I love this article by Nicole Dean so much!! And I would absolutely subtitle it:

Wisdom bubbled up from a pineapple under the sea.

That is, by far, the BEST quote of my week! What about yours? Let me tell you, I just love Nicole’s marketing style, her business acumen. She is a very successful businesswoman, but she is STILL Nicole! There could be no better mentor for me, I’m telling you. If there’s one thing you cannot tame into a business suit and a bun – it’s my “Lisa-ness”. It’s just not budging. Not going anywhere. You cannot stuff it into a box for eight hours so I can ‘behave’ for the day and make my wages. It just won’t work. And the awesome thing I’ve learned from Nicole is that – none of that needs to happen. What an amazing breath of fresh air!

Read on and see how dead on she is about spicing up your article marketing with just the right touch of a living, breathing, dynamic you!

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I spend a lot of my time online at one particular forum and that is the Self Starters Weekly Tips Forum, run by my sweet friend, Lynn Terry. I’ve been hanging out there and learning from Lynn for a long time. She is really smart and even better – she has a way of simplifying things so that my overloaded brain can comprehend them. I used to hang out at a lot of different forums and follow a lot of different ‘mentors’ and try to read a lot of different guru’s emails. Wow, that was so confusing. It’s really just the way I do things – ADD all the way, baby! (I’ve got a post in draft right now about the books on my bedside table, because, someone asked me on Twitter what I was gonna read when I said I had some great books. I told her, “That’s a blog post!” I just read too many things at once.)

And that is how I try to learn about internet marketing and affiliate marketing. And that only leads to BRAIN OVERLOAD and not to mention, a lack of doing, instead of just reading/learning. So a few years ago, I whittled down the number of “gurus” that I follow to just 2 or 3, I think it was. And now it’s pretty much just Lynn. Oh sure, I have a SHITAKE load of smart online-marketing-type friends and I learn plenty from them, too. As far as a true mentor, though, it’s mostly just Lynn now. And the funny thing is I can’t remember who the other 1 or 2 other ‘gurus’ were. And that was just about three years ago, that I did the ‘whittling’. I guess they just didn’t make an impact on me. At the time, I really looked up to them. Ah well…

So anyway, if you follow me on Twitter you may have seen me tweet this on Tuesday:
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Actually, I wish a LOT of people (i.e. businesses) out here had websites! It is such a rare thing out here in this county. And when they do have sites, they are all image-based, or they just plain don’t offer much information or interactivity for the visitor. And most importantly, they do not engage the visitor. Which, I suppose, is the same thing as interactivity, but, it is so important – it’s worth saying twice in two different ways!

My son recently needed two root canals and I set to work looking for a dentist. I found one that did, in fact, have a website. And not only did he have a website, but, there was a LOT of good information on there about root canals and the whole process. I learned a lot from their site! And I was uber impressed with the depth and the “web 2.0′ness” of the website.

For various reasons, however, we wound up taking our son to another dentist in a nearby town. The guy is really cool – super nice, very into digital photography, even teaches it at a nearby college at night. Sounds like he’s tech-savvy, right?

But – he doesn’t have a business website. I was thinking how cool a site for a man that ‘up’ on things could be. And it could be completely littered with his own personal photography! And he was so good at explaining all of the different steps in the procedures that he was doing to my son – he could have a ‘knock it outta the park’ helpful-to-his-clients website! But he doesn’t even have a bland website, much less a website that matches his seemingly modern viewpoint on technology and his great teaching ability.

There is a San Diego dentist that has a very nice website that has some instructional information in a ‘Patient Library’. And they even have a way for you to fill out your forms before you come into the office! That’s definitely helpful – it’s such a pain to try to get all that information filled out, balancing the clipboard on your knees in the waiting room. So you can just relax and wait for your name to be called when you arrive.

Even they could do better, though, because, they have a newsletter and a blog – but, they are both outdated. And you can’t sign up to get the newsletter by email.

A really cool thing they do have on their site, though, is a ’special offer’ that is exclusive to people who’ve visited their website! Awesome! It’s an incredible special offer, too – it is a coupon good for a Starbucks drink of your choice and a $129 Sonicare Professional Electric Toothbrush! Wow!

That is exactly the kind of thing I would love to see businesses around here start doing! (After they come out of the stone ages and get websites, that is!) Just think about it, if you heard of Dr. Smith, who did root canals for $800 and Dr. Jones, who did root canals for $800 plus you get a new $129 electric toothbrush – where are you going to go?

I thought so.

(Click to biggify.)

Uh…yeah…Lynn and I have been talking a lot lately! Ha!

I stumbled onto the Twitter Grader this afternoon and I, being the self-centered me that I am, checked my score. I got a 94, not too shabby. And then, further with the self-concern, I wondered how I compared to Lynn Terry’s score. I put in her name and clicked ‘Get My Grade’ and went to other windows bee-bopping around, doing other things, while I waited. When I finally went back to that window – before I could even notice her score – I saw it! Lynn is completely obsessed with me! There’s no denying it! It’s all there in black and white! Burnt orange and white! Whatev!

Hahaha! I’m just kidding! Lynn and I have known each other for a number of years – well, she’s been on my radar, anyhoo. I’m frequently wearing my slacker-gear and I joined her forum eons ago (in internet-speak) and never freaking posted!

Image via Wikipedia
Maybe, just maybe, had I posted – she could’ve been even more of an inspiration to me and I’d be further along in my quest to make a living from home. And maybe I wouldn’t have gotten so completely sidetracked by paid blogging. Though it was totally kick butt at the time, it was surely not any kind of lasting business model – for me. And I completely dropped every other thing I was doing. I did learn a lot and meet a lot of rockin’ people and forge some awesome relationships (personal and business) so it wasn’t a total wash. I do feel like time was wasted, though.

But, I digress – this post is about Lynn being in love with me. Oh yeah. See, she has this free webinar every Tuesday morning – just for me! Seriously – go read the page! Go on – click it! You’ll see – it says it right there in that post – this is for Lisa. Yep. Yeppers.

And she makes up catchy new phrases like “Rank and Tank” just for me to use! And then she makes nice long posts to explain them thoroughly – to me!

Alright, alright, I’m just razzin’ ya again! But let me tell ya something she does do for me. And I imagine for a lot of other people, too. I mean, she teaches me a lot, sure. But sometimes she reaches straight through the computer screen and touches. my. heart., effectively adding fuel to the fire I already have burning there. You know the fire – that fire I have to succeed at this thing called ‘online business’.

So Lynn, thank you! Even though I probably won’t be leaving my husband for ya anytime soon (ya never know – it could happen)! Thank you for teaching me (and all of us that learn from you) so much!

What the heck happened?! This was supposed to be a ‘givin’ Lynn grief’ post and it turned into another ‘Lynn Terry Lovefest’. Man! (Sorry, davebo, or whatever your name is – I guess Lynn’s good nature just brings it out in us – even when we’re trying to give her a hard time!)

Dudes! J-Mo wants to beat the big guys (even though I think he’s a big guy) – so I guess, the bigger guys at promoting Frank Kern’s new happenings. Ya’ll gotta go check out this page right here: Mass Control Gift

I haven’t talked about these guys – or even marketing – a whole lot on this blog. I was ‘planning’ on talking about that kind of stuff on LisaMarieMary.com, but, now I’m pretty much ignoring that blog. Poor blog. Anyway, though, what I’m trying to say is that both of these guys – JMo and Frank – totally ROCK!! I have learned so much from them – and I’ve never once been able to purchase any of their products. So that means I’ve learned all that I’ve learned from them for FREE!

That right there ought to tell you that these guys are ‘good guys’ – and they are! And you should go help Jason crush the other guys and check out his link: Mass Control Gift

If he wins the affiliate referral contest, he will get a 30 inch flatscreen monitor – oh man! I wish I could win that sucker! I need want a flat screen so badly – this ol’ behemoth of mine is so big I kicked it off the desk! Ha! It’s on a little sidetable next to my desk, because, I just couldn’t tolerate it’s taking up so much of my precious (albeit ‘messy’) desk space! Of course, I’m pretty sure I don’t need a 30 inch – that sounds way too big! Or was he talking TV? Hmm… I pay attention, really, I do. Sometimes.

And if he wins, Jason is going to host a TWENTY FOUR HOUR LIVE Ustream show! Yikes! That’s gonna be crazy!

Here’s JMo on video telling you all about it!