It’s getting more and more out of control. I’ve come home after a long day at work trying to be super clever and had dinner and sat down at my PC to do a couple of hours work.

Well here’s what happened and I’m in the middle of and writing about. This is more for historical purposes for me to read later on, once I get this “Focus” thing under control.

The problem really is, my head thinks up stuff faster than I can do it. Anyway this is a quick summary of tonights action.  I had thought I should start a blog just on what stuff I thought of and never got done but that’s just another distraction…

Too many websites and blogs, too many project ideas and lots of marketing ideas all combine to my needing to have eyes like a fly to focus on this many things. Harder still is prioritizing them. I do think sometimes I should just be the ideas guy and get others to do the “doing”. But I’m not at that point in life yet, or am I?

Here goes…

The trouble began by reading my emails… Now who said email marketing is dead? I’m on a few lists and get a few emails each day and one or two grab my eye and I have to check out what’s going on out there. Am I a victim of “Curiosity Killing the Cat Syndrome”. There’s a topic!

So I opened an email from someone I am familiar with and clicked on the link and ended up on the website. Well a little investigation showed it was a program I had paid up and joined some years back. Actually way back in June 2008 would you believe.

The program in question turns out to be “InfoProductKiller” which I was very impressed with way back then and it’s still going. I did a review on it at my site at http://www.YourAffiliateReview.com So being curious I dug up my info and lo and behold I can still access the members area and get the latest and greatest updates.

Now that is great service. Lifetime membership means just that, Pay once and get updates forever. Plus what was in this course way back then was truly remarkable. Who knows how good it is now , after two years of refining it. Seriously, if you ever do anything, grab it, as it covers more for a newbie in getting profitable websites up and running than I’ve seen before.

Everything I saw, heard and read from that course came flooding back. Which is curious as I’ve just been thinking about it and how I should be assigning some time each evening of putting up a new niche website. Even one day a week… And as I’m always dreaming up new scripts, new lessons for mys students and having brainstorming sessions instead of doing… I’ve not been doing the simple stuff that works.

I did buy a few domains though! Of which I have a few laying about , parked, begging for some attention.

Anyway, I’ve recently been introduced to another program regarding WordPress and monetizing sites, again with lifetime upgrades and lifetime mentoring and hopefully I’ll be able to add my 10 cents worth after having chatted to the owner… He saw my site over at http://www.AdvancedWordPressTutorials.com and liked it.  Anyway , any further developments on that front are for later…

Now I have a few blogs, and when I see something of value to write about, the ole – “where do I write what where?” starts the seeds to mass confusion. The answer is, On One Blog at a Time. So here I am, sharing my story about my dilemma in an attempt to impress upon myself  the importance of being more focused without being a smart ass and reaching for my glasses – wrong kind of focus.

I think the real problem is this dreaded sense of urgency and possibly a sense of failure if something isn’t done quickly. What puzzles me though is I am a pretty determined and patient guy. Give me a problem and I’ll bash my head against brickwalls ( probably a bad visual example ) until I solve it cause I know I will. And I do!

And I’m also guessing it comes down to practice. Focus on something, complete it, get that warm fuzzy feeling of achievement and move onto the next task. I’m also guessing that this urgency to get something done quickly is a form of wild Panic – “Quick , get it out there…. Oh ran out of time”. Tomorrow arrives and it starts over again on something else.

And a very over imaginative mind, which I just had troubles spelling imaginative. A big thanks to whoever invented spell checkers. I wonder if wizards invented them first and someone heard the expression and thought “Ah ha, we could do that with these fancy puter things that let you write stuff”! There’s an idea for a post for http://www.NoahCunnyFunt.com one of my alter ego sites for fun.

Hmm this is turning into a ToDo List if I don’t watch it.

Well it’s nearly time to turn into a pumpkin again and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

It really does come down to, don’t be scared of thinking up lots of ideas, write them down and get to them when you can. “Complete the Job At Hand” and yes that is an available domain name  and no I’m restraining myself from buying it. After all, I got other things to do!

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I do hope you get something out of it. I know I have. If it sticks is another matter but now it’s here in all it’s glory for me and others to come back and read. There’s no escaping!

Take care and keep plodding along.

Cheers

Tim

A funny thing happened to me on the way to my Inbox…

Well actually it happened when I got to my inbox and read this email regarding Mike Filsaime giving away the source code to his ButterFly Marketing Script.

First of all disbelief struck me. After all Mike’s been selling this script for sometime now and the people who bought it have done quite well with it.

The other reason disbelief flooded through my veins was the fact that our group at Internet Niche Lab have been developing a much smaller version of a membership script over the last few weeks and this drops in my lap!

You Can Modify this script and resell it!

That’s right, you can make it your own, promote it and sell it. Using the script itself to do it of course. Well that falls right up my alley.

I’m looking over this script!

I’ve installed the script and it worked straight out of the box as you would expect and I’m going over it to see what it has. Plus what we can do to improve/ add to it.

It’s Free So you can get your own!

Yep, you can go and grab it right now at ButterFlyOpenSource .

Is there a Catch?

You bet there is! But it is a clever one. Mike has started up a “Developers Network” which costs $200USD one time payment.

The reason behind this is simple, Mike will be building a community of developers and I’m guessing, any improvements will be available to the members.

For me, I’m going to sit back on that offer. First of all I’ve got to take a good look at this code.

But if you have a spare $200USD and want to join in on this community I’d strongly suggest that you do.

The Downside!

The downside is, if you do choose to resell the script, all support etc falls upon your shoulders. Which is only fair. You get it for Free, it becomes your baby along with everything you need to do to support it.

This is another clever example of list building by giving away a very neat script with the aim of getting people to join the Developers Network. So there is a lesson to be learned from all this.

What’s Next?

Well I’m going to show this to the gang at Internet Niche Lab and see if we should persure using this script for what we want to do. And if you join us at Internet Niche Lab as a paid member, you’ll get the changes / modes we will be making,  plus you’ll have access to all the other useful scripts we develop.

In my PHP Classes, that is  what we do. We find a problem and write a script to solve it. The membership script being one of those. Now we have access to use the ButterFlyOpenSource script as a basis to solve this issue.

I’ll have a follow up to this as soon as I delve further into this amazing script!

Till then, happy marketing and website building etc.

Cheers

Tim Brownlaw

[ If you read this and feel you are getting a bit  lost in the small technical Mumbo Jumbo sections - don't fret - There is a story in this...So keep reading ]

Well it’s certainly been an exciting Easter Break!

I had all the intentions of getting a huge chunk of my new website up and running but that sort of came unstuck.

The site is coded up to the point of accepting registrations and being able to edit/update your profile.

It is all working wonderfully well on my development box…

[Oh, I like to write my own projects for a bit of fun just in case you haven't caught on yet.]

But then…

I decided I’d throw it up on my webhosting and see how it flies and to show some folk my upcoming masterpiece.

So I did just that, I created my hosting account – changed the DNS settings and it instantly popped up on the webpage.  So things were looking grand.

But then…

I got that very sad error message that I didn’t have execute script permissions on my database!!!!

Just to enlighten you if you are sitting thinking….”What does executing things have to do with this…”.

Well all my database “stuff” is written as Stored Procedures, which means – the functions that talk to the database are actually a part of the database itself.  Not to worry if that’s confusing… It’s something I will be showing you later if you are interested…

Apart from it being a very useful programming feature,  it does give you some added security. In short, it’s how it should be done.

So getting back to my dismay when I saw that hosting company had it disabled!!!!!!!!!!! What The!!!!! I promptly contacted support and they said “Yes, you can’t”. Most helpful.

After asking Why, I promptly joined up with another hosting company. And it all worked like a treat!

But then…

After I had successfully registered, I decided I had better update my profile. That’s what the instructions suggested I do. But this was the part where some new technique was being used. And… well a bit of it didn’t work!

By the way, remember that the script works flawlessy on my system.

Going back a week in time!

I’m using a PHP Framework called Codeigniter which I quite like even if it does have a few shortcomings.  Hey nothing is perfect but it is good to know what those imperfections are and how to fix/cope with them…

I knew it wasn’t going to do what I wanted it to with returning multiple data sets from the stored procedure. Which in another language means – I ask the Database two questions and should get back two answers.

In it’s current state, CodeIgniter only liked to deal with one answer at a time.

So I modified it to work. How I did that was to go right back to basics and so I wrote an installation script to create a new table and stored procedures based upon what I was using. Then I created a number of sample php scripts so I had a known starting point. It all worked nicely…

From that I created the changes needed in CodeIgniter to make it all happy and it was. It uses the same function calls deep down in it’s database class…

Back to now.

So having encountered this “Database deafness” on the second question, I loaded my original test scripts up on the same hosting account using the same Database etc.

Guess What???

Everything Worked!

Head scratching time.

I contacted the new webhosting company explaining my dilemma and they asked to see some code to replicate the problem. Of course they would! So I created a new page up on the site explaining everything…

So why am I smiling?

I still don’t have it working, but I did end up creating a wonderful script that works like a little framework of it’s own allowing you to create your code snippets with an accompanying HMTL file with some blurb and it creates the webpage display the “instructions: then it shows the actual PHP Code cause it reads in the actual file and then it executes and displays the results.

Now that has major applications for so many things. It’s a great tool to use to demonstrate some of the finer points of PHP and how you can make it work for you. Actually some of it came from another script we are working on in our PHP Class. That was good timing!

So what started out as some rough knockup code only I could love and appreciate, turned into something anyone can read it and follow along all built with a nice modular system.

You can see the results…

The result of all that is viewable up on the new website. Well the site itself is still under construction..

It’s located at Demonstration of Stored Procedures using MySQLi

So I’ve now got a lovely way to demonstrate my code, allowing the world to see it. There is link at the bottom regarding the Forum I’ve posted on about this so the conversation can continue there.

I’m still stuck though.

Everything works except for the CodeIgniter script on the webhosting account, where it has to work!

It’ll be a simple problem but I have gone to all the trouble to “write it out” and see what falls out.  It’s just this time I would appreciate some other eyes to view the problem and see what they can see that I cannot! It does happen sometimes!

So while I got stopped dead in my tracks on what I wanted to do, I’ve actually created something nice and useful.

If you do want to see/hear how I made the script, just come along to one of my classes. I am meant to have the details up on the webatories.com site.  So I had best go and fix that bit up.

Webatories.com

There is a LOT planned for this website – so feel free to register and you’ll be kept notified on it’s progress.
http://www.webatories.com

[Update]

It’s fixed – The problem was I had made some changes to the members database table which were being installed with a separate SQL file through phpmyadmin. And guess what – I hadn’t run it in this particular installation.

Long story short – when the Stored procedure was attempting to read back the results from the members table it encountered an error due to the table missing some fields. But the error is “silent”.

The affect is it never returns anything… which is exactly what was happening. So there you go…. It was simple and writing it out finally led to the solution. Also a good rest helped as well.

This is a bit amusing only because I’m well renowned for talking for long peridos of time once I get fired up on something.

The something in question is my PHP Class I hold every Friday Evening 8pm US EST. Typically, we have gone for over 7 hours!

The Record of 2.5 hours is a record because wasn’t very long!

Why you ask… Well when the group wants to create a new script – well we just take that long. I talk when I’m not thinking and they all watch my desktop as I create whatever it is and i do get picked up on little mistakes. That means they are all still awake! Means I might not be – who knows!

Today we were chugging away on some more of a membership script we are all wanting to use and it’s going to be incorporated into our membership site so our members can get their webhosting with a membership script included.

It’s just one of the many little projects we do as well as talk about the basics of PHP, What is a Database and how to create one and write an application based upon it. Plus we tackle any script installation problems members have. Which usually ends up with me saying some choice things about some of these scripts once I get to have a peek inside the code…That wakes me up…

Makes me think, people make a killing selling these crappy scripts while I’m doing my bit in the background to fix them up for people. Somethings not right there!

Anyway, I love what I do and that’s the other reason we can go on for hours… If I have an audience that can put up with me, I’m only too happy to oblige!

During this last project where I’ve come up with a bunch of great ways to document up a project, you could give the results to someone and say – “Here – Make This!”.

I’m doing that now, but giving it to myself. It’s much easier to wear one hat at a time than to keep hat swapping during a project.

So Phase 1 is Draw it up – using Inkscape. yes it’s Free but you can easily create all of your layouts in no time flat. Phase 2 is Work out your Forms, Phase 3 is design the Database and Phase 4 is start coding.  Having a nice firm place to start from in Phase 1 makes a huge difference.

I must show everyone how to do it – It’s simple – really it is! Give me 2.5 hours one day and I’ll show you!

We’ve been doing this for well over 3 years…

In that time, we’ve done a load of stuff.  Enough to leave you alone with for a month or two then you can come on board and help out with some of the “many” projects I have lined up.

There is sooo much that is waiting to be created and put out there to start dragging in some money, it’s beyond rediculous!

It’s been a long day…So I’ll wind down for now and see you next time.

I’ve got to crank up on my other site http://www.LookingOverMyShoulder.com – At the moment you wont see a great deal. Not yet anyway… That’s more a reminder to myself. Now I have just got to remember to read my own blog some day soon!

Cheers

Tim Brownlaw

This post has come about – again – due to being in the middle of  creating a brand new Website using CodeIgniter ( A PHP Framework) , MySQL and Stored Procedures.

Don’t worry about what they are, but what happened is I went out on a limb and started delving into Stored Procedures that return multiple DataSets. Something I’ve not had to deal with up till now. And a long story Short – CodeIgniter was a bit short on letting me do that. I like CodeIgniter and once you get your head around it, it does let you create your wonderful masterpiece of a Script without having to worry about all the housekeeping code.

Anyway, retrieving the multiple Datasets just wasn’t happening. A shortfall of CodeIgniter.

So I had a problem on my hands.

What did I do to solve it?

Simple, I opened up my trusty Open Office Writer – created a new document called – “Using MySQL Stored Procedures -A .odt” and started writing out the problem.

It’s very  important to actually State the problem. Then you can start writing out what isn’t happening. What you think should happen and you’ll eventually get somewhere. The reason being you are writing down what you need to do and you’ll be writing down what you have done… That’s where this works wonderfully well.

Yes, it takes a little bit longer to do than just blast away. But guess what! Taking your time actually helps. Plus you’ll more than likely create yourself a guide on the problem and how you solved it.

Any light bulbs going off yet? If you know of others who might be having the same problem….you’ve just written an Ebook about it, or the makings of one.

Actually with my particular problem, I noted that it would be beneficial to go back to basics and I documented everything… The PHP Code I created. That Database Tables, The Stored procedures. I even came up with a way to automatically install my Database from a Script loaded with all my SQL statements. That got included so I don’t forget….

So I got the main script working and tinkered till I got it right and wrote it all down.

Guess What?

I ended up discovering all the right ways to do what I wanted then I got into the guts of the CodeIgniter Framework and after a bit of headscratching I got it all working.

So now I have sample Scripts, The Ebook on what I did, and a working CodeIgniter Framework that has come up pretty swish ( which means Fantastic ). Now I can get back onto my project and keep going…

The whole point of this is to remember. When you have a problem. Write it out!!!!

I’ve still got a little tidying up of the Ebook before I unleash it upon the world. But for now – it’s a good guide for me for tomorrow. Hmm yes, that’s about how long my whatever that kind of memory is called… I forget..But at least I know where to find the info I’ve written down.

Find or create the problem, Solve it Once, Write it down Once and if it pops up again – you just re-read what you did last time. Absolutely Brilliant!

It does take some commitment to do this. But ask yourself, how important is it to you – to solve the problem you have.

If you do have any Techy Website or other kind of problems. Give me a shout. I’ll work it out – write it out and send you the result. I’ve done it before for others and I’ll do it again.

Are you thinking….”This is a great way to create Content”? You should be!

Ok well I had best get into documenting up the CI changes in another document…. That’s a bit too much for any poor soul to have to read through in the one book and it’s another problem.

Happy Problem Solving.

“If you aint having any problems with anything, you aint doing anything new OR you forgot how you solved it last time”

Till next time

Cheers

Tim Brownlaw… Now where did  I put those files………

I’m sure that’s a statement that you’d have to agree on!

I was approached by a Mr Rob Gehring ( formerly of 10KHits4U.com – a traffic exchange ) to become part of the development team and assist in his new program with my various skills. Of course I accepted as I’ve known Rob for a wee while now and his concept for his new site was rather interesting and unique.

Now Rob loves to get in front of people and mentor them. When I met Rob those many years ago, that’s exactly what he was doing then and that’s what impressed me. I should say Rob loves to talk but what he says is invaluable to the newbie and to the seasoned pro. In fact a few of those individuals have jumped on this system with great enthusiasm.

What is it?

Well Rob has taken  mentoring and list building to the next level. His new program TrafficLeads2Income.com gives you the means to create your own list. Even if you don’t have an Autoresponder, as one is included. But of course many of the other popular ones like Aweber, GetResponse, TrafficWave, EasySponder are supported in this system.

What you can do is, join up for free, go through the steps and get yourself a Lead Capture Page created in minutes. But that’s only a small part of the system.

You get to join the Forum, and of course attend the Live Conference calls being held on a regular basis where Rob gives away some pretty neat stuff plus you’ll get mentored to death! In a nice way of course.

There is also a downline builder included which has a large number of participating Traffic Exchanges and other programs participating. But you don’t have to join them all and those you don’t , you can deselect so that your Downline members only get to join those programs that You Choose. Most other systems that do this end up getting signups for your sponsor on those programs you don’t join. So that’s a pretty good feature to have.

All the affiliate material is provided so you won’t be left out to dry in ways to promote this.

The idea is simple. Create your Lead Capture page, promote it how it ever you like, but remember that Traffic Exchanges are a very good source of leads.

Rob will tell you about all the “other ways” just to put him on the spot.

The Steps that are included are there to guide anyone through the whole setup. So you won’t be left scratching your head plus you can ask for help in the Forum and also in the conference calls. There is a support room, that at the moment, isn’t open 24/7 but that’s something that’s being worked on, so you’ll always be able to get live support.

If you upgrade and it’s not expensive to do so, you’ll get higher commissions than Free members and also a few extra benefits thrown in.

So if you want to learn from someone that ” Walks the walk” then Rob’s your man. Plus you get the system to get your list building up and running and you may “unfortunately” encounter me at some stage. I try to attend as many meetings as I can and when I get time I’ll be in the support room lending a hand!

It’s all about getting your list built, getting others into some of your programs and mentoring them with the services provided.

Come along to one of the calls  – They are run on a regular basis – usually at 9pm Sundays EST ( USA Time ).

Click here and find the “Support Room” link at the bottom of the page. This will take you to the page that will get you into the conferences.

The conference software is HotConference which runs in your browser so it’s not dependent on your operating system. Most conferencing programs only run on Windows so this is a great system.

Come along, say Hi and tell Rob that I sent you and he’ll look after you!

TrafficLeads2Income is definitely a great system to use and a great community to be a part of and by it’s very nature a great program to promote where you gain all the benefits.

Stumbling blocks – things that happen that get in the way of you progressing and can, if you let them, defeat you!

I Never say Die – and I’ll battle any technical issue I come across until I succeed. But it’s how you get there that’s poked it’s head up.

Writing the Ultimate Membership Script.

I got it into my head that it’s time to settle down, pick a project and actually finish it.  So I did – I’m currently working on a new directory, membership site with all the bells and whistles I can think up. I’ve even gone down the path of documenting everything in a manner of ways which I’ll discuss in upcoming posts.

But what happened was this…. I’ve been starting scripts for sometime and I’m a great fan of using a PHP Framework called CodeIgniter. Now CodeIgniter is a nice elegant solution to providing the nuts and bolts to any system.  The only problem is, it’ll let you do anything and this is where people can get stuck. Again that’s for other upcoming posts.

I was merrily coding away, over coming other little stumbling blocks, ( finally solved my templating issues at long last – YEAH!!!!) and getting back into the swing when it came time to start creating the MySQL Stored Procedures.

Now, I’ve done this before in great and elaborate detail and so it was only a matter of copying and making slight modifications to get them to work in the new setup. BUT when it came time to create them in my neat little “MySQL Query Browser” Program ( available for Windows and Linux ) it refused to create them. WHAT!!!! This used to work fine.

So a mad search of Google on the subject led to lots of forums and sites with lots of – try this and the oh too common – “I’m having the same problem – help”.

The main problem is actually figuring out what the problem is. After hours of reading and getting confused I decided to take the extraordinary step of opening up a OpenOffice Writer Document ( you can use what ever you prefer ) and started writing up what I was doing – the results, that showed the problem and what I tried. Which in the end got my brain in order leading me to finally solve the mystery of the “Not working MySQL stored procedure creating process”.

The benefits of doing this are two fold.

1. You get a clearer picture of what wasn’t happening and
2. Let’s you document the solution.

Which gives you material for a future blog post or an E-Book.

I won’t bore you with what happened here but it was a matter of MySQL being upgraded on my system and not correctly setting itself up.

The moral of the story.

Step back, write down what’s happening and work through it systematically. It’ll lead you to a solution a whole lot faster.

Of course this doesn’t only apply to “head scratching over my something that used to work and stopped working” problems. It could be any problem.

Remember that others are after solutions to problems, so if you get into the habit of writing down the problem, working through it and detailing what you did, you’ll have something you can refer to forever but best of all, you’ll have something you can give to others.

One Final Note

I certainly consider it – nettiquete (probably spelled  wrong)  – to acknowledge those that help you out. Especially on Forums.

If someone has gone to the trouble to post a solution that solves your problem, tell them so and thank them. There’s another topic I’ll need to write about soon.

Cheers

This is a question that has recently popped up in the advertising circles.

It’s always been something I’ve been pondering but haven’t as yet delved into in any great detail.

So I’m going to take a look and come back and let you know what I find out.

At this stage I’d say “Sure Facebook would be a great advertising avenue to look into” but I wouldn’t go as far as saying Google has completely lost the plot and become a bad way to advertise.

Not yet anyway!

I’m off to do some digging…

Update

I think it’s safe to say that those individuals touting Facebook as the ultimate advertising solution that will  make Google a second rate choice are only out to create a Fad and make themselves a few bucks.  Any form of advertising , if used correctly, will gain benefit for the advertiser.

That being said, I’m not going to mention the “product” that raised this question. It seems its “gone to sleep”  like so many other Fads.

Or

What to do when things go wrong

You’ve joined a program or service and something isn’t quite right, so you go hunting for a way to let the site owner or company know.  The good ones will either have a Support Ticket System, a contact form or an email address where you can let them know what your “problem” is.

I’m taking the time to give my thoughts on the proper use of these kinds of systems because I’ve sat on both sides of the fence – meaning I’ve submitted my fair share of support tickets and I’ve also had to handle some myself for various things.

So here are the 5 Ways to get the best results from any support system.

Number 1.

Do Not Write in the heat of the moment!

This happens when something goes wrong. You’ve made a payment and it hasn’t regsitered and you can’t get your download.  Or you have tried creating a web host account and you cannot log into your Hosting Account Manager or your website won’t show up. These are the kinds of things that can very understandably get you a little angry. Been there, done that myself on a few occasions.

Then it’s straight into the support system and telling them how upset you are.

I’d recommend that you take a deep breath and explain exactly what happened and try not to get personal or vent your anger too strongly.  Sure , say you are upset but keep the threats and other choice words in your head and don’t go writing them.

Keep in mind, someone on the other end whose job it is to help you isn’t going to feel too wonderful from reading something abusive.

Number 2.

Give as much information as you can!

Remember that the person at the “other end” needs to know what it is that is happening. So keep it simple and be as specific as you can.  Try to put yourself in their shoes.

Refrain from saying – “It doesn’t work. Please Fix it!” Instead explain what doesn’t work, what you did when it didn’t work and any error messages or whatever other information you can see. That will greatly speed things up to help the “support” person resolve your issue.

Number 3.

Respond quickly to any requests for more information or to let them know that your problem has been fixed or still has issues.

The individuals manning the support systems may want to know a little more. Even though you’ve followed point “Number 2″. It’s easy to forget something so again, respond with the information requested.

Number 4.

On the very rare occasions you may get a response saying “We didn’t find anything wrong it must be you……”. Remember point Number 1 and restate your issue. It’s possible you didn’t supply enough information or clearly enough.

Try to keep the language simple… I’m from Australia and I could probably write something that could have you “scratching your head”. See I just used one there and someone in another country might reply like this – “Dear Mr Brownlaw, I’m unsure of what you mean and my head isn’t itchy…”

Kind of boring, I know, but there will be times when there is a language barrier in just the terms and phrases you might choose to use.

So be boring, keep it plain and explain again.

Number 5.

You may still be unsatisfied and your problem still exists or you are just simply annoyed. Especially if it’s something that reoccurs…

I can only suggest then that you demand to contact the site owner or someone higher up in the chain.

If all else fails.

If all else fails, then you are probably working with someone whose interest is not to keep their customers happy.

Write about your experience in your blog/website but keep it tame.  Stick to the facts and “try” to keep the emotion out of it. Getting abusive will generally turn others off and they may not want to contact you and say ” Hey me too… but I did this…”

Post on a Forum and ask if anyone else is having the same issues…

If this all sounds a bit optimistic well so be it. The majority of companies/service providers etc take great pride in helping their customers. It’s the few that don’t that can lead to major frustration.

Now I’m not going to state that I’ve always stuck to these “guidelines” all the time. But I’m very conscious of them and if I do catch myself  “flying off the handle” (getting angry) I quickly take a few breaths and remember some person on the other end has to read this…. On the odd occasion the send button has been hit and “Whoops”, but I do give thanks and apologize.  Sometime when I read back my tickets they may sound a little heated.

I’ve also hit brick walls with one or two programs I’ve been in and I’m still trying to get a satisfactory outcome…But I’ll stick at it.

So remember, yes we’ll always encounter problems of some kind, but the best way to get help is to be polite and state the facts.

If you really want, you can offer to help them out! I’ve done that before.

Now this might seem a bit egotistical but in reality it’s a very interesting exercise on how you can get yourself  “known” out there by the sites you have built, forums you have joined and other sites you are a member of.

Is it a kind of social proof? Well I’d say , yes! Hang on, I’ll just check if there is anything bad  mentioned about me – Nope – all is good!

It’s a bit of a history tour of what you’ve done and what you’ve been a part of! I know I’d forgotten I’d participated in the many sites that come show up as places I’m known in.

Fortunately for me, there isn’t that many Tim Brownlaw’s around , so I know what I get to see is actually about me. Big Ego rush!

I’d like to catch up with anyone that shares my own name. We could be related! Who knows…some lost relatives out there I’ve never met. (actually I have caught up with a branch of the family that stems back to my great grandfathers time.)

Go on – try it! All you need to do is enter in your name in double quotes in Google or any other search engine you prefer and see what comes up. ie “Tim Brownlaw” and Bingo!

One thing this does show regarding forums. If you participate in Forums ( and I hope that you do ) and you are promoting anything which you can mention in your Forum Signature  then you’ll definitely get “More Exposure” out there on the search engines.

It’s kind of nice to have your Own Personal Keywords – that being – your own name!

And on another very important note….

Today is the last day of 2009 here,  So I’d like to thank you for your support over 2009 and I hope that you continue to come along and have your mind messed with – whoops  – I mean – learn something useful, and I certainly hope you’ll continue to do so in 2010.

So to you and yours from myself and my family – a very sincere Happy and Prosperous New Year in 2010!

Let’s make it big in 2010! It’s got nice even numbers, that has to help – right?

Cheers

Tim Brownlaw