Many years ago, Al Capone virtually owned Chicago.

Capone wasn't famous  for anything heroic. He was notorious for enmeshing the windy city in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder.
 
Capone had a lawyer nicknamed 'Easy Eddie.' He was Capone's lawyer for a good  reason. Eddie was very good! In fact, Eddie's skill at legal manoeuvring kept Big Al out of jail for a long time. To show his appreciation, Capone paid him very well. Not only was the money big, but also, Eddie got special dividends. For instance, he and  his family  occupied a fenced-in mansion with live-in help and all of the conveniences of the day. The estate was so large that it filled an entire Chicago City  block.
 
Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob and gave little consideration to the atrocity that went on around him. Eddie did have one soft spot, however. He had a son that he loved dearly. Eddie saw to it that his young son had clothes, cars, and a good education. Nothing was withheld. Price was no object  And, despite his involvement with organized crime, Eddie even tried to teach  him right from wrong.. Eddie wanted his son to be a better man than he was.
 
Yet, with all his wealth and influence, there were two things he couldn't give  his son; he couldn't pass on a good name or a good example. One day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult decision. Easy Eddie wanted to rectify wrongs he had done.
 
He  decided he would go to the authorities and tell the truth about  Al 'Scarface' Capone, clean up his tarnished name, and offer his son some semblance of integrity. To do this, he would have  to testify against The Mob, and he knew that the cost would  be great…  So, he testified.
Within the year, Easy Eddie's life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago  Street.
But in his eyes, he had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer, at the  greatest price he could ever pay. Police removed from  his pockets a rosary, a crucifix, a religious medallion, and a poem clipped from a magazine.  The poem  read:
 
 
'The  clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power
to tell just when the hands will stop at late or early hour.
Now is the only time you own.
Live, love, toil with a will.
Place no faith in time.
For the clock may soon be still.' 
 
Story #2
 
World  War II produced many heroes. One such man was Lieutenant Commander  Butch O'Hare. He  was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier Lexington in the South  Pacific.
One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. After he was airborne,  he looked at his fuel gauge and realized that someone had forgotten to top off  his fuel tank.
 
He  would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his  ship. His  flight leader told him to return to the carrier. Reluctantly, he dropped out of formation and headed back to the  fleet.
 
As he was returning to the mother ship he saw something that turned his blood cold: a squadron of Japanese aircraft was speeding its way toward the American fleet.
 
The  American fighters were gone on a sortie, and the fleet was all but defenseless. He couldn't reach his squadron and bring them back in time to save the fleet. Nor could he warn the fleet of the  approaching  danger. There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert them from the fleet.
 
Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into the formation of  Japanese planes. Wing-mounted 50 caliber's blazed as he charged in,  attacking one surprised enemy plane and then another. Butch wove in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible until all his ammunition was finally spent
 
Undaunted, he continued the assault. He dove at the planes, trying to clip a wing or tail in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible and rendering them unfit to fly. Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in another direction. Deeply relieved, Butch O'Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to the carrier.
 
Upon arrival, he reported in and related the event surrounding his return.  The film from the gun-camera mounted on his plane told the tale. It showed the extent of Butch's daring attempt to protect his fleet. He had, in fact, destroyed five enemy aircraft. 

This took place on February 20, 1942, and for that action Butch became  the Navy's first Ace of W.W.II, and the first Naval  Aviator to win the Congressional Medal of Honor.
        
A  year later Butch was killed in aerial combat at the age of 29.  His home town would not allow the memory of this WW II hero to fade, and  today, O'Hare Airport in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of  this great  man.
        
So, the next time you find yourself at O'Hare International, give some thought to visiting Butch's memorial displaying his statue and his Medal of Honor.  It's located betweenTerminals 1 and  2.
        
SO  WHAT DO THESE TWO STORIES HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER?
        
Butch O'Hare was 'Easy Eddie's'  son.
        
(Pretty cool, huh?)

This is kinda cool…

Check out the sidebar on the right. You can now find tickets to your favorite events quickly and easily.

Enjoy,

Woody

In his latest ezine, Marlon Sanders makes a small rant which is worth posting here…

"2. BRIEF RANT about my outbound voice broadcast:

If you called bitching and whining about my voice broadcast, CHILL! Seriously guys and gals.

I sent out only a FEW voice broadcasts in a year. And it's always when I have something really IMPORTANT and vital.

I send one broadcast and some of you were burning up my phone like I was calling you every day.

You're a marketer. Screw your head on. When I call which is very rare it's either with something FREE or a very good REASON.

I send you drop dead ezine issues NO other marketer does.
In return, I ask that you let me SELL something on occasion.
If that isn't too inconvenient for you.

If you don't like marketing, get OUT of the business."

Rock On, Marlon!

Being that I didn't ask permission to repost this, I will do the next best think and post a link to his new website (not an affililiate link).

http://www.promodashboard.com/

Woody

I will dub this post 'For Sale' as I have several projects I'm no longer actively pursueing and would like to sell them. These projects are being dropped as they simply don't fit into my overall picture right now.

Before I take these items to brokers, I thought I would give you first crack at them.

So let's get to it…

Item #1 - The file conversion super advertising system

Have you seen zamzar.com?

Zamzar allows you to convert just about any file type to another file type. Say you have a .swf file that you want to be a .wma file, Zamzar can do it for you.

There are several systems like this online.

What I like about them is that they run mainly on advertising revenue as well as have a low cost prority subscription system. These sites are LINK magnets to the extreme, thus advertising dollars should be significant after 6 months to a year in operation.

I've had this system cloned with a few addiitonal file conversion types added to allow for more options for the visitor.

So far, the programmer has been working on this for 3 months and is 90% complete.

I'm selling what code I have, access to the programmer (who charges $15/hr and will have this ready within 2 weeks for the new buyer), and the server it currently resides on for just $7,000.

The server is an addiitonal $150/mo and you will be responsible for paying the server company directly.

I've paid more than 7k to this point, but am willing to take a loss since the code isn't complete yet. If it was complete, chances are I would be selling it for 20k… seriously.

If you can see the potential here and can afford it, then email me at woody@woodymaxim.com so we can talk about it.

Item #2 - http://www.infoprodcreation.com/ - PR3

I acquired this property a few months back for 3k and have not had the time to market it.

This is a 100% video course that takes a newbie and teaches them how to make money by creating their own information product.

I'm selling it for what I paid for it… 3k.

You get the domain, TESTED sales page, all software on the site used for testing, product, and Clickbank account.

Again, if you want it, email me at woody@woodymaxim.com.

I have more, but will post those in the next few days.

Woody

I feel dirty.

I'm a fan of good marketing and I appreciate a few hyped up emails promoting something (you can always learn SOMETHING), but when it's out of control (50 or more) it feels like someone hired an army of used car salesman to raid my inbox.

I mean, do you know anyone that sells or has sold used cars? The lengths that these people will go to in order to sell you a car is rediculous.

I take responsibility though… I'm the one that opted into all of these lists. I have the freedom to unsubscribe.

Speaking of freedom (and comedy relief), I have a video for you today that has NOTHING to do with Traffic Secrets 2.0.

This video pretty much sums up the thoughts of a nation.

But I must warn you, this is MATURE material.

http://13gb.com/media.php?media_id=2179

Woody

Two posts back, I mentioned that I have a tool that will scan a PDF or DOC and create a themed mindmap based on that info.

Several people have asked what it is.

Here's the program:

http://www.mindsystems.com.au/products/themereader/

Nope, no affiliate link here. I must warn you that this program isn't perfect, but it IS useful when you have 300 pages sitting in front of you.

In the past, I've used tools like Copernics Summerizer (http://www.copernic.com/en/products/summarizer/index.html)

The jury is still out on this one. Not sure which one will become my favorite.

If you use both, please feel free to chime in here.

Woody

I've received DOZENS of bonus offers today for Traffic Secrets 2.0.

Some good… most suck.

Andy (John's affiliate manager) is a good friend of mine. I've mentioned him several times in this blog. I committed to him that I would promote the course.

I've seen the course (well, the written material anyway) and it really is solid.

Despite what John's critics are saying, he does deliver the goods.

So I sat down and thought about WHAT I could give you that would make this a no brainer.

My first thought was to give you nothing… hell, the course is only $397 and if you need to be bribed to buy it, then you probably don't need it.

But every affiliate and their brother (or mother in some cases) is 'adding value' to this, so I suppose I need to as well to keep up with the Jones's.

Now here's the thing… most affiliates don't REALIZE that you need to add value to a promotion by COMLIMENTING the course with something that creates a synergistic effect.

You know… 1 plus 1 equals 3 sort of thing.

So here's my bonus that compliments TS 2.0 well…

How about 10 websites that are all search engine magnets, built by me. How about I throw some traffic at these sites as well. AND how about I set them up to promote whatever product you want to promote?

This includes the domains, sites, hosting, content, traffic… everything.

AND, I will even build it the day you buy TS 2.0! No more waiting for the refund period to expire or BS like that.

With John's course, you will learn how to get traffic. My bonus gives you the site with a traffic jumpstart.

So here's what you need to do to get this…

1. Clear your cookies.

2. Click this link after clearing your cookies.
http://www.youshouldcheckthisout.com/traffic2

3. Post your receipt to the comment section of this post. Your comment WILL NOT be made public and will be deleted as soon as I build your sites.

Take care,

Woody

Wow, no less than 10 emails promoting John Reese's new Traffic Secrets 2.0 after 6pm on the night before a major holiday in the US.

That can either be looked at as brilliant or pathetic.

Here's my thoughts…

Everyone invited to promote Traffic Secrets 2.0 understands that it's going to be the early bird that catches the worm. And in this case, that worm is some very healthy affiliate commissions.

Reality is that John is still the king of the hill. When the king releases an update to a 4 yr old course, you can BET YOUR ASS that this thing will sell out faster than anything else this marketplace has ever seen.

Your's truly has been invited to promote this as well. Frankly, I wasn't too excited… at first.

And since the kids are in bed, a few beers in me, and just finished a fine $25 cigar, I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and actually write an unbiased review about this thing.

What? Woody has an advanced copy?

Yes… and I should. Heck, I am the Woodster after all. Ok, that sounded a bit arrogant and was meant tounge in cheek.

What I mean is that I've had a chance to preview some of the course.

Sidenote: Over the next two weeks, this thing will be promoted by anyone and everyone. Chances are that none will have actually consumed the product (like me), and chances are you will see the most rediculous bonuses ever given in Internet Marketing history. It's my sincere hope that you can look past the hype, take what I write here, and make an informed decision.

Ok, back to business…

What I was able to review was a 360 page transcript of the entire course. Lucky for you, I have advanced atificial intelligence software that will scan any document and create a nice, lovely, readable mindmap from it.

This allows me to consume 360 pages in about 20 minutes.

Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, the material is solid and speaks to building REAL conversations online. The course shows several innovative ways to do that.

That's it in a nutshell.

(Don't you appreciate how so much info can be summed up so quickly?)

Now do I think it's worth whatever price he's asking?

Yes and no.

Yes if you consume it quickly and implement is fast. I'm not kidding here. The fact is that if you don't, you will always put it off to another day and not benefit from the info thus wasting your money.

I seriously doubt John would like to have your money and you not get any value from it in return.

Now here's where I'm going to go on a little tangent…

John comes across as a perfectionist. Just look at his Traffic Secrets 2.0 preview video to see how awesome it is (it really is cool… I even emailed him asking who produced it only to find out that cat isn't for hire).

His perfectionism comes out in this course as well. It's very well put together.

But John isn't the only one talking about this subject.

With that said, chances are you can get much of this information elsewhere and probably for less money.

But I will say this… I own these other courses and Traffic Secret's 2.0 takes you in places those other courses don't… and vice versa.

So my SUGGESTION is to not only buy John's course, but several other courses on traffic generation as well.

I really did enjoy his material, and while you may expect me to bash everything, I simply can't and be ethical about it.

This course ranks up there with Traffic Tactics and the Kings Point Project. All 3 makes up one heck of a complete traffic system.

Ok, I need another one of those cigars and another beer.

Now make sure you buy Traffic Secrets 2.0 from my link. Was that TOO blatent? Maybe.

Woody

Boys and girls… children of all ages… listen up as the greatest show in the world is about to begin.

The lights dim. All noises cease. You can hear a pin drop as it hits the ground.

Anticipation is building.

Total darkness…

BOOM, a spotlight hits center stage and a man is standing there.

He raises his arms high into the air. You know what's about to happen.

All of that anticipation and excitement has led up to this very moment.

He drops his hands… thunder booms… fireworks blaze.

And then a turtle makes it way out onto the stage.

Huh?

Where's the dancing bears? Where's the acrobatics?

Nope, just a turtle making his way slowly onto the stage.

As the turtle arrives at center stage, a large announcemnt booms over the speakers telling everyone that they hope they all enjoyed the show and that the greatest show on earth is now over.

What? That's it?

Kinda feels like most 'internet marketing' launches doesn't it?

Awesome buildup, but very dissapointing results.

This isn't the launch processes fault. It's the fault of those putting on the launch.

There has been a new trend in launches though. Some people get the fact that it's about OVER DELIVERING, providing content (not this bullshit prelaunch crap you see every day where sales messages are disguised as content) before the sale, not using the stupid-ass 'my server melted' gimick, and not getting every person with a list to pimp the product (some people get the fact that not everyone's list is appropriate for their product).

This is where it's headed folks…

Woody

Man, I like balls!

WHOA, NELLY… that came out VERY wrong!

I meant that I like someone with balls enough to take action. Even if that action causes you to feel fear, be uncomfortable, and break out of your total comfort zone.

Here's the story…

This morning, I received an email from a guy names Jonathan Van Clute. I know him because he's a risk taker.

It all started a year ago. I had just launched this blog and was gaining a lot of momentum in the marketplace. Out of the blue, I receive a phone call (not sure how he got my number) that I happened to answer.

It was Jonathan.

He said he lives in California, but had to make a trip to the Houston area and wanted to buy me breakfast. Umm, ok. My first thought was 'stalker'. By my gut was telling me something different.

I decided to join him and his girlfriend for breakfast. What I thought was going to be a 45 min chat turned into 3 hours of enjoyment.

This is a smart cat and it was fun chatting with him.

Fast forward to today.

Unfortunately, we haven't stayed in touch as often as we would have liked, but that's the way it works sometimes.

Out of the blue (yet again), he emailed me asked for help.

He's in a contest and wants to win (I like a fighting spirit).

So he asked if I could help. He was just asking for a '10' vote, but I went a step further and bought him a $5 'super vote'.

And then it occured to me.

You still want me to post to this blog, but I said I had quit.

Why not do something cool for SEVERAL people at once and make a post to this blog AND help out Jonathan?

So here's what I've decided to do…

Vote for Jonathan at the Top Affiliate Challenge.

Give him a 10.

Once you've done that, post a comment here telling me you did it and I will include you on a super cool interview being held next week.

This interview will reveal the BEST cookie stuffing system I've ever seen.

This is a resource I've kept close to me for months now.

I've asked the programmer to get on the horn with me for an hour and he's agreed.

But it gets better…

I asked the programmer if I could get a coupon for you. His system is less than $250, but I've got $20 coupons for action takers.

So give Jonathan a 10 vote and also get this $20 coupon as soon as they are issued to me.

Cool, huh?

Woody

Here's one of those 'not so frequent posts'.

Take the test to see what car YOU are…

http://www.tomorrowland.us/sportscar/

Here's me:

I'm a Lotus Elise!

You believe in maximum performance and minimum baggage. You like to travel light and fast, hit the corners hard, and dance like there's no tomorrow.

Hmm… nice way to get some inbound links!