2008 April — Allison Reynolds

April 17, 2008 By Allison 5 Comments

Review: The Immediate Edge

Media: Membership Site

Cost: US$97 p/m

Please note this review has been updated here – Immediate Edge Review

I have been a member of The Immediate Edge since it opened almost 12 months ago. At US$97 a month is the most I have ever invested in anything to do with internet marketing. So is it worth it?

Let’s look at the names behind the Edge. Ed Dale and Dan Raine.

Ed Dale is the super nice guy with gorgeous kids and a pedigree in being a “real” person who has made it through being smart and in the right place at the right time (and not by accident).

Dan comes across to me as the one that knows the dark side and would use it if necessary to achieve his goal. Sort of like Professor Snape in Harry Potter.

Together they make a quite impressive team.

BUT they are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Being excited by the lure of the “new” it often seems that projects trail off into the ether and no satisfactory closure takes place. Several sweeteners for joining, such as the share issue, seem not to have got off the ground at all.

If you are looking for a step 1, step 2, step 3 = profit! You mostly won’t get that in the Edge.

What you will get is some great thought provoking ideas to build on for yourself. The Edge is not a place for the faint hearted, or the unmotivated. There are no “lessons” at the Edge, you learn by watching projects evolve, you apply what you have learned to your new or existing projects.

I advise you not to jump straight from your first Thirty Day Challenge straight into the Edge. You will be disoriented if you do. Go off and put into practice what you learned in the 30DC for at least 6 months. Get a grip on working unsupervised, and learn where your true passion is. Then sign up if you still want to.

In short: not for the beginner but great for those who can adapt and apply concepts to existing businesses.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: 30DC, Dan Raine, ed dale, immediate edge, thirty day challenge

April 16, 2008 By Allison Leave a Comment

Twitter Updates for 2008-04-16

@NickHodge global warming is to blame! #
@NickHodge yes I am in my ugh boots and PJs #
@Marketing_Queen was it rooting that did your back in? #
@Ed_Dale sorry but washing my hair this weekend #
@liubinskas satellite knows ground position #
@allisonr o then " you will never need a man again" #
1:23 pm The vultures are circling, circling. Think I need to listen to some Blink182 to raise my flagging inner teenager #
@angesbiz That is great to here ange. Best of sluck for his speedy recovery #
Luna the Sphynx Kitty Is cold in Sydney today. Need to put her in some woolies #
eating tuna on toast…drinking decaf…thinking about sleeping already #

Filed Under: Distractions

April 15, 2008 By Allison Leave a Comment

Twitter Updates for 2008-04-15

http://twurl.nl/plvcia <– what a moron #
Note to self: do not read about babies dying while at work *hides in cubicle till red eyes clear* #
@angesbiz Usually my one thing that scares me is looking at innapropriate comedy amterial while at work #
Who can blame me, I am being outsourced! Actually I am a very efficient worker any company would be delighted to have me working for them #
Had chicken parmagarna for lunch. BAD ALLISON BAD. That is going to take 90 minutes at the gym to work off #
reaches out to @audiomarketing so she doesn’t feel alone at 3:45am. #
retweeting is like using the "reply with history" button on email and adding your opinion. Has to be something noteworthy tho, not crap #
@aeoth it was teh first "bad food" I have had in ages and it was AMBROSIA nom nom nom #
yay twitter is back *celebrates* #
creating flow charts, then writing processes, then looking into outsourced opportunities #
I wish you could unfollow people from Twhirl #
ordering dinner…and why not #
what colour is a mirror? #
Retweeting @gurubob: Hmmm. Is this the inevitable (ads in Twitter)? http://twurl.nl/fr8td0 … thi information brought to you by McDonalds #
@goatlady nice one! have fun #
@Marketing_Queen depends on the size of the file…but it can take a while #
twitter goes where most conversation gioes…on this hand we have a religious debate, on the other someone talking about hot dates #
TFSM has not touched me with his noodly appendage yet Nick #
what a co-ink-e-dink just stumbled on this http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=vfkj7khb4u #
shut those bloody dogs up! #
Giant Slug Nom Noms flowerhttp://twurl.nl/7iymrf #
@angesbiz aww thanks #
@angesbiz lolol #
aww thanks Angie…but all roads lead to Nez’s blog (and I thought it was going to be a Rick Roll for sure) #
oh shit…spelled my name wrong on a blog comment! Ange help me out there with an edit PLEASE! #
he will get lots of love from the bot spider that will say Nez is an authority on all of those people…not a bad thing #
Hitting the sack… #

Filed Under: Distractions

April 15, 2008 By Allison Leave a Comment

Going With The Flow

About 18 months ago I spent a month in Bangalore training technical people how to perform the work that some of my team in back home was doing. Prior to going I had spent some time mapping out the entire process, writing work instructions and creating training presentations so that my new Indian team could survive once I left.

Last night I spent about 40 minutes mapping out the entire process I will be running the business to. Inside the map are spaces for 7 work instructions that need to be written. Once written I will probably do the training slides so that if I engage complete n00bs (like my daughter’s friends) to perform some of the work, they can learn before diving in.

One thing I did learn from my Indian experience is that I am a pretty good teacher. While others had trouble gaining the respect and attention of their groups, my group were pleasant and attentive, and seemed to enjoy the experience. I am hoping to take that into my product creating later on.

work flow

I am probably recreating what a million people have created before, but the act of creating such a flow helps me to visualise where I can inject outsourcing and where I would be performing the task myself.

keep an eye on my to-do list to track my progress as I tick each of the tasks off. At this stage the plan is May 30th to be up and running with the first pilot run of externally created sites and content.

Filed Under: Projects Tagged With: affiliate marketing, allison reynolds, bangalore, india, niche, work flow

April 15, 2008 By Allison 1 Comment

The To Do List

Filed Under: Projects Tagged With: allison reynolds, flashpaper, tasks, to do list

April 14, 2008 By Allison Leave a Comment

Twitter Updates for 2008-04-14

@john_reese if the wing falls off then you know they made the right decision #
@Bambi_C that happens to me all teh time Bambi… #
@Bambi_C @NextInstinct I found it was a) because I also had an instance running on my home PC and b) latency at work #
Posted comment on : http://twurl.nl/byd7ge (brevity is best) #
@aeoth I KNEW I Knew you! Guess who i am #
@allisonr err… went to lunch…I hope I am right in thinking you do know something about AtomicMPC seeing as you have the T-Shirt? #
hah nice one allison…twittering yourself…that’s a new level of inncompetence you have sunk to #
@aeoth then i apologise you are not the aeoth I know from the atomicmpc forums then…bummer #
Please reply with yes or no… Is this picture worksafe http://twurl.nl/gwy2ay I say Yes #
Killing time till 2pm…then a meeting, followed by another meeting, with one more meeting to end the day…frabjuous #
Bad Taste Tweet: Hint to potential suicidees, leave your phone turned on so they can detect your body by GPS http://twurl.nl/3lut4t #
@harmonicbarbie sweet dreams! #
ooh look ! That sexy @jasonmoffatt is online…. quick throw your panties! #
woohoo work is asking us to Beta test a virtual world as community service…love it #
I do like this for managing Twitter followers http://twurl.nl/v5cwgr #
@griffmiester certainly seems to be! and thanks for the worksafe answer earlier…I shouldn’t ask something then go to lunch #
Cooking veal with wilted spinach for dinner. Probably gym after, cooler weather is making going out harder…mmm PJs #
@danraine link is not working #
Just approached an old friend who has opened a business to see if she would be interested in me helping her develop online presence #
works now @angesbiz #
Ok so I can see this will be cool for Thirty Day Challenge teams @danraine …wish I was in the cool crowd *cries* #
@griffmiester kind of like high school…but worse #
dinner…done and dusted #
wacking a wordpress blog on a 4 year old domain that i bought for $5. According to Wordtracker Gtrends it gets 350+ searches a day..hm #
*laughs* @lu_lu #
Tested Tweetburner and see that my Bad taste Tweet wins the link test #
net is being unco-operative tonight. Might take a cricket bat to the cable modem for some fun #
@AndrewNez Flock – much less of a memory sink than firefox surprisingly #
Someone posted a link to some great wordpress themes recently…can someone report please #
report = repost #
Fighting DNS cache trying to get blog up and working #
@AndrewNez Andrew you are a gem, thanks! #
Don’t you hate when you look at the time and realise it is now too late to ring your father to say happy birthday. #
The bad daughter goes to bed #

Filed Under: Distractions

April 14, 2008 By Allison 1 Comment

Product of My Imagination

As yet I have not been game enough to create my own product. There are two reasons for this; one I am slightly fearful that I will produce crap and people will shout at me. The other is that I am like an author that has never read a book, I just don’t buy products.

So to the drawing board!

In the next month i am going to find as many free products as I can to download. Hopefully there is enough rubbish in what I accumulate that the light bulb moment will happen and I will be able to truly say “I can do better than this junk”.

This will probably get me on a heap of spam email lists so i will be creating a fresh gmail account to catch the autoresponders. i will be looking for eBook and video products as software is not something I can see easily coming together at this stage.

Don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of ideas for products. These are things that i would buy if they were available, or would have bought in the past when i was looking for certain instructions or information. Oh and no, it won’t be anything in the “making money online” genre either.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, if you have any advice or suggestions for how to get over the “product block” I have, I would be very grateful to hear from you. Comment away!

Filed Under: Products Tagged With: allison reynolds, ebook, product creation

April 13, 2008 By Allison Leave a Comment

Twitter Updates for 2008-04-13

@sethyates thou shalt not twitter in church #
@sethyates being only three characters God favours twitter #
Free MacBook Pro post http://is.gd/5IB #
Stumble-gorging….nom nom nom #
Thunder and lightning here in Castle Hill. Machine full of wet towels and more storms to come http://is.gd/5JA #
@sethyates hope you have surge protection #
Give me a new MacBook Pro please http://is.gd/5IB #
Being a good gerbil and videoing a testimonial about the great and educational time I have has with theThirty Day Challenge http://is.gd/5K6 #
Back from aleisurely afternoon of coffee, banana bread and a $200 grocery shop #
editing testimonial video for thirty day challenge #
Actually contemplated buying new underwear as the rainy week has meant I have none clean #
Vid is finished and uploaded…now to send off addy to @Ed_Dale and @danraine #
@testimonials here is mine…my head isn’t normally at that odd angle…cat’s fault! http://tinyurl.com/5mb2m2 #
@Bill_Thomson aww Luna is my baby! #
Checking football scores #
oh shite Carlton?!?!?!? as I suspected…both NRL and AFL tips have gone down the toilet on Sunday #
Reading: http://www.whoreonhold.com/ #
Reading: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/ #
I did @gurubob . i was a good girl and made a video *proud* #
New Blog Post: Sphynx Cats: Attention Please http://is.gd/5L4 #
@andrewbarnett @NickHodge They can also give you thrush #
I hear strom coming! #
@NickHodge Yeah, I am so Thor I can hardly walk…ahahah old jokes are best #
@andrewbarnett ouch! *fingers crossed* #
@MossyBlog The DSLR is great for astrophotography…and reason why you are going film? #
@MossyBlog and = any #
Jesus FAIL http://is.gd/5Lt #
All Sydneyites, severe thunderstorm warning has just been issues on the BOM site… Hail, High Winds and Flooding http://is.gd/5Lv #
How would you get a free MacBook pro? http://is.gd/5IB #
Sneakily saw what problogger blogged and whipped an Amazon carousel onto the front page of my blog instead of teh stupid Flickr RSS feed #

Filed Under: Distractions

April 13, 2008 By Allison Leave a Comment

Prostituting Myself – How Much An Hour?

Do you know how much you are worth an hour? One of the exercises that is helpful for good time/income management, is to calculate how much your time is worth on an hourly basis. This for me has a twofold effect; one, I know how much it costs me to perform an act myself and two, this helps me set a goal for earnings via other means rather than an employer.

Surprisingly many people who are trying to sea-change or tree-change never perform this exercise . They may have general figures in mind for yearly income, or even break that down to weekly. To truly ditch the dross that can be better done by someone else, then hourly is required.

So how much am I worth an hour?

There are quite a few ways of working out this figure. Being employed full time I can use my wage and divide the amount of hours I work to come up with a figure I can apply to all hours….

Example (Using Australian Dollars, scale accordingly for your own incomes)

47 (working weeks) x 40 (weekly working hours) = 1880

50,000 (pre tax salary) / 1880 = $26.60

Now remember that in that figure may be benefits such as sick leave but keep it simple at this stage with the dollar amount. Also if you were earning 26.60 for EVERY hour you are awake you would be a lot richer than just earning it for the hours you spend in the office, but again keep it simple.

So now look at the value of your time.

If I work 8 hours a day for $26.60 = $8.80 x 24 hours

Hmmm that looks like a manageable amount to strive towards in earnings now doesn’t it?

But What About Paying For Help ?

When looking at paying for help you should consider the following

are you good at it and enjoy it
are you not so good at it and enjoy it
are you good at it and dislike it
are not so good at it and dislike it

After considering the above, if someone else can do it as well or better than as you, and cheaper then it is in your best interest to have them do it.

Why?

Using the old housework example, you may be the best toilet cleaner around but if you could be using the time to create more income then why are you wasting your time cleaning toilets. If you doing things to earn money at the same time someone is cleaning your toilet then there is double the productivity and you are still making more money than if you were just scrubbing the bowl.

Be careful though, becoming a workaholic is not a good thing. Ensure you are doing things for leisure to balance those hard hours of income generating activity.

Filed Under: Projects Tagged With: sea change, tree change, value per hour

April 12, 2008 By Allison Leave a Comment

Twitter Updates for 2008-04-12

arises again from the boudoir. Time for a coffee and to finish off those blog posts #
Looking for ideas on how to get a Macbook Pro without paying for it #
@ShannonCole while dominating the space he is in and exuding great chunks of testosterone #
@harmonicbarbie I am having a hard time finding an Australian equivalnt. Most only do USA and Canada *cries* #
@harmonicbarbie yes, I am looking up competitions at the moment, then will hit free sites, then some out of the box thinking might be in … #
Raiding in WoW…here goes the next 3 hours #
back after clearing kara…then went to pick up Vege Co_Op veges, lots of nice greens this fortnight yum! #
Watching A Knights Tale while eating home made chicken soup #
nice work on the prawns @kerryank #
FailBlog Update ! http://failblog.wordpress.com/ #
My footy tips are doing well. Can I survive tomorrow though? #
Watching paleontology vid on StumbleUpon #
@Ed_Dale interesting thing on perezhilton.com , he has a geo specific video slot on the front page. Directed video …very cool! #
5 out of 5 on mr NRL tips so far, and heading towards 5 out of 5 on the AFL…makes a pleasant change for my NRL tips #
Science meets dessert http://is.gd/5E1 #

Filed Under: Distractions

So how much am I worth an hour?

But What About Paying For Help ?

The Author