Unemployment now over 20%

I just came upon an interesting website that shows the Shadow Statistics from those officially reported by the government.

This site says that we are actually in a period of much larger deflation (according to the CPI) than reported and that the current unemployment rate is actually at about 20% (not the 9% reported in the media.)

Their explanation for this is in the “discouraged workers” who are those people who have simply given up looking for work within the last 30 days. Isn’t that a little scary? That means that 1 in 5 people (both looking and not looking for work) do not have jobs.

Reading these types of things gets me very nervous about the recent rally in the stock market. I’m still following some of the advice that Dent shared about an upcoming depression.

Blogging for business success

When I talk about blogging for business, I’m not talking about the traditional ‘make money online’ methods. I’m talking about helping your current ofline business make money using blogging and social media as a tool.

A seminar I attended

Earlier today I was at a seminar where the speaker presented a number of methods for using the web for business. As the ‘expert’ he had some very generic information about blogging, twitter, podcasts etc. One of the people in the audience asked a question about his own industry:

I am in the heavy machinery industry and all of our products and designs are custom and proprietary so I can’t post details on the web. What should I do?

The speaker stopped for a second then said,

Well first you’ll need to figure out what you can do.

Reply:

That’s why I’m asking you

As I sat there in a very uncomfortable silence across the room, the speaker quickly came up with some ways to secure your blog so only customers can find the information - completely counter to the rest of the presentation!

Here is my advice:

Blogging for business is not simply a sales tool where you try to blast your products in every post. What he should have told the guy was that they should take a hard look at their best clients, the issues that they face and blog about that. Keep adding content with a focus on the industry that you supply - issues, success stories, events etc.

Imagine being in a large organization and you’re comparing two different suppliers. You run a quick Google search on each.
Company #1 (Your competitor): has their website brochure telling you how great they are.
Company #2 (You): has over 200 articles about your industry, issues and solutions. They have a brochure site that has hundreds of links throughout back to specific articles. They have people commenting, reading and using their information.

Who do you think that they would choose? If we’re trying to get past price in each industry, this is the way to do it.

That’s what he should have said but didn’t…

Subscribe to my free full text RSS.

Where does the time go?

I’m looking back through my blog and realized that it’s already been almost half a year since I last added a post onto the site. Recession aside, I’ve had a great last few months and I hope to start getting some more information up here again.

Thanks for continuing to visit everyone.

Gone Missing?

Have you ever been unable to blog for so long you began to wonder what you would write about when you were able to get back onto a computer? I’m in that exact boat right now. My house is currently being painted and my career is in the middle of an incredibly busy Q4 so I simply haven’t been near a computer to get some information out.

The only thing to do to get back in the groove is to give a few updates on where I’m at and what’s been going on for the past few days.

1. Real Estate On The Way
I’ve taken some equity from my property and will be looking to purchase a nice little ‘bread and butter’ cash flow generating property. I’m looking in the Austin, Texas area (isn’t that Debo’s backyard?) but I still haven’t really begun my search. I took out the money through a refinance and have found a bank that will offer me interest that almost equals the mortgage rate. Free loan!

2. Website Committment
I’m continuing to move forward with a previous real estate related website that I had begun. The last time I wrote about it was when I first started reading the 4-Hour Work Week in A 4-Hour Dose of Realization. I’m letting someone else dictate how I run my business and I’m getting ready to make a major change. If I haven’t got something moving forward before the end of the week. I’m committing to move on to a greener pasture. (My partner will hold me to this one of course!)

3. Break Out The Crib We’re Getting Close
My family (and beautiful wife) is getting larger and we’re currently picking names. What a blog contest that would be - letting you pick the name. While I’m sure my wife wouldn’t go for it, let’s see what you come up with (I don’t want to see any Laid Back Lewis, Swiss_Mouse Lewis or D.C.R. Lewis or anything like that! What does the winner get? I have no idea - maybe a link in another post? Oh and the chance to name my baby for around $10 Million. Let me know if you’re interested or submit payment through PayPal.

Shout It Out

OK, time for a shout out to the people who make me believe that my increase in RSS subscriptions (climbing from 32 to 51 since October 3rd) has nothing to do with the 19 out-sourced personal assistants I hired from India.
My Top Commentators Are:

• jackbravo
• David from MarketingDeviant.com
• Sharon from TheDivaNetwork.com
• Deb from Debohobo.com
• Joanne - AKA The Laid Back Buddhist
• Jeanne from WritersNotes.net
• Dan at dcrblogs.com
• Swiss_Mouse at CheddarBlog.com
• ContestBeat.com
• MyBlogContest

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to read and comment on my blog. Guess what keeps me going?

Next…

I wanted to finish this list with a few great sites I’ve found and to help a great blogger in her own quest for world domination.

• Joanne (AKA The Laid Back Buddhist) has been nominated for the Best Diarist Award in the 2007 Weblog Awards. If you’ve never read Joanne’s blog, I’d suggest you go for a visit. She’s got a humorous way of writing about her journey through life. To vote, click Vote For Joanne then scroll down to the comment left on October 16th at 1:06pm and click the + button. Way to go Joanne!
• If you like marketing and learning about marketing terms, have a look at this very creative periodic table:
  
  Built by Kolbrener, a branding agency
• Are you all aware of my RSS competition with John Chow and Shoemoney? I’ve Upped the Ante on the competition!

Have a great Tuesday. Remember to sign up for my RSS!

Is Blogspot Down?

I’m just updating my Dark and Stormy Night series (Read part 1 Dark and Stormy Night - The Setup and part 2 Dark and Stormy Night - Interlude. Part 3, Confrontation is on the way) and I noticed that I can’t get to any of the blogs I read through Blogspot. Has anyone else had this problem?

If the whole site is offline, imagine how many blogs are currently without readers!

Join the Shoe, Chow and Lewis RSS challenge here.

Top Ten Meaningless Comments - Part 2

As many of you have read in my previous post, I looked long and hard for the Top Ten Comments That Work In Any Situation to save you time when leaving posts around the web.

I fully intended to update my list sooner but I’ve been too busy and basically that’s my only excuse.

WARNING: These comments should not be used lightly. They are absolutely meaningless and will not generate the type of return traffic that you’re interested in.

If you’re only interested in getting on a high Page Rank Top Commentators list then use these like mad!

These are the comment’s I’ve got this round including the Lewis Empire reader who suggested them (no they did not use them here!)

1. Awesome post dude! - suggested by www.four-pillars.ca
2. Nice blog! - suggested by www.webd360.com/blog
3. You’re such an inspiration! - suggested by dcrblogs.com
4. I see what you mean now! - suggested by www.EricKarey.com
5. Excellent post, you should check out my site here at someclevername.dhajsumnvmshyhahgs.com
   - suggested by rickcaminiti.com
6. I love seeing posts like this.
7. Nice!
8. Great as always!
9. Very useful post
10. lol

Of course, I welcome any new BS comments that aren’t listed here (as a comment). If nothing else, let me know what you think about commenting!

Make your visit worth while: leave a comments and join my Empire.

Around the Blogs and Back Again - Travel Edition

It’s been an excellent October and I look forward to a great fourth quarter of the year. I always seem to get the travel itch about now and I’m thinking it goes back to my days in elementary school. Wouldn’t it have been nice for your parents to say, “hey, guess what? You don’t need to go to school this year, we’re taking a trip to Europe.” How cool would that have been?

As you have read, I’m planning to take a trip to Europe for the entire year in 2017. My post called The 4-Hour Workweek Just Cost Me $100,000 details my plan.

My Last Holiday…

Am I in need of a good holiday? Here is a picture I took on my last holiday. Perhaps it’s not the most interesting thing I photographed but doesn’t this show you that I need to get out of North America for a while???
In the spirit of my desire (and need) to travel, here are some great sites I’ve come across today.

Making a Major Life Change: Is It Time For Cathy To Leave The City? A great post that should hit the minds of everyone who reads it. What are we all doing living in a city commuting and working each day? Why not sell out and move to the country and try relaxing for once in our lives?

Play The Bump Game and Win is a great post about getting perks from airlines for being bumped from your flight.

Changing your Life: Is It Downshifting or Upshifting? made me wonder what I’m doing commuting to work each day for a job (money?) Where do I find the balance between work, play and spending quality time with my family?

Downshifting of Upshifting is the original post to the one above. If I continue to read about these I may end up taking the family to Italy for the year tomorrow!

Travel on over to my Full Feed RSS.

It’s Time To Chow Your Shoe and Lewis Too

I just read about John Chow’s competition with Shoemoney.com and I’m going to throw my own hat into the ring (read about the competition at JohnChow or ShoeMoney.)

Let’s see if you can help increase my readership and destroy both John and Jeremy at their own game. So let the competition begin.

Personally, I’m a Lewis fan first, then a Chow fan but I’ll let you decide.

To vote for LewisEmpire.com click Lewis’ RSS
To vote for JohnChow.com click John’s RSS
To vote for Shoemoney.com click Jeremy’s RSS

* No cheating here, these are the real RSS links…

The only way I can do this is with your help. Anyone who writes about my contest will be entered to receive a LewisEmpire Review. If that’s not incentive, I’m not sure what is! (This is open to John and Jeremy too!)

Best of luck to both John and Jeremy!

I read through the Feedburner terms of service and I can’t see anything wrong with posting these links. If anyone knows differently then please let me know!

If you want to teach these guys a lesson, consider my Full Feed RSS.

Content Isn’t King

I’ve been doing a lot of research lately about building traffic for Lewis Empire and I’ve come to a major conclusion: Content Isn’t King.

I know that every single blogger I’ve read who has written a top ten list for bloggers has “write great content” as an important part of being successful. I’ll tell you, I don’t think this information is all that helpful.

With thousands of blogs being created everyday writing great content is not the answer to increasing your readership. The real secret is this: “Value is King”

Adding Value

There is a significant difference between writing great content and writing valuable content. For one, adding value is a very unique skill that cannot be defined post by post. It is a combination of all posts, articles, pictures, comments and information that a blog promotes. It’s the reason that John Chow can get away with writing posts about his lunch and still grow his RSS and monthly income - he has a history of valuable content. I’ve written about it before, I wasn’t sure of the potential for a blog until I started reading his site. Although I visit and comment less than I once did, I still find valuable articles there.

Isn’t that great?

Great content is more a matter of what people like to read. These are the posts that give more information about you or your life outside of blogging. These are good to have scattered throughout the blog but they should supplement your main theme! Think of it this way: if you’re writing a blog about internet marketing, then be sure to include posts that actually give some instruction on this topic.

Having great content outside your niche is excellent for people to read in their spare time but it is not necessarily adding value. Straying too far outside of your topic will probably result in a loss or slow growth of readers over time.

Niche Your Blog

If you’ve decided to create a blog that will generate a source of income then you need to stand out and carve your way into the blogging world. There are many success stories out there of people who have quickly risen to great volume, readership and rankings by being different and adding value.

Pick your niche. Learn everything you can about it. Create value by telling people how to do what you now know!

If you liked this post, consider investing 20 seconds to subscribe to my Full Feed RSS.

Seven P for Me

So you thought I would forget that I was tagged with this one too did you Dan? I never forget being double-dog dared so here’s my response to the Seven P’s challenge originally started by Joanne.

Persuasion

I work in an office. Things need to get done. It’s either this or throwing myself out the window.

Passion

I’m not sure that I would be able to dedicate myself to writing on this blog each day if I wasn’t enjoying what I was doing. My wife and I take a look at everything we’ve accomplished fairly often and I am very happy with the place we are at. Without passion, each person would give up in any venture on the first sign of a challenge.

I’m sure you’ve all seen people who are very smart and should be able to do anything but fail at everything. These are the people who have lost their passion. Passion leads to motivation and drive. Let’s not feel sorry for these people, take them for a coffee and help them find it again.

Power

Two options for this one. 1) I have a strong sense of who I am and what I want to accomplish in my life. 2) I work in the energy industry and know far more about electricity markets than most would care to in a lifetime.

Pandemonium

I’ve got a 2 1/2 year old son and another on the way. Two days ago I gave my son a muffin and it was used as a weapon of mass destruction around the house rather than snack. My wife was away on business for three days and I decided to clean the house the day before she got back…that was right before I fell asleep at 9:00pm. This word accurately describes the hour prior to my wife returning home!

Professional
I dress up when I go to work. I’m not always in a suit but I prefer to be. After reading The Secret and a few other books about positive thinking I realized that I feel the best when I look my best.

For me, this is the first step in achieving your goals. Ensure that you have a sense of power and confidence when you leave the house each morning. With that in place, it is easy to go through your day and look for opportunities to advance.

Protohistory

I love to read about ancient cultures, battles, strategy and anthropology all the way through to early life on earth and geology. It would have been easier if anthropology started with a ‘p’ and Dan already stole Palaeontology but this will do. To anyone out there: would you rather live 1000 years ago or 1000 years from now?

Progressive

If I’m not learning I get bored. In order to enjoy what I am doing, I constantly look for new things to see, learn, read or attend. This one describes how I get further towards my goals each day!

Lewis P Antonyms

Pushover, Pawn, Political

Hey, this just gave me an idea for a new challenge. I want to know the 7 P Antonyms for the two bloggers who started this whole thing for me:
Dan at dcrblogs.com
Joanne at the LaidbackBuddhist

Let’s see what you come up with for this one…