70 Free Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Website

I get asked all the time how I drive traffic to my sites without spending a fortune. Of course, my my more established companies such as Globat or NetDNA we had more or less significant monthly marketing budgets, but what if you’re starting out and don’t have the luxury of deep pockets quite yet.

Most people want to know the best way(s) to drive the greatest amount of traffic to their site(s). However, the truth is that there is no best or fastest way to drive traffic! It is important to recognize that what works for one might not necessarily work for someone else, and vice versa. Just because I manage to get 250 visitors a day from an article I submitted to article directories doesn’t mean you can get that much traffic doing the same thing. You might get less or more.

Of course, there are some traffic generation methods that produce better results than others. But again, it all depends on you and your individual circumstances. Let’s take article marketing as an example. Article marketing is one of the oldest and still pretty solid way to generate quality traffic. But the success of your article marketing campaign depends on a variety of different things, such as the number of articles you put out, the number and type of article directories you submit to, the quality of your articles, how many articles a day you submit, and more. My advice would be to pick a few methods from the 70 I’ve listed below, and start implementing them. Test them for yourself. Depending on your skills, you might find a method that would work wonders for you.

Don’t just follow what everybody else says. I’m not saying, “Don’t listen to experienced people who are successful in generating traffic to their site.” By all means, listen to them and do take their advice—but experiment to find out for yourself which traffic generation methods work best for you and your situation. Push the limits a bit, try to be creative and think outside of the box.

With that said, here are 70 simple and free (well, mostly free) ways to generate traffic to your website:

• Read and study my post on TwitterMastery here on my blog and put your knowledge to good news.
• Turn your articles and blog posts into PDFs using free PDF converters like OpenOffice. Then submit your PDFs to document sharing sites like Scribd and DocStoc.
• Write truly informative and useful articles related to your niche, and publish them on WikiPedia.
• Hold a contest and give prizes to your readers. Use social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to let people know about the contest. A good contest with good prizes will attract a lot of people.
• Build a wiki page for your blog. To ensure your page doesn’t get deleted, create an article that is educational, informational, and not self-promoting.
• Write list posts like the one you are reading. Readers love posts like “10 ways to make money” or “6 ways to drive traffic to your blog”. List posts are amongst the most popular kinds of posts, and people tend to share list posts with others more often than other posts.
• Learn how to build your own responsive email list to create a surge of traffic at the push of a button at ListBuildingStart.
• Next setup your mailing list account and autoresponder service with Aweber from where you can send your messages to your list.
• Join Safe-Swap to build a mailing list at now cost by swapping with other list owners or spend a little money and purchase solo mailings.
• Join AutoresponderMastery to learn how to use email sequences to direct emails to any sites you wish.
• Make flyers with a catchy title and a description of your blog, and post them on bulletin boards in the entrance to supermarkets and other community buildings.
• Post frequently, but don’t sacrifice quantity for quality. Both search engines and visitors like to see fresh, quality content. The more content you have, the more chances you have for ranking for variety of keywords, which will mean more organic traffic for your blog.
• Make a lens (or more) using Squidoo and in it, place a few links back to your blog.
• Submit your blog to directories relevant to your niche, like InsLink.com (an SEO/webmaster directory).
• Make it easy for non-technical readers to link to your blog or share your links with other people by making a “How to link to us” page. Here, give readers easy instructions on how to link to your blog with your keywords as anchor text.
• Submit your blog to search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Or simply use AdMe.com to submit your site to over 25 search engines for free.
• Use sites like Odiogo to turn your blog into a podcast, then submit your podcast to podcast websites.
• Answer questions related to your niche on YahooAnswers and other Q & A sites. Include a link to your blog in the resource box.
• Submit your blog to social bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon.
• Write and submit articles to article directories like EzineArticles and ArticleDashboard.
• Turn your articles to videos using free video creation services like Animoto, and submit them to video directories such as YouTube and DailyMotion.
• Build a Facebook fan page for your blog.
• Make use of plugins like Tell-a-Friend to let your readers quickly share your posts with their friends and family vie email.
• Use Hi5 to build a page for your blog and create a community around it.
• Don’t clutter your blog with too many pictures, ads, and so on. Keep it clean and easy to navigate. This will help both search engines and visitors to navigate around your blog easily and quickly.
• Join BlogEngage to submit your blog and create a community around it.
• Ping your blog posts using free ping services such as Pingler and Pingoat.
• Create a hub about your blog on HubPages.
• Register with few good niche-related forums and use your signature to place links pointing to your blog. Participate in discussions and contribute as much as you can.
• Make it easy for your readers to share your posts by installing social bookmarking plugins like SocialMarker and Digg Buttons.
• Readers like to read other people’s comments, especially those who responded to their comments. So, take advantage of that by using a plug-in like Comment Notifier to automatically let your readers know of new comments posted on your blog.
• Make your blog more search engine friendly by using SEO plug-ins such as Platinum SEO Pack.
• Target long-tail keywords with low competition and try to rank for them. Such keywords are easier to rank for in search engines and give you much more targeted traffic.
• Make a MySpace page for your blog.
• Make business cards with your blog info on them, hand them to friends and family, and ask them to pass them on. Mall parking lots are good place to pass your cards around. In some states you can even put your business card on windshields. You can get up to 250 free business cards using sites like VistaPrint (although you do have to pay $5 shipping).
• Submit your blog to the free directories like DMOZ (hard to get into, but well worth the effort!).
• Write a good press release, or hire a professional to do it for you (you can get a pretty decent press release written for you for $5 on Fiverr.com), and submit them to free press release distribution sites like PR.com.
• Write creative and attention-grabbing ads about your blog, and publish them on free classified ads sites such as CraigsList and UsFreeAds.
• Controversial posts attract visitors. Write a controversial post. Be creative and bold, but be careful not to cross the boundaries.
• Ask an expert or a trusted, well-known person in your niche for an interview. Then post the entire interview on your blog, either as a text post or as a video.
• Leave quality comments on blogs that are related to your niche. Make sure your comments add value to the blog. Don’t just spam-comment and hope for the best. It never works, and your links will get deleted. Worst of all, you might get blacklisted from the site. If you leave a useful comment, people will be more likely to visit your blog.
• Use free banner-making tools like BannerFans to make an interesting banner for your blog. Then find other bloggers in your niche and exchange banners with them.
• Exchange links with other blogs in your niche. Don’t go overboard with this technique, or exchange links with each and every blog you find—be selective and make sure the context for your link is appropriate. Most people use their main keyword as the anchor text for their link, that’s good for SEO. But, if you want to get more traffic from those links, instead use attention-grabbing text as your anchor text. Don’t use “Make Money Online” for your link text—people are used to seeing those links all over the web. Instead use something like “10 ways to make $10 in 10 minutes.”
• If you find interesting posts on other blogs, write a post about them and link to them. The other bloggers will notice and might do the same for you.
• Find good blogs in your niche that accept guest posts. You can either search manually or make it easy for yourself by registering for free with MyBlogGuest, which matches guest bloggers with blogs that accept guest posts. Write and submit your best articles to get the maximum exposure. Don’t just submit the article and leave. Make sure you follow up and respond to comments and questions that readers of those blogs ask.
• Submit your site to review sites that write reviews on other websites and blogs, like CoolSiteOfTheDay.
• Submit your blog to BlogCatalog.
• People love free stuff, so give out freebies that are related to your niche. If you are in “online money making” niche, a free ebook that teaches people who to make money on Twitter might make an appropriate freebie.
• Write a page on 43things.com about your blog and what you want to do with it.
• Use your keywords in the title of your posts. Having your keyword in the title makes it easier for you to rank for that keyword, thus bringing you more organic traffic.
• Use your blog’s name as your username on forums, social networking sites, and other places like YahooAnswers. People are curious by nature, so they may check out your blog out of curiosity and if you have good compelling content, they may become your loyal readers.
• Make a bumper sticker with your blog address on it, and place it on your car’s bumper. You can even ask your friends and family to do the same for you!
• Make a Twitter profile for your blog and tweet each and every post you publish on your blog.
• Register with EntreCard and start dropping your card on other blogs. You will be amazed how much traffic you can get from EntreCard.
• Register with ComLUV.com and download their plugin.Then use the Global CommentLuv Search to find blogs related to your niche and comment on them. It will return up to ten (recent) posts that will be sent back when you comment on a CommentLuv enabled site. Most are dofollow blogs, and you will get dofollow links back to your most recent posts. This is good for link building and getting some traffic.
• Make a free ebook with a link back to your site in it, and submit it to free ebook sites like GetFreeEbooks.com.
• Buy .info domains with long-tail keywords in them and use a redirect to send the traffic they receive to your main site.
• Rent a mailing list and send high-quality content with a link back to your site to all the subscribers. Take care with this technique so that you’re not blacklisted as a spammer, though. Find a reputable list broker—or, if in doubt, why not start your own?
• Post a classified ad on eBayClassified with a link to your site.
• When you eat out, leave a good tip along with a business card with your site info on it.
• Create a short report with resell rights and and include your links in the report. Give it to people for free: those people can sell the report to others as their own, so long as they don’t remove your links. The results of this technique will surprise you.
• Come up with a really crazy but buzz-worthy post and submit it to NowPublic.com (Previously known as Truemors). If it’s good enough, it might just go viral!
• Go to YouTube, find popular videos related to your niche and start commenting on those videos with a link back to your blog. Youtube videos get thousands of views, and since most people are sociable creatures, they will read the comments no matter how far down the list your comment is.
• Create a page (personal or business) at LookUpPage.com. You can add as many links to your blog as you like. Write a short “about” post about yourself or your blog, and make sure to link to your Twitter and other social networking sites as well. After creating the page, bookmark it using SocialMarker and ping it with Pingler (or any other tools you like).
• Register with Visible.me for free, and add links and information about your blog. Its a great way to build your brand and get a few backlinks from a high-PR (6) dofollow site.
• Submit your RSS feed to RSS aggregators. Here, I don’t mean just your blog’s RSS feed: grab the RSS url of every site you have a link on (example: if you submit articles to ezine.com, you will have your own “author RSS” URL), and go to RssMix.com. It will let you make a custom RSS feed. Take that and submit it to RSS directories and aggregators. This will put your RSS feed on steroids—and will give you many more backlinks.
• Make a few (yard) signs with your blog’s URL and a good title related to your niche, and place them on highway exit ramps, at busy intersections, and so on. Make sure you abide by the laws in your own state or country if you try this approach.
• Put an ad in your local newspaper. If you live in a small town, it may not be very expensive to have an ad on your local newspaper—or on TV or radio, for that matter.
• Order some T-shirts with your blog URL at VistaPrint and title printed on them and give them away. People will check out your URL!
• This is just for fun, so enjoy it! Make a big and I mean big sandal (or flip flop) with your blog’s URL engraved on the bottom, go to a busy beach, and start walking all over the sand! Leave your mark for others to see.

If you go through this list methodically these methods will keep you busy for a while. But perhaps the most important tip I can give you is to be patient. Getting traffic to a blog or any other website takes time and a lot of work. You cannot expect to have hundreds of visitors after a few weeks, or months of starting your blog. But, if you are a dedicated person who’s willing to put enough time and effort into it, you can’t help but attract more visitors to your blog over time.

Which of these ideas do you like? What has or hasn’t worked for you? Share your experiences with me in the comments.

Why I Love LLCs

I have always been a big proponent of setting up businesses with a proper structure and in form of a liability protecting entity right from the start. I even started a FaceBook Page about it called LLC or Inc.

Like corporations, LLCs come into existence after making a filing with the appropriate state body, typically the Secretary of State, and paying the necessary state filing fees. The LLC formation documents are typically called articles of organization or a certificate of organization.

In terms of taxation, the LLC’s income is not taxed at the entity level as is that of a C corporation. While the LLC does complete a tax return, the income or loss of the LLC as shown on this return is passed through the LLC and is reported on the owners’ individual tax returns. The LLC’s owners then pay taxes on the LLC’s profits at the individual tax level. LLCs can elect with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to be taxed like a C corporation, but this is not overly common.

Other advantages of LLCs include:

• Members are typically not held personally responsible for the debts and liabilities of the company.
• Forming an LLC can help establish credibility for a new business with potential customers, employees, vendors, and partners.
• There are generally no restrictions on the number of members allowed.
• LLCs have flexibility in structuring the management of the company.
• LLCs do not require as much annual paperwork or have as many formalities as corporations and S corporations.

Some disadvantages of LLCs include:

• LLCs are more expensive to form than sole proprietorships and general partnerships.
• LLCs face more ongoing requirements, such as state annual report filings, than sole proprietorships and general partnerships.
• Ownership is typically harder to transfer than with a corporation.
• Because the LLC is a newer business structure, there is not as much case law to rely on for determining precedent.

Regarding the ownership of an LLC, the owners are called members. Members are analogous to shareholders in a corporation or partners in a partnership, depending on how the LLC is structured. Members will more closely resemble shareholders if the LLC utilizes a manager or managers because the members will not directly participate in the management of the LLC. If the LLC does not utilize managers, then the members will more closely resemble partners because they will have a direct say in the decision-making of the company. An LLC must specify at the time of formation whether it will be managed by members or managers. A member’s ownership of an LLC is represented by “membership interest,” just like a partner’s interest in a partnership or a shareholder’s shares of stock in a corporation.

When evaluating whether the LLC is the right business structure for your particular business, it is advisable to first determine the goals of your business, and then to assess the advantages and potential disadvantages of the different business structures in relation to those goals. You may also wish to seek the advice of an attorney or accountant. If you are ready to get going, want to setup an LLC or a corporation or simply want more in depth information click here.

Happy New Year

As the last few hours of 2012 slowly but surely tick away I cannot help but reflect upon the many things – good and bad – that happened to the world, our country, cities, communities, neighbors, friends, families, my loved ones, myself, my soulmate Tam and our 4 sweet boys as well as all the many great people around us.

It is very easy to get consumed and overwhelmed by the terrible news of lives lost in wars, unimaginable tragedies such as school shootings as well as the countless know or unknown personal suffering of so many people. Just remember that bad news always get much more airtime and attention than good, positive or uplifting news.

You see, despite an expiring Mayan calendar the world as we know it has not come to an end in 2012. With hope, the right attitude and motivation we actually stand a good chance of making 2013 better than 2012.

Just remember that when the world seems to say: “Let’s give up”, Hope whispers: “Just try it one more time!!!”

Let’s all try to listen to that whisper in this coming year and make a difference not only in our personal but also in someone else’s life.

Here’s to us all and that whisper in our ear.

Happy 2013 to my family and all of my awesome friends!!!

Twitter Mastery

by Ben Neumann

For the longest time Twitter used to be one of those things I always asked me myself about: “Why the heck would I want to share … with the world?” When I finally gave in to it I had a bit of a rough start, but since I am a fighter at heart I refused to give up and finally it started to “click” and I became a Twitter user. A few years have passed since then and lots of reading, sharing, tweeting and about 140,000+ followers on my personal Twitter account later, I am now a Twitter evangelist who tweets several times per day.

Over the past few years I have launched some of my companies on Twitter (@NetDNA, @MaxCDN, etc.) and helped lots of family and friends to get “on” Twitter. With my good friend John Walker recently asking me “how does this all work” and also with my spouse Tamara becoming more and more active on Twitter with her business, I felt it might be time to share some of my most sacred Twitter tools, secrets and resources with the rest of the world for the better good of anybody who wishes to take advantage of these tools, tips and tricks. If you have people who would like to learn more about Twitter and especially use it to grow their business, please point them here.

Did You Know…

• 43% of people follow a brand on Twitter for special offers/deals
• 75% of users are more likely to purchase from a brand they follow
• 67% of users are likely to recommend a brand they follow to others

No Twitter Account Yet?

If you don’t have a Twitter account and am very much unsure on how to set one up, after reading through my Twitter Mastery you should check out a great article by my buddy Michael Hyatt, which is very basic and clean 20 minute guide to Twitter on his website . I recommend this article for people who feel they need help on how to setup their free Twitter account.

What is Twitter?

So, You’re a Beginner to Twitter? These resources below should give you a great intro to getting started:

• Twitter in Plain English | Commoncraft
• 48 Ways to Explain Twitter to Skeptics | Webinknow
• Here are 12 Twitter Stream Aggregators All People Should Know | Top Rank Blog
• Twitter 101: Clarifying the Rules for Newbies | She Geeks
• Twitter for Beginners: 5 Steps for Better Tweeting | Mashable
• Top 10 Twitter Tips for Beginners | PC Magazine
• Twitter Goes Mainstream | Wall Street Journal
• Tweet This: A Twitter Manifesto | Randy Gage

How to use Twitter Effectively

Now that you know what Twitter is and how it works, learn how to use it effectively:

• How to Ask Effective Questions on Twitter | Twitip
• Learning How to Use Twitter Effectively | Justin R Levy
• 7 Tips for Expressing yourself on Twitter | Be A Better Writer
• 7 Ways to Get Twitter Followers to Click Your Links | Seo Hosting
• 5 Ways to Use Twitter For Good | Life Hack
• 10 things Twitter users should not do | Valleywag
• The Twitter Rulebook | Danny Brown
• 50 Ways to FAIL On Twitter | TopRank
• The 10 Twitter Commandments | eConsultancy

How to Increase Your Twitter Followers

So, you know how to use Twitter, but no one is listening. Here are some tips to gain Twitter followers and how NOT to lose them:

• 5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence | Problogger
• Kevin Rose: 10 Ways to Increase Your Twitter Followers | TechCrunch
• How Not to Get Twitter Followers | Webware Cnet
• Getting More Twitter Followers or Losing Them | Pistachio
• How to Get More Followers on Twitter | Twitip
• Writing Killer Content in 140 Characters or Less | Twittip
• Why 150 Followers is All You Really Need | Twittip
• How To: Expand Your Twitter Tribe | Seth Godin

Best Practices: Hashtags

Hashtags (#) can be an effective way to target specific users on Twitter. Here’s some useful “how-to” tips:

• How to get the most out of Twitter #hashtags | Mashable
• How to start a Twitter hashtag | Contentious
• Ultimate guide to Twitter hashtags | Search Engine Journal

Best Practices: ReTweet

Retweeting is a easy way to share content with your Twitter followers. Here’s some useful “how-to” tips:

• 15 kick-ass retweet tips for writers – eConsultancy
• How to retweet on Twitter – Mashable
• The art of retweeting in Twitter – Ruhani Rabin

Best Practices: Search

Find users or search for users based on your custom search criteria. Check out some of my useful “how-to” tips.

• How To Power Up Your Twitter Search Techniques | Twitter Power System
• Take Advantage of Twitter Search Operators | WebWorkerDaily
• Welcome to the Hive Mind; Learn How to Search Twitter | Twittip

How to create Lists

Lists on Twitter can be a very useful way to attract users to your page so that they start following you. Here are some best practices for you:

• 3 Tips To Make Your Twitter Interactive and Irresistible | Social Media Marketing & SEO
• 5 Tips for Getting More From Twitter | Duct Tape Marketing
• 7 Ways to Get Your Twitter Followers to Click Your Links | SEO Hosting
• 8 Useful Tips To Become Successful With Twitter | Smashing Magazine
• Eight Ways Twitter is Useful Professionally | WebWorkerDaily
• 10 Ways Twitter Can Boost Your Social News Profile | Read Write Web
• Top 10 Twitter Tips for Better Twittering | Simple Thoughts
• 50+ Awesome Twitter Tips to become a Pro | Blog Godown

How to use Twitter for Business

Now you’ve gotten a little bit of a taste for how it all works and also a bit of an idea how you could use Twitter for your business. Time to kick it up a notch. Here’s how experts acquired customers and grew their business using Twitter:

• How and Why to Use Twitter for Small Business | Small Biz Trends
• How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business | Copyblogger
• Use Twitter for Your Business the Right Way | Twitip
• 5 Ways to Acquire Customers on Twitter | Shoemoney
• 10 Ways to Use Twitter to Promote Your Business | Business Zone
• 16 Examples of Huge Brands Using Twitter for Business | Search Engine Journal
• The Do’s and Don’ts of Promoting Your Business on Twitter | Sparkplugging
• 4 Ways Companies Use Twitter for Business | ReadWriteWeb
• Twitter for Business? 16 Compelling Reasons | Desk.com Blog

How to use Twitter for Marketing

Given the absolutely enormous reach, you need to start thinking about Twitter for marketing. There’s simply no way around it. Learn how to build your brand and market to businesses, clients and customers the right way:

• 5 Steps to Going Viral on Twitter | Copyblogger
• 7 ways marketers can use Twitter | Marketing Profs
• How to Use Twitter to Build Brand Integrity | Marketing Vox
• How to Use Twitter for Marketing and PR | Hubspot
• The Golden Rule of Twitter Marketing | Technosailor
• Twitter Marketing: Do’s and Don’ts | Get Elastic
• Creative Ways to Use Twitter for Marketing and Branding | Shoestring Branding
• 62 Ways to Use Twitter for Business | Gigaom
• How to Use Twitter as a Twool | Guy Kawasaki
• TweetWhen: The Science of Timing | Dan Zarrella
• The Only Twitter List a Business User Needs | Mario Sundar
• Are Twitter Chats Part of Your Social Media Strategy? | Social Media Explorer
• Social Media, Generosity and the Hockey Stick | Social Media Today

Using Twitter to Engage With Customers

Twitter can transform customer service for the better. Check out these useful tips that can help reduce costs while improving your brand image:

• How to use Twitter for Customer Service | Mashable
• How to Get Customer Service via Twitter | ReadWriteWeb
• Getting Better Customer Service Through Twitter | LifeHacker

Tools to Engage With Customers…

What are people saying about your brand on Twitter? Below are some easy-to-use social media management tools to help you better engage your customers:

• Tweetdeck
• Postling
• Desk.com
• Hubspot
• CoTweet

Ok, I hope me sharing my Twitter Mastery resources with you will help you get going with Twitter, enrich your life with Twitter or grow your business with Twitter in the same or even more ways it has for me.

Until then, Follow Me on Twitter by clicking on this link and hopefully I will see you on Twitter soon.

Happy Tweeting.

InspireMoreHeroes.com Mentoring Program Now Open

Just a quick notice for all of you who emailed me since my original post about my new project, the InspireMoreHeroes.com Mentoring Program recently opened its doors and now has only 42 open spots left before we close it down. This course is one way to increase your chances to qualify for the unique MillionairesMentor program (where graduates are guaranteed to build a million dollar business), which will take on only 25 selected applicants after the Summer. Hope to see you in the program.

Register for my Superhero Event Today…

Change is good… and sometimes very necessary.

Welcome to my very first blog post in 2012. I wish you all a very happy, healthy and successful new year!

Life belongs to the living and he who lives must be prepared for changes.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I’ve looked at the above quote by one of my favorite members of my very personal “Dead Poet Society” many times over the past month because of the changes I personally went through lately and it rings now more true to me than ever. “Life belongs to the living…” what an interesting concept! To me that meant that I had to take charge of my life and take massive action to fundamentally change the things in my life I didn’t like.

I have always wanted to find a way to lose my excess weight and regain my incredible vitality I used to have most of my life. I tried all kinds of diets, programs, pills, etc. and yo-yo’ed up and down about 100 pounds. Whenever I thought I had “it” beat “it” caught up with me again – slowly and silently – and the weight started to come back on with a vengeance.

Then in 2010 and throughout 2011 I began to read and study anything I could get my hands on about weightloss, health, vitality, nutrition, diets, micro-nutrients, macro-nutrients, metabolism, glycemic index, etc.

I also compared and in part tested many popular diets and weightloss programs such as Weightwatchers, the Atkins Diet, the Zone Diet, Slim-Fast, Jenny Craig, the Baby Food Diet, the Hollywood Diet, the Junk Food Diet (boy, did I wish this one would work on me), Nutrisystem as well as bariatic surgery and lap-band surgery.

I was determined to figure out what similarities these programs had and why some worked better than others. I also spoke to people that had successfully tried these programs years ago to find out how well the participants did in keeping their weight off (not good, unfortunately).

I spent an extra long time researching and testing the concept of a raw food diet, juicing, juice fasting, fasting and the impact this has on the body’s ability to heal itself. I am a very lucky guy because my sweetheart Tam is a true self-made expert in the raw food and juicing area. Tam was a vegetarian for many years and also had made the raw food diet part of her daily life. She knows juicing and how different juices and juice recipes can affect the body and different organs. I personally had lost nearly 100 pounds in 2009 after I made juicing part of my daily lifestyle. So I knew that juicing would have to definitely play a major part in my journey to vitality, health and permanent weightloss.

To make a long story (I could go on for quite some time, but I’ll save the details for my book), I didn’t leave any stone unturned in my quest for the perfect and absolute last weightloss program I would ever need to be on in order to meet my weight and health goal. I realized that things weren’t as easy as willpower + less calories in vs. calories out + exercise = Ben version 2.0. I mean, I realized that would in all likelihood work, but since I had done this before I knew that by using this age-old formula my chances of long-term success were slim. So, I decided to take elements from the many things I had learned and build my very own custom health and wellness program. This was a big step for me in my own mind since a look in the mirror always made me question if a guy who’s as overweight as I am can really know as much about health and weightloss as I do. Well, I ultimately came to the conclusion that it’s possible, but I would have to prove to myself that I can put my knowledge to good use and that my program actually works. I realized that I need to help myself, before I can help ofhers. That’s when I decided to test my program on myself. Just like that, Ben, the biggest guinea pig in the world, was born!

That brings us to today, January 2, 2012. The officially Day 1 of my self-test. I’m about to step on the scale, measure whatever body circumference I can get my measure tape around, get my blood numbers/lipid profile and will put it all into a spreadsheet I specifically developed for this (I’m also going to put this part online soon to make it easier).

If you are interested in following my self-test and weightloss journey just click in the Weightloss Journey link on top of my website. I will be posting numbers, results and some videos there. I encourage you to put your name and email address in the little box to the right of my posts and I’ll update you whenever I publish a new blog post.

Oh, I didn’t want to forget to mention that Tam, Pete and my mom have rather spontaneously decided to join me in testing my program. Assuming they give me permission, I will post some of their results and experiences here as well.

Ok, off to my first weigh-in now. Wish us success. Talk soon.

How to make 2012 Your Best Year EVER!

Do you like the week between Christmas day (Dec 25) and New Years day (Jan 1)? I can say with dedication and passion that this week is one of my favorite weeks of the whole year. I always consider it, “The last moment of silence before the storm”.

I, like so many other people, use this week to reflect on the year that has nearly past, relive some of the things which happened and even briefly feel some of the emotions I felt. I look at all the good things I experienced and how I can do more of that in the coming year, but I also remember the not so good and the bad things that happened and how I can do better next year.

I can state with confidence that 2011 was a pretty turbulent year for me personally. My relationship with my love Tam and our four sweet boys allowed me the incredible opportunity to experience love in a dimension I never thought possible before. My companies NetDNA.com and MaxCDN.com started to really take off. I moved my family into a new and beautiful home and embraced new challenges and opportunities. I launched my new InspireMoreHeroes.com project and finally completed the research and development on my Powerful Vitality™ Wellness, Weighloss and Fitness program (I’m going to test the entire program on myself starting Jan 2, 2012, and post all updates on my website, so stay tuned).

Along the way I met many incredible and inspirational people such as Tony Robbins, Brendon Burchard, Mike Koenigs, Pam & Chris Hendrickson, Jeff Walker, Rick Frishman, Grace Jamra, Mike Hanasab, Charles Sophy, Rich Segal, Max Contadino, Phil Staples and also reconnected with many old friends such as Humberto Gray, Robbie Blumenfeld, John Walker and Theo Agranat, just to name a few. On the flip-side, my long time relationship with some of my dearest friends, business partners and protégés was put to the strongest test yet due to mistakes we’ve made in the past, especially how we communicated with each other. I’m still hoping we will be able to salvage our friendship(s) once everything else is settled, as they mean a lot to me, but only time will tell.

One of our awesome kids was diagnosed with ADHD in 2011 and a few other learning challenges, which caused Tam and me to learn more about the human brain and its functions and how nutrition affects these functions than we ever thought we would know. In addition, my seemingly never ending divorce story took way to much of my valuable mind-share, which unfortunately caused me to stress-eat and gain more weight (as if I needed any more of that). Toward the end of the year I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with the incredible Tony Robbins, who brought out the “King of Health” in me and lastly I needed to be strong for my mom, who I love very much, who unexpectedly lost her mother (my grandmother) a few days before Christmas.

The absolute most important lesson I learned in 2011 is that life truly is way too short to dwell on the negative things. I now embrace the notions that life is happening for me instead of to me and that whatever you resist, will persist.

As a successful serial entrepreneur I naturally want to be in control of all the things around me, but I finally accepted the fact that certain things are simply not within my control, no matter how much I want them to be. At the same time, other things (i.e. what I put into my mouth) definitely are very much within my control and should be controlled.

My vast experiences of 2011 combined with my 45 minutes on stage with Tony Robbins at his Date with Destiny seminar and the incredibly positive impact my loving family has had on me profoundly changed the way I look at myself and the world around me going forward.

2012 will be dedicated to my health, my family and finally to 100% embrace what I am truly passionate about: helping and mentoring others to reach their full potential in their business, their relationships, their physical and emotional vitality as well as their very own life goals. I am convinced, the many people who’s life I will touch in 2012 will in return help me to finally find the same happiness and fulfillment in my professional life that so far I have only found in my relationship with Tam and my family.

One of my most important goals for 2012 is to be much better in touch with you personally and to be a truly great resource for your success in 2012.

So, let me begin 2012 by sharing one of the the most important pieces of advice I can give you,  before 2012 even started!

Whenever I am asked what the most important skills I have that I would attribute to any unusual success I have achieved in the past is, my answer has always been the same: value and build my relationships and stick to my Goal-Action-Success system, which I have used and continue to use to strategically plan and achieve all my bigger goals.

The very week I am writing this article during  is also the first week I use to go through my process. This is one of the most important weeks of my goal-achieving year. Right now!

If you want to know all the intricate details of my Goal-Action-Success system I’m giving the entire system away to my InspireMoreHeroes.com members. Visit www.InspireMoreHeroes.com before this week is over and simply put in your name and email. It really is that easy.

I wish you all a very healthy and incredible 2012, filled with love, gratitude and success!

Ben

PS: Please connect with me anytime right here or on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Working hard on launching my newest and biggest project yet…

All of my friends know that I am an entrepreneur through and through. Building businesses is and always has been my absolute passion. My other passion has been to mentor young entrepreneurs to become successful and seasoned business leaders. However, it was not until some unexpected events that happened this past Summer opened my eyes to what seemed to be an incredible opportunity for me to combine both of my passions into something that could ultimate become my biggest and most ambitious project to date.

After lots of soul searching, countless meetings, significant encouragement by my amazing spouse Tam, my 4 boys Devin, Ben Jr, Justin & Dominic as well as my many incredible friends (you know who you are) that I finally made the decision to embark on a mission that will most certainly push me to my limits, test my strengths, my will to succeed and my desire to make a difference in this world. I decided to:

Put America Back To Work – One Small Business Hero at a Time!

See, to me entrepreneurs, freelancers and small business owners have always been heroes. They create jobs, goodwill, products, tax revenue, provide amazing services, invent, innovate and make a huge difference in their own and countless other people’s lives. Based on that philosophy and my core belief that many people want to build something for themselves and others I met with thought leaders and master marketeers such as Brendon Burchard, Jeff Walker, Joe Polish, Darren Hardy, Mike Koenigs, Chris and Pam Hendrickson and many others. I started to put together and I am in the process of building a truly inspirational, very goal oriented, completely hands-on and success attracting program to help anybody who has the desire to make a difference and create an online business to make it happen. My declared goal is to inspire, motivate, assist and guide willing entrepreneurs to become highly successful online business owners with a minimum of $5,000m to $10,000+ per month in revenue and, of course, growing from there.

It is well documented that since 1994 I have founded, built and ultimate sold several well know multi-million dollar Internet businesses. Over the years I have developed an online business blueprint that I used and that is replicable and something that can be taught and learned by anybody who is willing to invest the time and energy. All of this and much more will be part of my new program. The rewards will be nothing short of amazing.

For anybody interested in finding out more about this new project of mine I invite you to check out my exciting pre-launch website at:

www.InspireMoreHeroes.com™

and get on the early bird pre-launch list. Can’t wait to hear what you guys think.

Here’s to all of your Heroes out there! See you on the other side.

BREAKING NEWS: Jeff Walker just opened PLS3 registration

OK, I gotta make this one super quick… Jeff Walker just opened the doors on his Product Launch Formula 3 Coaching Program. PLF always (and I mean ALWAYS) sells out quickly – usually within 24 hrs (so I got in early). Don’t miss out… here’s the link: http://bit.ly/srEdZu