We’ve talked a lot about Google over the years, so it’s great to see them talk about us on one of their official blogs.

Tom Leung who is product manager for Google’s Website Optimizer tool was kind enough to come to Chicago to System 2008 and walk us through this extremely powerful and relatively new testing tool.

It’s the same one Google uses in-house for its own testing - and it’s free.

One of our faculty members Sean D’Souza, who is a wizard of info marketing, happens to have been a professional cartoonist in an earlier career and drew some cartoons illustrating big points in Tom’s talk.

I’m thinking of making Tom’s entire talk at System 2008 available for free to everyone in the Internet marketing world. Since it’ll take an investment of time and money on my part, if you’re interested in this, definitely let me know by posting below.

Meanwhile, here are Sean’s System 2008 cartoons on Google’s blog: click here for the cartoons

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Howie Jacobson and I did a one day master session for marketers to raise money for a New Orleans rebuilding project.

Every attendee got their money’s worth (it was $1,000 a head for the day.) At least one guy got advice that I know when he executes on it - and he will - will be at worth 1,000 times his investment.

Life’s not always a straight line. Not everyone gets dealt the same hand.

The purpose of entrepreneurship is to strengthen your own position and lend a hand where a hand is needed.

This small church which has lost 80% of its members still manages to provide material help to church members and neighbors alike; runs an after school homework center; and a home for teenage mothers and their children, so the mothers can get job training while their kids are cared for during the day.

I think that individuals like Bruce Davenport who is keeping this community going are the most impressive entrepreneurs there are.

Some home movies of what we saw:

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When I gave the first web marketing seminar in 1994, it was…well, the only one too.

For the next six years, there were less than a dozen people who were serious about teaching Internet marketers to what I call “bootstrap entrepreneurs.”

Now there are hundreds. Some good, some not so good.

An amazing number of these folks are System graduates. Some acknowledge their roots. Many don’t.

My biggest challenge today is to convey to “newbies” - and that includes many people who’ve been involved in the industry for years - that they’re really missing out if they’ve never experienced a System Seminar.

I’m gong to be fine whether people come to System 2008. We’ll sell out again this year, just as we have every year, but it bums me out a bit to think of all the good people who could be succeeding who are wasting their time on copycat crap peddled by rip off artists.

Anyway, here’s a short video I’m going to be using to give people who are new to the System who we are and how the System fits into the grand scheme of Internet marketing.

I’d appreciate it if you’d watch it - it takes two minutes - and comment and let me know if I’ve left anything important out.

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No matter how cool Gabe and Max are…

No matter how many Rolex watches or trips to the Playboy Mansion they offer me…

I promise that they will NOT be speaking at the System Seminar this year.

But maybe I’m being too hard on them. You tell me.

To see who IS speaking at System Seminar 2008, click here.

For the full list of this year’s System 2008 faculty, you can click on this link.

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Thanksgiving is, hands down, my favorite holiday.

It doesn’t compel frantic gift giving (like the commercialized version of Christmas).

It doesn’t promote excessive alcohol consumption and forced gaiety (like New Year’s Day).

In fact Thanksgiving is so laid back, it doesn’t even require that folks exchange cards.

Instead, Thanksgiving celebrates the basics: food, family, and friends and the deep fun that accompanies taking the time to enjoy life’s simple pleasures.

As icing on the cake, Thanksgiving encourages us - in its characteristically quiet and understated way - to take note of the things in our lives that are positive.

— Gratitude is power

It’s easy for entrepreneurs to fall into the trap of feeling that life is a never-ending struggle, where letting your guard down for a moment can mean ruin and every day is another day that the ever-growing “Must Do” list fails to get done.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you are a very fortunate person indeed, but I have a feeling you may know a little about the outlook I’m describing.

How do we get ourselves out of this particular no-win’ trap?

— Thanksgiving is the answer.

Robert Emmons, a professor at the University of California, Davis, demonstrated through an elegant set of experiments not long ago that if you want to sleep better, feel better, and motivate yourself to take better care of your health, regular Thanksgiving’ sessions work magic.

Once a month, once a week, once a day

Right now we celebrate Thanksgiving once a year and, truth be told; it can be somewhat of a production’ and actually be a bit stressful for some people.

But what if we had a Thanksgiving Day once a month?

And what if we defined “Thanksgiving Day” to mean spending a whole day with the people you really want to be with just living: eating, talking, playing, resting, and being militantly free from worries (and ambition) of any kind.

One day per month.

Is there anyone so busy that they can’t arrange at least one day per month for Thanksgiving?

Notice, by the way, that I said “arrange” not “find the time for” In my experience, trying to “find the time” rarely works. In contrast, arranging life to make the time for things has a nearly 100% success rate.

If it’s a good idea to have Thanksgiving once a month, why not have it once a week?

I’m talking about consistently carving out one day each week where you avoid the “busyness” of life and sit back to enjoy a good meal and revel in the pleasure of spending time with people you love the most.

That’s what weekends used to be for. Remember?

Finally, if Thanksgiving makes sense once a week, why not once a day? A good meal, good company, peace and quiet, and attention not on the things that aren’t working, that need to be improved, that are still undone, but dedicated to enjoying and appreciating the many things good in our lives.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Ken McCarthy

Excerpt from the book “The System Club Letters” to be published in 2008

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Here’s a little known story about Warren Buffett, the world’s second richest man and most successful investor about the importance of…sleep.

In the early 1990s, Buffett personally stepped in to straighten out a huge mess at Salomon Brothers, a major investment bank that had seriously lost its way and was about to get shut down.

Buffett stepped off the plane from Omaha and headed straight to the company’s New York City offices for his first face-to-face meeting with its board members.

When he arrived took one look around the room and said… (more…)

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Need a reason to justify a sale or special offer - or just want more attention?

Use a holiday.

Department stores discovered this trick over a century ago. If you analyze it logically, it doesn’t make any sense. Why should there be a discount on socks because its Columbus Day?

Fortunately, this is one area where logic is not required for the method to work. If there’s a holiday coming up soon, you have instant rationale for a sale.

Holidays move product.

Here’s some numbers on the impending Halloween holiday to show you what a top-drawer-of-consciousness holiday Halloween is… (more…)

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I lived in San Francisco from 1990 to late 1998. Pre-Internet, early Internet, and in the heart of dotcom madness.

It was quite a ride, but to be honest, I’ve been so busy in the last nine years, I’ve rarely looked back and have only visited a few times since.

This video reminds me of what a unique and admirable bunch of people live in San Francisco. There really is no place like it and it’s no accident that San Francisco was the first city in the world to “get” the Internet. Enjoy!

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How hard do you think it would be to get strangers to give you their private cell phone numbers over the Internet?

Sounds like a pretty tall mountain to climb.

Here’s a company that does it masterfully.

First, they offer you the answer to a question.If you bite, they ask you two very simple multiple-choice questions, only showing you one question at a time. They’ve streamlined the process so beautifully, you don’t even need to hit the send button after you’ve selected your answer.

If you answer the questions, THEN the system gives you a way to get the answer to the question you were originally attracted to the site to in the first place. And to get the answer, you have to give them your cell phone so they can text it to you.

Devilish.

And I’m sure it works because I see the ad everywhere. In fact, the last stats I saw show the site has moved from the 370th most visited site to the 147th. Well over 1.5 million uniques per month.

Here’s the AdWords ad that they’re using now:”Who has a crush onyou?

Calculate their exact name now.

It’s scary how accurate it is.

www.yourdestinyrevealed.com”

Not surprisingly the market for this service is young females. Perfect medium/message/market match. (Most young females seem to have their cell phone surgically attached to their heads these days.)

By the way, I did NOT take the bait. If I did, I’m sure I’d be pitched (mercilessly) on their horoscope service.

Look at their numbers for the people they sell into this:

Sprint, Nextel and Boost customers are billed $5.99 per week!

Cellular One customers are billed $9.99 per month.

Virgin Mobile, Verison and AT&T customers get whacked $19.99 per month.

Looks like they’ve cut deals with cell providers who may also handle (and take their cut) of the billing. Anybody know anything about this?

In the meanwhile, there’s a lot to learn from from this opt-in process:

1. Offer enticing bait first
2. Get some data by asking questions, but keep it short and sweet
3. Make the opt-in process as painless and glitch-free as possible

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Thank God for new beginnings!

(That’s what September always feels like for me.)

If you think about it, a “fresh start” attitude is what is at the root of all success.

Here’s what I mean by this: (more…)

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