Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity
Archive for June, 2007
June 30, 2007 at 1:37 pm · Filed under joost
Since my first post about Joost invites I have had 146 requests for invitations. I still get requests almost every day to invite people and most of them come from google. I’m on the first page of the dutch version of google if you search for kewords like “joost invites“, “joost please invite me” and “invitation joost blog“.
I like the traffic to my website and I don’t mind helping people to get an invite. The last few weeks the traffic on these keywords is getting less and that’s why I’m making a new post. Are there still people left that need an invite? Just leave a comment or send me an email and I’ll get you one.
If this doesn’t work to get more traffic, I’ll have to find myself a new topic to write about to keep those numbers up.
June 25, 2007 at 7:32 pm · Filed under barcelona
I just booked another language course in Spain, this time I will go to Barcelona for 3 weeks. I have booked with the same organization I went last time (plustaalreizen/sprachcaffe) and asked if I could get a room in the Portaferrissa apartment. Three weeks ago I was in this apartment for one weekend and it was a lot of fun, it’s perfectly located close to the ramblas and there are always living a lot of people.
I didn’t pass all my tests here in the Netherlands so I have to study a bit more. It’s bad I can’t start my final internship at Mark van Werven yet, but I’m not in a hurry.
I leave on Sunday 16 September and fly back on Sunday 7 October. I hope this will be enough to pass my tests and see a bit more of Barcelona.
June 20, 2007 at 9:58 pm · Filed under Photolog
I got invited by a friend to look at a network marketing concept called project E-play (by Virtual World Direct). The project is about a yet to launch platform where people can play games to each other for real money. There are a lot of different games like checkers, backgammon and card games. You can invite friends or play to people you don’t know for small amounts of money. It’s possible to use your AIM, MSN, Jabber or other chatting protocols to see who is online and wants to play. I have seen some screenshots of the website and it looked really professional. I really like the combination of gaming and social networking and the fact that you are able to play for real money.
Behind this all is a multi level marketing concept where you’re able to organize your own tournaments or host your own gaming platform. You pay a little bit of money to use this service and you are able to make a lot. But this scares me a bit because I’m not a fan of MLM. I was really enthusiastic until I read the MLM part of the marketingplan. I have heard to many bad stories about MLM and I just don’t believe one can make $20.000 in just a few weeks.
But I am still interested because the concept really fits todays web 2.0 standards. It’s a combination of all the things that are hot on this moment: playing games, social networking and social marketing! On July 15th the website will go live for those who pre-registered (including me) and you can take a look at the user interface. Virtual world direct calls it evolution day, for me its just another Sunday. Or maybe if you all register via this link to my eVo page I will be a millionaire.
Maybe someone else wants to take a look at this concept and give his/her opinion? If you are interested in getting more information feel free to contact me. I can send you some presentations and screenshots of the website.
June 19, 2007 at 9:04 am · Filed under Photolog
Zojuist ontving ik onderstaande mail en omdat ik Marcel graag help plaats ik hem hier even door. Ben je lid van BNN stem dan op Marcel van der Heijden als nieuw lid van het rayonbestuur!Â
Beste vrienden, familie, (oud)collega’s, klasgenoten, kennissen,
Deze mail is even wat schaamteloze zelfpromotie voor mijn persoon, maar ik heb jullie steun hard nodig! Jullie kennen allemaal natuurlijk BNN. Die onwijs leuke omroep die spraakmakende televisie maakt voor jongeren en jong volwassen. Spuiten & Slikken, de Grote Dondershow, De Lama’s, Kebab TV, Afkicken en op 3 FM zijn ze natuurlijk ook niet meer weg te denken. Ze houden altijd wel van een geintje maar ook de meer serieuze zaken komen altijd aan bod. Maar BNN is net zoals alle andere publieke omroepen een omroepvereniging. En een omroepvereniging kan alleen bestaan dankzij de leden. Tussen die leden en de directie van BNN zit het rayonbestuur. 18 vrijwillige jongeren in de leeftijd van 18 t/m 30 jaar die de directie van BNN gevraagd en ongevraagd adviseren over de zaken die spelen bij BNN en over de toekomst van de legacy van Bart de Graaff.
Elke drie jaar wisselt het bestuur van BNN. Nu is het zo dat ik kandidaat ben om een van de twee vertrekkende bestuurders op te volgen. Maar helaas, er zijn nog 4 andere kandidaten die graag hetzelfde willen (zie de bijlage) maar er zijn dus helaas maar twee plekken. Er moet dus gestemd worden! Ben jij dus lid van BNN en denk jij van “die Marcel is wel een goede voor dat BNN bestuur” log dan hier in en stem op mij! Bij deze alvast mijn eeuwige dank en waardering.
Ben je nog geen lid van BNN? Echt niet? Dan kun je je natuurlijk gewoon even lid worden. Voor 5, 73 per jaar ben je al lid. Je steunt natuurlijk de leukste omroep van Nederland en in september ontvang je BNN’s Grote scheurkalender. Daarnaast kun je meedoen aan de BNN leden dagen en allerlei BNN-workshops en activiteiten special voor leden. Plus je krijgt nog een DVD van de lama’s cadeau. Lijkt mij een goede deal dus! En als je lid bent kun je natuurlijk gelijk even op mij stemmen! En ook jullie ontvangen natuurlijk mijn eeuwige dank en waardering!
Alvast bedankt voor jullie hulp!
Greetz,
Marcel
June 18, 2007 at 5:29 pm · Filed under weblog
I am writing a manual on how to start your own blog because of the requests I got in the last few months. The first step was to get a domain and hosting. After this we are now going to run the (open source) blogging software on the domain.
There are a lot of different free tools you can use to build a blog. The most popular ones are Pivot and WordPress (Movable Type has an open source beta release now). I prefer WordPress because of the large active community and the number of plugins that are available. I never used other open source blogging software, but I would recommend WordPress to everyone.
Setting up a WordPress blog is really easy, even if you don’t know much about Internet/PHP/MySQL and all the things you are going to use. The installation guide basically tells you everything. Here is a short summary to see how easy it is:
- Install an FTP program like Filezilla (windows) or Cyberduck (mac).
- Make sure you have a text editor (even better would be a HTML editor like Nvu).
- Download and unzip the WordPress package.
- Create a database (MySQL) for WordPress on your server, if you use direct admin this can be done wih only one click.
- Open wp-config-sample.php in your text editor and fill in the database details.
- Safe this file with the name wp-config.php.
- Upload the WordPress files with your FTP client.
- Run the WordPress installation script by typing www.thedomain.com/wp-admin/install.php in your web browser.
- That’s it! WordPress should now be installed.
You can choose to install WordPress in your root directory but it’s also possible to use a subdirectory (pietervangils.com/weblog/) or subdomain (blog.pietervangils.com). If you have questions about this leave a reply on this post or send me an email.
June 17, 2007 at 3:37 pm · Filed under fun, marketing
1. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: ‘I am very rich. ‘Marry me!’ That’s Direct Marketing
2. You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says: ‘He’s very rich. ‘Marry him.’ That’s Advertising
3. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day, you call and say: ‘Hi, I’m very rich. ‘Marry me ‘. That’s Telemarketing
4. You’re at a party and see gorgeous girl. You get up and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour her a drink, you open the door (of the car)for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her ride and then say: ‘By the way, I’m rich. Will you ‘Marry Me?’ That’s Public Relations
5. You’re at a party and see gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says: ‘You are very rich! ‘Can you marry ! me?’ That’s Brand Recognition
6. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: ‘I am very rich. Marry me!’ She gives you a nice hard slap on your face. That’s Customer Feedback
7. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: ‘I am very rich. Marry me!’ And she introduces you to her husband. That’s demand and supply gap
8. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you say anything, another person come and tell her: ‘I’m rich. Will you marry me?’ and she goes with him. That’s competition eating into your market share
9. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you say: ‘I’m rich, Marry me!’ your wife arrives. That’s restriction for entering new markets.
June 13, 2007 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Photolog
- @bakkel De volgende lessen komen er aan!
June 13, 2007 at 6:46 pm · Filed under weblog, wordpress
In the past few months a lot of people have asked me to build them a blog. I wish I could help everyone but I don’t have time for this. That’s why I am going to write a manual how to make your own customized blog.
First you have to choose between hosting the domain yourself or using a free blogging service. Because there are limitations on customization when you are using a free blogging service I recommend to host it yourself. If you really don’t know anything about the Internet I would suggest taking a free service like wordpress.com or blogger.com. Do the same if you don’t want to spend much time in building your blog.
If you want to host it yourself you have to look for a good domain, this can be really hard. There are three main strategies in choosing a domain.
- Your own name (or a nickname): When you write stories about yourself, your expertise or your interests this is the easiest way to come up with a name. (e.g. pietervangils.com or polle.net)
- Using keywords: If you write about a specific topic you can use keywords that match these topics. The only hard part is that the most common words are already gone. (e.g. chinauncovered.com or marketingfacts.nl)
- A fantasy name: We live in the web 2.0 era so it’s also possible to just put some random (pronounceable) letters together and make a new word. (think of websites like flickr.com or zamzar.com). Read Seth Godin’s blog for more inspiration.
When you have your domain you need a hosting company (you can also register your domain at the hosting company). My website is hosted at 1mhosting, they are cheap and have really good service. Because you are just starting with your blog you don’t need a big hosting plan. I would recommend the following: 100mb webspace, 1-3 gb data, 1 MySQL database, PHP 4/5, POP-3 email and FTP access. I love to work with direct admin so that is a big plus for a hosting company, it’s easy to use and gives you all the control you need. I pay € 9 a year for my hosting and I have everything I need. My domain costs $ 6,99 a year (registered at mydomain.com).
It’s important that you use a hosting provider in the country you live in (or close to you) because then you have the best connection to the server. I had my hosting in the U.S. for some time but the upload speed was really bad.
Now you have a domain and hosting, next week more on how to set up your blog. For questions feel free to contact me.
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