Here’s a review of my new ebook “How to Get Astonishing Results in Life Using the Eight Crucial Elements of Self-Development” written by Troy Boyd from over at http://www.successfulselfhelp.com…

Troy read the book and sent me the review saying that he’ll be posting this on his blog later today.   Hope you like it.

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We’re inundated with people pushing their products every single day on the internet, and sadly most don’t live up to all the hype.  Let’s face it, how many times have you been promised the world on a sales page, only to be disgusted by the amount of disappointment you have.

After all, sometimes we’re desperately searching for a solution to our problems and when we drop some good money on a book or report that promises to give us that solution…then we’re hoping beyond hope that the report will deliver.

This is especially true in the self-development field where the solution could mean the difference between our hopes soaring or being beaten down even further in the dirt than they were in the first place.

All this is going somewhere, I promise.

Recently a good friend of mine David Feinstein gave me a review of his new e-book in the self-development field titled “How to Get Astonishing Results in Life Using the Eight Crucial Elements of Self-Development”.

Now I’ll be honest, I get a lot of stuff to review and very often just skimming through a product I can tell that it’s going to be pretty much the same old crap that’s all over the internet already.  So in other words, most of the stuff I get sent for review doesn’t make it past the table of contents and a skim through the chapters.

I felt a little differently getting a copy of David’s new e-book because well, frankly I knew David already, and I knew that David was already hugely successful in his own right.  I also knew from working with him that he was a guy with huge amounts of integrity, so basically I was fairly confident that this book would make it through the skim test.

What I didn’t expect though was that the book actually stopped me in my tracks, and all the skimming went out the window.  I pretty much read from cover to cover (well, virtual cover to cover since it was an e-book but you get the point)…

From the introduction David pretty much had me gripped.

Here’s why.

He immediately explains exactly why the reader might not be seeing success in their lives…and in great detail.  He then goes on to say that the elements of success are within each of us already – and in fact we already use them, we just use them backwards.

I finally understood exactly how so many people get confused with their lack of success, even though they might feel like they’re doing all of the right things.

Each chapter goes on to explain a new element of success, and how it’s meant to be used correctly, with real world examples given at each opportunity.

The thing I really like about all this though is that these are not just chapters like so many other books have that simply explain the problem, and never giving a real solution.  David gives real usable solutions that anybody can start implement immediately to see results.  He seems to realize that sometimes people need to have something that they can relate to rather than just text book theories…and he gives that all throughout the book.

Probably the best part of the e-book is the personal letter to the reader about exactly how to use the e-book to get the most out of it.

Listen, we all have our e-books that we read and never go back to again, but David lays out a plan so that you can get tons out this e-book.  He shows you how to implement the ideas and see consistent and constant improvement…and how to use the book as an actual tool, not a quick read.

One thing that I think makes this book really truly stand-out – that some may not actually like to be honest – is that he doesn’t tell you anywhere that by simply reading the e-book that your life will change or any success will happen.  But he does lay out a nice plan for that to happen in a very effective and long reaching way.

I would recommend “How to Get Astonishing Results in Life Using the Eight Crucial Elements of Self-Development” for anyone in the world who wants to see their life improve from where it’s at now.  With this book I think that it’s possible for that to happen at near warp speed, simply because of the rock solid principles and success based elements within it.

You can read more about it by clicking here…

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In the offline world, the big thing is and has always been 3 words for success…location, location, location.  Remember hearing that?

Well online theirs is no location.  Your website is floating around somewhere in cyberspace, and so to get people to come to you, you must do the things necessary to either direct them to you, or to get in front of where they are looking in the first place for the information that you’re providing.

Of course, the best place to be is always where they’re looking in the first place right?  This way you don’t have to be chasing…you are actually right where they’re looking. Essentially, you’re being chased.

It’s common sense to think that the more traffic/visitors that you get to your website, the better your chances are for success.  That is mostly true, but the thing that you really want to focus on is getting targeted visitors to your sites.  In other words, you want the people who are most likely to purchase your products, or join your opportunities.  So, in other words, massive traffic is nice, but laser focused targeted trafficis even better. I’d much rather have 2,000 people who are looking to join a network marketing opportunity come to my sites than people looking for a networking solution for their companies computer system.  See the difference?

The key to getting targeted traffic is by use of keywords.  Keyword research is key to getting pinpoint targeted visitors to your site.  It’s like the difference between having a taco stand on a glacier in Alaska, or a taco stand on the highly trafficked corner of Sunset and Vine in Hollywood, CA.  Where do you think you’d sell more tacos?   That is unless Eskimos and polar bears eat tacos I guess.  But you get the point.

There are two primary ways to get traffic online.  Free or Paid.  That’s the main breakdown, but it goes even further than that.  With paid search there is PPC (pay-per-click) traffic , there are banner ads, you can pay to simply place your ad on someone else’s website, there are ezine ads, solo-ads in ezines, co-registration, lead buying, etc.  Of those pay per click is definitely the most popular and widely used, and when used correctly most effective.

Of course free traffic is the best that there is in most people’s minds, especially if you’re just starting out. (There are those in the PPC world who would disagree with that notion though since they’re having huge great success with paid traffic).

Free types of traffic include SEO traffic (search engine traffic), article marketing, traffic from signature files in forum posts, blog posts, and other places where you’re allowed to make comments, there’s social networking traffic, and then there’s also Joint venture and affiliate traffic (assuming that you have your own product with an affiliate program of course).

Of those the one to strive for is definitely SEO traffic, but this takes time to put into place, and depends on a well optimized website in most cases.  Yet, the time that you spend can be well worth it in the long run considering that when someone goes to a search engine such as Google (the biggest there is with about 65% of all search traffic), and they type in the keyword or search phrase that you’re listed under, they  are distinctly looking for exactly what you’ve got.  That’s the ultimate way to get yourself right in front of them.

Regardless of which type you use, paid or free, the key is that you want targeted searchers coming to your sites.  Using the right keywords again is how you do that.  There are a number of tools out on the market for you to use to do keyword research, with probably the best being Google’s own keyword tool.

There’s not enough space here for me to write all that entails when it comes to website traffic, but hopefully this article has given you a more clear idea on the type of traffic that YOU want to aim for, and that fits your monetary and time budget best right now.

No matter what, the more you learn about getting targeted traffic to your website, the greater your chances are for massive success.

In a previous article on internet marketing we talked a lot about how you should begin, and the mistakes that most people make online that you should do everything to avoid.  So you should know that slapping up an ugly website, and hoping people will come is a failing strategy nearly every time.

I also talked about how you should consider your prospective customer or business partner depending on your industry, and why you should carry on less about yourself and really focus on them.  Well, this article is going to touch on how you SHOULD use your websites and the internet to brand yourself and your name.

It’s going to show you how to get people to notice you and begin to recognize you as an authority in your industry or niche.

Now, let’s not get confused here.  You see, I believe that most people have this intention from the very beginning and that’s why they do make that first mistake of going on and on about themselves on their websites.  But that’s not how you establish yourself as an authority.

Let’s look at it from the reader’s point of view!  Actually, let’s look at it from your point of view but from the other side of the coin.

Let’s say you were looking for a person to build you a house on a new piece of property that you’d just bought.  Of course you would shop around right for the building who you thought would do the best job.  So let’s say you go to the first person and he starts to tell you how great he is, and how he builds the best houses there are.  How everybody loves him, and how if he builds your house that you can’t go wrong.  He may even tell you that he’s been building houses for 20 odd years.  Wow!  Impressive…or is it?

Let’s say the next guy you go to sits you down in his office, and pulls out a large catalog of all of the houses that he’s built for other people.  But while he’s showing you these houses he’s telling you all about the process of building homes, and why he did the things that he did to each house to make each structure more solid, to make each window more secure so that you lose less heat in the winter and less cool air in the summer.

If he went through and educated you on all of this stuff, and really laid it out there for you, without ever…not once…saying how great he thought he was…tell me, which guy would you trust and want to work with the most.  The guy who talked obsessively about himself, or the guy who showed you why he does things the way he does, and how if he did those same things for you your house would be more secure and you’d save tons of money?

I think we know the answer to that question pretty easily.

You see him as an expert now because he’s shown you he was an expert, not told you so.

On the internet it takes a lot more to get someone to trust you because it’s not a face to face meeting.  Therefore, you have to prove in other ways that you’re a real person, and that you’re knowledgeable.

Now just proving that you’re a real person goes a long way in branding yourself as well.  That’s why you should always have a picture of yourself on all of your websites…on everything that you do online.  You see people are actually very afraid of the anonymity of the internet…because they’ve heard horror story after horror story about people getting ripped off.  You probably have too right?

So you need to prove to people right off the bat that you are a real person.  The way to do that is with pictures of yourself, videos of yourself (which is really easy to do these days) and even audio of yourself.

You need to have a quick and easy way for people to contact you.  Give your phone number, your email address, and even Skype profile if you have it.  If not you should get it.

You also need to always remember to educate your prospects and prove to them that you’re an expert, not just tell them that you’re one.

Keeping these things in mind will set you so far apart from your competition that eventually you’ll have to do less work, to get many more customers simply for the trust factor.

Network Marketing/MLM is a unique business model for a number of reasons.  Never mind the residual income, but the fact that it’s a business model where those involved are not only encouraged to, but basically required to grow as people in order to succeed.

It’s also one of the few business models or industries where you’re actually mentored by the person who hired you, or in the case of network marketing…sponsored you.   Sure, when you get hired into a job no matter where it is, even at McDonald’s you’re trained.   But you’re trained to perform only the job requirements that you’re handed and that’s the extent of it.

Your superiors don’t really care whether or not you grow in the company; much less grow as a person.  In fact, they’d rather you didn’t grow within the company because they’re usually afraid that you might take their own job.  If you grow you actually threaten their job security and their income.

In that case, you almost can’t blame them for being worried.

But in the industry of network marketing there’s a huge difference.  But the problem can sometime lie in the fact that people come from exactly the field of thought that I’ve just described above…simply because that’s what they’ve gotten conditioned to in their lives.

Can’t really blame them either!  But these people don’t always make for the best sponsors.

You see, as a network marketer you have a responsibility as a sponsor.  You’re not only a sponsor, you’re also a coach.  A mentor!  Your job is to show the people that you recruit or sponsor into your opportunity how to succeed.

The ultimate way to do this is with duplication, hopefully within a system.  That’s the ultimate win/win solution.

You see, for that selfish side of you (we all have it, don’t feel bad) don’t forget that there’s a huge benefit for you in mentoring your downline to success.  Your income is directly correlated with their success isn’t it?  As they grow and sponsor more people into their business, if you’ve chosen a company with a good and fair compensation plan then you’re ultimately going to benefit as well.

But the fact is that it just feels really good to know that you’ve helped someone achieve their dreams.  Granted the money is good, but guess what…if you help people achieve their dreams the financial gain will come.  One way or another, your service to them will be paid back monetarily, because ultimately you’re building your self-value, and that simply determines your all around income.

As a network marketer you have the rare chance to mentor and coach people, and help them actually achieve their wildest dreams.  Plus you have the ability to become extremely wealthy in the process.

Sure we all want to become recruiting machines and bring in tons and tons of people every month to our frontline and see who sticks, but let me remind you that passive income, the greatest income in the world…the income most responsible for the wealthiest people in the world… is gained in network marketing only by your downline becoming successful.

You have a role as a sponsor, don’t neglect it…doing so is at the expense of your own success.

How many times have you heard that you need goals in order to achieve huge success, wealth and all of that good stuff?  Probably a ton I’m sure, but guess what?  You haven’t been giving the full story on goals.  And if you have, you probably didn’t follow through with the full story.

You see, your goals don’t mean nothing when they’re just listed out on a piece of paper one after the other randomly.  The problem is that these aren’t goals; these are just wishes and aspirations.  Wishes and aspirations are good in their own sense, and are the predecessors to true goals, but they’re not goals.

What you’ve been told a million times is that goals must be written down for you to achieve them.  But like I stated above, a written goal is just a wish of something that you want on a piece of paper.

So when does a goal become a true goal?

A written goal should be accompanied by some very crucial information for it to mean squat. Here’s what you need for your goals to actually be more than just a fancy written wish:

1)    Written…Yes it does HAVE to be written.  This is true because if not written it’s just a fancy thought, which is even less effective than a fancy written wish. ?

2)     Specific… Lofty general goals are better than no goal at all, but a goal like “I want to make more money” compared to… “I want to have $550,000 in savings and a spendable income of $30,000 a month” is much more specific and gives your mind a laser fine target to shoot for.

3)    Deadline… If you don’t set a deadline for your goal to be achieved by you’ll never commit on reaching it. You’ll flounder around it, with it hanging over your head, but never really coming to fruition.

4)    Plan of Action… Here’s where the proverbial rubber meets the road my friend.  So far the fancy wish has matured into a goal, and now it’s time for the goal to turn into a true PLAN!  This is your blue-print, your map, your personal instructions…you get the picture.   Now the best way to do this is to figure out what you want and work backwards from there.  Let’s say you want $30,000 a month income.  Well, that’s $1000 a day, so how are you going to start making $1000 a day.

To make your goal even more achievable you’ll want to break this down into a timeline and break the big goal into smaller goals.  Let’s face it, to make $30,000 a month from zero a month isn’t going to likely happen the first month.  So you need to figure out a reasonable deadline as stated above, and then create smaller milestone goals to reach on your way there.  Maybe get to $1000 a month, then $5000, next $10,000 etc.  You get the idea.  Now you’ve got the basis of a plan, but now you need to include into your plan…

5)    Probable obstacles and solutions for them.  You’re definitely going to hit obstacles on your journey so you want to try to foresee those obstacles as much as possible and develop strategies to overcome them along the way.  One way you’ll be able to do that is by…

6)    Figuring Out the People that Will Help You Reach Your Goals…as stated in my post about relationships, this is what makes the world go round.  You’ll need people in your life who can help you reach your goals, so you may as well strategically seek them out, and begin to build and cultivate those relationships with them in the way that I spell it out in the article I refer to above regarding relationships.

So as you can see, just writing down a laundry list of things that you want in life on a piece of paper doesn’t necessarily qualify them as goals.  And if you’ve done that, and have been wondering why your goals are becoming reality, then you may want to reassess and turn your wishes into true goals, and your goals into a true plan of action.

It’s pretty startling to me when I hear about someone who is trying to increase their wealth, but trying to do so by getting a raise at work, or a better position at their job.  I feel bad because I know that even if they were to get the raise or promotion, they’ll likely still never get wealthy trying to do so using the type of income that a JOB provides.

In actuality, what they should be trying to do is find a way out of that job, and open their own business.

But even then, there’s a certain type of income that they should be after with their own business, that is the leading way to create wealth in life.  It’s actually the type of income I discovered at a very early age.  In fact, I was only a 12 year old boy living in the Bronx when I discovered the beauty of passive income.

How does a 12 year old kid in the Bronx learn so young about Passive Income?

When I was 12 years old I had my very own newspaper route.  I enjoyed delivering newspapers and all that a route entails, but I also wanted to be able to cover a larger area than I was able to all by myself.  Heck, I had to be at school so there was no way I could cover my area plus some, and still make it to school.  So I hired two other kids, and therefore became an employer and passive income earner.

See having employees meant that I had two other kids doing the work in 2 other areas, and I was able to make money from their efforts.  I took on the routes, did the hiring of the two boys, and then simply let them cover the area for me…hence the word passive.  I didn’t have to be there for the money to come in.

Now, there are many types of passive income to be had, but the mere concept fascinated me to no end and I fell completely in love with it.

My next exposure to passive income in a large and profound way came when I began to work with very high profile clients in the entertainment field.  I procured some of the biggest rock stars in the world as accounting and business management clients (that’s a great story for another time in itself), and was reminded once again of the beauty of passive income.

You see, these guys and gals got paid over and over again for songs that they wrote just one time.  It didn’t matter if it only took them a day to write that song either.  They wrote it, recorded it, and everytime after that when it was bought, or used in anyway they were paid a royalty, over and over again.  Didn’t matter what they were doing, even sleeping or onstage doing what they really loved, or harassing me in their private jets, they kept getting paid over and over.  And again, I saw this first hand…I was their business manager.

To watch this was a little torturous I must admit.  Sure they paid me well, and hooked me up with some of the best amenities in the world, but I still had to be there working to get paid, while they were raking it in no matter what they were doing.

Luckily my wife Ann discovered Network Marketing and it didn’t take me long at all to see right along with her that this was the passive income that I was looking for, and I dove in head first with and never looked back for even a single second.

Passive income is responsible for creating the wealthiest people in the world, and few people get there without it.

Take Bill Gates.  Bill Gates is the richest man in the world, but why?  Because he created a stream of passive income that acted as a gateway to the internet!  He doesn’t have to install Windows on every PC that is sold himself, the factories do it automatically, and each and every time they do so, Microsoft (Bill Gates) gets paid.  And when someone upgrades, guess what, Bill Gates gets paid no matter what the heck he’s doing, over and over again to infinity.

So that is why you should actively be seeking a way to create passive income.  Real Estate, software, licensing (music, movies, and books), and the greatest business in the world for the regular man or woman – Network Marketing – are all forms of the tremendous potential of passive income. .

In case you haven’t noticed on this website, I’m a huge believer in mindset!  It’s vitally important for people to be able to create and nurture the mindset of success in their lives in order to achieve the success that they want.

In fact, it’s rarely possible that anyone can achieve any success at all without the correct mindset in my eyes.

There are many aspects that come along with achieving a successful winning mindset.  Some of these have to do directly with habit, strategies, and fortitude, and these must be obtained in order to ever fully realize success.

Other aspects include motivation, confidence, and inspiration that must be implemented frequently in order for you to persevere through to achieving your goals.  This is because most motivation is fleeting, and so must be conducted as maintenance, constantly refueling our fire for success.

The most important aspect though is the constant underlying subconscious mindset that sets the tone for everything above.  Without it everything is fleeting.  Without having an anchored winners’ mindset, everything becomes fleeting and very short lasting and success never really materializes.  Habits become passing fancies that you won’t persist on, and motivation burns away in a couple of hours.  This is no way to go about achieving all of your wildest dreams.

In order to really see the success that you want, you have to actually immerse yourself in the MINDSET.  You must have a way to continuously hear, read, and see positive messages so that every bit of whom you are gets touched and begins to vibrate at that success level.  This does many things…both keeping you motivated as well as attracting success to you.

The problem is the time that it takes to find the best material to soak into your brain.  I’ve mentioned some things like Doug Firebaugh’s “Wealth Soak” which is terrific, but one of the best resources for success mindset material is at ThinkRich.com.

This is a site with more material on success than you’ve ever seen in one place.  It covers the whole entire spectrum of the success mindset with guest articles and interviews by some of the most achieved human beings in the world.

There panel is robust with experts in all fields.  Financial matters are covered by some of the best minds in the world, including those in sales, law of attraction principles, time management, and interviews with experts such as actors like Dennis Hopper; Sales and time management experts like Tracy Brian; marketing experts like Seth Godin, and even all around winners like Ultimate Fighting Champions Tito Ortiz and Randy “Captain America” Couture.

The level of expertise for success is unprecedented at this site, and new material and new experts are constantly brought in at ThinkRich.com.

This is a membership site that if used frequently can propel your success by constantly anchoring into your mind success principles that will get into your subconscious and drive you to success on autopilot.

ThinkRich.com was founded by Co-founders: Maria Ngo, Ray DuGray, Ted Ciuba and built around these principles:

• Desire
• Faith
• Auto-Suggestion
• Special Knowledge
• Imagination
• Organized Planning Decision
• Persistence
• The MasterMind
• Passion
• Subconscious Mind
• The Brain
• The Sixth Sense

These are principles that I agree with wholeheartedly and believe that if you’re going to achieve all of your wildest dreams in life then you should begin to covet them just the same.

At ThinkRich.com you’ll find material that supports all of this and more…go here now and see for yourself.

In the Network Marketing industry trainers come a dime a dozen, and most of them are usually hacks who can’t obtain success in the network marketing business, so they go out and try to train others to do what they can’t.

Occasionally though you get one or two who actually know what they’re doing and have been on the front lines, and speak from experience.

Doug Firebaugh falls right into this category.  He’s a man who walks his walk.

Now one of the things that we really like about Doug is the fact that besides being totally passionate and loving what he does as a trainer… not only is he totally proficient in network marketing, but he’s also a huge conduit to the principles of success and wealth, and has a rare insight into these principals.

Another reason why we whole heartedly recommend Doug Firebaugh is that he’s an excellent teacher.  He knows how to get the message across to you so that you totally and completely understand it, and are able to go and put the principals that he teaches to use right off the bat and start seeing results.

Doug has a ton of products on various subjects both regarding Network Marketing and MLM as well as Wealth in general, and the principals of making tons of money to enhance your life at his website www.PassionFire.com.

Just so you know how powerful his training is, my wife and I have been successful in the network marketing arena for over 20 years, and the fact is that we still learn something each and every time that we take or experience one of Doug’s trainings. That’s very powerful because we often feel like we’ve seen it all, until we get a new insight from Doug that actually goes on to make us even more money.

With that being said, as with anything there are some of his products that we feel are more useful, especially to you if you’re here at this website.

First let’s talk about the mindset of WEALTH.  Without having the right wealth and money mindset, nothing that you read, no business opportunity, or any sales or marketing tactic – whether offline or online – is going to ever help you one single bit.  That’s just the way it is.

You must first develop the wealth mindset in order to have wealth flow to you…or else you’re simply going to repel it.

Doug does a great job explaining these crucial principals that you MUST know in a few of his products and series of products.

“The Millionaire Road Treasury” for one, will teach you things such as overcoming the barriers to wealth and what they are, a personal wealth transformation system that you can use for yourself right away, how to think to influence wealth, and much more.

This comes in two separate series and the second to the series carries on into much more advanced wealth principals that you must learn and use.

The other dynamite program for understanding and obtaining wealth from Doug Firebaugh is his Wealth Soak Series.  Now this is a huge robust 8 part series that will teach you more about wealth than most people will learn in a lifetime or two.

You can learn more about both of these products by clicking here!

Now once you learn these wealth principals it’s important that you don’t just let them perish by never putting this knowledge to use with a vehicle. Of course I’m a little swayed to the power of MLM and Network Marketing because of the success it’s given Ann and I, but the fact is that all of Doug’s products can benefit anyone in direct sales just as much as Network Marketing.

Two of our favorites are “The Radical Success Blueprint” and “The Secrets of Approaching Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime”.  Learning these principals will help propel your skills in MLM, Sales, and life in general.  This in turn will shoot your chance of success in life through the roof.  You can learn more about them here.