Internet Business Guide

For First-Class Progress

Tag: costa rica

  • Last Chance For Private Post

    In a few hours I’m going to publish the password protected post containing the answers to the questions some of my blog readers posted when I traveled to Costa Rica.

    In order to receive the password and therefore get access to the post, all you need to do is to subscribe to the blog announcement list.

    See the form in the upper right, right below my image? That’s where you enter your name and e-mail address. Once you clicked on the “Submit” button, the only thing that remains is to confirm your subscription and you’re ready to go.

    Not that you say I haven’t warned you… ;-)

    —Marcus Hochstadt

  • Back Home…

    It were great two weeks in Costa Rica, I learned a lot, and we are happy to be back in our good ‘ol home at the beach in sunny Natal, Brazil.

    There was a nice experience on our 18+ hours way. At the airport in Costa Rica, they told us our seats would have been canceled. You can imagine with which eyes we were staring at him, can’t you? And the check-in guy could experience the other side of my otherwise happy and very friendly wife. ;-) (After standing one hour there the guy could finally get us our boarding passes.)

    Either way, there are lots of things to do now. How good it’s Sunday so we have some time to clean and fix the most important things.

    —Marcus Hochstadt

    P.S. Happy Easter! :-)

  • Xandari Spa Resort Costa Rica

    Yesterday was the third interview day with my Mentor, James Brausch. He geniously agreed and offered a second and a third day with him, which I’m endlessly grateful for.

    Interviewing James Brausch
    “Dude, either you drink that cocktail now or I do…”

    We were in wonderful Xandari Resort & Spa and had a great time there. Xandari is a luxurious hotel with a spa center, located in the central valley of Costa Rica. It is very beautiful with lots of flowers, trees, and has a very friendly staff, always with a smile on their face and very helpful & supportive.

    In this and the last week I really got James to work 10+ hours. (He usually works only 3 hours/week.)

    If you know James you know that he lives his life on his own rules. He is the one who decides what to do and who to meet when. So why and how did I get him work more than 3 hours? What did I do to get him in front of my camcorder three times? What was the reason?

    Giving value to his business

    The goal of an interview is giving value to all three… your audience, you, and the person you interview.

    Some folks are tempted to think of their own advantages whereas, optimally, a good interview ends in a win-win-win situation.

    The Xandari Restaurant
    “That lunch was excellent, like sheeeeeee’s…”

    For now though, I have been put to work. There are 10+ videos that I have to get out, which I’ll do withing the next days and weeks. (Geez, if the Internet connection at our location would not be so awfully slow…) Here are a couple topics we covered in great detail in those three interview days…

    • Building an Internet business from scratch (and how to make the first $1,000 within 24 hours)
    • Step-by-step plan on how to create a product, which product, to which price, ways to overcome “product creation blocks,” etc etc
    • Blogging essentials and how to start one
    • Internet business optimization and how to increase traffic, reader interaction, income, word-of-mouth, etc
    • Outsourcing secrets and an exact step-by-step plan on how to find top contractors, the top 3 sites, which text to use, etc
    • Top tips on traffic generation (incl. step-by-step plan when starting from scratch)
    • Article marketing (and what most people do wrong)
    • List building and ways to increase your list (and his take on RSS and Feedburner)
    • Affiliate Marketing and Google AdSense, the biggest mistakes people make, how to approach it properly, and his biggest successes
    • When James started his Mentoring program (and when & how to start one)
    • And much, much, much more…

    And there was a chance of asking him the questions some of you, my precious blog readers submitted. (Was literally in the very last minute.)

    Again, I’m going to post the answers to these question as a password protected post soon. To receive the password to that post and therefore the answers, you’ll need to sign up to the blog announcement list. The sign-up form to that list is located right below my image, in the upper right hand corner. (If you tried it before and it didn’t work, please try again. It is solved now and shall work again.)

    Alrighty, off to some production (and lots of other) work… Very exciting times are coming! :-)

    —Marcus Hochstadt

  • Hot Springs Costa Rica

    We have a great time here in Costa Rica. It’s a very beautiful country with lots of flowers and volcanoes (*pssst* and some very gorgeous ladies! ;-)

    Now after staying for a couple days we seriously consider staying here for a couple months sometime in the future, even though it’s quite a bit colder than in Natal, Brazil. (Roughly 20°C/68°F where we are in Costa Rica vs. 30°C/86°F near the beach in Natal, Brazil.)

    The first day that we spent together with my Mentor, James Brausch, his lovely wife Kristi and their driver Francisco, we made a day tour to the stimulating Tabacón Hot Springs Grand Spa Resort located at the foot of the Arenal volcano, probably the most amazing and astonishing volcano region in Costa Rica, and James’ favorite place on earth.

    Starting at 7 o’clock in the morning, the tour took 3-4 hours from our hotel. On the tour, we made a stop at a local mini-bar, taking a yummy original Costa Rican breakfast. And there was the first time James put me to a test.

    He took a thick black spider in his hand, kept it there for about two minutes, put it back into the glass box, and then asked me to grab it myself…

    Spider

    I couldn’t.

    Could you?

    We then went on and made another short stop getting some water. While there, we fed a couple Iguanas. For THAT I did have the courage… ;-)

    James feeding Iguanas

    “What do you think, Marcus, will it eat my foot or the banana?”
    “W-well, let me call the ambulance, j-j-just in case…”

    Me feeding an Iguana

    “Don’t stare at me like that, dude!”

    Now we were “well prepared” for approaching the Arenal volcano…

    Arenal Volcano

    Almost there…

    Taking off the clothes and on the swim suit, we made sure to get into the 40°C/104°F hot springs of Tabacón as soon as possible. And the best spot for that was James’ favorite spot on earth, this pool here…

    Volcano Pool

    “No, dude, that’s not really the way I did it…”

    See James scratching his head? LOL

    What looks a bit funny is we tried floating on the water like James did. (Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo of that situation.) I tried really hard, but then figured it may be one of his seemingly magical skills that are nearly impossible to copy. (Kristi’s comment confirmed this assumption. See how she’s laughing about me and my wife’s try?)

    After floating in the pool, we headed over to the unforgettable 40°C/104°F hot waterfall area.

    Volcano Waterfall

    That was nice, really nice.

    We don’t have that in Brazil…

    —Marcus Hochstadt