I hope you [...]]]> At the end of a strange year even by my standards, I found myself proverbially flipping through the pages of this blog and looking back on all the posts of 2009. I forget sometimes how random the frothing rantings of a mad man can seem.

I hope you guys found some entertainment and hopefully a helpful idea or passage from time to time, reading all these posts now is strangely personal. It’s very much like a journal of the year, each post reminding me of a year that has been. A full stop in the paragraph that is my life.

This blogging business can’t help but be personal. The more I look at the time I spend and the record I’m leaving, I know that this blog will become a pillar for me in 2010. We get out what we put into our work. I plan to achieve a lot on this blog in 2010 and in return am steeling myself for a lot of hard work and dedication.

Lessons I learnt in 2009

• Blogging is a social event not a post or a blog, writing a post is only the start
• Get your own domain
• Learn enough HTML to break your site
• Then go learn some more to fix it
• Blogging is the disease and the cure – pour hours into your blog for little gain when you begin and soon you’ll be pouring hours into your blog for not much more gain
• Write often
• Write clearly
• Involve your family and friends or suffer the consequences it’s tough out there on your own
• Give what you hope to receive
• Spend less time on design and more on content – no one ever said “well that was a life changing message, but can you believe that font, I’m never coming back here!”
• Don’t be to proud to ask
• Don’t re-invent the wheel
• Social media is your friend

Many of you are new and probably missed a lot of monetize so here’s a quick recap of 2009 on Monetize Your Life .

Top 5 posts by Unique visits

1. Evernote Review
2. How I use Evernote
3. Refocus on your goals with goal tracking tools
4. SEO – Your writing Should Engage Others
5. Conquer your fear of success

Top 5 posts by comments

1. SEO – Your writing Should Engage Others
2. What’s more important what’s Right or getting caught
3. Enjoy 60 Good Seconds with me – Beginner meditation in 60 seconds
4. Using Evernote: How I process my Stuff
5. Oh how I love Spam! Lessons on accepting what Is in your life

Top 5 blogs I read

• Aliventures
• The Brave Programmer
• Lifestyle Design for You
• The InfoPreneur
• The Simple Dollar

With that I am now officially back from my end of year break will put the year that was to bed. Let’s Boldly go into 2010, where no one has gone before.

Onward and upward.

Image Credits

Swami Kriyananda

A dog has no need of the future. It fully experiences each moment that [...]]]>

If anything or anyone distresses you, think how you’ll probably feel a week—a month—a year later. If you can imagine yourself being happy and peaceful then, why waste all that time? Be happy and peaceful now!

Swami Kriyananda

A dog has no need of the future. It fully experiences each moment that passes and when it’s passed experiences the next. However a dog cannot exert it’s inner strength and better the lives of dogs everywhere. They cannot re-create there worlds the way they want to.

We can. Yet or inability to master what our canine friends can do leaves us where we are. We struggle with allowing our present to become our past. We re-live our victories afraid we’ll not have any more and we wallow in our miseries afraid of encountering anymore.

Embrace your human endowments travel through time and find yourself where you e would like to be then look ball and realize that the path from where you were now to there can be reached but only if you do anything but what you’re doing now, nothing.

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My work as a data analyst for a health insurance administrator and my work blogging has really opened my eyes to some of the realities of living as a disabled person. Even in the [...]]]> This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of NMEDA. All opinions are 100% mine.

My work as a data analyst for a health insurance administrator and my work blogging has really opened my eyes to some of the realities of living as a disabled person. Even in the 21st century a lot has changed but sadly somethings stay the same. I know a couple of disabled bloggers, one of whom owns  a consulting firm that advises on disability access. Listening to some of his challenges and the obstacles he helps others avoid, I become very aware of how the smallest of detail we take for granted could become a nightmare for a disabled person.

Freedom for all

Being able to operate a car affords us a certain freedom, gives us independance and the freedom to take opportunities otherwise unavailable to us. For many disabled and elderly persons, finding a mobility solution for their vehicle is a difficult, costly and potentially physically harmful decision.

No two people with a disability are exactly the same, each person has different requirements and specific ergonomic or medical needs. For a lot of disabled persons, sadly there is not enough information available. Adapted vehicles advertised on the internet or in catalogs are very dangerous propositions due to their generic fit. Only after an in-depth one on one assessment with trained professionals in the area of rehabilitation and driving solution manufacture, can you have the peace of mind that you will get a driving solution tailored to your needs based on your personality and lifestyle. NMEDA is the National Mobility Equipment Association helps provide some peace of mind while providing safe, reliable vehicles and modifications to enhance accessibility for all people. NMEDA is a non-profit trade association. NMEDA exists purely in order to standardize quality systems in the industry and provide peace of mind when customers purchase from NMEDA dealers. NMEDA dealers sell handicap vans and vehicle modifications for disabled people and are required to adhere to the safety standards of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

NMEDA dealers nationwide

When dealing with NMEDA dealers you have comfort that through NMEDA and it’s Quality Assurance Program dealers, you will find a great fit for your lifestyle manufactured to the highest standards.

So if you require a transport solution for the elderly or disabled visit the NMEDA website today and when you get to the website be sure to check where your closest NMEDA dealer is.

Once you’ve had a look at the site and checked for a local dealer  I’d love to know whether you were able to find an NMEDA dealer in your neighborhood what your experience of their service was.

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I’ve decided to celebrate ten as a an achievement after reading 9 First step Goals [...]]]> I was reminded this morning, while reading about how to Make Scary Big Stuff Happen by the very informative Men With Pens, of the importance of occasionally just putting your head down and grafting.

I’ve decided to celebrate ten as a an achievement after reading 9 First step Goals for New Bloggers. The time since I started this site has been extremely  busy and I’m very proud of having been able to get through all of it still standing and head high. This is my second incarnation of Monetize and this is a project I am quite sincere about. I would love nothing more than to add value to your lives. With this in Mind I’m taking my time working toward the milestones but most of all I’m having fun. It’s pretty clear when a writer is phoning it in. I started out writing for myself and in a very real way I still am. I write because it is something I love doing. I write because I believe that the power of words can transform lives. Up until now I’ve found that I run out of steam on my blogs at this stage. The help I’ve been getting through twitter and the blogs I’ve subscribed to leave me in awe at the ability the guys out there blogging for love and money and if anything I’m more energised than I was on day one. I feel myself annoyed when I need to tweak my layout and can’t spend time on my content.

Ten posts are only a drop in he ocean but if I’ve learnt anything so far it’s that despite the mental coaxing and the willpower calisthenics that my lazy brain sometimes requires when writing seems like hard work perhaps this is not the work for you. My blog is called Monetize and it’s only partly tongue in cheek. It’s about realizing, how much you earn is secondary to the legacy you create. When you spend the value you build in your life on others you will find the value return ten fold.

My Favourite Posts so far:

• Optimizing Your Time Online
• Take back your time! 3 ways to take control of your life one minute at a time
• A Life at Peace Lessons from the Guitarist

Having said all of that I would be no where without the help of my best friends who don’t know my name. The bloggers whose words I feed on daily and whose advice has helped me improve more than I dreamed in such a short time.

So here’s Darren Rowse’s list from www.problogger.net

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We’re making an announcement about something new. Something we’ve been working on for a little while. Something that will change the way you interact with Evernote, and, [...]]]> According the Evernote blog announcement, we need to prepare ourselves, come the 14th of July

We’re making an announcement about something new. Something we’ve been working on for a little while. Something that will change the way you interact with Evernote, and, maybe even, change how you think about Evernote.

Speculation is rife about the Evernote blog announcement about what July 14th will bring. So what is the evernote announcement on the 14th July going to be? This is my personal Evernote wishlist none of which will end up being the July 14th Surprise no doubt.

What’s in the July 14th box?

• CSS support for web clippings? Please please please, let this be the announcement I love Evernote however in 2010 I still find it frustrating that when I clip a site for later reading I lose all the formatting. This is probably everyone’s biggest gripe with Evernote and hopefully come July 14th we’ll all have good reason to shout “suck it” to the Evernote detractors who’ve been point to this as a deal breaker for years now.
• An improved web interface, now don’t get me wrong I don’t hate the Evernote website however the Evernote application has come along in leaps and bounds with Evernote 3.5 really hitting the mark and sadly leaving the Evernote web interface in it’s dust. Perhaps July 14th will bring us beefed up editor interface and integrate the shared folders better.
• Integration to 3rd party apps perhaps? I’d love to log into Evernote on the 14th of July and see the option of linking up with my google calender or gmail via API. Evernote is  great as is however integration with 3rd party apps would mean a complete office solution. Including your contacts and emails and everything else in your Evernote system.
• A Linux version, please please please. I use Ubuntu on my home PC and it’s really frustrating that I can’t work offline. Looking at it’s geeky target market, namely me, no Linux support really doesn’t make much sense. Maybe if we wish hard it’ll be in the box on the 14th July?
• A time management module? Perhaps some kind of to-do and task scheduling component. I’m not sure if this is the direction Evernote are headed in but it certainly would change the way we use Evernote.
• Free Personal robot or android to capture all our notes into Evernote for us, please please please could it look like a mini elephant so we can make it run away from the pc’s mouse?
• Positive re-inforcement via chocolate deposited into our Evernote shared folders
• Evernote TV? Will Evernote announce that we can finally clip the best bits of our favourite television shows for later perusal?
• An evernote affilliate program? Please let Evernote announce that I will get $1 for every note captured by a user I referred, I’d be a millionaire by now.
• A paper based version of Evernote, perhaps called an Evernote Notebook?
• Handy apps we can add to Evernote to track our finances and everything else, that way we can be depressed about a much wider range of things we haven’t gotten round to.

All in all this is all speculation about the announcement and we all have things we’d love to see added or changed in Evernote. One way or another there’s going to be a big party on the 14th July which means something game-changing is coming on the back of this announcement.

What do you think the Evernote announcement will be?

July 14 Evernote Announcement update:

Evernote Trunk is here, Evernote unveil a fully featured application store that provides application integration withing Evernote. Evernote trunk promises to change the face of Evernote forever with addition itegration with platforms like SAP as well as improved group functionality and the opportunity for publishers to publish magazines via “branded notebooks”

Evernote July 14th announcement Event Details

If you want to go to the Evernote anouncement event on July 14th here’s the details:

July 14th, 6pm – 9pm
111 Minna in San Francisco [map]

Tickets

RSVP today to get a free ticket. We will be charging at the door, so make sure to pre-register.

For Evernote See also:

• Evernote Trunk full of applications
• Uses for Evernote Screenshot screen clipping
• Using Evernote for Goal Tracking Pt. 3 – Organisation
• Goal and Objective tracking in Evernote Pt. 2 – Capture
• Goal and Objective tracking in Evernote Pt. 1 – Collection
• How to use Evernote and GTD for setting and achieving goals and objectives
• Using Evernote: How I process my Stuff
• Evernote Review: Online note taking software Pc and Mobile

Free Videos by Ustream.TV

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Goals should be geared to creating life! More life, to be lived and enjoyed. The more I mull the goal setting and tracking and achieving paradigm the more I think that there is confusion between  goals and tasks. The road and the journey. Time and life.

If we are to look [...]]]>

Goals should be geared to creating life! More life, to be lived and enjoyed. The more I mull the goal setting and tracking and achieving paradigm the more I think that there is confusion between  goals and tasks. The road and the journey. Time and life.

If we are to look forward into our lives, we must not look up the rocky paths that are ahead of us, but rather lift our heads. Look ahead as the proverbial crow flies and look to our goals. That for me is what goals are about. They have to be the compass that guides us out of the wandering paths which split into path after path detour after detour. Goals are the kick in the nuts we need to remind us that the path is not the destination and why giving up is not an option.

Goal gym: Goal Big, work hard!

What does it help us to set these tiny goals? Why aim to get out of bed early if we aren’t planning to use the extra time to take over the world?

• Pick Goals that make you feel!– If a goal doesn’t scare you, thrill you, make you smile like a fool it’s not going to fuel you. Goals only work if they light a fire under you. If you need to keep topping your goals up with interest, passion or excitement you’re destined to fail.
• Pick Goals for yourself! – Only you are accountable to your goals so go large or go home, when you pick goals for yourself you’ll  feel the lid lift on what you’re capable of doing.
• Send your goals out into the world – When you go and goal big you need to stay accountable, make your goals a living statement of your life. Blog about it, put up posters notes tattoo your goal above your navel. Turn other people on with your passion!
• Turn your world into a “Goal gym” – Surround yourself with the tools you need to leverage your reality into your goals. Work out on them often. There are finite steps between where you are and where you want to be. Start walking now!
• Go big but keep your number of goals down – This is the big one. Do choose big nasty scary goals. However do choose fewer goals. If you are going to pour your heart, soul and more into your goals you can’t spread yourself thin. Go big on the important goals and the rest will see to itself.

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9 Ways to use Google Calender to be your money – Trent over at the simple [...]]]> The second edition of my Friday link love, this week made for some truly enjoyable reading as it was packed full of practical advice. one of my favourites was the guide to google analytics very informative.

9 Ways to use Google Calender to be your money – Trent over at the simple dolllar discusses how he uses Google calender to organize his finances. I’m a very recent convert to Google calender and have so far only been using it to organize my writing and design projects. Trent adds some very useful tips to keep your money goals on track.

The 20 something Coupon clipper – I Will Teach You To Be Rich’s Money Diaries look at a typical 20 something so busy doing the wrong things she has no time to realize it.

Building Credibility – Darren Rowse at Problogger discusses building up Credibility on your blog but the results can be applied to most any situation where you’re selling yourself as a product. Perhaps something interesting to think about before your next job interview. Also see 9 First Step Goals for New Bloggers this post got me so excited I made my first Comment on Problogger

Create your own handwriting font – Productivity 501 looks at the advantages of digitizing your handwriting. This is one of those decisions that you’ll need to mull over a bit, however if you under the right circumstances it could save you tons of time.

A guide to Google Analytics: A must read for anyone wanting to start a blog or website. I’ve already saved this to my reference folder and it’s perfect for the beginner as well as those of us who thought we knew it all.

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