Hi all, thanks for stopping by.

They do say we learn from our mistakes, which of course is very true, and I made one last week that has taught me to slow down….a bit…

Before I explain my mistake I would like to apologize to everyone that had left a comment on my blog last week, unfortunately my mistake has stripped them all away….. sorry. I have managed to retrieve some comments from my email inbox, but the majority have gone.

Allow me to explain…

I was having a couple of issues with my previous hosting company which resulted in my blog being slow to load. So I started using CloudFlare, a Content Delivery Network (CDN) which, by changing my DNS settings, super charged my loading times around the globe.

As that hosting was coming up for renewal I started looking around at other packages and decided to go with Hostgator, who transferred all of my sites for me.

During the transfer I stopped going through CloudFlare so as to asses the resources being used and compare the new hosting with the old, before the renewal of my old hosting was due.

I then noticed that CloudFlare was integrated with Hostgator on their C-Panel so got in touch with both Hostgator and CloudFlare about which account to use.

I was told by CloudFlare that I could either close my current account and set up a new mini account via C-Panel or wait for the transfer to complete and start using my current account on CloudFlare.

So…. Having seen the transfer complete I started using my account on CloudFlare to deliver my content around the globe again.

All was going well until Saturday, when I came to my PC and couldn’t access my blog at all Having got in touch with CloudFlare and explained the situation they asked if I had changed my IP address recently, “yes I just changed hosting last week”.

Then came the clanger…..

The settings that I thought were changed automatically on CloudFlare had to be changed manually…. and I hadn’t done that

So all the work I had done on my blog last week was on the old hosting server and not the new one, meaning that when the old hosting account closed all my fresh content and all of your comments from last week disappeared.

Luckily I always keep a copy of my blog posts so it was just a matter of re-publishing it to the new server but all of your comments, unfortunately, have been lost.

All I can do is put my hands up and apologize, sorry everyone.

Share your experiences please: Have you ever used a CDN?

If so who, and how is it?

Have you ever made a similar mistake?

Until next time, please accept my apologies.

P.S. Have you noticed the free gifts on offer from my sidebar? They change on a daily basis so be sure to check them out

We all know the hurdles we face when we start working online and how frustrating it can be to try and generate some form of income for your efforts, most of us have been pulling our hair out with that at some stage so I’m sure you can relate to my photo.

We know that lots of people throw the towel in through frustration and walk away from internet marketing altogether, kicking their dreams across the floor and jumping all over them as they go.

I don’t know about you, but I find it heartbreaking when people return to pounding the pavement looking for an alternative way of making money, especially when they haven’t given it their all in their pursuit of living their dream.

Maybe they’ve been chasing the shiny magic buttons with promises to get rich quick. I know many have and it’s a shame that people still believe there’s such a button because we all know, I hope, that there’s no such thing.

To make it work for you online takes hard work, dedication and direction. Yet some people work extremely hard and are dedicated to what they do but still struggle to generate an income.

Passion alone isn’t enough to help you find the success you desire and deserve, never mind the extra income, we need to do something with our passion for it all to come together.

Many of us blog about our passions, which is really good and will help you build lasting relationships that will help in many ways: Traffic, friendships, contacts, getting recognized and learning new things…. But does it help with your income?

Have you made any money from your passion to date?

One of the best ways of generating an income online is to start creating products. I know it’s easier said than done but you have the passion so what’s stopping you from creating the products?

Self doubt? Direction? Know how? Ideas? Time? Cost? Tools?

I’ve been there and know about them all as I’ve faced them myself. My first eBook took my over a year to complete because I doubted myself and allowed that doubt to hold me back. When I think back to those times I could kick myself……… “What would I be doing now?”….. If, But’s and Maybe’s….

That doesn’t have to be you, you’ve got the passion just not the products…. yet!

Well I want to help as many people as possible start creating products with:

From Passion to Products

An eBook about writing eBooks that takes you by the hand and guides you through each step, starting with asking why you want to write an eBook and what you’d like to achieve from it.

Once you know this you’ll have the direction you need.

Then we deal with picking your topic and getting ideas of what people want and where to find out exactly what’s selling.

We then move on to:

The layout of your eBook

How to focus on each chapter, one at a time

The writing

The graphics

The editing

The bling

Other ways of creating products

The next steps

….and so much more.

Like I said, I’ve been where you are and I want to help as many people as possible to start creating products and generating an income.

So if you’re yet to start creating products of your own, or you want to improve those you’ve created, then why not let me take you by the hand and show you how to go….

From Passion To Products

Step by step with everything you’ll need in one place.

Once you’ve created one product you’ll soon be creating the second and third.

So lets make 2012 your best year online yet and start to earn that ever extra income you desire and deserve.

Bonus: When I bought CommentLuv Premium I received some free bonuses, one of which was some eBook templates. So I’ve been in touch with Andy Bailey and asked if I could include them with this product. Andy has kindly agreed, so not only will you learn how to write your first eBook you’ll also have some templates to get you started.

Comments: I love to read and reply to your comments. So please share your thoughts and tell me, do you have any products of your own? What are you working on at the moment?

Share the post: All the tools are in place for you to share the post with your friends and followers so please use them and help me get the word out on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn and Stumble Upon, please use them all and help as well as your friends and followers. This could be just what they need

Until next time, Think about what you could be doing in a few months time

Part of the Learn With Sally coaching covers creating a Product in one of the easiest ways I’ve ever come across.

We were told to Grab A Guru and interview them over Skype, record the Skype call and then transcribe the audio file or have it transcribed for by a third party.

Getting a guru to agree to an interview would have meant approaching loads of them over and over again until one agreed, unless of course you know one already and are in touch with them on a personal basis.

Last year I won a free transcription from Dawn Kay who owns First Class Transcriptions and at the time of my win I wrote a post asking my readers who they would interview if they were me.

Of all the comments that were left one in particular stood out as it said rather than interview a guru why not interview someone that is further up the success ladder than myself that impresses me and I aspire to.

Now this approach really got me thinking so I posted a thread on a forum that I’m a member of to see if anyone was interested in my interviewing them. I didn’t get a reply so I put the thought to the back of my mind.

This time when interviewing a guru came up I remembered the earlier comment so turned my attention in a different direction.

Who impresses me? Who do I aspire to? Who is approachable?

Regular readers will already know that I turned my attention to my good friend and blogging superstar Adrienne Smith, who agreed to let me interview her. Now I should point out that I have interviewed Adrienne and it went really well. There is a product coming in the near future, but I’ve put it to one side for now so as to finish another project that I had already started.

So, I had found who I’d like to interview and asked Adrienne if she’d agree, which obviously she did. My next step was to write a post and ask my readers if they had any questions they’d like me to ask.

I then listed my questions, chose 10 of the more important ones and forwarded them to Adrienne for her approval and exchanged our Skype ID’s.

I then purchased Pamela For Skype so as to be able to record the interview as an audio file to send to Dawn for her to transcribe.

Adrienne and I agreed a time for the interview so I had to make sure everything was ready. In doing so I had a Skype chat with Dawn to ensure that Pamela was working and I knew my way around, which wasn’t hard as you just hit the record button, but it’s always “best to test”.

As our appointment drew closer I had to make sure that there wouldn’t be any interruptions so I:

• Turned my email program off,

• Turned the home phone off,

• Put a “Do Not Disturb” note on my office/bedroom door,

• Left my mobile phone in the other room,

• Printed out my questions

• Got the highlighter pen at the ready so as to mark off the questions as I asked them.

Adrienne and I connected on Skype, had a little chat and then got the interview under way. As I said it all went really well and I will be making it available to all of my subscribers, friends, followers and readers in the very near future.

Just prior to the interview with Adrienne I was approached by Jean Shaw, who asked if she could interview me about the Learn With Sally coaching. Jean is very experienced with online interviews and has a website dedicated to them at www.jeanshawinterviews.com I thought this would be a good exercise and practice for my one so I agreed. You can listen to that interview by visiting Jean Shaw Interviews LWS students.

Jean doesn’t record her interviews with Pamela For Skype instead she uses Audacity, which is a free software. I’ve never used it myself but Jean uses it all the time, so if/when you’re thinking of conducting interviews yourself you may like to give it a try.

I was then asked by Sylviane Nuccio if she could interview me, I agreed and asked her to send her questions through which she did shortly afterwards.

Now the interview with Sylviane had a few hiccups along the way, it was her first and a good learning curve for us both. We conducted the interview the first time and I thought it went really well, Sylviane asked some really good questions and had a nice flow to the whole thing. Later that day she informed me that my voice was very faint and asked if we could do it again, which of course wasn’t a problem.

We linked up again and started recording only this time my old overworked PC thought it was chasing Sebastian Vettel around a formula one track and was racing to keep up. I suggested we stop the interview before it crashed and died

I had got a new PC for Christmas so quickly set about setting it up and getting all my programs loaded onto it

On our third attempt I also recorded the interview, with Pamela For Skype, just in case anything went wrong. We both tested our recording software prior to starting, both worked well so we got the interview under way. When we had finished Sylviane informed me that she was having trouble with her recording so I zipped up mine and sent it to her. When the interview is available I’ll let you know

Now I should point out that Sylviane was using CamStudio to record the interview as she is going to turn it into a series of videos. I’ve used the software myself and found it very good, but the videos I created with it were only 10-15 minutes long.

While I can recommend CamStudio for creating short screen capture videos, I don’t recommend it for interviewing people due to the issues Sylviane suffered.

So there you have it, my experiences of conducting interviews over Skype. As I said I can’t comment on Audacity as I’ve never used it, but bear in mind that Jean Shaw uses it all the time and it’s free.

Pamela For Skype works a treat and offers a free trial of 30 days. The trial version will only allow you to record up to 15 minutes in length whilst the Pro version is unlimited and records Skype video calls as well.

So if you’re thinking of conducting interviews be sure to have a little play around with whatever software you are going to use and make sure that it’s working before the big event.

I hope that by telling you all of my experiences with interviews you’ll be able to start holding them yourselves and get everything you need in place before starting them.

Your Shout!!

As you know I love to read and reply to your comments so please share your views:

If you have experience of interviews please share them with my readers and help me encourage them to start conducting interviews and maybe even create a product from them.

If you’ve not conducted an Interview over Skype please let us know if you’ll now consider doing so or is it something you fear?

If you found this post helpful, or think it may help your friends or followers, please help me get the word out to them by sharing the post via the Social Share Buttons on display.

Until next time, think products

Hi all, thanks for stopping by.

The Journey To Success Part 9

Developing Alliances and Friendships With Other Bloggers

The Journey To Success is a Blog Carnival that is being organised by Mandy Allen in which some Masterclass bloggers are putting together a series of monthly blog posts detailing The Journey To Success. If you haven’t read the previous posts in this series please follow the link above to do so.

Be sure to read the comments as they have often added a wealth of information to the original posts. Please feel free to reply to the comments or leave one of your own

Moving on to part 9:

Developing Alliances and Friendships With Other Bloggers

Throughout this series I have been saying about visiting blogs and forums that share the same passion as yourself, seeing what they have created from that passion and getting in the mix with them.

It’s amazing what you can learn from bloggers and it’s free information that has been tried and tested, saving you time, frustration and a whole heap of headaches.

When I first started online I would sit alone at my PC and try to figure everything out for myself, wasting months in the process, and not really getting anywhere. I really do wish that I had started visiting blogs a lot sooner than I did and took advantage of the information available.

So how do you start developing alliances and friendships
with other bloggers?

When you visit their blogs and read their posts be sure to check out the comments as this will tell you whether the blogger is interacting with their readers or not. The majority of bloggers will reply to the comments being left and continue the conversation or answer questions, regardless of who you are.

Sure you’ll find some bloggers that think it’s acceptable never to reply to anyone, or worse still they’ll reply to their “pals” and leave everyone else whistling for a reply, even when questions have been asked. You’re never going to build any form of friendships with these people so while their content may be of help to you I wouldn’t waste your time trying to get any form of friendships going with them.

Focus on the interactive bloggers that are posting the information you need and are talking to their readers in their replies, offering advice, encouragement or just acknowledging the people leaving comments.

Don’t leave stupid comments

You’ll never build any form of alliances or friendships online if you leave stupid comments like “great blog I’ll be back”, “love your blog”, “great post, thanks” or similar rubbish. All you’ll do by leaving comments like that is annoy the blog owner and you’ll probably find that the comment doesn’t get approved anyway. If I ever get comments like that they go straight into my trash folder and will never appear on my blog and I know that many other bloggers hold the same view.

Don’t be afraid to leave a comment

Some people fear leaving comments when they first start visiting blogs. This is a personal hurdle that you have to overcome, there’s nothing to fear as long as you leave decent comments.

When I say “decent comments” I don’t mean you have to write an essay but you do have to acknowledge the content of the post. Maybe ask questions if you don’t understand something or mention your experiences if you do.

Don’t be concerned that the blogger may be a big name and have loads of experience, quality content and comments. If they’re replying to their readers they’ll reply to you as well. If you express concerns in what you’re doing or areas of the post you didn’t quite grasp you’ll find the blog owner will explain it to you.

On occasions you may find future readers, that have experience of the subject, will offer their advice and try to help you as well.

Once you’ve left your comment share the post

The Social Media Networks play a huge roll in our businesses, offering us all free traffic as well as additional information that is shared between friends and followers.

They also open doors that allow us to get to know people on a more personal level and by sharing their blog content on your Social Media walls you will start to become noticed by the blogger, many of which will come and thank you for sharing their information.

If you don’t have accounts on the Social Media Networks then open them and fill out your profile, add your photo and start using them on a regular basis. Be sure to use the same photo for each of your profiles so as to be recognized at a glance.

Twitter

Facebook

Google Plus

LinkedIn

Stumble Upon

Are the major platforms used by bloggers, so be sure to set up accounts on each one and then share the blog posts you like on your walls and try to connect with the bloggers on those platforms. If you’d like to connect with me you can do so from the “Follow Me” tab to the right of this post.

You may not see an immediate response from the bloggers who’s posts you share but over time if you keep sharing you’ll be noticed, appreciated and thanked.

That, my friends, is how you start developing alliances and friendships with other bloggers.

Let’s prove the point

As you know your comments are very much appreciated so please feel free to add to the post in any way at all. If you can relate to anything said in the post please share your experiences so as to help others and drive home the point about our online friendships and how we build them.

I will be creating an eBook from the series and the best comments will be included in the eBook, attributed to the comment author and linked to their blogs

Oh and please share this post by using the buttons below to send it to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Stumble and G+ as I mentioned above it’s how we start building friendships

Until next time, Find Follow and beFriend like minded bloggers

I wish you all a Happy Prosperous New Year and hope that you can make this year your best year online, and I hope to help you achieve that.

I should have written this post last week but I had my head down finishing a project that I’ve been working on for some time, it’s nearly ready for launching but more on that at a later date

Ok, onto the post:

What would you like to achieve this year?

The majority of my readers are already blogging, but are you achieving the success you desire and deserve?

It does take time to find success online but you can fast track that, in just 12 weeks, if you want to take action and get yourself a mentor. The only recommendation I make is Sally Neill’s Learn With Sally The Replays. Regular readers will know that I have taken the course and am now seeing success from doing so.

The course doesn’t only cover blogging it also covers traffic foundations, Social Media success, 3 types of video creation, email marketing, easy product creation and a whole lot more.

You only have to look around my blog and you’ll see the evidence of what I have learnt from Sally. Check out my videos and see how they’ve improved since taking the course, I still have to pinch myself sometimes

I can’t sing Sally’s praises loud enough, she really is a great mentor that cares about her students and wants us all to succeed. Our success is Sally’s success and that is what she strives for: Our success!!

2011 was my best year online and I have Sally Neill to thank for that.

Maybe you’re on a tight budget and want to try and create something yourself. Which is fine as long as you know what you’re doing and everything that needs doing to complete your projects.

So many of us start something and never quite finish it, which is why I recommend getting yourself a mentor. We can do it as long as we put our minds to it and constantly take action to achieve our goals.

Many of us doubt ourselves when it comes to creating something. The first ebook I wrote took me over 12 months to finish simply because I doubted myself and you know what….. by the time I had finished it eBay changed their rules and my eBook was dead in the water.

Arrggg self doubt, what a dream killer it can be.

We sit at our desks with no one to answer to and skip through what we’re doing without ever really getting anywhere because of a lack of direction and/or self doubt. I did it for years myself and now view those years as a total waste of time. I was playing at being an internet marketer and not working towards being one and that is so silly.

As I said, last year was my best year since coming online and I want this year to be even better. Not only for myself but for my readers as well.

So I ask you again: What would you like to achieve this year?

Would you like to create your own product or products?

Would you like to start creating videos?

Maybe you’re already doing something and want to improve on it…

If you haven’t created a plan for the year and are still unsure of what you’d like to achieve please let me know in the comments below and let’s see what we can do about it.

Experienced Bloggers: Did you ever suffer from self doubt and find yourself held back by it? If so please let us know how you got over it in the comments below.

Please share this post with your friends and followers by using the buttons to the side and lets help as many people as possible achieve their dreams this year.

Until next time, picture your dreams

Hello and thanks for stopping by

I hope that you all had a great Christmas and made the most of the holiday season to catch up with loved ones and share the celebrations with them all.

I had a fantastic Christmas with my wife and children and then Boxing day I had my mum and two of my brothers around for a good ol’ feed and some festive fun. Which I thought topped off my year nicely, but how wrong was I….

In my last post I detailed how this year has been my best year since coming online and all that I had won and achieved this year. Now it’s all well and good me saying about my progress but when other bloggers mention it the feeling is simply fantastic.

Could this year end any better?

I didn’t think it could but am so very pleased to tell you that it has ended on the highest point I could imagine.

I have been awarded the Sunshine Award not once but twice this week and that is the best feeling I have had online…. ever! It really is an honour when other bloggers give you such an award as it drives home just how far I have come, not only in my eyes but in the eyes of other successful bloggers.

So what is the Sunshine Award all about?

There is no prize or trophy attached to the award, it is more about recognising bloggers whose positivity and creativity have inspired others in the blogging community. To be awarded the Sunshine Award from established bloggers that we aspire to really is an honour and to be awarded it twice is more than I could ever of dreamt of.

I have to thank Adrienne Smith and Jeffrey Morgan for awarding me the Sunshine Award. As I have said it really is an honour and to come from such established, successful bloggers as Adrienne and Jeffrey really does mean so much to me, thank you both so very much

The 3 Rules of the Award

There are 3 rules to the award which are:

1: To thank the person(s) that gave the award.

2: To Answer 10 questions.

3: Pass the award on to 10 deserving bloggers.

I have already thanked both Adrienne and Jeffrey for the award, but thanks again. It really does mean a lot to me, thank you

The 10 questions are:

1. Favourite colour – Blue, well I am a boy
2. Favourite animal – Dog, sadly my dog had to be put down but after 14 years with him at my side how could I choose another animal.
3. Favourite number – 7, while other kids were learning their 5 times table I learnt my 7 times table for some strange reason and 7 has been my favourite since.
4. Favourite drink – Tea, very strong, white without sugar.
5. Facebook or Twitter – Twitter, it’s where I have met some fantastic friends and Twitter is my number one traffic source.
6. My passion – Helping others on my blogging journey.
7. Giving or receiving gifts – Giving without a doubt, but I still like receiving
8. Favourite day – Sunday, I show love and appreciation to my family every day but Sundays are set aside just for them.
9. Favourite flower – Roses, being an Englishmen would you expect anything else?
10. Favourite food – Chinese, loads of different dishes shared out between everyone at the table.

10 Deserving Bloggers To Pass The Award To

I could probably list 20 bloggers with ease but have to keep it to 10. So in order to do this I have chosen people that helped me on my journey this year, assisted me over hurdles and commented on my posts on a regular basis. Please don’t be offended if you’re not mentioned, all of my readers are valued but I have to keep it to just 10 people.

Adrienne Smith: It may seem strange that Adrienne awarded me the Sunshine award and I’m awarding it back to her but Adrienne is my number one blogger and any award without mentioning her wouldn’t be right in my eyes. Adrienne is an all round lovely Lady that helps so many people online, not just in blogging but on the Social Media Networks as well. I have recently interviewed Adrienne and will be making the interview available to everyone shortly into the new year.

Jeffrey Morgan: Again it may seem strange that I award the Sunshine Award back to Jeffrey but he has really helped me this year. He wrote 2 guest posts to help my readers back up their blogs safely using both FileZilla and our C-Panels. I recent had an issue with one of my regular readers comments going to the spam folder, so I asked Jeffrey how I could solve the issue. Not only did Jeffrey advise me he also worked his magic on a plugin to whitelist the person and all this during his preparation for the launch of Jeffrey-Morgan.com in just a few hours time on 01/01/12 be sure to visit his brand new blog ASAP.

Ian Ieba: I’ve got to know Ian really well this year as we have faced a few issues together and overcome them, as I detailed in my post Headaches, Heartbeats and Helpful Friends. Ian and I have become real friends and have helped each other with both online and off line issues. We connect on all the Social Media Networks as well as email and regular Skype sessions. Ian is currently putting a PLR series together on his blog and I have to say it’s the best PLR information I have seen online…. and it’s all free. Beat that you gurus

Sally Neill: I’ve been a regular visitor to Sally’s blog for some time now and through those visit I was lucky enough to win a place on her Learn With Sally coaching and as I have detailed through my posts her training has taken me to a whole new level of Internet Marketing. Prior to that training her posts, and the interaction in comments on some of my posts, have taught me plenty. Not to mention the free products she has created that help us all progress online. No blogging award would be complete without mentioning Sally.

Dawn Kay: I first met Dawn through the 100 Blog Comment Challenge and we’ve been regular visitors to each others blogs ever since. Dawn is all about helping others through her posts and has created some excellent checklists to help us all stay focused on our work. Throughout our LWS coaching Dawn has been there to help and advise on any concerns I had, as well as detailing her journey on her blog in such a way that enables others to follow her example. Dawn has also been the Queen of the shout out sharers this year and has shared my content on all the Social Media Networks.

Dee Ann Rice: Dee Ann and I connected earlier this year after she commented on one of my posts. Shortly after we connected Dee Ann accidentally deleted her whole blog and had to re-install it all from a back up, which she detailed in a post as well as in a video to help others avoid making the same mistake. I love the way Dee Ann details her journey through her blog posts and always tells people where she found the information she is using.

Randy Smith: I’ve been a regular reader and subscriber of Randy’s for a few years now and I love the way he says it as it is. He always gives an honest review of any products he looks into and has often told his readers to save their money and pointed out why. Randy’s very approachable, has time for all of his readers and offers helpful free gifts on a regular basis. Randy has a saying that we should only spend our cash on what will help us now and not on what we may use one day. Randy holds a monthly meet up in the north of England where internet marketers get together to discuss their projects and progress and kick each others butts if and when they slack off.

Mandy Allen: Mandy and I first connected through John Thornhills Masterclass, where Mandy is now a moderator and constantly helps people over whatever hurdles they’re facing. When I have needed her help she has offered it without question or concern for her own time. Mandy is the organiser behind the Journey To Success blog series that I am currently taking part in, which came about because of her desire to help as many people find success as possible. Mandy has a few projects on the go with her most recent one being Calendars For Marketers, I do know of others but they’re at the hush hush stage at the moment

Julie Dunlop: I first met Julie through Ian Ieba, after he pointed her in my direction after a video I had created. Since then Julie and I have become regular visitors to each others blogs where we comment and encourage one another. Earlier this year I held a video challenge and although Julie had never created a video before she accepted the challenge and spent a whole weekend finding her way around the software so as to create her first ever video. I recently took part in the 7 links challenge, where I nominated Julie to take the challenge, which of course she did

Terry Conti: Terry and I also first connected through John Thornhills Masterclass but we connected more on the blogging side of things where we really got to know each other. Terry was a regular visitor to this and many other blogs throughout the year but unfortunately his father recently passed so he is currently looking after his mother. While at the same time holding down a full time job in the restaurant industry, working very long unsociable hours, leaving himself very little time to get online.

“I hope your situation soon levels out for you Terry and allows you to get back online and follow your dreams mate”

To all of my readers: I wouldn’t have had half as good a year without your input so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for helping me achieve my best year online.

I appreciate and value everyone of you and wish you all a very Happy New Year. Please let me know in the comments below if there’s any way that I can help you achieve your goals in 2012.

Oh and please use the buttons below to help share the content of this post.

Until next time, Have a safe night tonight and a Happy Prosperous New Year

This time last year I was busy making plans for 2011 but they didn’t come off as I put them on hold to be by my mothers side during another health scare.

My mum had another bleed to her brain, this time leaving her with vascular dementia, and was in a bad way. Being both deaf and partially sighted communication was extremely difficult for the staff around her so I was by her side nearly all day every day for the first few months of the year.

As you can imagine the whole experience was extremely stressful and left me quite numb and unable to focus on anything constructive.

I tried keeping my blog up dated and started inviting guest posts, which really helped.

As my mums situation settled down a bit I was able to start spending less time with her so I continued with my blog hopping as best I could. Through leaving comments on other peoples blogs I was lucky enough to win a few prizes.

I first won a free Transcription from Dawn Kay “Thank you Dawn”.

I then won a free place on the Learn With Sally coaching course which has taught me a whole heap of new skills and has taken my Internet Marketing to a new level. “Thanks Sally and Jade (my lucky mascot)”

Then through Dawn Kay declining the prize and saying to give it to 2^nd place I won a free Camtasia and Snagit licence from Kathy Dobson’s traffic competition “Thanks Kathy”.

Sally then held a Traffic Generation competition, with the prize being a digital camera, and yes I won that as well which has enabled me to start facing the camera and talking to you live, as I do in the video below. “Thanks again Sally”

I also won a prize from David Taylor of a Mailwash Pro subscription for 12 months, “Thanks David”.

Blog commenting has really paid off for me this year and I have to say that this year has been my best year online

I have learnt so much this year that I know every year from now on is going to get better and better and that is a direct result of the Learn With Sally coaching, simply the best coaching I have experienced This isn’t a sales pitch, but if you’re not getting the success you crave for then I highly recommend Learn With Sally, The Replays so you can make 2012 as successful as possible.

I’ve had my very own Calendar created by Calendars For Marketers and you can download your copy, with my thanks.

And a personal video of thanks to you all

My top 15 traffic sources for the year were:

twitter.com

facebook.com

sallyneill.com

johnthornhillmasterclass.com

ianieba.com

billmurney.com

dawnkaysblog.com

nine95.com

google.com

stumbleupon.com

adriennesmith.net

youtube.com

terryconti.com

johnmcnally54.com

linkedin.com

Thank you to everyone that visited my blog over the last 12 months, commented and shared my content. Without your input many of the sites mentioned above wouldn’t be there

I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

As you know I love to read and reply to your comments so please leave them below and let me know whether you’ve had a good year this year or what you have planned for next year.

I’d also be grateful if you could help me share the post on the Social Media Networks via the buttons below.

Until next time, Have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Over to you Steve:

You work on the world wide web but do you really consider your business to be global?

I was on the same coaching course as Barry back in 2009 and since then I have become a product creator, an affiliate, a traffic generator, email newsletter creator, list builder etc etc…and most importantly I became tired…and if I’m honest a little bit jaded by IM.

Lot’s of people peddling their wares and newbie suckers being taken in and ‘being looked after’ until the money runs out.

There had to be a better way…I just didn’t know what it was…until now.

As an Internet Marketer would you like to have any of the following:

• A Place where your completed product is always available for sale in the market place
• No fees if you don’t make a sale for a little while
• A place where there are hundreds of thousands of affiliates all willing to promote your product
• And millions of potential customers all ready to buy.

Where is this magical place?

Why – it’s the App Store in iTunes.

Since October, I have been converted some of our video golf coaching programmes into iPhone & iPad Apps and we have just made a sale to our 26th different country.

For me the journey to learn how to create Apps has not been as complicated as learning to build websites or mini-sites and affiliate pages etc, – In fact the whole process has been very rewarding…especially when the app is completed and you really can set and forget it and get on with making the next one.

And to top it off, Apple only takes 30% from my sales revenue…which compared to the 75% I used to give away to ClickBank affiliates is just an absolute bargain.

If you could go back 5 or 6 years on the internet, with the IM knowledge you currently have – do you think you could make a decent living. Everyone says how much easier it used ot be back then…well in my opinion the App market is exactly where the good old w.w.w. was 5 years ago…

….and it truly is global.

Here’s a little picture of our Apps being prepared for the Christmas Period…for the next two weeks I can just sit back and think about all the people downloading our apps and paying us a little bit of money each time…happy days!

As John Thornhill teaches – ‘Many Streams Make a River’ – he’s right and in eight short weeks we have successfully developed nine golf apps…and that’s not something I would ever have imagined being able to do properly with my Clickbank products.

All shiny and new

I wish all Barry’s readers a very festive holiday season and I urge you to check out the App market while the opportunity is still so big. It’s not as complicated as it may sound, and as Barry will testify, back in 2009 I was a complete non techie – so if I can do it anyone can

Happy Marketing

Steve King Weekend Golfers

Thanks very much for such a detailed post Steve, I will of course respond more in my comment below.

If you would like submit a guest post please view my Guest Post Page and if you can agree to the guidelines there then please feel free to contact me via the link on the page.

Share your thoughts!!

I hope that you’ve enjoyed the post and have been able to take some inspiration from it. If you have any questions or comments for Steve please leave them below and he will reply to you personally.

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Until next time, see what you can do differently

Hi all, thanks for stopping by.

The Journey To Success
Part 8:

Innovate, take the road not taken and

Try Something New:

The Journey To Success is a Blog Carnival that is being organised by Mandy Allen in which some Masterclass bloggers are putting together a series of monthly blog posts detailing The Journey To Success. If you haven’t read the previous posts in this series please follow the link above to do so. Be sure to read the comments as they have often added a wealth of information to the original posts. Feel free to reply to the comments or leave one of your own

Moving on to part 8:

Innovate, Take the road not taken and try something new.

That may sound very daunting to you as this may be a new experience for you anyway, but in part 1 I said about finding Forums and Blogs that have the same passion (niche) as you and start making notes of what others had created.

You don’t have to create the same as everyone else because that defeats the object. After all, do you want to be a sheep or a shepherd? Do you want to lead or follow your target audience?

It’s your passion and you should only use these sites for ideas and inspiration, kind of like a spring board to your success. As well as looking to see what others have done with the passion you share you should also be on the look out for things they haven’t done.

For Example:

• Whilst visiting these sites have you noticed anything important that people haven’t covered on the subject?
• Maybe something that you feel you can add to your project that others haven’t covered in enough detail?
• Have they over emphasized the points they’re trying to make and in doing so rambled on so much it has become confusing?
• Do you see a common problem that people face? If so can you help get them over it?
• Are these people keeping up with the times or they still using the old methods to get their message out there?

These are just a few things to look out for and if you find them and address them it can make you stand out from the crowd.

In part 4 of this series: Learning As You Go I said about the internet forever changing and that we have to keep up with these changes and apply ourselves to them.

Not only has the internet been changing but the way people access it has also changed over the years. Fran Aslam wrote a guest post for me that detailed how people are using mobile devices as their new computers. Fran stated, at the time of writing, that 56.9million people are searching the internet from these mobile devices each and every day. That number will continue to rise as new devices are created and released.

It’s huge market that is growing daily and we need to be sure that whatever we are creating is accessible to that market.

Our kids are growing up with this technology and to them the normal thing to do is pull out their mobile device to watch their favourite videos on YouTube, read their latest eBooks from Kindle or plug in their headphones to listen to their MP3′s.

Make the most of the new technology and use it to your advantage.

Create videos: You should create videos as and when you can and upload them to YouTube to reach as many people as possible. You may find this a daunting to start with, but don’t worry they’re easy to create.

You could buy a digital camera and film yourself carrying out certain tasks so as to show others how something is done. Or talk to the camera directly and get your message across that way. This also allows people to get to know you and so build the Know, Like and Trust factor that we all need.

Maybe you could create a screen capture video and give people a demonstration or tutorial of yourself carrying out certain tasks so they can follow along. There’s free software available from CamStudio.org which is easy to use.

You could also create PowerPoint Presentations. PowerPoint also has the ability to create videos straight from the software and if you don’t have PowerPoint then you can download Open Office and use their free software to create your slide show presentations and then record them with CamStudio.

Create eBooks and Turn Them Into Kindle eBooks: Creating ebooks isn’t hard at all but if you’re unsure of how to do so Eamon Diamond has an excellent video showing you how to create ebooks. Once you have your eBook created take a step further to reach the people using mobile devices and create a Kindle eBook. People don’t need a Kindle eReader to read kindle eBooks as Kindle have created apps for all the other mobile devices that are free to download.

Create Audio Files: It’s easier to talk than type and we’ve all seen people using their ipods and other MP3 players so we need to cover that market as well. Again there’s free software that will allow you to create audio files. Audacity not only allows you create audio files it will also allow you to convert tapes and records into digital recordings as well editing and splicing them together.

Here’s another cool thing you can do with audio files: Rather than typing out your eBook you could record yourself talking about your project one chapter at a time and save each audio file. Then you can either use it as an audio book, transcribe them to text yourself or send them to a transcription service, as mentioned in part 7. Dawn Kay owns First Class Transcriptions and has an excellent post on her blog showing people where to get the software she uses and how to transcribe your audio files, again using free software.

I hope that has given you some ideas as to what is possible for your creations and as you can see it doesn’t have to cost you the earth

Before I end this post I would like to bring a very special young lady to your attention to show you how you can turn problems around to your advantage.

This young lady came to my attention earlier this week and I found her story so inspiring that I want to briefly share it with you.

Cassandra Bankson lives in the US and has had a long term problem with acne. She was bullied throughout school and left early to be taught at home. This young lady really is remarkable as she started creating videos for YouTube to demonstrate how she now covers her acne and details all of the steps needed for others to follow.

One of her videos Foundation Routine Flawless Skin For Acne Scaring has had 3,248,228 views to date. So please pop over and see how she is turning things around, you may need some tissues as the pain this young lady faces is evident in the video.

The good news is that Cassandra has now gone on to become a model, just search Google for Cassandra Bankson.

Now that my friends is an inspiration and a perfect example of taking the road not taken and turning it into success.

The Journey To Success is a Blog Carnival that is being organised by Mandy Allen in which some Masterclass bloggers are putting together a series of monthly blog posts detailing The Journey To Success.

As always your comments are very much appreciated so please feel free to add to the post in any way at all. I will be creating an eBook from the series and the best comments will be included in the eBook, attributed to the comment author and linked to their blogs

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Until next time, put the Satnav away and use your instinct