An unexpected lesson in failure

As you may have read previously, for the next two weeks I am attending a daily webinar titled the millionaire affair.  The event was created and put together by Sue and Steve Soucy who are the event hosts.  Each day a different successful entrepreneur will be having a candid discussion with us about what they've learned along their personal road to success.  Today's presenter was Wendy Moore (from Melbourne, Australia), who was supposed to discuss how to use social media to attract media and build your list.  Yippee... right up my alley!  And then... everything went wrong and it became a lesson of an entirely different sort.

What happens when you plan a webinar, investigate hosting companies, line up busy speakers, perform weeks of testing and then your 400+ person audience crashes the server?  It was an abrupt and absolute meltdown!  A true example of grace under pressure, Sue and Steve did everything in their power to get things up and running again.  They had a chatroom open on Twitter for the event and directed our chat there to take some pressure off the server while they got on the phone with the webhosting company.  Throughout the rest of the hour, the webhosting guy, Sue, Steve, and our guest speaker Wendy all tried to get the system to work.  We were finally given our own dedicated server and 400+ people had to collectively log off and log back in.  In the midst of all this, we guests from all over the world began chatting... mainly about our collective technology issues.  Dispite the fact that we were all disappointed, the mood was positive.  I attribute this to the constant positive communication from our hosts that they were doing all they could and to the reason we were all there.  We all had a common purpose of learning how to improve our lives and therefore, we were all coming at this with a positive attitude.  You don't improve anything by complaining, giving up, or speaking hurtfully to the people trying their best to solve the problem... and AH-HA... that was the real lesson today.

After over an hour, they still hadn't worked out the bugs and rescheduled our most gracious speaker for tomorrow.  Many people left (having other obligations to attend to), but about a third of us hung on... for a total of over 3 hours!  I ended up doing other things as I was listening to them trying to figure out how to prevent this from happening again, but was amazed at their spirit.  They never gave up, they never got mad (not even at the webhosting company guy), they just focused on finding a solution to the problem.  It was wonderful.

I was also impressed that Wendy Moore, our speaker for today (and now tomorrow) stayed on the entire time.  Not only that, but she offered free special online bonuses (items that normally cost money) to those of us who stuck around... as a thank you for our patience and perserverence.  She talked with us one on one and was wonderful and positive through the whole thing... despite the fact that it was her presentation that was affected (and some would say ruined, although I would disagree) by all of this.  I was more impressed by her handling of today's situation that I could possibly have been by any presentation she might have given.  She really cared.  I went to her website (Savvy Web Women Mentoring Program: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=3505674, Free Bonuses From Savvy Web Women: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=3505677 ) and signed up immediately for their affiliate program.

Many people view successful individuals today as standoffish or even mean and uncaring.  I know many successful individuals personally and find them all to be extremely personable, friendly and accessible.  It's just that the corporate or social structure doesn't enable them to get out and be as accessible as they may want on a daily basis.  If you really want to learn from these people, you can... but you need to make the effort.  Don't be afraid to contact a particular author or corporate giant.  If you want information badly enough, you just need to be persistent and of course polite... and once you make that contact don't abuse it.  You will be surprised at how much you can learn from these people and how much they really are willing to teach.

Today was not at all what I expected, but by maintaining a positive attitude and hanging in there through it all, I gained lessons it might have taken a lifetime to grasp otherwise and I am so grateful for the experience.  I am looking forward to technologically-glitch-free presentations through the rest of the series, but I am certain I will learn important things every day of this series whether the technology behaves or not.

Another Offer... The New Droid Phone

Well, I just recieved another offer in my emailbox from my advertisers.  Are any of you thinking of getting a Droid phone?  You've probably seen the commercials with the robot searching for all things human on this phone.  Well, if you have Verison (or want Version), one of my advertisers is offering a free Droid phone for 48 hours for new or existing Verison customers... now is the time to go for it!

Special offer to my readers...

Do any of you need a new PC or are you thinking of upgrading?  If so, I am offering all of you a special promo code to get 40% off a PC from Microsoft.  This promotion is phenomenal, but like all good things will only last a short time... it expires next Monday, January 25.  Here are the specific items with their BEFORE promo prices...

• ThinkPad T400S - $1084.30 (laptop) 
• Toshiba T135-S1312 - $524.30 (laptop) 
• Adamo 13 Pearl - $1124.25 (laptop) 
• Satellite A505-S6989 - $899 (laptop) 
• HP DM3 - $524.30 (laptop) 
• ThinkPad X301 - $1119.30 (laptop) 
• Adamo Pearl - $1124.25 (laptop)  

If you have been looking for a new PC, go check out these products.  Why pay more next week when you can get such a great deal this week?!?!  Click on the link below, click the shop button, then search for the specific product you are interested in in the search box in the top right corner of the page.  Enter promotion code MSStore-PC-40% at checkout.  This code was given to me directly from Microsoft to offer my readers, so I know it will work for you.

As I receive additional promotional offers from my advertisers, I will continue to pass them along.  Keep checking the blog!

New stuff popping up on the blog

Well, as you know (if you've been reading along), I am working on learning new methods of online marketing.  I am mostly using Facebook to do this.  One additional thing I've been doing is adding advertising on this blog.  You may have noticed links to products from Amazon in my blog.  If I refer to something in my blog that you can get from Amazon, I will usually provide a link.  This is mainly to make things easier for you the readers, but it may eventually also become a way to make some much needed added income.  You see, I have been an Amazon Affiliate for years. 

For those of you who aren't aware, affiliate programs pay you a small percentage from each sale when you advertise their products.  I won't ever push you to buy anything... that is not my goal in writing this blog, so please don't feel obligated.  If you do see something you want to purchase though, buying through my link will help support my efforts and will always be most appreciated.

Today, I added a new affiliate program.  It's called Linkshare and allows you to choose from hundreds of companies, all of whom pay a different commission.  You must apply to each company individually and then choose specific links.  This makes it a very personalized for of advertising.  You might have noticed that I now have links to iTunes, Microsoft and Linkshare on the side of this blog.  These links were choosen very deliberately. 

• I adore my iPod... in fact, I never leave the house without it and probably couldn't make it to and from Michigan without it, so iTunes is a logical choice. 
• I am currently typing on a PC (currently running Vista) that I hope to upgrade to Windows 7 soon.  I have always been a PC girl, so another logical choice.  Plus, I know a lot of people who want to buy the new Halo game and you can get it directly from Microsoft.
• Finally, since I think Linkshare is such a great opportunity, I'm providing a link directly to it so each of you can have the opportunity to do the same thing I'm doing. 

All that said, I have just added a website that may soon become my favorite ever website!  In fact, it will likely be the favorite website of every female who finds it... chocolate.com.  If you want to visit it and see for yourself, click on the banner below.  Again, no obligation... only click if you are interested in Chocolate!  BTW... I like mine dark (so feel free to send me some weekly... lol), but they have all kinds.



And finally, I have AdSense.  This falls at the bottom of my sidebar because I dont get to select the links.  The ads are generated by Google based on my blog topics.  They select opportunities that might appeal to the people reading my posts.  These are based on click-throughs, which means I get a couple cents every time you click on one of them.  Again, no obligation... I'm certainly not asking you to go through and click on them for no reason, but if you see something that interests you, click away!

So that's what I've been up to.  I've also been working with my online reading/discussion group (we now have a whopping 50 members!!) to select our first book for the month of February and adding new books (and working out minor kinks) for my Send Brain Cells application.  It's coming along nicely and you will find a link to it on my sidebar as well.  For those of you with Amazon Affiliate programs, feel free to sign up for my app and add some books to it.  Users can add gifts and there is a section to include a link.  I include a direct affiliate link to each book I create with a button that says "Buy this book at Amazon".  I can't possibly add all the books Amazon offers and I'm happy to help any of you get your affiliate marketing off the ground. 

After what I feel was probably the most productive week I've had in a while, I'm getting ready to leave for relaxation, romance and some computer-free time with my honey.  Hope you all enjoy your weekend and I'll chat with you (well, write to you, if you want to get technical about it) next week!