Inside the Mind of an Internet Marketer

In my quest to begin investing in real estate, one of the first things I did was a full audit of my credit reports at all of the major credit agencies.  What I found was interesting because I expected to have a pretty good credit score.

However, a few things were on there that I didn't know about and there were also a few things that I didn't think were a big deal. 

One of the things I found was that I had a 'charge off' of about $30 from Macy's for a credit card that I opened to buy an item and never even remembered opening this account. What happened was that Macy's didn't get my proper address when I opened the account and they were sending the bill and other account info to the wrong address.  After doing this for a few months with no response from me, they closed the account and reported me to the credit agencies.

I had no idea at first that I even had opened this account and I also didn't have a clue as to how to investigate this and have it removed from my credit report.  Since there were a few other things on my credit report that were hurting my score, I decided to contact a professional credit repair service which at first I was very apprehensive about.  My fear was that this was one of the companies that you pay a settlement amount and then nothing really is solved.

However, GACS was able to investigate all negative issues on my credit report and sent letters to the agencies to have the innacurracies removed from my credit report.  I was amazed that they were able to get these things removed for me and now -  a year later, I have a GREAT credit score and am able to qualify for much better interest rates and programs for a home purchase.

I suggest that everyone run a credit report and if you find anything at all negative, give a credit restoration company a call and see how they can help.  I know it has greatly helped me out and will save me a lot of money for a long time to come. 

Posted by markbarrera at 11:30 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

While I was attending the University of North Texas, working on completing the entrepreneurship program, I had multiple classes that required me to write a business plan.  I had to write two of them from scratch and learned a lot from the process.

However, there was a downside - it cost me thousands of dollars to learn how to write the business plans.  By all means, I am glad I did it, and I wouldn't have gotten a degree without having done this, but I do realize not everyone has the means to pay the thousands of dollars that I did.  And who wants to spend thousands on learning just one thing.

Luckily, there is a free way to learn what I did for thousands of dollars.  Take this free course on how to write a business plan, and I am sure that you will learn the same things that I did that have led me to the success I enjoy today doing marketing in Dallas.   

Posted by markbarrera at 02:18 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

Over at the Trump Blog, Donald Trump is having a contest where 10 people can win a free course in real estate investing or other business courses from Trump University.  But this isn’t even the best part – You can have The Donald answer any question you have just by leaving a comment on his blog.

I have always wanted to pick his brain and am formulating my own question that I hope gets selected for this contest.  While the prize would be awesome to win, I think that insight from Trump might be even more valuable.  The comments are starting to increase, so hurry up before your question gets buried at the bottom. 

Check out the contest and spread the word that Trump wants to answer your questions!

Posted by markbarrera at 09:31 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I assume that if you are reading this, you were drawn in by the title of this post.  Is it a hoax? Will I really give you a FREE link to your website?  Do I really want you to spam me?

Yes, I am 100% serious.

Recently it seems like everyone is getting worried about Google and their paid link witch hunt, so I want to help you out, and take some of this stress away.  I also am not a fan of the nofollow attribute and have joined the dofollow movement.  I also agree with Andy Beard that people need to grow some brass balls.  I guess this is my way of saying screw the system - this is my blog and I can do what I want with my links and my posts and I am not just here to do what everyone else is doing.

Now, here is the EASY part.  Scroll to the bottom and enter a comment!  PLEASE do NOT feel obligated to put your name where it asks for your name.  Go ahead, give yourself a nice keyword rich link to the website of your  choice.  Hell - do it twice and give yourself a deeplink somewhere in your site also (yep, most everybody only links to the homepage usually in the comments).  Feel free to promote this to everyone you know - FREE LINKS FOR ALL!

Some of you may think I am crazy, but oh well.  It's my blog and this is what I feel is right.  Hopefully some of these links will push you from postions #3 or #4 up to #1 in the SERPs or benefit you in some other way.  This is the purpose of my blog - helping my readers in any way possible!

Posted by markbarrera at 01:04 PM | Comments (31) | TrackBacks (1)

I just came across a post at the Create Business Growth blog that is offering up $335 worth of podcasting gear.  All you need to do is visit the post, sign up for the RSS feed, and send them an email letting them know you have added their feed.

Their blog is a great one, and I am sure I would have subscribed without their contest.  They have features such as: Ways to Improve Your Online Presence, Weekly Interviews with Entrepreneurs, Comprehensive Business Strategies, Social Networking Tips & much more.  Check out their blog and make sure to sign up for their feed!

We are in the process of getting a podcast going for our soon to launch site for Franklin-Spirko, so it would be great if I end up winning this contest!

Posted by markbarrera at 02:30 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Many of my readers on this blog probably don't know too much about me as a person, just a marketer with another blog on the web.  While my bio page gives you a brief outline of who I am, it doesn't tell you a whole lot about me.  I decided it was time to open up and share some things about me and what I do with my time.

First off, I am 25 years old and live in Dallas, TX.  I have been building sites and driving traffic to these sites for just over 10 years (70 years in Internet years if you count them the same as dog years).  The first site I ever built was a fan site for my favorite soccer team, FC Dallas (formerly the Dallas Burn).  That site gave me my first taste of web design and marketing.  This was before Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google.

Advance to 2007 - I just graduated from the University of North Texas with a degree in Entrepreneurship.  I had been taking night classes for a while here and there while working for one of the largest web design and Internet marketing firms in Dallas as the Director of Internet Marketing.  It was a job that started as an internship and I quickly proved my skills and was promoted to the top.  However, I felt that there was more I could achieve.

This drive for greatness led me to join up with a few of the brightest business people I know - Jack Spirko, Neil Franklin, Deb Decker and others.  Jack is a business partner at our Internet Marketing Training site and a personal friend of mine.  Neil is a British entrepreneur who has been recognized for his business savy and always strives to be the best at everything he does.  Deb is a PR genius with the been-there-done-that knowledge of many industries and a drive like I haven't seen before.  We are in the process of launching Franklin-Spirko, a marketing and PR company in Dallas because we just felt like clients were not getting the services they needed and profitable marketing was not being created by most of the firms in the D/FW and other metropolitan areas.

I am very excited to have joined this team and look forward to some great projects.  We have already done work for a dallas staffing agency, a cellular network optimization company, and an IT & Telecom placement firm and are working on signing with some very prominent businesses.

Aside from this new job, I am still working very hard with Jack and Ben on MarketingICE - which is doing very well, and we have been receiving some GREAT feedback and have been recognized across the web. Ben Fitts is a brilliant webmaster and programmer who also is a great network & affiliate marketer for such products as bookwise and sendoutcards among many others and I am very glad to have landed him as a business partner.

So, what do I do when I am not working or surfing the web?  I play soccer in a local men's league every Sunday night.  I also run half marathons and other short races usually once a month or so.  Being single means that I still have to watch my body and maintain my health. ;)

I spend my time at the local pubs, hang out with my friends, or hop on a plane to see a friend whenever the time presents itself.  I am also lucky to have my family all very close and enjoy my time being 'Uncle Mark' and spoiling my nieces.

So, there you have it - more information about me than you probably care about.  Bloggers do have lives other than what is exposed in their writings, and I hope you would like to share yours as well.

If you have a blog and want to write a post all about yourself - send me the link to your post and I will add a nice link to your blog from this post.  All bloggers have a story - time to tell yours!

These are the sites that have responded so far:

Create Business Growth - The Passion Behind the Blog

Posted by markbarrera at 10:27 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I just recently joined the DoFollow community on Bumpzee started by Andy Beard.  If you haven't read Andy's blog, I suggest you check it out and subscribe right away because he has some amazing content and a great perspective on everything he reviews.

The DoFollow community is for bloggers who have stopped the madness and removed the nofollow links from their blog.  I see no reason why people should nofollow the links to people who comment on their blog since these are the people who matter most.  It only makes sense to share a little link juice with the people who actually take the time to comment on your site.  Not only that, but I just think the whole nofollow tag is ridiculous and not truly necessary if people monitor their blog comments properly by the use of some type of spam filter or captcha.

If you have any questions on how to remove the nofollow tags from your posts in Wordpress, Moveable Type or any other blog platform, check out Andy's list of dofollow and nofollow plugins and you will be able to find one to fit your needs.

Also, don't forget to join the Bumpzee DoFollow community and help to spread the word.  Many webmasters are making the switch back to the days of no nofollow and I hope that you will too. 

Posted by markbarrera at 06:41 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBacks (1)

My friend and business partner, Jack Spirko, recently wrote a post that was saying that Donald Trumps blog sucks.  It is an interesting post that has stirred up some debate between a few members of Trump University and Jack.

Basically, Jack created a post that talks about how large corporations are using blogs as a marketing tool but may not be creating a blog that resonates with readers properly.  With many companies jumping into the blogosphere, there are many things that they need to pay attention to in order to connect with their readers and have a blog that people talk about.

I am a fan of Trump and agree with many things that Jack says about the quality of the blog over there.  If you want to see some heated debate, then check out the discussion at the Comtechnews blog. 

Posted by markbarrera at 08:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)