A post by Shoemoney yesterday got me to thinking again about a topic that both amazes me and doesn’t at the same time. Shoe’s post was Millionaires continue to climb in the US as more people go out of work. In it, he talks about how the number of millionaires in the United States has grown over the past years while unemployment continues to bump against the highest levels we’ve seen in years. According to Shoe, in 2010, while the unemployment rate skyrocketed 25% over levels in 2009, the number of millionaires in the U.S. grew by nearly 10%. How crazy is that?!

We’re definitely in one of the most dire economic situations I’ve ever lived through seeing our country in (certainly not the worst we’ve ever seen in the history of the U.S. though). Seems like doom and gloom continues to be pounded into our heads by media outlets and friends at every turn. I’m sure we all have at least one (or more likely dozens) story about someone getting slapped down by the economy over the past 3 years. It hits close to home for a lot of us.

What’s crazy to me though, is while we watch people’s lives get devastated by lost jobs, lost homes, etc., you walk into an Apple Store and it’s wall to wall people from open to close. iPad 2′s are still in high demand. Restaurants, both high and low end, continue to thrive and get packed to the rafters.

The rich continue to get richer and the poor continue to get poorer.

The thought I had while reading the Shoemoney post was amazement at how powerful figuring out how to make money, regardless of what you do (speaking of legal ways of course), really is. It’s amazing that 56% of the United States’ household wealth is controlled by about 10 million people (the millionaires in the U.S.).

One source estimates we will end 2011 with about 10.5 million millionaires in the U.S. That number is expected to nearly double to 20.6 million millionaires by the end of 2020.

Should we really be surprised, though, that the rich keep getting richer? Sure you can argue that they enjoy benefits of wealth others don’t, but the reality is, many of them took advantage of opportunities presented to them and worked their way up from there. The silver spoon argument is a weak one in my opinion.

For those of us who aren’t millionaires, it’s up to us to make it happen. The Internet is a level playing field and awaits those who want to grab hold and make something happen.

When 2020 rolls around, I want to be part of the 20.6 million who are millionaires much more than I’d rather be part of the rest that aren’t!

I love a good burger. Most people who eat meat, heck even those that don’t, probably would agree that there’s nothing like the all American food. Even if that means your burger of desire is a veggie or mushroom burger as opposed to one with a slab of meat on it.

New Yorkers have an advantage over the rest of us in the States as there seems to be an informal one-upmanship going on between several local restaurants trying to take the top spot for the city’s Best Burger. The competition has gotten a bit out of hand though with a couple of local vendors vying for the most expensive burger in town.

Enter the $175 burger.

New York’s Wall Street Burger Shoppe is better known for it’s $5 sandwiches and reasonably priced fare than it’s $175 burger. The high priced entry started out as an effort to one-up the $150 burger served over at Daniel Boulud’s db Bistro Moderne. Boulud’s burger featured double-truffle patties as justification for the high price.

Kevin O’Connell, Wall Street Burger Shoppe’s owner, had to come up with something pretty spectacular to outdo the Bistro Moderne burger. The result is the “Richard Nouveau” which features 10 ounces of Kobe beef, foie gras, exotic mushrooms, cave-aged Gruyère, and fresh truffles. All of these ingredients are packed between a brioche bun. Sounds delicious, but there is one more ingredient that sets this burger apart from all others: gold.

O’Connell said, “It needed an extra kick,” so that’s what he gave it. He mixes gold flakes with his truffle mayonnaise. What’s more, he also sprinkles gold flakes on top of the burger. In total, 750 milligrams of gold goes into each burger. An average of two Riachard Nouveaus are ordered a week.

My first thought about this burger is “Who would eat this thing?” I’m not really sure I want to eat gold. Not only does it seem like a waste, it’s just so odd.

As I read the article about the $175 hamburger, I couldn’t help but think about a burning question I’ve had for a long time about web sites, products, affiliate campaigns, etc: Is there really room for another big, successful, high traffic site/blog/campaign to be built? It may seem like a simple question with an obvious answer, but when you move from the dreaming state about an idea to actually building whatever it is you’re working on, doubts can creep in pretty fast.

The glaring answer I get from reading an article about an informal competition to serve the most expensive hamburger is an emphatic YES. There is always room to build something that’s better, faster, cheaper. This is pretty much true regardless of the niche, product, etc. It also holds true despite how much audience share an existing site, product or campaign has. The key is evaluating the competition, finding where they are deficient or missing the mark and improving on their efforts.

This takes a lot of pressure off of the average entrepreneur. No longer is an original idea really required. You just need to be good at looking at how current offerings are meeting the needs of the intended customer and how you can do it better. There’s always room for improvement.

One note, I’m not advocating copying an existing offering, but there’s no reason you can’t learn from someone who is successful and hopefully avoid mistakes they’ve made.

Where to go from here? For those with existing sites/blogs/products/campaigns you want to improve…look at your competition and see what they’re doing you aren’t. How can you improve? If you’re looking to start something new, again, look at the most popular offerings. What are they doing right and not doing so well?

The question you should be asking yourself is, “How can I sprinkle a little gold onto what I’m offering?”

[Image by Kang Kim]

I’m a bit jaded these days. There aren’t too many people that I follow that I truly trust. Most of the people putting out Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing and Make Money Online products and guides just aren’t offering much in the way of new material or valuable products people can actually use. The overblown hype and sheer numbers of the same old crap gets really old after a while.

One of the people I DO follow and trust is Zac Johnson over at ZacJohnson.com. Zac has spent a good portion of his life making money online. He started as a teenager and has not stopped since. I appreciate the information he puts out on his blog and have seen him at a couple of conferences. He strikes me as a straight up guy who not only makes money online, but wants to help others do the same.

That said, it was a no brainer when I saw he released a guide on flipping web sites recently. I didn’t even hesitate and bought the product. I’m not necessarily looking to get into web site flipping, but I was more interested in how his information could help me sell a number of sites and projects that I’m ready to let go of. I haven’t done much on Flippa other than buy a couple of sites, so I’m looking forward to learning how to use it as an outlet to get rid of projects that are collecting dust.

Here is some of what you can expect to find in Zac’s ebook Flip This Web Site:

• Immediate Warning Signs of a Bad Web Site Listing
• What is Flippa and Why You Need to Use It Now!
• Buying & Selling Sites: What Makes a Site Sell!
• Create, Flip, Profit… then Repeat!
• Promoting and Outsourcing Your Sites
• 3 Action Plans for Continued Success
• Six Videos Walking You Through the Process
• Mini Niche Web Site Guide: How to Create Killer Mini Sites
• BloggingTips Story: The Before, During & After Process of a Big Sale
• Extra Bonuses: Interviews, Case Studies, Resources & More!

For the next 24 hours or so, Zac is running a 50% off special.  The resource guide will be priced at $67 normally, but you can pick it up for $33.49. He provides a 60 day money back guarantee you can take advantage of if it doesn’t meet your expectation. This is the same deal I took advantage of yesterday.

If you’re interested in buying a web site(s), selling a web site(s) or how to build up your sites to increase their monetary value, this is an ebook you shouldn’t pass up.

You can check out the guide and pick it up here: Flip.ZacJohnson.com.

One note, this is NOT an affiliate link. Unlike most of the links on my site, this one doesn’t get me anything if you purchase the book. I think this is one of those things that will greatly help you and your business. Plain and simple. And I paid for the guide (using the same 50% off deal thankfully) just like everyone else has to.

Pick it up today and let me know what you think.

I sometimes wonder why people go to events and trade shows. Some don’t have a choice. They have to go for work or to represent their company. Others tout the great networking opportunities, which I get, and agree with. But there’s a weird group that just seems to be event groupies. They take in every event, trade show and online seminar to do with topics like affiliate marketing or blogging, yet never seem to actually go anywhere themselves.

This go me to thinking about why people go to those events, and for some it has to be because of the free crap they can score. I used to be one of those people that would pick up every free piece of garbage that I could get my hands on. I’d come back with a suitcase overloaded full of useless junk that would just sit in the closet. Everything from coasters and customized pens to coffee mugs and frisbees. I’d take anything.

In the last few years, I’ve had a pretty big shift in what I’m willing to actually take. I don’t need another cheap t-shirt with some company’s logo on it for free. I actually want good stuff. This reminded me of some pictures from Shoemoney’s Elite Retreat 7 event last year. The swag is some of the best I’ve ever seen for a sub-$5,000 event. A picture of one of the tables is above (yep…every attendee got an iPad!). You can check out more pics on Shoe’s post here: Elite Retreat 7 Recap.

I could draw all sorts of valuable, thought provoking conclusions from this, but I’m more curious about what the best swag you’ve ever walked away with from an event was. Chime in via the comment section below.

Today I ran across a blog written by Feross Aboukhadijeh. Feross built a little site called YouTube Instant in September of 2010. He spent 3 hours writing the code for the site designed to let you search the YouTube video database in real time. The result was 1 million visitors in 10 days with worldwide media attention and even a job offer straight from YouTube’s CEO at the time.

The time it would take to watch a movie one night (he mentions he almost did watch a movie instead of coding up YouTube Instant) changed his life.

The post I happened on today is centered around some of his thoughts about the YouTube Instant experience and the notion that many of us have that many successful people are somehow superhuman. I found it thought provoking and something everyone should read.

Feross outlines a number of Lessons in the post, but one in particular really struck home for me. It’s Lesson #3: You can’t predict what will succeed. He outlines a number of the things outside of his control, but maintains the one thing he DID have control over was “whether or not I decided to show up.” A famous quote from Woody Allen included in the post drives the point home, “Ninety percent of life is just showing up.”

I know it seems drop dead simple, but how freakin true is that?! The problem with 95%, heck maybe even 99%, of wannabee Internet Marketers, bloggers, online entrepreneurs, etc. is they NEVER EVEN SHOW UP. They jabber on about what they want to do, someday will do, etc. They read all the latest blog posts on how people are making money online. They buy course after course promising “push button riches” beyond their wildest dreams. Yet never do a freakin thing.

Before you accuse me of being mean and stepping on people’s toes, you need to know I’m talking about myself here as much as anyone else. I’ve written about this very problem of mine a number of times in the past. If I would take the 3 hours I wasted putzing around with email today and actually BUILT a site I’ve had on my list for the last 6 months, even if it failed miserably, I’d be getting into the game…I’d be showing up.

Before you waste another day, stop what you’re doing, and read Feross’ post here: None Of Us Knows What We’re Doing. Then commit to showing up and just do something…anything. Try. Sure you’ll fail, but who knows when you’re going to hit on something crazy big you never even dreamed could happen.

I’ve installed quite a few face covers and shields on various devices over the years, however, none have compared to the frustrating experience attempting to install a Zagg Invisible Shield on my iPad 2 recently. I decided to give the Zagg product try instead of buying a full case for the second generation iPad. This would allow me to protect the back while using the Apple Smart Cover.

I didn’t think it’d be that big of a deal to put on, but man was I wrong. My first attempt, following Zagg’s included instructions EXACTLY by the way, resulted in this:

Believe it or not, there’s an Invisible Shield in that ball of plastic. It took a good 15 minutes to get to that point. I just couldn’t get it positioned right before the solution dried up. Needless to say I was pretty pissed at the company and my inability to install what seemed to be a simple product.

Despite that, I ordered another one, and this time around I decided to do a quick search for tips before installing. My plan for the second attempt was to only peel back part of the shield, position it on the iPad, and gradually apply it while simultaneously peeling off the backing it came on.

After stumbling across a video on JohnChow.com of all places, I used his method and in less than 5 minutes, ended up with this:

Absolute PERFECTION!!! No bubbles, no wrinkles and perfectly placed. It looks great and the Apple Smart Cover works perfectly on it. This is exactly what I was after, thanks not to the company that makes the product, but another blogger.

If you’re going to apply one of the Zagg Invisible Shields on any of your devices, do yourself a favor and follow John Chow’s method. You won’t be sorry.

Here’s the video from JohnChow.com:

You can check out the entire post here: Win An Invisible Shield for The Apple iPad 2.

The best time management systems and their gurus all agree that you should break up your work blocks if you want to maximize your effectiveness. Taking a break every hour or two is not only great for your mind, but your body as well. Thanks to the people over at XenonProject.com, I have something new to entice me to take a break.

Last week, they sent me an RC helicopter, the Syma S107G, to play with. I’ve had a number of RC things over the years from planes and gliders to all sorts of electric cars and helicopters. Some of the ones I get the most use out of are those that I can use indoors. Small RC helicopters are at the top of that list.

Now before you dismiss this as a lame toy review, hear me out. I’m a firm believer in having fun, no matter what you’re doing or where you’re at. That being said, we all have to power through stuff at times that just plain sucks. As strange it may sound, these things break up monotonous or tedious work and give you a chance to act like a kid, taking your mind off work for a few. Who doesn’t want to act like a kid for a while?!

A few things about this particular helicopter, that I also noticed about a number of the other RC items they had on their site. This thing is better made than others I’ve had over the years. It’s got quite a bit of metal on it instead of the typical flimsy plastic of others in it’s class. This includes metal skids which are much sturdier for those hard landings.

The S107G includes a 3 channel radio controller with the chopper. What’s really cool about this particular model is it’s basically self contained. Once you throw some batteries in the remote, you’ve got all you need to fly and charge anywhere. You can recharge using the remote or plug it into a USB port on your computer (how sweet is that?!).

In all seriousness, think about picking up one of these helicopters from XenonProject.com. They’ve got an unbelievable selection in all different price ranges. One of these can really help improve your productivity.

Head over to XenonProject.com and check out what they have.