Thursday July 12th, 2007: Issue #822
Kickstart is late today because although I’d thought that I’d have a nice clear day for writing, life didn’t turn out according to expectations. I had to take my car into the garage (the ’shop’ as I believe my American friends term it) to have its annual certificate of roadworthiness - the MOT certificate - renewed. It should have taken 45 minutes or so.
I took the car in at 10.30 am and have only just got it back at nearly 5 pm. How can companies be so slow? And so uncommunicative?
Still, it passed its test, so the anticipated large expense wasn’t forthcoming. There’s always a silver lining.
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My Squidoo lens - http://www.squidoo.com/easy_time_management/ - has been enjoying mixed fortunes lately. Squidoo seem to love it - every time I check it seems to be getting higher in the ranking. A few minutes ago it had climbed to the 36th spot in the How to section and 340th overall. I guess that the recent changes that Squidoo have made have resulted in lenses with a lot of content doing well.
For that, I’m pleased.
Not so pleasing, however, is the fact that Google appear to have fallen out of love with Squidoo and are systematically downgrading lenses as fast as they can find them.
My one is now nowhere to be found in the top 100 Google listings for any sensible keyword I can think of.
Traffic to my lens is low and mostly generated from my own efforts, and income has yet to start. Oddly. Squidoo report that several of my income-bearing links have been clicked on (including some of the AdSense ones) but no income has ever been credited to me.
If I was a betting man I’d say that Google are downgrading Squidoo until Squidoo have got their house in order. The two events (Squidoo getting more strict about how much content a lens must have before they will accept it and Google apparently downgrading lenses) are too synchronized to be coincidence.
My suspicion is that this is a necessary time of readjustment for a company that is still very new and finding its feet. Potentially though, when Squidoo manage to weed out the spam and other worthless lenses, there will be many thousands of webpages left that provide exactly what the search engines most want - focused, on-target, valuable content.
***Update***
In the time it took me to write this, my rank on Squidoo has plummeted to #1005! But as I’ve yet to understand what the value or point of the ranking system is - apart, of course, from massaging the lens owner’s ego - I guess I’m not too bothered. 
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Yesterday was a most tiring day. We visited another university - this time in the south-coast English seaside town of Portsmouth - with daughter Lauren.
It was a hot sunny day and there was a lot of walking involved, but we all ended up agreeing that Portsmouth University was a really nice place and that the degree course they offer for Lauren’s subject was impressive.
So far we have now visited three universities: Plymouth, Bournemouth and Portsmouth. Each one has had a very different character and atmosphere and all have some clear advantages and disadvantages.
Such a tough decision! I’m glad that it isn’t me who has to make it!
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A few people have emailed me their links for Mike Filsaime’s 777 product. The launch price offer ends tomorrow, so I’ll make sure to buy before the deadline - and will use one lucky Kickstart reader’s affiliate link, chosen at random.
If you haven’t sent me your link yet, please do so as quickly as you can. Don’t bother to try to ’sell’ me or offer loads of bonuses (if there are bonuses with your offer, all well and good, but it isn’t deal maker for me.)
I don’t know for sure, but I’m assuming that the commission will be around $240 or so and one lucky Kickstarter will get that from me tomorrow.
Aren’t I nice!
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I live in a fairly small town called Sidcup. Our main High Street is, quite honestly, awful. The few good shops closed down years ago or were forced out of business by the supermarkets and what is left is a High Street full of Estate Agents (Realtors), Charity Shops and restaurants.
In particular we have an extraordinary number of Indian restaurants. Don’t ask me why. I think we have six.
As most of them seem to be very poorly supported - the last time we went out for a curry meal, we were the only people in the place all evening - you’d think they would close down. But no, more of them are opening up!
A brand new (empty) Indian restaurant has just opened round the corner to me, and another one in the High Street is currently being redecorated.
Do they know something about how to run a business with no customers that I haven’t thought of?
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An Inspirational Thought
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Perception is the spark that often starts us on the road to success. We perceive that it possible.
Perspiration is the oil that keeps our wheels turning even when they start to seize up.
Persistence is the fuel that keeps out engine burning even when the journey seems impossible.
Performance is the wheel that steers our course - as long as we can perform the correct actions, our route will be true.
Personal is our destination. Only we can truly say to where we are journeying.
Perhaps you agree. That would be perfect.
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Who do you know who would love Kickstart Today?
Don’t keep it to yourself - send them to
http://www.kickstartdaily.com today!
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The Quote of the Day
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Beverly Sills said,
“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”
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Today’s Power Thought
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Homer Simpson has a saying: ‘If a thing’s hard to do then it probably isn’t worth doing.’
If you don’t know who Homer is, then all I can say is that whatever he says, you should do the complete opposite.
Yet, those silly words of his are so often the real meaning behind our actions. We try, fail and give up.
Why have we grown up to be that way? Kids don’t have that defeatist attitude. Kids fail to swim for months before they manage to say afloat. Kids often even hurt themselves when they fail to ride their bike the first or second or third time. But they don’t say, ‘It’s too hard so I’ll give up.’
Kids WANT to succeed and they know deep down that they WILL if they keep on trying to do the hard things long enough.
How many of us adults could sit a math exam? It would be MUCH too hard, right?
But thousands of kids do it all the time. And most of them succeed!
There are all kinds of psycho-babble reasons why we learn to expect failure as we grow up, but none of them really count for anything.
I believe 110% that we can unlearn that stupid self- defeating belief. All it takes is a little bravery.
Have a go.
It doesn’t matter if you fall off your bike or sink to the bottom of the pool. Look around you - other people are succeeding, so you know it CAN be done.
All you have to do is keep on trying and pretty soon it won’t be hard anymore. And it WILL be worth doing.
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Fascinating Facts
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In Nepal, the yeti, or abominable snowman is named ‘Metohkangmi’, which means ‘the indescribably filthy man of the snow.’