I’m about to find out if you can make money online: click here to read the latest installment in my new online money-making adventure!

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Are there truly people who fall for this?

Sir/Madam,
Mr Ray Abo
drrayabo@yahoo.com
My name is Mr Ray Abo ,chairman of contract award and monitoring committee of the ministry of industry and international trade development ,my duty as empowered by the Mauritius government is to provide the basic amenities, social recreational activities in urban and rural areas.

This program includes assistance to deprived local communities and to co-ordinate projects and development at the national level.Furthermore,from this projects were  able to realize some reasonable amount of u.s.$21.8(Twenty one million eight hundred thousand US. dollars only) as commission from various contractors resulting from over invoicing of payment receipts/vouchers hence all the necessary approvals has been completed.

These approved funds were packaged and dispatched through a security company for onward delivery to its destination in Europe.The money was first deposited into a security vault before we arrange for its movement to Europe through diplomatic channel using decoy purporting that the fund belongs to an expatriate/company.
As we are government officials, the oath of office does are not allowed us to operate foreign bank account,hence we need you to stand as the beneficiary and claim the
fund on our behalf from the security company.

Presently I am now in Europe to search for a reliable person/company of high integrity /dignity and one with conscience who will claim this fund on our behalf as the beneficiary.
We have agreed to give you 30% of the total sum as commission for your assistance/effort and 5% will be used to settle every expenses incurred, we will use 65%to invest under your recommendation/guide and go into joint venture business with you .

I would greatly appreciate your assistance and I look forward to your response as soon as possible through this e mail address:drrayabo@yahoo.com
Best regards,
Mr Ray Abo

… just in case it should be one of my readers (hah!) I have changed the name and e-mail address.

But, the mere fact that these e-mails still go around, despite all of the negative publicity indicates – at least to me – that there are still one or two greedy/stupid bunnies out there who will hand out their bank account details to some con-man from another country!

Here is a simple rule of thumb on ‘hot tips’ and offers that are ‘too good to be true’ (aside from the obvious: they are too good to be true):

If you find out about a ‘hot deal’ through a public channel (such as e-mail, the media, even ‘word of mouth’) it is no longer hot … it is either a scam, or the professionals on the ‘inside’ have long-since picked it over and you will be the one left standing in the long line of stupid/greedy people investing at the top – providing the ‘insiders’ their profitable exit, and leaving you to hold the bag when the bubble pops.

No. Good deals only come to those who research a market thoroughly and ‘find’ the deals themselves …

… it’s never going to be handed to you on a silver platter.

Except for that swamp land in Florida that I happen to have a great deal on just for my readers, but only if you act real quick 😉

What are the sacrifices that you need to make when you are building your little nest-egg … especially, if you have chosen the entrepreneurial route?

I can illustrate with one example:

One of the applicants for my ‘grand experiment’ in millionaire-making saw that they hadn’t made the final cut and asked me why. I simply explained:

Your application came in past the cut-off (as did one other person’s) and since I have to somehow cut down to 7 …

And, it’s true. One other of the Final 15 didn’t submit their application, so …

Anyhow, this person responded:

I know there are no excuses for missing the cut-off, but I did write to say I was on vacation and did not have access to email. I hope you can still consider me in the running, but if not thank you for the opportunity and I will continue to follow along.

Now, I’m not here to judge this person – in fact, I consider them a valuable (and inaugural) member of the 7m7y Community (hence, I’m keeping them anonymous here) … and, that wasn’t my point. And, it isn’t the point of this post …

… rather the point is to share this with you:

I was on vacation with my wife recently in Las Vegas, while our children were away at Summer camp (that wonderful American institution … just like sleep-away college … we seem in so much of a hurry to get rid of our kids, here!) and realized that:

1. My phone never rang

2. I dropped my Blackberry in the Bellagio’s pool and didn’t even have to worry about replacing it until we got back

3. I only needed to check my laptop once or twice a day to keep up with my two [now three] blogs

This is only surprising if you realize that on every other vacation for the past 10 years, I would:

a) Carry my laptop to the pool to catch up with my e-mails, if they had wireless … else, head back to my room (or the business center) 4 or 5 times a day, if there was no wireless.

b) Take business calls at all times of the day or night in all places, including one ‘infamous’ call on my hotel balcony to close a particularly large deal

c) Never, ever, ever, stop thinking about work ….

There was one particular trip that I took that turned out to be one of the most stressful trips away that I remember [ AJC: Stressful?! They’re supposed to be VACATIONS, dope 🙂 ] …

… I was woken from my slumber at God-knows-what-hour by a call from my office ‘back home’:

Our ‘mission critical’ software system had failed and our call center was running on ‘manual’ (means people taking calls over the phone and filling in bits of paper to be somehow entered when [if] the system came back up).

The system was down for almost the whole time I was away and I realized that I couldn’t add any value by coming back, yet I felt helpless as I saw my business sinking under my eyes (no computer, no call center, no business) …

… somehow the problem was resolved after a week or so, and they eventually caught up with the ‘paperwork’, and aside from a few customer apologies (more phonecalls while I was away) later everything was back to ‘normal’.

So, when I say that not being bothered by phone calls / customer issues / e-mails while I am on vacation is some sort of ‘novelty’ for me, you better believe it!

If you decide that you need to be on one of the high growth curves to make your Number … however many millions of dollars that may turn out to be …

… giving up the idea of having a ‘true vacation’ for the next few years is just one of the many sacrifices that you will need to make.

After all, if making that much money that quickly was meant to be easy, everybody would be doing it …

PS the Blackberry-In-Swimming-Pool story has a happy ending: I bought myself a new iPhone 3g 🙂

People are starting to cotton on to the fact that if you want to be successful in business these days you need some sort of on-line connection; either:

– Your business itself exists in cyberspace, or

– Your offline, bricks & mortar business has some sort of internet-based aspect for promotion, advertising, etc.

I just got back from breakfast with an old buddy (also from the ‘old country’ but who has lived in NYC for the past 15 years) and his wife bought a small ‘event planning’ business. This business works by finding, then building close connections with, all the best/cheapest local sources for all the stuff that one needs for an event: halls; bands; florists; center-piece makers; etc.

But, we were discussing how the industry needs good local ‘portals’ where people can find this stuff for themselves … obviously, the internet is the tool.

Anyhow, the point is that where you have the word ‘Internet’, you need to add one more word to make it work for you: ‘traffic’.

This is like the old retail store … it needs a cost-effective, high-traffic area to get all those eyes looking, to get a few of those eyes to turn into feet coming into the store, and a few of those feet turning into hands trying stuff out, and a few of those hands clutching wallets.

Similarly, online traffic = volume = ‘customers’ (or whatever action it is that you are looking for; for a blog it just might mean subscribers … for a online retailer, it’s obviously purchasers).

That’s why I made such a big ‘to do’ on my sister blog – 7 Millionaires … In Training! – about driving traffic to each applicant’s ‘Meet me’ page.

Eric, who made it to the Final 15, noticed this and sent me an e-mail that I thought I should share:

So how can I successfully drive traffic? I do not have my own blog and the methods I have tried have failed. I really want to ‘get it’ when it comes to Internet marketing. I truly believe the way to make your grand experiment work (If I am following along correctly) is to drive traffic, but not just to your site, but ours as well for future businesses we may have. How far off base am I? I realize if I do not have the correct tools to make this experiment work then I may not be a future millionaire. You can give a man a fish or teach him how to fish. I want to know more about Internet Marketing and what I am doing so wrong.

Exactly!

If you cannot find a way to acquire the skills (“tools”) to make this ‘experiment’ work, then how are you going to drive any online business?

As to building web-traffic, I assure you that I am no expert, but I managed to build a reasonable following by:

1. Commenting on others blogs, web-sites, forums;

2, Writing good enough content for mine that people would want to link back;

3. Getting a few articles published in one of the many ‘carnivals’ around (e.g. “carnival of personal finance” … google that) helped a little, as well.

But, I recommend that you begin by doing some research into what works and what doesn’t. Fortunately, for the Internet, research is as easy as Google:

For example, google (amazing how it’s become a verb!) Derek Gehl for courses on online marketing that you can buy, or buy Site Build It! by Kevin Evoy if you want to build your own non-blog site.

Read these excellent articles if it’s a blog that you want to promote:

http://www.rss-specifications.com/promote-your-blog.htm

http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/blog-promotion/99-ways-to-promote-your-blog-for-free/

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/181812/how_to_promote_your_blog_without_being.html

Then …

… just do it! 🙂

I’m about to find out if you can make money online: click here to read the latest installment in my new online money-making adventure!

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Recently, I answered a question for Debbie, a freelancer, who asked:

I’m self employed and my earnings seem to only be limited by the amount of time I have to work… I’m trading “hours for dollars” at this point.  I only have so many hours I can work, and I’m working during all of them 🙂  I’m in a lot of debt… and just about everything my husband and I earn is turned right back into our existing debt/bills.  How do we get a head when we seem to be stuck ?

As I said to Debbie, it all really depends on Your Number – and when you need it (i.e. Your Date):

1. Most freelancers are basically holding a job, without the 401k and other corporate perks, in return for a reasonable hourly salary and some flexibility. For most freelancers, though, when they stop [working] their income stops, too!

2 Some freelancers get smart and realize this, and spend as much time investing as they do earning (Scott shared a good example of a doctor who invested in real-estate and in setting up – then selling – practices). They can build up a decent nest-egg, perhaps into the $1 million to $4 million range, but for the reasons that I cover in that article, probably not much more.

Being a freelancer – or, other self-employed professional – limits your ability to retire early/rich, although some would say that $4 million is a lot … and, it is:

You will see that the guy who achieved this mixed investing in real-estate and businesses to get there.

The problem is that when you are a freelancer/professional, you are trading TIME to earn MONEY …

…. NEVER a good trade!

Let’s think about this: time is a finite resource … believe me, as you get older you will realize just how finite it is.

I previously mentioned this concept in a post about managing rental properties.

Interestingly, a British professor has actually proved that Time = Money, and has even provided a formula for calculating it:

V=(W((100-t)/100))/C

… where V is the value of an hour, W is a person’s hourly wage, t is the tax rate and C is the local cost of living.

It shows that there is no such thing as a free lunch or even a free dinner, while brushing your teeth for three minutes uses up 30 pence (45 cents) in “lost” time, and washing a car by hand has a hidden cost of £3 ($4.50).

Economics professor Ian Walker, of central England’s Warwick University, says process can show people just how valuable their time is in relation to any task they have to perform, from a lie-in or cooking a meal to sleeping and working.

So, if Time is Money, which one is limited (finite) and which one is (unlimited (infinite)? And, why would anybody trade a finite resource (time) for an infinite one (money)?!

This means that selling yourself by the hour (until you gradually, and inevitably, run out of ‘product’ – being YOU – to sell), you are actually limiting your earning potential and wealth.

Perhaps a little counter-intuitively at first (until you understand the money/time trade-off is clearly stacked in favor of conserving time) you begin to realize that when you stop selling yourself, you actually remove limitations to your future wealth.

Therefore, you are far better off financially, thinking of ways to earn income that do not involve the direct use of your own time, but the time and resources of others.

Another term for this is leverage …

It helps to explain why real businesses earn more, and sell for more, than consulting practices.

So, as I said to Debbie

Let’s wind-up Debbie Inc. and consider this time to start creating D Enterprises Inc. and/or D Investments Inc.

One simple example, is to turn your consulting freelancing practice into a freelancing business: one where you employ other freelancers (as long as you also employ even more ‘others’ to find both the clients and the ‘freelancing others’).

An even better example, is eLance, where you simply create an environment where customers and freelancers can get together and do business …

… as I am currently doing with Muhammad in Pakistan for the princely sum of $4 per hour!

eLance makes an 8% commission for introducing the contractors to the clients and handling the payments via credit card … even while eLance’s owners are asleep!