Recently, friends and I joined together and got into a very spirited discussion. It was all about people having clear-cut destinies, or if fate was pre-determined.

At first it seemed a pretty easy question to answer, but the more we talked, the more complicated it got.

It seems to me, we create our own destinies. I don’t know, but there’s something about leaving everything to fate that cripples our journey.

I mean, if we sit back, let fate take our hands and lead us down the road of life, then we have no ownership in what we do with our years, or what we may become.

Destiny, on the other hand, is something that we can make happen. We really can help engineer it. Or at least some of it.

Einstein is considered a genius today, but wasn’t he labeled as being ’slow’ in school? Or even retarded? What if he simply took someone else’s word and just said the heck with trying anything?

That’s no more than a self-fueling prophesy of fate that says, ‘give it up because you can’t do it, anyway’.

But he didn’t choose to sit back and let his life parade by and look at what happened? He took command of his eventual destiny and achieved more than others thought he was capable of doing – and aren’t we a grateful bunch.

One of our group made the statement that if it were meant to be, that he’d become financially successful (and it’s all relative), then it would turn out that way regardless of anything he did in the meantime. Now, he’s a great guy, the type who’d give you his shirt off his back, but he also tends to be lazy. I think his belief in fate is a wonderful excuse not to work too hard. It’s pretty handy, isn’t it?

Another friend agreed with the fellow above. She saw no purpose in trying to figure out what has already been pre-designed for her.

Now, she’s another pretty terrific person but she can’t stick to anything for very long. I think it is her willingness to believe her cards have already been cut that gives strength to her attitude of ‘what’s the point of messing with things’.

It’s not that I don’t believe in fate, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that I think we have more to say about where we go in life and how we get there.

Maybe it’s just me, but leaving everything up to fate seems like leaving everything up to luck. What I take away from that, is then I might as well go back to bed and just let things happen without any control or say-so.

Just that thought alone is a living nightmare, so I’ll have to pass and say, no thanks. Let other folks call me a nut, a dreamer or whatever suits their fancy. At least I’ll have some input as to where I eventually land – and just that visualiation alone will make me feel as if I’ve lived a life fulfilled.

I’m not absolutely sure what the words fate, destiny or even luck mean. I do know that we can all continue to strive and with that there are great rewards that are of our own doing and that means just about everything.

Copyright @ AdMistress.com

FREE Gift - I would appreciate your thoughts on this post, it really helps my business to know what's on your mind. So please, leave me a comment and claim your reward!

Some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue.

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post promoting different kinds of music equipment! A week later, that blog post had only received 10 comments. I then wrote another post on the same topic and this time I got 76 comments. It was the same message, the same music equipment, but how could there be such a big gap between the response rates of those two posts?

I quickly scoured through the net, trying to find an answer, until one day I stumbled across one term: “response rate”. Have you ever heard about this term? To put it simply, response rate is the likelihood of your readers performing the type of action you want them to do.

My study showed, that the timing difference between my two posts, had a great impact on the response rate. Actually it’s not a new concept in the marketing world. Marketers and entrepreneurs have known for some time, that the ads they post on Monday will get a different response from those placed on a Saturday.

Let’s discuss the different timing elements that you can use, to maximize your blog’s response rates:

Timing Element No 1 – Avoid Public Holidays

Publishing content on a public holiday…is just crazy! It’s Family time and nobody will read your post, so don’t do it!

Timing Element No 2 – Wednesday Is Better Than Monday

Scientific research has proven that posting ads on Monday is a waste of time. People are usually very busy on a Monday with a lot of meetings, tasks and negotiations to do. The same principle applies to your blog.

On the other hand, Wednesday is the best day of the week for publishing content on your blog, because you will usually get the highest response rate. The reason behind this is that people have much more free time on Wednesday.

Timing Element No 3 –Avoid Bombarding Your Readers

There is an old adage that "less is better". That can be applied to a blog as well. I remember subscribing to one blog which was about soccer. At the beginning it was fun, but soon the blog drove me crazy with a new update almost every 2 hours!

Remember that your readers have a life outside the realm of the internet, so don’t drive them crazy by bombarding them with too many posts. Generally speaking, 3 – 5 posts posts per week are enough.

copywright @ BillVannot.com All Rights Reserved

——————-

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There’s no doubt that you will need traffic for your online business. Many websites online are making use of this simple tactic, to get tons of targeted traffic to their blog. See How: http://www.BillVannot.com/AtomicBlogging

A man was mowing the grass in his front yard when his female neighbor came out of her house and went straight to her mailbox.

She opened it, slammed it shut and stormed back to her house.

5 minutes later she rushed to her mailbox, peered inside, screamed angrily and slammed it shut once more.

As she marched angrily back to her house the guy asked if there was something wrong.

“I’ll say there is” she snapped back. My stupid computer keeps telling me …

“You’ve got mail”

Hi everyone,

Interesting email I received from Mike Dillard of Magnetic Sponsoring today.

Mike opens up the discussion of whether you should follow every person that follows you on Twitter?

I must admit, this is something that I have always done. Like Mike, I just think it’s common courtesy to do so.

But after reading Mike’s email, I started to think about it.

I ended making a comparison to an Optin List and my Twitter Followers...

You can have a list of 500,000 subscribers….but if they DON’T respond to your emails or your offers….what good are they? You are better off with 200 responsive subscribers that read your emails and buy your products or services.

So looking at it that way…I suppose Mike is right….what’s the point of 20,000 Twitter Friends, that LISTEN to you.

Read Mike’s email below and let me know your thoughts, by leaving a comment below:)

———

I have a dilemma Bill…

It’s been the source of an internal debate for a few weeks now, and I’d like to get your thoughts..

I’m talking about Twitter, and the single question that we must all eventually answer…

Do you follow someone just because they followed you? Or do you only follow people you genuinely know and want to follow?

Over the past few months, I’ve done both.

After talking to my good friend and social media maven, Perry Belcher, I decided to “reciprocal follow” everyone who was following me about two months ago.

There are two reasons you’d want to do this…

1: It’s polite.

2: It helps you gain exposure, which will help increase your number of followers.

As of today, I follow around 10,000 people, and have 11,900-ish followers at http://www.Twitter.com/Mike_Dillard

Looking back, I’m not convinced that was the best move to make, and here’s why..

It’s not the number of people who follow you on Twitter that matters, it’s the number of people who actually listen to you.

And if everyone is just “reciprocal following” everyone, not because they WANT to listen to that person, but because they’re trying to increase their exposure and number of followers, then we have a problem…

Everyone’s following everyone, but no one’s really listening.

When I had 8,000 followers and followed 50, I knew that all 8,000 people subscribed to my “Tweets” because they genuinely wanted to plug into my life, and hear what I had to say.

That’s no longer the case.

And it gets worse…

Once you follow 500+ people, you have to start using specialized software like www.TweetDeck.com, just to filter and manage so many messages.

And if you already use TweetDeck like me, you’ve probably set up a custom sub-list of real friends so you can separate all of their messages from the masses of people you don’t know.

How genuine is that?

In the end, reciprocal following simply dilutes the power of an application like Twitter because it’s a behavior that’s motivated by greed instead of authenticity, just so we can all enjoy the illusion of having “more followers”.

That doesn’t sit right with me, so after many days of thought, I’m going to do some surgery on my Twitter account and * gasp * “unfollow” the 10,000+ people I don’t truly know.

If you’re one of them, please do not take it personally. It’s not.

I’m sure I’ll lose quite a few people during this process, but that’s fine. If that’s what it costs to be authentic, then so be it.

And if you continue following me because you truly have an interest in what I have to say and offer, then THANK YOU. That’s what this tool is all about.

My Twitter address is http://www.Twitter.com/Mike_Dillard

In the end, I feel that any true “following” you build in your life should be based on providing real value, not the perpetuation of an illusion daisy-chained from one person to the next.

(If you feel strongly about this as well and would like to share this letter, you’re welcome to do so as you wish).

Sincerely,

Mike Dillard

Magnetic Sponsoring

It’s better to be crazy & know it, than being sane & doubt it.

Have you ever wished there was an easier way to drive huge amounts of traffic to your blog?

Sadly, the more common methods of blog traffic generation, such as article marketing, social networking, SEO etc all require a lot time and effort…leaving most bloggers very frustrated.

Well, there is another way of getting traffic to your Blog, one that smart bloggers have been using over the years, to achieve outstanding results for their blogs…which is submitting their articles to blog "carnivals".

If you haven’t heard of blog carnivals yet, they are authority sites, which are a major source of traffic flow.

Before today, submission to blog carnivals was still a time-consuming process.

But the good news is….there’s a brand new piece of software, that will allow you to make blog marketing as much fun, as just clicking a couple of buttons

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Whether your blog has been up for years, or just a few days, it doeb’t matter….this powerful piece of software will drive massive anounts of traffic and create a ton of backlinks, to your blog.

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A young Native American man went to a doctor for his first ever physical exam. After checking all of his vitals and running the usual tests, the doctor said, "Well, Running Buck, you are in fine health. I can find no problems. However, I did notice one strange anomaly."

"And what is that, Doctor?"

"Well, you have no nipples."

"None of the people in my tribe have nipples," he replied.

"That is astounding!" said the incredulous doc. "If you don’t mind, I’d like to take a few notes in order to submit this phenomenon to The New England Journal of Medicine."

"All right, doctor."

Note pad in hand, the doctor asked, "First of all, how many people are there in your tribe?"

He answered, "About 500."

"And what is the name of this tribe?" asked the doc.

Running Buck replied, "We are known as ‘The Indian Nippleless Five Hundred.’"

Hi everyone,

Here’s an EARLY Easter Present For You…

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In this Free ‘Rebrandable’ report, I’ll show you the step-by-step process to getting your blog running and holding onto the visitors that come your way.

Whether you’ve had a blog for a while and need to update it, or you’re brand new to blogging, you’ll be able to use my process to get traffic and potential buyers.

With this eBook you can:

- add YOUR name…

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After you’ve read the Report, do me a favor please, come back to the blog and let me know what you thought:)

Bill:)