Cybernetic Revolution

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In the wake of the past week, I’ve been contemplating illness triggers, how to steer clear of unnecessary stress, and how to ensure I don’t overlook any early warning signs, as well as the best regime to achieve the ‘optimum me’ — and maintain it!

One thing I know with absolute certainty is that I spend too many hours in front of a computer – whether it’s my PC or laptop. I’m an addict, and apart from the massive chunk of time everyday spent building my online business, I’m guilty of using the internet search engines to check out whatever comes to mind or into a conversation, to which I don’t know the answer!

I’m far from being alone with this affliction, I imagine there will be people reading this post who will nod their head sagely, as they recognise feelings and facts that have become familiar companions in their own life.

My colleagues would look at me kinda strangely whenever I’d voice my eagerness for certain futuristic scenarios to become reality.

For instance, an internet-type network that people jack into directly by having a small device implanted in their brain, or perhaps some kind of external fitment. ‘Think’ yourself online, and you are!

Physical strength augmentations, too, are rather appealing, but the technological evolution I’m most eagerly awaiting is commercially available cybernetics.

I’m looking forward to ordering myself a brand spanking new, permanently fit and healthy, cybernetic body into which I can download my brain/mind, flick the ‘on’ switch, and never again endure aches and pains, sickness and invalidity, or wrinkles and sagging bits.

Here’s hoping that cybernetics progress sufficiently fast enough that when the technology is finally available, I haven’t become so decrepit that I can’t remember what it was I wanted to do, or why!

Reward Rebel

Back In The Saddle

First order of the day is to apologise for my rather lengthy absence. I’ve spent the best part of a week in a quiet, darkened room, hanging over the side of the bed with my head in a bucket! Not a lot of fun, I can tell you, especially with an excruciating thumping headache, threatening to explode my brain any moment.

Yep, I’m a migraine sufferer - common migraine – so it’s not a major headache accompanied by white light, but a major headache with violent throwing up – even when there’s nothing left, the body still convulses. I drink water just to avoid retching on an empty stomach – I don’t fancy rupturing something.

Anyway, folks, I apologise for not having a back-up plan for such occasions, but I’ll be posting as soon as I’ve caught up with the latest news. My partner has his own full-time commitments, but has helped out where he could — dropping Entrecards, and approving comments.

I’m writing this as I watch the Formula One Grand Prix in Monaco on TV, and Lewis Hamilton is in the lead, having started 3rd on the grid! For the past ten years or so, I’ve been a big Formula One fan, and look forward to attending future GPs round the world, as soon as I’ve made my millions. Oh yeah, enjoying the spectacle of the Monaco Grand Prix from the luxury of my own yacht is very appealing!

But back to today, I’ll see y’all a little later.

Reward Rebel

My Time Is Valuable ~ Are YOU Wasting It?

Blogging is one aspect of my internet marketing business, and not a hobby or leisure activity. I have used Entrecard to promote Reward Rebel, and consider that it’s made a significant contribution to the site attaining its Google page rank.

Were it not for Entrecard, there wouldn’t have been anything like as much traffic, as many backlinks, or comments. There have been occasions when a comment has triggered an idea for a further post, too.

Reward Rebel joined the Entrecard Community back in November 2007 and although the degree of involvement has fluctuated, for the most part I’ve continued to network with individual members and drop cards routinely.

Recently, I’ve been ‘outsourcing’ card dropping duties to my partner! LOL But, most days I do a ‘personal’ batch of drops, commenting here and there as and when a post snags my interest.

Many sites display the Entrecard widget above the fold, or nearby, ensuring that it can easily be located and clicked.

Sometimes a blog will load without the widget materialising and, when this happens, I try to be kind, and click ‘reload’ but if it fails a second time…. ‘hasta la vista, baby!’

Sadly, too many blogs don’t appear to have given any real thought to the positioning of the Entrecard widget.

When I’m online surfing blogs and dropping Entrecards, it’s as part of the overall strategy to promote my website. My time has a financial value, and I don’t enjoy, nor intend, throwing away my potential earnings while I’m chasing around a website looking for the Entrecard widget.

It’s vital to position the widget where it’s easily – and quickly – located. I’d recommend you position the widget above the fold (on the opening screen, without scrolling down), and

1. Do NOT position the widget in some obscure spot down the page somewhere. Don’t delude yourself that it’ll entice people to read your articles, all it’ll do is make them click out, so not only do you lose that Entrecarder’s drops, you’ll gain a ‘bounce’ on your site traffic stats!

2. Do NOT position the widget amongst a cluster of 125 pixel square ads making it difficult to spot.

3. Do NOT fail to monitor how quickly your site loads – it should not take half a lifetime.

I personally loathe Blinx Ads obscuring site access, and they have instant B-O-U-N-C-E power!

Am I being too harsh? Do I sound like a bitch? If you think I am and I do, I’m certain that you aren’t involved in blogging as part of an internet marketing business.

Anyone managing an online business, or trying to make money online, will appreciate that every moment spent hunting for widgets to click is time that could be spent more productively elsewhere.

So, if you’re wasting my time, or anyone else’s, Stop It! My time is valuable and so is yours! Use it wisely and productively.

Happy blogging.

Reward Rebel

Blogspot Comments Settings

I’ve encountered quite a number of Blogspot sites on which the Comments settings remain as per the default, and this means that many people are unable to contribute to the topic under discussion.

The default setting for Comments on Blogspot sites is for ‘Users with a Google account’ (Blogger ID), however, this is frustrating for those of us who do not have, or do not like to use, a Blogger ID.

If you’re uncertain how your blog’s comments are set up, I’d like to recommend that you follow this exercise.

Sign into your Blogspot dashboard, and select Settings tab, then select Comments. For the second option down, ‘Who can comment’, you need to select the first option – ‘anyone’.

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SAVE your updated settings, and you’re away — it’s that simple.

Hopefully, you should now receive more comments to your blog than previously, so be prepared to respond to them all!

Of course, if you have a Blogspot site and don’t want any ol’ Tom, Dick or Harry commenting on your posts, you can completely ignore this.

Happy blogging.

Reward Rebel

Working From Home Getting A Tan!

This week, Londoners have enjoyed basking in brilliant sunshine and, as if overnight, my garden has become a jungle, requiring a skilfully wielded machèté to traverse it to the far end!

In the time it takes to blink, the lawn (using the term in its broadest sense) is knee-high, and new foliage is sprouting all around. Blossoms are readying themselves to burst, and I’m especially thrilled that my Magnolia is smothered in buds, as it didn’t flower last Summer.

A smattering of bluebells sprung up this year, but they’re now shrugging off their bright petals to reveal seed pods, which will soon drop, ensuring a more abundant display next Spring.

New life is profoundly inspiring, and a comforting reminder that every living entity renews itself, and that everything has its time.

Yesterday afternoon, I enjoyed a thorough physical workout, attempting to tame the backyard jungle, and today my arms, shoulders, back and legs all attest to how much I am in need of ‘away from the computer’ activities!

I’d just started to cut the grass, when it occurred to me to take a photo - my apologies for the quality.

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Below is a shot of the garden last Summer, after I’d started to knock it into shape.

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There was a spell yesterday when I took a break from hacking down the grass and pulling up weeds, and I sat in the dappled sunlight, listening to the melodic birdsong, and contemplating whatever came into my mind.

Then I realised how privileged I was to be seated in the sun, smelling the fresh cut grass and glimpsing the tiny frogs leaping about their newly-disturbed world.

I’m privileged to be working from home building my own online business. Internet marketing offers many options for making money online, however, my recent experience with blogging has taught me that many people start a blog thinking that they’ll be making money (a full-time living) by blogging alone — this is rare. Making money online with one blog alone is very rare.

Diversify. Your blog can be used as an internet marketing tool to help grow a mailing list, by offering a subscription to a newsletter, updates, or special offers. But don’t immediately start promoting products to your list, first you must gain people’s trust and respect — you have to convince your readers that they can rely on your opinion and recommendation.

They say that an internet marketer, actively promoting to his or her list, earns a minimum of $1 per month for each name on it. That’s why the internet marketing gurus with multiple lists of 50,000 plus are millionaires!

When you have established a reputation, you can email the occasional promotion — your own product, or as an affiliate marketer you could promote other people’s. But be careful. This is an area that’s been highly abused, and I don’t hold with daily mailings, promoting each and every ‘latest and greatest’.

Internet marketers practising this type of email vomit-a-thon in my Inbox don’t retain my name on their list for long. A surprising number do send too many mailings, which makes me wonder if they are making good sales, because people succumb to the pressure. I’d prefer not be making an income by annoying the contacts on my list, and I’d rather retain some dignity, too.

Recommend products that you have purchased, and genuinely consider to be quality and worth the bucks. Once again, I soon unsubscribe when I’m frequently sent recommendations for products from the marketer’s ‘good friend’ who has just launched some new something that he thinks I shouldn’t be without. Phoney, baloney.

Diversify. Develop your own product to promote or, as an affiliate marketer, you can save yourself a whole heap of effort, and earn generous commission, promoting other people’s products.

So many internet marketing strategies can be managed via auto-responders and, once set up, they require the minimum of maintenance. You could be making more money online by doing the same amount of work!

Step back from your blog, view the bigger picture, and apply leverage.

Reward Rebel

A Blog Is For Life!

I don’t know if the new blogger just can’t resist all the bells and whistles, but there are certain elements of website wizardry that should be left on the back burner until the new website has built content, traffic and a readership.

Examples of my particular dislikes include:

1. a Feedburner button — “Readers: 1”
2. a Technorati button — “Authority: 3”
3. an Alexa button — “Traffic Rank: 4,689,417”
4. a Page Rank button — “PR (blank space)”
5. a widget stating “My blog is worth $4.82”.

These buttons and widgets aren’t intended for use in this way, they are supposed to be used to publicise positive aspects about the site’s traffic, authority or page rank, not proclaim loudly that it doesn’t have much of any of it.

Why do people do it? Do they just get carried away?

Something else that I find strange is when people start a blog, and sign up to Entrecard and start dropping cards before they have actually added any content. Just a couple of days ago, I saw a blog that displayed the Entrecard widget, but the only post on it was “Hello world, this is my first blog post”. That was it. Period.

Naturally, I appreciate people can become excited, and their enthusiasm is beautiful, but the blogger has to respect the time, and intelligence, of visitors to their website – each new visitor is a prospective long-term reader, don’t alienate them.

If you are new to blogging, or perhaps you’ve been thinking about starting your own blog, don’t jump the gun, and don’t get carried away with all the buttons and widgets. Build some content, enough to engage the visitor, and then start driving traffic to your site.

There’s no rush to do everything straight off. Building a website and its content takes time, as does building a readership. The more thought you put into the project from the start, the greater the rewards you’ll enjoy over time.

Happy blogging!

Reward Rebel

Google Page Rank 2 Attained

I am in celebratory mood. Why? Reward Rebel is basking in the glory of having attained a Google Page Rank of 2, and from little acorns….

The timing is amusing, as it has popped up like an exclamation mark at the end of my previous post!

Although I haven’t been considering quitting, I had been thinking about a subtle, discreet amendment to the site’s direction, as well as building on new keywords.

But no such thoughts are hovering now. A Page Rank is just what the site needed, to reassure myself and my readers that I’m a competent driver, and am steering in the right direction!

Whoop-diddly-doo!

Reward Rebel