Tuesday, January 06, 2004 - Volume 2 Issue 1
Colin Evans, Editor (mailto:
)
In this issue
- From the Editor
- Featured Physical Fitness Article: Top 10 Keys To A Successful
New Years Resolution For Weight Loss & Fitness! - By Greg Landry
- Featured Success Article: Finding Motivation: What To Do When
You Don't Feel Like Doing Anything - By Chris Widener
- Featured Online Marketing Article: Don't Send Another Email Or
Ezine... - By Bob Silber
- Motivational Quotes
- Take A Break: Choose the Right One
- Tell Me what You Think
From the Editor - Colin Evans
Hi Everyone 
And welcome to 2004, it's no longer knocking on the door, it's
here. They say the older you get, the quicker the years seem to
pass by...
I'm beginning to believe it. Last year flashed by far too quickly
for my liking.
Any regrets?
Too many in my case, the big three being:
- I wish I had listened to those with more experience.
- I wish I had not wasted so much money on lost causes.
- I wish I had started last year with what I know now.
Actually, I realised these last year and established goals to
improve the success of my online business.
Did you make any new years resolutions?
I didn't. I don't wait for a new year to come along to change the
way I live. I make changes as and when they are necessary.
I mean if you think about it every day is a new beginning. Why
wait for the new year?
But...
I have waited for the new year to make a few changes to this
newsletter:
- I have decided to add a physical fitness article to each
edition. A big part of success involves living a healthy life.
- I have removed the "Did It Work For Me" section. In the future,
probably once per month, I will write my own article for one of the featured articles.
One of the more powerful methods of increasing the number of
subscribers to my newsletter is going to be as a result of writing
and submitting articles to other e-zines and newsletters.
Let me tell you, this is a major step out of my comfort zone but
it has to be done. I just have to make sure I don't "wimp" out
and not write anything.
The article I wrote in the last edition was my first attempt and
I got some pretty encouraging comments from it so I'm pretty
confident about my abilities.
Now then, enough about me...
It is customary to offer good wishes at New Year, so I want to
wish every one of my subscribers the very best in 2004. I know
that each and every one of you are going to become very
successful.
And finally...
I want to ask that all of you who are using e-mail as a marketing
tool please make sure you comply to the CAN-SPAM act which came
into force this year.
This affects everybody. No matter which country you operate from.
Why?
The USA is the single biggest market thus we need to comply with
US laws. After all, we are honest and ethical about the way we do
business.
I have included as the "Featured Online Marketing Article" an
article by Bob Silber on how this affects us. I have also found
another very good article by Ralph F. Wilson, which you can read
at http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt9/canspam_comply.htm
Until the next time...
Featured Physical Fitness Article: Top 10 Keys To A Successful
New Years Resolution For Weight Loss & Fitness! - By Greg Landry
When all the celebrating of the holiday season is over, 60% of
American adults will resolve to "lose weight and get in shape"
for the new year! After years of helping people reach their
weight loss goals, I've put together 10 keys to help make your
New Year's resolution for weight loss and fitness a successful
one!
- Do some type of aerobic exercise (walking, jogging, swimming,
stationary cycling, aerobic dancing, etc.) on a DAILY basis...
preferably in the morning! (see article... Morning Excercise) Try
to average 30 to 60 minutes per day. However, if some days you can
only do 15 minutes, that's still a lot better than doing nothing!
Forget this twice-a-week stuff! Our bodies were designed to be
active on a daily basis! When we are, our metabolism is
super-charged and it also puts us in a "healthy" frame of mind.
People who have exercised in the morning make better food choices
during the day.
- Tone your muscles with weight training three days per week.
Toned muscles really boost your metabolism and cause you to burn
more calories 24 hours a day…yes, even while you're sleeping
you'll be burning more calories! Toned muscles look good too!
- Always eat breakfast! Skipping breakfast sends a message to
your body that you're "starving" because you haven't had food in
18+ hours. As a protective mechanism, your metabolism slows down
and your body begins to burn your muscle as fuel.
- Avoid fad diets! For healthy, permanent weight loss, develop
an active lifestyle and concentrate on eating carbohydrates such
as fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and limit the amount of
fat you consume.
- Eat earlier in the day! Research has demonstrated that you can
lose weight simply by eating a substantial breakfast and lunch,
and a light dinner. Dinner should be eaten as early as possible,
preferably at least four hours before bedtime.
- Never eat less than 1200 calories per day! Less than 1200 is
usually not enough to support your basal metabolism and thus will
slow your metabolism.
- Look for situations to be active. Park as far from the store as
you can rather than looking for the closest parking spot. Use the
stairs rather than the elevator, a rake rather than a blower, etc.
Look for the "difficult" way to do things…the way the requires the
most effort!
- Avoid alcohol! I call alcohol the "triple whammy"! It depresses
your metabolism, stimulates your appetite and it's loaded with
calories!
- Drink 60+ ounces of water a day. Your body needs plenty water
to function properly... especially during weight loss. Water can
also help you to feel full. Carry a bottle of water with you and
drink frequently throughout the day.
- Avoid the "3 P's"....weight loss pills, powders, and potions!
There are NO quick fixes! If you vigorously pursue fitness and
health... weight loss will happen!
By Greg Landry, M.S., Exercise Physiologist www.Landry.com
Copyright 2002 Made for Success. Used by permission. All rights
reserved worldwide.
Featured Success Article: Finding Motivation: What To Do When You
Don't Feel Like Doing Anything - By Chris Widener
“The measure of your success usually comes down to who wins the
battle that rages between the two of you. The ‘you’ who wants to
stop, give up, or take it easy, and the ‘you’ who chooses to beat
back that which would stand in the way of your success
- complacency.”
- Chris Widener
In all of my interactions with people, I've never found anyone,
regardless of their level of success, who doesn't sometimes find
themselves simply not wanting to do the things that they need and
want to do.
It is a part of human nature that there will be times
that, in spite of all that we need to do, and even desire to, we
will find ourselves not wanting to do anything.
And what separates
those who will become successful from those who will maintain the
status-quo, is the ability at those very crucial moments of time
when we are making decisions about what we will do, to choose to
find the inner motivation that will enable us to conquer our
complacency and move on in action.
I find that I confront this issue in my life on a regular basis,
so the following success strategies are not merely pie in the sky
techniques, but proven ways to get yourself to go even when you
don't feel like doing anything.
Honestly evaluate whether or not you need a break
This is the first thing that I usually do when I find that I don't
want to get to a specific action.
The fact is that oftentimes we will have been working very hard
and the lethargy we are feeling is really our body and emotions
telling us that we simply need a break.
And this is where it takes real intellectual honesty because when
we don't need a break our mind is still telling us we need a
break!
But sometimes we do need a break.
I'll give you a good example. I don't particularly like to
exercise, but I do almost every day. Sometimes, I find myself
before going to the club thinking about how I just didn't feel
like going.
Most of the time I am just being lazy.
However, sometimes I realize that my body needs a break. So from
time to time I will take a one or two daybreak from working out.
The benefits of this are two-fold:
- My body gets a break to regenerate itself.
- After a day or two, I begin to miss my workout, and eagerly
anticipate a turning to the gym.
Other examples: Perhaps you are a salesman who has been phoning
clients for a week straight, day and night.
You wake up one morning and just don’t feel like doing it any
more.
Well, take a break for the morning. Go to a coffee shop and read
the paper. Go to the driving range and hit some golf balls. Take
a break and then get back to it!
Start small
I'm at a point in my workout schedule now where a typical workout
day for me consists of 30 to 45 minutes of aerobic exercise, and
about 30 minutes of weight lifting.
So when I find myself not wanting to get up and go to the gym, I
will sometimes make a commitment to go and just do a smaller
workout.
Instead of deciding not to go, I'll commit to doing 15 to 20
minutes of aerobic exercise and 15 to 30 minutes of weight
lifting.
This is also good for two reasons:
- I actually get some exercise that day.
- It keeps me from getting into a cycle of giving up when I don't
feel like moving toward action.
Other examples: Maybe you are a writer who simply doesn’t want to
write today.
Instead of the long day writing you had planned, decide that you
will at least outline a couple of new articles.
You will at least get these done, and you may have found that you
put yourself into the writing mood after all.
Change your routine
I have found that what keeps me in the best shape and burns the
most calories for me, is to do 30 to 45 minutes on the treadmill
every day.
Now let me be very blunt. I find running on the treadmill to be
extremely boring.
Usually I can get myself to do it, but sometimes I need to vary
my routine. So instead of 30 to 45 minutes on a treadmill, I will
break down my aerobic exercise routine into a number of different
areas.
I will do ten to 15 minutes on treadmills, 10 to 15 minutes on
the reclining cycle, 5 to 10 minutes on the rowing machine, 5 to
10 minutes on the stair stepper, and then back on to the treadmill
for five to 10 minutes.
I still get my exercise, but I'm bored a lot less.
Other examples: Maybe you are in construction and you have been
working on the plumbing for a week, and it is getting monotonous.
Don’t do the plumbing today! Go frame-in the office.
Reward yourself
One way that I motivate myself to do something when I don't feel
like doing it, is to tell myself that if I get through the work
that I need to, I will give myself a little reward.
For instance, I may tell myself if I to get up and go to the club
I can take five to 10 minutes off my treadmill exercise, which
will shorten my workout routine, and I'll allow myself to sit in
the hot tub for a few extra minutes. Hey, it works!
Other examples: Maybe you are a mortgage broker who feels like
sleeping in.
Tell yourself that after the next three mortgages you close you
will take your kids to the fair, or your spouse to the movies.
Maybe you’ll give yourself a night on the town with old friends.
Reconnect the action with pleasure rather than pain
Psychologists have long told us that we humans tend to connect
every action with either pleasure or pain.
Tony Robbins has popularized this even further in the last few
years with something he calls Neural Associations.
That is, we connect every action with either a pleasure, or pain.
When we are finding ourselves lacking motivation, what we are
probably finding about ourselves is that we are associating the
action that we are thinking about with pain, rather than pleasure.
For instance, when I'm considering that not going to the health
club on any given day, I am usually associating going and working
out with having no time, the pain of exercising and weight
lifting, or the boringness of running on a treadmill for an
extended period of time.
What I can do to re-associate is to remind myself that by going
in and doing my exercise I will feel better about myself, I will
lose weight, and I will live longer. This brings me pleasure.
When we begin to run those kinds of tapes through our minds, we
find our internal motivating force unleashed and changing our
attitude about the action that we are considering.
Other examples: Maybe you are a counselor who really doesn’t want
to spend the day listening to people.
Your association may be that it will be boring, or that you will
be inside while it is sunny outside.
Instead, re-associate yourself to the truth of the matter: Someone
will be better off because of your care and concern. Think of your
clients and the progression they have been making recently and how
you have been a part of that.
Chris Widener is a popular speaker and writer as well as the President of Made
for Success and Extraordinary Leaders, two companies helping individuals and
organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their
lives and achieve their dreams.
Join subscribers in over 100 countries around the
world! Get Chris' FREE weekly Made for Success E-zine by sending a blank email
to
.
Get his FREE daily SuccessQuote™ with action point
by sending a blank email to
.
Get his FREE monthly
Extraordinary Leaders E-zine, one of the world's most widely distributed leadership
newsletters, by sending a blank email to
or visit his
websites at
http://www.madeforsuccess.com
and http://www.extraordinaryleaders.com
Copyright 2002 Made for Success. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Featured Online Marketing Article: Don't Send Another Email Or Ezine...
- By Bob Silber
The CAN-SPAM Act may have the biggest impact on Internet marketers
in the U.S. since the commercial Internet evolved. It affects and
has consequences for every Internet marketer, their ezines,
newsletters, and emails. Don't forget autoresponder messages and
other advertisements sent over the Internet by email.
CAN-SPAM is the short title and acronym for the "Controlling the
Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003,"
was passed by Congress, signed by the President and takes effect
January 1, 2004.
The Act will be enforced by various U.S. government agencies
including the Federal Trade Commission with all their super
powers and also allows for individual State enforcement.
The FTC has a good track record, as well as committed, ongoing
enforcement efforts in policing Internet Web sites for marketing
violations, including legitimate businesses. It will be
interesting to see whom they pick out as the first casualties of
not complying with the new Act.
This article will focus on some of the immediate concerns of
legitimate permission marketers for products or services, under
the Act, excluding sexually orientated mailings. In other words,
those conducting legitimate business transactions initiated by
the consumer or those requesting emails to be sent.
Spammers, email harvesters, mailings spoofing headers, deceptive,
false or misleading mailings, and other unethical, and now illegal
practices, will not be addressed here.
In order to avoid penalties under the Act the following provisions
must be adhered to:
Every email must now contain a "clear and conspicuous" means for
the recipient to opt out and stop further mailings. A valid
physical postal address is also required to be included in every
email. There is also a requirement that the mailing be identified
by a "clear and conspicuous" notice that the message is an
advertisement or solicitation. However, the latter requirement
is not triggered where the recipient has given prior affirmative
consent to receive the message.
The burden falls upon the marketer to prove the prior affirmative
consent requirements running throughout the Act. When the FTC
comes knocking, or you enter the courtroom with your lawyer, you
need verifiable proof to serve as evidence. Single optin will not
save you from the civil and criminal penalties, imposed under the
Act, in circumstances such as where someone other than the
requestor enters an email request into your system.
Generally, marketers use two types of systems for obtaining optin
email addresses, the single optin and double optin. Single optin
is where an email address is not confirmed, as actually being the
subscriber requesting a mailing, prior to any mailings being sent.
Double optin is a system where prior to any mailings, the email
address is confirmed, by the requestor responding to a
confirmation request, prior to any mailings being sent.
Marketers, in order to protect themselves, are well advised to
implement a double optin confirmation procedure, using the
various commercial software systems such as is available at http://www.DoubleOptinSoftware.com
to capture all the possible
evidence available, for every mailing request.
The Act itself speaks to mitigation of damages, where a defendant
has commercially reasonable practices and procedures in place,
that are designed to effectively, prevent violations.
Most all Internet marketers have heard the numerous horror stories
of subscribers to a newsletter signing up, and then forgetting or
denying their request, and crying spam. Or even the cases of
someone, such as an unscrupulous business competitor, subscribing
other people, without their consent, to receive mailings, in an
effort to shut your business
down.
Under the severe penalties of the Act, the process of single optin
mailings, is now a dangerous way to do business. Allowing anyone
to sign up and request your mailings, through a form on your Web
site, where anyone can enter someone's email address, can now
cause you serious problems.
The Act has a broad sweep and now triggers many other areas of
concern for legitimate and ethical Internet marketers. For example,
affiliate programs and joint ventures can bring liability, for the
actions of other persons.
In conclusion, it is the Internet business owner's responsibility
to follow the mandates of the Act, to protect yourself from
liability.
Bob Silber is publisher of the "Bob Silber Letter" at
http://www.BobSilberLetter.com containing Interviews & Tele-Seminars
From The Most Successful Marketers On The Net, To The Latest Cutting
Edge Marketing Techniques, To The Ever Changing Internet Marketing
Laws That You Need To Know...
Motivational Quotes
Every mistake that I made, and we all make mistakes, came because
I didn’t take the time to get the facts, I didn’t believe hard
enough.
- Charles Knight
You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the
most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who
are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think
about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to
become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it
powerfully.
- Anthony Robbins
Take A Break: Choose the Right One
A young man excitedly tells his mother he's fallen in love and
going to get married. He says, "Just for fun, Ma, I'm going to
bring over 3 women and you try and guess which one I'm going to
marry."
The mother agrees.
The next day, he brings three beautiful women into the house and
sits them down on the couch and they chat for a while. He then
says, "Okay, Ma, guess which one I'm going to marry."
She immediately replies, "The one in the middle."
"That's amazing, Ma. You're right. How did you know?"
"I don't like her."
Tell Me What You Think
I would love to hear what you think of this issue of the "Cols-A-To-Z" Newsletter.
And of course, if you have any suggestions for upcoming issues that you'd like to
share with me, please send those, too!
Just e-mail me at:
To subscribe to my "Cols-A-To-Z" Newsletter, go to the following URL:
http://www.cols-a-to-z.com/join.html
Written by Colin Evans
Editor, Cols-A-To-Z.com
7 Kinross Road
Hillside
Bulawayo
Zimbabwe
+263 9 246210
© copyright 2004 Cols-A-To-Z.com
