My daughter and I were out shopping for my husbands birthday last week – three hours before his surprise birthday party.  However, with a crying one year old, I found myself in a frantic panic trying to shift her around in her stroller while holding a hand full of clothes and looking for her bottle, pacifier or anything to calm her down. In an effort to pick her up, I went to place the clothes on a little rack at the edge of the aisle to free up my hands.  Next thing you know, the whole counter came crashing down.  I felt my blood pressure rising, seeing all the neighboring shoppers give me the eye with the “get that whining baby outta here” look.

Feeling completely overwhelmed, a young lady was coming my way as I attempted to clean up the mess, calm Chloe down and pick the clothes back up.  I felt a little relieved when I saw her coming, excited about the fact that someone was willing to help me in the midst of this chaotic moment.  The closer she got, the happier I became….until she stepped right over the pile of mess and worked her way around the stroller to go on her merry way…….!!!!!!!!!!!

Immediately I was so disgusted, thinking about how selfish of a society we have become. To think that I’m in a busy store, in the middle of it’s busy hour on a busy shopping day and NOT ONE PERSON would come over to help me. I was steaming mad and embarrassed at the thought of our culture.  An innocuous acceptance of an egotistical, pompous, me-first,  power hungry population is vastly on the rise, and this girl was living proof!

As pissed as I was……. a very valuable lesson was brought to my attention as it relates to our industry,  challenging me and my personal integrity.  I was personally questioned with the following: “do you have a servants heart, or are you just like that young lady, passing people by in an effort to pursue your selfish endeavors?”.…………..

OUCH!!! I really had to think about that for a minute. It’s not to say that we should’nt have personal goals or ambitions. That would be totally unreasonable.  But do you have a heart to serve others in their efforts to succeed? Are you willing to put your goals in proper perspective, and know that if you help others, you will then help your own business to grow?

What do I mean you ask? Well, in life, we are taught to go for what you want and be aggressive about your success. Although I agree with that statement, there are certain aspects that can be unruly, often leading to a very pushy, selfish kind of character that makes one feel that they “deserve” to be successful and will do what ever they have to do to make it to the top…even if that means stepping on other peoples toes to get there.

When I first stepped into the world of internet marketing, I initially wanted to just focus on “building my business” and “making myself money”. But I quickly discovered that these two goals would become the last on my list of priorities. If you haven’t discovered it yet, Internet Marketing is not for the “selfish”. This industry is based purely on helping and serving others with the goal of making money on the back end. I’m not saying that it’s impossible to make money without building relationships. But if you truly want to be a long term winner in this industry, you must be willing to serve and help others!

Why?? Do you ask. Think about it….how many times do you give up your money to someone that “isn’t adding value to your life”? Can a person just walk up to you on the street and say…”hey, I’ll make you rich if you give me $500 dollars” and you willingly give him that money? OF COURSE NOT!….so why should people spend money with you BEFORE you show them how you can add value to their lives?

You see my point? …….Good!

Once you realize the need to add value to others, then you will be able to properly determine your place in this industry. If you are someone that is willing to learn so that you can help others advance in their journey, then you will be on the winning edge.

In the world of Internet Marketing, a servants heart is required!

If you have been searching, going from website to website, signing
up for program after program but still can’t seem to put it all
together, I will spend this time showing you how a needed funnel
system brings all of the puzzle pieces together.

It’s time to stop chasing your tail, and get a method to the
madness of your internet marketing strategy!

Tell a friend and join me to get the BluePrint for your Internet
Marketing Success!

Join us for a Webinar on Monday, March 30th, 2009

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=MgP2p&m=1b2UjplTLI8Num&b=iGJOlu1g5PPkNKG5ynftMg

Title:          Internet Marketing Blueprint for Beginners

Date:           Monday, March 30, 2009

Time:           9:30 PM – 11:00 PM EDT

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=MgP2p&m=1b2UjplTLI8Num&b=iGJOlu1g5PPkNKG5ynftMg

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing
information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Many of you have asked me to share the various article submission sites that I recommend you submit your articles to. Here is my top 10 list that I find drives a log of traffic to your site.

1. Ezine Articles

2. Go Articles

3. Article DashBoard

4. Article City

5. Idea Marketers

6. Search Warp

7. Articles Base

8. iSnare

9. Article Mark

10. Article Alley

How many times have you googled a specific topic and had an article pop up on the first page that was relevant to your search?  If your a habitual googler like I am, you may have experienced this a couple times a week.  If you clicked onto the article, you would have found a one page article that addressed the specific topics that you entered into the search engine, and at the bottom of that article, you would have seen the photo of the Author and a small bio at the end that told you more about the author with a link to their website.

If the article was interesting and filled with great info, and addressed your areas of concern, providing quality information, you might have visited the Authors site and even signed up for their newsletter.  In the eyes of the readers, credibility is established on behalf of the Author who displays some level of expertise in his field with his article.  But the amazing thing is that the Author may have a fair amount of knowledge in his field, but because of a short one page article that addressed specific problems of a target audience, this Author will forever get highly targeted leads to visit his website and potentially become a client because he positioned himself as “the expert”.

If you are ready to get started on writing articles and you just don’t know where to start, I will share 5 steps to take so that you can begin to benefit from article marketing.

1. Set up an account with Ezine Articles.

2. Begin looking up valuable “keywords” that are related to your industry so that you can add them as the keyword for your articles.

3. Think about the problems that people are faced with, and provide them with a valuable solution through your article.

4. Provide valuable content that people wouldn’t normally find for FREE.

5. Give them steps, like this article “5 Steps to Article Marketing Success”

For extra assistance on getting your Article Marketing campaign going, please feel free to contact me for a consultation on Article Marketing Success!

“Is your cup half empty or half full?” That was a question posed to me by my wonderful mentor Teshana Henderson, over 15 years ago. She is known to be an optimist and no matter where she is in life, she always found the cup to be half full.

In Todays language, the majority of the world has a “half empty” view on the opportunities that are readily acceptable to us in this current state of our economy. I find it extremely challenging to buy into this negative mindset because my wheels never stop spinning. I feel like I come up with a new idea at least once a day. I could be watching a show, reading something online or having a telephone conversation, then voila!…the light bulb comes on.

With a mind that never goes to sleep, I don’t believe any of us are limited in our options. I do believe that we are limited in our “effort” to pursue our options, which leads one to believe that opportunities do not exist.

My message to you today is to seek a “half full” transition in your life, that gives your mind the ability to just “be”. The mind is a terrible thing to waste and if you aren’t giving your mind the freedom to run and work with the ideas that it conceives, then you are limiting yourself to the confines of a mental prison.

In this economy, opportunities are all around us. We can learn a very valuable lesson from a girls best friend: “Don’t be afraid of pressure because pressure is what turns a lump of coal into a diamond!”

Keep your wheels spinning and give yourself the opportunity to grow and blossom in this trying time. Only those that truly desire to make drastic changes in their lives will make it to the top, which is why only 3% of the world, has accomplished this feat!

Make today matter. Learn something new. Indulge in a foreign experience. Step outside of your comfort zone. Meet somebody new. Read a book that you wouldn’t normally read. Get off your butt and get your wheels spinning!

I recently responded to a question that a young lady had with regards to finding a “honest” home based business. With new businesses appearing every day, I thought that these points were very essential to finding the right business opportunity for you. See my response below:

Hey,

So glad to know that you are seeking independence in the form of working from home. My name is Nicole Cooper and I mentor and coach others on how to brand and market themselves online. Having a background in Home Based Businesses (HBB) and Network Marketing, I just wanted to shed a bit of insight into what you should look out for when seeking a HBB…

<b>1. Find something that you can believe in.</b> It is so important to believe in your product. You do not want to do something “just for the money”. It will never last, and starting an HBB can be pretty challenging at times in all honesty, so you want your passion to see you through the challenge of the development stage.

<b>2. Find a mentor that you can trust. </b>Although you will be in business for yourself, you will not be working by yourself, but will be working with a team of people that ‘MUST’ have your best interest in mind. I’ve worked under good and poor leadership, and trust me, the poor leadership nearly killed my business. Find someone that will show you how to disover your passion and push you to maximize your potential. But also keep in mind that you must be self motivated as well.
<b>
3. Make sure that the compensation plan is worth your time and is tangible.</b> In every business meeting opportunity, you will have the “highly paid” testimonials of that someone in the company that is making all this money in a short period of time…..BIG DEAL!!! The reality is, how possible is it for you to really make that money yourself, based on your talent and your efforts? Find a company with a compensation plan that is worth your time…..if that money is just a few dollars here and there, you may get discouraged and quit, feeling like your spending more money than your earning. There are companies that aren’t that expensive to get involved with, and will pay a reasonable amount of money. YOu have to be realistic with how much money you want to make in comparison to how much effort your willing to put into it.

<b>4. Be ready to work hard….</b>Working from home can often be harder than working a job. The reason why is because your hours go way past the normal 40 hours a week and you arent’ getting paid every two weeks. You must also be disciplined with a daily agenda of “money producing activities” that will promote you to where you want to be financially. The downfall with network marketing companies is that most people rely on their upline to get them to their desired level of success. The truth of the matter is that it is all up to you. They may support you, encourage you and guide you but YOU must do all the work! At the end of the day, you can not place your future in anyone elses hands so be willing to be in control of your future and your work ethic.

This is my tidbit of wisdom that I felt is necessary to share as you seek a business. One last tip….
<b>
5. MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE WORKING WITH A MENTOR THAT CAN SHOW YOU HOW TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS ONLINE! </b>- It’s obvious that using the internet to build your business is the most effective use of your time…..their really isn’t any other way to leverage yourself outside of it….need I say more.

If you have any additional questions…

feel free to contact me at nicolescooper@gmail.com and visit my sites:

http://www.BuildMLMBizOnline.com

http://www.ViralMarketingGeeks.com

Nicole S. Cooper