The following true story explains why stupid people rarely get away with evil schemes and why it’s the smart ones you’ve got to watch. On the other hand, as you’ll see, there’s also a sting in the ‘tale’…

A couple of years ago I was an online marketing strategy consultant for a major corporation here in Australia. I was leading a project to create a huge amount of content for the company’s website – both to create more compelling content for our target market and for search engine optimization purposes. As part of the project, I arranged for subject matter experts within the company to write a bunch of articles.

If you love learning about – and more importantly from – successful entrepreneurs I highly recommend you watch or listen to the following three podcasts. They’re informative, inspirational and entertaining.

Quick background: I’ve always enjoyed learning about successful entrepreneurs. Ever since high school I’ve regularly devoured autobiographies, biographies, profiles and interviews of and with successful entrepreneurs.

Recent research confirms what many of us already know: the average worker is addicted to email and customarily checks their work email outside of business hours.

According to research by Harris Interactive for Xobni (which makes tools for Microsoft Outlook), 72 percent or Americans and 68 percent of British workers check their email whilst on vacation, when taking time off, on the weekend, and/or on other non-work days.

Ed Dale’s 30DC Inc., the company behind the popular Internet marketing training program, The 30 Day Challenge / The Challenge, has become a U.S. publicly traded over-the-counter (OTC) stock, following its reverse merger with business development company, Infinity Capital Group.

Ed Dale assumes the positions of Chairman, President and CEO of the company, while other 30DC executives take over management postions, except for Ted Greenberg, Infinity’s current Chief Financial Officer, who will become 30DC’s CFO.

This may be the biggest domain name sale ever. According to the Wall Street Journal, Go Daddy Group, Inc. which owns GoDaddy.com – the world’s biggest domain name registrar – is offering itself for sale in an auction that could see the company sold for more than $1 billion.

Go Daddy has hired technology banking firm Qatalyst Partners – led by iconic banker Frank Quattrone – to handle the sale. According to the Wall Street Journal, private equity firms are likely to be the prime bidders for the company, attracted by the consistent, and consistently large, cash flows GoDaddy.com generates on an ongoing basis.

So you’ve started an Internet business and you’re working around the clock trying to make a buck. It’s hard. Progress is slow. And everyone seems to think you’re crazy for leaving (or planning to leave) that safe job in order to be an entrepreneur. (Sometimes even you think you’re crazy…) Well, for all those reasons and more… it’s time to celebrate.

That’s right: celebrate. I don’t necessarily mean you throw a party or take a vacation. Especially if money is tight. You might, instead, celebrate by treating yourself to a movie with a loved one. Or by getting a massage. Or by going out for dinner. Or just by taking an afternoon off and going for a walk.

Whatever you do, just do something for yourself – something YOU enjoy – in recognition of your entrepreneurial efforts.

Think you know what business you’re in? Think again. According to marketing gurus such as Dan Kennedy and Australia’s Mal Emery, an accountant is not in the accounting business and a life coach is not in the coaching business. They – and, in fact, all of us – are in the marketing business. Or, at least, we should be.

This reminds me of one of my first jobs. Back in the late 90s I joined the graduate marketing program at Uncle Ben’s of Australia. Uncle Ben’s is now known as Mars Australia and is part of the Mars, Incorporated group of companies. Among other things, Mars sold – and continues to sell – the leading pet food brands in Australia, including Pedigree, Whiskas, Chum and Dine.

Heard any of these dangerous myths lately? It takes money to make money. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Ready, fire, aim… not ready, aim, fire. Entrepreneurs are born, not made. Buy into any of these and other generalizations at your peril!

I’ll admit to spouting off some of these sayings myself. And doing so is not inherently harmful… as long as you remember that generalizations are, by their very nature, descriptive NOT prescriptive.

Business and technology pundits are quick to theorize about why Apple and its CEO, Steve Jobs, have been so successful in recent years, but what keys does Steve Jobs himself attribute to Apple’s success?

Steve Jobs recently hosted a press event and GigaOm’s Om Malik was on hand to distil some of Jobs’ explanations for Apple’s success. I’ve elicited slightly different lessons from what Jobs said during the event, but feel free to watch the video and derive your own insights (see link below).

If you subscribe to a lot of mailing lists in the how-to Internet marketing niche you’ve probably noticed that a lot of marketers frequently promote their competition. Why do Internet marketers promote their competitors… and should you be promoting the competitors in YOUR niche?