Today is the first day of the rest of your life

January 22, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 13 Comments
Filed under: Act On Your Dream!, Affiliate Marketing, Sitesell and Site Build It 

This phrase, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life,” was so popular when I was younger that over the years it morphed from being a wise observation to being only a trite saying and something we saw on lots and lots of t-shirts, magnets, and stickers.

Kind of like a yellow smiley face ;) that became ubiquitous, too. (Look it up.)

Still, there is a lot of wisdom in this saying.

Unless you are fortunate enough to have a “way back” or time machine, it’s darn near impossible to go back and change your life in the past. At least, that’s true for most of us.

If there is something you want during your lifetime, there’s no better day to start than today.

That’s one of the things I’ve been doing most of the day. I’m still a long way from being well, but I’m feeling better, and I’ve been researching a few affiliate programs I wanted to join. I’ve been approved for several of them and I’m waiting to hear from the rest.

If you’ve been following this blog for any time, you know that I, and all the other affiliates in North Carolina, were kicked out of the Amazon.com affiliate program back in the summer of 2009. That threw me for a loop, and, coupled with my health crisis, I’ve not yet recovered from it.

Now, I’ve taken the first steps. I’ve applied for, and was approved, by MacConnection
and Barnes & Noble. Now I can start back to marketing a lot of books I like to recommend and my beloved Macintosh computers and other Apple Computer products. That’s a good start.

Both of those are managed by the Google Affiliate Network.

I also applied for, and was approved by CoffeeForLess.com, which is managed on Commission Junction.

I’ve started doing some research on creating links for products at Apple’s iTunes and App Store, which is managed by Linkshare. (Interestingly enough, I can’t find a way to build a simple text link to their iTunes home page, although there are lots of links to different departments.)

So, even with the slow thinking caused by my chemo mind fog, I’ve been doing some real work today.

Why?

Partly because today is the first day of the rest of my life, and in the future I want to rebuild Dilbeck Marketing to what it once was and then surpass that and take it higher than I have in the past.

I got to thinking about this blog post, because my friend Suzanne Prochaska has just been featured on SBI’s – Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life page.

It starts with an interesting video that goes from someone being dissatisfied with their job and continues through until…

Well, I’ll let you see for yourself. (grin)

Currently, right below the video, my friend Suzanne is featured, and she has quite a success story to tell. It shows one line to the left of her photo and you have to click the link that says, “What happened after SBI? Click here for the rest of the story.” That shows another line of her story.

If you want to know more, and it’s quite an impressive story, click the link that says, “Click here for more details about Suzanne’s story.”

I continually exhort people to, “Act On Your Dream!”

Suzanne is a great example of someone who did exactly that. She had to work hard and her life went through some major changes, but now she’s living her dream.

A few years ago, she did something that changed the course of her life.

You can, too.

Every day, each of us has the choice to continue as we’re going, or to do something new that will help us make our dream come true.

I know that not everyone wants to build websites or blogs. Some of us love it and others would hate doing it.

But each of us can identify a dream and take action to make our dream come true.

There are two things I constantly recommend to people from my closest friends to absolute strangers. They are SBI and Think And Grow Rich.

Both of them have valuable information to help you identify what you want to do with your life and then take steps to act on your dream. SBI comes with a complete set of tools to help you.

If you start today, a year from now, you’ll be much closer to realizing your dream. It may take less time, or a lot more, but every year — if you stay on track — you’ll get closer to making it real.

So, what about you?

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

Are you happy with where you are? Are you living your dream life?

If not, what are you going to do about it?

Act on your dream!

JD

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Make money online vs. Build a business online

January 17, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 38 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Sitesell and Site Build It 

I’ve passed a major milestone now. I’m done with my chemo and I’m looking forward to getting stronger and healthier. Over time, I’ll be writing less about cancer and more about affiliate marketing.

I was reading Ken Evoy’s thoughts on his blog about SBI Owners Think and Do “Business” and had a few thoughts of my own to share.

(Ken mentions the Action Guide in his blog post. SBI subscribers have access to the Action Guide, in written and video form, and a lot more. If you’re not an SBI subscriber, you can click the link and learn from what I consider to be the best and most comprehensive guide to building an online business. You won’t have access to all the tools that SBI offers, but you can still learn a lot by following the Action Guide and using it to help you build your own business plan.)

(By the way, Sitesell keeps adding more and better tools to the mix and the price has not gone up. It remains at $299 per year and continually improves.)

When I started affiliate marketing over a decade ago, it was with the thought to make money online. I had another source of income, at the time, and I was looking to supplement it. Affiliate marketing looked like the perfect way for me to do that. And it was, for about ten years, most of which I earned 100% of my income from affiliate marketing.

I’ve tested lots of things. Blogging, article directories, building tier-structured websites, and more. I’ve tested affiliate marketing, MLM, money making systems, and others.

What works, for me — at least, is building sites with information about a particular topic and monetizing it via affiliate links and Google Adsense.

For the last two years, I’ve managed to survive, but not thrive, as my illness impeded my ability to think clearly, make plans, and follow through on my decisions. I’m hoping that this trend will start to reverse itself now that I’m off the chemo drugs and the cancer is no longer poisoning my body.

Today, I’m starting down a new path and I’ll be concentrating on rebuilding my marketing business and finding new ways to offer valuable information and reap the rewards in commissions and advertising income.

It’s time for Dilbeck Marketing to rise from the ashes — metaphorically speaking.

This time, it’s going to be different. I already know how to make money online. Now, I’m going to focus on building a business. One that earns more, and builds equity for the future.

I have a long way to go before I recover, so I’ll be taking baby steps until I’m strong enough to stand tall and walk on my own. Nobody said it would be easy. It’s going to take time and effort to regain my strength.

It’s going to take planning and execution in order to rebuild my business. It’s not going to be easy, but I’ve never asked for easy — just an opportunity to do my best.

As I played with the shiny red balls that bounced across my path, I’ve taken some wrong turns in the journey to building my business, even if they resulted in earning a little money. They were not part of my long-term strategy, and they distracted me from my plan. I’m going to remain focused on my goals and ignore these distractions, in the future.

What are your goals?

Do you want to make money online, or are you interested in building a business that will help supply your needs for the long term? Or, do you have something else in mind?

I’m interested in hearing your thoughts.

Act on your dream!

JD

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