MAKE SOME $ PER ARTICLE ONLINE AND SKYROCKET YOUR INCOME

“Becoming an “expert article writer” is not an easy thing to attain, but remember that nothing good comes easy. If the possibility of making tens of thousands of dollars each month writing articles online makes sense to you, then it is worth the effort learning how to be one, which is what this guide helps you to achieve.”
The Internet is growing bigger every day and the reason for this growth is not farfetched. Everybody is now online visiting one website or the other even with their phones and other mobile devices.
According to statista.com the number of Internet users worldwide has increased from 2.94 billion in 2014 to 3.17 billion presently as at the time of writing this article.
People use the Internet primarily to source for information and get entertainment. And even though we now have videos, most website contents remain in the form of articles. This means most users of the Internet visit websites to read articles that will give them information and entertainment.
Therefore, for website owners to continue to satisfy their subscribers and get new visitors coming to their sites, they need to continue to update their websites with fresh and unique articles. The impact of this is that more writers are needed to create the articles. This has greatly expanded the freelance writing industry and increased the fortunes of writers.
Google has even made it juicier for freelance writers.
How Google Search Engine Increased Writers’ Pay:  
Google, you already know, is the biggest search engine on the Internet, which means it is the one that gives websites the largest and more effective free traffic, depending on how it sees the quality of your content.
A few years ago Google started developing advanced level algorithm for its search engine which can assess the quality of articles on websites. Today, that algorithm is fully operational and all websites with scrappy or poorly written articles are degraded and almost never given any traffic.
This is why most websites that used to have large traffic have seen their traffic fizzled out due to the poor quality of their articles.
It is very important for Google that it serves only the best web pages to searchers. If people use Google search and get the best websites that treat the subject of their search they will be satisfied and continue to use it.
This has kept Google as number one search engine and they wouldn’t want to lose that position to another company. So, they have continued to strengthen their search engine to reward only websites with the best quality content with traffic.
Consequently, for webmasters to maintain and keep their traffic growing they need to hire good writers to produce quality articles for them.
This has separated the men from the boys in the freelance writing industry!
Getting good writers doesn’t come cheap, webmasters know this and they are prepared to pay anything to have only quality articles for their readers.
These are business people who know the value of articles to a website. Articles are investments that bring in traffic to a website year in year out. And from the traffic a website gets, the owner can make money from it from several ways. With the huge advertising budget going online from both the big and small companies, including individuals, most websites with very huge traffic make lots of money, some in the millions of dollars, every month.
To these webmasters, it is common sense to continue to invest in acquiring quality articles that can keep bringing in the much needed traffic. They go only for the very best writers they can find, and are prepared to pay as much as $1,000 for an article! That’s right, there are companies who pay one thousand Dollars for one article and that means there are writers who earn that!
Now, how do you position yourself to be a top writer to tap into the big Earners Class?
The Kind Of Articles Webmasters Pay Big Money For:
If you want someone to pay you $200 or more for an article, you must know that such article will be different from the usual 550-600 word articles commonly seen online. You should be prepared to write from 2,000 words and above and produce an article with tons of information relating to the topic it discusses.
You should be able to research the topic thoroughly and gather all relevant information you can get about it, and be sure the information is correct.
Your article should be broken up into subtitles to discuss each point. This prevents the reader from getting bored at a point, and encourages them to keep reading to the end.
There is really no big deal about writing this kind of articles, especially for experienced writers; however, anyone can learn how to produce such articles, and one way to do that is to study samples of such articles on some websites, such as these: http://www.nutritionsecrets.com/high-fat-foods-that-are-good-for-you/, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/24/offline-music-apps_n_7649242.html?ir=Technology, http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/20150622/benefits-exercise-insulin-fat?page=1 (in fact, you can  study more articles on these websites and tailor yours against them.
If you can produce these kinds of articles, then you are the person the top paying webmasters and companies are looking for, it means you can play in the big earner league of writers. You can charge $200 or more for writing an article.
Your article must be clean of all errors, grammatical or typographical. The webmasters cannot pay you $200 and still need someone else to proofread or edit your work. Your work should be good enough to be published straight away on their website and on other platforms they might want to publish it without needing to proofread it again by someone else; you should have done the proofreading before submitting it.
Your article should be targeted to the audience that it is meant for. If your client’s website is targeting the American audience, your English must be American and not British or Nigerian.
Sometimes, Nigerian writers unknowingly write in “Nigerian English” by the way they use certain words or make certain statements. To help in resolving this, you can run your article through the free plagiarism checker at smallseotools.com before sending it to your client.
The plagiarism checker will highlight areas of the article where there are copies already existing online and where there are errors. If the error message is “undefined”, it means your sentence or statement is wrong and you should look at it and edit it.
Where you quoted statistical information from another website, you should attribute it to the source. That is very important so as not to get your client into trouble with that website over copyright issues.
That’s about what you need to know about such quality articles that webmasters pay big money for, the next thing we want to look at is how to choose topic ideas for your articles if your client did not provide any.
Choosing Topic Ideas For Your Articles:
Sometimes, your clients may not give you topics to write on, while they may at other times. If you are expected to generate topic ideas for your articles by yourself, here are ways to do so:
Visit book publishing and selling sites: Websites like dummies.com and amazon.com are sites where you can find ideas for topics for the articles you want to write. Dummies have tons of titles of books on most niches which can give you some ideas. Also, on the book section of Amazon, you can search for books on the niche you are interested in and you will find lots of them come up which give topic ideas.
Amazon also gives you the opportunity of seeing the content outline of the books there. From the content outline of the books in your niche, you should have lots of topic ideas for your articles.
From articles trending on the social media: You can use BuzzSumo.com to determine the kind of content that has been well shared on the social media. These are articles that a lot of people are excited about in that industry, which they are sharing fast.
When you find a topic idea from any of the sources above, your goal is to tweak it to a unique topic, and to produce a richer article than the original one.
For example, if the topic idea you got is “7 Natural Ways Of Treating Acne”, your own unique topic can be “Natural Acne Removal: Top 17 Ways To Clear Acne Without Chemical Creams”.
You can see that our topic is unique and does not exist yet on the Internet. Google likes such unique article titles and so do webmasters.
Therefore, make sure you don’t present article topics that already exist online to webmasters if they ask you to provide topics you wish to write on.
The next section of this report is to show you how to attract high paying website owners and truly skyrocket your income.
How To Get High Paying Article Writing Contracts:
Just as writers look for clients for their next writing project, so also do webmasters look for good writers to write for them. In fact, the top paying companies who are prepared to pay $200 and above for an article look for the right people to write for them than writers looking for them.
That is the truth! It is not easy to get really good writers that can give you exactly the articles you want without you needing to edit them again. Most people who claim to be freelance writers looking for writing job online cannot produce something you will not need to proofread or edit thoroughly before publishing it. And these webmasters don’t have such time and patience for them.
To get a good writer that will satisfy them, webmasters have to look for them, and if you believe you are a good writer, you have to position yourself to be able to get their attention.
Now, here are ways by which you can position yourself to attract the high paying clients:
Pick A Niche And Establish Expertise In It
It is very rewarding to pick a niche and brand yourself as a freelance writer who is an expert in that area. There are many profitable niches to choose from: finance, investments, health and fitness, social media, tech stuff, nutrition, travels, fashion, beauty and women stuff, men’s health, home maintenance, cookery, sports, music, science, small business, business, lifestyle, etc.
You can do a little research on the niche you are interested in by visiting leading websites in that niche to see their contents and how much responses they are getting from their visitors. A huge response by way of comments and shares done by readers would mean that the niche is profitable and owners of such websites will be needing writers constantly.
Another way to determine if your niche is what the big companies will be interested in to hire writers for, you can also use the Google keyword planner tool found in adword.google.com.
You will need to sign up for a Google Adword account to be able to access the keyword planner. It is free to sign up if you don’t already have an account.
Here are the steps to follow with Google keyword planner to confirm if your niche will attract high paying companies to hire you.

1. Login to your adword.google.com account and select keyword planner form the “Tool” button.
2.  Type in the niche keyword into the “Find new keywords” search box. For example “phone”.
3. Click on “keyword ideas” button.

The niche with an average monthly search volume of 100,000 and above, and also with a suggested bid price of $1 and above is good enough.
Finding out if there are big companies in the niche: The next thing you want to do after checking the search volume and suggested bid price is to see if it’s a niche the big media companies like Huffingtonpost, Forbes, Newsweek, mashable, nytimes, abcnews, and cnn are in.
It is important that the big media groups are in the niche. They are the ones that drive the cost of articles upward, and beside that you will be leveraging on their writers to boost your profile as we shall see later. The presence of the big website in the niche will further confirm that it has significant followership.
Boosting your profile as a top freelance writer is what brings the high paying clients, and it is what you must achieve if you will be able to charge $200 or more for one article. And here is how to achieve it:
Develop Expert Status And Boost Your Profile As Freelance Writer
The major part of the plan to become a highly paid freelance writer on the Internet is to develop an expert status, which will help to boost your profile.
With a high profile, you will be able to attract high paying companies to use your service.
Now, how do you build expert status?
Here are the different ways by which you can become known as a top expert to go to for quality articles on the Internet:
Starting a Blog
You can set up a blog around the subject you are developing expertise in. Research and write on topics relating to the niche. Again you can use BuzzSumo.com to find topics lots of people are interested in, considering how much shares they have had on the social media that you can write on.
You can also browse Amazon books, books at Dummies.com, and Udemy.com to get topic ideas for your blog from the book and course outlines you will find on these sites.
Make sure you write the same kind of quality articles you would write for clients if they should hire you.
You should describe yourself as a freelance writer with expertise in your niche area. Your description is an opportunity to sell yourself to prospective clients, so make it compelling. If you have been able to have your articles published on big sites like Huffingtonpost, Forbes, Newsweek, etc., you should mention it in your description.
You can use your real name and your picture (make it simple, like wearing a T-shirt) on the blog but don’t write about yourself as a Nigerian or about Nigeria.
Remember you are addressing the global audience, particularly the American public, you should therefore ensure that your language, perception, and the information you are dishing out suit your target audience.
You don’t need to disclose your location or talk about your background on your blog. You can give out the information later to clients who contact you to get details about you before hiring you. As for your blogging activities, you may want to simply picture yourself as an American writer.
You can also use catchy pseudonyms instead of your real name, such as Techwatcher, Mr.Fit, Mr.T, GreatWriter, etc. I’m sure you can come up with an attractive catchy name. You can also use an avatar or any other image to represent you on the the blog.       
All that the potential client wants to see is the ability to research the Internet and write quality articles for them, not so much about your name, looks, or location.
They want to be sure that you are an expert who has a strong understanding of their niche market and are able to help them create unique articles that their visitors and users will enjoy.
Once they see those qualities from your blog, you can be sure they will contact you.
You don’t also have to put your rate on your blog. You can simply say that you are available to take on a project and that anyone interested in your service should send an email to you and they will get your quote.
A blog is a powerful marketing tool for selling freelance writing service, especially to high paying clients. Therefore, make sure your blog is professionally presented. Your articles must not only be top quality, it must also be well formatted.
You can use free blog hosting service like blogger.com or wordpress.com to create your blog. You can also use paid hosting if you can afford it.
To be sure you are doing the right thing, look for a successful blog in your niche and try to model yours after it.
Now, let’s look at another way of building an expert status to qualify to earn high pay for your writing service:         
Participating in Guest Blogging
A very potent way of becoming an expert in your niche industry fast is to participate in guest blogging.
Find blogs in your niche, especially the ones that already allow guest blogging. Send them an email requesting to submit original and unique articles to them. You can send them two or three titles as well as a short description of the articles you want to send them.
The articles you are sending to each website must be original, that means they must be different from the others. Don’t send an article that has already been posted on a website, including your blog. Once an article has been posted on a website that will be the site the search engines will recognize as the owner. If it is again posted on another site, the one on the second site will be recognized as a duplicate copy.
Search engines do penalize websites with lots of duplicate contents. That is why blog owners who accept other people to write for them as guests or contributors will only accept original articles from them.
The richer and unique the articles are, the more the chances of blog owners, especially blogs with good traffic and readership accepting them.
When your article is published, you will be given a resource box at the bottom of the article where you will have the opportunity of selling yourself and linking to your blog from the site where the article is published.
You should state in your resource box that you are a researcher and freelance writer in your field, providing top quality information people can use; and that readers should visit your blog if they loved what they read. 
Work on featuring on many blogs. This will increase the number of people reading your articles and coming to your blog. If your articles are very good by way of the information contained and delivery, you can have many other websites linking to the articles from their sites or picking something from your articles and attributing it to you from their sites. This will expose you to their readers and that surely increases your profile and confers an expert status to you.
The Reward for Guest Blogging:
I agree that guest posting or blogging is hard work, which does not yield the expected reward immediately. In fact, it can take a few weeks before you start seeing the reward of your work. You should therefore consider the work as investment because that is what it is.
And it is an investment that surely pays; it has been proven time and again! By the time you start having lots of people reading your articles, which are spread all over the Internet, including people looking for good writers in your industry to hire, you will have more than enough clients knocking on your door for project and you will be able to demand a higher fee.
This brings us to the third way of building an expert status as a freelance writer online even as a Nigerian: networking.
Networking with Writers and Editors of Big Companies
Networking with writers and editors of the big websites like Huffingtonpost can open great doors to your freelance writing career. They can make it easier for you to write for them too, which will boost your profile astronomically.
Being able to get your articles published in the big websites will not only send huge and quality traffic to your blog, it will also greatly increase your profile as a freelance writer. You can say in your profile that your articles have been published in Huffingtonpost and anyone who wants to hire you will be prepared to pay big.
Getting these writers and editors’ attention:
To network with these writers and editors, you need to find a way to get their attention. One way to achieve this is to “follow up on them.”
Specifically, you can follow up on their articles and be among the first to comment whenever they post an article. Ensure to make valuable comments, including friendly criticism and suggestions, so that they will notice you. Also, you can follow them on the social media and interact with them professionally based on their writings.
When you have done this for some time and they have noticed you, you can then ask that they check out your articles and offer some suggestions or critics. You can also ask if there is any way you can be of help to them on their projects (for free of course). 
By the time a sort of friendly relationship has developed between the two of you, you can then let them know you would like to write for their company, and how they can link you up with the editor in charge. They will be glad to assist you in whatever way they can to get published on the big stage.
Like I said before, once your article is published by Huffingtonpost, Newsweek, Forbes, or any of the big media groups, you can be sure that you have hit a breakthrough as a writer online.
Conclusion:
Becoming a top earning freelance writer who charges $200 and above for an article is something all writers dream of, but sadly not everyone can achieve it. Like is obtainable in all professions, there will be the few big players while many will be at the bottom of the ladder struggling to get the crumbs that trickle down from the table of the big boys.
To be a big player in the online freelance writing field requires you to develop an expert status. The big money spenders usually look for experts to work with on their projects and they will find you if you have positioned yourself as one.
The more expert status you have developed, the more you can charge and be paid for a project. You can earn as much as $500 or even $1,000 on an article, depending on the nature of the project.
Apart from article writing, writers who are known to be experts are usually contacted for other writing projects like books. You can earn thousands of dollars from such projects.
In all, writers who have created an expert status for themselves are never short of job to do, in fact, they usually turn down smaller paying jobs for bigger ones, and can regularly turn in five figures in earning each month.
Becoming an “expert article writer” is not an easy thing to attain, but remember that nothing good comes easy. If the possibility of making tens of thousands of dollars each month writing articles online makes sense to you, then it is worth the effort learning how to be one, which is what this guide helps you to achieve.
To your success!

inShare

TURN CUSTOMER CONCERNS INTO OPPORTUNITIES TO DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF

A salesperson walks into his prospect’s office only to be greeted with, “We’re very happy with our current vendor and are not really looking to switch.” Stunned, he thanks the prospect and leaves.
“That’s the worst thing you can ever do,” says Roz Laves, Strategic Account Manager at MHI Global. She offers the following advice when you find yourself in a similar situation:
Don’t alienate the prospect by saying something negative about the competition. Instead, acknowledge how important it is to have a good relationship with a vendor you can rely on. But remember that there are a number of circumstances that can present opportunities for another trusted vendor. You need to ask the right questions to uncover those.
Tell me about your relationship with your current vendor.
As you take a look at that relationship, if you could improve one aspect of that relationship, what would that be?
If that improves, what would that mean to you and your company?
These questions could potentially surface an area that the current supplier cannot provide but that you can. The information you gather can present you the opening you need to share crucial details about your solution and allow you to be considered in the future.
When the customer says he heard from a trusted source that you can’t deliver to expectations
“Some people either need to touch, see, or experience evidence to be convinced otherwise,” says Laves. “Others will believe it just by hearing it from you.” What is important is that you are able to restore your credibility and your company’s reputation. Consider the following suggestions when a customer voices a misunderstanding:
 

• Avoid trying to prove the customer wrong. Instead, ask questions to understand where the misinformation came from and provide proof to clear up the misunderstanding.
• Acknowledge the customer’s viewpoint before refuting the misconception.
• After you have provided relevant proof, don’t simply assume you have thoroughly convinced the customer. Check that there are no lingering concerns or doubts before you move on to the next step in the sales process.

Always welcome customer concerns. That means they are interested. Acknowledging the concern and asking questions to clarify will allow you to move forward with the conversation and address the concern appropriately. Inability to surface the concerns and address them not only costs you the sale but it also tarnishes the reputation of your company because it validates the customer’s misconceptions of your company and product as true. When handled professionally, customer concerns allow you to differentiate yourself and provide the foundation to successfully close the sale.

TOUGH, NECESSARY CHOICES

I've been thinking about the choices we make. There are big
choices like where to live, who to live with, and which
phone to buy. There are small choices like going out for
pizza, burgers or Chinese. And then there are the automatic
"non-choices" like whether to exercise, eat desert or watch
TV.
In the long run, our lives are determined by the choices we
make. Sure, circumstances and past events influence us.
Genetics play a role and perhaps luck is part of it. But
mostly, our personal decisions determine the direction and
quality of our lives. So I'm amazed at how little time we
spend thinking about how we make the choices that control
our lives.
All of this is brought to you by observing our process for
selecting candidates for next year's Presidential election.
I believe there are about 20 announced candidates in the
two major parties. Together they will spend hundreds of
millions of dollars, travel millions of miles, shake thousands
of hands, kiss hundreds of babies, and annoy all of us
with their television ads. Eventually, two of them will
become our candidates.
Assuming being President of the United States is a highly
skilled executive position wielding tremendous power and
influence, will the parties select their best candidates
and will American voters choose the best one? How will we
decide?
Some will vote based on their assessment of a candidate's
character. Others will examine their policy positions. Many
will vote for the most charismatic or popular candidate.
Some will vote for a familiar name or based on a
candidate's home state, background or party affiliation.
What's the "best" way to choose a President? How should we
decide?
And, to bring it from the national down to the personal,
how will use your time in the next twelve hours? Where will
you focus your attention? Your effort? Which phone call
will you return? What will you eat for lunch? How much
sleep will you get tonight? How will you decide?
This is your life! I've read that a huge percentage of
Americans are over-weight. Apparently, lots of Americans
choose to consume more calories than they burn every day.
I've heard most Americans have little or no savings. That
suggests they are making specific choices about their
money. I understand some of us read more books than others.
That, too, reflects our decisions about how we use our
time.
My own observations lead me to believe that most of us,
most of the time, rarely make conscious decisions about any
of these things. We act as if there are "automatic" or pre-
determined rules about "how life is."
We get up, do our morning routine, go to work, get through
the day pretty much the same way every day, come home and
do our evening routine. We act as if we are not free
agents.
But actually, we ARE free agents! We are free and creative
people. On any given day, we can surprise ourselves and
shock those around us. We can go for a bike ride, read a
book, take a different route to work, make that important
(but potentially frightening) call.
Highly successful people make different choices than the
rest of us almost every single day. They get up a bit
earlier. They focus on their priorities with a bit more
passion and persistence. Successful people use their time,
their energy, their skills and their networks differently
than failures. I believe they are more aware of their
choices than the rest of us.
They see each day as filled with thousands of options and
they make intentional, conscious, specific choices. They
could watch more television, but choose to stay at work a
bit longer. They understand they could "pass the time" but
instead they choose to "use" or "invest" their time.
Every single day, we make far more choices than we
acknowledge. Most of us allow the majority of our choices
to be made out of habit or routine, rather than seizing the
moment to actually decide how we want to live. My suggestion
is to forget "seizing the day" (it's too big) and instead
focus on "seizing the moment." Moment by moment, decide the
kind of person you want to be and choose the activity that
creates the life you want to live.
Seize the moment!

MOTIVATIONAL TOOL: MENTAL SNAPSHOT

What are Mental Snapshots?

Mental snapshots are a simple, wonderful self reflective motivational exercise to see which areas of life are going really well and areas where things are just not where you want them to be. Completing the exercise will show you a portrait of your life right now-- a mini self biography.
During this exercise you will identify areas of life that are important to you and create an ideal picture of the life you want to live now. As part of this process you will find the area of life you feel something is missing. That missing piece is causing some type of unease and once it is identified, you can eliminate it. From that freedom, you will be motivated to take new actions to bring the missing pieces back into your life for greater fullfiment.
Create the Ideal Snapshot
Before we can identify what is not present, we need to know what could be in the picture. The first step is to write down a detailed, specific master listing of what you want to see in each snapshot. In other words, what do you want to have in your life?
Begin by writing down five areas of life that you feel are most important to you right now, not giving them a specific order. These are areas that you put your energy into because you want to be successful in them. List areas that you want, not that others say you “should” choose. Assign category titles that are meaningful to you. For example you can choose to group by general categories, ie. “family” or you can choose to use outcomes, ie “relationships.”
Now take a single sheet of paper and divide into it four columns (fold paper in half vertically, then half again). Write the following labels across the top: Attitudes, Emotions/Feelings, Thoughts & Images, Body Sensations. Under each label column write down specific, descriptive, results you would like to achieve focusing one on area at a time. Use action verbs and adjectives in the current tense. As an example Relationships or Family, using “peaceful, joyful, vibrant.” Fill in every column with a response and if you draw a blank, then just leave it blank.
Take The Mental Snapshots
Find a few moments today to stop and take a series of mental snapshot pictures of the life you are leading right now in your chosen five areas. Let your mind’s eye take a clear, honest, close up picture using a wide lens point of view. See the picture in full, color detail.
Again, take a blank piece of paper, fold it in quarters and write these labels across the top: Attitudes, Emotions/Feelings, Thoughts & Images, Body Sensations. Fill in the columns based on what your picture actually shows by priority category.
What is Missing From the Snapshots
You now have your master list of what can be and the snapshot of what is and it is time to compare the two. Holding your two sheets side by side, compare all columns of what you want to have to what is. Mark sections where they do not match significantly, including blank spots.
Congratulations! The areas where the ideal and reality do not match have identified your missing pieces! Somewhere along the way your ideal and actual actions got mixed up and this area of life is misaligned.
Create a New Composition
With the identification of the missing piece, you now have a starting point of looking at what actions you want to take. Options range from changing nothing and letting go of the ideal snapshot as impossible or taking new action to move closer to the ideal.
Which is the right choice for you, right now? Ask yourself: do you want more of the same, or do you want to turn your ideal snapshot into reality?

ACHIEVE ANY GOAL (ESPECIALLY YOURS!)

Each of us has the potential to achieve far more than we
have yet imagined. Humans use only a tiny percentage of our
potential. We waste time, we get distracted, we "spin our
wheels", and we get frustrated. Even with that, we do
accomplish many and wonderful things, but it's only a tiny
portion of what we are capable of achieving.
At the same time, we also know that some people accomplish
vastly more than the average person. I find it humbling
that so many of our leaders in business, politics and
entertainment are so young! Jordan Spieth won the Masters
and the PGA Championship this summer, and will try for his
third major at the (British) Open this week. Then, he'll
celebrate his twenty-second birthday next week. I find
that astonishing! I'm told Taylor Swift is only 24!
For me it's sobering that after setting so many world
records, Amelia Earhart was only 39 when she disappeared
over the Pacific. Oprah rose to prominence in her 20's!
Donald Trump is controversial, but while he was in college
he cleared $6 million (!) on an apartment complex he
renovated.
What are the secrets to that level of achievement?
After studying thousands of highly effective people over
many years, I believe it comes down to only four critical
essentials. Here they are:
1. Self Direction.  Self direction is the ultimate freedom!
It means taking charge of your life, being an adult and
deciding how you will live your own life. It means you are
not dependent on circumstances or convenience or other
people's opinions. It means pursuing your personal goals
over the long run, rather than doing what is popular or
comfortable or easy at the moment. Self direction is
essential for massive, extraordinary levels of personal
success.
2.  Effective Resource Allocation.  High achievers don't
waste time, squander relationships, or "wish their lives
away." They use their talents and abilities wisely. They
focus their efforts on their most important next steps.
We have limited resources. There are only 24 hours in a
day, and we have limited stamina and strength. High
achievers concentrate their best efforts on their most
important projects. They are very careful about time,
knowing that when today is over, it's gone forever. They
make careful choices about money, knowing that once spent,
it's gone forever, but invested wisely, it can create
fortunes. High achievers use resources wisely.
3.  Environmental Perfection.  We respond to our
surroundings and high achievers create environments that
support them perfectly, all day long, every single day.
They care about their offices, and they take care of their
bodies. They dress well and keep their tools sharp and
well-maintained.
There is a reason extraordinarily successful people have
elegant offices, and live orderly, structured, simple
lives. These are the habits that make them successful!
4.  Hard Work.  Extremely successful people work harder
than the rest of us. Yes, sometimes they simply work more
hours and stay more focused, but it's also the subtle
things. They pay attention and actually listen to the
people they meet. They network effectively. They read and
use what they learn to achieve better outcomes. They get
more done!
Self-made millionaires routinely work 50, 60 or more hours
per week. Often they are doing work they love so it doesn't
feel like "work" in the traditional sense, but they show up
early, they stay late, and they work all day long. They
take care of the "little things" and it shows up in the
quality of their results, and in their bank accounts at the
end of the year.
Chart your own course. Decide what you want and the life
you prefer, then focus your time, energy and effort to that
end. Use the resources available and create a Personal Eco-
System(tm) that supports you perfectly, then simply out-
perform and out-last the competition. There are no
alternatives. Extraordinary achievement is the result of
those four simple steps.

WHO ARE YOUR MENTORS?

Who shows you the ropes, teaches you the tricks and
encourages you when things go wrong? Who shows you the way?
Over and over again, I'm struck that the real winners in
life always stand on the shoulders of those who went ahead
of them. Winners ALWAYS have mentors!  They learn from the
experts and benefit from the success of others.
Sometimes they have a personal coach--and as a coach, I
think that's a good thing!  But often they have informal
relationships with men and women who will teach them.
Sometimes, mentoring comes in the form of a "MasterMind"
group or team.
One of my most valuable sources of information are the
seminars, workshops and lectures I attend every year. I
remember hearing a colleague say he wouldn't attend anymore
seminars "because they cut the budget and (his employer)
won't pay for it anymore." How terribly short-sighted!
The cost of workshops is nothing! The cost of travel,
tuition and hotels is NOTHING if you learn one new idea or
avoid one mistake. The chance to rub shoulders with the
best and brightest in your field is priceless! Just do it!
Double (or triple!) your budget for books and seminars, for
coaching and teaching. Call the most successful people you
know and buy them lunch! Take them to a great restaurant,
and pick their brains. Or hire a coach. Are there seminars
you "might" attend this year? Register today! Make sure you
get the help you need to achieve your goals and create the
life you truly want!

SUCCESS IS NEVER AN ACCIDENT

Remember the saying that those who fail to plan are
planning to fail? We have all heard it at one time or
another, and we know it's true, even though most of us act
as if it doesn't apply to us. Well, it does apply!
This week I spoke with a group of unusually successful
young entrepreneurs and the thing I noted was their
attention to detail. This particular group is part of a
network marketing, or "MLM" organization, and they know
exactly where they are going. Specifically, they have
written goals and strategies related to:
1.  Identifying of their key niche. They know WHO to
contact.
2.  The number of prospects to contact each week.
3.  A strategy and budget for reaching those prospects.
4.  A detailed, documented sales presentation.
5.  A follow-up strategy and a system to track it.
6.  A training and mentoring program to nurture new
members.
7.  Clear, written long-range goals that are measured in
revenues, profits, investments, number of "associates" and
productivity per member.
No wonder this organization is growing and making money!
They have a plan that guides their daily activity and gives
them feedback about their performance.
Every business needs a plan, and this particularly applies
to self-employed professionals. It simplifies your daily
activities, automates your priorities, and lets you know
what's working and what isn't. 

THE QUESTIONS WE ASK

There is a theory that all human behavior is a response to
the questions we ask ourselves. When we are hungry or a bit
chilly, we search our world and ask really simple questions
like, "What is there to eat?" or "Where did I leave my
sweater?"
In more complicated situations, we ask more complex
questions, like "What career to do I want?" or "In what
ways could I earn more money?"
As we answer our own questions, the mind is naturally
focused on realistic, ACTION-oriented solutions, and we
move quickly forward.
Every day, we ask ourselves thousands of questions. We ask
"why do I have such bad luck" or, "How could I make this
sale?" As we ask and answer these questions, we make
assumptions about the world around us, and our assumptions
become the basis for our actions.
So the key is to be VERY aware of the questions we ask.
Many of the most common questions people ask every day are
terrible questions because they have NO good answer. Think
about how your mind works and the things you focus on with
questions like:

***  Why does this always happen to me?
***  How come I never get a break?
***  How come nobody likes me?
***  How come things never change?

The devastating problem with questions like these is that
the brain takes them seriously and actually tries to find
the answers! (Think about that!) It comes up with arguments
to convince you that you can't change and that "nobody"
likes you, even though you CAN change and LOTS of people
like you just fine!
I'm convinced that the questions we ask ourselves are
vitally important--perhaps the MOST important--key to
predicting our success in life. If you want to change your
health, your finances, your love life or anything else,
change the questions you ask yourself!
I start almost every day by sorting through a small stack
of 3x5 cards, with one positive question written on each
card. This morning I counted them, and my stack happens to
have 17 questions in it. (The number varies as I add or
replace questions based on how well they seem to be
"working" for me.) Here are the four that were on top of my
stack this morning:
1.  What specific actions will move me toward my goals
today?
2.  What could I do to make my wife smile and enrich our lives
today?
3.  What am I most grateful for this morning?
4.  How could I increase our income by $5000 this month?
I do not share these questions because they are
particularly special--you might come up with more powerful,
more motivating, more interesting questions--but they DO
make me smile and they DO encourage me to get moving. They
DO focus me on my goals and they help me think of creative,
positive actions.
What questions to do you use to jump-start your day? What
questions do you use to open doors, make you smile, and
find solutions? To a remarkable degree, the questions we
ask will determine the answers we find and kind of life we
live. To achieve more, ask more and better questions.