Ronnie Soo

It’s been a proper winter this year here in Britain, but it’s finally coming to an end. Here’s proof!

In previous years we’ve seen snowdrops as early as January but not this year, for once the seasons are in their proper places!
Spring is a nice time for photography with all the blossom, so I hope to be posting some nice pics on here in the coming weeks

I’ve had a few requests from friends of mine to put these photos back up on my new site; they are of Whitesnake guitarists Reb Beach and Doug Aldrich when they appeared at a ‘guitar clinic’ (a public demonstration) organised by the music store Sounds Great Music, just before the band played their 2006 UK tour. The event took place at the Holiday Inn near Manchester Airport, and a substantial number of fans showed up for this chance to see the two guitarists in a more personal setting than the normal concert. The pictures were put on my site when it was on the previous host, when I transferred providers at the end of last year the catalogue was lost. I have found the original catalogue on my hard drive and resubmitted it, it is a basic web layout as created by Picasa and I have changed nothing else. Here then, for my Whitesnake fan friends, is the restored picture gallery of Doug and Reb playing at the guitar clinic.

Reb Beach and Doug Aldrich Guitar Clinic pictures – click to view

A friend of mine has just launched her new venture; she is a graphic designer and illustrator of many years’ experience and also does website design. If you’re looking for good graphic design, a nice illustration for your site or publication, please check out the site. It’s in Finnish and English; not being a Finnish speaker myself I’ve linked you to the English side

Cinnamon Graphics

You’ll find several examples of her work on the website, if you do contact her tell her I sent you !

Plug over!

This week I am visiting North Wales; somewhere I regularly travel to and while here I hope to get some nice photographs. The weather is colder than usual for this time of year, it’s actually been snowing this week!

As a result, I’ve not yet been out with the camera – apart from during the journey down. This picture was taken at Llyn Celyn, late afternoon with the low sun. This picture is straight off the camera, with no enhancement and the only thing I have done is reduce the resolution for the web. The late afternoon sun really makes for a dramatic scene I’m sure you’ll agree.

I hope to bring another photo from this week – if the conditions let up!

Many people are stuck in the same rut, day in and day out just punching the clock. If you are looking to start your own business, perhaps you have wondered just what line of business to pursue?
One thing to avoid are those ‘get rich quick’ schemes so many people see. They are almost always aimed not at getting you, the budding entrepreneur rich, but the advertisers themselves!

There are a lot of people out there looking for the knowledge you may already possess; perhaps it is one of your hobbies or interests outside of your existing ‘day job’. You could start your own blog to write about these things, perhaps sharing a useful piece of information with your readers. From there those readers may also take interest in what else you are doing, and once you establish contact possibilites begin to open up.

Many businesses have sprung up out of new technology over the last decade; at the start of the 2000s mobile phone text messaging was a new thing, and restricted only to the users of the same network. Once it became possible to send messages across the networks, there was a whole new industry. As the phones themselves became more sophisticated, as did the ability for them to play samples of songs, which in itself became a massive industry. Currently it is becoming increasingly important for businesses to become visible in a search engine; you may have knowledge on how to best optimise that for local businesses and this is a valuable resource.

On a completely different level, there are now companies that clean your wheelie bin – a decade or so ago nobody had wheelie bins and so these firms have appeared to capitalise on a market which simply didn’t exist before. You may also have seen advertisments for firms who will value your gold jewellery; again, this is a market which was non-existent a short time ago but has capitalised on the recent recession. So it becomes clear that there are many opportunities out there, and it is often a new trend which kick-starts a new business idea.

Whatever it is you decide to do, it is vital you ACT on your idea. If you do not, somebody else will!
Even if it is simply starting a blog similar to this one, do it today. Don’t leave it until tomorrow.
I hope this post has given you some entrepreneur ideas and some food for thought; if you are looking to break away from that boss and strike out on your own, there has never been a better time.

As someone fairly new to the internet marketing scene I have been taking some excellent training; if like me you’re starting out with a WordPress blog it is important that you get your posts noticed. One way of helping this process is to enable the DoFollow option, I suggest you google this and see why it is so important. In brief, it helps increase your site’s Page Ranking.
The reason it is not enabled by default is to try and eliminate spam; you would also need spam plugins enabled and be prepared to moderate comments that are not relevant to your posts.

Another plugin which was recommended to me is CommentLuv; using this will encourage comments and also help to get those all-important backlinks to your site. These are relatively new concepts to me also, and I am learning as I go along.
If you are in the internet marketing scene and like me, are quite new to it, then I recommend you look into the options to allow DoFollow and CommentLuv, by all means research into them but anything which helps drive traffic to your site has to be a good thing. As I learn more about these tools I will post further blogs detailing how to get more from your own site.

Click to visit Comment Luv
DoFollow Plug in for WordPress

I took this picture today, down by the Liverpool Arena and Convention centre. They have just constructed a new Big Wheel in time for Valentine’s Day; it replaces the previous one which was in the nearby Liverpool ONE complex and which was dismantled at the end of last month. Many cities in this country have taken the idea of the London Eye and installed their own wheels, but at the time of writing this I do not know if this wheel is going to be a permanent fixture or a temporary one.

Anyway, it certainly cannot be missed – here’s my picture from earlier today (Friday 11 February)

Should I get the chance to go on it and get some pictures, they will appear here!

Today’s photo is from 2007, and was taken at Elterwater in the Lake District. The original picture came out a little bit ‘flat’ but with a bit of Photoshop magic it wasn’t too difficult to get more out of it. The colours are not changed, but it has essentially been boosted contrast-wise, so it now looks more like what I visualised when there. Autumn is mine, and many other amateur photographers’, favourite time of year. In Britain, you have to be lucky with the weather as well as the light in order to get the most of the colours at that time. On this day, we had a fine day so it was out with the camera and into the car! Another photo soon.

EDIT: Please note I have made this picture available as a desktop background; the image is available by clicking here

I’m a big fan of live gigs, although my musical taste veers towards the heavier side of things. I like to attend as many as I can, nothing really beats a live performance from your favourite band, and all the better if they have brought along a big stage show for the occasion!

Earlier this week I saw the German band Rammstein play at the MEN Arena in Manchester; it’s not the first time I’ve seen them but they never disappoint, as well as loud music they always pack their show with scary-looking stunts, mostly involving pyrotechnics. How they can play as they do with a near-constant inferno going on onstage beats me, but they really do spare no expense in making their show as loud, as spectacular, and as memorable as possible.

Here are three pictures from the show; my seat was at a 90 degree angle to the stage so it was an unusual view I had, but it did mean we could see a lot of the ‘behind the scenes’ stuff that went on, and see how much work goes into putting on such a huge production.

I do occasional write-ups for gigs also; you’ll find a fuller write-up of this gig by clicking here.

Recent reports are saying that the United Kingdom has finally emerged from the recession, although to the man on the street nothing much has changed and all they see are statistics which say things are looking up. The chances are that most people, if they are still in a job, are still stuck in the same office, with the same faces day after day and still with the same hassles from the same bosses. There are still people out there making money, just because some statistics say the economy has slowed, or has slightly picked up, it doesn’t affect the fact that there is still money to be made. Rather than go out and chase down those pennies, why not be in a situation where it comes to you?

The answer is of course with Internet Marketing; many people who were in similarly low-paid, high-stress jobs before have found that their lives have been turned around; with a global marketplace the possibilities are immense. You can earn money online in the UK, the USA, Europe, Asia or Down Under. The global potential of internet marketing means you can make money online in the UK by dealing with people at home or abroad. Let the recession be for others, and have the money that is out there come to you, earn money online while sat on your settee!