Here you will get a glimpse into the mind of Dean McNamara – Not a journey for the faint of heart.

No guarantees made and no punches pulled. If you are sensitive by nature this is not the place for you.

Enter the Danger Zone at your own risk.

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I was reading Seth Godin’s blog today and one line made me laugh.

When you talk to yourself is anyone listening?

We all want to talk about ourselves, and although you may deny it, you only really discover just how true this is when you are with someone who just won’t quit. They leave you no opportunity to speak up and before long you either start trying to talk over the top of them or you walk away (or wish you could).

So we like to talk about ourselves. But do we stop to listen to what we are saying about ourselves? This was the point that Seth was making. How are we presenting our self to others, and what do we really believe about ourselves?

I watched a movie last night that had a punchline of “Who are you? And what are you going to do about it?” (in slightly more colorful language). Do you really know who you are and what your potential is?  If you do, are you making the most of that potential or are you drifting through life being tossed to and fro?

Today would be a good time to stop and listen to what you are actually saying about yourself if you have not done so recently. What we truly believe about ourselves will influence the way we conduct ourselves and the decisions we make. Often we may think we know we feel about ourselves but our actions reveal thoughts.

If you can’t hear what you are saying about yourself ask some close friends to tell you what you are saying about yourself!

Today I went to two hardware stores. They are both large stores and they are next door to each other.

One store has a greeter at the door (a pretty young lady today) the other does not. I went into the store without a greeter at the door and wandered up and down the isles for 5 minutes  looking for an item. I was only approached by a member of the store staff because they wanted to walk past me and I was blocking the isle.

The store with the greeter was holding workshops for children during the school holidays. Today they got to decorate a small flower pot with paint, then a small candle was given to them to put in it. They were also given a blow-up tool with the company logo and were able to choose a cardboard box to put their treasures in. Total cost to children = $0.00.

Of course I went shopping while the children were busy being entertained. I was approached by several staff during the course of my browsing. The experience was entirely different from the other store. Guess which one is the most popular store with the general public?

There were a few staff members that I noticed even in the user friendly store that were more interested in personal conversations than making sales. So they could use some kind of monitoring system to ensure everyone is pulling their weight.

Amazingly there are many stores that do not train their staff in how to spend their time. Perhaps equally amazing is the attitude of the staff. In a time of recession you would think they would be doing everything can to ensure they have a job next week. This would include proving that you are a valuable member of the team, and making sales to ensure the profitability of the business.

You can tell those who go to work with an employee mentality. They believe the company owes them, is probably screwing them, and they are always looking for a way to get something for nothing. Entrepreneurs, even when working for other people, will be looking for ways to improve productivity and increase sales. A smart company will make sure they invest in these staff to retain them. A company that looses staff members with this aptitude will not only loose the benefits that these staff members generate, they will be giving their competitors a boost in productivity or may even be creating new competitors if the entrepreneur starts up their own business.

Tip for employees:

No matter your role in the company you have the ability to make yourself indispensable to the company.

Tip for employers:

Train and monitor the performance of your staff – then provide good staff an incentive to stay.

A Business Plan In Time Will Save You Nine (Thousand Dollars Or More).

The following forum post is all too common with people starting out online.

I know where the poster is coming from – I have been there too.

What I wish someone had told me before I was in that position:

Making money online is no different to making money offline. You have to develop a business plan. Take your time and get this part of the process right or you will waste a lot of money.

Once you know what your goal is, and you have a plan to get to that goal, then you can start investing in programs and tools to expedite your journey. Do not buy anything (no matter how good or how much hype surrounds it) unless you understand exactly how it will fit into your business plan. Do not change your business plan to accommodate such purchases as this will cause you to deviate from your goal.

The gentleman in the above post had all the right motives for taking the action he did, but he didn’t have a plan in place to begin with. He is now in the position of having no disposable income to promote the business that he has just bought into. If he had a plan in place he may have chosen a slightly different route. After all, there is a lot a person can do with the $10,000 to $25,000 that he has most likely invested in the tools mentioned (depending at which level he bought into the programs).

It doesn’t matter how good the program/tool is, if it isn’t the right fit for your talents and expertise it will not benefit you at all. Just because your neighbor achieved success with it does not guarantee you will. Fully investigate how these things work before you buy in. If they will not explain the mechanics of the system upfront then keep shopping, there are many systems and business opportunities to choose from.

It is better to have “missed out” on a great deal (as the marketing will tell you) than to have spent all your money on a great deal that will give you a zero return on your investment. I have seen many cases where people have been encouraged to buy into programs using Other People’s Money as a “leveraging tool” only to find themselves paying off a huge credit card debt with no extra money coming in. It can literally take years to recover from these situations (or worse still, it can bankrupt a person).

Unfortunately, there are all too many predators out there wanting to relieve you of your money. Not all of these people are sharks who enjoying preying on the weak and gullible, many are those who were taken in and have no other way out but to recruit others and collect a commission.

If you are reading this before you have made these mistakes, remember:

• Set your goal.
• Create a business plan (get help with this if you have not done it before).
• Stick to the plan – do not get side tracked even if it means missing out on a once in a life time opportunity.
• Only buy tools/programs if you know exactly how they will benefit your plan (and you have the skills to apply them).

Please don’t let me see you making forum posts like the one above!

Irrational is probably not what you would care to be labelled as, and yet that is exactly what you are. Dan Ariely shows not only are you irrational, but you are predictably irrational.

How can this be so?

Well, many of the illogical decisions you make can be predicted in advance. For example, one of the illustrations in the book involves two samples of chocolate. One is a world famous exotic chocolate and the other is the recycled waste sold as chocolate in convenience stores.

The experiment began by selling the two chocolates side by side in small one bite sized samples. The price of the authentic chocolate experience was 15 cents and the price of the imitation chocolate was only 1 cent. An overwhelming majority of people confronted with this decision concluded that the exotic chocolate was a better buy.

However, once the price of both chocolate samples was dropped by 1 cent something strange happened. You could say it was entirely irrational. The price difference between the chocolates was exactly the same, but now the majority of people took the low quality chocolate.

What caused this switch when the price differential was exactly the same?

The low end chocolate had dropped from 1 cent to free. That magic word free had altered the equation, tipping the value balance away from the quality chocolate.

This is just one of the many cases where our irrational behaviour can be totally predictable. Advertisers are taking advantage of this knowledge all the time. Even when you think you know what the advertiser is doing, you may be surprised to find that he is doing something entirely different on your subconscious level.

This is a great book for anyone who markets anything, or even sets prices on supermarket stock. It is also a must have for anyone considering making a shopping excursion.

If you would like to help support this blog please purchase through this link.

Everyone loves the under dog.

The current Soccer World Cup is no exception. The host nation, South Africa, were the first home team to bow out before the second round in the history of the Cup. But they are heralded as heroes.

Why this heroic celebration of what others consider to be a failure? Because there were the under dogs. No one expected them to win. However, they went out and played with heart and enthusiasm. They gave their best.

New Zealand has now been adopted by many South Africans. They will be cheering for the team from down under because they too were never given a chance. Several of their team are not even full time soccer players, and many of the other teams are made up of professionals all earning million dollar cheques.

Will they win? Unlikely. But while they are still in there is always a chance. And in the mean time we will all celebrate each victory (and anything other than a loss is a victory when you are at the bottom of the table) as if we had won the cup.

We all like a victorious under dog story. Sylvester Stallone made a career out of playing this role in movies.

Why do we cheer the under dog so?

Because we all wish life had turned out a little differently?

Maybe we have given up the fight to achieve our dreams and would rather live vicariously through the actions of others.

Many a successful person is remembered for what they achieved, but we have forgotten the many failures that person went through to achieve what they did.

Don’t stop short when the next action you take could be the one that propelled you to achieve your dreams.

Success Isn’t An Accident. It Is A Culmination Of Failures
~ Dean McNamara

A quick look at the latest television commercial from Telecom advertising their XT Network.

This is an interesting marketing exercise. For those that don’t know, Telecom the once Government owned monopoly in phone services here in NZ launched a new network system recently. Since the phone networks have been opened up to competition (to some extent) Telecom has struggled to get ahead of the technology curve and the XT network was supposed to be the answer.

After spending a lot of money promoting the launch and signing up many customers with the launch specials the new network crashed. Not once, not twice, but numerous times (I lost count). Much of the country suddenly and without notice found they had no cellphone coverage for days at a time in some cases.

This leaves a lot of very unhappy customers and one Paul Reynolds CEO with egg on his face – especially when you consider the advertising that heralded his appointment to the company.

In an effort to regain the trust of a country Telecom runs another marketing campaign to announce the XT network is in fact now working. They chose none other than the CEO to front the marketing campaign.

The new ad shows Paul Reynolds, the charming Scotsman, trout fishing in a remote location. He praises New Zealanders for their “pick yourself up by the bootstrap” attitude, and suggest we should give Telecom another go. His phone then rings and he tries to answer it when “Buggar …” it appears to have dropped out again .. “only kiddin [cheeky grin].”

What they did right.

The used the CEO to front the campaign. He is after all a well known figure now.

What they got wrong.

It is all very well to admire our resilient attitude as Kiwis, but just because you kicked us in the guts with your swanky sales pitch and faulty system (not once, not twice, but several times) don’t expect us to give you another chance. Even if your handsome CEO smiles into the camera dressed in the latest in trout fishing attire.

As for the funny joke about the phone not working… now that was a serious flaw. They say good advertising should be controversial, but the person who scripted that ad should be looking for a new job.

There are many Kiwis who suffered direct hardship (custom lost, emergency calls unable to be connected) because Telecom’s state of the art network let them down. Now the CEO is on TV making a joke of the situation??!!

Ok.. one can see their intent. To appear personable and admit they screwed up “ha ha jokes on us.” But now they want to be taken serious again.

The perspective of one jaded Kiwi is that here is one overpaid Scotsman (making more just in bonuses than most people make in a lifetime) telling us he admires how he can kick us in the guts repeatedly and we keep getting up. Then he makes light of a situation caused a lot of stress and frustration in many people’s lives (and may even have cost the life of some) trying to be cute. The apology ends up being an insult.

Not the best marketing decision I have seen.

What do you think? Does it work for you?

When is a friend not a friend?

Maybe when you have had too much of a good thing …

Recent innovation in the Google search engine results is to tailor your search results to those people on line to whom you are most connected.

In other words Google has decided that your online friends, and your friends online friends, are probably interested in the same sorts of things that you are, so when you search for something you will probably want to know what your friends have to say about the matter.

The returned result will reflect something like what is happening the picture below (at least that is what the video from the official Google blog says).

That all sounds fantastic doesn’t it?

But if this is the way of the future, what will the future end up looking like?

As I see it there are two possible outcomes.
1) It works like they say it will.
2) It doesn’t work like they say it will.

I am not sure which will be more scary. If it works like they are trying to engineer it to work then the more time you spend online the more the results will be tailored to your tastes and that of your friends.

Can you imagine a world so boring?

You are trapped in a pattern of perpetual sameness. No matter what search term you plug into Google, Google is going to throw back at you results that reflect the browsing behavior of you and your friends. A little too much like inbreeding in my books, self centred at best.

Ok, so initially your social network results have been segregated, but they have been engineering the results to your own habits for some time. And I can understand what Google is trying to do. They are trying to save you scrolling through the results to find sites that might interest you, or sites that feature your friends who obviously interest you.

But sometimes I just like to be surprised!

Perhaps I am strange. Maybe no-one else has learned something new and interesting because of an odd result that came back when they searched for a term on a search engine.

Or how about the other alternative? What if it doesn’t work as they plan?

The more likely outcome, in the short term at least, is that we will be inundated with new “friends.” If the only way of getting your website promoted to new circles of influence is make friends with new people, then I can see those people who currently spam your comment box, your forum, your social profiles, and your email in-box suddenly wanting to become your best friend.

As it is I have a plethora of “friends” from various social sites whose only attempt at interaction with me was to add me as a friend. I am not sure about you, but I thought friendship was a little more than having your avatar displayed on someone else’s friend list. Why would you even bother to go the effort if you were never intending to at least say “hi.”

I guess time will tell if it “works” or not. But at this stage I’ll enjoy the few surprises I discover when doing searches, and I’ll continue to make the most of my relatively small friends list.

Has innovation died?

Time Magazine published an article “10 Ideas For The Next 10 Years” and number ten on that list made the statement that we have entered the “boring age.”

We think we are innovative because we now have phones integrated with web browsers and touch screens. But the article asks where is the innovation that invented the phone? Where is the innovation that invented the combustion engine?

Sure we are tweaking already existent technology, we have smart phones and more efficient engines. But we don’t drive flying spaceships and we don’t have vacations on the moon.

What we do have is oil slicks destroying large tracts of our oceans. We have more cool electronic gadgets that replace old clunky items that came from the past. But how much of this innovation is just filling in time. Much like the new social media craze online – people waste a lot of time on social network sites. Some even believe they are building a business. The reality is that they will be doing the same things 5 years from now, still believing they are building a business.Just as engineers believe all their gadgetry is innovative.

I think we are ready for some real innovation. Who knows it might create some jobs and economic growth.

source

We have a meet the teacher evening coming up next week for our primary school kids. After getting their second term reports we have no real reason to go, although we will anyway. It is good to know what the teachers are trying to accomplish.

The interesting thing about the reports is not so much the teacher’s assessment, they just tick the boxes to say average, above average, or not average. But it was the section where the kids got do their own assessment.

One of my daughters achieved a mostly average report from her teacher, and when it came to assessing herself she ticked mostly “achieving” boxes as well. The daughter is one of the oldest in her class because of they way school system works here (essentially holding her back 6 months instead of pushing her forward). So she is mostly above average in her class. But when it came to the self assessment she ticked all the “excelling” boxes. She has a high opinion of herself!

Combine these results with the book I am currently reading by Robert Kiyosaki:

I may make a few cents if you buy through the above link

Although it is 20 years old, few lessons have been learnt since the time it was written. The school system has become a little less results oriented (although I am not entirely sure I agree that this is actually better for most students), but they still do not teach a child that they can achieve anything they can dream.

I will be interested to see if my optimistic daughter still believes she is “excelling” in all areas as she moves through the school system.

I hope I can teach my children what the school system failed to teach me. And I hope they can learn it at a much earlier age than I learnt it.

What about you?

Have you educated yourself so that you can educate your children in a way that they might have a chance of retiring independent of the Government? Or so they might achieve any of their dreams?

Great news! The recession is over in New Zealand.

At least that is what our Government believes, so they have raised the OCR (Official Cash Rate). This done the same week that the financial spending of our politicians has been exposed by way of the public information act.

So these same politicians who believe that the tax payer should be funding their porn addictions, golf clubs, alcohol addictions, and clothes (and who knows what else is about to be uncovered) are in a position to know how financially sound the rest of the country are.

I suggest they are that far removed from reality that they have no business running a tap never mind a country. Although running is certainly not something that many of them could manage anyway.

Even if there was a slight recovery happening (although this is still in dispute) you would think the politicians might give the country a little slack before the tax hikes already set in place actually take effect. But no.

I am guessing that we are supposed to react with a ho-hum oh-well there we go attitude. Not a corrupt lets see how we can work the system and make the other taxpayers pay for it kind of attitude.

Today I received a great gift in my inbox. Adam Taha announced that I won his Facebook fan page creation.

From the blog of Adam Taha

This was certainly an unexpected surprise.

Why I am surprised that I won is because this really is a great prize. Adam Taha is an amazingly talented person and his works are legend in so many different circles. He has transformed his own city and beyond. He has excelled in a variety of businesses. He is renown on the internet for his graphics abilities and widely respected for his knowledge.

If you wanted to hire Adam Taha it would cost you thousands – if you could persuade him to work for you.

So when I saw this offer I recognised the value instantly. I immediately shared it with my friends because I wanted to be known as the cool guy who showed them how to win an amazing prize. I never considered actually winning for myself (if I didn’t have bad luck I would have no luck at all).

However, it seems that many others must have thought they would never win too. And they must have combined that lack of belief with a lack of action. So all I can do is encourage you take action in the future. You never know your luck – you just may win literally thousands of dollars worth of prizes like I did today.

I will post an update once we have built the fanpage so you can see the kind of talent that Adam Taha has.

Nuclear weapons were once thought to be the most destructive force on the planet. But even the horrific devastation that nuclear weapons can cause they are no match for another force we see in the world today.

That force is man’s greed. This would have to be the single most destructive force in the world around us. After watching “Ross Kemp: In Search Of Pirates” and delving into the source of Nigerian pirate forces I am appalled.

These are people who have fallen below the poverty line because their environment has been destroyed by oil. Large tracts of land and water-ways have become black wastelands. The pollution is mind-boggling. Of course, America is just beginning to experience the devastation of oil pollution to the detriment of its coastline. And we in New Zealand are opening our coast up to oil exploration.

Oil is not the only source of pollution in the world. Many other countries are belching fumes into the atmosphere, and toxic waste into the waterways. There is no need for the majority of the waste we create other than greed. Profit margins are the reason that we allow this destruction of the planet.

I fear for the legacy that we have left for my children, never mind my children’s children. The world will be a very different place 50 years from now, and it will not be for the better.

I’ll finish my rant and crawl into my clean comfortable bed, while others will go hungry in their polluted makeshift shacks. A little more of the world will die while I sleep. And tomorrow I’ll have forgotten the images of death and destruction … or will I?

It never ceases to astound me what the network channels think is newsworthy.

You can tell when there is no war going on with a political agenda (the majority of wars barely rate a mention). We get all sorts of tripe broadcast to fill the gap. News that shouldn’t even be news in the country of origin is somehow considered worthy of international attention.

That is bad enough. But what of these mass murders? Should we devote so much attention to them? It seems to me it is just glamorizing a sad event. Do we really need to ask friends and family how they felt about their tragic loss? Are we expecting them to come out and say “about time, they had it coming”?

Never mind that we drag up all the mass killings of the past and compare body counts. This one was more horrific than that one. This guy is more famous than that. If that is not encouraging people to go out and claim the most notches in their belt then I don’t know what is.

Perhaps we should stick with how drunk Fergie was, and how much she tried to elicit for access to her husband.

What difference does one make?

One day you are a high roller living it up with all the toys money can buy. Then next day the stock market plummets and you are bankrupt. What difference does one day make?

Or perhaps you are struggling to make ends meet and not sure where the rent is coming from this week. You get given a lottery ticket for your birthday and that one ticket makes you a millionaire in an instant (incidentally I didn’t win a thing – but I am sure someone did). One day, one ticket, one life that will never be the same again.

What about one person? Have you ever met one person had such an impact on your life that it will never be the same again? If you are married then I would hope that you have at least had this experience once. Perhaps it was even one teacher at school, or one employer that took an interest in you. Maybe it is a friend or relative that has helped you out. It could even be an author or someone you have never met in person.

There are many stories of a Sunday School teacher, a sports coach, or someone in the neighbourhood who have invested time in others inspiring them to achieve greatness. From Presidents to Olympic champions tales are told of the one person that is credited with their success.

It only takes one moment in time, one action, one person to transform a life forever. A challenge this week is to try and be that person. See if you can change someone else’s life for the better.

If you have one person that has impacted your life feel free to share that story here.

Have you noticed a lot of crap gets sold on the internet?

The less value there is in the product the more flashing shiny things are used to promote it – generally to keep your attention away from the product itself.

Michel Fortin makes the following comment:

But today, I have come to the conclusion that most (not all, but most) Internet marketers who still use long copy, especially long copy that screams like a Monster Truck Rally announcer, is for a product that sucks. Period.

He goes on to suggest that you shouldn’t be proud that you can sell useless junk to anyone. Where is the honor in that? What kind of legacy is that to leave knowing that you sold more junk than anyone before you?

Just a short message today, as there is little more to add.

Is it me, or is there less days between birthdays now?

You’d think with another year passing that I would be wiser. I am not so sure about that. But I have learned a few more things along life’s way.

One of the things that I have learned is that it is when the going gets a little tough is when people show their true colours. You never really know someone until you have seen them under pressure, even if you thought you knew their character previously.

Children grow up way too fast – they make you feel even older than you are (who would have thought that possible?).

Sheep can be one of the stupidest animals on the planet. Yet I see a lot of myself in their stupidity. I make a lot of the same kinds of mistakes over and over. Perhaps some time over the next 40 years I will learn to do better.

Machines still break down. You’d think all the advances of technology we would have sorted that out by now. So much for evolution. It seems things don’t improve over time after all.

The Government is still not the solutions to my problems.And if you watch parliament TV it is rather obvious why nothing good normally comes out of the Government.

Still, I have some new ideas and new prospects on the horizon so hopefully I will be too busy to worry about what others are up to. I’ll be interested to look back in another 12 months to see how far I have come.

It is great to have positive things to say – this week seems to have had its share of positive experiences so I will share another one with you.

This one is about building a reputation and establishing oneself in a niche.

Joyce Penner, a member of the BetterNetworker forum created a name for self this week within the forum.

How did she create a name for herself?

Well she created a thread on the forum asking for some input as to why people be interested in her if she went around telling everyone about this great advice she had – got from XYZ guru.

She wanted to know why people wouldn’t just go and look up XYZ guru for themselves leaving her out of the loop.

Anyway, the thread attracted a few replies, some thoughtful and some witty (honestly, the same sentiments were expressed if you look behind the witt ).

Well that is as maybe. But then Joyce created a bit of a stir because she offered a free backlink to everyone that made the effort to comment. What Joyce Penner did was create the linked article detailing her blog thread. And in it she highlighted the people who had come to her party.

Now, I wonder if there will be any extra interest in commenting on her next thread?

The point being that she has now made a name for herself in the forum as someone who rewards the efforts of others.

It is a forum about “attraction marketing” but very few people there lead by example. Most just run off at the mouth telling you why you should be following them.

See the difference when someone actually practices what they preach! Well done Joyce.

Recently I had good pleasure of meeting someone over internet who turned out to be very genuine (a rare commodity these days) and a great help.

This person understands the principles of attraction marketing very well.

In the first instance they have created an extremely good plugin for Wordpress Blogs. The plugin makes it very simple to secure your blog from hackers. A problem that I was needing to solve at the time. So immediately they are giving value to people upfront – no strings attached.

In the second instance they provide support for their software. Remember this software costs nothing to install and now they are charging nothing to advise you on how to make sure it is working properly on your system.

If you have spent much time online you will know that service of this kind is very rare indeed. I was so appreciative of the value I had received that I sent a virtual cup of coffee (or a beer depending your drink of choice) by way of saying thank you.

It would seem that either I am the only person who has ever had a problem (which given my track record with computers is not unlikely) or I am the only person who has ever thought to say thank you. Because my actions stood out enough that the man behind the product took the time to contact me and offer an extra bonus.

So here I am once again in the debt of Edward Alexander the man behind Bullet Proof Website Security

I highly recommend the product, the person behind the product, and the business model that Edward exemplifies. If you think you are generous I challenge you to try and out-give this man!

While you are on his site check out the Flash Design header – I already have my heart set one!

Google Spies Caught.

An interesting apology on New Zealand news tonight.

It seems that when Google spies when around taking pictures for their streetview maps, they were also recording all the houses that had a wireless internet connection.

It does beg the question as to what business it is of Google how many people have wireless internet.  No doubt it is part of market research of some kind – what kind of service are Google scoping out the market for?

Personally, if they can provide me a better service I am all for it.  Did they need to be so covert?  Are they doing something that any other person with a scanner can not do?

I live well away from any neighbours and had not bothered setting up security on my wireless connection because I didn’t want to go to the effort of synchronizing my computers. That was until I noticed someone parked on the side of the road stealing my bandwidth. The person was in a work vehicle (does his boss know how he spends his day) and was parked partially obstructing the road as there is nowhere to pull off the road near my house.

After unplugging his connection, and phoning his employer, I have since installed security. But the point is that he was doing no more than the Google spies travelling around looking for an open wireless connection.  I presume Google wasn’t looking to steal bandwidth – or were they?

Big Brother caught with their pants down again. How embarrassing to be Google slapped!

Britain has a new Government. We have a new “Apprentice.”  The USA has new natural disaster on their doorstep.

But does anything ever really change?

A wise man by the name of Solomon once said that there is nothing new under the sun. He said that just as the seasons come and go and come again, so it is that there is nothing new.  It has all been done before, and will be again.

Teens dying from alcohol overdoses may be a recent phenomenon, although teens doing stupid things is nothing new. I was rather interested to see the parents of a teen who OD’ed on alcohol feature on TV news. They were giving other teens advice about looking out for their mates, and not letting them get too drunk. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no admittance that their own parenting skills may have had anything to do with the matter.

These parents obviously have no understanding of what it means that the sins of the father will be passed down to the next generation.

Governments come and go, but it doesn’t seem to make any different to the average citizen. The only difference seems to be the ways they find to tax you.

How do you cope in a universe such as this?

Is A Website Essential To My Business?

We live in a country where the people love new technology.  New Zealand was world leaders when it came to EFT POS – Electronic Funds Transfer @ Point Of Sale. Many other new gadgets and gizmos are readily taken up by the Kiwi population.

Broadband is something the majority of New Zealanders are screaming out for. We want it available and we want it faster. It is such a big deal that even the Government has felt compelled to step in and try to sort it out.

What does this tell you?

It tells me that as a population most of us are actively online. Ok, no surprises there. But the staggering thing to me is the lack of recognition of this fact that local businesses seem to have.

I look at the number of businesses listed in the local Yellow Pages and then I do a search for these services online, and in some cases I am drawing a total blank. Even the businesses I do find often only have a listing in an online directory, they do not have a website of their own.

Who is to blame for this seemingly head-in-the-sand approach that NZ businesses are taking?  The Universities that produce all these managers? Business owners that hire staff to take care of computer stuff and have no idea how use one?

All I can say is that if you have a business and it isn’t online you are missing out on a lot of customers.  And if your competition beats you to having an online presence you will be left playing catch-up. It is always harder to outrank someone that already has a web presence for your target keywords.

If you need a little help getting online try NZMarketingSystems.com

Life is so busy. We have to rush here and be there. Surroundings become a blur.

People we meet often become apart of that blurred surrounding. Even when we are forced to face other people, we don’t want to take the time to get to know them because we don’t have time in our busy lives for another relationship.

Dale Carnegie made a lot of money when he recognised this tendency of modern society.  His book How to Win Friends and Influence People changed the lives of many people, but it was not enough to reverse the trends of a generation. So, unfortunately, his book is as relevant today as it ever was.

Good relationships are the key to a great business and a happy life. Something overlooked by so many. A point that brought home to me again today as I watched someone “booted” from an internet site for being a little too forward for the status quo. This same person with whom I would later share ideas and form a working relationship.

Is your comfort zone limiting your life?
Is your comfort zone limiting you business?

I suggest you read How To Win Friends and Influence People again if you have read it before. Remind yourself how to really get ahead in this world.

I wasn’t going to comment on the unfortunate mess that Mr. Serepisos seems to have found himself in as I have no vested interested.  However, seeing the way things have played out in the media I cannot help myself.

The similarity between the way Mr. Serepisos seems to operate and certain individuals that I have the misfortune of doing business with recently is striking. Why is that these individuals who live the high-life seem to think that their own lifestyle is more important than those to whom they owe money?

More to the point, why do they continue to ignore people trying to deal with them as long as the matter is kept private. These people will only sort out matters once brought into the public light it would appear. No doubt they rely on the fact that the majority of people would not go to the trouble, or have the knowledge of how to bring public attention to their plight.

Is it arrogance? A lack of conscience? Or have they just lost touch with reality?

It isn’t that I particularly like seeing a high fliers crash and burn, but I like it even less when I see the working man struggling because his money has not eventuated. And it always seems like it is those at the bottom of the food chain who suffer because they have no options.  The people they owe money to can not be ignored.

Meanwhile, the high fliers in their fancy cars and expensive clothes, when confronted with complaints from the working class cry “tall poppy.” Is it any wonder that the general population has a distrust and low image of the flashy high flier when all too often their suspicions end up proven correct?

Should we gloat? Or should we hang our head in shame with the state of the society that we live in?

ANZAC Day – a day of rememberance for our valient men of war.

ANZAC standing for Australia – New Zealand – Army Corps. A relationship stretching back to 1914 when the first ANZAC unit was formed.

The spirit of the men from down under was undeniably robust, and despite horrific skirmishes such as that of Gallipoli the ANZACs were feared and respected by their opponents.

Traditionally ANZAC day has been set aside as a memorial of the many men fighting under the Australasian banner who gave their lives.  The sale of red poppies has helped generate money for the casualties and families of these men.

ANZAC day memorials have become more popular in recent times as the younger generations rally together to show support for the valiant men of generations past.

So what should we think of anti war protesters who are now encroaching upon tradition? This year they began selling white poppies only days before the traditional red poppies came onto the market.

Should protests against modern wars and politics desecrate the precious memories of past sacrifice? Does the act of remembering fallen soldiers of years gone by endorse current political actions?

Or is this just part of the social engineering that is determined to destroy the past for the sake of their own agenda? The same philosophy that is determined to drive a wedge between the indigenous people and the colonizers. The same movement that wants control over our children and our land, not to mention our income.

A post for those of us who market on the internet.

There are a lot of people panicking and complaining about the F.T.C. (Federal Trade Commission) and the heavy handed actions they are taking with online marketers.

The interesting thing is that they are only enforcing rules that were always in existence but have not been enforced on the internet as strictly as they have been in other forms of media.

I always find it interesting that people get all upset when good business practices and consumer rights are enforced upon them.   I would not run a business that makes it standard practice to screw people, lie to to people, or generally provide substandard value, so this has never really been a concern to me.

Just today I got an email by a well known online marketer that stated this about his product:

... received rave reviews (which unfortunately
we can't print due to the damn new FTC regulations!).

You might think that he has cause for complaint – although I am not sure which rules his reviews were breaking.   However, the interesting thing is that I went the sales page for his product and after reading the page I was greeted with an exit popup when I tried to leave.

Exit popups are fairly common these days.  This particular one offered me an extra $20 discount if I changed my mind and decided to buy after all. It was a ONE TIME ONLY offer that I would never see again if I closed the window.

Here is my problem.  I would be seriously annoyed had I bought at the price first offered, because they were more than happy to sell it $20 cheaper.  But even more annoying is the blatent ONE TIME ONLY offer LIE.  Because I re-entered the site to check (several times), and was offered exactly the same ONE TIME ONLY offer each time.

My point is, here is a classic example of an online marketer complaining about the F.T.C. regulations, while at the same time blatantly trying to rip off his customers.

I say “shame on you Dan Raine.”