eAction

In today’s North American culture (which may well be all over the world), a major problem is credit theft. The wicked learn new tricks every day. By
contrast we are foolish if we don’t also learn how to protect ourselves. This is not an area of your life where you can relax, and wait to see what kind of pleasant surprises will be sprung on you.

You need to be proactive! That is, learn about the problem and take steps to guard yourself as much as possible.

Sometimes “Forwarded” emails have some good stuff in them. I believe I have seen the following piece of advice several times over my years online, but I needed the refresher. You might too, so I’m sharing the following, which an attorney sent to his employees in his company, to make sure they were on guard.

Friend, this may save your business and personal income - maybe all you own!

1. The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first
name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your cheque book,they will not know if you sign your cheques with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign your cheques.

2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put “PHOTO ID REQUIRED”.

3. When you are writing cheques to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the “For” line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your cheque as it passes through all the cheque processing channels won’t have access to it.

4. Put your work phone # on your cheques instead of your homephone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your SIN# printed on your cheques. (DUH!) You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it.

5. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers call and cancel.

Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a photocopy of my passport when travel either here or abroad. We’ve all heard horror stories about fraud that’s committed on us in stealing a name, address, SIN, credit cards.

Unfortunately, I, an attorney, have firsthand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieves ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more. But here’s some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:

1. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.

2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit
cards, etc. were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).

But here’s what is perhaps most important of all: (I never even thought to do this.)

3. Call the two national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Insurance number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.

By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves’ purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away. This weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.

Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, etc. has been stolen:
1.) Equifax Canada: 1-877-249-2705
2.) TransUnion: 1-877-525-3823
3.) National Credit Reporting Association http://www.ncrainc.org/about.htm
4.) NAICM, Seattle http://www.nacmbcs.org/

P.S. I can’t confirm whether the American companies allow you to order your credit record for free, but the first two allow you to do so if you apply by regular mail. It’s a good idea to ask for it at regular intervals so you know what is in there when a business checks your record. You may need to ask to have it corrected!

Have you ever marveled at how membership sites make money simply by charging people to get access to certain pages with information not offered to the general public? I have, and I thought it must be awfully expensive or difficult to run such a membership site.

You don’t even have to have freaks behind the tent curtain to draw crowds. If you offer them a chance to see oddles of recipes and recipe books they’ll probably be happy to pay whatever you charge.

Just this week I’ve discovered that I’m already using a free content management system which is set up for about six levels of membership management. It comes with an included package of software at the host for my domain sites. A couple of clicks, choose a user name and password, and presto, it’s installed!

Now there is a learning curve to this, but if you can read and have the time to study and learn from the many tutorial sites I’m discovering, it is possible to run a membership site for under $20 US per year!

Ready to check it out for yourself? Start here; MamboServer.com

Perhaps you’ve been dabbling at, and even seriously trying to make money online, and it feels like you are not getting anywhere. Invitations to special events, surprise visitors, family crises, all kinds of things can slow us down or make us feel like we’re failures.

Well, hold on. Are you really? Let’s say you’ve committed yourself to spending one hour a day at marketing some program or product online. Not every day have you got to it; because your time was preempted for good reasons. But of the time you have spent, have you accomplished little steps?

Recharge your motivation by making a list of the things you’ve learned since you first began your marketing, or money-making efforts. Count every thing.

For example.
You learned to send emails to a number using Blind carbon copy
You discovered some places to post free classified ads
You signed up for a helpful ezine
You read an article by a successful marketer and caught on to his trick

All such things are progress. If you are doing what you learned, you can build on that step, so you are higher on the stairway to success than when you started.

Yes, sometimes it’s a good idea to stop and see how many stairs you’ve climbed, or how many hills you’ve conquered. Satisfaction is a good motivator!

I caught on to a marketeer’s trick last week quite out of the blue. A few weeks back I had to give an email to get entrance to a sales page about creating powerful affiliate web sites in no time flat. As I’d expected, I’m on that man’s mailing list now and get regular reminders to come back and buy-BUY! Past experience has taught me not to use one of keeper emails for such signups but one of my disposable ones atrmf.Mailshell.com/signup.html
(I can make them up and drop them as easily as handiwipes).

Being on this list gets me access to links I wouldn’t find otherwise, so when I have a few moments I go check out a link or two, even though I don’t expect to join or buy anything.

Well, last week Anik sent a link to another’s product, which was a software package. It included links to sample sites. I explored two of them, and suddenly exclaimed to myself; I know how he does it!

There is a line on the sales page admitting that this will not be for those who already know HMTL or web design skills. Since I have those skills I don’t need this package, but I can easily copy the concept and create my own sites.

Oh, now you’re dying to know what that concept is, right?

Basically, it’s a copy-cat of what I’ve learned in the free Affiliate Masters from SiteSell, but it’s been packaged as an much over-simplified paint-by-number kit. (This is a cheap plastic version). First you sign up to an affiliate arrangement whereby you sell their products with links from your site. Then,

1, You gather a bunch of keywords on the topic of these products,

2. You create a simple web page template

3. Arrange a column of links using ALL those keywords on each template

4. Using the template create a new web page for each keyword,

5. On each page describe the product(s) using the keyword of that page’s name, and add links and banners to that affiliate. Everything else is identical to the rest of the pages because it’s part of the template.

6. Make sure all the links from that keyword list link to the matching page.

7. Now list your site with the search engines, and line up pay-for-click ads to drive traffic to your site.

In this example, every page, and every out-going link was only to the affiliate products’ site. There was nothing personal or winsome about the pages. They looked mechanical to me.

Ever since I read The Affiliate Masters Course more than six years ago, I’ve been building my three sites on this principle, but rather than sticking to just one affiliate, I add about half a dozen, and disguise them as Tips and Solutions. I also see to it that my web pages have a strong personal touch, and come across as friendly and trustworthy.

The one thing I can take away from this is that I should prepare more pages named with the keywords that relate to the products. I’m sure I can fill them with content, as I can usually think of something to say on any word thrown at me. - My big hurdle to cross is to fit in more time!

By the way, if you want to read the Affiliate Masters Course, you may download it for free; Affiliate Masters Course

Are you following an agenda for your work or business? But do you often have to give up some of that time for other interruptions that seem to take priority? To find out how much of your business hours you are giving away to family or other causes, keep a coloured marker or pencil near your business calendar and every time you sacrifice a block of time, color it in, and note a few initials to indicate what that time went to.

In a few months you should see a pattern emerging. Maybe your evenings or week ends are showing up as colour blots on each month’s page. If a certain person or situation is regularly interrupting you, it’s time to revise the agenda and create a a regular block to deal with that.

Clear another block of time to catch up on your business work. Otherwise it will get frittered away.

Maybe you’ve been putting in time, and investing of yourself to build an online business for a number of years, and it still doesn’t seem to be paying off. For me it’s going on seven years. This morning upon reading Psalm 126:5-6 I made a list of the things I’ve been sowing;
- ezines and blogs to attract new friends
- three web domains of my own and some for others (with affiliate links)
- lots of time into email friendships and mentoring
- long evenings using the above skills for missions
- long evenings entering genealogy data and creating reports

So what kind of harvest am I getting, if any?
- A new friend or two every week it seems!
- occasional affiliate commission cheques
- growing, fullfilling friendships
- donating valuable work to the missions, eg. WTM, GA, etc.
- some genealogy sales

And now, I have a prospect of a transcription job next year! It comes out of my genealogy site where I have pages offering to do translation work from the old German handwriting known as Gothic Script. Truly, when we sow a lot of seed, we are bound to have some plants come up and bear produce!

This produce isn’t in the freezer yet, but I’m beginning to sing songs of joy
as I consider my present harvest, and the ones to come!

Take heart! Sow plenty of good seeds and you WILL get a harvest!

The other day a dear older friend, whose wisdom I have long respected, called
me. We talked of the opportunity I had last week to submit a quote on a job for
a rare skill I have. Such opportunities don’t happen often. At one point she
said though, “Now just don’t get too friendly and chummy with your client.”
She knows I tend to do that with everyone, so I agreed with a blush.

Yesterday morning I woke up thinking about this. Is “not getting too friendly
with business associates” godly advice, or is that a secular principle? How does
God really want us to behave towards our business clients, customers or
contacts?

My next thought was, the book of Proverbs in the Bible is God’s handbook on
practical daily living in all aspects of our lives; I should search in there.
Trick is, what keywords to use?

I was sure my wise friend had not meant to avoid being nice or polite to my
business contacts. More like, be discrete in what you tell them about yourself.
If the business contract falls apart, the other party can use what they know
about you to hurt you.

After skimming around for a while, I decided that “discernment” and
“discretion” were fairly good words to sum up what my advisor had meant. Then,
with a concordance, which is like a huge index to words in the Bible, II found
plenty of verses that referred to this kind of understanding what to say and
what to leave unsaid.

There are some that call it an ornament and a necklace that you wear all the
time. It makes you attractive and winsome. Discernment is something to be
sought after and prized like a rare jewel. Give up other things to get this!

A woman without discretion is considered to be as incongruous as a gold ring in
a pig’s snout. Oh-oh~

Discernment - and discretion - are spiritual gifts that I have desired and
prayed for over many years. Sometimes I catch myself using them, and sometimes
I miss the mark. So I’m renewing my resolve to earn and practice them. I’ll use
them both in my business relationships, and in my friendships.

I don’t own these gifts, so you are welcome to apply to the Lord to receive
them for yourself too! He’ll be pleased to give them to you.

Just remember, like muscles, they grow flabby and disappear if you don’t USE
them.

As I’ve said, I’m dabbling in eBay selling, but yesterday I stopped to do
something important. I went to Google online to see if anyone else was selling
these Disciples Cross necklaces that Dad has made. Turns out a great number
are. They are not selling them from eBay, but from a web page. The ones with
the good sales copy describing the crosses, and providing nice photos are
probably doing the best.

I can do that. Why didn’t I study our competition earlier?

If you’re trying to promote something online - check to see how others are
doing it. You might learn a trick or two from them. Never decide that your
first idea is the ONLY way. There might be others.

Last week I suggested you watch me learn how to sell via eBay auctions. Well,
our first lesson is in how to fail. But remember, I’ve written before on
how we can fail admirably and learn from our failures.

My auction ended yesterday for my self-published family history book, “A Godly
Inheritance.” No bid. So I’m out $1.20 in Canadian funds.

However, I’m not terribly disappointed or upset. I did learn how to set up my
seller’s account, and I had a sales page on my site, to link to for more info.
I think I did most things right. Except for one thing. While I tried to check
my auction each day to see how it was going, I failed to go check for messages
from would-be buyers.

One man asked if he could pick it up. But I didn’t see that until just hours
before the auction closed. I answered him promptly, of course, but it was
probably not enough time for him to make a bid. Even if he had bid a $1.00 he
would have got that book cheap, and if he dropped by and picked it up, no
shipping costs.

So now I’m weighing the pros and cons. Shall I try that one again, or pick
another product that may have greater popularity?