One of my pet peeves is when I get emails from ‘Internet Marketing Gurus’ who claim that when I buy their course I will get all these ‘bonuses’ at greatly reduced prices.

Here are some recent ones:

Bonus #1: 1 Ticket To “GURU Traffic School”: VALUE: $2,500

Bonus #2: 1 Ticket To Any Live Event In 2010: VALUE: $5,000

You get the idea.

Newsflash

These courses are worth what people will pay for them. So – if you are giving them away for free, they are worth nothing. If you are selling something for $97 then it is worth, oh, I don’t know… $97? Not $2000 and we get 95% off.

And what is even more annoying that people doing this is people believing it! We have arrived at the point where pretty much we cannot believe anything that comes through our email – thanks in large part to idiots who make offers like this.

If you have read other articles by me you know I hate the whole ‘make a million online’ movement. It is – to be blunt – bullshit. Anyone who has done it could probably have made a million anywhere. They had a great business idea and spent thousands of hours perfecting it and their presentation. They did not buy a domain name, set up a wordpress blog, outsource to an article writer and collect a 7 figure sum.

I would challenge any of these gurus to prove

1. they have in fact ever made the money they claim. A tax return would be nice proof!
2. that any money can be made doing anything except selling the idea of easy money to desperate people
3. that anyone who has bought their product went from zero to hero directly because of it

Anyway, rant over.

Welcome to my blog where I will never sell you anything… though if you live in Spain you might want to sign up for FilmAmora.com – the best way to rent movies in Spain!

In a couple of weeks Lord of the Rings finally makes an appearance on Blu-Ray (the delay caused in most part by legal wranglings).

Fans around the world are complaining that the editions being released are the theatrical editions – not the extended editions that we’ve been able to buy (or rent) for years. (God, has it really been 10 years since LOTR came out?!)

There really only seems to be one motivation behind this: greed.

Paramount knows that LOTR fans have been waiting and will buy whatever edition they put out. And then, in a couple of years, will buy again the extended editions on Blu-Ray. They did this on DVD with good profits, so why not do it again?

Here in Spain, to make matters worse, the LOTR BR Box will cost almost double what it costs in the UK and the USA. And they wonder why piracy is rife. Spain has the largest problem in the western world with movie piracy. And we have the highest average cost – as compared to average income – of DVDs. Hmm. Coincidence?

Do these people never learn? There is panic in the movie industry right now – companies are going out business left and right, people are losing jobs, hundreds of millions of dollars are not being recouped… it is mayhem.

We, as the consumer, of course have to foot the bill where-ever possible…but why?

Rant over.

Some of you have asked ‘where’s the content?’. Well, I am almost ready to start posting the weekly blogposts that cover part one – “Choosing a line of Business”.

I know some of you out there want to be in business but don’t know what to do. Over the course of a few posts I’ll delve into what I think are the keys (they’re not secrets!) to creating a business that lasts and will make money.

Speaking out against Hype

I am not a proponent of these ‘passive income’, ‘internet marketing’ ideas and websites. I think you can probably count on one (maybe both) hands the people that have really made money with these things. And do you want to know HOW they made money (shhh – here IS the big secret) they made money by selling their business ideas to other people. i.e. their business is selling you things to get you into business. So the only advice they can really offer is to sell on their ideas (affiliate marketing) or start your own internet business consultancy.

But at the end of the line someone, somewhere has to actually do work! Never forget that. If you can show me someone, apart from a lottery winner, who made a lot of money with no work I’d like to hear about it.

Anyway, rant over.

Nothing to buy

What I am trying to get across is that I am not here to sell you something. Truth is I literally don’t have anything to sell! No ebooks, no affiliates programs, etc etc (though if you live in Spain I strongly recommend signing up for FilmAmora.com – Spain’s leading mail order DVD rental company!)

I have a proven background in business – from the bottom up. I’ve been a grunt and now I am the CEO of a successful company. I hope that through that I can help you follow your dreams and start a company and make it a success.

Oh – and I am not in the USA! There is a lack of info out here on doing things outside of the world’s greatest temple to consumer culture.

So – stay tuned. Content starts soon!

Welcome to my new blog.

What I am going to try and do on here is stick to a basic theme of setting up and running  a small business. Both virtually (i.e. online) and the logistics and practicalities of running a real business.

My backdrop for doing this will primarily be the development and evolution of FilmAmora.com. FilmAmora is Spain’s premier mail-order DVD rental website. (think Netflix if you live in America or LoveFilm if you live in Northern Europe). This is a new concept to Spain and I’ll go through the trials and tribulations I had in creating, developing and marketing the business.

Along the way I hope to have some guests (through postings or interviews) that will shed some light on the process.

As we are based in Spain some of the practical information may only apply to people who’s business is also here, but, I would think that certainly a lot of the same paperwork is needed in Europe and to a lesser degree elsewhere. But, as paperwork will not be the focus of this blog (god knows I have enough of that outside this blog!) then hopefully you’ll find the rest of the info applicable no matter where you are.

Welcome and I hope I can be of assistance.