Almost two weeks ago I married my sweetheart of a couple years. I have learned a lot these past 10 days and wanted to take a minute to share some of the things marriage has taught me so far.

1.  Guys, put the toilet seat down

Women spend more time in the bathroom than men. This is one of the reasons they place such a high value on a clean bathroom. They don’t pee standing up and they certainly don’t want to always be checking to see if the lid is down.

2. A happy marriage is a serving one

To be happy in a marriage, you have to learn to serve one another. I’ve found that my wife greatly appreciates when I do small little things for her. Women could use the extra help. Rather than kicking back and watching tv, ask your spouse what you can do to help.

3. A time for everything

Did you ever watch ‘Khloe and Lamar’? Khloe is one of the Kardashian daughters and she married Lamar Odom, who was a former Lakers player. They are a very intimate couple and Lamar said something that I’ll never forget. Keep in mind that Khloe was having a rough day and Lamar didn’t think they needed to be physical that night. He said, “We don’t always got to be poppin’!”

Guys and girls are wired differently and have different needs. A newly married man will have to learn that there’s a proper time for everything. There’s no need to push your spouse into something they don’t want to do.

4. Be on time

Women place importance on timeliness. Do your spouse a favor and be on time. If they say that dinner is at 6:30 pm, you better be there. Once I was late to a dinner and I just knew not to never do that again. They’ll love you for your effort to be on time.

5. Say kind words to each other

Life is full of little things that can wear a brother and a sister down. Sometimes we get insecure or down about ourselves. There’s nothing better than telling your spouse that you love them. They’ll appreciate it even more if you say their name as well. (Nothing is more sweet to a human being than hearing their own name.)

As you may already know, I’m building an Empower Network business. I began with the intention to create a $15,000 a month income goal. Since I started promoting the program in January 2013, I’ve made $2,225.

It continues to get better, especially when you get paid in the form of passups from the individuals on the front line of your business. Anyhow, the purpose of this post is to teach you how to build ‘your’ empower network business.

I really see it in 2 ways.

1. Blogging

One of the 8 core commitments inside of EN is to blog daily. The truth is, blogging daily, isn’t enough. One of the motto’s floating around EN is ‘Blog daily, tell others, and get paid.”

I really like that motto because it’s true that unless you tell others about your blog, no one will know about it. Unless you join my team, I won’t dive into the specifics of how to tell others. I will, however, say that two strategies are: SEO & social media.

2. Treating EN like you would any other affiliate program

There are a number of strategies that affiliates use to promote affiliate programs. One of the ones that I’m currently using is solo ad marketing. This post, will show you exactly what I did to generate 25 leads in 1 day from a solo ad.

My teammate and I both ran a solo from the same vendor and together we made over $600. Those who join my team will get step by step training on how to make that happen for them in their businesses.

Other ways of promoting your business include: facebook ads and media buys. If you have any questions, you’re more than willing to leave a comment and I’ll reply to each one of them.

Are you connecting with 5 new people on facebook everyday?

Well, you should start. It’s free marketing and is very effective. The purpose of this post today is to teach you what I use everyday to connect with new people in my niche.

Step 1: Either send requests or accept requests

When you’re first starting out as a marketer, you won’t have lots of people sending you requests. That’s okay, you’ll get there. Who do you send requests to? That’s entirely up to you. The right question is, “Who do you want to connect with?”

Read their about page and see what their updates look like. Are they the type of person you want in your business or your life? Are they promoting a business opportunity? Do they have a blog?

Step 2: Send them a message

I’ll show you some examples of things you can message them, but, first, I want to cover some principles. Below are the principles for sending a message to someone after they’ve accepted your request.

• Offer your help and expertise
• Acknowledge that they’re promoting an opportunity or that they have a blog
• Ask them how that’s working for them
• Always leave with a question to keep the conversation going

If you’re trying to connect with someone that you’re not friends with, then keep in mind that those messages will go to their ‘Other’ inbox. Have you seen that inbox before?

 Step 3: Rinse and repeat – stay consistent

It’s free after all – why wouldn’t you do it often? At the risk of getting burned out, stick with connecting to 5 people a day and commit to doing it for the next 90 days.

Come back to me and report your results

My wife asked me. ”What is it about men and watches?” I gave my usual reply. “What is it about women and shoes?” I didn’t give it much thought after that.

Until one night out shooting billiards with a few friends and someone said, “What time is it”? Followed by the phrase, “I feel naked without my watch.” It was at that moment that I had a small epiphany.

Could it be that we men are motivated by a certain collective memory?

At some point in prehistory a guy picked up a small branch and decided he might be able to use it to knock something on the head with. It worked; he ate better, was able to provide and protect his family, and generally secured his survival and well-being. Man’s love affair with weapons and tools was born.

Now consider that in all of recorded history men have carried a personal tool or weapon such as a staff, a spear, a sword or gun. It is only in the last hundred years or so that this has changed, or has it?

The tool or weapon evolved according to his most pressing need. In the last hundred years that need has been a question of time. The farmer and the rancher had to get their cattle and produce to the rail head on time. The pocket watch became an essential tool. (Sears and Roebuck capitalized on this need)

What became and still is most important was being in the right place at the right time. Whether this is simply a matter of not being late for work or the strategic timing of facts within a presentation, man’s ability to provide for himself and his family in the pursuit of success is a question of timing.

To be sure in the last 15 years other tools have become necessary as well and are certainly being utilized. But their attributes are hidden. All laptops, tablets, and smart phone look essentially the same.

A watch, on the other hand, (no pun intended) is evident in its look. Like a beautifully crafted sword, it speaks to one’s adversary of a formidable foe and to one’s allies of a capable ally.

A good place to get your weapon of choice is TWS

Looking to learn how to use tweet adder? You’re in the right place.

Allow me to tell you a true story. I used to follow an A List blogger named Michael Dunlop and he suggested in one of his posts that we buy tweetadder. I decided to purchase it and surely enough I did.

I had a terrible experience with Tweet Adder until I learned how to use it properly. I couldn’t seem to get my hands on a good tutorial for it. My mentor reached out to me and taught me how to use it. I started using the software on March 4th, 2013 and today is April 28th, 2013.

During that time period, I’ve increased my following by more than 500. That was all done in less than 60 days.

Here is the picture I took when I started:

Here is the picture of what I took today:

TweetAdder works if you know how to use it successfully. Below is a tutorial that I did that shows you all of the settings I use:

Conclusion

You can use TweetAdder to build your business on autopilot. Buy TweetAdder today.

I did a post on my blogger.com blog a few days ago teaching business owners how to get customer reviews. The thing that makes the review process work is an offer that people can’t refuse. Hence the term ‘irresistible’.

Offer #1 – Macy’s gift registry

As you may already know, I am getting married to my sweetheart in less than 14 days from now. Part of getting married is getting a gift registry together. She loved the process more than I did. We registered at Bed, Bath & Beyond and Target. My feet were sore and I hate shopping!

My mother called me and asked me if my fiancee had some time to run to Macy’s and register there. When I asked why, she said that for every purchase, the store will give you 10% and put it on a gift card. Free money! Pretty hard to resist.

Offer #2 – Panda Express free entree

I’m a huge fan of Panda Express. Do you enjoy eating there? Right now they’re giving a free entree away if you take their survey.

Conclusion

If you want to get people to buy from you or submit a review, then you need to present them with an irresistible offer, one that they can’t turn down. What offers have you seen this week that you’d like to share with me?

Did you read my last post and buy the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell?

I’m just blown away. Every night before I go to bed, I read a chapter from this book. Since it’s been so good, I’ve actually gone back and read the previous chapter. Today I want to focus on the things I learned from Chapter 2. This chapter is entitled ‘The Law of Influence’.

Here are some of the things I learned:

1. A leader influences others
2. If no one is following you, then you aren’t a leader
3. Leadership and management are not the same
4. Knowledge is not always a precursor to leadership. (Think about all the people with high IQ, scientists and researchers. Many of them have awful social skills)
5. Successes teach you what you’re capable of doing and give you confidence.
6. If you pay people well, you’ll get good people and good productivity.
7. Leadership is not merely defined by a title
8. Just because you were the first (pioneer) that doesn’t mean you’re a leader
9. Entrepreneurs don’t always make great leaders. (I found this one particularly interesting, but it does make sense. Anyone watch The Bachelor on television? My mind drew back on the episode where Ashley sent home ‘Batman’. He was this entrepreneur with, literally, the worst social skills.

What are your thoughts about these little nuggets?

A while back I made the comment that a study of skill and strategy was more important that personal development. My mentor, Ricky Figueroa, has challenged me to study leadership and he recommended the following: ’The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell‘ and I’m already impressed.

Have any of you read it?

In this post I want to cover what I learned in the first chapter, which is about the ‘Law of the Lid’.

1. Leadership has value

2. Weak leadership puts a lid on your success. In other words, you’re blocked or capped.

3. Great managers are not necessarily good leaders

4. A leader assembles a team

5. A leader recruits and hires the sharpest.

6. A leader makes sacrifices. He gives the example of Ray Kroc and how he dropped his country club membership to build McDonalds. What are you giving up?

7. A leader keeps his or her best leaders happy. Ray Kroc borrowed against his life insurance policy to keep his sharpest on salaries.

8. A leader has vision. Ray Kroc saw McDonalds going nationwide in hundreds of markets. Has McDonalds lived up to his vision? You bet it is. ‘There are more than 33,000 restaurants around the world in 118 countries’.

9. Your leadership ability affects your level of effectiveness. In other words, increase your leadership ability and you will, by default, increase your effectiveness.

In my next post I will reveal the nuggets of wisdom I draw from the 2nd chapter. In the meantime, buy the book.

What is a pendulum?

According to Wikipedia, it is ‘a weight (that’s) hung from a fixed point so that it can swing freely backward and forward’. They help to tell time.. how that works I don’t fully comprehend. (Talk to your nearest scientist)

However, one thing I do know about pendulums is that they swing all the way to the left and all the way to the right. I’m going to use this analogy to help you understand how searching behavior works. It will be helpful in sitting down and creating an optimization strategy for your website.

There are basically three general types of searching behavior: broad, specific, and mixed.

1. Broad searching behavior

Let’s say you owned a watch company. How would this apply to you? Some of your customers quite frankly have no idea what kind of watch they want, other than they know they want a new watch. This means that their surfing is broad and general.

What would someone with this type of behavior search for?

They will most likely use any of the following:

• watches
• mens watches
• womens watches
• kids watches
• customizable watches

It’s important to keep this in mind and optimize your site for broad search terms.

2. Mixed searching behavior

This type of searching behavior is more targeted than the traffic you’ll get from optimizing for broad keywords. Always keep in mind that you really make 80% of your money from 20% of your traffic and the goal is to optimize for keywords that will bring you the most ‘targeted’ traffic.

People that fall under this category have a better understanding of what they want. They know they want a watch, but now they know a specific brand. Let’s pick an example.

Let’s say they are a man and they are looking for a watch for themselves. They’ve heard that Seiko makes a great watch. (I don’t know if they do, just saying) They may search for things like:

• seiko mens watches
• seiko gold watches for men
• etc

3. Specific searching behavior

Keywords that fall under this category will, without a doubt, bring the most targeted traffic to your watch shop. These keywords often go by another name, buyer keywords. Additionally, searchers will also know exactly what they want. It helps to run PPC campaigns to truly find which ones these are.

Generally, these keywords are as specific as they come (and have Google data). Consumers who use these types of keywords will generally type in things like:

• the make
• the model
• color (if applicable and has actual search data)
• the year

You’ll be wise to implement this analogy into the keyword selection and on page optimization. Just remember, traffic is useless if it’s not targeted and searching behavior is often like a pendulum – it swings very far to the left and very far to the right.

If you searched using the phrase, “I want to start a blog and make money”, then you’re in the right place.

All I can do is be honest and share my experiences with you. Today I ended the newest partnership I started this year. Trust me, this story has a point. You may be asking yourself, “Why did you end it?” After reading Gary Vaynerchuk’s book, ‘Crush It’, I realized I had making a mistake.

Not only did the book knock me on the head, but I also encountered some problems which the book only solidified. What were these problems Adam? They were:

• a lack of passion 
• in it for the money only
• lack of motivation

Before you start a blog, make sure you internalize the points I’m about to share with you. It will save you time, energy, and money.

1. Passion

The blog that you start must be centered around your passion. What do you enjoy? What would you be willing to write about or make videos on? The problem that most people make is that they think that their passion is too boring and cannot be monetized.

I learned this little paradigm shift when reading Gary’s book. Buy it, it will change your life. The reason why you can make money from any hobby or passion of yours is that advertisers will come to you once you build a readership. Your passion is what will keep you going through the hard times. It’s hard to stick it out on a project that you’re not passionate about. Time will decide if it’s a true passion of yours or not.

2. In it just for the money

Point 1 and 2 actually go hand in hand. I terminated my partnership because I not only lacked passion for ear candles, but I just wanted to make money. Focus on delivering value and becoming the best at whatever your passion is. Trust me, the money will come, but you have to get that right first.

3. Lack of motivation

Passion and motivation go hand in hand. For the sites that I own and am passionate about, I blog frequently and enjoy it. In the two months we had our ear candle site, we blogged twice. Both of us dreaded writing. It was evident that we lacked motivation. Those who have passion are motivated.

4. Action steps

I want to give you some action steps so you can properly start your blogging and money making journey.

• What are you interested in?
• Do you like to write?
• Are you comfortable in front of a camera?
• What kind of blog will you set up?

Conclusion

Don’t make the same mistake I did. Start a blog centered around your passions. You’ll find you’ll be motivated until you make your first $100 online, despite how long it takes you.