My Life, My Work, Writing, Travels and Lessons I've Learned.
In the OLDEN days of the web, we had to hard code html for our pages, and if we wanted a website, we had to copy the look and feel of the site over and over so the pages looked consistent. Then we got various programs like Dreamweaver, Adobe Golive, etc that really allowed us to organize and template the sites we were building. But they were clunky, and it was hard to do … Read More
One thing that I believe is that we are all NOT born salespeople. Some of us are better at it, and some of us, INCLUDING ME, hate it. Loathe it. Makes me feel as cheap as a sleazy used car salesman. My old Internet buddy Brian J. Johnson said to me once “we’re salesman, after all” and I cringed. I just had a bad association with it. But making good money on the internet … Read More
There is a fearsome predator marketing. It preys on fear, and preys on our desire to learn and not to act. And that predator is: The ability of a marketers to confuse you into thinking that their product is the best, that what you are doing is wrong! I get emails from folks that say “I realize I was doing it wrong and abandoned what I was doing” because I saw so and so’s … Read More
Hi Guys, Mark here! I remember seeing “Silence of the Lambs” when Hannibal Lecter says to Jodi Foster “Read Marcus Aurelius, First rule — Simplicity! Ask of all things, what is it in itself? What is it’s nature?” I’ve had to do that lots of times in this business, and just yesterday I had a major problem with some sites I was working on. I could not see the problem, and called a friend … Read More
WordPress by itself is pretty wonderful, but you might want more bells and whistles. That’s where WordPress Plugins come in to play. It took me a long time to realize that if I wanted something I should check out plugins. Because if I need it, somebody else does too. Do you want a pretty image gallery to show up on your pages? There are plugins for that. Do you want to add adsense so … Read More
Blogging was meant to be a web log. Not a tweet, not a facebook post, but more of a “Dear Diary”. There to read, but not to be imposed on people like the tweet about being at Starbucks, then going to the bathroom, then getting your latte. I read a statistic that 90% of the tweets are generated by 10% of the users. Add Lindsey Lohan or whoever else to that, and you get … Read More
Hi Guys, Mark here! Indeed Rome was not built in a day, and guess what, they had a lot of free help in the form of slaves. There is no sin, and indeed everything to gain in considering farming out, outsourcing or just plain getting help in building good web properties. Personally, I hate to write. I really do unless it’s this stuff I write now. I have writers I use all over the … Read More
The title of this post was a bit of wisdom I got from my wise friend, Jack. “The Italians say: I regret missing an opportunity to remain silent.” This dovetailed nicely with another bit of wisdom from a colleague: “You cannot be hurt by what you do not say” Put them together, and it’s a powerful combination. I wish I had just shut up sometimes. I’m better at that now. …
I want to talk about what has for me become Mistake NUMBER 1. If you are starting a web marketing or niche marketing course, you WILL make it. I’m 100% confident. I just want the time you endure it to be short. What is Internet Marketing Mistake number 1? DILUTION. The best part, and worst part of our work as emerging internet marketing is that we can get into literally any niche we want. … Read More
I read a quote from Mark Twain about 3 years ago, and it captures how I would like to learn to live. “I’ve have a horrible life, 99% of which never happened” How Samuel Clemens could encapsulate in one sentence the irony of our bad thoughts-ridden brains is a thing of wonder. He also said, “There is a release found in swearing, that is denied even to prayer”. I have to explain that quote … Read More
I read years ago: don’t overestimate what you can do in a day or a week, but don’t UNDERESTIMATE what you can do in a year, or 6 months. I wanted to share this with you to remind you that what we do in Web Marketing is long term build and not a short term win. Build pages each day, brick by brick. And then, in a year look back. And by all means … Read More
Web Master Marketer Michael Cheney said to me once: “The minute you start doing something you ARE that. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.” Meaning: You launch your first website to become a web marketer and YOU ARE NOW A WEB MARKETER! You are that, you work at it, you become that. You have begun. It means, I do it seriously and with INTENT. Are you a photographer or a person who takes photographs? … Read More
“TASKCRASTINATING” I coined this term about 10 years ago. The process of allowing oneself to be drawn into tasks that seem important and are seemingly essential to something but in actuality are a way of stalling actually doing the work. It’s a form of distraction that feels productive. I’ve been there. You know what I do? I set the stove timer for 20 minutes and then force myself to do the things that I … Read More
What is Occam’s Razor? Wikipedia has it as …The principle is popularly interpreted as “the simplest explanation is usually the correct one”… Occam’s Razor is attributed to the 14th-century English logician, theologian and Franciscan friar William of Ockham who wrote “entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity” PUT SIMPLY: If you are tired, you probably need Sleep If you are hungry, you probably need to eat If the car is puttering to a stop, … Read More
Welcome! Do you know, what that word implies to me? WELCOME! It means, come in, be comfortable, find nourishment and company here. Find warmth, Hospitality and companionship. Be at home here. Why am I saying this? Because what separates the good from the bad on the internet is CARE. “Web Hospitality” I’m not sure if that is an already coined word, but if not it’s copyrighted to me, Mark Singley 2010. I only found … Read More
Beware people’s need to be made to feel important even if they do nothing important. It can damage, embarrass and aggravate you beyond repair. Copyright 2011. Mark Singley. All Rights Reserved.