lemon law, car lemon, bad car - bad week!

Well ebay is doing well for us.
Even managed to sell a couple of fiction ebooks which I find incredible!

Next week is just more of the same. If only I can get my car lemon to work again. It is a bad car when a nearly new car is running out of oil in two days. Shame we don't have lemon laws over here.

Anyway.

I've written down the method I use to generate adsense income and I'll be teaching that to Pauline at some point if she can find the time.

I'll also add some more stuff to our ebay shop. At the moment 4 of our 7 titles are not even for sale there but we've still made around £100 on paperbacks in a month.

+++NEXT I AM SELLING SOMETHING+++
Thank you to those of you that helped me finance the purchase of the Sourcecoderights package. I'm really enjoying what it can do with the video, although it is a little crude, it does everything I wanted it to. I have a market in mind that I can sell services and solutions to using these software packages - if you have the same, I suggest you go get the stuff from here
http://www.sourcecoderights.com/go/6100
before the price goes up.
+++BACK TO MY POST+++

When I left my job in July I said that this was the opportunity to test my assumption that lack of time was the thing that is standing between me and my success.

Apparently it is my laziness instead. I certainly enjoy NOT working more than actually doing something. For example:

My yet to be completed list is growing by the day. I have so many things on it is hard to concentrate on what to do next.

there is our shop.
there is our ebay site
there is our book launch
there is the two niche business opportunities I am looking into
there is niche service station which is just taking too much time for the return
then there is the book launch on the 16th of November in London.
Then there is the exhibition to prepare for ( as visitors )
Then there is the business cashflow situation.
Then there is internet marketing and my niche websites & products.
Then there is the small issue of paying the mortgage

Yet I languish in idle use most of the day. I know some people ( like Gary ) prefer to do other things than business, but I have so many things that need doing for the business and other IM things that I should have more than enough to fill my days with.
I am tempted to get an office somewhere other than the coffee shop as that place makes me smell like an ashtray.
I know the solution to all my worries are staring me in the face, but for some reason, I don't seem to know how to remove this frosted glass kinda looking filter between me and whatever this thing is. I've found a pretty hefty looking sledge hammer though - if only I can figure out how to lift it without doing my back in.
The toilet duck might be a better option though, it is different and with enough force can do anything in! ;)
So i'm feeling a little depressed about everything this week but I remain positive because I know that I am at least in control of everything that happens to me and I am the one responsible for getting me into this situation and the one to get me out of it again.
Cheers,
Jon

What about My Health? Ethical Remedy Against Hype Please! Now!

Two emails today reminded me of things that I am beginning to find irritating. Or should I say that I am beginning to label them as junk?

Jeff Walker bless his cotton sox is emailing me every day now reminding me what a fantastic community that I am becoming a member of, simply by being on his social proof email list. hark!

I know that he is demonstrating the powers of social proof through the blog and the comments he is getting people to put on his site, but it is getting tiresome.

It would work if I felt the whole thing was genuinely trying
to be a community, and maybe if I bothered to open all his "Very Important" emails I might change my mind.

I guess my self limiting belief is that I want to stay within the boundaries of what I feel is morally correct.
It's a problem I have had with marketing and sales people for a long time.

But am I the only one that feel like I am getting wise to the trickeries of real businesses and corporations as well? Am I the only one that think that maybe, just MAYBE, this internet thing is the great leveller, and that companies and retailers that have been pulling the wools over my eyes for decades finally are facing a challenge they deserve to lose?

When it comes to my own business, of course I apply marketing techniques, but I am using them in a way that I feel is ethical.

Who am I to criticize though? I haven't made as much money as he has - but I am not so sure I would want to make an obscene amount of money. Like the people that charge £10-£15k to create a website for somebody - I genuinely struggle to see how a website can be that valuable without the marketing to go with it. In fairness there are two UK marketers that do something similar, and because I struggle to understand their value proposition ( big word! ) I am still available to be convinced that they offer value. note - I AM OPEN TO BE CONVINCED. That means I am undecided. However, I am not in their target market so there is really no need for them to convince me.

Where am I going with this and what has it got to do with my friday progress?
Darn good question!

I just get somewhat irritated with people that treat others like they are stupid.

My primary aim in my life is to help.

I aim to do so to the best of my abilities and in the way I would like to be treated ; Honestly and with respect.

Pauline has a very good working principle: Treat others like you want to be treated. That is a principle I aspire to.

Hmm, this is beginning to look like a manifesto of some kind, but let me get on to the second email that rung my bells before I get on to my progress this week.

(Hello Mr Avis, how is your NHP promo going :) )
I do SO agree about the "arm twisting " bull that I see so often that he mantioned in his excellent newsletter today - but then I realised I had used a similar phrase to the nicheservicestation list this week about the same promotion that Martin is doing.

Suddenly I felt attacked. But then again this is Martin so I eventually figured that it was just a way for him to point out that he knows Kim just as well as I do! Amazing what a fuming 30 minute walk can sort out ;o)

I think the - is he talking to me - reaction was a natural response to meeting myself in the door as we say in Norwegian; Arguing against a behaviour then suddenly see it in myself.

So thanks for the reminder :o)

As for my progress:

On a complete whim after seeing how perfect Kims offer would fit in with our members I sent out 4 emails to the list over the last week telling them about it. Is a 25% response rate good? ;o)

I have read umpteen emails by Jeff Walker.

I have aquired 8 email addresses to decision makers in our outlets and got permission to email them on a regular basis.

I have also spoken to another 15 book stores.

I have researched a bunch of markets and I have developed some of the ideas I had last friday a little further.

Next week I expect to have to call, snailmail and email a whole bunch of people about our next book.

I have sold more books on ebay, gathering a further 11 email addresses and post addresses to contact in the future.

I have loads of things on my not yet done list.

Next week I will reduce that list down to zero and start on the next phase of our new book marketing plan.
( which is: write one!)

And I will spend most of the weekend listening to Paulines fantastic experiences and ideas she has had from going to the Frankfurt bookfair.

I might even twist her arm to reveal the important must have information to all of you that want to publish something in the real world too. :oP

Cheers,
Jon
Still Progressing Somewhat

Why Is Friday Always Fight Night in my house?

First off,

Can those of you reading this that have migrated from the UK to another country or have bought property abroad please get in touch as I have a proposition for you that could mean good publicity and a little money for a little of your time.

jon AT collectivepublishing.co.uk


on to my progress


Here I am happily overcoming my manflu and other ailments and out of the blue my wife decides to pick a fight over our business debit card. ( I just mentioned that I couldn't see the sense of paying a 56p postage charge with a debit card from a bank that will charge us 35p for the privelege and off she went in a huff )

Reeling from yet another Friday Fight I am beginning to wonder why on earth women has to pick fights on the best day of the week?

My working week hasn't been 100 per cent productive but when I have taken action it has been decisive and positive.

I even got up at 2am last night when I woke up and remembered that the deadline for editorial material to a trade rag was today and wrote a press release.

But instead of getting congratulated, I got another earful for pointing out that my dearest desktop publisheresse had sent me the wrong image to include with the press release.

I carry on because I love Fridays and I do what I normally do on Fridays which is replacing activity with "thinking action" - so I get another earful for sitting on my lazy ar#e when there are dishes to be cleaned and rubbish to empty out.

And this repeats itself EVERY Friday!!

What is it that women dreadd so about the weekend? Have they had such a horrible week that by Friday it finally spills over? For the last 7 years, my Fridays have been a mixture of heaven and hell - I love the fact that it is nearly the weekend and I can finally relax a little and plan my next week in comfort, but pretty much EVERY Friday for some reason I can not fathom, I say or do something that some woman takes offense to and I get into a fight.

I'm not angry on Fridays. I'm not fed up. I'm genuinely looking forward to a happy weekend - but for some reason someone decides it is high time to pick a fight with me.

So what can you do?
Personally I added 3 more ebay auctions to our site and worked some more on the site that I created that my wife now has decided is using software that belongs to her. So I have to start over.

I have come up with 4 potential projects - not counting the other 3 I am mulling over. I have found the fundamental flaw in another one of my products and I have created content for 3 of my sites and scheduled a press release for this sunday, submitted two articles and sent off a press releast to a rag.

I have spoken to 15 book stores and signed up yet another website to our list of outlets.

I wish that would be enough for someone. It is for me.

But now I am on demand to show results, and I am not so sure how I can go about doing that.


Finally,

Next week I will start to deliver results.
Or I'll be looking for a divorce lawyer in January.

Cheers,
Jon