After reading the 4 Hour Work Week I decided to check into the other books he put in the “Restricted Reading” section. The restricted reading is going on a low information diet to help quiet the head and make life a little more sane. I have indulged in some of his advices such as limiting checking my email to 2 times a day and have found that it gives me more time, less stress and I am more relaxed throughout the day now too. Not constantly thinking about email and hitting the pelletized cocaine retrieval button 80 times a day, I have more time to do more important things with my time. Like spending more time with my daughter walking around the neighborhood, or working on other Niche Sites I am developing like RockabillyLifestyle.Com, which I probably have to much crap on right now, which is in itself another story.

The Magic of thinking big by David Schwartz, is the book I decided to start reading, and goes into some theory that I have always thought to be true before I read the book, and that is you can change a persons day, attitude or demeanor, with an expression of kindness, or treating them as “Important”, and not just another person to step on.

It’s not just about someone else though, it’s all about You. Your actions, the way you think, the way you treat other people and how you react to others and certain situations. It’s geared to help you become bigger than what you are now, a better person, and help you to succeed in what you do in all aspects of your life not just your jobs or financial goals. True it is about learning to be successful and succeeding, but it’s got a bigger broader picture. It goes through a whole range of thinking practices and misinformation’s.

A few examples are:

* Believe You Can Succeed and You Will
* Cure Yourself of the Fear of Failure
* Build Confidence and Destroy Fear
* Think and Dream Creatively
* You Are What You Think You Are
* Make Your Attitudes Your Allies
* Learn How to Think Positively
* Turn Defeat into Victory
* Use Goals to Help You Grow
* Think Like a Leader

Whenever I am about to talk to someone I now pause and mentally think about what I am going to say to them. I try to stay on the positive side of things and this is one huge thing I was happy he covered. When you have to approach someone about the job they are doing, and it may not be so good, it gives examples how to approach it and keep it positive while also addressing the situation at hand.

Success is not so much about how big you are or how big your company is, it’s about how big your thinking is, and how it makes others feel. It focuses on and retrains your mind to get out of the mind trappings of daily life and think big, bigger than you used to.

The book, first published in 1965, is still a classic and currently read by many people and has practical advice and guides for today’s world. Those reading this currently are big time CEO’s, life coaches, and many other successful professionals. If you get the audio book, just be prepared as the author is part of the narrative and sounds a little dated, but it’s still an excellent listen. I highly recommend The Magic of thinking big by David Schwartz.

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Killing me with Kindness – For a Better World

One of the blogs I follow is http://www.thrillingheroics.com, because I like what this guy is doing. Sure he’s traveling the world and living the good life of an entrepreneur, but he’s also stopping at orphanages around Bangkok and Thailand and helping them. There’s one post I was just reading and watched the video here, “My Secret Recipe for 100% Guaranteed Happiness”. I couldn’t stop balling my eyes out and wanting to hold my daughter and never let her go. The feelings that well up inside me make me want to get this whole thing right, that much more. This whole Entrepreneur thing and living a better life to help others live a better life too. Damn this tears my heart out.

I know I can still help others live a better life now, but I want to make more of a difference than I can at the moment. I would love to be able to donate lot’s of money to specific organizations and charities to help little children like those. The smiles on faces and lights in the eyes are what make me live. My life changed when my daughter was born, for the better, no, for the best, it’s ever been. I see things in a whole different light, both scary and happy. Scary because I never want her to go through the shit I went through, and happy because I know she will have the best I can give her. Always.

I’ve lived in the streets, turned my life around and recovered from drug addiction, and when I was unemployable I put myself through tech school to make a better life for myself. I am not proud of where I have come from but it has made me what I am today. That is a matter of controversy to some but I say I am on the road to being the best person I can be. I am an up standing father to the most precious little girl and boy friend to a beautiful woman who stands by my side. What more could I ask for?

A better earth.

I’m for a better earth.

A place where people don’t kill themselves over religion, where people don’t have children needlessly and then abuse or abandon them, where things are better than they are now.

It all starts with one person, it starts with me, now.

What are YOU going to do for this world? ANSWER ME THAT!

I fear for my daughters world. Monsanto, the huge GMO conglomerate of a cluster fuck company. Makers of Agent Orange, Roundup Weedkiller and other deadly chemicals. The people who fund mass corruption. The patent holders of a life organism, as well as other corrupt people, places and ideals. If we don’t change things NOW, we’re going to be up shit’s creek without a paddle. I’m serious, why do you think people are speaking out about global warming and other changes in climate? It’s not just their imagination. It’s real. I can tell you my parents who live in D.C. where is used to snow more have not experienced snow fall like they used to 25 years ago, it’s much less due to global warming.

Have you noticed there’s not many protests except those protesting abortion and such? The passionately angry? The people who are not going to stand for any more of whatever they believe in? It sickens me when people complain about where the world is heading and then tell me they didn’t vote, or didn’t do something that could have changed the outcome results of a poll or decision. Go fuck Yourself, if you bitch and complain about something but didn’t do something that could have changed things, IT’S YOUR FAULT ALONE. Fucking Tard.

Passionately Angry, yeah that’s me. It bothers me to see protests for things that people don’t really understand. It bothers me to see no one protesting things they do understand and do nothing about. If you are sick and tired of the way things are, then do something about it. Stand for something or fall for anything. Go to Jail for it. Be a hero. Do something for the good of humanity.

I’ve been reading and listening to Timothy Ferris’ The 4-Hour Workweek book and audio, and am impressed beyond belief at how simple he makes it sound. I really like the audio book best and the book as a reference companion. I usually take the audio with me to the gym and on the road when I am driving. It’s funny when I’m at the gym, and I start busting out laughing and all heads turn and I remember where I am. Oh yeah, I’m at the gym. It’s that funny.

I’m implementing a lot of what Ferris talks about in his book. From getting a VA(Virtual Assistant) to answering calls only at 2 time periods per day, to responding to emails only at 2 time periods per day too. I’m doing this to free up needed time to enjoy whats really important to me. My Daughter.

I don’t have a steady 9-5 job, I don’t want one and nor have I had one in over 5 years of being laid of from my last employer. I will never go back and work for “The Man” ever again. If I can help it, and I’ve done pretty good so far. I prefer to get up at 8am or earlier and have my tea, stretch and get a cheese danish from the local coffee shop. THEN come home, check email and start my days proceedings.

Which brings to mind another thought I had yesterday while standing on the corner trying not to get hit by all the mad people rushing to work, while putting mascara on in the mirror and trying to drive to make the almighty buck. Yeah that life just isn’t for me anymore. The mascara part I mean, no really the driving to work for a 9-5′er and being tied to someone else’ money making venture. I stood there and realized just how lucky, maybe not lucky but how good I have it.

I’m standing there, cheese danish in hand for my 8 weeks pregnant(Again ) girlfriend, who is having the weird cravings thing, watching the line of frantic people driving off to work. Standing there wondering if I’m going to be able to cross the street, because no one is stopping to let me cross even though pedestrians have the right of way.

Yeah, I’ll continue to read the current book I’m reading, which I suggest you do as well, “The 4-Hour Workweek“, and think about what YOU are going to do to better this world, when you have the money to quit your job.

I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to stop in on Cody McKibben on my way to Angkor Wat someday if he’s still there when I get there. I’ll spend some time changing diapers at the orphanages and being grateful for what I have, help out where ever I can, then head off to see the jungle temples in Cambodia.

I give myself two years to make it.

Larry

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Compounding Little Income Streams to make Bigger Income Streams.

I’d like to go over Decembers earnings and how Compounding Little Online Income Streams can help to form Bigger Streams of Income. This post is meant to encourage those having a hard time with making money online, by seeing how it’s working for me. Decembers income report is much better than the last one I put up, about $450.00 better than the last one. The last one was around $800.00.

Decembers Report.

So far the figures from December of 2009, which total $1,294.78, are as follows:

Dating Site I Run – $338.89

TLA(Text Link Ads) – $52.19

Direct Advertising on my www.RockabillyLifestyle.com website – $250.00

Photography Sales (I’m a photographer too) – $150.00

Various Affiliate Sales – $173.70

Contextual Ad Placement on 5 sites – $330.00

Again the total of all these is $1,294.78 which is pretty darn cool if you ask me, it’s gone up about $400 since my last earnings report, that I actually took down a while ago.

Compounding effects of little income streams.

In Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind Program, which I am enrolled in, he talks about compounding: “The traffic secret that every blogger knows is the power of compounding.” I am now seeing the effects of compounding this month and I’ve only been doing this for about 7 months now. I think Iam doing pretty good considering I have been totally flaking on a couple of my blogs. I have several blogs I run, most of which are hobby related and stuff I am very interested in. I know some people do blogs on topics they could care less about, but I just can’t do that. I have to have a passion in order to write about something, otherwise people will see right through me and know it’s fake.

So above I have 6 different little income streams. Each one alone, is not much money, however the effect and power of all of them together is worth $1,294.78 per month to me. That’s most of my rent payment right there. In today’s economy my day job is going downhill. I am an IT consultant and I manage 6 different companies networks and computer systems. Several of those companies are in debt to me by 3+ months, and I haven’t been paid in those 3 months by them. That’s several thousand dollars that I am out each month and needed to supplement that somehow.

Where and How I started.

I got my start accidentally through Ebay. I sell Hellraiser Puzzle Boxes on Ebay and I was also interested in Costume and Vintage Jewelry. I educated myself on the jewelry and I make and sell the puzzle boxes on Ebay. I realized when things weren’t selling that well on Ebay lately, that somethign was terribly wrong. That’s about when I realized the economy was going downhill fast and I needed to find a way to supplement.

Looking for an alternative.

I started looking around, bought a couple things, several bottles of  Snake Oil as I was still learning what’s legitimate out there and whats not, and that’s when I stumbled upon Blog Mastermind, For Desperate Buyers Only, Niche Profit Classroom and Confessions of a Lazy Super Affiliate by Chris Rempel. I also stumbled upon 31 days to Build a Better Blog which is the best 19.95 I’ve spent on a product in a long time. If you want to learn about blogging and making an income, I suggest reading that. If you’ve got $97.00 a month you can spare for 6 months, then I Highly Suggest Signing Up for Yaro’s Blog Mastermind. That is a COMPLETE course in and of itself and I highly recommend it. If you don’t know anything at all about Blogging, what it is and isn’t, then I would suggest checking into Yaros “Become a Blogger Course”. This will teach you what is blogging, how to set it up completely and how to star blogging and make your first money, even if you have NO CLUE about blogging.

Optimizing what I already had going.

I had been running a dating service for people with a certain health issue for 13 years, when I started blog mastermind. I was making some money with it monthly, but not as much as I am starting to make now. In the blog mastermind forums you will meet all kinds of people willing to help you out for free. They are all in there for several reasons, to make money, to learn more about making money online, and helping others make money online too.

I found a few people who helped me to look at my dating site, optimize the keywords to pull in more traffic and helped to optimize the contextual advertising on the site to bring in more money from that as well. This was about 4 months ago and I posted about the site and my findings. It’s been 4 months now and the income from the site keeps going up a little bit each months, as does the income streams from my other little streams.

The Most Supremely Ultimate Important thing.

The most supremely important thing I’ve found about all this making money online stuff is being consistent. Through consistency we built discipline, and through discipline we are able to push through the times when we feel like giving up, and putting the blog down. I hit a little bt of burnout a few Weeks or months ago, as I have been doing this on several blogs for a little while now.  Through consistency I have been building traffic which is the other most important thing about making money online. Traffic Traffic Traffic. Without it you have NOTHING. It is where all sales are generated and where all word of mouth comes from and all incoming links come from. If you don’t believe me, try selling something to nobody. Then you will understand the importance of Traffic! That and good content.

Enjoy your week!

Larry

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I’m subscribed to Copyblogger as should all of you be, and I got the post for the day and it talks about speech recognition software. I’ve been “playing” around with speech recognition for a little while, but only getting frustrated with it as it works half the time if that. I watched the video at the second link that Copyblogger listed which is at Problogger. Leave it to a guy in a wheelchair to come up with the Ultimate Guide to Speech Recognition. Certainly he needed it, but he took his disability and used it to his advantage and came up with Speech Recognition for Bloggers: The Ultimate Guide

I give major kudos to Jon Morrow for not only overcoming what most people who just succumb too, but to overcome and move past his disability and become an integral and hard to replace member of one of the best blog teams on the net. I myself am glad to have watched this video because I was getting ready to trash the software and mic, but now I think I can make this work for me.

Check out the video and come back and give me a comment or two. See what you think from this guy in a wheelchair…

Enjoy…

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Today is my daughters 1st birthday. I am taking her to the San Diego Zoo and taking her directly to the petting zoo. I want her to get a feel, literally, for the animals. It’s her day today and I want to make it special. Although she may never remember this day, she can still have a really good day. She is/was the best thing that happened to me, aside from my wife.

In trying to make ends meet in this crappy economy, I have started to really pursue blogging in an effort to increase my income, as well as do more niche marketing. I already do niche marketing in several hot niche markets, but I also run several dating sites that do rather well for me.

The thing that Blogging had taught me about running these other sites is word choice, phrasing and meaning of what I am writing. I am still working on sentence structure and punctuation.  It’s been a long time since I was in English class. I have been studying things like copy writing, sales techniques and formulating a phrase that will emotionally grab someone and hopefully get them to purchase a product.

I have sat here in reflection of what I am writing, where I have been, where I am going and how far I have come in my life. I’ve come a very long way, done many incredible things and am surviving and living with a life threatening illness.  I am a miracle in some peoples eyes, but sometimes a loser in my own. I have learned to focus,  to have follow through and complete the task at hand. I have also learned patience, but still need to work on that.

The one thing I have learned, through blogging, is there are no get rich quick schemes, it takes time, effort and hard work. I have learned to stop and smell the roses. I think the most important thing I have learned through blogging is to appreciate what I already have, and not focus on what I don’t have. Life is good, and it is getting better. I can’t say enough about how having an attitude of gratitude has helped me to really get the most out of life.

That’s it kids, have an attitude of gratitude and the universe will be yours and it will give.

Have a great day,

Larry C.

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