You’ve probably heard people say, when challenged to get up and out of their comfort-zone, something like “No; I just want a quiet life.”

Yeah – look you tech-die-hards; I’ve catered for you this week with a number of tech-only related articles. Besides; this has to do with success and the future, as well as the now, so do read on why not?

A quiet life can be an asset; but only in small doses. Everybody needs some time away once in a while, some peace and solitude. A chance to unwind and review things, to make decisions pertaining to the future. – But spending all day every day doing that leads to procrastination, inaction, lethargy, lack of ambition or determination, etc. A quiet life becomes a dead-quiet life; one of tedious routine and a hard daily grind that never seems to go anywhere.
Ambitiousness and motivation are quashed and forgotten as day after day of tedium and getting no further grind by and wear away at the senses; bringing not inspiration and hope but depression and darkness.

Wake up! Smell that coffee! A quiet time is a sensible and necessary time once in a while. A quiet life is… Well, quiet, dead, dead boring. A living-death of motivation and ambition. In short; a total waste of existence. Never moving forwards, and going precisely nowhere. The epitaph:-

“ Died totally unsatisfied and unfulfilled; but had a quiet life nevertheless.”

Unfortunately many people have this quiet life; many without realising it even until the end of it comes, and even then maybe not. Why? Because they never ventured out of their comfort zone. Because they never took any of the challenges that life threw their way, because they never walked through any of the doors of opportunity that opened to them but preferred to stay “satisfied” within their own life-vision of humdrum routine and taking the easy way out.

Some try achievement at least once, but fail and give up straight away: Motivation, determination, and perseverance, vanish due to a single failure, and they give up altogether to retire back into their protective shell of comfort-zone and world-view.

What they fail to understand, the big point that they miss altogether, is that every failure is a rung on the ladder to success. Failure is inevitable at some point and in some way; but as the old adage says: –

“If at first you don’t succeed; try, try again.”

The “quiet-lifers” possibly tried once, if they could be bothered; and then gave up, either because there was a stage 2, or because stage one failed on the first attempt.

I want to use myself here in this example; not because I’m a shining light in the darkness or anything like that, but because this is my story: –

In my teens I wasn’t a typical teenager. I was to all intents and purposes a loner who was trying to find some way to set up some kind of business operation in the face of total adversity from an extremely negative, psychotic, mother. A mother who seemed to always make certain that I never had any money, was extremely dominant, and who ensured at every opportunity that she told me that I was unable to succeed in life because I “wasn’t born for it”, and basically totally did my head in on a daily basis. In hindsight I don’t think she actually meant me any harm, but I’m fairly sure that she was looking after herself and her own future at my detriment. – Far too long a story to go anywhere with here.

It was a no-win situation, so I left home in my late teens as amicably as possible, and tried to make my own way in life. After a while I eventually settled down to a “quiet life”. Relationships were on offer but I generally declined all but a few, and had no intention of marriage/”settling down” because I knew that there was something that I’d missed along the way: Not in relation to marriage etc, but with regard to success and achievement, and I was going to find that missing ingredient first before I “settled down” in any way.

In short I discovered that a J.O.B. (Just Over Broke) wasn’t the way to success: It was quite obvious that the little dictators who imagined themselves to be within a position of “power” within the artificial environment of a company weren’t real achievers: their only successes were in reality as convincers and brown-nosers in regard to their own bosses. They were totally dispensable and utterly at the mercy of the organisation for whom they worked with regard to their future. Also they only had any of their “power” by proxy from their masters, who paid them as little as possible for as much of their time and effort as possible.

Only self-employment had any solution to the problem; and that was the way I would be going. – First in the home improvement industry as a self-employed sub-contracted salesperson, then as a trader, then as an IT guru/computer builder/repairer.

On the way through life I’d managed to pick up a disability during a road traffic accident, and so, although I could still achieve most things physical, it required a lot of extra effort. In reality, although largely unknown to the outside world, I was expending twice as much as everyone else in terms of effort to achieve the same result. In my thirties that wasn’t really a big problem, but now I’m getting older things are creeping up on me and I probably couldn’t do what I used to do now.

Computer building and repair isn’t exactly physically stressful; and a lot of it is a sit-down occupation. At the end of the day, though, there’s very little money in it, plus the fact that one is also competing with the big High Street names such as Dixons, Comet, Staples, Currys, PC World, etc, in addition to the other white-box-builders.

It was just as the recession kicked off in America that I got to know David Risley, owner of pcmech.com, online. His name had popped up a number of times in the past, although I’d virtually ignored it and carried on with whatever I was doing at the time. I did buy his “Build Your Own PC” manual to see if I could get any extra tips and tricks from it for my then PC-building career, but other than that I hadn’t known much about him and would probably have said that I’d heard the name if anyone else had mentioned him.

Strangely, though, when he used to host PC Mech Live, a streaming show on Ustream from pcmech.com’s staff, I could see that he knew what he was talking about, and had a natural style for clear communication, whilst being articulate but by no means a bullshitter.

David gave me a little free advice, and I argued against it, and for it too, in an attempt to pick his brains a bit more. He told me I should start a blog and use the WordPress platform in doing so. (You’re reading it now.) This was more like it, this was cool. I blundered straight onto Twitter and announced my blog to the world. I believe by month 3 I actually managed to top 20 a day visitors even! – But there was still something missing, and despite my dedication to blogging from the word go I wasn’t making anything like the amount of money that people like Yaro Starak etc were making from it. – In fact I wasn’t making any money at all from it, and it was just another financial burden, although one that I could manage to keep going.

Suddenly I heard of a product on the market that sounded right up my street. It was from David Risley again, and it was called 3 Day Money. 3 Day Money is a short 3-day course from David which teaches you the basics of running an internet-based business. It’s good and worth the price; but it doesn’t go anywhere near as in-depth as Blog Masters Club; David’s latest internet-based baby.

I was already on Yaro Starak’s Becomeablogger course, which, incidentally is opening its doors again the day that David’s latest intake on the Blog Masters Club course ends and his doors close for another 6 months.

The Become A Blogger course is a great course. How does it differ from David’s Blog Masters Club course? Become A Blogger starts from the very beginning, and teaches you from scratch the stages involved in setting up a blog, getting it running, and maintaining it, plus a number of techniques to keep it ahead of other blogs. The real difference is that Yaro’s course is aimed at total beginners. It’s professionally made and very well formatted. It covers a lot of material and is precise, concise, accurate. What it doesn’t do is teach you all the powerful techniques involved in internet marketing in relation to your blog. In essence Yaro’s course starts from square zero and goes to square 40 out of 60. David’s course, on the other hand, starts at around square 10 out of 60; although it does touch on squares zero to 9. David’s course starts on square 10 and goes all the way up to square 61 out of sixty: I kid you not. – That’s why it costs a little more than Yaro’s.

Am I saying that David’s course is superior to or better than Yaro’s? Not at all: It’s a case of market sector targeting: –

If you’re a complete beginner, and maybe you don’t even have a blog yet, then Yaro’s course is more the course for you in my opinion. However, having said that; if you’ve already started David’s course without a blog then you have absolutely nothing to worry about: David will take great care to ensure that your blog is up and running and optimised in time to start the marketing part of the course.

If you have a blog, but it’s not performing as well as you’d hoped, then David’s course is the one for you in my opinion: In it, David will teach you everything that he knows – Powerful techniques and systems for marketing your blog and associated products to the point of generating a six-figure-income.

In short, then, I got up off my butt and came out of my comfort-zone. I gave up the quiet life mentality. – I’m so glad I did! My life has direction again; it has a sense of purpose and achievement. I have motivation and ambition. I desire to succeed because of the other option: failure, aka a “quiet life”.

When my life’s over and the undertakers are laying people serenely in their coffins; I want to be the one who comes sliding happily and excitedly in: Champagne and chocolate in one hand; a fulfilled life and a legacy in the other, shouting:-

“Well, I guess that’s about it huh? – BUT WHAT A LIFE!”

Ooh; did i forget to mention that the doors to Blog Masters Club are open until Tuesday 2nd February 2010? If you want to take your blogging to the next dimension then click the link.

Also on 2nd February 2010 Yaro Starak is opening the doors to Become A Blogger students. if you’d like to start blogging like everyone else seems to be doing then click the link.

***OMG – COPY ERROR*————————————————

I am so so so so sorry: I made an error: While you can download Yaro’s free report anytime now; the doors aren’t actually opening to his course until the 4th February 2010 – My copy error; for which I sincerely apologise.

- That was a great start to a campaign wasn’t it?! – And that was just the prelude. Stay tuned for more gargantuan cock-ups here on Kkomp.com – Beyond: The blog that takes you out of your comfort-zone; as well as not being 101% perfect… Yet.

I’m sitting here on a Friday night at time of writing, and I’m wondering to myself where everything is going. – By that, I mean that I’m thinking about the future in general: My future, other people’s future, technology’s future, and of course linked to that the future of the internet.

Note: This is a rather long post; so get ready for a reading sensation: –

Unlike a lot of people I don’t normally use a Friday night to go out and party. – To be honest I just don’t see the point in it unless there’s something to party about. Friend’s birthdays, festivals, etc are all a great time to enjoy the moment; but needlessly and wantonly going out for the sake of going out just isn’t my scene: I see it as escapism, which it probably is, and there’s nothing whatsoever wrong with that to a degree. Everyone needs to take a break and let their hair down once in a while; but I tend to do things for a reason rather than just on a hunch alone, or if the mood takes me. – Anyway; that’s just me. Others see things completely differently, no doubt.

It’s with the above in mind to a certain extent that I’m thinking about the future. I want to be able to decide my own future.

“Impossible!” I hear people cry. “That’s just a bit too far fetched Sharron! – I mean; come on girl; you have no idea whether you’re going to live to 115 years old or die next week; any more than anyone else has.”

Whilst that’s true that’s a case of only seeing the bigger picture though; whilst ignoring any detail: – But OK let me start gunning from there: Personally I’m hoping for something more on the side of the first option. – To get there I’ll need to pay attention to the detail though: the structure of those 115 years.

Quite obviously I’ll not be as physically agile as I am now at that age; although I might well still be blogging if I make it that far with a sound mind and the ability to type. There are a number of factors that are going to do their best to prevent me from getting there unless I take action with regard to them though.

The first is poverty: If I’m stony broke all my life there’s very little chance that I’m going to make it that far due to factors such as poor nutrition, lack of adequate healthcare, etc. – So I need to be able to generate some financial input rather than simply relying on state handouts of whatever type are available; most of which are usually no more than an old-age subsistence-allowance anyway.

Another is staying active: Whilst I’m limited to a certain extent by a disability, (Not a lot of you knew that; but I’m not after sympathy so why mention it unnecessarily?) I still have to stay as a active as possible physically, but not only physically though: If I could fail on entry to British Mensa by only a single point in 1993 then I’m buggered if I’m going to let my mind decay in my old age, or even my middle-age come to that. Blogging is a great way to avoid that too; or at least one of a number of ways to avoid it.

And technology is no doubt going to play a vital part in everything mentioned above too: No I didn’t mean spending my old age in an oxygen tent, or upgraded to a cyberman either. Technology is going to boom; no doubt about it. I expect the next 200 years are going to see massive technological innovation and advancement. Maybe I won’t be lucky enough to benefit from all of it myself; but I can see humans living for several thousand years in the not too distant future. The colonisation and terraforming of Mars can’t be that far off either. Your children’s children might even be a part of the project.

What about the more immediate future though? Where’s our present technology leading us to? Well I see it this way: There’s another revolution coming; a socio-technological revolution, and it’s already stirring now.

You see; the internet, even though it’s a brand new thing in the course of human technological evolution, has already been noted as to its potential uses. It’s my belief that the technologies founded from and based upon the internet are going to join us all together as one people on one planet 8in the future; and as such that means that it’ll account for at least 90% of communications of a social. political, and economic nature. – That means that most business is going to be transacted via the internet.

As with the previous business models of the 20th and early 21st Centuries, there are going to be winners and there are going to be losers in all aspects of this; but particularly with regard to business.

many newspapers and businesses today are taking their previous or existing business-models and are applying them straight to internet business. the problem that they’re finding is that that policy just doesn’t work, and so they make the excuse that it’s the internet that doesn’t work; when in fact it’s the way that they are using the internet for business that doesn’t work.

So what does work then; if the established business model doesn’t?

Right; I’m going into the technology of blogging again from now onwards in this article; so you old school fix-your—computer-and- make-it-work-perfectly-only people be warned. But do read on if you dare because you might learn something new.

Look at it this way; blogs attract eyeballs, and popular and well-marketed blogs attract the most eyeballs. You’re reading a blog right now: Kkomp.com- Beyond. OK the name sucks, I’ll admit that; but people still like to read it. It has a personal brand; a number of things identify it. – The sucky name being just one of them. All in all it gets reasonably well-marketed, and has a reasonable following and a reasonable number of readers. It’s been going coming up to 2 years soon, and has started to build up a reputation.

The fact of the matter is that as time goes by more and more people and businesses are going to be turning to blogging for publicity.

A blog by the local rag with the same name as the local rag is going to pull a larger following quicker, because it’s an established name, so when the newspapers finally all catch on to this online thing, as a lot of them already have, they’re going to make a lot of competition for eyeballs, as are established high-street chains, etc.

Eyeballs/visitors alone don’t make a decent blog though. Like it or not; whichever way you look at it, a blog costs money. – You have to pay for the domain, the server, the general maintenance, etc; and if you’re marketing a’la affiliate style too, then you have to pay for the affiliate software, the commissions, etc, etc.

But the equation eyeballs/traffic = visitors = certain proportion of sales is so old school, so Web 1.0. Whilst it’s true to some extent, it only works if you’re financing the blog thru banner ads, (Which I’ve already told you in a previous article doesn’t work in the case of this blog.) To make any decent income from banner ads, even to make the blog self-financing, requires mega-traffic. If every 1 in 200 people clicks one of 10 banner ads and 1 in 10 who click buy the product, then you’re going to need 2000 visitors to make one sale and gain a commission of anywhere between a pound and 100 pounds. In other words to keep this blog running with banner ads alone I’d need 300 visitors a day constantly, as well as to have a blog lit up with banner ads like Times Square.

I don’t want a blog that looks like Times Square though; because if it did then I’d get less visitors, because nobody wants to visit a blog full of nothing but mainly advertisments. – Are you starting to see a vicious circle emerging here? To have a blog that makes even enough money to finance itself then; better marketing is called for.

I’m going to cut straight to the chase here: Most internet marketers suck at blogging, and most bloggers suck at internet marketing. But there is a way – Heck wherever there is a will there is a way.

You could spend years and an untold amount research/product funds discovering it for yourself – but why bother with that when it’s already been done?

Now a few of my readers who have read this far might be getting a little edgy. Why? Because I’m on about blogging again, and I did say in an earlier article that I wasn’t going to mention a certain course that I’ve recently been promoting again… you know the score. – But look, hey, woman’s prerogative to change her mind and all that right – I can’t not mention it right now because it’s still open to new admissions until Tuesday 2nd February, and what’s more it’ll assist you no end to get on top of the new equation that’s going to be at the forefront of this new emerging business model. – well you might want to run your own blog(s) if you don’t already at some point yes? If you do you don’t want to have to pay for it yourself right? You want it to finance itself or make a profit right?

If you want to be able to get the most out of the internet in the future then you are going to have to start a blog at some point. – Fact. – It’s unavoidable at some point in time. If you want that blog to not be a drain on your resources and to actually be read rather than just sitting there getting 1 visitor a week then you are going to need to know how to market it properly. – Fact.

This IS technology. This is the online technology of the future. This is how you’re going to get the most and the best from the internet in times to come. It doesn’t matter that much if your computer’s not optimised to 101% efficiency for this kind of technology, although that may help a bit: What matters is that you’re ready for it when you suddenly find yourself in the midst of it and lost in it.

At this point it seems quite obvious that to tell you everything else that I want to tell you I’ll need to write absolutely reams and reams of material, including and supplemental to slideshows, videos, webcasts, Q&A sessions, personal training… hours and hours worth of quality material.

- But I’m not going to. Why? Because it’s already been done, that’s why. Here’s the link to find out more. There’s a video presentation there too, in fact more than one maybe; so if you don’t want to read any more, just watch that/them  instead.

I apologise for the extended length of this article; but I think I did rather a good job of it. My reader will notice that I didn’t even mention David Risley ‘s  Blog Masters Club once. – Oops!

So I’m going to keep my mind active and defeat poverty on a personal level at least. Maybe I will live to 115? Maybe longer? Remember; I’m your competition.

Oh well; here’s that very important link again anyway –> Click Here. What you’ll learn there over 6 months is totally awesome. – I know because I’ve done the course. – Oh that does give me a head start on you I know ‘Sucks doesn’t it. Never mind; you could always click the link and start playing catch-up… What link? Oh dear; I lost it. – Oh no; there it is –> Click Here.

You’ve got until Tuesday 2nd February to get in on the course; so make the most of it. – Unless you want me to be more successful than you, of course.

- I’m not bothered: There’s money on the table; and if you don’t want it then I’ll have it thank you very much.

Last time: Click Here.

                                    If you didn’t join the course; please send me your name so that I know who I don’t have to worry about Re. competition in future. (Unless your name happens to be Darren Rowse )

Apple’s iPad then. – Just a quick post today. – Hit or Miss?

Well initially I’ll say it’ll be a hit; the Apple faithful will initially each say that it’s the best thing since sliced bread and they’ll all buy one for themselves during the first week or so.

Meanwhile those who aren’t in the Apple fanboy/girl club aren’t going to bother with it that much if at all.

After a month or so those Apple fanboys/girls who bought one are going to be wondering exactly what to do with it: It’s hardly portable as such; I mean you can’t really carry it to work with you. It’s also not designed as a desktop machine; so that’s out.

What exactly can you do with an Apple iPad?

It might be useful to the medical profession. Also you could hang it or wall-mount it as a security system; controlling lights, curtains, garage doors, etc.

Other than that – what? It’s a waste of money. Eventually even the Apple fanboys will come to see it as a large and expensive trash-can filler.

Kkomp.com – Beyond gives the iPad a huge thumbs-down – FAIL.

What do you think: Hit or miss? Post a comment why not?

“What the…! You’re really taking the rise out of us readers Sharron! WTF does this have to do with technology?”

Oh loads; believe me. Forward-thinking technology that is; your future ability to find yourself in a situation where you can get the maximum of benefit from technology. – Where the Web 2.0 thing is all leading. I’m a visionary and I’m hopefully intending to lead you in the right direction.

Read on; things will become a little clearer as you do so: -

Not so long ago I said that I’m not going to advertise Blog Masters Club for around another 6 months. Well in the true course of a woman’s prerogative I’ve changed my mind and I’m going to do it again just this once for now.

Why? Because although the promotional fervour’s all died down, the doors are still open until next Tuesday 2nd February; which is the festival of Imbolc for Pagans such as myself. – That has absolutely nothing to do with anything regarding BMC, but I thought I’d mention it anyway.

Since everybody has the chance to get in until that date, I thought it only fitting that I announce the matter on my blog in order that those who haven’t heard all the promotional din that I and other bloggers have been making in regard to the course can have another chance to get signed up and in on the BMC in good time. – Quite logical really if you ask me.

Here are the facts: -

Most bloggers would like to get more
traffic and make some money.

I mean, face it. Most bloggers barely make
enough money to afford a cup of coffee.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though.

My friend, David Risley, has just opened
the doors to his Blog Masters Club.

http://www.davidrisley.com/cmd.php?Clk=3506052

Here’s the thing about David…

He has been making a six-figure income
as a blogger since 2004.

He did NOT make that money by teaching
people how to make money.

And, he’s now created a blogging course
which… well, it is FAR more than just
a course on blogging.

David’s approach is based on what works.
And he pulls no punches.

He shows you how to turn blogging into a
REAL business, not some small-time blog
stuffed with banner ads. He shows you how
you could even forget the banner ads and
make a REAL income with FAR less traffic
than you would need to run ads.

The last time he opened up his Blog Masters
Club to new signups was in July 2009. For
only one week, he is opening it again.

The doors close on Tuesday, Feb 2nd.

You don’t want to hesitate on this opportunity.

http://www.davidrisley.com/cmd.php?Clk=3506052

- So there it is.

Honestly; if you miss out on this as a blogger or prospective blogger you’re only shooting yourself in the foot in all reality.

There is a blogging explosion coming: You thought it had already happened? That was just the detonator going off. In short there are going to be millions, maybe billions, more people who will be yearning to know what this course teaches in the next decade. If you already know it all, having done the course and applied the powerful principles taught to you, then you, by default, are an expert in the field: That, then, gives you the authority and puts you in the position to teach others.

Knowledge is power, and power is money: You’ll be able to quit the job you hate and tell the boss where he can stick it. –Opportunity will knock massively for you as a qualified Blog Master; and for the nominal fee you’ll pay for the course you’ll be oh so glad of the investment in the future.

No – it won’t be easy: Don’t get me wrong: This isn’t a “Sit on your butt and everything’s done for you” course. Those courses are, in general, scams. This is a “Teach you and if you do it you could well be in clover” course. – Note: This requires you to do something; and it can be hard work, especially at first, but David will help you through. If you’re expecting a “Get-rich-quick” course than you’re out of luck: Those courses don’t get anyone but the vendor/con artist who sells them rich quick. This is an interactive course, and by taking it you could open all kinds of avenues.

I’ve said enough. The ball’s in your court now. Click this: http://www.davidrisley.com/cmd.php?Clk=3506052

Another technically-sophisticated-type post today; using another blogger’s video, and why not.

Meet Lisa Morosky: Lisa describes herself as a Virtual Assistant to busy bloggers and Internet entrepreneurs, and a Sassy Blogger Chick with three blogs that she currently operates.

Find out more about Lisa from the social media resources she uses: –

Twitter: twitter.com/LisaMorosky
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lisamorosky
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lisamorosky
FriendFeed: friendfeed.com/lisamorosky
YouTube: www.youtube.com/lisamorosky

Lisa created this video, amongst others, and posted it on You Tube. When I saw it I thought “Yeah I haven’t covered this topic so I’ll use that video.”

So Lisa; your fame and notoriety are spread even further, in addition to providing me with some free article-material: I think that’s a fair trade-off. 

For those of you wanting pure impersonal technical articles I have news: The recent promotional period in which I’ve been deviating from the previous content-type of this blog is coming to an end, and there’ll be no more advertising of the Blog Masters Club for around six months. If you missed out then all I can say is you’ve missed something that could have been so beneficial to you.

There’s always the opportunity in future to climb on board in around six months; but the longer you leave it the more entrepreneurial people will get a head start on you.

For those of you who object to my promotional efforts; sorry, but I have to fund the continuation of this blog somehow. Banner ads don’t work: I’ve been doing those for a long time now and you readers just aren’t buying from them, so that’s basically a waste of time on my part. I have to pay for the server, server maintenance, domain renewal, computer maintenance in relation to my equipment – which I do myself but it still costs, and also have to somehow account for the time spent in maintaining this blog.

You get free information, great offers, and the chance to leave feedback – to which I respond normally. I get the bill. Who’s paying? I’m certainly not intending to lose money. I like helping others, I’ll even help my friends out in a small way financially at times; but I’m not going to become mega-broke helping people who mostly aren’t even interested in me or the blog’s welfare.

Desperate times call for desperate measures; so if what I’m doing isn’t working I do something else: Simple business fundamentals. If you object to my promotional efforts and won’t put up with them then I suggest that you spend your time going from free non-commercialised blog to free non-commercialised blog as each of them in turn closes down/is abandoned/the owner goes bust. I don’t intend to go bust. – End of this particular part of story.

Back to the point re.those of you wanting pure impersonal technical articles: I’ve already written a large number of those. The news is that I’m fed up with being so impersonal; so it’s coming to an end: You’ll get technical, but more varieties of technical, and you’ll get more of me in it too in whatever way. ‘Don’t like me? – Why the hell are you reading my blog then?

When all’s said and done, though, we’re moving back to a more technical style as of, with a difference. Oh and yes I will be running further promotions similar to the BMC promotion I’ve just been running, so expect them as and when.

The Public Bulletin from earlier in the month still stands; so don’t expect too much right at the present time. This promotional campaign has rather taken it out of me in a way: I haven’t been only promoting here on this blog you know. – This blog is just one of many promotional methods I’ve been using. Want to know more? Join the Blog Masters Club .

During the past week or so there have been a number of promotional articles published; all to do with David Risley’s Blog Masters Club course. I realise that I’ve been going a bit overboard with it as such; but it’s a really good course that over delivers both in terms of material and of value. – I know this, because I was a part of its first run: I was a Blog Masters Club student during the latter part of 2009. I personally both recommend this course and guarantee that if you put some effort into it then you’ll get such a lot out of it.

What is the Blog Masters Course, in a bit more detail?

Well let me start to explain in this way: –

Everyone must by now be aware that a number of bloggers make a small fortune by doing what they do: Blogging. Word has spread rather quickly, and everyone and his dog are now trying to do likewise. As a result the internet is jam-packed with millions of gigabytes of information carried by billions of blogs. All these blogs go to make up a wealth of information; much of which is available for free and on tap for anybody who wants to know. – And all these blogs are written by bloggers…

Billions of bloggers. If each were making thousands of dollars from their blog then we could safely say that blogging is currently the most lucrative industry around today; with a multi-trillion-dollar turnover…

But that’s simply not the case. It doesn’t happen like that. In fact, apart from a few bloggers making hundreds of thousands per anum from their blogs, most bloggers aren’t making enough to even finance their children’s pocket money from it.

- That’s not good and it’s not fair. Why do some bloggers make more than enough to live on; yet most make less than enough for a coffee? The answer is that the big earners are doing something or things that the others are not.

What are the earners doing that the others are not? That’s what Blog Masters Club will teach you: Blog Masters Club will teach you powerful things that will give you the potential to skyrocket your earnings from blogging to astronomical heights. – Take my word for it; I’ve completed the course, and so have over 100 others too…

Yes, that’s 101 or more other bloggers who already have a head start on you. _ But if you want to get in with the people at the top of the game then now is the time. Don’t procrastinate – tomorrow is too late and never comes. NOW is the time for action.

Get in there…

This, and maybe another, post, are the last time I’m going to be telling you about BMC for now. – Why is that? Because on Tuesday 26 January 2010 at 12PM EST the BMC doors are opening to let those who have registered for the course in; and then they’re closing again for 6 months.#

That means that time is somewhat short; because by the time you read this it’ll be Monday 25th January 2010 by Greenwich Mean Time (UK and universal time.) which gives you a very short period of time to take action.

The good thing is that; and here’s the point of this article at last, that tonight at 8PM EST – That’s 1AM GMT – David Risley, the product’s creator, is going to be doing a FREE LIVE WEBINAR SESSION. During this webinar, which will explain everything to you in detail, you’ll be able to sign up and say

“Yes; I’m fed up with all this effort to earn enough for a cup of coffee! I want to send my blog’s earnings potential into orbit. I want to take 2010 and make it MY year: The year that I become someone who generates a decent income rather than a pittance from my blogging efforts!”

But what if you can’t make it at that time? I’ll tell you now that David will be recording the webinar… But enough of my drawl. If you want to get on the list and be a part of all this, sign up for the webinar and start to get things SORTED, then there are probably 300 or less places available at time of writing and they’re filling up FAST.

…So… CLICK THIS LINK – NOW, to reserve your place at the webinar: You might be lucky and get a seat. IF NOT though; your entry will be registered and if need be David will do a second webinar; which you’ll attend.

But what if all this sounds good – but you don’t have a blog? Go for it anyway: By the mid point of the course you should have a fully functional, self-hosted, professionally-tweaked, blog.

Once again, in conclusion: What you gotta do?

CLICK THIS LINK

When you gotta do it? NOW!

I just gotta blog this because it’s just so unusual for me to get this kind of thing on the interweb. This has very little to do with tech as such directly, and it’s indirectly linked to internet marketing in some ways. – nevertheless it’s my blog and I’m blogging it.

The good thing is that it’s in a way a pattern-interrupt; a break from the recent stream of marketing gumf that I’ve been posting of late.

Get on with it

Ok so where do I start? A bit of background would help at this point: Recently I’ve been helping out as a regular in a family chatroom. I’m not naming names; of people or of locations, in this article, as this article isn’t about the people or the location(s). Maybe you’ve already seen me in there; maybe not. – Whatever.

You’re asking “Why the heck has she been in a chatroom?” The answer is that it’s another avenue of various doors that may open or close at any point. It’s not just a chatroom as there is a lot of technology behind it and possible opportunity around the corner perhaps in regard to it. In short it’s complicated, and I don’t intend to use up reams of sheets talking about it all in-depth. – Save to say that I’m participating in more than just the chat to some extent, and I really do like a lot of the people there too.

Me

The drawback here is that; being an internet marketer, blogger, and geek, I’d be so bold as to say that, other than a few of the people in the room at some point, the only people who I can fully relate to on that particular geeky-blogger-marketing level fully are the owners who are also geeky types who do all the geeky biz in relation to it.

Socially I’m great company, even though I’m very outspoken and sometimes spit on the entire concept of PR as I walk over it. I also don’t normally take fools lightly, and if something really narks me I usually turn away and swipe it with the sting in my tail. – Not a good idea in a chatroom as it doesn’t get one accepted quickly or easily; so I’ve kerbed that from the start.

Of course, being a family chatroom there are a few stroppy teenagers there at times, as well as some charming and polite teenagers too. Not being a mother, my skills with teenagers have been rather limited to telling the odd oik to bugger off at times in the past, as well as on an educational level to a rather small extent in regard to attitude, life skills, and, mainly, geekery, on the odd occasion when I’ve been asked for such advice.

Drop the Bomb

Yesterday a teenager posted a comment about Haiti: Nothing really much, just a small comment in regard to the tragedies related to the earthquake. In reply to that I posted that this kind of natural disaster could happen anywhere at anytime; even here to you. (I personalised it for a stronger impact.) I followed that up by saying that while things are good here and now we should live life to the full and enjoy it while we still can. I then further followed it up with the remark, which was intended to be unrelated to the issues regarding Haiti, that the news media tend to sensationalise the negative in order to sell stories. –

Clanger dropped: Bad move. (Inappropriate timing.)

Innocent comment intended but hornet’s nest opened: This guy went ballistic at me; calling me heartless, evil, uncaring, and all the names under the sun.

Before I go any further on that; a little more background: I’d let it be known that I was an internet marketer and a blogger, and that I’d started making money from it. It appears that, in the case of a small number of people, I may as well have said that I’m a Tax Collector working for the Romans to a gang of destitute bronze-age Jews. I’d spoken about how it’s in essence a matter of common-sense to do, and that once you master the powerful techniques involved it’s not as hard as it may at first appear.

I can imagine the word going round amongst some people, and this is probably amongst the minority, must have sounded something like: - 

“She’s not even working 9 to 5, every day of every week, like we do, [Or not as the case may be.] yet she’s telling us that she has the chance of making more money in a week than we make in an entire month! Bleemin’ bitch. She rubs our noses in it and then asks if we would like to be able to do the same. Who does she think she is?”

- Or maybe words to that effect.

Personally if someone making more money than me asked me if I’d like them to tell me how I could do the same I’d jump at the chance; but some people appear determined to stay poor and envious of anyone with greater resources no matter what. It wasn’t even as if I’d asked them to pay me anything for my help either; nor was I intending to do so.

”-So forget it” I thought; “I’ve made my pitch, everyone knows who I am, what I do, and that it’s a lucrative business if done right. – Target neutralised. If anyone wants to know more they can always approach me.”

Back to the scene, however; and this teenager, who appears to be a part of the minority mentioned above, started attacking my blogging (Despite never having bothered to even look at my blog as far as I know.) and saying how I was a heartless evil cow for making money with my blog and internet marketing while people in Haiti were dying.

I told him that I couldn’t follow his reasoning, so he just started personally insulting me before trying to rally support against me, gathering a following of 1, and leaving the room, promising never to return, for the second time in as many weeks.

I do realise that it was a misunderstanding of my statement that initially kicked everything off. I also realise that, not only did I not put it very well, but that it was the wrong thing to say at the wrong time perhaps: All this didn’t help; but the resultant situation had much deeper meanings.

Now before I go any further I realise that eventually somebody concerned in some way is going to read this article. I am in no way responsible for whatever reaction they choose to give. I’ve just told it as it is. If they want to contact me and call me an oity-toity bitch again then so be it. If they want to remind me that they think I’m a heartless 57-year-old virgin, which is one of the things I was called, and which must have become an online rumour by now, surely, then good for them. (I’m actually 45 at time of writing; and the rest is for me to know only… OK, and maybe a few others   )

Moving on…

So this appears to be rather an issue in a way: Some of the people are dead against us internet marketers – That’s obvious from the reaction of a number of people from the inadvertent random sample in the story above.

It wasn’t meant to be a statistical experiment; and may have been better if it had never happened – who knows? Nevertheless the terms “Internet Marketer” and “Blogger” with regard to a number of people, in the UK at least, conjure up the same reaction as would the statements like “I work for the Inland Revenue”, “I’m a traffic warden”, “ I sell double-glazing”. (The latter of which I have actually done as a job in the past; and I was rather good at it too.)

- So yeah; there’s definitely some social stigma attached to us by certain people.

Why?

There may be several reasons, here are the ones that I can think of: –

1) Jealousy. – ‘Tis strange that. Why jealousy? – I mean it’s not as if I’m saying “Nee nee ne neer neer: I make more money than you-u. You’re a-a pauper.” On the contrary; I’m saying: “Here’s what I could make this month; and if you like I’ll show you how you can start to do it too.”

Psychology is a funny thing though: By showing that I have or am capable of earning more money than themselves; certain personality types will become angry, and rather than see things in reality and choose to improve their own situation with my help, which I offer freely to some extent, they instead view me as an inconsistency that’s invading their own settled environmental surrounds as they perceive them.

As the well renowned business saying goes: “People dislike inconsistencies, and will work to remove them.” Therefore if they see me as an inconsistency that’s threatening to invade their perceived personal environment and in some way upset their established world-view, they’ll work to remove me from the equation in some way so that they can return to their standard settled and preferred model within their understanding.

2) Fear. Fear of Me? No. I’m quite placid unless roused; and it isn’t that easy to rouse me to anger either – Those that have managed to do so will definitely remember having done so though; whether or not it disturbed them in any way whatsoever.

No sincerely though; I’m a genuinely nice person. – Be equally nice back and we could be the best of friends forever. Get shitty with me for no good reason and you’ll have lost a great opportunity.

I’m way too big; both outwards and upwards to an extent, which may appear imposing, but that’s only usually imposing if I invade a person’s personal space without knowing them previously.

The fear that I’m on about is a subconscious fear of enforced domination by someone or something more powerful and/or more resourceful than themselves.

Now I’m not going to enforce domination on anyone, even if I could, and I hope everyone who I know, online and offline, realises that. – The subconscious is a very different and powerful thing however, and it can be a friend to the conscious mind as much as it can also be a foe. Some people, deep down in their personalities and beyond their control, have an inbred resentment of those with resources/money.

Hoity-toity bitch

Having said that; I’m not rich financially, not yet anyway. – I have been fairly well off at times in the past, (And yes I did give to charity too.).. and I quite probably will be again at some point, but I’m not some kind of fat-cat who goes around partying every night and spending a few grand doing it. In fact if I did that I wouldn’t last the first night as things are at the moment.- But having revealed the potential for me to make a few thousand dollars this month I may as well have waved it physically in some people’s faces.

Should I have considered all this beforehand? Did any of this occur to me prior to the events? – Some of it yes; and I was prepared for a small backlash of some sorts amongst some people – But nothing like this. Maybe it’s my fault for the clanger I accidentally dropped causing the misunderstanding. Maybe it’s the fault of others for misunderstanding, all coupled with various psychological factors. Maybe it’s a combination of both.

Conclusion

So we internet marketers and bloggers do have a slur on our character by default to some extent amongst certain sectors of society. – But that was inevitable anyway; and it happens to some degree in regard to every profession.

You know that I don’t need to remind you about this with regard to the Haiti disaster; but all the same I will:- 

Please do give something; even if it’s physical, financial, or just prayers, energies, blessings, whatever. – Please give something.

In today’s post we’re going on a little car trip in the State of Florida, USA, with problogger David Risley.

Over to you, David: –

I’ve got a video for you. Go watch it right here:
Watch The ‘Car Trip’ Video

In this video, you’ll take a little car trip with me. We’ll leave the house
and make a run to the post office…
To see if I had any checks waiting for me.

The video is entitled "Life As A Pro Blogger" and I hope you enjoy it. I had fun making it.

Some people get a check every 2 weeks.
Me? I’ve got it coming in all the time + I want to help you do the same.

Consult my blog at http://www.davidrisley.com for details on how to RSVP for my webinar on Monday evening. This thing is filling up FAST!

Seriously, within the first 3 hours of me announcing this thing, it was over
a quarter full. GoToWebinar limits me to only 1,000 attendees. I checked the count an hour or so ago and we are now approaching the half-way mark on what I can accommodate.

I’m SERIOUSLY floored. It is going to be weird doing something in my office
with this many people watching.

CREEPY! j/k

But, for today, here’s the new video: -

Watch The ‘Car Trip’ Video Now

Talk to you soon!

Yours in Blogging Success,

David Risley

- Why not jump in and have a look at a bit of Florida? At the same time you could get some idea of he amount of income it’s possible to make from blogging as an online business.

I just received this email in my inbox and I thought “Since I’m currently promoting Blog Masters it seems an idea to share this with others, since it’s basically a public invitation.

Well here is what David sent to me: -

Hi. My name is David Risley and I have something coming up shortly which you may find extremely useful and beneficial: –
I will be hosting a free, public webinar
on Monday, January 25th at 8:00 PM EST.
And you are invited.

Please RSVP here:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/404288106

In this webinar, I am going to share with
you what I see as the "must-do" strategies
for bloggers in 2010.

I’m also going to share with you my view
on why NOW is the time to get this
right. Because – THEY ARE COMING.

Hoards of people, all beating down the
gates because they realize the power
of the Internet and of blogging.
And you are paying attention early. Yes,
believe it or not, you’re still in the
game early, because there are an awful
lot of people out there who have NO CLUE.

This will be BIG, and it can be HUGE for
you if you’re prepped for it.

Secure Your Seat. RSVP Now.

You can attend either over the phone or
via the web. There will be a visual component
which you will only get if you use the
web access.

Now, I am also going to share with you
the full details of the Blog Masters Club.
You’re a smart person and, by now, you’ve
no doubt realized that I’m kind of in "launch
mode", right?

Yeah, things always get a little hectic and
noisy during a launch.

But, I want to let you know what I’ve
been up to for the last six months, and
what all this is about.

So, after some insight and content from
me, I’ll provide a tour of the Blog Masters
Club.

All of this will be LIVE. No pre-recorded
crap. No scripted interviews like some of
those other marketers do. Just me on the
phone – in real time – talking with you.
Hell, I’ll even Ustream the thing so you
can watch me in person.

Secure Your Seat In This Webinar.
… and I’ll be seeing you at 8PM EST, on January
25th. That’s a Monday, BTW.

Yours in Blogging Success,

David Risley

-So what can I say? Be there or be square.

“I’ve been following this blog for some months now; and I’ve become used to seeing new technical posts on a sometimes daily basis. Just lately all I’m seeing is marketing and promotional letters appearing as articles. I thought that this was meant to be a tech blog? What’s going on?”

I see what you’re getting at; so let me explain: -

It’s true; there have been a number of promotional letters posted as articles of late. Why is this? It’s because David Risley is about to open the doors to his Blog Masters Club again, and there’s a pre-launch phase in operation. I’m simply drumming up some further interest, and now is the time to do it as the doors open in around a week.

“Oh I see; you’re getting paid to promote it.”

In a manner of speaking yes: I make no denials with regard to my financially profiting from doing so. – Something has to pay for the running of this blog; and banner ads hardly scratch the surface to this point. It would appear that many of my readers are allergic to spending.

“OK, so you’re making a bit of money to help keep this blog going by promoting this Blog Masters Course thingy… But this is a tech blog. – What does BMC have to do with tech? Aren’t you going way off topic?”

Oh let me assure you that BMC has one heck of a lot to do with tech: Just like when I instruct you via this blog how to keep your computer working optimally, so David Risley will instruct you a certain extent via BMC in steps from starting a blog, optimising the design, getting everything working and looking ship-shape, professional, neat, before telling you many powerful tactics about keeping your blog at the top of the food chain, running it as a business, and generating an income from it.

That is technology, it’s life beyond as we know it, it’s possibly more useful to you than simply having a computer that works optimally, even though that helps.

So yes I’m an internet marketer as well as a blogger, and I’m using my blog as a medium for it. – I can’t simply sit on my butt all day every day typing out free information and going broke – That would be utterly pointless.

So I urge you to look into becoming a part of the Blog Masters’ Course: You’ve had great value out of this blog; maybe it’s time for a little give and take? – You could sign up for Blog Masters via this blog, pay the nominal fee for the course, of which I’ll get a percentage, make what you’ve paid out + a small fortune more back, and help to keep the free content, that you so lovingly cherish because it’s useful and it costs you nothing, free, and online. – There really is no such thing as a free lunch at the end of the day. – Either you profit from it or you lose out on it: Nothing is ever without consequence.

I don’t intend to lose out because I provided you with a valuable service for free but received nothing in return. – So now I’ve scratched your backs for some time repeatedly, why not scratch mine back?

I’m advertising something that could well cause there to be an end to the “I can’t afford to buy anything, I want it all free.” attitude that seems to prevail amongst my readers. – Yes you could actually afford to splash out!

I will shut up now: The ball’s in your court.

Why do some blogs make good money
while others don’t?

Six-Figure blogger, David Risley, reveals
today a way of looking at this that I
don’t believe I’ve ever seen before.

http://www.davidrisley.com/cmd.php?Clk=3493879

This video is pretty deep and it gets into
the psychological test you can use to
evaluate any blogging niche as to it’s
potential as a money-maker.

There is a lot which goes into a truly
successful blog. Some blogs will be
easier than others, and a lot of it
comes down to EMOTION.

Pretty simple, actually.

http://www.davidrisley.com/cmd.php?Clk=3493879

Watch the video.

Yours in Blogging Success,
Sharron Field

Is it possible to make good money as
a blogger?

Many think it is impossible. But, it isn’t…

And David Risley has put out a video
today that really tells it like it is.
http://www.davidrisley.com/cmd.php?Clk=3489932

David is a pro-blogger who has been
making a six-figure income at it since
2004. He knows his stuff, and he doesn’t
beat around the bush as to how to do it.

In this video, he talks about things like…

- Why do SOME people make good money
  while many others don’t?
- Do marketers make more money because
  they are scammers?
- How can you turn your blog into a funnel
  which generates an income?
- What is the blunt, honest truth about
  the business of blogging? (or any business
  for that matter)
http://www.davidrisley.com/cmd.php?Clk=3489932

I think you’ll like it.

No opt-in is required to view the video.

One more time (for posterity):
http://www.davidrisley.com/cmd.php?Clk=3489932

Sincerely,
Sharron Field

It’s been a while; but just recently the spammers are back on top of the game with regard to email spam.

Have you had emails with subject lines such as

“re: Messages” and “re: 33% Discount!”

I know I’ve had quite a few of them just recently.

Of course; I didn’t  actually send any pharmaceutical company, or anyone else come to that, any email message entitled “Messages” or “33% Discount”, but I keep getting these emails that might appear to be replies appearing.

The content of these messages is just 2 words: “click here”. I have all the latest patches from Microsoft installed on both my comp running Windows XP Pro and my other comp Running Windows 7 Home Premium, so these words don’t appear to me to be linked. In their original format, however, they are linked, and will appear so to some computers that aren’t fully updated and patched.

Clicking on these linked words will immediately install malware on your computer as it browses to the spammer’s website, where your confirmed email address will be added to a list of live confirmed email addresses to be used in future spam-blitz campaigns and sold to other spammers. The malware will probably open up one of your ports and connect you to another spammer website which will download further software to make your machine a fully-functional part in a botnet operation.

- So, as always, my advice to you is that if you get any emails that look in any way suspect, delete them immediately without even bothering to open them. Also, ensure that your computer, no matter which operating system you use, is kept fully updated with the latest updates and patches from the operating system’s manufacturer.

If you can no longer get any updates, for instance if you’re running a copy of Win 9x, get a decent operating system that you can keep up to date – or one day you will be sorry you didn’t.

Have you been getting much email spam lately?

Right then lovely readers: I’d like to thank you for your interest in my blog over the past 18 months or so, because although it’s me who has put a lot of effort into this blog; it’s you, my readers who have made it a fairly popular blog, and I thank you for your continued support.

It was you readers who helped get this blog almost into the top 500,000 blogs according to Quantcast in the latter half of last year, and without you this media outlet would be languishing somewhere in the deep realms of obscurity and pretty much unseen by anyone.

My Dilemma

For the moment I’m at a crossroads, as it were, in the continuation of my online business: well more like a multi-route intersection to tell the truth, (Brits; think “Spaghetti Junction”.) and I’m not 100% sure exactly which route would be the best one to take, as the options change on an almost daily basis right now.

I decided, last year, that after the holiday I’d be producing less in terms of free content, and this has happened. In the mean-time certain doors have presented themselves to me, a few wide open, and some which are currently closed but may not be locked or are on a time-lock, figuratively speaking.

My dilemma is that time is of the essence; yet I’m at this intersection without a complete map, and certain routes are awaiting opening. – This could appear to be a nightmare situation, or just life as it usually is for me and pretty much everyone else too.

Decisions decisions

In view of the above I’m going to be letting this blog take a back seat for an undetermined period until I can make a definite decision to move forwards on a clearly-signposted and fully-open route. – That doesn’t mean that this blog is going to be abandoned, even temporarily: What it does mean is that fresh content will appear sporadically and in small amounts for the time being.

I’ll still be advertising and promoting events and helpful products and courses as I always do: Nothing will change much in hat regard. I’ll still be maintaining the blog’s installation, installing new software and plugin versions as and when, and generally keeping everything in good condition on the server.

Once I have made a firm decision, as outlined above, and progress begins again, then this blog will be going somewhere again, maybe faster and on a different course than it has been doing up until now. – Don’t panic though; the technically-oriented theme will continue: Technology is a part of me that you’ll unavoidably get by default in some measure no matter what happens. I’m intending, hopefully, to make this blog more interactive and interpersonal though, rather than just an online tech-library with one or two die-hard fans

It may appear, from your point of view looking at your screen from your computer and seeing only the public face of things, that everything appears to be laxing-off here at Kkomp.com – Beyond. In reality, though, there is a lot going on behind the scenes – and I ask you to bear with me on this.

There will still be new articles from time to time, and other than that everything will appear to be running as usual.

Thank you for being my reader, and I hope that you find the answer to all the questions you may have on this blog or on a linked article.

This is Sharron Field for Kkomp.com – Beyond: the blog that YOU made worth reading

Hello all. Welcome to the first Public Newsletter of 2010.

Things have been pretty hectic recently, and I’ve just not been able to dedicate a lot of time to the blog; particularly in the last week.

As you may or may not know; the entire United Kingdom has been snowed on and frozen for some time, due to Easterly winds coming down from Siberia and the Arctic, which have brought snow and freezing temperatures.

As a result the country, which isn’t snowed on a lot and very seldom gets more than a couple of consecutive days of freezing weather, almost cane to a standstill as it just wasn’t prepared for this type of weather for such a long period of time.

I know the Canadians are calling us Brits wooses for getting jammed up by a few inches of snow; but they’re used to it and get it all the time: Therefore Canada is always ready for this type of weather; whereas the UK isn’t.

Ironically I was making some online friends in East Hampshire only days before the weather turned. East Hampshire happened to be the very worst-affected area when it snowed torrentially for nearly 24 hours almost non-stop, with the town of Petersfield virtually shut down, despite the fact that the main A3 trunk-road passes the West side and top of the town. The A3 itself was closed-down; and many drivers were stranded in their cars, buried in snow and unable to move due to ice. This was the case from just South of Petersfield right up to Liphook and beyond into Berkshire and Surrey.

The kind townspeople of Petersfield arranged shelters for the stranded in local pubs and churches, so that nobody went hungry or froze to death.

Thanks to the internet, which was fully operational throughout, everyone was able to coordinate efforts professionally and communicate weather, traffic, and social reports.

Something else took place on Wednesday (6th Jan) night, when a bare-topped thug in a pair of shorts – in sub-zero temperatures – harassed one of my online acquaintances in the village of Liss, North of Petersfield, and stole her mobile phone. Thanks to the internet the story was soon spread around the area. Unfortunately, despite having a live online webcam positioned nearby, the camera failed to see anything of this incidence.

The poor girl was distraught and terrified afterwards. I spoke over the internet with her and tried to reassure, advise, and comfort her, and it appeared everything was under control and that the police had been informed and were on their way.

If, by any slim chance, somebody from Liss or elsewhere has any information about this incident, or knows who the perpetrator was and happens to read this article; I appeal to them to please contact the police immediately.

So that’s the goings on around the time of writing, and things continue to escalate as more snow and freezing conditions are forecast for the next week for the entire UK.

I’m hopefully laying a few foundations, as it were, for what could be a rather large and exciting event to gradually unfold with regard to this blog at some point in the future. I won’t say any more than that for now, other than it could well involve (maybe multiple) live video streams – But it’s very early days and anything other than pure conjecture at this point is futile. – However I do have hopes; and maybe eventually a plan will be hatched, depending upon circumstance.

The weirdest thing about the weather; which incidentally I predicted a month in advance in more than one place on the internet, (Twitter was one of them.) is that it froze up mid-December as I expected, thawed out for Xmas in the South of England, (During which I had a stinker of a cold.) and then froze the entire country in again afterwards. I wish I could avoid Christmas, just like the Christmas weather did down here in the South. – Humbug

Right; to matters a’la blog, and a recap on what’s been posted since the last Public Newsletter. – Oh, incidentally, I intend to make this Public Newsletter a monthly thing in future, rather than bi-weekly.

S’no Time Like The Present for Maintenance

January 6, 2010 | 0

The UK freezes; but as we wait for a thaw; why not give your box some TLC?

Go on; be kind to your online friend that abides with you and does a lot of work for you.

Something Amazing is Happening Soon…

The amazing thing happening soon is: Blog Masters Club is opening its doors again!

January 5, 2010 | 0

Coming soon: It’s tried, it’s tested, it works – It’s from David Risley and it’ll blow your blog’s potential into the next dimension!

Windows 7 Usage

January 3, 2010 | 0

Statistics regarding usage of Windows 7 seem promising, if this blog’s audience can be taken as a representative sample of computer users generally.

A Twit Too Far?

January 1, 2010 | 0

A new online system for protecting yourself from being followed by spam-bots on Twitter has emerged: Find out why kkomp.com gives it the thumbs-down.

A Phone Running XP? – Yes – Really!

December 31, 2009 | 1

This gadget might end up opening a can of worms; or then again it might prove to be extremely popular. (?)

Battle of the Browsers 2009

December 31, 2009 | 0

2009 saw an exciting time in the Browser Wars saga; yet 2010 promises even more excitement – Maybe even the fall of Microsoft as we know it?

How Many Processor-Cores Should I Have

December 30, 2009 | 0

With single, double, triple, quad-cored processors around, with hex and octo-cored CPUs due to appear soon; what would be best for my computer?

Color Cop (Free Software) – multi-purpose colour picker for Windows

December 29, 2009 | 1

Bloggers, coders, and many more people too, will find this little freebie Windows-only app most useful.

A Bit More About 64-Bit

December 28, 2009 | 0

I want to talk a bit more about 64-bit and memory…

5 Predictions for Tech in 2010

December 26, 2009 | 0

I predicted the December cold snap in the UK a month ahead of the event. Time will tell if these technology predictions come to bear in 2010.

Pure Yuletide Genius!

December 25, 2009 | 0

In a break from the norm; it’s time for some art: In this delightful seasonal video produced days ago, Lisa Jackson brings to you good cheer.

The WordPress Classroom

December 23, 2009 | 0

"My name is Matt Wolfe, and WordPress Changed my life."

Matt Wolfe; famous US internet marketer, had his life changed in such a big way that he felt that he had to share his experience: –
Introducing: The WordPress Classroom

Five Things That Nark Shazza

December 22, 2009 | 1

Normally I’m easy-going; but some things severely nark me nevertheless: Yes, there is a real human here beneath this cloak of technology believe it or not.

You’ll Be Glad It’s Yule…

December 21, 2009 | 1

Have a couple of gifts with PLR, on me.

That just about wraps it up for this one then. If you’re in the new ice-box we’ve come to know as the UK; stay warm and stay well. Only drive if you really have to. – It’s only a matter of time and the extended cold-snap will eventually end. For now it appears that there’s more to come.

Enjoy the (frozen ) week ahead.

Just a quick post today: -

With the UK frozen and buried in snow; it’s best to stay at home if possible: It’s possibly compulsory for some, as many are pretty much snowed in.

- So today looks like a great day to service your computer when you have time to spare: -

• Defragment the hard drive(s); even if you use an automatic defragger – A manual defrag is always a good thing.
• Check your disk(s) for corruption, run a CHKDSK /R just to be on the safe side and ensure that your data is fully intact.
• Remove any programs that are old or that you never use any more that are just basically “in the way”.
• Ensure that your backups are up to date; and if not, run a backup. You can never be too careful when it comes to copying your data for that awful moment when your drive fails. – If it hasn’t happened yet, it’ll happen one day. – Be prepared.
• Take off the side-panel and blow any fluff, dirt, and dust out of the case. Clean all the fans so that the air flows around the box properly.
• Check that your hardware is properly installed and that no screws are working loose.
• Install any new software that you’ve been meaning to install for ages.

There’s always something that needs doing if you own a computer; and the big freeze is a great excuse to catch up on all those little maintenance issues that you’d normally never have time for.

As you know, this is, in the main, a technology blog; although I do tend to go a little off-track at times: I call this a pattern-interrupt. – It wakes the audience up basically. – At least, that’s the general idea, of sorts.

You’ll also be aware that I market products via this blog and other media; from products that are directly related to technology itself, to internet marketers’ products.

What have internet marketers’ products got to do with technology? You ask.

Well the connection may be somewhat loose and indirect; but in fact internet marketing is using technology as a business utility by utilising today’s available internet technologies as a way of doing business and generating a profit. – So internet marketing isn’t all that much indirectly related to technology as one might initially suppose: It is, in a way. almost directly related to technology in fact.

- Surprising eh? But internet marketers, just like bloggers – and at this point let us not forget that many bloggers are internet marketers and vice-versa, myself included – are utilising the social power of current electronic communications technologies via the internet, to make a mark upon society. In the case of bloggers who are bloggers only, and have no commercial desire to add to their blogging exploits, they are imparting and sharing knowledge, information, and, in a way. leaving a legacy on the internet. In the case of internet marketers who are also bloggers, they are doing exactly the same thing, in addition to which they are generating an income while doing so. – That’s the only difference.

Having said that, there are maybe a few blogs that are seriously over-commercialised, and that focus solely on selling product to the detriment of the impartation of value, content, and information; but even these are, to some extent, within the above description.

So it is with this in mind that I seek not to over-commercialise this blog, but to, at the same time, impart information, and most of all impart value.

With the above in mind I am soon to bring to you a chance to gain great value in an indirect way from this blog: You may or may not be aware of the Shopping Arcade which I run as a part of this blog. It’s currently closed for refurbishment, but over the holiday period I’ve had a massive discount-deal running. – Basically a giveaway where I’ve been giving away all of my previous online publications if the customer buys a business-oriented course called 3 Day Money. (If you’ve purchased 3 Day Money through this channel, but haven’t been emailed the free stuff yet; don’t worry – It’s coming.

Let David Risley teach you the basics of a six-figure problogger business in only 3 days. The course includes 14 videos, and has a 92 page transcript, checklist, and audio podcasts of all modules included. Download my FREE 5-page .pdf report on 3-Day Money

That offer’s now finished, and the Shopping Arcade is temporarily closed… But not for long: I’ve just been made privy to some insider information which has set my mind running with ideas. Let me explain some more:-

Since July 2009 I’ve been enrolled in a 6-month course called the BlogMasters Club. You may have seen the logo in the footer proudly stating that “I am a club student”. I think I’ll display it again below this paragraph, since I’m short on pictures. (I slightly adapted the original logo to make that badge and offered it the BlogMasters Forums. Unfortunately it hasn’t caught on yet.) Anyway; to make a long story out of an even longer story, as I tend to do at times, I’ve been slogging away at this and studying since that time.

Although I still have, at time of writing, another 2 modules to start, as soon as they are presented; – I can say with great confidence, based upon the 14 modules that have already been presented, that this course is well worth the fee, and some.

I’m not going to ramble on about it any longer here; but I’ll just state that if you are interested in knowing more then take a look at the notice I’ve put up in the Shopping Arcade’s foyer, and standby for my announcements in the near future. You’ll see these on the blog, and on social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

For now that’s all from me. Please excuse the fact that I’m running a bit behind with everything right at the moment, and therefore the amount of blog content and its type may suffer a little as a result. I’ll catch up in due course.

Now that the holidays are pretty much totally over; enjoy the rest of 2010. May the New Year and new decade prove to be a successful one for you; both with regard to tech success, and also to business success.

This post is just as a matter of interest to report an observation that I’ve made with regard to Windows 7.

I’ve been taking daily samples of my figures and visitor stats for the purpose of gaining some idea of the audience figures for Windows 7 users. Although the figures I’ve gleaned are only approximate, based upon estimates and rounded-off averages, etc, I can report that the figures are rather good as far as Windows 7’s usage is concerned: -

• 1. Approximately 15% of my visitors have visited this blog using Windows 7 during the last month of 2009.
• 2. Approximately 40% of those visitors were running a 64-bit version of Windows 7.
• 3. Approximately 45% of all visitors using Windows 7 arrived searching for information related to Windows 7.

I see that as a rather successful take of market sector by Microsoft’s new operating system. Whilst Windows XP remains the most popular operating system in use by my visitors; the fact that usage of Windows 7 in regard to this blog has gone up from less than 5% during the RC phase to around 15% in the few weeks from October 22nd 2009 to December 31st 2009 is sure to chime early indications of success for the new OS.

I’m a little disappointed at point number 2: I’m a proponent of 64-bit Windows 7; the Windows 7 installation that I personally run being Home Premium 64-bit: I thought that the take-up rate of 64-bit computing with regard to Windows 7 would have been somewhat higher. I was expecting a 60 to 70% rate, rather than 40%.

I have no further data to be able to confirm why this is the case: It may be that those installing Windows 7 on their existing computers are, on the whole, old or running ancient hardware, or perhaps are having compatibility/driver issues with certain pieces of older 32-bit-only software/hardware? I have no way to tell. It could even be due to general ignorance of the difference between 32 and 64-bit, or that a lot of people were running 32-bit Vista and upgraded in-place directly to 32-bit Windows 7. (An in-place upgrade from 32-bit Vista to 64-bit 7 is not possible: Upgrades from Vista to 7 can only be from 32 to 32-bit, or from 64-to-64-bit operating systems. Changing from Vista 32-bit to 7 64-bit necessitates a backup, reformat, reinstall; exactly the same as upgrading from XP to 7 (32 or 64-bit in either case.) would.)

Nevertheless the 64-bit take-up in regard to Windows 7 is a good increase on the corresponding figures with regard to Windows Vista 64-bit’s take-up at a similar point after its release. The fact that most manufacturers who supply Windows 7 preinstalled on their products are pre-installing the 64-bit version and adding a default 4GBs RAM is probably also helping out too.

I didn’t cover much of the regular things about Windows 7; such as the new features, etc: There are thousands of sites out there that do that; and I didn’t see the point of being a part of the massive echo-chamber. I’ve covered a few of the cult-ish things about it; such as how to create a magnifier icon on the desktop for the partially-sighted, and some information about the system recovery disk that you should burn if you haven’t already done so, etc.

That about wraps this article up then: If you’re reading this article near the beginning of the new decade, then I hope that this decade is an enjoyable and prosperous time for you in your endeavours; whatever they may be.

The humans at Kettle River Consulting and Brainy Marketing have come up with a way of preventing spam-bots from following you on Twitter. It’s called “TrueTwit”.

From the website: -

“Twitter spam is a drag. What if you could know for sure that your followers are truly human, and not some cyborg? TrueTwit is designed to help you:

• Verify people from robots
• Avoid Twitter spam
• Save time managing your followers”

The service asks people who follow the subscriber to go to a URL and verify their desire to follow by reading CAPTCHA in the standard way.

“By signing up now for free, all of your new followers will get a validation notice via direct message. If they too are TrueTwit users or pass the CAPTCHA test, you get an email indicating they are a TrueTwit validated human!”

I see problems with this, though: -

The URL link that I received in the email from Twitter when I followed someone who was using True Twit wasn’t a clickable URL; it was just plain text: That meant that I had to copy the URL, go to my browser and open another tab, paste the URL into the browser-bar, and visit the verification page. Having done that I then had to read and interpret two CAPTCHA words, type them in, and submit.

If I were selling product that got your interest; you’d want to be able to click a link or banner that took you straight to a page that explained the product, gave you more information, recommendations, testimonials, money-back-guarantee, etc, and once you’d looked at all that you’d either buy it or not; yes?

If I were selling you the same product that got your interest, but I left a non-clickable, plain-text link, with instructions to copy and paste the link into your browser bar to discover more, you probably wouldn’t bother with all that, yes, and I’d lose out on around 90% of sales because many people would think likewise and simply wouldn’t bother with it.

- So if I appeal to you in some way on Twitter, and you decide that you’d like to follow me, you do so, because it’s a simple single-click process. If you then get sent an email saying that you have to confirm that you’re not a spam-bot then you dubiously and begrudgingly look for where to click to do so. – But you can’t click the verification URL; you instead have to copy and paste it into your browser bar… As a result 90% or more of people who have been “pre-sold” the idea of following me don’t do so because it requires too much effort. – And this applies to everybody who uses the same system.

… And that, therefore, shows that TrueTwit, as it is now, is placing a number of obstacles in the way of getting Twitter followers: It’s given that you’ll not be followed by spam-bots, and it’s fairly definite that only family and people who really like you will follow you, or maybe someone who solely wants to find out about True Twit.

If you’re trying to amass Twitter-followers from the general like-minded population who have, in honesty, no idea who you are, then you’re onto a loser with True Twit.

Do you agree; or do you see things differently? Please do comment.