America: The Next Generation

Bike Ride Millionaire

By Andrew J Thompson

Every Tuesday at 6, all Summer long, we used to meet at the local library, 10, 20 of us or so for a ride 15-20 miles on the TART Trail around Grand Traverse Bay. Summers are short in Traverse City, so the first April evening it's warm enough for a ride, it's time to get out and make the most of the good weather while you can.

For the most part, we were a collection of middle aged has beens, unemployed, divorced guys, doing "as little as we could, as much as we can" - not too worried about earning a small fraction of what other guys our age were earning - we shared a common sensibility that they were all working too hard.

There were typically more women than men who joined in these rides. I think they liked our company. The ladies were mostly all divorced too, but generally had a good bit more financial security than the guys. You might say, they "divorced well".

Combined, we knew ourselves as the Spontaneous Activity Group or "SAG". I didn't like this name. It rhymed with "hag", and just didn't seem to have a good connotation to it. But the group formed around 2005 and really remains somewhat in tact four years later. The bike rides are gone however.

That's kind of sad, but not so much. I learned I get a better work out when I ride solo, and I enjoy the solitude. I can be a loner and do it pretty well - not sure that's a good thing, but given the course my own life has taken, it's surely not bad either.

But the point of this story is more about the friendship I made with one of the guys in the group, mostly on these rides. I didn't know how to take him at first. It seemed he had all the girls in the group eating out of his hand, which was great in itself, but I thought he was a little hard to get to know as another guy.

So one day he rode up beside me and just started talking. He asked me what I did and I asked the same. He started telling me about designing websites and learning about "affiliate marketing", which I had never heard of, and at first I thought it was a hoax.

Later he told me he made a few thousand dollars the first year he did it, and then made about $25,000 the next year - which was the most recent. I didn't think that was too bad, but I knew that wasn't even enough to cover the child support I was paying at the time, so I didn't think a whole lot about it.

Over time we found we had some common interests and got to be better friends. Back then, he was also becoming a bit of a relationship guru, kind of a "Guy Coach", trying to help the losers who were striking out with the girls. I never would admit that was a problem for me, personally, but I had been just overwhelmed by a girl who did things I never expected from a woman before.

So he gave me some good advice, we had some good laughs and talked a lot about his new business. We also shared a common love for good bourbon, bought guitars and started learning about the same time, and pedaled around together from time to time musing about the trouble we could still cause even though we were a couple of pretty old guys.

But the big thing that always kept our conversation going was the internet marketing - affiliate marketing - in his case, TurboTax. That was the big winner. So he'd gone from $5,000 to $25,000 to over $60,000, now things were beginning to take off for him.

At this point, I quit being a casual listener and started paying serious attention. I started employing some of the same tactics for myself. I kept follwoing his progress and it got mroe and more interesting as time went on. Another year passed - now the number had gone up to $250,000 - $250,000! All from simple internet marketing and a good bit of persistence.

Now remember, I wasn't the guy making all this money, I was watching how someone else did it. It was amazing. I give him a lot of credit. He said he did it so he didn't have to work hard.  But he did work at it - with dedication, and very single-minded focus.  He knew his plan of attack to a tee, and executed it, working at it day by day.

Short, simple articles; references back to the affiliate in each article; posting the article in the best place to get the maximum exposure; bookmarking, bookmarking and bookmarking.  If the key to a good real estate investment is location, location, location - he seemed to say that the key to good web strategy is bookmarking, bookmarking and bookmarking.

He did, however, also focus on content.  Keywords - what keywords were being searched on waht search engines, what combinations were close, how much competition was there in the same space. etc. 

In a few hours each day, he built a platform that reached a point where it almost can't moved.  Over about four years, putting in 3-5 hours each day, he made it completely to the top.  In the midst of the worst economy in the worst state in a lifetime, he had accomplished what no one, not even the man who did it, would have thought could be achieved.

So what's the end of the story?  This past year, earnings of over $1,000,000 - almost $2,000,000.  Not bad for a guy who gave up his little woodworking shop a few years back to make less money and take life easy - not bad at all.

Class Action Litigation May be Necessary to Stop Further Infringement of Government into Family

A movement is afoot to fight the battle against the onslaught of government intervention, at least in family matters, in a far less traditional way than usual. 

Reform Family Law Now has decided that since the fight isn't being won on a piecemeal basis, it is time to engage it on the broadest level possible, class action litigation on a nationwide basis in the federal courts.  The founder of the Reform Family Law Network, Andrew J Thompson believes that, at best, Constitutional rights are being ignored in family law courts, and at worst, they are trampled upon.

"The decisions that are routinely made, with no jury, in family law courts, are made in ways that would never even be considered in other civil litigation, and certainly not in criminal litigation.  But here we have cases that address the rights that are most central to an individual's life, the free association and continuity of relationship with family, and yet in those very matters, the courts show the least respect for litigant's rights."

Mr. Thompson sees this occurring from the moment a divorce is filed through the very last payment of support, or final good-bye to a child when they leave the home.  He cites all of the following as instances wherein parties' Constitutional rights routinely are overlooked:

• the failure to use a high standard of proof or empanel a jury when a person's rights are restricted via a temporary or permanent restraining order that can be used to inhibit the relationship with a child;
• the lack of equal protection of the law between the parties in making custody and support determinations;
• the abridgement of due process rights of parents with respect to the intrusions of government by child protective services agencies and other administrative agencies that wield extraordinary power in the lives of families; and
• in child support matters concerning the imputation of income, enforcement of uncollectible arrearages, and other arbitrary practices that do not and are not allowed to exist in other areas of law.

Mr. Thompson believes that changing the law through the legislative process is not enough, "Part of the problem is that you have federal laws and state laws working in tandem and needing change simultaneously.  This is nearly impossible to accomplish since the state and federal legislatures are always working on their own agendas under their own timetables."

Thus, the route of pursuing class action.  "There are literally millions of children in the United States - millions - who are already partially or fully alienated from one or both parents. This epidemic goes well beyond the scope even of the tobacco litigation of the 90's.  Nearly every immediate or extended family in America has experienced the wrongful treatment of the system in one way or another." 

Will it work?  "That's very unclear at this point, but it should.  Not so much because it is likely that the courts will line up with the class litigants.  After all, even the states lost a few battles with the tobacco industry before they got their litigation off the ground, but because the issues at stake here are far too important to lose. Children need both of their parents and it's time that the system is reformed to prevent the active alienation of one or both parents from their kids."

The Forgotten Men of This Generation

By Andrew J Thompson

In Amity Shlaes book, The Forgotten Man, the taxpayer, the business person, the man who supported his family and worked under very difficult conditions during The Great Depression, is depicted as the "forgotten man" - the man who paid the taxes and shouldered the burden of the New Deal as our government planned, plotted, and plodded through years of economic turmoil. 

The forgotten man was the hero.  Without him, our country could never have emerged on the other side of the Great Depression.   Today, the forgotten men are still family men.  They still love their children.  They still provide for them.  But there's a difference.

In this generation, the forgotten men are men who have had their children stripped from a part of their lives, some more than others, some entirely.  They have had no choice in this, didn't want it, didn't ask for it, and neither did their kids.  It was done directly by the women who bore their children.   

This is not meant as a misogynistic criticism of women or mothers.  But in the cases where it happens, it is true - it is done by the women who bore their children.  The "system" plays its part.  It incorporates incentives to fight for control of the children - the more time a parent has with the children the greater the financial reward - Mom may not want Dad out of the kids' lives, she just wants more support from him and that is how she gets it.

And so, what happens - he works, he toils, he does all he can to provide, pay, and provide more.  He gives all he has to give.  Then the day comes when he has no more to give.  Support arrearages accumulate, the law turns against him, and he is in very deep trouble - again, at the hands of the one who loved him. 

But for negative labels and connotations, he would be forgotten, and often is.  A few nights in jail, only to be repeated in days and months ahead, and then there is no work to follow.  When you see this man panhandling the streets, forlorn, ugly, almost frightening - ask yourself how he got there.  But for the grace of God?  Or is it, but for the insensitivity of people like...hmmm

The forgotten man of this generation - he makes for a sad commentary on how we treat fatherhood as a culture.

Does Israel Need Us to Survive?

In the West, we are used to thinking that Israel cannot survive without the help of Europe and the United States. Tonight I say to you: Maybe we should start wondering whether we in Europe and the United States can survive if we allow the terrorists to succeed in Israel.

In this new century, the “West” is no longer a matter of geography. The West is defined by societies committed to freedom and democracy. That at least is how the terrorists see it. And if we are serious about meeting this challenge, we would expand the only military alliance committed to the defense of the West to include those on the front lines of this war. That means bringing countries such as Israel into NATO.

My friends, I do not pretend to have all the answers to Gaza this evening. But I do know this: The free world makes a terrible mistake if we deceive ourselves into thinking this is not our fight. - Rupert Murdoch, On Receiving AJC National Human Relations Award, March 4, 2009

This is a beautiful, bold statement from Mr. Murdoch.   Elsewhere in his speech he poses important questions, like "Why do we never hear calls for Hamas leaders to be charged with war crimes? And where are the international human rights groups demanding that Hamas stop blurring the most fundamental line in warfare: the distinction between civilian and combatant?" 

These are important questions, and the muting of these questions in much of the popular media begs all thoughtful, humanitarians to turn away from the media sources that suppress them, and to raise the questions in their own circles of influence whenever possible.  For if they are suppressed enough, eventually we will be the ones who do not survive because we allow defensive acts of violence to be condemned, while permissively ignoring heinous acts of aggresssion and barabarism as they creep beyond the borders of their perpetrators homelands, and move into our own. 

Yet, there remains an important and careful nuance to be made to Mr. Murdoch's assertion.  "...if we allow the terrorists to succeed...", by this and other commentary from Mr. Murdoch I understand that he means this to be our fight via intervention, and military intervention when it seems desirable.   Unless I am wrong on that point, it is from there that I have a serious point of departure with his views, and those that have been championed by the political right, with support from a few on the left. 

Moreover, I would also dissent from Mr. Murdoch's view that it is freedom, tolerance and democracy that they hate, nor that we defend.  By arguing as much, Murdoch, like George W Bush, Colin Powell, and Dick Cheney, minimizes the pure religious zeal that fuels the middle eastern terrorist propaganda, and pretends the West's own march toward a self-inflicted death is not occurring before our own eyes. 

Taking these three points in order, first, please consider the problem of intervention.  If Mr. Murdoch were to say we should let Israel defend herself, and we should cheer them on as they do - and then that this would set the framework and example for how we are free and ought of right defend our own nation within our own boundaries - then he would hear rousing cheers from this corner. 

But this is not the case.  Instead, those who support Israel's right of self-defense are always eager to be ready to jump in with our own armed forces.  Oddly though, never entirely to fight on behalf of Israel, but only to stir up other fights in the Middle East.  Let's see, who was it that actually got the Sunnis and Shiites to fight with each other?  It almost begs the question, are we actually doing much of what we accuse the middle easterners of doing themselves? 

As to the second issue - is it freedom, tolerance and democracy our enemies hate?  While we may object to the form of democracy they take, there are many democracies in the middle east.  To say they hate freedom and tolerance requires further definition - what do you mean by freedom and tolerance when you make such a statement? 

What is clear, however, is that they hate the presence, proselytization, and possibility of expansion of othe religions in their own countries.  If this is hatred of freedom and tolerance, however, then perhaps those of us who would intervene to defeat them, hold an equal hatred of the same kinds of freedom and tolerance.  Regardless, their attacks are directed at those things they want to rid themselves of, but they are specifically motivated to do so by religious beliefs that teach them theirs is right and others are wrong.  So it is a fight of principled belief - not specifically directed against freedom or tolerance.  We should be careful to identify what we mean when we say things like this.

Similarly, on the third issue, it's not really accurate to say we are defending freedom and democracy by intervening in these battlegrounds.  We can do this without fighting wars in Iraq, or even Afghanistan.  If we are defending these values, we have done it without specifically intervening in a fight for Israel for over a generation.  More importantly, we come across as weak in the extreme when we palce these values out in front of a long war, in light of what has happened and is presently happening between our own shores. 

We are selling off freedom by the month as our own Congress spends trillions dismantling the economic system we've enjoyed for the past 400 years.  We imprison 25% of the world's inmates and champion freedom?  Our moral fabric and family structure are but a shadow of psat generations in our own society.  Freedom in the West is very much at risk - yet we would showcase our defense of it as if we have never been stronger. 

These tragic misperceptions overlook the real reasons the battles in the Middle East exist, and why so many Americans continue to put so much stock in the fight for the Middle East.  What are the real reasons?  Stay tuned as they come into focus.

 

Issues Marketing: How to Make Internet Connections Work for You

By Andrew J Thompson

These are challenging times to survive in any business.  Credit is tight, and the money for the successful marketing methods of past years is no longer there.  Printing, travel, conferences, exhibits, and other common expenses incurred in business promotion have been trimmed to the bone. 

But has business come so easily that we forget what we all envisioned when the internet became a ubiquitous business tool 10-15 years ago?  Back then, everyone dreamt that once you had a website – any presence on the web – you could reach every conceivable customer in mere seconds.  But is this really true? 

Where do you stand in terms of reaching your clientele via the internet?  Have you spent hundreds or thousands on SEO expertise?  What about advertising?  Are you spending lots of money to promote your site on the web? 

I struggled for a long time deciding how I could best capture and pursue business on the internet.   I tried all of the methods I mention above – but to what avail?  Minimal really. 

For years, my company, Elusen, has run capital campaigns and provided other consulting services to nonprofit organizations of every type in every corner of the continent. 

I run a business from my home in northern Michigan, serving clients in the Pacific Northwest, Texas, New York, even Puerto Rico. 

But I know I can't be working in Seattle and Puerto Rico on the same day. Worse, I lose precious time with my three young children whenever I travel – and they are growing up fast. Last year, I decided a new business model was worthy of my consideration.  There were fewer and fewer opportunities for new consulting engagements.  For three months, I stepped back, thought about my future, contemplated my past, and then decided to try an experiment. 

I decided to pursue a new strategy of publishing on the web.  In itself, it’s not particularly novel, I know, but the approach I’m taking is unique, enjoyable, rewarding, and, though I’m not getting rich (yet), it’s beginning to be profitable with a few thousand dollars a month flowing in.  But the good news is, it’s a building process, and the longer and more I build, the more I know it will grow.

The change came when I decided to quit thinking of myself as a consultant, overcame the urge to be a “writer”, and decided to be a publisher – a web based publisher.  Now I realize that being an internet publisher, in itself, may not come across as tremendously exciting, nor even all that unique.  But it gave me that is both exciting and unique was the opportunity to view my business from a whole new paradigm – a paradigm for which I’m only beginning to fill in the details.

First, I took the model of Elusen, i.e. helping charitable visions become reality, and realized that a very important way I could impact my own success would be to publish content on the internet discussing the value of a wide array of charitable visions.  But why stop there?  I also realized that I have many friends, colleagues, etc. – all of whom have a message to share with the rest of the world, and very few who are actually doing it. 

True, nearly one out of ten adults in America now has at least one blog they have posted, and/or maintain on the web.  But how many of these are actually posting at least one article a week?  The percentage is very low.  Lower yet if you consider those who have done so for over six month – which is the average time it takes before search engines rank your site as they should.  Believe me, I get this.  I’m at four months on my primary publishing sites, and can’t wait to get some more history attached to each of these sites.

And of those who do post regularly, how many are using any of the myriad search optimization tools that are available for blogs as well as any other web page?  Again, there aren’t too many.  Then finally, of those who post regularly and do some form of optimization, how many are actually publishing content that is truly worthy of their readers’ attention – enough so that they are thinking about both coming back to the site for more information in the future, and buying something that is either advertised or sold from the site? 

By the time you consider all of these factors, the numbers are very small – yet, these are the sites that succeed!  Actually, it’s a very simple formula:

1. Choose the theme that matches your business model;
2. Create a blog or other site for updating text-content regularly;
3. Publish regularly (or you will surely perish) – at least one article every week;
4. Optimize your site using the tried and true methods employed by Google; and
5. Maintain high quality content – your readers will come back to sites they find helpful and valuable, and will spend their money with whom their loyalties attach. 
   

That’s my five point plan, and it is a plan I intend to follow as long as I can continue writing.  Now, I’ve started publishing blogs for two clients, write for a third, and publish a few of my own.  On all fronts’ success is building – slowly but surely.  But what I see now is how important it is to get started – and to keep things going once you do. 

A farming analogy fits very nicely.  The tiny seeds will not start to grow until they are planted.  Once they are, in time, the seeds can become plants, mature and bear fruit.  But as they grow, they need watering and further attention to make sure they stay healthy, pest free and properly cultivated. 

For many people, this is a daunting proposition.  Success lies ahead, but taking the plunge into these unknown waters is more than a bit overwhelming.  If that’s you, I can help!  I’ve made some mistakes, learned a lot of hard lessons, and understand how to convert your ideas into business opportunities soon!  If I can help you achieve the dream you’ve always had, tell me what you have in mind and I’m here to help.

Email me: ajt@elusen.com, with your ideas and let’s see if we can work together to bring the success you’ve been waiting to achieve!

Why I Love Typepad and How to Make it Work for You

By Andrew J Thompson

I've used several blogging resources and decided typepad is the best for me.  Here's why?

I've used many other blogging sources and I prefer the degree of control you have with typepad.  No - it isn't free, and there's a good reason.  You pay for being able to control whatever content you want to post, plus the freedom to promote your site however you wish. 

So, with other blog programs, your material might be taken down for reproducing what someone else has already published, but at typepad you may put as much copied material as you like on your blog.  I'm not suggesting that is the BEST way to publish a blog, but you have the freedom to do it on typepad if you wish. 

Also, most other blogs limit or prohibit any promotional links on your blog.  But again, at typepad, you have the freedom to post what you want.  You're in control of your success or your lack of success.

But typepad doesn't leave you entirely on your own either.  They help you at every step of the way.  They have exceptional choices of templates and design formats you can use, and a terrific knowledge base to track down answers to any problems you have in posting your blog.  I think it's tremendously easy to use.

But if you're like me, and trying to use your blog to help promote your business, there are multiple things to consider. Here are some valuable tips: to

1. RELEVANT CONTENT: Relevance and continuity build readership.  You can post anything you want and may want to "shake it up" once in awhile, but it's best to stick to things related to your primary theme.  I like the idea of separate blogs for separate themes, i.e. All Things Travel, All Things Music, All Things Right/Left Wing Thinking, Weddings, etc. - you need a consistent message to come back to post after post.

3. COLLABORATING: "Open architecture" is what it's called in the investment world - same principle for online publishing.  Let other people write pieces for your blog and try to do the same on theirs. I am a big believer in this because it will help both create more links - and that's what it's all about. 

This is an easy deal for some, depending on their topic.  Let's say it's travel.  You can have as many people as you want to write about their best and worst travel experiences, and then add a little tag to promote your own site/services.

It helps too because you need lots of content to get lots of traffic.  The only food source in Google search engine's  diet is words - and it's a very hungry beast!

4. "BORROWING" CONTENT: generally, if you find it on the web you can copy and paste it in your typepad blog - not much is actually copyrighted and even if it is, the author may be really happy for you to post it on your blog - more exposure for him or her. 

The flip side is I've been watching other guys do that for awhile now, and guess what - nobody cares - as in, they don't want to read it on your blog, they want to go to the original source - and guess what again -

Google seems to make sure you rank lower than the original source.  Don't know how they do that exactly, but I've been testing it and decided I won't copy content anymore, I spend too much time finding it and then it doesn't rank well - at least that's been my experience.

Now if you can spend $30 an article getting other people to sell you what they write - and then put your own name on it - you can get a lot of 'original' content up - as long as you can trust your writers not to post it elsewhere and head you off at the pass (the pass you're paying them to help you get by).

Bottom line - original content is best - but it's you can get original content from whoever will share it. 

OK, so now I've given you $1 MM worth of advice, please send me a big, fat check when you make it big!

Contact Elusen for help with online publishing, copyrighting and other internet marketing services.

What if Al Gore is Wrong? Welcome to Winter!

The new Obama administration promises to put climate change front and center in policy making over the next four years.  His chief rivals in the Presidential campaign, John McCain and Hillary Clinton, wholeheartedly endorse this view.  They saw the polar bears!

But what if when no one was watching, 50 or 100 years ago - polar bears were facing the same predicaments they are today?  Does anyone know for sure they weren't? 

It's December, and Winter is upon us.  In the Upper Midwest, record snowfalls and cold temperatures have descended upon the region.  For the fifth consecutive year, there are no signs, absolutely none, on the first day of Winter, that global warming is changing our climate. 

This week, no less of a wintry wonderland than Las Vegas, that's right, Las Vegas, received 3.6" of snow.  Perhaps the polar bears should find their way to Nevada for protection. 

In the News: The First New Deal and the Second New Deal

This week's news challenges us to consider what is really going on in the 21st Century battle of ideas.  As the new Obama regime takes shape, it is setting itself up to be perceived as pragmatic economic managers and sincere in its rejection of heavy handed, interventionist foreign policy. 

But what will follow the enormous injection of more government prescribed remedies for our economic woes?  Here's a sampling of opinion from some good thinkers around us and some ideas to ponder.  When you've sifted through it, from your own perspective, please share your own comments and thoughts.

Obama's "New" New Deal
By ckennedy
The world was greeted on Saturday with Barack Obama’s announcement of a massive public works program to “save or create at least 2-1/2 million jobs so that the nearly 2 million Americans who’ve lost them know that they have a future,” ...

United Liberty - Free Market... - http://www.unitedliberty.org/

Personal Responsibility vs. Government Intervention

Among the ideals that have made America a great and strong nation is that of personal responsibility. We are not a nation of dependents.  We are Americans because of a frontier spirit.  We were founded on the principles of self-reliance and responsibility for our actions. If we were successful in our endeavors, we reaped the rewards; if we failed, we took our "lumps", retrenched and tried again.   Over time, we have begun to lose sight of this concept. Today, we have a Congress does not believe in risk and reward, success and failure, individual liberty and personal responsibility. The action by Congress in regard to the Wall Street and banking failures, and now with the automotive manufacturers has been characterized as "capitalism on the way up and socialism on the way down."  The message is it is OK to take risks while you are succeeding, so much so that if failure looms, the government will swoop in to save you - at least if you have enough assets to get them to pay attention.   The problem in the long run is the loss of accountability and responsibility. Risk has been largely removed for those annoited by the government, and increased dramatically for those who do not have that clout. Corporations may get the message that they can take all the chances they want, be lazy, complacent, inefficient, even corrupt. No problem. The government will rescue you with the taxpayers' dollars. When there is no risk of failure, individuals and corporations lose their sense of proportionate risk; greed replaces a healthy skepticism. What are the lessons we are teaching our children, who will one day run the small businesses, farms and corporations in this land?   It takes courage to oppose the powers that be, to stand tall and say it is not the government's responsibility to step in when businesses fail. But it is the best thing for everyone concerned in the long run. Businesses will learn to be better, smarter, and wiser.   We understand that when a business fails, people lose jobs and livelihoods - it's painful and it deserves the concern of government as well as private citizens.  In a truly unencumbered free market, opportunities will be available for people to start over and build wealth. If we ever actually make policy of these core principles, we will all be better off as individuals and as a nation.

The Will to Prevail

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will. - Vince Lombardi

Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps, Roger Federer - what makes these athletes so much better than their peers? In many ways, they are very ordinary human beings. Yet they dominate their peers - and their peers have distinguished themselves in the midst of the world's finest talent.

How does someone like Tiger Woods remain at the top of his game, beating his competition week in - week out, year after year? How does Michael Phelps prevail in every race he competes in against the greatest competition the world has ever seen? What keeps Roger Federer on top of the competition for so many years in a row?

In every discipline, whether it's a sport, a business or other activity, there tends to be one person who reaches a level of dominance over his competition for a time. No one stays on top forever, but many champions enjoy a long run as the best at whatever they do.

Few have succeeded at the level of Tiger Woods. No doubt he will face a whole new set of challenges when he returns, but if anyone can endure the rehabilitation he is facing now, and re-emerge as a champion, Tiger Woods would seem to be the man to do it.