So I’m a publisher now, why I’m not feeling cool enough?

Recently I have become a publisher – it’s official now, I guess, since with the day I received my first package of ISBN numbers, I’ve been entered into international database of publishers. So why I’m not feeling cool enough? Truth is, being a publisher in Poland (I don’t know how it looks in other countries) isn’t something difficult, everyone can become such publisher, simple because every citizen of Poland is allowed to publish a work marked with unique ISBN number.

I guess that I will be feeling cool enough only when I will be more popular and I will be publishing e-books of other authors. Don’t misunderstand me, it’s great to be allowed to share the knowledge in such “official” way, but still it’s nothing like a real book.

Nothing like a real book, eh?

I’m old school, y’know? I love to feel the texture of paper, flip pages and this kind of stuff. That’s why I can’t really learn from e-books, which is a little bit of an irony. I’m writing e-books for others, but personally I would never be able to learn everything from it.

The problem I see with e-books is that they’re a lot faster than classic paper books. You can purchase 10 e-books at once, and hope to read all of them. But in the end, you won’t be able to do so, because you won’t have time, and subconsciously you will know that you have purchased e-books only to read over them and acquire knowledge. All of this as soon as possible. It’s fast, and unpleasant.

Books are different – you’re purchasing one or two books, then you’re waiting for them to arrive via postal mail, and they you’re sitting down in your favorite chair, taking a great pleasure reading them – it’s a cool way to relax.

New VS Old

So here I stand facing this ironic paradox – I want to share the knowledge using simplest method, so everyone could benefit from it. And on the other hand, I would love to share this knowledge using pleasant methods – like classic paper books that are much more relaxing. Ergonomic versus economy – what a problem!

Perhaps the best way of getting out of this paradox would be to offer people two versions of my works – digital e-books and printed books, for example, through Lulu.com. That’s always an option, not mentioning that it would look just awesome to have my own book on my bookshelf, eh?

Nah, just ranting a bit…

Why "make money online" blogs and e-books sucks like hell and why should you I care

Every person that ever tried to make some money online surely knows some blogs and e-books that discuss the ultimate and only ways to make a living from your Web activities. Even if a lot of people share some very useful knowledge through this, almost none of them tells you that with this knowledge only, you’re as good as child in the dark. Truth is – all these guides and blogs sucks if you don’t have your brain working!

Devil in the details

Darren Rowse’ Problogger is a great resource of knowledge. John Cow’ or John Chow’ blogs too, even that weird guy Glen Allsopp’ Cloud Living e-book is useful (although you should not even try to purchase it). But I’m sorry guys, your knowledge is useless as long as the person that acquires this knowledge is brainless – are you brainless, my dear reader? Let’s see :).

Examples

Here’s one of the most popular advices around blogsphere to increase traffic to your blog. I’m running a website about paranormal & the occult, and I want to increase the traffic. So I’m advised to send few trackbacks. And of course, I’m also encouraged to write guest posts from time to time for other blogs in my niche. Cool, so what’s the problem? If I would be brainless, I would try to send as many trackbacks as possible, and write as many guest posts as I can. But I won’t do this – because in my niche, there are no blogs I would target, and if there are, I already established partnership relations with them – two blogs, that is :). And I’m sorry, but in paranormal niche 90% of people is s uneducated in running a blog they do not allow comments,  nor trackbacks, nor they even place a contact details in their blogs. For many, everything that comes from readers is considered to be spam. Now that sucks!

Not that I think every other blogger is stupid, I don’t – but a lot of them lacks the knowledge about blogging, which makes this niche particularly difficult.

It’s all screwed up!

The problem is that 90% of people who read over these blogs and e-books is not really thinking about what they read – no matter what their niche is, they’re trying to copy/paste the ideas, and they end up with nothing. Yes, I admit that a lot of ideas is working. That’s the point – some ideas works, some doesn’t – your role as blogger or online money maker is to understand the niche you’re operating within. You need to know what works in your niche, and what doesn’t work. You need to be creative and prepared to risk, trying to implement something totally new, something that no one ever tried before. Then, you might be successful.

Don’t copy, think!

Therefore:

• Do not copy and paste every single idea – it might not work.
• Think what might work in your niche and implement it.
• Analyse your niche – find out what works and what doesn’t.
• Don’t be afraid of creativity, try to think about something original by yourself.

Even that can’t guarantee a success in online business – but it will surely help you a lot, if you’re thinking about having your piece of a cake.

Do you copy/paste ideas of others? Or do you do research on your niche? Share your stories in comments below!

Why should you NOT buy Cloud Living – a review

Cloud Living is one of the most popular ‘how to make money online’ ebook these days. It has been since the day of release :). It’s long, divided into two primary sections, filled with information about online money making and it cost $37 USD. If you want to make money in the web, you should definitely NOT buy this ebook… You will loose your money, really…

Always look on the bright side of life

One of the things the Law of Attraction courses can teach you is that you should think positive, no matter what. But here’s small problem – of course, positive thinking is very important all the time, but it’s not enough. More important, you should always look on the bright side of life. And it’s not the same thing as positive thinking.

You see, when you just think positive, no matter what terrible things are going on around you, you keep thinking “it’s OK, it’s OK, it’s going to be awesome, I’m cool” – but in reality, you’re not. It’s nothing more than telling lies to yourself. Lies that can not help and that will definitely help you not, in any way. And if the things aren’t working, you should change the tactics.

Instead, of positive thinking, you should practise a slightly different technique – you should always look on the bright side of life. So when things are going totally wrong, don’t think it’s going to be OK. Think about something that is already OK. For example think about your lovely wife, or about your business going smoothly, or about cool morning you had, tasty dinner you had, or that nice day off.

Those (and many other) are the things that already happened, and those are the things that are positive, not your imagination and wishful thinking. You remember the Secret? Teachers were talking about gratitude – that is not positive thinking, that is looking on the bright side of life. Being thankful and grateful for nice things that already happened is the thing that really makes the Law of Attraction working.

Connect this with passion boards, setting goals, life philosophy and the Law of Karma, and you will get the mixture of successful life!

Why education system sucks

I’m big fan of science fiction movies and TV shows, you know what I remember the best from every single movie and series I’ve seen in my life? Aliens saying that humans are damn creative. I don’t know if this is the truth since we never met real aliens and I do not know if we ever will, but hey – I believe humans are damn creative! At least since the day they are born up to 3 or 4 years. Then they go to nursery school where their creativity is being brutally suppressed, because creativity is wrong. At least this is what most of teachers think…

Without creativity, we would be still living in caves trying to survive another day. But instead, we have Newton physics, Einstein, Apple, tons of gadgets, Internet and God one knows what else. Hell we’re creative :). Oh, we wouldn’t have Facebook nor Twitter without few creative minds. But sad truth is that current public education system is suppressing creativity among children and I don’t mean USA, right now I’m speaking from European point of view, this problem is present in whole world. Let me give you few examples:

• Fast reading – you know how to read fast? You need to use pointer, kids are often using their index finger to follow up with text, but the teacher says “don’t use your finger, it will slow you down” – the hell it won’t, on the contrary, the pointer increase the speed of reading and every single person who was taught to read fast will admit I’m right. How does this suppress creativity? The kid knows he read fast, but if the teacher said something, then this must be the truth, so the kid thinks he’s wrong. Therefore, teacher is always right. Even if he’s not.
• Answers key – tests are so popular all over the world, you have a question and four possible answers: A, B, C or D. Where’s creativity here? You can’t really think on your own, you have to choose the right answer. Sure, when it comes to numbers and general knowledge then it’s OK, but when it comes to abstract knowledge, then the problems begins…
• Teacher is always right - I won’t write anything here but single link to post made by Collis.

School today teaches the general knowledge and will try to suppress every single kind of creativity and individuality. I got personal experience with. When I was in infant school and I was about 6 years old, I found few bricks that were supposed to be used in construction of a castle. But I was creative, I quickly used the bricks (because of their shape) to build… four-leaf clover :). It was perfect (but um… the bricks were red, I had no way to paint them), you know what my teacher did? Nothing, she ignored me! Because haven’t build a castle, because I created something no one ever thought about before. What was I supposed to do, most of the bricks has been lost or eaten by other kids?!

To be creative or not to be creative

I say be creative! Two types of people become rich, those who got cash for investment and those who are creative. I don’t have cash, I’m just creative :). And I’m also hard to stop when I set up my goal. So…

• Be original - create something no one every thought about, or thought about, yet never created it :).
• Use mind-maps – the best way for creativity to flow…
• Play with your ideas – by using mind-maps :P
• Don’t be afraid to take the risk – only those who take the risk can achieve success!
• Keep smiling – the hardest thing to do, but it works!
• Be mad – if something is too crazy to work out, it will work out for sure.

This is just a tip of an iceberg – but it gives you the basic knowledge to start with. Now go and let the creativity flow!

By the way, read this ebook to learn a little bit more about mind mapping :).

How did karma worked for me

For about two weeks I was unable to earn any money online. I had no idea what happened, that was never a problem before. So I figured out if I can’t attract money, I must be out of fuel. And fuel for law of attraction is karma. So I was out of karma and had to adjust my life a little in order to make some money once again. And you know what? It worked, here’s how i did it…

Doing good things

Karma in my eyes is simple – do bad things, and bad things will happen to you. Do good things and good things will happen to you, in other words: what goes around, comes around. I decided to do some good things.

• I went to WordPress support forum and answered few calls for help, not many – two at most if I recall correctly.
• I also recalled that I had few sachet of spices I didn’t need, so I picked them up and gave them to neighbour girls. With positive thinking I went to sleep.
• Next morning while walking on the street, I was remaining calm and haven’t pushed anyone in a hurry. I also picked up a newspaper from a guy who was distributing it and engaged conversation – he said he’s being paid for number of newspapers he distribute among people, and not for the hour. So I picked up few more issues of that newspaper from others distributing it around the city ;).
• Whole day I was smiling.

My good karma started to increase, I guess, because…

The reward

At the end of the day I had sold themes on Theme Forest and few adslots via AdTaily. Those were first money made online in weeks and I was very happy. Additionally I have to mention that through the whole day I was visualizing money on ThemeForest, and emails in my gmail box saying “you have an ad for moderation” – and heck, it worked :). That experience taught me few things.

• Karma works – do good things and not bad things and the Universe will reward you for the things you do. But keep in mind if you will do bad things, the Universe will reward you too – but with bad things :).
• Visualize things you want – that’s what The Secret teaches. Literally visualize money or emails or comments or number of subscribers, everything you want. Visualization is powerful when it comes to the law of attraction.

And from now on, I have to pay attention to both karma and visualization. Do you have such experiences with these two things? Or maybe other advices regarding karma or law of attraction?

Don’t fight the system, use it!

How many of you heard all about conspiracy theories, FED ruling the world, iluminati, masons, modern slave system etc? Once a week I hear that the system is destroying people, it turns us into slaves, and that 10% of population owns 90% of money. All of this might be true but I won’t even try to prove or disprove it, instead I will ask – why people are trying to fight the system instead of using it? If 10% of population owns 90% of money, then why not joining that 10%? Maybe my taoist point of view is wrong :). Hmm… speaking of which, do you know the story about Kung Fu Tse and the waterfall?

I don’t want to copy and paste it here so I will point you to this website. Basically this is the story of a man who was not afraid of water because he flow with it. But you have to read it and find your own teaching inside :). Anyway, sometimes it is the best to let things be… How can we refer the story above to the system? For me it’s pretty simple, the system just is, the world looks like it looks and in reality you can’t fix it, at least you can’t fix it alone. Therefore, instead of fighting with it, use the opportunities the system is giving you.

People scream “I don’t have money for this” – well OK, why don’t you get more money? “I can’t find better job” – why not making your own company or running your own business? “The man won’t let me to” – screw the man, be the man yourself! Do you want to be a pawn all your life, or do you want to player, or even better – gamemaster? I want to be gamemaster…

My Tao is simple, be good person. But being a good person doesn’t mean you can’t use the way our world operates and make some big money. Whatever you dream about, you can achieve, just dream about it. You must be the person that doesn’t fight with the world, instead you must use the system to turn your dreams into reality.

They’re ruling the world!

Who’s ruling the world? Does it really matter? I know many “against-the-system” kind of people, they all see someone who’s pulling the strings, they’re all worried about the whole world and they refuse to get themselve normal job, because they don’t want to become part of the system. In the same moment they want to be happy and be rich. But hey, they can’t achieve what they want if they won’t flow with the rest of the world. Being against the system means you can’t get to the top of – and that’s the point, to get to the top, or at least to the middle of the financial pyramid.

You know, you can read all these self-improvement blogs like Zen Habits, or Steve Pavlina, but this won’t change your life – these guys are paying taxes just like everyone and yet, they live a happy life, why can’t you? Being against the system is the pseudo-philosophy that lead to nowhere, if you want to achieve something in your life, you have to:

• Follow the rules – follow the rules our society is based upon, be a good person and pay taxes. You can’t win with taxes :P.
• Screw the rules – be creative, perceive the world from different point of view, invent something, make something everyone thought won’t work.
• Aim high – don’t want to be just a pawn and live your life, aim high, you have to want be the man, otherwise you will never become one.

Forget about someone somewhere making the rules, I see no point laying the blame on someone you don’t even know, if you have problems with your life you are the only person responsible for them and only you can fix your life, so go and do something. And stop worrying about the system, flow with it – use it for your own advantage!

The law of attraction, sorry :)

You remember that movie, The Secret about the law of attraction? Then there was a book, then another book and many more books. Sceptics tend to say that this law of attraction doesn’t work, yet the irony is – people who wrote about it did attract fortune :). What’s really cool for me is that for quite some time I didn’t believed it works, but hey – turns out it does, because if it wouldn’t, I wouldn’t be standing here right now.

When critics come…

Someday someone have criticised your actions and it will happen again for sure. Being a target for critics is something that happens to everyone no matter what you do, and how you do it. You can’t really help it so all you have to do is to deal with it – how? Accept it and move on… That’s something I’ve been trying to do for quite some time :). My life philosophy is simple: do what you love, accept the life as it is, take what you can and move on.

Fear of creativity or taking risk?

Some people make money because they’re creative. Some make money because they decided to take the risk and do something that most people perceived as crazy and something that will never work out. FedEx and Envato are good examples, yet so different from each other. Their creators took the risk and they’ve created something creative. And in my opinion those are two most important elements on everyone’s way to success.