John Cooke @FreoCookster builds my business

The power of negative comments on Social Media is only a problem if you don't engage with those who believe negative exposure is bad...

Today there were a number of tweets by a John Cooke who has the handle of @FreoCookster which resulted in spikes in the traffic to all my web addresses... and a number of web searches etc.

I truly thank Cooke and his friends including @JasonJordan @rashaman [I wonder if that is really an alias??] @grum etc... these "self styled" experts go to extraordinary lengths to cause me negative effects but actually build my standing within the market I service.

It is a great delightful irony that when your detractors have such small minds and such petty ideals, it becomes their Achilles heel... and rather than them causing their targets harm, they build the reputation of the person they seek to tear down.

John Cooke says that he will mention me in his "#socmed presos" which I presume means that he spreads this information to others claiming to be an expert... and in every case I get POSITIVE feedback.

So, please please please @FreoCookster keep it up - I would even consider paying for the great work you are doing to prove that I understand how to use the medium of Social Media Marketing more effectively than you.

[Also my "old" mate Lesley Dewar gets a badge for her continual great promotion... thanks Lesley I really appreciate your version of the universe.

Picture tells a 1,000 stories Cooke and Dewar doing great things... [Actually they do do some great stuff which I applaud them for... but you cant build yourself up by tearing down others!]

Thomas Edison's 1911 Predictions for 2011

This is interesting... someone came up with what Thomas Edison predict it would be like in 100 years from 1911

Thomas Edison's 1911 Predictions for 2011

Comparison Chart: Motorola XOOM vs. iPad - Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog

I am waiting... what will you choose... the iPad2 or the Motorola XOOM

This chart gives you so great information to help you make a choice

Comparison Chart: Motorola XOOM vs. iPad - Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog

AUSTRALIA BEAT ENGLAND IN SECOND ODI

Australia's selectors were pushed to including batting tyro Shaun Marsh in the ODI game in Tasmania last night - he isn't in the World Cup squad - what are these guys on??

So to prove a point, Marsh rescued Australia from 4/28 to being 230 scoring 110 along the way.

Will he be in the World Cup Squad... apparently not as he can't bowl. It is strange that can't bat doesn't keep a bowler out of the team.

AUSSIES Win

Key Socceroos playmaker Brett Emerton will miss Australia's quarter-final at the Asian Cup after being shown a second yellow card in the group stage.

It was the sour note of a 1-0 victory over Bahrain that ensured the team top place in Group C ahead of South Korea.

In the 41st minute of the match Emerton was spied by Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura tugging the shirt of an opponent in the midfield.

It was a needless act. A clear free kick. But in Emerton's view a tough booking.

"I think it was very soft," the Blackburn midfielder told Grandstand. "There were a lot of challenges throughout the game which warranted yellow cards rather than a little tug on the shirt.

"That's sometimes what you experience playing in Asia. If that was in the Premiership it would never be a yellow card. It's just one of those things I have to accept it, serve the suspension and hopefully be there in the semi-finals with the boys."

see rest of article on ABC Online

Opening Statement for MORE sales

Hi, John.

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Parking Fine Karma is GOOD LUCK!

I stopped in on one of my favourite coffee shops in Mount Lawley for a HOT flat white but parked on the outbound side of the road... usually I parked on the other side.

I checked the parking sign immediately where I parked and I read it as Clearway 4.15 to 6pm and that I could park for 1 hour.

All OK as it was 3.30pm.

So I enjoyed my coffee and read The New Scientist... and I noticed a RAC Tilt Tray Tow Truck removing vehicles from where I had parked... quickly I returned to the car... and on the window screen was a parking ticket... I checked my watch and it was 4.10pm.

Well I copped an $80 fine - see in the obscured THIRD sign on the same sign it says NO STANDING 3.30 to 4.15pm

Whilst I think that is sneaky, I rejoiced in the fact that getting parking tickets has always been a precursor to months of REALLY great luck.

The ticket had a BPAY option so I have paid the $80... but I will write to the council and ask them to make the signs clearer... on second thoughts I wont! I will just enjoy the luck!!

Floods, floods and Danny Green

Sometimes I wonder about the Aussie press... I think I mentioned it yesterday too.

Yesterday the CBD of Brisbane was flooded as the river continued to rise... and chances are than 8000 homes and businesses will be underwater by Thursday as high tides and flood peaks collide... and the official death toll is 10 from Monday and 52 are still missing.

And the lead sports story - full page back cover [the most read page of our West Australian Newspaper!!] is Danny Green may never fight again!! This is about the same bully who couldn't get the nurse at Busselton Hospital to give him morphine before she had a Doctor check him... the same boffune who caused such a distubance the police were called... and we give the likes of him full page coverage!!

I say, "Come on, fairs fair, to the editors of The West Australian - stop giving these idiots oxygen for their stupid utterances about themselves and boxing... a brutal "sport" at best."

Am I on the wrong track>> Is it me who is delusional?? I hope not but let me know.

Whitehall Great Photo Image

David Wallace often sends me great images... here is his image of Whitehall. STUNNING!

Opposite Prayers??

What a strange place Australia is...

So large and so different. The West Australian Newspaper is reporting in the first 10 pages of it's January 11th issue 2011 [that's today]:

1. floods so server that houses are being washed away and people are losing their lives with a death toll of more than a dozen lives lost to Nature's fury in Queensland and New South Wales,
2. drought in south West Australia [worst since records have been kept from 1829],
3. fires claiming houses in suburbs 100 kilometres from Perth, and
4. scientists selecting our North West Australian landscape because it is the most like Mars anywhere on the planet.

And the back page has the really important and relevant news for concerned Australian citizens, of a "woman scourned" by sports people - footballers - behaving badly, extracting revenge.

Joanne often says she wonders how God decides who's prayers to answer today... and I hear the beautiful songstress Becky Cole signing "Opposite Prayers... he answers mine how will he answer theirs.."

Danny Green GROW UP!!

World Champion finds he can't bully a nurses...

Quoted in The West Australian this morning, as the full picture comes out about Green trying to bully hospital staff to give him morphine for acute pain BEFORE they had time to diagnose the cause of the pain:

"I wasn't ranting and screaming," he said from St John of God Hospital, Murdoch, where he had surgery on Wednesday. "Considering how much pain I was in and the lack of common sense shown, I thought I was very controlled and I have no idea why anyone would be called, let alone the police."

So obnoxious was Green's behaviour, the hospital called the Police but Green was on his way before they arrived.

Western Australian Health Minister Hames put the incident in its true perspective:

"You just do not give morphine to an undiagnosed abdominal pain, it is the last thing you give because what it does is camouflage the symptoms and sometimes you miss a diagnosis," Dr Hames said.

"The reality is Danny was only in that hospital half an hour, he really didn't give them much of a chance, did he?"

40 Day Water Bomb For Good Health?

Guest Editorial by Tahya Gardner:

Last Friday whilst out for our regular work lunch I received a received for review a magazine, Veritas. Whilst waiting for my sandwich I had a flick through the pages, and was impressed at the good presentation and colourful pages.

Since being back in the office I have had a chance to have a deeper look into the magazine and read some of the articles that are featured.

One story struck me, The Water Bomb (page 20) about a single mum, Rebecca Mitchell, who drinks nothing but water for 40 days, no food. She explains the troubles she encountered at the beginning, how she felt during the experiment and the outcome.

My personal belief and first thought when I finished reading is that in order to keep looking and feeling healthy, it is essential to eat certain foods such as meat, vegetables and fruit.

Breakfast is known to most as the main meal of the day – I fail to understand that a bottle of water will have you feeling full and focused for a days work!

Reading on I find the magazine to be very contradicting, as I came across an article on Page 52, The Seven Principles to a Healthy You.

Water is stated as principle 2; however principle number 5 states ‘Whole Foods!’ (Unprocessed Food.) But I was told earlier on in the magazine that living on nothing but water for 40 days will have you feeling fresh and healthy, WITHOUT Whole Foods and the 5 other principles listed!?

So, in order to look and be healthy, and feel good, I disagree on the ‘water diet’ and believe food IS important!

What do you think?

Gerry Harvey Gets It Wrong!!

With the debate about the GST threshhhold for imported goods set at $1,000 the major retailers are going to war with full page ads saying how unfair it is. But I think they have missed the point.

By using Gerry Harvey as a spokesperson they have allowed a "non net retailer" to front the cause and the social networks have turned on him. I read in today's West Australian how Gerry thinks it is unfair that the social media networks are attacking him... in fact vilified him... calling him "a greedy horse owning billionaire". People tend to call you greedy when your "Interest Free Terms" are actually 29%!! That's another story for another day. Anyway, he is so taken aback, he is withdrawing from the public battle.

My take on the debate: The reason people are buying online from overseas "and in Australia" is that the traditional retailers are not offering the prices or convenience of what online shops do.

Example: I wanted a extra power pack for the computer I am using now... Harvey Norman and Dick Smith wanted between $150 and $199 for it. Adelaide net shop LaptopPlus wanted just $35 plus $14.95 to ship. Wow - so I purchased 2 and ordered on a Sunday evening and they were delivered to my Perth PO Box on Tuesday.

What made me make the decision??

PRICE: $35 against $150 and SERVICE: Delivered to my door QUICKLY.

GST?? on $35?? well it wasn't a consideration. Anyway I paid it - Aussie store ONLINE!!

Compare that with shopping Harvey Norman style - Malaga store north of Perth??

ME: Can I have an extra handset to the cordless/wireless phone system I purchased here last week?? Harvey Norman Smart Alec:NO!! If we stocked those we mightn't sell them and we would lose money! ME: Oh then can I order one?? Harvey Norman Smart Alec: How about you ring back Monday and I will check.. ME: You are telling me to piss off!

Outcome: ME: went home, ordered online - paid $15 extra for shipping and but had it Tuesday. GST influence decision... BULLSHIT!

See full story on my video report here: http://bit.ly/hpkXYJ

I say to the Gerry Harvey lead major retailers - welcome to the 21st Century - you are 10 years late but welcome anyway.

Warnie loses his mojoShane Warne

The high profile chat show WARNIE has been pulled.

With Australia doing so well NOT in the Test cricket, viewers have deserted the tele when it comes to anything to do with Test Cricket - we Aussies dont like watching the poms thrash us. So, Channel 9 have decided that 500,000 viewers is not enough to justify putting the Spin King on tonight... you'd have to think that the show was pretty much done apart from the audience part so they were happy to burn some $$$'s rather than produce a fully sponsored "replacement hair" ad...

A friend of mine, an accountant none the less, says that Shane Warne is so adept at Self Promotion he will be one f the very few TV Presenters to get the axe that will make it a positive... after all how could he have pulled Liz Hurley?? Maybe he didn't and it was all a put up??

As he said, "Nobody could be as dumb as Warnie... it is all a perfectly staged media show."

WOW Facebook is worth $50 billion!!

The digital press is a blze with the latest valuation of Facebook - $500m investment values the balance at $50 billion - not bad for a "revenue free" business model.

I remember reading about Microsoft buying a tiny piece that valued the rest at $4 billion[??] and everyone said that was stupid. But are we experiencing a Tech bubble again like 2001 where everything headed for the stars only to come crashing down??

Do you remember when the NASDAQ hit 5,000 points?? I do because for a brief moment I was a multi millionaire [on paper as they say] as our business, with out revenue was valued by the stock market spruikers at $100million. That lasted a week or two and reality came back to refresh my mind with a dose of reality.

After watching the movie The Social Network I am reminded that with the "spamming" of the Harvard University student list, or the hacking of the university's computer system we would have a Facebook - welcome to the new Robber Barons... how do get rich VERY RICH and VERY QUICK in the 21st Century.

Australia is a great place... even when e are losing the cricket

The selectors are going for broke.... new captain Michael Clarke leads a team that has been thumped for nearly the whole of 2010 so maybe 2011 will be a better start.

Usman Khawaja is the new star batter to get a go... born in Pakistan but raised in Australia he reflects the changing face of the Australian community. All the best to him.

Even more interesting is Michael Beer who has snuck into the team via a short stay in Perth and a couple of games in the Sheffield Shield... apparently he has NEVER played at the SCG.

Let's hope desperation is a great inspiration to this team that really needs some magic to beat the rampit English team.

I think I will save myself the pain and not listen or watch the cricket today... Clarke won the toss so we could be in trouble very quickly!!

Apologies to Apple - dont you hate it when...

Spoke to Erica on facetime by my iPhone4 yesterday - crystal clear video phone Australia to UK... and I think it is better than Skype... and I just hate it when I have been away from Apple for nearly 20 years and now they are getting their products Sooo Goood...

I will still have to wait a while for the final capitulation - getting an iPad until they release iPad2 which I am sure will fix the camera problem. When it went multifunction that was one of the last barriers to me not getting 1 but for the want of a few weeks I think I can wait for the iPad2... I will let you know.