With two major holidays behind us, and the New Year festivities upcoming, many will be making those often un-lived-up-to resolutions.

If you spend a lot of time sitting in your chair at your computer, and you’ve found your bottom (and various other body parts) spreading due to a lack of exercise, your options to get into shape for the New Year (and thus continue marketing in the best of health!) are many.

However, some people will be tempted to turn to quick solutions, and this post is a warning I found this morning in our home town Las Vegas Review Journal:

FDA warns against using 28 weight-loss products

“If you’re looking for a little help shedding extra pounds after the holidays, the government is warning you to stay away from nearly 30 weight-loss products that contain unlisted and possibly dangerous ingredients.

The pills are advertised as “natural” fat busters and have intriquing names such as Imelda Perfect Slim and Zhen de Shou. Some are touted as new versions of “ancient remedies” from Asia.”

Now while I cannot and do not advocate that the FDA gets everything right, the article goes on to explain that the FDA lab tested 28 dietary supplements “that could land unsuspecting users in the emergency room.”

Not where you want to be to start out your New Year, right?!

The problem appears to be that many of these products contain sibutramine, a chemical cousin and powerful appetite suppressant along the lines of amphetamines. Heart attacks, strokes, and heart palpitations are just some of the reported “side effects.”

Sibutramine is used to treat the extremely obese. However, these tested products were reported to have as much as three (3) times the prescribed dosage… 3 times!

We’re all for making solid, common sense, New Year’s resolutions. And more often than not, weight loss tops the list.

However, if you’d like to live through the coming new year as a healthy and active internet marketer, our advice is to take a look at this website FDA Warns Consumers About Tainted Weight Loss Pills.

Sad to say, a vast majority of these products are coming out of China. China seems to be having huge problems lately exporting healthy and safe items – from food, supplements, candy, toys, etc. – and now we can add this information to that growing list.

Start your New Year off right! And stay healthy! Scott and I want to see you returning again and again for many years to come; we’ve got tons of social media and internet marketing to share with you!

Happy New Year!

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Don’t forget to comment! It’s free marketing for you!

As online readers, we all have an immense arsenal of potential ways to track this and that as it strikes our fancy. And today, I’m going to let you in on a secret you may not be aware of…

You must have noticed how we really stress the value of commenting at the end of each of our posts… right? You have noticed, yes?

We’ve done write ups about dofollow and nofollow, and the value of free marketing and advertising yourself through the simple process of replying to posts you read on blogs.

FREE marketing! Yes, the few moments you take to make a truly constructive reply to any post on any blog can (and does according to our tracking stats) bring you free visitors to whatever link you choose to use as you fill out the comment form.

It’s so darn simple, and free, that after reading you’re crazy if you’re passing this up.

And this tool – Co.mments.com – allows you to easily access blogs you’ve asked questions on, and hope to hear from either the blog owner or one of his or her visitors to get the answer to your question.

Of course, that’s just one idea and way, to use this marketing tool.

Okay, not everything is worth commenting on. Maybe your brain has taken a siesta and nothing comes to mind. But, let’s face it, as humans we all have thoughts, opinions, experiences, and questions about something. It’s just built into our DNA to have our say.

That’s what those commenting boxes are for! And, repeating myself yet again, you’d be crazy not to comment. It’s FREE marketing.

I’ve started our own comment tracker using the above Co.mment website.

If you’re a blogger, especially a WordPress user, than you most likely have the Sociable plugin (if not, get it). Co.mments is one you can activate that will allow your visitor to quickly add individual posts of COMMENTS to conversations they wish to follow.

As an online internet marketer, start your own Co.mments account. This way, you can quickly and easily keep track of posts that you are:

1. Interested in hearing what others have to say

2. Waiting perhaps for an answer to a question you ask

3. Begin the process of networking within that post with the other readers of that post.

Be you blogger or marketer (or both), it’s fast and easy to create an account. You’ll then get your own (see ours above) web page link for quick access (bookmark it and refer to it often!), along with a feed that you can use perhaps on a Squidoo lens or….

Those who comment on a regular basis will see the value in this great tool. Those who are not yet using commenting to its fullest can now start that ball rolling with ease.

Sign up for your own Co.mment account today (it’s free!).|

SPECIAL NOTE: As SEO testers, we’re also interested in how (or if) this particular social marketing tool shows up in the search engines. With a PR of 5 and Alexa rank hovering at the 83K mark, not testing this would be a huge mistake. So bloggers, be sure to offer this as an option for bookmarking on your blog. And marketers, it’s such an easy way to keep track of where you’ve been it would be silly not to use it. All your comments, one page (your own!), and a quick reference guide as you check back on your favorite posts.

You’ll find our Co.mments icon right below here… it’s the orange one with the slanted row of dots on it in the “Be Sociable Please Tag Us” section. Click it, track this and/or any of our posts, and see how very easy your commenting life becomes

After Posting Update: Just found this Christmas song on JuliesJournal and wanted to add it to this post. A bit off topic, but it’s very cool. Enjoy!

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Okay now here’s you chance, don’t pass it up. Take one minute and let us know what you think! Your feedback and input do matter to us! Leave your comment!