Wow it’s been a while since i was on here last.

Apologies folks but I’m at the stage where it’s a case of a lot of things to juggle, and only two arms

I just recently upgraded avast 4.9 to avast version 5.  It seems to be a lot faster and slicker than the previous version, which is all good.

Can’t say I’m a fan of the new ORANGE coloured logo, then again blue isn’t my colour either – but let’s not be pedantic.

Anyway, down to business:

The specific error message this post relates to is when you try to send a newly created email via an external SMTP service (e.g. googlemail, ymail etc)

The exact error message is below;

If you’re getting this error message the chances are you aren’t able to send email from your email client.  Both annoying and totally unproductive.

It is caused by Avast incorrectly assuming that all your outgoing (SMTP) and incoming (POP3) mail connections are using Secure Sockets Layer (or SSL).  Obviously this is not always the case.

Here are the steps to fix the problem;

1. Find the avast icon in your system tray (seriously you can’t miss it…big ORANGE luminous thing) at the bottom right of your screen
2. Right click it, then choose Open Avast! user interface
3. On the window that appears down the left side click Real Time Shields then Mail Shield
4. Click the button Expert Settings
5. On the window that appears down the left side click SSL Accounts
6. Under Mail Accounts/Host Name find the mail account that is causing the error.
7. Once you find the account, follow the line with your eye and find the line referring to SMTP
8. You will probably find that the Port = 587 and Encryption is set to TLS, this is the line causing you problems
9. Where it says TLS, click it and change it to NONE then click OK, this will disable the outgoing encryption.

Close all the avast! windows and go back into your email program and try to send an email.

You should find it works fine now and you can go back to sending email again!

Please leave feedback if you found this helpful!

This is becoming a bit of a bad habit now, but hey, I’m only human after all

Ok, the Clippies Fayre website is now fully up and running after using the wonderful program Xsite Pro 2.
After my last entry, I took a few days away from the computer (shock, gasp horror) to spend some time with my family and it was time well spent.  However it’s time to get back on the Internet Marketing trail and really nail down what needs to be done.

So, the website is now completed, feel free to visit it here, comments and constructive criticism appreciated always, just post a comment.

So for the first time in the websites history, we have a proper  index both on the left and right hand side, user friendly interface, gorgeous graphics and layout – everything a happy visitor would be please to see on a website – I would have thought anyway.

Also, one of the things I could NEVER figure out properly was how to get a popup window to appear exactly the way I wanted.  Not a problem now as XSite Pro 2 has a built in wizard that takes you by the hand and leads you step by step through the creation process – an absolute breeze I must say.

Ok, happy visitors are good, what’s even better is actually GETTING them to your site in the first place.
The great thing about XSite pro 2 is it even has SEO covered.  Once a page has been created and you have entered your keywords, you then go on to create the content on the page.  Once these steps are done, you can enter an easy to understand analytics page which points out where your SEO is strong, or alternatively flags up where you have gone wrong.  It even tells you how to fix your page(s) to make your site super Search Engine friendly – Very cool.

Ok, visit the site, let me know what you think, and if you have any questions or want more information from me personally, drop me a comment here and I will respond sooner rather than later

Cheers,

Paul.

This is way off topic from what I normally discuss on my blog.

But it is also what will fast become a hot topic, so after browsing Google for the answer and getting nowhere, I decided I would be the first to post a solution that hopefully you will find useful.

So, you’ve just got your shiny new Nokia N97 mobile phone, had a play with it for a few minutes (or HOURS in my case) and you’re now at the stage where you want to install Nokia’s new software suite, the OVI Suite (replacing PC Suite).

Great, this shouldn’t be a problem for most of you.  But I can pretty much guarantee that more than a few will encounter an error during installation similar to this…

Nokia Ovi Suite Software Updater
Error 1327
Invalid Drive: G:\

Or maybe not Invalid G: drive, maybe some other drive letter.
If you’ve got this problem and have no idea how to fix it, then here it is…
It does involve editing the registry, but I assure you it’s easy if you know what the registry is, if you don’t know then leave a comment below and I will send you a private message.

Anyway here’s the solution:

1. Load regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
3. Shell folders are basically your “My documents/videos/pictures …etc etc and each of them should be pointing at the C:\ drive as the root drive.
4. Look for offending entries that are pointing to the same drive letter that flagged up the error during the Ovi installation – chances are it’s a detached USB drive or similar
5. double click the entries one at a time until they are pointing back at the default path, E.g

Personally, “My Music” was pointing at my disconnected backup USB drive (G:\) for some strange reason, like this

G:\New From Laptop\Paul\My Documents\My Music
Simply changed this to the default entry, which is…

C:\Documents and Settings\Paul\My Documents\My Music

Additional (after playing around a bit, I noticed the following other entries may be causing the problem)

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

Follow steps 2-5 above for each of these other registry keys then…

rerun the Ovi suite setup, chances are it should work now

Hope this has been helpful, apologies for the tech speak in this post guys and girls, but if you do want a video created, let me know and I will put one together so you can see what to do!

Cheers,

Paul.

To continue with my “Live” review of xsite pro 2 and the new website for the Clippies Fayre restaurant I am at a bit of a loss.

This software didn’t just impress me, it bloody well blew me away.

Took about 10 minutes to download and install it (fast broadband rocks!) – the welcome video suggested reading the tutorial before “diving in”, but I’ve never been one for instructions – lol.

So, software loaded up, Picked a template out of the hundreds available (and yes, there’s enough templates to choose from to keep you busy for years).

I started playing around.  Took various elements from the old Clippies Fayre website and brought it into my new template, ok that was easy enough. very easy interface, no confusion like Dreamweaver where I think you need a PhD to figure out completely.

Within 30 minutes, and NO that isn’t an under exaggeration, I was staring at what could possibly be the prettiest AND most functional website I have ever designed so quickly —> Check it out!

It’s still hungry for content, but as I said, this is being done over a number of weeks but just look at it!

Proper site structure, nice professional graphics (the table panoramic is mine by the way ), a news ticker announcing menu specials, even a popup to get people onto our mailing list (weekly specials, advanced bookings and stuff).

And how long did this take me using xsite pro 2?….

About 30 minutes

“Yeah right Paul” I can hear you all saying, but no I’m totally serious, I had this baby structured and laid out using xsite pro 2 in around 30 minutes, and that’s including the popup – incredible eh?

What I may try and do is create a video some time this week so you can see the absolute power of this software and how damn easy it is to use.

Site obviously still not completed, but it’s a damn site better than my previous manual attempts

Comments would be appreciated

Cheers
Paul.

Another part of my life is my wifes beloved restaurant, Clippies Fayre that she took over since her step dad passed away a few months ago.  Now run between my wife and her mum.

It has been open just over 2 years and has slowly but surely been drawing an ever growing crowd of satisfied customers, both local and farther afield.

The marketing side of things fell to me, both with my advertising experience and my web skills (really?), I figured I could put together something really special….and here it is.

Now it’s not exactly great, but a damn site better than my first attempt when it first opened.

Ok, so what does this have to do with XSite Pro 2? You may see where I am going with this ….

I decided to bite the bullet and stop faffing about with Dreamweaver (over complicated) and Kompozer (over simple) and buy XSite Pro 2 as I have heard rave reviews about it over the last year or so.

So, without further delay, I present to you my plan.
Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to completely CHANGE the look and feel of the Clippies Fayre website, re-design and re-implement from scratch.  And you will be able to watch it “as it happens” by visiting here.

Now I have to warn you now, I have NO experience with XSite Pro 2 at all, so this is completely from scratch in my spare time (it is now my PRIMARY goal to get a proper web presence and in turn more people into the restaurant).

Will it be a beautiful Swan, or a lame ugly duck?
We shall see over the next few weeks…

Wish me luck!
And if you happen to live in or near Fife, do pop in and try our food, you WONT get better - I promise you

Paul.

Ok guys, I am SO sorry for the recent unfinished posts, empty promises and other stuff over the last month or so.

The truth of the matter is, I had to bite the bullet and fall back into the 9-5 game again (yes, completely against my plans).

But with various companies chasing me for cash and the wolves at the door, things were looking seriously bad.  Then a call out of the blue happened and the next thing is I landed an IT gig 10 minutes from my house with a decent salary, great team atmosphere – all in all an “absolute beauty” as they say here in Scotland

So I’m now having to do this again part time, but fear not as the mid/long term plan remains the same, to bring you guys useful and interesting content and advise you as best I can with the myriad of pies I have my fingers in

Right, let’s get something sorted from the off.

I know this is now the second time I’ve drawn ablank at actually providing some results of the 4dmmb course, but this time I will follow through.

I have already made sales from one niche that I am attacking but have not followed through and entered my progress in here;  for accuracy and to keep this simple, here is what I did on day one;

• Found my keywords (longtail) with the required amount of daily searches and competition level stated within the 4 day money making blueprint .
• Recorded the average search count for the keywords I was targetting and saved all the required info into a spreadsheet for easy reading/access later on.
• Shuffled through the keywords and put them in order for the most searched relating to the amount of competition, the best one I found stood out like crazy; here are the stats;

3000 searches a month, -9,000 direct competition, OCI of 47%..

What does  this mean for this one keyword alone?

3000 searches a month (self explanatory)

-9,000 direct competition – Meaning that there are less than 9,000 sites on google alone that are “competing” or vying for #1 in google for this particular phrase.

47% OCI – This is HUGE…, OCI relates to the percentage chance of the person typing the keyword into google having their wallet at the ready.

E.g; 100% OCI means that no doubt they are ready to buy a product or solution

0% OCI means the chances are they are looking for information only at this stage or making too broad a search to confirm if they are going to buy, but chances are they aren’t.

So 47% OCI means that there is nearly a 50/50 chance that they are going to buy a product and I like dem odds!

Articles to be written, pages to be pinged and bookmarks to be marked.

That’s for tomorrow though!

Paul.

:Ahem:

Yes, well, so much for daily updates.

Sorry guys and gals but I have had a fortnight that you would not believe.

My son is just about to turn 11 months old and ALL his molars (all EIGHT of  them) have decided to erupt into his poor little mouth at the same time….

Resulting in a snarly, grumpy but oh so cute little boy – lol.

He’s been my main focus for the last few weeks, and my marketing endeavours using the 4DMMB blueprint have kinda gone to complete rat-sh*t – ho hum.

Once he has gotten over this problem and is back to his cheery little ways (happiest kid on the planet btw ) – Then normal service shall resume.

One update I can add though is I made a sale on the previous Monday for $80 for an article I had written back in April – just goes to show that internet content, regardless of page rank can and will be found by someone!

Until next time folks, take care,

Paul.

4 day money making blueprint review

Just got finished speaking with my good pal Haze who runs the wealth realm and is also an Internet Marketer, and what she has just finished telling me has completely blown me away.
So much so in fact that on her word alone (i trust her without question), I just decided to buy 4 day money making blueprint as it has allowed Haze to increase her sales by an unbelievable amount over the space of only 4 days!

I couldn’t quite believe I was hearing this to begin with, but she showed me the proof and there it was, unarguably this was the news I had been waiting for.  I am so pleased that she is finally making money, and good money at that for the time and effort she is putting into it.

As an experiment, I am going to forget EVERYTHING I have learned about Internet Marketing and go back to the mindset of a total newbie and see if this works for me too.

The results will be intriguing as I am able to dedicate at least 5-7 hours a day to this, yet Haze was working 1-2 and still making daily sales.

Intrigued? – Of course you are….I have just finished buying 4 day money making blueprint myself and am dying to see what the results are.

Stay tuned for daily updates

Paul.