I am finally moving ahead with my online activities. After several years, and most recently the last few months, of effort, I am actually getting things going. I really think that “just doing it” may be the best way–even the only way, to establish oneself on the World Wide Web. I have been reading things, watching videos, studying other people’s sites and advice, etc. At some point, I realized that there is an overwhelming amount of information and advice out there, and it was easy to become engulfed in it all. Some of it is great advice and there are wonderful tools, but some of it is not so good.
I often found myself (and still do!) confused and overwhelmed by the shear magnitude of the numbers of “marketers” who would email me about their stuff, then someone else’s stuff, and then even MORE stuff! It can bury you alive! I have found the really hard part is figuring out who to pay attention to and who to ignore. What “latest and greatest” information do you go for, free or not, and what do you let pass by? I still think I have to try to look at, or try out, most products to determine it’s value, but I realize I have to put a limit on it and the amount of time I spend on it, otherwise, I will get nothing done.
This site is getting up, one way or another! I have never used WordPress before, but, I have decided it would be the best format to use for this site–my blogging site. I spent some time searching for a good theme, and I picked out this “Power Theme” by Gordon French. It hasn’t been going great so far, but I don’t think it’s the theme’s fault–I am sure it is the “operator”(me!) since I have never worked with WordPress before. I have had to seek the help of Mr. French and the support staff at my host, HostGator to get things going this far. Boy, have I got a lot of work to do!
I set up my other site, Cameron-Merchant-Services.com, but that was really easy since I used my iWeb software. I have taken time to learn a bit about HTML over the years as well. But this WordPress is a bit of a challenge. I am still hopeful that I will get this working the way I would like to have it. I need to figure out how to add graphics and video–but I will get there!
I plan to have this site be the center of my online activities where I will share my experiences and insights as I advance on the Internet. I will get to share a bit about myself, personally, as I share about the different things I am doing. Aside from offering merchant services, I am focusing on a project I call “Men Over Fifty” where I am interviewing men, from all backgrounds, who have managed to make it through their first half century. I really want to hear what they have to say about how life has been for them–both the good and the bad–and to see what lessons they have learned and would share with others. So far, the conversations have been great–interesting and provoking in many ways. I plan to create another site just about that project. I am video-taping the interviews and I will see what develops–it could even become a book! I will keep you informed.
I am also planning some other sites and projects that I will be talking about as we go along. I will be targeting this site to be about my Internet marketing connections that I develop. From what I have learned so far, I need to build my list (and it needs to be an opt-in list since we all hate spam!), develop ways to profit from my list (so I can afford to keep up my sites, etc.) by developing ways to do business online. I will discuss what I learn and try out here–talk about what works and what doesn’t work. I will be reviewing my experiences with different products and activities. My hope is that as I keep working to figure things out and build my online business, I will be able to offer help to others and maybe even get others to offer their own experience to help all of us get well-established on the Internet.
You see, we all know time are tough. I know it from personal experience–and I think it’s a fair assumption on my part to think there are a lot of others out there who are having difficulties just making a living these days. The jobs are going away–heck, they went away a while ago! I remember working at GE here, in Syracuse, NY, back in the early 1980′s. It was a decent job when we weren’t striking or laid off. But then, they decided to move to China! They even said we could go there to work if we wanted to!! With a wife and four kids, I decided not to go. I’ve had a lot of different jobs and businesses since then. But today’s economic climate is probably the most challenging I have seen in my life. There is a saying, I’m not 100% sure who said it, but it says something about “Where there is crisis, there is opportunity.” (Maybe, it was Churchill.) Well, I think we have a crisis on our hands and we have to create opportunities where we can find them. I really believe the Internet offers great opportunities for those who are willing to work at it and make it happen. I’m counting on it.
I hope I haven’t bored you to tears with this stuff. I plan to be back here with lots of information and experiences–and I hope to hear about your own experiences and efforts. By doing this together, we may all succeed and reach our goals. Thanks for stopping by!