Kickstart #971: Man Made Magic
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Kickstart Today
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Friday October 17th 2008: Issue #971
Kickstart Today is published three times each week for opted-in
subscribers only. Publisher: Martin Avis. Your comments are
always welcome - to respond to anything you read here, please
click ‘Reply’
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please bookmark the archive at http://kickstartarchive.com
Greetings!
Isn’t it interesting how the virtual world, the world of gamers
and geeks, is overlapping with the real world. The Internet has
gradually expanded into people’s lives so that now it is such a
fundamental part of who we all are, that it is impossible to
imagine life without it.
Yet, it wasn’t many years ago that a browser was just someone who
wandered around a shop without buying, and the net was what you
tried to avoid in tennis.
And of course, every day that passes sees the tentacles of the
aptly named web wrap themselves tighter and tighter around our
lives.
The humble cell phone, for example, is now so incredibly powerful
that just 20 years ago it couldn’t even have been imagined.
This blurring between technology and the things we do every day
is happening so quickly that we don’t even see it happening any
more. Not only are new gadgets appearing all the time, but so are
the killer apps that change the way we live our lives.
My Sony Reader has certainly changed the way I read books. My
incredibly out-date (2 years old) cell phone has changed the way
I communicate (who would have guessed that sending text messages
would become so ‘mainstream’ just a few years ago?).
Skype and webcams have revolutionized friendships and has brought
people together, by video, in ways that are still science fiction
to me!
And SatNav - well where to start with SatNav? It is just
incredible to think that a little box no bigger than a cigarette
packet can communicate with satellites flying around in space and
work out exactly where you are - let alone know how to get to
where you want to go to!
In fact, it’s all science fiction. It’s more than that … it’s
all magic. And new technologies are emerging so quickly that the
world of even 2 years in the future is become impossible to
predict.
Imagine that - however technologically advanced you and your toys
are today, in two years time they’ll all be obsolete. And in 5
years it will be a completely different, unimaginable, world.
I watched a great video this morning about how a company who
wants to build a 21st century hotel is testing its design before
committing to laying a single brick (do builders still use
bricks?) by having had the architect’s drawings for the new
structure turned into an exact ‘virtual’ building in Second Life.
The proposed hotel has been created in the virtual world in
exquisite detail - even down to the magazines on the shelves -
and is open for people to wander around and examine.
It’s an incredible idea, and one that can be copied by all kinds
of companies. if a restaurant chain want to assess customer
satisfaction with a new layout or livery, or a cruise line want
to see how people react to a new super liner, it is a lot cheaper
to build it first in Second Life than to risk millions, or
billions in the real world.
A lot of the new technologies leave me baffled - their ‘killer
apps’ just don’t light a fire for me. But enough of them do
filter down to my consciousness - and yours - to make the 21st
century a very exciting place to live.
You can see the video I watched here:
http://cnettv.cnet.com/9742-1_53-24147.html
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I’m going to try an experiment with the Kickstart Archive blog.
Up to now it has been closed to comments because I was afraid of
unleashing the spammers, but enough people have now asked me that
I’m going to open it up.
Please use the facility to post your comments on anything you
read in Kickstart. Its a great way for you to give me feedback -
even if you don’t approve of something!
The Kickstart Archive is, of course, at
http://kickstartarchive.com and comments will be open from today.
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On Wednesday I happened to mention Peter Woodhead’s 52-week
Internet marketing email course, Million Dollar Publishing.
I am a subscriber to the course myself and rate it very highly
indeed. Peter is certainly covering everything you need to know
in great detail, but is doing so in clear language that anyone
can follow. It very low priced for what you get, but the sheer
number of extra, unadvertised bonuses that Peter is including as
the weeks go on makes it one of the best value courses I’ve ever
seen!
http://www.urlnex.us/milliondollarpublishing/
Peter didn’t know that I was going to mention his course again on
Wednesday (neither did I) and phoned me up as soon as he received
his copy of Kickstart to thank me.
He also happened to mention that he is holding an exclusive
hands-on workshop for a small number of people next weekend in a
hotel near Heathrow airport.
Peter’s Information Publisher’s Workshop will be a 3-day hands-on
intensive learning experience that will see you move from
complete beginner to income-producing information marketer.
You’ll come away at the end with a business and all the knowledge
you need to run it profitably for you and your family.
Peter has lots of experience running seminars and workshops and
is a very good teacher. As a down-to-earth Yorkshireman, he
doesn’t try to bamboozle anyone - he just tells you what works
and shows you how to do it for yourself.
If you are looking for a quick start into the world of Internet
marketing, the Information Marketer’s Workshop is a very good
place to begin.
I know he has a few places available, so this is a great
opportunity for you if you can get to the Heathrow area next
weekend: http://www.urlnex.us/octworkshop/
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I’ve started Twittering, or Tweeting, or whatever afficianados
call it, again. I’m still posting the Kickstart Twips (short,
sharp tips) but I’m finding myself succumbing to the inevitable
chatter as well.
Despite myself, I’m finding it quite fun. Especially as I started
following the glorious Stephen Fry - and he followed me back!
Of course I’m star struck, but a tiny part of me hopes he is too!
If you are a Twit, or would like to find out what the fuss is all
about (and then relay that information to yours truly please)
then you can find me at http://twitter.com/Kickstart_Twips
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I think it is going to be a gastronomically exhausting weekend
here in Avis Towers. Our daughter is coming home from university
for the weekend and has sent a list of all her favorite foods so
that her homesick tastebuds can be revitalized morning, noon and
night!
Of course we can’t all watch her eat to excess all on her own, so
I have every expectation of the bathroom scales going on strike
on Monday morning!
Delia is such a good cook that every excess pound will be a
delight.
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Just over two weeks ago Kickstart reader Jon Andersen declared
that he was going to write, edit and publish a paperback book in
just 16 days.
He wrote it a chapter at a time and published daily updates -
including each day’s chapter - on the Kickstart Forum
Well yesterday was day 16, and true to his word the 80-page
paperback book, called Publish! has been published.
It is a great object lesson in just how easy it is nowadays to
get your book into print and I’m very grateful to Jon for putting
the whole thing on my forum.
You can see a preview of the finished book on the Lulu website and why not grab
a copy for yourself while you are there (that isn’t an affiliate
link, by the way, all the proceeds deservedly go to Jon and his
family).
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The Quote of the Day
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Charles R Weirs said:
“Doubly rich is the man still boyish enough to play, laugh and
sing as he carries and emanates sunshine along a friendly road.”
(And the same goes for women too - Martin)
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Today’s Power Thought
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We’ve talked many times about the importance of setting goals,
and the power that those goals take on when they are written
down. If you do nothing else in your life, please set some goals
and put them in writing! It is an almost magical act - and it
works.
Often though, I am confronted by people who steadfastly refuse to
set goals for themselves. They ’say’ they want success, but they
are not prepared to take the one simple step that will almost
guarantee it.
Success isn’t a state of being, it is a physical place. Like an
address. If your house was ’somewhere in America’ or ’somewhere
in Asia’ you would have a hard time getting home at night. But
give it a physical, real world address and anyone can find it.
Imagine that your success has a physical address like that.
Your goals, when clearly written down, are the directions that
you give to the taxi driver to ensure that you arrive safely.
If you take nothing else from Kickstart, please take this. Decide
upon and write down one goal.
Just one.
Do it today, and do it on a large scale. Don’t make your goals
tentative and hesitant. Make them bold and seemingly
unattainable.
Write down that one goal today.
And tomorrow you can write down another.
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The Foolproof, No-Nonsense,
Kickstart Guide to Making Money Online
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*** Catch up with parts 1-28 of the Foolproof, No-Nonsense,
Kickstart Guide to Making Money
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Fascinating Facts
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The English poet and author D.H.Lawrence had a very strange
ending.
After he died and was cremated in 1930, his girlfriend Frieda
took his ashes and mixed them with concrete - and then used the
mixture to make a mantelpiece to put over her fireplace.