Beware! A New Domain Name Renewal Scam

Please Read This Carefully

A friend received an email notification with the title of Registration Expiration.

See the image below of the exact notification.

You'll see if refers to a domain name (I've hidden the ID to protect the owner) with a Registration date and price of $75.00 for 1 year! Just ridiculous. The average price for a domain name for 1 year is about £10.00.

They have then been clever in the wording of the notice. Now most people wouldn't read it properly - it looks like a bill and a lot of people would just click through to make the payment.

When you actually read it, it states a company called SE Services provides submission services and search engine ranking organisation for domain owners. So it's NOT actually for the renewal of your domain name. It's a payment for submission and search engine ranking services.

But of course, it's obvious these people or person won't do anything for you except take your money and bank it!

I did a bit of digging and found this other blog post from last month from a Money Scams Exposed blog - http://moneyscamsexposed.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/se-services-expiring-domain-name-scam.html 

It seems it's a new scam based on an old variation. I wrote about the Domain Renewal Group of America last year, and how they post renewal letters to domain name owners hoping they'll fill out the form and send it back with credit card details ora cheque.

See Beware of this Domain Name Renewal SCAM!

So please be very careful and please tell all your family, friends and work colleagues about this new scam.

If you've had an email like this one or anything similar please share your story in the comments below.

How Does Facebook Measure up Versus Ad Agencies [Infographic]

This great Inforgraphic was taken from Campaign magazine and I love the stats included on it.

It demonstrates how quickly Facebook has grown in valuation and profit for a company so young.

Click the graphic below for full image.

Infographic from Campaign Magazine
18th May 2012

Gravatar - Your Globally Recognisable Avatar

I've met every single one of these 25!

Have you ever posted a comment on someone's blog post and wondered why you're listed as a "Guest" or "Anonymous"? But then have you noticed that lots of the other people who have commented have their photo next to their comments?

That's because they are using a brilliant piece of online software called Gravatar. www.gravatar.com allows you to register for free and upload a photo or multiple photos of youself. This is then used when you add your comments to a blog or forum post. Gravatar gives you your Globally Recognisable Avatar linked to your email address.

Any time you use that email address with any of the growing number of Gravatar supported blogs, forums, websites and services your profile and avatar come along for the ride. It's not just your photo either, if anyone clicks through to Gravatar they can check out your profile with all the relevant information and website links.

If you're like most people and me, you use the same photo on all the social networking websites. Your photo has become a big part of your online brand identity and so I love the fact that Gravatar makes it so simple for my photo to come with me when I'm adding comments around the World Wide Web.

You can see my Dickie Armour Gravatar profile here.

It's really easy to register and set up your Gravatar account. Just go to Gravatar.com and follow the steps.

Don't Let the Dream Stealers Steal Your Dreams

Mario Andretti - F1 World Champion 1978

What would you like to do with your life? What's your goal? What's your dream? I hope you're like me and you have lots of dreams. Life is truly wonderful and will give you everything you've ever wanted.

Of course you have to know what it is that you want. You have to let yourself go and allow yourself to dream and make sure you dream big dreams!

Below I share with you some of my favourite stories of people who dared to dream big dreams.

But you have to watch out for the dream stealers! You know who those people are in your life. The ones who, when you tell them about your latest business idea or you tell them about your goals and dreams, laugh at you and begin to cast doubts over your ability. They come up with loads of reasons why you shouldn't even try.

My Dad!

My dad was the best Dad ever! He never once stole any of my dreams. In fact, he was always the first to encourage me and tell me to go for it. He was amazing and such a positive role model for me.

John Armour was born in the Gorbals, Glasgow, the roughest part of the UK in 1932. He was raised in a council house on Govan Hill Street and at the age of 15 he left Glasgow and headed down to live in London. Dad knew he could be someone and felt if he stayed in the Gorbals he would end up in trouble. On arriving in London Dad even had elocution lessons to try to reduce his broad Glaswegian accent! He carved out a successful career in Sales and Publishing and when he sadly passed away in 2000 he was the Managing Director of Marshall Cavendish in Soho, London. "Not bad for a boy from the Gorbals!" was one of his well known sayings. :-)

One of my friends runs various, successful Internet businesses and his father was very old fashioned and had been a successful lawyer in London. He could never understand why his son hadn't followed a "sensible profession" such as law or medicine. He'd say to my mate, "Why are you wasting your time with that InterWeb thingy. Why don't you go and get a proper job." I'm pleased to say my mate didn't listen to his father!

I do appreciate that our friends and family just want the best for us, but sometimes, if you know you have dream stealers around you, my advice would be to shoot for your dreams without letting them know at the beginning. Keep it to yourself. You can bring them with you once you're on your way.

If you have a dream or a goal don't let anyone stop you or try to put you off.

Monty Roberts

Monty Roberts - The Horse Whisperer tells the very best story of how to ignore the dream stealers. Whenever people attend his ranch in San Diego, Monty tells the same story.

"I want to tell you a story about a young man who was the son of a travelling horse trainer who would go from stable to stable, farm to farm and ranch to ranch, training horses. As a result, the boy’s high school career was continually interrupted. When he was a senior, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted to be and do when he grew up."

"That night he wrote a seven page paper describing his goal of one day owning a horse ranch. He wrote about his dream in great detail and he even drew a picture of a 200-acre ranch, showing the location of all the buildings, the stables and the track. Then he drew a detailed floor plan for a 4,000-square-foot mansion that would sit on the 200-acre ranch."

"He put a huge effort into the project and the next day he handed it in to his teacher. A few days later he got his paper back. On the front page was a large red F with a note that read, `See me after class'."

"The boy went to see the teacher after class and asked, `Why did you give my paper an F?'"

"The teacher said, 'This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you. You don't have any money. Your family just travel around. They have very little money. Owning a ranch requires a lot of money. You'll need to buy some land. You'll have to buy all the horses and later you’ll have to pay large stud fees. There’s no way you could ever do it!' The teacher added, 'I'll give you another chance. If you rewrite your paper with a more realistic goal, I'll reconsider your mark.'"

"The boy went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what he should do. His father said, 'Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on this. However, I think it is a very important decision for you.' "Finally, after sitting with it for a week, the boy turned in the same paper, making no changes at all."

"He stated, 'You can keep the F and I’ll keep my dream.'"

Monty then turned to the assembled group and said, "I tell you this story because you're sitting in my 4,000-square-foot mansion in the middle of my 200-acre ranch. And I still have that school paper with the F grade framed over the fireplace."

Don't let anyone steal your dreams!

Darren Hardy

I was lucky enough to see and meet Darren Hardy earlier this year in Telford, UK when he came over as the keynote speaker at a Utility Warehouse conference. You can read more about how I met Darren Hardy here.

The Power of Goal Setting

I've been a big fan of Darren's for a while and he gave a great talk in Telford. He mentioned Dream Stealers and he uses a great metaphor for ignoring them.

Darren compares your goal, or dream or challenge to that of climbing a mountain. It can seem an almost impossible task when you're stood at the bottom looking up at your huge mountain. And it's during those early days when you embark on your journey to reach the top of your mountain, when you're most vulnerable to the dream stealers.

When they enivitably tell you not to bother; it's way too hard; you'll never make it etc Darren says you just turn to them and tell them "It's my mountain and I'm climbing it!"

I love that! "It's my mountain and I'm climbing it!" With massive conviction like this, you'll get to the the top, no problem!

Mario Andretti

I was watching the new F1 channel 408 on SKY TV at the weekend and caught a brilliant documentary featuring Mario Andretti.

Mario seems like such a great guy and his story is inspiring. Talk about having a huge goal!! At an early age Mario and his brother Aldo lived in Lucca, a Yugolavia invaded part of Italy and used to watch the famous Mille Miglia road race near where they lived. It was a long race with sports cars racing over 1,000 miles through the Italian countryside. This was Mario's first taste of motor racing and in 1954 when he was 14 years old, he was taken to see the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. At that young, impressionable age, Mario declared that one day he would be a Formula One driver!

To put that into perspective, he was from a poor family and in 1955 he and his family emigrated to America to seek a better life. And yet Mario truly believed he could and would become an F1 driver! For the boys this meant seeking ways to become involved in motor racing, which around their new home town of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, mainly took the form of old, beaten up cars competing on dangerous dirt track ovals. Mario and Aldo were 18 years old when they began racing, at the wheel of a self-prepared Hudson Hornet they shared in stock car events!

Mario continued to do well in the short oval races and soon progressed on to the giant speedways, eventually winning the Indianapolis 500!

But Mario never lost his passion for F1 and in 1965 he was lucky enough to meet Colin Chapman, the boss of Lotus and Colin, having seen Mario race, offered him a seat in his F1 car when Mario was ready! Mario did so in 1968 and 10 years later in 1978 he won the F1 World Championship!

Mario Andretti's story is incredible and if you're in the UK I highly recommend tuning into SKY TV channel 408 where they play reruns of his story every week.

What's Your Dream?

So what's your dream? What are your goals? Start dreaming big dreams and get them clear in your head. Write them down in detail. Writing your goals down is the best way to get them clear in your mind so you can really visualise them. And make sure you absolutley believe you can and will achieve them with absolute conviction.

Then go climb your mountain and don't let the dream stealers steal your dreams!

Related Posts
The Circle of Life - How Family Support Helps Breed Success
It's Easy To Do and It's East Not To Do
4 Steps to Help You Develop Persistence
7 Brilliant Business & Personal Development Audio Books
The Power of Goal Setting
The Power of Positive Thinking
Fantastic Tony Robbins video - Creating Massive Action!

The Power of Goal Setting

If you want to achive anything in life, you have to know what you want and believe with absolute conviction that you will achieve it.

Whatever the human mind can conceive and believe it can achieve. - Napoleon Hill

I've always been a very postive and focused person and I tend to get what I want out of life. I still have lots of huge goals which I'm pursuing and after this weekend I'm even more certain that I'll achieve them.

Darren Hardy
I'm a huge fan of Darren Hardy,  the visionary force behind SUCCESS magazine as its Publisher and Editorial Director. Darren is also an accomplished entrepreneur, author, keynote speaker, private equity investor, corporate advisor and peak performance mentor.

I was first introduced to Darren Hardy by my good friend, Stuart Edmonstone when he gave me a copy of The Compound Effect. I listen to it at least once a month in my car via my iPhone and I love it. I've recently subscribed to the Success Magazine app for iPad and it is absolutely superb!

So when Stuart found out the Keynote speaker at the annual Utility Warehouse conference was Darren Hardy, Stuart got me a ticket! The event was this Saturday.

Last week I tweeted Darren and he tweeted back so I was hopeful he might remember me.

Utility Warehouse
The event was for distributors of Utility Warehouse to celebrate the year's successes and it's the event where the senior management team announce lots of exciting changes. I was really impressed. The conference was incredible. Very impressive with some great speakers and lots of people went up on stage to collect awards for the success they had achieved in the business.

A lot of people turn their noses up at Network Marketing but I have to say Utility Warehouse is one business that bucks the trend. More on that in a future blog post - watch this space!

So as I'm not a distributor with Utility Warehouse, I was in the minority at the event but I had a goal. My mission was to meet Darren Hardy. Now at first glance that felt pretty achievable. I was in Telford at the International Conference Centre and so was Darren. How hard could it be?

I didn't realise there would be nearly three thousand people attending! So you can imagine at the end of his talk, he'd do a book signing or a "meet and greet" and there would be up to three thousand people queuing up to meet him! This wasn't my goal.

My Mission to Meet Darren
My goal was to meet Darren in a quieter environment where we could chat for a little bit. So I had to focus on this plan. There was a motivational book, CD and DVD seller there called "Barry the Book" who owns and runs Knowledge is King. He had a huge stand with every kind of book and CD audio going. I spoke to Barry and he said last year they had a book signing all arranged but this year he wasn't sure what Darren Hardy's plans were. He thought Darren might just speak and then leave!

I was devastated. Short of running up on stage like some lunatic, I began to think the others were right; "Dickie, there's no way you'll get to meet him with all these people here."

Andrew Lindsay - CEO of Utility Warehouse
But I'm never one to accept defeat easily and I kept my vision in my head and later on during one of the coffee breaks, Stuart pointed out Andrew Lindsay, the CEO of Utility Warehouse. So me being me, (I'm never shy or slow in coming forward) I approached Andrew; introduced myself and asked him if he knew if Darren was in the building. He said he didn't think he was and he didn't know if he would be doing any book signings.

So I didn't discover anything else, but I did get to meet the CEO and shake his hand which I realised later was quite a big thing. Andrew Lindsay is an Olympic Gold medal winning oarsman! And one of the great things about Utility Warehouse is they recognise success and as people reach the different levels in the business, they get invited up on stage at their conference to meet the CEO and Chairman. So I'd already got to meet the CEO and shake his hand and I wasn't even in the business!

Back to my goal. Lunchtime came and still no sign of Darren but I'd heard there was a Chairman's Lunch for all the high flying achievers so I left Stuart and Kathy and went to investigate. If Darren was in there then I thought, he's got to come out at some point.

I'm a big believer the law of the Universe, it brings you what you need, when you need it. Ask and you will recieve. But you have to know what you want and believe with absolute conviction that you will achieve it.

The Law of the Universe
The reason I mention the Law of the Universe is that the International Conference Centre in Telford is massive! I knew the lunch was happening upstairs on the first floor but where? I had no idea. But where we'd stood to eat our lunch was a set of stairs so I headed up there to begin my search. At the top of the stairs, less than 20 yards away was the double doors to the room where the Chairman's Lunch was taking place! I'm not kidding! Of all the stairs in the whole place I walked up those! I was beginning to get excited. It was a sign.

A lovely lady who was outside the lunch room confirmed that Darren was having lunch in there. Oh My God!! Brilliant I had found him!

I'm Not a Stalker!
Please don't get me wrong here. I know it sounds like I am a stalker, but let me put this into perspective for you. I'm a huge fan of postive, motivational, success coaches like Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Brian Tracy, Darren Hardy, and so on. Yet, they all have one thing in common; they are American and they live in the USA and most of their events and speaking gigs are in the USA.

So to get a chance to meet them in person is a huge motivation for me and something I love to try to do. After all, they feel like friends. I've listened to them over and over again in my car, I've read their books and they have all really helped mould me into the guy I am today. So to get to meet them and thank them in person would be an amazing thing to do.

The Chairman's Lunch
So I'm upstairs outside the lunch room and I was amazed that it so quiet up there. Literally I had just walked up a flight of stairs leaving behind a mass of three thousand people and yet this corridoor was empty.

I have to wait no more than 10 minutes and as I glance up from my iPad, who should I see walking down the corridor towards me? The man himself!

So I approached and said hello and he was just so relaxed and happy to chat. Stuart magically appeared at exactly the right moment to snap this photo of me with Darren!! Thanks Stu!

A dream come true. I dared to dream. I had a goal which I truly believed with conviction that I would meet Darren and get to chat with him. I didn't listen to the people who doubted it.

As Darren said during his talk - "It's My Mountain! And I'm climbing it and getting to the top!"

I took action when every one else was stood round having lunch. I climbed my mountain! And Darren was even kind enough to sign his book for me!

Thanks Darren - 2012 is my year for Going BIG! ;-)

The Moral of The Story
You must have goals and you must believe with absolute conviction that you'll achieve them.
What are your goals? Think about them now and choose maybe the top two. The two which if you could achieve them would bring you the most pleasure and satisfaction and make you feel like life was just fantastic!
Think of those two goals - do you believe you will achieve them? Do feel a rod of iron of absolute conviction in your stomach that will achieve them?
If not you need to think about your reasons "WHY" you want to achieve your goals.
See my blog post - Forget Will Power - You Need WHY Power

Climb Your Mountain
So choose your two top goals, write them down and make sure you know the reasons WHY you want to achieve them and then ensure you have the rod of iron conviction and belief that you will achieve them and take action and get climbing your mountain!

Please do comment below and share your story.

Public Speaking - Overcoming Your Fears

Dickie Armour - speaking at Tech Talks in Bristol - Dec 2011

A quick confession - I used to be really scared at the thought of public speaking!

I'm now a regular speaker at business events around the UK but only 3 years ago I was scared of speaking in public! This was because I had never had to do any public speaking in my previous jobs. I was a broker in the City for nearly 17 years which involved lots of shouting at each other! Not really public speaking and my recent career has been around the Internet where most people sit behind computer screens.

Toastmasters
But public speaking was always something I'd wanted to do. So I joined Toastmasters and it was amazing. It was scary too! But mainly amazing! I joined a group near me in Yate, Bristol and they met every fortnight. www.northavonspeakers.org.uk This was a really scary thing to do; talk about being out of my comfort zone. To put it into perspective, I know that those of you who know me know I'm a very lively, positive and out-going person. But I hadn't done any sort of networking at this point and even for me, the thought of going to an event where I knew nobody was quite daunting.

However, like everything in life, if you have a big enough reason why, then you'll do things outside of your comfort zone. So I booked myself in for one of their Thursday night meetings and went along.

I met the Madam President, a lovely lady, Lisa van den Berg, and she was warm and welcoming. All the people there were really nice. There were about 35 people and the chairs were all lined up in theatre style. I grabbed a seat and thought I'd be safe for the evening.

It was great to watch people overcome their fears and stand in front of us and give their talks. The variety was interesting; there was one man who was absolutelty brilliant. He would have been comfortable on a stage in front of thousands of people and there was a lady who was visably nervous and shaking as she delivered her very first speech. The members rallied round her and you could feel the warmth and encouragement in the room.

Table Topics
As I said earlier, I thought I was safe. At every meeting of Toastmasters they have a Table Topics session. One of the members is the Table Topics Master and he chooses a topic for the evening and writes 5 or 6 scenerios which people then have to come up and talk about for at least one minute.

The session this time was Summer Holidays. The Table Topics Master reads out the scenrio, for example, tell us a story of when you were on your summer holidays and he then randomly chooses someone from the audience to go up to the front and give the talk!! Can you imagine my fear! I went from happily sitting in the audience to a nervous wreck hoping I wouldn't get chosen!
Fortunately... I WAS chosen! I say fortunately as it changed my life.

I had to go up and give a talk on a time I was stuck in an airport! You only have the time it takes from selection to walking to the front of the room to come up with your talk and then you're off! It was scary and brilliant all at the same time! I loved it. I couldn't wait for the one minute to be over, but I loved it and when I had finished and got a round of applause I wanted to to do it again and again!!

Fear
Fear is a funny thing. My fear wasn't a fear of failure or fear of looking bad or making a fool of myself (I do that all the time!) My fear was the fear of the unknown. I'd never had to speak in front of people. But now that I had and I enjoyed it, I was hooked! I was still scared and I still get nervous now but it's so rewarding.

So if you have a fear of public speaking, then I highly recommend finding your local Toastmasters group and going along. It's a scary thought but I've found the best way of getting over your fear is to face it head on and just do it.

I remember at school being scared to ask girls out on a date. All boys and girls go through the same fear and yet most of us end up with a boyfreind or girlfriend and eventually we get married!

If you're scared of public speaking - just do it.

Business Networking
I also recommend going to business networking events. At these events you have to stand up for 40 seconds or one minute and let people know all about you and your business. This is a great way of getting comfortable speaking in front of people.

I'm a member of www.4networking.biz the UK's fastest growing business network and they run breakfast and evening business events right across the UK. So get yourself along to one of the events. You can visit up to three times before you have to join so you can try it out.
They also have a 4Sight speaker each time and anyone who's a member can put themself forward to do a 4Sight. So if you are already a member of 4N or you go along and like and join, choose a date and get yourself booked in to speak. Having a deadline is a great way of taking action. Check out their Events and find one n your area and get along. You'll be so pleased you did.

Face the Fear
So don't worry that you're scared of speaking in public - we all were and still are. But just start by going to some business networking events and then offer to give a talk and get a date booked in.
And join Toastmasters - it's an amazing and supportive group of people who will help and encourage you and give you all the tips and guidance you need to become a competent communicator.

Then just face your fear and do it! You'll be so pleased you did.

And when you have, please comment below and share how you got on. Please feel free to share your own experiences and advice and tips here too.


I'll be writing some more posts on Public Speaking soon:

Public Speaking - Coming up with Interesting Topics
Public Speaking - How to prepare properly
Public Speaking - Record Yourself
Public Speaking - Practice Makes Better


Other related posts:
Networking for Business - In Summary
What's Your Story?
People Buy People
Motivation & Confidence
Forget Will Power - You Need "Why" Power!

Content Curation Made Easy with Google Reader

One of the best ways to use social media is to add valuable content which will be of interest to your target audience.

One way to do this is by writing your own blog posts like this one. But how many blog posts can you write each week, each month? Unless you're Chris Brogan, (someone I really respect and love his content) who is able to continue to write good and interesting blog posts almost everyday, you'll probably struggle to come up with any more than 3 or 4 a month.

So a great way to leverage your time is to find brilliant content from other people that you can refer people to. This is called Content Curation. And one of the best tools on the market for collecting great content is Google Reader.

Google Reader
Google Reader is free and so easy to use. You will need a Google account. So I'm going to assume you already have one.

Go to Google Reader. You'll need to be logged into your Google account.

Top left under the Google logo and the word Reader you'll see a  "Subscribe" button. Click this button.
A search box will appear underneath. Type in keywords relating to your area of interest and expertise.
For example if you're into Graphic Design type in Graphic Design and click Add.
This will return a list of results of hundreds of different websites all with articles and blog posts based on your chosen keyword.

I then scan down the list and look for those with decent subscriber numbers. I also look at the actual URL in green. The reason being, often there are results in the list from websites such as Yahoo Answers, eHow and answers.com which are Q&A websites and not websites with articles. So I ignore these.

I find ones which look promising and before I subscribe, I click the blue title link which takes me into the Google Reader feed for that website where I can then preview all their recent articles. If I then like the look of the article I will click Subcribe at the top of the page.

That feed is then added to my list of subscriptions in Google Reader. Then I just keep searching and adding subscriptions in this way until I have enough.

I do this for all the different subjects I'm interested in. I have about 70 subscriptions based around small business, social media, internet marketing, domain names, public speaking and entrepreneurship.

I can then scroll through all the latest articles in my subsciption list to find the good ones. I can then choose to send it out on Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn and Google+. I also use some of the articles as ideas for my own blog posts.

So start using Google Reader to collect interesting and relevant content for your audience and begin your Content Curation today, but don't just collect other people's content. You must also create your own too.

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