Twitter’s Gone Fishin’. . . For Trouble

pby Sage Lewis/p
pSage sports a new studio for the new year. He’s added a white board, art-work, a drum set (yes, you heard me!) and even a camera man. 2009 promises to be full of great new videos. This week, we learn that even though traffic was up, online holiday sales were down 3%, but the big story comes out of Canada where we learn about a Twitter address security scam that goes “fishing” for your Twitter information./p

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Find Your Blog’s ‘Bigger Idea’

pby Mack Collier/p
Most companies are pretty boring.nbsp; Most company blogs are pretty
boring.nbsp; And you guessed it, most companies that blog spend way too
much time blogging about themselves.nbsp; So how do you excite readers?nbsp; By
finding your blog’s ‘bigger idea’.br /br /A big mistake that many businesses make when they launch a blog is that they position it as a promotional tool.nbsp; Instead, most blogs function much better if they cover a larger area, such as an industry that the company operates within, or its relevant subject matter.nbsp; Instead of blogging about your company’s pet grooming products, why not blog about how to properly groom your pet?nbsp; Instead of blogging about your listings on your realty blog, why not blog about 10 Questions You Must Answer Before Buying Your New Home?nbsp; br /br /The idea is to create value for your readers by educating them and creating informative content.nbsp; Instead of focusing that education on your company and its offerings, find your company’s ‘bigger idea’, and blog about that.nbsp; The idea is to provide value and education for your readers, and as a byproduct, this helps not only create value for your readers, but it also helps establish your expertise.nbsp; Which would you rather read about, a blog that focuses on the running shoes that a company sells, or a blog that focuses on running?nbsp; br /br /Find the ‘bigger idea’ for your blog.nbsp; It will make your blog more interesting to your readers, and it will help you promote your company.br /br /span class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”a href=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/KSierraTwitter1.php” onclick=”window.open(’http://www.searchengineguide.com/KSierraTwitter1.php’,'popup’,'width=538,height=259,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0′); return false”img src=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/KSierraTwitter-thumb-425×204.jpg” alt=”KSierraTwitter.jpg” class=”mt-image-center” style=”margin: 0pt auto 20px; text-align: center; display: block;” height=”204″ width=”425″ //a/spanbr /divbr //div
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Top 500 Search Engine Keywords Of The Week - January 07, 2009

Is SEO no longer important?

pby Mike Moran/p
div class=”zemanta-img” style=”margin: 1em; float: right; display: block;”a href=”http://www.daylife.com/image/00vUbJ67oe0Lz?utm_source=zemantaamp;utm_medium=pamp;utm_content=00vUbJ67oe0Lzamp;utm_campaign=z1″img src=”http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/00vUbJ67oe0Lz/120×150.jpg” alt=”DES PLAINES, IL - AUGUST 01: A mercury thermo…” style=”border: medium none ; display: block;” width=”120″ height=”150″/ap class=”zemanta-img-attribution” style=”font-size: 0.8em;”Image by a href=”http://www.daylife.com/source/Getty_Images”Getty Images/a via a href=”http://www.daylife.com”Daylife/a/p/div

pShould you care about what kind of marketing is hot? I got a question recently from a small business owner on how important readable URLs are for a Web site. The reason he was asking is that his technical adviser told him that “SEO just isn’t that important anymore.” Is he right? Well, you probably wouldn’t expect me to agree with that point of view, and I don’t, but there is some truth in the idea that search engine optimization is not the be-all end-all of Internet success that it was a few years ago. And the question of readable URLs is as good a topic as any to use to explore the larger issue of the importance of SEO./p

pI got the question for a site called a href=”http://www.jamseed.com/”JamSeed/a, which shows off musical acts so they can get publicity they don’t get from mainstream media. Each act has a a href=”http://www.jamseed.com/musicianProfile.php?id=126″profile page/a, with a computerized URL (www.jamseed.com/musicianProfile.php?id=126)./p

pSo the question was, for SEO purposes, should JamSeed be using a more readable URL (www.jamseed.com/musicianProfile/acityheart)? The technical adviser said, yes, but not for SEO reasons. He said that you want something readable for links and social media, because SEO isn’t that important anymore./p

pNow, readable URLs are something I think are very important, for both search and social media. Search engines still, to this day, index fewer pages with dynamic URLs than with static, readable ones, especially those with ID attributes like this one. But this is less of a problem than it once was, and there are alternatives (such as a href=”http://www.sitemaps.org/”sitemaps/a) that can help you get your pages indexed./p

pBut the point on social media is a really important one. Readable URLs are far more likely to be passed along. They are more likely to be linked to. They are more likely to be clicked when shown in e-mails. In every way, readability of URLs helps your Internet marketing–including your search marketing, because more links helps you in search, too./p

pSo, is SEO less important than it once was? Yes. Just a few years ago, most companies could afford no expensive Internet marketing, so SEO was everything. It was the only game in town, so it was of paramount importance. Now, with the myriad social media options that cost nothing, SEO takes its place as an important technique among many. So, in that sense it is less important./p

pBut that’s not the point. It really doesn’t matter, decision by decision, because you don’t need to think about what kind of marketing is most important. What you need to do is to decide what you will spend your time on, tactic by tactic. You need to think much more granularly./p

pThis example shows why. After thinking about all the reasons to create readable URLs, you decide that it is the right thing to do. It’s easy enough to change the automatic schema for your dynamic content, so it’s worth doing because the time expended will bring you more value than doing something else right now./p

pSo, instead of deciding whether SEO is important, think instead of the value of each particular piece of work you can do. Many of these tactics, such as readable URLs, help you across many kinds of marketing. It’s fun to think about what’s hot and what’s not, but it’s profitable to spend your time on what matters, regardless of its trendiness./p

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Your Site is Keyword Optimized, But is it Search Engine Friendly? You Might Be Suprised!

pby Stoney deGeyter/p
pThere is a big difference between optimizing your site for keywords and making it search engine friendly. While one of the first steps in the optimization process should be focused on ensuring the site is search engine friendly, sometimes we tend to want to jump right into the keyword optimization because that’s how we “see results” in the search engines, leaving the site incompatible with the engines while we wonder when we’ll get the results we wanted./p

pEven though an SEO may do all they can to make a site search engine friendly early in the optimization process, some issues will only be uncovered over time as the engines begin spidering and indexing the website. By keeping an eye on performance we can often find indicators that something may be wrong. With that hypothesis, the SEO must delve into research mode to uncover what, if anything, is creating problems for the site./p

pThere are a number of individual issues that you can keep an eye on. Some issues can easily be fixed at the beginning of the SEO process, others are fixed as pages and keywords get optimized, and still others can only be uncovered later as time passes. Each, however are important to ensure your site remains as search engine friendly as possible. /p

pHere are four issues that can impede on having a search engine friendly site:/p

pstrongDuplicate Titles and Descriptions/strong/p

pAs pages are optimized for specific keywords, going in and changing title tags and description meta tags is all part of the process. Each page that gets optimized becomes unique as unique keywords are targeted for each page. But pages that are left unoptimized, or still waiting to be optimized, can often be found to use the same title and description tags repeatedly./p

pThis kind of a href=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/stoney-degeyter/what-does-a-title-tag-title-tag-and-titl.php”title and description tag duplication/a makes your pages, and your site overall, far less valuable and less likely to be fully indexed. Each page that is indexed may be given less weight and value because the site as a whole is dragging down the value of those pages. If you have a large site, correcting duplicate title and descriptions can be a challenge, but even more important than if your site is small because the duplication is often magnified significantly. /p

pstrongDuplicate Content and Pages/strong/p

pThere are a few types of duplicate content: 1) content on your site that can also be found on other sites, 2) content on your site that is duplicated on several pages, such as product descriptions or different pages that say mostly the same thing, and 3) single “pages” that can be accessed via multiple URLs. /p

pThe second issue above is the least significant as most site’s, especially those with products, do have some form of duplication as similar product descriptions may be displayed in different product categories. An easy solution to this is to make sure each category page contains at least a paragraph of unique text at the top. This will allow the search engines to find something on each page that can’t be found elsewhere on the site./p

pThe first issue above can be a problem, especially if that content is stolen from you. You want to do as much as you can to prevent your content from being swiped. But this can also be an issue if you write valuable content that you then republish on other websites. If you do this too much your content will become devalued and, worse, the duplicated content may outrank your own./p

pThe third a href=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/stoney-degeyter/effective-internal-linking-strategies-th.php”duplication issue/a is probably the most common, especially for e-commerce sites. While there is no one way to fix these kinds of problems, the basic solution that any “page” should only be able to be accessed via a single URL. If someone navigates via brand name versus product type, once the reach the product, the URL should be exactly the same./p

pstrongInternal Linking/strong/p

pInternal linking is accomplished in two distinct ways, via the site’s a href=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/stoney-degeyter/the-best-damn-web-marketing-checklist-fo-4.php”primary and subsidiary navigation/a and through adding a href=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/stoney-degeyter/internal-linking-nofollow-and-link-block.php”links into content/a from page to relevant page. /p

pThe most important for search engines is your site’s navigation. The navigation must be inclusive but not overbearing. Link to your main sections and even sub-sections, but only to a point. Once your navigation becomes overly burdened with links then you’re likely not giving the search engines the information they need to determine which pages are the most important./p

pLinking with content can be accomplished easily enough by linking relevant portions of text to additional relevant pages (as I’ve done above.) This is great for visitor usability as it allows visitors to go to pages they think they may be interested in for more information without having to dig for it in the navigation. If they have to do that then it’s most likely they won’t even know they emare /eminterested in viewing that page. Similar content linking can be accomplished with product pages by adding features that provide the visitor with other related products or items they may also be interested in./p

pstrongBloated Code Proper HTML Markup/strong/p

pDesigners, overall, are getting better and better at reducing the amount of code bloat on sites they develop. There are a lot of web development programs out there that create garbage code that weighs down the page and reduces download times, but developers are getting wise to this and creating great designs with highly streamlined code. This is good for everyone. The less code bloat on an individual page the faster each page downloads and the more frequently the search engines are likely to return./p

pWhere may developers still may be lacking us using proper markup to create the HTML. While validating the HTML has little relevance to SEO, invalid HTML can often be problematic if the search spiders cannot decipher it properly. Such errors can cause the spiders to misread content or attribute elements incorrectly, or even prevent them from navigating the site all together./p

pWhat is important, however is that proper markup be used for text and headings. Using Hx tags improperly can assign improper weight to areas of the page giving the engines a false understanding of the page. This can affect rankings for your keywords, giving exaggerated importance to unimportant content./p

pBy keeping an eye on the issues above you can hope to stay ahead of the search engines, or at the very least, not too far behind, allowing important issues to be addressed as quickly as they are uncovered. There is, however, a flip side to all of this. While sites can be keyword optimized without being search engine friendly, the opposite holds true as well. Just because a site is a href=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/stoney-degeyter/search-engine-f.php”search engine friendly does not necessarily mean it is search engine optimized/a. There are two sides to every coin and it’s important to understand both sides./p
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Six Lessons from a Wooden Boy: Lesson Four: Listen to Trusted Advice

pby Jennifer Laycock/p
PYou don’t need to get very far into the story of Pinocchio to realize that little wooden boy didn’t have much sense of judgement rattling around in that hollow head of his. Trouble not only followed him, he turned around and became its friend every chance he got. That’s why the blue fairy appointed Jiminy Cricket to help Pinocchio make good choices. When it comes to your online marketing plan, you’d be wise to find a Jiminy Cricket of your own./p

PThat brings me to the fourth lesson in this series: Listen to trusted advice./p

PemIn this six part series, I’ll be exploring six valuable lessons you can learn from the classic story of Pinocchio and offering up some input on how to apply it to your own marketing plans. If you are just joining the series, catch up on past articles:br /br /

a href=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/jennifer-laycock/six-lessons-from-a-wooden-boy-part-one-s.php”Six Lessons from a Wooden Boy: Part One: Search Engines Want to be Real Boys/a/embr /
a href=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/jennifer-laycock/six-lessons-from-a-wooden-boy-part-two-o.php”Six Lessons from a Wooden Boy: Part Two: Online Reputation Means Straight Talk/abr /
a href=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/jennifer-laycock/six-lessons-from-a-wooden-boy-lesson-thr.php”Six Lessons from a Wooden Boy: Part Three: Don’t be a Social Media Jackass/abr //p

PbWhy Would We Expect to Find Our Way on Our Own?/b/P

Pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”a href=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/images/pinocchiocricket.php” onclick=”window.open(’http://www.searchengineguide.com/images/pinocchiocricket.php’,'popup’,'width=240,height=322,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0′); return false”img src=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/images/pinocchiocricket-thumb-300×402.gif” width=”300″ height=”402″ alt=”pinocchiocricket.gif” class=”mt-image-right” style=”float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;” //a/spanIf you think about all the things you’ve tried to do in your life, chances are you needed to be taught most of them. You likely had to be taught how to ride a bike, how to balance a checkbook and maybe even how to make friends. You had to learn manners and business sense and how to recover from blunders. Whether you learned by observing others or were actively taught, chances are high someone helped you figure out the best way to do things in life./P

PThe world of online marketing is no different. Just this morning I sat in on a PSRA event focused on media relations and listened to seasoned journalists and public relations professionals wonder out loud how they need to use the new tools of social media. They all knew they emneeded/em to engage people with these tools, but few (if any) had any idea of emhow/em to do it. /P

PWhat they needed was someone who could offer up some sage advice and common sense based on their own experience in the social media world./P

PThey needed their very own Jiminy Cricket./P

PbEveryone Needs Their Own Kind of Jiminy/b/P

POf course in the world of online marketing, sage advice rarely shows up in the form of an animated cricket unless you’ve knocked back one too many after a long day at a conference. Instead, you’ll need to find your online conscience in one of the more standard forms. /P

PHere are three of the most common routes people take when they’re looking to find a mentor or consultant./P

Pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”a href=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/images/triplelearn.php” onclick=”window.open(’http://www.searchengineguide.com/images/triplelearn.php’,'popup’,'width=560,height=434,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0′); return false”img src=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/images/triplelearn-thumb-500×387.gif” width=”500″ height=”387″ alt=”triplelearn.gif” class=”mt-image-center” style=”text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;” //a/span/P

PNow it’s important to note most people will need a combination of two, maybe even all three of these information sources to get the knowledge they need to make good choices. The key is to consider how you learn best, how quickly you need to learn and what you can afford to pay. With that in mind, let’s break down the three key places you might find your Jiminy Cricket of online marketing./P

PbBloggers and Forums/b/P

PThose of us who have been involved in the industry since the early days mostly got our start on the various discussion forums that used to be scattered around the web. It was those forums that allowed experimental marketers to come together from around the world sharing tips, ideas and research on strange new ideas like search engine optimization, paid search, email marketing and web development./P

PWhile there are still some very active and excellent forums out there (including our own A HREF=”http://www.smallbusinessbrief.com/forum/”Small Business Ideas forum/A) the majority of the conversation seems to have shifted to blogs and Twitter. Blogs simply give people a better platform to share more in depth ideas and research and to cultivate a community around a more specific set of ideas and concepts. Lively conversation and debate often moves from blog comments to other blogs and on to Twitter as readers and industry vets alike break down the points and ideas of a post./P

PIf you’re still new to the world of search, social media, blogging and the like, it’s best to start out reading a small staple of bloggers and then expand from there. Some great starting points are anything by A HREF=”http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/”Matt McGee/A, A HREF=”http://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/”Mack Collier/A, A HREF=”http://altitudebranding.com/”Amber Naslund/A, A HREF=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/stoney-degeyter/index.php”Stoney deGeyter/A or A HREF=”http://www.theharteofmarketing.com/”Beth Harte/A. /P

PbConsultants and Outsourcing/b/P

PIf you don’t mind spending a little more money in exchange for more personalized counsel, you may want to consider building a relationship with a consultant or outsourcing your project. In fact, many companies find the money saved in wasted hours far exceeds the cost of bringing an expert in to help them do it right the first time./P

PFull or partial outsourcing tends to be the most popular way to get a third party’s input on how to manage your online marketing, but small businesses on a budget should give consideration to keeping a consultant on retainer. Purchasing a handful of phone or email hours each month can give let you have an expert available to answer your team’s questions quickly and accurately while still letting you enjoy the cost savings of doing it yourself./P

PYou can get more insight into making the decision to outsource by checking out A HREF=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/stoney-degeyter/seo-pricing-5-things-to-consider-when-sh.php”Stoney’s article from earlier this week/A. You can also check out an article of mine from last year for a great example of A HREF=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/jennifer-laycock/bloggers-need-to-accept-responsibility-t.php”why having a consultant on hand to guide you/A through the rocky waters of social media is so handy./P

PbClasses and Conferences/b/P

POne of the most common ways people seek wise counsel and advice is at conferences and seminars. This can be a great way to gather a wide range of opinions and to explore a lot of topics quickly. It can also be a great way to get a feel for some industry experts and to swap stories and meet other people you can swap ideas with./P

PThere are quite a few fantastic shows out there. Big shows like A HREF=”http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/”Search Engine Strategies/A and A HREF=”http://searchmarketingexpo.com/”Search Marketing Expo/A cater to larger companies and individuals wanting to get a broad overview of a lot of topics while smaller shows like A HREF=”http://www.marketingprofs.com/events/5/spkguest/?adref=maccpn=espka08″Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer/A and our own a href=”http://www.sbmu.com”Small Business Marketing Unleashed/a give companies a chance to get personalized, in-depth training in a more intimate setting. /P

PThere are quite a few online training programs available these days as well. I outlined some of the A HREF=”http://www.searchengineguide.com/jennifer-laycock/knowing-your-seo-certification-options.php”most popular SEO certification options late last year/A. /P

PbListen Up and Listen Good/b/P

PWherever you go to find your Jiminy Cricket, the fact remains…you need to find one. If you learn no other lesson from the story of Pinocchio, let it be the need for guidance. Time and time again, Pinocchio’s troubles came from his refusal to listen to Jiminy’s sage advice. Don’t make the same mistake with your business. /P

PbComing Up/b/P

PIn the next installment in the series we’ll take a look at why your company and Pinocchio should both be doing whatever it takes to earn a visit from the blue fairy./P
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Puppy’s Picks - January 9th, 2009

pby Jennifer Laycock/p
PI scan hundreds of feeds and read dozens of articles each day so you don’t have to. From Rachel’s first true “Twitter rocks!” moment to the death of the blogroll to great tips on local blogging and paid search, find out which articles I dubbed as must-read for the small business crowd today./p

ul

liYesterday afternoon while I was working on an article, Rachel Phillips looked over at me and said “I just had a ‘you’ moment on Twitter!” I must have given her a blank look because she quickly linked me to A HREF=”http://justincaseyouwerewondering.x.iabc.com/”a post by Justin Goldsborough, a Sprint employee/A. Apparently she had Tweeted a complaint about her new Sprint Instinct phone earlier that day and Justin had spotted it. He then checked several Sprint resources and found a solution for her. The problem was solved in eighteen minutes./li
br /br /

liIf you run a local business or a local blog and you aren’t already reading Matt McGee’s excellent “A HREF=”http://www.hyperlocalblogger.com”HyperlocalBlogger/A,” you should be. He’shad some great posts recently, including one about A HREF=”http://www.hyperlocalblogger.com/blogger-supports-geotagging/”Blogger’s new geotragging feature/A and another one about keeping an eye on A HREF=”http://www.hyperlocalblogger.com/power-of-breaking-news/”breaking local news to gain traffic and local credibility/A. /li
br /br /

liMarketers and public relations types from larger companies may be interested in a post by Jason Baer over at Marketing Profs Daily Fix today. Jason asks whether advertising, digital, public relations or the client themselves A HREF=”http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2009/01/who_wins_the_struggle_for_soci.html”should take ownership for social media/A and offers some thoughts on why each department might have a claim. It’s good food for thought for anyone fighting this own battle in house. /li
br /br /

liAndrew Goodman asks if it’s time to offer a nice little eulogy to the concept of blogrolls. According to Andrew, A HREF=”http://www.traffick.com/2009/01/death-of-blogroll.asp”blogrolls began dying a slow death the moment they were born/A. I’m not entirely sure I agree with him, but he makes a few compelling points./li
br /br /

liOver at Search Engine Watch, David Szetela A HREF=”http://searchenginewatch.com/3632318″takes a look at the paid search ads and landing pages for a specific keyword phrase/A and breaks down their click thru and conversion potential. It’s good hands on piece offering up some solid advice to help you strengthen your PPC campaigns./li
br /br /

/ul
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Happy New Year 2009

Happy new year. As a present for you, here are the best quotes, in my humble opinion, from the book  “Napoleon Hill’s Golden Rules: The Lost Writings”

The principles of success will work for you as they have for others, regardless of education, heredity, or environment. But if you take the belief you are destined to fail and that you cannot do anything to prevent it, you will surely fail. The choice is yours and yours alone.

The R2A2 Formula

The formula will tell you not only what to do but how to do it. If you are ready to use the R2A2 formula, here are two principles that will assure your success:

1.       Recognize, Relate, Assimilate, and Apply principles, techniques, and methods from what you see, hear, read, and experience that can help you attain your goals. This is called the R2A2 formula. The R2 stands for Recognize and Relate and A2 for Assimilate and Apply.

2.       Direct your thoughts, control your emotions, and ordain your destiny by motivating yourself at will to achieve worthwhile goals.

Remember that the second part of the formula is the most important point. This part many people hurry over and tend to avoid. These are the same people who make excuses or blame others for their lack of success. Without action the material will not be worth the price you pay for any self-help book.

One of the most important fundamental principles of psychology, through which the human mind functions, is the tendency of the mind to want that which is withheld, prohibited, or hard to acquire. The moment you remove an object out of reach of a person, that moment you set up in that persons mind a desire for that object. The moment you forbid a person to do a thing, that moment that person strongly desires to do the very thing it has been forbidden to do. The human mind resent being forced to do anything. Therefore, to plant an idea in person’s mind in a such a way that it will remain there permanently, it must be so presented that the person welcomes and readily accepts it. All competent salesmen are familiar with this principle, and practice the habit of so presenting the merits of their services, goods, or wares, that the prospective buyer is scarcely aware that the ideas he is forming are not originating in his own mind.

To begin with, search diligently until you find the particular work to which you wish to devote your life, taking care to see that you select that which will profit all who are affected by your activities. After you have decided what your life work is to be, write out a clear statement of it and then commit it to memory.

Several times a day, and especially just before going to sleep at night, repeat the words of this written description of your life work, and affirm to yourself that you are attracting to you the necessary forces, people, and material things with which to attain the object of your life work, or your definite aim in life.

Bear in mind that your brain is literally a magnet, and that it will attract to you other people who harmonize, in thought and in ideals, with those thoughts which dominate your mind and those ideals which are most deeply seated in you.

Then, if it is true that men are constantly seeking the companion­ship of those whose ideals and thoughts harmonize with their own, can you not see the importance of so controlling and directing your thoughts and ideals that you will eventually develop exactly the kind of “magnet” in your brain that you wish to serve as an attraction in drawing others to you?

If it is true that the very presence of any thought in your conscious mind has a tendency to arouse you to bodily, muscular activity that will correspond with the nature of the thought, can you not see the advantage of selecting, with care, the thoughts which you allow your mind to dwell upon.

Every idea held in the mind through prolonged, concentrated through takes on a permanent form and continues to affect bodily activities according to its nature, either consciously or unconsciously. Autosuggestion which is nothing more or less than an idea held in the mind, through thought, is the only known principle through which one may literally make oneself over, after ant pattern he or she may choose.

There is but little that is strictly impossible when the human mind sets itself to a task with that grim determination that knows no defeat.

Real power come only through intelligently organized and properly directed efforts.

The display of egotism is an unpardonable weakness, in either a writer or a speaker

Your author gives the same care and attention to the details of his definite aim in life as he would to the plans of a skyscraper if he contemplated building one. Your achievement in life will be no more definite than were the plans by which you attained your objective.

Who is wise enough to either affirm or deny the statement that there is a law of the universe through which we attract to us that which we believe in life that we can attain through this same law; that we receive that which we demand, providing the demand is possible of attainment and is based upon equity, justice, and a clearly defined plan.

Person who takes the time to build a definite plan that is sound and equitable, that benefits all whom it affects, and then develops the self- confidence to carry it through to completion cannot be defeated.

This much I do know, however; I know that my outward bodily action invariably harmonizes with and corresponds to the nature of the thoughts which dominate my mind, the thoughts which I permit to drift into my mind, or those which I deliberately place there with the intention of giving them domination over my bodily activities.

My own experience has proved conclusively that character need not be a matter of chance! Character can be built to order just the same as a house can be built to correspond to a set of previously drawn up plans. My own experience has proved conclusively that a man can rebuild his character in a remarkably short length of time, ranging all the way from a few weeks to a few years, depending upon the determination and the desire with which he goes at a task.

What I really took into consideration was my own character, knowing as I did that every transaction was influencing my moral fiber, and that character is nothing more or less than the sum total of one’s habits and ethical conduct. I knew that I could no more afford to keep that $20 without first having earned the right to it than an apple merchant could afford to place a rotten apple in a barrel of sound ones prior to storing the barrel away for the winter. I gave back the $20 because I wanted to convince myself that no material could find its way into my character, with my knowledge, except that which I knew to be sound. I gave back the money because it offered a splendid opportunity for me to test myself and ascertain whether or not I possessed that brand of honesty which prompts a man to be honest for the sake of expedience, or that deeper, nobler, and more worthy brand which prompts a man to be honest that he may grow stronger and more able to render his fellowmen service that grows out of a desire to be all that he tells the other man to be.

I am convinced that if a man’s plans are based upon sound economic principles; if they are fair and just to all whom they affect; and if the man, himself, can throw behind those plans the dynamic force of character and belief in self that grows out of the transactions which have always satisfied his own conscience, he will ride on to success, with and by the aid of a tremendous current of force which no power on earth can stop, nay, a force which but few can correctly interpret or understand.

You cannot organize your individual faculties except through the use of the principle of auto-suggestion, for the simple reason that you cannot vitalize or give dynamic force to your faculties, your emotions, your intellect, your reasoning powers, or your bodily functions, without collecting all of these together, co-relating them, and working them into a plan.

No plan, great or small, can be developed in your mind except through the principle of auto-suggestion. The mind resembles a rich garden spot in that it will grow a crop of outward, physical, bodily activity which corresponds exactly to the nature of the thoughts that dominate the mind, whether those thoughts are deliberately placed there and held until they take root and grow, or merely drift in as so many stragglers, taking up their abode without invitation.

There is no escape from the effects of one’s dominating thoughts, there is no possibility of thinking of failure, poverty, and discouragement and at the same time enjoying success, wealth, and courage. You can choose that which holds the attention of your mind; therefore, you i control the development of your character, which, in turn, helps to ermine the character of people whom you will attract to you. Your n mind is the magnet which attracts to you those with whom you associate most closely, the station in life you hold. Therefore, it is within your province to magnetize that mind only with thoughts that will act the sort of people with whom you wish to associate and the ion in life to which you are willing to attain. Auto-suggestion is the very foundation upon which and through which an attractive personality is built, for the reason that character grows to resemble the dominating thoughts that help in the mind, these, in turn, control the action of the body. When you make use of the principle of auto-suggestion, you are painting a picture or drawing a plan for your subconscious mind to work by. After you learn how to properly concentrate or fix your attention on this process of plan building, you can reach your subconscious mind instantly, and it will put your plans into action, Beginners must repeat over and over again the outline of their plans before the subconscious mind will take over the plans and form them into reality. Therefore, be not discouraged if you do get results on the spur of the moment. Only those who have ted mastership can reach and direct their subconscious mind instantaneously.

 In closing this lesson, let me remind you that back of this principle auto-suggestion is one important thing which you must not overlook, and that is strong, deeply seated, highly emotional desire. Desire is the very beginning of mind operation. You can create in the physical reality practically anything you can desire with deep, vitalized emotion.

Deep desire is the beginning of all human accomplishments. Auto­suggestion is merely the principle through which that desire is communicated to your subconscious mind. Probably you do not have to go outside of your own experience to prove that it is comparatively easy to acquire that which one strongly desires.

In the little town where I was raised there lived an old lady who constantly complained that she feared death from cancer. As long as I can remember, she nursed this habit. She was sure that every little imaginary ache or pain was the beginning of her long-expected cancer. I have seen her place her hand on her breast and have heard her say, “Oh, I am sure I have cancer growing here.” When complaining of this imaginary disease, she always placed her hand on her left breast, the spot where she believed the cancer would attack her.

As I write this lesson, news comes that this old lady has died of cancer on the left breast, in the very spot where she placed her hand when she complained of her fears!

The truth is that it is the subject’s own mind and not the mind of the operator or hypnotist that produces the phenomenon which we call hypnotism.

The human mind is an intricate affair. One of its characteristics is the fact that all impressions which reach the subconscious division are recorded in groups which harmonize and which are apparently closely related. When one of these impressions is called into the conscious mind, there is a tendency to recall all of the others with it. For example, one single act or word that causes a feeling of doubt to arise in a person’s mind is sufficient to call into his conscious mind all of his experiences which caused him to be doubtful. Through the law of association, all similar emotions, experiences, or sense impressions which reach the mind are recorded together, so that the recalling of one has a tendency to bring out the others.

This principle applies to and controls every emotion and every sense impression that is lodged in the human mind. Take the feeling of fear, for example; the moment we permit one single emotion that is related to fear to reach the conscious mind, it calls with it all of its unsavory relations. A feeling of courage cannot claim the attention of our conscious mind while a feeling of fear is there. One must supplant the other. They cannot become roommates, because they do not harmonize. Every thought held in the conscious mind has a tendency to draw to it every other harmonious or related thought. You see, therefore, that those feelings, thoughts, and emotions which claim the attention of the conscious mind are backed by a regular army of supporting soldiers who stand ready to aid them in their work.

Fortunate is the person who controls his egotism and his desire ‘ self-expression to the extent that he is willing to pass his own idea: to others without insisting on reminding them as to the source those ideas. The man who begins his statement with “As you course know, Mr. Smith,” instead of “Let me tell you something do not know, Mr. Smith,” is a salesman who knows how to make of the principle of suggestion.

The first thing, then, is to remember what pranks your imagination can play upon you, and be on your guard. Do not allow yourself to think that awful things are the matter with you or are going to be the matter with you. If you do, you will suffer.

The very best way ,o cure your imagination is at night, just as you go to bed. In the night season, the automatic (subconscious) mind has everything its own way, and the thoughts you give it before your day’s mind (conscious mind) goes to sleep will go on working it all through the night. This may seem a foolish statement, but prove it a true one by the following test. You want to get up at seven o’clock in the morning or, say, some other hour than your regular one for rising. Now say to yourself on going to bed, “I must rise at seven o’clock.” Turn that thought over to your automatic mind with absolute confidence, and you will waken at seven o’clock. This thing is done over and over again, and it is done because the subconscious self is awake all night, and when seven o’clock comes, it taps you on the shoulder, so to speak, and wakes you up. But you must trust it. If you have the least doubt that you will not wake up, it is likely to interfere with the whole process. Faith in your automatic mechanism causes it to operate just as you direct it before you fall asleep. Here is a great secret, and it will help you overcome many a fault and deplorable habit. Tell yourself that you are through worrying, through drinking, through stammering, or whatever else you wish to quit, and then leave the job to the subconscious mind at night. Do this night after night, and mark, you will win.

The mind will attract to it the object upon which it dwells most extensively

The mind must be neutralized before it can be influenced by suggestion

Before the mind is neutralized the state of credulousness greater than normal must exist. Confidence must be created in persons mind before that mind can be neutralized. Sympathy is a strong factor through which to build confidence, and that we can readily “neutralize” the mind of the person for whom we express full sympathy or love.

The human mind resembles mother earth in that it will reproduce, in kind, that which is planted in it through the five physical senses. The preponderance of tendency upon the part of the mind is to “retaliate in kind,” reciprocating all acts of kindness and resenting all acts of injustice and unkindness. Whether acting through the princi­ple of suggestion or auto-suggestion, the mind directs muscular action that harmonizes with the sensory impressions it receives; therefore, if you would have me “retaliate in kind,” you can do so by placing in my mind the sensory impressions or suggestions out of which you wish me to create the necessary appropriate muscular action. Injure or displease me, and like a flash, my mind will direct appropriate muscular action, “retaliating in kind.”

If I do you an injury, you retaliate at first opportunity. If I say unjust things about you, you will retaliate in kind, even in greater measure!

On the other hand, if I do you a favor, you will reciprocate even in greater measure if possible. Thus, we are following the impulse of our nature, through the “law of retaliation”! Through the proper use of this law, I can get you to do whatever I wish you to do. If I wish you to dislike me and to lend your influence toward damaging me, I can accomplish this result by inflicting upon you the sort of treatment that I want you to inflict upon me through retaliation.

If I wish your respect, your friendship, and your cooperation, I can get these by extending to you my friendship and cooperation. The first, and probably the most important, step to be taken in mastering this law is to cultivate complete self-control. You must learn to take all sorts of punishment and abuse without retaliating in kind. This self-control is a part of the price you must pay for mastery of the law of retaliation.

When an angry person starts in to vilify and abuse you, justly or /unjustly, just remember that if you retaliate in a like manner, you are being drawn down to that person’s mental level; therefore, that person is dominating you! On the other hand, if you refuse to become angry, if you retain your self-composure and remain calm and serene, you retain all your ordinary faculties through which to reason. You take the other fellow by surprise. You retaliate with a weapon with the use of which he is unfamiliar; consequently, you easily dominate him.

Why is it that when once a man begins to make money, the whole world seems to beat a pathway to his door? Take any person that you know who enjoys financial success, and he will tell you that he is being constantly sought, and that opportu­nities to make money are constantly being urged upon him! “To him that hath shall be given, but to him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath” (Matthew 25:29). This quotation from the Bible used to seem ridiculous to me, yet how true it is when reduced to its concrete meaning. Yes, “to him that hath shall be given”!’If he “hath” failure, lack of self-confidence, hatred, or lack of self-control, to him shall these qualities be given in still greater abundance! But, if he “hath” success, self-confidence, self-control, patience, and persistence, to him shall these qualities be increased! Sometimes it may be necessary to meet force with force until we overpower our opponent or adversary, but while he is down is a splendid time to complete the “retaliation” by taking him by the hand I and showing him a better way to settle disputes.

“The Divine economy is automatic and very simple: we receive only that which we give.” How true it is that “we receive only that which we give”! It is not that which we wish for that comes back to us, but that which we give.

Our actions toward others, whether of kindness or unkindness, justice or injustice, come back to us in even larger measure^

An untrained mind worries.

A sick body stimulates worries.

The worrier is either physically disorganized, or he proves his lack of confidence in God by worrying.

Your future is not today, but today makes your future. If you want to be sick – want to devitalize and destroy your body – then fear and worry about things.

You should consider your mind sacred. If you desecrate it with jealousy, you are ugly, unstable mentally, and an undesirable method of society.

Good thoughts lead to good health, wealth and happiness. Bad thoughts lead to sickness, poverty and hell. Look in the mirror and smile at yourself.

The dominating qualities are largely determined by one’s environ­ment, training, and associates, and particularly by one’s own thoughts! Any thought held constantly in the mind, or any thought dwelt upon through concentration and brought into the conscious mind often, attracts to it those qualities of the human mind which it most resembles.

A thought is like a seed planted in the ground in that it brings back a crop after its kind, multiplies, and grows; therefore, it is dangerous to allow the mind to hold any thought which is destructive. Such thoughts must sooner or later seek release through physical action.

Through the principle of auto-suggestion—that is, thoughts held in the mind and concentrated upon—any thought will soon begin to crystallize into action.

The only way to develop any quality of the mind is to concentrate upon it, think about it, and use it. Evil tendencies of the mind can be plotted out by starving them to death through disuse!

The time and energy which we spend in striking back at those who I anger us would make us independently wealthy if this great force were directed toward constructive effort—to building instead of tearing down!

Time spent in hatred not only is wasted, but it smothers the only / worthwhile emotions of the human heart, and renders a person useless for constructive work. Thoughts of hatred do not harm anyone except the person who indulges in them. Whiskey and morphine are no more deleterious to the human  body than are thoughts of hatred and anger.

An attractive personality is something that is always found near a heart that beats with kindness and sympathy for struggling humanity.

Try as hard as you wish, and you cannot be happy unless you believe in yourself! Work with all the strength at your command, and you cannot accumulate more than barely enough to live on unless you believe in yourself! The one and only person in all this world through whose efforts you can be supremely happy under all circumstances, and through whose labor you can accumulate all the material wealth that you can use legitimately, is yourself.

In the development of self-confidence, one of the first steps you must take is to dispel forever the feeling that you cannot accomplish anything you undertake. Fear is the chief negative that stands between you and self-confidence, but we shall show you how to scientifically eliminate fear and develop courage in its place.

Eliminate from my mind fear by developing in its place courage.

When the picture becomes transferred permanently to the sensitive plates of your subconscious mind, you will notice that every act and every movement of your body will have a tendency toward transforming this picture into a physical reality. Your mind first draws a picture of that which it wants, and then it proceeds to direct your bodily activity toward acquiring it. Keep fear away from your conscious mind as you would keep poison out of your food, for it is the one barrier that will stand between you and self-confidence. After you have committed this self-confidence building chart to memory, make a habit of repeating it aloud at least twice a day. All of your thoughts have a tendency, within themselves, to produce appro­priate or corresponding activities in your body, but thoughts which are followed by affirmation through spoken words will crystallize into reality in much less time than those which are not followed by expression in words. Going still further, thoughts which are followed by both spoken and written words will crystallize into physical reality in still less time than those which are inhibited and merely held in consciousness silently.

We recommend that you stand before a looking glass where you can see yourself as you repeat the words of the self-confidence building chart. Look yourself squarely in the eyes as though you were some other person, and talk with vehemence. If there is any feeling of lack of courage, shake your fist in the face of that person you see in the glass and arouse him to a feeling of reaction. Make him want to say something; make him want to do something. Soon you will actually see the lines on your face begin to change from an expression of weakness to one of strength. You will commence to see strength and beauty in that face which you never saw before, and this wonderful transformation will be quite as noticeable to others.

Leadership only comes through supreme belief in self. Remember this as my parting shot at you—that you can be anything that you deeply and emotionally desire to be. Find out what you desire most, and you have then and there laid the foundation for acquiring it.

Emotionalize or vitalize your whole being with any well-fixed, definite desire, and immediately your personality becomes a magnet that will attract to you the object of that desire.

None but the strongest minds will resist the tendency to absorb the surrounding environment.

Habit grows out of environment—out of doing the same thing in the same way repeatedly—out of thinking the same thoughts over and over—and when once formed, it resembles cement which has set in the molds and is hard to break.

The human mind draws the material out of which thought and / action are built from the surrounding environment, and habit crystallizes these into permanent fixtures of our personality and stores them away in our subconscious minds. Habit may be likened to the grooves on a phonograph record, while the human mind may be likened to the needle point that fits into that groove. When any habit has been well formed (by repetition of thought or action), the mind has a tendency to attach itself to and follow that habit as the phonograph needle follows the groove in the wax record.

Environment supplies the food and the material out of which we create thought, and habit crystallizes these materials into permanency.

A habit is a ‘mental patch’ over which our actions have traveled for some time, each passing making the path a little deeper and a little wider. If you have to work over a field or through a forest, you know how natural it is for you to choose the clearest path in preference to the less worn ones, and greatly in preference to stepping out across the field or through the woods and making a new path. And the line of mental action is precisely the same. It is movement along the lines of the least resistance— passage over the well-worn path.

“Habits are created by repetition and are formed in accordance to a natural law, observable in all animate things, and some would say in inanimate things as well. As an instance of the latter, it is pointed out that a piece of paper, once folded in a certain manner, will fold along the same lines the next time. And all users of sewing machines, or other delicate pieces of mechanism, know that as a machine or instrument is once ‘broken in,’ so will it tend to run thereafter. The same law is also observable in the case of musical instruments. Clothing or gloves form into creases according to the person using them, and these creases, once formed, will always be in effect, notwithstanding repeated pressings. Rivers and streams of water cut their courses through the land and, thereafter, flow along the habit-course. The law is in operation everywhere.

The best (and one might say the only) way in which old habits may be removed is to form new habits to counteract and replace the undesirable ones. Form new mental paths over which to travel, and the old ones will soon become less distinct and, in time, will practically fill up from disuse. Every time you travel over the path of the desirable mental habit, you make the path deeper and wider, and make it so much easier to travel it thereafter. This mental path-making is a very important thing, and I cannot urge upon you too strongly the injunction to start to work making the desirable mental paths over which you wish to travel. Practice, practice, practice—be a good path-maker.

1.     At the beginning of the formation of a new habit, put force into your expression of the action, thought, or characteristic. Remember that you are taking the first steps toward making the new mental path, and it is much harder at the first than it will be afterwards. Make the path as clear and deep as you can at the start, so that you can see it readily the next time you wish to travel it.

2.    Keep your attention firmly concentrated on the new path building, and keep your eyes and thoughts away from the old paths, lest you incline toward them. Forget all about the old paths, and concern yourself only with the new one that you are building.

3.    Travel over your newly made path as often as possible. Make opportunities for doing so, without waiting for them to arise. The oftener you go over the new path, the sooner will it become an old, well-worn, easily traveled one. Think out plans for passing over it and using it at the start.

4.    Resist the temptation to travel over the older, easier paths that you have been using in the past. Every time you resist a temptation, the stronger do you become, and the easier will it be for you to do so the next time. But every time you yield to the temptation, the easier does it become to yield again, and the more difficult does it become to resist the next time. You will have a fight on at the start, and this is the critical time. Prove your determination, persistency, and willpower now, right here at the start.

Be sure that you have mapped out the proper path—plan it out well, and see where it will lead you to—then go ahead without fear and without allowing yourself to doubt. ‘Place your hand upon the plow, and look not backward.’ Select your goal—then make a good, deep, wide mental path leading straight to it.”

There is a close resemblance between habit and auto-suggestion. Through habit, an act repeatedly performed in the same manner has a tendency to become permanent, and eventually we perform the act automatically and without much thought or concentration. An idea or desire, to be transformed into reality, must be held in the conscious mind faithfully and persistently until it begins to take permanent form. What is needed is a steady, determined, persistent application to the one object upon which you have set your mind. Having found the object of your desire and knowing how to concentrate upon it, you should then learn how to be persistent in your concentration, aim, and purpose.

There is nothing like sticking to a thing. Many men are brilliant, resourceful, and industrious, but they fail to reach the goal by reason of their lack of “stick-to-it-iveness.” One should acquire the tenacity of the bull dog, and refuse to be shaken off a thing once he has fixed his attention and desire upon it. You remember the old Western hunter who, when once he had gazed upon an animal and said, ‘You’re my meat,” would never leave the trail or pursuit of that animal if he had to track it for weeks, losing his meat in the meantime. Such a man would, in time, acquire such a faculty of persistence that the animals feel like Davy Crockett’s coon who cried out, “Don’t shoot, mister, I’ll come down without it.”

Not only today and tomorrow, but every day until the end.

The longer I live, the more certain I am that the great difference between men, between the feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignificant, is energy— invincible determination—a purpose once fixed, and then death or victory.

I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment.

If you lack persistence, you should begin to train yourself in the direction of acquiring the habit of sticking to things. This practice will establish a new habit of the mind, and will also tend to cause the appropriate brain cells to develop and, thus, give to you as a permanent characteristic the desired quality that you are seeking to develop. Fix your mind upon your daily tasks, studies, occupation, or hobbies, and hold your attention firmly upon them by concentra­tion, until you find yourself getting into the habit of resisting “side­tracking” or distracting influences. It is all a matter of practice and habit. Carry in your mind the idea of the chisel held firmly against the object it is shaping, as given in this lesson—it will help you so much. And read this over and over again, every day or so, until your mind will take up the idea and make it its own. By so doing, you will tend to arouse the desire for persistence, and the rest will follow naturally, as the fruit follows the budding and flowering of the tree. Persistence may be compared to the “drop of water which finally wears away the hardest stone.” When the final chapter of your life-work is written, you will find that your persistence, or lack of it, has played a mighty part for your success or failure.

In hundreds of thousands of cases, the talents of men could be matched, one against the other, with the result that there would be no noticeable difference in their ability to accomplish a desired end. One has as much education as the other. One has as much latent ability as the other. They go forth into the world with equal chances of winning the goal for which they aim, but one succeeds and the other fails! Accurate analysis will show that the one succeeded because of persistence, while the other failed because he lacked persistence!

Persistence, auto-suggestion, and habit are a trio of words, the meaning of which no one can afford to overlook. Persistence is the strong cord which binds auto-suggestion and habit together until they merge into one and become a permanent reality.

The Easy Road G.S.W.

How many seek the gladness,

That love and friendship lend, Forgetting to be friendly,

While asking for a friend. How many seek position

And highest tasks to do, And strive to rule the many

While faithless to the few.

How many fix their vision

On mountains lost in light, Yet scorn the weary climbing

That leads them to the height. And choosing false conditions,

How many then complain, Because life’s laws are changeless

And truth and justice reign. Because, as to Mohammed,

Life teaches to each one That all may seek the mountain,

That mountain comes to none.

To every sincere, inquiring mind, Nature declares, “Tell me what you want. I can get it for you.” But the majority do not know what they want; nor do they want the same thing twice in succession. That is why more dreams do not come true. Adopt a “chief aim” in life.

“I am fifty years old. For a decade, I have been a department manager in a large factory. At first, my duties were easy; then the firm had a rapid expansion of business which gave me added responsibilities. Several of the young men in my department developed unusual energy and ability—at least one of them had his eye on my job.

“I had reached the age in life when a man likes to be comfortable, and having been with the company a long time, I felt that I could safely settle back into an easy berth. The effect of this mental attitude was well-nigh disastrous to my position.

“About two years ago, I noticed that my power of concentration was weakening, and my duties were becoming irksome. I neglected my correspondence until I looked with dread upon the formidable pile of letters; reports accumulated, and subordinates were inconvenienced by the delay. I sat at the desk with my mind wandering elsewhere.

“Other circumstances showed plainly that my mind was not on my work; I forgot to attend an important meeting of the officers of the company. One of the clerks under me caught a bad mistake made in an estimate on a carload of goods and, of course, saw to it that the manager learned of the incident.

“I was thoroughly alarmed at the situation and asked for a week’s vacation to think things over. I was determined to resign, or find the trouble and remedy it. A few days of earnest introspection at an out-of-the-way mountain resort convinced me that I was suffering from a plain case of wandering mind. I was lacking in concentration; my physical and mental activities at the desk had become desultory. I was careless and shiftless and neglectful—all because my mind was not alertly on the job. When I had diagnosed my case with satisfaction to myself, I next sought the remedy. Evidently, I needed a complete new set of working habits, and I made a resolve to acquire them.

“With paper and pencil, I outlined a schedule to cover the working day: first, the morning mail, then the orders to be filled, dictation, conference with subordinates, and miscellaneous duties, ending with a clean desk before I left. ‘How is a habit formed?’ I asked myself mentally. ‘By repetition,’ came back the answer. ‘But I have been doing these things over and over thousands of times,’ the other fellow in me protested. ‘True, but not in orderly, concentrated fashion,’ replied the echo.”I returned to the office with mind in leash, but restless, and placed my new working schedule into force at once. I performed the same duties with the same zest and, as nearly as possible, at the same time every day. When my mind started to slip away, I quickly brought it back. “From a mental stimulus, created by will power, I progressed in habit building. Day after day, I practiced concentration of thought. When I found repetition becoming comfortable, then I knew that I had won.”

‘Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in his writing, propounded the right idea. You must concentrate. You must not carry any useless mental baggage. You must concentrate on the things in which you are interested and expunge from your memory everything you are not interested in. There must be not only a spring cleaning, but a daily cleaning of your memory, so to speak, in order to make room for fresh stores of helpful information. ‘James J. Hill, who had perhaps one of the most remarkable memories of any man in the country, used to say that it is easy to remember things in which one is interested. Anyone wishing to acquire comprehensive knowledge of his business, or of any specific subject, must not try to store his mind with endless details about other things. For example, I have tried to learn all I could about the steel business in its mining, manufacturing, selling, and transportation branches, but to enable me to carry business information in my head, I have not attempted to retain in my mind minute detailed data about politics or baseball. ‘Absorb what to you is essential—that is, everything pertaining to your field of endeavor. Abolish from your mind nonessential, extraneous subjects. No human brain has cells enough to store up all the facts about all subjects under the sun. Don’t clog your brain cells with impedimenta. Feed them only with vital material, with things that will enhance your usefulness in your sphere of activity by increasing and improving your stock of needful information.’ ‘How can a young man start in to improve his memory?’ I asked.

“If you find it difficult to remember a fact or a name, do not waste your energies in ‘willing’ it to return. Try to recall some other fact or name associated with the first in time or place or otherwise, and lo! when you least expect it, it will pop into your thoughts.

“If your memory is good in most respects, but poor in a particular line, it is because you do not interest yourself in that line and, therefore, have no material for association. Blind Tom’s memory was a blank on most subjects, but he was a walking encyclopedia on music.

“To improve your memory, you must increase the number and variety of your mental associations.

“Many ingenious methods, scientifically correct, have been devised to aid in the remembering of particular facts. These methods are based wholly on the principle that that is most easily recalled which is associated in our mind with the most complex and elaborate groupings of related ideas.

“The same principle is at the basis of all efficient pedagogy. The competent teacher endeavors by some association of ideas to link every new fact with those facts which the pupil already has acquired.

Every morning, outline the general plan of your activities for the day. Select only the important things. Do not bother with the details. Determine upon the logical order for your day’s work. Think not so much of how you are to do things as of the things you are to do. Keep your mind on results. And having made your plan, stick to it. Be your own boss. Let nothing tempt you from your set purpose. Make this daily planning a habit and hold to it through life. It will give you a great lift toward whatever prize you seek.

The Instant You Recollect a Thing to Be Done Do it.

Every idea that memory thrusts into your consciousness carries with it the impulse to act upon it. If you fail to do so, the matter may not occur to you, or when it does, it may be too late. “Your mental mechanism will serve you faithfully only as long as you act upon its suggestions. This is as true of bodily habits as of business affairs. The time to act upon an important matter that just now comes to mind is not ‘tomorrow’ or ‘a little later,’ but now. “What you do from moment to moment tells the story of your career. Ideas that come to you should be compared as to their relative importance. But do this honestly. Do not be swayed by distracting impulses that inadvertently slip in. And having gauged their importance, give free rein at once to the impulse to do everything that should not make way for something more important. If, for any reason, action must be deferred, fix the matter in your mind to be called up at the proper time. Drive all other thoughts from your consciousness. Give your whole attention to one matter. Determine the exact moment at which you wish it to be recalled. Then put your whole self into the determination to remember it at precisely the right moment.

It is necessary to handle a thousand tons of clay and dross in order to obtain a milligram of radium! The process of separation is a long, tedious, and expensive one, but that is the only way to secure radium. That is one reason why radium is so expensive. To get at a seemingly simple truth, we must sometimes go through masses of evidence, sorting out the usable from the unusable, but it must be done if we want the “radium.”

You can do almost anything with a person when you learn how to influence his mind. The mind may be linked to a great field. It is a very fertile field which always produces a crop after the kind of seed which is sown in it. The problem, then, is to learn how to select the right sort of seed and how to sow that seed so that it takes root and grows quickly. We are sowing seed in our minds daily, hourly, nay, every second, but we are doing it promiscuously and more or less unconsciously. We must learn to do it after a carefully prepared plan, according to a well-laid-out design! Haphazardly sown seed in the human mind brings back a haphazard crop! There is no escape from this result.

In your search for ways and means of understanding and manipulating your own mind so you can persuade it to create that which desire in life, let us remind you that, without a single exception anything which irritates you and arouses you to anger, hatred, dislike or cynicism is destructive and very bad for you.

You can never get the maximum, or even a fair average of constructive action out of your mind until you have learned to control it and keep it from becoming stimulated through anger or fear!

These two negatives, anger and fear, are positively destructive to your mind, and as long as you allow them to remain, you can be sure of results which are unsatisfactory and way below what you are capable of producing.

In each human heart lies the power to visit upon the person, from within, joy or sorrow, according to the extent to which one’s efforts are made to conform to the law of compensation or permitted to run counter against it.

There never was any man-made law placed on the statute books, and there never will be any such law placed there, which cannot be broken and the consequences avoided now and then, by shrewd and cunning men, but no man has yet been smart enough to thwart the workings of the law of compensation. That law is man-proof. The more man tinkers with it, the less chance he stands of escaping its consequences, unless he earnestly studies it with the object of conforming to its principles!

As Mark Twain says, the only difference between truth and fiction is that fiction has to stick to what seems possible. Truth doesn’t. Verily, we repeat, out of hardship and failure comes strength! This seems like unsound philosophy while we are experiencing the “hardship and failure,” but all who survive these cleansing experiences know differently.

“Every excess causes a defect, every defect an excess. Every sweet hath its sour, every evil its good. Every faculty which is a receiver of pleasure has an equal penalty put on its abuse. For every grain of wit, there is a grain of folly. For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something. If riches increase, they are increased that use them. If the gatherer gathers too much, nature takes out of the man what she puts into his treasure chest, swells the estate, but kills the owner. Nature hates monopolies and exceptions. The waves of the sea do not more speedily seek a level from their loftiest tossing, than the varieties of condition tend to equalize themselves. There is always bearing, the strong, the rich, the fortunate, substantially on the same ground with all others!”

In the light of every experience which I have cataloged, and in the light of every observation which I have made with relation to others, I am bound to say frankly and boldly that where principle stands in the way of pecuniary gain, there is only one thing to do and that is to support principle; where the cause of the individual is in conflict with the cause of humanity as a whole, support the cause of humanity! All who would thus boldly assert themselves must sacrifice, temporarily, but just as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, their just reward will come to them further along the line, when the law of compensation begins to get down to business.

If we could get people to do that which we want them to do! Seemingly, it has never occurred to most of us that there is an inflamable method through which we can get other people to do that which we want them to do. Seemingly, it has never occurred to us that we can get other people to act toward us as we wish them to by simply acting that way toward them first and keeping it up until they respond! Do you get the full significance of that which you have just read? If you do, you are to be congratulated, because you will never again complain that anyone failed to do that which you wanted him to do. You will know how to get that which you want by first giving the same thing to some other member or group of members of the human race. Furthermore, you will never again be guilty of putting into motion  a cause which will bring suffering and sorrow and hunger and deprivation to any member of the human race, because you will know beforehand that this same result will eventually come back to curse you. If you get the full significance of the foregoing, you will never again place another person in any situation wherein you, yourself, would not be delighted to take his place and let him take yours.

Remember this: There are only two kinds of forces in this universe. One attracts, and the other repels! You are a force, and you belong in one or the other of these classifications. You either attract people or repel them. And, remember this also, that all whom you attract are in harmony with your own attitude toward life. That is why you attract them. Like attracts like. Men of wealth and success are attracted to one another. Professional tramps and down-and-outers are attracted to one another. This principle applies to every atom, molecule, and electron throughout this universe.

To seek a day’s pay for half a day’s work is not observing the Golden Rule. To think of yourself and yours and forget your duty to your neighborhood, your fellow workers, or your associates is not observing the Golden Rule. To permit another person to render you service for which you do not give adequate pay is not observing the Golden Rule.

Check up on yourself and see if you are making any of these fundamental mistakes, and if you are, you will begin to find the reason for your unhappy, poverty-stricken condition in life. That is, you will discover the reason for your “unlucky” lot in life unless you are one of those peculiar human beings who absolutely refuse to face any condition that shows him his real self. You can change the attitude of others toward you by first changing your attitude toward others!

Please read the foregoing sentence again. It is worth it. This writer must make a confession before closing, and it is this: He knows this principle will work because he has tried it. You never will know whether it will work or not until you try it. This lesson might as well never have been written, as far as you are concerned, unless you experiment with the fundamental principle with which it deals. There might as well be no such law as that embodied in the Golden Rule, as far as you are concerned, unless you apply it in your relationships with your feloow sojourners here on earth.

Never mind what others are doing, or whether they are applying the Golden Rule or not. Never mind the injustices and wrongs of the world. Never mind .those who fail to apply the Golden Rule dealings with you.’ Your job is to master yourself and c efforts in the direction that you wish them to go. If others go on violating the Golden Rule, that is their misfortune, not excuse you if you do the same,,.

No human being or group of human beings can attain success that will be permanent unless that success is built upon sound fundamentals.  temporary point of advantage may be attained unfair means, and without observing the Golden Rule, but always some leveling circumstance, some evening-up process which will cut the foundation from under all whom so attain temporary advantage.

“Every person has what we call “reputation.” It may be good, medium, or bad, but whatever it is, it represents the accumulated transactions which you have had with other people. One dishonest or shady transaction may make but slight difference in your life if it is followed by a long series of straightforward dealings. People come to know you by the preponderance of your tendency toward honesty or dishonesty.

When you deliberately establish a standard by which to govern yourself in all transactions with others, and that standard is the Golden Rule, you gradually build a reputation which gains you the confidence, good will, and active cooperation of all with whom you come in contact.

This is in compliance with the law of attraction, a law which you deliberately set into motion in your favor when you deal with people on the Golden Rule basis.

Reverse the principle and build your reputation out shady transactions, even though no single transaction be of importance, and by and by, the “accumulated experience” people who know you, which constitutes your reputation undermine their confidence in you and reduce you to sure failure. There is no escape from this law. Lastly, and perhaps of more importance than the other mentioned, if you understand the principle of auto-suggestion know the effect which every transaction has on your own mind. If you are filling your subconscious mind with the undeniable fact that you are dealing with other people always on the Golden Rule basis, you soon build such a healthy respect for yourself and build such powerful self-confidence that nothing on earth can stop attaining your desires in life.

A Golden Rule consciousness, well developed in your own will give you the power to attain the heights of achievement whatever life work you may have chosen, and no one will ever stop you.

Worldwide Search Engine Market Share part 1

• part 2
• part 3

In this article we review Global Search Report released by Multilingual Search and detail search share distribution in US, UK, China, Japan, Israel, Russia, Italy, South Korea, Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Slovakia, Neitherlands, Ukraine. We also answer the question, how much is 1% search engine market share is worth? (with a link to the post that has detailed calculations).

US Search Engine Market Share

Google holds ~60% search engine market share in US. Combined with AOL, which is outsourced to Google, that number raises to by ~4% to 64%. Google also the supplies search to Amazon, Myspace, Craiglist and Netscape.

Yahoo is at approximately 20% with distribution deals to T-Mobile USA and T-Mobile Europe.

Microsoft is at around ~9%, followed by Ask.com 4.0% and AOL at 4.0%.

source

This search engine share distribution has been consistent (with exception of few points) for approximately a year. Google tends to win 0.1% – 0.2% points every month, while Yahoo and Microsoft fluctuate up and down. The fastest search engine market share change we can expect is Combination of Yahoo+AOL or something involving Microsoft.

UK Search Engine Market Share

In the UK Google dominates with 74% Google.co.uk usage and 14% Google.com usage, combine to a total of 88%. Yahoo is at modest 3% same as Ask.com at 3% followed by Live at 2%.

source

China Search Engine Market Share

China is becoming largest country in the world in terms of internet users. With approximately 1.3 billion people and 210 million internet users its projected China will surpass US in the next several years. Chinese internet operates as a separate entity monitored by the government firewall. Blogs, emails, news and other data is tracked r and if government spots criticism people are quickly arrested, detained or executed, depending on severity of the criticism. Search engines operating in China have to comply to Chinese laws and release any user data upon request.

Baidu is Chinese search leader with 55%, followed by Google at 21% and Yahoo and 7.2%.

Japan Search Market Share

According to Mokoto Hunt all Japanese search reports only talk about number of visitors and page views, with no data for search volumes. For this reason she claims, Yahoo Japan always comes as the #1 leader. Google in Japan supplies search to top 10 Japanese sites and it’s search volume may be in fact higher than Yahoo.

Here’s the accepted Japanese search market share distribution

• Yahoo Japan
• Google Japan
• MSN Japan

There are 2 main PPC platforms in Japan, Overture and Adwords.

Israel Search Engine Market Share

Google has near search monopoly in Israel, just as in UK. It holds 80%, followed by Walla.co.il at 11%, MSN at 5%, Nana.co.il 2% and Tapuz.co.il 2%. Google is also Israeli leader in PPC market, controlling 83%, followed by Walla.co.il at 4%, merlin.co.il at 4% and other smaller PPC networks sharing rest of the pie chart.

• part 2
• part 3

Worldwide Search Engine Market Share part 2

• part 1
• part 3

Russian Search Engine Market Share

In Russia Google holds second spot at 25% after Yandex which is at 47%. Third spot belongs to Rambler with 15%. Yandex is valued between $2 and $5 billion dollars, and will go public at Nasdaq in the next few months.  Yandex has a competitive PPC network called Yandex Direct and is copying most Google products such as maps, Yandex Money (checkout), Desktop, etc.

Yandex contextual ad network is by invitation only for large volume websites. This may hurt Yandex search market share as smaller publishers who turn to Google Adsense may also choose Google Search over Yandex.

Italy Search Share

There are no real share stats for Italy. Google, along with MSN/Live, Yahoo and Libero (Italian portal) are heavily used throughout the country.

South Korea

Naver is South Korea’s number one search engine portal with dominant 70% shares. It is followed by Daum at 11% and Yahoo at 6.2%. Surprisingly Google has almost no search presence in South Korea. Google has improved it’s relationship with the #2 South Korean search engine Daum by winning an ad distribution deal from Yahoo. Daum and Google are working on broadening their search partnership to take on Naver.

Spain

Google controls almost half of Spain searches at 47%, followed by Yahoo at 17%, MSN at 5% and Spanish Terra.es at 4%.

Portugal

Google has a complete monopoly in Portugal holding 90% search engine market share. It is followed by Sapo at 7%, which has its own Portuguese search engine, but outsources international searches to Google. On the third spot is Clix with 2%, which outsources search and PPC to Google, followed by lol.pl at 1%, which also outsources both search and PPC to Google. Effectively Google holds 93% of Portuguese search market.

Google is also the dominant PPC platform, with Sapo as its competitor (at approximately 5%).

Bulgaria

Google holds 90% search market share excreting an almost monopoly status. MSN, Yahoo and Jabse (local player) share the remaining 10%.

Bulgaria spends around $3.8 million dollars on online advertising, a figure which is projected to double in the next several years.

Czech Republic

In Czech Republic Seznam.cz is leading with 62%, followed by Google at 24%, Centrum.cz at 4%, Atlas.cz with 2.5% and Jyxo with 0.5%. Seznam.cz is also the dominant pay per click platform.

Notice how any search engine with the most market share is usually the most effective PPC platform. Pay Per Click effectiveness is 100% reliant on usage, hence the more user a search engine has, the broader and larger an audience to which it can show PPC ads. Unless a search engine has market leadership, it cannot possibly have an effective PPC platform (the case with Microsoft). Thus Google invests heavily in traffic acquisition through quality technology, word of mouth, distribution deals, and more recently offline advertising.

• part 1
• part 3

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