Breath In Breath Out
Posted On: 2008-10-16
Breath in ... breath out ... breath in ... breath out ... yep that's the way things are today and it's still early in the morning.
Some days I can get up and the day just flows on from there in a smooth and enjoyable way that leaves me feeling very satisfied with my achievements as the day ends. Then there are days like today when everything is pear-shaped even before I get out of bed.
On days like today simple things that should work seamlessly don't ... the phone that only rang occasionally yesterday never stops ringing today ... suddenly every client I've ever dealt with wants something urgent done right now ... and all I want to do is sit down at our favorite beachside cafe and enjoy a good coffee but I can't because it's raining.
Are you having a day like that? Then join me and breath in ... breath out ... breath in ... breath out because tomorrow you will look back on today and think 'well that wasn't so bad'. Today you may want to tear your hair out, throw things around the office and kick someone's butt ... but it will all pass so just keep on breathing.
Another Spammer Bites the Dust
Well actually there are two spammers who have gone down just recently and even though both were quite big I bet you haven't noticed any decrease in the amount of spam that's been landing in your in box.
In New Zealand of all places three guys have been caught sending out millions of email messages every day over the past few weeks. While it's not actually illegal to send unsolicited emails in New Zealand the authorities did manage to stop them on a technicality ... but not before they earned an estimated $2 million from their spam.
A very much bigger fish has been caught in America. There a group of spammers, commonly known as HerbalKing, have had their assets frozen and their spam network shut down. This group was one of those that had its own botnet ... thought to consist of over 30,000 computers spread around the world.
They used that network of slave machines to churn out billions of emails advertising replica watches, and herbal pills and potions for everything from weight-loss to penile dysfunction. SpamHaus suggested that these guys were at one time responsible for up to one third of all spam messages hitting the Net every single day.
Sadly though you're inbox is going to be just as full of rubbish as it ever was. These guys might be out of business but there are plenty more spammers around the world.
So what's the difference?
I know that many new webmasters think that the easiest way to get to the top of the search engines ... or to the top of the money making list ... is simply to copy the work of others. I suppose it does seem like the most obvious way to achieve success ... spend time looking closely at everything a very successful webmaster does and then replicate it and you must succeed right?
You might be able to look at his or her link structure and copy that exactly. You may build your site in exactly the same way and use the same marketing text as the successful webmaster does. Hell you can even use the same images he or she does but the chances are that you won't have the same success no matter how much you try.
Why is that? Simply because that successful webmaster has something that you don't have ... and will never have while you go on copying the work of others. And what is that key element that you're missing?
It's something that is subtle ... hard to define clearly ... and something that you can't gain by copying another's work or by reading books or listening to what people say. It's experience and you only gain it by working hard day after day and analyzing your successes and failures.
Of course you can learn by reading books and message boards ... and by listening to people speak. You can even learn by looking at other people's websites and delving into their link structures but you can't gain the experience you need by doing any of those things.
You only gain experience by taking the things you have learned and applying them to your own work. That's the subtle difference between what a successful webmaster does and anything you might produce by copying their work.
So if you want to succeed then you have to gain the experience that's necessary for success and you only get that by doing the work yourself.
And now it's time for me to go back to my breathing exercises ... it's the only way I'm going to make it through today.