Which Internet marketer has the worst digital watch competition
Neil Shearing started a “Which Internet marketer has the worst digital watch?” competition on his blog yesterday after seeing a photo of Ken McArthur in his antique.
And then - because we started wearing watches before he was born - he picked on Michael Campbell and me as as the most likely marketers to be behind the times. That’s ageism for you.
Actually Neil was right to pick on me because my watch IS really old, but I’ve got an excuse - which is that I only wear a watch when I’m on vacation, so I don’t need some fancy new-fangled thing. I know that wearing a watch only on vacation is the opposite way around to most people, but just about the only places I go are for long walks on the mountain trails or into town for a coffee. And I just don’t need to know the time.
I’m not going to win the competition though - because my watch might be old, but I think Neil’s own watch is older. Though I’ve got to say that it looks much more boring than mine which lights up and flashes and plays a tune and does all sorts of lovely things.
(perhaps I’ll win the which internet marketer has the worst digital photo of themselves competition 
)
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I bought my lovely watch years ago on a market stall in a little village in the middle of the jungle in the Sarawak part of Borneo and after 2 minutes got it stolen by a monkey. Luckily I hung around the market for a while and spotted the monkey coming back out of the jungle and handing it back to the stall-holder in return for some food (a fairly common con I’ve heard)…and after a bit of a good humored argument I managed to get it back for just another few Ringgit
I’ve got to point out that having this old watch doesn’t make me a luddite (it is a digital watch) and as further proof of my up-to-date-ness, I just happened to get a new notebook computer delivered today with a built in webcam - so I’ve put my watch on and figured out how the cam works and taken a picture especially for you. And I’ve even dressed up in my 70’s gear
 (that’s not a rude sign. It’s V for Victory for prettiest old digital watch)
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Paul Smithson Cancer Appeal Run
On September 16th Paul Smithson (creator of the excellent XSitePro software) is doing a run to raise money for cancer research. I’ve made a donation and I’d like to invite you to make one too.
Paul had a brush with the big C three years ago, which is about the first time I met him.
Below is a pic I took of him in Starbucks in Leeds, Yorkshire, where I became the first affiliate to see XSitePro in action.
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But I just did a search in Google Images for a more recent pic and found this nice one (below).
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It is the same Paul Smithson, isn’t it?
Well, I’m not 100 percent sure but they are both Yorkshiremen, and I do seem to remember Paul refusing to eat the goat steak in the posh restaurant he took me to.
Anyway, the same Paul Smithson or not, it would be great if you could spare a few dollars to sponsor Paul - the donation you make will go directly to Cancer Research UK.
Here’s a touching letter that Paul sent out to his mailing lists a few weeks ago.
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It’s Paul Smithson here from XSitePro.
I’m writing to you today about something that’s completely unrelated to internet marketing or computer software, but it’s something I’d REALLY appreciate your support with.
Let me tell you why …
Three years ago I had a massive wake up call.
I’d had a small spot on my stomach for several months. I went to see the doctor about it and he said it was just an ingrowing mosquito bite and was nothing to worry about.
A few months later I went back to see the same doctor and he agreed to perform the minor operation to remove it. When I say minor operation I mean really minor. A quick local anesthetic and then whoosh, he sliced it off with a scalpel.
As far as I was concerned that was the end of that, but unfortunately it wasn’t.
Five weeks later I was preparing to fly to Memphis when I received a phone call from the doctor. I was asked to go to see them IMMEDIATELY. Normally you’re lucky if you can get an appointment for the following day, but they wanted me in there and then - no messing around.
On arriving at the surgery I was ushered into the Doctors office where he sat me down. I knew something was wrong by the look on his face.
“Paul, I’m sorry to tell you but you’ve got cancerâ€
Silence.
“And it’s serious. Really seriousâ€.
You can imagine what was going through my mind.
I told him about my business trip to Memphis and that I was flying in two days. He told me there was no way I could go as I needed an operation as soon as possible.
I drove home in a trance and spent the rest of the day trying to find out everything I could about skin cancer. Trust me, if you’ve ever had anything like this happen to you, the last thing you want to do is look it up on the Internet.
A few days later I went into hospital where they performed two operations and then spent the next few weeks on tenterhooks waiting for the biopsy to be completed.
Finally, I got the phone call I had been waiting for and dreading at the same time.
I’m pleased to say it was GREAT news.
They’d caught the cancer early enough and the prognosis was excellent.
You can imagine how relieved I was.
One minute you’re thinking you’ve got a death sentence hanging over you and the next you’ve been given a clean bill of health.
So, I’m pleased to say that you’ll have to put up with me for many many more years to come (I hope).
Unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky as I was and that’s what prompted me to do this 10km run next month. Cancer research is so important that I wanted to do anything I could to help.
And that’s where you come in.
On September 16 I’m doing a run to raise money for cancer research. It’s a 10km run, which for me is the furthest I’ve run for twenty odd years. I’ve been in training for the past couple of months and don’t have a clue how I’m going to make it round (it’s rather a hilly course), but I’m absolutely determined to do it.
I’m e-mailing all the XSitePro users, and anyone else I can think of, and asking if you’d be kind enough to sponsor me on this run. It doesn’t matter whether it’s $5 or $1000, £1 or £100, or 10 euros or 10,000 euros, whatever you can give will be very much appreciated.
Rather than you giving the money to me and then me handing it over to the Cancer Research charity, they’ve set me up a special page, so that the money goes straight into their bank account.
Here’s the link.
http://www.10ksponsorme.org/paulsmithson
You’ll notice that the amounts are listed as pounds rather than dollars. That’s because it’s Cancer Research UK, but to give you a quick idea of the dollar/pound conversion rate all you need to do is double it. Here’s a quick ready reckoner for US$.
£5 = $10
£10 = $20
£50 = $100
£250 = $500
£500 = $1000
The charge on your credit card will go through as your normal currency.
And remember, it doesn’t matter what the amount is, absolutely anything will be very much appreciated.
I really do hope you can help me with this.
Thanks so much,
Paul
It’s Paul Smithson here from XSitePro.
I’m writing to you today about something that’s completely unrelated to internet marketing or computer software, but it’s something I’d REALLY appreciate your support with.
Let me tell you why …
Three years ago I had a massive wake up call.
I’d had a small spot on my stomach for several months. I went to see the doctor about it and he said it was just an ingrowing mosquito bite and was nothing to worry about.
A few months later I went back to see the same doctor and he agreed to perform the minor operation to remove it. When I say minor operation I mean really minor. A quick local anesthetic and then whoosh, he sliced it off with a scalpel.
As far as I was concerned that was the end of that, but unfortunately it wasn’t.
Five weeks later I was preparing to fly to Memphis when I received a phone call from the doctor. I was asked to go to see them IMMEDIATELY. Normally you’re lucky if you can get an appointment for the following day, but they wanted me in there and then - no messing around.
On arriving at the surgery I was ushered into the Doctors office where he sat me down. I knew something was wrong by the look on his face.
“Paul, I’m sorry to tell you but you’ve got cancerâ€
Silence.
“And it’s serious. Really seriousâ€.
You can imagine what was going through my mind.
I told him about my business trip to Memphis and that I was flying in two days. He told me there was no way I could go as I needed an operation as soon as possible.
I drove home in a trance and spent the rest of the day trying to find out everything I could about skin cancer. Trust me, if you’ve ever had anything like this happen to you, the last thing you want to do is look it up on the Internet.
A few days later I went into hospital where they performed two operations and then spent the next few weeks on tenterhooks waiting for the biopsy to be completed.
Finally, I got the phone call I had been waiting for and dreading at the same time.
I’m pleased to say it was GREAT news.
They’d caught the cancer early enough and the prognosis was excellent.
You can imagine how relieved I was.
One minute you’re thinking you’ve got a death sentence hanging over you and the next you’ve been given a clean bill of health.
So, I’m pleased to say that you’ll have to put up with me for many many more years to come (I hope).
Unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky as I was and that’s what prompted me to do this 10km run next month. Cancer research is so important that I wanted to do anything I could to help.
And that’s where you come in.
On September 16 I’m doing a run to raise money for cancer research. It’s a 10km run, which for me is the furthest I’ve run for twenty odd years. I’ve been in training for the past couple of months and don’t have a clue how I’m going to make it round (it’s rather a hilly course), but I’m absolutely determined to do it.
I’m e-mailing all the XSitePro users, and anyone else I can think of, and asking if you’d be kind enough to sponsor me on this run. It doesn’t matter whether it’s $5 or $1000, £1 or £100, or 10 euros or 10,000 euros, whatever you can give will be very much appreciated.
Rather than you giving the money to me and then me handing it over to the Cancer Research charity, they’ve set me up a special page, so that the money goes straight into their bank account.
Here’s the link.
http://www.10ksponsorme.org/paulsmithson
You’ll notice that the amounts are listed as pounds rather than dollars. That’s because it’s Cancer Research UK, but to give you a quick idea of the dollar/pound conversion rate all you need to do is double it. Here’s a quick ready reckoner for US$.
£5 = $10
£10 = $20
£50 = $100
£250 = $500
£500 = $1000
The charge on your credit card will go through as your normal currency.
And remember, it doesn’t matter what the amount is, absolutely anything will be very much appreciated.
I really do hope you can help me with this.
Thanks so much,
Paul
Related posts
Its arrived: the feminisation of the net
Interesting Internet demographics story in the UK Guardian last week.
“For years cyberspace has been tailored to an audience of mainly young men but for the first time women webusers have taken the lead in key age groups. At the same time an army of silver surfers has emerged and the over 65s are spending more hours online than any other age group…”
http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2154392,00.html
If you’re only keeping the interests of men/boys in mind when you’re building sites, or creating products, you’re missing a huge market.
On a related note read my article, from a few months ago, about targeting the aging population. It’s about halfway down newsletter 355
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Getting blank newsletters?
Something weird has been going on with the delivery of my newsletter in the past few weeks.
It seems that lots of people are getting nothing but the subject line, and not seeing the content of the newsletter at all.
Three weeks ago four or five people emailed me about it. Last week quite a few more. So I investigated but couldn’t find a problem at my end.
Then with the newsletter I sent out today I was deluged with emails like this one:
Karin.
So I’ve done some more checking and it’s a problem for people on my old newsletter list. Yep, I’ve got two.
Years ago I started using Aweber because of it’s high delivery rates, but I didn’t want to ask my long time subscribers to resubscribe to the new list so I kept the old Lyris based list running and just switched over all my optin forms and advertising to the new setup.
Now Lyris has thrown a wobbly and started shooting blanks
So if you think you are on my old Lyris list I’d like to invite you to resubscribe using the form in the top right corner of this blog. It’s highlighted in Yellow to make it easy to see
If you’re already on my Aweber ezine list it won’t let you opt-in again with the same email address. So if you’re not sure which list you subscribe to please opt in again.
Note: it’s a double opt-in, so you’ll receive a confirmation email you have to click on to start receiving the newsletter (and for the next few days only I’ve included a special surprise gift to you in that email…so watch out for it)
Thank you, thank you, and thank you again, for your understanding.
Now if you’ve been getting blanks you can read the last 3 issues below.
Phil
ps. the feedback for my recent newsletters has been so poor I thought I was just writing crap newsletters
So in one way I’m a bit relieved to find out that my writing is no worse than usual
