What has changed on this blog this year?

For sometime now well wishers have been informing me of a few things which make their surfing experience at this blog not too interesting. The most common complaints were:

Too many links

On the left and right sidebars of the homepage, I had placed text affiliate banner links from some blog posts so that people can easily find the resources they need to create a blog, monetize it and to do work from home activities. The subsidiary idea was also to make this page eye-catching.

Homepage slow loading

But the colourful banners made the page slow to load, what could make visitors quickly click off and go elsewhere. Moreover some visitors found the links distracting. They are on the site for information (mainly the blog posts) and having those bright things beside the posts could not make them concentrate much.

Planning

So for some time now I have been planning on removing those links. But the question was: since they are available elsewhere should I dump them or, since they are important for my blog visitors should I place them elsewhere no so conspicuous but still accessible where they will not be in anybody’s way? After due consideration I decided to leave the text links on the left bar intact and create the following blog post categories for the banner links (weren’t they the most distracting?):

- Affiliate networks: will contain banners from my affiliate networking companies

- Website resources: will hold banners concerning site creation and webhosting

- Traffic sources: will have information on search engines and traffic exchanges

- Submit sites for SEO: these will be text links dedicated to submission to web directories

I decided also to remove sign up forms for my Aweber and TrafficWave campaigns from down the site (a stupid place to place them since important matters on a site should follow the 3-click rule, which means that they should not be more than three clicks away from the top) and place them where they are easily visible to visitors who could get this resource to run their own campaigns and build their lists (remember: the money is in the list) or promote their offers, products or websites.

The google+ followers were also hidden somewhere down the page. I decided to bring them way up, to the right sidebar. Concerned are also the blogs that I follow, poll: how would you rank the site?, subscribe to follow by email, and subscribe to posts and comments. To be brought here were also the YouTube and the YouTube video bars.

But the most difficult decision to take concerned the “External News” and “Thought of the Day” category tabs. They didn’t really fit in with my blog theme but contained gems. Some of them were visited every day and had run up quite a count. The problem was not to lose the counts but to cut them off from people who come to the site because of them. But didn’t the Bible say that if a part of your body is troubling you, it’s better for you to cast it off? Don’t surgeons amputate a gangrenous foot because it poses danger to a patient’s life? It isn’t an easy decision to take but go the leg must if the whole body should be saved.

This is why you won’t find any thoughts of the day nor external news matters anymore on the site.    

Implementation          

I began making these changes yesterday evening.

First I was torn between beginning with the categories and removing the banner links. I decided to do the former one first and realized I had forgotten how to create blog categories. I had then to go to my friend’s site (http://focusideas.fgpng.com/) where I had learned to do it. Blogs being constantly updated sites, I spent about an hour trying to find the link and then it dawned on me that my friend’s site name and address had changed from focusmarketingroup to focusideas.fgpng. Had he taken down the post? I wondered and prayed hard that was not the case. Finally I decided to go into the blog archives and there I found the link:   http://focusideas.fgpng.com/2013/08/how-to-arrange-your-blogger-blog-into.html

Then it occurred to me I may not really need all the new categories I wanted to create. Why not take down the links, regroup them, repost them onto the site and then see what next to do? Simply a matter of not putting the cart before the horse.

I took down the banners and copied the links into word. But posting them nearly made me lose my mind. My internet connection from my 3G modem drive was exceptionally slow. Thinking a cybercafé would be better (it would not be crowded at such a time because people would be preparing to go to church or out to enjoy themselves.

Outside one couldn’t feel the festive atmosphere. A few people threw crackers which had all the same been banned. But like other Africans, Togolese were going through hard times despite the impressive economic gains being chalked up by the continent these last few years.

The café was completely empty and I thought there was no network. But I was wrong. However I spent 20 minutes before I could open a homepage. Is that why people had deserted the pub? How can one expect to embed banner links in such circumstances? Puffing and shaking my head, I plodded on. The café began to fill up. A few people cursed the network and left. I went back home too.

My lovely wife Viviane and adorable kids (Emmanuel, a fourth year student in agronomy and Christine, a twelfth grade student of science) were preparing to go to church. “Aren’t you going to church?” Viviane asked me. “At least this time.”

I vented all my anger on her with a chilling look.

“Okay,” she said amiably, “As you want.”

I waved impatiently to them to go. Then I tried in vain until midnight when I wanted to make a resolution but thought what the heck, we make these resolutions that we hardly give any thought to right from the next day until a year later when we make another one soon to be forgotten too. I’m making a plan for 2014 and that was enough. What I needed was a prayer and an affirmation.

Quickly (maybe, too quickly) I thanked God for the past year and for this new one and recited my positive affirmation which I want to produce once gain for your appreciation:

I effortlessly, easily and seamlessly attract leaders, affiliates and entrepreneurs into my team and have a massive, solid residual income flowing ceaselessly into my bank account every month on autopilot enabling me to become who I want to become, to do what I want to do and to have what I wish to have and thus live the lifestyle of my dreams since the world responds so positively to my endless faith in its promises and I thank the heavenly father for that.

I was still reclining in my chair, eyes closed and head held, waiting for an embedded page to load. I straightened up only on hearing crackers pop (mostly from neighbouring Ghana only about 350 metres away) to welcome the New Year at midnight. The brevity of the noisy celebration compared to previous years’ was another indication of economic hardships facing all.

The next thing to wake me out of my stupor were my family’s footsteps. It was 12.38 am.

“Oh!” Viviane cried, “are you still here and not asleep yet?” She tittered.

I didn’t answer. Viviane had always been a carefree woman even in the face of the most crippling adversities. My family wished me happy New Year and I felt bad for not answering as I should, so mad had the impossible internet connection made me!

An hour later, after going round yahoo and other sites reading news, I abandoned the project for the next day.

I was up after 7 this morning and wondered if the alarm clock of my new mobile phone had rung at all at 5 am, my usual time for waking up.

I have made some progress this morning even with people coming in to wish me a happy new year. It was when the connection got bad again that I decided to fill in the time by writing this blog post. Now that I am almost at the end I will go to the blog again and finish the task at hand. Then I will also go to people and wish them happy New Year and also answer many of the New Year messages on my phone, many from my secretarial students (executive and bilingual commercial).

I will be right back.

The bad connection forced me to have a nap, one of the things most loved here but which I hardly did. The evening was enveloping Lome when I woke up groggy out of my crumpled bed and I can hear a few crackers popping in the distance.

I got down to business and by deciding to attach the links one by one and not all at once, succeeded in doing it. But the Affiliate network banners 1 still seem to have problems. But I will give myself some break now. You don’t have to eat all the cow to know that beef is delicious.

Now, what?

Yeah, now that it’s all almost over, why don’t you take some little time and tell me what you think about the changes? Have they changed your surfing experience here? Are there still hindrances? Please let me know in the comments column down here. Thank you and a Happy New Year!

Thank you and happy holidays!

To: All My Dear Subscribers and blog visitors and readers

From: Akoli Penoukou, The Online/Home Biz Servant

On behalf of myself and behalf of the affiliate companies I belong to, I would like to take a moment to THANK YOU for either asking for information about them or being a part of them and helping make them what they are today.

2013 has been an extremely successful year but also one full of challenges and one of the things that has been so gratifying is seeing so many people like you express interest in becoming affiliates to help yourselves, your families, or otherwise.  

Yes, affiliate network business is a global business, but it is also, clearly, a global brotherhood and sisterhood.  The more we interact with each other the more we will understand each other and the more we can extend a helping and a caring hand to each other. In my own very small way, I am bringing together people from every corner of the earth and making the world a better place for each.  

At a time when there is still much need for money, joblessness, less time for the family, hours spent commuting and other headaches of the job market, affiliate businesses are spreading hope. With them you have the opportunity to make massive, solid residual income flow each month into your bank account, create a job you love for yourself, spend more quality time you choose yourself with your family, leave the car in the garage or bike or walk, put the headaches of the job market behind you and help spread the hope too to other potential affiliates.

From my corner of the earth, I wish you a safe and happy holiday and a prosperous New Year, and look forward to continuing our partnership together!

With warmest regards,

Akoli Penoukou

Tel: +228 92566652

akolipenoukou@gmail.com

P.S.: Please, drop me a word to let me know how you are doing and let know what your plans are for 2014.

P.P.S.: I was following somebody on the TV who said that 2014 will be a great year because added together all the figures come to 7 and 7 is a magical figure. I don’t know anything about that. But what I know is that with us helping each other 2014 could be our greatest year ever!

Sunday Morning Facts!

*A blue whale's penis on average is 8 feet long. Taller than an adult human
*Mosquitoes have killed more humans than all the wars in history
*"Laser" is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
*It can take as long as 1 hr, 30 mins to hard-boil an ostrich egg
*70% of people suffer from allodoxaphobia,the fear of annoying others
*Camel bites can cause the human bone to dissolve..
*Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia-Fear of the mystic number 666..
*Colgate had difficulty marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking countries, where "Colgate" roughly translates to "Go hang yourself."
*Bob Marley was the father of 3 children born to 3 different women in just one month..
*Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, is red-green colorblind, meaning that the best color he can see is blue, that is why facebook is blue..

Posted on Facebook by:

Muiz Gbolahan Alegbeleye

10 novembre 05:14

How come ?!

Go here to sign up for my email campaigns

“How come?! What am I not doing right?” is your usual reaction when your home-based or online business or blog posts or the blog itself sucks. “What are people doing right that I aren’t doing?” you wonder and feel like throwing up your arms in despair or breaking something or even slugging someone. That is, do something crazy to vent your anger and exasperation on the world for not making you a star.

I’ve been there and I know.

Scenario number 1:

You hear of people making a killing over the internet with this or that affiliate marketing company and you excitedly sign up for it, maybe even pay for gold membership or something similar which will put your earnings on autopilot. Then you anxiously wait for the next day. You open your box in high spirits to see a million sign ups only to be met by vexatious mail of people promising you heaven and earth. You bark angrily and delete all those shit energetically although you needn’t go that far to do it.

Then you wonder how the gurus do it. You learn a few tricks, like buying visitors for your site or promoting on the social sites such as even creating a fan page on Facebook. You implement all those strategies and either a few leads come in or a few sign ups or nothing at all and this time you feel like blasting the whole world into smithereens.

Again you fall on someone writing about why 98% of people fail online and you snarl angrily. “I’m doing all that darn shit they’re suggesting but getting nowhere.” Then you close the page angrily and go on to read news of the world online, while your failure still gnaws at you distantly.

Scenario number 2:

You create the next blog to take the world by storm. Eagerly you post content, having learnt as a newbie that the best strategy is to post daily, once or several times. The first thing you check each day is how many visitors have come to your site. The low numbers make your back slump and your heart sink.

You google to find out strategies to get traffic to your site, such as sharing your content on social sites, especially Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon and the rest. Eagerly you do that but the traffic only increases marginally. “What the hell is happening here!” You bare your teeth like a lion going into the kill. You wonder what the hell is the matter with you. “I’m always not lucky.” “I’m the only ones such things happen to.”

Are you? If yes, then you’re an incredibly rare species.

I’m solving this ego-denting problem by reading about successful people who have made it at home, online or blogging. While some have made it in a time to make your envy overflow, I’m quietened on learning that others have had to go through excruciating experiences, tragedies which would have made some of us give up long ago or put the fatal rope around our frail necks or stick the hell-sending gun in our mouths or point it at our heads and be done with. David Wood and David Sharpe’s stories are about how two homeless and drug-addicted guys fought their way out of hopelessness and boldly confronted many of life’s damaging blows to become the founders of the Empower Network which has made them millionaires.

Many successful people have failed many more times than you can imagine. These are the stories you need as balm for your success.

However I’m learning my lesson to take my time to achieve success from the mobile phone!

Ask yourself: the first time you subscribed to your handset how many subscribers did you have? Only a handful, no doubt, made up of family members and some close friends. You live day and night expecting someone to call you but nobody does. (Why should they when they don’t know you or your number?) You also look for people to call but you don’t have many. Then you wonder with envy how come the other people’s telephones are always ringing and how they’re always calling people. But with time your subscriber base grows and after some time what happens? Maybe your phone has reached its maximum capacity and either you look for a phone with bigger memory capacity or you go through the list one by one looking for people you can safely delete.

While before you were looking for subscribers now you’re running away from them.

I believe if you are patient and go on building your home-based or online business or blog posts or the blog itself patiently, the day will come when you’d be glad you let time do its work.

This is why I so much like former late French President François Mitterrand for saying “Donnez le temps aux temps.” An invitation to us not to force time but to let life take its own course.

This certainly doesn’t mean being passive, so be active but temper your ardour to succeed with patience. 

 You haven't yet signed up for my email campaigns? Go here now!

Dear Blog Readers and Visitors, we’re Entering a Turbulent Zone

If you’re wondering what the heck I’m talking about, the first thing I want to say is that it’s not about flying. Its’ just a borrowed image to describe my own circumstances.

If you’ve been reading, following or visiting this blog faithfully, then you already know that I’m a freelance writer, a businessperson (somewhat) and a teacher. These are the professions which decided me to embrace blogging. It’s the third profession which is the subject matter of this post.

In effect, I teach business English in vocational training schools here to high school diploma holders studying to become advanced national vocational certificate holders in various professional fields. I’ve been on holidays for about two months now and school just reopened last week for the 2013-2014 academic year.

What has this got to do with entering a turbulent zone?

I recovered my blocked blog just before the holidays in July. I profited from the time I had on my hands to write and post daily. Now that school has begun, I wouldn’t have this time anymore.

In effect, I teach both day and evening classes, Monday through Saturday. Preparing lessons and teaching them would not only take up much of my time but also sap a lot of my energy. Add to that marking papers, attending staff meetings, and other related academic work, and you understand that time isn’t going to be on my side.

My blog posts are therefore going to suffer. No longer can I write and post daily. You might even have noticed the turbulence already since last week.

Is this worrying?

Yes, until I stumbled upon the blog www.socialtriggers.com and read in this post (http://socialtriggers.com/why-bloggers-fail/) “You don’t have to create content, day in, and day out. You just have to work on getting the content you already have… in the hands of more people.”

Jeez, what a load taken off my shoulders! How some of Derek Halpern’s (the blog owner) disciples felt when they learned this really sum up my feelings:

“Derek’s advice to blog less and promote more was earth-shattering and such a relief because it completely eliminated my blog stress and gave me peace and time and space back in my business to do what I love to do, which is coach people.” – Nicole Burley, Certified Health Coach and Life Coach, creator of NicoleBurley.com

 “My biggest struggle coming into the course was that I was writing frequently, but never really connecting with my followers… Now that I have taken the course, I feel that I have a game plan for each post.” Craig Koniver, MD, Organic Medicine Physician, creator of OrganicMedicineNow.com

It’s already 23.26 pm here. Tonight I’m going to sleep like a brand new baby.

Which 20 Ways Will Save You from Ending up Always Poor?

There are certain financial habits which, when adopted and followed, can make you stay rich. We’re going to talk about some of them here to help you avoid throwing money out the window. Here are the 20 ways to help you avoid making stupid financial mistakes.

 

1) Spend wisely in your youth

The advice “Spend according to your means” may sound evident but how reckless don’t you spend as a young man, thinking everything will be alright (you’ll be richer) when you grow old. The truth is the older you grow the more expenses you have and therefore the more financial problems pile up. According to Halifax, people with the most financial problems are those in their 40s and 50s. One in five of these people have such an overstretched budget that spending a dime more than necessary would bring financial hell. The best policy therefore is: don’t squander when you are young and your older days would be stress free.

 

2) Save, save, and always save

“A penny saved is a penny earned,” yet how many people ignore this advice but rather lavish their money on needless gadgets and clothes and nights which do them in in the morning. The advice is to set up a savings direct debit, this way the money leaving your account isn’t evident. You can safely “blow” the rest on your heart’s desire.

3) Always pay the maximum on your credit card

If you owe £5,000 on a credit card at an APR of 18.9%, and you only make the minimum repayment every month (either 2% or £5), it will take you 50 long years and nine months to clear that debt, and pay £12,182 in total interest. Do the opposite and save yourself this headache.

4) Always honour your monthly payments

Honouring the repayment of a mortgage, credit card, loan, mobile phone or hire purchase can increase your credit rating and make it easy to get cheap finance tomorrow. To ensure you don’t inadvertently miss any repayment, set up a direct debit.

5) Shun get-rich-quick schemes

Not trading in day shares, ignoring letters from Nigerian 419 princes, refusing to send cash for a jackpot in a Spanish lottery you’ve not even dreamt about, are some of the ways to avoid falling victim to scams and not make your money somebody else’s.

6) Drive wisely

Drive slower and save up on petrol. For example, doing 60 mph saves you 30% fuel than at 70 mph. Driving within speed limits and not using a hand-held device will not bring fines.

 

7) Avoid addiction

Do you chain-smoke, drink heavily, gamble, chase after women, spend compulsively on expensive stuffs you could do without, etc? If you avoid these forms of addiction, you will not end up burning money and your finances could stay healthy.

8) Avoid having children

This idea may be a shocker but the logic is this: raising a child costs about £13,000 a year. If you have to do this up to the age of 18, insurer LV estimates that your child will cost you £222,500 on average. These days that children hardly leave their parents’ roofs up to adulthood, the bill can be steep. In conclusion, raising a child is a financial freedom killer and the more children you have the more you hold financial freedom at bay.

9) Never compete financially

The Joneses are richer than you and if you want to have solid finances, it goes without saying that you don’t keep up with them. They can afford to burn a little more money but not you.

10) Face up to the truth about pension

If you have a pension and you die young, there would be no regrets. But imagine not having one and attaining that fateful age! It is therefore wise not to think of working forever, reducing your lifestyle one day, inheriting a wealthy relative, living fast, dying young, or winning the Lotto. Need peace in pension? Check this

11) Buy only what you need

Don’t turn compulsive buying into a lifestyle. The secret is to budget your expenditures and stick religiously to it.

12) Avoid being loyal to companies

Companies want loyal customers but that’s not to your advantage. When you stick to a bank, you get worse savings, mortgage, and credit card rates; to an insurer, you pay more for insurance; to a utility company, you pay more for energy, water and telephone; and to a store you pay higher prices. Not giving your custom to the same company brings competition among them and that is always good for the consumer as it leads to better services and lower rates.

13) Turn your old stuff into cash

Are your belongings gathering dust or cluttering your garage or basement? Then you’re ignoring money. Cashinyourgadgets will purchase your old mobiles, laptops, tablets and digital cameras. MusicMagpie.co.uk will help you exchange your clothes, CDs, DVDs, games, gadgets and electronics into money, and garage or car boot sales (You can do it here), or eBay or Amazon will do the same.

14) Be wary of sales people

Be careful of sales people, especially those who work for a bank. This way you avoid mis-sold pensions, endowments, payment protection insurance, etc. Your life savings are on the line. Hold your unbridled trust at bay.

15) Buy new property

New houses hardly need any care and repair for years so your savings are safe. If you think all you can afford are old property ask anyone who bought one and they will tell you how they constantly need care and repair and always make you dip into your pockets.

16) Break free from the payday loan trap

Call your payday loan company and cancel your Continuous Payment Authority (CPA). Then agree on a repayment plan with them. The best payment method would be a standing order as it will give you total control as to how much you pay and when you pay it.

 [How to break free from the payday loan trap]

17) Rely only on yourself

Counting on yourself is safer than doing so on someone else. A woman may rely on her partner for a pension, and end up divorced and broke; and a child banking on a £78,000 inheritance from their parents, should know that according to Skipton Building Society only six out of 10 get something.

18) Pre-order your foreign currency online

If you plan to travel, you would better pre-order your foreign currency online from companies such as ICE, FairFX, the Post Office, Tesco, Travelex, Marks & Spencer and Moneycorp. It’s true nobody likes to feel poor on holiday but it’s better to avoid buying your holiday money at the airport; their foreign-exchange boots are a rip-off.

19) Shop around for your first annuity

Maybe you feel obliged to buy an annuity—the income for life you buy with your pension at retirement—from your pension company. What you ignore is that shopping around can boost your retirement income by between 10% and 40%. Don’t do that and you end up with to 40% less income, your whole life.

20) Take action on your debt and stay debt free

If you’re in debt, get free advice today from debt charities such as National Debtline, StepChange Debt Charity, the Debt Advice Foundation or your local Citizen’s Advice and stay out of debt.

If you put these 20 recipes into practise, staying solvent wouldn’t be too tough.

How much do you know About African societies?

Yesterday, I promised to give you an insight into African societies in the areas mentioned in this post (Check it here). I said that it maybe has nothing to do with this blog’s theme, but remarked that this blog’s theme was not the ten commandments of God, meaning I can once in a while deviate from it without fearing an uproar or disapprobation.   

I had already said on this blog that I was a writer, teacher and had done business, all three areas useful for a blogger. What I hadn’t said is that I am also a sociologist; having obtained the French equivalent of the Master’s degree (maîtrise) at the university here with a major in Psycho-sociology of Communication.

Some of you, especially non-Africans, might have found it strange when I said yesterday I had “an appointment since three days ago to see my younger brother’s father-in-law yesterday Sunday 15 September 2013 at 10.30 concerning their recurrent conjugal problems, the last of which took them to the police (an anathema here but being encouraged by the Organizations defending women’s rights).”

Conjugal problems are often settled within the larger family, usually the spouses’ parents, aunts (who play central roles in marriages) and uncles. Since divorce is hardly encouraged here and African societies are controlled by men, this type of settlement is often viewed as inimical to women’s interests. Hardly is a man blamed in these circumstances, so the organizations for defence of woman’s rights have been carrying out campaigns encouraging women to resort to the law-enforcement agencies, including the courts.

But this butts against social resistance. Many people view it as an act of “high treason” for a woman to resort to the police, the NGOs or the courts to settle a matrimonial problem. A woman who goes that far is sure to face divorce. Right now my brother is under pressure to disown his wife because “she went that far.”  

This highlights difficulties of African societies since the coming of European colonialists in the 14^th century. It is said that since that moment Africa and Africans have been thrust out of history. We were following our own historical evolution when the “advanced” Europeans came and catapulted our societies out of its traditional modes and thrust it into something totally different and often contradictory.

I often tell people here that while the European may be married only once (civil marriage) or twice (religious also), many Africans do so three times. I married my wife in the traditional way by first paying a dowry (contrary to international opinion, here this does not connote buying a woman but constitute a sort of a legal agreement binding the two families and recognizing the woman as a person of value; that’s why a woman married without dowry is considered a disgrace) consisting of cloths, drinks, a Bible and a sum of money. Then we got married “legally” at the Mayor’s office. The whole was crowned with a religious ceremony to give it “God’s grace”.

If you consider all sectors of life (names, culture, food, even thoughts, etc), the African navigates between two worlds, sometimes for our own good but often pulling us in different directions.

You saw in yesterday’s post that I was torn between my appointment with my brother’s father-in-law and my fellow teacher’s invitation to a get-together the same day at noon. Going to the old man was answering the traditional call of brotherhood (we are generally community-centred) and the party was for self-gratification (showing how individualism is taking a hold on our society). Have you ever wondered why, with all the socio-political and economic problems, Africa has far less suicide rate than western societies? The mentality of being an integral part of whole makes our extremely difficult life “bearable”.   

I also mentioned yesterday that our society was a talking one.  No doubt I said that “To my surprise, we finished the matter in about an hour.”

When I was being trained to write, one of the pieces of advice given us to be productive was to hang a “Don’t disturb” notice on our door when busy writing. This made me smile. It simply wouldn’t work here. I write my blog posts in the sitting room with my children watching TV (thank God, they keep the volume low), my wife receiving visitors (she had to remind people from time to time to keep their voices low so that I can work), people coming to see me (I keep my computer on and turn to it from time to time to let them go away but hardly do they do so and it’s considered impolite to cut short a visit to you!), and neighbours doing their own thing (which could be turning on their radio sets too loud, talking animatedly at the top of their voices, etc., etc.)

The weather being lenient here year-round, doors and windows are kept open all day long and closed only at night. It doesn’t even make sense to keep one’s doors closed here except if the room was air-conditioned rooms since the room will soon be stuffy. Sociologically, one keeping indoors will be considered an outcast or asocial. When a German friend first came to visit me here his first remark was why there were so many people outdoors! And Africans who have never been to the West do not understand that even next-door neighbours keep very much to themselves.   

I mentioned yesterday that I got to my friend’s house at 1 pm, an hour after the invitation time, but would you believe that I was the first guest to arrive! We refer to this as “African punctuality”! If you want people to be at a meeting at 3 pm, tell them it will start at 2 pm, and you would be lucky to see them even at 3 pm! No wonder, most of the guests for the party arrived between 3 and 4! And as usual, those who came late wondered why there was no more food and drink.

The party, as I told you yesterday, lasted up to 5 pm. There was a lot to eat and drink and varied music to dance to. One of my cultural shocks in Germany was to be invited by somebody to drink and I had to pay for my drink. This is unheard of here. But what made my eyes widen even more was to receive an invitation to a party where I was asked to bring my own food and drink. One of my most embarrassing moments in life was when I answered such an invitation in Germany empty handed. I came back home with an empty stomach and a parched throat. While here when you invite a dozen people, be sure to have thrice that number. Recently people are trying to avoid having hangers on at their parties by checking the invitation cards, but either they receive less than the people invited (who view carrying cards an insult) or get hangers on also, especially if one was rich.        

Another curtain I lifted on my type of African society yesterday was in this sentence: “As custom demands I had to give my family feedback on my mission (with my brother’s father-in-law) and I since this is a big group, I know this will take time. Under the circumstances, I can’t find the time to write today’s post.”

I called the members of my family for a meeting at my younger sister’s. Of course, people came when they fancied. The meeting began when we had about half of those expected. People came as we progressed and we constantly had to repeat what had already been said and it was not only late but also I was battered when the meeting ended. 

Yesterday, I had promised to give you an insight into African societies in the areas mentioned in that post. What should have been easy to write turned out otherwise. So many ideas scrambled to be put down! Selecting among them was painful but I had to in order to finish this “extraordinary” post.

This may not have anything to do with my blog’s theme, but I am happy to have opened a window on the society from which I come and in which I still live and in which I may die.

Man shall not live by bread alone. So if you need more details on what has been discussed here or on another aspect of my type of African society (wide variations exist from one African society to the other), don’t hesitate to ask. The pleasure shall be mine to fill you in.   

It’s Not the Ten Commandments of God

This is what I tell my students when I complain about their work they had not revised before handing them in and they reply that they so much love what they had written that they didn’t want to touch any part of it.    

You may ask what has this got to do with this blog?

The point is I had an appointment since three days ago to see my younger brother’s father-in-law today Sunday 15 September 2013 at 10.30 concerning their recurrent conjugal problems, the last of which took them to the police (an anathema here but being encouraged by the Organizations defending women’s rights) and last night a good friend of mine (a fellow colleague teaching computing) invited me to a get-together the same day at noon.

In Africa, a society which adores talking for hours on end, especially concerning such family problems, I wasn’t sure to be finished with the first appointment even before 2, 3 or more hours, so I told my friend to excuse me if I didn’t show up.

To my surprise, we finished the matter in about an hour (thanks to the fact that only me and my brother’s father-in-law—assisted by one of his sons of 13 children who the father had called as a witness and who hardly talked) and I got to my friend’s house at 1 pm. The party lasted up to 5 pm and I got home an hour later.

As custom demands I had to give my family feedback on my mission (with my brother’s father-in-law) and I since this is a big group, I know this will take time. Under the circumstances, I can’t find the time to write today’s post.

A blogger is advised to post constantly and I do so each day. Today is an exception, so should I be worried?

Normally yes, but posting to a blog at a certain rhythm is not the ten commandments of God. Only the ten commandments of God cannot be changed but any other thing can, hence the title of this post.

Tomorrow, I will give you an insight into African societies in the areas mentioned in this post. What has this got to do with this blog? Maybe nothing, but this blog’s theme is not the ten commandments of God.    

My Blog Posts Are Categorized At Last

I had promised in the blog post “Post of Apology” (Click here to read it ) that I was not giving up until I got it right to put my blog posts into categories so that you can easily find the posts in particular categories to read.

Well, I’m thrilled to inform you that I’ve done it at last.

In effect, my fellow blogger, whose posts I was depending on to categorize the posts, had acknowledged an error in the posts and sent me the correction which worked the magic.  

Once again I give you the following quote:

“My strategy in life is simple: I make up for a profound lack of talent by refusing to quit. That's enabled me to accomplish almost every goal I've set for myself – from winning a high school state championship in water polo (when I joined the team I had to play goalie because I could barely swim)… to achieving academic goals (I must be one of the few people with dyslexia to pursue a career as a writer)…

...to building relationships (my wife broke up with me six times)… to building this business (early in my career, Bill Bonner, who is now my business partner, called me "hopeless").

It's amazing what you can accomplish if you simply refuse to quit.” ― Porter Stansberry

That’s exactly what I have been able to do with putting my blog posts into different categories.

Praise is due to you too my dear blog visitors and followers since I had asked you to pray for me!

All I can say now is enjoy the posts!!

Post of Apology

On reading this title, many of you may wonder what I mean.

Just as a company feels obliged to send a Letter of Apology to a client it has disappointed in some way, today I also feel the urge to write you (my visitors and followers) a Post of Apology.

Why?

Since taking control of my blog again a couple of months ago, I have always posted a Thought of the Day and an article or a Newsletter every day. But today there is not going to be any Thought of the Day as such, nor a post or Newsletter.

In effect, I have been struggling for the past two days with putting my posts into categories to show at the top bar of the horizontal bar for ease of consulting the articles and I think I owe you (who come here or expect something to read everyday) a word of apology. You doubt remember the following blog “post”:

PLEASE NAVIGATE WITH CARE!

Well, that title was meant as a joke but not a very light one. 

In effect, I'm trying to organize my posts into blocks for ease of navigation but haven't quite got it right despite working on it up to 1 am today. So, bear with me and everything will be alright soon (in a day or two). Thanks for your comprehension. 

      

The French say that “La promesse est une dette,” meaning one must keep one’s promise, hence my move.

Now, do I expect to succeed in the task above?

To answer, let’s look at another Thought of the Day already posted here:

“My strategy in life is simple: I make up for a profound lack of talent by refusing to quit. That's enabled me to accomplish almost every goal I've set for myself – from winning a high school state championship in water polo (when I joined the team I had to play goalie because I could barely swim)… to achieving academic goals (I must be one of the few people with dyslexia to pursue a career as a writer)…

...to building relationships (my wife broke up with me six times)… to building this business (early in my career, Bill Bonner, who is now my business partner, called me "hopeless").

It's amazing what you can accomplish if you simply refuse to quit.” ― Porter Stansberry

Although I have a fellow blogger’s post to guide me (Check it here), my difficulty is at Step 3. Although I’m able to put all my posts into different categories, when I try to create a page for them, I receive the same url address which therefore does not differentiate between my categories and a clink on any of them sends me to my dashboard!

But as Porter says above, I’m not giving up. I’ll get it right so that you can easily find the posts in particular categories to read.

Please, pray for me!

The Power of Positive Affirmations Affirmed

I’ve had ample opportunities to talk on this subject of positive affirmations, a necessity for anyone keen on succeeding in this difficult life, more so in business which is becoming more and more complicated.

American endurance swimmer Diana Nyad’s story has come at the right time to reinforce the power of positive affirmations in helping overcome overwhelming odds. Diana’s was “Find a way”. Mine is “I’m succeeding, oh Lord, I’m succeeding against all odds,” when the going gets tough. What’s yours?

Please see extract below taken from http://gma.yahoo.com/abc-blogs concerning Diana Nyad’s mantra: 

What Makes Athletes Like Diana Nyad Strive?
 

"I decided this year to use a mantra … and the phrase I decided to use was 'Find a way,'" Nyad told "GMA" anchor Robin Roberts.

"If something is important to you and it looks impossible and you're up against it, just step back for a minute and say, 'Really? Do I have the resolve to think of everything [to the] nth degree to get through this?' and most times we do," she said. "People give up too quickly." (Put in bold and underlined by me)

Click on me to read the full story

You can find positive affirmations in many of the Thought of the Day on this site. And there are blog posts on positive affirmations too. See especially blogspot.com/the-secret

Should Failures be the End of our Dreams?

Today I set out to write a post about how our failures should fuel our determination to succeed instead of discouraging us into abandoning our dreams. But going through my Thoughts of the Day to look for quotes to sprinkle throughout the text, I found myself laden with quite a number of them. The only alternative then use them all with minimal comments.

Failure is a stimulant

Failure is indisputably a part of life. A very conspicuous part anyway. But what should be paramount in our minds is summed up in this African Ewe-Ge-Mina (my ethnic group) proverb: “Don’t turn where you fell into a bed.” This is what some great thinkers are also telling us:

“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” - Dale Carnegie

“Failure is success if we learn from it.” ~ Malcolm Forbes

"Don't be afraid to fail. Don't waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It's OK to fail. If you're not failing, you're not growing."-H. Stanley Judd

Action defeats failure

Heaven helps those who help themselves is also a proverb which exists in my language as “Lift your load onto your knee and God will hoist it onto your head.” What do some great thinkers say?

"The common conception is that motivation leads to action, but the reverse is true - action precedes motivation. You have to 'prime the pump' and get the juices flowing, which motivates you to work on your goals. Getting momentum going is the most difficult part of the job, and often taking the first step...is enough to prompt you to make the best of your day." -Robert J. McKain

"Success...seems to be connected with action. Successful men keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit." -Conrad Hilton

"Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right.' Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along." -Napoleon Hill

"The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action."
-Alexander Graham Bell

Achievement seems to be connected with Action. Successful men and women make mistakes, but they keep on trying and never quit! (F5MMillinaire’s club newsletter)

"Don't tell yourself the lie that you can't do it. The truth is you CAN but you don't because you're afraid..." ― Anthony Robbins

Keep on keeping on

Sometimes we take action upon action in our determination to succeed but see no results. And then we quit. What however is the wisest thing to do? Here are answers from some great minds:

“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” - Vince Lombardi

"The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life is often merely the will to try it and the faith to believe that it is possible." - Richard M. DeVos

"The odds are with us if we keep on trying." - Keith DeGreen

"If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed." -David Viscott

"The person determined to achieve maximum success learns the principle that progress is made one step at a time. A house is built a brick at a time. Football games are won a play at a time. A department store grows bigger one customer at a time. Every big accomplishment is a series of little accomplishments."
-David Joseph Schwartz

"If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and when it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye and say, 'I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.'"
-Ann Landers

"What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens." -Thaddeus Golas

"I was once asked if a big business man ever reached his objective. I replied that if a man ever reached his objective he was not a big business man." -Charles M Schwab

“My strategy in life is simple: I make up for a profound lack of talent by refusing to quit. That's enabled me to accomplish almost every goal I've set for myself – from winning a high school state championship in water polo (when I joined the team I had to play goalie because I could barely swim)… to achieving academic goals (I must be one of the few people with dyslexia to pursue a career as a writer)… ...to building relationships (my wife broke up with me six times)… to building this business (early in my career, Bill Bonner, who is now my
business partner, called me "hopeless"). It's amazing what you can accomplish if you simply refuse to quit.” ― Porter Stansberry

"The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail. Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel. - Napoleon Hill

"Whatever you do, never quit this business … you can do it." Quotation copied from an email message sent me by an internet marketer Franks Salinas.

"There is no sudden leap into the stratosphere...There is only advancing step by step, slowly and tortuously, up the pyramid toward your goals..." -Ben Stein

"Many Huge Success's Were Built On Many Small Failures! Never have regrets, Always have learning experiences and learn from those who are already successful." ~ Paul Nulty

Dream, Dream, Dream

Persistence or perseverance can help us succeed only if it is sustained by an unwavering dream. Do wise people agree?

"When you think big, your results are big." -Thomas J. Vilord

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind." -William James

“There are many ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is” – Albert Einstein.

Conclusion

My conclusion is a call to action. What’s the use in giving a person instructions to carry out a task without giving them the tools to accomplish them?

P.S.:

Have you failed online, obtained only limited success, been afraid to try or never even thought of venturing into such a business? Don’t worry. On this site you can find many different profitable business opportunities I’ve carefully selected to help you succeed online. Whether it is affiliate marketing, matrixes, advertising, traffic exchanges, teams, list building, blogging, webinars, marketing, payment processing, etc. you only need to take a tour, send me a mail at akolipenoukou@gmail.com, give me a call on +228 92566652 or get me on skype (ID: akolipenoukou) and you’d be served.