Last night, I had my last “real” meal. At least, the last “real” meal for 30 days.

Before we go forward discussing the HCG diet, let’s look at that meal.

After a day spent helping my son and his girlfriend move from one side of Austin to the other, I invited them to join me for a meal. I’d managed to work up quite an appetite sitting in my truck, listening to music on my iPod, reading a book on my iPhone (I’ve got the Kindle reader app), and watching young people carry heavy stuff up and down stairs.

Exhausting.

We stopped at the first open restaurant we found, which was called Marisco’s. Burnett road, Austin. I’d never been there before, but I’d like to go back. It’s a Mexican food restaurant that specializes in fish.

My instructions, given to me by the M.D. who is advising us on this diet, were to spend days 1 and 2 packing on fat. You can see in the blog post below how I spent day 1.

For breakfast on day 2, I ate the rest of the pepperoni and green olive pizza that Brewster made for me. I like cold pizza with my morning coffee.

For dinner, I had the meal pictured above. Carne Asada, guacamole, chile’ con queso, french fries (which seemed out of place) and shrimp, stuffed with cheese and jalapenos, wrapped in bacon, breaded and fried. It was wonderful.

And that was the end of the fun part.

Today was day 1 of the not so fun part. On this diet, we’re allowed 500 calories a day. Normally, I’d eat more than that while I was deciding what to fix for lunch.

Breakfast: 2 cups of coffee and the HCG.

An hour later, I was in Wimberley buying a food scale (pictured below) and I texted Joe: “I feel like I’ve done 4 rails of diplomatic pouch quality crank.”

It’s just like the 70’s all over again.

Joe replied, “that’s coffee with no food.”

I bought the scale and returned to the house. Did my morning internet stuff. Then, it was time for lunch. I put the new scale on the counter and got out a little package of tiny open-range beef steaks. I’m allowed 100 grams of meat per meal.

I put one of the miniature steaks on the scale… crap.

I cut it in half and put it back on. Crap again.

I cut off some more… and then some more… and finally the scale read 101 grams. I decided to cheat and over-eat by 1 gram. Nobody will know.

Look at the pic. That’s a small organic apple, which I’m allowed to have when I’m in the mood to eat a bag of chips with salsa and some nuts. That apple weighs 171 grams. If you’re having trouble visualizing my lunch, remember that steak weighs more than apple. 100 grams…

After I’d cooked the steak- remember, we weigh it “raw,” so it shrinks quite a bit- I added a handful of organic salad, sprinkled a little organic apple cider vinegar over it, and sat down to enjoy my lunch.

Well. That didn’t take long.

Then, back to town to deal with some house-buying details. BTW, if you haven’t checked your credit report lately, you might find it amusing to do so. I’ve found several dings that go back over fifteen years, and were paid. The people I paid (federal and county governments) never bothered to file the releases. When I get rid of all the stuff that shouldn’t be on there, my credit report will be almost pristine. Who knew?

Then back home. More chores. Then, up to the office to finish mixing the new audio product.

Then, it was dinner time. Same as lunch, but this time with the exciting substitution of a handful of spinach for the handful of salad. And, just to splurge, a small organic apple.

Then, back to the office.

Here’s my take on day one of the starvation part of the diet.

I’m not hungry.

Now, in the last two days I’ve eaten enough food to last a week- Doctor’s orders- so, this may change.

I’ve got a LOT of energy.

So far, I’ve done my chores, met and hired the guy who’s going to get my 16 year old tax lien released, met with my CPA, edited six 13-minute audios, purchased some gear for my studio, done all my customer service email stuff, answered all the questions in the private coaching forums, edited and uploaded four pics to the internet (2 on facebook, 2 here), uploaded them to my server, kept up with all my facebook and twitter conversations, and I’m writing this blog post. I suspect I’ll also install my new sound module that arrived today, and…. who knows…

The biggest change I’ve noticed is that I seem to have a lot more time today. Normally, when I eat, I prepare a fairly large meal and then sit down in front of one glowing screen or the other and kind of drift off into a mindless trance while I eat.

It doesn’t take long to eat 100 grams of meat and a handful of green stuff. Or prepare it.

It seems like I’d just sat down and surfed through a few channels- there’s nothing to watch on TV any more, is there? and then… no more food. Must be time to go back to work.

I was “talking” to a buddy on Facebook this afternoon about food and habits. It turns out that his family was a lot like mine when it comes to food. When something bad happens, the plan was to “go have a nice meal. We’ll feel better.” When something good happens, “let’s go get a nice meal to celebrate.”

Food wasn’t about nutrition anymore. It was about comfort. Or something. I suspect that’s why obesity runs in my family. I’m positive we’re not genetically predisposed to be shaped like potatoes. I think we were programmed from a very early age to eat too much for all the wrong reasons.

Jeez. In my family, we actually had the “clean plate club.” If you finished everything on your plate- and in our house, that was mostly starch, then you got to eat dessert. If you didn’t, you got punished- with reminders of the legions of “poor-folk” who didn’t have enough to eat.

It’s funny how that early programming hangs on into adulthood. I don’t even like desserts. But, by gawd, I’m gonna clean my plate.

The difference is, starting today, there’s not much on it.

There’s probably not a marketing lesson in this, yet. There’s actually a big marketing lesson, but we won’t talk about that until the diet is successfully completed.

There is a “Portable Empire” lesson here, though.

What if I do manage to reach my target weight?

I know there are a lot of things I haven’t done because I felt like I didn’t look good. I cringe when I see videos of myself. All I see is the big tummy. What if I actually looked as good as I can look? Would I stop dressing like a street hippie from the 70’s? Would I actually start taking speaking engagements?

There’s a fear of failure and a fear of success in this. The opportunity to be part of a very special program created the cusp that forced me to make the decision. The sky-high triglycerides were a factor, too. I think I made the right one. 29 more days. I can do this.

There’s also a psychological aspect to it. What if I can actually take control of my eating, and thereby get control of my body. What else can I get control of?

All internet marketers- probably all mindful people- are trying to get to the “next level.” For me, this is the next step.

What’s yours?

Part of living the Portable Empire lifestyle is taking care of your health. If you find yourself, like I did, with the consequences of almost 55 years of cavalier diet choices staring you in the face, staying healthy means losing weight.

About a month ago I went in for my 100,000 mile check-up, and the doctor just about scared me skinny. Glucose, cholesterol, and several other fluids were outta whack. The big wake-up was that I qualified for an Olympic Gold Medal in triglycerides.

While I was waiting for the doc to finish doing whatever it is they do when they leave alone for hours in the cubicle, I whipped out my iPhone and googled “triglycerides.” I didn’t even know I had such a thing.

Turns out, they’re caused by grain and alcohol, which is just liquid grain. Grain turns into sugar immediately in the body. In the last month, I’ve had a crash course in this stuff. I immediately hired a nutritionist, loaded up on recommended supplements, and went on the Paleo diet.

Google it. The bumper-sticker is: organic veggies, open-range critters, and a little nuts and fruit. I quickly lost 25 pounds, which left me just 40 pounds overweight.

Today, I met with Dr. Joe Vitale, an MD who I’ll introduce you to later, and Joe’s girl-friend, Nerissa. We’re part of a very exclusive secret experiment. The MD has come up with a new way to deliver HCG, and… well… we’re going to find out if it works by doing it.

I’ll be keeping an online journal here of my progress. Just for the record, I started out at 290 pounds. I’m 6′3″. After a month or so on the Paleo diet, I’m about 265 pounds. My target weight is 220, which I haven’t seen in decades.

The first two days of the diet aren’t bad. After the HCG was administered, my instructions were to go eat too much. Specifically, to pack on fatty foods. Even though that’s how I got like this, it appears to be the first step in how I get to where I want to go.

You’ll notice that our group includes an MD. Be sure to enlist an MD- a real medical doctor- before you go on any life-changing adventures.

Tomorrow, day 2, I have the same instruction. I’m pretty confident I’ll be OK.
It’s days 3-30 that have me worried.

Starting on day 3, I get 500 very specific calories a day. 500 calories is something I would eat while I was deciding what to eat. My base caloric burn rate- if I stay in bed all day- is over 2,000 calories. I’m a big guy.

The saving grace is supposed to be the HCG. It’s supposed to knock out the hunger pangs, and cause my body to live off its existing fat, leaving the muscle alone. Without the HCG, the body would feed off itself indiscriminately. Optimally, on this diet I can expect to lose between 1 and 3 pounds a day.

I’ll be keeping a video journal, reporting on this blog, and doing some other writing- as well as keeping a food journal. If this works out, I’ll tell you how to do it.

My report so far? Check out this video of day 1.
And- do you have an opinion? A story? Feel free to leave comments.

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Today, LaRoja and I drove into Austin.

Wimberley is a lovely village to live in. Pastoral. Quiet. Relaxed.

Sometimes, pastoral isn’t the mood for the day.

Today, we wanted to walk and watch people. See new things. Luckily, Austin is less than 40 miles from here. Austin can be pretty stimulating.

We decided to start at SoCo. There’s a section of South Congress from Riverside almost to Oltorf that has always been funky. That’s where the Continental Club is. Jo’s coffee stand. Guero’s, home of the funkiest Tex-Mex on the planet.

It’s always been funky, but in the last decade or so it’s gotten upscale funky. Somebody realized that the tourists who were flocking there to gawk at the hippies and browse the art galleries and resale shops had money. The art galleries and resale shops were originally there because the rent was cheap, it being a funky place and all. Lots of undesirables panhandling. Now, the rents are higher, but so is the revenue.

The “undesirables” are still there. Today I had the privilege of talking with three of them: Charley, Jack and… I didn’t catch the other guy’s name.

I was walking down South Congress, dodging the (other) tourists, and taking video with my Flip video camera for a project I’m working on, when I came across a scruffy young man who had a hand-printed sign that said, “Birds ate my face.”

It turns out that he was extremely literate and that was a reference to a nihilistic book by an author I’m not familiar with.

These kids were all bright, had great attitudes, and- after they got over their initial wariness- very happy to answer questions and talk about their lives. I think they were surprised at my interest. Most people just walk by and try to avoid eye contact.

They- especially Charley, the girl- gave me an amazing gift. Check out the video, and then read on.

As you saw in the video, Charley’s highest and most selfish wants were for some whiskey, $50, a shower, and to get her bus fixed. I knew better than to give her fifty bucks. I don’t want alcohol poisoning on my karma.

I did get her a pair of shoes. Finding a pair of tennis shoes on South Congress was a quest. You can find outsider art, haitian sculpture, italian food, vintage clothing, costumes and pizza with no problem. You can even find hand-tooled vintage cowboy boots- hundreds of pairs. But, a street kid needs a sturdy pair of tennis shoes.

It took a while.

Finally, in the back of a vintage clothing shop, I found one pair in Charley’s size. Twenty-four bucks. I snagged ‘em, and headed back down South Congress to where she and her friends were sitting. When she opened the bag and saw what was inside, she broke out in a huge smile.

So did I.

In that moment, the savvy street pro disappeared, and I could see what she must have looked like when she was a child. She put on the shoes, and bounced and danced around the sidewalk. She even showed them to her dog.

Now, I know that all altruism is selfish. When we do things for others, there is always a benefit to the giver. In this case, I can testify that as much as Charley enjoyed her new shoes, I enjoyed giving them even more. It felt great! Delicious. I was grinning like a fool watching her dance.

It felt so good I want to do it again.

I’m considering going back to Austin at least one day a week and finding a random street person and giving them something they need. I know this is fraught with potential pitfalls. I’ve been a street person. I’ve hung out with them. Some of them are completely insane. In fact, I think that one of the things we, as a society, need to change is the way we let mentally ill or incompetent people fall through the cracks. Living on the street is tough, even when you’ve got all your facilities. Doing it while mentally ill is a death sentence.

However, these kids were not insane. They were having fun. Their lives are a combination of Huck Finn and Jack Kerouac. They panhandle to get cash, dive for dinner behind the nice restaurants on South Congress, and at the end of the day buy some booze and head for the river. They get drunk and watch the stars and the lights of the city reflecting on town lake.

Hell. If I was a little younger, I’d ask them if I could come along.

I’m still kinda tingly from giving Charley her shoes. And, I love that video. One day this week, I’m going to grab my Flip cam and head back to Austin and see who else I can make happy- and enjoy how happy that makes me.

If you want, you can play along. Be safe. Take somebody with you. Stay in public with lots of people around. And, find somebody whose dreams are as easy to make true as Charley’s and make their dreams come true.

All altruism is selfish. This is a chance to be selfish, feel great, and make somebody’s world better.

If you give it a try, either post a comment here or email me at pat@patobryan.com and tell me how it goes.

Stay tuned. I want to feel this way all the time. I’ll report back here on my adventures.

I was sitting with my buddy Bruce Collie at his restaurant, Brewster’s Pizza, talking about Internet Marketing. It was a couple of hours before the restaurant was to open for the day. Outside, it was kind of cold and nippy. Inside, it was warm. Pizza dough was rising and bell peppers were roasting, and a few of his and Holly’s kids were playing and laughing.

Bruce is an amazing guy. Former San Francisco 49′er with two super-bowl rings, very artistic architect and carpenter, world-class chef, parenting coach, inventor… and now, he wants to learn Internet Marketing.

As we talked, I realized that Bruce had a very common problem. Most of my coaching students have the same problem. He had so many great ideas that he was immobilized. He wanted to do so many things at once that he ended up doing nothing.

Sound familiar?

I thought a minute, and then said:

“The ‘89 49′ers could do just about anything that can be done on a football field, right?”

“Right,” he said. He was in the starting line-up when Joe Montanna led them to their second Super Bowl victory, and has told me stories of the west-coast offense. At that time, they were the best football team in the world and they proved it.

“How many plays did you have in your play-book?” I asked.

He rolled his eyes towards the ceiling and shook his head. “Over 2,000.”

“How many plays could you run at a time?” I asked. “It’s first and ten from your 20, the first play of the game, and the ultimate goal is to win the game. How many plays can you run on that particular first down?”

It took a few minutes, but he finally “got” it. The answer is “one.”

It will take hundreds of plays to accomplish the goal of winning the game, but you can only run them one at a time. And, it’s important to run the right play at the right time to maximize yardage. You need a winning strategy. You need to be open to your options and able to improvise when you need to. But, you have to run the plays one at a time.

Running a successful Internet Marketing business is the same way.

Sometimes, I get overwhelmed, too. There are just too many great opportunities. I want to do them all now. There are books to write, videos to film, audio products to make. We’re launching Spanish and French versions of some of our products, and considering doing Dutch and German ones. There are always resources needed for my coaching program. And that’s before I play my guitars, watch movies, hang out with Betsy and/or the kids, and smoke cigars with my friends.

The good news is that you CAN do it all. You just have to do it one thing at a time.

In the Portable Empire System, the focus is on solving problems and selling the solution. The core of your internet marketing business should be

- opt-in pages where you trade something of value in your niche for email addresses
- sales pages where you sell a product in your niche

Of course, you also need to build a relationship and maintain that relationship with your readers, create your autoresponder matrix, do social networking, develop JV relationships… but, I’ve found that the actual income results from building your list and selling products.

One opt-in page and one sales page represents one stream of income. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll be able to live the life of your dreams on the income from one product.

However, once you learn the Portable Empire system, you’ll know lots of easy, simple ways to create products and get them online: public domain, master resale rights, video, audio, ebooks, teleseminars, webinars…

Again, the options can be overwhelming.

The key is to do the next right thing.

Put up the second opt-in page and sales page. There’s your second passive income stream.

Then the next.

Then the next.

And, one day you look up and you’ve got a LOT of passive income streams flowing into your bank account.

It doesn’t happen overnight. It happens over time- one step at a time.

Getting back to football- the game is won by a series of 4 and 5 yard plays. Every now and then, a running back will break a tackle and streak down the field for a touchdown. You can’t plan for that to happen.

Same thing with Internet Marketing. Success comes in increments. Get one site bringing in a few hundred dollars a month. Then another. Then another. Then, out of nowhere, you have a product that EVERYBODY wants and sales go off the charts. If you can predict which product is going to do that, you’re better than I am.

I’ve had a few of those, and the feeling is great! But, I’m always surprised. Why did THIS product do six figures and THAT one struggle to do five? I can’t predict it, and I can’t duplicate it on command.

It doesn’t matter. If you get enough streams of passive income flowing into your business, the surprise touchdowns will just be gravy. I have learned that your odds of having one of those surprises is directly related to the number of products you put out.

By the end of our conversation, Bruce had identified the ONE product he wanted to work on first. He’s and Holly are going to do a short introductory video for their opt-in page and a longer one for their first product.

That’s his first play.

What’s yours?

The video cameras and mics were in the Volvo, which was double parked on the square here in Wimberley. It was Saturday. Tourists were everywhere, the square was crowded, and traffic was pretty impressive for a town with less than 5,000 people in it. Sometimes, of a Saturday, the population swells by over 30,000.

I was reminded of a bumper sticker my buddy Arley came up with: “Why do they call it tourist season if you can’t shoot em?”

Hang with me- this is a marketing story with a twist.

My son Patrick has been searching for a way to scrape together some cash. He lives in nearby Austin, and although the recession hasn’t really hit Austin all that hard, he’s competing with tens of thousands of college kids, lots of laid-off tech workers, and a world of slackers for the few jobs that are still available.

He’s a musician, and a damn fine audio engineer/producer, and lately he’s been getting into video editing. I’m pretty supportive, so he’s got good gear. I’m also pretty tight with cash- hence the need for him to convert equipment + talent into negotiable currency.

He and his buddy, Joey, whose dad is a pro film editor, came up with the idea of shooting video for bands. The bands could use the video to make DVDs for promotion and sale and put the video on their websites, etc.

My bass-playing buddy Gerry, who has played many gigs with me in the past, and held down the bass with just about every decent band in this part of Texas (and that’s a lot of bands!) was doing a promotional show at the western wear shop with his bluegrass band. We’d run into each other at the post office, and I propositioned him- we’d come to the store and shoot the video for free.

Gerry would get a professional video of his band, and we’d get a demo of what we could do. I knew that any band Gerry was in would sound great, and the idea of filming a bluegrass band in a cowboy-drag store appealed to me.

After a few minutes Patrick and his buddy (and his girl-friend, Amy) showed up. They’d been gawking at the gawking tourists. Shortly thereafter, Gerry burst through the door.

“You didn’t get my message!” he said.

“No.”

“The store owner wants to wait on the video.”

“Why?”

“It’s rodeo weekend, and she’s at her booth at the rodeo with her really cool inventory. She wants that featured in the video,” explained Gerry.

“Say what?” I replied. “I thought we were filming a bluegrass band.”

“When she heard we were doing video, she wanted to make sure we featured her stuff so she can use it for promotions,” Gerry said with a shrug.

Well, me and the kids were disappointed. They’d driven in from Austin. Nothing to do about the video situation, so I figured as a consolation prize I’d treat them to pizza at Brewster’s pizza. Brewster’s makes the best pizza in the galaxy, and was just a couple of miles up the road.

That brought a smile to some faces. The kids trooped to their car, and I got in the Volvo and pointed it up the hill to the junction. On the way, I had an epiphany. The plan just appeared in my mind.

Why market video recording to musicians, who are known to be clueless about marketing and short of funds? Why not market to businesses, some of whom understand the value of marketing and have a budget for such?

What Patrick and his crew needed was a good demo for their business. Why not do it at Brewsters?

Brewster’s has some benefits in addition to serving the best pizza in the galaxy. It’s owned and operated by my buddy Bruce Collie and his wife, Holly. Just for fun, say “Holly Collie” out loud a few times…

Anyway, Bruce is a former San Francisco 49er with 2 superbowl rings and Holly is a former model who, after bringing 13 gorgeous children in the world, still looks like a model. They’re upbeat, clever, passionate about what they do, and will look great on video.

As soon as I got to Brewster’s, I slipped into the kitchen and explained my idea to Bruce. He immediately “got” it. We were on.

The kids arrived right behind me, so I went back in the dining room and told them about my idea. They were buzzed and excited. This was a business plan they could get behind. It would be fun, creative, and potentially lucrative.

While the kids were setting up cameras and microphones, I texted Joe Vitale, who lives nearby: “At Brewster’s. You hungry?”

Of course, I love to hang out with Joe. However, my motives were a tad less than pure. I knew that Joe LOVES Brewster’s pizza. I also suspected that he could be persuaded to say a few words about that on video, which would provide the kids with another celebrity on their video, and Bruce and Holly with a celebrity endorsement for their website.

Luckily, Joe showed up in Francine, one his three Panoz racing cars.

Over the next three hours, Patrick and the crew video taped the restaurant, the grounds, Joe driving into the parking lot in Francine, Bruce making pizza, and an in depth interview with Bruce and Holly about their pizza.

If you’re ever in the hill country, you should check ‘em out. All ingredients that can be are organic, they have whole wheat and gluten free crusts, they have dangerous desert pizzas like s’mores pizza and cinnabon pizza, and they use rice-bran oil to grill the fresh garlic… I could go on and on. Bottom line, it tastes great and is good for you.

And yes, one pizza died during this experiment. Pepperoni with extra cheese. Face down on the floor.

Here’s the part that’s about us- the internet marketers.

Patrick’s buddy can also sling HTML. So, they can offer web pages to small businesses as well as video for the web page. By the time they headed back towards Austin, Patrick and his gang had a complete business plan and a much larger population to market to. EVERY business needs to advertise.

What we forget, because we’re so immersed in the online world, is that there are still a lot of local businesses that don’t have a web presence.

As internet marketers, we sorta accidentally pick up a lot of skills that most civilians never learn. We can make web pages, set up autoresponders, buy-now buttons, etc. Some of us also know how to use AdWords and other online advertising methods to effectively drive traffic to web pages.

AdWords, for example, will allow you to pin-point your advertising to a specific geographic location. Google knows where you’re googling from. If you’re in the hill country and want pizza, well… Bruce can set up his AdWords account so that you are led right to his organic pizza automatically.

The stuff we know is worth money. Sometimes, we discount what we know because “everybody knows that.” The truth is EVERYBODY doesn’t know what we know. Even if you’re a relatively new internet marketer, you probably know marketable strategies and tools that the average business guy or gal is too busy running their business to know.

Now might be a good time to start thinking about adding a “local” aspect to your online business. ReFrame your skill, talents and equipment- think of as many ways to use those to solve problems as you can. As you know, my whole Portable Empire thing is based on solving problems. People will pay you to solve their problems.

After the shoot, we all gathered for beer and more pizza and fun conversation.

Bruce, Joe, Patrick, Amy, Joey, and Holly.

Pat’s new local marketing site- Best Austin area web design and video. http://postindustrialmedia.com “Post Industrial Media”

Shout out to Keith Campbell at Campbell Construction.  Wimberley’s best home repair and handyman- http://wimberleyhomerepair.com

In the last post, we talked about audio, video and pics.

I like ‘em. They’re quick. They’re a good way to build rapport with your readers, and to create products on the fly.

However, let’s talk about those readers.

Recently, I put up a survey to find out what my readers want. Click HERE to see the results.

Surprisingly, in this age of broad band access and video on demand, 49% of my readers want eBooks.

Actually, that’s not all that surprising when you stop and think about it. When I really want to learn something, I much prefer the printed page. Recently, as part of “Project New Galt’s Gulch,” I’ve been learning PPC. I bought a few recommended courses- and one of them, Perry Marshall’s “Definitive Guide to Google Adwords 2010,” was so good I decided to make that one of my two main resources. (The other one was Armand Morin’s “Secret PPC” video series.)

Perry’s eBook was almost 300 pages long. I printed it out. It’s on my desk right now, along with a pile of notes I’ve taken as I work through it. I don’t know about you, but when I decide to put my nose to the grindstone and really learn something, I want paper with words on it.

But then, I’m a reader. I’ll spend all day in my office studying eBooks, and then unwind at night with a good book.

Every Internet Marketer I know who has had any kind of success at all BUYS Internet Marketing products. First of all, we’re in a dynamic business. It changes daily. There’s no way any of us can learn it all. So, I was tickled twisty-toed to be able to pay Armand and Perry a couple of hundred bucks to do my work for me. They did all the testing and research. They waded through all the BS and distilled the good stuff down into an easily digestible (well… 300 pages…) chunk of information that I can use to make money.

Second, we need to know what our competition is doing. Sometimes, I buy an info-product, look at it, chuckle, and delete it. After a while, you learn who puts out good stuff and who’s just rakin’ the noobs for easy cash. But, sometimes, you can discover trends and strategies that you would never have heard about otherwise. Invest in yourself.

So- what’s an eBook?

If you’ve been hanging out with me for any time at all, you know that I focus on solving problems. People will pay you to solve their problems. Find an interesting problem, package the solution, and then sell it.

I suspect that as eBook readers gain popularity-and who knows what the Apple tablet is going to do to the market?- we’ll need to learn different ways to deliver eBooks, but right now eBooks are delivered as PDF files.

So- to write an eBook, you find that solution and write it down. People (most people. the smart people.) don’t value an eBook by weight or volume. They’re looking for a solution to their problem.

You can use Microsoft Office to write the eBook, and then use a commercial PDF generator to create the PDF file- but, the easy solution is to download Open Office at http://openoffice.org. It’s free.

Open Office is pretty much a Microsoft Office clone, and it includes a PDF generator. So, you can write your eBook with it, and then export it as a PDF.

That’s all there is to it. No muss. No fuss.

Once you’ve exported your file as a PDF, you’ve got a file you can upload to a server and deliver to your customers. I use FileZilla to FTP files to my servers.

Once the file is online, you can create a download page, write your sales page, and start selling.

If you’re curious about what to write about, how to actually write it, and how to answer the question “who’d read something I wrote?” you should check out the eBook Problem Solver. which is an audio course I did with Joe Vitale.

Of course, for detailed hands-on help with this and all subjects Internet Marketing, check out my Portable Empire Coaching program. You might want to do that now, because the price is going up 2/1/10.

Final thought- the important thing is to do it. Writing and selling eBooks is the easiest and fastest way to start your Internet Marketing business. There’s practically no barrier to entry- it doesn’t cost anything at all to create eBooks. For less than $20 (for hosting), you can have your business up and running. Tonight.

Product creation.

Want to learn how to create profitable products, interesting blog posts, web pages and articles quickly and easily?

Nothing to it. You just need to be prepared.

If you scroll down on this blog, you’ll note that some of my blog posts are mostly pictures. Every picture tells a story, don’t it (thanks, Rod)? Pictures are a window into your world.

I use a lot of video. My YouTube channel has had hundreds of thousands of views.

I do a lot of audio interviews and products.

I hope you, the reader, find these things interesting. Welcome to my world.

However, let’s think like Internet Marketers. The most important thing I teach is “build a relationship with your readers.” Almost every time I send an email to my list, I get responses back from people who think I sent them that email personally.

And, I did.

However, I also sent it to tens of thousands of other people. Personally.

One good way to build that relationship is to let your readers into your world. When I go on vacation, or visit another marketer’s seminar, or go to a party, I take along my tools.

When I’m out, and the opportunity presents itself, I’m just a few seconds away from capturing the moment.

Inside my black leather backpack, this is what you’ll see. In addition to the billfold, 2 cell phones, and headphones, I carry a Flip Mino HD video camera, a Tascam DR1 MP3/Wave recorder, and a digital camera.

These are relatively inexpensive tools that are also good enough to make professional products and easy enough to use that I can concentrate on getting “the shot,” and not have to worry about tech stuff. I’ve got much nicer video cams, but the Flip fits in my bag and takes video that is “good enough.”

If you’re in my coaching program, you’ve heard me say, “good enough is good enough.” It’s true. The “good enough” video or audio that you actually can put online beats the hell out of the “perfect” video or audio that you never seem to get. The Flip camp is perfect for getting “good enough” video.

That Tascam DR1, on the other hand, is overkill. For most applications, a $50 MP3 recorder from Office Depot would work just fine. The Tascam costs about $250, records .wav as well as high-quality MP3, and has two condenser microphones. It’s a very nice piece of gear. Last week, I loaned it to my kiddo and his buddies who had a gig recording sound effects for a movie. It would take a LOT of gear to get a better sound than that little box can record.

If you’ve got the bucks, I recommend it. If not… well, good enough is good enough. The important thing is to have an audio recorder so that when the opportunity arises to interview somebody interesting, you’re there- and you’re ready.

Finally, there’s the digital camera. At UnSeminar 7 somebody liberated my little Nikon. I liked that camera.

When I went to replace it, I had to make a decision. That Powershot SX20is is a little bigger than most pocket cams. It’s smaller than it looks in that picture, but it’s too bulky to actually put in a pocket. However, it’s got some features that I find real attractive- really powerful optical zoom, for one thing- and it was just a smidgen more expensive than the pocket-cam I was looking at. Since I carry the bag anyway, I went for the mini-SLR. I’m very happy with the quality of the pics that camera takes. I’m very much a “point and shoot” photographer, and this camera never goes off the “automatic” setting. Good enough is good enough.

It’s also more camera than you need- these days, even the cheapie digital cameras are better than the professional ones were a few years ago. On a scale of 1 to 10, you get 9 points just for having a camera when you need it. Nobody is going to critique your composition or color balance- we’re just taking snapshots here.

The focus is on relationship building. Pics, audios, and videos can be put on your blog. They’re great for getting testimonials and “perception” shots. You want as many shots of yourself with known marketers as you can get. Those help you build the perception that you want your readers to have.

Remember, we’re marketers. This is branding.

However, your tools will pay for themselves quickly if you keep a “product developer’s” mind-set. Remember, we’re in the business of solving problems. One of my most popular products is the “eBook Problem Solver.”

That’s just an audio of a conversation I had with Joe Vitale a few years ago about eBooks. How to make them, how to market them, what to write about, etc. I was still a relative noob at the time, and it was an interesting conversation. As a matter of fact, it’s so interesting that you can build an entire eBook business with what you’ll learn when you hear it.

What if I hadn’t had my recording stuff there when the conversation took place? A lot of people would never have written their first eBook, and I would have missed out on a nice income opportunity.

Tools. Get ‘em. Use ‘em.

Speaking of tools, this is what my office looks like right now. I’ve been sick, so pardon the mess… but, you’ll see a bunch of tools within arms reach. That’s how I roll. I recommend it.

In the previous post, we looked at how I got into the Internet Marketing business.

Now, let’s look at “what IS Internet Marketing?”

I guess, technically, Internet Marketing is the act of marketing anything online. That may be confusing the medium with the message.

When I talk about “Internet Marketing,” I’m really talking about the Portable Empire system.

When the world’s largest non-fiction publisher asked me to write a book explaining how I went from “broke blues guitar player” to “successful Internet Marketer,” I had to sit down and look back at what I did and how I did it. That book was published in 2007 and was called “Your Portable Empire, How To Make Money Anywhere Doing What You Love.” It quickly became an Amazon best-seller, and the number one selling business book in the country- for a while. It was fun while it lasted. That book is still selling well, and has become an accepted standard for learning Internet Marketing.

Having a best-seller on my resume is nice, but the most valuable thing that came out of that experience was codifying the Portable Empire system.

The book is good. You should buy a copy and read it. However, in the 2.5 years since it was published, a LOT has happened. The ‘net has changed dramatically. There are many new tools available to us. And, more importantly, the industry has matured. The wild-west days are o.v.e.r.

The sheriff rode into town in the form of the FTC, which released new guidelines that pretty much put a stop to a lot of the slicker tricks that marketers were using. It’s a good thing.

So, what’s working now? What’s the Portable Empire system for 2010?

Well, the basics haven’t changed. The system is based on the fact that people will pay for the solutions to their problems. The more pressing the problem is, the more money you can make by solving it.

So, the basic structure of a Portable Empire is to find a niche where there are compelling problems that are linear. Take Internet Marketing. Everybody who embarks on an Internet Marketing career is going to run into a series of problems in a certain order:

- how to put information online
- how to find interesting problems
- how to find the solutions to these problems
- how to package those solutions
- how to convince them to buy YOUR solution
- how to deliver the solutions
- how to attract the people who have the problem to your sales page
- how to turn readers into customers, and customers into repeat buyers

Any of these steps can be broken down into smaller chunks. For example, “how to put information online.”

- how to use free HTML editing software to make web pages
- how to use WordPress to make web pages
- how to choose a hosting company
- how to use an FTP program
- how to use “all in one” web page building online software (I really don’t recommend these.)
- how to outsource your tech stuff with rentacoder.com or other outsourcing services

As you can see, there’s not a shortage of problems. Most Internet Marketers are going to need to know how to write an eBook, and how to convert it to a PDF. Then, they need to learn how to make a download page to deliver that product. And so on- interesting, linear problems. That’s what you’re looking for. Any profitable niche will have a similar set of problems.

At its core, Internet Marketing is just direct marketing as it’s been practiced for over a century. Reading Dan Kennedy’s books, as well as the classic direct marketing and copywriting texts from the Golden Age of direct marketing will repay you many times over.

The difference is that Internet Marketing is direct marketing at warp speed.

Back in the dark ages- say, before 1990- most direct marketing was done in newspapers and magazines, or on TV. The marketer would have an idea for a product and write an ad that would be submitted to, say, a magazine.

Then, a few months later, the magazine would be printed. People would see the ad and either respond or not. The marketer would use this data to decide whether the ad was a success or not. Then, they would write another ad and test that to try to “beat the control.” A few months later, the second ad would run. The results would come in, and those results would be analyzed.

Today, a savvy marketer can split test ads in an hour using Google Adwords or other online marketing resources. In a day, you can discover whether there is a market for your product or not. In a week, you can test dozens of headlines, benefits, calls to action. You can fail fast, and cut your losses and go on to the next project or you can succeed fast, and make just a whole lot of money.

Adwords, Facebook, Bing, Yahoo, and soon Twitter- there are lots of advertising resources available. Soon, cell-phone advertising will take off. You’ve probably heard me talk about Google Goggles, which is going to bring online advertising into the offline world through a rapid melding of the two.

And, that brings us to the biggest problem marketers face today.

Until recently, once you learned how to “do” direct marketing, you could sit back and perfect that finite set of skills. You changed, but the medium was a constant.

Now, the medium changes almost daily. You never learn Google Adwords. Google changes its rabbit mind at the speed of light. Things that work fine on Tuesday fail completely Wednesday morning.

Text ads are hot. Then they’re dead. Image ads are hot- and then everybody’s doing them and the cost per click goes up. Video ads. Audio ads. New delivery methods. Content network, search network… to compete today, you must be a constant student.

To be an effective student of Internet Marketing, you need access to good information. There’s still enough “Wild West” in the business to confuse the newbie. My students tell me that my Portable Empire Coaching program is good- and some of them have created viable Internet Marketing businesses using my program.

There are also some successful Internet Marketers who you should avoid at all costs. They’re just incapable of playing straight. One of the acknowledged traffic gurus, although he knows his stuff, is a functional illiterate. I tried reading his traffic course and just couldn’t get through it. It was as if Sarah Palin was his ghostwriter. Others not only don’t “know their stuff,” but they don’t seem to care. However, they’ve got big lists, huge JV and affiliate networks, and continue to make money.

The goal, for those of us who teach Internet Marketing, should be to provide well-written and well-produced products that actually teach Internet Marketing. You can tell which programs actually work by talking to the people who have gone through the programs. If they can point to specific successes as a direct result of the product or course, you’ve got a winner.

This would be a good time to invite you to check out the testimonials for the Portable Empire coaching program.

The good news is that, according to my latest survey, the basics are still viable. People want eBooks. They want audios they can download to their iPods and listen to in their cars.

And, there’s no reason to be afraid of the new technology. Twitter and Facebook, for example, make it very easy to build huge lists fast. And free.

The PPC learning curve is indeed steep. At first. What I’m finding is that you climb the curve and get comfy where the technology is today. Then, you roll with the changes. You’re never “there,” but you’re way ahead of the game. The fact that the medium changes dynamically is no reason to not use the medium. And, underneath the constantly changing delivery system, the basics of direct marketing still- and will always- work.

Let’s break out a bottle of virtual champagne and have a little online celebration.  Let’s go with

Champagne Philipponnat Clos des Goisses 1999 Brut

I hear it’s pretty good.  ;)

It was about six years ago that Bill Hibbler and I managed to sneak into Joe Vitale’s “Spiritual Marketing Summit” in Austin.  Joe had slipped us passes.  Neither one of us could afford the $1,000 tickets.

It was held at the historic Driscoll hotel, which was all a’glitter.  Home to cattle barons and politicians since 1886, it was an intimidating and luxurious setting for a seminar that was all about prosperity.  Needless to say, we couldn’t afford to stay there.  We drove back to Wimberley each evening after the seminar, talking over what we’d learned that day.

Bill was already dabbling in Internet Marketing.  I was still playing guitar “day to day and town to town.”  To me, it was all new and exciting.  I’ve always been more or less unemployable.  The yoke of a day job chafed immediately, and- for me- day jobs were mostly about paying the rent and killing time till the next tour.

At that seminar, I was introduced to a way to make a living- and live a lifestyle- that absolutely worked for me.  My “weaknesses” suddenly were strengths.  I like to sleep when I’m sleepy, travel when the wanderlust hits me, and will work like a fiend on projects that I find interesting.  I’ve always said that “there’s a word for people who do stuff just for money…” and, although there were times when I unloaded trucks in the Texas heat, or did some other mindless labor “just for money,” I was honest with myself about why I was doing it and who I was while doing it.

I learned a couple of very important things at that seminar.

First, my assumption that Internet Marketers were somehow smarter than the rest of us was erroneous.  I met several and they fell all over the spectrum.  Some WERE brilliant.  Some were not.  None of them showed any tendency to walk on water or float through the air while doing advanced quadratic equations.

They were just folk, but folk who knew how to do Internet Marketing.

Second, I noticed that they tended to contradict each other.  They all had a system for success.  The systems were all different.  In our conversations on the ride home, Bill and I decided that any of those systems would probably work- but that you had to choose one.  Six years later, I’m still convinced that’s right.  That’s why I tell my coaching clients to pick one guru (guru means teacher, BTW) for each skill.  If you’re going to study Michel Fortin’s copywriting material, don’t study John Carlton’s or David Garfinkel’s at the same time.  They contradict each other.  And they’re all right.  But, if you study more than one at a time you’ll just get confused.

Finally, I discovered that I could create information products and sell them.  I made some CDs of a few audio products I had created with Joe’s guidance.  One at a time.

Let me paint the picture for you- the audio files were on the hard drive of the only computer I owned.  So, to create these products I had to burn CDs one at a time.  Then, I opened the graphics program and printed out the CD labels, which had to be stuck to the CDs one at a time.  Then I printed out the CD covers, which had to be cut out by hand and put in the cases one at a time.  I spent the night before the seminar on my hands and knees in my office putting together what I thought was way too many CDs.  At least, I thought, it will look good…

I sold all the CDs I brought the first day.

So, after driving home from the seminar, I spent hours putting together another batch of CDs.  At the seminar the next day, I sold out again.

If you’ve got one of those CDs, congratulations.  They’re definitely collector’s items.

Remember, this was at a time when I was playing bars around Texas for $30-$50 a night, and selling my music CDs from the stage.  On a good night, I might sell ten CDs.  Most nights, one or two.  In one weekend, I sold about 100 CDs, at more than twice what I charged for my music CDs.  To me, at that time, it seemed like a lot of money made very easily.

I was hooked.

“Greetings, Earthlings.”

That’s how I start most of the Portable Empire Coaching UnWebinars. Seems to cover most of us.

This week, what we talked about was the survey. Perhaps you took it?

I was curious about what you want. If you didn’t get a chance to take the survey (it’s closed, now) feel free to email me or leave a comment here about what you want.

Occasionally, one of my coaching clients will ask me, “how can I find out what my readers want?”

Answer: “you ask.”

Now, that is some clear data.

Since we’re in the worst recession since the 1930’s and jobs are pretty much a thing of the past, “help making money” seems a reasonable answer to “what do you want most.”

I had a thing or two to say about jobs in this blog post.  Basically, my position is that jobs are the least efficient way to create wealth available.  Read that blog post to see why, and what I recommend as a better alternative.

This is a little less clear- let me tell you why.

Probably, the LAST thing you need is more traffic.  And, I mean that literally.  Only after you’ve done the other things on this list are you ready to drive serious traffic at your site.

This should make Joe Vitale smile.  His new book is called “Attract Money Now.”

Now, in my opinion, there are at least two ways to “attract money.”  One is the strategy I call “Sittin’ n Wishin’.”

I’ve found that to be less effective than strategy #2, which is the Portable Empire solution.  Solve problems for people and sell them the solutions.

On the coaching call, we looked at this data… and finally decided that the answer was “cars.”

People are dropping audios to their iPods and listening to them in their cars.

We were surprised to see that eBooks and articles ranked so high.  After some conversation, we decided that WE liked ebooks and articles, too.  You can go at your own pace.  If you’re really studying something, most of us prefer to study the written word.