photo credit: valcanno

You know it’s bad when you have to go searching for your WordPress password. It gets worse when you suddenly realise you haven’t posted to Twitter for two whole days. It’s like…what am I doing to myself? I know the world will stop if my followers don’t get at least six tweets a day from me, and all carefully timed to go out so they hit the global audience at breakfast, lunch and dinner, with careful attention to time zones.

But wait! There’s more. I haven’t written day 16 of the 21 articles I need to post to ezinearticles.com. I haven’t hit Squidoo, eHow, Yahoo Answers, Technorati and all the rest with my latest SEO attack.

Okay. Enough already. 2010 was all about process. 2011 will be all about sitting back and letting it happen. If only.

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I don’t know about you, but I get a lot of information sent to me by online marketers who have something to sell. Mostly it’s How To Make Money Online and these are either e-books or coaching programmes that usually promise the earth, or at least a six figure income.

These are mostly through email lists I’ve opted into at some time or other and decided, for various reasons, to keep subscribing. Why?  Well, one answer is that it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the competition, in fact it’s essential, but the other important point is that I like the way they communicate.

The online marketing niche is huge, and it takes a lot to keep good, informative content coming. It also takes quite a bit of talent to make that content unique. So most of the marketers I elect to follow have very different and persuasive styles, fresh ideas and imaginative approaches to marketing. This is not always easy to achieve and if you are intending to join this make money online party it’s worth making an effort to study the best of them to see just how they do it.

Today I’m looking at Christian Russell’s Next Level Blogger

Christian at Next Level Blogger offers a heap of free information to support his consulting and coaching services. Coaching takes the form of a one-on-one session by phone, with previous email contact to establish exactly what marketing concerns you have and how he can best help you.

I like this approach. It’s personal and sincere. The other thing I like about Christian is his great writing style. His articles are clear and entertaining. I seriously believe that there’s not much to say about making money online that hasn’t already been said about a billion times, but it’s not what we say but the way we say it that really counts. Christian Russell has a golden touch when it come to writing. He’s definitely worth a look.

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Are you ever tempted to split infinitives? If so you’re in good company. They did it in Star Trek, as demonstrated by the title of this post,  and it’s since become an often quoted example.

A split infinitive occurs when an adverb or adverbial phrase is placed between the word to and the relevant verb. In this case the adverb boldly comes between the words to go, and this construction really gives emphasis to the boldness of the enterprise (pun intended). Somehow To go boldly where no man has gone before doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

Although there has been quite a lot of controversy over the practice of splitting infinitives, these days it’s generally acceptable, provided of course the sentence is not weakened or made to sound clumsy.

More than a few writers have found ways to send up the use of split infinitives. Wikipedia gives us this example:

The split infinitive, specifically its famous use in the Star Trek opening sequence, is the basis of a joke from Douglas Adams‘ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

In those days men were real men, women were real women, small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. And all dared to brave unknown terrors, to do mighty deeds, to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before – and thus was the Empire forged.

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Do you believe in reincarnation? Perhaps not. After all, there’s no real evidence that once we leave this life we’ll be reborn into another, either for better or for worse, depending on what we do here and now.

But whether you believe in reincarnation or not the following exercise can be used to throw some light onwho you are in this very life.

Write about your previous life

The story can be any length. Just let your mind ‘remember’ who you were before your present existence.

Who were you, for example in 1805? Depending on the history you know of your country and culture you will probably identify with a character you may have read about.

I once knew a man who was sure he had been Ramses II. All well and good (and who could dispute the claim?) but consider the implications of placing yourself in a particularly exalted incarnation. The Karmic fallout from the actions of most of our more illustrious historical figures really doesn’t bear thinking about.

Some writers play it safer by choosing significant but ordinary characters, such as governesses or clergymen. Whatever direction you decide to take with this exercise, remember it is just that – an exercise. The character and situation you choose will be revealing. Writing in the first person will help to stimulate your imagination. For example:

I am a nineteenth century archaeologist. I have a great ambition to travel to parts of the world that are just blank places on the map. I want to explore the Silk Road and to look for the buried cities of lost civilizations. I need to gather an expedition together for this purpose, but I have little money and I haven’t managed to convince the Geographical Society that they should fund my research. I’m hoping to find a rich sponsor, someone who believes as I do, that the past has great secrets still to be uncovered. There is a wealth of knowledge buried deep beneath the sands. If I can get there I’ll show the world what it has lost.

This ‘earlier incarnation’ of the writer shows a great desire for knowledge and a need to explore the hidden mysteries of life. There are also links here to the ‘hero’ archetype, about to embark on a quest. The need to find a sponsor might indicate the hopes for new connections with power and influence.

Writing in this way provides us with a valuable insight into our hidden desires, concerns and hopes forthe future. By recreating ourselves as characters in a fantasy we also have the opportunity to recognise our true goals and to work towards achieving them.

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