How to Make Year 2008 a GREAT Year for You and Your Internet Business

Here's a Comic to Spice up Your Christmas – and Jumpstart Your 2008!

Hope you’re doing great and enjoying the Christmas holidays! :-)



My friends Edmund Loh & Vince Tan have a hilarious comic to share with you. It certainly did lighten up my mood and I think you should take a look at it too!



It doesn’t just stop at the laughs though; there’s a strong, inspiring message behind it and it has to do with how you can make Year 2008 YOUR YEAR.



Whether you’re young or old.



Whether you juggle a full-time job or you’re unemployed.



Whether you have superior technical skills or just basic computer literacy.



And number of years of experience under your belt is NO longer a requirement to succeed online.



These boys have proven.



Go read this comic for a couple of laughs and be sure to see Part 2 after this!







Click here to see the rest of the comic in full.



Talk real soon and a Happy New Year

IMC Course on Special Offer from Derek Gehl

I received this email this morning -

I just got an email from Derek Gehl I had to tell you about.

Get this...

Apparently, a whole stack of boxes containing his "Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet" courses fell over, and almost landed on one of his employees!

(I can see the headlines now: "Internet marketing guru turns warehouse employee into human pancake.")

Keep in mind that just one of Derek's courses contains
850+ pages, plus DVDs, CDs, booklets, and tons more...
So having one of them landing on your head would NOT be pleasant!

Anyway, Derek told me his employee was ok... but his courses weren't so lucky. Apparently most of them were slightly
*damaged* from the tumble.

A few scratches here and there, the odd dent, maybe a bent page. Bummer!

But Derek is famous for being a perfectionist, and he thinks those copies of his step-by-step "Insider Secrets"
course are not quite pristine enough to sell at the regular price.

... So he's going to give them away at a HUGE discount!

Dented copies of Insider Secrets


Just in case you haven't heard of "Insider Secrets"
before, here's what you need to know:

This Internet marketing "bible" has been the best-selling guide to how to grow your own money-making Internet business from scratch for more than 10 years running for one reason -- the strategies inside WORK! -- and it's been updated with brand new strategies for 2007.

So if you're willing to overlook the odd scratch on the cover or the occasional dog-eared page, this is your chance to get your hands on the exact same information that 1,000s of regular folks have already used to generate full-time incomes of $50,000... $100,000... even $250,000 (and more!) per year on the Internet from the comfort of their own homes...

... And you can get the blueprint they followed for a small fraction on the regular price they paid!

There's just one catch: Derek only has 267 'damaged'
copies up for grabs, so don't delay. *This offer is strictly first come, first served basis.*

http://www.clickcommerce.co.uk/recommends/dingsanddents

To your success,

Derek Gehl
The Internet Marketing Center

P.S. If you've been dreaming about starting your own successful Internet business, but lack of cash has been holding you back, this is your perfect opportunity to get your hands on ALL the tools you need to start your own highly profitable Internet business and earn a life-changing income...

... WITHOUT a big upfront investment!

So hurry, before those 267 copies are gone! Go to:

http://www.clickcommerce.co.uk/recommends/dingsanddents

PS - if you're wondering about the jewelry, check out Hebridean Jewellery for further information! Highly recommended as well.

Coupon codes for Hats - and Pyjamas

Have a great Christmas - and enjoy our Christmas Shopping Suggestions.

My mini challenge - 100 members before the end of December

When is a web ring not just a web ring ???


.... well, when it's called Blogrush, it's a web ring on STEROIDS!

When you look at Blogrush model, you'll see that, although there are a variety of sophisticated tweaks to this, actually what John Reese created was a web ring. It's not pulling in the titles of sites, just the RSS feeds from new posts; they are shown on related web sites using a small code widget that you place into a web template; where it gets a little trickier is that it's a bit of a pyramid in that early adopters recruiting new members get the benefit of huge downlines. It also suggests that the last folks may have a much harder time getting traffic as all they're doing is adding fodder to the early recruits.

So, What does that tell you?

Well, firstly that the model of web rings hasn't died and gone to Net Heaven! It looks like they may well be valid methods of creating back links, spider fodder and web traffic.

So, you're invited to join my new web ring at The Marketing Web Ring - and we'll give this a good test! You're welcome to add sites, old and new - heck this code even goes into a Squidoo lens quite happily. No porn, racist, illegal, dubious sites will be accepted.

So what's my challenge, you might ask?

Well, I'd like to get 100 sites into this web ring by 1 January 2008. That doesn't seem like too big a mountain to climb!

If you'd like to help me get there and test out this theory, please join.

You have to register for an account, then, once you activate it from the email sent to you, you get the opportunity to add a site to the ring. I approve the site - and that's it, really.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Trip to Tarbert, Argyll

Rhod came to visit us a few days ago and we had an away-day to Lochgilphead, Crinan and finished at Tarbert in Argyll.

This is Tarbert - with a lovely yacht sailing through the entrance to the harbour. When they dropped anchor, there seemed to be several folks on board who were having a great time.

The west coast of Scotland was looking beautiful - and it's lovely going to see what activity there is at Crinan. This is the view from the banks of the Crinan Canal.

If in Doubt - Read the Question

I had a complete DUH moment on Thursday.

I was due to go to a client to do some work for their web site; I was harrassed, I had other stuff to do before I got there. So, feeling slightly distraught, I jumped into our van and set off - when the low fuel warning light came on!

£$%*&^$V**** .... or other slightly offensive words!

In fact, it wasn't a biggie - I just drove into the petrol station and drew up at one of the fuel pumps; joy of joys, I couldn't get the fuel cap off - it's one of those lockable ones and I always have a battle with it. Then the kindly gentleman in the car on the other side of the pump said

"You ok, hen - you need a hand?"

I looked up, thankful for a friendly voice, only to realise that he was talking to his wife who was filling up their car with fuel.

Hmmm -

At that point, the fuel cap disengaged itself from the van and I reached for a pump to fill up the tank, paid for the fuel and set off on the 40 mile trip. The van started to run a little rough, but I made the trip satisfactorily and sat down to do the business.

After a couple of hours, it was time to go. I jumped into the van and tried to start - and it wasn't going to fire up at all. Then someone said to me - you did put diesel in the tank?? ....

Smart alec!

Of course, when I checked the fuel receipt, I had put petrol into the diesel tank. AAAAAAAAAAArgh.

I called the rescue services who towed me to a local garage where they drained the fuel tank. They asked if I was waiting while the work was done so I said "Yes", asked where I could get something for lunch - and wandered off.

The moral of the story - I should have checked to make sure that I had hold of the diesel pump instead of the petrol one. I assumed it was correct - and it was a costly mistake. That is one of the mistakes made by the young apprentices on the Apprentice program. Quite often they tackle the task they think they have been asked. Speed and inattention aren't very good bedfellows - and can be expensive in all kinds of situations.

So, my old aunt was right when she said to me at exam time -

"Read the question.
Do your best to answer the question.
After you've completed the exam, go back through it.
And when all else fails, Read the Question once again to make sure you answered the question posed not the question you guessed was being asked!"

Love you, Auntie Marjory!

This all distracted me from one of the challenges I set for myself - to get 1,000 members in my Squidoo Group - the numbers are increasing gradually but I'm not up to the quarter mark yet. I will get there, though.

My latest lens, http://www.squidoo.com/hebridean has been more successful than I had anticipated. I've had more traffic to it than to any of my other lenses. Long live the romance of the Hebrides.

G'night for now.

Margaret

Christmas?? - oh no, I can't believe I said that!

In the UK, it seems to have been a fairly dreich summer. Loads of rain, not much sun, gloom and doom. OK, Scotland faired much better than some other areas of the UK, I can't deny that. Even so, summer seems to have skipped by at breakneck speed, leaving me wondering about Christmas presents.

My sister and my nephew have just spent a couple of weeks with us - as I write this, they're travelling back to Regensburg for the start of another school year. When Mary comes back "home", she always looks out for gifts which are different to the ones she can buy in Germany. She's got this competitive streak which makes her want to stand out from the crowd. It has been interesting watching her purchases over the years; she loves quality, good design, lovely colours. As her two sons have grown up, they have taken books, cds, music and Richmond Irish sausages back with them at the end of their holiday .... oh and some Irn Bru, Scotland's other national drink!!

Mary quite often replenishes her wardrobe in Scotland - again because she likes to find clothes which are different to what her colleagues wear. This year she's returning with some sweatshirts, some M&S underwear (well, doesn't everyone!?) and a jacket. She also treated herself to some jewellery - and I think that was what provoked my thoughts of Christmas. This year, Mary bought earrings - she's adding to a set she started to collect a couple of years ago.

Do I have a Christmas wish list?? - well, yes - I'd love someone to do a "house laundry" on me and chuck out all the things I have kept because of sentimental reasons. Perhaps I don't mean - chuck out; I really mean that they should be recycled via a charity shop or auction. But I do need to let go of a lot of stuff which is cluttering up the house, reminiscent of a Victorian parlour.

That, of course, will leave a little more room for some new jewellery! Can't let my little sister beat me, can I!

M

Secret blogging passions: Rick Segel, Women and a Coyote

Don't you just love it when someone puts together a blog which is informative, interesting and an easy read! Well, one of my top ten bloggers is Rick Segel.
According to his web site -

Wowing audiences worldwide with genuinely entertaining humor and up-to-the-minute business savvy, Rick's retail sales presentations entertain, inform, and motivate. His reputation for transforming your meeting into an exciting, insightful & highly memorable event is widely acknowledged as the best in the business.

I especially like this assessment of how to tackle marketing to women.

Here's a blog entry about customer service (or lack of it!)

And finally, this entry tells the story of one enterprising store owner and a coyote!

Till next time
M

When did you last change your underwear?

When did you last change your underwear?

We all have our little foibles - mine is to change underwear every day. This is part of my daily routine and I feel uncomfortable if I miss a day because of extraordinary circumstances. I don't suppose I'm alone in that. So why is it that I don't keep a closer eye on something else which is probably far more important to my own wellbeing and that of friends, families and total strangers??

"Yuck", I hear you say - "Is your hygiene routine so poor that you're allowing an epidemic to spread through the .??..."

Well, you know, I have another hygiene routine which I will have to improve on. Did you know that there are businesses being built on my lack of vigilance. .... Online businesses, that is.

How so?

Several years ago, I designed my first web page. At that time, web guest books were all the rage. I added one to my web site - and, sure enough, people started leaving lovely comments about my terrific-looking site. Over time, I forgot to check the guest book to see if it was being abused. The last time I looked, sure enough it was full of links to stuff that I wouldn't mention to .... Hugh Heffner or MataHari.

Surfing round the internet, I come across loads of web sites which have old versions of blogs, guestbooks, content management systems; I'll bet the owners of these sites wouldn't begin to imagine that there could be security holes in their sites or that someone could have found a way to add links to web sites which then re-direct to gambling or porn sites. I came across a post on a forum which claims that " Google Incapable of Eradicating OR now supporting Black-Hat ?" and continues

This guy is making a mockery of Google with his illegal redirects using server NEVTAKT.INFO. All of the sites below are using this server to redirect (usually to Poker Site MANSION.COM). This spammer formerly used SEOEXP.INFO as his redirect server.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are potentially millions of old web sites with insecure scripts; there are countless other sites taking advantage of folks' irresponsible attitude to their sites. Web hosts, search engines and domain registrars try to keep abreast of this problem - but even they have limited resources to tackle problems like this. This is partly because sites taking advantage of us are run by people who may have developed scripts to search out and infect old web sites. There is enough money in the business they are generating to be able to pay people to find new sites to infect or to find new ways to infect sites they already know about.

So, why do we need a new hygiene routine? Well, if we were to remove, delete or update every single instance of out of date, insecure scripts on the internet, that would clean up some of the problems we are seeing today. Then, as a weekly routine, keeping an eye on any scripts installed on a web site (and keeping a keen eye on web logs to see what sites are bringing traffic and what error messages are showing) we will do our bit to stop people stealing our web space, our bandwidth, our reputations - and we'll maybe keep our underwear clean!

How secure are your PHP scripts?

This is a quick note to suggest that if you are running web sites using php scripts, you should regularly (weekly at least) check to see if there are any security upgrades for the scripts. This can be fairly straightforward if your script was loaded using fantastico in a hosting control panel - or fairly laborious if you uploaded the script yourself.

Why?

Well, php scripting doesn't seem to be as secure as cgi/perl scripts - and hackers use known backdoors to scripts to inject all sorts of malicious content into your site. I saw a recent example where people were being redirected from an innocent and innocuous site to sites promoting gambling - and worse.

It might not have been so bad if the redirect was to a genuine, well regulated site; however, the real problem with these redirects is that the end site might only exist to collect your credit card details.

So, please keep scripts up to date and make sure you change your web hosting passwords regularly as well. If you do install scripts on your web site, unless they go into the root directory, you should try to choose directory names which are more difficult to guess so that your site is harder to find by someone wanting to hack an insecure script.

Keep safe!

Margaret

Multiple Income Streams - the controversy

How many times do you look around and find a friend or neighbour who seems to be wallowing in cash? Do you stop and say to yourself "How did Mr XXX get that money?"

Obviously there will be some people who manage their existing income well; who spend a cent where others will spend a dollar; there are folks who will supplement their income from illegal activities; but then there are the entrepreneurs who will look at opportunities to easily earn an extra nickel or two to supplement their normal salary.

I regularly read the contributions on the Tony Blake Discussion Forum - and came across this post where Tony said that he was earning $5/day approximately from the adsense ads on his forum. That has escalated into Tony being berated by Dominic because of his admission.

When you check out the Blake Marketing Forum, though, you see that the adsense section is only a small part of how Tony uses his forum to earn money. It's well worth a look to see how he uses his forum to drive traffic to other ventures which will also earn him money.

Then, if you look around, you'll find that other discussion groups on the web are set up in the same way. Their owners quite often don't even need to make an appearance on them once they have set up the discussions - they have moderators who police the discussions for them. When you check out their sites, though, they are using them to drive traffic to their new products or affiliate products - and earn several times over from the visitors to their sites.

If you follow this business model, you'll start looking around for ways of earning an extra few dollars a day. Opportunities are all around; you just have to take action.

Best
Margaret

New Google Service - Broadband Services

1st April 2007

Sick of paying for broadband?...

Introducing Google TiSP (BETA), our new FREE in-home wireless broadband service. Sign up today and we'll send you your TiSP self-installation kit, which includes setup guide, fiber-optic cable, spindle, wireless router and installation CD.

Enjoy...

http://www.google.com/tisp/

Innovative, huh!

Margaret

How To Monetize Your Blog More Effectively

So you've done the hard work...you've chosen the niche market that you are going to target, you've created the content that they'd be interested in, you've implemented your onpage and offpage search engine optimization and finally you've managed to establish your blog in it's market and are being rewarded by a steady flow of traffic from the search engines and other sources.

Now - Your BIG question is -

"How do you convert this steady flow of traffic into money"?

You will no doubt already be trying certain methods, an AdSense ad here and an affiliate link there, for example, but there's something new that I wanted to tell you about.

This "something new" will do three things for your blog:

1. It will instantly make it more profitable.

2. It will give it more keyword rich content pages which will give it more search engine rankings which will increase that "steady flow of traffic" and make it even more profitable.

3. It will give it another dimension further distinguishing it from its competitors whilst enhancing your visitors experience.

So what is this "something new"?

It's a clever piece of software called Build A Niche Store and what it does is enable you to instantly build an affiliate store made up of eBay's products and matched to your target niche.

This means that if you have a Golf blog, with Build A Niche Store you will be able to add all of eBay's golf products to it, and if you have an Antiques blog then you will be able to add all of eBay's antique items...you get the idea.

You simply install the script, choose your niche, press build and you automatically have your own niche specific affiliate store which updates automatically (Yes - NO data feeds!) and which:

1. Will generate money for you when one of your blog visitors buys an item through it.

2. Will give your blog hundreds or thousands (depending on your niche) content rich product pages which will get indexed in the search engines targeting keywords you would otherwise not be reaching.

3. Will add a shopping experience for your visitors.

It's truly a great piece of software and looks set to become all the rage in the coming year.

You can check out the official Build A Niche Store website where you'll find case studies and a live demo which is sure to get your creative juices flowing at the link below.

This one gets my thumbs up!

Click Here To Check Out Build A Niche Store

Latest video - in and around Argyll

This is the latest of my videos - some pictures I've taken in and around Helensburgh, Loch Lomond, Gareloch - and I hope you enjoy it!

My greatest fear

Here's my second attempt at posting a video to YouTube - you know what - it really wasn't too painful. The only thing I didn't understand was that YouTube have to process the video I recorded live on their site before it comes live. It took a few minutes for that to happen. Now that I've waited for a few minutes, both videos are there! Whoopeeeeeeee - what fun I am going to have with this.

Margaret