First of all, DON’T click on ANY LINK in ANY
Skype message that you get from me. I rarely
send links in Skype messages unless I am already
in the middle of a conversation with you.

Apparently, my Skype account has been hi-jacked,
which means that my hundreds of Skype contacts
likely received a phishing message trying to get
you to click on a link, where upon you’ll be
prompted to log back into your Skype account,
and they will hijack the account. I don’t
remember going through all that, but I DO
remember a cryptic email from a friend (who normally
sends fairly cryptic emails) asking me to take a
look at something.

I intuitively asked what it was before clicking on
the link, and was satisfied enough with the also
cryptic response that I clicked on it.

At that point, Skype started to download something
to my computer, and I stopped the download, but Skype
logged me out, and when I logged back in, I guess
that’s where the damage was done!

Over the next hour or so, I got emails and phone calls
from a dozen friends telling me that they think my
Skype account has been compromised… and they based
that upon the REALLY poor English in the Skype messages
they were getting.

One friend pointed me to this link which explained what
was likely going on:
http://getincomeblog.com/tag/cyber-vandals/

Skype doesn’t seem to have a convenient way for you to
deal with the issue, a support ticket could take days
to get a response… and there is no number on their
site that I could find. The hacker apparently changed
the contact details to HIS email address, so I can’t
retrieve the new password (since he apparently changed
it) and I can’t delete the account.

Stay tuned, but I don’t currently have control of MY
old Skype account. I thought of starting a new one, but
will try to resolve the issue through channels. Skype has
done one thing that indicates they are aware of the
problem.

Starting a new account would mean that I’d lose the 500
or so contacts that I had in my account… many of whom
I routinely communicated with

Willie

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Follow The Experts Who Do What They Teach
Copyright 2010 by Willie Crawford

As I’m sure that you realize, not all online marketing
experts are the same. Some are only interested in your
money, and they know that the quickest and easiest way
to get it is to sell you “the dream.”

Many so-called experts have never done what they teach.
They come online, survey the landscape, and decide that
teaching is easier than doing. So they hire a ghost
writer to write an ebook, or worse, they write an ebook
filled with their theories. Then they roll this ebook out
with lots of fanfare, selling it to unsuspecting newbies.

Buyers of the above ebook, read maybe half way through it,
spot another shiny object, and are off to try what sounds
like a faster, easier way.

So how do you avoid falling into this and a dozen other
traps? There are two ways that I’ll recommend.

1) Use tools such as the search engines to investigate
the marketer or company before spending a penny with them.
The internet is very inter-connected AND transparent. It’s
nearly impossible to have a serious online presence and
not be very visible in the search engines. For example, if
you were to “google” my name, you would find over 2 million
returns, and most of them would be me!

If I googled someone, or a company’s name, and couldn’t find
it, I’d definitely ask why. I’d also probably start running
in the opposite direction as fast as possible, with one hand
on my wallet.

2) Follow the experts who actually do what they teach. If
you can’t see that they do what they teach, there is a good
chance that they don’t, and the reason may be that they are
not sure that it will work. As you look to see that they
are actually doing what they teach, also put it through the
common sense test.

As an example, many of my friends and mentors teach that
your business cannot grow beyond a certain point with
you trying to do everything in your business. When you
first read that, you may ask yourself if this is just a
sales ploy. So you observe top online marketers and notice
that they have copywriters, programmers, operation managers,
affiliate managers, webmasters, graphic artists, ghost
writers, email managers, virtual assistants, etc., working
for them.

Then you shift to the offline world and notice that in the
most successful restaurants, the owner is not in the back
washing dishes, cooking, or supervising waiters. He is not
on the cash register or waiting on tables. Instead he may
be wandering the floor and “hob knobbing” with customers,
making them feel important. He may be just observing his
business, looking for areas that can be improved and places
where employees may need more training.

I’m sure that you’re beginning to get my point now. You
often wonder if a marketer recommends that you do something
because it will make him a profit, or if he really believes
what he is recommending. Observing that he is actually doing
it himself… that he believes in what he teaches enough to
use it in his business, is very powerful.

As a personal example, I preach that you should outsource
as much as possible, and focus on growing and managing your
business. I know how to do many of the day-to-day tasks of
running an online enterprise. After 14 years I’ve tried
doing many of them, and become very good at some of them.
However, I personally outsource most jobs related to graphics,
copywriting, webmastering, programming, building mini-nets,
keyword research, and customer service.

I have full-time people working exclusively for me, who
handle most of these tasks. It took a while, but I finally
realized that these people don’t cost me money, they make me
money.

I do what my good friend Maria Gudelis calls engaging in
talent arbitrage.

Maria has a very in-depth, yet inexpensive, course on being
an offline consultant. I’ve gone completely through that
course a dozen times, and have it memorized, AND do what she
teaches. One of the things that she teaches is that you land
offline consulting clients, and define what they need, etc.,
but that you don’t do most of the work. You pass it off to
outsourced talent as soon as possible, but you pocket most
of the fees collected at the same time. I follow Maria
because I can see that she does what she teaches.

By the way, I encourage you to check out Maria’s course
in being an offline consultant. You’ll find it at:
http://timic.org/Maria

I mentioned earlier that you should check out the person that
you’re following. Another way that I do that is by looking at
whether or not what they teach agrees with what other verified
experts teach. One of my favorite experts is Dan Kennedy, and
Maria’s teachings totally agree with what Dan teaches as far as
how to leverage your business, and which segment of the market
you should go after. Incidentally, you should go after segments
of the market that HAVE money and are willing to spend it on
you and your products or services.

I’ll wrap up this article, but share more of my thoughts and
observations soon. In the meantime, develop the habit of
really noticing whether your favorite guru actually does what
he teaches. That could make a huge difference in your bottom
line.
———————

Willie Crawford is founder of The Internet Marketing Inner
Circle, a membership site where some of the world’s sharpest
marketing minds gather to network, brainstorm, and jointly
grow their businesses. Join The Internet Marketing Inner
Circle today for $1. Complete details at: http://timic.org

The new marketplace is online. There’s no doubt about that. Don’t get left behind learn how to become an affiliate and work from home. Read more