Internet Marketing Psychology & Intriguing Facts

Time Management

Ever asked yourself, where does the time go?

It seems that this hectic lifestyle in which we live, many in
internet business have the complaint, “there’s just not enough
time in the day” to get all the work required done. This proves
especially true with companies running their internet business
like a one man band, as many do. This is why time management is
an extremely important factor in producing quantitive, yet
quality results, day in day out.

Research suggests that more than half of our lives (on average)
is a waste of time.

* We spend 5 years standing in line. * 2 years trying to return
telephone calls. * 8 months opening direct mail. * 6 years
eating food. * 1 year looking for misplaced objects. * 4 years
doing general household chores. * 25 years sleeping.

Out of an 80 year life span a total of 43 years are consumed
with trivial, boring tasks that seem to occupy the majority of
our free time. With another 20 years being consumed by work it
leaves little time to the imagination if you don’t have a daily
time management system in place.

So I ask you this.

How many of the 30,000 odd days of our life do you spend on the
pursuit of your interests, dreams and self satisfactions?

In a business sense, our only limited resource is time. So how
much money we make is a direct reflection of how we use our
time.

The clock is ticking, put it to good use.

Memory & Images

The subconscious mind, more commonly referred to in the field of
psychology as the unconscious mind, not only stores words and
memories of a literal sense, but this generally untapped realm
of the mind also has an images folder. Automatically the
unconscious mind takes a capture shot and attaches it to the
corresponding literal aspect of the moment.

More times than not from an internet marketing perspective, in
my research, the memory that a potential client forms of a visit
to your website is primarily created by the images they see, the
words these images convey are autonomously sucked up by the
unconscious mind to form a relevant or not so relevant memory.

This giving some stable meaning to the age old saying “a picture
paints a thousand words”.

So if you were thinking before reading this article that the
look and feel of your website is inconsequential or secondary to
the literal content conveyed, think again!

So if you want to instil a relevant memory of your website in
your visitors mind don’t overlook the power of creative imagery.
If you don’t make an impression with your imagery then a not so
relevant memory will be formed and filed DEEP in the shadow
realms of your potential customers unconscious mind, never to be
retrieved again.

Focussing The Minds Of Others In The Direction You Want

Here are a couple of quick exercises that prove a point.

Exercise #1 - Close your eyes momentarily and for the period of
approximately 1 minute I want you to do try and achieve the
following.

Do NOT think of a black dog for 1 minute. Do it now.

Did you have major difficulty NOT thinking of that black dog for
a whole minute? No matter how hard you tried that damn black dog
just kept running on into your mind right?

Exercise #2 - Close your eyes momentarily and for the period of
approximately 1 minute I want you to do try and achieve the
following.

I want you to think of a red rose for 1 minute. Do it now.

This task was relatively easy huh? Now to the point of the
exercise..

The focusing of the red rose was relatively easy enough, the
second exercise also holds the key to the first exercise of NOT
focusing on the black dog. The most effective way to NOT think
of something is to think of something else.

Most importantly, we need to be aware that not thinking of
something actually focuses the goal oriented part of the mind on
that very thing, just as effectively as if you had chosen to
think of it directly.

One can observe the principle of this exercise at work very
effectively when parents walk their children home from school,
they tell their children NOT to jump in the puddles right? But
almost as if you could set a clock by it, your kids are back
doing exactly what you told them NOT to do, yep they are jumping
in the puddles.

By the parent saying to their children, don’t jump in the
puddles, this draws the kids attention directly to the puddles
and in they go. Then the parents have the cheek to get upset at
the children after they have quite effectively, if somewhat
unconsciously directed them straight into the puddles.

So how do you keep your children from jumping in the puddles you
ask?

Think about it for a moment. The mind is a goal orientated
decision making tool, you want the mind to focus away from the
puddles, where do you want the mind to go? On the dry ground of
course, so the effective thing to say is “keep on the dry
ground”, this focuses the mind of the child on the dry ground
and not on the puddles.

Have you ever seen a child carrying a full bowl of soup? What is
the natural reaction?

You shout “don’t spill the bowl of soup” right? But by doing so,
what has the child’s mind registered?

Yes, you are telling him to spill the soup by focusing his mind
on spilling it, then there is insult added to injury when you
say “you clumsy kid, why didn’t you do what I told you”? So not
only does the child feel guilty for making a mess, he or she
then gets a negative affirmation as well.

So how do you get the child to NOT spill the soup? Think what do
I want the child’s mind to do and the answer is “keep the soup
bowl level”.

Focus the mind towards the required task, invariably this will
focus their mind away from the negative result that you
instilled in their mind.

This is a very powerful psychological concept that can be
effectively implemented into your internet marketing campaigns.
If you want your customers to do something, maybe telling them
not to do it may be more effective in certain situations,
definitely “food for the taught”. This approach would also help
to instil one of the most powerful action emotions also,
curiosity

Two very different sides to the same coin, sit and ponder on
this theory for a while, think of the many possibilities and how
you could make it work for you and your internet marketing
campaigns.

Suicide in the Church Part 1

Recently, several suicides have occurred right here in my own hometown of about 16,000 people. The latest of these involved a friend of mine who was, among other things, the leader of a Christian Business Fellowship which I attend. He was a lawyer with a terrific wife, two young kids, very prominent in his church, coached little league baseball. As one can imagine, speculations abound - everything from possible chemical imbalances to unfair, unfounded comments which…well, small town gossip can be so mean-spirited.

These local suicides also have Christians from various camps wondering and discussing what happens after a Christian commits suicide. Some eMails I’ve received on this subject have included words like “unsettling”, “confused” and “disturbing.” Since we are the Body of Christ, “a body fitly joined,” as Scripture declares, when something happens here, it’s happening there. If it hasn’t hit your community square in the face just yet, chances are it will.

I’m reminded of the theme song from the TV series “M.A.S.H.” It was called “Suicide is painless.”

No, it’s not. It hurts a lot.

It’s hurting me.

Personally, I was raised believing that a Christian who killed themselves received a quick ticket to hell. The concept being that, since murderers would burn in hell, what was suicide but self-murder with absolutely no time for repentance?

Apparently, “Thou shalt not kill” referred even to the killing of oneself. This concept now strikes me as quite silly, for all sins…murder, suicide, gossip, slander, rage, infidelity…are all forgivable by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. By and large, that’s pretty standard Christian fare, right? To say otherwise is to imply that the crucifixion had no effect on some particular sins. As my own relationship with God has developed, I am now convinced that, as the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God.” The Greek word for ‘nothing’ can best be defined as …well, NOTHING!

I found a half dozen cases of suicide in the Bible and the Good Book does not appear to condemn the act. The most notorious accounts were those of King Saul (1 Sam. 31:2-5) and Judas Iscariot (Matt. 27:3-5). Others are Abimelech (Judges 9:50-54), who ordered his armor-bearer to kill him, Samson (Judges 16:23-31), Ahithophel (2 Sam. 17:23), and Zimri (1 Kings 16:15-20). Even Elijah despaired of his own life (1 Kings 18:40; 19:4) and Job’s wife told him he’d be better off killing himself (Job 2:7-9).

Far as I can tell, none of these people who went through with it were explicitly condemned for taking his own life.

Most people who take their own lives are not usually cool and rational about it. I doubt many set out to flout the will of God. I’ve read that 500,000 Americans attempt suicide annually! I must believe that they are not so much choosing death as they are stumbling down into it from a steep slope of despair. Every 17 minutes someone in America commits suicide. This is the third-leading cause of death among people 15 to 25 years old, college students for the greater part. Even more tragically, among children between 5 and 14 years of age, suicide is the sixth most common cause of death.

Something’s VERY wrong.

People are hurting everywhere. we know this because, after all, hurting people are hurting people everywhere we turn. People need help. Maybe someone you know of, someone who puts up a pretty good front at work or even at Church, or even in your home, needs something more than a handshake or a pat on the back.

Love, after all, is spelled T-I-M-E.

So, give someone your attention today. Ask “How are you?” and pause, look them in the eye and await their response. Say their names in conversation and drop them an encouraging eMail. Every one of us is a potential lifesaver. As life guards are taught to handle drowning victims, let them kick and scream and thrash about, but let’s all try and be there when they decide they just can’t swim another stroke.

Please write team1min@aol.com and request Suicide parts 2 & 3

FORWARD the messages!

Pastor Michael has been broadcasting messages of Discipleship & Encouragement to the Body of Christ by email since 1999. Since then these messages have been published on numerous other sites, reprinted in paper newsletters belonging to other ministries, have been used as a source of teaching and preaching by ministers and Bible teachers worldwide, and have ministered to the Body of Christ of nearly every major denomination.