www. stands for work, work, work!
August 15, 2009 by Russell Hall
Filed under Articles, Momentum, Newbie Help, Web2.0, internet marketing
It never ceases to amaze and intrigue me how many people embark upon some kind of Internet venture or other and then expect some kind of magical "Internet" formula to kick in and start rocketing them, their product(s), cause or business to dizzying heights of success.
Never before has any other form of new media had this kind of phenomenally mesmerizing effect on so many people,.. I mean, we must be talking "millions" of people here that have this kind of expectation that they fully expect will come to fruition close to as they’ve imagined it or even better.
My observation is that it’s the Internet itself that’s responsible for creating this kind of "lemming like" mass hysteria. Certainly there have been many very successful Internet marketers that got involved in the "early days" of the mid to late 1990’s and made an absolute motza in online sales. Added to that is the next generation of Web1.0 marketers that followed in the steps of their mentors and also did very well indeed.
However,.. you’ve got to remember that back then it really was the early days,… kind of like the California Gold Rush where anyone who could afford a bucket, a pick and a shovel and was prepared to do a bit of digging could strike gold without too much effort, but as is the case with all gold rush experiences,- once the mother-load vein has been farmed, the hard and the smart work begins in figuring out the best ways of finding new tracts and even better ways of using leveraging to get it out.
So there’s a kind of echo that’s still ringing out loudly in the ears of lots of folks out there that "thars gold in them thar hills",.. the hills of course being the "Internet",.. and to be plainly factual about that… it’s a fundamentally true statement. The problem lies in the fact that there is still a misconception that striking it rich or making more than enough to sack your boss is an easy task that can be achieved within the first 90 to 180 days online.
I’ll be the first to say that YES,.. it is entirely possible to achieve those kind of results. I personally know of several "new comers" that in the past 2 to 3 years alone have achieved astonishing and consistent results from a virtual standing start, but the thing that distinguishes these people is that they all worked really hard and really consistently to get to where they are now. It seems that those that have broken into the good money have all established some quite stringent work practices and routines that have allowed them to achieve their success!
In my opinion, anyone that has a plan to buy some kind of "business in a box", "turnkey website" or start hawking around the same old rehashed PLR e-info that everyone else has, is just kidding themselves about ever being able to become financially independent or even replace their income online.
What about Web2.0,… doesn’t that make the whole task so much easier now?
My quick answer,… "no way Jose". Don’t get me wrong, I think that Web2.0 and the evolution thereof is a fantastic thing,.. but it needs to be basically understood and then a working and/or marketing strategy has to be created around that which then needs to be RELENTLESSLY worked on until the results and the networking power becomes activated enough for it to make any real difference.
Whilst many people have already figured out which elements of the Web2.0 network they need to be working that will be most suited to their marketing or promotional objectives, there are just as many and more that have not or haven’t even got a clue. The point here is, that with so many new Web2.0 sites starting up (many of them are very good too) it’s impossible for you to have a profile and be active on every single one of them (or even half of them) unless you had a team of diligent and objective focused virtual assistants working for you. At the moment, most people tend to to using a combination of *blogging (including commenting on similar niched blogs for exposure and some backlinks) *Facebook, *Twitter, *Youtube/Metacafe, *Linkedin, *Friendfeed (now owned by Facebook), *Squidoo, *Hubpages, *Forums, *Article submissions. However, to put in the required time on each of those on an average daily basis not only requires a clear schedule to be drafted,.. but several hours each day just to keep such a network alive! I take my own example and say that whilst I’m not afraid of hard work (most of which I really enjoy anyway) and long hours, I just cannot keep up with the demands that my "Web2.0 network list" requires,- well certainly not to the level that would be considered as suitable or consistent enough for me to be satisfied with.
If you’re one of those people that’s been led to believe that simply by setting up a Facebook profile, a Twitter account, a Youtube Channel and a WordPress blog that you’re now on the "network" and you can just occasionally post and tweet content as you feel inclined and the whole Web.2.0 machine will kick in and do the rest, then you’re just a time bomb waiting to go off. A time bomb of frustration, disappointment and debt (yes it costs money to start an online business and stick with it,… for some poor uninformed folks… that’s WAY too much!).
Yes,.. WordPress is great,.. and the search engines and Google love Wordpress sites and blogs because they’re typically very reliable resources for street-level knowledge and information that people are looking for. But it depends on your content.,- if that’s not consistent reliable regular content then you can forget about it having any real impact on your site’s or blog’s performance from a ranking perspective. Sure you can get the best SEO expert in the country to tweak your blog with all the latest plugins and do keyword analysis and make sure your posts, categories and initial content are full of all the keyword rich content, but if you don’t continue to back that up and keep the snowball rolling you’ll soon find yourself scratching your head and relegating your blog to the "could’ve-been-great" graveyard where 80% of blogs all end up.
It’s kind of interesting that in the offline world, a common international statistic (in capital driven economies) is that 85% of businesses would fail within the first 5 years and 50% would fail in under 2 years. Is it then any coincidence that those figures are not only echoed online but also amplified? I was visiting Darren Rowse’s blog at http://www.problogger.net/ this week and noticed that he had a poll running in his right sidebar. The poll asks whether you have a blog and for how long you’ve been blogging. I found the results very interesting and they just confirmed my anecdotal evidence that I’d assumed had been the case for some time. Considering that Darren’s blog has a very wide readership and attracts what I would consider a very broad spread of "typical" bloggers and IM aspirants, I thought that his poll results (spread over 5,075 voters at time of this post) represented a reliable slice of the blogging and blogger perspective.
You can go and see for yourself (just take the poll and click "View results" to see) that the first 3 categories represent over 50% of the voters. Those categories are 1) "I don’t have a blog". 2) "Less than 3 months", 3) "3 to 6 months" and the total number of them being 2,610 is therefore 52% of the total voters. So therefore we have a clear indication that more than half the people either "preparing to start a blog" or having "started a blog" get to a period of about no more than 6 months before they either give up or kind of continue to limp along without realizing the goals that they started out with. Even if that assumption isn’t entirely correct, then one thing is clear, and that’s the fact that only 28% of bloggers have been active for more than 18 months. I wonder how many of those 28% of bloggers have achieved the successes and objectives that they started off with? I’d like to wager that it’s quite low and that only a small proportion of those blogs could be considered as being truly successful or mainstream fixtures!
I’m coming to my real intended point in this article which is that most people (probably 85% to 90%) embark upon their internet venture wearing rose colored glasses and expecting some magical Web2.0 formula or Internet phenomenon to sweep them up to success without actually having to break much of a sweat. When I look at all of the successful online marketers and professional bloggers they all appear to have one thing in common,.. they work their tails off in order to achieve and maintain their successes. For sure, all of them are applying outsourcing and Virtual Assistant practices (some on huge scales) in order to get their results,… but the common fundamental ingredient and theme is there,… it requires WORK,.. "www. work work work" in order to achieve online success and any kind of niche domination.
I read recently that Rich Schefren (you can Google him to discover he’s a much respected and very knowledgeable online (and offline) businessman), brought up the topic at one of his recent seminars at which many of the the Internet’s top marketers and performers were present,.. and that topic was along the lines of ,.. How realistic is it to believe in the notion of the "Internet Lifestyle"? (That "lifestyle being,… sipping Margaritas on an island resort while your clickbank and Paypal accounts keep churning out the dollars for you). The combined consensus of the delegates present was that that lifestyle (on a permanent or semi permanent basis) was a myth and didn’t really exist. The reason for that is that it takes work (and some genius strategies) to get there,..and it takes work to stay there…even if you do take some time off for a long "holiday",… the work is always there waiting to be attended to or waiting to be pumped to the next level if you want to keep the kind of dollars rolling in that your business and lifestyle now demands!
Here’s my advice to anyone that’s in that early starting out phase (for me its a "re-starting out" phase). You need to identify your best or most productive Web2.0 network sites to focus on, which you can do with research, and a bit of testing (if you have successful competitors or know of any like-styled businesses, watch what they’re doing). Then make a schedule for posting content to those sites and stick to it (make it realistic,.. but make sure its really regular). If you can afford to outsource some work to a VA (Virtual Assistant) then do that, but if you can’t just make your plan and stick to it. That will mean performing some routine daily tasks (write them down in a schedule) even though you might not feel like doing them,… and you WILL feel like you’re talking to yourself for the first 2 to 3 months (or more) whilst you’re getting little response or comments to you blog post, articles & Tweets etc. The thing is that during this time many people are watching and waiting for a time when they feel it’s a safe and reliable proposition to enter your "conversation" and become a part of it. The problem for most people is that they don’t have a clear and committed objective and they just come to a grinding halt once their enthusiasm has faded away (usually within the first 3 to 6 months!).
In conclusion: if you’re not prepared to put some real work into building your online presence and creating a groundwork of trust and credibility then you should stop dreaming and wasting your time on every other out-of-the-box get rich program that comes out because although some of those programs can provide you with good ideas and information and tools,.. the main ingredient needed is YOU,… putting in the work.
I’d love to hear your views on this and perhaps if we can get some conversation happening it will provide some worthwhile support for our readers and also encourage me to post more articles going into more detail on this topic.
Until next time…. Cheers,..and have a great day!
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Internet Marketing Momentum
August 14, 2009 by Russell Hall
Filed under Articles, Momentum, internet marketing
I decided to do a search of some articles and blog posts that were focusing on Internet Marketing Momentum and I came across a few that were quite worthwhile.
In fact, a couple of them are very good and they do touch on other aspects of marketing success and promotion in general so I thought I’d share them with you here.
Please note that all links open up in this browser window (unless you right-click "open in new tab/window"), so you’ll have to use your browser’s "Back" button to return to this page 
The Pivotal Stage In The Rise of a Professional Blogger | John …
I figured, as I blog about valuable information like how to publish board games, Chinese manufacturing, blogging, and internet marketing will provide me with readers who will be prepared to buy my games. … A lot of momentum is required to launch a new business. And I remember John saying in an interview that I read, “previous experience plays a part.” How very true. For those who persevere during the darkest moments will come out the other side of the spectrum as a …
Internet Marketing Tips #4 – Gary Simpson
Alex Jeffreys Internet Marketing. … Meaning: Do nothing-nothing happens-Inertia becomes impossible to overcome. Must…watch…another…Oprah… So, the more action you put into something, you will experience not only a larger reaction, but the action itself gains more energy and momentum, the “snowball” effect, thus making all future actions easier to initiate and maintain. Class dismissed… Denis. Oh yea, may I mention (and link) to you and this page in my upcoming ebook, …
INTERNET BUSINESS REVENUE PRO: Using Momentum To The Advantage of …
‘Internet Business Revenue Pro dot blogspot dot com’ is the definitive network marketing and cyber business guide to the wonderful and wild web. This site uncovers the technical aspects of thriving in the world of online business, …
Building Marketing Momentum Without Social Media
Michael Stelzner is an experienced Internet marketer, but even he was surprised with the results from the marketing campaigns that he and his team implemented for their Social Media Success Summit . In the interview that follows, …
Hope you enjoyed the read,.. and if you’d like to open up any conversation around this topic or any of the articles just leave a comment and let’s get into it!
Until next time…. Cheers,..and have a great day!
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How to Safely Upgrade to the Latest Version of WordPress
August 8, 2009 by Russell Hall
Filed under Articles, WordPress
A Pictorial Guide to Safely Updating to WordPress 2.8.3 How to perform a WordPress database and files back up in under 60 minutes!
I recently upgraded to WordPress 2.8.0 and thought everything was just great, but then I read that the reason WordPress 2.8.1 was released so quickly was because there were a few bugs with WP2.8.0,- in particular relating to security issues. I also noticed that I was getting some display errors and so I decided to do the update to the current WordPress version of 2.8.3.
Now, if you’re ever thinking of updating your own WP version, you may be tempted to simply click the ever present link in admin that prompts you to "Update to the latest version of WordPress" 2.8.3 as it is at the present time of writing this article. Sure, you could click the upgrade link and everything would probably go just fine and you’d be done in about 30 seconds flat! But what if something went wrong during the auto-reinstall process and you lost some or all of your data? Yeah.. how would that make you feel,..months or years of hard work down the tubes?
So I decided to do a proper back up and be sure. I’ve done plenty of database back ups and exports and imports before (most of which have gone smoothly but a couple required hand editing) and so I thought it wouldn’t be any drama and I reckoned I pretty much knew what to do. However, just to be sure, I Googled the search phrase "how to safely update to the latest version of Wordpress",.. and surprisingly I found very little relevant results relating to version 2.8 and above. There was quite a bit about 2.7 (as that was a milestone upgrade) but little else on the later versions.
Anyway,.. I did find out and figure out what I had already concluded and so I proceeded to get on with the job. Just before I got started I decided that it would be good to document it all for the benefit of others perhaps less experienced, and that’s how this article has come about. I’d read some blog posts and forum threads where people had said that the process had taken them 3 hours! I thought that sounded very odd as I knew from experience that a simple MySQL database export & import could be done in about 15 minutes or less (about 5 minutes with a plugin… more on that later). So I put the stopwatch on this task and I’m pleased to report that it can be done in under 60 minutes (it took me 58 minutes exactly),.. and I did some other tasks while I was waiting for a couple of the folders to download (wp-admin & wp-includes took the longest.. 40 minutes for them both together).
Ok you guys,… let’s get started with the main part of this article which is the Tutorial on how to do an effective WP version update without losing any data! I must at this juncture, point out that this tutorial is based on my experience and presented in good faith. No responsibility or liability will be taken in circumstances where this information may have been applied either incorrectly or having resulted in a different outcome for any reason whatsoever.
| First step |
(actually it’s a cautionary notice really),.. DO NOT click the "version update" auto install link until you’ve gone through this backup procedure. You might want to put up the under maintenance splash page for an hour while you do this (use the plugin "Maintenance Mode",.. it does a good job). |
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| 1 | Go to your plugins page in WP Admin and check the "plugins" select all tab. Then from Bulk Actions select "Deactivate" and hit "Apply". Great,.. now all your plugins are deactivated. (see image ) |
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| 2 | Open your ftp client and download all your WP install files that are sitting in your primary directory (usually /public_html) to a new empty folder on your desktop (just a holding folder is fine) it should only take about 60 seconds (with broadband) even though there are quite a few files. |
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| 3 | Select the current theme you’re using and download the whole folder to your desktop (put it into the same holding folder,.. I named mine "wp-update-back-up files"). That should only take you about 3 minutes. |
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| 4 |
Select the wp-admin and wp-includes folders and download them (you don’t need to download wp-content because you’ve already downloaded the current them folder,..and the plugins can all be replaced from their direct download directories if necessary anyway). This part will take around 40 minutes (@1.5gb/sec download) |
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| 5 | Now that you’ve downloaded the main WP files from your server (these will be replaced in the auto-update process shortly), you should go to your hosting Control panel (in my case that’s Cpanel) and click on phpMyAdmin to take you to your database admin panel. |
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| 6 | Once in the admin panel you need to select the database relevant to the domain upon which the WP install resides (in most cases you’ll only have 1 database per domain unless you’re operating a "hive",.. which I don’t really recommend for most circumstances…more on this later,.. or send me an email and I’ll tell you when *& why to avoid a WP hive set up). You go to the "select all" tab and click it. Once clicked you need to set up the download settings properly (see the image and attendent notes). From within the same window then select "SQL" (the default setting) and in the options box make sure that the "Compatibility" is left at the defaulted "none" setting. Next, click the boxes in the "Structures" window as follows: "add DROP TABLE", "add IFNOT EXISTS", "add AUTO_INCREMENT value", "Enclose Table & Fieldnames with backquotes". From the "Data" window select: "Complete inserts", "Extended inserts", "Use hexadecimal for BLOB". Note that "Export type" is defaulted at "none",- leave it set at the "none" default. |
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| 7 | Get ready to save and export your database tables to your desktop. It’s a simple process of checking all of the boxes indicated as follows (and in the images attached) and then select "save" in the bottom left of the page, followed by clicking "go" on the botton right of the page, then the file (either, "none" "zipped" or "gzipped" as per your choice) will get sent automatically to your desktop. |
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| 8 | Once you’ve selected "Go" to start the download of your database tables, the relevant file will be sent to your desktop (takes less than 30 seconds). Once it is on your desktop I recommend opening it up into a plain editor such as "Wordpad" and just make sure that you can read the text and that it hasn’t come out garbled. Usually it will be OK,.and if there was any error in data transfer you should have received an error dialogue anyway. |
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| 9 | Now you have successfully saved your WordPress theme, the install files, and the wp-admin & wp-includes folder, and that process should have taken around 50 minutes (@1.5gb/sec broadband) so that you can go ahead and click the "Please Update to 2.83" link in your WP admin panel knowing that your current install and data is safely backed up! |
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| 10 | You’ll see an "Update Wordpress" progress window show up that goes through the 5 steps of the update from uploading and unpacking the 2.8.3.zip to unpacking it and installing it and finally notifying of the successful completion (that takes about 10 seconds). |
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| 11 | Now that your new update install had been done, go to your plugins page in WP admin and check the "select all" box to prepare to reactivate all your relevant plugins (you don’t need to reactivate any that you weren’t using before). Click "reactivate" from the "Bulk Actions" menu and you’re all done and ready to go. All you need to do now is go and check out you blog at the front end and make sure all is fine. If for any reason you see errors, you can just try to troubleshoot them as you go, but if it seems major then at least you can start from scratch by reinstating the previous install via the saved files you have (and that would be the topic of an entirely separate tutorial). |
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So that’ it folks,- a brief tutorial on how to safely perform an update to Wordpress 2.8.3 version in 60 minutes or less! In fact, you can follow this process for any version update because the principles of saving current files and installing the new will remain the same.
A question I’ve been asked about this updating procedure is "what about using an Update plugin?". My response is that you could do that, but make sure that all the files involved have in fact been saved properly. Frankly, I think once you understand simple procedure involved in performing the update, then you might as well do it manually to ensure the human element of control. After all, you can set to this task and have it done in under and hour, and still be working on other things in the background (like writing your next post in Word, ready to upload once your blog is reactivated,… just as I did with this article you’re reading now!).
If you enjoyed this article please leave a comment and/or Tweet, Facebook, Stumble, Digg or bookmark it,.. and feel welcome to link to it if you wish.
If you have any requests for other similar tutorials please feel welcome to ask, and time permitting I’ll see if I can fit them in.
Happy blogging!
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