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.