Motivation plays a big role in success. I mean, we reach out for something because we are motivated. As one of my favorite “motivators”  Zig Ziglar has said:

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing - that’s why we recommend it daily.”

We all have one dream - get financial and/or time freedom. Some of us have bigger goals, some of us have not so big goals. Maybe one wants to become a millionaire, and the second one only wants to earn as much money so he can buy a new house and support his family. But then again, we are reaching for one thing - to get out of the rat race and do what we love, in this case make money online.

But many wise people have said that we always have to keep our “smaller” dreams or wishes close to us. While always keeping in mind our biggest goals, we can’t forget our smaller financial dreams and goals. For some people that would be a new car, a house, a yacht or Gucci’s pair of underwear so you wouldn’t have to blog naked. For me, that’s a Ford Mustang GT. I really do like the car, and I am reaching out to buy one. To always keep this smaller dream in my head, I have a Mustang wallpaper, and I bought this small car model off eBay, and it stands always next to the monitor, so I can always see it. This is the actual car model that always reminds me of my smaller dreams:

It doesn’t matter what you wish for, maybe it’s a Lambo, a Ferrari or a new bicycle. Just remember one thing - unsuccessful people always buy these things in debt, successful people always earn the money first and then buy it. What does keep you motivated ? Share your thoughts !

Well, what can I say. The year of 2008 is gone, and the new one is here. My head and stomach is still reminding me what I have consumed yesterday, and the photos are reminding me that I was dancing naked outside in the snow, and this morning I woke up on a kitchen table next to a shot glass which had my sock in. But this post isn’t about that.

Where we were a year ago ? What we did ? Personally I had no idea that I will be making money online and doing what I love. A year ago I was still buying ebooks that promised me thousands and even millions of dollars. A year ago I wasn’t even sure what I want to do in my life. A year ago I was skipping school, had problems with police and always had problems with parents, I was on a really bad road. All my close people were saying “Stop Chris, Stop what you are doing right now”. My parents and other close people had no hopes in me anymore.

My parents now support me, and they have realized that I am mature and old enough to choose my own road, and this road has no stops saying “Average Office Guy”. And one of the best phrases what I heard in 2008 was from my dad who said “Chris, I am really proud with you, and I am sure you will end up living the life that you have dreamed of”. I was waiting for this moment for a very long time. I somehow have gained inner peace because I am on my own road, and I know what I want, all I have to do is to reach out and grab it. Where you were a year ago ? Have you become a better person during’ 08 ? I can answer this question with a great smile on my face saying “Yes”. I have become a better person, a more mature person and I sure damn love it.

The Reward

Oh, and one more thing. Like I mentioned earlier, I will now reward you every month ! This blog is my baby and I love every piece of it. You - gals and guys is the biggest piece that I love in this blog. Thank you for spending time to read my daily jabbering, thank you for spending time to leave a comment and share your experience ! I am maybe not the best blogger out there, and maybe I am not a guru of internet marketing, but I am trying to give you all the best that I can.

Anyway, I will now reward the best commentator of the month. Not the person who has commented the most, but the person who has added the most value to my blog via comments. And the prize is going to be - the person will have an free advertisement on this blog, a 125×125 banner on the sidebar of this blog for a month. It’s not much maybe, but I just want to reward my readers somehow, and this is the way how I am going to do it. For this month the free ad space goes to Felix Goh Wei Liang from abloggerblog.com. I will reward my readers each month, no matter how big this blog is going to be, even if it’s gonna be bigger than JC’s blog or Problogger I will still always keep a free space to reward you !

I just want to say thank you all ! Thank you all ! Without you this blog couldn’t be what it is now. You have added priceless value to this blog trough your comments, and I want to congratulate all of you in the new year. Let this year be better for all us, let’s love more, let’s share more, let’s give more and you will see that the world is changing around you according to your actions.

I just want to congratulate my top commentators and other bloggers:

Wei Liang from A Blogger Blog - Love your advice mate, keep them coming

Veronica and Elijah from The At Home Couple - I love your humor and ideas that both of you are giving out. Nice read.

Shanker Bakshi from Shanker Bakshi - Great Info and Great Tips.

Ben Pei from Pei Profit - This guy has inspired me to become a “commentniac”. Thanks for tips and guides.

Ardit from Blogict - Mate, I wish you to get out of that Pizza Delivery Job, and start making serious cash online !

Wesley from Improving the Web - I wish you that your blog gets bigger and grows faster than mine did. Cheers for that.

Dan from Race For A Million - Dan, Keep on running, I wish you that your race finishes as fast as possible.

Yan Susanto from Thou Shall Blog - Thank you for giving those great blogging tips. Without your tips, no doubt I wouldn’t be here today. Thanks for writing a “blogging bible” for us.

Erwin Tan from Erwin Tan - I have always liked your post ideas. Keep them coming in 2009 !

Simon from Otooo.com - Thanks for giving great tips and guides. If anyone wants to know about site flipping, then he/she should read your blog

I can’t name all the people that have inspired or helped me, the list is endless. If I have left anyone outside, then please - sorry, if I would name here everyone, then there would be no space on internet left.

Anyway, Happy New Year to all of you. Let our blogs grow, let our bank accounts grow, and let’s share more !

HAPPY 2009 !

Well, if you haven’t lived in a basement then you probably notice that Christmas is here.

I’ll keep this short. I wish everyone merry Christmas, spend your time with family and those you love. Forgive and be forgiven, as this is the right time for this. Donate little bit of money to charity, because not everyone can have Christmas together with their family and always someone is going to be in a worse situation than you. Do good deeds, and they gonna repay you.

Christmas is a time for love and fun,
A time to reshape souls and roots and skies,
A time to give your heart to everyone

Freely, like a rich and lavish sun,
Like a burning star to those whose lonely sighs
Show need of such a time for love and fun.

For children first, whose pain is never done,
Whose bright white fire of anguish never dies,
It’s time to give your heart to every one,

That not one angel fall, to hatred won
For lack of ears to listen to her cries,
Or arms to carry him towards love and fun,

Or friends to care what happens on the run
To adult life, where joy or sadness lies.
It’s time to give your heart to everyone,

For God loves all, and turns His back on none,
Good or twisted, ignorant or wise.
Christmas is a time for love and fun,
A time to give your heart to everyone.

Merry Christmas everyone !

Hi, my name is Chris. And I am addicted to stats. I have been using excessive doses of stats ever since I have been making money online.

Today I turned on my laptop, I opened FireFox internet browser. And just without any thinking I automatically entered address  - http://www.StatCounter.com . Yes, I have a problem.

This is what I discovered, my FireFox browser shows my most visited sites when I click on the address bar. And there it was - StatCounter. This made me thinking - How much of productivity I have spent looking at beautiful charts, graphs and diagrams.

I knew that I have been looking at stats quite a lot, yet never realized how much time I have spent doing it. I calculated that approximately I spend 20 minutes each day looking at stats. That’s 1 hour in 3 days, or about 10 hours/month.

Now I realize that how much time I have spent doing it. If I would spend only 20 minutes/week looking at stats, which should be quite enough then I wonder how much traffic I could drive to my websites and offers if I would spend the rest of the time writing articles, this would also mean more sales and that would result in more money at the end of the day.

The reason why I spend so much time checking stats.

The reason ? It’s quite simple - it is easy and fast. I am using StatCounter for fast traffic measurements. I mean it is fast, I just enter the URL in the address bar, I automatically login, and I can have a quick overview of my stats. The same is with Pepperjam network or with other “in house” affiliate programs. The reason why I spend so much time to look at these stats is that it is easy and fast to do so. I only check Google Analytics like 1 time per week, because it is little bit more time consuming to check those stats just for quick overview. I have to login my Google Account, click on Analytics, Select the website which I want to view, and only then I receive the report. This is what’s killing my time I suspect - the easiness of stat checking.

This got me thinking - Maybe I should start some “anonymous stat addicts” group ? A new niche

What about you ? Do you also spend a big chunk of your time looking at those stats ?

Uhhh… crap, I almost forgot one really important thing - today is thanksgiving day ! Thank god my cousin emailed me today and reminded me. He lives in U.S. and as probably everyone knows then thanksgiving day in U.S. is quite big. People also celebrate it in Latvia, but for us there is just another name of it.

To keep this short - I thank my parents for showing support no matter what I do, or plan to do. I thank my friends - online and offline and all other things that have made me today the person I am now. It is good to have days like these, because in the daily rush we just sometimes forget to think about all the important things in our lives - parents, girlfriends/wives, friends, children.

Anyway, I would like to hear your thoughts about it. Don’t be afraid, I allow you to comment

Happy thanksgiving everybody !