Here is the link to July 3rd outstanding 7 ranks on the first page of Google.

Actual Screen Shot

For all of you small business owners who rely on search engine marketing or do internet marketing you need to read this.  We are not an seo firm we just use Google to provide our clients with multiple listings on Google by using proprietary techniques and software.  Seo firms are a dime a dozen, if fact while fishing around Craigs list, I checked out several SEO firms looking for employees.  After doing a local Google for SEO I was amazed how many didn’t rank on the first page with one slot.  I don’t want them working for me.  Anyway, check out our sister site where you also find out why it is important that you rank on the first page of Google if you are serious about search engine optimization or search engine marketing.  Even if you are an engaged in internet marketing this site can help you. Check us out

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 4 months you can’t help but notice the mortgage problem. I know there are a multitude of reasons for the housing crisis but that isn’t why I put this article together.

Six thousand residents in my local area were laid off in January. Many of my friends and family members are struggling and of course during any conversation it always leads to how do I stay in my home without a job? Being the adventurous type, I decided to see what was going on in the loan modification segment. I pulled down a couple of articles and unfortunately, I am not surprised at what I found.

Treasury did launch a new web site http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov as a clearinghouse. Hey, hey a new government web site. Considering they passed the bill in a week do you think they could have spent some time to figure out how to get the money to the people?

Two women in California really worked the system. Consumer Affairs, reported that California authorities …”announced the arrest of two scam artists – Mary Alice Yraceburu and Marianne Curtis – who “coldly and heartlessly” conned over one hundred and sixty victims out of thousands of dollars for non-existent loan modification services.”
Evidently these two women operated a company called Foreclosure Freedom. They sent fliers to Californians promising help in stopping the foreclosure of their homes. According to Consumer Affairs .com the fliers read: “FINAL NOTICE – Respond only to this notice immediately.” This is similar to another scam, the Attorney General stopped late last year.

If you need to modify your mortgage there are some things you need to know. First of all this is a booming market for legitimate and not so legitimate people so watch out. Loan modification companies are mediators between you and the lender. There are fees associated and who pays depends on who initiated the action. If you engage a loan modification firm, you will more likely be the one who pays the fees sometimes up to $3,000 UP FRONT.  There are no guarantees so be careful. If your loan modification company is asking for money up front, STAND UP, TURN AROUND AND WALK OUT THE DOOR. Legitimate companies know they cannot  guarantee success and will usually ask for a percentage after the deal is complete.
Another approach is to Do It Yourself. DYI mortgage modification will require more time, energy and patience. First things first you need to get some financial documents together. These include and Income and Expense Statement, a Net worth Statement and a Hardship letter that explains your particular situation and hardships.
An Income and Expense statement is just what it says, a list of all income including rental properties, stocks, interest etc. A net worth statement is a listing of all of your assets and liabilities. Let’s be clear on one thing going down this route, BE HONEST in developing these documents and in discussions with the lender. Your hardship letter should identify how you find yourself in this situation, lost your job, had a divorce etc.

When you contact your lender, ask for a direct dial number because you will be engaging them often as the negotiation progresses. When you finally get to the person in the risk mitigation department ask for their full name as you want to accurately document the conversation. At that point you are on your way. You will find a very informative video HERE

• Turbo Tax Tim and President Obama are asking Congress for more POWER.  This new found power would allow the government specifically TURBO TAX TIM go into banks and shut them down if Treasury believes that they have a systemic risk to the economy.  Whoa there fella, what is systemic risk?  Well they don’t define systemic risk and we all know why they don’t.  That would put limits on their power.  They also don’t limit their power to just banks they could perhaps go to GE and say hey you have a systemic risk to our economy and we are taking it over.  This is from a guy that was a community organizer and a guy who can’t figure out how to use TURBO TAX !!!  YIKES!!!  Fortunately we have Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann who questioned TURBO TAX TIME on what part of the Constitution gives him this power?  Of course he replied “the legislative power of congress”.  Meaning the Democrates !!  Yikes !!
• The Food Safety Modernization Act HR 875 – One hundred and seventeen pages that basically forms a new department in government to regulate food.  OK on the surface this seems cool considering the issues with China on pet food and the latest on peanuts BUT….this bill if passed will give the government powers to regulate your own garden or small farm.  If you go to the farmers market you will need to fill out a form that basically says you bought this food item from so and so and you will consume this item with X days and then you sign the form.  WHAT IS UP WITH THIS.  Here we go protecting us from ourselves.  This is not for big business.  This will kill the small farmers, a group of which is the largest growing sector, creating over 10,000 new farms per year.  WATCH OUT FOLKS  Call your congressmen/congresswoman and senator today and tell them to shut this puppy down.  REMEMBER IF IT IS NOT SPECIFICALLY EXCLUDED IN THE LAW IT IS IMPLICITLY INCLUDED !!!
• Now for the MYTH OF ALL MYTHS regarding Climate Chage.  This is a topic near and dear to my heart being a geologist. FOLKS LET’S GET SOMETHING STRAIGHT the earth is a dynamic planet.  We try to make our lives controlled.  The TWAINE shall never meet.  We are currently living in an inter-glacial period.  That means we are between glacial times which is a warming period…consider the alternative.  In the last ice age there was ice over a mile high over Cleveland.  Stop the Bullcrap.  There is nothing short of Neuclear War that can change the climate on earth from a human’s interaction.  FOLKS LET’S PUT THE LIGHT ON THE REAL CAUSE OF GLOBAL WARMING….THE SUN..hmm.  Do you really think that anything we do will match what the SUN can do in one day.  GET REAL…WISE UP.  The United Nations has developed a new document on Global Energy Reform.  The new document was revealed on FOXNEWS by Brian Wilson, the new plan presents “stunning ideas that could radicall alter world economies”.  He goes on to say that the UN is not pleased that FOXNEWS has a copy of the plan…hmm WHY IS THAT I WONDER?  President Obama’s adminstration is very casual about the nuts and bolts of the plan however he has stated he wants to do something about GLOBAL WARMING.   WHAT GLOBAL WARMING.  PROVE IT !!  GLACIERS MELT THAT IS THEIR LOT IN LIFE !!  This plan if agreed to could force our manufacturing industries overseas to areas where there are less regulations further screwing the working middle class.  The most important aspect of this plan is that it will put the UN IN CHARGE !!!  YIKES !!!  THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON OUR SOVEREIGNTY !!!

I am heartened by the number of TEA PARTIES being organized throughout the country and I have placed the Gadsden Flag on this web site.  I urge all Americans to either display, buy or put on your web site the Gadsden Flag.  If you don’t know what I am talking about it is the flag our founders placed on their drums and banners during the infancy of our nation.  It is the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag.  Go here to learn more about the Gadsden Flag and get one for yourself. More detail on these subjects can be found at www.blackbutteconsultants.com

What is he Smoking. 

President Obama is driving our country into the poor house.  I agree with Sen. McCain this is generational theft. My kids, your kids will never see the end of high taxes.  Let me get this out into the open, I make less than the current tax targeted tax bracket but folks I my case the government (federal, state and local) are taking more than 45% of my bi-weekly salary.  My fear of couse is that President Obama and the Congress are not telling us everything that will have new taxes on them.  We could very well be in a position where everyone who has a job will be paying over 50% of their earnings to some form of governement.  What is the incentive to work???  Anyway, here is PriceWaterhouseCoopers’  read on the plan.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers figured that the plan will provide about $2,500 per newly insured person.”The plan would increase to $1 trillion cumulatively by 2018 or approximately $130 billion per year,” the report said.

While the plan would extend health insurance to two-thirds of the 47 million people who currently lack it, the overhaul may worsen some problems, such as a shortage of primary care doctors, the analysis found.  THIS IS SCARY !! For all of you 40 somethings and the rest of us this could be the beginning of government rationing health care and deciding who lives and who dies.  I suppose we can take this to the ultimate which is “Do you contribute to the well being of the country?  Ok you can have that operation” .  What about the elderly and retired citizens?  Does that mean they don’t get the health care because they don’t contribute?   Folks this scares the hell out me.

“Unless costs are cut, growing health care costs will increase the costs of Obama’s plan dramatically over time and reduce the effectiveness of mandates. This could make the federal costs unsustainably high,” the report read. You bet it will with all of the baby boomers reaching retirement without any 401 K money left after Barnie Frank and Chris Dodd’s fiascos with the banking industry.

Paraphasing the report, our new deficit and and other financial crises will be sucking up the cash and perhaps new federal money will not be available ”so health reform may require reallocation of dollars already in the health system.”  One options is to recover the money  from payouts made to hospitals that care for the uninsured which amounts to $25 billion or about 1/3 of the cost of Obama’s plan, the analysis found. In other words the money could come from existing payments to hospitals for uncompensated care. Ok let’s not pay the hospitals or the doctor’s for caring for unisured,       LET THEM EAT CAKE!!

the report went on to say that the lower margins for the providers, pharmaceutical companies and the health care plan providers. Where is the incentive for these people to keep providing the high quality health care, research into new drugs or providing  you and me with affordable insurance? Do you think that at lower margins these companies are NOT  going to lay off workers?   If so I want to know what you are smoking?

PriceWaterhouseCoopers believes that health care reform and dealing with the global financial crisis are not mutually exclusive and that immediate reform could  “spark new mergers and acquisitions” .  But what about the upheaval in the country?  What about printing money we don’t have? 

“The financial crisis and culminating market forces could accelerate health reform, not be a roadblock,” the report stated.  Is this objective analysis?  Holy Crap !

• Clean Efficient, American Energy
• Transforming our Economy with Science and Technology
• Moderinzation of Roads, BRidges, Trasit and Waterways
• Eduction for the 21st Century
• Tax Cuts to Make Work Pay and Create Jobs
• Lowering Healthcare Costs
• Helping Workers Hurt by the Economy
• Saving Public Sector Jobs and Vital Services

Those are the major headers of the plan.  I went through the costs, (note the fuzzy math here) and came up with a range of $389 to $391 Billion.  In attemp to be fair and balance (no I am not affilaited with FOX News, I just believe that that is the way one should look at things) some of these can help quickly specifically the Tax Cuts (reduced tax collection from our pay checks),  Workers Hurt by the Economy and Vital Services.  The rest of the plan will take years to implement and I don’t know about you but I don’t want to wait years.

  Before I go any further let me explain how things are done in the real world.  Let’s say you come up with a brilliant idea, to quote the plan “…transform the nation’s energy transmission, distribution and production systems to allow for better grid and focusing investment in renewable technology” someone has to answer the question; HOW DO WE DO THIS?  In every project there are certain steps that must be done before others and I think everyone can understand this concept.  Let’s break it down so that everyone can understand the concepts.  Say you want to build a house. First you decide on the design that you want, then you find the area you want to live in and buy the property, find the contractor, get the loan and start the construction.  I admit this is the simple version.  Several intermediate steps have been omitted like evaluating the school system and tax implications etc.  But you get the point.  Well in construction programs, especially Federal Construction Programs there are layers upon layers of check lists that someone must do in order to comply with all of the laws the Federal Governement has put into place.  So there will be studies on not only how to answer the question of HOW,  but a whole slew of others such as:

• What is the cost to benifit ratio
• Is the technology available
• How fast can the solution be designed
• Does the solution it pose a Homeland Security Risk
• What are the Environmental Impacts

These are just a few questions to answer before even considering initiating the project and you guessed it, someone must develop the answers.  This is usually done by consultants that have contracts with government agencies.  So how is it going be done, let’s stay focused on the transformation of the energy grid example from above and let’s say that someone has decided on the technology to be used and has laid out how the grid should be constructed (only God knows how will takelong this ).  To answer the Environmental Impact question can take years doing the work, writing the report, going through public comments, answering public comments and moving forward or changing the approach.  That’s right years because each of the areas that the transmission grid will go through must have it’s own Environmental Impact Assessment all the way down to Endangered Species.  

These steps must be done before you can develop any proposals, bid out any work, negotiate the contracts, procure the materials, schedule the sub-contractors, negotiate the contracts with the sub-contractors and ACTUALLY BEGIN THE WORK !!!!

I sttarted this out to give you all a basic understanding of what this plan entails but as I write this I have become overwhelmed with the “LACK OF TRANSPARENCY” that riddles the plan.  THIS IS  MASSIVE SPENDING AT IT’S FINEST!  Being a ordinary Joe, kind of like Joe the Plumber,  I would feel better if Congress would spend a smaller portion of dollars this plan outlines for the immediate affect and then figure out what is the best way to go to make a quicker impact on the economy.  On the whole  I guess the best way to way to put my opinion of the plan is that Congress is promising us an infusion of money to create jobs and move the country forward without a timetable to feel the impacts.  That is my opinion. Oh and I will also add a modifier  YIKES !!

You can download the full plan at http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/PressSummary01-21-09.pdf

I had a chance to review Craig Beckts’s Secret Affiliate Code 2.  In case you don’t know what an affiliate is let me explain.  Simply put, there are thousands of products and companies that pay people to market their product or service.  Yeah that’s right they pay you to get the word out on their product or service.  Well in Craig’s case, he goes through a very detailed explaination on how to succed in Internet Marketing.  I am not an affiliate of Secret Affiliate Code 2 so I do not have a financial stake in my review.  If you purchase Secret Affiliate Code 2 you will get a massive amount of material both in Adobe pdf and video.  Craig takes the reader/viewer from the beginning including a brief explaination of Internet Marketing terms so they can understand the content that he provides.  You do not need to know  anything about Internet Marketing to start.

In Secret Affiliate Code 2, Craig covers the 3 Core Secrets to making money on line, On Page and Off Page Search Engine Optimization techniques, Creating Content, Getting Inteligence, Blogs and how they can drive traffic, using Twitter and Twitter Tools, using Video to drive traffic to your site and a whole host of Web 2.0 sites to boost your site’s traffic.

The videos that are provided with Secret Affiliate Code 2 are very professional and cover the same elements of the Adobe document.  They will take up a lot of disc space so you might consider downloading them and then copying them to a thumb drive or CD.

Overall I think Secret Affiliate Code 2 is a very good product for the beginning Internet Marketer.  More importantly, it is a valuable tool for those people who are an established ecommerce presence.  All too freqently, those people are focused on their products or services and spend far too much money on Google Adwords ads then necessary.  Secret Affiliate Code 2 will turbo charge their website by providing the tools to drive traffic.

Secret Affiliate Code 2 does have some issues for me.  The major issue is that it falls short on providing the key item such as the un-blockable pop up “Opt-In”. Craig is one of those Internet Marketers that believes in “The List” and in fact Core Secret 3 “The Money is in the List” as do I.  For example, after I absorbed the videos I went to WordPress and started this blog thinking that WOW now I can get started and build a list of followers.  Well it turns out that if you start a WordPress blog that is a WordPress.com blog you cannot use the Opt-In pop and therefore you cannot begin to generate a list of subscribers.  If you want a blog with the Opt-In pop up you need to have a WordPress.org blog or you need to download the WordPress code to a hosted server that contains your domain name.  Not knowing this cost me a week of time and much frustration.  As stated above I agree with Craig regarding the list however it would have been nice to know this little tid bit of information.

Bill

Ok now that you have decided that an Internet business is for you, you to decide what your business will be.  The first thing to do is assess your talents or hobbies. Write a list of all of your skills and interests.  Only write down the things you are good at and for which you have a passion.  For each of these ask the question; Can I make money with this skill or this interest? In order to answer this question you need to do some research.  Take a clean table of paper to record the findings of your research and follow these steps:

1. Go to Google.com
2. Type in your interest or skill – For this exercise I typed Bird houses
3. Once Google returns your list
4. Look at the blue bar at the top of the screen it says “Results 1 – 10 of about 14,600,000 for Bird houses. (0.21 seconds) ”  What this means is that this is the first page of fourteen million six hundred thousand pages.  That is a huge response.  Now what about competition?
5. Below the blue bar you will see a pink bar with web sites listed.  These are paid ads.  There are also other paid adds on the right side of the screen.  Scroll down to the link that says “More Sponsored Links” and click it. Once the page is loaded you will see in the blue bar how many other sites/companies are paying for advertisements for their products and in this case there are 295 sponsors. This is a large amount of competition but not a huge amount considering the number of pages returned for bird houses.  Write all of this information down on your research pad.  Keep going through the list until you can assess which of the skills or interests appear to be the most competitive.  Make sure you go to the sponsor sites to see what they are doing or offering.  Take notes so you can compare your product or service.  In the next post I will explain how to get started on the Internet for as little as $3.95 / month.

• Start a Web Based Business for Less Than $30.00 / month
• Learn the popular scams on the Internet
• Understand how to use Google to boost your profits
• Reviews of Internet Products for Home Based Business