Archive for April, 2010

For the past four years I’ve been spending my winters in Costa Rica. Each year, I’ve spent a minimum of four months and up to six months in what most people consider to be a tropical paradise.

That’s in addition to the several months I have spent traveling to this country before, and also visiting other beautiful tropical countries such as Panama, Thailand, Bali, Brazil and French Polynesia.

In just two weeks, my fiancée Veronica and I are also getting married in beautiful Costa Rica by some beautiful waterfalls near Dominical.

I’ve loved Costa Rica so much that I’ve thought several times of moving there permanently, making it my home base. Even this year, I looked seriously into completing the process of getting my residency there.

Yet, I’ve decided not to do this, and even more, when I leave in May I’m probably not going to come back to Costa Rica for many years.

Why this change of attitude?

Was I mugged in Costa Rica and in fear of my life?

Do I feel the country has become too expensive?

Do I think there’s some place in the world that’s more beautiful and more pristine?

Actually, it’s none of the above.

I feel that Costa Rica is pretty safe even though I’ve heard a lot about the rising crime situation in the Central Valley. I’ve personally never experienced any problem though.

As for the cost of living, I’ve always said that if your goal is to recreate the same exact lifestyle you had back home but for cheaper in a sunny third-world country — you better stay home because that’s just not going to happen.

And in all of my travels, I’ve actually never been to a place that’s as beautiful as Costa Rica in terms of pure, wild nature.

French Polynesia was the most stunning place I ever visited, but it lacks the amazing lushness and biodiversity that Costa Ricans enjoy.

So why am I crossing Costa Rica off my list of places where to live long-term?

To put it simply: I’ve realized that I love North America too much.

Not only do I miss North America when I’m in Costa Rica, but I also feel that North America is overall a much better place to live.

Don’t get me wrong: there are lots of things I love about Costa Rica, Panama and all these other beautiful developing countries. But I’m just not ready to make them my home base just yet.

In my course, How to Move to a Tropical Paradise, I emphasized what I called the “snowbird” solution, which is to keep your home base where you currently are, but use Costa Rica or another tropical country with a lower cost of living as a way to spend one or month or a few months every winter, while not increasing your overall living expenses.

I also warned people against making a decision too quick to move to a tropical paradise, because the reality of living there is far from their own dream and pre-conceived ideas.

Before I go into my reasons for not making any of these sunny, developing countries my home-base, let me first review what I like about Costa Rica:

* The climate can’t be beat, as long as you live in higher elevation. The weather by the beach is way too hot and sticky, with bugs and ants watching your every move. But in the Central Valley or the mountains, the climate is a dream, with year-round spring-like temperature.

* People are very friendly and welcoming to foreigners.

* The country is wonderful to visit and there are so many great things to do: visit volcanoes, parasailing, canopy tours, scuba diving, hiking, etc. If you’re on a vacation, you cannot be bored and the country offers so much more than just laying on the beach and doing nothing. Each part of the country is different with over 16 distinct micro-climates.

* It’s still very affordable compared to North America or Europe or even many tourist destinations, if you know where to look. Many things are cheaper including produce, rent, taxis, etc.

* Tropical fruits are incredible and you can go to many farmer’s market, talk to the growers and everyone is very friendly, offering your deals, giving you free produce with purchase.

* Animal sightings are almost guaranteed on a daily basis. We had beautiful Titi monkeys visit us regularly (The rare and smart squirrel monkeys), saw giant iguanas, tucans, sloths, etc.

* The country is very beautiful. Amazingly beautiful in fact.

I think Costa Rica, Panama and other countries such as Ecuador (where I’ve never been) have a lot to offer, and I could easily imagine myself spending one or two months a year in places like that during the winter.

Even up to three months, you can easily relax into the fact that your stay is temporary, and enjoy what the place has to offer that is different from your home country.

But as you move into longer stays (three months+), you start to realize how different the culture is and what the challenges are for living there long term.

I am not your typical tourist.
I speak relatively fluent Spanish, I know the ins and outs of Costa Rican culture, I know my way around most of the country, I know the cultural faux-pas, I read many books about Costa Rican history and culture… and I’m very open-minded.

And in spite of this, I’ve abandoned any project of establishing a long-term residence in Costa Rica, or even in its more modern neighbor Panama.

Here’s what’s on my mind:

1- Cost of Living — First of all, I think that cost of living can be a very relative thing. A busy Internet Marketer like me does not need a lot of the same things as a retired English teacher (expat).

I wasn’t going to move somewhere just to save money, but what I found is that even though there are lots of things that are cheaper in Costa Rica (such as fruits and vegetables!), imported products are more expensive, in a way that probably offset any possible savings as far as I’m concerned.

For a few years, I did indeed save a lot of money anytime I was in Costa Rica. But that’s because I was single and living in a tiny apartment that I rented for almost nothing, and I didn’t drive a car and returned to Canada after four months so I didn’t need to buy many things for the long term.

Last year, my fiancée and I ended up importing a lot of products that we needed (such as a computer we needed to replace) and paid a lot of money in import fees.

People who live in the USA and complain about the prices have NO idea how much cheaper almost everything is there compared to any country in the world. Canada is more expensive than the US but it’s still nothing compared to Europe.

The only things that are truly more expensive in the USA compared to Costa Rica are things like fresh produce, maybe rent and housing, and any labor-oriented services such as house cleaning, taxis, etc.

But everything else, from electronics to gasoline is significantly cheaper in the US.

If you lived a simple life in Costa Rica, there’s no doubt you would save some money. But if you’re young and busy and you want some comfort, I don’t think those savings will show. Overall it will average out to about the same cost of living.

Panama is cheaper, there’s no doubt about it. But it still suffers from the same shortcomings as Costa Rica in other areas.

2- Latin Mentality — There’s no getting around the fact that people in Latin America are just not as efficient as in North America. You can call it “Island Time”, or “A Different Pace of Living,” but the fact of the matter is that a lot of things don’t really get done very well.

From getting a decent internet connection to regular errands such as banking, the bureaucracy and inefficiency can be frustrating.

A lot of Ticos (Costa Ricans) will be the first to point it out. I remember a taxi driver who kept ranting about Costa Rica being a “culture of mediocrity”.

You can criticize a lot of things about Western culture but I do think we know how to get things done in reasonable time frames, and with the least amount of headaches.

Personally, the inefficiency of the latin culture didn’t bother me that much. I actually got used to taking my time. But in some key areas it was annoying:
a) Internet Service. It’s hard to get fast Internet service in the first place, and when you manage to get it, it might mysteriously stop functioning at the most random times, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Just reset it and cross your fingers it will start working again shortly.

Power Outages. Again, the power could go out once a week or so at a random time, with no explanation. Usually for less than an hour, but still annoying when the timing is wrong. No power means no lights, no fan, no internet and in a hot climate this can be frustrating and you don’t really have anywhere else to go.

3- Food Selection and Shopping.

Again, a lot of people who have never left the US or Canada complain that the food selection sucks in their respective countries.

The reality is that North America (and other Western countries such as United Kingdom) have the best food selection in the world, period.

In Costa Rica, I must admit the local fruits are delicious. But you are usually limited to the basic varieties of pineapple, banana, papaya, watermelon and mangoes. Everything else is seasonal (including mangoes, but they are available half the year).

When it comes to vegetables, the selection is not that great outside of larger supermarket chains such as Auto-Mercado, which are more like a small high-end market in the US.

You can still get most of what you need, but the selection in North American stores is way better.
Also, you might think that organic food is widely popular in Costa Rica, but it’s not the case. Most of the beautiful fruits you see are grown with generous amounts of pesticides, and organic food is hard to come by, unless you have know some people or you grow it yourself. The heat and insects pose a number of problems for farmers and they’re not as informed about safe farming practices.

As for health food stores, they are non-existent in Costa Rica. The closest thing they have to a health food store are these mini-stores called “Macrobiotic” stores (which have nothing to do with the macrobiotic diet) selling all kinds of medicinal herbs and more natural body-care products with no food whatsoever.

Some supermarkets carry imported organic products such as almond butter (not raw of course), but the selection is pretty random and the products generally cost 20 to 30% more than in the US.

As for shopping in general, you can certainly find what you need but you’ll need to look hard for certain items.

For example, we couldn’t find a salad spinner anywhere, so we had to import one from Amazon. The Costa Ricans had ZERO idea what we were talking about when we asked everywhere.

Clothes you’ll find in stores are either one of two categories:

Name brand American clothes (mostly surf and skater designer brands) that will be way more expensive than if you bought them in North America.
Ultra-cheap clothes and fabric (think sub-Walmart quality)

As for electronics, a brand-new 13-inch Mac-Book Pro of the top of the line configuration can be purchased for about $1450 or Amazon.com in the US, but will sell for almost $2100 in Costa Rica!

Cars are also more expensive, by about 50% or more.

4- Driving in Costa Rica

Costa Rican drivers have a reputation for being some of the worst and most aggressive drivers in the world, and it’s not far from the truth.

The truth is that driving in Costa Rica is an adventure. Streets have no names and you have to rely on stone-age types of directions such as “100 meters south west of the Santa Elena church in the city of Curridabat” — it’s up to you to figure out where that is!

I must say I’m impressed to see how Costa Rican taxis know their town so well, for getting around everywhere without ever relying on a street sign anywhere!

Driving and getting around in North America is at least 1000% easier. Equipped with a GPS and an address, you can get around anywhere stress-free. But there’s no way you could use a GPS in Costa Rica the same way you can anywhere else! You can’t even use google maps for directions to ANYWHERE in Costa Rica.

Also, Costa Rica is just not safe for pedestrians. Driver’s don’t respect anyone’s safety and the streets are just not designed for walking. There are almost no sidewalks or shoulders on roads and no pedestrian crossings or lights. Therefore, taking a leisure walk is just not fun in most places, unless you go to a park.

Driving at night is also not safe because of the poorly lit roads and drunk drivers, and almost every road is a two-way lane.

5- Other Factors

I could go down the list of other minor factors, such as the fact that the sun sets at almost exactly 6 p.m. every night (which is not as fun as a later sunset! ), but the main factor for me are the ones that I have discussed and also isolation.

I love big cities and I also love nature and the country.

The best situation is when you can take advantage of both.

The dream of relocating full-time to a tropical paradise is most often a pipe dream for most people.

Hopefully, that’s never what I’ve promoted. My course and my approach has always been about generating passive income from your online business so you can live anywhere you want, and travel to the place you want, when you want it.

Some people might say, why not Panama? Why not Thailand?

I love all these places… but only to visit for 1 to 3 months at a time.

After our trip around the world next year, Veronica and I will probably relocate to British Columbia where there’s the most fruit and organic food in all of Canada, and where the climate is pretty mild compared to my home town of Montreal.

From there, we’ll continue to travel many months during the winter to tropical countries… but for now I’ve abandoned any idea of relocating to any of these places permanently.

How do we manage this lifestyle? If you want to find out about my method for building an online business that gives you complete freedom to travel and do what you love, go to www.dowhatyouloveuniversity.com/new.html and sign of for a trial membership of my Success Group program. You’ll get over $1700 in products immediately that you can put to use to make your dreams a reality!

For years, Internet marketers have relied on audio products for their back-end information products. The typical funnel of many marketers included low-cost, mass market books or eBooks on their front-end, and big packages of audio CDs on their back-end.

If you attended almost ANY business seminar just a few years ago, and took a look at what the speakers sold at the back of the room, almost all of them were selling big packages of CDs.

Compared to books, CDs had a much higher perceived value. One CD could typically be sold for $25, so a big package of 12 CDs could easily be sold for $250 or more.

At the time, everybody bought CDs. If you wanted music, you bought a CD. If you wanted to listen to personal development information, you got some CDs to play in your car.

Now fast-forward to 2010, and we’ll notice that CDs are on the way out. In my last survey to my list just 2 years ago, I found that at least 50% of my subscribers owned an MP3 player. Now in the age of smartphones, iPhones and iPods, the number of people who don’t own one of these devices is increasingly low. According to 24/7 WallSt:

Digital downloads accounted for 40% of all music sales in 2009, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

According to The Big Picture:

Another year, another collapse in CD sales.

For the eighth time in nine years, U.S. album sales declined. That’s according to data compiled by Nielsen SoundScan.

Album sales fell to 373.9 million units, a 12.7% decline from 2008. Total sales fell a whopping 52% since 2000. CDs still account for almost 80 percent of all album purchases.

Paid online song downloads continued to grow, but at a pace that was too slow to make up for lost CD sales.

Why do CDs still account for 80% of all album purchase? The answer is piracy. Most people get their music digitally, but more often than not, without paying for it. (By the way, I’m personally 100% against online music piracy and always purchase music on iTunes.)

A friend of mine, Paul Durham, is a full-time musician who publishes his own music for his amazing band Black Lab (see his strategy and listen to his music at www.blacklabworld.com).

He told me that 5 or 6 years ago, he still made 80% of his income from CD sales, and 20% from download. Now it’s the other way around, with iTunes being his main source of income (iTunes gives 70% of profits to the recording company, in this case, he gets all the profits since he’s self-publishing).

Even in my own life, although I sometimes still bought CDs for the extras (if it’s an artist I really liked), I’ve become so used to listening music digitally that I purchase almost all of my music on iTunes.

If I get a CD, I will immediately rip the CD and only listen to the music digitally on my iPod, only keeping the CD as a backup.

CD sales are going down, but with the average album selling for $9.95 on iTunes, the perceived value of digital audio has also gone down.

A big package of CDs still has more perceived value than a digital download of the same audios. But when faced with the choice between a package of downloadable MP3s at a lower price, and a package of CDs at a higher price (plus shipping), most customers now choose the digital download (at least that’s what I’ve found in my field).

There are other options of course. Some companies are even selling branded-media players (for example: http://www.myseminarplayer.com), or even flash-drives with pre-loaded content.

It’s the equivalent of selling people an iPod with your content on it!

Unfortunately, I think most people would value the iPod or other media player more than the actual content, which they can’t see or touch.

And they might even erase your content to make space for their music, because they value the player more than your content. So I don’t think the concept of branded media players will really fly.
CD Popularity Drops, Video Grows

At the same time, while CD popularity has dropped, almost everyone now owns a DVD player, and DVDs have now replaced old VHS 100%. Also, computers typically include a DVD drive and a lot of people use their computers to watch DVDs.

With the popularity of YouTube and online videos, video has become more and more important. Smart Internet marketers today are trying to push video products in their back-end, instead of relying on audio-only products.

Audio products also have their place, but video now has a higher perceived value.

The day has not yet arrived where DVDs are phased out completely to be replaced by digital video. Even before that happens, they will be most likely replaced by Blue-Ray discs for high-definition video. The bottom line: the physical video media discs are going to be with us for a long time, and their value will continue being perceived as high by the market.

So the reason why you should have video products is that they are perfect products for your back-end (the term “back-end” simply indicates the more expensive and important products that you offer, as opposed to the low-cost, entry level products such as books or eBooks. The term comes from the seminar world, where speakers would sell their products at the “back end” of the room).

How to Create a DVD Product

One of your goals should be to release a DVD product. Here are three main ways to create a DVD:

1) Film a live event, and put it on a DVD
2) Produce a DVD from scratch
3) Use screen-capture video

For more detailed information on how to create your own dvd products IN DETAIL and other internet business techniques check out my Do What You Love Success Group at http://www.dowhatyouloveuniversity.com/new.html

If you sign up now you’ll get access to our April newsletter
“How To Create and Sell Video Products” for only $9.95 for the first month!

Go to: http://www.dowhatyouloveuniversity.com/new.html

Find out how to make your own live videos, screen capture videos, the video editing software you need and how to determine what video your market needs.

Until next time!

Your question: What videos on health and alternative living are you most interested in on watching for free online and purchasing on DVD? What do you find the most value on?

In the last two weeks, I’ve been following very closely the launch of the Apple Tablet, unoriginally called “iPad”.

Unless you’ve been living under a cave, you know that there’s been a lot of hype around this tablet computer. In fact, one columnist at the Wall Street Journal said that “the last time there was so much excitement around a tablet, the 10 commandments were written on it!”

———————–
Special iPad Offer:
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In a typical Apple way, the marketing and anticipation around this product has been incredible. If you want to study how to launch a product, try to reproduce what Apple is doing in on a smaller scale, and you’ll be very successful!

iPad is launching on Saturday in the USA, and I must say I’ve never been as excited about a technology product as I am for this. I won’t be able to get one before the end of the month, but I can’t wait!

And more importantly, I’m very excited about where the eBook market is going, and I now believe that if by the end of 2010 you don’t have at least one or two eBooks for sale, you’d be a complete FOOL and you will be missing the boat in a major way. But more on that in a moment.

Why iPad Will Be a Game-Changer

A lot of people don’t really see how Apple could be successful launching what is essentially a “giant iPhone” and why this product is going to be revolutionary.

When I told a friend of mine, who’s also an Internet Marketer, why I was going to get an iPad, he predicted that Apple would fail with this product. He said, “I don’t really see the point of iPad. Try to sell it to me! You won’t be able to. It can’t everything a computer can, and it can’t fit in your pocket like an iPhone.”

My friend thought the only reason I would buy an iPad is because I tend to buy almost every product Apple makes.

Yet, I also believe my friend to be absolutely wrong and I’m 100% convinced the iPad will be a huge success.

First, why would you or anyone need a big multi-touch screen?

In a few words, it’s for the intimate experience you will develop with this device.

The iPad is essentially going to fill a need that isn’t filled by any other device at the moment.

It will serve as a content-consumption hub and practical mobile computer you can take anywhere.

People are going to use it to share photos with their friends, watch movies, write notes, surf the web on their couch — and do all these things that they could be doing using a computer, but in an experience that’s much more intimate and enjoyable.

The iPad is essentially a blank slate. The apps are going to make the device, just like the apps on the iPhone turned a “cool phone” into an indispensable device for many people.

eBooks and the iPad

One thing that people are going to do on the iPad is to read eBooks.

A few years ago, I thought that eBooks would soon be dead and be replaced by more exciting forms of media such as video.

And I was wrong!

Instead of dropping, eBook sales have increased! With the introduction of Amazon’s kindle, eBooks are more popular than ever.

But the problem with eBooks is that most people don’t really have any kind of device to read them.

The Kindle is supposed to be a solution for that, but Kindle has been designed for avid readers, not for the average person.

I own two Kindle and love them for reading non-fiction books and novels. It’s truly a great device and with the e-ink technology, you can read it in bright daylight and for long periods of time.

The Kindle only does one thing well: display text-heavy non-fiction books and novels. For other forms of documents, such as PDFs or documents containing a lot of maps, the Kindle is a terrible device.

The pages don’t refresh very fast, and images show up in black and white and are not always easy to use.

I thought for example that I could use the Kindle to avoid bringing travel books when I go on a trip, but because travel books contain a lot of images and maps, reading them on a Kindle is a poorer experience than on the book.

The Kindle is a revolution for readers everywhere, but the problem is that most people don’t read a lot.

The average person reads less than one book in a year, if they read at all.

They might buy eBooks or books once in a while, but never read them cover to cover.

So for the vast majority of people, the Kindle is simply not an attractive device.

Enter the iPad, with its gorgeous screen, multi-touch technology, blazing speed processor — a device that people can use to watch movies, browse the web, answer emails, share photos, and do a LOT of other things, in addition to occasionally reading eBooks.

NOW you have a device that can reach the masses, and where YOUR eBooks and other electronic content can be consumable.

A columnist recently said, “If you like your kids, get them an iPad. If you LOVE them, get them a Kindle”.

In other words, the iPad will be a great distraction and entertainment device, while the Kindle remains a reading device with more educational value.

Even though eBooks are popular, about 50% of my readers still prefer to pay more to get a hard copy of an eBook, even if in addition to the higher cost they have to pay for shipping.

But if they had an iPad, they would probably opt for the digital version, knowing that they can read it easily on that device, comfortable in their lazy chair.

I think it’s going to take a year or two for people to realize it, but the iPad is going to create a revolution in the computer world. You’ll start seeing people who might even ONLY get an iPad and no other computer, because it’s so easy to use and they don’t need to do much other than browsing the web, watching videos and sending emails.

Of course, right now the device is a little expense. The early adopters like me are going to get it first, but in a year or two, the price is probably going to go down to at about $299 for the entry-level model.

And by then, tens of millions of people will have a device they can use to read YOUR ebooks.

I’m seeing at the moment in my business that eBooks are easy to sell (especially if they contain additional multi-media bonuses such as videos).

eBooks are also easier to create than other types of information product.

If you’re NOT selling your eBooks yet, you NEED to get started. Are you going to sit there and miss the boat, or capture this opportunity and start earning a living on the Internet?

The best way to get started is my course “How to Write and Sell Your Own eBooks in 24 Hours or Less”:
http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/writeyourebook.html

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