ONLY 3 2 1 1/2 DAYS REMAINING
in my birthday celebration promotion for my new ebook,
"Story Ideas - Inside Your Newspaper"
As a subscriber (see top of sidebar to the right to sign up), you will not only get a huge discount on your purchase of "Story Ideas - Inside Your Newspaper," but you will also receive a bonus download of "The Calendar of Our Lives," an almost 70-page digital book, as my gift to you. BUT only if you have signed up BEFORE you buy.
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Cross-Blog Conversations: Counting Down to 2008
By Deb Gallardo
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For those of you looking for story ideas, you’ll need to wait for another post. This one is a conversation started by infopreneur Lynn Terry, who will celebrate her 12th year at making a living online. (I think I’ve got that right…)
I’ve come to respect and admire Lynn, and even though she’s a “young thing,” at least compared to an old broad of 58, (umm, no one else can call me that, however, just so’s ya know!), I view her as a mentor, and have the complete confidence that she is the teacher in this quote: When the student is ready, the teacher will come.
This is one savvy woman and I’m looking forward to getting to know her very well in 2008 through her forum at http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/forum. Lynn introduced a topic on her blog at http://www.clicknewz.com/1245/24-days-left-in-2007 on setting goals for 2008 as this year draws to a close. This is my comment on that post:
Lynn, my heart sank when you mentioned how many days are left in 2007. I’ve already blanked out the number. I don’t want to know! I feel as though time is on fast forward and I’m having to run to keep up.
I can remember back in the late ’70s-early ’80s after I was first married, we lived in Germany (Army husband) and one of our joys was getting mail from home. One of my favorites was the monthly issue of Writer’s Digest.
Every January for as long as I can remember, they have used the same headline: “Get Published in _____.” Next month it will say, “Get Published in 2008″ and that will mark the 30th such issue I’ve received. (Yes, it’s been 30 years, hard as it is for me to believe that.)
And still I am not published as I would like to be. That is to say, I have not published “The Great American Novel.” I’ve published other things, but somehow they don’t measure up to my dream and probably never will.
So counting down to the end of yet another year and having to face where I am compared to where I’d like to be is NOT a pleasant experience.
I DO, however, have some accomplishments under my belt which I’d like to declare to you all and to the universe in general, if any of the above are even interested. Regardless, it still seems important to me to say in cyber print, which is kind of like saying it out loud since the internet is a very real and sometimes attentive audience.
What I’ve learned in 2007:
- It’s possible to ignore insistent phone ringing when the calls are from collection agencies
- It’s possible to feel mortified, helpless and yet relieved watching your sole mode of transportation being towed off to your lien holder for good
- It’s possible to live on $120 per MONTH from June through September in the U.S. when you have a roof over your head, because you have enough money to buy food and pay a couple of bills (although not the same ones every month…)
- It’s possible to make a friend of a peculiar, querulous, never-married old woman just by treating her with kindness, respect, understanding and consideration
- Even when you love doing something, it can become harder to do with age - like learning lines in a theatrical production *sigh*
- Even when you feel old and klutzy, you can still manage a semblance of dancing on stage if you can move gracefully, the steps are easy, and if you practice until you’re ready to drop…
- Just when you’re finally used to having your daughter, with whom you were formerly joined at the hip, living with her dad 400 miles away and going to college, she comes home for 10 days and then you get to go through months of withdrawal all over again
- Walking up steep hills with a bum knee is just as difficult as it looks
What I’ve accomplished:
- Refocused my blog from a one-post site with a self-declared eclectic focus - if eclectic can even qualify as focus - to a single, tiny niche: helping fiction writers find story ideas. Thus “The Story Ideas Virtuoso” was born
- Wrote, in 3 days, a 50-page ebook on finding fiction story ideas using any newspaper (after almost a decade of writing very little at all beyond emails) and then tinkered with and polished it for the next 3 months…
- Wrote 20 original blog posts and researched, introduced or commented on 53 articles/blog posts by guest authors from July to the present
- Created two cross-blog conversations with a “guru” who probably won’t admit to that status
- Reprised my role as Mrs. Potts in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” in a semi-professional production. (The first time was in 2005 in another city.)
- Started rehearsals for “Nunsense II - The Second Coming” for another theatre group to be performed in late January 2008
- Learned all my music in a week and some of my lines in six weeks - (can you say slooooooow?)
- Unsubscribed from a ton of email lists, including two I wanted to stay on (oh, well)
- Skimmed and deleted 1548 marketing emails I never got around to reading (I still have about 800 to go)
- Re-wrote Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for high school actors and an unsophisticated audience, that still sounded like Shakespeare, just not in iambic pentameter
- Wrote, orchestrated and recorded two original songs for Queen Titania’s fairies and incidental music for King Oberon
- Created the playbill, including scanning and formatting all the advertising
- Took over as church choir director in January and built the dwindling membership from 18 to 27 members, even after losing 1 person due to illness and 1 to death
What I Plan to Accomplish in my business in 2008:
- Develop backend info products
- Partner with others online who “play” at things I struggle with and vice versa
- Do more, consistent social bookmarking
- Submit articles weekly to directory sites
- Create a pre-launch “buzz” about my ebook
- Launch my ebook
- Test and track every aspect of my business
- Develop a systematized method of studying IM materials and implementing new strategies
- Attend at least one IM seminar that focuses on networking
- Learn Camtasia and Photoshop
- Create videos for Web 2.0 promotion
- Learn affiliate marketing
- Keep accurate financial records
- Begin to develop multiple streams of income
- Rewrite, polish and market my 3 completed novels currently gathering cyber dust
- Earn $3000 per month consistently by year’s end
What I Hope to Accomplish Personally in 2008:
- To be walking 3-5 times per week by year’s end
- To buy fewer unhealthy snacks
- To cook healthy meals more often than twice a week
- To be more faithful in my spiritual Walk
- To spend more time reading and studying the Word
- To allow myself to be transformed little by little, day by day, through “the renewing of my mind, by the washing of the water of the Word”
- To live and walk according to my beliefs and not according to the way of the world
- To be saved more from myself, and become more lost in Christ, so that I can say, “It is no more I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
December 12th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Thank you so much for your kind words, Deb. Much of what you said here struck a real chord with me, and even reminded me of some of my own past thoughts & dreams.
I love what you’ve laid out here, and even more so that you did it. From where I stand, your accomplishments are incredibly impressive. Still, I understand what its like to not be where you want to be in your life. Its all relative, as they say.
I would love for you to post your e-business goals in the Elite Members forum at SSWT. We can work on those points together, in strategic order
~ Lynn
p.s. LOL @ Guru, that made me chuckle
December 12th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
It’s I who must thank you, Lynn, for your encouragement. You make a great cheerleader (in the best possible sense), and you give me hope each time you say that I’ve come a long way. I’ll be sure to post my 2008 goals in the Elite Forum.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:36 am
[...] Counting Down to 2008 by Deb [...]
December 21st, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Hi Deb,
I would like to share the three most valuable free material that I’ve been given this year.
It changed the way I look at Marketing.
1. The 2007 Authority Site Black Book (web 2.0)
2. Attention Age Doctrine part 2
3. Simpleology 101, 102 and 103
All the Best,
Michael Roeten
United Holland
Dutch Social Network
(just started out last month)
P.S. Do yourself a favor and check out the books. Yes even, actually especially, if your time is limited. #2 and #3 deal with the time / attention span issues many of us face today in this information overload society.
Looking at your blog, you can be a maven pretty soon.
December 21st, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Thanks, Michael, especially for reminding me about Simpleology. I also have the Black Book and Attention Age Doctrine 2. Great minds think alike, right? I was glad your site had English on it so I could see what it was like. Are you a regular at Lynn Terry’s forum? If so, I’ll no doubt see you there, as I am a regular Lynn Terry groupie now! Gotta love that gal!
Thanks for commenting. As you can see, I was able to edit your comments all into one.
FYI, and for future reference when commenting on other blogs, multiple links are a big sp*m “red flag.” Thought I’d save you from being banned on other blogs. Again, thanks for writing. Glad you liked my site.
Deb
December 23rd, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Hi Deb,
Thanks for your kindness.
I’m glad to have been of assistance.
Thanks for the warning about sp*m.
I’ll keep that in mind the next time I make a comment on somebody else’s web property.
Take Care,
Michael
December 31st, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Deb - good for you for writing your goals out and making such an honest review of ‘07. I have the impression that you really have learned a lot this year and in ‘08 you’ll implement it to great to great success. You’ve inspired me to get do my own reflection and planning session
I see Camtasia on your list…it’s pretty easy to learn and has a free trial. I would also recommend SnagIt a very affordable screen capture software, made by the same company. I use it everyday.
Have a Happy New Year - and all year!
January 1st, 2008 at 2:52 am
Sandra, Thanks for posting a comment and offering encouragement. I appreciate it more than you can know.
TechSmith also has a free tool called Jing, which does screen capture stills and brief movie captures as well. I’ve not seen Snagit. They’ve got lots of good tools, don’t they? I grabbed the free version of Camtasia (3.1.2) which they were promoting in Internet Marketing circles last month. I also have a Camtasia clone, but haven’t tried it, either. One thing at a time.
I hope 2008 meets or exceeds your dreams. Thanks for visiting.
Deb