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Click the white arrow to watch this brief video about the Virtual Abundance Expo. That way, you can responsibly decide if it makes sense for you (or your friends) to experience this innovative, world-premier event.

Remember: It is possible to experience V.A.E. for $1, or your can get online access to the replays and follow-along notes for the rest of your life.

Make a decision as you finish watching the video and then tell your friends and colleagues about it if you feel they’ll benefit from this remarkable experience.

Your candid comment on this post will be appreciated.

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Abundance is a concept often debated in spiritual and entrepreneurial circles.

Entrepreneurs commonly use the catch-phrase “thinking BIG,” but they really mean the same thing.  What I know most about the abundance mindset is that it is the polar opposite of the scarcity mindset.

The concept seems easier to define it by what it is not, rather than what it is.

I find it challenging to define abundance because it’s one of those unique words that must be experienced to really be understood, not just explained.

Self-esteem visionary Nathanial Branden once told me, “People want experiences, not explanations.” I believe that explanations are filtered through the mind whereas experiences are filtered and felt by the heart, which suggests that the abundance mindset is a process, even a daily practice and not just a moment in time.

The most encouraging part of adopting an abundance mindset is how it can connect you to people with totally different set of beliefs and values.  It instantly sustains inclusivity even with people who are dramatically different.

POP QUIZ: What do Mother Theresa and Donald Trump have most in common?  The answer is their abundance mindset.

Donald Trump says, “If you’re going to think anyway, you might as well think big.”

Mother Theresa said:  “The more we discover the magnitude and abundance of God’s gifts, the more we will find ourselves.” Again, the abundance mindset creates connections.

Bucky Fuller had this to say about the abundance mindset:

“The condition of planet earth is abundance.  Our belief in either scarcity or abundance determines how our financial, legal, political and military systems are set up or even exist at all.

Scarcity and abundance are foundational and contextual ideas. They each give rise to a distinct system of thought and a number of rules, characteristics and measures which only make sense within their own system.”

My sense of what Bucky meant is that the abundance mindset is a choice.  In other words, you choose to look through the lens of scarcity, or through the lens of abundance.  There is no in-between.

“Do … or do not.  There is no try.” ~ Yoda

There are so many differing opinions about abundance, I decided to conduct a worldwide survey to get your opinion about this highly debated concept.

My strategic alliance partner, Scott Martineau and I  are hosting the Virtual Abundance Expo next week, so I figured this a great opportunity to host a survey and attract the best single sentence that clearly defines abundance.

What to do now: Please use the comment box to write your definition of abundance.  The survey ends at 5pm PDT on Monday, July 27th, right before Jack Canfield’s keynote speech for the Virtual Abundance Expo.

All the definitions will be gathered and tallied the next day and five finalists will be chosen for the final vote.

If you are one of the five finalists, your definition of abundance will be personally evaluated by our Virtual Abundance Expo faculty.

The top vote-getter with the clearest and most concise definition of abundance will be personally interviewed by Scott and me as a honorary faculty member for Virtual Abundance Expo.

So what do you say … are you game?

If you are game, then take a peek at 9 of my favorite abundance quotes to get your heart and mind moving…

Kevin Kelly: “The only factor becoming scarce in a world of abundance is human attention”

Jane Austen: “Nothing amuses me more than the easy manner with which everybody settles the abundance of those who have a great deal less than themselves”

Sue Patton Thoele: “Abundance is, in large part, an attitude”

Heraclitus: “Abundance of knowledge does not teach men to be wise”

Franklin D. Roosevelt : “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little”

Peter Ustinov: “Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares”

Wayne Dyer : “Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into”

Eileen Caddy: “Expect your every need to be met. Expect the answer to every problem, expect abundance on every level”

Epicurus: “Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance”

Now it’s your turn … type in what you feel abundance means to you.  Go ahead – the simple act of thinking about it will instantly improve your day.

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Press release marketing is one of the most effective methods to generate both media attention and targeted traffic to your web site.

Now if a little voice in your head cries “Oh no! One more thing to learn!” just calmly tell the little voice “thanks for sharing” and know this: if you blog, write articles and email autoresponders, you can easily repurpose that content into press releases.

All you need is the right formula and resources which I’ll share with you in this article. Now once a press release is written you need to distribute it. Enter today’s topic: free press release sites. The allure of free distribution is quite appealing. You can submit articles for free so why not press releases, right?

Most often, articles appear in directories. (Like EzineArtices.com) With press releases, they are distributed to thousands of different web sites. As a result, sometimes costs are involved.

And while free press release sites can work, be aware of these three ways free press release sites can cost you:

1. Extra time investment

Time is money. With paid distribution you can rely on just one service, especially with established newswires like PR Newswire, BusinessWire and Marketwire. Even PRWeb provides enough coverage all on its own.

However, some major newswires aren’t budget-friendly. So it’s natural to consider free press release sites. But instead of using one provider now you’re using several. Each comes with its own interface, unique requirements, upgrades, etc.

And unlike the major press release sites, do plan ahead. Many free press release sites have limited editorial desk/customer service hours, often requiring you to submit your online press release 48 hours in advance or more.

Takeaway: is the extra time you’re worth what you’re saving by going the free route? With some economical paid press release sites, $20 – $100 per release can deliver good results.

2. Online exposure and visibility

One reason to use multiple free press release sites is that you can’t match the total exposure one paid site delivers.
Granted, you can increase visibility by paying to upgrade (see #3).

But even by upgrading I’m not convinced you’ll duplicate the exposure that paid press release sites generate. One quick way to evaluate online exposure is the level of penetration in Google News and Yahoo! News. The number of listings a press release site has in those search engines is impacted by the following:

1. Quantity of releases. PRnewswire.com typically has the greatest number simply because that’s the preferred choice of many companies.

2. Quality of newswire. Search engines give preferred treatment to more established press release sites.

3. Syndication/aggregation. Some press release sites (PR-Inside.com) often pick up newsfeeds from other newswires and press release sites.

Takeaway: Again, there is a time issue, of submitting to multiple free sites to get the exposure you’d receive from one paid site.

3. Upgrades = extra cost

How do free press release sites stay in business? Advertising revenue is one way. Another is an upgrade fee.

And just about anything extra is an upgrade. These upgrades are not consistent from site to site. In fact, in a review of about 15 different free press release sites, I counted 28 different upgrades. Here’s a sampling:

•    Speed of approval
•    Speed of distribution
•    Higher placement on page (above free listings)
•    Preferred/showcased listing
•    Distribution: more sites
•    Media Attachments: images, video, PDF, mp3

Takeaway: free sometimes costs money, especially for features that are already bundled in with paid newswires. Selecting numerous stand-alone upgrades may cost more than a paid newswire that includes several at one fixed price.

Press release marketing (free or paid) is a proven method to accelerate online visibility, generate traffic and capture media attention. Hopefully, after reading this article you know what to watch out for when considering free press release sites.

Please share your comments and thoughts on press release marketing.

To get you started quickly and easily with online press releases, I invite you to claim your FREE Instant Access to my Optimized Press Release Template when you visit www.30MinutePR.com

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The specific incident I’m about to share with you took place on November 20th, 2002.  My life changed that night as did the lives of tens of thousands of other authors and info marketers.

It was warm autumn evening in Corte Madera, CA.  I was planning to meet a friend for dinner, but as I arrived at the restaurant the parking lot was packed.  I parked my car several blocks away and began walking toward the restaurant.

Across the walkway was the famous independent book store called Book Passage.  For some reason, it had a huge crowd standing outside the door that evening.

I asked a passer-by what was going on and she told me that “Al and Tipper Gore” were there for a book signing for their book, “Joined at the Heart”.

It’s not every day that a former vice president and his wife steps into my neighborhood, but my previous commitment influenced me to enter the restaurant and have dinner with my friend.

The entire time at dinner I was curious how for book signing was going for the Gores.  What questions they were answering, how many books they were selling and what their new book was about.

On the way back to my car after dinner, I ducked inside the book store — which was now emptying—and asked the woman behind the counter, “Hey, how many books did they sell?”“Several hundred!”  was her reply.  Her answer shocked me and here’s why:

Al Gore was the Vice President of the United States.  After being in office for eight years, now  he’s dragging himself—and his wife—all over the country from bookstore to bookstore, airport to airport, hotel room to hotel room, pitching and pedaling to sell a few hundred books?!

“There MUST be a better way,” I said to myself.  So as I drove home that evening the seed of an entirely new book and info marketing method was getting firmly planted in my mind.

As I pulled into my driveway at home the fog around the idea cleared and the concept of virtual book and info product promotion struck me like a shovel hitting my forehead :-)

At that moment, the Virtual Book Tour concept was born.

You can read more about this true story at www.VirtualBookTourSecrets.com and even check out some of the “info-taining” videos I’ve posted on the blog.

Here’s my point: Back in 2002, there wasn’t an “urgent” problem with the traditional book distribution model.   It was just a problem.  Many others and I knew the model was broken, but not yet obsolete.

Today the problem is URGENT.

If you’re an author or info marketer and want to get the word out about your message, then traditional book and info marketing distribution is no longer the way.  It is obsolete and on its way to a slow death :-(

Amazon’s Kindle, podcasting, YouTube and other media delivery sources are all contributing to the death of the 100+ year old book distribution model.

If you’re a published author, you already know what I’m talking about.  Books don’t sell like they used to.  If you’re a “to be” author with a book still in your heart, consider this blog post a fair warning.

What To Do Now: Remember, your book or info product is NOT the message.  YOU are the message and your book is one more medium to make your ideal Message-to-Market match.

So think of yourself as a bicycle wheel hub and your Media (plural for medium) are spokes that lead to the wheel, which represents your Market (or target audience).

If you look at the model this way, then your book or info product respresents just one of many spokes.  Once you’ve identified your Message (with a big “M”), you next want to identify the different ways to repurpose your Message so you create more reach, faster better and easlier.

I have another blog post that may be interesting reading for you if you missed it the first time.  Click here to get to find and read it now. Your thoughts and comments will be most appreciated.

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Article Marketing consistently provides the 5 success factors you need to be successful on the internet in any niche: Content Creation, Traffic Generation, List Building, Marketing Messages and Product Creation.  In this article we are going to take a closer look at Traffic Generation.

Creating Unstoppable Traffic

In the introduction that gets read before I speak at a seminar or on a teleseminar interview, it is stated that “I could not stop the traffic coming into my web sites even if I wanted to, and I certainly do not want to.”

And it’s so true.

Because of Article Marketing I get a hourly and daily flow of traffic into my web sites that is virtually unstoppable. And you can too when you follow these three simple and powerful steps.

Step 1 – Write Articles – When you regularly writing good quality articles that deliver at least one gold nugget of actionable information, you are regularly creating traffic flow. What do I mean by regular?

Well, I believe that “An article a day keeps recession away” so I write everyday. This may work for you, or it may not. Just find a regular time for you, at least once a week. And you do now have to write long articles. I good sample of your expertise can be just 300 – 500 words.

Step 2 – Submit Articles – Submit your articles to the number one Article Directory on the Internet – EzineArticles. They receive over 15 million unique visitors a month -that’s half a million a day. You want traffic? Get your information (articles) in front of that kind of traffic.

Step 3 – Rinse and Repeat – Do this over and over again on a consistent basis and you will get steady traffic. I know this sounds so simple but it is so powerful and it works.

I could make it more complicated for you, but why?  Your comments will be most appreciated.

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Do you believe the headline to this post is true for you?  Do you feel your business is an information marketing business?

Here are four questions for you to consider:

Q1:  Do you own a business card?

Q2:  Do you have a website or blog?

Q3:  Do you maintain voice mail?

Q4:  Do you send thank you letters?

If you answered “YES” to any of the 4 questions listed above, then your business is an info marketing business.

Granted, you may not “market information” for a profit, but you utilize information to market your business.

Wouldn’t you agree?

Here’s my point: If you’re an author and info publisher; or, if you’re an entrepreneur who wants to grow your business faster, better and with the least amount of human effort, click here to get the full story about my VBT Secrets course.

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Garrett Pierson

Listen to the Replay…

During this 60-minute Virtual Book Tour, Garrett reveals why he feels that “failure is the key to success.”

He also talks about his unique concept of “building social equity” online and offline.If you want more success in your life so you claim victory for your life, business and soul, listen to this exceptional VBT.

Click here to add this book to your library.

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