There I Was Ready To Launch And Suddenly...

I just HAD to visit the forum.

Great place to go, but some times I wish I hadn't read the excellent advice I get.

Here I was, ready to sort out the last two things left to do and I decide to log on to the forum and check my emails before I get cracking.

The mistake isn't in the reading of the advice, but in the timing.

My mistake was to do the "fun bts" before finishing the neccessities. And I should know better. I do know better.

Just goes to confirm that there is a difference between knowing and doing

So now, if you don't mind - I have a website to launch tomorrow night!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Jessica Rabbit & The Dreamweaver of Mizundastan

Today, I have learnt two things:

1. There must, without a shadow of a doubt, be people out there that can develop web pages a whole lot faster than me!

I mean, I have been spending most of this bank holiday weekend trying to get 3 pages to link together by the help of a form and some html.

Can I get all the parts to work together? at the same time? No!
Am I likely to be intimidated by 12 lines of text? Not unless it is on a decre absolute! ( and thankfully it is highly unlikely I'll EVER see one of those! )

2. When you let a rabbit loose in a big garden, it takes a long time, a strong heart, a fit body and a quick mind to catch it again!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Friday Progress - Have Your Say!

It feels like I should explain myself today.

 

You see, I used AC/DC & back in Black BEFORE Big Brother

stole the idea for the launch this evening.

 

I still use it in fact. I am playing Hells Bells at the

moment, which isn't something I get to do alot when I

work on my business. I work on it in the evenings, and

with a 19 month old son in the house, blasting out

proper heavvy rock after bed time is not a good idea.

 

Mind you he's slept through worse things.

 

Anyway, my back up to back in black should it become too

much of an issue is "what do you do for money honey".

which is quite apt i suppose, seeing that the site I am

going to put online with a domain and everything on Tuesday

is about money.

 

*******************PROGRESS*****************

 

As for my progress, well I must admit it's been quite a

busy week. Now that I have a launch date for my money

website I have launched 3 google campaigns instead.

Not that they have generated any more income.

 

I have also near completed a fast-start booklet to go

with my website where the only bits missing is setting

up all the website links correctly and pdf'ing it.

Time to create the content? About 3 1/2 hours.

It will be around 10-15 pages in it's final form.

 

It is targeted at those UK residents which have just

realised that their spending habbits are not related to what

they earn and that have no idea where to start saving money.

 

My biggest challenge this week has been to stay focussed on

making progress on the money website.

 

I am happy to go with the content I have created so far.

 

***********HAVE YOUR SAY!*******************

 

 

I have a challenge for you all for my targets over the

weekend:

- Which of the following things do I absolutely HAVE to finish

before the website is launched ( put on a site ):

 

1. The "sales page" ( this is how it is now, does it need

changing? )

 

2. Any bonuses? ( I don't have anything other than the

fast start booklet )

 

3. Setting up the sign up auto responder message properly

( as I am targeting the UK, does it matter if it isn't

double opt-in? I would really only send one automated

message from this responder anyway with the URL details

to the content - that was the plan anyway as... )

 

4. Setting up a "free mini course" autoresponder

( mind you I have no idea yet what to put in this course,

other than examples of what the website is about )

 

5. The Thank you page - currently this is the front

page of the content site.

 

6. Brain storm a domain name! ?

 

7. Anything else?

 

So, for the bank holiday weekend YOU get to tell me what

my targets should be!

 

And Come Tuesday night/ Wednesday morning, I'll let you

know what I aim to progress with in June.

 

I will experiment with setting monthly targets for the

next 2 months and if you want you can help me think of

weekly goals and tasks.

 

Cheers,

And have a happy Black Friday!

Jon

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.690 / Virus Database: 451 - Release Date: 22/05/2004

Not Entirely Solo

It's a good thing that my wife is as internet mad as I am.

These last few weeks I have found myself going WAY past my 10pm supposed time to stop and often working until past midnight - on a week night!

Am I more productive? Not really. But I don't feel like I am isolating myself from my family when she is in the office with me working away on her computer.

I may have forgotten to tell you this, but we have a home network, sharing the broadband connection.

So I am not entirely solo when I am sitting here , solopreneur - ing!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

A Lesson In Dire Marketing

Yeah.

No Spelling mistake.

Dire. And I mean it.

I won't embarrass the Guru in question as the first half of the conference call I attended this evening was interesting, if not a little predictable.

But getting used to the american hype is a serious culture shock!

There were 21 lessons he mentioned in that first hour and I will be detailing them here once I get the mind map typed up.

If I can be bothered.

I can't say I'd deprive you of much valuable information!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Almost Forgot You...

This evening I have spent being very productive.

I rang someone I wanted to ring about a possible business opportunity ( call me back any time Gary! and sorry for ringing so late! )

I've chatted to a really nice chap on msn about learning experiences and how I think TOO much learning can be a bad thing. It sort of followed on from a post I read on the UK hangout I mention in my links.

Basically, some times, I find that being exposed to NEW experiences can cause me to loose focus on what I SHOULD be doing. So based on that conversation, I removed myself from yet another HUNT for information & I decided to refocus a little.

After watching Gordon Ramsays Kitchen Hell of course. Dire TV but it is facinating to learn so many new swearwords!

But in the short time I have spent on my business tonight I have added sponsored links to 8 of the 48 pages of the website. I have created one full new tip, including a resource box - With sponsored links in them. And those sponsored links are a nightmare to dig out!!

But it has finally made me work on another site which my friends and family has been asking me to put together, which is a directory of all the companies I am affiliated with. If they are to spend money online they tell me they want me to have some of it in return.

And I launched another campaign.

Although I have still to sort out the pricelist for the garden offices...

And to write an introductory letter to the site.

And in all this frantic progress I almost forgot to write in my blog!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Goals, Google & A Solopreneur

This weekend has been remarkably productive.

I've started creating my next TWO products and I haven't even launched my first one yet.
They are related so it doesn't matter.

I have gotten closer to deciding which webhost to go with. Never mind the domain name. I'll pick one when I'm good and ready as a "good" domain name isn't something I am too bothered about.

Goalsetting - did you know that you can have many levels of goals? I had knowledge about it, but until recently have not had the belief or attitude required to apply it.

Now that I am over two months into this progress reporting, I am beginning to feel the need to set goals over varying periods of time.

For instance, I want to have my website launched on the 1st of June. That's one goal.
In the mean time I have tasks that has to be carried out to achieve that goal. So in order to progress on that End of month goal, I am beginning to feel the need for daily targets.

I also have an idea about where I want my webbusiness to be my the 1st of January next year. So that is another goal. For that one, I might need a subset of monthly targets, which are again broken down to weekly and daily tasks.

All this I know. My excuse? at the moment it's " Oh, I haven't got the software!" I know of a software that does what I want to do, but I ain't willing to pay for it.

It's a waste of money. Simply because I do not believe it will yield a return on the investment. Besides I have spreadsheets I can set it up in.

I also use spreadsheets for my google tracking, which is very useful, if not a little time consuming. But it does give me a very clear picture of how campaigns are performing.

google is doing about one third of my peak sales rate at the moment. This month is a "sober" month usually in retail anyway - why do you think you see all the sales? Have you ever seen Argos running a half price sale in October or November or early December? You might see one after the 7th of December if the early Christmas sales are slower than expected.

I digress.

If the weather is bad during the bank holiday and the half term, there will be an upswing over that time, before it tails off over the summer until about the last third of August and the end of the school holidays.

These are great months to take stock and ramp up for the forthcoming seasonal spending spree. Sales wise, unless it is for seasonal items ( Barbeque, garden, summer & sunshine related ) you'd invariably see a dip - especially online if the weather is good.

I might be a part time solopreneur but I am not alone.

Don't know why I said that. I ramble on. Had a great weekend in other words. And not only because I got lots done - but because I spent most of Saturday with my wife and son and the WHOLE day Sunday out and about in the Hampshire country side.

Made me remember why I do these things.

It also reminded me that I need to cut down on the mysteryshopping that I am doing as it invariably eats into our weekends, and usually it is poor pay for hard work anyway.

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

This Weeks Learning Experience

Here's a quick thought from a newbie at the game.

By the way, by newbie I mean I have no product of my own, or any website of my own.

In my quest to get at least my first product out the door by the end of this month, I hear again and again

" have a single purpose for your site" meaning each page must direct the visitor towards only ONE single preffered action. Or that's how I understand it anyway.

That action should be one of two: - make the visitor buy now - or capture their email address.

this observation relates to the second goal.

Once the website owner has my address, the single purpose goes out the window.

Holly Cotter being a case in point.

I don't know why I bother with her newsletter as it is SO long! I know for her the single purpose is "Make them Buy!", but she is trying to teach me 7 or 8 different things in each edition of her newsletter.

It would be SO much more interesting if it was concentrating on doing just ONE thing. I don't quite know what to expect from hollys newsletters when they arrive, so they usually get scanned, and then binned.

Martin Avis does something similar to Holly, in that there are a few different sections to his emails, but HIS I read.

Main reason? because his communicate "community". And besides, I get to LEARN something from them for FREE.

Some of these Guru's seem to be oblivious to the "loss Leader / free " concept some of the marketing strategists are such fans of.

So that was my Learning experience today...


Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Friday Progress

For those of you that expected me to do everything I set out to do -

You need to get to know me better.

My philosophy is about enjoying the journey.

There is a famous climber in the Norwegian climbing community who has about 250 climbing days a year - yet he has NEVER reached a peak!

He has a number of "first up the "X-" Face of X mountain", but where most climbers would continue to the summit, he stops when he has managed to learn something about his climbing technique, or his "inner demon" has been satisfied.

And then goes back down again.

for him, the only summit worth aiming for is perfection. So if a particular passage of his climbing route wasn't all that satisfying, he'd climb back down again until a point where he was happy with the climb, and then start up again.

He's known to have climbed the same 100 tall rock face every day, for 4 months, simply because it was such a challenge to find a "perfect" climbing experience.

And no, he didn't go to the top of that hill either. why?

" If I was there to enjoy the view, I wouldn't be showing it my back all the way up! i'd turn around and look at it"

I'm similar.
For now anyway. Not that I am aiming for perfection, just progress. And right now, I need to develop my mindset, and one of the learning obstacles I need to overcome, is finding out that what ever i try, it is only up to ME to increase my efficiency.

I am experimenting my way forward. I'm not sure you'll understand this, but rest assured, it works for me. Because my mindset is changing.

I've done the 7 money tips - which is more than I have EVER written in a single week.

I have NOT gotten the pricelist together. I did THINK about calling them, and I have made some progress on the site structure.

In summary, this week showed some progress but not as much as I had hoped.

For next week, I will split my goals down in two stages, and set myself some goals to achive this weekend, and some to achieve by next Friday.

Although, right now, I can't think of any goals...

hmmmmmmmm _ i'll post them later on my blog.

lastly,

I have made great progress with the google adwords, simply because of the tips in Peter Twists Teleconference the other week

In fact, if you follow this ( my affiliate ) link, you'll even see the testimonial I gave! :o)
http://www.internetmarketinglounge.com/ezGaffurl.php?offer=f2liv&pid=9

Oh, and don't buy the product - I'd rather you didn't learn as much as I did!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Set The Deadlines Sooner!

Thanks For the Comment Robert,

I have to consider your suggestion as it makes great sense.

The way I am working now, weekends see almost no activity at all from me, and Thursday & Friday see the bulk of my action!

So maybe you'll see another change in how I do my progress reporting...

For now, I'll concentrate on completing a weeks work in an hour!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Focus & Speed!

This week has been interesting.

I have challenged myself to get more done this week, to see how I cope.

So far I find the forum to be the biggest distraction. But I do try to stay focussed.

I've achieved a few things with most of my goals this week but no where near as much as I had hoped. However there are two more days and an evening left.

This is one of the things I am learning about this making myself accountable lark

I always do more right before the deadline!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

The Temptation Of Forums

Forums.

Great for getting help.
Great for building relationships with other solopreneurs.

Bad for focus.

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

( PS my "mentor", Gary Vurnum sends me an email pretty much every day, giving me tips on how I can progress. Todays message was: Don't use paragraphs when sentences will do.

So I did. )

The Norwegian Independence Day!

Today is the Norwegian Independence day, the day we celebrate the ratification of our constitution back in 1814.

It was a basic idea of some weird hippie types of the day ( as in the crowd in La Boheme ) that

"Hey, wouldn't it be great if us guys from the valleys and fjords of the Norwegian backwash could sit in a nice house and run NORWAY as a country?"

I think it was the spirit of the day to break free and start your own country. ( less than 20 years after which ever revolution happened in 1796 ( I can't remember which - The French or the American! Although I would lean to it being the American one... )

In typical Nordic, non violent fashion though it took a war to sort it out.

Some sort of battle ensued between the Danes And the Brits I think, and as the swedes helped the Brits by doing very little ( like the Swedes do ) the brits decided that the peace offering that The Danes made, should be given to Sweden as a punishment for not getting involved.

Although the Swedes to this day believe they got rewarded when the British told them they could have Norway.

OH we got SO close!

Imagine that - the British isles would have a border to Russia, lots of fjords and Mountains!!

Ah give me a break, Snowdonia is a pine cladd HILL and Ben Nevis is a big dent in an otherwise rocky road!

Whatever you say. On my way to school every morning I had to climb up to 20 000 feet and down again, jut to get to the post box sticking out of the snow. And that was usually easier on the days when the moose and the polar bears were sleeping.

just kidding.

Although I HAVE been chased by a moose on my way to school once. I was the one on the way to school by the way.

As the moose was obviously too old to go.

Thankfully I had PE that day and had an extra change of clothes with me - ( including the - ahem - underwear ) because with two tons to angry Elk chasing me down the country lanes- You would too!

Anyway. If I can take an internet lesson from this It would be a miracle, but I'll try.

Some things are more fun when you look back at them. And I guess the anticipation of what might just happen to me, can some times scare me so much I need my PE clothes for the rest of the day - but at least The 3 of us that got chased were heroes for the next couple of days.

For me, and my internet venture, the opportunities are there just as often as the fear. But as I have posted in my Friday Progress Reports before, fear is just a reminder that I am venturing onto new and untestede ground.

So unless there is a Tiger or an ELK huffing and puffing right behind you - there is no need to C#ap your pants and run - just get on with it!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

PS.

And if you DO ever get chased by a wild animal - take it from me and control you bowles - it makes is SO much easier to run!

Systems & A Response

I'm being lazy today.

I posted this reply to a fellow member of the UK forum, and I thought it was quite a good description of what it is that I do to try to keep myself on track, i'll post it here as well - Enjoy:

=====

I find it hard to focus on the things that needs doing.

I am helping myself with that issue by making myself accountable to the forum every Friday to make SOME kind of progress.

For instance, It is my goal this week to make some massive in roads on one project, while keeping the rest of them moving.

In order for me to be able to progress I have TWO main systems in place:

1. A goal for each of the projects I am actively working on.
My personal limit is 3. You need more than one to keep yourself from getting bored, but I can't cope with more than 3.

2. A Digital Idea bank.
My head is always full of ideas. I need an ideas bank to deposit them into so that I empty my head, knowing full well that they are safe until I want or need them ( I should REALLY run a backup soon, but I rely on my firewall software, my spyware detector and my antivirus to keep my system safe )

In addition I have a time management tool from an SFI website, the international assosciation of Home Based entrepreneurs or something which is really good, although I could do with a decent, simple, post it style "task ( to do ) list" manager

I tried GoalPro for goal setting but to be honest - for me it's not worth the bandwidth. Utter waste of hard drive space.

I digress.

What I guess I am saying is, write a list of the projects you have in your head in one column. In the next one write any obligations or deadlines you know you have to meet.

In my world it would then simply be a matter of picking the one ( or three ) you want to work on that week, and decide on what you would like to achive for each of those projects for that week.

WARNING:

I'd strongly recommend to set yourself easy targets. Like doing ONE action a day, as you are talking about building confidence.

I would also suggest holding off taking action on things that are new to you. This goes a little against what I guess is common to promote here ( as knowledge is the least important thing you need to succeed. ) but again it comes down to building confidence.

Having posted these Friday Progress Reports since I think mid March the ONE thing I can say is that my PROJECTS have developed alot slower than I have, BUT I need to grow in order to be ready to accept the success I'll achieve. I suspect it's the same for you.

You'll also see that I'd like to focus on what I DID actually do, instead of the things I did not do. Simply because if they didn't get done, all that meant to me is that I progressed at a little slower pace than what I had set myself, but I will still continue to progress next week. When I can catch up on those tasks.

But I am Still progressing!

=====


Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Friday Progress

I quote from the Nicheology website:

"In short, it isn't easy to start your own online business"

I hope it never becomes easy! If it was, there would be no money in it.

Not that money is the main motivator, but if I were to run a business, I would want it to be profitable.

If people can't make the effort to succeed online, I don't see why I should try to help them.

Running a business online compared to running a brick and mortar business is different in only ONE way as far as I am concerned:

Lower Financial Risk!

Anyway. My weekly progress.
Well I am on track to make it in time for the deadline. I have completed two tasks and the third task should be complete this evening.

Having said that, this week felt like a complete failure last night, simply because I am not as focussed now as I was before the seminar.

It is a recurring challenge for me; new ideas & learning opportunities get in the way of staying focussed on what I want to do. I can benefit from staying more diciplined in the evenings when I do my internet work.

Next week I have a choice.
I can continue working on 2 - 3 projects with "equal" effort - or I choose ONE action to carry out on each of them, and put in MASSIVE effort & Focus on ONE project to make that leap frog forward.

I have tried the "equal effort" before so I'll try "massive" next week. Although massive in my book doesn't mean much... just more...

garden office - get the price list together.
Blogs - stick to my commitments to post once a day on newbiealert and twice a week on software blog.
Software blog - sign up to two newsletters in the niche.
google - business as usual. launch poster campaign ;o)
money website - focus on masive action:
1. new tip to be written every day.
2. decide on "direction" - email sign up site, ebook, free affiliate site ( which is what competitors do ) or a "sample site" / newsletter which gives away 21 tips, asking them to "buy" access to tips, our future ebooks, discounted tele classes, forums etc.
3. complete all steps required to launch the site by the end of the month.
4. write & post a task list! ( suggestions welcome! )
5. carry out 3 of the tasks on the task list I create.

Should keep me buy over my birthday week... ( I'll be 33 Next Tuesday )

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Pre Friday Nerves

Where is the focus I was talking about that I needed?

I have just comitted myself to two posts a week to my software development blog, and although I have enough to write about for about 3 weeks - I have no idea after that!

Maybe by then I have enough to make it into a little leaflet I can give away.

Either way, I was telling myself that I wanted to get this money site moving first - which it most definately is NOT!

You see, my instinct goes against all the advice I am getting. But when it comes to making money online, my instinct only has experience with google!

HELP!!!!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Go DO it!

Rather than worrying about it,
do something about it.

Rather than complaining about it,
do something about it.

Rather than putting your energy
into assigning blame,
put your energy into the effort
of
making positive progress.

....

Couldn't have said it any better myself.

I use www.myway.com as my startpage in explorer, and with that I get a daily motivator pop up, and I thought I'd share some of todays one with you.

That passage above summarise me really.

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Nicheology, Leverage & Residual Income.

On the Uk netmarketing forum this evening the discussion rages about what two most important affiliate lessons we can learn from nicheology.com

Without going into too much detail, nicheology's programme is based on a monthly membership subscriber site and pays affiliates on two tiers. Basically, what that means is that if I join, not only does the person who signed me up get a commission, but the person responsible for signing THAT person up gets paid too.

This it in my opinion the first lesson to learn:

Leverage.
By using a two tier system, the affiliates get leverage of their efforts because once they recruit a team under them, in their "first" tier, the will not only get paid on their own efforts, but also on that of their team.

This is in my opinion the second lesson to learn:

Residual Income
This is a major driver for network marketing companies like telecom plus and recently Kleeneze with their expensive telephone service.The repetitive nature of a membership site in that the one time effort brings in money month after month after month, is a powerful lesson. It is what attracts me to google adwords. It is the reason why I would want to create my own products online.

Will I sign up to this site to become a charter member?
You'll have to wait and see. and if you're already a member, and want my business, I suggest you post an affiliate link in your comment below!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

All Things New

You may not know this, but the site where I go to type these blogs have changed. dramatically.

One of the new features that will benefit you as well is that I can now invite you to comment on my posts.

And if you do, I will know about it straight away, as I will be notified about it ;o)

Today has been a bit of a strange day. It seems that the job that I thought was very secure may not be so secure after all. Not a challenge really as we are prepared for these sorts of things. Last time we had to prepare for it, my wife ended up getting a nice little handout to quit her job.

It ment a 60 per cent cut in our disposable income, but we are coping remarkably well because of the little nuggets we have picked up along the way.

Buying new clothes for our son on ebay for instance, and then selling them again when he grows out of them.

Please post a comment if you want me to tell you more about how we manage to thrive on only one salary.

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Hands Free!

I went to the shops with my wife this morning.

I didn't intend to buy anything, but walking into WH Smith I found that they had a sale on. Not just your average sale, but a software sale! And to my great delight I found that they had ViaVoice on a special offer with Microsoft Money-the two pieces of software I have been lusting after since Christmas!

I got a book as well, for my money website, to do some research obviously!

So yes, I did get MS Money and ViaVoice.

I'm not ashamed of it. I'm quite proud of it. In actual fact I dictated this entire post in less time than it normally takes me to come up with a title! It's amazingly accurate as well and I had very few words Dad needed to change. I left that one in there as it obviously wasn't my dad who needed to change those few words, but me!

I also found that my Norwegian Grammar wasn't very acceptable to the software. What I mean by that is I tend to write or speak English as I would write or speak Norwegian. My punctuation and choice of words, and where to put them in a sentence, would usually confuse ViaVoice.

I'll be doing an experiment I think, over the next few hours and days, where I will speak, and effectively dictate into his microphone, an ebook that I have been considering over the last few days.

Now, usually I am not a technology freak, but because of various issues with my eyes and back, the opportunity to speak my opinions directly into the computer without having to think, or actually without having to type or look at the screen while dictating, had a certain appeal to me.

At the moment for instance, I am watching a white car driving out of the Somerfield's car-park opposite our house.

I don't know why, but for some reason when I speak, I very often start mid-sentence. Or halfway through my train of thought. It drives my wife mad! And not only that, I find myself not finishing sentences. I guess I can give a written sentence a bit more careful consideration before letting it loose on you as well.

But at least I will be writing as I'm speaking!

Cheers,
Jon

=Every day in every way I'm getting better and better=
-dictated to my computer through my microphone-

Friday Progress

This might be obvious to you but it just hit me last night.

This progress thing requires continuous, perpetual effort!

And this week didn't feel like alot of effort was made. I was certainly not happy with my progress last night.

But in true action / suspense movie style - I got there just at the last minute!

I have not been able to sit in front of the computer much this week - or at least I shouldn't have been. I've had some eye problems since Saturday and have been off work, pestered the GP and been to the Accident and Emergency room to find a remedy. And thankfully now I'm getting better.

So today I did these things:
1. Entered 5 of the ideas that the seminar generated into my mind map software.
2. Created my software requirements blog ( created last night actually ) - spec4success.blogspot.com
3. Rang the garden office people and I have given them the 3 models I will promote of each range and asked for a price estimate. Material costs fluctuate week by week so I have to cost that risk into my end user price.
4. Found a free auto responder service ( thanks to Rob the island marketeer ) which I will try out on the money web site. it will also lend itself very well to what I hope to achieve with the garden office website:

" The Only Way To Know The Temperature Outside This Garden Office Is By Looking at the Thermometer! ( Which Is Included FREE )

5. Started re-jigging the design of the money website.
6. Hung out at the Forum.
7. Agreed To Start weekly progress meetings with my wife every saturday morning - starting tomorrow - before 11am
8. Researched a couple of money tips sources.

and finally writing this.

Last week, I said I would update this forum with all my posts from Hastings. I did.

I said I would work on my google. I have.
I have trimmed off some fat, and dumped the low profit campaigns that were dragging down my margin. The reason I am so hung up margin and make that more important than earning an extra £100 a month is that it will reduce my google expenditure dramatically more.

Because I pay google with my credit card I should have up to 56 days to pay them. However google is so cheeky that they always send out the invoice just in time to get on the next bill. so instead I get 31 days to pay it.

Bad news. Why?
Because the programmes I am with usually take 5 to 8 weeks to pay me my commission. So reducing the google bill makes sense. It's all in the cashflow.

If this is smart behavious is another matter!

I didn't mention this in last weeks progress, but somewhere I said I would call the garden office people today. and I did. I will speak with them again next week. I have decided I want to deal with this one through websites only - targeting reasonably narrow niches - as the manufacturing capacity isn't great.

I have posted my money website and have received feedback. Thanks for that. I will spend some time this weekend updating the design and plug in some missing bits and we'll see what you think then. I have however not created any new content with it at all.

Going through the seminar notes has been a positive and a frustrating experience. Positive, because I get to reiterate and go over the things I learnt and frustrating because it is generating so much BUZZ and new ideas in my head I am struggling to stay focussed on what I should focus on.

Thankfully I have the ever intelligent wife telling me: Why don't you just concentrate on finishing those three things on that post card Mark sent you this morning? at least that way you won't be swearing and cursing over the computer late On Sunday the 16th?

So I will listen to her and work on those 3. Besides I have more or less completed two of them, the 3rd is half finished and I still have a week left.

I'm also playing with the idea of giving myself a weekend to write a book I have been thinking about. I mean, I'm told it can be done in 14 hours if planned properly. But it will remain in the think tank for now.

Add an independent personal office ( garden office ) project and those are the areas I will be progressing the coming week: seminar actions & garden office.

And if you want to know more about what I've been through the last week - take a look at my blog. I'm sure you'd love to find out how my A&E trip went!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Short & Sweet One

I'm supposed to stay away from computers because of my eye condition, so today's post will be short.

I am a little worried about my Friday progress report tomorrow. I have been really feeble this week on my money website thing, and I haven't added a single piece of content yet.

I have spoken to my wife about making ourselves accountable to eachother for progressing our ventures ( including the housework! ) and we might start something next week.

The garden office call is scheduled for tomorrow so hopefully it should happen.

Anyway, I am off to rest my eyes and stare at the wall from my garden swing surrounded by nats and mosquitoes for a few minutes before going insane with boredom!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

The Fear Factor

At the UK Net Marketing Weekend seminar I attended back in April, I spoke to one of the hosts and told him how absolutely petrified the first day made me feel.

The reason I was so petrified was that the speakers made the prospect of making money online seem so simple. And what scared me was that this "internet lark" could actually work! and that was something that I would have to adjust to.

Now, note that I said SIMPLE. Do not confuse this with EASY.

Anyway,

The other day the host, Gary Vurnum, mentioned my comments in his newsletter, or at least I think it was me he was talking about. If it wasn't he was at least talking about FEAR.

And today, I open up Jim Rohns latest ezine "Jim Rohn's May Special" - and what do I find?

"Conquer Fear In Your Life!"

I won't be spending the $79 to buy the $198 value package but I'm sure it can teach me a thing or two.
( how stupid do they think I am - If it's worth $198 - why the hell are they giving it away for only $79? )

Other than the slightly irritating pricing ploy, the real reason I won't be buying it yet is that I'm not sure I will apply the knowledge. So I'd rather avoid learning it.

Anyway, my point is this - something cosmic is trying to tell me to be on my toes! 3 times in the last 2 weeks someone or something has highlighted fear to me.

4 times if I count the fear I felt when going to the emergency room this morning because of my eyes & not knowing if the lime burns could cause any long term damage.

However, I'm not convinced that all out war is what will be required to defeat fear or even if defeating fear is what is needed. I think fear can be useful, if managed correctly. I mean it is a basic instinct, designed to tell us when our comfort is exposed to danger.

So I'm choosing to deal with fear by acknowledging its presence, make sure that the fear is based on the changes going on in my comfort zone and then get on with doing the things I need to do.

After all, I am sitting in my house, behind a computer, and there is very little to be afraid of here.

As long as I can see what I am typing!

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Ps - they weren't lime burns but a viral infection and there shouldn't be any significant long term damage - I just need to rest my eyes.

Lime Burns, .net & Money

I've had an interesting few days.

In my "proper" life, I have a garden with a huge pond in it. Or rather it USED to be a pond. I helped demolish it on Saturday. It was an old pond. with old cement. and what did they use in old cement to make it breathe?

Lime.

All dusty from demolishing it, I wipe my eyes, like I do, and within an hour : OUCH!! stingy eyes!

I look like a vampire that has partied too much!! horrible red eyes! At one point on saturday night I couldn't see anything white in them at all!

The eye rinse and drops work though and there should hopefully be minimal long term damage. It just goes to show that some times, removing bad things from your past might cause a little short term pain, but at least the long term risk ( lime concrete in a garden where a 18 month old boy is playing! ) has been removed

I was told today of the internet magazines lack of accurately reporting to people how to make money online. I suppose there is an opportunity there for me, but would I want to tell everyone how I am making money on the net? We'll see.

My money beta site has been tested for a while now and the consensus seems to be that I should not provide the content freely without at least getting their email address before they get access.

So while I am still adding content to the site, I need to consider if I should use other avenues for developing the products.

While I do that considering, i'll get some action going on my other garden office idea.
I will call my contacts in the company this week to let them know that I am still interested and that I just want to know what sort of paper work if any they have for me.

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=

Ready, Aim......... Fire?

I've been reading through one of Gary Vurnums little booklets this afternoon and it reminded me of something I think I saw in a pop-up on Ken Evoys Sitebuildit website ( http://www.sitebuildit.com/beamazed.html )

Gary was talking about the 4 missing links to success, one of which is FOCUS
( in order of importance they are - Attitude, Belief, Focus & Knowledge )

Get the booklet free from the following link Click Here To Go To www.sofsuccess.com
Wait for the pop-up that gives you the info about the 11 demons and sign up from that.
Hurry though as It says it is only available for the next two days.

Anyway narrowing my focus and staying on track has been my strongest challenge to overcome and the pop-up on the Ken Evoy website made it "click" for me.

It basically lists 3 kinds of people that struggle online:

1. FIRE, Ready, Aim ( those that rush ahead regardless)

2. Ready, Aim, Ready, Aim, Ready, Aim, Ready, Aim ( those that procrastinate with endless research and strive for perfection )

3. FIRE, FIRE, FIRE
( those that move from idea to idea to idea and never get anything properly off the ground because a new idea is always in the way )

On reading those 3 characteristics, it struck me that I am mainly a 3. Ideas are never the problem, nailing them down and taking action IS!

I am also a little bit of a 2. I think that has to do with a confidence issue though. "Why would anyone listen to ME - so I'd better make it perfect"

Did any of these ring a bell with you?

Cheers,
Jon ( still progressing )

=Every Day In Every Way, I'm Getting Better And Better=