Hey guys.

If you’re marketing a product, service or opportunity online, you may have already heard some news about how the FTC is changing the rules. It’s true — they are. And it’s a good idea for you to be familiar with the changes.

(By the way, I am not a lawyer and this should not be considered legal advice. Be responsible for your own business, look at the data and know for yourself what you should do.

With that disclaimer out of the way, here’s the scoop:

In the past, it was completely permissible to show testimonials of your product, service or opportunity and share with the general public what kind of results someone got as a result of using the product or being involved with the opportunity, provided that you offered some sort of disclaimer that you weren’t “guaranteeing” that everyone would have the same result.

In other words, as long as you smacked a line at the bottom of the website saying something like “Results may vary from individual to individual”, you were in the clear.

That was yesterday. That’s history. Today, the rules are totally different.

Here’s what one FTC lawyer had to say:

“…The most significant change to the revised guides is the deletion of the “safe harbor” that has long allowed advertisers to use testimonials who reported specific successful experiences with an advertised product or service as long as the advertiser included a disclaimer such as “Results not typical.” Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect.”

Let’s put that into plain English.

Let’s say you’re in network marketing and you have someone new in your business. Let’s call her Fanny. Fanny starts following the system EXACTLY as it’s taught…works the business with integrity and consistency and — lo and behold! — she winds up creating a $20,000 per month income in her first 6 months.

Then let’s say that Fanny writes you a testimonial that says, “I got started in XYZ International six months ago and now I’m making $20,000 per month.” And she’s got the check stubs to prove it.

So far, so good, right?

Well, up until the FTC changed the rules, you could just put a disclaimer on that page that says something like “Results may vary and are based on the time, energy and commitment you invest in your business” type of disclaimer you’ve seen 100s of times.

But here’s the key phrase that the FTC has added to the mix: “required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect”.

What that means is that — if you’ve got someone in your company making $20k per month and you want to display that testimonial on your website, you would ALSO have to disclose the amount of money that the average person earns in your company.

Stop. Wait a second.

You and I both know what the “average” person earns in any business. Zero or close to it. Why? Because “average” people are never successful. That’s why they’re called “average”.

They don’t follow the system.
They don’t do the work.
They don’t attend the events.
They don’t go to the training calls.
And they quit before you can say the phrase “you’re responsible for your own results”.

What does the average person in YOUR company earn? $100 a year? More? Less? Whatever it is, you can be damn sure it’s nowhere close to Fanny’s results. Because Fanny is someone who’s choosing to be very UNaverage in her life.

Wait, there’s more.

The FTC lawyer went on to say:

“The FTC also said that it believes that it is “likely” that testimonials that present the specific experiences of a product user (e.g., the number of pounds or inches lost) will be viewed as claiming that those experiences are typical of what consumers will generally experience.”

Did you get that? Read it again: “testimonials…will be viewed as claiming that those experiences are typical…”

What that means is that — if you put a testimonial on your site of someone who makes $20k in a month….then the FTC says you’re claiming that the typical consumer should expect to earn $20k/month. Substitute any number in that sentence with any other number and it will also be true.

And this is true for non-financial testimonials, too.

Do you sell a weight loss product and say that someone lost 20 pounds? Then the FTC says that you’re claiming that everyone will lose 20 pounds.
Do you have a testimonial on your site from someone who used a miracle fruit juice and their cancer was cured? Then the FTC says that anyone with cancer should expect to be cured using your product. (The FDA will get involved in that one, too.)

In short, if you use testimonials with specific results AT ALL….then you’re affected by this change in the rules If you want to continue to use those types of testimonials, you can’t just say “individual results may vary”. You have to say “Individual results may vary. The average person experiences ______.”

It’s my understanding, though, that not all testimonials will be affected so seriously. If someone is just expressing how happy they are that they use a product…they like the way it tastes….they’ve joined a business they’re excited about…..they’re a satisfied customer, those are probably okay.

It’s only when you’re offering a testimonial where someone is talking about a specific result of some kind.

So, what should you do with all this?

You should COMPLY, by God!

Seriously…I’ve been tracking this conversation for a long time and it’s amazing how many people are investing their energy into trying to figure out how to “get around” the FTC…or how to outsmart the FTC….or how to shortcut the system so they can still offer wild testimonials and not be affected by the changes.

Let me give you a word of advice: your energy is far better invested into some other income-producing activity. The best thing you can do on this issue is to simply play by the rules. Because, if you ignore it and get a phone call or letter from the FTC…I promise you will comply or lose.

Here’s the good news…

I’ve not used testimonials in my marketing in YEARS. And it hasn’t kept me from making a ton of money in my business.

Why?

Because, while testimonials are a great form of “social proof”….testimonials are not the only thing that matters when someone is looking at an offer. In fact, it’s arguable that they’re not even in the top three reasons why people choose to raise their hand and ask for more information….or just outright buy right in the moment.

People are more attracted to your product, service or opportunity because of WHO YOU ARE BEING in your marketing than in how many testimonials you can pile up.

I know one thing for sure: the people who get started with me in my business don’t get started because I show them a bunch of people who are making multiple six-figure incomes in their first 6-12 months. They’re getting started with me because:

A. They want what I’m selling
B. They can see themselves easily duplicating what I do to earn a great income
C. They can clearly see a path from where they ARE to where they WANT TO BE.

It’s not rocket science. Testimonials are great. But they’re not the “be-all, end-all” of marketing.

So, my advice: don’t use testimonials with specific results. Feel free to use all the testimonials you want about how happy people are with the decisions they’ve made.

Tony Rush

P.S. One other thing: in times of change like these, plenty of people will not comply and will be out of the game. Another bunch of people will have talked themselves into the belief that “they can’t make money if they can’t use testimonials” and they’ll just quit altogether. Either way, there will be fewer people out there marketing or marketing correctly.

People who take the approach I’ve described in the latter part of this article will be in a GREAT position to rack up some serious cash in the coming months. Be one of them. There’s never been a better time to earn the kind of income you deserve!

“In times of change, the LEARNERS will inherit the earth….while the LEARNED will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” — Eric Hoffer

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All this talk about “stimulus packages” and “bailouts”… A billion dollars… A hundred billion dollars…Eight hundred billion dollars…One TRILLION dollars…

These numbers are so big, they’re meaningless. One way to put it into perspective is to actually SEE the amount of money we’re talking about. Let’s take it slow.

We’ll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them; slightly fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

Now, a PACKET of one hundred of these $100 bills is only about a 1/2″ thick. But it’s $10,000. You can squeeze into a pants pocket and it’s enough to have a shamefully good time for about a week. Here’s $10,000:

Believe it or not, this next little pile is a whopping $1,000,000. Doesn’t look like much, does it? Well, a million dollars is actually just 100 packets like the one above. You could fit it into a grocery bag and walk around with it.

Now, if you thought the million dollars looked unimpressive….$100 Million dollars is a little more respectable. It will fit neatly on a standard pallet:

Now…a BILLION dollars is quite a lot of money. It’s basically 1,000 Million. So, if you had ten of those pallets, you’d have one billion dollars:

Now, let’s look at a TRILLION dollars. That’s a number we’ve been hearing a lot about lately.

What is a trillion dollars? It’s basically one million million. It’s 1,000 billion. It’s a one followed by twelve zeros. You ready for this? It’s pretty surprising. Check it out, ladies and gentlemen: I give you $1 Trillion:

Did you notice that the pallets in that picture are DOUBLE-stacked? And how tiny the man looks over on the left? Next time you hear someone throwing around the word “trillion” like it’s pocket change, think about this picture. Especially if it’s the government talking about how much money they want to spend.

Before you pass this along to your friends, let me offer you a personal thought… Do you remember that picture of the $1,000,000? The 100 packets of $10,000 that you could fit inside a grocery bag?

You can earn that within the next TWO years. Seriously. And it’s not nearly as difficult as what you would imagine.

Heck, here’s a really BAD example that would still work: did you know that if you had a single product that paid you $1,000 that you would only need 1,000 customers to earn that million dollars? Only one-thousand customers! That’s nothing! Think about how many millions of people are buying and selling stuff online every day. A great many of them are spending thousands of dollars.

In fact, I have a friend named Frank who recently sold over 2,000 copies of a little product he put together…..and he sold them for $2,000 each. He didn’t get to keep all the money but he kept over half of it! And he did it in less than a week. That’s a $2,000,000 income.

And to be honest, that’s not even the simplest way to earn a seven-figure income. It would be far easier to sell FEWER products and then offer those satisfied customers the opportunity to buy more products. Or more expensive products. You could make the same money with a fraction of the work!

In fact, here’s a formula for creating a 7-figure income in 2 years:

1. Plug into a market-tested system that is already creating millionaires. There’s no need to re-invent the wheel….it’s far smarter to just do what’s already proven to work. This is the SINGLE concept that I used to earn $15,000 in my first month in a home business…and reached $40,000 per month in my first year. If I can do it anyone can. You just need to have a system that has already proven to create millionaires.

2. You have to be committed or you might as well not even get started. If you’re the kind of person who jumps from deal to deal and business to business every few weeks…STOP IT. You’ll never get rich jumping around. The biggest part of becoming wealthy is adopting a success mindset. We have products and masterminding that will assist you in installing this mindset in record time.

3. You will become like the people you spend your time with. Our mastermind team is chock-full of people just like me who didn’t graduate from college….don’t have a marketing degree….but who have earned over $1,000,000 by working from home with no employees, no product inventory and no hassles.

4. And, finally, you have to be marketing a product that offers HUGE value in the marketplace…and that will pay you what you deserve when someone chooses to buy it. Forget nickel-and-dime commissions. Forget earning 6% on someone’s long-distance bill. Or $10 on selling someone a nutritional product. The REAL key to success in this industry is to market something that has such value for the prospect that they will want to own it the moment they find out about it. They can go from complete IGNORANCE of the product to wanting to own it in less than 30 minutes of knowing about it. Something that people WANT but that is totally different from what everyone else is selling.

When you’ve got a product like that, people will line up and BEG to buy it from you. And you can pocket some huge profits while changing someone’s life in the process.

If you’d like to find out more about a business that can give you a multiple six-figure income in your first 6-12 months, visit me online at http://www.tonyrush.com and I’ll be glad to show you EXACTLY what I did to create wealth from home. (No MLM, no products to stock, no chasing friends and family).

Talk to you soon!

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Well, maybe not EXACTLY an idiot. But, one of his key pieces of “personal finance” advice is just stupid. At least for most people.

David Bach is the author of a series of personal finance books like “The Automatic Millionaire” and “Start Late Finish Rich”.

I’m not quite sure why these books have caught on since they don’t seem to be much different from the same basic information you’d find in any personal finance book. It’s the same message you’ve heard before: save 10% of your income for a long time and you’ll get rich.

Bach puts a modern spin on this advice by appealing to the Starbucks crowd by calling it “The Latte Factor”. Basically, his point is that — if you skip the $5 latte every day — that’s $150 a month you can save. And, invested at 10% interest (yeah, right) then you can wind up with a million dollars in 40 years.

There are two problems with this formula as I see it:

1. This is great advice for a 20-year old. But, the largest demographic in America are baby-boomers who are already in their 40s and they’re trying to figure out to solve their financial dilemna. They don’t have 40 years to save up. They want a solution now.
   And the second problem is…
2. It’s the same old “deferred living” formula that requires you to hoard like a miser for the most productive years of your life….so that by the time you get to the end of your career, you’ve got some money but you’ve missed out on all the lattes!

David Bach isn’t really an idiot. He’s just immersed in the 1950s fairy tale about how saving money for retirement is the best way to create wealth. And it’s not.

Go make your money now. Make so much money that you can drink 5 lattes a day just for spite, if you want.

The solution to creating an abundant life for you and your family isn’t deferred living. Or working your ass off for 40 years.  The solution to creating an abundant life is to make sure that you’re engaged in a business that will pay you handsomely for your efforts…and which will allow you to enjoy all the sunsets, cruises, vacations, family time and lattes you can stand WHILE you’re doing it.

Seriously.  Read that again.  And then read it a third-time.

If you’ve got the sense to understand the words I’m typing, you have the ability to earn AT LEAST $20,000.00 PER MONTH.  At least.  I kid you not.

That’s what’s possible for you.  But it will never happen as long as you’re in the mindset of “skipping lattes” and “turning off the cable” so you can save enough money to save an extra $6 a week.

Start focusing on wealth…and abundance…and prosperity.  And you can create as much as you want….AND drink all the lattes you want.

Life is a choice. Choose well.

Tony Rush

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Hardly a day (hour?) goes by when you don’t run across someone online, in-person or on the TV who’s talking about how tough it is to make money in this economy.

And it seems the culprits are the usual suspects: the talking heads on TV. People who get paid — not to think — but to read.

Let me give you a tip: don’t buy into the rhetoric of the media. If you pay attention to them, they’ll have you thinking that there’s no money and that no one has anything to spend.

Which is complete BS. In fact, consider just a few random thoughts from the last couple of weeks…

• I just flew to and from Los Angeles first-class and it was completely full. People who paid nearly twice the ticket price for the privilege of being treated better than cattle, to have a wider seat and to get drinks and snacks without begging.
• I was in the Apple store last week and it was wall-to-wall people. All of them buying or looking to buy iPods, iPhones, iMacs, laptops, software, headphones or computer monitors.
• I recently talked with a 13-year-old kid who made $24,000 in four days by marketing on the internet. (I kid you not. His dad is freaked.) Evidently he didn’t buy into the doom-and-gloom.
• A quick glance at the Clickbank directory shows that there are thousands of dollars being spent every day on products that anyone here is smart enough to put together
• If there’s a Whole Foods near you, go there in the evening and see if you can count the number of people who go out of their way to come to that store to buy stuff that costs way more than a less-healthy version at Wal-Mart.
• There’s a guy in NYC who’s making a fairly good income by selling GARBAGE as art. Don’t ask. But, know this: if you want an acrylic cube full of stuff that he’s picked up after a Yankees game or after the NY Eve party in Times Square, it’ll cost you $100.

And the list goes on and on.

Now, obviously there really are economic issues right now and it’s not my point to try to say there’s not.

But anyone who’s been paying attention for the last 20 years knows that the news isn’t about journalism any more…it’s about editorializing, speculating and giving opinions.

And there’s a big difference in factually reporting economic problems (which is true) and
telling the public that no one wants to spend any moeny (which is NOT true).

Heck, have you noticed that some of the most famous “news commentators” are actually comedians? (Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, etc.)

Here’s the FACT:

No matter WHAT the economy is doing, there’s always a group at the bottom end of the market who knows exactly how many pennies a carrot costs. They have a “give me a penny off” discount philosopy and they invest most of their mental energy into thinking about ways to “save” money….not in way os thinking about “increasing their income”.

It’s difficult to make it financially working in that kind of market. Further, those people are usually extremely negative and have a tendency to bring you down by constantly focusing on what something is NOT rather than on focusing on what something IS. (Some of you will understand what I’m saying).

On the other end of the market are people who want quality and beauty and efficiency and positivity and value. And they’re willing to pay for it. They don’t care how many pennies a carrot cost. They just want to make sure they’re grown organically in a special greenhouse where a gardener comes in and sings opera to them every two hours. And they don’t give a damn what it costs. They just want the carrots.

Not only is that the kind of person you want to market to…but that’s also the person you want to spend your time with. Not so that you can be extravagant with money (although there’s nothing wrong with that, either)….but because you rise above all the gray, dull, negative energy of people who spend all their time worrying about whether they’re getting ripped off for a nickel.

At the end of the day, this economy is about the same thing it was about 3, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 years ago: opportunity mixed with difficulty. It’s simply money moving from one group of people to another. The trick is to find out where the money is going and get in front of it.

And stop watching the news. It’ll rot your brain. It’s full of people who make less than $100,000 per year to read words on a screen and to pretend they have a clue what they’re talking about.

Screw ‘em. Go make some money and forget anything you’ve ever heard them say.

People afford what they CHOOSE to afford. And when you spend your time offering great products and opportunities to people who are focused on expansion (not shrinking), then making money is a piece of cake.

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