Kickstart #972: What a Twit I Am!
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Kickstart Today
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Monday October 20th 2008: Issue #972
Kickstart Today is published three times each week for opted-in
subscribers only. Publisher: Martin Avis. Your comments are
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Greetings !
It is 1.30 pm here in Sunless Sidcup and I’ve only just realized
that it isn’t Tuesday. The thing about working from home if that
there is very little to differentiate one day from another, so I
often find myself surprised at the day of week.
Kickstart usually keeps me more or less on track, but this
morning my neurons have clearly been firing blanks.
#~#~#
I just read a splendid article on Alice Seba’s Sweetie Blog by a
lady called Carrie Ruth. It is about how building a business
takes a lot of energy to get it off the ground, but once it has
reached a certain altitude it requires only minimal energy to
keep it there. Carrie draws on the metaphor of rockets reaching
escape velocity.
It is a good article and worth reading:
Alice Seba’s Internet Marketing Sweetie Blog
#~#~#
As you may know, I’ve delved into the dark place that is Twitter
- my Twitter name is Kickstart_Twips if you feel like following
me.
My ’style’ of posting is to tweet a concise tip (or twip as I’ve
cunningly named them for Twitter) interspersed with a very few
replies to people I follow or general life observations.
Now that I follow quite a few people myself, though, I’ve seen
that there are some very different styles of tweeting.
There are some people who are irritating beyond words. They
appear to suffer from a 21st century malaise called twittohorrea.
These people are not content with posting an occasional message.
No, they gush endless messages all at the same time - taking up a
page or two of your screen all to themselves. That wouldn’t be SO
bad if their tweets were useful, but mostly they appear to me to
be incoherent ramblings, blatant business advertisements or
incessant replies to others.
My only solution to these Tweethogs is to unfollow them as fast
as I can.
Another group are those who see Twitter as an advertising
opportunity pure and simple. These folks include their business
link in every tweet, and use every opportunity to promote their
latest product or WSO.
I can see the point in what they do - Twitter does seem to offer
a way to reach a willing audience very efficiently - but surely
balance is the key here? I don’t mind you promoting stuff to me,
but if that is ALL you do (or appear to do) I’ll soon get tired
of it and block you.
A third group go entirely the other way. Their tweets are banal
to the point of making your eyes water and your brain turn to
mush! Life is way too short to waste it on their drivel. I don’t
need to know that you are about to eat lunch. I’m not interested
that you just got back from a walk. The minutiae of you private
life should, it seems to me, be private. By all means share your
ideas, thoughts, insights, opinions, observations and annoyances,
but surely you, as a functioning human being, have more to offer
than ‘watching tv…’?
Of course, everyone - even me - posts the occasional
inconsequential tweet. Even the glittering Stephen Fry (whom I
started following the other day) has a tendency to intersperse
interesting stuff with shallow emptiness. It is the balance that
matters.
If puff is all you post, you will very deservedly end up being
blown out with the rest of the cobwebs.
I only follow a hundred or so people so far, but already the
noise to signal ratio is way too loud for me. But a cursory
analysis suggests that the three really annoying groups I’ve so
far identified account for the vast majority of the noise, but
are only a really few people in absolute numbers.
When you weed out the ones that drown everyone else out, what is
left is a mostly fascinating community of well-meaning souls.
I’m coming to like Twitter, but have learned that it takes a
while before you can adjust it to your own needs.
#~#~#
Speaking of the glistering Stephen Fry, is anyone watching his
latest TV program where he visits each of the 50 States of the
US, Stephen Fry in America? It is whistle-stop tour that can only
give the merest hint of what each State’s character is - some are
glossed over so fast that you could easily miss them. But on a
bigger scale, it does give a fascinating flavor of regional
America.
Last night Stephen traveled south of the Mason-Dixon line and
left me feeling that a visit to the Deep South might just be what
I need. And with my closest friend about to emigrate to Virginia
and day now, that could well be a perfect base to start from when
he gets settled in!
Lucky you - if you didn’t get to see the programme last night,
through forgetfulness or just plain geographic inconvenience, the
BBC have it for all to view on their wonderful free iPlayer site.
Here is the link to last night’s episode:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00f5sy7
#~#~#
Jon Andersen, you may remember from last week, just completed a
fascinating project where he wrote, published and started selling
a real-life paperback book in just 16 days.
Each chapter was written in real time and appeared on the
Kickstart Forum. The book is about how to write a book, so it is
doubly interesting reading.
Then, true to his word, on the 16th day, the book went on sale
through Lulu at http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=3175437
Of course, if you already have you book written, the process of
getting it published and in people’s hands will be much faster
than 16 days. Just a couple would do it by following Jon’s clear
instructions.
I just want to publicly thank Jon - not just for the really
interest step-by-step course, but also because he has very
generously donated all the proceeds from the initial sales of his
new paperback to my Rotary Club Lifestraws Appeal
Jon, that was very kind and most unexpected. Thank you on behalf
of the appeal.
#~#~#
This morning I received notification that I’ve been charged for
the second edition of Stompernet’s The Net magazine, although I
see that they are calling it a ‘journal’ rather than a mere
magazine.
The cost of the magazine is, as expected, $39.95 and it appears
the postage charge added is $5.97, which seems quite reasonable.
I’m hoping that the fact that I’ve been charged means that it has
been shipped.
I know that some people (some estimates put it as high as 50%) in
the UK haven’t received the first edition yet, which is pretty
awful, but hopefully the guys will get on top of their business
very soon and get all the distribution issues sorted out. What a
pity that horrendous organization has marred what should have
been a spectacular launch.
The first issue of The Net was worth every penny in my opinion,
I’ll let you know what I think of the second one when it arrives.
#~#~#
I just got off the phone trying to book a hotel room in the
Portsmouth (UK) branch of a national chain of hotels. Delia and I
are going down there for Christmas market at the end of November
and want to make a weekend of it.
What a palava!
I was using the phone because their website was way too confusing
and wanted the answers to a lot more questions than I wanted to
answer. I wish now that I’d stuck with it and answered the
intrusive questions because the experience on the phone was
painful.
First they cut me off several times. When I finally did get
through it was to a perfectly polite young lady who unfortunately
had about as expert a command of English as I have of Mandarin.
When I said we wanted single beds in the room she said we
couldn’t have that because all their rooms have two beds in them.
When I spelled my name to her (is Avis really that hard to
spell?) what she repeated back bore absolutely no relation and
seemed to have several o’s and z’s.
My email address confused her - especially as she kept calling it
my fax address. (At least, I’m assuming that ‘you fazz’ was a
reference to my fax and not an insult!)
Britain is a multicultural country. I accept that and am cool
with it. But surely multiculturalism should require a certain
competence in communication? If a national company employs
someone to be their customer-facing mouthpiece, sure what comes
out of that mouth should be intelligible?
Mind you, I also had cause to phone the customer support of MFI
today because we have ordered a new toilet seat and they are
telling us that they can’t deliver it for nearly a month! In that
case the person on the phone (also a very polite young lady) had
such a strong regional British accent that I struggled to
understand a word. Can’t blame multiculturalism for her inability
to make herself understood! At least she seemed to understand me
- which is better than Delia manages half the time!
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The Quote of the Day
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Benjamin DeCasseres said,
‘Progress is nothing but the victory of laughter over dogma.’
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Today’s Power Thought
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Are you sitting comfortably?
Then put a pebble in your back pocket.
It is only by wriggling around and fidgeting with things that
everyone else ignores that progress can be made.
The easiest thing in the world is to just accept everything the
way it is and to passively live our lives without challenge. It
is easy, but my goodness is it boring!
So look around yourself today. What can you change. What can you
improve? What can you learn? What can you do to further your own
success?
You have no idea how much you don’t know - but that shouldn’t
stop you trying to find out!
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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 Online
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Fascinating Facts
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At any one moment, there are about 1800 thunderstorms happening
in the world. On average, each one is 15 miles wide and lasts for
20 minutes.