From upsells, downsells, and cross-sells, to the specifics of the environment such as lighting, Vegas is designed with one thing in mind – to get you to part with your money.

Do you really think it’s a coincidence that casinos don’t have clocks?

Plus, I love the ATM’s. Whereas our “normal” ATM’s give you fast cash options of $20, $40, or $60 (if you want more, you have to manually type in the amount), most in Vegas have options that START at $200 and go up and if you want less than $200 you have to manually type it in.

I was recently in Vegas for the PPC Classroom Live seminar and to meet up with my mastermind group.

Even department stores get in on the act, big time. Check out this cool two minute video.

Super Secret Double Probation Underground Las Vegas Special Selling Secrets Revealed

Now, while thousands of you are emailing me for them, I will NOT be releasing the secret videos of Steve, Steven, Becki and Sheldon. Those are safely locked in the vault for when I need a really big favor.

You’ve seen this results in a lot of article directories, as well as a lot more junk articles being produced and submitted to these directories, making it more challenging for people to succeed with article marketing.

But does it still work?

The short answer is yes. It may not be as easy as it used to be but it definitely still works.

You can no longer just write a bunch of crap articles, get great rankings and flood your site with traffic that buys.

But you can still use article marketing to generate almost instant traffic, get backlinks, boost your search engine rankings and build your credibility (if you’re trying to become an expert in your niche).

But what about long term?

Can your articles still produce traffic on an ongoing basis or will you only get an initial push from being on the first page of EzineArticles.com when it first goes live?

Great question! So I took a look at an article that I shared results about in a previous post – Does Article Marketing Have Staying Power?

In that article I published the following graphic from my stats in my EzineArticles.com account.

So what about now? With the surge in low quality article marketing, as well as many changes over at EzineArticles.com, is this article still producing views like this?

Here you go. The following was taken on May 12th, 2009.

Not only is it still producing a serious number of views on EA, the numbers have gone up since I last wrote about it. And this article was first published on EA over three years ago.

So if you’ve stayed away from article marketing, you may want to consider giving it a try.

Many of you know of the amazing results Jaime Mintun and I achieved in only 60 days from our Success Blueprint.

I’ll be discussing this in more detail in the near future.

In the meantime, I want to prepare YOUR path to success by getting you to take the first step…

THINK about the following.

• How much time to you spend each day performing activities related to your most important goal?
• Do you even know what your most important goal is?
• How do you master such problems as limited time, multiple commitments, simultaneous tasks, and conflicting priorities?
• What techniques do you use to conserve time, energy and money?
• How do you maintain focus, motivation and good humor in the face of frustrating obstacles and adversity?
• Does your most important goal relate to your natural abilities?

I urge you to take a few minutes and really think about these questions.

Most people don’t. And most people give up long before they are successful.

And that’s a tragedy. A tragedy that is easily prevented.

Gregg

PS – Here’s another really cool free video on living in abundance and how to think and grow rich. Check it out.

Think Rich

PPS – If you haven’t done so yet, I urge you to grab a copy of Secret List
Building Tactics and start building your own successful business online.

Secret List Building Tactics

As I’ve said before, the internet is made up of information.

While video and audio are becoming more and more popular as people get faster and faster internet connections, the text format still has it’s place in any marketing campaign.

For one, many people prefer reading over audio or video when it comes to absorbing information.

I know I much prefer being able to read something as opposed to listening to an audio on the same topic.

I’ve written previously on using article marketing for traffic generation, as well as link building, and sharing with you some of the results I’ve had, including my article marketing case study that you can get for free at ArticlePublishing.com.

Article marketing will drive traffic to your site. 

How much traffic it drives and how much money you make will depend on other factors, such as your niche market, your keyword research, your resource box for your article and then the structure of the offer on your web site when people do click through and visit.

Here’s a recent look at my main Ezine Articles account (yes, I have other Ezine Article accounts. In the past, they didn’t allow you to have multiple author names in one account so you had to sign up for different accounts for each pen name you used).

One thing I want to point out is the clicks.  This number is probably much higher. 

I had my EA account, and most of my article views, long before EA started tracking that information.

My first site, which is still around and about 1,000 pages or original content right now, was built around  proper keyword research, SEO, and article marketing. 

As you can see in the image below, this site gets a lot of traffic from a lot of different web sites.

That’s because the articles I’ve written get picked up by other web sites and link back to my sites. 

This means the articles you submit to a site like Ezine Articles help you in other ways. 

They get you links on other sites which helps your search engine rankings and they also get you direct traffic from other sites as well.

If you’re beginning internet marketing or you’ve been trying to make money online but have been struggling and are frustrated with your results, or you don’t have much money to try things like ppc, article marketing can do wonders for you.

Haven’t made money online?  Want to make that first bit of cash?

1.  Grab your own domain and hosting and set up a simple 5 page web site OR just set up a free site at Blogger.com

2.  Put Adsense on the site

3.  Write and submit articles to EzineArticles.com and GoArticles.com

4.  See money in your Adsense account

Obviously, that’s a very simplified example but it also works. 

I finally started seeing success online when I focused on building a quality web site using Site Build It and writing and submitting articles to EA.

Everything else I’ve done has grown on top of that initial site building and article marketing process.

Now, a crucial point to understand is that you can leverage your article marketing efforts by turning your articles into audios to submit to podcasting directories, and videos to submit to sites like You Tube, Meta Cafe and Revver.

You can do all of this quickly and easily with PushButtonTrafficSystem.com

You don’t have to create completely new content.  You’re just re-purposing your articles into different mediums to generate more links and more traffic to your money sites

It’s a little over 7 minutes long. Check it out – Two powerful research sites

1. Bring Your Thinking into Focus

The first thing you need to do is decide exactly what specific goal you want to achieve. Figure out exactly what you want your life to be. Figure out what type of internet marketing business model you want to pursue.

Then dedicate yourself to reaching that goal with unwavering single mindedness of purpose. Ignite your burning desire.

You MUST stop jumping from one online money making scheme to the next.

2. Create a Plan for Achieving Your Goal and a Deadline for Reaching It

A goal without a deadline is just a dream. A goal without a plan is just wishful thinking. You must track your plan’s progress hour-by-hour, day-by-day, month-by-month so that you stay on track.

3. Develop A Burning Desire for What You Want

Having a burning desire for a goal is the crucial ingredient to spurring every human being into action. Without a burning desire, you won’t achieve your online marketing goals.

A burning desire allows you to overcome obstacles and take consistent action.

You must be honest with yourself. Do you like the idea of reaching your goals or do you have a burning desire to reach them?

If it’s the former, you’ll eventually lose your motivation and quit. If it’s the latter, you WILL succeed.

4. Develop Confidence

Concentrate on your skills and strengths, not your weaknesses or problems. Focus on what you can control and let go of those things you can’t.

5. Develop a Dogged Determination to Follow Through and TAKE ACTION on Your Plan

It’s not true that good things come to those who wait. Opportunities do not come to those who wait. Good things and opportunity are grabbed by those who take action and dare to ATTACK.

If not now, when?

If not now, why?

Massive Action Equals Massive Results

Or maybe you’ve started one but you just can’t seem to make any money. I completely understand. I felt the same way when I got started

Here are three things you can do (or not do) that will help you get focused and on your way to making an online income.

Step 1) Focus

Stop jumping around from one internet marketing opportunity to the next one, and stop jumping from one technique to the next before you’ve given something a chance to work.

This lack of focus is one of the biggest self-made obstacles there is to making money online.

Almost everyone gets caught in this vicious cycle of bouncing around from one money making idea to the next, registering domain names, paying for hosting, buying information product after information product, etc.

Instead, put together an online business marketing plan and stick with it.

Do you want to make an income with content sites and Google Adsense?

Great! Put a plan together and follow it. Ignore everything that doesn’t have to do with making money with Adsense.

Want to create your own information products and sell them? Okay. Then don’t by products about making money with Adsense. Got it?

Step 2) Take Action

This complements step one. You probably already have plenty of knowledge and information that you can use to make money online.

Now you need to put that knowledge to use by creating a marketing plan and taking action on that plan. In other words, use what you learn.

Most people are so busy bouncing from one thing to the next, they never use the information they already have. Don’t let this be you.

Stick with purchasing information and tools that you need for your internet marketing plan.

Again, you don’t need information on making money with Adsense if your current plan involves selling on Ebay.

Step 3) Stop Fearing Failure

Failure is a good thing. No, really. Nobody has failed more than the most successful people in the world. You learn by failure.

Failure takes you one step closer to success. Most all time home run hitters have also struck out the most times.

Every time you fail, you’ve learned one more way NOT to run your online business. And that brings you one step closer to success.

It’s like the sales cliche, every no brings you closer to a yes. And it’s true. Embrace failure. Fail fast. Learn from it. Move forward and become a success.

Create your business plan.

Take action on your knowledge.

Don’t fear failure.

You may not feel like one (most of us don’t) but YOU can become a super hero with the power to accomplish almost anything you can imagine, including making more money online than ever before. You just have to accept your super hero status and slap that great big “S” on your chest.

I’d prefer if you put it on a t-shirt. I’m not a big fan of those tights. Well, maybe on Lara Croft. But I digress.

Have you ever wondered about the incredible accomplishments of the greatest athletes in the world? Do you think it was their talent? Genetics (I don’t know about you but no matter what I try I just can’t improve my height enough to be a pro basketball player)?

How about their mind? Sure, they had to have the talent in the first place. But their ultimate achievements weren’t about talent, they were about heart. And by heart, of course, I mean mind.

Yes, Michael Jordan had the talent to be the greatest basketball player of all time. But it was his mind, his will, his determination, that got him there. His heart is what maximized his talent, NOT the other way around.

Kerry Shrug nailed that vault on one leg, not because of her talent, but because of her heart. The talent was there but let’s face it, too many athletes today (getting paid millions) miss important games because of broken nails or split ends. Kerry and Michael? They’d run through walls.

The truth is, you have no idea of your own power. It’s so much greater than you think.

When you let this power shine through, not only can you gain unbelievable self-confidence to have, do, or be anything, but you’ll also be able to blast through any fears that may have been holding you back.

Once you get there, anything you try in your online business can be handled like a super hero snapping a twig.

Again, one of my favorite quotes of all time from Calvin Coolidge:

Don’t wilt. Shine.

When I was growing up, my Phillies FINALLY won a World Series after a lot of close calls. The rallying cry of the Phillies that year? “Ya Gotta Believe.”

Do you?

While we’re busy bouncing around from one opportunity to the next, we’re paying for what we’ve missed.

This goes back to what I’ve mentioned previously with regard to focusing on a target to the exclusion of other things.

Every decision you make in your life has a cost, whether you see it or not. While you’re busy doing one thing, you’re missing out on something else.

And only you can decide how to allocate the limited time you have.

But in order to allocate it most effectively you have to realize what you’re missing out on and you have to value your time.

Most people who bounce around from one opportunity to the next ultimately get extremely frustrated because they haven’t made any progress on anything.

So they rationalize this lost time and money by convincing themselves that none of these things work.

Instead, you should focus on what might you have accomplished if you had selected one of those ideas, such as article marketing, and worked on that to the exclusion of all other noise.

• Where would you be today?

• Would you have made progress and moved forward?

• Would you have a more profitable internet marketing business today?

• How valuable is your time to you? $10 an hour? $20? $50? $100?

• How much do you want it to be worth? $500? $1,000?

Are you spending your time doing the things that give you that kind of return? Or, at least, potentially that kind of return? Why not?

In the beginning, you’ll probably need to do everything, unless you are flush with cash for outsourcing purposes.

But “everything” should be part of one thing.

In other words, if you’re doing article marketing, you may need to learn html to create your own content site or squeeze page, set up an autoresponder, write the messages, write and submit the articles, etc.

But those are all part of article marketing, which is your one thing.

Eventually, you’ll be able to outsource a lot of that stuff.

Don’t be a jack of all trades. Be a master of one.

Pick something. Learn it. Become great at it.

If you want to start generating high quality one way backlinks, get top search engine rankings, and drive thousands of visitors to your site quickly, I highly recommend you sign up for the VRE Coaching Course

I don’t want to bash you over the head with too much hype but it’s truly more valuable than some courses you’d pay hundreds of dollars for.

Did I mention it was free?

But it’s important to understand that direct traffic from those articles shouldn’t necessarily be your focus or the way you judge whether or not your article marketing efforts are a failure or success.

Some of the commonly talked about ways article marketing can help you include:

1) Direct traffic to your site via article directories where you submit your articles.

2) Writing and submitting articles can generate lots of backlinks to your site from the article directories and other sites that pick up and use your articles.

3) Indirectly, these backlinks may improve your organic search engine rankings, helping your search engine optimization efforts, and drive more traffic to your site via the search engines.

These are all great reasons to write articles.

However, if you are focusing on building an internet business that is successful over the long haul, these aren’t the real power behind article marketing.

Don’t get me wrong, they are great for short term results, which helps your motivation and your profits, but the really good stuff comes later.

I’ve never hidden the fact that my core business isn’t selling ‘how to make money on the internet’ products.

Instead, I’ve had an online fitness business since 2002.

I’ve seen, over that time period, the real power behind article marketing and having your own web site.

The real power is the opportunities that can eventually present themselves to you because of your article marketing efforts.

When I first started an online business, I was constantly seeking out link partners, trying to get into other fitness ezines, etc.

Now, people seek me out. And that’s because they find me everywhere.

And they find me everywhere because my articles are everywhere.

I’m becoming more and more known in my industry and am currently involved in some great projects because other fitness professionals have found my articles and then my web sites, like my information, and want to work with me.

It’s a great feeling. But understand that it’s not instant.

However, if you go after the short term results of article marketing, and you stick with it, eventually you’ll see the real power of writing articles by becoming an expert in your niche, someone that others seek out for advice or to work with on projects.

So does article marketing work? Absolutely.

Just maybe not the way all the hype explains it to you. Get writing!

Check out this article marketing case study for a step by step plan to get started.