Kent Griswold

I am a big fan of John Chow who I have learned a lot about blogging and am trying to implement in my own blogging world. In this video he covers an area I have been real weak in and plan to change real soon.

This video is one hour long and is based on John’s presentation at Vancouver’s Business, Marketing and Entrepreneur meetup. John’s topic is how he make $40,000 a month from a blog and he had a sold out house.

I recommend you grab a drink, a bite to eat and pull up a chair because you’re going to want to watch this from beginning to end.

My Blog Business Model from John Chow on Vimeo.

In the last two months, I have moved to become a full time internet publisher and this means writing on a daily basis. Writing does not come natural for me and is work, yet I do enjoy it and am constantly looking for ways to make it easier.

Today I received an email from Alan Gardyne an affiliate marketer and he had an excellent article and ten tips for making writing easier. Following is an excerpt from his article which I plan to take to heart to improve my own writing skills.

Here are 10 things I’ve learned that will improve your writing, help you communicate more clearly…

1. Get rid of distractions. Find a quiet spot to do your writing. Turn off the radio, TV and music. You may think you can do two things at once, but what you’re actually doing is switching from one to the other.
2. Don’t stop. Bash it out, no matter how rough it is. Keep going all the way until it’s finished. Only then is it time to go back and tidy it up. Resist the urge to edit as you go. Editing as you go interrupts the creative flow. Your article is likely to take 10 times as long to do if you edit as you go.
3. Write simply. Your readers are in a hurry. They don’t want to waste time trying to figure out what you mean.
4. Tell a story. Stories get your readers involved. (For heaven’s sake, make them TRUE stories. I’m delighted to hear the FTC is cracking down on some of the fake stuff out there. If you don’t have a good story to tell, interview someone who has.)
5. See things from your reader’s point of view. Keep asking yourself, “What do they want to know?”
6. Read it aloud. This makes it easier to spot awkward patches where the words don’t flow smoothly.
7. Edit later. Put your writing aside and re-read it hours or, better still, days later. It’s amazing how you see your article with fresh eyes and spot ways to improve it.
8. Read more. To improve your writing, turn off the TV and read books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters - anything. The more you read, the more you’ll recognize good writing when you see it.
9. Practice. One of the best ways to learn to write is to WRITE. When you learn a skill, you create new neurons and new pathways in your brain. The section of your brain used for writing will expand. If you don’t believe me, read “The Brain That Changes Itself” by Norman Doidge. Good libraries should have it.
10. Write something every day.

I hope that if your interest is writing and you want to improve it, that these tips will help you along the way as well. Have a great day!

Success

As I am getting closer to moving from a day job to blogging and internet marketing full time. I need to step back and look at how I can make a part time business into a full time business and make it a success. There are 10 basic principals that lead toward success and I have listed them below. The object is now to make this a part of my life and apply it on a daily basis.

1. Be Positive: How you think is everything. Think success, not failure. Beware of a negative environment.
2. Dream: Decide upon your true dreams and goals: Write down your specific goals and develop a plan to reach them.
3. Action: Take action: goals are nothing without action. Don’t be afraid to get started. Just do it.
4. Learn: Never stop learning, keep on going back to school and read books. Get training and acquire skills.
5. Persist: Be persistent and and work hard, success is a marathon, not a sprint. Never Give Up!
6. Details: Learn to analyze details, get all the facts, all the input. Learn from your mistakes.
7. Focus: your time and money: Don’t let other people or things distract you.
8. Innovate: Don’t be afraid to be different: following the herd is a sure way to mediocrity.
9. Communicate and deal with people effectively: no person is an island. Learn to understand and motivate others.
10. Be Honest & Dependable: take responsibility: otherwise, nombers 1-9 won’t matter.

Red Barn in Geyserville, CA

For my wife’s birthday last week, I bought her a camera I have been wanting to test and maybe get one for myself for an all around, always with you camera. It is the new Canon SD880IS and is a 10 mega pixel tiny powershot camera with a 28-112mm lens. I bought her camera through B & H Photo Video in New York.

I’ve been looking for a tiny carry around camera with a wide angle lens and this one looks like it may fit the bill. I took it out for a few test shots on Saturday and here are a couple to show you what it can do. I like it, what do you think? 

Both these shots are taken directly from the camera, no adjustments. The barn has been cropped to improve composition. Both shots were taken in manual mode, color set to vivid and -2/3’s. I like vivid as it brings out the color and reminds me of my favorite slide film, Fujichrome Velvia.

Anyway, I’m sure you are going to be seeing more pictures from this camera, if I can get it away from my wife every now and then.

Fall Leaves in January

Here is a cool video review of the camera, a little long but gives you most of the details of this great little camera.

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Nicknames

• If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Kate and Sarah.
• If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla and Four-eyes.

Eating Out

• When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in $20, even though it’s only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back.
• When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

Money

• A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
• A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn’t need but it’s on sale.

Bathrooms

• A man has seven items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, deodorant and a towel .
• The average number of items in the typical woman’s bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.

Arguments

• A woman has the last word in any argument.
• Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

Future

• A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
• A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

Sucess

• A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
• A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

Marriage

• A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn’t.
• A man marries a woman expecting that she won’t change, but she does.

Dressing Up

• A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the trash, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail.
• A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

Natural

• Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.
• Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

Offspring

• Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.
• A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.

Thought For The Day………A married man should forget his mistakes.
There’s no use in two people remembering the same thing!