Asteroid and Commet Speculative Mining - May 15, 2014 We Can Get All the Gold We Want From a Super Massive Star Without Destroying It The Rise of the Gold-Mining Zombies - April 9, 2014 Gold has value only to the extent that we (or anyone) need it as a medium of exchange. Therefore it is, and always has been, a “commodity.” Therefore all commodities are subject to their prices being “set by the market.” Bitcoin and other digital currencies are not subject to this commodity price mechanism. Bitcoin is just another way to pay for things digitally. It solves the problem of “double-spending” coins that some online merchants suffer from. The value of Bitcoin doesn’t come from whatever the government says, or whatever anyone else says; it comes from whatever people say it is worth. In fact, every human institution has a way in which one can define its value, so this is not a bug in bitcoin but rather a feature: each type of thing has its own unique valuation method. This is why we have money, stocks, bonds, precious metals, derivatives, and digital assets. The big problem with bitcoins is that it doesn’t have its own currency. And as such, all bitcoins are valued the same. Bitcoin users will no doubt bemoan the fact that gold is more valued than bitcoin, but this is because bitcoin isn’t a real currency. When it becomes a real currency, it can behave like gold (and other commodities) in the marketplace. Bitcoin users have long debated whether “the economy” (i.e. demand) or “the stock market” (i.e. supply) determines bitcoin price. We can now answer this question with a resounding “yes.” Demand for bitcoin has increased significantly over the last few months and its prices have risen accordingly. All other things being equal, if there is more demand for bitcoin than supply then its price will continue to increase until supply catches up with demand or some regulatory body intervenes. Demand for bitcoin is rising as an increasing number of people are drawn to the digital currency by its many advantages over traditional fiat currencies. As one of these advantages, I’ll point out that it is completely independent of governments and central banks and has no debt attached to it. What’s not clear is whether a government is legally allowed to “steal” bitcoins from its citizens by declaring them illegal tender. If that is so, then the supply of bitcoins will eventually increase beyond what people want to pay for them, and thus price will decline until supply and demand balance. But we don’t know the laws on this yet so there’s not a lot to say about it. This phenomenon seems similar to the gold mining zombies I talked about a few weeks ago, except in this case the mining “dead men walking” are gold and bitcoin miners. Unlike gold miners, though, bitcoin miners keep on mining bitcoins as long as there’s enough electricity to do so. The problem is that gold mining will eventually come to an end, even if demand never wanes, because once all the economically viable gold is mined it’s no longer possible to mine any more. I suppose in bitcoin, there will always be enough new bitcoins to keep the miners happy as long as enough electricity is available to do so. But when bitcoin mining becomes uneconomical, it will simply become a dead man walking. In light of this latest trend, which I’ve only just begun to analyze, my plan for 2014 is to focus on developing my own business by developing and selling new products, while building a foundation for my personal brand. This will involve building and selling websites as well as speaking gigs and coaching clients (among other things), all while keeping my existing consulting business open for business. What I haven’t been able to figure out yet is what kind of products I should be developing to achieve this goal. Here are some of the ideas I’m considering. If any of these appeal to you, I’d be glad to hear from you via a comment on this blog post, my contact form, or by email. My first idea is building a website called “How to Get Your Book Published and Sell it for $30,000 a Copy” or something along those lines. The site will sell an in-depth e-book covering all aspects of the publishing process from writing the book to having it published, marketed, and sold. The reason I have this idea is that so many people want to write a book and publish it. It would be easy enough to create the website (with a few helpful how-to videos) and then make sales as people come along asking for help. It wouldn’t require any great investment of time or money, but instead just selling some information that lots of people want. Another product idea is some kind of system for helping people learn how to get more customers from Google. A lot of people say that they have no luck doing AdWords, but I know for a fact that it works if you know what you’re doing. So I’d build a system that goes step by step through the process of doing successful Google AdWords campaigns and selling enough products to quit your day job. I’ve recently been working with an email marketing service called Infusionsoft, and I like it. There’s no doubt in my mind that it is the best program of its kind on the market right now, which makes it a great option for entrepreneurs who want to automate their marketing. So my idea is to create a product that shows people how to get more sales with Infusionsoft (and probably some other marketing tools like Facebook ads). This isn’t a product for just anyone, as it requires an investment in tools like Infusionsoft (or something similar). But I think the people who buy this product would become some of my best customers in the future. To be honest, I’ve been considering building a website around email marketing since I started this blog way back when. The problem is that I didn’t have enough time to put into it to make it really useful. But now that Infusionsoft is available, it would be simple enough to write up a step by step manual and start selling it. I’ve also considered starting an affiliate website selling products created by other people. So far, I’ve only tried this once with Amazon Affiliate sales, and the results were rather underwhelming. But maybe with some real effort on my part this would work out better. Either way, one of the key things I’ve learned is that it’s hard to sell just any old affiliate product; you have to think of a product that is going to be relevant to your audience and also worth buying. A product I’ve considered developing in the past is a website called “The Truth About Social Media and The Internet” or something along those lines. The site would reveal all of the most up-to-date and important information about Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest; not the stuff that you read on Huffington Post, but rather what’s really going on behind the scenes. This would be quite controversial for some people who think that nothing bad ever happens in the world of internet marketing. I’ve already seen plenty of my friends abandon their blogs (and some other forms of Internet marketing as well) because they think social media is evil. But honestly, all they’re doing is spreading bad information; it’s not as though there is no useful information to be found on the Internet today. Just from reading this list, you may have noticed that I have a bit of a passion for ebooks. And that’s because they can be very powerful for some people. I think that ebooks can really help people make a change in their lives if they are written well and packaged in a way that makes them easy to consume. What better way to reach people than by handing them a free book on whatever subject you think is important? That’s just what my friend Dan Kennedy did for me years ago with the free copy of his book on copywriting. Now I spend most of my time working as a freelance copywriter and make thousands of dollars doing it each month. The downside of ebooks is that it’s a lot of work writing, formatting, and selling them. It’s no wonder that a lot of people never publish an ebook, but rather just buy the ones written by other people (who are probably just reading my list above and nodding their heads). So my advice would be to first go through the list above and try to decide which