Work, work, work

I had wanted to get ten new product sites up over the weekend, but, as often happens, the products themselves were delivered without some of the key distribution elements. That meant I had to do the work myself to get the pages ready for publication. I spent most of my weekend editing audio files and creating pdf transcripts for the finished items.

 

The audio files produced are only short samplers, but it meant I had to plough through all of the recordings to find the edits I wanted. In total that was about eight and a half hours of audio to be scanned (I ran the files at double speed while searching) and with backtracking and audio clean up, the job took over 20 hours..

 

The only breaks I have taken were used to check server logs and autoresponder settings and follow up on some EBay sales.

 

I am going to take a break now and then I have to tackle editing the transcript files for all ten audios. Oh yeah, I also have my 4 yr old son for the weekend, so I need to spend some time with him. Did you ever get the feeling that the more you get done, the more you find to do? I was jotting down ideas for new products as I worked and I need to finish this job to clear time to work on them..

 

A bientot.

 

WARNING: Your ClamAV installation is OUTDATED!

Had a nice bit of regular work to do today - MailScanner Logwatch reported:

 

    WARNING: Your ClamAV installation is OUTDATED!
    WARNING: Local version: 0.90.2 Recommended version: 0.90.3
    DON'T PANIC! Read http://www.clamav.net/support/faq

 

Now I don't believe the information provided at the ClamAV support FAQ is very clear for users with a mailscanner setup, so I thought I might give a quick tutorial here.

 

First of all go to http://clamav.net and download the latest stable ClamAV distribution. While the development releases are available via svn, unfortunately, you have to go to sourceforge.net to get the production quality releases. Download the tar-ball from Sourceforge (clamav-0.90.3.tar.gz in this case). If your server is not local you will have to upload this tar-ball via ftp a directory on your server.

 

1. The first job is to back up your configuration files - I stick the copies in the backup folder for convenience,

cp /usr/local/etc/clamd.conf /backup/clamd.conf

cp /usr/local/etc/freshclam.conf /backup/freshclam.conf

 

2. In the directory in which you placed the tar-ball, you need to expand the distribution,

tar -xzf clamav-xxx.tar.gz (the xxx is replaced by the version of the distribution 0.90.3 here giving tar -xzf clamav-0.90.3.tar.gz)

 

3. Go into the expanded directory and run the install,

cd clamav-xxx (this version cd clamav-0.90.3)

./configure --disable-zlib-vcheck (parameters are not always needed - include them just in case)

make

make install

 

4. Copy your configuration files back,

cp /backup/clamd.conf /usr/local/etc/clamd.conf

cp /backup/freshclam.conf /usr/local/etc/freshclam.conf

 

5. (If you are using the perl clamav module (that would be unusual with a mailscanner install), update it now

/scripts/perlinstaller --force Mail::ClamAV) Otherwise, run freshclam to get up to date definitions,

freshclam

 

6. Restart MailScanner,

service MailScanner restart

 

You logwatch will report the outdated warning one more time as it appears to give the version details from the last time it was run (at the top, it states "Date Range Processed: yesterday"), but after that you will only see the main.cvd and daily.inc status messages.

 

You might want to bookmark this post as version 0.91.0 is coming soon!! 

 

Have a virus free day!!

 

And Now Away..

That's the last of the sites for this session and I have just checked the server logs again, so I am going to take a few hours break from the "machine".

The servers will page me if they run above my set parameters. This happened at 04:55 last night - a client account was using 95% of his disk space allowance. I increased it and phoned him this morning to upgrade his account. Better than him having downtime problems...

 

BFN

 

And Then There Was None...

The last of 5, Conversion Power Secrets has now gone live!!

 

This is another book from the desk of Simon Hodgkinson (see The Success Decision post below). I didn't think I would like this one, but I was fascinated by the process he details here.

 

He actually goes through how to write sales copy - breaking it down into logical components. He begins with the pitch "Most People are Dumb!", then explains that does not include you or I...

Some of the techniques remind me of when I studied psychology as part of management. In particular Merton's theories on "In Groups" and "Out Groups", on which I did a paper. The desire to feel included, one of the group, is a great motivator. How powerful is that?

 

Simon gives the low-down on some of the "dirty tricks" played in copywriting, benefits by association, using white space, flow disruption, and more...

Why not take a look at his copy? My guess is he probably wrote the sales page himself. You might find it interesting to break the page down to see if you can discover any techniques he uses. Just click the link below...

 

www.conversionpowersecrets.info

 

 

 

 

I'm Back

Right, that's Anthony, my 4yr old son, off to school. Well, playschool anyway - he doesn't start in "big boys school" until September. That's one of the advantages to working from home - you can adjust your schedule around your family. That's one of the dis-advantages of working from home too, - you can adjust your schedule around your family.

 

Sometimes it can be hard to motivate yourself to getting the work done. I tend to make "to do" lists, then I create targets for a working session and allow myself a "reward" if I meet my targets. I have built sixteen sites in the last ten days - but my "to do" list has grown as well. I just checked the logs on my servers while I was contemplating my next session - that's a job I do many times during my working day as I want to know about any potential problems long before it might escalate to a level that a client would notice. This seems to work as my clients are generally a happy bunch of webmasters.

 

Time to get on with it - One more site to go!!

 

I Hate These Titles

I wonder if you've ever noticed how cheesy the titles of some of these information products are?

Millions Through Mind Control is an example of what I mean.

 

I was not much impressed when I heard about this product. I found the title a bit off-putting. Did you ever get a copy of one of those books that listed "the trigger words to make your products sell like crazy" (forgive me if there actually is a book with that title)? That's what I thought this one was - another list of "power words".

 

And I wonder if you'll enjoy noticing, as I did, that there actually is a list of Power Words given in the book? I suppose there must be something to them after all. This book includes the list in the scientific context of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. It explains the basis of our personalised view of the world and how the subconscious mind is not always reading things the way our conscious mind is. I like the concept of getting your prospects to do what they want to do - you just have to plant the idea in their minds that they want to do what you want them to!

 

I enjoyed this book and I will certainly use the techniques when I next have sales copy to write. It gets a 5 out of 5 for value.

 

www.millionsthroughmindcontrol.info is now live!!

 

 

Make Money with Blogs!!

www.web-2-cash.info - Yeah, I know, the domain name doesn't quite say it.. Web 2.0 Cash!

 

Apparently, there is money to be made leveraging Web 2.0.

 

"Yes, the web 2.0 revolution has arrived. You can ignore it at your own peril...

You can keep your plain HTML site. But soon you'll find yourself unable to compete with any other site in your niche.

Or you can harness this same revolution - the one which threatens to destroy your business - And use it to catapult yourself ahead of your competitors..."

 

But I guess you knew that already as you are reading this on a blog! Now that I have the site up, I can give myself some time to sit down and read this book properly - Maybe I'll post a few tips from the book here!

 

www.web-2-cash.info

 

The Success Decision

Another site up! www.thesuccessdecision.info is live.

 

Every person on earth has the capability to get rich. Everyone. Young, old, tall, short, skinny, fat, book smart, street smart, not smart - everyone can do it. But you have to find the right path - and follow through.

This is a book by Simon Hodgkinson, one of the organisers of the MarketingMainEvent3, so I know he coined his share of one and a half million in sales in one week!! I came across another Internet Marketer recently (who I wont mention here), who was selling pretty much the same information as is in this book for almost a thousand dollars. I also listened to an audio excerpt from a famous copywriter who was saying very similar things only this week. Maybe I'll post a link for that audio here at some stage...

 

Anyway, it's a great book and cheap at several times the asking price. At the bottom of the sales page he gives away one concept in the book, but I don't think he will lose sales over it....

www.thesuccessdecision.info

 

POSSIBLE BREAKIN ATTEMPT!

I just had some clown from Vietnam try to break in to one of my servers on SSH.

Security Violations
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Jun 15 06:25:48 host sshd(pam_unix)[29819]: authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=125.234.38.80  user=demo
Jun 15 06:25:48 host sshd[29819]: reverse mapping checking getaddrinfo for 125.234.38.80.adsl.viettel.vn failed - POSSIBLE BREAKIN ATTEMPT!
Jun 15 06:25:48 host sshd[29819]: User demo not allowed because listed in DenyUsers
Jun 15 06:25:50 host sshd[29819]: Failed password for invalid user demo from ::ffff:125.234.38.80 port 2583 ssh2

I would deserve whatever I got if I left Secure Access open to a Demo account!! He had to be in the Demo Cpanel or the firewall would have blocked him for not having a permitted IP Address.

 

Try it on your own host today....

InfoFinderPro.info has gone live!

There's a great big online world of free, quality content out there, and quite frankly, you're probably missing out on a lot of it. But that's going to change, starting today! InfoFinderPro.info has gone live!

 

This is a neat little piece of software that basically aggregates and filters search results from many different sources on the net. Or, in English, it finds information (duh!).

It's pretty cool - I searched my own name and found my neice and nephews' Bigulo and BeBo spaces. I narrowed it down and found out my nephew had academic achievements I had not heard about - and 3 All-State Medals with it!!

 

If you have ever just Googled your own name, or use search engines for research, this sofware is for you..

http://www.infofinderpro.info

 

5 New Sales Sites Are Going Live!

Seeing as I am already working from home this year, I decided to jump on board when Marketing Main Event 3 was opened. The Event ran from the 5th of June to the 12th of June and is now closed. Any way a small part of this event was access to the resale rights for a few top items. Hence, I had to get the domains and do the customisations and so on.

Anyhooo, I am nearly finished with the work and should be getting the sites live this evening.

I'll post the links as I get them done...

 

The First Post

I've never been a great one for writing, but I figure that I have found enough useful information in blogs to suggest that they have a value and a future. Further resistance on my part is therefore futile and I hereby "take the plunge". This is the very first personal blog for me, so please bear with me while I find my comfort zone. I have played about with "WordPress" and other blogging scripts as part of work for other people, but I have never before been in the driving seat!! What will this blog be about? Basically just things I do in my every day life; hosting, servers, computers, scripts, internet marketing, EBay, web design, publishing, programs I use, tweaks, etc. I am a tech type rather than a creative type, but I think you will get the idea as you follow the various posts. I am hoping the tagging of the posts will make them a little more organised than the way I will post them. I have a tendency to scribble useful notes on paper as I work and my office is a mess of loose papers where only I can find bits of information for use. Hopefully, my visitors will also find some useful gems of information.