Right so Raymond sends out an email and i’m not the type to quote from email threads, but this is educational. Raymond’s email has a SINGLE link. nothing else. Wow. Rude, right?

I clicked the link and was taken to this site where a guy does a study to test the two versions of the form to my left. You’ll notice the form with fill-in-the-blank exercise  actually significantly outpulls the traditional one.

Ferny emails back to tell us how excited he is about the concept.

Meanwhile, I came up with this example i might use on my “bugger off” optin box :

Hi,

My name is _________. Pleased to meet you Mr. Jim Yaghi. I’d love for you to email me some of your insights to marketing and your ebook on having a great time while keepin it real with the lord. You may email me at _________________.

Best Wishes,

_____________

Look at that, I even got them to tell me their name twice. Booyahh!

I haven’t tested this, but it would be worth a shot. If you get amazing conversions with it, let me know.

Hey girls and boys…

I’ve missed you. I haven’t talked to you in a couple months and I wanted to see if we can meet and work together sometime in the next week or so.

Here’s what’s been happening with me…

{ secret location }, CA.

I just got to [SECRET LOCATION] in California. Traveling is a bit overrated when you have to spend 30 hours locked up on a plane with a bunch of strangers. So these days, I only go to the States when i absolutely must. And must, I did.

Now, I don’t mean for things to sound so mysterious, but i’m working with a few folks who are pretty secretive. This particular project has been conceived and hatched as far back as two years ago. I saw the proof on a whiteboard sheet dated 2008 in The Rich Jerk “secret” headquarters where we spent last night and today working.

Oh i like the sound of that. Secret headquarters lol. I’m such a spy.

Though I can’t tell you what we’re working on, I can say who’s in: Jimmy Davis, Raymond Fong, and Ferny Ceballos. If you’ve been in the networking industry for a little while you definitely know the names. And you may even know what they’re best at doing.

Jimmy Davis, the Godfather of Network Marketing

Jimmy Davis considers himself an “all round badass”. And for good reason, since he’s one of the most connected guys in our industry. He’s pretty much The Godfather of the Networking realm. His ring is kissed by networkers who travel from around the world to have their downline blessed by him.

He’s the guy the gurus call on when they need an intro or a problem solved.

Just two nights ago he got me on the phone with “The Rich Jerk” and introduced me so enthusiastically that we got invited to The Rich Jerk’s office to hang. I never thought I’d meet him, let alone be in a position to work together…he throws some rad Internet Marketer parties and now i can get on the guest list WOO!

Raymond and Ferny are CAPOs of free traffic (SEO)

Jimmy might be the networker’s Godfather, but Ferny and Ray on the other hand are the Capos of Free Traffic. They’re most famous for their ability to rank their websites in top positions in search engines. But that’s not all they do. I’ve come to know them as the guys who drive GIANT projects forward from an idea into multiple products, sales letters, funnels, and everything in between.

Jimmy and I flew in to meet with Ray and Ferny and embark on our HUGE project–so top secret, even we don’t know all the details. We just knew that once we got here, we were all going to work like slaves every day for the next couple weeks putting this thing together. It’s been awesome. Though it’s a HUGE undertaking, mark my words…in about 3 months your jaws will be on the floor when we introduce it onto the world…:)

Anyway, while we’re here, quite a few of our marketer friends were a little jealous of the “dream team” we compiled. Which is pretty exciting, because between the four of us, the impossible becomes possible.

Since we’re all in one place, we decided to hold an intimate Mastermind gathering as a gift to a few lucky subscribers. And I want to extend an invitation to you to join us.

Here’s why I think this will be useful for you, specifically.

You’re a unique person. You’re at a stage in your business that’s very different from the other guys and girls who’ve been through any of my training products. And one of the challenges of writing a training course like PPC Domination or Search Suicide is to figure out what your CURRENT challenge is, what’s holding you back and impeding your success…and then helping you overcome the challenge.

I can only guess at what’s troubling you, you see?

But when you and I are in a room together, everything changes. I only need minutes to identify your challenge and tell you what your next step should be.

Michael Jordan could help you correct how you shoot and you'd get the hoop EVERY time.

Think of it this way…Say, you want to improve your basketball shooting skills. One way, which most people who don’t have a trainer end up going, is to buy training courses and watch videos. You’ll need to, on your own, translate the instructions into action.

But what if you had access to Michael Jordan for a day? You could show him how you shoot and within 2 minutes he’ll be able to tell you why you keep missing the hoop. In most cases, you’ll find it’s something as simple as you’re facing SLIGHTLY the wrong way when you shoot.

Except you wouldn’t have a way to know this… BAM. Jordan shows you the right shooting stance, and the ball goes in the hoop every time. Forever.

If you’ve been in this business for a while and you’re not getting quite the level of success you want to have, then you should join us this week or next. We can help you move light-years forward in your business.

Here’s how it’s going to work:

We’ll hold a mastermind session here in California within the next 2 weeks. It’s not gonna be a seminar where for hundreds of people. It’s just a tiny intimate session with at most 5 people in the group.

Jimmy, Ray, Ferny, and I are going to spend an entire day and work with your mastermind group. For you, for your business, it will be a turning point…no question about it.

You have a PPC traffic challenge? I can help you fix that in an instant.

You got a burning SEO? Ferny and Ray got your back.

You have a closing or conversion challenge? Jimmy can help you with it right away.

Between us, your biggest problem is childsplay.

You see it’s one thing to buy a course on PPC. It’s another to have the BEST PPC guy in the industry work on your account with you.

If you have a question about how to close your lead, Jimmy’s gonna grab the phone out of your hand and show you how he closes.

Being In Business Is a Lonely Game

I have been in this industry for a while now and I know the most difficult thing about this business is the feeling of complete loneliness we have. I know. I’ve always envied anyone with a partner because they had someone to share the burden with them. Sometimes it’s frustrating to be the only one who cares about your idea. There’s no body around who wants to hear you talk about it. Your friends shut you up and get irritated with you constantly rambling about your gurus and their sayings.

But a mastermind barely wants to talk about anything else.

It’s the closest thing you can have to a partnership. Members of your mastermind allow you to draw on their experiences. In most cases, they have a different skill-set from you and have connections with people who can help you. This small group you agree to work with becomes an “advisory board” for all the things you’re not so good at.

And this is related to our top secret project.

By the time you leave you will have clarity of mind like you have never experienced before. You will bond with your mastermind group and your relationship will continue beyond our little gathering.

As you can imagine, many of our subscribers who hear about this will jump through hoops to work with our dream team. Heck some Gurus would give their left leg to be included

But we only want at most five people in a session. Otherwise it becomes a seminar instead of a mastermind.

It also allows me to select who I work with. Some people really shouldn’t be doing this business, and I don’t want to be responsible for them. I want the good guys like you to get a shot while keeping the wrong people away.

We are still finalizing the details but here are some of the things you need to know:

• We will be charging for the mastermind. While I have done sold out seminars for 5k+, that’s not a reflection on the cost. Though we haven’t finalised the price, we know it will be AT LEAST $997. If you cannot afford $997 please do not apply.
• You will need to sign a confidentiality agreement, because you’ll hear about some aspects of our new project. And Raymond is PARTICULARLY brutal about keeping it on the downlow.
• We will record some of this. That’s why we’re willing to run the mastermind at a significantly low price. We’d like to keep the recording and you need to be ok with being on video. Please make us look good, since we plan to use the footage for other promotion.
• Our mastermind gathering will be within the next 2 weeks. You have to be able to fly/drive out here in that time. For your convenience we’re going to strive to make it a weekend. But do keep in mind I’m actually booked to leave the US in 2 weeks, so we’ll need to do this soon.
• You will be responsible for Air fare, hotel, and food. This is not an all inclusive trip. Jimmy will pick an affordable hotel out here in California for everyone to stay at. Raymond will show you around. I will make you laugh. And Ferny will drink your beer.

I promise for the 5 people who come to this event they will come to know themselves as somebody they have never known themselves to be.

Click Here To Apply

Good luck.

Jim

Heh…Yeah. Google’s kicked a lot of people off.

And I was tripping over the keys of my keyboard last night–scrambling…sending out information about ‘Google Suicide‘ (A term we coined for the letter Google sends when they shut down an advertiser’s account forever).

Frightening stuff.

I recently had to fix my own Google slaps and an unfortunate suspension. After fear, frustration, and tears…

Finally, between Cherie and myself, we discovered permanent solutions and surprising answers.

We Might’ve Been Too Open…

Last night we started a very open discussion with students on a free webinar about our collective survival as Adwords advertisers. Actually, we were so open…that we can’t share the recording!

Instead, I’d like to address some concerns you might have about Adwords–whether or not you attended our webinar, and encourage you to pick up “Google Suicide – The Survival Guide”

That’s where the answers are.

Following are the THREE most common concerns and fears people have about PPC. Which one is yours?

1. “I want to do PPC, but I keep hearing about problems with Google Adwords…Do I really want to invest my time and money today into learning something that might not work tomorrow?”

There have always been challenges in online marketing, not just PPC or Adwords. Nothing new about that. There’s always a different problem to deal with–no matter which traffic method you use. This one just seems to be getting a little publicity.

People who don’t survive the problems are the ones who run away and hide at the first sign of an obstacle. In my experience, they also don’t make money with anything they do. On the other hand, the reason Cherie and I have become so good at PPC is that we always face every challenge thrown at us head-on. We solve it. And we get better.

I admit, I lost 15 hairs over the latest bans, but since we found answers it's been smooth sailing

Now, I do admit the latest stuff has been major. I lost at least 15 hairs off my head over it. But once we found the answers, it’s been smooth sailing and we love it.

STILL the most immediate, effective, and smartest online advertising method

What I do know is that PPC is one of the most immediate, effective, and targeted ways to advertise. No effort mastering PPC will ever be wasted. Cherie and I have collectively generated over 450,000 leads in an extremely competitive niche. What’s more, is that we do it at a fraction of the price paid by the highest earners…

Our training has helped produce top earners and super affiliates in multiple organisations who CHOOSE to use PPC for their traffic. You’ll find rave testimonials about our work all over the internet.

I agree, that the current changes are a little intimidating for someone just starting out. But being a PPC newbie is actually a blessing in itself. You are not entering with any preconceptions about how PPC should be done. And from what I’ve seen, the people struggling most are the veterans. Because they’re not able to accept that they need a new approach to Adwords.

The information we’re sharing in Google Suicide – The Survival Guide, will show you exactly how to be a well-behaved PPC advertiser from the get-go. You’ll hear hours of training, case studies, and examples from us with step-by-step instructions on:

- Lesson #1 – KEYWORDS: How to choose cheap money keywords that are nearly immune to competition. With the tools and technique we’ll show you, you’ll fly below Google’s radar and evade any of the quality scrutiny Adwords advertisers normally deal with.

- Lesson #2 – AD POSITION: We’ll show you how much to spend to make sure your ad is seen by your target audience. Most people are bidding wrongly and that contributes to a HUGE part of their “quality score” problem. Unlike them, you’ll be able to bid with confidence, knowing your clicks will be profitable–and stay relevant.

- Lesson #3 – AD COPY: I’m going to show you two secrets for writing adcopy that do not require any expertise in copywriting. Your ads will only be SEEN and CLICKED by the right people who are most likely to buy your products. Anyone else outside your target market will never cost you a dime.

- Lesson #4 – EFFECTIVE LANDING PAGES: Cherie’s going to take you through some of her own landing page guidelines that make Google LOVE you and send you all the traffic you can get. Not only that, but she has a method for writing landing pages that create buyers…not just subscribers. She’s going to also show you how to avoid many of the pitfalls that are getting other advertisers in legal trouble with the FTC and Google.

- Lesson #5 – STRUCTURE: You’ll discover a simple method to get, for free, 5 times the traffic PPC gives you. She’ll show you how you can tap into new markets quickly and easily while staying immune to all Adwords rules and policies.

- Lesson #6 – PPC ENGINES:I’m going to show you my brand new method for reaching people who are normally unreachable with Google alone. Most advertisers are not only missing out on floods of traffic from these other engines, but they’re also unable to convert a lot of it. I’ve discovered something very special that makes using other PPC Engines cheaper and more profitable.

This training will be included in Google Suicide – The Survival Guide. Make sure to grab access to this powerful content if you’re considering doing any kind of PPC advertising. Yo, don’t be a chicken. Some advertisers are leaving, but PPC isn’t going away.

2. “I haven’t been suspended yet, but frankly this shit scares me!”

First, pat yourself on the back.

If you’re still around on Adwords, then you’re pretty lucky.

Even if you’ve been suspended before and got back on–you’ve dodged a bullet. And now, if you love Adwords and don’t want it taken away from you…you need to review your account to see if you’re making any of 6 major mistakes we identified below:

Mistake #1: Using public tools to choose keywords

Mistake #2: Bidding for lower positions to qualify traffic

Mistake #3: Split-testing ad copy to improve CTR (it’s counter-intuitive, but this is screwing your quality score)

Mistake #4: Listening to the gurus about landing page “guidelines” for Quality Score (their advice is based on theory alone, and it could get you banned)

Mistake #5: Over-confidence in Google PPC

Mistake #6: Relying exclusively on Google for traffic

Be honest, did you find anything in the list above that you’ve been doing?

You make any of these mistakes, and you may as well be holding a gun to your own head.

Make any of these six very common Adwords mistakes, and you may as well be holding a gun to your head...

As much experience I have with Adwords, even I was making ALL of the above 6 mistakes to some degree. For many months before the bans, Cherie and I were already aware they were mistakes and were already working on alternatives. That’s probably why we were able to come up with a formula in time to save ourselves.

Now, we’re putting together several hours of training to help you avoid the same mistakes.

So cast your fear aside. Cherie and I are ready with answers that will ensure you’ll never need to worry again. Get on Google Suicide – The Survival Guide with us and protect yourself from Google’s ultimate penalty. You’ll regret not applying this information–because Google’s Suicide letter is a LIFETIME BAN. And you’ll never be able to use Adwords again. EVER!

3. “My Adwords account is already disabled, what can I do?”

Until very recently, Google only wanted to remove violating content. So the ad disapprovals, the quality score, and the slaps were all focused on stopping you from putting up stuff they didn’t like. But now, they’ve changed direction.

Google wants to take out the advertiser. The person, not his account or campaign. So it’s a PERMENANT BAN.

Anyone who tells you that you can get back on by registering a new credit card, from a new ip, with a different name has old news. Google has new artificial intelligence software that can match up different bits of information and behaviour about you to figure out who you are and ban you no matter how many ways you try to get back on.

We know even legitimate PPC managers who logged into a bad client’s account ONCE and were banned as a result.

Solution: Use The Appeals Process. Only Do It Our Way…

Plead your case in front of Google. They might let you back on, if you do it how we tell you...

The first thing you should do is use Google’s appeals process.

Yeah, they have one in place. Specifically for people who have been accidentally suspended or legitimate advertisers who made a mistake or two. So there’s SOME hope yet.

I’m guessing that you’re not a scammer, or you wouldn’t be here. If you want the appeals process to work for you, you have to change Google’s mind about you.

We have some tips about how to do this properly. And we’ll disclose them in a PDF manual as a bonus when you enrol in Google Suicide – The Survival Guide.

Frankly, we cannot make any guarantees here. Our experience is that information like this, about getting back on, has a short use-by date. So you’ll want to take immediate action and get back on before Google change their mind about allowing appeals.

There’s a chance you will never get Adwords back…

Sorry, I know this is probably disappointing to hear. But would you rather I say nicer things and mislead you? Fact remains, there is a very real possibility that Adwords will never be available to you again. But savvy business people work with the cards they’re dealt and find solutions. This is what I’m recommending:

For anyone who has been suspended and can’t get back on Google, they will need to get their traffic elsewhere.

But wait…

Don’t run off and start looking at social media and video marketing training–that would be a little dumb.

Anyone who already has some PPC skill would be wasting it by changing direction so drastically and starting over. My recommendation is that you leverage your existing skill in the following two ways:

Option (a) – Use other PPC engines.

PPC programs on all engines work very similar to each other. There are other major PPC search engines and programs on Yahoo, Bing, YouTube, and Facebook. They mostly rely on similar, if not the same, principles you’ve already mastered.

I’m not saying that there won’t be a slight learning curve, regardless. But it’s not like jumping from short, targeted PPC ads–to posting pages of content and adding thousands of friends on Social Media. Right?

If you’re like many of our loyal subscribers, you’ve already spent months–or in some cases years–to master PPC. You’ve spent money on training and on advertising…which would be wasted if you were to leave.

To completely abandon PPC in favour of some traffic method you’ve never had success with is like flushing money down the toilet.

If you’re one of the people who’ve tried Yahoo ads or something else, you’re probably reading this and thinking, “Yeah, except Yahoo doesn’t have as much traffic as Google and I tried it before with very little results.”

That’s how we felt about the idea too. Until a couple of months ago, when we discovered there is more traffic available to us for less on other engines–as long as we understand how to reach the people on there properly.

It has nothing to do with keyword choice or even ad copy.

For example, we know that Yahoo is the #1 choice of search for people in Asia. So while most people were targeting the USA and Canada on Yahoo search and seeing very few impressions, we’ve been using Yahoo to sell to the enormous Asian market.

Similarly, a few weeks ago, I was considering promoting a seminar in Jordan. But I discovered that the culture here is not one that searches online for answers to pressing problems. Instead, people ask each other and spread the word with “word of mouth”.

On the other hand, almost everyone uses Facebook. So I ran an extremely successful ad campaign on Facebook targeting only Jordan–and filled my seminar in only days.

That’s exactly why we’re dedicating an entire hour to the topic of other PPC Engines on Google Suicide – The Survival Guide.

In Google Suicide – The Survival Guide, I’ll show you how to discover which markets and demographics are most suitable for each PPC engine. And more importantly, how you can use other PPC engines to tap into cheaper traffic in larger volume than with Google.

Option (b) - Use PPC information to do SEO

You might, instead, be making a very natural jump from PPC to SEO. The similarities are certainly enough that you can make the transition reasonably easily.

For example, advertising with both PPC and SEO is in essence answering questions people ask with search. The keyword research is the same. Whatever keywords worked for you before with PPC will work in SEO too. Similarly, your PPC ads with great CTR will make excellent page headlines and summaries in search listings. Click-thru-rate plays a tremendous role in SEO too.

So even if you can’t use Adwords any more, the data you collected about keywords and adcopy is a goldmine.

You know exactly which keywords get traffic. You know the “copy” that attracts clicks. You know which keywords convert more frequently.

All that information can be used to build content optimised for SEO. Although this is not normally a simple topic, Cherie has discovered a method you can use to get nearly instant first page listings using PPC data.

We’ve dedicated another hour of training in Google Suicide ENTIRELY for making a smooth and easy migration from PPC to SEO.

Be sure to grab your copy of Google Suicide – The Survival Guide to discover Cherie’s method for squeezing 5 times as much traffic from natural search as you did with PPC!

you know, I love you…

This content is so powerful, I voted we do NOT share it. Sorry, you know I love you…but I didn’t want to kill myself by teaching the very secrets that are giving me a competitive edge right now.

Neither Cherie nor I make our money from being “ppc gurus”. In fact, we hate the label. We’re in the trenches day and night producing traffic and leads for ourselves and our clients and that’s our bread and butter. I can only speak for myself here when I say I’ve had my arm twisted to put this out. And I want to raise the price for the training tomorrow (Friday) so fewer people get in.

It’s a dick move, I know. But grab it now, it’s only $197. Just it’s not gonna stay that way if you click this link past New Year’s Day 5pm CST (Texas time)…

Get “Google Suicide – The Survival Guide”

I’m really sorry I didn’t get this to you sooner.

It is very bad news. Google made a major announcement December 8th
stating that they’ll be filing personal lawsuits against work at home
businesses. This couldn’t come at a worse time. What with all the bans and
slaps a lot of our subscribers have been facing.

http://www.SearchSuicide.com/

My friend Cherie and I have a special call TONIGHT for everyone who is
worried about these changes or has had their business shut down because of
them. If that’s you, then I can’t stress how badly you need to be listening
tonight–you will never look at PPC the same again. That’s a promise.

I know, I know. It’s short notice. But we’ve been working so hard putting
it all together that we ran way over scheduele.

If you’re reading this message before 6pm CST, then click the link below
and save your seat.

http://www.SearchSuicide.com/

Remember, the call is tonight–like in a few hours, so make sure you’re on it. I understand the seats are limited and some of our partners already filled up many of the available spaces.

See you there!

When producing videos for YouTube from Adobe Premiere, I often use the WMV format of export to get clear compressed video.

Unfortunately, sometimes the video and audio go out of synch. If you’re not using screen-capture software like Camtasia or screenshots, you can often solve this problem simply by producing in MPEG-4 format instead.

My issue with MPEG-4 is it goes pixelated for screen recordings. But for regular video footage it works perfectly. The file size is a little bigger and it takes longer to produce, but still manageable.

Here’s how:

If you prefer the older Mino flipcam which uses square pixels (instead of wide screen format) but want your videos to appear in YouTube without the wide-screen black bars, this method is the best configuration I’ve found. Your video will fill the entire YouTube viewing area.

This tutorial is not the only way to do this. It’s just what has worked best for me.

1. Create a new project in Adobe Premier

Keep the settings default. I use, for example, the DV format. It’s not so important because we’ll be changing this soon.

2. Download a Copy of Kingdia Video Converter

Recommended settings for Kingdia Video Converter when converting your video for Adobe Premiere CS4

You can get your copy from the Kingdia Video Converter website. This is an excellent program that quickly converts videos for you from one format to another. We need to do this step because the default format saved by the flipcam actually comes out upside down in Adobe Premier. It also, for one reason or other, fails to preview properly.

3. Use the following settings to convert your video:

Choose: To WMV/ASF
Bitrate: 2500 kbps
Width/Height: 720 x 567
Aspect: 1:1

4. Import your converted video file

In Adobe Premier, you should import the new video file. Hopefully, if you’ve done everything right, it’s a lot smaller than the original. Test it out before inserting it into your timeline.

5. Change the way Adobe Premiere Interprets Your Video

Right-click your video in the assets pane and choose "Interpret Footage". These are the Adobe Premiere settings to use

Before adding the converted video to your timeline, right-click the file in the assets pane and choose “Interpret Footage”.

Then choose your Aspect Ratio as “square pixels” if it’s not selected already. This would obviously need to match your converted video format.

My method is mostly unconventional because it uses square pixels instead of the typical wide-screen ones to get the right look. However, I don’t understand that much about video and I just like to keep things simple.

If you know a better way, I’d love to hear about it, ok?

6. Insert The Video Into Your Sequence’s Timeline

I usually drag the video file from the assets pane and position it in Video channel 1. The particular channel isn’t important, just make sure to click it and activate it for all future operations so that they apply to your channel.

Also, make sure that the audio track that accompanies the video is also inserted into an Audio channel. The video and audio are linked and any cutting or editing you do will affect both channels. You can change this if you like by right-clicking the video or audio channel and choosing “Unlink”.

7. Transform Your Video

Drag your video file from the assets pane on the left (usually) into "Video #1" channel in your timeline

Make sure your player head is positioned somewhere on the timeline where the video is playing. Then while the video is stopped, click it once. Click again and a transform box will show up around the video.

This step is critical, because what we’re going to need to do is to scale UP the video and crop it. This is done in the same step by first increasing the size using the little transform handles in the corners of the box and then positioning the video by moving it from the center.

Since we’re dealing with square pixels and positioning them on a widescreen canvas, we’re going to have to lose some of the top and bottom of the video when you reposition it. The top and bottom are going to be cropped.

Scaling up, on the other hand, increases the size of the video with proportional dimensions so that it’s not stretched widthwise but still occupies the entire wide-screen canvas space.

8. Edit your video

At this point, you can edit your video as normal and add any screenshots you need to. You will be allowed to edit like normal. Ensure all the important parts havent been cropped off in your scale operation. If they have, you might want to move the video up or down to include these things.

9. Export Media

Now you’re ready to render your final video file. Click on the video channel you want to export in the timeline to activate it. Then click the “File” menu in Adobe Premier and choose “Export”. Choose “Media” in the sub-menu that appears.

10. Use These Media Export Settings

Format: MPEG

Preset: Custom

Export Video: Checked

Export Audio: Checked

Click The Video Tab. Then choose these settings:

Codec: MPEG-4/DivX

Unconstrain Size Ratio by unchecking the box next to the width/height setting

Width & Height: 640 x 360

Frame Rate: 25 fps

Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixel (1.0) **VERY IMPORTANT**

11. Accept the Export Settings

Check the output looks good in the Output tab above the video preview. Use the down arrow below the video to scroll back and forth to check specific frames. If it looks good, accept the settings you chose and a new program will open called Adobe Media Encoder. Click the button “Start Queue” in the left of the window and your conversion should start.

12. Upload Your New AVI file To YouTube

The resulting file is a AVI file. It should also be relatively small for you to upload it compared to using a proper wide-screen video format.

If you’re like me and you’re working with a slow internet connection, you’ll appreciate the need to keep your YouTube videos as small as possible without losing quality. Especially if you’re including some screencasts with your recorded flipcam video. This is where I have struggled to find the perfect settings that still keep the text readable and unpixelated.

In addition, if you prefer the older flipcam which uses square pixels (instead of wide screen format) but want your videos to appear in YouTube without the wide-screen black bars, this method is the best configuration I’ve found. Your video will fill the entire YouTube viewing area.

This tutorial is not the only way to do this. It’s just what has worked best for me.

1. Create a new project in Adobe Premier

Keep the settings default. I use, for example, the DV format. It’s not so important because we’ll be changing this soon.

2. Download a Copy of Kingdia Video Converter

Recommended settings for Kingdia Video Converter when converting your video for Adobe Premiere CS4

You can get your copy from the Kingdia Video Converter website. This is an excellent program that quickly converts videos for you from one format to another. We need to do this step because the default format saved by the flipcam actually comes out upside down in Adobe Premier. It also, for one reason or other, fails to preview properly.

3. Use the following settings to convert your video:

Choose: To WMV/ASF
Bitrate: 2500 kbps
Width/Height: 720 x 567
Aspect: 1:1

4. Import your converted video file

In Adobe Premier, you should import the new video file. Hopefully, if you’ve done everything right, it’s a lot smaller than the original. Test it out before inserting it into your timeline.

5. Change the way Adobe Premiere Interprets Your Video

Right-click your video in the assets pane and choose "Interpret Footage". These are the Adobe Premiere settings to use

Before adding the converted video to your timeline, right-click the file in the assets pane and choose “Interpret Footage”.

Then choose your Aspect Ratio as “square pixels” if it’s not selected already. This would obviously need to match your converted video format.

My method is mostly unconventional because it uses square pixels instead of the typical wide-screen ones to get the right look. However, I don’t understand that much about video and I just like to keep things simple.

If you know a better way, I’d love to hear about it, ok?

6. Insert The Video Into Your Sequence’s Timeline

I usually drag the video file from the assets pane and position it in Video channel 1. The particular channel isn’t important, just make sure to click it and activate it for all future operations so that they apply to your channel.

Also, make sure that the audio track that accompanies the video is also inserted into an Audio channel. The video and audio are linked and any cutting or editing you do will affect both channels. You can change this if you like by right-clicking the video or audio channel and choosing “Unlink”.

7. Transform Your Video

Drag your video file from the assets pane on the left (usually) into "Video #1" channel in your timeline

Make sure your player head is positioned somewhere on the timeline where the video is playing. Then while the video is stopped, click it once. Click again and a transform box will show up around the video.

This step is critical, because what we’re going to need to do is to scale UP the video and crop it. This is done in the same step by first increasing the size using the little transform handles in the corners of the box and then positioning the video by moving it from the center.

Since we’re dealing with square pixels and positioning them on a widescreen canvas, we’re going to have to lose some of the top and bottom of the video when you reposition it. The top and bottom are going to be cropped.

Scaling up, on the other hand, increases the size of the video with proportional dimensions so that it’s not stretched widthwise but still occupies the entire wide-screen canvas space.

8. Edit your video

At this point, you can edit your video as normal and add any screenshots you need to. You will be allowed to edit like normal. Ensure all the important parts havent been cropped off in your scale operation. If they have, you might want to move the video up or down to include these things.

9. Export Media

Now you’re ready to render your final video file. Click on the video channel you want to export in the timeline to activate it. Then click the “File” menu in Adobe Premier and choose “Export”. Choose “Media” in the sub-menu that appears.

10. Use These Media Export Settings

Use these settings when Exporting and rendering your final video file

Format: Windows Media

Preset: Custom

Export Video: Checked

Export Audio: Checked

Click The Video Tab. Then choose these settings:

Codec: Windows Media Video 9

Allow interlaced processing: NOT checked

Encoding Passes: One

Bitrate Mode: Constant

Unconstrain Size Ratio by unchecking the box next to the width/height setting

Width & Height: 640 x 360

Frame Rate: 25 fps

Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixel (1.0) **VERY IMPORTANT**

Maximum Bitrate: 2,500 or thereabouts (this determines the video quality)

Image Quality: 50 or thereabouts (this determines the individual frame quality)

Decoder Complexity: Auto

Keyframe Interval: 5 (this determines how quickly the video updates. For high motion video you may need a higher setting here)

11. Accept the Export Settings

Check the output looks good in the Output tab above the video preview. Use the down arrow below the video to scroll back and forth to check specific frames. If it looks good, accept the settings you chose and a new program will open called Adobe Media Encoder. Click the button “Start Queue” in the left of the window and your conversion should start.

12. Upload Your New WMV file To YouTube

The resulting file is a small WMV file that your viewers will appreciate. It should also be relatively small for you to upload it compared to using a proper wide-screen video format.

I hope you enjoyed this! If you have better settings you’d like to suggest that result in small output files that have good quality video (especially of screenshots) then I’d love to hear it in the comments below!

This creepy story about the little boy who went without food or water... isn't for the faint-hearted

Gurus lie.

There I said it. And I don’t trust them. There’s only a few legitimate guys who “spit” truth. But their image is smeared with the rest of the hall of shamers that make up the majority of Information product marketers.

Like seriously…check out these headlines:

“Dumb Kid Earns $301,866.50 in One Weekend”
“How To Use Twitter to Get 50,000 followers”
“How I Made Over 4 Million In 24 Hours Using Nothing But E-Mail”

Ok, it’s marketing and if that gets people to listen to you, it’s fine. But I guess my trouble is that customers buy the story as it is, without questioning its reality.

What if I told you,

“11-Year Old Fasts From Food and Water for 30 Days Straight and Survives.”

Would you believe me?

You should. Because this story is true. In fact, it’s a page torn right out of my own childhood. But at the same time, there is an element of untruthfulness to it. And I knew this when I wrote that headline.

After all, I suppose it got your attention because you incorrectly assumed certain things from my phrasing that made the story seem extraordinary. Because the truth certainly is NOT exciting.

Bear with me, I’ll tell you my creepy story from the start…

I was a “fraidy cat”.

Night was my most dreaded time of day. I am not even gonna try to deny that. When I was five-years-old I had so many nightmares that I once ran myself into an honest-to-goodness fever.

My dreams were filled with ghosts and demons

My dreams were full of the demons and ghosts my neighbor’s older sister put in my head with her frightening stories. Often, I’d wake up in a cold sweat and rouse my mother claiming I was thirsty–just to feel the safety of her company. She’d bring me water and stay up with me holding my hand across my baby sister’s sleeping body.

On this one night, I wake up to discover that both my parents gone.

I’m alarmed. Where are they? It’s pitch-black and I can’t see a thing. I feel around nervously for them. Did they leave me home alone with my sisters?

I don’t know. I lie in bed breathing heavy as I consider the scary possibilities. My heart pounds fast in my throat.

Suddenly, I hear noises in the distance.

Who is it? Intruders? Murderers? Thieves?

Or could it be just my parents?

I strain my ears to hear if the voices are friendly ones. But I can’t make out a THING.

I remain motionless under the covers afraid that the voices may discover me. Time passes and my mind keeps racing with horrible possibilities.

Had my parents been kidnapped…or worse…murdered?

I debate with myself to get out of bed and check or just stay in bed and hope for the best.

Finally, I can’t take the suspense any more. I muster up my courage and get out of bed, creeping in the dark to the doorway. My sister’s light snores are behind me. I take comfort in her nearness as I peek out into the hallway.

What’s that?

The kitchen light is on...who goes there?

The kitchen light is on.

I strain my ears again. Is that mum’s voice?

A few seconds pass before I make my way slowly down the corridor toward the lit kitchen. I keep both my ears perked for danger.

As I approach the kitchen, the voices become clearer. It sounds like mum and dad speaking quietly. All of a sudden, I become aware of how far i am from my sisters now. I feel an unsettling chill in the dark hallway and wrecklessly run the last few steps into the kitchen.

I halt at the entrance.

The light hits my eyes and hurts my dialated pupils. The voices stop. I rub my eyes and my heart jumps to my throat. I swallow it back down.

There, on the kitchen floor, sit mum and dad with concerned faces staring up at me.

To be honest, I think it’s a look of guilt they’re giving me. I feel like I caught them in the act of doing something behind my back.

Because the kitchen floor is where we normally have our meals. And in front of them is the pink disposable nylon we usually eat on.

i wrecklessly run the last few steps into the kitchen imagining ghosts behind me

Atop the nylon is a spread of saucers filled with goat cheese and olive oil, thickened yoghurt, strawberry jam, a plate of tasty scrambled eggs, a bowl of honey and half-empty cups of tea and coffee.

My heartbeat settles slowly.

I’m hurt. “A secret midnight meal!?” I think to myself. “Why didn’t they tell me?”

Mum calls out to me, with mouth slightly full, “Hi habeebi (my dear). Do you want me to make you an egg?”

I nod silently. I know my voice is still hoarse with sleep. Dad asks me to come sit with him.

I sidle over slowly and sit confused and groggy. My nostrils flare as I soak in the mouth-watering smell of hot olive oil and frying egg from the stove.

My mind is racing. What’s going on? How long has this been going on for?

“Dad,” I say hoarsly. “What are you guys doing?”

My mother looks over from the stove and laughs. “We’re having sohoor. Today’s the first of Ramadan.”

“What’s Ramadan?”

I ask curiously. My voice working a little better now.

“In Ramadan we aren’t meant to eat the whole day. We need to eat now so we don’t get too hungry,” she responds.

As I later learned, my parents would be fasting the entire month. No food or water from sun-rise to sun-set. They’d been doing it forever around the same time each year.

Now it DID sound difficult at first, didn’t it? Until I just revealed to you that fasting was only for part of the day. Actually, there are two main meals that my parents would have each day. One, is called Sohoor–which is what I caught them having–the morning meal before sunrise. The other one is named Fotoor (break-fast) which they would have later, at sunset.

And only between those two meals was there no eating or drinking.

So as you can imagine, fasting Ramadan isn’t so hard. And while my story’s headline earlier would lead you to believe that the “kid” was starved and thirsty for an entire month,

it’s simply not true.

That’s why, when I read a sales letter headline, I always implicate the essence of the incredible statement. But I never take it literally. And neither should you.

As you’ll discover, in time, most of these raw dollar numbers are in fact revenue, not profit. Meaning, the sales letter is quoting you a number of dollars they collected in sales. Which does not factor in the cost of advertising and the months–and more often years–of failure it takes to acquire the skills that eventually result in those ridiculous numbers.

For example, if you hear of someone who made 4 million dollars in 24-hours, it’s very likely they spent 2 million dollars in affiliate commissions, and a few grand for copywriters, designers, and programmers. Which is still incredible, no denying that.

But is it really something a “dumb kid” can replicate without a large marketing budget?

And can a “dumb kid” really pull off such a stunt? Doubful. Mate.

There is no “dumb” person who makes 300,000 in a single weekend or 4 million in 24 hours. Unless it’s dumb luck, like in a lottery or something…

Which, let’s face it, isn’t exactly teachable.

No. In most cases, the person behind the headline is a savvy business person who either built (over time) a bigass list or has access to a network of BIG BOYS with lists.

It could have taken them 5 years to build up an email list that would buy 4 million dollars worth of product in a single weekend.

I’ve been in the game long enough to know the part you’re not told is what makes all the difference. I’ve seen some of the worst marketing campaigns with poor sales letters written in second-language-English…still making a fortune in sales…only because the marketer tapped into mailing lists of millions of subscribers.

Last year, I attended a seminar where a guy claimed to earn over

$100,000 dollars per day in affiliate sales.

He told me personally that he spent between $50,000-$100,000 per day on Google to make that money.

And yet, even when he launched his own “guru” product, he partnered with some of the biggest marketers to make 2 million in sales. Of that 2 million, he gave at least 1 million in commissions to his affiliate partners and spent a further few hundred thousand in prizes.

The lesson here is that no big result comes without an equally large investment of time, networking with the right people, and financial spend.

Before that, it’s all baby steps.

After all, that’s how every amazing feat is achieved in real life. An olympic swimer wins a gold medal in days. But no body wins that gold medal without having spent his or her life dreaming about it, working at it, practicing, failing, and trying again and again.

In fact, that’s how I was able to start fasting with my parents at such a young age.

As I eat my egg beside dad,

I listen to his conversation with mum, and I feel more left out. I want in on this secret “club”.

The next morning, I ask my mother if I can fast Ramadan with them. But she didn’t think it was a good idea.

“Honey, you’re too young right now. You need to eat or you’ll be tired all day and won’t be able to study.”

For a while they didn’t let me.

But I drove them crazy. I begged my mother all day and night to let me take part with them in this “fasting” business. She finally yielded and allowed me to do it until the afternoon.

“Ok, mum. But if I find it easy, can I do the whole day?” I asked with wide-eyed enthusiasm.

“Sure, why not.”

For the next few days, I fasted until after school. It was difficult missing lunch when all the other kids around me were eating. And saudia arabia, where we lived at the time did not have the mildest of weather. By the time I got home, my lips were parched with thirst.

All the same, I was proud of myself. I showed off to my friend from upstairs while we played on the staircase.

Soon, he too started fasting with his parents permission. And we competed at who could last longest.

These are the baby steps that made my above headline possible.

That’s the part most marketing neglects to tell you.

If they were to tell you the real work it takes you might not buy whatever they’re selling.

Before I learned to fast Ramadan, I wasn’t QUALIFIED to be a part of the “club”. No matter how badly I wanted to be included. In the same way as many students of marketing are not yet qualified to take part in the marketing game at the same level as the big boys.

Few of the marketers who teach lead generation actually use those methods in their own business. Because it takes too long that way. But that’s the part of the game they don’t tell you.

I was talking recently with a colleague who told me he knows that only about three of the most well-known information marketers actually generate their own leads.

The rest commit “incest”…

with each other’s lists, bastardising the crap out of them with multiple-launches.

The truth is, they belong to a club of “big boys” who few people are qualified to talk to…let alone run with.

If you want to know who those guys are, just watch your emails when a major product launches. How many emails do you receive from all your most respected gurus?

Last week, I unsubscribed from all of their lists. Because I simply got tired of the tens of emails I received every few days about the same product. I don’t trust their recommendations any more. I know they don’t even bother to check out what they’re promoting before they decide it’s really worth staking their reputation on it. I may as well make my own decisions about what to buy or not buy.

You’ll notice I rarely ever send you a promotion for anyone else’s product. Unless that product is one I actually own, benefit from, and I genuinely believe you should own.

And all the same, I don’t expect you to take my word for it. Because a product or tool I find useful may be a waste of your money and time.

I Finally Did it When I was 11.

As for my fasting experience, you probably have figured by now that I eventually managed to fast from food and water for the whole month of Ramadan. It took me all the way until I was 11 years old before I was finally a proper part of the “club” though.

In fact, many young children around the world are pulling this off every Ramadan. And their parents teach them to fast with the same baby steps.

It was 1995. The internet was still on dialup.

He scored his first computer consulting contract. Amazing. Fuzzy little boy, dressed in daddy’s shirt and tie, with awkward, patchy blond fluff growing out of his upper lip. Everything about him screamed,

“Don’t hire me!”

Could you imagine this guy as a consultant?

Silly-looking teenager. Wanna-be consultant.

It was me.

I suppose it’s hard for you to imagine me like that. You know, since I grew up into such a handsome, cool, heart-stealing, hairy feller. Haha. On second thought, maybe it’s just me mum who sees me like that, aye.

So there I am, standing at the doorway of the office building. Uncle Trevor hurrying me along as I stopped to tie my shoe laces. Dipping my tie on the concrete. I looked up to see an attractive, well-dressed Chinese woman at the entrance.

“Hello,” she said to Trevor.

“G’day,” he called out. “This is Jim, the fella I was telling you about.”

She leaned out with her arm extended and smiled. I firmly shook her hand and mumbled something. Could’ve been “hello” under my breath. I was a notoriously shy mumbler. But hand-shaking, I was used to.

I wondered for a moment if maybe I was in over my head.

Just a few days ago, I was a regular high-school kid. And today I’m a consultant, shaking hands with the CEO of an international company. Intimidating, certainly.

This deal was brokered by Uncle Trevor. A family friend from New Zealand who had moved to Malaysia a little before we did.

As we walked through the office-cubicles and they spoke of business deals, my memory drifted back to Friday, the week before.

Uncle Trevor often dropped by dad’s office on the way home from work to ask us over for dinner or check-in on us. He was a good ole’ Kiwi bloke.

That particular Friday afternoon, I was pretending to do some homework.

The grown-ups spoke.

I eavesdropped on their conversation and heard Uncle Trevor complaining to dad about a communication difficulty they were having with their various international offices.

I looked up from my books and interjected, “Why don’t you get them to use the Internet?”

Even though I was pretty new to the web myself, I was already creating websites and internet applications. Few people even knew what it was at that time.

But to me, the Internet was AMAZING. I thought it was the solution to just about anything. My idea was that they equip all their offices with modems, get internet subscriptions, and communicate by chat and e-mail.

To you that might sound like it’s “duh” obvious. Except you’re forgetting it was 1995 in Malaysia. My Hayes 96,000 bps modem was considered cutting edge.

My old Hayes dial-up modem loved to download at a whopping 7kb/sec lol

Dude, I was downloading at 7kb/sec and that was the shit!

Trevor liked my suggestion. A week later, he phoned me to ask if I would be interested in coming to his office and speaking with their CEO about my ideas.

I agreed.

And that’s how I got myself in this big mess.

“Why did I open my big mouth?” I wondered. Homework was never so appealing as it was today at Uncle Trevor’s office.

But there was no running away now. And I’d look like a right fool if I ducked behind my father’s friend.

The CEO’s name escapes me, but she was friendly enough. As we chit-chatted, I became more comfortable.

All the while, I was having a conversation with myself. I was insecure about my appearance. I knew that in spite my best efforts, I wasn’t fooling anyone into thinking I was some bad-ass, hot-shot consultant.4

How could I gain their confidence in my abilities?

How could I make them forget my age and awkwardness?

In an instant, I knew.

My plan was marketing in its crudest form. Even as a boy, it was pure instinct.

I had many disadvantages working against me.

• I was a kid. That was a fact.
• I was unprofessional. That was a fact.
• I was a one boy show. And that was a fact.

What possible reason could they have to hire me instead of another expert, older, and more experienced?

They could certainly afford someone else. But I was confident I could serve them well.

And that was my biggest advantage. I was actually very competent as an advisor. It’s important when you are disadvantaged that you draw on your strengths. Computers were my thing. I lived and breathed computers.

I could offer a better deal, faster, for cheaper, and still deliver the same service someone else would.

My reading material in those days consisted of technical manuals–I read them for sport. I downloaded nerdy jokes. I programmed computer games.

For god’s sake, I used to prank-call computer technicians and operators to ask them questions they wouldn’t be able to answer.

Then…

I’d swear and call them names before hanging up.

Silly, I know.

A simple presentation technique I discovered when I was 14 allowed me to nab that consulting contract for myself. And even today, I use it to build trust with customers so they will choose me over everyone else.

With my short-comings and all.

Have YOU felt this way when marketing online?

For example, you might have a small downline or customer base. You might make a few bucks here and there instead of hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. Or you might still be stuck in a 9-5 job rather than get a full-time income from home.

Who hasn’t been there, aye?

In my early days of selling business opportunity, I wished I could drive a half-million-dollar car like my upline’s. I imagined that would make it easier to presuade prospects to buy. I didn’t know, of course, that this had little effect on recruiting real business partners.

Funny, that as a kid I had better sense than I did three years ago, when…

I was naming my unemployment “financial independence”.

Little did I know that my prospects were smart enough to see through that. Just as easily as the CEO could tell…

My stupid “consultant” clothes were just a front.

Presentation of expertise flips the perception of your prospects.

It’s critical for building credibility and trust.

Companies rent out large office buildings in the heart of town to present themselves as professional. They spend millions of dollars on a single television ad campaign to present their products and services in the best light. They print letterheads and logos and come up with corporate-style slogans to present a large and experienced image.

Billions of dollars are spent every day on this type of presentation.

You can do the same without spending a cent.

Because the kind of presentation I’m talking about isn’t achieved by “dressing for success” or faking your image. It’s achieved by demonstrating real honest-to-goodness authority. The greatest advantage prospects have in dealing with you.

After all, everyone is an expert in something compared to other people.

She was no Computer Expert…

When I met the CEO, I discovered quickly that she was no computer expert. No one else on her staff had more than a basic knowledge of how to use their computers. I only had to demonstrate that I brought to the table the expertise they lacked.

And I certainly could.

Yet, without making a display of my expertise, I would rely on nothing but my unfortunate appearance. Something I couldn’t change.

When the CEO let me get to work, I looked at her office’s computer set-up. I explored each computer in the DOS prompt. That black screen with white characters flying up the screen was intimidating on its own.

I appeared thoughtful. I let it sink in. That this is some heavy, technical shit. Certainly not something that just ANYONE could do.

Then I spoke rapidly in geek-talk:

“The specifications of your machines are too low to handle the load of a TCP/IP application. You need faster CPU, an expanded RAM, and more hard drive capacity. You could communicate with your other offices by getting a server setup in each office with a 96,000 bps modem or a dedicated fibre optics line. Then you’d need Ethernet cards with LAN connections to create intranets within each office.”

Of course, she didn’t understand.

She wouldn’t be able to do much with that vomit of jargon.

I only said it to show that I was an authority. Had I left it at that, I wouldn’t have got the contract. She still needed to understand what she had to do.

I repeated slowly, “You need to get at least one modern computer in the office and setup the others with a special part that will connect the office computers to one another. You need one more piece of hardware that communicates between offices through the phone line. Kind of like a fax machine lets you use the phone lines to send documents”

This set the CEO at ease.

I nailed it home by showing her I had a complete and simple solution.

“I will write for you a full report to explain what you need and where to get it from. As well as an estimate of your cost. Then I’ll suggest a few experts I trust to install the setup for you. How’s that?”

“Of course. That would be wonderful,” she replied.

And just like that, the deal was made.

Be careful.

You don’t want to come off like a show-off. People don’t buy what they don’t understand. Excessive jargon will only confuse your prospects.

Only the tiniest expert language is needed to demonstrate your knowledge. It helps implicitly address all their objections by letting them know that YOU know what you’re on about.

They rather buy an expert than learn all that complicated crap by themselves.

If prospects trust that you have a thorough knowledge of the product or service you’re selling, they’ll automatically trust your advice.

By the way, this isn’t just a face-to-face sales “trick”.

You can pull it off just as easily in a google ad, a sales letter, or even a video presentation. Lightly sprinkle a specialized word here and there. And you’re in.

For a long time, I didn’t know that what helped my upline sell was not so much his flash car or his numerous business trips. But rather that he kept up with current events in the stock market and real estate. He sprinkled that information in conversation and stories he told. And it was in fact, the very reason I had trusted his advice when he suggested I start a home business.

Whether he really did well in real estate or not, I believed he had. And when a savvy businessman tells you that he’s building a Network Marketing business full-time, you listen.

Imagine if Donald Trump told you that a building was a good buy, you’re likely to take his advice.

That evening, when I returned home, I told Dad the full day’s events. He beamed with pride as I explained what I did to established authority.

Later, he gave me a report template and helped me create a professional written presentation of my recommendations.

I submitted my consultation along with a $3,000 bill for my services.

The Apple model I bought with my consulting money...

With the money I made, I bought the first computer I ever paid for. It was an Apple Power Mac I had my eye on for months.

Imagine being 9 again…

And your grammar teacher carries with him a thick splintered stick–worn with the beatings he’d given your classmates just minutes before.

Fear pulses through your veins.

He asks a question.

And every time he turns to your general direction, you fear you’ll be called on to answer. Your instincts tell you that the next brutal whack is going to be painfully cast into your little soft hand.

Such is my recollection of grammar class.

My teacher was from hell. He had a raging temper. Often breaking sticks on the backs and hands of children. From those who didn’t do homework, to those who gave the wrong answer when quized on some rule we just learned.

What angered him most was when one of us forgot to pack the grammar textbook into our heavy school bag. With six periods every day, each with its own exercise and textbook, it was often easy to forget.

Every night, my poor mother packed my bag for me to match the next day’s scheduele.

But that didn’t save me from a beating at the hands of this crazed adult.

He became increasingly ingenious at coming up with ways to hurt us. Sometimes he’d beat the back of our hands, on the knuckles, with the sharp edge of a ruler.

Once, when he left the room for a few moments to pee, his class snitch (otherwise known as the class president) wrote the names of other children who spoke while he was away. I happened to sneeze. And my name made the list.

we were really scared of our teacher who liked to beat up little boys

On his return, the teacher called out the names of the “naughty” children. And one by one…

he squeezed a pen with sharp ridges between their fingers, only stopping when they cried.

When my turn came, I walked to the front with a sense of dread. I vowed not to cry. He took my little hand and squeezed my fingers against the pen’s ridges. I bravely held my tears inside me.

He continued to squeeze until my face turned red. But I held on and refused to cry.

Enraged by my obstinance, he thrust my hand into the desk with force. And laughed at me. Then announced to the class that I had gone red and was about to cry. I walked back to my desk ashamed. Though God knows why. I should have been smirking at my defiance.

He was an asshole, no shit. We were all scared of him.

Rarely was I punished by him, and yet I always dreaded his class.

Anyway, you’re probably wondering what my childhood’s grammar teacher had to do with my blog’s traffic.

Surely, after all these years, I am not still haunted by him.

Is that the reason I write correctly in my blog posts?

It couldn’t have been. He was my Arabic grammar teacher, not English.

When I began this very blog, earlier in the year, I knew that building traffic required one key thing. From my experience with video and article marketing, traffic depends heavily on how well I included related, industry-specific phrases in my posts.

It is this language that the search engines can read. It is the words included in your titles, the text of your posts, articles, and video descriptions that would be ranked in the search engines. They are the same (and similar) words people will search when looking for education about network marketing.

And since you couldn’t possibly think of all the language or create it all, it has to be dynamic and user-generated.

It has to be included in the comments and responses people leave behind.

If I could somehow encourage a set of readers to leave responses, I would in turn be able to grow my search rankings, traffic, and readership.

I’d done this successfully already with video and articles.

But what is the secret to getting interaction on a large scale with your content? Any content, be it video, article, or blog.

It was another average school day, at age 9, in my over-priced private school in Saudia Arabia. It was grammar class, again.

And once more, I was sitting at my desk silently and fearfully.

The asshole teacher asked a question of the class.

What the question was, I honestly don’t remember. But it was one of those problems that demanded one response or the other.

“Is this the object or the subject of the verb?” or something like that, he asked.

No volunteers. Not surprising. As if anyone wanted to be wrong with this armed and volatile bomb of a teacher in their proximity.

So he picks a…victim–i mean, a student. Seemingly at random. He asks him to answer.

The poor child, gave what he believed to be the correct answer: “The subject, sir?”

“How about you?” demands the teacher impatiently of another student behind him. “What do you think?”

“Umm….the object?” he responded hesitantly.

“Stand up!”

says the teacher.

Next, he moved to the child behind him and asked again. “Subject or object?”

“The object.”

This child answered with a little more confidence.

After all, he agreed with our seated classmate ahead of him.

The teacher moved down the class switfly. Each child following their cue. Each being left to sit. Once in a while, someone would break the pattern, but they mostly agreed with the seated child.

As my turn drew nearer, I was torn.

I didn’t agree with the seated children. I guessed if I gave the answer in my head, I’m as likely as the first kid to be asked to stand.

According to my training with my father, who as you know is a linguist, the correct answer should have been the Subject. I knew the full reasoning behind it too and wondered if I would be given a chance to explain my answer should I be punished for an incorrect response.

Should I give what I truly believed in my heart and soul was the correct answer? Should I risk being one of the odd few standing?

I had to make a decision. It was my turn.

“It’s the subject, sir.”

All the while, inside, I hoped against hope that by some weird and twisted luck I would be the exception and get to remain seated with the majority who gave the other answer.

Such was my primal instinct to be included.

No such luck.

“Stand up!” He said angrily.

I was immediately filled with regret. I began to doubt I made the right choice.

Once everyone in the class gave their response, there was a handful of us standing. My legs trembled in fear. As I knew the inevitable punishment was about to be dished to a group of us.

But in that inner struggle of mine was a lesson, about human nature, that burns in my memory.

Now, if you can see where this is going, then good on you, you’re a smart cookie

What does this insight into human nature teach us?

How can it help you increase the interaction people have with your content?

And how does it grow the search engine traffic your videos and articles receive?

Simply put, it’s that humans want to feel included. They don’t want to be outcast by being different or being wrong.

But an opinion voiced first is not necessarily the correct way to feel about something. It’s only a testament to the braveness of the individual who dares to say what they really believe.

A funny thing happens when someone does that…

They immediately acquire a leadership quality. Bravery. And it begs followers.

Most people are afraid to take a stand one way or the other. As soon as they see a brave individual or a large group of people following one, they follow too. Surely, you’ve heard the saying

“strength in numbers”

Leaders are brave. The mob just follow and agree with the mob.

The earliest group of opinion-givers are the ones who steer the rest.

Your article or video are a representation of your opinion. It is an expression of leadership. It is your honest and possibly controversial, possibly wrong opinion.

With your articles, you already know that no one can be FORCED to respond or comment.

Yet, voicing your opinion you are displaying braveness that others envy and admire.

By providing the content, you are the child who dares to answer first. A self-appointed leader, brave, because you voluntarily take a stand without following.

But people will not necessarily follow you.

They have only one source of feedback–your expression. They may not trust you. What about the alternative?

Most people will not follow the leader. They actually follow the herd. So you don’t want to JUST be a leader. You have to create a herd or a following.

Once you get that first comment agreeing with you, the herd will create itself.

As more people arrive on your page to view your opinion, they will also see a number of people who agree with you. So will they.

They will feel reinforced by joining the herd, because we believe that being included is less painful than making a mistake.

Social proof. That’s what it’s called in marketing, when a majority makes one choice against another.

People who are unsure will refuse to say anything out of fear of being outcast. They may wait to see what others say first.

And this is why, often your articles and videos go uncommented for a long time. There are no comments to follow. The act of being first to comment is intimidating in itself.

Even here, in this very post, when you leave a comment (whether in agreement or disagreement), you’re helping steer the herd. In a sense there is a form of bravery and leadership in it. On the other hand, hundreds if not thousands of others will read this post but not respond because they have not yet formed an opinion.

Now there is no shame in this.

As you saw in my story, even I was tempted by my human nature to go against my belief and join the herd. I even observed to see which way I should answer. Everyone does it to an extent. It’s a primal instinct, no matter how we try to deny it.

Speaking with authority and conviction challenges your readers and viewers. They fear being wrong. And only those who strongly oppose you will.

Knowing this about your fellow humans though, is powerful.

You might have guessed by now what the right answer to my teacher’s question was…

Once he was done asking everyone in the class, he announced with a smirk, “All of you sitting got it wrong. Put your hands out and prepare to be beaten!”

I breathed a sigh of relief and saw looks of horror on the faces of those seated. Then I flinched as they were beaten and bursting into tears. He rained down on their hands and arms with his stick.

What a sadistic prick!

Sadistic as he was, he was testing us. He knew that only those completely convinced of their answer will give the correct one. He was separating the fickle from the real.

That day, in my grammar classroom, the herd was slaughtered. And it was a lesson, I never forgot.

I think our live PPC event should have been sponsored by Redbull.

Because David and I were guzzling those things for 6 days straight. He came in on a delayed flight from another speaking event and it was non-stop from the second he walked in.

Neither of us got any more than 10 minutes of sleep a night as we planned, taught, and socialised with our students. In fact, in Kansas, I have to tell you there was never a day without some kind of weird and out of this world adventure. What with the possum that attacked one of our students (who was actually a well-known Network Marketing leader)…and the UFO David swears he witnessed out of my bedroom’s window…

All stories i’ll share with you in time.

But what I wanted to tell you about was this video we shot for you before we left Kansas to go work on our next big project.

We were sitting around a bon fire roasting marshmellows and smores in pitch black amongst the cow and buffalo. When we received an E-Mail from Mike Dillard announcing the release of MLM Traffic Formula 2.0. Which if we understand correctly is an overhaul of the original Traffic Formula course. 

As we sat around the fire, each of us in turn told our war stories about the hardships we had in the industry and how our students are now filled with hope and success. And it brought back memories for the both of us, David and I.

Because, three years ago, we were in our own dark places of struggle and poverty. It was around then that a course called the MLM Traffic Formula first launched. We scrambled to buy our admission to the live calls. And later when I received the recordings I think I had listened to them maybe a million times. I swear i put the cds on loop for weeks on end falling asleep to them some nights, and driving around town on others with the voice of Mike and his experts blaring through my subwoofer around Sydney.

That course was the beginning for me. After going through it, I finally began to generate leads online and sponsor distributors. Which led to many good things. This year I already had a successfull $0.5 MILLION dollar launch, generated 1,000 leads a day and as many as 15,000 leads in a single month. Sold out a live event in 45 minutes flat, trained, and worked with the top distributors in the industry.

Now that MLM Traffic Formula 2 is coming out, I think it will be the beginning for you too.

Get Traffic Formula 2 Here when it goes on sale tomorrow.

Oh, by the way, I’ll be contributing all the training on Pay-Per-Click marketing in the updated version. So if you want to hear more about that from me, I promise I’ll pull out some of my best information to share with you there too.