For many people, as we come up to the General Election on 6th June, there are mixed feelings about our future. Will we stay as one United Kingdom? There are mixed feelings about staying in the European Union, about leaving it, about remaining joined at the hip like as the United Kingdom, or gong our separate ways as part of the different nations that comprise the United Kingomd.

This is not going to be a political blog about the Brexit, about the future of the Union.

I did want point out some wonderful Scottish castles and celebrate the unique views and landscape of Scotland.

Setting up a blog on word press is by far the easiest and most user friendly site for hosting your own blog. It’s free to use for a standalone blog on its own if you just want a bit of fun writing or to find a quick way to get started.

If you want to, you can also buy hosting and a domain name that matches your blog with one of the registered companies where they will register your domain name officially which will protect it from being used by someone else.

The company I use personally is called D9 Hosting. They have been completely reliable and delivered excellent service over the 5 years I have been with them. I know several internet marketers who use this company for their 6 and 7 figure internet businesses and recommend D9 for their great support.

Setting up a blog can be time consuming but it can be done in as little as 5-10 mins. Of course you can get interested in being more creative with your project and if you have the skills and the time, or the money to hire someone, there are a lot of interesting graphics that you can play with and add to your content.

Spent some time the other day researching successful people and what they said about making their lives successful.

Surprisingly some completely different people said remarkably similar things.

Let’s take a look.

Well, I started with Karen Brady, successful business woman and entrepreneur, side kick of Lord Alan Sugar on The Apprentice television show. She made her way to fame and success as the Managing Director of Birmingham Cootball Club. She took over as their manager when the club was in administration and brought it to success selling it four years later. Not only did she make her way in a tough competitive world, it was a man’s world at that.

She is now on the board of West Ham United as well as involved with other business activities. She was created a Baronness and is now known as Baronness Brady of Knightsbridge. She has been voted Business Woman of the Year and is rated on of the 50 most inspirational speakers in the world.

And one of the first things she accredits with her success is knowing herself, working out what was important to her, what she valued and believed in and then being true to that in the way she lived her life, keeping her own personal integrity.

And then to find someone completely different, there was Arnold Schwarznegger, born in a small village in Austria, he dreamed of a different life, larger than his village could contain. In the peace and quiet of the village life in the mountains he could hear himself think and worked out what he wanted.

And having worked this out for himself, he set about his path to achieve this goal by becoming a body building champion, so that he could get to America and get into films and be a movie star and earn a lot of money with his name up high up in the billboards.
Not just any champion, but Mr Universe!

And he did it.

It started with the quiet voice inside himself, and working out what HE wanted, who he wanted to be, not what his parents and teachers and friends told him to be. And then having worked this, out trusted himself.

And worked like hell to achieve his dreams, to make his vision come true.

After that, he wanted to give something back and that led him to his role as a public servant as the Governor of California. As he puts it in his words, the governor in the best state in America, in the best country in the world.

It wasn’t easy, born in another country, an Austrian with a thick accent, to rise to a prominent political position. But he did it despite the barriers and obstacles. making him an inspiration to many.

For his many contributions and results, the University of Southern California awarded him its highest honour as a Doctor of Humane Letters, an honorary degree, in 2009. He then spoke to the assembled and audience giving his 6 Rules for Success.

You can watch the full speech here.

Been looking at education recently and seeing what some people of influence had to say about it.

Some amazing and fruitful quotes came to view when googling education and I felt I had to pass some of them on.

One of the best was the words of Martin Luther King, actually Dr Martin Luther King, a Doctor of Diviinity, a civil rights leader, an American man of colour as we would now say, who obviously thought long and hard about a great many things in his struggle to overcome segregation and racial prejudice in America. In his consideration

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”

He became a spokesman for more than the black civil rights movement. He became a leader of men on the world stage as these words show from his Nobel Peace prize acceptance speech in Oslo, 1964.

“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.”
Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 1964

So when talking about books and reading, and why we should teach little children to read and let them keep them at it, I came across this little priceless nugget of insight from another great voice of America. This time Oprah Winfrey, the talk host show, Number 2 on the Forbes list of the 10 Top Richest Self Made Women at an estimated 3.1 billion fortune.

“Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi.”

Well that is certainly a shift of viewpoint. She grew up on a small farm, with her grandmother, where they grew everything. There were no shopping trips to town.

Oprah has this to say about herself.

“I don’t think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as somebody who, from an early age, knew I was responsible for myself, and I had to make good.”

And so this brings me to another completely different story from the opposite end of the spectrum.

This is the incredibly inspiring story of Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace prize winner at the age of 17, in 2014. Malala was born in Pakistan where her father was an educator and had a school. Malala wanted to learn, and become educated which was not something the Taliban were in favour of.

Malala also had been blogging for the BBC since 2009 about life and conditions under the Taliban regime. This was not popular with them either.

One day on her way to school, some Taliban soldiers got on the bus taking her and her friends to school and asked which of the girls on the bus was Malala. When she was identified, she was shot at close range in the head. Miraculously, she did not die. She was flown to Birmingham in the United Kingdom, where doctors operated on her more than once to save her life. She is now living in the United Kingdom with her family and pursuing her education. Her story went viral and she rose to become a person of influence and speaker about matters of concern for her.

Malala was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for her actions her struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. She shared the prize with Kailash Satyarthi.

She has this to say about her experiences.

“I don’t want to be remembered as the girl who was shot. I want to be remembered as the girl who stood up.

The one thing she said that I love best of all is this statement.

“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.

And so to close, these profound words.

“Extremists have shown what frightens them most. A girl with a book.”

“With guns you can kill terrorists, with education you can kill terrorism.”

There are lots of people doing internet marketing. Some are better at than others.

One who stands the test of time in my eyes is John Thornhill

He has been working at internet marketing now since 2008.

So he has seen the business change and develop through the years. Yet he stays on top of it. And he develops many streams to his original line of work and income.

I can say he is also sincere, hardworking and ethical.

He gives back and genuinely works to make others successful. I’ve seen him to do this over and over.

I can say that I have come across many other people who started their online business or took it to the next level and owe their success to things they learned from one of John. John has many short information courses or you can participate in his master program called Partnership to Success.

On the Partnership to Success program people learn about the basics of how to set up a wordpress blog, your email responder, monetize it and all the other technical details involved in setting up an internet business up to how to set up a membership site and run a helpdesk and launch products of your own.

John will helps people get started. He will help you launch your own products if you want this. And you can get help from him and his many affilitiates. He will also provide you with access to other members on his programs so you can make contacts in the internet world to further develop your own activities.

It is possible to get help, advice and input on many issues or specific questions as well as keep up to date with changes of all kinds that are taking place on day to day level such as how mobile devices and apps are being integrated into web pages, what platforms are good to use for what types of products.

One of the most popular ways to make a living on line is through using the power and reach of Amazon.

If you are looking for a SIMPLE, yet HIGHLY EFFECTIVE way to tap into Amazons huge Marketplace and create multiple money making Amazon stores, or even just monetize an existing site you own IN SECONDS…then John has an answer coming in the near future.

InstantAzon!

With InstantAzon you have the power to tap into Amazon’s huge 250+ MILLION Marketplace and create eye catching affiliate based ads in seconds and fully functional professional eCommerce stores in minutes!

InstantAzon gives you all this, and much more, at your fingertips, allowing you to monetize ALL your websites instantly.

InstantAzon is geared to allow people to monetize their eixisting WordPress Blog and build Amazon based stores fast. In fact, with InstantAzon it’s possible to build a fully functional professional level store in a matter of minutes if you don’t have one or build more stores if you want to and set yourself up with multiple income streams

Also, with the unique ‘instant monetization’feature it is possible to monetize ANY site in a matter of seconds.

So if you want to know more about this opportunity coming up soon, come back soon and I’ll have more information for you.

A family visit over the Christmas festivities provoked a new look at things.

Two children came in tow with an older relative for a family visit over the festive season.

There wasn’t an option to say no, no opt -out was available. So, the only solution was to embrace the experience and make it enjoyable, make it as much fun as possible for the kids, the visitors and ourselves.

Mouths were fed. Hands washed. Out came the toys borrowed from a neighbour. We didn’t have any anymore.

We started entertaining our young guests. A ball and stick, a bit of space and a large helping of imagination are wonderful things. All it took was a few simple toys.

And then the laughter started. There is nothing like the sound of children laughing.
They were so giggling and joyous, at nothing really, as only children can be. And soon us old fogeys were laughing and genuinely having fun too.

Then some other information came out, something that I had no idea about.

The children had been adopted. Once they had been living on the street, homeless, begging for food in order to stay alive. One of the children was found, aged only 5, collecting bottles off the street to get money to buy food for herself and her parents. Her older sisters had been sold into prostitution. This was soon to happen to her.

It made me look at my own life, my own family circumstances, the people around me.
We were blessed. In ways I had never thought about.

There was enough food, there were clothes, there was shelter, children were born healthy and grew up into happy contributing members of society. We lived in a world that was stable, not war torn, gunned, poisoned with chemicals and burned by the scorched earth policy of an enemy.

There weren’t third generation children born deformed by their grandparent’s exposure to Agent Orange. Religious persecution wasn’t an everyday life or death matter. Living to a ripe old age is normal.

Yes I counted my blessings. And wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too

This is a post my friend Sara put on her blog. It resonated with me and so I thought I would pass it on.

I found her advice to be very practical and helpful. So this is what she has to say.

“But I Don’t Have Time!

Time

“I don’t make enough money online because I don’t have time.”
Sounds familiar?

When asked for their biggest challenge in Internet Marketing, my subscribers listed this as the number one challenge.

How about you?

Do you have time-constraints that are stopping you from making money online?

Actually, me too…
I also don’t have time to spare.

As a (very tired) mom of 6 kids, who is currently expecting another child, I’m also quite low on time.

Yet I have managed to find the time to make money online from my own affiliate sites (and free web 2.0 properties).

I also own an online course that I promote and for which I provide support (In fact, I just spent a lot of time updating my course so that the information is completely up to date).

And I’m now putting the finishing touches on a new program that will take people by the hand, coach them, and “force” them to succeed (I put a lot into this and am very proud of how it’s turning out).

I’m not telling you all this to brag. I just want it to be clear that I know what I’m talking about and am pretty qualified to give you advice on how to make money even if you have little time.

So – what’s the trick?

Well, the idea is to use whatever time you do have wisely and accomplish with a little bit of your time what others take longer to do.

Tip #1: Create a Plan for Success

If your goal is to make money as fast and as much as possible, ask yourself this question:

What is my surest, easiest, and fastest path to cash?

If you are like me, you can’t afford to spend time on things that don’t work, or that only work sometimes, or that would take too long to learn or implement.

You have to focus on a plan that works.

Don’t waste your time on things that just sound like they may work. You need to be convinced that your plan is most likely to get you there.

And as I’ve said in the past, there are different options you can take.

Pick one, and base your plan around it.

Now, let’s say you decide that creating affiliate niche sites would be a good choice for you. These are sites that are focused on a tight niche and rank well on Google.

So what you need to do is learn the minimum steps required to make money with niche sites and just go for it. You can always get more information on how to improve and do better later.

So if you’re going for affiliate niche sites, you need to focus on:

Learning how to pick products and keywords that sell
Learning how to create sites that sell
Creating sites based on those products and keywords
and getting traffic to those sites
That is it.

You don’t need to watch videos on copywriting.

You don’t need to learn how to create pretty graphics.

You don’t need to read dozens of emails on the latest guru launch.

Stay away from these things.

You just need to follow the plan you mapped out.

Too many times I see people who do not have a clear path in mind. They focus on the wrong things in their efforts, and are too scattered to succeed. Don’t be like them.

If you keep your goal in mind and a general path to get to that goal, you are much more likely to succeed even with very little time.

Tip #2: A Daily List
Now that you have a goal, and a way to reach your goal, you need to take it day by day.

Every day (or the night before) make a list of the most important things you need to do that day to reach your goal.

And when it’s time to work on your business start tackling your list.

Make your list very specific. And in order of priority.

For example:

Find 3 high-volume, low-competition keywords
Write an article for each of my keywords
Set up my blog
Then focus on the items on your list and cross them off one by one.

Do the most important task first, then the next, and then the next.

Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by anything else.

If you do this, you will get to your goal much faster than if you don’t.

Tip #3: Divide and Conquer
You don’t have to work full time on your business to succeed.

What you need to do is figure out how much time you have and what you can do with that time.

Even if you just have 1/2 hour to work at a time, cut your tasks up into small pieces and see what you can do in that 1/2 hour.

For example:

Research products on Amazon
Find a good keyword to target
Write an article (or perhaps just a draft)
Buy a domain and set up a blog
Then, every time you have a 1/2 hour, just pick one of the items on your list and do it.

You will see that these chunks of time add up and soon enough you will have income coming in.

Tip #4: Get Things Done
It’s very important to get things done, even if they are not done perfectly.

It’s ok if your site doesn’t look good. In fact, many of my ugly sites do very well.

It’s ok if your content is not perfect – you can always change it later.

It’s ok if one method of backlinking is not working well for you – you can always use others.

But it’s not ok to get stuck.

Just get things done and move on.

It’s those who get things done – even if not perfectly – who succeed in the end.

Getting things done is what counts. Remember that.

These things make a difference
One thing I always keep in mind when I design my training programs is this time issue.

That’s why I make sure they include a very focused plan, with clearly designed small steps that will ensure that you are sticking to the right path.

And best of all – feedback from me or my assistants to make sure that the work done will indeed bring results.

Another thing that really helps is that I allow my students access to my outsourcers so they don’t have to do certain time-consuming (and boring) tasks (if they are necessary).

Because making the most of your time is extremely important!

So – what do you think?
How do you handle this challenge of not having enough time?

Are you allowing it to stop you? Or do you have your own way of handling this problem?

Have any tips to share?

Please let me know by leaving a comment.

For many people who want to earn some extra income, one of the most confusing things is where to start. How to find out what will work for them with their budget and time constraints, their lifestyle and commitments. And how to do this quickly so that they can get on with earning that much needed extra income now, not next year.

The internet is one of the best opportunities and one of the best opportunities on the internet is selling on line. Whatever your age, your education, your location or circumstances, this presents a possibility to get started small, and build up a little or a lot depending on how far you want take it, how much you need to earn.

For some people, selling physical products represents an ideal and simple way to move forward, while still maintaining their existing activities and all without adding a lot of overheads, or outlay. There are stories of pensioners and grandmas making good on line as well as teenagers and college students and a healthy number of stay-at-home mums and single parents who turn their hands to online business built out of hours when the kids are asleep or at school.

There are several places on line where someone can start selling. Here are some of them: Ebay, Etsy, Amazon, Salehoo, Ebid, Ruby Lane to mention some of them.

I’ll be taking a look at some of these opportunities over the next few weeks and writing about what I find.

As we move forward in time, having wavered from the group of countries known as the European Union, there may be some circumstances we will need to suffer through in order to move onwards and upwards. The British people feel strongly about control, in particular being controlled by others. And the urge to Freedom is universal. So with that in mind, the majority of Brits decided that we should leave the European Union.

At the end of the day, it is trade that makes the world go round. The Romans founded an empire on trade around the Mediterranean. The Vikings travelled and traded all around the Baltic, the Middle East, the Atlantic sea board and the North Sea, even into the Middle East.

Marco Polo made his way to the East and back, bringing tales of fabulous wealth, of new materials and spices and exotically different cultures all the way to China through Persia and the other lands of the Silk Road. And with this trade in silks and china, spices and precious jewels, came back ideas from the philosophers of Greece recorded by the Arabic thinkers and knowledge developed by mathematicians of the Middle East creating what became known as the Renaissance in Italy and the rest of Europe.

Great Britain in past centuries traded by sea all over the known world from 1600′s onward and explored and discovered other unknown worlds, along with Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese explorers who found sea routes to the Americas, both north and south, to the West Indies, to Africa, India, to Australia and New Zealand and the many different lands and islands of the Far East.

Whatever happens, people will still need and want to do business and trade whatever services and products they can produce and deliver, and want to exchange them with other nations and cultures in other parts of the world. Sane people will come to agreements that permit this. Sane governments and politicians will work it out so this can still occur as we still depend on each other buying and selling our goods and services — for our future survival is mutual and interdependent.

This information comes to you courtesy of Natural News. It may be that you know someone it could help. It is so important that it is being passed on here to make it more widely known and used.

According to the most recent American Diabetes Association report, 29.1 million Americans are diabetic. Additionally, the disease still held the rank of being the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. Over 8 million of that 29.1 are undiagnosed, unaware that they have the condition.(1)

Therefore, it’s wise for everyone to take a closer look at their dietary lifestyle and eat foods that help fight diabetes.

Fight diabetes with these 17 herbs and spices

Several kinds of herbs and spices exist that keep the disease at bay. Here’s a look at what Dr. Alexa Fleckenstein, author of The Diabetes Cure, swears by.(2)
The list of herbs, spices and information below are derived from her
book. Supporting details and their sources are noted, if used.

1. Basil (Ocimum basilicum)

In a small study involving 40 type 2 diabetics, it was found that those consuming this herb were able to reduce their fasting blood glucose levels by approximately 17.6 percent. Additionally, their blood glucose levels after eating a meal were lowered by 7.3 percent.

Why not add their earthy yet semi-sweet leaves to more meals?

2. Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus)

Bilberries’ blue color, which exists on the inside as well as the outside, has antioxidants called anthocyanins. They’re known to help fight diabetes and lower inflammation. In fact, an Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition study found that regular ingestion of them led to improvements in glucose tolerance.

3. Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla)

Chamomile has the ability to help lower blood sugar levels and properly remove sugar from blood and store it in the liver, making it a smart choice in addition to the other herbs and spices mentioned in this article.

4. Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum)

This aromatic treat is one that won’t wreak havoc on glucose levels. Quite the contrary.

One 2003 study found that after just 40 days, a type of cinnamon called Cinnamomum aromaticum, or cassia (typically in grocery stores) was found to lower blood glucose levels nearly 30 percent.(3)

5. Cumin (Cuminum cyminum)

The spicy, smoky flavor of cumin is another taste that can be enjoyed by diabetics or those at risk. Not only does it lower cholesterol and blood sugar, but it manages advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which can be of concern for those with the disease.

6. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

This bitter leafy green is a diabetic’s dream: It’s said to help heal the liver, produce a cleansing action in the body and boost weight loss.

7. Dill (Anethum graveolens)

A versatile herb, dill was used during the middle ages to boost everything from meals to health.

Today, it’s noted that dill has about 70 beneficial chemicals that specifically work to combat diabetes. Talk about packing a significant health punch!

8. Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)

Described as having an “elegant” taste with a distinct anise flavor, fennel contains a phytochemical called anethole, which fights inflammation. Its seeds and the vegetable play a role in warding off diabetes complications.

9. Garlic (Allium sativum)

Eating more garlic means preventing your cytokines from becoming unruly.

10. Ginger (Zingiber officinale)

Ginger has been shown to improve many conditions that are concerning for diabetics. It has the ability to lower cholesterol levels, blood fats and blood glucose.

11. Peppermint (Mentha x piperita)

It’s brimming with diabetes-fighting antioxidants that make it well worth adding to meals.

12. Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)

Effective in warding off inflammation, it’s active phytochemical, carnosol, helps those with metabolic syndrome.

13. Sage (Salvia officinalis)

Not only does sage play a role in fighting germs and offering soothing qualities when enjoyed as a tea, but its powerful antioxidants are known to fight diabetes.

14. Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana)

For those with a sweet tooth, rejoice! This sweetener has been found to be safe for diabetics while also providing them with helpful postprandial blood sugar and insulin levels.

15. Tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus)

This herb has been found to produce a hypoglycemic effect, decrease overeating and reduce insulin resistance.

16. Thyme (Thymus spp.)

With approximately 75 active phytochemicals that work to fight diabetes, this flavorful herb is a must when it comes to staying healthy.

17. Turmeric (Curcuma longa)

This spice provides some serious kick when it comes to taste as well as heath. A study in the journal Diabetes Care found that prediabetics who took a placebo instead of curcumin capsules developed type 2 diabetes. Those taking the capsules did not.