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среда, 24 августа 2016 г.

Wish it Could Have Been More

The following story will appear in Poetica Grandmatica, an anthology about the grandmothers in the history of the Chippewa Valley. It would have been my grandmother’s 97th birthday this Monday. For me, this time of year brings about special memories of her.
My sweet memories of Grandma are really just scattered slices of life. But together they make up an important part of my heritage.
When I was young, Grandma lived on Delbert Road on the north side of Eau Claire and my house was on Anderson Drive. Sometimes she had a garage sale and I brought my saved quarters to buy trinkets she’d display. It seems crazy now, but I remember riding my bike across Hwy 53 in the summer to visit her. Of course, now this four-lane highway is three-times as wide — and ten-times as dangerous.

I don’t recall much about what we did together, but I do remember her kitchen. Sometimes she made blackberry wine from the sweet morsels Grandpa picked. She’d keep it under the sink with a balloon on the top to ferment the liquor. And she used to vacuum her linoleum kitchen floor. I thought this was funny because I had only seen people sweep hard surfaces. Her house was always neat as a pin, as was she.
Grandma was pretty, and a sharp dresser even in her 80’s. She was a petite woman, and clothes never fit her off the rack. She’d buy something brand-new and take it right to her sewing machine. Her years altering garments at Bartosh Cleaners ensured she always looked like a classy lady.
But she tended to pick on herself — that was just her personality. We all came to expect that she would never quite be satisfied with anything she did. The scrumptious Thanksgiving turkey she baked was met with a worried, “I hope it’s not too dry.” And she’d grumble that her pumpkin pie always cracked. But this never seemed to bother the hungry children and grandchildren that wolfed it down.
She considered herself “homely” and remarked that her perm was too curly or, “this lipstick is so awful.” She’d complain about her “turkey neck” and for pictures she’d stretch her chin as high as she could, trying to pull the skin tighter. I never heard her direct criticism at others, though — only herself. Maybe she was fishing for compliments. If so, it worked, because everyone else always thought she looked great.
Grandma had a sense of humor, but it’s not like she told jokes. She learned funny expressions from her dad. When she had extra gravy on her plate, she’d say, “Pass me some of that bread — I’m not coming out right here.” And sometimes she’d break into song when the conversation fit one of her preferred stanzas. “He’s the rock that I lean on,” she’d sing in reference to Grandpa. Willie Nelson lyrics were another favorite — especially, “Nothin’ I can do about it now…”
Her fixed income in retirement didn’t allow for extravagances, but she and Grandpa kept a nice home and did some traveling. When we’d see each other, she’d bring me little candies or small gifts. And every Christmas, she’d give me a money envelope — the kind shaped exactly like a dollar bill. The card had a hole in it for the President’s face. Each year, I was so excited to open her gift because I knew it would be money and I was always saving for something. I don’t remember anymore which president was on the bill, but without fail, the message would be the same: “Wish it could have been more. Merry Christmas. Love, Grandma.”
It’s been years, now, since she died the winter before my wedding. We reserved a rocking chair for her at the ceremony with a satin ribbon across it. I believe in some way, she was sitting there.
I still think of her often — especially during holiday traditions. We all laugh when my mom or aunt or cousins use one of Grandma’s “isms” — it’s a fun way to keep her with us. And every Christmas, when my kids dig through our stored decorations, I pull out that last money envelope she gave me, tell my children stories about their great-grandmother, and set it on the tree.

четверг, 11 августа 2016 г.

Kat gets back with Moon... as Shane tells how he made real lover say 'yes'


Be my other 'alf!
By Polly Graham
LOVESTRUCK Alfie Moon gets down on bended knee to beg Kat: "Let's get divorced—and married again."
As our exclusive pictures show, EastEnder Alfie finally makes his mind up about the Slater sistersand chooses wild Kat over timid Little Mo.
Shane Richie, who plays the Walford romeo, revealed: "Alfie sees Kat sitting on the back of a truck cheerily singing The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow and realises she is the girl for him. He likes the free spirit in Kat.
"But, of course, in true Albert Square style the course of true love doesn't run smoothly. Alfie has to break his decision to Little Mo.
"He tells her he's decided to give it another go with Kat and, typical Little Mo, she understands and gives him her blessing."
And Shane revealed that he used Alfie's romantic streak to plan his own proposal to real-life lover Christie Goddard.
Speaking for the first time about how he ambushed Christie at her surprise 26th birthday party, Shane said: "I did an Alfie-style proposal."
He kneeled before her, wrote, "Will you marry me?" in icing on her cake, and topped it all off with a £7,500 ring.
"Christie is always saying I should be more romantic like Alfie, so I was," he laughed.
"That's the way he would have done it."
Shane, whose proposal to Kat will be screened on September 8, leaves EastEnders after three years in October, but not before filming an explosive Christmas storyline.
The 41-year-old star quit after being offered a contract with Steven Spielberg's company DreamWorks. He has signed for a movie alongside Kate Winslet, Hugh Jackman and John Cleese to be filmed next year and is already rehearsing the lead for Scrooge, The Musical, which starts at the end of the year.
Shane explained: "Any actor who says they would refuse the call from the States is lying. This is my big chance. If I don't take it now, it could never come again."
Not bad for the man dismissed "as only a ****ing Redcoat" by co-star Steve McFadden.
His comments were revealed in our story about McFadden's dogging antics with ex-love Angie Bostock.
The embarrassed star gave a grovelling apology to Shane, who brushed it off and quipped: "For a start I was a (Pontin's) Blue Coat. And I always make fun of myself."
But as Shane's career takes off he might have to take time out from making movies—to start making babies with Christie.
Broody

She's been getting broody after seeing the tots of Shane's co-stars Jessie Wallace, who plays Kat, and Kacey Ainsworth—Little Mo.
He said: "Jessie and Kacey's babies are making Christie very broody." But there won't be much chance of a little Richie on the way for a while. "I just don't even have time for trying at the moment," insisted Shane.
"We don't even have time in the morning for a quickie, I tell you!"
Despite the added baby pressure, he's delighted to have pal Jessie back at work after maternity leave. He beamed: "We get on brilliantly. It's great because she brings baby Tallulah in. I sit and play with her when Jessie is in make-up. She's a total sweetheart."
So who's broody now, Shane?

среда, 3 августа 2016 г.

Why I Ditched An Email List Of Almost 300 People

I’ve finally got around to adding an email list to a couple of my niche sites and am slowly adding an autoresponder sequence to them, so that I don’t have to remember to send out emails.
Email lists and I have always had an on again off again relationships, because I am constantly getting told by the ‘gurus’ that the money is in the list – but for me, this never seemed to be true.
Today I want to take you through a mistake that I made that saw me delete an email list with almost 300 people on it, what I was doing wrong and how I went so long without realising I was making a mistake!

Let’s Start At The Beginning…

Before I started my niche site challenge, I already had quite a few blogs and a couple of niche sites, and one of the sites was getting some decent traffic (about 1-2000 visitors a month) and was making me a bit of money through Adsense – with absolutely no work.
I’d done the research well from the beginning and now had totally passive, search engine traffic and I was looking for ways to capitalise on it better.
Now the site was in the ‘Australian franchise’ niche and there were not a whole lot of affiliate products to promote, so I decided that these people are looking for a business – why not try to sell them an onlinebusiness?
So I got to work creating a 7 day e-course that would take them through a different way to make money online each day.
It was great in concept, and to be honest there were a whole lot of affiliate products for me to choose from (I was using Clickbank) – but there were some fatal flaws.

I Didn’t Have A Problem Getting Subscribers!

Thanks to Popup Domination and the constant flow of search engine visitors I had a steady flow of new subscribers each day who would jump on to day 1 of my course.
In fact I was getting about 5 subscribers each day for the month or so that I ran the popup and I was getting excited because I was sure that my e-course was going to convert into some niche commissions.
… But It Didn’t!
I was checking my Clickbank account on a daily basis and maybe see 1 click each day generated from the autoresponder sequence.
There I was with a list of 270 subscribers that were not converting so I decided enough was enough and turned the popup off and just let it make money with Adsense each month.

Fast Forward 6 Months…

So here we are back to about a week ago and I am looking at a couple of my sites that are doing quite well with traffic and so I decided to give list building another go. I logged into my Aweber account, set up two new lists and put them to work on my niche sites (no free ebooks or courses, just ‘signup for updates’).
One of my lists started converting like crazy (8-15 subscribers a day, from just a sidebar opt-in) and so I created a couple of emails for the start of an autoresponder series and today I decided I wanted to see how the emails were being received.
The problem was that although I knew how to check my click through rate (CTR) on a broadcast email, I had no idea to check up on the individual emails in a follow-up series – so I did some digging in Google and foundthis post on Awebers Blog. So I followed its instructions into the ‘Reports’ tab in Aweber, and was confronted with this graph:
It may look a little confusing so let me break it down:
  • The List Has 84 People On It
  • The First Follow Up Message Has Been Opened 64 times and Click 33 times
  • The Second Follow Up Message Has Been Opened 36 times and Click 35 times
There is a lot more you can read into that graph, but for me, it means I’m getting a decent open and click through rate.
We will come back to this email list for some more stats, but I want to jump back to the first list that I have up on and show you the same chart for that list (and see if you can work out the problem!)
Graph For Franchise Site Follow Up Sequence:

The last line of the graph says it all, but I never took the time to check my stats.
  • 2,036 Emails Sent
  • 177 Opens
  • 45 Clicks
And That It Why It Wasn’t Making Me Money!

Where Did I Go Wrong?

To be honest I went wrong in quite a few different areas (especially even considering a list in the ‘make money online’ niche), but the one thing I did that instantly set me up for failure was:
I was focused on selling instead of educating!
If you looked at the ways I set up the course, each email was focused on selling people a product that they had to pay for.
I know that I personally never open these emails – so I don’t know why I expected other people too.
People don’t want to feel used, that they are just another number that will hopefully result in someone making some money. They sign up for an email list because they want information – they want to learn. So your job as a list owner is to feed and nurture their knowledge increasing journey.
This is something I took into account with this latest list, where my follow up emails structure is:
  • Focus On Content
  • Link To Related/Popular Articles On Your Site
  • Use HTML Emails (Pretty Looking – I Use ThemeForest For Email Templates)
  • Include Advertisements (Both Text & Image – Linking To Affiliate Programs)

Let’s Take A Look At The Click Breakdown For One Of My Follow Up Emails

Here is a graph for the second follow up message that has been opened 36 times and clicked 35 times:
That is right, I have 9 separate links in this email!
My goal was 3 fold:
  • Keep people learning with the content of my email
  • Link them back to articles on my site (more Adsense income)
  • Have them click on the advertisements and hopefully buy something.

But Isn’t My Focus To Make Money?

A lot of you will probably look at the above pie chart and the fact that the majority of my clicks are going back to articles on my site and start wondering about leakage – because most of us are taught that we need to funnel our list into clicking on our affiliate links. BUT, I see it a different way.
  • No Use Constantly Pitching Products If You Are Going To Burn Your List After The First Couple Of Emails
  • Why Not Focus On Educating And Let The Reader Decide When They Are Ready To Purchase Anything (affiliate link)
Do this and you will not only have a much more responsive email list, but you will also make a lot more money in the long run – because your subscribers will hang around.
So after all that, I went back to my initial list and just deleted the whole thing from my Aweberaccount, because there is no use paying for subscribers who are not reading your emails.

What Have You Learn’t From Your Email Lists?

Enough about me and my sites. I’d love to hear some of your stories about email lists and the things that you have learnt (both good and bad).

What Have You Got Against Credit Cards?

OK people, bring it on. Let’s throw some arguments from both sides of the table and discuss this issue.
I have got more than one reader say something to this effect:
What’s dumb about credit cards? There’s no emotional connection when using plastic. If you go to Lowe’s with a credit card vs. cash, studies indicate you are going to spend far more money using the card. Multiply that by all the transactions you do on plastic and you’ve got a lifetime of overspending. Most people think they’re the exception to this rule, but there’s a reason the retailers happily shell out tons of money to have those little card processing boxes on the counter - gross sales go through the roof. Ask McDonald’s.
Here are some sparks to start the fire:
  • Is the above comment a sound rationale against not using credit cards? or is that just masking one’s personal inability to understand/use credit cards properly?
  • Is debt due to credit cards or is it due to the lack of proper knowledge about handling credit cards?
  • Why do you (or don’t you) use credit cards? Emotional reasons or practical ones?
  • Be good to plastic (use it properly) and it will be good to you?
  • Rewards are a ripoff? or are they blessings for those who can use cards in a proper manner?
Don’t restrict your comments to the above questions ~ feel free to add any input you have got on this topic. Now, I could just cite some articles that argue either ways, but I want hear it from my readers.
For those who love credit cards for various reasons, here is your chance to defend your plastic.
You can be as critical as you want - so long as you don’t get personal. No name-calling please.
You can keep a track of subsequent comments on this post by checking the “subscribe to comments” box near the “submit” button in the comment box.

Mind Games - Guaranteed $500,000 Or A 50% Chance At $1 Million?

You are at some juncture in a television show where you have been given a choice - take $500K right now, or face a situation in which you either win $1 million or you lose it all (well, you get to keep $25,000 but that’s almost like losing it all).
What would you choose?
Personally, this is a no-brainer for me; take the $500K and be happy.

However, the dude (Steve) on episode #113 of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, took the 50% chance and lost it all (I am basing this 50 % chance on a two-outcomes basis - either you win it or you lose it. The mathematically true probability of winning the money, is a bit complicated affair to calculate and would be far far less than this). I thought it was a small lesson in “risk perception” there. Perhaps, Steve didn’t have the patience to think it through at the time (public performance pressure and the smell of free money can make people do weird things) - but I am sure he won’t try to make such a bet ever again.
This sort of goes in tune with my post earlier this week about how you would treat a windfall, in which I mentioned a potential tendency to take extra risk (more than reasonable risk) and show excessive optimism, when it comes to free money.
Consider this:
You have managed to accumulate $500,000 in savings. Now, a shrewd friend gives you an honest and genuine investment option - invest it in this so-and-so venture and this will either double your money or you will will get back just $25,000. Would you do it?
Personally, I don’t think many people (in their normal surroundings) will take that risk. Steve’s case was no different - he already had the possession of his $500,000; the money was his to keep and he should have treated it like his hard-earned money - but a combination of factors (most probably the feeling of “free money” and the excessive optimism), made him put his money at risk.
Have you noticed that, in most TV shows, such make-or-break options (options with the highest risk) are usually offered near the penultimate step - around which the participants are at the peak of their optimistic self and most likely to lose it all. 
Come to think of it, even the gambling industry probably works a lot on this concept. Perhaps (I don’t have any concrete proof here), the worst gambling losses may be occurring when a gambler wins money right at the onset of whatever game he/she is playing. Early wins may be altering the risk perception of a gambler by making him/her overly optimistic on future chances and encourages more gambling. Have you experienced something similar in a casino anytime?
Greed complicates the matters even more.
(Disclaimer: I don’t really *watch* the TV show mentioned above, but sometimes it’s more entertaining than flipping channels  )
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