I started John Thornhill’s Partnership to Success Program a few months ago. The program is meaty and takes you through a lot of ground from setting up on line towards creating and marketing your own product, as well as other activities.

I decided I’d go back to the beginning and review what we’d covered so far. It’s always a good idea when learning something new to make sure you get plenty of hands-on experience of whatever it is you are dealing with, especially when it’s something practical. So, I am going to set up a second website along side the one I am doing with John’s program. That will give me a good opportunity to review what we covered so far, while also making use of the time to get another project moving.

The first lesson with John covers buying a domain name and setting up a blog. If you have never done this before, they are quite simple steps to take once someone has shown you what to do. That, of course, opens the door to a whole new world. For the old hand, these steps are quick and simple to do. So first, I am going to head over to D9 Hosting to see if the website name I want is available.

Now that I have some experience, I am looking forward to rounding it out with some additional activity and examples while exploring some new, interesting areas.

Had a strange phenomenon recently. My usually happy laptop started behaving strangely –lots of annoying pop-ups and misdirecting me to limited sites, some of them what you could call a bit dodgy, defintely places I didn’t want to go to. The first search result page was mostly lot of sponsored ads with maybe only the bottom entry on the page being an actual search result. What on earth was going on?

I noticed a change in my browser to Searchnu which I hadn’t set up. The other thing was a frequent error page with the words searchnu/ followed by a number. The numbers can vary. There is another form that is searchqu

It seems that searchnu is a browser hijacker often downloaded when the person agrees to  the terms and conditions of something they want to download without paying close attention to the small print. Problem is that because it was downloaded “voluntarily” by the user, it doesn’t get picked up by usual security programs as a virus or malware when you run a scan so it sits there undetected and continues to operate annoyingly. What I found out was it’s often downloaded along with iLivid or Google Chrome. It is also apparently connected with Ask Jeeves web site.

That is only the beginning of the story — some forms of searchnu are more serious, such as searchnu/421–  which can start to steal your details all the way up to identity theft.  Obviously, it needs to be dealt with quickly. The longer it remains on your computer the more damage it can create. Unfortunately it installs itself in the registry so some searchnu programs need to be tackled more strenuously than just deleting an item from your programs folder.

So, time for some homework on google.

The tools I found to handle it were: Hitman Pro from SurfRight followed by some other programs

Downloads – SurfRight
Smitfraudfix How to use SmitFraudFix – Geeks to Go Forums
Combofix A guide and tutorial on using ComboFix
Malwarebyte Antimalware Malwarebytes Anti-Malware – Download.com

After I ran the above, then I installed something to protect my browser.

Browser Protect: Browser Hijack Protection for free – BrowserProtect.org

And then an additional security program was added from Avast:

avast! | Download Free Antivirus Software or Internet Security

Combofix is a very powerful program and best used under supervision by someone who is knowledgeable about computers. Not one to mess around with.

The problem appears to be fixed now and my computer is now running smoothly. It took some time but it was worth it.

On Wednesday, we had another live training webinar with John Thorhill as members of his Partnership to Success Program.

John is just back from a sailing vacation on the Norfolk Broads – and that was the first point of his lesson by actual demonstration. While he’d been away, his business continued to operate to promote and sell products and make income. He showed us the value of automating as many aspects of your business as possible and the power it generates. He also discovered the value of the connections he’s made and the importance of co0operation and teamwork.

While John was away, I was still able to use his support desk, to handle an issue I had. His support desk is abley manned by one of his former students, so she knows how his program work. She is a product of his training who has also developed her own internet businesses.  Providing good support to your customers is vital if you want to continue a successful business that delivers good value.  That, in turn, develops  good word of mouth. Having someone trustworthy to turn this over to is essential. So for us on John’s program was an insight in to the mindset that goes with success and a live demonstration of how to do things the right way.

Just out of curiosity, I looked up another internet marketer whose list I used to be on. He also launched a training program. I’m not going to name names, but I had my reservations so I never took him up on it at the time. Well, looking into now, there were plenty of comments on a forum about lack of support: emails not answered, poor contact details, lack of follow up leading to requests for refunds. All on the first page of Google! Not even hard to find. Just goes to show how important your support is and how quickly it can impact on your business.  Poor word of mouth spread like like a wild fire

It speaks well for John’s approach, his programs and services that he has loyal students who continue to work with him and want to remain in contact with him. Obviously they learned information of value and weren’t disappointed with his training. I like that he doesn’t disconnect from the students of his coaching programs when their time is up. He empowers them. He doesn’t criticise his students and or refer to them negatively.

Just like tennis great, Andy Murray benefited from his coaching with Ivan Lendl, and won two Olympic medals and a Grand Slam this summer, Partnership to Success is an opportunity for mentoring from someone who is a winner in the internet marketing game. Next time John offers the Partnership to Success, take the opportunity. You won’t regret it.