You can’t control the outcome of anything 100%.

But what you can control 100% is to have heart. And dedication. And loyalty. And that sums up New Orleans people to a “t.”

Four and a half years ago, their city was nearly obliterated by the biggest engineering failure in American history. Scorned by the ignorant and bigoted, they were blamed for their own misfortune.

Media pundits and Congressmen alike had the gall to suggest the city be bulldozed. Government promises of help didn’t come when they were needed and all this time later, few have been fulfilled.

But New Orleans people came back and amidst frightening, gut-churning wreckage rebuilt their homes and neighborhoods and businesses one nail at a time.

You can’t always control the outcome of things, but you can control what you do.

Finish strong.

As long as you’re alive, there is always hope.

Go Saints! Go New Orleans!

And God bless all the brave people in this world who fight to the end against all odds.

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In Economics Made Simple – Part One, we saw that governments just love to mess with the money supply.

One school of economic thought, the Keynesian School, think that’s a great idea.

(Before you attribute Keynesian manipulation to the “right” or the “left,” understand that they ALL do it. It was Ronald Reagan who kicked off the bubble that’s dominated the US economy since 1980.)

The other school of economic thought thought, the Austrian School, says the government should stay the heck out of manipulating the money supply.

Why?

Because it doesn’t work in the long run. The piper always has to be paid and in the meantime, the waste and excess that is spawned during bubble times is not good for society or real wealth building.

I’m in the Austrian school, all the way.

Who cares?

Does the broader economy matter to the individual entrepreneur?

Does a bear s*** in the woods?

True, during a bubble time, the state of the economy might not matter that much. In fact, a lot of loony ventures that wouldn’t work in normal times, thrive during bubbles. Ignorance can be bliss – and profitable.

But when the bubble goes the other way and things tighten up, intelligence (i.e. being interested in the wider world around you) pays obvious dividends again.

First, the little question

Let’s take care of the little question first…Is the recovery real?

To quote a sage friend of mine: “This recovery has everything going for it – except customers.”

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there is no recovery. Bogus pyrotechnics on the stock market does not mean that the marketplace – the place where real people buy and sell – is in good shape.

Sure some businesses are flourishing. Well run, well positioned business, in “fortunate” niches are doing great, but the vast majority of of business activity – and buying – is down across the board.

…And the problem is structural: heavy debt overhang taken on when blue skies looked like they were going on for ever and ever.

If you get your business news from CNBC, you’re going to argue with me on this point. OK, I give up. Larry Kudrow and Jim Kramer are financial geniuses. You win.

The real question

The real question is will the insane excesses of recent years lead us to inflation (or hyperinflation) or deflation (price crashes.)

The average thinking person assumes that the bailouts are inflationary. It’s a reasonable position to take – unless you include one variable: scale.

Here’s what I mean…

If someone turns on a garden hose and just sprays water in the air all day and night, that would seem pretty wasteful, wouldn’t it?

But step back and look at the bigger picture.

What if that same person is spraying his garden hose in an attempt to fill up Lake Mead after Hoover Dam has collapsed? (Thanks Robert Prechter for this analogy.)

Now a completely different picture emerges.

It won’t work

Yes, it’s a shame to waste all that good water AND it’s nowhere near enough water to work.

Yes, it’s obscene that first Bush and then Obama have been shoveling untold trillions of dollars down a black hole trying to “shore up” the banking system AND as big as these bailout numbers are, they are absolutely dwarfed by the size of the problem.

The problem: Money is disappearing from the economy faster than it can be replaced. Where is it going?

Well, a $1 million house in Miami is now worth say $395,000. $695,000 in value just went up in smoke. No one else made it. It’s just gone. Poof!

The bank that made a loan based on the $1 million valuation counted on getting its money back some day and with a profit no less. The owner counted on being able to sell the property and capture the profit or borrow against it.

No more.

Multiply that by tens of thousands of properties in Florida, mix with fifty states, throw in commercial real estate, and a countless number of enterprises that are selling less, earning less and therefore worth less and you’ve got a massive exit of dollars from the economy that even reckless bailouts can’t fill.

It’s all supply and demand.

A dollar shortage means cash is more valuable, NOT less. When cash gains in value, prices go down. Inflation is the opposite. Dollars become less valuable so the prices people demand go up.

The 1980’s, 1990’s, and 2000’s were a massively inflationary period – in real estate, in stock prices, in commodities, in business valuations – now we’re coming down the other side.

Why you’ll never hear this on TV

This is not simple stuff which is why most people get it wrong.

You’ll rarely hear this scenario being discussed intelligently or in depth.

Why?

It’s not profitable for TV channels to talk about it.

Take CNBC as an example (please). It sells its airtime to one-million-and-one financial services companies, all of whom want you to turn your cash into their financial products.

Even if the smartest thing in the world right now (and for the time being it is), is to keep your cash in US dollars and in safe places, CNBC will NEVER tell you that because its advertisers would have a fit.

They’re pitching, not reporting or teaching

Speaking of “fits,” notice that CNBC’s stock picking rock star Jim Kramer tells people to BUY-BUY-BUY and SELL-SELL-SELL, but he never tells us about the third option which is to go to and stay in cash until things blow over. And you know what, he never will.

To translate this into practical advice: Don’t borrow to buy things at TODAY’S prices and only make big purchases (like real estate) if you absolutely have to – and you don’t, you can always rent.

If you continue to “play” the market – and anybody who owns stock is “playing the market” even if it’s in a conservative mutual fund – it’s best to realize you’re playing with a grenade whose pin has been pulled. Play if you must, but be ready to move fast or face an unpleasant outcome.

If you own a business, tighten up. If you can expand without taking on obligations, go for it, but the theme of the day is batten down the hatches. Get smart. If you’re going to invest, invest in improving your game.

The good news is that flexible, well run, marketing-savvy enterprises are going to be the best place to be.

Guiding lights

I’ve mentioned before that my guide to these times is Robert Prechter. (Not-so-coincidentally, you will see my name on the cover of the latest edition of his prophetic book “Conquering the Crash.”)

I’m also a big fan of Hugh Hendry, a hedge fund manager from the UK who was not fooled by the bubble and not only survived the 2008-2009 crash, but made money during it.

This is not simple stuff, but when you wrap your mind around it – and you can if you want to – you’ll be living in totally different (and better) world than people who are getting their info from CNBC and other totally unreliable sources.

It’s worth taking the time to get it right because fortunes will be made by people who get this right.

This video which I found on YouTube explains it as well as I’ve seen it explained anywhere (and after you watch the video, take advantage of the free report link at the bottom of this article.)

- Ken McCarthy

P.S. If you’re still following this, you’re probably interested in turning all this into some practical advice. Last summer I wrote and gave away something called the Independence Day Blueprint.

I was motivated to write it because I noticed that a lot of my successful students were spending like there was no tomorrow. Others were doing “smart” things with their money like piling it up in mutual funds. Ouch!

So long before the crash starting in 2005, I started beating the drum and warning about the coming inevitable credit contraction.

Some listened, some didn’t. Those that did were happy, I know at least three families that saved multiple six figures because they considered what I was saying seriously, told their broker to stuff it, and put all their money in cash (cash money market funds, treasury bills, savings accounts in highly rated banks.)

This summer I put all my ideas into the Independence Day Blueprint and planned to give it away on the 4th of July to anyone who asked for it. I did – for that one day. Then I took it down and planned to come back later and market it.

Then the reality of my schedule hit me. I’m never going to find the time to market this report for what it’s worth.

So rather than have it sit in my digital filing cabinet where it won’t do anybody any good, I’m making it available to anyone who wants it for free.

But this is it. Get it, read it, use it.

To get your free copy:

Click here for Independence Day Blueprint

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What happens when a Spike TV producer and an economics professor get together?

This entertaining – and informative – video explains the two major theories of modern economics.

One, Keynesian, says when you run into trouble, print more money. The other position, Austrian, championed by Friedrich Hayek, says “not so fast.”

I live as if the Austrians are right and, if you ask me, I recommend that you do too.

No answers, but it’s good to know the questions.

- Ken McCarthy

P.S. Today (January 31, 2009) is the last day for the early bird tuition special for System Seminar 2010.

I’m the only person – in the world – who’s taught practical online marketing before the boom…during the dotcom boom…during the dotcom crash…during the Bubble of the 2000s…and during the present crisis. Sixteen years in all.

I always bake economic reality and sobriety into every course.

Could be why our enrollment is way up this year over last while the rest of the so-called competition is fading.

Details: The System Seminar 2010 – Chicago, IL

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Saints 31, Vikings 28

It was an honorable, hard-fought game. I won’t gloat in victory.

Either team could have easily won.

I’m not going to say the best team won, but it is true that the team that got the points on the scoreboard first when it mattered did – and there’s a giant lesson right there, and three related bonus ones for good measure:

=== Uber-Lesson ===

Great team, great plan, great productivity etc. don’t mean a thing if you’re not putting points on the board – in a TIMELY way

Football – and business – is not about having the best stats.

It’s about having the best business and that’s calculated in sales made, profits earned and taking money off the table (wealth, also known by the boring old word “savings.”)

Three more related lessons:

1. Protect the quarterback

The Vikings did a pretty good job of that. The Saints did a GREAT job. It made all the difference in the world.

In business, this translates to “protect the boss.” In other words, if you work for somebody, WORK for them. If you’re the boss, expect respect and loyalty.

I see a whole lot of otherwise great leaders make this mistake. They put their staff’s well being first (good), they give their staff’s credit (good), but they’re too lenient and tolerate less-than-stellar performance from employees.

This is bad for all kinds of reasons, but here’s the key one: Yes, business and football are team efforts, but neither is going anywhere without a quarterback who is protected so he can do what he (or she) can uniquely do.

Three kinds of people

There are three kinds of people in the world: 1) people who know how to be respectful and loyal, 2) people who are learning, and 3) people who don’t know, don’t care and/or are genetically incapable of things like honesty, integrity, and loyalty.

My advice as soon as you get the first whiff that someone is in the third category, out they go, preferably head first. (This includes “little” things like showing up late and not honoring simple commitments.)

As for folks in the second category (they’re learning), make a clear decision as to whether you want to invest your time and effort in mentoring them to become fully functional human beings. It will be expensive, even it you’re successful.

My take on this is? Let someone else teach them.

There are plenty of people who automatically and reflexively “protect the quarterback.” Why on earth have anyone else on your team?

2. Doing everything right “most” of the time is not good enough

Once you “get” the fundamentals and make applying them a reflex, the next thing is to be on guard against mistakes. The Vikings did everything right, except for a few bone-headed beginners’ mistakes that cost them the game.

Top performers in the high-stakes business of commodity trading will tell you: making money trading is not just about racking up huge profits. It’s also about being relentlessly vigilant and not accidentally giving away the farm through careless blunders.

Sales-oriented entrepreneurs often fail to learn this lesson.

They’re so focused on their great plays, they never look up at the scoreboard and see that they’re actually losing because they’re not paying strict attention to all the boring – but absolutely essential – parts of business that keep things on track and in the black.

3. Don’t be good, be great

If you’re going to go through the effort of tackling somebody, why not take the small extra step of trying to force a fumble?

The Saints did this and enough of their attempts succeeded that it won them the game. Extra energy expended? Just a little thought and consistency.

It’s the same in business.

Too many folks just go through the motions and do everything “right,” but fail to apply that little bit of extra tactical effort that can turn a commonplace interaction into a game changing one.

It’s the fine points relentlessly applied that can make all the difference.

Summary

1. If you’ve got a good leader, respect and protect him. If you are a good leader, expect the same from your staff.

2. Do things right and pay at least equal attention to not doing things wrong

3. Why settle for being good when a little extra thought and execution can make you great?

- Ken

P.S. As promised, to celebrate last night’s historic win, I’m giving Saints fans – and all other smart business owners – a one-time chance to join us at System 2010 at a super price.

For two days only, January 25 and 26, we’re rolling back tuition to the 2009 level.

in sixteen years, we have NEVER done anything like this before and since the Saints are never going to Super Bowl again for the first time, don’t count on it happening twice.

This truly once in a lifetime sale expires midnight January 26, 2010.

Details:

http://www.thesystemseminar.com/register.html

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Saints victory sale starts NOW!

All day this Monday and Tuesday, we’ll be rolling back tuition for System 2010 to 2009 levels to celebrate the Saints making it to the Super Bowl.

Four and a half years after the federal levee failures – forty-three years after the start of the franchise – and New Orleans is headed to the Super Bowl.

Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints!

The two-day sale is on now: click here

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Drew Brees has cracked the word’s best kept success secret: W-O-R-K with enthusiasm thrown in for good measure.

Even if you don’t like football, you should watch this. If you’re a fan, this will blow your mind.

If you’re wondering how Drew Brees got so good watch all the way through to the end.

If Drew Brees were an Internet marketer, he’d be on the System 2010 faculty.

He’s our kind of guy: hard working, modest, and as good at it gets.

- Ken

P.S. Here’s the deal: If the Saints win, we’re going to roll back the end-of-the-year tuition for System 2010 for 48 hours for anyone who missed the deal (it was a sweet one.)

The game starts this Sunday at 6:45 PM.

P.P.S. If the Saints win…no make then WHEN they win…the sale will go on for all day Monday and Tuesday of next week. Watch the video – be amazed – Go Saints!

http://www.TheSystemSeminar.com

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Today, I’ve been having some back and forth with a friend who is struggling to make his online business work.

I asked him some pointed questions to focus him on the things that matter and directed him to another friend who knows his industry very well and might be able to give him some pointers.

Then I recommended he have a laugh. Something we can all use more of.

The future of social media… (click on the image to start the video)

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My research assistant/archivist sent me this interesting report about Twitter tools…

“…I am not sure about pursuing more complexity or automation of tweets.

Twitter seems to be strengthening their position against those methods of use.

Here are the current rules:

http://twitter.zendesk.com/forums/26257/entries/18311

Here’s an excerpt:

http://help.twitter.com/forums/10713/entries/42646

Best Practices

The Twitter Rules explain what behaviors are permitted on Twitter. In addition to these rules, we’ve included some tips below to keep your content relevant (and listed in Twitter search). We caution against aggressive behaviors and suggest that you stay away from:

* Repeatedly posting duplicate or near-duplicate content (links or tweets)

* Abusing trending topics or hashtags (topic words with a # sign)

* Sending automated tweets or replies

* Using bots or applications to post similar messages based on keywords

* Posting similar messages over multiple accounts

* Aggressively following and un-following people

Twitter may automatically remove accounts engaging in these behaviors from search (or even suspend in some cases) in order to ensure the best experience for everyone.

Ken, most of the things in the list above are things that socialoomph was created to do. Even hootsuite can be used to do some of them. I wonder if Twitter will at some point simply ban all twitter accounts that use these applications… do you think they might?

My answer:

Maybe not in the near future, but in the long run, if Twitter perceives this behavior as hurting their business, they might take a closer look at Twitter accounts using these tools and if their algorithm finds even innocent behavior that looks suspect they might, like Google, start pushing the delete button on accounts.

The fact that they are continuously clarifying their guidelines means they are seeing certain behaviors as problematic.

I think the answer is not to get so Twitter-obsessed that you need all kinds of crazy tools to use it.

Spend the vast majority of your promotion time marketing, not networking.

Marketing will kick up all the networking opportunities you can handle and make you money.

Networking, in contrast, may or may not lead to marketing results. Something you do to enhance your marketing, not a substitute for it. It’s the gravy of marketing. Not the meat.

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Success.

How do you attain it?

In any field, there are about half a dozen things that really matter. Mastering them takes time and focus, but it’s usually not too hard to figure out what the essential elements are.

Pay attention to what people who are successful in the field you want to succeed in actually do. Not what they say they do, but what they really do.

Be smart enough to listen to the practitioners who tell you straight and be very wary of the ones that tell you all the answers are contained in their latest “Launch.”

While it may be true there are only a few things you need to do well in order to succeed, there are a countless number of ways to screw up and that’s what this article is about: screwing up.

The facts of life

Very, very few people are on the receiving end of either incredibly good or incredibly bad luck. Some things go our way. Some things don’t.

When we fail, it’s because we do ourselves in.

There are two basic ways to do yourself in:

1. Failing to invest in yourself

2. Tangling your life up with people who bring you down

Let’s look at these two mistakes in detail

1. Failing to invest in yourself

I’m NOT talking about buying an expensive “mentoring” program from some telemarketing boiler room.

I’m talking about simple things like not making the time and effort to uncover your real interests and talents…

…Not reading and taking relevant classes

…Blasting huge amounts of time in unproductive activities like watching TV

…Not making the effort to reach out and develop colleagues who share your interests and values

…In short, not taking the time you have on this earth seriously.

All this comes under the umbrella of not investing in yourself.

Screw Up Method #2...

2. Tangling your life up with people who bring you down

A second and very reliable way to screw up your life is to bring people into it who screw it up for you.

I’m not talking about the so called Law of Attraction.  I’m talking about letting people into your life who screw you up and letting them stay in your life to screw you up another day.

There are a lot of good, hardworking people who take themselves down this way.

How do you get around this one?

When you’re in the middle of it, it can seem the most baffling problem there is.

You might ask yourself:

“Aren’t the people who come into my life a matter of the luck of the draw?”

“Don’t we need people in our lives to have full lives?”

“Don’t people sometimes trick us by presenting themselves as being one way and then turn out to be exactly the opposite?”

Yes,  yes, and yes, but…

The luck of the draw

There is definitely a degree of randomness about the people you meet.

On the other hand, I believe that people who think that you attract who you meet by some mystical force are wrong.

You “attract” whoever happens to be on a collision course with you. That being said what you DO with this accidental event is ENTIRELY up to you and that definitely is an expression of what’s going on in your mind.

Rather than talk about the “Law of Attraction” when it “attracts” the wrong people into your life, it should really be called the “Law of Stubbornly Turning What Could Have Been a One-Time Meeting into an Ongoing and Painful Soap Opera.”

If meetings are random, it’s best to keep moving until you find the right folks: partners, vendors, employees, colleagues, mates, buddies  (fill in the blank.)

The right one, not the one right now. Big difference.

But people need people, right?

Yes, in the long run, but if you want to solve all your people problems now and forever and reliably nip future ones in the bud fast, tattoo the following somewhere where you will never forget it:

“It is infinitely better to have no person in my life than it is to have the wrong person in my life.”

First, the wrong person will drain you and make your life miserable. No fun.

Second, the wrong person will mess you up so much that even if the right person were standing right in front of you with a flashing neon sign over their head, you stand the chance of being too worn down and/or tied up in knots to even notice.

Is is really that hard to tell people who are good for you from those who aren’t?

If you’re scrupulously honest with yourself, you will probably admit that it’s really not that hard.

The “bad seed” who caused you so much grief probably telegraphed his or her massive f*cked-up-ed-ness (a technical term) virtually from Day One, but you didn’t see, or to be more accurate…you didn’t want to see because…

You were not operating from this ironclad principle:

“It is infinitely better to have no person in my life than it is to have the wrong person in my life.”

You needed an employee. Someone put on the charm and nodded a lot during the interview. You hoped for the best and hired them.

You were in a rush to get a vendor and you took the first one who answered the phone.

You had to have a partner to help you with the burdens of your business and…you get the idea.

And you took the person on, let them embed themselves in your life, and you got what you got.

Jean-Paul Satre said: “Hell is other people.”  If you don’t know the deep truth of that statement, you’re one lucky person.

How to steer clear of the bad ones

First, make sure that you’re operating from the principle: ”It is infinitely better to have no person in my life, than it is to have the wrong person in my life.”

Second, believe that all God’s creatures are worthy of love and respect and treat them accordingly.

Three, know beyond any shadow of a doubt that at least nine out of ten of the people you encounter in life will have major HIDDEN competence, reliability, and/or  integrity issues. A small percentage will be flat out mentally ill and a percentage of that number criminally so.

Let me put it another way, when you meet a new person, they are 900% more likely to become a problem for you than a boon if you let them into your life.

As if that’s not a grim enough statistic, consider this:  Some of the very worst people come in the very nicest and most pleasing packages. They’re masters at creating “positive first impressions.”

They can also be very good at projecting “sweet , harmless and innocent.” It’s part of their pathology and modus operandi.

We’re social creatures

Normal human beings love to bond, they love to make new friends, they love to fall in love.

That’s great, but here’s a suggestion:

You can just as easily bond, make a friend and fall in love with someone after you’ve checked them out as thoroughly as you can. Fireworks, good times, charm alone are never a good reason alone to open the door to someone.

The next time you find yourself getting all excited about someone new ask:

1. Is there a big gaping hole in my life for this kind of person? (Be honest.)

2. Am I methodically overlooking flaws in this person and dreaming I’ve found a winner based on zero information, or worse, my own vivid imagination? (You don’t have to be asleep to be dreaming you know.)

3. Am I putting myself in a position where this person can do me harm before doing a thorough examination of their character? (which is easily determined by: a) watching how they act and b) checking their track record)

What’s that old saying? “Trust everyone, but cut the cards.”

And never, ever underestimate the harm the wrong person can do to your morale, your energy level, you bank account, your reputation. The downside is often much bigger than you think.

Trust and verify

First, know what your bottom line is. What you really want and what you won’t accept.

I’d say that competence, reliability and integrity are three good places to start.

Lack of integrity should be an instant deal killer.  Lack of reliability is its cousin. Lack or reliability in small things telegraphs lack of reliability in big things.

When you see signs of these two things cut and run. There is no possible way you can win in any situation with a human being who is reliability and/or integrity challenged.

As for lack of competence, if you really think you’ll be happy endlessly picking up the slack for an employee, a partner, a vendor, a mate etc. who lacks competence in areas that matter to you, have at it. It won’t kill you, but it probably will get to be old faster than you think.

People change, right?

Generally, people do not change, unless it’s for the worse.

The employee who showed up late the first day and had a reason he had to leave early is just going to get worse and worse.

The date who whips out his or her cell phone at dinner to take a long call will find newer, grander ways to disrespect you in the future.

The colleague who takes and takes and never quite gets around to giving back will find ever creative new ways to extend the trend until he’s bled you dry and kicked you to the curb.

So don’t expect that it will ever get better than it is right now – with this particular person.

What you see is what you get and if it’s bad now, it will probably get worse, much worse.

It’s not all bleak – in fact, the future is quite bright

Some may say I have a negative outlook because I’m recommending you take a long, hard look at negative things.

These same people might accuse of me of failing to use positive thinking.

I accept these accusations because I believe that mindlessly parroting positive thinking principles can be the most dangerous thing in the world.

Parroting positive thinking keeps people in bad situations, hoping that the situation will get better just as it propelled them into the bad situation they never should have gotten involved in in the first place.

Instead of being “parrot positive” be truly positive.

Know that “it is infinitely better to have no person in my life than it is to have the wrong person in my life” – and that you’ve got the strength to wait as long as it takes.

Know that all God’s creatures are worthy of love and respect and treat them accordingly – and use your God-given judgement to weed out trouble-making people from your life before they become a problem for you, or, failing that, as soon as you realize you’ve made a mistake.

Finally, know that in spite of the super abundance of trouble-causing people, the world is full of human gems. One out of ten, give or take.  And among that number, some truly amazing ones. Not perfect, but decent, honest folks you can rely on and will even surprise you by going beyond what you could ever reasonably expect.

They exist and there are plenty of them…

…If you will take the time to look…

…If you will take smart steps to avoid and eliminate negative entanglements that are wearing you out and…

…If you will value yourself, your time and your energy enough not to randomly hand it over to unsuitable people just because they happened to cross your path at the same moment you happened to think you needed someone like them.

Success really is for the taking.

Invest in yourself and have high standards for the people you allow in your life and you’ll be improving the odds for your success exponentially.

You’ll also have a whole lot more fun along the way.

- Ken McCarthy

P.S. If you found value in this, consider sharing it with friends and colleagues.

http://www.Twitter.com

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We end the decade today.

If you’re wondering what the next decade is going to bring for Internet marketing, consider this:

At the end of the last decade…

* Dotcom stocks were heading straight up in one of the biggest orgies of manic stock buying the world has ever seen

* Banner ads were selling at massive (and irrational) premiums

* Pay-per-click advertising (then offered by just one company, GoTo.com) was considered an oddity

* Yahoo was the 800 pound gorilla in Internet media

What a difference ten years can make

Today:

* The NASDAQ still hasn’t come even close to recovering its Year 2000 heights

* Banner ads are sanely priced

* Yahoo appears totally hopeless

* Pay-per-click advertising (mainly in the form of Google AdWords) has taken over the world

Crazy times

I was there ten years ago.

Actually, I was there seventeen years ago (1993) when I started making my first tentative experiments online. I had the once-in-a-lifetime thrill of witnessing and participating in the birth of a new medium.

But all was not sunny in Internet Land.

By 1998, I reached a point of total bafflement at what was going on in San Francisco and Silicon Valley in the Internet industry I helped pioneer.

People I knew to be hopeless idiots and in some cases outright scammers were being helped by New York investment banks like Goldman Sachs to loot billions of dollars from the stock market by selling shares in companies so loony that they defied belief.

That year, the fall of 1998, I voted with my feet, said “bye” to the Bay Area digerati crowd (who thought I was nuts) and moved back east to the sleepy, beautiful and then low-priced Hudson Valley to wait for the inevitable.

A year and a few months later, New Year’s Eve 1999, I watched in amazement as Internet shares that were already insanely priced went straight up.

Then it all fell apart

By the end of 2000, Internet companies were vanishing in droves.

Companies valued at hundreds of dollars per share were selling for pennies…if they were still in business at all. And as the months progressed, the implosion became more and more severe.

When I went back to San Francisco in 2003 after having been away for nearly five years, it was like a neutron bomb had hit the place. The buildings were still standing, but the people – and the companies – were gone.

In the middle of the wreckage, I did something that a lot of people thought was crazy. In 2001, I started working on a new Internet marketing training. In 2002, I launched it.

It was called the System Seminar.

The turn around

I created the System Seminar with a simple premise…

In spite of the crash of bogus Internet companies, the Internet itself was as solid as a rock – and it was going to grow, this time for real.

How could I be so sure?

For the same reason, I was willing to risk substantial time, money, energy and my reputation for sanity by putting on the first web marketing conference ever (November 1994, San Francisco.)

This time around though, things were going to be different.

The big change

The big change – and we built it right into the very first System Seminar – was that Internet advertising was going to be based on careful calculations of ROI (return on investment.)

In a way, this was nothing new. Old school direct marketers have been tracking the profitability of their ad buys for decades.

But this was a brand new concept to many on the Internet.

It’s hard to believe now, ten years after the fact, but it’s true. Before the System Seminar, only a handful of scrappy Internet entrepreneurs were tracking anything besides “hits” and the cost of banner ads.

I’m not going to take credit for the massive sea change that’s taken place in the last ten years

But I will take credit for being the first to put it on the line to teach this approach as the only one that makes sense for Internet marketers when nearly everyone else was still talking about “branding” and “mindshare.”

The big change – Part Two

In 2002 (2001 actually if you count our early beta trainings), the System Seminar was the only place on earth where you could learn an integrated approach to Internet marketing…

…One that combined smart online media buying and careful results tracking with “old school” smarts like direct response copywriting and list management.

From the very beginning, our focus was on pay-per-click. We even mentioned Google AdWords at our first seminar, even though it had only just launched and no one really understood how it worked yet.

Fast forward a few years and two of the attendees at that first System seminar (both then total PPC “newbies”) wrote what have become the two definitive books on the subject (See Perry Marshall’s “Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords” and Howie Jacobson’s “Google AdWords for Dummies.”)

Thanks to its PPC revenues, some say that Google is poised to take over the earth.

Not so fast Google

Here’s what absolutely won’t change in the coming decade:

* The Internet will continue to be a central part of hundreds of millions of people’s lives. If anything, it will become even more central as the Internet solidifies its position as the “central switching station” for all media: text, audio, video, buying, selling, communicating, chatting, gossiping etc.)

* Consumers will continue to seek VALUE in their purchases and if my crystal ball is working, they will be even more militant about getting value for their money in the years to come.

* Advertisers – the ones who are going to survive that is – are going to become even more sophisticated about tracking their results and making sure they get the best possible value for their money.

What this is going to look like is smart Internet marketers diversifying away from Google AdWords.

AdWords will continue to be an important part of the mix, but anyone who is not taking energetic, aggressive steps to free themselves from dependence on Google for their traffic is going to have cause for regret.

Strategy for System 2010

I’ve been writing ad copy since I was in high school and started paying the rent with my efforts back in the mid 1980s.

I am a serious student of the game.

Copywriting is the switch that turns raw traffic into money.

I don’t know how to state it forcefully enough but here goes: Traffic is worthless without masterful conversion and conversion is just a fancy word for ad copy, so in a very real way the whole game of Internet marketing boils down to copywriting.

In all the noise about Twitter, Facebook and other “mindshare building tools” a lot of internet marketers have lost sight of what matters in Internet marketing.

To bring us all back to reality in 2010, I’m bringing in two Big Guns of the copywriting world to System 2010 – both multi-decade veterans who write real ad copy for real companies selling real products to real people. Both master teachers…

But don’t take my word for it. They’re both published authors with their books continuously in print: Bob Bly from the US and Drayton Bird from the UK. Google them.

The other piece of the puzzle: traffic

Great copywriting, as important as it is, is not enough.

You need the second part of the equation: traffic.

I’m a big fan of SEO, article marketing, JVs, viral marketing and all the other “free” ways you can drive traffic on the Internet. Over the years, we’ve offered scores of trainings and master classes on these subjects.

But none of these methods can hold a candle to the simple, reliable method of simply buying the traffic you need.

If you want to maximize your potential on the Internet, buying traffic is where it’s at.

Here’s why:

Buying traffic lets you turn on the traffic you need right now, not weeks and month from now.

If you’re already a traffic buyer you already know that Internet traffic is the Eighth Wonder of the world.

You can buy a little, test it, amplify what works and turn off what doesn’t.

It takes skill, know-how and paying attention, but knowing how to buy Internet traffic comes as close to money-on-demand as anything on earth.

Why it’s so hard to get good information about traffic buying

Two facts:

1. There are no “old” traffic buyers. Not yet, anyway.

Most of the traffic sources that matter today (like pay-per-click) weren’t even around ten years ago.

2. People who are good at traffic buying generally don’t teach.

Traffic buying is a demanding and lucrative specialty. Taking time away from the main event to teach it to others is not something most traffic buyers ever think of doing, let alone are willing to make the serious effort to do.

That’s where the System Seminar has a major leg up over every other Internet marketing training.

Just as people like Perry Marshall and Howie Jacobson were motivated by their experience as System Seminar students to document and share what they learned about AdWords, the new generation of System-inspired Internet marketers is ready and willing to do the same with what they’ve learned about the nut and bolts of buying traffic today…in 2009, soon to be 2010.

Our System 2010 traffic faculty

For the first time ever, we’ll have traffic buyers on this year’s System faculty who have spent (and continue to spend) and track millions of dollars of their own money on Internet ad buys: Greg Davis, who specializes in high volume mass appeal consumer offers and Ben Moskel who specializes in a highly competitive niche where traffic costs are at a premium.

Both are real-world experts in uncovering new traffic sources, testing them, and figuring out how to make them pay. Their knowledge is not theoretical – and you won’t find it in any book or course. It’s based on the market as it is right now.

To round out our faculty, Google-certified Timothy Seward of ROI Revolution who guides the purchase of tens of millions of dollars a year in traffic for over seventy companies, will share his perspective on what’s working today, where things are headed, and what it takes to maximize the profits of an Internet business.

Steal this seminar

If you’re reading this before January 1, 2010, you have the chance to get all this cutting-edge knowledge at a bargain basement price.

Every year, we make the System Seminar available to people who can make an early decision to get a bargain price.

If you’re an Internet marketer and you’re already buying traffic for your business, System 2010 will be some of the best time and money you’ve ever spent.

If you’re looking to make the leap into Internet traffic buying, System 2010 will:

a) show you what’s really involved (no sugar coating),
b) cut months if not years off your learning curve, and
c) help you get where you want to go faster without making expensive mistakes.

The fact is one wrong move in traffic buying can easily cost you several multiples of the price of System Seminar 2010. (You may even be making an expensive traffic buying mistake right now and not even realize it.)

Our traffic buying faculty has already made most of the big, dumb, expensive mistakes so you don’t have to.

Even more important, they’ve dug up traffic sources and refined tracking methods that are practically guaranteed to improve your bottom line.

Early Bird Registration Deadline: December 31, 2009

How much for this hard won, can’t-be-found-anywhere-else knowledge?

For the multi-decade experience of two master direct response copywriters with hundreds of campaigns each under their belts…

For the rough and tumble know-how of two master multi-million dollar traffic buyers…

For the insights of one of the sharpest Internet campaign advisors in the business, certified by Google…

And for the insight of yours truly, the guy who’s been at this now for seventeen years, consistently finding you the right people at the right time for your next right move?

Check it out.

You may be pleasantly surprised at how affordable all this is when you’re an early bird.

But do it by midnight December 31, 2009.

Details:

http://www.TheSystemSeminar.com

Ken

P.S. Happy New Year!

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