You may have been wondering why I am blogging.  Well, basically I NEED to find a reason to use my computer!  To me, life just isn’t worth living if you can’t use the beast every day – sad, isn’t it!  But I was lucky enough to find computers when I left school (back in the dark ages!) and have been happily either being employed using them or employing them for  my own interests ever since.  So when I basically “retired” I wanted to keep my computer busy and so decided to learn about life “online”, and if I could make money at the same time – so much the better.  So I tip-toed into internet marketing.  I’ve been dashing around here, there and everywhere – chasing every shiny object that offered to help me make money… none of them have BUT… I’ve learnt a whole lot and made a whole lot of friends all over the world.

Then I decided to curtail my spending and get back to the original dream of making at least some income to fund my “retirement” and boost the pension.  Hence my attendance at the World Internet Summit.

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Hello again.  I’m glad you came back for the first batch of tips.  Welcome!

I have been a little longer getting this written and posted because I have been in the throws of moving.  I have shut down my home in the UK and moved to Spain where we have a small “finca” or olive grove.  We travelled by ferry from England to Northern Spain, then drove down through Spain to Andalucia – the southern most province.  “We” comprises my husband and I, 2 huskies and a Jack Russell-with long legs!  The dogs go in the kennels on the ferry and we go up several times during the crossing to give them walks around the decks.  The weather was very kind to us – the sea was calm and we had sun most of the time we were driving.

We were very lucky!  It snowed in northern Spain the day after we went through and now there is terrible weather in the UK!  Here in Andalucia it is cold and raining – with some short sunny spells.   This explodes the myth of constant sun in Spain!

Well – more of the olives later.  For now, let’s get on and answer the question …

Why Build A List?

Before you start building your list, it’s important to understand why you need one. Sure, you hear everyone saying that building a list is the “thing” to do, but if you don’t understand the reasons, you won’t be as motivated to do so.

More …

Following on from yesterday’s post I’d like to take a few moments of your time to answer the question:

Why is Jen blogging about her son’s gap year?

Well, I find that my entry into internet marketing followed a very similar path.

For several years, I have been planning on making money online.  In fact, it was probably about 10 years ago that I first heard about this “new way to make money online – called Affiliate Marketing”.  Off and on since then I’ve looked into it but always gotten distracted or gone off at a tangent.  Finally this year I knuckled down and spent time researching how it’s done, what you need to succeed and how to get started.  Call this “Advance planning”, if you will.

Finally in April, I signed up with Alex Jeffreys on his course, handed over my dosh – and began studying and learning.  My first “presence” online is this blog. I have taken some time to settle into my own “style” on the blog – having tried many different things as you’ll see if you scroll through the posts – “life and times”, promotions, “how to”, and so on. Some posts I am now not happy with but I have decided to leave them as it may help other newbies to see my development in years to come!

Since then I have learned a host of things with regard to blogging, marketing, list building, squeeze pages, etc, etc.  Not to mention the “types of marketing” – blogging, affiliate marketing, niche marketing, and several others for which I can’t come up with a “tag”.

I have also done a lot of shopping – sadly not all “window shopping”!  Several times I have followed new launches avidly – as a buyer instead of a marketer.  I have made some mistakes of buying products I cannot use or will not have the time just yet.  I think that there is a whole new world out there that the newbie gets shown and it’s like a magnificent toy shop – so many gadgets, “automators”, work savers, time savers, etc.   I have come to realise that, for me at least, good old honest hard work – or “grunt work” as the Gentle Mentor says, is the only way to go at the beginning.  Then when you have a good idea of what you’re doing and where you’re going, then automation may kick in and help.

In my preparations for making money online I have come across a few (gems that I intend to hold on to.  And the big bonus is they are all free in the first instance.

1. The Simple·ology Course.  This is “The Simple Science of Getting What You Want”.  The first level of the course that takes 40 days – each day there is a selection of video, quiz, experiment, writing, reading.  Very simple and short tasks.  It is designed to help you clear your mind, determine where you want to set your sights and to steer a straight course to achieve it.
2. Alex Goodall’s IMI Organizer .  This is a system using mind maps for organising all those 100s of reports, software, articles, etc that you download and write and then “lose” on your hard drive.  It’s a method for step by step putting an item in a logical place which is then cross referenced by subject, topic and type.  Ingenious!  I’m slowly getting my hard drive organised and, believe me, it’s much easier to find things and has reduced the number of multiple downloads I do!
3. DavidWalker.TV I have been following David’s blog for some time since coming across it while on my course.  A few weeks ago, David offered to give 3 people a one-to-one on how to decide what to write in your blog.  I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of those people and David gave me nearly a whole afternoon – I don’t think he intended to but with interruptions, etc, it ran to that!  I had mentioned that I wanted to home in on Affiliate Marketing so that was what my one-to-one was about.  This really helped me – not only to come up with ideas for blog post topics but to focus my attention from all the available options to this path.
4. The Gentle Mentor – aka Gary Bacchett.  He runs a 3 times weekly “chat room” using the webinar software.  He goes over the basics of internet marketing, highlights useful products, answers your questions, you can show him your screen – using screen- sharing, and much more.  And all for free!

And so my “real” journey begins!  I plan to get my head down – finish the Simple·ology course, finish getting my hard disc “IMI Organized” and firm up the plan for my posts as per  DavidWalker.TV’s brainstorming session.  I’m really looking forward to it!

I’d love to hear how you got into blogging, what your sights are set on and how you are doing in getting there.  Do leave a comment below.  Thank you

My youngest son has just departed for his Gap Year project in South Africa and it has been a hectic time getting everything sorted.

For several years he’s been thinking of taking a “gap” year after finishing high school and before going to university.  First he did a lot of research into what he’d like to do, where, how and who with.  Then he picked a company – asked them lots of questions and finally handed over his dosh for the travel, accommodation, etc.  Advance planning showed his passport was valid but he needed some vaccinations – so he got those under-way.

Then there was a period of waiting, continuing his studies and sitting the final exams.  Finally that was all over – and, yes, he did really well and got the grades to get to the university of his choice.

Now we started the preparations in earnest!

We sat down and listed all the things he was likely to need – camera, backpack, toiletries, clothes, etc, etc.  Then we did some research – window shopping, comparing prices, features, trying samples.

At this point we stopped and took a checkpoint. We looked at the budget and revised the list of “needs” in the light of the available cash!  I can tell you that some things quickly turned into “nice but not essential” in the light of our “research”!

The next phase was actually acquiring the items required and keeping them somewhere safe, all together, so that when it came to packing we wouldn’t waste time hunting for them – or worse, losing them and having to buy a duplicate.

At last, after a few last minute scrambles it was off to the airport with a carload of friends for the great departure!

Good luck, son!

Now, you may be asking:  “Why is Jennifer blogging about her son’s gap year?”

I’ll tell you tomorrow in my next blog post …

You may well ask! It really looks like I’ve been neglecting my readers. Many apologies, dear friend! Let me tell you where I’ve been.

The first weekend in June I jetted from London, England to St. Louis, Missouri, USA for a conference.

Things didn’t go well at the start – I arranged for my son to drop me at Heathrow Terminal 1 – I had checked it several times because I thought Terminal 1 was only internal or European flights. When I got there I rang my sister, with whom I was travelling – only to find she was at Terminal 3. I rechecked my flight details and realised that I was flying from Heathrow terminal 3 to Toronto Terminal 1.

So I walked on over to Terminal 3 – well, under, actually as you go down to the underground station and out the Terminal 3 exit. It didn’t take more than 15 minutes, thankfully. Once there, we decided to do the self-check-in at a machine seeing as we only had carry-on bags. Guess what! At each machine there was an airline assistant to help you use the machine! Did that amount to self-check-in? Oh, well, it saved some queuing, I guess. We changed our watches to Toronto time as soon as we took off from Heathrow and took our anti-jetlag herbal remedies – would they work?

The flight was uneventful – smooth, food provided, entertainment in the seat back of the seat in front, etc. We had a 4 hour stop-over in Toronto which was long and there was nothing to do since we had transferred to the “internal” departure lounge and there was nothing there except a couple of lacklustre fast-food outlets. Anyway, we didn’t really want to acquire any Canadian money for such a short time.

On to St Louis in a small aircraft – I really like these because you can see the terrain you are flying over. Most “carry-on” bags had to be left at the plane door for stowing with the checked baggage as there was no room in the cabin.

At St Louis we took the metro from the airport directly to a stop very near our hotel, which was part of the Union Station complexThis used to the largest railway terminal in the world but since the demise of steam travel has been turned into a hotel, conference, shopping complex. Take a look at here and here for some more information.

The hotel was comfortable and convenient. We found that our days consisted of:

• wake up
• have breakfast
• go to 1st session
• grab a quick lunch
• second session
• grab a quick supper
• evening session
• bed

So I can’t really tell you much about the weather except that it was warm and, I think, sunny.

The plan was to do some sightseeing on Monday morning before heading home again but we were all so tired that we had a lie in on Monday – but we did manage to go to the Gateway Arch which was conceived to commemorate the westward growth of the United States between 1803 and 1890. For those of you interested in seeing more, go to here.

And then the return trip was very similar except the stop in Toronto was slightly more bearable since there were several other people from the conference returning on the same plane and we were in the “international” departure area so there were more shops and restaurants.

In case you wondered… the anti-jet-lag remedies DID work – both ways – and we were able to enjoy the conference and hit the ground running when we got back to our duties in the UK.

As to the conference … well, I’ll tell you more of that in my next blog. But while you’re waiting – why not tell us where you have been in the comments section?

PS If someone could tell me how to indent the bullets above, I’d be grateful. Thanks