A friend was showing me something called FourSquare the other day and I may well download it myself. It combines a social networking platform with a means of getting consumer reviews about all kinds of places that may be near to where you are.

I’m not convinced by the social part personally, but the rest sounds interesting.

Let me know if you are using it and what you think.

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You, like me, may be sick and tired of hearing about Chris Freville’s Stealth Profit Machines by now. I’m getting dozens of cloned emails a day from all the big-time affiliates – multiple copies from many of them.

The result is that Stealth Profit Machines has gone from nowhere to being very close to the the biggest selling product on ClickBank. It may even be at #1 by the time you read this.

Now, I have my differences with Chris about some aspects of the sales letter. I’ve expressed them here in Kickstart, and privately by email to Chris. I don’t approve of the ultra-hype and downright falsehoods that are so commonly used these days. It seems to me that copywriters are taking the easy way out, which is sad.

I’m also uncomfortable with the exit price offers, the endless upsells, downsells and cross sells, and the general feeling that all you want to do is buy a decent product but the owner has set a small dog to biting your ankles.

Tip: Don’t buy ANYTHING connected to Internet marketing without first trying to exit the sales page. More often than not you’ll be offered a cheaper price – sometimes for the same product, sometimes for a lesser offering, and if not, you can always go straight back.

Chris’ launch hasn’t been unusual in any of the marketing tactics it has used. Lot’s of big name affiliates motivated by the desire to out-sell each other, scarcity tactics, outright deceits justified in the name of ‘selling’, lots of controversy, crashed servers – you name it.

But what sets this one apart in one specific way is that behind it all there is a very good product being sold at a very decent price (whether you get the $10 discount or not).

That’s why I’m being a hypocrite and still promoting it. You can read my full review at http://imkickstart.com/course/reviews/stealth-profit-machines-warts-and-all-review/
If you want to create self-populating blogs with an absolute minimum of effort, for an incredibly low price, then SPM is just what you’ve been looking for. But take the sales letter with a big pinch of salt and don’t forget to try to leave before buying.

As to all the upsells, downsells and cross sells, none of them are necessary to make SPM work. They are icing on the cake that you can pick up if you want to.

One thing that has been pointed out to me and which I must pass on is that the content SPM pulls into your blog comes from EzineArticles. According the the very strict wording of their ToS, what SPM does with the articles breaks EA’s rules. I’ll have to leave it to you whether you are comfortable with that or not.

Maybe I’m naive, but I’m sure that a more ethical sales letter and upsell/downsell process would not have damaged its success. In fact, going by the number of people I’ve heard say wouldn’t buy because of the sales letter or the cloned emails, maybe it would have been MORE successful.

I’m sure that Chris and his top affiliates are a lot better off after this week. And good for them. I have no problem with people making money. And I have no problem with the launch marketing process, provided it is ethical.

But I suspect that Internet marketing itself is becoming poorer as a result of people getting tired of the ‘art of persuasion’ being overshadowed by the trend towards ‘market stall tactics’.

At what point did hypnotic marketing become hypenotic? And can we begin to remove the e before the FTC in the US and the ASA in the UK take notice and regulate all of us out of existence?

Not long, I suspect. And when they do, as always happens with government bodies trying to clean things up, they will probably be draconian in their approach and unreasonable in their regulations.

When that happens, a lot of people will be up in arms about the loss of their earning potential, but really, we all will have only ourselves to blame.

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This is way too important.

Long time readers of Kickstart will remember that a few years ago
I held an appeal to raise money for my Rotary Club to buy
Lifestraws.

Lifestraws, if you haven’t heard of them, are high-tech filter
tubes that allow a person to suck up water from any dirty,
contaminated source and make it 100% safe to drink.

Each Lifestraw lasts a person for up to a year and for those
stuck in disaster areas, where water is anything but safe to
drink, they save lives.

Each straw cost just a couple of bucks. The price of a cup of
coffee.

Right now there are 6 million people at significant risk in
Pakistan and the Rotary Club coordinating the buying in and
sending out of Lifestraws (over 100,000 have been sent worldwide
since the project began) has completely run out of stocks.

The last 11,000 in the warehouse have already been sent to
Pakistan and now the cupboard is bare.

My Rotary Club – and many others – is now organizing a fast
program of fundraisers and bucket collections to raise money to
quickly buy more container loads of Lifestraws.

The need is desperate – you know that I’m sure as the news in the
papers and on TV has shown the sheer unimaginable scale of the
problem.

We can’t help everyone, but every Lifestraw we can get to
Pakistan will help save a life. That’s all we can hope to do –
save one life at a time.

And you can help.

Please help.

I have reopened the Kickstart Lifestraw Appeal – you can find the
page at http://kickstartdaily.com/lifestraw

It tells you about Lifestraws – what they are, what they can do
and why we need your money so urgently. Both to help the
situation right now and to prepare for the inevitable needs the
next time nature strikes.

But more importantly, there is a PayPal donation button there so
you can send us as much as you can afford.

As this is a Rotary Club initiative, the money will go directly
to my club’s account – not to me – and as Rotarians never make
any admin charges 100% of your donation (after PayPal’s fees)
will go straight towards buying and distributing Lifestraws.

Please visit http://kickstartdaily.com/lifestraw right now.

And please give as generously as you can.

Many thanks,

Martin Avis

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Some people are paranoid about privacy and are convinced that even hinting at their real name online will bring all kinds of stalkers, identity thieves and other undesirables running to their front doors.

So they hide behind silly nicknames or meaningless strings of characters in the belief that they are somehow protecting themselves.

Rarely is that successful. There have been one or two people who have managed to brand their nickname, but in all cases that I can remember their real name was in evidence as well.

Online marketing is very difficult and starting out with negative credibility is like trying to run a race while attached to the starting post by a bungee rope. Sooner or later it will drag you down.

I have always used my own name and have never had any problems as a result. In fact, here in Kickstart I share a whole lot more personal information than just my name! And apart from making me a lot of good friends, it hasn’t ever been a problem.

No stalkers, no crazed lunatics and only one groupie – Kim Standerline who tells everyone she wants to be the next Mrs Avis when I’ve done with the first one! Sorry Kim, but if Delia reads this, YOU might need to change your name!

Having said that, there ARE circumstances where using your real name can be a problem:

1. If your real name is already well known in a different arena. For example, a friend of mine is a high profile public figure who took up Internet marketing as a hobby some years ago. From the get go he used a pseudonym because he realized that people searching Google for his real name would just get confused if they came up with IM stuff.

2. I’ve known people who have ‘escaped’ from abusive relationships and who use pseudonyms online to avoid their ex spouse finding out where they now live. You can’t argue with that.

3. People who operate in several wildly different niches may want to use different names to keep the various sides of their business apart. I do this myself if I’m selling ebooks and reports in different fields because ‘Martin Avis’ is primarily known for Internet marketing and I don’t want to dilute that by having too many search engine results for different subjects.

4. Some employers are easily upset if they think that their employees are moonlighting, so in that case, a budding online entrepreneur might reasonably and sensibly use a pseudonym to avoid trouble with their boss.

5. It is conceivable that a person’s real name is too long or too difficult to read and pronounce for the market they are aiming at. In that case, it is often simply good practice to adopt a simpler version for recognition reasons.

In each of these cases it is reasonable and justifiable to use a false name. However, the key is that the false name should be recognizable as a ‘real’ name and not as some anonymous jumble of characters, or, sometimes worse, as a silly nickname. There is no credibility in these obvious fake names.

It is often said that people like to do business with people, and that is even more true online. There is so much suspicion already, why add to it by giving the impression you have something to hide?

What do you do and what are your thoughts on the matter? Comments are very welcome undear ANY name!

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A world without the Internet huh?

That would be when we went to a library for our info products (only we called them books and the only ones who ever said ebooks were elderly Yorkshiremen).

That would be when social networking meant going out to the local youth club. Or, Heaven forbid, becoming a Boy Scout or Girl Guide.

That would be when a facebook had black pages and the ‘faces’ were stuck in with little paper corners.

That would be when a forum was a place for debate and usually involved cold beer and tipsy girlfriends.

That would be when calling someone a blogger would get you a black eye.

That would when watching a monitor involved staring at the school prefect.

That would be when the most advanced keyboard was attached to a Moog.

That would be when a floppy disc would give you a bad back.

That would be when a payment processor was made of brass, had keys with the denominations and a drawer that went ‘ting’.

That would be when the superhighway was the M1 in the UK or Route 66 in the US.

That would be when CD meant you didn’t have to pay your fines.

That would be when the only time you needed a RAM was when you had a few ewes to be covered.

That would be when a bit was more than you could chew or a byte would need a visit to the dentist.

That would be when Amazon was a river and Google was a misspelled number.

That would be when traffic stopped you getting home for dinner.

That would be when hacking meant you had a nasty cough.

That would be when ‘CB’ would be followed by ‘Ten-four, breaker-breaker, good buddy.’

That would be when file sharing involved manilla cardboard.

That would be when a chat room was thick with cigarette smoke and spilled beer.

That would be when the only place you’d find virtual real estate was on a Monopoly board.

That would be when the only autoresponder in the world was called Kit.

That would be when good hosting meant happy guests.

That would be when second life was what we all prayed for on Sundays.

That would be when Go Daddy involved an egg and a spoon.

That would be when a hard drive was accompanied by ‘are we nearly there yet?’

That would be when being digital meant you could count on your fingers.

That would be when banner ad was a big flag you waved at a football match.

That would be when your bookmarks were made by your kids as school projects.

That would be when one cookie was never enough.

That would be when cross browser support was a patient salesperson in the bookstore.

That would be when going to a flash site got you locked up.

That would be when showing someone your holiday pictures involved a darkened room and a Kodak Carousel.

That would be when an impression was something you made.

That would be when My Space was something you didn’t enter.

That would be when spam was a Sunday treat.

That would be when peer-to-peer networking happened at the water cooler.

That would be when the world was a simpler place; when we didn’t have friends all over the world; when our differences were more frightening; when our horizons were limited; when our imaginations were fuelled by HG Wells or Gene Roddenberry.

That would be when almost everything we take for granted today about technology, the Internet and computers was at best an impossible dream and worst simply thoughts of magic.

That would be the days of our parents – or for some of us, our youth.

And thinking back, it wasn’t so long ago was it.

I wonder what the days of our children will bring.

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I don’t mean how much are the component parts of you
worth – the water and minerals that make up your body
(a bit less than a dollar for the raw materials, a bit
more if you could sell your working parts).

I mean how much does it say on the invisible price tag
that you have hung around your neck.

$10 an hour? $100? $1000?

You are worth exactly as much as you believe you are
worth.

My friend David is a joiner. He makes stuff out of
wood. Recently he was asked to price up a job that he
really didn’t want. Rather than turn it down, he simply
double his normal rates in the hope that the customer
would be put off.

The next day they were on the phone asking him how soon
he could start.

THAT made David rethink how much he was worth!

Another friend (also called David, coincidentally) is a
central heating installer. He told me that he normally
quoted £800 to fit a new boiler, but recently has been
losing jobs to other companies who charge much more.
When he started asking why he’d lost the job, the
customers told him that they figured the more expensive
companies would do a better job.

Dave immediately added £1000 to his standard price and
has been booked solid with work ever since.

Mike is a management consultant. He recently decided to
increase his hourly rate from £200 to £800. He is still
billing exactly the same number of hours but his income
has quadrupled – and he reports that his clients are
now FAR more likely to do as he recommends.

It happens all around us. People everywhere are
undervaluing their worth because they put their own
value on themselves instead of the value that their
clients and customers would put on them.

Take a look at the value that YOU put on yourself.

Look harder.

Now, whatever that value is, increase it. Live with it.
Let that new value sink in to your subconscious.

Then go out into the world and show them what you’re
worth.

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Today, I don’t know if you’ve had your breakfast or not yet, but I certainly don’t want you to believe six impossible things. Just one will do
to start with.

The one impossible thing that I want you to believe today – and I really mean BELIEVE it with every ounce of your being – is that you CAN.

You CAN achieve success.

You CAN do anything that you WANT to do.

You CAN … fill in your own blank!

With that fundamental belief, anything that is physically possible is within your range. At at times, even disability isn’t a barrier if you
have sufficient belief.

I read just this morning about a young man who was a successful mountain climber. He had a fall and trapped his arm between two rocks. He had a
choice that most of us couldn’t imagine having to take – he could hang there until he died, or he could cut off his own arm. He chose to live.
But that horrific tale isn’t the end of it.

He could easily have decided that without an arm, his mountain climbing days were over, but not this guy. He has the fire of ‘I Can’ burning
like a torch inside of him.

He now has a prosthetic arm, shaped like a pirate’s hook and he is back climbing mountains like he never left off.

You don’t need to cut off your own arm to prove that you can climb mountains – and we all have different mountains to tackle in any case. What
you do need is an absolute, unshakeable certainty that you CAN climb it.

When you KNOW that you CAN, actually doing it doesn’t seem so hard after all.

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‘Many thanks for pushing my wheel.’

It means, thank you for your recommendation.

It often follows another traditional saying, ‘I hope that you will remove the weeds that obstruct my mind.’ (A request for advice and guidance).

We DO have weeds in our minds, all of us, and we ARE often like wheels resting against a wall. Sometimes we can tend to the weeds ourselves, and sometimes we can set our wheel rolling without outside help – BUT most of the time we don’t.

So if someone else helps me to remove my mental weeds and set my wheel in motion I am not going to hesitate to let them – and thank them heartily for their efforts.

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One man was donating part of his liver to his son, who,
due to liver disease, had barely a year left to live.

The surgeon explained to this man that the operation he
was about to undergo had risks and that there was a one
in 150 chance that he may not survive.

The guy didn’t flinch. The chance that he could save
his son was far more important to him than his own
life.

Both father and son survived the surgery well.

So many parents of seriously sick children can only
watch and pray, absolutely unable to influence their
loved-ones health in any way.

But this man was given the opportunity to risk his own
life to save his son’s – and he grabbed that chance
with gratitude.

Who wouldn’t.

I watched that program with tears in my eyes and felt a
whole lot better about the human race at the end of it.

On a side note, I had an operation myself a few months ago and had to sign a disclaimer form after the anethatist explained to me that there was a 1% chance I may not wake up. Of course I signed – I needed the operation – but 1%? Really? Does one person in a hundred really die on the operating table? Surely if so many people were pegging out on such a regular basis the newspapers would be full of it.

I think maybe there is a bit of risk exaggeration going on.

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You see, the other thing that struck me was that the stores that
are trading are, in general, not fighting for business. It seems
like they have either given up or decided to hunker down and hope
for the best. Although there are lots of people here, they all
seem to be wandering around. Look inside the stores and in nearly
every case you’ll see a vacant-eyed assistant or two staring into
the middle distance while the tumbleweed blows around their legs.
They don’t have any customers to serve because the throngs of
people outside aren’t customers until they cross the threshold –
and nobody is doing much of that.

Where are the great offers? Where are the ‘today only’ deals?
Where are people hustling you to come into the store?

Almost every store has a sale on – up to 80% off in some cases –
but all those sales appear to be canceling each other out.

Sure, you can’t turn one of the biggest shopping malls in Europe
into a bazaar, but surely a bit of marketing wouldn’t go amiss?

Over the years I’ve lived through several recessions and a lot of
very tough times, and the thing that has always characterized
them is that they bring out the entrepreneurial spirit in folks.

When making a dollar is tough, you hustle up every dime.

But this time, that spirit seems to have gone into hibernation.

That, in my opinion, is why 2010 will continue to be a tough
year, even though the official figures tell us that we are no
longer in recession. The canny, clever, tricky, wily, ducking and
diving folk have gone to ground. At least on the High Street and
the great offline world.

Even when you do go in a store things don’t get any better. I
went into a big electrical retailer to ask if they sell RAM –
memory for my computer. Although this particular store didn’t,
they are part of a major chain that does, so getting it in for me
should have been easy. But no. The assistant looked at me as if I
was crazy for asking and said, “You do know you can save a
fortune by buying them online.” And then he recommended I look on
a well-known compuer memory website, nothing to do with the
company that pays his salary.

Buying online is a more obvious course of action, apparently,
than buying offline – even for people who work in offline stores.

Online, it seems, things are different. Online we have increasing
numbers of people taking chances, chasing dreams, making
mistakes, making money and keeping the spirit of entrepreneurial
dynamism alive and well and peeking through a browser near you.

All good stuff, but I do wish the offline world wasn’t wearing
such a defeated expression. For every store in this mall, I can
think of endless ways they could scare up more business and
increase their profits. The simplest way of all would be for
complementary, but non-competing stores to ‘loan’ each other
display space. That way they could all increase their footprint
and window space without any particular cost penalty.

Or how about the mall itself creating a promotion among
participating stores?

Or how about a group of stores getting together to give out books
of discount coupons?

Or have door prizes for every 100th customer to increase
footfall?

Or free muffins with every purchase (okay, that one may not make
too much profit, but I’d personally love it!)

The economy IS in turmoil. Consumers ARE tightening their belts.
But retailers have faced this before and by fighting, have won in
the end. This time shouldn’t be any different – IF the fight
hasn’t been kicked out of them already.

Now I’m off to spend some money and have lunch. See you later.

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I took the bait and followed the link.

What I came to was a squeeze page that had a very short
promotional video on it telling me about the benefits of the
‘free’ video. But to watch the free video I had to give them my
name and email address.

Okay, I have no problem with that. I’m a marketer too – I
understand about squeeze pages and list building. No problem.

But then I was taken to an upsell that was trying to sell me
something I had no idea what it was, and had no interest in
finding out.

I was there to see a free video, after all!

Eventually I found the ‘No Thanks’ link and so settled down to
watch the video I’d wanted to see five minutes ago.

But no. There was another sales page trying to make me buy a
cheaper version of the first upsell. I didn’t want it then and I
don’t want it now! Enough already!

Finally … finally … I got to the page the original email had
promised and watched the video. It was quite interesting, as it
turned out, although not quite as ‘new and revolutionary’ as the
author seemed to think.

What a palaver! Four clicks, two upsells, a name squeeze and a
promotional, pre-video to sit through. All to watch a short free
video.

I wish I hadn’t bothered.

I know it is marketing. I know that the gurus teach this stuff. I
know that it is effective. Heck, I know that the guy running it
is probably making ten times what I am.

But despite all that, it is still bloody annoying. Surely there
is a better way?

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Think about that.

If you want to do business with a certain type of person, find
out where they hang out, find out what their needs are and put
yourself in their way.

If you want to sell ebooks online, fine out who wants to buy what
and then put yourself in their way.

If you want to speak at seminars, find out who organizes the
events and get in their way.

People who are ‘in the way’ get noticed.

While most people are happy to shrink into the background and
‘blend in’, successful people – or those on the journey towards
success – know that blending in is the LAST thing that they need
to do.

Where is the differentiation in that?

Sheep on the hillside blend in. All you see is a flock of sheep.
But if one of those sheep happens to have black wool it stands
out and your eyes are drawn to it. It is in the way of your
vision.

You have to find ways to get in the way of the people you need to
further your success. You have to be noticeable and noticed.
Whether that is by the way you act, the services you offer, or
the skills you possess, when you are in the way and you have
something that can solve another person’s problem, you are the
natural first choice.

And where success is concerned you are either the first choice or
you are no choice.

Get out of your blended-in comfort zone and put yourself in the
way of success.

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‘Really bad things are going to happen to me today.’

Did that make you feel uncomfortable? Did you resist
my instruction?

Did you think, “Are you CRAZY Martin? Why would I want
to think THAT?”

I bet you did! At least I HOPE you did!

Naturally, we don’t want to think that bad things will
happen because just by thinking that awful thought it
might just come true.

We know, deep down, that repeating something like
that, over and over again, can trigger the very event
we fear. So we don’t do it.

Or do we?

In fact, we spend our entire lives fearing the worst,
dreading the ‘inevitable’ and secretly thinking
negative thoughts.

And we wonder why our lives don’t run as smoothly as
we’d like!

Here is a thought for you to ponder:

If you won’t consciously tell yourself that bad things
will happen ten times over because you fear the
outcome, why don’t you tell yourself that good things
are going to happen?

Surely if repeating the bad statement over and over
makes it likely to come true, then the same can be
said of the good statement?

THAT is what the whole concept of positive
affirmations is all about. It may seem silly to keep
repeating something like “Every day in every way I am
getting better and better” but it WORKS.

You ARE what you most often think about.

If you think often enough that you are successful,
pretty soon you’ll start to see all the ways that you
ARE already a success and you will be able to build on
them.

If you think often enough that you are smart, it won’t
be long before you start to focus on all the ways that
you ARE smart, rather than the inevitable areas where
you aren’t.

When you think often enough that your life is filled
with positive energy that makes you happy with your
world …

… you guessed it.

So how about revisiting the beginning of this article:

Think hard about this next statement and repeat it to
yourself ten times with real feeling:

‘Really great things are going to happen to me today.’

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If not, please try it – it really works.

Keep an eye out for some small item that seems to
connect with you. You’ll know it when you find it.

It may be a particular pebble – its smoothness and
coloration may speak to you even if you don’t know
why.

Perhaps you will see a jagged piece of tree bark while
out walking and be drawn to pick it up and keep it.

Maybe a small toy – a car, a marble, a wooden animal -
will attract you in ways you can’t explain.

A picture that means so much to you, but nothing to
anyone else.

A bottle of perfume that transports your mind to
another place.

It could be anything.

If you have such an item in your life, you’ll know
what I mean, but if you don’t yet, please keep looking
– your touchstone is out there waiting for you.

When you find it, you’ll see that it has magical
powers. (Don’t panic, I’m not off on some mystic
flight of fancy here). Your own personal touchstone
has power because it connects with your imagination.
When you pick it up and allow your mind to drift, it
is a catalyst that lets your thoughts soar.

Inspiration is there for us all – but sometimes it
need a bit of help breaking through the barriers that
we put up in our daily lives.

When you connect with your touchstone it’s like
throwing open a window and letting the air and light
flood into your soul.

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The very first one to respond – literally with an hour – was my
friend Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian.

Dr. Mani is a remarkable man.

By profession he is a heart surgeon, who specializes in repairing
congenital heart defects in children – children who would die
without his life-saving skills.

Some years ago, Mani realized that there are far more children
who desperately need his surgery than can possibly afford it. Dr.
Mani lives and works in India, where medical costs are much lower
than elsewhere, but even so, the $2000 needed to fund each
operation is beyond the means of many families.

Their only option is inevitable heartbreak. Literally.

So Dr. Mani, being the kind of guy he is, decided to create a
charitable foundation to raise money to fund as many operations
as possible – and has devoted his own considerable Internet
marketing efforts to the task.

He is absolutely one of the great guys.

Dr. Mani has recently embarked on a new project to raise enough
to fund 47 new operations – called ’47 Hearts’ and I would like
to ask you to take a moment of your time to have a look.

The focus is on a Valentines Day launch (tomorrow) but you can
see Mani’s website right now.

I don’t normally send you pre-written emails but the following is
what Mani has asked me to tell you – and I can think of no better
way to sum it up…

Dr.Mani, heart surgeon and infopreneur, is launching his second
book on February 14th, 2010.

“47 HEARTS – How To Live Your Dream, With Passion, Purpose and
Persistence!” – www.47hearts.com

It’s an amazing book that has received rave reviews from early
readers – and has a wonderful cause behind it.

All profits from book sales are being donated to charity, and
will help sponsor life-saving heart surgery for kids from
under-privileged families.

I urge you to get a copy if you can – details are here:

http://www.47hearts.com

And as a special deal during launch week, Dr.Mani is also
throwing in a few extra bonus gifts for anyone who buys his book
or makes a donation of $10 or more.

http://www.47hearts.com/bonusgift.htm

One gift is especially of great value, it’s his first book which
was an Amazon.com HOT 100 best-seller…

“Think, Write & Retire – Turning Words Into Wealth”

All you’ll do is order “47 HEARTS” or make a donation and join a
“47 Hearts Group”. You’ll get instant access to several gifts in
digital form, and more important,
you’ll help a child live!

Thank you for your support.

Martin Avis

P.S. – Even if you cannot afford to buy the book, please try and
read it on the Heart Kids Blogathon blog where Dr.Mani will be
sharing it in successive posts, at

http://www.47hearts.com/blog/

P.P.S. It should go without saying that I make nothing from
recommending this to you. There isn’t an affiliate program, and I
wouldn’t want to take anything away from Mani’s charity even if
there was. This is simply and excellent cause, well worthy of our
support.

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If it had been in England, even two inches of snow would have
made the roads impassable. There would have been news reports
about how thousands of people were stuck for 48 hours in snow
drifts – and if the buses had run at all, the chances are that
many of them would have broken down or turned over on the ice.

So David was expecting a very long journey.

In the end, he arrived in New York City just one hour later than
scheduled.

We English are said to be obsessed with the weather, but while we
are obsessing, everyone else just deals with it.

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Over the last day or so I’ve been spring cleaning my office. I
hate clutter, but somehow it still accumulates faster than I can
I can cope with it!

What happened to the fabled paperless office?

So far I’ve filled two huge garbage sacks and I’ve only done half
the room! And it doesn’t seem to me to be too long ago that I did
the same thing.

The trouble with tidying is that in order to get a good result,
you have to make things a lot worse first.

You can’t clear a cupboard by just opening the doors and looking
in – you have to take everything out and assess the worth of each
item.

The result is that until the process is complete, your room looks
like a tornado has singled you out.

I know I don’t work efficiently in a messy environment, but don’t
have the self-discipline to straighten things away as I go. I
really envy people who are able to keep a clear desk – but I know
that for me, out of sight is out of mind. The moment I put
something in a pending folder I forget about it entirely. So I
have to keep all current jobs in front of me and only file them
away when they are done.

But as we all know, some jobs never get done and the list of ones
needing attention just keeps growing.

I don’t know what the answer is, but every three or four months I
have to have a blitz or mentally I grind to a halt!

And once a year, like now, I need to physically go through
everything in every file, on every shelf and in every cupboard to
weed out the junk and start afresh.

It is a soul-destroying task that never fails to leave me feeling
depressed, but I know it is worth it in the long run because this
act of penance seems to allow my creativity to start flowing
freely again.

Look out world – an uncluttered Avis is about to be unleashed!

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Whatever you call them, they are incredibly useful things.

And they are getting cheaper and cheaper for more and more memory
capacity.

I bought a couple of 4Gb ones today for about $9 each. And if I’d
shopped around, I’m sure I could have found cheaper.

To me, they are useful because I can have one dedicated to saving
all the files I need for one specific thing. So, if I’m creating
a new product, I can save everything onto that one memory stick
and then know where everything is. I don’t have to go hunting all
over my hard drive for files in all kinds of random places.

I know I could probably do the same with folders on my hard
drive, but it is so much more convenient to be able to unplug all
my data from one computer and plug it in to another.

But now that my little collection of memory sticks is growing, I
have hit on an unexpected problem – remembering what is on each
one.

There is no simple way to label the darned things!

The are all different shapes and sizes, and are made out of
different materials. Some will take a small stick on label, but
others, like the ones I bought yesterday, are made out of a kind
of roughened plastic that my sticky labels won’t stick to.

Has anyone solved the problem – or is it just me who is getting
the wrong end of the wrong stick?

Update: Since I wrote the above, it has been drawn to my attention that there are some fake 64Gb memory sticks being sold on unscrupulous websites. I don’t need that kind of memory myself, but if you do, be careful who you buy them from if you buy online.

Security: Another thing that has been raised is the potential security problem if you happen to mislay your memory stick.

We all know about stupid politicians and civil servants who lose their laptops on trains and from their cars, but at least most of those laptops are passwod protected to some degree. Most USB memory sticks are far less secure. It is only a matter of time before a senior government person lets his flash drive, with all the country’s nuclear secrets accidentally fall out of his pocket!

If you are concerned that your data might fall into the wrong hands if you lose your flash drive, there is a pretty good solution – and it is free!

You can download a program called TrueCrypt from http://www.truecrypt.com to make the data of any USB memory stick encrypted behind a password of your choosing. It has to be a new stick though, because the process will format the drive and destroy any data already on it.

Just make sure you pick a password that you can remember – and that other people will not be able to guess!

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You can’t spend more than five minutes on any Internet marketing
forum lately without being subjected to a dozen or more people
moaning and griping that nothing works, that Internet marketing
is an illusion or that people who teach the methods that work for
them are scammers.

Sometimes I actually find myself believing all that crap.

Every now and again, in an unguarded moment, I sit here reading
how hard all this is and how impossible it is to make sales, and
my stomach does a back flip. Have I pinned my family’s future and
security on smoke and mirrors?

Once in a while I suffer a moment’s panic that I’ve fallen for a
line and that my world will come crashing down on me – and all
those people who are constantly bleating on and on about failure
and how making money online can’t be done will laugh and point
and say ‘I told you so!’

Then I look at my PayPal account and the moment passes.

I don’t know why some people seem to be programmed to fail. Maybe
they are not – maybe it is just that they are terrified to
succeed because to do so would force them to shift their world
view.

I do know that the constant negativity can be highly corrosive –
if it even causes me to have doubts, goodness knows what it does
to someone who hasn’t yet learned how to succeed!

The answer is, of course, to avoid places where those people hang
out – including almost every forum I’ve ever been on. But that
would be to cut off my nose to spite my face. I like forums and
learn a huge amount from them.

And once in a while I like to try to inject a bit of out and out
positivity into some of the threads, to show people that it can
be done and that this funny old Internet business isn’t as bad as
they are making out.

That’s not to say that it is easy. Oh no. But it IS possible

“Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our
imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.” Jamie
Paolinetti.

It usually falls on deaf ears, but we do what we can!

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