I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.
-Albert Einstein
Einstein is stating that he does not believe that he is talented or gifted with the skills and knowledge he possesses. Yet, he sees passion, desire, and above all curiosity as ignition to spark creation.
I think the United States education system is headed in the wrong direction. With all this focus on goals and scores, children today are learning to be good at only learning and not what to learn.
If the education system focused solely on pushing curiosity to each and every child who walks in the front door, the over all education of society would improve.
How often does you job force you to explore or become curious about what you are doing day by day. The answer is usually they don’t. The very nature of curiosity is something that must arise from the individual’s mind.
In the past I used to think Criss Angel was a very talented and inventive magician. Yet, now I know that he is merely a puppet to the media and only buys his magic from very talented individuals.
When I first saw Criss Angel I was amazed at the magic he performed. I had not practiced nor had any interest in magic since I was very young, so the tricks were refreshing. After seeing these miraculous tricks, I could not watch enough of the magic he performed- I was always left wanting more. But as time went on, I became more and more interested in magic. From hours and hours of searching the net, I began to learn more and more about magic. Instead of watching Criss Angel on television, I became more interested in knowing all I could about magic.
One day as I sat on the couch, I turned to (as you might have guessed) Criss Angel. After not watching his show for a few months now, I did not know what to expect. Perhaps it was the fact that I knew how he was doing the trick. Or more importantly it could be the fact that I knew who had invented the trick in the first place. Whatever it was, as I watched the episode I was now bored and filled with disgust. I was watching him perform the trick verbatim. Even his dialogue was practically the same as the original act.
Later on I learned that he had hired the original magician as a consultant on the show. Now this got me to thinking about a few things. Primarily I was drawn towards what happens with professional singers when the run out of talent or ideas. As most of the people who live in this pop culture world called society know, singers who live directly in the spot light rarely ever right their own songs. However, they rely on song writers to come up with something catchy or something that will definitely sell.
So after comparing the two careers side by side, I now understand a simple truth. Song writers are usually song writers because they can’t sing, or are not famous enough to sell the song in the first place. Criss Angel is also following suite to this type of business. Seeing as how his consultancy is not nearly as famous as Criss Angel, it is easy to see why they were hired. The media needs a name brand to slap onto everything. Whether it be a person or a product, people have to be able to identify with a single entity when watching tv or buying a product.
I read an interesting article today which sparked a few thoughts about blogging. If you read blogs like: JohnChow DailyWebIdeas
and so on, you know that they often give a little information on selling and advertising on the internet. I used to frequent their websites daily, but was always left wanting more. My curiosity always wanted more detail and how-to information. Until today I hadn’t found much sales information which made it easy to apply to blogging.
The article is hosted at ezinearticles.com and titled, “Psychological Tricks in Selling,” by Stephen Bucaro. At first, judging by the size of my scroll bar on the left, I thought this might just be a sugar coated sales letter. Needless to say, I was wrong. The article is a must read for practically anyone. Bucaro discusses six types of, “tricks,” which are commonly used among all businesses. Even though businesses might change the packaging and offers, all still use these fundamental principals to drive their marketing strategies.
I personally have opened my eyes to a lot of advertising methods in magazines, television, and the internet. So read this article already and tell me what you think. Psychological Tricks in Selling
Today I was contemplating the meaning of my header with two seagulls and a thought bubble.At the time I chose the seagulls because they were the only thing that seemed to catch my eye.Yet once I had tried to find a connection or a purpose behind using seagulls and the general theme of my site I was left confused- A feeling readers may have also had when they attempted to find the same meaning.
As you can now see, the header has changed dramatically.At first I was just going to use the face with an index finger to his temple in black and white, but that would be boring.So after more pondering and careful deliberation I decided to place red, green, and blue paint behind the thought bubbles.
The meaning behind the image is to allow your dreams to become reality. This is symbolized by the paint surrounding, emanating, or even leaking from the thought bubbles.
Hopefully you like the new header image more than the low resolution seagull pictures I had previously.Whether you like or don’t like the new header, please feel free to let me know.
Have you heard of WidgetBucks yet? It’s a nice little tool that allows you to place content related or catagory specific ads on your site. An advantage to using the tool as opposed to other tools is the ability to list more than one popular item in the same ad. In my experience with related advertising I have noticed that you can usually only list one item every time the page is refreshed.
The widget is very easy to apply to any blog template. For this Wordpress theme I was able to get the ad unit applied within minutes.
Referral? Of course you can refer people to WidgetBucks and make money in the process. Here is an the current referral info from the site: With WidgetBucks’ Referral program, affiliates can earn a 10 percent referral fee based on the commissions earned by the people they refer. Affiliates receive this 10 percent for the full 12 months after the new member joins. Payouts to affiliates are monthly, along with their commission checks.
If that is not enough, there is of course more. If you join now you receive $25 just for joining. Publishers and bloggers can get the ball rolling with WidgetBucks’ instant $25 sign-up bonus, which gets you half way to your first check!
So all in all we have an easy to use advertising tool. Check out the site, read the information for yourself, and maybe even join.
