Hello to all!
Right, where are you at? Still not thought of anything, or even tried to? Nothing wrong with that at all. That way, you can fail miserably without breaking a sweat. It's true. So is this. You never know what you are capable of, if you don't at least try. After all Einstein had over 100 tries before he got the lightbulb invented, and he was thought to be brilliant.
Besides, it really is kind of fun to struggle sometimes. Most of the time, we make things so much tougher on ourselves than we have to. Mistakes are not failures. They are learning curves and nothing you will ever learn will teach you what mistakes can. As a matter of fact, if it comes to paying a fortune for some shiny new object which promises to do everything for you apart from tie your shoes, then what are you going to do when your book/ business takes a wrong turn? You will have no clue, because you didn't learn a few mistakes on your way there.
This is when the law of averages comes in. And there is nothing on earth that exists that this won't happen. A romance springs a leak when you see him/her with another of the opposite sex, although the stranger may be explained away, if you have not met any of the family yet. You are writing a book. Fine. you have all the characters worked out, but your story needs something more. You invent another character to take care of this and he/she runs off with the story. Don't believe it? You should. It's happened to me countless times. i have needed someone who is less nice/bad/whatever to bounce the others off, because, if I do that, then they remind me of a soft tennis ball being whacked into the stratosphere.
You suddenly find that you may have to pull into some small island where there is unrest. You take fright and decide you are not going to sail around the world after all. Just cover the so-called 'safe' areas. So what's the point in going at all. Although there may be unrest, the island may also be fantastic where the unrest isn't. So you deprive yourself of beauty, adventure and maybe a fine time. Oh well, fair enough.
Struggle is part of life. There is no way you can get away from it. But think of the rewards when you beat whatever it is that you are worried about. And you may get lucky too. The huge struggle that you envisioned may just be a small hiccup when you finally confront it.
So, why not just try? If Einstein was determined enough to keep going over 100 times, then surely you can try once or even three times.
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Monday, 28 January 2013
Next stage
Hello to all!
Life is slowly returning to what passes for normal around here. A few fences to mend or replace. A few branches to cut off properly. A few animals to find the owners of. Just another day. But all these things can be done. Thank the stars there are no PEOPLE to miss forever, as you can't replace them. No photo will ever do the real thing justice.
Anyway, I guess, it's over and now back to WORK Yeah, that dreaded word.
So you want to write a book / sail the world / change your job / find a boy- or girl-friend/ whatever. Well, let's get on with it then.
Last time, I wanted you to simply START. No nuts and bolts, just THINK about what you are going to do about this task. Well, let's advance today.
You have got your topic/ read your maps / decided what skills you need to update/ learn/ what type you want / whatever. NOW, having done the thinking, start writing down every thing you can think of about what you KNOW about your topic. Divide a piece of paper into two columns. Head one side positives. Head the other side negatives.
For instance: No character in a book should be all good, or all bad, and I am not talking about the crooked tooth description either. Give them real characters, not stereo-types. You looked at the maps of the seas and oceans you need to have to sail around the world. If you have any brains whatever, you wouldn't take a dinghy, would you? If you want to work in the field of nursing and you are a car mechanic, then you wouldn't go into someone's room to change an IV with a spanner. What do you need to do/learn to be a nurse? Do you want someone who is good with money and you, but looks like your friendly mutt? So do this. Just free-write. You may be surprised what comes out of your head.
Don't worry if this seems a long, drawn-out process. For the boy- or girl-friend process, it also helps if you draw up a chart for yourself also, and pick the characteristics of yours that you need balancing. Don't worry about the star sign either. remember, there are exceptions to every rule. :)
We will talk about the next stage soon. have fun with this. It isn't the end of the world if you don't come up with exactly what you think you need/ want. Sometimes our subconscious is smarter than our consciousness.
Life is slowly returning to what passes for normal around here. A few fences to mend or replace. A few branches to cut off properly. A few animals to find the owners of. Just another day. But all these things can be done. Thank the stars there are no PEOPLE to miss forever, as you can't replace them. No photo will ever do the real thing justice.
Anyway, I guess, it's over and now back to WORK Yeah, that dreaded word.
So you want to write a book / sail the world / change your job / find a boy- or girl-friend/ whatever. Well, let's get on with it then.
Last time, I wanted you to simply START. No nuts and bolts, just THINK about what you are going to do about this task. Well, let's advance today.
You have got your topic/ read your maps / decided what skills you need to update/ learn/ what type you want / whatever. NOW, having done the thinking, start writing down every thing you can think of about what you KNOW about your topic. Divide a piece of paper into two columns. Head one side positives. Head the other side negatives.
For instance: No character in a book should be all good, or all bad, and I am not talking about the crooked tooth description either. Give them real characters, not stereo-types. You looked at the maps of the seas and oceans you need to have to sail around the world. If you have any brains whatever, you wouldn't take a dinghy, would you? If you want to work in the field of nursing and you are a car mechanic, then you wouldn't go into someone's room to change an IV with a spanner. What do you need to do/learn to be a nurse? Do you want someone who is good with money and you, but looks like your friendly mutt? So do this. Just free-write. You may be surprised what comes out of your head.
Don't worry if this seems a long, drawn-out process. For the boy- or girl-friend process, it also helps if you draw up a chart for yourself also, and pick the characteristics of yours that you need balancing. Don't worry about the star sign either. remember, there are exceptions to every rule. :)
We will talk about the next stage soon. have fun with this. It isn't the end of the world if you don't come up with exactly what you think you need/ want. Sometimes our subconscious is smarter than our consciousness.
Saturday, 26 January 2013
part of a cyclone
Hello to all!
I was going to continue what I started doing, but decided to share my experiences of the last few days instead.
You see, we had a 'small' cyclone move down our coastline. Well, sort of, with a few deviations this way and that. Being a 'small' cyclone, no one worried particularly about it. Mistake Number One. It would only give us the minimum of rain, which was needed anyway. Mistake Number Two. The ground was so dry, it could do with a thorough drenching. Mistake Number Three.
When you look at it, it was going to be easy-peasy. Nothing much but a small rainstorm, really. Nothing at all to worry about.
That was, until it actually got here. You see all these news videos of other towns who have been visited, but, until you have been through even a part of it yourself, you have absolutely NO idea. that goes for everything - war, famine, drought, anything.
The rain started. No real dark clouds, no real noise, no really anything. Just the beginnings of a simple rain storm. I have no idea when it dawned on me this was not just an ordinary storm. Maybe it was when leaves started flying past the window. Or the washing from the line. Or my dog, howling from her perch on the steps.(A German Shepherd, she is too big to have inside, especially with my daughter's cats, but, since she was a tiny pup she has claimed that particular stair as hers exclusively, even though she was allowed in then), or my horses, suddenly running for the shed.
We had been overrun in the house by ants for weeks. Now, there wasn't an ant in sight. Who says insects are stupid?
Like an idiot, I opened a door, thankfully one on the other side to where I thought the rain was coming from. I got soaked within five seconds. The rain was running horizontal, something I had never seen before in my life.
Then the wind came. And it came fast and hard. The rain was still sheeting horizontally, but now the wind pushed it through every hole it could find. It didn't rip anything off, apart from a few large branches in the yard, but, for the first time in fifty years of standing, the ceiling leaked, great blisters of water that didn't burst. We could no longer see the dog, although she was only a metre away, determined not to go down the shed or under the house, or on the patio.
The power went. And it stayed went for 36 hours. And that was the most worrying, annoying part of the whole thing, all 48 hours worth of it. No power. Not for the television, although that drove my husband mad. No Internet, although that drove my daughter stir-crazy. That and not being able to go anywhere.
No. None of that. The thing that annoyed me the most? Not being able to make a cup of tea when I wanted one. The storm had gone, leaving bits of mess to clean up. And no cup of tea.
Isn't it funny how the smallest things can suddenly mean so much?
I was going to continue what I started doing, but decided to share my experiences of the last few days instead.
You see, we had a 'small' cyclone move down our coastline. Well, sort of, with a few deviations this way and that. Being a 'small' cyclone, no one worried particularly about it. Mistake Number One. It would only give us the minimum of rain, which was needed anyway. Mistake Number Two. The ground was so dry, it could do with a thorough drenching. Mistake Number Three.
When you look at it, it was going to be easy-peasy. Nothing much but a small rainstorm, really. Nothing at all to worry about.
That was, until it actually got here. You see all these news videos of other towns who have been visited, but, until you have been through even a part of it yourself, you have absolutely NO idea. that goes for everything - war, famine, drought, anything.
The rain started. No real dark clouds, no real noise, no really anything. Just the beginnings of a simple rain storm. I have no idea when it dawned on me this was not just an ordinary storm. Maybe it was when leaves started flying past the window. Or the washing from the line. Or my dog, howling from her perch on the steps.(A German Shepherd, she is too big to have inside, especially with my daughter's cats, but, since she was a tiny pup she has claimed that particular stair as hers exclusively, even though she was allowed in then), or my horses, suddenly running for the shed.
We had been overrun in the house by ants for weeks. Now, there wasn't an ant in sight. Who says insects are stupid?
Like an idiot, I opened a door, thankfully one on the other side to where I thought the rain was coming from. I got soaked within five seconds. The rain was running horizontal, something I had never seen before in my life.
Then the wind came. And it came fast and hard. The rain was still sheeting horizontally, but now the wind pushed it through every hole it could find. It didn't rip anything off, apart from a few large branches in the yard, but, for the first time in fifty years of standing, the ceiling leaked, great blisters of water that didn't burst. We could no longer see the dog, although she was only a metre away, determined not to go down the shed or under the house, or on the patio.
The power went. And it stayed went for 36 hours. And that was the most worrying, annoying part of the whole thing, all 48 hours worth of it. No power. Not for the television, although that drove my husband mad. No Internet, although that drove my daughter stir-crazy. That and not being able to go anywhere.
No. None of that. The thing that annoyed me the most? Not being able to make a cup of tea when I wanted one. The storm had gone, leaving bits of mess to clean up. And no cup of tea.
Isn't it funny how the smallest things can suddenly mean so much?
Thursday, 24 January 2013
starting
Hello to all!
Okay. yesterday, I talked about having to do a dreaded word: WORK. Funny how that word draws all sorts of nasty connotations, but it is a fact of life. You work to breathe - all sorts of muscles and ribs work without your noticing or giving them permission to do so.
So, enough of that. I hope you have got the message: without some input of yours (i.e. WORK), you will not get anywhere. EVER. It's that simple, or that complicated, if you want to make it so.
Good. On to the nuts and bolts. Next thing is: Choose WHAT you want to do. One more step.
You want to write a book/ sail the world/change your job/find a boy- or girl- friend/whatever. Okay. That's great. That's another small step.
NOW comes a harder step. BREAK that big step into a set of VERY SMALL movements. If you want to writer a book, pick a topic. If you want to sail the world, look at maps of sailing routes. Change your job? Evaluate your skills. Do they need to be updated to go get another job? Most do these days. But, for now, just find which skills will need to be updated. Find a boy-or girl-friend? What TYPE of them do you want?
Right. That's your homework for now. Nothing else. Not a thing. Just seed the idea. Otherwise, you will be overwhelmed before you start. Use pad and pencil to actually WRITE these ideas down. Once you have them out of your head and in sight, they exist. So, only do that for now.
Then put the whole thing out of your mind for a day or so. Then come back to it. I'll be waiting for you. :)
Okay. yesterday, I talked about having to do a dreaded word: WORK. Funny how that word draws all sorts of nasty connotations, but it is a fact of life. You work to breathe - all sorts of muscles and ribs work without your noticing or giving them permission to do so.
So, enough of that. I hope you have got the message: without some input of yours (i.e. WORK), you will not get anywhere. EVER. It's that simple, or that complicated, if you want to make it so.
Good. On to the nuts and bolts. Next thing is: Choose WHAT you want to do. One more step.
You want to write a book/ sail the world/change your job/find a boy- or girl- friend/whatever. Okay. That's great. That's another small step.
NOW comes a harder step. BREAK that big step into a set of VERY SMALL movements. If you want to writer a book, pick a topic. If you want to sail the world, look at maps of sailing routes. Change your job? Evaluate your skills. Do they need to be updated to go get another job? Most do these days. But, for now, just find which skills will need to be updated. Find a boy-or girl-friend? What TYPE of them do you want?
Right. That's your homework for now. Nothing else. Not a thing. Just seed the idea. Otherwise, you will be overwhelmed before you start. Use pad and pencil to actually WRITE these ideas down. Once you have them out of your head and in sight, they exist. So, only do that for now.
Then put the whole thing out of your mind for a day or so. Then come back to it. I'll be waiting for you. :)
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
What you have to do
Hello to all!
Yesterday, I talked about irritating emails from ONE person, despite how you get them. Today, I want to talk about a dirty word for some of you: WORK.
There is no magic potion, bullet, carpet or anything that will take the place of WORK. You simply cannot go into Internet Marketing, without doing some work. It doesn't work that way.
Yes, you can waste your money on the next thing, old or not, that comes around, promising the world. Fine, it may do something for you. But NOT if you do not invest some WORK and TIME into it. Nothing on God's earth or under it works that way, I am very sorry to say. By all means, throw your money away, especially if you have none in the first place, but you will still not find that little green man under a four leaf clover who is going to grant you three wishes. After all, he WORKS very hard at NOT being found.
There are sometimes things that fall into place very quickly like dominoes falling, when you put a little bit of effort into whatever you are doing. Internet Marketing is one of them.
I think, personally, the best advice I have ever seen come from ANY IM expert is: Do not get rid of your day job until you have got your system at least running. This includes if you have a pile of money saved to back you up. Most of us, unfortunately, do not have that luxury. So, even if you burn the candle at both ends, work your day time, bitch about it if you must to all and sundry( but out of the boss's earshot!) and use whatever spare time that you can scrape, scrimp and steal from your day to build on your business.
Even writing one 500 word article for your blog or your business should only take you 3/4 hour, max. Use free writing. Sit down and just go with the flow, as it may be. I have mentioned this before. At least try out free-writing. It a very simple. just sit down and write/type for a specified time. It may come as gibberish for the first minute, while rusty gears get moving again, but it does work. In all the junk that comes, you will find some good stuff. You may even be surprised at how much you can write in say, 10 minutes.
Do not go any longer than 10 minutes. Ever. That seems to be the amount of time the sub-conscious 'throws-up' anything useful before it needs a rest. Use a timer. You can buy cheap kitchen timers everywhere, and set it for 5 or 20 minutes. Then just type/write for that time, even if you have to break off when the bell goes.
It may sound tiresome and not what you expect to be told. But i cannot emphasise this enough. You must do SOME work. The only way you are going to become a millionaire overnight is win Lotto. Or buy an online business that is already making millions. And even then you need to do something to keep it that way.
This is the most honest thing you can ever be told. You MUST work. There is no way around it.
Yesterday, I talked about irritating emails from ONE person, despite how you get them. Today, I want to talk about a dirty word for some of you: WORK.
There is no magic potion, bullet, carpet or anything that will take the place of WORK. You simply cannot go into Internet Marketing, without doing some work. It doesn't work that way.
Yes, you can waste your money on the next thing, old or not, that comes around, promising the world. Fine, it may do something for you. But NOT if you do not invest some WORK and TIME into it. Nothing on God's earth or under it works that way, I am very sorry to say. By all means, throw your money away, especially if you have none in the first place, but you will still not find that little green man under a four leaf clover who is going to grant you three wishes. After all, he WORKS very hard at NOT being found.
There are sometimes things that fall into place very quickly like dominoes falling, when you put a little bit of effort into whatever you are doing. Internet Marketing is one of them.
I think, personally, the best advice I have ever seen come from ANY IM expert is: Do not get rid of your day job until you have got your system at least running. This includes if you have a pile of money saved to back you up. Most of us, unfortunately, do not have that luxury. So, even if you burn the candle at both ends, work your day time, bitch about it if you must to all and sundry( but out of the boss's earshot!) and use whatever spare time that you can scrape, scrimp and steal from your day to build on your business.
Even writing one 500 word article for your blog or your business should only take you 3/4 hour, max. Use free writing. Sit down and just go with the flow, as it may be. I have mentioned this before. At least try out free-writing. It a very simple. just sit down and write/type for a specified time. It may come as gibberish for the first minute, while rusty gears get moving again, but it does work. In all the junk that comes, you will find some good stuff. You may even be surprised at how much you can write in say, 10 minutes.
Do not go any longer than 10 minutes. Ever. That seems to be the amount of time the sub-conscious 'throws-up' anything useful before it needs a rest. Use a timer. You can buy cheap kitchen timers everywhere, and set it for 5 or 20 minutes. Then just type/write for that time, even if you have to break off when the bell goes.
It may sound tiresome and not what you expect to be told. But i cannot emphasise this enough. You must do SOME work. The only way you are going to become a millionaire overnight is win Lotto. Or buy an online business that is already making millions. And even then you need to do something to keep it that way.
This is the most honest thing you can ever be told. You MUST work. There is no way around it.
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
affiliates and spamming - is it done?
Hello to all!
May I ask: What is your definition of spam? Is it receiving one email per day from one person? Or finding loads of emails every day from supposedly different marketers? Then you discover, when you really decide to dig into where they come from, that they are ALL from the same marketer, although he/she may be behind affiliates?
I'm afraid this happens to annoy me. I know: You must have different streams to make some money; that I also know. But, if I join one person's list, this does not give them the right to hand out my email hell, west and crooked to anyone else, even if it is a starving affiliate to get them started. And, no matter that
I also know, human beings are the laziest creatures on the face of the earth. Don't reinvent the wheel, blah, blah,blah. But you do not have to turn into lemmings either. You have no idea how infuriating this is, or maybe you do. But this approach is liable to end BOTH of you wiped from someone's Email list.
Please, people, when you get started, DO NOT feeds your affiliates any or part of your lists. It gives affiliates a bad name indeed, as well as you. Okay, you want to help others, which is fine. But don't think that others will appreciate a pile of affiliates almost spamming, in order to get one order. With me, it does not work.
I consider, if you have affiliates, THEY can find their own clients. really, they should. Like baby birds who follow their mother around, squeaking and waiting for her to drop a titbit into open jaws. Sooner or later, Mum gets sick of this and flies off, leaving the baby to fend for itself.
This is what you should do with your affiliates. By all means, pay them what they are worth, or come up with. But make them earn it, not ride on your shoulders or program. It doesn't really take long to put together a report( short and sweet) on anything related to the product, and put it out there for anyone to grab. You will get far more trust this way, and build your list honestly.
If you have to, buy some PLR relating to the product or service, alter it a little bit( I know, I know, work!) and put it out. Using straight-out PRL is just not the done thing though. Half an hour's work with one piece of PLR will grab attention far faster then if you simply slap it out as is.
There are millions of potential buyers. They also know that there are potentially millions of marketers, so they may just check around. After all, if you want fresh produce, you will quite likely shop around for the freshest and cheapest, won't you? And if they see the same PLR as is one several wide-spread websites, then they may decided not to buy from those sites ever again, because they know they will only be getting someone who is only interested in money, and that is the last impression you should give them.
May I ask: What is your definition of spam? Is it receiving one email per day from one person? Or finding loads of emails every day from supposedly different marketers? Then you discover, when you really decide to dig into where they come from, that they are ALL from the same marketer, although he/she may be behind affiliates?
I'm afraid this happens to annoy me. I know: You must have different streams to make some money; that I also know. But, if I join one person's list, this does not give them the right to hand out my email hell, west and crooked to anyone else, even if it is a starving affiliate to get them started. And, no matter that
I also know, human beings are the laziest creatures on the face of the earth. Don't reinvent the wheel, blah, blah,blah. But you do not have to turn into lemmings either. You have no idea how infuriating this is, or maybe you do. But this approach is liable to end BOTH of you wiped from someone's Email list.
Please, people, when you get started, DO NOT feeds your affiliates any or part of your lists. It gives affiliates a bad name indeed, as well as you. Okay, you want to help others, which is fine. But don't think that others will appreciate a pile of affiliates almost spamming, in order to get one order. With me, it does not work.
I consider, if you have affiliates, THEY can find their own clients. really, they should. Like baby birds who follow their mother around, squeaking and waiting for her to drop a titbit into open jaws. Sooner or later, Mum gets sick of this and flies off, leaving the baby to fend for itself.
This is what you should do with your affiliates. By all means, pay them what they are worth, or come up with. But make them earn it, not ride on your shoulders or program. It doesn't really take long to put together a report( short and sweet) on anything related to the product, and put it out there for anyone to grab. You will get far more trust this way, and build your list honestly.
If you have to, buy some PLR relating to the product or service, alter it a little bit( I know, I know, work!) and put it out. Using straight-out PRL is just not the done thing though. Half an hour's work with one piece of PLR will grab attention far faster then if you simply slap it out as is.
There are millions of potential buyers. They also know that there are potentially millions of marketers, so they may just check around. After all, if you want fresh produce, you will quite likely shop around for the freshest and cheapest, won't you? And if they see the same PLR as is one several wide-spread websites, then they may decided not to buy from those sites ever again, because they know they will only be getting someone who is only interested in money, and that is the last impression you should give them.
Sunday, 20 January 2013
Time to try
Hello to all!
Today, let's start! Start what? ANYTHING! ANYTHING AT ALL TO START YOU MOVING!
Check out a few sites where you might want to try a blog on. Don't sign up, just have a look at them, get the feel for them. If you don't like the way they feel to you, choose another one. If you can write an email, you can write a blog.
It's half-way through the first month of the year already. Sound dramatic? Yeah, I thought so. So what? Well, SO WHAT is this: that's at least a week when you have sat on your posterior and procrastinated and you won't get it back, no matter what you do.
So get your act together and use this week, starting from now, to at least do this one tiny thing. Cut a minute from your Facebook chatting to friends and go look. Start with the free ones, there's plenty of them. This one is great if you haven't a budget at all, and many of you don't, or, if you do, you are chasing bright shiny objects which usually only make the owners rich. That is not knocking them; they need to live too, but they have also gone through all the problems and catches before they got where they are. And NONE of them got rich overnight. Unless you win Lotto or a huge payout from somewhere, that just is not going to happen.
And a week DOES NOT have to start on Sunday or more commonly Monday. Get that out of your head. A week is a week is a week, no matter how you look at it. It does not matter which day you want to start something - a diet, exercise, whatever. Six days from Tuesday, Friday will still be a week in anyone's book.
So, just get started. Remember: FAILURE IS ALWAYS THERE, IF YOU DON"T EVEN TRY. And failure is never failure when you have tried. It is experience!
Today, let's start! Start what? ANYTHING! ANYTHING AT ALL TO START YOU MOVING!
Check out a few sites where you might want to try a blog on. Don't sign up, just have a look at them, get the feel for them. If you don't like the way they feel to you, choose another one. If you can write an email, you can write a blog.
It's half-way through the first month of the year already. Sound dramatic? Yeah, I thought so. So what? Well, SO WHAT is this: that's at least a week when you have sat on your posterior and procrastinated and you won't get it back, no matter what you do.
So get your act together and use this week, starting from now, to at least do this one tiny thing. Cut a minute from your Facebook chatting to friends and go look. Start with the free ones, there's plenty of them. This one is great if you haven't a budget at all, and many of you don't, or, if you do, you are chasing bright shiny objects which usually only make the owners rich. That is not knocking them; they need to live too, but they have also gone through all the problems and catches before they got where they are. And NONE of them got rich overnight. Unless you win Lotto or a huge payout from somewhere, that just is not going to happen.
And a week DOES NOT have to start on Sunday or more commonly Monday. Get that out of your head. A week is a week is a week, no matter how you look at it. It does not matter which day you want to start something - a diet, exercise, whatever. Six days from Tuesday, Friday will still be a week in anyone's book.
So, just get started. Remember: FAILURE IS ALWAYS THERE, IF YOU DON"T EVEN TRY. And failure is never failure when you have tried. It is experience!
Saturday, 19 January 2013
what have you done with your imagination?
Hello to all!
I hope you are enjoying the day/night or whatever time it is where you are. For me, it is disgustingly hot and 2AM in the morning, not usually a time I like being out of bed. Oh, admittedly, when I was a bit younger, this witching hour was okay. No, I wasn't partying either. My job kept me up :)
What time of the day is yours? The time when you absolutely love? The minute your other half is at work and the kids are at school and the house is all yours and the cat's for a whole 6-8 hours? Yeah, those days were good too, but my kids are long grown and gone now. Well, sort of gone :) So now what do you do?
I loved ANY time I could squeeze to do some writing. Any sort of writing. Or being like Prince Charles and talking to my beloved plants. Even then, as a very young adult, I would tell them all sorts of strange things from my imagination, when I couldn't be bothered writing it down, but it demanded some sort of expression. The weird part is: some of those pieces come back even now, demanding I take notice of them.
So, these days, I often take just 10 minutes, by a kitchen timer, to sit and let whatever come into my mind. As it does, I don't shift it out, unless it is a mad pulse of panic thoughts - I'm sure you know the ones I mean - why does Sarah tear her clothes so often? Why won't the dog shut up? (Shame on you for being so lazy as to not find out why he/she is barking and just yelling at it: you know that is EXERCISE!) - those sorts of mundane things and really look for what your mind throws up.
Train your mind to do this every time you have ANY interesting thought. You know - two flies circling a cup. But they aren't ordinary flies. No, they are two special guards who have been sent out to bomb the cup because it is the home of an evil elf ..... Hey, that ain't bad. Maybe I'll play with that myself sooner or later.
The point that I am trying to make is MAKE some time anywhere, day or night, and let your imagination loose. As adults, we cram so much into our minds, that our imaginations are squashed and forgotten. Can you remember as a child the crazy things you could imagine? If you can't, then I am terribly sorry for you. I wasn't an only child either; I had 4 siblings, so wipe that psychoanalysis out of your mind. :) I simply liked what could come out of my head, scary, pleasant or not.
So take the time to get to know your imagination again :). You'd be surprised at the friend it can be.
I hope you are enjoying the day/night or whatever time it is where you are. For me, it is disgustingly hot and 2AM in the morning, not usually a time I like being out of bed. Oh, admittedly, when I was a bit younger, this witching hour was okay. No, I wasn't partying either. My job kept me up :)
What time of the day is yours? The time when you absolutely love? The minute your other half is at work and the kids are at school and the house is all yours and the cat's for a whole 6-8 hours? Yeah, those days were good too, but my kids are long grown and gone now. Well, sort of gone :) So now what do you do?
I loved ANY time I could squeeze to do some writing. Any sort of writing. Or being like Prince Charles and talking to my beloved plants. Even then, as a very young adult, I would tell them all sorts of strange things from my imagination, when I couldn't be bothered writing it down, but it demanded some sort of expression. The weird part is: some of those pieces come back even now, demanding I take notice of them.
So, these days, I often take just 10 minutes, by a kitchen timer, to sit and let whatever come into my mind. As it does, I don't shift it out, unless it is a mad pulse of panic thoughts - I'm sure you know the ones I mean - why does Sarah tear her clothes so often? Why won't the dog shut up? (Shame on you for being so lazy as to not find out why he/she is barking and just yelling at it: you know that is EXERCISE!) - those sorts of mundane things and really look for what your mind throws up.
Train your mind to do this every time you have ANY interesting thought. You know - two flies circling a cup. But they aren't ordinary flies. No, they are two special guards who have been sent out to bomb the cup because it is the home of an evil elf ..... Hey, that ain't bad. Maybe I'll play with that myself sooner or later.
The point that I am trying to make is MAKE some time anywhere, day or night, and let your imagination loose. As adults, we cram so much into our minds, that our imaginations are squashed and forgotten. Can you remember as a child the crazy things you could imagine? If you can't, then I am terribly sorry for you. I wasn't an only child either; I had 4 siblings, so wipe that psychoanalysis out of your mind. :) I simply liked what could come out of my head, scary, pleasant or not.
So take the time to get to know your imagination again :). You'd be surprised at the friend it can be.
Wednesday, 16 January 2013
Problems with writing.
Hello to all!
So, have you decided what is your passion? But there are some problems with just writing when you get down to it. I love writing. Adore it. But there are also some elements of it that I dislike intensely.Grammar is one of them. Spelling is another. Unfortunately though, you MUST HAVE these in order to allow people to read your words comfortably.
Imagine you are driving on a lovely, smooth road. Or that's what it appears to be. Then you hit a small unexpected rise on the road itself, or worse, a large pothole. What happens? You get shook up, and your calm and peace are jolted, as well as your good self. You continue on, but the pleasant feeling tends to evaporate for a while.
This is the feeling that your reader, no matter if they are children, will get if your spelling or your grammar are off. If you are into Internet marketing, for your own sake, ensure that these two elements of writing are perfect. You may be a lousy word-smith, but you don't have to make it worse for yourself. There are some who will deliberately go out of their way to find these mistakes in your writing, whether it be sales copy or a novel.
And, believe it or not, they WILL make you pay for those run-of-the- mill mistakes. They will leave you bad reviews, consider your products second-rate, so not worth buying, and numerous other things, none of them good for your business. If your main work is as a writer, then you will lose clients quickly.
One of the best information products you can buy is a spelling guide. Computers do have them installed, but you need to know the small differences if you are writing for an American English reader or an English English one. This can be a subject in itself, but you MUST get it right, or you will have many rejections, because people are people with funny little quirks.
I am planning on writing a guide to the differences, but I have no idea when. It is stacking up as a big work, so I'll be doing it in sections.:) But, for now, just train yourself to check every sentence. If your words are great, but your spelling and grammar are not, then you have lost a potential client straight-up.
And that should be enough to get you motivated to do this.
So, have you decided what is your passion? But there are some problems with just writing when you get down to it. I love writing. Adore it. But there are also some elements of it that I dislike intensely.Grammar is one of them. Spelling is another. Unfortunately though, you MUST HAVE these in order to allow people to read your words comfortably.
Imagine you are driving on a lovely, smooth road. Or that's what it appears to be. Then you hit a small unexpected rise on the road itself, or worse, a large pothole. What happens? You get shook up, and your calm and peace are jolted, as well as your good self. You continue on, but the pleasant feeling tends to evaporate for a while.
This is the feeling that your reader, no matter if they are children, will get if your spelling or your grammar are off. If you are into Internet marketing, for your own sake, ensure that these two elements of writing are perfect. You may be a lousy word-smith, but you don't have to make it worse for yourself. There are some who will deliberately go out of their way to find these mistakes in your writing, whether it be sales copy or a novel.
And, believe it or not, they WILL make you pay for those run-of-the- mill mistakes. They will leave you bad reviews, consider your products second-rate, so not worth buying, and numerous other things, none of them good for your business. If your main work is as a writer, then you will lose clients quickly.
One of the best information products you can buy is a spelling guide. Computers do have them installed, but you need to know the small differences if you are writing for an American English reader or an English English one. This can be a subject in itself, but you MUST get it right, or you will have many rejections, because people are people with funny little quirks.
I am planning on writing a guide to the differences, but I have no idea when. It is stacking up as a big work, so I'll be doing it in sections.:) But, for now, just train yourself to check every sentence. If your words are great, but your spelling and grammar are not, then you have lost a potential client straight-up.
And that should be enough to get you motivated to do this.
Friday, 11 January 2013
Lost time
Hello to all!
Isn't it amazing? You think you have it all wrapped up and it suddenly flies apart like using cheap sticky tape. Oh well, just as well I am only two days past my usual deadline for resolutions. No great harm done, I suppose. But if you have done the same thing with something you are passionate about starting/getting really stuck into this year, then it can really make a mess of things.
Two days isn't really all that big a miss, if you think about it. But, in the world of getting an online income up and running, it can add up to years. In those two days, you could have written a short report( 7-15 pages) and got it uploaded, or whatever you wanted to do with it. You may even have been able(gasp!) to write 2. That's 2 potential streams of income that you have not even started. These reports only need to be things that are ONE answer to ONE question. They do not have to be 'Pick your answer from 50,000 answers, nor do they have to attempt to answer any more than one.
Say your question is 'How To Start Your Day Right". This is before you even get out of bed, but your eyes are open. Write a report on that usually short window of time between the actual opening of the eyes and the putting one foot on the floor. It is surprising just how many things can happen in that short time, so cover that. You don't even need to go into the bathroom first, this is all before then. Is it easier to just think what you need to do for the day and whether you have it all together before you get up? Or must you REALLY grab that coffee/tea first even if the house is falling down on top of you?
These little things should be full of facts and no fluff. People want quick answers and they do not wish to dig through miles of fluff just to find one nugget. So make them short and very sweet, even if the topic is a pain. We all have things like that in our lives that we really want help with, so supply it for one particular person, and you will find that there are many more where they came from.
After all, no man is an island!!!!!
Isn't it amazing? You think you have it all wrapped up and it suddenly flies apart like using cheap sticky tape. Oh well, just as well I am only two days past my usual deadline for resolutions. No great harm done, I suppose. But if you have done the same thing with something you are passionate about starting/getting really stuck into this year, then it can really make a mess of things.
Two days isn't really all that big a miss, if you think about it. But, in the world of getting an online income up and running, it can add up to years. In those two days, you could have written a short report( 7-15 pages) and got it uploaded, or whatever you wanted to do with it. You may even have been able(gasp!) to write 2. That's 2 potential streams of income that you have not even started. These reports only need to be things that are ONE answer to ONE question. They do not have to be 'Pick your answer from 50,000 answers, nor do they have to attempt to answer any more than one.
Say your question is 'How To Start Your Day Right". This is before you even get out of bed, but your eyes are open. Write a report on that usually short window of time between the actual opening of the eyes and the putting one foot on the floor. It is surprising just how many things can happen in that short time, so cover that. You don't even need to go into the bathroom first, this is all before then. Is it easier to just think what you need to do for the day and whether you have it all together before you get up? Or must you REALLY grab that coffee/tea first even if the house is falling down on top of you?
These little things should be full of facts and no fluff. People want quick answers and they do not wish to dig through miles of fluff just to find one nugget. So make them short and very sweet, even if the topic is a pain. We all have things like that in our lives that we really want help with, so supply it for one particular person, and you will find that there are many more where they came from.
After all, no man is an island!!!!!
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
passion -revisited
Hello to all!
Let's return to a post I wrote not so long ago. PASSION.
I asked what was YOUR definition of passion? Husband, maybe? Children? Of course. Gardening? Sewing? Something else? Whatever you can't live without, that is one of your passions, even if it is collecting stamps. I am not being rude about that. I have two sisters who were rabid about collecting stamps and one of them still is, although she complains she has very little time now and bitterly regrets the lack of it. As a child, I can remember being told to shut up and sit on the floor while this particular sister soaked and tweezed and stuck these stupid little pieces of paper into an album. Then the other sister developed a liking for photography and that was basically the end of that, as I was dragged like a doll from pillar to post, and set up in the most uncomfortable poses. Photography is NOT, shall we say, a passion of mine now.
Anyway, back to passion. If you are passionate about gardening, what exactly is the REAL part of gardening you love? Gardening, as a whole, is just too vague a term to use when you are writing, or searching for a niche you can fit into. For instance, I love creating things with words - books, articles, anything that is going to be read by anyone. But I create words items privately too, and these may never see the light of day. I have stories and bits and pieces around here on paper, which, every now and then, get pulled out from their boxes, looked at, shuddered about and get jammed back in to join the pile of ONE DAY, WHEN....
So narrow down your passion. You may love growing the colourful lettuces available now, for instance. But exactly HOW do you get them so sweet/tangy and lovely to look at? Maybe you can write a whole ebook on that topic? It is a specialized part of gardening that you may devote whole months to perfecting, and, although others have written on it, YOUR take is unique, so why not write about it? Don't forget, you do not have to write War And Peace again as length. You just have to write, with PASSION.
Let's return to a post I wrote not so long ago. PASSION.
I asked what was YOUR definition of passion? Husband, maybe? Children? Of course. Gardening? Sewing? Something else? Whatever you can't live without, that is one of your passions, even if it is collecting stamps. I am not being rude about that. I have two sisters who were rabid about collecting stamps and one of them still is, although she complains she has very little time now and bitterly regrets the lack of it. As a child, I can remember being told to shut up and sit on the floor while this particular sister soaked and tweezed and stuck these stupid little pieces of paper into an album. Then the other sister developed a liking for photography and that was basically the end of that, as I was dragged like a doll from pillar to post, and set up in the most uncomfortable poses. Photography is NOT, shall we say, a passion of mine now.
Anyway, back to passion. If you are passionate about gardening, what exactly is the REAL part of gardening you love? Gardening, as a whole, is just too vague a term to use when you are writing, or searching for a niche you can fit into. For instance, I love creating things with words - books, articles, anything that is going to be read by anyone. But I create words items privately too, and these may never see the light of day. I have stories and bits and pieces around here on paper, which, every now and then, get pulled out from their boxes, looked at, shuddered about and get jammed back in to join the pile of ONE DAY, WHEN....
So narrow down your passion. You may love growing the colourful lettuces available now, for instance. But exactly HOW do you get them so sweet/tangy and lovely to look at? Maybe you can write a whole ebook on that topic? It is a specialized part of gardening that you may devote whole months to perfecting, and, although others have written on it, YOUR take is unique, so why not write about it? Don't forget, you do not have to write War And Peace again as length. You just have to write, with PASSION.
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
keeping New Year's resolutions
Hello to all!
Well, the Big Day has been and gone already! Crazy, when you think of it. We spend roughly half the year wishing for the current year to end, planning to start a new diet/me routine/exercise/new hobby when the clock strikes 12 on the night of December 31st, being too tired, too hungover/too lazy to ruin a perfectly good day, whatever your excuse is. And so your resolutions disappear into thin air.
Isn't that what usually happens? Then you get to 2nd - 3rd January and think, hell, I wasn't really interested in that resolution anyway, so life continues as normal. Why this happens is always a source of intrigue to me, as I suffer badly from it as well.
The way I have been keeping resolutions, for the last five or so years anyway, no - I haven't given up making them! - is to ignore the first week of New Year, and start implementing my resolutions on the 7th or whatever is within 10 days of January 1st. And I don't, any more, make a list so high, a horse couldn't jump them. I realized, around the same time as I decided NOT to start my resolutions on January 1st, that if I got too ambitious, too greedy, too anything, then I was setting myself up for failure right from the go button.
So, I make 2 now. Just 2. Whatever is my main one for the year - write now, write more, trim my roses 4 times a year, and that is it. I write these on bright Post It notes and stick them on the side of the cupboard next to my monitor.( I have a tiny space where the monitor, computer, a desk and me fit that is about 3" X 3' and that holds everything!), and there they stay, right where every time I look at the monitor, my eyes slide sideways to those bright, bright, BRIGHT Post It notes. They get changed to another colour, equally as bright, several times a year when they look slightly dull or bedraggled. The roses even have dates to be done on, depending on the weather, and a time limit of ONE week.
When I have got these two resolutions under control, about three months into the year, then I look at another 2 resolutions. This also goes with the seasons, so I can chop and change. But I always keep following the first two as I add another one or two. That way, I can devote an entire year to any of the resolutions, and, if one isn't panning out, then I make a concentrated effort to ensure that its replacement has my full attention.
Sometimes this way of doing things builds on the first part. For instance, with the roses, a follow-on could be to fertilize them twice a year. Or mulch them. or whatever, including(sob!) replace them, if they have died, despite my care, and, as where I live, has very bad Blackspot and assorted other problems, including not much water, there are numerous reasons why the poor things sometimes struggle. Or they are simply a bad batch from where ever I bought them.
So, if your way has not worked for you before, maybe you'd like to try my way. And, if it fails, at least you can blame me, instead of yourself!
Well, the Big Day has been and gone already! Crazy, when you think of it. We spend roughly half the year wishing for the current year to end, planning to start a new diet/me routine/exercise/new hobby when the clock strikes 12 on the night of December 31st, being too tired, too hungover/too lazy to ruin a perfectly good day, whatever your excuse is. And so your resolutions disappear into thin air.
Isn't that what usually happens? Then you get to 2nd - 3rd January and think, hell, I wasn't really interested in that resolution anyway, so life continues as normal. Why this happens is always a source of intrigue to me, as I suffer badly from it as well.
The way I have been keeping resolutions, for the last five or so years anyway, no - I haven't given up making them! - is to ignore the first week of New Year, and start implementing my resolutions on the 7th or whatever is within 10 days of January 1st. And I don't, any more, make a list so high, a horse couldn't jump them. I realized, around the same time as I decided NOT to start my resolutions on January 1st, that if I got too ambitious, too greedy, too anything, then I was setting myself up for failure right from the go button.
So, I make 2 now. Just 2. Whatever is my main one for the year - write now, write more, trim my roses 4 times a year, and that is it. I write these on bright Post It notes and stick them on the side of the cupboard next to my monitor.( I have a tiny space where the monitor, computer, a desk and me fit that is about 3" X 3' and that holds everything!), and there they stay, right where every time I look at the monitor, my eyes slide sideways to those bright, bright, BRIGHT Post It notes. They get changed to another colour, equally as bright, several times a year when they look slightly dull or bedraggled. The roses even have dates to be done on, depending on the weather, and a time limit of ONE week.
When I have got these two resolutions under control, about three months into the year, then I look at another 2 resolutions. This also goes with the seasons, so I can chop and change. But I always keep following the first two as I add another one or two. That way, I can devote an entire year to any of the resolutions, and, if one isn't panning out, then I make a concentrated effort to ensure that its replacement has my full attention.
Sometimes this way of doing things builds on the first part. For instance, with the roses, a follow-on could be to fertilize them twice a year. Or mulch them. or whatever, including(sob!) replace them, if they have died, despite my care, and, as where I live, has very bad Blackspot and assorted other problems, including not much water, there are numerous reasons why the poor things sometimes struggle. Or they are simply a bad batch from where ever I bought them.
So, if your way has not worked for you before, maybe you'd like to try my way. And, if it fails, at least you can blame me, instead of yourself!
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