Some people are trying to get attention, and they will be STOPPED. I won’t ever open up this blog for an avalanche of offers for Viagra or long comments recommending villas sold as scams and many other ridiculous ideas that people think can pass through this blog.

Why, you might think…

That is easy to say loud and clear. I won’t destroy the value of this blog by allowing spam to blow up the number of comments. There are some 195 VALID comments, and I appreciate each of them — and in many cases I have added replies IN the comments field.

I like to get useful comments and feedback that can indicate what you like, what you dislike, what was really good and what was perhaps not quite as good. Such learning experience improves the blog, but spam could never do that.

What are your sentiments as a blogger as to all the spam people try to send on YOUR blogs?

Have a nice weekend.

Version 2.9 of WordPress requires mySQL version 4.1 to function correctly. In my case this blog had a database running under mySQL version 4.0.1, so the previous upgrade to WordPress 2.9 FAILED.

You read that correctly. For the first time in years, I was faced with one of the nost annoying things for any blogger: considering whether to CHANGE blog-software, or find the solution.

I had tested the phpAdmin system my webhost provided, and thought I could have copied the tables directly to another mySQL database running on a newer version of mySQL. That was mission impossible. I could do anything on each server, but couldn’t move any data across servers.

By now, my annoyance was almost FULL, COMPLETE, and I was truly p*ssed. Pardon my french.

I stepped back for a few days, and thought things through, and suddenly the way to solve this was found.

Write down settings for new server, download a backup of articles, comments, pages etc. using the Export function in WordPress.
Download new version of WordPress. Enter new settings. Install WordPress, and THEN importing all articles, comments and pages again into the “new” version of the blog software.

Testing, and only minor details to change as a result of using a very special theme. But the main points were kept without any need to make any major adjustments afterwards.

Now, the only thing left is personalizing some of the details, but actually I am quite happy with the results — especially considering that the process took under half an hour once I got started.

But for beginners: be mindful to use a version of mySQL that is AHEAD of version 4.1. Don’t settle for minimum versions once you want to compare webhosts. It could cost you quite a lot to get your webhost to do the migration for you using THEIR advanced possibilities directly on their servers. And ruining years worth of writing could be equally humiliating, so don’t settle with anything less than mySQL version 5, if you want my honest advice.

But still, my favourite software is WordPress for blogging. I don’t anticipate that will ever change, and thought I would share this with you so you could pass by the 2.9 install also.

For the past weeks, I have been looking for videos with resell rights that I could resell in the ‘business opportunity’ niche. And no niche is hotter than the eBay niche right now because as the recession deepens, more and more people are looking to make money online (specifically eBay).

One product that I came across is Francis Ochoco’s video series entitled “Live eBay Training Videos”.

If you’ve never heard of Francis Ochoco, he was awarded the first ever ‘eBay Entrepreneur Of The Year’ award a few years ago.

“Live eBay Training Videos” is a set of 28 videos that show Francis selling on eBay in real time.

I am somewhat surprised that he gives away these videos for free because in my opinion this is the best eBay course I have ever seen.

Not only he is giving away these videos for free, but he is also giving away Resell Rights for free. This means that you can resell these videos yourself and keep 100% of the profits.

These videos are very detailed so it won’t surprise me if even a child could start selling on eBay immediately after watching these videos.

If you have ever purchased resell rights to ebay video tutorials in the past, I’m sure you’ll find there was nothing spectacular about them. (This is because they were created by average joe’s who haven’t had any real success on eBay)

So I should point out that if you are looking for a hot product that you can resell in a hot niche, make sure that it was created by someone that is successful in that niche.

I warmly recommend Francis Ochoco’s “Live eBay Training Videos”. Best of all, it is free.

To see the titles for each of the 28 videos in “Live eBay Training Videos”, click the banner below.

I enjoy social media. No doubt about it. I like to see what others tweet, and I like to share what I do, say, think and write. But I KNOW some people aren’t listeners on social media such as Twitter. Some have thousands of followers, and they could NEVER listen to all tweets. Much passes by their attention sphere.

It’s not all that bad, because search engines will index your tweets. You can check that by creating a Google Alert that tells you all about your name. So you DO make an impact even when some don’t listen.

That’s why I tweeted the following comment about an hour ago:

At times I wonder why tweet. I know about followers etc, but the truth is: We like the links, and search engines don’t count followers…

What IS The Key To Get People’s Attention?
Write something special, something controversial. Wake up your followers. They will REACT to your tweets.

I previously disagreed somewhat with Joel Comm when he mentioned this in his book Twitter Power. But I fully admit I was wrong. Being wrong gives me a chance to become WISER. I have realized that BEING UNIQUE requires you make unique statements. If you write only logical tweets people get bored.

If you release valuable quotes, useful comments, controversial statements and clear points of view you will grab people’s attention.

Tweeting Isn’t Your Blog RSS-Feed
One of the worst things you can do is to release only obvious tweets whose sole purpose is to backlink to your articles. You need to grab people’s attention so they click on your profile name in the right hand side menu on Twitter. That is your key to grabbing people’s attention.

Go use it yourself, and see the dramatic change in organic traffic. People visiting your blogs because they become curious as to who you are and what you have to say. An attentive audience can be the beginning of a good relationship, so why not begin implementing this on Twitter?

1. Have a clear grasp of your mission
2. Use illustrations
3. Write clearly — Avoid difficult words
4. Advertise on social media forums to get exposure

Have a clear grasp of your mission
When you want to write something you need to consider what you are trying to accomplish first. Are you trying to sell something? Sell an idea? Give a new perspective on some trendy topic?

Get your topic clearly defined, and write what you want to say. Get your words on the keyboard, and edit what you want to say afterwards. Get as close to spoken language as you can. Minimize the amount of confusion so your message can be brought across in the best possible way.

Don’t worry about your writing style, but be more conscious of getting your message through to your audience.

Wite clearly — avoid difficult words
When you begin using difficult words you will find lots of people lose an interest in your message. They will move on, and possibly never come back since you might have given people a very negative impression.

When you have your primary focus on your message it needs to be shared as plainly as you possibly can. It will make it much easier to understand your message right away.

Advertise on social media forums to get exposure
It’s useless to have a great message if it isn’t shared with others, so make sure you advertise what you have written on social media. Whether on Twitter or on Facebook (or even both). Perhaps you even want to announce your article to your list, if you have one…

Those four keys should help you to write more clealy. Try this, and get the attention of your audience from day one.

Now, how do you perceive perfection? Is it when you have written a good e-book that sells? Is it when you have written some new articles that get good reviews? What is your definition of perfection?

My best definition of perfection is:

Appreciating what you have achieved, yet always looking for ways to improve both your own understanding and the way you bring it forward to others.

You could say that by having that definition perfection is unattainable, and you would be almost right. What I consider a good e-book might not be what you like best. You might prefer a slight difference in focus because of your own niches – and that doesn’t change the quality of the e-book, but it sure changes the perception of the e-book.

Therefore we all know that giving any number of stars as a definition of value/quality is highly personal. The quality of the article is the same regardless of how many (or few) stars it gets. At least it was good enough to pass editorial guidelines when it was released. The quality of your videos may also be excellent, but if you miss certain elements of including a Powerpoint illustration or changing your voice or some third thing, people might find your video boring. If you had released the same information as a podcast (pure sound), it might have been a success.

So, as you can see, the perception of perfection is very different from person to person, and that’s why you need to adapt your message to the media you choose. For blogs, short and concise articles allow people to digest your information while following their busy schedules whereas a longer video might be exported to an iPod for later review.

Keep that in mind when you’re wondering why long videos don’t sell on your sales pages. You will want your message to come across in the best format possible. That is the key to strivinhg for perfection.

Rodger Hyatt, Philip and Charles Mutrie have announced they are launching the EZ-IM Giveaway event!It is opening its doors in just 2 days!

Charles, Philip and Rodger have called almost all of their online marketing buddies together to offer a huge assortment of free gifts to you who read this blog.

If you want to check out the EZ-IM GiveAway, click the title, and you can take a peek at all the good materials being given away.

Remember, this is coming in just 2 days. It’s the most exciting news I’ve had the opportunity to share with you this week.

What’s your take on that?

Personally, I find it unnecessary to target such words. If people search on Google, they can no doubt find the e-book “Preventing a Divorce” that I sell for a super low price of $9.95. If you need it, buy it. It’s worth far more when you succeed. But if you’re in a happy marriage, why should you buy it? No need to do that.

I won’t ever earn money by targetting key words, and buying my shirt off in Google Adwords. If I do my SEO properly, you should be able to find my products, and if I don’t the only one I can blame is myself.

I know some are earning tons of cash by playing both the conversion games and selling related products by upsells connected to their pages hit by low paying key words, but it’s a game I have always talked AGAINST, and I stand by my opinion.

Look at it like this: do you bring money to your jobplace? Do you PAY to go to work?

Ridiculous questions, you think?

Far from it. When you pay to get traffic, you’re being lazy. When you offer high quality traffic on your blogs, websites, sales letters, Tweets and on Facebook, you’re INTERACTING with people. By sharing, you bring value to people, and that brings its own major benefits.

So my take on all of this is you should never begin gambling to make a living online. If you can’t write well, use pod- or videocasts, but don’t ever fall for high promises that never cash in. Before I leave you with that thought, remember why they ALWAYS put in earning disclaimers…

There are actually two places I would recommend for you if you want to brand your name online, and they are:

1. EzineArticles
2. HubPages

I would like to describe both places for you so you can consider if this could be just right for you and your creative pen.

EzineArticles

EzineArticles can sometimes be a BIT slow in approving your articles, but on the other hand they have many categories and is a site with a lot of visitors looking for quality information.

Your name will be well exposed if you remember to put a good title to your article. When people search for specific key words that match your articles, you will find that EzineArticles scores quite well. Not every single time, but neither does your own blog — yet.

I had a very positive surprise a couple of weeks ago when I received a pen with some papers on which I could list Top 10 Ideas for New Articles from EzineArticles. For free. It is very inspiring to use when you get new article ideas.

So beyond spreading your name across the internet, getting solid backlinks, you also get little surprises from time to time. During the holiday season it was a coffee mug etc.

For content where you want to show your abilities as a writer,EzineArticles is the place to check out. You can visit the EzineArticles website by clicking the blue link.

If you want to see the 8 articles I have written so far, you can check them by clicking the link: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Henrik_Blunck

HubPages

HubPages deals with almost the same thing, but you have a bit more control as to design of your articles. I have created 16 different hubs, which you can see right here: http://hubpages.com/profile/h_blunck.

On HubPages you work with your content using templates which you can adapt for your content. You can decide whether an image should fill the entire text area, or whether you want text to float around your graphics. You can decide where to put the Comments field and even decide how many ads you want to appear on your page.

There is also a possibility of defining whether your HubPage can be considered a commercial page. All of this to fine tune how your page will appear once it’s published. This is an excellent system if you have content that requires more than pure text.

You can check Hubpages yourself by clicking this link to the HubPages website.

Concluding Words

For articles that contain pure text, I would recommend you check EzineArticles, while it would be a good idea to take a look at HubPages if you need to integrate extra elements beyond text.

Happy writing.

So Happy New Year everyone. Hope you’ll make tons of cash this year. Feel free to write comments during the year ahead.