Monday December 17th, 2007: Issue #872
Well, this is the last full week before Christmas. Can you believe this year has flown by so fast?
Including today, we have three more Kickstart issues to go before the Christmas closedown and Kickstart gets a rest until 2008. What to fill them with? There is always so much to talk about!
In deference to the season, I’m changing the format of Kickstart for these three issues only. I’m sure we all have a lot more on our minds than business and personal development. All that regular content will be back with a bang in the New Year, but for this week it can wait.
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If you are a new subscriber to Kickstart, you can read all the more ‘normal’ back issues at the archive website at http://kickstartarchive.com
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“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” - Norman Vincent Peale
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We went to the movies last night to see a film that has had my wife and daughters spinning with anticipation: Disney’s ‘Enchanted’.
The movie starts out as a classic fairy tale cartoon, with the handsome prince meeting his beautiful maiden. But the wicked queen has other ideas and throws the fair maiden down an enchanted well where she emerges at the bottom in real-life, modern-day New York City as a real person.
The prince follows her and the movie is about the adventures of fairy story book people dealing with the real world.
Okay, it sounds crazy, and it is. But it is a wonderful film. Funny, touching, happy, hopeful and above all, highly entertaining.
My four girls (Delia included) spent the entire movie with big smiles plastered across their faces. I expect I did too.
‘Enchanted’ is a lovely film with a massive feel-good factor. If you need cheering up this Christmas, or if you just feel like a good night out, get yourself along to see it. Highly recommended.
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“I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.” - Charles Dickens
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Having spent £38.50 (about $80) to take the five of us to see the film, it was a bit annoying to realize how many people were in the cinema without paying. When we arrived, two teenage girls were sitting in our seats. we asked them to move and they giggled and trotted off to the row in front. Then the people who had paid to be in that row arrived and the girls had to move again. Eventually they found seats that nobody had booked and watched the movie from there.
All over the cinema I noticed people arriving and having to ask youngsters to move.
It was like musical chairs for seat thieves.
The cinema I go to - Showcase in Bluewater Mall - seems to have abandoned having ushers or attendants so it is very easy for kids to get in without paying. I was minded to complain, but who to? There is never anyone in authority in evidence.
In the past, when I, and a policeman who was sitting near me, had to complain about two drunks being unruly and spoiling the film for everyone, it took us twenty minutes to find a manager - who effectively shrugged and said that there was nothing he could do.
A few people gaming the system didn’t spoil my evening. It was a minor annoyance at worst, but it did make me wonder at why honest people have to pay big bucks to see a movie while those with no ethics or morals whatsoever get away with it every time. Seemingly with the full cooperation of the cinema management (or lack of management).
Surely it can’t be good business to encourage this kind of behavior?
I have sent the above to Showcase Cinema’s customer service email address. It’ll be interesting to see if they care enough to even reply.
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“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.” - Burton Hillis
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I was in the sauna at my gym the other day and two people were chatting. Of course, I listened in.
One lady was telling the other about her new computer and how she was looking forward to learning how to email her daughter in Australia.
The other was scornful.
“What’s the point of it all?” She said, “All this Internet lark. What’s it any good for?”
I was reminded of that classic scene in the Monty Python movie, ‘The Life of Brian’, when the Jewish Underground Movement were sitting around moaning about the Romans:
“What have the Romans ever done for us?”
“Aquaducts and sanitation.”
“Oh yeah, sanitation! Remember what the city used to be like?”
“Alright, I grant you, aquaducts and sanitation are two things the Romans have done, but what else…”
“The roads.”
“The roads go without saying. Of course there’s the roads, but apart from the aquaducts, the sanitation and the roads, what have they done?”
“Irrigation.”
“Medicine. Education.”
“Alright, fair enough …”
“And the wine.”
And so it went on.
I kept quiet in the sauna, but I did start mentally listing some of the things the Internet has done for me that I’m very grateful for:
* It has provided me a living - a big plus in my book!
* It has allowed me to make some really good friends all over the world - in many ways, that’s even better than the financial benefit!
* It has enabled me to keep in contact with people, by email, messaging and skype in ways that only a few years ago would have seemed like magic.
* It has enabled me and my family to have virtually instant access to libraries full of information.
* It has revolutionized shopping.
* It can provide entertainment.
* It has driven down prices in the real world.
* It has made booking entertainment a breeze - I now book my cinema tickets online and can always choose exactly which seats I want.
* It keeps me up-to-date with the latest news - without having to bother to watch TV or buy gossip and lie-laden ‘newspapers’.
* It has allowed me to raise considerable sums of money for charities that I’d never have been able to do before the Internet came along.
* On a more general note, it helps break down barriers between people who, for a whole load of wrong-headed reasons may not be so keen to communicate in real life. Differences of race, religion, gender, ability, disability, orientation, age and skill can all disappear on the Internet. An email that says “Hi, I love what you write” is welcome from anyone at any time!
* It has opened a window to the world for millions of people around the world who are lonely, housebound and unable to interact with their fellow humans in any other way. To those people, the Internet is much more than just a computer in the corner. It is a lifeline.
So there are twelve things I think the Internet has done for us. What about you? What has the Internet ever done for you?
I’ll post this in the forum - why not post your answers there too?
http://kickstarttodayforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=1837#1837
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“Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.” - Washington Irving
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This weekend saw the final of the UK talent show, X-Factor. The show is the equivalent of American Idol in the US. Simon Cowell presides over both.
This year’s bunch were a pretty mixed bag. There were a few talented singers, but most were - let’s be charitable - weak. Only one person was consistently excellent throughout.
The final came down to three acts, one of whom stood out from the others by a mile.
Of course, this being a show that is voted upon by the great unwashed public, the wrong person won.
A young chap with a very average voice and a woeful lack of presence won the million pound recording contract, while the only person with outstanding talent in the entire competition had to put up with second place.
Take a look at this YouTube video of the absolutely brilliant Rhydian Roberts and tell me if you think he was robbed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1jCBOQr6-0
Or singing my favorite song of all time:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=38dTu2Leh_U
Or the best Christmas song you’ll hear this year:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8G08EqZNGcs
Whatever the public vote said, and whoever got the recording contract, there was only one real winner.
If he isn’t snapped up by a record company fast, there’s no justice.
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“Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it.” - Richard Lamm
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Some Kickstart 2007 stats.
I’ve been looking back over the 114 issues of Kickstart that I’ve written over the last year (not including today) and have extracted some quick facts:
On average, each issue has about 1600 words - making a total of over 180,000 for the year.
35 of those issues had no promotions whatever. Nothing to buy, just solid content.
Only 45 different products have been recommended in the whole year - a tiny fraction of the flood of stuff that has been out there. But you know that as far as I’m able, I only tell you about the stuff I rate really highly.
4 of those 45 products have been my own and two have been for real-world bookstore books. Leaving just 39 of other people’s books, products and services.
During the year there have been two products that I originally gave good reviews to that I subsequently retracted and another that I was originally lukewarm about and later got colder.
Six of the products I really loved cost just $7 each.
Of all the products I’ve promoted in 2007, only two have failed to pay my commissions. It is sad and annoying that some Internet marketers don’t honor their commitments, but that’s life. Suck it up and move on. Thankfully the vast majority who pay on the nail more than make up it.
Three products have really stood out from the crowd in terms of the number of Kickstart readers who have bought them:
* Niche Inspector (the best keyword research tool of the four that I own) http://www.kickstartdaily.com/nicheinspector/ - that’s a link to my demo video that also tells how you can get a valuable bonus gift from me when you buy.
* Michael Green’s ‘$20,000 in 20 Days Challenge’ (a really detailed course on how to make money online). http://www.urlnex.us/2020/
* Lazy Super Affiliate (an ebook giving a superb business plan for affiliate marketers) http://www.urlnex.us/lazysuperaffiliate/
These three top products have sold more in volume than anything else this year and deservedly so. Kickstart readers can smell value!
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Remember
This December,
That love weighs more than gold!
- Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon
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It’s funny how the emails I receive from Kickstart readers tend to follow themes. It seems like a group consciousness takes over and makes different people ask the same questions all at the same time!
I’m really glad for the phenomenon because it makes me pay attention when several people ask the same thing.
This last week or so the questions have been mainly about products I’ve recommended in the past. People have been asking me where they can find specific reviews or to remind them of the name of certain products.
A few people have also suggested a really good idea that I am taking a lot of notice of: When I review an ebook, can I , where appropriate, list other ebooks I’ve recommended that are similarly themed.
For example, if I talk about a new book that details a workable business plan, can I end the review by mentioning other good ebooks that also detail workable business plans.
I think that is an excellent idea and will try to implement it in 2008.
Meanwhile, as part of my review of 2007, I will write a brief summary and update for all the ebooks and products that I’ve reviewed and recommended in 2007 (those that I still rate highly that is). Watch out for it in the next two issues.
Another thing I’ve lost count of how often I get asked is how I got started in Internet marketing and can IM really provide a full-time income?
I’m in the middle of writing an autobiographical summary of my own life in IM and how I got involved in the first place. Look out for that in Wednesday’s Kickstart.
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“Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts.” - Janice Maeditere
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And finally (as all the best announcers say), I’ve hit a programming snag with my LSI plus tools. It is nothing major, but it means I haven’t finished what I need to do before putting it on sale quite yet.
I’m working hard to get it ready this week and will have more to say on it next issue I hope.
Loads of Kickstarters have expressed their opinions about whether they’d prefer the tool to be sold as a stand-alone script to be installed on your own domain, or as part of a membership site that you can access online. The voting is about 50/50 right now with some powerful arguments on both sides.
Until everything is decided and ready to launch, the beta version is still available for you to use online at http://www.keywordhacker.com/lsiplus/ - take advantage of it while it is still free!
That’s all for today - see you Wednesday!