Monthly Archives: July 2006

Need to Succeed 060726

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Building on my previous post “Hungry Enough to Succeed“, I know that I could be massively more effective than I can be now.

One important element is to have clearly defined short term goals.

I know if I don’t do this now, my aim of achieving $5m by age 35 will only be a dream.

Hence, I’m listed 3 priority-1 goals at the start of each day that I have to accomplish within 24 hours. And a list of priority-2 goals. This is part of my UHP system which when proven can help anyone (yes, anyone!) achieve whatever results they want. But first I have to eat my own dogfood, right?

Equally important are the reasons for achieving the goal! If the ‘why’ isn’t compelling, we aren’t likely to work at it.
My goals for today are:
1) set up the hosting account for steviadirect.com since moving it to GoDaddy a year before it expired (silly move on my part), GoDaddy has hijacked it with a placeholder page and it’s now a Google PR2, Alexa ranking 6.3m). I must reclaim it, and put my content back before GoDaddy wrecks 3 years of effort!
2) Prepare for open house at 2D Jalan Remaja property: This is a property that I’ve been marketing for about 3 months. It’s an attractive property and I’m planning to spruce it up, do quite a bit of offline publicity before the open house we’re planning this Sunday afternoon.
3) client look for Bukit Timah/Stevens Road landed property: A high priority search, need to get it done soon due to a tight timeframe.
4) client look for YCK or private apartment on Sat: another priority search!
Priority 2 goals include:
1) Settle finance matters at Citibank
2) Blog update
3) Go for Stuart Tan’s preview “Huge Checks Monthly”
4) Draft and send emails out to IMS contacts
5) Clean up UpsizeMyCash.com (site structure not optimized)
6) Spend 1 hour cleaning/managing paperwork my home office/house
7) Spend 30 mins visiting blogs/forums (build more backlinks to this blog)

8) Drop an email to my potential partner for a software project.

phew!

We’ll see the results at the end of today!

wheehee a challenging and exciting day ahead.

Hungry Enough to Succeed

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I’ve noticed one trend among successful business owners.

They’re hungry to succeed.

They have a big overriding need they need to satisfy.

It be to be number one, it might be kill the competition (a la Larry Ellison of Oracle), it might be to make the world a better place. Regardless of the reason, there must be a major purpose.

My aim and purpose used to be to be the best in everything in do, whether it was in school or after entering the workforce.

My thinking had always been, ‘second place is also first place loser’, so I worked my butt off to be the best I could be.

After getting married and having my daughter, my priority now is to spend more time with my wife and child.

It’s not always easy, and the nature of Internet Marketing is that:

  • It takes up a lot of time
  • There’s tons of people doing it, so what makes me different
  • Something new comes up every hour, every minutes (at least we know the information economy works!)

Against this backdrop is the need not for speed, but the need to succeed.

Many entrepreneurs come from physically challenging situations – a poor home, or circumstances arising that force them to do something bigger than themselves, maybe sometimes even for surival.

The need to succeed once ingrained, helps them develop a laser-sharp focus on the task at hand.

To take on seemingly insurmountable challenges, and more importantly, succed!

Yes, some of us come from a relatively comfortable background, and survival isn’t an issue.

We can though, develop the mental need to succeed.

If we are constantly challening ourselves to do better, to put in that 110%, it’ll become a personal passion for excellence.

In that frame, we may not be able to take on a physical need to succeed, but surely, developing a powerful mental need to succeed is in our hands, isn’t it?

Saving Pirate Ryan

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Ok, my buddy Ryan is neither a pirate, nor a private.

But he is looking for some help in scoring the top spot in the Ambatchdotcom SEOcontest.

Check out his mail and help him out if you’re able to.

I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.

—

From RyanChua.com
A single “href” Link equals to 4000USD for Charity. Will you help?

Dear all,

Just in case this is the first time you’ve been to this blog.

I’m Ryan and im taking part in an international SEO (Search Engine Optimization) contest.
This is a crazy game that everyone’s playing, and ill go through a different route. There’s no determining whether i’ll win this competition, but here is the thing. I’ll donate all of the prize money of USD 4,000 to the BCF (Breast Cancer Foundation) of Singapore should this blog be the winner of the World SEO Championship for the keyword “ambatchdotcom seocontest“.

That means, if people type in “ambatchdotcom seocontest” (without the quotes) in Google.com, and my site is first on the result list, the prize money will all go to charity.
There is no catch to it. If i get listed first on Google for this keyword, ill get the organisers (Ambatch.com) to donate all the money directly to the charity. I’m the administrator / owner of the Singapore BMW community website of over 5,000 members. My name is here for you to see, i’m not a scam artist, and i am a real person.

However, i believe that the prize money can go to a cause which needs it more than i do, rather then people spamming the hell out of search engines, blog sites, websites etc. And i believe with conviction i can change all that, and you can too.
If you wish to impact a positive change in society, take part in a great cause, as well as take part in one of the biggest contests in technology history.

You can make the difference by:

  1. 1. Linking to this blog with the keyword “ambatchdotcom seocontest” from your website, blog, bookmarking site etc. . There’s no catch to it. Just one link from your website to make the ALL the difference. You can remove that link after October 2006. An example of a link is this >> ambatchdotcom seocontest
  2. 2. Post in your blog about this story, and let your friends know how they can help a charity cause just through ONE single link to my blog. You can remove the link after October 2006 when the final results are released.
  3. 3. Post a comment in my blog, so that i can list your site down as the people who have helped the cause.

If you don’t have a blog or website, that’s fine. Just help by passing this message around, that’s all i ask.

SEO(Search Engine Optimization) counts when more and more websites link back to a single website with a particular keyword. So the more links there are, the higher this blog will go up the search results. And if it stays at the number #1 result on October 17th, the money goes to Charity.

That’s all from me. All or nothing. Let’s win this together and i need your help. We can also help others in need at the same time. Onward!

The current rankings in Google for the word “ambatchdotcom seocontest” without the quote signs.


The UHP Content Creation Challenge

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Thursday was an especially challenging day.

I set a target of creating at least 50 pages of content for 2 of my sites, with the plans to shoot for 60 pages.

Starting at Thursday noon, I embarked on my Content Creation Challenge, planning to complete the task within 24 hours.

A key motivator was a promise to the folks at the Internet Marketing Singapore forum that I’d buy $150 worth of refreshments for the next meeting. Heh, it was a good motivator!

The short story is yes, by Friday noon, I’d created 57 pages of content.

30 pages at www.InternetMarketingCookbook.com and another 27 pages at BizExcellerator.com.

The pages at BizExcellerator might not be as obvious though, because I created a business/entrepreneurship course and in the meantime, got plenty of hands on experience with Aweber’s autoresponders too.

Do check the pages out and feel free to leave comments either here or on the respective sites.

Enjoy your weekend.

Poor usability, Singtel!

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I am quite disappointed.

Even the prize of a Motorola V3X cell phone doesn’t alleviate my dissatisafaction with “Asia’s leading communications group with operations and investments in more than 20 countries and territories around the world”

I went to my favourite page at http://home.singtel.com/consumer/msg_center/internet_sms.asp intending to send a SMS out to a friend.

I noticed that soon all Internet SMS users (which let you send free SMS to Singtel users) will need to register.

As a sweetener, they’re giving out Motorola cell phones

Not bad, I’m thinking.

I get to the registration page and guess what I see.

Singtel Internet SMS

Looks pretty ok, you might say.

Until you get to “Agreement between you and SingTel Mobile”

This contains the terms and conditions for use of the service.

Pretty standard you might say.

Being a careful guy, I scroll down to read the t&c, especially if there might be charges involved.

I’m squinting at the three line display.

I scroll down. and read more.

I scroll down. and read more.

I scroll down. and read more.

I scroll down. and read more.

I scroll down. and read more.

I scroll down. and read more.

I scroll down. and read more.

Does this never end?

My eyes are watering from staring at the miniscule text.

Frustrated, I copy the entire block of text and paste it in my text editor.

Turns out it’s about three pages. My word count rates it as 1012 words.

I contribute regularly to article directories and my articles run 400-500 words.

This is like reading 2 articles on screen real estate equivalent to my mobile phone.

It’s take about 200 taps on the scrollbar to read the entire message.

What’s the deal, SingTel?

Usability should be one of the key considerations.

Some things that could be done to improve this:

  • Increase the display to at least 5 lines
  • Use a larger font size to increase readability (especially appreciated by the long-sighted)
  • The best: have the terms and conditions appear in a pop up window

We want technology to make things easier, not more difficult.

Class dismissed.

Adapting to Change

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Can anyone hope that change freezes for a moment?

It’s strange, but many people like to reminisce about the good old days.
When soda cost a nickle, a hamburger cost a quarter. When everything seemed as it was and nothing change.

And suddenly like a tidal wave, change comes along one day.
New fangled things like CD players, LD players, MD players, DVD players, MP3 players, every kind of player comes along.
Unable to cope with change, these people retreat to their homes, hiding from change.
Like the ostrich that buries it’s head in the sand, hoping to stave off change.

In the business world too, and especially the technology sector, change comes in the blink of an eye.
One moment you’re the market leader, the next moment, things have changed.
From being king of the heap, you’re suddenly king of the scrap heap.

Oh how the mighty have fallen, how things have changed, may suddenly become a familiar refrain.
Witness how Apple Computer pioneered the Apple ][e, and was subsequently displaced by the IBM PC, and the title went back to the Apple MacIntosh, and then leadership changed hands to Compaq, and at next change, Dell, and somewhere in between was Apple again with it’s iMac, it’s PowerMacs, once again establishing itself as a potential Big Mac with growing market share.

In the rough and tumbling, ever changing world of technology, the guy sitting on the music chairs changes with each turn of the music.

Likewise, business leaders unable to adapt to change will inevitably face a challenge.
The unspoken rule of the tech jungle seems to be not the strongest survive, but the one best able to change survives.
Likewise, for any business with an established incumbent, it’s merely a matter of time before things change.

Things cannot stay the same, especially at the top.
The only constant in the technology business is that things will change.
And that’s something that will never change.