Why did you let me drown?

Posted on 15 August 2008 by Rosalind Gardner

Too frequently I hear from people who are sadly disappointed by their lack of online business success.

Almost as frequently the main reason for their failure to achieve success can very simply be explained with the following story about the preacher in the flood.

The water was up to the top of the church steps when a National Guard truck came by. “Get in, Preacher! The water’s rising.”

And the preacher said, “No. I trust in the Lord.”

The water rose and flooded the church. The preacher climbed up on the roof. Two boys came by in a John boat.

“Get in, Preacher! The water’s rising.”

And the preacher said, “No. I trust in the Lord.”

The water rose higher, and the preacher climbed up on the steeple. A helicopter came by and dropped a sling.

“Grab the sling, Preacher! The water’s rising.”

And the preacher said, “No. I trust in the Lord.”

The water rose even higher, and the preacher drowned.

In heaven, he said, “Lord, I had such trust in you. Why did you let me drown?”

And the Lord said, “Dummy! I sent you a deuce-and-a-half, a john boat and a helicopter!!”

So, if you find your business floundering, remember that success ultimately depends on your ability to use the tools you have and take action every day.

Woohoo! I Won 4.6 Million Bucks

Posted on 27 March 2008 by Rosalind Gardner

Just got the following email:

Your email address has won $4.6M from the UK Lottery online draws of 1st/02/08. Lucky #: GHDJ487304JDGD9W. For claims reply back to Mr. Donald Owens on don.wens1@hotmail.com with your official names, Nationality/resident country, address, sex, age, tel/mobile #, occupation, date of draw.

- uk Lottery Organization

Ya right… PLEASE don’t be fooled by these spammers. Don’t even reply to tell them how much you hate their spam!

Home at Last

Posted on 19 March 2008 by Rosalind Gardner

Last Friday, I asked Ed to let you all know that my surgery went well and that I was on the mend and well, I had to chuckle when I saw his, “Surgery Update” post yesterday, because that’s exactly what he said. (He’s unlikely to become a hardcore blogger anytime soon.) :-)

Anyway, after a successful surgery, a prolonged stay in recovery, a forced rise in blood pressure, a threatened blood transfusion, zero sleep and contracting a cold; I was finally released from the hospital yesterday. Even better news, it turns out that the mass was benign.

Yeah!

To ensure a full recovery, I will be spending the next week relaxing, recuperating and getting some much-needed shut eye. As I am able, I’ll check for blog comments and post more here and at NPT.

Thanks again for all your good wishes and prayers — I’m certain that played a huge role in getting me sprung so quickly.

Spam: An Original Pitch for Cash

Posted on 10 March 2008 by Rosalind Gardner

Here’s a new one when it comes to spam. Apparently, if I don’t give AL-QUAEDA (btw, there’s no ‘u’ in al Qaeda, boys.) NETWORKS $10,000.00, they’re gonna kill me. Ooooo, I’m scared. And WHAT? That’s all I’m worth… a lousy 10 grand? Anyway, here’s their original pitch… spelling and grammar horrors included.

Attn,

I am very sorry for you, is a pity that this is how your life is going to
end as soon as you don’t comply. As you can see we are the members of
the deadly networks in the world, which is the responsible for the bombing
of twin tower’s in America on Sept. 11th and the bombing of London
transport services on the July 7th (AL-QUAEDA NETWORKS), I don’t have any
business with you, my duty as I am mailing you now is just to KILL you
and I have to do it as I have already been paid for that.

Someone whom you called your friend told us all about you and how you
supporting President George Bush, during the war against our Muslim
brothers
in Iraq and this person have spent a lot of money in this venture, This
person came to us and told me that he wanted you dead and he provided us
with your name, picture and other necessary information’s we needed about
you. So I sent my boys to track you down this including bugging of your
phones with satellite tracking devices and they have carried out the
necessary investigation we needed for the operation on you, and if you
doubt this information am going to give you all the necessary information
about you back to you in your next reply so that you can believe me, and
my boys are really on you but I told them not to kill you that I will
like to contact you and see if your life is important to you and the one
of your family. I called my client back and ask him of your email address
which I didn’t tell him what I wanted to do with it and he gave it to me
and I am using it to contact you now. As I am writing you this mail my
men are monitoring you and they are telling me everything about you.

Now do you want to LIVE OR DIE? Since all program has be made and draw to
kill you. Get back to me now if you are ready to pay some fees to spare
your Life, $10,000 is all you need to spend in this process you will
first of all Pay $7,000 and then I will send a tape to you which I
recorded in every discussion I had with the person, who wanted you dead
and as soon as you get the Tape, You will pay the remaining balance of
$3,000. If you are not ready for my help, then I will carry on with my
job straight-up, while we are doing this, we want to make America,
London, Spain, Germany a hell for those that support the President George
Bush war against Iraq, our Muslim
Country.

WARNING: DO NOT THINK OF CONTACTING THE POLICE OR EVEN TELLING ANYONE
BECAUSE I WILL NOW ,REMEMBER, SOMEONE WHO KNOWS YOU VERY WELL WANT YOU
DEAD!

I WILL EXTEND IT TO YOUR FAMILY, INCASE I NOTICE SOMETHING FUNNY ABOUT
YOUR TELLING THE SECURITY ABOUT IT BECAUSE A GOOD LOOK IS OUT YOU AT
MOMENT.

DO NOT COME OUT ONCE IT IS 7PM UNTIL I MAKE OUT TIME TO SEE YOU AND GIVE
YOU THE TAPE OF ALL DISCUSSION WITH THE PERSON WHO WANT YOU DEAD THEN YOU
CAN USE IT TO TAKE ANY LEGAL ACTION. GOOD LUCK AS I AWAIT YOUR REPLY……

THANKS,

AL-QUAEDA NETWORKS

U.S. Merchants: Think Outside Your Borders

Posted on 07 March 2008 by Rosalind Gardner

Here’s a reminder for U.S. online companies that do business with international clients.

British Columbia is a P-r-o-v-i-n-c-e.

Does that seem like a minor point? Well, those Americentric errors are killing your sales with people from the ‘outside’ world.

When they see those mistakes, your potential customers and affiliates always stop and wonder…

Could these people really NOT know that Canada is comprised of provinces, or were they sloppy in designing their form? And if they screwed up the form because they’re sloppy, do I really want to do business with those too careless to get a basic form correct?

As an affiliate, if I have to enter ‘B.C.’ or ‘British Columbia’ in the city form blank because the list of provinces is missing from the dropdown, I wonder if my commission check will be addressed to Penticton, Canada. While Canada Post may be able to figure that one out, I’m not keen to tempt fate or wait that much longer for a check.

If on the other hand, I’m ordering a product, I don’t bother with questions. I make the safe assumption that the shipping will get screwed up and abandon the cart immediately.

So, are you losing sales over completely avoidable errors?

Check your forms, or make sure that the person you hire to create those forms has passed Grade 4 geography. Better yet, ask them whether they have a passport that they’ve actually used.

And, if you want to make an even better first impression on your international customers, have your newly hired geography major change the box to read “Zip / Postal Code“. (Hint: it’s only called a zip code in the States.)

When Was YOUR Last Medical?

Posted on 05 March 2008 by Rosalind Gardner

Ros in a hospital gownThis is definitely not my favorite look. I prefer Valentino, but next week I won’t have a choice — I’ll be sporting ‘haute Hospital couture’.

This fashion demise began last Friday during my annual medical. Apparently, it attracts attention when after extensive teeth-gritting you half-yell “OWWWWW!!!!” in response to a doctor’s probing.

So, on Sunday, I had a CT Scan and yesterday I got the word that next week I am scheduled to have a rather impressive abdominal mass surgically removed.

I’m slightly upset, but not for the reasons you might think.

I’m cheesed because I’m gonna be holed up in recovery for weeks and weeks and won’t be able to do yoga or go for a run just as the weather is getting really nice. I’m also upset because I’m going to miss 2 conferences that I was really looking forward to attending.

I’m especially upset however, about the fact that I didn’t pay enough attention to the clues my body has been giving me for months and months, eg. slightly elevated temperature, a little unusual discomfort, etc. — you know, all those things that you just ‘tough out’.

Duh. Me.

Anyway, although I trust that all will be well, I’ll be very grateful if you would be so kind as to call upon higher powers, cross your fingers, imagine golden light or simply think good thoughts for me on Thursday March 13th. THANKS in advance!!!

And… when was YOUR last medical?

The WWW Webinar Comments

Posted on 22 September 2007 by Rosalind Gardner

Here’s a note that I received from Janet Beckers of WonderfulWebWomen.com after our teleseminar / interview on September 17th.

Hi Ros and Joel,

Thanks so much for such a wonderful interview today Ros. It is so refreshing to hear someone make it all sound so simple and doable. I also loved your views on building a business aligned with your values and building on what women do naturally - build relationships.

We were competing with Mark Joyner today who had a webinar at the same time … One of the women who stayed for the mastermind told me she had both our calls running at once but turned off Mark’s because she was getting such value from your interview. That’s not something many can brag about!

I thought you may appreciate reading some of the comments people sent in through the webinar. I have cut and pasted them below.

Cheers,
Janet

The Super Affiliate Handbook is FANTASTIC!!! Everyone should have a copy, no matter what internet business they think they want to go into. - Sharon In the US

Thank you - that now makes more sense. - Kathie-Cairns

Can we stop the madness, you just said the very thing that I was thinking today. (This relates to your comments about keeping it simple and not buying in to the emails that promise the latest and greatest way to generate traffic) - Kim Beasley-St. Louis, MO, USA

I’m always happy to help you help your home-based listeners and/or subscribers make sense of doing business online. Just drop me a note through the Support Desk at NetProfitsToday.com and we’ll tee up a teleseminar or webinar schedule.

Alfresco Dining in March

Posted on 02 April 2007 by Rosalind Gardner

Spring has sprung in the Okanagan!

The birds are singing, the fruit trees are in bloom and the daily high temperature has been above 15 degrees Celcius consistently for the past week.

The latter fact permits us to dine alfresco in late March!

And really, what’s more glorious than having lunch with a friend on the home patio and enjoying a fabulous view on a beautiful spring day?

OK, maybe serving that lunch on some beautiful teak patio furniture… and that is in the works! :-)

Welcome to RosalindGardner.com

Posted on 01 April 2007 by Rosalind Gardner

I think it perfectly fitting that I make my first post to RosalindGardner.com on April Fool’s Day.

Let’s see, I’ve had a successful online business since January 1998 (now more than 9 years) and only now do I realize how silly I’ve been not to capture a No. 1 spot on Google with my own name — Rosalind Gardner using the domain rosalindgardner.com that I registered with GoDaddy on the 18th of June 2002.

Duh. Big BIG DUH!

Live and learn… and besides, all that traffic was not really lost as I was redirecting traffic from this domain to my site NetProfitsToday.com during that time.

Anyway, let’s see how long it takes Google to put RosalindGardner.com in the top listing for a search for “Rosalind Gardner”. :-)

More to come…

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