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Written by Nez
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Sunday, 17 August 2008 |
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Now this may seem strange given the last couple of posts I've written, but I have a wishlist of Apple gear I want to own. Some of it I consider important hardware I need to have for my business, some is just cool stuff I want to own.
I can't justify any of it at the moment, as we really need to get on top of things after our investment debacle , but as I'm a guy who always tries to have a positive outlook, I'm putting it out there anyway. Right now the list will have to wait, but I'm creating it anyway as I want something to aim for.
I'm not a guy who collects... stuff. I'm very selective and don't
surround myself with crap I don't really need. In the past my main
transgressions have been books, DVDs, books, music, books, the odd
video game, and books. I'm happy with pretty much everything I own, but
there's one thing lacking that I really need to get onto, and that's
Apple gear.
I'm a late starter into the world of Apple, having
only owned my first Mac for just over a year now, a Macbook Pro that has literally changed the way I do everything. And I'm a total and
utter convert. I love the way everything about Apple is done, and I've
slowly built up a list of must have Apple hardware that I really want
to own. I've even prioritized it.
So here goes.
- An iPhone - Yes, a very obvious first. I consider this a must have, and something I shouldn't be waiting to do. If I had the money sitting there for it right now, I'd still have to use it elsewhere, as need currently dictates, but when I have a few spare dollars this is the absolute first thing I'll do. I'm with Three Mobile in Australia, and although they don't sell iPhones yet, they have created a special offer
for people with an iPhone, so I just need to get hold of an unlocked 16gb iPhone 3G and I'm away. I expect that to come in at around $1200AU.
- A Time Capsule - This one's relatively obvious as well. I'm already using an external drive to back up, but a Time Capsule will make life easier. $499AU for the terabyte model at the Apple Store.
- An Airport Extreme Base Station - I'm slowly trying to go Apple with all of hardware, so this would replace my existing wireless router. $179AU at the Apple Store.
- A Mac Pro - This one will take a while, but I'm working my Macbook Pro pretty hard, and spreading it's display externally across 3 19" screens using a splitter box. I would ideally want a Mac Pro running these displays instead, and working the beast pretty hard I know it would handle everything I could throw at it. Starting at $2799AU at the Apple Store
- An iMac - This is for my wife. I want to get her off the horrible Dell she's using now and onto an iMac. The biggest step into taking our household all Mac. Starting at $1199AU at the Apple Store.
- An Apple TV - Obviously this isn't a must have, but a want. $329 for the 160gb version at the Apple Store
There's still other things I'm keen on, but I want to keep this wishlist manageable. Aside from the Apple TV I see the above list as things I really do need. If money was no object, there'd be 30" cinema displays and a Macbook Air on the list as well. But first and foremost is the iPhone. I'm facing having to take on some relief teaching work in the near future, and having an iPhone will help me stay connected to everything I need to regardless of where I am.
I fully expect to have turned my current financial situation completely around inside 12 months. And a list like this just spurs me on to make it happen quicker.
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Written by Nez
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Thursday, 14 August 2008 |
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I realised today with horror that I haven't even found the time to say thank you to all the people that I heard from in response to my last post The State Of Play.
I wrote the post a mere 2 days before the Thirty Day Challenge
kicked off for 2008, and it's been very hectic, but that's no excuse.
I had comments to the post, a lot of emails, DMs on Twitter, people calling me up on Skype and iChat, and some phone calls. All from people wanting me to know they were either thinking of me, wanting to know how they could help, or just to say hi. It was pretty gratifying to know that so many people took the time, and it as greatly appreciated. So thank you.
I must admit that after I'd written the post, I was a little unsure as to whether it had been the right thing to do. I'm not a person who tends feel sorry for himself, and I was concerned that some people would perceive the post that way. Glad I was wrong.
It really was a public statement intended to spur me into some action. The month of August for me is all about the Thirty Day Challenge, but really, I'm treating it as a renewal or reboot. Using Market Samurai
and the 30DC process, I've already found a few new markets, and am looking forward to spending some quality time on them as the 30DC winds down for 2008.
We've had our big sit down with the accountant, and now know exactly where we are financially. It's not where we want to be, but at least we now have all our ducks in a row, and now we can move forward. So all things considered, the stagnation is now over. We have a plan and are moving forward again. And that feels good no matter how you look at it.
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Written by Nez
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Monday, 28 July 2008 |
I've been a very busy boy lately. I've really gotten into the lead up for the 30DC this year, and not just because I'm now involved behind the scenes. Having been a participant since the very first challenge, I believe the 30DC will always hold a special place for me each year as it's really what got the ball rolling and enabled me to move onto greener pastures.
But internet marketing was never my only source of investment, and that's what has led me to writing this post. I began my year in a very comfortable place, but the goalposts have now moved, and it's scary, frustrating and exciting all at the same time.
But let me give you a bit of backstory if you're not familiar with how I got here.
I began 2008 very differently from previous years. I was a primary school teacher for 10 years (elementary for those of you in North America), and although I loved being with the kids on a daily basis, for a variety of reasons I knew that long term, teaching just wasn't where I wanted to be. Fast forward to 2008 and I was about to embark on a new journey, that of a full time internet marketer/web designer. I quit the teaching profession, set up my home office, and hunkered down ready for the time of my life.
At just the right time, an internship program arrived via Ed Dale and Dan Raine, and I took that on as I've always believed the best way to learn from people is to be as hands on as possible. Seven months into 2008, from an internet marketing perspective, things couldn't be better.
But here's the thing, a part of what enabled me to take such a huge step were some investments my wife and I had made along the way. The internet side has been great, but these investments were really the icing on the cake, enabling me a bit of flexibility to grow my business organically, without trying to force things to make ends meet.
Well, in the last week that has all changed. I won't go into specifics, but let me just say that our largest investment has just become another victim of the US economy, and overnight we've lost a lot of money. I mean a lot of money. Think six figures a couple times over and you're getting somewhere into the ballpark.
Now, that is the first and last time I'll mention it. I'm not a victim and I won't be laying blame or crying poor. I only mentioned it so I can better illustrate the state of play I now find myself in. I now need money, a lot of it. I could go back to teaching tomorrow, but it really wouldn't help, there's no leverage there. A fortnightly pay packet is nice and safe, but there's no room for growth. My current online markets are okay, but nowhere near being able to cover the sudden shift in budget I find myself with.
Here's the thing I really want people to get though. This changes nothing.
I still want the same things, I still aspire to the same goals, and I still believe that I'll get there. What I have right now is a golden opportunity. The level of comfort I'd built up for myself is gone, and I'm back to square one. The difference this time is the experience and skills I have going in. I feel like I'm starting all over again, and really, that's exactly what the situation is.
If I look at what I've achieved online over the last few years, I have to be brutally honest with myself. I've done okay, but I really should have taken things to new level before now. It's like I was a trapeze artist who only ever performed with a safety net. The act was okay, and people clapped, but I never really stretched myself because I always had the net there to catch me. Well, the net is now gone and I have 2 choices. Keep performing and get better at what I do, or walk away because I'm afraid of what might happen.
Am I scared? You better believe it. Will I take the safe option? Never.
Strap yourself in if you're hanging around, things are about to get very interesting.
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Written by Nez
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Friday, 20 June 2008 |
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I apologise that this has nothing at all to do with the topic of this blog. But I'm a movie buff, a huge movie buff.
While in Beechworth, hanging out with a few likely lads, I believe it was Donal, Brent, Eugene, and Vince at the time, somehow the conversation got to movies and bad accents.
There's some terrible, terrible ones over the years, many perpetrated by Australians making futlie attempts at American accents. The Australian twang is really something that's hard to shake and part of the reason why I think Cate Blanchett is so talented. That woman is an accent machine. But I'll come back to Australians.
Anyway, during our discussion in Beechworth, Donal quite rightly pointed out Tom Cruise's effort at an Irish accent in Far and Away. Being an Irishman himself, who better to pick out a bad apple. We covered a lot of accents and had general agreement over dodgy ones over the years.
So, today a friend sent me an article at Entertainment Weekly that covered the 16 worst accents in movie history . I wasn't surprised by most of the entries, Dick Van Dyke's abysmal Cockney accent was of course in there, as was Kevin Costner's turn as Robin Hood. To make Donal happy, Tom also made the cut with his attempt at an Irish accent.
But here's the thing, I made 3 calls at beecworth that were all agreed upon unanimously, and they all starred Sean Connery. Now don't get me wrong, I love Sean Connery. One of my all time favourite movies is The Man Who Would Be King. But let's be honest, his thick Scottish brogue is not something he can shake.
I hereby submit these 3 examples of worst accents in movie history. Highlander - A spaniard that souds Scottish, The Untouchables - an Irish beat cop that sounds Scottish, and The Hunt For The Red October - a Russian submarine captain that sounds Scottish. You know I'm right, just picture in your head Sean Connery delivering his lines from any of those movies and you know I'm right. How any of those could be overlooked in a list featuring bad accents is beyond me.
The defense rests.
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Written by Nez
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Friday, 20 June 2008 |
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In Australia, we have this social effect where anyone who gets too successful eventually gets cut down by everyone else. Effectively, if you get too big for your britches, people feel they have a right to cut you back down. It's probably the single largest thing about being Australian that I have always hated. For some reason, we get jealous and vindictive about the success of others.
But why? I've never understood it. People work hard, make all the right choices, make smart decisions, and reap the rewards. Fair enough to me. I'm not at the point yet myself, but I'm getting there, so why begrudge the succes of others who have gotten there before me.
But I digress....
Today I woke up to find a firestorm of controversy over an article written in Mashable. That can't right I thought, I like Mashable and read it every day. I better have a look. What I read was really just a personal attack on John Reese. It is unfounded, inaccurate, and quite frankly, just rubbish. Aside from attacking John, the inaccurate prediction that internet marketers are going to ruin Twitter for everybody is just mind boggling.Tall poppy syndrome at its finest
What an utterly rediculous argument. I've really enjoyed reading Mashable until today.
This is like saying internet marketers are going to ruin email because they use it. No wait, people can unsubscribe can't they?
So, obviously for Twitter to survive this massive onslaught of people being marketed to by other Twitter users, there needs to be some sort of way to stop following the people who market to you? Hmm...
Honestly, the personal attack on John Reese without even checking the facts is just gutter journalism, something I thought Mashable would be above. I'd love to do a comparison between the number of times Mashable staff have twittered links to their articles, compared to the number of times John has twittered links to his stuff. Just over the last couple of months.
But I don't really need to do I, we both know the answer to that already. It's been quite good though, to see that most of the commenters to the article I'm talking about don't agree with it, so at least there's some common sense out there.
Mashable is a highly, highly monetised site, that uses Twitter to drive traffic. I follow John Reese on Twitter, and I enjoy his tweets. It's been quite rare to have John link to any of his sites, he's more likely to offer little nuggets of wisdom or vent about different sports. Who's the bad guy here?
I want you to make your own mind up, so I'm not going to put in any quotes from either source. Instead, below I'll link to the Mashable article in question, and then John Reese's response to the attack on his blog. I know who think shows more ethics but I want you to see it for yourself. Make sure you read the comments section too, that's very enlightening all by itself.
The Mashable Article
John Reese's Response
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Written by Nez
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Saturday, 07 June 2008 |
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Ever heard of the MS Readathon? If you live in Australia and you have kids, then chances are you have. For those of you that don't or have never heard of it, here's some blurb straight from their website.
The MS Readathon is a fun, easy way for kids to read, earn rewards, and help Australian people who live with a disease called MS.
Kids have been has been doing the MS Readathon for 29 years and it gets better every year.
Take a look at the fantastic things Australian kids did in the MS Readathon last year:
- More than 52,000 Australian kids entered and joined in the reading and rewards fun
- Altogether, these clever bookworms read more than one million books!
- Best of all they raised more than $4.3 million to help Australians living with MS.
Now, having been a teacher for a few years I've been involved in helping kids do the MS Readathon for quite a while. This year, seeing as I'm now working online, I'd rather support a child who's embracing online marketing
in their efforts to raise money for the MS Readathon.
 So, let me introduce you to Tash. She's not only doing the MS Readathon this year, but she's also doing something I think is just brilliant.
Tash is going to record the reading all of her books and post the videos on YouTube. How cool is that? Each day, when Tash reads her next book, it'll get recorded and uploaded, and I would love to see her efforts rewarded.
Basically, what I'm asking of you is this. At the very least go and check out Tash's blog that's set up for her YouTube videos, and leave her a comment. She'd be thrilled to know she's got people watching her videos.
Here's the link:
Read With Tash
Next, if you feel the that MS Readathon is a worthy cause (and how could you not), please visit Tash's
fundraising page and make a donation, the amount is up to you.
Tash's Fundraising Page
If you need to know more about the MS Readathon you can find out about it here:
MS Readathon
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Written by Nez
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Saturday, 31 May 2008 |
 I've been a closet addict for a little while now, and I just can't hide it any longer. Yes, it's true, I'm addicted to GTA4.
I've tried to stay away from the game, I really have. But it just keeps sucking me in.
After a full day (and most of an evening) working on websites, niche markets, and projects for other people, I like to unwind with a book, a movie or a bit of gaming, usually in that order of priority. I'm a rabid reader, I always have a few books going at once, and a massive movie buff, I don't anyone who knows more about movies than I do. But since Grand Theft Auto IV came out both of those pastimes have been getting overlooked.
I just love the game. Most people (mostly those who haven't played it or any other game in the series), can't seem to get past the violence in the game. While it's true there's a lot of shooting, beating up, or running over people, it does the game a diservice to focus on only that aspect.
This is really a hugely multi layered beast. The world that Rockstar has created with Liberty City is unlike anything I've experienced in a game before. While some elements have been present in previous entries in the GTA franchise, things have really been ramped up a notch.
The storyline is one of the most well developed I've ever come across in a game (and better than most Hollywood movies these days too). I'm really enjoying being taken along for the ride, and the main character Niko Bellic has really grown on me.
Some of the side characters have been a lot of fun too. There's a guy called Brucie who is without a doubt the funniest character to have ever been in a game. I've found myself repeatedly going to see Brucie (or just calling him) simply so I can have a laugh.
The interactions you have with people on the street are a highlight too. Bumping into people on the street, or stealing their cars by pulling them out, gets a wide variety of reactions. Some run screaming, some call out hollow threats, and some actually chase you and fight back. It's all incredibly well done.
But now, here's the reason I even wrote this post. The radio stations. The highlight of this game for me, by far, are the radio stations. I'm finding myself jumping into a car and then immediately tuning to my fave station. Players of the game won't be surprised to hear that I'm a fan of Laslow on the Integrity station. So politically incorrect, but oh so funny. On top of that, sometimes you just come across a gem of a track that you haven't heard for ages. I actually drove around the other night singing along to 'I wanna be your dog'. I was on my way to a mission, a song started, and I just kept driving around until it was over. Sad but true.
There is just so much built into this game. See past the cartoon violence and look deeper. This game is a masterpiece. But not a masterpiece for kids, any parent that lets their children play this game needs their head read. The swearing, the violence, and the generally adult nature make the case for R ratings for video games a no brainer. But if you look at this game from the view of adult entertainment, it's really a magnificent achievement.
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Written by Nez
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Saturday, 24 May 2008 |
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Think about all the viral videos we've seen the last few years. As marketers I know you've all paid attention to what has gone viral. There's been some big standouts too. We had the Numa Numa guy, the kid playing with a stick like a lightsaber, the idiot who cryed about Britney Spears, the horribly addictive song Chocolate Rain (I hate the song, but every time I think of it it gets stuck in my head for a few hours), and of course the miriad number of videos of people creating bomb fountains with Mentos and Diet Coke. Another nice little addon is the ever popular "All Your Base Are Belong To Us."
Now, take all of those videos, and a bunch more, and roll them into your new music video. Release the video on You Tube and whatever other video services you like. It's brilliant, just a really clever strategy. I'm expecting Weezer's video to get an absolute bucket load of views and become a viral video itself. My main reasoning is simple, people like to feel smart and a part of the 'in' crowd. People will share it around and tell their friends because they can show off how cool they are.
Check it out.
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