Affiliate Phenom is kind of rare in terms of internet marketing products in that it’s been written by people who are actually still currently practicing what it teaches. Which means that it’s not some piece of junk that worked a while back but is now burned out.

It was originally written by Zach Booker and then it’s been given a thorough “going over” by Jeremy Kelsall and Don Van Fossen. Chances are that you’ve come across posts by some or all of these on both the Warrior Forum and also Don & Jeremy’s Market Crush forum.

So, what makes Affiliate Phenom worth buying?

For a start, it’s real world, which means that the three authors are actually making money from doing this exact same process.

Next up, it’s well explained. If you’ve bought any internet marketing products before, you’ll know that the usual ploy is to fill them up with stuff that you either already know or could find out in minutes – how to click a couple of times to install a WordPress blog becomes umpteen pages of screen shots.

Not so here.

You’re given that kind of information but it’s not the meat of the product.

Instead, you’re given a start-to-finish process to complete one or more of the sites that Affiliate Phenom shows you how to create.

Starting with choosing a product to promote – the book goes into detail on the pros and cons of Clickbank and CPA products but you can apply the process to anything else you want to promote.

Then there’s the research stage, using the regular Google Keywords tool and some searches to check that you’re not competing against pages and pages of people who spend more in an hour than you earn in the year. This bit of advice is useful as it’s pointless making a great site if you’re on page 200 of the results forever.

After that, the usual domain name finding. Together with some help on what to do when it seems like the whole world has grabbed every possible variant of your chosen name.

Then setting up your site. Standard stuff but with enough twists to get your brain moving. Follow these instructions and you’ll have a decent looking site that Google enjoys crawling and which gets visitors clicking without being too “in your face”. You won’t be putting Adsense on it as that would defeat the object and would reduce your income.

Getting your site indexed is the next place where a lot of guides let you down. Affiliate Phenom has several tricks here. I’ve noticed in the past that Google is actually pretty keen to crawl my sites but less keen to actually index them. Typically I’ve ended up with just the index page showing and only the very first “I haven’t really got to it yet” version at that.

Using the methods from the book, my first site had 3 pages properly indexed within about a day.

Next there’s some detail on keeping Google interested in your site – basically don’t abandon it if you want a long lived site.

Then it’s the process of getting traffic. Another place where most of the competition will say just that – “get traffic to your site” and maybe suggest that you get a few links, put up a few ads, maybe comment on a blog or two.

Again, Affiliate Phenom is different because the authors realize that without traffic your site is dead in the water. I won’t go into detail on their “secret sauce” but suffice to say it works and I’d be very surprised if you’re using all the tips they suggest.

OK, what are the cons?

Well, you won’t get anything out of it if you just read the book. You’ll have to put some work in. Probably about 2 hours a site initially and then a bit more over time. Nothing too strenuous but certainly not the internet dream of millions in your Clickbank account by lunchtime.

Next up there is a very small footprint if you don’t take a couple of minutes to reword the example sites. So my first three sites can be found if you’ve bought this book along with quite a few other sites who are following the method. You’re less likely to find my other sites as I’ve reworded them enough to stop a simple phrase search finding them. As footprints go, not big. And since we’re talking WordPress blogs the main “footprint” is shared by millions of sites in millions of niches and couldn’t be targeted by Google unless they decide all WordPress blogs are no longer welcome.

Affiliate Phenom is a refreshing change. It’s well explained, doesn’t leave anything out of the process and stands every chance of working so long as you put in a little bit of effort.

You can get your copy of Affiliate Phenom here.

If you’ve ever promoted an affiliate product, chances are that you’ll have been offered a rebrandable ebook or report to help promote it.

Most of the time, this involves you in downloading a zip file, running a program, dragging and dropping the rebrandable ebook to the program, entering your affiliate links and then getting the program to rebrand the PDF for you.

Which is a hassle at the best of times, especially as quite a few of the rebranding programs are twitchy to say the least.

I’ve just discovered a new system that makes this a lot easier for affiliates.

If they can type in their Clickbank ID (or whatever else) then they’re set to go.

You can check out one of my rebrandable ebooks here to see just how easy it is.

The service is easy to use. The only slightly awkward thing from a product owner’s point of view is that the ebook needs to be uploaded in Open Office format. All I did was create the ebook in Word as normal and then re-save it using Open Office in their proprietory format. Much the same way as I create a regular PDF. Open Office is free and the menus are similar to those in Word so it’s not a big issue.

The Simply Rebranded service is the simplest system I’ve come across – easy enough for product owners, really easy for affiliates. Plus there are no restrictions on the kind of affiliate program you can add in – Clickbank, PayDotCom, your own program, $7 ebbok style products, Rapid Action Profits products, whatever.

You can check out Simply Rebranded here.

One question I’m asked a lot is “what is the best meditation for beginners“?

A lot of people think that meditating involves a lot of practice and is complicated.

And whilst that’s true for some forms of meditation, there are several ways that you can begin to learn how to meditate without much effort…

For me, hands down the easiest way to meditate is with something called “binaural beats meditation“. This sounds complicated but the reality is that all the hard work has been done for you. All you need to do is put on your headphones and press Play.

There are lots of different methods available within this area. Probably the best known is Centerpointe’s Holosync program and that’s where I started out. I found two problems with it: the cost to go through all the levels is high and the full course takes years to complete.

So when I came across the Meditation Program I had to take a look.

This promised the same kind of results as Centerpointe but in a timescale anyone could relate to – weeks, rather than years.

As a beginners meditation, it’s a great system. You listen to a prerecorded track for between 30 and 60 minutes a day. The recording and the binaural beats behind it put you into a deep meditative state – one that would take you years to achieve by traditional methods.

I’m still using the system today, listening to it on a daily basis to help keep me focussed.

Whether you’re just about to start learning to meditate or have been meditating for some time, I highly recommend it. You can get hold of a copy of the Meditation Program here.

Whilst my preference is for the “high tech” meditation method, some people prefer a more traditional method of meditation.

I’ve investigated a lot of different methods for this as well and one of the best I’ve found is Core Energy Meditation.

It’s well explained – you can either listen to the background information with the audio files you’ll get or you can read the transcript of these if you prefer. Some people like to have the explanation in front of them as it keeps the rational side of their mind happy. So if that’s the case for you, this will be a good system for you.

Then there are the two main guided meditations. Kevin Schoeninger has a soothing voice, which is ideal for going into a meditative state. You can hear a sample of it here.

One big advantage of Core Energy Meditation is that the meditations themselves are short: you can choose from 20 minutes or 40 minutes. So if you’re pressed for time, this is an excellent choice.

Which is better? Binaural Beats Meditation or Guided Meditation?

I think the answer to this question is down to personal preference. Both systems work well.

If you’re the high tech, gadget type who just wants to put on a track and do absolutely nothing else, then a binaural beats meditation will work well for you.

If you like to know a bit more about how the technique works then the more traditional guided meditation is an excellent choice.

The main thing is to actually start to meditate. It’s an excellent experience and you’ll find yourself more relaxed after even a few sessions. If you’re able to practice most days, you’ll find a noticeable difference with either of these methods in a short space of time, regardless of your level of experience.

Micro Niche Finder is the tool I use to find keywords when I’m looking for themes for articles or pretty much anything else.

It hooks in to the Google keyword tool, so you know that real people are searching for the phrases it finds.

And it stores them in its own database so you can go back to previous searches whenever you want to.

But it also does a lot more:

The main feature that I use is the “strength of competition” option.

If you’ve done keyword research before, you’ll know that the advice is to check the number of competing pages by putting quote marks around the phrase you’re thinking about.

Micro Niche Finder will  find this for you by clicking the “get exact phrase count” option.

But strength of competition (SOC for short) goes further than this.

With just one click, it checks three different things: how many times the phrase is used in the anchor text pointing to your competition, how many times it is used in the title of your competing pages and how many times it’s in the url. These are then combined to give an SOC figure.

This figure then has a simple, at a glance, traffic light symbol next to it.

Green means next to no competition – you should be able to dominate this keyword phrase with ease.

Amber means caution. There’s a fair amount of competition but if you’re feeling brave then the rewards are likely to be worth it.

Red means stop. This is an ultra competitive phrase and will take a giant amount of effort to compete in.

For instance, at the time of writing, the phrase “niche marketing strategy” gets about 590 searches a month. Which isn’t a lot. There were 50,700 competiting pages with that exact phrase count. So you’d probably think it wasn’t worthwhile. But the SOC figure was a very low 33 with a green tick next to it. So if you were looking to target the phrase, chances are you’d find it easy to come up high in the results.

By way of contrast, the phrase “finding your niche” had 480 searches a month, 71,400 competing pages with that exact phrase and a gigantic 10,800 (and a red cross) for SOC. Well worth avoiding.

I’ve been using Micro Niche Finder for some time now and it’s helped me find some nicely targeted keywords with relatively low competition. And I’ve found them quickly.

One test I did was against the keywords found by a friend. He’d spent hours researching them. In less than 10 minutes, I found the best keyword phrases in his niche, verified by reading them out to him over Skype and getting him to check them off against his list.

Micro Niche Finder found all the ones my friend had found plus a few extra he’d discounted.

If you’re serious about niche marketing and keyword research, you’ll find that Micro Niche Finder is an excellent keyword research tool. It’s well supported (there’s a support blog, a support FAQ and a support center) and regularly updated.

If you’re stuck for topics, there are also two other features that will unstick you fast.

The brainstorm option, which gives you 25 topics that are currently being searched for. When I checked whilst I was writing this review, these ranged from balsamic vinegar through mountain bikes, poker chips and convection ovens. You can run this report whenever your mind goes blank.

The second option is hot trends. These are items that are up and coming in Google searches. Often current events but also quite often things that have piqued people’s interest. Again, these are useful for those times when brainstorming with yourself hasn’t produced anything you like.

Overall, Micro Niche Finder is an excellent tool to add to your arsenal and it is the keyword tool I use most regularly.

If you’re like most people I know, backing up the important data on your hard drive is something you know you should do but you’ll get round to it some day soon, honest.

Same goes for your cell phone. You probably only back it up when someone else has lost their phone. I know I’m usually embarrassed at how long there is between backups on my cell phone.

And backing up my hard drive? Well, I kept meaning to get an external drive and use that. But somehow it never happened…

Then I heard about Carbonite.

It’s one of many available programs that work behind the scenes to backup the important parts of your hard drive without you really doing anything.

If you keep your important files in the “My Documents” section on your computer, this program really is as close to totally automatic as you can get.

The default is for the program to archive off all your files and then keep watch for any changes, archiving these off as necessary.

If, like me, you also store important files in other folders on your hard drive, backing these up is easy too.

All you need to do is open Windows Explorer or My Computer, navigate to the files or folders you want to backup, right click your mouse, choose the newly added Carbonite option on the menu that appears and then select “Back this up”.

It’s a lot quicker to do this in real life that it is to read about how to do it.

Carbonite won’t automatically backup everything on your hard drive. Which is fine as most of the stuff is likely to be Windows system files and programs you’ve installed. It’s easier to reinstall these from the regular setup options they offer.

But it does backup the important things. The files that you’d be upset to lose.

And because it’s not backed up to an external hard drive in your house but is securely stored on Carbonite‘s servers your data is protected even if the worst happened and your house burned down or was robbed.

The first hard drive backup takes a while.

This is because your internet connection is more geared to downloading files than uploading them.

So your first backup is likely to take several days to happen. Once the initial backup has taken place, the program is likely only a few minutes a day keeping your precious files backed up.

Another good thing about Carbonite is that they dpn’t impose a storage limit on the files you backup.

Many of the other companies I checked who were offering remote backup had restrictions on the amount of data you backed (let’s face it – do you know how much data you’re likely to need to store online? I know I didn’t until Carbonite calculated it for me).

Verdict

Remote backup of your important files is something you should strongly consider.

It’s a cheap form of backup and covers all sorts of eventualities such as hard drive crashes (the mean time between faults figures for these always seem to be a work of fiction), theft and disasters such as fire and floods.

And if you’re in the habit of accidentally deleting important files, chances are they’ll be in your backup as well.

Carbonite is highly recommended for the peace of mind it offers. It’s cheap and efficient. After the initial setup, you don’t have to do anything: your files will be backed up automatically.

You can get a free 15 day trial of Carbonite here.

If you’re 100% organised, there’s a chance you may not need to recover a password from a PDF file.

I’ve got a lot of PDFs scattered over my hard drive and some of those have a password attached to them.

Usually I rename them so that the file name tells me what the password is. But occasionally I don’t do that and then need to hunt through emails or MSN chats to find what the password was.

Other people I know get sent password protected PDFs at work and they either have to add to their collection of Post It notes or find somewhere else to store the password.

Then there are occasions when you or someone else has password protected a PDF with a “memorable” password that then escapes everyone.

So, what can you do to retreive a lost PDF password?

If it’s a file you created yourself, the obvious route is to try all your usual passwords. (Go on, you can admit it, you usually use one of a handful of passwords!)

If it’s a file someone else created, you can try guessing what they may have used.

Sometimes you can get lucky with those techniques.

And sometimes you can’t.

Which is where PDF Password Recovery comes into play.

It’s a program that does the hard work of recovering PDF passwords for you.

The program’s interface is simple, which is good news as it’s not something you’re likely to use often and you wouldn’t want to spend time working out what to do.

You select the PDF file, choose whether you want it to perform a “dictionary” attack using one of the two dictionaries supplied with the program or – if you think the person setting the password has been good at their job – with a “brute force” attack.

If the PDF has been protected with a simple password such as a common word then the dictionary recovery works well.

If it’s been better protected – for instance, if someone has set their password to a good length and has used numbers, letters and other characters – then you’re in for a longer wait…

If you’re not using the computer that’s doing the password recovery for much else, you can set the program to high priority. So if you’ve got a nasty password to crack, you can click this option and leave your computer on overnight.

There’s also a pause option if you find that your computer is slowed down too much. It’s unlikely you’ll need this on a modern machine unless you’ve set the high priority option and you need to do another processor intensive task.

One of the bonuses that comes with the software is a password generator. This works OK and will give you passwords that aren’t easy to crack. Although personally I use this online random password generator. It’s the place I go to when I want to get a reasonably strong password that won’t get cracked easily.

To test the software, I gave it a PDF file with a 7 letter, non-dictionary word.

Although I knew the password’s length and that it was only a mixture of letters, in real life I wouldn’t have that kind of information.

So I ticked all the boxes for possible things the password could contain and asked the program to check all lengths from 2 to 8 characters, using a brute force attack.

As is fairly normal for me, I was also running several other programs on my PC at the time and had about a dozen tabs open in Firefox plus my email program, MSN and Skype. Which meant Windows was reporting 100% CPU usage.

The PDF password recovery software checked about a thousand potential passwords  per second (actual figures were between 789 and 1164 if you really want to know).

It also told me how far through the test it was out of the 33 million possible combinations that it might have to check.

And it found the password, which is obviously the result I wanted.

Verdict

A PDF Password Recovery tool is the kind of program that you won’t need often but when you do, you want something that works quickly and efficiently, with as little interaction from you as possible.

The price is good – if you choose the download option, the $14.95 is very reasonable. The competition I found was between $29.90 and $60.

You can download your copy of this PDF Password Recovery tool here.

If you’ve been online for a while, you’ll have come across numerous systems promising that you can make your fortune without spending any money.

I’m not sure exactly what caused me to buy the Guru Bypass system – most likely it was the case studies (you can get your copy of these at the end of this page in exchange for your email address).

Anyway, whatever the exact reason, I’m glad I did…

I like systems that run on near enough auto pilot. Probably because I get easily distracted.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the claims of Guru Bypass:

It can be started with little or no cash

True. Apart from the cost of the report, there’s no other expenditure necessary. You do need to download one piece of software but it’s free and there is a good explanation of how to use it in both in the main report and the tutorial videos.

You will see results within hours

I’ve heard that one before. So I was pleasantly surprised when I started seeing results within 2 hours of purchase. That time includes reading the report through from start to finish without clicking links in it apart from a very few that you’re told to click on (as recommended).

It doesn’t involve pay per click adverts

If you’re fed up with the hype of some other products that tell you how they earned hundreds of thousands of dollars on Clickbank but quietly ignore the equally giant wads of cash they spent of PPC to reach their earnings, this is a refreshing change. You won’t be going anywhere near your Adwords account.

It’s not forum marketing, Web 2 marketing, question answering, etc

Again, all true. Nothing to type here. There are a few sites that you need to register with but they don’t require much more than a user name, an email address and a password. Standard registration stuff.

It definitely doesn’t involve social bookmarking or Twittering either, which was a relief.

So what is it?

I can’t really say much about that without giving away the system. Sorry.

But chances are that you haven’t come across it in forums or elsewhere. I’ve got more internet marketing products than my wallet would like me to have and I read quite a few forums and I’d only come across this once before.

Guru Bypass is probably the only system I’ve come across that really does cost nothing to operate. You can progress to a website of your own at your own pace, if you want to. Or you can stay at the basic level and make money. Your choice.

Once you’ve downloaded the one piece of software you’ll need and joined a handful of sites, the only other thing you’ll need is time.

Depending on your approach, it will take anything from a few minutes upwards per product you want to promote.

The niches you choose to promote can be anything you want. You don’t need experience in them.

Verdict

One of the few internet marketing products I’ve bought that actually lives up to the hype.

Very easy to get up and running.

Very low cost.

If you do anything at all with the system then you’re almost certain to make some money from it.

You can get the Guru Bypass system here.

Outsourcing. (Or what used to be called delegation)

The idea sounds great: give all the things you can’t do or don’t want to do to someone else.

Sites like Elance and Rentacoder make outsourcing a task anyone can do.

Most of the time, things go well or at least reasonably well. I’ve been outsourcing all sorts of things for some time now.

But when outsourcing goes bad….

OK. A bit of background information.

I’ve used Rentacoder for articles in the past with varying degrees of success. Anything from excellent down to “we thought you wouldn’t notice it’s all rewritten from Wikipedia”. Whilst I’ve still got a few trusted writers, most of my articles are now done with a service called Get Articles Done. They’re well priced, good quality and reliable.

Graphics I use a trusted person on Rentacoder and get good results.

This story is about getting code written.

The project:

Design a simple autocomplete for a text box for a site I’m working with.

A bit like the one on Google where you start typing and possible things you’re searching for appear in a drop down list.

A few years ago, probably close to rocket science. But nowadays there are a variety of scripts out there to at least point a coder in the right direction.

The project had a 5 page specification (complete with “this is how we want it to look” illustrations) to help get it right.

It also had a short example file of about 20k records. And a full example file with about ten times that. Not trivial but nothing a computer should balk at.

As I said, there are plenty of open source scripts to model it on.

So writing the program should be a piece of cake.

Maybe knock out a working demo in a day or two and debug it in the about the same time.

The technology has been around for several years – put the data into a database, query it using Javascript &/or PHP, deliver the results in real time.

Easy.

Or so I thought.

I’d factored in the usual – coders have more than their fair share of unexpected illnesses and deaths in their lives. The outsourcing world’s equivalent of the “my dog ate it” excuse for not having homework ready.

Programmer 1 made a half way decent attempt then went to ground with “emergencies” to sort out for other clients.

Programmer 2 started off well. He answered lots of questions helpfully, seemed to have a grip. I didn’t suss that was a conversation during a weekend. Weekdays, he’s not around anywhere near as often. Apparently the reason his code isn’t working is that there aren’t enough resources on our server, even though the demo link to his server has the same problem. Apparently we’ve got too much data.

Programmer 3  said he can do it in 3 – 4 hours. Silly me had assumed these might be either consecutive hours or even a couple of hours one day, a couple of hours the next. Not an hour here, a week’s gap to the next episode then another hour, and so on.

Programmer 4  promised his team could get it done in 24 consecutive hours. Despite coder apparently working until midnight his time the other night, there’s been no sign of properly working code.

Programmer 5  said 48 hours. Working demo arrived in that time. I extended the deadline by 24 hours to allow for testing and working with rest of data. It got close in that time but then a weekend got in the way before the final snags could be ironed out.

In between, Programmer 6 wrote a demo but neglected to mention that it required a resource-heavy component that isn’t standard issue on web servers. I don’t know if this would have worked but we’d have had to upgrade our server to find out.

Programmer 7 started work last night, about 7pm UK time. (Yes, this is still a work in progress at the time of writing!). He’s written a routine to check the sensibility – or otherwise – of our data. The data is computer generated and there’s lots of it, so that was a good idea. We’ve trapped for a few anomolies he’s found so that the latest set of data is ultra-clean (the previous data set was pretty good and certainly wouldn’t have stopped any code from working).

Stress level on this project: high!

There’ s no South Park style “here’s what I learned” moral of the story.

It will all work out OK in the end – someone, somewhere in the world will be able to write a solution (don’t message me with offers please, working simultaneously with this quantity of coders is enough!)

I’d normally only work with two coders for this kind of project. That way the project is still cheap but I stand a very high chance of getting it done close to spec and close to time.

It hasn’t put me off outsourcing.

It’s just made me a bit more cautious.

Not much more cautious – I’d checked out the previous projects and the Rentacoder ratings for all these people.

Anything much less than 10/10 meant instant rejection. Rentacoder’s scoring system is in theory on a 1 to 10 scale but in practice is either 10/10, occasionally 9/10 or a bad score when there’s been an arbitration. The comments are the things to read to find out what the real score should have been.

If this was to be their first project, sorry, not this time. If their bid reply was a cookie cutter one – meaning they’d not actually read the project details – again, rejection.

These coders all answered pre-acceptance questions sensibly and in a timely manner.

Which I guess means that when outsourcing goes bad, you just have to shrug your shoulders and keep going.

The Secrets of Real Hypnosis is delivered on one CD. This contains two hypnosis tracks and a setup file which installs the main course into its own folder on your PC.

The first chapter gives an overview of hypnosis and reassures you that hypnosis is a perfectly natural state that we all drop into from time to time.

If you don’t believe this, think back to a car journey where you remember little, if anything, about the trip between setting out on the journey and arriving at your destination. You were in a hypnotic trance, maybe because you do the journey so often that you were on the human equivalent of auto-pilot.

It also quickly dispels the other common myth that hypnotized subjects are asleep. You need to be awake for hypnosis to work, even if you are so deep in trance that you appear asleep to the outside world.

The next section deals with eight common myths about hypnosis. So if you currently believe that hypnosis is dangerous or makes people do things against their will, you’ll find out why these myths (and half a dozen others) aren’t true.

After that, the report moves on to how to find your “hypnotic voice”. This is the tone of voice that you’ll use when you start putting the hypnosis section into practice.

There’s no right or wrong voice here – I’ve personally used hypnosis tracks with all sorts of different voices and tonalities and have sometimes been surprised at how well the majority of them work, even if my initial reaction was “no way”. You’ll find out why this is the case in this short section.

Then the report gets into actually hypnotizing people. Starting with a simple formula which – it claims – will guarantee that your hypnosis sessions will work every time like clockwork.

Having practiced hypnosis for a number of years, I can confirm that in essence these 4 seemingly simple steps are all that you will need to work wonders with the people you hypnotize.

Each of the four steps is outlined first and then explained in more detail.

The detailed sections are well explained.

For instance, the section on relaxation not only gives you examples of how to put your subject into a relaxed state but also how to spot when they’re faking their reaction. Maybe they’re not intentionally pretending to be relaxed but if you’re able to spot the signs that everyone exhibits, you’ll be able to continue your relaxation hypnosis induction a bit longer if your subject hasn’t become fully relaxed. Which will help you to get the best results from the session.

Once you’ve got your subject relaxed, the fun can begin in earnest!

The section on hypnotic induction covers the induction itself as well as a number of pre-tests that you can perform before launching into the main induction itself. If this is the first session you’ve had with someone, these tests are very useful indicators. Longer term, as you get to know your subject and they get to know you, there’s a good chance that you’ll skip this stage as you’ll instinctively know that they’re ready to go into a deep hypnotic state.

You’re given some suggestions for a script to induce a hypnotic trance. These are a good basis and if you’ve ever seen a hypnotist or listened to a hypnosis track, you’ll likely recognize them.

Over time, you’ll develop your own induction script – the one I use wanders around one of three common themes depending on what I’m feeling like on the day and who I’m hypnotizing – but you need somewhere to start and this is a good place. There are also six tips to ensure that the induction is a success.

If you’re worried about a subject not responding to your hypnosis suggestions, the section on dealing with tricky subjects gives some good pointers for getting them to co-operate!

Once you’ve got your subject into a hypnotic trance, the next stage is to deepen it. The explanation here is good. Your subject won’t always go to the same level of deepness each time and this explanation should help you to stop worrying about this normal state of affairs.

You’re given a couple of different deepening techniques, including “down the stairs”, which is the one I normally use when I’m deepening someone’s trance. You’re also given some extra tips which will help you to have a successful trance deepening most every time.

Then it’s the moment you and your subject have really been waiting for: the actual hypnotic suggestion part of the process.

The report covers the three basic rules of hypnotic suggestion. If you write your own scripts, be sure to keep to these rules.

At this stage, you’re given a couple of sample suggestion scripts: one for curing headaches and the other is a memory loss script, similar to the ones used by stage hypnotists.

You’re also reminded of the fluid nature of hypnosis. So if you’re searching for the perfect script, stop panicking and remember that if the script you’re using works and achieves its desired outcome, then it’s absolutely fine!

This leads on to the section that deals with what to do when things don’t go 100% to plan. You’ll know from the rest of your life that not everything happens precisely as planned and hypnosis is no exception.

That said, it’s unusual and refreshing for a report like this to not only admit that things can go off course but to show you how to cope when this happens. Most courses I’ve come across assume that everything will always go perfectly. Top marks to Michael Masterman for including this!

Which just leaves a brief discussion of bringing your subject back out of trance.

Section two of the Secrets of Real Hypnosis shows you how to put all this knowledge into practice.

And if you’re a natural born exhibitionist, this includes stage hypnosis! You’ll probably recognize the six different tests outlined from any hypnosis stage show you’ve seen – they’re good tests from the hypnotists point of view and are also good for the audience to watch. After all, if the subjects are stuck to their chairs then they must be hypnotized!

The stage hypnosis discussion goes on to show you how to use post hypnotic suggestions. These are the events you’ve seen in hypnosis shows where the hypnotist will say a certain code word (or a specific event occurs) and the chosen person starts clucking like a chicken, telling the audience to keep quiet or something similar.

Later in the report is a complete section about putting on a successful stage hypnosis show. This includes selecting subjects and even a suggested running order for your show and lots of routines to use or adapt.

Half way between a personal hypnosis session and stage hypnosis is group hypnosis. This is where a group of people are hypnotized simultaneously. Usually for a stage show but you could also use this for, say, a weight loss or stop smoking group locally.

The third section of the Secrets of Real Hypnosis deals with self hypnosis.

Although the principle is simple, not everyone seems to be able to make the transition from hypnotizing other people to hypnotizing yourself.

Here, you’re given a step by step guide to achieving self hypnosis. All the way from relaxing yourself, inducing a hypnotic state in yourself, giving yourself the hypnotic suggestions and then waking yourself.

You’re given a simple 7 step formula to making sure that your self hypnosis scripts will work correctly.

You’re also given sample scripts for stop smoking, boosting your confidence, becoming a mega sales person and learning any new skill. There are also 4 tips to make sure that you achieve the best from your self-hypnosis sessions.

Section four deals with healing.

If this sounds odd, take a few seconds out to think about it. If someone breaks a limb, all the doctors do is put the limb straight and then encase it in plaster for a short while. Your body does all the hard work. And it knows exactly what to do.

In the same way, hypnotic healing simply helps the body to heal itself. (Of course, there are the usual warnings here about consulting with doctors, etc.)

Of course, the meaning of healing can be expanded so that it covers not just healing aches and pains but also improving confidence, boosting your motivation, curing fears and phobias as well as helping with quitting smoking or losing weight.

The report goes through exactly what you need to do in order to have a successful hypnotherapy session. These are outlined in a series of 8 short steps, each of which is explained well.

You’re also given sample scripts for:

• Stop smoking
• Stop stuttering
• Quit taking drugs
• Fear of flying
• Fear of rejection
• Fear of the dark
• Cure insomnia
• Cure acne
• Stop snoring

If you bought these scripts separately from places like Hypnosis Scripts you’d pay more than double the price of the complete Secrets of Real Hypnosis course.

Another section of the report covers instant hypnosis. The kind you’ve probably seen in stage shows where the hypnotist says “sleep” and the subject is almost instantly hypnotized.

There are three simple instant hypnosis methods discussed, followed by a section on how to master these methods so that they work on your potential subjects. This is an often ignored section in other books. As I’ve said earlier, there are times when things don’t go 100% to plan – outside events beyond your control such as the neighborhood cats meowing at the top of their voices, for example – so this is a very useful reference.

Finally, the report deals with persuading others even if they haven’t been hypnotized.

You may have come across adverts for products such as Conversational Hypnosis that claim you can hypnotize people just by talking to them.

These skills are covered in the final section of the report, including how to use hidden hypnotic commands (often called embedded commands) to help you to get your way.

The two audio tracks on the CD are recordings of how to become a mega sales person and how to quit smoking. You’re also given the full scripts for these two sessions, so you can follow along if you want to.

Overall Verdict

Secrets of Real Hypnosis is a top quality, self contained hypnosis course. It’s well written and easy to understand. Even in some of the areas where hypnosis books typically glaze over things.

If you’re just about to learn hypnosis, it’s an excellent beginners guide.

And if, like me, you’re already practicing hypnosis regularly, you’ll pick up enough tips and tricks to make it worth adding to your library.

You can purchase Secrets of Real Hypnosis here.

When I first investigated Neuro Linguistic Programming, I read a few books and was pretty much none the wiser about how NLP worked. I then graduated to an audio series and, finally, took a live course.

The NLP Toolbox promises that you will get the top one hundred NLP tools in an easy-to-master format.

Does it live up to this bold claim?

If you want the quick answer: Yes!

The toolbox is delivered as a PDF file. Which means you can read it on near enough any computer or, if you prefer, sacrifice a few trees and print it out.

The report starts by giving you permission to experiment and have fun. Like most everything in life, you won’t always get the expected results. And NLP is no different.

After that brief explanation, it’s onto a scary sounding word called “presuppositions”. These are the ground rules that everything else is based on.

When I first began to learn NLP, this was an area I got quite confused about. In hindsight, I wish I’d had these clear, concise explanations.

For instance, when you hear a phrase like “The map is not the territory” your mind will likely think “I know that” and close down. Which isn’t the point of this presupposition – it’s aiming to extend your viewpoint and change it if necessary.

Instead, you get a neat explanation which makes this part of NLP clearer. Sure, you could read up on this elsewhere (there are plenty of 500 word “explanations” to be found on Google) but this is short enough for your mind to be able to focus and recognize the true meaning of the statement.

The same goes for the other 11 presuppositions that are discussed.

Next up is an explanation of the NLP Parts model.

If you’ve ever struggled to follow this in the book “Frogs into Princes” or “Tranceformations” then you’ll know that this simple model can get complicated if you’re not careful.

The 7 steps for the parts model (sometimes called parts regression) outlined in the toolbox strip the process down to its essentials. Which means you’re more likely to get it working the first time you use it. A friend of mine used this process to help his girlfriend drop a dress size with no effort on her part after the initial process. And she’s still slim today, which means it’s still working.

After that is a section that’s useful if you’re stuck somewhere in your life. Quite often, you know you’re stuck. Probably because you’ve been having your own private Groundhog Day for longer than you’d care to remember.

But you don’t know what you could do to un-stick yourself.

Any time this happens to you, the “Well-formed Outcome Tool” should be your first port of call. There are a series of 6 short questions that will clarify what you truly want – which is oftentimes not the same thing as your conscious mind thinks you want – and you’ll be on your way. The report also suggests running a parts process to make sure you’re 100% on track.

Simple but powerful ideas that have the capability of shifting the way you look at life.

Another NLP technique is called “anchoring”.

If you’ve ever listened to a song and instantly gone back to the time and place where you first heard it, you’ve already used an anchor. Just not deliberately. The short section on anchors gives you a flavor of how they are used, ready to put them into action later in the report.

All this ground work is well explained and won’t take long to read through. If you’ve done any NLP work before or come across it in a course, it’s worth reading this section through as a refresher.

Throughout the report, there are short exercises.

If the thought of exercises takes you back to exams at school, think again.

These are quick and fun. And they help to reinforce what you’ve read before, helping you to learn quicker. Which, since NLP models successful learning patterns, is doubtless deliberate and works effectively.

If you get a little voice in your head telling you to “skip the exercises” or “you can always come back to the exercises later”, reposition that voice somewhere you won’t take it seriously. Maybe make it a squeaky, tinny voice and move it to the end of your toenail. Then muffle it with a sock or shoe. And do the exercises!

Incidentally, there are lots of other ways covered to deal with these negative voices. (Some less polite than the one I’ve outlined!)

By the way, we all get these voices from time to time. Use this process or something similar to banish them from your life.

From time to time, the report uses NLP jargon. But whenever it does, there’s an explanation close at hand. So if you’ve heard of “disassociation” before but were clueless about its precise meaning, help is at hand. As with the rest of the report, this help is brief enough that you’ll read it and clear enough that you’ll be able to use it. Likely on first reading.

NLP often uses timelines. These represent where we “picture” things in the past and future. Personally, my timeline stretches from behind me (to my left and slightly downwards) for the past and stretches out in front of me (to my right and slightly upwards) for my future.

Different people have different timelines. If you’re not sure where your personal timeline lies, there are 5 simple questions you can use to find it out. As with the other exercises, it’s worth doing this one as the visual nature is easier when you point to the different places on your personal timeline. Once you’ve discovered this, you can play with some of the tools in the toolbox much more effectively.

The NLP Toolbox itself is split up into 11 sections:

• Getting motivated
• Personal power
• Self image
• Freeing up fears
• New perspectives
• Generate more fun/humor
• Eliminating negative thoughts
• Health and healing techniques
• Beliefs
• Relaxation
• Other cool tools

Your choice: you can dip into these on an “as needed” basis or, if you’re just learning NLP, you can work your way through them methodically.

Whichever route you choose, the methods are explained simply. Usually in a handful of steps.

Which means that if you’ve ever come across a feeling of overwhelm and thought “I can never remember all that” when you’ve used other programs, you’re highly unlikely to get that feeling with the NLP Toolbox. I wish I’d had access to this report when I first started using NLP.

Since each section contains a number of different methods, you can play around to find the one that works best for you in any given situation.

So if you’re looking for an alternative to the Fast Phobia Cure, you can try out the Fear Reversal Procedure or the Fearful Memory Blocker instead. Or maybe ShamaniX® Shapeshifting instead.

The section on fun and humor should be one you turn to if you’re feeling a bit low. I’d be surprised if you weren’t laughing out loud by the time you finish reading the Ridiculous Behavior Generator technique, let alone actually using it.

And even the name of the Automatic Giggle Installer brought a smile to my face!

The Health section begins with a simple headache cure – this isn’t a method I’d come across before but it’s certainly quick and easy and worked well when I used it on someone. And obviously it’s cheaper than buying pain killers as well as being faster than them.

There are a couple of techniques to help with weight loss, another to help you quit smoking plus pain reduction and several other simple techniques.

If your personal belief structure is holding you back in life (for instance, if you often find yourself saying “I could never do that”), then turn to the beliefs section.

In it, you’ll find methods to eliminate negative beliefs from your life. Try the Belief Dissolver for a quick solution. Or one of the other methods outlined if your belief structure doesn’t (yet) allow you to allow this to work.

I’ve just scratched the surface in this review.

The NLP Toolbox is probably the best introduction to NLP that I’ve come across. It puts the subject across in a simple, easy to follow way that will likely have you nodding “yes” in understanding. Old NLP hands will find it a quick refresher course of things they’ve learned and promptly forgotten. Or new insights into techniques that maybe they haven’t yet mastered.

It’s an easy read with plenty of practical help and examples. And it’s definitely recommended.

You can get a copy of the NLP Toolbox here.