Pic courtesy of NASA

It’s the ‘worst’ winter in 30 years according to the press, although I beg to differ – it’s the BEST winter in 30 years! Snow may be disruptive, but it’s so very beautiful, with a white blanket covering the everyday dullness of the city, making buildings look ‘postcard pretty’ and presenting a visual splendour out of town as fields and trees proudly display their temporary white overcoats.

Happy New Year to all of you, and all the best for 2010. I’ve got big plans for this year, although I haven’t made any resolutions – actually that’s an untruth, I made one – to go swimming more often as it’s my physical therapy – but I’ve broken it already due to the fact I can’t get to the gym because of the snow! Which brings me onto what I want to discuss today – why New Years Resolutions suck, and why you shouldn’t make them!

I have nothing against planning or setting goals – these are both worthy activities that will help you get where you want to be. In fact, I insist you set some goals and plan towards reaching them – how will you know how you’re going to get where you want to be unless you have a map? However, don’t name them ‘Resolutions’! Why? Because you’re setting yourself up to fail straightaway…

People don’t generally make New Years Resolutions because they are committed to changing a behaviour, getting rid of a bad habit, or achieving something.

People make New Years Resolutions so that they have something to say when other people ask “What are your Resolutions for this year?”.

Over the years, you have probably made hundreds or thousands of resolutions that you’ve later broken… or never even attempted to keep. In people’s minds, New Years Resolutions are things you make but don’t make the most of. So what if they fail – millions of other people have done exactly the same thing… 2 or 3 weeks into the New Year, old habits reemerge and new improvements slide back to 2009 levels. Subconsciously, we know that New Years Resolutions are useless – a traditional pastime borne of the New Year, soon forgotten as winter fades into memory.

Okay so some people manage to keep their resolutions – but I reckon they’re in the minority. More people give up smoking in the New Year than at any other time of year, and hopefully many remain non-smokers forever… but the majority eventually return to tobacco’s vice-like grip and the comfort of the burning stick of reduced lifespan.

So this year, don’t make any New Years Resolutions. Save yourself the time and effort and future disappointment as you go back on your festively-induced promises.

Instead go out and buy yourself a notebook. In that notebook write down the things you want to achieve in 2010.

Once you have those goals written down, then you can start to plan how you’re going to achieve them.

Once you have your plan, start working towards your goals. Keep it positive and you’re more likely to succeed.

I hope you’re having a great snowed-in day, and let’s all look forward to a successful 2010 filled with fun and laughter (but not Miley Cyrus!)

Rob Bell

I pride myself on my knowledge of computers and the Internet – I’m the ‘go-to guy’ for my friends when it comes to PCs and technology in general. That is why I feel so sheepish while writing this. I overreached my technological abilities over the weekend, and my wallet has suffered as a result! I’ll tell you the whole story…..

Last week, I dropped my iPhone, face down, flat onto the hard, cold bathroom floor just as I was making my way sleepily to my bed, via toothbrush and toilet… Needless to say, the iPhone screen smashed – see exhibit one! I am somewhat disappointed, having previously thought it to be quite sturdy – but never having actually tested its’ strength!

Next day I was looking to see how much it would cost for the repair – finding out it’s £139.99 at the Apple Store via my local O2 shop. “£140 be damned” the tight Yorkshireman within me thought, “I bet I can fix it cheaper myself”. Some more research provided me with the information I needed – I could get a new ‘digitiser’ – which is what the iPhone glass screen is called – for £22 inc p&p from Amazon, with instructions. So I ordered it and patiently waited for the screen to arrive. When it did, I watched the instruction video a number of times to familiarise myself with the process before opening the case and getting stuck in to the process.

As it happens, at one point in the video it refers to a white clip with a black connector that has to be clicked up to release connector no 3 – however, since the video was made Apple have swapped the colours and the catch is black with a white connector. I tried to flick up the white connector which turned out to be a very delicate connector that I’d inadvertently destroyed in one foul flick! This made it really difficult to reinsert the lead into connector 3… and after considerable difficulty, when I put the phone together again and switched it on, something didn’t look right…. see exhibit two! And on top of that, the earpiece was no longer working – I could make calls but only hear them if I turned the speaker on or wore headphones…

What I hadn’t considered was that the LCD underneath was also damaged and needed replacing – plus my savaging of connector 3 meant the lead was no longer able to connect properly – so the earpiece no longer worked.

Defeated by my apparent clumsiness and ignorance, I resigned myself to finding a local iPhone  repair outlet, and took the iPhone there earlier today, where the LCD was replaced and the screen returned to normal. Unfortunately, my destruction of the connector meant that Andy (the skilled repairer who did an amazing job of fixing it while I waited) was unable to get the earpiece working as I need to get the connector replaced on the PCB (Circuit Board).

However, the phone is now in working condition once again, and looks as good as it did before I dropped it (except for a small crack in the new screen I made trying to pry it out before discovering the real purpose of suction cups!

Having paid for the repair, I’ve almost spent as much as taking it to the Apple Store would have cost. If I’d taken it straight to Andy, it would have been fixed at a lot less than the Apple store – and I wouldn’t have broken the earpiece connector!

So the moral of this tale is that you shouldn’t try to be an expert in everything (the old phrase being “Jack of All Trades, Master of None”) – my clumsiness and not-so-delicate fingers are not factors that make me an awesome technician, but quite the opposite.

My skills lay elsewhere, and it took a hit to my wallet to remind me of this. In future, I shall focus on things I am good at and rely on the expertise of others in areas where I have less ability. Learn from my mistake and you too can reduce the chance of disaster, in whatever you do. Thus endeth the iPhone-delivered lesson!

Rob Bell

p.s. The first thing I did when I got the repaired phone was to go to a phone shop and get a hard case with a front cover! Only a fool doesn’t learn from his mistakes…

Well I’m afraid my back didn’t get better the next day – or for any of the last 10! I’ve been suffering a bit, but help is at hand – my specialist changed my meds last week, and the new stuff seems to be helping – although it’s left me pretty shattered for the past week and I’ve done a lot (a serious lot) of sleeping!

I visited the Neurosurgeon last Wednesday, and as usual was optimistic about the possibilities of there being a fix for my problems. And, as usual, the neurosurgeon dashed my hopes and told me that the only thing I could do is to adapt… I’ve been trying to adapt for over 5 years now!!!

So there’s no miracle cure, and I have to get in with it. I’m sure plenty of other people manage – I always look to Lance Armstrong when I’m feeling down about my condition – he got through some pretty life-threatening situations and still went on to excel. So shall I – although my physical days are gone and I won’t be winning any sports, I can still live a life with intention and determination – and I will.

Rob Bell

Sorry for getting you all excited about my return to writing today (I’m being sarcastic, not conceited!) – my regular readers know of my ongoing health problems, but for those of you who don’t – I broke my back twice falling out of the sky awkwardly in a couple of extreme sports accidents. I’ve damaged vertebrae, discs, nerves, my hip, sacroiliac joint and various other bodyparts, resulting in my walking with a stick these days…

Anyway today is what I have come to call a ‘Pain Day’ – when my back is incredibly painful leaving me almost incapable of achieving much that particular day, and confined to my bed, blitzed my an enormous array of pain killers. I’ve managed to get onto the computer for a little while as pain killers have temporarily improved the situation, but this will have to be a pretty brief post today.

Have you come across a site called Picnik yet? It’s a very useful image editing web application – it’s easy to upload your photos, edit them and add effects then share them among your friends and social networks. It costs nothing to use – although there is a pro option if you want extra filters and the ability to upload infinite pictures. If you don’t have Photoshop, or Gimp, you’ll find this a very useful site when you have photos you want to edit eg to get rid of red-eye, or you just want to make an existing photo more fun with special effects -

Check out vampire Rob…

So get yourselves over to Picnik – you don’t need to have a Photoshop-sized budget to do great work on your photos!

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a far less pain day – I have a meal out in the evening so it better be!

Rob Bell

I’ve moved and am now sat happily in my cyberoffice at my new place. It’s so relaxing here – I’m surrounded on 2 sides by some spectacular gardens, so there’s very little noise – and I get squirrels and foxes and the like in my garden.I’ve not had a garden for a long long time, so it’s nice to have one once again – I’ve already got a composter and am planning great things for the garden after winter has passed.

So I’m back on with work again – new article coming in the next couple of days

Rob

You’re not going to see a lot of posts from me in the next 2 weeks (no sarcasm please!) as I’m in the process of moving house – and won’t have access to broadband until it’s switched on in the new house – next Tuesday, fingers crossed.

Back Soon,

Rob

What do you know about Net Neutrality?

Chances are, you haven’t heard of it,or you’ve heard it but don’t really know what it is – and you know what the scary thing is? If Net Neutrality is ended, the Internet as you know it is gone forever, split into a fast lane for companies with money and a slow lane for small businesses, individuals, clubs and societies – in fact, anyone who can’t afford to pay ISPs to have their site in the fast lane. ISPs may even completely block access to sites who aren’t able to pay them.

e.g with net neutrality, Small Biz A and Large Corp B can be accessed by anyone using ISP C, at the same speed as each other.

If there were no net neutrality, Large Corp B would be able to afford to pay ISP C – so that ISP C’s customers could access Corp B’s website at the highest possible speed.

Because Small Biz A cannot afford to pay ISP C, users are not given the same high speed access to the website of Biz A, so it takes longer for users to load the page and access Small Biz A’s site – giving Large Corp B a massive advantage. Maybe Small Biz A’s website couldn’t even be accessed by users of certain ISPs.

This reduces the ability of Small to Medium Size Enterprises to compete online with larger businesses, turning the Internet into a fast lane for those sites who can afford to pay, and a slow lane for those who can’t.

Barack Obama Recognises the Importance of Net Neutrality

In November 2007, before he became President, Barack Obama gave an important speech to Google about Net Neutrality – it’s 51 seconds, so have a quick watch before you read on -

Barack Obama also spoke of his support for Net Neutrality when he appeared on MTV:

Small Businesses won’t be able to compete online anymore, Clubs and Individuals will lose traffic, members and new visitors, and You and I will have to surf an Internet dominated exclusively by massive international brands. You won’t see Blogs that are self-hosted, no uploading your pics to a site that’s currently free. It will be a bleak and frankly rubbish place to be.

It will add an additional cost to businesses, which they’ll no doubt pass on to you, so you will end up paying more to stop small businesses, not-for-profits and individuals from having an effective presence online.

It will ruin online innovation – startups often bootstrap initially, flying by the seat of their financial pants until they achieve profitability. The additional costs to be given access by ISPs and get on the fast lane would often be prohibitive – if we didn’t have Net Neutrality, today’s online success stories might never have happened. The likes of Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Google and many many more might never have existed if they’d had to pay out massive amounts of money, just so users could access their sites. Imagine if you’d never been able to access Facebook, Yahoo mail or Gmail or been able to buy books. Imagine if you’d never had access to Google, or Yahoo…

Virgin Media in UK are Against Net Neutrality

Over here in the UK in April 2008, the CEO of Virgin media stated that he is against neutrality as it’s ‘a load of bollocks’, and wants to charge people for enhanced speed access to Virgin’s internet customers – in fact they are ALREADY doing deals with media companies. If Virgin are your ISP they could already be limiting your access or speeding it up to certain companies – does that concern you? I think it should.

In my opinion he has undone years of Virgin’s branding work, where they aim to be perceived as slightly rebellious and maverick, but always on the side of the customer. By coming out against net neutrality, he has shown his company to be anti-user as far as I’m concerned.They also seem to be at odds with the overall feling towards Net Neutrality – and in that way, are acting against the interests of their customers by applying speed variations – if indeed they are, as chatter on forums would suggest – do a search on ‘virgin media limiting speed’ for yourself!

It’s the one thing that’s put me right off Virgin, and I find myself surprised that any company Richard Branson’s involved with would act with such anti-progress ridiculousness!

Virgin Media’s position on Net Neutrality -

I have boycotted Virgin products since last year as a result and will continue to do so until they publically agree that Net Neutrality is the right way forward for the whole world.

I get my Broadband from BT – who say, according to the Stop Virgin website:

“… Unlike Virgin, we think the bandwidth we provide our users should be equal for all services and if services like the BBC iPlayer put too much strain on the bandwidth, both ISP’s and content providers should educate the users on that issue so that users know when and why they may have to upgrade their account for more bandwidth if it exceeds ‘fair use’ terms. We always bear the consumer in mind first and have no plans to prioritize traffic from third party companies. We welcome all the Virgin customers who left because of the net neutrality issue and offer ‘neutral’ bandwidth.”

It’s not too often I say it, but ‘good on ya, BT!’

There are lots of resources you can see via SaveTheInternet.com , YouTube and via the search engines. This 3 minute video explains Net Neutrality in some detail:

Even Ninjas recognise the importance of Net Neutrality!

That’s why it’s so important you support Net Neutrality – Net Neutrality is what makes the Internet the massively useful global phenomenon it is today. Without Net Neutrality, the Internet would suck!

On September 21st, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission in the US) Chief ‘Boldly’ Committed to Net Neutrality. In a speech at the Brookings Institution, Genachowski said the FCC must be a “smart cop on the beat preserving Net Neutrality against increased efforts by providers to block services and applications over both wired and wireless connections.

Visit Savetheinternet.com to find out more, and see how you can help make sure the Internet of tomorrow still gives you the freedom to choose what you access.

Rob Bell

Marketing is not Promotion People – Get that in Your Heads.

Promotion and Advertising are tools used within a Marketing programme when a product or service is ready to be launched. There’s lots of marketing needs to be done before that stage  though.

There are so many people around claiming to be marketing experts because they’ve undertaken promotional actions to some degree of success – that doesn’t make you a marketing guru that makes you a promotions guru.

Marketing is much more than just promoting products – it’s researching markets, identifying opportunities and problems, developing services and products to solve those problems in a manner a customer would like  setting up and testing Marketing campaigns, using above the line-, below the line- and digital- methods to formulate, execute and analyse the success of each actitivy, something that is particularly easy online given the availability of data, constantly testing and refining promotions as needed. And eventually, the product is ready to go, hopefuly with a well-armed knowledge of the new market that will allow him or her to dominate.

Market Research

A true Marketer knows that any product needs research prior to committing, here are just 15:

1. What’s the size of the market?
2. Who are the major players?
3. How competitive is it?
4. Have you done any Keyword Research?
5. What’s the customer profile?
6. What are people in the market desperate for?
7. Are there any problems there you can solve through your product or service?
8. Are you asking people in the market if they see a place for your product?
9. Would they buy it or try it out and give it a mark out of 100 for you??
10. Are you doing usability studies?
11. What’s the best way to reach your target consumers? It’s not always going to be online, many niches can found away from the computer.
12. What are the best factors to identify in order to do competitive analysis? Price, Features, Quality, Exclusivity – they’ll be different  for each market
13. Does your product represent what you want to sell to them, or what they want to buy from you?
14. How could you change the former into the latter?
15. Where can your potential customers be found?

Next time, I’ll look at competitive positioning and discuss how understanding a fairly simple topic to grasp can help you know more about your market than most others

Funny short clip of my good friend Dave, who’s 71, creating some hot electro beats via my iPhone.

I hope it brightens your day as much as it did mine

I taught him how to build and maintain his own website, which now has hundreds of pages, and gets thousands of visits each month – proving you can learn to use computers and the Internet at any age.

The Sunday Times called him ‘the greatest Surrealist since Salvador Dali’, so make sure you check out his artwork in the Grand Gallery.

Have a look at Dave’s site. You’ll be mystified to say the least…

Rob Bell

This post is a direct copy of a page I just uploaded to my personal website, Rob-Bell.com – so the bit about ‘coming soon’ applies to that site, not this I thought the page worth sharing with you, my dear blog readers, so here it is, in all its’ glory including what I now consider to be quite an embarrassing video from a couple of years ago!

Beware the Newbie Trap – Watch That Wallet!

After 4 years of being disabled, I no longer had any savings and found myself living hand to mouth on incapacity and disability benefit, unable to afford to do much, rotting away quietly at home. Some days I couldn’t even afford to eat – but once I caught the internet marketing bug, I found myself forgoing meals to invest in courses I’d been recommended… as a Newbie (Complete Beginner) I didn’t know what was good or not, and I bought quite a few courses that were no use other than taking up space on my hard drive. I’m lucky that I have a degree in Business Management and Marketing, so already knew the rules, many tricks of the trade, and had a good eye for spotting what can only described as BS! I bet you’re just like me – you want to fill that knowledge gap, but you’re just not buying the right stuff…

If you’re new to making money online, it’s really easy to get sucked into spending lots of money on courses far too complex for the new or faint-hearted, which leave you frustrated, skint and feeling overwhelmed – resulting in an early exit before your new activities come to fruition.

The gurus all tell you to spend all your money on their course – which is always the best and fastest way for you to get millions, a massive house, a brand-new shiny Ferrari in your garage, and your own private jet to fly to your own private Island!

You and me both know that the only things that can really give you the lifestyle you dream of are free – Determination, Focus, and Effort.

If you’re just getting started and you’ve never done any marketing before, what you need is a way of learning the principles so you can build a long-term business that provides for you and your family for years to come. The best way of doing this generally is not to buy a thousand dollar web-based program and then convince others to buy the same program to make some money.

Some people are good at this, but most are not which is why network marketing and internet marketing have such high failure rates – I read it’s something like 97% of people who fail in these markets, probably because they find out the truth, which is:-

Even though you were told you would get rich quickly and easily by simply buying these programs, the truth is they will not make you rich on their own. Unless you are good at promotion, sales, and forming relationships with potential buyers, chances are you will struggle until you begin to understand better ways of marketing and promoting your cause. Your first sale is perhaps the hardest, especially if you don’t know how. I have a degree in marketing, but I still struggled at first, so I know and feel your pain, believe me!

You would be far better off to join a low cost, even free, programme where you’re given the right training to get you started properly – where a community of your peers and experts come together to help each other learn the right techniques to generate a full-time income online. I joined Affiliate Funnel for those reasons, and 2 years on I’m still a member – and always recommend the program to friends and business contacts who want to learn about Internet Marketing, without spending their hard-earned money.

You can join and use Affiliate Funnel for free, or there’s a paid option which I have that costs me £4 ($6) each month -it’s easily worth every penny, although I don’t pay myself anymore – the program more than pays for itself every month.

Things don’t have to be complicated – anyone can generate income online, at whatever age. Several highly successful online business people are in their teens, and many are way past retirement age – the Internet shows no favours to any age. People of all skill levels and abilities just like you are able to find a system that’s right for them, and launch their new online career. No matter what you are doing now, you can start to earn money online – a lot of people I know never studied a day’s marketing in their lives before they took up internet marketing, and started applying it to their businesses and personal money-making ventures.

I’m teaching my Mum, who’s in her late 60s how to achieve stuff online, and have already taught a 71 year old who now writes and publishes a website with hundreds of, maybe even a thousand, pages about ancient history, numerology, and ancient wisdoms. It also features a selection of his artwork – the Sunday Times called him the ‘greatest Surrealist since Salvador Dali’.

Affiliate Funnel Will Get You Started, Quickly and Easily

My personal recommendation for this first stage of your online business career is Affiliate Funnel. It’s easy to get started, and the regular training will provide you with the essential information you need during this first stage. Affiliate Funnel helps you develop your online brand and begin to generate money from the Internet, and you don’t need to have sold or marketed or been a business whiz before.

You can ask questions of experts at the weekly saturday and monday night (and often other nights too) seminars, and they often give away industry secrets that will help you increase your income.

Give Affiliate Funnel a try-out today – it doesn’t cost you anything to join, and it could make you a lot of money.

Traffic Exchanges – The Easiest Way for You to Get People to View Your Offers

Traffic Exchanges are one of the easiest ways for newbie Internet Marketers to start to generate visitors to their websites, product pages and affiliate offers. They work on a simple basis – you earn credits by viewing other marketers pages, which you then use to get your own pages seen. So all you have to be able to do is look at a screen and click on a mouse – simples!

I still use Traffic Exchanges as one of the best sources of signups to my email lists, by providing quality materials in return for a name and email address – this is called permission-based marketing, and makes sure you’re never accused of spam, because every person on your list requested to be there, then confirmed this desire by clicking the confirmation link your autoresponder sends them when they sign up.

The reason I still use Traffic Exchanges two years later? Easy – most of my subscribers come from them.

You get laser targeted access to Internet Marketers – everyone there is one, so you know who you’re talking to, and what motivates them. They are also the simplest promotion method online – once you have a page to promote, you just click other sites to get people to view yours. Don’t tell anyone, but I often surf traffic exchanges while I’m watching TV or listening to a Webinar or watching an online video… the hours can fly by and you find yourself with thousands of credits to spend!

I use Traffic Splash, Dragon Surf, I Love Hits and SWAT as my main traffic exchanges, although I sometimes use others. SWAT in particular is good because they also provide private weekly training where big hitters teach you the things that enabled them to become big hitters in the first place.

Here’s a video I did a couple of years ago showing you how to use a traffic exchange, the link doesn’t work anymore (don’t try going to jointrafficsplash.info, it doesn’t work anymore – I didn’t keep the domain name!) To visit Traffic Splash <—- simply click on this name.

Coming Soon

I’ll be building up this section of the site over the next few months, when I get time between client jobs. I aim to provide information and resources to help individuals and businesses build successful brands and revenues online. Ironically, because I can only do it between client jobs, the more successful I become the longer this will take to build, so you really should be hoping for my failure… Although if I were to fail, why would you want to learn from me?!?!? Aaaah blessed irony!

If you want to receive my daily email series, 35 Free Websites, Applications and Tools to Help You Make Money Online, sign up here now – I’ll throw in a free copy of a book that can help you get started online when you confirm the confirmation email you’ll receive when you sign up. If it doesn’t arrive in under 2 minutes, check your spam folder – sometimes Gmail and Yahoo are overzealous in their filtering – heck the other day my Mum sent me an email and they spam foldered that!

Here’s to your success,

Rob