Monday July 2nd, 2007: Issue #818
A couple of weeks ago I wrote in Kickstart that I have a problem with bookshops that offer ‘buy-two-get-a-third-free’ promotions. The deal is only valid for books that carry the promotional sticker and I can never find three stickered books that I want to buy.
The result is that I end up wandering around the store for ages clutching one or two selections and end up leaving without buying anything!
Well it seems that at last someone has listened.
I was in WH Smith yesterday and was delighted to see that their 3-for-2 deal is now on ANY books in the store, stickered or not.
Excellent! I had NO trouble spending my money with them.
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We took the kids to see Shrek 3 last night. Or was it the kids who took us?
Delia and I love these clever animated movies that work for both adults and children. Although we all thought Shrek the Third was a good film I was alone in thinking that it lacked some of the sparkle that the earlier ones had. I don’t know why, but this one didn’t have the ‘laugh-out-loud’ factor for me.
My kids disagree, and so does Delia, so perhaps I was just a bit jaded last night!
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A lady on a forum asked for some advice on why her site wasn’t making any sales. Several people, me included, responded to say that her site was awful and that without radical changes sales would never be forthcoming.
That kind of response may seem harsh, but what would have been the point in the usual ‘it is very nice, but…’ replies. She needs sales and to get them, must face facts.
It was all the more odd because the lady was almost bragging about her site-building expertise.
Anyway, having received some valid criticism and a lot of good advice about how to improve her site (personally I think minor improvements were pointless - it needed to be taken down and reworked from the ground up), the lady then started asking the forum owner to remove the thread because she seemed to find it ‘embarassing and hurtful’.
I’m glad to say that the forum owner has not bowed to her pressure, and neither have the moderators who police the place. It is a useful thread for everyone to see.
When we post things online there is rarely an option to take back something that we later regret. A few forums do allow self editing of posts, but most do not. And once a thread is in place, only the forum owner has the right to remove it.
Even if he or she does take a thread down, it is likely to be archived somewhere by the search engines or by archiving sites like the Way Back Machine.
The message here is that you should be careful what you say online and mindful of the fact that your words, if unwisely chosen, could be there for all to see for a very long time.
Asking for a site critique will sometimes get you warm fuzzy candy-coated comments, but will more often than not get you harsh criticism that may hurt. And if you have any sense, you’ll take a lot more notice of the honest, harsh critiques than the generally useless ‘very nice’ ones.
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Most people online are aware that sites need to be made accessible for everyone. It is even the law in many places that people with disabilities must be able to use your site.
So it is that I am amused and a bit appalled by the attitude of one of the top offline magazines devoted to all things Internet.
.net magazine (I think it is called something else in America) uses a very small 6pt typeface and likes to be ‘designery’ by putting light gray text on a light gray background and other silly color combinations.
Most issues have at least one letter complaining about the legibility of the magazine and the editor generally brushes these comments off with ‘technical difficulties’ excuses.
The latest issue had a different stance though.
“…we don’t plan to increase our font size. Our average reader is 31 years old, and it is with this age group in mind that we design the magazine.”
What arrogance!
Is the Internet the preserve of 30 year-olds now? Hardly.
I buy it - even though I’m obviously well outside their target market - but often wonder why I bother. It is increasingly boring and ill-informed. And when they talk about things connected to online marketing they are often simply dangerously wrong!
I think that perhaps I may leave them to their young audience with perfect eyesight from now on.
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An Inspirational Thought
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Napoleon Hill’s superb book ‘Think and Grow Rich’ contains a secret.
In the preface, Hill says, ‘In every chapter of this book I mention the money making secret that has made fortunes for hundreds of exceedingly wealthy men.’
And later he says, ‘Somewhere, as you read, the secret to which I refer will jump from the page and stand boldly before you, if you are ready for it!’
The secret is hidden in plain view. Yet I don’t doubt that thousands of the millions who have bought the book have yet to see it. Millions maybe.
When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. This old saying is particularly true of Think and Grow Rich.
If you have it on your shelves, read it again. If you don’t own it yet, beg, borrow or buy a copy and read it for yourself.
There are few books that can inspire you more fundamentally in the ways of success. And few secrets that are so hard to see - especially when they are hidden in plain sight.
Have I seen the secret? Absolutely. But what I don’t know is if the secret I’ve seen is the same one that you will find. Or, indeed, if the secret I found the last time I read it will be the same one that jumps out at me next time I pick it up.
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The Quote of the Day
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An Indian proverb says,
“If you are planning for one year, plant rice. If you are planning for ten years, plant trees. If you are planning for 100 years, plant people.”
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Today’s Power Thought
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I feel so sad that the world is full of people who honestly believe that they can’t do things.
You may be one of them. You may harbor beliefs that stop you dead in your tracks. Beliefs that you’ve always just accepted because your teachers told you, your parents told you, your friends told you, the world told you.
What do they know about you though? Really know?
My late father probably meant well when I first became self employed by saying that it was good, but when was I going to get a proper job again? That unintentional put-down took me years to get over and almost certainly made me hold my own success back.
My wife, who is pretty good with a pencil and paper, is convinced that she can’t draw (even though it is obvious she can) because an art teacher once held her work up to the class and said it was rubbish.
You probably have similar stories in your life. We are all held back in something by beliefs that have no real basis in reality.
My message to you (and to myself) is to start learning to ignore that inner doubts and when you tell yourself that you can’t do something, have a go anyway.
You will be amazed at how often you will uncover talents that you never dreamed that you could have.
NLP training is all about reprogramming your brain to wipe out preconceived, erroneous beliefs. But you don’t need to go and be trained in NLP to start changing the way you think. All you and I need is to have a go.
When you let go of your ‘I can’t do that’ attitudes for a moment what floods in to their place is a very different emotion: curiosity. You’ll feel ‘let’s see what happens’.
And when you let yourself see what will happen, sometimes you’ll open a box that contains wonderful things.
Be a have a go hero today.
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Fascinating Facts
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There is a law, still in existence, in North Carolina that prohibits anyone from ploughing a field with an elephant.
The law was passed after public outcry when circus showman P.T.Barnum came to town and hitched one of his circus elephants to a plough beside the railroad tracks as a publicity stunt.
It is harder to judge the origin of a law on the books of Riverside, California that makes it illegal to kiss unless both parties first wipe their lips with rosewater.