The plus side to being hacked
So one of my blogs was hacked last week. By hacked I mean when you loaded up my home page you got a nice black page that said “hacked” and gave an email address. The hacker was kind enough not to delete my database, but only some restoreable files. I regained access and got everthing restored in a few hours.
However I am grateful the fact that it happened now and not down the road. In the past few days I have learned more about securing wordpress then I even knew existed. I have taken every step I can within reason to secure my work. I am quite confident that I can still be hacked and there fore have daily database backups that are stored off site as well as weekly complete backups.
I am not goint so say exaclty what I do, as that is like putting up a sign that says “the key is under the mat”. however there is a great article about it here:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress
It takes so much stinking work to implement security just so people don’t destroy your hard work. Such is life, but it makes me hustlel. 
You just can’t help some people
(This post may look a bit odd in Firefox)
One thing that I have found out form working in retail for many years, is that you just can’t help some people. Some people don’t want to be helped, some are willingly ignorant and proud of it, and a few may even just be straight up stupid. Either way, a picture is worth a million words:
How did he get a lawers liscence anyway?
Who voted for these people?
Do you think the people in Utah really need to be reminded of that?
Odd, thought TEEN pregnancy would drop off completely at age 20….
You just can’t help some people.
Missed Shoemoney
Shoemoney was here in Phoenix, AZ for the past few days. Last night he hosted a tweetup and ivited everyone to attened. I work a “day” job that often has me working 2nd shift. I wanted to attend the tweetup as it was an excellent opportunity to meet Shoemoney and many others. Unfortunately I had to work my day job and was unable to attened.
I got kind of frustrated as this kind of opportunity doesn’t come around everyday, and I don’t like my day job anyway. It pays the bills, and I am grateful, but its not what I want to do. My normal response would have been to get mad and get down. Then I would have gone into a slump and been un productive for the next week or two.
After my previous post about association I have noticed a HUGE difference. Just by being on twitter every day and reading and communication with successful people my perspective has completely changed. Associating with people that are where I want to get to is like an injection of a productive attitude.
My thought this time around is what do I need to do to be ready for an opportunity the next time it presents itsself. The answer is as pound it out | work my rear end off between now and whenever it is. The bottom line, this time I am motivated to move forward and hammer it out. Associating with the right people is an amazing thing. Twitter is an amazing tool.
Business and Web 2.0
The more I learn the more I realize how little I really know. Fortunately for me there are those people much greater then myself who are willing to share with me what they know. Also fortunately for me there is the Internet that allows me to connect and learn from these people. The past few days I have spent some time dealing with things like Motivation to work, Associating with the right people, how to use Social Media and related issues.
My first issue is Motivation. I work a regular 40 per week day job (1st and 2nd shift). Motivating myself to work in my time away from work and on my days off from my regular job can be tough. I work with people who are not motivated beyond coming to work, going home, and spending all the money if not more then all the money they have. These are the majority of my “friends” and the influence I am under all too much. Aside from them I have my family and 1 other good friend that I talk to regularly. The 1 good friend is/was the only solid business contact I have and he is always moving forward and runs his own business. He has been a great help to me, but most other people, outside of my immediate family are neutral at best when it comes to moving forward and helping me stay motivated to grow my business. Here in lies the problem, You Are Who You Associate With. John Chow has expertly addressed my issue here: Guilty by Association. After reading his advice I realized that the motivation stuggles I have been having is due to not associating myself with the right people. I have heard that you will never earn more then 10% above what your 5 closest friends earn. Well for me that means as of a few days ago I was destined to be broke for the rest of my life. LOL. Also, I believe John Chow said that you are the average of your 5 closest friends. So with that enlightenment I realized my goal is simply to surround myself with people greater then myself – From how to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (excellent read IMO).
So I figured Facebook and Twitter were the best way for me to start, but I didn’t really understand how to use them. I mean how do you use Facebook and Twitter and whatever else to create friendships and associate yourself with successful people anyway? Epic fail on my part for not grasping ahold of this before now, but thanks to Gary Vanerchuck who expertly answers this question: It’s not stalking, it’s a darn handshake. Thanks to Gary’s video and a video I watched and blogged about some time ago I finally have an understanding of how to use Web 2.0. It about a hand shake, its about relationships, its what the business world is becoming. I am finally onboard.
So now that I know how to use it, I have to go and do it. Now I am back to the whole motivational factor. I can make myself just do it for a while, but that won’t last long enough for me to be successful. However I decided to start with Twitter. After using twitter for only a few days I had some wonderful motivation that I gleened and am charged up to keep going. This post by Robin Sharma is great: The Fire Inside along with another great video by Gary Vanerchuck: Stop crying, think, wipe your tear and crush it!
Having only been using twitter now for just less then a week, I am starting to learn. I am learning how to shake peoples hand and people are shaking my hand back. Its quite invigorating. I am excited, I know that success is not a skill or a talent, its a result of a grip load of hard work. I will work hard, and I will be successful. To sum it up here is a great quote from @marieforleo on Twitter:
Are you engaging or enduring? In any given moment , this determines your success.
Finally got my name as my domain! – Gripmoney moving to MAttBorden.com
My name MAttBorden.com has been unavailable. Thus I started Grip Money some time ago for lack of a better option. I was checking domains the other day and I randomly just checked for mattborden.com and it was available! I was shocked and thought it was a mistake. I was in such a hurry to buy it I didnt even take the time to grab a discount code from Digital Point (as I usually do, typically saves $1 per domain). I just bought it and still didnt believe it for a few days.
This opens up a whole new realm for me. Now I can brand my name over years to come, like John Chow and others. Altough I doubt I will ever be as popular as him, but anyway. 
I have twitter.com/mattborden and feedburer.com/mattborden and am moving forwared. Keeping my picutre the same for all avatars, its of me so that makes branding unique. I still use the name loopline on forums like DP, but the rest will all be MAtt Borden going forward.
Thus in the coming week or two I will redirect gripmoney.com to MAttBorden.com and that will be the permanent domain name. I am also going to start posting more often, hopefully 1 time per week or more and turn this blog into something worth reading! So if you are signed up for the Gripmoney RSS feed, be sure to sign up for the MAttBorden.com RSS.
Picked up 30 new domains today, $.99 .info sale at GoDaddy.
I picked up 30 new domains for my proxy sites today. I try to get them when they are a good deal and right now Godaddy.com has .info domains for $.99, thats 99 cents each! Thats a smokin deal, so I grabbed some while they are cheap. I have in the past only grabbed a few and came back a couple weeks later to find that they had gone up to $3 each. Which means I could only get 10 for the same price as 30. Its not a huge price difference, but cash is cash you know.
Focus
In economic trying times such as these its imporant to remember the main things. Focus=confidence. Keep the main thing, the main thing.
Forcing myself to take a vacation
So I pretty much stink at taking vacations. Given that I work my day job and my internet job I am always working. So when I would take a week off at my day job, I would just use that as an opportunity to work a full week on my internet job. On the whole it has been a good thing for me to work on my internet job while I am on vacation from my day job, but sometimes you just need a break. Quite frankly its hard for me to take a vacation from my internet job for more then a day or two tops.
Two weeks ago I took a 6 day vacation from my day job. I worked one day in the middle of the six days, but forced myself to take the other days off. The biggest challenge was not doing anything for my business and not letting myself think or plan for it. It is really tough to not let myself even think about it. That is what i had to do though. I needed a break, or I was going to lose it. I forced myself to play games lol. Some people may think thats not tough, but I am almost addicted to business, so it was tough for me. All told I came out refreshed and I will be more productive now.
Ever Ellusive “more info” on SEO
I received a question, aside from forums and blogs, where I got more info about SEO as a newb. I have seen this question a lot and have asked it myself many times. We all know that Google and the rest of search engines are not going to come out and tell us how their algorithms work. However there is still a wealth of information on SEO out there, but where to find it and who to trust?
I have spent a lot of time on forums and blogs reading about SEO. There is a lot to be learned, and there is a lot of junk. I prefer to trust people who have proven themselves. If you have been around the SEO community very long you have probably heard names like Aaron Wall and Shoemoney. I regularly read shoemoney and have learned a lot from him. He recommended Aaron Walls “SEObook”. I had heard of Aaron Wall other places too, but his book was $79. As a startup thats a fair bit of cash, and there are so many “secrets” out there that are junk that people are trying to sell. Having written a quality ebook myself, I also realize that there are good ones out there. When Shoemoney recommended Aarons book I figured it was worth taking a look at.
I poked around Aaron’s site seobook.com and found a lot of quality info and tools for free. I found a tool that I had used in the past, but never even connected it with SEObook. After some research I decided that all the evidence indicated that SEObook was worth the $79. Living paycheck to paycheck from my regular job, I had to wait a little over a month to buy the book. I was quite excited the day I got to buy the book, and was pleasantly surprised that it came with a large ammount of extras.
Aarons book is over 300 pages and it is quite a task to tackle. I set out reading it, printing portions sometimes to read in a more comfortable spot then at the computer. I had, as I said, gained a fair amount of knowledge on SEO from forums and blogs, but only bits and pieces. What I found in SEObook is a complete, A to Z guide for not only SEO, but business online in general.
It would serve little purpose to understand SEO and then not apply it to something productive. For me that purpose is to earn money. Aaron gives quality advice about how to run a business online, how SEO affects it, and how to utilize SEO. I would not say its a “do steps 1 thru 10 and you will get instant success book”. It is more of a blueprint for success. Sure there are steps, but I like a book that teaches me to fish, rather then just gives me a fish. Certainly SEObook teaches you how to “fish” in SEO and online business.
Aaron has since changed the setup of his book. He no longer sells the book by itsself, but he gives it away free when you join his SEO training course. He has put together a good amount of training videos and information beyond the book itsself, as well as a private forum and made it into a monthly membership. The membership is not inexpensive for a startup, but is certainly worth it.
If I was coming into this scene now, I would do it like this. I would join the SEO training course at SEObook.com. I would take advantage of the membership and learn as much as I could from the online course and forum. Then I would cancel after the first month. I would then take the time to read thru the 300+ page ebook. By the time I was done with it, I would have a wealth of information. I would then start some projects and begin to earn a little. Once I was earning a net profit of over $100 per month I would rejoin Aarons training course. Then I could expand my knowledge and get even further.
There are no “Instant Success” SEO trainings or books, you have to go through the pain of learning and experimenting . Then learn some more and experiment some more. Even Aaron states he is always experimenting. If you want solid info, check out SEObook.com, but by all means always read and learn elsewhere too. Aarons book was my tipping point for getting started learning. It pushed me over the edge, and gave me the knowledge I needed to start succeeding, as well as a solid point of reference for the future.
Exercise helps me earn money
I find exercise helpful in making money online. Its obviously important to not be sick while your trying to earn money, but I used to overlook the fact of being proactive about exercise. I find that when I exercise regularly I am more productive while I work. I love to walk, just to get out and go for a few miles at a nice pace. I love to walk in my neighborhood and on trails. I try to do it regularly, but I find my self going through lapses where I neglect my body. In so doing I become less productive, which ultimately is a loss.
This morning I had a lot to do, but I wanted to take the time to exercise. I have been slacking off lately, and I need to get back into the flow of things. Despite the fact that I had a lot to do, I took 45 minutes this morning and went for a fast paced walk. I woke up droopy eyed today and had a hard time waking up, but after the walk I was wide awake. I find that exercise clears my mind, it gets rid of all the cloudiness. I am also more productive and focused. Overall even though I skipped 45 minutes of work time to exercise, I will be so much more productive that I will make that up and more. Plus I will feel better at the end of the day, and sleep better tonight. Which will make me more productive tomorrow too. The repercussions make it even more worth it.
I don’t exercise everyday, but I try to get out there and do it at least a few days a week. Overall I am more productive and thus earn more money and feel better when I exercise. I believe exercise and good health is an important part to earning money online.
Exercise is also one of the three major things that can be done to reduce stress in ones life. Having less stress helps my life enables me to again be more productive and more importantly to make better decisions in a timely manner. Here are the 3 things to reduce stress and anxiety:
- Get more exercise
- Get more sleep
- Simplify your life
Simplifying my life also makes me more productive, and obviously sleep does as well. When I start to feel worn out, stressed out or just unproductive I implement these 3 to help me get back on track.
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