You may have noticed this tiny widget at the bottom of every post here. It’s called ShareThis and it’s really useful. If you have a wordpress blog, you can install the plugin and have it up and running in less than 5 minutes.

ShareThis plugin

ShareThis is like this all-in-one-godzilla widget that allows your readers to just syndicate your blog content on all the major social bookmarking (like Digg) and networking sites (Facebook) out there on the net. Not only that, it also allows your readers to share your blog posts with their friends through email.

Really, really good stuff. Considering that I had to install multiple plugins in the past just to accomplish what ShareThis does all by itself. Plus it looks nice, clean and simple as well. So if you haven’t had this installed on ya blog, I’d recommend you do. No harm there, eh?

Like I mentioned previously, I took a little break away from blogging and had some time to just absorb what I’ve put down so far on this site. And I noticed my About page was very outdated. I wrote that page almost 2 years ago (when I was just starting out online), and I felt I needed to write something new to keep up with my progress thus far.

So this is what I wrote AT FIRST:

Almost every website or blog has an About page, right? So here’s my brief story so far:

Ever since I was a kid, I knew I never really wanted to have a 9-5 job as way to make a living. Nothing wrong with jobs; it just wasn’t my cuppa tea.

Maybe it was my parents who, although highly successful in their respective careers, spent so much time on their jobs that they never really got around to truly enjoying their lives. And I knew I didn’t want that path, especially if it meant only truly enjoying your life after retirement.

So I started asking ‘How could I make more than enough money without having a 9-5 job and still have the time to enjoy the things I want to do?’. I carried that question with me all through my school days but as a kid you never really stressed yourself out with finding out the answer immediately.

Fast forward some number of years and I was ready to finish my National Service and my whole future lay before me. Now that same old question came rushing back and I knew it was time to find an answer for myself. Either I decided now what I really wanted to do or I go back to school to earn a degree.

Since I didn’t fancy having a job all that much, I made a choice to take the less traveled path and started my attempt at creating something for my future.

I dabbled in so many opportunities; network marketing, real estate, options trading, being a personal trainer, etc and they all never really worked out for me. After one desperate year running round the mill, I had NO results and I was starting to get worried about how I was ever going to ‘make it’.

This was then I decided that enough was enough, I should become realistic and just go back to school to earn my business degree. And I did just that.

However it was during this period that I stumbled upon this new fangled widget called Internet marketing. I attended a preview and the hosts (being great marketers themselves) made over US$7,000 in less than 45 minutes LIVE.

I was blown away! So immediately I signed up for their seminar and later on signed up for a coaching program so I could start learning how I could be successful in this industry.

There was ONE really great thing I learned in the seminar I went to; that you didn’t need to be an expert at anything to start marketing on the Internet. You could actually find an expert to work with you and simply market his/her products or services online.

I did just that. My break came when I approached Adam Khoo with the idea of working with him marketing his products on the Internet. He would be the expert and I’d be the marketer.

Now even though I was just starting out on the Internet and I had ZERO experience and ZERO results to back me up. Adam gave me the opportunity. And I grabbed it with both hands and I started applying what I had learned in my coaching program.

I set up Adam’s blog (which is still doing very well to this day) and wrote the salesletter for Adam’s new product that was being launched back in 2006 – Secrets Of Self-Made Millionaires.

During the time I was doing all this, I was also collecting opt-in leads from Adam’s blog and couple of other article sites I’d set up previously. I believe I had about 500+ emails.

I finished the Secrets Of Self-Made Millionaires website and I was ready to release it to my list. I wrote up a sales email pitching Secrets Of Self-Made Millionaires, sent it to my list, and crossed my fingers. I remember telling myself that if I just sold one darn copy, it’d be a success.

But Secrets Of Self-Made Millionaires did sell more than one darn copy.

It actually grossed more than US$1,100 in 24 hours. I was ecstatic! And In the end Secrets Of Self-Made Millionaires grossed US$10,011 in just a little over 7 days and I was completely awestruck by what I had just achieved.

Ever since, I’ve been an Internet marketer full-time. I didn’t go back to school in the end (well, I did for 3 months, then I left) and I still market Adam’s fine products on the Internet to this day.

Along with my personal projects, other companies have also now approached me for the same skill and advice that made my first initial foray into Internet marketing a fine success. Nowadays I no longer do this alone and I now work with a wonderful team do manage all client and personal projects successfully.

It’s amazing how from one simple act of attending a seminar years ago (along with other life-changing decisions) has allowed to be doing the thing I’m doing today.

And with all the wonderful mentors and friends that have guided along the way, I feel really grateful for all that has happened to me so far. I obviously I’ve a long way to go in this journey but this adventure is something I definitely look forward to.

This blog is simply a chronicle of my real-life experiences in Internet marketing till now and I write as a means of sharing that experience with anyone who’s interested to read about it.

So that’s my story so far. I hope it struck a chord with you, especially if you’re just starting out online and I truly wish you all the best.

Sincerely,
Adam

OK. Can you feel the BOREDOM already? I wrote that piece, read it myself, and I felt like I sounded like some corporate goofball trying too hard to sound prim, proper, and professional. Bleh!

So I decided I need to inject my personality into the whole to make it unique; to make ‘my own’. So this is how I changed things round:

Almost every website or blog has an About page, right? So I thought I shouldn’t miss out on the fun!

Here’s My Brief Story So Far…

Ever since I was a kid, I knew I never really wanted to have a 9-5 job as way to make a living. In fact, my longest stint at a ‘job’ was when I was doing my National Service in Singapore and they paid me peanuts. (And they got a monkey!)

Nothing wrong with jobs; it just wasn’t my cuppa tea. Maybe it was my parents who, although highly successful in their respective careers, spent so much time on their jobs that they never really got around to truly enjoying their lives (until now that is… My Mum is SO living it up as a tai-tai, you won’t believe the amount of Korean drama serial DVDs she rips through. My Dad just plays golf).

Anyway, I knew I didn’t want that path, especially if it meant only truly enjoying your life after retirement. Oh no, I wanted my decadent luxury NOW!

So Business Became My Interest.

The question on my mind was ‘How could I make more money than that guy over there, and still be as lazy as I wanna be?’, or something like that. (I bet EVERYONE has that same question.)

I carried that question with me all through my school days but as a kid you never really stressed yourself out with finding out the answer immediately. You’re just too busy being lazy FIRST.

Fast forward some number of years and I was ready to finish my National Service and my whole future lay before me. Now that same old question came rushing back and I knew it was time to find an answer for myself. Either I decided now what I really wanted to do or I go back to school to earn a degree.

Since I didn’t fancy being be a wage monkey all that much, I made a choice to take the less traveled path and started my feeble attempt at creating something for my future.

So I Started Searching…

I dabbled in so many opportunities; network marketing, real estate, options trading, being a personal trainer (for females… never made it), etc and they all never really worked out for me. After one desperate year running round the mill, I had NO results and I was starting to get worried about how I was ever going to ‘make it’.

This was then I decided that enough was enough, I should become realistic and just go back to school to earn my business degree. And I did just that. (The real reason was because I’d run out of pocket money and if I went back to school, I’d bet my Mum would give me some. I know, shameless…)

But Then I Discovered This!

However it was during this period that I stumbled upon this new fangled widget called Internet marketing. I attended a preview and the hosts (being great marketers themselves) made over US$7,000 in less than 45 minutes LIVE.

I was blown away! I wanted that kind of self-indulgent superpower! So immediately I signed up for their seminar and later on signed up for a coaching program so I could start learning how I could be successful in this industry.

There was ONE really great thing I learned in the seminar I went to; that you didn’t need to be an expert at anything to start marketing on the Internet. You could actually find an expert to work with you and simply market his/her products or services online.

I did just that. My break came when I approached Adam Khoo with the idea of working with him marketing his products on the Internet. He would be the expert and I’d be the marketer.

Now even though I was just starting out on the Internet and I had ZERO experience and ZERO results to back me up. Adam gave me the opportunity (he later revealed that he thought I’d screw it up… @#$%! But I still love him. Really.). And I grabbed it with both hands and I started applying what I had learned in my coaching program.

And So I Began…

I set up Adam’s blog (which is still doing very well to this day) and wrote the salesletter for Adam’s new product that was being launched back in 2006 – Secrets Of Self-Made Millionaires.

During the time I was doing all this, I was also collecting opt-in leads from Adam’s blog and couple of other article sites I’d set up previously. I believe I had about 500+ emails.

I finished the Secrets Of Self-Made Millionaires website and I was ready to release it to my list. I wrote up a sales email pitching Secrets Of Self-Made Millionaires, sent it to my list, crossed my fingers, and promised Santa I’d be a really good boy for the rest of the year. I remember telling myself that if I just sold one darn copy, it’d be a success.

But Secrets Of Self-Made Millionaires did sell more than one darn copy.

It actually grossed more than US$1,100 in 24 hours. I was ecstatic! And In the end Secrets Of Self-Made Millionaires grossed US$10,011 in just a little over 7 days and I was completely awestruck by what I had just achieved (I bet Santa wanted something from me…).

Anyway, Ever Since That Day…

I’ve been an Internet marketer full-time. I didn’t go back to school in the end (well, I did for 3 months, then I left) and I still market Adam’s fine products on the Internet to this day.

Along with my personal projects, other companies have also now approached me for the same skill and advice that made my first initial foray into Internet marketing (very thankfully!) a fine success. Nowadays I no longer do this alone and I now work with a wonderful team do manage all client and personal projects successfully.

It’s amazing how from one simple act of attending a seminar years ago (along with other life-changing decisions) has allowed to be doing the thing I’m doing today.

And with all the wonderful mentors and friends that have guided along the way, I feel really grateful for all that has happened to me so far. I obviously I’ve a long way to go in this journey but this adventure is something I definitely look forward to.

This blog is simply a chronicle of my real-life experiences in Internet marketing till now and I write as a means of sharing that experience with anyone who’s interested to read about it (and hopefully, I make it as entertaining as I can for you… you monkey!).

So that’s my story so far. I hope it struck a chord with you, especially if you’re just starting out online and I truly wish you all the best.

Candidly,
Adam

Uh! Isn’t that so much better?

Instead of just another typical About story where the author goes yadda, yadda, yadda… This is something that really expresses the way I write, think, and feel. I can look at the piece and go, ‘Oh yea babay… That’s ME.’

And people will remember that! If you write in a way which is uniquely you that engages people, they will remember your style. So do that, get creative, make fun of yourself, keep thing light, and use whatever comes to mind to allow someone to ENJOY their experience while reading your blog/article/spammy email/whatever.

But then, if for some reason you can’t write funny to save your life… (I know, some people just can’t) oh well, too bad then!

So as I was just surfing through all my old posts on this blog, I realized that ‘Hey!’ I have done quite a fair bit over the last year or so and it really is nothing to sniff at. I mean, if you go WAY back to my very first post on this blog, back in May 2006, I was just starting out in the world of internet marketing.

I’d never made a single cent online, I didn’t all this jack about finding market niches, keyword research, sales funnels, copywriting, driving web traffic, etc. I was a total newbie! I didn’t know how to buy a domain name, get web hosting, work with autoresponders, blogs, and I was a REALLY LOST many times in the past.

Did I tell you about the time I took 3 days to figure out how to install wordpress? Omigod! I can’t believe I took that long for something that takes 2 minutes now. Quite simply, I had no experience with any of this. But as you can see, in spite of all the apparent obstacles (that happens whenever you do something NEW), this whole thingamajig has turned out pretty well. And I’m very grateful to be doing the thing I’m doing today.

So you see, if you’re still finding your feet in this internet marketing machine, I just like to tell that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Because if this is something you REALLY want to succeed in, is there anything that could possibly stop you from achieving it? I don’t think so.

Besides this is something I believe A LOT of people can do. I mean, you can do this while you still hold your comfy full-time job. AND it still runs and makes you money while you’re away. How many opportunities out there can afford you such decadent luxury?

In fact I know of people who are more successful than me online who STILL have normal 9-5 jobs. So you see this is isn’t something where you have to choose one or the other. You can be successful at this and still pursue your normal daytime career.

For me I never really was a fan of having a 9-5 job. My longest employment stint ever was with the bleeping army and they paid me peanuts (and they got a monkey!). So never really digged having a job and so I chose to do this full-time. Which suits me perfectly fine, because there are other wonderful pursuits in life besides ALWAYS chasing the almighty dollar.

Like chasing girls. I mean ONE girl. (joke folks, don’t take me too seriously all the time)

Ha! Anyway, back to the topic at hand or my the main reason for this post. As I was going through all my old posts, I discovered the posts that engaged and entertained me (and I’m sure the blog reader) were those posts where I OPENLY shared my experiences, my opinions and I really allowed myself to write them in a way which flowed and showcased my unique personality to the world. The posts where I was just being MYSELF.

The not-so-great ones where those where I felt I was just being robotic. Like I was sharing information or news about certain things, but I never really took the time or effort to inject my own ‘mojo’ to making that piece really ‘mine’. Turning it into something that was unique, entertaining, opinionated, and the moment you read you know that this was written by me.

So THAT’S my opinion. If you have a blog of your own. Make it your ‘own’! Inject your personality into your writing and allow yourself to be yourself through your words. And then you will find that there will be a certain bunch of people who will ABSOLUTELY love the way you write and the style by which you do it. And then there will be people who’d still find you drab, boring, over-the-top, whatever.

But then you see George Bush became President even though he won less than half the votes. So it can’t be that bad, can it?

Well, the more regularly you post to your blog, the more traffic you get. And I want more. Never hurts. So I’m just seeing how much more eyeballs I can attract by posting daily. I don’t do weekends at the moment, I don’t want my brain to fizzle out before I’m 77 ( I plan to move on by then…) so I don’t blog on weekends. That’s reserved for mindless banter and football matches.

Now if you think that blogging once a day is just too much to do, some bloggers actually churn out multiple blog posts a day (now that will hurt the brain + give you carpal tunnel). Don’t ask me how they do it or find so many interesting things to blog about, but my life’s pretty boring.

At the moment, it’s limited to just interesting event per day (like a cockroach running across the floor) and if I miss that… damn I’m gonna have a tough time thinking of something to blog about that won’t make you sleep and drool over your keyboard.

Anyway, if you don’t think that blogging’s for you, then you don’t have to do it. There’re many other ways to drive traffic or to build a brand/personality, so you don’t have to limit your scope and think that blogging’s the only way to go. If you hate typing (like I do..) you can always do podcasts, cantasia shots or videos. They all work very well too.

So if you’re the blabber mouth type, do a podcast, don’t use a fake North American accent, and just say your mind out. It turns out pretty well that way. As for me, I feel I express myself best in the written word, I get to re-organize my thoughts and words unlike if I did a audio recording. So I’m sticking to this platform for the time being.

But if you’re great at blogging, then please by all means, jump on this bandwagon because it’s a really good way to gain a loyal base of readers, drive traffic to your sites and interact with your audience. Mr Khoo’s blog is doing pretty well too and he like blogs once every ten days (gurus can do that…) and he’s got great readership.

Besides there’re many traffic methods just targeted toward blogs like RSS, technorati, mybloglog, trackbacks, comment posting, social bookmarking, etc. So a blog really rocks. i recommend you get a wordpress blog, with paid hosted ($7/month) and a domain name. If you can’t bear to pay that money, go get a blogger blog. They work well too.

Anyway, this is just for today, so watch out for another new post come tomorrow.

Out.