My name is Gedalya bin Menachem. I am of the tribe of Judah of the nation Israel. I am a shepherd as have been my fathers before me. I am old, now, but many have asked me to tell again the story of my youth. I was tending the flocks of my father.
It was a night like no other.

It was clear, crisp, with thousands of stars shining brightly.
The sheep were quietly grazing; we had gathered around a small fire. All was complete peace and silence.
Then it happened.

The heavens seemed to split, blinding light shining everywhere.
And there he was, an angel. His countenance so bright one could hardly gaze upon him. Yet there was a joy on his face as he kindly looked upon us.

We were terrified, so frightened we could not move. Transfixed, we stood before this heavenly messenger.
The angel, almost laughing, spoke, “Do not be afraid! I am Gabriel, messenger of the most high God, and I bring you good news! Joyful news! This news is not just for you, but for all people and nations. For unto you this day has been born in the city of David, yes, in Bethlehem, your Savior, Christ, your Messiah. This will be the sign that what I tell you is true: you will find Him in a manger wrapped in strips of cloth.”

As suddenly as the angel had appeared, he was joined by thousands and thousands of other angels, and proclaiming in words almost too beautiful to repeat, “Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth, peace, good will to men!”
Over Bethlehem appeared a star that had not been in the sky before. All was silence again. But we were changed. Joy filled our hearts as we said to each other, “We must go to Bethlehem to see this wonderful thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. Think of it! Our Messiah is born!” We could not contain our happiness that such a thing, that was prophesied years before, could happen in our lifetimes. All we had hoped for had been fulfilled in this one night.

We found the Child just as the angel had said, though we could not understand why this precious child, our Savior had been born in a manger. I was puzzled. Joseph, who we thought to be the child’s father, spoke to me, “Friend, what troubles you?”
“I do not understand why would Messiah be born in a stable? Why in such poor circumstances?”

Joseph replied, “There are many things I don’t understand either.” Joseph went on to tell of all the amazing almost unbelievable things that had happened: How an angel had appeared to his betrothed, Mary and told her she would be with child; How Joseph had almost put her aside, but an angel told him to go through with their marriage, but to leave her untouched until after the birth of the child. “And he said we were to name Him Yeshua”

(You who follow Him today call him Jesus)

“So He is to be called Yeshua bin Joseph?” I asked.

“No friend,” Joseph replied, “As I said, I am not the child’s father. He was conceived by an act of God Himself. His name is Yeshua bin YAHWEH, Son of the Most High God.”

This all confirmed what the angel had told us. We could not contain our excitement. We ran to tell everyone we could find of this great miracle. Christ is come!

Within days things returned back to normal. We found that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus had returned to their home in Nazareth after His presentation in the temple.

Many years passed. I never forgot that night. Many times while in the fields, I found myself wondering what had become of the Child and His family. We had heard of a prophet preaching in Galilee. I wondered if it was the child I had seen so long ago. Then one day I was in Jerusalem. I had just delivered lambs to the temple for use in sacrifices. Everyone seemed excited people were running to and fro. I asked one of the townspeople what was happening to cause such a ruckus. “Yeshua of Galilee is coming! We think He is the Messiah!”

So it was true, He was the child. I had to see Him. I had heard that He spent time in a garden just outside the gates of the city. He was there, surrounded by 12 of His followers. As I approached, one of them said, “You can’t see the Master. He is tired and needs peace.”

“Let him be, Peter,” Yeshua said. “Come, you are welcome here. What do you seek?”
“I seek a child I saw in a Manger whose birth was told to me by an angel many years ago.”
“I AM he. Friend shepherd, come, walk with Me.”

Yeshua took me aside from the others and looked at me through eyes that pierced to my heart. “Do you know why you shepherds were told of Me before anyone else?”

“No,” I replied.

“Shepherds are special to Me,” He continued, “For I am the Great Shepherd, and soon I will lay down my life for My sheep.”

“But You do not herd sheep, sir.”

He laughed, “Mankind is My heard. All who are lost in the depths of sin. I will lay down my life for all who believe in Me. I will be the final sacrifice for sin. I will be killed and rise again. And you, friend shepherd, will herd souls from now on”

I never left Jerusalem. As you know, what Jesus said was true. Shortly after I spoke with Him, He was arrested and later crucified cruelly on a cross. But I tell you good news; as He said He rose from the dead on the third day after His crucifixion. He now intercedes before God the Father for you and me. I have spent my life after that meeting with Him telling others of the great gift Jesus brought; forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Him. And you can have that gift today if you choose to follow Him.

Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

Gene

So how have I ended up spending a lot of time and money (more than I could ever admit publicly) and not gotten anywhere (yet!). Simople answer: It all happened too fast. I didn’t learn the right principles of setting things up correctly. I didn’t learn that it takes TIME. So I have spent the last few years pursuing the next Adsense success. Meaning someting quick. I actually have 2 products (see, another thing you didn’t know about me) I actuially have (had) a lsit. You can take a look: www.makingcashwithwebsites.com and www.cashmachinesnow.com. So what happened? Well, I thought all I needed to do was toss a few articles to the article services and everything would be fine. So when I didn’t get any traffic, I thought I had failed. When things didn’t happen overnight, I would move on the the next thing, and the next, and the next… I didn’t follow through because I didn’t know how to follow through. I didn’t know what to do with a list. After all I was making money with Adsense within weeks.

So what am I diong differently now? Well, focus is one thing. I am involved an a couple things right now and I am following it step by step. I am derermined to finish. I will try not to get distracted.

So for you new folks who might happen to stop by here. Decided what you want to do. Find a class, program, ebook and stick with it! Now if it’s something that just doesnt’t fit, you might move on, but you really need to stick to one program. Don’t make the mistakes I have made. What happened to me is I was spoiled by the fast success. It says in the Bible that “Steady plodding brings prosperity; hasty speculation brings poverty.” Sounds a bit like me. Don’t let it happen to you.

Mountain Life Flight was founded in the early 90’s as a fixed-wing air ambulance service. I joined them in 1995. I was honored to participate in placing their first EMS (Emergency Medical Services) helicopter into service in 1996. We were pioneers.There are not many rural based EMS Helicopters in the States. Due to increasing physical problems (your back starts to act up after years of pushing, pulling lifting and fighting with patients in the ER) I left MLF in 1997.

There’s a truth about those who serve in EMS. It never leaves. It’s a family you can’t get out of your blood. I also served as a Volunteer Firefighter. My heart broke when I saw the Towers collapse on 9/11 and heard the causalities of so many fellow firefighters. Your heart still races when you hear the sirens, or catch part of a emergency radio transmission. It’s been 12 years since I left MLF and I still find myself many times stepping outside to see them fly by whenever I hear the sound of a helicopter.

My heart broke again last Saturday. I had just arrived at work when one of the Correctional Officers told me, “Did you hear? Mountain Lifeflight crashed this morning.” I asked, “Fixed wing or helicopter?”

“Helicopter, Mountain Lifeflight 3.”

“How bad?” (hoping against hope)

“No survivors.”

To my sorrow, I later found out that a good friend of mine was the Flight Nurse and I knew the Flight Paramedic as well. My supervisor that day also knew them. We hugged, cried and had to get back to work. When I got home my wife, Vivian asked me, “How are you doing?” All I could say through my tears was, “It hurts, Viv, it just hurts.”

So this is to pay tribute to the Crew of Mountain Lifeflight 3:

Clint Reger, RN. Chief Flight Nurse, 39 years old. I have known Clint since he was an EMT with the ambulance in Susanville. He had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and in his relatively short career as an RN far surpassed anything I thought I knew about the subject. He was a consummate professional, and one of the most humble men I ever knew. He loved life and loved his family. Most of all he had a deep faith and love for his Savior, Jesus Christ. He leaves a wife and 2 young boys. He also leaves a loving family and countless friends.

Chris Ritz, Chief Flight Paramedic, 37 years old. I did not know Chris well, but he always treated me like he had known me for life. Chris had just started with the ambulance service when I left MLF. Chris was passionate about 1 person, his son. Chris taught CPR and was active as a Scout leader.

James Bradshaw, pilot, 37 years old. I did not know Jim, but from what was said at the memorial for the crew yesterday he was as much a man and professional as the rest of the crew.

These 3 men are true heroes. They lived their lives to the fullest and when called upon laid their lives down in the service of others. There can be no higher calling than that.But, there are other heroes: the families they leave behind. They are the ones who have to move on and try to put the pieces together.

So, what am I trying to say in these ramblings? Just this: God put us on this Earth for a purpose. We don’t know when our time will come. Seek Him for why you are here and pursue that with all you have. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes that whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. I think that’s what Clint, Chris, and Jim would tell us.

Until next time…

Gene

They have just launched ” They have spent over a million dollars developing this program and they are giving it away for free!

Now what about the program?

–Why learn from one guru when you can have 53 in your corner?

–When the doctor says you need a “second opinion”, you get it, right? So why wouldn’t you do the same for your business?

–Economic downturn spells big opportunity–if you know how to seize it

–Want to increase your profits by 1000% BEFORE the end of the year?

–Forget baseball–THIS is a true “Major League”!

–The most powerful business brain-trust ever assembled

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FACTS ABOUT THE PROGRAM:

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–More world-class business experts, mega-bestselling authors and famous icons that anyone, anywhere has ever assembled.

–36 hours of 100% content-rich, non-selling expert panel interview series

–No one else anywhere has ever had access to this caliber, quality, desirable collection of famous,
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–No one is selling anything in these interview
sessions. All are sharing brilliant, ingenious, masterful and outright amazing ideas, concepts, strategies, recommendations and guidance never before available anywhere in any way or at any price

–Two of marketing’s top players just brought 53 of the business world’s finest expert minds together for a six-week long, brain trust experiment that’s unprecedented anywhere else in the business world.

–The League of Extraordinary Minds brings together power-house panels of experts all specializing in one major business building skill. In each session, these different panels will talk about the most important profitability issues, challenges and questions your business is facing and they provide the most actionable answers, ideas and solution you’ve gotten from anyone, anywhere, ever before.

–One panel consists of seven world famous marketers: Another has six celebrated mega-bestselling business authors. Another has internationally renowned legendary mastery in dealing with business competitors. Still, another is a legendary master icon in the field of persuasion and infamous prominent consulting-giants who charge $250,000 a day to share their prized perspectives.

–Yet, each expert has agreed to participate on a specialized panel interview that will run almost two full hours long. Every minute worth of uniquely original, highly innovative breakthrough approaches is packed with fresh new ideas for business owners, like you, to start using, right away.

–These experts included the top minds on consultative selling in the country. They include, probably, the foremost entrepreneurial expert on trends and consumer motivation stimulators that work best, too! They have the man, considered by the business press to be the GRAND, grand-master of sales psychology on the panel. They have the five top thought leaders on innovation, optimization and creative collaboration, all together on another panel.

–They have the most celebrated “online-selling” marketing authorities of all time on two separate panels. They have three of the top selling books in history. They have other unexpected, surprise guest, here, who has written 33 best selling business books. You all know and admire HIS powerful mind and ideas. But, I doubt if you ever had direct access to the man’s latest thinking — for nothing.

https://schefren.infusionsoft.com/go/loemo/Gene/

–Each expert that they’ll interview has the distinction of being THE absolute “top”” mind in their field. These are not lightweights. They earn seven, eight figures for what they know. They’re respected buy the biggest leading company, the world over.

–They each have either identified, uncovered, deciphered or invented more business breakthrough strategies, concepts, techniques or approaches than anyone else in their space.

–These are the people admire worldwide — having them help YOU devise breakthrough thinking and approaches for your business is an epic opportunity. That’s why Rich and Jay named their project, “The League of Extraordinary Minds”.

–Jay and Rich have purposely put this group of extraordinary business minds together and focused each expert’s content on ideas and advice that will quickly help any business out there that’s suffering from:

* Poor marketing * No distinction or preemptive advantage * Ineffective sales efforts * Poor marketing message * Lack of credibility, trust in marketplace * Limited capital to market.

–They’ve also promised to focus specific interview panels in this six week experiment on: these problems:
* Too common type product/service * No strong benefits to buyers * Massive competition * Mature business * Weakly performing start-up * Economy-caused drop in business * Lower response rates from “on and offline” advertising * Promotions not pulling well * Prospects not converting like you want them to * Margins eroding * Old way of doing business no longer works.

–Why not see if Jay and Rich’s League of Extraordinary Minds six week experiment interview Brain can be just the solution you’re after? Remember, it’s totally yours, gratis, for the entire six week experiment/try-out period.

–That means hundreds of thousands of people won’t get to hear any of those nine interviews, because they won’t get inside fast enough. .

The question you need to ask yourself is, Do I want to be left out?” If not I would suggest getting on the liks now

Go here now: https://schefren.infusionsoft.com/go/loemo/Gene/

You will be glad you did.

Gene

There has been a lot of buzz surrounding the recent departure of a well known Internet Marketer from the scene. He had to. It was either that or possibly to go to prison.

The short story: The FTC came down on him and he pled guilty to making false claims on products he was selling. Apparently there were trumped up testimonials and made up results. To his credit and integrity the person involved admitted it and pleaded guilty. I say to his credit because unlike some, he took responsibility and bore the consequences.

No good purpose can be served by flaming this man. He has already suffered enough in the public eye and is bearing the penalty for his actions. That is why I am not naming him; most people will know who it is. My purpose for mentioning this is the need for honesty.

We have all read sales copy with hype and filled with testimonial after testimonial. That is one reason I don’t write sales copy well. (Remember, “Please buy my book” is my type of sales copy.) I feel if I have to hype too much I am treading the balance of honesty. If you are offering a good product that has performed well for you, then you shouldn’t have to hype it up too much. I know, there have been studies that show that people respond to hype, but we need to be careful we don’t cross that line. Otherwise we may end up with the FTC knocking on our door.

Apparently the FTC is coming down hard on testimonials. They are requiring specifics and “results not typical” is no longer enough. You have to say something to the effect, “Results not typical, the typical user of this product gets this result…” If someone is blogging about a product and they received a “complimentary” copy, they have to disclose it. For further info look here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33177160/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/
and http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/091005-132622

Of course, like any government agency, the FTC leaves a lot of vagueness. So to be real sure you might need to consult a legal expert. But the simple answer? Be honest. Don’t make claims you can’t back up. Don’t let your testimonials say more than, “I liked the product and Gene is an honest guy.” Or, “Gene delivered the product on time and stood behind it.” Build a relationship with your customers. Show them you won’t recommend anything that’s junk. As Alex Jeffreys says, provide value and you will not need hype.

I think testimonials like “I made $3,000,000 using Gene’s e book methods.” are going to be gone soon. Or you may see the following disclaimer: “Results not typical. The typical user of this book uses it in their outhouse to replace the Sears catalog.” (Yeah it’s old. Click here and read the article to see what I am talking about)

Till next time.

My fellow Alex Jeffreys Student, Gary Simpson, has given us a challenge: Post 25 things that most people don’t know about you on your blog and “tag” at least 5 other people to do the same. This is a no brainer (do I have one?) for me as most people don’t know anything about me. So (for better or worse) here goes:

1. I am a devout Christian.

2. I am a wanna be geek. I mess (sometimes literally) with computers, have built them, blown motherboards, you name it. I mostly build through Dell now though.

3. I love model trains and trains (especially old ones) in general.

4. I am on the shy side (still wondering how I got interested in Internet Marketing). If I can ever afford to go to a seminar (Marketing With Alex 2 in Vegas?) you will most likely know me as the one hiding behind a pillar or under a table.

5. I have been married to the same woman for 31 years.

6. I write prose and have actually been published.

7. I work in a prison. (Note I said WORK not live in)

8. I am a Registered Nurse. Have been for 32 years

9. I live in Northern California.

10. One of then best comments about me was from a well known Internet Marketer (he was coaching me at the time) who said I would fit in well in the UK because I have a very dry sense of humor. (But keep it clean)

11. As in #10 I also love making puns.

12. I like woodworking, but don’t have much time for it right now.

13. I am a Volunteer Firefighter.

14. My favorite show is “Dirty Jobs” on Discovery channel.

15. This isn’t as easy as I thought it would be,

16. My dream Vacation is to take my wife to London to see “Phantom of the Opera.”

17. My favorite quote: “Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be!”

18. In light of #17, I tend to be an idealist and probably hopeless romantic. (My sanity may be in question too)

19. I would never make it as a copywriter. My best sales pitch would be, “Please buy my ebook.”

20. I am a closet “Trekkie” If I make it to Vegas and Star Trek, The Experience is open again, I will be there.

21. Don’t even ask how much I have spent on Internet MArketing related stuff and how much of it is sitting on my shelves or on my hard drive.

22. I published an Ebook about “How to Potty Train a Dog” Yes there is money in poop, but it cost more to advertise the book than it brought in.

23. My favorite comics are “Far Side” by Gary Larsen and “Calvin and Hobbs” by Dave Watterson.

24. My favorite drink is Dr. Pepper.

25. If I could buy any car it would be a ‘67 Camero SS fully restored.

26. If I could be gaurenteed success in anything I tried it would be to earn enough to live on 10% of my income and give the other 90% away.

There I even made up for #15. So now you probably know more about me than a lot of people. Maybe even me. Now either my blog will go up in readers or plunge into the abyss of Alexa.

Until next time…

I will list my 5 “tags” here:

1. Kin Lau
2. Norm Malone
3. Petra Weiss
4
5

Stay tuned to this post I will update it as they respond:

Gene.

So, I have been looking forward to Mondays so I can get some uninterrupted time for the business. Today went fairly well, I spent about 7 hours working away on various projects. But a time comes when you hit a wall. I have felt guilty about taking time away from my business because eventually I hope it will produce enough to lower our debt and offset the overtime I have to work to make ends meet. That is the beauty of Internet Marketing, you can scale it to where you want it to go. So when I was coming up empty, I decided it was time to take a time out, otherwise all I was going to do was sit and check my email every 5 minutes. Alex suggests taking a walk, but I decided to veg out in front of the TV.

As Internet Marketers, or affiliate marketers, whatever you do you need to balance productivity with down time. Alex also reminds us that this is not a race. Although things are getting close financially for us, I also need to remember that I can only do so much and I am only capable of accomplishing so much. As long as I am giving my best effort, that should be all that matters.

Now after a few hours off, I am ready to go again. I don’t feel as discouraged, or that I am never going to make it. I am still a bit confused about traffic, but I will keep posting on blogs, and doing what I can.

So if you find yourself staring at your monitor, checking your emails every second, or just staring off into space, maybe it’s time to take a break. Solomon said, “Steady plodding brings posterity, hasty speculation brings poverty.” I guess I am one of the steady plodders. Maybe if Steve Snow has a virtual soda, I might join him on his boat. What do you do to take time out? Leave your comments.

Till the next time,

Gene

Thanks for the nice comments and thanks to Andrew Vaughan for insipring this post.

And yes, Melanie I did remember to check to see if it plays this time

Until the next post,

Gene

Here is basically how I did my header graphic. I had one version that was too long for YouTube. After consulting with Iain Buchanan on the forum, who suggested cutting it in half, I revisited the video and decided to do it over again. I think this version is better.

Also I gave Michael Ottman a plug as well.

Hope this helps.

Gene