Monty Loree arriving at the office


Monty Loree at his desk

I thought I should take a few minutes to introduce myself, as we probably haven't been formally introduced.

I'll be the person doing the marketing software & ebook evaluations for you.

I thought I should post my pictures to let people know the man behind the keyboard.- Monty Loree- President of HomeGrown Advertising Inc

TOMORROW IS HOMEGROWN'S 11TH ANNIVERSARY!!
I'm excited to say that tomorrow, November 1, 2005 is HomeGrown Advertising Inc's 11th anniversary! We're excited about that as we accomplished alot in those years.

PRODUCT REVIEWS COMING UP
I am currently working on the review system for the affiliate suppliers and for myself. My goal is to be able to review as many products in a quality fashion as I can each week.

I've got my work cut out in the next few weeks as we're just starting on this path. If you are a Clickbank, CJ, Shareasale or other affiliate supplier, and would like us to review your marketing software or ebook, let me know.

Initially we are going to have to inhale a ton of information about the companies, products and people that develop them. Hopefully by today or tomorrow, I will have the review form published for the advertisers to use to tell us more about themselves and their products.

I'll post it here as soon as I've got it up and running.

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THE FIRST REVIEW - RICH JERK EBOOK
I just thought I would give a real , but example quick review on the Rich Jerk ebook using my new buttons.

RATINGS




I researched the Rich Jerk ebook for about an hour. I read different blogs on the Rich Jerk's ebook product.

I READ THE WHOLE PAGE!!
I visited his website. Normally, I don't read the whole 'mile long' sales page because I can usually get to the point at the bottom of the page. However, I DID read the Rich Jerk's whole page, including his claim where he shows how much money he's made. I wouldn't have continued to read unless he was showing me some of his own success. He did manage to grab and keep my attention which is unusual.

I was impressed with the lay out and copy on his page. Let's face it, marketing is marketing, even if he is insulting you throughout the copy. I was intrigued and tempted to buy the book.

After reading some blog and forum reviews, some of the readers indicated that they tried to return the book for a refund and received a nasty email with profanities from the Rich Jerk. They did not get their refund back.

At last look I couldn't find his book listed anywhere in the first pages of Clickbank. It may be because of the complaints from his poor refund performance.

BOTTOM LINE:
If you're a newbie, apparently there is SOME GOOD and valuable information in The Rich Jerk's book. His style of writing is definitely unique, and he seems to be doing well with his style. You may or may not get a refund from him. It's a good idea to visit his sales page to get a preliminary look at how he works.

aluminum manufacturers

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In reviewing different products and services, I have created some visual indicators to help readers understand how we rate each product and how much time and effort has gone into the review.

RECOMMENDED STATUS







REVIEWED STATUS











The benefit of this format is that we'll be able to tell you if we've reviewed the product or not. If we've done a light review, but everything looks good, we'll put a recommended label, with a lightly reviewed button.

I'll use the "Warning Label" if a product has value but should be used with caution. This is especially true if it's a product that is meant for experienced users and not by brand new internet marketers.

I'll post some more detailed instructions for our recommended buttons and review stages on a static page.

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With the last google update Jagger, we're having to change / greatly enhance the way we're talking about our products and services.

It seems that the old rules of website marketing have changed. Change is good. After reviewing our strengthes and weaknesses, coupled with what we like to do, we've decided to change www.express-marketing.com into a product review format.

As an advertising company, we believe in truth in advertising. Sometimes it's difficult to get truth on the internet, or at least that's what I find. Only after doing a reasonable amount of due diligence am I able to get an answer that I'm looking for, or at least a pattern of an answer. This is especially true for website marketing software and ebooks etc.

As the owner of an advertising company since 1994, I have seen many products and companies come and go. I have seen advertising campaigns succeed and fail. I have seen more hype in my life time than I can remember.

Don't get me wrong, along with being the CEO of my company, I am also the CXO "Chief Excitement Officer" of my company. I like excitement and I like to generate excitement.

The excitement I would like to generate on this blog is based on facts. I would like to think about what we're building as 'clinical' reviews of products that are offered for sale on the internet.

My understand of products on the internet is that most are NOT one size fits all. For example, while I have years of experience writing online and offline ads, I am relatively new to blogging. Thus I need software / ebooks for people who need help with blogging.

I don't need help writing ads. I understand fundamentally why people buy products and services. I do however need products or services which talk about working PPC's and ad placement as this aspect is not something I've aggressively practiced. I am just now learning about high end ad placement on my site to get the best results.

As I start to publish reviews on products, I will keep in mind that what's best for me is not best for people with other levels of experience.

I will try to give a very objective look at what I'm reviewing. If I think the product or service is garbage and of no value to anybody, I won't hesitate to say so.

To be honest, I am a very discerning customer. I usually spend a while reviewing a product or service before purchasing it. If a product is going to give me value, I want to purchase it. I hate wasting my time reading or using crappy products.

My aim is to build this site into a place where I would trust buying the product.

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That would be interesting if credit card companies had to put health warnings on the back of their credit cards.

WARNING: USING THIS CREDIT CARD CARRIES THE FOLLOWING HEALTH / LIFESTYLE RISKS:

• Suicide
  
• Depression
  
• Anxiety attacks
  
• Marital separation
  
• Marital Divorce
  
• Over stress
  
• Sleepless nights
  
• Over working
  
• Bankruptcy
  USE THIS CREDIT CARD AT YOUR OWN RISK

People think of financial maturity like health food. "That's old fashioned, we have new ways in the year 2005." People rely on medicines that are developed to cure problems that have cropped up in our 21st century, because of our current lifestyle.

In the beginning, when God created Adam and Eve, they had a pretty simple life style. Adam and Eve didn't have credit cards, ipods, electronics of all types, BMW's. They weren't bombarded by advertising. They couldn't have lived our current North American lifestyle if they wanted to.

People look on credit and consumerism as the lifestyle, because it's relatively new and exciting. They're not looking at the risks associated with this lifestyle.

In my opinion, "NO, IT'S NOT OK TO GET DIVORCED OR SEPARATED BECAUSE OF DEBT / MONEY PROBLEMS!" It's not really ok to have prolonged arguments between spouses because of the pressure that debt puts you under. Especially if the debt was caused by irresponsible spending. ie.. if you don't need what you purchase and it's going to cause fights later on... that's irresponsible spending. Don't buy it!

There should be more discussion in the market place about the risks of credit usage. Clinical studies of what happens when you owe way more than you're able to pay back in the next 20 years. They can be just as deadly and serious as some other types of activities.

Here's a site that I found when searching for "clinical studies" people in debt on google.com

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MSN Money - Why credit cards expire
This is an interesting article as to why credit cards expire.

They site that the two main reasons that you credit card companies expire you credit card is that the card deteriorates physically. As well, They have to mail the card out to you which keeps their databases more up to date.

If you think about it, there are hundreds of millions of credit cards outstanding and the credit card companies need different ways to keep track of them.

Hypothetically, if there are 300 million credit cards outstanding, there would be approximately 274,000 cards that expire each day over a 3 year period. IMHO this is another great marketing tool for the credit card companies to stay in touch with the customers. Keeping 274,000 credit cards up to date each day must be a pretty large task, especially with people moving on average every 5 years.

MSN - So is an upcoming expiration date a good time to talk terms with your card company?
"It's always a good time to renegotiate," says Staten. "If you think you're in a position where you think the issuer would be sorry to see you go, you can always call and bargain for a better rate." This is the best point of all. Use your card expiration as a great time to renegotiate interest rates. And yes... you can get better interest rates IN CANADA!

MSN Money - Why credit cards expire

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U.S. Treasury - Fact Sheet on the Gross Federal Debt History

In 1940 the Gross Federal Debt - U.S. debt was $ 50,696 million ($51 billion). in 2005 the Gross Federal Debt is estimated at $6,118,364 million ($6.2 trillion)

That's a 12,000% increase in the debt over 65 years.
That does not indicate that people have been patient and paying cash. It indicates that everyone from individuals to corporations to goverments are deep in debt.

U.S. Population 1940 - 130,962,661
2005 U.S. Population - 296,383,219
That's a 226% increase in population.

Recap:
12,000% increase in debt
226% increase in population

U.S. Treasury - Fact Sheet on the Gross Federal Debt History

Check out Population Clock World

How long can this go on?

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I'm just reading Clash of the Titans by Richard Hack.

This is a dual biography about Ted Turner of Turner Broadcasting empire and Rupert Murdoch of the Fox News Network. These guys are multibillionaire media giants.

The thing that I keep thinking about is that even though these guys are titans of business and media and news, they don't publish a fraction of what is published on the internet each day.

If it was possible to read all of the blogs of all genres, I'm sure the pages published would be in the hundreds of thousands.

Anyway, it's interesting to hear about the start of CNN which is currently the credible source for news, especially with disasters and wars etc. CNN has come along way since it was a gleam in Ted Turner's eyes. According to this book, CNN was on the brink of bankruptcy before it hit some breaks. This was in the first few years of its existence.

The beauty of the internet is that it is uncensored. When you're reading people's blogs, it's what's on a person's mind. Blog writers don't have to write to appease a boss, in most cases.

When watching CNN this past few weeks with Hurricane Katrina, I got a sense that CNN was ratings grabbing, even though they had the ratings in their pockets. It was amazing that at some points they would show only some pictures until some new news broke. Then all of a sudden they would show a more relevant set of photos and video feed.

I have already read the Clash of the Titans once. I am going to reread it to glean out some more points. These media titans are described as having a whole bunch of control over how people think about the news etc.

I am beginning to see that bloggers might have a little corner on the real opinion market. Blogs are 'Opinions Unscripted'

By Monty Loree - Financial Maturity blog - Topic - Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch News and Media Titans

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I'm pretty excited. I just got back from the WebMasterWorld Conference 2005 in New Orleans today. I got a whole bunch of ideas on what to do with this blog.

There are a whole bunch of things that need to be said about where people are heading with their current financial spending habits. I think that Canadians and Americans are on a pretty slippy land mass (financially) that is sitting on a huge earthquake fault! More and more spending happens, and people are digging themselves into the ground.

I've been talking about this stuff since I was in high school. I've been talking about this stuff since 1992 when i was a financial analyst in Toronto. In 1992 the debt balloon scared the crap out of me. I was in awe at how much debt people were in.

People are stressed out. Here's the vicious circle... We buy "stuff" to make out lives easier. Then we work really hard to pay for the stuff that makes our lives easier. I can't say it any better than that.

The best way for a country to lose control of itself is to be in huge debt and then start owing other people and countries. Right now we're pretty wealthy countries in North America. We're also in the cross hairs of financial/debt disaster.

So... People... I am urging you to take a look at your lifestyle. If you're working in a vicious circle of "quality of life" please take a look at what you're doing. Maybe you should find the real meaning of quality of life.

To put it in perspective: "In the beginning, when God created Adam and Eve, people didn't need cell phones, computers, wide screen tv's, and all of the modern gadgets that make life so much easier."

For the most part, I practice what I preach. I am putting these thoughts into even more of my own future plans.

What do you think?

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52" TV vs visiting with your neighbors?!

WHAT A CONCEPT!

I'm sitting on my couch, watching commercials yesterday. As I'm sitting there, rather exhausted from the day, I'm getting less and less interested in the widescreen T.V. that is being advertised. I use TV these days more as a time killer than enjoyable entertainment.

I'm trying to think how much extra work I'd have to do (I'm self-employed) to pay for this new luxury. I'm getting less and less interested because I don't want to do any more work. I'm tired and burnt out from the regular day to day grind.

I'm trying to think of alternatives to purchasing a $6,000 72 inch TV to replace the 32" I've enjoyed over the years. It's hard to think about this concept because every advertiser and lender wants me to buy the bigger and better TV. I've allowed my conscious and subconscious to be programmed to want the bigger, better TV. Nobody is trying to get me to keep what I've already got, and save my money!

Now I'm thinking to myself, what are ways that I can combat the programming in my head. I need to start to relax in ways to don't cost money and don't cost any more stress on my overworked mind and body.

(I am not adverse to buying the finer things in life. However, I am getting more and more adverse to over working myself for less and less benefit and enjoyment.)

The following are things that I'm starting to toy with:• Visit with my wife and kids in low tech ways. ie.. playing monopoly or cards
• Visit with their neighbours more. I haven't spent any time with my neighbours ever.
• Hmmm... I'm running out of ideas.

The thing I'm trying to achieve is starting to enjoy what I've already got, and maybe work a little less. Put less stress on myself. Ultimately this will put less stress on my wife and family. (They won't have to listen to me bitch and complain.)

If you're making good money and it's not going to cause you any more stress to purchase a huge expensive TV, then you should buy it, if you really need it. If you're trying to keep up with the neighbors and you can't afford the new luxury, please don't buy it. The costs emotionally and mentally are not worth it.

The ad agencies and banks don't like my logic here. I don't care. I am saying enough is enough. I'm happy with what I've got. No sale here for the TV manufacturers and retailers!

I hope you have a relaxed day as well!

Monty Loree is self-employed and lives in Canada.

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