EMI is one of the worlds leading music companies, they have recently launched a beta version of their website to people in USA and UK.  Looking at the new website it instantly looks clean and the navigation has been kept extremly simple.

When visiting the homepage you are presented with a simple coverflow of newly released albums, a news section and a playlist of music videos featuring EMI artists.  I was slightly dissapointed at the quality of the videos available.  Although they are quick to load, the videos are quite small and when the fullscreen option is used, the videos go horribly pixellated and are generally quite unwatchable.

A great feature I found was the ‘Discover‘ section. After typing the name of an artist you like into the box and clicking Discover you are able to see a list of similar artists.  These artists are not necessarily managed by EMI and if they are – you are able to view a song or music video for that artist right on the website.  For the other artists, there are links to 7Digital.com where you are able to purchase the albums to enjoy the music for yourself.  This feature is much like the genious function built into iTunes and the latest iPods.

If you are a music fan, I would highly recommend taking a look at the new EMI website.  It looks nicely polished and offers great recommendations for similar artists and music.

This post has originally been published on Darren Singleton .com. Darren Singleton is a Blogger, Webmaster and Internet Entrepreneur posting about his experiences of making money online on a daily basis.

The reason was a dodgy router and an uninformed “customer services representitive” at AOL who told us that a new one would be sent out to us and should arrive within ten working days.  After waiting the ten working days (plus a further two), I gave their customer service department another call – at which point I was told that we were not entitled to a new router as the warranty had expired on the one that we had been using. Why we were not told that in the first place, or been made aware of the issue when it was discovered at their end and the dispatch of a new router was cancelled, I do not know.

Contacting a customer when there is a problem with an order should be a fundamental part of customer service and I was shocked that even though we were paying for a service, it was not being delivered.

After a backwards-and-forwards battle about the service we had recieved I was put onto the phone to a senior member of staff, who happened to solve the problem in a matter of minutes.  After waiting four days (not even working days, this included the weekend) a brand new router arrived and due to the messing around that we had experienced, we are now paying £5 per month less for the same package and we are no longer tied in to any contracts (we were in an 18month contract prior to this event).

Overall, I was dissapointed in the service that I had received and was 90% positive that we were going to move to a different provider.  However, the resolution given to us was too good to miss out on and if it doesn’t work out, we have no contract to fulfill and can leave at any time.

Have anybody else ever had a similar experience and everything turned out for the better?

This post has originally been published on Darren Singleton .com. Darren Singleton is a Blogger, Webmaster and Internet Entrepreneur posting about his experiences of making money online on a daily basis.

The focus of this blog up until now has primarily been about blogging and basic internet marketing.  I would like to change direction a little, and make it much more personal.  With the blog being named after myself, it makes much more sense for me to discuss things on a much more personal level.  I will still address topics as I have done so previously but the personal aspect will be brought forward more throughout the coming months.

As always, your comments are greatly appreciated.  Feel free to subscribe to the RSS feed and follow me on Twitter.

This post has originally been published on Darren Singleton .com. Darren Singleton is a Blogger, Webmaster and Internet Entrepreneur posting about his experiences of making money online on a daily basis.

The Noticer by Andy Andrews is a true tale of an old drifter known by many names, who brings perspective to the lives of others.

Before receiving this book, I had never heard of Andy Andrews, never mind read any material by him.  But, after reading this book, I will be placing an order for other work of his.

From the beginning of the book I was captivated by the wisdom of ‘the drifter’ and couldn’t help but read each chapter one after the other.  It is only very short, but the small number of pages adds to the likeability and makes the book much more inviting for somebody to pick up and read on a journey – such as on the train or a plane.

Reading ‘The Noticer’ has made me think about my perspective on certain things in life and I’m sure anybody can benefit from the wise words dispensed throughout the pages.  Please take a moment to watch the video below, where Andy Andrews speaks about his book and will give you further information.

This book was sent to me by the publisher on the basis that a review was written.  Please note, that this review is of my own honest opinion and is in no way influenced by this.

This post has originally been published on Darren Singleton .com. Darren Singleton is a Blogger, Webmaster and Internet Entrepreneur posting about his experiences of making money online on a daily basis.

My personal fitness levels have declined greatly over the past few years and I am feeling it more than every today.  Having spent yesterday out in the country with a group of friends and a variety of sports equipment I feel like every muscle in my body wants to seize up and never work again.  It’s my 23rd birthday in six days and I hope that over the coming year I can improve my fitness levels to a point where I am much happier running about and not to eat as many takeaways, crisps and fizzy drinks!

The first of my challenges originates from the Internet, in the form of the One Hundred Pushups Challenge.  The initial test invites you to see how many pushups you can do, this then starts you off at a difficulty level suited to your ability.  I managed a whole 5! That’s not a typo! FIVE pushups.  The last time I checked I was roughly 174lbs and I am around 6’2” (a BMI score of 22.3).  I am at an OK weight for my height, yet it is obvious that I am incredibly unfit and not nearly as strong as I should be.

I performed this test on Saturday and then went on to perform day #1 of the 100 Pushup Challenge yesterday.  This required me to perform five sets of pushups with 60 seconds rest between each one.  The sets involved 2, 3, 2, 2 and then a minimum of 3.  Each of these was performed correctly and I even managed to complete 6 pushups for the last set.

Tomorrow will be my next test – I will be required to perform 3, 4, 2, 3 and then a minimum of 4 pushups with a 90 second rest between each set.  As long as my arms start to feel better in the morning I should be able to perform these without any problems.

Week three is where it seems to get a bit more difficult – but I shall tackle that once I get there.  Over the coming weeks I am going to post updates to this blog on further challenges that I set myself along with a progress report on this challenge.

This post has originally been published on Darren Singleton .com. Darren Singleton is a Blogger, Webmaster and Internet Entrepreneur posting about his experiences of making money online on a daily basis.

One of the things that interests me is statistics.  Whether it’s my Google Analytics, or my number of subscribers – I will be the first to admit that I check them too often!

Say hello to twitalyzer – the newest way to track your influence and success on Twitter.  By entering your Twitter username on the homepage you are instantly given statistics regarding each of the following details:

• Influence – Your overall score as determined by twitalyzer.
• Signal – The amount of information you ‘pass-on’ rather than create.
• Generosity – The amount of content that you ‘retweet’.
• Velocity – The rate at which you contribute to Twitter.
• Clout – The number of references you receive from other Twitter users.

Each of the above terms is explained in greater detail on the twitalyzer website.  Below is a copy of my current statistics overview:

The data reported above was collected by the Twitalyzer on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at 2:16:21 PM. When the analysis was conducted, @darrensingleton had 105 followers, 66 friends, and had published 40 updates over the previous seven days.

Influence: 0.6
Signal: 77.5%
Generosity: 15.0%
Velocity: 5.3%
Clout: 0.9%

Following your simple statistics, you can the drill down and find out how you compare with all of the other Twitter users that are tracked by twitalyzer.  The service is currently only tracking 30,043 Twitter accounts, but you can help out by visiting the website and entering your own username or by taking a look at the twitalyzer turk, where you can help build their database of users.

I’d recommend taking a look at twitalyzer and seeing how you compare with their top 100 list.  If you aren’t a member of Twitter yet, you should be.  Why not start by following me, post a comment on this blog with your Twitter username and I will follow you back.

Do you know of any other Twitter statistics tools?  Can you suggest ways of increasing my followers?  Let me know in the comments, or send me a message on Twitter.

This post has originally been published on Darren Singleton .com. Darren Singleton is a Blogger, Webmaster and Internet Entrepreneur posting about his experiences of making money online on a daily basis.

David Risley is the founder of PCMech and has been running the site for over ten years.  His most recent venture, 3 Day Money, is an easy to follow video course that aims to teach everybody how to successfully setup their own blog, build traffic to it and then monetise the people who begin to arrive.

David Risley is a name you can trust when looking at blogging and internet marketing.  Just take a look at his personal website to read-up on what he has to say about blogging and developing your online brand.

The great thing about this course is that, as the name suggests, it has been split across three days.  The first two days contain five videos each and the final day contains four videos.  The videos are narrated by David himself and he offers great tips from start to finish in a format that suits even the newest people to building their own presence online.

The introductory price is just $47 and I cannot expect it to stay at this price for much longer.  If you were to spend any money online in order to help you get started with your blogging – this should be the product for you!

This post has originally been published on Darren Singleton .com. Darren Singleton is a Blogger, Webmaster and Internet Entrepreneur posting about his experiences of making money online on a daily basis.

By joining my mailing list you will be among the first to be notified about new projects, gain access to exclusive contests and also be notified whenever the blog is updated.

I’m also working on my first E-Book.  This will be made available to my subscribers, if you are on the list before the launch – you will be sent an advance copy along with a bonus gift.

If you have any comments, please let me know.  I highly recommend using Aweber and begin creating your own list, I’m thinking of a case study to illustrate how well it is working for me later on in the year.

This post has originally been published on Darren Singleton .com. Darren Singleton is a Blogger, Webmaster and Internet Entrepreneur posting about his experiences of making money online on a daily basis.