I awoke early this morning to find out that one of my favorite
singers had supposedly caused a killing spree.

The headline read:  “John Denver karaoke sparks Thai Killing Spree”.

It seems that in Thailand, John Denver’s “Country Roads” is an
immensely popular tune, and is very popular to sing again and
again in the karaoke parties and bars.  People who are on the
other side of the world, far far away from the mountains of
West Virginia are singing their hearts out to a tune sung by
a happy go lucky guy from middle America.

However one guy in Thailand did not share the same feelings
for John Denver, and finally had enough.

He warned his neighbors that if they kept singing their karaoke
– John Denver songs in particular – he would come down and blow
their heads off.

Hearing another lofty round of “Country Roads, take me home…”
he made good on the promise, walking down to his neighbors
house, and started shooting.  The rest is pretty gruesome.

There’s something to be learned from this strange and
unfortunate act.  Its about the power of passion.

And how it can cut both ways.

Passion is super important to instill in your customers.

And something that can be used again and again in your marketing.

It’s vitally important to instill passion in your customers.
And in fact, you don’t really want customers.
You want rabid, raving fans.  A worldwide fan base of rabid
followers, who will sing your tune to others, even when faced
with threats.

John Denver in the 1970s had all of these.

He was a cheesy down home guy with a positive, unwavering joy,
singing songs about nature and love.

Here’s a guy who was screaming “far out” long after it was cool
to do so.  And here’s a guy who was so loved by his fans that
he ended up selling out arena after arena, eventually even
having his own weekly show, singing with the Muppets, and
becoming a movie star.

And it all started with his own passion, playing his few songs
with a guitar.

By sharing this passion and joy with others, he became world
famous and got to share his talents with people worldwide, becoming
quite wealthy in the process.

But just because you create a huge group of stark raving mad fans,
doesn’t mean that you don’t create some enemies along the way.

For every person who I know that loves John Denver, I know
another who can’t stand the guy.

Including the crazy guy in Thailand.

To be successful, and instill passion in your fans, you have to
make a few enemies along the way.

In fact, if you haven’t made a few people mad along the way, you
probably aren’t instilling passion in anybody at all.

So be brave, and be yourself, and bring your passion to the table.

Don’t be afraid to break a couple eggs along the way to
making an omelet.

And when you do make the occasional enemy, make sure you stand
up, pat yourself on the back, and do what John Denver would do.
Stand up and yell “far out!”.

Until next time,
-Wally

P.S. – It’s really easy to bring your passion to the web every
day when you have your own Search Engine Optimized blog.
It’s the fastest way to get your unique voice out to the
entire world and build your rabid following.

Lately we’ve talked about everything from growing your local business with Local SEO, to setting up your website sales system so that the gold comes to you, instead of “chasing the dollar”.

And it’s been quite a ride, but we’re just getting started.

As the Internet keeps evolving, it means that the challenges facing everyone from the mom and pop shop to the globe trotting internet marketer keep growing.

And keeping your business systems up to date can be a frustrating challenge.

The good news is that where there is frustration, there is opportunity.  In my case, an opportunity to better serve you.

I know a lot about where the Internet is going, and how to use it to build your business.  And I’ll give you a peek behind the curtain…I’m evolving my own business even as I write this to  you, to take advantage of the next wave of changes.

However…

This knowledge doesn’t do any good unless it’s applied to the right problems.

Your problems.  Your challenges.  So I want to know.

What web marketing topics are YOU interested in?

I’m here to help you grow, and thrive.

Let me know where your biggest frustration is in using the web to grow your business.

I’ll share everything I know in return.

-Wally

P.S. – The Website Critique and Action Plan was designed specifically to eliminate any and all frustration for website owners.

When you’re ready to replace frustration with action, this is for you.

Back in 1859 on a small creek up in the mountains outside
of Denver, Colorado, a guy named George Andrew Jackson
was hunting and camping when he whipped out a small metal
drinking cup, filled it with soil and rocks, and began to
pan for gold.

Before long, he had found some valuable gold nuggets,
setting off a chain reaction that resulted in a small city
called Idaho Springs and a Colorado gold rush that changed
the face of the area forever.

After old George showed up and word got out that there was
gold in them hills, the creeks ran out of gold to pan for
pretty quickly.  The prospectors showed up with a gleam in
their eyes, ready to strike it rich.  So people had to
start digging into the mountain sides.

Today, if you drive up the mountains outside of Denver you
can still see the leftovers from m ines that have been
closed for generations, and the towns that the gold rush
built.

It was hard work, and people would dig miles into the side
of a mountain, bringing out tons and tons of rock to be
processed with water in order to separate the rock from
the gold.

In order to do this, they’d use picks, axes, explosives –
pretty much anything they could to keep moving deeper
and deeper into the earth.  And then they would bring
out the rocks and gold on a small cart on a train track.

If you ask me, the people who got it right were the ones
who would built the gold mills.  They didn’t do any of
the digging themselves.  Instead, they let the gold come
to them.

They would setup a giant processing plant next to the
river, and then let the plant be fed by the various
tunnels and hard work of the laborers around.  The n
through the processing, the gold would get sorted out
from the rock, and each party would take their cut,
and through that the great state of Colorado was
established and built.

The way I see it, in business you can choose to be the
gold digger – slaving away in a cold dark mine, hoping
for the light of day.  It’s the equivalent of waking
up, and digging for gold at your local chamber of
commerce meeting.  Then going to a business lunch
function.  Then hanging out at a business after hours.

You come home and you’re exhausted, without a lot to
show for it.  The canary in the gold mine is that the
really successful people you saw at these functions
aren’t around any longer.  Strange.  They must be
doing something different.

Maybe they are more like the gold miller, letting the
gold come to you .

When you’re the gold miller, you wake up, and you check
your inbox to see how many orders and prospects came
overnight while you got a good night’s rest.

You review your list of prospects and know exactly who
to call, who to email, and who is ready to buy from
you – because they’ve sorted themselves out for you,
instead of you having to qualify them.

Then maybe you take an afternoon off and go biking or
golfing, knowing that you have automated systems in
place to do some of your work while you get some head
space.  This just makes you even better at serving
your customers.

Both of these guys are bringing value to the table,
but only one of them is keeping his hands clean and
going with the flow.  Which would you like to be?

Working with folks all over the world, I focus on
bringing the gold directly to you, so that you don’t
have to go digging everywhere.

Here are a few folks who have made the leap, and are
attracting the gold right now:
http://wallythewebguy.com/success-stories/

You can do it too.
-Wally

P.S. – No reason to worry if you find yourself digging
for gold.  That’s where it all begins.  The next step
is to see the light at the end of the tunnel and start
to move towards it.  Here’s some inspiration:
http://wallythewebguy.com/success-stories/

I just got done reading two articles that are apparently
in conflict with each other.

The first article said that over 85 percent of businesses
fail within the first five years of opening their doors.
And it gave a number of reasons that I’ll tell you about
in a minute.

The second article pointed out that despite the financial
crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States
rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.

So in the midst of a financial crisis, the number of
millionaires rose by millions of people.

Pretty interesting.  Here’s my take on it.

You have the power to choose which side you’re going to
be on.  And it starts by not making excuses about the
economy and the world around us.

Going down the road of excuse s never works, because
there are a lot of reasons why your business can fail.

Accountants and financial types will point out that most
businesses fail because they are undercapitalized.

Political types will blame over taxation or government
regulation for making small businesses fail.

Sales and marketing folks will point out that it’s
harder to get sales when everybody is so tight fisted.

The list goes on and on.  And the danger is that it’s
easy to roll over and decide that you want to make
excuses instead of being successful.

But you’re with me on this journey, and I know that
you’re not interested in rolling over and giving up.

So it’s time for some answers.

It’s important to build as many systems around yourself,
your message, and your business – so that you can reach
your customers 24/7, and ext end your reach as far as
possible.

You want to make sure that you’re always filling the
pipeline and delivering as much value to the
marketplace as you’re humanly capable of.

As Brian Tracy says, “If you give enough people what
they want, you can get anything that you want.”

Building a website sales system around a business is
just one of hundreds of ways I’ve helped people all
over the world deliver their unique value to countless
thousands of people.

There are a million ways to thrive…click here to see for yourself.

Join me and you can do it too.

Until next time,
-Wally

P.S. – A lot of folks have been asking me about SEO
and the results you can get f rom being ranked high
on Google.  Let’s just say that it’s pretty much
the most important thing you can do after you have
a website.  See here for details.

This past weekend, I woke up early and drove about an hour outside of town to go check out some new mountain bike trails.  A couple of years ago the city bought a new open space property up north, and we had heard that the trails were pretty good.

They weren’t just good.  They were incredible.

For starters, we only saw four other people the entire day.

The trails weren’t too technical, or hard to ride on.  On the other hand, they weren’t super easy.  They were the perfect match between climbing, descending, and just going fast and having a good time.

The views were good too.

The best part was a long gradual uphill where you could just lay down the hammer and really cruise.  We’re talking cranking, heavy breathing, sweat poring off of your brow, and moving swiftly up the hill.  Getting it on when you’re going up makes the downhill even that much sweeter.

None of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for a little coincidence about a year ago.

About a year ago a good friend of mine had purchased a really nice brand new 29er bike.  These bikes have only been around the last few years, and they have bigger tires than the old mountain bikes.  This lets you roll over all sorts of stuff that you couldn’t before, and makes the experience even more fun.

One day at lunch, I asked him if I could ride his bike around the parking lot.

He said, “Why don’t you just borrow it for a week?”.

So I did.  And let me tell you, this thing was amazing.  I remember a particular rock field that I used to slowly slalom my way through, praying that I wouldn’t fall off the bike.

Then I took this new bike through it, went straight at it, and it was like I was flying.

He never got the bike back, because it’s mine now.  I bought it off of him after taking that ride.

Moral of the story is this:  I was pretty happy with my old bike.  It got me where I wanted to go and I had a lot of great times on it.

But as soon as I upgraded to something with the latest design, the more efficient technology, and the better quality – my life was changed forever.

It’s the same in your business.

Successful people are always looking to upgrade, improve, and become more efficient.

But the thing is, a lot of times you’re pretty happy where you are.  And that’s not a bad thing, except that you get stuck while missing out on some things that could really improve your results.

Whether you’re riding a different bike, or getting an outside perspective on your business, until you know what you’re missing – you just don’t know.

Getting a new perspective, and seeing things with a different view lets you operate at a higher level, and change everything for the better.

Here are a few people who’ve stepped up to the higher level:

http://wallythewebguy.com/success-stories/

Will you join them?

Until next time,
-Wally

P.S. – Mountain biking and being successful on the web are basically the same thing.  They are both just creative uses of machines to achieve human goals.  Check out these recent success stories.

P.P.S. — The view is better when you’re using technology to your advantage:

The other day I told you a story about my buddy Nate.  He needed some dry cleaning done.

Although he wasn’t new in town, Nate still had no idea where a local dry cleaner was.

So he set out to find the place where he could bring his dress shirts and pants.

Did he drive around and look?

No.

Did he go through the local newspaper?

Nope.

Did he crack open the Yellow Pages?

Not a chance.     Instead…he went straight to a certain company.

And in under a minute he found the dry cleaner he wanted and drove there the next day.

This was a couple years ago and Nate’s been back to that business many times since then, spending hundreds of dollars.

So what is this company my friend used – the same one that you can get working for you?

Well, Google of course!

Did you know that 40% of the searches on Google are for a local business?  This means that if you’re not ranking on the top of Google – you are losing money.  Serious money.

Money that your competition is getting instead of you.

That’s the bad news.

Here’s the good news.

There’s an easy fix, and it’s so new, and so cutting edge, that I can’t even put it online yet.
So here’s what you have to do.  If you want to get your local business to the top of Google within the next 30 days, I need you to reply to this email.

Simple, right?

A very wise man once told me “Money Loves Speed.”

So if you’re fast, I can get your local business to the top of Google.  But the clock is already ticking, and this isn’t going to last forever.

Hit me back here.

Let’s get after it and crush your local competition,

-Wally

PS – Your local business deserves to crush your competition.  That’s why you’re with me.  Shoot me an email and we’ll get it done.

PPS – Yesterday I told a select group of people how easy it is to get your local business on top of Google, and they were blown away.

This is a true story sent to me from a good friend of mine a few weeks ago.

If you’re running a brick and mortar store, this is for you:

Some time ago, a friend of mine needed some dry cleaning done.

Although he wasn’t new in town, Nate still had no idea where a local dry cleaner was.

So he set out to find the place where he could bring his dress shirts and pants.

Did he drive around and look?

No.

Did he go through the local newspaper?

Nope.

Did he crack open the Yellow Pages?

Not a chance.     Instead…he went straight to a certain company.

And in under a minute he found the dry cleaner he wanted and drove there the next day.

This was a couple years ago and Nate’s been back to that business many times since then, spending hundreds of dollars.

So what is this company my friend used – the same one that you can get working for you?

…well, I’m going to have to save that one for the next time I talk with you.

In the meantime, tomorrow morning I am revealing who this company is and how to get this company to work for you to double, triple, or even quadruple your sales with a few easy tips and tricks that you can implement.

For a select few people who can make this on short notice, I am going to be giving a fast paced brain transplant of everything I know about filling up your local pipeline of leads and converting them into sales.

My promise to you: You’ll walk away with tons of value and concrete steps that you can implement right away – just for showing up.

Here’s where to go:

Wild Boar Coffee in Fort Collins, CO.

When:
Tomorrow Morning, 8am

If you can make it and get in on these secrets, I promise you it will be time well spent. We’re talking years and years of proven, timeless strategies that when implemented, can increase your business by geometric proportions.

And it won’t take long either; we’ll be done by 9:15am.

Just implementing one of the strategies that I’ll be revealing has the power to change your business results forever.

I’ll see you tomorrow.

Until then, stay tuned…
-Wally

P.S. – If you’re running a local business, you are not going to want to miss out on this valuable presentation.

8am Tomorrow, July 21, 2010
Wild Boar Coffee

Here are some new success stories you might have missed recently:

• Steve Krupnik’s Pawnonomics Website – The World Famous Pawn Shop Expert and Author of Pawnonomics
• Kevin Thompson’s Automatic Income Coach Website – The Automatic Income Coach Had ROI In Just A Couple Of Days
• Chet’s Pest Control In Tampa Florida – How You Can Profit Immediately From A Website Redesign

And a couple that have been updated recently:

• Icelantic AT Boards In Denver Colorado – Been working with them since 2003.  Check out the 2010 update at the bottom of this article.
• Dana Goode, Fort Collins’ best Realtor -  She’s using advanced methods to generate leads to her offline business.

Enjoy!

-Wally

PS – When would a good time be for you to become the next success story?  Contact me to receive a FREE 30 minute consultation.

Today is a really huge day.  It’s the exact middle of 2010, the catalpa tree out behind my office is in full bloom right on schedule, and 234 years ago on this day, Thomas Jefferson submitted the Declaration of Independence to the Continental Congress to be signed two days later, on July 4^th.

Every year at this time, I take a few minutes to read the Declaration of Independence.  Especially the first couple paragraphs.

A powerful snapshot of the human spirit is captured within this document, and I would be hard pressed to believe that anybody in the whole world did not feel deep down that Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness are birth rights that we all have by simple virtue of being human beings.

That means you.  You deserve your freedom, simply by being alive and walking on this earth.

It’s not always popular, but from my view, creating more freedom for individuals is the job of a business, and that is what I am here to do for you today, tomorrow, and always.

But there’s always a catch, right?

The cost of personal freedom is that the more personal freedom you have, the more responsibility you take on.

Which really makes sense when you think about it.  Everything in nature balances, so if you can handle the freedom, you can handle the responsibility.  And if you can’t…the freedom will vanish like water through your fingers until you can handle it once more.

Being successful, and creating your own freedom can bring a lot of pressures.

Especially time pressure.

Because no matter if you’re running a single person outfit, or you’re leading 100,000 people, there is still only one of you.  And let’s face it, there’s never enough time.

And since there’s no way to change that, it’s time to get creative and build on thousands of years of civilization, technology, and machines to extend your reach far beyond what you could to alone.

Here are 4 ways you can Declare Your Independence this 4^th:

1.  Clean your office, ruthlessly.  Sounds strange, right?  Without sounding like a feng shui hippy, it’s really as simple as this:  Cluttered Office equals Cluttered Mind.

Cluttered Mind equals Cluttered Action.  And cluttered, unfocused action creates slow, unfocused results.  Half the year is gone!  Time to clean and refocus.  If it’s older than 6 months, toss it or give it away.

2. Once you can focus again, make sure you’re following the holy grail of marketing. The 3 Ms of Marketing as told to me by Dan Kennedy.

3. Re-Use Your Already Created Offline Marketing Pieces as stories and case studies on your website.  You invested time and energy into your marketing – why aren’t they being seen by your website visitors?  Recycle, reuse, and repurpose as much of your own hard won content as possible.  Tell your story!  Here’s the way to do that like a pro.

4. Get A Website Sales System in place to make you money while you sleep.  If you can think of a better idea than making money while you sleep, I’d love to hear it.  Check out Kevin Thompson’s site that is making him money while he sleeps here.

Every day, I work with a select group of individuals and businesses to create more time and monetary freedom.  It’s a great journey to share with you.

Together we make it happen.

Happy Independence Day,

-Wally

PS – If you haven’t read the Declaration of Independence recently, give it shot and let me know how it makes you feel.

PPS – Take a step forward and create more freedom for yourself here.

It’s getting nice and hot here in Fort Collins, and my friends and I have been getting out on the mountain bike trails quite a bit lately.

Getting out there is always a great opportunity to listen to your body and mind, and see if the universe around you can teach you a lesson or two.

For instance, a few months ago, I was riding along, and it just seemed to be really hard to get going up the hills.  I was sweating and breathing heavy, and my legs felt like they just wouldn’t get me going.

But I persisted, and geared down, and kept on cranking away.

Eventually I reached a clearing where there was a nice mellow downhill.  And I have to say, it was really great to be flowing along effortlessly at that point.

Wind to the back, pedaling along, but by then it felt like somebody else was doing the work – and I was just along for the ride.

It didn’t come easy, but eventually I got there.

It’s the same thing when you’re growing a business.

Some days, or even months, feel like you’re just slogging your way up hill.

You’re cranking and pumping and sweating, and the place you’re trying to reach never gets any closer.

And then suddenly, one day, you get to the top, the terrain changes, and all the work you’ve been doing starts paying dividends like crazy.  The wind is at your back, and it feels like people are just magnetically attracting themselves to you and what you’re offering.

The fastest way to get moving from the long, slow uphill…and get yourself on the fast track with the wind at your back is to use good old fashioned word of mouth advertising.  That’s right, the good old referral system is still number one after all these years.

Here’s the trick though.

You can ramp it up 1000s of times, if you’re doing it right.

Here’s how it works.

You build your email list, or your Facebook following, or your blog following.  Or maybe you do all three.

Then you do a joint venture promotion with one of your trusted allies, and send some people in their direction.  And then they send some people from their list in your direction in return.

It’s a win-win, and it happens all the time in the offline world.

But there’s only one of you.  And that’s a problem.  You can only be in one place at once.  You can only be on a single phone call at once.

Yet with a website sales system in place, you can be in front of thousands of people at once, all over the world, and use the tried and true method of word of mouth advertising to build your business by triple and quadruple digits – in months, instead of years.

It works for you even while you’re sleeping, and it builds your business automatically.

That’s how you get over the hump and the wind at your back.

Keep on cranking,
-Wally

PS – So let’s say you are an accountant, and you want to double your business next year.  It’s easier than you think.  But you have to know which path to take.  Here’s how to begin on the path to double your business.

PS – Let’s say you’re a plumber, or an auto repair shop, or any service business at all.  The path to double your business is waiting for you here.