I have a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flavors.me, etc, but have never found a sure-fire way to market your brand using only these mediums.

I can hear the people screaming it now: “Social media is the newest and best way to market your brand!” “Twitter your services!” “I have 100,00 fans on Facebook!” But what are the fans and followers doing? Are they actually reading your updates? Or even clicking on your links? I am going to launch a campaign using Twitter and Facebook to see how many visitors I can get to come to this site. I’ll be tracking incoming and outgoing links. I’ll answer questions like: What caused them to come in? What caused them to leave? Etc.

I will be posting the results with detailed and analytical data in order to share what worked and didn’t work with you in the format of a separate post.

Do you have any tips for us on how to use the social media applications out there? Please feel free to comment!

Photo via webtreats.

At this point, the gears in my head start spinning, where I want to learn more about this guy, so I do an old fashion Google search. My favorite part of Google is the suggestions, so look at what the big G suggested for me:

If Google suggests it, it's probably true.

My number one rule: if the event/person/scheme is questionably a scam, it most likely is. However, I gave ol’ Anthony the benefit of the doubt and didn’t search scam at the end, just his name. Lo and behold, I find the following:

Link #2:

[Scam] Anthony Morrison/Hidden Millionaires Infomercial …

Link #5

Is Anthony Morrison & Hidden Millionaires for real?

This made me literally LOL, such that someone with an apparent million dollar bank account can’t keep the bad press off of his program.

Further proof: the second link is a forum, where someone is asking if Morrison’s program/book/website is a scam or not. Multiple users chime in saying that it is indeed a scam, where “only one making millions” is Morrison, due to the fine print and untold service fees for seminars and such. The cherry on top of the cake: ANTHONY MORRISON ACTUALLY POSTS A REPLY defending himself!

Millionaires do not:

• Whine to the customers they are losing on crappy public forums
• Say “Have I made millions? Yes. Do I really care if you believe that statement? No.” [permalink to his reply] – This is by the far the most unprofessional behavior but hilarious statement.

If you are millionaire, who cares if people walk away from your $20 book. Focus on driving your new customers to you, not whining at the ones running out the door. It also helps if you try to not scam people too. Moral of this story: Take 5 minutes of research using search engines to save yourself from the possible scams and harmful programs.

Photo via jepoirrier.

How To Accomplish Goals

There are several methods to goal setting, both short term and long term. How are both handled? Overall, the process can be overwhelming. How do we set long-term goals? If all we have are short term goals, how can we achieve long term goals? The key is to define your long-term goals, and using shorter ones to achieve them.

What is a long-term goal? It’s workable and achievable within 5 to 10 years. Ask yourself how you want to see yourself within that time frame:

Who do I want to be within 5 years?

How will my family relationships improve within the next 10 years?

How will I physically look within 5 years?

Short-Term Goal Setting

Step 1 – Grab a sheet of paper, because the first step to reaching your goals is to write them down. List your goals. Writing down goals simply makes desired outcomes more clear, increasing success rate of accomplishment. Need proof? See a study of why writing down clear goals results in a higher rate of success.

Step 2 – Set goals based on certain categories of your life. Be very specific including a plan of how you are to achieve a given goal. There are six categories recommended, designed to cover most aspects/areas of a persons life. An example is provided:

• Educational/Mental – “Achieve a 3.6 GPA this semester by allotting am extra 1/2 hour of study time per night.”
• Physical – “Engage in a physical workout routine four times weekly.”
• Social/Relationship – “Make is a point to seek out new and interesting people.”
• Spiritual – “Pursue opportunities for random acts of kindness everyday.”
• Financial – “Reduce my credit card debt by 35% by focusing on earning more.”
• Emotional – “Read, listen, and record positive occurrences thereby enhancing my outlook on life”

Add more categories as you see fit, but these six should cover about everything.

Step 3) – Make the goals reasonable so they can be obtained within 90 day increments. This keeps the brain focused on end results. Setting goals should be at quarterly increment, not once per year (ie. new years).

What methods do you have for setting goals? How have they worked? Please share them in the comments below.

Photo via lululemon athletica

Most of the time, the problems or questions that I have are so detailed that I can not even begin to describe it. Most of the time, I type keywords into Google and always find the answer to what I want. If you cannot think of the actual question to ask, start with keywords of the problem you are having. Google’s suggested terms usually always give you a better idea of what to type. Type in something more specific and eventually all of the Google’s suggested searches will lead you to the right place. It takes a few searches, but eventually you fill find exactly what you are looking for. In effect, you had other people do all of the work for you. You only searched the same query as they did.

For fun, I use it to see what people are thinking about a certain subject. It’s funny to type the name of a famous person and then “is”. Chances are you will find some suggested terms that will make you laugh. Here are some appropriate searches to the theme of IT Rogers:

I love seeing what people think about getting rich quick.

As always, making money with Google had to strike my interest!And one just for fun from the sidebar!Use the questions of others to answer your own!

Photo via hmk

My initial instincts were: who deserves a donation? And does this guy? The more I thought, the more I was convinced that I was correct. This person does NOT deserve any donation whatsoever. His article wasn’t helpful. Personally, I believe it is unprofessional to ask for donations to a website, period. Only websites that solicit for charities should receive donations.

I spend much time building this website, and I’m certainly not complaining about how much time it takes. If I didn’t want to write them, believe me, I wouldn’t write them. I do it to share my experiences and thoughts. Have you ever noticed that the content here and 99.9999% of other blogs is FREE? Wow. I did.

In further investigation of the above website I found another lengthy article. As expected, on the top and bottom of every page was the following:

This approach rarely works. Avoid such on your personal website. A better option would be Google Adsense or affiliate programs. This is an organization where donations would be appropriate:

www.kiva.org

Kiva puts together a long list of entrepreneurs in developing countries. A specific group needs only a couple of hundred dollars to get started in their new business. You can donate as little as $25 and you actually have a shot at getting it back. Once you get your money back, just turn around and give it to another profile on Kiva. This is a better way to donate to entrepreneurs like yourself. This is a win-win situation for self, family, and community, not some kid in his basement trying to offset his World of Warcraft subscription. It promotes working harder and smarter, where the money you donate will go much further than a cup of coffee. I recommend Kiva.org.

Photo via Wonderlane

You decide to start your own company doing roof work due to your love for sitting in the exhausting heat. You grab some clients and start hitting the ground running. You are making more money than before and loving being your own boss. One day, you accidentally drop a shingle on one of your clients head, and he sues you for everything you are worth. You no longer have your car or house, and are completely devastated by  your accident. How can this be prevented? Simple. Register for an entity.

I don’t like the word entity. Instead, I like to call it a business.

“But Ian, I already started my business @#$%!” Of course you did. But did you file your articles of organization, initial list officers or board of directors, and apply for your state and county business licenses? Although you may have started working, doing it under an entity, for example, “The Roofers, LLC” will protect you if anything bad happens. Even if you work alone, spending a couple of hundred dollars will protect you in case anyone decides to sue you over nothing. Do all of your business under your company name and if you are sued, they can only take what your business is worth, not what YOU are worth.

There are three main types of entities, Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), S Corporation, and C Corporation. Ask your lawyer or use the internet to find the differences and benefits to using each one, I’m not Wikipedia.

Once you decide which route you are going to take, visit your state’s Secretary of State website and fill out the wonderful paperwork called “Articles of Organization”. Each state has its own laws about filing, so you are going to have to make sure to comply. Don’t sweat it, just don’t put false information on your forms and you will be fine.

I’d love to explain this each time for each state, but I only know how to do it the Nevada way. I could explain that, but chances are you don’t live here.

E-filing takes the least amount of time, so I recommend something to that extent. Less work = more fun.

After you receive some paperwork back saying that your entity is established. File your initial list of officers or board members. Once this is completed, move on to the good stuff, business licenses.

Depending on where you live, your state might require two business licenses, state and county. For example, I need one for Nevada as well as Clark County.

Bottom line: Know the laws and processes of your state in terms of licensing and filing. Take the time and money to do so, because if something goes wrong, you’ll be glad you have the protection of an entity over your head.

Photo via robertpogorzelski

I use Dropbox to sync all of my documents across multiple computers. I use it everyday of my life. When it was released, I instantly signed up and ditched my other methods of file synchronization.

You can use Dropbox if you do any of the following:

• Email documents to yourself (I will make fun of you)
• Use a flash/jump/USB drive
• Need to retrieve/update/change/access a file outside of your computers
• Constantly share files or collaborate on them

Dropbox is perfect for synchronization. Install Dropbox, and it creates a folder called “My Dropbox” in your “My Documents” folder or wherever you choose. Anything you put into the My Dropbox folder will be synced with the Dropbox server and any other computers you have tied to your account. You can add as many computers as you want!

Also, you can share certain folders within Dropbox among other Dropbox users. This keeps the information you don’t want people to see away from them.

Another great feature is that you can view your files from the Dropbox website. This has helped me in the past where I needed a certain document quickly, but didn’t have any of my own computers to access it. Dropbox saves my life!

Dropbox comes with a free 2 GB account, but if you use this link you will get an additional 250 MB. They also have 50 GB and 100 GB plans for a monthly fee. Start with the 2 GB and if you fill it up, just upgrade when you need to!

Dropbox takes the hassle and confusion away of keeping up-to-date files. You can access your files from anywhere and not be bound to your computers, Mac or PC. They even have an iPhone app! Live the ultra mobile lifestyle and download Dropbox for free!

How has Dropbox helped you with mobility? Please share in the comments below!

1. Click on “Friends” and create a new list.

2. Type the names of the people who you really care about and give the list a name.

3. On the left side, click your list.

Personally, I call this list “I Care”. With this list, I eliminate most of the crap I see on Facebook and get right down to the good stuff. You could always remove people from your friends, but that would be mean. I use the list to track updates of my “favorites”. If I hop on twice per day, it only takes about 10 minutes total to catch up on the newest updates.

Please feel free to comment on this post. How many hours per day do you spend wasting? Is Facebook a part of it?