Nature is full of contradictions... and articles

Well, it looks like it has been quite a while since I wrote a post on here, but I have been working hard on writing articles and doing the rewrites, then getting confused and losing them in my normal Numpty fashion! Add to this, trying to get my head round the different submission pages for article directories.

Some are not obvious to a Numpty so be warned but I dare say a bear of little brain will have more success than me! My head does not work in a logical fashion and I get mixed up easily :-/ and what ever I try, I still seem to over complicate things and get in a right mess.

I doubt that I would ever win 'The Apprentice' not that I would want to I don't think. The folks on there are scary and I don't just mean Sir Alan Sugar!!

Other than my brain not being firing on all cylinders, my connection speed has been so very slow. The injured hamster phoned in sick and his replacement, Mr Slugsy, was not up to the job I'm afraid to the point I was going off to make coffee in between the page changes which isn't much fun when you're just checking links and stuff. Talk about frustration and a lot of bad language aimed at my PC, the wall, you name it!

The delay did nothing for my mood even when its lovely and sunny outside. Apart from the falling fluffy, gull chicks!

That wasn't just thrown in to catch you off guard.

1. it just shows you the way my brain jumps around and it seems fine to me! Totally normal.
2. and its true...

Along the row where I live, we have no vehicle access except along the one end. The other end leads to some very steep steps and a gap between the buildings to get to the road and the promenade. I live that close to the sea!!! Pity I can't see it from here because of the big, posh Victorian houses in the way. But it is that close.

Anyway, this last week we have had a couple of fluffy gull chicks dead on the path of the row. Far too young to be away from the neat so I thought that rats had raided a nest somewhere close. Oh the joys of nature eh?! More a result of loads of take away places and bins over-flowing!! Rats aren't daft, easy pickings.

But yesterday playing out the front with my lad, I looked up as some people walked towards us, just in time to see something fall to the ground. I presumed it was something the gulls had took out of the bins or mugged an old person for. Yeah, they are really that big and they look you in the eye with a 'go on then, I dare you!' look about them. Well scary..!

Then this sandwich/ wrapper started moving and we had a look to discover that it was another chick which went on to fidget a bit before it died. Not a mark on it but I dare say its insides were mush after landing from over four storeys up. Ow!! That was a bit of a shock and got me wondering whether the population is a bit too big if they are doing this. Not sure what the chicks are but I will find out, hang on...

They are Great black-backed gull chicks. I wondered if they were but I don't know why an adult would kill one of their own other than over paternity and territory, a bit like lions. These 2 foot (plus) tall birds are the top predator around here on the coast and they are scary with a very long and sharp beak. The smaller gulls get out of their way as they are known to attack and eat the smaller birds.

These birds supply the dawn chorus around here and its a right racket I can tell you especially on bin day. Horrible and beautiful all at the same time.

Nature is full of contradictions...

The joys of living on the west coast of Wales

Unlike the previous post, this will be published today after its written.

Once again, I'm confusing myself and getting all tied up and confused. True Numpty style!

I now have three Squidoo pages set up for the same thing because I'd forgotten how to use it and I had also forgotten what I had titled it as. :-/ Why do I bother? I could not get organised if I was wrapped up and just had to sit still!

It doesn't help having a lack of memory to challenge a gold fish or should that be a gnat??!!

To make matters worse, my PC is so slow because its very full of stuff I've brought over the years and my disk drive refuses to burn anything for me. Whoopee.

On top of which, living over here on the west coast of Wales, as lovely as that is, there are a few draw backs such as the hamster speed of the broadband we finally receive. Actually the hamster has at least one leg in plaster and is blind-folded too not to mention the high hurdles it has to negotiate as well.

As you may have noticed by now, during this morning it felt like carrier pigeon would be a faster option to our Broadband connection!!

Enough of excuses, I have been working on another blog and the squidoo pages all to promote my new affiliate product. A collection of articles too which are ready to go once I sort out where I left them ready to publish!!!

Is there really any hope for me to get it sorted I hear you ask? Well, of course there is, it just takes me more time to sort it out and then to check I've done it right ;-/ Thats what I was trying to do this morning with the plastered hamster speed connection, hence you get this post to let you know I'm still here and making work for myself as usual :-)

Enough of a moan, I have lenses to sort out...

Not skiving

Guess who forgot to save the first writing? Actually I thought that I had but Blogger seems to think otherwise. Anyway, good to be back here again. I've been writing quite a few articles and stuff for an affiliate product other than Lee McIntyres Point and Click Coaching. So its not in the Internet Marketing niche.

Oh, I haven't dropped out of that or anything, actually the next few weeks look to be full of good stuff and I'm looking forward to getting my nose stuck into that when it arrives. Not to overload you, the weeks arrive, well every month as a 4 week package to stop you jumping ahead of yourself and ok, thats what I did a bit.

I got bored. Waiting. Couldn't think of anything else to do so I diversified, although this is not recommended because you tend to leave other stuff to rot while you set off up that bloody mountain again in search of the big red button. No.

Back at base camp. I am learning quite a lot I think and my writing has improved although I still go off on one, so a good prune of the ramblings is often needed. But they recon you should write how you talk and yep, I go off on one there too.

Talking of rambling, I must go and wander off to school. Gorgeous afternoon for it too :-)

Get the most out of your PLR products collecting cyber dust on your hard drive

You Missed a Fantastic Webinar Last Night

Or did you? Were you there amongst the expectant throng?

I was one of about 300 folks lucky enough to be involved in the webinar with John Rhodes and friends. Google this guy and his credentials are impressive ;-0

This webinar was chock full of information about how to get the most out of those old and dusty PLR products languishing on your hard drive and if you are anything like me, there are quite a few.

PLR or Private Label Rights are an easier step onto the internet ladder than many others. Well that was what I believed as I entered this crazy arena of Internet Marketing. Trouble was getting the PLR was easy but I hadn't got a clue what to do with it once I'd downloaded it to my hard drive to nestle quietly and forgotten amongst its brethren to gather cyber dust.

After last night I know different!

The material on a particular subject has been found for you, thus reducing the time spent on research.

Someone has orgnised the information for you already into chapters or articles and such like. they have edited the work and so have saved you a lot of time and money.

Without that specific PLR item, you would of spent time on research, organisation, editing, proof reading, graphics etc all to get a product ready for market. Or you would of outsourced the work and then you can get a whole other set of headaches.

As time equals money, a $2-3 PLR piece is well worth the $time! Assuming your time is worth more than 50c or less an hour!

This information can then be used for loads of different things, from video to list building you name it. I can tell you that this information was extremely useful and has opened my eyes to the true worth of PLR products that I hadn't even realised existed.

I have pages of notes and haven't enjoyed a webinar as much as this one, ever I don't think and I've been on a few. Those guys should go on tour!! My nearest and dearest kept scowling as I kept laughing out loud with my headphones on and I'm afraid to admit I was still listening until the very end, over two and a half hours later! Not for the offers and stuff but because it was better than TV! By the way, there were loads of offers too! These guys really delivered.

I wonder how the wheat grass and tofu went down in the end, especially for a Texan lad? Mind you the break from the meat would do his gut some good! Sorry, I digress...

If this has whetted your appetite to read the sales letter for this type of information, its not even an affiliate link, just the straight forward URL. Thats how much last night impressed me!

http://www.plrexploitation.com/ Why are you still here, GO!!!

Focus, Focus, Focus!!!

Focus!

Stop chasing rainbows and the pot of gold at the end of it!

There is no MAGIC BUTTON (at least not yet)

Until you do this, you will achieve nothing. Sad but true, but chasing your tail achieves nothing.

Chasing after the 'magic button' is a fruitless waste of time, energy and money and the sooner you realise this the better.

I have been listening to Lee McIntyre all morning on his videos as part of the Point and Click Coaching Course

I must admit that he seemed to have been watching what I've been doing over the past few years. So much of it has rung true and given me hope and the drive to write this and get on with things again. Especially after yesterday :-/

This is speaking from experience and as the previous post shows, I still have a tendency to waste my time chasing rainbows if I'm not careful. I have the attention span of a gnat unless I get my teeth into something and then I can get so stuck into the minutiae to the umpth degree.

Think of me as being two forces pulling in opposite directions! Sometimes this works well but for the most part I am at loggerheads with myself.

One side of me has an idea and the other side dismisses it in a flash. I don't need well intentioned folks telling me that I ought to get a proper job. My more negative side tells me this sort of thing all the time, what ever I'm trying to do!

In some ways I think this is a good thing because it has made me more resolute and obstinate. Once my mind is made up, its very difficult to change it.

I have decided that I am going to make it online.

I am working on a product at the moment. I have been jotting stuff down for ages. I just need to focus and get my teeth into it, get it done, get it launched, and see what happens.

At this point I must point out that I have researched the niche and it may be good or it may not. We will see...

That Newbie Excitement

That Newbie excitement took over me today and I have managed to fritter away most of my time with very little to show for it.

The day started off poorly with both myself and my son sleeping in. Neither of us heard the alarm going off. I was finally woken by him running around the bed to climb in next to me.

Horrors, when I looked at the time. We were normally setting off for school and there we were, still in bed! Mad rush followed to get dressed and a quick phone call to school to let them know what was happening. Then Mr Mardy decided he wasn't going to school today.

Anyone out there with any knowledge of kids knows what the morning rush can be like if one part goes a bit off line. Here we go then, so I ignored him and to give him his due, by the time I'd finished in the bathroom, 10 minutes max., he was dressed and nearly ready.

Downstairs to sort out tocyn (a small snack for the afternoon) and a wrap to eat on the way to school. Not the best of ways for him to have breakfast but better than nothing and to be honest I think he enjoyed walking with his breakfast, very grown-up don't you know :-)

Dropped him off at school half an hour late, whoops. He didn't say anything tonight so I assume he didn't get dragged over the coals for a genuine mistake.

I told you I'd worked hard yesterday! Anyway, by the time I'd walked home via the supermarket, it was well into the morning then after breakfast and coffee it was nearly 11.00am.

How to totally muck up your day!! So I decided to get the meal ready for the evening and then I could work up to tea time.

I finally sat down to work at about 12.00. I know they said that you can work what hours you like when you decide to go online, but today took the biscuit for a hectic 3 hours only stint! Didn't use that time well which I'm cross about now. Threw out my whole day and my plans went out the window.

Spent the time going through emails which I had got out of doing. That is such a waste of time and I had been managing to get stuff done so well previously just by ignoring the inbox for a few days and not checking it till last thing in the evening. Anyway I had to set off for school again at 3.10 to walk him home at 3.30 so I didn't settle to do anything of much use.

There you go. A not so typical working day for a not-so-new-newbie fitting trying to get going online around a family and all that that involves.

Wouldn't have it any other way, apart from the sleeping in and the rushing and...

I won't work so late tonight and get a bit more sleep. Then perhaps I will hear the alarm in the morning!

Busy all Day, Learning Some More

Is there no end to the information that you can read and hopefully assimilate?

Today has been productive, I think anyway. I dare say the super efficient amongst you would not agree but I don't think that I've wasted my time at all.

I have read a very good article by Frank Salinas about SEO which is on my must do soonest list, which included suggestions and advice which is just what I needed. Notes still have wet ink!

Checked out the social bookmarking stuff and added some buttons to this blog site, wanted them for ages and didn't know how to get them. Happy bunny ;-) Looks more like the 'big guns' now, I wish...

Anyway, we are on our way. From little acorns and all that, and I've added the Blog Carnival gadget too which was easier than expected especially as everything else I've tried to do regarding banners and stuff has not been the easiest of adventures.

Perhaps the gadget, being for the 'carnival of struggling bumbling newbies' took pity on me and didn't put up too much of a fight, OR of course, I might have hit the right buttons in the right order this time. Wonders will never cease.

Hey may be I'm finally getting some where. It may not seem much to you, but I was impressed!!

To further impress myself and anyone reading this, I also submitted some articles to directories to drive traffic I hope. Well we can only wait and see. More to do tomorrow.

Oh the joys of learning, bring it on!

I've finally worked out how to get some!

;-) I've been wondering how you get these little doo-hickey buttons onto a site and now I have some of my own.

If you want them too, go to http://www.socialmarker.com/

Have fun with them and share...

Search Engine Optimization and Recommendation

Here is the advice on Search Engine Optimization I was on about in an earlier post.

Its on Matt Callen's blog at http://www.mattcallen.com/ and it is well worth the visit. Have a look around and sign up for anything he offers. I find his stuff that good.

Easy to follow and implement. He will be my little helper to optimize my blog pages and my article writing. There may be others too but I will let you know who, as and when I turn to them for help.

I'll let you know how its all going, so check back often.

Talking of articles, I was just at Ezine@rticles and bumped into a bit of tracking information. My articles have been looked at and a few have even been picked up. Don't ask me anymore about them though because I don't know, well at least not yet.

Lets face it, this first sojourn into article writing and blog posting was to banish the fear of the publish button.

I can now say that that fear has been quashed, well and truly!

This next half term, beginning on Monday, will primarily involve SEO and tracking methods underlying my article writing efforts together with continuing Lee McIntyre's Point and Click Coaching

I have the feeling that I am going to be a very busy Numpty for quite a few weeks to come.

Rallying call for those of you trying to make ends meet

A rallying call to the little people trying to keep their heads above water on comparitively less and less money, treading water faster and faster and still sinking.

The time to be brave and start online is now.

It doesn't have to cost anything at first and anyone can do it. Just take a deep breath and start at the beginning.

We will succeed together. I believe in you like you should believe in yourself. Lets go...

If you're feeling brave lets jump into internet business together with my tried and tested little helpers.

Why do we Fear the Unknown so Very Much?

Why as humans do we fear the unknown so very much?

There's an old saying, 'What you don't know, can't hurt you'. Bad grammar and all, or is that just where I'm from!

Anyway, this UNKNOWN thing. Its a bit scary, a bit nerve jangling, a bit exciting perhaps to some?

Maybe that's it!! Perhaps that is why some people charge fearlessly into the unknown, damn or be damned, besurker styley and the rest of us cowards (me included) hide behind the parapets with our heads buried in our hands hoping it won't happen to us?

Is that the same reason that some people make it online and others don't, bravery 21st century style?

Wealding a mouse not a pen nor a broad sword? Doesn't quite replace the romantic vision of knights of old but everything has to change they recon, call it progress, for better or worse...

At some point in everyones life a time may come when they must stand up and be counted. Perhaps during a time of economic downturn such as we now find ourselves in, people that you'd never of expected, turn around and say ENOUGH.

I no longer need to be part of this rat race that is destroying my self belief, my self worth, my health and my family life. I do not need, nor am I willing to put up with this any longer. I reclaim ME.

I know it all sounds very melodramatic but if you dared to, I bet you would. If it wasn't for the security of that pay check, as meagre as it may be. For the escape from the house, for what ever reason, we are allowed to con ourselves that to work for someone is the best way for us 'little people' to get by, pay cheque-to-pay cheque. Never quite enough, so that we strive and line the pockets of the upper management creaming it off from our hard work.

It is not fair but it is the way that lots of people choose to live. Think about it. I bet that you do too but perhaps you haven't thought about it quite like that before.

Because we're not sure about something, we are hesitant to get involved or even try it out. This hesitancy pervades through all our lives and for some, ultimately rules their lives.

Is this frightened life really what we had in mind for ourselves as we tried over and over again to get to that higher branch in the old tree when we were children. It is such a pity that so many of our dreams fade with the harsh reality of being a grown up. We even have the language to defend our lack of aspiration, a resignation to 'this is the way its meant to be...'

WHY? Who said that all I can aspire to is a dead end job on basic salary?

HOW dare they?

BECAUSE WE LET THEM DICTATE THAT TO US.

The 'there there, maybe its not for you' pathetic patronising that makes me so very angry.

IT IS for me too, and for you and you and as many as want to grab it in both hands and not expect it to land in their laps like pennies from heaven!!

Stop being afraid of the UNKNOWN and go out there and grasp it around the throat and declare 'I am not afraid of you anymore!'

Q. What are newbies scared of?

The last of my published articles, for the moment. I have 2 more waiting for approval :-)

A. Everything!

No, seriously. If you consider what it is that a newbie is scared of when it comes to actually trying to make money online in any area, a few things come to mind.

But people will know that I'm new to all this and laugh at my attempts at: writing blog posts; articles; adverts; Squidoo pages; hub pages. You name it.

You are just plain scared! Scared of the unknown. Never done it before and so it must be absolute nails and I'll never be able to do it!

Costs too much money and I have no income, etc.

Doesn't need to cost a bean.

Use free spaces like Squidoo, Blogger, Hub Pages etc. then reinvest in your business for a while before you make the grand gestures of spending your newly earned cash on treats for you and the family.

Be patient. Stay positive. Your time will come.

If I don't pick up every free e book/report on this, that and the other I will not succeed.

Rubbish.

Be selective or very strong with the delete button after you have read the article, or what ever it may be.

If you don't, you end up with a hard drive full of free stuff and of no interest to anyone anymore. This industry moves at the speed of a runaway train. So if you get it use it, or just pass. Something similar will be along soon enough.

Once you have the free product, you are on a list and then you get bombarded with a string of auto-responder emails trying to get you to buy other products. If you're not careful, you end up spending half your life opening, reading and deleting emails pushing the latest big thing.

The old adage, 'buyer beware' still holds true, NOT because I think you will be scammed but because you end up drowning in information unable to reach that life boat!

If this sounds like I'm writing from experience, then you've hit the nail on the head, because I am. Over the last few years I have spent far too much money on products that were not pitched at my extreme 'numpty' level.

Being ok around PCs, able to type and surf the net are not all that is needed to make it online.

If you think this sounds like other stuff that you have read, well I apologize. Obviously some of what I have read over the years has sunk in!

As promised:

I said that I'd post the accepted articles for you to have a look at and like I said, I think they worked because I was writing from experience and to a degree from the heart too.

So far the experience of article writing has been a good one :-)

One of these articles is already on a blog. I bumped into it yesterday trying to find a specific Google Mail account and making a right pigs ear of it, in true Numpty fashion!!

You see, I've not become super amazing at any of this. I just had the courage of my convictions... and pressed the button labelled submit!

Now the next job is to write with search words in mind. SEO. Not so easy perhaps but we will see. Watch this space and I'll let you know how it goes...

But I think that STEP 1 has been accomplished.

What is STEP 1 I hear you ask.

Well for me it was to overcome my fear of getting my stuff out there and to be totally honest with you, it wasn't half as scary or difficult as I 'thought' it would be.

There's that word again, 'thought'

Don't think too much about the what if's.

Sign up and read the information available on the Ezinearticles site, then write an article as well as you can and get on with it.

At this point I must say that the only thing I checked was the restrictions on links etc, not on the 'how to' element of article writing.

These articles were not primarily intended as search engine fodder, more, they were intended to be my way of dipping my toe into the world of ezine authorship, so as that, I think I can tick my done it box.

You can cheer for me now :-)

5 Things That Intimidate a New Comer to the Online Marketing Maze

Most of the scariest things spinning around in your head are those put there by you.

You imagine that it won't work. You imagine that people will laugh at your attempts to make a better life for yourself. See a pattern?

You 'imagine'. Stop imagining and start doing it and finding out for real. Be strong and resilient and get on with it. You are not alone. The way that you are feeling is typical of someone new to this. Keep reading and you'll see,

1. Failure and the patronising that follows, 'there there'~ 'never mind' as if you'd just scraped your knee.

Hey, snap out of it! At least you tried to make a difference! You don't have to give up after something doesn't work, What does first time anyway?

Get over it and analyse why this didn't work, make some changes and try again. If you give up, then yes, you have failed.

Giving up is the failure NOT that your idea or its implementation didn't work.

2. Don't know where to start?

Very good question. There are so many offers/programs/courses offered apparently, to beginners. Most of them are very good but you may not be ready for them yet.

There is a tendency for the 'make money' products to appear as an 'easier' option, as compared to say, product creation. This isn't necessarily true. If you know loads of accurate information on a subject, it wouldn't be that difficult for you to write it down as an eBook or record it as an MP3 download or make a screen capture video.

The problems begin with the techniques around the selling/production/delivery etc. This is when a beginners course is useful but you need a total overview too. The 'how to stick all the bits together' sort of thing :-)

3. Lack of money.

Yeah, this is a big one but not impossible to overcome. Although investment is a very helpful thing, if you haven't got it, you have to make do with what you can access.

There are plenty of free sites that you can use such as Blogger; Squidoo pages; Hub pages to name a few. Search for free web pages on your favourite search engine and have a go.

Your biggest investment will be your time whether you have money or not. Starting from scratch will take a bit more time but Rome wasn't built in a day.

Hold onto your dream. Believe that you will succeed. Be positive.

With a mind set like that, you can accomplish anything you put your mind to.

4. What if no one is interested in my product

If you do your research before you spend your time creating your products and pages for your chosen market, people will be interested, if they know that you are there.

You must drive people to your sites before you can sell them anything. 'Build it and they will come' only happens in the movies. People don't want to spend hours trawling through pages of results from search engines.

They want an answer NOW and hit that download button to solve their problem so you have to be there to provide it and make that sale.

That leads onto a whole other learning module about traffic and Search Engine Optimisation and there are loads of traffic and SEO manuals out there covering this ever changing subject.

5. You think, you could miss the boat on the next best thing since sliced bread

and never succeed so my emails must be read immediately because they'll hold the secret to my success.

Its unlikely that not opening your emails for a day or so will be the end of your chances on making it online. Great products turn up every so often and they stay around for a good while. If you have no list, there really is no hurry to reply to these affiliate offers.

I'm not saying NOT to bother, I'm just saying that you will get fair warning of a big product launch and you will get enough time to decide to get involved or not. It's not usually a one chance offer how ever I dare say there are exceptions.

Don't beat your self up over the emails, its not worth it. You can't do it all as a one man show, so accept it.

You do need a strength of character to repel all the nay-sayers who inevitably start muttering. The 'why don't you get a proper job?' brigade.

If you have decided to do this then see it through and shut them up with your success. Then of course, your success is attributed to luck, not the hours slogging at the keyboard until you hit on that 'golden ticket!'

Face it some folks can't cope with one of their own making good. Accept it and move on. Congratulations for keeping at it! This isn't school. No one grades your work. If anything its harsher than that.

You get visitors or not. You make sales or you don't. No sliding scale of A to U or 1 to 7 or whatever it is now. Mind you, at least you don't have to wait weeks for the final results! And you can try again with a modified version. I don't remember that happening when I was at school.

The only thing holding you back is you!

A week of article writing and submissions

Come on guys, I've not put these articles up to boast. I'm advertising the fact that if I can do it, hell, anyone can. Just knuckle down and give it a go.

As you can see from the length of these articles, I have no problem exceeding the minimum words aspect of article submission. I always have been a bit of a chatter box but one of the main things that makes it super easy is that I know what I'm talking about.

These articles are all about Newbie Overwhelm and confusion and until recently I didn't have a clue. So like I said, I have written about what I know.

These articles were submitted and reviewed in the last week so I haven't been doing this for years. Its all very new to me too and I must say that I am delighted with the outcome of my first submissions.

I'll stick the last two up tomorrow so you can have a look and see what you think.

You may be wondering why on earth I decided to write my own articles when Lee McIntyre's course provides a file full of them.

Well to be honest with you, I spun them and tried to get them submitted but they were spat back as too similar to articles already on the Ezine@rticles site. I might of got one in somewhere else but its all so confusing at the moment that I'm not sure what went where. As you can tell, organisation is not my forte as much as I try, anyway.

Don't forget this course has been available in various guises for a while now and those that jumped on its original form have benefited from the 'newness' of it. So be prepared to write your own articles or at least radically change those provided.

Give it a go and then you can find out how to do it by trial and error. Its very quick and painless. I had one refused because it was too similar but I might have got mixed up and tried to submit one article twice. I don't know, I'm just getting the hang of it at the moment.

I am now very confused with different versions of the same articles floating about in various files so my first job tomorrow (after the party!) is to collect together all the various versions of my articles and sort out where they went to, when and if they've been accepted.

That will do for a start I think.

Caught in the Trap of Newbie Overwhelm

Does this ring any bells with you? Caught in the procrastination trap? Can't see the woods for the trees? I finally managed to write a blog post! I had been trying to do this for months and not managed to set aside the time/other things like life got in the way,

PROCRASTINATION got in the way and the rest is just an excuse!!

My reason for writing this is I want to help you NOT get in the dreadful negative mind set that I'd gotten myself into. At times like these we need positive thoughts and actions, easier said than done I know, but...

But its really up to us as individuals to get on with making the best out of whats available with what little resources we have at our disposal.

As the Work from Home revolution continues many people are exploring the different ways available to make money online. The web is massive so there is room for everyone, we just need a little help to get started off on the right foot, that's all.

Help is out there to point you in the right direction like I have been helped to get this far, which I can assure you, is a long way. Over the last two years or so I have finally got myself out of the doldrums after my contract was not renewed. I realise now that I was licking my wounds and sulking after more than 10 years working with the same project.

I had no idea what I wanted to do really, after all, all that I'd done since graduating was this type of research work and I felt hopeless, even after spending time with a good careers advisor and I know that I was lucky to get that (even though my employer didn't exactly set that up for me). Once I began looking at the internet as a possible source of income, I just started to drown in information.

They call it NEWBIE OVERWHELM

I had signed up to so many income generating sites that I spent all my time going through loads and loads of emails. I couldn't not do it just in case the last one I'd signed up to was the answer. Of course it wasn't but I had to look.

It took till recently to realise just how conditioned I had become to checking/going through my emails first thing before doing anything else. I made a conscious decision to not check them everyday and the sky has not fallen in, at least not from what I'm aware of.

Weird isn't it. It seemed so important but its not. I will get around to it later, after I have actually accomplished something. It took me a few goes to write and publish my first blog post and I was also scared to do it. Don't now why. Could it just be that I had never done anything like this before? Probably.

Then I realised that I wasn't bothered if anyone read that first post because that one was for me, to overcome my fear of the unknown and to finally set sail into the ether that is the internet.

Newbie Disappointment

I made the decision to make-it online a few years ago and proceeded to be side-tracked by every new thing that came my way.

Usual newbie rabbit, caught in the headlights. Trouble was,my optimism was not matched by the actual online success thing. You know the 'magic button' that you're led to believe in.

Thing is though that for some, the magic button does exist apparently. The bit you don't know at the beginning is that the 'magic button' is built on the very top of a humongous pile of hard, FOCUSED work.

The operative word here is FOCUSED

If you do like I did, you'll be flitting from this to that and basically achieve nothing.This is a great way for you to lose money quickly and make lots of money for the guys who sell these products.

You must of heard the comment that 'you make your money when you sell your own products!'

I'm not saying that your lack of commitment to one product only benefits the seller but they won't complain!

Another problem being that no one catches hold of you as you enter into this crazy merry-go-round of possibilities and gives you a manual on how to start.

More than anything, I think the old hindsight adage is relevant here.

If you knew that pay-per-click was not for you, at least not yet, you would never have got the course in the first place.

Yeah, I bought a course that seemed very good and I have no doubt that it is but it just blew me away and confused me as it was all too new.

The small print that seems to be missing on the sales pages.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't think that making money online meant NO work just that it wouldn't include a load of blind alleys full of empty boxes that the latest course was delivered in!

Resource box:If you're new to internet marketing come along to http://imnumpty.blogspot.com and laugh at me as I muck it up again. Learn from my mistakes as Lee McIntyre shows you and me how it should be done. Come with me step-by-step to a better future and financial freedom. Be prepared to put some work in too!

Don't be a Rabbit Caught in The Headlights!

I moved the following post, across from lets get started online today! one of the other blogs in this set of early attempts. Check it out by following the link

'About Me'

'View my complete profile' on the right...

I liked this and thought that you might like it too, and to save you the effort of clicking the full profile stuff and finding it, I thought I'd lay it out on a plate as it were. Hope you like it,

Don't get caught in the headlights

Don't be a rabbit caught in the glare of the gurus headlights as they speed past in their Lambourginis (if thats how you spell it!) apologies to the makers, beautiful cars they are but no good for the roads around here I'm afraid.

In this neck of the woods, you'd be best off with a four-wheel drive Toyota truck that can take a lot of bashing and still start in two foot of snow!

Anyway, I digress, again!

Don't do what I did and get caught up in the pre-launch forore of countless 'make-money-online' courses which hold the interest of a 'monkey-brain' as mine is, for the length of time it takes to read it and get confused.

What you need is...

CUE TRUMPETS...

This guy, is all you need.

Lee McIntyre

No bells and whistles. No flash presentation. No flash anything.

Tells it how it is and leads you through the minefield of internet marketing one step at a time.

Get involved with Point and Click Coaching NOW

Usual bribes apply, ie. join for cheap trial and hopefully you stay subscribed.

Standard approach BUT definitely NOT standard content.

Give it a try NOW

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is not in the correct format for submission as an article as most sites will not accept embedded links never mind the blatant advertising.

All links are normally restricted to the author box at the end of the article, which if you think about it for a minute, is how it should be.

After all the web was not set up for the sole use of marketers. It is a fantastic source of information and advice even when some of it needs to be taken with a bit of salt.

Keep an eye out for my next post regarding inaccuracies in article writing!!

If you don't understand what you are talking about, why are you still talking??!!

You are now in the presence of greatness, he he ;-0

Hey , guess what! I've had 3 articles accepted by Ezine@rticles, woohoo!!!

The beginning of driving traffic...

Submitted two or three others to blog carnivals...

So we'll see if anything happens, fingers crossed eh.

And to show off the Ezine@rticles success, I've been sent my own badge to display as an expert author.

Ha ha, if only they know what we know. Its little-ol'-me just trying to get started and having a ball.

I've also got a widget from Blog Carnivals somewhere. Sorry guys if you're reading this, its not lost, just somewhere else. I'll find that out too ;-/

I've not written this much since I was at college and we didn't have to submit typed work. Not everyone had access to PC's then. Come to think of it, PC's weren't invented then and we had access to old BBC sheds to do a bit of PL1 programing. Oh thank God for Apple Macintosh and then Microsoft caught on.

I'll do something about articles in the next few days so keep 'em peeled. I'll also move my articles over to show you what I got my badge for.

Not been given anything for years, especially not for my work. Anyway, like I said, I'll move the articles over in the next few days. Now where did I put them..?

Caught in the Trap of Newbie Overwhelm

Tinkering at the Edges of Internet Marketing?

Unable to move forward because of this and that?

Excuses to stop you succeeding!

Until you silence that inner problematic nay-sayer in your head you will stay in the exact same hole, drowning in emails and achieving nothing.

Give yourself the proverbial kick in the pants, climb out of that hole and ignore those emails for a day or even two ;-). I did and never looked back.

Free yourself to succeed.

Does this ring any bells with you? Caught in the procratination trap? Can't see the wood for the trees?

I finally managed to write a blog post! I had been trying to do this for months and not managed to set aside the time/other things like life got in the way,

PROCRASTINATION got in the way and the rest is just an excuse!!

My reason for writing this was to help you NOT get in the dreadful negative mind set that I'd gotten myself into. At times like these we need positive thoughts and actions, easier said than done I know, but...

But its really up to us as individuals to get on with making the best out of what's available with what little resources we have at our disposal.

As the Work from Home Revolution continues many people are exploring the different ways available to make money online. The web is massive so there is room for everyone, we just need a little help to get started off on the right foot, thats all :-)

Help is out there to point you in the right direction like I have been helped to get this far, which I can assure you, is a long way...

Over the last two years or so I have finally got myself out of the doldrums after my contract was not renewed. I realise now that I was licking my wounds and sulking after more than 10 years working with the same project.

I had no idea what I wanted to do really, after all, all that I'd done since graduating was this type of research work and I felt hopeless, even after spending time with a good careers advisor and I know that I was lucky to get that (even though my employer didn't exactly set that up for me).

Once I began looking at the internet as a possible source of income, I just started to drown in information.

They call it NEWBIE OVERWHELM!

I had signed up to so many income generating sites that I spent all my time going through loads and loads of emails. I couldn't not do it just incase the last one I'd signed up to was the answer. Of course it wasn't but I had to look.

It took till recently to realise just how conditioned I had become to checking/going through my emails first thing before doing anything else. I made a concious decision to not check them everyday and the sky has not fallen in, at least not from what I'm aware of.

Weird isn't it. It seemed so important but its not. I will get around to it later, after I have actually accomplished something, or maybe tomorrow.

It took me a few goes to write and publish my first blog post and I was also scared to do it. Don't know why. Could it just be that I had never done anything like this before? Probably.

Then I realised that I wasn't bothered if anyone read that first post because that one was for me, to overcome my fear of the unknown and to finally set sail into the ether that is the internet.

If I can take a deep breath and hit PUBLISH then I'm sure that you can. After that its just a case of honing your writing technique and skills to become a better writer and ultimately make your writing (or copy) irresistible to your reader.

Ask any good copywriter charging $200+ for an email. I rest my case.

The ability to write well is a very valuable skill, so get practising and hitting that publish button.

Welcome to your new adventure...

Welcome to your new adventure as an Internet marketer

Congratulations for making it this far.

Read the following post or article, if you want and tell me what you think.

My New Adventure

Loads of people just sit there thinking about doing something but never manage to get around to it.

There are as many reasons for this as there are people sitting there thinking about it!

These were a few of mine in no particular order...

1. FEAR
2. FAILURE
   
3. LACK OF FUNDS
4. IDEAS
5. COMPETITION.

So tackling them one by one...

1.Fear
This was my biggest by a long way!

Most of every ones' fear comes from the unknown,
'OOOHHH! Scary' to paraphrase 'Bob' from Monsters V's Aliens. Excellent film by the way. Sorry, back to it...

Lets face it, how many times have you done something for the first time and sat back and said with a smile 'well, that wasn't as hard as I thought it would be'.

Do you remember as a kid being scared of the shadow in the corner of your room
that turned out... to be your favorite teddy bear when the light was switched on?

Exactly,

doing something new is just the same.

Take the fear out of all the new stuff by going HERE

2. Failure
Failure at what though? You've actually published something on-line and that's an achievement in itself! So many people don't even get that far.

Ok, it doesn't pay the bills but Rome wasn't built in a day either!

We do have an advantage here though. One of the perceived negative things about the internet is its anonymity.

You don't know who you are dealing with on the whole, but this anonymity can also be a huge advantage for you! Especially as you're getting started.

Lets face it, you can publish articles and blog posts and no one needs to know who you are unless of coarse, you want them to. No one knows that nobody has read your blog yet except you and no body needs to know that blog X is actually the fifth version that you've tried.

All they need to know is that this fifth one gives the visitor what they wanted! Hurray!! :-)

3. Lack of funds
Ok, its not easy to try and start your on-line empire without investment but lets be honest here, most folks are frightened of the idea of trying to go it alone, without the boss anyway and you probably wouldn't be seriously pursuing this route unless things weren't going quite to your grand plan.

Hey, my research job finished and there was no new contract, thats science UK style for you. Anyway, thats another story...

If you are considering this work-at-home approach because you have no job, very little opportunity of getting a job that pays enough to survive/live on, illness that makes working a standard 9-5 difficult for whatever reason, perhaps the best approach is to bite the bullet and go for it.

But how do you do it with no, or very little spare cash?

There are ways, of course ;-) and a short list will suffice for now: free sites ie blogs; squidoo lenses; hub pages are all free places for you to sell affiliate products; your services, of the legal variety of course, etc

This list is by no means comprehensive. Go to Google and search for free ways.

I just put in 'free websites like squidoo' and got back 1,220,000 hits.

Try other searches until you get something you're comfortable with. Hey they're free so you've got nothing to lose.

4. No ideas
Rubbish!!!

Have you noticed the explosion of magazines at the newsagents? They wouldn't be there if people didn't want them or at least, 'think' that they wanted them.

Those magazines cost money to produce, research, design, writing, photography, printing, etc and if the publishers didn't think there was a market, do you think that they'd waste their profits?

No, of course not. This is where we have the advantage. Our major costs are time and effort, electricity supply and internet connection. Peanuts in comparison!

So what are you waiting for?!

5. Too much competition
Now this one is such a lame excuse.

The w.w.w stands for WORLD WIDE WEB so I think there should be a little space available for your 'teach your gerbil to sing in 6 weeks' e-book/video/mp4 etc.

There is space for all comers BUT you must have a market in the first place!

Just don't assume that people will buy anything. You don't, do you!?

If you can target your product for search words entered into the search engines the rest is a case of sorting out how you approach the buyer.

If you don't convert visitors to buyers, take a long hard look at your offer and think of what goes through your mind as you make a more traditional purchase in a shop.

Would you buy it?

Don't forget though, 'they' recon that it takes up to a minimum of seven visits before a buyer actually hits that magic golden button to BUY, so you need to get your offer out there NOT stuck inside your head gathering cerebral dust!

But thats another story.

The beginnings of driving traffic...

Enough is enough!

Do you realise how privileged you are?

You are now witnessing the beginning of my attempts to drive traffic to this (and other associated) blogs.

What associated blogs? you ask.

Check out the profile button on the right, yep thats it. 'About Me View my complete profile.'

Click on the words, don't be scared, you can't muck it up, honest :-) There you go.

It includes my other blogs on this account.

It sort of documents my attempts at writing blog posts, losing the bits I had written into the ether, as far as I was concerned anyway. Couldn't find them for days.

Never mind the social site StumbleUpon, thats what my blog account is like too!

Have a look and you'll see what I mean :-/

Almost as if I was trying to prove that I really am a numpty. I can assure you that it is really no pretence!

I am as bad as I write that I am!

You see, there is hope for you too. I'm dangerous if I'm left alone for too long as well...

Cue crazed laughter ha ha ;-0

Honestly, if I'm managing to do this, you definitely can!!!

SO?

GO FOR IT!!!

Yep, I am shouting at you.

Get off your bum/fanny or whatever you call the bit you sit on and change your life for the better,

its as simple as that!

what have you got to lose, really?

Not Giving Up On My Dreams!

Are you new to the internet with regards to making money?

Either because you hate your job, like thousands of others; or you'd like more money so you have something to show for your 40 hour work week;

Or because you have become a victim of the economic downturn;

Or health problems or what ever the reason or reasons, you will have been blown away by the amount of information, good and bad, that's out there.

You go from page to page reading one offer after another promising a lifestyle better than the one you have ever known.

Your mind starts to spin and you can't decide whether to sign up to this mailing list or that free ebook or guide to making it online.

Should it be article marketing; blogging; pay-per-click; advertisement placement; and the list goes on, and on...

Its a crazy place with marketers vying for your attention with eye catching headlines, flash websites and the like.

STOP!

Take a breath and relax.

What you really need is someone to guide you through the hazards and traps of the internet.

Someone, plain speaking and sincere to help you get a foothold.

Get a bit of confidence and a few dollars in your pocket.

At first, just enough to prove to the ney-sayers in your life that you are not wasting your time and that this can be more profitable than a few hours work in the local convenience store!

I've been there too.

I have not given up.

I am going to succeed and Lee McIntyre's Point and Click Coaching is helping me get there.

Watch this space...

Time to stop rambling on

Time is precious and we never seem to have enough of it.

All that can change when you don't work for someone else. Be your own boss and drive yourself for a real feeling of freedom!!!

I DID THIS!

GO HERE AND START TO BUILD A NEW FUTURE

I made a mistake, :-( Ok move on...

It didn't work, :-( Ok move on...

• Keep trying,
  
• don't be scared,
  
• don't be put off by anything OR anyone and most importantly,

believe in yourself!

If I can be this positive, anyone can.

Lee McIntyre can show you how

Typical numpty behaviour.

I just wrote this but I must have pressed the wrong button, Ha!

Typical numpty behaviour.

GUESS WHAT I JUST FOUND, yep, you guessed it, I clicked on the right tab and got back to the stuff I have written for this blog over the last few days. I was actually quite pleased with it and then I lost it, which is just so typical!

If brain cells were dynamite, my remaining two could be considered dangerous! BUT

This guy is no numpty and he's helping me get sorted aren't you Mr McIntyre.

He may look like a numpty but he isn't.

Click on the link below and find out.

What on earth is a numpty?

I am a numpty.

When it comes to Internet Marketing I am a Numpty of the first degree.

I am also a numpty when it comes to being organised, ie. I am not!

I try but never seem to succeed so I have now resigned myself to being a numpty in more than one subject area. In my humble opinion, I think that can be judged as an achievement!

I wish I had organisational skills, like my partner, but if I tidy up he walks in and says, 'I thought you were tidying up!' and I think, I've been doing this for hours and he just doesn't see it. I think I've achieved loads and he misses it completely!

Just a different way of seeing stuff I suppose.

Now here's a guy who sees things differently too. Not in the vaguely organised chaos of the way my mind seems to work, but he does look at things slightly differently from the norm.

Anyway, I am now involved with this chap from Manchester called Lee McIntyre and he has got me organised on his program.

I am able to follow along at my own pace allowing time for the needs of my son and family commitments.

He has a special offer on at the moment to get you involved too, for just $2.95 you can enjoy a 14 day trial to Point and Click Coaching PLUS you also receive the following bonuses for FREE

• Momentum Marketing Madness,
  
• The Massive Monthly Payrise Method,
  
• The 4X Profit Method, and
  
• Deep Connection Dynamics

AND four more valuable training courses to say THANK YOU for the support.

I can tell you that the training courses are very good and will keep your interest as you watch this enthusiastic teacher pull faces like a nutter while he tells of more tricks and methods to use to keep your subscribers and customers happy and coming back for more!

This guy over-delivers and then some. You will not be disappointed.

CLICK THIS LINK NOW

I think the teaching profession lost a great teacher here. I just wish that I had a few more like him!

Not sure what a numpty is?

definition: n. (pl. numpties) Scottish informal a stupid or ineffectual person
ORIGIN prob. from numps 'a stupid person'

Please don't take that the wrong way. Its not used in a nasty way at all.

I have been called 'you daft numpty' through fits of giggles and howls of laughter.

I might add that I was in a heap at the time too. So its gently derogative but it suits me just fine cos I am a numpty for more than half the time.

I make daft mistakes and make a pigs ear of things that I shouldn't make a mess of, but that seems to be me I'm afraid.

Getting back to this blog post...

I began this months back and left it as I'm inclined to do. Its not that I can't finish what I started but I do forget what I was doing yesterday!

I write stuff down then lose the paper it was written on, so you should be amazed I'm actually here writing something!