It dawned on me today that on Ed’s 30 Day Challenge videos, he can always get his RSS feeds at the click of a button (the little orange square in the url bar). And that’s why it only takes him seconds to find content for blog posts and articles.
I got really hung up on RSS feeds last year, and subsequently have been manually going round places to get content for my existing blogs.
Today the penny finally dropped as to just how important these feeds are as they save so much time. So I didn’t look at any of today’s training material. If I’m to write the rest of my short articles in record time to catch up, I need to do things properly.
So I tried to sort out getting all the relevant feeds into Bloglines, so that I too can find content quickly.
Unfortunately, the very first site I looked at had a problem with it’s RSS icon, but I didn’t know that. I thought it was me that was doing it wrong. So after a panic gmail text chat with Asbjorn (what would I do without him?) he told me where to find an alternative feed for that site.
I then spent ages trying to work out how to organise my feeds and folders in Bloglines, but then it clicked.
Once I worked out how to do it, I found that sometimes, it wouldn’t work first time, but it would work the second time. On one, it took five attempts, and I did exactly the same thing each time, but I stuck with it, as I knew it had worked before.
Once I was confident that I could do it properly, you couldn’t stop me building feeds to get content for my existing blogs. Now I’m dead chuffed I finally got it.
This afternoon, I was panicking that I was falling behind, and wouldn’t be able to finish my short articles on time, but I’m not worried now, as I now think it will be easy for me to catch up.
It’s slightly annoying that Bloglines keeps changing the order of my folders, seemingly for no reason, but it’s not a big problem.
Quickly had time just to check what work I’d missed on the 30DCIII Training page, and there’s only one video for today.
Showing posts with label dylexic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dylexic. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
77. 30 Day Challenge Day 14
Watched today’s videos and found we had another 6 articles to write; three short pieces of content for each of our two niches. I actually had ten to write because I had only written two yesterday.
And I knew I had to get them all done, because once I get behind, I always have difficulty catching up.
It wasn’t a problem, when I went at my own pace and stayed focussed. Usually I’d panic if I’m even a little bit behind, but I can only concentrate at one thing at a time, so I did. I didn’t log into to the forum or my email account. I just wrote my pieces of content. Ed did his short article in 9 minutes. I did mine in 30 minutes, but I'm OCD about changing every single sentence, so there isn't duplicate content. Maybe my articles are too long. I didn't get them all finished.
I kept the pdf of Ed’s open to keep referring back to, as my memory’s like a sieve. This reminded me of which steps to take to get all the info together.
Also included in the videos were how to find affliate products, not to build a business out of affilaite marketing, but to test whether people in those markets are prepared to spend money.
Ed compared it to the TV idol series where you get paid to test what people want, rather than throw money away trying to find out. So he showed us Clickbank affiliate products, then showed us how to sign for Amazon and although they give measly rates of commission and we’re never gonna get rich selling Amazon products, they are a brilliant way of testing markets as they have so many products, and such a huge customer base.
I’m sure I signed up with them last year, and I know I have a Clickbank account, but stupidly, I never used them.
Had our weekly Skype call with Asbjorn and Pauline, and we lost Asbjorn after a while, but he was very helpful and guided me and Pauline through setting up Squidoo lenses. We won’t be covering thses in the 30DCIII.
And I knew I had to get them all done, because once I get behind, I always have difficulty catching up.
It wasn’t a problem, when I went at my own pace and stayed focussed. Usually I’d panic if I’m even a little bit behind, but I can only concentrate at one thing at a time, so I did. I didn’t log into to the forum or my email account. I just wrote my pieces of content. Ed did his short article in 9 minutes. I did mine in 30 minutes, but I'm OCD about changing every single sentence, so there isn't duplicate content. Maybe my articles are too long. I didn't get them all finished.
I kept the pdf of Ed’s open to keep referring back to, as my memory’s like a sieve. This reminded me of which steps to take to get all the info together.
Also included in the videos were how to find affliate products, not to build a business out of affilaite marketing, but to test whether people in those markets are prepared to spend money.
Ed compared it to the TV idol series where you get paid to test what people want, rather than throw money away trying to find out. So he showed us Clickbank affiliate products, then showed us how to sign for Amazon and although they give measly rates of commission and we’re never gonna get rich selling Amazon products, they are a brilliant way of testing markets as they have so many products, and such a huge customer base.
I’m sure I signed up with them last year, and I know I have a Clickbank account, but stupidly, I never used them.
Had our weekly Skype call with Asbjorn and Pauline, and we lost Asbjorn after a while, but he was very helpful and guided me and Pauline through setting up Squidoo lenses. We won’t be covering thses in the 30DCIII.
Monday, August 13, 2007
76. The 30 Day Challenge Day 13
Spent all day collecting more information on my niches. I found loads of affiliate products that not only mean there’s money to be made from this niche, but I can be an affiliate for those products as well as create my own products.
Watched Ed’s latest video on the 30DCIII and he showed us how his new Mac can record the mac version of a powerpoint presentation, with his voice over it, so he can make videos without having to appear in them. That’s good news for people like me who have the perfect face for audio!
With my drawing niches I was going to do drawing tutorials with a webcam attached to a baseball hat, so no-one would see my face anyway. Hatcam! But this sounds cool as well. Asbjorn showed me how wordtracker just got a whole lot better with Google Trends.
Watched Ed’s latest video on the 30DCIII and he showed us how his new Mac can record the mac version of a powerpoint presentation, with his voice over it, so he can make videos without having to appear in them. That’s good news for people like me who have the perfect face for audio!
With my drawing niches I was going to do drawing tutorials with a webcam attached to a baseball hat, so no-one would see my face anyway. Hatcam! But this sounds cool as well. Asbjorn showed me how wordtracker just got a whole lot better with Google Trends.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
75. The Thirty Day Challenge Day 12
It's 3.25am and I've been working for 16 hours collecting info, articles and checking out the competition on my niche.
74. 30DC Day 11
Saturday August 11th
Worked hard to find some more niches and I did find lots of different phrases for one large niche, which already has Web 2.0 strategies in place, but not for the subniches and phrases. I didn’t want to get into trouble so I checked on the forum to see if it was ok to go ahead. And two people including Lisa who is an Immediate Edge student (the system used in The 30 Day Challenge) gave me the go ahead.
Which I thought was great news and I got my calculator out to work out how rich I’m gonna be, when it dawned on me that this MAY be stuff that kids want to learn. And if that’s the case, then there won’t be any money in this niche.
There are tons of free info sites on the subject, but very few info products. There are lots of physical books, but again, they could be being bought as gifts for kids.
As the numbers are a lot less than my main niche, I decided to create hub pages for this, but not fill them with content just yet. Just have them there to deter other IMers from using the niche.
Worked hard to find some more niches and I did find lots of different phrases for one large niche, which already has Web 2.0 strategies in place, but not for the subniches and phrases. I didn’t want to get into trouble so I checked on the forum to see if it was ok to go ahead. And two people including Lisa who is an Immediate Edge student (the system used in The 30 Day Challenge) gave me the go ahead.
Which I thought was great news and I got my calculator out to work out how rich I’m gonna be, when it dawned on me that this MAY be stuff that kids want to learn. And if that’s the case, then there won’t be any money in this niche.
There are tons of free info sites on the subject, but very few info products. There are lots of physical books, but again, they could be being bought as gifts for kids.
As the numbers are a lot less than my main niche, I decided to create hub pages for this, but not fill them with content just yet. Just have them there to deter other IMers from using the niche.
73. The 30 Day Challenge Day 10
Friday August 10th (ignore what it says up there!)
Had to make loads of phone calls, but listened to today’s podcast and watched all the videos on the 30 Day Challenge. I did understand the bit Ed thought some people would find difficult, because I’ve heard of Squidoo and Hubpages.
The SEO tool that we all have as a Firefox add-on has been demonstrated to full effect.
Checked out the forum, so I knew I wasn’t missing anything important. Caro posted giving us a list of Web 2.0 sites we need to be checking out niches for. Asbjorn chatted with me on gmail, and showed me how the SEO tool helped with his niche. He’s found a great one with no SEO at all!
Started researching my niche so I can write articles on it, and create hubpages. I also need to be thinking what sort of product I want. As Pauline my team mate has experience in my niche, I have asked her if she would provide her voice for an interview. She is also American, and my niche only applies in the US so it wouldn’t hold much weight if I provided the voice on an audio product! I’m very pleased that Pauline has agreed.
Had to make loads of phone calls, but listened to today’s podcast and watched all the videos on the 30 Day Challenge. I did understand the bit Ed thought some people would find difficult, because I’ve heard of Squidoo and Hubpages.
The SEO tool that we all have as a Firefox add-on has been demonstrated to full effect.
Checked out the forum, so I knew I wasn’t missing anything important. Caro posted giving us a list of Web 2.0 sites we need to be checking out niches for. Asbjorn chatted with me on gmail, and showed me how the SEO tool helped with his niche. He’s found a great one with no SEO at all!
Started researching my niche so I can write articles on it, and create hubpages. I also need to be thinking what sort of product I want. As Pauline my team mate has experience in my niche, I have asked her if she would provide her voice for an interview. She is also American, and my niche only applies in the US so it wouldn’t hold much weight if I provided the voice on an audio product! I’m very pleased that Pauline has agreed.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
72. 30DC Day 9
Listened to the podcast this morning and Ed said there was an amazing time saving tool by someone called Garrett, and I spent a long time trying to find it, but couldn't. Tonight they tell us we'll get it soon.
Photographed cars all day.
Today got much better on the Thirty Day Challenge! Yesterday I was throwing out phrases I though weren’t working, but I wasn’t paying attention when I was told to not just look at the graph in google Trends, which only shows above 200 a day, but to also look at the bar underneath that represents all searches in English.
Even the ones that don’t register on the graph can still be on the bar, and I found three extra viable phrases.
And I’ve narrowed that down to two as Ed told us to in today’s podcast. And even though I want to pursue both of them, I think it will be foolish to do both during the 30DC. The reason is, the top one indicates that it brings in over 450 searches a day and the second one brings in 85.
As I’ve gone and looked at lots of sites on the subject of my top niche, I am buzzing with ideas of how I can make the best site I can.
I’ve made an excel sheet with all my findings, and I’ve put the good phrases in green for Go!
I’ve got other phrases for the same niche, and therefore product, but the searches per day are much lower, so I’ll have them as back-ups for later. It’ll still be worth adding those figures to the top ones, so I can increase visitors, and get more sales, without building more product websites.
It’s 2am again and I still haven’t been for my evening walk, or done my stretches.
Photographed cars all day.
Today got much better on the Thirty Day Challenge! Yesterday I was throwing out phrases I though weren’t working, but I wasn’t paying attention when I was told to not just look at the graph in google Trends, which only shows above 200 a day, but to also look at the bar underneath that represents all searches in English.
Even the ones that don’t register on the graph can still be on the bar, and I found three extra viable phrases.
And I’ve narrowed that down to two as Ed told us to in today’s podcast. And even though I want to pursue both of them, I think it will be foolish to do both during the 30DC. The reason is, the top one indicates that it brings in over 450 searches a day and the second one brings in 85.
As I’ve gone and looked at lots of sites on the subject of my top niche, I am buzzing with ideas of how I can make the best site I can.
I’ve made an excel sheet with all my findings, and I’ve put the good phrases in green for Go!
I’ve got other phrases for the same niche, and therefore product, but the searches per day are much lower, so I’ll have them as back-ups for later. It’ll still be worth adding those figures to the top ones, so I can increase visitors, and get more sales, without building more product websites.
It’s 2am again and I still haven’t been for my evening walk, or done my stretches.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
71. Thirty Day Challenge Days 7 and 8
Ed promised us ground breaking stuff in terms of Market Research on the Thirty Day Challenge, and yesterday and today, he did deliver!
Yesterday there were videos on how to use the free Wordtracker tool effectively in collecting data about any niche. Then we were shown how to do proper searches in Google to determine how many other sites use the same phrase. The objective is to be number one in google for a particular phrase, which we will learn how to achieve over the next two weeks. And because we are being shown the correct way to do market research, we will know what we need to do, to create at least one sale per day. I think I’m right in saying that 100 visitors will bring one sale a day on average, providing you provide good content on your site.
Today we were shown how to confirm Wordtracker’s numbers using Google Trends.
Because Ed’s 30DCIII and ‘Immediate Edge’ partner Dan Raine has a site that he knows brings in approximately 500 visitors every day, they are able to use Google Trends to do a comparison between Dan’s phrase and any potential niche phrase. If the graph for your own niche phrase is higher than Dan’s phrase, then you know you will get more than 500 visitors a day. Or if it’s half as high, you can safely assume you’ll get around 250 visitors.
Up to now, internet marketers have used Overture and Wordtracker and other tools to guess how many visitors any key phrase will get, but they are only estimates. Never before has anyone been able to know for sure. Thousands of people have built entire websites, populated it with tons of content for a niche they are told gets traffic, but then found out to their cost that there is no traffic.
Now we know how to take the guesswork out of it. So there is no excuse for creating products for markets that don’t exist. There is a lot of other criteria too for obtaining the perfect niche and key phrase, far too detailed to go into here, but when I saw how easy it was, I was quite relieved. Now Ed says this is the hardest part. And it’s all downhill from now on. I hope so!
I’m pleased to have found a niche and phrase that meets the criteria. In fact the graph indicates that I too will get around 500 visitors a day if I’m in top position on Google. I want a back-up though, so I’m continuing the market research until I find more viable phrases.
Today has produced a flurry of activity on the forums, with people asking questions about their own findings, without divulging their niches of course, for obvious reasons.
Some people say they have found 20 phrases that meet the criteria. They must be doing something I don’t know about then, because I’ve been hard at it for two days, constantly checking hundreds of phrases, and only found one that has under 25,000 competing sites, and more than 200 searches a day.
Actually 100 searches a day could be profitable, but Google Trends doesn’t show up searches that are that few, so there’s no way of confirming the numbers.
Yesterday there were videos on how to use the free Wordtracker tool effectively in collecting data about any niche. Then we were shown how to do proper searches in Google to determine how many other sites use the same phrase. The objective is to be number one in google for a particular phrase, which we will learn how to achieve over the next two weeks. And because we are being shown the correct way to do market research, we will know what we need to do, to create at least one sale per day. I think I’m right in saying that 100 visitors will bring one sale a day on average, providing you provide good content on your site.
Today we were shown how to confirm Wordtracker’s numbers using Google Trends.
Because Ed’s 30DCIII and ‘Immediate Edge’ partner Dan Raine has a site that he knows brings in approximately 500 visitors every day, they are able to use Google Trends to do a comparison between Dan’s phrase and any potential niche phrase. If the graph for your own niche phrase is higher than Dan’s phrase, then you know you will get more than 500 visitors a day. Or if it’s half as high, you can safely assume you’ll get around 250 visitors.
Up to now, internet marketers have used Overture and Wordtracker and other tools to guess how many visitors any key phrase will get, but they are only estimates. Never before has anyone been able to know for sure. Thousands of people have built entire websites, populated it with tons of content for a niche they are told gets traffic, but then found out to their cost that there is no traffic.
Now we know how to take the guesswork out of it. So there is no excuse for creating products for markets that don’t exist. There is a lot of other criteria too for obtaining the perfect niche and key phrase, far too detailed to go into here, but when I saw how easy it was, I was quite relieved. Now Ed says this is the hardest part. And it’s all downhill from now on. I hope so!
I’m pleased to have found a niche and phrase that meets the criteria. In fact the graph indicates that I too will get around 500 visitors a day if I’m in top position on Google. I want a back-up though, so I’m continuing the market research until I find more viable phrases.
Today has produced a flurry of activity on the forums, with people asking questions about their own findings, without divulging their niches of course, for obvious reasons.
Some people say they have found 20 phrases that meet the criteria. They must be doing something I don’t know about then, because I’ve been hard at it for two days, constantly checking hundreds of phrases, and only found one that has under 25,000 competing sites, and more than 200 searches a day.
Actually 100 searches a day could be profitable, but Google Trends doesn’t show up searches that are that few, so there’s no way of confirming the numbers.
Monday, August 06, 2007
70. 30 Day Challenge Day 6
Did a quick shoot today of a tile store – it was beautiful to shoot because the roof had lots of skylights in, so there was plenty of natural light. Also the flurescent tubes were daylight balanced, instead of green – brilliant! The owner says ‘How else can the customer tell what colour the tiles are?’ My kinda guy!
Ordered my food shopping online, but didn’t buy fruit and veg because they always send poor quality stuff, and I’ve got a great new greengrocer across the road. Had to tell a few Film Club friends that I can’t make it tomorrow. My social life is on hold until I’ve made my $10 on the Thirty Day Challenge! Browsed and posted on the 30DCIII forum.
Made some posts on my Team’s Facebook Group, as I’ve been keeping a note of interesting IM sites. Later I wanted to send my team mates presents, and in Facebook, presents are tiny cartoon graphics, and they want ONE DOLLAR for each of them! So I sent my team mates links to sites I thought they’d like instead, which was much more info for free! But what a brilliant marketing idea – get millions of buddies worldwide to send teeny pics to each other and charge them a dollar a time for them! Amazing.
Watched today’s videos. They’re on YouTube now. Wish I could get iTunes to work properly. It’s not downloading them all. I wonder if I’ve got the wrong RSS url. Followed along with each of my niches, and got some interesting results.
Looking forward to learning the ‘blow your socks off’ advice Ed is going to give us tomorrow and Wednesday.
Ordered my food shopping online, but didn’t buy fruit and veg because they always send poor quality stuff, and I’ve got a great new greengrocer across the road. Had to tell a few Film Club friends that I can’t make it tomorrow. My social life is on hold until I’ve made my $10 on the Thirty Day Challenge! Browsed and posted on the 30DCIII forum.
Made some posts on my Team’s Facebook Group, as I’ve been keeping a note of interesting IM sites. Later I wanted to send my team mates presents, and in Facebook, presents are tiny cartoon graphics, and they want ONE DOLLAR for each of them! So I sent my team mates links to sites I thought they’d like instead, which was much more info for free! But what a brilliant marketing idea – get millions of buddies worldwide to send teeny pics to each other and charge them a dollar a time for them! Amazing.
Watched today’s videos. They’re on YouTube now. Wish I could get iTunes to work properly. It’s not downloading them all. I wonder if I’ve got the wrong RSS url. Followed along with each of my niches, and got some interesting results.
Looking forward to learning the ‘blow your socks off’ advice Ed is going to give us tomorrow and Wednesday.
69. More ADHD symptoms
Still taking an age to read ‘Is That My Child?’ by Dr Robin Pauc. I’m just reading it when I can’t sleep, because I get on better with audio books, as I’m such a slow reader.
I’m still near the beginning and I got to the part where it says that kids with dyslexia and dyspraxia are sensititve to light, and that they also have difficulty holding a pen to write. It’s uncanny, as I see myself on every page.
I always have to wear sunglasses even when it’s cloudy, and the more tired I am, the worse my sensitivity to light is. And it wasn’t until I was twelve that I started to hold a pen properly, when a teacher taught me how to. Before then, I used to hold it as in the photo. And pressing down hard when writing is also characteristic of dyspraxia. I still do that!
The more I learn about the condition(s), the more I am convinced that I am a text book case. When I was diagnosed, they only touched the surface. To read on some websites that there are people who believe dyslexia is a myth, is quite astonishing, when people like Dr Pauc, and Wynford Dore have put years of study into the condition, and proved time and time again the definitive patterns that these kids follow. The non believers are simply ignorant.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
68. Thirty Day Challenge Day 5
Only one of yesterday's 30 Day Challenge videos went into iTunes, and I had to watch the other one on the Google videos site, and that hurt my eyes as Google videos always reduce the quality, so it was difficult to read the small text on Ed’s screen within the video. I still watched the whole thing. But whenever I come across little things like that, I remember my goal, and think “is this stopping me from completing the 30DCIII?” And if the answer’s no, then I don’t worry.
It was a glorious day, so I got great landscape photos for my photography site. I'm totally digital now, but previously, all the best landscape images I had were prints that needed to be scanned. And we're talking hundreds!
Later I did what Ed showed us by going to Wordtracker and copying and pasting all the results for my chosen niches, so we can use them later for further market and keyword research.
I can’t help thinking I should be doing more work than I am, like setting up an aweber account, as I reckon we’ll have so much to do in the next few weeks, it may all get on top of me. No, I’ll wait til Ed suggests it – I’ll just make sure I put the hours in. Those doubts creeping in again…
One thing I can do now though is upgrade my hosting account, as at the moment I can only host one domain, and hopefully I’ll want to host several soon. I’ll do that tomorrow.
Browsed other 30DCIII blogs by participants and some video blogs. Also made my Sunday phone calls to family and friends.
It was a glorious day, so I got great landscape photos for my photography site. I'm totally digital now, but previously, all the best landscape images I had were prints that needed to be scanned. And we're talking hundreds!
Later I did what Ed showed us by going to Wordtracker and copying and pasting all the results for my chosen niches, so we can use them later for further market and keyword research.
I can’t help thinking I should be doing more work than I am, like setting up an aweber account, as I reckon we’ll have so much to do in the next few weeks, it may all get on top of me. No, I’ll wait til Ed suggests it – I’ll just make sure I put the hours in. Those doubts creeping in again…
One thing I can do now though is upgrade my hosting account, as at the moment I can only host one domain, and hopefully I’ll want to host several soon. I’ll do that tomorrow.
Browsed other 30DCIII blogs by participants and some video blogs. Also made my Sunday phone calls to family and friends.
67. My Photography Site
I can’t believe I have failed to mention my Photography website on this blog. It only took TWO years to get off the ground! Well, I bought the domain three years ago, but have only got round to building it recently. Asbjorn helped me with the FTP – I had a major FTP phobia, which was just silly.
It’s quite outrageous that the only other sites I have are Blogger blogs, so I don’t buy hosting for them. But this is my first actual website that I pay hosting for. That’s shocking considering I’m supposed to have been learning internet marketing for three years.
Anyway it’s finally up - woohoo! - at www.AmpersandPhotography.co.uk I think (hope) my photography site demonstrates how clever I am (at photography, not web design), whereas this blog demonstrates how daft I am! Better not let my clients see this blog!
It’s quite outrageous that the only other sites I have are Blogger blogs, so I don’t buy hosting for them. But this is my first actual website that I pay hosting for. That’s shocking considering I’m supposed to have been learning internet marketing for three years.
Anyway it’s finally up - woohoo! - at www.AmpersandPhotography.co.uk I think (hope) my photography site demonstrates how clever I am (at photography, not web design), whereas this blog demonstrates how daft I am! Better not let my clients see this blog!
Saturday, August 04, 2007
66. TDCIII Day 4
I’m still only getting Day 3’s material on the Thirty Day Challenge, but that’s ok. I listened to the podcast then watched the video, after I went back over Day 2’s videos following along, going to Google groups and Ebay hotlists. I couldn’t find any pet owner groups, and that surprised me. I made sure I did a thorough search. I’m just interested because I want someone to take over my dog blog, as I don’t have time. I figure paying an enthusiast will be better than paying someone on elance or rentacoder. But I don’t need a group on Google to find someone.
After watching Ed’s technorati video, and following along, I found a site written by a Stumble Upon expert who reckons your Adsense account will be banned if you stumble your own sites, and get too many people to stumble them in a short period of time. It seems this happens because Google just think you’re commiting click fraud, as your ads are clicked on a lot more than they previously were. I guess that’s not a problem for me at the moment, but something to consider.
Only went out to buy fruit from the new shop over the road. I was working away all day, and thinking of more and more ideas. Hope it doesn’t take me long to find a suitable killer niche. Loads of people are following me on Twitter – haven’t a clue who they are! And I keep forgetting to update it, and I shouldn’t, because you can use the url address bar – it’s so easy!
Forgot to ring people to tell them when my 40th do is. And it needs to be soon, or there’ll only be about four people turn up!
After watching Ed’s technorati video, and following along, I found a site written by a Stumble Upon expert who reckons your Adsense account will be banned if you stumble your own sites, and get too many people to stumble them in a short period of time. It seems this happens because Google just think you’re commiting click fraud, as your ads are clicked on a lot more than they previously were. I guess that’s not a problem for me at the moment, but something to consider.
Only went out to buy fruit from the new shop over the road. I was working away all day, and thinking of more and more ideas. Hope it doesn’t take me long to find a suitable killer niche. Loads of people are following me on Twitter – haven’t a clue who they are! And I keep forgetting to update it, and I shouldn’t, because you can use the url address bar – it’s so easy!
Forgot to ring people to tell them when my 40th do is. And it needs to be soon, or there’ll only be about four people turn up!
Friday, August 03, 2007
65. 30 Day Challenge Day 3
Checked my emails this morning, and Lisa confirmed on Facebook that it was her in the photo, and she added a comment, so she mustn't mind me using it. She reminded me that she won the trip to the Aston Martin racing day with Yanik Silver.
Had to meet a new client and check out his stock. This took most of the day, so I just watched two of yesterday’s videos again on the 30DC. I kept pausing them and did exactly what Ed did, just to satisfy myself that I could. Last year Caro told me that she watched the videos twice, then did the task herself, and went back to the videos as and when she needed to. That seems to work for me too.
And Ed has highlighted the cursor so it’s easy to follow along. I kept having to force myself to not go off and look at more niches, as more ideas came to me. I just wrote the ideas down and plan to check them out tomorrow.
Didn’t look at today’s stuff, as the UK only got them quite late anyway, as they were released lunchtime in the US. So I’ll go to town on them tomorrow. I think a lot of the month I’ll be a day behind, as I can usually get more work done in the mornings, but that won’t be a problem.
BTW, I’m changing the formats of the titles so they’re different versions of the phrase 30 Day Challenge on purpose, so that whatever people type in, they have a chance of finding me. I typed in ‘30DCIII blog’ the other day, and mine was the only one that showed up!
Had to meet a new client and check out his stock. This took most of the day, so I just watched two of yesterday’s videos again on the 30DC. I kept pausing them and did exactly what Ed did, just to satisfy myself that I could. Last year Caro told me that she watched the videos twice, then did the task herself, and went back to the videos as and when she needed to. That seems to work for me too.
And Ed has highlighted the cursor so it’s easy to follow along. I kept having to force myself to not go off and look at more niches, as more ideas came to me. I just wrote the ideas down and plan to check them out tomorrow.
Didn’t look at today’s stuff, as the UK only got them quite late anyway, as they were released lunchtime in the US. So I’ll go to town on them tomorrow. I think a lot of the month I’ll be a day behind, as I can usually get more work done in the mornings, but that won’t be a problem.
BTW, I’m changing the formats of the titles so they’re different versions of the phrase 30 Day Challenge on purpose, so that whatever people type in, they have a chance of finding me. I typed in ‘30DCIII blog’ the other day, and mine was the only one that showed up!
Thursday, August 02, 2007
64. 30DC Day 2
Had lots of photos to edit. Found that I recognised one of the participants in the challenge, from one of my seminar photos. So I uploaded it to Facebook and asked her to confirm if it was her or not.
My 30 Day Challenge team mates responded to my discussion on my Facebook group post. Pauline’s not well, so we may get together next week, but it’ll be more beneficial by then as we will have started properly by then.
Ed asked us to think of seven markets, no more no less. So all I had to do was consult my book of ideas, where I have over 200 of them. But they were ideas for products, so I was able to edit them down to about 10 broad markets, and within those, 65 more targeted markets.
Slightly more than seven then. So I picked my seven favourite ones, that I think would be interesting to do. And then I can go back to my bigger list as and when I need to.
I spent all day at the computer, and missed my morning walk. (So I had an extra long walk tonight, then watched more of the videos whilst stretching.
My 30 Day Challenge team mates responded to my discussion on my Facebook group post. Pauline’s not well, so we may get together next week, but it’ll be more beneficial by then as we will have started properly by then.
Ed asked us to think of seven markets, no more no less. So all I had to do was consult my book of ideas, where I have over 200 of them. But they were ideas for products, so I was able to edit them down to about 10 broad markets, and within those, 65 more targeted markets.
Slightly more than seven then. So I picked my seven favourite ones, that I think would be interesting to do. And then I can go back to my bigger list as and when I need to.
I spent all day at the computer, and missed my morning walk. (So I had an extra long walk tonight, then watched more of the videos whilst stretching.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
63. Thirty Day Challenge Day 1
Took the day off and browsed the forum whilst waiting for the Thirty Day Challenge to begin. Followed a link on one post to info about Facebook. Spent a couple of hours looking at FAQs and Facebook tutorials. Was particularly interested to learn that you can advertise and sell directly from Facebook.
Watched more participants’ videos and video blogs about the 30DCIII. Some are really clever.
Still managed to fit in some photo editing before lunch. Then I found the Stumble Upon Getting Started Guide, so I read that even though I had set out to create a Facebook group for our Team on the 30DC.
The first thing I saw on the TDC blog for today was the TDC toolbar, which I downloaded for Firefox. Later I downloaded Day 1’s video, as it didn’t automatically download in iTunes for some reason, then I listened to the Podcast.
Was reassured when I heard Ed say he was going to go slowly! From what he was saying, it sounds like we will be making AV products and using video instead of a sales letter. Hope I can grasp all the technical stuff.
As I’m 40 in the first week in October, THAT’s what Plan B will be: To make $10 online whilst still in my 30s! But we’ll cross that bridge…
Later I watched Pauline’s YouTube videos about the model railway, and had to keep disciplined not to go watching lots of others by folks I don’t know.
This evening Facebook was driving me nuts, but I persevered and went back over Dan’s video about it, then was finally able to create a group, and send my team mates a message. Also uploaded some photos on there.
Watched more participants’ videos and video blogs about the 30DCIII. Some are really clever.
Still managed to fit in some photo editing before lunch. Then I found the Stumble Upon Getting Started Guide, so I read that even though I had set out to create a Facebook group for our Team on the 30DC.
The first thing I saw on the TDC blog for today was the TDC toolbar, which I downloaded for Firefox. Later I downloaded Day 1’s video, as it didn’t automatically download in iTunes for some reason, then I listened to the Podcast.
Was reassured when I heard Ed say he was going to go slowly! From what he was saying, it sounds like we will be making AV products and using video instead of a sales letter. Hope I can grasp all the technical stuff.
As I’m 40 in the first week in October, THAT’s what Plan B will be: To make $10 online whilst still in my 30s! But we’ll cross that bridge…
Later I watched Pauline’s YouTube videos about the model railway, and had to keep disciplined not to go watching lots of others by folks I don’t know.
This evening Facebook was driving me nuts, but I persevered and went back over Dan’s video about it, then was finally able to create a group, and send my team mates a message. Also uploaded some photos on there.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
62. 30DCIII Diary
On today's Thirty Day Challenge material, I had to watch Ed’s ‘Leverage’ video three times this morning, and still struggled to fully understand it. He does everything very fast, but he’s demonstrating how quickly you can do stuff. He also said that he was taking a lot longer to do all this, as he was having to explain it – so normally he’d be even faster!
But again, he was explaining an easy way to do something, so I shouldn’t get to dispondent yet. It may click into place later. I took eleven years to learn to drive, then after passing my driving test, I spent the following 12 months becoming a relaxed driver. So I’m expecting this will all come with practice.
Actually one of the things he showed us turned out to be a tool only Mac users could get anyway.
Web 2.0 seems to be mentioned a lot, and I still wasn't exactly sure what it meant, so I Googled it. I have now come to the conclusion that it means web based applications in general, and the viral possibilities that social networking sites can provide. When I first heard it, I thought it was an actual product.
Went to shoot a derelict hotel that’s going to be demolished, and had to wear a hard hat. Although I think there’s less to damage in my head than in my camera!
But again, he was explaining an easy way to do something, so I shouldn’t get to dispondent yet. It may click into place later. I took eleven years to learn to drive, then after passing my driving test, I spent the following 12 months becoming a relaxed driver. So I’m expecting this will all come with practice.
Actually one of the things he showed us turned out to be a tool only Mac users could get anyway.
Web 2.0 seems to be mentioned a lot, and I still wasn't exactly sure what it meant, so I Googled it. I have now come to the conclusion that it means web based applications in general, and the viral possibilities that social networking sites can provide. When I first heard it, I thought it was an actual product.
Went to shoot a derelict hotel that’s going to be demolished, and had to wear a hard hat. Although I think there’s less to damage in my head than in my camera!
Monday, July 30, 2007
61. 30DCIII Pre-Season Catchup
Listened to both Ed’s podcasts this morning whilst exercising, then having breakfast.
I was shooting all day today and was prepared for an evening of downloading the photos, followed by tons more 30 Day Challenge Prep work, but I got a lovely surprise when I watched three of the four remaining videos, and found I had done all the stuff that was included!
I haven’t yet set up fancy stuff on my forum settings but now I know where they are, I can do that later. I did try to add an avatar this moring, but despite it being under 80 pixels and under 100kb, it still wouldn’t accept it. The I asked the question I always ask when I have a job to do. How important is this in getting me to my goal? It is probably not a good idea to frighten other Thirty Day Challengers with my ugly mug anyway.
Added a few more friends on Facebook, and accepted invites from other 30DCers. The thing I’m really excited about is, I only have one more video to watch, and I’m up to date with all the pre-season stuff, but my evening walk and stretches are way overdue, and I’m shattered, so I’m signing off now.
I was shooting all day today and was prepared for an evening of downloading the photos, followed by tons more 30 Day Challenge Prep work, but I got a lovely surprise when I watched three of the four remaining videos, and found I had done all the stuff that was included!
I haven’t yet set up fancy stuff on my forum settings but now I know where they are, I can do that later. I did try to add an avatar this moring, but despite it being under 80 pixels and under 100kb, it still wouldn’t accept it. The I asked the question I always ask when I have a job to do. How important is this in getting me to my goal? It is probably not a good idea to frighten other Thirty Day Challengers with my ugly mug anyway.
Added a few more friends on Facebook, and accepted invites from other 30DCers. The thing I’m really excited about is, I only have one more video to watch, and I’m up to date with all the pre-season stuff, but my evening walk and stretches are way overdue, and I’m shattered, so I’m signing off now.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
60. 30DC Diary
Another thing I am doing in relation to any products I make in the 30DCIII is using a pseudonym; a pen name. This will be the same for Twitter messages and blogs, for now.
It was suggested we do this on last year’s Thirty Day Challenge, so that if and when we come to sell the site, we can sell the whole lot, lock stock and barrel.
Today after I spent most of the day photographing classic cars (and it was sunny, thank heavens), I installed Session Manager, Fleck, Firebug, Search Status, SEO for Firefox and Twitterbar – all more Firefox add-ons, and I signed up with Bloglines.
Watched more of Ed’s videos, and took ages sorting out a problem with iTunes, but Asbjorn helped me on Skype, saving me a lot of time.
Then I logged into twitter and decided to follow some people I know who were doing the 30 Day Challenge, forgetting that I’m logged in under my pseudonym, and they won’t know who the hell I am. Never mind.
Discovered I’m already signed up with Facebook under my real name, so added some friends on that too.
It was suggested we do this on last year’s Thirty Day Challenge, so that if and when we come to sell the site, we can sell the whole lot, lock stock and barrel.
Today after I spent most of the day photographing classic cars (and it was sunny, thank heavens), I installed Session Manager, Fleck, Firebug, Search Status, SEO for Firefox and Twitterbar – all more Firefox add-ons, and I signed up with Bloglines.
Watched more of Ed’s videos, and took ages sorting out a problem with iTunes, but Asbjorn helped me on Skype, saving me a lot of time.
Then I logged into twitter and decided to follow some people I know who were doing the 30 Day Challenge, forgetting that I’m logged in under my pseudonym, and they won’t know who the hell I am. Never mind.
Discovered I’m already signed up with Facebook under my real name, so added some friends on that too.
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