This morning, I had to leave the computer to “calculate” and “delete” a folder while I went out for a couple of hours. When I got home, It wasn’t even finished yet!

Yes, the copy/delete/move feature in Vista is extremely annoying. However, in my opinion, this is the work of a cunning strategist. Why? The ‘bugs’ are shipped  so that we need their fixes, service packs and maintenance. We can downgrade to XP if we want to, but that os will not longer be supported therefore, we are forced to go to Vista and deal with the issues and wait for MS to tell us what to do next. Which gives more control to them.

We also have the option to go to other operating systems such as Linux and Macs if we want to and start the learning curve from there, which just takes time and money. Then you’ll have to adjust to all the new software, games, office products and operating systems.

In a nutshell, no matter  whether you like Microsoft or not, the more you use their products, the more control they have of you, the more control they have of you, the more money they make… which is the life blood of any successful multibillion dollar business that survives for decades against all worldwide changes. It’s the little things like this that makes a man the richest and most charitable man in the world.

Well done!

Tonight, I would consider, another successful night. Networking is a great form of advertising. Its also great to learn about other businesses and most importantly, helps you learn more about yourself and the way you communicate. I was able to link up with 2 businesses tonight which all were interested in having a chat about doing business together.

It never ceases to amaze me how many good people are out there in this world. A man I met tonight, he was around 23 years old was awarded “2006 WA Citizen of the Year, 2006 WA Young Person of the Year, 2005 Australian Young Biomedial Engineer of the Year” and he just opened his company in helping disabled individuals benefit from recreation.

Great night, free food, free alcohol, free advertising, met great people, learnt a whole lot, improved communication skills, all topped with a beer to celebrate   Highly recommended!

Finally, I have reached the light at the end of the tunnel. As I reflect on my previous 8 months, I have found that one of the biggest obstacles that I had to overcome was my self doubt. Self doubt that I would never get my project online, self doubt that it wouldn’t be useful and self doubt on myself.

I have learnt and discovered that what ever you do in life, whatever you aim for, it takes about 3 minutes from the original inspired thought to be followed by feelings of fear. It’s easy to say “you can do it” to someone who is struggling, but when you’re struggling, the war begins in your mind. Whenever I read a successful story, I start to imagine all of those fears and obstacles in the mind that the person conquered. Whenever I see a successful product, I can imagine all the bugs, defects, problems encountered during the development of the product and the amount of effort it must of took to overcome it all.

Now that I have reached the end of the tunnel, I have come across another obstacle. Promotion and marketing and getting the word out there. This Sunday, I will be constructing a marketing plan in which to advertise Destiny Goals.  I will begin emailing my list of contacts who I believe may find Destiny Goals useful and hopefully, the wheels will begin moving forward.

It’s online! On the 07/06/2006 at 7am, River Designs – http://www.riverdesigns.com.au has finally gone live! I put alot of hard work into the design and layout of the web site and I feel like it’s finally paid off! On the first day of launching my web site, I received three emails for a web site design quote and on the second day, I received another request. I’ve already started contacting clients and now moving onto the secondary phase. Marketing! Looking back, I think of all of that hard work in the mornings and evenings I put into building my web site and see it grow into something thats great is a truely rewarding experience.

But wait… River Designs is just warming up….

Yep. 1 day left. Tonight after my seminar, i will be optmising the graphics on the web site, i aim to make River Designs load fast on a normal dialup modem. Most of my previous designs, I used slightly more graphics which contributed to slower load up times.

Things i’ve learnt today
1. One purpose, one design, one simple function… is what makes a good product. Don’t complicate your product with unnessary stuff.

It’s nearly finished! Today, i spent the whole entire day going through the final web site design. I created two contact pages, updated the left and right containers, paragraphing, test multiple monitor resolutions on IE and Firefox and linked portfolio images to their orginal file. The wierd thing was that everything was 99% complete! So I had to go through each and every item and finalise! Yet, i still feel as if it’s not finished yet. I guess it’s the feeling when you’re about to launch a project you’ve been working hard on and you get the feeling that you’re missing something. Anyhow, tommorrow, I will go through and do the final step. Optimise graphics. I will not launch the web site till its the morning of the 7 June 2006. Tomorrow night, I have another business seminar, should be good. I will be able to get some more ideas and apply them to River Designs after my web site launch.

Things i’ve learnt today.
1. CSS is very frustrating.
2. Even though table designs is “old”, they are faster to develop and works with ALL browsers.
3. When deleting CSS rows, make sure you comment them out so you can revert to old code. (very useful).
4. Do regular backups with versions. I had to revert to an older version of the web site to get the CSS overlapping problem fixed.
5. The last few days before the web site launch, there seems to be so many little things that need fixing.
6. Make sure when you finish something, make sure you actually FINISH it.
7. As you’re progressing through the project, the little things that take a few minutes to finish usually gets delayed to the last few days of the project. Which adds to a whole bunch of little things to do!
8. Not writing or practicing writing content tends to reduce “content flare”. I’ve just noticed this as I write content right now!

The biggest setback i’ve had today was getting the overlapping problem fixed. I went through the code line by line and it turns out, the code that displays only the background image was the problem! I still do not understand why this happened but it appears to have fixed it! Strange stuff!

The clock is ticking! I have now got two days left to complete my web site. Yesterday, I did a slight redesign to the web site so it’s more friendly looking. If you checked out the previous screenshot of the prototype banner, you will notice it’s pretty dark looking. I changed the banner so it doesn’t look too dark and it looks more friendly I also included a more better navigation panel for the menus so it’s more accessable. So far, I love the look of the new web site and much more happier with it’s look and feel. I have finished with writing the content for the web site (finally) and now doing some code optimisations and fixes. If you recall in one of the previous posts, I fixed the problem with the resizing of containers that overlap each other. Well, now it’s BACK. However, IE works fine but now Firefox doesn’t look so hunky doory. I am unsure whether I can fix this problem, hopefully with a few CSS adjustments, it will do the trick without breaking anything else. I may have to revert to the older version of my web site because they work fine.

Clients. I have already made contact with a new client! I have made an appointment starting in the first week of July. My next project once I launch the River Designs web site is to do another set of business cards and marketing materials. By then, I should have some more paperwork ready and prepared for the meeting.

Anyways, better get back to work. These past few days, the flu has struck my nasal passages and now my designs are looking abit SICK! hehe

Last night, I went to a business development seminar. It was great! I got to understand more about business structures, legal requirements, accountants, lawyers and other stuff that is very complicated. The man who did the talk was really direct and honest in his approach. He got me thinking about the success of River Designs, however, I know that it’s another obstacle i have to overcome and raise above to achieve success. No matter what you do, you will always get doubts to whether something will succeed or not. There was alot of great ideas I can apply to River Designs and as soon as I launch River Designs web site (7th of June 2006), I will start on a project which will be added to my web site…. so stay tuned for that one

I will be going to two more business seminars in the upcomming days. I’m contemplating whether I should go to the “how to get your business online” just in case I don’t miss out on any new trends I should be aware about.

Anyways, back to work!

Things are running well! For the past few days, i’ve been writing lots of good content for my web site. I realise that writing good content is actually … hard! Writing content that captures the audience and gets them interested is … without a doubt … an art form. Hey, i’m not artist my self but i’ve read lots of good content out there lately and the way people write things and get people hooked on their content is the work of a pure genius! Hopefully I will be able to bring my writing skills up to their standard one day!

I’ve completed the first round of draft content for River Designs. At the moment, i’m doing some final editing and making sure everything is not too technical for my target audience.

Things i’ve learnt:
1. Just write, even if it’s bad, just write and you can come back to it later.
2. Don’t write to try and impress anyone.
3. Edit, edit…. EDIT!
4. Use words that people understand! No technical mumbo jumbo.
5. Writing at 5:00am in the morning… is strange.
6. Gain practice in writing in blogs
7. It’s all good!