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by Jude

What is a Minimalist?

April 19, 2012 in Book Reviews, Successful Internet Marketers

In my humble opinion, minimalist means,  “less is more” – it can refer to a type of architectural design, decorating, or, in this case, we are going to discuss “downsizing” your life.  I was just listening to another successful podcast by Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income where he interviewed the authors of Minimalism:  Living a Meaningful Life. If you are a successful corporate persona, you may be thinking this is a great book about what furniture to buy to decorate your new apartment in NYC.  It is not.  It is a story written about just the opposite.  So beware.  I don’t mean that in a bad way.  Here are two guys that have decided to give their lives new meaning.  A noble feat indeed.

I have not read their book, but I have visited their website http://www.theminimalists.com/  which is clean, crisp, to the point, and thought provoking.  Well done, gentlemen.  If you are seeking less clutter and noise in your life, they have terrific ideas to send you in the right direction.  As I was perusing their site, I realized that what they are doing is much like Tim Ferriss, who I have written about before.  His motto was to find your muse, travel the world, put the motorcycle in storage and enjoy all the wonders of our planet.  Again, another recommendation to leave the corporate shenanigans behind.

Ahhh, if it were so easy.  Not everyone needs to take this path.  Sorry, Josh and Ryan.  I admire what you are doing.  Tim Ferris also has excellent advice on avoiding the rat-trap.

I am speaking from experience ya’ll.  During my “minimalist” period, I lived on what you could relate to as a “farm” in southern Illinois.  We found 40 acres of land – pre-internet – nestled between Mennonites and the locals, who didn’t like newcomers/outsiders/invaders/aliens from outer space.  You get my drift.   We didn’t drink or smoke pot or do drugs, gasp!  But, we were the outcasts of the neighborhood because we were young people willing to try something different.  We farmed 5 acres of the land with a rototiller and hoes. There were five of us.   Can I tell you stories.  Where am I going with this?  I want you to know that this was an experience of a lifetime.  We had 25 chickens, who all managed to die in the winter because we didn’t know the first thing about heating a chicken coop.  We had five or six pigs, which stunk to high heaven and we had a heck of a time trying to catch the piglets.   We grew sunflower seeds, potatoes and vegetables.  All of which we had no idea how to sell.  Needless to say, a lot of food went to waste.  Believe it or not, we even used an outhouse.  We cut our own wood, used an old pot belly stove for heat and I became the queen of fires.  I would do well on survivor.

The path that Josh and Ryan have taken brought up this reflection in my life as I remember we were trying to be minimalists only to make our lives more complicated than we ever realized.  What I did learn, however, were many tools that I have been able to carry throughout my life.  One was the lifestyle of the Mennonites, who I have the highest respect for.  We bought our milk from them and I don’t believe I have ever tasted cream as rich as that ever again. Tvs, phones, movies?  We didn’t have any.   Growing food is time consuming and hard work.  For us, being able to take a hot bath and eat a good dinner was abig night.  I have left that lifestyle and prefer to be “plugged-in” – that is simply my choice.  Your choice may be to go Josh and Ryan’s direction.

Sometimes downsizing isn’t always the right choice.  Having meaning in your life can be something different.   There are other people that want a family and the pitter patter of little feet running through the house with laughter and crying and all that goes along with it.  Life is a tradeoff.  Just know what is important to you and pursue it.  Some people prefer the security of driving to an office every morning and meeting with their co-workers, then going home to a loud and boistrous environment.   Others are looking for the camaraderie from the workplace.   Don’t forget that your needs should be met emotionally as you embark on a journey, enjoy the ride.

If you want to find out what Josh and Ryan have done, visit http://www.theminimalists.com/.  Their posts are very inspiring. Better yet, buy their books on Amazon

That’s all.  If you need some help with starting a fire.  Let me know.

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Disconnect Me Experiment

March 31, 2012 in Successful Internet Marketers

After reading an article on Technorati this week, I thought I would give disconnect.me a try.  I downloaded the software onto my Google Chrome browser and starting surfing away.  Through the process I didn’t find my connection working that much faster.  The main interest I had is that this software program was designed by people who used to work for Google.  The purpose is to keep your online activity from Google’s prying eyes, along with Facebook and Twitter.  I have noticed that there are a few people online that really don’t care for Google.  Is that totally fair?  I mean, really.  Before Google, I was using Yahoo most of the time.  I found Yahoo to be a little too noisy when I just wanted to log on and research one topic.  I was continually wasting a lot of time with all the distractions.  I am one of those people that can have a project going on in one end of the house, walk away and get engrossed with something else and forget about what I was doing in the other end of the house, yard, whatever.  I’m a very curious soul as well, so I can go online and get lost in all the information and brouhaha.  I tried Google and it seemed to cut down on my wandering a little bit.  Not entirely, but it did help.  I also use Firefox.  Am I partial to it? Not yet, sometimes it seems to run a little bit faster, but I always seem to go back to Google because I open up to a clean page.  Lately I’ve been experimenting with Bing, and it seems okay.

Alright already.  This is about internet marketing?  Yes, indeed it is.  I purchased a niche site a few months ago that I have been experimenting with quite unsuccessfully.  What I am trying to do is see if I can monetize it with Adsense and Amazon sales.  I checked out the site through Chrome after the disconnect.me download and didn’t see my Adsense ads on the site.  My first thought was that the entity that I bought the site from had gone into the site and removed my code.  I went to adsense and wordpress admin and found the codes looked intact.   Then I remembered the new download and thought that could be the difference.  Viola, I open it up in Firefox and the ads are there.  Now my concern is that people that have carved out a business model such as Adsense Flippers are going to be undermined by this new software.  Now I see why some people consider Adsense as a form of welfare and don’t use it at all.   I am concerned for those that rely on it heavily as well as the advertisers themselves.  I will be asking these questions of those that have found Adsense to be highly effective and find out their thoughts.  In the meantime, if you don’t want your ip address to be collected, I’m not sure if disconnect.me is better than the other programs out there like “Hide My Ass.”   The other concern is that now those with diabolical intentions, can now post on your blog and you can’t block their ip address.  Is this going to be a problem?  We’ll have to come back to this.

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Time Management-Time is Money

February 26, 2012 in Uncategorized

Time management seems to be an everlasting challenge.  I have read many articles and books about how to manage your time.  There are days when I have a love/hate relationship with the internet.  Do you ever spend a day without tweeting, texting, online surfing, videos, gaming, etc. etc.?  It is becoming more difficult to do.  If you are a curious soul such as myself, you are constantly looking for good information online.  It has sucked up many hours of my days which should be more productive.

Of of the best solutions to avoid this is to make a list the night before of a task that you absolutely have to accomplish the next day.  Before you do anything else, except get your “morning fix”  like a big tall glass of cold water,  just do that thang on the list.   Do you hear me?  Just do it.  I am the guiltiest of all.  Ummm, say, I think I’ll just check the news, oh, yeah, who is that?  Click link, click there, and 30 minutes has gone by and all I have done is read stories about people that really don’t care if I’m alive or dead.  Unless, of course, they have something to sell me.  This is part of my hate relationship with the net.  We are constantly being fed information from others that think we need their information.  You know, the AP press, the big authorities, the local news reporters that believe we care about what they are reporting.  I mean seriously, do I really have to know all this stuff? There are plenty of distractions in a day so be good to yourself and let your creative juices flow before your brain is flooded with the daily stuff that you really can survive without.

With that note,  I bid you adieu until we meet again.  A walk outside to retrieve the paper has made me realize that my lungs need fresh air and my feet are itching to go for a long walk.  I’ve done that thang on my list and now I am free to listen to the birds sing.  You?

 

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Pat Flynn at Smart Passive Income- Creating a Niche Site

February 13, 2012 in Successful Internet Marketers

If you haven’t been here before, let me recommend a post I wrote back in October of 2011 about Mr. Pat Flynn, he is a terrific inspiration.  Not only do I read his current posts, follow him on twitter and facebook, but I like to read his older posts.  I don’t do the ipod shuffle, I prefer to read between the lines, if you know what I mean, jellybean.  The other day, I was reading a post that he wrote about the topic of how to set up a niche site before you add content.   In my previous read, I didn’t notice  the four things that he always does when he starts a new site powered by wordpress.  Hummm, there is always something new to learn.   Here they are:

  • All in one SEO Pack
  • Analyticator
  • Syon Policy aka Easy Privacy Policy
  • Google XML sitemaps

I saw an immediate improvement in my site after their implementation.  I am still tinkering with them a bit.  The developer of the Analyticator is written by Ronald Heft http://ronaldheft.com/code/analyticator/  how cool is that?  Not only did he put this thing together, he supports it with a website.  Thanks Mr. Heft.

Remember to give credit where credit is due.  You pay for music when you buy it don’t you?  We pay for movie tickets and other forms of entertainment, yes?  We gladly overpay to major Universities to learn such things as Badminton.  Yes, I actually had a friend that needed college credits and she signed up for a Badminton class just for the credit.  My apologies to the USA Badminton competitors, she just didn’t have any desire to play, just the college credits.  Are any of you guilty of taking silly college courses without giving any thought as to where the money came from to pay for it?   Many parents take out what is known as a Parent Plus Loan to pay for your fun and…..well, I digress, I’m getting off into a tangent and touchy subject here, back to online marketing.   Let’s give credit where is due.  One of the wonderful attributes of the internet is that we can simply visit someone’s site, make a few clicks, and “pay em back” somehow.    Yes, they get paid, but we all want to be prosperous, do we not?  By the way, I’m not compensated by people to plug their content.  This site is designed to give you pure unbiased reviews of people that are carving out a life for themselves by using online techniques.  Let me know if you have discovered anything cool from using these four tools.  I’m glad I reread the nice site article.  And, I’m so glad Pat keeps the older posts available on his site.  He is one organized dude.

http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/how-to-setup-a-niche-site/

 

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Amanda Hocking is the New JK Rowling

January 30, 2012 in Successful Internet Marketers

Yes, these words were just recently uttered by non-other than Anderson.   You know, Anderson Cooper, who presently has two television shows.  One is his talk show and the other is his news show.   I was in shock to turn on the tv and see that Ms. Hocking was on the Anderson talk show.  He seemed to be very impressed by her success and had her explain some of the rejection she went through.  I was delighted to see her “in person” – I know seeing someone on a tv show isn’t quite the same, but I was impressed nevertheless.  Amanda has glowing skin by the way!  One thing she mentioned during the interview was that she had submitted her first book over 100 times, yes, 100 times, only to be rejected.  Are you willing to go to those great lengths to have your work published?  If you are, you will definitely succeed at some point.  What was lacking from the Anderson review was how Amanda Hocking tinkered with her self-publishing and pricing before she saw tremendous response.  I also got a little of the plug by Anderson after the interview for viewers to visit his website and check out his favorite books.  Personally, it would have been more interesting to hear Amanda’s story rather than driving us to buy books from his site.  Just my humble opinion.  I am thrilled that she was on national television and touted as the next JK Rowling.  Interesting that they both have always dreamed of being writers and their stories have come through.  The same can happen for you.  Keep the faith as Amanda has.

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The Internet Was Born on Christmas Day

January 2, 2012 in Successful Internet Marketers

Happy New Year All!  Now that Christmas has passed, I was reflecting on the fact that the internet  was born on December 25th.  Interesting.   Did ya’ll know that the creator of the internet was non-other than Mr. Tim  Berners-Lee.  He was working for CERN at the time.  He was a visionary, just like Steve Jobs.  Speaking of whom, Diane Keaton actually dated  Steve.  She thought Jobs  was crazy as he said someday there would be computers everywhere.  We all know that Diane is the crazy one because she dated Woody Allen and threw Steve to the curb.  Tim’s name isn’t bandied about like Jobs,  but what a contribution he has given us.  Here we are all engaged with one another, sitting around in our new slippers that we got over Christmas.  You might be tweeting on your phone. Bottom line is, we owe Mr. Tim a Christmas thank you for creating something that has allowed people from all over the world to benefit from.  So, before you express your thanks to your friends and family, remember this great man. Sir Timothy John “Tim” Berners-Lee,  aka TimBL.

In 1994, he became one of six members of the World Wide Web Hall of Fame.  He has many other awards, but we are mentioning him here to honor his legacy and thank him for his tremendous contribution to society.  All hats are off to you Tim.  Thank you for giving us this great gift.

More of his biography can be found here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee

 

 

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Laid Off or Liberated

December 3, 2011 in Successful Internet Marketers

Laid-off, or liberated?  That is the question of the day.  After hearing the latest data on the jobs report, it makes me wonder how many people are unaccounted for in the government’s numbers.  Over the last few years,  we’ve all heard countless stories about workers getting laid off right and left.  In fact, in today’s news I read two articles regarding layoffs and the jobless rate.  One article was about a company in Carlsbad, CA called Aptera Motors.  Somewhat similar story to the scandalous story of Solyndra and their $500,000,000.00 government loan.  You didn’t know you were a venture capitalist did you?  You are, if you pay any federal taxes.   The Department of Energy was planning on giving Aptera a  $150,000,000.00 loan if the company could match it with private funds.  They could not.  A little different than Solyndra which received their funds, then proceeded to file for bankruptcy.  Aptera  was founded in 2005 to  produce an electric car that would have 190 mpg.   According to today’s  article, 30 people will be laid off, a plant in Ohio will be shut down, which is responsible for another 1400 jobs, manufacturing, providing parts and all the other peripheral jobs from a company, even the local baker will be affected.  Bad news.  The real losers here IMHO are the private investors, including none other than Google.org who invested real money in the company.  They get nada for their investments.

On another page of the same newspaper we see an article about the jobless rate being less than it was in 2009.  Those statistics I hold in question.  My reasoning is based on personal experience.  I have friends that were working for a California company that had over 600 employees in 2006.  Most of the employees were laid off in 2007-2008.   The company moved to Nevada and now has about 20 employees.  A couple of people took the lay-off as a liberation and started their own companies.  They are not part of the unemployment stats.  Others took the unemployment checks and stayed unemployed as long as the checks were rolling in.  No reason to look for work.  One fellow got a new job about a month after he was laid off, hated the new job, worked there for about two days, quit.  He was therefore ineligible to collect his unemployment.  He had to find another job asap, which of course, doesn’t pay nearly as much as he made at the other place.   Other people didn’t take the extended unemployment checks because of the morality of it and lived on their savings.  They are not part of the stats either.

I digress.  My hope is to give you inspiration, not ranting.  I just wanted to ask you to ponder this question.  If you are reading the stories about people such as Amanda Hocking and you are still “working for the man” you are probably in the liberation camp.  If you are recently laid-off and feeling “woe is me” then you just need a boost of positivity.  Read my posts about Pat Flynn  at SmartPassiveIncome.com or Adsense Flippers and  your mental gears will move in a different direction.  You might be the next successful internet marketer, the door is wide open.

Aptera’s founders, they have a vision. Hopefully this isn’t the end of their dreams.

 

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Adsense Flippers – From Flipping Houses to Websites-Success Again

December 1, 2011 in Successful Internet Marketers

I first found Justin and Joe on flippa.  If you’re not familiar with flippa, it is a marketplace where you can buy and sell websites.  Great place to watch website trends.  They offer  the most active websites,  just sold, ending soon and so forth.  A great place to visit.  After scanning some sites, I noticed a company that sells bundles of niche sites.  It was called TryBPO and they are based out of the Philippines.  Interesting.  What piqued  my curiosity was their technique.  They are truly “flipping” these bundles.  Now that is attractive to me as I am a recovering  “house-flipper” so I’m attracted by  the concept of purchase to sell.  I also like the domains that they group together as the sites are generic.  It doesn’t  take a rocket scientist to run the sites and earn some truly passive income.  They set the sites up, install some Google adsense and you collect the money once you have purchased the sites.  Great concept.  Read  Pat Flynn’s Niche Site Duel, you can see the potential.  Much better return than buying Intel stock and collecting a one digit % dividend.

Being a curious soul, I decided to follow this company’s sites listed on Flippa.  Needless to say, I’ve always been outbid and haven’t won yet.  At their website AdsenseFlippers they document their journey similar to Pat Flynn on Smart Passive Income.  When I read their about page I found out that they used to flip houses.  What a coincidence.  Now I know they are worth subscribing to.  They were flipping homes when the market was hot in 2004.  Of course we all know the market tanked and here are two guys that didn’t throw up their hands and give up.  No, they reinvented themselves.  This is a story I can relate to as I am a recovering house flipper.  Many people are under the impression that house flippers are greedy fat cats.  Not now.  Yes, you can earn a good return on your money, but it is time-consuming and can be very risky.  The theory is, you buy the houses low, roll in  the contractors, cut them a check, viola!  Turn around and sell it for a big profit.  It doesn’t quite happen that way.  My biggest time-waster with rehabbing houses is that I can’t keep from getting my hands dirty.  I am embarking on a  new mission to keep me far away from hammers.   To put it simply, I have even banned myself from even watching HGTV  as I get “the fever” and want to remodel a bathroom from watching one episode.  It is an illness.  That is why I consider myself a recovering rehabber.  I do enjoy it though.

Back to Joe and Justin.  From what I can see from their website Adsense Flippers, it looks like they are doing just fine.  They offer podcasts and great content.   I’m on their subscription list and find their emails to be friendly and useful.  No big sales pitch thrown in your face.  Just a note to let you know what they are up to and what kinds of products they are offering.

One feature they have added to their website is the “buy our sites” tab.  I like it!  Now we can purchase niche sites from them directly.  Fabulous feature.  If you want to avoid the distraction on Flippa, go directly to their website and click on their buy our sites tab.  Today, for instance,  they are offering apparel.net for sale.  Terrific domain name.

Another fact that validates my support of Adsenseflippers is that they have been mentioned on SmartPassiveIncome.  If you read my post about Pat Flynn, you know that they are quality guys because SPI is IMHO is one of the best online places to hang out.

Speaking of fat cats, I have to stop here and go feed one of my kitties.  He adopted me when I was doing a condo rehab a couple of years ago.  He was filthy, living out in the rain and being eaten alive by flea larvae.  He is now a beautiful, healthy, happy fat cat.

 

 

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Amanda Hocking-Success of a Self-Publisher

November 22, 2011 in Successful Internet Marketers, Uncategorized

Howdy Everyone,

One little word gives me pleasure when I open up wordpress, so I have to say Howdy back, thank you wordpress.  Today I stopped in at a McDonald’s to use their free wifi.  This particular location is in the lovely coastal city of Del Mar, California.  This owner has remodeled  the joint and it has turned out fabulous.  The Starbucks across the parking lot must be somewhat disturbed.  I was able to get a latte for two smackers, plus another 49 cents.  Such a dealio.  They don’t have the nutmeg and other accoutrements that one finds at Starbucks, but still well worth $2.49.  The decor here is very inviting.  Some of the table tops are marble, we have a little George Bensen’s smooth guitar playing over the speakers, cushy chairs, and most importantly, wifi that actually works.  The sun is shining in the windows and the goodies are flying across the front counters.  I ended up sitting next to a table where a woman is sitting in a cushy chair flipping the pages of a book.  Guess what?  She is reading none other than Steig Larrsson, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.  I want to tap her on the shoulder and say, what a great book!  But, I won’t as I know what a page turner it is and she is obviously thoroughly engrossed.  I couldn’t put that book down when I read it.  Yes, I’ve read The Girl Who Played With Fire as well.  Steig Larrsson is brilliant.  I admit, his books are quite dark in parts,  couldn’t be compared to Dr. Suess for instance, but excellent reading.  Now there is the movie franchise and who knows what else will happen with Lisbeth Salander, Stieg’s heroine.  I’m off topic, right?  I know you were expecting the first few sentences to refer only to Ms. Amanda Hocking.  I’ve been thinking about writing about her for a few weeks now, and Steig’s book inspired me to get this out to ya’ll.  Bear with me.  I’m getting there.  If you don’t know the personal story of Mr. Larrsson, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stieg_Larsson family drama and tragedy.  Steig wrote three books that are phenomenal reads, have been on the best seller list for many, many weeks, movie producers are rewriting the story and the guy has to go and have a heart attack right after he delivers his manuscripts.  His live in girlfriend  of 30 years,  Eva,  doesn’t even get to share in the wealth that he created, because they never got married.  Tragic.

On the other side of the aisle we are writing about Ms. Amanda Hocking, an amazing story.  Amanda is a self-published author who has sold her books online.  She hasn’t even reached the big 30 yet.  Yes, on the internet.  Amanda is similar to Steig since she has a Trylle Trilogy that has been extremely popular.  She is a USA Today Best Selling Author.  A terrific role model.  I will admit  that I haven’t read her books because I’m not into the paranormal stuff.  Never have been, so please forgive me Amanda.  I like your gumption and smarts to write and self-publish and show the world that there are people that can make it happen.  Here she is, a prolific reader who decides to take things into her own hands and get her material out there without deep pockets, non-traditional.  This gal is one smart cookie. Hey, we need to  take notice of people that are  hugely successful  during this horrible recession.  A girl with guts, just like Steig’s main character.  Only Amanda is lucky enough to be young and alive and able to enjoy her success.  Sound familiar?  Yes, I did say that I admired Pat Flynn from www.SmartPassiveIncome.com for the same reasons.  I like to follow the journeys of  people that have true spirit that make this world a better place instead of sitting around complaining that they don’t want to work the Sunday after Thanksgiving when there are people that would be happy to have a job and work on Sunday.  Okay, Okay, really off topic?  Not really.  Pat Flynn is successful because he makes it happen every day.  Amanda Hocking makes it happen every day.  If you are into the subject material of her books, you really should buy them, she sells them for cheap!  www.amandahocking.blogspot.com

My knowledge of Amanda came from just surfin’ the web.  I really don’t know how I found her.  Now I know that she is a mover and a shaker because I heard Leo Laporte mention her on his broadcast.  There ya go, now she’s world famous.  he he . I visited her website a few days ago and noticed that the “haters” have now come out of the woodwork. Read her blog comments from November 4, 2011.  Hey Amanda, pay them no mind, you have an incredible life ahead of you.  Forget them!  We love you because we know you care.  As it is confirmed over and over again by those that are truly successful.  Care about your audience.

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Tim Ferriss- 4 Hour Workweek Extraordinaire

November 15, 2011 in Uncategorized

How can I write about successful online personalities without mentioning the incredible Tim Ferriss.  I purchased the first 4-hour Work Week book a few years ago.  What an eye-opener.   I was caught in cube-prison at the time and grinned from ear to ear learning his technique about being “invisible” but available via your blackberry.  Creative genius!  The book is geared to teach you how to develop “your muse”  and outsourcing (gasp, outsourcing, a political hot potaytah), the bottom line is, if the corporations are using it, why not the little guys.   Tim encourages people to live their lives with enthusiasm as he does.   Not work to live, but live and enjoy while your online business takes care of the boring things in life.  Tim gets your mental gears moving in the right direction.  The 4 Hour Week is an entertaining read even if you have no intention whatsoever of pursuing his lifestyle.  The opening of the book tells you about a young family fulfilling a lifelong dream on a trip they wouldn’t be able to take if the parents were busy doing the 9-5 routine.  Read his book, then make it happen.

Honestly, though, I must say that his lifestyle isn’t for everyone.  There are many of us that are happy with hobbies such as gardening or doing things with our hands.  Some people just can’t set records dancing tango, because they ain’t got that rhythm.  Take Hope Solo from Dancing With The Stars, for instance.  Sorry Hope, we still love ya, and admire your soccer abilities, but she just ain’t got the same dancing skills as Cheryl Burke.  Hummm, actually Hope is quite the athlete, she might be able to beat Tim on a contest like Tim did on the Regis and Kelly show.  In fact, now I’m wondering why DWTS hasn’t bothered to invite Tim on their show.  For Pete’s sake, they had Mark Cuban on their show, I say bring on Timmy as he loves to dance!

Read his books and his blogs, he has terrific ideas.

www.fourhourworkweek.com

 

 

 

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