Robert J F Kennedy

You might have heard about autoblogging which is having your blog update itself automatically.  Now Autoblogging sounds like a fantastic idea, but does it work? Autoblogging is accomplished through having RSS feeds on your blog.  You can find Wordpress plugins that will do this.

I confess that I havent tried the plugin yet, and that is because a RSS feed isnt really autoblogging, but yes it is the closest you can come to it.

Nothing beats fresh original content, and a RSS feed is just updates from other sites.

That doesnt mean it doesnt work though.  I believe that having rss feeds on your blog, or website can be effective, because the duplicate content that it produces is still indexed by the search engines and does show up in search engine results.

I wouldnt get all excited and say good bye  to blogging though because the search engines, and readers still prefer  truly original work with the human touch.

Try using RSS feeds in conjunction with blogging;  One way to do this is to put RSS feeds from your blog on your static websites that way you can blog once and have your message broadcasted from many websites.  Or put a rss feed from your twitter account on your blog so everytime you tweet it shows up on your blog or your other sites.

I would say the biggest mistake you could make with RSS feeds would be to use RSS feeds from news sites that everybody else is using because then you are not standing out in the crowd.

In conclusion autoblogging by using RSS feeds can help you out if your creative about it, but dont depend on it as your only source of content.

You get your cell phone bill and suprise there is a bunch of mysterious charges for “short codes”.  You
have no idea what they are and after you contact your cell phone carrier they tell you that you subscribed
to a third party billing services that you never heard of.

What happened?  Short codes are are 5-6 digit
phone numbers where you txt them a code to receive a services such as a joke of the day.  You will often
see short codes being used on tv shows like American Idol where you vote by sending a txt message and are billed fifty cents to participate.

The problem is that short code services are spamming cellular phone users with useless services and hitting them up with huge fees without the customer authorizing the charge.  Sometimes the service is promoted as being free, such as with twitter, facebook or with ringtones.  Then the bill comes and you find out you have been charged for the so called “free’ service.

Teenagers are often the target market for short codes ad they are the biggest users of text messaging.  When the bill comes in the parents pay the bill without even knowing what the short code bills are for.

Recently a class action lawsuit was launched and the publisher Simon & Schuster could end up paying out up to $90 million dollars for spamming cellular users with short codes.

I am not a fan of winter, and I am missing summer greatly.  The month of December is one that I could pass on.  As soon as october is over the Christmas commercialization begins.  I don’t like to shop and do it only when I have to.  The shopping experience gets only worst when there is Christmas music being played. When I enter a store with carols playing i cringe and leave as quickly as possible.  This time of year I try to keep in my own world and wait it out till the end of the year when everything goes back to normal.  I do enjoy New Years though - I think of it as a time to look back on the previous year, the goals I made, and how far I have come in accomplishing them.

Off the top of my head I think my goals for last year where:

To buy a home

To get my “C” ticket  in welding

To Get my motorcycle license

And make money online.

Well I had a good year.  I accomplished most of my goals except for purchasing a home.

I got my C ticket, my MC license, a motorbike, and make money online.

I also got fairly fit, but have been slipping the last two months, but I am back at it as of a week ago.

My Goals for 2010

Increase my online income and earn a significant portion of my money from google adsense or other CPA program.

I am going to spend my time building websites and would like to create cool flash websites.

I am planning on the winter of 2010 being my very last winter in Canada.   In 2011 I expect to move to the United States.

I want to trade my Honda CBR 900 in for a Ducati Street Fighter or maby a BMW.

I want to keep training and work specifically on improving my core and my cardio.

With the cold weather that is outside I have lots of computer time and opportunity to go to the gym.  I will keep working on my sites and learning as I go.  Then summer will finally be here and I will be enjoying my favorite season.

I have been working with Adel Mosly of the “Inner Power Academy” and it has been great.  Adel has been teaching me some martial arts moves that I have been practicing daily.  I really enjoy it and have experienced an overall sense of well being and more energy.

We all have goals, things which we would like to achieve in our lives. But how many of us actually focus on those goals. Sure we may start of with good intentions but somewhere along the line we lose focus. The result goes without saying, we do not achieve our goals.

Do you find that you start with good intentions then lose focus? Do you find that its not the big things which distract us but the little things? If you have answered yes to either or both of these questions you are not alone. For many people it is the small things which take them off track from achieving their goals. For example, the weather, it’s too cold or it’s too hot today, or it maybe your team is playing in the finals. No matter what, these little detractions all add up and before you know it your interest is low and it’s hard to get back on track again.

There are ways though to stop this happening. It’s not hard but it does require a little effort on your part.

First make what you want to achieve so strongly embedded in your mind that the moment you find yourself distracted for whatever reason, you just need to remind yourself of what it is you wish to manifest. Without a strong motivation in the first place, the chances of your losing interest is very high.

Secondly, focus each day on doing just one or two things towards achieving your goal. Set your mind totally on these areas. By doing this you will be directing your energy towards your goal. Thoughts are energy and if you focus them totally on your goal, all that energy directed towards solely towards your goal. By doing this you will find that it is much easier to keep working towards achieving your goal and not allow outside distraction deter you.

Thirdly, write your goal down and read it each day. Make it an Affirmation. Again focus all your energy into your Affirmation, put feeling in to it and really live your goal on a daily basis.

Every thought carries energy, whether that energy is good or bad depends of course on the actual thought. By focusing on your goal, the end outcome of what you wish to manifest in your life, all that energy, plus the power of the Universe is working to help you achieve your dream.

Focus is power and by harnessing this power to realize your dreams, you will find that those little distractions will fade away but your dreams will manifest themselves very quickly

Mary Kay’s Millionaires Mind Set

I am getting pretty excited about starting the course.  I want to build a site right away to sell my skills as a website designer and more.  I want to create some money making sites and do some mail order business online.  Right now I am swamped writing, attending classes, working out, and everything else that comes with life.  My future goal is to build a graphics, website design, content creation, hosting, and seo business.  I have seen some posh offices and I would love to work in one of those one day.   I would like to work with other designers as a team and build a business.  It is going to come together over the next 12 months.  Exciting stuff!

Q: What specific skills are needed when you hire someone for website design?
A: They would need to know and have a good grasp of XHTML coding, Photoshop, PHP scripting and
MySQL database. I would expect the person to have some kind of schooling and real experience before I hire anyone. Other skills may apply as well, depending on the job that I need to complete.

Q: Do you offer on the job training?
A: I don’t offer on the job training.

Q: What is the starting wage?
A: There is no starting wage, as I would base that off of the type of job and what the final quote is. Also, I would have to determine that as I hire the person. I would usually get a quote from the person I hire to help me out.

Q: What type of training or education to you recommend for this position?
A: I would reccommend at least a 6 month training course in the skills mentioned above. Actual work experience on the field would be preferred as I know that this person has worked and used these skills in the real world. An AA up to a Bachelors degree would be fine as well.

Thanks to all the website designers, owners, employees, and others working in the industry that helped me out by giving me a interview.

Thanks to:
Marshall Designs http://www.marshalldesigns.com
Penticton Web Design http://www.pentictonwebdesign.com
Atomic 55 http://www.atomic55.net/
Inventive Technical Solutions http://inventivetechnicalsolutions.com/index.html

I also had to complete 6 interviews 3 with employees working as website designers and 3 employers. So far I have 4 of the 6.

Here are examples of most of the questions. Feel free to share your feedback, all of it is very appreciated.

- What specific skills are needed when you hire someone for website design?
- Is there on the job training availible?
- What is the starting wage?
- What type of training or education to you recommend for this position?
- Do employers have a preference for a specific course or training institution? If so which ones?
- What are the opportunities fo advancement in this industry?
- Is there an increasing demand for skilled people?
- Best part about the job?
- Worst part about the job?