I must warn you dear reader that I am feeling a bit melancholy this season, and it has very little to do with any pending doom foretold by the Aztec ancients.

However, as I get ready to flip the calendar over this year I look back on 2011 and it does seem to me that the clock has been speeding up faster and faster and is getting out of control.

I am not complaining, it has been a great year financially for business, despite the economy, and for that, I am more than grateful.

Truth be told, I have nothing to complain about, good health a happy family, and many other reasons to give thanks however, outside events have given me pause and I would like to share some of my reflections if you will indulge me.

For starters, many of you may already know that for over the last few months, I have been fighting a distraction, outside the window of my home office.

One of my neighbors, an elderly man had decided to build a new house, just across the street from his old house, on some vacant land next to me, that he has owned for decades.

His plan was to sell his old house to one of his grandchildren and complete his neighborhood dynasty with a fifth house on the same street, inhabited by yet another of his prolific offspring.

It was also his wish to be next door to his son, so that visiting him would no longer require the a quad ride across our road, that had become increasingly perilous due to his failing vision.

Everyone on our road knew to be careful when he was sitting on his quad, pointing at the road because his son had told all of us that just because he was looking at you, no longer meant that he saw you. (I guess it is just that when the DMV takes away an old man’s drivers license, they still have no control over his stubbornness.)

For these reasons, and the enjoyable distraction of watching a house being built outside my window throughout summer and fall, I personally took a great interest in rooting on his late in life endeavor.

Unfortunately, whether it was due to the shiftless and lazy contractors or an inept local bureaucracy of inspectors, the project that should have been completed in October, dragged on well into December, until it was more than his old heart could take.

I was cheering when I saw smoke coming out of the chimney for the first time on December 16^th and I decided to go over and congratulate his son, who is my age
and with whom I have had more contact, and am more comfortable speaking with, when he told me the bad news.

His dad had not lived long enough to see his dream come to fruition.

So now there are two houses on my road this season one older and one new but in neither of their front window’s stood a Christmas tree this year, nor were there any other lighted signs of seasonal joy, laughter and the usual frivolity this time of year brings.

While I write this post, there is still smoke coming in puffs from the furnace chimney pipes of both houses, but neither house shows a glimmer of light, denoting it as a home.

I’m not sure what will happen to either home, I’m not really close enough to the family to politely ask, and I’m not sure in their season of grief they have started thinking about the ramifications.

I am guessing that both houses will be held up in probate court for a long time and I fear that legal squabbling among his children over inheritance may delay his grandson’s ability to take possession of either house for a while.

I know that many of my neighbors thought that originally it was fool hardy for such an old man to take on such a huge project at such a late date in his life. However, now I think we are all overwhelmed with the grief at not seeing him enjoy his plan come to fruition, and I think all of us have been more contemplative this season.

 For instance, what will my legacy be?

Will I be a stubborn dreamer until my last breath?

I hope I will continue to build, to grow, and to dream unceasingly like my old neighbor.

I even hope that when my time comes that there will be accomplishments that I have started which others will get to witness the completion of, when I am gone, even if my plans do not go exactly to my design.

I guess I have come to believe this season, that although plans that are made don’t always go as you plan, as long as you keep building you will accomplish a legacy that will endure.

In retrospect, I am sure that when everything shakes out over the next couple of months that every thing will work out for the good, eventually.

I’m sure his grandson, who is an industrious young man will find a way to move into one of the houses, and soon both houses will become homes to some family, as both are beautiful houses and will make a fine choice for any new family.

It is true the old man has left our little road quite a legacy in children and homes that will most likely be here long after even I am gone.

My own children blessed with the honesty of youth, hope aloud that whomever the new family that moves into the new house will be, that they will have children of their age that they can play with, and I can honestly echo their hopeful sentiment.

While my heart goes out to my neighbor for the loss of his father… from my unique and somewhat detached perspective, I find that this event has given me inspiration, and a seasonal wish that I’d like to pass along to you.

My wish this season is that all of us will be blessed with the stubbornness of an old man to build, both online and offline, regardless of any perceived obstacles.

We all live on a timeline that extends before and after our own, and right now is our season to be builders and our chance to make our dreams a legacy that endures.

Warmest regards, from my family to yours.

Oh yeah, and it would not be a seasonal post if we did not give away a lot of stuff for the holidays, so here is a link just for you.

==>http://www.bestbonusblog.com/freebies/thank-you-gifts

Enjoy!

Today, I’m planning to take what Jeremy wrote concerning working together for something bigger than yourself,  in his last post, and run with it.

My goal is to flesh-out the concept of making a “super product” with joint venture partners, easy to understand and easy to do!

I’ll be going over an easy to follow example to show how it is done, how it will benefit you, along with some ways to market this concept to fellow marketers, who you’ll be working with to accomplish it.

In addition, of course we will cover selling it to the general-public and making a profit, as well!

Here is an example of how this works…

Let’s say that you’re in the dieting niche and you have a tight nit following that is well serviced by your wonderful membership website.

Please, don’t get hung up on the hypothetical example here, because soon you’ll see how this applies to YOU, regardless of your current niche.

Therefore, let us continue to imagine that in this example, your membership is highly focused on making painless dietary changes through the use of the culinary arts, i.e. you make juice and veggies, taste like a pint of lager and a packet of crisps.

Perhaps it was your experience as a chef, or your love of cooking that made you a master of this sub-niche. You may have other elements of dieting in your membership program focusing on exercise, motivation, body toning, and the like BUT…If your members were asked to isolate the single most important reason that they stay members of your website – it would be their love of your delectable low calorie, healthful, meal plans.

In fact, they call you a “Guru of Guilt-Free Gastronomical Delights!

It’s great to earn a title like this, however, it’s even better when you maximize the power of this relationship, to promote and profit from selling complementary affiliate products, too.

Let’s face it, (in this example) your strengths are in low calorie healthful meal plans and other Guru’s do a better job at fulfilling the other needs, that in your membership, you only touch upon.

Since you are always on the lookout for products pertinent to your members “over all” goals, you probably have amassed a huge list of product providers in diet related niches. These areas may include exercise, motivation, body and skin toning, clothes, exercise equipment and etc.  All the things that are related to the dieting niche, but for whatever reason you are either not capable of providing, or it just isn’t cost effective for you to provide original material in these areas, to your members, all by yourself.

If you wanted to capitalize on your experience as an affiliate, you could go to the gurus in these other niches, with whom you have a relationship, and propose a joint venture to create a super product for the entire dieting niche!

Your goal could be to make a super product bearing all of your names with the combined power of all of your brands, which will cross the boundaries of each of your individual lists and benefit everyone!

This product will be the ultimate life changing product because it will be the “all around” full body and mind solution for the “over all” dieting niche!

How could you logistically pull this off?

Read the rest of this entry