Monday, [10:05] AM

Dear Friend,

I was reading Terry Dean’s excellent newsletter a few weeks ago and got a great idea for increasing traffic to my blog.

Did you know that YouTube searches now account for 25% of all Google searches?

If I did my math right, that means there are over 22 million searches a DAY on YouTube!

And YouTube says there are a BILLION videos viewed every single day on their site.

Those are some BIG numbers!

If I get just a tiny percentage of the traffic flowing through YouTube it could result in thousands of new DD subscribers.

And the best part is, I could get those subscribers for FREE!

So here’s my plan inspired by Terry Dean’s newsletter:

I’m calling it…

The YouTube 30-Day Challenge

Here’s how it will work…

Every day for 30 days, I’ll post a new Doberman Dan video on YouTube. I’ll also embed the YouTube link in a blog post on this site.

The purpose is to see how much traffic and how many new subscribers I can generate in 30 days from this plan.

I’m also curious to see how this affects my rankings in Google.

Sounds easy enough, right?

The only challenge may be coming up with something interesting and relevant to say every day. I’m hoping the 20+ years of entrepreneurial and direct response lessons stored in my gray matter will flow out easily.

I planned on starting this as soon as I finished my Kitchen Table Business coaching group in April… but plans change sometimes, don’t they?

Turns out, I need to start it ASAP… unless I want to mime my way through the videos.

See, I’ve been traveling all over the place the past couple weeks seeing different specialists trying to find an answer I liked. Unfortunately, they all seem to agree on the answer I DON’T like.

Here’s the Reader’s Digest version:

The experts and all their fancy machines say there is this thing growing pretty rapidly in my neck that’s not supposed to be there. And the damn thing is causing some issues with my airway.

Now apparently a blocked airway can have some side effects… one being…

An almost immediate death!

Having seen a few people “choked out” in my day, I can attest to the fact that the effects of a blocked airway are pretty immediate and dramatic.

So old Doc Sawbones and crew want to hack open my neck and start pulling stuff outta there.

It would be great if they could just pull the bad stuff out… but it’s all mixed up with some good stuff… VITAL stuff that needs to come out, too.

One of those “vital” things… or at least I consider it to be vital… is my vocal nerve. That’s the nerve that allows you to speak.

Now some people will be happy to hear this… (now that I think of it, maybe a LOT of people)… but Doc Sawbones says it’s possible my vocal nerve is going to get beat up really bad or possibly severed.

That means the ability to sing and shout are gone forever… as is my ability to speak normally.

He started going off about more surgery that could be done to move one of my vocal cords over so I could at least have a breathy Clint Eastwood kind of voice, yadda yadda, yadda… but my eyes just glazed over at that point and I got lost in my own thoughts.

I was never a great lead singer…. but I did really well on harmony parts and background vocals, if I do say so myself. It got me a lot of good gigs. A guitarist who can sing is more sought after than just a guitarist.

And most importantly, I LOVE to sing.

I think I was more upset about possibly losing the ability to sing than I was about losing the ability to speak.

One of my best friends was told he has stage 4 cancer and 5 months to live… five years ago. So I know doctors aren’t always right. But I also believe in being prepared for the worst.

If you prepare for the worst and it doesn’t happen, you’re really not out anything. But…

If you DON’T prepare for the worst and it DOES happen…
you’re probably screwed.

(HUGE life and business lesson there you should probably heed.)

So I’m going forward with my YouTube 30-day challenge ASAP.

I’m also using and enjoying my voice as much as I can right now.

Stuff I’d normally handle by e-mail, I’m doing it over the phone.

Yesterday, instead of doing copy critiques for my proteges via e-mail, I recorded them on MP3s and e-mailed them the recording.

I’ve been working on a CD of original music and had planned on doing a couple vocal tunes on it. I’m going to try to belt those out soon.

I’m expecting the best… but planning for the worst.

Life can really throw some curve balls, huh?

There is only one correct response…

Dust yourself off, step back up to the plate… and…

Keep Swinging!

I’m amazed at the petty stupid little stuff some people allow themselves to be defeated by.

Look, whatever problem or challenge you’re using as an excuse to give up and quit… there is always somebody with a challenge 1,000 times worse using it as a reason to keep fighting.

I may sound like a broken record but that’s because a LOT of people need to hear it:

As long as there’s breath in your lungs…
the game ain’t over.

Quit making excuses and get back up to the plate to take another swing.

Simple philosophy, I know… but it has served me EXTREMELY well.

And it will serve you very well, too.

I guarantee it.

All the best,