Last year we bought my stepson an Apple iPod nano 4 gig for his 15th. birthday. Beautifully designed and super slim in black. Of course he didn't need an iPod, he already had a perfectly fine, unbranded 1 Gig MP3 player, but this thing was what he wanted.....
So last September in good time for his birthday we duly ordered one from Amazon.co.uk for around about £134, plus a couple of accessories to go with it. I'm a huge fan of Amazon and the kit arrived within the promised couple of days.
Move on to this August, off he goes on holiday, but he has to borrow an MP3 player from a friend. Not having my brain in gear at the time it didn't register that he wasn't taking his own lovely iPod. But on his return and with his impending birthday coming around again and the threat of having to provide the latest iPod, I asked what was wrong with his iPod.
"Oh, my iPod just stopped working." "How do you mean just stopped, did you drop it, did you leave it out in the rain did you go swimming with it on?" "No, I just charged it up one day and it was working and the next time I came to use it - a few weeks later - it wasn't working. Wouldn't even work when connected to the PC. Nothing"
Now, I'm as much of a technophobe as the next 50+ year old, but I was an early Apple Macintosh user, back in 1985/86 and am a huge fan of Apple and all things Apple. Surely they don't make stuff that just stops working - I mean I know times have moved on and everything, but the ethos of the company hasn't changed that much has it?
To my mind with my limited technical knowledge and my even more limited knowledge of batteries and rechargeable batteries at that, I was convinced this was a battery issue. He hadn't misused the thing at all. I assumed he'd also tried everything in his iPod manual to sort the thing out, although I do have a bit of a belief that if you need a manual to use a thing it needs to be better designed - but that's another whole subject!
Thank goodness the iPod came from Amazon. I located my order online (phew, within a year ago) and phoned them. No good. I emailed and got an immediate response - "to better serve Apple customers, Apple wants iPod customers to phone them direct."
Uh-oh I thought, here we go. But no, Apple customer service was brilliant, I needed the iPod with me when I phoned so they could get me to try a couple of things before they sent a replacement.
I duly took the iPod with me to the office the next day and called Apple. I had a reference number so got straight through to someone who had all the details in front of them in an instant.
So, within seconds, and I mean seconds, the chap at the other end of the phone, a Frenchman I think, had the iPod working again.
So, why am I writing this piece?
Well it occurred to me that there are a whole lot of people out there like me who have bought iPods, for their loved ones, not really understanding what they are all about, other than maybe realising, or being told that they are sooooo COOL. But worse than that, the MSN-chat-loving, glued-to-the-PC screen, use-the-computer-everyday, supposed technical whizz kids for whom these things are bought, have never even opened the manual. (And with this well designed piece of kit - why would they?)
In case it goes wrong of course! The troubleshooting guide. So, don't assume your teenager has read his or her Apple iPod manual. He or she probably hasn't even downloaded, or installed it or whatever. Wouldn't recognise a troubleshooting guide if it slapped him or her in the face.
And why do I think I am entitled to pass on what could prove to be a pure gold nugget? Something that could save the hassle of a return, or the expense of a replacement iPod? Well just today, completely unprompted, my own daughter handed me her very fancy 30 gig iPod with the words - could you have a look at this dad, it just stopped working - even when I recharge it, or connect it to the PC - nothing.
I did exactly what the man at Apple customer service had told me to do and even though my daughter is something of a gadget whizz kid, I became her instant hero - fixed, one 30 gig iPod in white. What a COOL feeling that was!
OK, so what was it that I was able to do that saved me having to buy my stepson a new (and obviously the latest, more expensive) iPod? Or at least having the hassle of arranging a swap? What was it that turned me from a doddery old man to a technological hero in my daughter's eyes?
It was this - and it's not original, it's not my own idea, it's not that clever even, it was the very first thing the Apple man said to try, it probably appears in the iPod user manual, but I am prepared to bet more than 50% of teenage iPod
owners have never heard of it - it's how to reset the iPod.
Press and hold the menu button and at the same time press and hold the circular central control button. Hold both for about 6 seconds. It seems like an age, but in that short time you could 1. Save yourself upwards of £200 - the cost of a replacement, 2. Surprise a know it all teenager into thinking you are hip and cool and switched on after all, or 3. Be your 20+ year old daughter's hero all over again, 20 years on!
Sunday, 16 September 2007
Saturday, 25 August 2007
My first Adwords adventure
I "discovered" adwords a few years ago now, but didn't really have any appreciation of the numbers until I had an idea in 1995 for what I thought would be some upcoming "in demand" keywords. I had the idea to use PPC ads to promote the forthcoming children in need day and children in need auctions that were scheduled to take place in aid of the "children in need" charity on ebay. I'm a big fan of Terry Wogan and always liked what he did for children in need and I also am a big fan of ebay. So the chance to use my new found knowledge of adwords in a little project to bring into play my ebay affiliate account seemed an ideal project, particularly as I had never yet managed to make money from any of them. (I've never approached Terry Wogan to be fair - I'm sure he's very generous though....)
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I researched the upcoming words that were going to be associated with the event and created a small adwords ad.
Here are some of them along with my initial bids
"the great big bid" Bid £0.06 Clicks 62 Impressions 1,121 Cost £3.28 Av Pos 1.1
pudsey Bid £0.10 Clicks 195 Impressions 14,759 Cost £13.78 Av Pos 1.4
"BBC children in need" Bid £0.10 Clicks 174 Impressions 9,970 Cost £10.56Av Pos 1.2
"pudsey bear" Bid £0.11 Clicks 124 Impressions 17,336 Cost £10.98 Av Pos 3.1
"children in need" Bid £0.11 Clicks 853 Impressions 76,560 Cost £73.80 Av Pos
2.9
Content network total Clicks 1,429 Impressions 121,675 Cost £113.82 Av Pos 2.6
Unfortunately I had failed to pick up on the fact that the content network was not where I needed my ads to be appearing and my affiliate conversions fell short of my adwords expenditure - a familiar story to many I am sure. However, what the experience did convince me of was the massive pulling power of google adwords ads and I was convinced from this campaign onwards that PPC and google were the way forward with any promotion. The "TRICK" would be to find cheap words that generated more in conversions than they cost. It's still the trick, but actually, it's a science that continues to elude me. PPC on Google has helped me sell real products through my own business and through my affiliate account on Amazon, but not yet at the rate that will make me want to give up my day job. I remain a huge fan of Google adwords and PPC, but still a student rather than a past master in the art!
http://www.holbeinltd.com/mfc885cw.htm
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I researched the upcoming words that were going to be associated with the event and created a small adwords ad.
Here are some of them along with my initial bids
"the great big bid" Bid £0.06 Clicks 62 Impressions 1,121 Cost £3.28 Av Pos 1.1
pudsey Bid £0.10 Clicks 195 Impressions 14,759 Cost £13.78 Av Pos 1.4
"BBC children in need" Bid £0.10 Clicks 174 Impressions 9,970 Cost £10.56Av Pos 1.2
"pudsey bear" Bid £0.11 Clicks 124 Impressions 17,336 Cost £10.98 Av Pos 3.1
"children in need" Bid £0.11 Clicks 853 Impressions 76,560 Cost £73.80 Av Pos
2.9
Content network total Clicks 1,429 Impressions 121,675 Cost £113.82 Av Pos 2.6
Unfortunately I had failed to pick up on the fact that the content network was not where I needed my ads to be appearing and my affiliate conversions fell short of my adwords expenditure - a familiar story to many I am sure. However, what the experience did convince me of was the massive pulling power of google adwords ads and I was convinced from this campaign onwards that PPC and google were the way forward with any promotion. The "TRICK" would be to find cheap words that generated more in conversions than they cost. It's still the trick, but actually, it's a science that continues to elude me. PPC on Google has helped me sell real products through my own business and through my affiliate account on Amazon, but not yet at the rate that will make me want to give up my day job. I remain a huge fan of Google adwords and PPC, but still a student rather than a past master in the art!
http://www.holbeinltd.com/mfc885cw.htm
Thursday, 5 July 2007
Grumpy old man
Having turned fifty I feel I owe it to the world to highlight just a few things that really irritate me - and that's irritate with a capital P, as in me off!
Imagine the scene. You are going about your daily business driving from one customer to another. As time goes by, your tee off time is getting closer and closer and you still haven't completed all your scheduled calls. The pressure to drive as efficiently as possible within the speed limits mounts. (If you play golf you know that that tee off time waits for no man!)
You approach yet another roundabout intending to go straight on and (as is the rule here in the UK) you look to the right, preparing to let oncoming traffic from the right have priority. You see a smart looking lady in a nice new BMW approaching the roundabout in the centre of her carriageway, no signal, so she's obviously coming straight onto the roundabout. You slow down to a crawl and then a stop as she closes in on you. Then, with no signal whatever she turns left in front of you! You didn't need to slow down or stop. All she had to do when approaching that roundabout was INDICATE left. Your day and your blood pressure would have been unsullied by moronic selfish driving. On an average day I can almost guarantee that out of 10 such situations, over half the drivers actually joining a roundabout and taking the first exit will not indicate. And why is that? I see it as a symtom of what is wrong with our country. People just don't give a flying stuff about anyone else. So what if you slowed down because you thought I was coming straight on? Why should I care? I didn't get held up, I just went on my way. I didn't even realise you were there, let alone slowing down to allow me to take priority.
Does this annoying trait in modern day drivers annoy or frustrate you too? I do worry that I am verging on road rage as I drive about my day, please tell me it's normal to get frustrated by this kind of thing.
What else gets to me?
To be continued....
Imagine the scene. You are going about your daily business driving from one customer to another. As time goes by, your tee off time is getting closer and closer and you still haven't completed all your scheduled calls. The pressure to drive as efficiently as possible within the speed limits mounts. (If you play golf you know that that tee off time waits for no man!)
You approach yet another roundabout intending to go straight on and (as is the rule here in the UK) you look to the right, preparing to let oncoming traffic from the right have priority. You see a smart looking lady in a nice new BMW approaching the roundabout in the centre of her carriageway, no signal, so she's obviously coming straight onto the roundabout. You slow down to a crawl and then a stop as she closes in on you. Then, with no signal whatever she turns left in front of you! You didn't need to slow down or stop. All she had to do when approaching that roundabout was INDICATE left. Your day and your blood pressure would have been unsullied by moronic selfish driving. On an average day I can almost guarantee that out of 10 such situations, over half the drivers actually joining a roundabout and taking the first exit will not indicate. And why is that? I see it as a symtom of what is wrong with our country. People just don't give a flying stuff about anyone else. So what if you slowed down because you thought I was coming straight on? Why should I care? I didn't get held up, I just went on my way. I didn't even realise you were there, let alone slowing down to allow me to take priority.
Does this annoying trait in modern day drivers annoy or frustrate you too? I do worry that I am verging on road rage as I drive about my day, please tell me it's normal to get frustrated by this kind of thing.
What else gets to me?
To be continued....
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
Internet Marketing Roadmap
Thomas Alva Edison:
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Now if you translate that to internet marketing, there are literally thousands, if not by now millions, of so called products out there all claiming to be the perfect way to make you rich with no effort, or hardly any effort at all.
Personally, I am prepared to believe that a few experts are out there quietly making fortunes. I am also prepared to believe that there are a great many more not quite such experts making small fortunes and shouting about it from the rooftops in an attempt to turn small fortunes into large fortunes. We've all read about someone who made a few thousand dollars selling stuff on eBay and then made many more thousand telling everybody else how they could do the same. That's how information products work.
I have nothing against that - makes good sense to me - become an expert and then sell that expertise. It's what everyone who works in a daytime job does. We acquire some skill or knowledge and sell that skill or knowledge - usually to our employers. The downside very often is that it is a buyer's market and there's often an over-supply of people with that self same skill or knowledge - keeping your price low. You have to be exceptional to get the highest price.
Now in Internet marketing, it's similar, except the numbers are huge. In terms of the cash being generated, you could argue that there is enough to go around and being mediocre rather than exceptional should be good enough to generate a healthy income. Being slightly above average could make you wealthy and being exceptional just has to make you very, very rich.
But I am sorry to say that you don't go from being a novice to making money in one easy step. Like every other walk of life, you need to learn, or be taught the things to do to be successful online. Getting rich quick is certainly possible, but those that do are not doing so by accident. They have an edge, or an education, or a talent or they are simply first to do something that hasn't been done before. In my relatively limited experience of internet marketing and the products and systems that are out there being sold to make you rich, they tend to fall into the category of "I've done this and I'll show you how". In other words - "You ain't gonna be the first!"
Over the years I've subscribed to quite a few internet marketing "opportunities" with a view to getting myself educated so that I can make a living from working only on the internet. Below are a few of the opportunities I've signed up to. I'd love to say they have made me rich - but sadly that's not the case. They haven't left me broke either - and on balance I tend to blame my lack of success on my own inertia rather than on a bad program - I don't really know enough about the subject to be confident to point the finger and say - "this is a scam" or "this doesn't work". What I can say with relative confidence is that I have not been able to make it work for me - yet!
1. Referralware
2. Cashculture
3. Freestoreclub
4. MLM Leadbox
5. Juvio
6. Day Job Killer
7. Affiliate Project X
8. Project Black Mask
9. Making Money with AdSense
10. SEO Elite
11. DomainProfiteer
12. No Limit Holdem Secrets (Believe it or not - I made some money at this!)
13. The Affiliate Masters Course
14. Clickbank - If it's on clickbank - and I want it I sign up as an affiliate first!
15. CB Mall
16. What Google never told you about making money with AdSense
17. The Micon system - another poker system how to win multi table tournaments - very good if a little difficult to decipher
As you can see - I've read a lot! I don't doubt that all these publications have some merit and I am the first to admit that the chances are my own inertia is what is holding me back, rather than any failing within these publications. I think, like many looking at making a living purely from internet efforts, information overload is a huge hurdle to overcome. I want to be an expert before I actually DO anything and the simple truth is - there is just too much to learn to become an expert at almost anything these days. BUT, how about if I am just mediocre or maybe just short of mediocre at one or other of the disciplines would that be good enough to make a little cash online?
One thing is for sure - if you don't buy a ticket - you are never going to win the lottery! If you don't DO something - NOTHING will happen.
So, if you've read this far, by now you must be wondering - what is this guy selling? The sad fact is - I don't know yet. I have a regular bricks and mortar business in the real world selling office supplies. It finances a reasonable standard of living, lovely wife and family, golf club membership, nice house, nice car, (S55 AMG Mercedes), holiday villa in the Mediterranean, but doesn't allow me the time I would like to really enjoy these material things.
So, my own personal challenge is to take a project and actually do something with it that will allow me to enjoy the fruits of my labours to date and maybe let me get away to the golf course a little more often. I don't need hundreds of thousands of dollars each week to make the change, but a steady, scaleable online business repeatedly generating a few dollars a day to start is the first step on the way. This blog is the story of what I choose/chose to do to try and make that happen and what I do/did along the way to achieve my goal - or fail to achieve my goal.
To be continued.
http://www.keenbiz.com/coolestguyontheplanetover39
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Now if you translate that to internet marketing, there are literally thousands, if not by now millions, of so called products out there all claiming to be the perfect way to make you rich with no effort, or hardly any effort at all.
Personally, I am prepared to believe that a few experts are out there quietly making fortunes. I am also prepared to believe that there are a great many more not quite such experts making small fortunes and shouting about it from the rooftops in an attempt to turn small fortunes into large fortunes. We've all read about someone who made a few thousand dollars selling stuff on eBay and then made many more thousand telling everybody else how they could do the same. That's how information products work.
I have nothing against that - makes good sense to me - become an expert and then sell that expertise. It's what everyone who works in a daytime job does. We acquire some skill or knowledge and sell that skill or knowledge - usually to our employers. The downside very often is that it is a buyer's market and there's often an over-supply of people with that self same skill or knowledge - keeping your price low. You have to be exceptional to get the highest price.
Now in Internet marketing, it's similar, except the numbers are huge. In terms of the cash being generated, you could argue that there is enough to go around and being mediocre rather than exceptional should be good enough to generate a healthy income. Being slightly above average could make you wealthy and being exceptional just has to make you very, very rich.
But I am sorry to say that you don't go from being a novice to making money in one easy step. Like every other walk of life, you need to learn, or be taught the things to do to be successful online. Getting rich quick is certainly possible, but those that do are not doing so by accident. They have an edge, or an education, or a talent or they are simply first to do something that hasn't been done before. In my relatively limited experience of internet marketing and the products and systems that are out there being sold to make you rich, they tend to fall into the category of "I've done this and I'll show you how". In other words - "You ain't gonna be the first!"
Over the years I've subscribed to quite a few internet marketing "opportunities" with a view to getting myself educated so that I can make a living from working only on the internet. Below are a few of the opportunities I've signed up to. I'd love to say they have made me rich - but sadly that's not the case. They haven't left me broke either - and on balance I tend to blame my lack of success on my own inertia rather than on a bad program - I don't really know enough about the subject to be confident to point the finger and say - "this is a scam" or "this doesn't work". What I can say with relative confidence is that I have not been able to make it work for me - yet!
1. Referralware
2. Cashculture
3. Freestoreclub
4. MLM Leadbox
5. Juvio
6. Day Job Killer
7. Affiliate Project X
8. Project Black Mask
9. Making Money with AdSense
10. SEO Elite
11. DomainProfiteer
12. No Limit Holdem Secrets (Believe it or not - I made some money at this!)
13. The Affiliate Masters Course
14. Clickbank - If it's on clickbank - and I want it I sign up as an affiliate first!
15. CB Mall
16. What Google never told you about making money with AdSense
17. The Micon system - another poker system how to win multi table tournaments - very good if a little difficult to decipher
As you can see - I've read a lot! I don't doubt that all these publications have some merit and I am the first to admit that the chances are my own inertia is what is holding me back, rather than any failing within these publications. I think, like many looking at making a living purely from internet efforts, information overload is a huge hurdle to overcome. I want to be an expert before I actually DO anything and the simple truth is - there is just too much to learn to become an expert at almost anything these days. BUT, how about if I am just mediocre or maybe just short of mediocre at one or other of the disciplines would that be good enough to make a little cash online?
One thing is for sure - if you don't buy a ticket - you are never going to win the lottery! If you don't DO something - NOTHING will happen.
So, if you've read this far, by now you must be wondering - what is this guy selling? The sad fact is - I don't know yet. I have a regular bricks and mortar business in the real world selling office supplies. It finances a reasonable standard of living, lovely wife and family, golf club membership, nice house, nice car, (S55 AMG Mercedes), holiday villa in the Mediterranean, but doesn't allow me the time I would like to really enjoy these material things.
So, my own personal challenge is to take a project and actually do something with it that will allow me to enjoy the fruits of my labours to date and maybe let me get away to the golf course a little more often. I don't need hundreds of thousands of dollars each week to make the change, but a steady, scaleable online business repeatedly generating a few dollars a day to start is the first step on the way. This blog is the story of what I choose/chose to do to try and make that happen and what I do/did along the way to achieve my goal - or fail to achieve my goal.
To be continued.
http://www.keenbiz.com/coolestguyontheplanetover39
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