Issue 235
Hello, you wonderful you!
Happy (belated) Mother's Day to all you moms out there! I hope you had a nice weekend.
I took Alison to her favorite place in the world to shop, Pier 1 Imports, and turned her loose. She loved that.
Then we went out to eat at one of her favorite restaurants, a Texas Roadhouse. She loved that too!
Spent too much and ate too much, that's often a sign of a pretty good day. ;)
P.S. Feel free to grab the mini-poster graphic for your website if you want it. You can also offer them from your own website for others to download if you like. A growing archive of them might help to make your site more sticky.
Bullet Points
The Tips Jar: Change the Highlight Color
Webmaster's Q & A: Intrapage Links
Life's Little Goodies: Can We Bring Back Peak Performance at Will?
Off the Cuff: Jimmy D. Brown
Miscellanea
Bullet Points
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The Amazing Sprites Kit
For those who may have missed it, and for those who may have wanted to see what the final product ended up like, I've packaged 234 sprite button graphics with a 9-page PDF with all three tutorials from the last two issues. I've also included free upgrades for one year, plus a developer's license. The developer's license means in addition to using the sprites on your own sites, you can use them on sites you develop for others or sites you sell.You can view all 234 sprites on the product page: The Amazing Sprites Kit
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PHP, Anyone?
Would you like to learn the basics of PHP?
Yes
0%No0%If you'd like to see a series of tutorials teaching the basics of PHP then please vote Yes in the poll to the right. If you don't want to see space dedicated to that purpose, then please vote no. If you don't care one way or the other then please do not vote.
If there's enough interest and not too many against the idea we'll start covering that in the next issue if nothing else comes up.
These would be in addition to the HTML and CSS tutorials in The Tips Jar, not in place of them. I'd use the Off the Cuff column for them.
PHP files are basically HTML pages with one or more PHP commands included in the code, but they are saved with a php extention instead of html. These commands can do things like print the current date, include other files in the page, or print a person's name on the page like I do with the personalized edition of this newsletter.
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Clickbank Review Blogging
If you want to making money writing about or promoting products about topics you enjoy without spending a lot of money or bothering with WordPress, hold on to your seat!
I bought the rights to a video series that includes...
1. Getting Started. In this video you'll discover what you need to get started and what to expect.2. Find a Profitable Product to Promote. This is very important, but it is not hard at all. In fact, you'll learn how to use Clickbank's stats to pinpoint a good converting product.
3. Set Up a Domain. You'll discover a useful tool to find creative domain names, and then how to redirect it to your Clickbank affiliate link. Buying a domain is the only investment needed other than this product.
4. Setup a Quick and Easy Blogger Blog. Learn how to setup a blogger blog and how to write a review about the Clickbank products you have chosen.
5. Getting Traffic. How to write and submit press releases. You'll learn resources that help you write better press releases and we'll use examples of press releases to show you easy it is; and where to submit them.
6. Traffic Part II. Here you will learn about article directories and Squidoo lenses for great ways to drive traffic to your sites.
7. Three Other Traffic Sources. This video covers three other traffic sources that can boost your traffic even further.
I'm also including a WordPress Money Makers report that details 15 ways to make money with blogs and has links to over 90 resources.
And finally, I'm including Press Releases Made Easy. http://www.boogiejack.com/press-releases.html This will give you my own take on press releases, and yes, anyone can submit a press releases.
So...with that said, don't just dream. Grab this now and get started for just $17 for everything! The WordPress Money Makers report is worth that by itself, and you get the video training and Press Releases Made Easy too!
The Tips Jar: Change the Highlight Color
We're going to start hitting the CSS 3 and HTML 5 tutorials fairly regularly from this point on, mixed in with the usual unusual code tutorials. :)
Speaking of unusual tutorials, today's tutorial fits in that category. Just highlight some of the text on this page to see what I mean.
How about that! Instead of the standard blue highlight color and white text, you should have seen a green highlight color with light yellow colored text. I've tested this in IE, Firefox, Opera and Chrome and it works in all four browsers. If there are any browsers where it doesn't work, it should just show the default colors.
The code is very simple:
::-moz-selection {background: #69BE9E; color: #fff; text-shadow: none;}
::selection {background: #69BE9E; color: #fff; text-shadow: none;}
a:link {-webkit-tap-highlight-color: #69BE9E;}
Where you see #69BE9E in all three lines is the highlight color. Just change that to any color you want. In the first two lines, change #fff to change the text color you want when the text is highlighted.
If you use external style sheets you don't even have to make any changes to your web pages, just add those three lines to your external style sheet and all your pages with the link to the style sheet will be covered unless you have other code that overrides it. That isn't very likely, though.
Be sure to check out each issue from now on so you don't miss any of the coming CSS 3 or HTML 5 tutorials.
Like this tutorial? Please share it! :)This site is happily hosted by...
Webmaster's Q & A: Intrapage Links
Q: Hey Dennis - remember me? I believe I might have been one of your first subscribers.
Can you give me the code for when you want people to click on something and go straight to another part of the page, like back to the top or whatever?
- Logan B.
A: I do remember you. We exchanged a lot of emails years ago. :)
The code you want has two parts. The first part is:
<a name="anything"></a>
Put that where the link target is. In other words, in the place on the page where you want the link to jump to when clicked. Change "anything" to any keyword you want. For example, you could use "top" for a link that takes a user back to the top of the page. Whatever makes sense to you.
Then place the link for people to click wherever you want it on the page:
<a href="#anything">Top</a>
Change "anything" to whatever name you use in the destination code (the first part). Be sure to use the # symbol in front of the link keyword, that's what tells the browser the destination is on the current page.
Life's Little Goodies: Anchoring Peak Performance
Have you ever smelled a certain smell that brings an old memory to mind? When I smell peanut butter cookies baking it always reminds me of being a kid, sitting at the kitchen table with a glass of milk waiting for my mom to pull that first batch out of the oven so I could have some.
Is there a a certain song that brings an old friend to mind when you hear it? For me, when I hear Sunshine of Your Love by Cream I'm reminded of my deceased friend, Rollie Fisher. It was the first song we learned to play on the guitar and we'd play it over and over.
Those certain smells, or certain songs, became "anchors" in our mind. An anchor connects a certain state of mind and/or emotion to a specific trigger. An anchor can be anything: a smell, a sound, a phrase, a touch, or many other things.
The cool thing about anchors is that we can establish and use them to our advantage. We can use them to enhance our performance or to enter into a desireable state of mind.
For example, suppose I'm in a bowling league. If every time I throw a strike I tap the back of my hand and say "I'm a strike thrower" to myself. If I stay faithful to that procedure every time I throw a strike, I'll create an anchor. Once the anchor is set, when I want to recall the optimal state I was in for throwing strikes, I can just tap the back of my hand and say "I'm a strike thrower" to myself.
Of course, optimal performance doesn't necessarily mean perfection. You're not likely to throw a strike every time, but I can almost guarantee you those bowlers who roll a 300 game have some kind of anchor going at the time, either a temporary one or a permanent one, whether they are consciously aware of it or not.
I used to throw darts in a dart league. There was one guy who was nearly impossible to beat. He could hit what he was shooting for almost every throw it seemed. I studied him for clues. I only figured it out using hindsight that he was using an anchor technique. I didn't know what anchoring was at the time, but before each turn he'd tap his chin with the dart. We all thought it was just an odd habit of his, but it was his anchor.
An intentionally created anchor can be a powerful tool that helps draw us closer to a peak state for any mental or physical performance. Here is one way to create an anchor:
- Identify the desired state you want.
- Try to recall a time in your life when you were in that state.
- Put yourself back in that situation. Recall what you saw, heard, and felt as if it were happening again.
- After you do this, try to identify how the situation built to a peak and then started ebbing.
- Think of a key phrase you want to associate with the peak state. For example, if you wanted to create an anchor for when you're in a peak state of creativity, you might choose a phrase as simple as, "I am creative." Or, you might prefer a more dramatic phrase, like, "I'm the Master of Creativity."
- Now repeat step three, only just before you reach the peak, make a unique gesture to set the anchor. The gesture might be a tap on the wrist, a tug on a finger, or whatever you like as long as it's not already an established mannerism. As you make the unique gesture, say your key phrase to yourself.
Repetition is required. You might have to repeat this procedure several times in a row in one sitting. If you're not getting into that peak feeling in step three very well, it may take several days of repeating the exercise several times in a row to really take hold. Recreating that peak feeling is the key.
Test the anchor by making the gesture and repeating your key phrase at the same time. If successfully set, the anchor should trigger the desired state in 10-20 seconds.
A few tips:
- Try to pick a situation where there was a clean state you want to anchor, rather than one that might have had mixed feelings. For example, if you wanted to set an anchor that could make you feel calm, pick a time when you felt calm without any other big emotions going on. If you pick a time when you were calm because you were depressed, your "calmness" anchor might also trigger sadness.
- It works best to anchor intense feelings. For example, if you want to feel like a winner it will work better to anchor a time when you won a hard fought victory, like winning a tournament or receiving your degree, rather than one where you beat your child in a game of Go Fish.
- Use a unique gesture and key phrase for each state you wan to set to avoid sending mixed signals to yourself.
- Timing is crucial. You want to set the anchor just before your peak state, not after the peak state has started easing up.
- For most people it takes practice to become good at setting an anchor. Expect to spend 20-30 minutes at it for each session. It may take more than one session until you become proficient at it.
You can also use multiple anchors. Suppose you wanted to ask someone out on a date. You could fire an anchor that recalls a feeling of confidence, and fire another anchor that recalls a feeling of happiness. Confidence and happiness are attractive qualities that would give you a better chance of getting a "yes" answer.
Anchoring is a skill that will work in any area of life if we take the time to develop it. Whether we want to feel more confidence, more energetic, more compassionate or whatever, mastering anchoring can do that for us.
We can also have anchors that work against us, and most of us do. A few of our human behaviors that can be triggered by anchors include smoking, impulsive eating, drinking alcohol, using drugs, and even things like rage can be triggered by a subconscious anchor.
If we have an unwanted behavior that we want to take control of, it may help to look for an anchor that triggers the behavior, and then create a new anchor we can use to override the old trigger.
This is, admittedly, a superficial treatment of anchoring because of space concerns and my limited knowledge. For an in-depth look I recommend Brilliant NLP: What the Most Successful People Know, Do and Say
This is the kind of book that can change lives for the better.
If you say to yourself 'It's difficult to get up in the morning', 'It's hard to cease smoking', then you are already using hypnotic suggestions on yourself.
- Richard Bandler (co-creator of neurolinguistic programming)
The problem is not that we have mental models, it is that we don't recognize that we have mental models.
- Srikumar Rao
NLP could be the most important synthesis of knowledge about human communication to emerge since the sixties.
- Science Digest
The brain can be developed just the same as the muscles can be developed, if one will only take the pains to train the mind to think.
- Thomas A. Edison
NLP may be the most powerful vehicle for change in existence.
- Modern Psychology
Off the Cuff: Jimmy D. Brown
It seems like every few weeks someone asks who my mentor is, or who I look up to online, or something along those lines.There are many people I respect, who I see as equals, but very few I actually look up to as mentor types. In fact, I can think of just two.
I'll write about the other guy sometime, but from the title of this issue's Off the Cuff you probably guessed one of them is Jimmy D. Brown.
I look up to Jimmy for four big reasons. First, he's an honest man. That's always important to me.
Second, he's one of the very best at his craft. He's an excellent strategist, teacher, and writer, and is one of the most respected people in the business.
Third, he's a creative thinker. He has a lot of big ideas, many that catch on and become global in use. For example, most people have heard of private label rights content, or PLR for short. Jimmy coined the phrase and was the first person online to offer private label rights content. Now, entire businesses have been built around that idea.
Now, those qualities are reason enough to look up to him as a businessman and person, but there's a more personal reason for me. When my site got hacked and my business was in ruins years ago, Jimmy gave me some valuable advice to help turn things back around. He also gave me one of his products that was selling for $97 at the time. So he truly cares about people.
I've given away products to people before. Sometimes it was to help someone in need, like I was. Sometimes I couldn't tell you why, something just touched me. The thing is, very few of those people ever write back to say thanks. Even fewer ever did anything to repay my kindness. It's like they say, people don't value what they get for free.
Don't get me wrong—I'm not complaining. I don't regret giving those folks whatever helping hand I could. It's good karma, and I truly believe the good we do comes back to us.
I'd simply rather give credit where credit is due, and to repay that kindness when I can.
I also like to do good things for you, my dear readers. I don't want to get all sappy here, but I really do appreciate that you let me into your lives every couple of weeks. I strive to make the time we spend together worth your while.
So today I get to do something for Jimmy, and for readers who are seriously interested in creating an online business with recurring income.
You know what recurring income is, right? It's when you make a sale and you get to keep collecting a recurring fee from that sale. Hosting is an excellent example. Whether you pay your website host by the month or year, it's recurring income. As long as you want a website and they keep providing satisfactory service, you keep paying them like clockwork.
Membership sites are another example. You probably know I have a few memberhship sites myself, and I'm going to build even more. I can tell you from experience there's nothing quite like having people send you money each month like clockwork.
Here's where I pay Jimmy back and help you. Jimmy has released a new product today called Memberships to Go. It's a ready-made membership site complete with a year's worth of content. He's selling it with private label rights! That means you can set it up as a membership site and build your own recurring income. You only need two members to make back your investment AND be pulling in a big profit! Just TWO members!
Don't know anything about setting up a member site? No worries, Jimmy has you covered there, too.
You could add your own products to the mix and extend your member site into a 2 year, 3 year, 4 year or more recurring income. I'm even starting a site that will help you with that, and it will be up and running before you run out of content.
If you don't want to set up a membership site you could sell the entire course as a single high-end downloadable product. You won't make as much money in the long run, but you'll get more up front. Deciding which way to go is nice problem to have. :)
I can tell you with all certainty that the content in this course is excellent. I know because I have my own copy to sell. I read it over this morning, and this is so good I pulled the content I had originally wrote for this column, titled Hunger or Hobby, so I could write about this. That's about as "off the cuff" as it gets. You'll see Hunger or Hobby in the next issue.
You might wonder if you can make money from a membership site when other people will have the same content. I've learned that's not a problem, not at all. According to Internet World Stats there are over 2.2 BILLION people online. No one person is going to reach more than a fraction of a percentage of them. It's almost like having no competition.
I do get a commission if you invest in Membership to Go. I could make A LOT MORE MONEY if I didn't tell you about it and just sold the end products in AAN. Like, 25 to 30 times more money in my estimation. That's the real "paying back Jimmy" part, not the fact that I've told you he's a great guy and told you about his product.
I feel I'm doing YOU a favor, too, by introducing you to someone I highly respect and handing you perhaps the best ready-made business opportunity online right now. I'm not stopping there, though...
Even though you may not know Jimmy, I want to demonstrate how much I believe in him. If you buy Jimmy's Membership to Go through me, I'll give you your choice of a lifetime Inner Circle membership or $100 worth of my products as my own free bonus to you. It's a total win for you! Just forward your receipt to me and let me know which you want.
You don't even have to decide if this is a good product right now, Jimmy offers a 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee. Check it out with the assurance that Jimmy will refund your money if you're not completely satisfied.
Here's the link: Membership to Go
PS - You could start your own membership site in as little as 90 minutes!
Featured Site: Cat Trap
Sometimes we don't want to visit a site with a high-falootin' purpose, we just want to goof off.
In the Cat Trap game you try to prevent the cat from escaping off the playing board by clicking the circles and cutting off any escape routes. Cat Trap is just a dumb little game with no purpose other than to waste time and perhaps amuse you for a little while. Enjoy! :)
» Web Site Link: Cat Trap
A Video Interlude: What in the World is this Creature?
Now this is strange. Very strange. This deep sea camera dive caught a very strange creature on film. It kind of looks like some time of jellyfish. It kind of looks like an old sail. It's weird. You'll get your first glimpse of it at about 12 seconds in and fades into the distance, but at about 42 seconds in it comes back and is very clear. It seems to grow right before your eyes.
What IS that thing?! What do you think it is?
Reader Feedback
- Randy H.
Reply: Glad you like them, Randy. They do seem to be a hit—and that's a relief considering the time spent making them. :)
I love these! I only had them on my site two days when I got an email complimenting me on "my" cool navigation buttons. I feel like a pro! Thanks for making web design so much fun and so easy.
- Kelly
Reply: Aw, thanks Kelly. It's been a long time since I've made a girl's heart race. :)
Note: Reader emails may be edited for length and/or clarity.
As always, whether it gets printed here or not, thanks for your feedback everyone! You make my day. :)
B. Marlon Brando
