Roundup of February 2015 Comments

Did You Miss Any Updates?

February (of course!) is a short month, so I feel lazy, only having produced 3 posts.

But they obviously touched a few raw nerves and generated some valuable and informative comments.

If you missed them, here they are again, and I've added a few comments that emerged as a result of your very valued interactions.

Here are the posts:

• I started the month in rant mode LOL about the real cost of a free website. And to the spammers who left comments thanking me for offering to produce them a free website – haha, you made it SO easy for me to decide what to do with your comments. But you're not reading this are you?
• A guest article from Jim Day, showing how to Control Your Day. After the initial comments on this article Jim added a fantastic offer to readers, so if you didn't pick it up, or forgot, now's your chance!
• Finally I shared my experiences, both good and bad, of visiting local business groups. Obviously responses varied to this one, as some people are actively considering this, and others have no need of it. But I appreciated your support for the bad experience I had. One bad experience has been far outweighed by the good ones, and although visiting local business groups is still a work-in progress for me, I feel very positive about it. As an aside, a long-lost friend of my sister's resurfaced recently to tell Heather about her new business. It's not a business Heather and I have any interest in, but I am taking the lady along to the next Links 4 Growth meeting to expand her contacts.

Business Development

Beyond blogging I'm plugging away with my ebook. The EU VAT rules have been a set-back for me as I've had to move my products to VAT compliant platforms and I struggle with the technical bits.

The software launch for my offline client is now behind me and it's running successfully leaving me time to get back to my online business plans. Except that….

Life Happens….

Getting the “bad” out of the  way first, my Mum's health continues to deteriorate, so I'm spending more time on the phone with her, and have a visit planned for Mothering Sunday (that's much sooner in the UK than in the USA).

Continuing my purge of non-productive blogs that had been hacked, I never did manage to clean them up, so I took the radical decision to axe the hacked blogs completely and just redirect the domains to a suitable affiliate product. Sad to see so much work wasted, but I learned a lot from developing them and feel much happier focusing on passing on my lessons learned through this blog. They weren't very productive, so “Cut your losses and run your profits” as my Dad says.

Good stuff…. Matt, Elke and Bailey have had two visits in February. Matt, bless his heart, finished off the revamp to my house by putting on the final two matching doors and I'm so thrilled with them that I just keep looking at them over again. I've not gone completely daft – it's just a personal milestone and the physical manifestation of the end of a best forgotten era.

This coming week my grand-daughters will be staying here (0 and 2 years old). Not seen them in the flesh since Christmas, so can't wait to see them and I'm planning a child-friendly shopping list and trying harder this time to child-proof the house. Not much computer time for me – far nicer plans.

I am trying to be kinder to myself and take more time away from the computer. The TV recording box was almost full, so I've relaxed a little and enjoyed some of the great serials I'd recorded. Broadchurch 2 and Wolf Hall, plus watching the business highs and lows of the Dragons Den. I even subscribed to one of the services backed by the Dragons. My “box” should be here on Monday.

But of course sitting still watching TV is a bit of a challenge for me in itself, so I've taken up an old hobby of knitting again. I stopped when the boys finally rebelled against wearing Mum's knitted jumpers, but I maybe have a few years grace before Alana and Lucy can protest.

It prevents the temptation of comfort eating too.

Here's the results of my handiwork. Not sure who it will actually fit – but I'll get a chance to try it on both girls in the next few days, and another one is already well in progress to “make them equal”!

Thanks to Epson Support

A bit of an odd-ball one here, but huge thanks to Epson UK support for spending almost two hours on the phone to get my Epson scanner set up correctly. Nothing wrong with the scanner – some conflict on my machine. They were so helpful, polite and patient until I finally got sorted. Superb customer service on a very low priced scanner that's now doing exactly what it's supposed to do!

Thanks To My Comment Authors

Finally, all that remains is for me to say thanks each and every one of you who dropped by – and to say how much I valued your interaction here – AND what I learned from visiting your blogs too.

	Hi, My name is Mark. I made 9 awesome comments.
	Hello, My name is Edward Thorpe. I dropped 8 awesome comments.
	Hi, My name is Harleena Singh. I made 4 awesome comments.
	Hi, My name is James McAllister. I made 4 awesome comments.