How I persuaded one angry Twitter follower to happily work for me for free as an active traffic machine

A little while ago I noticed a familiar name appear in my screen. The name of a band that I used to work for, one that I had parted company with on bad terms, one that owed me money. But this Twitter follower wasn’t that band. It was someone else who they had decided to fall out with. I’ll cut a very long story short in order to illustrate my point. Adam Derbyshire is a web designer. He is also a very angry man. An angry man with a loaded... Read More

A new aesthetic direction

In order to put an end to the design procrastination I mentioned a few days ago I’ve decided to take Upstart Blogger, and my other blogs, in a new aesthetic direction. The goal is to put an end to the hours that I spend designing and redesigning, browsing typography forums looking the perfect typeface for each of my blogs and generally wasting days, literally, starring into Photoshop. The successful end product will be a Wordpress theme powering... Read More

Devils advocate

I get a lot of email from people who claim to have found some sort of magic, money making secret code. They always make the same approach and offer the same promise. They will give me a free copy of their amazing income generating system plus a referral fee for any customers I send their way if I write a positive review. Of course, I’m not alone in being approached by these pan handling idiots. If you’ve ever wondered why so many bloggers,... Read More

Smashing down the wall that stands in the way of the big blogging money

It’s no secret that this blog generates a very credible income. An income that grew steadily up to a little under nine thousand dollars a month over the last eighteen months. But there’s a problem. I want, and am capable of making, more. A lot more. Blogging is, up to a certain point at least, a way of making money that scales very easily. Upstart Blogger has scaled very nicely indeed since it first stepped out into the blogosphere in... Read More

Creating the perfect blogging workspace

This week I have taken delivery of two very interesting packages. One package contained some promotional items, a unique take on traditional paper notebooks and index cards which I will review in due course, and the other contained my new HAG Capisco chair that I mentioned a few weeks ago. It’s no exaggeration to say that the chair has changed the way I work. I am now able to sit at my desk for longer periods of time without back pain dominating... Read More

Increase your blogging productivity with zero tolerance grudge holding

I’m in the middle of a productivity drive. I know I can be more productive, and ultimately make more money, but I am slowed down by a number of things that are, surprisingly enough, completely within my control. Recently I explained how I handle incoming email. A Gmail domain account takes care of spam ensuring that virtually all messages that hit my desktop are genuine. Highrise takes care of email conversations with known contacts, Nutshell... Read More

Choosing the right blogging path

In a week that has seen the news dominated by revelations of dishonesty, profiteering, racketeering, and tax fraud in the political establishment it seems fitting that the following story found it’s way onto my radar. Don’t worry, I am not going to link to the person behind the following scam. I will quote from his blog but I have no intention of giving this particular cheat the benefit of any Upstart Blogger Google juice. The story begins... Read More

Fixing the weak link in the online money making chain

Money is complicated. It really shouldn’t be, since making money online with a blog isn’t rocket science, but when the dinosaurs of the world get involved their old, outdated and often dishonest ways allow clouds of misdirection and confusing to form. Consider this. I make money with my blog. I get sent that money via wire transfer from the companies I choose to promote. That money hits my bank. Simple, right? The amount of money I make,... Read More

Powerful custom built Inbox Zero implementation

My recent Twitter success, which saw my account go from zero to over two thousand followers in under a week, has highlighted my ongoing need for a better email system. My audience is growing faster than ever before and my incoming email volume reflects this. Achieving Inbox Zero is, according to an ever growing number of GTD users, the only real way forward, applying rules to all incoming messages and sweeping them away in any number of folders and... Read More

Achieve more credibility on Twitter and grow a high quality community of followers in ten minutes a day

The uneducated chase for massive followers on Twitter, usually facilitated by a scam method like Brute Force Twitter, is becoming increasingly futile. Spam loaded Twitter accounts are generated every second, usually powered by some ridiculous automated system that only enables the dumb spammer to furnish his account with thousands of other spammers. Zombie accounts following other zombie accounts. Sure, the numbers might look impressive but there... Read More