Assassin bug searches for his next victim. This one was a fairly good sized one.

Read more about the assassin bug.

For more photos, visit Wordless Wednesday.

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Actually, no, not really. But, if you’re like many people, you’ve been seeing eMails coming into your inbox with attention-grabbing headlines like that. The body of the eMail will contain some other attention-getting line (often something which has nothing to do with the subject headline), followed by a link for (apparently) more information.

DO NOT FOLLOW THE LINK!

Best thing is to just delete the eMail entirely, but, whatever you do, do not follow the link.

Reportedly, what will happen is the link will take you to a page that will secretly install a spambot of some sort on your computer, turning your machine into a spam-cranking powerhouse. That’s definitely something you don’t want!

So, don’t click on those links! And, if you’re concerned about spyware, trojans and other malware sneaking their way onto your computer, you might want to take a look at SofScan. SofScan is a powerful adware and spyware detector and was awarded “Best New Product” for 2007 by Blengo Online Security.

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The title will be more interesting than the post.

Awake in Rochester will be disappointed that I haven’t put together a post on how to backup your blog. But, others have already done that work for me!

• Backing Up Your WordPress Blog
• WordPress Backups - Importing Files Larger than 2MB
• How to Backup a Blogger Blog
• Tool for Backing Up a Blogger Blog

The only method I’ve ever done is the official WordPress backup method (which is linked in the first link). I cannot vouch for any of the others, as I have never tried them!

I have been trying out some different things over the weekend, and hope to continue on them throughout the week. I will report my results once I have any. I have learned a couple new (to me anyway) techniques for making money online. If they work out, I will share them with you. Even if they don’t work out, I will share them with you!

I’ll also have a special challenge soon! If you want to make money online or make more money online, you’ll want to give this challenge a try!

Also, today or tomorrow, I’ll tell you about a program that may help you earn some extra money.

That’s all for now! Sorry for the short post, but I wanted to get the backup information out and let you know what’s coming soon!

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The value of an eBook is equal to your level of ignorance on the subject matter plus the time saved in researching the same.

An eBook isn’t any different from any other book, except that it is published in electronic rather than printed form. While many eBooks are self-published, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are not valuable. Since they don’t have what some would consider to be the benefit of an editor or publishing house giving the book some measure of approval, many eBooks get published that probably shouldn’t have been. However, that’s not a reason to dismiss all eBooks out of hand. You just have to be a little more careful.

• Look for eBooks with a Money-Back Guarantee. You want to be sure that, if you aren’t satisfied with the eBook you purchase, you can get your money back. So look for a guarantee and read the terms carefully before you make a purchase. If you don’t see a guarantee, you might want to skip it.
• Pay with a Credit Card or PayPal. Just in case the author gives you any trouble with the money-back guarantee, your credit card company or PayPal will give you additional protection. Best Bet: Pay with a Credit Card through PayPal for double-protection!

Some people just don’t like the idea of paying for eBooks. They think the information is all available for free on the Internet. And, it may be. But, usually, it’s not going to be all in one place. You may spend a lot of time searching for the information you need. And, once you find it, can you find it again? A site could go down, change ownership, change content, etc. A good eBook that puts everything in one convenient file can save you a lot of time searching online.

Before you buy an eBook, search for the information you’re looking for. Check different search engines–Google isn’t the only one, you know! Ask your friends. Ask on your blog. And, if you still come up short with the answers you need, then you might want to consider buying an eBook on the topic.

• Avoid eBooks That are Not in a Common Format. Most eBooks these days are published as PDFs. Some people may still distribute them as Word documents. While PDFs are definitely preferable, both of these formats are usually trouble-free for most people. The eBooks you want to avoid are those that are an application rather than a file or use some unusual format that requires you to download special viewing software. Be careful with these. In general, they are best avoided.
• Be Careful with “Make Money” eBooks! They are not necessarily bad, but people often fall into a trap with these. Too often, people are looking for an easy way to make money, so they fall into a habit of buying eBook after eBook after eBook, each time hoping that the eBook will offer an easier way of making money than the previous one. The thing is that there is no easy way to make money online. It does require some work and effort. Many people will buy an eBook, discover that there is work involved in doing so, and then buy another eBook, hoping that that one will finally reveal the secret. Don’t fall into that trap! Let me state this clearly: There is no Internet cash machine hidden on the Internet where you can enter a super secret password and money automatically starts flowing into your bank account. What sometimes appears to be “luck” or “overnight success” was most likely a product of hard work and thoughtful planning.

Instead of being a reader, perhaps you’re considering being the author of your own eBook. Here is a free report on that: eBook Publishing the Fastest Way to Make Money Online [PDF]. While eBook publishing may be the fastest way to make money on the Internet, remember that the eBook doesn’t just write itself! That’s where the hard work and some of the planning will come in.

If you want to publish your own eBook, here are three ways you can get the book written.

• Write It Yourself. That’s pretty self-explanatory, isn’t it? Someone has to write your eBook! This will be easiest for you if you (a) are well-informed on the subject you wish to cover, (b) are passionate about your topic and willing to do the research, or (c) are a writer who is comfortable and skilled in research and writing. If you do it yourself, you’ll also save money, as opposed to our next option which is to…
• Hire a Freelance Writer to Write Your eBook. If you don’t have the time, desire or skills necessary to write your eBook, you can hire a ghostwriter instead. You can find a freelance writer on the various freelance sites. You can check my comments and blogroll for a couple writers. Or, you can try something like Craigslist or a local college.
• Republish a Public Domain Book. This is a relatively popular one as well. Find an out-of-print book that is in the public domain and republish it. You can update it with new information, add new material or chapters, etc. The more obscure it is, the better off you’ll be. But, even if someone else is already re-publishing it, you can always make yours better. Be careful–while the original text is in the public domain, changes that someone else may have made could be protected by copyright. So, when copying a public domain book, make sure you do it from the original source material and not someone else’s copy or derivative work. It’s best if you can buy an original copy of the book (showing the original copyright date and other information to prove that it’s copyright has expired). If you want to read an eBook on a method of making money with public domain materials, consider The Public Domain Income Plan.

I hope this helps take some of the stigma out of eBooks, and discourages you from being afraid to purchase an eBook. Plus, I also hope it discourages you from buying a continual string of “make money” eBooks in the hopes of finding some secret Internet ATM!

Like anything else, there are good eBooks and there are bad eBooks, and mixed opinions about which are which! Your friend may find an eBook that was extremely helpful for him; you might think it wasn’t worth the electrons that comprised it! Check for a guarantee, ask around, and don’t be afraid to take a chance on an eBook that may help you!

NOTE: This was originally going to be a Success Saturday post. This is the one that I didn’t finish this past Saturday. So, rather than waiting a week, and since I already have another Success Saturday in the works, this became a new Mindful Monday! In fact, Mindful Monday is even more appropriate for this topic.

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John Chow and the Pandas of Dot Com Doom

Here is another one of my entries into Michael Kwan’s Photoshop contest, which is running on Beyond the Rhetoric until the end of July. Now, he said one could do anything with the pictures he supplied, so I take that to include deleting everything but what I want to use. This one is my most radical departure from the base pictures, as I’ve pretty much deleted everything except for John Chow and Ed Lau.

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I wasn’t planning on doing a Triskaidekapalooza for this Success Saturday, but here we are. I have been working on a different post, which I’ve had hanging out in my drafts for a while, but, while doing that, I’ve been browsing too. And, I’ve found some great links to share with you.

So, here they are, in no particular order:

1. SuccessSoul presents “Warren Buffett’s 7 Secrets for Living a Happy and Simple Life.”
2. 7P Productions explains “How to Work on Something You Hate.”
3. You may have seen this on John Chow’s blog, but in case you missed it… Quick Sprout lists the “10 Reasons You Are Not a Successful Entrepreneur.”
4. Avani Mehta posted a “Beginner’s Guide to Being Decisive.”
5. Better Business Blogging identifies the “17 Types of Posts to Strengthen Your Business Blog.”
6. The Thrifty Entrepreneur (which is one of my blogs, in case you missed it when I mentioned it earlier in the week) introduces you to the basics of “Business Licensing” for startups.
7. Making Money Online: A Journey of 100 Sites explains “Where to Publish Your Best Content.” It may not be where you think!
8. Following that, Mr. Javo dot Com tells you how to “Drive Traffic to Your Blog by Promoting Other People’s Content.”
9. Successful and Outstanding Blog(gers) features “Targeting the Offline Customer: Do You Blog For Non-Bloggers?” by Scott McIntyre.
10. Michael Kwan of Beyond the Rhetoric did his own success roundup this week in his “What’s Up Wednesdays: Success Edition.”
11. The WAHM Blog covers “Organizing Your Business for Success.”
12. And, in case you still need a job while you try to build your own business empire, Lillie Ammann details “How to Write an Interview-Winning Resume.”
13. Finally, if you’re ever feeling discouraged, check out Andy Crofford’s “Don’t Give Up” post.

That’ll keep you busy for a while. I may or may not have a second post today, depending on how late it is when I finish the regularly scheduled post!

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There was a fly on that leaf. (For more wordless posts today, visit Wordless Wednesday.)

I’m going to get wordy on this picture post. For one, I was saving this photo for this thought and, for another, it irks Michelle. But, stick around. I think you’ll find this post motivational. Hopefully. One never knows how these things will turn out. Let’s get started…

The other day, I was out taking photos of insects. Generally, I see something interesting and go and grab the camera. And, while out with the camera, I find more interesting things. Often, I take multiple shots of those interesting things, because I’ve learned that the camera’s viewscreen isn’t always an accurate representation of what I actually photographed. It’s pretty good, but there are times when a bad image looks good on the tiny little screen and vice versa. Remember that. It’ll be important here in a bit.

Anyway, there was a fly. It was on the leaf you see above. I know what you’re thinking. Yes, of course, you’re thinking, Wow! A fly! That would have been totally awesome! I know.

Now, the thing you have to understand is that I have to manually focus the camera to get these close shots of insects. That means, the insect must patiently wait. The fly patiently waited, up until I pressed the button.

It had flown off at just the right moment. I looked at the viewscreen and confirmed the fly was not there. It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?

I was tempted to delete the shot right there, but decided not to do so. Maybe I could use the leaf image for something. I took a few more photos and I ran out of space on the camera. Had I opted to take another photo, you can guess which image would have been deleted from the memory card.

So, later, I download the images from the camera to the computer. I look at every photo to see how it turned out. And, I came across the where-a-fly-once-was photo. Here it is:

You see that on the far right? I didn’t see it on the camera’s viewscreen, but I noticed it right away on the computer screen.

Here it is enhanced and close-up:

I think that is an awesome shot! And, it was almost pure luck that I managed to get it. Otherwise, I would have had a fly sitting on a leaf which, despite my earlier hype, might have been a bit boring or I would have had no fly at all. This is certainly pretty cool to capture the fly in mid-flight like that. Just look at the wings! And the little shadow. Very cool.

Look at the legs. Like a superhero or something, leaping over tall buildings in a single bound.

Anyway, you see how close that image came to being deleted. If I had deleted it out in the field, I would never have known I had a great shot like that. Of course, one could argue that you can’t miss what you never knew you had, but that’s not the point.

The point is how many great things have happened in our lives that were just on the periphery and we missed them? We didn’t think anything of them. We thought we already lost them. We didn’t notice they were even there.

But they were there. Either we weren’t looking in the right spot, or we didn’t pay close enough attention, or we were just seeing the little picture instead of the big picture. In any case, it was right there and we missed it!

Are you pushing the delete button on the great opportunities in your life?

People talk about “secrets” and such. Believe in it, and it will come your way. But the real truth is that it was there all along, but we haven’t been seeing it.

Did you ever see “The Power of Myth” series when Bill Moyers interviewed Joseph Campbell? There was a segment where they were talking about Eden, and the various myths about where Eden, or its equivalent was, and Campbell’s response was, “Eden is, but men do not see it.”

That’s probably true! There are so many things that are right in our peripheral vision that we just never turn to look and see. Single and looking? Maybe you just need to turn your head. Looking for the next money-making opportunity? Maybe it’s been buzzing just by your head.

Whatever it is you’re currently looking to get in your life, make sure you’re not hitting the mental delete button too soon. The thing you want may already be there, but you just haven’t seen it.

As always,
Believe. Act. Achieve!

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I visited a number of blogs yesterday, and left a comment on many of them.

On some of them, however, I could not leave a comment.

Some blogs were closed except to a select group, and I don’t mean friends and family!

Most commonly there are Blogger bloggers that will only allow comments from people with a Google/Blogger account, but there are other bloggers that will only allow comments from people with other types of accounts, some of which I wasn’t sure how to even become a part of.

I have an OpenID account, but some bloggers wouldn’t even accept that!

Ironically, there was one blogger that was complaining about how hard it was to network and promote his blog! I was going to share some tips, but he only allowed comments from other Blogger users.

That may explain why he’s having a hard time networking! A lot of bloggers, and I do mean a LOT, use WordPress and many of us probably don’t have a Google/Blogger account. And, even if I did, I’m not likely to sign in just so I can leave a comment on a smattering of blogs. I’ll just move on to the next blog, as I did.

I don’t mean to be harsh, and I would like to leave a useful comment, but you can’t make things too difficult for your potential audience. You’ve got to seize every opportunity you can to grab a new reader, especially if you want to grow your blog, and if you make things too difficult for them, they’ll move along to the next blog.

It’s not that we’re trying to punish you for not letting us comment, though it seems you want to punish us for not having an account on the “right” service, but it’s just the way it is.

So, if you’re not getting the amount of comments and interaction on your blog as you’d like or as you see on other blogs, maybe, just maybe, you might want to check to see if you’re not shooting yourself in the foot! Open up your comments. Let people leave comments!

Yes, you will have to fight comment spam, but if you want to get your blog out there and really promote it, that’s part of the price you’ll have to pay!

Alternatively, if you don’t open up your comments, you’re going to have to try twice or even thrice as hard to get new readers and keep them coming back! Most bloggers want the interaction, and if you’re not going to allow that, you’re going to have to find alternative ways to bring them in.

Otherwise, you might just end up sitting there, posting to yourself.

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Yesterday, Brook Durant wrote about how anyone can be an expert online. I came across that post while I was going through my Blogs O’Plenty links.

I went through each of the blogs in my list. If the blog was gone, substantially changed (some had degraded to junk ad sites–of course, they might not be the original owners either), or hadn’t been updated in a long time, I marked them and made the link a “nofollow” link. Next time around, if those blogs haven’t updated, I’ll delete them.

Afterwards, going through the list, I noticed that a number of the “make money online” type sites were now gone. What had happened to them? If they were experts that were going to teach you how to make money online, why are they no longer online? Did they retire? Or were they not experts to begin with?

Mind you, you don’t need to be an expert to provide valuable and useful information. Even your failures can be learning experiences for yourself and others. And, even if you’re not an expert, we are taught to speak with authority so that people will pay attention.

Of course, there is a difference between speaking with authority and misleading people, though bloggers often confuse the two. Authority is a way in which you present yourself and your ideas. It doesn’t require misleading people, though it is often abused in that respect.

Now, I’m not saying that any of these “make money online” bloggers did that. I am just making that as a general statement.

At any rate, the vanishing act shows one of the downsides of the online community. People are just apt to leave things behind and forget about them, leaving the rest of us to wonder what happened. Maybe they got rich and retired and just didn’t bother to put a notice up on their blog. Maybe they just decided blogging wasn’t for them, and just never returned to their blog. Who knows.

Of course, we cannot spend too much time worrying about those who have been left behind. We just have to keep moving our own projects forward.

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Visit Wordless Wednesday for more.

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