Hope all of you had a very good start to the New Year.

I got back from Hong Kong a couple of days ago – now, this is an internet marketing blog, so I won’t talk too much about what I did there but I will go through some of the things that the vacation meant.

Before I went, I handled almost all of my projects to someone or the other – some were sold, others taken over by partners / friends, some outsourced, others left because they just weren’t as important.

Most have done well enough with me not being here – quite a few have increased in metrics and only a couple have done worse. Maybe I should go on vacation more often.

Happenings on this blog

If you’ve read this blog in the last three weeks, you’ll know that I hired Ryan McLean (of SmarterWealth) to post on here – I’ve been very happy with the stuff he’s put out. It’s well written and has attracted discussion – you can’t ask for much more than that. He does freelancing quite a bit I believe, and is definitely affordable if you’re looking for quality – you can contact him through his blog if you’re interested in his services.

Ryan’s done 4-6 posts on here so far I think, and will be doing a few more – I’m a bit behind on university work having gone away and will need to catch up. I’m confident he can continue to do well while I’m not here.

The importance of taking a break

It’s always important to take breaks in whatever you do… this was a bit of a longer term one. Three weeks is a while in the internet marketing world, but the effects will definitely be positive.

Before I left everything was getting a bit repetitive… due to various projects showing success, I tended to leave them be and not innovate as much. Being away, I got a few ideas while on vacation and will probably be taking them further forward now that I’m back.

I didn’t touch IM at all while away – only answered a couple emails, and didn’t even have look at this blog and the rest of my websites for a couple weeks. I checked emails every week or so, although I didn’t have the time to answer most of them – if you’ve sent me anything important, please send it again.

Stanley Tang & eMillions

Although I was away on vacation and away from online activities, I did do a bit of marketing while in Hong Kong. Nothing too serious though.

I met a couple of my blog readers that were the same age as me (Rob and Amy – was nice meeting you two!) and also met with Stanley Tang, who goes to the same school as a few of my friends that end.

Stanley Tang is another person that’s turning on the style in IM – he’s already put out a book (not an eBook, but an actual tangible one) featuring interviews with fourteen people that have made over a million dollars online. If that doesn’t pique your interest…

The book is called eMillions and is available for purchase – it costs less than fourteen bucks through Amazon. I’ve only read 4-5 interviews but it is riveting stuff and I’d recommend it if you like being inspired. Most of those featured in the book are just as normal as you as I – some even had to fight against huge obstacles and setbacks, and reading the book will help you in your online business.

As it’s in interview format, it’s great to have around as you can skim read, or flick through it, rather than require the level of interest that other books require. There are also numerous bonuses included – as with most products that offer this, a few of the bonuses are worthless – but there are some that are worth buying the book for alone.

As an example, before I left I was going to buy the product just for a license to the Ultimate Blogging Theme (which is one of the bonuses) – even if the book was rubbish, you’d be getting a useful blog theme that would normally cost you around $100 for just $14. However, I think that even without the bonuses… the book is definitely worth the price.

I’ve always wanted to create a tangible book at some point in my life, and this was before IM… won’t be anything too soon, and probably won’t even involve IM, but when I do I’ll definitely pester Stanley for help

Other types of marketing

I went to Hong Kong mainly to relax and meet up with various friends – I went alone, and stayed with a friend while I was there. I don’t tend to tell most offline people about what I do as it’s a pain in the ass explaining it, but after I met Stanley a few of them were interested so I tried to explain what was up.

Most wanted to learn more (tell anyone and show them proof that you make 10 grand a month sitting on your backside at your computer and you’ll probably see the same result ) and I’ll be entering into tenative business partnerships with a couple.

As an example, I did a bit of shopping in Hong Kong, and one of the things I noticed was the extreme difference in price between there and here (Dubai)… the same shirt could cost 3-6x more here than there. I’ve always wanted to get into retail, and think that promoting clothes would be pretty easy (my plan is very complicated, but the gist of it involves numerous hot models wearing the clothing and partying at various night clubs… ) so it’s something I looked into. Now that I have people that end, I can take it further… maybe a new brand, even?

I also may be investing capital into a few ideas… teenagers always have some kind of ideas on how to make money / become famous (and not the stupid kind of ideas – ie let’s start a bar / band) but don’t have the start up capital… and most parents, Asian ones generally more so are reluctant to give their underage son or daughter thousands of dollars to spend on something that may not work out. Luckily I’m not as reluctant.

Make Money Dynamo

A few people wanted to know what was up with MMD… I stuck up a tad controversial post to go out through timestamp before I left and then there was nothing else put up for around two weeks. Casey had to go away on business and the guy we hired for the WP theme flaked out so nothing happened.

We’ll still be working on the site, haven’t given it up… now that I’m back will be able to focus on it a bit more. Still looking for a decent, custom Wordpress design so if you know someone… fire me an email.

That’s all, this post seems to be a tad long… once again, hope everyone had a good time while I was away and if there’s anything important that you want me to look at, just send me an email. Cya!