David Bridge, Jr

2010-06-10T16:37:00.001-04:00

Self Confidence Formula

2010-05-14T14:20:00.001-04:00

Here is one for you that is TIMELESS..
I am typing this one after memorizing it just as it is suggested in the book "Think and Grow Rich"..

1. I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my Definite Purpose in life, therefore, I DEMAND of myself persistent, continuous action toward its attainment, and I here and now promise to render such action.

2. I realize the dominating thoughts of my mind will eventually reproduce themselves into physical reality, therefore, I will concentrate my thoughts for thirty minutes daily, upon the task of thinking of the person I intend to become, thereby creating in my mind a clear mental picture of that person.

3. I know though the principle of auto-suggestion, any desire that I persistently hold in my mind will eventually seek expression through some practical means of attaining the object back of it, therefore, I will devote ten minutes daily to demanding of myself the development of SELF-CONFIDENCE.

4. I have clearly written down a description of my definite chief aim in life, and I will never stop trying, until I shall have developed sufficient self-confidence for its attainment.

5. I fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice, therefore, I wil engage in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it affects. I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of other people. I will induce others to serve me, because of my willingness to serve others. I will eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness, and cynicism, by developing love for all humanity, because I know that a negative attitude toward others can never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me, because I will believe in them, and in myself.

I will sign my name to this formula, commit it to memory, and repeat it aloud once a day, with full FAITH that it will gradually influence my THOUGHTS and ACTIONS so that I will become a self-reliant, and successful person.

There are plenty more of these types of tidbits from all different sources for you over at:
http://www.internetanwerkey.com

In the meantime, use it wisely my friends..

David

One Thing At A Time

2010-05-13T11:54:00.002-04:00

Ever get scatter brained?
Oh I saw this, now I have to do this, meanwhile you were working on something else..
One of the reasons some people can get more done than others is they focus on the task/goal at hand before moving on to anything else. Definiteness of Purpose. It is one of the first things that is addressed in "Think And Grow Rich" - having a definite purpose.
There are some videos addressing this over at :
http://www.internetanswerkey.com as well.

So, as you have probably heard/read before start with that end result, work backwards to what needs done TODAY, and then take the action on the tasks that need done now to reach that end result.
Easy enough, right?
Funny thing is with this being the information age, there are so many things to distract us. It then is a balance of what is a distraction versus what is a tool that can help accomplish the goal. It is quite a bit easier to make that distinction with the goal/desire burned into your brain. For some that is easier than others too..having the goal burned in..
I think I will address that next time..

David

PMA - Positive Mental Attitude

2010-05-12T12:01:00.001-04:00

How far can you get with it? A PMA.

How far can you get without it?.. A negative mental attitude. If you never thought you could swim or ride a bike, would you even try? The expectation of being able to do something having seen other people do it ahead of you is part of the PMA. The expectation on top of have the can do attitude. They go hand in hand.

Followed by action.
You see your friends ride/swim. You now think you can do it too. So you jump in the pool or get on the bike. Action.

Now.. you likely choked on some water or skinned a knee jumping right at it. I definitely remember doing both.
However, what did you do after that? Did you give up or try again? It certainly could not have taken all that long with either task. Especially with someone there for support - holding on to the back of the bike or training wheels / swimming right along with you. I remember both being a little scary, but with some reassurance that I could do it.... that I / ME could do it, I kept trying.

Seems like a simple enough story.. but now take that ahead a few decades. What are you trying to accomplish?
A new career?
A new home business?
You have seen others do it. You know it can be done. Do you believe YOU can do it? Can you see YOURSELF succeeding?
Those are the next steps aren't they.
There is some more insight at
http://www.internetanswerkey.com

Until next time,

David

Thoughts Are Things

2010-04-12T14:55:00.005-04:00

Don't take for granted any thoughts/ideas you have for creating something for granted. A ton of ideas, mine included come and go that could have been worth..well..millions. For instance, take the Breathe Rite Strip guy. Although, he undoubtedly fostered his ideas, he didn't take it for granted. Have you ever tried one of these things? I love them especially for sleeping. The Ab Roller Guy – Don Brown even thinks so.

Some of the internet marketing ideas are the same too. Just the idea of copywriting in and of itself. Let's say you are able to do it well. So, then why not teach it? How much is that idea worth?

According to Think and Grow Rich, United States Steel was simply an idea..worth $600 billion.

Depending on the subject, teaching/coaching obviously pays pretty well if you are good at it.

The coach of Butler's basketball, Brad Stevens, is pretty good at it and you can google that.

Football, the game, was an idea.. now any idea about running an offense/defense can be worth quite a bit when implemented by the right coach.

Coaching CEO's has apparently been on the rise too. What if you are the CEO of a major corporation? What ideas do they have that are valuable?

Is any of this making sense? All of what I am writing is just one idea after another and the lot of them is now my 'post'/ 'a thing'. Is there any value in it? Was it a complete waste of your time reading it? That depends on whether it generated any ideas in your head that can become some'thing' of value.

Let me know..

In the meantime, there will be some valuable ideas that I am going to be sharing over at http://www.internetanswerkey.com very soon...

Good Friday

2010-04-02T12:48:00.000-04:00

My Take On Good Friday...

I grew up getting dragged to church every Sunday. It's a Presbyterian church. I wasn't the only kid there...some good friends were there too. I just remember that I would have preferred to not get all dressed up with a tie and such back then. It would have been much easier to stay in bed and sleep than to prop my head up in the pew pretending to pay attention while not letting drool run down my hand during the sermons that seemed to last a day and a half.

In any case, I remember being fairly young...maybe 10-11 when my Dad woke me up at the ass crack of not even dawn one morning – probably on the order of 5:30 am -and said.. "Hey, want to go to breakfast?"

Thinking it was more than a little bit odd while at the same time not wanting to miss a chance to hang out with him, I staggered out of bed. We rolled down to the Knights of Columbus Hall in Oil City.

"What kind of restaurant is this?" was my quiet thought of protest. As we got closer, there were more and more guys heading for the door. When we stepped into the hall there were 3 million guys in there. Well more like 300, but things seem bigger when you are younger. "What in the world is this madness?" All these people are sitting at rows of tables...for what? So I am compelled to ask...what is going on? Dad says, it's the Laymen's Good Friday breakfast… oh...well ok, in that case...must be something special…Easter and all. In my mind I am now confronted with "what in the world is a Layman?"

So the master of ceremonies gets things started after we sit down. He gives the blessing and afterwards instructs the tables to line up at the window to get served. We get up to the window after about 10 minutes and there is no menu. Just a plate of scramble eggs and Canadian bacon waiting for me. Oh and some home fries. What in the world is going on? I got out of bed for this! Of course as a picky eater back then this was outrageous. I grabbed a plate and followed dad back to our seats to pick at what was on my plate.

At about 6:50, the MC stands up and says...ok we are heading across the parking lot to the church. The service will start promptly at 7:00.

Service? What the *%$@ is he talking about, service?

So I ask dad. "What are we doing?"

"We are going to church."

Are you out of your mind? Church? Holy cow! I can't believe how bad I got bushwhacked on this deal. By my Dad no less. He ran two buses over me that morning...the food and then "church"

By the way… the manner that my Dad would say.. "time to get up" "goin to church" induced rage back then. I had no argument in the totalitarian regime back then.

I remember the sanctuary filling up with all the men from the town. It was kind of cool...but not quite cool enough to get up this early. I do remember the hymns too. "The Old Rugged Cross" and 'Ten Thousand Angels" but not the sermon.

Glad to have it over, I b-lined it back to the rack as soon as we got back home.

Fast forward about 20 years. I had been to several more in those years and I'm glad Dad introduced me to it back then. I haven't made all of them, but quite a few. They had guests that had some type of ties to the community give the sermons. Laymen. Hence the name Layman's Good Friday Breakfast. One in particular that I recall was Pittsburgh Steeler offensive lineman Jon Kolb. So, guys like that were part of the draw over the years.

There was a particular surgeon this one year. Someone that had a bit of knowledge on the human anatomy. In his sermon, he vividly described the crucifixion.

The tools the Roman centurions used to lash Jesus. Handles with long leather strings with bone and stones weaved into the ends to mutilate flesh.

The mallets and the long railroad type spikes used to drive into His wrists and heel bones.

These spikes were driven into the precise spots where the nerves end. Spots that not only induce overwhelming pain, but support the weight of the human body when hung like a piece of meat. Keep in mind that these centurions were skilled. This is what they did. They crucified people. So they had this procedure DOWN.

Try carrying that cross beam across town without getting a lashing, let alone having your back torn up and sporting a crown of thorns.

There is obviously more to this. For instance, Jesus sweating blood in Gethsemane. Read this article for more details: http://www.evangelicaloutreach.org/crucifix.htm

So Jesus is hung to ripen on his shredded back. He gets to try and breathe while hanging there. I'm just going to cut and paste here:

As Jesus slowly sagged down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shot along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain. The nails in the wrists were putting pressure on the median nerve, large nerve trunks which traverse the mid-wrist and hand. As He pushed himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He placed His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there was searing agony as the nail tore through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of this feet.

At this point, another phenomenon occurred. As the arms fatigued, great waves of cramps swept over the muscles, knotting them in deep relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps came the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by the arm, the pectoral muscles, the large muscles of the chest, were paralyzed and the intercostal muscles, the small muscles between the ribs, were unable to act. Air could be drawn into the lungs, but could not be exhaled. Jesus fought to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, the carbon dioxide level increased in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subsided.

Jesus gets a little relief when He says "I thirst" and receives some vinegar to quench it.

How much could you take? How much would you take if you were the Son Of God? According to the 'story', some say 'fairy tale', he did it willingly for you and me. To save us. He finally is put out His misery when they thrust the spear into His side.

The end.

Quite the contrary. It's only the Beginning.

It was all I could do to hold back the tears in that sermon. Jesus did it for me. I accepted it that day. Up until that day, I think it was only intellectual for me. I believed it to be true, but it was like history or something. I hadn't really embraced it. That surgeon put it in a different light. Jesus was from then on MY savior.

Now, by no stretch of the imagination have I been without sin. But you know what, I am saved and forgiven. I CHOOSE to believe. How about you?

Volleyball Practice..

2010-03-11T21:17:00.003-05:00

What?..what does that have to do with me and my business you ask?

Well, I'll tell you. I am certainly no volleyball player. Never was except for in gym class in high school.. but my daughter is pretty good and my son is starting to play this year.

Without getting into the whole reason I happened to be sitting in practice watching/reading a book.. I heard the coach praise one of the players after missing a ball. It wasn't like 'hey nice effort' 'keep trying'.. it was pretty specific.. what I really remember was 'you got your hands on it, but don't worry. you saw it and reacted well. But remember that play. You are going to see that again. You might not get it next time, but after you see a few more times, I have no doubt that before long you will get it. The more you see the better you'll play.'

I thought.. hmpf..

What a great parallel. Sports and business. They seem to go hand in hand quite a bit.

The more you see, the better you get. The more deals you look at, the more you know the bad ones..
from the good ones..
from the really good ones..
and the great deals.

So, as ole Robert Kiyosaki says - keep looking at deals. Look at them all the time.

Just a nugget I thought I would share..

David

AddThis - Get Your Button Code

2010-02-28T11:50:00.001-05:00

AddThis - Get Your Button Code

Just a gadget to put up on your sites.. Most should know about something like this.. but in case you don't..

It is a tool to get visitors to your site to pass the word. Word of mouth/viral marketing..whatever you wan to call it.

Enjoy.

Self Directed IRA's

2010-02-27T21:24:00.003-05:00

It's not likely this is the first place you have heard about these. However, here is my take.

Your IRA account that you can control without having to put the money in the stock market. Do what you think is best with it. Now there are some limitations. Mostly common sense though. However, take your retirement fund and use it to invest in a number of things, the list is endless, but if nothing else - Real Estate. I'm just going to defer to a number of other independent sites so you can validate what I am saying.

These are very well respected ones:
http://www.trustetc.com/

http://www.guidantfinancial.com/products/self-directed-ira/default.aspx

or their site for real estate specifically:
http://www.guidantfinancial.com/products/real-estate-ira/default.aspx

There was another, but right off the top of my head ... it will come to me.. check back if you like..

In the meantime.. look out for some good deals.

David Bridge Jr

This Crazy Internet Thing

2010-02-26T11:41:00.002-05:00

There' a bunch of stuff out there that really can get someone's attention in one area or another. I wanted to put up a post on The Video Boss and link to it, but it is closed.. so.. I guess I will wait until he reopens it to do that.. in the meantime.. I am glad that I downloaded them to my computer..

Math Class and 130k Tom "Durr" Dwan Bluff

2010-01-04T10:25:00.002-05:00

Who knew poker was a game of math? Well, among other things. Some of our players wonder what takes so long for me to play a hand. There is a lot of information to process if you ask me. How much money do the jamokes that are in the hand have behind them? What range of hands can you put someone on that are still in the hand? Lots of stuff to think about, if you actually want to think about it.

As far as math is concerned though. Like I mentioned to the folks from http://www.nolimitholdempirate.com you can figure your outs and odds and all that from those rules of 4 and 2. Let me know if you don’t know what I am talking about. ;-D However, what about the reverse side of things? What if you are the one with the made hand? Big pairs preflop or hitting set on a draw heavy board? What then? Are you betting enough to keep the Pirate at bay? Check calling hoping to trap really requires a huge hand if you ask me.

Pot sized bets obviously lay 2-1. Someone needs a pretty strong holding to stick around. If the Pirate anything, he’ll pay. What about half the pot? The Pirate then will hang around just to hang around with big cards getting 3-1. Very simple math, but it is also an awareness of the bet amounts as things progress. What was the raise preflop and how many players are left? Simple.

What about your check raise? How much do you reraise? Do the math. Someone bets the pot, a raise of double that still lays pretty good odds.
Ex: pot is $10. A bet of $10, you raise to $20. Costs me $10 to win $40. The raise itself signals strength, but the Pirate isn’t going anywhere. That may or may not be a good thing depending on what you’re up against. A set vs his overpair needs a bigger raise than that to keep him from drawing out cheap. Crack him by at least tripling his bet or even quadrupling it. Make it $4o so that it’s $30 to win $60 in the above example. That will bring an inkling of fear to the Pirate if he even has that emotion. Then again it all depends on how much money you have left in your stack. Which brings me to implied odds…

If you are all in, he might just pay you off, since he knows what his cost is. With a bunch of money behind, he might let a hand go instead of facing any more of a barrage with a hand that is as good as it’s going to get for him. A drawing hand will have him sticking around in the hopes he can be stacking all of your chips in front of him when the hand is over. He’ll examine not only the money you are charging him to stick around but the amount he could also win from your stack, namely his implied odds.

We’re just having fun with poker here. Like I said, there is a lot to consider. Although, you and I both know there are players that will refuse to process this and just play their cards. I imagine a timely bluff will get thrown in there for them as well.. so, check this one out and enjoy..

The Pirate Is A Junk Man

2009-12-31T12:08:00.008-05:00

Piratemania is alive and well.
Just get a look over at www.nolimitholdempokerpirate.com

He is just the kind of guy you love and hate to see at the table. One thing you want to make sure to do is take advantage of the last tip when you see him already playing. Just opt in with your email in the form to the right if you want to know what I am talking about. However, Dan Harrington, is his book – Cash Game Volume II had an interesting point on that. Not quite what you might expect, or at least what I would have expected but makes perfect sense.

Anyway..back to our Sanford & Son rival...
He really just likes to gamble. That is my main point here. Poker with all the skill that is talked about is still a game of chance. There is luck involved. Period. So, pot odds or not, if there is a minute reason to stick around in a hand, our junkaholic will likely do so. He'll use position (or lack thereof) and fear on top of that.
Here is a junk man hand: he limps in from middle position to have Jack Daniels raise to $7 in late position. It's folded back around to him and he calls.

Pirate check calls $15
Turn is

and calls off his stack for $20.50.

The river is

The pirate was up against a set of kings, but would have still shipped it in at any point with what ended up a losing

Actually, who among us wouldn't have done the same thing?

Earlier in the game our Hero (he now knows who he is) got to feel the prowess of the Pirate yet again. These are fun to watch live by the way, especially when I am getting clobbered and am unable to win a pot. Pirate limps from middle position to have Jack Daniels raise to $4 in our $.50-$1 game. Our Hero in the bb reraises to $12 with $60 behind. Call from pirate Rodcicle as well as Jack.

Hero bets $12 again and gets raised all in by Roddizzle. Jack folds and puts our hero into misery. He folds in disgust and both hands are mucked. As I write this, I know I made a note correctly and chuckle to what they both said they had. Hero's comments are that he can't ever remember folding an over pair to Rod and claims to have had Kings. Pirate then claimed to have had Ah6h, but he obviously didn't. He must have just had the suited ace. Either way he was gambling and used position and fear mongering to get Heroboy to chuck.

Like I said, he loves to gamble.

The Power Is In The Button

2009-12-28T21:11:00.042-05:00

There is just something about having it, especially in live games when there is an actual physical ‘button’. In No Limit Cash Games, it is pretty essential for a number of reasons. Getting tricky and defending your blinds in a cash game is so hard to do that most good players don’t even bother, unless you are Tom Dwan or something. Tournaments are a different story where you need all the chips you can get, but we’re talking cash games.

Here are a couple things to consider:

You get to see what everyone else in the hand does first. Obviously. What does that mean? Let 's say you have 10's in early position after making a raise. You are first to act after a flop of

now what? Hard to say..

Vs. How about the same pocket 10's on the button with this flop:

This time there is a bet, a raise and then an all-in in front of you. Pretty easy fold.

You get to control the amount of money in the pot.

Here is one that should have just been let go..The Pirate is in the small blind and it’s 6 handed. It gets folded to the button who raises it to $2.50 and the Pirate calls. $5.50 in the pot when the flop comes .

Now the Pirate checks and as the button with As, 2c we bet $5 to see the Pirate call.
The turn is

and the Pirate checks again. While trying to put him on a range is next to impossible, it might be a good idea to just check behind with an awful kicker. $10 is what we bet, however and the Pirate shoves on us for another $26.50… now what? If we are trying to control the size of the pot here, a fold is prudent now. Also a check on the turn is fine too. A donkey call is made and he shows us 2 pair and the river doesn't help us.

You can open up your range of starting hands like the Pirate does..

One of our heroes in our game wants to mix it up with Qd,8c

He bets $6 when the flop is:

to have the Pirate call.

comes on the turn.

He fires $10 this time and the Pirate calls.

on the river and our hero doesn't slow down.
Not fearing the flush and shovels $12 in this time and the Pirate calls again. The hero is ruined when he sees 5h,4c turned over by the Pirate.

The final point that I will make is that you get to control information the later you are in the hand. If our Pirate was no good with the small end of the straight, he could have just mucked it and played the next hand. Even if it was checked down, he shows last, if at all and gets to decide what everyone else sees.

There is a lot more to button play. We have just started to scratch the surface. One of the great young players in the game is David Williams. You can Head Over Here To See David Williams and check out his version in a pretty cool training video.

This is just some fun stuff to think about. You know as well as I do there are plenty of sharks out there. There are even some willing to fill you in on some stuff here: Poker Virtual Training!

David Bridge, Jr

Scared Money Doesn’t Pay

2009-12-26T16:24:00.006-05:00

You'll hear this phrase every once in a while in our game. Most of the time it is after one of us went broke to The Pirate or we were cowering and folded to one of his relentless nickel bets that would have left us even shorter stacked.

It is a terrible mindset to have. It is not a mindset that can win against The Pirate or anyone else for that matter, including me. Even I'll crush you. :-D

As I write this, I am trying to think of any episode of High Stakes Poker on GSN where any of the players were playing with scared money. Maybe on a hand or two, but certainly not for an entire session. They would have been just eaten alive.

One of the ways to keep this from happening is to manage your bankroll. Poker bankroll that is. Take any given session you want to play. Our game has only been $0.50/$1.00 for quite a while. We take it seriously. At the same time it can get expensive. A typical buy in is anywhere from $50 to $100. Most any resource giving advice on bankroll management is going to say have a MINIMUM total sum of 20 buyins to devote to poker. Do the math. There aren't too many of us that have a two dime bankroll.

So, here is what you do to avoid being skeered. Play in games with stakes just that – 1/20^th of what you have for poker. Keep it devoted to poker. If you want to move up in stakes..just do the math and grind it out. You are not allowed to move up until you have 20x your buy in, which 'should' be 100 big blinds. Now, keep in mind, I'm not your dad, so do what you want.

However, buying in for 100 big blinds lets you actually play the game. You aren't sweating making a call of a preflop raise in position with a suited connector as much. You have the implied odds you need – against the Pirate anyway, because he is NOT buying in short. Someone else committing 10% of his stack preflop, maybe not so much of implied odds. This is another subtle part of the game that I am not getting into here.
Anyway.. keep those numbers in mind: 100 big blinds and 20 buyins. I'm not saying don't play in the 'Big Game'. All I'm saying is you are likely at some point going to be playing with 'Scared Money'. So, until it gets built up to that number, The Pirate will be on the lookout for the Cowards!

In the meantime take a gander at what not being skeered will do for The Pirate:

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/1209631

David Bridge, Jr.
www.nolimitholdempokerpirate.com

Why Didn’t You Bet That?

2009-12-24T15:21:00.004-05:00

"I was hoping he would bet" is the reply that I get most of the time. Either that or "ahhh.. I don't know"

You know the game is about winning some money, right? Well, when you get a hand, you have to bet it! There are so many times that guys we play with pick up hands and don't bet them. Don't get me wrong. Kenny does. He's one of the fellas that mixes up with us and The Pirate. DC does too, but he could certainly get a little more value for some of his hands that he only min-raises. The Pirate though, will stomp on your throat. He gets two pair and value bets the daylights out of that puppy. It might not always be good, but you better believe that he is putting money in the pot. Plus, if you don't call, don't expect to see what he had either. It's going into the muck.

The same has to be the case for you. When you flop a set or a straight, don't be skeered. Bet it! Don't wait for someone else to bet either!

I'm here to tell you that betting the pot or even overbetting is not a bad idea. There are players that are just looking for reasons to stick around. The Pirate will, even with bottom pair! So, get some cash for your trouble. You know you've been sitting there waiting for a hand.

Now, one other thing. Take the time to bet some of those other hands too. You know the ones that if you really think about, you are probably good. Like a wired pair of 10's on a board of J, 4, 2 that got checked around to you. And just because The Pirate called the bet and a 3 comes doesn't mean you should not bet that too. Im not saying that if you get raised you should stick around, but.. what range would you put him on?

I am going to give you a perfect example of a solid value bet The Pirate makes:

I remember him being in late position against one other player on a flop of Ac, 2d, 2c. It's checked to him and he bets $3.50. There wasn't any preflop action either.

The turn is 9c and checked to him again. He bets another $3.50.

River is 9h and checked again. The Pirate bets one more $3.50 and gets called. He flips up A10 and takes the pot vs. A5.

There was no raise at any point against him, so he KNEW it was good and probably anything more than $3.50 wasn't getting called by the player he was in with..

Meet The Pirate of Poker!

2009-12-23T11:28:00.004-05:00

My fellow holdem players, here is The Pirate! If by some chance you get to play with us, you would actually hear us call him "dee Pirate" in our native poker dialect. He is one of THE nastiest opponents at the table.

Just look at the EVIL grin on him as he is counting out his chips to make this call. He truly is fearless with a seemingly endless bankroll.

Now, probably one of the reasons he is getting ready to do some splashing is he was paying attention, not like these people: http://www.youtube.com/TOTALLYOBLIVIOUS
The Pirate will pay attention to your body language. He won't make a big deal about it, nor will he even admit that he is doing it. But, make NO mistake. He is watching and trying to get any whiff of fear he can in your play, searching for weakness.

One of the physical tells that I mentioned to my subscribers - SIGN UP ON THE RIGHT, BY THE WAY - is detailed in Joe's article: I Feel Sorry For You If You Don't Know Who Joe Is

It's funny because, I almost feel like I am giving too much away with this information. But then again, if you get better, I am forced to play better myself. So, in the hardcore sense it helps us all out.

Basically what it boils down to is this. Pay attention to how people behave, even when you and they are not in the hand. This gives you a baseline. Then as they play out a hand - Observe! Then compare that to their baseline. It takes a lot of effort, but eventually you'll be able to spot the fear just like the Pirate.

All of this is in Joe's book - Read'em and Reap that is has a link just down below. Don't go out and buy this. Just ask The Pirate to borrow it. He has studied this thing inside and out. He has had it since it came out. It is kind of our little secret. I know no one else at our game has this Manual of All Manuals for spotting tells. So, like I said borrow it from The Pirate and just forget to give it back to him so he can't reference any longer..

The Difference That a $5 Chip Makes

2009-12-21T12:54:00.002-05:00

Well, the Pirate was at it again last night! I sure do love No Limit Holdem, but sometimes it makes me want to cry. Here is the hand:

I have pocket kings in early position and raise to $8 in our small stakes $0.50/1.00 game. I started the hand with $92. There are two callers behind me including The Pirate.

The Flop is 3,4,7 two spades and I bet $17. The Pirate calls having me covered and the remaining player folds. I am not too thrilled with his call and think he might have the 56 or two spades. Pot is $61.

The Turn is an offsuit King and I am wondering what to bet to get it all in thinking that in all likelihood that I am good. I decide on $30, but at the last instant add the "five" to my declaration, leaving me with only 32 instead of 37. At this point, The Pirate goes all in and I know I am way behind with my set of Kings...

Stay Tuned for the Conclusion and post hand analysis...

Losing Your Shirt

2009-12-18T13:27:00.001-05:00

as for losing the shirt.. here is a quick story about that....

Earlier in the day I was showing my daughter Ashleigh a headline from the website I was creating: http://www.nolimitholdempokerpirate.com

There was a phrase referring to "losing your shirt" and she had no idea what it meant because she had never heard it before, so I had to explain it.. with a reply from her to the effect of "whatever, Dad"

So, later that night I actually went to play poker at a friend's with The Pirate and the rest of the crew and when I got home Ashleigh asked, actually she sent me a text from in her room upstairs....kids these days.."How much did you win?"

I sent back that "Lost $10", and her reply was

"Dad you cant be doing that around this time!! What the heckk" Christmas time and all…

"you should have stayed until you were up"

"and not loosing your shirt" 3 separate messages..

I replied "I KNOW .. but Louie (the host) went broke n kicked us out.."

she heard me laugh..since I was sending my reply as her "not loosing your shirt" was hitting my phone...
Ash: "I heard a giggle :)"
So, I wrote "Louie is the chilly one.."

Ash: "chilly one?"

to which I replied back "No shirt" and I heard her laugh… along with "Ohhh hahaha" to my phone
just thought I would share that…

What Could He Have Had?

2009-12-17T14:10:00.002-05:00

Here was a fun one to watch the Pirate get into with one of our heroes.
We are seven handed, including The Pirate in middle position, and four players witness the flop of Q, 8, 4 all clubs that was straddled and limped in. $8 pot.
Small blind leads out for $7, straddle calls and so does Pirate.
Ad is the Turn. SB checks, straddle bets $15, Pirate calls, and SB folds.
4h is the River. Straddle shoves for $32.. the Pirate muddles and folds..
It was fun to watch and I had to beg to find out what our Hero had.. I had a range, but had to say that in order to win the pot, the Pirate would have needed a really strong holding.

The Pirate is Hauling The Junk

2009-12-16T15:47:00.001-05:00

All you Pirate fans will love this one. We are four handed and I limped in with wired 6's under the gun. The Pirate also limps and we all see the flop of QS, 4D, 2D with a $4 pot.
I make a $3 bet and get raised by the Pirate to $7. The blinds fold and I call the extra $4 to see the 6D on the turn. Keeping things conservative, I check and call a $10 bet.
The river is QD, so I ship my remaining stack of $47 and get called… Am I good?

The Pirate shows the Q2 and cleans me out.
The range of cards that he'll call on the button even with a raise is pretty wide. If I were to find fault with any of the play it would have been with just that, not raising preflop four handed with a pocket pair. However, given the hands, I don't see any way that I keep any of the chips in front of me.

The Pirate Sniffs Out The Treasure

2009-12-15T23:11:00.002-05:00

Here is one of the fun ones to watch. The Pirate is in early position in our small stakes game and makes a raise to $4 with AK. There is a caller on the button and the blinds fold. On the flop of Q,8,6 it goes check check.
The turn is another 8 and our swashbuckler makes an $11 bet and gets called having his opponent covered whose remaining stack is $18.
The river is a deuce and The Pirate checks. Our button shoves his remaining chips in the middle.
It's not long before the call is made and the button says ….

nice call. When he sees what The Pirate turns over, he just buries his head in shame. The only things he can muster are "..how can you make that call?"
Sign in for post hand analysis.

RoccoTalkingFlyboys

2009-07-17T00:41:00.004-04:00

Funny thing about blogging, it doesnt take much to get side tracked. However, for the sake of www.InternetAnswerKey.com, it's all about the marketing.

I just posted a video of Rocco DeVilliers. He wrote the movie The Flyboys. No, not that one.. This one has yet to be "released". He is still working on that. His movie is here: The Fly Boys Movie The video that I recorded of him is above. When he does get this out, you will like it. How do I know? It's just one of those feel good movies with a good bit of suspense. This video of him talking about making it is pretty cool. Up to when I started to record, he was talking about some of the other setbacks and challenges. You'll rout for his success, just like I am. You might even promote it a little too. It's hard not to when you get a guy that is willing to sell out for his dreams.. pass it on.

Internet Answer Key - FOCUS

2009-06-22T11:09:00.003-04:00

Let me explain the next key to the Internet Answer Key. This may seem like I am going off on a tangent, but I really am not. In this or any other venture, there are going to be distractions and a ton of opportunities to make excuses. "well, I was looking into this" "I had this great idea"

Probably the single most important key is going to be focus/singleness of purpose. Write out your GOAL. What is it going to take to get this project done? You are going to have to see the end result and not take your eyes off of it. You are going to have to have it written down and make an action plan. Break that down to a specific period of time and commit to it. Otherwise, here is what is going to happen: you see this great idea come along and want to try and implement it. Here comes your buddy/girlfriend/boyfriend "let's go golfing, play poker, shopping" Not bad things and I am not trying to get you to not do these things. I am making you aware that what these distractions will do is stop your momentum.

You know you want to build your online business. I am doing this personally to integrate my real estate investment business. You may want to do the same or something similar. What you are going to see as you do it are all the great ideas that are out there that marketers are using. You'll certainly want to write them down as you go. But stay the course. Get your first project done before tinkering with it. Once you have your first project up, you can then tweak it.

Here is an example action plan for you to copy if you like. Adjust the time frames according to your own ambitions and time constraints:

Week 1: design and build your landing page

Week2: familiarize yourself with the autoresponders

Week3&4: development some real content for your subscribers

Week 5: put some time into understanding marketing and copywriting

Week 6: compose a sales page for your offer

This is just an example, but you need to write yours out. Shut off the television. I know Grey's Lobotomy is a good show. It won't do much for your campaign though.

Make the commitment to not worrying about getting it right, but to just getting moving. Write out your plan. A George S. Patton quote that I recently saw was "A good plan violently EXECUTED NOW, is better than a perfect plan next week."

I'm going to give you my blueprint in a coming post so make sure to come back and check it out.

In the meantime, all the best.

David Bridge, Jr.

Answer Key Author

Internet Answer Key

Auto Responders

2009-06-17T21:25:00.004-04:00

Hey Everyone,

This is the next Key from the Internet Answer Key - Autoresponders.

This is the most important part of the landing page. It is the "form" that you put on your website that actually captures the information from your visitors. They are then in "the system". It will do the following up with each one of them for you. Imagine trying to keep track of every visitor to your website. What do you do when 100 come and let you know they would like you to send them some information? That is some serious writing on your part. The autoresponder lets you compose a message ONE time. It will then keep track of each subscriber and send them a message individually. The message will even be personalized from you to that individual.

Of course you will want to send more than one message out. The whole idea is to get people to buy something from you, right? You aren't likely just doing this for fun. The catch is that you will need to send multiple messages to each person. The saying is the fortune is in the follow up. The more someone sees your name, the more familiar they'll get with you. You get to demonstrate some of your own success and that in turn builds some credibility and trust. Over time, as that trust and credibility grow, you will get customers/clients.

Again the key here is composing several messages only one time, spreading multiple messages out over a period of time. You might say, "dripping on them". And the autoresponder keeps track of when to send each message to each subscriber. In these messages, not only can you tell them about what you have to offer, you get to tell them about other things that you might endorse. And these things that you endorse can be items that have some commissionable ability. There is lots of content/information out there that you can find that people need. If you are the one to bring it to their attention, you deserve to be compensated.

There are a bunch of companies out there that have autoresponders for you. I have used 1ShoppingCart; here is their link; 1ShoppingCart. They are certainly one of the ones that are very popular and reliable. I also have used and do like AWEBER. Just starting out, it is my favorite of the three for the price. It is very good with a lot of tips and user friendly support. Another one that my mentor recommends is AutoResponse Plus. I personally have not tried them. However, if Tracy Repchuk endorses it, that is certainly good enough for me.

So, Remember THE FORTUNE IS IN THE FOLLOW UP! Put an autoresponder to work for you and go invest in some real estate, play some golf, or hit the casino! (or whatever is your favorite.)

All The Best,

David Bridge, Jr.

Answer Key Author

Landing Pages

2009-06-17T13:33:00.007-04:00

Hello All,

Here you go. This is the first of the 7 Keys from The Internet Answer Key. It’s the landing page. The squeeze page. It was one of the first notes that I wrote down when I first started to pay attention to what this was all about. It is simply your initial presence on the web that people come in contact with. It is where you briefly introduce yourself and give people the opportunity to keep in touch with you. There is a form on the landing page that lets them “opt in” as we call it to receive regular updates from you. I’ll talk more about that as well. The ONLY purpose of the landing page is to capture that information. You want to compile a list of subscribers to send information to. The visitors really only have two options when they visit your page. They opt in or they simply leave. So, the trick is to get them to opt in as opposed to just splitting.

There are several software programs out there that will let you build your own page. KompoZer, NVU, FrontPage are a couple. Just search for HTML editor and I am sure you can find one that you like. I currently use NVU. It happens to be free.

You’ll want to make sure there are a couple features to your landing page.

First off there is the Header. You want to grab the visitor’s attention pretty quick. You don’t have a very long period of time before they decide if they want to stay or click somewhere else. Make it colorful and appealing.

Next is a mini bio of yourself or your offering. It gives you a chance to build some credibility and tell a bit of your story. The story is what will draw people in and connect you with your audience. It’s just a mini bio though. You don’t want this to be the place to tell your life story.

The last thing that I will mention is the form for them to subscribe. The Opt In form. You want to make sure that it is “above the fold” as they say. Put it at the very top of the page so they don’t have to scroll down to sign up. You’ll also want to give them some type of incentive for their email. There is a lot of spam out there these days and people are becoming a little bit immune to it all. So, separate yourself a little and entice them with something good.

Now that you have created the site, you have to get it online. Just because you create in your computer doesn’t mean anyone other than you can see it at this point. You have to “host” it somewhere. There are several hosting companies out there. I happen to like hostgator My Favorite Hosting is Here. GoDaddy is another. Both of these will help you register your domain name as well, aka your URL. The www.whatyournameis.com I imagine you already have an idea what your website name will be. These places will help you make it “yours”. The fees are nominal.

These are the basics. I am certainly willing to share more as time go along. I’ll even share some thoughts if you want to post a comment or shoot me an email. My organization is even available to personally help you create your landing page. You can email me to find out more about that as well.

All The Best,

David Bridge, Jr.

Answer Key Author

www.InternetAnswerKey.com

Penguins vs. Lakers

2009-06-16T00:35:00.008-04:00

I had to contemplate the recent champions of the "Winter" sports: The Pittsburgh Penguins and the LA Lakers. There really seemed to be quite a difference between the way these two organizations achieved what they did.
There was not a lot of national publicity for the Penguins after they won. In watching Sportscenter the morning after, I had to wait about a half hour for them to get around talking about it. The Lakers on the other hand, or should I say Kobe, was broadcast for 30 minutes.
The Penguins had to face some real adversity. They had done it all year. It had been 30+ years since a team had lost the first two games and gone on to win it all. Not only that, it had been 30 years since a team in ANY sport won a championship on the road in a game 7. I imagine anyone reading this probably already knows this.
Here is where I am going. The Pens rallied around each other with their captain out for most of the game and won as a TEAM. The Lakers..well, it was all about Kobe. At least as far as the media was concerned. I actually couldn't care any less the Lakers/Kobe won. However, the Penguins on the other hand, what a treat. It kind of reminded me of the 1980 Olympic team. It might have been just because of all the red from the Red Wings.
In any case, the success you are going to have in Internet Marketing or Real Estate Investing, is going to be a result of how good the rest of your team is. Flat out, you are going to need some good mentors in these games to really make it. There are going to be things that you just cant do on your own. Nor would you want to do on your own. So, with that in mind, let go of the thoughts that you have to be SuperKobe. Start recruiting your team and see how much further you can go.

Best Regards,

David Bridge
Answer Key Author
www.InternetAnswerKey.com

The Amount of Focus Needed

2009-06-12T00:29:00.001-04:00

Is tremendous. It is really something to just go online these days. One little curious click can take you down a road that you come up an hour later from. There really is so much content out there it is amazing. What is my point? One thing to do is to write down the thing you meant to do before you jumped online or an hour later you lift your head up to realize you got nothing done! Sometimes just the intention of writing the blog gets put off because of the surfing. So, just one tip, do the blog first and then do the surfing. Remember you went on with your intention, so keep your focus.

Bulletin--The Rarest Achievement

2009-06-03T21:10:00.000-04:00

Hello All,

It's pretty rare to get an Olympic Gold Medal, wouldn't you say? Only 1,210 Americans have received one. It's unusual to climb Mt. Everest, too: Just 2,300 people have done that. But there's an even rarer category: The number of billionaires. No more than 1,125 people in the world can claim that distinction.

My friend, Bill Bartmann, did just that. Now keep in mind that this group of 1,125 people includes people who had major help along the way: Many were born with it, inherited it, or had every advantage while growing up.

In the history of billionaires, Bill Bartmann stands alone. He's the ONLY former homeless person and gang member ever to have made a billion dollars. That's right, Bill went from eating out of dumpsters and living under a bridge viaduct, to having after-tax, take-home pay in a single year of more than $100 million and being listed as the 25th richest person in America.

Here's where it gets extremely interesting: Bill is willing to coach YOU on how to succeed in business.

After all, what can you learn from someone whose daddy died and left him a billion? But it's totally different with Bill Bartmann: He worked in a slaughterhouse. He was an alcoholic at age 17. And at one point Bill was paralyzed from the waist down. Yet Bill discovered a DIFFERENT way of thinking and acting that enabled him to overcome all of that, and become a self-made billionaire.

After scaling the highest peaks in the business world and getting his fill of toys like $25 million aircraft, what's Bill up to now? He has one current passion: Showing others his special techniques for overcoming any challenge and being as successful as they want to be.

Do you think Bill might know a few things YOU could use to overcome your own challenges? What if you could get his thoughts on dozens of business topics?

Now you can. Bill is launching a one-of-a-kind online service, called his "Billionaire Business System". This is not some one-size-fits-all deal. Instead, Bill has built a mentoring tool that provides you with laser-targeted advice on many individual topics.

Are you already running a business but not sure what's the best way to secure financing for your next stage of growth? Bill covers that topic. Not even sure if business is right for you? Bill has a video session just about that.

In fact, the Billionaire Business System currently has almost two dozen topics, and is constantly growing.

I strongly recommend that you take a look at Bill's system and see for yourself how it can remove whatever roadblocks are in your way to greater business success. You can find it by going to:

Name me anywhere else on the planet that you can get specific, useful, and comprehensive business-building advice from a self-made billionaire? That's OK, I can't think of any, either.

The sooner you have Bill Bartmann in your corner, advising you on business success, the sooner you can sit back and bask in your own dreams coming true.

To Your Success,

David Bridge, Jr.

P.S. The chances are really good that whatever challenges you have, Bill's been there, and found a way to overcome them. Let Bill show you how, by taking the easy step of going to

Urgent Please Read-HR 1728 The Taking of Private Property Rights

2009-05-30T09:51:00.000-04:00

Take a look at the content of the email I received from a colleague and follow through!

Hello David,

This can greatly effect both of our real estate businesses, so I wanted you to be aware.

Congress is trying to greatly restrict seller financing. This is a taking of our private property rights. The US House recently passed HR 1728 which limits you as an individual to sell real property using seller financing to only once every 36 months (HR 1728 Sec 101 Definition (3)(E)).

This bill was written to amend the Truth-In-Lending Act to regulate residential mortgage loan originators. This stems from the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008, or S.A.F.E, which established a national registry and standards for mortgage brokers. This is all directed at mortgage brokers, mortgage companies and banks. These are third parties that provide loan proceeds to the buyer to purchase property. That's a good thing, but for some reason Congress has included private property owners who wish to sell their property using seller financing.

Seller financing is where the buyer and seller negotiate a price, a payment plan, and interest rate. It's an installment sale where the buyer pays the seller monthly and the buyer gets the use of the property. This is a frequently used method of buying and selling real estate especially in this economy of tight money.

Banks are just not lending on, or are requiring huge amounts of cash down on, certain types of properties. Seller financing is used tens of thousands of times every year, if not hundreds of thousands of times, to sell real estate. In New Mexico alone, with a population of fewer than 2,000,000, it is used over 5,000 times a year.

These acts are over-reaching and will have unintended consequences. The definition of a residential mortgage loan according to the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 means any loan primarily for personal, family or household use that is secured by a mortgage, deed of trust or other equivalent consensual security interest on a dwelling or on residential real estate upon which is constructed or is intended to be constructed a dwelling (Sec 1503 Definition (8)). This means any vacant land would fall under this act. A dwelling can be a house, condo, or mobile home.

Here are just a few examples of the consequences:
Let's say you are about to lose your home and you need another $1000 a month to make ends meet. You decide to sell your five acres in the mountains and your 1982 single-wide mobile home on one acre by the lake to make your mortgage payment. Banks are not lending on these types of properties and you need a quick sale, so you use seller financing. The problem is you need to sell both to get an extra $1000 per month, but the government has prohibited you from doing so because of the one every 36 month rule.

Suppose you have a self-directed IRA. Every year you buy property with cash out of the IRA. You then sell it using seller financing so you can get a 6% interest rate. You will be prohibited from doing so under the Act.

Let's say you have four rental houses that you own free and clear. Part of your retirement plan was to sell them using seller financing with a 6 to 7% interest rate and a 30 year amortization providing a nice, monthly income. You don't want cash because CDs only pay 2% and you already lost money in the stock market. But, under this act you are prohibited from selling them now. You can only sell one every 36 months.

These scenarios go on and on. They are as unique as the individuals and the properties. Real estate is not just a house in a California suburb. It is also vacant land, non-conforming housing, land and mobile home, duplexes, triplexes, farms and ranches, and recreational properties. These types of properties would fall under the Act.

Not everyone invests in the stock market. A lot of people invest in the above types of real estate. Not everyone wants to cash out when they sell their property; some people like seller financing for the income stream. Most states have escrow companies that hold the deeds or releases for buyers and sellers. They also keep track of the principal and interest and report interest to the IRS.

This bill takes away our right to use seller financing as we see fit. House Bill HR 1728 should exempt anyone who offers or negotiates terms of a real property sale financed in whole or in part by the seller and secured by the seller's real property.

Why should individuals who had nothing to do with this crises be punished for the sins of the greedy Wall-Streeters? These acts are for mortgage machines, not Ma and Pa. I know the government is concerned about predatory practices, but is seems the local district attorney would be a more effective hammer than to regulate, restrict, and police every real property owner in America.

Besides, seller financing is not lending. It is an installment sale. The seller has agreed to receive their equity over time, plus a negotiated interest rate.
House Bill HR 1728 is headed for the US Senate. Please write your senator and have them exclude seller financing from these acts that are supposed to regulate the previously unlicensed mortgage brokers.

Write your state's Realtor Association and the National Association of Realtors and ask them to help stop the government from taking away our right to sell our property the way we want to and when we want to. There should not be any restriction on how many properties we sell during a certain time period.

What's next - just one transaction every 5 years, or no seller financing at all? This restriction is the last thing America needs in this great real estate compression. Please act now. Exempt Seller Financing From HR 1728.

Please forward this to anyone you think should know about this issue.

Terence Young
www.PittsburghPropertyDeals.com

Part of the Creation

2009-05-06T16:55:00.000-04:00

How'>http://www.wikihow.com/Build-Your-Personal-Brand">How to Build Your Personal Brandfrom wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit
A ‘personal brand’ is in many ways synonymous with your reputation. It refers to the way other people see you. Are you a genius? An expert? Are you trustworthy? What do you represent? What do you stand for? What ideas and notions pop up as soon as someone hears your name?If you’ve been around for a while you’ve probably already developed a personal brand. People recognize your name, what you’re working on, what you offer and what you’re about. That being said, your personal brand might be a little weak and disjointed. If you’d like to make it stronger, this article will help give you the tools by outlining the components of a strong personal brand. If you don’t feel like you have a personal brand yet, this wikiHow will show you how to go about building one.

Steps

Look at your personal brand as an investment. Your personal brand has the potential to last longer than your own lifespan. While the projects you’re working on might get sold onwards or shut down, your personal brand will persist and (hopefully) add value to each new project you create. If you consider yourself to be in this particular game for the long-haul, whether it’s an online business, art, or selling cars, a good personal brand is an invaluable investment. People will follow your brand from project to project if they feel connected to it. When launching new projects, your personal brand has the potential to guarantee you never have to start from scratch again.
Set goals for your public image. Because your personal brand is built from the thoughts and words and reactions of other people, it’s shaped by how you present yourself publicly. This is something that you have control over. You can decide how you would like people to see you and then work on publicly being that image. Consider your goals for the brand. If you want to sell an expensive course in watercolor painting you’ll need to be seen as someone with the authority to teach others on the topic. If you want to get work for high-end design clients you’ll need to be seen as a runaway talent with a professional attitude. Two useful springboard questions are:
- How would you like potential customers/clients to think of you?
- How can you publicly ‘be’ that brand? This question is an important one, but a tricky one. Your personal brand is composed of your public actions and output in three main areas:
  - What you’re ‘about’. Think about the key ideas you would want people to associate with you. Seth Godin is about telling stories, being remarkable. Leo Babauta is about simplicity and habit forming. Jonathan Fields is about finding ways to build a career out of what you love doing.
  - Expertise. Every good brand involves the notion of expertise. Nike brands itself as an expert in creating quality and fashionable sportswear. Jeremy Clarkson (host of Top Gear) is an expert on cars. Even if you’re not interested in marketing your advice, you need to create the perception that you are very good at what you do.
  - Your style. This is not so much what you communicate about yourself, but rather, how you do it. Are you kind and unusually enthusiastic, like Collis Taeed? Are you witty and raw, like Naomi Dunford? Are you confident and crusading, like Michael Arrington? Hopefully you’re none of these, or at least, not in the same way. Your style of delivery should be as unique as any other aspect of your personal brand. This doesn’t mean you need to sit down and brainstorm how to be different. If you don’t actively imitate anyone else, it will happen naturally. Read widely and write a lot. If there’s one writer you love and read all the time, you’re probably going to ape them a little bit unless you catch yourself. We all do it.
Run a blog or website that is all you. It doesn’t matter if it’s not your first priority, or even your second priority, but it gives people a place to develop a stronger connection with you. (You might already be doing this!) Here are some content guidelines:
1. Include a mini-bio at the end of each post, put time and effort into your About page and use it to paint a picture of your ideal personal brand. People will only remember a few things about you, so focus on telling the story that contributes most to your brand. Use your personal story as the basis for your expertise.
2. Try to be personally ubiquitous without over-stretching or over-exposing yourself. If people hear your name enough they will check you out (maybe not the first, second or third time, but they will). Participate in social media.
3. Help your projects become ubiquitous by writing viral content and guest-writing.
Keep your brand fresh. No matter how good your content is, you'll risk seeming stale and repetitive if you don’t continue adding new elements to your brand. You can’t ride one idea forever. Keep adding new layers to what you represent.
1. Continue learning and updating your knowledge, especially if your expertise is based around the online world. The web changes drastically from month to month. If you were an ‘expert’ two years ago but have since stopped learning and challenging yourself, you’re not an expert anymore.
2. Don’t just agree with other people you admire. In doing so, you’re building their personal brand, not yours. Focus on topics where you have something new to say or some more value to add.
Get people talking. Think about your personal brand each time you interact with someone - or don’t interact with someone. What impression are you leaving them with? If you don’t want to spend time responding to tweets and emails there’s no reason why you can’t make this part of your personal brand so that people do not expect differently. If you only have the time to answer 1/4 of the emails you get, why not mention this (with apologies) on your Contact page? The greatest source of negative feeling in these situations is disappointment. If you make it clear that you intend to behave in a certain way people have little right to be disappointed when you do so.
1. Try to build relationships with as many people as possible. See How to Network. Get to know their real names and remember details about them. Not only is this fun and good karma, it leaves a strong impression on the people who interact with you. The ones who you know best and who feel most connected to you will talk about you to others - this is how your personal brand grows stronger.
2. Build name recognition with influencers. In this instance an influencer is any person with an audience that you want to reach. Comment on their writing, keep track of them on social media, help them when they ask for it, if they have a blog try to guest-post (it must be your best stuff!). Not only do you have plenty to learn from people like this, but they are also the people who can give you that killer testimonial when you launch your product, who can tweet your links to thousands of followers, who can share the best opportunities with you. That being said, don’t pester them and don’t ask for more favors than you give them. If you are useful and not overbearing these influencers will remember you. View this as a long-term process. You can’t expect to become friends with influencers in a week. It takes months. (Tip: try to use non-intrusive forms of communication. Don’t write things that require a response in blog comments, that’s what email/Twitter is for.)

Video

Frank Gruber, creator of Somewhat Frank talks about building his personal brand, and using it in his role working for AOL.

Tips

You don’t need to be big, to be big. There are a number of so-called ‘A-list’ bloggers and web personalities who have quite weak personal brands (relative to the size of their audience) based on the way they behave and interact with people outside their blog content (arrogantly) and how clearly they communicate what they represent (mainly just ‘making money off people like you’). There are also some people who do not have a huge audience for their projects but have managed to create a personal brand that is ‘bigger’ than what they have built. This is an excellent platform for them to grow their projects into something bigger and better.

Warnings

A strong personal brand is not going to provide much benefit unless you have valuable output to pair it with - a great service, a great blog, a great app, great public speaking skills, or something else. You need to spend as much time creating your ’stuff’ (whether that’s blog posts, videos or artwork) as you do building relationships.
Never be hypocritical. Avoid doing things that go against your brand or what you advocate. Don’t publicize failure in your area of expertise. Failing in new areas is OK, because you’re not trying to be an expert in those. That’s the difference between when you should and should not talk about your failures. The exception to this rule is when your failures become public despite your best efforts. If this happens, confront the issue and explain it - don’t avoid it, or you’ll seem deceitful. You’d rather people learn about your failure from you than someone with no sympathy.

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

http://www.skelliewag.org/how-to-start-or-start-over-building-your-personal-brand-877.htm" rel="nofollow">Skelliewag.org - Original source, shared with permission.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on http://www.wikihow.com/Build-Your-Personal-Brand">How to Build Your Personal Brand. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/">Creative Commons license.

Happy Branding.

Let The Creation Begin!

2009-05-04T00:17:00.001-04:00

I saw a profound message on Twitter today. Who posted it escapes me right off the bat, but he had some 50,000+ followers. In any case, my mouth dropped open when I read it because it struck a chord. I was waiting for some ideas to "hit me" and this statement came along. You know how you get sometimes..just waiting for the right time.. I don't even know how the timing happened that I came across this post, since I am following a number of people myself and boom.. So, here it is.. Life is not about finding yourself, it is about CREATING yourself.. I may have heard that before, but I don't think so. What if you happen to personalize it and right it for yourself? Life is not about finding myself, it is about CREATING myself.. changes it up a little bit.. I take ownership at that point. You take ownership at that point. The statement itself imposes responsibility. What can you do with it if YOU take ownership of it and create yourself?

Til Next time..

David

whew..

2009-04-29T16:37:00.001-04:00

There are some things that would be considered work. I am not sure I like that term. Although, there is something spiritual in "work". "Bringing Value to the Marketplace" is a bit of a better way of putting it dont you think? That is how I heard it phrased from Jim Rohn. You can earn $6.00 an hr taking out the garbage at McDonald's..or you can whistle while you take out the trash and earn $7.00 an hour..just by bringing a little "value" / attitude.. anyway.. what the heck am I getting at?
I am bringing some value to the marketplace very shortly and I want you to be aware of it. The groundwork is being laid. You dont see too much progress in the early stages of a skyscraper being built. All of that work on the foundation, you see..underground. However, just be aware that it is coming.... :-D

Worth Repeating

2009-04-28T00:10:00.002-04:00

So here I am thinking about heading out to LA. I have Close Encounters of the Third Kind playing in the background after WWE Monday Night Raw just ended. I know, silly stuff, but fun. Fake?.. NO, not FAKE..Staged! BIG DIFFERENCE! Anyway..
In my multitasking, I was listening to Jim Rohn and one of his comments was "become a millionaire, not just for the money. Do it for who you will become in getting the million." Pretty good stuff. I'll be stewing on that one for a little while. More to come.

Heading West

2009-04-20T19:27:00.000-04:00

So, back out to the west coast. LA. Pretty cool town I must say. I imagine I will find some time to play a little poker while I am there. Commerce Casino or The Bike will be the places I will eye up. If I rake a pot off a celebrity or two, I will be sure to post it here. However, the real reason for the trip is to rub elbows with some Internet Marketing heavyweights. Most of the weekend will be covering stuff in Tracy's book. Great stuff. There is no question that anyone sweating a job and the economy should pick up a copy!

So, here it is: Get the most powerful internet marketing bestseller right now. Just released as an instant download version - http://bitly.com/P1lBj

2009-04-16T22:18:00.000-04:00

Ok..taxes are done. Finally. It is never as bad as I make it out to be. Although, by doing a little throughout the year here and there sure would save some headache. Isn't that like everything else though?
Now that deadline is out of the way, time to create another one and move forward.
more to come...

Journal

2009-04-02T22:10:00.000-04:00

ok, here we go. Let the fun begin. I am opening myself up to the online world and going to see what happens. Consider this just my journal as things in general progress.