reflections

One of my hobbies is domaining. I buy and sell names on a regular basis, typically for profit - and I have what I consider to be a substantial portfolio. I’m not new to this game though - I’ve been trading names for almost a decade, and I’ve seen all sorts of scams being run around the domaining marketplace…

Imagine my surprise then when I got an email this evening, apparently from somebody interested in buying a domain name I recently snagged in an auction. I was quite excited by the prospect of a quick turnaround on the name - but felt that I should do a bit of Googling on the sender of the message.

The guy who sent me the email called himself Anthony Garringer - and he’s apparently the President of a company called TGNet Consulting. His email address is garringer@toughguy.net.

Here’s what I found out…

Read the rest of this entry »

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When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the two pints of beer.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly, and the pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed again that it was. Read the rest of this entry »

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Things are moving quickly with Britster now - and we’re bang on target for a November 1st 2007 launch! It’s really exciting to see 6 months of hard work coming together, and being actively used by the beta team (thanks guys and gals)!

I thought it might be nice to offer an exclusive on my blog - so I’ve got fifty beta invites to give away! These will get you into the site more than two weeks before it goes public - giving you a chance to get yourself established before everybody else does!

All you need to do if you want one is leave me a comment on this post, or send me a message using my contact form. The invites will be sent on Sunday, strictly on a first-come first-served basis, and entirely at my discretion.

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I’m back.

It seems like ages since I was last typing a blog post. It reality of course, it’s been less than a month - but I’ve always found the speed at which the Blogosphere (and Internet in general) moves a little disproportionate to the rest of life anyway!

So what to write about then? I’ve drafted several posts during the last two weeks, but none of them seemed worthy of the comeback piece I was looking for. Then it occurred to me: I may never get back into a writing routine at all if I keep searching for that illusive perfect post. So I decided just to write something, and I hope that it helps me to slip gently back into my blogging groove!

As you may have gathered, I’ve been rather busy since I last wrote! I’ve been working on the beast that is Britster, created several websites for one marketing company, another site for a different marketing company, eight commercial HTML newsletter templates, a site for a paving company, developed my own digital mixing application and started writing a book. Not bad for a month away eh?

I’ve really missed all the friends I’ve made through blogging though, but I’ve been reading all my favourite blogs via RSS so I haven’t missed out on everything that’s been going on! It’s been hard though - not having the time to comment, answer tag memes, or respond to guest blogging opportunities. On the plus side, I’ve managed to gain about a hundred new feed subscribers during my absence - thanks for your support, whoever you are!

And as I rapidly approach this blog’s six-month anniversary, I’ve begun to really appreciate everything that blogging has given me - from the friends and useful business contacts, to food for thought and raucous laughter. It’s been an exciting journey - and long may it continue to be!

What does the future hold for this blog then? Well, I’ve got loads of ideas for articles (making inspirational notes while working means that I have a long list now), and I intend to write about them on a regular basis. I’ve still got lots of paid work to do (the next month is dedicated to a core rewrite for Britster, and getting the site live on November 1st) - but I’m going to be making time for my blogging too.

Thank you to everybody who’s sent messages of encouragement, or joined my feed, or commented on posts, or simply waited for me to sort it out! Your support is truly appreciated, and I promise you that it isn’t misplaced!

Here’s to the future…

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I can’t imagine that anybody out there is waiting for baited breath for me to start writing regularly once again - after all, there’s a massive selection of places you can go for an interesting read! Until my workload lightens again (hopefully in about a week or so) you could do worse than to check out Smashing Magazine’s 45 Excellent Blog Designs article.

There’s some awesome blog designs in the post, broken down (quite unusually) by the platform on which the blogs run. Some of my favourite themes are featured in it - including Veerle’s Blog, NorthxEast, FreelanceSwitch and WebDesignerWall to name but a few!

What’s bizarre though is that this blog is also featured in the roundup - something that I’m dead chuffed about, especially since Smashing Magazine is one of my own daily reads and a real source of inspiration to me! Thanks guys - I’m truly honoured to be included!

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