*Jozzua

Avon and Natasha is just like Amazon.com - they do affiliate marketing.

Understand? Now…

Step 1: Get PayPal account (for payments to you).

Step 2: Sign-up to Affiliate opportunities like Click2Sell or Reseller hosting (aff links).

Step 3: Find products/services and sell ‘em for profit on your own website.

Step 4: Repeat Step2-3.

Exactly what this blog post is doing.

Now you do it.

Want a brand new Macbook Air? You really want one? Simply “Ask, Believe, and Receive.”

Now before you go closing that browser and swearing me off your RSS feed list, hear me out. There is some real weird and illogical magic that happens in life. You can’t always explain in scientifically but it does happen. You might not believe it but it does happen.

I know this because all throughout my life, small magical things have happened. I’m a testament to this unexplainable force.

The Secret

Over at a pizza lunch with some officemates, we talked about “The Secret” - a book and DVD about the “law of attraction.”

We were joking around over why a friend didn’t have a girlfriend yet (despite his good looks). One officemate tells him “You’ve got to give whoever that person is… space in your life.” For example, we should take out some food for his “girlfriend-to-be.” We were joking of course but this all lead to “The secret”.

Here’s a short video about it on youtube.com:

As put forth in the film, the “Law of Attraction” principle posits that people’s feelings and thoughts attract real events in the world into their lives; from the workings of the cosmos to interactions among individuals in their physical, emotional, and professional affairs. More from Oprah on Larry King Live:

Magical Thinking

If you find the excerpts above to be too surreal for you, then let’s look at something that sounds more sane. Take a look at magical thinking on Wikipedia.

In anthropology, psychology and cognitive science magical thinking is causal reasoning that often includes such ideas as the law of contagion, correlation equaling causation, the power of symbols and the ability of the mind to affect the physical world.

Magical thinking can occur when one simply does not understand possible causes, as illustrated by Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s suggestion that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” (see Clarke’s three laws), but can also occur in response to situations that are largely random or chaotic, such as a coin toss, as well as in situations that one has little or no control over, especially those one is emotionally invested in.

You see, we can pretty much call “magic” anything that Science can’t explain yet. In my opinion, there are ‘energies’ that are shared between people - probably not real energy but something much more psychological.

It’s surprising that I found this whole concept through Merlin Mann of 43 Folders. Merlin just taught me magic.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic

It’s true, isn’t it? If we brought television and radio to the 17th century, we might be considered practitioners of the dark arts. We’d be heretics. There are probably a lot of things that happen today which we don’t understand yet but will make sense a century from now. Perhaps the “law of attraction” will have a scientific basis by the 23th century.

Right now, however, just believe that it works.

The Velveteen Rabbit

At this point let me share one of my favorite classic books. The Velveteen Rabbit learns that ‘real’ is not how you are made, rather a toy becomes real if its owner really and truly loves it.

While awaiting the bonfire, in which the Velveteen Rabbit will be burned, the Rabbit cries a real tear. This tear brings forth the Nursery Magic Fairy. The Rabbit thinks he was real before, but the fairy tells him he was only real to the boy. She flies him to the woods, where he realizes that he is a real rabbit at last and runs to join the other rabbits in the wild.

The following spring, the boy sees the Rabbit hopping in the wild and thinks he looks like his old Velveteen Rabbit, but he never knows that it actually was.

When you invest enough emotion in something, and make room for it in your life, it somehow becomes real.

An Odd Example: The Wizard Named Steve Jobs

Over at wired, you’ll see how Apple has completely gone against the Silicon Valley Norm. I attribute it to the magical work of Steve Jobs. I think he’s a Psychological wizard.

There is even a term coined for Job’s magic - the reality distortion field. Just listen to what Andy Hertzfeld says about it:

It’s impossible right? Unreal? We can’t do that! That’s what we think about things. The wizard makes us look at things differently.

But really now, we don’t need to watch Andy. Let’s watch the wizard himself in action when he presented the iPhone and be mesmerized.

After watching that, didn’t you just want an iPhone? That was his spell. He just cast it on you and me.

Ever met someone with this kind of magic in your office? Someone who gets things done despite unbelievable and crazy odds? Someone who could turn a sinking ship like Apple Inc. into one of the most admired companies of this decade?

I’m getting in Ateneo…

Back in High School, this was crazy talk for me and my friends. We all came from a public school in Marikina and didn’t really think much of ourselves. Still, we were lucky to have some volunteer tutors from Ateneo who pushed us on. They helped us prepare for College and even paid for the initial application fee.

They were smart. They looked good (we all had crushes on one of the sexy ‘Ates’ there). They gave us hope and urged us to believe in ourselves.

I remember submitting the admission form at the very last deadline date. Funny thing, our valedictorian that year didn’t get in Ateneo. I, who was nowhere near the top 10 of my class, got in - on scholarship.

I still scratch my head when I think about that.

I’m Getting a Macbook Air…

…and a car and my own condo. Probably by the end of this year or early next year. For some weird reason, I have a strong feeling this will happen. Am I just thinking nonsense or is this magical thinking? Is this the secret?

Simply put, I’ve experienced it before. I know it works. I live in my own Reality Distortion Field.

(Just the rambling of a man who lacks sleep? I think I’ll delete this insane post now… maybe after you’ve read it. )

Do you know what a wireframe is? In web design, once you’ve got the the content for your website, you typically make a quickly mocked up design of how your site will look like. The best way to do this is to lay out blocks of content in a piece of paper or in any visual grid. The result will be a wire frame.

Wireframes and Usability

Wireframes are great for UX and usability. You typically start with a content inventory check, the navigation categorization, and tasks analysis. When you’ve done that you’ll make a low-level prototype - viola, the wireframe. The idea is to lay it all out before working on actual code and HTML. Show this to some UX experts to get their preliminary view of your website.

It saves your designers a whole lot of time.

Example: The Blog Design I’m Looking For

You can now use wireframes to quickly explain what you want.

For instance, I’ve been looking for very different blog design look. I have the content and I know my initial navigation structure. My website visitors would just really be reading my website content. I want their visual experience to be easy yet informative.

How would my blog design look like? Here’s my initial blog home page wireframe:

I made this wireframe using Microsoft paint - a programs that loads quickly on computers.

The Basic Usable Tests

At this level, you can immediately determine important usability elements like.

1. The title - this is your website/blog’s branding.
2. The description/tagline - in one glance, give your visitor and idea what your website is all about
3. The search form - gives your visitors a chance to search for content on your site
4. The Navigation links - gives your visitors ideas on where to go next
(There are more, but let’s stick with this for now.)

You can find all the elements above in the wireframe I’ve made.

Not A Designer But You Want Your Own Web Design?

Here’s how you do it.

Step 1 - Usability Analysis. Find out what the primary tasks your users will be doing on your site. Design your site so it will be easy to accomplish those tasks.

Step 2- Identify your usability elements. Organize your navigation structure. Make your website informative (like a billboard) with just one look.

Step 3 - Make your wireframe.

What to do next

Now that I have a wireframe, I can now bully someone like Rico, Gail, Liz, or Mae to make the design for me (Hehe).

Or I’ll try to make the html of the site myself.

“Web Design is more than just fonts and graphics” - Our creative director and resident tech geek, Rico Sta. Cruz, posted this on twitter.

Despite being so young, he has already gained the respect of colleagues and fellow designers (but they won’t admit it to his face) for his creative capabilities. We once joked around that this guy probably sleeps while awake or takes hallucinogens for him to be so good at what he does.

Well we discovered that apparently there is some actual thought process in it.

Here’s his 8 step tutorial on web design:

Step 1 - Get some text.


Step 2 - Add Hierarchy and levels.

Step 3 - Add Fonts

Step 4 - Put everything on a grid.

Step 5 - Put some visual structure.

Step 6 - Add Color, Shading, Gradients and Highlights.

Step 7 - Add Images and Illustration.

Step 8 - Put the finishing touches.

Me, the designer-wannabe will now commit this all to memory and start practicing this holy week vacation. I might actually make something creative.

In the first Internet Marketing Bootcamp, I had a chance to talk with Noemi, Marc and Abe again after a long blogging hiatus. One of the things that they immediately noticed was the fact that I seem to have lost some weight.

Well my sister bugged me about this fat loss pill called Zhen De shou. She was selling these, you see, and was totally convinced that it works. I did see her husband and saw that he was much more fit that before. My sis says it because of it.

I really didn’t believe her but just to appease the constant rambling of my family to “lose some weight,” I decided to try out one box. One box of Zhen De Shou contains ten capsules. I was to take a capsule 30 minutes before having morning breakfast.

Initially, I didn’t follow the instructions. I took a capsule 30 minutes before I had my dinner. It, apparently was quite a bad idea. I couldn’t sleep and kept burping all night all. In the morning, my tongue felt dry.

I checked online and found that these were actually natural effects of the pills.

WHAT TO EXPECT WITH ZHEN DE SHOU:

-It is a diet suppressant so expect decrease in appetite and food cravings.
-It increases your metabolism. This is the reason why users experience slight warming effect in the body and reduced sleep if taken in the afternoon and night time. That’s why we strictly advice our clients to take Zhen De Shou 30 minutes before breakfast or before shift when working on a graveyard schedule.
-Increase in thirst / Drying of mouth. This is also due to the increase in the metabolism. Increase your intake of fluids to avoid dehydration ( water, fresh fruit juices and zero calorie drinks )

So lesson learned. If you want to know more about it, there are some discussions about it in the cosmo forums:

hi po! me and my friends are on our 10th day of taking zhen de shou. i lost 10 lbs na. dati ako 170 lbs, ngayon 160 nalang, pero nag-e-exercise din naman kasi ako. yung iba kong friends, nag-lose ng 6-8 lbs. sa magic potions kami bumili. so far wala pa naman ako na-f-feel na bad side effects. sa tingin namin tama naman yung nabili namin kasi in fairness, nag-lose naman kami. siguro depende lang din sa tao kung hiyang ka o hindi. isa pa, iba-iba naman ang body make up natin. me 2 boxes pa kaming natitira, hopefully, mag-lose pa ako. ang target ko kasi na weight at least 125. yun kasi ang weight ko bago ako nagbuntis. tyaga lang din, tama ang mga sis, dasal at wag papabayaan ang sarili. di porket nag-d-diet, hindi na kakain. Smiley good luck sa ating lahat! mabuhay ang mga nagpapapayat! - Sweet_kiss

sis icka one of the side effects of zhen yung palpitations some experience that others don’t. like sabi ng iba hindi sila nakakatulog yung iba naman nakakatulog ng mahimbing. it’s effect varies on the person using it. we have different body structures kasi kaya hindi same ang effect ng mga diet pills satin. it’s ur call if u still want to continue taking it. kung tolerable naman yung side effects continue mo na lang but if natatakot ka or something then stop na.

sis charmedhuntress regarding sa side effects ng zhen iba iba talaga sya as i’ve said in the paragraph above. one of the ingredients ng mga ibang diet pills nakaka bilis sya ng blood circulation baka kaya may palpitations na nararamdaman. and one of the effect also is urinating more often to lose the water na na-retain sa body natin. diba minsan feeling bloated tayo kasi maraming water sa body natin so pag nag take ng diet pills ayun nilalabas nya yung water kaya gumagaan katawan natin at lumiliit specially yung tummy at puson doon kasi na stock yung water lalo na pag mahilig sa maalat nakaka laki ng tyan.
-marge028

“im taking zhen for 5 months now…straight…and still, the effects are: drymouth (so i have to drink lots of fluids), i sweat a lot, i am not that hungry most of the time and some of my cravings are cut off…i eat one full meal sa breakfast…sa lunch and dinner naman, cucumber ang substitute ko sa rice then ung ulam…hindi nako masyado nakakapag exercise masyado…busy me sa work at sa baby ko..hehehe…when i started with zhen, my waistline is 48… as of this moment, i am wearing my size 32 levis pants…haha…i am ecstatic…i do hope magtuloy tuloy parin siya…”

“i guess iba iba talga un effects ng zhen…it all depends on how ur body react from pills. kse from what i have noticed on this thread pa lang, iba iba talaga un reaction, meron iba ng ilang capsule pa lang may changes na, meron naman iba 2 boxes na wla pa din pagbabago… in that case, cguro we have to find the pills n mgiging effective sa tin…pero ang masakit dun… magastos masyado kung lahat ita try ntin, dba!? kamusta naman un!!….haayyy bakit b kse ang hirap magpapayat!!?? -myles_away”

saka sis, ang ginawa ko d ako agad nag weigh… i finished 1st box saka ako nag weigh…and i lost 8lbs nun 1st box then after 5 caps dun sa pang 2nd box ko…nag weigh ulet ako… i lost additional 2 lbs lang yata…kse dami party that time e. Grin pero nun naubos ko finally un 2nd box…i lost a total of 15 lbs…so from 140 lbs day b4 i start taking zhen to 125 lbs after 2 boxes pa lang… and take note, may 1 box pa ko… pwede ko pang ma reach un goal ko na 120 lbs or less. Wink hihi

BTW i just finished 2 boxes of Zhen oval, then nag stop ako..then ung pang 3rd box ko dpa din ubos…d ko na cia regular tine take… hehehe pero I
i lost 20lbs na…
i can wear my old jeans na….
my thighs and arms are smaller n din..
pati nga boobs ko medyo lumiit na… from 36B to 34B na lang.. (pero its ok) Grin
i m ready for summer na nga e… hihihi
plus everything is noticeable… pero im not naman mukhang tuyot or anything like that…kse nga i eat lots of fruits talaga… Grin
so uubusin ko pa din un 3rd box ko, take ko lang kung kelan ko gusto…hehe pero un apettite ko is still the same.. so i guess ill just maintain my diet with Zhen after my 3rd box.

“has anyone took zhen then had a drug test?i took zhen for 5 straight months and from size 48 na waistline to size 32 ang nangyari sa akin…that is with diet and exercise…i am currently on “rest” and i am wondering if it would still have the same effect once i start taking it again?i am considering switching to fitrum now that zhen jumpstarted my weightloss…but i really am thinking of continuing zhen…i am just scared of the long term effect (if ever there is)…is there anyone of you who took zhen or any diet pills for about a year or even longer? -mayyangski”

Tired of seeing those glaring ‘SUBSCRIBE HERE’ forms all over websites? Tough luck, you’ll continue to see them because according to marketing experts, getting subscribers is one of the key elements in getting an online audience. Web marketers know this and do whatever they can to get people to sign up.

If you’re a WordPress blogger, you can give your visitors some breathing room by putting a non-intrusive, permission based plug-in called “What Would Seth Godin Do.”

This oddly named WP plugin would use cookies to remember visitors. So, first time site visitors would be shown a note like:

Looks like it’s your first time on this website, please subscribe…

After 2 to 3 visits, the message would disappear.

New visitors will appreciate some context and background information about your site. This is your chance to offer them a special welcome and invite them to become permanent subscribers!

The plug-in was inspired by Seth Godin’s comments on Cookies. Seth Godin is a famous internet marketing who wrote The Purple Cow and Permission Marketing.

One opportunity that’s underused is the idea of using cookies to treat returning visitors differently than newbies. It’s more work at first, but it can offer two experiences to two different sorts of people. (Source: In the Middle, Starting)

So that’s how you bug visitors to subscribe. You ask nicely and not simply splatter your subscribe here forms all over your website.