Internet Business - the journey: October 2006

Monday, October 30, 2006

Advice to Newbies : Analyse your time

NLP model in learning a new skill

Again, I found this piece of information in Rich Schefren's blog that's very pertinent to all newbies who are learning a totally new skill. Great piece of work!

Learning a new skills is divided into four stages

Stage 1 - Unconscious Incompetence. This is where you don’t
know how to do something and you don’t even know that you don’t know.

Stage 2 - Conscious Incompetence. This is where you now
know all the different things you don’t know and
you begin to work on learning them.

Stage 3 - Conscious Competence. This is where you now know
what you need to know, you can do the skills
necessary, but it takes all of your concentration.

Stage 4 - Unconscious Competence. This is where you can now
do the skills necessary without thinking about it, it’s now a habit

So what you need to do is
-- to know which stage you are in and then focus on what you
need to do to move to the next stage.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Information Overload!

According to one Guru whom I just discovered, I am becoming an Information Junkie. I may have to entirely agree with him.

His definition of Information junkies : "they just want to learn, absorb… absorb… absorb and they simply don’t have the power to turn off this constant craving for more".

I have many unopened emails, each offering a product "that I may need" in order to make massive money. However, since I have not started my online business yet, these tools will not be of any use to me.

So the advice given by this Guru, Rich Schefren for information junkies to go on an information diet is wise indeed. It's time to

stop studying, stop analyzing and start creating

don't allow any information to come in whatsoever for the next week.

realise that you can't read everything, nor cross off every item on the to-do list

realise that I must decide which information I must read

live with only the information I have created

develop urgency in everything I do for the next week

increase the level of output

Same product, different approach

Almost every other mail that I receive this week has been promoting a certain marketer's new product-membership riches. I find it very amusing to read the same sales pitch from unconnected people promoting the same product.

Being very new to Internet marketing, I subscribe to many Internet Gurus' lists, just to get a feeling about the business.

This is how I notice that many of the other Internet marketers have signed up as affiliates for that new product, and I become the recipient of the same offer.

What are some of the lessons that we can learn from this situation?

Need to differentiate oneself from the pack : there is only one marketer that gave additional offers. If I wanted to buy-in to the membership riches ebook, I will buy from that marketer.

There is one marketer who uses an entirely different sales letter, which when clicked on, led me to the same product.

Either the commissions are great, or the product is excellent that makes almost everybody wanting to promote it

As for me, I will not buy-in to this offer yet, because I am still doing my research on the business model.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Teaching IT to senior citizens

If things go right, I will be introducing IT to a group of senior citizens in my neighbourhood early next month. Looking forward to it.

I have sourced my materials from various senior citizen websites, and I have also resorted to children's sites for some teaching methodology. Guess, where computer knowledge is concerned, both generations are at par.

If there are any suggestions, do post your comments here.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Is Blogging right for you?

23 "Pre-Qualifying Questions" for a successful blogger

What is a successful blogger? To me, a successful blogger is akin to a regular columnist in the newspaper. A successful blog will have its own regular readership who will seek out the blog on a regular basis and expects the blogger to "speak" to them. So some of the questions below are very pertinent if you want to be a successful blogger.

I choose the blog as my medium to record my online experience. Whether blogging will be a permanent feature in my daily routine in future is left to be seen.

A regular blogger poses the following questions to prospective bloggers. To go in detail his reasons for asking the questions, click here.

Do you enjoy writing?

What’s your Message?

Are you a good communicator?

Are you better at writing or speaking?

Do you want to be the central voice on your website?

Are you a self starter?

Are you disciplined?

Do you have time?

Are you thick skinned?

Are you willing to be in the public spotlight?

Do you have any technical ability?

Do you take yourself too Seriously?

Do you have a blend of humility and Ego?

Are you willing to learn/

Do you enjoy reading?

Are you an organized person?

Are you a Social person?

Do you enjoy ‘virtual relationships?

Are you a creative person?

Do you have Stick-ability?

Are you Consistent?

Are you honest and transparent?

Are you willing to work hard?

Monday, October 23, 2006

Starting A Program Automatically

Computer Tip

If you want your PC to open a selected a program (for example, Accounting or a Point-of-Sales software) automatically when you start the computer, just follow these steps:

For Windows XP
You need to add a shortcut to the Startup folder

Look for the desired program in the local hard drive C or D

Right-click the program and select Send To Desktop as a shortcut on your desktop

Click the Start button, select All Programs list, and look for 'Startup' folder

Right click on the Startup folder, select Open

Drag the desktop shortcut created earlier, INTO the opened Startup folder.

For Mac
You need to add the icon to the Login Items menu

Under Apple menu, select System Preferences

Click Accounts icon, and click Login Items tab

To add programs to the list, click the plus sign or the = button

What is the Value of Time?

Technorati Tag : Value of Time

Everybody has equal number of hours, minutes and seconds in a day. However, when you use your time wisely, you will be able to "stretch" it and then learn to value every day, every minute and every second of your time on Earth.

I don't know who is the original author of these insights, but it has been on the email circuit for quite some time. Also found it on a friend's blog and wanted the same message on my blog.

To realize
The value of ten years:
Ask a newly
Divorced couple

To realize
The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.

To realize
The value of one year:
Ask a student who
Has failed a final exam.

To realize
The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a still born.

To realize
The value of one month:
Ask a mother
who has given birth to
A premature baby.

To realize
The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize
The value of one hour:
Ask the lovers who are waiting to Meet.

To realize
The value of one minute:
Ask a person
Who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize
The value of one-second:
Ask a person
Who has survived an accident…

To realize
The value of one millisecond:
Ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics

Time waits for no one.

Treasure every moment you have.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Claiming my blog in Technorati

After I signed up for Technorati services, this is the next step I need to do to take ownership of my blog - creating a post- so that the service can be activated.

Now to learn about Tagging the Posts,and Linking the Blogs to other like-minded blogs, to increase the visibility.

Technorati Profile

About Technorati - the blog search engine.

Today's topic is all about Technorati.

What is Technorati

Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs, competing with Google, and Yahoo. Technorati services allows you to search for, surface, and organize bloggers and their daily posts.

How does Technorati keep track of the blogs?

First of all, you need to get your blog listed on www.Technorati.com. Follow the screen instruction to sign up for Technorati services (its free). Once you are signed on, you can send a small ping * to Technorati to notify them when you have updated your blog. They will then check you out! Technorati tracks the number of links to your blog. The more links you have, the more relevant is your blog. Links are important in blogs because it reflects the real-time nature of the blogs.

* A ping is a program that is used for informing others that your blog exists, and also that a new post has been made.

Some Blog statistics
.

75,000 new blogs are created in a day, this means approximately one new blog is created every second

.

1.2 million posts are made daily, or about 50,000 blog updates an hour.

Some 57.4 million blogs are registered with Technorati, and the list is growing

[Technorati:About Blogging]

Blog releases stress for teachers?

Should teachers blog?

Another story about perils of blogging - this time for the education sector

Found this article about pros and cons of blogging by teachers. A few teachers in USA had to quit or were sacked for writing about the school policy, and the students behaviour.

Apparently there are more than 800 teacher blogs on Technorati.com

Teachers also need to detox and release stress - after all they face 30-40 students everyday.

I guess, discretion in your blogging is the main key.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Think twice before you post in the internet.

Woman wins $11.3 million from blogger.

Although a blog is a personal online diary and the blogger is entitled to say what she wants, care must be taken to ensure that what you write in the blog is not slanderous. You can be held accountable for the writings in your blog.

Recently the Florida jury awarded a woman $11.3 million in damages after a former acquaintance accused her of being a crook, a con artist and a fraudster in her blog.

Most bloggers, including me, merrily publish our writings on the internet, without any thought of the legal implications of what we write.

What if some money-strapped friend of ours decide to sue us for mentioning her innermost secrets? Food for thought. Safer to report on facts.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Tips for digital photos

Downside for speed

Digital cameras now come with 6,8, or 10 megapixels. They are good for printing your photos.

However, if you need to put your photos on the web or send through the email, a camera resolution of 640 x 480 pixels is adequate quality. It will keep the image file down to a manageable size.

Font sizes that are easy-on-the-eye

Changing text size

Do you find that the font size of the email, or the pages on this webpage, too small for comfort?

This tip may be useful for those people, especially those over 45 whose eyesight isn't what it used to be, who wants to change the size of ANY text they are reading off the computer screen. (and, Yes, it also includes word documents and spreadsheets)

hold down the Ctrl key on your key board and turn the small wheel in the middle of your mouse. The print size of your email will change - it will either get larger or smaller - depending on which way you turn the wheel. This is provided you have a mouse with scrolling function!

or, you can also click on the View menu bar, and select Text Size

.

But I find the first method much more convenient.
Thanks to the friend who brought it to my attention. Try it!!

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Top 100 website

Want to know what are the

top 100 websites in the world?

top websites for your country?

most searched website for a particular category?

Go to Alexa.com

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

YouTube sold for $1.6b

Getting rich over the internet: within 1 year

The internet has made the co-founders of YouTube, a web-site that allows users to upload, view and share video clips over the internet, rich overnight.

On October 9, 2006 it was announced that YouTube will be purchased by Google for US$1.65 billion in stock. And to think the domain name was just activated in Feb 2005, and the YouTube service made its debut on the internet in November 2005 - barely 1 year old! Source

Listen to the happy voices of the co-founders.

[Technorati : youtube]

Alma Mater

What now, Alma Mater?

My Alma mater, University of Malaya (fondly called UM), has been in the limelight in recent days. Its' position in the ranking of top universities of the world has dropped from position no. 169 (in 2005) to position no. 192 (in 2006) in the THES-QS World University Rankings 2006/07. In the inaugural ranking in 2004, UM was placed on position 89. This means that this year's ranking is a drop for two consecutive years in a world university ranking. The only consolation is that the University is still in the top 200 universities of the world.

It used to be THE premier university that every young Malaysian secondary school leaver wants to go to. Now another university, University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) has been ranked the premier Malaysian university. What a blow to UM!

Back in the 80's, I was one of 2 students from my high school to be accepted to do the Accounting degree at UM for that year. My entire neighbourhood wanted to know what my grades were - because the entrance qualification is high and I made it! I'm not sure, with such a ranking, how it will affect the employability of the current under-graduates in UM.

I hope the new (lady) Vice Chancellor of UM will do something to improve the situation. She did say, though, that the entire UM family will not rest on past glories. Way to go!

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Dead or Alive?

Is Adsense Dead or Alive?

Sometime back, there was a blast of emails in my inbox urging subscribers to download the ebook that says adsense is dead. Now there is another round of emails in my inbox from another guru that urges me to download an ebook that rebutts the first statement. This second person says Adsense is Alive!

To a newbie like me, this is utterly confusing! I guess each of the "gurus" have their own version of how to make money through adsense.

I need to be careful of what I read over the internet!

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Internet : Human Network

What is the Internet?

The technical definition of the internet is that it is a collection of interconnected computer networks that transmit data. Source

However, the internet can also be described as a network of people. The internet has become more people-centric. It is ingrained in our everyday lives. We email coworkers, friends, and loved ones. Our lives are captured by digital cameras and shared online. We read blogs for their personalities and unique take on the world. Even dry data like bank balances and weather forecasts have become ways to accentuate and improve your daily life. Sure it's an interconnected set of computers following simple machine instructions, but the driving force behind it all is people connecting with other people. Source

The world is becoming smaller, day by day.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Hurray! Designed my first web page

Success, at last

It's not so difficult afterall to learn the HTML codes to write the web pages. It's just time consuming. Though it was a guided assignment, I felt very proud of myself when I saw my HTML codes being translated to web pages, with heading, images, linking to other web pages, and the works.

At least now when I modify the template for this blog, I do it with some understanding of what the codes mean.

I just saw this reference for HTML tutorial . Worth taking a look.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Quotable Quotes

Thomas Alva Edison

"If we all did the things we are really capable
of doing, we would literally astound ourselves."

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Website design - Basic tools

Online course on website design

I have signed up for a FRE.E online course on building your first web page. The instructor gave assurance that designing web pages (i.e writing in HTML) is really, really, really easy to learn. So here goes!

First things first, you need the following basic tools to design a web page :
1. Text Editor
2. Browser

Text Editors
A Text editor is a tool that allows you to edit text.

Some text editors come preloaded with Windows and Macintosh systems : Notepad (for Windows) and SimpleText (for Macintosh) systems. So no reason not to get started!

You can also download for fre.e other powerful text editors such as
EditPadLite (for windows) and BBEdit Lite (for Macintosh)

Or alternatively, go to TUCOWS to find a list of text editors that suit your needs.

Browsers

You need to install on your PC/Macintosh a variety of common web browsers which are used to logon to the internet. As a serious online publisher you would want to preview the webpages that you designed before you post it to the world to see. This is because different browsers might interpret your HTML differently, and might show the pages differently.

The common browsers (next-to-most-recent version) that needs to be installed are :
1. Internet explorer
2. Netscape
3. Firefox
4. Opera
5. Amaya

Once you have the basic tools, you are ready to start the first web page.

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