The Unique Gem Way To Success

It's strange sometimes where an idea actually comes from. Why, for example, would anyone want to publish a magazine or a blog about 'To-Do Lists'? And why, for that matter, would anyone want to read such magazines or blogs?

But they do, and this illustrates that success can arrive from all sorts of directions, especially if we start from somewhere new.

It's what Sasha Cogen has done and her blog is now a book.

Seven years ago she began collecting these lists and became publisher of a magazine called appropriately To-Do List.

Sasha asked for people to send her their To-Do lists and they did just that - thousands of them. So many in fact that a selection of them have now been made into a book called, yes you've guessed: To-Do List: From Buying Milk to Finding a Soul Mate, What Our Lists Reveal About Us. Well you probably got the first couple of words!

Why did she get fascinated by To-Do Lists? She says she, 'became fascinated by them because they are such a rare window into our everyday lives – and everything that’s on our minds.'

Often when we think about publishing a blog we tend to start with the obvious. This is fine but thousands of others will also be thinking along similar lines. Now if we could get our minds working differently who knows what we could come up with. Perhaps a unique gem that might just catch on in a big way.

Thinking differently from the herd is one way to success.

The video below is Sasha talking about ... To-Do Lists - obviously.


Good luck with finding your unique gem,
Mike.

'How You Gonna Make A Dream Come True'

Phew! I like success stories but getting 7 million hits on a blog per day is something special. I went into shock when I managed 40,000+ in one day - but just imagine millions!

When I read about this my eyes were like old fashioned cash registers and my mind was doing all sorts of calculations ... If the blog used Voxant videos that would make $28,000 per day just from that (7 million divided by 1000 times $4). That's, that's $196,000 per week ... That's ... astronomical ... Now think about other advertising as well and ... well, all sorts of things.

The blog I'm referring to is Perez Hilton - nothing to do with Paris Hilton! Perez Hilton is a bloke called Mario Lavandeira and he started his blog three years ago.

The blog's name was actually influenced by Paris Hilton as it's all about celebrities (yes, yet another one). Perez and Paris sound sort of similar. The value of a good name.

The thing is though that if you go to his blog you might well think that it isn't anything that special. Sure it's got a pretty pink heading (he's gay and keeps mentioning this fact) but a lot of the posts are short and dominated by a photo, which is often doodled on with almost crude remarks or symbols.

Whatever your opinion of the blog the main point is that people (well 7 million people) want to read and look at what he writes. So much so that he has now virtually become a celebrity himself.

Perez/Mario says, "I have always been fascinated by celebrity. As a child I watched a huge amount of television and dreamed about one day being part of that world. Now I am."

See, it's that dream ... if you have a dream it can come true. If you don't have a dream then (as the song goes) 'how you gonna make a dream come true'. It's also writing about something you have a passion about.

Blogs can alter your world and you can, of course, become anything or anyone that you wish.

In Perez's words, "When I'm Perez it gives me the liberty to do things that as Mario I would never do. There's a Jekyll and Hyde thing going on. Perez says crazy things and loves to stay out late at parties. Mario likes to stay at home and be in bed by ten."

The Perez Hilton blog has a definite style of it's own plus it is continuously being updated with the latest news. It's a winning formula.

There are always lessons to be learnt from success stories if we bother to look at them properly and think about why the success has come about.

A lot of it, as I keep on saying, is giving people what they want.

Do this and nothing else really matters. You can forget about SEO, PageRank, Top Lists etc. etc. These are merely add-ons - a bit of icing on the cake.

Good luck,
Mike.

How To get A New House For Free!

Now this isn't a new story, you've most likely heard it before. It came to my attention again recently because my son bought me a book about it.

He knows I love success stories and people who think differently.

First though, I'll ask you a question: Would you swap/exchange the red paper clip on the left for the house on the right? Yes?

The story, as you may have by now guessed, is about Kyle MacDonald who did just that. He set out to trade a red paperclip for a house.

Kyle started his dream by writing: 'This red paperclip is currently sitting next to my computer. I want to trade this with you for something bigger or better, maybe a pen, a spoon, or perhaps a boot. If you promise to make the trade I will come and see you, wherever you are, to trade. So if you have something bigger or better than a red paperclip, email me.

P.S. I'm going to make a continuous chain of 'up trades' until I get a house.'

To cut a long story short he exchanged the paperclip for a fish pen and then, after a total of 14 trades, he finally achieved his goal - a house at 503 Main Street, Kipling, Saskatchewan.

The journey, or adventure as he likes to call it, took him from July 12 2005 until July 12, 2006.

This sort of story always makes me enthusiastic about the power of the Internet and the possibilities it holds to accomplish all sorts of dreams and ambitions.

Kyle MacDonald recorded his story, as he traded, on a blog. Just a normal Blogger blog like this one. In the book he even admits, "My website design skills are pretty hack."

His blog was initially only getting about 30 hits a day, even after he had done a few trades. But then the website Boing Boing, which calls itself a directory of wonderful things, picked up on the story. By 8 a.m. in the morning his counter shot up over 30,000 hits! Suddenly he was getting two people a second visiting his blog.

But that wasn't all. Also at 8 a.m. CBC, the Canadian broadcaster phoned him wanting an interview. And from then on, all that day, all hell broke loose. He had calls from newspaper reporters, radio DJ's, agents, publishers, website developers and so on.

Again this shows what can happen if you dare to think differently and actually follow a dream.

Kyle writes a little on this theme, cliches included:

'Why complain when you can do something about it? If you think you can't do something about it, then you can't. Yes, I'm sorry to say it, but if you are certain that it is impossible, then it is. If you change your mind and have confidence in your idea, just remember that it might not be as easy as you expect. You might lose some sleep and have to make tough decisions. It might not even pan out as you expect. But it is possible. But most of all, please think of the positives to your situation. Complainers are bad enough but earplugs aren't that comfortable, either.'

A red paperclip turned into an adventure which resulted in a new house within one year.

It's good to dream and then try to make the dream come true, especially on the Internet. It is, of course, a lot easier though to roll over in bed, and carry on complaining about life in general.

The last time I looked at Kyle's website he'd had 7,587,951 visitors

The book: One Red Paperclip

Had any good dreams recently?

Good luck,
Mike.

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