Today the Internet Wins, our family has decided to cut Cable and get our TV online!!!!!! Yep, that’s $65.40 (CDN) that now goes to something else in our budget, maybe an evening out for dessert and a movie, a date night for sure.

The decision was actually very easy, we had a family meeting with our two boys (19 & 22), they looked at us somewhat bewildered, they almost laughed out loud at us when we asked them if they cared whether we had cable TV or not. Sometimes you get nervous bringing up the topic of dropping something you thought everyone wanted. Our youngest son said, we don’t watch TV, we get what we want online through our Media Center Computers.

That was it! No discussion, no fussing, no justifying why we should have it. So, we cut cable TV from our household and we are now using the Internet for yet one more service. I won’t cover all the services available online, I’ll let you do your own research. The truth is, this is going to happen more and more often over the next couple years. The trends show that 30% of all commerce will be done online in the next 2 – 3 years, including Internet TV.

Just this morning there was an announcement that we will be able to make deposits to bank accounts through a company called Banksimple.net via mobile capabilities. Alex Payne left Twitter to co-found Simplebank, this has huge ramifications to commerce online, I am really interested in this movement and will keep a close eye on this company.

Have you considered cutting Cable TV or any other service you feel you can get on the Internet, we don’t rent movies from the local Video store due to free movies online. It’s a matter of time before Cable TV and or any other service like it has to make serious radical changes to their model of control. Control is dead!

Our household is cable free, now I need to find a new toy : )

As I mentioned in my last post, Chris Brogan also brings it and he to has a great message, he just finished his 4th in a serious on “What it takes to be an overnight success”. Just as I have given Gary Vaynerchuk space here on owengreaves.com, I’m giving Chris Brogan more press as well. I what I like about Chris is his more down to earth and very honest, real message.

Rather than read more of my ranting and perspective, listen to Chris’s 1st video on the serious.

Every Sunday afternoon I play soccer with a great bunch of guys, we’ve been getting together at the same field now for over ten years, trying to stay in shape of course. In July of this year I took a tumble at warp speed and broke, no shattered my left shoulder at the clavicle joint. Here it is now late September and I still have not been cleared to play, do you have any idea how frustrating that is? To know you can’t be out there with your buddies, knowing you can help your team mates win. Half the fun is the strategy, who plays what position and who has the touch up front and finish the play by putting in the net. As this is just drop in soccer we get people at various levels of ability, from 17 to 56 years of age and every once and awhile someone comes out that doesn’t have clue what you can and can’t do, they don’t know the rules. So they run around all over the place not knowing what to do and never really ask for help, and when they do, they forget what you said almost as fast as you said it. Given enough time and they come out more often, eventually, they find there way and start to contribute in a meaningful way.

You are probably wondering where I’m going with this, the question is, are you one of those soccer players running around trying to accomplish something meaningful in the game? Are you playing with the Internet and Social Media the same way? You’ve setup your Blog and you’re telling everyone to come to your site but you haven’t taken the time to learn how or what to do with all those visitors. There are a great many people out there you would consider successful, but there is a far greater number that haven’t realized their 15 minutes of fame yet. You have two ways to approach the Internet & Social Media, you can learn from those who have gone ahead of you or you can try to figure it out yourself.

I can tell you from personal experience, learning from those who have gone before you and succeeded is much easier, that is the choice I would make if you’re just getting started. In fact, if you’ve been Blogging for awhile you should study the leaders anyway, learn the guidelines and then figure out how to make them work for you. Pay attention to what they do, but don’t try to act like they do…why? In Social Media circles you will hear the mantra, be real, be yourself and be honest. So trying to act like someone else won’t let the uniquely designed you to come out, and you will be known as someone who is not authentic and phony.

Everyone loves guy’s like Gary Vaynerchuck, Chris Brogan and Scott Stratten but you will never be able to duplicate how they deliver the message and do what they do. You can however, learn what they do and then learn to make it yours, learn to make it unique by being who you were meant to be. Gary wrote a book soon to be released in October called, ” CRUSH IT ” and Chris’s book which is already out and amply titled, ” TRUST AGENTS “, tell you what I just shared, be sure to order a copy and learn from them first hand.

As you can see, help is closer than you think. No matter what your niche or area of expertise happens to be, study what Gary & Chris do but also pay attention to others like Amber Naslund, David Armano, Mack Collier, Olivier Blanchard, Trey Pennington and Kris Colvin. Spend some time in the Silicon Valley circle to by watching Robert Scoble and Louis Gray. Most of the above have sites with video’s you can view so you get an idea of who they are, and what they are doing with Social Media Networks. As you can see there many to follow and learn from, but they all cover their interests and passions in their own unique way. Also keep in mind some of these people are paid to do what they do in Social Media Networks, but that’s what makes them great case studies.

- Amber Naslund works for Radian6, they provide tools for real-time social media monitoring and analysis designed primarily for PR and Ad agencies.

- David Armano, is the Senior Partner at Dachis Group, was created to unlock the value of social technologies for large corporate enterprises through its Social Business Design global advisory practice, and technology implementation program. David talks about the 5 B’s:

1.) Be Ubiquitous

2.) Be Social

3.) Be Interesting

4.) Be Remarkable

5.) Be Yourself

- Mack Collier, Helping companies understand the  ” Social ” part of Social Media.

- Olivier Blanchard, trains company executives and project teams in all matters of social media management and measurement, then help them build and integrate effective programs into every facet of their business, from Public Relations, business development and market research to Human Resources and Customer Support. Oh and Olivier is working on a book that will educate you on the proper way to realize and calculate the true ROI (Return On Investment) in Social Media.

- Trey Pennington, Interviews leaders in Business & Social Media on BlogTalkRadio and uses almost every Social Media Network out there.

- Kris Colvin, is the designer of Twitterface.com and a Social Media Maven with passion and desire, Twitterface is a great tool so be sure to use it.

Whether you already have a business or a Blog, you will never stick with it and see it through unless you’re passionate about it. Gary Vaynerchuck’s war cry is to do your passion and you’ll give yourself the best chance to win. Remember, the Internet is the Platform, Social Media is the Tool you can master on the Internet. Do your homework, study how to use the tools and pay attention to your passion. In another article I wrote, called ” Your Passion Is In Front of You, You’re Just Not Paying Attention” its so simple it’s almost embarrassing, I triple dog dare you to read it.

Each person who is a success online can only teach you how they did it, not how someone else did it. Now pay attention to what I just said, they may have duplicate someone else’s system but they made that system there’s through their personality and how they think. They couldn’t ever act or be like the person they learned from, so study by taking notes, watching videos and then find your passion. The final step is to make it your own, only you can be you and only you can do it. So who are you and what are you doing?

There are many places to get help learning Twitter on the Internet, and in my opinion, one of the best places is Mike Wesely’s Twittalk.tv Show. With over 30,000 followers, you’ll get a great deal out of his show not to mention you’ll meet some of the coolest people on Twitter. (as Mike puts it) Mike’s servant heart is the first thing that jumps out at you, he is gentle, helpful, curtious and kind. Mike encourages everyone and is grateful for those who come to his show; he’ll tell you and anyone else who will listen how grateful he is you showed up and participated. Fellowship in an online class room without the teacher telling you to shut up ….it’s great!

The format is really quite simple, you ask questions, Mike answers them and you meet great people. You win and the best part is it’s all free! There are a couple ways to participate on Mike’s show,  1.) You can just join the chat  2.) Register and join chat via Video ( there’s only 6 video windows so come early).

Make sure you follow Mike on Twitter to find out what time his show will airing @Mike_Wesely is his handle. Mike likes #QUOTES and will post many on Twitter so be sure to RT (Retweet) them if you think they are worthy.

I invite you to come and ask your questions, meet great people, and learn how to maximize Twitter, it’s time well invested. Oh you can follow me on Twitter at @owengreaves

Thanks Mike for taking your eyes off yourself and putting them on others.

This past week I have attended a number of webinars and joined mailing lists as part of on going need to figure out what is it that makes the term Internet Marketer demand so much respect. I recognize that 90% of the Internet Marketers may fall under the term Internet Scammer, not because they are bad people but because they are merely following some elses way of doing things because it worked for them. I’m a bit old school in that, nothing comes without hard work and persistance, and they preach the same thing but with a spin.

I guess I’m bothered by the fact that almost every Internet Marketer has narrowed down the delivery to a point where I no longer trust it. If I got a nickel for every landing page that looks the same I wouldn’t have to work for a living…hang on I don’t! That’s another story for another time and I am looking. I’ll bet the landing page is the same for well over 95% of those who call themselves Internet Marketers, why? Because they say it works.

To be completely honest I’m more interested in the motives, why are they doing what they are doing, I know make money. But there has to be a deeper motivator, doesn’t there? What’s the real reason for being an Internet Marketer, what’s the WHY I AM I DOING THIS? I want to know I can trust you, I want to know there is a greater good to making the kind of money you claim to make.

If you did a search on Google for Internet Marketing you would find the results around 89 million related links on the topic, if you searched for How to Make Money Online you would find over 30 Million related links. If you changed it to say Make Money Online the results jump to over 40 million, then the big one, Get Rich Online, it has over 253 Million results. I wonder, if you were to click on every one of those links how many of them would look the same and or claim the same things? That’s alot of opportunity, that’s a lot of problem solving, they all want your money and they all say they have the answer to your problem, but do they?

Why do so many follow Internet Marketers? The need is money of course. The problem I have found is that many of these Internet Marketers are selling the easy road, you don’t need this and that and you don’t have to sell! Prosperity teaching is not a good theology to live by, as I mentioned earlier, nothing comes without hard work and persistance. Therefore, being sold on how little you have to do should be a red flag shouldn’t it?  It’s too good to be true and so on.

So what to do, who do you follow, how do you know who to trust without losing your shirt buying report after report on how to get rich online? I watched a video clip of three guy’s sit and talk about how they made money doing this and that without really telling how they did it, of course they want you to buy something thats why. My struggle with these fellows wasn’t that they figured out how to make money but it was there attitude, they laughed at how easy it was to make all this money. It was like they finally ripped off the man, the problem is they didn’t, they ripped you and me off.They took our money for something we believed was valueable. Ok, good for you, now what? What are you going to do with all that money? Are you going to make a difference in the world, feed the poor, clothe those living on the street? The list is endless. I have only heard of a couple gentlemen who are using they’re Internet Marketing business to do missionary work, to make a difference, now that tells me just maybe the motive is right, but is it? How do we find out? How we find out is another topic to cover at a later date.

I’m not a highly suspicious person but I do smell crap easily and I can tell when something is rotten in Denmark. I’m no scholar and I’m definetly not an English major ( you can tell by my writing). If the goal is to make money and lots of it, and your not going to use the money to help those in need, why are you doing it? What’s the point of all this money making?

I would suggest to you that knowing the why is where to start, check your motives, why do you feel the way you feel about what you are going to do. It’s taken me a lifetime to figure what I’m truly passionate about, why I write, why I share and why I care about those around me so much. Including you. I’m not crying sour grapes because I spent so much time and money trying to duplicate someones Internet Marketing business model and failed. No, I have two passions that drive me, one is sending a messsage about the advancements of technology and how you will be impacted by it and to help you realize that you can make a difference, you are special, you can be and do better than you are. And that means asking the tough question of why, why become an Internet Marketer, why do you do what you do, what is the reason you spend your time and your money the way you do.

I know some Internet Marketers will take offence to this post and you may believe your motives are right, and that may be true, I would love to hear about the great things you’re doing in your community with the money you make from your business. I would love to hear what makes you unique, what makes you different and what you are passionate about. I am merely suggesting that the majority of Internet Marketers don’t give a minutes thought to how they could make a difference in a world that is suffering. They believe that making money from you so you can do the same to someone else is a noble thing to do even it doesn’t help you. I can only hope you will be different, I can only hope your motives are right and you truly want to help those around you.

So I ask you, are you an Internet Marketer or an Internet Scammer? Do you give or do you only take?

How many people are better off because you lived, not for how much money you made or what you have materially, but because you got involved in someones life and made a difference. After all, in the end, you can’t take it with you.