

It was written to help people get their new
downline up to speed fast!

And it's new, so you won't see it all over the
place yet. Only a few ezine publishers know about
it right now. So if you want to get in on a new
viral marketing tool, here's one you can get
now.

Go to http://www.MLMEssentials.com
to get your copy today.

To Your Success,
Susan

Murphy's Law

2004-07-19T15:31:00.000-07:00

Recently I came across two references to Murphy's
Law. Having seen these types of references before
and because one of the references included a copy
of the law, I thought I would find out what
Murphy's Law actually was.

Well, I found out that Murphy's Law is really
quite short. It is:

"If anything can go wrong, it will."

Then I discovered that all the other laws labeled
Murphy's Laws were actually corollaries that have
been added by others. But a lot of these additions
are actually quite humourous and true.

So, I am sharing some of the newer Murphy's Laws
with you so you can get a laugh just like I did.

Remember, when thing's go wrong it's better to
laugh than cry. Of Course you might want to fix
them too!

Some of the Newer Murphy's Laws

1. If there is a possibility of several things
     going wrong, the one that will cause the most
     damage will be the one to go wrong.

2. If anything just cannot go wrong, it will
     anyway.

3. If you perceive that there are four possible
     ways in which something can go wrong, and
     circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared
     for, will promptly develop.

4. Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad
     to worse.

5. If everything seems to be going well, you have
     obviously overlooked something.

6. Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.

7. It is impossible to make anything foolproof
     because fools are so ingenious.

8. Build a system that even a fool can use, and
     only a fool will use it.

9. Rule of Accuracy: When working toward the
     solution of a problem, it always helps if you
     know the answer.
Corollary: Provided, of course, that you know
there is a problem.

10. The other line always moves faster.

11. In order to get a loan, you must first prove
     you don't need it.

12. Any time you put an item in a "safe place",
      it will never be seen again.

13. Chaos always wins, because it's better
    organized.

14. If all else fails, hit it with a big hammer.

15. It takes forever to learn the rules and once
    you've learned them they change again.

16. Anyone who isn't paranoid simply isn't paying
    attention.

17. If it looks good,
    And it taste good,
    And it feels good,
    There has got to be something wrong some where,
    So be careful.

18. Behind every little problem there's a larger
    problem, waiting for the little problem to get
    out of the way.

19. Every rule has an exception except the Rule of
    Exceptions.

I have only posted 19 in the hope that you can come
up with good one to end this list.

In addition, I move that we repeal Murphy's Law.
All in favor, say Aye.

To Your Success,
Susan

PS Murphy also has a golden rule and it is:
"Whoever has the gold makes the rules."

The Biggest Lie Ever Told Online

2004-07-01T13:24:00.000-07:00

- by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I'll admit it... starting out online I fell for
the lie -- hook, line, and sinker.

In fact, I spent thousands of dollars on the lie.

What is it?

Well, let me summarize the biggest lie on the
Internet as told by all the get-rich-quick scammers
(so you buy their "magic" books and software):

"You don't need money, you don't need to invest
time, and you don't need a product in order to make
a million dollars on the Internet. Buy my software…
click this button… and you'll get rich!"

What a truckload of dog poo-poo!

Now, before the doom and gloom crowd get started,
don't get me wrong.

I still firmly believe that anybody can succeed
online.

If you know what to do, you can actually succeed
faster than people did it back in the late 1990's
because customers now understand how to use the
Internet more than they did even six or seven
years ago.

It's actually easier to sell products and make an
income online than it's ever been before in the
history of the Internet… even if you're operating
on a total "shoestring" budget!

But more on that in a minute…

There are basically 2 pieces of the puzzle that
lead to making real, consistent, lasting income
online.

The First Puzzle Piece...

The first piece of the puzzle is an investment of
time, energy, and effort.

Anyone who believes they can make money on the
Internet with no effort needs to slam their head
against a wall and WAKE UP!

There's a universal law called "Cause and Effect"
you need to be aware of in all that you do.

In short, it says that you can't get any results
without any input.

You can stare at a soda machine… rub the soda
machine… hope, wish, beg, or otherwise try to
persuade a soda machine to give you drink, BUT,
without first *doing* something to make soda come
out, you'll NEVER get one!

You can't get a soda from a vending machine unless
you *do* something:

Put in a dollar in the machine and press a button
-- or --

Beat the hell out of the machine with a sledgehammer,
break the lock, and steal a soda -- or --

Tip the machine upside down and make all the drinks
fall out -- or --

Take some other *action* that leads to soda coming
out of the machine.

Here's how this same universal law of "Cause and
Effect" -- which NOBODY can avoid -- applies to
the Internet.

If you don't do anything, nothing happens. "
Nothing in… nothing out!"

If you do just a little, you still don't get
anything. " Garbage in… garbage out!"

If you learn to take efficient, purpose-driven
action, you'll get the results you want. "Quality
in… quality out!"

If you want the results of a consistent, quality
income and a thriving business, you must make an
investment of time and energy.

You can do this one of two ways:

You hire someone to do all the work and invest the
time and energy that it takes (can actually be done
more cheaply than you might think… but nobody,
unless they have brain damage, will do it for free
as many scammers would have you believe.)

You invest the time, energy and effort yourself
instead of spending the money to have someone or
something do it for you.

The Second Puzzle Piece...

The second piece of the puzzle for long-term
success is having your own unqiue product.

Now I know there are people out there, myself
included, selling courses on how to make money as
an affiliate.

Those plans work (and they work very well),
however, for long-term success online and to get
other people to build your business for you, you
must have your own product.

Now let us talk about what kind of product you need.

First, you need to have a downloadable product, and
the reason for that is actually twofold:

1. You create the product once and it's done.

When you sell an ebook over and over and over, you
are selling the same file... you don't have to go
make a new copy every single time you sell it like
you do with a physical product.

2. A downloadable product enables you to create an
"oil well" website where everything truly does
operate on autopilot (where the website does the
selling, payment processing, and product delivery
all without any interaction on your part).

In short, a downloadable product enables you to get
paid over and over again for taking one-time actions…
which, in my opinion, is about the most exciting
thing that's ever happened in the world of
information publishing!

Your Two Simplest Options For Creating Your Own
"Oil Well" Product… Even On A "Shoestring"

You have two primary options for creating a simple
but valuable downloadable product.

The first and simplest is to create an ebook.

An ebook is a neatly packaged set of information
(usually published as a PDF or .EXE file) that has
a beginning, middle, and end.

An ebook usually solves a problem or satisfies a
pressing need for a specific niche audience.

Your other option for creating a downloadable
product is to hire someone to create a piece of
software for you.

I have done this with my Affiliate Link Cloaker
Software; however, when you're just starting out I
don't recommend this option.

The reason I do not recommend it is because your
own software often requires too much customer
support and customer service on the back end that
you do not need at this stage of your online career.

My advice is to start out with an ebook or
text-based special report targeted at a specific,
highly defined niche market.

So, just to summarize what we've talked about so
far:

You can't succeed in any way, shape or form online
without some investment of time and/or money.

For long-term success, you must have your own
product… and an information product is best.

Out of your two primary options for a simple,
downloadable product, ebooks or special reports
represent the best choice when you're first
starting out.

Why?

First, because your only support requirement with
an ebook is to make sure people can actually
download it and read it.

Second, an ebook has a high perceived value...
especially if it solves a problem or solves a
pressing need for a specific target audience.

Third, an ebook is your fastest time to market
with a product if you're operating on a shoestring
budget.

FACT: You can create a killer ebook in 7 days or
less if you know the proven techniques.

Fourth, if you make sure you target a specific
niche, you can build a list of customers whom you
can sell more stuff to!

FACT: If you have your own, original ebook, it is
MUCH easier for you to quickly build a loyal list
of subscribers. I'll explain why in just a minute.

Now, it is possible to build a list of customers
while selling as an affiliate, but it takes a lot
longer to do it. Also, it's a lot harder to get
somebody else to endorse you to their list of
customers and subscribers, which is one of the best
and fastest ways of building your own list of
customers and subscribers quickly!

Which brings us to our next point…

Your Own Unique Product Generates Higher Quality
Traffic You Don't Have To Pay For!

The next key to your success online after you
have your own unique product is traffic.

FACT: Nobody makes it online without traffic...
it's the life-blood of ANY online business!

Now, if you operate strictly as an affiliate
selling other people's products, you only have one
option for getting traffic: you must buy it.

You either buy it with your time… or you buy it
with your money.

To buy traffic with your time, you do things like
write articles and submit comments on discussion
boards. Both of these are very effective traffic
techniques when done correctly.

You can also buy traffic with your time by promoting
to the free search engines… but this can represent a
very time-consuming, complicated and "iffy"
proposition that doesn't carry any predictable level
of success -- especially when you're just starting
out.

To buy traffic with your money, you do things such
as pay-per-click advertising on search engines like
Overture and Google Ad Words. You can also do some
advertising in ezines with classified ads and
solo-emails.

Bottom Line: Those are your options for getting
traffic if you don't have your own product.

(And NO, ffa pages, safelists, exit traffic
exchanges, "randomizers" and all that other crap
doesn't work to generate quality traffic! People
who sell that junk fall into the category of idiots
telling the biggest lie ever told online like I
talked about at the beginning of this report!)

However, when you have your own products, not only
can you use these paid traffic sources, but you can
also take advantage of much faster traffic sources…
specifically getting endorsements for your product
from others who target the same niche market you do.

MILLION DOLLAR TIP: If you want to succeed faster
than anyone else in a particular niche market,
create an ebook that complements but does not
compete with the majority of the players focusing
on that niche. This will enable you to more easily
find people to announce your product out to their
lists and bring you gobs of traffic than if you
have an ebook that's in direct competition with a
product offered by the person you're approaching
to endorse you.

Example of this Million Dollar Tip from my own
business:

I regularly turn down offers to promote products
about writing ebooks. Why? Because I've
co-authored several products about creating ebooks
already. Why would I want to promote a direct
competitor?

But I'm very open to ebook related products like
PDF converters, effective ebook promotion tools,
etc.

See the difference? The first group compete with
me, but the second group complement what I already
offer.

<-- Side Note -->

As we move on, I will make one assumption here,
simply because it takes 50 pages to teach you, but
I have to assume that you also have a good one page
sales letter website. You can either do it yourself
or hire someone to create it for you.

<-- End Side Note -->

Once you have your one-page sales letter website up
and you run traffic across it from pay-per-click
search engines, articles, and the like, you'll know
"your numbers" and be able to approach super
affiliate partners.

You see, once you have your own product, in this
case an ebook that targets a niche market, you can
generate big blasts of traffic by finding and
persuading as many endorsement partners as you can,
commonly called "super affiliates," to endorse your
product to their lists.

This is how you get the large, instant traffic
bonanzas that build your business very, very
quickly! (And, in the beginning of my career, this
was one of my main ways to get traffic quickly and
in large quantities when I didn't have a list of
my own!)

Then, to build a steady stream of traffic, you
roll your ebook out with your own affiliate program
and by promoting with articles… which are your
two best sources of ongoing traffic.

What makes this even better is that all the while
you are driving traffic, you are building your own
list of customers and subscribers to whom you can
sell over and over again…

Your Own Opt-In List Of Subscribers Is The Key…
And It All Starts With Your Own Product

The final piece of the puzzle to building a
long-term online business is to constantly build
your opt-in list of subscribers.

One of the ways to do this is with a strong
mini-course, especially promoting it to those who
do not buy your ebook on the first go around.
(You can model one of the most popular mini-courses
in the history of the Internet at the bottom of
this page. Sign up for it, watch what we do and how
we do it... this can serve as a model for your own
highly successful mini-course.)

An effective mini-course accomplishes several things
for you:

1. First, it gives you the opportunity to
repeatedly contact people who show up to your
site, but do not buy right away, and encourage them
to make a purchase.

2. Second, this follow-up will help cement your
relationship with your affiliates (both Super and
regular) because, if your affiliate software
cookies the visitor like Clickbank does, and the
visitor purchases from the follow up messages,
your partners will get the sales credit.

3. Third, this automated follow up, combined with
more sales for affiliates, creates a wonderful
money-cycle for you! As you build your subscriber
base, you're making sure your partners get credited
with their sales… which in turn will make them want
to promote you even more… which will bring you even
more subscribers -- and the wonderful cycle
continues!

Bottom Line: Long Term Success Online Can Only Come
From Having Your Own Product

Let me summarize this entire report with the key
points you must take away if you hope to succeed:

1. Don't believe the lie that you can succeed
online with no effort, no money, and no investment
of time… but understand that with the right
strategies you can actually succeed faster online
than you ever could offline - especially if you're
operating on a "shoestring" budget.

2. Having your own unique product that targets a
specific, highly-focused niche is an absolute MUST
if you want to succeed in the short AND long term.

3. Once you have your own product that targets a
niche, make sure that you concentrate on driving
traffic and building your list.

4. Work that list over and over and over with value
added information so that they will come back and
buy… which will reward not only you, but the
partners who bring you more and more traffic.

Bottom Line: This whole process starts with having
your own, unique product.

There is no way around it.

Whether you have an unlimited budget or if you're
operating on a shoestring, or even if you're
simply looking for a proven way to establish
yourself online, creating an ebook still represents
the simplest way to get going, build a list, make
money, and establish yourself in the marketplace.

----

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist
and the co-author of an incredible *proven* ebook
that will teach you how to write and publish your
own highly profitable ebook in as little as 7 Days
or less... even if you failed high school English
class!

=============================================
The Original *Proven* BluePrint For Creating
Highly-Profitable "Niche" Ebooks!
Jim Edwards and Joe Vitale have created the
*ultimate* guide
"How to Write and Publish your own Outrageously
Profitable eBook... in as little as 7 Days!"

FREE Details: Click Article Title

FREE Mini-Course: ==> Click Article Title and
See Bottom Of Page

Another Virus Warning

2004-06-26T08:21:00.000-07:00

Today I found this virus warning from Hodges in my
inbox and am sending it to you as he wrote it.

I did scan my machine for the 2 files mentioned in
the article and didn't find them and suggest you do
the same. You can click the title to get to the
article.

Susan
------------------------------------------------

Hello Folks,

I thought you might find this interesting.

Below is an article on yet another virus.
What makes this so interesting is that it
was referenced through another article on
terrorism in Iraq.

One part of the article states that it does
not seem to affect the internet yet the
internet seems to be running at a very
slow pace. I have a DSL connection and
it takes almost 2-3 seconds longer for a
site to load today than normal.

God Bless,

Hodges

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5290386/

Sign up for The Flash Chronicle and The Member Area at:
http://www.flash-phoenix.com

Credit Card Scam

2004-06-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

Hodges sent this warning to me and think you need
to be aware of this current scam.

I have checked at Snopes.com and if you click
the article's title you will go to their site to
read this same information.

Please pay strict attention to this announcement
and save yourself some financial heartache.

The remedy is to ask for that persons name,
department, phone number and extension. Hang up
and call them back to make sure. At any rate you
should report all of these call to your cards
security department and to the police.

Thanks, Hodges, for the heads up.

Subject: VISA & MASTERCARD Telephone Credit
Card Scam

This information is worth reading. By understanding
how the VISA & Mastercard Telephone Credit Card
Scam works, you'll be better prepared to protect
yourself.

Person calling says, "this is , and I'm
calling from the Security and Fraud Department at
VISA. My Badge number is 12460. Your card has
been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and
I'm calling to verify. This would be on your VISA
card which was issued by bank. Did you
purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for $497.99
from a marketing company based in Arizona?"

When you say "No", the caller continues with,
"Then we will be issuing a credit to your account.
This is a company we have been watching and the
charges range from $297 to $497, just under the
$500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. Before
your next statement, the credit will be sent to
(gives you your address), is that correct?"

You say "yes" The caller continues... "I will be
starting a Fraud investigation. If you have any
questions, you should call the 1-800 number listed
on the back of your card (1-800-VISA) and ask for
Security. You will need to refer to this Control
#" The caller then gives you a 6 digit number.
"Do you need me to read it again?"

Here's the IMPORTANT part on how the scam works.
The caller then says, "he needs to verify you are
in possession of your card". He'll ask you to
"turn your card over and look for some numbers.
There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are your card
number, the next 3 are the 'Security Numbers' that
verify you are in possession of the card. These
are the numbers you use to make Internet purchases
to prove you have the card. Read me the 3 numbers".
After you tell the caller the 3 numbers, he'll say,
"That is correct. I just needed to verify that
the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you
still have your card. Do you have any other
questions?" After you say No, the caller then
Thanks you and states, "Don't hesitate to call back
if you do", and hangs up.

You actually say very little, and they never ask
for or tell you the card number. But after we were
called on Wednesday, we called back within 20
minutes to ask a question. Are we glad we did!
The REAL! VISA Security Department told us it was
a scam and in the last 15 minutes a new purchase
of $497.99 was charge on on our card.

Long story made short, we made a real fraud report
and closed the VISA card, and they are reissuing
us a new number. What the scammers wants is the
3-digit PIN number on the back of the card. Don't
give it to them. Instead, tell them you'll call
VISA or Master card direct. The real VISA told us
that they will never! ask for anything on the card
as they already know the information since they
issued the card! If you give the scammers your 3
Digit PIN Number, you think you're receiving a
credit. However, by the time you get your
statement, you'll see charges for purchases you
didn't make, and by then it's almost to late
and/or harder to actually file a fraud report.

What makes this more remarkable is that on
Thursday, I got a call from a "Jason Richardson of
MasterCard" with a word-for-word repeat of the
VISA scam. This time I didn't let him finish. I
hung up! We filed a police report, as instructed
by VISA. The police said they are taking several
of these reports daily! They also urged us to
tell everybody we know that this scam is happening.

Please pass this on to all your friends. By
informing each other, we protect each other.

Thank-You

-----------------------

And Thank You Hodges for making us aware.

Sign up for Hodges' The Flash Chronicle
and The Member Area at:

http://www.flash-phoenix.com

Susan

Online Tutorials Build Computer Skills - FREE

2004-06-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

- by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.IGottaTellYou.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

It's a problem as old as computers...

Trying to read, understand, and use a software manual to
quickly learn how to operate a new software program rates
one of the most frustrating experiences you can face.

If you browse the computer section of the local book store,
Amazon.com... or even look at a Video Professor disk on TV
to try accelerating your learning curve, you'll soon find
that a book (usually thicker than the original manual!)
costs at least $29-59 and a simple tutorial on CD-Rom costs
a minimum of $59 plus shipping and handling.

Learning how to operate you computer and basic software can
be very frustrating, not to mention expensive!

But what most people don't realize is that basic computer,
software, and other training is readily available online,
some of it as good or better than those introductory
courses that cost you a chunk of money.

Would you like to learn how to set up a web page?

Do you want to learn how to use your word processor for
accomplishing more than just typing simple letters?

How about learning to buy and sell like a pro at online
auction sites like eBay?

** Find Tutorials **

Log on to www.findtutorials.com and browse through hundreds
of tutorials!

Want to learn how to use Microsoft FrontPage?

Do a quick search for "FrontPage" and up pops a number of
free tutorials to teach you everything from creating basic
hyperlinks to working with javascript.

Though not all the tutorials are free, many of the
tutorials listed come free of charge since the sites
hosting the classes contain the usual advertising most of
us have come to expect online.

After plowing through the site, you'll find some categories
contain more available classes than others, but this site
rates a serious look and a bookmark so you can check back
on a regular basis.

Investigate here first before spending money on training,
especially for introductory software help and general
computer instruction.

** Learn To Use eBay **

If you want to learn how to use eBay, instead of spending
money on a book or online course, why not go straight to
the source?

Log on to http://pages.ebay.com/education/ for the best
free education available when it comes to learning how
to buy and sell on eBay.

Let's face it: the more successful you are as a buyer or
seller, the more money eBay makes!

It makes sense that they should provide a very detailed and
helpful overview, as well as an extensive help section.

If you want a free "basic training" on eBay, start with
eBay's site, then move on to third party information
products if you want to expand your education.

** Microsoft Office Training **

Most people really have no clue how to use most of the
features that come built into Microsoft Word, let alone the
rest of Office.

You can do some really impressive stuff with Office, if you
know what it can do.

Log on to www.computertim.com for an extensive collection
of articles to help you learn how to operate various
Microsoft Office programs more efficiently, including:
Windows, Word, Outlook, Excel, and FrontPage.

Some articles might need updating periodically, but most of
them make an excellent starting point when exploring new
features.

** More Sites **

The following sites also offer free online training,
however, understand that many of them use the
introductory courses as a lead-in to get you to purchase
additional books, classes, or other advanced instruction.

www.lgta.org
Land-Grant Training Alliance - teaches you how to use
various software packages online and even has an
interesting tutorial on how to use the Internet as a
teaching tool to help others.

www.trainingtools.com
Offers a variety of introductory training courses for
software packages dealing primarily with website
creation, installing scripts and making your website do
cool things!

www.learnthat.com/courses/
Offers a variety of courses on everything from computer
training and software packages to even dealing with some
hardware issues and how to purchase the right digital
camera.

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links?
"Turn Words Into Traffic" reveals the secrets for driving
Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate
links... without spending a dime on advertising!
Click Here> http://www.friendswhocare.us/get_traffic.htm
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Social Security Facts - According to Snopes.com

2004-06-18T07:31:00.000-07:00

I received email from Tim stating that the
correct facts concerning the previous
article could be found at:

http://www.snopes.com/cgi-bin/news/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=000003

You can click on the article's title to go
there.

I started to write a summary of the information
found but since I don't want to get into a
debate over this issue, I'll just say that
I did read the page and went to the links that
are still working (some of them don't).

Thanks for sending the link Tim.

To Your Success,
Susan

How To Manage Your Time

2004-06-15T00:36:00.000-07:00

As I type this article I am listening to
an audio e-book on time management.

In this talking-ebook Michael Green,
the famous How To tool kit expert, shares
12 powerful time management tools that
every online marketer should follow.

Now to be honest, I have peeked ahead
in the e-book to see what some of these
rules are. Guess what I discovered?

I discovered that not only does he give
and explain 12 time management rules that
we could apply to almost every aspect of
our lives but he also lists 3 important
Don'ts that are just as important.

This e-book is worth every cent that it
normally sells for ($47.00) but I got
it for free and so can you.

Right now you can get this e-book and
the resale rights - free. Just go click
on the title of this article and join
- it's free.

After you join check out all the free
products and be sure to pick up "How
To Manage Your Time."

Susan

" Nitro Mindset Webcast - June 15th - FREE"

2004-06-12T14:02:00.000-07:00

Matt and Kevin from NitroMarketing are having
a free webcast so you can copy what's working
for them right now. Here's the Quick Link:
http://www.friendswhocare.us/webcast.htm

They say it will be a virtual "Nitro Brain
Transplant" - revealing for the very first
time their exact business and marketing
mindset.

They will be sharing what "makes them tick"
when it comes to...

* Winning thought processes

* Top Secrets to their success

* Nitro business strategies

* How to get stuff done fast

* How to overcome procrastination fast

* How to eliminate mental roadblocks
(even the ones you don't know you have)

* How to go from nothing but an idea to a very
prof.itable business model in 90 days or less

* How they broke free from poverty consciousness,
being broke and unsuccessful to creating a multi-
million dollar international business in just 3
short years

They are named the webcast 'Nitro Mindset,'
because it's a unique, fresh perspective
on the mental game of success and the Internet.

They've enlisted the help of a very special person
they met last year to do some amazing things. They'll
tell you all about the amazing "Mr. T" (including his
name) live on this upcoming Webcast training 6/15/04
at 8pm eastern here:

http://www.friendswhocare.us/webcast.htm

You canget all the details about this exciting
training and register while there are still spots
available. (Space is limited due to cost constraints.)

Get all the details RIGHT NOW at...

http://www.friendswhocare.us/webcast.htm

To Your Success,
Susan

P.S. By the way... you'll also get a free $97 gift
just for tuning in to this next live training on June
15th. Get all the details right now at:

http://www.friendswhocare.us/webcast.htm

How To Build A Responsive Mailing List

2004-06-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

I recently ran an ad for one of my
internet friends, Hodges Hines. In
case you missed the ad I am making
the information available here because
the e-book he published holds a vast
amount of information.

The e-book, "Travels Through Cyberspace,
Vol.1-How To Build A Responsive Mailing
List With $100" contains information
gathered from eight online publishers.

I could give you the names of the eight
publishers but instead I will give you
the nicknames Hodges as given them and
let you guess which one I am. Oh, did
I forget to mention that I am one of
the contributors? Well I am and here is
the list to chose from:

The Canadian Mountie
The Little Princess
The Enforcer
The Man From Belgium
Mr. Happy Go-Lucky
The Lady Conqueror
Mr. Steady
Busy As A Bee

Each of these publishers wrote from their
own experiences and no two are alike.
Some spent the $100 and other didn't but
they all lay it all out and tell you
exactly what they did.

Right now Hodges is offering a 30%
discount on his "Travels Through
Cyberspace" e-book to the subscribers of
the FriendsWhoCare Newsletter. See for
yourself but don't buy from this link:
http://www.flash-phoenix.com/TTC/
Instead, click the title of this
article so you can receive the
discount.

To Your Success,
Susan
Publisher of FriendsWhoCare Newsletter and
Contributor to "Travels Through Cyberspace"

PS: Hodges gave you his email address in the
ad because he believes so strongly in the
material that if you buy it and you don't
think TTC is good stuff, he'll refund the
purchase amount and let you can keep the
bonuses. I'll repeat that information here:

Hodges Hines
hodges@flash-phoenix.com

Reasons To Get Moving On Your Business

2004-06-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

I read these statistics a couple of years
ago when I was first thinking of starting
an online business and had them posted on
my site for awhile. During the last two
years things haven't changed that much so
I thought I would share them with you to
remind you of why you're working so hard.

The Bad News:

* 80% of the mothers have to work to make
ends meet

* 1 out of 5 parents has to work 2 jobs
just to pay living expenses

* 93% of the Americans who should reach the
age of 65 are either dead or dead broke.

The following facts were confirmed in a study by the
US Department of Labor Statistics:

* 28% are dead

* 2% are still working

* 63% depend on their family and social security

* After 40 odd years of hard work, 93% are
in poverty... yes, POVERTY.

"Poverty" is defined as a family of 2 with
an annual income of $12,120 or just $233
a week (For a family of 2, according to the
2003 HHS Poverty Guidelines)!

Here are some more disturbing facts:

* The majority of men had more money (cash)
at age 18 then they do at age 68, after
50 years of hard work! (Denby's Economic
Tables, 1990)

* 85 out of 100 people have less than $250
in cash at the time they officially retire!
(Social Security Administration, 1990)

* 33% of all senior citizens live well below
the current established poverty level!
(Social Security Administration, 1990)

* Social Security payments are the major
source of income (50% or more) for 63%
of those aged 65 or older and it's the
ONLY source of income for 18% of all retirees!
(Social Security Administration, 1998)

The Good News:

* 74% of those who are financially secure
got that way by owning their own business

If these statistics don't get you moving on
your own business - nothing will.

To Your Success,
Susan

Sending Old Men To War

2004-06-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

A fellow subscriber sent this to me and I
thought I should share because we can all
use a good chuckle once in awhile.

Sending Old Men To War

If I could, I'd enlist today and help my country
track down those responsible for killing thousands
of innocent people in New York City and Washington,
DC But, I'm over 50 now and the Armed Forces say
I'm too old to track down terrorists. You can't be
older than 35 to join the military.

They've got the whole thing backwards. Instead of
sending 18-year-olds off to fight, they ought to
take us old guys.

You shouldn't be able to join until you're at least
35. For starters:

Researchers say 18-year-olds think about sex every
10 seconds. Old guys only think about sex a couple
of times a day, leaving us more that 28,000
additional seconds per day to concentrate on the
enemy.

Young guys haven't lived long enough to be cranky,
and a cranky soldier is a dangerous soldier. If
we can't kill the enemy we'll complain them into
submission. "My back hurts!" "I'm hungry!"
"Where's the remote control?"

An 18-year-old hasn't had a legal beer yet and you
shouldn't go to war until you're at least old
enough to legally drink. An average old guy, on
the other hand, has consumed 126,000 gallons of
beer by the time he's 35 and a jaunt through the
desert heat with a backpack and M-60 would do
wonders for the old beer belly.

An 18-year-old doesn't like to get up before 10
a.m. Old guys get up early every morning to pee.

If old guys are captured we couldn't spill the
beans because we'd probably forget where we put
them. In fact, name, rank, and serial number would
be a real brainteaser.

Boot camp would actually be easier for old guys.
We're used to getting screamed and yelled at and
we actually like soft food. We've also developed
a deep appreciation for guns and rifles. We like
them almost better than naps.

They could lighten up on the obstacle course
however. I've been in combat and didn't see a
single 20-foot wall with rope hanging over the
side, nor did I ever do any pushups after
completing basic training. I can hear the Drill
Sergeant now, "Get down and give me...er...one."

And the running part is kind of a waste of energy.
I've never seen anyone outrun a bullet.

An 18-year-old has the whole world ahead of him.
He's still learning to shave, to actually carry on
a conversation, and to wear pants without the top
of his butt crack showing and his boxer shorts
sticking out. He's still hasn't figured out that
a pierced tongue catches food particles, and that
a 400-watt speaker in the back seat of a Honda
Accord can rupture an eardrum. All great reasons
to keep our sons at home to learn a little more
about life before sending them off to possible
death.

Let us old guys track down those dirty rotten
cowards who attacked our hearts on September 11.
The last thing the enemy would want to see right
now is a couple of million old farts with
attitudes.

Share this with your senior friends (It's
purposely in big type for us old guys...)

-----------------------

Thanks Joe for sending this in.

To Your Success,
Susan Carroll
FriendsWhoCare Newsletter

Why I Love TheGuruMarketer.com

2004-06-02T23:51:00.000-07:00

When Ian Herculson over at TheGuruMarketer.com released his new 'Smart Subscriber' program a few months ago he got rave reviews within a few days from some of the internet's TOP marketers like;

- Jerome Chapman
- Mr. Joe Vitale
- Jason Mangrum
- Bryan Winters
- Diane Hughes
- Rod Lynn
- Jason Anderson
- Doug West

Now I don't know what they were raving about but I will tell you what I like about this program. It's a ready made ezine where I get all the affiliate commissions.

When this program first came out I recommended it and I still do even though none of my 'Smart Subscriber' downline have built their own downline.

Now that may sound foolish on my part since everyone is suppose to be building a downline to make more money. But the truth is - most people won't and I don't care.

Why don't I care?

Simple, I don't promote the 'Smart Subscriber' program anywhere but in my newsletter. I do promote the TheGuruMarketer.com newsletter in lots of places and get regular subscribers to it.

TheGuruMarketer.com ezine advertises the 'Smart Subscriber' program and lots of other things. Now I am getting checks from several of the affiliate programs I have never had time to advertise because my GuruMarketer subscribers are buying things.

I love getting unexpected money. Don't you?

And TheGuruMarketer.com ezine is really easy to promote because it has some really great bonuses for those who sign up.

So that's why I love the 'Smart Subscriber' program:

1. It offers something of value to get subscribers
2. I find the subscribers and someone else does all the work of mailing things out
3. I get all the commissions for all the purchases

Oh, I should also mention that the affiliate programs it promotes are top notch. Most are free affiliate programs but some aren't and you are not pressured into signing up for any of them. In fact, even though I was already an affiliate of most of the programs before I became a 'Smart Subscriber' there are still a couple I haven't joined.

You can read all about the 'Smart Subscriber' program
here OR try it FR.E.E for 14 days!!!

http://www.friendswhocare.us/super.htm

(Sorry, you'll have to copy and paste the link for the 'Smart
Subscriber' program because the link for the title will take you to TheGuruMarketer.com offer.)

To Your Success,
Susan

Grand Opening of the Free Resale Rights Vault

2004-06-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

June 1 was the Official Grand Opening of the Free Resale Rights Vault.

Mark Hendricks and Michael Nicholas created this site to help others with their list building efforts.

If you want free resale rights To hot-selling digital products or free products to give away as lead generators and bonuses to build your list then you need to check this site out.

If you have a great digital product that you can contribute to this program then you should check out this site because it's also a joint venture to get new subscribers for those who contribute the products.

I haven't contributed anything to this program yet but I have been in similar joint ventures with Mark and have done extremely well.

I have checked out the free products to give away and picked up a few that I will be using very shortly

This is great site that I highly recommend.

To Your Success,
Susan

New Affiliate Information

2004-06-02T22:45:00.000-07:00

I wanted to tell you about a brand new website Russell Brunson has just created...

Don't worry - this one is completely free...

and I must say that this one got me very excited. It's a completely new idea that could make you a ton in affiliate commissions this year.

It's called Affiliate Power Ads. They work like Google's Adsense, but instead of earning a few cents per click - you can earn up to $100 and monthly residual commissions from every click.

It will take you 5 minutes to set it up, but you will earn commissions for a lifetime.

You might want to sign up now while it's free!
http://www.friendswhocare.us/powerads.htm

To Your Success,
Susan

Your Email List Isn't Working

2004-05-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

And yet another email I wanted to share with you.

Since I am always worrying about whether or not
my email is getting through and since many of
you have your own online publications I thought
I should pass this along too.

**********
Start of email

Your Email List Isn't Working

You may not be aware of this, but there's a good
chance your email list is not working for you as
you *think* it is.

If you publish an online newsletter, eCourse,
tip-of-the-day, special report, autoresponder message
or email list of any kind...

...you've got a big problem!

To find out why less than 10% of your subscribers may
actually be reading your email messages ... and what
you can do to reverse this problem, visit:

-> http://www.affiliates-win.com/getresults.htm

While you're there, you can download a FRE^E copy of
a *BRAND NEW* report series that will show you how to
get your list members to actually receive, read and
respond to every mailing you send out.

****BREAKING NEWS RELEASED TODAY****

Plus, for the first time ever, I'm sharing 24 secrets
you can begin using RIGHT NOW to pull in more profit
from any list. This is NEVER-BEFORE-REVEALED information
and it will only be at the site for a limited time, so
don't delay.

It's all at...

-> http://www.affiliates-win.com/getresults.htm

Best of Success,
Jimmy Brown

End of email
**********

To Your Success,
Susan Carroll
FriendsWhoCare Newsletter

PS - By the way, if you haven't sent in the info
for your online publication so I can post it on
my new page please take a moment and send it. All
I need is a short description of you ezine/newsletter
and the URL or email address where subscribers can
sign up.

What I Think Of My FriendsWhoCare Subscribers

2004-05-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

I received an email from an online friend that
I just had to share with you. Since I don't
usually pass on email chain letters but did
like the sentiment in this one I posted it to
a new page and will be adding it to my "Just
For Fun" links.

Now I have come to know some of you very well
through our email correspondence. And some of
you are remaining anonymous. But no matter.
You are special to me.

So please take a look at the site. And if you
have a friend that you want to share it with
then go ahead and send the URL to them. I am
not collecting or advertising anything from
this page so it is safe to share with everyone.

http://www.friendswhocare.us/friends.htm

To Your Success,
Susan Carroll
FriendsWhoCare Newsletter

Social Security Facts

2004-05-18T07:33:00.000-07:00

This email came from a subscriber and since
Social Security is something we all are all
concerned about whether or not we are currently
getting it I thought I would pass it on.

Again, I did check the facts and they are
true. ( It's nice being married to a man who
majored in history and library science. If he
doesn't remember something he knows where to
find the information. And boy, does he
remember a lot!)

Also, please note that I am not taking any
political side in this email so let's not
start a debate. There are just too many
issues that we are all concerned about.

**********
Start of email

Just a few interesting facts!

SOCIAL SECURITY:

Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the
Social Security (FICA) Program. He promised:

1.) That participation in the Program would be
completely voluntary,

2.) That the participants would only have to pay 1%
of the first $1,400 of their annual incomes into the
Program,

3.) That the money the participants elected to put
into the Program
would be deductible from their income for tax
purposes each year,

4.) That the money the participants put into the
independent "Trust
Fund" rather than into the General operating fund,
and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social
Security Retirement
Program, and no other Government program, and,

5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees would
never be taxed as income. Since many of us have
paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a
Social Security check every month -- and then
finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of the
money we paid to the Federal government to "put
away," you may be interested in the following:

Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from
the independent "Trust" fund and put it into the
General fund so that Congress could spend it?

A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the
Democratically-controlled House and Senate.

Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax
deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?

A: The Democratic Party.

Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social
Security annuities?

A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the
"tie-breaking" deciding vote as President of the
Senate, while he was Vice President of the U.S.

Q: Which Political Party decided to start giving
annuity payments to immigrants?

A: That's right! Jimmy Carter and the Democratic
Party. Immigrants moved into this country, and at
age 65, began to
receive SSI Social Security payments! The
Democratic Party gave these payments to them, even
though they never paid a dime into it!

Then, after doing all this lying and thieving and
violation of the
original contract (FICA), the Democrats turn around
and tell you that the Republicans want to take your
Social Security away!

And the worst part about it is, uninformed citizens
believe it!

Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during
this 2004 election year!

If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of
awareness will be planted and maybe good changes
will evolve.

How many people can YOU send this to?

Keep this going clear up through the 2004 election!!

We need to be heard!

End of email
**********

Thanks for sending this along FlexChan.

If you feel a gigantic need to send me
some facts - no rumors or promises - then
you can do so. But please remember that
we are all working to start or improve
our online businesses and not win an
election. I am sure there are a great
many online forums where politics are
discussed and I would like to leave them
there - not here.

Susan Carroll
FriendsWhoCare Newsletter

Cell Phones Cause Refueling Fires - Fact NOT Fiction

2004-05-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

Cell Phones Cause Refueling Fires - Fact NOT Fiction

*** NEW INFORMATION RECEIVED ***
Before you read this article I must tell you that
I have received some email from subscribers telling
me about signs that now appear on some gas pumps.
These signs give a warning that cell phones should
not be used during refueling. This information
was also posted by one in a comment.

As pointed out in the comment, if it wasn't true
then no one would have spent the money to produce
and post the warning signs.

Joe was being a person who cared about all of us
and our safety and I thank him for sharing this
warning. Without it I would never have known about
this real danger. I didn't find any mention of it
online and have not seen any of these signs.

Thank you Joe for sharing this information with those
of us who didn't know. I have changed the closing
comment to include the cell phone warning as a
valid concern.

Susan

**********

I received the following email from a subscriber
and was very concerned but did some checking before
I sent it out. ( I do this with all alerts and
warnings - too many hoaxes going around these days.)

You'll see my notes about this email embedded in
the SIDENOTES.

*********
Start of email

Shell Oil Co. Announcement
Importance: High

*********
SIDENOTE: I went to the Shell Oil web site and could
not find any warning about cell phones except that
they are a dangerous distraction while driving.
*********

The Shell Oil Company recently issued a warning after
three incidents in which mobile phones (cell phones)
ignited fumes during fueling operations. In the first
case, the phone was placed on the car's trunk lid
during fueling; it rang and the ensuing fire destroyed
the car and the gasoline pump.

In the second, an individual suffered severe burns to
their face when fumes ignited as they answered a call
while refueling their car.

And in the third, an individual suffered burns to the
thigh and groin as fumes ignited when the phone, which
was in their pocket, rang while they were fueling their
car.

You should know that Mobile Phones can ignite fuel or
fumes. Mobile phones that light up when switched on or
when they ring release enough energy to provide a spark
for ignition.

Mobile phones should not be used in filling stations or
when fueling lawn mowers, boat! , Etc. Mobile phones
should not be used, or should be turned off, around
other materials that generate flammable or explosive
fumes or dust, (i.e. solvents, chemicals, gases, grain
dust, etc.)

To sum it up, here are the: Four Rules for Safe
Refueling.

1) Turn off engine
2) Don't smoke anywhere NEAR the gas pumps OR Fuel
canisters.
3) Don't use your cell phone - leave it inside the
vehicle or turn it off.
4) Don't re-enter your vehicle during fueling.

*********
SIDENOTE: To see the actual guidelines issued by the
PEI go to : http://www.pei.org/static/ and note that
these guidelines do not pertain to the use of cell
phones. I also checked out several of the links on
this site that did refer to the use of cell phones
and found that they all stated that the use of cell
phones causing refueling fires was an urban legend
i.e. a hoax.

Is using a cell phone while refueling fact or fiction?
I don't know. But I do know that while you are busy
working with a lethal weapon ( your car or a highly
flammable liquid like gas ) it is better to keep your
mind on what you are doing rather than be distracted
by answering or talking on the phone.
*********

Bob Renkes of Petroleum Equipment Institute is working
on a campaign to try and make people aware of fires as
a result of "static electricity" at gas pumps. His
company has researched 150 cases of these fires.

His results were very surprising:
1) Out of 150 cases, almost all of them were women.
2) Almost all cases involved the person getting back
in their vehicle while the nozzle was still pumping
gas. When finished, they went back to pull the
nozzle out and the fire started as a result of
static electricity.
3) Most had on rubber-soled shoes.
4) Most men never get back in their vehicle until
completely finished. This is why they are seldom
involved in these types of fires.
5) Don't ever use cell phones when pumping gas
6) It is the vapors that come out of the gas that
cause the fire when connected with static charges.
7) There were 29 fires where the vehicle was re-entered
and the nozzle was touched during refueling from a
variety of makes and models. Some resulted in
extensive damage to the vehicle, to the station and
to the customer.
8) Seventeen fires occurred before, during or
immediately after the gas cap was removed and before
fueling began.

Mr. Renkes stresses to NEVER get back into your vehicle
while filling it with gas. If you absolutely HAVE to
get in your vehicle while the gas is pumping, make sure
you get out, close the door TOUCHING THE METAL, before
you ever touch the nozzle. This way the static from
your body will be discharged before you ever touch the
nozzle.

*********
SIDENOTE: This warning is valid and I saw it published
on several sites. Also, women do seem to be involved
more often in these types of fires and I have heard
several rumored reasons but have no valid proof of why
they are.
*********

As I mentioned earlier, The Petroleum Equipment
Institute, along with several other companies now, are
really trying to make the public aware of this danger.
You can find out more information by going to
http://www.pei.org/

Once here, click in the center of the screen where it
says "Stop Static". I ask you to please send this
information to ALL your family and friends, especially
those who have kids in the car with them while pumping
gas.

*********
SIDENOTE: I didn't see a "Stop Static" link so I went
to "Safe Refueling".
*********

If this were to happen to them, they may not be able to
get the children out in time.

Joe

*********
End of email

Thanks for passing this along. We all need to be
aware of the new warnings. So take care of yourself
and those you love by not re-entering your vehicle
or using a cell phone while refueling.

Susan Carroll
FriendsWhoCare Newsletter

NitroMarketing Free WebCast - May 18

2004-05-14T06:17:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't heard by now, NitroMarketing
is having a new FREE webcast on how to get more
highly-qualified traffic to your websites on May 18th.

And *you* get a $97 gift just for attending this
important webcast.

The broadcast will start at 8 PM eastern time and
last around 90 minutes.

They are going to be talking about how to get
traffic and will include 4 new traffic techniques
and conversion methods.

I've signed up but don't know if I can be there
since my grandson's Cub Scout graduation is that
night at the same time. If it wasn't for that,
I'd be the first one there.

Get signed up now ... and come to the webcast.
http://www.friendswhocare.us/nitro.htm

To Your Success,
Susan Carroll

Thanks For Your Comments

2004-05-13T09:29:00.000-07:00

So far I see that Teri and DJ have made some comments.

Thanks!

Teri - I don't know how much time this blogging will take but I am hoping it will, in fact, save me some time and allow me to delete some of my autoresponder email address (like the ones for the polls) so I can reduce the amount of time I spend on deleting sp~am.

DJ - Right now I am hoping I don't have to worry about getting off track with this Blog since I am not too sure what track this Blog is on. I am hoping that this first Blog can be used for general stuff and we can always create different Blogs if we need to start limiting our discussions (like maybe setting up a polling Blog).

To Everyone - Let's have some fun sharing info with this Blog. Just be sure to keep if nice and friendly - we all know the rules for FriendsWhoCare. Also, I receive an email with your comments every time someone adds one but I will have to answer you either through a new posting or through the comments since it doesn't send your mailing address.

Two New Subscriber Features Added This Week

2004-05-10T22:50:00.000-07:00

This week I am introducing:

1. a new page that features subscriber publications. To find out what your fellow subscribers have to offer, visit:
http://www.friendswhocare.us/ezinelist.htm.

If you would like your publication posted on this page all you have to do is send me an email with the name of your publication along with a short description and promise to either post my newsletter's information on a similar page or mention it in your publication occasionally.

2. the FriendsWhoCare Blog. It was easy to create and sounds like a lot of fun.

Which do you think is better?
	blogger.com
	wordpress.com
	another bloghost
	a blog hosted on your own domain
	none of the above

pollcode.com free polls